Unregulated Cannabis - Experts Explain What It Is And Why It Is So Dangerous - Part 2

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
From the W A ANDAM Studio onthe campus of Florida A and M University.
This is Mariform Radio, a weeklyconversation on the education and research of
medical marijuana being conducted Back to bmmus, I'm a tidy Otway, you're host
for this Conversations on Cannabis virtual form, brought to you by the Medical Marijuana
Education and Research Initiative at Florida andM University. In this conversation, we're

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talking about unregulated cannabis, so let'stalk and learn about this subject with our
guests. Captain Bobby Green has beenin law enforcement for nearly thirty years,
serving as a correctional deputy, apatrol officer, and he also managed the
Vice and Narcotics division at the LeonCounty Sheriff's Office in Florida. Our other

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guest is Minister Anthony Dirden, whohas overcome drug addiction to become a renowned
motivational speaker, entrepreneur, and aspiritual advisor to offenders incarcerated in Florida's prisons.
Captain Green and Minister Dirton. Isgood to have you both on the
forum. Thank you, thank youfor having me. Thank you all right
to everyone joining us on this liveprogram. Please share posts and tag a

(01:12):
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we'll do our best to have ourguests to answer them. We also want
you to tell us what you thinkabout this forum by completing the survey that
will be posted in the comments onYouTube and Facebook. After the live program,

(01:36):
your name will be entered into adrawing on April sixth, twenty twenty
three to win a one hundred dollarsgift card provided by one of Mary's partners.
Now let's start this conversation on cannabis. You will both mentor young people,
especially you know in the black communityand other minority communities. Can you
all talk about what you tell themwhen it comes to unregulate the cannabis use.

(02:01):
I'm about product of the marijuana culture, you know, Like I said,
I smoked it for over thirty yearsand I smoked it every day,
And I was just speaking about thecriminality and the behavior that's associated with the
culture of marijuana. Is that itit prompts you to make bad decisions and

(02:23):
bad choices. You know, Imade a lot of bad choices on an
influence of marijuana. I can rememberwhen I got released from prison and I
was on house arrest and I hadto report to my probation officers, and
I knew that I had to beclean because I knew that he was gonna
get me a yurine test, butbecause my addiction is smoking every day,
and I refused the smoke because itwas justified. I want to smoke every

(02:43):
day, and I didn't think thatit was anything wrong with it, even
though I knew that it was somethingwrong with it, because I rationalized it.
And so that's what I mean,even when you're in the middle of
doing wrong, there's some kind ofway you're always trying to rationalize it.
When I smoked cigarettes or or justcalled my nerves, I needed cigarette.
So every time it was a compulsionto smoke a cigarette because I was nervous

(03:04):
or I just want I had anxiety, so the cigarette was meller me out.
I need to take a drink becauseI had a long dad work,
and then I found myself. Youknow, this is this self medication,
and so you know, I wentback to prison because I didn't want to
stop smoking marijuana, because I refusedto be responsible enough to be sober when
I went to my probation officer,and also even looking for employment. Employment.

(03:30):
No, you know, when you'reown your job and you're smoking and
you got that random year tests,you don't know when they may call you
into that back room and tell youto drop on the suspect you or something.
Or you get into an accident onthe job, the first thing they're
going to say is was you don'tunder the influence anything? And then the
line of work that I do,I work in the warehouse around the different
people that's driving heavy equipment. Soyou have guys that's gotten to accidents on

(03:53):
the machinery. The first thing they'regoing to say was he under the influence
anything. And they take them totake them to their doctor, have them
off the union, and if theycome back dirty, they get terminated from
the job. So we're just lookingat the behavior that comes along with smoking
marijuana. I don't even use thatterm unregulated. I tell them straight straight,
I shoot from the hill. Idon't even I don't even get into

(04:13):
that. I just tell them it'sHey, listen, man, you know,
just just my experience, you can't. I'm not I'm not trying to
force you to change your ways.I'm not I'm not the savior, I'm
not price I'm just giving you myexperience. And sometimes, you know,
they say experience is the best teacher. They don't have to always be the
case. You don't have to gothrough something you saw someone else go through.

(04:33):
Let their experience and let what theywent through be your your teachable moment.
But at the same time, it'shard to convince young people that it's
harmless when they see their entertainers andathletes celebrated, when they've been given platforms
to promote it. I see TVshows drink champs. I see TV shows

(04:56):
with guys to sit around, andall they do is your smoking, drink.
You know, as some of ourbiggest icons, community icons have been
on this show and it's all theydo is just smoke and drink and talk.
And so, you know, it'svery popular, popular cable network,
and uh, you know, thesethese these young people are very influenced by
these rappers. So it's just likeI was. I grew up by listening

(05:17):
to hip hop. I love hiphop. You know, I was in
that country. I embraced it andI still do. But I embraced the
positivity to r us ones, thosewho was preaching those messages about you know,
trying to be a better people,a better society. But I'm definitely
when I see things like this thathappening, it's just reminded me of my

(05:38):
own sins, uh. And soI'm convicted because I'm seeing it, you
know, rehash itself and through otherpeople. And so my heart hurts when
I see this happening and people goingdown this path and so this path of
destruction because again it's being sanctioned andit's being modified to seem like it's legit,
but when it's not. We justlook at what happened to alcohol.

(06:00):
The alcohol, Uh, you know, they're certain, they're certain alcohol that's
sold in the black community that's notsold in other communities. You can't go
find a forty ounce of Old Englishin certain neighborhoods. You can't go find
Saint Odds in certain neighborhoods. Youcan't go find Colt forty five in the
forty ours version or the sixty fourounce version. So it just it's just
to me it seems strategic when itcomes down to certain things that's being disseminated

(06:27):
into our communities, even when itcomes down to farms. So I just
look at the atf alcohol, tobacco. A firearm industry is a male dominated
institution, just like the prison institute. It's all to me, it's all
synonymous. And in this criminalization ofsubstance abuse has to stop. Many of

(06:47):
our Black men and women have beenincarcerated wrongfully for being drug addicts. I
did. I did a ten monthstint because I was in possession of a
crack pipe. This is when Iwas in my crack condition, I had
paraphernilia and had to go to jailfor having paraphernalia. Uh, there's people

(07:08):
who go to jail for having aneedle, or there's people and so there's
no substance of these treatment programs.There's not enough of them to be able
to deal with the consequences of thisbehavior. There's not enough self help programs
via young people to deal with theconsequences of some of these young people that
are getting caught up in this inthis this dangerous world of drugs. Captain

(07:31):
green Well, I don't I thinkmy biggest concern here in Tallah has said,
you know, and and it resultsit all revolves around the same thing.
It's the biggest issue we have hereis gun violens and I try to
relate that to the the drug use. Um. You know, I try

(07:53):
to tell my young kids, whoI talk to on a regular basis,
of the consequences everything you do,every action that you take, there's going
to be an equal reactual consequence tothat action that you've taken. Um,
you know, in troice you make. But like, like the mentor just
said, it's very hard to tella kid eighteen seventeen year old kids that's
in high school, Um, youknow, smoke a weed is bad.

(08:15):
Well, look at Little Wayne.Look at Snoop Dog. He's on the
show with Martha Stewart. I meanhe had missed a smoke we all time.
But I said, yeah, butwhat how many Little Wayne's and Snoop
Dogs are there? What do youwant to be in? Like? Because
if you want to be in theysuccessful that that's you know, an honest
paying job. And you can't smoke. I mean I have relatives that refuse

(08:37):
to refuse the smoke. And Imean could have had a great job with
the city, but drug tests,you know, and you get to an
age where you're like, when whendid you quit? When do you want
them successfully be have something positive inyour life. If you can't give it
up, you're not going to beable to betrain the things you need to
do in life. And that's whyI just tell them. So, if
this is a choice you make,you want to smoke, you know,

(08:58):
experiment, know whatever you want todo, but it can become addiction.
But if you want to be successfuland be a positive, you know person
in the community, you can't smoke. I mean you can't. You You
go ahead and try, try whateveryou want to do, but make a
decision in your life when you whenyou mature, them say hey, this
is not what I want to do. You know, honestly, I was

(09:18):
a young kid. I tried maryone like like mention said, at a
very young age, exposed to didn'tthink anything of it. But I got
to a point in my life whereI figured out, this is not going
to benefit me in a long run. Um, you know, this is
something that I can do without.This is a decision you have to make
in your life that you go throughphases and you mature and you say,
hey, this ain't I can dowithout this. I'd rather have a successful

(09:43):
career and a family and a houseand a care then then be high for
for six hours out of the day. And it's you know, it's a
it's not a permanent it's it's atemporary thing that you go through. So
I try to express the make decisionsand make good decisions everything you do because
as you right, when you're underinfluence, you're under influenced, whether it's
alcohol of drugs, you're impaired,and you don't know the decisions you make,

(10:05):
you might not be as sharp asyou would be. So, you
know, and I hope I goback to the old commercial you know,
this is your brain, this isyour brain on drugs with the crack egg
and the frying pan. You know, made me to go back to that.
Those commercials had people like wow,you know, and you know they
say smoking weed does diminish the brainperiodically over a period of time, you

(10:26):
lose you know, certain senses,or your your awareness or your smartness go
down. So you know, youknow, just keep harping on that that.
You know, people that smoke,they might seem cool. They can
wrap and they can dance, butyou know, asking what's ten plus ten,
they might take a little while tofigure it out. So both of
y'all have, you know, verysimilar perspectives when it comes to cannabis.

(10:48):
Use. What are your thoughts onefforts to legalize cannabis at the federal level.
I'll speak on this, and thisis something that comes up and people
talk about it and we can Ican always related to what we talked about.
You know, alcohol was illegal waybefore anyone's boring bootleggers, and you
know, people were afraid to drinkand because it get caught. But when

(11:11):
they legalized alcohol, what happened.Everybody started drinking, So that what do
I mean? Everybody started driving,more DUIs, more masslaughs, more,
more crimes to people because the fearof getting caught is not there. So
I A coordinated a cannabis. Yes, if you have let's say thirty percent
of the community smoking right now becauseit's illegal, if you make it legal,

(11:37):
that number were double, I guaranteedbecause now people say, hey,
well it's I can smoke it.So the more people are smoking, the
more people impaired, the more problemsyou produced within the community. No different
alcohol, the more people that startdrinking. You know, I would love
to go back till for about beforealcohol was made legal and find out how

(11:58):
many people were drinking and driving peoplewould commit crime. Probably very few,
I mean, because they were afraidto drink. But once they legalize it,
you know, not a bootleggers.Now they can't make it. Now
more people want to try. Sothey they legalize cannabis, create straight across
the board, more people would smoking, more professional people would smoking, more
people would would would temper with itand try it. And that means you

(12:20):
increase the numbers of opportunities for somethingbad to happen when you're increase the number
of people producing this this drug.That's that's my take. And people al
would say cannabis melage you out.You know some people you know committing this
these crimes, but they do,they just don't realize it. But but
it's a smaller number. But ifyou increase that number, you increase the
chance of something out of those numbersthose people doing stuff, UM unlawful mister,

(12:48):
Yeah, you can't. You can'tsanction sin and expect something different to
happen. Uh, it is whatit is. Uh. You know you
just spoke about it alcohol, youknow, and just just think about the
opio prices. You know, Opioidsdidn't just come around five ten years ago.
Opioids didn't around before me and you. It's just that when it was

(13:09):
when it started becoming more accessible tothe public, and then public had a
demand for it because there's a streetdemand for it. There's that that street
element to it as well. Andthen you know, and in certain communities
where you can get it cheaper,uh, you can get it more accessible.
We usually tend to be the bottomfeeders. It's like from cocaine.

(13:30):
The crack. Crack wasn't you know, wasn't around fifty years ago. You
know, all of a sudden,crack comes out and the whole black community
is come on, you know,But cocaine been around forever, you know,
and so crack wasn't treated the sameas cocaine, even though both was
illegal, but it was a differentelement of how it was treated based on

(13:50):
book. The community that that that, you know was predominantly you know,
impacted or affected by it. Youknow, most most people that sold large
my cocaine got you know, theyhad they had the money to pay for
high priced lawyers. Uh, youknow, and so, you know,
a crackhead ain't got the kind ofmoney that a drug dealer has. And

(14:11):
so you know, you mostly criminalizethe poor because the poor don't have no
defense, they don't have no resources, they don't have no money to be
able to pay a cash bond ofone hundred dollars, it might be one
hundred dollars they need to get outof jail. And because they don't,
pretty much burnt all these bridges witheverybody in the family. Nobody's going to
go get the crackhead out of theout of jail because they know he's a

(14:33):
crackhead, you know. But ifhe sold keys, you know, it's
a different type of stigma, andthere's a different type of acceptance for those
types of people, you know.Um and so I remember when I was
selling drugs at an early age andhow I stigmatized the crackhead and end up
becoming one myself. But you know, everybody that that sold the big drugs

(14:56):
was glamorized. It was they wasthey was put on this pental stool,
you know, because of what theywas wearing, where they was driving,
the jury, the money, youknow, the women came along with it,
so it was it was a lifestyleand just like like like, like
you just spoke about, it's hardto tell these young people that see Snoop
Dogg performing at the halftime show andat the super Bowl who they're gonna listen

(15:16):
to? Somebody that works in thewarehouse like me, you know, Uh,
just some guy that they see,you know, walking around that they
have access to every day, orsomebody that they see that's really not accessible
to them, but they idolize,uh, and they look at that world
that they're in and they're like,who are if Snoop Dogg can cryp walk
during the halftime show, you know, and that whole behavior. I just

(15:41):
think that whole behavior has been embraced. And like I say, there's an
agenda, and so behind the agenda, there's consequences. There's there's consequences behind
their choice. So legalize it atthe federal level. Make it where you
could just go into any grocery storeand goal purchase it. Like your purchase
cigarette, you have to be eighteentwenty one years older purchases, the results

(16:03):
are still going to be the same. That's interesting you said that. We
actually have a lot of comments thatare coming up on the YouTube and the
Facebook live right now, and weactually have one from Ronald McMillan, who
kind of I think you just kindof answered his question. He said,
what ultimately do panel members think isa realistic and better option to the regulated

(16:23):
versus unregulated recreational versus medical debate aboutthe use of marijuana in our society?
Then, Sodurton, I think youkind of just touched on that. What
you think, What do I thinkabout what can we do as a community
or as a society. You say, what is a better option versus having

(16:45):
regulated versus unregulated recreational versus medical.You just mentioned about, you know,
being able to get it in thestore, get it on the street.
You just kind of referenced that alittle bit. Yeah, I mean,
ultimately, you know, if that'swhat they're playing, is if that's what
they see down the road, thatyou know, governors of states will start,

(17:07):
you know, regulating an incremalal leveland you can go instart your neighborhood
store and go purchase marijuana. LikeI said before, there is no solution
for finn The only thing for solutionsfor that is to stop don't. That's
only solution that helped me. Ican only speak for myself. There's nowhere

(17:30):
in the world that nineteen years later, after I have not used drugs that
I can, you know, trickmyself into thinking that I could just use
casually, whether that be drinking,whether that be smoker. Why would I
go back to smoking cigarettes? Whywould I go back to smoking cigars?
Why would I go back to smokingblack and miles, you know, or
any other thing that I put fireto? Why would I go back If

(17:51):
I'm good with just waking up andhaving life help for shrimp, being sober
minded, and being able to makechoices and do the things that I aspire
to do to be the person thatI want to be in life. None
of those elements is going to makeme feel any better. Yeah, this
is a really really good conversation,and I want to kind of give you
all an opportunity to share any closingthoughts on the subject of unregulated cannabis and

(18:17):
any advice that you would give toany of our listeners and viewers to this
show. So Captain Bobby, I'mgoing to start with you and just share
some closing thoughts from your perspective onunregulated cannabis use. Thank you. I
just want to you know, thepeople that are listening or may have the
questions. You know, we've beenwe've been giving something. You know,

(18:38):
these are opinions of ourselves, notnot for me perfectly who I work for
the Sheriff's office here, this ishow I feel about it. This is
my my belief on it um youknow, and something it sometimes it hits
home. But you know, peopletend to minimize the effects of cannabis.
They do, and it should notbe minimize because the cannabis has an effect

(19:02):
on the community and the integrator totallyjust an individual as a whole. It
does. And I saw the questionand that Miss mcmiller asked about what's the
answer. I don't know the answer. You know. The problem is this.
If you make cannabis legal, andlet's just say it's a it's legal,
no more charges, no one getsarrested, how do you regulate this

(19:23):
when people are can still grow it, they can still get it from different
ports. How do you recolate that? How do you arrest those people?
Now, it's different than alcohol.Alcohol it's very hard to produce. Now
you go, you know you gotstilleries, you got people got brewerish.
Yeah, they make it, butit's a process. Cannabis is nothing but
a simple man made, god madeproduct. So people are gonna still um

(19:49):
buy weed or get it the unlegalway and sell it because it's not a
it's not a it's not a realPeople just want to egalized weed because it's
an easy fix, and it's andit's not an easy fix. It's an
easy fix for those who want touse it. But there's so many different
variables to the deal with that.I would just tell people that's listening on

(20:11):
they questions, you know, thecannabis use it. It does call problems.
I can tell you situation right nowwhere we're just dealt with a situation
here, UM in Tallahasset where they'rethey're they're they're actively gang members shooting each
other over over the sales of drugsbecause because you go to a house and
you know this person is selling weedor they have it. You know,

(20:33):
young a young family used to tojust less than a year ago was buying
cannabis from a from a guy whoher and a girlfriend and she got murdered
on a drug set over cannabis.Buying weed. So it's not harmless,
um. And that now that that'sa young lady life that was taken because
of the chase of the dollar bill. There's a lot of in administment that
there is a lot of lucrative currencycoming from cannabis, and and the government

(20:57):
knows that it's is easy. Asmall amount many sales and you make a
lot of money. So I wouldlike to encourage people to just, you
know, always educate yourself, educateyour kids, talk to them, talk
about the dangers of acannabis. Isnot simple. Um, you know,
I think that you know everyone overthe over the you know, the course

(21:18):
of time you'd come across it.You know, Like I say, I
wasn't always a law enforcement I wasa young a young male growing up in
Tallahassee, and I got exposed toit, you know, and I did,
I mean, but but I madea choice to say, hey,
I can do without this. Iwant something better for my life. And
you know, if you choose totry that, try try not to.
But if you if you have noother way out of it, something you

(21:40):
know, but always know this consequenceand all actions that you take. And
you know, one day you mightbe faced with law enforcement action. It
might not, it might be somethingmore dramatic than that that you might be
impaired and you might drive and takesome one life. So just be careful
to me, be aware of what'sgoing on or what you're doing. Mister
Durton. I just don't see howdrugs and alcohol or tobacco make this world

(22:08):
or the society a better place.I just don't see it. I don't
see that everybody could just freely gowalk around smoke a marijuana at their leisure,
come to work, you know,go to church, go to family
events, smell a like marijuana,you know, because it's legal, everybody

(22:32):
can do it now. I justdon't see that making us better. I
see it's making people money, andthere's very small society and people that makes
the money. But overall the populationof people end up becoming victimized like they
always do when anything that I believethat the government has its hands in.
I'm not I'm not just anti government. I'm just saying things that come down

(22:55):
that's beerly regulated and that white menget to make up the rules. And
I'm not racist at all. I'mnot I'm not prejudice at all. I'm
just I'm just speaking truth to facts. And if anybody that would like to
do their research on the cannabis industry, or the marijuana industry, or the
alcohol and tobacco industry. This isfind out who's controlling that, who's who's

(23:15):
who's controlling that, and who's makingup the rules. You know, the
same people that make up the rulescan break the rules too. So that's
just where I stand at um.I'm not condemning anybody that's in you know,
that uses marijuana. I'm just speakingmy truth, and I just thank
you for having me Hidi to beable to speak this truth. And also

(23:36):
Captain, thank you for you know, sharing your thoughts on this experience as
well. To you, I wantto thank both of you all for sharing
your experiences and for being the guestson today's Conversation on Cannabis Virtual form brought
to you by the Medical Marijuana Educationand Research Initiative at Florida and M University.
Thank you to everyone who's watching andlistening to this program. Tell us

(24:00):
what you think about this form bycompleting the survey that will be posted in
the comment boxes on YouTube and Facebookafter this life program. If you complete
the survey, your name will beentered into a drawing on April six,
twenty twenty three to win a onehundred dollars gift card provided by one of
Mary's partners. We also want toencourage you to go to the Florida Department
of Health Office of Medical Marijuana Usewebsite to learn how to obtain a legal

(24:25):
medical marijuana card in the state ofFlorida, and we also encourage you to
go to Florida and M University's Marywebsite to learn more about this initiative is
educational programs and additional information about cannabalcannabis use in Florida. Thanks everybody.
The views and opinions of our invitedguests are not necessarily the views and opinions

(24:48):
of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University orthe Medical Marijuana Education and Research Initiative.