Unregulated Cannabis - Experts Explain What It Is And Why It Is So Dangerous - Part 1

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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 MMus. 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

(00:26):
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

(00:47):
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 is goodto have you both on the forum.
Thank you, thank you for havingme. Thank you all right to
everyone joining us on this live program. Please share post and tag a friend

(01:12):
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(01:36):
your name will be entered into adrawing on April six, twenty twenty three
to win a one hundred dollars giftcard provided by one of Mary's partners.
Now, let's start this conversation oncannabis. Captain Green, I'm going to
start with you. You worked inthe narcotics unit at the Leon County Sheriff's
Office. Tell us about your experienceswith unregulated cannabis. Well, thank you.

(02:00):
How to My basic experience has beenthat, you know, people seem
to minimize the effects of cannabis andwhat it can do to do and what
the causes and effects it caused ona community. Um and my experience and
my this is my fourth stent andbrok in narcotics and and overtinuous experience.

(02:21):
Um weedest weed or cannabis, whateveryou want to call it, is a
dangerous drug. The user of cannabisum of course they're impaired. So when
you're impaired, your your judgment isalso skewed. People that sell marijuana that
that they usually are the ones thatare in let's say, have a lot

(02:44):
of a lot of currency on them. So it tends to other types of
crimes like robberies and things of thatnature. So, you know, people
tend to say cannabis is not abad drug, it doesn't have the effect
on the community like cocaine or crackor anything else or meth. But but
but it is illegal until they legalizeit, which is another debate. You

(03:04):
know, cannabis and smoking cannabis doescause problems. And as we get into
the conversation later, I expressed someof my concerns about it or my my
my beliefs on what, you know, what can happen cannabis is legalized.
But in my career, I've seennumerous people lose jobs, whose scholarships to
go play football, basketball, athleticscholarships just being in the wrong place at

(03:29):
the wrong time, or doing thewrong things with the wrong people. So
so cannabis has a major effect onour community and our youth, and you
know, it needs to be takenseriously. Just recently, I was working
in a schools and I've seen asyoung as fifth grade as bring bringing cannabis
to school thinking it's very there's nothingwrong with it. But as we know,
there is something wrong with it.And you know, defects of cannabis

(03:51):
can be can be detrimental to you. Yeah, still, minister Dirt,
and you were exposed to marijuana ata very young age while growing up in
California. Tell us about your experiencingyour journey to where you are today.
Well, yeah, just as justas Captain was just speaking about in terms
of what he's seeing today in today'sculture, where he's seen you bring marijuana

(04:15):
cannabis to school at an early ageof fifteen or thirteen, I was.
I was introduced to marijuana. Marijuanawas in the home, and you know,
I started smoking weed at thirteen,and I was in that age group
where you know, and I wasin the fifth grade, sixth grade,
and I can remember getting up everymorning joints was already rolled. I can

(04:38):
remember getting high every morning before Iwent to school. And so, you
know, I also associate just ashe spoke about in terms of not so
much as just the marijuana itself,but the behavior that comes along with consuming
the marijuana or distributing the marijuana.There's a certain behavior and which also later

(05:00):
on Donald, later on down theline developed into criminality, like you just
mentioned about the robberies and whatnot.So yeah, I was that was my
experience at the age thirteenes, youknow, being introduced to marijuana. Yeah,
so how did you you know wetalked, you mentioned in your bio
and you're well known for overcoming anaddiction to Canadas. Can you tell us

(05:24):
about that journey? Yes, Um, throughout my teams and my early thirties,
uh, my mid thirties, UM, I was embedded in drug activity.
Uh where it would started from marijuana, started from marijuana to cigarettes,
and then from cigarettes to alcohol,and from alcohol to later on in my

(05:45):
mid twenties, I was, youknow, started indulgent in cocaine used which
led to crack addiction. Uh.That was my bottom. And so for
twenty plus years I spiral in uh, in and out of prison, jails,
institutions, treatment programs. You nameit homelessness. So I was a
chronic, chronic person with addictive personalitytraits. Although I wasn't diagnosed with it,

(06:15):
I would self diagnosed myself as beingan addict. Once I realized I
was an addict and that it hadtook a hold of my life, that's
when I began to admit myself intotreatment programs and throughout those treatment programs,
going through several programs, going inand and I've relapsed, I would get
sobrieting. Then I would go back, get up, go back, get
up, fall again. And sonow I've been sustained in my writy for

(06:39):
nineteen years. Nineteen years I've beencleaning sold from drugs and alcohol. Yeah,
that's great. So both of youall have had dealings with cannabis,
you know, over the last fewdecades. Captain Bobby Green, you on
the law enforcement side, Minister Dirtonon the users side. What are you

(06:59):
all but what are you all seeingnow? When it comes to cannabis.
And when we talk about unregulated cannabis, we're talking about illegal cannabis. Here
in Florida. We know that medicalmarijuana use is legal, and you have
to have a qualifying condition to getit through a qualified position. But we're
talking about the street level version ofcannabis. So what are you all seeing

(07:25):
now when it comes to unregulated cannabisum and the effect it's happening on our
communities across the state of Florida.Well, I'll go first. What I've
seen in law enforcement round is thatthe sales of unregular marijuana has increased.
UM. When you introduce medical marijuanainto the into the into this formula,

(07:49):
it just makes the I guess,the eagerness to get it even more.
So now you have more people sellingcannabis because they feel that they can blend
in with the with the regulated cannabis. The sales of that, so the
sales and the production, the amountof quality has been increased. People feel
as if, you know, andthere was at one point where you know,

(08:11):
legislative had changed the laws where youknow, we couldn't make arrest on
cannabis because of the hymn. Youknow, the hymn came along and of
course you know that different between himand canabs is the model of THHC content
and it so that part that puta strain on everything. So people were
openly trying cannabis people, more peoplewere were smoking, and more people were

(08:33):
unfearful of the consequences of getting caughtwith cannabis. So the sales increased,
the quality of cannabis that was broughtinto our community was increased. So we're
seeing that the amount of people thatuse cannabis and seal cannabis has increased over
the past two years. You wouldthink it would have decreased, Um,
but I think you know, everybodylasts the braverything in COVID. But when
everybody was inside the home, youknow, they were bored, they were

(08:56):
doing things, so people experimented.Um. We've seen the use of cannabis
go up over the last couple ofyears. And of course, of my
realm, the possession of the salecharges have also gone up with cannabis,
you know, and as a conversationgoing, we're touching some other topics.
But that's what I've seen from alaw enforce rem and has increased over the
last couple of years. Yeah,I just see the bash un least,

(09:22):
I just see it everywhere in theform of mobile units. Uh. There's
shops everywhere. Uh, you're inSouth Florida, I'm in Miami. Yeah,
so where do you see? I'min Miami. So so so in
Miami. You know, Miami isa very uh, very hot, very
high populated place to tourism. Andso here in Miami, we have a

(09:46):
lot of entertainment, uh and wehave a lot of entertainment that's catered around
uh drug addiction, you know,drugs, drug use. We just had
Rolling Loud Down here uh not toolong ago, which is a concert that's
anonymous with you know, getting high, young kids, you know, using
drugs. We have a we havean event coming up this weekend called Ultra

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you know, and everybody know fromlaw enforcement and all that this is a
this is an event that's heavily populatedwith young people and the majority of people
that's there are ordinary influence, areusing narcotics. And so you know,
this whole thing about unregulated and regulatedin cannabis, in marijuana. When I
grew up, it was weed.You know, there was not a lot

(10:33):
of government of federally sanctioned names.That's a you know, that's kind of
like dressing it up because regulated onlymeans it's being control and you know,
we got to look at who's controllingit and who's benefiting from it. Uh.
You know, we already know thatin this industry, uh, that's
predominantly ran by white men. Um. They're the ones that are reaping the

(10:56):
reward of making the money. Andmost of our people are end up coming
up on you know, that theyend up either addicted or they end up
in substance of these programs. Becausethere's a lot of underlying issues that that
that that that deals with this.And you know, anything that you're smoking,

(11:16):
you gotta first of all know thatanything that you're smoking and inhaling is
not healthy anyway, So that wholemyth about medical marijuana. You know,
anything that you're putting fire to his not healthy. And I can't see
a doctor prescribing a cigarette or prescribinga cigar or whatever to a patient because

(11:37):
they say it's for medical purposes.Captain Green, what is the challenge for
law enforcement when it comes to likeyou all are saying, you know the
differences between people who are legally qualifiedto use medical cannabis. You know,
and there's different types of medical cannads. So you have the smokable flower,
you also have the edibles, youhave the tinctures, you have all these

(12:00):
different products in the medical realm versusthe unregulated side, which, to Minister
Durling's point, it's normally you know, it's smoked as a you know,
a joint, you know that approach. So what is the challenge for law
enforcement when you encounter people that havecannabis on them and you have to determine

(12:20):
whether they have it legally or theyhave it illegally? Well, how did
it? That's easy. There's amedical registry that you have to register in
order to illegally possess cannabis for medicinaluse. There is a you have to
go on form. It's a stateof Florida, and you have your name
and information is indicated. And soas law enforcement, we have access to

(12:46):
this registry. You can you canrequest it. I was a controller in
our agency one time, so ourer deputy's name. And so when they
come across this and say Barbara Greenand I'm in possession of cannabis, whether
it's a leafy substance which is mostlypopular, I have to have a medical
registered card. If I don't,I have to. That's a violation not
having your card. And also youcan give them their name and there's a

(13:09):
database that you can check every personin Florida that has a medical marijuana a
medical card. You gotta be registered. Um, so we have ways of
checking that. And they don't havetheir card or it's not packaged correctly,
that that can be a rest ofthe offense at that point. So what
we've seen is that the people thathave been abusing this prescription um And I

(13:31):
think, um, that's one thingI've always learned from from my time playing
sports. A doctor cannot you know, he cannot diagnose pain. Um,
I can tell you my neck ishurting and I got this ascruciating pain.
I can't get rid of it.There's no way he can go on my
body and see if I'm hurting.So what do they do describe medical marijuana?
I know plenty people that probably haveabused this by saying they got this

(13:54):
pain for so long, I havea nagging back pain. My thing is
that, like like um, pastminister said, I mean, what have
we done prior to this time?I mean why is why is medical marijuana
now the answer to all diagnosed patients? Twenty years ago this wasn't answer,
So there was ways to diagnosed pain. I mean what happened to I reproach

(14:16):
from what happened at the regular medication. It is a way to profit and
that's that's what it boils down toum And so where the profit off of
it? You know, I ridedown street, it's a Tallahassee and I
work. I promise you how tothere's I can I can pass five cards.
I'm gonna smell cannabis coming out offour of them. I mean,
it's just it's just profit. Everybodythey smoke, they do it. I

(14:37):
mean, I think the the lackof fear of the consequence what happened if
you get caught with it is it'snot not where it needs to be aware
where it was previously, so mostpeople openly doing it. So Captain Green,
you know there was We had thestate attorney Jack Campbell on the show
previously, and he was one ofthe first in the state who actually changed

(15:01):
the laws when it came to ifsomeone was caught possessing a small amount of
cannabis. Can you talk a littlebit about that and how that's changed the
way you all enforce the laws whenit comes to folks having unregulated cannabis.
Yes, So you know during thetimes when when HIMP came out, like
I Spain, it was a downperiod. It was a period where we
were uncertain as law enforcement of ourarrests authority because people would say it was

(15:24):
himp. We had no way oftesting a product. They're similar. Hemp
and cannabis looked just like all isthe THHC level in each of them,
So we had no way of testingthe TC level. So but yes,
the state Attorney has you know,we've come back on board. Now we're
getting aggressive, but we have herein Tallahassee, we have a drug offender
Court. So if a person getscaught with a less than twenty eight grams

(15:50):
or twenty grams of cannabis, theyhave the opportunity to go drug offender Court,
which is almost like you can sayit's it's a program to say hey,
I'm not gonna do it again,no restival, you have no charge
and you just have to maybe goto some constants. So we try to
get that option to people. Butum, you know, we've gotten back
aggressively targeting to people that's actually sellingselling weed or selling cannabis um and large

(16:14):
amounts, and back to our jobbeen doing that and trying to get it
back under control. So yes,here in Tallahassee, you know, unlike
Miami with the ministry is we're alittle more liberal here maybe you can say
so we're kind of things. Youknow, we're really tired. We don't
allow a lot of things that happenlike they do downside when we try to
try to get a grip on Thisis a college town, so we know

(16:34):
it's a lot of a lot ofstudents here to try and get education.
So we're not trying to ruin peoplelives, but yet we still have a
job to do. So yes,Jack Cameron state attorney officers have been in
um he has been allied to usand work in these cases on people that
have possession of cannabis. So ithas been m I guess really a benefit

(16:55):
to us and happen on our side. Yeah. A couple of other state
attorneys around the state have also adoptedthe same measures of you know, they're
not going to uh prosecute those kindsof cases. Minister Dirt, And can
you share with us what's happening downin South Florida. Well, you know,
like I said, um, thisnew phenom, with this medical marijuana

(17:18):
phenom is the lid is blown off, and you know, I don't see
it anywhere of how they're going toactually control it, because, like I
said, it's just so widespread andthere's so much money involved. Uh,
and I just feel that there's anagenda when it comes down to alcohol,
tobacco in firearms. Um, wedon't control that industry. I'm talking about

(17:38):
the black community. We don't have. We're always the victims of these rollout
rules and regulations. But the oneswho are are going to the bank that
are making the millions off of ourmisery are normally the white men that dominate
this this this culture and the factthat you know, now we have young

(18:00):
black boys that's being influenced, youknow, influenced by you know, entertainment
and you know sports figures, youhave rap. The rap culture has embraced
the marijuana culture. And I embracedit when I was young. I mean,
I rolled around and I listened tothe snoops, and I listened to
the ice cubes, and I drankmy forty ounces in my old English eight
hundred. You know all this moltliok that I was marketed to our communities,

(18:22):
And so I see exactly the samething happening all over again. It
just happened to be informed of marijuana. But like I said, like officer
said, is that it's hard todetermine, you know who, who who
has the legal right to sell itbecause from what I'm just not finding out
that there is a legal way thatyou can sell unregulated marijuana. It just

(18:44):
happened to have a lower level oftac content, so the average person doesn't
have to have a medical license togo by these products out of a storefront.
Uh, they have the edible gummiesand all the other different stuff.
You have these trunks that's riding rightnow, like you say, in the
neighborhood that looks like the ice creamtruck. And I think that I think
specifically that they're an agenda targeted atyounger people, is youngest children because of

(19:11):
the way that is shown where youshow the lollipops on the side of trucks
that looks like pandy. You havethe edibles that look like gummy bears.
So who you know, there hasto be some kind of strategic plan,
a plot as to who ends upbecoming the victims of those who those meetings
of people that ended up becoming alcoholics. Remember that's that that that roll out.

(19:33):
It rolled out alcohol. Now howmany alcoholics we have, So there's
consequences to these choices. Yeah,So, if I'm hearing you correctly,
you're saying that you were talking aboutCBD products, which are the lower THHC
hemp based products. And I heardyou clearly. You said that there are
ice cream trucks rolling around South Floridaselling CBD and it looks like they look

(20:00):
like ice cream trucks. Yeah,they look they're they're they're decorated. They
look like if you if you wasa young kid and started this trunk,
you would think it was the icecream truck. It just has green leaves
that shaped like the marijuana leaves.But they have lollipops on the side of
the truck, you know, theyhave candy, you know, And it's
just this this stuff is just beingput out there, whereas this kid friendly.

(20:25):
Uh. And when you're talking aboutrolling up marijuana, what are you
rolling up the marijuana in or ifyou're rolling it up in paper, you
know, and if you're putting firethe paper and you're smoking that and you're
inhaling that, there's another side tothis thing. So that's what I'm saying,
even if the doctor prescribed marijuana toyou, you and you decided to

(20:45):
smoke it, you can't tell methat smoking anything of any form, even
if it's vathing, it's healthy.That's healthy for you. Yeah, Kevin
Green, have you seen any instancesof this? Uh in North Florida?
Uh? I hate to say it, but no, glad that we have
not. But we have seen anincrease, an increase of UM cannabis and

(21:11):
CBD shops. I mean they're they'reeverywhere. It is a it is a
profitable business that you you probably havemore of them than you have Dennis Officers.
Tryla has to you know, youwere seeing they're in popular everywhere.
I mean everybody wants to corner thatthat profit off of this UM. You
know, of course you have tohave license. But once again, those

(21:32):
shops cause problems. UM, ifI was a criminal and I knew that
there was a large amount of highgrade cannabis store to being shipped to a
specific facility, you know, whynot planning to try to rob this place?
Which is it happened here? Intry to ask we had we had
one of our shop TC bands theywere transport and try to do a robbery

(21:53):
on an interstate. So this iswhat it causes people want it. People
always say cannabis is not bad,it melods you out all this make you
hungry and those type of things.But there are underlying things that happen from
the cause of the addiction of cannabis. Of warning, it's not an addictive
it's crack or cocaine, but itis addictive, like like mister said,

(22:15):
and it causes you to want other, urge to try or do different things
because it just it gets that inyour system. And you know, cannabis
can lead to alcohol or cigarettes,or even crack or cocaine or or even
the most extremely meths. So youhave to be careful. And I've talked
to college students here at family andtell them and I always refer the movie

(22:37):
A Friday, and I think wetalked about in our discussion. You know,
you go to a party of ahouse party and people smoking and a
bong or a joint or whatever ora blunt. You don't know what that
person put inside of this. Cannabis. People lace cannabis and stuff, and
of course, believe or not,we've had people that have you know,
O D from smoking cannabis that hasfetting all on it. I mean,

(23:00):
because you just don't know. Imean, you're you're trusting somebody else.
I mean, I know as agrowing up kid, but mother said,
you don't eat a people's house youdon't know. Well, this is the
same type of you know situation.You just don't grab something and inhale it
and put it in your system ifyou don't know what it is, even
if you know it is. Butthat's that's the biggest thing. And that

(23:21):
that that's the scare that you havein the community from these young kids that
go out to these parties and andjust hang out and just pass it around.
And those are those are the risksthat can occur from this. I
want to thank both of you allfor sharing your experiences and for being the
guests on today's Conversation on Cannabis virtualform, brought to you by the Medical

(23:41):
Marijuana Education and Research Initiative at Floridaand M University. Thank you to everyone
who's watching and listening to this program. Tell us what you think about this
form by completing the survey that willbe posted in the comment boxes on YouTube
and Facebook after this life program.If you complete the survey. Your name
will be entered into a drawing onApril six, twenty twenty three, to

(24:03):
win a one hundred dollars gift cardprovided by one of Mary's partners. We
also want to encourage you to goto the Florida Department of Health Office of
Medical Marijuana Use website to learn howto obtain a legal medical marijuana card in
the state of Florida. And wealso encourage you to go to Florida and
M University's Marry website to learn moreabout this initiatives, educational programs, and

(24:26):
additional information about cannabal cannabis use inFlorida. Thanks everybody. The views and
opinions of our invited guests are notnecessarily the views and opinions of Florida Agricultural
and Mechanical University or the Medical MarijuanaEducation and Research Initiative.