Unregulated Cannabis Products - Part 1

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
From the WA and M Studio onthe campus of Florida A and M University.
This is Mary Forum Radio, aweekly conversation on the education and research
of the medical marijuana being conducted atMUNI. Hi, I'm Kiti Otway,
your host for this conversations on Cannabisvirtual form, brought to you by the
Medical Marijuana Education and Research Initiative atFlorida and M University. In this conversation,

(00:26):
we're talking about the dangers of unregulatedcannabis. So let's talk and learn
about this subject with our guests.Ken Villa is a retired law enforcement officer
with over three decades of service inthe Collier County Sheriff's Office. He is
a certified dear Officer and has heldpositions as a school resource officer, a

(00:47):
SWAT team member, and a gangliaison. He is currently working as a
consultant and trainer with the Florida Departmentof Law Enforcement. HERPL Villa, Welcome
to the show. Thank you forhaving me, Heidi. How you doing
good afternoon? Yes, thank you. Ourn is Leslie Trey Miller IID a
newly retired sergeant from the City ofTampa Police Department, where he served for

(01:12):
more than twenty five years. SergeantMiller worked in narcotics and was a detective
for twelve years. He's a proudgraduate of Florida and M University, and
he chose his career path to bridgethe gap between law enforcement and the black
community. Sergeant Miller, welcome tothe show. Thank you for having me

(01:33):
after you and never one. Toeveryone joining us on this live program,
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(01:53):
We also want you to tell uswhat you think about this forum by completing
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twenty twenty four to win a onehundred dollars gift card provided by one
of Varie's partners. Now, let'sstart this conversation on cannabis. So,

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Sergeant Miller, I'm going to startwith you in Florida, what types of
cannabis are unregulated and illegal, anythingthat's not issued by dispensary, anything that's
homegrown, anything that's brought into thestate of Florida. And then you got
your gummies and your oils, thosearen't regulated. Also, if it's something
that's homegrown or that's shipped into thestate of Florida, it's not considered regulated.

(02:46):
Yeah. Yeah, and then inyour experience, why do people use
these unregulated and illegal products, whichin some cases could be dangerous. Yes,
unregulated, the policy can be alittle bit higher. Like, for
example, your gum is that's issueat a dispenser, they use like one
hundred milligrams, whereas if you getsomething from let's say an acquaintance who sales

(03:07):
marijuana, you may be able toget a gummy that's five hundred milligrams of
HD. Wow, that's a lotcorpora villa. Your experience, yeah,
the same. You know, ofcourse, anything that doesn't go through testing
for any type of additive or anythingthat's unsanctioned, that's that's your unregulator,
right, So supplying demand these it'sout there, demand is still it's still

(03:31):
an effect for when it comes tocannabis. UH, pricing is less for
unregulated marijuana rather than trying to geta medical card, or if you have
a condition, you're you're paying forthe dispensary costs more. So that's going
to affect their their usage. Ofcourse, addiction is huge, all right,

(03:53):
why are people still using it?Well, they're addicted to it.
It does cause addiction, and that'sthat's one of the things, of course,
and potency, of course, that'slike Les we said, well,
let's talk about that potency piece,because you know, we've had a couple
of folks on the show who wouldsay, you know, the cannabis that
you all were, you know,using, or you as law enforcement officers

(04:15):
were tracking ten twenty years ago inyour career, it's a lot different now.
So let's talk about that potency piece, Tray, you want to take
that since you worked in narcotics.Yes, so let's take for example,
hydrophonet marijuana. It sells for ahigher price, but the potency is way
stronger than a piece of marijuana's hasgrown out of the dirt, like out

(04:40):
of a plant, like plants aplanter, and then that can be turned
into the oils that go into thevake pans and maybe for the edibles and
everything else. So people want thatpotency. They want something that's stronger,
you know, whereas if you getsomething that's regulated and may not be as
strong and may not have that sameeffect, or you may get the effects

(05:00):
that you want, not you know, as as using something that's regulated.
Yeah, and I think just toprovide some balance here in Florida, you
know, medical marijuana is legal ifyou have a qualifying condition and it is
regulated by or of Health Office ofIjuanna Use, So you know, that's

(05:21):
that's different. We're really talking aboutthose products that are not regulated, like
you all mentioned that you can geton the street or in some cases,
you can get unregulated products in youknow, convenience stores or smoke shops too.
You know, we've been reading newsabout that as well. So let's
dive in a little bit deeper andtalk about, you know, what are

(05:41):
the dangers of someone using cannabis thatthey didn't get from a dispensary. They
you know, they got it onthe street or in some cases I'm here
and they're getting it online. Let'stalk about that. What are the dangers
of using these unregulated products to go? Yeah, you know, to talk
about if you're getting it from anunlicensed retailer or somebody that's selling it on

(06:05):
the street. Contaminated, uh,the contaminated with pesticides E coli, salmonilla,
anything, heavy metals, fetanol,anything. They're gonna lay these drugs.
Okay, the addiction, they're goingto make that addiction even higher.
And unregulated marijuana, that's a danger. They're playing that Russian roulet with that

(06:27):
drug. How did I know howit affects their body and what it does
to them? All right, that'swhat that's some of the dangers of the
product trade. Yeah, and ifI can pick it back off a can.
You never know. When somebody's makinga drug, they want you to
keep coming back. So with anydrug, if I could put something in
that drug that's going to make youcome back and makes it more addictive,
they're going to have you running tothem for more. For instance, we

(06:51):
found flintann onl in some of themarijuana here in Tampa right before I retire.
People think they're buying marijuana. Peoplethink they're buying cocaine laced with fentanyl.
And once you know, one ofthe highest drugs that I always thought
that was an addictive drug was opioids, heroin and your fentanyl, the fields
all that opioids that you know,it could be very ridiculous. And then

(07:15):
you know, what what other productsare you seeing inside these these products that
are online? I mean, wehere and see a lot of articles about
the fentanyl. Are there any otherdrugs that are being put inside cannabis that
people are consuming and buying on thestreets? The last part I saw was
Finland, but we've seen cocaine,lace and heroin. Also. One of

(07:38):
the things about fentanyl and heroin,heroin can kind of blend in with that
color of the green, so youknow, you may not notice it because
it's pronished. Sometimes sometimes it's clear, and it can be easily mixed into
the marijuana that are the cannabis thatmakes it unnoticeable. Wow, So what

(08:00):
is your message to folks who areactually, you know, buying these products?
I mean, I guess my questionis how do you know if there's
something in it? You know,when you purchase it, you don't use
it, you don't know, youknow, And it's such that fine line
when something is added to a drug, especially when fetanols added, it doesn't

(08:22):
take much. It takes a coupleof grains of salt. That's as much
fetanol as it takes to affect someone, and putting more than that has a
major effect on a person. Itcould kill them. So you don't know
if you're putting that into their body. They're putting it into as Trick is
talking about add or all, they'reputting it into pills, they're putting it
into gummies. You're getting it froma person that doesn't care. All they

(08:45):
care about is that demand. Theywant you to want it, that addiction.
They want you to keep wanting it, So they're going to get you
that high at THC is what castsus high. That CBD doesn't cast.
The THAC is what costs us high. So if you could keep coming back,
you're a customer for a while,and that's important to them. And
you're playing Russia bulette with that.Wow. So where I mean, where

(09:07):
are places that people are getting theseproducts? I mean, you know,
I'm a child of the seventies andthe eighties, and you know, I
used to hear family members who usecannabis. So well, I'm going to
get me a dimebag, you know, from the street or whatever. Right,
Okay, we're for advanced now,where are people purchasing these products.
It's not just on the street wherethey getting it from. Well, back

(09:28):
in the days, you can beable to get it from a street corner,
but it's changed so much with technologyand social media. A lot of
people use Snapchat. If you've gota consistent person who will sell on the
cannabis to you, and it's goingto be Snapchat, Instagram, on Facebook,
Messenger and cell phones. People useFaceTime. People use on the technology

(09:48):
these days, and most of thetime, if somebody's buying their cannabis,
they're buying from somebody who they consistentlybuy it from. You know, you
might get an instance where you mightget someone who will buy it from somebody
new, and that's when you runinto some of your problems because you know,
when somebody starts selling it and theywant to get somebody that's on you
know, a high or high,they might mix something into it, or

(10:09):
they may that supplier might be buyingfrom somebody who's not getting it from a
consistent person, and when they havesent it to somebody consistently sttitude, they
don't know what they're getting from.Like I said, it's a lot of
drugs out there and people mix alot of stuff in their drugs. Yeah,
so how does you know, howdo you you know, investigate that,
How do you find that this ishappening if it's being done on social

(10:33):
It's hard, It's really hard.Sometimes it takes wire taps. I've done
those before. It takes the penisgoing to the social media companies the request
someone's records, but also the socialmedia platforms they won't make it easy for
us as law enforcement to get theseup. These the things that we need,

(10:54):
and it takes confidential informance, thebiggest thing that I use a lot
of When I was at a detectiveand a sergeant for confidential informers, they
were a big asset and helping usbattle us and you know, everybody say
is crazy, but some people lovedoing it. Yeah. Yeah, I
mean confidential informants that that's huge.Even in the schools. I mean that

(11:16):
problem is not as what we seein the streets, but it's in the
schools. There's usually a common denominator, right, and it's that one person.
Somebody has weeds, somebody has somethingthat's laid, somebody is getting high
in the classroom. We have todrag them out and call an ambulance.
Who did they get it from.It's usually that one person in and like
Trey says, that person is usuallygetting from a certain source and it could

(11:39):
be online. And what we'll dois we'll do our investigations and it's not
easy. But what we focus onas far as an SRO is fostering that
relationship because we want those kids totrust us. Listen, I'm here to
help you and I'm going to helpyou with this. It's it's not the
street, but I'm here to helpyou. So if you can trust me,
we're at the bottom of it.So we could get that, we

(12:01):
could end this, but it's it'snot easy. Yeah, yeah, you
mentioned schools, and you know,over the last few months, I've been
seeing headlines about kids consuming cannabis infusededibles in schools and having to be rushed
to emergency rooms because of they consumedtoo much, thinking that it was candy

(12:26):
and it had cannabis in it.Have any of you all had experience,
you know, having to respond tothose kinds of incidents in schools or in
public places where we had young peopleconsuming a little bit too much and may
not have even known that they hadcannabis in that brownie or that gummy that
they ate trade. Want to no, I listen, Yeah, we've we've

(12:54):
had it in the schools, allright. It's finding that person that if
they didn't do it in a privatesetting, and they didn't do it in
the bathroom, and if it's somebody'sgoing to talk to us and tell us
about it, you know, orif a teacher calls down, if somebody's
unresponsive, it happens. It's notlike it's never happened. We get somebody
in the custom that's unresponsible. Checktheir pupils, their slurring speech, their

(13:16):
ability to concentrates not there, they'restaggering when they walk. It's almost like
it's almost like being drunk or youknow, DUI almost We get them down,
we realize they're they're they're battling something, you know. We get a
nurse involved, and we have tocall for medical attention for them because it
could lead to something more serious.It's it's definitely, uh, it's it's

(13:37):
happening. Are we going to stopit by giving information out there? That's
huge and that's what we want tosay. No, you know, don't
do this. It's gonna mess youup. But you're still going to have
those that are going to tempt thesystem. Absolutely, Yeah, Trey,
did you want to add to that. Yeah, A lot of times if
we get overdose, our first responsesalways in our catend because we never know
what this person drug is in theirsystem. Before I left, I hadn't

(14:01):
heard of many nar hands going outto the schools itself. We know our
kids because of the generation and theway things are presented in social media,
music and everything else. It's glorifiedto you know, it's schools, Marilana.
It's like one of those things.It's like I got stripes smoke.

(14:22):
Yeah. Yeah, it's like abadge of honor almost. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean and we all, allthe s r os you know,
are carrying nar can and they're intheir medical bags and the schools have it
and we're trained on using that andthat's for that reason. Yeah. Wow,
that's interesting. So both of youhave been in law enforcement for decades

(14:43):
and during that time, have youseen an increase in people who are actually
using cannabis illegally? I see itincreased, but it's it's one of those
things you see. More people willsmoke marijuana and I'll be honest with you,
I would rather somebody to smoke marijuanathen they go out and do the
harder drugs. I'm talking about yourcocaine, your here on when you're fitting

(15:05):
on, because it for once,for one thing, it'll decrease the amount
of nar cands that we have.Yeah, I can. Deployments are up
every year just because you know,when the pil mill crisis kind of got
shut down by the monetary system.As the phone increase, you saw an
increase on the illictit no usage andthe hearing usage. And that's I've seen

(15:30):
the increase in the marijuana smoke andpeople smoking around the unwell, but you
know, it's kind of manly,like an same level. It's just that
you don't see the corner builders anymore. You see a lot of stuff that
happens behind doors. Okay, Yeah, I think there's definitely an increase.
Yeah, I'm sorry to cut youoff hiding. I'm sorry, No,
I was gonna say. I wantedto get your perspective. Yeah, I

(15:54):
think I think Tray spot on whenhe says that, I think there's definitely
an there's an increase. I mean, I don't even know if it is
considered increase because it's still there.That's that's really unchanged demand is there.
We see it more because it's easierto obtain, right because now we have
internet, Like like Trey was talkingabout, Yeah, you don't have to

(16:14):
go look for that that street dealerto get a dining bag, nickelbag or
whatever. It's available through other avenuesand and that's you know, if they
can't get it that way, they'regoing to get it another way. Absolutely,
And I I piggyback on what hesays about you'd rather see that that
marijuana used that than the other thingswhere you're having to narcam somebody because they
took something that's going to kill them, although marijuana can absolutely another one more

(16:38):
thing too. The one increases thatI did see a lot of before I
left is a lot of marijuana period, drugs period coming through the mail.
When I said, the mail iscoming through the mail like and and a
lot of bunches of it. Youknow, it's been instances where we've sees

(16:59):
my pounds and pounds of marijuana comingout of California, coming out of Colorado
being shipped to Florida. And Idon't know if it's because it's cheaper to
buy from there because the regulations thereare different than it is in Florida.
Yeah, you know, and Iremember going to California, but I also
travel with the buccaneers. I talkedto a cop who had retired and he
was going his own marijuana just becausehe wanted to grow it. He could
never grow as a police officer.He retires and he's going his own marijuana.

(17:23):
So I know their laws are differentthere. So you know, you
might get somebody who'll having a CaliforniaColorado ship it here. Okay, So
how do they get past the smell? Can you smell it in the packaging?
You'll do everything you can do tomake that package. And you know
the best that a dog doesn't smellat all, because you know I can

(17:45):
get past the dog, then it'llget past us. Imagine that, right,
And that's that's our main weapon rightthere, is the dogs somewhere on
the streets. Yeah. Absolutely,what are the panel of these If someone's
caught possessing recreational cannabis, which isillegal in the state of Florida, So

(18:07):
under twenty grams, which is justa little bit under an ounce, it's
still is considered a mister meaning anythingthat's over twenty grands is considered a sellon
all your your your edibles, youryour your gummies, your oils, those
are all considered felonies. But thenfor trafficking and marijuana in the state of
Florida, you have to have overtwenty five grams. And my whole entire

(18:27):
career, it's only been one timethat arrested somebody for trafficking in marijuana and
the punishment that they got for wasprobation. So in its minimum mandatory,
supposed to Cary minimum mandatory. Andyou know, it's just it's you know,
you don't you don't catch a lotof people with twenty five grams from
twenty five pounds at most we've seized, it's been over a thousand pounds at

(18:52):
one time. Usually you don't.I mean, it still comes in by
the boat loads. Sometimes it's justtreated differently. Can you think from twenty
five to two thousand pounds is consideredit felling it correct? Right? Right?
Yeah, I mean, And ofcourse if you're in possession, selling,

(19:12):
delivering whatever within a thousand feet ofthe school, of course that enhances
some of the some of the penaltiesthere too. That's one thing you can
still have under twenty grands. Soif you're selling it, that's also a
fellow. And they're like Kendall wassaying, right, it's just having the
possession of it under twenty grams isconsidered missing and locking. The city of
Tampa, they've kind of given itto a little bit of discression to a

(19:34):
police officer, whereas the city ofTampa has a city ordinance. Well basically
it becomes a thing where it becomesa fine. You get a ticket and
you have to pay this ticket withinthirty days. And if you get caught
again the second time, that myamount has increased. Whereas it went from
seventy five dollars to one hundred dollars. Now each time you get caught that
gets it continues to increase. Socan you all share some of your like

(19:57):
investigations that you know you kind oftouched on it a little bit, but
you know some other experiences or investigationsyou've done related to legal cannabis either being
produced or sold in Florida or evenshipped into Florida. As I started in
narcotics here in Tampa, we usedto get a lot of grow houses.

(20:18):
So what people will do is they'llrent out a whole entire house, and
it was it was more of youknow, they'll runt out of house,
they'll dig into the electricity. Ifit wasn't above the lines, now tapp
into each neighbor's electricity bill. Becausewhat happens is if you have a marijuana
grow house, your electricity bill willpeak because you'll have to have the right

(20:40):
lighting, the right irrigation system.It's basically a farness in the house.
So you will get a whole entirehouse with maybe one room that's not occupied.
Then it would be all marijuana.So you will have something like maybe
a thousand plants in one house.And if you got the right people,
that's they can need, the farmer, the agriculture that's taking care of these

(21:03):
plants. They could have multiple housesand then you know they could turn around
and make their profit and do itall over again, so that they would
just go from house to house,so they would just keep that one house
and grow it. They would havemultiple houses. And the way we would
usually catch them is I remember oneinstance, a fire happened at the house.

(21:25):
So when Tampa Fire Rescue got tothe house, they noticed something was
going on with the electricity, theelectricity box. They had to make entry
to the house and they see allthese plants. They call us and then
sometimes we use confidential farmers. Theywould let us know the hey, we
need to look at this house.I went to this house and I saw
a bunch of plants growing in thehouse, So then we would going to
that house. Now, most ofthe time, nobody lived in these houses.
They were just houses basically rented outor purchased for the sole purpose of

(21:48):
going marijuana. Right, that's whatwe've seen the same thing. Yeah.
And the thing about it, thesepeople who are who are the farmers,
they are very smart. They knowhow to they they've grown in this marijuana
like this, they could probably runa whole farm growing strawberries, oranges or
whatever else. So that's some ofthe first things that we saw. But

(22:10):
smell, I mean this is newto me. Do you can Does the
house reap? I mean yeah,it'll reap, but most of the time
they don't. They don't put theWhen they get these houses, they will
try to find the most clean,the cleanest neighborhood where it's no not like
drama. I mean, h Afees the motographs and make sure everything is

(22:34):
taken care of because you don't wantthat attention. You don't want that attention,
you know. But the thing is, if I want that, you
can't do this because it's illegal.If I went by with uh, something
that could pick up the heat fromthat house, and I was in a
helicopter and I'm trying to figure outhow much heat is coming from the house,
it will be overwhelming with red wow. So and that's why they tap

(22:56):
into electricity because you don't want tohave a electricity bill. Let's over five
hundred dollars fight because by that time, the electricity company might notify longforces like,
hey, you might want to lookat this house. Because yeah,
that's why I was going to say. Usually there's a notification coming from the
electric company that tells you, hey, listen, you just might want to
keep an eye on this what's goingon. Then that's when your vice in

(23:17):
our cott unit, they'll start talkingto CIS or confidential informants. Go from
there, and of course you havea whole thing where you get a grow
house, you know, and agrow houses or they're run that way with
I mean their own lighting and everything. And he says houses are purchased or
rented just for that for that reason. Yeah, wise words, We're Corporate
Vila and Sergeant Miller. Thank youso much for being guests on this Conversations

(23:41):
on Cannabis virtual form brought to youby the Medical Marijuana Education and Research Initiative
at Florida and M University. Thankyou to everyone watching this program. Tell
us what you think about this formby completing the survey that'll be posted in
the comment boxes on YouTube and Facebookafter this live program. If you complete
the survey, your name will beentered into a drawing on April eleventh,

(24:04):
twenty twenty four to one a onehundred dollars gift card provided by one of
Mary's partners. We also wanted toencourage you to go to the Florida Department
of Health Office of Medical Marijuana Usewebsite to learn how to obtain a legal
medical marijuana card in the state ofFlorida. We also encourage you to go
to Florida and M University's Merry websiteto learn more about this initiative, it's

(24:26):
educational programs and additional information about cannabisuse in Florida. Thanks everybody the views
and opinions of our invited guest arenot necessarily the views and opinions of Florida
Agricultural and Mechanical University or the MedicalMarijuana Education and Research Initiative