Many have worked very hard to decriminalize Cannabis in California. Aide Castro, is the former Mayor of Lynwood, CA (2010 / 2016) who fought hard to bring Cannabis to the Los Angeles area. She is also a long time cannabis advocate and entrepreneur. In this episode we interview Aide and dive deep into her experience with all things green.
Connect with Aide:
https://www.instagram.com/castroaide/
https://www.aidecastro.com/about
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ronjini Joshua (00:11):
Hello there we are back. So today we are
interviewing Aide Castro. She'sa former Councilwoman Lynwood
and Mayor Pro Tem. Now she is acannabis advocate, cannabis
investor, a cannabisentrepreneur, if you will. So
she kind of goes through herjourney of cannabis. We talked
(00:32):
about her time as a councilwoman. And we talked about her
facing criminal charges forbeing caught with cannabis
crossing the border from Mexico.
and a bunch of otherinteresting, really interesting
kind of caveats into creating abusiness in the cannabis space,
especially in the LA market. Soif you are a company that's in
the LA market, you definitelywant to listen to this episode
(00:56):
with it and get some learningson how you need to be active at
the political level, at thecommunity level. And then of
course, have the business savvyto know what kinds of insurances
and protections to get as you'reopening a new business in
cannabis. So hope you enjoy thisepisode. And here we go into the
green room.
(01:23):
Hello, and thank you for joiningus in the green room today where
we are interviewing Aide Castro.
Hello, Ida. How are you? I'mdoing great. Thank you for
having me. Yeah, thank you. Um,so you are actually the former
council woman and temp pro tempmayor of Lynwood also cannabis
activist, advocate. And, youknow, we would love to start
(01:46):
with a little bit of backgroundon like kind of what what you
did before how you got intocombat cannabis advocacy and
where you are today. So let'sget that started.
Aide Castro (02:00):
Wow. It's an interesting and unique story,
which is why I really feel thatit's by faith that I'm in this
space. turn the clock back towhen I was 21 years old.
I used to work for the phonecompany and I developed the cyst
(02:23):
in my hand right about here.
It's still there. carpal tunneland tendinitis. And my boyfriend
now has been introduced me tocannabis for the first time,
okay. And it really helped writelong story short, I, a couple of
things happen. I was a passengerin a vehicle that so happened to
have cannabis in it, okay. And Iwas facing 10 years, okay.
(02:53):
I got an opportunity of alifetime just had to do
probation, Scared Straight,basically, single moms, all of
the above, I was not going to dothat, again, ended up in
politics, an opportunity of alifetime to serve my community.
And I did a lot. I got electedin 2007. And in around 2015,
(03:22):
fast forward a lot of years inthe cannabis industry, but let
me go back a little bit to 2009.
I actually had to vote onwhether or not we would allow
dispensaries in the city. Okay.
And we had a, you know, legalopinions and and residents this
(03:46):
outreach, oh, my God, there wasa there's the legal dispensary
in the city shut it downimmediately. Now, mind you, I'm
consuming. And I felt like thebiggest, biggest hypocrite. And
it was a unanimous vote to notallow it at the time. What we
did was place a moratorium whileit was studied more. And the
(04:10):
concern was what were ourrepercussions with the federal
government based on the factthat we were dealing with
federal funding, and at thattime, they would threaten to
withhold funding and that typeof stuff. So when the boat went
down, as I as I was going andthey came to me, for me to give
(04:31):
my vote, I said, a hypocritical.
Yes. That's what went into therecord. So immediately, the
reporter called me the next day,which is interesting because
she's now the mayor, that samereporter is now the mayor. Oh,
wow. And she says, Why did yousay a hypocritical? Yes. And I
tell them because I think we area nation of hypocrites. We're
(04:54):
okay with alcohol and we're okaywith it. Masuda for drugs. But
we have a problem with theplant. And then she said, Well,
why did you vote that way? Andthey said, because at the end of
the day, my responsibility is tomy community as a whole. And
right now, I don't know how mydecision will affect the federal
funding, which is very importantto us right now. And that was
(05:17):
the end of it. story wasn't tooexciting, I guess it died.
Sorry, fast forward 2015. I'mnow working for Assemblymember
Anthony runden, who's now theSpeaker of the California State
Assembly. Okay. And at thatpoint, Mr. Reggie Jones Sawyer
(05:38):
was working on a bill that wasto combine the Murcia and Alma
rules. And I kind of I guess,became the point person in the
office, it was interesting to mebeing that I was a consumer,
again, a secret consumer at thetime. And, you know, I started
looking into it, and then all ofa sudden prop 64 came up. At
(06:03):
that point, I knew that prop 64made more sense than the bill
that Assemblymember Reggie johnSawyer was working on. And all
the focus kind of became on Prop64. But as that was happening, I
realized this is an economicopportunity for my city. And
(06:25):
this is an opportunity for me tocome out. And be honest about my
consumption. And the reasonswhy. Now by this time, I had
discovered a tumor on mythyroid. On October 4 2016, I
had half my thyroid removed andthe tumor. And all this was, as
(06:47):
I was already working on anordinance to make cannabis
manufacturing, distribution,cultivation and delivery legal
in the city of Lynwood. Andwhenever anyone wanted to attack
me about my consumption up, youdon't get to tell me what I get
(07:11):
to heal myself with or relievemy pain from people will shut
up, it was kind of hard to saysomething with a big old scar
across my neck. And a couple ofpeople did challenge me there
was some attempts to recall me.
And I did not care. And I wouldcall people out. And I would
(07:32):
say, you know what, yes, I smokemarijuana. But you're a drunk.
Remember the other day we weretaking shots. So it's kind of
mean about it. This does meanthat they were I kind of
reciprocated the energy, but itwas more of like, you know what,
I'm not going to be ashamed.
This is what I'm doing. At onepoint, I faced almost 10 years
in life. I'm in the city, thisis an economic opportunity.
(07:55):
black and brown people havesuffered the justice system, the
prohibition of this plant, andwe should have the right to now
make money off of it legally.
And people are going to like it,and people are not going to like
it. I choose not to care at themoment. Yeah.
Ronjini Joshua (08:13):
I like how you say at the moment, because
right? industry, everything ischanging. So much different
narratives are coming up all thetime. Going back to just when
you got into politics, so howdid you actually get into
politics overall? Because Imean, I don't know about your
background, but what, what wasthe entry point into that?
Aide Castro (08:34):
So weird. So my cousin at the time that back in
1999, he decided to run for citycouncil, okay, I had to
volunteer, and then he lost. Andthen in 2001, again, he read.
And again, I had to volunteer,you know how it is your proceeds
(08:55):
and make phone banks and allthat. It was out of obligation.
And but this time he actuallywas. And he appointed me to my
first commission, which wascommunity block grants and
development. And it's basicallyallocating funds to the
nonprofit organizations and someof the departments live in city
(09:18):
and this is basically federalfunding and it's also used for
housing for affordable housing,which at the time, being that I
do have a background in realestate was was super exciting to
me, I really, truly believe ineveryone needs to own their
home. While everybody's talkingabout you know, rent control.
(09:38):
I'm thinking why are we teachingpeople about rent control? Why
aren't we teaching them how toget into a home, how to become
homeowners and really understandwhat generational wealth can be
through homeownership and itstarted with that so I also have
an affinity for affordablehousing and I started working on
that in the in the city. helpingpeople understand how the first
(10:02):
time homebuyers assistanceprogram worked. And, you know,
the city was kind of doingthings backwards. They were
approving a bunch of people forthe loans. But most of those
people were not actuallyqualifying for actual bank loan.
So it was just causing a badclause. Nobody was really
benefiting from the program. AndI was able to influence for that
(10:25):
to change. And we were able todo amazing, I think, over 150
projects with Habitat forHumanity, which is also is an
amazing program for gettingpeople into home. So that's kind
of where it started. I ended upin 2007, recalling four council
(10:47):
members and one shot has neverbeen done in the nation. One of
those was my cousin. Oh
Ronjini Joshua (10:53):
my goodness.
Aide Castro (10:56):
I own my political career to him, may he rest in
peace. He did passive kadasterbut he wasn't behaving back
then. And he had they haddecided at that time, it was a
total land banking scheme thatthey were going to build a
football stadium in Lynwood,Lynwood is only 4.9 square
(11:17):
miles. Yeah, it's not very big100 homes to schools and like
200 businesses. And I understandreal estate very well say you
can't do that. Those are landbanking scheme. And they're like
they don't and I was like, No, Iknow you can't do this. Because
before you can tear down aschool, you have to rebuild it
within 1000 feet. And I alsowanted to do eminent domain, a
(11:39):
bunch of homes to build a schoolso that you could tear this down
for a stadium. I was like, Oh,no. And yeah, kind of became a
big thing. And that's how Iended up on the Lynwood City
Council.
Ronjini Joshua (11:51):
Got it? Okay, that's a very windy road.
They're very dramatic hasnothing to do. Very dramatic.
That's so funny. So then whendid you start? When did you
start kind of advocating for itin with within the government
and within, you know, the cityof Lynwood and obviously county
(12:11):
of La we immediately
Aide Castro (12:13):
as soon as I decided that I needed to do it
in my city I started immediatelyI would say around the summer of
2015 because I yeah, I latesummer and then I became more
open and more aggressive in 2016and it just kind of progressed
from there this you know, it'sfunny because some of those same
(12:37):
residents that were upset at meand signed a recall against me
after talking to me I would givethem product and in the Latino
community a lot of people sufferof arthritis and a lot of aches
and pains and we're used toseeing that bottle of alcohol
with you know, marijuana in itin our homes, it was just never
(13:01):
meant for consumption. So Istarted showing them how the
industry was not just about abunch of people you know,
smoking and that smell that theywere concerned about. I started
giving them the bomb the oilsand explaining to them the
endocannabinoid system within usand how we activate our
(13:25):
receptors and you know, peopleask questions about THC, CBD,
what's the difference? And Iwould always try to tell them,
think about CBD as ibuprofen andtake a think about THC and bike
it and it does know how strongis your pain? Which one do you
need? You know, and sometimesyou need a combination of both
men and little by little thosesame people, interestingly
(13:49):
enough, now will call me andsay, Hey, what do you recommend
for this? Is this weird?
Ronjini Joshua (13:56):
Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that's one of the
things that we've noticed withthis podcast is that their lack
of education is like a bigfactor in all the stigma that's
built around it now in the cityof Lynwood. How much did that
impact your time in office? Andjust what you decided to do with
your time, was that a majorityof kind of your cause, or what
(14:16):
were the other kind of issuesthat you dealt with around
cannabis and obviously havingdispensaries in the area and
things like that.
Aide Castro (14:25):
So it didn't really do much for for my career,
because one of the first thingsI focused on when I came into
office was to establish termlimits. I truly believe in term
limits. I felt like a lot of theprior corruption going on in our
city was due to not having termlimits. I feel if our Congress
(14:47):
and Senate had term limits, wewouldn't be dealing with a lot
of the asinine politics thatwe're dealing with at the
moment. So I I did not have aplan to be a career politician.
When I came into losses. So itwas kind of I gave myself that
time limit, I ended up serving13 years because we had one year
(15:09):
added at the end when the stateof California consolidated
elections to coincide with thecounty and the state. So it made
things a little bit moreaffordable for us. So for those
reasons, it I it was neverabout, like, oh, let me make
sure I get reelected type ofthing. And my causes were very
(15:29):
much based on affordablehousing, that was a lot of my
focus. A lot of my focus wasalso on infrastructure repair,
it's, I am barely starting tosee the fruits of our labors.
The new council that came in isdoing an amazing job, you know,
(15:51):
actually bringing those projectsto fruition so I'm very happy
about that. The other thing thatI was also very focused on was
getting more green space to thecommunity. So we were able to
build a whole new brand newpark, several pocket parks and
just bringing in more activelifestyle type of activities. We
(16:15):
took a strip along the 105freeway that was just ugly and
blighted and we made it into atrail Park and you know it has
community gardens a little dogpark so it's it's more about
walk walking and ability activeyeah little exercise stations
every so often. Little markersof how much you've walked or
(16:37):
jogged you know those littlethings. Then the other effort is
on special needs it in, when Ifirst got elected, coming off
the Dyess, a couple of womenapproached me and said, Hey, you
guys do all these things, torecognize, you know, different
(16:58):
parts of the community. But youguys always leave the special
needs community out. And it wasjust one of those like, yeah,
you're right, what do you wantme to do about it? And they were
like, let at least have sometype of like recognition
luncheon and be inclusive ofthose. Yeah. And I was like,
(17:19):
Okay, well, I at that time, wehad a discretionary fund and I
say, you know what, okay, let mesee what I can do. We could use
Bateman Hall, which was ourcommunity hall, I'll get a
$2,000 budget and we willfundraise for the rest of it.
And we declared the last Sundayof every February, special needs
recognition and awareness day.
And from that the schooldistrict kinda took it upon it
(17:42):
and made it a bigger thing fortwo weeks to make young children
aware and inclusive of thecommunity. We brought sports
programs that would be inclusiveto the special needs. We
included a physical therapychair in our public pool that's
free of charge for people whoneed that physical therapy
(18:02):
aspect. And just again, kind ofrefocus our efforts of being
inclusive. Now mind you that Igot elected in 2007. Fast
forward 2012 my twins are born.
Fast forward to 2015 and theywere diagnosed with autism.
(18:25):
Okay, so I totally also feelthat somehow or another working
with all these special needsparents, I was being prepared,
and thank God because I knew mygirls, there was something wrong
when they were nine months, thepediatrician thought I was
crazy. I had to negotiate withhim to send me to the
(18:46):
developmental specialist, whichhe finally did at a year and a
half, but they couldn't legallydiagnose him until there were
three. Last but not least, myother special project was
bringing support and mentorshipto teen parents. I was a teen
mom, I had my first child twomonths before. Yep, two or two
(19:06):
months before my 17th birthday.
And I wanted to let other youngparents know that, okay, you got
pregnant, and now you have achild, all your dreams going
you're on the backburner, butthere's a way to balance setting
you still have to takeresponsibility. And you know,
these are the things that youneed to do to get ahead on life.
(19:29):
This is not an excuse to fail.
This is not an excuse to say mylife is over. I had to you know,
receive Social Services. At onepoint, I did it, I took
advantage of every word resourcethey gave me and look at where I
am now. So you guys have noexcuse. and Canada this was
(19:50):
really towards the end. It wasjust one of those things of Prop
64 rights. I mean, I'm workingfor Mr. rendom and all the right
places to make it happen.
Ronjini Joshua (20:00):
But yeah, well, how has that affected some of
the other stuff that you'veworked on? I it sounds like you
are doing some more work in thecannabis space and you've had
some investments in that area aswell. Like how has your time
with the city and thenobviously, in government in
general, affected how you weremaking decisions in the cannabis
(20:20):
space and what you know, in thatspace?
Aide Castro (20:24):
I guess because a tourist, it was all towards the
end of my career. And were parttime elected officials were not
full time, okay, we, we all haveto have what we call real jobs.
My pay was $975 a month, thatwas my stipend. And I received
250 for media allowance, and 250for car allowance. So yeah, we
(20:46):
have to have real jobs. It'svery much a labor of love when
you observe a small community.
Yes, yes. Yeah. So it wasalready like natural for me not
to be you know, we have a citymanager, as a council, we give
direction, it's up to the citymanager to implement that
policy. My job was to createpolicy. And if anything,
(21:07):
everything I learned inpolitics, is what has allowed me
to be successful now, becausewhat this industry now needs
more than ever, is anunderstanding of, you know,
they're going from thetraditional market to the now
compliant market. They don'tunderstand bureaucracy, they
don't understand politics. Andright now, they don't care. And
(21:30):
right now, I feel like it's anopportunity for me to come in
and help those who want to workwith me to understand what it is
that they need to do thattobacco and alcohol industry is
not as powerful and influentialas it is, because they don't get
involved in politics, right? Sohopefully, the cannabis industry
(21:50):
gets it together and startsholding my fellow politicians
accountable.
Ronjini Joshua (21:56):
Yeah. So what do you what do you see as the
biggest challenges right now,for people to be addressing?
Aide Castro (22:02):
I think the biggest challenge is the over regulation
and over taxation, I think thatthe legislature has really lost
track of what the purpose ofthis is, and what a revenue
maker it can be. If they were tostreamline things I understand
bureaucracy is important. Iunderstand quality control is
(22:23):
important. But they're overdoingit. I mean, people are looking
by the time you go from seed tosale, you're like at 27%,
taxation, and all that's beingpassed over to the customer. And
then you wonder why thetraditional market is still
thriving is this is thisridiculous, and I just feel that
(22:46):
the only way things are gonnachange if if the cannabis
industry stopped speaking, whatlike what I call with a trap
mentality, you're not trappinganymore, get over it, your
business personnel, you're notjust a small business, you're
trying to create a whole entity,you're trying to create brands,
(23:07):
you're you're trying to begroundbreaking in this industry,
you don't do that with a trapmentality thinking that, oh, let
me keep all these secrets tomyself. There is no secret. Once
you go into the public world,guess what? All those slps that
you think are special guestswith their nonpublic
information, the minute you filethem with a city or, or a state
(23:27):
entity. So I think the cannabisindustry, it really, really,
really needs to learn whatpolitics is and start getting
involved the right way that Ithink that's important. If not
we're going to continue toground the way we've been doing.
It's it's, it's good for thosepeople that have you know, that
(23:50):
were able to save a lot of moneyand be ready. But even a lot of
those people are strugglingbecause you run out of cash. I
mean, look at the people thatapplied in the city of Los
Angeles. That would thateverybody's still waiting. Yeah,
yeah. I mean, just to get aninvoice.
Ronjini Joshua (24:09):
As simple as that. That's a that's a good
point. How do you Excuse me? Howdo you? How do you suggest that,
you know, to avoid furtherpenetration in the black market?
Like, I think that's theproblem. There's a lot of lack
of education or like a lot oflack of bridges between the
black market and the regularmarket, like what are the steps
(24:32):
that need to be taken so thatpeople don't feel like oh, I
still have to do black marketsales. Because it's also it's
still like also contributing tothat stigma, too, right. It's
that there's so many issues thatkind of revolve around that
single thing. Yeah,
Aide Castro (24:49):
I mean, it is. It's a lot of variables included, but
at the end of the day, thelegislature needs to take a look
at it from the state.
perspective, they need tostreamline it when they allowed
it to be completely controlledat the local level. They they
opened it up for a lot ofimproprieties to say the least.
(25:12):
I mean, you're in. A lot ofthese cities are creating social
equity programs requiring with51% ownership. A lot of these
build outs can be anywhere fromfive to $20 million. Yeah. So
I'm the investor, I get to givethat much money. And I got to
get 51% control to someone whoknows absolutely nothing about
(25:35):
running a business that theyknow how to grow. Yeah, I mean,
come on, people. Come on. It'sthat type of what I call dog and
pony legislation that createsproblems and sets people up for
corruption, right? It's thatsimple. It should be treated
like I get it. You know, mostcities they can limit and say I
(25:59):
only wanted this many. InLynwood, we were strategic, it
was new. So we said, okay, wewant the brewery and the
distillery just not the liquorstore in every corner, right, I
was being very politicallystrategic at the time, I knew I
could push to my residents andfor them to approve, allowing
for cultivation, manufacturingand distribution, that if I
(26:23):
said, Oh, a dispensary in the inyour corner, all hell is gonna
break loose. But everything elseI could say blue collar jobs,
you know, when labor peaceagreements are the the field
good quotes, right? And my hopeswas like a, once I get this
pass, hopefully my communitywill understand it was no big
deal, they'll get over it. Andthen we'll do dispensary's. It
(26:45):
hasn't happened. But I'm stillpraying that my colleagues will
get their act together and makeit happen one day. But at the
end of the day, it's said, andI'm explaining this to you as a
politician. Yeah, those are thegames you have to play sometimes
to create change. With me, Ibrought it to my city I created,
you know, chaos, but I hadprepared myself emotionally
(27:09):
change versus ridiculed. Second,violently opposed, third
accepted as self evident, theyreally killed the hell out of
me. And they tried to recall me,when they couldn't recall me,
they attacked me, I was on thefront page of the LA Times all
of the above. When that didn'twork, and I still left with my
head held high, they accepted itas self evident. I was part of
(27:29):
change. And I'm very proud ofthat.
Ronjini Joshua (27:33):
No, that's, that's really amazing. I think
that's a good note for peoplethat want to get in the space to
think of it is a challengingplace to raise your voice. What
is your recommendation forpeople who might be listening or
brands that might be enteringthe market, that are going to
have to think a little bitbigger than just, oh, I'm gonna
go in here and try to open up ashop? Like, I mean, it's
(27:56):
obviously much more complicatedthan that. What are the
suggestions you can give to someof these dispensaries and brands
that are getting into the spacein the LA County? How they
should get involved?
Aide Castro (28:12):
There's so many different ways. But more
importantly, first, assess yourvalue, and what skills do you
bring to the table? Once you'veidentified that, figure out the
Nexus into the industry, and Isay, assess your skills, because
you didn't have to be a groweror a manufacturer or a
(28:32):
distributor, I'm sure you'vebeen in some type of job that is
very much needed in theindustry. For example, human
resources, these people need tounderstand labor laws, using
trapping on more people, let merepeat that you ain't trapping
no more, violate labor laws,make sure people take their
breaks allowances, those typesof things. And, you know, so if
(28:55):
you have experience in HR, youneed to, you know, you know, put
your resume out there. And ifyou're a brand or a company and
you're listening to this, donot, do not, do not skip out on
your insurances and humanresource and legal services, why
(29:17):
you need workers comp, you haveto, it's not an option. It's
mandatory. Yes, it's mandatory.
I'm sorry, get over it. That'sjust the reality, your property
liability, you need that notjust general liability, property
liability, protect yourself withinsurance at all times. Make
sure you have a good HR personthat's going to keep you
(29:39):
compliant with labor laws. Mostof the companies that are going
down right now are going downbecause attorneys are targeting
them because they know you guysare not keeping good records.
You need to keep good records,your timesheets, make sure
people are taking breaks fromlunches. If not expect the class
action lawsuit. It's called mewith deaf people. Make sure you
Have a good HR person, and legallegal services. Yeah. Oh, just
(30:02):
thank you, you know, at the endof the day, we can all read, we
can all interpret. But no, getyourself a professional. And
understand not just one type ofattorney, make sure that you're
dealing with an attorney who canrefer you to offer you different
types of services, because youwill need Labor Law Attorneys,
(30:24):
Real Estate Attorneys, so manydifferent things, not just one
thing, and a lot of the peoplein the industry are using
criminal attorneys. Criminalattorneys don't work when
dealing with municipalities. Wedon't like them. If anything,
they piss us off, and makes usnot want to deal with you.
(30:46):
Because they think they're goingto come in and be aggressive and
say, No, this is you're notdefending anything. This is the
policy, these are the rules,this is what you need to follow.
So if if any advice, at leaststick to those things, if you
can afford those things, thenyou probably don't belong at the
business at the moment. Andwhat's probably best is that you
(31:08):
figure out how you cancollectively work with somebody
who maybe does have a license,but doesn't have the expertise,
and maybe put together some typeof operational agreement. And
that's where you can definitelybring value to the table, you
might not have money, but youknow, you have the know how and
that has value put yourself outthere. I call it the two foot
(31:30):
rule. If you're within two footfrom me, you're going to know
exactly what I do, and how toget ahold of me, you have to
market yourself at the end ofthe day. Think of yourself as
the brand. What do you bring?
Why, though? Why does anybodywant to do business with you?
The same way you would marketyour brand? Why does anybody
want to buy your brand? Treatyourself the same way?
Ronjini Joshua (31:52):
Yeah, I know that these are great insights, I
think one of the things that youtouched on that I think is
really critical to mention isjust the cost, the amount, the
cost of doing business in thisspace and understanding that
cost. And like you said, as aninvestor, why are you going to
invest in a company that you youhave somebody that has 51%
(32:14):
ownership? Who doesn't know whatthey're doing? So when and I and
I've talked to a lot of peoplewho are looking for investors
and people that are looking toget started, what about their
like, as an investor? What doyou think are some of the kind
of, I guess, tips of thinking oflike how to how to collaborate,
because I, I like that youmentioned like, you don't have
(32:36):
to do this alone, maybe you canpartner up with someone and
create an operational agreement,like there's a lot of ways to
navigate getting into theindustry, you don't have to
just, you know, it doesn't, ifyou go off solo, you're probably
not going to fly. So what do youthink are some tips on like, you
know, finding those partners andbeing able to create a
collaboration between otherpeople.
Aide Castro (32:58):
There's, there's a lot of organizations out there
that are looking to form thosetypes of type of collectives, as
much as they criticize LA, thereare some social equity people
that were smart enough, and wereable to put those efforts
together. And lumbee justcreating a really good social
(33:20):
equity program. Now, that alsohas someone within city hall
kind of hand holding theindividuals through the process.
And already like the I believeit's like $440,000 in grant
funding that they give them.
That is true seed money. And ifit's a little bit easier to come
to an investor and say, Look,I'm going to, this is how much I
(33:40):
bring to the table, this isgoing to get my plans approved,
the city is going to approve mypermits and everything, I just
need you to fund theconstruction and you owe if you
own the building, you know wecreate a partnership because you
own the building, you're goingto the tenant improvements are
not just going to benefit methey're going to benefit you
because now your building isworth a lot more. So there's
ways of doing it. It's just Iguess at the end of the day, we
(34:04):
all just have to have a trueunderstanding of what we bring
to the table. Yeah, and whatwhat are our strengths and what
are our limitations and try tofind other like minded people,
but go to those cities that areoffering those social equity
programs, attend the workshops,talk to the what I call the
movers and shakers of the areaand but also be prepared to
(34:28):
navigate a lot of bureaucracy inlumbees surprisingly it's not
been bureaucratic. What I'veseen has been very impressive to
say the least I've been proud ofthem in this social equity
aspect. Hopefully la gets theiract together now they can't
blame COVID anymore. They shouldwe opened but they're still
behind is not even funny, youknow? And it's like they're
(34:53):
purposely hurting the cannabisindustry. And the political will
is Not there to fix it, they're,you know, if they really wanted
to enforce anything they wouldenforce on the what we already
know are the non compliantdispensary's and be supportive
of the ones that are payingtheir taxes. But unfortunately,
(35:13):
that's not what's happening, youknow. And then there's cities
that want to be supportive ofthe cannabis industry, but
simply don't have the manpowerfrom within. And you know,
you're building and safetydepartments also don't have a
clear understanding of thecannabis industry. So a lot of
(35:33):
new things that, you know, nowthe fire departments also become
very bureaucratic. And youliterally have to fight with
municipalities to hold the firedepartment accountable. They're
like, Oh, it's the firedepartment, we can do anything.
You can say that to a regularperson on the former elected,
and let me tell you, you have acontractual agreement with them.
(35:54):
And there's a timeline that theymust follow. hold them
accountable to that timeline, itcan still take you six to nine
months. But if you at least holdthem accountable to that
timeline, you have a betteridea, or, hey, Fire Department,
give us a checklist. So nowfinally, the fire department has
provided checklists, at least inLA County. But I mean, they have
not been shy about making itclear that they're purposely
(36:17):
being non friendly to thecannabis industry. So that type
of bureaucracy and bad policymaking is what I feel is really
hurting the industry here in thestate of California.
Ronjini Joshua (36:30):
Yeah, know that.
I think not just here. I'veheard that in other states as
well. I mean, all these littlenooks and crannies, but I think
questioning what what kind ofresources you have is kind of
the main way for people to geteducated and make sure that
they're doing the most that theycan. What are you what are you
doing right now in in cannabis.
(36:50):
And you know, now that you areso happily retired, I'm sure
from the city, but what are youwhat are you doing now?
Aide Castro (36:59):
So I've actually had a consulting firm since
2013. Started out withgovernment affairs and campaign
work. So after I finished theordinance in the city of
Lynwood, I went with weedmaps.
And I basically they hired me togo into the different cities and
help them create their ordinancein regards to cannabis. So I am
(37:20):
proud to say that all the littlecities around us in the
southeast are replicas of myordinance, I would say so far,
Montebello has probably elevatedit to its level is what I say.
Don't tell my my colleagues Isaid, but honestly, but honestly
(37:40):
might not alone, really enhancedit, they did a really good job
with streamlining it, of course,we're never gonna be happy
enough, we're always going towant more and more. But I feel
like they did a really good joband did their best trying to be
friendly to the industry, butstill not to give the house away
(38:03):
and create revenue for theircity, which is important. So I
did that for nine months withweed maps. And then from there,
I kind of just took off on myown. I realized that I qualified
as a social equity partner andthe city of La went and found a,
I guess, partner, investorpartner, who was already well
(38:26):
establish and we were able toget a license. And right now I
actually does we're in theprocess of selling those to an
LA because doing business in LAis not friendly. We've been
waiting since last year but DCRwon't process our invoice. So
that's what's going on with thatSee, I suffer along with
(38:48):
everyone else. And our focus hasbeen in the city of commerce and
Montebello, building outfacilities and basically I
solely focus on consulting formy business partners. I also
serve as their general managerfor their different facilities
and also working on my personalbrands. I have a as you know my
(39:11):
name is Ivan but it's spelled AId e and when most people see it,
they see aid. So I am working onCBD aid. That's my name. And
then the other product is inthat's the CBD is going to be
(39:32):
your your normal tincture, CBDnon psychoactive product. Then
we're focusing on blendedcultures branded cultures is
literally what you hear a blendof cultures of how we use
cannabis differently. All ourcultures somehow or another have
some medicinal use withcannabis. And when you blended
(39:54):
with the different herbs anddifferent areas is just a way
Wonderful products. My husbanddeveloped a really good formula.
It's a bomb. He has he putslavender and then of course the
full blown cannabis because hewants it to have everything in
it. Lemon Grass, I forgot thathe puts in it. But it's an
(40:19):
amazing, amazing bomb. It reallynumbs the pain immediately. And
it's also great for scars. Iwill try to get close, but I
don't have the scar you canbarely see and
Ronjini Joshua (40:33):
yet Nope.
Aide Castro (40:36):
And I used a lot of it on there. I think all the
natural, you know oils that heputs on it. But that's blended
cultures and I grew up having anaffinity for different cultures
and just learning. It's a I'mnot a religious person, but I
have a lot of different Biblesbecause you have your Catholics
(40:59):
and I've even been gifted aQuran. I love learning about
different cultures. So that'swhere blended cultures kind of
came from, okay. And there'scandor collections, which was
started by my business partnerand an amazing female who's his
business partner. We call herTrinity. So refriger is Trinity.
(41:25):
and Canada collections is full,full flower cannabis, you know,
there's vapes. There's flour,but if I refer to her as a her,
it's a she she's, she's, she's,she's a businesswoman. She wears
power suits, and she's afabulous when I say Plexus
(41:48):
pearls, you know, but she's,she's, she's me. She's Trinity.
She, she's not that pothead thatpeople have in my head. She's
empowering. But she doesn't likea glass of wine. She wants a
good. She wants to relax. Andthat's what category collections
(42:10):
is, you know, so we'll go allthe way working on
Ronjini Joshua (42:13):
Yeah, we'll put all the links in the show notes
so that people can check it outand explore. Also the Instagram
links if you guys have those.
We'll add those in there aswell. And then are you still
consulting is what we used tohave a lot of little toes dipped
in a lot of different buckets.
Aide Castro (42:29):
I guess I am consultant but mainly
specifically for my partner. Heright now I've been focused a
lot on his store. It's la Kush.
We're at the before 70 ValleyBoulevard in Los Angeles right
off the 710 By the way, this iswhat I've been enjoying.
Ronjini Joshua (42:47):
Oh, nice. Oh, okay.
Aide Castro (42:52):
And, yeah, just kind of learning that part of
the business. He's done a greatjob mentoring me. learning that
side of the business. I bringthe politics, the policies and
other boring stuff, but he'steaching me the real you know,
business of it. He's going tocelebrate the teen years as a
(43:13):
senior anniversary of being inbusiness next year, May. I think
I may 12, I believe of nextyear, he's celebrating 15 years
in business, and Trinity hasdone some amazing work for them.
If you're familiar with the noCEO, no deal, slogan in the
cannabis industry, it's actuallyfrom Trinity. She was the one
(43:34):
who started that. And it's kindof amazing to see that it got
all the way to the statelegislature where now it's part
of the requirements of you know,having a field and making sure
that it's labeled properly sothat you know, you're getting
clean meds. So a lot of my focushas been on that. I do have
other clients that I consult foranother amazing female owned
(43:58):
business. Omnia, and that'sowned by Claudia in great to be
able to help another female inthe industry and just kind of
consult for her in her business.
So I still do that. But rightnow more than anything I really
want to focus on on developingmy brands and doing this for me,
I've done a lot for everybodyelse. I want to do it for
(44:21):
myself. But I also want to focusmore on the advocacy aspect and
hopefully the industry iswilling to use me to advocate on
their behalf. It's not aboutmaking money for me when it
comes to the lobbying. It's weneed to do this we need to speak
up for ourselves as an industry.
We need to write this we need tomake sure that the feel good dog
(44:46):
and pony policy doesn't killthis industry. And the only way
we can do that is by sharingresources communicating and
changing the mentality.
Ronjini Joshua (44:58):
Yeah. Yeah, no, that's, that's amazing. Thank
you so much for your work yourhard work. And I think education
yeah is definitely like one ofthe key components of why, you
know, you're just mentioning atthe very beginning that, you
know, once you educated people,they kind of came around. So
that's definitely still very,very important and, and being a
champion is amazing. So wedefinitely appreciate everything
(45:22):
that you're doing.
Aide Castro (45:23):
Thank you.
Ronjini Joshua (45:24):
Well, thank you so much for joining us today.
Um, any any lasting comments,any lasting notes for anybody
who's listening.
Aide Castro (45:34):
Wow. It's a beautiful plant, let's fight for
it. Let's make sure that we getto enjoy it. And let's
understand that at the moment,we're still being discriminated
against. When you go out intopublic places. There's smoking
sections, that as cannabis,consumers still feel like we
(45:58):
can't hang out in that section.
Why can't we be treated the sameway? This This smells This is
that is our stuff. And at leastwe can hide our stuff.
Ronjini Joshua (46:06):
Yeah, that's true. That's very true. I'm
gonna I'm gonna have to agreewith you on that one. definitely
smells better than smoke. So,
Aide Castro (46:14):
right. So I mean, that's it. Just get involved
people pay attention to whoyou're voting for, and hold them
accountable to their promises.
At least make them say it outloud. Make, make sure that
you're asking the rightquestions. And, you know, yes,
we all say we hate politics.
Because politics is what runsthe world. We have to get
(46:37):
involved. policy is superimportant in every aspect of our
life. And if you don't dosomething about it, and just sit
and complain about it, we'rejust going to continue to
struggle. Yeah, so let's speakup. And I'm more than happy to
help you guys out and whatever Ican to advocate on behalf of the
industry.
Ronjini Joshua (46:57):
Awesome.
Awesome. So we'll have all ourideas, information in the show
notes. Click on those, you canalways contact us if you need
some more information from her.
But thank you, thank you somuch.
Aide Castro (47:08):
Thank you guys. You have a great day.
Ronjini Joshua (47:10):
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hyphen group. Thanks forlistening and be well
Hello there we are back. So today we are
interviewing Aide Castro. She'sa former Councilwoman Lynwood
and Mayor Pro Tem. Now she is acannabis advocate, cannabis
investor, a cannabisentrepreneur, if you will. So
she kind of goes through herjourney of cannabis. We talked
(00:32):
about her time as a councilwoman. And we talked about her
facing criminal charges forbeing caught with cannabis
crossing the border from Mexico.
and a bunch of otherinteresting, really interesting
kind of caveats into creating abusiness in the cannabis space,
especially in the LA market. Soif you are a company that's in
the LA market, you definitelywant to listen to this episode
(00:56):
with it and get some learningson how you need to be active at
the political level, at thecommunity level. And then of
course, have the business savvyto know what kinds of insurances
and protections to get as you'reopening a new business in
cannabis. So hope you enjoy thisepisode. And here we go into the
green room.
(01:23):
Hello, and thank you for joiningus in the green room today where
we are interviewing Aide Castro.
Hello, Ida. How are you? I'mdoing great. Thank you for
having me. Yeah, thank you. Um,so you are actually the former
council woman and temp pro tempmayor of Lynwood also cannabis
activist, advocate. And, youknow, we would love to start
(01:46):
with a little bit of backgroundon like kind of what what you
did before how you got intocombat cannabis advocacy and
where you are today. So let'sget that started.
Aide Castro (02:00):
Wow. It's an interesting and unique story,
which is why I really feel thatit's by faith that I'm in this
space. turn the clock back towhen I was 21 years old.
I used to work for the phonecompany and I developed the cyst
(02:23):
in my hand right about here.
It's still there. carpal tunneland tendinitis. And my boyfriend
now has been introduced me tocannabis for the first time,
okay. And it really helped writelong story short, I, a couple of
things happen. I was a passengerin a vehicle that so happened to
have cannabis in it, okay. And Iwas facing 10 years, okay.
(02:53):
I got an opportunity of alifetime just had to do
probation, Scared Straight,basically, single moms, all of
the above, I was not going to dothat, again, ended up in
politics, an opportunity of alifetime to serve my community.
And I did a lot. I got electedin 2007. And in around 2015,
(03:22):
fast forward a lot of years inthe cannabis industry, but let
me go back a little bit to 2009.
I actually had to vote onwhether or not we would allow
dispensaries in the city. Okay.
And we had a, you know, legalopinions and and residents this
(03:46):
outreach, oh, my God, there wasa there's the legal dispensary
in the city shut it downimmediately. Now, mind you, I'm
consuming. And I felt like thebiggest, biggest hypocrite. And
it was a unanimous vote to notallow it at the time. What we
did was place a moratorium whileit was studied more. And the
(04:10):
concern was what were ourrepercussions with the federal
government based on the factthat we were dealing with
federal funding, and at thattime, they would threaten to
withhold funding and that typeof stuff. So when the boat went
down, as I as I was going andthey came to me, for me to give
(04:31):
my vote, I said, a hypocritical.
Yes. That's what went into therecord. So immediately, the
reporter called me the next day,which is interesting because
she's now the mayor, that samereporter is now the mayor. Oh,
wow. And she says, Why did yousay a hypocritical? Yes. And I
tell them because I think we area nation of hypocrites. We're
(04:54):
okay with alcohol and we're okaywith it. Masuda for drugs. But
we have a problem with theplant. And then she said, Well,
why did you vote that way? Andthey said, because at the end of
the day, my responsibility is tomy community as a whole. And
right now, I don't know how mydecision will affect the federal
funding, which is very importantto us right now. And that was
(05:17):
the end of it. story wasn't tooexciting, I guess it died.
Sorry, fast forward 2015. I'mnow working for Assemblymember
Anthony runden, who's now theSpeaker of the California State
Assembly. Okay. And at thatpoint, Mr. Reggie Jones Sawyer
(05:38):
was working on a bill that wasto combine the Murcia and Alma
rules. And I kind of I guess,became the point person in the
office, it was interesting to mebeing that I was a consumer,
again, a secret consumer at thetime. And, you know, I started
looking into it, and then all ofa sudden prop 64 came up. At
(06:03):
that point, I knew that prop 64made more sense than the bill
that Assemblymember Reggie johnSawyer was working on. And all
the focus kind of became on Prop64. But as that was happening, I
realized this is an economicopportunity for my city. And
(06:25):
this is an opportunity for me tocome out. And be honest about my
consumption. And the reasonswhy. Now by this time, I had
discovered a tumor on mythyroid. On October 4 2016, I
had half my thyroid removed andthe tumor. And all this was, as
(06:47):
I was already working on anordinance to make cannabis
manufacturing, distribution,cultivation and delivery legal
in the city of Lynwood. Andwhenever anyone wanted to attack
me about my consumption up, youdon't get to tell me what I get
(07:11):
to heal myself with or relievemy pain from people will shut
up, it was kind of hard to saysomething with a big old scar
across my neck. And a couple ofpeople did challenge me there
was some attempts to recall me.
And I did not care. And I wouldcall people out. And I would
(07:32):
say, you know what, yes, I smokemarijuana. But you're a drunk.
Remember the other day we weretaking shots. So it's kind of
mean about it. This does meanthat they were I kind of
reciprocated the energy, but itwas more of like, you know what,
I'm not going to be ashamed.
This is what I'm doing. At onepoint, I faced almost 10 years
in life. I'm in the city, thisis an economic opportunity.
(07:55):
black and brown people havesuffered the justice system, the
prohibition of this plant, andwe should have the right to now
make money off of it legally.
And people are going to like it,and people are not going to like
it. I choose not to care at themoment. Yeah.
Ronjini Joshua (08:13):
I like how you say at the moment, because
right? industry, everything ischanging. So much different
narratives are coming up all thetime. Going back to just when
you got into politics, so howdid you actually get into
politics overall? Because Imean, I don't know about your
background, but what, what wasthe entry point into that?
Aide Castro (08:34):
So weird. So my cousin at the time that back in
1999, he decided to run for citycouncil, okay, I had to
volunteer, and then he lost. Andthen in 2001, again, he read.
And again, I had to volunteer,you know how it is your proceeds
(08:55):
and make phone banks and allthat. It was out of obligation.
And but this time he actuallywas. And he appointed me to my
first commission, which wascommunity block grants and
development. And it's basicallyallocating funds to the
nonprofit organizations and someof the departments live in city
(09:18):
and this is basically federalfunding and it's also used for
housing for affordable housing,which at the time, being that I
do have a background in realestate was was super exciting to
me, I really, truly believe ineveryone needs to own their
home. While everybody's talkingabout you know, rent control.
(09:38):
I'm thinking why are we teachingpeople about rent control? Why
aren't we teaching them how toget into a home, how to become
homeowners and really understandwhat generational wealth can be
through homeownership and itstarted with that so I also have
an affinity for affordablehousing and I started working on
that in the in the city. helpingpeople understand how the first
(10:02):
time homebuyers assistanceprogram worked. And, you know,
the city was kind of doingthings backwards. They were
approving a bunch of people forthe loans. But most of those
people were not actuallyqualifying for actual bank loan.
So it was just causing a badclause. Nobody was really
benefiting from the program. AndI was able to influence for that
(10:25):
to change. And we were able todo amazing, I think, over 150
projects with Habitat forHumanity, which is also is an
amazing program for gettingpeople into home. So that's kind
of where it started. I ended upin 2007, recalling four council
(10:47):
members and one shot has neverbeen done in the nation. One of
those was my cousin. Oh
Ronjini Joshua (10:53):
my goodness.
Aide Castro (10:56):
I own my political career to him, may he rest in
peace. He did passive kadasterbut he wasn't behaving back
then. And he had they haddecided at that time, it was a
total land banking scheme thatthey were going to build a
football stadium in Lynwood,Lynwood is only 4.9 square
(11:17):
miles. Yeah, it's not very big100 homes to schools and like
200 businesses. And I understandreal estate very well say you
can't do that. Those are landbanking scheme. And they're like
they don't and I was like, No, Iknow you can't do this. Because
before you can tear down aschool, you have to rebuild it
within 1000 feet. And I alsowanted to do eminent domain, a
(11:39):
bunch of homes to build a schoolso that you could tear this down
for a stadium. I was like, Oh,no. And yeah, kind of became a
big thing. And that's how Iended up on the Lynwood City
Council.
Ronjini Joshua (11:51):
Got it? Okay, that's a very windy road.
They're very dramatic hasnothing to do. Very dramatic.
That's so funny. So then whendid you start? When did you
start kind of advocating for itin with within the government
and within, you know, the cityof Lynwood and obviously county
(12:11):
of La we immediately
Aide Castro (12:13):
as soon as I decided that I needed to do it
in my city I started immediatelyI would say around the summer of
2015 because I yeah, I latesummer and then I became more
open and more aggressive in 2016and it just kind of progressed
from there this you know, it'sfunny because some of those same
(12:37):
residents that were upset at meand signed a recall against me
after talking to me I would givethem product and in the Latino
community a lot of people sufferof arthritis and a lot of aches
and pains and we're used toseeing that bottle of alcohol
with you know, marijuana in itin our homes, it was just never
(13:01):
meant for consumption. So Istarted showing them how the
industry was not just about abunch of people you know,
smoking and that smell that theywere concerned about. I started
giving them the bomb the oilsand explaining to them the
endocannabinoid system within usand how we activate our
(13:25):
receptors and you know, peopleask questions about THC, CBD,
what's the difference? And Iwould always try to tell them,
think about CBD as ibuprofen andtake a think about THC and bike
it and it does know how strongis your pain? Which one do you
need? You know, and sometimesyou need a combination of both
men and little by little thosesame people, interestingly
(13:49):
enough, now will call me andsay, Hey, what do you recommend
for this? Is this weird?
Ronjini Joshua (13:56):
Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that's one of the
things that we've noticed withthis podcast is that their lack
of education is like a bigfactor in all the stigma that's
built around it now in the cityof Lynwood. How much did that
impact your time in office? Andjust what you decided to do with
your time, was that a majorityof kind of your cause, or what
(14:16):
were the other kind of issuesthat you dealt with around
cannabis and obviously havingdispensaries in the area and
things like that.
Aide Castro (14:25):
So it didn't really do much for for my career,
because one of the first thingsI focused on when I came into
office was to establish termlimits. I truly believe in term
limits. I felt like a lot of theprior corruption going on in our
city was due to not having termlimits. I feel if our Congress
(14:47):
and Senate had term limits, wewouldn't be dealing with a lot
of the asinine politics thatwe're dealing with at the
moment. So I I did not have aplan to be a career politician.
When I came into losses. So itwas kind of I gave myself that
time limit, I ended up serving13 years because we had one year
(15:09):
added at the end when the stateof California consolidated
elections to coincide with thecounty and the state. So it made
things a little bit moreaffordable for us. So for those
reasons, it I it was neverabout, like, oh, let me make
sure I get reelected type ofthing. And my causes were very
(15:29):
much based on affordablehousing, that was a lot of my
focus. A lot of my focus wasalso on infrastructure repair,
it's, I am barely starting tosee the fruits of our labors.
The new council that came in isdoing an amazing job, you know,
(15:51):
actually bringing those projectsto fruition so I'm very happy
about that. The other thing thatI was also very focused on was
getting more green space to thecommunity. So we were able to
build a whole new brand newpark, several pocket parks and
just bringing in more activelifestyle type of activities. We
(16:15):
took a strip along the 105freeway that was just ugly and
blighted and we made it into atrail Park and you know it has
community gardens a little dogpark so it's it's more about
walk walking and ability activeyeah little exercise stations
every so often. Little markersof how much you've walked or
(16:37):
jogged you know those littlethings. Then the other effort is
on special needs it in, when Ifirst got elected, coming off
the Dyess, a couple of womenapproached me and said, Hey, you
guys do all these things, torecognize, you know, different
(16:58):
parts of the community. But youguys always leave the special
needs community out. And it wasjust one of those like, yeah,
you're right, what do you wantme to do about it? And they were
like, let at least have sometype of like recognition
luncheon and be inclusive ofthose. Yeah. And I was like,
(17:19):
Okay, well, I at that time, wehad a discretionary fund and I
say, you know what, okay, let mesee what I can do. We could use
Bateman Hall, which was ourcommunity hall, I'll get a
$2,000 budget and we willfundraise for the rest of it.
And we declared the last Sundayof every February, special needs
recognition and awareness day.
And from that the schooldistrict kinda took it upon it
(17:42):
and made it a bigger thing fortwo weeks to make young children
aware and inclusive of thecommunity. We brought sports
programs that would be inclusiveto the special needs. We
included a physical therapychair in our public pool that's
free of charge for people whoneed that physical therapy
(18:02):
aspect. And just again, kind ofrefocus our efforts of being
inclusive. Now mind you that Igot elected in 2007. Fast
forward 2012 my twins are born.
Fast forward to 2015 and theywere diagnosed with autism.
(18:25):
Okay, so I totally also feelthat somehow or another working
with all these special needsparents, I was being prepared,
and thank God because I knew mygirls, there was something wrong
when they were nine months, thepediatrician thought I was
crazy. I had to negotiate withhim to send me to the
(18:46):
developmental specialist, whichhe finally did at a year and a
half, but they couldn't legallydiagnose him until there were
three. Last but not least, myother special project was
bringing support and mentorshipto teen parents. I was a teen
mom, I had my first child twomonths before. Yep, two or two
(19:06):
months before my 17th birthday.
And I wanted to let other youngparents know that, okay, you got
pregnant, and now you have achild, all your dreams going
you're on the backburner, butthere's a way to balance setting
you still have to takeresponsibility. And you know,
these are the things that youneed to do to get ahead on life.
(19:29):
This is not an excuse to fail.
This is not an excuse to say mylife is over. I had to you know,
receive Social Services. At onepoint, I did it, I took
advantage of every word resourcethey gave me and look at where I
am now. So you guys have noexcuse. and Canada this was
(19:50):
really towards the end. It wasjust one of those things of Prop
64 rights. I mean, I'm workingfor Mr. rendom and all the right
places to make it happen.
Ronjini Joshua (20:00):
But yeah, well, how has that affected some of
the other stuff that you'veworked on? I it sounds like you
are doing some more work in thecannabis space and you've had
some investments in that area aswell. Like how has your time
with the city and thenobviously, in government in
general, affected how you weremaking decisions in the cannabis
(20:20):
space and what you know, in thatspace?
Aide Castro (20:24):
I guess because a tourist, it was all towards the
end of my career. And were parttime elected officials were not
full time, okay, we, we all haveto have what we call real jobs.
My pay was $975 a month, thatwas my stipend. And I received
250 for media allowance, and 250for car allowance. So yeah, we
(20:46):
have to have real jobs. It'svery much a labor of love when
you observe a small community.
Yes, yes. Yeah. So it wasalready like natural for me not
to be you know, we have a citymanager, as a council, we give
direction, it's up to the citymanager to implement that
policy. My job was to createpolicy. And if anything,
(21:07):
everything I learned inpolitics, is what has allowed me
to be successful now, becausewhat this industry now needs
more than ever, is anunderstanding of, you know,
they're going from thetraditional market to the now
compliant market. They don'tunderstand bureaucracy, they
don't understand politics. Andright now, they don't care. And
(21:30):
right now, I feel like it's anopportunity for me to come in
and help those who want to workwith me to understand what it is
that they need to do thattobacco and alcohol industry is
not as powerful and influentialas it is, because they don't get
involved in politics, right? Sohopefully, the cannabis industry
(21:50):
gets it together and startsholding my fellow politicians
accountable.
Ronjini Joshua (21:56):
Yeah. So what do you what do you see as the
biggest challenges right now,for people to be addressing?
Aide Castro (22:02):
I think the biggest challenge is the over regulation
and over taxation, I think thatthe legislature has really lost
track of what the purpose ofthis is, and what a revenue
maker it can be. If they were tostreamline things I understand
bureaucracy is important. Iunderstand quality control is
(22:23):
important. But they're overdoingit. I mean, people are looking
by the time you go from seed tosale, you're like at 27%,
taxation, and all that's beingpassed over to the customer. And
then you wonder why thetraditional market is still
thriving is this is thisridiculous, and I just feel that
(22:46):
the only way things are gonnachange if if the cannabis
industry stopped speaking, whatlike what I call with a trap
mentality, you're not trappinganymore, get over it, your
business personnel, you're notjust a small business, you're
trying to create a whole entity,you're trying to create brands,
(23:07):
you're you're trying to begroundbreaking in this industry,
you don't do that with a trapmentality thinking that, oh, let
me keep all these secrets tomyself. There is no secret. Once
you go into the public world,guess what? All those slps that
you think are special guestswith their nonpublic
information, the minute you filethem with a city or, or a state
(23:27):
entity. So I think the cannabisindustry, it really, really,
really needs to learn whatpolitics is and start getting
involved the right way that Ithink that's important. If not
we're going to continue toground the way we've been doing.
It's it's, it's good for thosepeople that have you know, that
(23:50):
were able to save a lot of moneyand be ready. But even a lot of
those people are strugglingbecause you run out of cash. I
mean, look at the people thatapplied in the city of Los
Angeles. That would thateverybody's still waiting. Yeah,
yeah. I mean, just to get aninvoice.
Ronjini Joshua (24:09):
As simple as that. That's a that's a good
point. How do you Excuse me? Howdo you? How do you suggest that,
you know, to avoid furtherpenetration in the black market?
Like, I think that's theproblem. There's a lot of lack
of education or like a lot oflack of bridges between the
black market and the regularmarket, like what are the steps
(24:32):
that need to be taken so thatpeople don't feel like oh, I
still have to do black marketsales. Because it's also it's
still like also contributing tothat stigma, too, right. It's
that there's so many issues thatkind of revolve around that
single thing. Yeah,
Aide Castro (24:49):
I mean, it is. It's a lot of variables included, but
at the end of the day, thelegislature needs to take a look
at it from the state.
perspective, they need tostreamline it when they allowed
it to be completely controlledat the local level. They they
opened it up for a lot ofimproprieties to say the least.
(25:12):
I mean, you're in. A lot ofthese cities are creating social
equity programs requiring with51% ownership. A lot of these
build outs can be anywhere fromfive to $20 million. Yeah. So
I'm the investor, I get to givethat much money. And I got to
get 51% control to someone whoknows absolutely nothing about
(25:35):
running a business that theyknow how to grow. Yeah, I mean,
come on, people. Come on. It'sthat type of what I call dog and
pony legislation that createsproblems and sets people up for
corruption, right? It's thatsimple. It should be treated
like I get it. You know, mostcities they can limit and say I
(25:59):
only wanted this many. InLynwood, we were strategic, it
was new. So we said, okay, wewant the brewery and the
distillery just not the liquorstore in every corner, right, I
was being very politicallystrategic at the time, I knew I
could push to my residents andfor them to approve, allowing
for cultivation, manufacturingand distribution, that if I
(26:23):
said, Oh, a dispensary in the inyour corner, all hell is gonna
break loose. But everything elseI could say blue collar jobs,
you know, when labor peaceagreements are the the field
good quotes, right? And my hopeswas like a, once I get this
pass, hopefully my communitywill understand it was no big
deal, they'll get over it. Andthen we'll do dispensary's. It
(26:45):
hasn't happened. But I'm stillpraying that my colleagues will
get their act together and makeit happen one day. But at the
end of the day, it's said, andI'm explaining this to you as a
politician. Yeah, those are thegames you have to play sometimes
to create change. With me, Ibrought it to my city I created,
you know, chaos, but I hadprepared myself emotionally
(27:09):
change versus ridiculed. Second,violently opposed, third
accepted as self evident, theyreally killed the hell out of
me. And they tried to recall me,when they couldn't recall me,
they attacked me, I was on thefront page of the LA Times all
of the above. When that didn'twork, and I still left with my
head held high, they accepted itas self evident. I was part of
(27:29):
change. And I'm very proud ofthat.
Ronjini Joshua (27:33):
No, that's, that's really amazing. I think
that's a good note for peoplethat want to get in the space to
think of it is a challengingplace to raise your voice. What
is your recommendation forpeople who might be listening or
brands that might be enteringthe market, that are going to
have to think a little bitbigger than just, oh, I'm gonna
go in here and try to open up ashop? Like, I mean, it's
(27:56):
obviously much more complicatedthan that. What are the
suggestions you can give to someof these dispensaries and brands
that are getting into the spacein the LA County? How they
should get involved?
Aide Castro (28:12):
There's so many different ways. But more
importantly, first, assess yourvalue, and what skills do you
bring to the table? Once you'veidentified that, figure out the
Nexus into the industry, and Isay, assess your skills, because
you didn't have to be a groweror a manufacturer or a
(28:32):
distributor, I'm sure you'vebeen in some type of job that is
very much needed in theindustry. For example, human
resources, these people need tounderstand labor laws, using
trapping on more people, let merepeat that you ain't trapping
no more, violate labor laws,make sure people take their
breaks allowances, those typesof things. And, you know, so if
(28:55):
you have experience in HR, youneed to, you know, you know, put
your resume out there. And ifyou're a brand or a company and
you're listening to this, donot, do not, do not skip out on
your insurances and humanresource and legal services, why
(29:17):
you need workers comp, you haveto, it's not an option. It's
mandatory. Yes, it's mandatory.
I'm sorry, get over it. That'sjust the reality, your property
liability, you need that notjust general liability, property
liability, protect yourself withinsurance at all times. Make
sure you have a good HR personthat's going to keep you
(29:39):
compliant with labor laws. Mostof the companies that are going
down right now are going downbecause attorneys are targeting
them because they know you guysare not keeping good records.
You need to keep good records,your timesheets, make sure
people are taking breaks fromlunches. If not expect the class
action lawsuit. It's called mewith deaf people. Make sure you
Have a good HR person, and legallegal services. Yeah. Oh, just
(30:02):
thank you, you know, at the endof the day, we can all read, we
can all interpret. But no, getyourself a professional. And
understand not just one type ofattorney, make sure that you're
dealing with an attorney who canrefer you to offer you different
types of services, because youwill need Labor Law Attorneys,
(30:24):
Real Estate Attorneys, so manydifferent things, not just one
thing, and a lot of the peoplein the industry are using
criminal attorneys. Criminalattorneys don't work when
dealing with municipalities. Wedon't like them. If anything,
they piss us off, and makes usnot want to deal with you.
(30:46):
Because they think they're goingto come in and be aggressive and
say, No, this is you're notdefending anything. This is the
policy, these are the rules,this is what you need to follow.
So if if any advice, at leaststick to those things, if you
can afford those things, thenyou probably don't belong at the
business at the moment. Andwhat's probably best is that you
(31:08):
figure out how you cancollectively work with somebody
who maybe does have a license,but doesn't have the expertise,
and maybe put together some typeof operational agreement. And
that's where you can definitelybring value to the table, you
might not have money, but youknow, you have the know how and
that has value put yourself outthere. I call it the two foot
(31:30):
rule. If you're within two footfrom me, you're going to know
exactly what I do, and how toget ahold of me, you have to
market yourself at the end ofthe day. Think of yourself as
the brand. What do you bring?
Why, though? Why does anybodywant to do business with you?
The same way you would marketyour brand? Why does anybody
want to buy your brand? Treatyourself the same way?
Ronjini Joshua (31:52):
Yeah, I know that these are great insights, I
think one of the things that youtouched on that I think is
really critical to mention isjust the cost, the amount, the
cost of doing business in thisspace and understanding that
cost. And like you said, as aninvestor, why are you going to
invest in a company that you youhave somebody that has 51%
(32:14):
ownership? Who doesn't know whatthey're doing? So when and I and
I've talked to a lot of peoplewho are looking for investors
and people that are looking toget started, what about their
like, as an investor? What doyou think are some of the kind
of, I guess, tips of thinking oflike how to how to collaborate,
because I, I like that youmentioned like, you don't have
(32:36):
to do this alone, maybe you canpartner up with someone and
create an operational agreement,like there's a lot of ways to
navigate getting into theindustry, you don't have to
just, you know, it doesn't, ifyou go off solo, you're probably
not going to fly. So what do youthink are some tips on like, you
know, finding those partners andbeing able to create a
collaboration between otherpeople.
Aide Castro (32:58):
There's, there's a lot of organizations out there
that are looking to form thosetypes of type of collectives, as
much as they criticize LA, thereare some social equity people
that were smart enough, and wereable to put those efforts
together. And lumbee justcreating a really good social
(33:20):
equity program. Now, that alsohas someone within city hall
kind of hand holding theindividuals through the process.
And already like the I believeit's like $440,000 in grant
funding that they give them.
That is true seed money. And ifit's a little bit easier to come
to an investor and say, Look,I'm going to, this is how much I
(33:40):
bring to the table, this isgoing to get my plans approved,
the city is going to approve mypermits and everything, I just
need you to fund theconstruction and you owe if you
own the building, you know wecreate a partnership because you
own the building, you're goingto the tenant improvements are
not just going to benefit methey're going to benefit you
because now your building isworth a lot more. So there's
ways of doing it. It's just Iguess at the end of the day, we
(34:04):
all just have to have a trueunderstanding of what we bring
to the table. Yeah, and whatwhat are our strengths and what
are our limitations and try tofind other like minded people,
but go to those cities that areoffering those social equity
programs, attend the workshops,talk to the what I call the
movers and shakers of the areaand but also be prepared to
(34:28):
navigate a lot of bureaucracy inlumbees surprisingly it's not
been bureaucratic. What I'veseen has been very impressive to
say the least I've been proud ofthem in this social equity
aspect. Hopefully la gets theiract together now they can't
blame COVID anymore. They shouldwe opened but they're still
behind is not even funny, youknow? And it's like they're
(34:53):
purposely hurting the cannabisindustry. And the political will
is Not there to fix it, they're,you know, if they really wanted
to enforce anything they wouldenforce on the what we already
know are the non compliantdispensary's and be supportive
of the ones that are payingtheir taxes. But unfortunately,
(35:13):
that's not what's happening, youknow. And then there's cities
that want to be supportive ofthe cannabis industry, but
simply don't have the manpowerfrom within. And you know,
you're building and safetydepartments also don't have a
clear understanding of thecannabis industry. So a lot of
(35:33):
new things that, you know, nowthe fire departments also become
very bureaucratic. And youliterally have to fight with
municipalities to hold the firedepartment accountable. They're
like, Oh, it's the firedepartment, we can do anything.
You can say that to a regularperson on the former elected,
and let me tell you, you have acontractual agreement with them.
(35:54):
And there's a timeline that theymust follow. hold them
accountable to that timeline, itcan still take you six to nine
months. But if you at least holdthem accountable to that
timeline, you have a betteridea, or, hey, Fire Department,
give us a checklist. So nowfinally, the fire department has
provided checklists, at least inLA County. But I mean, they have
not been shy about making itclear that they're purposely
(36:17):
being non friendly to thecannabis industry. So that type
of bureaucracy and bad policymaking is what I feel is really
hurting the industry here in thestate of California.
Ronjini Joshua (36:30):
Yeah, know that.
I think not just here. I'veheard that in other states as
well. I mean, all these littlenooks and crannies, but I think
questioning what what kind ofresources you have is kind of
the main way for people to geteducated and make sure that
they're doing the most that theycan. What are you what are you
doing right now in in cannabis.
(36:50):
And you know, now that you areso happily retired, I'm sure
from the city, but what are youwhat are you doing now?
Aide Castro (36:59):
So I've actually had a consulting firm since
2013. Started out withgovernment affairs and campaign
work. So after I finished theordinance in the city of
Lynwood, I went with weedmaps.
And I basically they hired me togo into the different cities and
help them create their ordinancein regards to cannabis. So I am
(37:20):
proud to say that all the littlecities around us in the
southeast are replicas of myordinance, I would say so far,
Montebello has probably elevatedit to its level is what I say.
Don't tell my my colleagues Isaid, but honestly, but honestly
(37:40):
might not alone, really enhancedit, they did a really good job
with streamlining it, of course,we're never gonna be happy
enough, we're always going towant more and more. But I feel
like they did a really good joband did their best trying to be
friendly to the industry, butstill not to give the house away
(38:03):
and create revenue for theircity, which is important. So I
did that for nine months withweed maps. And then from there,
I kind of just took off on myown. I realized that I qualified
as a social equity partner andthe city of La went and found a,
I guess, partner, investorpartner, who was already well
(38:26):
establish and we were able toget a license. And right now I
actually does we're in theprocess of selling those to an
LA because doing business in LAis not friendly. We've been
waiting since last year but DCRwon't process our invoice. So
that's what's going on with thatSee, I suffer along with
(38:48):
everyone else. And our focus hasbeen in the city of commerce and
Montebello, building outfacilities and basically I
solely focus on consulting formy business partners. I also
serve as their general managerfor their different facilities
and also working on my personalbrands. I have a as you know my
(39:11):
name is Ivan but it's spelled AId e and when most people see it,
they see aid. So I am working onCBD aid. That's my name. And
then the other product is inthat's the CBD is going to be
(39:32):
your your normal tincture, CBDnon psychoactive product. Then
we're focusing on blendedcultures branded cultures is
literally what you hear a blendof cultures of how we use
cannabis differently. All ourcultures somehow or another have
some medicinal use withcannabis. And when you blended
(39:54):
with the different herbs anddifferent areas is just a way
Wonderful products. My husbanddeveloped a really good formula.
It's a bomb. He has he putslavender and then of course the
full blown cannabis because hewants it to have everything in
it. Lemon Grass, I forgot thathe puts in it. But it's an
(40:19):
amazing, amazing bomb. It reallynumbs the pain immediately. And
it's also great for scars. Iwill try to get close, but I
don't have the scar you canbarely see and
Ronjini Joshua (40:33):
yet Nope.
Aide Castro (40:36):
And I used a lot of it on there. I think all the
natural, you know oils that heputs on it. But that's blended
cultures and I grew up having anaffinity for different cultures
and just learning. It's a I'mnot a religious person, but I
have a lot of different Biblesbecause you have your Catholics
(40:59):
and I've even been gifted aQuran. I love learning about
different cultures. So that'swhere blended cultures kind of
came from, okay. And there'scandor collections, which was
started by my business partnerand an amazing female who's his
business partner. We call herTrinity. So refriger is Trinity.
(41:25):
and Canada collections is full,full flower cannabis, you know,
there's vapes. There's flour,but if I refer to her as a her,
it's a she she's, she's, she's,she's a businesswoman. She wears
power suits, and she's afabulous when I say Plexus
(41:48):
pearls, you know, but she's,she's, she's me. She's Trinity.
She, she's not that pothead thatpeople have in my head. She's
empowering. But she doesn't likea glass of wine. She wants a
good. She wants to relax. Andthat's what category collections
(42:10):
is, you know, so we'll go allthe way working on
Ronjini Joshua (42:13):
Yeah, we'll put all the links in the show notes
so that people can check it outand explore. Also the Instagram
links if you guys have those.
We'll add those in there aswell. And then are you still
consulting is what we used tohave a lot of little toes dipped
in a lot of different buckets.
Aide Castro (42:29):
I guess I am consultant but mainly
specifically for my partner. Heright now I've been focused a
lot on his store. It's la Kush.
We're at the before 70 ValleyBoulevard in Los Angeles right
off the 710 By the way, this iswhat I've been enjoying.
Ronjini Joshua (42:47):
Oh, nice. Oh, okay.
Aide Castro (42:52):
And, yeah, just kind of learning that part of
the business. He's done a greatjob mentoring me. learning that
side of the business. I bringthe politics, the policies and
other boring stuff, but he'steaching me the real you know,
business of it. He's going tocelebrate the teen years as a
(43:13):
senior anniversary of being inbusiness next year, May. I think
I may 12, I believe of nextyear, he's celebrating 15 years
in business, and Trinity hasdone some amazing work for them.
If you're familiar with the noCEO, no deal, slogan in the
cannabis industry, it's actuallyfrom Trinity. She was the one
(43:34):
who started that. And it's kindof amazing to see that it got
all the way to the statelegislature where now it's part
of the requirements of you know,having a field and making sure
that it's labeled properly sothat you know, you're getting
clean meds. So a lot of my focushas been on that. I do have
other clients that I consult foranother amazing female owned
(43:58):
business. Omnia, and that'sowned by Claudia in great to be
able to help another female inthe industry and just kind of
consult for her in her business.
So I still do that. But rightnow more than anything I really
want to focus on on developingmy brands and doing this for me,
I've done a lot for everybodyelse. I want to do it for
(44:21):
myself. But I also want to focusmore on the advocacy aspect and
hopefully the industry iswilling to use me to advocate on
their behalf. It's not aboutmaking money for me when it
comes to the lobbying. It's weneed to do this we need to speak
up for ourselves as an industry.
We need to write this we need tomake sure that the feel good dog
(44:46):
and pony policy doesn't killthis industry. And the only way
we can do that is by sharingresources communicating and
changing the mentality.
Ronjini Joshua (44:58):
Yeah. Yeah, no, that's, that's amazing. Thank
you so much for your work yourhard work. And I think education
yeah is definitely like one ofthe key components of why, you
know, you're just mentioning atthe very beginning that, you
know, once you educated people,they kind of came around. So
that's definitely still very,very important and, and being a
champion is amazing. So wedefinitely appreciate everything
(45:22):
that you're doing.
Aide Castro (45:23):
Thank you.
Ronjini Joshua (45:24):
Well, thank you so much for joining us today.
Um, any any lasting comments,any lasting notes for anybody
who's listening.
Aide Castro (45:34):
Wow. It's a beautiful plant, let's fight for
it. Let's make sure that we getto enjoy it. And let's
understand that at the moment,we're still being discriminated
against. When you go out intopublic places. There's smoking
sections, that as cannabis,consumers still feel like we
(45:58):
can't hang out in that section.
Why can't we be treated the sameway? This This smells This is
that is our stuff. And at leastwe can hide our stuff.
Ronjini Joshua (46:06):
Yeah, that's true. That's very true. I'm
gonna I'm gonna have to agreewith you on that one. definitely
smells better than smoke. So,
Aide Castro (46:14):
right. So I mean, that's it. Just get involved
people pay attention to whoyou're voting for, and hold them
accountable to their promises.
At least make them say it outloud. Make, make sure that
you're asking the rightquestions. And, you know, yes,
we all say we hate politics.
Because politics is what runsthe world. We have to get
(46:37):
involved. policy is superimportant in every aspect of our
life. And if you don't dosomething about it, and just sit
and complain about it, we'rejust going to continue to
struggle. Yeah, so let's speakup. And I'm more than happy to
help you guys out and whatever Ican to advocate on behalf of the
industry.
Ronjini Joshua (46:57):
Awesome.
Awesome. So we'll have all ourideas, information in the show
notes. Click on those, you canalways contact us if you need
some more information from her.
But thank you, thank you somuch.
Aide Castro (47:08):
Thank you guys. You have a great day.
Ronjini Joshua (47:10):
Thank you to the green room podcast is brought to
life by green seed PR, acannabis green tech focus PR
agency, and a dedicatedproduction team of editors
mixers and show Booker's. A hugethank you to the vessel team for
providing their studio for ourrecordings. Don't forget to
subscribe and share the greenroom podcast with friends,
(47:31):
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Please leave us a review on yourfavorite podcast listening
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Would you like to be on theguest on the show or do you have
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Submit your guests at Greencpr.com slash the hyphen green
(47:54):
hyphen group. Thanks forlistening and be well
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com