July 15, 2026 • 29 mins
Rick Beard, Legal Marijuana Now party of Nebraska is a Govrnor Candidate. So many topics of discussion were brought to the studio.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now kicking off the political season with our with I
think our first candidate and uh ready to ready to
come in here and face the grueling interviewing of the
Chris Bakers Show. Rick Beard is with us. He is
the uh gubernatorial candidate for the Marijuana Now Party, and
(00:21):
I do think the slogans very catchy, very catchy, not red,
not blue, green, and sticky Governor Ricky? Did you come
up with that? I did? Oh, look at that, I did.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
We've got another hot one that Nebraskans deserve the legal
right to be as high as their taxes.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Ooh, that's a dog one. That's a pretty dog on
good one. Right there. Well, Rick, welcome to the Chris
Baker Show. I wanted I want the audience to get
to know you, and I will tell you right now,
nobody thinks you're gonna win. You know, do you think
you're gonna win? Well, obviously you have to uh huh uh.
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Obviously the chances are of a third party winning are
slim ben slim in previous years. But we polled at
twelve percent this year to the primaries, which was higher
than any other candidate for governor. For her third party candidate,
for governor in the country, and higher than any third
party gubernatorial candidate since nineteen oh five.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Here.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Wow, So we've got some real momentum. And you never know,
you never know, and if there's any year that it
could happen, this might be the year, just because of
the mood out there.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Really a lot of Yeah. Well, I would say that
people are very disgusted with both political parties right now,
There's no doubt about that. So have you ever run
for any office before? No? I have none, not at all. No.
And have you ever thought about it entertained it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Absolutely I have. I just never got around to it
for one reason or another. But I've been really involved
in politics throughout the last twenty years or so, at least,
you know, in my own communities, and decided to get
into it finally instead of bitching about it.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Well, you see, the America's not built on quitters, right,
you know, America's built on innovators. So you know, you
just never know. So let's go a little bit, go
through a little bit about just who you are. You start, well,
you came to Omaha, you were born in seventy two.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Right, sixty eight, sixty eight, yep, And then I got
here in nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Oh. Wow, it's a pretty young age to just set
out on your own to move to move around. Yeah. Anyway,
so you grew up locally, went to Burkhigh School and
built a pretty cool life. You're like a wine expert guy, yep.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I've been involved with wine since I was twenty one
years old, a couple different businesses in Omaha, the winery
up by West Roads and then the Omaha Wine Company.
I founded that company, and then nineteen ninety seven I
moved to Napa Valley, where I wound up buying a
wine shop out there and ran that for twenty years,
and wound up making wine and having a brand that
(02:58):
was sold in northern California around the country and Michelin
Star restaurants and did the whole wine and food thing
for a long time.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Wow. And then you came back here. Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And what brought you back here? My mom is ninety
years old. Yeah, and you know, California's pretty expensive. We
bought a house in Benson and have a nice little
place and I get to spend a lot of nice
time with my mom and that's awesome, and help her.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Out a little bit. As she needs a little bit
of help but not too much. Keep her rolling. That's good. Well,
you know, that's really See, these are the kind of
characteristics you want to find out about people, right, people
that do stuff not like because a lot of people
in the political world they just kind of their whole
resume is I was, I'm in the political world. You know.
They work on some campaigns, run in some you know,
(03:46):
elections here and there, serve some offices and it's all
kind of it's just it's like just wash rents repeat
with a lot of people in the uh body politic
as they say. So, uh, when you were living in
the Napa Valley, was it as insane out there as
(04:06):
it seems to be now? Or do you even think
it is insane out there?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
I mean, it depends on what the definition of that is.
You know, California is a huge state, and there are
maybe pockets of what people would call insanity, and then
there's quite mellow places and it's a you know, there's
many countries within that one state. Yeah, so there, you know,
there are the prices are very expensive, but honestly, if
(04:32):
you look at it, Nebraska's property taxes are actually a
little bit higher than California property taxes.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Shit, yeah, we don't.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Even boom know that fired I about that now. Now
now we've got you know, California problems.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
So if you're able to be elected governor of the
great state of Nebraska, what are your biggest issues?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Basically affordability and property taxes as number one on the
list for everybody. And we also want to put talk
about maybe putting a moratorium and pause on data centers
and looking at that. And I want to get money
out of politics and run a run the Montana Plan
or do you know about the Montana Plan?
Speaker 1 (05:15):
You get familiar with the Montana Plan.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
It's actual legislation that can keep money out of our
politics and from affecting our elections. It takes away the
rights for a corporation to give money to politics into elections.
As a state grants corporation rates, state also takes the
(05:39):
right can take the rights away. So it's basically turning sense.
A corporation isn't a person. It's taking away that right
from them.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Well, and I remember when this was litigated and the
people are saying, well, a corporation is not a person,
but a corporation's made up of persons and persons own it.
You know. I'm I always wonder, how do you like
when people talk about getting money out of politics? What
is it about getting money out of politics that you're
(06:09):
trying to get out to get out of politics?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Well, if you take a campaign, let's just look at
like Denise Palace campaign, it's an Omaha campaign for Congress.
We saw over five million dollars come into the primaries
just out of example. For an example, the Thomas Massey
election in Kentucky, we saw three hundred million come in.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
So we just have.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Distorted too much funding coming in that's not coming from people,
that's coming from corporations, from from packs, from private interest groups,
special donors. I just think it would even the playing
field so that normal people that aren't career politicians with
connections to giant donors and packs and special interests can run.
(07:01):
There's actual legislation that is going through. Hawaii just passed
a bill recently, basically a Montana Plan like bill, and
the Montana Plan is on the ballot for this fall
and their citizens are going to be voting for it.
And actually their former Republican governor spearheaded this effort.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I find this fascinating because I always I look at
all of this as just free speech, you know, I
look at it as free speech. But you know, that's fine.
So if what about the whole weed thing? So you're
you're I find it funny that that you're in the
Legal Marijuana Now party and when I ask what your
(07:43):
priorities are, you named a bunch of stuff. You didn't
say anything about marijuana.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Well, obviously, you know, with the that is a main
priority of our party, and I wanted to make sure
that people know that our campaign isn't a single issue campaign,
so these other things really take large priority. But to
accomplish my goals with cannabis in Nebraska and to get
it as a money making business for Nebraska, we need
(08:10):
to get the money out of politics, because I feel
that there's probably some lobby money that's keeping our senators
from voting for it to make it work, when seventy
one percent of our citizens voted for it. So right,
it's distorted. Well, the will of the people is being
wildly distorted here, and you know, and I'm just assuming
(08:31):
that they're getting paid to do it and not doing
it for kicks.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
So all right, we'll take a quick break, We're going
to come back and I want to talk to you
a little bit about the way that Nebraska, like any state,
gets involved in weed, they screw it up. I mean seriously.
So we'll get into that. It's a Chris Baker radio
program and we're talking with Rick Beard. He's the gubernatorial
(08:54):
candidate for from the What Legal Marijuana Now? Party here
on the Chris Baker Radio and already you could see
he's deeper than just weed. So that's a good thing
Chris Baker's show. Rick Beard is with us, a gubernatorial
candidate with the Legalized Marijuana Now Party. And something interesting,
(09:16):
if you were to be elected governor, you would actually
be the first governor or elected official that I can
think of that would actually know something about what the
state is trying to do, which is their medical marijuana whatever,
whatever it is. It's goofy. But you're already a licensed grower.
(09:39):
Tell our audience exactly where you fit in all this.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
So I'm not currently licensed, but I used to be
licensed in California as a caregiver back in California's medical era,
and then my wife and I had a licensed cannabis
farm during the early years of California is recreational legislation.
So we've been involved in it. We've seen what works,
(10:05):
we've seen what doesn't work. We've seen some of the
major problems. We've seen counties and municipalities kick back against
it and then later come around to it because of
the money we saw in Oklahoma where they maybe gave out.
Then we also lived in Oklahoma for a short while
(10:25):
during their early years of medical legislation and implementation, and
we got to see some of the good things and
some of the bad things that happened. Most of it
was pretty darn good. In Oklahoma. We saw a ton
of people get off of opiates. Everybody down there when
we got there, everybody had a story about their relative
(10:46):
or somebody they knew dying of an opiate addiction. And
within that same year we were hearing all these stories
of people getting off of opiates and using cannabis as
an alternative.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
So, when you say you saw the good things in
the bad things as far as implementing the medical marijuana world,
what were the what were some of the good decisions
that they made that helped get this off the ground.
And then like here in Nebraska, I don't even know
if anybody there knows what they're even doing. Like, did
anybody ask you if you wanted to be on the
(11:19):
medical marijuana panel here in Nebraska?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
It's really it's really funny that you asked that, because
they just had a position open and I applied for
it and sent them a letter in a full application
with all my qualifications, and they pretty promptly sent me
back a respond saying that I wasn't the person for
the position after serious consideration, after.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Serious consideration of all of three minutes.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Really yeah, So I have my rejection letter as part
of my campaign packet, which was very nice, and it
does go back to that there is nobody.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
On the board.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
There is nobody in our legislature that has experience in cannabis.
Legislation has been around, it has been in another state
with it. So it's like having people create legislation for
something they have no experience in doesn't work, as we see.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
God, I watched this and because you know, they put
it out for a vote, everybody votes, they vote in
favor over seventy percent. And the thing that amazes me
is no one even thought about, well, shouldn't we have
a process in place so we can hit the ground
(12:40):
running because they didn't, and I don't think this thing
will ever be implemented.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I think that we're probably going to have to have
all new legislation unless we have a governor maybe that
just does executive order on the whole situation, which I'm
not really for sure if that would work, but it
probably is going to need another vote or another run
of legislation to make it happen because we've got this
one strangled.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
So how hard or how easy should it be to
do this? You've been through it before, so what would
speed this process up?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
A state government that actually wants it and is willing
to do it. Yeah, you know, we can run another
piece of legislation, but it's going to be two more
years before we can get that to get that one
to the ballot, because.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
You've got to argue and then you've got to a filibuster.
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
The problem The problem is here, we just have so
many people that are are you know, seventy one percent
of us want it, but ninety percent of our state
Senate doesn't want it. So it's just it's it's it's
nearly im possible what goes into it?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Right, So you've produced you've you've grown and produced for
a medical facility, and I'm I'm to me, it's all weed. Sure,
So so what kind of hoops does have to jump through?
For example, what I'm asking is, do you have a
specific potency you're supposed to reach and is there are
(14:10):
there are there stringent regulations on distribution, on on the manufacturing,
and just how hard is it to do?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
This excellent question, and that's also something for the Midwest.
It is difficult because the difference between medical cannabis and
recreational cannabis.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Like you said, it's all weed.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
So they are the same strains and the same types
of plants. The difference is with medical it is tested
and it's regulated, so there's very intense scrutinist testing on it.
The tests for pesticides and herbicides and pollen, u spores, mold, fungus,
(14:50):
things that would make that weed not medical cannabis. So
that's the main difference. So jumping through those hoops, you know,
and when we at our farm, there's also environmental impact studies.
You can have the Forestry Service come out and look
at your property, depending how close you are to a creek,
and that's in California now in the Midwest growing cannabis
(15:13):
with the humidity and the weather conditions here. To achieve
true medical cannabis that can be tested and past that
rigorous testing, it almost needs to be inside and out
of the elements and out of the humidity, the bugs,
the pesticides, herbicides, and like the other things I talked about.
So it's when we were growing in Oklahoma, those were
(15:35):
some of our biggest challenges and it was just it
was nearly impossible to produce medical grade cannabis outside.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
So it needs to be inside. In my opinion, it
should be. It would be easier.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And the other thing that when you grow at inside,
instead of having one harvest per year, we're talking about
five harvests per year when it's grown indoors effectively under
controlled environments.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Yeah, because I mean when they do it indoors, and
I don't know anything about medical but I do have
experience with rating cartel places sure, and they'll have like
these giant buildings where lights are on twenty four to
seven and that stuff is growing and getting harvested fast.
I mean this is a twenty four hour process, yep.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
And that's where the state could actually make some money
on this thing if it ever does get to a
point of implementation. You know where we have dispensaries and
where we have compassionate where we have a compassionate cannabis
program in this state similar to Oklahoma, where you don't
have to be dead in order to get the medical cannabis.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Is that it? You's got to be dead? Now, well
we can finally give you a prescription. It's just for
your funeral, though. You get all lit up before the
before they throw you in there. Yeah, before they before
they drop you in there. All right, Well this is
very interesting because you know, I don't think people really
know how this works, the medical marijuana industry or the
(17:01):
marijuana industry in general, because you just go south in
Missouri and they've got dispensaries all over the place, and
the you know, when I drive by there, I'll see
them and I always think to myself, is there like
a big truck that pulls up and you know, like
a like a gas station where a truck pulls up
and they just dump out different types of weed and
then the guy takes off and leaves. Again. It's really
(17:23):
interesting to me how that business can operate and how
they get around, you know, the federal laws too. That's
that's you know, like in Colorado, I've been in a
dispensary there and they've got armed guards all over the place.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Sure, And you know, now that's a good thing to
bring up right now because the new classification of cannabis
Schedule three and the protection of medical cannabis programs and
medical cannabis patients and doctors in most states is happening now,
(18:00):
so we are able to move forward, you know with this,
and there is actually you know, Trump just lightened, lightened,
lightened it up to Schedule three.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Mean old Trump, that mean old you know, that's.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
That's that's something that Democrats never did. No, you know,
I could have done that a long time ago.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
It didn't. You would have thought they would have done
it a long time ago, but you know they had
they were perving on other people. I think very happy
to have Rick Beard with us. He is a gubernatorial candidate,
UH for the marijuana legal legalized marijuana now party, Legal
marijuana Now. Okay, see, I'm i must have been smoking
because I'm losing my train of thought. But I'm glad
(18:45):
you made it in here. And I think everybody ought
to get there. You know, everybody should should be heard,
and I'm glad you're doing what you're doing. You know,
most people sit around and complain, and you don't if
you just tuned in. Rick. Rick's actually a very interesting
guy's uh been in the wine business for years. He
has also, and this is really key, he has worked
(19:08):
in the medical marijuana industry as a grower, producer kind
of guy, and has some really smart observations on how
Nebraska's messing this whole thing up. So here's what I
want to do. Now. Anybody who wants to run for
governor has to come on the show and we have
to ask them governor emergency questions. All right, So I
(19:30):
want you to I want to put yourself. I want
you to put yourself. You're now the governor. You're sitting
behind the giant desk. First of all, would you want
a very high back leather chair or would you want
kind of a lower medium leather chair. I'm lower media,
lower medium. See I would get the high back because
it just kind of gives you that throne thing working,
(19:50):
you know, but I appreciate I want more of a
chair for the people. See look at that, a chair
for the people. Ladies and gentlemen. I love that. All right.
So let's say you're the governor and COVID nine eighteen
breaks out. How as the governor would you respond to
the COVID nineteen insanity.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
I think that we would probably form a board amongst
I mean, there's already well boards amongst our hospitals and
our healthcare system here, and I think we'd have to
just start tracking it, start tracking it.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
What about mask mandates? Would you go the mask mandate route.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
We are in Nebraska. You know, I know that that's
probably a pretty unpopular option, but I would probably I
would probably push for it, Okay, I would pray push
for it and see how it goes, and see if
it impacts the cases, you know, before we completely write
(20:45):
it off. I'm not into making people wear masks because
I didn't like wearing masks, to be honest, but you.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Know I did so evidence based, evidence based, evidence based. Okay,
I'll go. I'll take that, even though I know you
really want me to wear a mask to see I
can see it in his eyes. All right. Now, let's
move down natural disaster, wildfires, floods, extreme weather. You're the governor.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
I think that it's important that we would utilize our
National Guard here in Nebraska. I think that also volunteer
fire departments, anybody that can volunteer, I think it would
be important to utilize them because more and more, as
some of our departments and fire departments and other administrations
(21:32):
get the funding cut to them, it's always falling back
on the people.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Another thing that I would do, and I would want
to talk.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
To our prison community about this before I would implement
it and get their feelings on it before assuming anything.
But in California, where we have had massive wildfires, we're
(22:00):
having massive wildfires here too. In California, they have programs
in the prison system there that if non violent offenders
want to join a training program to train them to
be fire fires firefighters in these situations, that they can
have their sentences reduced.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
So I wouldn't want to just assume this, but I
would want to talk to the You'd want to find
out what whiney lawyer would say, you couldn't do this.
I just want to honestly, I honestly want to respect
respect our citizens and respect our prisoners and not assume
anything since I'm not a part of it.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
You know, if I was in prison, I'd go put
out fires anyway. It's out of that.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
We saw something happen in California where the worst wildfires
happened during COVID, when they wouldn't let the prisoners out
to go and assist the fire departments. They do a
lot of frontline work, they cut lines, a lot of
shovel work, and a lot of on the groundwork and
spot spot fire fighting. So it's it's a it's a
(23:02):
powerful tool that if we can use that, use them
and help them and everybody help each other.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
I think that it could really benefit our state now
that we're a force multiplier.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
It is, and it's a you know, like I said,
it takes a lot of people to combat these situations.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
So all right, so that's what I would. Okay, let's say,
all right, let's say that something horrible happened and now
a bunch of maniacs are burning down the city during
peaceful protest. He doesn't sound very peaceful, no, but I
mean on CNN it's very peaceful. Just because buildings are
(23:45):
burning in the background, it's still very peaceful. So as
a governor, how would you deal with that kind of nonsense?
People blocking highways? You know, that kind of craziness, you know.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I think it's it would be important to be in
close contact with our law enforcement agency here.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
You know.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
I think that these protests are probably becoming They're more
common than they were when I was young, maybe maybe
even in the eighties nineties, But they are happening a
lot here. So to think that they're not going to happen,
and to push back so hard against them, I think
it creates, it agitates, and it creates more of a problem.
(24:24):
I don't think the blocking highways is necessarily the safest thing.
I don't really promote that. I think that, you know,
all kinds of safety needs to be respected, for the protesters,
for our systems, for people on the road. I think
it just takes a sensible I think it takes a
sensible and somewhat compassionate approach to it, because it is
freedom of speech. Even if we don't agree with it,
(24:45):
or even if they don't act like we would maybe
act or you or me or whoever the we or
us is, I think it is a form of free speech.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
So I think giving them giving people a safe place
to do it, that'd be one of those free speech
zone things, Or would you just say, look, you want
to protest, protest, but don't be breaking the law. You know.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
I think that that's reasonable, that we can't be breaking
the law, you know, and we can't be destroying things.
We can't be shooting people, harming people.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
We you know, I'm against shooting people. I really am too. Yeah,
I'm totally non shoot people don't deserve it. But let's
see what else. I don't have any more of those questions.
Let's see, I thought I had one more than a Nah,
I don't. So, so where do we go from here?
Tell me about your campaign and you got any events
(25:38):
coming up? Let me ask you this. I used to
work with Tommy Chong a lot, and no matter where
we were, there was always this pluth throat this long.
It was like a like a pilgrimage of pot guys
to come see Tommy Chong and they would all bring
him weed and they'd all, you know, they go like, Tommy,
this is really great, and they start laying out all
(25:58):
the lineage you have what this super special megaweed awesome
weed stuff. So if you were the governor from the
Legal Marijuana Now Party, would you first of all be
worried that people would just decide. Okay, now we've got
a governor in there, so we can all just burn
(26:19):
fatties anywhere we want. Would you change any state policy
as far as marijuana consumption.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Well, I mean I think that we we don't need
to be rolling down the streets smoking medical cannabis. You know,
in most states there's some regulation on it where you
can't be driving around. You need to be home, you
need to be indoors or at a place.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
I think there should be a concert exception, you know,
that's indoors and at a place.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Okay, well there you go, maybe outdoors at a place
maybe just you know, like I said, a lot of
it comes back to compact and it's a compassionate approach
and a realistic approach to it. You know, first of all,
we first of all, we've got to get the weed,
you know, go and it's it's all.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
There's plenty of that. I'm probat to go out here
in about ten minutes, find you some if you want. Dundee. Yeah, well,
you know, I really appreciate you coming in and and
you're obviously deeper than people are giving you credit for.
And boy, I think that you know, this Marijuana Board
(27:31):
ought to talk to you because you have really good
insight on that industry. And if we're going to have
it and people voted for it, then then quit jacking
around and let's get this thing going. But just because
people voted.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
For it, well, you know, we shouldn't have people that
lobby against it being the ones that developed the program,
which is really you know, one of the odds, what
you know, it just doesn't it's never it's never really
going to happen. So yeah, I think the first stuff
is either getting we need new people and the old debate.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
The thing that's frustrated me and the entire debate there's
really never been honest conversations, at least on a on
a government level or a legislative level. There's never honest conversations.
It's all, you know, hyperbolic insanity when in reality, look,
if people voted for this, then the state is obligated
to execute the law as voted by the people. And
(28:27):
that's the part about this that just irritates me. And
I can't believe they turned you down. I couldn't either.
I can't believe they turned you down. All right, well, uh,
I really appreciate we'll have to we'll have you on again, Ricky,
We're gonna, We're gonna, Yeah, we'll have you on again
because especially i'd love to talk to you about By
(28:48):
the way, Rick makes pae just so everybody knows the project.
We're gonna have to to talk about that, all right,
Rick Beard, Thanks man, I really appreciate you coming in. Hey,
thanks for having me and uh, this was this was awesome.
So all you other gubernatorial candidates see what you're up against.
Better quit jacking around. Come on the Chris Baker Show.
Now kicking off the political season with our with I
think our first candidate and uh ready to ready to
come in here and face the grueling interviewing of the
Chris Bakers Show. Rick Beard is with us. He is
the uh gubernatorial candidate for the Marijuana Now Party, and
(00:21):
I do think the slogans very catchy, very catchy, not red,
not blue, green, and sticky Governor Ricky? Did you come
up with that? I did? Oh, look at that, I did.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
We've got another hot one that Nebraskans deserve the legal
right to be as high as their taxes.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Ooh, that's a dog one. That's a pretty dog on
good one. Right there. Well, Rick, welcome to the Chris
Baker Show. I wanted I want the audience to get
to know you, and I will tell you right now,
nobody thinks you're gonna win. You know, do you think
you're gonna win? Well, obviously you have to uh huh uh.
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Obviously the chances are of a third party winning are
slim ben slim in previous years. But we polled at
twelve percent this year to the primaries, which was higher
than any other candidate for governor. For her third party candidate,
for governor in the country, and higher than any third
party gubernatorial candidate since nineteen oh five.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Here.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Wow, So we've got some real momentum. And you never know,
you never know, and if there's any year that it
could happen, this might be the year, just because of
the mood out there.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Really a lot of Yeah. Well, I would say that
people are very disgusted with both political parties right now,
There's no doubt about that. So have you ever run
for any office before? No? I have none, not at all. No.
And have you ever thought about it entertained it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Absolutely I have. I just never got around to it
for one reason or another. But I've been really involved
in politics throughout the last twenty years or so, at least,
you know, in my own communities, and decided to get
into it finally instead of bitching about it.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Well, you see, the America's not built on quitters, right,
you know, America's built on innovators. So you know, you
just never know. So let's go a little bit, go
through a little bit about just who you are. You start, well,
you came to Omaha, you were born in seventy two.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Right, sixty eight, sixty eight, yep, And then I got
here in nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Oh. Wow, it's a pretty young age to just set
out on your own to move to move around. Yeah. Anyway,
so you grew up locally, went to Burkhigh School and
built a pretty cool life. You're like a wine expert guy, yep.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I've been involved with wine since I was twenty one
years old, a couple different businesses in Omaha, the winery
up by West Roads and then the Omaha Wine Company.
I founded that company, and then nineteen ninety seven I
moved to Napa Valley, where I wound up buying a
wine shop out there and ran that for twenty years,
and wound up making wine and having a brand that
(02:58):
was sold in northern California around the country and Michelin
Star restaurants and did the whole wine and food thing
for a long time.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Wow. And then you came back here. Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And what brought you back here? My mom is ninety
years old. Yeah, and you know, California's pretty expensive. We
bought a house in Benson and have a nice little
place and I get to spend a lot of nice
time with my mom and that's awesome, and help her.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Out a little bit. As she needs a little bit
of help but not too much. Keep her rolling. That's good. Well,
you know, that's really See, these are the kind of
characteristics you want to find out about people, right, people
that do stuff not like because a lot of people
in the political world they just kind of their whole
resume is I was, I'm in the political world. You know.
They work on some campaigns, run in some you know,
(03:46):
elections here and there, serve some offices and it's all
kind of it's just it's like just wash rents repeat
with a lot of people in the uh body politic
as they say. So, uh, when you were living in
the Napa Valley, was it as insane out there as
(04:06):
it seems to be now? Or do you even think
it is insane out there?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
I mean, it depends on what the definition of that is.
You know, California is a huge state, and there are
maybe pockets of what people would call insanity, and then
there's quite mellow places and it's a you know, there's
many countries within that one state. Yeah, so there, you know,
there are the prices are very expensive, but honestly, if
(04:32):
you look at it, Nebraska's property taxes are actually a
little bit higher than California property taxes.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Shit, yeah, we don't.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Even boom know that fired I about that now. Now
now we've got you know, California problems.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
So if you're able to be elected governor of the
great state of Nebraska, what are your biggest issues?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Basically affordability and property taxes as number one on the
list for everybody. And we also want to put talk
about maybe putting a moratorium and pause on data centers
and looking at that. And I want to get money
out of politics and run a run the Montana Plan
or do you know about the Montana Plan?
Speaker 1 (05:15):
You get familiar with the Montana Plan.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
It's actual legislation that can keep money out of our
politics and from affecting our elections. It takes away the
rights for a corporation to give money to politics into elections.
As a state grants corporation rates, state also takes the
(05:39):
right can take the rights away. So it's basically turning sense.
A corporation isn't a person. It's taking away that right
from them.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Well, and I remember when this was litigated and the
people are saying, well, a corporation is not a person,
but a corporation's made up of persons and persons own it.
You know. I'm I always wonder, how do you like
when people talk about getting money out of politics? What
is it about getting money out of politics that you're
(06:09):
trying to get out to get out of politics?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Well, if you take a campaign, let's just look at
like Denise Palace campaign, it's an Omaha campaign for Congress.
We saw over five million dollars come into the primaries
just out of example. For an example, the Thomas Massey
election in Kentucky, we saw three hundred million come in.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
So we just have.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Distorted too much funding coming in that's not coming from people,
that's coming from corporations, from from packs, from private interest groups,
special donors. I just think it would even the playing
field so that normal people that aren't career politicians with
connections to giant donors and packs and special interests can run.
(07:01):
There's actual legislation that is going through. Hawaii just passed
a bill recently, basically a Montana Plan like bill, and
the Montana Plan is on the ballot for this fall
and their citizens are going to be voting for it.
And actually their former Republican governor spearheaded this effort.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I find this fascinating because I always I look at
all of this as just free speech, you know, I
look at it as free speech. But you know, that's fine.
So if what about the whole weed thing? So you're
you're I find it funny that that you're in the
Legal Marijuana Now party and when I ask what your
(07:43):
priorities are, you named a bunch of stuff. You didn't
say anything about marijuana.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Well, obviously, you know, with the that is a main
priority of our party, and I wanted to make sure
that people know that our campaign isn't a single issue campaign,
so these other things really take large priority. But to
accomplish my goals with cannabis in Nebraska and to get
it as a money making business for Nebraska, we need
(08:10):
to get the money out of politics, because I feel
that there's probably some lobby money that's keeping our senators
from voting for it to make it work, when seventy
one percent of our citizens voted for it. So right,
it's distorted. Well, the will of the people is being
wildly distorted here, and you know, and I'm just assuming
(08:31):
that they're getting paid to do it and not doing
it for kicks.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
So all right, we'll take a quick break, We're going
to come back and I want to talk to you
a little bit about the way that Nebraska, like any state,
gets involved in weed, they screw it up. I mean seriously.
So we'll get into that. It's a Chris Baker radio
program and we're talking with Rick Beard. He's the gubernatorial
(08:54):
candidate for from the What Legal Marijuana Now? Party here
on the Chris Baker Radio and already you could see
he's deeper than just weed. So that's a good thing
Chris Baker's show. Rick Beard is with us, a gubernatorial
candidate with the Legalized Marijuana Now Party. And something interesting,
(09:16):
if you were to be elected governor, you would actually
be the first governor or elected official that I can
think of that would actually know something about what the
state is trying to do, which is their medical marijuana whatever,
whatever it is. It's goofy. But you're already a licensed grower.
(09:39):
Tell our audience exactly where you fit in all this.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
So I'm not currently licensed, but I used to be
licensed in California as a caregiver back in California's medical era,
and then my wife and I had a licensed cannabis
farm during the early years of California is recreational legislation.
So we've been involved in it. We've seen what works,
(10:05):
we've seen what doesn't work. We've seen some of the
major problems. We've seen counties and municipalities kick back against
it and then later come around to it because of
the money we saw in Oklahoma where they maybe gave out.
Then we also lived in Oklahoma for a short while
(10:25):
during their early years of medical legislation and implementation, and
we got to see some of the good things and
some of the bad things that happened. Most of it
was pretty darn good. In Oklahoma. We saw a ton
of people get off of opiates. Everybody down there when
we got there, everybody had a story about their relative
(10:46):
or somebody they knew dying of an opiate addiction. And
within that same year we were hearing all these stories
of people getting off of opiates and using cannabis as
an alternative.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
So, when you say you saw the good things in
the bad things as far as implementing the medical marijuana world,
what were the what were some of the good decisions
that they made that helped get this off the ground.
And then like here in Nebraska, I don't even know
if anybody there knows what they're even doing. Like, did
anybody ask you if you wanted to be on the
(11:19):
medical marijuana panel here in Nebraska?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
It's really it's really funny that you asked that, because
they just had a position open and I applied for
it and sent them a letter in a full application
with all my qualifications, and they pretty promptly sent me
back a respond saying that I wasn't the person for
the position after serious consideration, after.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Serious consideration of all of three minutes.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Really yeah, So I have my rejection letter as part
of my campaign packet, which was very nice, and it
does go back to that there is nobody.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
On the board.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
There is nobody in our legislature that has experience in cannabis.
Legislation has been around, it has been in another state
with it. So it's like having people create legislation for
something they have no experience in doesn't work, as we see.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
God, I watched this and because you know, they put
it out for a vote, everybody votes, they vote in
favor over seventy percent. And the thing that amazes me
is no one even thought about, well, shouldn't we have
a process in place so we can hit the ground
(12:40):
running because they didn't, and I don't think this thing
will ever be implemented.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I think that we're probably going to have to have
all new legislation unless we have a governor maybe that
just does executive order on the whole situation, which I'm
not really for sure if that would work, but it
probably is going to need another vote or another run
of legislation to make it happen because we've got this
one strangled.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
So how hard or how easy should it be to
do this? You've been through it before, so what would
speed this process up?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
A state government that actually wants it and is willing
to do it. Yeah, you know, we can run another
piece of legislation, but it's going to be two more
years before we can get that to get that one
to the ballot, because.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
You've got to argue and then you've got to a filibuster.
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
The problem The problem is here, we just have so
many people that are are you know, seventy one percent
of us want it, but ninety percent of our state
Senate doesn't want it. So it's just it's it's it's
nearly im possible what goes into it?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Right, So you've produced you've you've grown and produced for
a medical facility, and I'm I'm to me, it's all weed. Sure,
So so what kind of hoops does have to jump through?
For example, what I'm asking is, do you have a
specific potency you're supposed to reach and is there are
(14:10):
there are there stringent regulations on distribution, on on the manufacturing,
and just how hard is it to do?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
This excellent question, and that's also something for the Midwest.
It is difficult because the difference between medical cannabis and
recreational cannabis.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Like you said, it's all weed.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
So they are the same strains and the same types
of plants. The difference is with medical it is tested
and it's regulated, so there's very intense scrutinist testing on it.
The tests for pesticides and herbicides and pollen, u spores, mold, fungus,
(14:50):
things that would make that weed not medical cannabis. So
that's the main difference. So jumping through those hoops, you know,
and when we at our farm, there's also environmental impact studies.
You can have the Forestry Service come out and look
at your property, depending how close you are to a creek,
and that's in California now in the Midwest growing cannabis
(15:13):
with the humidity and the weather conditions here. To achieve
true medical cannabis that can be tested and past that
rigorous testing, it almost needs to be inside and out
of the elements and out of the humidity, the bugs,
the pesticides, herbicides, and like the other things I talked about.
So it's when we were growing in Oklahoma, those were
(15:35):
some of our biggest challenges and it was just it
was nearly impossible to produce medical grade cannabis outside.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
So it needs to be inside. In my opinion, it
should be. It would be easier.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And the other thing that when you grow at inside,
instead of having one harvest per year, we're talking about
five harvests per year when it's grown indoors effectively under
controlled environments.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Yeah, because I mean when they do it indoors, and
I don't know anything about medical but I do have
experience with rating cartel places sure, and they'll have like
these giant buildings where lights are on twenty four to
seven and that stuff is growing and getting harvested fast.
I mean this is a twenty four hour process, yep.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
And that's where the state could actually make some money
on this thing if it ever does get to a
point of implementation. You know where we have dispensaries and
where we have compassionate where we have a compassionate cannabis
program in this state similar to Oklahoma, where you don't
have to be dead in order to get the medical cannabis.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Is that it? You's got to be dead? Now, well
we can finally give you a prescription. It's just for
your funeral, though. You get all lit up before the
before they throw you in there. Yeah, before they before
they drop you in there. All right, Well this is
very interesting because you know, I don't think people really
know how this works, the medical marijuana industry or the
(17:01):
marijuana industry in general, because you just go south in
Missouri and they've got dispensaries all over the place, and
the you know, when I drive by there, I'll see
them and I always think to myself, is there like
a big truck that pulls up and you know, like
a like a gas station where a truck pulls up
and they just dump out different types of weed and
then the guy takes off and leaves. Again. It's really
(17:23):
interesting to me how that business can operate and how
they get around, you know, the federal laws too. That's
that's you know, like in Colorado, I've been in a
dispensary there and they've got armed guards all over the place.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Sure, And you know, now that's a good thing to
bring up right now because the new classification of cannabis
Schedule three and the protection of medical cannabis programs and
medical cannabis patients and doctors in most states is happening now,
(18:00):
so we are able to move forward, you know with this,
and there is actually you know, Trump just lightened, lightened,
lightened it up to Schedule three.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Mean old Trump, that mean old you know, that's.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
That's that's something that Democrats never did. No, you know,
I could have done that a long time ago.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
It didn't. You would have thought they would have done
it a long time ago, but you know they had
they were perving on other people. I think very happy
to have Rick Beard with us. He is a gubernatorial candidate,
UH for the marijuana legal legalized marijuana now party, Legal
marijuana Now. Okay, see, I'm i must have been smoking
because I'm losing my train of thought. But I'm glad
(18:45):
you made it in here. And I think everybody ought
to get there. You know, everybody should should be heard,
and I'm glad you're doing what you're doing. You know,
most people sit around and complain, and you don't if
you just tuned in. Rick. Rick's actually a very interesting
guy's uh been in the wine business for years. He
has also, and this is really key, he has worked
(19:08):
in the medical marijuana industry as a grower, producer kind
of guy, and has some really smart observations on how
Nebraska's messing this whole thing up. So here's what I
want to do. Now. Anybody who wants to run for
governor has to come on the show and we have
to ask them governor emergency questions. All right, So I
(19:30):
want you to I want to put yourself. I want
you to put yourself. You're now the governor. You're sitting
behind the giant desk. First of all, would you want
a very high back leather chair or would you want
kind of a lower medium leather chair. I'm lower media,
lower medium. See I would get the high back because
it just kind of gives you that throne thing working,
(19:50):
you know, but I appreciate I want more of a
chair for the people. See look at that, a chair
for the people. Ladies and gentlemen. I love that. All right.
So let's say you're the governor and COVID nine eighteen
breaks out. How as the governor would you respond to
the COVID nineteen insanity.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
I think that we would probably form a board amongst
I mean, there's already well boards amongst our hospitals and
our healthcare system here, and I think we'd have to
just start tracking it, start tracking it.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
What about mask mandates? Would you go the mask mandate route.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
We are in Nebraska. You know, I know that that's
probably a pretty unpopular option, but I would probably I
would probably push for it, Okay, I would pray push
for it and see how it goes, and see if
it impacts the cases, you know, before we completely write
(20:45):
it off. I'm not into making people wear masks because
I didn't like wearing masks, to be honest, but you.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Know I did so evidence based, evidence based, evidence based. Okay,
I'll go. I'll take that, even though I know you
really want me to wear a mask to see I
can see it in his eyes. All right. Now, let's
move down natural disaster, wildfires, floods, extreme weather. You're the governor.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
I think that it's important that we would utilize our
National Guard here in Nebraska. I think that also volunteer
fire departments, anybody that can volunteer, I think it would
be important to utilize them because more and more, as
some of our departments and fire departments and other administrations
(21:32):
get the funding cut to them, it's always falling back
on the people.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Another thing that I would do, and I would want
to talk.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
To our prison community about this before I would implement
it and get their feelings on it before assuming anything.
But in California, where we have had massive wildfires, we're
(22:00):
having massive wildfires here too. In California, they have programs
in the prison system there that if non violent offenders
want to join a training program to train them to
be fire fires firefighters in these situations, that they can
have their sentences reduced.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
So I wouldn't want to just assume this, but I
would want to talk to the You'd want to find
out what whiney lawyer would say, you couldn't do this.
I just want to honestly, I honestly want to respect
respect our citizens and respect our prisoners and not assume
anything since I'm not a part of it.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
You know, if I was in prison, I'd go put
out fires anyway. It's out of that.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
We saw something happen in California where the worst wildfires
happened during COVID, when they wouldn't let the prisoners out
to go and assist the fire departments. They do a
lot of frontline work, they cut lines, a lot of
shovel work, and a lot of on the groundwork and
spot spot fire fighting. So it's it's a it's a
(23:02):
powerful tool that if we can use that, use them
and help them and everybody help each other.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
I think that it could really benefit our state now
that we're a force multiplier.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
It is, and it's a you know, like I said,
it takes a lot of people to combat these situations.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
So all right, so that's what I would. Okay, let's say,
all right, let's say that something horrible happened and now
a bunch of maniacs are burning down the city during
peaceful protest. He doesn't sound very peaceful, no, but I
mean on CNN it's very peaceful. Just because buildings are
(23:45):
burning in the background, it's still very peaceful. So as
a governor, how would you deal with that kind of nonsense?
People blocking highways? You know, that kind of craziness, you know.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I think it's it would be important to be in
close contact with our law enforcement agency here.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
You know.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
I think that these protests are probably becoming They're more
common than they were when I was young, maybe maybe
even in the eighties nineties, But they are happening a
lot here. So to think that they're not going to happen,
and to push back so hard against them, I think
it creates, it agitates, and it creates more of a problem.
(24:24):
I don't think the blocking highways is necessarily the safest thing.
I don't really promote that. I think that, you know,
all kinds of safety needs to be respected, for the protesters,
for our systems, for people on the road. I think
it just takes a sensible I think it takes a
sensible and somewhat compassionate approach to it, because it is
freedom of speech. Even if we don't agree with it,
(24:45):
or even if they don't act like we would maybe
act or you or me or whoever the we or
us is, I think it is a form of free speech.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
So I think giving them giving people a safe place
to do it, that'd be one of those free speech
zone things, Or would you just say, look, you want
to protest, protest, but don't be breaking the law. You know.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
I think that that's reasonable, that we can't be breaking
the law, you know, and we can't be destroying things.
We can't be shooting people, harming people.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
We you know, I'm against shooting people. I really am too. Yeah,
I'm totally non shoot people don't deserve it. But let's
see what else. I don't have any more of those questions.
Let's see, I thought I had one more than a Nah,
I don't. So, so where do we go from here?
Tell me about your campaign and you got any events
(25:38):
coming up? Let me ask you this. I used to
work with Tommy Chong a lot, and no matter where
we were, there was always this pluth throat this long.
It was like a like a pilgrimage of pot guys
to come see Tommy Chong and they would all bring
him weed and they'd all, you know, they go like, Tommy,
this is really great, and they start laying out all
(25:58):
the lineage you have what this super special megaweed awesome
weed stuff. So if you were the governor from the
Legal Marijuana Now Party, would you first of all be
worried that people would just decide. Okay, now we've got
a governor in there, so we can all just burn
(26:19):
fatties anywhere we want. Would you change any state policy
as far as marijuana consumption.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Well, I mean I think that we we don't need
to be rolling down the streets smoking medical cannabis. You know,
in most states there's some regulation on it where you
can't be driving around. You need to be home, you
need to be indoors or at a place.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
I think there should be a concert exception, you know,
that's indoors and at a place.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Okay, well there you go, maybe outdoors at a place
maybe just you know, like I said, a lot of
it comes back to compact and it's a compassionate approach
and a realistic approach to it. You know, first of all,
we first of all, we've got to get the weed,
you know, go and it's it's all.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
There's plenty of that. I'm probat to go out here
in about ten minutes, find you some if you want. Dundee. Yeah, well,
you know, I really appreciate you coming in and and
you're obviously deeper than people are giving you credit for.
And boy, I think that you know, this Marijuana Board
(27:31):
ought to talk to you because you have really good
insight on that industry. And if we're going to have
it and people voted for it, then then quit jacking
around and let's get this thing going. But just because
people voted.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
For it, well, you know, we shouldn't have people that
lobby against it being the ones that developed the program,
which is really you know, one of the odds, what
you know, it just doesn't it's never it's never really
going to happen. So yeah, I think the first stuff
is either getting we need new people and the old debate.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
The thing that's frustrated me and the entire debate there's
really never been honest conversations, at least on a on
a government level or a legislative level. There's never honest conversations.
It's all, you know, hyperbolic insanity when in reality, look,
if people voted for this, then the state is obligated
to execute the law as voted by the people. And
(28:27):
that's the part about this that just irritates me. And
I can't believe they turned you down. I couldn't either.
I can't believe they turned you down. All right, well, uh,
I really appreciate we'll have to we'll have you on again, Ricky,
We're gonna, We're gonna, Yeah, we'll have you on again
because especially i'd love to talk to you about By
(28:48):
the way, Rick makes pae just so everybody knows the project.
We're gonna have to to talk about that, all right,
Rick Beard, Thanks man, I really appreciate you coming in. Hey,
thanks for having me and uh, this was this was awesome.
So all you other gubernatorial candidates see what you're up against.
Better quit jacking around. Come on the Chris Baker Show.
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Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
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