As you can tell, this is still
Patriot Act: Quarantine Edition. Now look. When I first heard we were
going into lockdown, I panicked. I ran to the store, I hoarded
toilet paper, Purell, and batteries. So many batteries. I really thought the apocalypse
would involve more flashlights. But some people had a different idea. It's not water, it's not canned goods, it's not toilet paper, it's marijuana. “Panic buying at cannabis
dispensaries. Look at the long line.” “Some long lines last night.” “Lines out the door here as well.” I just decided to stock up
on the weed, just in case
the guys closed down. You gotta prepare for the worst. I smoke so much pot, the Zig Zag Man
has a tattoo of me on his arm. Wait... is that Joe Biden? Only he would say “Zig Zag man.” Now, as lockdowns spread in March,
pot use hit record highs. And a lot of people are using marijuana
to get through this difficult time. Which is why tonight
I'm talking about weed. And I know, this isn't
the most pressing issue, but I want to talk about it for the same
reason a lot of people want to smoke it: we all need a break. And yes, I know, I have Big Narc Energy. I don't do drugs, so I'm going to try to
not embarrass myself talking about them. Luckily, the bar is pretty low. We call this magic bus the canna-bus. Get it? Woah! Hundreds of people smoking weed. Skunk! The devil's lettuce!
Righteous bush! Everybody needs a beautiful hand-blown bong. Rolling up a doobie. Does anyone still call it a doobie? And the groups in our school was like
the “swelts” and the “creamies,” and the “dirties,” and the “jocks.” And the “dirties”
were the ones who did pot. Wait, the “creamies” and the “dirties?” Megyn's like, “You guys remember high school. Prom, chem, race wars.” And the black woman in the front row is just like, “Okay,
this took a left turn, Megyn.” Now weed is still federally illegal. But right now, there are 31 states allowing
dispensaries to stay open even as the country shuts down, with many calling them
“essential businesses.” So, according to the government, weed is illegal, but also necessary. It's the waterboarding of drugs. Most Americans actually already live in a state
that allows weed in some form, which means the legal weed industry
is exploding. Before the coronavirus, estimates said it'd be worth
up to $19 billion this year and $30 billion by 2023. With that much money,
you could buy the Mets 13 times or buy enough weed
to make baseball entertaining. Now look, if you're a baseball fan,
I truly don't give a fuck. The only exciting thing that's
ever happened in baseball was when Randy Johnson pitched the ball
and a bird exploded. That's it. If they don't kill a bird every game,
I'm not interested. We're obviously way past the idea
of if we should legalize weed. It is here. But we haven't talked enough
about how to legalize it. Because we are messing it up. Legal marijuana is rigged. And it's about to get worse. Now to be fair, our weed laws
have always been messed up. We don't have time for the full history,
but, TLDR, it's pretty racist. It started in the 1930s, when government officials said stuff like, “Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men.” Obviously, dude went to high school
with Megyn. They were both were voted “most likely to insist
the Civil War was about states' rights.” Then Nixon started the war on drugs,
and shit got even more racist. Black communities were targeted,
and today, black people make up just
13% of America but 40% of people
imprisoned for drug crimes. So you would think legalization should benefit
minority communities the most. But it's actually benefiting
people like this. Guess what?
We're selling legal weed. Do I call it a pot store
or a marijuana store? You can call it whatever you want.
I call it the future. There's no
bars on the windows. There's no
guy with a gun at the front. I want to convert
every Chardonnay mom to replace Chardonnay with pot. Ugh. He says “Chardonnay moms” like he
just cleared it from his browser history. This is Adam Bierman, co-founder of the weed company MedMen. Now you've probably heard of them. And this is Bierman's business philosophy. Your song is always
<i>Lose Yourself.</i> That is the
soundtrack to my life. There's another Eminem... I don't know, how personal
are we going to get? The last scene in 8 Mile... He starts the battle, and he starts it
with, you know, something like, “I am white, I do live
in a trailer park with my mom.” Right. And by the time
he was done. the guy had nothing to say. In more and more instances
I want to say, “Yeah, I am
all those things.” He's actually none of those things. This is true. He grew up in San Diego. He went to USC. And his favorite TV show is The West Wing. Bro, you know what I realized? You're not 8 Mile, you're fucking Lady Bird. And if I have to stand here and listen to you pretend to be from Detroit any longer, I'm going to go chug a gallon of their water. Bierman is still on the board at MedMen, but he recently stepped down as CEO,
and you might be wondering why. It could be because he paid himself millions
before the company was profitable? Or because their stock tanked, or because he allegedly called an L.A. City councilman a “midget Negro.” But that can't be it. I mean, who would call
a governing official that name? That's insane. Now I have to go home
and explain to my Latina wife and my
Spanish-speaking kids why I'm being
called a racist at work, right? I'm surprised he didn't go with, “I can't be racist.
My wife and kids are midget negros.” Now, he denies he ever said that. But Bierman actually isn't the worst
person to profit off legal weed. With me now former Speaker of the House
John Boehner. Now you're all in on cannabis. I'm all in. This is the time to go all in
on cannabis. Cannabis is here to stay. And this industry
is only getting bigger. As I said, I'm all in on cannabis. The most shocking part of this
isn't that John Boehner likes weed. It's that John Boehner
talks like a manga character. He's like, “I'm John Boehner,
and I'm all in on cannabis. Now let's talk for the next ten episodes,
then we'll finally fight.” That clip was from an online seminar
for weed investors that Boehner hosted. He's on the board of a company
called Acreage Holdings, which means he's in line to make millions
off of legal marijuana. Even though for years Boehner fought
to keep it illegal. Which may sound super hypocritical... But don't worry.
Boehner's got an airtight defense. Just listen to what
NPR Austin Powers asks him. When you were a politician, you said you were unalterably
opposed to legalization. One of the things I wanted to ask you
was what harm has been done by the fact that
we didn't legalize it back then? Oh I don't know there's
any harm that's been done. There was people getting arrested,
people getting thrown in jail. Like, I mean,
that counts, doesn't it? Well yeah, but that was under
a different set of rules, at a different time. “A different time?” Dude, you left office five years ago. You can't do the “different time” thing. That's for when you take Grandpa
to P.F. Chang's. Like, “Hey, we're really sorry he called
the waitress a ‘dumpling geisha.’ He's from a different time.” Acreage is one of the biggest
weed companies in America. And before the pandemic,
it was in 19 states and expanding fast. Part of that is demand, but another part
is that states are building systems that are good for giant weed companies
and bad for almost everyone else. And one of the main ways they do that
is through licenses. In the weed business,
you need a license to literally do anything. And a lot of states make it easier
for big business to get licensed. Take California, America's sideburn. After they legalized
recreational weed in 2016, policymakers wanted to put
a one-acre limit on licenses
for weed farmers until 2023, to help small farmers and the little guy
rein in big companies. But then, Big Marijuana spent $1.6 million
lobbying, and things changed. Small pot farmers
in California say the state
is not standing by its promise
to protect them. There are people who are stacking tens to close to
100 one-acre cultivation permits. “We found one company
got 200 permits, enough
to grow on 46 acres.” Yeah, of course you found them.
They grew a drug forest. Big companies were supposed to be limited. But some have stacked
hundreds of licenses, which has small farmers
struggling to keep up. “New industrial-scale rivals have
economies of scale that lower their costs. So how can a small legal grower like Swami
possibly compete? Branding. Swami Chaitanya
announces his presence... to Ganesh, Hindu god of,
among other things, good luck, who presides over the crop Swami grows
to produce Swami Select, his patented marijuana brand.” Aw, come on.
Indian culture isn't for selling weed. It's for selling Coldplay. But okay, I'll bite. Who is this Swami? “Swami, in prior life
William Winans, a '60s Wesleyan grad, filmmaker, San Francisco hippie,
who spent ten years in India--” Whoa, wait, white people are pretending
to be Indian to sell drugs? Dude, honestly, I'm proud. We got our own Rachel Dolezal. Raj Dolezal. But as bad as California is
for small weed businesses, there's a state that's even worse. Florida, America's uvula. In Florida, this is how they describe
the legal weed industry. It's a cartel. It's a cartel of license holders. They created a cartel essentially. You have
an industry allowing for businesses
to operate like cartels. I feel like every business in Florida
is a cartel. Pottery Barn? Cartel.
BabyGap? Cartel. Curves Fitness? Cartel. Dude, admit it, Pablo had some thickums. That's the other thing
that he hid from the DEA, that booty. Florida legalized medical marijuana
in 2016 under then-governor Rick Scott. But the state gives out very few
operating licenses, which makes things
cutthroat and expensive. One license in Florida sold for $55 million. And to even qualify for a license, businesses have to have
vertical integration, which means you control
the entire process. That means if you're in Florida,
you're in charge of setting up a farm, growing and harvesting the weed,
processing the weed, distributing the weed, and operating
the stores that sell the weed. And some of you are thinking,
“Whatever, bro. That's just Capitalism 101. Just don't smoke my weed, play my Xbox,
or eat my Funyun casserole.” But this isn't just capitalism
and the invisible hand. This is a demented thumb saying, “If you
can't afford to do every single step, you can't even play the game.” You're either flush with cash,
or you're out. So if you're thinking,
“Hey, me and my bros from high school we're going to go Miami. We're gonna set up a dispensary
and make money.” No, you're not. Five companies now own 65%
of Florida's weed business. They're hogging all the weed.
Kind of like you, Caleb. Caleb, pass that shit. Who raised you? Ten other states also require vertical
integration for medical marijuana. Across the country, big companies
with major capital run the table, because they can vertically integrate
and snag licenses in multiple states. Just look at
Boehner's company, Acreage. Right? They're one of the largest vertically integrated companies in the U.S. And as of last year, they held licenses
in more states than any other company. Which made them super valuable. Canopy Growth will acquire a marijuana growing operation called Acreage Holdings, and they will pay
close to $4 billion for it. Close to $4 billion. Yeah. Whoa. I mean, how much pot do they grow? Why does it
feel like every day Stu Varney is blown away
by a different number. He's like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa,
$4 billion? I'm still reeling
from 37 yesterday.” Now the deal has already made
Acreage shareholders like Boehner $300 million. And this is
what the industry is now: a few multi-state operators,
with lots of licenses in lots of states, raking it in. And it's hard to not notice a pattern. When you look around
the cannabis industry as an African-American woman,
what do you see? White men. White men, white men, white men. Hold on. That's not fair to John Boehner. He's more of a “burnt sienna.” I'm serious, we did this: We went on the Benjamin Moore
color match app, and he is somewhere between
a “Cottage Red” and a “Rustic Brick.” But she's right. According to one survey,
out of all legal marijuana businesses, 81% are white-owned. Sorry, Swami-owned. And 4% are black-owned. And there's a reason for that. The war on drugs never ended. Today, white and black people use weed
at roughly the same rate, but black people are almost four times
more likely to get arrested for it. In Montana, they're almost ten times
more likely to get arrested. Which is really bad
for the one black dude in Montana. Clarence, if you're watching this,
be careful. Even after you've done your time,
old drug charges can haunt you. “What's been the impact of getting caught up
in a criminal justice system on those charges at that age?” Ah... You will never... get a job. You'll never be able to live the way
you want to live. Your background is always
going to come back. If you have a drug record,
it can be almost impossible to get a job even in the weed business. Do you understand?
That means employers are like, “Oh, you sold weed? Sorry, we're professionals here
at DabKingz4Lyfe.com.” Some states are trying to fix that
through social equity programs, which help people hurt by the war on drugs
break into the industry. But they aren't always effective.
Massachusetts started one three years ago. Now guess how many black-owned
retail dispensaries they have right now? One. In the whole state! So I had to sit down with the owners, back when I was still
allowed to sit down with people So, guys, tell me,
where are we sitting right now? We are in Pure Oasis, soon to be Boston's first recreational dispensary. The first economic empowerment
owned dispensary in Massachusetts and also the first minority-owned
cannabis dispensary on the East Coast. So when this place opens, this will be
the very first time pot is sold in Boston. That's so amazing. Man, I can't wait
for all those Boston weed strains. “Purple Harvard.” “Jamaican Affleck.” “Strawberry Busing Riot.” These are the owners of Pure Oasis, Kobie and Kevin. And I wanted to ask them how they feel about equity programs. Would you say equity programs
are effective? -Absolutely.
-Yes, absolutely. I mean, I think the success of
an equity program hinges upon other things, but I think by and large, if there was no equity program, Kobie and I may not
be sitting before you today. Has the execution of the equity programs
matched their intent? -No.
-I would agree with “no.” What this needs in order for people
to be successful are a list of wraparound services. -Access to capital, legal, tax help.
-Taxes, technical assistance. So for this to be fair,
it has to provide reach-around services. Wraparound services. It provides equity capital, you know
technical services... -Yeah.
-Exactly. ...you know, pleasure, joy,
a release that feels good. -No, no, no, wraparound.
-Wraparound. Different. Wrap-around, reach-around... You say, “Tomato,”
I say, “Pleasure that tomahto.” Good equity programs do all those things,
plus they help people get licenses. The program in Massachusetts
actually helped Kobie and Kevin move up the list and get their's faster. But since everyone wants a license, once you have one,
you can become a target for big investors. What did the out-of-state investors
really want from you? They wanted control of our company. But, really. What does that mean? They wanted to loan us money
to really build the operation, and in a nutshell, the conversations
for us felt very predatory. Almost like loan shark-y. This is our company. When they walked into the room,
they acknowledged that it was our company. But as the night progressed,
it became clear that they wanted to take our company
and make us employees. That was insulting. I don't see what's so offensive here.
Cannabis is a crop, okay? These VCs have come in and asked you to share crop. White dudes are coming up to two
black men and saying, “Hey, share crop.” And then the VCs could help
structure the company in a new way. It'd be a kind of like
a Reconstruction era. I don't know. This just seems like a simple,
black and white issue to me. Big companies use equity programs
to get control of more licenses. This is a huge loophole, and Big Marijuana
is walking right through. Last year,
a company called Harvest of Ohio claimed a black woman
was their majority owner when their CEO was actually a white dude named Steve White. That name is whiter than a Nalgene
clipped onto a carry-on with a carabiner. Have you ever seen
a black person own this? Now, Harvest says
they didn't do anything wrong. But this begs the question, “Is it worth it?” This is a racial and economic issue. If we're just gonna make the rich richer, freeze out small business
and the little guy, and ignore victims of the war on drugs, should we legalize weed at all? This isn't a hypothetical question.
Last year, New York delayed legalization in part because
it didn't do enough for racial justice. And Ohio had a super-bizarre fight
about legalization. In 2015, a group called Responsible Ohio
started a legalization campaign with one surprising spokesman. I'm Nick Lachey. Ohio is my home, and I care very deeply
about the people here. Wait. Nick Lachey? The co-host of Love Is Blind? The former lead singer of 98°? You guys remember 98°.
The clearance rack version of *NSYNC. If the weed business gets any whiter, every weed menu
will start including shakshuka. Now Nick Lachey wasn't just
promoting legalization out of the goodness
of his 98° heart. He had another motive. “Critics argue the ad fails to
mention Lachey's stake as an investor.” “The constitutional amendment
would give exclusive rights to all of the marijuana
grown and sold at 1,100 stores
in the Buckeye State at 1,100 stores
in the Buckeye State
to just ten groups. to just ten groups. One is Lachey's.” Lachey wanted a system rigged
for just ten growers, including himself. That is so messed up.
This is what this show has come to. When we first started, I was getting into beefs
with international dictators. Now I'm like, “We must stop
the lead singer of 98°.” Lachey actually wasn't
the only celeb involved. “TV and music star Nick Lachey,
NFL player Frostee Rucker, fashion designer Nanette Lepore, and even President William Taft's
great-great-grandnephews have financial stakes in the game.” This is President William Howard Taft's
great-great-grandnephew Dudley Taft. This is a real person. He looks like a guy who plays guitar in a band named after himself. Because he fucking does. ♪ I'mma take my cellphone ♪ ♪ And throw it in a deep hole ♪ ♪ It's gonna pollute your soul ♪ ♪ Give me a simple life ♪ ♪ Yeah! ♪ This is what all rock 'n' roll
sounds like to me. Just a bearded redneck
shouting like a Michigan protestor. You hear Metallica,
I hear, “Open the Foot Locker, man!” Now the people of Ohio
realized what was happening and voted down
the Lachey-Taft drug cartel. Let me make something clear.
I'm not saying legalization is bad. Smoke weed. Hotbox your face mask. But support for legalization
shouldn't be automatic. We need to look into how it works
and who it works for. Even though sales are up in some places,
COVID is still hurting the industry, especially small businesses. I caught up with Kobie and Kevin to see
how they're doing right now with all this. They had to shut down,
they had to lay off their employees, and because weed is still federally
illegal, they can't get any federal loans. Now luckily, they say
they have enough cash for now, but they said other small businesses
like theirs might not survive. This is what pisses me off the most. This is yet another industry where a small group of people at the top
hoard all the profits and the little guy has no chance. Before COVID, twelve more states were planning to vote on some
form of legalization this year. Now a lot of them have put those plans on
hold, which I think could be a good thing. It gives us a chance to step back and look at what
these laws are really doing. Because as a Rustic Brick once said... This is the time
to go all in on cannabis. But only if all of us get to.
It’s terrible here in Florida. I try not to complain but it is a joke, especially coming from a horizontal market.
Florigrown was supposed to have presented oral arguments against the state on the 22nd. I was hoping there would be an update of some sort.
I watched this the other day! I already knew about VI but he explained it in greater detail.
That was a really great segment thanks for the link
He really exposed how bad VI is here. Great segment.
The whole legalizing bullshit is just directed toward the rich.
It's no different then the state profiting off of Medical Marijuana patients...
It isn't very hard to get your card, but you'll pay a fuck ton to get it!
NOT TO MENTION! AFTERWARDS YOU PUT MONEY IN THESE COMPANIES POCKETS!
This is great
This dude moves his arms around an annoying amount. Am I the only one?