Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Kaya Cast podcast for cannabis businesses looking to launch, grow, and scale their operations.
Tommy Truong: I was looking at the network that you built, and I gotta say I'm impressed, but also intimidated. I'm talking to a professional.
Jimmy Young: Yeah. Don't be intimidated. I'm a regular guy and I make lots of mistakes and you know what I say about mistakes, right? We're supposed to learn from our mistakes in our life. Have, has anybody ever said that to you, Tommy? You learn from your mistakes, right? I should have a freaking PhD now. Okay. Because I haven't learned from my mistakes.
I'm like the hamster in the wheel. I keep doing the same thing over and over again because I've been advised. Do what you do best. I'm a talk show host and a teacher and a coach. Now the teaching and coaching I've done for years. The coaching, I think I made something like maybe $2,500 total, um, when I was a varsity high school varsity coach in 99.[00:01:00]
And I was a soccer coach. And, and then everything else is just kind of any teaching. I've done, I've done as like an adjunct instructor and you don't make a lot of money for that. But I'm doing it again now I'm back at Curry College, which is a school right outside of, uh, Boston, Massachusetts. Uh, Milton is where it's, it's located and it has one of the oldest communication, uh, curriculums in the country.
I think in 1936 is when it
Tommy Truong: Oh wow.
Jimmy Young: And, and I've taught there since 2009. I've taught the introduction to sports casting on TV and radio course, um, since 2009. I do it every third year because it's always been in a rotation of concentration, and now they've started a sports concentration, but they did tell me that it's a long, the, the weird story is.
I missed my first class because the only communicate I had from the school was, oh, we're sorry. Not enough people signed up for your course. We're not gonna offer it this fall. And I'm like, okay, well I guess that's too bad, you [00:02:00] know? And then they call me the next day after, uh uh, I do it on Tuesday nights.
So they call me on a Wednesday and say, oh, how come you weren't in class yesterday? I said, what are you talking about? I, the last communicate I had from the college was. You canceled my course and they said, oh no, we have 14 people signed up. You know, can you do it next Tuesday? I'm like, yes. Not only can I do it next Tuesday, but I'll be on campus tomorrow so that we can get me back into the the system so that when you send something out to an email.
I actually get it as opposed to what you, you know what I'm saying? I mean, it was just a miscommunication at a communication school who, who knew. Right. So anyway, I'm really happy about doing that 'cause I really love, um, sharing my experiences with young people. It really is the thing that drives me anyway.
And now that I'm in this other industry, which I'm thinking you're going to talk a little bit about, um, I'm passionate about injustice and any. Uh, unfair treatment by anyone. I, I mean, I, I just [00:03:00] don't like, um, it, it, I, I just want people to get along. You know, and, and, and there's a lot of anger right now in the United States of America.
I'm not sure you follow the news, but there's a lot of angry people out there. And, um, we have a gun, a gun culture in this country, which is not something I support except for hunting and, and target shooting. So, needless say, I don't support people walking around packing and, uh, and then getting angry and then using their.
Their, their weapon to express their anger. Um, there are plenty of other ways to express your anger without causing bodily harm with a weapon.
Tommy Truong: Amen to that. You, you have such an extensive background as a broadcaster in sports, and I'm so, I love it when people come from I, I quote unquote traditional professions or traditional industries into our industry, and you bring a lot of knowledge in broadcasting [00:04:00] to cannabis. What was the emphasis of starting Pro Cannabis Media?
Jimmy Young: Uh, well again, let's go back to the first podcast I did in 2018. Then the next thing I know, people are calling me or they, they're being interviewed by me and they say, Hey, you know, I've got a podcast. Next thing I know, I'm producing five shows a week, uh, and. I had all this content, so we started to put the content out onto over the top television services like Roku and Apple and Android, and Firestick.
Are you familiar with all those? And there's a million of them now, and I had enough content to live stream 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And the reason why I had a lot of content. Was not only because I was able to, um, do my own podcast and have others, uh, share what they wanna do, but, uh, I, um, I, uh, I, I did during the pandemic, [00:05:00] everybody went home and learned how to use Zoom, right?
Because they needed to communicate with people. So I was told by my life partner at the time. No, I couldn't stay home. You have an office, go to your office every day, and I'm like, okay, there's no one in my office. It was a single office and there were only two people in the whole building. So I was practicing social distancing and I was in my office every day and I took the zoom skill and I turned it into a news gathering tool and a content creative device because as a talk show host.
I could do that. And then I used my digital editing and figured out ways to add graphics to it and, and um, you know, what the gallery mode was versus the speaker mode and all this stuff that they offered. And, uh, and now, you know, I did. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM in the fall of 2020. So I did six hours of live interviews and talk about cannabis.
And needless to say, that was a lot of content and I learned [00:06:00] quite a bit. And that's what we used to, uh, um. For content that we distributed on our network, which was P-C-M-T-V, and now we've rebranded to W-P-C-M-T-V, I don't know if I'm backwards or forwards, um, as you're looking. Okay. So that wpc mtv.com is now replacing Pro Cannabis Media.com because SEO doesn't like the word, uh, cannabis.
And, and by the way, I hate censorship. I hate all social media. I really do. I don't, it's not fair. Look, our government, the United States government gave social media companies the right to police themselves and hide behind the community guidelines, which means they censor content, okay?
Tommy Truong: They do.
Jimmy Young: And anything that is a positive message about cannabis, they pull down.
Now, I've never had my YouTube channel pulled down, and it's one of the reasons why I've been able to build it to 17,000 [00:07:00] subscribers, or I think it's 16 787, and I hope you have a big reach. So everybody will go onto the either WPCM TV on YouTube, or Pro Cannabis Media. They'll both show up in your search if you search those on YouTube.
So you know, they never have. And I'm, and by the way, I'm educating the public about the challenges of breaking the stigma. And documenting the fight to end cannabis prohibition in our time. That's what we do every week with our new show, cannabis Coast to Coast News with Elena Pinto. And I'm proud of that and I'm proud that I have, uh, correspondence all over the country.
I have one in Canada, Debbie Facies in Canada and outside Toronto. And then I have one in the uk, uh, Dave Barton. And so, you know, I've got international correspondence and I've got domestic correspondence, and they're all doing the same thing. What was the most significant thing that happened in your state to fight the [00:08:00] prohibition of cannabis in your state?
State in under two minutes on your phone. Send it to me. I put it all together on Sunday. We release it at 9:00 AM on the website and on a live stream at 11:00 AM all eastern time zone. And then we release the first 20 minutes on demand. For Monday, the second, 20 minutes on, uh, Tuesday, and usually I get an hour's worth in.
Um, we're talking about changing over our format a little bit and incorporating AI news delivered by AI avatars, I guess in addition to the human element. So we're, we're talking about switching things up a little bit and taking this hour long show and turning it into six, 10 minute segments. And we'll see what, again, we haven't done it yet.
We're talking about it. And, uh, we'll experiment over the next few weeks. So, but in the meantime, there's over 1700 [00:09:00] videos and interviews on my YouTube channel,
Tommy Truong: There's a lot. I was on there and I, and I was looking at some of the things that you posted up recently that, uh, I hope you maybe shed some light on. What is the stat, uh. What is the status of cannabis in the US
Jimmy Young: 24. 24 states have adult use legalized it. So they're selling, they have stores that are cannabis stores called dispensaries in those 24 states. Look, you've got a whole nation up in Canada that's federally legalized it, correct.
Tommy Truong: Mm-hmm.
Jimmy Young: It was, by the way, it was October 17th and 2018. Just in case you, these are the dates in my head.
I have so much information in my head, it explodes. So those are the 24 legal adult use and sell. And so you can sell it legally and it's tested and you go to the store and you buy it, or you call in your order or you go online or whatever you do, and you get it. There are another 16 states that have decriminalized it and have medical [00:10:00] only programs.
So you won't get arrested for having it on your person, but if you're in Idaho, you will. You get what I'm saying? So there's a disconnect between the federal law and each state's laws
Tommy Truong: Where do you,
Jimmy Young: it has caused a mess.
Tommy Truong: where do you think federally we're going?
Jimmy Young: No one knows. Um, so, you know, there's, there is definitely a movement to go from Schedule one to Schedule three, which are the, uh, controlled Substances Act that was en enacted in 1971. When I was growing up as a kid, I protested against Richard Nixon, who was a disgrace president who resigned in 1973. Okay.
And he's the one who created the Controlled Substances Act that put heroin LSD and cannabis. A no medical uses level schedule on that controlled substance Act. That was in 1971. Okay. I can go into the history of why it [00:11:00] was prohibited. I, it, it all is based on greed. Racism and the anti, um, movement to counter the counterculture that was in place in the sixties and seventies in this country.
Um, that, um, I grew up and I was obviously influenced quite a bit and I'm kind of a rebel when it comes to that. So if somebody said to do something and I didn't like it, I just, I revolted against it. I rebelled against it just what I did. Sorry. I was lucky enough to have two loving parents who accepted me for being the.
Um, rebel that I was. Um, so that's what's going on in the United States. And yes, they're talking about rescheduling, they being the federal government. And if they take it from schedule one to schedule three, two things happen. One is they finally recognize that this plant medicine has medicinal qualities.
Okay. I can't tell you how many people that I've interviewed that have said cannabis has saved my life. Cannabis has changed my life. Crohn's Disease, [00:12:00] epilepsy, autism, PTSD, I can chronic pain. Um, quite a few other things too. So the point is it has medicinal qualities and our current president, okay, under his first administration.
Somehow or other got the farm bill in 2018 passed, which the federal government basically defined what legal cannabis sativa, the plant, that's the name of the plant and they call it hemp. So if they have the cannabis sativa plant and you grow it and, and you only have 0.3% THC, which is the intoxicating cannabinoid in the plant, that gets you high.
Okay. And it's only 0.3%. Then it's a legal product to grow and sell, and that's the hemp industry. Now what you're finding is our scientists and our researchers have figured out a way to actually take the [00:13:00] hemp derived product and put it into beverages, roll it up into papers. Uh, you can get high, you can get a little little baby high from hemp. That's not the legal, that that is the legal federal definition of that product. Okay? In the meantime, you have an overregulated cannabis. Uh, cannabis industry, and that's the one that has all the dispensaries open and the testing and the taxes. And, you know, the government loves to tax cannabis all the time, and they're, they're basically taxing it out of existence.
And if the plant goes from schedule one to schedule three, that. Um, tax code goes away. Right now, businesses in the cannabis or related cannabis businesses like a media company like mine or was anyway, um, uh, [00:14:00] we are considered cannabis related businesses. Therefore, we cannot write off the same business taxes that every other industry in the country enjoys.
So unfair, unjust, okay. And yet still existing in this country, until they take it from a schedule one to a schedule three, it does not legalize the plan. It still would be a controlled substance, which needless to say, the industry would much rather have it be regulated by either the alcohol group or the tobacco group, or themselves.
Why not have the industry that knows the plant better than the government does, obviously. 'cause they had no idea what they were doing. They let, they basically opened a Pandora's box and now you have an under-regulated hemp industry that's about a $38 billion industry in the United States. And you have a overregulated cannabis business, uh, industry that is another $36 billion annually.
Tommy Truong: There's a [00:15:00] lot of concerns that people have with rescheduling to schedule three.
Jimmy Young: In the industry, correct? They do, yes. But, but they would really like to have it, um. The get rid of that two 80 e tax clause, that's the first thing that would happen. And every single person in the industry would say, well, it's not great, but it's better than it was. And more importantly, even the guys at Normal that I know, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws said, look, if they take it off, schedule one and understand that there are medicinal.
Elements to this plant. That's a huge win for the industry. And what happened when President Trump released a public service announcement video, posted it on his truth social platform. The stock market went nuts because it was a first time any. Positive message about this plant. And it was really only talking about the CBD, the cannabidiol, which is another cannabinoid [00:16:00] in this plant.
There's hundreds of them now. You know, THC is everybody. Oh, that's the intoxicating one, right? But there's CBN and there's CBD. There's CB, G, and I mean, forget about it. You need a chemist degree to understand all the differences. But the point is, um, it would at least give credibility. To the industry.
They're involved with a medicinal product, something that can improve people's lives. And that video that was produced by a group called the Commonwealth Project was really a public service announcement. And trust me, if I did a public service announcement and I shared it with my old friends in traditional television media, we are not touching that.
We can't, we can't do that. You know, especially like an NBC universal. They're a national co international company. They don't wanna get their, they don't wanna get fined. They don't want to go against what the FCC, um, offers them. You know, they have to apply for a license every year. So it's, um, it's really a mess.
And, oh, did you know that the government shut down a couple weeks [00:17:00] ago? And I mean, like, it is so bad. This two party system that we have in this country. Because if I'm a Democrat or I'm a Republican, anything you say is going to be opposite from what I Republicans. Oh, I don't wanna do that 'cause I'm a Democrat, Democrats.
Oh, I don't wanna do that 'cause I'm a Republican. That is no way to run a country. It just isn't, it just, it's all special interests and it's all about money, money, money, money, money is the greatest drug or the, the biggest drug that nobody knows it is because you can, the greed that evolves when you start making money is dangerous.
Mm-hmm.
Tommy Truong: Yeah, no, it really is. And there's so many, there's so much to navigate as a flower business owner today than yesterday. There's, you know, you have state regulation. Nobody knows what's happening federally. To your point though, if, if we do reschedule, there will be a lot of businesses that there'll be an injection of cash, let's just say, in the industry, which is good.[00:18:00]
From a medical perspective, you are in this industry, you talk to a lot of people are there. What are the concerns that people have on rescheduling to three?
Jimmy Young: Well, um, first of all, it'll still be a illegal substance in that it will not be legalized, but it will be a controlled legal substance. There's a, there's a drug, I dunno if you're familiar with anabolic steroids or codeine. Those are the, those are two drugs that are on schedule three now. Basically I'm, I'm pretty sure that if it goes schedule three, if you have it on you, they're not gonna arrest you for possession at on a federal charge.
But if you're in a state like Idaho that still has it totally illegal, you will get arrested or you'll get a major fine. Like a $500 ticket. Yeah. So again, there is a disconnect between whatever happens at the federal level and at the state level in this country. And I've been fortunate to, um, have grown up in New England, [00:19:00] uh, in the Massachusetts area.
I lived 11 years in Maine when I worked at the CBS affiliate in Portland. But, uh, I've always been in. Relatively friendly, uh, states, they're decriminalized who have decriminalized it, and that's usually the first step. They decriminalize it 'cause they do recognize it has medicinal qualities. And we go back to that PSA and the president's messaging in that.
Or at least the messaging that he approved enough that he posted this video was, this can help seniors in this country with their chronic pain, with their, uh, trouble sleeping, basically saying CBDA non-toxic cannabinoid has a lot of medical uses. It can improve seniors lives. That's pretty much what that message was.
And if you have not seen it, by the way, my channel, I did a special report. I showed the whole video, I courtesy the, the people that produced it and I gave, I basically set it up in 45 seconds, played the three minute [00:20:00] video, and then I tagged it out in another 45 seconds explaining what I think the impact of this video will have.
And needless to say, the next day, the stock market went nuts. And everybody starts ing talking about, oh my God, this is a good sign. Maybe they will be rescheduling it after all. Because there's been an awful lot of, um, infighting between the hemp side of the plant and the cannabis Delta nine side of the plant.
So, which is not a good thing either.
Tommy Truong: No. No, not at all. So do, do you know where? I guess the DEA or where the government's leaning
Jimmy Young: You mentioned the DEA does not want it. De does not want to deal with cannabis, okay? They've done everything they possibly can to delay, delay, delay by the, our government's very good at delaying, by the way. Um, and, and not make a decision on the rescheduling. And then three months ago. Where, where am I now?
[00:21:00] October, July. I think the DEA petitioned the HU Health and Human Services Department to move psilocybin, a hallucinogenic, psychedelic plant to schedule three because they do recognize that that plant has medicinal qualities, but they're still fighting the cannabis. Okay, and, and by the way. I mean, I even said it on my use case, it's a harder drug.
I got some abuse for it. I'm like, guys, it's a harder drug. It's one of the reasons why I've never done it. I don't need to have halluc, I don't need to have hallucinogenic, I don't need to have psychedelics. Well, I could get, I can get plenty. Um, I can use cannabis enough to get where I wanna be, uh, to manage the chronic pain that I live with on a daily basis.
Tommy Truong: I was, I was so hopeful when, um, Robert Kennedy Jr. Joined.
Jimmy Young: I loved his dad. I don't love him.
Tommy Truong: Well, he campaigned on [00:22:00] legalizing cannabis and now he's, he's, he's the head of that freaking department.
Jimmy Young: And, and he hasn't done nothing, has he?
Tommy Truong: I was so hopeful that, uh, we'll get a push, but I guess internally there's just a lot of resistance.
Jimmy Young: Well, also there is, well first of all, there's more money. There's more money in big pharma and the substance abuse community than there is in the pro cannabis community. Okay. And, and the four biggest companies in the United States. The biggest multi-state operators. True Leaf Cresco Labs, um, caf, did I say Caf and Green Thumb?
I'm pretty sure those are the biggest four. They were valued at $37 billion combined in 2023.
Tommy Truong: Mm-hmm.
Jimmy Young: They're now total value, 4 billion in two years, and
Tommy Truong: was a bubble.
Jimmy Young: There's no capital, there's no capital moving into cannabis because of the unknown by the government. 'cause they're just sticking, you know, they're just delay, delay, delay.
And then we'll shut it down. You [00:23:00] know what, what both sides need to do is have a session. Do you know what I mean by a session?
Tommy Truong: Yeah.
Jimmy Young: Pass the pass the peace pipe. Because guess what? The peace pipe was used in our country when the pilgrims got here back in the day, in 16, in uh, whatever it was, 16th century. Okay.
And that's. You know, what do you think was in the peace pipe? What do you think the medicine man had in his case? What do you think they were using? It was a plant medicine then it should be. Now, here's a great stat for you. I use this for all those prohibitionists out there. If you went into a doctor's office today and they had on their wall their, their medical school diploma from Harvard Med, Yale, med NYU Med, or the University of Pennsylvania's medical School.
The four oldest medical schools in the country from 1900 to 1906, graduates of those medical schools wrote 5 million prescriptions for CA Cannabis.
Tommy Truong: Oh [00:24:00] wow.
Jimmy Young: Hmm. So how did it get vilified in 1937 with the tax act and prohibited greed? The old white man with that money wanted to keep the Jim Crow South, the segregated south, segregated.
They also didn't, they feared the use of hemp in manufacturing, which would've been a hell of a lot more, uh, healthy for our world and. It also would've cut down on the amount of cancer that we have to this day. And that's not me talking. I got that from doctors that understand the endocannabinoid system, that understand the system in all mammals that this plant interacts with.
So those are my, those are my big spiels. You got me going. You got me going, Tommy.
Tommy Truong: I, you know, I, I feel that frustration. I feel like all of everybody, uh, that's rational, feels the exact same frustration. Now, we don't have that in Canada. It's legal in Canada, but definitely in the US there's just a lot of [00:25:00] problems keeping it contained within state.
Jimmy Young: Well. You can't bring it from state to state. That's illegal. Okay. Wink, wink. Like it hasn't been moved from California to the rest of the country for the last 30, 40 years. I mean, the fact that our lawmakers are still living in reefer madness world is absolutely bizarre to me. That that Reefer Madness movie, which was an a, a prohibitionist movie that vilified the plant was, was promoted and supported.
From the money from Mr. DuPont, Mrs. Hurst, Mrs. Carnegie and Mr. Mellon, who really were the money people that survived the stock market crash of 1929 and they put a racist in charge of the first federal narcotics bureau. His name was Harry Anslinger, and he held that position continuing to vilify cannabis from 1930 to 1962.
Tommy Truong: Oh wow.[00:26:00]
Jimmy Young: Hmm. And there were two major government studies, research studies on cannabis during that tenure. And he debunked them all.
Tommy Truong: Yeah.
Jimmy Young: Oh, that they didn't do a controlled thing, they didn't do this. They didn't, they don't understand how, you know, dangerous this plant is. And when I hear the people that say you could get addicted to it, BS on that.
Tommy Truong: Mm-hmm.
Jimmy Young: You get addicted to coffee a lot easier than you would to cannabis. And, and when I had bronchitis a couple weeks ago, guess what? I stopped for 10 days. I didn't use it. I didn't even do my edibles. Nothing. I did nothing. I went, yeah, straight. Okay. Tolerance break, whatever you want to call it. And I also took 10 years off.
In 1990 when my son was born, for a lot of reasons, let's just say, um, I didn't wanna raise my, I didn't, oh, that means my dinner's done. Um, so anyway, but the point is, you can, you can get off cannabis [00:27:00] quicker than you can coffee
Tommy Truong: Oh yeah, for sure. Like that was a hundred percent cannabis takes forever to get out outta your bloodstream
Jimmy Young: outta your bloodstream. Yes. But it's not, you're not gonna be intoxicated for the entire time
Tommy Truong: No, but then that's, that's an indication of how addictive it is, how fast a drug gets outta your bloodstream. The faster it does, the more addictive it is. So that's alcohol. For example, if you're an alcoholic, you're gonna, you need to drink. That withdrawal's gonna kill you.
Jimmy Young: That's right. No, and, and it's the most abused drug in our society today. It really is. And, and by the way, you can get it on, and when I hear people complain, there's a dispensary on every corner. I go, there's four times the amount of liquor stores in this country than there are cannabis dispensaries, even in legal states.
Okay. I think there's something like 340. Three licensed cannabis dispensaries in Massachusetts and over 1100 liquor stores, or beer and wine where you can get beer, wine, and liquor. I'm gonna pour them all into the same boat because they're all alcohol based anyway. [00:28:00] And by the way, I, I mean, I'm not gonna tell you not to drink, and I'm not gonna tell you that you have to use the product.
No, it's not for everybody. I know a grower, a professional grower of cannabis who's allergic to THC. And yet he's still employed in the industry doing well because he grows very good cannabis sativa. That's the plants. So I, you know, there's, they just, a lot of people just live in the past and they, they grew up in the, you know, um, the DARE generation, which is drug awareness, resistance education, boy.
See that I'm old, but I still can get cut back into my brain. I usually have a 15 second delay when I have to remember stuff, you know? Um, but it's there. I, I don't know when it's gonna change. I know one thing, it won't change until the government starts to work again.
Tommy Truong: Yeah, you've, you're, you're in a very unique position because [00:29:00] you are so intimate with what's going on in the industry.
Jimmy Young: Well, it's 'cause I read 40 newsletters a week and I curate the content to find the most interesting stuff and then produce a TV style newscast. By the way, I've been in newsrooms for 30 years. I kind of understand how to do that now. My newscast is, it looks like it was produced in the 1990s. I get it, but you know what?
It's, nobody's doing what I'm doing. Nobody's, you know, and, and they're starting to, they're starting to, uh, emulate it in, in short bits. But we are, we're gonna make it, we're going to adapt and instead of an hour long show, we'll create, um, 10. Six to 10, 10 minute segments. That's how it's gonna work. And each segment will have two different states in it.
Um, we'll have an international report, we'll have federal reform report and everything will be like 10 minutes and it'll be available on demand, which is what the way you do it now. Shorts and, and you know, people's attention spans are seven [00:30:00] seconds. So we lost our audience a long time ago, Tommy,
Tommy Truong: Well, nowadays it's just, it's just short. Uh, our, our EC clips, the 52nd clips get the most views
Jimmy Young: Of course.
Tommy Truong: and you get less, less and less as you tack on minutes. I wanna talk a little bit about 2025. We're, uh, in the fourth quarter.
Jimmy Young: Yep.
Tommy Truong: If, when you look back at this year, what are some of the big news headlines that come across your mind?
Like, what are some milestones that we hit this, this year?
Jimmy Young: In, in, in News. Is that what you're talking about? All news.
Tommy Truong: In cannabis.
Jimmy Young: And cannabis. Well, hmm. Um, let's see. Certainly the release of that PSA was huge. Okay. Really? I, I, I still go back to that because that has never happened before. We've never seen a president of the United States, by the way. I can't believe that we actually had two presidential candidates talking about it openly.
That was, that alone was amazing [00:31:00] in 2024. Now, in the last year, I would have to say, let's see, I'd have to go back into my lead stories. It's really been watching the government delay the rescheduling process, and then you have the anti. Cannabis movement, um, Sam Smart approaches to Marijuana, and a guy named Dr.
Kevin Ette, who is a horrible human being. He coined the phrase cannabis use disorder. In other words, anybody who uses it, you have a disorder 'cause you're using it. I'm like, that is, that's ridiculous to say something like that. Especially if he has a medical degree. He's, I think he's a PhD, not an md, but that's okay.
Point is. He, he, the fact that he has access to our government to poison the, the lawmakers with his agenda and not the industry's agenda. It's not healthy. So I, those are, those are some of the biggest, but it's really about the descheduling. Nothing's gonna happen until then. Anything else? I don't, I, you know, right off the [00:32:00] top of my head.
I'm trying to remember all the different leads, but it all had to do, it has to do with the president's inner circle and who's in it and what, who's whispering in his ear, you know? And uh, meanwhile his approval rating's going down and I'm the one who kept saying. His ego's going up and as soon as his ego realizes that he can change that by being a cannabis hero, I mean, look, he's already stopped one war.
I give him credit for that. I really do. I do. I'd like to see him stop the other war, Ukraine and Russia. That'd be great. And I'd also like to see him at least decriminalize cannabis federally, open the banks and, and take it off schedule one. If it goes to schedule three, it's an improvement, but it's not what the industry really wants.
They want it regulated. They're willing to work within the regulatory bodies, but it shouldn't be one that's already existing. You know, it really shouldn't be. But again, there's a couple of bills that have been filed now, the States Act and the [00:33:00] more act that would establish a legalized industry with interstate commerce and a federal in, uh, tax on that.
There is a way to make it work. And there are some people in our Congress that are working on doing that.
Tommy Truong: Okay. Well that's good. That's good news. From a state perspective, anything new happening with either states launching or moving towards legalization?
Jimmy Young: Great question and, and I have this, we have an unofficial contest. We call it the race to 25, right? Because you get 24 and you get 50 states. It would be nice to get half the states, it's just a better than 24 out of the out of 50 states, right? So Pennsylvania. Has a governor, um, Josh Shapiro, I'm pretty sure is his name.
And they, he has gone on record saying, I want it legalized, I want adult use industry in our state of Pennsylvania. And because of this republican democrat thing, the, they can't get it passed. [00:34:00] They can't come to an agreement. 'cause if it's your idea, I don't like it. No, it's your idea. I don't like it.
That's not America.
Tommy Truong: So he, he doesn't have the senate in, in that state to push it through.
Jimmy Young: Correct. Take your pick. It's either the senator or the house. It's still the two party system. It's screwed up. Okay. It's, you know what, I would love, love, love. Give me five minutes with these guys and I will rip 'em and tell 'em you're, you should be ashamed of yourself taking the oath of, of representing your constituents.
By the way, 70% of Americans want it legalized.
Tommy Truong: Well, you look at Mississippi, they had a, they had a vote and
Jimmy Young: Our
Tommy Truong: a lot of people use.
Jimmy Young: states. Take a pick. Take your pick. Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana. They're all screwed up. Okay. I feel bad and I know I'm probably get, you know, people will hate me for it, but it's the government, it's the old school way of thinking. You know, there are too many old [00:35:00] white men making decisions about the future of this country.
They will not be around. When the stuff that they're working on and, and basically delaying, delaying, delaying, and not making decisions. The fact that our veterans, the people that fight for democracy, the people that fight for the rights for freedom, cannot have access to the, to the hospital that they're given access to for their PTSD is criminal to me, criminal.
It's horrible. One of my, one of the first guy who was in line for adult use legalization cannabis to buy is a guy named Steven Mandily He was a veteran of the, um, of Desert Storm, Storm, I think it was Desert Storm. And he was ready to take his own life when his wife handed him a joint, said, you know, before you do that, I recognize you, you have some trauma since you came back, smoke this.
See what happens. Smoked it. And guess what? All of his symptoms of PTSD went away.
Tommy Truong: Oh.
Jimmy Young: And [00:36:00] now, and now he goes before the Congress of the United States. He's been doing this for 10 years and they haven't been able to move the needle. They're barely starting to move the needle now. And I go back to that PSA because the, the messaging was we need to educate our medical community about how to use the cannabinoids that are in this plant for positive medical work, you know, for, for positivity.
Tommy Truong: you know, I was thinking through, well, I, I, I really wanted to talk to you about 2025, which we spoke about where you think legally, federally, where we're at, uh, some states, what's going on with some states. I know Pennsylvania is always hot, and there are some states that have gone live that are just really rolling it through.
Are you familiar with what's going on right now? You've touched base about this on this, on the hemp industry. You know, you have
Jimmy Young: Texas, for instance.
Tommy Truong: for instance, is, you know, [00:37:00] they do, they want, it's so big that they cannot, they ha they, it, they can't reverse course. There's an industry there, there's billions of dollars to be had.
Uh,
Jimmy Young: And jobs. And Jobs,
Tommy Truong: What's going on in Texas and, and how is the government reconciling.
Jimmy Young: The, well, the governor and the lieutenant Governor are completely opposite in that state and, and they couldn't agree. On any, on, you know, the lieutenant governor wanted to ban all hemp products, all THC infused products. Okay. And that would've put out a lot of people in out of business and outta work.
And it just doesn't make sense politically at all. So the governor used his executive, um, powers to say, here are the regulations, here's what we're going to do. And, and basically. That's what's happening now in Texas. So he didn't ban them, he's just regulating them. And the fact that these products are not age [00:38:00] gated.
Do you know what I mean by that? Okay. It, it blows me away. You, I don't know if you have, do you have a cough medic? You have a different health system in Canada, right? I mean, everybody has healthcare, right? Ooh, what a novel thought. Um, and they, um, they never card. Young people to buy hemp infused products.
THC infused products at hemp stores, smoke shops, wherever they're available can, uh, convenience stores, gas stations, they don't. It's absolutely the stupidest thing I've ever heard because if you go into a drug store in America, CVS or Walgreen, I think those are the two big ones. 'cause Rite Aid just closed their doors.
Um. You could, you can't walk out of there with cough medicine. Robitussin has dextro Mahan in it. And guess what? That stuff gets you high. You can't walk out of the drug store unless you're 21 with that product. So they're, they're already doing it [00:39:00] in drug stores, right. Or why not do it in convenience stores?
And, I mean, it's just crazy to me. They, they card for alcohol, they card for, uh, cigarettes, tobacco, cigarettes. But they, I mean, nothing, I, it's, they didn't understand what they were doing when the farm Bill came along in 2018 and they figured, oh, no, we'll just control it by making it a definition, federal definition for 0.3%.
And I love the fact that Mitch McConnell, who was the speaker, um, head of the Senate, uh, actually admitted they screwed up. I was one of the happiest day. That's a big thing for me 'cause that he, he was the villain and, and then he said, all right, well, I want to give a crop to my old tobacco farmers who are starving in Kentucky.
So let's give him another crop that will, they can make money on. We'll call it hemp, and we'll define it as 0.3% THC in dry weight. Then humans figured out a way to get high from 0.3%. [00:40:00] You light it up, you light it up.
Tommy Truong: you load it up, you concentrate, and here we are. Right. It's, it's terrible. I. And I know that because it's unregulated, there's a lot of product out there that's just not good for human consumption
Jimmy Young: Well, again, I, I'd like to think that, um, uh, there'll be more testing regularly. See, I like the fact that I can go.
Tommy Truong: regulation on testing.
Jimmy Young: Well, no. What happens in testing is people bribe the testers to, to enhance their THC percentage 'cause the consumers are clueless when they go into a dispensary and they always buy the highest percentage of THC.
Well, guess what? It has more to do with the terpenes that dictate the power of the cannabinoids, that it does the actual cannabinoid makeup. So. You know, once again, education, education, education. But can I put public service announcements on mass media? No. Uh, uh, uh, can't do that. It's a federally illegal substance.
So, I mean, they, they have screwed [00:41:00] this up so bad since 2018, and it is what it is. I, I, I do still think that when the president is ready, he will drive, he will make his disciples in the, in, in the ruling Republican party, if you will, um, figure out a way. To get it off schedule one, get it to schedule three, regulate it.
And if he's really smart, he'll figure out a way to do interstate commerce too.
Tommy Truong: Yeah,
Jimmy Young: when you have states, when you have states like Minnesota, that's brand new, uh, and, and or, um, what's the other? Colorado, there's a glut of product in Colorado. So the prices went right down. I think I heard $75 for a pound of weed in Colorado.
That's crazy.
Tommy Truong: It's
Jimmy Young: That's crazy. But that's what, that's what happens when you have an enclosed state economy. There's no place to take the excess and all they do is flood the market. So the prices collapse. And [00:42:00] neither say that means businesses collapse. So I mean, it is. They have messed this up so bad. It's amazing to me.
And yet. At least I could go into a dispensary and buy it and drive out of there in a little brown paper bag. Either I put it in my glove box or in the trunk like you're supposed to do, wink, wink, and uh, and then enjoy it at home. And I, and I've gotta tell you the other thing is that bothers me in media, especially whenever they do a story on cannabis, they always show the burning joint.
That's 50% of the users now. Every day. They still use, they still burn a joint or use a pipe or whatever, but that means another 50%. Half the market are using edibles, tinctures, um, topicals. Whatever works for them is what is is being used because there's still a lot of people out there who don't want to smoke it anymore.
Tommy Truong: Mm-hmm. And nowadays it's, it's, you know, you have vapes. There's so many [00:43:00] different ways to consume, uh, outside of smoking.
Jimmy Young: I tried the vape thing and I, I just, I, it wasn't the same intensity and it was very convenient to have a, a vape pen in your pocket and you could just like, you know, you could be at a restaurant and you just go
Tommy Truong: Mm-hmm.
Jimmy Young: and it, it was too much. It was too easy. And again, you have to figure out what's going to work for you.
We're in the biggest. Uncontrolled drug trial in history and, and we're all learning how to self-medicate and everybody, it, it, it affects people differently because of our endocannabinoid system, which is explained in that video again, that PSA, it's the system that's controlled by your brain.
Tommy Truong: Mm-hmm.
Jimmy Young: So anyway, we, I love to educate people.
That's what I really drives me, uh, whatever it is in, in speech, communication, uh, sports, uh, society, uh, parenting, and of course cannabis [00:44:00] too.
Tommy Truong: Jimmy before I, I know you have dinner. Before I let you go, where can our listeners find you?
Jimmy Young: They can't. No, I'm only kidding. Um, they can go to, uh, our website, which is wpc mtv.com. We always post the most recent, um, news, news. One-on-one interviews on the homepage, so it's really easy to find. Same thing with YouTube. All of our stuff's on YouTube. I'm also on LinkedIn. Um, so that's really how they do it.
And if you do wanna contact me direct, I really, I don't have any problem if you just email me at Jimmy jimmy@procannabismedia.com. Awesome. Thank you so much, Jimmy for joining me today.
No. And thank you for inviting me on and, and letting me rant and rave for an hour.
Tommy Truong: No, this is awesome. Thank you. I, I've gonna, I might, I just discovered you today and I'm a huge fan, and I, I can't wait till you come up with your, um, well, I'm, I'm, I'm on [00:45:00] your page. I'm gonna follow, uh
Jimmy Young: Well, I appreciate that, but go to skool.com if you want to be a regular on my Monday show or ask me questions direct, whatever that. Is what I'm trying to grow. That community is um, skool.com community. And the name of the community is the Young School of Communication. So
Tommy Truong: school communication. Okay.
Jimmy Young: yeah. And school with a K 'cause it's skool.com with a K.
And another reason why I like that URL. Because in broadcasting and in speech, spelling doesn't count. It's how you pronounce the word and how you enunciate. Are you speaking clearly? Are you changing your inflection points or even the rhythm of your delivery? And that's the curriculum that I call Epic, EPIC, and all the kids.
All the kids in my recovery class, they know every quiz I'm, I say it's worth 40 points, one word and the definition of each word. What does it mean? How do you, I drill it into these kids. I know they hate it and I don't care because I told 'em, I said, look, it's, [00:46:00] you're in college. You should be able to memorize four words with four definitions, and more importantly, if you want to go into.
Any kind of public speaking or broadcasting or, or lawyering or teaching, anything you need to use your voice. Even politics. I can teach you how to be a more effective talker
Tommy Truong: Mm-hmm.
Jimmy Young: and I'll
Tommy Truong: so valuable. It's so valuable. I'm gonna definitely check you out.
Jimmy Young: Well I appreciate that. I hope you'll take my, at least look at what I'm doing on Monday nights.
Come on in.
Tommy Truong: No, definitely I will.
Jimmy Young: Tommy, thank you so much.
Tommy Truong: Thank you. Ciao.
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