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The Gendering of Weed · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to Steffan
0:07
Speaker 1: never Told You reflection. iHeart radio and we are so
0:19
Speaker 1: happy to be.
0:20
Speaker 2: Joined on this text day.
0:23
Speaker 1: Bye, good friend of the show, excellent coworker, Joey.
0:29
Speaker 3: Welcome, Joey, Hey, thanks for having me. Super excited to
0:33
Speaker 3: talk about taxes. Yes, that's definitely what that's what everyone
0:38
Speaker 3: loves talking about.
0:39
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, well we are talking about.
0:45
Speaker 1: A tent pole event kind of, but not taxes because
0:51
Speaker 1: as we record this, yes, four twenty is coming up.
0:55
Speaker 1: We have done past episodes on some of the issues
0:57
Speaker 1: with four twenty if you want to go back and
0:59
Speaker 1: find that, and just like the weed industry in general,
1:03
Speaker 1: and then do you want to hear about the food
1:05
Speaker 1: side of it on Savor go check that out. But
1:08
Speaker 1: when you suggested this topic, Jerry, I immediately knew what
1:11
Speaker 1: you were talking about because you and I both have
1:15
Speaker 1: seen I think it's the same commercial.
1:17
Speaker 2: I'm not sure, but it's a lot. There's a lot
1:20
Speaker 2: going around. Yes, so what are we talking about, Joey? Yeah, so, surprise, surprise,
1:28
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about weed.
1:29
Speaker 3: I wanted to talk particularly about some of the advertising
1:35
Speaker 3: that we're seeing currently targeted at women selling weed or
1:39
Speaker 3: cannabis products, and some of the conversations that are that
1:43
Speaker 3: are coming up because of that, and how it just
1:45
Speaker 3: kind of an overview of the whole conversation about women
1:48
Speaker 3: in weed and how historically cannabis use has been viewed
1:53
Speaker 3: in women and now kind of the conversation now that's changing.
1:56
Speaker 4: I like, how y'all are talking about this, and I'm like,
1:57
Speaker 4: I have no idea what either one of you are
1:59
Speaker 4: talking about. I have not been given any.
2:01
Speaker 2: Of these ads.
2:03
Speaker 4: Oh if any government officials listening, I have not been
2:06
Speaker 4: a part of those crow.
2:13
Speaker 2: I don't know. I would never.
2:19
Speaker 3: Well, And I mean the conversation of legality and all
2:22
Speaker 3: of that also plays into this, which is interesting. Quick
2:25
Speaker 3: content warning up top, obviously, like I'm going to be
2:28
Speaker 3: talking about weed, cannabis. I'm going to keep using the
2:30
Speaker 3: word weed just because that's the word that I use
2:33
Speaker 3: mostly in conversation with my friends, but of course, yeah,
2:37
Speaker 3: just referring to cannabis generally in this conversation. Of course,
2:41
Speaker 3: I'm going to be mentioning misogyny and racism in the
2:44
Speaker 3: War on drugs historically, and also kind of current weed
2:47
Speaker 3: culture in the weed industry, as well as the mentions
2:50
Speaker 3: of diet culture and its relation to advertising.
2:53
Speaker 2: So I just want to put that up top.
2:57
Speaker 3: One more quick disclaimer, since we're talking about cannabis, I'm
3:02
Speaker 3: not a doctor or a legal expert, so please don't
3:06
Speaker 3: listen to me about any serious issues.
3:10
Speaker 2: Everybody's body reacts differently.
3:12
Speaker 3: Everybody has their own sort of experiences with cannabis. I
3:15
Speaker 3: will be talking about my own experience a little bit,
3:17
Speaker 3: but don't take that as like the you know, word.
3:23
Speaker 2: Of the law of how these things.
3:25
Speaker 3: You know, Again, everybody processes things differently, like don't I'm
3:29
Speaker 3: a mess. Don't come to me for medical advice or
3:32
Speaker 3: legal advice, because yeah I do. However, I live in
3:35
Speaker 3: a state where weed is decriminalized. Actually, at this point,
3:40
Speaker 3: the only two places I've ever lived weed is currently legal,
3:43
Speaker 3: So I'm coming in it from that perspective. That being said,
3:46
Speaker 3: of course, like I'm coming into this with the with
3:49
Speaker 3: the assumption that you know, people use drugs, people use weed.
3:54
Speaker 3: I'm not putting any sort of moral value to that.
3:58
Speaker 3: Whether or not it's something you want to partake in,
4:00
Speaker 3: that's your choice. Personally, I'm somebody who partakes on that,
4:03
Speaker 3: But yeah, so as we say it, it kind of
4:07
Speaker 3: at the top this episode. Originally wanted to do this
4:09
Speaker 3: episode because well, as as as somebody'll know, about a
4:13
Speaker 3: month ago, I it's did an episode about the whole
4:17
Speaker 3: conversation about girlhood on TikTok and like all these like
4:20
Speaker 3: girlhood trends and girl insert word, and how that kind
4:26
Speaker 3: of spiraled into a lot of different weird stuff and.
4:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, basically, girl rot girl, why is this happening?
4:37
Speaker 2: This rude girl rot?
4:40
Speaker 3: I have a lot of plus on it. Anyways, we're
4:42
Speaker 3: not gonna get all that tangent again. A big sort
4:45
Speaker 3: of problem I was seeing with that was the way
4:47
Speaker 3: it was making its way into advertising, particularly things like
4:50
Speaker 3: Girl Dinner and Girl Math and girl all those things.
4:53
Speaker 3: How that kind of was being used as like a
4:55
Speaker 3: marketing tool. Now I got another really weird targeted ad,
5:00
Speaker 3: this time on Hulu, and this sort of set me
5:02
Speaker 3: into a spiral thinking about weed and the conversation about
5:05
Speaker 3: weed and women and all that. So I made the
5:08
Speaker 3: mistake of not recording this ad or writing down what
5:10
Speaker 3: the company was. I have not been able to find
5:11
Speaker 3: it again, but I will do my best to describe
5:14
Speaker 3: it to now.
5:15
Speaker 2: Samantha and nanny.
5:16
Speaker 3: I have a question for you, which is that are
5:17
Speaker 3: you familiar with the narrative structure of your average paper
5:21
Speaker 3: towel commercial.
5:22
Speaker 2: It's my favorite narrative structure.
5:24
Speaker 3: It's it's one of the premier exports of American culture,
5:30
Speaker 3: I think. But basically this sort of commercial usually looks
5:35
Speaker 3: like is there's a white couple, the mom is clearly
5:41
Speaker 3: doing the majority of like the housework. They live in
5:44
Speaker 3: a nice, very clean, unlived in looking suburban household. Usually
5:50
Speaker 3: she's talking about like, ah, my kids are so crazy,
5:53
Speaker 3: they're leaving their stuff all over the place, and my
5:55
Speaker 3: husband doesn't do any work.
5:57
Speaker 2: But I've got XYZ product to help me out.
6:01
Speaker 3: This was basically the same structure of the commercial that
6:04
Speaker 3: I saw for weed gummies, which I thought was really
6:07
Speaker 3: interesting because especially when you look at kind of historically
6:11
Speaker 3: the war on drugs and a lot of the cultural
6:14
Speaker 3: forces that were behind the war on drugs, it's interesting
6:17
Speaker 3: to see the sort of idealized white suburban two point
6:21
Speaker 3: five kids, very clear gender roles, household being now the
6:26
Speaker 3: face of trying to sell cannabis and trying to sell
6:31
Speaker 3: beat gummies. Something that Sonatia this particular commercial was there
6:34
Speaker 3: was a bit where she's like my husband is like
6:37
Speaker 3: he's a total stoner, but not me, Like I'm a girl,
6:43
Speaker 3: I don't know how to smoke weed.
6:44
Speaker 2: So because the whole thing is it's very like.
6:46
Speaker 3: You know which, I'm not going to get into the
6:48
Speaker 3: like taking gummies versus smoking. I think that's a personal choice,
6:51
Speaker 3: but the implication is like smoking's gross. I need to
6:54
Speaker 3: take these nice health supplement gummies and like frame it
6:58
Speaker 3: in a way that it's like, no, it's healthy and
7:00
Speaker 3: it's good and it's and it's the whole thing is
7:02
Speaker 3: like it's helping me calm down from the chaos of
7:04
Speaker 3: my life. And I mean I would argue, yeah, that
7:06
Speaker 3: is a benefit of weed and it's something that draws
7:10
Speaker 3: a lot of people to eat. Is the fact that
7:11
Speaker 3: it is something that calms a lot of people down.
7:13
Speaker 3: It is like a stress reliever. But yeah, the way
7:16
Speaker 3: that this was being framed it very much was fitting
7:18
Speaker 3: into that traditional again, two point five kids, white, suburban,
7:23
Speaker 3: middle class family, paper towel, commercial main character thing.
7:29
Speaker 1: Yes, and I've seen these. I've seen these and I
7:32
Speaker 1: am one of my skills is I am so good
7:36
Speaker 1: at skipping youtwoe bats. I know, that fifteen second mark
7:40
Speaker 1: and I can skip it, but they know that you're
7:43
Speaker 1: gonna skip it. So there was one where like the
7:47
Speaker 1: couple was in bed and they're very like obnoxious couple.
7:50
Speaker 1: They're like over the top and they're in bed and
7:53
Speaker 1: she's like, I just did weed with my dad and
7:57
Speaker 1: then he like spits out.
7:58
Speaker 2: His orners like oh and the fifteen second skip.
8:01
Speaker 1: So I never saw beyond that part.
8:06
Speaker 2: It's so fascinating.
8:08
Speaker 3: I just I think this commercial really like this and
8:11
Speaker 3: these types of commercials that we're both getting, because this
8:13
Speaker 3: wasn't the only one. I've seen variations of this commercial
8:16
Speaker 3: over and over again. I've seen similar things what you're
8:18
Speaker 3: talking about. I think this really signals kind of a
8:21
Speaker 3: shift in the conversation about weed and the way that
8:23
Speaker 3: weed in cannabis use has been normalized to a certain extent.
8:27
Speaker 3: So basically, like whenever we're talking about this sort of thing, Basically,
8:32
Speaker 3: since the US became a consumer centric society, while men
8:36
Speaker 3: are traditionally the ones who are seen to be like
8:38
Speaker 3: making the money and working jobs and creating and selling
8:41
Speaker 3: these products, women are seen as the primary consumers. So
8:44
Speaker 3: I think it is really important to look at how
8:46
Speaker 3: these things are being marketed towards women, particularly to really
8:50
Speaker 3: understand the conversation about something within our sort of capitalistic sphere.
8:55
Speaker 3: So yeah, so this is the latest of that. Some
8:58
Speaker 3: quick background, really quick. While medical use of cannabis has
9:01
Speaker 3: been legal in some states across the US since nineteen
9:04
Speaker 3: ninety six, Colorado became the first state to legalize recreational
9:08
Speaker 3: lead in twenty fourteen, so just ten years ago. Now
9:14
Speaker 3: ten years later, recreational marijuana is legal in twenty four states.
9:18
Speaker 2: Again, that includes the only two.
9:19
Speaker 3: States that I've ever lived in, which are Illinois and
9:21
Speaker 3: New York Georgia. It seems like it's to criminalized in
9:25
Speaker 3: small amounts and like for some medical uses.
9:29
Speaker 2: I don't know if you guys have any anything else
9:32
Speaker 2: sort of any other infro on that.
9:33
Speaker 5: There're still a big debate with it. There's needs and
9:36
Speaker 5: bills being passed. There's a lot of headway and trying
9:39
Speaker 5: to get medical access. We just discovered the yes, you
9:44
Speaker 5: can get I think less than five percent as in
9:47
Speaker 5: like the concentration level for anything, which is I guess
9:51
Speaker 5: how it got into the non alcoholic drink we had
9:55
Speaker 5: and we all like, what is the world and it's
9:58
Speaker 5: effective as well, but like the overall intent, like they
10:05
Speaker 5: know that it's a big money.
10:06
Speaker 4: Maker for the state. They really are having a hard
10:10
Speaker 4: time and letting that go. Other than that, because it
10:13
Speaker 4: is a big money maker, they've made tons of money
10:16
Speaker 4: with bills and bonds. There are still people in jail
10:20
Speaker 4: for marijuana in general, Like there's no stopping all of that.
10:25
Speaker 4: So the it's really complicated here. It's supposed to decriminalize
10:30
Speaker 4: them that it's not a misdemeanor as opposed to a felony,
10:33
Speaker 4: but that doesn't mean they can't get you because there's
10:35
Speaker 4: like hashish apparently that has a deeper concentration can still
10:39
Speaker 4: get you.
10:40
Speaker 2: Five years in. So it's complicated. It's complicated. That's yeah,
10:46
Speaker 2: I think that's it's complicated.
10:48
Speaker 3: And once again, as I saw at the top, like
10:50
Speaker 3: I'm not a lawyer, I'm not about to try to
10:53
Speaker 3: give you a definitive answer, And like this whole conversation
10:56
Speaker 3: and most states has been really complicated in things keep
11:00
Speaker 3: changing and so much of it is so I mean,
11:02
Speaker 3: the whole thing is is just politics.
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Speaker 2: So it it really and racist.
11:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's all you know, none of it acts that
11:11
Speaker 3: the real issue is never actually the weed.
11:13
Speaker 2: It's always the you know, underlying things.
11:15
Speaker 3: So but yeah, that's not to say it is very complicated.
11:29
Speaker 3: I bring up this idea of legalization and the fact
11:33
Speaker 3: that it is fully legal in twenty four states to
11:37
Speaker 3: introduce this idea that like, this conversation about weed is
11:40
Speaker 3: so so different than it was like even five years ago.
11:43
Speaker 2: And hence that's you know why Annie and I.
11:47
Speaker 3: Are getting a lot of these advertisements all of a sudden,
11:50
Speaker 3: but are framing weed in a way much differently than
11:54
Speaker 3: it had been in the past. So and I love
12:00
Speaker 3: because you're like, yeah, has already said an idea.
12:03
Speaker 2: So I guess I always good, thank you. I'm just
12:08
Speaker 2: not one of the cool kids. It's okay, it's right,
12:14
Speaker 2: you know, just say no kids, just say exactly, this
12:19
Speaker 2: is your brain on drugs.
12:20
Speaker 3: So I do want to hear more about the THHC
12:25
Speaker 3: infused not alcoholic liquor you guys had, because that's not
12:28
Speaker 3: an interesting it's effective.
12:30
Speaker 2: I got home just the time.
12:32
Speaker 3: But to contrast this image, let's talk a little bit
12:38
Speaker 3: about women and the War on drugs. Historically, historically feels
12:44
Speaker 3: like the wrong word to be talking about the nineties,
12:45
Speaker 3: But whatever, I found this article from nineteen ninety one
12:50
Speaker 3: in the Berkeley Journal of Gender Law and Justice called
12:52
Speaker 3: the War on drugs a war on women.
12:55
Speaker 2: That again, it is from nineteen ninety one.
12:57
Speaker 3: Which was sort of the peak of the War on
13:00
Speaker 3: drugs in full full swing, and also around a time
13:04
Speaker 3: when this article doesn't.
13:07
Speaker 2: It talks about drugs very broadly. It's not just talking
13:09
Speaker 2: about weed.
13:09
Speaker 3: It's also talking about like cocaine and a lot of
13:12
Speaker 3: different drug use all sort of group together.
13:16
Speaker 2: But the article speaks.
13:18
Speaker 3: About how poor women of color, particularly war were impacted
13:23
Speaker 3: by the War on drugs and some of the unique
13:26
Speaker 3: kind of issues that poor women of color faced and
13:30
Speaker 3: during this era. The article states the statistics quote indicate
13:35
Speaker 3: that poor women of color do not fall into any
13:37
Speaker 3: categories with the highest incidents of drug use. However, the
13:40
Speaker 3: consequences of addiction to or any association with drugs can
13:44
Speaker 3: be much harsher for poor women of color do do
13:46
Speaker 3: poverty and discrimination. There are a number of factors that
13:50
Speaker 3: lead to the disproportionate impact of the War on drugs
13:53
Speaker 3: on women, including the feminization of poverty, connection to family life,
13:58
Speaker 3: and including specificlave the target drug abuse in pregnant women.
14:03
Speaker 3: This I found particularly interesting, especially in a time when
14:07
Speaker 3: reproductive rice are under attack once again. The feminization of
14:11
Speaker 3: poverty and the role of women in the war on drugs.
14:13
Speaker 3: The article states quote, if they are not involved in
14:16
Speaker 3: the drug trade directly, they are found guilty by association
14:19
Speaker 3: with their children, other family members, friends, and associates. In
14:22
Speaker 3: both the criminal and civil contexts, the law is used
14:25
Speaker 3: to destroy families and neighborhoods without attempting to address the
14:28
Speaker 3: underlying causes of drug addiction and abuse. The article also
14:32
Speaker 3: again yeah points to concerns about pregnancy and motherhood, stating quote,
14:36
Speaker 3: criminal prosecution for fetal abuse, like all of these other
14:39
Speaker 3: war tactics, is exercise in a racially discriminatory manner. Seventy
14:44
Speaker 3: one percent of all women charged with fetal abuse are
14:46
Speaker 3: African American. The most commonly preferred reason for such action
14:51
Speaker 3: is purported concerned for the child's welfare, but the sudden
14:54
Speaker 3: concern for the welfare of black babies prompt suspicion. So
14:59
Speaker 3: the article connects us back to the historic dehumanization of
15:01
Speaker 3: black women and black mothers, stating quote, this particular strategy
15:06
Speaker 3: and the current war on drugs is a continuation of
15:08
Speaker 3: the dehumanation of black women that has its roots in slavery.
15:11
Speaker 3: In those times, the slave master controlled reproduction through forced breeding,
15:14
Speaker 3: manipulation of marital choices, and rape. After giving birth, slave
15:18
Speaker 3: women were often denied the right to keep or care
15:21
Speaker 3: for their children. More recently, poor women of color have
15:24
Speaker 3: been subject to force sterilization, while their ability to choose
15:26
Speaker 3: other means of reproductive control, such as abortion, has been
15:29
Speaker 3: severely limited. And I think this is a really interesting
15:34
Speaker 3: point to start from.
15:36
Speaker 2: And again, like I.
15:38
Speaker 3: Said, we're living at a time when reproductive health is
15:40
Speaker 3: under attack. Again, women are expected to carry children.
15:47
Speaker 2: Whether they want to or not.
15:49
Speaker 3: And a lot of times, the particular scrutiny that is
15:53
Speaker 3: put on women that use drugs like marijuana or any
15:57
Speaker 3: other substance, it has to do with a sort of
16:00
Speaker 3: pseudo concern for the fetus and for the children. And
16:04
Speaker 3: you know that already on it in itself is very
16:09
Speaker 3: complicated and has a lot of messed up connotations. But
16:12
Speaker 3: when you put that into context, the fact that these
16:15
Speaker 3: same sort of social structures that want to keep weed
16:22
Speaker 3: something that's illegal and something that is taboo, these are
16:25
Speaker 3: also oftentimes the same sort of social structures that want
16:28
Speaker 3: to limit women's ability to have any sort of reproductive freedom.
16:33
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's to say, I do. I think all
16:36
Speaker 2: of these issues are connected.
16:38
Speaker 3: And I think any sort of like control over women's
16:42
Speaker 3: bodies or people that can become pregnant, over our bodies,
16:45
Speaker 3: that is something that is going to be politicized, is
16:49
Speaker 3: going to be used against us when it can be.
16:52
Speaker 3: And I think that also is interesting to look at
16:54
Speaker 3: and contrast to going back to this idea of the
16:59
Speaker 3: commercial image of people now that are using weed, there's
17:03
Speaker 3: this idea of like the weed mom that's kind of
17:06
Speaker 3: coming out now that's sort of replacing the idea of
17:10
Speaker 3: like a wine mom, that commercial that I talked about
17:13
Speaker 3: at the top.
17:14
Speaker 2: I think that that's.
17:15
Speaker 3: Kind of a quintessential example of the like, Ah, I
17:18
Speaker 3: just I'm so stressed out because my kids are crazy
17:21
Speaker 3: and my husband doesn't help out with the house at all.
17:26
Speaker 3: I guess I'm gonna take some gummies to go on wind,
17:28
Speaker 3: which you know, I have no problems with that. Motherhood
17:31
Speaker 3: is stressful. I cannot imagine. But yeah, I think there
17:34
Speaker 3: is there's an interesting character that's being created by these
17:38
Speaker 3: sort of marketing narratives of this. Usually white, usually more
17:42
Speaker 3: affluent mom who is using weed, and that is something
17:46
Speaker 3: that is just kind of like funny or you know,
17:48
Speaker 3: it's a way to calm down. And that being contrasted
17:51
Speaker 3: with the historic scrutiny on particularly poor women of color
17:57
Speaker 3: and their use of you know, either weed or or
18:00
Speaker 3: any other sort of substance just because people like to
18:03
Speaker 3: use substances. I mean again, like all of these things. Yet, well,
18:06
Speaker 3: people are using weed because they're stressed out or because
18:08
Speaker 3: X y Z, But like people have used weed for
18:12
Speaker 3: all of human existence, Like it is kind of one
18:14
Speaker 3: of those things. It's the same with like alcohol, Like, yes,
18:17
Speaker 3: we should talk about the issues, or we should talk
18:20
Speaker 3: about health issues or sociological issues.
18:22
Speaker 2: Related to it.
18:23
Speaker 3: But it is saying that people are immoral simply for
18:26
Speaker 3: using something something is kind of counterproductive.
18:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, so obviously, and again, all of these stigmas that
18:34
Speaker 2: existed during.
18:35
Speaker 3: The height of the War on drugs, they still exist.
18:38
Speaker 3: They still exist in lots of personally the country, but
18:40
Speaker 3: so does capitalism.
18:42
Speaker 2: And since weed is now.
18:44
Speaker 3: Legal in the growing majority of the country, that means
18:48
Speaker 3: that these sort of shame and puritanical values that used
18:51
Speaker 3: to lead the conversation about weed are now being overshadowed
18:54
Speaker 3: by the one force in this country with more power
18:57
Speaker 3: than puritanical values and shame, which is capitalism. And as
19:01
Speaker 3: a result, we're seeing this very rapid brandification of the
19:05
Speaker 3: weed industry. If you walk into a dispensary in any
19:08
Speaker 3: state where it's legal, I'm sure you can see lots
19:11
Speaker 3: of you know, new shiny brands of which, again I'm
19:18
Speaker 3: not saying that's a bad thing. That's again just part
19:21
Speaker 3: of American capitalism as it exists right now, but it's
19:25
Speaker 3: definitely very different than I think previously the like purchasing
19:31
Speaker 3: of weed was imagined to look like. And so as
19:35
Speaker 3: cannabis becomes more normalized and more mainstream, I think we're
19:40
Speaker 3: seeing gender become a much more important part of this
19:44
Speaker 3: whole marketing process. So one of the most infamous historical
19:48
Speaker 3: examples of gender marketing is of course cigarettes, and I
19:52
Speaker 3: think it's really interesting to look at how the marketing
19:55
Speaker 3: tactics used to sort of feminize smoking nicotine back in
19:59
Speaker 3: the day are now being us to feminize smoking weed
20:02
Speaker 3: or using cannabis. Again, a lot of times it's more
20:04
Speaker 3: for gummies than it is for actually smoking. And this
20:07
Speaker 3: isn't to say that I think like the cigarette industry
20:11
Speaker 3: is evil. I'm not saying the weed industry is on
20:15
Speaker 3: the same moral footing as the cigarette industry. That's very different,
20:18
Speaker 3: but we're seeing some of the same tactics, which is
20:21
Speaker 3: that in some versions the products are sort of being
20:24
Speaker 3: marketed in a way that's quote like four girls or
20:27
Speaker 3: toned down or sexy. It's made to look at make
20:29
Speaker 3: you look sexy, and in other cases it's seen as
20:32
Speaker 3: something that's like.
20:33
Speaker 2: Empowering or liberating.
20:35
Speaker 3: And through this kind of new marketing of making products
20:39
Speaker 3: that are particularly for women or for girls, we're seeing
20:43
Speaker 3: things like the pink tax come about, which is where,
20:46
Speaker 3: in dressing up a product in a way that's like
20:48
Speaker 3: aesthetically pleasing or like gurly or pink or whatever, you
20:53
Speaker 3: can charge more for it.
20:56
Speaker 2: Because it's for girls. So if you don't know what
20:59
Speaker 2: the taxes.
21:00
Speaker 3: According to Investipedia, the pink tax is the tendency for
21:03
Speaker 3: goods and services to marketed towards women to be more
21:06
Speaker 3: expensive than those targeted at men. And that's why a
21:10
Speaker 3: lot of times and weed is kind of the more
21:14
Speaker 3: recent version of this, but you see the gender binary
21:17
Speaker 3: sort of imposed on these products that I would.
21:21
Speaker 2: Argue, don't need to be gendered.
21:22
Speaker 3: I don't think there's anything about weed that makes it
21:25
Speaker 3: different for men or women or whatever gender you are
21:29
Speaker 3: to insume it. And yet again there is sort of
21:33
Speaker 3: this culture of marketing things in a way towards women
21:38
Speaker 3: that then you're like, okay, and I can charge them
21:39
Speaker 3: a little bit more if because we're making it pink
21:41
Speaker 3: and we're making it for girls.
21:44
Speaker 2: And look, this in and of itself is not necessarily
21:46
Speaker 2: a bad thing.
21:46
Speaker 3: If you want to spend a bit more money on
21:48
Speaker 3: a product because it's like dressed up a little bit,
21:50
Speaker 3: all power to you.
21:51
Speaker 2: I support that.
21:52
Speaker 3: I think the problem is when this is the majority
21:55
Speaker 3: of the conversation or the majority of the products being
21:58
Speaker 3: marketed towards women. Like I will say, I've bought a
22:03
Speaker 3: few rose pedal joints in my day that are definitely
22:07
Speaker 3: not necessarily for practicality, just because they look nice. But yeah,
22:13
Speaker 3: these sort of marketing techniques particularly start to concern me
22:16
Speaker 3: when they felled into more predatory tactics, and when you
22:21
Speaker 3: talk about things being marketed towards women. A big example
22:26
Speaker 3: of that is diet culture and the way that these
22:29
Speaker 3: products connect to diet culture. So a product that I
22:32
Speaker 3: got advertised the other day was for a thhc V product.
22:41
Speaker 3: I'm not a scientist. I could not tell you what
22:43
Speaker 3: those specific things mean. However, the way that they marketed
22:46
Speaker 3: it was the company was called Blaze and Chill and
22:49
Speaker 3: the product was called Lazy Days and it's supposed to
22:53
Speaker 3: be weed that doesn't give you munchies. And I feel
22:59
Speaker 3: mixed thoughts on this because I have one hands. I
23:03
Speaker 3: get it, like munches can be annoying, and I know
23:06
Speaker 3: plenty of people that are like, I don't want another
23:09
Speaker 3: thing that's gonna make me want to eat more, Like
23:10
Speaker 3: I to each their own. With that that being said,
23:14
Speaker 3: I was like, huh, that's that seems a little bit
23:16
Speaker 3: weird to be advertising this towards women, in particular with
23:19
Speaker 3: don't worry it won't make you want to eat more,
23:23
Speaker 3: because we know you ladies hate eating food, especially when
23:27
Speaker 3: it's something like.
23:27
Speaker 2: Weed that's like, I don't know you're supposed to do.
23:30
Speaker 3: It's supposed to be something for fun and relaxation, and
23:32
Speaker 3: I mean, it can be really fun to eat while
23:34
Speaker 3: you're high, I will say, but uh, but yeah, this
23:40
Speaker 3: is the area where I start to get concerned because
23:43
Speaker 3: I think, yes, this gendered marketing sometimes can be a
23:48
Speaker 3: little bit frivolous and can be a little bit fun
23:50
Speaker 3: if again, if you want just like your.
23:52
Speaker 2: Fine little pink product.
23:54
Speaker 3: But when it gets to the point where we are
23:55
Speaker 3: leaning into these ideas of diet culture and buy the
24:00
Speaker 3: expectations and all of that, that's when I start to
24:02
Speaker 3: get concerned and I.
24:04
Speaker 2: Don't know, that just does not seem like something that's
24:06
Speaker 2: going to end well from my perspective.
24:19
Speaker 1: Well, interestingly, one of the other because I saw all
24:22
Speaker 1: of these ads they had a handful. One of the
24:25
Speaker 1: other big ones was it was a group of women
24:28
Speaker 1: after like a brownie night, I must assume at a
24:32
Speaker 1: book club and they're all like passed out, and they're like,
24:36
Speaker 1: are you tired of drinking and the hangover? Take your
24:41
Speaker 1: weed gummies. But it also was like, you won't get
24:44
Speaker 1: the calories from drink, you'll just get the the high.
24:49
Speaker 1: But going back to that idea of like the wine
24:52
Speaker 1: mom and the weed mom, there was this big concern
24:55
Speaker 1: about like a past host Bridget did an episode on
24:58
Speaker 1: it about like the rise of drinking to essentially deal
25:01
Speaker 1: with Trump and the patriarchy m hm. And so it
25:05
Speaker 1: became all like the wine mom who is miserable and
25:07
Speaker 1: she's drinking just to like get through the day.
25:10
Speaker 2: And now it's like, well.
25:12
Speaker 1: People are kind of moving away from alcohol, they still
25:14
Speaker 1: want to be thin, but nothing's really gotten better.
25:17
Speaker 2: Take care, take your weed right right. And this is
25:20
Speaker 2: will to say.
25:21
Speaker 3: I mean, I think I think the whole conversation about
25:22
Speaker 3: wine Mom's like that it's its own very complicated thing.
25:25
Speaker 3: I think a lot of times, like you said, it's
25:29
Speaker 3: rooted in these real world stress and expectations that a
25:33
Speaker 3: we live in a we live in a world that
25:34
Speaker 3: is very hostile towards women or to anybody who is
25:37
Speaker 3: not a sis man. And then also you know a
25:39
Speaker 3: lot of times motherhood, all of these things they're they're
25:42
Speaker 3: very stressful there.
25:43
Speaker 2: You're not given a lot of support.
25:44
Speaker 3: We don't live in a culture that lends women or
25:47
Speaker 3: people that are doing this like a lot of support.
25:49
Speaker 3: It makes sense that people are turning to alcohol and
25:55
Speaker 3: then now are turning to weed because these are again
25:57
Speaker 3: stress relievers. And but then there is of course then
26:02
Speaker 3: the concern of yeah, like when does it become a
26:05
Speaker 3: substance abuse issue? When does it become a thing to
26:09
Speaker 3: numb the pain up the rest of the world and
26:12
Speaker 3: not something that you're just doing for fun. And I'm
26:16
Speaker 3: I'm not getting a ton into substance abuse when it
26:19
Speaker 3: comes to weed and here just because that I think
26:21
Speaker 3: there is still like a lot of research that needs
26:23
Speaker 3: to be done, and I that is a way bigger
26:26
Speaker 3: conversation than I kind.
26:29
Speaker 2: Of have the capacity to talk about.
26:31
Speaker 3: But yeah, I think I think these are things to
26:35
Speaker 3: remember as we're seeing cannabis and we become more normalized
26:41
Speaker 3: and more like mainstream, if i'd I do think it
26:45
Speaker 3: is also interesting to talking about the way that this
26:49
Speaker 3: whole conversation about how weat is being marketed towards women
26:52
Speaker 3: and these ideas of like girl weed or weed for
26:55
Speaker 3: women kind of companies. I think it's interesting to juxtapose
26:58
Speaker 3: that with the historic and ongoing expert of women in
27:02
Speaker 3: cannabis product marketing and advertising, as well as sort of
27:06
Speaker 3: the gender barriers within the actual industry. I found this
27:10
Speaker 3: really fantastic piece from the Denver Post that I will
27:13
Speaker 3: link in the notes called opinion weed Bros Still cling
27:17
Speaker 3: to a quote booth babes and no girls in the
27:20
Speaker 3: grow sexist mentality written by cannabis journalists Lindsay Bartlett. She writes,
27:27
Speaker 3: objectification of women's bodies is interwoven into the very language
27:31
Speaker 3: of weed, from culsovar names to packaging, over sexualized marketing,
27:35
Speaker 3: booth babes and trim bits.
27:37
Speaker 2: Strain names like mill.
27:39
Speaker 3: Dirty girl and tits have circulated the adult use marketplace.
27:43
Speaker 3: No matter how well it's grown, it tastes like violence.
27:46
Speaker 3: And I will say this is usually the kind of
27:47
Speaker 3: thing I'm actually a little bit more skeptical about, Like
27:50
Speaker 3: I do think sometimes like these kind of names sometimes
27:53
Speaker 3: could just be a little bit funnier, I think.
27:55
Speaker 2: But I do see where she's coming from.
27:57
Speaker 3: And I think particularly Bartlett is writing as somebody who
28:00
Speaker 3: has worked in the industry and has worked as as
28:04
Speaker 3: a woman in the industry and dealt with the misogyny
28:06
Speaker 3: of the industry. I can see how that can be
28:08
Speaker 3: incredibly frustrating, especially when you are contrasting it with the
28:11
Speaker 3: sort of like she was talking about, the sort of
28:15
Speaker 3: no girls and grow idea that exists in a lot
28:18
Speaker 3: of the grow side of the industry. And so the
28:23
Speaker 3: fact that this is happening and the fact that we're
28:26
Speaker 3: seeing again like the prevalence of these kind of these
28:28
Speaker 3: more misogistic names or this mentality. This is happening in
28:33
Speaker 3: tangent with discrimination cases such as one in twenty twenty
28:38
Speaker 3: two that Bartlett writes about, in which quote, two former
28:42
Speaker 3: employees filed a lawsuit against a Los Angeles based grow,
28:46
Speaker 3: alleging that the company discriminates against women. One plaintiff was
28:49
Speaker 3: told quote is called jungle boys for a reason, and
28:52
Speaker 3: that women were not allowed in the grow. Bartlett also
28:55
Speaker 3: points to a twenty twenty one case in which quote,
28:59
Speaker 3: a well known multi state cannabis brand posted a photo
29:03
Speaker 3: of a woman being used as a table with a rig,
29:06
Speaker 3: hash and other accoutrements placed on her back to hundreds
29:09
Speaker 3: of thousands of consumers on social media. Had a woman
29:12
Speaker 3: been invited to the marketing table, she might have told
29:14
Speaker 3: them that using this photo was a terrible idea. And
29:16
Speaker 3: that was the one that really made me like, oh wow, okay, yeah,
29:19
Speaker 3: that sounds like a very misogynistic image, and I think
29:26
Speaker 3: that is something that is important to remember when it
29:31
Speaker 3: is contrasted again with these companies that are presenting themselves
29:35
Speaker 3: as again like weed for women or weed for girls.
29:38
Speaker 3: We're going to charge you a little bit more for this,
29:40
Speaker 3: and then the mainstream weed companies are very much leaning
29:43
Speaker 3: into these older misogynistic marketing techniques.
29:47
Speaker 2: Like I mentioned earlier, this is very similar to the.
29:50
Speaker 3: Cigarette industry, like a century ago. A lot of times cigarettes,
29:54
Speaker 3: when they were marketed towards women, it was about how
29:56
Speaker 3: like it makes you look so like classy and sophisticated,
30:00
Speaker 3: or it's something that's very liberating for you. And then
30:02
Speaker 3: when you see cigarette ads that were aimed at men,
30:05
Speaker 3: they oftentimes like women were very much objectified. So yeah,
30:11
Speaker 3: and then if that's not enough to be angry about,
30:15
Speaker 3: I want to bring up one more case from that
30:17
Speaker 3: article that Bartlett wrote in which he says, quote in
30:22
Speaker 3: twenty twenty four, so this year, a recent lawsuit audaciously
30:27
Speaker 3: claims that social equity regulations in New York, which have
30:30
Speaker 3: attempted to safeguard licenses for minorities, women and those hit
30:34
Speaker 3: hardest by the War on drugs, are discriminatory against men.
30:38
Speaker 3: Men hold the majority of c suitet roles in weed,
30:41
Speaker 3: and some things really stuck out to me. I also
30:43
Speaker 3: work on Brigit Todd's podcasts. There are no girls on
30:46
Speaker 3: the internet who's often on this show, and this is
30:49
Speaker 3: something that comes up a lot on that show. So Ever,
30:53
Speaker 3: since the Supreme Court ruling against defirmative action last summer,
30:56
Speaker 3: there had been a wave of lawsuits against programs and
30:59
Speaker 3: measures that have attempted to reverse some of the deep,
31:02
Speaker 3: deep rooted inequalities in all aspects of the American economy
31:06
Speaker 3: and systems of power. And these lawsuits are concerning for
31:11
Speaker 3: so so many reasons, and they also are just like
31:15
Speaker 3: contra to reality.
31:16
Speaker 2: And like in that.
31:18
Speaker 3: Quote from Bartlett, she states, you know, the majority of
31:21
Speaker 3: c suite roles in the cannabis industry as well as
31:24
Speaker 3: every other industry that's being targeted by these sort of lawsuits,
31:27
Speaker 3: are still held.
31:28
Speaker 2: By men, and usually white men.
31:31
Speaker 3: So there's this whole sort of panic over this isn't
31:35
Speaker 3: happening in a vacuum. Every sort of moral panic that
31:39
Speaker 3: we're seeing over again any kind of small steps to
31:45
Speaker 3: reverse the historic inequality that exists in a lot of
31:47
Speaker 3: our systems. DEI is the big kind of buzzword thing
31:52
Speaker 3: that conservatives are attacking right now. Cannabis, the cannabis industry
31:56
Speaker 3: is just the latest sort of victim of this very
32:01
Speaker 3: I want to say short sighted, but it's not really
32:03
Speaker 3: short sighted because the people doing these lawsuits know exactly
32:05
Speaker 3: what they're doing, but yeah, the cannabis has become the
32:09
Speaker 3: latest victim of that. So I looked a little bit
32:11
Speaker 3: more into this New York lawsuit. So basically, when weed
32:14
Speaker 3: was first legalized in New York and a similar thing
32:17
Speaker 3: happened in Illinois, I don't know if this happened in
32:19
Speaker 3: other states. I'm sure similar programs were put in place,
32:22
Speaker 3: but those legislation mandated the investment of forty percent of
32:26
Speaker 3: all adult use cannabis tax revenue toward rebuilding communities harmed
32:30
Speaker 3: by the War on drugs. That's according to the New
32:32
Speaker 3: York Office of Cannabis Management. And also the law quote
32:37
Speaker 3: establishes a goal of awarding fifty percent of all adult
32:40
Speaker 3: use licenses to distinct see social and economic equity groups
32:46
Speaker 3: including individual or individuals from a community disproportionately impacted by
32:51
Speaker 3: cannabis prohibition, a minority owned business, a woman owned business,
32:54
Speaker 3: distressed farmers, or service disabled veterans. And so the case
32:59
Speaker 3: that is currently happening in New York, a pair of
33:01
Speaker 3: white dudes were mad that they had to wait a
33:03
Speaker 3: little bit longer to get a dispensary license, and so
33:07
Speaker 3: now they're suing the state of New York, saying that
33:09
Speaker 3: this policy that tries to prioritized communities that have been
33:14
Speaker 3: more historically impacted by the War on drugs is somehow
33:19
Speaker 3: being racist and misogynistic to them as white men, to
33:23
Speaker 3: groups that have historically faced a lot of discrimination in
33:25
Speaker 3: this country. They are being represented pro bono by the
33:31
Speaker 3: Pacific Legal Foundation, which is a libertarian law firm.
33:37
Speaker 2: Just putting that out there. A lot of these cases.
33:39
Speaker 3: Seem to be getting pro bono representation by activist law firms.
33:44
Speaker 2: Wonder why that is.
33:45
Speaker 3: And I will say, all of this being said, then
33:48
Speaker 3: New York cannabis rollout, like industry rollout, has been kind
33:51
Speaker 3: of a mess.
33:51
Speaker 2: So I'm not too worried. Knock on wood, We'll see.
33:56
Speaker 3: But there actually is another lawsuit ongoing in which four
34:00
Speaker 3: women are suing the State of New York for the
34:02
Speaker 3: opposite reason.
34:04
Speaker 2: The way that the.
34:06
Speaker 3: Licensing system works right now is there's kind of this
34:09
Speaker 3: lottery system that randomizes the queue for cannabis licenses, and
34:15
Speaker 3: the women are claiming that the system doesn't actually do
34:17
Speaker 3: anything to help them kind of gain more, you know,
34:21
Speaker 3: of a priority.
34:23
Speaker 2: There was an article in which they spoke with.
34:25
Speaker 3: The lawyer who is representing these women, and they said
34:29
Speaker 3: that they're actually not going to pursue a like discrimination
34:33
Speaker 3: case because that would be too complicated. They're they're sort
34:35
Speaker 3: of more looking at it as a like, hey, this
34:38
Speaker 3: system isn't really working. Can be fixed it so that
34:40
Speaker 3: it actually works the way it's supposed to do. And
34:42
Speaker 3: also one work quick tangent about this whole case and
34:46
Speaker 3: everything going on in New York. According to a Forbes
34:49
Speaker 3: article on the lawsuits and sort of just the overall
34:52
Speaker 3: chaotic state of the weed industry of New York, quote,
34:56
Speaker 3: as the legal retail industry has flagged, unlicensed weed retail
35:00
Speaker 3: stops spots had exploded, with more than fifteen hundred unlicensed
35:05
Speaker 3: operations compared to just nine legal venues. So like, I
35:09
Speaker 3: don't know, there's a lot you could take away from that.
35:11
Speaker 3: I would argue, there are, you know, maybe bigger things
35:16
Speaker 3: to figure out than making sure that two white men
35:20
Speaker 3: who really really want to open a dispensary are feel
35:23
Speaker 3: like they're being treated fairly.
35:24
Speaker 2: I don't know. Anyways, the whole.
35:27
Speaker 3: Kind of weed legal bead industry rollout has been a mess,
35:30
Speaker 3: And I think that also is important to think about
35:33
Speaker 3: when we talk about these kind of issues.
35:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's just a quick point to remember
35:39
Speaker 4: that arrests are still happening. Yeah on the federal level,
35:42
Speaker 4: like a pretty substantial amount of people who are being
35:46
Speaker 4: arrested for possession. And yeah, that federal level is a
35:49
Speaker 4: big concern. That's been a conversation that's been happening for
35:52
Speaker 4: a minute. And again it is disproportionately the black community
35:56
Speaker 4: who was being arrested, which is kind of hilarious that
36:01
Speaker 4: the corporate worlds, that capitalist world are like, yeah, let's
36:04
Speaker 4: jump on. It is not really going well and people
36:07
Speaker 4: are still getting arrested, but we can still make money.
36:09
Speaker 4: And again, the majority of the shareholders are white men
36:12
Speaker 4: who have been less impacted from jump from beginning, Like
36:16
Speaker 4: we know when we've heard many stories where white men
36:19
Speaker 4: are able to get out of having smoking openly, while
36:24
Speaker 4: people from the black community are literally planted with buds
36:27
Speaker 4: and then arrested for years and years and years and
36:30
Speaker 4: I'll go into debt because they have no money to
36:32
Speaker 4: do bond and all that stuff. So it is still
36:35
Speaker 4: important to remember that, yeah, this is going one way,
36:39
Speaker 4: and we wanted this to be equitable for all peoples.
36:42
Speaker 4: But the fact that people are still being arrested and
36:44
Speaker 4: incarcerated on top of that, being arrested with multiple charges
36:49
Speaker 4: because they've already had a bad record with weed and
36:52
Speaker 4: typically a lot of these accounts these people are is
36:55
Speaker 4: just weed and can never get back on their feet,
36:57
Speaker 4: meaning they can't get jobs, meaning they're still blacklisted from
37:00
Speaker 4: so many organizations when they just had perhaps a couple
37:05
Speaker 4: of essentially like just literally having a couple of bounces.
37:09
Speaker 4: Because even in the state of Georgia, one ounce can
37:12
Speaker 4: get you still up to a year or a ten
37:14
Speaker 4: thousand dollar fine, like get lover five to ten thousand
37:17
Speaker 4: dollar fine. It's amportant to who you are, if you
37:18
Speaker 4: have representation and or how the arresting officer fills that day.
37:23
Speaker 4: So it's really just absurd of what this is happening,
37:26
Speaker 4: because the discrimination and the discrepancies on how this is
37:30
Speaker 4: looked at is so wide ranging, m that it's almost
37:37
Speaker 4: like a legend. Oh, you know, they tell you, like
37:40
Speaker 4: as this is like a folklore, don't go to this area.
37:43
Speaker 2: You know, it's just so absurd, for sure, It's it's ridiculous.
37:45
Speaker 3: I mean, and I think that that is that's such
37:49
Speaker 3: an important point. It is important to remember like, yeah,
37:51
Speaker 3: it is still criminalized, and a lot of this country
37:54
Speaker 3: is still criminalized on a federal level. And I think again,
37:59
Speaker 3: I with talking about the commercials that I'm getting and
38:04
Speaker 3: talking about these sort of marketing techniques we're seeing, because
38:08
Speaker 3: you really, it is such an obvious example of the
38:11
Speaker 3: fact that there's just like two vastly different worlds that
38:14
Speaker 3: exist in the US, and it is one hundred percent
38:18
Speaker 3: based on who you are, what your identity is, how
38:22
Speaker 3: much money you have, Like I can come on here
38:27
Speaker 3: and I can hag and joke about, you know, having
38:30
Speaker 3: used weed and talk about this as a like you know, sociology,
38:35
Speaker 3: like let's talk about these images of women that we're
38:38
Speaker 3: seeing issue. And then at the same time, there's people
38:43
Speaker 3: being arrested for way less and serving serious jail time.
38:48
Speaker 3: There are people that you know, the reason that all
38:52
Speaker 3: of these legislations, the reason that there's there's so much
38:54
Speaker 3: emphasis on making sure that these communities that were most
38:57
Speaker 3: impacted by the War on drugs and individuals that were
39:00
Speaker 3: impacted by the War on drugs, how that making sure
39:03
Speaker 3: that those people can now perceive the benefits of the
39:07
Speaker 3: like legal cannabis industry and can maybe have like a
39:11
Speaker 3: fast pass to getting a license to sell cannabis recreationally
39:17
Speaker 3: and all of this. It's because the War on drugs
39:21
Speaker 3: ruined lives and ruined communities, and that is something that
39:24
Speaker 3: I think.
39:26
Speaker 2: We need to remember and we need to remember even.
39:31
Speaker 3: As and I do, I think it is like ultimately
39:33
Speaker 3: a net positive that weed as being more normalized and
39:37
Speaker 3: that cannabis consumption is seen as something that is just
39:39
Speaker 3: like it's like having a beer, it's like going out
39:42
Speaker 3: to a bar.
39:43
Speaker 2: It is just like a normal part of human life.
39:45
Speaker 3: But it's so important to remember, like that was not
39:48
Speaker 3: that long ago, and that is where we're coming from,
39:50
Speaker 3: and that is still the reality that lots of people
39:52
Speaker 3: in this country face.
39:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, and just to put a capra on it, our
39:55
Speaker 4: vice president Kamala Harris has there's still people in prison
39:59
Speaker 4: that she put in there for marijuana use like that,
40:02
Speaker 4: and has not she has not rectified that situation like
40:06
Speaker 4: I want to.
40:06
Speaker 2: You know, we were so proud.
40:07
Speaker 4: When she became vice president, but we can't ignore that
40:12
Speaker 4: a lot of our politicians had big hands in this.
40:15
Speaker 4: Of Course, I always argue about the fact that you
40:17
Speaker 4: have to do what you have to do to get
40:18
Speaker 4: to where you are, and for black women, for the
40:20
Speaker 4: black community and in general, like that has to be
40:23
Speaker 4: the game. They toe the line because that's the only way,
40:26
Speaker 4: that was the only way for so many to get
40:29
Speaker 4: to being able to make a difference and make changes.
40:33
Speaker 4: But have to have that conversation, but are you making
40:36
Speaker 4: those changes? And with talks about this because this is
40:39
Speaker 4: a growth Like we we get excited in that this
40:42
Speaker 4: is a growing industry. We are becoming a little more
40:45
Speaker 4: progressive and understanding this. But when it's not in a
40:48
Speaker 4: line that is beneficial to everyone, that's that's the downfall
40:52
Speaker 4: of this. And it goes with production as well, and
40:55
Speaker 4: who is being marketed and how it's being marketed and
40:57
Speaker 4: who's able to get to it and that level as well.
41:01
Speaker 4: And like having these types of conversations at a very
41:05
Speaker 4: new industry. This could be a great industry. But yeah,
41:08
Speaker 4: already jumping into pink text. Come on, like it's all
41:11
Speaker 4: these levels right right.
41:22
Speaker 3: And on that note, I want to end with a
41:25
Speaker 3: couple more positive, lighter stories regarding weed and.
41:30
Speaker 2: Women and nonsense men.
41:34
Speaker 3: So, first off, a twenty twenty two Harvard Blood survey
41:39
Speaker 3: which looked at patterns of cannabis use in menopausal and
41:42
Speaker 3: postmenopausal women found that quote, nearly seventy nine percent endorsed
41:46
Speaker 3: it to alleviate menopause related symptoms. Of those, sixty seven
41:51
Speaker 3: percent said cannabis helps with sleep disturbance, while forty six
41:55
Speaker 3: percent reported it helps improve mood and anxiety. This article
42:00
Speaker 3: from the Harvard Med School website make sure to point
42:03
Speaker 3: out that this research is fairly new, and there's lots
42:07
Speaker 3: more that needs to be done to study the long
42:10
Speaker 3: term effects. Unfortunately, you know, the other side of the
42:14
Speaker 3: criminalization is that it made it very difficult for people
42:17
Speaker 3: to do actual research on cannabis and its health benefits
42:23
Speaker 3: or negative effects either side of that for many years.
42:27
Speaker 3: But yeah, so we're kind of starting to see the
42:30
Speaker 3: research and so that sort of research again. And yeah,
42:35
Speaker 3: I mean this is one area in which this could
42:38
Speaker 3: be very helpful for a lot of people that are
42:40
Speaker 3: going through menopause or postmenopostal symptoms. And yeah, like whether
42:46
Speaker 3: you know we're talking about THHC or CBD or whatever,
42:50
Speaker 3: physical and mental relaxation and like the alleviation of pain
42:53
Speaker 3: and stress. These are the things that drive people to
42:56
Speaker 3: want to use cannabis to begin with.
42:58
Speaker 2: And so I think that's good.
42:59
Speaker 3: I think this is important to be looking into how
43:02
Speaker 3: this is, this tool can be used to help people
43:07
Speaker 3: and to help us sort of deal with you know,
43:10
Speaker 3: we talked about the whole issue of weed moms using cannabi.
43:16
Speaker 2: But at the same time, like it is, it is.
43:18
Speaker 3: Something that is a stress relief, and I think that
43:19
Speaker 3: there is a lot more research that needs to be
43:21
Speaker 3: done to really fully be able to use the benefits
43:24
Speaker 3: of this quick personal anecdote on this issue personally, And
43:28
Speaker 3: again back to my disclaimer of the top, just because
43:31
Speaker 3: I'm saying this not me, This is the same for everybody.
43:33
Speaker 3: To not take medical advice for me, but we'd it's
43:36
Speaker 3: not really helpful for me, and like navigating gender dysphoria
43:39
Speaker 3: and really like becoming more in tune with my body.
43:44
Speaker 3: I dealt with really bad body dysmorphia for like a
43:47
Speaker 3: very long time, and weed with something that really helped
43:51
Speaker 3: me overcome that and deal with some of the harsher
43:55
Speaker 3: symptoms of having to deal with gender dysphoria and body
43:58
Speaker 3: dysmorphia and all these all these things that you know
44:02
Speaker 3: come about as we live our lives, and I know
44:05
Speaker 3: that unfortunately, I tried to look into whether there was
44:09
Speaker 3: some like serious research that have been done about gender dysphoria,
44:12
Speaker 3: and we use there really has not been because, surprise, surprise,
44:18
Speaker 3: two things that have historically sort of been stigmatized have
44:21
Speaker 3: been cannabis and also any sort of gender debians or
44:25
Speaker 3: gendered on conformity.
44:26
Speaker 2: So there has not been a ton of research.
44:28
Speaker 3: But you know, from discussions I've had with friends, it
44:31
Speaker 3: does not seem.
44:32
Speaker 2: Like I'm the only one who's experienced this. And then one.
44:36
Speaker 3: More article that was written by that cannabis journalist Lindsey
44:41
Speaker 3: Bartlett who wrote the article about sexism in the industry
44:44
Speaker 3: which I was citing earlier. She also wrote a recent
44:48
Speaker 3: article for Forbes called quote, how Indigenous women are Revolutionizing
44:52
Speaker 3: the cannabis Industry. I'm gonna link this in the show notes.
44:56
Speaker 3: It's a really awesome article, but totally check it out.
44:58
Speaker 3: But she for this article, she spoke to Mary Jane Oatman. Haha,
45:04
Speaker 3: very funny, but.
45:08
Speaker 2: I had to.
45:10
Speaker 3: But she is the CEO and Executive director of the
45:14
Speaker 3: Indigenous Cannabis Industry Alliance or ICIA.
45:18
Speaker 2: From the ICIA website.
45:20
Speaker 3: Their goals are quote, building an equitable and sustainable Indigenous
45:25
Speaker 3: cannabis industry through sensible policy, education resources, educational and economic
45:30
Speaker 3: opportunities for our indigenous entrepreneurs, tribal nations, and our communities.
45:35
Speaker 3: And to provide access to Icia's network to connect tribal nations,
45:41
Speaker 3: industry partners, advocacy groups, mentors, businesses, and aspiring entrepreneurs. So
45:47
Speaker 3: the article goes into Oatman and how she got involved
45:52
Speaker 3: in cannabis legislation and advocacy, and it says quote Oatman
45:58
Speaker 3: is the fierce advocate she has today because her grandmother
46:01
Speaker 3: went to federal prison for growing in the nineteen eighties,
46:04
Speaker 3: which created a tremendous amount of stigma and shame around
46:06
Speaker 3: cannabis use and cultivation in her family. She goes on
46:10
Speaker 3: to say the aftershocks of the War on drugs is
46:13
Speaker 3: still felt, especially by indigenous elders. It is a regular
46:16
Speaker 3: practice to have drug dogs and targeted search on the reservation,
46:20
Speaker 3: says Oapmen.
46:21
Speaker 2: Her grandmother fears the police to this day.
46:24
Speaker 3: My passion for doing this is because there are so
46:26
Speaker 3: many grandmothers and grandfathers out there like my grandma, who
46:29
Speaker 3: live in fear.
46:29
Speaker 2: I don't want anyone to live in fear anymore.
46:31
Speaker 3: And I think that goes back to Samantha, your point
46:33
Speaker 3: about the fact that this is still something that is
46:36
Speaker 3: federally prosecuted.
46:38
Speaker 2: And.
46:40
Speaker 3: Indigenous communities and these indigenous reservations are oftentimes particularly targets
46:46
Speaker 3: of these.
46:47
Speaker 2: Sort of searches, the same way that a lot.
46:49
Speaker 3: Of martialized communities within big cities are also targeted by
46:54
Speaker 3: these policies. And so I really loved this article because
46:59
Speaker 3: I really felt like a positive story about how communities
47:03
Speaker 3: that are most impacted by this are now kind of
47:06
Speaker 3: finding some empowerment economically or culturally through the cannabis industry.
47:11
Speaker 2: And then also something that.
47:13
Speaker 3: I really loved about this is that the article spotlights
47:17
Speaker 3: not only the organization's activism around cannabis and cannabis y criminalization,
47:21
Speaker 3: but also how it's not just something to be consumed,
47:24
Speaker 3: but it is something that you know, has a lot
47:27
Speaker 3: of potential as a sustainable material and has a lot
47:31
Speaker 3: of potential to really have a lot of positive effects
47:36
Speaker 3: in terms of like environmental activism. So indigenous communities and
47:41
Speaker 3: land are often some of the first to be impacted
47:43
Speaker 3: by climate injustice and catastrophes, and because of that, Oapmen
47:48
Speaker 3: really talks about how important it is to look at
47:52
Speaker 3: cannabis as an environmental issue as well. So she's quoted
47:56
Speaker 3: in the article saying quote, the future is in industrial fiber.
47:59
Speaker 3: That is transition needed for the climate change work we
48:02
Speaker 3: have to do. Industrial fiber made with hemp is the gospel.
48:05
Speaker 3: Cannabis can be smoked, yes, but an industrial fiber, large
48:08
Speaker 3: scale manufacturing products breaking away from the plastic industry. That's
48:12
Speaker 3: where tribes have a huge impact given our land rights.
48:15
Speaker 3: This is also such an important issue to focus on
48:18
Speaker 3: the whole war on drugs and the criminalization of cannabis
48:21
Speaker 3: that really stunted a lot of research that could have
48:25
Speaker 3: been one into how hemp can be used as a
48:28
Speaker 3: sustainable material and particularly how it can be used as
48:32
Speaker 3: a substitute things like plastic that are historically not very sustainable.
48:39
Speaker 3: So to end with another quote from Oatmen from this article,
48:45
Speaker 3: she said, quote, we need to do this in a
48:48
Speaker 3: way that does not create a capitalistic commodity on the
48:50
Speaker 3: backs of other earth. This is one of those campaigns
48:54
Speaker 3: Icia is working on protecting mother Earth. Growing cannabis is
48:57
Speaker 3: an environmentally conscious way the benefits the next generations. As
49:01
Speaker 3: an organization, we will dig our heels in the sand
49:04
Speaker 3: to make sure it is not a capitalistic approach, but
49:06
Speaker 3: a human and healing approach.
49:07
Speaker 2: And climate justice is so so important to how we
49:12
Speaker 2: talk about the future.
49:13
Speaker 3: It is like maybe the most important issue as we
49:16
Speaker 3: talk about the future, and it is so tied to
49:18
Speaker 3: capitalism and industry, and I think Oatmen's quote and Otmen's
49:23
Speaker 3: sort of perspective on all of this is so refreshing
49:26
Speaker 3: to look at hey, like, this is an industry that
49:29
Speaker 3: has so much potential for a lot of good impacts,
49:32
Speaker 3: a lot of good work to be done.
49:34
Speaker 2: It has a lot of potential for us.
49:36
Speaker 3: To have a new sort of understanding of the Earth
49:38
Speaker 3: and a new relationship with the earth. So let's make
49:41
Speaker 3: sure that we're not just using this as another thing
49:43
Speaker 3: to kind of exploit the earth and exploit I'll do
49:46
Speaker 3: all of the things that capitalism has historically done that
49:49
Speaker 3: have led to the situation that we're in now with
49:52
Speaker 3: climate change and the various environmental disasters that we all
49:57
Speaker 3: kind of just live through.
49:58
Speaker 2: So yeah, I.
50:00
Speaker 3: I think she's doing super important work. I hope that
50:04
Speaker 3: the Icia gets to do more of this work and
50:07
Speaker 3: gets to really like these are the kind of stories
50:11
Speaker 3: I really hope that we continue to hear from the
50:13
Speaker 3: growing cannabis industry, unless of the just you know, this
50:18
Speaker 3: company used a super misogynistic ad, or we're getting girl
50:23
Speaker 3: bead iteration for the millionth time and it cost twenty
50:29
Speaker 3: percent more because there's.
50:31
Speaker 2: A bow on it. But yeah, so I want to
50:33
Speaker 2: stay hopeful.
50:34
Speaker 3: I want to say positive and yeah, and then Annie,
50:39
Speaker 3: as I.
50:39
Speaker 2: Promised there was a Star Wars connection. I was going
50:41
Speaker 2: to say, my current.
50:42
Speaker 3: Stash box is a return of the Jedi lunchbox that
50:46
Speaker 3: I bought when I was like eight years old.
50:49
Speaker 2: It feels right.
50:50
Speaker 1: I believe Yoda wasite.
50:55
Speaker 2: If anybody it was.
50:58
Speaker 4: We also know about Holiday Special and how fun.
51:03
Speaker 3: I do not accept any modern au of Star Wars
51:07
Speaker 3: where the Millennium Falcon is not just like a weed van.
51:12
Speaker 2: It almost always.
51:14
Speaker 1: It's really funny because the lead singer of the Mamas
51:17
Speaker 1: and Papa's a quote came out from her recently where
51:19
Speaker 1: she saw Star Wars and was like pointed at Harrison
51:23
Speaker 1: Ford and said, that's my weed dealer.
51:26
Speaker 3: So I feel like there was Carrie Fisher quote to
51:30
Speaker 3: where she was also like like I don't like it.
51:33
Speaker 2: I like it.
51:37
Speaker 3: Anyways, had to connect it back to Star Wars this
51:40
Speaker 3: is so yeah.
51:42
Speaker 1: Thank you.
51:43
Speaker 2: I want to see a picture of this box. Yes,
51:50
Speaker 2: I love it.
51:52
Speaker 3: They got right next to them just in case, and
51:54
Speaker 3: now they've destroyed it, knocked it over.
51:58
Speaker 1: But don't worry. I love it so good. And I
52:02
Speaker 1: do really like the environmental points at the end. Because
52:05
Speaker 1: it is birthday also for twenty it is earth Day.
52:08
Speaker 3: No, no, it's it's it's April twenty second, right, oh,
52:13
Speaker 3: because my birthday is the twenty second of a different month,
52:17
Speaker 3: so it was very important to make that.
52:19
Speaker 2: Birthday is also a twenty second. I was like, I'm
52:25
Speaker 2: pretty sure your birthday is not going no, no.
52:27
Speaker 3: No, no, my birthday is not until the summer. But
52:29
Speaker 3: it is April twenty second. Is Earthday? Close enough? Close
52:34
Speaker 3: it up.
52:34
Speaker 1: I think it's because a lot of companies, like when
52:36
Speaker 1: I was in school, you would celebrate on the Friday,
52:39
Speaker 1: and I had a friend whose birthday was April twentieth,
52:41
Speaker 1: and he was always like, Earth Day, take my wind
52:43
Speaker 1: out of the sales of my birthday.
52:46
Speaker 2: Anyway, it's close. It's Green week. You know, it's Joey's day.
52:53
Speaker 1: Yes, well, thank you so much for coming on, Joey.
52:57
Speaker 1: We always love having you. Of course, I believe there
53:00
Speaker 1: will be some more breaking down of TikTok trends.
53:03
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, definitely in the future.
53:07
Speaker 1: Well in the meantime, where can the good listeners find you?
53:11
Speaker 3: You can find me on Instagram or Twitter at pat
53:16
Speaker 3: not prat that's p A T t.
53:18
Speaker 2: N O T p r A T T.
53:22
Speaker 3: Or you can also hear me occasionally on There Are
53:24
Speaker 3: No Girls of the Internet with Bridget Todd, where we
53:28
Speaker 3: talk about a lot of things that might be interesting
53:31
Speaker 3: to people who listen to this show.
53:33
Speaker 1: So yeah, go check this out always definitely and past
53:37
Speaker 1: episodes Minty oh yeah too, oh yeah, yeah, okay, well, yes,
53:49
Speaker 1: thanks again Jerry for being here and listeners. If you
53:51
Speaker 1: would like to connect with us, you can you can
53:53
Speaker 1: email us at Stephanie Mom stephan atiheartmedia dot com. You
53:56
Speaker 1: can find us on Twitter at mostap podcast, or on
53:58
Speaker 1: TikTok and Instagram at stuff whenever told you. We have
54:00
Speaker 1: a t blok store and we have a book you
54:02
Speaker 1: can get wherever you get your books. Thanks Zowis too,
54:04
Speaker 1: our super producer, Christina, our excited producer May and contributor
54:08
Speaker 1: Joey Hey, thank you, yes and thanks to you for
54:11
Speaker 1: listening stuff I never Told You Books of My Heart Radio.
54:13
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, you can check
54:15
Speaker 1: out the heart Radio ap Apple podcast or where you
54:17
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.