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SMNTY Classics: The Gendering of Weed · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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