Actor, singer, producer, director, and patriot Robert Davi joins Roger Stone on The Stone Zone to discuss his new movie, "Reagan" starring Robert De Niro and Ron Reagan. They also discuss the latest in the Reagan biopicture, "The Man Who Takes a Small Role, but Really Nails It." and why Robert should run for President in 2020. Roger Stone has served as a senior campaign aide to three Republican presidents, is a New York Times bestselling author, and is a longtime friend and advisor of President Donald Trump. As an outspoken libertarian, Stone has appeared on thousands of broadcasts, spoken at countless venues, and lectured before the prestigious Oxford Political Union and the Cambridge Union Society. Due to his four plus decades in the political and cultural arena, Stone is a pop culture icon. And now, here s your host, Roger Stone: with legendary Republican strategist and political icon and pundit Roger Stone. Stone has become a pop-culture icon and has become one of the most influential men in the conservative movement. We have an amazing video that he has put together for us, and we are so grateful to have him on the show. We also have A.J. Fabrizio, a well-known cannabis scientist and anti-prohibition advocate, join us in The Stonezone to help us lay it out. on the table. and explain why he thinks that democracy is the most important issue of our time. in the 21st century. What is America to me? is a map of the earth? . a map or map of democracy? The house I live in a plot of the land of the people I live on the earth, the butcher and the butcher, and the people that I meet in the street the butcher? What does a name mean to me ? what is a name I see a map in a map? Let s roll it up ? a name, a map, a flag? What is a word I see or a word, democracy let me a map ? What s America to Me? a flag, a word that I see, a name or a flag ? ? What is me to me What do you see a word? in a plan of democracy ? the house I to me?? The land of a plot? the flag?
00:01:28.980And to join me and help lay all this out, my colleague and co-host, Troy Smith, the editor-in-chief of Slingshot.news.
00:01:38.660You and I are both very excited. It's Friday here.
00:01:41.220I must tell you, it's been quite a week, but, you know, the fight for freedom is draining, and, well, we're both in it.
00:01:49.960Folks, at the end of last week, Sunday, I went to New York, and I did my live three-hour 77 WABC show, the Roger Stone show, from the studio.
00:02:05.820And then Monday, of course, I was back on The Stone Zone, plus I did Alex Jones's show and did a couple of radio interviews.
00:02:14.940In all honesty, by the end of the day, my throat was shot.
00:02:19.960This is, you know, I always get this mild laryngitis.
00:02:23.320So, I decided to take my wife to see the new movie, Reagan, produced by Mark Joseph and starring Dennis Quaid and Penelope Miller.
00:02:36.060This is one of the most incredible, greatest movies I have ever seen.
00:02:40.560Let's take a look at the trailer, because coming up, one of the stars of that movie, a man who takes a small role but really nails it, Robert Davi, is going to join us on the other side.
00:06:17.880He just asked me to be sure that I don't tell anybody because of the system.
00:06:24.420You have been absolutely fearless going all the way back to 2016 about how you feel about this country and where it's headed, your support for President Trump.
00:06:37.580I'm sure that it has, in some cases, had a damaging effect on your career.
00:06:43.500I'm guessing there are certain parts that you'd be perfect for that they probably don't consider you for anymore.
00:07:26.700The day that Donald Trump announced, I was writing for Breibard because Andrew asked me to write for them since 2008 or so.
00:07:33.720The day that Donald Trump announced and came down the escalator, I wrote on Breibard that he was going to win.
00:07:40.340This is the presidential candidate that the grassroots America had been waiting for to hear the message as they were ripping their hair out by the destruction of the progressive left and the GOP elites.
00:07:54.420And you could see that article on Breibard and many others, 30 other five articles I wrote in defense of him every time he was written out.
00:08:02.120And this is before everyone in Hollywood was basically a lot of the people that are for Trump now, as you know, were never Trumpers back then.
00:08:12.480But and Reagan, I remember the the the vitriol and the divisiveness.
00:08:20.120That happened with Reagan and happened with Nixon, who's now being looked at as one of our greatest presidents.
00:08:26.240But the thing with Reagan and Donald Trump, they might be stylistically different, but their love of America and their wanting to fight the people that are trying to pull us apart from within are unqualified.
00:08:41.220And it's a it's a it's a the battle, as I wrote in one of my articles, for the soul of America back in 2016.
00:09:18.800What about the Steele D'Arcier and the spying on that campaign, Merrick?
00:09:25.240So, you know, the left has captured the media and people in Hollywood are afraid to speak out that as you have your friend.
00:09:32.620I have several of mine that even can't have me on some of their shows because they say, well, I can't let them know because a lot of my friends are, you know, and I can't.
00:09:41.660And it's unfortunate because the GOP, I've always said brain dead in culture sometimes, and they still haven't embraced the culture strong enough.
00:11:29.700But he did have one great line that I agree with.
00:11:33.300Never underestimate the stupidity of the Republican Party.
00:11:37.480And as a lifelong Republican, well, briefly to become a libertarian, then I returned to the party of Lincoln to help Donald Trump conduct what was really the hostile takeover of the party of Lincoln, to bring it back to its roots as the party of the working people, the party of the middle class.
00:11:57.480The traditional values that had been hijacked by the Bushes to become a globalist party.
00:12:58.800And by the way, that line in his speech, that he stood for a kinder, gentler nation, really aggravated Nancy Reagan, because in some way it was a repudiation of the great things Reagan had done.
00:13:52.280Tax cuts generate more economic activity, which generates greater tax revenues.
00:13:57.840But then the government misspends that money.
00:14:01.800So I actually believe the functional end of Reaganism as the guiding principle of the Republican Party is George Bush going to the 88 convention and saying famously, read my lips.
00:14:39.000What I saw was, look, when I, growing up as an actor, we had my favorite actors, Marlon Brando, Lee Marvin, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson.
00:14:49.100You watched these actors and you would incorporate their technique.
00:14:53.540You would want to make it part of your own.
00:14:55.180So I found out where he studied with Stella Adler at the Actor's Studio.
00:14:59.880And you go through the steps of trying to find yourself as an artist.
00:15:04.380The same thing happens with a political ideologist or a political figure, most of them, except for Donald Trump, the most unique figure we've had in politics.
00:15:16.420Kamala Harris is in her hand movement.
00:15:20.200If you look at the way Obama talks, and he has that kind of off-the-cuff feeling and he does that, that was so studied.
00:15:28.360I mean, you've got the best in Hollywood telling him, do this.
00:15:33.100And she's been in Hollywood her whole life.
00:15:34.840So even as a prosecutor or as a district attorney and a lawyer, she's learned these techniques.
00:15:44.200You know, they understand being able to communicate an inauthentic aspect to who they are.
00:15:52.240And where Trump, you could see it when she, at that debate, when she stuck him with the first pin and then the other guy stuck him, you could see Trump doesn't hide.
00:16:46.060I had a similar observation, and that is her presentation was a little too smooth.
00:16:51.960Now, obviously, most of it was just rote memorized.
00:16:55.260But that's a lot easier if somebody gives you the questions in advance.
00:17:01.720Is it coincidental that Donna Brazile, who was at CNN in 2016 and indisputably was learned to have given Hillary Clinton all of the debate questions in advance, Trump crushed Hillary anyway.
00:17:18.620But guess where Donna Brazile works now?
00:17:23.660You see, Mark Penn, who's a Democrat, one of the brightest guys I know, really one of the architects of Bill Clinton's re-election, he's called for a full investigation into ABC.
00:18:27.480Now, they knew his, they knew some of his buttons to push, but they could have, if the moderators were honest, and ABC, as everyone knows, 100% favorability toward Kamala Harris and 93% negative toward Donald Trump.
00:18:43.500The courage he took to go into that then, to go into it, that makes him win for me right there.
00:18:51.200I'd love to see Kamala Harris go into a debate with Tucker Carlson and with Megyn Kelly or with somebody that we know is for Trump, 100%, and see how she fares.
00:19:04.020She did a debate, she did a rally the other day, and she's reading from the prompter.
00:19:16.940That's what she did for three and a half years, and they groomed her.
00:19:20.740There was a documentary called The Black Godfather in 2019 about a great man, Clarence Avant, who was the biggest black influencer, produced by Nicole Avant, whose husband is the head of Netflix.
00:19:33.040In that documentary, there's all these stars, all these sports figures, because he was a black influencer.
00:19:40.120Obama shows up, Clinton shows up, and who shows up?
00:20:12.720If they called it the right to murder your baby, I would say, okay, at least frame it the right way.
00:20:21.180At least tell people a woman's right to murder a child, for my own sensibility.
00:20:27.240I could say, okay, then I respect your opinion, but to hide behind abortion or a woman's health or a woman's right to choose, and all this other BS, it's crazy.
00:20:37.120It's linguistics, Noam Chomsky, it's the whole nine yards of agitpropaganda.
00:22:29.540I saw videos two years ago in Italy, them taking their animals and cats and stuff like that, so they're not going to do it here in America, and now we're seeing some stuff, at least to understand that, okay, different cultures may be, for whatever reason, have different kind of ideas.
00:22:46.980But to be taking pets and to try to minimize that and make it seem like it's a little bit of a, you know, eat cats and eat dogs and I see all these memes and everything else, which I think is going to backfire on the, it should backfire on them, Roger.
00:23:01.040You know, there's also a thing, I don't know if you read the Sebastian Gorka article about McMasters.
00:23:10.440Because they keep saying, I keep hearing from people on the left, friends of mine, that say, well, then why do people in his own cabinet or people in his own thing, and to try to tell them, because they're not for America first.
00:23:23.060They want to continue the warmongering.
00:23:25.040They want to continue a certain kind of philosophy.
00:23:44.780I'm going to send it to you because you'll be able to cull from that some amazing information about what went on in the inner sanctum during some of those meetings and how McMasters did not want peace.
00:23:59.140Unfortunately, as much as I could do this for another half hour, at least we are out of time.
00:24:04.500And Troy and I, by the way, just need to say, we're huge fans of your portrayal in the movie Goonies, and we're sorry we didn't get to ask you about that.
00:24:55.640Let's wrap it up there, unfortunately.
00:24:58.180I want to thank our guest, Robert Davi.
00:25:00.060If you haven't seen the new Reagan movie, by all means, friends, if you love this country, and if you revere one of our greatest presidents, it's a great entertainment experience.
00:25:09.680On behalf of my co-host, Troy Smith, and myself, I want to thank Robert Davi for being with us today in the Stone Zone.
00:26:11.620You know, I must tell you, we met a couple weeks ago because I don't fully understand all of the issues surrounding the federal regulation of THC
00:26:23.180and the implication of some states having medicinal marijuana legalized, other states not, the inconsistencies between federal law and state law.
00:26:36.820And you made this understandable, which is why I asked you to put together a terrific piece that you can find on Slingshot.
00:26:46.220But also, I put it up at the Stone Zone.
00:26:49.820I'm not sure a lot of people realize that when Donald Trump, as president, signed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, normally called the 28 Farm Bill,
00:27:01.340he did a lot more than just legalize hemp.
00:27:05.340He initiated a profound transformation in the American cannabis landscape.
00:27:10.320So, lay this out for us because this bold move by President Trump not only revitalized the American agricultural sector,
00:27:23.920but it laid the groundwork for a thriving hemp industry that is creating thousands of jobs and millions of dollars of revenue,
00:27:32.300and therefore millions of dollars of new tax revenue.
00:27:36.060Talk to us about what Reagan, pardon me, what Trump did when he passed the Farm Bill sections regarding hemp.
00:27:46.280So, first I want to like to kind of give a little bit of background.
00:27:52.840We're talking about the plant cannabis, organism cannabis, and there's two different legal definitions associated with it.
00:27:59.220And you hear them used interchangeably, colloquially, but the reality is the term hemp and the term marijuana are legal terms.
00:28:07.560Hemp is the varietal of cannabis that is deemed federally legal, and marijuana is a varietal of cannabis that is considered illegal.
00:28:17.920Now, I use the term varietal loosely because that's typically something that we talk about when it's strain variants and things like that,
00:28:23.840which is different cannabinoid contents.
00:28:25.000But the definition prior to 2018 that defined what made hemp, what defined the line between hemp and marijuana,
00:28:33.040because it's the same organism, was any varietal of cannabis that presented more than its cannabinoid content that had more than 0.3% THC.
00:28:43.860So, all THCs, THCA, Delta-9 THC, Delta-8 THC.
00:28:50.000And then it went further saying, you know, that the later definitions was isomer assaults, you know,
00:28:56.020all the different iterations that you could ever think that would resemble THC would be considered illegal varietals.
00:29:03.600And that's why you saw such a strict prohibition.
00:29:05.600And that definition actually was originally proposed under the Controlled Substance Act under Nixon, I believe it was 1971,
00:29:13.320which actually classified cannabis as a Schedule I drug, meaning that it has no accepted medical value.
00:29:21.260What happened in 2018 that actually really revolutionized everything is that they redefined the definition of hemp.
00:29:27.240And it's going to sound like it's very nuanced, but it's important that people understand the distinction.
00:29:33.840So prior to 2018, basically any cannabinoid, because it was substantially similar under another law called the Analogs Act, basically was illegal.
00:29:44.380CBD was illegal, even though it was non-psychoactive.
00:29:46.440CBG was illegal, which it's non-psychoactive.
00:29:49.520Fast forward to 2018, there was an amendment to the definition of hemp.
00:29:53.320And it separated and only isolated one specific cannabinoid that was the controlled substance, and that's Delta-9-THC.
00:30:00.900So the definition changed from basically every cannabinoid to just Delta-9-THC.
00:30:06.320And what it did is it said that if it is not Delta-9-THC and it is not above 0.3% Delta-9-THC by weight, then it is considered illegal hemp.
00:30:15.000Now, the interesting aspect about that is the plant itself does not actually produce Delta-9-THC, which is people known as the chief psychoactive component.
00:30:28.380It's called a phytocannabinoid because it comes from the plant.
00:30:30.780It's called tetrahydrocannabinoid acid, THCA.
00:30:33.840And what can happen under certain circumstances, you heat it, you expose it to oxygen and to UV radiation, it can actually degrade into Delta-9-THC.
00:30:48.200So you can think of it as something that, you know, more of a spoiled product.
00:30:53.340But typically, when the plant is growing, there is no time in which it physically produces Delta-9-THC.
00:31:01.980So what does that mean for the industry?
00:31:04.300Well, since every cannabis plant does not produce Delta-9-THC, it produces THCA.
00:31:10.700As long as it's grown under the right conditions and stored under the right conditions, there is no actual determining factor or time where you can distinguish when it will become, quote, marijuana.
00:31:21.940So that means that the THCA content will convert enough to Delta-9-THC that it goes above the, quote, legal limit, which is 0.3% Delta-9-THC.
00:31:31.640So all cannabis plants growing up until it gets past that point are considered hemp, especially if they're not flowering, meaning they're not producing, they can't produce any of the resins.
00:31:42.600And that's had a profound impact on cannabis in general.
00:31:46.920I mean, when you really dive down into it, President Trump, when he signed the Farm Bill in December of 2018, effectively legalized a paradigm in which Americans are allowed to get and enjoy cannabis products.
00:32:05.640Because when you go buy cannabis at a dispensary, as long as it's fresh, the majority of the content will be THCA because it hasn't had time to convert into Delta-9-THC.
00:32:19.260So, and people say it's a loophole, but the reality is that there was three years later, there was a final rule that was released as a result of the Farm Bill.
00:32:29.940It was 2021, and I spoke about it in the article.
00:32:32.140And the two senators from Oregon, who proposed the original amendment, were quoted as saying that this is not, basically, this is not a loophole.
00:32:41.640That it was congressional intent to not include THCA in the controlled substances.
00:32:48.260Because it would basically make it difficult for farmers to start cultivating CBD and other hemp varietals because the plant itself doesn't see these chemicals as anything other than what it needs to be able to pollinate and deter animals that want to eat it or keep it healthy.
00:33:10.500We see it as, you know, kind of an arbitrary definition of what we said, THCA, or I mean, Delta-9-THC is illegal, while these other cannabinoids are not.
00:33:22.440And so, it's very interesting when you come down to it, because you see this dichotomy of, you know, the medical marijuana systems.
00:33:30.640Remember, marijuana means illegal federally, even though they look the other way, it is still illegal federally.
00:33:35.800And hemp, which is a completely legal paradigm, under the federal and most state laws, we're seeing a movement in some states to try to repeal or, I mean, make hemp production and retail sales illegal in their states.
00:33:53.000And the vast majority of those are headed by the medical and recreational companies, because at the end of the day, hemp is now considered a USDA agricultural product.
00:34:03.540It's no longer under the jurisdiction of the DEA.
00:34:06.080And there's no tax associated with it, just like if you were selling corn or alfalfa or any other agricultural product.
00:34:12.120Whereas the medical and recreational companies have to deal with these exorbitant taxes, these, quote, sin taxes, which were more of bribes at the end of the day, because sin taxes should be associated with the damage that's done to society based off that substance, like alcohol.
00:34:25.440When we repealed prohibition because we knew we created a criminal class, we weren't foolish enough to think that it doesn't cause damage to society for citizens to enjoy it.
00:34:35.340And so we associated the tax with it. That's where the term syntax comes from.
00:34:38.880With cannabis, it was there was no data that ever support that there was any damage associated with cannabis and cannabis use.
00:34:46.260And if anything, now there's quite a bit of data that shows that states save an enormous amount of money from from having legalized or liberalized cannabis laws.
00:34:56.240And so I really want to emphasize to people who are watching that the term marijuana versus term hemp is is a legal term and that now under the hemp laws, you can go down the street and you can buy as long as it follows those rules.
00:35:13.000And it has less than point three percent Delta nine THC. You can buy these products at gas stations.
00:35:18.560You could buy them at any any store that feels like they want to carry them because it's considered no different than any other agricultural product.
00:35:26.240That was excellent. Precisely why we invited you on the show today.
00:35:30.400You have a way of making a relatively complicated issue pretty understandable for our listeners who don't understand hemp has multiple uses.
00:35:41.780It's not just this recreational use. I mean, what what other products can hemp be used?
00:35:50.020So back when I started doing research on this.
00:35:53.500So for those who don't know, the reason why I got involved in hemp or in cannabis in general is because I have epilepsy and I grew up in the D.C. area.
00:36:02.980I grew up not believing that there was any real use for cannabis products other than palliative use associated with nausea and vomiting for chemotherapy and things like that.
00:36:11.300I will spare you guys the long story, but I was I was suffering from seizures in college and my next door neighbor in the dorms got me to try it when I had a seizure in his dorm room when I was really resistant and I didn't have seizures for a few days when I should have had quite a few.
00:36:28.280I thought that it was placebo effect. I utilized the fact that you get access to every journal for free academic journal thought I was going to spend 30 minutes and find nothing.
00:36:37.200And I was actually shocked at what I found that was kind of just sitting there in the in the in the literature on that change started changing my perspective.
00:36:47.200And so one of the things that like I as I was researching more and understanding how we create a prohibition, the history of the medicines, you know, the political obfuscation, you know, all of that kind of stuff.
00:36:59.220I started noticing that there's a lot of parallels between the hemp industry or what hemp can be and what standard oil was, the petroleum industry.
00:37:08.580If you imagine, you know, those who don't know, and this is a very, very truncated and version, but, you know, John D. Rockefeller originally built his empire off two compounds that come from oil, gasoline and kerosene.
00:37:22.100OK, but if you look it up, you know, gasoline only make up about 50 percent of crude oil, but that was enough money for him to find the wells, drill the wells, pump, transport on the railroads and refine it and then sell and make money.
00:37:39.480But as time went on, he realized, like, OK, half of what I'm transporting about is useless.
00:37:44.060Is there anything that I can do with that? And that's what we see that, you know, he invested in the in the chemical companies, Dow or I mean, DuPont, he invested in and several others and he invested in the university system.
00:37:59.500And that was the advent of petroleum industry, petrochemical industry. 80 percent of what you touch has some type of petroleum product in it.
00:38:06.200And I see an analogous situation with, quote, cannabinoids, you know, THC and CBD, you could argue, are the gasoline and kerosene of the hemp industry.
00:38:16.540It has catapulted the medical marijuana and recreational marijuana industry to thirty five or so billion dollars a year, depending on who you read.
00:38:24.600The hemp industry in the last six years only has grown to 30 billion dollars and somewhere around 100 billion dollars worth of ancillary business and revenue.
00:38:34.040I think it's somewhere around 250,000 jobs that were produced.
00:38:38.340But just like when Rockefeller realized that most of what he was pulling out of the ground or half of what he was pulling out of the ground, he couldn't use.
00:38:46.140We're in that same position. The great thing, though, is we have a huge history of traditional textiles.
00:38:52.680You know, everybody's heard about rope. Everybody's heard about fabric.
00:38:55.300But have people heard about building materials, hemp concrete?
00:38:58.920They're also doing research into technologies like utilizing hemp to make supercapacitors.
00:39:06.840There's also a situation in which a lot of people don't realize this.
00:39:10.200But prior to prohibition in 1937, most cattle and most livestock were also fed using hemp.
00:39:17.860Back then, there wasn't a surplus of corn because of this because of all the subsidies that existed.
00:39:22.100And hemp and grass were the main two types of feed that were that were offered to the livestock.
00:39:30.380And I guarantee you, I know there's been some research that's been done, but, you know, the quality of hemp beef versus grass fed versus corn fed.
00:39:36.540You'll I you will be surprised to see that hemp is probably or is the healthiest of the three.
00:39:42.720You know, so you've got all these different just like, you know, right now, when you think about the petroleum industry, pharmaceuticals, although it's a huge industry, is a very small vertical in the full petroleum industry.
00:39:56.080Right. It is one of the offshoots that allow that comes from petroleum refining and the products that come from petroleum.
00:40:01.560I see that the same thing for cannabinoids when it comes to hemp.
00:40:09.000The big game is is building materials, is is clothing, is the really big one is carbon capture.
00:40:19.180Whether or not you subscribe to the idea of CO2 causing or catalyzing global warming and climate change.
00:40:28.480It is something that is being proposed and adopted internationally and the only product that can actually sequester carbon on a regular basis and then literally really sequester products because you could put it into textiles is hemp.
00:40:44.800And so you've got this huge opportunity where there's already enough money in the gasoline and kerosene, the cannabinoids, THC, CBD, CBG, all those different ones to fuel the industry.
00:40:55.460So the trash is just a goldmine waiting to be explored.
00:41:02.840Excellent point. Interestingly enough, we had a mean ally on the show yesterday.
00:41:10.120He is a nutritionist, bodybuilding trainer, but he and his brother developed one of the earliest processes from taking the byproduct of hemp and turning it into clothing.
00:41:26.300In the Congress, there's an amendment that I believe is attached to both the appropriations bill and the farm bill from Congress Miller from Illinois, who is a strong Trump supporter.
00:41:41.820But it seeks to change some of these definitions, some of these percentages that you laid out for us in the opening segment.
00:41:50.440And of course, it it proposes to do so in the interest of protecting public health.
00:41:56.780I kind of suspect that that's not really the purpose.
00:42:02.040I think the purpose appears to be this tension between the the the legal recreational and medical marijuana industry and the hemp industry.
00:42:13.240Because as you point out in your terrific article, hemp has an unlimited potential for growth as an industry, and it goes far beyond just recreational use.
00:42:26.280I'm seeing politics in this rather than, you know, an effort to protect the public health.
00:42:32.160Now, most I'm not a Capitol Hill guy anymore.
00:42:35.940I work, you know, for Senator Bob Dole almost 30 years ago.
00:42:39.860Also, my first job was in the House working for Congressman Robert Steele.
00:42:44.240But my sources on the Hill tell me that these amendments are unlikely to be adopted.
00:42:49.920Wouldn't they hurt tremendously, this industry that President Trump has really ignited?
00:42:55.940Yeah, and to take it a step further, one of the like, we kind of I kind of glossed over the, you know, the benefits versus the, you know, the damages or choosing hemp as a business versus medical or recreational marijuana.
00:43:10.000So when you make it federally legal, you no longer have issues with moving money from state to state product from state to state, you can insure it.
00:43:18.380You also should have no issues with banking because it's considered a federally legal product.
00:43:22.760So there are these huge companies that have exploded in the last year that sell cannabis online, and they can ship it to your door through USPS, UPS, FedEx, and it's 100% legal.
00:43:37.760The medical and recreational industry has been dealing with something called 280E, which basically says if it's considered federally legal, you can't write off the cost of your goods.
00:43:45.900That's immensely damaging to a business and puts it at a severe disadvantage compared to, because of how expensive the product is, compared to hemp, where you can easily write it off just like it was corn.
00:43:58.720But to answer your question, Roger, you know, there's a lot of fear mongering that's associated with cannabis in general, and I feel like it's just, it's archaic at this point.
00:44:09.480When I first started in the cannabis industry and specifically educating, like in Florida, when we first passed the low THC medical marijuana law, you know, there are a lot of people who are brought up under the dogma that cannabinoids are poisonous, they cause damage.
00:44:32.000The reality is that's just absolutely incorrect.
00:44:35.980I mean, one of the reasons why we saw such a surge in support is because it helped with one of the most, one of the diseases that we have the least amount of success treating, which is epilepsy.
00:44:48.740So, so obviously it doesn't cause neurological damage.
00:44:52.980Nobody's ever died from it, which I'm sure a lot of people know that, but there are still a lot of people who try to say, oh, there are more poison control calls than ever.
00:44:59.940And the reality is, yes, if you take too much of it, you, you'll, you'll have some dysphoria.
00:45:05.460You'll, you will feel uncomfortable, but there is no toxicity associated with it.
00:45:09.520And a lot of times people call because they're feeling so uncomfortable that they don't know what to do.
00:45:14.820But I can tell you if people were dying from it or were really being hurt from it, we would be seeing it all over the news.
00:45:21.020And so, although they're trying to politicize this, and, and if there are medical and recreational companies that are supporting Miller, and when she says that it causes these problems, shame on you.
00:45:34.320Because at this point, we are far past the situation in which we should be divided on this.
00:45:41.140I mean, at the end of the day, you know, there are a lot of forward-looking marijuana companies that are looking to just turn into a hemp company because of all the benefits that I had listed before and more.
00:45:50.060And so the Miller Amendment, as far as I understand it, seeks to redefine hemp again.
00:45:59.600They're trying to redefine the term, like they're trying to separate cannabinoids from being naturally occurring to synthetic.
00:46:07.800Now, what they don't understand, and one of the problems that we have, and one of the reasons why I've worked so diligently as a liaison with different legislative processes is that, you know, politicians and legislators are, you know, they are usually not very savvy when it comes to science.
00:46:26.140And that's, and that's, that's okay, but the, the details are very important when we talk about this.
00:46:31.140And nobody ever, as far as I can tell, has ever defined what synthetic means in, in law.
00:46:41.140In addition, naturally occurring, I mean, again, there's no, there's no definition for that either.
00:46:49.060Then they also seek, so there's basically when they're saying synthetic, they're trying to say things like Delta A, HHC, which is hexahydrocanabinol, which is a hydrogenated version of THC, just the same way that we hydrogenate oils to make margarine.
00:47:02.240And then they're, but on Converse side, they're looking to, they're looking to raise the limit of Delta 9 THC that's associated with it from 0.3 to 1%.
00:47:15.300Now, I want to, I really want to drill down when I talk about THC one more time, because there's a term that you may see that, that the DEA was trying to get people to agree with, and they even tried to do it here in Florida.
00:48:10.000That was the original, that was the original definition they were trying to push.
00:48:13.300So that would mean that any plant growing, even if it didn't have, you know, more than 0.3 Delta 9 THC present would be considered illegal marijuana.
00:48:23.580The problem is, is that THCA doesn't always have to convert to Delta 9 THC.
00:48:28.940And by saying that you're actually, you're actually condemning people before anything has actually gone wrong.
00:48:35.840And so what, one of the things that we need to keep an eye out is if they look to redefine it and go backwards and do the total THC, which is a nonsensical term anyway, because you have all the, you have other THCs, you have a Delta 8 THC.
00:48:51.380So you like, if you're going to say the term total THC, you need to define what it is fully.
00:48:56.800And then on top of that, there is nothing in the, there's nothing in the farm bill that exists now.
00:49:02.320Actually, what exists is they've separated the two and that's, what's created this boom.
00:49:06.300So when you, when you think about it and you, and those who are watching at home, the most important thing for you to understand is, and the analogy I use is cannabis all has an expiration date.
00:49:16.160Hemp has an expiration date in which it will turn into marijuana.
00:49:19.700The cool thing, or not the cool thing.
00:49:22.100The great thing now though, is if it was ever identified or categorized as hemp, if it turns into marijuana, there is no criminality associated with that.
00:49:36.240So once you have a product that's classified as hemp, if it quote spoils and goes above that limit, it still does not carry any criminal charges.
00:49:45.760Retailers aren't supposed to be allowed to sell it, but they could dispose of it just like, you know, chicken that you go to, you know, that has expired at the, at the grocery store.
00:50:17.320And I just wanted to ask you, you know, we see across the country different kind of programs.
00:50:21.400We obviously have medical marijuana here in Florida.
00:50:23.440In states like my home state of Maryland, we have recreational marijuana in places like California and Colorado.
00:50:29.700What system out there do you think works best?
00:50:33.120And how do you think Florida should handle this upcoming Amendment 3 situation?
00:50:37.560So, I always will advocate for anybody to support any legislation that actually takes away criminality from cannabis.
00:50:48.500Okay, there's a, there's a conversation of that.
00:50:51.140And then there's a conversation of what's the best way of doing it, like you're asking.
00:50:54.420I personally believe under the paradigm that has already been legislated under the Farm Bill,
00:51:00.580what we should be doing is talking about expanding that and reinforcing that so that businesses can continue to grow.
00:51:12.140In addition, I, you know, I believe personally that, you know, there's this battle about, you know,
00:51:17.880talking about rescheduling, talking about, you know, the FDA versus, you know, the USDA, Department of Health and Human Services.
00:51:26.300I don't like hemp as a whole, I feel like is a very large undertaking when we include all these other things that we talked about,
00:51:33.280carbon capture, textiles, all of that, you know, there needs to be funding mechanisms.
00:51:37.720The USDA just recently started giving out grants around hemp, which is really exciting.
00:51:44.280You know, I think that the paradigm under the federal government actually allows for the best, you know,
00:51:50.920I'm a libertarian at heart, so I don't want to, you know, I'm not saying that we should have the federal government create all the rules,
00:51:57.400but they should allow for it and allow for the states to determine the programs that they choose to use.
00:52:04.240Medical and recreational have served their purpose up until this point.
00:52:08.900And like I said, I will always advocate for the liberalization,
00:52:11.980but I think the most pragmatic approach is to allow young entrepreneurs, bright minds,
00:52:18.980free open access to really tackle and see the new applications that we can use and utilize around this cash crop.
00:52:27.460I mean, it was the cash crop that helped us build America originally,
00:52:31.120so much so that when we made it illegal, we actually had to start,
00:52:34.540we had to start issuing stamps, tax stamps in Kentucky to be able to fight World War II,
00:52:39.260to make the parachutes and all that. And so, you know, this is something that's known in history to be very valuable,
00:52:45.440and we haven't been able to apply all these new sciences to it. And that's a very exciting idea.
00:52:50.940So I guess to answer your question, you know, I really think the most pragmatic approach is to give the support to the federal government,
00:52:58.200let people know that, like, maybe we should create an agency specifically to oversee hemp because of all the different facets that it actually provides,
00:53:06.580and maybe not put all the responsibility on the FDA and the USDA.
00:53:12.060Because, you know, when you really think about the implications of what this is, you know,
00:53:17.300I did a cursory analysis of what it would be like if we took 10% of our, of the corn acreage that we farm and switched it to hemp.
00:53:25.480And when you get down to it, you know, you can make an argument that there's a, so a half a trillion dollar swing in value,
00:53:32.400just from 9.1 million acres. So, you know, this is, this is a very exciting, very exciting field.
00:53:39.020And I do believe that if we embrace this, we can take the good parts of the petrochemical industry,
00:53:45.080and we can start adapting it for what we'd like to see in the screen future.
00:53:48.800A.J., there is some discussion, I guess you'd call it rumor, that Kamal Harris may soon come out in favor of rescheduling marijuana,
00:54:02.380cannabis, under the federal drug laws. Others of my friends think that this is a mistake.
00:54:08.160They think it should be entirely de-scheduled. Tell us what you think.
00:54:13.380So, the scheduling conversation, I feel like is, again, I always am going to move, I'm always going to support, you know, removing criminality, right?
00:54:25.900So, Schedule 3 is, there is a, there is a chemical call that's trademarked as Marinol, patented as Marinol, which is synthetic THC.
00:54:36.800And I won't get into how they patented it and stuff like that and the identity.
00:54:40.280But it is, because it's Schedule 3, I believe that's the reason why people are suggesting that we reschedule the Schedule 3.
00:54:48.020But the reality of the matter is, I mean, I would think that we need to do like a full analysis on THC, Delta 9 THC,
00:54:59.280and really be honest with ourselves and realize that, you know, where it should sit on the scheduling, if they're going to reschedule.
00:55:06.900Personally, with the hemp paradigm that exists and the medical and recreational paradigm that exists, you know,
00:55:14.660rescheduling is going to be helpful from a federal standpoint, but it still won't be legal federally for anybody,
00:55:23.520but pharmaceutical companies and medical practitioners to prescribe.
00:55:29.840So, so you're going to have this paradigm where, you know, under the state laws, they can't use the word prescribe.
00:55:34.900They use the word recommend, and that was something that was pioneered in 1996 under Prop 215 in California.
00:55:41.540But you're going to have a really weird hodgepodge, you know, you're going to have doctors and pharmaceutical companies that are putting out these marijuana products,
00:55:51.620and some of them will be using prescription pads, while other people will go to the doctors that give them recommendations where they can go to dispensaries.
00:55:58.740And so I feel like, at the end of the day, there's a simplifying factor.
00:56:06.320You know, if we were to, like I said, revisit the hemp definition and expand it, you know, 0.3% Delta 9 THC was an arbitrary number that was set.
00:56:17.900There's no, I can't find any data that suggests that it needs to be 0.3.
00:56:22.480And, and ironically, you know, something like kombucha can have up to 3% alcohol and be sold in stores and considered non-alcoholic.
00:56:33.500So, so, you know, and we know the detriment that alcohol has to the human body.
00:56:38.140So it's, it's, it seems like arbitrary to me.
00:56:40.920So I, I would like to see a real discussion around this and, and creating more pragmatic limits so that you can see, you know, like I said, this more research going into this, but ultimately, I mean, it's, it's just, it's odd that, and I, and I wonder, Roger, if it's, you know, a little bit of like, you know,
00:57:06.540hand wavy look over here, kind of a situation, because ultimate, because obviously it being schedule one hasn't fettered the explosion of the medical and recreational industry or the hemp industry, you know?
00:57:18.560So the most important thing is that we let, you know, the DEA, there are still some factions that want to see it, you know, made, kept illegal and they're, they're, they're, they're doing some underhanded things.
00:57:29.220But the vast majority realize that this is, this is not worth their, you know, they'd rather be spending time on finding, you know, looking for fentanyl and working on human trafficking.
00:57:43.400AJ Fabrizio, a cannabis scientist and freedom advocate.
00:57:48.380I want to thank you for joining us today.
00:57:50.280I urge you folks to go to slingshot.news, you can also go to stonezone.com and look at his brilliant article on Trump and hemp, that's how it's titled, at the Stone Zone.
00:58:02.880He explains how Donald Trump has unleashed an extraordinary level of economic opportunity, job creation, new revenues,
00:58:11.620and why these new regulations or limitations on the hemp industry are probably a pretty bad idea.
00:58:21.100AJ Fabrizio, thanks for joining us today in the Stone Zone.