Hi, and welcome to High Five for Hemp.
Hello, Adam, my co-host.
Hello, Martin.
How are you?
Fine.
Long time, no see.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
It's been a while.
Yeah.
So I thought we will do a short and sweet here.
It's a live stream, and then it will turn into podcast episode number 11.
And about...
Yeah, there's nothing short and sweet about anything I do.
I apologize.
No problem.
But you have, for this date, I want you to guide us into this tradition, you could say.
I thought about it one year ago and had a solo episode and tried to find some data and information about the expression 420.
Oh, you know the history of 420?
A little bit.
So if you could, yeah.
So that's why I thought we will do a live stream and then publish it and have a bit of discussion about this significant day.
Oh, where 420 comes about.
Well, it's a bit of an open-ended answer in the sense that there are a few claims as to officially where 420 comes about.
when I was younger, 420 was the number that was all of the stock photography back in the 70s
and 80s. It was not digital, right? It was manual. So you would go and actually get film or slides
when you would create a catalog. Remember, catalogs, paper catalogs with all the pictures.
And back in the 70s, the digital alarm clock was like the newest technology or radio alarm clock.
Did you ever have one of those?
Yep.
Well, all of the stock, for all of the companies, no matter what, they would always be at 420.
And it was kind of like anytime you'd open a catalog, you'd see a clock would be at 420.
Is it because it's like a nice number?
Yeah, it was just a nice, friendly, even number, I guess.
So I'm not really sure what the whole reasoning behind that is.
but um that's what i believe is uh where it came from but i found out that was actually
argued that might not be the case there is also on the west coast so that you know i grew up in
new york i live now in california on the west coast i believe either was in oregon or it was
outside of washington and olympia it was an olympia outside of seattle it's like a college
town right outside of seattle uh there was a group of basically stoners and hippies in a high school
that was very popular there and uh they would i forget the name of their group but they would meet
at 4 20 every uh day to kind of light up and enjoy themselves and like 4 20 also is the police code
for a cannabis arrest, a 420.
So there's a few different claims
as to why 420 is 420,
but it's been that way now.
It's been adopted for at least 20 years,
maybe even longer,
like 420 friendly or 420.
And now that, excuse me,
I'm out of breath here
because I just finished my run.
I ran 420 today, 4 miles, 4.20 miles.
About seven kilometers.
Yeah, roughly seven kilometers to your lucky number seven.
So I'm recovering from that.
But yeah, so that's kind of where it comes from.
Now, here in California, every state is different.
You know, the regulation and legalization of either for medical or recreational purposes
of cannabis products, and whether it be hemp or it be, you know, cannabis sativa or indica,
one of those. It's up to the state. It's a state law. So it's, you know, state by state, it's very
different. So just like countries are turning over in other places, whether it be Europe, whether it
be in Indonesia, whether it be in Central America, right now, here in the United States, it's state
by state. And California has had been in a lead position for a long time, along with states like
Colorado. There are some other states, I think Alaska as well, maybe Hawaii, more in the fringe
states that had, and Vermont perhaps, that had made it available for medical purposes for quite
some time. And it wasn't until about, I think, 10 years ago that rec, maybe a little less,
maybe it's eight. I don't have the numbers exactly. I didn't prepare for this show.
And everything turned over now to rec. And so it's for recreational purposes, meaning you don't
need to have doctor's permission and products look more like regular products. And in fact,
uh it's a very high-end product you know it's like going into a wine shop a wine bottle shop
not into the corner liquor store to get you know some cheap high or something like that
um these products are very expensive uh very exclusive and the experience of going into these
stores is like going into an apple store or into a gucci store you know they're very high end
and they're very regulated you can see taxing as much as 50 you know when it's all added on between
the sales tax and the the cannabis tax and the state tax and the federal tax you know they can
advertise a price of a hundred dollars but you might be paying 150 just with 50 in add-on taxes
so they have to do other things to get people in because it's very very expensive and and over time
I think we'll see the prices go down a little bit, but as we're seeing in the hemp economy,
but for now it's a day where if you go to a dispensary or to someplace that provides these
products, there'll be a band, there'll be a taco stand, there'll be specials, there'll be like
stickers and coasters and key chains. And it's just basically a celebration of everything that
is to do with the cannabis culture. And you can get all kinds of wonderful products.
So how is 420 celebrated in your land?
I don't know, because as you know, I don't use marijuana in that way, but the plant, as we talk to the family, like CBD oil and the industrial hemp that I enjoy.
but I'm curious now because Sweden is in European Union and recently and that's why I want to also
to have a talk about that recently Germany had this law put it in place that it's okay to do it
for recreational purposes as you said when I read this article that was some months ago I think in
BBC it said
that it's now easier in one
way but it could be harder to
get it and it will not
pop up all these cafes that you have
in like Amsterdam and so on
very quickly it will take some
time but still
I read the article through there it says
also that for you could have it
to grow plants I think it was
free plants you could grow also
so you could really do it for your own
use so to speak
so it's interesting
Germany is a big, that's together with France, it's very of a leading pact in European Union in a way.
And right now I think it's Malta.
And is it, is it the Liechtenstein or Luxembourg?
It's another country, a third country that's also have deregulated this.
So in Europe.
Deregulated?
What about the Netherlands?
Yeah, they have had it for, you know, for a long time, but they have a special, I think, as I said, in the coffee houses. So they have maybe some special thing, but you know that they have been labor for a long, long time. But in Sweden, it's not open in that way. And here, that's why I, in a way, started the show and then joined, that you joined and happy to see that perspective because here we have this, and that could be for another show or episode about this tea.
THC thing what about the THC that in sweden had become complicated because they it's classified as
how do you say that you get could get high off it even if it's like this small amount
and they want to classify it as medical or drugs a controlled substance is what you're saying like
a drug. Yeah. So, which probably is true, such as with caffeine, tears, or wine, alcohol,
or with ibuprofen you know chemicals are around us And THC is a psychoactive component of all of the wide spectrum of of components that uh cannabis provides right so i think the one that really getting a lot of
attention right now is cbd cannabinoid cannabinoid oil yeah and uh that is you know uh a good thing
for some people it has great effect i mean you have hemp derived cbd available in sweden is that
correct yeah so and and for us um you know so for example when cbd first came out and was available
here just generally you know you could buy some creams or lotions like here's one this is a rapid
recovery cooling cream with cbd in it right so this has menthol and it's kind of like a shaving
cream yeah but you can rub it on like a pulled muscle and it's really chilly but it has the cbd
in there because there's a there's a belief and it also this is thc free so that's what it says
yeah this one is a roll-on that i have cbd plus so you can like roll it onto your skin almost like
a deodorant like yeah right but it's not a deodorizer it's just a way extra strength formula
full hemp extract and these are all extracted from them right so you can just apply it to a
a wound or but it has a you'll see here it's a roller ball and now is for the listeners later on
adam is showing a dio role here oh if you're listening right yeah so you got to watch the
video right and i i'm sure that was the previous these yep continue oh oh yeah but these products
when they in their day when they came out there'd be like 20 30 even up to 50 for a bottle just like
very expensive face cream can go into the hundreds of dollars but over time right as these products
flooded the market and there wasn't a great demand for people to pay the prices came down so you can
so you can notice here like in a product like this you know it's the the detail is really nice
it's got the roller ball it's a very sophisticated model and then over time then came price came down
to more like $8. And what I'm holding up is just hemp balm, which has CBD in it, 125 milligrams of
CBD. So it's just like moisturizer cream, but it looks basically like in a toothpaste tube.
And by reducing the marketing, and you see here, it's one color, right? There's not really fancy
advertising or it's just plain, almost generic in a sense, but it's the same. It's the same
effect, right? It's a good cream. If you have itchy skin or reactive skin, you put this on and
the CBD will help neutralize and minimize some of the nervous reaction or, you know, that's what
there is a belief for, right? But the price came down. And then right now we're having this
genocide going on in the United States on dollar stores because of inflation. So everywhere across
the United States. And even in other places in the world, they have these discount chains where
they sell very low cost, mostly Chinese or plastic, some Indian and Indonesian products,
but very low end products, very small amounts. And they call these dollar stores because everything
costs a dollar. Nothing costs a dollar. And in fact, our 99 cent store, which was one penny lower
than the dollar, just went out of business because they couldn't compete. With a name like 99 cent
store they had to raise the price to five dollars and now i know in dollar general the ceiling price
is now like seven dollars on some products right so the 99 cent store is going out of business
because it can't compete because of inflation it just it the model doesn't work so now it's the
two dollar store or whatever but just to get back to it so uh my wife went in because our local 99
cent store is closing and they're they're liquidating their inventory it's a lot of
Like, wow, you can buy something for 75 cents instead of cents.
But once it's gone, it's gone.
She walks in and finds this level three CBD cooling sports cream.
It's like mentholated and minty.
So you put it on a sore knee or an ankle if you're a runner or an arm if you're lifting.
It's like, you know, I'm sure you have these icy hot creams.
Yeah, the balm.
Yeah, balm.
That's what this is.
99 cents.
Wow.
And on sale, it was like $0.75.
It just goes to show you we can go from one product.
This is an older product from like 10 years ago with the rollerball, $30.
Same product, $0.99, right?
So it's a weird economy right now.
And because it's been deregulated, there's less of a demand because it's available everywhere.
And so they had to lower the price.
And I think we're going to see the same thing with products that contain THC as well.
Because you may not know this, because you're in Sweden, you don't have exposure to this.
But they started finding ways to extract THC components out of hemp.
Because hemp does have a small amount of THC.
And hemp grows much easier because it's like a weed.
It can grow anywhere.
So they just grow more product.
and they can extract this new hemp component that's called Delta-8.
So the traditional marijuana component is Delta-9-THC.
They can extract its cousin or its sister, Delta-8-THC,
which is a lighter version of THC.
It's a more euphoric, lightweight high, less anxiety.
People are really enjoying it.
It's very much similar and the same, but it wears off quite more quicker.
it doesn't phase you out and so now we have hemp derived thc that's completely legal because it is
not t delta nine it's a different component so we have products that are coming out like these
gummies with a company called dad grass here you like this and this is this is uh their marketing
is like the weed your dad used to smoke that didn't knock you on your ass dad grads right and
these are gummies and these are wonderful and only two milligrams of delta-8 THC in here.
So it just gives you just a little sparkle, but not like you can function and they take off the
edge and the anxiety, right? And so as you've talked about the different components of CBD,
there's also CBDN and CBG and all of these other components, right? They created dad grass as more
of a cigarette right and i i don't really smoke as a runner but i have these right so they come
in a pack just like this i tried once before and again there's no psychoactive properties in here
just a little bit of thc delta 8 thc which is very light right so you feel a little something
you know it's you feel more when you eat a hot pepper and i know you like hot food like more of a
psychoactive response right like it's not really that but you feel a little something or like
cloves like when you get cloves like you feel or strong tea right and then of course because
there's dad grass there's also a mom grass now you see and the yellow so there's dad grass and
mom grass and mom grass is a little bit different right so it has cbg in it which is known to help
heal the body and soothe the soul so to like so a mom who's having more anxiety right would use this
It's very smooth, much smoother.
This is a little more like the flavor of it is a little stronger.
Like if you smoke it, right?
These are smoking products.
I don't really smoke.
So these are pretty much, uh, I bought these just, um, you know, to have as like, Hey,
try this out.
Right.
It's cool.
Right.
It's all kind of cool.
But, um, I would say if I was going to be taking a CBD, uh, in a smoke form, I would do it this
way, which is I have this company called Dom makes these really high tech, wonderful
pens they're like vape pens very small and it has a measured dose so every like when you smoke it
you're not sure and also the the burnt the burnt leaf and all of that carbon in your lungs this is
just a vape very tiny it's the size of a pen and the no psychoactive properties here it's derived
from hemp right it has 18 to 1 18 cbd to 1 thc and it has a chamomile oil in it too so it's calming
And it just like a little vape pen and you just take a little hit off of this and you can get your CBD But this is tested compliant regulated This is why I like the idea of governments getting involved because you know it measured no surprises
There are a lot of weird components when you get something that's homegrown.
Well, yeah, it's fresher, but there's also fungus that can grow and other additives and chemicals to make it strong.
Who knows what you're getting?
Whereas when it's regulated, yes, you're going to have to pay a tax and some excise, but you're more guaranteed a controlled experience and not having a surprise where you can't function, right?
Because for many people, these are very therapeutic means.
I mean, for me, I don't have to take anti-anxiety medications or anything else.
You know, I just use these products every once in a while and I don't drink very much.
I'll have maybe a beer a week just to enjoy it and taste it.
But I'm not grabbing for alcohol as a tool like, oh, I need a drink.
And again, I am very lightweight.
I'll have one gummy or maybe not.
I probably am more addicted to caffeine and maybe other supplements like ashwagandha or
magnesium, other things that I take for longevity.
Yeah.
Right.
you know, for fitness, rather than these things.
Capsaicum, which is, you know, basically hot.
So what do you think about all this?
What do you think about the products that you're using?
I've talked way too much.
Yeah, it's all good.
So in a previous episode, I talked about this, like a lip balm.
Do you find that works better than normal lip balm?
Yeah, it's, of course, other ingredients also,
but it is something with the hemp that is smoother, refreshing,
and also good for so you don't get dry lips
or something that you have some blemish
or something like that.
It's getting away.
It's getting rid of that.
Interesting.
Yeah, I really like it.
So that's one product.
And then, of course, I've tested snuff that you have.
You could have, it's called like snooze in Swedish.
Does that have a little tobacco?
Yeah, but it's no tobacco at all.
It's only like hemp, industrial hemp.
But you put it under your lip or in your mouth.
I know some people who snort snuff through their mouth.
Yeah, that's the old way of doing it.
They did it back in the day.
I can't imagine.
It's so painful.
But it's more that you get this reaction and you get starting to sneeze and so on.
But yeah.
So you put a pinch between your lip and gum and you just spit?
Do you spit?
No, this is also around the paper. So you get this nice, yeah, it is some soothing and also some balancing and that we will also talk for, we have talked about it in other episodes, but what is this endocannabinoid system is doing?
and when you use this hemp oil or product what that could do for your body so it's interesting
how you could take it in different ways so i've had capsules also that i like and also then now
i'm starting so that's why i want to have on the show also that i've known for a long time that
started the hemp company i have other products also and i recently got some samples from them
So I wanted to test that and see how that's working.
But yeah, I've tested some different ones.
And then here for fun.
And this is now showing for the...
So this, I don't know if you will see that.
Yeah, it's like a soap.
So I'm showing a soap and it's the symbol with the plant.
Right. Interesting.
Yeah, so you said that in Germany now,
people can grow their own plants up to three plants?
Yeah.
yeah i think here we can grow up to six and um i'm not sure if that's changed if it's more but
i have grown plants before and i can tell you that be prepared if you grow them yeah because
man they stink yeah they really stink in fact look at this this this'll this is you see this
here look at this if you're watching the video see that there yeah that is i grew that yeah yeah
that's my like a flower or like a flower yeah like a bug so this is what you would crumble up
and now this is oh man it's still it still smells good i keep it in an airtight jar this was several
years ago that it did this and i can't i wouldn't smoke these because they're so lovely right these
little teeny they look like it's like i'm so proud of these i've got you know and uh i i did
try it but like again i'm an athlete so i don't like to have smoke in my lungs because i need to
breathe so for me it's more like the gummies and the tinctures and like the the little you know
bottles and stuff like that yeah this product here is from pura vida botanicals it's a cinnamon cbd
oil yeah this is really good this is from a company in vermont pura vida yeah my good friend
uh jt has this company he also owns a coffee farm in costa rica and he is producing cbd coffee
which is amazing and his coffee is is organically grown it's on his land and he also produces this
uh beautiful this cinnamon because the cinnamon also has an effect as well this is really good
stuff. And this is what I'll take also, just a little drop of this, right? And it's just CBD.
It's all derived from hemp. There might be a trace amount of THC, but so small it doesn't
have any psychoactive property. But that's all good. I don't know though, with CBD, it's hard to
tell. It's hard to tell when you take it because it doesn't have a general effect right away.
it doesn't do anything or is it just a placebo i don't know i science is out i know they say yes
and it activates the endocannabinol system perhaps i have no way of knowing when that's
turning on or turning up because i've been using these products for you know 45 years
so who knows you get used to it so that could be as as as i said that i have been in contact
with an author that wrote a book originally in swedish called cbd and hamper in swedish or hemp
in english what's what's that and she has translated that into english and it's like a
introduction to cbd and hemp and uh and i got a good met her at a health fair here in gutenberg
So it'd be nice to get her on the show and talk about these things and what she have learned and what she have studied and how she have compiled it.
So, yeah, and we could have a discussion there also with products and other things and that you showed there.
So I think that's interesting.
And we will follow the news.
I know how good you are at finding interesting articles.
Like we have talked about hemp in fashion, hemp in building materials.
And also we talked about the pricing and all the range of products and all this good stuff.
So we can see what we could do in the near future here, Adam.
Yeah, now they have a new thing.
It's called generative hemp.
Okay, and what's that?
It's a joke.
Yeah.
Generative AI.
Generative hemp.
Yeah.
It's just the AI version of artificial.
It's artificial hemp.
I don't know.
I'm just trying to make it into a joke.
Everything is Gen AI these days.
And that's what you said about, I mean, regulation.
I'm for this, as I say, the free market.
But I understand where you're coming from.
And I wonder what could happen then now in Germany
and how that will be in other countries around in Europe
and how that will reflect.
Free market economy is a nice idea.
Yeah, it is.
But it's an idea.
The reality is that in places where cannabis products are available, including hemp products, without regulation, as in it's criminal, decriminalization is the right way to put it, there's very high regulation.
And the reason why they're decriminalizing it is, one, they're not seeing it as a threat.
There's much bigger threats.
In fact, I would say that internet addiction,
social media addiction is way more dangerous In and so uh in fact um something like being addicted to cannabis will just chill you out so you won grab for the just the terrible effect of social
media right and that dopamine is a far more dangerous drug than than thc it chills you out
so you're not so addicted to that next hit of enzyme in your brain, right?
To tickle your thalmus or tickle your, what's the little pineal gland?
Yeah, yes.
The kicks.
Driving all the dopamine.
The dopamine.
Yeah.
The little hits.
Yeah, so, but the reality is that they see this as a huge money play.
There's so much money involved because it's something that is not available.
so people want to try it they want to get their hands on it and governments can wrap their arms
around it one for the safety of the citizens which makes a lot of sense but huge money yeah huge money
you know our town it's uh it's one of the few towns in san diego county that welcomed
and we have i think six or seven dispensaries in our little town in san diego county it's not the
san diego city proper it's the outside region and also in the city of san diego they've welcomed it
and we have a lot nicer roads than all of the surrounding towns because there's so much more
money in the system and understand that california is a highly really uh regulated state right we pay
a lot of taxes everything is taxes you know so and but what you get for all those taxes are
beautiful parks beautiful roads beautiful systems really good hospitals really good services
you might have to wait right but you live in sweden so you know about that you pay very high
taxes for everything but you have really good services you get health care so and so yeah
support depending how you look at it but it's interesting you said about this criminal aspect
of that and that i think that nobody have dared to talk about in politics except one party called
like how to say an ally alliance that's a non-socialist alliance and like
how to say that in french the middle class yeah so if you take that in swedish you get that name
because here in sweden lots of criminals and the gangs are controlling regarding the mariana and
other things like that so if it will be opened and you could get it like at a pharmacy whatnot
then it could be positive things about this so but you have to talk about that and in order
because here it's getting yeah in problematic to say it at least well that's why you need the
regulation because when the government takes control and turns it into a retail engine
uh it's a whole different uh equation and um really the to be honest the real business that
gangs should be in is banks they should just take because that's what they want is the money
they should just have a gang credit card yeah right and then you know they already are you know
in a way you know i can tell you that from firsthand experience if you know what my last
name is and you look at my history and the history of the tinkoff name so but the real gang are the
banks and so uh but that's a whole different conversation yes it is you have another podcast
to talk about that yeah and yeah and i'm very neutral when it comes down to it you know but
you know i just i just know this stuff because i've been exposed to it over the many years and
i'm a big supporter of it that's all so uh yeah so uh so that's cool so what what else are what
are you looking at with this show and the development of the show yeah it's great to see
again adam so we'll see how we could fit our schedules and see on how regular it could be
and what topic but i liked what we have done so far and what what it could be and it was interesting
that you showed all the products that you've used and i have some one this is uh in swedish but he
could probably talk in english also so we never give up and it's the so-called war on drugs and
his name is johan viklen and that had been uh he'd been of course uh asked for to talk about
when things happening now in europe like in germany and and so on because here as i said
in sweden have been very complicated situation to dare to talk about mariana and about legalization
and if we should be more similar to other countries in Europe and so on.
Here there is a correlation between the funding and attention on the war on drugs
and the rise in criminal activity.
There is more violence and just detriment.
And evil things that happen, the more we fight, the more there is.
So the less we make it an evil, the less problem there is.
And it really does kind of dissolve into society as something that's really not that impactful.
As I said, social media is far more damaging for most people and their children.
I would be more concerned with the amount of time you're spending in front of a screen looking into black rectangles, shiny black rectangles.
Or watching us live.
or dead you know if they have wi-fi in the afterlife in the bardo yeah it could be
all right i would say if you ask me my advice would be to get outside and unplug a little while
to balance with uh everything else that's happening in various places in the world
we all share one big sky it's you know a big ball that we're on and even if we're on a flat earth
It's a big dome we're under.
It's all one dome.
Whatever you want to call it, it's all connected in some way or another.
And all of this stuff comes from the outside, from the ground, from the soil.
And I'm more concerned with protecting our soil than with protecting our regulation.
Yeah.
Because without our soil, the world is nothing.
Yeah.
And that could be like an end note.
I learned that from when I listened to a webinar that I learned from Hannah Hell.
And that's her name, Hell, in Swedish.
So we sort of about CBD and hemp.
What's that?
A book.
And there we talked about the history in Sweden that back in the day you had industrial hemp plants in the farming and in landscape.
And it did lots of good things for the soil.
Yes, exactly right.
And so in the history of the U.S., when they built the big mega highways to connect both sides, and this was in the 20s and the 30s, maybe the 40s, they started – this was before World War II, but then after.
as we were trying to get out of the depression.
The government put a lot of investment into the infrastructure.
And to keep the ditches down on both sides of the road,
they would just put industrial hemp down there
and it would keep the roads, the ditches down.
And what's amazing, when doing that,
they realized that hemp crops work really well to regenerate a field.
So if you grow soy and corn and feed,
and over and over again eventually you will just deplete the soil of nutrients so if you throw in a
cycle of hemp and you can use hemp it's a super strong fiber you can create really strong fabrics
out of it and other materials as we've talked before you just you chop the crop and then you
till it into the soil it re it regenerates the soil so regenerative farming is this idea of
leaving a cut, whatever you cut out of the land, rather than scooping it up. And it protects the
soil. Without the soil, this civilization will die. The soil is probably the most important thing
that we need to keep the food going, the food we die. It's really important. And crops like hemp
our key to keep our soil alive.
We come from the earth and we depart
and we're sprinkled on the earth, right?
So we need to protect our soil.
But that's a whole other conversation.
Yes, it is.
So thanks again, Adam.
Nice to see you again.
And thanks for doing this live streaming.
And then it will end up as an episode,
episode number 11 of High Five for Hemp.
11?
so you're doing one episode a year
11 years
I'll see you
next April
thanks for that take care
bye