Joe Dolce -The Benefits of Cannabis: Why It’s Medicine

John Malanca 0:01
Hi everybody John Malanca here with United Patients Group Be Informed. Be Well. and we have what do you want to say some alumni in the industry here. Joe Dolce. Welcome, Joe. Yeah, I know you’re in New York. Cold, sunny. not snowy. New York.

Joe Dolce 0:19
It is sunny and it is cold. It isn’t. I wish I was on I wish I was in California.

John Malanca 0:24
Okay. I think I think everybody wishes they were different places right now.

Joe Dolce 0:28
That’s right, you know,

John Malanca 0:29
with all this too. So, welcome. I know you’ve done a lot in. You’ve been an editor in chief for certain magazines, but you’ve also written a book. Brave New World. You want to talk about Brave New weed.

Joe Dolce 0:42
It’s Brave New weed. Huxley. Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World okay

Unknown Speaker 0:45
with that old

John Malanca 0:47
we’ll go right back then to Sorry, I was I was I was adamant. I had three two. And one. everybody welcome back. This is John Malanca. United patient group be informed and be well and we have a alumni in the cannabis industry. Joe Dolce. Joe love the name first off.

Unknown Speaker 1:05
Thank you, john. I didn’t do anything to deserve it. My dad gave it to me.

John Malanca 1:10
That little roaches little desserts, little sweetness. I guess I have. I bet you’ve had fun in your life with that.

Unknown Speaker 1:15
Well, it’s for me. It’s more agrodolce. A little more bittersweet.

John Malanca 1:19
Okay, bittersweet. You know what? Your new yorker? That’s right.

Unknown Speaker 1:24
Exactly. Right. Well, good. So

John Malanca 1:26
you’re an author, you’ve been an editor in chief for some magazines. You want to share a little about your background, and we’re going to talk about cannabis. You traveling the world, you bring some stigmas down to social, medical, legal, as well as the different ramifications and then what you’re doing currently.

Unknown Speaker 1:42
So sure, of course, I will I You’re right. I was a journalist for my entire career when there were magazines. Yeah, I edited details magazine, was a men’s style magazine in the 1990s. And I was a contributing editor to gourmet and to playboy. And I stopped that about 10 years ago, and the route 2013. I was having lunch with my lawyer one day, and he said, What are you doing? And I said, Well, you know, I’m not really doing much. I’m a little lost. Actually, I’m a little lost in my career. In fact, I’m smoking a lot of pot. I’ve just rediscovered pot at this point. He said, Oh, damn, I love pot. I said, Bob, I never knew. My lawyer was about 76 at the time, right? And he’d been my entertainment lawyer for many years. I never knew. He said, Oh, yeah, it’s ridiculous what the government is doing. It’s all stupid. I i’ve been supporting normal for 20 years, and I won’t even travel to a hotel where I can open the window and smoke a joint was amazing. I never knew this. He said, You should write a book about this, Joe. I said, write a book about what it’s just pot. He said, look into it. So I did actually I it was it was that year was the 25th anniversary of the High Times Cannabis Cup. And I booked myself a ticket to Amsterdam, to go to that cup. And it was terrible. It was a real bummer. It was raining every day. It was freezing. It was set up in this big drafty Hall. And I’m walking around with a notebook. And I’m the only guy with no beard and everybody thought he’s a dark. So I was not the most popular guy in town, that’s for sure. Anyway, I had a really crummy time there. And at the end of it, I ran into this guy. He said, what was your experience? Like I said, I didn’t have a great time. He said, Yeah, man, the lights are going out here. You should come visit me in Denver.

Unknown Speaker 3:35
Oh, you’re like, Okay, I’ll go. But I did.

Unknown Speaker 3:37
I said, Okay, sure. Give me your address. Let’s see what happened. So I wrote him. I wrote him some emails, and he invited me. And he turns out his name is Adam Dunn. And Adam was at the forefront of this hash oil making operation Colorado was just about to legalize. And he was sort of the center of the action. Everybody stopped in his in his place. I mean, people who are making oils, people who are making Incredibles chocolate, all this stuff that has become really big, was just beginning. And there I was, and I’m a writer and a reporter. And I’m thinking, This is amazing. So, you know, I was learning all this stuff about I didn’t know anything about dabs and hash oils and extraction. I didn’t know any of this stuff. It was brand new. And there I was in the catbird seat. So I spent about five or six days without them and had a fantastic time and thought, oh, maybe there’s a book here. Maybe there’s a book here. This is really interesting. And on the last day, he said to me, it’s time you did a dab. And I said, Okay, let’s do it. I’ve been inhaling secondhand smoke the whole time of reporting, right? But I hadn’t actually taken advantage of it. And I did this to happen. You know if you if you ever done it to john, I’ve never done a dab and then people that I always see and I’ve been to Colorado conferences where they outdoor They said, I’m a scuba diver as well. And I said never dive alone. But the signs at these conferences are never dabbled AB alone.

Unknown Speaker 5:09
Yeah, you know,

Unknown Speaker 5:09
I knew at that point that you’re supposed to give like, you know, a dab is like a keen Wah size amount of this very concentrated halshaw. They gave me I would say, a rice size amount, and I wasn’t clocking it at all. And I just inhaled the whole thing. Yeah. And I exhaled an endless cloud. And when we went, we then went out to dinner. And the ride there was fine. And we get into the restaurant, and I’m sitting at the bar with Adam. And I’m looking at the menu, and I swear to you, man, the page was going like it was wobbling, okay, could focus on the page, and then I felt the floor wobbling. Yeah. And I thought, this isn’t gonna end well at all. And I had to go outside. And basically, I puked for a terrible 30 minutes. I mean, it was, it was really bad. And then I came back and I said, you got to take me home. I’m not handling whatever’s going on around what’s going on. I’m not enjoying this. This was no fun at all. We got to the car, you know, I had to hit the stop twice on the way back to the hotel, so I could stick my head out the door and more on the street, make another mess. And I had a very uncomfortable night. And I woke up. And I started Googling because I thought Wait, cannabis is anti nausea. Like it people. It aids to cannabis to help their nausea. What How could this happen? This is crazy. It doesn’t make any sense. And you know what? I couldn’t find an answer.

John Malanca 6:35
Well, it’s there. It’s called hyperemesis. Well, it

Unknown Speaker 6:37
wasn’t there in 2000. Oh, really? And I promise you, yeah. But I did find an article that Rafale a guy named Rafi alma shulam. was completely who I was starting to get to know. Yeah, had written about this possible reaction. And he happened to be at Hebrew University. And believe it or not, I wrote him a letter. And I said, this happened. Can I come visit you? Because I really don’t understand. And he said, Yes, come. And then I thought, you know what, I think I have a book here. And that’s how it began, I went to Israel, and I spent time with the scientists and the researchers and I went to a nursing home where they were treating patients, my whole world just opened up, right? It went from this little dark back room in Colorado, into Hebrew University Research, right. And I’m really, really

John Malanca 7:26
having having a meeting with your lawyer say How you doing? Like, not too good. I lost? You know, sometimes. That’s how life is. That’s the way I look at life. If I can get one, you know, we’ve been to conferences if we meet one person. I know that makes sense. I go, okay, it was just success. It was worth it. Yeah. So you’d be over there in Amsterdam. You’re like, that sucks. I don’t want to be here. And the guy said, How do you like it? Well, well, you got to come to Colorado. I mean, we’re gonna

Unknown Speaker 7:53
follow. So sometimes you have to follow the thread. Right? Yeah. And that’s, that’s how I began this exploration, right. And so I got Harper Collins to pay me to continue traveling around the world. I was lucky. And I wrote my book, and it came out, it got reviewed in the New York Times, which is doesn’t happen often for a book on pot. And I got very interested in the topic. And what happened, I realized was I wrote this book. And it was pretty comprehensive. But a lot of the research and a lot of the information I knew wasn’t in the book, it was not this book was written to be fun, was narrative nonfiction. You know, it was meant to be a journey. It wasn’t meant to be a medical tome or a scientific, you know, volume. So I thought, you know, what, I know a whole lot. And when I was on book tour, a doctor came up to me and she said, I read your book, and I said, Oh, great. What do you think she said, I love it. I want to start an education program. I said, for who she said for patients, for healthcare providers, and for people who work in dispensaries. And I said, well, let’s do it. I have all this information. Let’s do it. So we created something called medical cannabis mentor.com, which is online education that trains those three groups, plus pharmacists plus nurses we have, we have profession specific courses. And that’s what I’ve been doing for a couple of years now. Very good. And we’re just on the verge of creating a really interesting app that includes education and product recommendations that dispensary’s can give to the patients for free so they can actually guide monitor and titrate adjust their doses accordingly to how they’re feeling and nothing like this exists. So very, very, very excited to pull this forward.

John Malanca 9:45
Now. You know, it’s neat, excuse me, is needed. I truly, I mean, I’m out here in California. Cannabis has been legal since 1996, ever at the Medical level, and so, but the stigma is still there. You know, every day You know, we I speak with patients who call and say, Hello, which way do I go? What question I do know. And you mentioned dispensary’s, you know, we’ve done a lot of conferences. My my wife, current or late wife, Karen, you know, we do a lot of conferences and education is always been key. So I love it that you’re doing that. And we would try to educate at all levels not not only at the patient level, the medical level on the government level, but at the dispensary level, because you mentioned dispensary.

Unknown Speaker 10:31
I don’t feel confident

John Malanca 10:32
sending my mom down there or my grandmother down there. You know, when chances are no disrespect to dispensary workers, they could be worse. It could have been working at Starbucks last week, and this week, they’re selling a medicine. You know, to a patient, you don’t know if I’m diabetic, you don’t know if I have a heart arrhythmia. You don’t know if I have a whole list of other stupid things. That’s why I truly believe a doctor should always believe be involved. What are your thoughts on that? I know you’re working with a doctor putting this is that, you know, some doctors say yeah, try trial and error if you get too much. In your case, you know,

Unknown Speaker 11:11
since I have one, okay, you know, occasionally I’ve learned to moderate my dose though I’ve learned to you know, now I know what to look for. Certainly, yeah. And I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve enjoyed it. But I’ve also had terrible bouts of vomiting for about three or four years after that point. So I really changed my consumption habits, I moved more to edibles, I moved more to vaporizing with that I could control more, I really had to sort of change it up a bit, which is fine and great. As a matter of fact, that’s a great thing about cannabis as you can, you can have different effects when you change the method of administration. So it’s it I’ve learned a lot. But I work with Dr. Joon chin. And Joon is a really interesting doctor, you may know her, she trained in California in the 90s, and in the early part of 2000s. And she ended up treating over 10,000 patients. And because she’s so smart, she kept all that data. Oh, good. She has the thing that nobody else has, which is data on 10,000. Now more than 10,000 12,000 15,000 patients over a long span of time, what conditions they had, what they used, how it integrates with your diet, and your exercise routine. She’s an integrative physician, so she looks at the whole being and the whole life, not just take these pills, right? So I have spoken to, I actually think that June is the exception. And integrative physicians tend to be the exception. Also the medical profession will probably be the last people to come on to a botanical medicine like cannabis, it’s too wild west for them. They don’t understand self dosing, even though they do understand self dosing, because they all prescribe insulin. They all prescribe SSRI drugs, all these drugs. If you’ve ever taken antidepressants, you know, you have to spend a month maybe two adjusting that dose. And you the patient is the one that says oh, I feel happy. Oh, I don’t feel happy. Oh, I feel fantastic. You know, you’re the one who decides not the doctor needs you to tell him, which is exactly the same as a botanical medicine except doctors. They don’t want to go there. They just don’t want to go there.

John Malanca 13:30
Yeah, it’s too bad. You know, they’re starting to, you know, our doctors are my personal doctor for the past 10 plus years has been natural paths, you know, and they, and I’m a big fan of natural route I do a lot of work in in an integrative oncology world as well, even before, you know, my wife became though, you know, we would always speak at these events. And, you know, it’s nice to see doctors open minded. And we’ve even run into doctors that work for major cancer institutions here in the US that have called and said, Hey, I made a promise, I made a promise to this family that I would research cannabis. And so I always share with all of our viewers that even if you live in a legal state or an illegal state, it’s not illegal to ask that question. This is your body, your health. Ask your doctor and they don’t know say, Hey, Doc, can you refer me to someone who may and I’m guaranteed nowadays 2020, almost 2021 every doctor knows somebody that you know that that can. And now the internet. I mean, I know there’s a lot of information out there. There’s good information, but a lot of

Unknown Speaker 14:34
tricky. Yeah, it’s pretty tricky on the internet. I think the problem is most doctors, you know, I mean, my My issue is that most doctors, it’s complicated for them. They’re overworked. You know, they’ve got a ton of information coming at them. There’s the insurance system does not allow for a lot of patient consultation hours. So that’s what we hope to do with this app. Cool, which is really helped to train patients. So the doctor doesn’t have to repeat the same information over and over and over again. That’s not efficient. And in our medical world, it’s never going to work. Right? No one’s going to spend an hour time after time after time talking about how to titrate your dose of medical cannabis. Right well what works and what doesn’t work. So it definitely

John Malanca 15:20
needed I appreciate you what you’re doing. They’d like to there’s some good in great minded people in this industry there are doing this not taking away anything about you but talking about Did she ever did she have what was what led her into cannabis? I know she is something was paying or something like that.

Unknown Speaker 15:43
Yeah, she had a condition that I can never pronounce. It’s a it’s an arthritis of the spine. She was an athlete when she was in her teens. And when she was in her residency, she was in the bar. She was having a really hard time standing up. Yeah, like cuz, you know, you’re watching an operation for five hours, you got to stand up for five hours. And one of the doctors she was working with noticed this and said, What’s going on? And she said, I think it’s called ankylosing spondylitis, something like that. And he said, Look, try this. And she looked at it. She said, Look, I’m from the Bronx, what is this? And he said, it’s marijuana, but it’s not marijuana. It’s something called Believe it or not, he had CBD back then. And certain patients of mine have used it for pain relief. And she said, I, you know, she told me tells me this a lie, I went home, it was a Friday, I waited till Friday. I took it I was expecting to get ripped off my butt. And I did it. But what happened was the pain went away. So she kept she kept using it. And still does, and really adjusted her entire medical practice to accommodate this botanical medicine, it really changed the course of her practice.

John Malanca 17:00
Yeah. And again, just like your the course of your life and your your your writing she I mean, look, we are now you know, from traveling the world to doing the doing this with with banging my head against the wall trying to get dispensers to educate their bud tenders and personnel. Yes,

Unknown Speaker 17:16
that’s what I’m doing. JOHN, should I be traveling?

John Malanca 17:21
In New York? Are you are you reaching out to because it’s difficult, we would do what we would I hear what you’re saying. But this is, you know, six years ago, we would do our we would have our conference, and we did our first conference, I believe. And I got seven years ago, 13. And we invited until we would have, we’d have about 85 90% of our attendees were medical professionals, not in the cannabis industry know that one to come and we would do it at was like a college lecture. We do it at colleges, and the doctors like okay, I’m on the fence of what’s the stuff I don’t want to walk in. It’s not, you know, nothing wrong. Those High Times cannabis conferences are fun. I think everyone should attend one just to see what it’s like. I mean, it just blows your mind. But the doctors didn’t want to go to that. And then we so that’s why we set it up for them. You know, they can walk in like a normal conference and do that. But

Unknown Speaker 18:20
when when you’re there, and when you’re there and you’re hearing the likes of Ethan Russo or Didi Meyer, or or or you know, spoken they, they just they make it safe for doctors to listen, they they’re presenting research, they’re presenting studies, they’re presenting evidence, it’s, you know, I

John Malanca 18:35
think doctors like to talk to doctors, basically. Well, they do well, we would invite we would invite the dispensary owners and workers in great. We would have five of them that would show up. Yeah. And so you know, I it’s so needed and so I think what you’re doing is fantastic. And hopefully they see that light because as this as this industry grows, still not see it I

Unknown Speaker 19:00
here’s what I think is gonna happen. Honestly, I don’t I think most dispensaries don’t care about medical even if they say they care about medical, they obviously don’t care about medical The money is in adult use. And I think what’s missing is this idea of health and wellness. And I think if dispensary’s would would maybe reorient themselves a little bit to being health and wellness places where you can buy cannabis, but maybe you can buy other supplements too. Maybe you could buy ashwagandha or you could buy melatonin for sleep or magnesium or whatever it is, there’s a million of them. You might be able to create a business where people feel quite comfortable coming to solve a problem because I think what I think is a lot of people use cannabis for a quote, medical or health and wellness reason but aren’t aware of it. So, and I this was true for myself when I was younger. I know why I smoked. I was anxious. I was really anxious kid guy, boy, a young adult. Let’s put it that. I was though, and I was not so aware I wasn’t so conscious of it. Yeah, right, you know, many 15 minute hours since I’m much more aware of how I deal with stress and anxiety now, but back then I didn’t really have the tools. And the tool I found was actually cannabis. It was a great stress reliever. It blocked

John Malanca 20:25
out a lot

Unknown Speaker 20:26
of the hassle that my own brain was causing me. And I think a lot of people use cannabis. In the same way. They don’t really know that maybe they’re treating an issue or a condition. Right. And it could be sleep, it could be stress, it could be pain, it could be lots of things really IBS. You know, we all know, all the things that ameliorates all the conditions that Amelia writes. So I think that if you’re in a I think if a dispensary This is my big idea was to do health and wellness, that it would really find a market and would find a market for people who aren’t who don’t want to go into a Yeah, well,

John Malanca 21:04
there are.

Unknown Speaker 21:05
There are a few years ago, I

John Malanca 21:07
worked with a lot of pharmacists, and I gave them a tour of one how to become a legal patient and it just blew their mind because before this before recreational, they had come to the office and I said if we were to do it online, and they sat there and they’re okay. And it says okay, Bill, we received your application and payment into the email came through. Okay, Bill, we’re reviewing it. And so they’re sitting there waiting. Okay, Bill, you’ve been approved in a look at me and they said, No came on. I said, that’s how easy to get a candidate recommendation state of California. Now, let’s go print this out. And I’ll take you through San Francisco and do the good, the bad and the ugly. And exactly that the good, the bad, the ugly. Some people would say Tch, some people say ccdb. I’m thinking. I mean, that’s, that’s my biggest pet peeve. I’m from the magazine industry as well. spelling errors is one of my biggest pet peeves. And it drives me nuts when I see companies in this industry that misspell marijuana, misspelled cannabis and misspelled CBD. And I see it all the time. And I’m thinking Come on, guys, you know, let’s take this little seriously. But there are some in the San Francisco Bay area that offer acupuncture, massage, it’s true, hot tea and go in there get hot tea and relaxed. I am a fan of supplements. I take a lot of supplements. So that’s not happening. So I think you need better. Joe dolci.com forward slash

Unknown Speaker 22:35
cannabis health and wellness.

John Malanca 22:38
Unfortunately, is not you I mean hangnails. And hiccups are a qualified condition. But health and wellness in a lot of states is not there. And I think Come on, bring the body back to balance as you’re talking about, you know what, let’s, let’s avoid, you know, if you don’t if you lose out a night asleep, we’ve all had that next day, you’re groggy your brain fog, anxiety, depression, mood disorders, pain for a lot of patients, you know, but if you fix that one, the domino effect can help. And I and I’m a big fan of health and wellness and it’s usually sleep.

Unknown Speaker 23:11
That’s what I have found. Is that the hardest condition, the one that’s underlying many of them, yeah, if you’re not sleeping well, you’re really not. You’re really not a happy puppy. Yeah, you know, you’re really not happy. So we try to bring this information to the world and it’s gonna be slow. It’s not gonna happen as quickly as you were, I think it should happen. That’s the fact. There’s a lot of there’s a lot of structural resistance here on so many levels on so many levels. And,

Unknown Speaker 23:42
and, you know, I

Unknown Speaker 23:43
don’t think I’m not blaming dispensary’s. I mean, they’ve got it, they’ve got to make their money, they’ve got to recoup their investment. It’s It’s a hard thing to do. But I just don’t think the market is advanced are mature, let’s say mature enough to realize the incredible opportunity it has

John Malanca 24:03
it the conversation has been there but had nothing’s been taken. You know, they haven’t followed up on it. The dispensary’s I mean like you Yeah, where they make the money’s a recreational you know, you go in there Friday, you’re going there Saturday to refill it. You grabbed on Friday, we’re a senior citizen, you know, or another patient shows up every every month. And so you know, who where’s our moneymaker? Their moneymakers? Is there is a regular cannabis user coming in. Nothing wrong with that. But I do think there should be a place and I think the education is should be shortlisted somebody needs to remind them that people with medical conditions are regular purchasers. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 24:45
You know what I mean? I mean, whatever condition you have, if it works, you’re going to go back and you’re gonna go back and you’re going to go back. Anyway, that’s what we hope to do is really is

John Malanca 24:55
this you know, even throughout those COVID it is it is a an essential business, and I know that They thought that at first it wasn’t they weren’t letting people, you know that keeping dispensaries open here, at least in California. And they fought and they fought and they won. And I think it’s important, I think, you know, the stress level and anxiety what’s happening a lot of happening to a lot of people not only here in California, but but globally. You know, they have turned to exercising health and wellness. And cannabis. You know, this

Unknown Speaker 25:22
is not a great year. What’s Yeah.

John Malanca 25:25
So with what you’re doing now, do you see that trickling out over back overseas, where you spent a lot of time I know, you really can’t really travel, we can’t travel as much as, as you and I probably did, or our past? What what are you seeing?

Unknown Speaker 25:41
Well, I could speak small, and I could speak big. So we’re producing courses now for China, gosh, is amazing. Because that’s a country that has actually does have a history of using botanical medicine, even though it was a terrible cultural stain on on all sorts of drugs. And I think it’s related to the Opium Wars of the 1890s. Basically, when Chinese immigrants were much maligned as opium users, and there was a lot of racism, to get the Chinese out to push them out, both in Canada and United states all across North America, actually. So I think the Chinese still suffer from that stigma, right? We’re producing we just applied to be the official course providers of the country of New Zealand. Haha, which just which just is beginning a medical program right now. We are producing courses for England, which is interesting. They have a they have terrible laws there. I mean, yeah, everything is illegal, basically, except for a little bit of CBD.

John Malanca 26:49
And they’ve changed that number. It used to be just until recently, it was 0.2%. And I think just the last in the last two, three weeks, they change it to 0.30. Do they? What do they change it to?

Unknown Speaker 26:58
I think they downsized. Oh, really? Yeah, I can’t remember one gram, if it has more than one milligram of THC per product, no matter how big the product is, or how small it’s illegal. Whatever. I mean, you know, the laws are so random. Right? Yeah. Um, and we’re also producing courses for Brazil, and hopefully for Germany. Good. Oh, I see that there is a lot of obviously need. We know there’s need. And it seems to depend on how the country itself is treating it like Germany, it’s available through pharmacies. Different countries have different methods of distribution, right? Like it’s what we’re doing one for Canada to Canada is interesting, because CBD is still illegal in Canada.

John Malanca 27:46
still illegal. illegal.

Unknown Speaker 27:49
Because regulatory, they they think of CBD as a food supplement. Yeah, not as anything else. So the regulatory process of approval for food supplements takes three years. So CBD has been the last to come online and Canada interestingly enough

John Malanca 28:07
for UK was like that where it was food there their

Unknown Speaker 28:13
FDA.

John Malanca 28:16
I guess disapproved you being a writer disapproved, I guess it was word, but it but it’s gone from food, health product, food that I think is back to a health product. Now. Let me tell you a quick you said opium so my grandparents. My mom’s dad is from Hamburg, Germany. My mom’s my mom’s mom’s family is from Spain. And they were in business together import export, going back from Spain, in Germany, to Asia with the textiles from Europe. And I just found out a few years ago that on the way back and these this is not, you know, British and British Airways flying over to, you know, you’ll be there in 12 hours. This is three months plus, but they would the ships were filled with textiles. And on the way home. I just found this out. opium of course, they brought the opium back. And

Unknown Speaker 29:13
so I was like, wow, you know, I guess, you know, hope it was a medicine, remember?

John Malanca 29:19
Yeah, yeah. But it was kind of a I was like, wow, that’s family history I’d never knew about and in 1985, my grandfather here in San Francisco, had colon cancer. And his doctor in San Francisco and I didn’t realize my mom shared this with me probably about 10 years ago. She was you know, your grandfather’s doctor in San Francisco and in the 80s said, I want you to try marijuana then. And my grandfather looked at it you know, you’re out of your mind. I’ve been against drugs my whole life. Yo now you want to give me marijuana? You know, give me give me some morphine you know, type of thing and I was like God, who was that doctor? That doctor is way ahead of his or his or her time and she was added No, but it’s Funny how it’s like you said it’s been a medicine here for years, and they stopped what at three years ago in 1937

Unknown Speaker 30:06
and 783 years. 37 is when they stopped it. Yeah, it always has been. I look obviously California. You’re so lucky. It’s just grown everywhere, isn’t it?

John Malanca 30:20
Yeah. Like Wizard of Oz, we have the gold the golden trailer. Yeah, no, everybody has a marijuana grow in the backyard. Now. It’s just not like that. But that’s, that’s, that’s what everyone thinks. And everyone thinks in Colorado, that it’s, it is it is everywhere, as well. And, you know, that’s, that’s funny, because the county I live in, doesn’t have any brick and mortars. But the county, three minutes from here allows 99 plants and brick and mortars, you know, so each county and I always share that with with families know what County, just because you live in a legal state doesn’t mean all those that same law transitions into every county that you live in. And I know, you know, New York, I lived in New York for years in New York is very strict, even on a joint I mean, I had buddies that got busted outside Madison Square Garden, getting ready to go see a concert next thing you know, these

Unknown Speaker 31:15
days,

John Malanca 31:17
the concert and they’re stuck in the paddy wagon, you know, and he’s thinking, Man, oh, man, what, you know, and that’s it’s on his record, you know, still to this day. So what, share some stories about you going overseas? You know, I know Amsterdam, you know, we used to used to be is what you said the hub for medical cannabis or cannabis. I lived in Belgium. And so we would go to Amsterdam. I haven’t been to Israel. And I think it’s great because I’ve I’ve never spoken to Rafael mushroom. But I here. Reach out. You know, people have very

Unknown Speaker 31:50
well is a very welcoming man. I believe he’s 91. Now. Yeah. Which is pretty amazing. So that was interesting. Israel, you know, is a tormented place, obviously, for so many reasons. But what’s really interesting is that Jerusalem, which is where Hebrew University as is this, like, solemn, religious, full of Orthodox people, sort of a for me, a very dominant, I’m agnostic, I don’t practice any religion. It’s very depressing place. It’s very solemn. And then you go to Tel Aviv, which is on the sea and on the water and very gay and very friendly and very colorful. And it’s a cloud of cannabis smoke. And wow, like, it is like being in two completely different countries. And everybody in Tel Aviv is growing. Like you just, it’s everywhere. It’s not a problem to get it. So Israel was was was really interesting in that way. And then what was really fascinating is they at the time when I was there, they had a started a nursing home. Yeah, south of Tel Aviv, that was using medical cannabis for patients with dementia. And I don’t if you’ve ever been in a nursing home for people with dementia, they are pretty terrible places. You know, there’s a lot of agony and suffering and screaming and crying and you just don’t want to be there very long. This place was quiet, and cheerful. And it was amazing to you know, walk through and I met this one guy was in his 90s. And he had been a Holocaust survivor. And so he escaped Germany and lived in a chicken coop in France for two years, escaping the Nazis as there was moisture Roth, and he was now in this nursing home. He didn’t have dementia, but he had something else going on. So we sat and we talked. And as we were talking, of course, he’s smoking a spliff

John Malanca 33:41
that was asked you how are

Unknown Speaker 33:42
they consumed? Because I always thought this was this was, again, not 2014. All smoking, all smoking, and,

John Malanca 33:49
and quality stuff, not like the stuff that our government’s giving me.

Unknown Speaker 33:52
I wouldn’t call it great stuff. No, I think the cannabis in Israel is not fantastic at all. But nonetheless, probably better than what’s definitely better than what’s growing in the universe, Mississippi, certainly. But I’m I sort of saying, so what are you doing all day? What

Unknown Speaker 34:06
are you doing for day? He said, Well, I

Unknown Speaker 34:07
listen to music. Now I’ve rediscovered music. I couldn’t listen to it before. And I paint. And I said, well, show me what your paintings are. And I walk into his room. And I’m telling you Florida ceiling, there were paintings of chickens. Chicken chickens, chicken see hidden, said I’ve hidden the chicken coop. Yeah, it is adolescence. That was quite amazing. And also his wife ended up visiting while I was there. And she said to me, you know, look, I put him in this nursing home because I couldn’t stand him. Like we couldn’t talk to each other. It was a nightmare. But now he’s a nice guy. So, you know, for that

Unknown Speaker 34:44
it was that was pretty

Unknown Speaker 34:44
regulatory to see that in action. And I also had an experience with my own mother who was extremely anti cannabis when I was growing up, needless to say, and sort of maintain that stance. Pretty much throughout her life. When she was in her and her 90s she lost her sight to macular degeneration. And she was living with my sister. And she was a bit she was depressed. She was just depressed. She was living in darkness. And you know, no matter what we did, she wasn’t having it. Yeah, it wasn’t really taking it on. So I brought a pain patch back from Colorado many years ago, and I cut it into quarters. And I told my sister, I said, we’re going to put this on mom and see what happens. Then we put it on. And sure enough, I mean, my sister called me the next day and I said, What’s going on? She said, Well, she’s dancing. She’s singing. She’s singing to Tony Bennett, who was her favorite? And she did the dishes today. And I said,

Unknown Speaker 35:42
Oh, great. So

Unknown Speaker 35:43
the pain patch is working. And she said, Yeah, but we’re taking her off. And I said, Why? And she said, Joe, you breaker, you bought her. It’s like, we can’t afford to have her fall. And I saw her right. You know, what can I say? You’re right. I couldn’t take my mom. She couldn’t live with me in New York. So it was good that she was living there. And that was that. And that was the determination. But it was so great to see that, you know, you could put this paint patch on and I said to her mom, she said, What is it? And I said, it’s cannabis. And she said, What’s that? It was like marijuana? She said, No, I said, just see what it’s like you don’t have to smoke and the thing that she loved it.

John Malanca 36:21
It’s funny you say smoke eo is when you’re sharing that story with the patches. I speak of retirement communities. I haven’t in a while. But I used to do that on a regular basis that I used to ask, how many people used to think the only way to consume would be a smoking you’d have 90% of the room. And we’d go back there a few months later and talk again, I’d ask him, and they’d look at me like, hey, dummy, give me give us a real question. Because that demographic has educated themselves so much. And because of all the different products, patches, which I’m a big fan of vaporisation, topicals, tinctures. And so the stigma of you know, our mom’s generation of, you know, is what they know, is smoking, smoking, bad, bad. And it’s too bad that because there are a lot of studies and I work with a lot of patients who have had success with macular degeneration and, and cannabis. I mean, that was one of the first approved conditions in California that okay,

Unknown Speaker 37:18
macular degeneration,

John Malanca 37:20
or glaucoma, excuse me, a coma, you know, taking the pressure off the eyes, but but we’ve had a lot of patients that have had success with macular degeneration, and glaucoma, of course, with that, and this one one, Jim, he does actually a lot he’s here in California, but there’s a lot in New Zealand and New Zealand’s You know, we’ve got a lot of work. They’ve actually brought us on to speak to their zoom call with their parliament, probably back in 2014. They’ve been wanting to do a lot and so I applaud you for for doing that.

Unknown Speaker 37:49
Let’s see what happens.

Unknown Speaker 37:50
Yeah. So

John Malanca 37:54
you said Bronx but you said Mom, mom wasn’t in New York.

Unknown Speaker 37:57
Where does she live? My mother was in Maine with Maine. Okay, one of my sister’s got Yeah, yeah. So the other funny things I remember. Do you know, Mauer, Gordon? Of course. Okay. So she makes sense elders. So I visited her when as elders was but a glint in her eye. She was living in a so called like, an adult community. So

Unknown Speaker 38:18
no one

Unknown Speaker 38:20
will know Creek, right. Yeah. Give me example,

John Malanca 38:22
Mara. I met Mara and and Stewart 2010 or 11. And we’ve done a lot together. She’s spoken at our conference numerous times. She’s, you know, she came to she was at our wedding. And so I’ve known Martin that now. They moved a while back anyway, go on. But I know exactly. I’ve been, you know, I

Unknown Speaker 38:45
know. I know more. Well, she’s become, you know, a bit of a star in the world of cannabis for making great products. And also, I think, a few opinions. A few opinions. I think a few of whom

John Malanca 38:57
I’m going to share because I know more she always says, suffer more. I love you. You hear me right here. I love you. But Mara says, I’m speaking your conference. Right? Okay, Mara, we’d like to speak at the conference. I’m coming to your wedding, right? Yes. Would you like to come on money? And she goes, I’m just that Jewish grandmother that you don’t have. And I said, Okay, so, yes, I know.

Unknown Speaker 39:18
I know. Maher very well.

Unknown Speaker 39:19
So what but when I met her, she and her partner, husband killer. Were making cannabis medicines. For really for the elders who lived in this community. They were making it in a in a electric frying pan in their kitchen. And they were distilling it in the chimney in the living room and the smell was going up over the golf course. Right. And so when the smell of cameras what was going on, all the elders would come and knock on the door and say, Okay, what have you got? I could see and they would, you know, they knew about purple cushion. They knew about this one in that and they knew all the different strains that were available. Right then in there in California, and you know, it was really unusual for me to see people with visors, and big sunglasses, you know, the look, sweat clothes, you know, coming in and looking at different strains and smelling it and actually having a really educated opinion about it. It was it was a complete revelation to me.

John Malanca 40:19
She, when my father in law was ill, it was the blind leading the blind when we went down, I mean, it was 2011 there was night and day from what it was where it was then and today labeling there was no labeling, it was like cannabis, you know, and the only reason we went with that coconut oil capsule was because I knew I could freeze it and cut it in slivers because there are other items that were non smokers were said Oh, one dose well it’s enough to feed the New York Giants type of thing. And so we did that for the first six months with the coconut oil capsules still three milligrams nothing nothing big. And then Chris and I, you know, got to know people in this industry and then Maher started doing her stuff. Anyway, but but we were using Mars oil for my father long because it’s not a one size fits all it was a four to one ratio of THC to CBD. And so for a lot of our listeners out there, you know, THC is not bad. And I you know, I know the CBD market is boomed and everyone thinks I want the medical part of the cannabis plant which is CBD and I don’t want the recreational which it’s

Unknown Speaker 41:25
just not true. It’s just all wrong. Yeah.

John Malanca 41:28
And I share this all the time. I know for a fact my father in law would not be here today if if he just used CBD. And so you know, it’s a THC for him. For him worked and and, you know,

Unknown Speaker 41:44
well as we say that THC and CBD are like Bette Davis and Joe Crawford. They fight each other. But they work together when they when they work together their best. And I know that doesn’t not not all young people understand that metaphor. But it’s really true. When they combine it seems to me, it seems and the evidence is pretty clear. THC activates something in CBD, and at the same time, CBD moderates some of the psychoactivity of too, so they are a good combination. It’s really cool to find the right ratio for you.

John Malanca 42:15
For you exactly for you. And then

Unknown Speaker 42:18
we are to do it’s pretty easy.

John Malanca 42:20
Yeah, we had to find that sweet spot. And we were very fortunate that we didn’t have it was trial and error. We didn’t have any air. And it was that at that point the blind leading the blind and then now you know, they’re like, like, June with her 10,000 cases I should say, you know, she can see what’s going on because I mean, I’ve worked with with other seniors like my father in law, you have stage four lung cancer metastasized to his brain who’ve had success with a one to one ratio, where he was affordable ratio. So I this is why I always say a doctor should be involved. You know, to go over this you know, the age and weight and the current health condition and the sensitivity of the patient. other medications you may be on other modalities you may be doing chemo radiation, you know, I’m not I and I’m never going to say cannabis. I’ll never say cure, but I always I never want to give anybody false hope. You know, but I you can use this in conjunction with other things. You know, we hear this and I don’t know if you you do I’m certain June does as well, but I’ll try. If this doesn’t work, then I’ll try canon Miss. You know, if chemo radiation doesn’t work, then I’ll try cannabis. If my medications for my seizures don’t work for anxiety, and that doesn’t work. I’ll try cannabis. And in a lot of cases you can combined and that’s why I believe a doctor should be involved as well to you know, one tight to help with tai tration as well as sensitivities. And so are you working more on the educational side with the dispensaries or do you work with other you work with patients and direct them as well?

Unknown Speaker 43:55
We don’t work patients directly. I mean, June has a patient population that she works with. I’m not a doctor. So it’s not really my interest. I do. We do a lot medical cannabis mental we’re really we just got CME approval. So we’re now our courses are now being brought out to healthcare practitioners, they can get credits for it. I do the brave new weed podcast. I do it every every we release every two weeks. So I still have my hand in lots of cannabis stuff. Yeah. And obviously we’re trying to build this. We are building this app that we are about to take out to dispensaries and certain pharmacies in various parts of the world come to New Year. So the technology the technology is there. We just have to really now introduce it to the world. That’s what I’ve been really working on for the last year basically is betting on a lot of you’ve had not too many distractions of Quadro getting the plane meet me here. You’ve been homebound and I’ve actually adopted homebound john extra. My COVID has taken me to many places for lots of reasons, but maybe we’ll talk about that on the next Yeah, cast. Yeah, I’m one of the ones that has actually been in 1234 locations since COVID. began, not by choice it started because I was working in and staying in Mexico City. And I had it I had, oh, yeah, I had to leave. But I didn’t want to come back to New York. And I didn’t really want to go to San Francisco in March. So I had to find somewhere else to go. And I did. And it’s just been a very interesting, I’ve had an interesting experience in COVID. That’s not putting it. That’s not putting it. I’ve actually had a great experience in COVID. Because it’s put me to places that I hadn’t planned to be. Yeah. So in a way, it’s been this crazy adventure, and I’ve been able to sustain myself because I work remotely. Yeah. on everything I do. I’ve been able to keep up everything going. I mean, there were, you know, March and April, I would say pretty much brain fog, like, I’m not really present to those months. But I was able to catch back up in starting about may, I think, reality started coming back and my brain started functioning again.

John Malanca 46:05
You know, it’s my dad’s birthday is January 8, and he passed away a few years ago. So on June 4, I said to my mom, I said, Mom, what do you want to do for dad’s birthday? She looks at me, I go into fourth. And she goes, it’s June. I’m like, Oh, my gosh. So

Unknown Speaker 46:24
we lost.

John Malanca 46:26
I was in brain fog as well. And so so you’re back in New York. When do you back up there?

Unknown Speaker 46:32
I came back to New York in August

John Malanca 46:33
in August. Okay. Yes. Okay. You said four different countries, where are four areas for different play. I

Unknown Speaker 46:39
was in a while I was in Mexico next. Yesterday, I was in Tucson, Arizona. I was in San Francisco. And the fourth place is back home in New York as

John Malanca 46:48
well. Welcome back home. Your app. It’s not out yet. But iOS, and Android will be iOS

Unknown Speaker 46:56
and Android. It will be for enterprise as well as other applications. You can find out you can call me it. Medical Cannabis mentor.com. You can find me there or you can email me through that or through the Brave New weed.com website or that’s the podcast channel as well. I’m very, very reachable. Yeah. And we really want to talk about it because we really want to alert business people to the possibilities here.

John Malanca 47:23
Well, I will definitely help you with that. I see your tag on your on your screen right there is Joe at Joe Dolce calm, which on the Joe dolce.com that our followers can find you about

Unknown Speaker 47:36
well, that’s a whole other business. I know I’ve support myself in my cannabis exploits. Because I’m a I’m a speech writer and a presentation coach. So I teach people how to speak in public. I work with people who are raising capital. I help people put together their decks. I help people speak to the media and I help people speak to other people really, to speak in public.

John Malanca 47:56
It’s important. It’s important, I think to have a good friend of mine, Mike Hyde in Montana. You know, he’s an incredible speaker. I said, How’d you do that? He goes, man, I used to be terrified. He goes, do you know how I did I go out he goes karaoke. He’s like, I can’t sing. But to break down up there and sing and just do it like no one’s watching. And no one’s listening. He goes that built my confidence. And he is traveled. You know, his son actually was the first and youngest legal cannabis patient in the whole United States. Cash side, cash side, and he beat cancer twice. And they they are out of Montana. And then the laws changed in Montana and Kashi at age four said no more pokes, no more pokes. And you know, and so his mom, his mom and dad, but cash cashes parents, Mike and Kelly hide. You know, they have their four beautiful children. You know, in a tight family, but you know, so when I hear people public speaking, which is difficult for a lot of people,

Unknown Speaker 48:59
I suppose. Yeah.

John Malanca 49:00
I think about I think about Mike saying, Man, karaoke, go through

Unknown Speaker 49:06
one way.

Unknown Speaker 49:06
I’ll tell you I just to stick on the cannabis topic. I’ve also recommended CBD to many of my clients. Yeah. You know, if you take it for an extended period of time, it does help you can combat stress. I mean, there’s many things we do we talk about, there’s many techniques you can use to combat stress. But I think for some people, they’re so anxious just to stand up and talk to people. I find that CBD actually helps to level set them a bit. Not everybody, obviously. But with some people, it really helps to just take the edge off and like okay, let’s focus a little bit here. The other thing I say to people who are nervous speakers is if you can get your mind around this, it’s really helpful. It’s really not about you. It’s about the audience. It’s what you have to give to the audience. Aristotle taught me that actually, we were on a conference call a little a few a few centuries ago, and he told me that, you know, it’s never about you. It’s always about that. Honest you got to put them first. And it doesn’t was Aristotle. He was really smart.

John Malanca 50:05
Well, that’s a good friend to have. And you look pretty damn good for being a few 100 years old. That must be your lifestyle. It’s in the CBD the doctor. Yes, exactly.

Unknown Speaker 50:13
My stress free life job.

John Malanca 50:17
Yeah, exactly. So So what’s what’s happening for you in this upcoming year? Besides, who knows? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 50:24
you have a, you have a plan, you can figure it out. I don’t know. I mean, I want to I’m driving this business, we’re going to bring it out, I’m going to do a lot of zoom calls, I’m going to do my zoom, I’m going to put all my zoom training on me. Now I’m gonna be the one going out and get and introducing this, this product and the solution to the world that I believe needs it. So that’s what’s gonna happen really, that’s what’s gonna happen.

John Malanca 50:48
Let us know when you do that. We’d love to get you back on the show and share. You know, I’d love to have June on the show that the good work that out love to do that and I know, I work a lot of patients over the years and a lot of guests who have been her patient as well. And so I know she’s busy. So you know,

Unknown Speaker 51:09
throw that on there, Bisley. But she’s got a huge heart skin, she really gives everything to patients. It blows me away, that she can do that, you know, day after day after day blows me away.

John Malanca 51:21
I think it’s either you have it or you don’t. And I remember about probably about four years ago, five years ago, and everyone was jumping in this industry. And so and and a well known woman in this industry, wrote in social media, she said, if you don’t have the heart, and wanting to help people in this industry, this is not the industry Do you know, and I hope everyone makes a billion dollars, but I don’t want people to think it’s just to get get rich, quick industry. And just, you know, we deal with so many, you know, being a widow now, but being someone who has been a caregiver, helping patients, I see I always say I’m well rounded. Unfortunately, I am because I’ve seen the part and I’m like you I’m not a doctor. You know, but I look at myself as a health advocate of directing, helping families, you know, avoid the tangled web. You know, when you get a diagnosis of something as severe as cancer, man, Joe, your world comes crashing just yeah,

Unknown Speaker 52:21
it crashes.

John Malanca 52:22
Of course you’re at our office and actually just go to every one of Krenz appointments and crin was having some back pain and stomach pain. And she was some I called her Mary Poppins didn’t drink didn’t smoke. I mean, I’d even made it into our wedding vows. And we did three blood tests, and our doctors were our friends. And all three of them came back negative, like you guys are our star patient star pupils. And I’ll never forget it was we were in Montana, replacing Montana. And I called it said, This is not like current, she’s not running with me. We’re not mountain biking, we’re not hiking. And they said when you get back instead of the 2726, they said, Come back on the 27th we’ll do an ultrasound. And on the 29th of June, we’re sitting at our office planning my 50th birthday. Our wedding anniversary, we had it all planned to get to be in, in, in September in Italy for three weeks. You know, let’s just celebrate the 5050 years and we have another 50 years ago. And the phone rang. And it was our doctor in tears. Then it was them saying hey, you have a mass in your pancreas and talk about oh my gosh, you know, life in all plans with up I don’t give a shit about this birthday. I don’t care. I mean, crinum is like your birthday, babe. I don’t care about my birthday. You know, I don’t care. We’ll go back over early. But when you hear those words, you have cancer. And just to show you and this is for I talked to all of our followers this way. Cancer doesn’t discriminate. Disease doesn’t discriminate. And so, you know, people like yourself with June and other great people in this industry that have that in them to help others as you’re mentioning that June has a you know, I it’s, it’s it means a lot to patients it means a lot to families. Well

Unknown Speaker 54:12
it really does. So it’s crucial. And I

John Malanca 54:14
can’t tell you how many times families say to me, God, this is the first hope we’ve had because sometimes doctors are so black and white. ABC, you know, you nuclear A and B you do chemo or you’re not gonna do chemo you know, what’s my lifespan? Well, you’ve been given a week to live you know. So I always share with with families, you know, get second opinions talk about if you want to use cannabis, talk about it, talk about it with your family, talk about your doctor. So anyway, I can go down that whole road with you as well. But I man I appreciate you coming on. And I appreciate your having me on Sean coming on. And so let’s give your book a plug as well as your new new company that you’re going to do. So if you get And then how people can find you as well please.

Unknown Speaker 55:02
My book is called Brave New weed. The podcast is the brave new weed podcast. You can check it out on the web you can subscribe as Patreon supporters we do it for love not money. So if you want to throw us a couple of dollars a month, please do my love doing it. So that’s Brave New weed and education company is called medical cannabis mentor.com you can check it check it out there and if you want to speak to me, you can reach me through Brave New weed through medical cannabis mentor, or through Joe at Joe Dolce calm.

John Malanca 55:35
Awesome. Awesome. And are you a social media guy? Are you kind of old school? It’s

Unknown Speaker 55:39
not my favorite.

John Malanca 55:40
Yeah, meet neither. My favorite either. It’s like people are sending me you’re not on here like,

Unknown Speaker 55:45
Ah, you know,

Unknown Speaker 55:46
I’d rather promote you than me. Let’s put it that way. And GM and I really rather promote the the work we’re doing in medical cannabis than anything else. Right on.

John Malanca 55:55
So keep doing you’re doing I appreciate you and what you do and coming on the show and, and love to help you out in the future as well. And I and we’ll see you soon.

Unknown Speaker 56:05
Thank you, john. I really appreciate your time today. So

John Malanca 56:07
Joe Dolce, you can find them at Joe at Joe Dolce calm as well. And this is John Malanca with United patient group. Hope you enjoyed this because I certainly did. Be informed and be well we’ll see you soon. Bye bye. Thank you