Cultural High

On today's show, Brice continues his chats with the CEO of Tck Genetics, Brandon Barberio. Today they highlight the issue of false advertising in the industry, with some dispensaries claiming high THC percentages and strains that may not be accurate. Brandon stresses the importance of education and working with knowledgeable budtenders to find specific medicinal strains with desired terpene content. The impact of federal legalization on the industry and the greed of some businesses that refuse to hold their own genetics is also discussed. 

The industry has become extremely cheap, making it difficult for street dealers to compete with dispensaries. However, the speaker mentions their own premium strains that no one else has in the world, showing the potential for success in the industry with high-quality products. 

Brandon believes that people want small boutique craft products, and they are breeding strains and making genetics so that people can have quality products. The conversation also covers the need for safe access across states and decriminalization to allow for interstate trade. They talk about the importance of honesty, quality, and education in the cannabis industry. They also mention their sublingual CBD spray, which is broad-spectrum and does not contain THC and is recommended for medicinal use for pain and inflammation relief. 

On today's show, Brice chats with the CEO of Tck Genetics, Brandon Barberio part one of a two-part episode. Today he talks about how they had recently gone from a US senator to a renowned breeder and geneticist who had co-created some of the cannabis strains that we smoke nowadays. The breeder works with heirloom genetics, and some of the craft stuff that was produced was priced very high. Ounces of it were priced at 500, and pounds were going for five to six thousand. While the price was high, Brandon remarked that it was not unusual.

They discuss the marijuana market, and how quality and exclusivity can be achieved by paying for it. They talk about the Bubba Kush brand and how celebrities are looking for the strain, and how it is known as the crab killer because it is said to take away menstrual cramps. The conversation also goes into heirloom strains, which are becoming lost in the profile, and how people are curious about what each strain does and can provide in terms of relief from medical conditions. The conversation concluded that paying for quality and exclusivity is an important factor in the marijuana market.

Sharif Street (Democratic Party) is a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate, representing District 3. He assumed office on December 1, 2016. His current term ends on November 30, 2024. Street (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Pennsylvania. He did not appear on the ballot for the Democratic primary on May 17, 2022.

Sharif Street was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Central High School in 1992. He earned a bachelor's degree from Morehouse College in 1996. He earned a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School in 1999.

Street's career experience includes working as a business and affordable housing attorney. He has been affiliated with the Philadelphia Barristers Association, with Kappa Alpha Psi, and with the Prince Hall Masons.

"Ashley Marie Santos, known professionally as Ash Santos, is an American actress. Ash was born in the Bronx, New York. Her father, a former Special Victims Unit Detective in Manhattan, is Dominican and Puerto Rican, and her mother is originally from the Dominican Republic. Ash was primarily raised in the small town of Montgomery, NY. She always expressed an interest in acting, although she never pursued it growing up. She relocated to Salt Lake City, UT in fall of 2011 and was able to start her acting career doing commercials and television movies. In April 2018 she began pursuing her career in Los Angeles.

In June 2018 she booked a starring role on the eighth season of FX's American Horror Story. She now has three films set for release in 2021, the A24 drama Joe Bell from the Academy Award winning writers of Brokeback Mountain Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana and starring Oscar-nominated Mark Wahlberg, the Netflix thriller Night Teeth starring Emmy-nominated Alfie Allen, and the indie rowing drama Heart of Champions starring Oscar-nominated Michael Shannon.

In addition to her recent film credits, Santos booked a series regular role on the HBO Max psychological thriller, Red Bird Lane. The pilot, starring Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon and produced by the award winning John Wells, was shot in November 2020. She can now be seen on Netflix's True Story starring Kevin Hart, Mike on Hulu playing Mike Tyson's wife, and on the second season of Mayor of Kingstown starring Jeremy Renner. 

Santos will next be seen starring in the Universal Studios comedy, Half Baked 2, coming soon to theaters."

Arvida Labs is a leading manufacturer of rare cannabinoids. They are able to create phytocannabinoids via chemistry vs chromatography at scale. Using their patent-pending processes they have shown the ability to modify the chemical structure of CBD & CBG into the following rare cannabinoids: D8, D9, D10, THCv, THC-O-Acetate, Hexahydroxycannabinol, CBND, CBC, CBN. 

Some of these cannabinoids are naturally occurring in small quantities that make it nearly impossible to scale via traditional extraction, distillation, and refinement. Arvida Labs has filed for multiple patents on their methods of producing these rare cannabinoids at scale, without the production of unknown isomers, at the highest purity. They are working with leading analytical labs to develop standards for some of these cannabinoids that otherwise do not have existing testing standards. 

A pioneer in the cannabis testing space, Roger Brown co-founded the first cannabis testing laboratory in Florida ― ACS Laboratory ― in 2008. Today, ACS is the largest cannabis and CBD/hemp third-party testing and compliance laboratory in the Eastern U.S. Utilizing its vast experience in high-complexity laboratory tests, ACS developed proprietary testing methods for cannabis, hemp, and all derivatives.

Under Brown’s leadership, ACS received 21 coveted Emerald Test™ Badges in 2019, the most of any laboratory in the entire U.S. These test badges compare cannabis laboratories’ ability to deliver reliable results, using standards established in the environmental, food, pharmaceutical, and water, and petrochemical industries.

Brown is a serial entrepreneur. Prior to founding ACS, he was president of CMB Additives, an animal feed additive manufacturer. In 1996, he founded MD to You, a premier mobile physicians group that sent doctors on house calls throughout Florida, mainly to visit elderly patients at their homes and assisted living facilities.

Fireside Project was born at a unique moment in history. It was the spring of 2020. The pandemic was raging. Depression, anxiety, and loneliness were at all-time highs. Calls to some hotlines were up one-thousand percent. Against this backdrop, psychedelics were emerging from the shadows after a decades-long prohibition. 

Wesley is a psychedelic writer, visionary artist, and permaculture designer with over 12 years of psychedelic harm reduction and integration coaching experience. Wesley has apprenticed with indigenous elders, exhibited his artwork alongside the world’s leading visionary artists, and interviewed many of the leading figures in the psychedelic Renaissance. 

He believes that when used properly, psychedelics can be a key leverage point in changing the consciousness of the Western world from a paradigm of materialism, distraction, and separation to a more interconnected, meaningful, and collaborative one.

Stephen Gray is an author, editor, event organizer and speaker, and ceremony leader. He has been deeply involved with spiritual practices and sacramental (psychedelic) medicine work for over 40 years, including Tibetan Buddhism, the Native American Church (peyote prayer ceremonies), and ayahuasca. 

Stephen is an influential figure in the Sacramento psychedelic and cannabis space, having been an editor, event organizer, speaker, ceremony leader, and thought leader over the last 40 years. He has faced ridicule and stigma for his views but believes his involvement has helped bring about a modern renaissance in psychedelic and cannabis use. When asked where he got his start in this movement, Stephen said he believes he was involved with the Tibetans over 1000 years ago, but more realistically, his age has been a major factor in his involvement. He has written three books, with his most recent one being How Psychedelics Can Help Save the World. Stephen has also been involved with spiritual awakenings and Tibetan Buddhism, as well as the Native American Church

From How Psychedelics Can Help Save the World: Exploring the way forward for Humanity in the Face of unprecedented crisis, more than 25 contributors show how the wisdom of Indigenous peoples and the power of psychedelics can help us enact the radical shift in consciousness necessary to navigate the collapse of the old world order and the birth of a new consciousness.

Visionary and Indigenous Voices Speak Out: We hear from psychedelic visionaries Christopher Bache, Zoe Helene, Wade Davis, Chris Kilham, Laurel Sugden, and others on the promise of psychedelic medicines for spiritual and healing work. We learn about Indigenous stories to support our transformation from Native American leader Solana Booth, ancestral memory from Grandmother Maria Alice Campos Freire, cannabis’s role in world building from Minelli Eustàcio-Costa, the ritual roots of talking plants from Michael Stuart Ani, and alchemy across the arc of time from shaman Ya’Acov Darling Khan. 

Arslan Kazi is the owner and CEO of Black Market Group, which specializes in hemp products, smoke, and vape shops, and The Standard by Black Market. The Standard is a luxury hemp brand providing consumers with the best alternative hemp-derived THC products. Kazi believes that settling for mediocrity is a problem in the world and that the bar needs to be raised for hemp products. He emphasizes that the best ingredients and specialists should be used in hemp products, rather than settling for just the bottom dollar. 

He believes that there are many people who love cannabis, but don't get to use it, and that they should have a good experience with it. Kazi believes that operators in the hemp industry should be looking to provide quality products, rather than a quick buck.

Brice and AR Salon are discussing the importance of providing quality hemp products in order to change the negative stigma associated with hemp and cannabis. Brice believes that many companies only aim to make a quick buck and don't care about the consumer or the product category, which has to end. This could lead to a generation of youth having a negative view of cannabis, and they want to be the catalyst for positive change.