Season 2

In this episode we cover the importance of doing science that supports marginalized peoples. We also speculate the impact of upcoming cannabis policy in this episode, which was originally a media watch presentation on marijuana policy in a course titled “The AIDS Epidemic: Inequalities, Ethnography, and Ethics.”

Jorge has a PhD in Bioengineering and worked for years on optimizing a drug delivery method for a corneal disease. Jorge is a community-focused scholar and spends ample time educating LatinX youth about drug delivery. This episode is extra special because our guest is a dear friend, mentor, and a collaborator of Rene’s. Jorge can be reached at www.mayanbioengineer.com and @MayanBioengineer on Twitter and Instagram.

Original presentation date: December 7th, 2022

Original assignment abstract: Considering the social context in which people get AIDS, it is unsurprising that there is such a high interest in experimenting with marijuana as a therapy (Mack and Joy 2000). Studies have shown that patients report that marijuana has soothed vomiting, anxiety, depression, wasting, pain, and dementia associated with either HIV/AIDS or its medications, yet marijuana is criminalized aggressively and disproportionately impacts the same groups disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS (Furler et al. 2004; Hoston 2016). Given the recent talk from President Biden and lawmakers around marijuana legalization, we face an intense culture change in the United States. As a bioethics researcher, I must ask what does this transition mean for HIV/AIDS patients? What specific harms and benefits could come out of legalization of the drugs that HIV/AIDS patients might be affected?

Conclusion: The community knows best how to heal itself and it is up to us as biomedical professionals to know that. By letting those most marginalized dictate and benefit from marijuana research and product development, both biomedical research and industry can facilitate health justice.

Sources:
Source about persistence of racial disparities in MJ in Colorado: https://www.npr.org/2016/06/29/483954157/as-adults-legally-smoke-pot-in-colorado-more-minority-kids-arrested-for-it
Original Report: https://cdpsdocs.state.co.us/ors/docs/reports/2021-SB13-283_Rpt.pdf 
Buffong, Nicole, and Ibu-Nina Tabor. 2022. “Holistic Living for HIV.” Video broadcast recording. https://www.facebook.com/m4mmunited/videos/320286603469265.  
Furler, Michelle D., Thomas R. Einarson, Margaret Millson, Sharon Walmsley, and Reina Bendayan. 2004. “Medicinal and Recreational Marijuana Use by Patients Infected with HIV.” AIDS Patient Care and STDs 18 (4): 215–28. https://doi.org/10.1089/108729104323038892.  
Lajka, Arijeta. “Cops Are Still Disproportionately Arresting People of Color for Pot Crimes in Colorado.” Vice (blog), March 26, 2015. https://www.vice.com/en/article/qva77q/cops-are-still-disproportionately-arresting-people-of-color-for-pot-crimes-in-colorado.
Mack, Alison, and Janet Joy. 2000. MARIJUANA AND AIDS. “Marijuana as Medicine? The Science Beyond the Controversy.” National Academies Press (US). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK224400/.
Roser, Max, and Hannah Ritchie. “HIV / AIDS.” Our World in Data, April 3, 2018. https://ourworldindata.org/hiv-aids.
Ruiz-Sánchez, Héctor-Camilo. “Facing the Plagues Alone. Men Reshaping the HIV and Heroin Epidemics in Colombia.” University of Pittsburgh ETD. University of Pittsburgh, May 3, 2021. http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/40829/.

Season 2: Episode 1 - Our Communities Will Heal Themselves with Jorge Jimenez, PhD

Imagine coming out of your federal housing, and smelling straight loud from the four dispensaries on your block. You can’t consume due to your apartment’s policies(weed may be legal in your state, but federally, you’re left deserted). Not only that, but you can’t even work at a dispensary due to your lease. So if you partake you go to jail, and you can’t make money off of it. Is the war on drugs over?

Episode description:

Legalization of mar*juana is sweeping across the country. Ayoka Nurse, PhD in Public Policy and Administration, describes these changes as they relate to Black folk and why why legalization isn’t going to remedy any of the damage from the war on drugs. Dr. Nurse's research explains why African Americans are being actively prevented from opening their own dispensaries. She explains Cedric Robinson's definition of racial capitalism and questions if equity can exist in a for profit market.

Season 2: Episode 2 - Race, Law, and Capitalism with Ayoka Nurse, PhD

An alternative title to this episode would be titled "They Don't Know the Magic that We Do."

Description: This episode is deeply provocative from calling out traditional diversity training for maintaining white supremacy culture to citing the Black church for how it can treat drug users to defending recreational drug users with our whole chest. We also discuss how Black genius is more common than we think,  and talk about what racial justice work really looks like in biomedical research spaces.

Guest Bio: Ayize Jama-Everett  is a psychedelics therapist, sci-fi writer, and jack of all trades descending from a long line of healers that he considers left of the Black Panthers. He holds a Master’s in Divinity, a Master’s in Clinical Psychology, and a Master’s in Fine Arts, Creative Writing. Jama-Everett has worked as a bartender, a translator, a drug and alcohol counselor, a stand-up comedian, a script doctor, a ghostwriter, a high school dean, a college professor, and for a brief time, a distiller of spirits. He can be reached on socials @AyizeJamaEverett and at AyizeJamaEverett.com.

Season 2: Episode 3 - Psychedelics and Afrofuturism with Ayize Jama-Everett, MA

In the 1920s, there were more cannabis consumption lounges, aka. "tea pads", in New York City than there are Starbucks locations in the entire state of New York today. Half a century later, cannabis was classified as a Schedule 1 drug under the 1970 Controlled Substance Act. The process in which the plant was stigmatized in the country is heavily intertwined with the objectification and criminalization of Black people, and this connection cannot be ignored as public opinion on the plant continues to shift. In this episode we discuss the nuanced history of social consumption in the United States and why this history warrants a more comprehensive approach to future cannabis policy.

Guest Bio: Brennan England is a professor for Saint Louis University’s Cannabis science and operations program. He is the founder of St. Louis Cannabis Club, a cannabis resource network connecting the cannabis industry with the culture through events focused on wellness, education, entertainment and economy. For this group he founded the Cola Lounge, a private members club where people can safely consume and learn about the plant. He’s also the Missouri Chapter President of Minorities for Medical Marijuana, the world’s largest minority advocacy organization for the cannabis industry. He can be reached on socials (IG: @thecolalounge, @stl_cannabisclub) and at thecolastl.com

Season 2: Episode 4 - Consumption Lounges with Brennan England

In this episode Tea tells their story of connecting to the plant as a means of survival when they were under threat for their high profile activism. We also discuss being “We*d Rich,” infusing chicken, and their history in journalism and organizing 


Longer Description: 

Tea is a St. Louis native, born and raised in North City. In 2012, they moved across the state and studied multimedia journalism at Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri. 

After the verdict denied Mike Brown justice, T sprung into action on and off campus creating space for students to start conversations about racism.T continued their community organizing throughout Southwest Missouri, giving voice and space to the most marginalized, from Black folx to trans kids and the homeless.

As 2020 came to a close, burnout and the dangers of organizing in what was once noted as the whitest county in America, pushed T to seek refuge in a remote space west of Springfield. There, they fell in love with cannabis (the plant), and learned to grow from seed to smoke. They obtained their cultivators license and studied the plant as much as possible while contributing to a sizable garden. 

Unfortunately T had to take refuge again, and moved back home after 10 years in September 2022. Since being home they've begun revamping their garden and developing canna products like edibles and thc pills. 

Branded as Dopeboihealer, T grows all-organic cannabis and is focused on creating medicine, space and access for Black folks to interact and Qlearn about the plant as a portal of consciousness and healing

Trigger warning: We speak of fugitivity and violence throughout this episode, and there is brief mention of harassment, SA, and death threats.

Season 2: Episode 5 - On the Run with Tea Robinson

Marian Coon never smoked moldy weed before getting into the cannabis industry. Self described “bitter, jaded, and burnt tf out cannabis worker,” Marian describes her experience in cannabis advocacy and activism, and how she witnessed the conditions of the pandemic spread weed smoking. In this episode, she speaks of her disappointment towards the medical market, which favors quotas and deadlines over people’s health and safety.


She also describes her first experience with drugs- snorting methamphetamine at 11 years old. A cannabis advocate helped her get free from addiction as a late teen and soon she became involved with events such as Hempfest and hasn’t stopped advocating for the plant since. Now as a parent, she has repeatedly had age-appropriate discussions with her child about the plant that she calls “The Reverse Dare Talk.” In her early 40s, she’s witnessed and participated in nearly 30 years of plant engagement and is in all rights an expert.

Season 2: Episode 7 - Puffing while Parenting and The Reverse D.A.R.E. Talk with Marian Coon

Exploring the political, spiritual, medical, and racial world of our ancestors favorite plant through the lens of two Black stoner scientists.🌳

Season 2: Episode 7 - Puffing while Parenting and The Reverse D.A.R.E. Talk with Marian Coon

Joint Highpothesis