XZIBIT: Welcome to another episode of the Lasagna Ganja Podcast. I’m X to the Z, XZIBIT.

Tammy: And I’m Tammy, a.k.a. The Cannabis Cutie.

XZIBIT: Yes! Welcome to this episode. It’s called “Highs and Lows.”

You know, we’re just in the beginning stages of putting this thing together. It’s pretty exciting stuff.

But as we go into this, our audience should know who we are. We should go through some of our personal stories.

Tammy: Oh yeah. Off camera. Might as well turn the camera on!

So tell me about your week. Give me a ‘high.’

XZIBIT: I performed at The Final Lap tour with 50 Cent and Busta Rhymes.

Busta’s my brother. He invited me to come out. I went to San Diego and Irvine.

And then I had to drive back to Vegas, stayed there for a few hours and had to go to Reno. Me and the Tha Dogg Pound had a show out there. It’s been a whirlwind.

Tammy: Is that your favorite thing to do? Music?

XZIBIT: I could do music in my sleep. Everything else I have to work really hard at.

Tammy: A high for me is that I went to Irvine. So maybe I was there while you were there!

I went to see an old friend of mine. I rolled up and was smoking and she wouldn’t smoke! I was like, “what’s going on?” Turns out, she’s pregnant.

So I have a friend that is expecting and that’s a high for me.

XZIBIT: What do you think about women who smoke weed when they are pregnant?

Tammy: I think that sometimes women have conditions or pain that make weed necessary.

So say a woman gets into a car accident and she’s dealing with a lot of pain. They’re probably going to give her some kind of prescription pill that is safe for the baby, but there is still the risk of addiction.

So I believe when it comes to cannabis use and pregnancy, it’s a mother’s decision.

Mom has a system, the endocannabinoid system, to receive the plant.

The baby has a system to receive the plant. It’s not going to be something that is damaging.

Although we don’t know the effects, there is a place for pregnancy use. History shows that cannabis has definitely been used as a natural form of anesthesia or pain relief in labor, pregnancy, and menstruation.

So I think that canna moms who consume cannabis while they're pregnant, like women with Crohn's Disease or epileptic disorders, it’s their right to smoke.

XZIBIT: I saw a story about Chrisean Rock. When she went into labor, she was smoking a blunt on the way to the hospital.

Tammy: I wouldn’t recommend that! Smoke is really harmful. Other administrative methods are better, like a drink, an edible, a topical, and so on might be a better choice.

But I wouldn’t recommend smoking a blunt. Tobacco during pregnancy is not a good idea.

XZIBIT: Yeah. But I had a great week. I’m here enjoying this weather.

There’s a lot to get into. There is a list of questions that were sent to us by our followers. I’m going to read some.

So this is very broad. Can you share your absolute best cannabis experience and what made it so unforgettable?

I feel like this is asking about our first time smoking.

Tammy: Yeah. So for me, I was a ‘square.’ I followed all the rules and got scholarships for college.

When I got to college, I did not do drugs. And the kid in my dorm who did do drugs, he smelled like a pound of weed. We used to make fun of him.

And he was the only one that made the honor roll and I was on academic probation.

So that, for me, was big. The D.A.R.E. program lied. So the first time I smoked weed was in college.

XZIBIT: Your first time is so good. At least you were responsible!

Tammy: Until I got a 0.8 GPA! How do you even get a 0.8 GPA? It was so bad that my mom wasn’t even mad.

XZIBIT: You’re super failing!

My first time smoking weed was when I was in high school. I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

I was at high school, in the parking lot, with one of my friends Richard Harvey and a mutual friend named Wally.

And Wally asked if we wanted to smoke a joint. And it was Mexican weed with the seeds in it, Reggie weed.

He didn’t even break it up. In hindsight, it was the worst joint ever. But we smoked it and it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. I didn’t feel like I got high.

Tammy: Same for me. The first time, I didn’t feel like I got high, but I got the munchies. And so I was like, “I’ve got to do this again.”

Next time, I felt high.

XZIBIT: And the next time, I had good weed. So it was on from them.

But weed’s been a part of my life since I was a youngster. And now there’s never been a time when I haven’t had cannabis around me. Especially when I became a musician.

Tammy: Shout out to the people who introduced us to cannabis.

XZIBIT: Yeah! Shout out to Wally and his shitty ass weed!

Tammy: Shout out to Justin Santana! You saved my life. And I made the honor roll eventually. Four times.

XZIBIT: Ok, here’s one for you. What’s the secret recipe for turning a regular day into an extraordinary one using cannabis?

Tammy: It’s all about setting intention. And you can also create a little ritual. Set up a little breathing exercise, turn on your music, lay a blanket down, and sit. Bless the blunt, if you will.

Set your intention on what you want to feel and then spark it up and see what she, the plant, does.

XZIBIT: Yeah. That’s very calm and relaxing. Like a bath.

Tammy: You can do that too.

XZIBIT: My experience has always been more like prison riots. Loud ass music and chain smoking.

I think it relaxes me, though. It gets me there.

Tammy: Yeah, whatever you gotta do.

XZIBIT: Exactly. As long as you are at peace at the end.

Tammy: Yeah. That’s the whole point.

XZIBIT: What’s your worst cannabis nightmare come true? What was your reaction and how did you handle the situation?

Tammy: Any time I was out of weed is my nightmare. But also Superbowl Sunday. The one his year.

Rihanna was performing. My wife. I’m not even gay, but if she tried, I would.

XZIBIT: Rihanna, noted.

Tammy: I had a friend who brought over a tincture. And she did not realize that this tincture was 1000mg. And she didn’t measure.

And I asked a question that was so dumb. And I consider myself to be intelligent. But I asked that question and thought, “What’s wrong with me right now?”

And then I asked her if she knew how much she put in our drinks and she said no.

So my best friend goes over to the bottle and he’s like, “Tam, there’s 300mg missing from the bottle.”

And I have an empty cup next to me.

So let’s just say that I made it to Rihanna and then I was out. I was high for the next 30 hours or something like that.

XZIBIT: I have a high tolerance. I’ve had some real adventurous times with cannabis. But there’s only one bad experience, but it has to do with mushrooms, not cannabis.

So here’s my nightmare scenario with what we’ll just say is a ‘high.’

I was really young. A friend of mine comes through. He brings a home boy through with some mushrooms.

I had never taken them. My best friend at the time was Lamar Johnson from Chicago. He was a black stone rager, really militant and gangster. Super intense.

And so this guy comes through and gives us a handful of mushrooms. He didn’t say anything about how much to take. So I just ate the whole thing.

And Lamar did the same thing. And it was fucking horrible.

So then the guy is like, “Oh wait!” But then he said not to worry about it.

So he gives us some Vitamin C pills too. We drank some orange juice to wash it down.

And so we’re waiting and this shit isn’t doing anything.

Tammy: PSA! As soon as you say that or think that thought, that’s when it hits you.

XZIBIT: Yeah. So we feel fine. We got invited to this party about an hour away. So we get to this party, and I start feeling funny. We’re sitting on this couch.

We’re the only black kids in the whole fucking house. I got to the bathroom and I sat on the toilet. And I’ll never forget this-the bathroom had a black and white checkered floor.

And I saw the floor move like a wave and then settle back down. And then I think about Lamar. Because he’s gonna trip.

So I got out there and it was like a movie. As I was going to the couch, it's like we met there at the exact same moment.

I saw Lamar and his face was like he was about to get hit by a train.

And God bless this girl, she meant well. She comes up with a tray of food and says “I brought you guys chicken ‘cause I know you like chicken.”

Lamar stands up and immediately punches her right in the face.

Tammy: I don’t mean to laugh but what…?

XZIBIT: Chicken goes flying everywhere.

So now we’re fighting. Because it turns out that the house where we’re at is the girl’s house who he just punched.

And all the rest of the guys in there were members of the football team. And one of those players was her boyfriend.

So we’re fighting a room full of crazy people. We are actually going toe to toe. And we’re shrooming our balls off.

We get in our truck. They are standing on top of it and throwing bottles at us.

So we’re backing up and driving. Where we’re driving, there are no lights. It’s in the desert. Moonlight and nothing else.

We got back to the house. I got the guy on the phone who sold us the shrooms. I’m drinking milk and screaming at the guy, “How the fuck do you stop this shit?”

He was like, “Bro. Just calm down. Go to a safe place. Turn off the lights. Get it real quiet.”

I hung up the phone. And mind you, we were selling crack. So there are a bunch of guns and shit laying around. Crack selling is dangerous!

I decided that I have to make the house safe. I have to unload all the guns in the house.

It was the dumbest thing that I could do.

So I started unloading the guns. Last one, it’s a shotgun. I let the chamber drop and there was a shell in it. This gun goes off right next to me.

I knew I blew my foot off. Thank God we were on the bottom floor. There was carpet, dust, and concrete everywhere. I knew I shot myself, but I looked down and I wasn’t hit. The bullet was a slug, thank God.

And I was like, “Fuck this.” I’m not blaming the shrooms for my dangerous life choices at the time, but it didn’t help.

So I vowed never to do shrooms again, but I did. And that’s another story. And it’s just as bad.

Tammy: Oh no! I need your friends to do you a little bit better. You’ve gotta start off with micro doses!

XZIBIT: We are going to talk about micro doses, but that is my nightmare story with a controlled substance.

So continuing on. Who are your cannabis comrades? The people who shared your best moments? And what makes them the ultimate adventure partners?

Tammy: I have to talk about my twin brother. He was also a square. But more square than me. Like, I wanted to punch him in the face.

So I started consuming cannabis after the notorious 0.8 GPA. And probably about 3 or 4 years later, my brother was like, “Tammy, we need to talk about your cannabis use. I think you’re a drug addict.”

It was after our birthday and I had a whole bunch of cash. We were going to Dave & Buster’s together. And I was like, “Wait, we can’t go in yet, I’ve gotta smoke.”

And he was so upset. He went on about how I’m a drug addict and we can’t do anything!

So I told him that I’d give him 50 dollars to hit my joint. And he’s like, “No, I have morals.”

So I have a lot of cash. And everybody has a number. I keep going up and up. And so I’m at 450 dollars and his fiance was like, “Bro. We got bills and you need to take one for the team.”

So he did it and he hasn’t missed a day of smoking since.

In fact, he joined the cannabis industry and got a consumption lounge, cultivated weed, and has a dispensary.

XZIBIT: You know, I see a lot of people coming into cannabis with preconceived notions about it. And the stigma is there because of the legal aspect.

But there are a lot of people now who are really up in age but still feel comfortable enough to come outside and consume.

I think the dynamics are changing.

Tammy: Yeah. Education is definitely helping. But for our generation and older, we were scared about the side effects of getting caught with weed. I don’t think it was the plant that made us worried.

We have a lot of examples of long term cannabis use in popular culture.

But the worst side effects are the laws.

XZIBIT: I think whatever we’re doing now will be something we look back on as elementary.

As things become more free, things are going to settle down.

Decriminalizing it is not the same as legalizing it.

Tammy: Well, they want to reschedule it. That’s something that has been in the talks.

XZIBIT: Yeah, but full legalization is what we’re looking for. We don’t want it lumped in with other drugs.

Tammy: There’s an argument for not legalizing it, too. Why should we have been penalized all this time for using cannabis?

How many people have been turned into second-class citizens because they have a record from using it?

And now they want to legalize weed and get profits and taxes off of it? Wait. A. Minute.

We don’t want legalization. And I say ‘we’ because I’m a part of that. I don’t want them to profit from what we kept alive and what they used to ruin a lot of families.

I’m all about decriminalization, but I don’t want it legalized or rescheduled.

XZIBIT: Really? It’s gonna be interesting to see how we, the operators, try and buy the culture or incorporate it.

Tammy: Had these big companies that showed up signed on with these smaller growers the way we do athletes or entertainers, that would’ve been good. Signing on with these experienced growers would’ve helped the legacy market more.

It’s amazing how many of these companies are selling bad weed.

XZIBIT: It’s a crop to them. They think it’s like corn. And it’s not. It takes a certain kind of know-how.

Tammy: It’s the technique and the patience.

XZIBIT: Yeah. It’s not tobacco.

What is the most unusual or unexpected place you’ve ever found yourself enduring a cannabis fueled adventure?

Tammy: I’m in a sorority. I was going to a probate, which is an unveiling of a new group of members.

I had a funfetti cupcake. It was an edible. It was in my car and I ate it. I didn’t think about it being an edible, though.

And while I was at this probate, this cupcake kicked in so hard. I was embarrassed.

I was president of my chapter at the time. I was mortified. I knew these people were looking at me and wondering what was wrong with me.

XZIBIT: I think I’ve smoked everywhere. I take a lot of risks. I have a high tolerance for weed.

I went to the house and had a bag. It didn’t smell so good, so I decided to just make some butter out of it. Didn’t weigh any ingredients, just made it. I left it overnight.

I came down later and found I have a green circle of butter. I didn’t know what to expect, so I put it on a bagel and ate it.

I was sitting at the table and the person talking to me—I remember seeing them, and then my ears started ringing. I had a hard time understanding what she was saying.

So I said I was tired and just closed my eyes for a second. When I woke up, the fire department was in my house.

And I guy was hooking up the EKG to me. I was super high. When I woke up, I said, “Hey man, what are you doing?”

The guy was like, “Oh shit!” He thought I was in cardiac arrest.

I told him that I was just high. My son asked if I didn’t hear them yelling, and I said, “What the fuck?” He said my face went totally white and I wasn't responding.

And so the fire department left, but they thought it was funny.

Tammy: You were just having the best sleep of your life.

If you’re ever too high, don’t go to the hospital. They are just going to put you to sleep and you’re going to get billed for it. So just stay home.

XZIBIT: For some people, when they take cannabis they get paranoid or freaked out. Is that a character thing or a mental thing?

Tammy: From a spiritual perspective, it’s a character thing. The thing about humans is that a lot of people walk around with masks on. With cannabis, you lose control of that mask.

So that paranoia is people being uncomfortable with who they are. Plus the fact that it’s illegal, so people are worried about going to jail.

And people who already have mental health issues, like schizophrenia, can be triggered by cannabis. It won’t cause those issues, but it could trigger them.

XZIBIT: I’ve never had that issue. I’ve always been mellow. It’s never taken me out of my character. It has the opposite effect. It calms me down.

If you were to give a TED Talk about your best cannabis experience, what would the key takeaways be?

Tammy: I think I’d really focus on education. I always do. Not only do I have a lot of knowledge, I have decades of experience with cannabis.

And I would talk about it from my perspective as a mom, student, friend, and spiritual person.

I’d also break it down so that it would be really easy to understand.

XZIBIT: Describe the role of music in your best cannabis experience? Any songs or playlists that set the mood?

For me, cannabis has been a safe haven. It’s saved my life.

Any time I’ve listened to music, like New Edition, Bobby Brown, and others, cannabis has always been there.

I do remember the feeling of driving and listening to one of my records right after it came out. It was a different feeling listening to it on my car system while driving around.

Tammy: Music and cannabis have always been intertwined. Even jazz music—we can thank cannabis for that.

I remember listening to Red Light District by Ludacris because I love that album. I listened to it when I was in Middle School. I knew it was the best weed album before I even smoked weed.

I like smoking to a Reefer Madness jazz album, too. Also Larry Jones.

XZIBIT: I’m on that hip hop shit. I’ll smoke to Cypress Albums. The Chronic is good, too.

I’ve got a song called “Get Fucked Up With Me.” It was very experimental because I was smoking throughout the entire album. But we had fun with it.

To wrap it up, what is your message to others who are exploring the highs and lows of cannabis?

Tammy: Don’t get discouraged. If people are judging you, if you’re nervous about your use, or if you’ve had a bad experience, then educating yourself is extremely important.

And know that what works for one person may not work for you. It’s a plant, and just like you’re allergic to certain parts of nature, you can be kind of allergic to different weed strains.

Try different stuff.

XZIBIT: On the business side, I would say if you’re gonna get into cannabis, get into it for the right reasons.

Of course everyone wants to make money, but there is a culture. If we don’t take care of it as a foundation, we can never build a solid house.

Thank you for listening to the Lasagna Ganja Podcast. I’m X to the Z, XZIBIT.

Tammy: And I’m Tammy, The Cannabis Cutie.