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: Today we are diving into something that is new territory for me.

I have been a stoner for a long time, but now I’m starting to learn stuff.

And I think sharing that with our audience is something special that we have the ability to do, thanks to Tammy. Cause you’re sure not getting it from me!

Today we’re talking about something very important. There is an acronym for this, but I think we need to hear the entire title. Then we can start paraphrasing.

Tammy: It is called the endocannabinoid system, a.k.a. the ECS. Much easier.

XZIBIT: So do we have the ECS? Or is it in the plant?

Tammy: The ECS is in anything that has a spine.

So let’s talk about the word endocannabinoid. We’ve all heard the word cannabinoid. Some examples of them would be CBD, THC, or Delta-8.

The word ‘endo’ literally means ‘inside the body.’

Which basically means that your body makes weed.

There’s also outside cannabinoids or phytocannabinoids. And that word ‘phyto’ means ‘plant.’ So phytocannabinoids are THC, CBD, Delta-8, and so on.

And then you have synthetic cannabinoids and those are bad. Terrible side effects.

So the cannabis plant has hundreds of compounds. If you can imagine, these compounds are in the shape of keys.

And inside your body, you have locks. Lots of these locks are on your brain or your uterus, if you have one. But these locks are littered throughout your body and they are receptors.

And the only thing that fits in these locks are these cannabinoid ‘keys.’

And when your body doesn’t make enough cannabinoids, you can supplement using nature, because God made the plant for us. That’s what Genesis 29:30 says.

XZIBIT: Praise God! My nigga!

Tammy: Shout out to God!

But anything that has a spine has an endocannabinoid system. We’re born with it. Which means we are biologically engineered to receive cannabinoids.

XZIBIT: So let me understand this. You keep saying that anything that has a spine has an endocannabinoid system. So we’re talking cats, dogs, cows…

Tammy: Correct! Now pet CBD makes more sense!

XZIBIT: They make their own weed too? Cool!

Tammy: The whole purpose of the ECS is to control all the other systems in your body. So the central nervous system, for example, or the cardiovascular system.

Every system in your body is governed by the ECS.

And if this one system is out of whack, guess what everything else is doing?

XZIBIT: It’s going haywire.

Tammy: Exactly. It’s important to have a healthy endocannabinoid system so that it can keep your body in balance. The science word for balance is ‘homeostasis.’

XZIBIT: So people who’ve never smoked weed, they depend on the ECS to do what it’s got to do, right? But why do we need the ECS?

Tammy: Some of us are naturally deficient in endocannabinoids and Dr. Ethan Russo said that there is probably something called Endocannabinoid Deficiency Disorder.

And those are the disorders we can’t quite figure out, like fibromyalgia or migraines.

So supplementing with the plant is incredible because your ECS can be thrown out for a number of reasons.

XZIBIT: Can you get your ECS tested? How do you know if it’s out of whack?

Tammy: We’re not there yet. We just discovered the ECS in the ‘90s. It is the biggest scientific discovery of our lifetime.

We just figured out that THC binds to the CB-1 receptor or the cannabinoid-1 receptor.

XZIBIT: Wow. The ability to be high and remember all this shit…

Tammy: Ok, ok! I have a scientific explanation for that.

We’ve done research on the cannabis plant hundreds and hundreds of times.

One of the studies was the Indian Hemp Commission. And they talked about the different reactions people get when they use cannabis.

And there is a sub-group, a nerd who suddenly goes into a passionate and mentally clear way of thinking. So I became ‘better’ with weed.

XZIBIT: So how does the body itself make cannabinoids?

Tammy: We talked about runner’s high, right? People who run a lot, like my brother who ran cross country in college, get a feeling of highness. My brother would chase that high.

Before he started cannabis, he didn’t realize what the runner’s high was. And the runner’s high is very close to a cannabinoid high because your body dumps what is called anandamide in your system.

Anandamide is our body’s version of THC.

XZIBIT: What is another kind of high? For those who don’t want to run.

Tammy: Situations of high stress or whenever your body is trying to relax itself. Women also produce natural cannabinoids in their breast milk.

A lot of our receptors live in our brain. But if you’re a woman, an abundant site is going to be your uterus.

So we have a lot of those locks. They are neurotransmitters. And neurotransmitters in the body communicate about what to do.

This also speaks to how we need cannabis for mental health disorders and women’s health issues. We just really suck at managing those issues, especially in this country.

So it makes me wonder–do we need to be smoking more weed?

So your pets have an ECS system. Get them some CBD when they are in pain.

I’ve even talked to an endocannabinologist, which are weed doctors. They said that, for children, CBD is good.

So when my kids have pain, I use CBD topicals instead of things like Tylenol, which taxes their liver.

XZIBIT: What about ADHD?

Tammy: There are a lot of parents who are shocked that I give my kids CBD. But people with ADHD were given meth as a child. So let’s stop judging.

XZIBIT: Ok but when I was in middle school, nobody had ADHD. People say that it was because it wasn’t diagnosed.

Tammy: You remember when we were younger, what we used to call people who were slow? We can’t even use the word anymore.

But those people were just undiagnosed with autism. So it’s the same thing with ADHD. We just really didn’t understand it back then.

So currently the ECS is not taught in medical school, which is sad because people are going to medical school and not even learning about it.

Cannabis is so controversial in the medical world because when anyone goes to the doctor, they get prescribed a molecule. That’s the medicine.

The cannabis plant has hundreds of molecules for helping medically.

People will take things like ‘CBD Isolates’ or synthetic weed and it doesn’t do anything because you’re asking a plant that has an orchestra to only use the tuba. It needs its supporting cast.

XZIBIT: For those listening, when we talk about synthetic weed, we’re talking about things like what they call ‘spice.’

They try to call it different things because they can’t call it cannabis. Remember when people were eating other people’s faces in Florida? That was because of synthetic weed.

Tammy: Stop trying to make weed! It’s already effective.

And the cool thing about CBD is that some of the drugs that are helping with anxiety or depression are hitting the same receptors that CBD hits.

So CBD is going to go in and say “there’s too much going on, let’s tone this down and start things up over here.”

And your doctor is gonna prescribe a molecule you might be overproducing and guess what? You just made a bad situation worse.

So CBD is intuitive in helping balance chemicals in the body.

But I get it, it’s not that profitable. It’s a plant. At the end of the day, why are we charging so much for herbs?

XZIBIT: Do you like to cook?

Tammy: If someone else does the dishes, yeah.

XZIBIT: I like to cook. I like to fish, hang out with homies. I think I have a nice flow.

Tammy: Yeah, you sound like you have a great ECS system.

Some people are born with pretty bad ECS systems. You know how cannabis can stop a seizure in its tracks? That would be someone who suffers from endocannabinoid deficiencies.

We have an entire system in our body dedicated to receiving this plant, which is why it can fix so many things.

XZIBIT: And they don’t want to give it to us.

Tammy: Well once upon a time it was sold over-the-counter. It was something you gave children and adults. It was the number 3 or 4 drug in the United States.

XZIBIT: Why can’t we open those books back up?

Tammy: Because weed makes white women want to sleep with black men.

XZIBIT: What? What the fuck?

Tammy: That was literally one of the reasons why cannabis stopped being over-the-counter. It’s called Reefer Madness.

So Harry J. Anslinger is the one who took our medicine away. He wanted people to fear cannabis, even though people were buying it over the counter in tincture form.

There were these people who were coming across the border and smoking the ‘devil’s lettuce.’ It was making people crazy, causing murders, and making white women sleep with black men and all these other crazy lies.

XZIBIT: If it was sold over-the-counter, it was probably not necessary to have the other pharmaceuticals on the market.

Tammy: Exactly.

XZIBIT: It’s good to see cannabis have a chance now.

I don’t know how the individual states are going to go about this. I saw Arkansas just did full legalization. We’re going to start keeping track of the states.

I think I’m for legalization as long as it’s done correctly.

Tammy: I don’t trust them. Leave it alone. Decriminalize it, let us have it, then move on about your business.

XZIBIT: They’re not going to do that.

Tammy: They’re not. And the Federal government used to prescribe cannabis in the ‘70s and ‘80s. They grow cannabis at the University of Mississippi.

They got rid of the compassionate use program with Reagan. Bush made sure it was completely gone.

XZIBIT: Where do you see the struggle between profits and compassion?

Tammy: I don’t know. Ideally, we have almost 40 to 50 states that have adopted legalization legislation.

But if you think about the economy, if over 60% of the people are in jail for drug charges, what happens if you take away the number 1 thing people are arrested for?

What happens to the prison guards, the food suppliers, and the people who make the prison uniforms? Legalization would begin a chain reaction that would cause that part of the economy to collapse.

And that’s one reason why I don’t see legalization happening.

XZIBIT: Going to jail for weed and going to jail for meth–are they two different charges?

Tammy: No. If you are doing drugs in the pursuit of happiness, why are they infringing on your liberty?

Because you don’t arrest people for drinking. And there are people who get really violent when they drink. We don’t require prescriptions for people to go drink, just a license.

So why are we penalizing people for the decisions they are making? They say meth is bad, but if you’re a good citizen, you’re paying all your bills, and you vote, why are they bothering you?

XZIBIT: Damn! What kind of meth user does that?

Tammy: There are people who do drugs every now and then and meth is a recreational drug.

XZIBIT: Yeah but that is a very specific drug user. Smoking meth and paying his bills?

Tammy: Listen, Dr. Carl Hart, Drug Use for Grown Ups. Read his book.

He and his wife will occasionally do meth. They are very responsible people. They enjoy it but they are not meth heads.

The crazy thing is that successful people are drug users.

XZIBIT: How do you enjoy meth occasionally?

Tammy: You know crack is a middle-class, white person drug.

XZIBIT: Right now?

Tammy: Right now.

You should read Hart’s book. Listen, arresting people for drug use is infringing on their rights. If people are doing other crimes while they're high, that’s different.

So I think any kind of drug use is a civil rights issue.

XZIBIT: I feel like you’re absolutely correct. I know in Canada they treat drug use differently. There are places you can go to get clean needles and stuff.

Tammy: Yes! Harm reduction.

XZIBIT: They make it so that if you’re going to do drugs, do it so that it doesn’t spread disease.

Tammy: You make a great point. It’s harm reduction. People aren’t necessarily dying from drug use, they are dying from poor hygiene or a laced product.

Making drugs illegal is penalizing people for what they’re going to naturally do. Hunger, thirst, sex, intoxication–those are all natural desires and that’s why nature provides us with intoxicants.

Even birds eat fermented fruit because they want to get drunk. It is our right to these things.

There are even some people who are more genetically disposed to drug use. And as hard as this life is, of course there is some relief given to us when we use them.

So the real crime is punishing people for what they’re naturally going to do no matter what.

And what many countries have done is realized that we can’t stop people from doing what they want to do, but we can improve the safety of those activities.

A lot of veterans die of polypharmacide, which is an accidental drug overdose because of everything they are being prescribed.

Cannabis is so complex and can hit on a lot of things at one time. But veterans aren’t able to purchase it sometimes.

XZIBIT: Do you think the cannabis industry will be a battle between the grower and brand names?

Tammy: Unfortunately money is probably going to win.

But there are homegrowers. A lot of these corporate cannabis companies are lobbying to make homegrow illegal.

So I think we should allow people to keep their right to grow at home. Maybe not 100 plants in the backyard, but you should be able to grow.

XZIBIT: That’s like people saying you can’t grow tomatoes–motherfucker, yes I can!

Tammy: Exactly. Why are you denying me access to plants? I mean, I guess some are illegal to grow, like the tomatoes Burger King has patented.

XZIBIT: How do people patent a plant?

Tammy: It should be illegal. Lots of fruits and vegetables are patented. Weed was patented up until recently.

XZIBIT: By who?

Tammy: By the government. While they were harping on us for drug use, they patented the use of cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants.

The patent expired recently, but they did have it patented.

XZIBIT: So I’m learning all these amazing things. What are some other facts about cannabis?

Tammy: Oh I have a bunch. Are you ready for me to blow your mind?

XZIBIT: Yes.

Tammy: Do you know the difference between hemp and cannabis?

XZIBIT: Yes. One is sold at the flea market and the other one is rolled up and smoked.

Tammy: That is technically correct. I used to see posts on social media that said hemp and cannabis are not the same plant.

But yes they are the same plant. One plant is allowed to express seeds and the other is not.

They’re not grown the same way. If you’re growing it for hemp fiber, it’s going to be grown a certain way. If you’re growing it for medicine or cannabis, you’re going to grow it a different way.

For example, how close or spread apart you grow the plants is going to yield different results.

XZIBIT: So as for the perception of the words hemp and THC, why do you look at the word ‘hemp’ and think ‘health?’

Tammy: I think it’s marketing. They’re all health, they’re all medicine.

It’s just hemp is a legal definition because if that hemp plant is 0.5% THC over the legal limit, which is 0.3%, it becomes High THC Sativa.

So it’s a legal definition. Cannabis and hemp are the same plant. They are just grown differently and for different purposes.

XZIBIT: Ok. Hit me with another one.

Tammy: Did you know hemp is going to clean the soil where it’s planted? Even radiation.

Which is why you should get your cannabis tested–it’s going to absorb whatever is in the soil.

Tammy: Another one. It was legally required for all citizens to grow hemp in the 1690s in the Virginia colonies. It was even considered legal tender.

Hemp was required to be grown because it would make clothing, sails, rope, and other materials.

Some people even have hemp homes that are mold resistant and bring your energy costs down.

XZIBIT: What?

Tammy: You have to grow an acre and a half of hemp and you can build a house.

You can make hemp homes, hemp wood, hempcrete, fuel, batteries, cosmetics, cooking materials, and much more.

So it was required to be grown because it was so useful.

XZIBIT: Ok hit me with another one.

Tammy: Sativa versus Indica. It’s a lie.

It’s the terpenes. The terpenes are going to give the plant its smell and its smell is going to indicate what terpenes are present.

Your body is going to have to figure out how it’s going to react to certain terpenes.

Sativa and Indica are just classifications. Indica means “India” in Latin and Sativa means “cultivate” in Latin.

They were classified that way and it’s definitely not the case that people were smoking in the 1700s saying “this is gonna put me in da couch.”

But an Indica plant is going to be shorter, condensed, and thrive in a colder region.

Sativa plants are going to be in tropical places. They are going to be taller and lighter in color. And their leaves are going to be more slender.

Whenever anything is classified taxonomically, it’s always going to be based on what the plant looks like and how it grows, not the effects it has.

And there are boy plants and there are girl plants. The girl plants are what we smoke and the boy plants are the ones we kill after we get their seed.

XZIBIT: Jesus! Come on now.

Tammy: I don’t make the rules!

XZIBIT: Yeah but it’s the way you said it!

Tammy: It’s very common in nature. When a queen bee gets what she needs from a male bee, the other bees take him out.

XZIBIT: Oh man. So the female plants we smoke, the male plants we kill.

Tammy: Because the male plant will release his seed. And one male can ruin an entire crop!

XZIBIT: Ain’t that the truth!

Tammy: We need her so sexually frustrated that she’s producing resins–she’s getting ‘wet’ to attract a mate.

And look what celibacy does! It creates magic! Medicine for us. Ladies, take note!

XZIBIT: What?

Tammy: I’m just a messenger.

XZIBIT: Ok give me another one.

Tammy: Cannabis and hops are cousins.

XZIBIT: How close?

Tammy: They have the same great grandmother.

So with plant classification, at some point hops and cannabis were the same plant and then they diverged.

XZIBIT: Beer is made from hops. What else is hops used for?

Tammy: It’s medicinal.

XZIBIT: I know but what else?

Tammy: It’s mostly known for beer, but it is a medicinal plant and a cousin to cannabis.

Do you want more facts? Because I have more facts.

XZIBIT: Ok hit me with another one.

Tammy: In a lot of archaeological sites, we’ve found that cannabis was being burned in holy sites. It was definitely a big part of religion up until a certain point.

And some people think that “Kaneh Bosem” might be Hebrew for cannabis. And if so, it is in Jesus’ anointing oil.

XZIBIT: Wow. I think the things that are going to come out of this show are going to be surprising to everyone.

I’m learning a lot already. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

I can’t wait to be able to dive into serious stuff. It’s time to start turning on the lights and seeing what’s real and what’s not.

There’s so much that we’re gonna share with you guys. Thanks for coming on. Let’s get it.