Make Decisions From the Perspective of the Person You Want to Become

You know what? I hate to say it But I think I missed the good old days the good old days where you could go visit a dude in the garage Come home with some extra baking supplies, you know what I'm saying? I miss those days. I want I kind of want to have them back I know the problem is we're spoiled in Canada because everything is legal, right? So you can you just it's like Tim Hortons. There's one on every corner You can just go you can it's a five minute walk dude to everyone to everywhere. It doesn't matter where you live You know and to I I miss I miss the dealer. Mm-hmm. I miss the good old days, man Welcome to Thoughts off the stem. Thanks for joining the session with me. Just a Barone today. I am smoking a little bit of I think this is What is this the something liquid diamond blood? It's delicious It's a sativa. It tastes like either coconut or vanilla. I can't really put my finger on it yet But it's a good nice little upliftor Just like the times when you got to go visit a guy You know to get a thing like I'm not talking about you know There was always the crazy ones when you were in you know high school sometimes university where you'd have a guy And you'd have to meet him in a parking lot and you pick up like a dime bag You know just so you could you know have a little a little a little pipe hit for that evening with your buddies Not those times. I'm talking about I like having a guy you could go see hang out for a bit, you know Now you go to the pot shop you walk in and there's like 40 people what can I help you with you know what you can help me with bitch I'm looking for weed. Where's your weed? Oh? Well, we have this new no. I just want I want just give me a bag weed bro. You know I Don't know I feel like we're spoiled because I remember when I was when I was a kid going to going to different You'd have a different like it was okay. It was eclectic It was like visiting different cultures You go to one guy's house This dude you could only meet outside. He'd have to run out from the side door pretending like you know He was going to give you a tape or something like that So he'd give away a bunch of mixed tapes with weed in it. He just come running to the guard or there was that guy a little Element of danger, you know And then there was I remember there was a time when my buddies and I we were we were looking for something and we couldn't find Anything where we lived so we had to drive to Toronto to get some and I swear to God I was I was I Stayed in the car Because we pulled into this like very sketchy neighborhood and I was like you know what? I don't know if I don't know if us preppy white boys should be here right now, you know what I'm saying Anyway, my buddy runs in he's gone for like 30 minutes. I'm thinking I should just take off at some point and he's like He finally comes running out, you know, it was just it was those moments that were fun like they just You know now it's just too easy. I think that's the thing like that's why I missed the dealer It wasn't it was like you had a secret You know what I'm saying And there was always different every dealer had like a different idiosyncrasy, I guess you could say like one guy, you know, you'd have to go you'd have to hang out with them for like 15 30 minute you have to smoke a joint with them before you could leave like You know have other guys where you'd have to like hang out at their place where they told you like their life story before you got anything You've known the guy for X amount of years, but he still wants to repeat all the stuff you know about him already Because like you know, that's what you do when you're stoned I guess and then there's the guy that likes reptiles I'm not a reptile dude, okay, I'm gonna tell you that right now snakes a guanus If there's a thing called a sand dragon, I think that's what it was I don't want to be near it. You know what I'm saying. I'm not a lizard guy But I remember this one night in high school my buddies and I were like it was the summer where like dude We want to smoke a joint. So then they only knew this one guy Gary Okay, we'll call him Gary So this guy Gary he was the guy that had the weed that night so we decide that we're gonna take a trek to his place Which is just across town because a couple of people are having a few drinks over there and then we're gonna go to a party We show up at Gary's place. He lives in Basement apartment, okay, I'm thinking my buddy goes I've never been to I've met Gary twice Okay, two times at a party and Gary was like dude was up and then that was it That was the whole exchange with me and Gary and then my buddies like yeah, he's cool if you come over It's fine. Whatever, you know, so we go over there. We walk down this little hallway We walk into the living room and then I noticed that the entire living room Okay is aligned With lizard cages cages No, thank you. I'm sitting on the couch with literally six lizard cages behind me and I think one little what do they cut Would I say it was a sand dinosaur or something like that? I don't know It was this little thing it had like these this like crazy head it looked like Jurassic Park, okay? But like the color of sand all right, and it had this big fat head and it had this really like solid rock style tail Like a dinosaur and it kept hitting The glass behind my head. Well, I tried to sit there as if nothing was bothering me, okay? It's a whole thing bothered me. I thought I was on poop That's what I honestly there was I am not cool with lizards and then when I walked in I looked and in the middle of the floor Was this big black like kind of shiny, you know circular carpet? I was like that's a cool carpet. I want a carpet like that for my house So as we're sitting around they're passing a joint. I'm not smoking it because I'm surrounded by lizards and I feel like I You know like God I'm terrified dude It's not happening so I refused to smoke so I just kept passing the joint to the left right? Dude, I'm admiring this carpet. I'm like, oh dude. This is cool as shit. I really like this I want a cut where did you get this carpet is what I'm thinking okay and before I could ask the question The carpet blinks Yeah, that's right the carpet the carpet the middle of this black shiny carpet blinked and it goes hey how you doing I'm like what the fuck is that and then this head that must have been the size of like a grapefruit or maybe bigger just kind of lifts up from the center of the carpet It's not a carpet dude. It's a python a black shiny Python In the middle of his living room I Miss having a dealer Now that I think about it, maybe I don't but did you did you have dealers that were like that like just all kinds of random shit all the time That was like in my 20s this dude's part or this is my teenage years But like it was like that until in my 20s where it was just like random dudes you could get weed from and they always had some weird Shit going on but this dude's Python stared at me and it was like I'm gonna eat you and I was like yeah I'm the fuck out here. That's it. I stood up immediately because I didn't okay first of all there were signs that this thing Was a snake and not a carpet okay? It when I didn't notice the chicken wire fence Around the carpet okay? It was like let's be honest though. This thing was so big. It was a coiled It was a coiled python in like a One-foot-high Chicken wire pen in the middle of his living room like a black shiny carpet okay? It blinked at me it raised its head and I was like that the head came higher Okay, then the fucking The the the the the the the the chicken wire That's a problem when the snake's head Is above the chicken wire and it's just waking up I Don't want to be around when it decides that it wants to come outside of the chicken wire Snake's terrifying me dude There's no way I'm sticking around so I jumped up and I was like that's a fucking snake and he's like Yeah, what'd you think it was I was like I thought it was a nice black shiny carpet. I was gonna ask you where you got it Then everybody started laughing at me. I was like I'm the fuck out of here now He goes okay, man see a an eye tore it out of that house back down that Little hallway up to stairs and out of that basement I couldn't fucking believe it. I must have sat outside on my own for like another 35 minutes before my buddy came out they that's what they spent the whole they were smoking a joint and just talking shit about me the whole time I mean, I don't really blame them, but like Dude that was terrifying But that's the kind of dealers I fucking had I remember on the trip to Toronto when we were going to that sketchy neighborhood We we almost we almost died not in the neighborhood. No, no on the trip there Okay, I had a little Saturn 3 door coupe. This thing, they sold it to me. This is how the, this is how the sales guy sold it to me. Okay. He was like five foot four and built like Danny DeVito. And he just in the showroom, he ran three steps and he just did like a knee drop into the front quarter panel. And that thing went in like six inches and bounced right back out. And he was like, see, doesn't dent. And I was like, sold, I'll take it. You know, so I had this car. This car was lightest shit. It was like 1500 pounds. It had 75 horsepower. And if you drove by a truck on the, on the freeway, it would blow you into the left lane. Like you'd be in the fast lane in no time and not going fast enough for the fast lane. So it was a little bit terrifying. But it was standard and it was kind of fun to drive. Okay. So we're driving down to Toronto and I'm flying because I'm in the car with my buddies. And I'm like, oh, this is fun, you know. And then the car in front of us slams on his brakes and goes left and I'm like, mother fucker. There was dead traffic. I wasn't looking ahead, stupid driver. I was a kid. I was a dumb mother fucker. And I wasn't looking far enough ahead to know that there was a wall of traffic. And so I slam on the brakes and I'm like, buddy, this is gonna hurt. So just hold on. I slam the brakes. I start shifting down and we just go flying forward, right? We stopped and we didn't hit the car. By like, I don't know, half an inch or so. But still we didn't hit and nobody behind us hit us. Which was incredible as far as I'm concerned. But yeah, you used to like, there used to be an element of danger in trying to pick up some weed. Now you just go to the corner store and you're like, hey man, I'll take some liquid imagination, please. All right, that's $30. Have a good day, sir. Like, there's no controversy to it anymore. I know that we fought for it for a long time, but I'm just saying there's like, like you can enjoy the company of your bud tender, right? But it's not the same as having a dude that your soul relationship is based on weed and you go hang out at his house for 15 minutes. You know what the downside of that is? Your relationship is solely based on just buying weed and then all of a sudden you have chores. (laughs) When you go to their houses, that happened to me too. I got caught up in that for a while. And like this one dude, when I was like 25 to 30, I would buy weed off him. And I remember you'd have, you'd go to his house and he had a rule. You had to hang out for half an hour. And at the time when we first started, you know, having this, when we first entered into this relationship, okay? It was fine because like you just go to his place, you bust a couple of poppers and then you would play video games for like two or three hours because you were stoned a shit. And then finally like nighttime fell. And it was like, oh, I better go home 'cause I have to work tomorrow, right? So there was that part of it. But then all of a sudden you get to this level where like they start to have families and you don't have a family yet. (laughs) You know? So they start like having you do shit around the house 'cause you're there all the time anyway. Like they withhold the weed (laughs) so that you can help them, you know, trim their tree or some shit like that. Like I remember this one guy that I, like I said, I used to, he got married. And then the next thing, you know, we would go over to his place on like a Saturday and we would play, you know, we would help him either, like I remember one time helping him build a tree house, okay? Or like, you know, just helping him fix up his pond that he had just built or like gardening for, you know, the first hour of your stay, okay? (clears throat) And then after you put in that first hour, you would do something fun because it'd be dinner time and it'd be the summer and he'd be like, okay, so let's play some basketball and then stick around and you're like, dude, I just came here for a fucking gram of weed. Like, (laughs) do you guys ever have anybody like that? Like that seemed pretty common with me. But then there were other times when you met dealers that you like could actually have a friendship with and it was just a bonus that they sold weed because like no matter what happened or what you would, you know, what you got into, they'd be like, look, man, you need some weed, you'd be like, yep, and you know, they'd help you out. It was always good to know with dealer. But now you've got these like corporate stores that you go into and it's like the iPhone store. Well, what kind of shiny thing would you like today? (laughs) You're like, dude, I just want a bag of your best weed. Well, this weed is $72, it's amazing, it's announced. I only want a half quarter. Okay, well, if you're gonna play it safe. No, I don't know. I just, there's an element. I don't know. I never thought that I would actually think like this. I thought once weed became legal and you could just go to the store and be the greatest thing in the world. But it separates people. (laughs) I think it gives people to, it makes everything too easy. I think this is gonna be stupid. I think that the government should have just licensed the guys that were selling weed already. You still go to the garage, you still get the experience. There's no store. You know what I mean? It's just bags that have like marker on it of what it might be. Like, that's what I'm talking about. That's what they should have done. Because did you know this past month, I think, a month ago or so? They, the cannabis council of Canada disbanded. So there's a couple good things I think that happened from this. First of all, I don't feel like a lot of the people that were running that or on that council really understood cannabis and like, what cannabis does and how it should be dealt with. But at the same time, they were still a good lobbying group because even though they didn't necessarily experience it, they knew enough to talk to the industry and figure out what was wrong with it, right? And then have a voice in the government. And where was I going with this? I'm stoned. I hope you're stoned. Are you enjoying the session? Oh yeah. So now we have no, we have no, we have no representatives in the government saying like, hey, this is how the industry's going, you know? And this is what we need to kind of like pay attention to. I don't know, I feel like it could be a bad thing. But I also think that maybe it leaves room for something else to pop up. That might be a little bit better, a little better suited for the industry. I don't know. But I think that I wonder if things would have turned out differently. Had you just licensed the dealers that were already dealing instead of making it like a storefront? Like you just go and inspect the garage or the basement or the backyard shed. Like does that meet compliance regulations? I feel like yes. If you can make a legal pot shop best reflect the garage or the basement or the backyard shed of the street dealers. I feel like you would come out like it would be, it would be better for you financially in the long run. Maybe that's what the industry is missing. A less like corporate glow and a more mom and pop down to earth. Talking to your favorite hippie vibe. You know, we also I think also the government should think about really allowing places where you could go and smoke and sit around like you can go and drink. So yeah, I think I miss dealers. I think that's my, I think that's my takeaway from this whole thing. I miss the com rotterie of a dealer. Even if your relationship is solely built on selling weed and they hold you captive. For their own benefits. That's the worst. When you have a dealer that like withholds the weed, you're like, dude, yeah, I came over to buy a 40. And they're like, cool, man, can you help me set up this barbecue? You're like, oh, I guess, I guess I can. And then next thing you know, you're helping them out every weekend because they have the good weed in town and like now you have to help them build a deck. You help them move when they move like, it sucked in sucked in by the weed. Weeds not a gateway drug, okay? Weed is a is what's the word for it? I don't even know. Weed is like a socially maniacal herb. It makes you want to be friendly to everybody and it allows you to get sucked in through empathy to help other people out always. You know, you gotta be careful. That's one thing weed does that people don't talk about. That's what you should talk to your dealer about in the garage the next time you meet with them if you still have one, if they're still around. (laughs) But yeah, those are my thoughts off the stem for this week. I hope you do. enjoyed the session. I hope you come back next week with me, Justin Baroney, thoughts off the stem. Check out thoughts for 20 calm. And if you've listened this far, follow, subscribe. Like I think we're still 385 people away from a thousand listeners on Spotify. It'd be great to get there. So I had, you know, help me out. And yeah, until next time. I want a big puff. Keep your lips low, baby.