Jesse Ventura is back on The Drive with Steve Jaxon, yesterday to discuss his new book, Jesse Ventura’s Marijuana Manifesto.
Steve Jaxon: All right! He’s been with us before, it’s always great to talk to our first guest, he’s an American former professional wrestler, actor, political commentator, author, naval veteran and he was the thirty-eighth governor of the state of Massa… sorry, Jesse, The Great State of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura is back with us. How are ya doin’, man?
Jesse Ventura: Hi Steve, in fact, I’ll surprisingly say the home of the unbeaten Minnesota Vikings.
SJ: I know, I saw that this morning because I’m a Lions guy, I grew up in Detroit. Yeah, I didn’t know that they were 3-0. That’s cool.
JV: Well, considering they’ve lost three number one draft picks to injuries.
SJ: Yeah, and they’ve had a rough few years but I’d love to see them do something.
JV: Well, anyway, that aside, let’s get down to what you want to talk to me about.
SJ: Yes. Jesse’s new book is Jesse Ventura’s Marijuana Manifesto and I was readin about it and can’t wait to read it. Tell us why you decided to do this. I know a lot of it has to do with you’ve always been against the War on Drugs (myself included, I think it’s ridiculous) and we’re about to flip the switch here in California in November.
The story behind the book
Jesse Ventura: Well, I hope so. What really got me focused on it, you know, I’m 65 years old, now I actually went on Medicare this year, believe it or not. But my quality of life had been taken from me. And I owe my quality of life given back to me to marijuana. And I’ll explain. It wasn’t me but someone close to me, developed an epileptic seizure disorder. And this person was seizing upwards of three to four times a week. I was involved directly in care, which is why I’m saying both of us lost our quality of life.
The person was put on four different pharmaceutical medicines one after the other, because each one failed and each one had horrible side effects and the seizures continued. I finally took the person to Colorado, got what’s deemed “medical marijuana,” at the time three drops of it under the tongue three times a day. The seizures stopped. Now it’s available in Minnesota but it’s very expensive because we are very restricted here. What the person could get for $30 a month in Colorado would cost $600 a month here. Your insurance won’t pay for it even though it works. The person is now completely seizure free, is completely off all pharmaceutical medicine and has not had a seizure now in over two and a half years.
SJ: And these drops are probably CBG which means they’re not…
JV: Well they’re not drops any more, it’s a pill now, a pill in the morning, a pill at night.
SJ: But it’s not like they get stoned, there’s not much THC in these
JV: No, there’s not, in fact, this person can’t have THC at all, doesn’t like it at all, that’s why it’s very expensive, it’s the straight CBG. Even still. Let me quote my friend Tommy Chong, who’s an expert too.
SJ: He was just on with us and we talked about that.
JV: Tommy lets you know in no uncertain terms that the entire plant is medical. Those that smoke it for the euphoric feeling, that’s mental health. You know, I have a quote. I like to say my quote. I grew up in the 60s, marijuana is to rock and roll what beer is to baseball. Imagine if they took away beer at the ball game!
SJ: Good point, Jesse!
JV: Well, it’s right on.
SJ: It’s true. I agree!
A winning focus issue
JV: You know, and it’s time for us. This could be a focus issue. Let me explain why here, Steve. Our government is being our parent here. Over 50% of Americans are for full legalization of marijuana yet it’s our federal government standing in the way. Well, this could be the issue that we rise up – the revolutionary issue – to let our federal government know that we are the boss and that they work for us and that they’re there to carry out our wishes and not their own agenda. This could be a key issue to do it, because, it’s ridiculous.
Let me make this… you know, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Ben Franklin, today – today – if they lived today, would be raided by the DEA, they’d be prosecuted and they’d be doing 10 to 12 years in federal prison as major drug dealers.
The Constitution, the Bill of Rights and Betsy Ross’ flag are all made out of marijuana. Marijuana was the economic backbone of our nation for 160 years. I was astounded when putting this book together, to learn the history, which no one knows because our government and the media won’t educate us on marijuana. There was a time we were ordered by the British to grow it, as a colony, because we had the space to do it and you could trade marijuana in lieu of money, with the British. They needed it for their ships so they could colonize the world.
SJ: Well, as you point out, it’s a cash crop, which means it’s bad for the pharmaceutical industry. Big pharma pressured the government to continue this charade.
Compared to What?
JV: Oh, of course That’s the other thing, Steve, is that… here’s the deal. I always like to make the comparison to prostitution and people go, “What?” Here’s the deal. OK. Two people could meet on a street corner and they could have consensual sex all night long, right? They might not even know each other and that’s fully legal. But if during that process there’s an exchange of money, then it becomes prostitution and illegal. So the sex itself isn’t illegal, it’s just the exchange of money that makes it illegal. The government wants a cut (thus being the pimp).
Well, the same holds true with marijuana. My mother used to… I lived in south Minneapolis, city center, we had a small, little tiny back yard. She’d grind up a third of the back yard and plant tomatoes every summer. Well, you could do the same thing with marijuana. You could grow it, for your four plants, or whatever your needs would be, and it wouldn’t cost you a thing. The government wouldn’t make anything off it, thus pharmaceutical wouldn’t control it, and that’s the rub. If government could charge you for the air you breathe, they would. And so “nothing else do they want you to be buy with that they don’t get paid on” (sic).
And that’s one of the big reasons they won’t legalize. Plus, if they did legalize now, how do they justify all the people who spent 20 or 30 years in jail. That’s why they’ll never move. It’s going to be us, the people, voting, state by state, getting it legal state by state like what’s happening. And hopefully California will follow suit this Fall. And when that happens, it will force the feds into finally complying with our wishes.
And it’s an issue that can give us back our dignity of being able to say, you know what? You work for us, we don’t work for you.
SJ: Right on. Well, you know, the other thing is…
JV: I should have run for president, shouldn’t I?
SJ: I’d have voted for you. Especially this year! You missed it, man! And now we’ve got Trump! Good God!
Jesse Ventura: Well that’s why I’m voting for Gary Johnson. He’s the only candidate who openly says he will end the war on drugs and openly says he will end the wars in the Middle East and bring our kids home. And that to me are the two main issues. And the other two candidates the wars, both wars, are going to continue on and continue to deplete the finances of this country.
Illegal Schmillegal
SJ: And of course the DEA recently decided to keep marijuana as the illegal drug that it is in the same category and in my opinion it’s just they want the money from Washington to keep the DEA going and God knows what they do when they bust a bunch of people.
Jesse Ventura: You’re absolutely correct. Their jobs depend upon it. And get this: marijuana is the only thing where law enforcement determines its fate. Anywhere else, the legislature has to make laws. The elected officials have to do those things. But with marijuana they allow a conflict of interest. The DEA – who, like I said, they would be imprisoning George Washington and Thomas Jefferson today, they’d be doing 10 to 12 as major drug dealers – … (sic)
And people need to know why it happened. It happened in the ‘30s, William Randolph Hearst, he owned 26 newspapers and thousands of acres of timber land. Well, in the true capitalistic American way, he wanted to control the industry so he paid off the politicians who made hemp marijuana illegal then, which forced us to buy his timber land to make paper. And he used his 26 newspapers to bastardize marijuana as the devil weed of the minorites.
SJ: And then he paid…
JV: He attached it to black people, to brown skinned people in his newspapers, so that the white ruling people would go, “Oh, we need to outlaw this substance because of those horrible black and brown skinned people,” and at that time, we were dominantly a white controlled nation.
SJ: And he paid Harry Anslinger some money and he’s the guy who did the whole campaign, I think.
Jesse Ventura: Yup, exactly. Once you read… did you know it was the backbone of our economy for 160 years? I was astounded to learn that cotton only surpassed marijuana only once they invented the cotton gin. (tbc)