On this episode of Let’s Be Blunt, Montel talks with the lead vocalist and one of the founding members of the legendary hip hop group Cypress Hill, B-Real. Cyprus Hill was the first hip-hop group to have multi-platinum and platinum albums, having sold over 20 million albums worldwide and garnering critical acclaim for their first five albums. All of the group members have advocated for medical and recreational use of canna for many years. B-real is the owner and founder of Dr. Greenthumb, a chain of canna dispensaries in California, and the host of a canna-themed podcast under the same moniker.

#B-Real #CypressHill #canna

On this episode of Let’s Be Blunt, Montel talks with Niambe McIntosh, daughter of the legendary Reggae artist Peter Tosh. Niambe has a background in engineering and public education, and has now turned her focus full time to cannabis activism. A true renaissance woman, she serves many roles including the head of the Peter Tosh Legacy & Brand, Managing Member of Tosh Holdings LLC, Board Chairperson for the Peter Tosh Foundation and President of PT Capital LLC. Her family has a long history of activism that she carries forward. She lost her brother Jawara due to a brutal attack while serving time for a minor cannabis offense. She collaborates with several organizations such as The Last Prisoner Project and Minorities for Medical Marijuana in hope of ending the suffering brought about by cannabis prohibition.

#PeterTosh #NiambeMcintosh

On this episode of Let’s be Blunt Montel talks with Dr. Rebecca Siegel, the author of the newly published book, The Brain on Cannabis: What You Should Know about Recreational and Medical Marijuana. Dr. Siegel is a clinical psychiatrist specializing in adult, child and adolescent psychotherapy and psychopharmacology. Her practice includes the evaluation and treatment of depression, mood disorders, attention deficit disorders, learning disabilities, Aspergers and autism spectrum disorder and she is a licensed prescriber of medical cannabis in New York State. Her book includes tips on how to effectively talk to young people about recreational cannabis as well as addressing common myths surrounding cannabis.

#RebeccaSiegel #brain #canna

On this episode of Let’s Be Blunt, Montel speaks with Valentina Valentine, owner of Synchronicity Holistic, an elevated dispensary catering to senior women. Valentina was a successful commercial real estate agent and mother when a medical diagnosis forever changed her life. In 1989, after suffering from symptoms that were first thought to be a brain tumor, she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. She refused to let the diagnosis define her and set about to learn everything she could about the disease and treatment options.

#MultipleSclerosis #ValentinaValentine

On this episode of Let’s be Blunt, Montel speaks with Dr Corey Burchman. Dr Burchman received his undergraduate education at Cornell University, his medical degree at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and his residency and fellowship training at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is a nationally recognized expert on clinical cannabinoid therapeutics and has chaired multiple national and international conferences on the use of medical cannabis for therapeutic purposes. He is an anesthesiologist and pain management physician, having been in military, private and academic practice for over 35 years, and is also the Chief Medical Officer for Acreage Holdings.

#DrCoreyBurchman #AcreageHoldings #doc

As 2022 ignites, it is worth a pause to assess where the US cannabis industry stands from a legal and regulatory perspective Despite steady acceptance across the US with 37 medical and 18 recreational states, serious discussion on Capitol Hill and increasing growth and revenues by US cannabis companies, recent regulatory and law enforcement action and in-action, seem to belie any optimism for “legalization” anytime soon. On this episode of Let’s Be Blunt, Montel chats with Gary Kaminsky, Esq. Gary has over thirty-five years of experience in legal regulatory compliance, the past six of which are in the cannabis industry. He is a frequent author and panelist for cannabis industry issues and currently the Chief Regulatory Advisor for the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp, chairing its CBD Task Force and a founding member of its Cannabis Beverage council, and serves as Senior Counsel for Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld Law Firm.

#GaryKaminsky #law

On this episode of Let’s Be Blunt, Montel talks with the Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access, Debbie Churgai, about the newly released “2021 State of the States Report: An Analysis of Medical Cannabis Access in the United States”. The report is compiled by Americans for Safe Access, the nations largest medical cannabis patient organization. Although we have made great progress in the past several years at the state level regarding patient access to cannabis, there is much room for improvement which the report details.

#safeaccessnow #DebbieChurgai

Montel talks with Jeremy Smith on this episode of Let’s Be Blunt. Jeremy had a near death experience after medication he was prescribed caused blood clots to form in his neck. Lucky for him he was working in a hospital at the time or he would not be here today to tell his story. He suffers from Crohn’s disease and Eosinophilic Esophagitis. After he started using medical canna, he was able to decrease his opioid use from 14 a day down to 1-3 per day. He has since founded Les Munchies Inc and is on a mission to change the canna laws in Canada.

#LesMunchies #Crohns #JeremySmith

Montel chats with Steven Jung on this episode of Let’s Be Blunt. Steven began his career as a Captain in the United States Army where he held both strategic and tactical roles. He has served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Weedmaps, the leading tech company serving the canna industry, and prior to that he worked at Twitter where he was a member of the leadership team responsible for scaling the company’s revenue operation. He holds a BS in Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He is now the Chief Operating Officer at PAX and heading up their Veterans Initiative in partnership with Weed for Warriors.

#Pax #Veterans #StevenJung

Montel talks with Chef Nikki Steward on this episode of Let’s be Blunt. Chef Nikki is a culinary artist who has prepared gastronomical experiences for corporate leaders, celebrities, athletes and social influencers! Her international travels have enabled her to study under executive chefs from around the world. She’s toured with Dj Khaled and curated dinners for celebrities such as Snoop Dogg and Dave Chappelle. She is the creator of The High End Affair, a canna culinary entertainment brand that brings together the canna industry influencers for an evening of food, networking and entertainment.

#chefnikki #thehighendaffair #nikkisteward

On this episode of Let’s Be Blunt, Montel talks with Jesus Burrola, Chief Executive Officer of POSIBL, the cannabis farm of the future and engine for several of California’s leading brands. Leveraging a state-of-art system that uses less to do more, POSIBL brings the best greenhouse technology and expertise from traditional agriculture into cannabis and pairs it with the best possible genetics to produce the perfect flower — grown in an ethical, sustainable, free of pesticide and cost- efficient way, year-round. POSIBL’s Smart Greenhouses use best in class climate control, requiring less water per pound of flower, and are three times more energy-efficient than indoor growers.

#POSIBLs #JesusBurrola #canna

On this episode of Let’s be Blunt, Montel talks with Louisiana senatorial candidate, Gary Chambers. Gary made the national headlines a few weeks back when he ran a campaign ad featuring himself smoking cannabis. His mission in life is to DO GOOD AND SEEK JUSTICE! He is a civil rights activist and a native of Baton Rouge Louisiana who is working to destigmatize cannabis use. He is running for US Senate and hoping to unseat incumbent John N. Kennedy.

#GaryChambers #louisiana #canna

Montel talks with canna activist Nikki Lawley on this episode of Let’s Be Blunt. Nikki was working as a pediatric nurse when she suffered a traumatic brain injury. After years of suffering and many traditional medications that brought no relief and a multitude of side effects, she decided to try medical cannabis. That day was a turning point for her, and she has been a relentless cannabis advocate and educator ever since.

#TBI #NikkiLawley

Montel talks with Caroline Phillips on this episode of Let’s Be Blunt. Caroline is the founder of The High Street LLC, a public relations and event production company with the mission of cultivating projects and ideas that leverage business and advocacy for social good. In 2016, she launched the National Canna Festival in Washington, D.C. and in 2018 she expanded the program to include the National Canna Policy Summit and Four20 Month. Going into year 6, the National Canna Festival is now the largest ticketed canna gathering on the east coast and NCPS is the only nationally televised canna conference in the United States. The 2022 summit and festival will be held in Washington, DC on April 23rd & 24th. Headliners inlude Wiz Khalifa, Ghostface Killah & More.

#NCF #DC #canna

Cannabis has a special responsibility when it comes to social justice, because cannabis has a special history. To quote the Leafly report on social equity -Seeds of Change: Strategies to Create an Equitable Cannabis Industry - It is disingenuous to legalize cannabis and pretend that people of all races enjoy equal access to the opportunity offered by this new industry. Eight decades of prohibition have burdened people of color with targeted policing, arrests, and criminal records. In the present, venture capitalists and other investors, who are overwhelmingly white, often ignore, shun, or dismiss pitches from entrepreneurs of color. To make progress in the future, we’ll have to examine where and how we can do better. On this episode of Let’s be Blunt Montel talks with Josiah Young, a NY & CA licensed attorney with a passion for social equity within the cannabis industry.

#Cannabis #SocialEquity #Law

Montel talks with one of the 100 most influential individuals in cannabis on this episode of Let’s Be Blunt, Dr Benjamin Caplan. After an early career in brain imaging research at UCLA, he graduated from Williams College, completed his medical degree at Tufts University School of Medicine, and his residency at Boston University. In addition to practicing as a primary care physician at some of Boston's foremost hospitals, he served as the Chief Medical Officer of one of the largest medical cannabis healthcare groups in the US, overseeing the clinical evaluations of over 250,000 medical patients. He has supervised and mentored hundreds of physicians across the United States and abroad, served as Investigator for multiple pharmaceutical research studies, and has been published in premier medical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine. He is a board-certified doctor of Family Medicine, the Founder and the Chief Medical Officer of CED Clinic, CED Foundation, and EO Care, Inc, as well as a co-founder of Solo Sciences which was acquired by Akerna Corp.

#cannabis #EOCare #HealthCare

On this episode of Let’s Be Blunt, Montel speaks with Liz Rogan, a certified Cannabinoid Medicine Specialist by the American Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine. Liz is a 17 year veteran of the cannabis industry and acts as a liaison between government, community and cannabis business owners, and a consultant to both doctors and patients on customizing cannabis treatment plans and approaches the industry from a natural sciences perspective. She holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Environmental Biology with a minor in Botany from the University of Maine and is currently the Executive Director for the Cannabis Business Council of Santa Barbara County, Inc.

William Pollard once said, “Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” On this episode of Let’s Be Blunt, Montel chats with Cullen Raichart, a US Navy veteran who is a pioneer in automation in the emerging agricultural cannabis sector. His vision has led his company GreenBroz, Inc, to become a world leader in automated harvesting solutions.

Mike Glazer & Mary Jane Gibson join Montel on this episode of Let’s be Blunt for our first ever “Cannabis Year in Review”, a round-up of developments and headlines relating to cannabis in 2021. Many had hoped that 2021 was set to be a record year for cannabis with Democrats sweeping the 2020 elections, and the industry was optimistic that legalization was within reach. Montel & his guests discuss the progress on state legalizations, corporate support for cannabis, the recent mayhem in Oakland, the Olympics and much more!