Martin's World of Irish Reform

Feel the pulse of Ireland's cannabis culture as I team up with the voices of change, Martin from Martin's World, Temple Grower, and Green Beard Grows, for a special episode that's more than just a sea of green hats and shamrocks. We peel back the layers of tradition and myth to uncover how cannabis intertwines with the fabric of Irish festivities. Our chat reveals the true essence of St. Patrick's Day in Ireland, debunking common misconceptions and highlighting the communal spirit that defines this holiday, all while pondering the place of cannabis in Irish revelry and contrasting it with the scene in Canada.

Turning toward a matter close to the heart, we navigate the thorny path of obtaining medical cannabis in Ireland, where prohibitive laws and bureaucratic mazes pose formidable barriers to patients in dire need. The stories shared are a testament to the resilience of the Irish spirit, as we hear from those who've had to seek their medicine abroad and from activists boldly sowing the seeds of change. Our conversation doesn't shy away from the economic realities and complexities either, as we broach the contentious issue of pricing, terminology, and the societal impact of drug enforcement, infusing a dose of reality into the often-idealized world of cannabis economics.

By the time we wrap up, we've ventured through the pressing legal struggles faced by advocates challenging restrictive laws, including Martin's own upcoming court battle. We question the future of cannabis legislation, with eyes on Germany's legalization, and consider how home cultivation could revolutionize access to plant-based remedies. Join us for this candid exchange that's bound to stir thoughts and inspire action, and if your curiosity is sparked, the show notes are your treasure map to further exploration of Ireland's evolving green landscape.

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Exploring Cannabis in Ireland

Marge 1:19

Hello friends , welcome to episode 240 . This week I am joined by some very special guests Martin of Martinsworld , temple Grower and Greenbeard Grows . Welcome to the Faces of Cannabis interview series where we take a break from talking about edibles and focus on the people behind the plant . Whether it's fellow podcasters , bud tenders , gongies , advocates , cultivators , cannabis lovers all have their stories to share and I want to share them with you . Welcome back , friends . Thanks for joining me today .

Marge 1:55

You're going to enjoy this episode because I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Martin of Martinsworld podcast . Martin is a cannabis advocate shaking things up in Ireland to push the legalization agenda forward , one court case at a time . In this episode , we talk about the cannabis landscape in Ireland and how it differs from what I know here in Canada in particular . This conversation wouldn't be complete , of course , without my friends Greenbeard Grows , who also hails from Ireland , and Temple Grower , who is a fellow Canuck .

Marge 2:27

I originally intended for this episode to come out before St Patrick's Day , but won too many edibles later . I realized too late that I had scheduled it for the week after . Regardless , the conversation holds , grab your edibles , light your joints and enjoy this fun and educational conversation . All right , everyone . We are here for another episode of Bite Me , the show by edibles . This week this episode is going out the week of St Patrick's Day and I thought I needed an excuse to have Martin on my show . Finally , martin of Martin's World . If you could just take a second and say hello to the listeners of Bite Me , martin ? Yes , certainly .

Martin 3:10

Martin , it's an absolute pleasure to be here . Thanks very much for having me . I'm super excited for this conversation .

Marge 3:16

Great . I'm also joined by Temple Grower and Greenbeard no strangers to the show of Bite Me . But if you two could also say hello to the listeners . Gb is currently in town . I was going to be in town .

Temple Grower 3:29

Yeah , how's it going ? Everybody Temple Grower has a long full of hash .

Marge 3:35

Yeah , I'm really consuming , except for me at the moment , but that's okay , because I feel like I have to have my wits about me when I do this stuff . Otherwise , well , I say stupid shit . But anyway , like I was saying , the purpose of this episode in some ways was because St Patrick's Day is coming up . I can't remember when it falls , exactly when this will be released , but I thought it'd be really interesting to talk about the differences in weed life between Canada , because that's where Temple Grower myself are from , and Ireland , which is where Martin and GB are from . Maybe the first thing would be interesting to talk about was just the fact that I have heard that they don't celebrate St Patty's Day in Ireland . True or false ? False ?

Martin 4:22

Yeah , it would say false too . Yeah , it's well celebrated here , for sure . Why ?

Green Beard 4:28

would I have heard it if it ?

Temple Grower 4:29

was not celebrated .

Green Beard 4:32

It's even celebrated so much that we celebrate it for an entire weekend . It's St Patrick's Day is on Sunday , the 17th of March , and then we have because it falls on a weekend day we're having the Monday off as a bank holiday , so we will have extra time to celebrate and get drunk and get very stoned , you're celebrating .

Temple Grower 4:59

Is it just like ours ? We just get shitfaced yeah .

Green Beard 5:03

Pretty much and we have parties .

Martin 5:05

I like to keep the green for Patty's Day . To be fair , not myself actually going green , but green in terms of what I consume from the green milkshakes at McDonald's .

Marge 5:18

Not as a thing . Man , they do that the green milkshakes and green beer .

Green Beard 5:21

Green beer ? We don't have green beer .

Temple Grower 5:24

No , I've never seen green beer Really gross , mostly because it's usually the house beer .

Marge 5:30

So I've never tried it . It doesn't appeal to me . Green beer myself .

Green Beard 5:36

I have seen on occasion a Guinness head maybe . Great , like a little kind of a green thing on the top of it .

Martin 5:48

I've seen shamrocks actually . I had to say that kind of imprinted in , like with different kind of techniques , I think one of them like sprinkled something on to it , like put a little stencil over , sprinkled something , and it was like a black on white , because obviously the head of the point was white and they kind of sprinkled the shamrock on to the top .

Marge 6:08

Well , that would be nice , I would drink something like that , but the green beer sounds pretty gross . But is it mostly a drinking holiday then ? Like , are people consuming much weed ? I know you would be Martin and you would be GB , but because you guys are both big stoners- yeah , not a lot of people would .

Green Beard 6:27

It is a big drink and holiday , but it's a big thing for the kids as well , because in all every community they'll have a parade . So all the kids will get to go out in their things . And it's not just the kids , it's all the clubs , everything in the communities can go out and they get to do a little march around the towns and the squares and things and everybody waves at them and they think they're for the little ones . It's special .

Martin 6:59

It's a good opportunity for the community to showcase what they offer within their community to , from the different dance clubs , from Perlin Jay , things like that . They'd have the kids out there marching along showing off their tent and tent pride in their community and their clubs . So I think it's a good thing and I hope it's something that doesn't ever get out . Sadly , we become more diversified in things like that but we lose these all traditional kind of things , these showcasing of the communities . So yeah , I hope it's something that doesn't ever die out and that we do continue to celebrate for a long time .

Marge 7:41

Yeah , so if you definitely celebrate St Patrick's Day , is 420 a big holiday in Ireland .

Temple Grower 7:48

I mean , it's not really a holiday here , but what's that ?

Martin 7:51

For us , it is Well .

Green Beard 7:54

I was going to say for a small community of us now , the last 420 event last year . I think there was Maren , you could correct me on this , but it was somewhere in the region like 1500 or 1600 people .

Martin 8:09

Yeah , it was quite a large event . To be fair , we had the law in . What , would you say , did they were there monitoring the event , but they didn't think they were fair with anybody . They were a special group . That's that there .

Green Beard 8:24

No , it's scared to shit out of some of us because , like some of us , were in the middle of actually rolling and walking straight past and stop pulling and look down , you just see a shadow and you look up and it's a fucking sergeant , she kind of she , just you know . But then you just went and walked on .

Marge 8:44

That was it , so they're just turning the like , looking the other way because it was 420 .

Green Beard 8:50

Yeah .

Marge 8:51

I think , yeah .

Martin 8:55

I'd say it was just the protest and the numbers that were there as well , as you were saying , well , over a thousand people there on the day and like , had they really interfered with one or two people there ? Most likely . Then , like hope , you would hope that everybody else would kind of say , well , look , if you're doing them , you better do me , and kind of make it very difficult for the cops to do one person alone , because I suppose we are all there in solidarity together in protest . You would hope that . So . I think that's why they respected our right to protest . That there's because they were just fearful of how the the crowd might react , not in a violent way , but in civil disobedience Maybe right .

Marge 9:39

So , generally speaking then , what is like ? What's the feeling about cannabis in Ireland ? Like , because I think on . Recently I saw an article where , in the States , 70 percent of people are looking for some kind of legalization , even though they don't have it federally in Canada . Obviously it's legal , so most people , even if they don't agree with it . Well , tough titties . But like , what's the consensus generally among general public when it comes to legalization ?

Martin 10:05

I would say like right or much in favor of change to the overall general public . I think there's a lot of misinformation out there , kind of floated around , as to what legalization means or decriminalization kind of means . If you were to ask a person , but if you were to explain to a person you know , or even ask them a more simple fighting do you think a person should be criminalized for the use of cannabis or the possession of cannabis ? I would imagine like a good eight times out of 10 , nine times out of 10 , you're probably going to get no . I don't think that's right or justified .

Marge 10:45

That kind of way you think you generally accepted amongst the public .

Green Beard 10:51

I think it is . I think it is among the vast majority of the public

Challenges of Accessing Medical Cannabis

Green Beard 10:56

. You do have a couple of more resistant . You could say to it that they just aren't into it at all . I found more people when I speak to them about CBD . They're very interactive with me about it and they're very into it about with their pets , big into it for their pets , and then they'll , because I spoke to a few people and they said that they actually give it to their cats and they give it to their dogs .

Green Beard 11:31

I give it to my dogs and then I say to them well , why don't you take it for yourself ? Oh , no , no , no , no . I mean you give it to your dog and you start a conversation with them then and then the amount of people I know and how that are taking CBD and they're not at the point of THC well , they could be eventually if it was legal . And that's the problem over here is because it's so stigmatized , once thing . But then the criminal aspect of it is so severe , as my friend Martin here knows . Yeah , unfortunately , yeah , and that's the thing . It's just they're so harsh the laws and they're so draconian as well .

Green Beard 12:19

And that's what people want changed .

Marge 12:21

Right , it's the laws . It's like how strict the laws are . So if you started with that , that would be movement forward , even if they didn't necessarily legalize right away .

Green Beard 12:30

I don't think we're going to get recreation in Ireland for a very long time , but I do see the medical opening up . People think that Ireland has a medical system because it's said that we have , but we have , I think , less than 50 people or could be a little bit more . Now on the actual medical license , and because you have to get the license , you have to go to the minister of health to get the license . Say , in Canada , if you had to apply to the minister of health , every single person had to apply and he had to give , or she had to give , their permission for that person to get a limited , very , very limited , a couple of products . That's all you're able to . How long would that take ?

Marge 13:20

It sounds like a backlog . It would be crazy because here in Canada it's like pretty easy , as far as I know , to get a medical cannabis and you can buy it at dispensaries designated dispensaries or have somebody grow it for you as well .

Green Beard 13:37

Over here . You have to get it from the Hague , if not mistaken . So it has to be couriered by DHL or UBS or some crowd like that , and they have to deliver from the door to your door , and that's the only way you can get it .

Marge 13:54

So it's only ordered online .

Green Beard 13:57

Only ordered online and you can only get , as I said , very , very limited things on it . We've had people in this country that have had to leave and move to Spain and move to other countries just so that they can access the medicine that they have already been said that they can have , but they're not being provided it .

Marge 14:19

Right , and that's mainly because you're saying this backlog , like you have to go directly to the Minister of Health .

Green Beard 14:25

And he doesn't want to give anybody access to it , Although he has said it before . He was given his ministerial position or he won a selection . He said that anyone over the age of 18 should be able to consume cannabis the same way as they consume alcohol , but as soon as he was elected , that got reneged straight away . And just like Blanche , ignores it . Martin knows way , way more on this than I do .

Marge 14:49

So if there's only 50 medical patients in all of Ireland right now , is that that's accurate ?

Martin 14:56

Yeah , probably less than that , I would imagine nearly .

Marge 15:00

Right .

Martin 15:02

Is it expensive ?

Marge 15:03

Like does it cost a lot of money to get a medical card Some kind ?

Martin 15:07

It's pricey enough to get a like a Alicia Ma who's stuck over in Alicante in Spain . She had a license to use cannabis in Ireland but it's easier and cheaper to get access to it in Spain and the variety , the selection , is actually greater . The quality is , you know , at times probably superior as well to what was on offer here in Ireland because , as GB was saying , it primarily came from the Hague , initially , all coming from Bedrocan , one company over there . They had only actually one strain that they worked with . It was a Jack-O-Rare strain , you know , and I'm sure Tim will probably be quite excited hearing that one .

Martin 15:55

But for Alicia , as she explained , you know that that would excite her nerves . She suffered with chronic pain in the nerves and that would actually cause an excitation of the nerves which would stimulate and up-regulate the pain , rather than something a bit more sedative like a heavy white widow or something along those lines , a nice black domino or something that was delivering more on the pain relief inside . She wouldn't eat , the consume a whole lot , but one thing she did know was there were certain strains that if she consumed them they actually stimulated her pain and were counterproductive for her condition . And that was the strain that was available from Bedrocan . That was the one that would excite her pain . So she stuck over in Alicante . You know been sharing the hashtag bring Alicia home for quite some time now and that's gone around for over two years .

Martin 16:54

The court case I'm in court for in just over two weeks that was over me planting a cannabis plant in public . Several times . Some of them actually just got brought straight into the guard station , the cop shops there and I included a hashtag on the plant label , which was hashtag bring Alicia home and hashtag talk to Vera Vera to me , whose daughter since unfortunately passed away . But before she passed away , cannabis afforded her a much greater quality of life and our government at that time were ignoring Vera and that's where the hashtag then came from , the hashtag talk to Vera , and that's why they were included in those plants have been planted out , but that's the kind of the state of medical cannabis in this country . You know you use the sale of Vera to me , whose daughter since passed away , but unfortunately , that mother at the sacrifice time with her daughter , as it says , unfortunately passed now .

Martin 17:50

She sacrificed that time to get access to a medicine that afforded her daughter a much better quality of life and to get access to that was not easy feat . She walked from from Cork all the way to Dublin , which I think at the time it took her nearly a week or something along those lines . It was quite some time it took her to walk . It's just 330 kilometers or something like that , from Cork to Dublin . She got accompanied by a marching band from a local school along the way and everything . It was a very powerful thing for her to do . But remember , like she sacrificed time with her daughter . She never got back afterwards , you know , to get access to this medicine which did improve the quality of life for her . But unfortunately , like she didn't even get to enjoy that because she was constantly on the phone to the Minister for Health at the time during COVID the secure delivery of the medicine for her daughter . Because obviously , with COVID traveling on a confined space and airplane coming back then to her very vulnerable daughter who's got a compromised immune system , that's going to be extremely worrisome for her parents to be doing . So that's kind of where that hashtag came from , like the support there at that time .

Martin 19:02

Talk to Vera . We wanted the government to have a proper conversation Turkish . That we're just putting around the long finger . But that's how to treat patients here in Ireland myself epilepsy patient . No medical access to cannabis . Unfortunately have to medicated legally , despite my neurologist saying oh I'm very worried about you , martin , because you're not taking any medicine . I took four different drugs . You tried me on and I had breakthrough seizures and all of them . Do you have anything I've successfully been kind of controlling my seizures to some degree about has been cannabis .

Marge 19:35

And you're still not able to access medical cannabis despite all of that , all showing that all the pharmaceuticals weren't suitable for you .

Martin 19:42

Yeah , pretty much Like one of the pharmaceuticals . They actually put me on KEPRA and I'm surprised that it murdered somebody while I was on it , like it caused all sorts of . I think it was described as psychosomatic or something like that , I think is how it was described . It's actually known as KEPRA rage the side effect that was the drug KEPRA , and the doctor had no problem prescribing me this stuff and I swear like you could have just looked at me side a bit wrong and I would have been nearly leaping happy at the fucking pain in the chill I just flash angered at I'd never experienced before and I hope I have never experienced again because , to be very honest , it frightened me .

Marge 20:27

No doubt , Especially when it looks like a known side effect . Kepra rage . Is that what you called it ? Like they have a known side effect , they're prescribing that .

Martin 20:35

Yeah .

Marge 20:35

And .

Martin 20:36

I didn't even get warned about this , like you know . Hey , this is a very . It was a common side effect .

Marge 20:41

Right .

Martin 20:42

I didn't say nothing like that . Just here you go off , you go home with like three young kids , three young kids at home at the time . One of them was extremely young , like my partner was not long after giving birth to our son . That's that time when I was on that drug . So , jesus , it was just very vulnerable situation to be in .

Marge 21:03

It seems like irresponsible not to warn you about that , because part of the Hippocratic oath I thought was supposed to be do no harm . And then you send somebody off with a drug with a known common side effect into a house with young children because bless God , bless children . I have some of my own , but they can sometimes test your patience .

Martin 21:22

Oh yeah .

Marge 21:24

So that seems pretty crazy . So if it's that , so are there any politicians right now in Ireland that seem to support any kind of medical or recreational cannabis ?

Martin 21:33

They play lip service to it , all right , but , like , as far as action , like there's probably one main politician who's been anyway active around cannabis and even to say active like it's a bit of a stretch of door to some degree , because he like did the most recent bill by this politician do you know , kenny ? It was called the cannabis legalization regulation bill 2022. , but he actually announced it in 2020 .

Martin 22:02

He announced he was going to bring the bill out and I think it was like December 2020 . Everybody was all excited and through the entire year of 2021 , nothing about it at all . And then eventually you kind of get into 2022 and he makes an announcement I had a cannabis regulation bill 2022 . So like he is the most active but again , like it doesn't say a lot for the act , like the level of activity .

Marge 22:31

Right . I find it always find that interesting because I feel like a lot of politicians might be swayed just by the tax base that that can bring in and that kind of thing Like what's the what's the problem with the issue of ? The public wants it and yet the politicians are still resistant .

Discussion on Cannabis Pricing and Terminology

Martin 22:49

I would love to know what the working system is like and what's the way in which they have . I know there's a lot of money coming in from different places . You're constantly hearing our cops here the more senior ones up , involved with the different organizations . They're always talking about this working with other agencies and other countries . You know that they're always kind of working together . There's actually a number of guards now stationed across the globe . There's some in South America and different countries in South America . There's some in North America . There's some in different Eastern European countries . We're paying our guards to go to these countries to be stationed there just to liaise with the authorities in that country .

Martin 23:42

Around drugs . There's probably a small percentage of time spent talking about , maybe , people smuggling and things like that , but I would imagine 90% of their time , if not more , is drugs . It's just all about drugs and trying to prevent the flow of drugs , which they do in an absolutely terrible job office . I don't know , but this is time , money , resources that we really can afford to be wasting , Like here in Ireland . Just today on the news they were talking again about kids waiting extortion amongst of time for spinal surgeries , surgeries to correct the curvature of their spine just so that they can sit upright , improve their posture , maybe actually walk someday potentially , if they get this right earlier on in life . They're finding that they have to wait years .

Martin 24:37

Meanwhile you go to court here , free legal aid granted you straight away if you're a caught with cannabis . So solicitors getting paid for that if they want to stick you into prison . There's up 80 grand there for a year . Poor prisoner in Ireland is the average cost . You go into prison , then you're afforded . They have Netflix and a whole lot inside of there , which is absurd . Makes very little sense to me . But at the same time , look if there's people in there for things like simple possession or even selling cannabis , then do you know what Fucking fair play ? I don't have a bit of Netflix until we can get them out of there . Once we get them out of there and it's just a hardened criminals then take away their Netflix again .

Green Beard 25:21

If it keeps people quiet and take away . It's hard enough when you get locked up for any reason . For some reason it's a joke . It's an absolute joke because the laws over in this country are ridiculous . Like abusers get less than what the fucking dealer gets .

Marge 25:43

So what is the common ? What's the common ? I guess pun , for lack of a better word . If you get caught with personal weed on you , like you have a three and a half grams on you or something like that , Are you going to see jail time or are they going to like ?

Green Beard 26:00

At the minute . I think it's at the discretion of the guard up to three and a half grams or seven grams that they could give you a street caution . I think . I'm not sure if that's changed or not .

Martin 26:16

No , that's still the same , but it seems like again it's at the discretion of the guard .

Temple Grower 26:23

So yeah , I think it depends if you refer to your three and a half grams as a eighth properly or a half quarter improperly .

Marge 26:34

That was a question I want to ask and I use the word 3.5 grams on purpose because I was curious what they call it in Ireland . In Ontario , where I am in Canada , we call it a half quarter , which TG just said . That is incorrect , but as an Ontarian I feel like that is very correct . It is half of a quarter , so it's a half quarter . That makes total sense .

Temple Grower 26:55

Yeah , I get it .

Martin 26:55

But probably to refer to it as by its value . Quite often they called it a 50 bag , because you pay 50 quid for it .

Temple Grower 27:05

I like it . Henry . Henry is excellent .

Green Beard 27:08

Henry . A lot of people call it Henry in the UK and things because what's a Henry ?

Martin 27:14

Is that a 50 ? And eight .

Green Beard 27:16

Well , it's an eight , so Henry's eight .

Martin 27:20

Ah shit , that went straight over me Right .

Marge 27:24

That's one of the differences to them , because here , like , three and a half grams cost half that . So no one's calling it a 50 bag or a Henry . Yeah , so there's that too . So you guys just called it a Henry or a 50 bag For three and a half grams 50 bag .

Martin 27:40

Yeah , 50 bag . We never called it a Henry here and decided to board on that .

Marge 27:46

What do you call it TG ? Because obviously half quarter is incorrect as far as your concern .

Temple Grower 27:51

Well , you know , this is the existential Canadian debate . It really does depend where you are , and maybe there's some people out here . I don't exactly know where that dividing line is between the West and Ontario and the rest of Canada , the East there , bc , they don't call it that . I'm pretty sure I shouldn't speak for BC , but all of my experience has been in eighth . Can I get you know eighths ?

Marge 28:15

Right . It just feels American to me when I hear an eighth .

Temple Grower 28:20

Yeah .

Marge 28:21

Sounds American . I don't know why . Is that imperial or something ? Quarter half .

Temple Grower 28:25

I like it because it's consistent with the rest of the measurements , ie like the quarter half . You don't call it now it's a full , but you know , call it a zip or something .

Marge 28:35

Right .

Temple Grower 28:35

Okay . But , yeah , it's just the divisions of the ounce . But that half quarter is just janky Because it's like I don't know .

Marge 28:45

I think it works . I don't know . I said it's a half a quarter , so that's what I'm used to . I don't know if they say that I've always heard that's an Ontario thing specifically , for whatever reason , and I don't know why we would have adopted half quarter versus any other way to call it something .

Martin 29:03

But you wouldn't call it a half a quarter . Like you know , it's being correct to put the two fractions together like this . It just it feels fun .

Temple Grower 29:10

I know .

Marge 29:12

I don't make this shit up , I just use the terms .

Temple Grower 29:14

I grew up with .

Marge 29:15

But it is it is always fun at like a funny debate , because people are like a half quarter and when I worked in the dispensary before you always knew if somebody was from outside of Ontario because they would ask for something other than a half quarter . Like everybody came in asking for a half quarters but yeah , if they weren't from Ontario they'd be like it's just so funny . I don't know .

Temple Grower 29:35

I know it is Nobody's ever asked me for a half quarter on any of my interactions ?

Marge 29:40

I probably have . But Well , you yeah but you're from Ontario .

Marge 29:44

No , I'm a weirdo from Ontario , but that's something else that I find interesting is also the cost , Because I understand . I mean it's legal here in Canada , obviously , but even before legalization the prices of weed and hash stay pretty consistent for like a good 20 years , Like when I was in high school . Three and a half grams cost like 25 bucks and that was still the same when I was like in my 30s and 40s . And then legalization came and there's taxes and people have premium weed and all this shit , but before that the prices were very consistent and it was almost like inflation proof . It was kind of weird . It was one of those black market things where it was inflation proof . But how much does weed cost in Ireland ?

Martin 30:28

And I'm sure it depends on where you're from Sorry .

Martin 30:31

It's funny you say it's inflation proof because that's something I've heard repeated here like several times over the years is that , like despite the recessions are sorry they've the cost of living going up , not the recessions . That the cannabis market like it's , I suppose , even actually going back now to 2008 , like it kind of was recession proof too . Well , the price fell out of every other market out there . Like it's kind of cannabis stayed solid and same , like while the cost of everything else is going up . Cannabis , you know it , does you a solid and it stays fucking where it is , like not you can almost rely on it all the time , like you know what I mean .

Green Beard 31:11

It's still extortionately expensive . Oh , yeah , no , definitely . And then once you pay from dependent where you are in the country and who it is you pay anything from 250 to fucking , could be 450 , could be five or 600 , depending on what weed it is Like if it's Caliweed , you know you will pay 5500 out . Quid for announcing some places ? It's fucking madness .

Buying and Selling Cannabis in Ireland

Marge 31:41

And for those who are listening , who could not see GB do the air quotes around Caliweed and also Martin laugh about that . So maybe you can talk a bit about that , like , what kind of weed do you get there ? Because obviously Caliweed . You guys are both super skeptical about Caliweed showing up in Ireland .

Green Beard 31:58

So okay , as somebody who now has been to Canada and has seen and experienced the weed in Canada . What you get as kind of like mids and smalls is what we begin so like you're talking , tiny little boards like that so you can't really see so like um , the size of like a .

Marge 32:34

Popcorn nugs kind of yeah , exactly . Yeah , that's what you get . That's your Cali weed .

Temple Grower 32:41

That's because it says it on the mylar , that's why it's Cali . You don't even know .

Green Beard 32:47

That's it . You don't know if it is what it is . It could be just plain old fucking Say lemon haze and they'll pass it off as something else and just change the name and put it on the bag and then charge you a hundred grades for that same 3.5, . You know , forget the from a reputable person that you know themselves , like this pair . You know who it is , you know he's legit . Yeah .

Temple Grower 33:16

He's the buddy from a dude that I'm like I think that's almost universal like he would lay , he'd come over because Canada , you know , it was a little more Accessible than meeting in a parking lot like you guys have to do . But yeah , he'd come over and like , sit on my coach and he'd bring his backpack . I could open up his briefcase , essentially , and lay it on my table and he'd be like this one's 150 , 170 , and then this shit was you know the 220 , but I'm pretty sure it was all the same shit , because I'd always buy everything . I would always face this man and like what the fuck , you know , except the lemon ? He always had some lemon shit which was way different , but I don't like lemon very much .

Marge 33:53

So that wasn't an appeal to you , but that's something else that that's interesting , because I've heard you mentioned that before , and I mean Before it was legal , I used to sell a little bit of weed and people will come over to my house and hang out a bit or I'd go buy it Places . Same kind of experience , but I understand it's a lot different in Ireland , like when you buy weed off the street . Yeah , there is no like shooting the shit with somebody . No at the heat off or whatever . But no .

Martin 34:22

Depends on how you met people as well , because I've definitely had that street deal done before like boom-boom-boom , but then you kind of have like that pineapple express deal , where somebody comes playing . It's like two , three hours later and you're like this person's fucking out when you fuck off already .

Marge 34:42

Right , like you give them their money and then you hope they come back .

Temple Grower 34:47

Shit , and you're just like man . I got to go here .

Marge 34:52

Yeah , there's proven cons to both approaches . Because , yeah , sometimes , when someone's sitting on your couch and you're like , yeah , I got , I got shit to do , we're someone else coming over or whatever and you're like we kind of wrap this up and the heat back in .

Marge 35:04

That at that period of my life Was I lived in a nice little suburban neighborhood . No one was really suspecting that there was being weed dealt out of the house , I can tell you that much . But is it like safe to buy weed on the street like there ? Are there Safety concerns for people like if I was to go meet some dude in a parking lot , am I gonna get mugged or worse ?

Martin 35:26

for a female I'd say there's definitely going to be added concerns there because , like , if you're going on your own to meet somebody like that , that's probably going to be a big like . No , no , probably just definitely how somebody on the corner waiting for you as a female but right as a as a guy , even like you kind of have the dangerous there because potentially you could be wrapped on unlikely but still the risk is there if you're above and Dublin just probably a much higher chance than , say , if you were down in Summer sound like hark .

Temple Grower 36:01

I .

Marge 36:08

There's just a running joke about Guinness and Murphy's .

Temple Grower 36:13

Inside joke .

Martin 36:16

What do you think you thought you didn't get safe playing Around the place like in terms of risk from the person who's selling it to you and even the rest of the cops ?

Green Beard 36:25

Yeah , I do . It depends where you're getting . It depends you you're getting it off . It depends where the area that you're breaking it up and I have bought weed in multiple parts of the country go all over the place and I bought in many countries that it's illegal . It's like a Dead . The other half calls me a fucking , a bloodhound for weed . He said no matter where you go , you find it within an hour . You know , because I just walk up to somebody in the street say Can you open up ? But then , yeah , it depends where you are , you know , and especially like with the cops , it depends why you're hearing , because , like , if you're on a place that's right , huh , anyway , where the law is everywhere , you have a much higher chance to get stopped .

Marge 37:20

And to most these dealers , are they usually like they usually just selling weed ? Or they might tell like sell all kinds of shit , because I would imagine the danger or the risk increases if they're handling more than one product and a lot , a lot of them would .

Green Beard 37:34

A lot of them don't . A lot of them just sell weed and that's it . I have to say , like in my later years they were the ones that I kind of only really dealt with . I didn't really deal with people that saw a coke or saw pills or saw Everything else , like they just saw weed . They were just weed people .

Green Beard 37:51

They were just people , you know yeah so yeah , I met them , true Other people that I knew that smoked and true things , and that's even though I didn't know many people that smoked until a couple years ago . You know , it was only really just me and one or two me mates .

Marge 38:08

No , because people don't talk about it , I guess because it's not legal right .

Green Beard 38:12

Not really , yeah you .

Martin 38:16

Better guys , though , who are just blatant about it . In the cities like above and Dublin and all this is a thing , and down here in Cork it's a thing where fellas will have their their snapchat logo on a sticker and you see it slapped in places like and it will be an obvious like we leave like kind of Somewhere on it , like not kind of the draw . You're right . It's kind of like one of these things if , if you're a stoner , if you're attracted to cannabis like you put a weed leaf somewhere like and a small little one of that like it's gonna catch her eye , like I could , like I remember there's . There was a little barbers in the city here and I had these Mosaic on the outside , but it used to be get up and grow before . It was a barbers and it was just known as the weed leaf barbers then afterwards , because they kept the mosaic there and you would you'd walk past it if you didn't know what was actually there .

Martin 39:08

But I never forget the first time I seen it and then I realized it was a grow shop at the time , because this was like 15 years ago , maybe more long , before I ever knew about growing cannabis . This is when I didn't even know about eight . Eight was just cocaine actually , because we only ever dealt with quarters , with hash and stuff like that . I and we didn't come around until the hash got tainted with the diesel . Diesel hash , oh god .

Temple Grower 39:36

Yuck , I do .

Marge 39:41

So what kind of products do you guys have over there then ? I mean , obviously you have overpriced A little bit of a nice uh Cali weed , but then you have this hash that you're talking about . What else can people get ?

Martin 39:53

I'm fortunate enough I've not really had to buy outside of , like , say , a growers network that I kind of connected with him , like . I know a few people who grow and luckily enough I can get looked after by them and true them . You know you're getting access to things like bubble hash , different kinds of edibles , kind of whatever they might make themselves from time to time . Then you know you might venture outside like a Pick up . An ounce there while ago you probably can't see it over the green screen of some levels is Two hundred forty for the answer , which is quite good .

Martin 40:29

That's pretty exciting if it's real levels is yeah , no reason that the question is definitely got a hazy volume to it and I've never actually tried , never say is from anybody who's grown . It's so .

Temple Grower 40:41

Can't come with me through real fucking strong , like put you in the closet and like the cops are coming , man kind of shit .

Marge 40:54

Can people get like pens and stuff like that ? Like not that I really endorse these things .

Martin 40:58

I wouldn't say not here . I don't know what you might think , but I just think the risk is too high in terms of kids .

Green Beard 41:08

Unless you know they're expensive , expensive as fuck . Yeah , they cost you a hundred quid for like 10 , because half a milligram or a one milliliter .

Martin 41:22

Really well one milliliter of something that is really . Yeah yeah , you definitely want to answer that shit .

Green Beard 41:32

Hundred percent yeah and it's the same . If you're looking for sauce and diamonds for a gram , you're gonna be talking anywhere from anywhere in the region of 100 to 120 quid . Yeah , and do you like some rosin and things ? You're gonna be up there around the same . As far as you know , you're gonna be talking in the region of 80 to 120 quid . No far different things . That's that's from my experience and that's why I don't really use concentrate so much .

Marge 42:01

Yeah , because they're so expensive . I mean that means a lot of times in those pens , like you said . If they're not , yeah , you just never really know what's in them . So I can imagine how they would be very unsafe to use if you have no idea , like , what you're inhaling . And every time I hear something about like vapes generally not even necessarily weed vapes People are like they're so bad for you .

Martin 42:20

Yeah , so yeah , I think it's relevant for this conversation on this podcast on is the forensic science or and that's who test all the seas drugs in Ireland . They put a statement there just over months ago where they announced that over 50% of the edibles to get that they seized tested like negative for any THC and actually tested positive for synthetic cannabinoids . So yeah , these products like over 50% tested positive for these synthetic cannabinoids and I actually don't know if they tested negative for THC . But that's what the point . That was the fact that the test of positive . So I'm assuming then that didn't test positive for THC when tested for that , because why else would they have been testing for these other synthetics than afterwards ?

Martin 43:14

Normally they'll just test for THC , right , it's their grand job done , shut closed . But if they don't find it right , well , we need to find something . Let's test for more . So I'm assuming they didn't find THC and those products and that's why they went looking for other things . So , like you're playing Really

Cannabis Stereotypes and Harm Reduction

Martin 43:33

here in Ireland . So buying products like that , unless you know , as I said , you know I would never really purchase outside of the network of growers that I know Just one way of protecting myself and reducing my handshield harms there . But again , young and up , a common first time consumers . They're the most one of them right now .

Green Beard 43:55

It's the same even when it comes to flower , and when it comes to it's most of the animals that are being found and being made with synthetic cannabinoids Now , like a hospital is and things I think an awful lot of them is as well as kids are just fucking stoned , yeah , and they're brought off .

Martin 44:22

Those to be quite high in some of these things as well . And these kids don't understand what dosage is and quite often they're intended maybe for an adult and maybe for an adult only actually like half it . Like there's probably two servants there and some of these things , or if it's a vape , they're probably puffing , taking all 300 puffs within , you know , a couple of a half an hour , less than an hour , between maybe a group of three or four of them . Right , they don't realize the dose you're actually taking on board . And then when you're dealing with something like one of these synthetic cannabinoids or even the semi synthetic HHC that's kind of very popular at the moment , actually has a higher potency there , has like a higher affinity to the receptor and it's like the reaction and from the receptor that interacts with us Want to be more , more important response .

Marge 45:16

I never would have occurred to me that there be edibles on the market don't don't even contain like THC . Find that like super crazy and of course , because it's prohibited , nobody can talk about it really , and they don't educate the kids about it , like he said . So there you got your friend group and they're like some kid found like an edible or a vape or whatever and they just don't have the education to know even how to consume it properly .

Temple Grower 45:40

Yeah , that seems .

Martin 45:42

Exactly where is the same young people who are coming to alcohol ? No , worries .

Green Beard 45:49

Yeah , and that's it like this . The amount of young people that do on a fucking weekly basis in Oregon , jew to . You . Never hear about it . You know our media . So sensors you don't think they never put the bad things happen . You know they never . It's they only show what they want to show . So it's only if it was somebody famous or somebody important died and if they had cannabis in their system will then to be all over that , you know . Or if there was some , if there was a big crime or something , or a big like a mortar or something , to have cannabis in the system level , then that was it Biggest contributor to why they don't do these things , or so .

Green Beard 46:33

You know , it's very it's very skewed the media and everything in Oregon .

Martin 46:39

See , bobby Smith was out again recently on X . Yeah , he was sharing there some fellow killed in the elderly neighbor of his . But like , when you get into it , like the guy was like proper mad , like crazy , like and or it was just like circumstances like that he was consuming cannabis . So you just kind of you know coincidence like , but actually he wasn't real driver there .

Marge 47:06

They have this big article about this guy murders his neighbor and he was on some kind of Smoking weed like a reefer man , this type thing .

Temple Grower 47:15

It is 100% .

Marge 47:20

Those ideas are still spread around , a whole ton them by the media and then there for probably the government , I guess . But like reefer madness ideas are still pretty prevalent .

Martin 47:28

But this guy , bobby Smith know that that's the guy who will keep these reefer man side is alive alongside his team and what's got cannabis grisky lions Like we recently had a citizens assembly and one of our members was actually on the advisory committee . Like these guys like really have the air to government . How am I ? We don't know what the reason is there , but they have a good in there . Is it because they're both singing from kind of the same hinge sheet ? Like that they support each other's tune ? I don't know , but they do tend to like have quite a strong ties there compared to like even the drug task forces . Like we've got drug task forces in this country that are set up to be kind of a step in stone between the community that they represent and the government . Like you know that they liaise with the community and then bring that back To the government and they'll engage with the services to within that area . The government don't actually even engage with them as much as they would engage with people like those guys on the cannabis grisky lions .

Temple Grower 48:37

it's it's mad .

Martin 48:40

I could go on for ages about like what they don't know . Any quickly to like the Was yeah , you're like , don't even get me started .

Marge 48:51

yeah , yeah , but it sounds like they're propagating still a lot of Bullshit stereotypes in some ways , and so those are still alive and well , because I was going to talk about , like , what are some of the common stereotypes over in North America ? Of course the lazy stoner type Are . The lazy stoner stereotype just doesn't want to , still doesn't want to die . There's always lazy stoner , but there's always just lazy people , period .

Martin 49:19

It's funny the stoner , but meanwhile , like athletes like Sharon Richardson , getting like disqualified or banned from running because cannabis is listed as a performance enhancing drug . It's like it's hot and it's cold , but it's like you can't be bought . Come on , pick your side yeah , that's very true .

Marge 49:49

I don't know , are there other stereotypes that that exist in Ireland ?

Green Beard 49:53

you feel like a pretty I know more stoners that are the most productive people around , you know , I know not . I know a few as well that are just fucking useless bastards . But I know more people that aren't stoners , that are useless bastards . Yeah , like you see , you see in nearly every pub across Ireland every day you will see a line of at least three or four people Are five people in some cases or more queuing up outside the door at book in 11 or 12 o'clock , whatever the time it is . Saturday , I'll serve alcohol on the open , waiting to open and walk in the door and they'll stay in there and drink all day long . And those fuckers have never walked in their life . How they do , I do not know right , oh , it's okay , it's legal and they can fall out and walk , fall in front of a car and fucking get killed or whatever about a driver's fault because he should have been watching the road right .

Green Beard 51:02

I fell out between two cars . Say no , because it was key , or else he decided to jump on to his pushboy and cycle home .

Marge 51:14

Yeah , I wouldn't take much if you've been sitting in a bar drinking all day , I mean no , I've seen it myself . I've tried to ride a bike drunk before . It's just not cool .

Green Beard 51:22

Especially in the country . I say more so in the country . You see more like that . No , not really in the cities as well , you do . You see them killing up outside the doors .

Green Beard 51:31

But again , as I said it's Perfectly fine for them to do that . Yeah , they try to do safe injection sites in Dublin . I don't know if they've done them in Cork , but there was big uproar against it and it never went ahead . They've tried on numerous occasions to do things to help , but everything gets pushed back then from the communities that they try to put them into .

Martin 51:56

That supervised injection center actually got to go ahead as well , back in like as a 2016 . Yeah , it was a local school that actually put in an objection via the planning committee or whatever that kind of planning association is , and the project never got to go ahead then by the planning kind of commission . But basically what they've done in instead is the same school by voting against having supervised injection center there , like that they haven't moved the drug use from the area , like which is what they're saying you know is going to be attracted to the area . It's already in the area , just keeping it on the streets .

Martin 52:36

The people are the value is they're keeping the kids who might be getting off at a bus stop and have to kind of walk up a foot pad or two like , and they're much more likely to encounter these people there , like down behind the bin or whatever , and that's an even lucky one .

Green Beard 52:54

So you walk up the keys in Dublin and you don't have to walk down an alley or thing , You'll see people slumped in doorways injecting . You'll see people open in church doorways direclaws injecting . You see , them open in missionaries . You see them all over the place , like Dublin is going .

Martin 53:17

It's not even in Dublin . On here in Clark we sat down on a steps outside of a church here in the city . Actually right behind the Circa Court here in Clark City there's a church and just about 50 meters away from the church is a nice place . You can get unreal pizza slices . So I got pizza slices with my small fella and we went over there , sat down eating our pizza slices and next whatever I kind of looked there's somebody over in the corner luching off and just getting ready to suck the liquid up into their syringe .

Martin 53:49

They were just there to be in over there combining it with the lighter underneath . They were just in the process of sucking it up , so I just kind of left them off , took my notice . My small fella was on E2 so he didn't have a clue what was going on either , so I wasn't really too bothered . I kind of felt sorry for the person really more than anything . Quick others would be to kind of make a judgment there , like somebody walking past and just be like oh my God , look at that . Whatever . It's like us when we're outside , smart and a giant and we would get these people who walk past them oh my God , you smell that , whatever . But it was a give us somewhere to go where we can consume it , like where we don't have to be out here in public , like if we can have a new walk by and be exposed to it , much like that . Obviously those people as well would appreciate . Probably somewhere to enjoy their heroine during a hit and come for the peace of safety .

Marge 54:49

I live in a small city and we do have a safe injection site and sadly , like most places , there are a community of drug users , like hard drug users that exist and even though we have a safe injection site , you still find see them on the streets . But it does take a lot of those people and give them a place to use their drugs less openly and , of course , it gives them clean as far as I know , clean needles , so they're also not picking up diseases or stuff and sharing needles as well , which is obviously a problem in the community too , but it's such a big problem and I've all read a lot of stuff about how cannabis can help some of those people as well , but I don't think even in Canada we're at this point where they're able to give them weed , unfortunately , not , and I think we're a long , long way away from it here as well in Ireland , and I've always heard the old things like oh , you shouldn't be giving a person a drug to give up another drug .

Martin 55:46

There's kind of yeah , but it's like in principle , of harm reduction , yes , harm reduction . It's actually beneficial to give a person a drug to get off a drug . Isn't that what we do at Metanone ?

Marge 55:58

Well , yeah , exactly , and you might also hand them a hot coffee . And caffeine , technically , is also one of the most widely used drugs in the world . I've heard people also suggest that drugs themselves aren't bad . It's the dosage and how you use them . Often is what the dose is the poison right , like heroin itself when it's in an opiate and it's helping somebody . I mean , obviously we have other options that might be preferred , but it does help some people for a short period of time .

Temple Grower 56:27

Heroin . If it's called diacetylmorphine , it's probably in a hospital and being used by doctors as a fucking painkiller because it is right . But again , like you say , it's the set and setting and yeah and the motivation a lot of the time .

Marge 56:42

Yeah , definitely the motivation . Yes , you see , with heroin as well .

Green Beard 56:47

That's a completely different story when you go to cannabis use , like with heroin , it should be , it's there is a root cause to why somebody wants to numb themselves and whether it those people should be helped and helped . And if it is a way of helping them by through these sites , that's the way of getting them to help them , because it's only by delving deeper with the issues it's not really deeper .

Green Beard 57:17

Yeah no , but that's it . It's only that's the only way that you can help them to get off of it , you know . But with cannabis it's a different story . Like cannabis is a is a medicinal . You can't kill yourself for cannabis . You can't over it . Also cannabis . You're not going to kill somebody on cannabis . I'm sorry if the people will say otherwise , I don't mean refer to them .

Martin 57:40

I'd imagine , though , if your cannabis was concentrated into like a THC isolate like I'd imagine you've probably come across this the TG and maybe even merged like that . Probably consuming too much THC isolate is probably not a very pleasant experience . I've heard people say that they brought on headaches and stuff like that , that it just wasn't what they thought it was going to be , Whereas you need to kind of the full compliment there that's available , as you were only saying a little go TG actually as well . You know flowers and hash . You know that's kind of really where the magic is . As soon as you start concentrating down , you're kind of taking away some of maybe what the plant really asked to offer . But when you talk about heroin and it's funny enough , I was only actually on a local radio station here in Cork the other day making this argument that you can't really talk about herdom without actually talking about opium , much like you couldn't really talk about it It'll be wrong to talk about THC when talking about cannabis , like because it's only a small part of what the plant actually is , and likewise , like talking about ethanol when you're talking about beer . You're doing the conversation there and we're so quick to do this .

Martin 58:54

So I was making the argument that really , like we should legalize all these drugs , but in the plant form , and then like things like heroin and even cocaine , that if a person would insist in and still getting access to that when the plant form is there available for them , that maybe they might .

Martin 59:12

There might be a doctor to just make an appointment with a doctor , just to go down and tick a few boxes . Make sure you know this information right . We're going to weigh this . This is your dose according to your weight , which is important . A lot of people don't know actually how to determine your dose according to your weight . I think that's an important thing to do if you're going to allow a person access to something like pure cocaine , like our pure heroin or whatever the kind of that concentrated form of that plant might be . But that would be the argument that I would make legalize all the plant forms of it and if people still would like to get the concentrated form of it , then like , so it's a controlled , regulated way anyway . Like I would like for there to be checks and balances , as I'd say , education and dosage incredibly important when you're dealing with things like that .

Legalizing Homegrown Plant-Based Drugs

Marge 1:00:03

So when you say , like , legalize the plant form , so it would be legal to grow poppies in my backyard and make poppy tea or something like that , yeah , yeah , pretty much , and the same with cocoa leaves or any kind of plant based drug .

Martin 1:00:19

Really , for that reason , like , what do you think about it ? Like we already have some incredibly toxic plants growing in our gardens and nobody's using these things to kill somebody or to poison themselves , and things like at least not very commonly Like .

Martin 1:00:35

I've done a video there about two years ago about digitalist property . It's a fox glove , it's the name of it , but it's actually got an incredibly powerful cardiac toxin inside in there . But if you were to just get a couple of these flowers and brew them into a tea , you could essentially have a potentially deadly concoction in that cup with just a couple of flowers . These things are commonly grown all right across the countryside . Wilds and people grow them as a decorative plant in their garden because , in fairness , they actually do have a beautiful color , a beautiful flower of verni and colors . Then you can get a lovely purple one , a white one and some other colors there as well . But the things are deadly again . But there's no restriction on how it's grown . But meanwhile the fun ones are like the magic mushrooms , the cannabis , the coca leaves . It's like goddammit , why are the fun ones illegal ? Like don't make this digitalist property illegal . Like it's purely decorative anyway . It's incredibly dangerous .

Marge 1:01:37

You've got to . Is there any place in the world that's done this ? Obviously everyone talks about Portugal , because they decriminalized all drugs and you'd still get some kind of social or like a ticket , I guess , if you were caught using drugs in public .

Green Beard 1:01:50

But we see that today . I think decriminalizing the user is the best ending , because that way then , as I said , with certain drugs it might help to get them , it might be better a help-led approach like I'm trying to help them . Then with the likes of software drugs like cannabis and things like that , all it is is just they might just take it off you . That would be the one thing that could happen . If it was decriminalized for the end of 2% in degree , you probably couldn't be walking around with a fucking pound in your pocket going , oh yeah , that's right , that's for a person you speak as , a probably not going to believe that .

Marge 1:02:31

Right . Well , that's fair . I mean you probably should be carrying around a pound of weed anywhere , because you're just asking to get mugged .

Green Beard 1:02:39

Exactly , but the likes of homegrown drugs should be allowed , because that would take an awful lot , I would say , out of the black market if it wasn't decriminalized or if it wasn't legalized . And if it was just decriminalized Because a lot of people who wanted to do would just start growing it , it'd be a lot easier for them to do and it's a lot cheaper to be able to get a hell of a lot more fucking weed for a hell of a lot less book .

Marge 1:03:07

It's going to be better weed too , especially once you get a little practice at it and everything . It's going to be better weed and you mentioned earlier Martin , like I guess it was sort of referring to TG and his flower and hash , but I would also like to add edibles to that list , just because that's kind of how I like to do it .

Martin 1:03:25

It glows in hash .

Marge 1:03:27

Yes , they are , but it's a great way for people to experiment with cannabis as well . Just to wrap up , though , because we're at about an hour and I just wanted to ask a little bit about where you see , like , obviously cannabis is pretty illegal in Ireland still , but do you see anything changing in the next five years ? Or where you see things happening in five or 10 years , because we are also at a point in history where Germany is about to legalize from the sounds of it , possibly in April of this year , and I don't know if that would that change anything for you folks in Ireland .

Martin 1:04:03

Yeah , I would say Germany is going to have a big impact right across Europe anyway , but for here in Ireland , I think there's a couple of things happening at the moment . Even when in the courts there's some around CBD , there's a couple of legal battles going on around CBD flour . Those battles once I do believe like one of them anyway , in particular involving Mark from Relief CBD Might make a great guess as well .

Cannabis Decriminalization in Ireland

Martin 1:04:33

This guy is a chef . I would recommend him for a chat , which is sometime I might put you in touch , but he can tell you about this one I'm going to tell you about now as well in more detail . He's in court and if he's to be successful in his challenge against the government because they basically seized nearly 100 grand probably worth of products in the form of flour , oil and various kind of edible products too but if he was successful in his challenge , they're going to have to rewrite the Misuse of Drugs Act to at least accommodate for CBD floors , which is pretty much what his business is covered around , Because currently , as it stands in Ireland , the farmers who even grow hemp , aren't allowed actually even use the flour from the plants that they grow .

Martin 1:05:21

So that's a massive problem over here because obviously they have to destroy the most valuable part of the plant . It's like , well , each of our election , there's not a whole lot of value there . Then , outside of that , like the roots and the stems and that's it . That's all they can use , and the seeds Sorry , the seeds . So hopefully he's successful in his legal challenge .

Martin 1:05:46

Then I have my own legal challenge . I'm going to be back in court myself on the 5th of March and I'm going to be making a challenge that the Misuse of Drugs Act violates our constitutional rights . I'm going to be in court for six charges of cultivation of cannabis relating to I think there was 32 cannabis plants . I think they said in total that I would have planted out in the access of disobedience across 2021 . So if I'm successful in that , then they'll have to rewrite the Misuse of Drugs Act as well to allow for personal use and personal possession , because my challenge is going to be that the Misuse of Drugs Act violates a number of our human rights that are enshrined under the constitution here in Ireland .

Marge 1:06:38

Wow . So if you were successful , they changed the act and this would be all across Ireland where it would be almost decriminalized for personal use .

Martin 1:06:46

Personal use and cultivation Because the challenge against me is actually for cultivation , and that's where I'll be making the challenge then , obviously as I mentioned earlier not being successful at getting access to cannabis legally through the avenue that's available here in Ireland . So I'm going to be making the argument of a necessity , that it's a necessity for me to actually grow this cannabis in order to maintain my life force , to stay alive . If I don't do so , I'm sentencing myself potentially to an early death by epileptic seizure .

Marge 1:07:27

Right .

Martin 1:07:28

Why the hell would I do that ?

Marge 1:07:30

Yeah , no one's going to opt for that , especially a father , and you have a spouse and all the rest of that and a life to live , and so you were sprinkling seeds around the city and they grew .

Martin 1:07:43

No , no , I planted plants .

Marge 1:07:45

I did , did they're like 12 , 16 inches tall .

Martin 1:07:49

Like these were all male rejects from one of my farmer growers .

Marge 1:07:56

All right , so they weren't viable in that sense .

Martin 1:07:59

Yeah , exactly , they were all male , but there was still of the genus cannabis , which is illegal and requires a legal without a license in Ireland .

Marge 1:08:08

Right , and you were planting them in places , like you said police station .

Martin 1:08:11

Right across from the police station . Yeah .

Marge 1:08:14

I fucking love that . That's pretty bad . And it's hard to ignore that kind of thing . So , and when's your court date ?

Martin 1:08:20

The 5th of March .

Temple Grower 1:08:22

So , three weeks , two weeks .

Marge 1:08:24

Yeah , that's coming up pretty quick . So I hope you're successful and your friend that you're mentioning from Relief , because it sounds like if you have enough people pushing forward , that's obviously going to change the agenda . So does that give you a little more ? I guess that question we better ask after you've been to court and you're successful , because hopefully . But I mean , do you see legalization in five years or is it still , even if Germany legalizes and you and your friend are successful , is it still a long way off ?

Martin 1:08:51

Yeah , I have to say it's sooner than five years . Anyway . I have a lot right now , I suppose , on it , given like the court date that's so soon . Should I be unfortunate enough to be before a judge who might try to sentence me , I'd have to appeal that . Then that appeal might take another year to kind of come up again before the court . So I kind of have that period of time there before potentially another judge could sentence me . So I would hope that something changes by then . I always say I could be a bit of a martyr for the cause and I have to go to prison again for my protests .

Marge 1:09:26

Right . Well , I hope you're successful . Obviously , because it's people like you that make change . That's how it happens . Right , it's a very grassroots level , not no pun intended , but that's obviously how things happen . It's just regular people like you who go out and disrupt the way things are because you want to see change , you want to be the change that you see in the world , and I commend you for that . So I feel like this is a good place to wrap up , and this episode will be coming out after your court date , so I can always find out what happened and update the listeners when I do the intro and everything and update in the show notes as well , and I'll be sure to put in the show notes where people can find you , but maybe just let everyone know verbally where people can find you online .

Martin 1:10:13

Yeah , certainly , martin's World is the hats Well , for people who are seeing some clips of this . But Martin's World , you'll find me then on YouTube , x Rumble , facebook , instagram and Twitch .

Marge 1:10:29

Perfect , I'll get all the handles from you as well , if they all happen to be a little different , because sometimes they're a little different depending on the platform . And what about UTG ? Where can people find you ?

Temple Grower 1:10:41

There we are . I've been , come on , a little shame of self-promotion .

Marge 1:10:45

Never heard anybody .

Temple Grower 1:10:46

I'm still on the Twitter and Instagram . I have a YouTube , but I haven't really posted very much as of late . I'm hoping to do some more . I just never find time and I don't know . You know . But those two places . If you really want to talk to me , you can find me ?

Marge 1:11:04

Yeah , well , I mean , don't sell yourself short . Tg is an epic grower and knows a shit ton of stuff about soil growing as well the science of soil , and if you really want to grind his gears , just call it dirt , yeah , don't do that , because he loves that . That'll get his attention . And GV , what about you ? Where can people find you online ?

Green Beard 1:11:26

And you can find me on Instagram I think it's Greenbeard on their score of grows I like so similar on X and oh , that's excellent . Am I here ? Am I back ?

Marge 1:11:42

Yeah , you're here . It's not an existential crisis , you were .

Green Beard 1:11:49

Yeah , but Instagram is where you're most likely to find me .

Marge 1:11:52

That's where you're most active . Perfect , all right . Well , I just want to say thanks everyone for joining me today . Gb's already ducking out for his Guinness , but I really appreciate your time and I wish you all the best of luck in your next court date , martin . And like I said , I'm just updating and watching and much appreciated .

Martin 1:12:10

Yeah , and maybe in about nine months time you might want to have us back on again , because the Cannabis Decriminalization Bill will be back before the government again in nine months time .

Marge 1:12:19

Yes .

Martin 1:12:20

It's my space time to check in on the Irish crew .

Exploring Cannabis Culture in Ireland

Martin 1:12:23

Yeah .

Marge 1:12:23

I would love to do that most definitely , friends . I hope you enjoyed that conversation . I'll link to everything that we talked about over in the show notes , including where you can find Martin online and also Temple Grower and Greenbeard Grows . And , of course , if you enjoyed this conversation , please consider sharing it with someone else who might also like to learn about what's going on in Ireland when it comes to cannabis . You can also talk to me via email , the podcast hotline , dm me over on Instagram and consider using the products and services on the Marge recommends page over on bite me podcastcom . I'm your host , marge , and until next time , my friends , stay high .