Up next in 10
Heather Fazio: Marijuana Policy Project
Jun 5, 2025
Talk to the 7/28/14 meeting of Texans for Accountable Government at Sherlock's in Austin, Texas.
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people that i've been working with the
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organizations
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everything that i've learned
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and now i'm able to
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do that through the legislative process
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with the marijuana policy project
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something that i think all of us
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understand and know the war on drugs the
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war on marijuana prohibition has failed
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utterly failed it failed the first time
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it's failing the second time um and the
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tide has changed right across the
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country um obviously states are starting
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to to fully full legalization whereas um
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tax to regulated similarly to alcohol
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and we have so we have 23 medical
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marijuana states and i get people
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telling me that texas is going to be
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last and they are still mistaken
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they must not know the activists that we
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have in texas that are committed to
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repealing prohibition in texas and it's
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a really exciting time to be involved
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mpp is a national organization and they
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work at congress they work on changing
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federal policy but they also have teams
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of activists in all the states working
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on the ground
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and that's my job i'm the texas
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political director so i'm working to um
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to help bring together a coalition
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similarly to what i've learned with tag
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and working with organizations that
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tag's been working with like texas
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normal dfw normal they've been doing
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this stuff for years and have been doing
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a great job at it um you know i hear
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that from people whenever they talk
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about working with normal they're like
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oh they're just a bunch of stoners and
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throw parties and some of them are
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however
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in texas we have some of the greatest
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leadership um that i've seen that are
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working on this issue doing it
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professionally and they've laid the
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groundwork at the legislature so that
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this coming legislative session which is
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really just like five months away until
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it starts
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and it's only like three months until
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they start introducing bills our
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legislators introduce bills six days
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after they're elected
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pre-filing opens which means we have
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some work to do with organizing
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and this legislative session we plan on
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introducing three bills the first is a
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kind of an overall bill for a full
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legalization where it's available to
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responsible adults over 21 just like
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alcoholism and this is a huge step in
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the right direction
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and obviously we have a lot of work to
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do to get that bill passed um
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considering um the tough on crime
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culture in texas and um and you know
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people just don't realize that the
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resources that are going into marijuana
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arrest are actually
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disabling our law enforcement from
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actually preventing and help serving
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victims of real crime um so our goal for
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the full bill is 2019 three legislative
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sessions to get this bill passed there's
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a lot of discussions that need to be had
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a lot of people in this room that need
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to go into their legislators office and
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have the real grown-up conversation
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about the detriment that prohibition has
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has served to our society now in the
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process to 2019 we're going to be
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introducing two other bills one of which
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is a medical marijuana bill this is a
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comprehensive bill which allows patients
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safe and legal access to their natural
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medicine that never should have been
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deprived they never should have been
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deprived of to begin with and the bill
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not only
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allowed for dispensaries but also
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allowed to patients to be free from fear
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of arrest um you know traditionally
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there's been an affirmative defense bill
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introduced by elliot nhat which is here
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in austin some of you may live in his
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district which has been great that he's
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introduced that it gets the discussion
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had last legislative session texas
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normal helped to organize some
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incredible testimony um and there was a
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hearing
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people testified it was it was fantastic
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it was um really well done and it really
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started the discussion um well the
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problem with affirmative defense is that
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patients are still getting arrested
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patients are still having to go to trial
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the cost the stress that goes along with
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that and then it's at the whim of a
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judge to throw it out
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so that's not good enough so we're going
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to be pushing for a more comprehensive
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bill in addition we will be introducing
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our third bill which is we'll probably
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do civil penalties bill and why i favor
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this as opposed to the decriminalization
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bills that have been introduced in the
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past is because rather than just taking
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it from class b to class c misdemeanor
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which is still you can still go to jail
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for you still have to go to court um
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what this does is it takes it out of the
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criminal realm and puts it into the
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civil realm so there's no jail time
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there's no life sentence as far as
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employment access to employment
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education um housing things like that
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that go along with go along with it we
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call it collateral consequences or
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collateral sanctions is really what they
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are because it follows you for life and
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most of the people that are arrested are
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young people and so we're crippling our
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younger generations um totally
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unnecessarily so those are the three
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bills that we're introducing i'm kind of
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the the field operations grassroots
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mobilizer which is perfect because
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that's what i've learned with all of you
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and and we can we can come together and
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do all that and then we have our
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professional lobbyists that we've hired
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so i have my teammate is a professional
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lobbyist who traditionally has worked
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with law enforcement
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which at first i was like red flag
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but actually it's a really great thing
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he's totally committed absolutely
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professional and has built relationships
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with legislators and with law
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enforcement so he can help to bridge the
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gap um because we have obviously tagged
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and folks like myself have a lot of
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skepticism as far as law enforcement
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goes and their motives for keeping laws
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the way that they are and advocating um
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advocating for for keeping things like
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civil asset forfeiture which is absurd
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they can just steal your things and not
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even have to return them to you um just
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like we were what the things that ed was
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just talking about
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um
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so i'm excited to be working with him
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his name is randall kirkendall and um
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he's great we were just up in dfw for
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the dfw normal meeting um and they texas
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is huge we know that so we have like
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multiple the populations of these
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different metro areas is like a state
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and so their chapter of dfw normal is
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kick ass they really do a great job they
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had like 100 people at their meeting on
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saturday
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about 20 of them were new people that
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signed up to be members that are
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enthusiastic people are seeing what's
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happening in this country
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and getting involved and texas normal
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has their regular monthly meeting on
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august 6th um and so and they're kind of
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they're creating they have their
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chapters and they have
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lots of lots of information coming all
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the time and so if you're interested in
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getting involved with texas normal and
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being involved with them you can do that
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join the meeting mpp.org is our website
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um and i'm really excited to be a part
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of this and to have tag on board i know
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we've been working on this issue
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and we'll continue to do so i'll be in a
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little bit of a different capacity but
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i'm looking forward to having some other
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activists that i've worked with kind of
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rise into the occasion and be the tag
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leadership on this issue so we have lots
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of different faces lots of different
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organizational organizations on this
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front um
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and if you guys have any questions i'll
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be happy to take them i think that
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pretty much covers all the details of
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the strategy but if you guys have any
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questions um i'll be happy to answer
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them
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all right
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no no no no no
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let's
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let's let it percolate a little you know
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sure
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so what i what i want to know is
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what can we do leading up to the
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legislative session what can tag do
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we're creating a committee a micro group
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around ending the drug war or
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criminalization at some point i know we
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have to take steps right right so what
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can we do right now
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between now and our six year anniversary
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party which is next month that's right
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yeah can you believe it tag is six years
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old um he can ask for six years that's
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great um so the biggest thing is having
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real grown-up conversations with
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legislators going in and actually
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sitting down with your legislator or his
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staff and talking about
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the ills of prohibition um how many of
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you have ever gone to your legislators
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district office
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oh that's great awesome you guys rock
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um that's great and and so um there's
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about half of you guys have been into
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your office their offices which is
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wonderful um but that means that half of
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us that haven't ever i know that you're
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committed um to the cause because you're
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here which is great and most of you guys
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are here all the time keeping up with
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what's going on sending emails making
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phone calls we need to step it up this
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time and we need to get into their
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offices make sure we're getting down to
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the capital just like we did last
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session for all the array of issues that
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tag is involved with and of course we're
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going to be keeping you up to date
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letting you know what the action alerts
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are um where you can go kind of talking
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points about what to say it's
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intimidating it can be going into a
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legislator's office but the reality is
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you're probably smarter than they are
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and you should let them know talk to
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them about the issue
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john
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don't forget about testifying
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before committee hearings
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thank you john that's exactly right i've
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posted on my blog
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a detailed set of instructions
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on what to do when you testify before
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the state legislature
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it tells you everything about where to
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go where to park how to apply to be a
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speaker you know how to dress you know
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everything you need to know about
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testifying before the state legislature
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and what's the address for your blog
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constitutionalism.blogspot.com all right
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constitutionalism.blog.blogspot.org
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and he has all the details on that and
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you're right that is a critical part
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when the legislative session starts um
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but we first have to get our bills
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introduced they're being drafted now
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actually our medical marijuana bill is
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being reviewed by the constitutional
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attorney
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and then that will be introduced in
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november and then we get started and
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then the uh once the legislative session
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starts in january the bills have to make
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their way through the process so once
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they're referred to a committee
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obviously the medical marijuana bill
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will refer to the health
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the public health committee in the house
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and then we know who our target is we
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know the six people six or seven or
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eight people that are on the committee
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they vary how many how many reps are on
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there um and we know that we need to go
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and talk to them and at the capitol and
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and be prepared um to offer professional
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adult testimony um not saying the same
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thing that somebody else has said a
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hundred times um because we don't wanna
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waste their time we want them to see
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that we are efficient we are serious
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about the issue and we want to see the
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laws changed we have one more question
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time for one more question and then at
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the end of the meeting we're going to
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break out into micro groups and the
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marijuana cause is going to be one of
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them so you can actually have face time
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with heather and also jack spinkle from
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normal as well and this is a smoke for
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establishment don't forget
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does anybody else have a question dana's
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willing to yield if somebody else has a
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good question all right go ahead dana um
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i kind of i would like to see a show of
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hands of like who would be interested in
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going to the capitol with us either
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representing tag or as kind of a liaison
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for what heather is doing in that
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capacity who's interested in this cause
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and just people done
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so this is how many people we should
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have that committee hearing yeah right
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here i mean this this is this is a tour
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de force yeah so you know it's gonna be
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about 100 times that because there are
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organizations just like tagged all
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across the state of texas that are
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interested in issues like this
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testimony and triage testimony because
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we have to be considerate of our
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legislators time to a certain extent if
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we want to have the most favorable
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impression we have to have really
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poignant uh moving testimony and then
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literally as many people signed on and
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support as possible and you have to come
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to the capitol to sign your support on
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so you would come and sign on and then
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we'll all meet in a room and discuss
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who's got what testimony and then based
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on natalie who's testifying who's
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signing in the support
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so even if you can only come on your
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lunch break
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to come and sign your support and then
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leave it's going to be worth it because
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if we only have 20 people testify but we
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have 200 people that came to the capitol
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to sign their support for this it really
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speaks volumes i mean they were just
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blown away by the 36 people who
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testified last year yeah
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so yeah and it was great testimony
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because of that strategy because we were
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able to get a room be able to organize
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testimony and i know that my time is
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short but i just want to say one thing
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because i was on an awesome road trip
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this summer and i was able to make it to
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washington and colorado
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and we were in washington on the very
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first week of sales which was really
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cool um to be a part of history
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we called every dispensary that had a
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license for marijuana sales and only two
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of them were not completely sold out by
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day three
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and they were the ones the northernmost
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dispensaries closest to the border
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luckily we were already going up there
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so we got to go to the two dispensaries
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and it was really great to be a part of
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it um and to be free to feel a little
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freer um in doing something that i like
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to do
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responsibly
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yeah
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and then in colorado where it's a little
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more established i was able to do a tour
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of a dispensary and a cultivation center
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all in
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it's called medicine man they started
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out as a medical marijuana dispensary
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and
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since january first they've been both
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medical and recreational and it was
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really great to see the business aspect
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of it because these are adult business
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owners that are
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that are running a business and they
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have everything
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everything's organized and well done and
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i was looking at one thing that i
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thought was interesting was the the
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plants the clones that's how they do it
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to make sure they have the perfect
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product and once they get roots they get
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a tag an rfid tag that labels them
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either medical or recreational and they
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have to stay medical or recreational
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regardless of supply and demand they
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have to stay that way it's totally
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documented and i made one comment that
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how refreshing it was to see rfid used
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in an appropriate way rather than
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tracking children or something like that
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so it was great to see it used to to
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make a business more efficient and to
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see it all happening it was the first
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time i've been around growing plants and
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so i got to go check out the green mile
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which is a huge room just bright green
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it was really a great experience so i
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was glad to be able to to see that and
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be a part of it and then take some of
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that information to our legislators so
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that they can see some of the pictures
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that i took of the professional
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operations so it's not scary it's not
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something that they've never seen before
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that they haven't ever heard of it's not
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it's not this boogeyman lurking because
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quite frankly it's not scary what's
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scary is the
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cartels that are running the market now
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and the bloodshed and the violence on
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the border that's what's scaring not
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professional adult business owners
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supplying a product to a market
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thank you so much for your support i'm
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looking forward to the breakout towards
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the end of the meeting so we can talk a
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little bit more about the details thank
14:16
you
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