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What if you were to discover that the charming, wide-eyed iguana could be as friendly and playful as your average pup? Would that make you see reptiles, even the feared venomous snakes, in a new light? Enter our world as we recount our adventures with these fascinating creatures. From deciphering the surprising affections of iguanas to sharing our personal fears of venomous snakes, we aim to inspire your intrigue. And yes, we even dare to tread the ethical line of discussing the prospect of iguanas as a food source.
Ever wondered how the drug culture and substance use varies across different parts of the globe? Join us as we share our personal experiences and observations with coworkers from India and discuss the stark contrast between their method of consuming substances like opium leaves and the more common practices in America and Europe. Yet, our journey also takes us down darker paths as we express our alarm over the popularity of the dangerous synthetic drug K2, especially considering the ease of growing marijuana.
In a world where societal issues often take center stage, we find ourselves grappling with the complexities of homelessness, drug addiction, the opioid crisis, and affordable housing. Drawing from the eye-opening limited series "Dope Sick" on Hulu, we shed light on the role of pharmaceutical companies and doctors in fueling the opioid crisis. We voice our concerns over the homeless crisis and affordable housing projects, urging the need for solutions that empower individuals to become self-sufficient rather than merely providing handouts. Yet, despite these grim realities, we end on a hopeful note, offering empathy and understanding to those in difficult situations, and reminding you that there's always hope.
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Speaker 2:The classic eighties action thriller soundtrack playlist Viper. Viper, do you know the real T? Free, copyright, safe music by White Bad Audio.
Speaker 1:I was watching this video of this guy, one of those snake people, reptile people like hold on.
Speaker 2:You say that and we probably have four different people who identify as reptile people listening. Right now. We have reptile people, snake people. I own snakes, I like snakes.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They're not a sexual fish. We have the ones who are like I want snakes in me, and then we have people who are like I want to be snake.
Speaker 1:And then we have reptilians.
Speaker 2:Like Hillary Clinton.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Which one are you referencing? She's a listener of the podcast, I know, but the no I'm referring to this guy was he like owns a reptile shop probably, but he but OK.
Speaker 2:so when you said snake, I really went to black eyes and reptile tattoos.
Speaker 1:Nope, nope. This guy looks like a normal dude. He is down one finger.
Speaker 2:Dude, that happens via snake venom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah, snake venom bite. And. And so he's just the first video I saw of him. It's like he's just as this little tiny, you know Tupperware container, yeah, and he's just tickling the top of this like straw material, hay or whatever. And then he's just like tickling it with a, with a chopstick, and then this freaking viper or not viper a cobra, just pops its head. A baby, baby cobra just boom, pops its head out full hood and he's just like playing with it, like with his hand, is following his hands and stuff, and he gets it out with a with a stick, and then he's changing the water and cleaning its cage and whatever, putting it back in. I'm just like bro, this is insane. And during the video, yeah, he, like you can see his nubby finger. It doesn't look, just know he looks rotten. Yeah, yeah, it does look rotten. And then the next, and then so then, because I watched the whole video, a little while later, another one of his videos pops up.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I'll just say this happened to me too.
Speaker 1:We're the same guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're the same guy, oh no, I've watched this like I'm watching a lot of. I've watched the ones where it goes through like top 10 noodles that will kill me. You know like he goes. He looks at his snakes of like which one is the worst. Mostly is odds of surviving.
Speaker 1:And so the baby snake was kind of cute. Still made my palm sweaty. Next video pops up 50 gallon trash can and he's like King Cobra in here and he pulls the lid off that and I mean the head shoots up, oh yeah, just like into the hood, just gets freaking huge. It's like the, it's like the hood is I don't know like 12 inches across, like giant. And then he's he's like, he's the snakes, like molting or something, and he's talking about how it's molting and you can't see. So they're extra of aggressive right now. And he gets it out and then he's trying to clean its cage wall. It's just on the floor and then he's kind of getting ready to get it back in and it's just and he's messing around with it with his hand, getting it to follow it, and then it just he's using his foot too and it just strikes his boot and he acts like nothing just happened. And this is a big snake, like I don't know how to weigh snakes by looking at him but I'd say probably like a 35 pound snake, I don't know Like, no, it's way more than that, because adult King Cobras I don't know about all Cobras, but King Cobras adults are like 18 feet. Yeah, yeah, this one was like pushing something you know very long and like two hands around at its most girthiest. Yeah, yeah, which is why I call it the King Cobra, but the in other news.
Speaker 2:Anyways, I just was like you must not be circumcised. Yeah, your hood.
Speaker 1:No, but the. It's like I was just I could never do that job. I can, I can't even do garter snakes. Can you do snakes?
Speaker 2:I can do snakes. One after the initial sight of them, like when they're like, when they just like pop out on the trail or something what's up, I'm just like I get heebie-jeebies, I jump. But after that I'm like, oh okay, I forget. I have hands and legs. You don't. I'm easily more capable at dealing with you than you are with me, but you know they're spooky, especially this venomous ones. I've never understood why anyone would want something venomous in their house. That's never made sense to me. Like I knew people growing up who had venomous snakes, lizards, venomous spiders and scorpions and I was like, well, what's why? Why have that, when that could like kill your kid? Mm hmm, kill your dog. Like sure, I'm not we're. It's not that I'm afraid of it getting out and killing me, I'm afraid of it getting out in, like my dog getting bit, and then knowing like my dumb ass brought this venomous thing into my house and it killed my dog, mm hmm, you know so anyways, yeah, because the I knew a guy like this who he was still kind of around the youth group, but he was too old.
Speaker 1:Oh, yes. You know, and live it in the basement with his parents. I think he became a successful, successful, normal guy later. But at the time he go to this dude's house, he's like you know, 20 years old, which isn't like the end of the world, but just different. I was like in middle school, he's like 20. But like but was he like youth group volunteer? No, he was like just kind of youth, like youth group adjacent, you know, at this point, you know. And so anyways, go to his house and on the wall of his bedroom, one wall, floor to ceiling, wall to wall, was terrariums.
Speaker 2:What? Hold on though. Mm hmm, that's cool. Mm hmm, I'm just going to make the case. I'm going to take the stand now. That's, that's cool.
Speaker 1:I think if you're super into this, it might be cool to have that as like in a different room.
Speaker 2:Tell me it's not cool to watch things eat other things. Yes, I mean, it's not cool to watch them fight and eat each other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Not while I'm trying to go to sleep.
Speaker 2:Not well, like yeah, like I don't know, but just going back, going back to like the I wouldn't want to my room, that's what I'm saying, my basement.
Speaker 1:I know, dude like the vexing conversation about like venomous things in your house. Like he had, he had everything.
Speaker 2:But you don't. It doesn't have to be a venus, right Like you can have a terrarium full of ants and it'd be awesome. You have terrarium of frogs and praying mantis fishies.
Speaker 1:It could be cool, but it was still just it was too far, it was, it was too much and he had lots of the scary things in there too. Yeah, I'm just like I could never sleep in there. I would never be able to sleep in there.
Speaker 2:I remember the first time I saw someone who had, you know, the like Amazonian millipede and centipedes that are like two feet long in an aquarium in their room and I was like thanks for let me know you have this so I can burn your house down. Yeah, dude, psycho this is condemned. Yeah, it just it was so offensive to me that they would be like that someone's, like yeah, this is my millipede, and they pulled out and they let it crawl in them like why aren't you crushing that in half right now?
Speaker 1:Dude, like every lizard brain instinct I have, yeah Says kill. Oh yeah, kill, kill, kill, kill kill.
Speaker 2:I didn't even with more than four legs. I'm like I should murder it, Dude. Anyways, except for pre-mantus, I think pre-mantus are sick as hell, dude. They're super cool because I feel like they can't hurt me, I've had several of them that are pets. They can't, they think they can. That's why they're cool, bro, Because you kind of get to play with them. You get to be like, oh wow, you're so strong. And then they like chill out and they will go away. They just want to get away from you. You know you're scary, but they're just absolute, insanely intelligent, like predators, for the fact that their brain is the size of, like you know, a pebble, right, and I don't know. They're just it's, it's a real cool. I had a couple of them and they're great. They're great pets. They're great safe pets too for a kid Like they can't actually hurt your kid. They will treat your kid how to maintain and like look after something that has a sense of environment. You know, they can't overfeed it too. That's a cool thing. Like, oh yeah, like they are really picky eaters. So if you just throw a bunch of stuff in there, they won't eat it all at once. They'll just only eat as they need. And they're free, bro. You just go out in the backyard and catch it. Just find one of those things. Anyways, pets, dude, that guy is cool. I got to say scariest snake out of his collection, the boom slang. That thing looks like a. That thing looks like a snake knife. Is it the fast one? It's the one that's like green and like rather than like spreading a hood out like a cobra flattens. Yeah, it gets more narrow and when it looks at him, bro, it looks at him like it wants to murder him.
Speaker 1:Any reptile that can convey emotion is scary to me.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean? What about iguanas? Dude, People have iguanas like they're dogs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I mean like yeah, but I think they still can't convey like emotion via the eyes. I think they can.
Speaker 2:I think, iguanas. I've seen people in Florida with iguanas where, like you pet the guana, its eyes roll like a dog, it gets excited, yeah, yeah, it wants to crawl up your leg and stuff. That's true, would you? Would you eat an iguana? I would, but like I probably would only want to do it really out of like a respect for the person. If someone cooked it and served it. I would, but like it's like a survival thing. Oh yeah, I think iguanas like don't even know, I understand they're pests in a lot of places, but they're also one of those things that like they act too much like a dog, oh yeah, I kind of would feel bad about killing it. Like I guess I feel as bad killing feral iguanas as I would with coyotes, mm, hmm, but like I've seen a lot of, I've known a good amount of people probably like a good four or five people who had a pet iguana. That was just totally fine, like didn't, didn't shit in the house, would go outside and do its business, wanted to be a buddy, you know it just wanted it, wanted the attention that you know, whenever someone was new in the house who wanted to see him and hang out, and I was like that's cool dude.
Speaker 1:Like I don't think anyone thinks of lizards that way and like they're pretty neat. You can connect that way. I had a buddy in middle school who is older brother, had an iguana and you had to. If you handled it, you had to be an adult man, first of all because it was a big one and you had to wear a glove, not because it would bite you, but just because of how rowdy it would shake. Oh, really, I want to like shake like they do.
Speaker 2:They do get rowdy, for sure, yeah, and they're like floppy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this was a big one like, yeah, just so, not native to where we live to, and they would just. It would just be in the yard, yeah, and in the woods and just like hanging out with the goats and stuff and just wandering around and Doing their iguana doing its thing, yeah, that's pretty interesting, it's.
Speaker 2:It is always funny to me how we meet up, you know, once twice a week, and We've just watched the same thing in the last week.
Speaker 1:Like this same exact like trends.
Speaker 2:It's like okay, like what I got a confession though. Hmm, the last couple weeks I've been having some pretty mean headaches. Like when I went up to Michigan Thanksgiving, I had some like just like Left side behind my eye socket making my eyes water, mm-hmm, just headaches. I'm like God. This feels like when I quit caffeine and nicotine at the same time. Mm-hmm. A couple years ago, just weeks of like painful, daily headaches, mm-hmm. Now I was still zen in, still drinking coffee, and I could have figured out what was going on. Hmm, last night I figured it out. Well, what's it? What is it after all my shit talking about three milligrams in? Oh yeah, I didn't double check when I bought my log of Zen. Mm-hmm, my whole log is threes, oh. And so I've been getting half dose For like weeks and now the headaches are gone. But it's because I've been, because when I buy a log they last me, you know, I Don't know. Three weeks, four weeks, oh nice nice and so like I Didn't. That's why I never like I didn't notice until now and I was like Through three in last night and I was like man just now, no effect at all. Through in it another two. I was like what is going on and I looked at the can and I saw there are threes and I looked at I was like no, no, no, no, no no, no, no, I went and I pulled out my like opened log and I saw the rest of them. We're all threes. I went to the trash can? I saw that one was a three and I was like how did I not check? And the worst part is is that threes and sixes cost the same amount, so you're just getting half the product for the same amount of money. This is true, and I've just been harping on how much of a wussy you are if you have three milligrams. In Our first podcast I don't know if you remember this, but our first part podcast I was roasting you and I said what's the difference? You know, everyone was joking about Zen being tampons, right, I was like, but honestly, with the three milligrams in, what is the difference between that and a tampon like four line, nothing, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I gotta, I gotta, confess, man, I got on up to it. Yeah, you're, you're on the threes, huh, and now I probably won't go back. No, I'm past the headache phase. You know what I mean. Come down, yeah, it's not bad. I do see, though, how you can overdo it, bro. Like I was talking to my buddy JB, I was again this last week just making fun of people who do three milligrams in, and I was like I take half a can of three milligrams in when I go to bed yeah, just just to get sleepy, because I would usually throw in four sixers and that's half a content of a can of three milligrams in. And so I was like, damn to find out, just Been lying to myself for the last like two weeks, yeah.
Speaker 1:I wonder what sort of like if there is any genetic thing around the nicotine stuff or the headaches you mean, or no? I mean like with how much you could take because, like I've got. So, for instance, I chewed through like all college and the like did you ever throw in like full? horseshoes, yeah, routinely like full horseshoes, and be fine, really, yeah. But I also wonder to like on those sometimes, though, you're really not getting as much as you think on the full horses, because it's like it's in the middle, it's all dry, like it's not all.
Speaker 2:I only did just. I only did Charlie three times, and every time I Did like a pinch, I never did anything in the full go, and so again I could do a full horse.
Speaker 1:You're not get sick. I should say I wouldn't always do. I was like but I'd like I would chew and then, like you know, zen came out and I'd start doing those. Yeah, like the sixes, like I just don't like them, and but I kind of got a buddy who had never done he's never smoked a cigarette, never done anything but like he threw in like first, go like Two sixes and didn't feel it. Huh, period, nothing, which I mean. Anybody out there who's tried dip before like you know you remember your first dip, like you, or like that first, like time, nicotine hit you.
Speaker 2:That's interesting, you say that bro. I remember the first time nicotine hit me, but I have never felt any effects from chew really, yeah, I. I thought it was gross, mm-hmm, and if anything, I remember thinking it sobered me up a little bit. Hmm rather than making like the effects of alcohol More, more harsh, you know I mean, or more intense, whereas in for me, like if I have had drinks and I have a zen, it like multiplies the kind of relaxed, hmm, you know, like temporary Lightheadedness of nicotine and it, you know, it feels like cigarettes and beer. Mm-hmm, you know, it's like, yeah, nothing like a cigarette after five beers. Mm-hmm so I say that, like I also pretty much have stopped drinking dude, I'm really like I'm getting old did Say everything I buy. Happenstance is really reducing a lot.
Speaker 1:Six pack in a log last year month.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anyways though, uh, I can't, so I get what I get, like with your buddy, where he didn't, he wasn't affected by it. I guess I I Definitely do, you know, I've definitely overdone it was in. If I drink, I can't have no Four or six milligrams in. I'll throw up, for sure too much going on. Yeah, but if, like, if I haven't had anything to drink and I've been good about drinking water and stuff and I don't not on a full stomach Mm-hmm, I would say Zen doesn't have too much of an effect on me anymore. Mm-hmm, like, are you sensitive to cigars too? Like, if you inhaled on a cigar, would that make you nauseous?
Speaker 1:not now not anymore before I chewed, yes, because, but like, I feel like the when you chew it's so much more Direct and potent then like smoking that it yeah, like smoking stuff now just is like I Put it in a Zen and some of the cigar at the same time, what or whatever? So gross to me. But uh, dude, there's this wild company out of India right now putting out some snooze pouches that are like 25 milligrams of pop or something wild.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just like holy, smells it just sounds, just sounds not, not good. I will say Uh the heart.
Speaker 1:Stop your heart you know one.
Speaker 2:Let's do a real quick brevity shout out to our Indian audience Shockingly listen here all you Americans, cuz we have had some Indians in the last week. Like an insane amount of growth in India for our audience listener base. Like I'm talking like like 3500 subscribers in three days.
Speaker 1:We're about to shift our like the time. To be on the other side of the globe.
Speaker 2:Seriously, we're gonna. I'm about to change our whole philosophy so that way you know we're pandering to them instead of you guys, because Americans need it. Like they just aren't shown up as much as those Indian guys, at the rate they are. But anyways, thank you to our Indian audience, especially out of Kolkata, that's like, where we see a Huge amount of like men and women listening to the pod.
Speaker 1:The large bot farms in Kolkata.
Speaker 2:I don't know I mean but like you know what I mean Like I'm not paying for no bot farms, like we pay, like we try to like take pointers and pay for Google ads. But Google ads, I Don't know how it all works.
Speaker 1:It's Google's Algorithm of who they show stuff to you. You're not like buying Like. You're not like buying subscriber like.
Speaker 2:No, you you pay for advertisement you pay for people see it out there. Yeah, essentially you get charged based on the clicks, but anyways, shout out to our Indian brethren and sisters out there on that point to the Both both of my supervisors and my current role working for, for the government my direct supervisor is from southern India and the one, uh, the one that's above both him and I that we both report to is from like middle northern India, mm-hmm and great guys, incredibly Great co-workers, good managers, very happy to work for them or work with them, both on this project. But One thing I've learned from is that they got like the culture, the culture of substances is Like it's. It's different from like American, european, western culture of drug use, hmm, like there's not people in India doing black tar heroin, hmm, but there is people in India like just chewing gobsmacked mouthfuls of opium. You know, like there's just like. The dichotomy is different and a lot of the drug stuff or alcohol stuff that I know of from my co-workers and spending time talking to them, stuff in their experience not that they did those drugs, but just like coming from that culture emigrating Is that a lot of it's based off of oral ingestion, whether it's chewing it and spinning it out or swallowing it, like you know, but not a lot of. It's like injectable, right. Like people are injecting a lot and people outside of cigarettes aren't smoking a ton, hmm, and I thought that was just really interesting, like getting to know them, because I, like you don't see the. I would say the drug culture is primarily in America, outside of alcohol and cigarettes. It's primarily smoke that. But like, put it in a pipe and smoke it mm-hmm, or put it in a syringe and inject it, it's not primarily. Oh, like, let's make this kind of a oral fixation of eating and chewing in Something. You could go on a walk and put these leaves in your mouth. You'll feel real great by the end of that walk. You know, which is weird, because you see that culture over there and like they just sell bags of leaves from opium plants and you just you roll the. You roll the leaves with like a Kind of residue substance. Hmm, it's not like purified coke or heroin at that point, mm-hmm, but it's definitely opium based, mm-hmm, and it's natural. It's like a wax off the leaves and you roll it around and like this liquid kind of makes it a little bit of like a Not molasses but sweeter taste, mm-hmm, you just chew on it. I can't remember what's called, but it had it some pretty cool sling term and I was like dude, if somebody came up to me was like you want this ran wrapped bag of leaves and honey, is it caught? I think it's caught. Yeah, I think that's what's called. Yeah, caught, yeah, um, but anyways, All I said I just different culture around the substance. You see, you know, I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and people, it is funny to be like Some people might be like I would. I would never and inject something in my body, yeah, but I would put it in this way as if that makes it Different or whatever.
Speaker 2:But I kind of feel attacked, because that's how I am.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I got. I could never put a needle full of heroin into my arm, but I definitely. I'm too much of a like if you're like, chew on this, bro. So it was like. So you know like, have you ever had a silicone wedding ring? Or like yeah you know how satisfying those are to chew. I just like you just put it in your mouth and chew on it. It's just so bouncy Mm-hmm and it never deforms Mm-hmm. If someone was like here, take this silicone based product where, as you chew it, more heroin gets released, I'd be fucked like. Like that is it. I'd be throw that thing it it just chew it all day. Did it chew while I work to? You know, not that I've ever done hard drugs night and remotely close Mm-hmm, but just like it, I know I know I am orally fixated on stuff. I know what's in. I do it because of the oral fixation, not because of the you know drug side effects right and yeah, it feels something about.
Speaker 1:It, just feels different, or however, it's going on and it's like a focus tool.
Speaker 2:It's like a squeeze ball almost, but in your mouth, yep.
Speaker 1:The. Have you seen this new I don't know how new it is with the drug K2 in prisons?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What is K2? Because it's messing people up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let me pull it up. I'll be cuz I so. I remember it's like it is. It is a stem of crocodile, if I remember right, but I'll look it up because the videos.
Speaker 1:I've seen these dudes in prison. It's, it's the, it's like the main prison drug right now and guys just like, oh, all guys react different to it, but mostly you just see people who can't stand up straight, losing their mind, either crying or screaming or banging their head against a wall, and it just looks insane.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm totally wrong. K2 is not crocodile based, it's. I know I we always called it scooby snacks or spice when I was in law enforcement because it was more common as like a Not like a county jail thing. But you hear about a lot from people coming from prison, federal prison, but it's synthetic marijuana, that's it. Yeah, it's essentially a Chemical designer drug and you know who knows where these things come from, how they're manufactured.
Speaker 1:China.
Speaker 2:Because honestly, it's hard for me to believe that it's easier to make this than it is. A grow weed like right. You drive down Any rural road in the Midwest. You'll find marijuana growing in a ditch. So it's hard for me to believe like this is more cost-effective but, it's got a bucket load of THC, but also has Quite a few other things that are usually more chemical and mix into it, and it's often marketed as like poppy rebowl and since that, you burn more herbal incense and and because I've seen dudes it makes you fucking crazy, bro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cuz I, here's it. I've seen, I've seen have been around people who have Smoked weed or eating an edible.
Speaker 2:Man, they don't act like they are not doing what these guys are doing. Oh, dude, this stuff is like liquid THC with additional chemicals mixed into it, like people will put it in their marijuana vape pens To try to, like you know, not let people know they're smoking Some kind of synthetic THC and they just look like a e-cigarette. But you know, a lot of side effects are like high, like a not-depressant side effects.
Speaker 1:It's an upper, not a downer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like marijuana you almost every side effect of marijuana Other than anxiety is downer stuff. Mm-hmm with this like there's a lot of seizures, a Lot of paranoia, a lot of anxiety, a lot of, a lot of like full-body numbness and like a pair paralytic Tingling. So a lot of people panic because they like stop being able to feel their feet or their anything below their knees or their fingers and you know they get. They're already on drugs, having hallucinations, you know so yeah, it is like I think ever people compare it to like it's just like the THC version of basalts, because it is like you can buy spice legally, just like you can buy. You go buy basalts legally, you know no one's, no one's gonna like you get pulled over and you have spice in your car and it's in its like commercial container. It's usually a you know, like I said, market it as like a you know Incense thing, mm-hmm. But also makes you wonder like yeah, you probably shouldn't smoke the incense stick dipped in a bunch of chemicals right, like you probably have the same reaction.
Speaker 1:You shouldn't take toilet bowl cleaner, yeah, and smoke it or whatever. It's legal to own that. You should not put it in your body. But the yes, I was coming out with the prisons and then also it's hitting the Just streets to where you see, like you know, some of these go stuff, la or Portland stuff for the true zombie land.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I've been thinking about like just going out there to see If it's as bad as some of the videos make it man.
Speaker 2:You have no idea, bro, it's so bad.
Speaker 1:But you know what like?
Speaker 2:once you see it's like it is rough because it's.
Speaker 1:anybody can go Make a video edit that looks like oh my god, on every corner this is what it's like yeah but it's like yeah, I just wondered about some of the places going out there just to kind of see, like, is this what? It seems like? It is our boy a. Mike Green, Beret Asian, Irish Mike yeah, my clever, clever video on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he went out and saw Ozzy Osbourne's son, their buddies because that guy Osbourne's son what is his name? Pat Osbourne, carey mirror he did a couple of Glover's classes and they became buddies and he lives in, I Think, orange County and he pretty much just told him how things have changed and how the dynamic is just Crazy. Dude, I remember being in line in Iceland for my honeymoon in 2021. It was in line to fly back and, unbeknownst to me, the man in front of me was from San Francisco. I was just going through my phone on the news oh, my god, san Francisco is Just falling apart. It's such a shithole from when I lived, like not lived there before. When I visited, this dude turns around to me, looks because it's not as bad as people say and like you really should, like I live there. It's not a shithole like bro. And I remember my wife and I my wife Was standing right next to me as we're looking at this article talking about like crime rates and stuff, and I was like in 2021. I was like it is dog like and I like let him, you know. I was like I don't know man. This article is making a good case and I remember what San Francisco was like, like the homeless people in San Francisco when I went there as a kid Were great, like all of them were trying to be a parent. You know, like I, I'm sure I kind of Rainbow or didn't go down the streets of the other homeless people, but yeah yeah, yeah, generally speaking, those big homeless populations.
Speaker 1:Yet they have their likes, their no. They seem like at the time they had their normal homeless struggles, not what's going on now, where you see like there's also people who just like kind of like long-term homeless folks and like they got the pops and stuff, whatever. But then you also see, like now, if I could see all these things of people who are just like, oh, I think you might have had a normal life, like a week ago. And you now you're here, like with your eyes.
Speaker 2:I guess. I mean I've met people who are recently homeless, but like recently, homeless is usually I live in my car. And it's a temporary thing and I'm hustling because I don't want to be homeless, right we? I almost never meet someone who's recently homeless and is just like yeah, whatever it's like.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:I'm I guess this is my life now like mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:But that's here. There, though, I think it's like they are Recently homeless, but because of how fast these drugs are taken over there, sure their life you know, and and the like. So it's, or like it's like a lot, I see a lot more like younger people. You're like I think that dude's like 18 like how did he get here this fast?
Speaker 2:you know yeah, um, I Don't know I'm trying to think about. I spent a lot of time helping out homeless people and stuff when I was a kid in Denver and I. Do you think I see a lot more younger homeless around now than I recall as a kid, but I think a lot of that is because of the yeah, drug use. Of course, right, drug use is higher now than it's been at almost any other point in US history, mm-hmm. That said, I Think a lot of these younger people we see are like a Failure of you know parents not raising them well in a system, not Like being there to support them, whether it was, you know, public education or whatever you know, whatever you want to say, like Whatever they would say to like blaming on right. And I also do think it is easier to be homeless now, bro, I remember Homeless guys that I would talk to Hustling to get enough money to get a burner phone, and now almost every homeless person I know has a smartphone and they will. They're more than happy to sit dude we. Sunday Sunday like we were at the church and that got the guy, which you know he's a great guy. He's been coming to church for a little while and, and you know, by no means am I concerned about his behavior or anything like that he's. I've seen him at church several Sundays now, but this last Sunday he was like, hey, I got my phone and I was hoping to use the Wi-Fi and I was like, yeah, sure, dog, like whatever you know, I mean like and like hooked up with like the Wi-Fi and stuff like that. But I'm just like, is it? I mean that might be a reason why you know it's easier to be homeless, it's maybe more effective. I mean, I've met guys in our town here that are, you know, I'm like they choose to be homeless, guys and girls who choose to be homeless because they they make like 50k a year just panhandling. Uh-huh and they don't have to spend on rent and it's tax-free right.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, it's like you can get your free they're here, not free iPads on the corner here the other day to know they weren't. Yeah, they were where, hit right right here on the corner. Oh, really, yeah, if you, yeah, just you know in the, so you could like homeless people were handing out free iPads or other like. Businesses were giving out, some organization was giving out free iPads to homeless the people, and so it's like you could just like I don't know that doesn't sound like it's gonna solve their problem.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:I know it looks like a, you know you're just like. Do your Robin Hood e-trade by Jay like from a McDonald's?
Speaker 2:I don't know like oh my gosh dude, nothing would be better than just like I will say I'm reddit, mm-hmm. I do see more people posting on reddit saying I am homeless, that I've ever seen my wife. Right especially like you. You know, in the like Colorado forums I'm a part of like I see so many people like well, I'm actually homeless and you know I'm more than happy to kind of provide as like and I do see it out like Wall Street bets, like it's just like not a joke. Yeah, it's like no dude. Like this is temporary, I'll be out of this in like a few months, but like I still got to manage my portfolio.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So what world do I live in? It's crazy dude.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's wild for sure, I think. The homeless, yeah, with the thing about some of the drugs, with the young people, I had a buddy who had. He had a his cousin, um, normal kid, normal family high school or went to, went in for wisdom teeth removal or some sort of oral surgery, routine stuff, got painkillers and before he's even like halfway done with the prescription, like truly just like addicted and like over the next course year of his life, like onto heroin, onto the next thing, onto the next thing. Like and it's like it really was one of the things where it was like a, you know, quote unquote normal person, normal family that just unraveled in what felt like moments. And so, you know, I think some of the and drugs have always there's always been, it's for for all of time there have been people down on their luck. For all of time there's been people who have some form of drug, alcohol, abuse and then that results in, you know, homelessness. You know, and you can go all the way back to, you know, whatever time you want, even you know, in the Bible or whatever like it's. It's been a thing for a long time. But the something about the way that these drugs can react to a person to truly grab hold of them in a moment's notice and tank their life is pretty scary. Something that I've been thinking about, like even like with my boys, as, as I have, you know, I've got two sons under five and the right now, like their biggest concerns in life are super easy, little things. But I just think about things for their future, because I've seen lots of people's kids who, it seems like you know, good parents not only well intended, but diligent parents have kids who grow up to just end up jacked up. And you're like, and you're like so those you can't get trapped in that as a parent of a fear, but you do have to be like vigilant, to be like, okay, what do I need to do? And to keep my kids safe from these sorts of you know things that someday I'm not doing the nightmare thing that lots of dads are doing with their kids of like all right, like you did it again like tough love, we got to kick you out. I don't know where he's been. He's been on the streets for like three months, that sort of thing, you know.
Speaker 2:No, I think I'd love it if you watch this so we could do a bruiserine visa on it, because it's one of my favorite shows I've ever seen. It's a limited series, one season on Hulu called dope sick. It's the true story of several POVs. Some people are an amalgamation of you know a bunch of people, but it does a great demonstration of the opioid crisis. How did it even get to this point where pharmaceutical companies had sales reps just trying to pump this drug out? How did they justify it? After seeing the addictions, how did doctors prescribe it as a painkiller, knowing that it was going to cause this pain? It really was one of those things. I think when you watch this you'll see it was like the head of the pharmaceutical company Gosh I can't remember his name off the top of my head. It was pretty much like he knew with his trials and dude. The FDA is like an absolute joke. The FDA is just pretty much like their palms get greased and they pass a drug and to get them to delisted drug is next to impossible and they will parade you around as an idiot Like this idiot is trying to get viket and delisted. Look at this idiot and they will do everything they can to get your medical license revoked, get you fired as a lawyer. The show shows a great example of these lawyers who really went after the pharmaceutical company to try to get the drug delisted, with all the case evidence of the opioid addictions and crisis and how the FDA just shrugged their shoulders and was like you're making a scene here and this is big money. It's like gosh, government sucks Government is awful.
Speaker 1:There's this thing in government where, for some reason, you cannot admit you're wrong.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can never admit me like, wow, we really didn't check the studies well enough, we just believed what they told us.
Speaker 1:Right All the way from a local mayor to the president of the United States, to big institutions, organizations. I don't know why it's like literally impossible for them to admit wrongdoing.
Speaker 2:Never do it because they would have, which are crazy.
Speaker 1:I admit I'm wrong every day they would grant, they would gain the people's trust immensely, I think maybe, maybe not. Maybe, maybe not, Maybe people. Maybe the thing is, if you ever admit you're wrong, now it's like now people have a foothold in a door, that you're fallible. But I don't think that's true. I think there's lots of people who just in organizations if they would just stand up and say we were wrong about that, we are going to correct it now, that you would have a lot more trust in the people.
Speaker 2:I think so too. I definitely think that I would not be shocked if COVID had totally turned out differently, if Fauci came out and was like well, we were wrong about this, the science is adapting. It's just like no, we were wrong. And now we know we were wrong. Here's now what we've discovered. Here's our next best directive Just say you're wrong. Don't try to word, salad it, because I think that's what a lot of America's characters based on is honesty. That's why people get so mad when there's dishonesty. Anyways, all that Homelessness drug epidemic, homelessness right now is just getting out of control even where we live. Bro, I don't know if you've seen, but we have skyrocketing police reports of theft, break-ins, things like that in our small little community in the Rockies. I'm just like what the hell is going on, dude. It's sad, but honestly it is one of those things that where I do think, like voting locally is really important, because there's a lot of people here who have voting rights that rent and don't get me wrong, I rent, you rent, we both rent where we live, but there's people here who have voting rights that aren't going to be a part of this community. They aren't going to be a part of the city in the next year.
Speaker 1:Generally, speaking, a renter type is less likely to be invested in the community than someone who owns a home here. Their kids go to school here, they own a business here. They're the long haul in it.
Speaker 2:A lot of them, though, get really politically aggravated when, while they're here, it doesn't meet what they want it to be. I get like that's natural. However, a lot of these people I see are like they don't own a house, they don't own a business, they don't have a family here, they live with roommates and they're planning on moving soon. It's like they are like yeah, we need to have more affordable housing projects so we can get free homing to like the homeless that are moving here. We need more hand out stuff. I'm like you shouldn't, you don't get a, say you know what I mean. They're like oh, you're such a nimby which is not in my backyard, which is what they use just for derogatory of anyone who's kind of more conservative not politically, but conservative in how they want their small town community treated in the policies. I'm like at least I care about this backyard. I've been here for a decade, you know. I've lived here longer than I've lived in my hometown. It's just like one of those things of like I think we do have a right to say no, that's not what we want our community to turn into. We don't want it to be hand out community. Yes, let's do things to help homeless here and help them with health and access to healthcare and access to resources to get employed, so that way, if they want to go back to where they came from and return to a home, or they want to become a part of the community and become a renter or owner of property, then let's give them the things to do that. That said, though, time and time again you look at communities, especially small town communities, that do these affordable housing developments, where it's usually in the center of the town and it's usually very cheap or free state funded housing or federal funded housing. People just go there, they get signed up, they cross their T's, dot their I's and then they just have a roof over their head to do drugs, and they don't ever pay any money into it, and then they just Don't take care of it. They just wait till they get kicked out and it's just a cycle dude and I'm just like, no, I don't want that in my community. I don't want it in the community that I want to be my home or I want to raise my children. I'd rather do something alternative to that.
Speaker 1:Yep, I think I was thinking of this little example. With the way that we're talking about, we're generalizing the renter person how they vote, or the uninvested the uninvested in an individual in the community how they vote.
Speaker 2:And I think we're allowed to. Yeah, because we still rent.
Speaker 1:Right, I understand housing is expensive where we live, right, yeah, and we are talking about the person who's, you know, not invested in the community and using, you know renting as a way to talk about them. But you know, so it's the classic thing where the guy guy goes up to you know someone says, you know, comrade, would you give me Property and we could share it? He's like, oh yeah, I could give you property, we could share it. That sounds great. He's like, okay, good. He's like, comrade, would you give me a car? You know, and oh, yeah, I would give you a car. You know, in this, in this Hypothetical situation, I'd give you a car. You know what? I have two cars and and I, and, and you don't have any, I'll give you one car. And he says, okay, cool, would you give me a chicken? You know, if you had two and and I had done, would you give me a chicken? The guy says no, and he says why? And he says, well, because I have chickens. And so the example here being that Socialism, communism always ends wherever your wallet starts, mmm. So you know, oh yeah, if I had 40 acres, I'd love to give you 20 acres if I owned a house, I'd give you my backyard right, right a bit. Oh, you know, no, I'm not giving you.
Speaker 2:Live in my room with me, right? You can't be my roommate, yeah no, no, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, like the all those people, that the NIMBY people are the ultimate NIMBY people, because they're typically not the ones paying Property and income tax on the level of the other people who are trying to keep it straight still you know like they're. They're not invested in the community Literally invested monetarily. The same way the other people are who are trying to keep it straight, and so I Just bet you know I caught, like, for instance, anytime our town's reddit feed goes off, it's just always like yeah, it feels like that conversations going on all the time, oh yeah, constantly, and I don't comment because I'm like I Don't want you to try to figure out where I live.
Speaker 2:I have precious, precious karma on Reddit. I'm doing good, I have, like I have way more. I'm in like the top one, like point zero, one percent of people with karma. I'm very protective, oh yeah, dude, I don't.
Speaker 1:I just don't comment in anywhere, I'm just like I'm not, I'm not going to, I'm not gonna do it, I'm just gonna sneak in on the little areas and I have noticed.
Speaker 2:I have noticed with my commenting, though, especially even on YouTube, I'm just like I don't know if it's just part of like being part of like a consultant for you know company that does government contracts, and just seem like all the things that people do that are so stupid and that everyone knows about and you're like that could seriously get in the way of you like Having an opportunity to work and on something cool. You know, what I mean like Keep, keep, keep those kind of opinions off of social media, mm-hmm. And just like I think my mindset has changed towards that because I, even with like comments on YouTube now I'm like way more tame. Yeah, like I'll type it out. I'm like no one cares, yeah, I'll just gonna get me a hate, you like.
Speaker 1:Get me Somehow fired in like 2050. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I know, kid, all right, it's all like. I just like, I'm just like whatever Like and I just usually I don't know I always delete it. My only comments are if I Pretty much enjoy the content and I let them know like it was something I participated in while on the porcelain throne, yeah, and but yeah, good stuff. I think I'm only. This is a good episode we could call it here. I Got that off my chest about the three milligrams in. I got four in right now, so two sixes, but uh, anyways can. Thanks for joining us. Do check us out on the YouTubes. We would love if you subscribed, commented, we're getting. We just started this week and are putting a lot of effort into it, and I just Showed Mick, no, showed me. I just showed Pat some of our mock-ups of Merchandise we got. We got cool shirts. I we're trying to design stuff that you know you'd wear, whether or not it was, even you know, branded with our stuff on it, and so we're getting into that realm. So stay tuned, stay tuned for that stuff, for our merchandise, when it comes out. Honestly, best way to know of that kind of six stuff and get deals on it is on our YouTube or our website, and so stay posted for that. We can't. There's no way to really show your merch on Spotify Right, at least not right now. So, anyways, stay around for those things they're coming down the pipeline, getting really close to production and check out our dog ear dialogues, because that's been popping off and we've gotten a lot of good feedback from that. So if you like blood meridian or you're interested in it, you do a whole deep dive into that.
Speaker 1:That we'll be working on the next one of those who have another that's coming out. Probably, I don't know next one to four months We'll be putting out some more dog ear dialogues and, that being said, because we want to put in the time to make it worth your time to listen to it, and so that's one of our, one of those projects for us where we're trying to. You know, we have these weekly things that come out. We love you, we love that you join in with us on them, and some of our limited series or dog ear dialogues, things like that. We want to try to put in some extra time on producing those and putting them together in a more, you know, solid, followable format where you can engage, especially because we will talk for a long time about them, and so we want to make it worth your time and the. I think that you know, I kind of always like to bring it around to something introspective, I don't know towards the end, you know, because we're talking about drug use and homelessness and one. Anything we say here that might sound flipping about those things, we we aren't. We're, you know, in this context we are just sitting having a conversation about it. And we do know that there's lots of people who struggle with, you know, addiction, people who struggle with mental health and that's and that's. Those are some of the key components that lead to finding yourself without a home, finding yourself addicted on the streets. And I think that we know that there is hope beyond that, and we also don't necessarily judge the individual for finding themselves there. We do want better for those people and we do think that there is hope for everybody out there and we know that we actually know some of the answers to the hope in that too. And you know and we don't get preachy here too often but the there is hope that's outside of this world for those things.
Speaker 2:Jesus, yeah, reason for this season. All right, thanks for joining us, ken. We'll catch you next time.
Speaker 1:Until next time.