the world of medical cannabis, and i ve always believed that if they had an opportunity to see my staff, our patients and how we handle the medicine that we would support what we re doing. there s a perception that this is a recreational drug that is being that people are trying to pass off as a medical thing and that that raises a certain amount of skepticism among a lot of folks. they say, listen, marijuana is a recreational drug. it is not a medical thing. how do you respond to that? well, i think when the audience tunes in to we d wars on discovery channel, they are going to see a completely different impression. they are going to see people that are really sick. you can go on the discovery website right now and meet a couple dozen of our patients that are very, very sick and need this medicine. i ve got glaucoma. i m going to go blind, so there
are legitimate medical needs and people are just one of the reasons we did this show is to break that stigma. go ahead. yeah, exactly. you know, the reason that we did that show was to let americans see for themselves who are the people that are using medical cannabis and what are they using it for, and we invited discovery to come in and embed with us for a full year. they had an opportunity to film all of our patients, and you ll see a really great cross-section of exactly who is using cannabis, the reasons they are using it and what it does for them. am i being presumptuous in suggesting that you guys would be in favor of legalization? yes, you would. you know, i don t believe that any psychoactive substance should be used for recreation. if you want recreation, read a book, take a walk, play a game of basketball. i do believe that adult americans should be able to use cannabis for health and wellness purposes though. so you would you think that the recreational the
that cannabis can be distributed to patients who legitimately need it in a way that brings benefits to communities and not harms. in addition to helping our 94,000 patients, we ve also created 80 well-paying jobs in the city of observe land and another 40 in the city of san jose, and last year we generated over $3 million in tax revenue, and we re one of oakland s top ten taxpayers so the benefits flow through the whole community. at the same time, how hats current administration been under president obama relative to helping to make that distinction or either encouraging the distinction between medical marijuana and and non-medical marijuana? well, you know, unfortunately, even though the president campaigned on a promise to respect state medical cannabis laws and even after shortly after taking office he issued a memo saying that they would respect that promise,
tonight s big ceremony on nbc which features performances from justin bieber, cee lo green and the radio city music rockettes and we re luck they year to have a bird s eye view of the big show. this is what it looks like from the d.r. office window. now our official tree lighting was yesterday. there s our tree, so as not to compete with tonight s big show, but we didn t stop there. even the printer got a holiday makeover, and we also brought in some delicious treats and beverages to enjoy while we wait for them to flip the switch on the big tree tonight. if only it was so easy to flip the switch on the american economy. don t you like how i can always find a way to get in there? next, speaking of interesting things on tv, reality television meets pot retail, a man who says his relationship with weed was love at first sight. just like me they long to be
health issue just as sure as drug dependency is which might clear the space for this other conversation. do you get this sense outside the federal government that the people of this country are more prepared for that type of a conversation? well, that s why we re willing to take the risk that we re taking by doing this show, because we re confident that our fellow citizens, once they understand what it is that we re doing, are going to support us and stand up for us. like my brother said, 77% of americans in a recent cbs news poll supports safe access to medical cannabis. the federal government, once again, like in your previous two segments, is way behind, way behind the people, way behind. i mean, there s a conversation for another day just on the federal government s ability in general to actually understand the intent and desire of the people. which goes to money and politics and a whole other i ll get you really worked up. there s no mystery about that, because in califo