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We talk about all things cannabis from dispensaries, cultivations, current news & entrepreneurship along with some lifestyle topics to intrigue, inspire and flat out make you laugh! During this series we'll have interviews with some game changers showing you a different perspective discussing the state of Cannabis. Friendly for newbies, vets and people who curious. It's funny, it's blunt, it's real... Sativa Talk Podcast.
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You're listening to locally produced programming created in KUNV Studios on public radio. KUNV 91.5.
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Hey, hi, hello, and welcome back to another episode of Sativa Talk Podcast where we have
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blunt conversations. We like to talk about cannabis, of course, whether you are a vet, you're a newbie, or you're just a little bit curious, we got you covered. And we'll get into some lifestyle entrepreneurship as well. Um, today, I'll first let me bring in my guests before I celebrate the episode. So today's guest is very special to me. She is the president of CEIC. That's cannabis equity and inclusion community. She is the director of the Vegas organization local for all. She is a great friend, mentor, person to talk to, person to have in your corner. None other than Miss Asia. Oh, that horn was broke.
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Okay.
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Let me do it the right way.
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How are you doing today?
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Good.
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Thank you for having me.
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I appreciate you being here.
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We are actually celebrating episode number 13. Can I clap for you? 13 is a lucky number in the Asian culture. Like I know it's excuse me, it's not a lucky number in the Asian culture. They always skip the 13th floor, but it's a lucky number. Yeah, no, no, no. Okay, it's like, they'd have a weird thing about 13. Like, if you never mind, I'm going off subject. No, it's actually very on subject. So the number 13 can represent death and rebirth is considered a sign of duality in your current circumstance. The number 13 may be your soul's way of urging you to think about your fortune as well as unfortunate side of whatever you are doing and going through at that time. It could include self-determination as well and creative inspiration. So when's the last time you felt inspired creatively and what did you do? Oh good question. Actually the last time I felt inspired was recently in the community, like with this whole new position.
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I mean, that's the last time I felt.
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Yeah, with Local for All.
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Local for All with the Community Redevelopment Project. Yeah, that's the first time I felt inspired. Like, I'm really excited about this. It's almost, like, equal to, like, pretty much is equal to, like, CEC and we founded that. And we really went hard four years ago in the paint, like, bringing advocacy, freedom, equity, inclusion, like it's that kind of inspiration. Like I feel real good right now. Yeah, that's awesome. So I was thinking like for a while, I'm originally from Louisville, Kentucky. So for a long time I've been thinking like, oh, I wanna have a Derby party, I wanna have a Derby party. So this year, gosh darn it, I'm having a Derby party, okay? We're gonna dress up, put on our hats, we're gonna have mint juleps, I wish I could have a horse outside giving horseback rides If I can find one and get a permit from the city in like three weeks. Oh three weeks Yeah, it's the first weekend in May so You can tell me that I'm just like surprised for me right now Yeah, so you guys are getting my initial reaction here comes the entrepreneur in the business I'm about can we like talk about that later? Yeah, I would love to okay, so I am I'm bringing that to Vegas and I'm very excited about it I feel very inspired about it and we're gonna do it the right way Absolutely, absolutely because yeah, please bring the Louisville to Vegas. Yeah How you said it Louisville? Okay, it's Louisville I went through that when I first moved here too and it was like, you know the Nevada like it was a big deal I had to learn it, you know, so I think I'm alright I think I say Nevada yeah now I know right they'll judge you either way anyway I do have to give a shout out to our sponsors the business entertainment West they are in the business of providing entertainment on the West Coast you can find them on Instagram at biz ENT West underscore Vegas and tell them thank you for bringing NGT back to the airways so today we're gonna be we're gonna be very responsible and get into some bills I know that's a that's kind of like the big thing that's going on right now is what kind of bills can we support how can we make sure that we are all included and so that's why I have a professional here to keep me in line so we can do that but I do want to give a quick mention finally Kentucky my hometown it has become medically legal there so we are finally on a step to the right way. Yeah. Good grief. I love that. I'm just saying it's some good stuff that grows in Kentucky. With the bluegrass and whatnot I'm just saying. Bluegrass? Yes. We gotta go out there. I'm trying to tell you. Yes. I don't know nothing about no bluegrass. Yeah. But I do know about grass. I'm from New York. Here you don't, people here don't know nothing about grass. I had some good grass growing up my damn self. But it wasn't blues. Yeah. And now you got me like ooh. Yeah. It's worth the look.
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Okay.
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All right.
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So let's go ahead and handle this.
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So we want to get into some bills.
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All right. So one of the bills that is near and dear to me would be the top one. That's a B 253. Oh, that rhymed. See?
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Yes. Yes. Okay.
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Okay.
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Now this is the mobile cannabis bill.
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Yes.
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The mobile cannabis vendor bill. It's, you know, something that's a little bit more expensive. Yes, the Mobile Cannabis Vendor Bill. Some of you guys may hear Mobile Cannabis Vendor Bill, Mobile Cannabis Concierge Bill, but it is a Mobile Cannabis Vendor Bill. It is AB 253, and what that does is it gives you another license for cannabis. Right now, we have multiple categories of licensing. This brings you an entirely new license category. It is being championed by Assemblyman C.H. Miller. It is being powered by CEIC. So this is one of our bills. So we're excited about that. And it just introduces new licensing to the cannabis industry, which we're excited about. Now, it's a two part as well, right? So it would be you'd be a vendor license. And then the other license would be the actual person who books the event. And I think that's how I understand it. So the the vendor would be kind of like the purchaser of the mobile cannabis situation. So you will be able to negotiate with different dispensaries and determine which flower that you want to have inside of your actual event and then the actual person with the license is the one who's putting their name on the line or is that the same? Yeah it's all the same. Okay it's just two parts but it's still under the same license. Yeah you still be considered a mobile cannabis vendor. So it's one license category, but it functions as you being a vendor. So how you curate that experience is independent to your business model. So that it could be the business model you just explained right there. It could be a mobile pop-up truck. It could be, you know, different things that you are just going to temporarily have this 21 and over event. Yes, now I do like that idea. I think that would be amazing. I think that's something I'm definitely going to go for. So for this bill, there's still restrictions. So you still have to be within a certain amount of feet away from casinos, right? So for here, being at like the Life is Beautiful downtown, or maybe even the Radar Stadium, wouldn't, would that still, that's still in the 200 feet, right? It's a certain amount of feet that you have to be. So I'm not really sure about all the distance parameters between the locations you mentioned, but I do know that when gaming is involved, they're always going to like have that zero tolerance type of energy because of how cannabis is federally regulated. So those kinds of questions, I always kind of direct back to federal because gaming is like in that space where they're regulated by the SEC and all these different federally regulated governing bodies, right? Which is why it's a privileged state and the cannabis is almost establishing a equal governing body with the Cannabis Compliance Board and how we're being regulated. Like we're almost mimicking that gambling, strict, privileged license model. That's why we're having a social equity issue to be quite honest, you know what I'm saying? And we're having an innovation issue. But that's what this mobile cannabis vendor license seeks to address. It seeks to bring in more minority participation. It seeks to bring in more small business participation. And it is like a micro business model. Cannabis is a multi-billion dollar business. So these licenses are not going to make you multi-millionaires, but it will allow you to have adjacent equivalent great events that are inclusive of the community, are inclusive of the tourists. We have too many people coming up in here that we can just not make a marketplace for them, right? Yeah, and the benefit to that is, as far as like getting into it, the fees won't be as higher and then you won't have to worry about a brick and mortar. So you won't have to worry about finding a location and paying the rent on it. I can definitely see it expanding and you know, when they do have festivals, they do have events, you know, people will seek you out. And so, yeah, for real, that's all the stuff that we were able to do. That's why I want it. I like my freedom. Don't lock me in. I like to wiggle around a little bit, come back to wherever I need to be at. And Candice has been like that. If you think about, you know, our weed man, he's always wiggled around.
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You ain't lying. Be there in 10 minutes, 2 hours later, baby, where you at? I like that for you.
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So that is bill 253. Yes, AB 253. Yes, AB 253. Moving on to the next one is SB 402.
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Okay.
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So this one is a mentor bill. So this is basically a special credit for businesses to mentor people. I think the cap is going to be two years you'll be able to work in a particular industry at a cultivation at a production company something along those lines for two years and it's a transferable credit so I think that's pretty awesome yes please now my question is is this free or repaying these mentors because well shout out to the champions of this bill so senator Pat Spearman and Assemblyman C.H. Miller are the champions of this bill. And it looked like the co-sponsor was Dallas Harris. So shout out to our legislative officials because this is a very much needed bill. It creates an incubator program or it's starting to create, right, with the language. It's starting to create in policy a requirement and some pathway to an incubator program that's approved where it will kind of hopefully dismiss some of the fear about minority participation on the dispensary level, on the cultivation level, on the production level, which is where we don't have participation. We're creating that social equity participation level on the consumption lounge model. But even the consumption lounge are not the manufacturing facilities. So you're still you know what I mean? Yeah, you're gonna make a lot of money eventually, but that's what the growth of the market, right? That's a different type of, you know, it's almost like retail, right? Yeah. So I mean, this this bill is near and dear to me because, you know, I remember when I first got into the industry. Yes, I did media about it, but I hadn't had the chance to have my physical hands on it and I got a lot of backlash. It was like oh well why does she get to get this because she doesn't know anything she doesn't like what wait a second there I have to start somewhere you know what I'm saying so to have something that says like hey we accept this like we encourage you guys to have mentees and mentor these people and show them the way because this is such a new industry shout out to Larry Smith that was my mentor in the coming into the wheat industry. So I think that's amazing. Definitely want to support that. Yeah absolutely and you know and not to just double back on the how important this is but it also allows you to get mentorship for those larger higher paying roles too. Not just on a licensed ownership standpoint but even being able to not be a trimmer you might not want to be a trimmer like you shouldn't have like there's not always growth opportunities in all these companies some people just want you to be a trimmer it doesn't and that's all cat right that's the cat so in order to for you to really get that like knowledge and stuff like that and there's a new injuries so much education around it's gonna be very exciting so I think that that's a great bill and I'm so so excited I'm gonna support it testify should we talk about testifying and how important it is to leave public? Well I want to do the bills and then at the end we'll say how we can support and what we need to do to do. Thank you. Thank you for keeping me. No problem. I know. I already know because you're coming with it. All right so the next bill is AB 286 and this one is to allow people in jail to vote. This one is advocating to put polls actually inside of the jail instead of a mail-in ballot and they want it inside of the county, the city, detention centers, state facilities that they can register the vote and then cast that ballot. So that is AB 286. I know that there was a bill that passed that they could vote but I believe that that was in a mail-in capacity so if you are there then you'll be able to register. That'll be bomb. Like if that ends up happening. I'm just always trying to shout out who brought these bills on because I don't remember this by heart. But that is very important for folks incarcerated to vote. That's there's a lot of power in that. So the sponsors of that is Assemblywoman Sandra Oh, no, I might botch her last name. Jerry key and Senator Melanie Sheevil. Shout out to them. Okay, I make sure maybe we can do her last name.
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Jesse.
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The Sandra J.
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Sandra J.
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Okay, assemblywoman Sandra J. And Melanie Sheeble. This is another dope to be able to get folks incarcerated.
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Absolutely.
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And then we have SB 371. Now this is the affordable housing bill. Do you know who the champions this one?
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Yeah, let's look it up.
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Okay. I can't wait to I love you for that. That up. So this one is basically wants to put a cap on the rent. I am interested to see like, exactly how we're going to do this. Is it like you can only be a certain percentage over your mortgage? Because of course, that's, you know, that has to be covered. Or otherwise, it wouldn't even make sense to rent. But because of what the pandemic and everything that kind of happened. People were raising rents and you know, and Vegas is, is definitely a growing city with the teams coming here and people moving here from California and trying to get away from it. They raising our rent. We're trying to just, the people that's been here, we just trying to live, baby. We ain't asking for none of this. You, that's a, that's a huge point. Nobody asked for none of this. That's crazy. So the, um, the, so Senate growth and infrastructure is who's presenting this bill and that is a group They comprise of Assemblywoman Dallas Harris Assemblyman Chris Brooks Assemblywoman Pat Spearman Assemblyman Scott Salmon and Assemblyman Keith Pickard That is who is on this and yes Senate growth and infrastructure. That's pretty dope Okay. All right. Let's see if it passed. I mean, I might I that's gonna I don't know if you guys ever watching that list, but it might go up during this one because it might be a lot of testimonies, things that are like, really trending and really popular. Absolutely. Dave sometimes will have a lot of public comment and on both sides, right? Because I'm not gonna target I'm not gonna target but there's gonna be people that oppose for sure. Absolutely. There's gonna be people that oppose. Yeah. All right. Yeah. So the last not least bill that I wanted to cover today was AB 240. Yes, AB 240. So that was the one with the plant caps. So I'm going to let you go ahead and... Yes, so AB 240 is important because it's kind of attacking our home growth. So right now there are home growth laws in place that allow you to just be normal and grow plants. But like you should be able to grow like whatever I mean, we're not seven correct right now It's six of them. Yeah, you know this bill wants you to it's reducing that to four so the primary sponsor on this just because we want to for sure oppose this and I'm going to Do that too is Assemblyman Philip P. K. O'Neill, so that's not something we want. We definitely don't want them to reduce our plant counts it counts. Like some people are growing special stuff for their medicines, some people are just learning at home. I mean, it's really nobody's business. And then it also, based off of, you know, shout out to my girl Shelby, me and her went for lunch recently and she kind of was sharing with me details about how it also allows city officials and government officials into your house to check on it. Yeah, like you're basically like, oh yeah, here's, you know, this is the water people they're checking it's like what no this is not even a business this is like my person I would not let you in my garden with that energy you don't have to record or report to anyone if you are growing the plant currently correct so how so see now you try to get in my business that doesn't even make sense I understand there are regulations you have to be within a certain feet from schools you can't grow plants that are being sold in 25 feet 25 feet from dispensaries that that are near you okay all right fine which is very hard to do already they've already removed like you know 90% of the home grows within the city of Vegas because there's 20 dispensary every 25 feet unless you're growing very strange specifics and you know about like phenol honey and genetics and acquisition and things like that. So it's like, yeah, so I don't understand the clause of wanting to go from six to four and then allowing people to come into your home and be like, Oh, you got plans? Let me check them out. And
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excuse me.
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You know, they always just trying to find reasons to keep enforcement. There's a there's just people out there who enjoy enforcement and I'm on the side that like like loose regulation. Do you know? There are very people there are people out there who just don't like loose regulations and I feel like it's a very fear based like Print place to regulate from you know what I mean absolutely because yeah like a six plants is not even a lot of plants It's not it's not so that's a b 240 so we kind of went over a couple bills I want to explain and go over how you guys can support what you can do Regardless if you can actually show up there you can send emails you can testify you can do those types of things so if they wanted to testify what and I know testify kind of makes you oh makes you clench a little bit but it's for a good cause this is to help you and I and I in you yes so Nellis is actually our so how you get to Nellis if we could drop it below is you know ledge.state.nv.gov so it's ledge.state.nv.us excuse me sorry I said that so that's pretty much how you can get to Nellis so there's a little just so you guys are aware can I don't know if people can see my screen. I'll do it on the screen. Oh you'll do it on the screen? Okay so you sign on a Nellis and right in the top it says select a session. So when you sign on the Nellis, it probably will automatically prompt you to the 81st session. We're in 2023. This is the 82nd session. So go to 82nd session. Then when you go to 82nd session, you can search for bill by name. You guys just got the bill numbers from us. That's how you search the bill. So you put in AB, you know, 253. And then you can read who's sponsoring it. You can read all the information about the bills, how we're, you know, presenting the bills. And then right now, that's how bills are also negotiated, right? Because people who oppose bills might oppose it for different reasons in that text. So then you negotiate it by, so that they don't kill your bill or oppose your bill by saying, hey, maybe we can move this, add this. There's a lot of things that happen up there in legislative sessions and lobbying and all the jazz, but that's another day, another time. And that's really where CEIC was birthed, to educate on civic engagement and policy and make sure our people were empowered by that right. Like it's more than voting. There's a whole process after voting, that includes testifying and showing up, that supports voting. You know, if you don't do one, you got to kind of do both, you know what I mean? All right, so if you wanted to send an email, yep, who do we send this email to? So when you go there, it also has- On Nellis, on the same website. On the same website, it has their emails. So then you would be able to send everybody an email that is sponsoring the bill, which you also could just send all the legislators, all the legislators emails are on there. So for example, if it's being heard in the Judiciary Committee, I would go to the Judiciary Committee, I would look at all those names on the Judiciary Committee, and then all their emails are there. And I just just copy paste right in my thing and blast them. Yes absolutely. I mean sorry. Oh no it's all good. So do the calls as well can we call or okay so the number that you need is also on the Nellis website that is like the home front where you start. That's the home front period and you can it's always great to register you could track I think I don't want to say I want to say maybe 10, but it might be less than that. You could track a certain, a limited number of bills for free. So, you know, if you want to track these bills, you also be able to see whether they die, whether they live, whether they're getting amended, like any updates, and if they change committees because they go through a certain amount of committees. I forgot that number before they're actually passed. So right now we're in the judiciary committee. So we have to get a workshop and we have nine days to do that in order to go to the next committee, right? So because then, that's where our voices come in, because us making noise shows priority and it shows importance and it shows urgency and passion and support from the community behind certain things. If we don't create that, then they're like,
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oh, they don't really care about it. Nobody cares, nobody cares.
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I mean, honestly, it's crazy that they don't consider lives, like kids, jobs, like, the rent has increased.
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Right, right.
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Do you get what I'm saying? Like, it's like we in the but you still have to take time out to advocate these things or they will quietly in these closed doors make policies that are, you know, ineffective for certain communities, right? Absolutely. So that is why it's important to have groups like CEIC out there advocating. And it's also important to for you to know that yeah, I understand that you may be busy, you may have things going on, but there is a thing that you can do to help move these things forward. It takes 10 minutes out of your time. Type up this email and send it off. Let us know how we can help you make this easier so that we can get some opportunity out there and get a voice for ourselves because ultimately, you know, the cannabis license bill, the vendor bill, you may not personally care about that, but this housing bill where the rent is, we're advocating for it to be capped you may care about that I mean you may own your home but your cousin sister auntie brother mama daddy is rent so it's important for you to be informed on these things so before we switch completely off from bills and whatnot is anything else you mean to touch on any
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bills we need to touch on or any ways to get involved to get our voices heard yes
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okay so the way that you need to get involved is that we need you to show up or write in letters of support for AB 253, which is the Mobile Cannabis Vendor License Bill. It's being championed by C.H. Miller, but it's in Judiciary Committee, so the chair is Assemblywoman Brittany Miller, and the vice chair is Assemblywoman Elaine Marzola. go there the whole everybody at once it's a sm j ud at a sm dot state dot nv dot us and that contact information if you don't that's the email if you want to email in any supporting documents public comment things like that's my Assemblyman right now assemblyman David right, but I'm sending it all to everybody I'm sending those that know me those that don't that way
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I
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Need you to act like just like you be clocking out on spirit when they didn't give you that credit back when they cancel your Flight ain't give you that money, so you started emailing everybody. I need you to have this same Energy, okay, thank you for that analogy okay that's a good analogy i'm all right now i know my people i know y'all okay okay so um all right so i know the 30 minutes went by super fast we didn't even get to even touch on the other things you have going on but we had to make sure we'd be responsible and handle this so i definitely have to have you come back so we can you know flip side it no we want to flip side it plus they're all their own they deserve their own time. I would like I would need to rush it you know what I mean so yeah for sure. All right so is there any way that we can follow you on social media your organization? So you can follow me on social media personally at officially underscore Asia Denise and that's on Instagram and I'm just Asia Denise on Facebook and Asia Denise on LinkedIn. I'm out here in the community as a, you know, just I can, I'm an entrepreneur and a lot of other things, but you know, I consider myself an advocate first and a servant leader. So I would love to be able to, you know, create spaces where we can, you know, create self-determination and self-empowerment for our people. So I have like spaces that I do that. So I don't want to go into all those spaces, but for the most part with the bills and the civic engagement and the cannabis you can catch us at CESENV.org. We meet every first Tuesday of the month and then you can join our newsletter or our group and that's how we can communicate. But yeah, like I'm very very available and I think that's what's great. We have like a big small city like it's even our legislators are very available like they want to hear you like we found out that they're like there's not enough chatter like what's going on like they want to hear our voices. So all right. Well, here we go. Okay. I appreciate you taking time to speak with me Thank you again to the business entertainment West for the sponsorship If anyone would like a mention or sponsorship, you can reach me at Angie T dot on air at gmail.com Thank you, Wesley in the sound room If you'd like to run this episode back or if you missed any previous episodes You can search Sativa talk podcast on Spotify Google Play, Amazon Music, Audible, Podcast Addict, and of course UNLV's website. My Instagram is AngieT underscore on air or Angie Thompson on
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Facebook. I want to send my love and appreciation out to you guys for tuning Facebook. I want to send my love and appreciation out to you guys for tuning in and I'll see you next week.
Transcribed with Cockatoo