I'm the director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of Antiwar.com, author of the book Fool's Aaron, Time to End the War in Afghanistan, and the brand new Enough Already, Time to End the War on Terrorism, and I've recorded more than 5,500 interviews since 2003, almost all on foreign policy, and all available for you at scotthorton.org.
You can sign up for the podcast feed there, and the full interview archive is also available at youtube.com slash scotthorton show.
All right, you guys, this one's sort of kind of like an infomercial sort of a thing, but I don't care.
It's all right.
My new advertiser, Jared Wall, and he and his lovely wife, whose name is really hard to pronounce and so hard to memorize.
They run The Hemp Spot, thehempspot.com, but you gotta spell V-T-H-C, haha, get it?
It's like a pun kind of thing.
The Hemp Spot, and what it is is, yeah, it's pot on the internet, and that's because it's Delta 8 THC, some kind of funny isomer that gets through a legal loophole where Jared and his lovely wife can sell pot on the internet.
Welcome back to the show, or no, welcome to the show.
How you doing, Jared?
Yeah, very happy to be here.
I'm excited to join you.
All right.
So- And my wife's name is Karubo, by the way.
It's a Swahili name, so yeah, it's definitely difficult to pronounce and memorize, so no problem there.
Yeah.
She's a great lady.
I like her.
Yeah, I like her.
Yeah.
Yeah, we all hung out together at the Libertarian Party State Convention in North Carolina where I gave a talk, and you guys sold a bunch of people right out there in the open.
With no sheriff's department stopping by.
It was great.
Yeah, it was awesome.
It was really funny.
How's that work, that you can sell jars of bud on the open market without the sheriff's department dropping by like that?
Well, it was kind of funny.
I didn't really even know that Delta 8 was a thing until about seven or eight months ago.
I was traveling, you know, this is the hempspot.com, THChempspot.com.
That's not really my, you know, that's not where most of our money comes from by any means.
So we started with this online business thing.
But I was traveling for my day job, and as I was checking into the hotel, the man behind the counter was going through his usual spiel as, you know, when checkout time is and when the bar opens and all this stuff.
So I asked him, I said, you know, I wasn't really interested in trying to get, you know, my drink on that night by any means.
But I asked him, he seemed kind of like a chill guy, so I asked him, I said, hey, you know, any chance you know someone or someplace where I might be able to find some cannabis around here instead?
And he just suggested, he was like, go to the CBD shop, it's about 10 minutes from here.
I was like, oh, man, I don't want CBD, you know, I want the real stuff.
And but I didn't have anything else to do, so I went and checked it out.
And I walked into the CBD store, I had never been in a CBD store before.
And I asked the man behind the counter there, I was like, so tell me about this CBD stuff.
Is it anything like the real thing?
And he was like, you want to you want to check out this Delta 8?
It's a new product that's it's THC.
I was like, it's THC, really?
I thought I thought that was illegal.
And so he started telling me a little bit about it, that it's Delta 8.
And kind of like you mentioned, it's just a different isomer, a different variant of the THC polymer that fell through the loophole when when what when DC passed the farm bills of 2014 and 2018, that legalized industrial hemp, you know, hemp production for clothing or rope or plastics or petroleum products, things like that.
But in that bill, when they legalized industrial hemp, they were trying to make sure that people couldn't get high as a result of it, you know, couldn't get that that that nice reverse headache feeling.
And so what they did was they said they mandated that anybody who's growing hemp for, you know, this industrial purposes, it has to have less than 0.3 percent THC.
THC, obviously, is the chemical that that is the has the psychotropic effects.
And but what they did when they said it has to be less than 0.3 percent THC, they specified Delta 9 THC, which makes sense.
It's the by far the most commonly found variant of THC.
But you know, in the years since, people have figured out that there are other variants of THC.
And if they focus on those, then they can sell pot legally and, you know, be perfectly above board with with these farm bill laws.
And so you're you can see you walk into any Delta 8 or any CBD store around the country and you'll more than likely find Delta 8 for sale.
And if you buy it and try it, it's you'll be shocked.
It's the same exact thing.
Right.
All right.
So what about if somebody has a job where they got to take a piss test all the time or say they're on probation for having some pot in their pocket already one day or something like that?
Yeah, they they they would probably want to be more careful.
They will piss hot.
They'll test positive.
Those tests aren't that sophisticated to be able to tell the difference between Delta 8 THC and Delta 9 THC.
They could probably.
That's too bad.
Yeah, it's too bad that they could probably fight it and, you know, prove it in a court of law.
But, you know, all of that is a major headache.
Hey, listen to each his own and everything.
But I made a joke about this in the ad that I cut for you.
But it's really true that I do have a friend who's got a drinking problem and I'm always telling him, man, you should just smoke pot instead.
And you know, to each his own.
And for people who drink and don't have a problem, that's fine.
But if you've got a problem with drinking, while the people you care about the most are sick of you because you're drunk all the time, well, man, maybe you should just become a pothead instead.
It couldn't be that bad.
You know, I don't know.
And I mean, you're not going to have the same, you know, an alcoholic has problems where they black out and get in car accidents and beat their wives and, you know, all kinds of stuff.
I don't know many potheads that have those kind of issues.
In fact, I don't know any potheads that have those kind of issues.
Yeah, seriously, man, it'd be a better world.
Like Bill Hicks said, a pot shouldn't just be legalized.
It should be mandatory.
Shut up and smoke that here.
All right.
Oh, yeah.
Hey.
I thought this all mattered.
I guess it doesn't.
Hey, y'all.
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Time to end the war on terrorism at enoughalreadybook.net.
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It's all there for you.
It might change a friend's mind.
Enough Already.
Time to end the war on terrorism at enoughalreadybook.net.
Hey, guys.
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Hey, guys.
Check out Listen and Think audiobooks.
They're listenandthink.com and, of course, onaudible.com.
And they feature my book, Fool's Errand, Time to End the War in Afghanistan, as well as brand new Out Inside Syria by our friend Reese Ehrlich, and a lot of other great books, mostly by libertarians there.
Reese might be one exception, but essentially they're all libertarian audiobooks.
And here's how you can get a lifetime subscription to Listen and Think audiobooks.
Just donate $100 to The Scott Horton Show at scotthorton.org slash donate.
All right.
Anyway, well, listen.
So I think this is great.
Now, in how many of the 50 states is this no problem for people to receive pot from thehempspot.com in their mailbox?
Spelling the with a C for the E. Yeah, I haven't gone through and, you know, really done the research on a state by state and jurisdiction by jurisdiction basis, because that's more or less impossible.
Like, there's some states that are fine with it.
And then there's cities or towns that are a little bit less thrilled about it.
The thing is that it is that it's legal on the federal level.
And and even in the states and the jurisdictions that have tried to make it illegal or make, you know, close that loophole, there are ongoing, you know, legal battles associated with it.
And so, you know, I'm not, you know, in my conversations with attorneys as we were getting this started, you know, we did some kind of had some consultations to to get a better feel for the the legal side of the business.
And they were basically trying to tell me without telling me that, like, you know, you'll be all right.
But basically, like, they're not there's no talk at the federal level of trying to do anything about Delta eight.
And the states that have tried to do something about Delta eight, they it's it's still kind of ongoing.
There's there's ongoing legal legal battles.
And so, yeah, I mean, as far as shipping it through the mail, you know, the USPS we've been using and we've had no problems that we include with every with every shipment that we make, we include a letter, you know, saying that, hey, this is this falls under shipment of lawful hemp per the farm bill subsection, such and such paragraph, such and such, et cetera.
So we've got all of that documentation that we include with every shipment.
And beyond that, we've got third party independent lab testing of every product that we sell that, you know, you can go online and see exactly how much THC is in whatever product you want to buy, how much, you know, if there's any pesticides or what levels of CBD is in it.
And so you can be very confident that it does meet that less than point three percent Delta nine THC threshold, but still have plenty of the Delta eight THC that will get you feeling good.
Cool, man.
All right.
And now so it seems like you could I don't know about the post office because who's got the authority to say, but it seems like you could put in a call to UPS and FedEx and get an official opinion by them about what they think of this or have they put out an official statement saying, go ahead and use us to ship this stuff as long as it's within this loophole or could you get them to tell you?
That's a that's a really good question.
I should reach out to to their legal department and see if I can get clarification on that.
I've been using the post office so far just because it's a little bit cheaper.
But and because they're they're everywhere.
But I mean, yeah, UPS and FedEx, that would be an option, too.
But I have not researched how they're dealing with with this Delta eight stuff.
I know that they're shipping CBD product.
So I would imagine that they would ship Delta eight product as well.
It's basically impossible to tell the difference just by looking at it.
So yeah, that's that's a really good question.
I need to research that for for my own business purposes.
Yeah.
Forget DHL.
They're a bunch of rats.
So you don't want to bother with them.
Yeah, I've heard that about them.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, listen, I think this is great.
And legal loopholes, you know, you can get one.
Yeah.
I think.
How's the business going so far?
I mean, tell me.
Well, also say what you were going to say just now.
Well, I was going to get into kind of, you know, what what excites me about the industry a little bit in terms of, you know, you talk about the wars all the time, but I know you also talk about the war on drugs pretty regularly, too.
And, you know, I just love this the story of market ingenuity beats, you know, states and political prohibition.
You know, I kind of liken it to Uber coming up and basically destroying the taxi medallion system in New York City.
It's great for consumers.
And it really, you know, all of those issues with the war on drugs, all the people losing their freedom, getting locked up, you know, thrown behind bars or all the violence that has come out of the war on drugs between the gangs and the cartels.
I just I was just listening to your your interview with with Dave Cohen about what's going on in Colombia.
And so, you know, I love that story of the the market just saying, you know what, we're smarter than you.
These prohibitions are stupid and we're just going to go ahead and figure out a way to play within your rules, but also get around your rules at the same time.
I really like that story.
All right.
Well, one thing one last thing I would say to that point and kind of, you know, it's kind of the question that I've gotten over the years is, you know, do I do I prefer legalization or decriminalization?
And, you know, any any movement in the direction of reducing the number of laws associated with everything, anything, but especially with drugs, is a good step in the right direction.
But as far as legalization versus decriminalization, I prefer the term decriminalization over legalization, just because I like to think that, you know, the ultimate goal should be to have no crimes associated with these products at all.
So no occupational licensing barriers to entry for people who want to start to go down the entrepreneurial path in these industries.
And, you know, the the war on drugs over the years has been most hard on poor minorities, poor blacks here in the U.S.
And legalization and decriminalization should help those communities more than anybody because because it should be such a simple entry into this this this this industry and into, you know, this economic sector and be able to start buying and selling these these products.
And seriously, just think of and this is the most extreme case.
But still just think of how many people have gotten shot based on interactions with cops who claim that they smelled pot.
And so now they get to open a door, grab a person, escalate and and create a conflict and people die over that.
So, yeah, you're right.
They're like, hey, pal, this is just, you know, the legal stuff.
I only like the smell of it or whatever means that it kind of nullifies all of that as you know, and I guess in some states they've already officially repealed that as a possible probable cause on the books.
I've read that.
So, yeah, that's so important, too, because it's such a license to persecute people.
And who could ever say that a cop didn't smell weed if he says he did?
You know what I mean?
It's such a giant, you know, excuse and a loophole through the law that they get to abuse all the time.
Absolutely.
And even, you know, we were kind of talking about how some states and some jurisdictions are trying to outlaw Delta 8 and close that loophole.
Colorado, believe it or not, is one of the first states that went that direction.
And it shocked me because Colorado was one of the leading states on, you know, just legal weed in general.
What I found out is that it's the big corporate legal cannabis interests in Colorado and in other states that are lobbying to close the Delta 8 loophole, basically to shut off their competition, which just, you know, it drives me crazy and is all the more reason why I want to grow, you know, this Delta 8 business, you know, as big as I can just to kind of stick it in those those people's finger that, you know, we fought for so long, for so many years to end this prohibition.
And now the people who are making money off of that prohibition want to do the same thing just so that it protects them, so that it helps their pocketbook and, you know, that helps their bottom line and their their profit and loss.
It's so corrupt.
They don't even know how ashamed they should be.
You know, it's just crazy.
As if we even live in a free market economy.
Yeah, in any way, which, by the way, I knew a guy who had a farm up there growing weed in Colorado, and then the Albanian mafia came and said, you know, your farm belongs to us now.
And he said to them, you're right.
It sure does.
Got the hell out of there, you know, because it's still a quasi black market.
There's enough taxes on it and there's neighboring states still have it criminalize all these things.
So the prices haven't really fallen.
It's not really an open access type market.
It's still essentially a black market or a gray market in many ways.
And so it's still run by gangsters.
So you didn't you didn't decriminalize it.
You kept it criminalized, you know.
Exactly.
By putting all of those taxes on it, it makes it, you know, it's still cheaper to just go to your guy, you know.
Right.
And that's what I heard that specifically about the state of Washington, that they had their taxes so high that it was just cheaper to to continue operating in the black market.
And so the whole time I lived in L.A., I never went to those stores, get a medical license and all this stuff.
I just, you know, I got a friend.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And so, you know, I like that.
That's one of the other things about I like about Delta A, it's that it's not all hung up in this medical industry and legal legality world, you know.
So so you can just walk into a store, put gifts, give the dude some cash and walk out.
You don't have to leave your name.
You know, you don't have to even use a credit card.
Your name doesn't have to be involved with it.
Anyway, anywhere.
I mean, if you buy online, that's not the case.
But, you know, a lot of these medical databases of people getting pot cards and whatnot.
I've been hearing rumors and, you know, I haven't really looked into if it's beyond just rumor, but that, you know, they're going to start using those those lists or that they might start using those lists as excuses to not allow people to buy firearms.
They have.
Yeah.
No.
In some places that's been a problem already.
Yeah.
Terrible.
Yeah.
So it's just it's just crazy.
So, I mean, again, you know, any any opening that we get where there is an opportunity to kind of bypass these laws that they have on the books, you know, I think it's important to take advantage of those.
Yeah, man.
All right.
So and now tell us real quick and got to go in a minute.
But tell us about the website.
Tell us about what you got, the different kinds and this and that.
And I don't know.
Make your pitch.
Yeah, sure.
So it's the hemp spot.
We spell it THC hemp spot dot com.
You spell out THC hemp spot.
It kind of looks like the hemp spot.
So it's just kind of a fun play on words there as the the best domain still available when I was looking.
But anyway, yeah, we've got four different kinds of buds for sale currently different different levels of THC.
You know, if you've got a real high tolerance, you want something strong.
We got something for you.
If you're just if you're new to it, we got something for you also, you know, lesser milligrams of delta THC per gram of of bud of flower is what we call it on online.
We've also got pre-rolled cigarettes, pre-rolled joints, essentially, that, you know, they just get shipped to you and all you have to do is spark it up.
You don't have to grind any flour or roll it up or anything like that.
And we've also got a whole bunch of edibles available from gummies to honey sticks to peanut brittle.
And we're adding new products all the time.
We got a new flower that's going to be coming in that currently our strongest flower is about 50 milligrams of delta THC per gram.
This new flower that I just I just ordered that we're going to be getting in stock here soon is going to have two hundred and sixty milligrams of delta THC per gram.
So it's going to be about four times stronger, which personally I'm excited for it.
My brother in law, who's been partaking of our products, is exciting of it, excited about it.
So, yeah, it's it's the HempSpot THC HempSpot dot com.
And if they use coupon code Horton, they get right now we've got a grand grand opening celebration going on through the end of July.
Right now they'll get 30 percent off.
Plus you get a cut just for helping spread the word here.
And just because I like what you do and I want to help support your show.
So if somebody wants to help support your show and get high at the same time, the HempSpot is the is the place to do it.
THC HempSpot dot com.
All right.
Thanks, Jared.
Appreciate it, man.
Definitely.
Thanks for having me, Scott.
Aren't you guys?
That's Jared Wall.
The HempSpot dot com.
Check it out.
The Scott Horton Show antiwar radio can be heard on KPFK 90.7 FM in L.A.
APS radio dot com antiwar dot com Scott Horton dot org and Libertarian Institute dot org.
