They Love to Say they Know a Stoner
Thoughts Off The Stem | Cannabis Infused Comedy

0:00
One of my favorite jobs was when I worked at the pawn shop.
I mean, that was the best.
How often do you get to work at a place where you could describe things that are like offside, you know, like, not that I recommend doing this, but you can literally say to somebody, how fucked up do you want to get today?
0:19
And then try to sell them something.
It’s amazing.
It’s it’s pretty, it’s pretty fun, dude.
You can wear whatever you want.
You can have, like, questionable, you know, paraphernalia and emblazoned T-shirts.
0:37
You could do things however you kind of want to do them.
There’s like no real strict policies.
Like you, yeah, you have to talk.
You know, you have to be nice.
You have to, you know, it’d be inclusive and things like that.
But if you’re trying to make a sale or you’re trying to sell something, you can very easily.
Like, I don’t know how many times I had, you know, a university kid that I had helped find some really good flower, right?
1:00
And then he’d bring his buddies in and he’d be like, you need to talk to that guy, ’cause it’s Saturday or it’s Friday night and we want to get zooted or whatever the term is, right?
So they bring them over to me and the guy, I’d say, well, like, what do you want to do?
And they’re like, oh, we’re partying, dude.
We’re partying tonight, bro.
1:16
That’s what we’re doing.
And so I’d sit down and I’d set them up with, you know, the, the 8:00 PM, the 9:00 PM, ten PM, 111212 PM and or 2:00 AM all the way into the morning.
And you could just keep going and everything that I gave you, all of my selections would help move along the evening, you know, without getting you too, too overly pitched.
1:39
No, no face down in the toilet, no zonked out at the corner of a club.
No, none of that.
That was like one of my favorite job, favorite parts of the job.
The other part was being able, because I’m 44, being able to help people find what it is that they’re looking for and really understand what try what, what will help them alleviate the problem that they’re having.
2:00
But aside from that, because now I’ve stepped away from that, I’m trying to get into like project management.
I took AI, took a course on it and it, it fell in line with how I was the, my job, my job from the shop, I was an assistant manager.
2:16
So it kind of fell in line with that.
I was very, I was responsible for, you know, coaching and helping people move forward.
That was my thing.
But now moving into project management, I’ve stepped away from the cannabis industry, tried to go a little bit more mainstream.
Even though I love, even though I love cannabis, even though I love weed and I like doing my thing.
2:34
And it’s April, and it’s almost that time of year where it’s, you know, the cannabis, the canister is Christmas.
Yeah, that’s right.
Welcome to THOUGHTS off the STEM.
Thanks for joining me.
I’m Justin Peroni.
Hope life’s being good to you.
And today we’re just shooting the shit.
We’re going to have a sash, a proper sash.
Puff it out some 1964.
2:56
It’s an indica.
It’s nice and relaxing.
It’s nice and calm.
But yeah, so I’ve started to, you know, look into other industries to sort of like, I don’t know, I just, I found that the cannabis industry was just a little bit too chaotic, you know, and I always like to affect the things that I do.
3:15
I want to be able to progress.
I want to be able to move forward and I want to, I want to learn.
And when you work in a shop, you don’t necessarily have the opportunity to learn the way that I like to learn.
Like I like to get hands on with things.
I like to get into things.
I like to, I like to be able to control some of it if I can, or at least provide prove that I could do a good job so that I get some of that control right and opportunity.
3:40
And within the cannabis industry, if you’re a retail manager, assistant manager, you work at a shop, there’s not a lot of room for movement.
If you own a shop, if you own one of these bigger brands, if you’re at the at the top of the hierarchy there, then you do pretty well.
But as I’ve moved into the mainstream again, I started to notice because this happened, I, I left about a year ago and I’ve been trying to move into the mainstream.
4:06
And, and even like 6 to 8 months ago, I started to notice that in my job applications to newer companies, I think that my, my, my, my time in the cannabis industry had a negative impression or has a negative or yeah, had a negative impression to new businesses like mainstream business.
4:28
And I feel like a lot of people would still still have had like a stigma to it.
Now I’ve noticed in the last probably month or two, maybe 3 months, because I have management qualifications, I’ve done a certification in, in, in project management.
4:44
There’s a little bit more legitimacy to me and maybe I’ve distanced myself enough from it.
But I still love weed and I still love, I still love the industry and I still like having my toes in it, you know, dipping my toes in.
But I’ve noticed, because I’ve gone on a lot of interviews, I’ve really noticed that everybody, everybody dude likes to, to know or wants to know a Stoner or a pothead or somebody that partakes, you know, because even the soothiest of suits, as has in these interviews, if I tell them I’m in Canada or I worked in cannabis, because it’s right on my resume.
5:24
You know, they kind of have this look on their face at first like, Oh, I don’t know.
But then as you explain what you did and as you get into the technical sides of it and and they realize that you’re not just, you know, huffing mass amounts of weed to try and keep your day moving, they kind of go, oh, OK, look, you’re smarter than I thought you were.
5:40
Like, yeah, you know what?
Potheads aren’t dumb.
Potheads are kind of smart.
We do.
We’re it it, it fills this void of curiosity, you know, or it, or it helps to it helps to promote curiosity, I guess you could say, because when you smoke a little bit of weed and you get a little bit reflective, the next thing you know, you’re questioning everything.
6:00
And if you see something that you’re interested in, guess what you’re doing, you’re deep diving that shit.
So as I’ve, as I’ve interviewed with some of these people and they’re very suit oriented people, you know, like very proper, very, you wouldn’t think that they would partake.
And as you have these discussions and, and then as the interview kind of winds down and you start having more of a, a personal discussion rather than a business discussion, and you, you start to note it.
6:25
Like they’ll lean in, they’ll do the whole lean in, right?
They’ll, they’ll lean and go, you know, my cousin or my sister or my brother-in-law or, you know, my grandfather or my father or whatever.
You know, they, they, they smoke a little bit of cannabis and they have this look on their face like they’re telling you that they just met a rock star.
6:44
You know what I’m saying?
And yeah, I found when I think back on those, because I’ve had a few of those moments lately where they kind of like take you to the side and they sidle over.
Like you could be in a boardroom full of people and then almost every single person at that table that’s interviewing you or, or in that board setting will find you after and they’ll corner you.
7:03
And then in hushed tones, they’ll just be like, hey, bro, my, my, my wife smokes a little bit of weight.
You know what I’m saying?
Like they’re trying to get buddy buddy with you, even if they don’t give you the job, even even if they, you know, still have their own connotation or the business has its own connotation towards people that indulge in weed.
7:25
They all got to find this like common ground where it’s like, Hey, I know someone man, I know I do.
I don’t do it.
I don’t, I personally, personally, I don’t do it.
I don’t do it.
I don’t, I don’t do it.
But you know, I know a couple people that do.
That happens every time.
And it used to happen more suddenly, I guess, like, you know, 810 years ago when it had first become legal, because a lot of people obviously didn’t want to be associated with it because it still had this stigma to it that it was negative.
7:54
And I and I thought we got past that.
Like I thought we got past the whole, you know, mush mouth, glazy eyed, lazy Stoner.
Like I thought, I think that at this point where there’s enough people in high power positions or, or or, you know, wealthy intelligent effectors of society that have come out and said, yes, milkweed all the time, dude.
8:18
And that’s how I came up with my processing system, you know, or that’s how I came up with this idea for clean drinking water.
You know what I’m saying?
Like, I thought we got past this whole stigma thing, but there you could tell still tell you could still tell that there’s a slight stigma to it and there’s a slight stigma to it where people will be like eyebrow, I know you didn’t get this job, but like just want you to know my wife smokes a hell a ton of weed.
8:44
Like what are we talking about, dude?
You know, just just admit it.
Especially in Canada, it’s it’s legal.
You could get it at every fucking corner store.
We basically have like coffee shops full of weed.
Like, you know, it’s, it’s comparable to Tim horton’s at this point.
Tim horton’s is on every goddamn corner.
9:00
And guess what?
There’s a pawn shop right next to every single one of them.
I remember one time they tried to open a pawn shop in a gas station.
Do you understand how how heavy the regulations are on pawn shops?
You opening in a gas station’s crazy because you can’t have anybody.
You can’t have anybody.
9:16
No one, no one under the age of 19 is allowed to see in or be in there.
How the hell are you going to open up a pawn shop at the side of a gas station?
Like I don’t know if you go to these on the run places, but on the run you get you can have you get your gas right?
And then they’re like a mini convenience store and then they have some kind of like whether it’s Wendy’s or or Tim horton’s or like Subway or something like that right there.
9:38
So you can buy food too.
Like the days of the Quickie Mart and having like those rotisserie hot dogs are over though.
Now what they have is they have full blown franchises sitting next to the counter, right?
So like, I don’t know why we’re not past this stigma, and I don’t know why everybody wants to like, hush it up and be like, dude, I know you smoke weed and I know you didn’t get the job, but guess what?
10:03
My daughter smokes weed.
She loves that, like everybody, their weed is for everyone, OK?
It’s not a bad thing.
It’s actually very beneficial.
It’s not always beneficial.
I also don’t like the opposite of that.
I don’t like the opposite where everybody goes all going home be like, well, weed’s great for you.
10:21
It’s natural breath.
You should just take it like rub it all over your body and heal yourself.
No, it’s still you’re still putting foreign substances in your lungs.
You know, if you’re eating, if you’re eating it, it’s probably the best way to deal with it because we’re the best way to handle it or ingest it because it it’s it’s less likely at this point with what we understand and what we know, it’s less likely to have negative health impacts.
10:47
Whereas if you’re smoking something like even I’m smoking a vape right now, as clean a process as you can make that vape, right?
Like the the oils in the vape, it’s still a foreign substance in your body that your body is not really supposed to be inhaling.
11:05
So you could still end up with health issues.
So I also don’t like the flip side of I also don’t like the flip side of the discussion where everybody’s too like, it’s good for you, it’s good for you sometimes, OK.
But like it’s this, it’s moderation.
11:20
Anything in moderation you have to have in moderation, right?
So anything doesn’t matter what it is.
And it’s not always healthy for you.
Like people, everything reacts to people in different ways, right?
Like everybody has a different reaction.
So like, you don’t know if somebody ingested something bad is going to happen.
11:40
It’s not going to most likely it’s not going to kill them or hurt them like too bad, but it could still have negative health effects, you know, but that’s not my point.
My point is this it is it never fails to make me laugh when you’re talking to somebody that’s very like square straight edge or, you know, the person that you wouldn’t think that would smoke weed, start talking to you about weed.
12:03
Because they all presented in a way where they know somebody and they’re they sort of like give off the like this sly kind of underside impression.
Like, yeah, you know, I met Mark Tyson, bro.
I met a weed smoker.
A weed smoker is my best friend.
12:19
Like that’s how that’s how they do it.
They try to, you know, they get their, their, their posture changes.
They get this, like, crooked, sly smile of like, I know something, you know, you know, that they think separates them from everyone else.
Here’s the thing.
Since I worked in a pot shop and I saw hundreds of people a day, let me explain something to people.
12:40
If you run a business, it doesn’t matter what business that is, OK?
Whether you’re a cop, a firefighter, A politician, you know, Wall Street dude, high finance, hoity, toity, preppy, whatever, any way you want to classify whatever the business is that they like, the high end, low end, whatever, they’re all in there.
13:01
Dude.
I remember when I had a biz like an HR person tell me like, yeah, I know.
We really frown on people smoking weed.
I went into that business.
I knew everybody.
I didn’t know them because I’m super friendly.
I knew them because I sold them weed and there used to be a time, even when it was first open, like I, I was always the one that went to my kids school to watch like all their sports and like presentations and whatever.
13:26
Like I was that dad, right?
So when I would go, everybody would turn, they would turn away.
They would turn a blind eye.
They’d be like, I don’t know you.
They would like I’d wave.
Nope.
I’d get my hand halfway up to be like, Hey, how’s it going?
And they would turn and walk the other way because they didn’t want other people knowing.
13:42
I think at this point we could safely say that everybody knows everybody smokes weed.
It it would be like saying I don’t drink.
There’s like one in 1000 people that don’t drink.
That’s not true.
Obviously that’s not a real fact, a real statistic.
But my point is this, there’s more people and it’s legal.
13:59
You don’t have to worry about it.
It’s OK to smoke weed.
It’s you’re, it’s allowed.
You’re allowed to have it.
A lot of people do a lot harder things that are not supposed to be doing those things or things that they’re not supposed to do.
But at for whatever reason, when it comes to weed, people like to they like to hide it.
14:15
They like to keep it secret.
They don’t want everybody knowing.
And I don’t really understand that because when I smoke, like I’ll take the dog for a walk and I’ll just huff away on my pen as I walk down the road.
The only problem is sometimes as you’re huffing your pen when you walk down the road, right, you end up maybe in a convenience store to get a bottle of water and then the lights are bright.
14:39
And then you’re in a new in a new environment.
And as soon as you change that environment, guess what happens?
Well, your whole body goes, I’m high.
This is new.
I don’t know anything what’s happening?
I don’t know, you know, And then you have to adjust because as soon as you walk into that new place, your whole body goes, they all know I’m high.
14:58
I better not look high.
But then you act all rigid and then you talk ways that you don’t talk.
Then you forget things.
You stare at people, takes you too long to answer things like what are we talking about here?
I remember what time my buddy and I got baked.
We were on a walk and then we walked into a 711 and we were buying, We needed some more ice for a beer at a cooler at the house.
15:18
And we go and we buy the ice and I give the ice to my buddy thinking he’s going to put it because we’re buying a few things, thinking he’s going to put the ice on the shelf.
Like the counter where you pay for the stuff.
This motherfucker stands there like an industrial robot holding 2 bags of ice with his, like his arms are like a tray and the 2 bags of ice are on his arms.
15:40
We must have been there for probably like, I don’t know, maybe 10 minutes of him just standing there while we waited in line.
I’m like, dude, you want me to take this?
Nope, I don’t want to.
He was so high he didn’t know what to do with them, right?
So everybody’s staring at him.
I’m kind of chuckling to myself because I’m like, this motherfucker is going to be like, he’s going to become Mr. Freeze real soon.
15:58
And then we get to the counter and he still holds them.
We go outside, he takes the bags and he starts holding them by like the tags so that you can, you know, hang, hold them.
And they’re not on your arms.
He’s like, dude, my arms are frozen.
I’m like, yeah, why didn’t you put the bags down?
Like, why did you hang hold it?
That’s the type of shit you do with weed.
16:15
You know, you’re not going out, you’re not harming people, you’re not trying to fight people, you’re not trying to do anything crazy.
You’re just having a good time, you know, vibing out in your head and all the internal thoughts start rolling around.
But everybody wants to know a pothead dude.
16:31
Whether they admit it or not.
There’s like this kind of social status, I think that comes with it where if you tell somebody, hey, like I know somebody that smokes weed, all of a sudden you, it seems like they expect you to look at them like, Oh my God, you know, Jesus.
16:50
No, no, that’s not, that’s not really how it goes.
Everybody, everybody smokes weed.
Trust me, I’ve seen wherever you work.
I’ve seen everyone.
I know them all.
I know them all, maybe not by name, but I know their faces and I know their faces even in the most expensive suits.
Because every day after work, guess what?
17:06
Everybody’s got to brush the bullshit off.
And when you brush the bullshit off, guess what were you doing?
That’s right.
You’re either drinking your face off or you’re puffing a little joint, maybe go for a run, but you’re still puffing a joint.
Even fit people, dude, you go to the gym, ask next time you go to the gym.
If you have buddies that like you only see at the gym, ask them if they smoke before their workout.
17:24
I bet you’d be surprised at how many people actually smoke before a workout.
But that’s, that’s what I love.
That’s what I love about weed.
Dude, when I first started smoking weed, I was, I did, I was 18.
A lot of people start way before that, but I started at 18 because I saw everybody that was at parties that smoked weed.
17:46
We’re always laughing and having a good time.
And I was like, I want to laugh and have a good time.
I love laughing.
Like I love stand up comedy.
Eddie Murphy was my jam growing up.
Like, dude, I must have watched Delirious 100,000 times.
Like I could, I used to do an impression of him, an impression of Eddie Murphy doing an impression of a black guy.
18:04
He’s probably racist now, but it wasn’t then because I was just saying the things that he said on his special because I thought they were fucking hilarious.
But I like laughing.
So I decided to start smoking weed.
And then I went and I smoked weed.
You just have to be careful because weed is so calming and it gets you so reflective that like in your own head, you’re super productive because you’re having thoughts all the time.
18:27
But at the same time outside you’re not doing anything.
You’re just sitting in the couch staring at a wall eating a banana, you know, like or Doritos.
But that’s the that’s the fun of weed.
There’s two aspects to weed that that make it super fun.
18:44
One is the common effect and the other is the giggle factor.
Yeah, that’s right.
You get to, you get, you can, you can sit back, calm, be reflective, look back, look into yourself, make some changes.
But at the same time you can giggle at the stupidest shit.
And who doesn’t love having a little bit of a giggle fest, you know, for no fucking reason on a Thursday?
19:04
Yeah, that’s right.
Weed is fun.
And the stigma is fully removed.
Not fully removed, but it’s definitely moving in the in the more acceptable direction, I guess.
But we still have a little bit of work to do because we got to get past the point of where somebody sidles up beside you after a job interview and goes, dude, my aunt smoked a lot.
19:28
Weird.
As if they’ve got some kind of badge of honor for knowing them.
You know what I’m saying?
Those are my thoughts off the step for this week.
I hope you enjoyed the sesh where I hope you come back next week with me, Justin Baroni on thoughts off the stem.
We’re 391 followers away from 1000 on Spotify.
19:45
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It’s always great to know that where people are, you know, listening from checkoutthoughts420.com, checkoutthoughts420.com.
I hope you enjoyed the sesh and until next time.
20:09
Keep your lids low baby dude.
I burped and I told at the same time.
That’s crazy.