- I wouldn't dare try.
I don't even want the possibility of becoming addicted
to something that is going to make me
physically dependent upon it.
(dramatic music)
- My name is Kayla and I'm a recovery advocate.
- Hi, my name is Chris and I'm a cannabis advocate.
- Hi, my name is Devin
and I'm fascinated with mental health.
- My name is Juan Camillo (speaking in foreign language)
for the Greenhouse J.C
and I am pro these things that are grow outta the ground
and make us shift our perspective.
- My name is Ki, I am honestly middle ground.
My name is Kiki Dexter and I'm here pro marijuana.
- [Interviewer] First statement is,
"I or someone I love has been addicted to drugs."
- So my sister went to rehab for extensive drugs usage.
It affected her life very heavily and was in rehab,
cost my parents a lot of time, energy, money
and just emotional draining for the whole family.
- My dad is a very adamantly trying
recovering heroin addict.
I think he first got addicted when he was like 20, 21.
It was the influx of drugs into the cities in the 80s.
It still affects his life.
- I had a physical dependence on prescription
anti-anxiety medication, Klonopin specifically
for like seven years.
I went to treatment like three years ago
and eventually found my way back.
I would consider myself sober.
I've been sober for like two and a half years.
- Alcohol played a big role in my life.
Marijuana played a big role in my life.
I did notice going into my 20s
that the pattern that I do have a propensity
to want to get fucked up.
Now I like I don't smoke, I don't drink
or at least that's my intention
but there comes a time when it's like,
"Cool, I think I could go for a nice LSD trip in the woods.
That'd be nice."
- [Interviewer] People often become emotionally dependent
on recreational drugs.
- Yeah, I think they do.
For example, I had a great childhood
but I was sexually abused.
Nobody knew what was going on.
By the time I was 14 I was using whatever
I could get my hands on to deal with the emotional turmoil
that I was dealing with inside.
And when we're so young we have traumatic events
or we have these situations
and these circumstances that stick with us
and we don't know how to process them.
And so we reach out to whatever's closest to us,
food addiction, drug addiction.
- I think it's good to establish a distinction
between recreational use and habitual use
because that's one thing I heard you guys talking about
and I don't feel that people really become
emotionally dependent when they're recreationally using it.
When they're habitually using it,
when they're using it to solve problems,
then it does become an issue.
'Cause you're not dealing with balance at that point.
I mean, you're tipping one way on the scale.
You're clearly gonna affect other areas and get sick.
- [Interviewer] I believe drugs are safe with moderation.
- Moderation? - Ooh.
- I don't know what I thinks (laughs).
Actually, I agree.
I think so. What's up guys?
This was a hard one for me.
I just had to hone in on that word moderation.
Like if I'm smoking once or twice a week, that's fine,
but if I'm smoking every day of my life,
every second I get up and I can't function then of course
that's when there's a red line.
I wouldn't say like using things like heroin or cocaine
like using that in moderation, I think that's just harmful.
But if we're talking about the subject of marijuana
and that use, then yeah.
- Well, here's why I disagree.
I think there are levels to this.
I don't think all drugs are safe, even in moderation.
Like you take a wrong Molly or whatever,
the Percocet pill is, people have died from that
and that was technically in moderation.
One pill, one day, life gone, like same thing with heroin.
That's something that could drastically
change your life in a day.
- The moderation part of it is tough
because with pharmaceuticals, mainly to me,
you mix two of those things, (snaps fingers)
you're gone and that's terrifying.
- Yeah, and there are so many circumstances
where it only takes one time to become physically dependent.
Even in my case I take prescription medication for sleeping.
I hate that I'm on it
and I hate that I have to use it to function.
If you don't have to absolutely do it, why do it?
- So lemme ask you this though, here.
What's the distinction for you
between that and like ayahuasca, peyote, DMT?
The different-
- It's not necessary.
- I think this is a distinction that-
- Yeah-
- I'm gonna invite you to look at is like
there is a difference between cocaine
and ayahuasca. - Oh 100%.
- Hundred percent.
- But what I'm saying is neither are necessary.
My question to you is
are you saying to all the young people
"You will not be able to open your mind fully
unless you go and do this?"
- No, what I'm saying is
that I hold everybody high and I hold everybody
with the ability to think for themselves
but also going out and having an intentional, purposeful,
responsible encounter with mushrooms or LSD
supported me in getting over my addiction
to marijuana and alcohol.
- But the point being is the safety issue
and what you might have gone in that moment
when you took the drugs and it opened your mind
and you were able to realize a lot of stuff,
I think people should do on their own without the drug.
- [Interviewer] Drugs reduce people's potential.
- I think even with psychedelic drugs,
to the point earlier, even if they are opening your mind up
that's really not your potential.
That's not your potential.
Your potential is the organic potential
and a lot of your organic self
is wonderful and it is marvelous.
And if you take a little time to work
and develop that muscle like a talent
then you will be able to reach your fullest potential.
- When I got sober, I went back to school
which I never thought I would do.
I worked two jobs. I started a small business.
I think of all of the people who are usually hypersensitive
and end up getting into drugs
because they can't deal with their emotions
and all of those people could be potentially adding
to society and they're not
because they're in their own world.
- So I really don't feel that they harm people's potential.
I think they help people gain their potential
in a lot of different ways. And I mean, with cannabis alone,
we have an endocannabinoid system within our body.
I mean, it's one of our main receptors within our brain
that it's like a lock and key for cannabis.
We're made of the same materials.
Our brain synthesizes those materials within it.
So I really do feel that our potential
isn't hindered by drugs.
I mean some totally, I can see some a hundred percent
but overall natural ones not at all.
- Some of the most powerful people in the world right now
in Silicon Valley and creating some of the most powerful
startups are all microdosing.
- Oh, totally.
- Two years ago I did, I had my first mushroom experience
so I went into the woods, I went in nature,
I set the intention, "I'm gonna have this experience
that I've never had before."
It was a remarkable experience and I felt a deeper truth
within my connection to the earth,
something I hadn't had in a long time.
And it was kind of this reconnection with my spirituality.
- I can relate to you because I also come
from a very spiritual background.
I think wherever that framework is for you,
like if it's drugs, then that's for you.
I think that's a dangerous path.
I also think that for me, that thing is God.
Like me having faith in God and a relationship with God
that is the opening to my spirituality.
I don't need to take drugs to get there.
- Have you done psychedelics?
- No.
- So it's like someone that hasn't had sex
talking about why-
- No, it's not, that's not what it's like at all.
(indistinct)
- [Man] How do you know?
- But the thing is, I don't need to know. That's my point.
My point is- - You don't need to know.
Do you have a relationship with Christ?
Have you spoken in tongues?
That doesn't mean anything. That's a cross.
That's not a relationship. They're very different-
- It's a symbol, right?
- It's a cross relationship that is not a relationship.
The two are very different.
That's my point.
So you don't have to ask me what I did not do.
What I said was, and I'll repeat it,
my experience and my relationship with Christ, for me,
that supersedes my desire to even go into that path
because I find myself very happy, very successful,
I'm thriving within my being
and I don't need this substitute.
- [Interviewer] There is a lot of false information
about recreational drugs.
- (laughs) So everyone agrees.
(indistinct)
No one knows nothing.
- Let's get informed.
That's why we're here.
- It's like based on the culture, the perception,
and I'm strictly talking about marijuana,
but you know at one point in history
it was also used for medicine.
It was used for religion,
hemp was used for a variety of things.
And there's people that don't know that
it's a part of our history.
So when I think about how ill-informed people are
that's one of the main things.
- But the truth is like
do I really want all of the information?
I'll be honest. No, I don't.
I don't really need it.
You know, I agree with the statement.
That's why I walked over
because I will agree that there's a lot that I don't know
about recreational drugs
and I think that there's a lot that most people don't know.
- Yeah. I mean, I walked over for the same thing.
I try and keep an open mind at all times
and realize that a wise man knows that he knows nothing.
So especially with cannabis and that I'm aware
and have researched cannabis oils and taking CBD myself,
and I am interested in as someone
who takes pharmaceutical medication
as cannabis as an alternative.
But my perspective in once again versus recreational versus
I would consider that for me medical use.
- There's a great deal of misinformation.
I mean, just like the pharmaceutical,
I mean we have all these things that are getting pumped
into our homes all the time with all of these side effects
and side effects and side effects.
More than half the commercial is all side effects
but yet it's telling you "It's okay to take that,
it's cool to take that." - Yeah.
- "Yeah, It can probably kill you."
- Exactly. - "But it's okay to take that
but you can't take these too.
Yeah, take this one and take this one"-
- [Woman] Take that one.
- "But don't take this thing over here
that can actually help you."
- [Woman] Exactly.
- And I agree with that whole (indistinct).
- Yeah, and I think that's because there are people
that benefit from us not being literate about this subject-
- But I have to realize like why we're here for this video,
is pushing information and for recreational drug purposes
and like the misinformation.
But I think that it takes a lot more education
and usually a really bad circumstance
for you to want a change around your life and be like,
"Fuck, what am I doing? There has to be more than this."
But most people never get uncomfortable enough
to need to make that realization.
And so I'm just not gonna push it
because I just think that it's gonna end up
way more negative, unfortunately.
(mellow music)
- One, two, three.
- [Group] For the people.
(mellow music)
- Hey guys, it's Kendra from Jubilee Media.
Thank you so much
for watching this episode of "Middle Ground."
We really try to inspire radical empathy
through our episode
so make sure you let us know what you thought
in the comments below, subscribe,
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