HBP 158: Nathan Betts

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It’s not all happy pot plants, sunshine, and rainbows here in Washington. While some towns and counties have completely embraced the cannabis industry, others have not been so inviting. As we’ll hear in episode 158 of the Hot Box, Nathan Betts is living in one such town. But rather than try to shut down the cannabis industry the corrupt “legal way” like was tried in Montana with the medical marijuana industry, this small town city council in Clarkston Washington has gone above and beyond the standards for corruption in any size town. Keep reading for links to more information and what you can do to help. We also announce the winner of the Herb Boxx giveaway. Thanks for listening!

Congrats to the winner of the Herb Boxx! I literally put all the names of the people who wrote in, into the boxx, and pulled out Dan F. Congrats Dan, Herb Boxx is on it’s way. Just email info@hotboxpodcast.com with your address and I’ll get it sent out. If you want to get your own Herb Boxx, make sure to check them out online at herbboxx.com.

I hope you enjoy the interview with Nathan Betts. Here’s all the links to what you need to know. First let’s take a look at the media timeline. This is important to establish how the media was portraying what was happening in Clarkston.

November 1st 2014 article entitled, Pot shop challenges city’s ban on retail marijuana

May 29th 2015 article entitled, Canna4Life begins selling marijuana at Clarkston location

June 18th 2015 article entitled, Canna4Life owner pleads innocent in business license violation

Now let’s take a look at some footage from the Clarkston city council meetings. You can find these videos on the Free the Choice Facebook page. I’ll let Nathan explain what you’re watching here.

Nathan says: Here is a video where I speak at a city council meeting. There’s about a minute of the lady before me first. I kept getting cut off by the mayor to the point of frustration which causes me to call her the wrong name.

Our city council had a seat open before general elections recently. The next two videos are two candidates that are already running for city council in November. The council voted on June 22nd to fill the seat with an interim. This is interesting, because if you watch the candidates, the one that appears more qualified for the job is not the one they picked.

Candidate 1

Candidate 2

Brian Kolstad is the only councilman on “our side” saying that he feels the proceedings are wrong and that a non-running candidate should be chosen and then the vote for interim council happens here. At the beginning of the video you can see the biggest opponent answer the mayor, and you can also see that all this was predetermined before the meeting ever started that night. Click here for the video.

Here is a video of a citizen asking why this is happening, with nothing back from the city council but hostility and moral imposition. Pay close attention to the council member that does reply.

Thanks Nathan! We’ll keep in touch with Nathan and follow this story as it develops. Check out Time Spent Poorly for more Nathan.

Congratulations to Oregon for getting cannabis re-legalized. Of course they have to wait until October to buy and sell the weed. Baby steps right?

An interesting study just came out showing the massive problem with labeling and testing in the cannabis industry. If we want this to be a legit industry, we need to get a few things right. Labeling things properly is one of those things. Check out the actual study here.

It also seems weed has a little pesticide problem. Check out the article on Motherboard written by Kaleigh Rogers.

That’s it for this episode. Please be sure to write us a review on iTunes if that’s how you subscribe. You can also check us out on Stitcher! If you have any thoughts to share with us, call and leave us a message at 406.204.4687 or send us a form. Thanks again for listening!

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Author: Mat Lee

Dab lab rat and rap writer. Creating dope shit since the chromosome split.