The Realignment: Responses to 4/20 Episode, plus Zachary Carter Returns to The Realignment
Extended listener mailbag with positive and negative responses, Bookshop links, and more...
Thanks for checking out our Substack!
If you’re new, hit subscribe to get future issues in your inbox every Thursday.
Welcome Back to The Realignment
As promised, we’ve featured responses to our 4/20 episode in our listener mail section. We’re also planning an extended Q&A episode soon, so be sure to send in any questions to realignmentpod@gmail.com or in a five-star review on Apple Podcasts.
This week we released two episodes: Kevin Sabet, author of Smokescreen: What the Marijuana Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know; and Zachary D. Carter, Writer in Residence at the Omidyar Network and author of The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes.
Both books are out now, available at our Bookshop store.
Episode 119: Zachary Carter: How to Reimagine Capitalism
Episode 118: Dr. Kevin Sabet: 4/20 Special: America’s Decriminalizing Drugs, What’s Next?
The Realignment Bookshop
As a reminder, we’ve created a Realignment Bookshop affiliate store showcasing books by guests, what we’re actively reading this year and deeper dives into the featured topic of an episode.
Most importantly, you don’t need to go with our recommendations if you want to support the show. If you go to Bookshop.org through our link and then purchase *anything* we still get your support. So huge thanks to whoever purchased Star Wars Thrawn: Ascendency (Book II: Greater Good) this morning.
If you purchase a book using our link, the show gets a 10% commission, a local, independent booksellers gets support, and you get an awesome book!
Here are three of the lists we’ve built out:
1) Our list of the best books we read in 2020
2) All of the books we’ve read so far in 2021
3) Books written by Realignment podcast guests
Listener Mail: 4/20 Edition
To literally no one’s surprise, folks had a lot to say about our episode on marijuana with Kevin Sabet. As many people requested, we’ll have the opposite view on the show. We’d love any suggestions.
Here’s a selection of responses:
Anthony writes:
Yes research on schedule 1 drugs is allowed, it was career suicide to publish positive findings on a schedule 1 drug even marijuana. I admire people who only know about marijuana through a friend or friend of a friend but are too scared to really try it. Love the podcast, hated this episode.
Travis writes:
Upon the request for feedback on Dr. Sadet 4/20 episode I provide the following: I found the conversation intriguing and enlightening. I thought the policy portion of the conversation allowed for a more nuanced understanding of marijuana in our society. Even though I am very libertarian on the matter of what individuals put in there bodies, and although if pushed would remain true to that opinion, I did reflect on the notion of how rising nations do their best to subvert use of marijuana as it may hinder their progress. I think there is obviously something to that; having played too many long form strategy games in my lifetime, perhaps I am conditioned to critically think about long term effects on a societies well being and choices that may hinder it. Anyway, very interesting topic, I enjoyed that it was the topic on such an obvious day - you two are some real ones. Last thing, as I am reading Hate Inc. currently, I do wonder if we will ever see the “most want to have a beer with” trope in politics one day become “most want to smoke a joint” or “rip major daps with” as it pertains to a candidates likability.
Cory writes:
I feel Kevin is very disconnected and are looking at stats from the ’80s.
Trust me, suburban moms don’t care about marijuana. I live in a suburban area in the middle of Trump country. Us parents worry more about alcohol. And Marijuana is higher the 70th issue. Could you imagine waiting 50 years the the federal government to approve the Covid Vaccine? That’s why it’s needs to go to people. And I’m not a huge advocate, you won’t see me on street corner screaming with a sign. This is why people won’t listen to Republican when it comes to this issue.
Tanu writes:
I really appreciated your recent episode with Dr. Kevin Sabet around marijuana legalization and since you were worried about receiving hate I thought I'd send some laudatory comments your way. I briefly heard Saagar's thoughts on marijuana on the Realignment episode with Krystal Ball and his concerns surrounding the commercialization of Marijuana and its Big Alcohol and Tobacco like tactics struck a chord with me. This was partly because I live by the aphorism, follow the money, but mostly because I've been witnessing it first-hand in Canada.
For quick context, Canada federally legalized marijuana in 2017 which went into full effect by October 2018 leaving it to the provinces to determine rollout and distribution. Therefore by late 2018 one could purchase marijuana products (pre-rolled joints, loose buds and accessories; food/drinks would arrive in early 2020) from a provincially run online store. If you're curious it is ocs.ca in Ontario and sqdc.ca in Quebec. When it came to the brick and mortar rollout, the first stores opened Ontario and Quebec by Spring 2019. This rollout would be slightly disparate between the two provinces where Ontario opted for a "less regulation" roll out wherein individual retailers could apply for permits whereas contrastingly there would be government run stores in Quebec. Important to note here that while Ontario would provide licenses to any small scale retailers, there are only about one or two suppliers (see Aurora Cannabis) in the entire province who also happen to be the supplier for the provincially run online store. I provide this meandering history to contextualize the current state of individual cannabis procurement. The pandemic brought on a proliferation of small retail cannabis establishments especially in urban core areas such as downtown Toronto. As a local it's hard to overestimate the onslaught of Cannabis stores that have replaced the chain coffee shops - that fell prey to the pandemic - with their cheesy, floral, millennial marketing or Apple Store-esque design and names such "Honey Pot" and "Dutch Love" all to ostensibly appeal to the tech and finance sector employees who inhabit the area. As this proliferation occured concurrently with the COVID-19 pandemic, it's important to note that these Cannabis retailers were always considered "essential" and even during the most stringent lockdowns (we happen to be in one now as well) where only grocery stores and pharmacies are permitted to stay open, cannabis stores are always open.
While I might have given away how I truly feel about the market saturation afoot in my city, I want to note I was pro legalization and still view it to have net positive outcomes. However I became largely disillusioned by the influx of high concentrate THC edible products that deluged the market by early 2020. For this reason I was validated to hear Dr. Sabet outline some of the murkiness surrounding the research on high concentrate THC products. Moreover, I was particularly blown away by the historical context of the canard of medical marijuana Dr. Sabet outlined in the interview.
All this to say, I think Americans need not look too far when imagining a world where big business, monopoly power and legalized marijuana converge and what that portends for society writ large. Dr. Sabet briefly mentioned legalization would look vastly different in countries where government intervention is more widely accepted and big business is at least nominally reigned in. This is partly true in Canada where - to illustrate an example Dr. Sabet provided - menthols have been banned since 2015 however as the legalization process unfurls it will be fascinating to see how much control is seized by chain retailers and big suppliers and to what extent the government intervenes.
I want to thank you both for such a nuanced conversation on a sensitive and rather provocative topic. It will help me broach the subject with more people and already has me reorienting my thinking. For what it's worth I've listened to a few podcasts with Dr. Carl Hart and while I expected to agree with him more so than with Dr. Sabet, I'm actually left questioning the system around me even more than before. Whether it was your intent or not, your interview definitely helped me further my capitalist critique of marijuana legalization and for that I thank you.
Let us know what you think about this or any other week’s episodes. Please share The Realignment with anyone who’d enjoy the podcast.