Ken Estes is a cultivator and celebrated breeder. He is best known for developing the Granddaddy Purple strain, but he also has a number of clinics throughout the State of California. Ken was turned on to the therapeutic benefits of medical cannabis after being paralyzed from the waist down in a motorcycle accident. Later, he encountered a woman who was treating patients with medicated brownies and decided to follow a similar life path. Estes became an activist for medical marijuana, working with Dennis Peron at one point in time. Now, he is best known for his work with the Granddaddy Purp Collective in Richmond.
let’s do it all right my friends thank you for coming so today we’re going to talk aboutgenetics and the importance of genetics how important are they how come peoplein this business are succeeding how come some are not I Trac it right back to genetics really the core of why it’svery important to find out what strains work for the patients you have only wayof doing that is to grow to create genetics if you’re not going to create them use someoneelse’s you you can do that too when someone’s created really good genetics but you’re going to pay a lot of moneyfor genetics which is okay because a lot of people come to me and say um wellthat’s a lot of money for those seeds and I say say hey sometimes in seed projects it takes you a couple years tocreate and other people sell them for 100 bucks a pack so that’s all right that’s thoseare cheaper seeds those are ones that haven’t been fenal hunted those are ones that haven’t been back crossed and stabilized and so there’s a there’sthere’s a misnomer I think that people are overselling or overpricingseeds and I can see why they’re saying that but if you created them you would knowthat there’s more to it than that the fact is in fact if you goone like I go to certain stores and I pick up B bagsfrom certain stores and I go trying at my house and I’m always like that’s sodisappointing I spent $60 an e and how come I’m not really that high how come I didn’t like the taste and it’s becauseof breeding genetics even if they start off with good genetics it might not comeout or or even know start with good genetics it might not um come out aswhat they wanted to when they began Crossing it and so they’ll just release it tell people here so they do the firstcross now if you’re genetics and looking for phenos and you’re trying to figure out how to grow or what genetics youreally want you have to find a trait then take your seeds bring them up for amale and find those same genetics I mean same traits and cross them back into the plant again it’s called stabilizing yourgenetics stabilizing that cross you have and um so my back’s kind of hurtingso I do this right here it’s been a long night and um so really I I just like totalk about the importance of genetics and not just on I mean a lot of people it depends on where you grow as wellthere’re actually genetics that do better indoors there are genetics that do better Outdoors years ago when we used to growyears ago and we had marijuana the best stuff was Outdoors the 70s and early 80s the best herb Iever had was Clum gold Panama Red Thai stick then it turned into skunk that theguy crossed those and skunk came out also those days the granddaddy per cameout but if you breed and brought up a bunchof seeds you know what always happens the smallest plant becomes the mostpowerful the male is the biggest plant so you have to take the small plant anda lot of people say these females are so small I don’t know why they always seem to be the most potent but you can crossthem into a bigger plant and work on stabilizing it and getting a little more of a yield but back in those days when theGrande PR came out it was like the tie now I had the tie years ago and I used to bring seeds up and I hadn’t seen thatplant Forever Until 2000 when I got the granddaddy per and we grew the plant up on my indoor garden before I took itoutdoors and it reminded me exactly of the tie the the short it looks like aminiature Christmas tree with each branch rock hard filled in so it’s abeautiful plant but in the illegal Market they did not like it the Native Americans the pomos is who had it theyhad it for years if they gave it to me and the strain is a low yielder say apound of light Outdoors five pounds but people want more and when they wereselling the weed for the same price no matter what the name was everybody got away from the smallproducing plant but the Native Americans kept it because they knew it wasmedicine when I got it they called it purple medicine I didn’t keep that name theytold purple medicine it was great the first time I looked at the real pound they gave me it was like a bowling ballI opened up the bag and it was all stuck together when I pulled the butt off it was likevelcro I what’s this the smell was overwhelming I could roll it out of the bag and it would roll out like abasketball stuck together super Stu I knew at that moment because I’ve been aTrapper Trapper means I’ve been flipping a lot of pounds and I go up north to humble and I’ve heard about thesedifferent purples and sometimes purples come out in other strains like the Urkel and and Purple Haze been a few strainswhere but nothing hit not nothing from outside to inside beautiful purple so ifYou’ had the real granddaddy per you you know just it’s just a beautiful plant sowe began Crossing it finding new nutrients and things to add to it to get more of a yield still when I had it eventhough everyone loved it the big Growers and the people that were interested inmy genetics would do a run of it they come back to me again it’s not workingit’s too much of a low yielder you have water thank you water break drink them if you gotthem here thankyou oh so where was I at so the the low yieldinggenetics so then I got something like the humble honeydew or used to be big bud or it was Blue Dream these plantswere 25 Footers get gigantic big yield so Ibegan Crossing I got the Purple Dream right I think you have those Seas the Purple Dream so I have certain thingslike that that I can’t wait to unleash and see if I can get that granddaddy per potency rock hard nugs Into the BlueDream which is kind of larpy it’s kind of fluffy so see how we take these different traits and try to mix themback and forth and see what kind of genetics we can come up with and the granddaddy per was really II changed my whole life when I got it because I knew the potency and I was willing to take the task on uh venalhunting Crossing it going to other strains to see what we can produce see if I can bring up this look and thecharacteristics I like I say marijuana got a lot really B basically five characteristics you want commerciallybag appeal smell tactile the touch to break it upthe stickiness the smoke the flavor the turbs and then the high which I reallyshould put the high on first right which Hawaii is defitely they are yeswell you know why because they have an affinity for quality product I don’tcare if it’s mango I don’t care if it’s for fruits and vegetables that’s why I was excited to come out here when I hadthis opening I said Hawaii hell yeah these are all Growers these are farmers these are actually the people I knowwhether you have a six plant garden in your backyard which I have a couple pictures of we show you a that’s mybackyard right there see that’s me telling you yay I’m happy um but but you can’t even see herethat my whole backyard was filled up the police came to me and said I was going to say that’s a little more thanSE well no I just I I to I topped it a lot connect you you yeah yeah yeah youcan’t see the pots truth is those plants I what I Pro to these plants are my buddy Mike fromAdvanced Nutrients I knew that this is great nutrients so I grew these big plants in one gallon containers all theway to the end when I had went out it was gigantic I was holding people said that’s a one gallon how’ you do that CUeveryone else has got what 300 gallon pots 200 gallon pots and I’m growingbetter than them but Advanced Nutrients is really super nutrients I think it’s the best out still that’s why Mike’s sobig as he is and I think he should even be playing up more how better his stuff is and so now you’re adding nutrientslike any farmer knows the feeding regiment the environment so out here in Hawaii youknow how big a plant you guys could grow do you know that are plants that produce 45 pounds ofplant you got that plant on there next one I’m I’m little going alittle fast here that is amazing and look at green houses see now if you on green houses I stuff agreenhouse you see how that was stuffed sometime you go to Greenhouse you see nice rows and you see you know five footplants no you can grow all way you should fill up this whole Greenhouse the only space not growing should be the 2feet below it where should be cleared out and everything and there’s Mercy my dog butin that backyard the funny thing is they came to me the police you got you this is morethan six plants I said well actually it’s six plants that I cut up intoclones so it’s more but it was only six plants no you’re going to have to fenceit off well can I I don’t want to just put a fence up here can I can I grow like a hedge they said yes so I grew ahedge around it of cannabis I remember when they came back to me they didn’t say nothing it wasvegging it was just big right it bigger than that and my garden was down in there and they stood by these pot plantsnot even saying anything said okay yeah this head blocks it off oh you’re good all right thank you so you know back inthose days we had to do what we did okay so we lied a little bit uh but you know you kind of get angry after years ofbeing persecuted and prosecuted I don’t know if ever You’ seen umon a government form in court I’ve had three times now United States of Americaversus kineses I remember the first time I saw that I kind of gulped wait aminute I’m not against America I’m actually bringing something to the tablea taxable product why are we letting the illegal world run with it if I mean upin our up in Northern California that whole place got built on cannabis there was nothing up there but but cuttingtrees down years ago and then they stopped that they slowed that down everyone put cannabis and people in the Cannabis industry in a neighborhood upnorth you know what they do they spend money on stores they spend money to they help other people with their pges theyso this this a lot of times this money stayed in a community and that’s really where my roots are in that kind of way of Let’shelp each other let’s get there let’s figure out what you want to grow how you want to grow it and do it right becausethere’s a lot of people entering this industry I’ve seen Millions spent last time I saw the talked to my friend in Dixon 20 million one year he grew I toldyou’re not going to get a master grower no I got a cousin I saw him a year later at thesame gas station when we were talking I hey how’d that go I’m giving it back I’m done you spent 20 million I’m done Ican’t do it he had three runs they were all bad he had bugs he got wiped out by this and oh well can’t really like cutyou can’t take shortcuts when it comes to something like that in a competitive market nowyears ago everything’s sold grow whatever you wanted just to plant in the ground and I don’t care what as long asI mean look it we bought weed with season it years ago came from Mexico this is are bricks filled with seeds butwe bought it we smoked it I remember the one finger two finger three finger Liz and you get like a Columbian goldthat have a seated and a one finger because it was so heavy nugs with all the seeds you hardly got any smoke thenthe s the green stuff started coming in and that was four finger lids and thatit was Fluffy it looked beautiful but it was basically about the same weight so you can get the plants like that reallydense plants now when I came out the grand per that’s what else I didn’t like people said look at we put in a pound bag look how small that is I said I knowbut those are dense nugs smell a nug try a nug oh no it’s great I can’t even smoke it it’s so potent and but we don’twant it but you don’t no it doesn’t have bag appe heel what do you mean well thebag small okay so I never did get that but when I did get the Grande per I did knew I had something special I didn’tknow I had something special and I I cut down all my other strains and I justfilled up all my warehouses with granddaddy per and I knew it and whathappened is what I thought happened after being experienced as I’ve been for years the whole Bay Area the wholeCalifornia just took off with granddaddy per everybody was grown like it’s so many people stopping me saying oh thisgenetics is the best ever I mean a lot of people never tried skunk or Panama Red or it’s in that group there and Taistick it’s in that it’s in that group I try to tell people this is really a tie this is a tie strain or itcould be Afghani too because Afghani was that way also there was a Afghan purple years ago that was a short squat plantbut these are really the only I’m sure it’s indigenous for some reason I’m thinking it’s up in mountains orsomething where it has to have a short year because it was also the first plant that only that you could actually eightday 8 week plan from beginning to end it’s eight weeks a lot of other ones are10 weeks because there was a lot of the sativa and a lot of the mixes now with Crossing and people doing so much sincethen I don’t know if you have pure indica or pure saiva but people have told me that Grande per is probably thepurest indica and I think the greatest trait of it is no hermy there’s not onebit of hermy is such a great F1 so stabilized that you can cross it to strains thatdon’t you cross to a strain that has hermy you’re going to get a few Hermes but this this one here you know it’sclean so and I’ve gotten so many people tell me that it’s their best pheno thatthey work with to stabilize their genetics and it’s probably if you lookaround at all the genetics out right now it’s crazy how granddaddy per was whatthey worked with is the one they bred with and it’s like wow from apples and bananas to runsto so many to gelato to and all these people when I see them at events they always come up and give me a hug and sayman your genetics are so great that’s what we cross with that’s how we came up with the bananas that’s how came thisthat’s how you know all these different strains I tell people I’ve won 14 cupssounds like a lot my genetics have won hundreds of Cups and so I really want people to knowabout genetics especially Hawaii this place can grow like no other place theweather the environment is the greatest right here on the ocean right here where you get all the CO2 from the oceanplants Can’t Get Enough CO2 did you ever show that big giant one seeds mybuddies here thank youquestions can you reach a we we usually have a microphone that we can take around but if you want tohey yeah I can talk I can hear that yeah yeah sayhi hi yeah I went up to her property beautiful property she’s into healingand wellness and beautiful spirit yeah it’s a it’s a pleasure to work withsomebody that’s done so much for our industry andit’s it’s it’s working well you know they talk about business staying in Lanes I’m staying in the medical Lane Iknow people can take it to commercial they’ll take it to recreational that’s okay but I personally am staying in themedical because I would like to be make sure that when if I have a limited amount I’d really work with I like towork with hospitals pharmacies I want to really get it to people who are suffering because that’s more importantto me because that’s what saved my life so it could actually save other people’s lives as well I know this when you’retrying to recover from an illness or injury you need two main things I would say three but let’s say two you need toeat and sleep that’s what cannabis does besides make you feel good I me sometime take acouple hits and next time you know I’m cleaning my house you know just works that way whenyou feel good I mean what’s the price of feeling good so that’s kind of um where I like to seeGDP stay now I know a lot of people commercially they’re making big money out there from sea junkies to compoundto shinsky to all the big names DOA Ireally don’t know if DOA strains have much GDP in them but I do know that these other guys did so the top nameshave all used my gentics AC cross into theirs and you know be very strong onthe scene and I still think GDP is the champion but they all have done somegood reading projects they all have beautiful lookingplants let me take another goad question backthere for a number of years have you noticed it changing kind of on it ownover time or has it St very consistent from when you first kind of discovered it now that’s a great question somepeople have it and they stress it out and it will start um begin to weaken begin to loosen upnot be so tight so those genetics can be worn down but if you change your motherevery and I tell people do it every month some people do it every six months some people do it every year I like changing it pretty quickly because Ifind the longer you grow a plant and you don’t flower it out it wears it down andso you you do have that but if you treat it right and now there’s something new out there that’s saving our assestissue culture take your plant put in tissue culture what happens is I don’t care if you had a problem with mites ifyou had a problem with powder do that stuff will be erased in the tissue culture bring it back and I notice theplant comes right back up with waxy looking leaves dark green the nice thicklines very healthy the now when you’re growing a plant how do you know if your plant’s healthy or not every time youfeed it give it water feed it it should stretch up like that a lot of plantsdon’t are going to Garden say how come your plant’s looking like this at least have it lifted up a little bit it’s notget enough nutrients or the right nutrients or not pH or or I me I mean to really getting the water the water isvery important as well when you’re growing getting AA in your water the temperature of yourwater um uh pH of your water parts per million what’s in it before you add toit so there’s I mean you really are like scientists A lot of people didn’t really say scientists I would say most of usbreeders we felt like we are kind of AR artist only we kind kind of keep workingwith the same the same the same um equation but there’s there’s stilldifferences and so your question was really that yes it can but it reallydepends on your your way you grow it what condition you have it in that’s the biggest thing to play but the geneticsover years no I haven’t beat the mother I came up at Candyland that won several Awards and that was great but thatleaned a little more on the side the reason I was doing Candy lands because a lot of people are saying we’regrowing on the coast and granddaddy per is getting moldy because it’s moisture so I said soI I crossed it with another one I knew that didn’t per that didn’t mold at all and Candy Land came from there and thenwe put candy out in Oregon I had a whole filled up with when we harvested it wasin the rain five days of harvesting 5 days of the rain coming down we even grew on an island and we had a boat andwe would take a boat out there we had a big giant piece of tarp behind the boat and we cut the plants down put them onthe tarp and B her back put it inside and hung it up in our little dry area and I thought oh we’re going to lose atleast half of this lost not one bud I was like Wow can’t wait to tellpeople this one but a lot of people will grow my Candy Land if you look around you’ll see Tangi land cross to Tangi byCrockett you’ll see other crosses with Candy Land so that’s another genetic where I worked with for years and got itto this point where it actually handles something the grand a doesn’t so nowwhen people say hey I want to grow yours right probably Grand per might have a hard time outdoors in Hawaii it mightbecause of the moisture out here but the Candyland would just Thrive um but now if you can get thegranny per see Granny per has in bread it’s really this granny per just turned out to be a beautiful indoor plant whenyou grow it indoors it’s 80%80% Bud 20% Leaf when I take it outside and go granny prep outside reverse 80%Leaf 20% buzz but the people do um uh people who do the no what’s itcalled the fresh frozen uh the it’s called something else what’s it when you rosin rosin so theytake they said that we don’t need your indoor which cost us a lot to grow because indoor process outdoor cost youPennies A you know I can grow a pound for a dollar outdoors and on indoor it’sa 100 bucks 200 bucks just to grow with nutrients with power Kai a lot more thanthat kow’s bad here so do you think there’s a lot ofindoor herb out here in Hawaii do anyone grow indoor or everyone grows outdoor uh medical INDso oh wow I was thinking this was just outdoor great they have a couple do a greenso and that can be like in that can be like indoor when you dial a light light yeah you can dial it in where it looksindoor but uh so Grand a purple would be good out here still with the indoor but if the people going outdoor which Ifigure right more people are not the are not the licensed people and I’m surethat they are throwing the plants Outdoors seeing what they could get and the biggest isit’s got to be with all the water here that’s why a strain like Candyland I can’t wait to bring that here and thecrosses that I’ve got with Candy Land that would be perfect for Hawaii but I don’t want to leave you off thegranddaddy per train so indoor I love that indoor you guys who are doing theindoor and the stores you would be the ones carrying the granddaddy per CU I really wouldn’t give it to the outdooractually unless they do fresh frozen because like the fresh frozen people tell me we’re going to come down to your place you don’t have to trim it youdon’t have to cut it down you don’t have to dry it we cut it we take it I lovethat and so I lost my train of thought so I need another glass ofwater are you guys doingLED know led a l my mother room isstill blue well LEDs have come a long way they havebut they’re still they still run hot PL I actuallyonly so do you have a clone room mother room clone room and then do you motherdo you clone your clones from Little up to like teenagers and then put it in yeah that’s the best way to go it’s alittle extra cost but I’m trying to convince everybody right now in in in California to growum to grow the uh teens instead of do because we spendanother month growing those teens for you the nurseries I work with and people say no give me the five six cut yougoing to spend you know how much it cost you in the room to grow it and now now you’ve taken a flowering room and you’redoing this to it you should be having just teens put them in there aim for a weeken flower that but you know I learnthat from home people have to do quick flips how do you get the biggest yield it’s all about sometimes I mean this is business nowlegalization means business now so how can the people spending the money withinfrastructure also how can the people growing it for their own use how can they get the biggest yield how can theyget the best stuff they have so all these traits are are things that Istarted this with talking about genetics genetics are very key but it’s not aseasy as just taking a seed popping it oh that’s a female pop some more seeds orthat’s a male let me catch the pollen from the male with aluminum foil around the plant looking like a Christmas treetaken sprinkle it on the females now I’ve had you out for years in fact in the 70s there was no clones motherstissue culture if I was going to plant next year I’d have my say 20 plantsoutside one time I put one in my grandma’s Garden right and she would say oh Kenneth come here look at that plantis isn’t that a beautiful plant oh grandma that’s beautiful you’re doinggreat I made actually went home made some nutrients I mixed it I used to tell my friends to mix nutrients and all wehad was this crazy thing from um I can’t remember the name it was anold product but it’s still out it was granulated but people do it too big of a scoop and kill their plants uh oh what’sthe name of that Miracle Grow that’s all they had Miracle Grow but I learned howto do it bubble your water warm your water and it’s Stu a mix a lot easier just do a tiny bit so I make downs andtake it back to my friends say use this uh but flush first I don’t know what yougot in there flush it so all the Brown dead stuff and then these plants are resilient they pop right back out they start growing and you get the rightnutrients and you know the rest is history really is hello Mom I’m at the meetingabout cannabis what are you still smoking that stuff uh no I’m making money out ofdownla that’s how my conversation goes but I digress what was I saying doyou remember me neither oh Miracle Grow the old days and so anyway I remember givone to my my grandma too and that plant just started exploding this is the most beautiful plant what is it I think it’ssome kind of cactus or or maybe a sunflower uh but um so the seeds I wastalking about the seeds I do one of my grandma’s saying but I also did something with seeds oh so many storiesall the stories we could tell Tom Petty song and when this all blows up and goesto hell I can still see us sitting on a bed in some Motel listening to thestories we could tell I just love that verse which has nothing to do with weedexcept Tom Petty was a big weed guy and a lot of people are in the music industry when I had the grand DD per Iremember I hooked up with per I mean with a a snoop and I got him some of theper in fact Snoop used to come up to humble and play a concert and everybody there would throw buds on the stage hewould step back and I swear it was a pile this a butt all on the stage and the brooms would come sweep and they hada bag at the end I’ll sweep it all into the bag I don’t know how much money you made on thatgig um so let’s go back to genetics that’s kind of what I’m here tell you about genetics and I just want you guysto know that you know I mean I already know you know how important genetics are and I probably know you probably knowhow important genetics are because you showed up here so what kind of genetics I mean you know there’s a lot of uhgenetics that are indigenous to certain areas and I haven’t been out here so I don’t really know what strengthbut I remember Maui W years ago and I used to get that in the mail I used to always show people because thestamp was on the package say see is real Maui and I kept that never shared it withnobody but what genetics do you think are out here now are there any genetics that when you go somewhere what’s likethe what’s on the top of the menus at the stores because usually you can see whatever they’re on the top of theirmenu is usually what they’re saying is their best because I haven’t got to go to the store yet andsee I some of the the more local um or when I say local Mainlandhas to but like um Alien OG well that’s from the California yeahlike I mean we obviously everywhere right now that’s got the grand Pro crossin there you can tell the tightnugs yeah weding wedding C actuallylike so but yeah yeah I would say you especially like the Alien OG I mean thatwas that was about Grandaddy times when that was running through the mainlandseems to be very VI here oh good good yeah I got questionquestion Grandaddy or the Candy Land talking about how do we get the seatshow do we get started well that’s why I’m here I’m just kind to reach out and talk to the differentgroups and see who shows up and and we got our social media that I’m I’m launching again I’ve always been kind ofever since my raids and arrests and all that stuff years ago I kind of stopped doing social media I remember my attorney told me once you’re likespitting in their face they’re piss at you because here they’re arresting you they’re charging you and you’re posting up more flowers and more buds shut downyour social media and then I did that you know what I felt better no longer doI have to F myself and talk to people and and all day long no this this noce that oh I felt like the answer man so Imean I kind of got turned off to social media but because I’m relaunching my genetics and and everyone’s telling yougot to do content content content and sonow I’m I’m getting more back out like that letting people know but I don’t really have a website I mean we have awebsite but nothing’s really aab yet we’re just setting it up I’m just starting to do content again I’m justbeginning to tell my stories and share the photos and show that this genetic is still around it’s some people’s favoritebut the commercial people have ran from it but individuals and smaller storeswhere one person just loves it it’s really becomes a strain that people just if they love they keep it and they growit and um I kind of got sick for for years and got and I left the industry and when I came back all these peoplecrossed my genetics they still have my genetics so everybody gifted it back to me back when I go to Arizona in twoweeks I’m doing we’re going to do a big photo thing and and content on um thepeople from soil King up up in a Willets is going to give me back a GDP a CandyLand pack and so all these people are doing things like that also theyve crossed the strains like gelato andother and they’re all saying hey let’s get together and let’s do this as a collaboration so that’s kind of whereI’m at I think you’re G to start seeing me more and more if you have been looking for me you’ve been seeing it more but you but there’s no real placefor people to reach me and talk personally with me and I do want to become more available like that but this year here I’m going to probably already22 events speaking everywhere and um hopefully that works and I’ll get onpodcast and you know that whole formula social media formulaSugg social sites I would suggest moderator moderate the commentsonly the serious ones get to you so thatso far he’s the moderatorbut it is because you got your laptop on next thing you no oh wait no no no let me hand and nowyou’re caught in there for hours you look up oh man I could have I could have eatendinner and I’ve never been that good at it I enjoy speaking to people one-on-one I enjoy talking about this issue but tosit there and spend all that time at the screen that’s why I don’t like the screen at the screen and talking and andthere’s a lot of anger seems to be more anger than when you get together with people now we seem to be morecollaborative talking about what we like and genetics andso yes I think you’re right it’s almost like people in a carright they’re ready to run over but if they’re walking by you they’ll probably step around you but get him behind awheel and oh my God but hey it’s it’s the it’s the good side and bad side I saw the the you knowsocial media people I mean people who running you know from Zuckerberg to Citron um running the uh they went toCongress they were talking to them and Congress saying well you guys done some great things look how You’ connected us but there’s a dark side here too so canwe deal with the dark side I mean we should be allowed people to sue if there some some venue has done something badto somebody and they knew about it they should probably be sued but anyway that’s the whole social media game buthey it’s important to cannabis right now because everybody’s doing it how do we reach people we’re kind of a uniquesituation because a lot of people don’t want to carry gr they don’t want to talk about your marijuana you knowsocially oh if you saw yes oh correct they used to take themdown so fast as fast you set them up I don’t know if some they have people looking at it or if they’re sending ifthey’re having somebody turn somebody in but if you got attorney and if someone just made one call boom you were shutdown they’re looking for keyw and money I’ve had people who lost money taken out of Bitcoin not Bitcoin taken out ofvenmo and and so you got to watch so you really have to people say oh this islegal it’s not it’s Quai legal but when the government says it’s still federallyillegal man they can put that switch whenever they want how many bank accounts have you got frozen over theyears too many to count probably F five where they just emptied it out coupleFrozen I got money back for not much no I lost I mean when I started doing themovement I owned five homes I got 200 acres in Reed Mountain beautiful property on Edinburg I had 99 redwoodtrees on my property they raided them all soon as I started doing interviews andu and I W up losing everything housescar boat I had a plane I used to fly up pick up weed fly up into Garberville myGrowers would meet me in their trucks bring their Santa Santa bags walk into the plane I look at everything all rightthrow it in a fuselage here’s your box of money I look at the other guy in his truck buy weed fly back down to Oaklandget out give it to people fly back to three hours away to my that was only a30- minute fly back to my house get my kids out of school and it’s like oh man I’ll never drive again I used to FlyAbove the cars thinking you fools you are going tooslow so I mean there’s a heavy price a lot of us who have fought this early most people I know are dead that havebeen doing this movement from the beginning anywhere from Jack herrer to Dennis Peron to to all of the guys umTodd mikaria Todd mcara was a psychiatrist in San Quinton and he wastrying to get the prisoners to be allowed to and he lost his job at s San Quinton because he was promoting cannabis and then he joined the movementand he was one of the starters because all these people have that were doing this at the beginning there was justreally I think about how big it is now there was just a handful of us doing it I GRE up city council all by myself andspeaking there’s no one else behind me I just trying to educate and I always began with the same storythank you for this opportunity ladies and gentlemen of the city council my name is Ken Estus and marijuana saved mylife and it is a gateway to a healthy lifestyle and so that was always what Istarted with and I noticed a lot of times City Council Members when you’re talking about an issue they’rescribbling here they’re looking here they’re checking their nails out but I noticed when I started speaking like that that they’re all looking so okay Igot some attention here so you know Hard Sell to people who are in power thatsaid why do we need this weed you got alcohol you got pills why do you needthe weed they don’t get that when I first got hurt I was in a motorcycle accident at 18 years old paralyzed myneck down they had me a handful of pills and I was in a hospital recoveringtrying to I was in a hospital for a year how am I going to do this and the Vietnambets I smelt the weed and go into my room and my my orderly pushed my gurnieout there said and the guys hey bring him over here do you want to go over there yeah why not oh hi everyone andthey were Utes and messed up people from from Vietnam and they were all in therehab try this I said marijuana and I remember my brain clicked you’re on allthese other pills what does it matter now all right CU I didn’t smoke weed before then even though I was 60s and70s child you know I didn’t smoke marijuana so I tried it1977 my life changed instantly I was like I really had that kind of atransformative effect I was like man where’s my food uh let’s go back to the room thank you guys and I was a little bit kind of a little freaked there’s alittle bit of that uh what’s it called anxiety that cannabis can give you until you get till get used toit and then you get anxiety if you don’t have itand um I I I ate that night I slept all night I woke up the morning wanted breakfast again and all my three doctorscame in what’s going on they said that you slept all night I said Doctor it’smarijuana and it was it was crickets for a moment and then the three doct was actually simultaneously oh they eachother they walked out of the room I thought what I mean that was the truth this is medicine it really worked andthe nurses knew it the P the people were suffering knew it but the doctors didn’tknow it so if the doctors don’t know it the law enforcement don’t know it I remember the first few times I gotpulled over I mean I I was always afraid I was going to get busted I used to wear my shirt and tie when I drove up northDubai I had my redwood tree plantlets in my car I’m going up to look at Redwood Trees you know and I didn’t have theweed in my car I have in the trunk but I still was you know you really were afraid andum brownie Mary in say 1990 or maybe ‘ 89 brownie Mary spoke at a San Franciscorally that I went to for AIDS patients and I went there and they arrested heruh four or five days later they let her out and Tony Sarah got her out which is a big time attorney there and he said wefound a law a law on our books in America 1909 or whatever it was thatsaid medical necessity Act if the government doesn’t approve something that works for you you have aright to do it until they catch up you don’t have tosuffer I cut that article out newspapers back then I didn’t say it on my phonethere was newspaper articles I cut it out I laminated it kept it in my car Iactually pulled it out on a few cops when they pulled me over I snow marijuana now I started because I had somany packs in my trunk I started carrying just some open nugs in my Center and I take these nugs out sayyeah right here because I want him to know here’s where the smell’s coming from don’t look in mytrunk and and I would take the nug one time the cop say what give me thosenugs what and I W my mie mirror he walked back to his cop car thought what’s going to happen here don’t no don’t call the dogs just don’t bring thedogs because they don’t lie but he came walking back with a baggie he gave me abaggie keep it in this it won’t smell as strong thank you officer thankyou I can go so I mean you know stories like thatbut I mean my heart was pounding I was afraid I felt like Midnight Express that movie youknow I could hear my heartbeating okay I just got to get out of there and then driving home the whole time I I didn’twant to smoke talk about being sober I was okay being sober at that moment just drive homehome at what point in your life would that change rela it didn’t ever sincethen I’ve been in a fist fight because of my activism because of my out goingto City Council meetings from San Francisco Oakland Berkeley ceto conquer I was the one just spreading out beforethen we were in San Francisco and Oakland in front of Friendly Fire City councils that were okay with us Terencehollandan was a district attorney in San Francisco Comm Harris beat him on hisre-election and they were like a block away from each other and I like kamla too but I went toterrence’s election night because there just two parties going on until you find out who won and lost and then one partyends and then I said I’m going over to KLA Harris’s area so I said Terrence I’m sorry and I left I went over to commawhere was partying and so um just an interesting story where was Igoing with that where were we going with that story everybody ready um but oh all all the peoplefighting this back then um we all just it was all what we did there was a fewof us one attorney um what’s his name Tony Sarah he’s a famous attorneythat fought for the American Native American Indians he got a movie out it he’s got a ponytail and anyway um somovies been done about him he was actually the best attorney he used to try to get us off and and then once wehad Terence hollandan there and I didn’t know if the new district attorney commo was going to be against cannabis she said she was okay with it but she reallydidn’t do anything for us just like Obama I was thought those people were going to help change and they didn’t I’mI love them though I’m fans of both of them but they did notchange what they needed to politically they got in line and I thought man whoin our level is helping us uh he’s give me sign languages oneminute something one minute andwhat cut cut what I got more to say whyyou like a da now you’re like the police man you can’t stopus so I would just say on social media the end this try to pay attention see what I’m doing look and see because I amcoming back I am making a whole surge doing it all again and and let me know what you think about my social contentI’m going to try to be interesting I’m going to try to go places and show me traveling and show show people what aguy in a wheelchair can do because it’s really one person you can actually make a difference and I’m afraid that the lawhasn’t is not behind us yet because look at how they come up with laws not thethe states and cities can do it now right and counties but look at some of the laws they make it hard I’ve seen bigfarm and people with big money come in to get licens in six months I’m watching an individual has a farm who takes twoyears I go to board meetings where I speak on behalf of this person who’s a farmer I’ve been to his house sayinglook at he’s got a great place to grow he’s a great grower I think you guys should issue it well he actually has aneighbor that’s complaining and it’s all complaint driven one person complains you don’t get your license and what dothe big guys do they go to the neighbors do you need a new well Joey do you need a newfence so that’s kind of what we’re still up against now that big business big bigPharma and maybe not too big a Pharma but big money’s coming this way which is nothing like when the federal governmentlegalized when the federal government steps away you’re going to see billions pour in I’m sure we’ve already hadbillions pour in and I know three billionaires right now in the industry that I knew and Iflip pounds and they were little I remember the small little spots they had fromburner to Big mic advanced nutrients to Fox Farm I remember those guys when theywere just hustling now they are billionaires in our industry so it is happening not that anyof us care really about being billionaires if we do Hallelujah but we want have a successful formula geneticssuccess helps you get that successful formula Sops the way you grow what nutrients you use the environment forthe strain you’re working with there’s some knowledge you have to bring to the table to do this right otherwise you grow genetics that people really don’tcare about and a lot of people are quitting this industry because it’s so hard price has gone down but the peoplewho succeeded are the boutique farmers who have the right genetics with the right system and they grow really goodproduct that’s what we have to do keep on that level I’d rather see Boutique Farmers grow instead of one farmertaking 100 acres and blown it up ruining the pricing because I guarantee you the quality won’t be what Igrow and in saying that thank you all for coming I feel blessed to be able tocome here to Hawaii and share this with you thank you[Applause]Mahalo thank you all for waking and baking and coming down here I knew it was going to be an early gig and Ithought I don’t know my pop friends are going to come here this early but you made it so this isownMar hear the song This song is brownie Mary I I came up with a song here I tookbrownie Mary’s that was a protest listen to the song for a [Music]moment she aing pain a cancering back