Australian celebrity chef Pete Evans has come under fire Down-Under for his support of cannabis. Pete joins Dan Humiston to talk about some of the reasons Australia is resisting cannabis reform. He discusses his latest project a cannabis documentary called The Magic Plant and his hope that it will promote greater acceptance of the plant in his country. Produced by PodCONX https://podconx.com/guests/pete-evans
Australian celebrity chef Pete Evans has come under fire Down-Under for his support of cannabis. Pete joins Dan Humiston to talk about some of the reasons Australia is resisting cannabis reform. He discusses his latest project a cannabis documentary called The Magic Plant and his hope that it will promote greater acceptance of the plant in his country.
https://podconx.com/guests/pete-evans
Dan Humiston: [00:00:00] The race to be the first national cannabis dispensary chain is heating up. Who will emerge as the Starbucks of Cannabis? We're kicking off the Dispensary Spotlight series featuring CEOs of 12 of the fastest growing dispensary chains. Listen. In February 4, the Dispensary Spotlight series. And you may hear the future Starbucks of Cannabis.
Pete Evans: [00:00:22] I'm always open to working with really good people that have a wonderful vision on how we improve the planet and also the health of individuals and people that can see the bigger picture.
Pete Evans: [00:00:35] So it becomes a win win win, a win for the business or win for the end consumer and also a win for the environment and the planet from MJBulls Media.
Dan Humiston: [00:00:50] It's the Raising Cannabis Capital shelf. I'm Dan Humiston. And on today's show, how this famous Australian chef has taken the fight for Cannabis acceptance down under with his new Cannabis documentary, The Magic Plant.
Dan Humiston: [00:01:17] Today in Raising Cannabis Capital, we are joined by Pete Evans. Pete, welcome to the show.
Pete Evans: [00:01:22] Thank you for having me.
Dan Humiston: [00:01:23] You have been having a great day. It's great to have you on the show, Pete. For our listeners who don't already know, Pete Evans is a hugely popular celebrity chef who lives in Australia, and he's also an author and a TV star. And he produces movies and he also has his own podcasts.
Dan Humiston: [00:01:42] So this is a really, really busy guy and we're lucky to have have him on our show. So we're gonna jump right into it, Pete.
Dan Humiston: [00:01:49] You're no stranger to controversy. Over the years, you've gotten pushback on a lot of different ideas that you've endorsed. But the thing I think that people in America are going to find strange is that you've come under fire in Australia for supporting Cannabis.
Dan Humiston: [00:02:04] Why do you think there's still. Yeah. Why do you think there's still so much Cannabis resistance down under?
Pete Evans: [00:02:10] Oh, I think it would probably be a few different reasons. Political, religious and industry would probably be the main one through pharmaceutical or medical associations. They probably do not want to see this widespread and and readily available.
Dan Humiston: [00:02:24] You know, that wouldn't be the top reason on my list. But has there been any movement at all? Is it getting better down there?
Pete Evans: [00:02:31] No, it's it's we have medical cannabis available very, very, very, very difficult for people to access. I think there's might be 5000 people out of a population of 25 million that have access to it.
Pete Evans: [00:02:45] And it's extremely expensive to do an idea.
Pete Evans: [00:02:48] A friend of mine that I interviewed recently has had a brain tumor and his yearly bill from medical Cannabis is one hundred thousand Australian dollars, which would roughly be about sixty thousand and sixty five thousand American dollars. Oh, my gosh. And another woman I interviewed who has a child with epilepsy thinks she's paying about 50000 Australian dollars to for something that they could probably grow at home or through a community garden for basically free. So there's a lot of money being made through the medical associations and the pharmaceutical. So, yeah, we'll come back to that point again is why is there such pushback? And it's they wants to be a certain amount of control from the governing bodies and the people that have this, I guess, industry locked down at the moment. Yeah. But as we know in Australia, there's probably from my understanding, the latest figures I saw was anywhere from half a million to a million people purchasing black-market or what we would call the Greenmarket illegal Cannabis for their medical reasons. But that's got nothing to do with the recreational side. So we major in balance here and the system is broken and it seems to be continually very, very difficult. What is very simply plants to people to grow with no real side effects. We're very backwards here in Australia at the moment on this and many other topics as well.
Dan Humiston: [00:04:20] Well, considering how things are changing so rapidly throughout the rest of the world, it would just seem that there'd be more interest in that continent. It's just kind of mind boggling at this time that there would be still so much resistance. You know, as someone with a background in nutrition, do you see opportunities to add Cannabis into a healthy diet?
Pete Evans: [00:04:43] Yeah, I 100 percent agree. I mean, I've just finished filming a documentary for the last year or so, travelled through America, Canada or Central Australia and interviewed everyone from historians through to cutting edge scientists from Israelis who were sort of leading the charge, so to speak, on the scientific side of it, through the doctors, patients, growers and of course, recreational users or consumers and including chefs and people that have a vested interest in all the different applications and ways that Cannabis can be used. Chefs that having wonderful results by having a new herb, especially with Cannabis to the 70 different cultivars strains that are available with different turfing profiles. So we're seeing great interest now. If home cooks and chefs like that are now being free to use these these plants to flavor certain dishes in a way that has not really been explored over the last 100 years. And on the other side of that, I can definitely say the Cannabis isn't for everybody in any of those forms. So it's like everything you have to work out why you were attracted to it or why you're repulsed by it and then dig a little deeper as to what that is. Is it a police system or is it something that just doesn't agree with you at this particular point in time? Or has it been a plastics? Syrians, where perhaps the first time you experience Cannabis may be in a recreational setting. Maybe it wasn't the right setting. I remember when I was a kid and I tried it when I was 16. Worried about my parents finding out of the police catch me. And I had no idea what I was smoking and where it was from and how it was grown. What cultivar was? THC or CBD? A level that had in it. So all of those things can compounds that experience for somebody. And it's like if I'm a chef, for instance, and I am about to cook you dinner and I'm going to serve you chicken liver, for instance. But the first time you try chicken liver, somebody's overcooked it and tasted like shit.
Pete Evans: [00:07:02] You would probably be like, hey, I know what I go to anyway. Yes, I can liver .
Pete Evans: [00:07:09] If that first experience of trying livers in a beautiful restaurant close by somebody that knew what they were doing and it could have been the best meal of your life. There's all of these things to take take into consideration with Cannabis. That's what I'm attempting to explore in our documentary and give a very wide range view of what this plant is and what it isn't. And to go back to your first statement or question to do with nutrition. I think it's very important. As with all of these pillars of health that I like to call it, whether it be nutrition, how we sleep, how our internal or external dialogue is to ourselves and to the world and our emotional relationships that we have, as well as our connection to nature and movement and avoidance of, I guess, toxic environments and toxic pollutants. I think not one is more important than the other. But I do see a lot of people putting all of their hopes into Cannabis as being a treatment or a cure for their illness. And I would say that to have a balanced view, to say, yes, it does have medicinal properties to it. But if you continue to eat the same foods may be brought about that illness, then all the Cannabis in the world may not treat or fix that health problem. Same thing if you're in a job or a relationship that is causing these stress or the Cannabis in the world. Main Dimmock the other to fix that depression or PTSD or anxiety or or relationship trauma. If you're still continuing to attract those negative relationships or patterns that put you there in the first place. So I take a very wide holistic view of what health is. But it's saying that Cannabis can be used as an adjunct or as a healing modality. But I wouldn't put all my eggs into that one basket inside Cannabis. Is that the magic pill for everybody? Like just the same as I wouldn't say that nutrition is the magic pill for everybody because we have to look at all those pills.
Dan Humiston: [00:09:15] Yeah, well, it helps. A really good point. What's the name of the documentary?
Pete Evans: [00:09:19] It's gonna be called The Magic Plant. It's because it's my first film was called The Magic Pill Song, which actual food is a healing tool and the magic plant.
Pete Evans: [00:09:29] The question is, is this a magic plant? And that's the question that I asked everybody that I could find.
Pete Evans: [00:09:35] Probably growers give it to the naysayers here, everybody when needed to plant. And when is it gonna be released?
Pete Evans: [00:09:42] Probably sometime in 2020. And it's getting edited at the moment. And like all things, some things take time.
Pete Evans: [00:09:49] Sure, it will come to maturity when it's ready and it will be shared when it's time.
Dan Humiston: [00:09:56] I want to take a quick break to thank you for listening to today's show as the exclusive Cannabis podcast network. We're constantly adding new Cannabis podcasts to support our industry's growth. And that's why we're so excited to welcome the Seed to Sound podcast to our network. The team at Seed to Sound has produced over 50 exciting and thought provoking Cannabis podcasts. And now you can listen to all their previous episodes and all their new episodes at MJ Blaze.com. So welcome seed to sound. And stay tuned for new exciting Cannabis podcast on the MJ Blues Cannabis Podcast Network.
Dan Humiston: [00:10:36] Why didn't mention in the intro? But you're also an entrepreneur. We have a number of different business interests. And do you intend to pursue wavier business in Cannabis?
Pete Evans: [00:10:46] I've been a chef for 30 years and I have many businesses and different ventures that I've gone into over those 30 years, from restaurants to and making and TV shows about food, hosting TV shows, producing documentaries and also creating a line of food products and also being an ambassador for food products. So Cannabis, I say is another I guess it is a healing tool and I am very interested in working in this space. Currently, I work with a company called Magical Butter that make wonderful machine that you can make your own medicine out of or make your own edibles out of. It's a wonderful tool. So that's one of the first ones. I'm just working with a company called Graney, which is G W E I should say, by which is out of the States, which is an online platform which sounds Cannabis products in the health spectrum. So talk about beauty, pet products, cookie products, and they're all based around CBT and Hemp at the moment, so I'm working with them as well as mentioned. The documentary will be coming out soon and I'll be looking at doing a range of high-grade medicinal products using Cannabis. So that'll come out in 2020 as well.
Dan Humiston: [00:11:59] You have a lot on your plate and I know that for a lot of our listeners are in the industry and they're always looking for investors. So they're probably happy people hitting you up to save p-a. One take a look at our business.
Pete Evans: [00:12:11] Yeah, I'm I'm always open to working with really good people that have a wonderful vision on how we can improve the planet and also the health of individuals and people that can see the bigger picture. So it becomes a win win win win for the business or win for the end consumer and also a win for the environment and the planet. And I think once you can take over those boxes in any business venture, then you can create something quite wonderful because your heart is aligned with doing goodness in the world. And the other part that I see has great potential, which I'm very open to exploring, is the role of Cannabis in the cooking space and also the restaurant space and the wellness space. So looking at different ideas on how we can bring Cannabis mainstream through cafes, restaurants, takeouts, fast food franchises, these types of things, that again goes back to those principles of a win win win to give you an idea. We look at the edible space in Cannabis at the moment in the drink space and Cannabis and especially the edible space throughout the US and Canada. All I'm saying is refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup and additives and preservatives and numbers that will do more harm than good. And even if it has the Cannabis in it, I'd just call it junk. So there's an enormous room there for good entrepreneurs to come through with quality products because most of it is terrible at the moment. And I would say will cause cancer or will cause disease of some sort of state to consume that type of food.
Dan Humiston: [00:13:57] Well well, for our listeners, if you have an idea or your business, it's up and running the checks, those boxes that Pete talked about. I think they'd be a good time to reach out to. People have all of his contact information on the MJ BLS website. Pete, it's been great having you on the show.
Pete Evans: [00:14:14] My brother. So thank you for you inviting me to have a good chat. And I really appreciate the questions. And I think it's a really exciting space. Very proud to be a part of it. And let's hope that we can continue to keep these conversations going where it is about the future of of Cannabis so that it can express itself in the best possible way for humanity and for the rest and for the planet. And I'm looking forward to seeing how all of this with this grows in a very organic way.
Dan Humiston: [00:14:47] Well, as it grows, we'd like to have you back on the show so we can hear what you're up to next year when the film comes out.
Pete Evans: [00:14:52] I would love to come on and we can talk about it in depth, if you like.
Dan Humiston: [00:14:55] Sounds good. Sounds good. Well, thanks again. And we'll see you soon.
Pete Evans: [00:14:59] Thanks for see yeah mate
Dan Humiston: [00:15:04] Today's show was made possible by the generous support of our sponsors, like all 36, the country's premiere blockchain payment processing platform that's providing dispensaries and its customers with a safe and secure payment option other than cash. To learn more, go to all 36 dot com. Today's podcast was produced by MJ Bulls Media, the industry's premier Cannabis podcast network with original music, produced in part by Jamie Humiston. I'm Dan Humiston and you've been listening to the Raising Cannabis Capital podcast.
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