Danny Jones Podcast - #18 - The Strip Club King | Joe Redner

Episode Date: August 8, 2019

Joe Redner is the owner of the Mons Venus, one of the most infamous strip clubs in the world and the first full nude hands on adult club with "no rules" in Tampa, Florida. The clubs liberal touching policy enraged the local community so much, multiple raids have occurred along with Joe being arrested over 150 times. Recently Joe went into remission after being diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, and has since become a huge medical marijuana activist. He is currently involved with two lawsuits against the state of Florida for medical marijuana rights. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All right, we're live on the podcast again with Joe Redner. Thanks again for coming out here, man. Thanks for having me. I've been wanting to do this interview for a long time. You are. So how did you become such a legend and an icon in the Tampa Bay Area? You've been, you're very well-known around here, and you're very outspoken, and people call you an activist.

But how initially did you become so well-known in this area? Well, about 1976, I went to work for a gentleman that, um, you know, had a go-go bar. And I went in as a night shift manager, and that's where there was, the dancers wore pasties and G-strings, and that's what they wore. They didn't strip.

They didn't do anything to came out, danced a couple songs, and then quit. So anyway, I saw a case from a Supreme Court of the United States that said nudity in speech was protected. by the First Amendment. Nudity in speech? In speech. In other words, if you're dancing and you have nudity, that's protected by the First Amendment.

Okay. Because you're speaking. You're saying something. Okay. Conduct, how you conduct yourself, how you dress, all that is speech. Okay. You're saying something to other people. So then I opened a club that was a nude.

and had alcohol and it was a beer joint and I called it it was Dorios and no I called it the night gallery I changed it was Dorios before it was a beer joint

and I called the night gallery and we started the girls dancing nude and the city started raiding me and there was hundreds of raids and eventually and people going to jail and bonding out and I bonded them out

Finally, we got an injunction that says you can't do that against the city, saying their nude ordinances were unconstitutional. Then they left me alone for a while and started using their ludicivius statutes against me. Well, Luden lascivious, you have a right to a jury trial, so we had to have those. It just went on and on. I could just go on and on and on, but essentially it's just, the government overreaching and invading people's constitutional rights because of something they read in the Bible and that they cannot justify in a court of law with evidence.

Things like, well, a lot of things. Now, did you know that you were the first person to have a nude strip club in Tampa? Were you aware of that when you did it? Yeah. was very much aware of it. And you didn't think that, I mean, did you anticipate any kind of blowback? Yeah, but, you know, if the Constitution says and the Supreme Court says I can do something. Right.

And I believe it's my fundamental right. Even if it doesn't, if I think it's a human right and a fundamental right, if I feel a necessity to do it, I'm going to do it. And then I'll defend myself, you know? Right. with my peers. And that's what I've been doing. I've been defending myself in the press. And that's how everybody told me, shut up, shut up, shut up.

No, I'm not shutting up. You're coming after me. I'm going to go after you any legal way I can. Right. And the legal way is to get to the press because the press is coming to me and saying, hey, this is what they're doing to you. What do you got to say about it? Right.

Let me say what I got to say about it. Right. So. And when was all this happening? When was all this taking place? Oh, this was happening from 76 to 87 or something like that, just constant. It was constant. The only respite I had is when a female mayor came in.

Every male mayor came after me. That's really right. But not the female. No. No, they didn't have a problem. That's hilarious. Why do you think that is? Jane cast, I mean, Sandy Freeman, she didn't buy.

Because I think that women, in order to get elected, have to be really smart. Right. Yeah. But men don't. Yeah. And we have a lot of people in office that they're not really smart. I mean, I'm not saying they don't get things done and people don't like them, but I'm telling you, they're not really smart. Right.

They don't know all the ins and outs of them. No. And, you know, they have, they're this a male personality. Yeah. It's crazy. And so all the Tampa mayors who were men really were breathing hard down your neck trying to... What exactly were they trying to do to shut you down? Well, they don't...

You got arrested like a ton of times, right? Yeah, I've been arrested 150 times. Oh, my. Yeah, I've spent a lot of time in jail for contempt to court because I wouldn't obey a judge. And really one of them, I even... got his sympathy for when I was in jail when he realized what was going on and he let me out Wow. And they were trying to implement a rule where the girl had to be six feet away when she was

giving you a lap dance, right? Yeah, it had to be, no, it had to be a, just think about what you just said. Let's just wear virtual reality goggles. You might as well. How do you get a lap dance at six foot away? Exactly. No, so there is no lap dance, right? There wouldn't be a lap dance.

That was the point. That was why they did that, right? Yeah, absolutely. Well, they want to shut these clubs down, but they can only go so far. Well, when they think you step over the line a little bit, they're going to come after you because they want to shut you down anyway. It's a Republican way of doing things. Make the problem, then point at it in order to get rid of the thing that was operating the way it should in the first place. They create the problem. And then they point out and say, this thing don't work. Right. So that's what they did. tried to use a bunch of excuses saying that all your girls were on drugs. They called them crack

horrors. They used all kinds of crazy language to try to make you look bad. Yeah, well, I went to their schools. There was more drugs in schools than there is in the Monz Venus. And when, so. And I proved it. So when exactly did Monz Venus, when was that created? When did you actually start that brand or that company? That was 1982. That was 82. Okay. And I read, I was reading a book, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, that had the mound of Venus in it, Monz Venus, that's what they called it. And actually, it doesn't translate perfectly to the Monza Venus,

mound of Venus, but that's what it means to me. Okay, so I like that. Mons is a mountain, I guess. It's the pubic area. Okay. That little mound down there. The little mound, yeah. Now, out of all the places in the country,

out of all the strip clubs and this whole, country like I mean I've been to strip clubs in Miami Las Vegas New York Atlanta there's something about that little hole in the wall on Dale Mayberry that attracts like it's called my club it's small it's a small building and it's when you see it for the first time you're like this is what everyone's talking about from the outside you know what I mean and there's something about that place that's consistently drawn the most beautiful women in the world in the world and it's not like any other strip club I've ever been to is it is there like a secret

of the way you do business that makes the... I'm the dancer center. I'm centered. Everything is geared toward the dancer. The dancer comes in when she wants to. She leads what she wants to. The dancer can work seven days a week, can work one day, can work as many hours, can work the shifts she wants to.

She can switch shifts without telling anybody. They can go to school. They don't have to work their job. around their school, I mean their school around their job, they can work their job around their school. The school can be what they really want to do. Everything is for the dancer. So I get the best dancers because that's the reputation. Yeah. And then paywise, weren't you paying them different? No, I don't pay the dancers. They take all their money, right? Yeah, but they keep all their money. They perform a service. They give a lap dance. They perform a service. They get paid for it.

Right. I don't tell them how much to pay for it. I have a recommendation from $25 to $35. It's posted, but I don't tell them how much of the charge. Right. And I don't take their money. Which is a lot different from the other clubs, right? Other clubs, they take a cut.

They take a percentage of the money. Really? Yeah. Okay. What kind of money does a dancer in your club make? Depends. What's like the skit? You have the ones that come in or satisfied working two or three hours and making $200 the day,

and then you have the ones that want to come in. and work 10, 12 hours, which is not many. And make $8, $900 a day. It depends on the day. So I say a dancer can make a good dancer that's not really can make a couple thousand a week. Wow. Yeah. She wants to do 40 hours a week, five days a week.

Ain't no talent. So when was it when watching all those videos on YouTube, of those preachers standing out in front of Mons Venus, screaming at you through the megaphone, screaming that everybody, just nasty. Jesus Christ is going to come back and you're going to go to hell for bringing all these drug-addicted women here and dancing. Why does it always seem that the nastiest people in the world are religious?

Right. Yeah, always. Why is that? Well, I think they gravitate towards religion because they need saving. Right. In other words, they have this antisocial part of themselves. They know it. If they do, it's like putting your hand on a burner.

You get burned. If they do it, they get in trouble. So they turn to religion because they think that's going to stop them from doing these antisocial things. So when anybody is a born-again Christian, now I'm not talking about comfort Christians. Yeah. When someone is a born-again Christian, I'm worried about them. I'm worried about myself with them because they just told me they have some kind of bad problem that they're trying to stop. Yeah.

Now, the comfort Christians that believe in a God because they're going to see their family, they don't believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible, they pick and choose. Right. Because they're going to see their family. Their children maybe died before them. It makes them comfortable in love. life and death. Right. That's good.

Those are comfort Christians. They don't do what these warm against do. They're not trying to push their ideas on everybody else. Exactly. What were you doing on those talk shows where you were talking, you were talking to a preacher, and you and the preacher were kind of debating and arguing about stuff? You remember that? Bill Keller.

Bill Keller. It was called like what, it was like bleeping something, the bleeping truth. Oh, that was another one. That's, uh. Yeah. So you were talking to the street preacher and basically he was just like yelling at you about about, you know, God and you need to let God into your soul

and he wanted to save your soul and all this stuff. And it was just like this huge battle. It just seemed like religion was against you and everything that you were doing. And it seemed like that was kind of like a long battle. Well, maybe it's because I'm against religion. Yeah.

You know, I think that religion's one of the worst ideas that's ever happened. Although I don't think man had any choice in having this idea because he didn't know what to hell was going on and was trying to figure it out. So, yeah. Anyway, it's done more harm to society than any single idea that's ever been brought forward.

Communism, all that stuff that's been these bad ideas. Well, it's not bad if you keep it to your, I mean, but once you start to bring it into politics, that's when there's big time problems. It allows itself to do that. That's why it's bad. Right. You recently, you were diagnosed with, what, stage four lung cancer and prostate cancer, is that right? I've had both, yeah. And you're now in remission.

Well, they call it remission. I call it cure. You call it cure. You're cured. Yeah. Wow. That's amazing. Congratulations.

How long have you been cured? I got it late 81, so they cured me in a year. So I've been cured for seven years. Seven years. That's amazing. 4% of the people live 5 years after being diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. And I'm, what, 8 years now? Wow.

So how long do they tell? What do they tell you? And marijuana had a big part in that. I can testify to marijuana. Right. And had a big part in my getting well. How so? Well, it allows you, the chemo is killing you.

Kimo is something that it treats you so bad. Right. That you think about not doing it and dying. Yeah. That's how bad it is. It just kills everything. It just nukes everything in your body. It's trying to kill.

It's killing you. They just hope it kills the cancer before it kills you. Right. Because that's what chemo is doing. It's killing you. It's barbaric. It really is like a barbaric way to cure a disease. But I let the doctors do.

they their thing and then I did my thing which is my health thing I'm a raw vegan and I fought it my way with no sugar I was amazed at the Moffitt when I was getting the chemo you know could you sit there four hours putting that pumping that stuff into you and they were bringing me ice cream and I'd say what are you people crazy right so you were already vegan then or yeah that prompted you to be sugar feeds cancer Oh, yeah, right, right. It feeds it. Yeah, and they're bringing you ice cream to comfort you.

And I said, no, man, I don't need that. Yeah. We just fire up a joint here and I'll be fine. Yeah. Well, I couldn't. I had lung cancer, so. Oh, yeah, you can't smoke it. Yeah, I was, I was doing all edibles.

Edibles. Okay. That was, like, the weed and the edibles, was that, when you were done with chemo, that just, like, made you more comfortable and took away all the symptoms of the chemo? Right. And it helps you eat, give you an appetite. It helps your appetite. Yeah, to help.

It does all those things. And, you know, you have cannabinoid centers in your body. If you don't do cannabinoids, you're cannabinoid deficient. So it's just eating it or putting it in your food. A fresh marijuana is really good for you. Now, did you consume marijuana prior to this? Or was just like the first time that you started actively consuming it? I told you earlier.

I don't obey laws. that I think are unjust. Okay, I got you. So, no, I did marijuana before, but I smoked it. I didn't do edibles or anything. Right, yeah, you just smoked it. I just smoked it. I never had a problem with it.

Never, ever, ever had a problem that any, would justify any time in jail, any time. So I thought there was really none of the government's business. Yeah. Because I didn't have any effects. I couldn't overdose, all those things that other drugs give you problems. they give you marijuana does not now why do you think florida's so far behind when it comes to republican legislators he didn't even have to think republican legislators what why are they holding it back why are they holding florida back when it comes to legalizing marijuana

because the special interest watch the the marijuana this is not just marijuana this is everything but the marijuana thing do we have a ruling for florida that says that we can can, uh, that we have a right to floor grown is your company. Company, right. We sued and got a injunction and then we sued and then that was upheld in the appellate court that says their statute that regulates marijuana and the way you get a license is unconstitutional because they have given their, the licenses to their friends. It's crony capitalism.

Just a few companies in violation. of the constitutional amendment, just a few companies have been given licenses. They are unregulated and no one else can get a license. And that's anti-American. That's un-American. Free enterprise is the basis for our capitalistic system. They have taken that away. I have a right as a citizen of this country to a license just like everybody else does. You do too. You have a right to fair competition to go in there and compete against the other ones,

if they're limited numbers of the license, to compete against them and have your chance, like every other American does. And the Republicans, they give you all that lip service, and then they do just the opposite. They gave the licenses to their buddies. And their buddies are the ones who own these companies that are growing marijuana. the money. We were talking about the money. And then what they do is the legislators actually they do it in other ways, but they call for contributions if the companies want something done. Right. By saying, by saying keywords and stuff like that. And now the,

the companies that have the licenses give them a bunch of money to the legislatures. So that's why you have the problems here in Florida. Now, they buy the law. legislatures they buy them it's out in front they're brazen i don't understand why anybody lets them do it they did the the um and these companies are these are these companies they're just growing marijuana the the uh energy companies all these companies that have xes they are have monopolies on everything opiates yeah no they go into an area and they're the only one that services that area, lecture companies. You have different electric companies,

but there's no competition in this one area. That's crony capitalism. I have a right just like everybody else. That's America. That's equal opportunity. And that's what I fight for. What do you think about the opiates versus marijuana? What is the current state of that?

Because I know there's, I know there's in the path. There's been a lot of pushback for, for, you know, there's been a lot of problems with the statistics of people dying from opiate overdoses and like the methadone clinics in Florida and everyone that dies from all that compared to marijuana. And I heard that there's a guy named Mel Sembler who is, uh, he owns like some methadone clinics or I don't know the exact details, but basically he was pushing back really hard against legalizing weed because he made money, um, from opiates. Assembly, yeah, I've been aware of Assembly for a long time. He's a bundler. He bundles money for the Republican Party.

He's been for president and in the state. He's a big influencer. He had an organization one time, I think, that treated kids for drug problems. Right, right, right. They were cited for abusing children. Their methods were so draconian that it was, abuse. Right. He basically made money from people overdosing. He's terrible. He's a terrible, terrible, terrible man. Yeah. Yeah. He has no empathy at all. And if it's not in his interest,

forget it. So he's a big part of that being held back from... Yeah, he is. He's Ray Rodriguez, who is the, in the house up there and who's spearheaded this fight against our constitutional right to marijuana. They're fighting against those Republicans. They say they're for the Constitution, but they're not. They just get lip service to it like everything else. And so Ray Rodriguez, he's the guy. And Nell Sembler and Ray Rodriguez are fuck buddies. Who is Ray Rodriguez again?

He's in the house, the Florida House of Representatives. Okay. Now, when did you become so actively involved in politics? Um, well, what? Um, well. Like you ran, like you ran for Senate, right? No, yeah, I ran for Senate. I've, I've run for city council a few times.

I've run for a county commissioner a couple of times. Yeah, I've run nine times. So when did you start? When did you make the decision? The House one time, the Senate one time. Mm-hmm. Like, so when did you start? When did you decide, like, I need to be involved in Florida state politics?

And obviously you thought there, there needed to be some changes made, right? It's a platform. It's a platform to get out and speak. When they're not listening, you know, you have something you want to say. I just felt like I was being attacked. Not personally, my belief system, my American, the way I believe America is and the freedoms and all that. I feel like it's being attacked. Right.

And I want to fight it. I give you an example. When they went after the gays, I said, I was gay. not gay yeah yeah but i wasn't afraid to say because i knew that i could help protect the gays i went first i went and tried to give my money to an organization gay organization so they could hire a lawyer to fight that thing they went and got a lawyer and a lawyer said they didn't have a case so i filed my own damn case and that's how i said i was gay wow anyway um and we win the case they had to put can't be used in first in the first in the first amendment settings on the law so that kind of

negated it because parades are and almost everything is first and has a right right component to it so now so so going back when you were fighting for the when you did that fight for the gay rights in Tampa it was because they had banned the parades in Tampa is that why actually they had banned some booths at the library Talk about First Amendment. Yeah, there was, they allowed displays. They allowed students at South Florida. It's a yearly thing to put up displays in there with what they want to communicate to the community.

And they had a gay, one guy had a display with gay authors, not even gay about gayness. Right. With gay authors. Right. These are gay authors. And Rhonda Storms, who was on the county commission, she took umbrage with that, and she didn't want them to do that.

She said it was glorifying gays, and she passed the policy where the city, the county could not help any gay thing. I mean, just gay pride is the word they used. They were not going to facilitate it or have anything to do with it. And they used that to take these, display out of this display out of the

library. Wow. And I just I've read on Nazi Germany and it just hit me. This is what they did to the Jews. It's the first fucking step. Someone's got to do something and that's what I thought and that's what I did

and I wrote a complaint said I was gay. We settled the complaint. I didn't win the complaint. I did win but we settled it where they added some verb to the policy, the county commission policy, it wouldn't allow it be a used for First Amendment protected activity, which those displays were.

Jesus Christ, Joe. That's fucking crazy. So how many cases have you won over your time? You have to instigate me for me to remember. I've lost some and I've won some. Yeah. But I've won a bunch. It sounds like.

I want a bunch. I know what I'm doing. Right. It seems like it. I mean, they threw me into the law. I spent 10 years in the law library studying smoking a joint before I went and when I I would have a joint just fire up right now. Refal, cue the joint.

You got one for us? It allows you to, uh, what was I talking about? You got me off my thought. I was talking about smoking weed, sorry. Oh, the cases you've won. Oh, the law library. Okay. Yeah, concentrate.

When I'm smoking, it's like if I want to be, it's like I can be hypnotized and really concentrate. Oh, yeah. And I would go down, drive it around the block, smoke another joint, go back up the law library. I sit there eight, ten hours a day, sometimes seven days a week. What the fuck. Learning, the biggest deal with the law is learning to research. If you go in cold turkey and you don't know how to research, brother, that's hard. Yeah.

That is hard. And if it wasn't for some nice, hmm, a gay law library. They kind of liked me and he helped me. He never hit on me, but he was a guy, Bill Wells. And he, he helped me.

And he said I had more respect for those books than the lawyers and the judges that came in that law library. And I did. And I do. Yeah. I liked your, I really liked your commercials, your campaign commercials. I thought they were hilarious.

Yeah, Jeff and Adam did that. Those were so freaking good. That's awesome. I love how your slogan was that you're not for sale. Yeah. I think that's strong. Yeah, well, it didn't work. Why don't you think it worked?

Well, let's see. I'm an adult club owner, and I'm an atheist, and I advertise both of them, so. Okay. So they're probably really scared of you. What does that mean atheists? They call me the devil. Yeah. What is the actual definition of an atheist?

To me, it's someone that doesn't believe in the concept of a God. Okay. Of a supreme being. Okay. I know a lot of definitions get loosely thrown around, so I was... Yeah, I'm an atheist. I don't believe in it that there's a supreme being. I don't...

I just... If there was a being that was supervising this, he certainly wouldn't be supreme. He's not supervising for it. Yeah, he don't know what the hell he's doing, does he? Do you believe in aliens? I believe it's a possibility. Do you see the thing about the raid on Area 51, how everyone was going to go raid and try to find the aliens?

Let's see them damn aliens. Yeah. Don't you think Trump would already told us that? I don't know. Hell yeah. You think he would have? He can't keep his mouth shut up. What do you think about Donald Trump?

What do you think about him in general? I think he's got every bad habit that males have. Yeah. Every single one. He doesn't hide him very well either. He doesn't even try. He doesn't even try. No.

And I kind of feel like the people that follow him have every one of those bad habits too. Yeah, they cover it up good. It's like the stove. You put your hand on it. It's burned you. You learn not to put your hand on it. So you don't hear from these people, but they're there. And now he's embolding them.

Right. And they're going out and killing people. And they're killing America. They're going out. He's embolding them. And they're going out getting their going. and going out and killing Americans. And the thing about it is, they're not all brown Americans,

and that's who they're after. And they just kill indiscriminately. And this is Trump. This is Trump's world. This is Trump's America. I don't like it. I don't want to be here. I don't want to be in this, but I'm not going to leave.

I'm going to try and change it. People say, if you don't like it, leave it, fuck you. Right. I'm going to try and change it. Yeah. what do you think about any of the current 2020 candidates who do anybody you like in particular i'm a a burney guy you're a burney guy yeah Bernie saying the same thing now 35 years he's been saying the same thing he hasn't changed the bit they're coming over to him okay eventually that's the way it's gonna be

the way Bernie says you think it'll get there um it's either gonna get there or get nowhere yeah one or the other because why Bernie though isn't he i mean forgive me because I'm like a five-year-old when it comes to knowledge of politics. I don't really know much about it. I just kind of skim the surface. I don't believe that for some reason. You don't? I mean, I try.

I'm trying to get smart. That's why I do this podcast. It's because I get to have people like you on here, and I get to download all this info, and it makes me a little bit smarter every time. That's good thinking. So, from what I understand, Bernie is the one that wants,

is the closest to socialism, right? Democratic socialism. Democratic socialism. It's where the government controls the means of production. Bernie does not want the government to control the means of production. He likes capitalism. He likes controls on capitalism. And that's what we like too.

Because if you don't have controls on capitalism, people will be made slaves of. That's just the way it is. And the socialism is the control. And people don't understand that. Socialism, socialism, no, it's not democratic socialism. That's control on the means of production. Police departments are socialists. put any time the people get together to do something that's socialism okay it's it's that's just

what it is in other words we get together to build a road that's socialism we get together to have a fire a police and fire department that's socialism those are not cap capitalism okay the OSHA is socialism so OSHA says you've got to treat your workers a certain way that you can't put them in dangerous positions and things like that that's socialism okay what do you think about gun control and like the shooting that happened in el paso was it yesterday i think or two days ago what's the best possible what is your feeling the best possible world about guns what's the best possible what world world yeah no guns no guns that would be the best possible world would it?

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know the answer. Yeah, well, I need. So you think all guns to take them away? No. I said that's the best possible world. If they just did not exist. That's not reality though. Yeah, that's not reality.

So what do we do? Right. We work to try and make it that way. In other words, keep the guns out of hands of people that are known, people. that are dangerous people and having gun control checks so that you can tell if that's if that's what they are yeah maybe loosen up the criteria for taking it away from taking a gun away from crazy people right who have been that you know have been threatening loosen up a little bit of controls there I think that the amendment was worded

the way it is a well-regulated militia, I believe that guns are, you know, what a question. Yeah. It's a constitutional right, and it's just so hard, but I do know this. In countries where they've outlawed automatic weapons and those assault-style weapons,

they have much less killings. and maybe even none, almost none. Right. And we have, we have them happening every single day, mass shootings with those magazines. That there's a sensible gun regulation. How about we don't let them have those goddamn magazines that shoot 150? Right. Man killing shells that there's no reason for in the world for heaven.

You can hunt people have guns, but. I was listening to. an interview last night with Ted Nugent. And he was pointing out how all the mass shootings take place in, or statistically, a huge percent of the mass shootings take place in gun-free zones, like Connecticut, for example. And-

You think that's true? Would you believe anything, Ted Nudence? No, I would not. I would not, but I didn't actually look up the research, but... I know there are places where they just, they have a gun-free zone, but they just go across the border and pick up their guns. Right, right. And they can do that legally.

So what good is the gun-free zone when the people from the gun-free zone that do the killings can just go two blocks and pick up a goddamn. Exactly. So that's just, that's a joke. It's a non-statistic. It has no meaning. He's against weed, too, I think. Yeah, he's against weed.

Now, he's a good guitar player. So where are you? I don't know. I can't even testify for that. What a talent, huh? So that guy can think because he can play a guitar. Right. What else I was going to say?

Oh, yeah. So I wanted to ask you, you sued the state of Florida. Twice. Twice. One time for your company. One time for the company to be able to get a license, to enter into the marijuana business, like the other companies you do it. and one to be able to grow my own at home to, so I can.

Drink your smoothies that you're juicing. Well, juice it, eat it, whatever way. See, the amendment says, Oh, you got it right with you. Oh, yeah. Medical use, which you're immune for, this amendment gives you immunity. Medical use means the, now listen to this. This is amazing.

And then they're going to tell me I can't grow. It means the acquisition, possession, use, delivery, transfer, or administration. That means how you give it to yourself of marijuana. Okay. Okay, that's what I can do with the marijuana, right? Right. All right.

Here's what the definition in the amendment of cannabis is that I can do all those things with. Right. Any part of any plant of the genus cannabis, whether growing or not, the seeds thereof, the resin extracted from any part of the plant, and every compound manufacturer, salt, derivative mixture, or preparation of the plant or its seeds or resin. That's what I'm allowed to possess. Right.

That's what I'm allowed to transfer. That's what I'm allowed to use. So where's the argument? that's the constitution that is this there's nothing higher at law than this it trumps every other thing there is statute policy whatever it is if it doesn't go by this it's unconstitutional therefore it's invalid and they're violating your rights simple as that and then so that's the argument you take there right yeah and you win well no This is on my home grow.

No, I didn't. I won in the lower court. Mm-hmm. The appellate court reversed. Now I took that one to the Supreme Court of Florida. This one, the homegrown one. Yeah, the homegrown one. Yeah, the homegrown. Is it now in the Supreme Court?

Wow. And they're going to say whether they'll accept jurisdiction or not, which I think they probably will. So why is it taking so long? The state. Why, I mean, what's the state's? Assembly. Ray Rodriguez. What are their?

The Republicans in the legislature. legislature. So what is their argument against you? Well, they have to make what is the argument. They say it doesn't say what it says. That doesn't, that you cannot, well, what are they saying? They say it doesn't say what it says. What's, what is their actual argument? The actual argument is there's a, there's a part of the amendment that describes what a, an MMTC, which is a medical marijuana treatment center can do. Okay. Okay. And the medical marijuana treatment center, let me get this, means in the amendment, it means an entity that acquires, cultivates, possesses, processes, including development

of related products such as food, textures, aerosols, oils, or ointments, transfer, transport, cells, distributes, dispenses, or administers marijuana products, containing marijuana, related supplies or educational materials due for qualifying patients. That's what the MMTC can do. Okay. That's not about medical marijuana patients. That's about MMT businesses that go into the business. It's separate.

They say, you love this argument, they say because the word cultivate in there and they can make, grow your own marijuana, that it's the same as cultivating, that that cultivating somehow takes my right to possess a plant growing or not away from me. Right. So there's some very vague language in there, and they're trying to say that...

Well, it's not even vague. It just tells them MMTCs what they can do. It's very explicit. It doesn't say a damn thing about a patient. Right, right, right. So I have my rights in one part of the amendment, and the MNTCs have their rights in another part of the amendment one has nothing to do with the other they both can exist by

themselves without the other and operate they do not conflict with each other how are they nullified my rights with the right of an mtc that's the whole question that is the that is the question that's the big question now what do you think is going to happen with the supreme court well if they go by the constitution i have a resounding win if they if they do what you're Because your Supreme Court of Florida now, it had three, four Republicans. One of the Republicans went with the three Democrats, progressives that were, or not progressives, but more liberal justices that were there. Those three now have retired.

They have appointed three more conservative Republican judges. So now we have seven Supreme Court justices that are all in the pocket of the legislative. So it is such a flagrant, I think we may win because it is such a flagrant violation of every principle that you interpret the Constitution with that I don't think they can get around it. I think that would be a lot of public outcry if they don't do it the right way. And what do you think it would mean for you to win this, for you to win this case and for the Supreme Court to rule in your favor? What do you think that means for people like yourself in Florida and for, for, you know, patients, for cannabis patients or people that just want to grow their own weed? Well, it means that people that can't afford it because that's why I'm suing. I know those people out there that are hurting.

I hear from them every day. Yeah. They can't afford to even go to the doctor to get the damn card. And then they can't afford to get the car. And all they would have to do is grow some marijuana at home and get their medicine. And it is medicine. It's not to get high. It's medicine.

Get all that crap out of your heads. Right. It is medicine. It's better than opioids. It's better than all that stuff. It does more for you. It cannot kill you. Right.

It can disturb your cranium for about an hour or two sometimes if you take a little bit too much. But that's all can be dealt with for the benefits that you get from it. Right. And you don't have to be that way anyway. And when I eat the marijuana, it doesn't get you high. it's not activated. Really? Yeah.

I've eaten some edibles that have sent me to Mars. That's activated. Okay. That marijuana is decarboxilated. It's been heated up already. Okay. To make it active. Okay. That makes sense.

Okay. Marijuana in its stage coming from the fresh flour. The bud? The bud? Yeah. The flour? Yeah. We don't like it's high.

Really? You have to. Yeah. That's why you smoke marijuana. Okay. Okay. Because the heat activates it. That's what gets you high.

Right. That makes sense. Okay. So you're taking a very active stance and it seems like you're doing this for everybody else. It's my right. Right. It's my right and I have an interest in it. So it was my right to have that new dancing.

I had an interest in it. So I did it. I had property rights fights with the city of Tampa, which I won. They were my rights. and it was in my interest to fight, so I fought, and I won. You still own Mons Venus? Yes, I do. Do you own any other clubs as well?

No, I don't do. I don't really have the interest in adult clubs like I used to. That was what I wanted to open another one, and then another one. And here I was fighting people all the time. Yeah. It gets tiring. Yeah, it does. It really does.

And so they stuck me in jail and... 150 times you arrested. That's insane. Yeah. Well, you know, here's what I did. I get when it first started, I'd go down to the jail, you know, and I'd say, what are you doing? Jail, blah, blah, blah. And I'm sitting in there with the jailers.

And I'm saying, look, these guys got to be in here five days a week. They're going to be in here five days a week for almost the rest of the... their life every day, eight hours a day. They got to be here. Here I am in here. I'll be gone in four hours. Yeah, that's not so bad. Right. So I just worked it out of my mind. Yeah, yeah, look at the bright side. When I went in for contempt, I went to school or did something like that. I've been in jail like three times for contempt to court one time for five months. And that's just a memory. That's a long time. What does that mean contempt of court? Well, you've, the court has all. A lot. The court has ordered you to do something

and you didn't do it. Okay. They ordered me to close the business. I wouldn't close. Right, right. Okay. And then they put out an order to arrest me and started looking for me

and I was running all over town. It was funny. Wow. Yeah. So are you doing anything else? Are you doing any other, any big business ventures? Do you own any, you buy in real estate or anything? Continuously buy real estate.

What kind of real estate you buy? Business. You're buying just businesses? Commercial, yeah. Okay. No, not businesses. commercial property, warehouses and stuff like that.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, one of the warehouses I bought now is the IRS's office, so I'm their landlord. You bought the IRS? No, I didn't buy it. They came to me and wanted to put it in there. Really? My building, yeah.

Where's this building in Tampa? Yeah, it's right on Dale Mayory and Boy Scout Road. Wow. Now, do you actively buy and sell, or do you just sit and hold them for a while? Just collect you just collect them? The income? No, I don't sell anything. So you don't, you're not like flipping stuff.

No. And we have a brewery that's opening up in, very shortly, probably in Wesley Chapel. Really? Aston Brewery. Okay. Florida Avenue brewing. I don't know if it's my new brewery. Oh, we'll have to come check that out.

Florida Avenue brewery, okay. Florida Avenue, yeah. Is this your first brewery? No, Sigour City was my son and I's first brewery. Of course, it was probably, it was all him except for my money. Right. Okay. Yeah.

Now this all these Our city is Probably the most One of the most Except for Edwiser One of the most well-known breweries Oh yeah definitely Like High-Lye

You guys made High-Lye and a bunch of other brands right Yeah Yeah Yeah That High-Ly was what made it Made it famous really Now all this All this investing

All these businesses that you're buying Actually we out At the Denver They had the beer whatever you call it the beer things every year they give out awards and all that you enter beer and they give out awards and we out beat for awards for gold medals and all the medals we beat to our city this year so we're ahead of them really we're the number 10 brewery in the country wow for small breweries that's open now yeah florida well the florida avenue brewing is here in tampa and then we're

going to expand into Wesley Chapel. A nice piece of property up there. It's going to have a nice restaurant and brew a lot of beer. Oh, yeah. Now, all this stuff started from just money that you've made

from Mons Venus and you just kind of started investing in other stuff and diversifying. Yeah. Yeah, it all came from... From Mons Venus. That was a start. It all started there. That's incredible. Yeah, then we just sold

Cigar City, so... Okay. Not too long ago. Made a lot of money. there. Yeah, that's nice. So things, you know, things work out. Cool.

On to the next fight. Yeah. So when is the, when is like the next date for the Supreme Court for that case or anything? Well, they had fit, we filed our motion for hearing and they have 15 days in order to answer that, so nothing happens for 15 days. Okay. And they'll probably ask for an extension at the last minute, which, you know, which, tolls in so the state they just they get into in the way of everything in other words they stall stall stall stall stall stall

stall they don't want to go anywhere fast right they'll try and break you you know it's just going to court it's not cheap no that's what they're trying to do you've got to be rich very very rich to do this or be a big corporation right yeah that's not cheap these lawyers don't do not cheap believe me You got to have deep pockets to fight those people. I'm over a million in these two. And just these two. Yeah. Wow.

Yep. What keeps the drive to keep fighting these fights? I'm being attacked. Yeah. I have a right to do it. They're attacking me by telling me I can't. So I got a fight. What do you do?

You know, roll over and die. I think a lot of people probably would. Yeah. A lot of people definitely would. Yeah, but they're not, they don't have. I was, I didn't. develop this or anything I was born with whatever I am I was born with in order to do anything else I'd have to mess myself up as far as I'm sorry right right so yeah you just have a higher

purpose you know that burning burning somebody's got to do it gets my interest right it satisfies me it makes me feel like I have some worth yeah so people like you are needed I mean if you don't fight to fight and who's going to right? Hopefully there's another guy but I don't know where they are. Yeah, you got to. I have to. I have no choice. Well, we thank you for that.

Yeah. You're an inspiration to us and many others. Thank you. Awesome. Well, thanks again for your time, Joe. You're so welcome. Talk to again soon. Really nice.