The Adam and Dr. Drew Show - #1708 Highway Flower Vendors

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

Adam revisits the time he debated Gavin Newsom on highway flower vendors and the California Highway Patrol. Next Adam and Drew take some listener calls including one about social media algorithms by state. Please Support Our Sponsors: NetSuite.com/ADS

Recorded live at Corolla One Studios with Adam Corolla and board-certified physician and addiction medicine specialist, Dr. Drew Pinsky. You're listening to The Adam and Dr. Drew Show. Yeah, get it on. Got to get on. I chose to get on. I mean, to get on Dr. Drew's board-certified physician. All right.

So in the last show, we're looking for that passage in the book, but about being a book. Yeah. There's a forest lawn and the, the flower sales across from the cemetery and stuff. And by the way, Oh, you know,

you should know this. Yeah. The flower sales went from directly across the street. Yeah. So I was going to say to all the way down to the off ramp. Yes. flower sales went from directly across the street from yeah so i was gonna say okay yeah to all the way down to the off ramp yes now yes now yeah the other day i was driving down victory boulevard before you get on the on-ramp so you get on the on-ramp on Victory, and I think the second or third exit is the Forest Lawn exit. First one? Is it the first?

First one out of here, yeah. Oh, okay. There's a guy selling flowers on the on-ramp now. On the on-ramp? Well, before the on-ramp. Maybe 100 feet before the on-ramp. Well, before the on-ramp, maybe 100 feet before the on-ramp, because people are saying, look, we're going to keep moving forward. Yeah. To be the first one.

To be the first one. Because the guy who's selling it across from the gate of Forest Lawn, there's no more buying there anymore. Yeah. Interesting, right? Yeah. And the bouquets, I've noticed, have become bigger and more elaborate. Yes. And the setups, they now have, you know, tents and all kinds of stuff that are set up and tables.

And they're not, they're not, I think they used to be ready to move out if they did get hassled. You know what I mean? We do. Amy, you guys can look for. I was talking to Newsom 10 years ago about this, and I was explaining that there was a guy that the cop was across the street and he's given tickets out to citizens. He's given tickets out to citizens. And and there's a guy on the other side who's illegally selling flowers. And Newsom was all about the guy legally selling flowers. And that was that was a decade ago when this really didn't exist in the city of Los Angeles.

And now it is a fucking epidemic. in the city of Los Angeles. And now it is a fucking epidemic. And much like the homeless, good luck unringing that bell. Yeah. Or unringing that bell, right? I'm sorry. Unringing that bell.

How much manpower would it take to clean up the sidewalks and these people? It is now a permanent part of the landscape. Yeah. All right. Right. But if you make more than $180,000 a year in Los Angeles, there's a new bill, I think,

where they want to tack on just a base price to your electric bill. And I think it's graduated up from there. Yeah. That's where it starts. Yeah. You just pay a hundred bucks a month for your electric bill, just on top of whatever the bill is. Right.

Right. Okay. Good times. Yeah. That'll get people to stay. Yeah. So fucking lunatics, Drew.

Yeah. I just, yeah. Progress, man. they're lunatics drew yeah i just yeah progress man that's progress oh we have the uh we have the newsome we have it okay from a decade that's the scary part he did his best when he's trying to pass the bar he's doing his best show. People of L.A. want him. Show me a picture. Mike, every time I drive home, I drive home down Forest Lawn Boulevard or Forest Lawn Drive. There's illegals selling flowers. There's a big mess, a big pile. There's this whole underground culture. Everyone's selling.

There's a pile of garbage, by the way. Those are all the flower boxes they use. And then I can show you a picture of the guys selling the flowers illegally. By the way, it's not going into the tax money. It's not going into the coffers of the state. They just sell illegally. And then I can show you a picture of

a highway patrolman, a California highway patrolman, giving out a chicken shit ticket for rolling through a right. Oh, there he is. Now, just beyond him is all the illegals doing their illegal business. But what are we focusing on, Gavin? We're focusing on the guy who didn't come to a complete stop. We should bring him in.

I have a CHP officer with me. You should bring him in. We could talk about this. Bring him in. We could talk. Look, that poor guy in the corner is selling something that people apparently want, those flowers. I mean, I'm a little sympathetic to that. The guy doesn't want it.

It's the guy who owns the flower store a mile away who's being under- Well, there's competition, so, you know, it's making this far. All right, pause it for a second. All right. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. People want it, Drew. People want flowers.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, they're meeting a need. They're meeting a need in the market. Yeah, people want drugs yeah yeah he's he's well they're meeting a need they're meeting a need yeah people want people want drugs too yeah people want sex yeah people want sandwiches through a window that doesn't have a fan on it so you guys shut down jimmy's steakhouse like yeah people want it first off think about okay so first things first he's got sympathy for those people um also he cites that people want it i don't first off what the fuck does that mean you know it's like people want seafood should you be able to just sell seafood on the side of the road?

He is anticipating market arguments. So he's saying they're meeting a need in the market, a demand in the market. They're meeting that need that's unmet by the business people of Los Angeles. Well, look, it's like you saying, let's say, okay, I'm trying to think of a, of an item. It's like you saying, uh, well, you could go and buy yourself a toaster oven at bed, bath and beyond, but I've made my own toaster oven and it's half the price. And it's, you know, it's not insured by the underwriters laboratory it's not been tested or anything but also you half-price toaster that i made my garage and he'd go well people want toasters but that's not that's not the point right yep right he he's

gonna let these guys look if toluca lake Flower Shop could open directly across the street from Forest Lawn, they would. But that's like government land. There is no building there. They are a mile away paying top dollar. All right, so roll it back 10, 20 seconds and let's hear where this goes. Not going in the coffers of the state. They just sell illegally and then I can show you a picture of a highway patrolman, a California highway

patrolman, giving out a chicken shit ticket for rolling through a right, rolling there. Oh, there he is. Now, just beyond him is all the illegals doing their illegal business. But what are we focusing on, Gavin? We're focusing on the guy who didn't come to a complete stop. We should bring him. I have a CHP officer with me.

You should bring him in. Bring him in. Look, that poor guy in the corner is selling something that people apparently want. Those flowers. I mean, I'm a little sympathetic to that. You know who doesn't want it? The guy who owns the flower store a mile away who's being undercut. Well, there's competition. So, you know, making those flower stores more aggressive.

You sell wine over here, but we've got a Mexican who makes his own wine. He's going to stand down the street from your wine store. I admire the small business person, the entrepreneur who gets up, tries to sell a thing or two, and wants to make a difference. No. He feeds their family, working hard. At least those guys are out there working hard. Oh, listen. Here's Joe from the CHP.

Who else is working hard? The CHP is working hard. Look, here's a living, breathing member of the California Highway Patrol. Joe, first off, bigger criminal, illegal alien, or somebody rolls through a four-way stop sign in a soccer van? Be careful, Joe. You're representing the good people of the CHP. I can't answer that question.

That's a good answer. It's a horrible interview. It's a good answer. You have illegals selling, engaging in illegal activity, and then you have people rolling through stop signs. Okay. Listen, here's the deal. I have – here's what I have i have is being strewed i i have a radar detector yes sir but i've renamed it it's a rape detector because i'm tired of

getting raped by the chp and by the state for going 72 miles an hour on the grave i know they're not keeping people safe they're not they're not interested in safety i Joe is. He cares deeply about these things. That's why I got into this business. I get hit. I get pinged by radar when the CHP's coming the other direction. You should be going 75 in a 35-mile hour zone. Why? I got a car. I got a car. It's safe to 150 miles an hour.

Now he's in the rule of law. You notice that? He's very strident about me going 72 miles an hour. Yeah. So which is it, Newsome? What are you into? You into the law? Aren't you into the law?

Where were you? Where's this lawlessness approach to life that would apply to me driving to Fresno at 80 miles an hour? All right. Well, keep playing it. I don't want to hear this. They're not interested in safety. Maybe Joe is. Maybe Joe cares deeply about these things.

Let me explain. That's why I got into this business. I get hit. I get pinged by radar when the CHP is coming the other direction. Well, you should be going 75 in a 35-mile hour zone. Why? I got a car. I got a car safe to 150 miles an hour. You've got to do that in a safe place.

Don't hide behind safety. I don't know what we're talking about. You guys, it's about revenue. It's all about revenue. It's not just about keeping people safe. It's about keeping people and having behavior that's respectful of other people. Sure it is. So that we're making sure that we're not here. We're the best.

What about the CHP officer that's coming at me, that hits me with the radar, that then pulls a U-turn, smoking the bandit style across the grass, across the medium, and then does the burnout? Joe, that's not at me, that hits me with the radar, that then pulls a U-turn, smoking the bandit style across the grass, across the medium, and then does the burnout. Joe, that doesn't happen, does it? He does a little fishtail, spreads a little gravel onto it, catches up to me and tells me I wasn't driving safely. Is that on TV or does that happen in real life, Joe?

He knows what I'm talking about. Grapevine, all the way down the grapevine. I rode a motorcycle, so I know. Oh, there's a motorcycle. All right, Joe, thank you. I don't want to get pepper sprayed. That's one of our best and brightest. These guys, they care.

They get in this. They want to make a difference. Not just about running. I know. They wanted to. It's not about running. No, no, they started. Honestly, some guy going 100 miles an hour.

Not 100. Flying by folks, even 75 in a 55 at night or something. It's foggy. You want to keep those folks safe. Raise's foggy. Raise the speed limit. Well, we did, which was good. The 55 is too modest, particularly on the 5 and elsewhere. How about the fact that the cars, from a technological standpoint, are much safer? Wait until we have the driverless cars and all the artificial intelligence and sensors.

I'm fine with that. I know. This will be helpful. I'm just saying, stop with the money raising. Stop treating everyone who works here, like everyone who works in the state like a piggy bank. And start doing your job. I agree. I totally agree.

But there's another side of this. I appreciate the passion. Let's hear the other side. The other side is guys get into this for the right reasons. Oh, yeah. And then they get schooled real quick. You establish a framework of enforcement truly to keep people safe, to make sure that people are able to get to and from work without worrying about some lunatic.

So click it or kick it is based on safety, even though 97% of people are already wearing a seatbelt. And as a good libertarian, you want people to wear their seatbelts because if they get injured and they don't have health insurance, all of a sudden you're paying the bills. But they're already wearing their seatbelts. So what are you talking about? He's an idiot. I had not heard that part of the interview before. That was entertaining.

Listen, Drew, I'm not calling myself a hero, but fuck everybody else. People should have been on to this fucking dimwit early like I was. And you have to challenge these people. Yeah. They don't get challenged. Yeah. I mean, they just sit there and never just nods. You know, this bo't get challenged you know what i mean they just sit there and everyone just nods you know this bovine agreement you know just yeah ron de santis is uh he's

communist because he shut down this you know it's like they just no one ever goes what about you what you you shut everything down what are you worried about the Santas for? Yeah. Nobody asks anything. Right. You never talk to your son about business. No, no, never. So even when you guys are flying over to Ukraine on Air Force Two, no business talk, none. That seems incomprehensible.

And by the way, it sounds like you're your bad dad if you're not talking to your son about his business. Right. Jesus Christ, Drew. Fucking sad. But I forgot how much he defended the street urchin, right?

Yeah, well you didn't, you went into the other zone and he kept you there because he was being so obstreperous but i wish you'd been able to go back because i'm sure you went back to the street urchin thing and that's when you went into this check catching cashing stores and all that bs yeah it flowed into that but he said enough he wanted competition what he His angle, hold on. Yeah. He made a point, which is these guys selling their bouquets for $10

are going to get the guy at Toluca Lake Flowers to lower their prices. That's the kind of math that buffoon is doing. Right. Okay. That's the kind of math that buffoon is doing. Right. Okay. So now Toluca Lake has lowered their prices from whatever they were charging a bouquet to $9 a bouquet. How the fuck is that business going to stay in business? Right. They have a ton of overhead.

Well, here's the thing uh they're they're in california they're gonna have to pay for the health insurance of their employees they're gonna have to eeoc stuff tons of regulatory stuff workman's comp stuff taxes up the wazoo how would they possibly do that yeah that's right that's the part they they seem listen this is the thing that disturbs me most about our state of california they seem unable or or i don't know i don't understand too too dumb to understand uh we're intolerant of the basic realities of operating a business which which they want to soak for lots of money fine but they have to at least break even to there to be a

business there right yeah and they don't seem to get that they just don't seem to understand what's at issue other than it's almost like the way they think about the federal government it's just you know they're thinking the federal government is hey they just need to print money give it to us we just we need more money to operate our state so they just print it and give it to us that's their idea of economics wow all right the point is is he didn't give a shit about people selling flowers illegally but but became Mr. Law and order when it comes to driving on the grapevine. Yeah.

Awesome. He said weird thinking. Like you were, you were saying that they shouldn't be so interested in stopping safe cars for going 72 miles an hour. And, uh, his point,

he then went to a hundred miles an hour at night in the fog. And then you said, raise the speed limit. He said, yeah, that'd be a good idea. He's an idiot. Okay. Yeah, there's a picture somewhere, Emmy, that what I was showing to Gavin Newsom, what led this whole thing is I was driving home and somebody, a CHP cop,

had pulled over somebody and was writing them a ticket by the side of the road and just past that or just before that were all the flower sales. And that's what- Yeah, that's where then right, and by the way, where that picture is, where the CHP officer is writing his ticket,

that is now carpeted with people side by side selling flowers. Yes. Okay. Well, I alerted Gavin Newsom to this early on, but he was not interested. He's interested in the competition, so it has grown. The competition. Maybe he's lowering the price there on the street.

All those people offering flowers. Maybe the price has dropped on the street. That would be great for the uh on the corner could you imagine if you you can take a look at me if taluka lake florist is still there and how far away it is but it's probably it's a family-run business has been i knew the family that ran that business they've've been there for 50 years. I don't know if they're there anymore. Could you imagine trying to stay in business? No, impossible.

And there's that one also on Barham, the Hollywood florist right there by the freeway. Right, right. Yeah. That looks expensive where they are. Jesus Christ. Not to mention that sound that he made when you brought up the brick and

mortar flower shop. He just like brush, sweeped it under the rug. Like disrespecting them. Yeah. Family owned small businesses. They hate them. Weird,

right? Yes. It's where their money's coming from. They never stopped talking about the little business owners. There's no turn where they will not try to crush those people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Too much.

But all in the name of what, Drew? Like, what's it? Well, that's the question I keep asking. What are we doing in the name of what? You know, how come? How long? I just ask those questions constantly. I don't get it.

What am I missing? I figure it's got to be something. All right. There's a call up here. All right. Well, let's see. To look alike. Still open. Huh? am i missing i figured it's gotta be something all right there's a call up here all right well let's see toluca lake still open huh um and what year did they i mean that must have been around for 50 years 1946 jesus christ 70 years 70 Well, wait a minute. Yeah.

50, 70, you know, 77 years. Yeah. 77 years. Holy shit. All right. Let's see. Tom 32. Hey guys.

Hi guy. Hey now. Hey. Hey. Uh, thanks for taking my call. Love you guys. The show. Um now. Hey. Hey. Thanks for taking my call. Love you guys' show. Been watching your mom's house. That's how I've been introduced to you, Dr. Drew.

So I appreciate that. A lot of good times. Appreciate it. So aloha. So anyway, I had a question about social media, the algorithms and where it's taken us in society. What you guys think about our youth being exposed to that and where it's headed. That's a great question. We never really talk about that.

I was wondering about Adam's thought on AI too, but go ahead, Adam. The less time, you know, I think we're going to end up treating social media like we treat junk food or internet porn or tobacco or something. Pot now, booze, whatever, like the least amount of contact you can have with it, better this is basically so do you think they will come up with a um an age range where you could be allowed to use it let's say like 15 or 16 i guess they'll probably be trying to regulate it at some point especially thinking hey look if there's a rule to be made they will they will make that rule there's no

and make the government bigger of course yeah yeah they'll be yeah and i'm not i'm how about just the fact that communities and schools could agree on guidelines you know because the the parents of the younger kids in particular their biggest complaint is but but they're all there they'll my friend my kid won't have any friends because all her friends are over here you have to get i'm going through that. Sorry to interrupt you. I have a four-year-old, and I'm going through that right now. I'm considering homeschooling because I'm kind of worried about what she could be exposed to, and I'm in California.

Oh, boy. I'm a little worried. You better homeschool. Yeah, you should homeschool. So it is absolutely not manageable unless there's community buy-in, unless everybody says, okay, we're all going to limit it to one hour a night. And just the way we're not going to serve alcohol in our home to your kids at a party or there's just got to be guidelines. I was telling, strangely enough, Martha McCollum this morning that I remember a meeting where i was trying to get buy-in about alcohol and i brought up the idea of a contract where we all sign you know what we agree our kids will

and will do in the house and the attorneys the parent the attorney parents went insane i'm not signing any contracts you'll sue me i was oh my god what was this what are you talking about like in high school when your kids were in junior high school, it was like seventh grade. Oh, really? A long time ago. It was like, you know, 15 years ago and or more. And, but, but here's the thing. I bring it, bring it up.

I raised my hand at the same meeting and I said, Hey, this is nearly 20 years ago. And I said, look, there's this thing called e-bombs world and my space. And they seem to spend a lot of time on these things how much should we allow our kids to spend time on the computer no phones then no little screens all computer and literally what they said was the one thing we none of us knew anything about the teachers and the administrators go well each family has to arrive at their own conclusion it's

going to be an individual decision and we can't advise. And I thought, oh, the one thing they're telling us how many hours of homework, when to go to sleep, what to have for breakfast, what time to get up. But the one thing we need some guidance on, you're not going to not going to give us any guidance. All right, here we go. Now there needs to be guidance. A lot of it. Agreed. All right, let me put the clock back up so I can check the twine here, see what time it is. All right. Let's take another call. Talk to Doc 40 from Santa Barbara. Doc.

Hey there. Thanks for taking my call. Hi, guy. Yeah, I'd love to just. Hey there. Thanks for your show and what you guys do. Free speech. I'm a veteran of the Army.

I was a medical service officer for almost a decade and spent a few tours in Iraq and worked very closely with doctors and was basically an EMT and got out. And about 10 years ago, I started studying traditional Chinese medicine and some other theories and paradigms of health. And I just want to say that until we start studying every single intervention that we do in a randomized controlled trial against all the other paradigms, we do not have the science to say that anything that we do in so-called medical science is actually scientific.

Because I work with people all the time, whether they have joint pain, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, and the same basic simple protocol from traditional Chinese medicine works for almost everything. What is that? What's the protocol? I mean, it has to do with breath. It has to do with basics of what you call qigong, It has to do with breath. It has to do with basics of what you call qigong, learning how to release the stagnated energy. So in this paradigm, pain and disease is defined as stagnation and a restriction of free movement. So that's why anywhere that we have pain or disease, there's also going to be a restriction of movement. So that's why you see the old Chinese people in the park and they're going through these flows and it's like, okay, why are they going in that pattern? Well, that's because they're actually mimicking, they understand the meridians

of energy where they're supposed to flow and they're encouraging the movement of energy. And as long as we do that, we have health. When we don't do that, we have disease. So doing basic things like that and then of course you know there's four pillars of chinese medicine there's body work which is completely ignored what did you do when a soldier came in high velocity wound say again what did you do when a soldier comes in with a high velocityvelocity wound? Tai chi, a little whispers. In this case, I mean, you'd have to stop the bleeding. I mean, but then that goes back to flow and energy.

So then we've got too much flow. You wouldn't do a surgical repair. You wouldn't use antibiotics. You wouldn't use anesthesia to treat him. You know that there's acupuncture. I mean, there's videos of people receiving arthroscopic surgery the only anesthesia they have is acupuncture

arthroscopic surgery is not flow it's not achieved, why would we do that? what I'm saying is there's people in the west that have performed surgeries why would we do surgery if all you need is why would you ever do surgery if all you need is a flow?

Say again? Why would you ever do surgery if all you need is to establish the flow? That's a good point. I mean, the Chinese thousands of years ago had... Look, I work with Chinese all the time. I'm involved with a big research group, just so you know. The Center of Gravity of Research is in China, and they do aggressive Western medicine because it works. It's good for what you're describing is great for well-being and health maintenance, and I'm all about it.

Those aren't medical treatments. Because we're biological entities. Things happen. It's like everything. It's like when you talk to someone about being vegan or something like that. You know, there's kernels of truth in everything.

And, you know, when they go, you know, our Western diet of fast food and alcohol and sedentary life, it's like, yeah, yeah, 100%. Should be. Get up and do an hour of Tai Chi at the park every day. You'll be better off for it. And see if you can work more vegetables in your diet.

Do it. Do it all. Do the breathing. Do the whole thing. Do it. And then if you have a situation, go find the round eye and tell them to get out the scalpel and doesn't have to be a round guy believe me in China they will have what did they do during COVID

did they limit their activity to Qigong no they got on with medicine and they did lots of research they welded everyone in their fucking apartments first alright and go to AdamCarolla.com shows coming up in Vegas, Oklahoma City, New York.

Coming back to New York, Sony Hall, May 26th, 27th. Doing shows there. Just go to adamcarolla.com for all the live shows. What do you got, Drew? Dr. Drew.com and After Dark is there, like one of our callers just mentioned. And Dr. Drew.tv for a streaming show Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 3 o'clock Pacific time. So, until next time, Adam Carolla for Dr. Drew on TV for a streaming show Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 3 o'clock Pacific Time. So, until next time, Adam Pearl for Dr. Drew saying

Mahalo.