The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - More Thoughts On ACPS Drug Use Challenges; Local Vape Shop Near MHS Selling Student Vapes

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

The I Love CVille Show headlines: More Thoughts On ACPS Drug Use Challenges Local Vape Shop Near MHS Selling Student Vapes What Can ACPS Do To Stop Drug Use In School? New Homeless Shelter On Cherry Ave Good Idea? First Night Virginia Cancelled 4th Straight Year Plant-Based Meat Manufacturer For Sale, $1.5M Ask UNC At UVA (-3.5), 12PM Saturday, CW Network Biotech Lab Equipment For Sale – Contact Jerry Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Friday afternoon, guys. I'm Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville show. The end of the week, it's been a challenging week as someone who hosts a five-day-a-week talk show that's focused on the Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and Central Virginia community. I launched this network nearly a decade ago as an opportunity to discuss hobbies and interests that are also my professional pursuits. We are in, you know, the real estate, brand management, and business brokerage business. We're most known for the podcasting network and for the I Love Seville show, but it's the tip of the iceberg of what we do and how I spend my hours each week. We have 24 tenants ourselves and help a lot of people get in and out of real estate, buy and sell businesses, fund businesses, and gain market share with their businesses by

improving their branding and advertising positions. As the network has evolved over 10 years, it's become more news-oriented, and it's become more news-oriented because the viewer and listener has asked us to do it. 10 years ago, heck, before COVID, in 2019, the talk show featured me interviewing local stakeholders on a daily basis. And then the feedback I would get from viewers and listeners is we appreciate the interviews you're doing, but we would like for you to keep us in the know with what's happening news-wise. And the show evolved. And now it's become, in a lot of ways, the 2024 version of a newspaper. There's a front page with the lead stories. There's a front page below the fold with the secondary stories. There's an education section. There's a sports section. There's a front page below the fold with the secondary stories. There's an education section.

There's a sports section. There's a business section, a politics section. There's an op-ed section. There's a lifestyle section. It's the 2024 version of a newspaper. It's my background, media, print, radio, and television. This week has been dominated by the challenges faced within the largest school system in Central Virginia, Alamaro County Public Schools, and one of its high schools, Monticello High School. Last night in the five o'clock hour, yesterday evening in the five o'clock

hour, I spoke with a parent of a Monticello High School student. In fact, Judah, if you could go to the studio camera, I'd like to get my notes from that conversation. I now have the notes I took from that conversation in front of me that I can reference. This father has two daughters at Monticello High School. He's given me permission to talk about this, and he may come on the talk show to talk about it himself. He's deliberating whether he wants to do it. And he highlighted with me,

and has given me permission to relay it to you, what has been an extremely challenging time for his modern family. A co-parenting environment or family. And he highlighted that it was one of his daughters that, very straightforward, was one of the students who was high during school hours. And the last, I empathize with him as a father, man. The last handful of days for his modern co-parenting family

has been one that is rocky and turbulent and argumentative and uncertain. I learned from this conversation with this very courageous father who reached out to us after watching our shows this week that the schools aren't doing enough. There is a level of unaccountability that currently exists from his eyes at Monticello High School. He's highlighted that this vaping and drug use has started well before Monticello and he highlighted the challenges of Burley middle school and remembers walking into Burley middle school and in the principal's office at Burley was a gallon size ziplock bag filled with confiscated vape pens that teachers and administrators

had taken from students at the middle school. He highlighted with me that a lot of these vape pens are not just being sold student to student, but some of these vape pens are even being sold by the sketchy offshoot vape and tobacco castles around the schools themselves. I am going to not interfere with a police investigation that is currently active.

I respect the authorities tremendously. I'm extremely pro-police. So I'm going to choose select language that was passed on to me. One page of notes, two pages of notes by this parent. Not every vape shop in the community is doing things the wrong way. Not every dispensary in this community is doing things the wrong way.

I know a dispensary that's on the downtown mall, David Trecorici's, Skuma Boutique Dispensary, that does things by the book. Checking IDs, checking licenses, selling to customers of proper age, vetting the product line that's in the store.

Making sure the product line is labeled correctly. Doing things above the board. He's a father of three. I know firsthand Skuma's doing things the right way. Are the other dispensaries and vape shops in the community doing things the right way? The answer is a very clear-cut no. Some of the students are sourcing their vapes from shady retail outlets around their respective schools

where retailers are choosing to sell to minors, clear-cut minors. You look by the letter of the law, someone who's able to purchase a vape, nicotine, weed product of any kind, is it 21 years of age, Judah? I would imagine that it is. 15 and 16-year-olds, according to this father,

and younger, are buying vapes at these retail stores. And a lot of them, without me naming any, because I know there's an active investigation police going on with this, are selling product in their store that is not the most reputable. I've got to push back a little bit on that, because that's a far cry from having product that's laced with something like fentanyl.

They're selling product in the store that they don't know what's in the product. Sourced from people that... It's not what I say so, dude. It's literally a police investigation that's happening right now. Okay. There's a police investigation active right now looking into retailers that are selling stuff in stores in Albemarle County and the city of Charlottesville that is items on shelves or items behind a counter where they have not vetted what they're selling. Okay. Yeah, it's not – It is if you – this is the first I'm hearing of it.

Right. So what is it if you say so? I have no evidence. My response to that, my response to your questioning what's happening is this is what's actually happening in real life. This is literally actually what's happening. And after speaking with this particular father, he has highlighted, and I'm curious of your response here. He's highlighted to me that there are retailers in the community that are not vetting what they're actually selling and the source they're getting it from. And that is scary because students go into a brick and mortar location, underage students, and because it's a location, a brick and mortar, a store you walk in, there's a level of inherent

trust, whether conscious or subconscious, that exists that may not exist if you're buying the pen or the drugs from a fellow student behind the school in a car. Your radar, your antenna, your concern, your instincts may be raised when you're buying from a fellow student, a drug deal. And that same instinct or that same red flag or antenna raise may not be there when you walk into a store that's on a long-term lease, that's got a sign, that's got approval from the county to be in the business it's in, approval from the city to be in the business in, a license hanging behind the register, a register where they take your money or they process your payment.

If you're 14, 15, 16 and you're able to source, you're able to pay and buy whatever is on the shelf at whatever nondescript store that you're buying that's in close proximity to the high school, you think what you're buying is something that's been through the rigors of legitimacy. And the father has highlighted to me, and he wants me to highlight it to you, the viewer and listener, that's not actually what's happening. A lot of these retailers, and they're popping up everywhere in our community, a lot of these retailers are in the business of making money first

and not making sure the product that they are sourcing is actually product that will not hurt the customer. And they're taking a step further. They're selling clearly to minors. Now, I remember when we used to shoulder tap. Remember shoulder tapping, Judah? No. We used to shoulder tap as kids in high school.

We'd go to the shopping centers or the convenience stores that were in areas of lower income, and we'd try to see folks coming in out of the gas station or the convenience store or the grocery store and say, I bet you if I went up to him or her and offered them $10 or $15 as tip, they'd come out with a case of beer for us. And that's how we would sidestep the fact that you need to be 21 to buy some beer. Shoulder tapping. We'd shoulder tap the same three or four gas stations growing up, and that's how we got our beer at 15, 16, or 17 years old.

That's how we sidestepped 21 to purchase. That still happens. But shoulder tapping and buying beer through this method, you're buying a product that's been vetted by industry standards. Budweiser, natural light, natural ice, bush light. This is the type of beer we were buying. We were buying product from Anheuser-Busch. We grew up in Williamsburg and there was the second largest beer making factory for Anheuser-Busch behind St. Louis was right next to the neighborhood in Williamsburg. We'd wake up in the morning and

if the winds blew a certain way, we could smell the malt and the barley and the hops as they were brewing beer. And the factory employed a large portion of the population in the community we grew up in. In today's scenario, you don't even have to, in some cases, shoulder tap. The father indicated 14, 15, and 16-year-olds, and he asked me to relay it to you, the viewer and listener. 14, 15, and 16-year-olds are going to these off-brand vape shops. They're being sold whatever they want,

despite being clear minors. And he's been told that what is being sold to the minors has not even been vetted or doesn't have a level of accountability that the shoulder tapping when we grew up in Bush Light, Natural Light, Budweiser had. Because the industry is still so novel and new. Beer's been around for generations and lifetimes, hundreds of years.

Vaping's been around for... A decade or two. A decade, right? And it hasn't been since the pandemic. It's been post-COVID that we've seen all these vape shops pop up left and right. And he asked, who is policing the vape shops? Who is maintaining the ingredient standard at these shops?

He said, for the parents that are watching this program, and he goes, a lot of you do, to think it's strictly a high school issue is not today's reality. He said, it's a problem that's happening in middle school. By the time they're in high school, it's way too experienced. It's middle school where the problem is happening. He calls this exact words terrifying, a bleep show. He said he said there's bad batches out there he says you don't know what's in the carts that you're buying students are buying these on their lunch break during lunch release with the shops that are in walking

or a short drive from the school, said it's not just happening off school grounds, it's happening during school hours, in the bathroom, in the hallways and in the parking lot. The actual smoking, you mean? Correct. Said the response from the school system is five days of out-of-school suspension

and then what they call the STEP program, where it's the dangers of what you're doing. He said some of the pens and carts that are being sold to these students that are minors are PHC. PHC, and he encourages the viewers and listeners that are parents to look into it. It's 30 to 50% more potent than traditional THC,

and it's a synthetic compound that is easy to make that often has other chemicals, not just THC in them. A lot of the vape shops, he's been told, by the officers, are selling knockoff THC to kids. Because it's easy to make, and it offers the best margin possible at retail. Page two. He said the punishment from the school

for what's going on is not nearly enough of what it should be. He said the email from Dr. Haas that he read, which he goes was a direct response of your show, if you hadn't talked about it on the show, Haas would not have responded like he did. He said that email was a complete joke and set me off. It showed the bureaucracy and the BS within ACPS.

He's not sure that his daughter has learned her lesson. He said that Burley is riddled with vaping. Riddled, exact words. He said Stone Robinson Elementary was fine, but as soon as the students got to middle school, it became the norm. And he called this a problem to a level the community has not truly grasped or appreciated. And he asked me to relay this to you, the viewer and listener. We'll work on setting up a potential interview with him.

I spoke to another parent who mentioned this. Today's student drug dealer is one that is sourcing pens and carts from the retailer that is willing to do business with him and then individually sells them to friends. And the second parent said, explain to the viewers and listeners and the parents the dangers of vaping substances that are unknown.

That is scary. What I was taken aback with was the ability for a 14 or 15 year old or a 16-year-old to go into a store and buy something. No doubt.

Because when they go into a store, when you're young, there's a level of trust of seeing a sign and a door you open to walk in and a cashier and stuff on a shelf. And you let your guard down. It's different than if you're just offered a pill or something at a party. So, I'm keeping my word. With the parents that have spoken with me.

And I've passed this along to you, the viewer and listener, to do with it as you wish. And it's the parents that spoke to us that have asked this platform to pass it along to other parents so they know what is going on in our community, something that's impacted their kids and their families. And I'll close with this. I would like to see, and then Judah, you offer some perspective anywhere you want to go. What can ACPS do to stop the drug use in school? Any thoughts you want to offer.

Won't even interrupt you. I'll close by offering this. If some of this is being sourced by shady vape shops and castles that are popping up left and right, parents should be told that by the administration that knows it. And my hope is that that is in the eye of the right authorities that can keep it from happening moving forward.

Before we get on the next topic, I'll stop. Anything you want to offer? Well, if the kids really are just going to these places going to these castles and buying them or

having a friend buy them and distribute them around and they're smoking them outside of the school what are we expecting then the school to do? Aside from rescinding, letting kids go out at lunchtime. If this is all taking place off school grounds and the only thing that's happened so far is that kids have partaken of these vapes and then gone back to school.

Have we mischaracterized Dr. Haas and his response? Was there anything else they could have done? I'm just curious. This seems like if the conclusions here are that the kids are going to these places and buying them there and using them off school grounds and then coming back to school, I really don't know what the school could do in these cases. Of course, if they know somebody is actively selling. Which is what's happening. Yeah. Which is students been identified as selling them and allowed back into school. The circumstances that I relate to you should not be broad-stroked as all the circumstances that happened.

It's the circumstances that happened to his daughter. So that's not the norm. It's what happened to his daughter. Okay. The mischaracterization of the administration, I don't think that is an accurate analysis. I think the administration is still utilizing vague language to cover behavior and how that behavior is managed and is not communicating with parents in a timely fashion.

It's communicated with parents after it got pressure on this show. I also think that if the administration knows that shady retailers are selling to minors, parents should know that and be communicated that by the administration. I also think that if the administration knows that minors are at a level of overdosing and need a 911 call and rescue squads to go into classrooms and hallways to wheels kids off in structures and ambulances, that should be relayed to parents.

And I think if students are getting so intoxicated or high that they're picking up desks and chairs and throwing them at others, that should be communicated to parents. I don't think it's in a proper analysis to say that it's been mischaracterized. I think the administration is still not communicating in the right fashion. That's fair, though I think part of our characterization in the last few days has been about them doing more about it in the school, and if it's not happening in the school, then I'm not really sure what... It is happening in the school. It's happening in the bathrooms. It's happening in the hallways. It's happening in the parking lots. It's being sold around school. And just because someone is going off grounds during lunch break and returning to school, it's still happening during school

hours. Okay. And a change could be made of allowing kids to leave during the lunch break. And that hasn't happened. Right. I would like nothing more on the show to not talk about this topic and get back to talking about real estate and what's for sale and what's not for sale.

Jessica Lilly, you're absolutely right, Jerry. They are still returning to school under the influence. And Dr. Haas was still not truthful with parents about what is happening. And she says, as Ashley has mentioned, they're smoking them everywhere. The accountability starts at the top of the professional totem pole, especially when it comes with our children, especially as parents when we let our children out of our sight

and hope that they receive the same care that we are offering them as parents. I hope we get the father on the show. all right a couple other topics in today's notebook next headline what is it judah wickhour next headline as you're rotating the lower new homeless shelter on cherry avenue is it a good idea do you think it's a good idea and we got that lower third up? Not yet. I can't speak for the Cherry Avenue neighborhood. I think it's definitely a good idea that the city is taking action to build a shelter. I believe this one is planned as a lower barrier of entry

shelter, which will be a good thing, I think, if they can keep control of the place. Obviously, you don't want people coming in. You don't want situations happening like what we showed on video occurring on the downtown mall with the altercation leaving the haven. But at the same time, this is definitely something that our city needs. And if not there, then I think it's a good idea to set one up somewhere. I think it's a fantastic idea to convert a thrift store on Cherry Avenue that's under the Salvation Army's ownership into a shelter.

Putting a Cherry Avenue homeless shelter in place or converting a thrift store to a homeless shelter, it's close. It's on a bus line. It's within walking distance of everything in the community. Everything. Downtown, UVA, the corner, neighborhoods. Everything. And it's far enough away from the eight blocks we call the downtown mall. This is a great idea. I heard an interesting interview with the head of the Salvation Army locally.

He and his wife knew the community. Less than two years they've spent in this community. And less than two years, they've identified a solution that I thought would be identified years ago, taking a thrift store on Cherry Avenue and converting it into a shelter with taxpayer help. If you're able to take the shelters that are around the mall and position them half a mile away from the mall, it's going to clean up the mall, and it's going to drive more tax revenue, more shopping, more dining, more music, more quality of life around the eight blocks we call downtown.

And if that happens, the city wins with tax revenue. If that happens, the merchants win that are struggling to survive. This is a brilliant idea. My only question about this is do we know where the funds are coming from? Is this something that was pre-allocated that's being shifted for this purpose? Or is this a new allocation of funds? This is not a new allocation of funds. Judah's asking if taxpayers will be taxed even more because of that. That's what you're asking. Yeah. Is this something that the city has just decided, hey, we're going to spend 5 million

more here? This is a shift in resources. And this is not an additional tax upon real estate owners or businesses or consumers. That's great news. This is a shift of resources that currently exists in the coffers. Nice. Why this was not already done, I'm surprised. And it took a husband and wife that had been in the community less than two years to figure out this concept. Props to the Salvation Army. Next headline, what do you got?

Next we've got some news that we've spoken of already. First night has been cancelled. Judah broke this news. And now we are seeing it in legacy media. Judah broke this news months ago, and it's now on the TV news websites. This news broken on the I Love Seville show months ago. Set the stage.

Sadly, for the, as you can see on the screen, and for those not watching, the fourth year straight, we will be missing out on First Night Virginia. I'm sure a lot of us are disappointed. I'm sure the businesses on the downtown mall are even more disappointed, as I imagine this was a major income boost for all those businesses before before COVID put a crimp in in us celebrating together four straight years of no family-friendly New Year's Eve celebration on the downtown mall. And if this doesn't get organized or figured out, by probably June of 2025, it'll be five straight years. And you start going four, five, six straight years, the event pretty much never happens again.

You've got to have somebody with a pretty strong will to take it on and prop it back up. I have mentioned this before. What has happened to the sense of localized pride or the sense of pride of being like a Charlottesvillian or a Central Virginian, an Alamoor County, a Virginian? The Dogwood Festival is a shadow of its former self. There's no firework show for the 4th of July.

The family-friendly New Year's Eve celebration that's booze-free in the downtown mall hasn't happened in four years. Where is the sense of community celebration? And is that something that has been deprioritized or lost because of COVID? Because prior to the pandemic, we had a 4th of July fireworks celebration in McIntyre Park. And prior to the pandemic, we had thousands, if not tens of thousands of people hit the downtown mall for first night New Year's Eve booze-free family-friendly celebration. We had a dogwood parade that used to be the talk of town

what has happened to those events and what has happened to the sense of civic engagement and pride topic for your cocktail party this weekend. Next headline. Plant-based meat manufacturer. Interesting tidbit. The asking price is $1,500,000. The company gross revenue of $900,000. I won't utilize their name.

I'm sure you can figure it out yourself. A Charlottesville-based, innovative, plant-based meat manufacturer focused on producing veggie burgers. The business model uses whole foods and natural ingredients, which sets them apart from other competitors in the industry. Only five employees in an established year of 2011.

Furniture, fixtures, and equipment of 285,000, inventory of 45K, asking price $1,500,000. Recipes and equipment required all the proprietary information. The number is a high ask for a business that has massive upside in a category that's getting certainly more competitive every day. There was just an E. coli breakout at McDonald's. Did you see that? I did. Fortunately, well, not fortunately, but I don't believe it hit near our home. And before that, the listeria outbreak in the meat industry. Borsad meats. As those stories gain more momentum and become more prolific,

folks are going to really consider what they're eating. That's fair. I don't know that veggie burgers are necessarily free of the problems associated with, you know, listeria and E. coli. But those problems associated with E. coli and what Borset went through

are perception meat issues. That's fair. Million and a half ask. That's a hefty ask. And then the last topic on today's show before we close on a Friday. This North Carolina game game tomorrow at Scott Stadium with a 12 o'clock kick. The line is moving down. What is it? Two and a half now? Started earlier in the week at four and a half

or five? 3.5. It's three and a half now? This game is going to go a long ways in determining potentially Tony Elliott's job and whether Virginia can potentially make a bowl in 2024. I will put the over-under at 30,000 people at Scott Stadium. You taking the over or under on that? I'll take the under, I guess. They've recently reopened the hill for first-come, first-serve. So now you can go to the hill first-come, first-serve. So now you can go to the hill first-come, first-serve.

Let's see what happens. CW Network tomorrow. Virginia football, a must-win game if they want to make a bowl, and a must-win game potentially if you want to keep your job with the coaching staff. It's the Friday edition of the I Love Seville Show. Judah Woodcower and Jerry Miller. So long, everybody.