meds from the VA, and how that shaped your path to Keef? Scot : I'm happy to talk about that. I was a Marine Corps EOD tech, so a bomb dis- posal technician. Our primary mission in Afghanistan or Iraq was to disarm impro- vised explosive devices. Without going into detail I had a couple close calls where I'm happy to be here. I was in a lot of pain coming out of the Marines and, not just physical pain, but also mental pain. I had probably 16 different medications that I was prescribed coming out of there for sleep, for depression, anxiety, pain. So, I was on Oxy and they'd give me bottles of 360 of them at a time and I can say, "Oh, I lost that one." And they just send me another one in the mail. Pretty easy to. Oxy was the most addictive sub- stance I’ve ever used and, yeah, I was popping 20 to 30 pills a day at one point. One night I was unconscious on the floor in my apartment and if not for the peo- ple in my life I would have killed myself. At that point I made the decision to stop and get help through the VA. With the help of my community of friends and focusing on helping others I'm 8 years sober from Oxy. For me it was the first time in, really, three years that I'd felt pain and had lucid dreams that spiraled me into dealing with my PTSD. So all of that compounding down at me at once, utilizing plant med- icine, and a mixture of psychedelic mush- rooms, it helped me come to terms with my trauma and look at life through a new lens. I was micro-dosing and taking larger doses as I felt more comfortable with it as well as for pain management. Lots of CBD and THC to help. And that got me through some of the harder times of that phase of my life, so I do believe in plant medicine. And I'm happy to see where it's going on both fronts, both the psychedelics and in the cannabis space. And looking at our mantra and how we operate and even, how I pivoted from am- phibious assault to EOD, if I'm going to do something, how can I affect the larg- est change in whatever it is that I'm doing for the better of what I'm trying to to work towards? THE BROTHERS KEEF
CHARITY, RSO, KARMA & THINGS THAT MATTER High Times: Can you tell us about Kar- ma, your new charitable brand initiative? Scot: We launched Karma mainly in Ne- vada last year with an RSO and an infused pre-roll that's 50% crumble and 50% full flower. It's one of the strongest ones in the market. Fifty to 60% THC. We give a portion of it back to chari- ties. We gave back $17,000 to Volunteers for Medicine last year, a local nonprofit that anybody can walk in off the street, who qualifies for, a certain threshold of income, and get free healthcare. Every- thing from surgeries to day-to-day things, dental, you name it. This year, tied to my being a veteran, we're doing the Charlie Mike Foundation in Nevada, helping keep veterans off of the streets. So, it's really a way for us, giving back to the commu- nities that we've built on, and actually in- volving people in some charity programs. That’s how we're the number one RSO in Nevada. We've actually doubled the size of the RSO market. Kelly: Yeah, especially with the reclas- sification, that hopefully is going to be coming here and moving towards trials and actual medical research. I think RSO is going to have a strong place. It sounds like this is just the beginning? Erik: From day one, we've really tried to give back as much as we could. Wheth- er that's, product to, working with legis- lators across the country to help expand laws. I was one of the co-founders of ATACH in 2014 with Michael Bronstein. We worked with regulators and legisla- tors and probably a dozen East Coast states to help legalize cannabis. And then helped a lot of other states that had pro- grams already going, to help dial in what those rules should look like, to help make it friendlier for business and for patients. That's always been kind of a part of what we've done, to help expand access of this plant. And I think Karma is that fi- nal legacy. We have a real opportunity, I think, to give back, and I couldn't be more excited for it. Read the full interview at HighTimesLocal.com
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