Joe Redner recounts his 15-year legal battle against male mayors using biblical statutes to shut down his nude strip clubs, claiming 150 arrests for defending First Amendment speech. He contrasts his dancer-centric Mons Venus model with industry norms while criticizing religious hypocrisy and supporting Bernie Sanders' democratic socialism. Redner details his stage four cancer remission via marijuana and a raw vegan diet, condemns chemotherapy as barbaric, and outlines his political activism, including running for office and owning Cigar City Brewing, ultimately framing his life as a continuous fight against government overreach and moral conservatism. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Nude Club Raids and Jail00:06:22
All right, we're live on the podcast again with Joe Redner.
Thanks again for coming out here, man.
How are you doing, Joe?
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'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 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.
They came out, danced a couple songs, and then quit.
So anyway, I saw a case from the Supreme Court of the United States that said nudity in speech was protected by the First Amendment.
Nudity.
In speech.
In speech, yeah.
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 nude and had alcohol.
It was a beer joint and I called it Dorio's.
And no, I called it the night gallery.
It was Dorio's before it was a beer joint.
And I called it night gallery.
And we started the girls dancing nude.
And the city started raiding me.
And there were hundreds of raids and eventually people going to jail and bonding out.
And I bonded them out.
And 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 lewd and lascivious statutes against me.
Well, lewd and 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.
I 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, 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, 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.
And 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?
Okay, let me say what I got to say about it.
So, and when was all this happening?
When was all this taking place?
Oh, this was when it first started from 76 to 87 or something like that just constant was constant.
The only respite I had is when a female mayor came in every male mayor came after me Really?
Right.
Yeah, but not the same.
No, that's hilarious.
Why do you think that is?
Jane Cast, I mean, Sandy Freeman, she didn't uh, because I think that uh women, in order to get elected, have to be really smart right yeah, and she made the law, but men don't yeah, and we have a lot of people in office that just, 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 it.
No, and you know, they have.
They're this a male personality?
Yeah, it's crazy.
And so all the Tampa mayors who are, who are really, were breathing hard down your neck trying to, what exactly were they trying to do to shut you down?
Well, they don't get.
You got arrested like a ton of times right, I've been arrested 150 times.
Oh my yeah, I've spent a lot of time in jail for contempt of court because I wouldn't obey a judge, and I 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.
Early.
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.
Had to be, no, it had to be 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?
There's no lap dance at six feet 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.
Dancers Working Around School00:03:24
They create the problem and then they point out and say this thing don't work right.
So that's what they did.
They tried to use a bunch of excuses, saying that all your girls were on drugs.
They called them crack whores.
Yeah, 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 Mons Venus.
Yeah.
And when, so I proved it.
So when exactly did Mons Venus, when was that created?
When did you actually start that brand or that company?
1982.
That was 82, okay.
Yeah.
And I was reading a book that had the Mound of Venus in it, and Mons Venus, that's what they called it.
And actually, it doesn't translate perfectly to the Mons Venus, Mound of Venus, but that's what it's called.
Means to me okay, so like that uh, Mons is a mountain, I guess, and now it's the pubic area.
It's 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 in 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 May, Dale Mabry that attracts, like it's small, it's like it's really 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.
And it's not like any other strip club I've ever been to.
Is there like a secret to the way you do business that makes the I'm a dancer's center.
I'm centered.
Everything is geared toward the dancer.
The dancer comes in when she wants to.
She leads when she wants to.
The dancer can work seven days a week, can work one day.
can work as many hours, can work the shift 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 could 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 pay-wise, weren't you paying them different?
No, I don't pay the dancer.
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 they get paid for it.
I have a recommendation from $25 to $35.
It's posted, but I don't tell them how much to charge.
Right.
And I don't take their money.
Which is a lot different from the other clubs, right?
Other clubs.
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 are satisfied working two or three hours and making $200 a day, and then you have the ones that want to come in and work 10, 12 hours, which is not many, and make $800, $900 a day.
It depends on the day.
Wow.
I say a dancer can make a good dancer that's not really can make a couple thousand a week.
Religion, Licenses, and Cancer00:15:05
Wow.
Yeah.
She wants to do 40 hours a week, five days a week.
Mm-hmm.
Ain't no telling.
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?
Oh, screaming that everybody, 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.
Why is that?
Well, I think they gravitate, Kurt.
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 some people are again Christian yeah, i'm worried about them.
I'm not, 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.
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 because they're going to see their family, their children maybe died before them.
It makes them comfortable in life and death.
That's good.
Those are comfort Christians.
They don't do.
What these people are 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 bleeping something, the bleeping truth.
Oh, that was another one.
Yeah, so you were talking to the street preacher, and basically he was just yelling at you about 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 you were in.
Well, maybe it's because I'm against religion.
Yeah.
I think that religion is 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 the hell was going on and was trying to figure it out.
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 yourself.
I mean, 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're cured.
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.
Only 4% of the people live five years after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.
And I'm, what, eight years now?
Wow.
That's awesome.
How long do they tell you?
What do they tell you?
Marijuana has had a big part in that.
I can testify to marijuana.
Right.
That had a big part in my getting well.
How so?
Well, it allows you, the chemo is killing you.
Chemo is something that it treats you so bad that you think about not doing it and dying.
Yeah.
That's how bad it is.
Because 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.
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 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 it.
at the Moffitt when I was getting the chemo, you know, because 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 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.
Let me just fire up a joint here and I'll be fine.
Yeah.
Well, I couldn't.
I had lung cancer.
Oh, yeah.
You can't smoke it.
Yeah.
I was doing all edibles at that time.
Okay.
That was like the weed and the edibles.
Was that, when you were done with chemo, that just 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.
It does all those things.
And 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 this like the first time that you started actively consuming it?
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 would justify any time in jail, any time in 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 about it.
Republican legislators what?
Why are they holding it back?
Why are they holding Florida back when it comes to legalizing special interest?
Watch the the marijuana this is.
This is not just marijuana.
This is everything but the marijuana thing.
Do we have a ruling for floral Grown that says that we can uh, that we have a right to floor grown?
Is your company company right?
We sued and got an 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 there are limited numbers of license, to compete against them.
And have your chance like every other American does.
And they just, 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.
We were talking about the money.
We were talking about the money.
And then what they do is the legislators actually do it in other ways, but they call for contributions if the companies want something done.
Right.
By saying, by saying key words and stuff like that, and now the uh, the companies that have the licenses give them a bunch of money, the legislatures.
So that's why you have the problems here in Florida.
Now they buy the 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 uh and these come are, these are these companies?
They're, they're just growing marijuana.
The, the uh, energy companies, all these companies right that have EXES, they have monopolies on everything.
Opiates?
No, they go into an area and they're the only one that services that area.
Electric 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 in the past there's been a lot of pushback 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, 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.
Uh, Assembler yeah, i've been aware of Assembler for a long time.
He's a bundler.
He gets, he bundles money for the Republican Party.
He's been for president and uh in the state.
He's a big influencer.
He had an organization one time, I think, that uh treated kids for, uh for drug.
Yeah, 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 man.
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 in the house up there and who 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 Mel Sembler and Ray Rodriguez are uh well buddies.
Who is Ray Rodriguez?
Again he's, he's.
He's in the uh, in the UH House, the Florida House.
Oh, is he representatives?
Yeah, okay now, when did you become so so actively involved in politics, Like you ran for Senate, right?
Yeah, I ran for Senate.
I've run for city council a few times.
I've run for county commissioner a couple of times.
I've run nine times.
So when did you start?
When did you make the decision?
The House one time, the Senate one time.
So when did you start?
When did you decide I need to be involved in Florida state politics?
Obviously you thought 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 have something you want to say.
I just felt like I was being attacked.
Not personally, my belief system, the way I believe America is and the freedoms and all that.
I feel like it's being attacked.
And I want to fight it.
I'll give you an example.
When they went after the gays, I said I was gay.
I'm not gay.
But I wasn't afraid to say it because I knew that I could help protect the gays.
First, I went and tried to give my money to a gay organization so they could hire a lawyer to fight that thing.
They went and got a lawyer.
The 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, and we win the case.
They had to put, can't be used in First Amendment settings on the law, so that kind of negated it because parades are, almost everything is First Amendment, has a First Amendment component to it.
Now, 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.
They allowed UH displays.
They allowed UH students at South Florida it's a yearly thing to put up displays in there with what they want to communicate to the okay yeah, to the community.
And they had a gay one.
Guy had a a display with gay authors not even gay about gayness right, with gay authors right, saying these are gay authors.
And Rhonda Storms, who was on the County Commission, she took umbrage with that and she didn't want it, didn't want them to do that.
She said it was glorifying gays and she passed a policy where the city, the county, could not help any gay thing.
I mean, just gay pride is the word they use right, they were not going to facilitate it or have anything to do with it, and they used that to take these displays out of this display out of the library.
Wow, and I just it.
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.
Gay Pride Complaint Wins00:03:07
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 verbiage to the policy, the county commission policy.
It wouldn't allow it to be 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 know, you have to instigate me for me to remember.
I've lost some and I've won some.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I've won a bunch.
It sounds like.
I've won a bunch.
I know what I'm doing.
Right.
It seems like.
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 wish I had a joint just fire up right now.
Rafal, cue the joint.
You got one for us?
It allows you to.
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 around the block, smoke another joint, go back up to the law library and sit in there.
I'd 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 gay law librarian, they kind of liked me and he helped me.
He never hit on me, but he was gay, Bill Wells.
And 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.
Okay.
So they're probably really scared of you.
What does that mean, atheist?
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, I know a lot of definitions get loosely thrown around, so I was, yeah.
No, i'm an atheist, I don't believe in it, that there's a supreme being, I don't.
I just if if uh, if there was a being that was supervising this, he certainly wouldn't be supreme.
Gun Control and Atheism00:06:46
He's not supervising very well yeah, he don't know what the hell he's doing, does he?
Do you believe in aliens?
Uh, I believe it's a possibility.
Do you see all?
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 have already told us of that?
I don't know.
Hell yeah.
You think he would have?
Oh, he can't keep his mouth shut.
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 them very well either.
He doesn't even try.
He doesn't even try, right?
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 burns 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 emboldening them.
And they're going out and killing people.
And they're killing America.
They're going out.
He's emboldening them, and they're going out, getting their guns, 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.
Right.
That's what they say, right?
Right.
I'm going to try and change it.
Yeah.
What do you think about any of the current 2020 candidates?
Anybody you like in particular?
I'm a Bernie guy.
You're a Bernie guy?
Yeah.
Bernie's saying the same thing now 35 years.
He's been saying the same thing.
He hasn't changed a bit.
They're coming over to him.
Okay.
Eventually, that's the way it's going to be.
The way Bernie says it, you think it'll get there?
Um, it's either going to get there or get nowhere, yeah, one or the other.
Because why Bernie, though?
But 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, but you don't.
I mean, I try, I'm trying to get smarter.
That's why I do this podcast, is 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 a good thing.
So, from what I understand, Bernie is the one that wants, is the closest to socialism, right?
Democratic socialism.
Democratic socialism.
Socialism is 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.
Okay.
Because if you don't have controls on capitalism, people will be made slaves of.
That's just the way it is.
Okay.
And the socialism is the control.
And people don't understand that.
Socialism is socialism.
No, it's not.
Democratic socialism.
Democratic socialism.
That's control on the means of production.
Police departments are socialists.
Anytime the people get together to do something, that's socialism.
Okay.
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 police and fire department.
That's socialism.
Those are not 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. in dangerous positions and things like that.
That's socialism.
Okay.
What do you think about gun control?
Like the shooting that happened in El Paso was yesterday, I think, or two days ago.
So what's the best possible world?
What is your feeling on gun control?
What's 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, wouldn't it?
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know the answer.
Yeah, well, I do.
So you think all guns take them away?
No.
I said that's the best possible world.
If they just did not exist.
That's not reality.
Yeah, that's not reality.
So what do we do?
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 what they are.
Maybe loosen up the criteria for taking a gun away from crazy people who 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.
You know, 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 them happening every single day, mass shootings with those magazines.
There's a 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 having.
You can have 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.
Um, for example, and you think that's true, would you believe anything?
No, I would not.
I would not.
But I I didn't actually look up the research, but I know there are places where you just they just they have a gun-free zone, but they just go across the border and pick up their gun 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 right do the killings can just go it's obviously box and pick up a goddamn exactly.
So that's just, that's a joke, that's a non-statistic.
It has no meaning.
Marijuana Rights and Arguments00:13:01
He's against weed, too, I think.
Yeah, he is 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 was I 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 are doing, and one to be able to grow my own at home.
To uh, 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 uh, which i'm what 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.
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 homegrown.
No, I won in the lower court.
The appellate court reversed.
Now I took that one to the Supreme Court of Florida.
This one, the homegrown one?
Yeah, the homegrown one.
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.
What's the state's?
Assembler, Ray Rodriguez.
The Republicans in the 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 you cannot.
What are they saying?
If they say it doesn't say what it says, what is their actual argument?
Their actual argument is 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, transfers, transports, sells, distributes.
dispenses or administers marijuana products containing marijuana related supplies or educational materials to 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'll 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 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 the 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 MMTCs 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 nullifying my rights with the right of an MMTC?
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 yeah.
And if they, if they do, what?
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 legislature.
So it is such a flagrant, I, I, 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 there 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 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 there's people out there that are hurting.
I hear from them every day.
They can't afford their medicine.
They can't afford to even go to the doctor to get the damn card.
And then they can't afford to get the card.
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 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.
Oh.
I've eaten some edibles that have sent me to Mars.
No, That's activated.
Okay.
That marijuana is decarboxylated.
It's been heated up already.
Okay.
To make it active.
Okay.
That makes sense.
Okay.
Marijuana in its stage coming from the fresh flower.
The bud.
The bud.
Yeah.
The flower.
Yeah.
Will not get you high.
Really?
You just eat it.
No, you have to, yeah, that's why you smoke marijuana.
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 denizen.
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.
So, and it was in my interest to fight, so I fought and I won.
You still own MONS Venus?
Yes, I do.
Okay, do you own any other clubs as well or no?
I don't.
I don't really have the interest in uh, adult clubs like I used to.
Yeah right um, that was what I wanted to open another one, and then another one, and you know, and here I was fighting people all the time right yeah, it gets tiring yeah, it does, it really does.
And so They stuck me in jail in 150 times.
You were arrested.
That's insane.
Yeah.
Well, you know, here's what I did.
When it first started, I'd go down to the jail, you know, and I said, 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 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.
That's not so bad.
Right.
So I just worked it out in 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 of court, one time for five months.
Damn, that's just a memory.
That's a long one.
What does that mean, contempt of court?
Well, the court has ordered you to do something and you didn't do it.
Okay.
They ordered me to close a 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 besides?
Are you doing any other, any big business ventures?
You buying real estate or anything?
I continuously buy real estate.
What kind of real estate do you buy?
Business.
You're buying just business?
Commercial, yeah.
Okay.
No, not businesses.
Commercial property.
Warehouses and stuff.
Warehouses.
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 Mabry 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 the income?
I don't sell anything.
So you're not flipping stuff?
No.
We have a brewery that's opening up very shortly, probably in Wesley Chapel.
Really?
A Stratton 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, Cigar City was my son and I's first brewery.
Of course.
It was all him except for my money.
Right, okay.
Cigar City is probably one of the most, except for Budweiser, one of the most well known breweries in the world.
Oh, yeah, definitely.
Like High Lye, you guys made High Lye and a bunch of other brands, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
High Lye was what made it famous, really.
Now, all this investing, all these businesses that you're buying?
Actually, we out in 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 Cigar 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 Avenue.
Well, the Florida Avenue Brewing is here in Tampa, and then we're going to expand into wesley Chapel bought a nice piece of property up there gonna have a nice restaurant Brew a lot of beer.
Oh, yeah Now all this 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, it yeah, it all came from from Mons Venus.
Yeah, it all started 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 it thinks you know things work out Cool.
Welcome Back to the Fight00:02:13
On to the next fight.
Yeah.
So when is the next date for the Supreme Court for that case or anything?
Well, 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 tolls it.
So the state, they just, they get into.
In the way of everything.
In other words, they stall, They don't want to go anywhere fast.
Right.
So 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 do not come cheap, believe me.
You've got to have deep pockets to fight those people.
I'm over a million in these two lawsuits.
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 to fight.
What do you do?
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 concerned.
Right, right.
So, yeah, you just have a higher purpose.
Yeah, that burning fire 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 the fight, then who's going to, right?
Hopefully, there's another guy, but I don't know where they are.