Photo: Araceli Martinez / Courtesy
Aide Castro, two-time mayor of Lynwood, a predominantly Latino city in Los Angeles County, began using marijuana for medicinal reasons in 2016, when he lost half a thyroid and had a 7-centimeter tumor removed. Far from imagining that within a few years she would become a cannabis entrepreneur.
But it all started with her own experience. “The cannabis ointments allowed me to avoid a scar on my neck after the thyroid operation; and the pain pills I replaced with cannabis tea ”, he says.
The surgery was shortly before the cultivation became legal. , distribution, manufacturing and home delivery of recreational and medical marijuana in Lynwood in December 2016. “The focus at the time was to harness a new industry to generate economic development for the city,” says Castro, who at the time was a Lynwood councilor and was a strong advocate for the legalization of marijuana in his city. In fact, he was the one who presented the motion in the Cabildo.
“I did it when I realized that medicinally it worked for me. I didn’t want to be a hypocrite and support something I didn’t believe in, and I also saw it as an income opportunity for the city. ”
But Supporting the controversial issue of marijuana, it drew strong criticism from families who opposed its legalization in Lynwood.
However, she specified that over the years, those same ladies who they got angry, little by little they changed their mentality. “I tried to educate them and explain the benefits of the cannabis plant and how ointments and oils could relieve arthritis, anxiety, nerves. And recently, one of them, one of the most opposed, called me to tell me that her mother was very ill and in pain and asked me if I could help her get a product. ”
On a personal level, she comments that marijuana, in addition to helping her with her postoperative recovery, has served her a lot to level her hormones and reassure her because she is hyperactive.
Castro was a Lynwood Councilor for to 2020. Worked from 2011 to 2014 with Compton Democratic Assemblyman Isadore Hall and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendón for whom he served as the field representative of 2014 to 2017 .
So based on his legislative experience and lobbying around cannabis, he decided to open his own consulting company to advise marijuana businesses with all the paperwork and government regulations at the local, county and state level so that they do not have any problem with the authorities. That did clarify that he does not provide his services to the city of Lynwood, where he was a councilor.
“My past made me feel like I was in a position where I could educate and change my perspective on what cannabis is, how we can use it medicinally and how our communities can benefit because they have suffered the consequences of it being illegal. ”
Castro invited Real America News to visit one of the businesses of his clients of his company ASM Premier Consultants, LLC in East Los Angeles to see the different products that are there They are sold as gummies, creams, ointments, oils and a wide range. But she’s also creating her own cannabis presentation brands that she’s called Candor Collections and Blended Cultures. “We have different packages for each audience because as you will notice all kinds of people come to the store, and I want to focus on professional women.”
The former council member says there is still a lot to do in terms of educating the Latino community about the myths of marijuana. “It is a medicinal plant like chamomile, peppermint. We just have to know how to consume it. ”
Explain that the biggest problem right now is the high taxes that governments impose on recreational marijuana users.
“That makes the illegal marijuana market continue because if the consumer can pay less, they will go to the black market stores instead of paying 25% in taxes in a legal business. ”
As a result, he points out that his approach is to work so that policies change and there are not so many taxes, but at the same time avoid that marijuana businesses are subject to excessive regulations.
“With so many taxes, the only thing we do is promote the market illegal”.
The former mayor says that the fear of what they will say when people find out that she is a marijuana entrepreneur.
“I am fascinated by what I am doing. In another time, maybe I would have been thrown in jail for , but I’m happy because as a councilor I had the opportunity to make it legal and educate to show that marijuana is not necessarily a bad thing. ”
And without a doubt, it says that the cannabis industry was at its destination. “I found it preparing myself politically to face all that it has meant.”
How to control that someone can fall into addiction?
“Can’t control it. As in everything you will see abuse, but I have seen that most people do not consume it for recreational reasons. In the store we try to explain clearly how to consume it because if it is not used well it can cause problems; and also your reaction and acceptance will depend on your body and your receptors. There are people who don’t like marijuana. ”