The Pre-frontal Cortex (PFC) is the executive function and personality center of the brain. It’s constantly processing information in real time while comparing it to past experiences and deciding how to react.
In “The Natural Mind,” Dr. Andrew Weil reminds us that humans have intentionally used psychotropic substances forever. But what Prof. Slingerland says here about the importance of the social use of substances in human history and its evolution in modern times can be seen at every MJBizCon and Hemp Expo, in the after-hours hang.
Looking back over the last 30 years in hemp and 14 before that in natural foods, I realize now that those who would later prove to be unethical and predatory were the ones unwilling to set their PFC on the table in a sign of mutual vulnerability.
While the rest were partying they had to work hard so as to remember which lies were told to whom, so they just stayed away. Conversely, the Bros actually were Bros.
Many businessmen include heavy drinking as part of the ritualistic version of “mutually disarming the PFC,” but in the Cannabis industry we roll a little different.
My first morning in Amsterdam over 30 years ago I was invited to hang with an infamous Canna duo. They wanted to see if this California long-haired business icon really was All That, or just another schemy narc like so many before and after.
Six bowls of pure trichomes later, I apparently passed the test. That was their version of disarming the PFC as a metric for honesty.
My Hemp Salons in Natural Products Expo convention hotel suites in the ’90s served a “mutually disarming the PFC” function, a smoky after-hours spot for fellow Hempsters right down the hall from the SMQAA scotch and the Kava-Kava parties.
When organizing the HIA Cons in the ’90s, I knew we had to have smoke-friendly venue. Their problems at hotels in years past could be avoided with careful selection, and we found the perfect spot in the countryside of Geyserville, Sonoma County.
One year in Albuquerque the HIA Con was booked the same time as a Bible convention. They didn’t separate the attendees by floor, and police were called a few times. The conference hotels in Vancouver were far more lenient, one concierge even brought us rolling papers.
These smoky after-hours PFC mutually-disarming sessions helped create a vibrant hemp product industry back then; without keeping hemp alive through the “dark ages,” there would not even be a hemp industry let alone one with millions of consumers and thousands of retailers as early as 20 years ago.
Here is Dr Slingerland discussing the phenomenon. 05:35