José Cruz: Did you (So) ever smoke pot when you were a kid?

Andrew Zitzmann: Yeah sure. 

José: Yeah I did too. (Of course) Do you ever tell your stu-…

Andrew: Uh I-I don’t think anybody has uh- Most most kids would say they have at least once. Uh either that or it’s just you get attracted to the same kind of people, right? So. (Hahaha)

José: Do you ever actually tell your Japanese students that you’ve smoked pot? (Yup) Really?

Andrew: Yeah the students who’ve bo- gone abroad because they often bring up the topic

José: Ah because they were thinking, “Oh-“

Andrew: Ah they have done it themselves in…

José: Mr. Zitzmann- Oh! (Hmm) And how do those conversations go? Because I actually don’t get those conversations much. (Yeah) Like, “Mr. Cruz, I smoked pot! It was great!”

Andrew: No no no (Not that?) It would be more like, uh you’re talking about uh overseas experience and you know, so where did you go to? And then usually if they’ve been to Canada or the States. (Mm hmm) Um Australia I guess as well. But from my experience mostly uh the ones in Canada and the States- and they’ve- uh talked about, you know, their- the lifestyle there and um you know going out to parties and having people smoking pot and offering them pot and uh, yeah and then they say that they- some of them will- will say that they’ve tried it and…

José: Do they ever- do you ever get like a kid- because I wish I could have this topic of conversation more often, or up to now I wish I could have it more often. I think I’m going to have it more often now. (Hmm) But um, I’ve never had it and I would like to get a Japanese person’s opinions on- what they’ve seen on TV and what they’ve seen in Japanese media it’s just (Mmm) such propaganda. (Mm) I mean there are good things and bad things about the stuff. (Sure, I mean) But what you hear (Hm) from the government about it is just propaganda.

Andrew: Yeah yeah. Because I think they what- the problem with the propaganda in- in Japan is that they uh they put everything together into one one group it’s all drugs. (Right) And all drugs are are bad (Right) Because they- they’re connecting stuff like MDMA with with pot which is ludicrous. I mean it’s not- By any-

José: And even MDMA itself, ecstasy itself uh if you were to actually take a very scientific view of things there are a lot of good things about MDMA. Ecstasy is being um targeted for research right now in certain areas in America and Europe as- as a- as a really good solution for PTSD.

Andrew: Really? (Oh yeah) I didn’t know that.

José: Yeah Uh PTSD- uh people who’ve taken- not recreationally not like you know, punks on a dance floor (Right) just playing with life (Yeah) uh but actually um people who wanted to take the experience and record it scientifically as as a- as – Remember LSD and Timothy Leary? (Yup) What he was trying to inform people about you know, the the actual benefits of LSD he just got written off as a kook. (Mm) But there actually are important benefits to LSD to the point where like, Carl Sagan, remember Carl Sagan? (Yeah) He was actually a a guy who said that LSD is actually really mind expanding (Hmm) You know Joseph Campbell? No? (No) Really a titan in in in terms of um academics on world mythology. (Hmm) And he’s been on TV. Anyway, he’s one of my heroes. Anyway- he, “LSD- it’s great! Really opened up my mind.”

Andrew: Yeah.