What Cannabis Used to Be

McAllen, Texas, 1997: During my last year of high school, on any given day,  I would hear the classroom door knock. The security officer from my high school would be standing outside with a pass for me to leave. It wasn’t the principal or my parents pulling me out of class; it was the boss. It didn’t matter that I was just a high school student; I had been summoned. A summons from the boss meant crossing a load from the other side of the border and then taking it north, before switching cars and bringing his money back. I might make $500-$1000 for the entire process. That was a lot of money for a day or two of work, especially for a kid.

Growing up on the border of Mexico, someone was always getting arrested. I can remember way more people that went to prison than came home. Someone was always getting kidnapped and tortured, dismembered, and often left for dead or just brutally killed. Loved ones of friends were raped and beaten before they were returned to their families – if they weren’t killed and chopped up.  

According to Wikipedia, “Necklacing” is the practice of extrajudicial summary execution and torture method carried out by forcing a rubber tire, filled with petrol, around a victim’s chest and arms, and setting it on fire. The victim may take up to 20 minutes to die, suffering severe burns in the process. 

The police were just as corrupt, if not worse, than the gangsters. I remember more times that police were the targets of machine-gun assassinations because they were more out of line than anyone. 

I saw things people never imagine exist, and the volatility between “good” and “bad.” The “bad” people were honest and took care of their families, and the “good” people were murderers and thieves.  At least you knew you were safe with the gangsters if you were respectful and served a role.

When running loads, we sometimes had to find different ways to get back into the country. It wasn’t unusual to get a warning call: they know that you’re here and are going to be looking for you on the traditional routes. Change cars and come through one of the other bridges or wait in Torreon at the condo for a couple of days.

We were always changing cars, avoiding hits, jackers, and being set up as decoys to feed to cops to get larger loads through.

We brought cannabis to Texas when nobody else could get it, using Honda Passports with custom speaker-boxes, 18-wheelers, and even rented Cessna airplanes. I would walk through airport metal-detectors with bricks strapped to my body, flying from McAllen and Austin to Miami a couple of times a year. To this day, I’ve never been to Miami for fun; I have yet to see the beach there.

U.S. Customs used to put up billboards with sayings like “Is it Dry, Yet?”, as if they weren’t as corrupt as the so-named ‘criminals’ they were there to taunt. Everyone played their part; nobody was 100% clean. You’d be surprised how open-minded people could be when opportunities to survive were involved. 

I can tell you how to get thousands of pounds of marijuana past drug dogs using only a couple of hundred dollars worth of materials. I hesitate to include that recipe, here, because the method probably still works and I’m not trying to facilitate anything that might hurt someone or break any laws.

There’s need and poverty in this country, for sure.  I would say, however, that people haven’t seen anything until they’ve been to a place where you were scolded for giving a child a soccer ball because, being a “stupid American,” you didn’t realize that the child was a young soldier. If the child didn’t earn the soccer ball, they were not to be given luxuries and rewards unless they successfully carried out their “missions”. In order to just survive from the truly evil and oppressive powers that existed in Reynosa, children often did jobs such as play near the border, around the military, so that intel could be collected, reported, and analyzed, especially when it came time to crossing loads into the USA across the river.

 

Andre: I can see what you are thinking. But we need every man we can get. 

Yuri: Even if they’re not men? 

Andre: A bullet from a fourteen-year-old is just as effective as one from a forty-year-old.  Often more effective.

— Lord of War

 

These families and their children were never going to have jobs.  There were no jobs. They were never going to start businesses. If they were lucky enough to even consider it, gangsters would extort money from them, otherwise known as mordidas, in exchange for “protection” from the same people that were extorting them.

School?  C’mon, be serious.

 

“I’m not a bad man, but in certain situations, I have to ask myself: what would a bad man do?” 

– Bradley Cooper in War Dogs.

 

What Cannabis is For Me Now

I use cannabis medicinally – I use cannabis to treat terrible migraines and panic attacks that would otherwise put me in the emergency room. When I use cannabis, I’m able to leave my home. I don’t want to take prescription drugs that could leave me addicted, or worse. 

I use cannabis for focus – Cannabis keeps me focused, getting rid of a lot of irrelevant noise inside my head. I’ve founded, sold, and currently operate four companies. I work around the clock. I’m able to think straight when I use cannabis.

I use cannabis for my pets – Like many people, my pets are my life.  They love me unconditionally, they don’t lie, they don’t steal, and they have been there for me for over 15 years. 3 years ago, my dog, Bentley. woke me up one night screaming in pain. I don’t hope that anyone has ever heard true terror and pain from someone they love. When it’s a human, it’s terrible, but they can give you an indicator that something is wrong and what is causing them to feel this way.  When it’s an animal, there’s no acting. Animals can’t tell you what hurting them or how you can help. This empathy and helplessness of this is one of the worst pains that one can experience. Veterinarians couldn’t find what was wrong with Bentley. They wrote him off and gave me some pretty harsh pain killers and sent me on my way. Certain people from whom I sought advice told me that it was time for me to “let go” of him.  

We don’t let go or back down. We fight.

I donate a lot of money and volunteer a lot of time to rescue and transport animals. A friend asked me if I’d ever heard of CBD. In my years of being an advocate of marijuana, I’d never really thought of the true beautiful powers of cannabis; I just knew it took my mind where it needed to be. Like many other people, I’d seen videos of the things it did for people’s health but it just wasn’t in my face like that. My friend explained that something called golden paste along with CBD might be a good alternative. 

So that I don’t lie, I don’t know if it was the CBD and golden paste that saved my dog’s life, but I do know that after beginning an intensive treatment for a few days, he bounced back and couldn’t wait to get back to chasing his tennis balls.  We’d had the “goodbye” cheeseburger party, already. Cheeseburgers are his favorite food. I wanted his last days to be surrounded by things that he loved. I’m almost tearing up, writing this, because I still get to buy him his cheeseburgers. OilWell CBD has a great line of products for pets such as cats, horses, dogs, and even rabbits. 

Daily, I give my three dogs and two cats CBD treats and put CBD tincture on their food.

I use cannabis to create change – I provide a legal, effective alternative to prescription medication for those in need and I use my life’s experiences to empower individuals and businesses to spread the healing power of this beautiful plant. I teach people how to infuse it into products and services, and I provide both the marketing and infrastructure to people that work with me so that they can have an opportunity to live better lives through the socioeconomic powers that cannabis possesses.

When I created OilWell CBD, I promised myself I would figure everything out as far as circumventing the challenges and gatekeepers that have falsely and artificially manifested themselves. Like everything other industry, there are a lot of scumbags who only care about the money, and will wash away with the wave they tried to ride in on. We chose to put our blinders on and only look forward and have definitely felt the burn of persevering through the challenges of legality, financial barriers, sourcing, and quality control. We came from this, though, and we’re not afraid to teach others how to get into the game they’ve earned it.

Everyone can learn on their own, but our way works. We provide the experience and logistics to a select few high-quality and thoroughly-vetted businesses, especially in the Houston area.  You’ll find our products in stores in stores ranging from hydroponic stores and salons in The Heights to yoga studios and even hookah lounges downtown and across the city. You might be surprised to know that even certain retail “CBD stores” in the city call us to white-label and wholesale our products. Our position in the market allows us to provide infrastructure and solutions to businesses of all types and sizes.

There’s nothing nefarious about what we do; the respect we’ve earned has translated into people from across the country, even other countries, beginning to see us and reach out to us to align with them in different ways. I’m not a scientist, and I’m not a doctor, but I care. If cannabis, in any of its forms, can save others’ loved ones from any sort of pain, I’ll do what I can to at least source, manufacture, and align myself with only the best in the industry so that people at least have the best possible source for evaluation as to whether it’s a positive addition into their lifestyle.

Where am I, Now?

I’m a proud Houstonian, providing high-quality and legal forms of cannabis to help both humans and animals empower themselves and put those in need in a position of self-sufficiency.

OilWell CBD – Legal Cannabis

OilWell CBD was founded in Houston, TX in the beginning of 2019, with the mission of teaching others how to live better lives using cannabis, CBD, and hemp as it is legal, where it is legal, to its full legal capacity, nationwide.

Valencia and his business partners collectively operate legal processing, and bulk and wholesale operations. All OilWell CBD is third-party lab certified to protect customers from impurities as well as guarantee the potency and content of their products for both for legal and health reasons.

Currently, OilWell CBD is working to take pure molecular extractions of various cannabinoids and infusing them into a multitude of products, effectively rejuvenating stagnant brands and giving their white label customers products the spotlight they deserve through adding the beauty of cannabis to their formulations.

Because of the growing influence Valencia and his team have within the market, business owners who associate with the brand have recognized the benefits of doing so. Business that work with OilWell often see exponential growth through brand-recognition and advanced marketing strategies that drive new customers, awareness, and lanes of profit. OilWell helps businesses enter the cannabis market legally and effectively, empowering them to refine their brands by white-labeling finished products.

“I was born in Houston and have come back to Houston because I love the culture and people here,” says Valencia. “I am proud to be one of the first mainstream pioneers of legal cannabis, in the form of hemp and CBD, in Houston, Texas.”