Addiction, Family, & Hope: Ray Lozano’s Powerful Story

Rich & Wendy 0:00
Hey, everyone is Rich Bennett. Can you believe it? The show is turning ten this year. I am so grateful for each and every one of you who've tuned in, shared an episode, or even joined the conversation over the years. You're the reason that this podcast has grown into what it is today. Together, we shared laughs, tears and moments that truly matter. So I want to thank you for being part of this journey. Let's make the next ten years even better. Coming to you from the Freedom Federal Credit Union Studios. Harford County Living presents conversations with Rich Bennett. 

Today, I'm going to get kind. 

No, no, no. The truth is. 

Rich Bennett 1:00
Those of you listening, I got a very special guest on today. I've never met him. We've never met each other that I know of. But he can't tact us through the I guess, through the website. 

Ray Lozano 1:14
Pod. 

Rich Bennett 1:16
Was it paid much? 

Ray Lozano 1:17
Yeah. Pod match. 

Rich Bennett 1:20
Really? 

Ray Lozano 1:21
I take that back? 

Rich Bennett 1:23
No, I. 

Ray Lozano 1:24
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:25
I didn't know you were on par. Match. 

Ray Lozano 1:26
Yeah. Maybe to the website. 

Rich Bennett 1:28
Yeah, I think it was through the website, through the request form. 

Ray Lozano 1:30
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 1:31
And so I asked for my from my team to find out more about him, which she could find out that he says, Oh, this is perfect. So I have Rey Lozano on and we're going to learn more about Ray, something I've been wanting to try and we're going to do it here. He agreed to be my guinea pig. So his elevator pitch. So first of all, welcome, Ray. And tell us, who in the world is Ray Lozano? 

Ray Lozano 2:00
The world is very well. My elevator pitch when I'm at a conference goes just like this. Hi. My name's Ray Lozano. I work with junior high and high school kids in the area. Drug and alcohol prevention. Do you know anybody that falls in that category? Know any parents who are struggling with their kids when it comes to drugs and alcohol? And so that usually just fires things up right there. And so my what I do and it's super easy to find me on the web if you just Google my name is I go into junior high and high schools and they bring all the kids in the auditorium and I do this motivational presentation talking about drugs and alcohol. And it's not a testimonial. I don't have the, Hey, kids, I did this. You don't do this. And it's not the fear factor. What mine is. I guess this is the best way to explain it. What the Dallas newspaper said a couple of years ago. They said it was like watching George Lopez do drag information. So that's who Ray Lozano is. 

Rich Bennett 2:55
Holy cow. I just googled your name. You came up right away. 

Ray Lozano 2:57
And 

Rich Bennett 2:58
Ray. 

Ray Lozano 2:58
so. 

Rich Bennett 2:58
Ray Lozano. Com. 

Ray Lozano 3:00
Right? Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 3:01
Some of you listening may be yelling like, Rich, you always practice. Do your research first. Well, I didn't want to. I wanted. 

Ray Lozano 3:09
I love it like this, Rich. I think this is a great idea. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 3:13
Yeah. It's like I mean, because first of all, I'm blown away. I didn't realize what you do. We talk about addiction a lot. I mean, we are the case is number one in the addiction category on good parts. 

Ray Lozano 3:26
Wow. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 3:27
Yeah, but what? 

Ray Lozano 3:29
Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 3:30
So 

Ray Lozano 3:30
You. 

Rich Bennett 3:31
what you're doing with high school kids and you said middle school kids. 

Ray Lozano 3:35
Yeah, I go all the way down to sixth grade. And what has. 

Rich Bennett 3:38
Wow. 

Ray Lozano 3:39
One of the big factors right now is I have schools that want me to start talking to seventh and eighth graders about fentanyl and make it age appropriate. And so that's what we're doing right now. We're in the process. Probably about the next two or three weeks it'll be finalized. 

Rich Bennett 3:53
So what made you decide you wanted to do this? 

Ray Lozano 3:55
Ah, here it is, ma'am. 

Age five. I am laying on the floor in this room. Hot, tired and crabby and trying to take my little shoes off. I look up and I think the reason why my brain turned on is because my mom was crying really hard, and I started to panic. 

Rich Bennett 4:14
Oh, shit. 

Ray Lozano 4:15
So I'm laying on the floor. My mom's telling me in English, in broken Spanish, she's telling me to put your shoes back on, to put them back on, put them back on. And she grabs my little shoes and she jams them on my feet real tight and ties in real tight, literally grabs me by my shirt and pulls me up. No clue, Rich, what she's. And so she grabs my hand and we go walking all the way down the front of this room, and she's crying the entire time. But I remember her saying this. She kept saying, He's a good boy. He's a good boy. Don't do this. He's a good boy. He's a good boy. And I had no clue. So I'm holding my mom's hand walking all the way down to the front of this room. Get to the front of this room. There's a little wooden fence in the front of this room. Put my little arms on this wooden fence, and I'm looking up at my mom, and I'm getting more scared because she's crying really hard. Yeah. And so then I stop and I turn to see what my mom was looking at. And when I stop and turn, I see my older brother. I'm the baby of the family, So. 

Rich Bennett 5:13
Right. 

Ray Lozano 5:14
When I was five. My sister seven years older than me. My next brother's 14 years older than me. And the brother that I'm looking at is 17 years older than me. So when I was five, standing next to my mom, I'm looking at my 22 year old brother. Here's what he looks like. Orange jumpsuit. 

Rich Bennett 5:32
Oh. 

Ray Lozano 5:32
Change go around his waist, has handcuffs connected to those chains, has chains around his ankles, and the back of his orange jumpsuit. It says County of San Diego and what my brother started doing straight out of high school is he would walk across the border from where we lived in the United States into Tijuana. He'd purchase heroin. 

Stepping into condoms. And he tie him up and he'd swallow them and he'd walk them back across the board. And my brother was not doing this for like he was smuggling basically for himself. And so so he got busted with a couple of balls. And now he's been sentenced to go to a federal penitentiary because he had done this several times. My mom's crying. You know, he's a good boy. He's a good boy. And you probably know judges don't care about moms crying, right? So they sentenced my brother and this was back in the seventies. The judge talked to the sheriff, and I can just see this in my mind, talk to the sheriff. The sheriff walked over to my brother, spun him around. Now, my brother's looking at my mom and me. I don't know where my dad was. And this hard, tough guy. My brother started to cry. Sheriff walks him over to mom and clips his handcuffs from the chain around his waist, which you normally don't do in a courtroom. 

Rich Bennett 6:56
Right. 

Ray Lozano 6:57
He put his arms around mom and he hugged her goodbye. And I think the judge did this because I was in the room. So my brother's hugging my mom goodbye. All I can see, my brother's mouth and all he's saying is, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And all my mom is saying is, I love you. I love you. You know, a mom's love is in this. 

Rich Bennett 7:15
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 7:17
So that I remember and I thought as a kid, like, that's. I saw the sheriff grab my brother and, like, pull him off mom and then push him down on me. And I remember my brother put those handcuffs around me, gave me a kiss on my cheek, and he actually saved my life that day. My brother. 

Rich Bennett 7:34
Really? 

Ray Lozano 7:34
Yeah, my brother whispered in my ear. He said, Little brother, don't do drugs, man. Drugs are bad. Don't do drugs. And I. I didn't know what he was talking about, but 

Rich Bennett 7:44
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 7:44
my older brother was telling me something, Right? So I needed to kind of listen to that. Well, they picked them up, clipped those handcuffs, and off he goes. And. Something in my brain like that was like a weird situation that that's like rich that's the very first thing that goes in my brain, that that's the day my brain turned on, you know? 

Rich Bennett 8:05
Five years old. 

Ray Lozano 8:06
Five years old. Yeah. So now fast forward. This is the day that got me to be on your podcast today. Nine years old, sitting on the curb. My mom's right here. I'm right here. My dad's right here. My sister is right here. I remember having a little blanket around me, and my mom has her arm around me, and my dad had his arm around my sister, his daughter. And we're sitting on the curb, man. Lights are flashing, neighbors are out. And my other brother had brought in some drugs from Mexico because we lived right on the border. 

Rich Bennett 8:38
Jesus. 

Ray Lozano 8:39
Brought them into the house and now the cops are going through the house searching for those drugs and something on that curb. Clicked in my brain and I thought, Why do people do drugs? I never saw the good side of it. Rich. I always 

Rich Bennett 8:53
Now. 

Ray Lozano 8:53
the bad side. You know, my dad. Great guy, great guy. He would drink and then about 1030 at night, he would start fighting my mom. Wonderful lady. But when she got drunk for some reason, she thought at this point, when she's intoxicated, it's okay to yell at us or even hit us as kids. My sister and I've asked her a million times, This is okay, my sister probably did drugs this morning. And so my sister is still out there. And, you know, we'll can talk more about that. But right there at age nine, it clicked in my head like, why do people do drugs? Why is my dad a good guy? He drinks and then he fights. Why is my mom a nice lady? She drinks and then she yells at us. And then I just turned into this obnoxious, obnoxious nine year old kid asking everybody, Why does my dad do that? 

Rich Bennett 9:43
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 9:44
So I asked teachers, I asked our priest, I asked neighbors, and everybody gave me the same answer, Rich, because of alcohol. And I'm like, Yeah, I know that. But what's the mechanism? What is the thing that clicks in their head that alcohol makes them do 

Rich Bennett 10:00
Triggers 

Ray Lozano 10:01
that? 

Rich Bennett 10:01
it. Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 10:01
Yeah, that's where I had to find the answer to. And so in high school I did a project on alcohol. The teachers loved it. And it has become this lifelong pursuit to understand drugs and the mechanism. Why is nicotine so addictive? I can answer. Why can't I remember stuff when I smoke weed? I can answer that. The best question I had a kid asked me in high school. He goes, Why do girls look better? The more I get drunk and I'm like, I can answer. So yeah. 

Rich Bennett 10:29
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 10:30
And so that's that's how I got to be on your podcast today is because it's been this lifelong pursuit of understanding drugs. The mechanism of drugs. So working with a parent or a group of parents and they're like, How can my own kid steal from me? I love him. How can they rip me off? I'm like, Let me explain why that happens when it comes to drugs and alcohol. And so many times parents are like, Oh my gosh, that makes so much sense. 

Rich Bennett 10:57
Yeah. Because they're not thinking it's it's basically the drugs and the alcohol. It's doing the thinking for them. 

Ray Lozano 11:02
Doing the thing for him. But it's the whole process in the brain of the reward system. 

Rich Bennett 11:07
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 11:07
So like my. 

Rich Bennett 11:09
I'll. 

Ray Lozano 11:10
Like my sister. I'll give you this as an example. What most drug and alcohol counselors do and is like, Let's say I was counseling you. You had this big, huge problem with drugs and alcohol and you're sitting in front of me. You got drunk two days ago, right? And I look in you go, Rich. You know what, man? You need to stop drinking because you're going to lose your podcast. You're going to lose your family, you're going to lose your house, you're gonna lose your car, you're going to lose your job. You going to. Now, to me, that makes complete sense. But to the alcoholic or the drug addict, they don't care about that. 

Rich Bennett 11:40
Now they. 

Ray Lozano 11:41
Concerned. England turned that offer up because they don't care about that. And so I'm basically when I would do that to my sister, she's like. I don't care. The important thing? Drugs and alcohol. And so we have to change our language. For those of us that are working with people that have addictions, understand if you're talking about their job, they don't care. It's a terrible you know, if they're talking about, you know, you're hurting me as a mom because you're stealing from me, it doesn't matter because the drug is what the reward is and we all hunt for the reward now. 

Rich Bennett 12:13
Yeah, because you can even talk to somebody and tell them, Yeah, they may lose their life or they may take another life and it's like in one ear and out the other. 

Ray Lozano 12:21
Oh, yeah, Totally. Totally. So you have to learn their language. You have to under. 

Rich Bennett 12:24
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 12:25
How to speak to a person that has an addiction. And when you can learn their language, you can really make an impact like I've done with my sister. And I've been practicing on my sister for a long time. It's like if you spoke Spanish and I spoke Mandarin Chinese and I'm going to give you the secret to eternal life. You're not going to get it because you don't speak the same language. And that's what's happening. 

Rich Bennett 12:48
How long did actually take you to learn how to speak their language? 

Ray Lozano 12:51
Oh, man. I started practicing and I actually have a little bit of a TED talk on this. 

Rich Bennett 12:56
Okay. 

Ray Lozano 12:57
Yeah, I just started with my sister. Gosh, this has been quite a while and realizing that the advice I was giving her, she wasn't taking it. And when I would give her advice, it would even make her madder. And I thought, There's something wrong here. Know there's something that's not working with this language that I'm speaking are these words. And again, I'm thinking I'm speaking English. She understands English, but because of how the drug affects her brain, that doesn't make sense. So, yeah. And you know what, Rich? You spoke that language. Everybody spoke that language up until age 21. And then after age 21, we changed our language and our brain starts to think different. So you want me to give it to you? 

Rich Bennett 13:40
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 13:41
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 13:42
I am floored. 

Ray Lozano 13:44
Yeah. Rich. This is why I do like 400 presentations a year all across the United States is because. 

Rich Bennett 13:50
They. 

Ray Lozano 13:51
People are like, Wow, this information's crazy, you know? All right. 

Rich Bennett 13:54
Nobody needs it. 

Ray Lozano 13:55
Here it is. All right. Here's the language, and I hope people get this. Rich, you and I are best friends. We've known each other for 20 some years. You live two houses down from me. You. You have a swimming pool. I got a great barbecue grill. Right. You have a swimming party? I'm over at your house. I'm barbecuing. You're over at my house. I go on vacation. I hand you the key to my house. You have freedom to walk in my house, right? We're best friends. Makes sense, right? We've known each other for a long, long time. Now, one day I am watching something on TV and I get this knock on the door. Right? Unexpected. I open up the door. There you are, Rich. You're standing right there at the front door. You look terrible. You're crying. Your clothes are messed up. You can tell, man, you have had the worst 24 hours in your entire life. And I look at you and I go, Man, rich, best friend. What's wrong? You look at me and you have this huge lump in your throat. You can't even get the words out. And you're like, Ray, My, my, my. My yellow lab buddy just died, right? This is your dog. This is the dog that you love that's been part of your family. And I look at you and I say, Rich, get in here, man. Sit down at the table right there. Let me get you a little piece of cake and a cup of coffee, because we're good friends. I want to help you through this situation. You know what I did for you, Rich? Let me tell you this, man. I spent 2 hours because we actually saw this coming. I spent 2 hours. And you're going to love this, buddy. I put a PowerPoint presentation together that is going to explain your situation. And I opened up my laptop. Right. And I start showing you all of these statistics, Rich man. Yellow labs get hip cancer at age 12. But yours didn't. Yellow labs are sick. Yellow labs have a tendency to get their stomach twisted. And then. Rich, get this. I have all of this mathematical pie charts and graphs and all of this information. And now I'm going to show you some stuff with the Dalai Lama. And I'm sitting there watching you watch this PowerPoint that I created. You. Let me ask you this, Rich. When I'm showing you that PowerPoint presentation, are you feeling closer to me or are you feeling further away from me? More than likely, you are getting upset with me showing you a PowerPoint presentation on your situation. Right. 

Rich Bennett 16:21
Yeah, 

Ray Lozano 16:22
Here's the reason why. Because you are speaking a language that I love to teach. You are speaking an emotional language. I am speaking an intelligent language. Now, don't get the idea that intelligence is better than emotion because we need 

Rich Bennett 16:38
right. 

Ray Lozano 16:38
these are equal. But you're coming at me with an emotional intelligence. Emotionally, my best dog just died. Let me show you a statistic. And this is what we normally do with people that have an addiction. Because people that have an addiction. Kids speak in emotional language. What we come at them with is we come at them with an intelligent language. The more I give you statistics about yellow labs, you are not getting happy with me. You're actually becoming more angry with me. 

Rich Bennett 17:12
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 17:13
At some point you're going to go. I thought we were friends. Right? How do you even talk to. And you're going to walk out of there feeling unsatisfied? You're going to walk out of there being angry with me. You're going to be angry with the situation and it's going to take a while to repair that situation. Okay. All right. We're going to put you on the spot. Okay. 

Rich Bennett 17:32
Okay. 

Ray Lozano 17:33
Here we go. Same situation. Watching TV. Knock on the door. Open the door. You're standing there all tore up. You look at me and you say, My, my, my, my yellow lab buddy just died rich. What do I need to do right then. What is the thing that you need from me right then? 

Rich Bennett 17:55
Probably a hug. 

Ray Lozano 17:56
You got it. You got it, man. That's it. You remember the language you just haven't used for. I need to look at you and not say one word, Rich. I need to throw my arms around my best friend. You know what I do? I cry with you and I. 

Rich Bennett 18:09
Oh, Dale. 

Ray Lozano 18:10
And I listen to you and I say, Oh my God, Rich, just come here, man. And you know what, Rich? If we stand there for 22 minutes, I don't care what you're done crying and my shoulders all when I look at you, I go, Rich man, sit down. Sit down at the place, at the kitchen table where you sat down a million times before. And you know what I do? I just listen to you. That's it. I just listen to it. And then at some point, I'm going to say something like this. Oh, my gosh, Rich, that's. That's crazy. What happened? But you know what? 

I think yellow labs get hip cancer right around age 12. Did Buddy ever have that? No, he didn't. Right. And you know what? Most most yellow labs only let the B body live to be 14, right? That's cool. Rich. 

Rich Bennett 19:02
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 19:02
And you know what? I know that, like most yellow labs, like, get this stomach thing that happens. But he never did. That's great. Am I giving you the same information as that PowerPoint presentation? 100%. But you know what I'm doing, Rich. I'm speaking your language first. That is the mistake that drug and alcohol counselors make. That's the mistake that parents make, is they talk intelligence and their kids speaks emotion. How did I kind of start to discover this? And if you're a parent right now listening to this podcast, please understand this. I'm sitting across from my son, my daughter, My son and my wife are sitting at this table just dinner. And we our kids are always open to talk about whatever they wanted to talk about. My son looked at me one night as we're eating dinner and he goes, Dad, He goes, You know what? You're just like a parent. And 

Rich Bennett 19:58
Huh? 

Ray Lozano 19:58
I. A parrot like a bird or a parent like a mom and dad. He goes, No, like the bird, A parrot. 

Rich Bennett 20:06
Oh, okay. 

Ray Lozano 20:07
No, really. I said, Why do you say that? He goes, Dad, you say the same things every night. Rock, clean your room. Rock. Do your homework. Rock. Put the dishes away. Right. He says that's all you ever say, is that I know what you're going to say because you always say the same thing. Rich It caught me off guard, and I'm like, Oh, my gosh. The problem, not the problem. The situation that parents do is they get to the place where all they do is speak instructions to their kids. That's it. Clean your room, throw the trash, walk the dog, put the dishes away, throw the. And that's all they do. And they lose conversation. And what ends up happening is kids don't know how to have that conversation. So when a kid 

Rich Bennett 20:56
Mm 

Ray Lozano 20:56
comes 

Rich Bennett 20:56
hmm. 

Ray Lozano 20:56
home and a mom is like, How is your day? They look good. And then the mom gets all upset. Why did he say? Because that is how you taught them. 

Rich Bennett 21:06
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 21:06
So you never taught them how to have a conversation. So rich emotional life. 

Rich Bennett 21:10
Wow. 

Ray Lozano 21:11
Underneath the age of 21. Since I've done this, since I've been teaching parents this. I had a mom just literally three weeks ago. Her daughter was coming back from recovery and was going to come back into the house and she was super scared. And I said, don't time, don't talk intelligence, don't stop it. And she goes, What does that mean? I'm like, If I went up to any drug addict on the street and I go, is heroin bad? You know, everyone was going to say, Yeah, yeah, it's terrible. 

Rich Bennett 21:39
Yeah. No shit. 

Ray Lozano 21:41
I'm not going to find one. Heroin addicts can go. What? What are you talking about? This was like a new health crate. No, everybody knows that. So why tell them it's bad? Because they already know that. Right. So the thing I said, Here's what you need to do when your daughter comes home. Get her dressed. Put her in the car and go buy her some waffles. That's it. And sit across the table from her and talk about nothing. 

Rich Bennett 22:07
Yeah, 

Ray Lozano 22:08
Don't give her instructions. Don't tell her what the rules of the House are. Just say, Hey, man, let me try to rebuild this relationship with you. Because, Rich, we all do this. We all protect the thing that makes us feel good. And if that daughter knows that she can make her mom feel good, she's got to protect it, whatever way. And 

Rich Bennett 22:26
right. 

Ray Lozano 22:27
that from going back to direct. I got a call from the mom. She said this information on emotional and intelligent language has revolutionized your house. And she's totally changed it. And she's seen these amazing things happen with her daughter. That, man. That's it. And that's what I want to change the world with right there. 

Rich Bennett 22:44
So do you. Actually, I know you go to the schools and talk to the kids, but you actually also teach the parents. 

Ray Lozano 22:51
Oh, yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 22:52
Okay, good. 

Ray Lozano 22:52
So what they do is they usually have me come in and talk to the kids and, you know, all different types of drugs and stuff like that. And then in the evening, they'll put a parent evening together like, you know how to get. It's called how to get your kids addicted to you, because we all. 

Rich Bennett 23:07
Love that. 

Ray Lozano 23:08
We all have addictive personalities. We all, you know, and not every addiction. And anytime people hear the word addiction, they immediately think, you know something bad. But we all have 

Rich Bennett 23:19
Right. 

Ray Lozano 23:19
it. We 

Rich Bennett 23:19
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 23:20
you know, not every addiction is going to make us wreck our car. Not every addiction is going to destroy our families, people that's addicted to, you know, helping other people. There's people that are addicted to working out, which is a benefit. But we all have it. We all have something that has to go inside our head and hit that reward button. 

Rich Bennett 23:35
There. All right. Well, I. I'm shocked. One of the things I definitely want to ask you, though. I keep going back to five year old Ray. And I remember growing up seeing my brother locked up, my older brother locked up a couple of times. And it's it's a sight you never want to see. 

Ray Lozano 23:56
Never. 

Rich Bennett 23:57
Or. The cops surrounded the house. It's scary. And as a kid, it scares the hell out of you. 

Ray Lozano 24:04
Oh, yeah, Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 24:07
And you said it was both of your brothers, your when you were five, it was your older brother, 22. And then the second time when you guys are sitting out front, the cows are going through the house. That was your other brother who was 17 at the time. 

Ray Lozano 24:20
17 years older than me. So he would. He would have been right around the same age now 22, and my other brother would have been like 25 at that time. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 24:28
Okay, I'm afraid to ask you this question because you keep saying it would have been. 

Ray Lozano 24:31
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 24:32
Are they still around today? 

Ray Lozano 24:34
Yeah, but. 

Rich Bennett 24:34
Okay. 

Ray Lozano 24:35
Yeah, my my brother did go to prison, and he was a real low level drug dealer. Like I said, he was walking across the border to get drugs for himself When he got into prison, he realized, I can't hang with these kind of people. I don't have that in me to be. That. And so he just did his time real quiet and came out a whole different guy. And because he changed his life, I was probably mid-teen years when he came back. And and, you know, he started talking to my mom about her drinking. And he did it in a real nice way. And over a period of time, we saw the family change, except for my sister. And so I literally talk to my sister every day, you know, And she ran drugs for drug dealers and that all this stuff that, you know, that happens. I love her. And, you know, I'm just her brother now. I don't try to save her anymore because we had that conversation and she's like, just be my brother. Just. 

Rich Bennett 25:32
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 25:32
Don't try to save me. It's because I love my life, you know, man. And so, yeah. And so that's. That's how it is right now. 

Rich Bennett 25:41
And you hear this all the time, but it's hard to save somebody if they don't want to see themselves. 

Ray Lozano 25:46
Oh, gosh. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 25:49
Now, do either one of your brothers actually go on any of these speaking events with you? 

Ray Lozano 25:53
No, no, no, they don't, because I don't 

Rich Bennett 25:55
Okay. 

Ray Lozano 25:55
do O'Neill stuff. And so one of my brothers I used to work with a little bit and 

Rich Bennett 26:00
Hmm. 

Ray Lozano 26:00
he would go out and do presentations and stuff like that. But because I don't have the the testimonial thing, you know, I've got I've got maybe have had guys I hardly ever drink, you know, maybe I'll have a. 

Rich Bennett 26:15
Yeah, 

Ray Lozano 26:16
Never smoked 

Rich Bennett 26:16
right. 

Ray Lozano 26:16
a cigarette, never tried weed or not because I was just afraid of it. I think I have that. 

Rich Bennett 26:20
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 26:20
An Audi ride go crazy, you know? And so, yeah, we worked together for a little while and, you know, we've all been really close after this. Once my dad kind of turned his life around and so. Yeah, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 26:31
Good. 

Ray Lozano 26:32
Can I. Can I push my book? 

Rich Bennett 26:36
I wish you were okay now, because I'm looking at your website. I don't see anything about the book, Ray. 

Ray Lozano 26:44
Yeah, it's just because it just came out the beginning of this year, but it's called the Addicted to Learning. 

Rich Bennett 26:49
I love it. 

Ray Lozano 26:50
What I do is I talk about these crazy stories in my family, like my dad fighting. And then I go into the whole explanation of why alcohol did that and what am my favorite chapters in there? Is that the tour of my sister's homes. And so my sister being a pretty 

Rich Bennett 27:09
Hmm. 

Ray Lozano 27:09
serious math addict and, you know, cooking meth and running meth 

Rich Bennett 27:13
Odd. 

Ray Lozano 27:14
across the border, you know, I used to visit her at all her different homes. And one home was a broken down mobile home with broken cars in the front and dead plants and all that kind of stuff. And one of our houses was made out of pallets. And I talk about her dog that used to eat cigarette butts because he had a nicotine addiction. I know. 

Rich Bennett 27:39
Wow. 

Ray Lozano 27:40
And then. And then I talk about one of her homes where, you know, she lived in a storage unit. And it's crazy as I taught my kids and I wrote this blog years ago that I taught my kids about math and oh, my gosh, she just got this big, huge thing because my kids are getting into high school. And I wanted to teach them the bad side of drugs before their friends taught them about the good side, you know? So I took my son and daughter to my sister's house, called her. I told her we were going to come for a visit and it was a 12 hour drive from our house. We lived in Southern California, had to drive out to New Mexico. And so I gave me 12 hours to just talk with the kids, you know. And so we talked about everything, not just my sister. And then about 3 hours before we got to the house, I said, listen, let me tell you this. Kids don't eat or drink anything at your house. I said, we're going to take the sodas. We're going to take the chips. We're going to take all the snacks. I said, Don't mess with any of our stuff. I said, because I don't know if she's used it to cook meth or not, you know? 

Rich Bennett 28:48
Oh, God. 

Ray Lozano 28:49
And I said, So we're going to spend the day there. We're going to, you know, hang out with my sister. I said, And here's what's going to happen. I told my sister, We're going to be there at 9:00. From 9:00, about 2:00, my sister's going to be unbelievably happy to see you. You're probably going to take an engine apart. You're probably going to jump rope. You're probably going to go for a walk. You're probably going go out to the lake. You're probably we're going to do all of this stuff. And then right around 230, 3:00, I said, my sister, you'll see this change in her where she's going to get kind of quiet, maybe sit in the corner for a little bit. Maybe a little bit depressed. And then something will happen where she'll have to leave. And then when she comes back, she'll be that happy person again. My kids are like, okay, you know? And so sure enough, we got there and we did it all. Man, We baked the cake. We took some wood things apart. We built some stuff outside. And sure enough, right around, you know, 2:00, my sister's like, Oh, my gosh, I forgot to get frosting for the cake. And I'm like, Well, let me drive you to Walmart. Like, No, no, no, no, no. You let me. I'll just walk down, come right back. And it was probably like a 15 minute walk that took her about an hour and a half. And when she came back, she was happy again, you know, And my son had to go to the bathroom in a five gallon bucket with you know, a trash bag in it, which freaked them out. And I said, that's. 

Rich Bennett 30:10
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 30:11
My sisters. Like I said, I love my sister. She's fantastic. You know, she would give whatever money she had to anybody. But I said, the problem is this is where drugs have gotten her. So we talked about it all the way home. So my kids were introduced to the bad side of meth before they were introduced to the good side, you know. 

Rich Bennett 30:29
I was going to say that that's probably a good thing to. 

Ray Lozano 30:32
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:32
Because and then they're experiencing it firsthand. 

Ray Lozano 30:36
Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:37
I never thought about that as far as don't eat or drink anything. 

Ray Lozano 30:41
Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:42
Wow. 

Ray Lozano 30:43
Yeah. When we cracked that door open, you could smell those chemicals. And sure enough, in the dumpster, you know, there's all the. 

Paint thinners and all that kind of stuff. And you know, my sister. Became very good at cooking meth. 

Rich Bennett 30:58
You cover that in the book? 

Ray Lozano 31:00
Oh, yeah, Yeah. I talk all about that in there. Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 31:04
You're listening in on the conversations with Rich Bennett. We'll be right back. 

Cancer is a serious public health concern that affects many people. It can be a difficult and frightening experience for those affected and their families and friends. I want to urge everyone to take steps to prevent and detect cancer early. There are many things you can do, such as eating healthy exercise and regularly getting regular checkups and avoiding risky behaviors. Let's work together to make sure that everyone is aware of the importance of public health and cancer prevention. The Harper County Health Department offers new calls, screenings for colorectal cancer, as well as breast and cervical cancer through their partnership with University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health for eligible individuals. Go to Harvard Kennedy Health dot com to find out more information. I read the book. Is it a book like a memoir or. 

Ray Lozano 32:07
Gosh, it's kind of a weird situation because it's a memoir, but it has explanations of why drugs do what they do. And it's just a real quick, short little read. But there's a whole bunch of stuff in there for parents like, you know, parents like, they'll tell me, man, I told my kid, don't smoke weed. But now what do I say? You know? And so I give them a whole bunch of information on how to work with their kids, how to talk to their kids when it comes to drugs and alcohol. 

Rich Bennett 32:34
So basically it's a guide book with some stories in there. 

Ray Lozano 32:37
Yeah, yeah. The story. 

Rich Bennett 32:39
Great. 

Ray Lozano 32:39
And because what I have found, the people that have read it are like, Oh, yeah, my dad drank all the time and I used to see him fight. And now I understand that, you know. 

Rich Bennett 32:48
I know a lot of people that need this book. 

Ray Lozano 32:50
Oh, good. Well, man, let's throw it up on. 

Rich Bennett 32:53
I will. How do they get it? 

Ray Lozano 32:55
Yeah, super easy. Just go to Amazon and type in Addicted to Learning and this crazy. It's crazy because this is my mom, my 14 year old brother than me, my dad, and then my other brother. But I had to cover their faces. This is my sister right here. 

Rich Bennett 33:10
Okay. 

Ray Lozano 33:11
But this picture, we were at a restaurant and this guy walked up and said, Let me take this photo. This was probably 

1960, 1970. Everybody in the photo was either drunk or high. I'm the only one that wasn't. But I. 

Rich Bennett 33:27
I was going to. Year of the only face was you. 

Ray Lozano 33:30
Yeah. Yeah. It's a smiley man. I have no clue what's going on with that innocent little kid. Everybody. See my brother's eyes. She's like, Ooh, you know, my dad was. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 33:40
And when did the book come out? 

Ray Lozano 33:42
Just the beginning of this year. So it's only been out for 30 days. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 33:45
Oh, wow. Holy cow. 

Ray Lozano 33:48
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 33:49
With with your book. And this is your first one, right? 

Ray Lozano 33:52
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm working on my second one, so. Yeah, Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 33:57
Got it. What's the second one about? 

Ray Lozano 34:00
I want to do this one because I also do stuff on business. But I. 

Rich Bennett 34:05
Oh, 

Ray Lozano 34:05
Corporate. This one's called Addicted to Learning. 

Rich Bennett 34:08
right. 

Ray Lozano 34:09
My second one, I want to call it Addicted to Business and just how to work with people, you know, that have addictions, people that you know, and how addiction works inside our brain and how to work with all that. So my goal, Rich, is I just want people. Number one, if you have a drug addict brother or sister or mom or to the thing that we always do is we always dehumanize that individual. 

Rich Bennett 34:35
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 34:36
You know what I mean? And we treat them like garbage. And that doesn't benefit anybody. You know, my sister, drug addict, but she's still a human being. My sister still has opinions. My sister still has feelings. They go against everything, I believe. But that doesn't mean I need to treat her like trash, Right. That 

Rich Bennett 34:54
There. 

Ray Lozano 34:54
I need to be littler. So how do I treat my sister in a respectful way, even though she's doing a bunch of stuff that I don't like? And so that's one of the things that I want to talk about in these books, because I see it happen time and time again. And I understand putting up boundaries. You know, there was a time I had to put up boundaries with my sister because we lived like a block and a half away. And then once she really started to get into math, I'm like, Sister, I can't allow you to come into my house anymore, you know? It was that hard. Yeah, that was hard. 

Rich Bennett 35:24
It's hard. 

Ray Lozano 35:24
But I wanted to protect my relationship with my sister and she's like, okay, you know, I said, Just because I know stuff will end up missing, it's just too easy to have that happen and. 

Rich Bennett 35:33
You got to protect your family, too. 

Ray Lozano 35:34
Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, I had to put up those boundaries. And so, you know, that's the thing. 

Rich Bennett 35:40
I think you're I think you're going to have a whole addicted series of. 

Ray Lozano 35:45
Yeah. I want to have a whole addicted series. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 35:47
I love that. 

Ray Lozano 35:48
Yeah, just because it's out there. Any time I talk to anybody, everybody has a family member or knows somebody that goes too far or is the crazy one and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 35:59
I take it you're still in California? 

Ray Lozano 36:01
No, no. I have moved her out to Las Vegas because I travel so much. 

Rich Bennett 36:06
Oh. 

Ray Lozano 36:07
We're much easier to get around, so. 

Rich Bennett 36:09
What was going to be my other question with all the speaking you're doing, are you traveling across the country? 

Ray Lozano 36:15
Yeah. Ten and a half months out of the year, I'm on the road. So, yeah. And I love it. And my wife travels with me with quite, quite a few trips. And so this year alone, let me see. We're in the 30 days I have probably already been on the road 14 of these 30 days. Yeah. And so I got home. Well, guess 

Rich Bennett 36:33
How. 

Ray Lozano 36:34
it's Thursday. I got home Tuesday night. Yeah, I was home yesterday. I drove home today and then I'll be out next week. So. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 36:40
hope you got a got a nice RV or something. 

Ray Lozano 36:42
No all airline travel, man. I am. 

Rich Bennett 36:44
Okay. 

Ray Lozano 36:45
I am a hotel guy. Airbnb. Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 36:49
Well, excuse me. If you ever make it out here to Maryland, look me up, man. We'll go get some crabs or something. 

Ray Lozano 36:55
Nice. Yeah. I actually was out there not too long ago. I flew in to Baltimore. 

Rich Bennett 36:59
Okay. 

Ray Lozano 37:00
Yeah, and nice little airport out there. And I'm sure I have something on the books with Marilyn. Yeah, without a doubt. Because I've been out there pretty much every year. They bring me out to the junior high and high schools out there. 

Rich Bennett 37:11
Okay. 

Ray Lozano 37:12
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 37:12
Yeah, which did. Because, I mean, all of this 95 on the 95 corridor. 

Ray Lozano 37:17
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 37:18
We. Yeah. It fennel. And I'll tell you another thing that's a big problem right now. I had 

two guys on from a local nonprofit, the ones in recovery. The other one 

Ray Lozano 37:29
Uh 

Rich Bennett 37:29
lost. 

Ray Lozano 37:29
huh. 

Rich Bennett 37:30
Lost his daughter 

Ray Lozano 37:31
Uh huh. 

Rich Bennett 37:32
to addiction. And they were talking about something. It blew me away as a wee bit. What? Me and Wendy, who co-hosted with me a lot, 

Ray Lozano 37:40
huh. 

Rich Bennett 37:40
didn't know about this, but apparently was, you know, because they were Leeson heroin with fentanyl. Now it's just like straight fentanyl. 

Ray Lozano 37:49
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 37:50
I hear. And I got I hope they're not doing it out there. FENTON They're taking fentanyl and mixing it with xylene. 

Ray Lozano 37:57
Mm hmm. 

Rich Bennett 37:58
Okay, So you've heard about. 

Ray Lozano 37:59
Oh, gosh, I'm up on all that. And there's. 

Rich Bennett 38:01
That is scary as hell. 

Ray Lozano 38:03
Yeah. Yeah. There's a drug called Trank out there. And have you seen any of those videos? I don't wanna do it on your show, but where people are standing up and they're lying face down like this. 

Rich Bennett 38:16
Yeah, like a zombie. 

Ray Lozano 38:17
Yeah, exactly like a zombie. What what's happening with those is they're mixing that now with a horse tranquilizer. Now, what this horse tranquilizer does for veterinarians, if a veterinarian is going to go work on a horse, they inject this horse with not the fentanyl part, but with the. 

Yes. And then what happens is it makes the horse's legs really stiff so the horse won't lay down, but it puts them in this unconscious kind of state standing up so they're able to work on horses while they're still standing up. So the reason why people stay standing up is because their legs are getting their cytosine, making that stand up straight. But the fennel part is causing the collapse of the top part of the body. And so that's why you're happening. You have terrible news. 

Rich Bennett 39:13
It's it's messed up. I mean, he. 

Ray Lozano 39:15
Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 39:16
One guy told us that people are losing their limbs 

Ray Lozano 39:19
Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 39:19
from 

Ray Lozano 39:20
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 39:20
this. 

Ray Lozano 39:20
Well. 

Rich Bennett 39:21
Like leprosy. 

Ray Lozano 39:22
Yeah. The reason why that happens is because you don't feel any pain. 

Rich Bennett 39:27
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 39:28
So what happens is you cut yourself. You don't realize you cut yourself and bacteria gets in there. And so that's one of the things that's happening. So the crazy part is there's two new drugs on the horizon. 

Rich Bennett 39:42
Oh, shit. 

Ray Lozano 39:42
Which there's fentanyl, and then there's a new one coming out called Carfentanil, which is even stronger. And then there's another one that's starting to hit the market in Europe right now that's even stronger than Carfentanil. And I don't have a name in front of me. I just was reading about it two days ago, but they found a way to make it even stronger, so even less. I have a presentation on this. Like if somebody is going to overdose on an opioid. Yeah, it takes quite a bit. I forget, man. I wish I had that presentation right here. But like, if somebody is going to overdose on opioid, it was the size of like a gumball amount that you need. And then I go through all the different things. So if somebody's going to overdose on heroin, it's about the size of a sunflower seed. And then when you get all the way to like fentanyl, all it takes to overdose is about one grain of salt. 

Rich Bennett 40:36
Jesus. 

Ray Lozano 40:37
But this suit, the carpet now is about half of half a grain of salt. And so what 

Rich Bennett 40:45
God. 

Ray Lozano 40:45
have. Yeah. What happens is it goes in and it hits a part of your brain, like right now what your brain is doing for you, which is it's monitoring carbon monoxide in your system. And so the reason why you breathe in is because carbon monoxide gets too high and you bring us we've got it lower that so then that you breathe it in. So that's why you breathe in and out. So what happens when a person uses a drug like fentanyl? It shuts that switch off so the brain can't tell that there's a buildup of carbon monoxide in your system. This is why people pass out. This is why people. 

Rich Bennett 41:18
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 41:18
Breathing is because their brain can't monitor the carbon monoxide inside their system. 

Rich Bennett 41:23
Sure. 

Ray Lozano 41:23
In that crazy. 

Rich Bennett 41:24
It is. 

Ray Lozano 41:25
That's the crazy drug stuff by now. So yeah. And so people have asked me, like, if you don't have Narcan, you know, what can you do? So we talk about that as well every now and then. So. 

Rich Bennett 41:36
You know what scares me about that? I the way they keep these dealers keep making things stronger and stronger. 

Ray Lozano 41:43
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 41:45
It makes me worry that later on down the road, Narcan ain't going to do diddly squat. 

Ray Lozano 41:50
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or not work fast enough. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 41:53
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 41:54
But hopefully, you know, somebody will come out with something 

Rich Bennett 41:56
Fingers 

Ray Lozano 41:56
stronger 

Rich Bennett 41:56
crossed. Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 41:56
than. Yeah, but. 

Rich Bennett 41:58
I think everybody, households and everything, and especially your parks, should always have Narcan on hand. 

Ray Lozano 42:05
Oh, yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 42:06
I didn't realize it expires. 

Ray Lozano 42:09
It takes quite a while, you know, to expect. But here's the good part, and I hope this doesn't get changed. Let's say you had an account on you and you see somebody that's like freaking out, like maybe having a seizure or something and you use Narcan on them even though they didn't need it. You don't get in trouble for that. And, you know, you can't misuse Narcan, which is, you know, a big plus. And I love that. So. 

Rich Bennett 42:33
Yeah. Something else you talk about. And we've I've talked we've talked about this because the local health department is one of my sponsors, and we did a roundtable about this vaping. 

Ray Lozano 42:44
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 42:46
You're seeing more and more kids doing it. 

Ray Lozano 42:49
That is our number one presentation right now. I have my 

Rich Bennett 42:51
Okay. 

Ray Lozano 42:52
daughter who presents she's out in a school district today and they're doing four presentations at the school just on vaping. And man, I know it always sounds like when they introducing like Ray Lozano is going to talk about drugs and alcohol, you always get those kids a lot is like because it's usually. 

Rich Bennett 43:08
The. 

Ray Lozano 43:09
You know. But yeah, when we talk about vaping and kids walk out of that presentation, number one, they probably laughed about 12 or 15 times. We've gotten like an applause break because it's really funny. But they walk out knowing why nicotine is so unbelievably addictive to them and why they need to stay away from it. And just awful what they put in these vapes nowadays. 

Rich Bennett 43:33
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 43:34
One pack of cigarettes has 22 milligrams of nicotine. And so, you know, we don't really work with a metric system here in the United States. But if you ever had eye drops, you know how tiny those are. They're going to that's probably right around 22 milligrams of what's coming out of there. So you figure you take 22 milligrams, a tiny little drop like that, and you break it up into 20 cigarettes and all it takes is about three or four milligrams of nicotine to cause an addiction. Now, when you look at these new electronic cigarettes like vapes and stuff like that, they're putting sometimes like 450 milligrams of nicotine inside their. 

Rich Bennett 44:13
Good Lord. 

Ray Lozano 44:14
Yeah, some of them are, you know, the equivalent of 650 cigarettes inside one of those little jewel pods. And I wish I had all that information in front of me, but yeah, that's one of the whole things that we do on prison and our presentation, because kids are like, Oh my gosh, I use an elf bar while an elf bar 

Rich Bennett 44:33
What? 

Ray Lozano 44:35
because there's like 600 cigarettes inside there, you know, And they realize it. Yeah. Worth of nicotine. 

Rich Bennett 44:42
And the scary thing is and I'll never forget this, when the vapes electronic cigarettes or whatever they call them came out, it was advertised will help you to quit smoking. 

Ray Lozano 44:54
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 44:54
But who owned them? 

Ray Lozano 44:56
Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 44:57
Cigarette companies. Of course, they're going to tell you that people need to open their eyes. 

Ray Lozano 45:02
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 45:03
The other stuff. It does. It doesn't. It do something. It lets the commercials lie, but sit there with, like, metal in your lungs. 

Ray Lozano 45:11
Oh, yeah. Yeah. You want to know the little bit of the history? 

Rich Bennett 45:14
Yes. 

Ray Lozano 45:15
All right. So they develop these electronic cigarettes, right? And they thought, I wonder if these are addictive or not. So what they did is they made a whole bunch of them and they dumped them into this third world country. Now, in this third world country, people have maybe 40 bucks a week for food, right? Electronic cigarette was going to run them $5. What they wanted to see is were people willing to give up $5 worth of food, money for their family to buy electronic cigarettes? 

Rich Bennett 45:48
Wow. 

Ray Lozano 45:49
What they found out is people were willing to give up five bucks, ten bucks on their food money to purchase electronic cigarettes. So then they said, wow, we got an addictive product. This is awesome. 

Rich Bennett 46:01
She's. 

Ray Lozano 46:01
So they took them to Europe first. And in Europe they said, Hey, do you want to quit smoking if you want to quit smoking? You know, switch to electronic cigarettes. So people in Europe have a tendency to be a little bit more health conscious. So we do that. So they're like, yes, I want to quit smoking. Let me switch to electronic cigarettes. Literally overnight, people switch to electronic cigarettes. So then they said, let's go for the big fish man. Let's go to the United States. So they brought them to the United States and they said, hey, United States, do you want to quit smoking? Switch to electronic cigarettes? Well, people in the United States said, Nip, I got the right to smoke. If I want to smoke, I'm going to smoke. No. So they didn't sell. So what the electronic cigarette company did in the first one to make the jump over the line was one called Blue and. 

Rich Bennett 46:55
Yes. 

Ray Lozano 46:55
Yes, you remember that. 

Rich Bennett 46:56
Yup. 

Ray Lozano 46:57
And they changed their marketing and they said, you know what? You deserve to smoke whenever you want. You shouldn't have people making fun of you because you smell like smoke. You shouldn't have that stigma of a smoker. Switch to electronic cigarettes and you'll smell great. Overnight. People jump on the electronic cigarette company because now they can smoke, you know, and not have that same stigma. And so they are so highly addictive. But just 

what comes out of the back of them. You ever taken out? Of course you have. You ever taken a pack of microwave popcorn and you kind of squish it with your fingers? A little bit and you're like, Well, it's not a liquid, but it's not a solid. It's kind of like right in between. And then you stick it in your microwave, you turn it on and it immediately heats up. Now, there's a chemical inside there that attracts microwaves. And as soon as a little something hits it, it heats up really fast. This is what is inside electronic cigarettes, because you imagine you're breathing it in and it has to take something that is a liquid that is cool to an immediate point where it's hot. Right. And that's what the. 

Rich Bennett 48:13
Right? 

Ray Lozano 48:14
It does. So what's coming out of the back of and we just talk about this kind of talk a whole bunch about the chemicals because it gets too confusing. 

Rich Bennett 48:20
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 48:20
Coming out of the back of that cigarette is burning right around 418 degrees. So when you put that smoke inside. Once 

Rich Bennett 48:27
Oh. 

Ray Lozano 48:28
it's hitting that at 418 degrees. So the example I tell kids, I said, all right, here's what we're going to do. We're going to take a hamburger patty, Right? We're going to heat a cast iron skillet up to 418 degrees. We're going to throw that patty in, but we're immediately going to pull it out. I says immediately when I pull that out, I said, are there little pieces of hamburger that are cooked? And they're like, Yeah. I said, Well, let's keep throwing and pulling out. I said, After a while, will that hamburger be completely cooked? And they're like, Oh yeah. After a while it'll be completely cooked. I said, Once that hamburgers cooked, can you ever have it go back to being raw? And they're like, No. And I said, That's exactly what's happening inside your lungs. Every time you breathe in a tiny little portion of your lungs get cooked and it can never go back to being raw again. So this is where, you know, they said, oh, you won't get, you know, emphysema because of the tar that's inside regular cigarettes. Remember how they used to show you the black? 

Rich Bennett 49:20
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 49:21
I was all tar, but the same kind of thing happens eventually. You have trouble breathing. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 49:27
Good Lord. 

Ray Lozano 49:28
And that crazy. 

Rich Bennett 49:29
It is. I didn't realize that. 

Ray Lozano 49:31
Yeah, Yeah. It's just. It's not. That's the drug information that's inside my head. 

Rich Bennett 49:37
So when you go talk to these kids, and especially with all your different states and everything now that has legalized it, how challenging is it to talk to them about marijuana and even the states that have the medical marijuana? Because you got gummies and all that. 

Ray Lozano 49:53
Yeah. Ready for the answer? 

Rich Bennett 49:56
Uh huh 

Ray Lozano 49:57
Zero. I have zero problems. Colorado brought me in when marijuana was really popular. I am getting ready to go into the auditorium. I met by law enforcement because they're the ones that brought me in and they said, Hey, listen, we're here to protect you. And I said, Protect me from what? And they said in the audience, you have some of the biggest marijuana growers in your audience that are here to challenge. 

Rich Bennett 50:21
Oh. 

Ray Lozano 50:22
And I'm like, Fantastic. I said, I love that. I said, Let them bring those questions. I said, I don't have that type of presentation. And so they're like, okay, but we're here for you. I'm like, Yeah, only right. 

Rich Bennett 50:33
Like an episode of Tulsa King or something. 

Ray Lozano 50:35
Yeah, that's a good again, my presentation is based on kids using marijuana, and so every one of these growers was in agreement with me. Let anybody over the age of 21 do whatever they want. I do not want to take that away from anybody. If you want to smoke weed like crazy over the age of 21, that's your prerogative, right? But if you're 12 or 15, you shouldn't be smoking weed. Right? 

Rich Bennett 51:00
Right. 

Ray Lozano 51:00
And the same thing as driving a car. We all agree people that have been trained over the age of 16 to drive a car, but no 11 year old should be getting behind the wheel of a Ford F-150. Right. They just don't have the ability. 

Rich Bennett 51:12
Right. 

Ray Lozano 51:12
So as soon as I brought that up, I let them know immediately. I am not here to take away your rights. I'm not here to even have you stop growing marijuana. But we need to get marijuana out of the hands of kids that shouldn't be using. And they were all in agreement with me. And so, yeah, that is I never take a stance on adult use when it comes to marijuana because that's your right now, you know. 

Rich Bennett 51:31
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 51:32
That's what you have. If there's there's people like, well, you're from the military men that have PTSD and you know, some of those drugs that they give them just completely knocked them out or they're. Not able to work. Not able to function. But I know a lot of guys from well, not a lot, but I know a few guys that smoke weed. You know, they have PTSD and it just quiets their voice 

Rich Bennett 51:55
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 51:56
in their head for a little bit, you know? 

Rich Bennett 51:58
Yeah, I know. A lot of friends of mine had back problems and all that. 

Ray Lozano 52:02
Right. 

Rich Bennett 52:03
The marijuana, just how it helps them. Now, of course, they will not go out and drive. 

Ray Lozano 52:10
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 52:11
Which you can't because you could still get a DUI for that. 

Ray Lozano 52:13
Right. Right. Responsibly to 

Rich Bennett 52:15
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 52:16
get through the day. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 52:17
Yeah. 

Ray Lozano 52:17
And I. Emmett. 

Rich Bennett 52:19
And I think if you have a if you have a CDL license and there's a couple other jobs where you cannot use it no matter what either. 

Ray Lozano 52:27
Right? Right. Yeah. And I understand that. And that makes complete sense to me. And the reason why that is, is let's say you're a truck driver and they have insurance on you for driving. And you get into an accident, but you have THC in your system. The insurance company can come and go. We're not going to pay for that, that. And so then the company's out. So, yeah, all of that makes complete sense. 

Rich Bennett 52:50
Have you. And if you tell me you are doing one, I'm going to be again. Be blown away again. But have you started bed or start or thought about doing your own podcast? 

Ray Lozano 53:00
You know, I've thought about it, but with 400 presentations a year. 

Rich Bennett 53:03
Well, yeah. 

Ray Lozano 53:04
I would love to do one. And I talked it because one of my other speakers, Paul Espinosa, because I have other speakers that work with me. He is a was a very high level gang member in Los Angeles, and he does our gang prevention stuff when we go into schools. And I'm like, Dude, if you did your part, like if I had my daughter who does great drug and alcohol information and Paul Espinosa myself on a podcast where we just did a discussion and brought in guest, I think it would go were really good because Paul really, I love the way he talks about our gang stuff because any time people talk about gang stuff, they always talk about the bad side of gangs. The they talk about, you know, the killings and the drive bys and the drugs and all that. What we have trained Paul, to do is talk about the I don't want to say the good side, but the side you never see. What I 

Rich Bennett 54:02
Right. 

Ray Lozano 54:02
was looking for when he was a kid. Joining the gang is he was looking for friends. He was looking for somebody to pat him on the back. He was looking for the same thing that you look for, Rich, and the same thing that I look for is that camaraderie. I want to belong to something. And he just happened to fall into a gang. So it's crazy because I can walk on a campus with Paul and he can immediately look go, That kid's going in the right direction to be a gang member. Or if I was to be a recruiter for a while and he goes, Yeah, I can walk on this campus. And within 10 minutes I could pick out five kids that I could easily recruit into the gang. And I'm like, What do you look for? And because the way they stand or where they eat lunch or how they stand, you know, then he goes, Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 54:43
Really? 

Ray Lozano 54:44
Yeah. And I 100% trust them because, you know, I look at his photos and I've seen the stuff that he's done and, you know, his police record and is 100% legit. And yeah, he does. 

Rich Bennett 54:59
Wow. 

Ray Lozano 55:00
I'm on that. So. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 55:02
So it's you, Paul, and your daughter that goes out speaking all the time. 

Ray Lozano 55:06
And then we have another speaker. Gavin. 

Gavin appeals. I was the kid in school that was loud. That was not afraid. You know, 

Rich Bennett 55:18
Right. 

Ray Lozano 55:18
and. I remember at lunch time, kids were inviting me to sit at their tables and tell stories. Gavin comes from the other end. He is Asian descent, which we have a large population and they have a tendency to come into schools and be really quiet and kind of an outcast. And what he does is he comes in and talks about what is your strength, What is the thing that you love to do as a kid, and how do you protect that from drugs and alcohol? So he does this thing called freestyle where he raps on the spot. I mean, it's really cool and. 

Rich Bennett 55:55
Oh, wow. 

Ray Lozano 55:57
Kids go bananas, man. They love it. And he says, I got to protect that. And he said, drugs and alcohol will take that ability for me to do that away from me. What is your thing? And he does it like 45 minutes. And, you know, kids walk away like I'm great at basketball. I'm going to pursue this. I'm great at cooking. I'm going to pursue this. So, yeah, right now there is the four of us and. Yeah, yeah, 

Rich Bennett 56:20
So if somebody wants to get in touch with you or anybody else from your team to come and speak to them, how do they do that? 

Ray Lozano 56:26
just. 

Rich Bennett 56:26
I know her name from Real Examiner.com. 

Ray Lozano 56:28
Yeah. Just go to Rails icon and go to the contact page in there and yeah, that would be the best way to do it. And even if somebody can't remember my name, if they just went to Google and typed in, you know, you. 

Rich Bennett 56:41
It comes right up. 

Ray Lozano 56:42
Yeah. Youth drugs figure I'm the number one guy. I'm the guy that everybody's looking for in the United States when it comes to law enforcement's looking for me. Medical people, all the schools and stuff like that. And so, yeah, that's I think because you know that I make a good rapport with kids and my information is super easy to understand. 

Rich Bennett 57:00
That's great. 

Ray Lozano 57:01
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 57:01
Yeah. Yeah. Next time you get up here, you've got to look me. Look me up so we can go out and have some lunch. 

Ray Lozano 57:06
Yeah. Consider it done, man. I would love that. 

Rich Bennett 57:08
Oh, man. This a maryland steamed crabs or something. 

Ray Lozano 57:12
Romance and chat. 

Rich Bennett 57:13
Crab cake. Crab cakes. 

So before I get to my last question, is there anything you would like to add? 

Ray Lozano 57:21
Um, me see anything. No, man, I have really enjoyed this. And I like the way you went about this. I hope this was successful for you, but. Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 57:29
Oh, I think it was. 

Ray Lozano 57:30
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 57:31
I learned a lot, which I knew if I did, my listeners did. 

Ray Lozano 57:34
Yeah. Yeah, I would definitely glad to be back on the show some time and but no, I'm pretty happy with that and people can contact me. You know, I really want this book to start moving. And even in the back, there's a way to connect with me and let me know you're out there. I would love to hear people's stories too, you know, like, Oh man, my dad did this one time. Or, you know, I think one of the success stories let me just close with this. We did this presentation. My daughter and I, we were talking about alcohol and I was talking about my dad being a fireman. And I see this guy on the third row back and you could tell she's really holding back tears and crying and so when the presentation's over, she comes up and she starts talking to my daughter and she says, When my dad gets really drunk, he insults me. And she goes, Really? She goes, Yeah, he's just really verbally abusive. He calls me names. She says, How stupid I am and stuff like that. She goes, Is that my dad or is that the alcohol? And my daughter says, It's the alcohol. I said, that feels super personal. And you take it personal and you start to believe that it's you, but it's not. So she very quickly went through why alcohol opens that part of the brain up. And you could see like this weight was taken off. This girl and she's like, I understand it now. So my daughter told her, when you're dad does that, please look at him. Maybe with a little bit of pity like this poor man can't control this. And it's not me he's probably talking about. It's probably himself. And alcohol has gotten him to this place. And so that just happened just recently. And we're going to try to keep up with this girl because I want that to happen more. I want I want parents to be able to talk to their kids more in a way that a kid understands. And I want people who are being attacked by somebody that's usually hard to understand. You know, it's the drug, not they excuse their behavior because I don't want to do that. I don't want to make room for that. But I want them to understand why that's happening. And that's what really in my book. 

Rich Bennett 59:42
Usually. I'll ask my guests what's the next big thing for them. I don't want to do that with you. 

Ray Lozano 59:49
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 59:50
I want. I want you to do something else. 

Ray Lozano 59:52
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 59:53
Point it up right now addicted. 

Ray Lozano 59:57
The learning. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:00
So those of you listening, you know where I'm going to go with this. 

It's hard to type when you when I do have my glasses on. 

Addicted to learning. So when you go and you purchase the book. Addicted to learning. After you read it, leave a full review. But all of you, listen here. I want to challenge you. So when you go to Amazon, all you do is type in addicted to learning and res book comes up. 

Ray Lozano 1:00:31
Yeah. Look at the little guy standing right in the corner here. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:34
It comes up very way. I recovery recovery homes families that have or know somebody that's in addiction all types of addiction. Right. 

Ray Lozano 1:00:48
hmm. Mm hmm. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:49
Purchase this book for, then purchase it for yourself or purchase it for your neighbors. 

And let me know. And of course, leave a review for Ray, but also get back to me and let me know how it's helped you, because this is something that. 

Everybody needs. Everybody knows somebody that is in addiction. It 

Ray Lozano 1:01:13
Right. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:13
doesn't matter what kind of addiction it is. 

Ray Lozano 1:01:15
Right. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:15
Like you said before, you could be addicted to business. I'm addicted to parties and I love doing this. 

Ray Lozano 1:01:20
Right? Right. Yeah. And you protect it, right? 

Rich Bennett 1:01:23
Yeah, 

Ray Lozano 1:01:23
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:24
it's, you know, so this is something that everybody needs and I'm going to make it even bigger challenge those of you that own businesses and you are always helping people in recovery. Purchase a bunch of these books and give them to your employees, because I guarantee you, even your employees know somebody that's an addiction or they may be themselves and you may not even know it. So I challenge you. I want this thing to climb and be successful. Because when his next book comes out, Addicted the Business, all men, all you business owners are going to want you to. 

Ray Lozano 1:02:04
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:06
So. 

Ray Lozano 1:02:06
Rich. You're my new best friend. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:09
I want to talk to you after we're done here because. Something you said. You must have been reading my mind about coming back. Going because I was thinking the same thing. But I think it would blow your mind when I tell you afterwards. 

Ray Lozano 1:02:22
All right, man. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:24
Ray. Thanks a lot, brother. 

Ray Lozano 1:02:25
Batman. This has been awesome. Thank you so much. Keep up the good work. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:29
Thanks. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:30
Thank you for listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett. I hope you enjoy today's episode and learn something from it as I did. If you'd like to hear more conversations like this, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. And if you have a moment, I'd love if you could leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners and share more incredible stories. Don't forget to connect with us on social media or visit our website at conversations with Rich Bennett Dotcom. For updates, giveaways and more. Until next time, take care, Be kind and keep the conversations going.