JRE MMA Show #180 with Daniel Rodriguez

**Joe Rogan** (0:03)
The Joe Rogan Experience.

**Jamie** (0:06)
Trained by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.

**Joe Rogan** (0:12)
What's up, D-Rod, free, free man.
What a fucking crazy story. So let's fill people in. So you were a top contender in the UFC's welterweight division, and then somehow or another, you wound up getting arrested in Mexico.

**Daniel Rodriguez** (0:27)
Yeah, man, right after the Kevin Hollen fight, actually, I was celebrating, I was over in San Diego, had some drinks and decided, you know what, let's go to TJ.

**Joe Rogan** (0:42)
Always a phrase that is regretted. When you're in San Diego, you're drinking, you can walk there, shit.

**Daniel Rodriguez** (0:48)
Yeah, yeah, literally. So, decided to go to TJ for the night, go celebrate my win. I was obviously in celebration mode. And I had an ounce of weed in the car.
And I've been across the border a hundred times, bro. Never had no issues, never had no problems, never got stopped, pulled over. That's the last thing I would even think is that-

**Joe Rogan** (1:11)
I thought weed was legal in Mexico.

**Daniel Rodriguez** (1:14)
I thought so too.

**Joe Rogan** (1:15)
I thought everything is decriminalized down there.

**Daniel Rodriguez** (1:18)
Apparently not, man. The laws are like crazy, crazy strict over there, you know? And I've been in situations before where I could like just offer some money and get out the situation, you know, like 500 bucks at the most, you know? They'll just let me on my way. But got pulled over at the border and the border inspection found the weed in my backpack.
And I was thinking I was going to be in that situation where I could bribe my way out of it because it's Mexico. I've been there before and I've been in these situations. And oh man, I thought, you know, they took me to jail that night. And I was thinking, all right, I'm just going to be here for the weekend. I'll get out Monday, you know, go to court. And they're like, no, we'll see you in a month. I'm like, a month?
You know, like, why is just weed? You know what I mean? And yeah, eight months later.

**Joe Rogan** (2:15)
Holy shit.

**Daniel Rodriguez** (2:17)
Yeah, dude.

**Joe Rogan** (2:18)
Jamie, can you please look up what the laws are in Mexico for marijuana? Cause man, I was reading something just a few years ago. How would they, here it goes. Marijuana is decriminalized for personal recreational use in Mexico, but there's no legal commercial market and buying it or selling it remains illegal for tourists and visitors, possession is strictly prohibited.

**Daniel Rodriguez** (2:40)
Wait, what the hell?

**Joe Rogan** (2:42)
It's tourists and visitors. So for everybody else, you would be good. Like if you were a Mexican resident, you would have been good. It looks like, according to this.
Personal limits can possess up to 5 grams and up to 28 grams is decriminalized. How many grams are in an ounce? That's one ounce? 28?

**Daniel Rodriguez** (3:04)
Yeah, so it was approximately 28 grams.

**Joe Rogan** (3:07)
So approximately you should have been decriminalized. But the thing is, I think it's if you live there.
The border transporting marijuana, including edibles and concentrates across the US. Mexico border is either in either direction is a serious federal offense. US. Customs and Border Protection strictly enforces federal laws prohibiting the import export of cannabis. But wait a minute, that's US., but what about Mexico? You got arrested by Mexican police, right?

**Daniel Rodriguez** (3:36)
Yeah, I got arrested at the Mexican police.

**Joe Rogan** (3:38)
Either direction. Wow. But I feel like if you got arrested by Mexico. Anyway, tourists, while small possession is technically decriminalized for Mexican residents, the Mexican government explicitly prohibits tourists from possessing or consuming drugs and you could face serious jail time.
So that's crazy. People would go over there going, hey, no worries, I'm in Mexico. It's decriminalized here, but not for a fucking tourist.

**Daniel Rodriguez** (4:02)
They were trying to give me six years, bro.

**Joe Rogan** (4:04)
Oh my God.

**Daniel Rodriguez** (4:06)
Six years. We had to do all kinds of stuff for me to get out.

**Joe Rogan** (4:10)
Did the UFC get involved?

**Daniel Rodriguez** (4:13)
Hunter did.
My management did reach out to Hunter and they couldn't do anything. Nothing. The reason why.

**Joe Rogan** (4:22)
Somebody who could get a little of that.

**Daniel Rodriguez** (4:25)
We'll get into that. We'll get into that because I'm out. I'm out, you know? So I learned real quick how corrupt the system is over there. Everybody's trying to get paid. And the reason why that I was in there so long is I guess at the time where I got arrested, the whole judicial system was going through an election at the time. So it was new judges. So all the judges that were like taking bribes and stuff before, they had all got, they switched out the judges. So the new judges were there, were like, all right, we just got here. We're not trying to take no, we're trying to play it by the book and get comfortable. So I was supposed to get released in December.