Kush magazine Montana March 2011 by Randy MALINOFF

kush

montanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier cannabis lifestyle magazine

42 36

18 features 16 This Month in Weed History Dr. Seuss, born March 2, 1904, tackled racism, environmentalism, and fascism. Oh yeahâ&#x20AC;Śhe wrote a few kids books too...

18 Repeal or Regulation

inside

The future of medical cannabis voted for overwhelmingly by Montanans in 2004 now hangs in the rafters of the state legislators.

32 | Flipping the Switch by John Masterson

28 The Price of Pot

38 | Montana Live Music Preview by Dillon Zachara

Supply and demand has taught us lessons on why cannabis prices have changed over the years.

44 | Living Well: Meditation by Charlotte Cruz

36 John Popper on Tour

34 | Let There Be Light! by Tyler C. Davidson 40 | Model 419 by John Green 46 | Caregiver Transactions by Chris Lindsey, Esq. 48 | Hash Oil by JB Woods

En route to his upcoming Tour, The Blues Traveler talks to Kush about his new band, and, well, Kush.

52 | Unfairly Taxed by Luigi Zamarra, CPA

42 Flathead Lake

56 | Overton Loyd by Mike Sonksen

Memories of family vacations on Flathead Lake remind me of why Montana is considered one of the most beautiful states. 6

54 | Sheldon Black by John Green 58 | March Madness Recipes by Chef Herb 62 | Dailybuds.com Dispensary Directory

from the editors

kush

montana’s premier cannabis lifestyle magazine

hen I think of March Madness, I reflect on the excitement each year of watching the young athletic stars of College Basketball play some of the best hoops we will see all year. The young and hungry college teams fight it out toward the end of their regular season to get a chance to play in the NCAA tournament. But in Montana, March Madness has a completely different meaning. The “Madness” I am referring to is the potential threat of the Montana Legislature repealing the voter backed initiative 148 passed by 62% of the Montanans in November 2004. HB 161, introduced by Speaker of the House Mike Milburn (R) which is scheduled for hearing on March 11, 2011, just a few days before this magazine hits the streets, is an unconscionable attempt for the government to overturn the will of the people. This is truly an act of extremism, whereby false propaganda has been propagated by a group of legislators who still believe that marijuana has absolutely no medicinal benefits. The sad thing about this type of coup, where the government is attempting to overthrow the will of the people, is that the people who voted in 2004 for this initiative did so with the belief that medical cannabis has a place in Montana. There are many critically ill people or persons who suffer from numerous diseases, who turn to cannabis to alleviate their pain and suffering. The initiative specifically referred to patients with cancer, glaucoma and HIV/AIDS; patients with other conditions that produce chronic pain, seizures and severe muscle spasms. Now a group of overly conservative House Representatives want to outlaw the use of cannabis for everyone, including patients who rely on this herb to relieve their pain and suffering. In early February medical cannabis

A Division of Dbdotcom LLC

There are many critically ill people or persons who suffer from numerous diseases, who turn to cannabis to alleviate their pain and suffering. advocates stood outside the Capitol in Helena sending a clear message, holding signs reading “Mr. Milburn keep your hands off my medicine.” It’s up to those same people to make sure he listens. While many legislators agree that the medical cannabis law in Montana needs some renovations and revisions, tearing down the entire house vs. fixing the leaky roof is not the answer. HB 68, introduced by Rep. Diane Sands (D), calls for reform and stricter regulations, including a new licensing board and universal tracking of product, among other revisions. This type of reform would keep medical cannabis available for those in need, would respect the will of the citizens of Montana, and would provide the repairs need to the problems versus elimination of medical cannabis in its entirety. The Executive Director of the Montana Medical Growers Association, Jim Gingery, speaks more at length about this issue in his article on page 18 and presents steps that each and every one of you can take to prevent the repeal. On a less dramatic note, in this issue are some great March Madness recipes (for the NCAA tournament!!!) beginning on page 58 as well as an explanation of the science of bracketology on page 24. We also include each month a listing of great music coming your way (p 38) along with an important article regarding the unfair taxation of medical cannabis dispensaries under IRC section 280E. So hopefully the only madness we all experience in March is related to great sports and not a boxing match between the Democrats and Republicans who have currently hijacked OUR HOUSE.

Kush Editorial Board, www.dailybuds.com

Traffic Managers | Kevin Johnson, Alex Lamitie, Ryan Renkema, Jordan Selan, Rachel Selan Distribution Manager | Alex Lamitie Contributing Writers Chef Herb, Charlotte Cruz, Tyler C. Davidson, Jay Evans, Valerie Fernandez, J.T. Gold, Jim Gingery, John Green, Jade Kine, Bud Lee, Chris Lindsey, John Masterson, Wasim Muklashy, Mike Sonksen, JB Woods, Dillion Zachara, Luigi Zamarra Accounting | Dianna Bayhylle Internet Manager Dailybuds.com | Rachel Selan Dailybuds.com Team | JT Kilfoil & Houston SUBSCRIPTIONS KUSH Magazine is also available by individual subscription at the following rates: in the United States, one year 12 issues $89.00 surface mail (US Dollars only). To Subscribe mail a check for $89.00 (include your mailing address) to : DB DOT COM 24011 VEnTURA BLVD. SUiTE 200 CALABASAS, CA 91302 877-623-KUSH (5874) Fax 818-223-8088 KUSH Magazine and www.dailybuds.com are Tradenames of Dbdotcom LLC. Dbbotcom LLC 24011 VEnTURA BLVD. SUiTE 200 CALABASAS, CA 91302 877-623-KUSH (5874) Fax 818-223-8088 To advertise or for more information Please contact info@dailybuds.com or call 877-623-5874 Printed in the United States of America. Copyright ©2011. All rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without the written written permission of Dbdotcom LLC.

HEALTH REPORT

We have all heard the groans: Quitting smoking is harder than kicking heroin! Or that you have to quit 7 times for it to stick. Maybe neither is true, maybe both are true, but the biggest truth is, cigarette smoking is just about the toughest habit to break but the one with the most benefits. I am a smoker and I promise you that if I could go back to one day in my life and have a do-over, it would be the day I started smoking. Smoking is my best friend. It is there when I need a break, when I’m scared, when I’m nervous, when I’m happy, when I’m having drinks with friends; it even joins me for coffee in the morning. But here’s the harsh reality; half of the people who continue to smoke die of smoking-related illness. Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body, and nearly half a million Americans die every year from smoking-related illness, yet is the leading preventable cause of death in the nation. If a food killed 500,000 people, we would call it a tragedy and certainly wouldn’t sell it in stores anymore, but smoking is a choice; one we choose regardless of all the irrefutable information available to us. Once it gets its grips on you, it’s very hard to break free. But not impossible. And this is the year I promised myself I would quit, so when I had to come up with my first Health Report topic for February, I knew exactly what it would be. The immediate benefits of quitting are very obvious. Your clothes and hair smell better, you spend less money, your breath is better, your smile is whiter, your car smells and looks cleaner. The benefits over time, however, are where it gets interesting. According to the American Cancer Society, after 20 minutes of quitting, blood pressure normalizes. 12 hours after quitting, carbon monoxide levels in the blood stabilize. After weeks and months, lung and heart functions improve and after a year, the risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker’s. So how much is mental and how much is physical? Any smoker will tell you it’s 50/50. Dealing with the physical gives you options of nicotine replacement in gum, patch, lozenge, spray and I’m sure other forms. Nicotine is a tough cookie and the cravings are real. A lot of people prefer to go cold turkey and just stop altogether so not to be dependent on another thing, but that’s entirely up to the person. Mentally, you just need to know that you can’t just have one - like an alcoholic can’t have one drink. There is smoking and there is non-smoking. Don’t kid yourself in to thinking that you can only smoke when you drink or after a meal. In order to quit, you have to quit! It will be the best thing you ever do for your body. So do whatever it takes—patches, support groups, knitting, sunflower seeds, whatever you need to do to avoid the horrific diseases caused by smoking. Besides, nobody likes to kiss someone whose mouth tastes like an ashtray. Think about it. For more information, check out smokefree.gov and thetruth.com

Strain review: by JADE KINE

I’ve always been blessed to live close enough to the Strawberry producing areas of California to have a bounty of berries every spring. The overwhelming aroma of Strawberries at peak season is like a lighthouse for your nose leading you through the maze of farmer’s markets past all the vegetables and tree nuts to that magical table stacked full of huge, “three-bite” strawberries that explode with juice and flavor in your mouth. So it’s no wonder that the first time I smoked Strawberry Kush, it stopped me in my tracks. This unique hybrid has an aroma as complex as fine wine and an effect that combines all the best aspects of both sativas and indicas – uplifting without being edgy, relaxing without being sedative. The smell of Strawberry Kush is striking from the first whiff – sharp, with hints of fruit and buttery hash. The flavor is like that of a strawberry tart with butter crust, with a slightly volatile pungency on the inhale and a rich, strawberry-hash flavored finish on the exhale. The Strawberry Kush really stands out amongst other “middle of the road” hybrids in its medicinal properties. The effect is immediate and clear headed, yet physically relaxing with excellent anti-anxiety properties. Patients looking for muscle relaxation or anxiety relief can medicate with Strawberry Kush throughout the day without getting sluggish in the way that other heavier indicas can be. As a plant Strawberry Kush is a medium to tall hybrid from Kush origins, presumably crossed at some point with a Strawberry Cough, although the exact parentage of this rare, but popular Bay Area favorite is unknown. Very few Bay Area dispensaries carry this beauty, and one of them is MedMar Healing Center located at 170 S Autumn Street in San Jose. MedMar is San Jose’s premier home for Strawberry Kush – the high demand means it quickly sells out! Be sure to grab it when you see it. The buds are chunky and often square (at least square-ish) in their shape when fully ripe, especially the tops.. Don’t rush the finish or the cure on this strain when growing it – patience is the key to perfection with this strain. What seems like a straightforward 7-.5 to 8 week strain is really an 8 to 9 week strain in disguise. This is one of those indicas that continues to put on both weight and resin for an entire week after the pistils have matured while still producing a resin that is exceptionally clear when viewed under a magnifier. An interesting feature of the Strawberry Kush’s resin is that it has very low resin “tenacity” That means the resin isn’t super sticky, but rather

has an oily texture to it – a unique feature that can be felt when grinding the Strawberry Kush for a joint. The grinder will glide smoothly through the Strawberry Kush as though it were just oiled up. The major benefit to this unique resin property is in the plant’s ease of trimming – a valuable but often overlooked aspect of growing. When the resin covered leaves close to the buds are trimmed, they resist sticking to themselves and don’t wad up in a frustrating pile of sticky plant material on the scissors. Instead, the oily nature of the resin allows the leaves to fall away easily as the plant is trimmed despite the extremely high resin content. The Strawberry Kush is a powerhouse for both growers and smokers alike. The stash-quality buds are studded along the entire length of their productive branches and for those patient growers who aren’t quick to cut it down, it can be a very productive plant indeed. For smokers looking for a new, rare treat in both flavor and effect, the Strawberry Kush is one of the very best around. Recently, I visited a dispensary that had just received a new batch of Strawberry Kush. I walked in just as the bag was being opened. Even though the dispensary was very large and had a vast array of Cannabis products, the smell of the Strawberry Kush overwhelmed the entire space, announcing its arrival as though it had a bull horn. Even the secretary in the front office had to open the door to the back and ask “What IS that?” I thought of the farmer’s markets of months past and immediately followed my nose like a cartoon character on a cereal commercial. I arrived in front of the fresh batch of Strawberry Kush and breathed deeply, smiling and thankful that the sweet, juicy strawberries of my youth are now in the form of my favorite medicine.

By Bud Lee

Dr. Seuss

This Month in Weed History has shed light on many historical events and focused on many great icons. This month we want to take you back - waaaaay back. And when you get there…go back even a bit further…now turn around you just might remember this blast from your past: Dr. Seuss. Yes, the Green Eggs and Ham, Cat in The Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas Dr. Seuss. Certain people have gifted this earth with their natural talents, others with their beauty, some with their earned intellect, and some with their whimsy. Dr. Seuss’ use of the latter helped him produce forty-four children’s books, of which there have been numerous adaptations to television, feature films, and Broadway plays. If Seuss’ characters had eluded you since childhood, you would have had to look no further than any Shakedown Street or rave party parking lot to find more than a single homage. Whether it was the Cat in the Hat, Yertle the Turtle, the Herk-Heimer Sisters, the Right-Side up Song Girls, Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz, Sam I am, or Bippo-No-Bungus & Bustard - this cast of characters will still keep your tongue-twisting, your imagination flowing, and your moral conscience on guard. Theodore Seuss Geisel (pen name Dr. Seuss) was born March 2, 1904, and thanks to him, many of us learned fundamental lessons through his characters and the poetic rhythm of anapestic tetrameter. While we all know Geisel as a writer, painter, and animator, what most don’t know is that Geisel’s start was through very mainstream mediums,

16 16

including creating ad campaigns for huge conglomerates such as Standard Oil, General Electric, and NBC, and serving as a political cartoonist for many major magazines. Additionally, his work for the U.S. Army led him to write Design for Death, a film that went on to win the Academy Award for Documentary Film in 1947. Dancing around heavy social and political issues like racism, environmentalism, anti-consumerism, Hitler and anti-authoritarianism, materialism, isolationism, and the arms race, Dr. Seuss never shied away from controversy. Using a pen as his sword, he may have created magical characters, still widely popular with children, and pop sub-cultures, but look close enough and you’ll notice that while Dr. Seuss’ books are warm and fun, they’re also poignant, real-life lessons that still hold up today. He was a lot deeper than first glance may convey - a cerebral activist at heart - and perhaps his work served as a way to simplify the day’s toughest issues by breaking it down into digestable and entertaining formats. Something many artists in our community can relate to, and a strategy most of today’s entertainment world has embraced. Let’s just hope the original message doesn’t get lost in all the pretty colors and funny names…

by Jim Gingery

REPEAL OR REGULATION

Late last month, the Montana House of Representatives passed a bill calling for the repeal of medical cannabis in the State. If House bill 161 passes the Senate and is then signed by the Governor, the law abiding, ethical, and responsible patients and caregivers in the State could become criminals effective July 1st, 2011. There is a minority opposition who seems to have taken over the Montana House. HB161 is not yet law, so there is still time for the Montana House to consider reasonable alternatives to repeal - time for the Montana Senate to put forward practical legislation and time for you to impact the process. It is important for readers to understand the process of how legislation is created in Montana. The first thing to remember is that legislators only meet for the first four months of every other year. A bill begins with

through the second body, it then goes to the Governor to sign. The Governor has the option to sign the bill into law or veto it. If he elects to veto, the chamber that originated the legislation can attempt to override the veto by a vote of two-thirds of those present. HB 161, a bill presented by the Speaker of the House Mike Milburn to repeal med cannabis in Montana, was first presented before the House Human Services Committee on February 2. After the second reading, the House Appropriations Committee heard testimony on the validity of the fiscal note. Speaker Milburn testified during that hearing that the cost to repeal of the Montana Medical Marijuana Act would be minimal and, if fact, that the State would see a financial benefit beginning in 2013. These facts just donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t add up. Speaker Milburnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fiscal note does not include the cost to the State of prescription medications that would need

a Representative or Senator reserving a placeholder prior to the session for his or her draft. These placeholders are turned into bills or potential legislation and then reviewed by either the Speaker of the House or the President of the Senate. He or she then determines which one of the various Committees the bill should be sent to be scheduled for public hearing. During Committee hearings the public is permitted to comment either in favor or against the bill. The Committee then moves into Executive Action and votes on the next step the bill should take. The bill can be tabled, which means that no further action will be taken. A bill can also be voted on to determine if it should be sent to the legislative floor to be heard by the remainder of the Legislature. A majority vote of Committee members is required for this to happen. If the bill is sent to the floor, it is scheduled for second reading where its sponsor will ask that it be debated. Following debate, a new vote is called. A majority vote is required for the bill to continue to move on to a third reading. At third reading, there is again an opportunity for debate and another vote is called. Passage of the bill on third reading means that the bill will be transmitted to the other chamber for their review. The process begins again with public hearings in Committee, Executive Action, and then the bill being sent to the floor for debate and voting. If the bill passes

to be supplemented by State Medicaid for those patients who would be forced to use them if medical cannabis was no longer available or the cost for those individuals who would have to turn to the State for welfare relief in order to survive the loss of income. There was no accounting for the thousands of caregivers who would be out of business but still bear the financial burden of their operational costs. There was no stipulation for the cost of unemployment compensation for the employees of caregivers who would lose their jobs when operations would be forced to stop. There was no mention of the severe negative impact on the many businesses in Montana that supply the caregivers with products and services: those who have expanded their own operations and hired new employees. There was no accounting for the cost to the court system and law enforcement to have to process those who chose to continue to use the medicine that helps them. The fiscal note simply refers to the cost of maintaining records and storage. Why did the members of the House choose to take this path? To repeal a voter-backed initiative when it has never been done before in the history of the State? Misinformation. Armed with data and opinions that cannot stand up to scrutiny, the opposition has testified that medical cannabis has caused a multitude of problems in the State. Committee

members were presented with false information suggesting that there were astronomical numbers of children registered as patients. Testimony was heard that sales of medical cannabis cookies take place on school playgrounds daily. Children are prostituting themselves in order to acquire cannabis. The number of teens using cannabis ranks the State as first in the nation. Vans of medical cannabis are being buried in cities only to be dug up by the police. None of these things are true. Licensed patients and caregivers outnumbered the opposition 3 to 1 at every hearing regarding medical cannabis. A House bill (HB68), introduced by Rep. Diane Sands of Missoula and based on the recommendations gathered through summer hearings of the Children, Families, Health and Human Services Interim Committee, calling for reform and stricter regulation including a new licensing board and universal tracking of product, was held in Committee in favor of the repeal bill. A Senate bill, SB154, introduced by Senator Dave Lewis of Helena, also calls for reform and regulation. In an unusual move, Senator Lewis accepted

a revised version of his draft, crafted by members of the industry, and presented it to the Senate Judiciary Committee in February. The revised version, now referred to as the “gray bill” is a bipartisan, joint piece of legislation made up of the best parts of the original Senate bill, House bill 68, and the suggestions of the industry for additional regulation that was in neither HB 68 nor the original SB154. To read the presented bill, go to www.solutions4montana.org. This will not be the new Senate Judiciary Committee Bill but will hopefully include much of the needed reasonable regulation. SB154 will again be referred to Committee for hearings. A hearing for House Bill 161 is scheduled for March 11 at 8AM. The status of any bill being considered by the 2011 Legislature can be tracked by going to http://laws.leg.mt.gov/laws11/law0203w$.startup and typing in the bill’s number. Hearing dates are still being set. The State is only required to give the public 48 hours notice of an upcoming hearing.

WHAT CAN YOU DO NOW? 1. Call your Senator and Representative at 444-4800 - tell them you are AGAINST repeal. The opposition will stop at nothing to try and mislead the Legislature. Listen to the testimony they give. The members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are listed below. If your Senator is on this list, then it is imperative that you make personal contact with them. Their “NO” vote is crucial. 2. Contact the Governor. He will have the final opportunity to pass the repeal or veto it. He needs to know where you stand. governor Brian d. Schweitzer Oﬃce of the governor Montana State Capitol Bldg P.O. Box 200801 Helena Mt 59620-0801 406-444-3111 3. Make plans to go to Helena and testify against the repeal and in support of reasonable appropriate regulation. We continue to outnumber the opposition 3 to 1. We must make sure we are fully represented at the Senate hearing. We have to be strong. If you testify, look professional, keep your testimony brief and to the point. If you’re a patient, explain briefly your condition, how medical cannabis helps, and how your life might be negatively impacted if medical cannabis was again illegal in Montana. Session Contact Information: Montana Senate PO Box 200500 Helena, MT 59620-0500 Information Office: 444-4800

SEnatE JUdICIarY COMMIttEE: terry Murphy – Cardwell, MT, (SD 39), 285-6937, murphter5@yahoo.com Jim Shockley -Victor, MT, (SD 45), 642-6647 call only Chas Vincent – Libby, MT, (SD 1), 293-1575, cvvincent@hotmail.com Jeﬀ Essmann – Billings, MT, (SD 28), 534-3345, jessmann@mt.gov rowlie Hutton – Havre, MT, (SD 17), 945-0256, hutton4senate@yahoo.com greg Hinkle – Thompson Falls, MT, (SD 7), 827-4645, ghinklesd7@gmail.com Jim Peterson – Buffalo, MT, (SD 15), 374-2277, jimpetersonranch@gmail.com Shannon augare – Browning, MT, (SD 8), 450-5686, shannonjaugare@aol.com lynda Moss – Billings, MT, (SD 26), 252-7318, lyndamoss@imt.net anders Blewett – Great Falls, MT, (SD 11), 231-8618, anders.blewett@gmail.com larry Jent – Bozeman, MT, (SD 32), 587-0390, larry@imt.net Cliﬀ larsen – Missoula, MT, (SD 50), 544-6263, cliff@larsenusa.com Thank you again for all of your help and support. We know that we can stop the repeal of this law if we unite and work together. May we also ask that you continue to pray for our legislators, that they listen to logic and reason, not lies and falsehoods that have been perpetrated by the opposition. Jim Gingery is the Executive Director of the Montana Medical Growers Association.

In addition to most of your local medical marijuana dispensaries, you can pick up your copy of KUSH Magazine at the following locations: Anaconda Albertson’s Belgrade Albertson’s Big Fork Harvest Foods Local Joe’s Pick’s Bowling Alley Woody’s Store Billings Albertson’s Kmart Bozeman Albertson’s Kmart Smiths Butte Albertson’s Kmart

Columbia Falls Mike’s Conoco North Fork Convenience Store Smiths Super 1 Foods Great Falls Albertson’s Big R Kmart Smiths Helena Albertson’s Kmart Kalispell Albertson’s Kmart Meridian Conoco Rosauer’s Salvation Army Smiths Super 1 Foods

Livingston Albertson’s Lolo Lolo Harvest Foods Missoula Albertson’s Pablo Pablo Store Polson Rissiordes Super 1 Foods Ronan Harvest Foods Mission Mountain Foods Whitefish Alpine Village Market Markus Foods Mike’s Conoco Mountain Mall

Hempful Hints

RAWGANIQUE by VALERIE FERNANDEZ

It’s rare to ﬁnd a business that puts ecology before economy. One that puts Mother Nature before their bottom line. One that believes in sustainability, integrity, fair pay, and quality of life, allowing the stay-at-home artisans making their goods to produce their products outside of a dreaded sweatshop. But we’ve found one, Rawganique.com, and their line of cotton, linen and hemp products are on a whole nother level.

Making sure their vast line of products are free of harsh elements like PVC, formaldehyde, dioxin, pesticides, heavy metals, acids, or chemicals shows Rawganique’s commitment to the bigger picture, and this sentiment of conscious concern is not just for fad or fashion (though their clothes are). This is the mentality in which the company is built upon, a company whose co-founders live totally off the grid on a small island off the Strait of Georgia. With solar and wind power, and a totally organic garden, these people are truly ”walking the walk.” Since 2000, this family business has been producing men’s and women’s wear, footwear, bed linens, bath products (including soaps, deodorants and shampoos), kitchen products, paper products, books, bags, rugs, fabrics, pajamas, hammocks, yoga mats, and even specialize in elegant hemp wedding clothes for brides, grooms, and the whole wedding party. Their wedding line has both formal and informal options. With beach and ecofriendly weddings on the rise, Rawganique has become “Hemp Wedding Central,” with their casual, yet stylish garb. This line is both dashing and classy, while remaining uniquely different from the normal rent-a-tux penguin suits found at the mall. Rawganique clothes come in Standard, Plus & Petite sizes, and Big & Tall sizes up to a 50” waist, and 38” inseam. Their selection ranges from everyday shorts, jeans, and shirts, to an array of jackets, sweaters, blouses, and dresses. The line of bed and bath linens are just as vast. Hemp sheets, pillow cases, and Duvet covers made with organically grown hemp ﬁbers without chemicals, heavy metals, dyes, or synthetics make for very comfortable and cozy linens. With “green” hotels, resorts, and spas becoming popular, Rawganique hemp sheets are used in some of the most prestigious around the globe. If the kitchen is the main room in your house, Rawganique has an ecofriendly selection for you too. They have everything from aprons, towels, place mats, napkins, table clothes, oven mitts, and pot holders. With Organic Hemp foods, Sundried Fruits, Organic Nuts and Butter, Maca and Vegan foods, and even a Raw Cuisine Turbo Blender to help you get healthy, this site seems to be a one-stop shop for you healthy Hemp nuts. They’ve even got 100% biodegradable cleaning products using Soapnuts, used for laundry detergent, house cleaner, hair shampoo, pet shampoo, or dish detergent. Rawganique has covered just about everything. For more information on Rawganique’s products, or just to browse through their web-store, go to www.Rawganique.com. With so many eco-friendly products to choose from, it’s really worth a visit.

YOUR ONE-STOP, ECO-FRIENDLY SHOP

WheW, made it through the holidays! NeW year’s - survived it! Bowl games - wow, too many of those! the super Bowl was great - rodger’s got that belt! man, i’m still full - i gotta start that diet, and get to the gym. Poor tiger, still can’t find his stroke. all-star Weekend was awesome! Blake cruises for the slamdunk crown, and Kobe lands the mvP. so now what? Well, melo’s finally a Knick - we’ll see if that pays off. the Celtics opened the door for the east, nice trade… ahh, it doesn’t mean shit ‘til the playoffs anyway…and regardless, these guys are all just overpaid entertainers. But not the college kids! thank god for college hoops. Possibly the last honest arena for true sport…oh baby!!! march madness is finally here again!!! this is gonna be awesome!!! Who’s gonna cut down the nets this year? What is it that makes NCaa Basketball, and the march to the Final Four so special? maybe it’s the chance for a smaller (Cinderella) team to shock the world? For david to beat goliath? Where else besides the olympics is a collegiate (or non-professional) athlete given the opportunity to step up to the world’s stage…raise themselves into the spotlight, and further yet, as a part of a team, where the collective actions of a group become one driving force, with one driving purpose…a championship. Not to say that this doesn’t take place within the professional realm, as there are plenty of great stories of driven, and determined teams, both favorites, and underdogs, but, there’s something about the NCaa Basketball tournament that creates insanely consuming passion. to hear the chants of 30,000 + fans, present students and alumni, all religiously wearing one color, or agreeing upon one particular way to throw off a free-throw shooter by waving their arms in a hypnotic way, or humming incessantly (only while the opponents have the ball), or dressing up as a giant teapot to hopefully distract the visitors enough to grasp that ever-so-slight edge that can end up being a determining factor…all taking place so close to the action that the student’s celebration more often than not pours onto the court. the rush is like no other in sports. With each team taking on their own unique, possibly game-swaying distraction, combined with all the different venues, histories of the particular schools, and the rivalries amongst them, locally, regionally, and nationally, it can get pretty heated. With thirty-two college conferences, each winner of that conference gets a berth in the tournament, previously leaving thirty-two other teams to be determined by a rating system, based on their scheduling, and statistical difficulty. With an opportunity for a smaller team, and/or smaller time player to grab attention in this tournament, the competition is often times nailbiting. this tournament proves that on any given day, one team can beat another. the daily coverage, and highlights can seem endless, keeping most junkies home with “esPN-itus,” that usually afflicts the nation around march. most people catch it around the office water cooler, trash-talking, or comparing “brackets” is from cubicle to cubicle. it also allows the most unknowing of fans to topple the most arrogant of flag waving, color-wearing, mascot-loving, school-touting collegiate heroes. Fill out your brackets, pull them in and out of your pocket in full oCd fashion for three weeks straight. this round by round elimination now starts with sixty-eight teams (jumping for the first time from the normal sixty-four), then, confusingly enough, back

down to sixty-four, then thirty-two, then to the “sweet 16,” the “elite 8,” to the “Final Four,” and of course, the Final Championship game. although the larger divisions such as the Pac ten, Big ten, aCC, seC, and Big east, will usually get their 2nd and 3rd teams in also, since every division, even the smaller schools have representation, it evens the playing field for all schools participating. With many of the top 25 overlapping in these divisions, there are more openings within the sixty-eight starting teams. this tournament truly does relish the smaller school’s fight, and determination to be noticed with the more popular, or dominant teams like duke, villanova, syracuse, ohio st., Pitt, uconn, and Byu. the tournament also allows for gambling junkies of all sorts, to sink their teeth into about three weeks of action. grab your brackets, head to vegas, and happily maximize your opportunities to go broke during march. With the tourney starting with multiple games, day after day, leading to one big night in early april, this championship game crowns another school King of the Court, and allows for one year of bragging rights. a team’s run in this tournament can not only determine watercooler bragging rights, but can seriously encourage, and determine many schools recruitments. this of course leads to big dollars for the schools, much of which translates into scholarships. While many choose the tempting ride of the lucrative NBa, those that do stay in school have proven to be smarter players, and this is what makes the NCaa Basketball tournament so great. it is still pure, and untarnished. so as i pick my teams this year, and some of them are upsets, i’m reminded of something my old friend tommy used to say as he’d pick his underdog winners, “… remember, the ball is round.”

Medicinal Cannabis

and its Impact on Human Health Medicinal Cannabis and its Impact on Human Health follows the research of over 15,000 scientific and medical trials and takes a look at specifically what conditions have been proven to benefit from medical marijuana. This game-changing documentary presents the most comprehensive synopsis to date of the medical science surrounding the world’s most controversial plant. In this myth shattering, information packed documentary, physicians and leading researchers present modern scientific findings regarding the demonstrated effects of medicinal cannabis use for treating many kinds of cancers, auto-immune illnesses, neurological issues, chronic pain, and more…effectively illustrating the remarkable evolution of cannabis’ historical use as medicine, a history dating back over 5300 years. Executive Producer James Schmachtenberger, a medical cannabis advocate and one of the founders of San Diego Herbal Alternatives (SDHA), a medical marijuana collective, sat down to discuss his film.

What did you learn from making this documentary?

How did the idea ﬁrst come about to ﬁlm a documentary on Medical Cannabis and its Impact on Human Health?

What are your plans in promoting or screening the documentary? Will you be holding screenings?

The idea came about in November of 2009, a few months after we opened the collective in San Diego. We met many patients who had never used cannabis until their primary care physician recommended it for them, and many of these patients were running into repercussions in their personal and professional lives, associated with the stigma and myths surrounding marijuana. Although it was clear that medical cannabis was tremendously helpful to people with a wide range of medical conditions, there was still so much misinformation and false propaganda out there about it and very little presenting the real scientific information and evidence on the topic to help educate people. I wanted to create a clear, authoritative video that could help better inform people who were not already well educated about the benefits of appropriate medical cannabis use and might still hold misinformed, negative views on the topic, (and I wanted to achieve this) by having the leading scientific experts in the field address the common myths and misconceptions, and present the real data on these topics, data that has emerged from a huge body of wellconducted, unbiased scientific trials.

How do you intend on using this documentary, and how do you hope that people use it? The film will be distributed freely under the “creative commons license.” As filming went on and we interviewed more doctors, we realized that it had a much greater scope. We found that it could help educate families, friends, and coworkers of people who use this medicine and hopefully create a paradigm shift in their views. My hope is that people across the nation can use this film for education and to affect policy change. We showed portions of this film to the San Diego Planning Commission and have actually been asked to provide transcripts of some of the doctors’ interviews as expert evidence at criminal trials. People are welcome to reshow it, cut it, and use it to make as much of an impact as possible.

I learned a lot! The most signiﬁcant thing was from Dr. Tashkin in understanding how cannabis’ anti-tumor properties work. Most of us in the medical marijuana ﬁeld know that the plant has tremendous healing properties but a lot of us don’t understand the actual science behind it. In the documentary Dr. Tashkin explains in depth exactly why THC suppresses tumor growth.

Any plans for a sequel or part 2? If so what would you cover in it? We already have a few other documentaries in mind. The most likely one that we will focus on next is speciﬁcally how cannabis affects different types of cancers, as well detailed information on how to most effectively use cannabis as a treatment. In the future we deﬁnitely want to focus on industrial hemp, our country’s failed drug war and the problem of prohibition, as well as full hemp legalization.

We are coordinating multiple screenings across the country and are teaming up with individuals and organizations to screen the film. In January of this year we held the first screening of the documentary in Hilo, Hawaii with almost 200 people in attendance. If anyone is interested in finding out information about hosting a screening, all the details can be found at www.MarijuanaMovie.org, where a trailer and the complete film are also available for free.

GROWERS GROVE

The Cannabis Movement is at an economic turning point. Shifts in politics and local regulations have created a massive influx of new growers and new dispensaries in recent years and a new generation of Cannabis consumers has evolved as well. These new consumers who came to know Cannabis through medical Cannabis dispensaries in the last 5 years have always known a market represented by storefront Cannabis shops, a wide selection of Cannabis products and relatively low prices. For those of us that have seen the transition from the days of simply knowing “some guy” who had weed and the now flooded market of the “green rush”, it’s important to note what has changed and, perhaps more importantly, what hasn’t changed. Some economic principles are timeless and some overhead is fixed. As the old saying goes, “It’s not about what you spend, it’s about what it costs you”. Well, what we’ve spent is less and less. What it’s costing us is both quality and genetic diversity. To discuss it plainly in terms of current market trends will undoubtedly irk a wide variety of people in the Cannabis industry. Still, my loyalties have always been to the plant itself and I’m not going to hesitate to call out anybody who is taking advantage of the plant or the growers. For now, let’s take a look at the last 10 years of Cannabis evolution from a totally different perspective. Sit back and take a few tokes, because we’re about to take a journey through the last decade – not through the eyes of the consumer or the dispensary or the grower, but from the perspective of the pot itself.

Life as a Pound of Pot: Looking Back at a Decade of Getting Smoked Imagine, for our purposes here, that you’re a pound of wholesale marijuana in California in the year 2000. You live in a quaint, one room turkey bag with a constantly changing view. It’s a very exciting time and place to be a pound of wholesale marijuana. It’s a time of acceptance and love. Everyone wants you and there is never enough of you to go around. You may be lighter or heavier, from good genetics or common genetics, but no matter what type of pound you are – you will fetch a good price. But the odds are – you’re either very good or excellent. You’ve most likely been raised by a grower that has been growing for many years, since most of the Cannabis on the market at this time comes from experienced growers. Up until recently, you’ve found your final 28 28

retail home in the smoky living room of Mr. Some Guy. You’d go directly from the grower that raised you to Some Guy’s house. Some Guy would pay between $3500 – 4500 for you and then introduce you to lots of people who you would all make very happy. Your final retail price was typically between $50 and $60 per eighth depending on how late in the evening the consumer called Some Guy looking for a hook up. But as times moved forward, your turkey bag traveled to storefront Cannabis cooperatives – we’ll call them “Cannabis Stores” for economic simplicity. The view was slightly different, but similar. No matter what your quality level, there was a home for you somewhere on the menu. When you looked your best and made people very happy, you still were valued at $4000+ per pound. There weren’t very many of these retail places yet, and because of that, you could still be valued according to the former market’s economics. Despite the fact that the Cannabis Stores had many more costs associated with them – labor, security, rent, legal fees, etc. - You still sold for your normal price of $50 – 60. The consumers were happier with you than ever. Not only could they now get a variety of Cannabis, they could get it legally, in a safe environment, from knowledgeable staff, during regular store hours. Best of all, consumers didn’t even have to pay more for these costly features. Because the Cannabis Store could offer a better business than Mr. Some Guy, they could turn over more product faster and absorb the extra overhead costs in the process. Now let’s fast forward to about 2007. The so called “Green Rush” explodes onto the scene. Even before president Obama was elected, there was a major surge in Cannabis Stores in California. Perhaps it was excitement for the end of the Bush dynasty and its anti- medical marijuana policies. Or maybe the exponential growth was inevitable and simply exploded because the movement crossed some critical threshold of social acceptance. Whatever the reason, the number of Cannabis Stores started to grow rapidly. Then the Obama Administration’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, expressed the administration’s reluctance to prosecute Cannabis businesses that were “unambiguously in compliance with state law”. The number of Cannabis Stores skyrocketed. The only thing that multiplied faster than the Cannabis Stores during this time was pounds of marijuana, just like you. Well, maybe not just like you. (continued on page 30)

Many of the new pounds on the market were now coming from new growers. In many instances, they learned how to grow from other beginner growers who had barely started to get the hang of Cannabis growing when they started to teach their friends. The new pounds of Cannabis in the market look somewhat similar to other pounds, but now they often smoke harsh and are less potent – mere sub-par doppelgangers of the real deal. Despite the fact that you were a difficult but prized variety of Cannabis to grow and are of a higher quality than other pounds on the market, your value has now started its freefall. Over the coming few years, the price of wholesale Cannabis pounds like you will plummet. For many varieties other than a few high-yield hybrids, the prices will drop below the point where it is feasible to grow them. Sadly, the genetics at this time represent a peak in the diversity of excellent Cannabis varieties and many of them have been disappearing like rainforests. Newer growers eager to establish themselves in the market start to turn over low quality Cannabis for rock bottom prices. They grow only high yielding varieties or designer varieties (especially purples) and the new consumers in the market who have never seen high quality Cannabis start to believe that the “top shelf” of the Cannabis Stores is actually the highest quality level that can be obtained in the market. In addition, lower quality pounds now find a home before you do because you are the wrong color. But these new consumers in the market don’t just judge you by your color. Perhaps you’re a Sativa. Long flowering, lower yielding Sativas are now largely a thing of the past in most medical Cannabis markets. Replaced by short flowering hybrids with only slight Sativa characteristics, these outstanding Sativa plants produced flowers that are amazingly potent with lots of cerebral characteristics but were loose and airy in their structure. What was once known as the most exquisite of Cannabis experiences is now simply pot that looks “too spindly” to many Cannabis buyers - some of whom have little clue what less common forms of Cannabis look like. Sadly, some young buyers have never even seen real 12 week Sativas because the growers simply don’t work with those varieties anymore. Displaced by an increasingly ignorant market, many of these outstanding Sativa genetics are being lost to the world despite the many years of breeding and care put into developing them. Throughout history, humans have payed the price for decreasing the genetic diversity of plants. In a particularly dramatic example, reliance on one variety of potato in Ireland led to the devastating famine that changed the course of both Irish and American history.

The Market Value of Risk There’s a common belief that the current price of Cannabis is comprised mostly of compensation for the risk taken to grow it where it’s prohibited. The assumption then follows that if Cannabis is legalized, the price will drop drastically. The amount of the price drop has been widely debated in the last year as California approached a vote on legalization. The RAND Corporation, a former cold war think tank that now does analysis of social issues, came in with an extreme low prediction of $38 per ounce. Now, they did say it 30

would be difficult to predict. One thing that is not difficult for me to predict is the fact that if there were $38 ounces, they would definitely not be a high quality medicine. That’s just a fact. You might get some mid grade commercial outdoor for that price, but no fine, controlled environment product will sell for $40 an ounce anytime soon even if we do legalize it. I mean, not unless the cost of all resources and materials also suddenly decreases. Cannabis gardens require a considerable amount of resources to produce good medicine: labor, hardware, energy to name just a few. In the last decade, the price of metal, plastics, fuel, electricity and just about every other tangible resource commodity has increased in price. The wholesale price of Cannabis, however, has dropped dramatically and the profit margin on growing Cannabis, once imagined to be quite lucrative, has been crushed between rising costs and falling wholesale prices. For consumers, the retail price has stayed relatively stable, but the availability, selection and ease of acquisition have all gotten much better than the days of the black market. Despite these major improvements in the Cannabis industry, the consumers still pay the same amount for pot today as they did 10 years ago despite the overhead of storefronts now used to sell Cannabis. While compensation for risk is also part of the price, I think the price of physical resources and other self limiting factors will hold the price of medical grade Cannabis at values far above $38 an ounce, even in a legal environment. The idea that most of the price of marijuana is simply a fat layer of profit over a small amount of production cost is typically what non-growers imagine when they think of a pot grower. In fact, this is one of the fundamental assumptions that have fueled the demise of whatever margin the grower did have.

Everybody Wants a Piece of the Grower’s Pie Over the last decade, one of the biggest misconceptions of the Cannabis industry is that Cannabis growers are wealthy by virtue of their trade. The idea is that the producers of Cannabis get their Cannabis essentially “for free” and bask in the easily obtained financial rewards of an extremely profitable crop. Having been a part of many gardens over the years for large medical marijuana dispensary chains, underground growers and my own head stash alike, I can tell you this idea of the wealthy pot grower is now largely a story from the past and there’s a lot more work involved in good medicine than you might imagine. Outdoor growers can still enjoy a wider margin than indoor growers, but in the current market, there is less margin than ever before for growers across the board. Over the last decade, the wealthy pot grower fable has spurred a massive influx of pot profiteers disguised as entrepreneurs that have flooded into the industry all looking for a piece of the grower’s margin. It started with the explosion of the hydroponics/indoor gardening industry – many manufacturers of hydro products increased their consumable product lines like nutrients and additives. The less scrupulous ones told growers they need to use 20 different bottles on every watering, hiked the prices, watered down the products, and increased the application rates. Plus, growers were told they’d need lots of high-tech, expensive gear if they wanted a good crop. No one was sponsoring information on

do-it-yourself gardens or cost-effective methods to grow safe and potent medicine. With every grower and every product, the basic selling point always seemed to be some version of “You need it.” And lots of growers have been swept up in the overwhelming consumerism of the hydro industry ever since. But it’s not like the hydro industry was the only one gobbling up the grower’s margin. The rise of the modern Cannabis store has been built on the grower’s margin, not a passed along price increase. Again, consumers who once paid $50 - $60 per eighth of Cannabis from Some Guy where they had little if any selection, no security, no regular store hours, no staff to support them are still only paying $50 – 60 per eighth. Despite the massive drop in wholesale prices, retail prices have changed very little. In essence, the growers have directly sponsored the rise and continued existence of dispensaries, since they have sacrificed much of their margin in order to sell to legitimate dispensaries in the hopes that it would also mean lower risk. This can be beneficial to the growers in many cases, but only if the decrease in margin is proportional to the decrease in risk. Even the doctors have started to get in on their piece of the grower’s margin. Doctors, who live comparably riskfree existences compared to growers have begun to sell expensive “grower’s licenses” to new patients who aren’t yet aware of the fact that there is no such thing as a “grower’s license”. This product is one of fantasy, with no legitimate basis for its existence. Let me make this very clear: if you are a legitimate medical Cannabis patient with a doctor’s recommendation, you have the legal right to grow your own Cannabis. You do not need to buy a “grower’s license”. In addition to this, in California, a state supreme court case found that plant number limitations are unconstitutional. (Just google “Kelly Case Marijuana California” for more info.) That means that while there are terms used like “reasonable amount for the patients needs” to define the amount people could grow; there is no specific number that you are or are not allowed to grow. (The only consensus is to definitely stay under 100 plants per growing site to reduce the risk of federal prosecution which typically only occurs at levels of 100 plants or more.)

so the judge will recognize the severity of your ailment and your patient status without question. However, if the judge sees that your “grower’s certificate” was generated at some place that simply advertises and sells these products for a hefty fee, then it’s not worth the paper it’s written on and loses all legitimacy. Exploiting a loophole in such an obvious and flagrant manner is bad for the image of medical Cannabis. Not to mention it directly takes advantage of a legal exemption that was put there to ease the suffering of seriously ill patients. When people exploit these exemptions, the entire medical Cannabis community suffers and we risk losing important legal exemptions like this one because of these irresponsible abuses. New growers are better off investing those several hundred dollars in their gardens to grow better medicine. In Part 2 of this no-holds-barred look at the price of pot, we’re going to delve deeper into the shifting economic landscape of Cannabis, both in the medical Cannabis market and in the re-surging underground market. Crop-specific limiting factors that influence the economy of scale will be discussed in relation to the recent “mega-farm” prospects. We’re also going to take a closer look at the Green Rush and some more of it’s unfortunate side effects for both growers and consumers. To cap it off, we’ll dissect what really goes into those pounds of premium Cannabis. What’s inside might just surprise you. All this and more next month – the inside stories you can only find here in the Grower’s Grove.

Jade Kine Growers Grove writer Jade Kine is a former greenhouse manager for the medical Cannabis industry with over a million plants worth of experience. He is also the founder of CannAcademy, a trade school dedicated solely to horticultural training for growers. Got a grow question for Jade? Drop him a line at JadeKine@gmail.com Complete bio at JadeKine.com

Now, there is a provision in the law that does allow doctors to specify that their patients can grow larger amounts of Cannabis if there is a need and the doctor specifies an amount. This little known provision is intended to allow terminally ill patients to grow larger gardens because of the nature of their ailment. Basically, it’s a way of saying that if you have something like cancer, grow a big garden. You shouldn’t need a green thumb to consistently produce your medicine. Just throw lots of plants at it and, even if you don’t have a green thumb or the nicest garden, enough of the plants should become medicine to meet your needs. The idea is that seriously ill patients shouldn’t be scrutinized on the number of plants in their garden. The doctor’s statement saying you can grow up to a certain number of plants is supposed to be something that will help you in court by providing additional legal recourse. It does not actually authorize you to grow Cannabis, your recommendation does that. This extra statement is supposed to make your case look even more legitimate. It’s 31

Montana, there are around 100,000 adult cannabis consumers. Some of them suffer qualifying medical conditions and use cannabis as a natural treatment for their debilitating symptoms. Some use it for non-qualifying conditions, such as insomnia, depression, anxiety, cramps, PTSD. And then there are people for whom cannabis is a non-medical life enhancer: to increase their enjoyment of food, sex, poetry and cinema, or inspire their art and writing, gardening and programming, enrich their social interactions, or simply relax after a hard day’s work. There’s no reason that these two groups need to clash, and in fact, they often overlap. The card-carrying Crohn’s disease patient who derives both symptomatic relief and enjoyment from sharing a fat joint of Super Silver Haze with his buddies before kicking back on the couch to watch Pineapple Express (for the third time) is in both camps. While cannabis can be a “precious medicine for the sick and dying,” that’s not all it is, and we run a real risk of painting ourselves into a corner and setting up needless conflicts within the cannabis community by insisting that it’s only for one group and not the other. Legalization would be better for patients than the expensive and bureaucratic system we have now: No “qualifying conditions”, no annual doctor certification requirements, higher product quality, lower prices. So why would patients not support legalization if given the chance? Selfish ambivalence, for one. After all, the thinking goes, once “I got mine,” who cares about the rest of you “undeserving” non-patients, right?

Not exactly an enlightened position. Don’t forget that there were an awful lot of non-patients who supported medical marijuana back in 2004. How about returning the favor? Another objection to legalization you may hear from the only-medical camp concerns taxation. They demand an exemption from taxation, because they say their cannabis is medicine, and no other medicine is taxed. It’s a nice thought, but there are many reasons cannabis should be taxed: First, taxes are not inherently evil. Taxes ensure we have roads to drive on, that someone comes when we call 911, that we have a civil society in general. What’s taxed and to what degree is worth debating, but it’s absurd to start from a position that all taxes are automatically bad. Second, plugging cannabis tax policy into the law books makes all us responsible adult cannabis consumers in Montana part of a legitimate civil/ political structure. It brings us out of the shadows, into the light. Third, while you and I may be passionate about pot policy, a whole lot of people don’t care much. Offering a new revenue source for critical public

32 32

services can create new allies, and solve real funding problems. In fact, most cannabis consumers would agree that we’re the one consumer group likely to say “please, tax us!” A final reason that some in the medical marijuana industry may oppose legalization: naked greed. Medical marijuana is a partial market for cannabis consumers, and hence leaves a substantial portion of the black market intact. By preserving a black market for cannabis, prices (and profits, if your production is efficient) remain high for sellers. There is no reason that this dried plant material needs to sell for $250 or more per ounce. The drastically more labor-intensive herb saffron sells for less. For perspective, a full football field of saffron flowers produces a mere one pound of the dried herb. By comparision, anyone could grow a pound of cured cannabis flowers in a spare bedroom or a corner of his back yard. Whether the “I got mine” crowd, the naive anti-tax folks, or the greedy business types will be able to sink legalization in 2012 is yet to be seen. Of course the moralistic anti-freedom crusaders will make a vigorous showing as well, so we’ve really got our work cut out for us. As the day approaches, cannabis consumers statewide should keep talking with one another about the details of legalization, acknowledging that compromise and some sort of tax or fee will probably be a necessary part of any proposal with a chance of passage. But how exactly should it work? What’s got the best chance of winning? Hopefully, we’ll all be able to see that liberating this plant, even via imperfect legislation, is just the right thing to do, and far preferable to the failed, expensive, and destructive policy of prohibition. -Since he started the organization in 1998, John Masterson has been the executive director of Montana NORML, an official chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Indoor Cultivation Consulting indoorcultivationconsulting@gmail.com Light powers the engine of growth for any photosynthesizing creature, from microscopic phytoplankton in the sea to the tallest sequoia in California. The more light, the betterbut don’t forget about the heat also generated by powerful indoor lighting systems. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to maximize useful light to your plants without breaking the bank on bunches of expensive light setups- and of course the necessary cooling systems to keep your grow room from going nova. The ideal light source will emit a broad spectrum of light energy from indigo and violet to orangered wavelengths. An artificial environment of course needs the same, and many HID bulbs, ballasts, reflectors and other forms of lighting out there can do a great job. For detailed information about them, look at any of a range of catalogs, brochures and publications with this data inside; no need to repeat it here. Rather, in this month’s installment of tips on how to get the most out of your indoor garden I’ll tell you how to get the most from your precious lights AFTER you’ve gotten them home. So, faithful growers, here’s how to crank up your lumens on leaves ratio without jacking up your wallet! The central principle of indoor lighting, and the reason for being of many of these tips, is the fact that the intensity of light diminishes as the square of distance from its source. You’ve probably heard of this before; that light is only ¼ as intense at 2 units (feet or meters, or miles, for that matter) from the source as it is at one unit (foot or meter or mile; the important thing is to keep your units the same), and only 1/9 as intense at 3 units, etc. Among other things, this means that contrary to popular belief, painting the walls white in your grow room is useless- unless your plants are right next to them. No, where you really want these reflective surfaces is as close as you can get to your plants without actually shading them.

34 34

Sooooo… where is that, exactly? Good question- back to the source for a moment; the bulb and reflector. I’ve seen the slick brochures and diagrams where bulb and reflector makers love to show the light dispersion from their systems as a square. NOT TRUE! That square is designed to show the only the total surface area of adequate light lit by that source, not its actual shape. Don’t believe me? Grab a pencil and some graph paper, and make an accurate diagram of your grow room. Keeping the intensity principle above firmly in mind, draw a line around your light source at the furthest limit of useful light from your source. For example, using a 1000 watt HPS bulb, that works out to about 4 ½ feet. Funny how your line becomes a circle around your light, huh? Yes, yes, yes, I know most reflectors are squares (not to mention the engineers who designed them!), but that doesn’t change how light behaves! I bet you also noticed that line you drew cut the corners off your growing area, unless you have lots of (wasteful and costly) light overlap. It’s in these corners where I usually find the spindly, lanky plants that aren’t producing. The solution is to rearrange your growing space so that from above it looks like a circle, or at least a stop sign, centered around your light source. Use quality reflective materials such as mylar to ‘cut the corners’ and follow the line you drew more closely. This trick will save you from wasting valuable space, expensive nutrients and costly equipment on plants in dark corners. Even better, it can actually increase the useable space under your light! Because the reflected light will make the edges of your garden perform more like the center, you can push the edges out an additional six inches to a foot in every direction from your light source! And that is Free Growing Space you can use!

Here’s another trick I borrowed from fruit tree cultivation. Fruit tree growers spend a lot of time carefully platting their fields before planting fruit trees because they want to be certain they get as much productivity as possible from a layout they’ll have to live with for many years. Simply arrange your plants on a hexagonal or honeycomb basis instead of in a square grid pattern. This trick is beautifully simple, and it can raise your grow room productivity by about 17%. Fruit tree farmers copied nature and discovered this increase in productivity, and now we can too! I have seen the discussion about using many smaller wattage lights to spread light more evenly over a given area instead of fewer big lights. It works, but my gripe with this approach is that I just don’t feel like spending more coin on lights, ballasts and bulb replacements, etc, than I have to. Doubling the number of fixtures, bulbs and ballasts adds cost fast and it’s really unnecessary. Between the tips mentioned above and this last one below, I promise you will never have to worry about whether you should have gotten more smaller bulbs instead of the bigger one you really crave… Move your lights. Yep, sounds simple- and it is. Aren’t the best tips usually simple? I don’t mean hauling up and re-hanging your bulb and reflector in a different spot every day, nor am I necessarily recommending any of the array of light movers currently on the market, for reasons I will explain shortly. A widely known fact in plant biology circles about photosynthesis- yet all but unknown to the rest of us- is that while plants begin photosynthesizing within seconds of receiving adequate light, it turns out that they will continue doing it for anywhere between 3 and 5 full minutes AFTER the lights are turned off! Most light movers currently available market themselves as merely emulating ‘the sun’s arc through the sky’ as the day goes by and so only slowly move the light in a period of some 20 minutes to several hours. While this helps reduce the effects of leaf shading and is better than nothing, speed DOES matter. Twenty minutes isn’t nearly fast enough to take advantage of this principle- all it really accomplishes is to move the shade around! I’ve built light movers that conform to this principle by completing a full cycle in a suitably short time period and I can help you build one, too- email me for plans. Finally, astute readers will remember last month’s column about topping and training plants to best capture artificial light by making them broad and flat across the top, and may be wondering if those techniques are compatible with these strategies. I assure you that they are, and you’re gonna love the results! That’s it for now, grateful growers, so until next month, safe and happy growing!

3535

OK, SO HE MAY BE A FOUNDING MEMBER OF ONE

WHILE THE WAIT WAS A LONG ONE, ITS WORTHINESS

of the most respected successful and beloved acts of the past quarter

is perhaps a reason that could only be subjectively analyzed in hindsight.

century, a Grammy Award winning band that’s had 3 Gold Records and

The time gave John Popper and the Blues Travelers the chance to build

2 Platinum Records (one of which, 1994’s “Four,” went 6x platinum), but

the formidable entity that they have become, and if they didn’t have that

like any blues man, sometimes you just need to be alone.

chance, then this natural evolution and opportunity may very well never have had the chance to flourish. And now, John has become admittedly

WHILE THIS BLUES TRAVELER HAS TAKEN SOLO TRIPS before, this is the most serious he’s been about moving out. Hell, he and

wise enough to recognize this as the growing opportunity that it is.

his fresh handpicked auditory outlaws purposely holed themselves up in

“THIS WAS A MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH FOR ME,”

the mountains of New Mexico for a month to record the self-titled “John

Popper confesses. “The idea of working with a songwriter outside of my

Popper and the Duskray Troubadours,” out March 1 on 429 Records. “It

self…collaborating…was a very new thing. I think with Blues Travelers,

was a perfect environment,” Popper tells KUSH. “I kind of wanted to ride

because we grew up together, we felt we had to do it all in house and I was

off into the mountains out west and make a record!”

getting very worried that we were getting too formulaic.” But with The Duskray Troubadours, “I was able, through this adventure in songwriting,

AND MAKE A RECORD HE DID, ALTHOUGH IT WASN’T

to really focus on much stronger melodies and that enabled me to sing a

exactly as simple or straightforward as it sounds. As a matter of fact, it’s

lot prettier and enabled me to play a lot prettier. I had a melody I could

a journey that began almost a quarter century ago. The reason being his

hang onto, and the dynamic could be a little softer and I like that.” As I

absolutely unwavering intention of making the record with acclaimed

gave a minute for this to sink in, he went on to make a statement that’s

producer and musician Jono Manson (The Worms). “He’s someone we

almost impossible to comprehend:

opened up for in the early days and he’s sort of a mentor for all of us,” Popper confides. “Jono was the guy that we all looked up to…the elder

“THE WAY I PLAY HARMONICA ON THIS ALBUM IS

statesman that we learned from. We always planned to work together

unlike the way I’ve ever played before.”

and it really took this long.” While Popper admits to the difficulty in waiting almost 25 years, he doesn’t hesitate in proclaiming, “I was not

EXCUSE ME? THIS? COMING FROM THE MAN WHO

disappointed with the results. I had high expectations and it surpassed

invented a holster that holds 12 of the instruments tuned to all 12 musical

my expectations.”

36 36

keys, often times switching between them in the course of a song, and wore them as suspenders for budssakes? Ok, fine, I’m in!

AND SPEAKING OF BUD, AND, WELL, THIS being KUSH Magazine, we just had to know… sativa or indica? “I refuse to be pigeonholed from one or the other because I am a man of the road,” he states defiantly. “You travel here and they have this and you travel there and they have that. I just throw them all into one big pile like a salad. So one day you might be really sedate and one day you might be really peppy. I kind of like not knowing. I say throw it all in the gumbo and see what bites you get.” Not surprising coming from a master of improvisation. And while he has no problem admitting that he’s written “some of the most brilliant shit being stoned,” that statement doesn’t come without a proper caveat and chuckle; “you always have to give it the next day test.” Naturally.

JOHN POPPER AND THE DUSKRAY TROUBADOURS facebook.com/johnpopper

37 37

Girl Talk + Max Tundra

3.14.11 @ Willma Theatre (Missoula)

Montana Kush Concert Calendar Live Music Preview: March/April

One thing I’ll always remember is the first time I saw Girl Talk live. It was one of my first Coachella experiences, and I distinctly remember walking by and seeing a party...feeling a party…and hearing a party, so, naturally, I joined the party. Balloons, confetti, hot people on stage, and of course, the mashup. It was simply awesome. Greg Gillis, a Pittsburgh native, fittingly finds himself on the record label called Illegal Art. This show comes on his most recent North American tour, and it will be a crazy dance party. Guaranteed. facebook. com/girltalkmusic

Heartless Bastards

3.15.11 @ Willma Theatre (Missoula)

Heartless Bastards, formed in Cincinnati in 2003, is best described as a garage rock band. With a similar sound to fellow Ohioans, and Fat Possum label mates The Black Keys, Heartless Bastards originally formed as a four piece band with members Erika Wennerstrom, Dave Colvin, Adam McAllister, and Michael Weinel. They have come a long way since playing their first live show at The Comet in Cincinnati back in August of 2003. After parting ways with Colvin, McAllister and Weinel, the group reformed as a three piece. They play a really tight live set that will make you an instant fan, if you’re not already. Check them out at the Willma Theatre in Missoula on March 15th! theheartlessbastards.com

Disturbed + koRn + Sevendust

3.18.11 @ Adams Center Arena (Missoula)

The 5th edition of the Music As A Weapon Tour comes roaring into Missoula’s Adams Center Arena on March 18th, with some bands that people may not have realized were still playing. Korn, Disturbed, and Sevendust bring a heavy lineup that will get your heads banging and your fists pumping. If you’re in the mood for some heavy hitting metal/rock, this is your ticket.disturbed1.com; modlife.com/korn; sevendust.com

Andre Nickatina

3.19.11 @ Willma Theatre (Missoula)

Thizz Nation stand up! Andre Nickatina, the Bay Area legend that made us go Ayo for Yayo, is coming to Missoula in March. After not releasing anything since 2005, Dre Dog has pumped out multiple releases in the last couple years. Andre’s good friend Mac Dre died in late 2004, which likely contributed to his brief absence. Part of the Killa Whale Birthday Run Tour, this will be a solid hip hop show, period. andrenickatina.ning.com

This Page: Disturbed Right From Top: Andre Nickatina, Heartless Bastards, Korn, Girl Talk, Iration

Zion I + The Grouch + Blu

3.27.11 @ The Palace (Missoula)

Oakland natives, The Grouch and Eligh team up with LA’s Blu for a night of classic, legendary Cali hip-hop at The Palace in Missoula. Zion I is the the duo of MC Zumbi + DJ AmpLive; The Grouch is a member of the Livings Legends, the LA based indie rap crew which also includes Murs, Luckyiam, Aesop and many more; and Blu is the LA born and bred rapper and writer that captivates his audience wherever he roams. Zion I have been busy as always, releasing their latest full-length album Atomic Clock back in November of last year. The Grouch recently released his newest project Three Eyes Off The Time, which “aims to free listeners from the daily grind and bring some positivity to the game.” Not to be forgotten, Blu’s delivery flows flawlessly, while his content reflects the joy and pain of working class. If you like real hip-hop with a positive message, this is your ticket. It’s kind of an incredible billing that I’d be willing to do a LOT to see. zionicrew.com; therealgrouch.com; myspace.com/herfavcolor

Pepper Rabbit, Miniature Tigers

4.01.11 @ The Filling Station (Bozeman)

Coming to Bozeman’s Filling Station on April Fool’s day is Pepper Rabbit, LA’s psych pop group that’s signed to Kanine Records, along with Brooklyn’s Miniature Tigers. Word on the street (internet) is that Pepper Rabbit’s song “Older Brother” was recently in a Canadian McDonald’s commercial...so they’re not doing too bad (also touring with Ra Ra Riot). They sound a little like Arcade Fire, which is certainly not a negative thing. Pepper Rabbit’s first LP, Beauregard, is out now and they are currently working on their second album. Meanwhile, Miniature Tigers is a 4-piece indie pop/rock band that has toured extensively and released two EPs, along with two full length albums, the most recent being Fortress which was released back in July of last year. They have a really nice, fun sound, and this is a HIGHLY recommended show for a good aural experience. kaninerecrods. com/pepper-rabbit; miniaturetigers.com .

Yonder Mountain String Band

4.06.11 @ The Babcock Theatre (Billings)

The Yonder Mountain String Band, a little folk outfit from Colorado, will pick you up and toss you straight into the good old Rocky Mountains and get you slappin’ your knees in no time. Square dancing is optional, but highly encouraged (by us). Seriously though, these guys rock in a bluegrass, string, indie folk kinda way, and if you find yourself in Billings with nothing else to do, come on down to The Babcock Theatre for a fun show that ought to put a smile on your face. www. yondermountain.com

Iration + Mike Pinto

4.09.11 @ The Railyard (Billings)

Iration is a tremendous indie reggae/rock band from Hawaii, currently set up in Santa Barbara, CA. They team up for a show with roots/reggae/rock band Mike Pinto, from San Diego, for quite possibly the most kush-friendly concert of the month. There’s something about reggae and cannabis that just feels so right together. Get your mind right with some music that will hit you right in your soul, washing over you with a cleansing power like one of those big blue Hawaiian waves. Let the vibes take you over at the Railyard in Billings in this fine April evening. irationtheband.com; mikepintomusic.com

“Doesn’t it get hot?” were my first thoughts when looking at the all steel pipe from Model 419. Heat and taste have been two major problems faced by manufactures who venture away from more traditional smoking devices and into metallic territory. However, Model 419 seems to have addressed both issues with high-quality materials and a unique design. The pipe is made in the USA out of 100% stainless steel, which is corrosion resistant. It also is polished by hand, with a high luster and will not discolor or lose its shine with continued use. Stainless steel has a high rate of heat absorption and the configuration of the pipe captures most of the heat when lit in its central heat sink, keeping the outside of the pipe and fingers cool. As smoke is drawn through the pipe, a four-stage filtration process cools and cleans the smoke circulating it through a series of intricately engineered ports and chambers to remove particles and debris before inhaling through the mouthpiece. Model 419 might look compact but has a generous bowl that delivers a uniform burn so nothing is wasted. They manufacture the pipe with precision so the parts create a perfect seal with no need for rubber o-rings or extra parts to purchvase.

THEIR WEBSITE SETS FORTH THE FOUR STAGES OF HOW THE FILTRATION CHAMBER WORKS: STAGE 1: The smoke is pulled down from the bowl and circulated through helical ports, which spins it into the first collection chamber. Here larger particles and debris collect on the chamber’s walls. STAGE 2: The smoke speeds up as it is drawn through parallel ports. Here, more debris is collected from the air while the increased air speed helps keep the ports from plugging.

STAGE 3: The smoke passes into a second chamber where it slows down to pass through a stainless steel micron filter. This filter is fine enough to stop particles the size of pollen and large coal dust. STAGE 4: The smoke passes through a third chamber before traveling up the mouthpiece. Here you should see a fine film of residue from the smoke collecting. The result is a cool, smooth, clean hit. There is a noticeable difference smoking out of the Model 419 steel pipe, though it is not off-putting and many users will likely come to prefer the features offered and how smooth it is compared to other pipes. Cleaning is easy requiring only a cloth and warm water as long as you keep track of all the individual parts. Overall, the Model 418 is a pretty cool pipe and provides an enjoyable smoking experience. More information can be found about where to buy, the design, and the filtration and cooling process online at www.model419.com

MARCHIN WITH A LION, OUT LIKE A LAMB. March is finally here and hope springs eternal that warmer weather is (just?) around the corner. After months of scraping windshields, shoveling the walk, warming up the car and hauling firewood, there will be signs of spring. So besides cleaning out the garage and getting rid of all of those old clothes that you swore you would take to Goodwill six months ago, there are plenty of things you can do to get ready for the warmer days ahead. First on the list: plan a vacation! Sometimes the best way to get through the tail end of winter is to put a stamp on early summer and Flathead Lake is a spectacular choice, even if sitting on a boat with a beverage and a fishing pole seems far far away. Flathead Lake is a marvel—200 miles of perfect scenery created by glaciers and the largest freshwater lake in the west. When people think of how beautiful Montana is, they often imagine a place that either is or looks like Flathead Lake. But there are a lot of lakes in the country where you can rent a cabin or a boat, camp, hike, fish and generally escape into your own version of serenity, so the focus here is to uncover what makes Flathead so unique. There’s plenty, ranging from small (the little things) to gargantuan. An idea of the small? Cherries! One of the surest signs of happiness and warm weather is the roadside cherry stand. Formed by the glacial damming of the Flathead River, the valley sustains a remarkably mild climate for a region located this far north and far off the coast. The mild climate allows for cherry orchards on the east shore and vineyards on the west. For the really big… Glacier National Park. Glacier Park is possibly the most beautiful, awe-inspiring natural wonder in the country. 1600 square miles of nature’s best is an hour away from the Flathead Valley. If you have had a chance to get out there this winter, you were likely treated to some of the best wildlife viewing imaginable. From eagles to moose, the inhabitants of Glacier National Park in these cold months are definitely worth visiting. Plowing Going-to-the-Sun Road begins in April and the road is usually opened for traffic in late May or early June, so until then, think about booking your stay for summer because it’s going to be here before we know it. And booking early is imperative! Camping is maybe the best way to see Flathead. You have never really camped until you have done it in these outdoors. The sunrise of the lake and the sunset over the peaks are a photographer’s dream come true. There is every possibility when it comes to camping Flathead—from backcountry camping where “if you don’t have it, you don’t need it” applies, but so does “if you don’t have it and do need it, you’re pretty much out of luck”, does too, to well equipped campsites with RV hookups, pools and family activities. Some of the campgrounds offer tourist services and will get you set up with marina information on rentals, air tours, fishing guides and hiking trail maps. Others offer a primitive escape from civilization with just enough contact to stay safe. With fishing, hiking, camping, boating, rafting, swimming and trekking all ahead, there’s no better time to get a jump on making plans for a vacation to Flathead. August is a very busy month so if you can find time in June or July, I recommend getting a beat on the crowds.

Living Well: Meditation by Charlotte Cruz

hen you think of meditation, maybe you imagine a peaceful monk sitting cross-legged in a temple somewhere in Asia. Meditation is something everyone can benefit from and you don’t have to study for years to achieve the state of calm and nothingness to your path to Nirvana to understand its value. Meditation requires mental discipline and the practice is all part of the journey. There are dozens of types of meditation and several ways to practice, but the roads all lead to the same place - tranquility, clarity and focus. If you have ever noticed a professional athlete before a big game, you often find them in a sort of laser-focused daze; even that is a form of meditation. The benefits of meditation affect mind, body and soul. Mentally, meditation increases serotonin levels, which make us feel happy and balanced. It decreases anxiety and stress, allowing us to open our minds to positive things. Depression is often lessened and even the most stressful situations are more easily tolerated by those who practice meditation regularly. Physically, meditation has been known to decrease blood pressure, increase oxygen flow, relieve muscle tension and improve sleep and the immune system. Many people who meditate experience an “inner peace” and understanding of the world around them, as well as a heightened awareness of inner self. It’s pretty spectacular to think that all of those things could be achieved by sitting in silence or chanting rhythmically, but

it has been working since antiquity and believe it or not, it’s tougher than you might ever think. Those new to meditation often do well focusing the mind on breathing or even an object, word or image. You can also focus on a state of being or feeling, like compassion or faith, which is a wonderful way to invite all of those things into your mind. As you become better at quieting your mind and emptying it of thoughts, the real search for Inner Self begins, and ask anyone who meditates…it’s a lifelong process. Meditation keeps a lot of people balanced and feeling comfortable in their own skin everyday. If you have never tried it and think it could help you (it can!), here are some very useful tips: Meditate daily. A good place to start would be twice a day for at least 10 minutes each time. Sit in a place where you will not be disturbed. Focus on a pleasant memory before you start and allow your breathing to become regular and focused. Tell yourself that any thoughts, plans or suggestions you have for yourself can wait until after you are done (they can!). You’ll soon find that thinking about nothing takes a lot of discipline, but if at first you have a difficult time clearing your mind, give yourself a break. It’s called the “practice” of meditation for a reason. Once you get in a flow, you’re sure to realize that meditation is a wonderful gift to give yourself every day. The world isn’t going anywhere, but wouldn’t it be nice to know you can escape it for a few minutes a day and come back with a more positive outlook, as well as a healthier body and mind? Be well!

Caregiver-to-Caregiver Transactions Can be Harmful to your Health by Chris Lindsey, Esq.

n the agricultural world, farmers, nurseries, seed companies and contractors rely on each other’s resources in the daily course of business. American farmers developed co-ops in our country both as an outlet for their produce and as a way to rely on each other for survival. In Montana, a medical cannabis farmer (or caregiver) who relies on another caregiver in a similar way might just end up in the state prison. This is one of the grayest of the proverbial gray areas in our law, the Medical Marijuana Act, or MMA. Depending on whom you talk with, where you are in the state, the branch of government you are talking to, and when the conversation takes place, you’ll get the full range of responses. So it’s either ok, somewhat questionable, highly suspect, or flat-out prosecutable. You might ask: Can the government get a little more specific? Apparently not. From the Attorney General’s office to the halls of the Department of Public Health and Human Services, no one will go on the record or make any sort of official statement about caregiver-to-caregiver anything. As a practical matter, it has fallen to the local county attorneys and their district courts to sort it out for themselves on a case by case, county by county basis. In the law, consistency and predictability are a big deal. It’s why we get things like published court opinions, really boringsounding contracts, formal cop-speak, and written laws. Citizens should be able to read the same law and derive the same set of rules. With the MMA, you give the law to five people and you get 6 opinions. The problem is, this shouldn’t be a guessing game – it’s about families, livelihoods and liberty, and Montanans are entitled to more clarity from their government. It appears that over the past several

months, law enforcement has increasingly taken the position that anything that falls under the broad description of caregiver-tocaregiver is illegal. Both the Attorney General’s office and the drug task force divisions have unofficially adopted this policy. In some parts of the state and for the first time in 6 years, law enforcement is directing its resources to investigate medical cannabis operations without any indication of “non-medical” conduct. Since people in the industry generally appear to assume that caregiver-to-caregiver activities are legal, it provides a false sense of security and an easy mark for law enforcement that wants to “get tough” on medical cannabis participants. After all, it’s pretty easy to shoot fish that think they are safely in the barrel. A first time caregiver has to get plants somewhere – cannabis doesn’t come from thin air. A caregiver whose crops are destroyed cannot survive if there is no way to meet the needs of a patient, and a patient who switches caregivers can face very long delays. Also, the one-ounce-per-patient limit imposes some incredibly strict requirements during a harvest. According to most in law enforcement right now, if your harvest is heavy, you can’t keep it and you can’t sell it either. Patients and caregivers under the Medical Marijuana Act are authorized to engage in any one of several activities that fall under the definition of “medical use.” Medical use means the acquisition, possession, cultivation, manufacture, delivery, transfer or transportation of medical cannabis. Prior to amendments in 2009, the Act allowed patients and caregivers to “assist in” medical use as well. This language seemed to form the basis for an arrangement in which caregivers supported one another (more on this in a bit). There is also the plain language of the statute which says that caregivers can “acquire”

and “transfer.” Amazingly, we will need our court system to help us understand what these words mean, since the list of activities that amount to medical use doesn’t also say “sell.” In other words, according to law enforcement it’s ok to acquire it, but anyone selling it is acting unlawfully (I am actually not kidding about this). In the case of a patient who is a minor, that person must have a parent or guardian who serves as his caregiver. If that parent can’t or doesn’t want to grow in the family home, it seems to make sense for that parent to go to another caregiver. If caregiverto-caregiver is illegal, it’s not much different than going to the black market for it. Except that the black market doesn’t operate out in the open, maintain patient records, know about growing conditions and variety pedigree, get their marijuana tested at laboratories, have bank accounts, or pay taxes. Finally, caregivers are asked to wait until the day they receive their caregiver card to serve the patient. The day the patient is ready to purchase is the same day the caregiver can start planting plants. So a patient waits 3-6 weeks to get the card, and is then supposed

to wait 3 months to make a purchase? What if Wal-Mart wouldn’t fill your prescription for 4 ½ months? It’s absurd. The problem is that the MMA does not spell anything out about caregiver-to-caregiver transactions. Also, the law was amended in 2009 to make clear that caregivers are not authorized to use cannabis unless they are separately qualified as patients. Unfortunately when the language was amended to close that possible loophole, the part that said caregivers can assist one another in medical use also went away, I think inadvertently. Law enforcement likes things black and white, and the practical dynamics of the industry are lost in the face of known black market dope dealers suddenly suffering from debilitating medical conditions and flashing mmj cards during a traffic stop. There is no question law enforcement is just as frustrated with our law as those trying to participate legitimately. We are in unregulated territory, it is ripe for abuse and no doubt it is being abused. When there isn’t clear language in the statute that addresses caregiver-to-caregiver, it is easy for law enforcement to assume it

It appears that over the past several months, law enforcement has increasingly taken the position that anything that falls under the broad description of caregiver-to-caregiver is illegal. simply isn’t lawful at all. It’s left for the citizens to try and interpret themselves. What’s the fix? Well for starters our government should step up and tell us what the ground rules are. It should not be ok for government to hide the ball. Groups like the Montana Medical Grower’s Association were founded on the principle of trying to figure out what the “rules of the road” are for caregivers and growers. For all the hard work and good intentions, the government has refused to take a stand officially and appears to be drawing the lines behind closed doors. The real solution, of course, is to fix our law. When can caregivers rely on each other? What services can be shared and used without fear of prosecution? Hopefully, whatever we end up with will take the realities of a farming business into account. In the mean time, if you are a caregiver, carefully consider what you are doing in your business. What may be an obvious solution

in any other industry may now be considered illegal by your county attorney. What may be considered lawful in another part of the state may not be considered lawful where you work. What you hear from one government agency may not be the same thing you hear somewhere else in government. Assume very much about what you do, you may be at risk of prosecution. Now is the time to make a difference - if this is important to you, make sure your own state representative knows how you feel about this critical issue. We need to know where we stand, and we need consistency in the way our laws are interpreted and enforced. WE nEEd a BEttEr laW. Chris Lindsey is the founder of The Lindsey Law Office, PLLC, a dedicated legal resource for Montana’s medical marijuana community. He can be reached at chris@lindseylawoffice.com

48 48

KUSH MAGAZINE

was invited by the folks at Delta 9 Tekhnologe to visit a C02 supercritical extractor they affectionately call “Big Bertha.” Behemoth in size and weighing thousands of pounds, the machine is a complex system of stainless steel vessels, tubes, and tanks that should be renamed the “intimidator.” One can only imagine it being used by NASA for rocket propulsion, or testing by scientists at the Food and Drug Administration. However, it’s primarily used on cannabis plants. Yes, you heard right, “Big Bertha” is primarily used to extract and process pure hash oil from cannabis plants through pressurized carbon dioxide (C02). The person who initiated the idea for using the C02 extractor for the medical marijuana industry remains a mystery, however, the people attracted to this technology are the folks we remember from our high school science lab. They were the first to get their experiment started while the rest of us stumbled with directions. According to Matthew Ellis of Organa Labs, the C02 extractor was originally used by non-cannabis industries such as coffee, spice or beer hops manufacturers that needed to extract essential oils from plant material. An example would include extracting oils from a rosemary plant for use in cooking. Therefore, the entrepreneurial light bulb went on when someone in the medical marijuana industry pontificated - quite possibly while medicating - about using this technology to make hash oil. The process of obtaining pure hash oil from dried cannabis plant material is a fascinating 8-hour journey through a controlled maze that essentially uses C02, pressure, and temperature to achieve the end result. This pressure can reach a staggering 1,200 pounds per square inch - equivalent to twice the force of a shark’s jaw breaking bones or one third of the force required to fly a plane. Mica Gross from Delta 9 Tekhnologe operates Big Bertha with respect and caution. For example, the simple act of opening valves to release C02 gas into the system requires Gross’ full attention, especially listening for potential leaks. Some of these sounds might be reminiscent of being trapped in a submarine that has reached its maximum depth, forcing even the bravest to take cover. Initially, the cannabis plant material is ground into a dry and powdery consistency that will be placed inside one of the three pressurized chambers, each of which is capable of processing ten pounds of cannabis plant material. The amount of hash oil yielded from 10 pounds of plant material depends on different factors, such as moisture content and the type of plant being used. Keeping plant material inside the chamber requires a lid to be sealed with a rocket gasket, and large bolts that are the size used to secure tires on a truck.

The hash oil itself appears similar to molasses, amber in color and the consistency of motor oil. Edibles companies use hash oil for infusing into their products, or patients seeking to enhance their medication experience. Hash oil has much higher levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). Delta 9 Teknologe provided CannLabs testing results that indicated THC levels at a whopping 84.174% and active cannabinoids per dose at 87.696%. Medical marijuana patients prefer C02 extracted hash oil, according to owner Jan Cole from The Farm in Boulder, due to the safe and pure way the oil has been processed. Cole owns a smaller version of Big Bertha that is used by her marijuana center. As opposed to the other methods for processing hash oil, Cole believes the C02 method of extraction attracts the true connoisseur seeking a certain type of medical treatment.

“BIG BERTHA” IS PRIMARILY USED TO EXTRACT AND PROCESS PURE HASH OIL FROM CANNABIS PLANTS THROUGH PRESSURIZED CARBON DIOXIDE (C02). As the medical marijuana industry evolves, machines like the supercritical C02 extractor can be used to further the science of cannabis to separate THC and CBD from each other, and tag molecules for certain medical conditions. But for now, with such high levels of THC and CBD, medical marijuana patients should heed the advice of Delta 9’s Brusch - “a little dab will do ya.”

As C02 is introduced into the system, pressure and temperature gauges are watched carefully to reach the delicate and magical moment when gas becomes liquid. In the scientific world, “supercritical” becomes super important, as Gross uses his background in chemistry, physics, and thermodynamics to keep the system in balance. Co-worker Sonia Brusch enthusiastically calls this moment PV=nRT. For us non-scientists, that means “stuff” is getting made.

49 49

5050

51 51

by LUIGI ZAMARRA, CPA

In the past several years, public opinion regarding the medical use of cannabis has been changing rapidly. So far, 14 states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation legalizing the dispensing of cannabis for medical purposes and, according to Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), a non-profit policy think-tank, 17 additional states recognize the medical value of cannabis, some of which are considering legislation to allow dispensaries themselves. However, the Internal Revenue Code has yet to be amended to recognize the legitimacy of medical cannabis dispensaries, in large part because cannabis, or marijuana, continues to be treated as a controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act, a federal law passed in 1970. As a result, Internal Revenue Code Section 280E disallows claiming otherwise completely legitimate business expenses that are incurred in a trade or business, simply because the business is associated with medical marijuana.

History of IrC Section 280E IRC Section 280E was enacted in 1982 during the Reagan administration, long before the general public understood the medicinal value of cannabis. It was enacted largely in response

52 52

to public reaction to the Tax Court case of Edmondson v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo 1981-623. The Tax Court ruled in this case that the taxpayer could deduct his telephone, automobile and other business expenses because they were “ordinary and necessary expenses incurred in connection with the taxpayer’s trade or business” of selling illegal drugs. In fact, although the IRS challenged the amount of the expenses, it did not challenge the principal that such amounts were deductible. Congress caught wind of this case and enacted IRC Section 280E in response. In the legislative history the Senate Finance Committee noted that: “On public policy grounds, the Code makes certain otherwise ordinary and necessary expenses incurred in a trade or business nondeductible in computing taxable income. These nondeductible expenses include fines, illegal bribes and kickbacks, and certain other illegal payments.” The report went on, “There is a sharply defined public policy against drug dealing...such deductions must be disallowed on public policy grounds.” Thus, it seems clear that Section 280E was enacted based upon public policy concerns at that time. Well, public opinion changes over time.

Changing Public Opinion California passed Proposition 215 in 1996. Since then more than a dozen other states have passed similar legislation to legalize medical cannabis dispensaries. Even the larger business community now recognizes the legitimacy of this new industry (see Fortune Magazine, “Is Pot Already Legal?” September 28, 2009.) There are similar movements afoot in many countries around the world. The larger public has learned to differentiate, and it no longer lumps medical cannabis together in the same basket with cocaine and heroin usage. Few people dare to maintain the untenable position that cannabis has more detrimental social effects than alcohol. Public opinion regarding the medical use of cannabis is rapidly changing. The Internal Revenue Service has begun to audit the tax returns of cannabis dispensaries that are legally operating under state laws. They are aggressively applying Section 280E to disallow many ordinary and necessary business expenses. While changes to the tax law lag behind changes made by business enterprises and changes in public opinion, the tax law usually does eventually catch up. Now is the time to amend Section 280E.

Federal Internal revenue Code Should remain neutral Under the federal Controlled Substances Act, cannabis is a Schedule I controlled substance, even though it may be medically recommended by a physician to benefit the health of the user. Thus, the federal law continues to assert a position that contradicts state law, at least with respect to the 14 states that have enacted medical cannabis legislation. Although the Supreme Court has supported this position (See U.S. v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Coop., 532 U.S. 483 (2001)), it continues to be the subject of debate among theorists on Constitutional law. It cannot be denied that the Internal Revenue Code is federal income tax law. However, does this give the federal government the right to disallow valid business expenses to medical cannabis dispensaries that are operating legally under state law? That is just too “back door.” If the federal government wants to fight the medical use of cannabis, it should do so via the Controlled Substances Act and face-off against the states in criminal court.

It should not use IRC Section 280E to punish dispensaries with a hidden “fine.” The Internal Revenue Code should remain neutral, and provide fair rules for taxpayers that are operating legally and legitimately. There should be an exception to the application of IRC Section 280E for any medical cannabis dispensary that is operating legally under state law. This change is clearly supported by the interplay between the legislative history of Section 280E and the change in public opinion that has transpired since its enactment.

to Change administratively or legislatively?

It is not clear if this change could be made administratively. But even if it can be, it appears the IRS, the only party empowered to make this change this way, might be unwilling to do so, given the gusto with which it has wielded Section 280E against dispensaries under examination. Thus, it seems that this “technical correction” (a term-of-art used by tax professionals for a change in the tax law that is necessitated by changes in industry that have transpired since enactment of the original tax law) will need to be made legislatively. Making this change to IRC Section 280E is the right thing to do. Medical cannabis dispensaries are legal and legitimate businesses; they are good corporate citizens who pay significant amounts of taxes to local and state governments as well (governments that have begun to depend upon these revenues). It is only fair that they be entitled to the same business deductions as other taxpayers. Denying them deductions because of public policy concerns does not comport well with favorable current (although recently changed) public opinion concerning medical cannabis. Luigi Zamarra, CPA is the Chief Financial Officer of Harborside Health Center, recognized as one of the largest medical cannabis dispensaries in the United States. He has a BS in Commerce and an MS in Accounting from the University of Virginia. He worked with the Big 4 accounting firms for twelve years, rising to the position of Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, before starting to work with regional businesses as a public accountant in San Francisco. Luigi now lives and works in Oakland, CA. He can be reached at luigi.zamarra@ harborsidehealthcenter.com

53 53

by Michael Geci, MD

The Next Step: EDUCATING DOCTORS

Change takes time. And it’s time for a change.

In the last issue of Kush, I spoke of the revolution of the testing labs and how the insights of active ingredient testing and labeling will help propel cannabis into a more respected and accepted business industry. Knowing what is in the medicines we take seems fundamental, and now cannabis has an opportunity to take its rightful place as the blockbuster medicinal herb. I could write for hours about aspects of cannabinoid testing. What constitutes a reliable lab? What do all the numbers mean? Which numbers are good and which ones are bad? How can my patients benefit from the information a lab gives me? There is a ton to discuss...but this month I thought I’d try to talk about something else I know something about...doctors. Doctors. We’re a bit of an odd lot. Most of you aren’t held to the same levels of professional conduct and practice as physicians. Most jobs don’t deal with life and death issues on a daily basis. We are supposed to be the keepers of the art of healing, but, sometimes, the art gets lost. Fortunately, doctors are good learners. We’re selected out of the population for that trait. That which we learn and forget, we can re-learn and remember. For those of you who don’t know, my original training was in emergency medicine, after graduating from the Medical College of Georgia. For nearly twenty years I’ve worked in lots of hospitals east of the Mississippi, from level 1 Trauma centers to rural clinics where the nearest hospital backup was way longer than I’d like it to be if I was really sick. My point of all of this is to establish some context. Working in the ER has given me a gift of knowing how doctors think in every specialty, from psychiatry and pediatrics to neurosurgery and trauma...and everything in between. I’ve had conversations with thousands of doctors in my career. I would call them regarding patients they may or may not have known, but now they were hearing about something that I deemed important to me, so, for the most part, they listened.

Although I don’t own a TV, I do get out enough to know that pharmaceutical companies spend a lot of money trying to convince patients to get up the courage to ask their doctors about whether drug x, y, or z may be right for them. From Ambien to Viagra, big pharma medication ads keep us humored and informed on the latest drug developments that we might be eligible to be prescribed. An added bonus is that they are keeping a lot of actors off the unemployment rolls. But what if you were to ask your doctor if cannabis is right for you? What would they say? How many doctors would dodge the question because of ignorance or fear? My sense is there would be a lot of doctors that are truly ignorant of the potential clinical benefits that cannabis could offer a significant number of their patients. Without an educated medical community, the steps we take toward making medical cannabis an accepted part of our culture will surely be dwarfed until those with medical degrees understand the plants’ relationship to our own physiology and pathology. As you read this, we are still in the waning shadows of the irrational fear of repeal of MT 148. Under the assumption that the Montana legislature will ultimately do the right thing and come up with a reasonable and progressive bill to help regulate this exciting new industry, we can expect rules to be better defined, allowing the industry an infrastructure to flourish. Soon everyone will be able to take a deep breath and relax. But then what? Educate physicians regarding the safe and responsible clinical use of cannabis. I would like to propose a statewide effort to reach out to physicians all across the state. We tend to listen to our peers when we are presented with new information, so physicians speaking to other physicians about responsible and safe cannabis use has a real potential to catapult us out of the dark ages of cannabis misinformation.

There may be a time in the near future when family practitioners, OB/GYN’s, pediatricians, orthopedists, rheumatologists, emergency physicians, ophthalmologists, surgeons, as well as everyone who’s taken the Hippocratic Oath, could see the true utility of appropriately dosing cannabis to meet the needs of supplementing the patient’s own endocannabinoid system. There was a time, not that long ago that I too was ignorant of the value of modulating the human endocannabinoid system with preparations of cannabis. I remember my personal epiphany quite clearly. It was a September afternoon after a long bike ride up Hyalite Canyon. I was browsing through PubMed and came across an Italian study that talked about using cannabidiol in heart attack victims (albeit they were rats). The rats given cannabidiol had 2/3’s less heart damage then those rats that received placebo. In the medical profession, we doctors get all excited if a new medicine or treatment can improve upon conventional therapies by 10%, so when you get a difference of over 66%, that gets even the most cynical doctors attention. It sure got mine. Certainly there are doctors who will forever shut their eyes to the realities of medical cannabis use, seeing it as a larger religious and/or moral issue. The fear of knowing sometimes outweighs the fear of remaining ignorant, and the questions that get raised might seem too daunting to some. But that’s something we can change. We take a vow to ‘do no harm.’ Above all, doctors want to know the truth. There are a lot of doctors who would be grateful for the opportunity to learn about the facts of cannabis, cannabinoids, and the endocannabinoid system from a fellow peer. If doctors are comfortable with cannabis, patients and politicians will follow suit. Change takes time. And it’s time for a change. If anyone reading this would like for us to come and present a program to your local hospital or clinic, please feel free to contact my office @ 406-580-5311 or contact me through email: michael@montanabotanicalanalysis.com

Besides James Brown, Rick James or George Clinton, Detroit-born artist Overton Loyd is one of the few officially authorized to talk about the word “Funk.” Loyd’s cover art for seminal funk band Parliament aka P-Funk is the visual equivalent of P-Funk‘s music. His signature style is now known the world over as the “Funk Aesthetic” and his work retranslates funk music’s swagger and flavor into cartoons, comics, loose sketches, paintings and digital illustrations. For over 30 years Loyd’s art has worked symbiotically with P-Funk’s music to bring a powerful ‘multimedia’ experience before ‘multimedia’ even existed. like many pioneers he has been too busy living the experience to realize how groundbreaking the work is. “Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine that we were actually at the genesis of initiating contemporary urban branding,” he reflects. “I’m only now waking up to that wild idea.” L.A. artist and publisher John Carr has published several of Loyd’s images in his book “Yo What Happened to Peace?!” and has some pretty flattering words about him. “I’d put him in the same category as a jazz virtuoso or your favorite hip-hop MC crazy improvisation and freestyle while delivering a tightly crafted message,” emphasizes Carr. “His drawings and paintings arE jazz, arE funk, arE hip-hop.” Loyd’s work can rightfully be called a precursor to the urban art movement of West Coast graffiti and hip-hop. Arik Marshall, former guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers calls him “a truly gifted artist whose versatility with different styles and mediums is extraordinary—the man can paint like Monet money...make you marvel at his Marvel meets Richard Pryor comic book cartooning...sell you some surreal estate in the Daliwood Hills...silly, serious, classic, abstract, funky, highbrow...whatever’s clever...da bruthaz got it all!”

In order to understand why Loyd is so versatile it’s important to talk about Detroit. Loyd was born in the Motor City in the mid 1950s, a time when the city was still booming. Motown was still in Detroit until 1970, but as Vietnam began to set in, factories began closing down, and jobs became harder to come by. Motor City made way for Devils Night, and Detroit of the Civil Rights era was hot like Watts. The city’s 1967 riots were the biggest riots in American history until Los Angeles assumed that crown in ‘92. Detroit’s climate of chaos and unstable socioeconomics made music of protest. The Chicago-Detroit Nexus was one of the centers of the Black Arts movement, and Broadside Press, founded by Detroit poet Dudley Randall, published Black Arts poets like Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Don L. Lee, and Sonia Sanchez. Beside the black artists, some progressive white boys were also pushing frontiers. The band MC5 formed the White Panther Party in Detroit around the same time punk rock pioneers Iggy & the Stooges were coming to rise. Loyd soaked up all of this in his Detroit youth. And the rest? The rest was the beginning of history… He began his epic journey as an artist in 1971. “Before I met George Clinton, I created an oil painting of Isaac Hayes in high school,” Loyd recalls. “A woman who worked with Hayes saw me doodling in a sketch book at a cafe, and invited me to Isaac’s birthday party, where I presented him with the painting.” From there, he got a gig as the in-house artist for Detroit’s Shelby Hotel. “I was painting a mural for a club that they had called JJ’s Lounge where I met a ton of performers, including Sun Ra and Martin Mull.”

Here are some all day Television Snack recipes so you can graze your way through the upcoming College Basketball tournament.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT

CHEF HERB COOK WITH HERB

GO TO WWW.COOKWITHHERB.COM

Chef herbâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s baked Pretzel IngrEdIEntS -1 cup all-purpose flour -2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese -1/2 teaspoon garlic powder -1/4 teaspoon dried basil -1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary -1/4 teaspoon dried oregano -1/2 cup THC butter -4 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded -3 tablespoons cold water dIrECtIOnS Mix the flour, parmesan cheese, garlic powder, basil, rosemary, and oregano in a large bowl. Cut THC butter into small cubes, and add to flour mixture. Use a pastry blender or 2 knives to cut the THC butter into the flour; continue until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in cheese. Sprinkle water, 1 tablespoon at a time, over the flour mixture; mix lightly until dough is evenly moist and clings together. You may not use all of the water. Shape dough into a disc, and divide into 12 equal pieces. Wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm. Preheat an oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). On a floured surface, roll one piece of dough at a time into an 11 inch long roll. To shape into pretzels: Curve ends of each rope to make a circle; cross ends at top. Twist ends once, and lay over bottom of circle. Place on greased baking sheets. Place pretzels, 2 inches apart, on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks.

dIrECtIOnS Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Lightly grease a large roasting pan. In a large bowl, mix crispy corn and rice cereal, slivered almonds and toasted, chopped pecans. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the THC butter and mix with dark corn syrup and light brown sugar. Pour the mixture over the crispy corn and rice cereal mixture. Stir and shake to coat all the nuts and cereal. Pour the coated mixture into the prepared roasting pan. Stirring approximately every 15 minutes, cook 1 hour in the preheated oven. Cool on wax paper, and store in airtight containers.

Cheesy PoP Corn IngrEdIEntS: -1/4 cup THC butter, melted -1 teaspoon paprika -1/2 teaspoon ground cumin -1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper -10 cups popped popcorn -1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese PrEParatIOn: Combine melted THC butter, paprika, crushed red pepper, and ground cumin; toss with popcorn, coating evenly. Sprinkle with cheese; toss. Makes 10 cups.

sweet Party Mix IngrEdIEntS -1 (12 ounce) package crispy corn and rice cereal -5 ounces slivered almonds -6 ounces toasted, chopped pecans -3/4 cup THC butter -3/4 cup dark corn syrup -1 1/2 cups light brown sugar

ParMesan ChiCken winGs IngrEdIEntS: 1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese 2 tablespoons minced fresh flat leaf Italian parsley 2 teaspoons crumbled dried Italian herbs Freshly ground black pepper to taste 2 pounds chicken wings 1/3 cup melted THC butter dIrECtIOnS Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease a baking sheet and set aside. In a large shallow bowl, mix together the cheese, herbs, and pepper. Dip each chicken wing into the THC butter and then dip into the cheese mixture and roll to coat. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes, then flip over. Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until golden.

tortilla rolluPs IngrEdIEntS: -12 (14-ounce package) flour tortillas -8 ounces cream cheese, softened -1/8 cup THC butter -1 cup sour cream -1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chilies -3 tablespoons chopped green onion -2 tablespoons finely chopped red bell pepper -12 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, grated -1 cup salsa or picante sauce dIrECtIOnS In a medium bowl combine cream cheese, THC butter, sour cream, chilies, onion, red bell pepper, and Cheddar cheese. Mix thoroughly. Spread onto tortillas and roll up. Cover tightly and chill for 2 hours or overnight. When ready to serve, cut each roll into 1/2-inch slices. Serve with salsa or picante sauce. Makes about 8 dozen pieces of tortilla roll-ups.

QuiCk lasaGna Casserole

IngrEdIEntS -8 ounce dried miniature lasagna noodles, broken -12 ounce mild or hot bulk Italian sausage -2-1/2 cups desired red pasta sauce

-Âź cup THC olive oil -1 egg, beaten -1 cup cream-style cottage cheese -2 tablespoons grated Parmesan or Romano cheese -3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (3 oz.) dIrECtIOnS 1. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain. 2. Meanwhile, in a microwave-safe 2-quart square baking dish, crumble sausage. Cover with vented plastic wrap and microwave on 100 percent power (high) for 4 to 6 minutes or until sausage is brown, stirring once or twice. Drain fat. 3. Stir cooked pasta and pasta sauce into sausage in dish. Cover and microwave on high for 2 to 3 minutes or until heated through, stirring once. 4. In a medium bowl, stir together egg,THC olive oil, cottage cheese, and Parmesan or Romano cheese. Spoon mixture over pasta mixture. Cover and microwave on high for 6 to 7 minutes more or until heated through. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes before serving

Cheesy Potato bake IngrEdIEntS -2 lb. red potatoes -3 or 4 cloves garlic, minced -1-1/2 tsp. snipped fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp. dried thyme, crushed -1/4 cup THC butter -1 cup buttermilk -4 oz. Fontina cheese, shredded (1 cup) -4 oz. Parmesan cheese, finely shredded (1 cup) -1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese -1/2 cup panko (Japanese-style bread crumbs) -1/4 tsp. dried Italian seasoning, crushed -1 Tbsp. THC olive oil -Snipped fresh parsley (optional)

2. In a 12-inch skillet cook and stir garlic and thyme in THC butter over medium heat for 1 minute; add potatoes. Coarsely mash potatoes. Stir in buttermilk, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. black pepper. Fold in Fontina cheese, half of the Parmesan, and the blue cheese. Evenly spread in baking dish. 3. In small bowl combine remaining Parmesan, panko, Italian seasoning, and THC olive oil; toss with a fork to combine. Evenly sprinkle over potato mixture in dish. Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly and top is golden. Sprinkle with snipped fresh parsley

siMPle Peanut butter bars IngrEdIEntS 2 cups peanut butter* - divided use 3/4 cup THCbutter 2 cups powdered sugar 3 cups graham cracker crumbs 2 cups (12 ounce package) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Morsels divided use Beat 1 1/4 cups peanut butter and THC butter in large mixer bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in 1 cup powdered sugar. With hands or spoon, work in remaining powdered sugar, graham cracker crumbs and 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Press mixture evenly and firmly into a greased 13 x 9-inch Pan. Melt remaining peanut butter and remaining chocolate chips in medium, heavy-duty saucepan over lowest possible heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. Spread over graham cracker crust in pan. Chill for at least 1 hour or until chocolate is firm; cut into bars. Store in refrigerator.

dIrECtIOnS 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a 2-quart square baking dish; set aside. Scrub potatoes; cut in 1-inch pieces. In large saucepan cook potatoes in lightly salted boiling water 12 to 15 minutes or until tender; drain.

DISPENSARy Listing

"Is your listing here? For new listings or corrections please contact us at: info@dailybuds.comâ&#x20AC;? brought to you by dailybuds.com 62

DISPENSARy Listing

"Is your listing here? For new listings or corrections please contact us at: info@dailybuds.comâ&#x20AC;? brought to you by dailybuds.com 63

DISPENSARy Listing

"Is your listing here? For new listings or corrections please contact us at: info@dailybuds.comâ&#x20AC;? brought to you by dailybuds.com 64

List of Advertisers Americanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s for Safe Access p 41 Big Sky Health p 2 Bizzy Bees p 3 Cannabis Care p 11 CC of Montana p 23 Chef Herb p 44 Chronic Caregivers p 27 Ed Rosenthal p 12 Five Friends Inc. p 66 Four Seasons Gardening p 14 Grassroots p 27 Green Mt Medical Solutions (backcover) KannaKare p. 29 LA Container/LA Packaging p 11 Lindsey Law Office p 65 Lion Heart Caregiving p 9 Mary Janeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Kitchen p 29 Mining City Medical Marijuana p 17 Montanans for Responsible Legislation p 50 Montana Medibles p 21 Montana Medical Growers Association p 7 Montana NORML p 4 Montana Botanical Analysis p 23 Montana Buds p 17 Mountain Myers p 11 Natural Remedies p 15 NCIA p 51 Organic Relief LLC p 27 Patient Benefit Association p 33 Panacea p 23 Peaceful Provider p 65 Soul Tonix p 15 Tamarack Dispensary p 67 The Clinic p 5 The Gourmet Remedy (back cover) The Grateful Shed p 33 The Montana Cannabis and Hemp Foundation p 21 Town Center Homeopathic Medicine LLC p 33 Zoo Mt Natural Care, Inc p 25