NortheastLeaf_Jan2026

THE ENL IGHTENED VOICE RETURNS

#61 | J AN. 2026

NORTHEAST

The Weed & Wellness Issue F RE E / L E A F M AGA Z I N E S . COM

INDEPENDENT CANNABIS JOURNALISM SINCE 2010

TOP NOTCH BUDS

AS NATURE INTENDED. AUTHENTIC AROMA

TRUE TASTE

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Indoor grown in state-of-the-art facilities and overseen from seed to store by our best-in-class cultivation teams, our plants are handled with the utmost care. Extensive cultivar catalog research allows us to optimize the growing conditions for each cultivar, ensuring our buds retain their true-to-nature characteristics.

Rigorous research and development ensures the selection of big, beautiful buds with full trichome coverage for premium aroma, flavor and enhanced efficacy—a full sensory experience that’s authentic to each cultivar.

FIND BIG BUDS NEAR YOU GRASSROOTSCANNABIS.COM

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PLEASE CONSUME RESPONSIBLY. MARIJUANA CAN IMPAIR CONCENTRATION, COORDINATION, AND JUDGMENT. THERE MAY BE HEALTH RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH CONSUMPTION OF THIS PRODUCT. FOR USE ONLY BY ADULTS 21 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER. 18+ FOR MEDICAL STATES. KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN. DO NOT OPERATE A VEHICLE OR HEAVY MACHINERY WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THIS DRUG. LAWS GOVERNING LEGALITY, AVAILABILITY AND USE OF MARIJUANA VARY BY STATE. CDPH-1003298, 404R-00025, AMS 351, DEVINE DESERT HEALING INC. A/U: 00000026ESRZ99769978.

GROWING TOGETHER

Breeding Grounds is a project under which Sensi Seeds releases its cutting-edge strains.

As part of this program, we join hands with breeders of Sherbinskis, Serge Cannabis, Champelli, Humboldt Seed Company, Fat Beans, and more.

We are proud to be at the forefront of developing ground-breaking genetics, working in collaboration with some of the best breeders worldwide.

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#61

One Family's Experience with Low-Dose Cannabis

ROUTE 27

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SKIN DEEP

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ANGELA-JORDAN AGUILAR @AJ.OG

GROW TOUR

JOURNEY OF THE HEART

TOPICAL ROUNDUP

ERIKO KOBAYASHI

ELEVATED HERB SHOP REVIEW

JAN. 2026

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LEAF EXPLAINER

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PAPA & BARKLEY

COMPANY PROFILE

OVCHARKA 22 INDUSTRIES STUDIO SESSIONS

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COURTESY

PERSPECTIVE

CANNABIS RESCHEDULED?

OVCHARKA INDUSTRIES @OVCHARKART

SPARKING COMMUNITY

ADOBE STOCK

COURTESY COURTESY

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GLASS ART SPOTLIGHT

09 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 33 34 36 38

EDITOR’S NOTE GLASS IS DEAD SPARKING COMMUNITY FIRE FOLLOWER GROW TOUR RESCHEDULED? STRAIN OF THE MONTH SHOP REVIEW TOPICAL ROUNDUP PAPA & BARKLEY EDIBLE REVIEWS CONCENTRATES COOKING WITH CANNABIS GLASS ART SPOTLIGHT ELEVATE YOUR FATE CANNTHROPOLOGY STUDIO SESSIONS

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TERPODACTYL MEDIA @TERPODACTYL_MEDIA

Dementia Relief and Plant Medicine:

WYLD FIRE @WYLDFIRE.CO

LEAD GROWER JACK SHEEHAN

COURTESY

the WEED & WELLNESS issue

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issue

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JAN. 2026

N O RT H E AS T

Thank you to the farmers and all the people who help proudly grow our product in New York.

E S TA B L I S H E D 2 0 1 0

T H E E N L I G H T E N E D VO I C E

N O RT H W E ST LEA F / O R EG O N LEA F / M ARY LAN D LEA F / CAL I F O R N I A LEA F / N O RT HEAST LEA F

Today, most folks are well aware of this plant’s wide wellness potential.

Mary Jane’s been taking care of so many of us for ages. But what about her? Does she ever get a day off? For this year’s Weed and Wellness cover, Leaf Magazines director of content and longtime contributor Amanda Lopez (@ terpodactyl_media) imagined a day of self-care for Cannabis herself — featuring Dogwalker flower by Luvli (@luvlipdx) and mini bong/lighter by LevelHeady (@levelheady).

PHOTO BY TERPODACTYL MEDIA @TERPODACTYL_MEDIA

CONTRIBUTORS

WES ABNEY C E O & F O U N D E R wes@leafmagazines.com MIKE RICKER O P E R AT I N G PA R T N E R ricker@leafmagazines.com

TOM BOWERS C H I E F O P E R AT I N G O F F I C E R tom@leafmagazines.com DANIEL BERMAN C H I E F C R E AT I V E O F F I C E R daniel@leafmagazines.com TERPODACTYL MEDIA C O N T E N T D I R E C T O R amanda@leafmagazines.com

BOBBY BLACK LEAF BOWL DIRECTOR & HISTORIAN bobbyblack@leafmagazines.com MIKE GIANAKOS O N L I N E E D I T O R mikeg@leafmagazines.com MICHELLE NARANJO C O PY E D I T O R michelle@leafmagazines.com JACKIE BRYANT C O PY E D I T O R jackie@leafmagazines.com MATT JACKSON SOCIAL MEDIA mattjackson@leafmagazines.com

WES ABNEY, FEATURES ADHDDEAD, FEATURES AJ AGUILAR, FEATURES + PHOTOS DANIEL BERMAN, DESIGN BOBBY BLACK, DESIGN + FEATURES TOM BOWERS, FEATURES JACKIE BRYANT, FEATURES DAVID DOWNS, FEATURES NICK EVANS, REVIEWS REX HILSINGER, FEATURES CRYSTAL HOFFMAN, REVIEWS ELLEN HOLLAND, FEATURES MATT JACKSON, FEATURES JAKE KERN, REVIEWS DARREN MILLER, PHOTOS MIKE ROSATI, PHOTOS MIKE STALTER, PHOTOS TERPODACTYL MEDIA, FEATURES + PHOTOS BONITA RODRIGUEZ, PHOTOS BRIAN SANNER, FEATURES + PHOTOS BAILEY WHITEHILL, PHOTOS BRUCE & LAURIE WOLF, RECIPES KATHERINE WOLF, FEATURES

We are creators of targeted, independent Cannabis journalism. Please email us to discuss advertising in the next issue of Northeast Leaf Magazine. We do not sell stories or coverage. Email paige@leafmagazines.com to start advertising!

CON N EC T W I T H

NORTHEAST LEAF!

Exclusive Cannabis Journalism @NORTHEASTLEAFMAG

Editor’s Note Thanks for picking up The Weed and Wellness issue!

As a child of the ’90s, I grew up with the well-balanced breakfast commercials that sold our parents processed sugary crap instead of eggs, which are shown to increase child IQ, unlike artificially colored pebbles. This childhood pursuit of the perfect breakfast led me to bong hits and coffee as an adult, which I fell in love with during college seshes with Leaf Chief Creative Officer Daniel Berman, but I didn’t realize how healthy that choice actually was until later in life.

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American culture is shifting from excess, artificial, processed and boozy to natural, clean, healthy and high, which makes celebrating the concept of weed and wellness so intoxicating and enlightening! What was considered a taboo and illegal drug a decade ago is now the leading wellness sector in America. Today, I’m downing dark coffee with a splash of half and half, big hits of gassy terps to clear the morning fog and a high-protein diet blended with lots of edibles and gym time, and I feel better than I ever have, thanks to Cannabis.

Our body’s endocannabinoid system is as large and integrated into our health as the central nervous system, playing an important role in overall mental and physical health. The ECS regulates core body functions within the nervous, endocrine and immune systems. The body even produces natural “WHAT WAS endocannabinoids, with receptors for cannabinoids throughout the body CONSIDERED having an important role in sleep, appetite, mood, pain, stress, memory, A TABOO AND fertility and inflammatory responses. This all happens naturally, just like ILLEGAL DRUG the cannabinoids that can be found in breast milk.

A DECADE Taking the sum of human history with Cannabis, the integration of an endocannabinoid system in our body and the myriad benefits of the plant on the human body, it’s almost as if the plant and our species developed at the same time. To my mind, this speaks of creation and a relationship between us and a plant that was given to the world by God.

AGO IS NOW THE LEADING WELLNESS SECTOR IN AMERICA.”

Science has given us undeniable proof that our bodies are meant to work with Cannabis, and today we can pursue health and wellness while feeling good (aka baked as the nug on our cover). Self-care is health care, so dabs and face masks should be celebrated, especially over a night out drinking, which is terrible for skin and health.

As I approach three years of sobriety from alcohol this February, my heart glows with the love for and benefit of Cannabis, which is why I started publishing the Leaf in 2010. The plant is good news, an ordained gift, for the healing of the nations, and it all starts with sharing a hit. Let’s make 2026 the healthiest year yet with a deep dive into Cannabis wellness, and remember to share the Leaf and invite friends and family to join the fun! You never know who might be saved by this miracle of a plant.

NORTHEAST LEAF MAGAZINE

LEAFMAGAZINES.COM

-Wes Abney

jan. 2026

PHOTO BY REX HILSINGER @BOROPHOTO

A B O U T T H E C OV E R

perspective

Former San Diego Magazine Managing Editor Jackie Bryant joins Leaf Nation to imagine the future of the Cannabis industry.

GLASS IS DEAD

A living retrospective of the Grateful Dead’s visual legacy debuts at The Chambers Project

On a recent December weekend in Grass Valley, California — not far from the redwood-spined heartlands of psychedelic America — The Chambers Project gallery unveiled “60 Years of the Grateful Dead,” a sweeping, reverent retrospective of the band’s visual and cultural impact. Co-presented with the Psychedelic Arts and Culture Trust, the show captures not just the band’s artwork but also the full scope of a still-thriving creative lineage. From Rick Griffin’s molten lettering to Banjo’s sculptural glass reinterpretation of “Aoxomoxoa,” it’s a tribute to what the Dead were, the world they built and what they’ve made possible.

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DARREN MILLER @DMILLDIGITAL

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CURATED BY Chambers Project founder Brian Chambers, the show gathers original artworks, sketches, posters and never-before-exhibited pieces that shaped the Grateful Dead’s visual identity.

“The Dead have always been a nexus of creativity,” Chambers said. “There’s a whole visual vocabulary that followed them and influenced so much beyond them.”

Works by Rick Griffin, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, Victor Moscoso, Wes Wilson and others anchor the historical core of the show, with seminal items like Griffin’s original “Aoxomoxoa” drawing and Bill Walker’s evolving “Anthem of the Sun” mandala

jan. 2026

commanding the room. But the retrospective also folds in the future, placing legacy alongside contemporary voices like AJ Masthay and Zoltron — artists who extend the poster lineage into modern counterculture (and the latter of whom co-curated the exhibit with Chambers).

One of the exhibition’s most talked about pieces comes from Banjo, a master glass artist whose career traces directly back to Grateful Dead parking lots.

“I started blowing glass in 1999, and at that time, the artistic pipe scene was still a tiny offshoot of the Grateful Dead community,” Banjo said.

“Bob Snodgrass was selling color-changing pipes on tour with the Dead in the mid-’80s — that’s the genesis of this whole movement.”

Banjo’s centerpiece is a sculptural glass tribute to Griffin’s “Hawaiian Aoxomoxoa” poster, a 1969 image commissioned for a show that never happened. “It’s arguably Griffin’s masterpiece,” Banjo said. “The wings, the sun, the lava, the skull — it’s this elemental invocation of life and death. He spoke about it in terms of ovums and fetuses and skulls. You can feel it all in that piece.”

Over four months, Banjo translated that “People are 2D image into an intricately laydrawn to ered, fully functional glass pipe, (glass) on a complete with miniature surfers, primal level, breaking waves, lava flows and the way we’re a radiant sun chamber. “I didn’t drawn to fire. want it to just be a sculpture Add Cannabis that sat there,” he said. “The to that, and challenge was to make it someit becomes thing that worked, that ripped a deeply and still honored the sacred intentional geometry and composition of Rick’s original.” ritual.”

Glass, for Banjo and many in the scene, isn’t just a medium but a ritual, elemental act. “Glass is earth, water, air and fire. You melt sand with flame and breathe it into form,” he said.

“It’s ancestral. People are drawn to it on a primal level, the way we’re drawn to fire. Add Cannabis to that, and it becomes a deeply intentional ritual.”

Those points of origin IF YOU GO — fire, glass, music and “60 Years of the Cannabis — are where the Grateful Dead” Dead’s influence ripples is on view now most profoundly. “The pipe through June scene literally grew out of the Dead tours,” Banjo 1, 2026 at The said. “It was people selling Chambers Project pipes next to tie-dyes and 627 E. Main St., hemp necklaces. We didn’t Grass Valley, CA have color palettes back Monday-Friday, then. Just the culture, the 10 a.m.-5 p.m. creativity, the weed and a “Glass Is Dead” sense of reverence.”

The Dead Retrospective opens January 31. show puts that lineage on full display. At the opening weekend, a one-night supergroup dubbed White Lightning — featuring Grahame Lesh, Pete Sears, John Molo and others — played the Bodhi Hive in Nevada City.

Simultaneously, a dedicated glass section within the show, curated by Banjo, showcased other leading artists from the functional glass movement.

That section will expand into a stand-alone exhibition opening January 31 titled “Glass Is Dead” — a nod to both the scene’s origin and its continuous evolution.

“There’s been stigma, especially in the fine art world,” Banjo said.

“We were shunned — it was illegal, it wasn’t refined, and people didn’t see the art. But that’s changed. Now, the Corning Museum of Glass is flying me and my son out to teach glass pipe classes. There are pipes in their museum store. It’s finally being recognized as serious, transformative work.”

Chambers sees the exhibits — and PACT’s formal debut — as launchpads. “We’re entering a phase where these shows are going to be curated with museum-level intention and historical grounding," he said. "We’re not just preserving — now, we’re expanding.”

The Retrospective exhibition runs through June 1 with evolving programming that reflects the multiverse of creativity the Dead catalyzed: jewelry, clothing, poster art, projection and sound. As Banjo put it, “It’s not just glass.

It’s a full spectrum of subcultures that emerged because of this one band. And they’re still alive.”

In the heart of the gallery, amid Griffin’s ink lines and Banjo’s molten reimagining, that much is obvious: glass is dead — long live the Dead. @THECHAMBERSPROJECT @BANJOGLASS

STORY by JACKIE BRYANT @JACQBRY | EVENT PHOTOS by BAILEY WHITEHILL Author Portrait by Iydeen Younis | See more photos at LeafMagazines.com

LEAFMAGAZINES.COM

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ADOBE STOCK

perspective

How Cannabis unites us and invites creativity on the road to peace and wellness

SPARKING COMMUNITY People say they want to be writers, but in actuality, many lack the discipline to do so. Like all artistic exercises, writing involves regular practice.

Sitting in front of a blank page and filling it with coherent and creative sentences is not easy.

In fact, it’s so commonly known that we writers lose our creative spark that there’s a phrase for it: writer’s block.

jan. 2026

IF YOU SEARCH “writer’s block” online, there’s a lot of advice for escaping a mental pit of inactivity: Start with an outline, take a break or, my personal favorite, just start typing and see where it goes. But, to be honest with you, if you want to start writing, the best thing you can do is smoke some weed, sit in a firm chair and don’t get up until you’ve at least partially finished what you’ve set out to do.

The weed part is the key. It’s the thing that will spark your brain into uncovering new thoughts you didn’t know were trapped inside. A strong joint and a bright pink winter sunset will do wonders for the creative process. If you have more time to go even further beyond a solo smoke, there’s another great resource for finding inspiration: community. And luckily, smoking weed cultivates that too.

If there’s one thing Cannabis is always coupled with, it’s culture. This plant has a magnetic pull toward shared experiences. Generally, when someone has something they love — in this case, weed — they want to share it with others. Sharing fulfills an emotional need that feels primordial, and sharing weed is the ultimate balm for our troubled Trumpian times. Puff, puff, pass!

When Cannabis is smoked together in a group of like-minded people, it is often a powerful tool for wellness. Bonds between other humans are the most straightforward way to give life meaning.

With weed and camaraderie, we can free ourselves from the things that hold us back: our own insecurities and doubts, worldly obligations and distractions.

When we become part of a community, we open ourselves up to receiving inspiration from others who are happy, creative and productive.

Back in 2023, my friend, Leah Cerri, felt like a lot of us do these days, or at least how I do more often than not: lost. In a professional slow phase, Leah missed one of the main things that made her love working in the Cannabis industry: the close, personal connections she made with other women.

To support herself, she ended up helping others, building a community of women through hosting free smoke-friendly events in Northern California.

The group she built, Nor-Cal Women in Cannabis, has become one of the main ways I find myself still engaging in person with the weed world.

At these events, I’m having fun just as myself, not as a representative of any company I might work for.

I’m smoking tons of weed and laughing with old and new friends.

When Cannabis journalism became my full-time career back in 2013, I started connecting with some of the most special people in my life, and weed became my whole world. I’m an extremely loyal person, so when I got my first job at a Cannabis magazine, I stuck with it until the end, which was the great lifequake of COVID and 2020.

Adrift professionally, I next had the opportunity to write a book on Cannabis appreciation, “Weed: A Connoisseur’s Guide to Cannabis,” which sold over 20,000 copies and got remixed into another title, “Weed: Smoke It, Eat It, Grow It, Love It.” Then, I got what seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime, a chance to become the editor-in-chief of the world’s most recognized Cannabis magazine. But everything was not as it seemed.

The magazine struggled in many ways and ultimately went under in a big public manner, which resulted in almost everyone in my professional sphere wanting to call me and gossip about its demise.

But I had nothing to say; I was lost again. This last forced transition left me in another precarious place professionally, and I won’t lie and say I’ve made it to the other side.

I’m freelancing for several magazines, including this one, but life as a weed writer is rough. Oftentimes, you’re pestering people to pay you for the work you’ve already done, and sometimes you don’t get paid at all. In a world where writers are still getting paid by the word, sometimes I’m beefing up the text in an effort not to leave any money on the table. And when something feels finished, pulling out more words can feel about as productive as juicing a banana; there’s just nothing there.

Still, seeing something you wrote in print — whether it’s a book, newspaper, magazine or even just online — is monumentally satisfying. At this point, I’m addicted to the idea that I can make my way in this world as a writer, and I’m still pushing for it. But I’m also giving in a bit to where life is taking me next. I’ve found out that success is not linear, and sometimes extreme highs are followed by extreme lows.

Part of the way I’m transforming lately is by finding another community. I have a studio space in an art gallery, and I’m spending time there making art. In the studio, among a community of artists, I’m the weed person.

People making amazing paintings and sculptures want to talk to me about my journalistic endeavors in Cannabis, and I want to speak to them about their creative processes.

I often feel humbled because I’m just a beginner in many of the things I’m doing these days, but even though it feels challenging, I think it’s probably a good thing that might lead to growth.

During the worldwide health pandemic and its aftermath, we lost those in-person connections. We lost our communities. And now, even though my communities are changing, I’m still drawing a lot of hope and a lot of my personal wellness from the connections I’m making with others.

Maybe this column got too real.

Maybe in the future I won’t be blessed with the opportunity of speaking to you, whoever you are, through written words on a page. I consider it an honor that you’ve stuck with me so far.

Three times in my life, I’ve had the chance to write editor’s notes, and it’s always felt a bit like writing a letter, but not knowing who you’re writing to.

This time I’m writing to you.

Know that the path forward is never a straight line. Keep trying to stand up for what you believe in. Keep adapting and growing with change.

If you want to be a writer, sit down and start writing. And if you get stuck, take a puff and find some friends.

Cannabis and community will lead toward better well-being and strength.

The battles in this lifetime are never-ending, but we can’t let our defeats define us. Take care, and stay kind. Share your talents, and let your light shine.

"When Cannabis is smoked together in a group of likeminded people, it is often a powerful tool for wellness."

it to us LEAFMAGAZINES .COM

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Ellen Holland is a San Francisco Bay Area-based freelance writer; the former editor of High Times Magazine and the author of multiple books, including "Weed: Smoke It, Eat It, Grow It, Love It" (2024).

@CALIFORNIALEAFMAG @NORTHEASTLEAFMAG

STORY by ELLEN HOLLAND @HOLLANDBUDS for LEAF NATION Leaf-Mag-Ad-Fall-2025-HP-VERT-4.5x10.47-FNL.indd 1

9/17/25 1:14 AM

perspective

FIRE FOLLOWER

Award-winning journalist/author and former Leafly Senior Editor David Downs’ monthly genetics intelligence dispatch.

TOP 50 BREEDERS IN 2026 AMERICA’S 3.3 million home growers have a historic opportunity to grow exactly the weed they want to see in the world in 2026. All across the legalization and medical states, access to genetics is at an all-time high. You can obtain seeds and learn more than ever with just some taps on your phone or keyboard.

Starting in November, we ran a public Top 50 Greatest Breeders of 2025 poll online for over a month and marketed it across our channels, gathering 2,773 unique responses. Respondents could cast 10 votes for their favorite breeders from a list of over 100 nominees or write in their own favorite. When we tabulated the results, we narrowed our focus down to 703 “full ballots” (voters who used all 10 of their votes). A pretty strong top 50 list emerged of arguably some of the greatest breeders of the year.

THE RED CARPET PHOTO BY HUMBOLDT CSI

A N D N O W . . . T H E R E S U LT S

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For flowers that yield great hash, don’t miss Purple City Genetics and Masonic Seed Company.

For Los Angeles heat, you can’t sleep on Seed Junky Genetics, Capulator or Umami Seed Company. Seed Junky has been releasing refinements on the top strain Lemon Cherry Gelato. Capulator just finished a huge MAC rerelease project. Umami never rereleases its hype drops — it’s one and done and on to the next one.

For boutique and Emerald Triangle rarities, look to Bodhi Seeds, Biovortex, Freeborn Selections and CSI Humboldt (aka Humboldt CSI). Caleb of Humboldt CSI is spending 2026 building two new California retail stores in Rio Dell and Eureka to stock his seeds and flowers and showcase gardening. He’s mostly known for his Chem work.

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H E AV Y H I T T E R S

Nat Pennington, head of Humboldt Seed Company, said to watch out for his new cross of hitters dubbed “Hyper Za,” plus Honey Bear and Puff Pastry.

One-person breeding powerhouse Blockhead in San Diego County recommends his work on the successor RAINBOW to Super Boof, John Truffolta.

ZEREAL Be sure to keep an eye out for the PHOTO BY ALIEN GENETICS “automatic” seed makers — primarily from Europe — who are on a tear: Fast Buds, Mephisto and Maine’s Night Owl Seeds.

Rebel Grown of California and Vermont has award-winning OG crosses. We also really love Karma Genetics’ European work on the intersection of OG and Z. It’s wild how many breeders hail from so many U.S. states: Sin City Seeds in Nevada, Thug Pug Genetics and Tiki Madman in Michigan and Subcool’s the Dank in Oklahoma.

Don’t sleep on Colorado seeds in 2026 from Cannarado Genetics, Top Dawg Seeds, Ethos Genetics and more.

There’s great stuff from Washington, including In House Genetics and Exotic Genetix.

Of course, no top 50 list is complete without shouting out Archive Seed Bank of Oregon. They’ve reopened their online store, and the Rainbow Belts varieties sell out the fastest.

jan. 2026

BLUE POWER IX2 PHOTO BY SIN CITY SEEDS

AN ERA OF DIVERSITY

One cool feature of modern breeding is how egalitarian the fan bases are.

There’s no one “big dog” in the sector.

The top 50 in our poll all had relatively similar-sized fan bases. Instead of some ravenous leviathan, we have an ecosystem of popular breeders, each with a set of die-hard partisans. That bodes well for keeping Cannabis diverse and vibrant.

GROWING YOUR OWN ‘ G R E AT E S T ’

Fire Follower’s poll included over 100 nominees, but respondents mentioned a total of 505 unique breeders. More than 250 breeders received just one vote, indicating a huge “long tail” of love for a personal favorite. Embrace that passion in 2026. No one can tell you which breeder to stan. It’s clear that super-fandom for obscure favorites is a hallmark of modern home growers, and that’s awesome. Everyone has that band that never made it big, but you know they had the goods to go all the way.

HONEY BEAR PHOTO BY HUMBOLDT SEED COMPANY

IT’S WILD HOW MANY BREEDERS HAIL FROM SO MANY U.S. STATES: SIN CITY SEEDS IN NEVADA, THUG PUG GENETICS AND TIKI MADMAN IN MICHIGAN AND SUBCOOL’S THE DANK IN OKLAHOMA. GROWING FOR WELLNESS

Caleb at CSI Humboldt, who ranked as the second greatest breeder of 2025 in our poll, specifically wanted to shout out Oregon CBD seeds for its high-CBD work. Caleb said their drying room is half CBD strains and half Chems, and Oregon CBD’s Seth Crawford is a real breeder’s breeder. So, if you’re looking for highly therapeutic, Type II CBD-rich cultivars, Oregon CBD is your go-to in 2026.

Now’s the time. Seek out those packs, and prep for an epic 2026 run.

TOP 50 BREEDERS TO TRY IN 2026 AFICIONADO SEEDS ALIEN GENETICS ARCHIVE SEED BANK

BLACK LUNG

BARNEY'S FARM

PHOTO BY ROMULAN GENETICS

BIOVORTEX BLOCKHEAD BLOOM SEED CO BODHI SEEDS CANNARADO GENETICS CAPULATOR COMPOUND GENETICS CROCKETT FAMILY FARMS DJ SHORT / OLD WORLD GENETICS DNA GENETICS

JOIN THE ORIGINAL GRASSROOTS CANNABIS ACTIVIST ORGANIZATION IN MASSACHUSETTS, 31 YEARS ON THE GROUND AND STILL GROWING TOGETHER!

DUTCH PASSION DYNASTY GENETICS ETHOS GENETICS EXOTIC GENETIX FAST BUDS FREEBORN SELECTIONS HUCKLEBERRY HILL FARMS HUMBOLDT CSI HUMBOLDT SEED COMPANY IN HOUSE GENETICS IRIE GENETICS JOSH D (OG KUSH) KARMA GENETICS LIT FARMS GUAVA JELLIE

LOVIN IN HER EYES MASONIC SEED COMPANY MENDO DOPE MEPHISTO GENETICS

(GUAVA GELATO X PERMANENT MARKER) BX2 PHOTO BY SEED JUNKY GENETICS

NIGHT OWL SEEDS PURPLE CITY GENETICS RAW GENETICS REBEL GROWN RELENTLESS GENETICS RIDGELINE FARMS ROMULAN GENETICS SEED JUNKY GENETICS SENSI SEEDS SIN CITY SEEDS SKUNKTEK SOLFIRE GARDENS SUBCOOL'S THE DANK SWAMP BOYS SEEDS THUG PUG GENETICS TIKI MADMAN TOP DAWG SEEDS UMAMI SEED COMPANY

HALL PASS (PERMANENT PARADISE X WILD CHERRY) PHOTO BY SEED JUNKY GENETICS

STORY by DAVID DOWNS @DAVIDDOWNS for LEAF NATION See more photos at LeafMagazines.com

grow tour

route

27

I trekked out to Long Island, NY to check out the harvest for Olio at Route 27, and I was met with a beautiful few days of picturesque sunsets, great weather and rows of beautiful green and purple buds.

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“Fueled by the sun and nourished in living soil, our outdoor grow thrives in all the elemental facets.” jan. 2026

IN 2014, Ryan Andoos, a lifelong horticulturalist, teamed up with Mark Carroll, a New York area construction business owner, to take over an abandoned farm to revitalize and revisualize what it could become.

From this partnership, the seeds of Route 27 were sown and have flourished into the bustling farm you see today, producing some of the best Cannabis in New York.

It hasn't been an overnight success for the duo, who did not come from a traditional farming background.

But through hard work, teamwork, education and innovation, they have helped revamp the property into a Long Island powerhouse.

“That same passion continues to inspire everything we do,” Ryan, one of the owners, said. “We’re proud to be a locally rooted business and excited to grow for some of the state’s best brands.”

I spoke with Ryan about how the land has transformed from an overgrown abandoned farm to the incredible Cannabis farm that exists today.

HOW MUCH SPACE ARE YOU USUALLY WORKING WITH EACH HARVEST? We grow 12,500 square feet of

outdoor space. Fueled by the sun and nourished in living soil, our outdoor grow thrives in all the elemental facets. In our outdoor space, we grow auto flower for extraction and full-term for Olio’s Live Hash Rosin.

WHAT ELSE DO YOU GROW ON THE FARM? Other than

marijuana, we grow both personal and hemp plants that support the Route 27 business. Personally, we grow plenty of vegetables, lemons, figs, corn, herbs and more. Regarding Route 27 Hemp Yard, we grow several different hemp strains that yield a rich variety of cannabinoids, such as CBD, CBG, CBN and CBDV, which support our hemp product lines.

WHAT ARE YOUR TEAM’S FAVORITE STRAINS TO GROW? Bermuda

Triangle, Durban Poison, GovernMint Oasis and Jelly Roller.

WHY DO YOU LOVE TO DO WHAT YOU DO? We love to be stewards

CO-OWNER RYAN ANDOOS LEAD GROWER JACK SHEEHAN

of the land. It’s exciting to try out and implement new sustainable and organic practices that could inspire others and be applied throughout the agricultural community.

To add on, the deep-rooted ancient relationship that humans have with Cannabis date back to thousands of years, and to foster and continue this relationship is an honor. We also love being part of our local scene by supporting small businesses and giving back in ways that make a difference for our neighbors, like preserving our water quality. And honestly, this kind of work keeps us down to earth — literally. It’s a reminder every day of how connected we all are, not just in the local economy but as a part of the ecosystem.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE FARM? We want to expand

our current cultivation license and be on the cutting edge of modern ag with new upgrades to our current greenhouses. We plan on working with Cornell Cooperative Extension to upgrade our greenhouse heating system to geothermal, as well as installing new under-canopy lighting from Esttech to improve yield and quality.

ROUTE27HEMPYARD.COM | @ROUTE27__

STORY by ADHDDEAD @ADHDDEAD/NORTHEAST LEAF @NORTHEASTLEAFMAG | PHOTOS by WYLD FIRE @WYLDFIRE.CO See more photos at LeafMagazines.com

THE weed & WELLNESS ISSUE

18

RESCHEDULED? leafmagazines.com

Trump signs executive order advising DOJ to reclassify Cannabis

JAN. 2026

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Dec. 18, 2025, to reclassify Cannabis, signifying a new future for Cannabis research, as well as an uncertain one for the recreational THC and CBD markets.

WHILE RESTRICTIONS on things like banking, taxation and research are expected to be reduced, Trump made it clear in his announcement that this is not about Cannabis’ identity as an adult-use substance. “It doesn’t legalize marijuana in any way, shape or form, and in no way sanctions its use as a recreational drug,” he said.

The president did say that this move is in response to the overwhelming support he’s seen for Cannabis in the treatment of conditions such as cancer. In this vein, he also compared Cannabis to prescription drugs, warning, “just as the prescription painkillers may have legitimate uses but can also do irreversible damage …”

Later, tacking on that “it’s never safe to use.”

Those who were hoping there would be a loosening of restrictions and stigma around Cannabis use were instead reminded by this broadcast that this executive order is about researching CBD and certain cannabinoids as possible medications.

“common sense change.” while another expressed that this Both Oz and Secretary rescheduling has the capacity to of Health and Human revolutionize Cannabis research in Services Robert F. Kennedy three ways: Jr. described how Trump * Democratizing the research has frequently called to process, giving access to all discuss the issue with them researchers on behalf of people like * Providing patients and researchers financier Howard Kessler, with access to reliable medicine for whom they said has trials tirelessly advocated to the * Organizing large, randomized president. Kessler, whom control trials at a national scale.

Kennedy said “without Many watching the announcement whom we wouldn’t be here echoed the sentiments of one today,” is someone who researcher who said, “I never really Nora Volkow, the director of the “drove this change in the thought this day would come.”

National Institute on Drug Abuse, schedule.”

For others, especially those who said future research should Trump, Oz and Kennedy experienced the medical market, the focus on understanding what have all separately thanked green rush and the years that followed, conditions Cannabis can help Kessler for his work on this rings less as a herald of a golden with, learn how to optimally use this decision and for future for Cannabis research and Cannabis for those conditions showing them the medical instead as one that paints Cannabis and discover to whom Cannabis possibilities of Cannabis, as something dangerously similar to might present a danger.

WHAT IS SCHEDULE III with Kennedy stating on prescription drugs.

According to the Controlled Substances Act, record that “cannabinoids State Cannabis markets have spent a Schedule III substance is something with a and THC can have miraculous effects on countless dollars on creating organizations to provide low potential for physical or psychological chemotherapy-induced nausea, chronic standardized dosing and suggested use for products that dependence and accepted medical use. Vicodin, pain, epilepsy, and PTSD.” This statement will are reported to relieve things like chronic pain.

Valium, Percocet, Xanax hopefully help with veterans The sudden announcement seems to imply that current and ketamine are all who’ve found it difficult to get laws and regulations — along with the work done examples of substances approved access to Cannabis by these individual states — are leaving patients and in this category. With for treatment. doctors without adequate guidelines on how to use these this decision comes a Kennedy went on to stress products, “even though they’re still being used,” Oz clear statement from that there are also plenty of ominously added. the administration that valid claims about the negative Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute Cannabis has positive impacts of Cannabis, such as on Drug Abuse, said the goal of this future research benefits to people’s quality psychosis and adverse public should be to understand what conditions Cannabis can of living, but that this health impacts, particularly help with, learn how to optimally use Cannabis for those might not include you to the country’s youth, but conditions and discover to whom Cannabis might present a without proper research. that most of this evidence is danger.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the “anecdotal due to a lack of administrator for the scientific studies.” The studies WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? Centers for Medicare and this reclassification will allow, With so much of the future definition of federal Medicaid, spoke to the he said, will provide guidelines Cannabis possibly tied to the results of clinical trials, state audience, saying, “There on standardized dosing, along markets now have to wait and see how this shakes out.

Dr. Mehmet Oz admits there is are some clinical evidence with exploring the difference As many have pointed out, the president doesn’t have clinical evidence for CBD efficacy showing that CBDs provide between botanicals and the authority to sign a paper and make rescheduling a for cancer and chronic conditions. synthetics. relief from common certainty. This executive order directs Attorney General Pam conditions that affect Bondi and the Department of Justice to prioritize this issue.

Americans.” Oz listed some of those conditions, EXPERTS ON HAND Online sentiment for this decision is all over the map, including cancer and chronic pain, citing that A medical Cannabis researcher from with some saying that retailers will be left the most “6 in 10 people who use these CBDs report that Dana-Farber Cancer Institute said the vulnerable, while others point to the CBD and THCa they improve their pain.” Oz also made it a point reclassification would expand research markets as the first in the line of fire. Many are expressing to say that the landmark decision was about potential at an [important] time “and help that this step, however pigeon-toed, is heading in the giving “seniors access to cannabinoids.“ mitigate the anxiety and fear surrounding right direction.

Oz said the reclassification is the delivery patients who enter treatment, especially “in Regardless of your perspective on this as positive or of the promise to find an answer to a difficult older adults.” The researcher thanked the negative, it is another incredible moment where we situation that every president has “whiffed on.” president for “supporting careful sciencewitness the plant, the industry and the culture evolve in He thanked the president for always pushing for based research that puts patients first,” response to a new era.

STORY by MATT JACKSON @ACTIONMATTJACKSON/LEAF NATION | PHOTOS by CREATIVE COMMONS

STRAIN OF THE MONTH

STRAWBERRY PUSH POP #7

leafmagazines.com

20

CULTIVATED BY

NORTH FORK CANNABIS CO.

JAN. 2026

“WE’VE SPENT THE LAST EIGHT MONTHS SELECTING A FLOWER PHENO AND ARE SUPER EXCITED WITH WHAT WE FOUND.”

NORTHEAST

North Fork Cannabis Co.’s Strawberry Push Pop #7 was pheno hunted in-house and bred by Bloom Seed Co. It’s a cross of Strawberry Guava x Orange Mints and a fruity delight to the senses.

WHEN ASKED about the Strawberry Push Pop #7, founder Michel Liegey, Jr. shared, “We started with 24 feminized seeds that came to us as unnamed testers in May 2024. Our first run, we released as a mixed wash rosin that we’re really proud of. We’ve spent the last eight months selecting a flower pheno and are super excited with what we found.”

North Fork Cannabis Co. is an adult-use microbusiness in New York. According to their website, they cultivate “premium cannabis indoors using organic inputs and sustainable practices.”

I cracked open the jar and found myself delighted by the contents inside.

The flower is light green with orange hairs and coated in trichomes. Very fragrant smells envelope my senses. I can already tell this is a special strain.

When breaking down the flower, a symphony of aromas comes through.

Top notes of juicy strawberries and sweet candy are accompanied by undertones of citrus and guava.

According to the Certificate of Analysis, the upcoming release of Strawberry Push Pop #7 tested at 2.3% terpenes, with the top ones being myrcene, limonene, caryophyllene and linalool.

Smoked in a joint, the flavor really translates through from the smell.

Enjoying a candy experience without a hint of Z is very surprising and delightful these days. Don’t get me wrong, I love Z and all of its crosses.

What I appreciate equally as much in flower is a complex, tasty, fruit-filled flavor profile. This flavor is maintained throughout the smoking experience, with a smooth creaminess coming through at the end.

This strain was the perfect start to my day. It provided a weightless-feeling body and head high. I also found it to be uplifting and bright. The lingering, nostalgic, namesake candy flavor alone was so much fun.

Be on the lookout for this flower at adult-use stores around New York.

Keep an eye out for the Strawberry Push Pop #7 live rosin as well. I have now tried both and am impressed all around.

NFCNY.COM | @NOFOCANNACO

STORY by CRYSTAL HOFFMAN @HASHINIT_ for @NORTHEASTLEAFMAG | PHOTO by BONITA RODRIGUEZ @BONITA.PHOTOS HAVE A LEAD ON SOME SERIOUS FIRE? EMAIL ADHDDEAD@LEAFMAGAZINES.COM

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22

ELEVATEDHERB

jan. 2026

shop review

“FLOWER IS WHAT WE HONE IN ON AND WHAT MORE THAN HALF OF OUR CUSTOMERS ARE BUYING.” THE PEOPLE

Situated right next to the turnpike in West Milford in New Jersey, Elevated Herb serves up healing and recreation to the community.

A dream realized by old college buddies who wanted to build something of value in the Cannabis industry, the dispensary takes a researched, enlightened approach to retail.

THE SELECTION

THE VIBE

The Elevated team converted an old bait and tackle and electrical store using wood accents, some of which were sourced from Amish country, to achieve a sleek, welcoming design with an organic, earthy atmosphere.

The resulting space complements the shop’s philosophy, which puts wellness and plant medicine above all.

Elevated Herb aims to keep a large variety of well-priced, high-quality products on the shelf, according to general manager Roger Martin. In more than a year of being open, they doubled the amount of stock-keeping units they carry. Their goal is to have the best selection in the state.

“Flower is what we hone in on and what more than half of our customers are buying,” Roger said.

“So our flower selection is definitely top tier.”

They carry a wide variety of brands, with plenty of fire flavors from Rythm, Clade 9, Verano, Garden Greens, Pete’s Farmstand, Parks Grove and more.

Aside from a stellar flower selection, Roger and the team focus on ensuring they have the best products to suit the needs of their customer base.

“I would say about half of the people are looking just recreationally,” Roger said.

“I say one of two people will come in and just say, ‘Hey, I could use help sleeping, or I’m looking for a CBN product.’”

In order to help customers wade through their selection, Elevated Herb puts knowledge and service first. Each budtender is trained on their selection through a sampling process.

“How do you know which flower is good? You have to try it,” Roger said. “You have to know about it. You can’t just push a product that you haven’t tried before. It’s like in a restaurant, all the waiters ideally get to sample things, and then they’re able to ELEVATED HERB then give an honest review of it.

1846 NJ-23, When a customer says, ‘Is the WEST MILFORD, NJ linguini good?’ If you just say, ELEVATED-HERB.COM ‘Yeah, it’s good,’ but you’ve @ELEVATED_HERB never tried it, you’re talking out OPEN DAILY of your ass. But if you’ve tried 9 A.M. - 9 P.M. it and you can put your word behind that, and we have people that their word is good and that goes back to the human factor of everything, then I think you create a more rounded experience, and you have a lot more happy customers that way.”

This knowledge base allows for a high level of informed service, which is the bedrock of budtending. It also allows Roger to utilize staff opinion in the selection process.

“In New Jersey, all the products are the same,” Roger said. “All the legal dispensaries can pull from the same product. So how do you expand beyond that? How do you differentiate yourself?

I found that intimate product knowledge and passion are two things that stand out there. And how do we reach this intimate product knowledge? It comes from boots on the ground understanding. I like to try the product before I buy it, and I want my employees to try the product as well. We do a lot of discussions with each other online about products. We have a specific strain talk channel where we all are talking about strains that we’re trying and always trying new things and bringing new things to the table.”

THE ROLL-UP

All in all, Elevated Herb aims to fulfill the promise of its name by consistent education and adjustment to suit the needs of its customers, and to do so in a pleasant atmosphere.

“We have all walks of life here,” Roger said.

“We have a very human philosophy. People are people, and to treat people like people, kindness goes a long way, especially in this industry.”

STORY by TOM BOWERS @MEGABOMBTOM2.0/NORTHEAST LEAF @NORTHEASTLEAFMAG | PHOTOS by ELEVATED HERB See more photos at LeafMagazines.com

THE weed & wellness ISSUE

TOPICAL ROUNDUP

SKINDEEP

The plant doesn’t have to be sparked up to work its magic: Cannabis topicals take a grounded, targeted approach to wellness by working with the body’s natural endocannabinoid system right where you need it. Today, topicals are showing up on shelves in more ways than ever. From post-workout recovery to glow-up skin care routines, these skin-first rituals are redefining what Cannabis care can look like.

leafmagazines.com

TERPODACTYL MEDIA @TERPODACTYL_MEDIA

24

T TRANSDERMAL P AT C H E S SET IT & FORGET IT

jan. 2026

ransdermal patches take topicals to the next level, literally. Designed to deliver cannabinoids through the skin and into the bloodstream over time, they offer steady, long-lasting support without the digestive detour. This slowrelease method is especially helpful for chronic pain, inflammation, cramping or endometriosis. Once it’s on, you’re set for the day.

The LEAF gals swear by Synergy Skin Worx, available in Oregon, Montana, Arizona and Louisiana. We like to cut their patches into smaller pieces for convenient, customizable application and more bang for your buck.

They’re sweat- and water-resistant for any active wellness routine, or provide consistent relief when curling up for an all-day couch-rot sesh. For best results, apply transdermals to a veiny area (such as the inner wrist or ankle) to maximize absorption and keep effects evenkeeled from morning to night.

SYNERGYSKINWORX.COM @SYNERGYSKINWORX

CBD SKINCARE GREEN MEETS RED LIGHT THERAPY

R

ed light therapy is all the rage in the wellness world, using low-wavelength light to support circulation and cellular repair. Add the power of the plant to the mix and you’ve got a ritual that goes beyond surface-level skincare. While red light energizes cells and boosts circulation, cannabinoids help calm inflammation and restore balance. Together, they create a synergistic experience that feels both restorative and intentional.

Our go-to move? Apply a cannabinoid-rich serum or cream before your red light session to enhance absorption and create an at-home spa-like ambiance. Enter this CannaSmack Honey Serum: a luxe blend of responsibly

sourced honey and botanical oils like hemp seed, rose hip, argan and orange oil for deep hydration. Bonus points for being a women-founded brand with online shopping and nationwide shipping!

CANNASMACK.COM | @CANNASMACK

THC ROLL-ONS W O R K O UT R E C O V E R Y, E L E VAT E D

M

eet your new workout MVP: Infused topicals combine powerful cannabinoids with other ingredients, such as nourishing botanicals or aromatics, to target sore muscles and soothe overworked joints. Unlike ingestibles, these stay local to calm tension and inflammation in skin and muscle tissue without affecting your headspace.

Think recovery, minus the mental fog.

Our crew can’t get enough of Buddie’s Fire & Ice lotion, available in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. This award-winning formula features a soothing blend of menthol, camphor, eucalyptus and cinnamon with an advanced recovery blend of THC, CBD, CBG and CBN. Plus, the roller-style applicator makes it ridiculously easy to apply this liquid-gold lotion on the go. Toss it in your gym bag or keep it in your car cupholder for roll-on relief after Pilates, leg day or an ambitious hike.

Check with your budtender for personalized recommendations, as topicals come in all sorts of formats, from these roll-ons to balms, creams, oils and more. For next-level results, try applying your topical of choice right after a shower when your pores are open for peak absorption.

BUDDIESBRAND.COM @BUDDIESBRAND_OFFICIAL

RSO POTENT PLANT POWER FOR THE SKIN

RSO

(Rick Simpson Oil) is a highly concentrated, full-spectrum Cannabis extract known for its potency and thick, sticky consistency.

When applied externally, RSO skips the psychoactive effects while offering incredibly localized benefits. It delivers cannabinoids directly to CB2 receptors, which are involved in regulating inflammation and immune response.

Research is still evolving, but anecdotal evidence has sparked serious conversation around RSO’s potential role in addressing skin cancers, including melanoma. In fact, multiple Leaf team members have personally used topical RSO to help minimize or eliminate melanoma spots. It’s also been known to support scar care, inflammation, stiff muscles and dry skin. As more studies continue, the takeaway remains consistent: This oil is powerful stuff.

If you’re exploring RSO topically, we recommend RSO Syringes from 710 Labs, which are currently available in Colorado, California and Michigan. These stand out because they’re cultivar-specific, an often overlooked detail that can heavily impact desired effects.

RSO is widely available in both medical and recreational markets, so ask your local budtender for their own pick.

Pro tip: Less is more, because a little RSO goes a long way! Mix a rice-grain amount with a carrier oil, such as coconut or hemp seed oil, for smooth and even application.

710LABS.COM | @710LABS

STORY by KATHERINE WOLF @KATADELLIC for LEAF NATION | PHOTO by TERPODACTYL MEDIA @TERPODACTYL_MEDIA & COURTESY BRANDS

25

THE weed & WELLNESS ISSUE

PAPA & BARKLEY

PAPAANDBARKLEY.COM @PAPAANDBARKLEY

LOOK FOR THE LINEUP AT YOUR LOCAL CALIFORNIA OR NEW YORK RETAILERS OR ONLINE

26

leafmagazines.com

Papa’s Purpose Some brands add wellness products to fill a gap in their retail offerings. Others use the plant’s therapeutic value as the soil from which they sprout their mission. Founded a decade ago in Northern California, Papa & Barkley is named in honor of founder Adam Grossman’s dad and his dog, Barkley. Grossman started the company after using Cannabis-based therapeutics to help his ailing father’s battles with debilitating back pain.

“I MADE the first product, our pain balm, for my dad when he was in terrible pain,” Grossman told the Leaf. “It changed our lives and started our mission, so it’s my favorite. I use it a lot on my back and hip, before and after working out.”

Since those balmy foundational days, Papa & Barkley has added a number of other wellness-focused product types, including roll-ons, gummies, tinctures and capsules. Where many companies blend distilled or isolated compounds to produce their infusions, Grossman’s goal is to harness the power of the plant’s full beneficial spectrum. “We make all our products using a proprietary lipid infusion process that retains all of the plant’s cannabinoids, terpenes, plant fats and phytonutrients,” Grossman said.

jan. 2026

“By cooking the plant in only oil and water, we infuse the base oil with the full spectrum of medicinal compounds. This is true plant medicine without any chemicals or solvents.”

The Leaf had the chance to try an array of Papa & Barkley’s products, including the effects-based gummy line, which takes its full-spectrum oils and blends them to achieve cannabinoid ratios tailored to specific results. The Sleep formulation, with its equal ratios of soothing CBD, euphoric THC and sedative CBN, proved particularly effective. The high-THC Active Releaf Balm Stick — made with Cannabis, cacao butter, beeswax, menthol, vitamin E, lavender oil, tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil and coconut oil — made for an excellent addition to the post-gym routine and was especially helpful for the knees and hips on leg day.

Papa & Barkley is a part of the Mammoth Distribution brand portfolio, and is available in more than 600 California dispensaries and 300 New York retailers with its adult-use Cannabis line, and its hemp products are available in 46 states online.

Papa & Barkley plans to launch into the regulated market in New Jersey in 2026, and will also be adding transdermal patches to the national hemp line, as well as body lotion to the lineup for California and New York retailers this year. As the landscape continues to shift with rescheduling on the horizon, they’re staying mission-focused.

“The actual (Papa & Barkley) mission is to unlock the power of Cannabis to improve people’s lives,” Grossman said. “We do this with industry-leading pain and sleep products, including our hero product, the Releaf Balm.”

STORY & PHOTO by TOM BOWERS @MEGABOMBTOM2.0 @NORTHEASTLEAFMAG

NOW HIRIN

NORTHEAST

COME WORK WITH THE LEAF! WRITING PHOTOGRAPHY SALES

WE’RE GROWING! FOR MORE INFO AND CONSIDERATION, PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR RESUMÉ AND/OR PORTFOLIO TO TOM@LEAFMAGAZINES.COM + SUBJECT LINE NORTHEAST LEAF AND POSITION(S) DESIRED.

edibles of the month

Milk Chocolate ChurroBar If, like me, you are the type who is more or less expected to arrive at a cookie swap with something edible and infused, then I have a recipe for you this year featuring Kiva’s Churro Milk Chocolate bar.

HONESTLY, this edible is delicious on its own. This warm, spiced chocolate feels made for a cool winter night. The cinnamon-sugar flavor is familiar and nostalgic, but presented in a more refined execution.

That extra luxe taste is in part due to the cold water hash used for the infusion here.

The effect is uplifting, light and giggle-inducing, exactly what you want for a cookies and Cannabis holiday party.

Added into a batch of cinnamon-spiced chocolate chip cookies, this bar creates a winning treat that is sure to shine. The recipe I included starts with a classic brown butter chocolate chip base, with a little extra cinnamon to complement the Kiva Churro flavor.

This recipe leaves you with 10 cookies for easy dosing math.

I like to slice the bar into long, thin shards so that as the cookies bake, the churro chocolate will melt into streaks and little caramelized edges, giving each bite a mix of toasty butter, dark chocolate bitterness and spiced sweetness.

Kiva’s chocolate bar is an edible that doubles as an ingredient, making it as tasty for a snack as it is useful to keep in the back of your pantry. @KIVABRANDS

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KIVA

jan. 2026

KERN’S KIVA CHOCOLATE CHIP CHURRO COOKIES RECIPE MAKES 20 COOKIES, APPROXIMATELY 5MG EACH

1. Beat the sugars and butter together until creamed, forming a pale yellow batter. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the vanilla, then slowly pour the mixture into the butter and sugar, whisking constantly.

160 g light brown sugar

2. In another bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon and baking soda.

150 g granulated sugar

Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the dough until evenly combined.

1 1/2 teaspoons (9 g) bourbon-infused salt 1 teaspoon (3 g) cinnamon 3/4 cup (168 g) unsalted butter, browned 1 large egg yolk 1 large egg 3 teaspoons (12 g) vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon (2 g) baking soda 1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon (197 g) all-purpose flour 200 g roughly chopped dark chocolate 1 Kiva Churro Milk Chocolate bar

3. Roughly chop the chocolate into small chips and stir into the batter until evenly dispersed.

4. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

5. Scoop into 50 g balls. Either freeze the dough for future use or bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for 10 to 13 minutes. Allow cookies to cool before eating. Cookies are best enjoyed within a week when stored in an airtight container.

BEARD & BLAZE

1906 SPIRITS

THCInfused NA Spirits

Original Hot Sauce

Beard & Blaze hot sauce was one of the gifts I was most excited to give out this holiday. This is an infused hot sauce in a pocket-sized bottle that packs a big punch and is absolutely something I am slipping into the stocking of my Beyoncé-loving cousin, paired with an embroidered pouch that says, “I got hot sauce in my bag.”

Since its release this fall, 1906’s Cannabis nonalcoholic spirit has removed any doubt from my mind that over the next few years, the Cannabis consumption landscape will look wholly different than it does today.

SIPPING 1906’s Cannabis-infused spirit is a glimpse into that future. THC beverages are a category which have struggled, with none quite striking the right balance. Many are too sugary, too artificial-tasting or too low in dosage to meet my higher-than-average tolerance.

In its latest entry, 1906 released a spirit that begins to solve for all three of my issues, presented in a form factor that’s instantly understandable and easily translated for someone imbibing Cannabis for the first time.

At 200 milligrams per 750-milliliter red-glass bottle, the parallel to traditional spirits is instant; a 10mg dose is a single shot. The simple, spirits-style format means this can sit on a bar cart; someone can reach for it without a second thought when they would like to mix a drink.

This isn’t a totally neutral experience.

1906’s spirit flavor carries a light tang, a trace of sourness that keeps it from disappearing entirely into a drink.

It’s not unpleasant, and there is none of the bite you would expect from an alcoholic spirit. It is versatile but also distinctly its own thing. It easily blends into a margarita or mule, but less so a Manhattan or martini.

Like a traditional spirit, this is fast acting.

I felt the rush begin to settle in around 15 minutes after consumption. That is due to 1906’s use of a proprietary nanoemulsion process that transforms cannabinoids from oil into ultrafine water-compatible droplets, making them much easier for the body to process.

I find myself reaching for this edible product in moments when I want flexibility. I can batch a cocktail when I am hosting friends and easily substitute the 1906 spirit for those who want it, without watering down the drink or changing the ratios. The 1906 spirit makes the ritual of a shared drink easier. @1906NEWHIGHS

BEARD & BLAZE is a fermented hot sauce with no harsh vinegar flavor. It is bright and clean with immediate heat in each bite, the kind that snaps you to attention without torching your taste buds. It was first served to me dotted over a breakfast plate and drizzled across chilaquiles, but I use it most stirred into a pot of chili, where it brings both spice and a little spiritual lift. The Second Act Cannabis website is filled with culinary suggestions and recipes from Chef Chris Kittredge.

Beard & Blaze is the creation of Kittredge, a U.S. Navy veteran who first cut his teeth cooking on a nuclear-powered submarine before bringing that same disciplined intensity to Second Act Cannabis.

Second Act is a brand focused on expanding social consumption, with an emphasis on creating products that have a fast-acting onset and are carefully dosed for a familiar, easy and accessible experience. Beard & Blaze fits that mission perfectly.

Beard & Blaze is as much a social tool as it is a condiment. For the brave and the bold, it can kick off a truly unique “Hot Ones”-style experience, letting the capsaicin and the cannabinoids open your mind and allowing the conversation to flow. @SECONDACTCULINARY

REVIEWS by JAKE KERN @JAKE.S.KERN for @NORTHEASTLEAFMAG | PHOTOS courtesy

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concentrate of the month

PLEASANT EFFECTS

30

leafmagazines.com

CHEM D HASH ROSIN The aptly named Pleasant Effects is back with another hitter from its consistent lineup.

jan. 2026

YOU MAY already be familiar with the Pleasant Effects’ “Chem D” from last year’s surprise drop, which featured a special “John Mylar” bag poking fun at, celebrating and commemorating Dead & Company’s Sphere run.

A fun, standout approach to design and packaging, as well as a touch of cultural awareness, really set this brand apart. Pleasant Effects continues to lean into the Dead and jam band scene with this latest release of Chem D in live hash rosin form, featuring a clever design nod to the intimidating “Wall of Sound” made famous by the Dead.

This design choice is well selected because the quality of this concentrate will blow you away, much like the old Maxwell cassette ads. This hash is an incredibly potent and pure expression of the Chem D plant. I’ve smoked a decent amount of Chem D over the past year, and this is one of the best hash renditions I’ve come across. It’s super pungent, and it carries that classic Chem D smell you remember from the loudest bags on the lot.

Effects were both pleasant and immediate, with a lingering taste that had me smacking my lips as the high rushed through my body, creating a sense of deep relaxation and buzzy stoniness.

I spoke with Sammy, the owner and head grower of Pleasant Effects, about why this cut, in particular, is so special to him. “To me, Chem D really represents a specific era of my career. A short time after I shared the East Coast Sour Diesel I’VE SMOKED A DECENT with Chaco, he passed AMOUNT OF CHEM D OVER this cut back to us in THE PAST YEAR, AND THIS return. We have held it IS ONE OF THE BEST HASH down about 16 years RENDITIONS I’VE COME now. This is the original ACROSS. Chem family cut, not a derivative or S1. Growing it feels like shaking hands with the past while still stepping forward into the future, as she continues to hang tough alongside modern hybrids. And the hash it produces is excellent,” he said.

Like the Grateful Dead, every tour, run and experience will be a little bit different, but if you happen to be in the right place at the right time, you can find genuine magic. This batch of Chem D is no different. If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on a jar, experience it for yourself — so you don’t have to hear about the legendary thing you missed second hand from a friend.

REVIEW by ADHDDEAD @ADHDDEAD @NORTHEASTLEAFMAG | PHOTO by BONITA RODRIGUEZ @BONITA.PHOTOS

GET YOUR VEAZY

Shop for for Shop high end high end genetics genetics @thecultureseedbank @thecultureseedbank

cooking with cannabis

MANGO PINEAPPLE

MANGO PINEAPPLE SMOOTHIE Servings: 4 2 cups frozen mango chunks 2 cups frozen pineapple chunks 2 cups milk (dairy or coconut milk) 1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt 1-2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup (optional) 3 teaspoons canna-oil 1 cup ice (optional) Mint leaves for garnish

TRIPLE BERRY RED

1. Add milk to the blender.

2. Add mango, pineapple, yogurt and sweetener (if using).

3. Blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Adjust thickness with more milk or ice if needed. Add mint.

5. Serve immediately.

GREEN PISTACHIO SMOOTHIE Servings: 4 2 cups fresh spinach 1 ripe avocado, peeled and pitted 1/2 cup shelled unsalted pistachios 2 frozen bananas 2 1/2 cups milk (almond or oat milk works well) 1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt 1-2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup (optional) 3 teaspoons canna-oil 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup ice (optional) Chopped pistachios for garnish

GREEN PISTACHIO

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SMOOTHIES TO START YOUR NEW YEAR OFF RIGHT!

1. Add milk to the blender.

2. Add spinach, avocado, pistachios, bananas, yogurt, sweetener, canna-oil and vanilla.

3. Blend until completely smooth.

4. Add ice if needed, and blend again.

5. Serve immediately.

Starting Fresh This January, I’m easing back into healthier habits with a simple, sustainable routine. Each morning starts with a 45-minute walk, followed by a nourishing smoothie lunch built around fruits and vegetables — going light on processed sweets and minimal on meat.

After a season of holiday indulgence, this feels less like a reset and more like a gentle return to balance. I focus on what’s fresh when I can, and when something isn’t available, I reach for frozen fruit with no added sugar or syrups, keeping everything clean and uncomplicated.

jan. 2026

TRIPLE BERRY RED SMOOTHIE Servings: 4 1 1/2 cups frozen strawberries 1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries 1 1/2 cups frozen cherries or blueberries 2 1/2 cups milk or apple juice 1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt 3 teaspoons canna-oil 1-2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup (optional) 1 cup ice (optional) Strawberries for garnish 1. Add the liquid to the blender.

2. Add all berries, yogurt, canna-oil and sweetener (if using).

3. Blend until smooth and thick.

4. Adjust consistency with more liquid or ice if needed. Top with a strawberry.

5. Serve immediately.

To complement the routine, I’ve been enjoying infusing these smoothies with Astral Works (Prūf No. 24), a low-THC, higher-CBD strain crossed from Harle Tsu and TH1. With its citrus and pine notes and clear-headed, calming effects, it offers a mellow, relaxing vibe without a heavy high. It’s the kind of support that helps me slow down, stay present and ease into a be-healthy, try-to-be-happy rhythm — grounded, intentional and kind to both body and mind.

Laurie@Laurieandmaryjane.com

RECIPES by LAURIE WOLF @LAURIEANDMARYJANE | PHOTOS by BRUCE WOLF @BRUCE_WOLF #Don’tFearTheEdible #BeKind #EatYourCannabis #LaurieAndMaryJane

Eriko Kobayashi is a native of Tokyo, Japan, where she started her journey in glass art 11 years ago. Her focus started on soft glass flameworking, as borosilicate wasn’t part of the curriculum there yet. After coming to the U.S. a little over five years ago, Eriko saw the popularity of borosilicate glass and gradually started learning the process.

THIS WAS MEANT TO BE; as the pandemic hit, Eriko was still able to create without needing the large facility, team and tools associated with soft glass work. Basically, all you need for borosilicate work is a torch, a countertop kiln and some hand tools. She also likes torch work because it allows her to create larger pieces without the need for multiple sets of hands.

With a focus on contemporary glass art, it’s no surprise that Eriko is inspired by some of the greats. You might be familiar with the work of Danny White (@ethan_windy) and Chris Ahalt (@cha_glass), two of her favorites. But go take a look at the pieces by Eunsuh Choi (@ eunsuhchoi), Karina Guevin (@karinaguevin) and Cedric Ginart (@cedricginart), who are three of her other major influences.

Their work is absolutely stunning.

Three months ago, Eriko moved out of her home creative space to an artist building in Seattle, where she has her own studio to create and plenty of space to grow.

Her installation of “Chewy Thoughts,” made as an homage to “The Gum Wall” (a literal wall of gum in a downtown Seattle alleyway), is now on display at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport between baggage claim 7 and 8 for your in-person viewing pleasure.

GLASS ART SPOTLIGHT

ERIKO KOBAYASHI

“My vision is to continue developing techniques that combine playfulness with strong conceptual grounding.”

STORY by REX HILSINGER @BOROPHOTO for LEAF NATION | PHOTOS courtesy See more of her work at LeafMagazines.com

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The installation will be there for the next six months, so go give it a peek next time you’re flying into or out of Seattle.

When asked about her vision of the future of glass art, Eriko said, “My vision is to continue developing techniques that combine playfulness with strong conceptual grounding. I hope to create work that feels accessible, surprising and uniquely tactile.”

Regarding the growing market, she stated, “For the industry as a whole, I hope to see more diversity in techniques and voices, more cross-disciplinary collaboration and a growing appreciation for process-driven work. I also want to help build communities where knowledge is shared openly, so that more people can fall in love with glass.”

We tend to feature a lot of functional glass art in this column, but this month, the Leaf wanted to provide something a little different for our readers: art just for the sake of art. We hope you enjoy the images of this amazing work as much as we do. Take a minute (or more) to dive into the visual aspects as deep as you see fit.

Experiencing any kind of art creates space in our mind for reflection, self-healing and an overall focus on our personal wellness.

To find out about the availability of her work or commission a piece for yourself, visit her Instagram and send her a direct message! @ERIKO_GLASS

elevate your fate

JOURNEY OF THE HEART

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Dementia Relief and Plant Medicine: One Family's Experience with Low-Dose Cannabis

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I proudly carry her name, Angela Aguilar, like an ambient ember dancing in my heart, glowing with ancestral lineage and love. My Abuelita is 93 years old, a testament to the strength of our Indigenous American, Native Mexican bloodline.

She’s a woman whose life has shaped the architecture of our familia traditions. She is the cornerstone of what it means to be an Aguilar, the matriarch we could always count on. Her presence, like a great oak tree, always held a sense of strength, resilience, shelter and warmth. As dementia has now woven its shadow across her mind, my family and I find ourselves walking beside her on one of the most tender journeys of our lifetime.

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ACCORDING to the World Health Organization, dementia affects 10 million new people globally per year. In 2021, there were 57 million families worldwide living with its many forms daily.

The U.S.C.F. Fein Memory and Aging Center discovered that dementia unfolds when nerve cells in the brain lose connection, FTL1 proteins accumulate, and as a result, memory pathways crumble.

Entire regions of the brain shrink like dried riverbeds. But nothing that science tells us can prepare the family for how it feels to watch someone you love fade in and out of the present moment like clouds on a windy day.

It began slowly: small childlike quirks, repeated questions, a drifting attention span, loss of short-term memory and a scrambling to identify family names.

Over the course of five years, mi familia developed a steady routine of support.

We felt confident that, even through this challenging phase of life, we could reliably support my Abuela. However, as she approaches 94 years of age, none of us were prepared for the dramatic and aggressive decline we would face.

"It was as though the plant opened a small window of clarity in the dissolution of fog ..."

O

ver the past three months, mi Abuelita’s condition shifted sharply.

Her memory slipped almost entirely, and conversations evapA third of a orated midsentence.

10mg piece each day She could no longer brought relief. follow her favorite novelas. She stopped eating, bathing herself and maintaining everyday functions. Fear crept into her eyes, and she grew distrustful, unhappy and increasingly aggressive. Our once-gentle and humorous matriarch began lashing out violently, and with each change, our family dynamics became strained.

Through it all, I kept offering a path of hope: "Cannabis might help her," the ancestors whispered to me. Every time I sat down in prayer and meditative reverence focused on mi Abuelita, the plant spirits nudged my intuition. Unfortunately, the familia wasn’t ready to try an Earth-grown remedy; fear, stigma and uncertainty lingered like ghosts from older generations.

Dementia doesn’t only alter the person living inside it; it reshapes everyone within its orbit.

We felt the grief first. That quiet, heavy kind of grief that comes before death, when you are already missing someone who still sits right in front of you. As the stress level increased, family tensions surfaced.

Some family members withdrew emotionally; others denied how severe her condition had become. The stress was immense. The house felt heavier, and conversations were shorter. The air was tense in ways we didn’t want to admit.

Questions arose: What’s the right care plan?

Should we move her into a care facility? Are we doing enough? Where is the consistent support from the children she brought into this world and the grandchildren she lovingly guided?

Caregiving is holy work, but it can fracture a family before it unites one.

Eventually, the burden became so immense that only my parents’ compassionate, dedicated love beyond measure could manage mi Abuelita’s around-the-clock care.

They stepped into roles that demanded patience, ing, something we hadn't witnessed in several stamina and a kind of spiritual resilience that months. She was enjoying her novelas, and we stretched them thin from exhaustion. I watched us were finally back to our heartwarming reading all confronting the painful truth that dementia had sessions in which I had the privilege to read her taken our family dynamic and the children's books she once placed it under pressure we’d read to me. never known.

It was as though the plant Then, the breaking point came: opened a small window of Mi Abuelita’s aggression became clarity in the dissolution of fog, unmanageable. Caregivers were where light could pour back struggling to manage support, into her heart and mind. and the nights grew longer.

To witness this healing — That is when her doctors apinitiated by an indigenous proved a progressive decision — plant medicine our ancestors one born not out of desperation, revered — felt like a full circle but out of love and trust. moment of reindigenization.

We introduced a small piece of Cannabis has carried me Earth-grown medicine: The 4.20 through my own wellness jourMini Chocolate Bar Infused with ney, and now it has become Gold Leaf Gardens Hash Rosin the gentle medicine guiding "She was enjoying her Indica, grown with aloha, and the matriarch whose name I novelas, and we were crafted by Evergreen Herbal. inherited. Both the young and finally back to our We cut the 10-milligram piece the old Angela Aguilar are into thirds, giving her just onerestored and renewed by our heartwarming reading third each day. beloved Cannabis. sessions in which I Gracias a Dios, that was the This is reparation. This is had the privilege to read moment the light returned to the reclamation. This is the spirit her the children's books eyes of our beloved Abuelita. of Earth medicine returning she once read to me."

The shift was noteworthy. Her home to its people. aggression softened, her eyes Tonight, as I sit with mi warmed and her curiosity returned. The first night, Abuelita — her hand in mine, her smile soft she slept peacefully, and the next day, she ate a full as dawn — I feel nothing but gratitude. Her meal. And for the first time in three months, she battle with dementia is not gone. The journey allowed caretakers to help her get ready for a new continues, but hope has returned, and with it, a day. She began remembering family names and reminder, OGs, that even when memory fades, having clear cognitive conversations again. love remembers. Even when the mind wanders, Within a week, she was laughing and smilthe spirit knows the way home.

STORY & PHOTOS by ANGELA-JORDAN AGUILAR @AJ.OG @ELEVATE_YOUR_FATE for LEAF NATION See more photos at LeafMagazines.com

cannthropology

PRESENTS

Setting The

Standard

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Lifelong civil rights activist Pebbles Trippet is one of the most respected elders in the Cannabis community, and with good reason: it’s her courageous legal battle nearly 30 years ago that established a patient’s right to legally transport their medicine and to possess as much Cannabis as deemed necessary by their doctor — a precedent-setting policy known as the Trippet Standard.

A BORN ACTIVIST Mary Susan “Sudi” Trippet was born Nov 10, 1942, in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As early as the age of five, she began suffering from excruciating migraines.

“I just remember pounding my head against the backboard Photo of Trippet from an article about activism on of the bed in order to campus in the University counteract the pain,” she of Oklahoma newspaper recalled. circa 1967.

Between headaches, her youth was dominated by two passions: athletics and activism. At the age of 13, she became aware of Rosa Parks, the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Emmett Till’s lynching, and they deeply affected her.

“This was a part of my generation … it was happening in real time, and I was paying attention.”

The most important lesson she learned from the bus boycott, she said, was how to beat the system.

“I thought, ‘Oh, so that’s what you do to win — you come together for a common purpose, and you stick together.”

Jan. 2026

THE POWER OF PROTEST In college, Trippet devoted herself to activism — joining the Students for a Democratic Society, founding the Committee to End the War in Vietnam and organizing an anti-war rally on Flyer for the SDS campus that drew over March on Washington.

100 people. In 1960, she participated in the NAACP’s lunch counter protests to integrate Tulsa’s eateries. And in April 1965, she helped the SDS organize the first national protest March on Washington against the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, these acts of civil disobedience incited threats of violence against her.

“At some point, a bomb came in my front door, sent by the Minutemen,” she told Fat Nugs Magazine last March. “Luckily, it didn’t go off … but it singed the walls and me a little bit, and I decided to move.”

After college, she moved east — first to New York and then to Boston — where she spent about four years working odd jobs and ramping up her activist efforts. She joined the Socialist Workers Party, but due to ideological disagreements, she and her partner-in-crime, Robert “Stoney” Gebert (aka “Geb”), were expelled from the group.

“They brought me up on charges and kicked us out of the SWP,” she told Fat Nugs. “I had already decided that they were too backwards … the anti-gay policy, and the anti-weed policy, they were no good for me … so I left.”

Amid the growing hippie movement in the late 1960s, Trippet did what thousands of other young idealists did — she headed to California.

CALIFORNIA & CANNABIS In 1972, Trippet moved to Los Angeles, where her activism shifted toward two new issues: LGBT rights (a subject that, as a bisexual woman, was deeply personal to her) and marijuana legalization. (Since first trying Cannabis during college, Trippet had learned that it could prevent the horrific pain of her migraines and had been using it regularly.)

Trippet joined the nascent pro-pot movement in their effort to pass the California Marijuana Initiative (aka Prop 19) — helping to gather the 326,000 signatures needed to get it on the ballot. Despite winning only 33% of the vote, advocates viewed the turnout as a victory. Their second initiative, two years later, also failed, but more localized efforts would soon prove successful: namely, the Moscone Act of 1976, making possession of up to an ounce of marijuana in San Francisco a misdemeanor rather than a

PLEADING HER CASE Throughout the 1990s, Trippet was busted ten times in five different counties. The most consequential of these arrests took place on Oct. 17, 1994, in the Berkeley Trippet & Dr. Tod Mikuriya Hills area of Kensington.

After being stopped for a traffic violation, police discovered around two pounds of leaf in her vehicle and charged her with felony transportation of a controlled substance.

At trial, she first tried a religious-use defense, then a medical-necessity defense. Dr. Mikuriya testified on her behalf, saying that Cannabis was indeed effective for her condition, and that if it were legal for him to prescribe to her, he would. Nevertheless, she was found guilty and, on February 20, 1996, sentenced to six months in jail.

Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality

of the Controlled Substances Act.

But Trippet had expected to lose — the reason she chose to go to trial rather than take a plea deal was to challenge the constitutionality of the law. She filed an appeal, and as fate would have it, her first day back in court was November 4, 1996 — the day before Prop 215 was voted into law. With medical marijuana now legalized, her medicinal defense had new legs. Unfortunately, her attorneys weren’t on board with her strategy, so she fired them and opted to go it alone — visiting UC Berkeley’s law library to educate herself on past Cannabis cases and court procedures.

In addition to her appeal, Trippet also filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the Controlled Substances Act — arguing that penalties for medical marijuana are “excessive and disproportionate,” constituting “cruel punishment,” and that confiscating said medicine amounted to “unreasonable seizure.” Unfortunately, the court rejected her petition.

THE TRIPPET STANDARD Luckily, though, she had better luck with the appeal.

Representing herself, she argued that the Compassionate Use Act applied retroactively to her case, and that the right to transport her medicine — Pebbles selling though not explicitly stated activist merch in in the law — was implied the Castro. by it. She also argued that since she needed to smoke up to five “fatties” a day to keep her headaches at bay, she should not be held to the preset legal limit of 28.5 grams.

Remarkably, on Aug. 15, 1997, the First District Court of Appeals agreed with her, ruling that if a patient has a legal right to possess Cannabis, they also have a right to transport it.

They also ruled that the quantity of Cannabis a patient can possess should be “reasonably related to the patient’s current medical needs,” as determined on a case-by-case basis based on the physician’s approval — a new legal guideline dubbed the “Trippet Standard.” Her case was then remanded back to the lower court, where the charges were dismissed.

It would be nearly a decade before that standard was put to the test. In 2003, California passed SB 420 — establishing new regulations for medical Cannabis. In that bill was a section that set a limit of 8 ounces of dried marijuana and six mature or 12 immature plants per pa-

tient — a policy in direct conflict with the Trippet Standard. Two years later, the LAPD searched the home of medical marijuana patient Patrick Kelly and found 12 ounces and seven plants, and charged him with exceeding the legal limit. He was convicted, but the conviction was overturned, and when it reached the state Supreme Court in January 2010, they ruled that Prop 215 trumped SB 420, and thus the Trippet Standard was upheld.

ENDURING LEGACY Thanks to her historic legal victory, Trippet has been honored with three lifetime achievement awards: from the Emerald Cup in 2003, from Women Grow of Posing with her lifetime Mendocino in 2016 achievement award at and from the Califorthe 2024 CA State Fair. nia State Fair Cannabis Awards in 2024 — an award that, like the law she helped establish, has been named after her.

Trippet has spent much of the past 30-odd years living off the grid on her property near Albion, California. While there, she co-founded the Medical Marijuana Patients Union, the Mendocino Medical Marijuana Advisory Board and the Cannabis Elders Council, as well as creating Cannabis Cards - trading cards honoring stoner heroes.

Sadly, though, the long, difficult legal battle has taken a toll on her. Unable to maintain a steady job for many years, she had to sell activist literature and promotional materials on the streets to get by. In 2023, she was forced to start a GoFundMe and sell her cottage in Mendo to survive.

She spent around two years living at Emerald Cup founder Tim Blake’s Area 101 compound in Laytonville before moving in with a friend in San Francisco who now takes care of her.

Now 83, Trippet has also been struggling with several debilitating ailments, including severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which makes it difficult for her to breathe and speak. But despite her failing health, Pebbles’ radical spirit and commitment to the cause remain undimmed.

“A Roe v. Wade-type constitutionality challenge is what matters now,” she insisted. “I’m confident that if some lawyers would just come forward and take it to the Supreme Court on civil rights grounds, we would win.”

For our podcast and more Cannabis history content visit worldofcannabis.museum/cannthropology.

STO RY b y B O B BY B LAC K @ CAN N T H RO PO LO G Y fo r LEA F NAT IO N | M AI N P HOTO b y M I K E ROSAT I @ ROSAT I P HOTOS

PHOTOS COURTESY OF PEBBLES TRIPPET

BAY AREA BUST In the 1980s, Pebbles and Geb formed the California Marijuana Reform Initiative Coalition, an organization promoting progressive ballot initiatives. They got significant measures passed, including an Apartheid Consumer Boycott, a “Nuclear Free Zone” in SF and an AIDS Research Initiative.

“I went to bat for any cause that was about human rights, civil rights, and ways of making change,” she says.

Unfortunately, that activism made them targets of law enforcement. On May 8, 1982, the SFPD raided CMRIC’s offices as part of an undercover sting operation and found small quantities of weed and around 2,000 doses of LSD. Narcotics agents arrested Trippet, Gebert and four others, charging them with misdemeanor Cannabis possession and felony possession with intent to sell LSD. Trippet cried entrapment and accused the police of harassment, claiming that the operation was planned as a way to short-circuit their latest initiative. Nonetheless, she was convicted and served three years’ hard time Despite this setback, she remained closely involved with the burgeoning medical marijuana scene spearheaded by Dennis Peron, “Brownie Mary” Rathbun and Dr. Tod Mikuriya — promoting the Cannabis Buyers’ Clubs, serving on the organizing committee for Proposition 215 and helping to supply Rathbun with Cannabis to make her “benign brownies” for AIDS patients and veterans.

Trippet filed an amicus brief with the U.S.

CHERI SICARD

felony, and 1978’s Prop W, recommending that the city’s district attorney and cops not enforce federal marijuana laws.

After years of splitting her time between Los Angeles and the Bay, in 1978 Trippet relocated to a commune in Mendocino County, where the members all chose new hippie names. She went through several nicknames that didn’t stick before finally hitting on the right one: As she tells it, when a Chinese girlfriend named her Black Jade because it was the rarest kind, she replied that she preferred the commonest kind, so it became Black Pebble. Then, after dropping the Black and adding an “s,” she became simply “Pebbles.”

“It really does fit me … because I am the commonest kind — I am of and for and by the people.”

studio sessions

HOW CANNABIS INSPIRES ART

@OVCHARKART W W W. O V C H A R K A . S H O P

OVCHARKA INDUSTRIES Artist collective Ovcharka Industries creates vibrant and humorous graphics and animations that blend modern techniques with a visual style that’s heavily inspired by the animation of the 1930s.

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YOU’VE PROBABLY come across some of their art while scrolling through Instagram. Described by one of their clients as “dystopian bubblegum,” they say what sets their work apart is keeping a sense of humor to the art.

Cassie and Darlene are full-time artists who have crafted a life traveling together while working on jobs for brands like Apple, Liquid Death, Adobe, and Wiz Khalifa’s Mistercap’s.

Both illustrators and designers, Darlene also handles art direction while Cassie does incredible animations for their work. Since around 2020, the pair has worked freelance after leaving their full-time jobs and devoted themselves to their own merch as well as working with clients.

One of the easiest ways to sum up their work is Betty Boop on acid, and indeed there is a focus on cartoonish hedonism in their colorful illustrations. Many of their pieces feature smiling bongs, dancing nugs, or flowers and clouds sharing cartoonishly large joints, but despite having a running theme of consumption in their work, they told us that they don’t consider themselves big stoners. “We actually don’t smoke that much,” Darlene said in our interview. “We collaborate with brands in the Cannabis space mainly because our style fits so well with that culture: bold characters, humor and a bit of chaos.”

Darlene followed up with a point that really sums up a big part of why I started this column.

“Rather than Cannabis shaping our art, it’s more that our art naturally resonates with that audience,” she said. Proving that it’s not the amount you smoke or how much top-shelf you have that dictates how connected you feel to the plant, or how connected the community feels to your artistic style.

jan. 2026

“ONE OF THE EASIEST WAYS TO SUM UP THEIR WORK IS BETTY BOOP ON ACID.” Their workspace in Thailand is a collection of large screens and inspirational totems, where they say you can hear “mostly phonk and techno” coming out of the speakers.

Alongside that, Darlene told us there are usually horror movies playing in the background. “One of the last ones that shocked us was ‘Together’ from 2025,” she said. Although they break up the continual feed with global news, as it “keeps things interesting,” Darlene noted.

Most recently, they released a buildable poster with Layer By Layer Prints in the U.K., which lets you place the pieces down until you’ve created a piece of 3D art for your home — a must-have gift for the holiday season.

STORY by MATT JACKSON @ACTIONMATTJACKSON | ILLUSTRATIONS by OVCHARKA INDUSTRIES See more of their work at LeafMagazines.com