AS NATURE INTENDED.
AUTHENTIC AROMA TRUE TASTE CAREFULLY CULTIVATED INDOOR GROWN
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, avor and enhanced e cacy—a full sensory experience that’s authentic to each cultivar.
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.
SENSISEEDS.US
@SENSISEEDS_US
@SENSISEEDS.US
BLACK
WES ABNEY CEO & FOUNDER
wes@leafmagazines.com
MIKE RICKER OPERATING PARTNER ricker@leafmagazines.com
TOM BOWERS CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER tom@leafmagazines.com
DANIEL BERMAN CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER daniel@leafmagazines.com
TERPODACTYL MEDIA CONTENT DIRECTOR amanda@leafmagazines.com
BOBBY BLACK LEAF BOWL DIRECTOR & HISTORIAN bobbyblack@leafmagazines.com
MIKE GIANAKOS ONLINE EDITOR mikeg@leafmagazines.com
MICHELLE NARANJO COPY EDITOR michelle@leafmagazines.com
PAIGE RICHARDS ADVERTISING SALES paige@leafmagazines.com
MATT JACKSON SOCIAL MEDIA mattjackson@leafmagazines.com
We are creators of targeted, independent Cannabis journalism. Please
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ABOUT THE COVER
Hailing from Indonesia, Ilham is a prolific illustrator and commercial artist known for his trippy and hyperfuturistic style, whose work has been commissioned by national brands and touring musicians for over a decade.
Leaf COO Tom Bowers created the concept of a dab bar set in a Blade Runner scene (cue the noodle slurp), and Ilham brought home the neon vision with abundant stoner details. For even more of his art, be sure to check out our profile in this month's Studio Sessions column from Leaf contributor Matt Jackson, pg. 38-39.
ILLUSTRATION BY ILHAM NUGROHO TKS-LOWSKILL.COM | @TKS.LOWSKILL
CONTRIBUTORS
WES ABNEY, FEATURES ADHDDEAD, REVIEWS
ANGELA-JORDAN AGUILAR, FEATURES
DANIEL BERMAN, DESIGN + PHOTOS
BOBBY BLACK, DESIGN + FEATURES
TOM BOWERS, FEATURES
JACKIE BRYANT, FEATURES
CHRIS COE, PHOTOS
DAVID DOWNS, FEATURES
NICK EVANS, REVIEWS REX HILSINGER, FEATURES + PHOTOS
CRYSTAL HOFFMAN, REVIEWS
ELLEN HOLLAND, FEATURES
MATT JACKSON, FEATURES
JESSE JOHNSON, FEATURES
DENNIS KLEIMAN, PHOTOS
GREG MALCOLM, PHOTOS
ALEC MITSAKIS, PHOTOS
ILHAM NUGROHO, ILLUSTRATION
LEXI PADUSSIS, SALES
BONITA RODRIGUEZ, PHOTOS
BRIAN SANNER, FEATURES + PHOTOS
BRUCE & LAURIE WOLF, RECIPES
LEAF!
Thanks for picking up The Tech Issue of Northeast Leaf!
Whether you love Chat GPT or think artificial intelligence is the beginning of the end (or prefer quartz banger dabs over e-rigs), our personal opinions aren’t going to stop the forward movement of technology. For better or worse, we’re here! Thank God for Cannabis and our ability to consume without fear in legal states.
My thoughts on the intersection of technology and Cannabis remain positive despite the dangerous trends in the greater world. Our community has been lucky to ride the wave of technology to improve the plant that we know and love in so many ways. From advances in the grow room to scientific extraction — and especially when it comes to vaporizing and electronic dabs — technology has truly made the Cannabis experience more vibrant, even though it often requires a quick instruction manual review. We’ve gone from smoking out of apples and pop cans to advanced electronics delivering solventless rosin straight to our heads.
“SOCIAL MEDIA HAS MADE STARS OF GROWERS, STRAINS, BRANDS AND PRODUCTS. ”
But there’s one area where technology has really hurt society that the Cannabis industry has been blissfully pretending is not a toxic soup of mass manipulation, psyops and algorithmic programming — and that’s social media. The internet and social media have allowed our culture to flourish beyond our local communities and taken us out of the shadows of the drug war into mainstream and cult fame. Social media has made stars of growers, strains, brands and products. The product of social media engagement is being sold, making money for the titans of tech. Cannabis is driving a significant amount of engagement on social media and influencing the larger cultural zeitgeist of the world in the same hit.
Yet our community is still facing censorship and oppression on social media platforms. I won’t name anyone directly, but just like how we used to buy a gram in a Ziploc bag, the new form of this is not good. Companies that are operating in legal states and paying massive amounts of taxes lose their accounts and the ability to promote digitally on a daily basis without warning or recourse. There are even cases of extortion among social media companies, with individual workers exploiting these cases to target Cannabis operators.
While the technology of today is surely great, we are also seeing firsthand the direct and overwhelming force of oppression, and it reminds me of why I started the Leaf in 2010. Back then, there were no social media sites posting about Cannabis. The information was locked down, and possessing a plant could mean prison.
So, as we celebrate the technology that allows us to get higher, we must also remember the importance of the fact that our plant comes from the dirt, and that it’s only through spreading seeds of positivity that we can end the war on drugs. It’s also why we print the Leaf on real paper, every month, and distribute it to places where Cannabis is bought and sold legally. For as long as we have a community of readers and advertisers, no social media company or government will censor this free press!
BUDTENDER XP
The crew checked out the latest Budtender XP event thrown by the Work’n’Roll team up in Albany, New York. This was one of their first upstate events after hosting numerous budtender-focused seshes in New York City. Unique to this event was its location: on the tarmac and in a hangar at an airport. This high-flying event was the perfect place to get lifted and connect with the different licensed brands from across the state. We set our cruising altitude on “high” and got a chance to check out the scene as well as sit down and chat with one of the producers for the event, Matthew Evert. Here’s a snippet of my conversation with him about how this event came to life and what makes Budtender XP a special event for the New York community.
WHY DOES BUDTENDER XP EXIST?
Since its inception three years ago, Budtender XP has existed to bring budtenders closer to the brands they ultimately recommend to consumers. It’s hard to recommend a product earnestly and passionately without having tried it yourself. Budtender XP equips budtenders with the firsthand experience to give those passionate product recommendations while also creating a sense of community within the budtender community, as they get to try products and give feedback live with their peers from all over New York.
WHAT MAKES BUDTENDER XP
SPECIAL? Because budtenders are the frontline soldiers of education for the Cannabis industry, we want to give budtenders the best. So, each of our Budtender XP events in 2025 have been at different, uniquely exotic locations at which you may have never dreamed of consuming. We’ve consumed at a historical carriage house from the 1800s, exclusive NYC nightclubs that haven’t been used before for Cannabis and even an airplane hangar housing
old World War II airplanes with views of a large, active runway. Imagine consuming next to TSA on the tarmac while watching airplanes jet off into the sky! We want to engage the wildest consumption dreams of budtenders and create consumption experiences the world has never seen before.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR BUDTENDER
“Wewanttoengagethe wildestconsumption dreamsofbudtenders andcreateconsumption experiencestheworld hasneverseenbefore.”
XP? If you’ve ever played video games, you’ll know XP stands for “experience points” you earn to level up. In line with this, we always strive to improve the Budtender XP series by creating experiences that haven’t been done before. Expect to see us creating more delightfully unexpected experiences, perhaps in other states as well. That effect of serendipity is priceless — it creates unforgettable relationships and memories for everyone sharing the experience of a Budtender XP event.
WORKNROLL.NYC | @WORKNROLL.NYC
MENU MATTERS
In Marina del Rey, California,
I stopped at a food truck with friends (including Leaf Magazines’ Matt Jackson). We were stoned, fair enough, but the menu photos were ridiculous: pasta glowing like lacquer, arancini hovering in digital perfection. We realized the images were created by artificial intelligence. The food was bland and overpriced, nothing like the promise on the screen. Everyone laughed. Who would trust a menu like that for something that is meant to be enjoyed? In Cannabis, we already do.
MOST CALIFORNIA dispensaries keep jars sealed. You can’t smell or touch flower. In other states, you never even walk inside. You scroll an app, tap an eighth and wait for delivery. Online, feeds are filled with glossy nug shots, AI-styled strain art and template-based promo videos. People scoff at AI food pics but accept fakery as the default way of buying weed.
The irony is thick: The plant has always been about sensory immersion — scent, sight, touch, taste — yet the legal market has designed out nearly all of that contact.
It isn’t accidental. These choices are built into legalization. Regulators ban open jars. Tech platforms make efficiency the selling point. Brands, under pressure to scale, crank out stock-style content and lean on AI because it’s cheap, fast and endless. Rescheduling looms, and while it isn’t legalization, it will add another layer of compliance, polish and corporate marketing. Cannabis is moving into the mainstream, and the buying experience is being flattened into something safe, sterile and unreal.
Artificial intelligence on its own isn’t just a gimmick layered on top of the industry, but a symptom of the same forces that legalization unleashed. Regulation pushed Cannabis into sealed jars and delivery menus, which already reduced
the experience to words and images. AI simply accelerates that trend by supplying limitless, polished content to fill the gaps.
In other words, once you design a system where consumers can’t use their senses and must rely on representations, it’s almost inevitable that those representations become increasingly synthetic.
The technology is new, but the logic behind it has been baked into legalization from the start.
That’s progress in some ways. Legal markets mean less risk, more access and the chance for people to work in daylight. For decades, weed was purchased in backyards, on couches, at concerts or from the trunk of a friend’s car. It wasn’t safe, but it was real. Legalization untangles us from that underground, but it also scrubs away the informality, the intimacy and the rituals. You don’t linger, you don’t smell, you don’t talk. You pick from a menu — sometimes a real one, increasingly a digital or even artificial one.
“The ask is simple: As Cannabis goes mainstream, demand authenticity.”
Progress comes with a cost: the messy, sensory and communal rituals that gave Cannabis culture its soul are being stripped away. More than mere nostalgia, those rituals were how people learned about cultivars, built relationships with growers and created the language as well as the style that made Cannabis unique. Without them, the market risks collapsing into something indistinguishable from Big Pharma or Big Alcohol.
Cannabis is a plant, yes, but one with a strong human culture orbiting it. If menus, apps and AI images define it, the culture shrinks until weed is just another product on a shelf. That’s not what brought people to it in the first place. This plant has always been more than the high. It’s been about how we gather, how we share and how we resist sameness.
The ask is simple: As Cannabis goes mainstream, demand authenticity. Genuine photos, authentic voices and real spaces where the plant can be experienced as more than just a picture. Otherwise, legalization delivers safety without culture, and that’s not liberation at all. It’s just like that food truck in Marina del Rey: shiny pictures, digital promises and a final product that leaves you wishing you’d trusted your senses instead.
FIRE FOLLOWER SUBCOOL SATIVAS
UNPACKING THE CLASSICS
TIRED of seeing yet another Gelato hybrid on shelves?
Growers across the world can farm a blast from the past this fall and into the foreseeable future: the famous, deceased breeder Subcool’s strains, including Slymer, Chernobyl, Cherrygasm and Querkle. These strains live on through his understudy Will “Still Will” Rouland under the name Subcool’s The Dank.
Subcool (aka Montgomery Ball) specialized in fruity, tasty, uniquely vigorous, high-yield, sativa-dominant plants. Subcool generally eschewed the hype of the ’90s and ’00s, like OG, Chem and Diesel. He seemingly never touched Cookies and never saw Zkittlez.
Subcool died in 2020, but Subcool’s The Dank has blossomed over the last two years with a mission to keep the influential, celebrity breeder’s name alive forever.
“It’s going great,” Rouland, a 38-year-old Oklahoma resident and operator of Subcool’s The Dank, said.
Anyone looking for ’90s or ’00s sativas should start popping these packs and blast off. Let’s make weed speedy again.
SUBCOOL’S DEATH & BRAND REBIRTH
High Times Lifetime Achievement Award winner Subcool was a grower, breeder, author, outlaw and YouTube personality. But his last days were marred by a fire that destroyed his house and 4 million of his seeds, a messy divorce, a police raid in Arizona and failing health. He died in January 2020 from COVID and a genetic illness that had weakened his lungs.
Rouland entered his orbit as a fan, and then he became an employee, assistant and eventually a partner.
Subcool’s son sold the company to Rouland for $4.20. Ever since, Rouland has quietly worked to rebuild and expand on Subcool’s strains, modernizing and stabilizing them for posterity.
Today, Subcool's The Dank sells across several seed banks (including Brothers Grimm Seeds) in the U.S. and across the globe.
In general, Subcool’s The Dank F2s come from 50 to 100 pre-2017 seeds, hunted down to five males and females that best exemplify the traits Subcool documented and liked in them.
“I like to pick before the fire happened,” Rouland said. Rouland has 20 staple Subcool strains he is working to bring back in Sub’s vision, using his mentor’s books (“Dank: The Quest for the Very Best Marijuana” and “Dank 2.0: The Quest for the Very Best Marijuana Continues”) and articles to try to match the flavors he was identifying when he would launch strains.
“Really, my job the next five to 10 years is hunting these genetics through F2, F3, F4 and backcrossing to bring it back to what was identified by Sub, but also with nice bag appeal and nice smell,” Rouland said.
Award-winning journalist/author and former Leafly Senior Editor David Downs’ new genetics intelligence dispatch.
This work offers a unique stash of classic sativas in a world dominated by indica-hybrids made from Gelato, Runtz, Permanent Marker, etc.
“Subcool strains are probably the most vigorous, stacked, structured hybrid sativas that I ever came across in my entire life. I’m really lucky,” Rouland said.
UPCOMING BREEDING
CHEESEQUAKE FEMALE
CHERRYGASM X BLOOM SEED CO.’S MODERN BLACK MAPLE 22
“Subcool allows me to go back to great, awesome fruity flavors with huge, enormous yields and then cross them into new strains that are Cookies, Doughy, maybe not as vigorous or yielders, and we’re finding awesome bangers through doing that.”
CHERNOBYL X PIFF PROJECT
SLYMER S1, QUERKLE F2 & THE NEW SUBCOOL OG F1
Grow some Slymer S1 or Slymer Bx. It’s an arousing, limonene/pinene selection of Chernobyl, which itself comes from (Trainwreck x Trinity) x Jack the Ripper.
“Slymer was a lot of fun,” Rouland said. “It’s Mr. Clean with a super sativa Chernobyl look. It almost goes back to Jack Herer. I don’t like Jack, but I love Slymer.”
He recommends Slymer for outdoor growers. “She’ll run outside awesome,” he said.
The Slymer S1 is nice, but the Slymer Bx “is more important to me,” Rouland said. “The Bx has more Slymer phenos in it.”
For beginners, consider Querkle, another blast from the past that combines Urkle x Space Queen. It’s a Subcool staple and crowd favorite. It’s a squat and rare Subcool indica that yields long, girthy colas.
“SUBCOOL STRAINS ARE PROBABLY THE MOST VIGOROUS, STACKED, STRUCTURED HYBRID SATIVAS THAT I EVER CAME ACROSS IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.”
-WILL ROULAND
“It’s fun to grow,” Rouland said.
Even better, see Rouland’s modernization of Subcool’s Jesus OG. It marries Jesus to Wi-Fi OG #3.
“It’s frickin’ frosted grenades, bigger than Wi-Fi from the structure of the Jesus, and it’s got some sour cherries. But the gas on it is unmistakable,” Rouland said.
Rouland, a New York native, is nostalgic for Piffs and its “basement incense crazy terp. It gets me really fucking high. There’s almost no ceiling on the thing,” he said. Find Subcool’s The Dank on Brothers Grimm Seeds, DC Seedbank, North Atlantic and Multiverse. Next year, the brand will expand to Amsterdam and Spain.
SUBCOOL OG SEEDS COURTESY
SLYMER COURTESY
SUB & WILL COURTESY
North America’s outdoor annual crop finishes. Watch and smell daily for peak ripeness, and cut at any hints of mold. Weather outlook: Drier and warmer than average for most of the U.S. Cooler and drier than average in the Northeast. Warmer and wetter than average in the Pacific Northwest. The Hunter’s Moon is Oct. 6.
OCT. 2025 POT FARMER’S ALMANAC
How THC can help create a healthier balance with technology
DANK DIGITAL DETOX
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m addicted to social media. The time I spend on Instagram takes away from the time I could be spending doing things that I love, like reading a book or practicing yoga, but I still find myself logging in when I have a few minutes to spare. And oftentimes, those minutes become hours. Because I’m engaging with Cannabis content, I tell myself, “It’s for work.” But the reality is that social media takes me away from being productive and serves as a distraction from my writing.
I’VE TRIED ALL THE TRICKS. I have all my notifications off. I set timers to limit my daily use. I’ve uninstalled the app from my phone. Sometimes I even deactivate my account to challenge myself on weeklong breaks. None of these things work for very long, and I’m back to staring at my phone instead of living my life.
To reignite my creative mind, find focus and take my time back from our technocratic overlords, I have found a solution: Cannabis. We all know the stereotype of the lazy, unproductive stoner, but when I smoke weed, it doesn’t make me feel sedated; it makes me feel sociable, talkative and inspired. Weed allows me to rediscover my ability to concentrate, a skill that technology is slowly eroding. Cannabis energizes my mind and physical body.
FLOWERS FOR FOCUS
A 2025 article published in the Journal of Cannabis Research gathered research from 18 studies to examine the impact of cannabinoids on aging and longevity. The studies showed that when it comes to older adults, or in some cases older mice, cannabinoids have many potential benefits, including “improved lifespan, cognitive function, inflammation, memory, sleep quality and social interaction.”
One of the studies cited examined the effects of Cannabis via tests on older mice that demonstrated oral doses of THC have been “associated with increased synaptic connectivity, improved memory and even reversal of age-related cognitive decline.”
A 2024 study in Sage Journals shows that “contrary to stereotypes,” researchers
observed minimal effects of Cannabis in terms of decreasing motivation. In fact, the study notes that in some instances, Cannabis use makes people more motivated. The research states that many people who frequently get high reported that Cannabis helps them focus and concentrate. This tracks for me. When I get really high, I become hyper-focused. That’s why — for myself as well as others — Cannabis is a wonderful helper for doing mundane but necessary tasks like cleaning the house. After a few bong rips, I see my space in a new way, and I’m happy to declutter and organize.
STEPPING AWAY
"...Author Dacher Keltner discusses finding happiness through moments of transcendence, such as the ones I experience when I’m high in nature. ”
Cannabis also helps get me going physically. One of the best ways that I’ve found to destress is to go on long meandering walks. But after the days of deep isolation caused by COVID and years of remote work, it feels harder to get outside of the house nowadays. Smoking weed before a walk turns something that could be considered boring into an adventure. I explore new areas and see things in familiar places that I’ve never noticed before.
One of my tools for an ultimate reset is a Cannabis edible. On days when I’m wrapped up in work and putting in long hours sitting at the computer, I eat an edible. By the time the high from that edible hits, I will be forced to disconnect. When I get really high, the first thing I begin to lose is my ability to work within the computer’s systems. Without the ability to do basic things online, I'm forced to step away, and for me, that’s always a positive thing.
CANNABIS & CONNECTION
Ultimately, connecting with others is incredibly important in terms of finding meaning in our lives. Social media is a stimulation of connectivity, which helps me understand why I can find myself in a near-constant scroll, but I’m searching for goodness in the community IRL.
As it turns out, Cannabis has been shown to increase empathy. A 2023 study published in the Journal of
Neuroscience Research shows that Cannabis users have “greater emotional comprehension, a cognitive empathy trait involving the understanding of the ‘other’ emotional state.” The study looked at activity within the anterior cingulate cortex, a part of the brain that regulates emotions. The ACC is one of the areas in our body that has the most cannabinoid receptors, and researchers believe this might be why Cannabis users show “greater connectivity of empathy-related areas.”
So science shows us that Cannabis helps us connect with others, but a stoney state of mind also offers a key toward connecting with the larger world around us. The stronger high that I feel with an edible as opposed to smoking weed is a way I settle into my physical environment. It’s as if the state of my stoniness dictates how productive, at least in the conventional sense, I can be.
I enjoy getting high and taking walks along long, isolated beaches on foggy days. Nature helps me feel grounded, and Cannabis helps me be in the moment. Weed helps me discover and remember things that bring wonder and joy into my life.
In a book called “Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life,” author Dacher Keltner discusses finding happiness through moments of transcendence, such as the ones I experience when I’m high in nature.
“How do we begin to quantify the goose bumps we feel when we see the Grand Canyon, or the utter amazement when we watch a child walk for the first time?" reads the book’s description. "How do you put into words the collective effervescence of standing in a crowd and singing in unison, or the wonder you feel while gazing at centuries-old works of art?”
Adding THC to transcendent experiences is my cheat code for living a good life. But, here’s the thing: Utilizing Cannabis to find enchantment in everyday life also works just fine.
Let’s face it, pictures of your buds aren’t getting the likes anymore, bringing us to the hard truth that social media platforms are fundamentally changing what’s cool about weed. At a time when the word “plant” can get your account banned — and potheads are forced back into using Morse code like and r — our social dependence on these apps has created a moment where only certain voices are being allowed to speak when it comes to the sticky green.
Censored Censored
How Big Tech Conspires to Control Cannabis Social Media
FOR EVERY POST about a sunset that gets your favorite breeder banned, there’s a video from companies like Jimmy John’s telling you it’s time for a blinker alert. We’re watching daily as the community rebuilds these sandcastles on the beach in hopes that the algorithmic tide won’t take them down, while large corporations are using cartridge slang or creating KFC dispensaries and being praised for their marketing genius that then gets pushed to feeds all over the world. After your sixth time creating a new email to start your fourth backup account, you can start to feel pretty powerless despite the fact that some of the biggest of these platforms are approaching the same problem: an online population that’s aging out.
If social media apps were countries, one of the biggest issues they could face is a decline in new generations of users. While adults are often fully locked into doomscrolling, people I spoke with are finding themselves more comfortable in places where, as my younger cousin put it, “it’s not so apparent that everything is an ad.”
I understand that opening the floodgates to Cannabis content is scary when you always have national advertisers and congressional eyes on your back. But with the shocking things going viral, it’s tough knowing if even just having the word “plant” in your bio can make you vulnerable to heavy scrutiny, with most instances having little evidence of whether you defied the newest set of rules or if someone out there is using that system to take your account down. The frightening truth is that the call could very well be coming from inside the house.
There is an unholy amount of money to be made “reinstating” the accounts of our friends and peers. There’s big business in getting social media accounts back, especially with our community.
People we spoke to off the record said that they’ve invested over $10,000 in pursuit of getting accounts back. Blue check or no check, whether you have pictures of plants or not, nobody, it seems, is safe.
We wish this ended with an answer or advice on how to keep your account safe, but the truth is, artificial intelligence is now making it easier than ever for content to be flagged or restricted (not to mention information scraped from tagged photos and direct messages). What was once a way to stay connected has now become a game of cat and mouse in the service of a content machine that cares little for Cannabis or the people who care about it most. Now, follow the link for a blinker check brought to you ad-free by your local dry cleaner.
We’re watching daily as the community rebuilds these sandcastles on the beach in hopes that the algorithmic tide won’t take them down.
You submitted an appeal in September 2025.
It usually takes time to review your information, and you might not get your page back. Your brand is no longer visible to people on social media, and you can’t use it. There’s a good chance you just lost years of content.
IF YOU WORKED WITH LEAF MAGAZINES, YOUR BRAND WOULD BE VISIBLE RIGHT HERE.
Leaf Magazines has published in print and online every month, without fail, since June 2010. We at the Leaf loudly and tirelessly advocate for our Cannabis community through our own platforms and channels, and unlike some social media companies, we recognize and respect our legal industry.
What happens next?
Scan this QR to find out how you can be a part of the Leaf platform.
We throw events, publish magazines, showcase up-to-the-minute industry news online, and offer a strong pathway for brands to build without living in fear of being punished for being a part of the Cannabis community.
Doesn’t it feel good to say Cannabis community without worrying about the AI goon squad coming after you?
“A
Marker
CAM’S PERMANENT MARKER WAS CREATED BY SEED JUNKY GENETICS AND SELECTED BY DOJA EXCLUSIVES. A CROSS OF BISCOTTI X JEALOUSY X SHERBET BX, THIS STRAIN IS A POWERHOUSE WHEN IT COMES TO BOTH FLAVOR AND EFFECT.
The strain description on CAM’s website states that “CAM’s version almost looks like Biscotti at first, with dusky hues instead of vibrant purples, and with the sweet, flowery smell of Sherbert, and Jealousy that makes you want to inhale deeply.”
The buds are very dense and sticky. Grinding up the flower really releases the pungent aroma. It is gassy, floral and soapy with undertones of fruit. It rolls up into a joint with ease. You can tell it was cured well, as it is not dried out or brittle.
I always appreciate when the smoke is smooth and flavorful throughout the sesh. Flavor-wise, it is very true to the Permanent Marker terpene profile that I have come to know and love, staining my lips and palate, almost as if I have sucked on a permanent marker itself. This strain not only tastes complex and delicious, but it is also very potent. Enjoyed at the end of a workday, CAM’s Permanent Marker provides a relaxing body high, with euphoria and bursts of creativity present in the afterglow. I can’t recommend this strain enough for folks who want the experience of both a flavorful smoke and a high that lasts for hours.
I have been following CAM since the Colorado medical days. When I made the move to Denver from Los Angeles in 2009, it was difficult to find the quality of flower that I was used to consuming. Shout out to Jahni Denver, who put me on to CAM in 2012.
After the CAM team put themselves on the map in Colorado, they went to California to spread the good terps. What a treat that we’re able to enjoy CAM products in New York as well. Having tried CAM’s flower in three states over the last 12 years, I can confidently tell you it slaps everywhere.
REVIEWS
As effective as the Volcano without the bag
REVIEW
BY
TOM BOWERS @MEGABOMBTOM
The pioneers of clean dry-flower vaping scored another hit with the Veazy, a hand-held heater that builds on the company’s decades-long pioneering success with the Volcano vaporizer and caters to people on the go. With a design akin to a compact microphone, the Veazy offers a striking look crossed with powerful functionality. A simple, solid turn-lock cap releases to reveal a small dry-flower chamber. We used a Flower Mill to prep multiple strains during a session and put the Veazy through a showcase of hits. The base-level temperature setting works best for preserving the flavor of the terpenes, but for those who want to get all possible effects out of the flower, the Veazy features a simple temperature-bump feature. Simply press the button twice during base-level vaping, and it kicks up a notch. Press twice again, and it swiftly reaches max temperature. As effective as the Volcano without the bag, or the need for a tabletop unit. We’ll definitely be adding the Veazy to our sesh kit.
STORZ-BICKEL.COM @STORZ.BICKEL | $249
Experience big clouds and full flavor
THE POCKET DAB
REVIEW BY ADHDDEAD @ADHDDEAD
When I met the Pocket Dab crew at an event I was hosting in Spain, I was a bit dubious about their claims that this is the first disposable hash cart that actually gives the real experience of dabbing. However, my mind was soon changed after they let me sample a few different strains from well-known producers in their device. Using proprietary technology, the Pocket Dab slices off 0.1-gram doses and moves them to a different part of the device before heating them to the perfect vaporization temperature. Experience big clouds and full flavor without using the same decarbed material as the other guys. Load your favorite cold-cure rosin directly into the device, and head off to adventure knowing your flavor, potency and quality won’t be leaving your side. POCKETDAB.COM @THEPOCKETDAB | $59.99
REVIEWS
puffco Pivot
REVIEW BY BOBBY BLACK @THEBOBBYBLACK
Long before they revolutionized dabbing with the Peak, Puffco began by making the best vape pen on the market. Now, a decade later, they’ve reimagined their old-school dab pen with their latest innovation, the Pivot. It’s like having a Peak Pro in your pocket — delivering nearly all of the same features (four colored heat settings, lighted dab timer and haptic feedback), as well as all of the big clouds and flavor we’ve come to expect from the Puffco’s 3D chamber. It comes in two colors: Onyx and Mocha, with Daybreak rumored to be coming soon! PUFFCO.COM @PUFFCO | $130
Focus V
Carta Sport Colorways
REVIEW BY WES ABNEY @BEARDEDLORAX
terpometer Wand
REVIEW BY TOM BOWERS @MEGABOMBTOM
Since the dawn of fire, humanity has strived to find a better way to start it. Whether you’re battling wind or butane inhalation, or you have grown tired of lighting hemp wicks, the Terpometer Wand represents a step forward in fire tech. This battery-powered system features a sleek, modern design with a quartz heating element, aiming to provide a clean, efficient and flame-free path to combustion. We had no issues perfectly lighting a hash hole or bowls using the flat-tipped quartz ignition surface. The Wand is available in Stealth Black or futuristic Graphite.
Clean, efficient and flamefree path to combustion
TERPOMETER.COM
@THETERPOMETER
$120.
Toro Glass Terp Feeder
REVIEW BY MATT JACKSON @ACTIONMATTJACKSON
At first glance, this looks like a slurper that has lost its bottom dish. Load your dab into the tiny bucket attached to a glass wand, and after heating up the glass tube, you just press the wand up under the bottom to “juice” your rosin. All three holes simultaneously flood with liquid, creating thick hits fast. People’s main concerns seem to be with the feeder popping out when you apply the wand. For that, Toro recommends using some light pressure to lock the feeder into your joint. The bucket can hold some monstrous-sized hits, and the shotgun-like experience makes this perfect for seeing who can take the biggest dab.
TOROGLASSGALLERY.COM @TOROGLASS | $690 You can take up to 50 dabs per charge
Taste the rainbow of terps and express yourself in living color with the brand-new Carta Sport Colorways by Focus V, featuring Tangerine, Teal or Lilac outer shells that will light up your next sesh. These new colorways are equipped with the bubble cap, which takes carb capping your dab to the next level. With the state-of-the-art Intelli-Core atomizer, you can take up to 50 dabs per charge, so you won’t be out of the game waiting for another dab. With Bluetooth connectivity and a sleek ergonomic design, the Carta Sport is an upgraded and enhanced version of an absolute unit of an e-rig. Whether you’re a tried-and-true Carta fan (like this writer) or a first-time buyer, light up your next dab with a new Carta Sport Colorway! FOCUSV.COM @FOCUS.V | $235
The bucket can hold some monstroussized hits
Bear Quartz Polar Pack
REVIEW BY MATT JACKSON @ACTIONMATTJACKSON
Roaring temperatures this summer showed us all that it’s crucial to keep your rosin nice and cool when you’re heading from sesh to sesh. That’s why Bear Quartz introduced something light and easy to carry with you. Heavily insulated and available in three colors, the Polar Pack sports a custom-shaped ice pack and holds a staggering amount of jars (we stacked 12). You can place the temperature sensor down by the hash, and the display will tell you exactly what’s going on inside. Bear Quartz’s Polar Pack is an everyday item for anyone who likes to leave the house with flavors on deck. BEARQUARTZ.COM @BEARQUARTZ | $27
It’s like having a Peak Pro in your pocket
With a new price point, Bluetooth capability, redesigned 3D chamber, adjustable temperatures and a sleek Sherlock-style profile, the New Proxy bridges the gap between a next-gen and entry-level device. While the base is in the aesthetic style of their Puffco Peak model, this features a thicker, redeveloped glass housing for the pipe, bubbler and wizard experience. The New Proxy has all the bells and whistles you’d expect from your Peak Pro, including an app feature that lets you upload photos and create color profiles from the blue of the ocean or the green of a desert cactus. Northeast Leaf’s ADHDDead said it best when he reported that the “Puffco’s Proxy 2 feels like another major shift in how we think about portable concentrate rigs.”
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REVIEWS
lidavel The Box
REVIEW BY MATT JACKSON @ACTIONMATTJACKSON
Ice in your bong is just a vision of the past with this techno marvel built right in California. The Box by LidaVel claims to be the world’s first electronically cooled smoking device. Your smoke travels through a coil-like tube before reaching the hookah-style hose and mouthpiece. Their patented technology can get ice-cold in as little as two minutes, giving you frosty hits at the drop of a hat. The 14 mm down stem means you can use it to enjoy flower or concentrates. The unit comes with a five-year warranty and an adapter for your 10 mm bangers and bowls. This is a great piece to bring to a sesh or keep on the coffee table. LIDAVEL.COM @LIDAVELOFFICIAL |
Ease of use is one thing that sets this unit apart
Dab Rite has arguably set the bar for temperature sensors. The Pro’s updated German sensor provides even more accurate results, and the 10-inch arm makes using any size piece a breeze. I can tell you from experience that the results are extremely consistent now. Ease of use is one thing that sets this unit apart from the competition. The user interface is intuitive, the added light on the arm really comes in handy and I love being able to control the volume with ease. The finishing touch is the extra solid case, which has some nice zippers and a cubby pocket big enough for caps/dabbers. DABRITE.COM
@THEDABRITE | $299
myster
Space Station
REVIEW BY MIKE
RICKER @RICKERDJ
The basic 510 thread count vape cartridge has been overdue for a makeover since the introduction of the ceramic coil. Sure, the practicality of having pocket ready access to oil was a game changer ten years ago, but what about now? The Space Station transforms your cart into a bubbler, just add water. With the auto draw lighting up the LED screen to direct your temp, just focus on the toke for a killer cool cloud while the mini/convenient size is super lightweight and portable. Remember to pour out the water before bag stashing it! GETMYSTER.COM | $66
dr.dabber Switch2
REVIEW BY TERPODACTYL MEDIA @TERPODACTYL_MEDIA
Transforms your cart into a bubbler
Impressively sturdy and smooth
Dr. Dabber’s Switch² is a “culmination of over a decade of innovation.” With a patented infrared sensor that’s a first and exclusive to the unit, it offers omnidirectional induction heating, warming the insert evenly. The standard atomizers (inserts) themselves are 40 millimeters deep and interchangeable, so you can swap between the stock quartz option and additions like sapphire or titanium (sold separately). While the unit itself features on-device controls (with temperatures ranging from 250 to 650 degrees Fahrenheit), the app provides further customization. Of particular note are the Switch’s three dynamic heating modes. Descent Mode modulates a torch-style drop after peak temperature, simulating the heat of a traditional banger. Ascent Mode offers a gradual rise, much like a cold start, and Steady Mode keeps a stable temperature while adjusting to dab size and your inhalation rate. The Switch² is an impressively sturdy and smooth device, and an honorable mention goes out to the Dr. Dabber Drop, the brand’s quality complement to the heated tool lineup.
DRDABBER.COM @DRDABBER | $420
Frosty hits at the drop of a hat
GOTHAM CHELSEA
SCENE AND SETTING
Across its four New York locations — Bowery, Chelsea, Williamsburg and Hudson — Gotham’s dispensaries have been working to reimagine Cannabis retail to be more of a cultural experience.
Their shops often feel like you’re walking into a concept art space rather than your standard, run-of-the-mill, Apple-store-clean storefront. Gotham accomplishes this by pairing premium Cannabis product offerings with design-forward interiors, rotating artists, installations and local programming. This September through October, Gotham Chelsea adds another layer to its culture push with “Selling My Life” by Mark Ghuneim, a month-long immersive installation that turns the in-house gallery into a “memory marketplace” of New York’s underground past, underscoring Gotham’s role as a major bridge between Cannabis and culture.
PRODUCT SELECTION
You might be able to call Gotham’s menu a work of art too, as it’s thoughtfully curated with a mix of premium flower, prerolls, concentrates and edibles alongside a rotating mix of design objects, apparel and accessories from emerging and legacy brands. This cross-pollination of Cannabis and lifestyle goods helps make Gotham a one-stop shop for both heady smokers and curious newcomers who might have been exposed to them via their art projects. For example, at this month’s “Selling My Life” art exhibit, select pieces from Ghuneim’s cultural archive will be available for purchase, shining a light on how Gotham’s retail model blurs the line between retail and art experience.
VIBE AND STAFF
Gotham’s brand is female-founded and missiondriven. Their stores are staffed by a diverse team of plant aficionados who seem a bit more tapped into what is going on in the scene and culture than your traditional budtenders. Employees are trained on product knowledge and compliance, but also on hospitality and event production, ensuring their dispensaries can create the vibe of an art opening, a neighborhood hangout and a boutique shopping experience all in one. The vibe here is heady, artsy and part of the culture, and while each location has its own local energy, the vibe is consistently inclusive, creative and distinctly New York.
EXPERIENCE
“… IT’S CLEAR THAT GOTHAM IS WORKING HARD TO TAP INTO THE REAL LOCAL CULTURE AND HELP ELEVATE A PLATFORM FOR ONE OF NEW YORK’S DEEPESTROOTED PASTIMES: THE ARTS.”
Aiming to develop their spaces into more than your standard dispensary, it’s clear that Gotham is working hard to tap into the real local culture and help elevate a platform for one of New York’s deepest-rooted pastimes: the arts. From fashion to immersive in-store pop-ups and everything in between, if you’re looking for a brand that is straddling the line between retail and experiential shopping, this is the place for you. The combination of curation, culture and cordiality creates a unique and enjoyable experience, no matter what part of the scene you are into.
COURTESY
COURTESY
What’s a ghost’s favorite pie?
BOO-berry.
Toke or Treat
Ghoulish Ghosts
Makes about 16 ghosts, 2 to 3 inches each
1 bag (12 ounces) white chocolate chips 2 tablespoons canna-butter Chocolate chips, Red Hots or Skittles if your ghosts are large
1. In the top of a double boiler, over gently simmering water, melt the chips for 7 to 10 minutes. Add the butter, and stir until combined. Remove from heat.
2. Place a piece of parchment on your work surface. Using a spoon, pour the chocolate into ghost shapes.
3. Keep it around 1/4-inch thick, but don’t make it even (it ruins its charm). I feel like I’m making very loose triangles. You may think you failed, but forge ahead. As soon as you place the eyes, you should feel good — you’ve got ghosts!
Yay, it’s almost Halloween! It’s a fun holiday: You can go out and party or have a few ghoulish friends over and do your own thing. These recipes are easy to make, just keep them out of sight and reach of the little hands that should already be in bed. Halloween with a stoned kid or two is a dreadful idea. It’s really important to keep weed away from the young, unless there is a medical condition that warrants them having access to Cannabis (and it won’t be in the form of ghosts or fingers). This is an adults-only menu, and a no-kids event. I used a strain from Pruf Cultivars that’s new to me, and it’s quite a joyride. High in CBD, I find this strain to be great any time of day; it keeps me balanced and happy. What more could you ask for? It’s called Dr. Leveque, named after the coolest medical dude who literally got me my Cannabis medical card a million years ago. He is the man responsible for helping me manage my epilepsy with only Cannabis, no more prescription drugs, which changed my life. He is no longer with us, but he will always be in my heart. He was a huge contributor to Cannabis access in Oregon and a lovely guy. Happy Halloween from Laurie and Mary Jane! Laurie@Laurieandmaryjane.com
Beastly Bites
Makes eight
2 apples, cut into quarters, core removed Lemon juice 4-6 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tablespoons canna-butter, softened Mini marshmallows
What does a skeleton say before eating?
Bone appetite.
1. Place the quartered apples on your work surface. Drizzle with lemon juice to prevent browning — and it tastes good too. In a small bowl, combine the peanut butter and canna-butter.
2. Carefully cut a section out of each apple quarter. You’ll be making a “V” and removing the inside pieces. Divide the peanut butter into the open sections of each apple.
3. Press the marshmallows into the peanut butter, making the teeth look as good, or as bad, as you desire. It gets a little messy, but everyone will probably be too stoned to notice!
Freaky Fingers
Makes about 18 fingers
1. Preheat the oven to 340 F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the dough, flour and canna-butter until you can no longer see the flour. Chill for 30 minutes.
1 pkg. refrigerated sugar cookie dough, room temp. 1-1½ cups flour
2 tablespoons canna-butter, room temp.
18 blanched whole almonds* ¼ cup strawberry seedless jam
2. On a floured work surface, divide the chilled dough into 18 pieces (you can keep some dough in the fridge while working). Roll the dough into finger shapes. Make indentations in the fingers with the back of a butter knife. Don’t go all the way through.
3. Place an almond into the top of each finger, and press down. Bake the cookie fingers until golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes.
4. With a tiny spoon, pastry bag or toothpick, drizzle a bit of the jam around each almond fingernail. Boo!
* To blanch almonds, drop them in boiling water for 1 to 2 minutes. Cool and peel.
Off Hours is a line of edibles I keep reaching for, especially one of their OG products, the “Euphoric” formulation.
STAYING TRUE to its name, this blend of cannabinoids and terpenes was crafted for a truly effects-focused experience. While I usually prefer a more straightforward single-strain experience, the Euphoric formulation just works.
Blending 10 milligrams of THC with 4mg of CBG, Off Hours Euphoric tunes you up for a warm and open mood, elevating your vibe just the right amount. I feel at my funniest an hour or two after popping a couple of these back. Euphoric edibles get your conversation flowing without sloppiness or loss of control. The effects stick around too, with a longer-lasting high that doesn’t taper off after a few hours.
My go-to dosage for edibles is higher than most people’s; I find my giggle-inducing spot to be in the 50mg to 75mg range.
“The Watermelon Lemonade flavor is punchy and familiar: bright fruit, a little tart and finished with a light sugar dusting.”
Owing to that carefully dialed-in blend, I stay closer to 25mg or 30mg with these, or two to three gummies. Thankfully, splitting Off Hours edibles is easy. In an environment where it seems there is an arms race to deliver the highest potency in the smallest package, Off Hours has taken a different approach: Each edible is a sizable bite that is easily cut in half for a 5mg serving. It can be hard to resist the urge to pop another one, though. The Euphoric Watermelon Lemonade gummies taste exactly as you would expect from a pink lemonade candy and easily compare to any convenience store candy. The Watermelon Lemonade flavor is punchy and familiar: bright fruit, a little tart and finished with a light sugar dusting.
These gummies are free of any waxy film or cloying chewiness.
Recently, Off Hours has been widening the flavor bench with its rosin-based lineup, featuring strain-and-flavor pairings like Garlic Gorilla “Sour Passion Punch” and Cheese Dawg “Pineapple Whip.” But whenever a friend asks me to bring something for a trip to the park, a day of apple picking or an afternoon at the Renaissance fair, Off Hours Euphoric will still be a reliable go-to. Easy to slip into a back pocket or toss in a beach bag, these edibles are good for a few hours of easy laughs and quick conversation.
offhoursbrand.com
@offhoursbrand
Zsunami #17
Live Hash Rosin | 1-3rd Pull, 90-119u, Cold Cure
The award-winning team at High Road in Maine is back with another standout offering that smells and looks amazing and smokes really well. If chasing the Z wave is where your flavor profile is, this one might be your great white whale. The intense flavor crashes down on top of your taste buds in a way that will flood your brain with good feelings and energy. I was lucky enough to sample a few jars during a recent dinner with the High Road team and was really impressed by the quality of this particular selection.
ZSUNAMI #17 is a stellar cross from Archive Seed Bank that combines their Zazul #5 with Moonbow 112 F2 #60, and this hash leaves your mouth washed with Zkittlez terps from both sides of the lineage. The potent Z isn’t watered down in flavor, but it instead packs the punch of its Moonbow 112 lineage, leaving you so stoned that you feel that floating sensation without sacrificing any flavor. Meanwhile, the potent high leans on the indica side but doesn’t knock you out. Users can expect a pleasant, full-body warming and numbing high that elevates their mood and sparks creativity.
I asked Rob Thibodeau, owner of High Road, what makes the strain so special.
“Our Zsunami #17 is the conclusion of a 120 seed pheno hunt conducted in the winter of 2024. The genetic not only grows well, but naturally makes six-star melt,” he said.
“Aromas and flavors come in waves of island fruits, with big notes of mango, pineapple,
“... the potent high leans on the indica side but doesn’t knock you out.”
CARLOS GREEN JR.
In a city like Baltimore, a visitor can immerse themselves in one of its many communities just by turning a corner. During the week, you’ll find Carlos Green Jr. out and about in the city and its suburbs engaging with these community members not because it’s part of his job, but because he wants to be a resource to someone who needs one.
“The people — that’s my thing, man. I hate seeing people that need stuff. Not want, but need something and having no access to it. It’s like the worst feeling in the world to me,” he said.
GROWING UP IN EAST BALTIMORE, Carlos described his upbringing in a religious home as strict. His father has been a pastor for over 30 years, his mother is also a minister and he has five sisters. However, he said this dynamic helped to keep his family close.
“No secular music. Certain things we couldn’t watch on TV,” he said, describing life in his childhood home. “My mom, she’s one that worries about every little thing, so she kept us under her wing.”
Carlos attended a community school from kindergarten to eighth grade and then went on to attend Poly High School in Baltimore. After graduating, he attended Coppin State University with the intention of studying computer science and going into a cybersecurity career. But after experiencing some personal struggles while attending college, he made the decision to drop out and find himself a job.
“I had no clue what to do,” he said, adding that his first job during this time was delivering and picking up rental furniture. “You can imagine where my mind was at.” From there, Carlos said his list of odd jobs included delivering paint, preparing gourmet foods and delivering medication to someone’s front door, to name a few.
“It’s been a lot of nights crying and praying. That’s the stuff that people don’t see,” he said, reflecting on his journey of moving between jobs and different industries.
“It goes from overeducated to miseducated, from very reluctant to ready to say, ‘Let’s do it.’ It’s all types of people,” he said. “I know I’m helping people at the end of the day, and I enjoy that.”
Not long after leaving Coppin State, Carlos said he had tried Cannabis for the first time with some help from his cousin, who recommended smoking after hearing about his personal situation. He recalled that his cousin “initiated” him into smoking by punching him in the chest as he inhaled the smoke, saying that’s when he first "really felt it.”
In addition to using Cannabis as a means to help with his dayto-day routine and overall wellness, Carlos also uses Cannabis to help with epilepsy. He said the diagnosis was given to him later in his life, and after experiencing a range of small to more aggressive seizures, he realized Cannabis could help.
diagnosedlaterinlife withepilepsy,carlosuses cannabisto helpwith seizuresaswellashis day-to-daywellness.
“But you just have to wake up the next day and try to make it better.”
Currently he’s working as a community engagement partner for a medical research organization, leading a mobile unit around Baltimore to give free health screenings. If the patient’s condition fits the criteria for a certain medication, he said, the patient will be invited to take part in a clinical study. Being a people person, Carlos holds himself to the standard of giving the best experience to everyone he talks to during the day.
“It feels like a second,” he said about the onset of a seizure. “My head would be spinning, I broke out into a really bad sweat, nausea.”
He said with the help of Cannabis, one hit from a blunt or a bowl is enough to immediately stop the pain brought on by smaller seizures.
Carlos eventually got his medical card after getting his diagnosis and using Cannabis in a “strictly recreational” way for a long time, adding that he’s found it helps give him clarity if he finds himself overwhelmed with work or in need of something that gives him the focus to create solutions.
“If I can slow down just a little bit, it’s not all coming to me at once, and I don’t have to try to be Superman, and I can just take one thing at a time,” he said, preferring a tasty indica to smoke (his “absolute favorite” being Midnight Circus from Evermore).
With both of his kids in their 20s, Carlos impresses upon them the same tight-knit dynamic he had with his family growing up. Aside from teaching them to be there for each other, his discipline and dedication to bettering people around him, and himself, is what he hopes to see reflected in them.
“Do what you see me do, do the right thing by yourself and by other people. Don’t be a hindrance to progress.”
MAC WHITE
Mac White is a different breed. When the going gets tough, he just crushes through and perseveres. When he gets a vision, he doesn’t know the word “stop.” “I always looked up to Elbo and Coyle when I was first getting into glass, the way they could make it look like another medium always drew me in,” Mac said.
His journey on the torch started in 2012. When he relocated to Bellingham, Washington, in 2014, Whitney Harmon and I were fortunate enough to have him land at our studio, the Honeycomb Hideout, where he continued to create for another seven years or so before heading off to Albuquerque, New Mexico. In that time, I watched his talents grow to great lengths.
Mac also has a background in freehand art with a lot of different mediums. The mixture of that skill and glass art has made for some memorable pieces over the years.
You will see a couple of examples here where Mac either collaborated with others or made pieces himself. He then went on to freehand etch with graphics of another caliber, making these truly one-of-a-kind pieces of art.
His most recent drops were at Prism Smoke Shop in New York and Zee Vapor in Illinois. He usually has a piece or two available on his Instagram, so check him out there as well.
I also want to give Mac and his new fiancee, Emma Palmerton, a huge congratulations on their recent engagement, where he got down on bended knee during their trip to Greece!
WHITNEY HARMON COLLAB
WHITNEY HARMON COLLAB
Sabbath’s Sweet Leaf
With their doomy down-tuned riffs, profound lyrics, and occult imagery, Black Sabbath are the undisputed progenitors of heavy metal. Over their 55-year career, Sabbath sold over 75 million records, epitomized the excesses of the rock star lifestyle, and inspired generations of young headbangers. They also happened to craft the greatest stoner rock anthem of all time.
BACK TO THE BEGINNING
Sabbath’s story begins in the early 1960s in the industrial town of Birmingham, England, with aspiring teen guitarist Tony Iommi. By day, Iommi worked at a sheet metal factory, but by night, he was moonlighting in local bar bands. At 17, he quit his factory job to pursue music full time ... but during his final shift, tragedy struck when he accidentally sliced off the tips of two of his fingers. He was devastated, believing he’d never play again, but then he devised an ingenious solution: building prosthetic fingertips out of melted plastic wrapped in leather.
NATIVITY IN BLACK
Determined to start a new band, Iommi and Ward answered a posting on the bulletin board at the local music store that July that read: “Ozzy Zig requires gig — has his own PA.”
at the age of 17. He worked a series of factory and construction jobs, but had dreamed of becoming a rock star since first hearing the Beatles in 1962.
In January 1968, Iommi and his drummer friend, Bill Ward, joined a blues-rock band called Mythology. It was at the group’s shared apartment/ rehearsal space up in Carlisle where they first started growing their hair long and smoking weed and hash. But after their dealer left two briefcases of weed at their flat, the band got busted and were forced to break up.
They walked to the address, where they met 19-year-old John Michael “Ozzy” Osbourne, who happened to be an old schoolmate of Iommi’s.
Growing up with dyslexia and undiagnosed ADHD, Osbourne was bullied and didn’t do well in school, dropping out at 15. As a result, he started drinking and became something of a delinquent. Several petty thefts eventually landed him a six-week stint in prison, where he got his infamous O-Z-Z-Y knuckle tattoos
As it happened, Osbourne and his rhythm guitarist buddy Terence “Geezer” Butler had also recently left their band. Butler agreed to switch to bass, and the four of them started jamming. They played for nearly a year as Earth before learning in August 1969 that there was another band called Earth and deciding they needed a new name. Then one night, Butler noticed a line outside the movie theater across from their rehearsal space for a horror film starring Boris Karloff called “Black Sabbath.” Realizing that people enjoyed
being scared, he wrote a song using the name of the film, based on a nightmarish vision he’d recently experienced (after going to sleep high) wherein a big black figure pointed at him menacingly from the foot of his bed.
To fit the frightening lyrics, Iommi wrote an ominous riff utilizing a series of notes featuring a tritone — also known as “the devil’s interval.” The band liked this sinister sound so much that they decided to build their whole musical persona around it — developing a dark, doomy new style of rock that was the antithesis of the hippie/ flower power aesthetic and rechristening themselves Black Sabbath. Thus, heavy metal was born.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Never-before-published images of Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi from their legendary photo shoot for High Times in 1999.
Geezer, Tony, Bill & Ozzy - July 1970.
MASTERS OF REALITY
By November 1969, Sabbath were already signed and recording their self-titled debut, which they completed in just one day. Playing up their horror theme, the album was released on Friday the 13th in February 1970. Just four months later, they were back in the studio working on the follow-up, “Paranoid.” Released that September, their sophomore effort featured some of Sabbath’s most iconic classics, including “Iron Man,” “War Pigs” and, of course, the title track, which became their first single. “Paranoid” went on to hit No. 1 on the U.K. charts and is widely considered to be the most influential metal album of all time. But it would be Sabbath’s next record that would cement their status as stoner icons.
“We used to smoke pounds of the shit, man,” Ozzy confessed to High Times. “Wake up in the morning, start the day with a spliff, go to bed with it...”
inside a pack of cigarettes. Thinking the term was a perfect nickname for marijuana, they reportedly retooled a love song they’d been working on into an ode to the herb:
“You introduced me to my mind / And left me wanting you and your kind … Straight people don’t know what you’re about / They put you down and shut you out / You gave to me a new belief / And soon the world will love you sweet leaf.”
In February 1971, Sabbath began work on their third album in as many years, “Master of Reality.” This record differed from their previous releases in several ways, starting with Iommi’s guitar sound. For the first time, he tried tuning his signature Gibson SG down from the standard E to C#. This loosening of the strings made them less painful to play and produced a deeper, sludgier tone that would become a new hallmark of Sabbath’s sound.
Another significant difference was that they had three months to record the album rather than a day or two — allowing them the freedom to experiment by incorporating new elements, such as overdubbing, classical guitar (“Orchid”) and even flute (“Solitude”).
In addition to more time, they also had more money. Vertigo Records reportedly gave them a briefcase full of cash, the majority of which they allegedly spent on drugs — including massive quantities of marijuana.
“We used to smoke pounds of the shit, man,” Osbourne confessed in Sabbath’s legendary 1999 interview with High Times. “We used to buy it by the fuckin’ sackful. We used to be so fucked up all the time. Wake up in the morning, start the day with a spliff and go to bed with it …” The band was smoking so much weed, in fact, that they ended up writing a love letter to the plant.
SWEET LEAF
As legend has it, Geezer was inspired to write a song in praise of the herb after seeing the tagline “Sweet Leaf”
As for the coughing in the song’s intro?
That was Iommi, after taking a hit from a big joint Osbourne had handed him. “He said, ‘Just have a toke on this one,’’’ Iommi recalled in his autobiography “Iron Man.” “It bloody choked me! I coughed my head off, they taped that and we used it on the beginning of ‘Sweet Leaf.’”
SNOWBLIND
Where “Master of Reality” had been influenced primarily by buds and booze, their next album — 1972’s “Vol. 4” — was fueled by their newest obsession: cocaine. Through the rest of the 1970s, Sabbath recorded four more albums, toured relentlessly and began to get, as one interviewer put it, “lost in the excess.” Unsurprisingly, getting trashed all day, every day eventually began to take its toll on their productivity.
“We’d go down to the sessions and have to pack up because we were too stoned,” Iommi once admitted. “Nobody could get anything right, we were all over the place, everybody’s playing a different thing.”
By 1978, they were so strung out that it took them a year to finish their eighth album, “Never Say Die!” And while all of the guys were getting high, Iommi claims that Ozzy “was on a totally different level altogether.” Drunk and coked to the gills every day, unable to rehearse, disappearing for long stretches of time and outright refusing to sing on two of the tracks, Osbourne had become a liability. Finally, on April 27, 1979, Ward broke the news to him that he was fired.
BORN AGAIN
Following Osbourne’s departure, Sabbath recruited vocalist Ronnie James Dio and released two fantastic albums, “Heaven and Hell” (1980) and “Mob Rules” (1981). After that, Iommi continued releasing records under Sabbath’s name with various lineups. As for Ozzy, he went on to cultivate a stellar solo career and a reputation as a madman, thanks to infamous antics such as biting the heads off of a dove and a bat, pissing
on the Alamo and attempting to strangle his wife, Sharon. Yet, with her help, he remained highly productive and successful — releasing 12 solo albums, organizing the annual Ozzfest festival in 1996 and launching the hit MTV reality show “The Osbournes” in 2006.
Sabbath later reunited with Ozzy several times, including for Live Aid in 1985, and for a full tour (as part of Ozzfest) and live album (aptly titled “Reunion”) in 1998. Then, in November 2011, they announced that they would be recording new material together. Their last studio album, “13” (June 2013), hit No. 1, was certified gold and earned them a Grammy. In January 2016, they embarked on their final tour, titled “The End,” after which they officially disbanded in March 2017.
THE END
In 2003, Osbourne was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. That, along with spinal injuries, ultimately left him unable to walk in late 2024. Aside from a few necessary painkillers, he’d reportedly been sober since 2013 … or rather, California sober. Last year, in an episode of his podcast “The Madhouse Chronicles,” he confessed that he still enjoyed the sweet leaf “from time to time.”
“I said to Sharon that I’d smoked a joint recently, and she said, ‘What are you doing that for? It’ll fucking kill you!” Ozzy told The Sun in 2023. “I said, ‘How long do you want me to fucking live for? At best, I’ve got ten years left.’”
But before checking out, Osbourne had one more item to cross off his bucket list: “I just want to be well enough to do one show where I can say, ‘Hi guys, thanks so much for my life,’ he told Rolling Stone in 2023. “If I drop down dead at the end of it, I’ll die a happy man.”
And so, on July 5, Black Sabbath staged one final performance in their hometown of Birmingham. Dubbed “Back to the Beginning,” their 10-hour farewell concert was arguably the greatest heavy metal show of all time — featuring dozens of rock’s biggest names paying tribute to the godfathers of metal in front of a crowd of 42,000 screaming fans. Seventeen days later, Ozzy Osbourne’s soul passed into the void at his home in Buckinghamshire.
Rest in power, Prince of Darkness. \m/
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HOW CANNABIS INSPIRES ART
ILHAM NUGROHO
An Indonesian illustrator and graphic designer with a decade of experience under his belt, Ilham Nugroho’s work is a luminous wonderland that often has tons of details hidden in the background and foreground. A mix of pop sensibility, impressionist shapes and surrealistic styles seems to be the recipe for this passionate artist, and the artistic flavor is one that’s been a hit with big brands and bands. Looking through Nugroho’s website, you’ll see projects with Blink-182, Alien Labs, Wu-Tang Clan, Birdhouse, Ganjah Guru, Guns N’ Roses and Xbox.
THE ARTIST said he started working with Cannabis brands in the U.S. around 2014 with a gig making packaging. “From there, I got more curious about the scene, built connections with friends out in California and learned a lot about the culture, the science, the industry and everything surrounding the whole Cannabis and psychedelic universe,” Nugroho said.
As far as the artist’s relationship with weed, Nugroho said that it all started back in the early ’00s, “when the laws in my country weren’t as strict as they are now.” When he was younger, he said that he watched his brother experiment with Cannabis, but was too young to know what a bong was. He once asked his older brother what the thing on his desk was. “When I ask him, ‘What is it used for?’ He just told me that it's a tool for summoning aliens,” Nugroho said. Once he got older and became acquainted with what a bong was really for, he said that “the culture and community around it introduced me to spaces full of exploration.”
Nugroho is a perfect example of being able to connect and channel that feeling of exploration through art without having to actually be stoned. “To be honest, it’s been a long time since I’ve actually used Cannabis,” he told the Leaf.
“The laws in my country are really strict, kind of gray and biased, so it feels too risky to depend on it.”
He told us that he daydreams of being able to smoke freely without any paranoia about who might be watching. Still, that doesn’t stop him from putting the stoner spirit into his work. “What I do instead is tap back into the memories of those times, usually by playing the same music I used to listen to when I was living with Cannabis in my routine,” Nugroho said. “It helps me re-enter that headspace of openness and creativity.”
With such a diverse client roster, you have to imagine Nugroho keeps just as wild a playlist going in the studio — and you would be right. “Lately, I’ve been going back to The Breeders and replaying Lenny Kravitz’s ‘Let Love Rule,’” he said. “On top of that, I’ve had Orkes Silampukau and Thee Marloes on rotation, and I just discovered a musician named Catur Hari Wijaya.” Even with such a mix of mainstream, throwback and traditional, Nugroho said the stoner classics are touchstones for his stereo: “The mighty Cypress Hill really soothes my heart.”
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WHILE MAKING HIS ART, HE ENJOYS PLAYING THE SAME MUSIC FROM WHEN HE COULD FREELY USE CANNABIS IN HIS COUNTRY. "IT HELPS ME RE-ENTER THAT HEADSPACE OF OPENNESS AND CREATIVITY.”
