May 2021 - NW Leaf

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THE action ISSUE

PODCAST

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MAY 2021

#131

MIKE ROSATI

feature

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Huckleberry Hill Farms Founder Johnny Casali went from serving out a sentence in federal prison to owning a legal Cannabis business and thriving in the hills of Humboldt.

Joint Rivers | South Auburn

THE SHELF 52 OFF BEVERAGE SHOWDOWN

TJ GAGNIER

IN CANNABIS 42 EQUITY NULEAF PROJECT

FLETCHER WOLD

38 Dear Biden-Harris...

Leaf Nation Editor-inChief Wes Abney minces no words in an open letter to the Biden-Harris Administration, calling for those in The White House to follow their halcyon campaign promises and end the war on drugs, the policies of which many in their own administration created or enforced.

//////////

may 2021

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ADOBE

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DANIEL BERMAN

CO-FOUNDER JEANNETTE WARD HORTON

REVIEW THEOREM KENMORE 28 SHOP

Roy Murphy

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EDITOR’S NOTE LEGALIZED IT? N AT I O N A L N E W S HEMP INDUSTRY WSLCB ACTION BUDTENDER Q&A SHOP REVIEW STRAIN OF THE MONTH THE ACTION ISSUE DEAR BIDEN-HARRIS FROM PRISON TO POT EQUITY IN CANNABIS INSIDE EMERALD CUP S U S TA I N A B L E C A N N A B I S C O N C E N T R AT E O F T H E M O N T H OFF THE SHELF REVIEWS GLASS ART HIGHLIGHT CANNTHROPOLOGY STONEY BALONEY

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THE action ISSUE

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58 46 may 2021

GROWING SUSTAINABLE CANNABIS SUN + EARTH CERTIFIED CANNABIS BUSINESSES

STORY by BAXSEN PAINE @BAXSENPAINE for LEAF NATION

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 S T L E A F / O R EG O N L E A F / A L AS KA L E A F / M A RY L A N D L E A F / CA L I F O R N I A L E A F / N O RT H E AS T L E A F

A B O U T T H E C OV E R The globetrotting artist Joshua Boulet is renowned for his unique sketches and portrait work, which he has brought to more than two-dozen Leaf Nation covers over the last decade. Chock full of icons, moments and whimsy, Boulet’s delightful illustration for the cover of The Action Issue faithfully captures this powerful moment for our country. As the Cannabis industry reckons with change, and the future of legalization looks ever more promising, there has never been a greater need for our community to come together, rise up, and speak out!

ILLUSTRATION

by JOSHUA BOULET @JOSHUABOULET JOSHUABOULET.COM

PUBLISHER

CONTRIBUTORS

WES ABNEY | FOUNDER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

BOBBY BLACK, FEATURES JOSHUA BOULET, ILLUSTRATION TOM BOWERS, FEATURES EARLY, PRODUCTION MAX EARLY, FEATURES STEVE ELLIOTT, NATIONAL NEWS TJ GAGNIER, REVIEWS BAXSEN PAINE, FEATURES JEFF PORTERFIELD, DESIGN MIKE RICKER, FEATURES MEGHAN RIDLEY, EDITING MIKE ROSATI, PHOTOS ZACK RUSKIN, FEATURES TERPENE TRANSIT, DISTRIBUTION JAMIE VICTOR, ILLUSTRATION JERRY WHITING, FEATURES FLETCHER WOLD, PHOTOS

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We are creators of targeted, independent Cannabis journalism. Please email us to discuss advertising in the next issue of Northwest Leaf Magazine. We do not sell stories or coverage. We can offer design services and guidance on promoting your company’s recreational, commercial or industrial Cannabis business or product or event within our magazine and on our website, LeafMagazines.com. Email ricker@LeafMagazines.com for more info on advertising with Northwest Leaf!

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ABNEY

Editor’s Note Thanks for picking up The Action Issue of the Leaf !

EVERY PUFF IS A PROTEST, and we’re so full of smoke that we had to blow this Action Issue towards our beautiful Cannabis community.

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Pot might be legal where we live, and it sure feels good to express that freedom, but we have not yet reached the promised land of Cannabis freedom around the world. Our cover highlights a fictional protest for this very reason – with amazing detail including hiding myself and a few Leaf team members by artist extraordinaire Joshua Boulet – but the message goes beyond a fun piece of art. We still have many items to take action on, starting with our community coming together and OUR PEOPLE returning to the roots that drove Cannabis from the underground HAVE SPOKEN, to the mainstream.

AND WE DON’T BELIEVE THAT ANYONE DESERVES TO BE LOCKED IN A CAGE FOR A PLANT.

When I began publishing Northwest Leaf in 2010, the Cannabis community was small, full of passion, and its members at risk of getting arrested on nearly a daily basis. It was activism that drove legalization from idea to reality, from the early pioneers in the ‘60s and ‘70s, to the MMJ pioneers I grew the Leaf with. It was the caucus of voices that led to Hempfest’s spirit of protestival, the enduring Boston Freedom Rally, and the cries of the masses who called for the end of prohibition for the plant we know and love.

We stand on both a rich and sad history, as the true cost of our freedom was others losing theirs as victims in a battle on our own soil. As I state in my open letter to the Biden-Harris Administration printed in this issue, the war on drugs is quickly becoming a war on the American way of life.

Our people have spoken, and we don’t believe that anyone deserves to be locked in a cage for a plant. Or any other drug. So we must keep raising our voices, acting as activists, and bringing the spirit of protest to every pulpit until this unjust war is ended – and we are all free to share our plant and voices as one.

I hope that the stories within this issue inspire you to take action and give you pause when you take your next legal toke of Cannabis. And as you exhale, thank those that fought for us to enjoy that right – letting your spirit be filled with a desire to take action until everyone shares that same freedom.

-Wes Abney may 2021

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WES

national news

LEGALIZED IT? Wha t ha pp ens whe n th e wil l of the p eople i s over tur ned ?

On November 3, 2020, marijuana advocates celebrated a clean sweep on the ballots as voters approved legalization in all four states considering the reform. Yet while the Cannabis community enjoyed the spotlight on Election Day, prohibitionists have been working in the shadows ever since. The result has been a muddying of democracy as we know it. // NULL AND VOID //

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A voter-approved constitutional amendment legalizing Cannabis in South Dakota has been overturned. The amendment, passed by 54 percent of voters, would have allowed possession of up to an ounce of Cannabis and implemented retail sales. It also established a 15 percent tax on pot and permitted home cultivation.

While the amendment included a provision allowing local governments to ban Cannabis sales in their jurisdictions, state officials felt the need to ban legalization altogether.

Governor Kristi Noem (R), who opposed Cannabis legalization in South Dakota from the start, instructed Highway Patrol Superintendent Col. Rick Miller to file a lawsuit challenging the amendment on her behalf.

Unsurprisingly, the Circuit Judge hearing the case, who was appointed by Noem in 2019, agreed with the governor and ruled that the amendment passed by South Dakota voters was unconstitutional.

Judge Christina Klinger wrote, “Amendment A is unconstitutional as it includes multiple subjects in violation of [the South Dakota constitution] and it is therefore void and has no effect…”

Essentially, Klinger found that the amendment went beyond a single issue – making it a revision to the constitution and not an amendment. In other words, several powerful prohibitionists came up with a bullshit technicality that allowed them to suppress the will of the voters and keep Cannabis illegal.

And, despite Noem denying her role in the suit to void voter-approved marijuana-law reform, an executive order signed by the governor in January states that on “November 20, 2020, I directed Rick Miller to commence the Amendment A Litigation on my behalf in his official capacity.”

Noem is also on record asserting that voters in South Dakota – the same voters that elected her – made “the wrong choice” when they approved the legalization amendment.

The issue will now be heard by the state Supreme Court after attorneys representing marijua-

MAY 2021

Montana residents approved legalization with 57 percent of the vote in November.

However, the state’s adult-use law is still up in the air.

na-law reform advocacy groups appealed Judge Klinger’s ruling. Normally, the South Dakota Attorney General’s office would defend such a challenge to a state law. However, AG Jason Ravnsborg dropped his defense of the amendment.

Gov. Noem stated that she’s “confident that the South Dakota Supreme Court” will uphold the Circuit Court’s decision. The governor personally appointed two of the high court’s five justices.

South Dakota’s new medical marijuana law, approved by over 69 percent of voters on Election Day, isn’t safe from the governor either. Noem tried to push the program’s implementation back a year, from July 2021 to July ‘22 and, when that failed, she attempted to change the law to add restrictions. / / M O N TA N A / /

Montana residents approved legalization with 57 percent of the vote in November. However, the state’s adult-use law is still up in the air. Three separate Republican-sponsored measures are currently being considered. Unfortunately, all three bills change the original proposal that was laid out in the ballot initiative and approved by voters.

The legalization bill favored by Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte would create a system where local jurisdictions have to “opt in” to the legal Cannabis industry. The original law approved by voters allowed for an “opt-out” provision. This change makes the state’s default position “out” of legal Cannabis, and is sure to have a negative impact on the success of the program.

The bill would also delay the start of retail sales and reroute the majority of pot tax revenue to a fund proposed by the governor for substance abuse treatment.

And while the state’s recreational pot law is somehow being rewritten by the very people who opposed legalizing pot in the first place, at least one state senator has proposed a referendum for the ballot to repeal legalization.

But, at the moment, Montana appears to be moving forward with some version of a taxed and regulated system with retail sales. // NEW JERSEY //

Gov. Phil Murphy clashed with lawmakers, refusing to sign a bill establishing the state’s regulatory framework until amendments were made detailing penalties for underage possession.

During the resulting two-month stalemate, people continued to be arrested for pot possession in the Garden State.

Legislators ultimately passed a cleanup bill that satisfied Murphy. Shortly thereafter, on February 22, the governor signed the legal framework bill into law, legalizing Cannabis. Murphy also signed a decriminalization bill that ends pot possession arrests.

Unfortunately, in the three and a half months between legalization passing on Election Day 2020 and the governor signing the Cannabis bills in late February ‘21, more than 6,000 people were arrested for minor marijuana possession in New Jersey.

STORY by MIKE GIANAKOS @MIKEGEEZEEY/NORTHEAST LEAF | ART by ADOBE/FRESHIDEA

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NATIONAL NEWS

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TRENDS

NEW BILL WOULD ALLOW VA TO PRESCRIBE MMJ TO VETS

AMERICANS OVERWHELMINGLY SAY CANNABIS SHOULD BE LEGAL FOR RECREATIONAL OR MEDICAL USE

U.S.

Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) on April 17 reintroduced legislation to allow doctors at the Department of Veterans Affairs to prescribe medical Cannabis to veterans in the 36 states that have established medical marijuana programs, reports Maui Now. “In 36 states, doctors and their patients have the option to use medical marijuana to manage pain – unless those doctors work for the VA and their patients are veterans,” Sen. Schatz said. “This bill protects veteran patients in these states and gives their VA doctors the option to prescribe medical marijuana to veterans, and it also promises to shed light on how medical marijuana can “...IT PROMISES TO help with the nation’s opioid SHED LIGHT ON HOW MEDICAL MARIJUANA epidemic.”

CAN HELP WITH THE In addition to creating a temporary, five-year safe harbor NATION’S OPIOID EPIDEMIC.” protection for veterans who use medical Cannabis, the bill would also direct the VA to research how medical marijuana could help veterans better manage chronic pain and reduce opioid abuse.

may 2021

may 2021

N

ow, it’s down to the few. Fewer than one out of 10 53 PERCENT OF ADULTS U.S. adults (8 percent) are still saying that Cannabis AGES 65 TO 74 SAY should not be legal for any purpose, according to the CANNABIS SHOULD latest survey from Pew Research.

BE LEGAL FOR BOTH An overwhelming share of American adults say either that RECREATIONAL AND marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use MEDICAL USE. (60 percent) or legal for medicinal use only (31 percent).

A separate question, asking whether Cannabis use should be made legal, has shown a “steep, long-term rise in support for legalization,” according to Pew Research.

Older adults are far less likely than young people to favor Cannabis legalization for recreational use, according to the survey. This is particularly true of adults ages 75 and older, with just 32 percent saying marijuana should be legal for recreational/ medical use.

By way of contrast, 53 percent of adults in the next-oldest age group, those ages 65 to 74, say Cannabis should be legal for both recreational and medical use.

Among younger adults, there is even wider support for legalization for medical and recreational uses, including 70 percent of adults under age 30.

west coast

legalization

UAE DETAINS LAS VEGAS MAN OVER CANNABIS

A

Las Vegas man who consumed Cannabis before he visited the United Arab Emirates has been detained for almost two months, his lawyer and officials confirmed to KLAS. Peter Clark, 51, flew to Dubai in late February for a business trip, according to his lawyer.

After Clark became ill with pancreatitis and was hospitalized, a test found traces of marijuana in his system. Clark was detained and jailed.

While recreational marijuana use is legal in Nevada, it’s definitely not in the UAE. Clark now faces a prison sentence of several years according to his attorney, Radha Stirling.

5

years have now passed since Pennsylvania legalized medical use of Cannabis.

43

percent of the U.S. population now lives in states where recreational adult-use Cannabis is legal.

midwest

LEGAL CANNABIS ARRIVES EARLY FOR VIRGINIANS

V

irginia lawmakers voted in April to move up the legalization date of recreational Cannabis in the state to July 1, 2021, reports ABC 3 News.

Both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly had in February passed legislation legalizing marijuana for adult recreational use.

The legalization date had initially been set for January 1, 2024, but Gov. Ralph Northam added amendments to existing bills to fast-track the legalization.

Northam, when proposing the accelerated timeline, said many Virginians would be on board with speeding up the process.

“While not everybody is in favor of moving this forward, the great majority of Virginians are and that’s what this THE LEGALIZATION is about,” Northam said. “When you’re in DATE HAD INITIALLY BEEN SET FOR public service, you listen to Virginians and then JANUARY 1, 2024. move their thoughts and initiatives forward.”

467

pounds of Cannabis were seized by Texas Dept. of Public Safety troopers last month near the Rio Grande River.

19.9k $342m black market Cannabis plants were seized by the Riverside County, California Sheriff’s Department in April.

dollars is the estimated size New Mexico’s recreational Cannabis market will be one year after legalization.

WISCONSIN SAYS NO TO MEDICAL CANNABIS

T

he Wisconsin Legislature won’t be legalizing either medical or recreational marijuana during this legislative session, the Republican leader of the State Senate said.

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Ooostburg) ruled out even the possibility of recreational or medical marijuana becoming law any time during the next year.

LeMaheiu claimed Republican senators have “societal concerns” about Cannabis legalization.

He also claimed states shouldn’t legalize medical marijuana before the federal government does.

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EXPERT OPINION

HEMP INDUSTRY

INDICA AND SATIVA (not to mention hybrids) Odds are everything you’re consuming is a modern hybrid.

Only a few have access to vintage heirloom landraces like Maui Wowie, Oaxacan or Thai Stick (which was usually grown in Laos). Over the last 20 to 30 years, growers have focused on high THC levels through selective breeding. When outdoor growers faced arrest they moved indoors – a move which favored indicas over sativas because of their shorter height and shorter flower times. I prefer to use indica and sativa as adjectives that describe the experience, not a cultiivar’s genetics.

HEMP PRIMER101

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WE

need to sound intelligent if we want to change people’s minds about hemp and Cannabis. There are already too many stereotypes about slacker stoners with the munchies. Yes, Cannabis legalization is supported by approximately seven out of 10 Americans, but we need to educate legislators and policymakers, friends and family alike. We shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but open your mouth and sound like an idiot and no one will take you seriously. If you’re well spoken, it’s harder to dismiss what you’re saying. I’m not talking about talking down to someone with a long-winded lecture – if you sound authoritative people might, just might, give you the time of day. The first step is to use the correct terminology.

PHOTO BY ADOBE/CHOKNITI

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Jerry Whiting

CANNABIS Everyone calls it marijuana, but it continues the racist legacy of prohibition. The word was used by Harry Anslinger to demonize our favorite plant by associating it with Mexican-Americans. I personally use the word “Cannabis” to distance myself from its racist connotations. It also provides me with the opportunity to share the history of the word.

may 2021

HEMP Both Cannabis (see above) and hemp are Cannabis sativa l. Hemp aka industrial hemp, is legally defined as Cannabis sativa l. with less than 0.3% THC, thanks to the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 – colloquially called The Farm Bill.

TYPE 1, TYPE 2 AND TYPE 3

These terms categorize plants by the relative amounts of THC and CBD. Type 1 plants are THC dominant, Type 3 plants are CBD dominant, and Type 2 plants tend to be a balanced mix of THC and CBD. These words gracefully sidestep the indica, sativa, hybrid mess.

ISOLATE AND DISTILLATE

Both are hemp or Cannabis concentrates.

The difference is not so much how they’re made, but what is extracted or not extracted from the plant material.

Isolates are made to extract one particular chemical, usually CBD or THC. Distillates, by definition, contain a wide variety of compounds. The former is what I call reductionist chemistry. One and only one OVER THE LAST chemical at the exclusion of 20 TO 30 YEARS, everything else. Distillates are GROWERS whole plant, full spectrum HAVE FOCUSED extracts that evoke the entourage effect, the synergetic result ON HIGH THC LEVELS THROUGH of cannabinoids, terpenes and other compounds acting SELECTIVE together. Given the choice, reach BREEDING. for distillates over isolates.

STRAIN Everyone from farmers to dispensaries to budtenders and their customers call Harlequin, OG Kush, Panama Red, et al. ‘strains.’ I want you to sound truly knowledgeable. Bacteria and viruses have strains, plants have cultivars, or in the case of wine grapes, varietals. You run the risk of sounding elitist, snotty or outright obnoxious if you make a big deal about it, but you’ll win points with botanists, agronomists and sophisticated stoners when conversing about cultivars.

We’re all hemp and Cannabis activists because the War on Drugs isn’t over. Those arrested and incarcerated are POWs. There’s plenty of work ahead of us and the more persuasive we are, the faster things will change. Whether you’re speaking to someone face to face, writing a letter to your elected officials or discussing current events with reluctant family members, be patient and speak gently. Choose your words carefully, take the above suggestions to heart and you can’t go wrong.

CO L U M N b y J E R RY WH I T I NG f o r L E A F NAT IO N // Le Bl an cCNE.com

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Will The WSLCB Finally Start A F T E R E I G H T Y E A R S of focusing on newly-regulated Cannabis markets, my biggest concern

is the quality of the product available to consumers. I am particularly disappointed that many of these emerging markets are, at best, only partially meeting the needs of those who have traditionally relied upon Cannabis for medicine. While there are many ways in which regulated markets may not serve patients or other consumers well, the lack of consistent product quality is one that is almost completely within the ability of those producing the product to control.

The lack of product quality is not something that can be blamed completely on regulators.

C

onsumers of regulated Cannabis (CORCs) in Washington state are protected by what can best be called a faith-based system of regulatory oversight. While it is true that minor children are protected from labels that are colored in a way thought to be particularly attractive to minor children, the bulk of CORCs here regularly purchase product that has not been tested for pesticides, heavy metals, yeasts, or most molds and mildews. It has not been tested for such things because such tests are not required by either law or regulation. This fault in Washington’s regulated market can, largely, be blamed on its regulators.

The Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB), the Department of Health (DOH), the Department of Agriculture (WSDA) and, to an extent, the Department of Ecology (DOE), can all be blamed for quite a few things relating to the product quality issues that permeate this market. The one I’ll point out is that the WSLCB decided in the summer of 2017 to no longer require that flower be tested for yeast and/or molds. Coincidentally, most product failures at the time were due to yeasts and/or molds.

The WSLCB tried to save face by adding a requirement for the testing of a handful of mycotoxins, but they allowed bud-rot, powdery mildew and aspergillus a welcome home on regulated Cannabis product produced and sold in their state.

This should be unacceptable.

Using pesticides on medicine is not necessarily bad, but leaving unacceptable levels of pesticide in medicine most certainly is. Pesticides surround us and are likely even in much of the food and water we consume, which is why the DOH and WSDA worked with the WSLCB to set maximum allowable levels for pesticides on regulated Cannabis products. Testing is not required, but compliance with those levels is.

may 2021

Taking Pesticides Seriously?

J

ust as growers should not ignore powdery mildew because regulations now define powdery-mildew-infested bud as being fit for sale, Washington’s failure to require pesticide testing does not give free reign to wholesalers to use pesticides indiscriminately in their operations.

This is a horrible situation for sensitive and immune-weakened patients that need Cannabis – made worse given that packaging rules do not allow them to interact with and smell the flower prior to purchase.

I don’t know who or what entity benefits from this situation, but I can’t help but feel that it likely comes down to the co-option of regulation and legislation by those within the industry who feel quality can be compromised as part of their efforts to maximize profits.

Unfortunately for Washington wholesale licensees, this situation will also be good for those who would like to see Washington’s Cannabis market struggle when faced with the competition that will come with interstate commerce.

As you read this, more than seven years after the first regulated plants were entered into the BiotrackTHC seed-to-sale traceability system, Washington state still does not require that pesticide levels be evaluated in regulated Cannabis products.

Wholesalers that wish to display the official DOH-sanctioned “General Use Certified,” “High THC” or “High CBD” stickers on their labels are required to test for pesticides in order to meet the DOH “medical” standard. No one else is. As it turns out, about 99.8% of wholesalers (all but two or three out of about 1,100) perform no mandated pesticide testing whatsoever.

An investigation done privately in 2016 showed that a large number of products purchased at retail would have failed pesticide testing had they been tested prior to being offered for sale.

Shortly after this, WSLCB entered into an agreement with the WSDA that paid them $1.5 million to buy equipment and hire a couple of chemists to test products supplied by WSLCB enforcement personnel. They seem to have begun operations in March 2017 and have, I believe, continued since that time. And the reason I say “believe” is because virtually nothing has been heard from or about the program since.

Looking at the following numbers, we see some potential reasons for the silence...

In the first 24 months of the WSLCB/WSDA joint venture, 587 samples were tested for pesticides and 38.8% of those failed at action levels – meaning they would have failed had they been tested in an attempt to get the DOH label.

This implies that almost 40% of products in the market might be contaminated with pesticides at levels that exceed defined limits. It also shows that the program conducted less than one-third of the 1,800 tests that were expected during its first 24 months. As a result, the cost per test for this boondoggle pencils out to approximately $2,530.

Current market rates for a full DOH-compliant pesticide panel are about $100.

Over its first two years, the program visited licensees 117 times to gather samples for testing.

On 66 of those occasions (56.4%), at least one tested sample failed pesticide testing. During the same time, the WSLCB charged licensees with only 28 violations relating to pesticides.

After paying over $2,500 per test and finding that over half of licensees tested failed, fewer than half of those licenses faced so much as a warning letter in response to their violation(s).

Over those two years, a total of four product recalls occurred – none of which were mandated by the WSLCB. Meanwhile, the agency found evidence to suggest that about 40% of products tested were dirty and over half of the businesses investigated were found to have dirty product.

Over the two years that the agency was discovering this, they oversaw a market containing over 1,000 wholesalers producing millions of units of product. During that time, the agency mandated not a single product recall and “punished” only 28 businesses for pesticide violations.

I would submit that when a systemic lack of quality is known to the point where the primary regulatory agency’s data suggest that a significant proportion of product being sold within the market is tainted, action should be taken.

Even more so when the quality issue in question involves poisons.

CORCs in Washington state deserve better for the 43.5% tax included in every regulated purchase.

Thankfully, a month ago the WSLCB got a new Chair, followed by an encouraging development on March 30: After more than seven years of regulating Cannabis, almost five years of regulating medical Cannabis, and over four years of finding Cannabis contaminated with pesticides – the WSLCB issued their first mandatory product recall, and did so in response to a pesticide issue.

Then in April, the WSLCB mandated that another wholesaler execute a pesticide-related product recall. That’s two mandatory recalls in two weeks – and hopefully indicative of a shift in the agency’s approach to chronic consumer safety issues.

We can only hope.

“I would submit that when a systemic lack of quality is known to the point where the primary regulatory agency’s data suggest that a significant proportion of product being sold within the market is tainted, action should be taken. Even more so when the quality issue in question involves poisons.”

STORY by DR. JAMES MACRAE for NORTHWEST LEAF | HIGHINTELLIGENCE.ORG

interview

W H O ’ S Y O U R FAV O R I T E B U D T E N D E R ? T E L L U S W H Y ! E M A I L N O M I N A T I O N S T O R I C K E R @ L E A F M A G A Z I N E S . C O M

JOINT RIVERS

SWIMMING, canoeing or kayaking is where you’ll often find this outdoor enthusiast – or seeking new adventures on the road to add to his intrepid travels. With a passion for learning and understanding other cultural values, Roy Murphy is deeply interested in people’s worldly views. Follow him on Instagram @roysiff

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HOW DID YOU VENTURE INTO THE CANNABIZ? I was traveling and

"I RAN FROM SEATTLE TO OAKLAND, WHICH TOOK ME A MONTH AND A HALF."

seeing the world and when I came back, I learned that my tribe was opening a dispensary – so I thought that it would be nice to not be in the black market world and get a gig.

WHERE DID YOUR TRAVELS TAKE YOU? I walked on foot from Cali

to D.C. through all the central states, and I walked from Seattle to Minnesota on foot. I ran from Seattle to Oakland, which took me a month and a half. No rides, no nothing – it was pretty intense.

24

ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS? Yeah, I went through Highway 101 from Seattle to Oakland, basically from town to town. That one was for Drug and Alcohol and Domestic Violence Awareness.

WHAT SORT OF RESULTS DID YOU ACHIEVE FROM THOSE AMAZING ACCOMPLISHMENTS? We had

LEAFMAGAZINES.COM

Roy Murphy NORTHWEST LEAF BUDTENDER OF THE MONTH may 2021

more than 1,200 people take part in anonymous survey results so we could lobby the government to let them know there’s not enough attention being given to reservations, as far as the abuse of hard drugs and narcotics. There were eight official tribes out of about 560 that we got to see out of those three years of traveling who got more funding from the government because of the surveys.

IS THERE SOMEWHERE PEOPLE CAN SEE YOUR JOURNEY? I did most

of my protest and activism stuff on Facebook. I had one video that had about 40,000 views. You can check me out at Roy Murphy.

DO YOU THINK CANNABIS CAN BE A GOOD SOLUTION FOR PEOPLE WITH ADDICTION TO NARCOTICS?

Yes, I think it’s a good solution.

INTERVIEW by MIKE RICKER @RICKERDJ | PHOTO by DANIEL BERMAN @BERMANPHOTOS

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28

THEOREM CANNABIS

may 2021

shop review

Ready forTakeoff THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING

As a long-time Cannabis advocate since college, founder Ken Jones actually voted against 502 because of the lack of regulations addressed, but once it passed he approached things with an open mind and imagined the industry from a global expansion perspective. With intention, he then assembled a team of friends to create an ecosystem that could thrive as a unit, hence the genesis of this happy establishment.

And just to prove his dedication to the ultimate cause, he even helped fund the UW research program.

THEOREM CANNABIS 6323 NE BOTHELL WAY, KENMORE, WA 9AM-11PM DAILY @THEOREM_CANNABIS THEOREMCANNABIS.COM

WINGS The concept behind their name is that a theorem is quantifiable, and follows the sciences, but it’s not always precise – so it’s relatable to the current Cannabis industry in that customers will gain more understanding through education. And just as this developing business culture is one based largely on speculation, it is unfolding like a math equation with new challenges and solutions daily.

THE FUSELAGE So as not to distract your focus, the scheme inside is clean and white, affording the classy swath of eye-popping selections to take you on a small getaway from daily stresses. The slick spacing and arrangements are mindfully compartmentalized to make your browsing seamless. And as you glance over the glass countertops, you’ll see a rare back-facing window that offers a refreshing view of the north end of Lake Washington where seaplanes land and depart – a true Northwest experience!

WELCOME ABOARD! Bobby and Cindy have been on the flight path since the early days in 2015. Led by a strong presence in management, Natalie and Valerie do the buckling up and Joey and Joe will make sure you’re delightfully serviced. There’s almost a southern hospitality mentality here, where one on one attention is what makes your experience an exceptional one. Afterall, education is imperative – just look at the name!

PROPELLERS FLOWERS SEATTLE PRIVATE RESERVE and SKY

DABS These attendants have a great solventless

HIGH GARDENS have planted their roots on this menu where fresh nugs abound. Gabriel is a newcomer here and well worth trying. For a more reasonable brand at a great price, try FLORIGEN ORGANICS.

selection featuring WASHINGTON HASH COMPANY’S live cold cure and diamond jam rosin. Also, there’s a bunch of CONSTELLATION hash rosin and BHO, and for a more affordable but effective BHO, DESAUS is recommended by the staff. Bargain hunting? Check out SPP REGULATOR and SOL Kief and Hash balls, as well as AMERICAN HASH MAKERS old school hash.

CARTS Ready for some in-flight entertainment?

CANNA ORGANIX, HEYLO and AVITAS carts have a wide variety of tasty strains featuring ATF, Juicy Fruit, Cannatonic and beyond. Check out the HELLAVATED disposable pens, too. Also, Doctor and Crook are a must try – you’ll wanna look for the racoon!

KENMORE

EDIBLES Be sure to try the VERDELUX Truffles, considered to be the See’s Candies of edibles.

With three delicious choices of Caramelo, Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate meltaway truffles, your taste buds will be sailing over the clouds.

They also offer four flavors of Bon Bombs!

THERE’S ALMOST A SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY MENTALITY HERE, WHERE ONE ON ONE ATTENTION IS WHAT MAKES YOUR EXPERIENCE AN EXCEPTIONAL ONE. STORY by MIKE RICKER @RICKERDJ | PHOTOS by DANIEL BERMAN @BERMANPHOTOS/NORTHWEST LEAF

leafmagazines.com

32

may 2021

KOFFEE

STRAIN OF THE MONTH

THERE IS NO SWEETER COMBINATION IN LIFE THAN THAT OF CANNABIS AND COFFEE, AND THIS WASHINGTON-BRED STRAIN BLENDS THE RICH EARTHY FLAVORS OF COFFEE WITH A BRIGHT AND GASSY SPARK THAT FILLS THE BODY AND MIND WITH A WARMING, EUPHORIC HIGH.

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THIS FLOWER FILLS THE AIR AND LUNGS WITH A FRAGRANCE THAT HEIGHTENS THE SENSES, WHILE RELAXING THE MIND AND BODY.

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BREATH

The proverbial hippie speedball is beloved for the fight between the uplifting effects of coffee and the typically stoney vibes that Cannabis brings to the mix.

While the Koffee Breath cultivar doesn’t actually have any caffeine in it, this cross bred by Pacific NW Roots of Kaya’s Koffee and OG Kush Breath is a perfect marriage of flavor and effect that will leave you feeling energized and happily stoned.

PNW Roots is known for heavy resin producing strains and fantastic hash, so we were ecstatic to hear that Passion Flower was taking their “pesticide-free love for each plant” growing model and applying it to such renowned genetics.

While Passion Flower is a new brand, it has sprouted from the lush science-driven gardens of Fairwinds Manufacturing, where the same dedication to developing quality Cannabis products has led to top shelf flower and concentrates under the new brand – with the clear cut motto that “pesticides are gross.”

The flower has a light lime green coloring with a sprinkle of orange hairs, and a hashy frost of trichomes coating a pillow-like consistency, feeling squishy and fluffy when pinched between fingers.

Breaking open a nugget reveals a medium density despite the softness of the flower, and a perfect cure that has maximized the amount of THC on every inch of bud structure.

First flavor notes from the bag are warming, with grassy lemon peel melting with earthy cocoa-coffee and a finishing flavor of fragrant gas and piney-rose.

Sweet and complex, but with a gentle aromatherapy delivery, this flower fills the air and lungs with a fragrance that heightens the senses while relaxing the mind and body.

First tokes are extremely clean, with entire bowls burning down into a perfect pile of white ash. When Cannabis is grown expertly and without pesticides or heavy salts, the flower is able to transfer full flavor and effects in a way that feels good in the lungs – even when taking massive bong tokes. Hits exhale with little to no cough as the smoke coats the palate with a lemon-hash zest, which quickly leads to a tingly head high before melting into the body.

We found a euphoric energy that delivered a happy, day-bettering head high while calming the body in a relaxed, pain-free floating sensation. Perfect for day or nighttime use, this strain delivers joy and great flavor in a clean, grown with love vibe that is as intoxicatingly nice as the weed is delicious.

REVIEW by WES ABNEY @BEARDEDLORAX | PHOTO by DANIEL BERMAN @BERMANPHOTOS

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PAX DOES NOT PRODUCE, MANUFACTURE OR DISTRIBUTE CANNABIS. NOT FOR SALE TO MINORS. © 2021 PAX Labs, Inc. All Rights Reserved. PAX, X, ERA, ERA LIFE, and ERA PRO are all trademarks of PAX Labs, Inc. US and International Patents Pending. Complete list of Patents and Trademarks: www.pax.com/intellectual-property-list

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THE ACTION ISSUE

36

leafmagazines.com

THROUGHOUT HISTORY, advocates for social and political action have repeatedly returned to the same wellspring of change: The Protest.

The French Revolution. The Suffragette Movement.

The Civil Rights Movement. Tiananmen Square.

The 1999 WTO Protests in Seattle. Arab Spring. The Occupy Movement. Last year, hundreds of thousands of people broke free from couch-locked quarantine to protest the killing of George Floyd by a public servant who should have knelt at Floyd’s feet rather than on his neck. People who’d never held a protest sign in their lives took to the streets. People who’d never given to charity before held fundraisers for equity causes. More voters turned out for the 2020 election than any other election in the history of the United States.

That’s why we chose a protest scene as our cover on Leaf Magazines’ first-ever Action Issue. It’s the classic visual representation of change motivated by

mAY 2021

ADOBE/PATRONESTAFF

HOW THE CANNABIS COMMUNITY CONTINUES TO FIGHT TO FIX THE SYSTEM.

unrest. The Cannabis community is no stranger to the protest, and is no stranger to action. Since the dawn of the plant’s prohibition and criminalization, advocates have taken to the streets to fight for legalization, for expungement – and for understanding.

And while the face of change is often an angry mob that’s reached its breaking point, we want to look past the protest line and spend this issue showcasing those warriors within the Cannabis community who wake up every day fighting to change the system. They do so in offices, in the fields, and in the halls where legislation is crafted.

In the following pages, you’ll find stories filled with hope and positive momentum. We connected with an Oregonian woman of color who fights for legislative change with one hand, while using the other to help equity applicants find funding to realize their dreams.

We got to know a small Cannabis company in Alaska that makes a huge positive impact in its surrounding

community. We spoke with a California farmer who served nearly a decade in a federal prison camp for cultivating Cannabis, only to go on to become one of the most respected sungrown producers in Humboldt’s legal market.

We sat down with the founder of the Emerald Cup, one of the most respected drivers of Cannabis culture on the West Coast. Lastly, because no social action would be possible without a healthy ecosystem to support us all, we connected with an organization that hopes to steer the Cannabis industry toward sustainability and ethical responsibility.

We hope you find inspiration in these stories, as we did while putting them together. Next time you feel that call to action – whether it be to pick up a sign and hit the streets, or pick up the phone and call your local lawmakers – may you succeed in making the positive change you want to see in the world.

STORY by TOM BOWERS @PROPAGATECONSULTANTS/LEAF NATION

THIS PRODUCT HAS INTOXICATING EFFECTS AND MAY BE HABIT FORMING. MARIJUANA CAN IMPAIR CONCENTRATION, COORDINATION, AND JUDGMENT. DO NOT OPERATE A VEHICLE OR MACHINERY UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THIS DRUG. THERE MAY BE HEALTH RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH CONSUMPTION OF THIS PRODUCT. FOR USE ONLY BY ADULTS TWENTY-ONE YEARS OF AGE AND OLDER. KEEP OUT OF THE REACH OF CHILDREN.

the ACTION issue

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION It is with the deepest respect that I share these thoughts, with great regard for the difficulties faced in leading our beloved country. Upon being elected, the global community exhaled in relief when you were elected to lead the United States, but your Administration continues to perpetuate the war on drugs, which has become a war on the American way of life.

It is time to acknowledge that the foundation of the war on drugs is racist, predatory, and not fitting with the American ideals we project around the globe. It is also evident that the laws and law enforcement regulating drugs are more dangerous than the drugs themselves.

Americans deserve their constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness, and this includes the right to consume Cannabis.

38

In the last six months we have seen New York and New Mexico legalize Cannabis by legislative action, and the voters of New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota and Montana joined a total of 33 states whose voters all approve of an American’s right to use Cannabis.

Your response to overwhelmingly positive polling for legalization has been to fire White House staff members who admitted to using Cannabis. This is direct proof that your policies and beliefs do not reflect the will of the people.

What is mind-boggling is how can you have the vision to pull troops out of Afghanistan to end our country’s longest war, while continuing to wage a domestic campaign of terror featuring no-knock raids and mandatory minimum sentences for simple drug possession? Like the people of AfghanWE ARE CALLING ON YOUR ADMINISTRATION istan who are left worse off than when we began our needless war of aggresTO TAKE ACTION AND sion 20 years ago, today Americans FOLLOW THROUGH are worse off on the battlefield called ON YOUR CAMPAIGN Main Street – where innocent victims PROMISES, AND are killed, arrested and robbed through TO CORRECT THE asset forfeiture by a militarized police SHAMEFUL LEGACY OF THE WAR ON DRUGS force with less oversight than that for our THAT BOTH THE armed forces overseas.

PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT HELPED SHAPE AND ENFORCE.

We are calling on your Administration to take action and follow through on your campaign promises, and to correct the hypocritical legacy of the war on drugs that both the President and Vice President helped shape and enforce. We know your history and we are looking for you both to evolve with Americans, for America.

leafmagazines.com

Madame Vice President, your legacy as a prosecutor includes thousands of lives fractured by the war on drugs. President Biden, as a senator you helped craft the language of the war on drugs that has led to the militarization of police, private and for-profit prisons, and decades of lives ruined by drug policies – vowing in 1989 to hold “every drug user accountable,” adding that there aren’t “enough police officers to catch the violent thugs, not enough prosecutors to convict them, not enough judges to sentence them, and not enough prison cells to put them away for a long time.”

mAY 2021

Mr. President, you recently stated that gun violence in the U.S. is shameful and that we need to limit legal gun ownership – but said nothing about the average of three lives taken daily by police shootings since the murder of George Floyd. I personally find your lack of action on police accountability, the continuation of the war on drugs, and giving police reasons to arrest and kill innocent people in minor possession of drugs, to be shameful – which predominantly affects people of color and impoverished communities.

Please, let’s end police violence, gang violence and cartel violence. This comes by removing criminal penalties for minor drug possession, and redirecting funds from law enforcement and the criminal justice system towards social support, mental and addiction health care – making direct investments into communities affected by the war on drugs.

When a person chooses to use Cannabis or other drugs, they choose their pathway to happiness – and criminalizing their decision is what creates criminals. It justifies the cartels, the violence, and even the corruption that drives both the criminal organizations and the criminal justice system. Let’s repeat an earlier mantra: Americans deserve their constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness, and this includes the right to consume Cannabis and other substances in the safety of their own homes.

Sincerely, Wesley Abney Founder | Leaf Magazines

STORY by WES ABNEY @BEARDEDLORAX | ART by JOSHUA BOULET @JOSHUABOULET for LEAF NATION

HUCKLEBERRY HILL FARMS | FOUNDER JOHNNY CASALI

the ACTION issue

INCARCERATION TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP

40

Johnny Casali was 24 years old in 1992 when federal agents came calling at the door of his multi-generational farmhouse in California’s legendary Humboldt County. It was a fateful day that would lead to nearly a decade of federal incarceration for simply cultivating plants in the style and tradition handed down by his parents. Now, nearly 30 years later, Casali holds a position of respect among the legal cultivators in the Humboldt Cannabis community. His path has not been easy, and his story, while unique in its details, rings with a familiarity that reverberates through an industry still shaking off the shackles of a failed Drug War.

leafmagazines.com

F A M I LY L E G A C Y

“From the age of 10, I was following my mother around, watching her, learning from her how to cultivate Cannabis, and vegetables and fruit trees,” Casali said of his mom, Marlene Bandoni. “I really just fell in love with participating with my mother, and learning her techniques, learning what made her a master grower, per se, in the Emerald Triangle community’s mind.”

For Casali’s family, Cannabis was one of a number of crops and income streams that included fishing, crabbing and mainstream agriculture.

“We were really just living off the land, and supplementing our income with small bits of marijuana,” Casali said.

The budding cultivator’s interest grew along with him, and by the time he was a teenager, his mother struggled with whether it was OK to let her son begin to grow on his own. At age 15, she decided to allow him to grow 10 plants, as long as he agreed to hand over the Cannabis to her and put the money either into a college fund, or a wise investment.

“You couldn’t buy a motorcycle, you couldn’t go on vacation,” he said. His first solo grow yielded about 12 pounds.

mAY 2021

“I ended up being able to make enough money where I put a down payment on 11 acres of property on the Eel River,” he said. His parents co-signed.

“That was my first experience with making money from Cannabis, and really, from that point, it was just on.”

plant count in order to maintain harvest volumes.

Being twenty-something, carefree, wave-riding Cannabis growers, they didn’t realize that the increase in plant count also increased their chance of attracting the wrong kind of attention.

F AT E C O M E S K N O C K I N G

Early one morning in 1992, Casali heard a noise on the farm that didn’t sound quite right.

After a couple of years of college, Casali’s par“I heard somebody driving up the driveway really ents bought a commercial fishing boat, and handed fast, and I just thought it was maybe one of my the farm over to Johnny, who cultivated Cannabis friends who wanted to go surfing, or this or that, but with his best friend, Todd Wick. we had a rule that you just don’t drive fast on the This was in the late 1980s, and with the Reafarm,” he said. “So I came running out the door, gan-era War on Drugs in full force, enforcement but instead of meeting one of my grew far more intense in the friends, this time I met a guy in camTriangle.

“Since I learned ouflage with a 9mm to my head, “You would see convoys along everything from my and there were 30 federal agents.” the roadways, you would see helimom, I thought it was so They gave him the option to leave copters overhead,” he said. “You important to just honor the property, but he chose to stay could no longer grow out in the her, and to share her while they searched the farm, conopen if you wanted to make it.” story with people. So fiscating, among other things, seed They had to start cultivating every strain that I grow packs and 13 pairs of trimming underneath the tree canopy, with here today is bred with scissors. They gave him a yellow such low per-plant yields that they a strain that she used to ticket, and they left. His lawyer, Ron had to significantly increase their SEA CHANGE

grow 45 years ago,” -Johnny Casali

Listen to Leaf Life Podcast Show #52 “Cannabis Prisoners” Visit www.LeafMagazines.com

PA S S I N G O N T H E L E G A C Y

Sinoway, warned that the Feds had a five-year window to return, and were likely to arrest and convict him.

“He said, ‘If you’re planning on cooperating with them, I want you to walk straight back out of my office right now,’” Casali said. That’s the moment he knew he’d found the right lawyer.

THE TRIAL

After a year and a half, the Feds came back for Casali and Wick, kicking off a two-and-a-halfyear trial during which the pair faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years to life.

At one point, they saw a glimmer of hope in the potential that they could get a reduced sentence as nonviolent first-time offenders. In the end, the linchpin wasn’t the Cannabis, but the trimming scissors.

“The prosecutor was able to tell this judge that 13 pairs of scissors could only mean that I had 13 workers,” he said, “and these seed packets that I had in my house could only mean that I had a prior grow, since I had those seeds.”

In the end, Casali and Wick were sentenced to the mandatory minimum of 10 years at Lompoc Prison Camp in Santa Barbara County.

SERVING TIME

When describing his sentencing and his internment at Lompoc, Casali fights back tears – his voice shaking under the weight of regret.

“I didn’t feel bad for myself. I felt bad because of the pain that I had brought to my mother and father. All they wanted to do was to give me the best life possible, and they felt very guilty for what had happened because they blamed themselves.”

Casali recalls his walk up to the gates, where he waited with a group of 10 inmates for intake.

“They asked me how much time I had gotten, and I told them ‘120 months,’ and they were just

flabbergasted that they were looking at someone who had more time than anyone else at the camp at that time,” he said.

Casali spent seven years building relationships with the other inmates, as well as the farm managers and guards, working the cattle and cultivating vegetables.

He formed a particularly strong bond with the man who ran the prison camp, Ray Escobedo.

“I used to bring him little plants, habaneros and things, and he would plant them in a little garden,” Escobedo said when contacted via phone for this story. Escobedo remembers Casali as being an exemplary farmhand, and by the end of the first year of his sentence, Casali had already earned a solid reputation at the camp.

“One afternoon, I heard my name come over the speaker from the chaplain’s office, and you never want to hear that, because it’s never anything good,” Casali said.

“My inmate friends, they all looked at me, because that’s what you do, like, ‘Oh, God, what happened?’

I went to the chaplain’s office, and that’s when they told me that my mom had passed away. She was actually scheduled to visit me the next day.”

Escobedo went to the Warden and vouched for Casali to leave the prison with a Marshall to attend his mother’s funeral.

After seven years, Casali and Wick were transferred to a drug program in Las Vegas, then to a halfway house in San Francisco for six months, before being given probation. They were then granted leave to start their own landscaping business, Eel River Landscape.

“We were mowing lawns, and trimming bushes and hedges for little old ladies in town,” he said. “I still look back at those times, and just remember that first day when I got back up to Humboldt, and everything just put a smile on my face. I could sit out in the yard for hours, and the air smelled amazing – that’s what life should be like for all of us, all the time.”

After nearly a decade of federal incarceration for operating his family’s legacy farm in Humboldt, Casali feels overwhelmingly lucky to be able to finally share his craft with the California Cannabis community.

“Since I learned everything from my mom, I thought it was so important to just honor her, and to share her story with people. So every strain that I grow here today is bred with a strain that she used to grow 45 years ago,” he said.

“I do that in her honor. There are some that are named after her, called Sweet Marlene. There’s one that’s called Whitethorn Rose, and they’re all bred with her strain that she bred with my best friend’s mother, called Paradise Punch. I like the idea that nobody else in the world grows these strains, and whether they’re the best or not the best, it’s part of the story of Huckleberry Hill Farms. It’s part of her story, and it’s part of my story.”

Like so many people who’ve seen the damage caused by failed drug policies, the retired prison camp manager Escobedo now sees Cannabis in a different light.

“It shouldn’t be illegal,” Escobedo said. “It’s no different than alcohol. It’s probably better than alcohol, you know. But it was illegal then.”

In recent years, Escobedo and another former prison camp manager came to visit Casali at his farm.

“He gave me a couple of seeds,” Escobedo said, “and I planted them here, and I made some creams out of them, for medicine, you know.”

Despite the freedom Casali now enjoys, he still regards helicopters overhead with a watchful eye, and can’t shake the fear of the potential blowback that could happen to him as retaliation for speaking out. Even though his livelihood Johnny and and his craft are his girlfriend, considered legal under Brittany Rose California law, it is still Moberly. federally illegal.

“All it would take is for them to come here, and find something that they can point to,” he said.

“More often than not, someone like me should be quiet and fall by the wayside, but that doesn’t really help anybody. I owe the community to speak out about where this multibillion-dollar industry was created.”

STORY by TOM BOWERS @PROPAGATECONSULTANTS/LEAF NATION | PHOTOS by BEN NEFF @BNEFF92 for LEAF NATION

the ACTION issue

EQUITY IN CANNABIS NuLeaf Project Co-founder Jeannette Ward Horton on collaborating with edible maker Wana

leafmagazines.com

42

The failed War on Drugs destroys countless lives, with racist and classist policies that tear communities of color apart at the seams. Jeannette Ward Horton, co-founder of Oregon’s NuLeaf Project,

will absolutely not rest until our broken, oppressive, unbalanced system serves all of the communities it touches. As a burgeoning new sector, the Cannabis industry is the perfect place to focus on the monumental work of halting the destructive, regressive and oppressive policies that still impact communities of color around the country, and repairing the damage done. It’s a multifaceted mission, comprising political action, mentorship, and a rebalancing of the fiscal playing field. mAY 2021

POLITICAL POWERHOUSE

Horton’s organization was a primary driver for the Oregon Cannabis Equity Act, HB3112, which seeks to establish a Cannabis Equity Board within the Governor’s office to provide equity oversight of the state’s Cannabis industry.

Among her many contributions, Horton sought to change the language around equity in order to specifically speak to race in the state’s efforts.

The goal is to provide opportunity and representation for those most impacted by the War on Drugs – specifically to Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o/x communities.

Notably, as part of her efforts, Horton was able to include the divestment of Cannabis taxes from funding the police.

“I wouldn’t let that shit go,” Horton said. “And it worked.”

Horton and NuLeaf also provide mentorship, grants and avenues for funding for equity entrepreneurs looking to grow and thrive in the Cannabis industry.

In order to get funding for these efforts, NuLeaf partners with companies in the space who recognize the need for change.

SPREADING LIKE ROOTS

In addition to the work with Wana in Oregon, NuLeaf is branching out to take on other missions with collaborators around the nation, including a partnership with Ben’s Best Buds in Colorado, the upcoming Cannabis brand from Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s. Their collaboration will be laser-focused on the funding piece of the equity puzzle.

The overall goal, Horton says, is to build a future with a healthy economic ecosystem rich in diversity and opportunity for systematically oppressed and underrepresented communities.

“Our mission is to build generational wealth for our communities,” she said. “This is not about just building Cannabis businesses. This is about repairing harm, and building it into these wealth opportunities for the Black community.”

The goal is to provide opportunity and representation for those most impacted by the War on Drugs – specifically to Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o/x communities.

A SHARED MISSION

As with so many people in the Cannabis industry and beyond, the social revolution of 2020 – sparked by the killing of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and countless people of color by public employees being paid to serve and protect them – inspired Wana to spring into action.

“That lit a fire underneath us,” Wana CEO Joe Hodas said. “What do we do here? This is a crisis.”

A significant operator in the national edibles scene, the Wana team heard about Horton and NuLeaf’s work on HB3112.

That dedication to positive political action, and NuLeaf’s efforts to connect equity entrepreneurs with the funding they need to achieve their goals, was what brought Wana to the table with Horton and her organization.

“To give someone a license, that’s great, they have a license,” Hodas said. But without funding, the license is simply a document. That’s where Wana came in, providing a financial contribution to NuLeaf in order to assist in their efforts.

Wana also hired its first-ever Director of Corporate Social Responsibility, Karla Rodriguez, to work on the collaboration with Horton and other company projects in the CSR realm.

The goal is to create robust collaborations that connect their company with the greater cause of equity and inclusion at a deeper level.

“Companies tend to operate in a vacuum,” Karla said. “You can throw money at it, you can throw donations at a cause. But working with NuLeaf … we can learn what needs to be addressed in each market.”

>> N U L E A F P R O J E C T. O R G @NULEAFPROJECT >> W A N A B R A N D S . C O M @WANABRANDS

“To give someone a license, that’s great, they have a license,” Wana CEO Joe Hodas said.

But without funding, the license is simply a document. That’s where Wana came in, providing a financial contribution to NuLeaf in order to assist in their efforts.

STORY by TOM BOWERS @PROPAGATECONSULTANTS/LEAF NATION | PHOTOS by FLETCHER WOLD @FWOLD_PHOTOGRAPHY & COURTESY WANA

the ACTION issue leafmagazines.com

44

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

INSIDE THE EMERALD CUP

Once referred to as the “Academy Awards of Cannabis” by Rolling Stone, the Emerald Cup has evolved from a small, underground competition for sungrown weed into the most respected Cannabis event in the country – beloved for both the humanity with which it runs its festival and the integrity it employs in running its competition.

Founder Tim Blake on-stage with Tommy Chong

mAY 2021

The story of the Emerald Cup begins 17 years ago, when an outlaw grower named Tim Blake decided to host a private community gathering of connoisseurs and cultivators in Northern California’s storied Emerald Triangle to celebrate their harvests and determine which of them had grown the best bud. Blake swears his inspiration for the Cup came not from other Cannabis competitions that had preceded it, but rather from an older, more wholesome source.

“As a kid, I loved going to the county fairs every fall,” he explains. “All the sights, the sounds, the smells, the friendly competition with the vegetables and fruits and animals … and I just thought, we should be doing that with Cannabis. Of course, it was still highly illegal, but we just decided to go for it.”

In December 2004, Blake leased a small event space just outside of Laytonville (christened Area 101 due to its proximity to the highway) and hosted an underground event for around 200 people disguised as a birthday party. Convincing a few fellow local outlaw growers to participate, he ended up with a couple dozen entries of some of the finest outdoor flower around. Prizes were awarded for first, second and third place, but two of the three winners didn’t even show up to claim their prizes for fear of getting identified and busted.

Over the next few years, Blake upped his game: incorporating a hash competition, creating event posters, and throwing all-night psychedelic parties complete with light shows and “survivors’ breakfasts” the next mornings. The Cup remained an annual tradition at Area 101 until 2010, when its continued growth forced Blake to seek out a larger venue. In 2011, it was held at Garberville’s Mateel Community Center … but the following year, they were unable to secure any dates or locations in Mendocino or Humboldt counties and had no choice but to move the event down to the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.

“That first year in Santa Rosa, most of the outlaw farmers wouldn’t come down – they thought it was sacrilegious to leave the Emerald Triangle,” Blake recalls. “But it turned out to be such a financial success for the vendors, that the second year there we actually had a waiting list and couldn’t even get everybody in.”

EMERALD EXPLOSION

In its new home at the fairgrounds, the event exploded. Within a few years, they went from 30-40 vendors to a couple hundred, and their attendance quadrupled from 7,500 to nearly 30,000. Now a full-blown festival, Emerald Cup offers dozens of panels and seminars, multiple speaking and performance stages, and top-notch musical acts like Rebelution, Damian Marley and Big Gigantic.

But that exponential expansion brought with it huge logistical challenges that Tim and his team couldn’t tackle alone.

“It’s a big job to essentially build a small city for the weekend,” Blake observes. “I realized, I’ve gotta find some professional help!”

Luckily, he soon found an eager and experienced new partner.

“When Red Light Management came knocking on my door, it was hard to turn them down,” Blake confesses. “With all the experience they had managing Dave Matthews Band and Phish, and running shows like Outside Lands, Bonnaroo and SXSW … it was an amazing opportunity.

They brought in a world-class production team and took things to a level nobody had ever seen before – like a Cannabis Lollapalooza.”

FOR THE COMMUNITY

Though the event was scaling up significantly, Blake made a sincere effort to avoid what he perceived as the shortcomings of some of the other large Cannabis events: focusing more on hype and profit than on providing the best possible experience.

“What I’m proudest about is, when you come to the Emerald Cup, you feel a real sense of community vibe there; farmers and product makers and all of the industry people coming together to have a yearly gathering and celebration,” he says. “When you’re doing it because you want to do something great for your community and not just for the money, that really comes across.”

Blake and his partners went the extra mile to create as comfortable and welcoming an environment as possible: buying 100 couches from the Salvation Army and hundreds of umbrellas to hand out during heavy rain days, going out of their way to find organic food vendors, hiring a handicapped support specialist to ensure that every part of the show was accessible, and spending nearly a quarter-million dollars on cushioned flooring for booths.

“At first I was like, ‘We’re spending how much money on flooring?’” says Blake.

Traditionally, judging had always taken place in person at Area 101 from November to early December.

But as of last year, the competition dates were pushed back to March to allow entrants more time to harvest, cure, process and package their submissions.

And the judges, who are given around a month to choose their winners, now conferred via weekly Zoom meetings.

Thanks to the pandemic, this year’s event also went fully digital – airing on Social Club TV from April 5-11.

The virtual event featured Tim with seminars and panels on a daughter, variety of topics including Taylor, who regenerative farming, psycheruns the delic healing, social equity “When you come to the Cannabis and marijuana marketing – all Emerald Cup, you feel a hosted by industry experts, competition. real sense of community activists and celebrities. The vibe there; farmers and “But then all the vendors were festivities were capped with product makers and all saying how amazing it was to stand a live stream awards show at there all day and not have their 4:20 on April 11 and excluof the industry people backs killing them, and we had like sive appearances by Ziggy coming together to have 200 handicapped people come Marley and Michael Franti. a yearly gathering and through saying they’d never seen Undoubtedly though, celebration.” - Tim Blake that type of decency shown to them Blake’s most memorable at an event, and I realized it was all celebrity moment occurred in worth it.”

2018, when his hero Willie Nelson came out to And their magnanimity doesn’t end there. accept a lifetime achievement award.

According to Blake, they’ve gone out of their way “He agreed to do it under one condition: each year to raise money and awareness for local He wanted us to change its name to the Willie schools and parks, as well as Nelson Award. I was like, oh my God – what environmental groups like the a prestigious honor he’s bestowing upon us!”

Trees Foundation and Friends of Blake gushes. “That was one of my proudest the Eel River. They’ve also promoments, standing on stage with Willie, realizing vided free booth space to many that he was now part of the Cup forever.” non-profits and donated unused contest entries to groups like FUTURE CHANGES Weed for Warriors and Sweet Starting next year, Blake plans to permanently Leaf to distribute to veterans and move the main event to April in L.A. – avoiding terminally ill patients in need. the harsh weather often encountered at past events and allowing for a wider swath of the THE COMPETITION Cannabis community to attend. However, they Their Cannabis competition still plan to host a smaller “Harvest Ball” back in (which is run by Tim’s daughter Taylor) has also Santa Rosa in the fall – one more reminiscent of been lauded for maintaining its integrity despite their original gatherings. its exponential expansion. From its single original “The Emerald Cup was a really innocent, woncategory of sungrown flowers in 2004, it’s now derful idea that turned into this huge business up to nearly 40 categories this year – including all that I never really counted or planned on. It’s types of topicals, edibles and concentrates. amazing to think back on how far we’ve come At its height, the competition boasted an insince that day,” Blake recalls fondly. credible 1,200 total entries, but that number has “But people love the idea of a fall gathering of been cut in half in recent years due to restrictions the tribe, where the community comes together imposed by the legal market. There are between at the end of the year to reminisce, celebrate six and 16 judges per category, all of whom are the previous year’s winners, and see the latest Cali-based Cannabis experts and celebrities. genetics so they can plan their crops for spring.

“We had a really incredible pool of judges this We can’t give that up.” year,” Blake attests.

No, Tim … we definitely can’t.

“We’re really proud of the quality and diversity of people that have come in.” (Full disclosure: I >> T H E E M E R A L D C U P. C O M was one of those judges).

STORY by BOBBY BLACK @BOBBYBLACK420/LEAF NATION | PHOTOS by MIKE ROSATI @ROSATIPHOTOS

the ACTION issue leafmagazines.com

46

REGENERATIVE ORGANIC AGRICULTURE Prior to 1996, nowhere in the United States had legalized Cannabis. And while progress has been slow over the past 25 years, the country has witnessed steady improvements allowing for the medical use of Cannabis in 36 states.

With New Mexico’s most recent legislative success, 17 are now considered legal Cannabis states. But with great power comes great responsibility.

A 2017 study by Ithaca College found large-scale commercial production of Cannabis destructive to the local environment. Northern states rely heavily on the use of artificial indoor operations, which are ideal for maneuvering the difficulties of cold climates. The indoor cultivation of Cannabis requires an enormous amount of electricity, relying on high-intensity bulbs, ventilation, dehumidifiers and air-conditioners to power production. Without land-use policies to limit its environmental footprint, the impacts of Cannabis farming could get worse, the study showed.

Until then, the onus of nurturing Mother Earth’s finite resources rests in the hands of the growers.

Many will chase the dollar, consequences be damned.

Others have their eyes on leaving the world a better place than they found it.

mAY 2021

Aaron Howard, Mason Walker and Nathan Howard.

East Fork Cultivars

Naomi Lamb Top Hat Concentrates

CREATING SUSTAINABLE CANNABIS BUSINESSES

BLAZING THE TRAIL

“We are in a climate crisis,” said Oregon resident and activist Les Szabo. “We can’t talk about expansion without thinking about the environmental disruptions this industry could create.”

Szabo is a board member for Sun+Earth Certified, a nonprofit regenerative organic certification program for the Cannabis industry.

Regenerative organic certification is considered the new high-bar in growing standards, covering soil health, animal welfare and worker fairness in a single certification. The company’s goal is to have its Cannabis and hemp farmers making high-quality, organic products while leaving a positive impact on the local environment.

“It goes a little deeper into ethical land stewardship,” said Executive Director Andrew Black.

“Our approach focuses on no-till, mulching, composting and cover-cropping as essential parts of the farm.”

Sun+Earth Certified opened its doors on Earth Day 2019 with a pilot program that featured 14 partnering farms. In two years of operations, the company has expanded to 45 partners, covering California, Colorado, Michigan, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin.

“We’ve been really happy with the progress,” said Szabo. “This type of certification makes sense to both the producer and consumer.”

ONE STEP FURTHER

While they don’t share a partnership, Top Hat Concentrates (THC) Alaska embraces the same farming values as Sun+Earth Certified.

“It all starts with clean Cannabis,” said THC Alaska President and CEO John Nemeth. “We believe Cannabis is medicine that helps people in a myriad of ways, and adding chemicals seems counterproductive.”

Based in Juneau, the state capital of America’s northernmost state is run largely on renewable energy by way of hydropower. This has allowed for THC Alaska to minimize its ecological footprint.

“Essentially what we’re trying to do is give back more than we take from the environment,” said Head Cultivator Naomi Lamb.

Lamb, 33, has been in the industry for 15 years, sharpening her skills in her home state of California before joining the team in 2015. In Humboldt County, Lamb witnessed firsthand the

impact of a grow facility placing the value of the dollar above the environment and local community.

“My introduction to Cannabis was not pretty,” she said. “I came into the industry working for folks who valued quantity over quality. They were using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. It was really ugly.”

In what she described as a “disheartening” experience, Lamb said, ”As a consumer, I had an expectation of the people who were growing having a more well-rounded concept that they were producing medicine.”

Armed with a team of forward-thinking activists, Nemeth hopes Top Hat Concentrates can lead Alaska into preserving what is considered The Last Frontier.

“The first step is creating business partnerships with people who want to do what we’re doing,” said Nemeth, voicing aspirations that regenerative agriculture could become the model for the country.

“There are a lot of problems on Earth and climate change is a big one. Where the tech industry has failed, I think the Cannabis industry has a chance to step up and really set a trend.”

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“We can’t talk about expansion without thinking about the environmental disruptions this industry could create.” - Les Szabo

“If we’re serious about addressing the combined threats to our health, environment and economy, we must take bold action quickly,” said Black. While Sun+Earth Certified farms take responsibility for creating clean Cannabis, the company hopes the cultural mindset circles the supply chain. MedMen Enterprises, or MedMen, has helped their cause, lending some of its 29 retail stores in a variety of states to support organic growers.

“There’s some real momentum behind this movement,” said Szabo. “But to have these major multi-state operators on-board is going to be really important for consumers going forward. They are a good vehicle for translating our values in concrete action.”

And then there’s the consumer.

“Buying mindfully,” is how Lamb describes it.

“It’s the same as when they talk about voting with your dollar,” said Lamb, a third-generation farmer. “You can educate yourself, source where your Cannabis is coming from and be mindful of the production methods behind it.”

Education, the industry experts all agreed, was the key to navigating a 21st-century landscape.

“People don’t understand the scope and the scale of Cannabis’ impact, both positive and negative,” said Szabo. “When we forecast the legal industry, we’re talking 50-60 billion dollars [per year]. This one crop is bigger than all of the organics in the U.S. When you talk about climate change, you can’t talk without thinking about the environmental disruptions this industry could create.

“We just want to let people know there is an alternative way that is safer and cleaner for the consumer.”

STORY by BAXSEN PAINE @BAXSENPAINE for LEAF NATION

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THE RETURN OF SPRING MEANS BASEBALL, BLOWING BUBBLES AND FILLING OUR MINDS WITH THE STONEY VIBES FOUND IN ALL THE DELICIOUS CONCENTRATES FROM THE DESAUS VAULT OF FIRE.

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BUBBLEGUM BREATH MAY 2021

WE’VE BEEN following the Desaus journey from a one man dream to a statewide company delivering craft concentrates in both solventless and hydrocarbon form. The Washington market is starved for high quality rosin, and Desaus is one of the premier processors delivering consistent strain specific hash for the heads. We had the pleasure of trying out the same strain in both forms, and found the Bubblegum Breath delivered delicious flavors with some unique differences between the two dabbing experiences.

Bubblegum Breath is an old school strain known for sugary-sweet flavors with a unique hybrid effect that carries the best of both parents, Bubble Gum x Mendo Breath F2. This yields a buzz that blends a springtime euphoria with a healthy dose of baked as fuck.

We started with the 90u hash rosin, which has a beautiful golden sappy consistency that is oozing with rich berries and cream flavor.

Stirring the sap releases deeper notes of woody-piney-kush with a hit of turpentine-gas that hides behind the overwhelming gooey sweetness, which teases the mind with the invigorating rush soon to come.

Inhaling a low temp dab sees the golden oil melt into a vapor that grips onto the lungs with a hashy exhale full of syrupy strawberry fuel. Effects rush in quickly from this super clean solventless rosin, numbing the body from the lungs outward as the mind teeters between euphoria and a funforgetful buzz in a where’s my phone or snacks vibe.

After a few hours of blissful floating our bubble popped and we were ready to dive into the hydrocarbon extract. The consistency and color are very similar, with a slightly lighter and thicker sap. After a stir the hydrocarbon extract has a more dominant lemon-fuel flavor, with the earthy berries hiding deeper in the background. It’s almost a perfect flip in which flavor profile leads, with the hydrocarbon having a heavier creamy tang that instantly causes our mouths to water.

A low temp dab of the hydrocarbon smacks into the mind with a much heavier head high that’s a little cloudier, more euphoric, but less connected to the body, which almost feels like a floating avatar beneath a brain melting into a puddle of bubblegum.

It’s a rare opportunity to taste the same strain in two different forms, and we really couldn’t choose a favorite, even after multiple dabs.

While we prefer rosin for the solvent free nature, we loved the floaty mindmelt that the BHO delivered, along with a different take on a beautiful flavor profile. With tons of strains and flavors to be found in the Desaus lineup, we recommend trying both, or any of the craft concentrates coming from this fire focused brand!

REVIEW by WES ABNEY @BEARDEDLORAX/NORTHWEST LEAF | PHOTO by DANIEL BERMAN @BERMANPHOTOS

reviews

HAPPY APPLE

A longtime staple in the Washington Cannabis market, Happy Apple is a carbonated apple beverage somewhat in between sparkling apple juice and cider. This is a beverage that truly stands as its own entity – not trying to imitate a different existing product. Nearly every budtender who sells Happy Apple in their shop recommends it. It’s consistent while still being novel and unique. Aside from using Sorse’s proprietary water emulsion technology to minimize Cannabis flavor, Happy Apple is also made from 100% Washington apples, while containing no added sugars, artificial flavors or additives.

New Section Debut!

MOJO

Relatively new to shops around the state, Mojo has taken off with a bang. As an orange cream soda, it has its own individual taste and isn’t reminiscent of any of the usual orange soda culprits that Kenan and Kel might have clamored after in the 90s. While technically the least healthful of these three options, Mojo is definitely the best tasting (and it’s not any less healthy than your average non-infused soda). If you do have any calorie guilt though, just look at the back of the bottle and learn that this product helps support the Last Prisoner Project – and any negative feelings can melt away while you pop open the cooler for a second bottle.

52

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off the shelf THIS MONTH | THE LEAF REVIEWS 3 INFUSED BEVERAGES (10MG THC) For the first edition of Off the Shelf – a new monthly dive into one specific category on the recreational market – it just made sense to grab some recommendations for 10mg THC-infused beverages from the closest budtender and give them a try.

The warm days of summer are nearly here. After a year of being cooped up inside, it’s inevitable that we’ll all be out enjoying the sun and trying to get a nice buzz on – and no pot product screams summer more than a well-chilled Cannabis beverage.

may 2021

Now this is a Cannabis beverage for the modern era. You know how it’s pretty easy to slam through multiple cans of La Croix in an afternoon? Now imagine if there were just a bit of weed in there, with seriously no perceptible change in taste. That’s what Sparkle presents. I would have never thought you could have a palatable Cannabis beverage with no calories, no sugar, and no noticeable Cannabis taste – yet here we are. Sparkle has done it. While it may not be as “fun” as one of the Cannabis sodas, it’s incredibly drinkable and perfect for a day of marathon Cannabis consumption.

REVIEW & PHOTO by TJ GAGNIER @TJGAGNIER for NORTHWEST LEAF

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WAUGHSTREETGLASS Hailing from Georgia, Will Waugh, better known as Waugh Street Glass, discovered his passion for glass art at the age of 17 through the glassblowing documentary “Degenerate Art.” During his early experiences in headshops, buying his first pipes, he became enamored with the color-changing effect of fumed glass.

When he found out that it was the result of essentially “painting the glass” with fuming metal, he was inspired to learn more about the niche of fume work within the world of glass pipes.

This quickly led to a rabbit hole of exploration in the world of fume work, which his artwork is most known for today.

“The cleanliness of scientific glass paired with the niche of fume work, that’s my main focus.”

As he learned more about glass, Will became influenced by the clean, crisp work of artists such as Merge Scientific, who started as a scientific glassblower, and Siren Apparatus, who deftly juxtaposes the look of scientific glass with a heady aesthetic.

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The delicate precision of Will’s finely detailed, immersive fumed patterns wasn’t a skill that came overnight. Will has spent countless hours in deeply focused practice and experimentation honing his fuming skills, learning along the way from other glass artists.

It’s that level of discipline, determination and curiosity that has allowed him to create such balanced and immersive functional glass.

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MAY 2021

STORY by PETE THOMPSON/LEAF NATION | PHOTO by JEFF DIMARCO @IAMJEFFDIMARCO

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WORLD OF Cannabis PRESENTS

Yippie High-Yay! COURTESY DANA BEAL

58

Dana Beal (with arm on speaker) leads a Yippie rally at the White House (1977).

COURTESY DANA BEAL

LEAFMAGAZINES.COM

Occasionally referred to as “Groucho Marxists,” the Youth International Party (aka the Yippies) were a radical leftist group from the 1960s that used absurd, satirical stunts to make their political points. Among the many counterculture luminaries involved with the Yippies over the years is Dana Beal, a man who was personally recruited by founder Abbie Hoffman and ended up succeeding him as the group’s leader.

AN ACTIVIST IS BORN Growing up in Lansing, Michigan, Beal displayed a passion for social justice from an early age. In August 1963, at the age of 16, he hitchhiked to Washington D.C. to attend Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Two months later he organized his first demonstration against the Ku Klux Klan back in Lansing.

At age 17, Beal managed to avoid the Vietnam draft by getting himself committed to a psych ward, then went AWOL and took off for New York City.

Once there, he quickly established himself in the Lower East Side activist scene. During the Grateful Dead’s first-ever New York concert in Tompkins Square Park on June 1, 1967, Beal organized the first of many “smoke-in” protests – blazing out the 3,000+ crowd.

That August, Beal was busted for selling LSD to a narc, prompting a series of protest marches on his behalf. His support in the community was so impressive that it attracted the attention of another prominent activist by the name of Abbie Hoffman.

may 2021

FROM HIPPIE TO YIPPIE Both Jewish, anti-war activists, Hoffman and Rubin met in 1967 in New York while planning an upcoming demonstration in Washington and immediately hit it off. On August 24, 1967, they pulled off their first major media stunt: From the visitor’s gallery at the New York Stock Exchange, they threw out handfuls of one dollar bills onto the exchange floor – interrupting trading and eliciting both cheers Young Dana freed and curses from the brokers below. after LSD arrest.

On October 21, Hoffman and Rubin invited Beal and his crew down to D.C. to attend a massive anti-war demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial. Hoffman then led half the crowd across the Potomac, where they encircled the Pentagon and began singing and chanting in a supposed attempt to “levitate” the building.

Naturally, the building never moved, but the group had found their purpose.

It wasn’t until three months later – while tripping in Abbie’s apartment on New Year’s Eve – that they found a name for their merry band of miscreants when friend Paul Krassner spontaneously shouted out “Yippie!” and they instantly identified with the exuberant exclamation (later elaborated to Youth International Party).

On January 16, 1968, the Yippies published a manifesto – inviting activists across America to a massive protest outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that August. Dubbed the “Festival of Life,” it was a mock

For more on Dana Beal and the Yippies, listen to Episode #11 of our podcast at worldofcannabis.museum/podcast.

convention held in Grant Park.

Skirmishes between police and the nearly 10,000 protestors that week soon escalated to riots.

Weeks later, Mayor Daley issued a report blaming the violence on “outside agitators,” and on March 20, 1969, a grand jury indicted eight of those agitators. Among these “Chicago Eight” (later changed to the “Chicago Seven” after Black Panther Bobby Seale’s mistrial) were Rubin and Hoffman.

The trial was a national media circus – providing the Yippie leaders a perfect platform for their political theater. On February 18, 1970, both Rubin and Hoffman were convicted of inciting a riot and sentenced to five years in prison (their conviction was ultimately overturned in November 1972).

Beal, who was unable to attend the event, stepped in as the group’s de facto leader in their absence. And on July 4, 1970, when President Nixon threw an “Honor America Day” rally at the Lincoln Memorial, Beal organized a Yippie counter-rally at the Washington Monument to shout it down.

Story and photos originally published on worldofcannabis.museum and reprinted with permission.

STORY by BOBBY BLACK @CANNTHROPOLOGY for LEAF NATION

KEVIN SCHUMACHER

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TOM FORCADE Another influential Yippie leader was Tom Forcade – a former Air Guardsman turned weed smuggler from Phoenix who connected with them after moving to New York in July 1969 to run the Underground Press Syndicate. Forcade’s moment in the spotlight came on May 13, 1970, when – after testifying at the US Senate’s Commission on Obscenity and Pornography dressed as a preacher – he shoved a cream pie into the face of a committee member. After that, “pieing” became a signature Yippie tactic (Yippie Aron “Pie Man” Kay continued pieing controversial figures for many years).

Unfortunately, Forcade and Hoffman never saw eye to eye.

Forcade allegedly felt that Hoffman and Rubin were “burned out” after their trial, and that they were selling out by Tom Forcade (left) and Abbie Hoffman Poster for 1973 “May Day” Smoke-In in NYC. abandoning their more radical tactics and endorsing (right) in “Movement Court.” a candidate (George McGovern).

Their rift came to a head over payments regarding accusations and essentially resigning from the Yippies. With Rubin Hoffman’s “Steal This Book,” which Forcade had and Hoffman gone, Forcade’s faction took control. But by that time, worked on. A counterculture “Movement Court” was Forcade had more pressing issues to deal with: namely, the new convened to settle their dispute, but ultimately neither magazine he’d launched called High Times. Tragically though, just party accepted the verdict: Forcade refused to shake four years later on November 19, 1978, Forcade committed suicide Hoffman’s hand, and Hoffman never paid Forcade – leaving Beal as the Yippies’ last leader standing. the agreed amount.

In the decades to come, Beal continued to hold the annual Yippie The schism grew so severe that in Janusmoke-ins in Washington and New York. And when New York ary 1972, Forcade formed his own group, City Mayor Rudy Giuliani attempted to kill the protest using the “Zippies” (Zeitgeist International Party). police intimidation in 1998, Beal reached out to international Caught between the two factions, Beal sided allies and rebranded the NYC Pot Parade into the worldwide In the decades with Forcade and became a Zippie. Feeling Million Marijuana March. Within just a few years, the event had to come, Beal betrayed, Hoffman and Rubin attacked Forexpanded to over 300 cities around the world. continued to cade – publicly accusing him of working with DENOUEMENT the police. Tensions quickly led to threats hold the annual and incidents of violence, including an asAbbie Hoffman finally resurfaced in 1980 – but sadly, like Forcade, he also Yippie smoke--ins committed sault on Rubin by one of Forcade’s goons. suicide in 1989. Jerry Rubin sold out and became a Yuppie before in Washington being killed by a car on the streets of L.A. in 1994. Krassner died of natural TRANSFORMATION, TRAGEDY causes in 2019 at the age of 87. Thankfully, Kay and Beal are all still alive and New York.

AND TRANSCENDENCE and kicking.

In October 1972, Beal launched his underground newsIn the past decade, Beal has been arrested for trafficking marijuana four times—though paper the Yipster Times. A few months later, Beal moved only one charge stuck. In September 2011, while in police custody in Wisconsin, he sufinto the three-story building at 9 Bleeker Street that would fered a heart attack and died for three and a half minutes before being revived. Tragically, become his home – and Yippie headquarters – for the next during his incarceration in 2013, the Yippie Museum was closed, and in 2014, 9 Bleeker four decades (eventually opening its doors to the public as was foreclosed on and sold. Nevertheless, Beal remains defiantly hopeful – looking forward the Yippie Café & Museum). to finally seeing the end of America’s pot prohibition, which he insists is imminent.

In spring 1974, Hoffman skipped bail on a cocaine charge “The War on Drugs is just no longer at the top of the list of things to deal with in this and went into hiding. Months later, Rubin issued an apolocountry,” he said. “It’s impossible to go to jail for pot anymore – they just take the weed gy to Forcade in the Village Voice, disavowing his previous and let you go. That’s how I know legalization is actually coming.”

WORLD OF CANNABIS MUSEUM

When NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani attempted to kill the protest using police intimidation in 1998, Beal reached out to international allies and rebranded the NYC Pot Parade into the worldwide Million Marijuana March. Within just a few years, the event had expanded to over 300 cities around the world.

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WASTING TIME

It's

62

leafmagazines.com

by Mike Ricker

an oxymoron actually, because it is impossible to waste time if you are here and experiencing life. The fact that you are actively conscious means that you are utilizing the energy that motors your body to gain experience. Therefore, the time is not wasted at all, but in fact, utilized.

And further, how can you waste something that is free? If you gave nothing to get it, then you are entertaining yourself with something you did not have before you began.

But time is a concept – a construct of our imagination – not a tangible asset in a physical sense. Therefore, it is impossible to waste.

In fact, the word “waste” is only a figure of speech. So, figuratively speaking, to waste time is to do something that does not uphold the value of the expectation that was set to optimize the moments of life you have. And there are many ways to frivolously attend to your life.

Like wondering what someone else is doing with their time...

Let’s take Thom Yorke, for instance. He’s the singer for the band Radiohead. I wonder what he is doing right now? Is he on the phone?

Is he on the toilet? Is he taking a bong hit? All three maybe?

But what does it matter if he is not in my presence, and why am I spending my precious time wondering with time I can never reclaim?

It’s arguably wasteful, but not a waste. Kind of like a box in bubble wrap inside of another box that’s inside of another box with Amazon packing tape striped around it … and what’s inside of the first box is a thumb drive. Like, was it necessary to quadruple pack that bastard? It’s wasteful, but not a waste – because you received the necessary item.

People are stupid.

Shit, that was a wasteful comment.

may 2021

F O L L OW @ R I C K E R D J | G E T T H E AU D I O V E R S I O N & EV E RY E P I S O D E AT L E A F M AG A Z I N E S . C O M

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