OregonLeaf_Feb2026

CULTURE issue

WES ABNEY CEO & FOUNDER

wes@leafmagazines.com

MIKE RICKER OPERATING PARTNER ricker@leafmagazines.com

TOM BOWERS CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER tom@leafmagazines.com

DANIEL BERMAN CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER daniel@leafmagazines.com

AMANDA LOPEZ STATE CONTENT DIRECTOR amanda@leafmagazines.com

MAKANI NELSON STATE SALES DIRECTOR makani@leafmagazines.com (808) 754-4182

BOBBY BLACK LEAF BOWL DIRECTOR & HISTORIAN bobbyblack@leafmagazines.com

MATT JACKSON SOCIAL MEDIA LEAD mattjackson@leafmagazines.com

MICHELLE NARANJO & JACKIE BRYANT COPYDESK michelle@leafmagazines.com | jackie@leafmagazines.com

ABOUT THE COVER

Stoner hip-hop legend Wiz Khalifa is known for his music as much as his Cannabis brand, and the Leaf's Tom Bowers was granted special access with Wiz to learn more about his life and career. Los Angeles-based photographer Emily Eizen, whose stunning work you might remember from her smoky cover shoots with Cheech and Chong for our February 2023 Culture Issues, got up close and personal with Wiz. Visit our website, LeafMagazines.com, for more photos and exclusive content from the day!

PHOTOS & CREATIVE BY EMILY EIZEN @EMILYEIZEN INTERVIEW BY TOM BOWERS @MEGABOMBTOM2.0

CONTRIBUTORS

WES ABNEY, FEATURES

AJ AGUILAR, FEATURES

DANIEL BERMAN, DESIGN

BOBBY BLACK, DESIGN + FEATURES

JACKIE BRYANT, EDITING + FEATURES

TOM BOWERS, FEATURES

CRC PRODUCTIONSS, PHOTOS

JEFF DIMARCO, PHOTOS

DAVID DOWNS, FEATURES

EMILY EIZEN, PHOTOS

MICHAEL GRATTAROTI, PHOTOS

REX HILSINGER, FEATURES

ELLEN HOLLAND, FEATURES

MATT JACKSON, FEATURES

JAMIE OWENS, FEATURES

SARAH SANDOVAL, SALES

JOJO SNAPS, PHOTOS

MIKE ROSATI, PHOTOS

TERPODACTYL MEDIA, FEATURES + PHOTOS

BRUCE WOLF, PHOTOS

KATHERINE WOLF, FEATURES

LAURIE WOLF, RECIPES

We are creators of targeted, independent Cannabis journalism. Please email us to discuss advertising in an upcoming issue of Oregon Leaf. We do not sell stories or coverage. Email makani@leafmagazines.com to learn more about our range of affordable print and digital advertising options to help support Oregon Leaf, the state’s longest-running Cannabis magazine!

Editor’s Note

Thanks for picking up The Culture Issue of the Leaf!

Cannabis culture has come out of the shadows and into the limel ight, like a seed bursting from the earth to reach for the sun.

What used to be the butt of jokes, the stereotype of slacking a nd the fear of many parents (including my own) has become a thriving, creative and inspirational culture. Cannabis touches all walks of life, from all ages, so it’s not a surprise to those in the know that our community is a vibrant and naturally diverse sesh that’s producing major hits across the world.

On that level, there’s no greater hit taker and maker for this generation of rap fans than Wiz Khalifa, whose story and images we are proud to share in this special issue. My favorite song will always be “Young, Wild & Free,” which came out in 2011 when Northwest Leaf was only a year old. Hearing the new school of hip-hop openly talking about weed with Bruno Mars and the OG Snoop Dogg, who always represented Cannabis, was a smoky bat signal to our culture, signaling that weed was about to go mainstream.

Cannabis went from fringe to trending within two decades, large ly because of the influence it has on artists who are open about t heir use of Cannabis. Surely weed has made great art, from Shakespeare, who was buried with his favorite pot pipe, to Wiz, whose weed taste and feats of smoking are legendary. I’ve got my Khalifa x Stündenglass Gravity Infuser in the bedroom, and it is the closest thing to zero gravity, violently high and floating away like Mr. Mackey’s head in season two, episode four of “South Park” you can possibly get.

When I met the Wiz team at the California Leaf Bowl, a few hour s before they won an award for Best Indoor Sweets & Dreams flower with Point Breeze, they shared a brand desire to be known for their unique strains — vigorously pheno hunted by Wiz — and not to be viewed as simply a celebrity brand.

"CANNABIS WENT FROM FRINGE TO TRENDING WITHIN TWO DECADES, LARGELY BECAUSE OF THE INFLUENCE IT HAS ON ARTISTS WHO ARE OPEN ABOUT THEIR USE OF CANNABIS."

Wiz loves weed, and so do his team members, and seeing the cuts grown in California and Washington by Momma Chan Farms, it’s truly spectacular weed that reinforces the impact of Wiz’s vision on the weed market. My personal favorite? The Baby Turtle!

So, plug into your streaming platform, queue up the Wiz Khalifa greatest hits and dive into the Leaf’s Culture Issue with a hit of your favorite Cannabis, and don’t forget to pass this magazine to your stoner friends! On a final , truly personal note: Please pray for peace in America and in this world. We need it more than ever!

WHOSE WEED IS IT ANYWAY?

Cannabis use in the United States is ordinary now. It shows up in medicine cabinets, gym bags, nightstands and kitchen drawers. It’s used by people managing chronic pain, by people replacing alcohol, by people who smoke every day and by people who take a 5-milligram gummy once a month and call it good. That range is new, and reshaping Cannabis culture in ways we’re still catching up to.

ATIONAL SURVEYS reflect the shift:

Gallup reports that roughly one in six U.S. adults uses Cannabis regularly, with daily use climbing steadily over the past decade. Federal public health data shows especially sharp growth among adults over 50, a group that largely sat out earlier waves of legalization. Cannabis no longer belongs to a single age group, lifestyle or identity, and it no longer requires participation in a shared culture to access it.

The consequence — or the benefit, depending on how you look at it — of that is a reinterpretation of all aspects of Cannabis culture and consumption through uninfluenced eyes but with more numerous inputs than ever.

Before legalization, Cannabis knowledge traveled through people. Access was limited, so information moved socially. You learned how much to use, how to use it and with what, where to use it, how long to wait and what felt like too much (to give just a few examples) because someone else had already learned the hard way.

Even people who didn’t care about “weed culture” absorbed its norms simply by being adjacent to it.

Legal markets removed that friction; today, consumers can scroll a menu or walk into a dispensary and choose from hundreds of products without conversation or context. At the same time, the products themselves have changed. Average THC potency has increased dramatically since the 1990s. Concentrates and multidose edibles are widely available. Delayed onset is common. Dosing language is inconsistent.

Public health data suggests people are still learning how to navigate that landscape.

Hospitals in long-established legal states have reported increases in Cannabis-related emergency visits, often tied to edibles and high-dose products. Many of those cases involve consumers who underestimated potency or misunderstood timing, particularly older adults unfamiliar with modern formulations. The pattern shows up alongside rising use, not in opposition to it. Less of a reckless thing, more of a scale issue.

Cannabis is now used for many legitimate reasons, often simultaneously. Patients rely on consistent use to manage symptoms, while some consumers use it daily without issue.

Others find their tolerance changes with age, stress or health. Some people step back for a while and return later. These shifts are common, but we never built a shared language around them.

Instead, conversations about Cannabis use tend to flatten into categories: Heavy use gets labeled as excess, daily use gets labeled as dependence and light use gets labeled as responsible. Those labels miss the reality that Cannabis functions differently across bodies and over time.

For many people, it behaves less like alcohol and more like food or medicine, which is something that requires attention rather than abstinence. Legalization delivered access, but it didn’t come with a shared vocabulary for talking about long-term use. As a result, consumers often navigate those shifts privately. When Cannabis stops working the way it once did, most users recognize that something has changed. What’s missing is a shared language for understanding that change without framing it as a problem. When Cannabis use remains steady and effective, it often attracts suspicion rather than acceptance. Neither reaction leaves much room for nuance, and both reflect a culture still figuring out how to talk about use without panic or pride getting in the way.

Cannabis culture hasn’t disappeared; it’s just spread out now, and it includes people who care deeply about the plant and people who barely think about it at all. That diversity isn’t a problem but the natural result of access expanding beyond a single scene, identity or set of rituals, and it’s a good thing — the whole point of Cannabis activism in the first place. This was always about access first. Everything else was bound to follow in messier, less unified ways. The future of Cannabis won’t be defined by getting everyone back into the same room but by better conversations about how Cannabis fits into real lives and across different bodies, needs and seasons.

Cannabis culture hasn’t disappeared; it’s just spread out now, and it includes people who care deeply about the plant and people who barely think about it at all.

FIRE FOLLOWER BIOVORTEX SEEDS NEW WORLDS

WHEN I THINK of the most cultured Cannabis breeder in 2026, I often return to the work of Jesse “Biovortex” Dodd, who is based in Trinidad, California.

Voted one of the top 50 greatest breeders of 2025 in our poll, Jesse doesn’t just make seeds or chase hype. He sees his breeding work, Biovortex, as a “living conceptual art piece” that includes film, art, music, fashion and terpenes.

Raised in a radical commune in Palo Alto, California, he eschews trends to focus on bespoke projects like his G-Nut line or the award-winning 2022 regenerative farming film “Tending the Garden,” which is available for free online.

In December 2025, at our Terpnami seed show in San Francisco, Biovortex’s art came in packaging reminiscent of the big Crayola markers from childhood

Pop the marker top, and inside is a glass vial of seeds sealed with a cork. He calls them “washable” markers, as in “these strains ‘wash’ to produce amazing hash.” Few breeders offer as many creative layers.

“They were inspired by ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ because I believe with art, you can create your own world,” Jesse said. “And that’s how I do my genetics. That’s how I grow and do art and education in this space.”

NEEDS MORE DOG

A good chunk of Biovortex’s work descends from a 2012 strain, Black Dog, a super-blingy, fast-finishing Blackberry Kush x (California Sour Diesel x Lemon Larry OG).

That's why you'll see “Dog” in so many of his current strains listed chiefly on Alpine Seed Group.

GROWN MEN ON BIKES

Take the current offering, G-Nut BC1, and unpack it.

You get Hazelnut Cream x (Hazelnut Cream x (G-mob 392 x G-mob bc1). Dig in further, and his G-Mob — also known as Grown Men On Bikes and Garlic Mushroom Onion Banana — is a high-yielding, full-flavor hash variety originally made by crossing Banana Valley Dog [Banana OG x (SFV OG x Black Dog BC4)] with GMO.

G-Mob is “an outstanding savory, funky mix of banana, garlic, gas and berries” that envelops “the taste buds like the first bite of a perfectly paired dessert after a rich and flavorful meal,” he wrote on the Alpine Seed Group website.

Add the Hazelnut Cream’s “creamy, nutty funky, savory gas,” per the description on the Alpine Seed Group website, to G-Mob, and you get G-Nut, which has tested at 39% THCa. Fold that back to Hazelnut Cream to get the current G-Nut BC1.

ST. ASHLEY

Another current standout is Mazar Dogz, which descends from seeds grown out of the grave of his beloved pet dog, Ashley, a fully blue corso pit bull mix. Deepak Chaudhary at Indian Landrace Exchange gifted Jesse some elemental indica Mazar-i-Sharif. Then, Jesse pollinated the vintage indica with his namesake Black DOG BC 6.

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

When Ashley died, Jesse planted the pollinated Mazar cross in the soil above where she was laid to rest. As noted on the Alpine Seed Group website, “‘Mazar-i-Sharif’ means ‘grave of the saint,’” a detail Jesse learned from Deepak.

The seeds from St. Ashley became, as described on the Alpine Seed Group website, a “truly exceptional plant with big broad beautiful leaves that easily turn black purple on top and crimson purple on the underside, reminiscent of a redwood sorrel … Her flowers smell like a funky, spicy, sweet and sour sir marks a lot marker and can go quit(e) dark in low temperature. Truly one of the most unique and beautiful plants I have been blessed to connect with.”

“THEY WERE INSPIRED BY ‘HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON’ BECAUSE I BELIEVE WITH ART, YOU CAN CREATE YOUR OWN WORLD. AND THAT’S HOW I DO MY GENETICS. THAT’S HOW I GROW AND DO ART AND EDUCATION IN THIS SPACE.”

DOG) x Motor-G-nut. It’s a heavy hasher that tastes like creamy banana cake and nuts on ice cream, and it references Filipino ice cream.

Jesse, a foodie and world traveler, has so many layered, nourishing stories, including one about Banana Halo Halo, which is (Ice Cream Cake x Banana

His life is infused with meaning and connection. Just don’t expect him to retrace his steps or sell you clones — new seeds only.

“I want everyone to have something new and amazing,” he said.

G-MOB

JESSE "BIOVORTEX" DODD AND DAVID DOWNS

CHERRY MOON

SEEDS PACKAGING

BLACK DOG

BLACK DOG X G33 CHERRY LIME

COME CELEBRATE and taste the best weed in the OREGON market AT OUR

NETWORKING EVENT! FRIDAY, MARCH 13 • 5-9 PM gresham, or

“WE PRIDE OURSELVES ONEDUCATING THE CUSTOMER ON TERPENES AND THINGS LIKE THAT OVER PERCENTAGES.”

OREGROWN OREGROWN

Oregrown is a Bend-based dispensary chain with a farm in Tumalo and five retail outlets (four located throughout Oregon and one in Chico, California). Originally launched postrecreational legalization in 2016, the company has roots stretching back to the medical days in 2013. With a commitment to craft Cannabis, the brand has managed to blossom over time, planting itself in the minds of consumers as a PNW staple.

OPENED IN 2018, the Portland store is situated a convenient mile and a half from the Moda Center, a sports arena. Given the unique location, the dispensary tends to serve a wide variety and volume of visitors, including neighborhood foot traffic, nearby event attendees and connoisseurs seeking out specific products.

The selection and range of inventory at Oregrown is impressive, with the highlight being top-shelf flower and concentrates. Surprisingly, hash rosin is the most popular item at this shop, exceeding the sales of other merchandise categories.

“In the last two years, it’s become one of, if not our main seller, and then flower is a close second,” Rae Clouser, the general manager, explained. “Prerolls also sell really well on concert and event nights.”

Some favored concentrate brands include Lower Left Organics, Bo’s Nose Knows and Brave Hearts, while farms like Evans Creek, Focus North and Eugreen fly off the shelves. Their own in-house line is strongly represented with a colossal collection of flavors at reasonable prices. Some of the single-source offerings include Bahama Berries (Strawberry Jelly x Bahama Mama) rosin and Panama Wreck (Panama Red x Trainwreck) flower.

Only cultivar names, farms and lineages are listed on the flower jars, which prompts more in-depth conversations about what kind of flavor profile or experience consumers are looking for. The staff takes a handson approach, pairing each patron with a budtender who can walk them through differences in selections and share fresh smells from massive, deli-style canisters of nugs.

OREGROWN

111 NE 12TH AVE., PORTLAND, OR OREGROWN.COM

Outside of product availability, other important factors at Oregrown include budtender education and the ability to communicate with clientele.

9 A.M. - 10 P.M. DAILY (503) 477-6898

The fact that Oregrown has been around for so long helps emphasize its continued relevance in the market. From involvement in the snowboarding community to competition wins at Legends of Hashish and the Oregon Growers Cup, the organization provides powerful representation for Cannabis culture locally.

“We pride ourselves on educating the customer on terpenes and things like that over percentages,” Rae stated. “We want to make sure we provide a kind, friendly, safe place where people can ask questions, and we will give them the best information to our knowledge.”

A drive to feature better products coupled with informed, person-centered service has laid a foundation of trust and competence that shoppers have come to expect.

“If you want good quality, good sales and good customer service, we’ll make you feel like family while you’re here and make sure you leave as happy as possible,” Rae promised.

CHRONICALLY USTRATING

Nicolas Turinski

Lyme disease warrior and creator of ‘Da Chronic Tales’ & ‘Nico and the Power of Mind’

“You have to be basically rich to be as disabled as I am.” That sentence strikes heavy because it’s a cost many people never have to calculate. Nicolas Turinski does. In fact, under the current economic and health care system, he didn’t even have the “luxury” of a proper shower for seven years. To this day, he still has to travel to places like public pool facilities for one due to a lack of home equipment and available assistants. His primary caregiver is his 75-year-old father.

DAILY LIFE has stripped Nicolas of basic dignities that many take for granted. But deprivation hasn’t drained him. Instead, it’s sharpened something else entirely.

Despite all of this, Nicolas is rich in a real-life superpower, and he’s determined to share that wealth with others.

Hope. Perseverance. Creativity. These aren’t half-baked buzzwords to Nicolas; they’re real survival tools.

Now almost 45, Nicolas first fell ill at just 18. He pushed through that initial “collapse” with what he describes as sheer “discipline and spirit.” For a while, that was enough. But Lyme disease is rarely linear. At 30, a relapse hit hard, and a seizure from treatment changed his mobility permanently, forcing him to rely on walking aids.

Then came another blow. After moving into a moldy apartment, Nicolas was sent into rapid decline. His health deteriorated so severely that he remained bedridden for two years, enduring convulsions and profound physical regression.

Friends eventually helped him acquire an electric wheelchair, a turning point that significantly improved his mobility and restored a measure of independence.

When we first met Nicolas in 2023, it was through his web series “Da Chronic Tales,” an adult animation project rooted in counterculture, Cannabis and disability representation. The series doesn’t frame disability as tragedy or inspiration porn. It’s colorful, funny, unapologetic and deeply human.

Since then, “Da Chronic Tales” has only grown. The project has received four global nominations and won two awards: Best Animation at the 2024 Poor Life Choices Comedy Film Festival and Audience Choice at the 2024 Festival Internacional de Cine Cannábico. Now, Nicolas has started planning for a movie and comic book release.

pursuing his passion, expanding his network of collaborators and building support around his projects. Today, he works with Avery Bailey and Nouveaux Studios Inc., ensuring that characters continue to evolve even as his physical abilities change.

Cannabis has played a meaningful role in Nicolas’ quest to improve his quality of life, alongside unconventional and emerging approaches like bee venom (sting) therapy. These tools matter. But Nicolas is clear about where the real power lives: in his mentality.

That mindset pulses through all of his work, especially his newest and perhaps most personal project, “Nico and the Power of Mind.”

This children’s comic book is both a medical fundraiser and the seed of something much larger. Nicolas dreams of nurturing a nonprofit organization that supplies disabled and underprivileged children with illustration resources.

This children’s comic book is both a medical fundraiser and the seed of something much larger. Nicolas dreams of nurturing a nonprofit organization that supplies disabled and underprivileged children with illustration resources.

The goal is simple, but not insignificant: give kids the freedom Nicolas has found by letting imagination wander where the body will not.

Success, sadly, hasn’t slowed the disease. In recent years, Nicolas’ body has waged another war, this time targeting his arms and hands.

“I’ve lost the ability to draw, which really hurt my spirit. I lost a lot of physical movement. The last two years have been some of the most difficult in my life,” Nicolas explained.

For an illustrator and animator, that loss draws darkness. Creating wasn’t just a skill. It was a language, a release, a way of moving through the world when his body refused to cooperate.

But Lyme disease has yet to take one thing from Nicolas: determination.

Rather than surrender his creative voice, he is adapting — embracing technology to continue

“Nico and the Power of Mind” reframes limitation as possibility for disabled children, “teaching them they are powerful because of their disability, not despite it, and that the mind is the most powerful thing in the world,” Nicolas shared.

You can get a copy of “Nico and the Power of Mind” at the website below, watch episodes of “Da Chronic Tales” on YouTube and follow along with Nicolas’ journey on his Instagrams.

blue inferno

E ects: Euphoric, Relaxing, Balanced

Flavors: Berry Candy, Creamy Gas, Citrus

Aroma: Sweet, Gassy, Fruity

Lineage: Dante’s Wrath x Blue Nerdz

Page Burner

Charlotte McConaghy

Published by Flatiron Books @flatiron_books | @charlottemcconaghy

feb. 2026

Welcome to the Leaf’s newest column at the intersection of literature and getting lit. Check back every month for book reviews and recommendations that pair perfectly with a stoney state of mind. Because, really, is there any cozier combo than a good sesh and a great story? Let’s get to burning and page turning …

I’M KICKING THINGS OFF with a heavy hitter that came very highly recommended: “Wild Dark Shore” by Charlotte McConaghy. This novel quickly landed on bestseller lists from The New York Times to The Washington Post and has made waves worldwide, being named the 2025 Dymocks Book of the Year in Australia and earning a spot on the Carnegie Medal longlist, among many other accolades.

Set on a remote island near Antarctica, “Wild Dark Shore” follows a solitary researcher and his three children living in isolation at the edge of the world to safeguard our largest seed bank. As a climate disaster looms and a mysterious woman washes ashore, their carefully contained existence begins to unravel.

This eccentric family must now uncover buried truths and make impossible choices that could very well shape the future of global agriculture and humanity itself.

This novel truly has it all: romance, plot twists and thought-provoking themes of family, seed sovereignty and climate change. I was immediately immersed in the richly drawn, oddball crew of characters and a breathtaking landscape that became a character in its own right.

“Wild Dark Shore” pairs beautifully with a quiet night, a thoughtful high and nowhere else to be. Once I was a few chapters in, I genuinely couldn’t put it down. Some Sour OG rosin felt like the perfect companion for this read. Clear-headed and focus-forward, it provided a mental lift that is just expansive enough to let the emotional depth of the story fully wash over you. This is one of those books that is best enjoyed when the rest of the world fades out, and hash always helps get me there. Until next time, readers!

I was immediately immersed in the richly drawn, oddball crew of characters ...

Wild Dark Shore

STORY by KATHERINE WOLF @KATADELLIC for LEAF NATION

is located in Creswell, just south of Eugene. In 2021, Oregon Leaf visited the farm as part of our Harvest Issue. Back then, we were impressed by how Bonsai was growing strains purely for making hash, as well as breeding projects that were hunting exclusively for washers. The term “washer” refers to a strain that does exceptionally well when converted from flower to hash, and it’s one that’s been getting more traction as mainstream breeders and cultivators think more about how

Coming from Oregon breeder Shwale, also known as Farmhouse Studios, Wyatt Vater from Bonsai says they were drawn to Shwale’s work, in particular his discussions on multi-gland trichome heads.

One thing that sets Farmhouse Studio apart is that the brand lists the lineage of their crosses like a fullblown biblical family tree. For BOP, which is Banana Shack x Diamond Glands, it all starts with Purple Punch x Cake Fuel. That created Glazed Donut, which was crossed with Cake Fuel to make Baker’s Dozen and crossed with The Truth to make Sugar Coat. Baker’s Dozen and Sugar Coat together make Sugar Shack, and that crossed with GMO is JOMO. Now stay with us, but crossing JOMO back to Sugar Coat is how we got Diamond Glands, and JOMO x Honey Bananas is the infamous Banana Shack. Now, finally, we arrive at Banana Shack x Diamond Glands, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is a BOP.

Many of us at Leaf Magazines are hash lovers, and it’s been agreed around the company sesh table that while full melt takes more time and effort to smoke, it’s a truly special experience. That’s why when Bonsai asked us if we wanted to check out some of their new rosin or new melt, the choice was easy.

Looking like a jar full of golden-white sand, I kept this in the fridge for a few days, and while it got greasy at the edges, it still had that sandy top layer. The flavor here is light and plays at the top of your mouth. Coming in brighter at slightly higher temps, the fruit flavor felt like the clean, lingering mouthfeel of fresh squeezed, blended juice.

Vater says long term they’d love to combine this breeding project with one they have planned with a

BOP, created from Banana Shack x Diamond Glands … was born to be a prizewinning washer.

BOP90uMELT

REVERIE

At this moment in time, the Americas are remembering themselves, from the high deserts of the Southwest to the rainsoaked jungles of Central America. Indigenous cultures are rising, not as relics of the past, but as living, breathing forces of reclamation. North and South America are one landmass with many names, one body with many tongues, and the movements rippling across it speak a shared truth: No one is illegal on stolen land. The border crossed us. These aren’t catchphrases; they are ancestral memories resurfacing through cultural movement.

BROWN ISBEAUTIFUL

A GLOBAL ECHO OF INDIGENOUS RECLAMATION

WHAT WE ARE WITNESSING isn’t a trend; it’s a correction. For generations, Indigenous and brown identities were hidden, erased or forced into silence as a means of survival. Now they are stepping forward whole and unapologetic, carried by artists, movement organizers and culture-keepers who refuse to shrink their lineage. These movements are born in family kitchens, community centers, underground art spaces and backyard stages led by people who proudly embody their roots and invite others to remember theirs.

One of the clearest voices moving through this cultural awakening is Reverie, a self-made artist whose work has helped shape West Coast Chicano culture while ushering in a bold reclamation for Indigenous Latinos from Los Angeles to the world. Reverie has performed in 28 countries and 37 U.S. states, carrying a message that dissolves borders and speaks straight to the spirit.

Her delivery is raw and commanding, and her lyrics hit like medicine: stories of struggle, rage, pride, survival and love. She speaks openly about her lineage — Mexican, Salvadorian, Native — not as labels, but as lived embodiment.

Raised in a humble, single-mother household in northeast Los Angeles, Reverie didn’t wait for permission, labels or a seat at the table — she built her own. From handcrafting her wardrobe to writing her lyrics, directing her visuals and shaping her sound, she moves with full autonomy. In a world that constantly tries to package culture, Reverie insists on sovereignty. Culture, in her world, isn’t something you borrow; it’s something you live. Her delivery is raw and commanding, and her lyrics hit like medicine: stories of struggle, rage, pride, survival and love. She speaks openly about her lineage — Mexican, Salvadorian, Native — not as labels, but as lived embodiment. Her declaration “brown is beautiful” has become more than a lyric; it’s a mantra echoed by fans who finally see themselves reflected without apology.

When Reverie took the stage in Portland, Oregon, the room snapped to attention. The moment she grabbed the mic, her voice cut through

sharp, fully charged. Reverie didn’t just perform; she commanded. Each bar landed with intention, each movement carried presence. This is what hip-hop was made for: truth amplified through rhythm, culture alive and breathing in real time. Nothing about it was polished or distant. It was intimate, gritty and fully present.

Reverie reps Los Angeles like an altar. Her city isn’t a backdrop; it’s a living family member shaped by migration, resistance and creativity. With that devotion comes courage. She has spoken boldly and taken a public stance against immigration violence. “Fuck Trump, and Fuck ICE,” she chanted into the crowd, a statement fueled by the fear, trauma and family separations inflicted by Trump-era politics on immigrant communities nationwide. In an industry that rewards conformity and palatability, Reverie chooses truth, even when it’s risky.

After her Portland performance, Reverie sat down with me to reflect on culture, wellness and the role plant medicine has had in her life and art.

CANNABIS, CONSCIOUS USE AND CULTURAL RESPONSIBILITY

When asked about Cannabis and its role in her life, Reverie doesn’t glamorize or sugarcoat. She shares that she was introduced to it too young and is clear about the dangers of misuse, especially for youth. As an adult, her relationship has shifted into something intentional and medicinal.

“Now that I’m grown, I appreciate marijuana in a healthier way,” she explained. “It helps me manage anxiety and nausea. It doesn’t make me lazy. It helps me slow down, breathe, focus and assess things clearly.”

She speaks openly about boundaries. “When I start using it to numb pain instead of for celebration or ceremony, that’s how I know I need a break,” she said. Her words echo an ancestral understanding long held in Indigenous cultures: plant medicines are allies, not escapes.

The conversation turns toward the growing Cali sober movement: stepping away from alcohol while maintaining intentional relationships with plant medicine. Reverie shares that she’s five months into that journey.

“Alcohol is really damaging for a lot of people,” she said. “I think it’s powerful that we’re finally talking openly about mental health.”

She celebrates the generational shift toward therapy and wellness. “Now it’s like everyone should be in therapy, and I’m a fan of that.” There’s no shame in her tone, only clarity. “Healing,” she emphasized, ”is not about perfection; it's about honesty.”

DIVERSITY AND INDIGENOUS MEMORY

As the dialogue deepens, the focus turns to ancestry and diversity.

SPARK SOMETHING SPECIAL WITH OUR 27 GRAM PARTY PACK

Reverie reflects on how many people with Indigenous blood are waking up. “It’s a beautiful time right now,” she said. “We’re realizing how powerful our roots are and how much we were taught to forget.”

She speaks boldly about rhetoric that treats diversity as a threat. “This country is diverse. Indigenous people were here first. To say diversity is dangerous goes against the backbone of what being American is.”

Reverie closes the conversation grounded in resolve. “We’re seeing the truth now,” she reflected. “We know where we stand — and we’re more united than ever.”

At her core, Reverie is a beacon for a generational remembering. Her voice moves like a drumbeat — steady, defiant, alive — reminding us OGs that culture survives because people choose to carry it forward courageously and unapologetically.

MORETA

FIONA

@MFJANE

Crash Glow

HEAVILY

INFLUENCED by her background in the arts, founder and CEO Anna Kaplan has been determined to infuse SugarTop’s culture with community and creativity since the brand’s inception over 10 years ago. She opened The Hybrid Gallery, a colorful Eugene spot. It serves as a safe space for canna-consumers, locals and artists alike — and still does to this day. It’s part gathering hall, event center, art gallery and host to small, rotating local businesses. But maintaining a community center that’s not entirely money-motivated is costly. Today, Anna tells us that they are “fighting to keep it,” as they fundraise to become a nonprofit (head to TheHybridEugene.com to donate or learn more). Aside from simply keeping the doors open, the shift would allow them to offer “access through scholarships,” add “sliding-scale events” and continue nurturing a safe, inclusive space when the world needs it most. The main mission of SugarTop Buddery is still plant-powered, however. In this regard, the brand continues to grow — now on its “10th turn of living soil” — in the garden after switching from years of growing in pots. After 10 years of smoking SugarTop, the hard work and progress are palatable. In the case of Crash Glow, that tastes a lot like a doughy, tangerine tart. Like all good things, it brings balance too, revealing a smooth, creamy, savory cheese bite at the back end. The nose necessitates several sniffs, since it morphs more with each pass.

Cultivated by SugarTop Buddery

Undoubtedly fruity at first, it swings to a sweet cereal before presenting a passing glance at something briefly skunky, but rich and buttery. Powering through a few bowls of this feels just as satisfying for the soul and the body, slipping into a muscle-melting flow state where focus is easily found. This cross of Dayglow x (Grape Pie x Wedding Crashers F2) has quickly became a staple in the SugarTop Buddery lineup. So, you can look out for it in flower, as well as the STB signature Bats and preroll packs, in Eugene and throughout the state!

If the Cannabis scene were a bowl of candy, it would sometimes feel full of Sour Skittles. No disrespect meant; this writer can be a real WarHead herself. Constant ups and downs and a competitive landscape can eat at the culture of community and compassion that this field blossomed from. But there’s something especially sweet about SugarTop Buddery.

“Undoubtedly fruity at first, it swings to a sweet cereal before presenting a passing glance at something briefly skunky, but rich and buttery.”

CP3 (Cheese Pie #3)

Papaya Punch

Sundae Driver

MKOB x Jager

Blue Dream

Tropical R*ntz

Blue Cheese x Cherry Pie

Papaya x Purple Punch

Fruity Peb. OG x Grape Pie

Pres. Kush x Micky Kush x LA Conf. x Blue Dream

Blueberry x Haze

Tropic Truffles x R*ntz

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THE HIGH ROAD

STORY by TOM BOWERS

Some people exude energy. A vibe can be dead, and they glide into the room like they’re made of raw, uncut aura. Suddenly, everything’s in motion. If you’ve been in a room with Wiz Khalifa, you already know the score. The man can step into the club and have the dancers throwing money at him. If there are levels to the weed game, Wiz is at the top. After two decades of making and taking hits, he’s accomplished what so many people have tried to do and failed: He’s launched a successful celebrity weed brand, Khalifa Kush, and managed to keep it hot when so many celebrity-driven brands have cashed out or crashed out.

We had the chance to chop it up with Wiz oceanside in Malibu over the holidays to hear about his genesis, his world and his plans for the future.

THE COME-UP

Anyone familiar with the Pittsburgh native’s music catalog knows that Wiz has been repping the plant since day one. It’s been the calling card of his career.

Wiz knew Cannabis was going to be a major part of his life when he was a young buck. In fact, he recalls the exact moment his hobby became his lifestyle.

“It was when I heard ‘Gotta Stay High’ by Three 6 Mafia,” he said, referring to the smokers' rallying cry “Stay Fly” from the 2005 album “Most Known Unknown.”

“I was sitting in my crib. I was in like 11th grade, maybe, and I was wondering if I was smoking too much weed at the time. I heard the beat, and I was like, ‘Damn, I need to find that song.’ And then I went and I found the actual first verse and hook — because this was back in the day, before YouTube and all of that shit — so you really had to dig deep. I ended up finding it, and on the hook, they were saying, ‘I gotta stay high till I die.’ And I was like, ‘Damn, me too.’ Man, that’s when I figured it out.”

When it comes to the strain that made the biggest impact on him during those days, Wiz doesn’t hesitate. “It was Purple Haze back then,” he said.

“Yeah. Yeah. Purple Haze was like the original bomb ass weed. They used to call it Piff. Everybody wanted Purple Haze. Cam’ron made it super popular, but it was like the best weed on the East Coast. Out here on the West, they was always smoking Kush, and they was smoking Grapes. That's what I smoked first when I came out here was Grapes, in Oregon or some shit like that. I had never really smoked Bay Area weed. And then when I went to the Bay, that's when I met Berner, and that's when I started smoking Cherry Pie and real OG Kush. We had Sour Diesel and we had Headband back in the day, but it wasn't until I met Berner that the OG got as real as it is.”

As his relationship with the plant grew, so did his music career. The two were intertwined from the jump, with “Burn Sumthin” as a standout on his 2006 debut, “Show and Prove.” Then, in 2010, his career hit full flower.

First, he dropped the “Kush and Orange Juice” mixtape. Then he hit us with “Rolling Papers,” and his trademark an them “Black and Yellow.” He closed out that seminal year by teaching an entire generation of smokers how to roll a perfect joint, all while sitting in a hot tub, in a video that, as of today, has nearly 14 million views on YouTube.

In his life as an artist, Wiz sees weed as an integral tool for enhancing the creative process.

“I love music, and I work really hard at making music,” he said. “I've been working hard since before I was smoking a bunch of weed. And I think I found weed at an appropri ate time because I was able to develop my skills and my passion, and the weed never got in the way of that. It only enhanced it. … You got to be at a point where you're able to handle the weed because not everybody is as successful and functional while smoking this much pot.”

THE BRAND

Considering how long weed has been a part of his per sonal brand, it only makes sense that Wiz would have his own actual weed brand.

That started to become a reality in 2012, when he linked up with friends from his youth, Will Dzombak and Tim Hunkele, who developed a cultivar specifically for and with Wiz. The strain? Khalifa Kush.

Described as an “indica-dominant hybrid OG,” the KK hits the gas and pine notes, and served as the bedrock for the brand, which launched to the public under the same name in 2016. Now they have a solid lineup of genetics that have all been hunted in collaboration with Wiz, with his palate in mind.

In 2020, they brought in current CEO DJ Saul, and as of this writing they’ve grown to 15 markets around the world: Domestically in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Nevada, Illinois, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Florida, Massachusetts, and internationally in Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Thailand and Israel, with more to be announced soon.

THE COLLABS

The KK team even proved its chops by winning the Leaf Bowl Award for Best Indoor Flower - Sweets & Dreams at the 2025 California Leaf Bowl with their cultivar Point Breeze, a cross of Khalifa Kush and Gastro Pop. (For those keeping score, the Leaf Bowl is judged blind by some of the preeminent expert palates in global Cannabis. You don’t often see that kind of heat from just any celebrity brand.)

“There's no disrespect to any of the other [celebrity] brands because I like some of them,” Wiz said. “But the difference between my brand is that I actually came up doing this before it was a brand of weed. So people understand that I would be doing this regardless, and they know that what it was built off of is everything that they see. … I think that we've just lived it enough to give it a good reputation. And that's something that you can't really just buy or put a face on.”

“It takes years and years in the game and knowing and making other valuable moments with the culture as well,” Wiz said, continuing. “I have the how to roll video in the hot tub that's taught people how to roll weed. And this is before content creating was a part of everybody's marketing strategy, but we've been doing that for Khalifa Kush. So that's why we're going to last longer. Because we've been working longer. We've been pushing the idea and the lifestyle since day one. It all goes hand in hand. People who smoke weed or listen to my music or just know the brand in general, they have a really good foundation to go off of before they even walk in the door.”

THE KHALIFA KUSH TEAM WON BEST INDOOR FLOWER IN THE SWEETS & DREAMS CATEGORY AT THE 2025 CALIFORNIA LEAF BOWL, WITH POINT BREEZE, A CROSS OF KHALIFA KUSH & GASTRO POP.

The hip-hop world is all about features, and Wiz has lent a verse or two to a gang of artists over the years. So it makes sense that his weed career would be all about the collabs.

One of his biggest collaborators is someone he works with in both worlds.

“Berner taught me about legal weed,” Wiz said, referring to the founder of the global San Francisco-based behemoth Cookies. The company’s Maywood store in Southern California served as the first California retailer for the Khalifa Kush brand. “I wouldn't have known anything about the whole weed game if it wasn't for Berner. Me and Bern are always collabing. He's always putting new albums out and shit. So anytime he's doing a new album, he hits me up right before it's done, and he gets me to put a verse on there. And I usually do the same with him,” he explained.

The collaboration doesn’t stop there. After playing funk legend George Clinton in the 2023 film

“Spinning Gold,” Wiz and Khalifa Kush partnered on a weed brand called The Funk, with the Godfather of Funk himself (see this month’s “Cannthropology” for more on P-Funk).

“We did an interview where we sat down and kind of just discussed some shit,” Wiz said. “We kind of just sat there and talked for like two hours, bro. It was a really cool conversation. Then after that, it made sense for us to try to partner up and do some shit with weed. I gave him some of my weed, and he really, really liked it. So based off of that, he was like, ‘Yo, I kind of want to make my own strain just like this or whatever I could do.’”

The Funk dropped in spring 2025.

>>CONTINUES NEXT PAGE

Perhaps Wiz’s biggest collab project is raising his kids. He recently had his second child, and like so many parents who consume the plant, feels like Cannabis actually helps parenthood, rather than hindering it.

“For somebody like me who enjoys smoking pot as much as I do, it definitely helps with parenting and just to be relaxed and in a good zone at any point of the day, especially dealing with a lot too,” Wiz said. “I'll forget to smoke weed sometimes. I'd be going all day or half the day, and I'd be like, ‘Damn, I need to smoke some fucking weed.’ And then everything gets cool as shit after that. But sometimes I'm with my kids so much I forget to.”

When he’s not making music, smoking weed or hanging with his kids, you can probably find Wiz in the gym. An avid trainer, he utilizes the plant to help him focus.

“Cannabis definitely helps with my training 100%,” he said. “It keeps me calm. It keeps me lighthearted. My mind-to-muscle connectivity is really, really sharp when I'm at a good stoned level, and I'm able to train. And it also makes me appreciate the weed a lot more. It's funny because when I was younger, I just thought it was all about just sitting around and getting high. Somebody had invited me to work out, and I was like, ‘Man, I don't want to work out because that's going to take two hours, and that's two hours that I could be smoking weed.’ And I'm glad that I thought like that at that time because now I can appreciate two hours to myself without smoking, and the feeling and the high that I get from exercising and sweating and breathing hard and physically coming in contact with some things.

“You get to enjoy livelying yourself up and enjoy that high,” he continued. “And then you get to bring it back down and enjoy the stoned high as well. So you get the best of both worlds, and I feel really blessed to be able to enjoy both because there are a lot of athletes who just, professionally, they're not allowed to smoke just because of the rules or whatever. But they would enjoy that so much if they got to perform at that level and smoke at a certain level too. If you could hit a bong rip, you got some good lungs, man. It's not hurting your lungs. If you can clear a fucking bong, bro. Yeah, dude. Yeah, that's champion lungs right there.”

“I'LL FORGET TO SMOKE WEED SOMETIMES. I'D BE GOING ALL DAY OR HALF THE DAY, AND I'D BE LIKE, ‘DAMN, I NEED TO SMOKE SOME FUCKING WEED.’ "

Wiz came up during the dawn of the smartphone era, when streaming, social media and YouTube officially replaced MP3s and albums as the prime delivery mechanism for music and culture.

As a result, Wiz is always on. If you follow him on Twitch, you already know. He and Khalifa Kush Vice President of Marketing Stephanie Arakel (known on Instagram as @_stephaniecakes_) throw wild Twitch stream parties and get into all kinds of shenanigans on the platform.

During the Leaf Magazines photo shoot for this article, Wiz kept his Twitch audience plugged in for the majority of the time, asking “Chat” questions in between shots.

“My favorite thing so far is definitely when Nick did the handstand dab,” Wiz said, recalling memorable Twitch moments. “We did a random Steeler Sunday, and we had this dude named Nick. He came through, and we were spinning the wheel. And one of the commands on the wheel was to do a fucking handstand dab. And he did the dab, but he also ran away and was about to throw up everywhere, couldn't find a trash can, ended up in the bathroom for like 20 minutes and yeah, just had to be carried up out of there. That's rough. Yeah. It was cool. I fucked with it.”

Wiz’s Twitch channel recently surpassed 10,000 paid subscribers, and he dropped the album “Khaotic” as a gift to his fans to mark the occasion.

“The next thing that I want to do is a hundred-joint sleepover,” Wiz said. “So we’re going to smoke a hundred joints and then do a 24-hour stream. I think that would be just hella fun for people to be able to stay the night at my house or wherever we decide to do it. And then also I'm going to do something school-related, where it's like a day in class, but it's like a weed school though. So you're learning about weed, you're learning how to roll up, you’re learning all the different techniques. You know what I mean? Of course, we’re going to have lunch, we’re going to have PE and all of that. …Yeah, just incorporate weed in real life and have fun.”

THE PLAN

In May of this year, Wiz kicks off a U.S. and European tour with Machine Gun Kelly, which throws back to his collab with MGK from 2015, “Mind of a Stoner.” When asked whether they’re going to perform the track together, he plays it chill.

“We’ll see, yeah,” he said. Though he won’t confirm or deny an onstage Wiz-MGK team up, he can confirm that he has plenty in store for his fans and followers.

“I plan on releasing a lot of new music before then,” Wiz said. “So it'll be the new stuff that I drop and always, always do the hits. It just depends on the temperature and the energy of where the fan base is. I feel like, especially through streaming, it's going to attract new people and new attention, but I'm always going to have my core, so it's going to be good to see a mixture of the two when I go out there.”

“Overseas, they have a really big appreciation for the plant. They have a really big appreciation for the knowledge, and they just want to grow their shit and expand, and be on what we're on as well. We have a lot of experience to catch them up on. So, as the laws loosen and people become more friendly overseas, that's the next wave, in my opinion — the globalization of Khalifa Kush.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Wiz plan if it didn’t involve collabs.

“I did a collab with YOKKAO, who's a really popular heavy sponsor in Muay Thai and combat sports overseas,” he said.

to train, we going to wrap the babies up in Khalifa Kush blankets and put them to bed at the end of the night.”

While they gear up for that global push, at home in the U.S., the team is working with Wiz on pheno hunts for their jars.

“Genetics are always advancing as time goes on,” he said. “So we try to do something new that's going to stand out, and that’s going to be groundbreaking as well as go along with the culture. There's a lot that goes into it. It's just weed intuition and knowing what's good weed and what's not. … Sometimes, you just know.”

As for the brand, Wiz and the KK team have their sights set on the global stage.

“That’s the big part, and that's the exciting part,” Wiz said, adding that a lot of innovative work is happening here in the advanced U.S. market that can be shared with other countries.

“We have Khalifa Kush in some Thailand stores because it's legal over there. We have workout gear. We got yoga stuff. Anything that goes with the lifestyle. Like I said, this is all stuff that I do as well. So, with the lifestyle and with the people who believe in the lifestyle, we're going to do it all together. We going to smoke together, we going

Of course, when asked whether there’s a favorite strain he keeps in his lineup at all times, his answer is on point. “The one I smoke the most is definitely the original Khalifa Kush,” he said. “Just the black and yellow one.”

@WIZKHALIFA | @KHALIFAKUSH

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Natural Ratios, How Nature Intended

Brave hearts

William Wallace Green III, known colloquially as William Braveheart Green, is a second-generation Cannabis grower based out of Kaiser. Born and raised in California, William’s long history of cultivation and consumption started in 1991. His first time smoking took the form of a sinsemilla strain with bright red hairs in an unassuming metal pipe given to him by his sister’s boyfriend. Just a couple short tokes later, he felt the sweet, stoney effect, instantly falling in love with the sensation and relief it provided.

Green Thumbs

ONE YEAR LATER, at the age of 15, William was consuming on his own and selling smaller quantities of flower to close friends. He took the seeds he’d found in his bags and threw them in a gardening bed on the side of his house, quickly leading to his first experiences growing Cannabis plants.

In his sophomore year of high school, William saw a High Times magazine for the first time and was enthralled by the sheer quality of the plants and grow articles. The experience opened up his perspective to the potential of Cannabis cultivation, and shortly after, he sprouted his first plant under a grow light.

After living in Vermont for a short while, William returned to California, got a job at Kinko’s and moved into an apartment on his own, where he slept on a couch and utilized the rest of his floor plan for growing.

“I was a hardcore grower and lived by the grower’s code. I didn’t believe in taking photos. I wasn’t ever on the internet or the forums,” William explained. “I always looked clean. You don’t act all flashy. You turn the music down when you’re driving down the block. Most of the time, you had a cousin or a really good friend that you trusted to sell for you, but we never sold directly to avoid attention.”

William continued to work at Kinko’s and move up the ladder in sales while simultaneously running home grows in various houses and settings.

WILLIAM IV, LEFT, AND HIS FATHER, WILLIAM III.

“If you were a really smart grower, you knew that was your backup, like you had to have a cover. I always thought that it helped keep me out of trouble,” he said.

Later on, William moved to Salinas, where he met his wife, known here as Mrs. Braveheart. For the first time in his life, he took a break from growing because he was worried about the impact it would have on his relationship, given the secrecy involved. Eventually, he told Mrs. Braveheart the truth about his Cannabis history.

“He always felt like it was a medicine for him,” Mrs. Braveheart explained. “It helped him deal with trauma and family stuff at a young age.”

With a newfound understanding, they got a house, and William started growing again. Eventually, Mr. and Mrs. Braveheart got married and paid for the wedding entirely with the profits from producing herb.

“I love saying that. I always tell my kids to always appreciate this plant because it’s done so much for us,” William noted.

A couple of years later, they had their first son (of three), William Wallace Green IV, who goes by William IV. William III had to choose between what he saw as the future of his family and the financial stability the current position afforded him. With a steadfast dedication and the idea of facilitating a better life for his family, he moved from California to Kaiser in 2004. He took the mission seriously, showing up in the early days to Oregon Medical Marijuana Program clubs dressed in business clothes and carrying a leather briefcase full of jars with the finest flower — often one of the five different kinds of OG Kush he was quickly becoming known for, along with his authenticity and love of Cannabis.

“I’m very strict about it. If a plant has to go 70 days, I’m going to let it go 70 days. If it’s got to go longer, it’ll go longer,” he stated. “It has to be right because whatever I give to the consumer has to be worth its value. In order for me to keep feeding my family, I need to make sure that this is the high grade customers have come to expect.”

William doesn’t just identify as a grower; he also identifies heavily as a hash maker. Looking back as far as 1999, he remembers his friend Kev — the same one who introduced him to the High Times magazine almost a decade earlier — showing him how to use ice water to separate resin from flower. With this concept in mind, William utilized a Rubbermaid bucket in a sink with chiffon wedding dress material held in place with twine and hemp to wash and collect ice water hash well before most of the world knew what it was.

In recent years, William has included his son more in the business, with William IV evidencing the same reverence and attentiveness to growing that has been passed down through generations. From a young age, William IV pushed a toy lawn mower in the yard while his father worked nearby. As he grew, he helped in the garden by carrying water and mixing organic nutrients for the plants. And later, after William III experienced a hernia, William IV helped even more during the hash washing process. Now, he’s learned to clone, and he has his own batch of plants he’s running independently.

“I trust him so much with the plants, it’s such a blessing to have him,” William said, “My heart melts (watching him in the garden).”

“I always tell my kids to always appreciate this plant because it’s done so much for us.”

William Braveheart Green

In 2013, he entered his first competition, the Oregon Medical Cannabis Awards, and won with a cut of Starkiller OG bred by Rare Dankness. In 2014, he entered the same cultivar into the United States Cup held by High Times, and hosted by Leaf Magazine’s Bobby Black, winning against some of the biggest names in the industry and taking home a first-place award.

In 2016, William acquired and subsequently forfeited a recreational cultivation license, representing a colossal setback both financially and in terms of morale. Between 2016 and 2023, however, he taught classes, designed feed charts for nutrient companies and provided consultation services while continuing to manage his home grow, all the while saving up with his family. In 2023, he purchased another license and relaunched his brand on the recreational market with a humble, caringly crafted microgrow of 500 square feet.

“I tell my kids, ‘You see what I’ve been through and how I didn’t give up. I hope it inspires you to never give up,’” William said.

With a framework of cultivation for medicinal purposes, William strives for cleanliness and quality, harvesting only mature, full-term resin grown via organic methods.

Regarding his father’s mentorship, William IV shared, “Everything I’ve learned, I’ve seen him do, and he’s helped me each step through it.”

The business has evolved into a family affair. Mrs. Braveheart helps with tasks like dispensary communication and sales appointments, while William IV has taken on more hands-on garden work, community events and vendor days. One of their other sons, Cole, helps with screen printing and pressing some of the official Brave Hearts brand merchandise.

“We keep a tight circle,” Mrs. Braveheart said, “and send a special thanks to all our family and friends who have stuck with us through this incredible journey of love.”

“It’s because of this bond that our family thrives,” William explained.

“(Working together) has kept us closer as a family,” William IV confirmed.

A history of tenacity, passion and an unparalleled love for the plant defines the Brave Hearts brand. Unafraid to face adversity while pushing forward, William’s resilience is irrefutable, impacting and influencing the very culture of Oregon Cannabis with every step. When you try Brave Hearts flower or hash, you share in years of tradition, experience and a true, family farm heritage.

A STONER OWNER IS A CANNABIS BUSINESS OWNER WHO HAS A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PLANT. We want to buy and smoke Cannabis from companies that care about their products, employees and the plant. You wouldn’t buy food from a restaurant where the cooks don’t eat in the kitchen, so why buy corporate weed grown by a company only concerned with profits? Stoner Owner approval means a company cares, and we love weed grown with care. Let’s retake our culture and reshape a stigma by honoring those who grow, process and sell the best Cannabis possible.

FLIGHTLOUNGE

This is your captain speaking. We are getting ready to take off on a special adventure, and what more appropriate place to get high enough to hit cruising altitude than the one, the only, the illustrious Flight Lounge?

TAKEOFF

Flight Lounge Owners Josh and Leia

FLIGHT LOUNGE is a private, members-only community center for Cannabis consumers. Launched in 2018, the entity has served as a safe space for social consumption and communal gatherings for the better part of a decade. To truly understand what makes Flight Lounge so significant, it’s important to recognize its owners, Leia Flynn and Joshua “Josh” Young, and the story of how the business came to be.

Flynn’s journey with Cannabis started with growing. Her substantial drive for helping others went hand in hand with her passion for the plant, which resulted in her joining Oregon Green Free, the first 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the United States that provided resources to medical marijuana patients. She moved into the role of president of that association while simultaneously working with Portland and Oregon chapters of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Flynn also operated in the capacity of a paralegal and legal assistant to Leland “Lee” Berger for 15 years. During that time, she researched and assisted in writing monumental legislation like the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act and Ballot Measure 91, which eventually led to full legalization in the state.

“Before legalization in 2015, we supported a lot of farms and people who had been raided, including medical patients,” Flynn said.

Young’s story is similarly remarkable.

A Portland local and medical patient since the early 2000s, Young co-founded one of the earliest dispensaries in Oregon, Cannabliss & Co. Driven by a desire to support others after losing his mother to cancer, he took great pride in caring for some of the community’s most vulnerable populations through plant medicine. Young went on to open the iconic dispensary Potlandia, which he operated for three years. Regardless of where he was, Young always strove to create a welcoming atmosphere for medical customers, as well as facilitating Cannabis nonprofits and activism.

“I got into the Cannabis industry because I’m really trying to help people,” Young explained. “That’s how me and Leia ended up meeting.”

In 2014, Flynn opened a private club called Leia’s Place, or “The Tea House,” as it was known to regulars, embodying similar vibes to the Amsterdam “tea” cafes of yore. It was an exclusive setting that was only accessible by referral and served as a forum for the Portland Cannabis community.

Running any enterprise solo is an insurmountable amount of work, so after four years, Flynn realized she needed a partner. In 2018, she teamed up with Young, renamed the business and Flight Lounge was born.

The organization has gone through several different iterations since then: a club, a bedand-breakfast and a cafe. In March 2025, they opened their biggest location to date: a private warehouse that serves as a combination of almost every other format they’ve had all rolled up into one.

The original concept for the name comes from the idea that, in a world without Cannabis

discrimination and prohibition, airports would have their own consumption areas similar to bars or smoking sections. Airports serve as a series of connection points, and similarly, Flight Lounge brings together a diverse array of community members from all walks of life. With over 10,000 active memberships, it’s safe to say that Flynn and Young have helped a lot of people make their connecting flights.

“People who would never even talk in the grocery store are in here sharing laughs and smiling with each other,” Young stated. “Our goal has always been to be universal; we want everybody to feel safe in this space.”

The lounge itself contains a stage, televisions, projectors and a collection of booths and tables that are both comfortable and fashionably aesthetic. Flynn and Young have worked hard to curate a place for everything from celebrating holidays and hosting industry gatherings to kicking back and watching a football game.

Flight Lounge has a vast lineup of programming put on by its members. Craft nights, movie showings, comedy events, bingo, art shows and more fill the schedule almost every day they are open. They host informational functions — like rolling workshops and a Dab 101 class — to educate and empower members. Some upcoming happenings include a speed dating event for Valentine’s Day, open mics featuring members sharing their musical talents and a health- and wellness-focused sound bath with guided meditation.

“It’s basically all member-led events,” Flynn said.

The amenities at Flight Lounge are ample. Rolling trays, water pipes and ashtrays are stocked in abundance, and there’s even a dab bar sponsored by local company D-Nail with everything needed to dab concentrates, from glass rigs to banger heating technology. The interior is decorated with art and handmade crafts made by members, all available for purchase.

A virtual kaleidoscope of colors and delectable tastes, each bite had a perfect texture balance between the fluffy French toast and the crunchy cereal bits.

The biscuits and gravy dish was similarly impressive, composed of two flaky baked biscuits with a savory, country-style sausage gravy. Smothered, covered and expertly seasoned, the dish nails southern comfort food and the morning munchies.

In many ways, the cultural importance of Flight Lounge is hard to quantify. Breaking bread, smoking together and sharing in socialization is a form of medicine and community building for many visitors. It’s an ideal place to sesh on some flower or a jar of hash rosin with friends, but even more than that, it’s a venue to celebrate Cannabis liberty and find fellowship.

“People who would never even talk in the grocery store are in here sharing laughs and smiling with each other.”

Operating right outside of the club’s doors is perhaps the most popular amenity, the private food cart, where members can order munchies. A huge perk to membership, the mobile cafe is best known for serving an array of exciting brunch items, but the menu also rotates at nighttime, furnishing specials like bento boxes and burgers.

During the Leaf’s visit, we had the opportunity to sample several menu items: the Flight French Toast, a biscuits and gravy platter and a strawberry-flavored “Stoner Lemonade,” which is a glamorous CBD mocktail with hazy smoke billowing out of the cup. Each order of the French toast is customizable, featuring a variety of fruit and cereal toppings. We went with fresh strawberries, Fruity Pebbles and a hearty helping of silky whipped cream.

It’s also important to mention that Flynn and Young are heavily involved in mutual aid and supporting club members in need. This past Thanksgiving, Flight Lounge hosted a food donation drive that ended up feeding 29 families. In December, they facilitated a member-sponsored fundraiser that brought in over 100 toys and $1,000 for struggling families with children. At present, the Flight crew is working to facilitate the next community benefit, like gathering coats for the unhoused.

“It’s just members supporting members. You join a club, it’s all about connecting with and helping one another,” Flynn explained.

As industry OGs with a deep history in Oregon Cannabis, Flynn and Young have created an extraordinary space for the community.

Between the member-sponsored events, the amazing amenities and the sheer exercise of freedom that comes with uncensored social consumption, true normalization and destigmatization feel closer now than ever before.

4946 NE 109TH AVE., PORTLAND FLIGHTMEMBERSONLY.COM @FLIGHTLOUNGEPDX

PETER MULLER

Peter Muller has been consistently innovative in the contemporary glass art scene for over 25 years. Around 2010, his main medium transferred from soft glass to borosilicate. Beginning in the hot shop with furnace work in 1999 around western Massachusetts and southern Vermont, some of his earliest inspirations were Ed Branson, Dale Chihuly, Dante Marioni and Lino Tagliapietra. These greats and their accomplishments continued to push Muller forward for over a decade to hone his skills in the hot shop, learning to create a variety of aesthetics while developing his own.

FUNCTIONAL PIECES had been on his mind since the beginning; it was during the financial crisis in ‘08 that he started to see the traditional art market transforming. Muller's shopmate, Joe Peters, couldn’t help but notice that he was working on a “major” torch and said, “Hey, give this Herbie a try.” It was then that Muller learned how to apply the heat base the Herbie provided, which solved a lot of the problematic issues that tend to come with moving molten glass from the soft glass medium to flameworking borosilicate. One of the leading galleries at the time was Chesterfield Glass Art — owner Simon Abrahams approached Muller and said, “If you can put a downstem in that piece, I can sell it.” Coyle then taught him how to do a ring seal, and the flood gates opened: In 2010, he decided to solely focus on flameworking borosilicate glass.

Known for his stitched and patchwork characters, Muller said a lot of his inspirations came from the creations dreamed up by Tim Burton, Dr. Seuss and Edward Gorey.

Known for his stitched and patchwork characters, Muller said a lot of his inspirations came from the creations dreamed up by Tim Burton, Dr. Seuss and Edward Gorey. Muller

said, “I wanted to create a creepy-cute thing, something that stands alone, something that speaks without words.” And out of this line of creation, the voodoo doll aesthetic was born. Muller hopes that through his designs, “adults and children alike can effortlessly engage with the arts and be inspired by the limitless possibilities of the imagination.” Collaborations are a constant norm in his archive, and his way of fusing (pun intended) another artist’s unique aesthetics with his own is seamless.

On the technical side, Muller’s daily workhorse is a 40-millimeter torch created by the famed German company Herbert Arnold Gruppe. Muller said that his “Herbie” gives optimal core heat that allows him to apply his specific skills in melding together glass. Also integral to Muller’s process is Luken Sheafe, better known to industry folks as Salt. To this day, Muller said, “Salt is who I call when I can’t figure something out, whether it’s glass- or liferelated. He’s an amazing human who has great ideas and solutions to share.”

Today you’ll find Muller working out of his secluded home-based studio in Guilford, Vermont, in the southern Green Mountains. Also a dedicated father, Muller sounded so proud when he told us he was going to enjoy the weekend with his daughter, a musician who was on her way home to perform locally at The Stone Church in Battleboro. You can check out her work at @emily.margaret.music.

Muller’s 2026 calendar is full of amazing openings and releases — he has shows planned in Arkansas, Texas, California, Chicago, Maine and the U.K. Additionally, there are always collabs, smaller group shows and events that he participates in throughout the year.

UPCOMING APPEARANCES

MARCH 28 | SAN MARCOS, TEXAS CONNOISSEUR SMOKE SHOP

MID-APRIL | NEWPORT BEACH. CALIFORNIA TEMPLE TAKEOVER AT PIECE OF MIND OC

APRIL 24-26 | WILLIAMSBURG, MASSACHUSETTS WORKSHOP AT SNOW FARM

MAY 30 | ALGONQUIN, ILLINOIS WOODY'S GLASS GALLERY

MULLERGLASS.ORG | @MULLERGLASS @MULLERINFO

Tune in to his Instagram pages to get a heads-up about where his art is being released.

TRINA URRATA-WEINTRAUB COLLAB (2025)

JSMART COLLAB (2025)

Stoned Sweets

I picked up 7 grams of Pruf Cultivar’s Banana Fudge Pop from the Electric Lettuce in Oregon City, Oregon, my old stomping grounds. I was testing infused recipes for Valentine’s Day. I don’t really care about Valentine’s Day, but I do love chocolate, sweets and my husband. Banana Fudge Pop feels like a mild sativa to me. Usually, I’m not a sativa lover, but this strain is very smooth and doesn’t make me the least bit anxious. The infused butter tasted good, which is not always the case. I decarboxylate the 7 grams and infuse it into either 2 cups of coconut oil or butter, depending on the recipes I am developing. If you want more information, please email me at Laurie@Laurieandmaryjane.com

TANTALIZING CRISPED RICE TREATS

Servings: 12

3 to 4 tablespoons canna-butter

1 package (10-ounces) marshmallows

6 cups crisped rice cereal

1. In a large nonstick pan, heat the butter until melted. Do not let the butter burn. Butter or spray a 9-by-13-inch pan.

2. Add the marshmallows, and heat slowly until the marshmallows are fully melted.

3. Add the cereal, and stir until well mixed. Press into the prepared pan. Allow to set for at least a couple of hours before cutting into twelve 2-inch squares.

STRAWBERRY FOOLISH FUN

Servings: 4

1 cup cold plain or vanilla Greek yogurt

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

4 teaspoons canna-oil or butter, melted and cooled

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries or raspberries Berries for garnish

1. Beat the yogurt with the sugar, canna infusion and vanilla until thick, about 3 to 4 minutes.

2. Puree the berries in a blender or food processor

3. Gently fold the berries into the yogurt mixture. Divide between 4 ramekins, and chill for at least an hour before serving. If desired, garnish with berries.

CHOCOLATE FUDGE HEARTS

Servings: 12

2 cups chocolate chips

1/2 cup condensed milk (I didn’t try it, but I bet the dulce de leche condensed milk would be great)

3 tablespoons canna-butter

2 teaspoons vanilla, or 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Peanut butter, toasted nuts, crushed malted milk balls, sprinkles (optional)

1. In the top of a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips with the condensed milk, canna-butter and the extract. Stir frequently.

2. Add peanut butter or any other optional ingredient if desired, and stir into the melted chocolate.

3. Pour the melted chocolate into silicone molds or a 10-inch baking pan lined with parchment. Divide into 9 to 12 pieces.

Ain’t No Way But Higher

The psychedelic circus of sound known as Parliament-Funkadelic created a unique fusion of Motown, Detroit rock and Afrofuturism that would come to define the funk genre. P-Funk’s weed and LSD-fueled jams kept a generation’s booties grooving, laid the foundation for hip-hop and established its founder/frontman George Clinton as the undisputed King of Funk.

JERSEY BOYS

Believe it or not, Parliament-Funkadelic began as a doo-wop quintet in a barbershop in Plainfield, New Jersey, called the Silk Palace. There, young George Clinton worked as a hair processor — frying the hair of local “pimps, preachers, politicians, and players” with hot lye and potatoes.

Clinton grew up in Newark in the early 1950s and fell in love with Motown. In 1955, at just 14, he started a singing group, The Parliaments. They rehearsed in the shop’s backroom, making the Palace a neighborhood hub for music. Later, the group added a five-piece backup band and recorded a few singles, which Clinton claims he paid for using a bag of counterfeit $20 bills he acquired through the Outlaws street gang.

DETROIT ROCK CITY

In 1963, The Parliaments drove to Detroit and auditioned for Motown, but Berry Gordy declined to sign them — allegedly saying they were too ugly. Clinton was hired as a songwriter though, and began commuting to Motor City weekly before fully relocating the band there a few years later.

Eventually, The Parliaments signed with the shortlived Revilot Records, and finally scored a Top 20 hit with “(I Wanna) Testify” in August 1967. Unfortunately, though, by then doo-wop was falling out of fashion: it was the Summer of Love, and rock and roll was all the rage.

“We got there, and The Beatles had ‘Sgt. Pepper.’ That changed the world,” Clinton told the Red Bull Music Academy in 2015. “We immediately had to get rid of our suits. We were going to do what they was calling hippies.”

Not all ’60s rock was about peace and love, though; After signing with Ann Arbor’s Diversified Management, The Parliaments began gigging with the agency’s other acts — radical rockers like the Amboy Dukes, The Stooges, and the MC5.

“We were called the Bad Boys of Ann Arbor,” Clinton told Red Bull, recounting an incident when they were nearly arrested on a plane because the MC5 smoked weed during the flight. Among those “bad boys” was the MC5’s manager, Cannabis activist/White Panther John Sinclair, who was notoriously sentenced to 10 years for two joints in 1969.

“We had to picket and lobby for almost a year and a half to get him out of jail,” said Clinton. “We used to have smoke-ins on the weekend in the park in Ann Arbor. The whole school would just come up to the park and light up.”

FREE YOUR MIND …

While touring the “Chitlin Circuit” and colleges, the boys always sniffed out the good smoke.

“Sugar Shack was a club in Boston that we played a lot…in the early days around ’69,” Clinton told French Toast last year. “During that time, there was some really good weed out. I think it was called Acapulco Gold. I don’t think I ever got that high again until the ’90s with Chronic.”

And it wasn’t just marijuana: one night at the Shack, students from Timothy Leary’s Harvard psychology lab invited them to try LSD. Clinton told “Tales from the Tour Bus”: “We all took it…Let them watch you for four hours, got the $64 or whatever it was…it was the best job I ever had! One hit, that was it — it don’t seem like we ever came down!”

WHAT’S A FUNKADELIC?

After a contract dispute with Revilot (who owned the name “The Parliaments”), Clinton refused to record any new material for them. Instead, he brought the backing band to the fore and rebranded the group as The Funkadelics — a portmanteau of “funk” and “psychedelic” coined by bassist “Billy Bass” Nelson. Later shortened to simply “Funkadelic,” this new configuration invented a unique fusion of Motown, Detroit rock and psychedelia that would come to define the funk genre.

The Parliaments (1960)

Clinton signed Funkadelic to Westbound Records and recorded their self-titled debut in 1970. That same year, Revilot went under, and The Parliaments’ name reverted to Clinton. Dropping the “s,” he signed Parliament to Invictus Records and released another album, “Osmium.” Thus began their decades-long practice of releasing albums under different labels and names — with Parliament supplying the more polished, danceable grooves and Funkadelic delivering the heavier, more experimental jams.

GIVE UP THE FUNK

In the early 70s, the band added several new stars to their ranks — including keyboardist Bernie Worrell, as well as bassist William Earl “Bootsy” Collins and the Pacemakers (James Brown’s backing band) — and churned out one mind-blowing album after another, such as “Free Your Mind … and Your Ass Will Follow” (recorded in one day while tripping balls) and “Maggot Brain” in 1971, and “Up for the Down Stroke” in 1974.

By this time, the band (now touring as Parliament-Funkadelic, or P-Funk) had developed an outlandish stage show with extravagant outfits and wild antics — which, in turn, often invited wild behavior from the audiences. On “TTFTB,” Clinton recalled one performance in Oklahoma where a stripper in overalls came on stage smoking a joint, then proceeded to drop trou, bend over and blow smoke rings from her booty hole.

By 1975, P-Funk had recruited more of Brown’s former band members, including saxophonist Maceo Parker and trombonist Fred Wesley. It was this epically expanded incarnation that would produce their magnum opus, “Mothership Connection.”

THE MOTHERSHIP

“Mothership Connection” was a concept album set in, as BBC Music put it, “a future universe where black astronauts interact with alien worlds.” The inspiration for this spacethemed epic came primarily from Clinton, who it turns out was a die-hard Trekkie and sci-fi stan.

“I was a big fan of Star Trek, so we did a thing with a pimp sitting in a spaceship shaped like a Cadillac, and we did all these James Brown-type grooves, but with street talk and ghetto slang,” he once explained to Cleveland’s Scene magazine.

Featuring some of their most infectious hits — such as “P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)” and “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker) — 1975’s “Mothership” went Gold in just four months (as did their next album, 1976’s “Clones of Dr. Funkenstein.”)

“I realized I should have been smoking weed all along, because that’s the high I was looking for.”

For their P-Funk Earth Tour (1976-1977), they developed a Blaxploitation-meets-Broadway style funk opera with colorful characters (like Clinton’s Dr. Funkenstein), shiny costumes and their most ambitious prop yet: a full-blown flying saucer. Clinton convinced Casablanca to spend half a million dollars on the show (the highest-ever budget for black artists), $275,000 of which went toward constructing the 1,200-pound Mothership.

Each night, “enviromedian” James Jackson would introduce the band while lighting a six-foot joint in a huge skull’s mouth, after which the band would appear in a cloud of smoke. At the show’s climax, the Mothership would descend from the rafters onto the stage spewing light, sparks and fire. When the hatch opened, Dr. Funkenstein would emerge dressed like an intergalactic pimp. It’s primarily because of this funk-filled sci-fi spectacular that P-Funk are considered pioneers of what later became known as Afrofuturism.

ROCK BOTTOM

Over the next decade, P-Funk recorded at least a dozen more albums, featuring classic hits like “Flashlight,” “Bop Gun (Endangered Species)” and “One Nation Under a Groove.” But as with so many other great artists, their drug use eventually caught up to them.

“For some reason, at a certain point, LSD just stopped working for everybody. It was no longer that beautiful trip that made you think and feel good — that was gone,” Clinton told TTFTB” “So I started doing crack.”

By 1982, the band had fallen so deeply into debt that they sold the iconic Mothership for scrap metal. That debt, along with numerous copyright and royalty squabbles, led Clinton to officially disband both Parliament and Funkadelic. Though he continued to record with P-Funk members, few of those projects were as successful. The Godfather of Funk, it seemed, had lost his mojo; little did he realize that P-Funk’s grooves were about to become bigger than ever in a surprising new way.

BACK IN OUR MINDS

With the emergence of hip-hop as a cultural force in the late 1980s, many funk jams were resurrected as backbeats of rap songs. Or, as Clinton puts it, “Funk is the DNA for hip-hop.”

Over the years, countless P-Funk grooves have been sampled by hip-hop’s biggest stars, including Run-DMC, Public Enemy, N.W.A., Ice Cube, Tupac and De La Soul. Hell, Clinton’s 1982 hit “Atomic Dog” alone has been sampled over 300 times — most famously in Snoop Dogg’s debut solo single “Who Am I? (What’s My Name?).”

Speaking of Snoop, let’s not forget Snoop and Dre’s 1992 classic “The Chronic,” which incorporated so much of P-Funk’s music that it established its own new style of gangster rap called “G-Funk.” In fact, the high-pitched synth sound that became the hallmark of West Coast rap originated with P-Funk, making Clinton one of the undisputed grandfathers of hip-hop.

LET’S MAKE IT LAST

Over the decades, P-Funk have received many honors, most notably induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Clinton has been awarded several honorary degrees (making Dr. Funkenstein an actual doctor) and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2011, “Mothership Connection” was added to the Library of Congress, and a recreation of the Mothership now resides at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Meanwhile, Clinton continues to tour and record with his P-Funk All Stars, including 2018’s “Medicaid Fraud Dogg” — a musical critique of pharmaceuticals, which Clinton has sworn off in favor of medical marijuana.

“They sell you all kinds of drugs you can’t pronounce, then give you another one to get off the first one,” he told Forbes last spring. “Cannabis could’ve handled a lot of it, if they’d just let it.”

More importantly, though, in 2011, Clinton finally kicked his 30-year crack addiction — also with the help of Cannabis.

“When I finally stopped smoking crack and started smoking weed, I [thought], ‘I done wasted my time and my money,”’ Clinton told High Times in 2018. “I realized I should’ve been smoking weed all along, because that’s the high I was looking for.”

Now 84, he’s recently partnered with rapper Wiz Khalifa (who portrayed him in the 2023 film “Spinning Gold”) to launch his own weed brand called — what else — The Funk.

“Just like the music lifts your spirit, The Funk elevates your consciousness to a whole new dimension,” Clinton testifies. “The Funk carries the same cosmic energy that’s been powering our music since we first told everybody to “Free your mind ….”

Walk of Fame (Jan. 2024)

ZUMA

Bobby

P-Funk’s Mothership exhibit at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

DAVID COLEMAN/ALAMY