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EDITOR’S NOTE NATIONAL NEWS TOP CROP ONTARIO REAL EVE FARMS TOUR CONCEPTION NURSERIES PATIENT OF THE MONTH STONER OWNER HIGHLY LIKELY HEMP INDUSTRY STRAIN OF THE MONTH TRAVEL DO’S & DON’TS TOP TRAVEL DESTINATIONS CANNABIS IN CATALONIA MADRONES OF MENDOCINO THE POTLANDIA EXPERIENCE OREGON BUD AND BREAKFASTS COOKING WITH CANNABIS EDIBLE OF THE MONTH CONCENTRATE OF THE MONTH TOPICAL OF THE MONTH OFF THE SHELF REVIEWS HIGH EATS CANNTHROPOLOGY STONEY BALONEY

TOURING PORTLAND IN HIGH STYLE

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DIANA THOMPSON

THE TRAVEL ISSUE

07 08 12 16 22 26 28 30 32 36 40 42 44 46 48 50 54 56 58 60 62 64 68 70

the emerald triangle, northern california

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MAY 2022

issue

FEATURE

62

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 LE A F / O R EG O N L EA F / AL AS KA L E A F / M A RY L AN D L E A F / CAL I F O R N I A L EA F / N O RT H E AS T LE A F

A B O U T T H E C OV E R Prolific illustrator Joshua Boulet has contributed to more than a dozen covers for Leaf Nation over the last 10 years, and is known as much for his distinctive pen and inkwork as he is the use of parody throughout his striking pieces.

For this month’s special Travel Issue, we tasked Boulet with capturing an imaginative and playful scene envisioning what it might be like for a plane full of eager and happy stoners and patients alike to mingle together.

Fasten your seat belts and prepare for departure, because this bird is cruising across the high skies of Cannabis, USA.

ART by JOSHUA BOULET @JOSHUABOULET

WES ABNEY C E O & F O U N D E R wes@leafmagazines.com MIKE RICKER O P E R AT I N G PA R T N E R ricker@leafmagazines.com TOM BOWERS C H I E F O P E R AT I N G O F F I C E R tom@leafmagazines.com DANIEL BERMAN C R E AT I V E D I R E C T O R daniel@leafmagazines.com MAKANI NELSON STAT E S A L E S D I R E C T O R makani@leafmagazines.com (808) 754-4182 O’HARA SHIPE O N L I N E E D I T O R ohara@leafmagazines.com MEGHAN RIDLEY C O PY E D I T O R meghan@leafmagazines.com

CONTRIBUTORS BOBBY BLACK, DESIGN + FEATURES JOSHUA BOULET, ILLUSTRATION TOM BOWERS, FEATURES TYLER CAMERON, PHOTOS MARY CARREON, FEATURES HOLLY CRAWFORD, FEATURES AMANDA DAY, FEATURES + PHOTOS EARLY, PRODUCTION STEVE ELLIOTT, NATIONAL NEWS KYLE GREEN, PHOTOS RYAN HERRON, FEATURES DAVE MCDOWELL, REVIEWS JEFF PORTERFIELD DESIGN JESSE RAMIREZ, DESIGN MIKE RICKER, FEATURES MEGHAN RIDLEY, EDITING ZACK RUSKIN, FEATURES RYAN SANATEL, PHOTOS TONY SIMONELLI, PHOTOS SCOTT SOUTHERN, PHOTOS DIANA THOMPSON, FEATURES + PHOTOS JAMIE VICTOR, DESIGN JERRY WHITING, FEATURES FLETCHER WOLD, PHOTOS

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ABNEY

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

IMAGINE stepping onto a plane as a flight attendant asks for your preference of dabs, to which you reply – “solventless” – as the captain’s voice comes over the speakers: “As we prepare to hit 420,000 feet mentally, please remember that only Cannabis smoking is allowed on this plane. And the crew takes the first hit when we land!”

While this might seem like fantasy (and certainly the idea of me flying a plane while baked is just that), the spirit of the fictional Leaf airline is nothing like the terrible Spirit Airlines. If I have one piece of travel advice that’s not in our Do’s and Don’ts column, it’s don’t fly Spirit!

But someday we should have the opportunity to dab on a plane and I don’t think it’s wishful thinking. Especially considering that we can drink and take pharmaceuticals on a plane, Cannabis seems the far safer way to travel.

Alas, our new high-end transport is in concept form only, but that shouldn’t keep you from exploring a new destination this summer!

OUR NEW HIGH-END TRANSPORT IS IN CONCEPT FORM ONLY, BUT THAT SHOULDN’T KEEP YOU FROM EXPLORING A NEW DESTINATION THIS SUMMER!

After two-plus years of virtual reality travel and grifters trying to sell us vacation homes in the metaverse, the time is now to book a flight or rent an RV and go explore a new part of the country or world.

Travel opens eyes and changes paradigms – and it’s fun! It’s easy to watch mainstream cable news and think that the world is full of different people, but in reality we’re more the same than different, especially when we come together over a joint or bowl.

So fire up your favorite energetic strain and start looking for somewhere fun to go, in your backyard or around the world!

Life is too short to sit behind a screen and miss a summer of fun, so get out and make a memory this year – just don’t get too baked to forget it!

DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS: DUE TO A PRODUCTION MISTAKE, THE COVER CREDIT FOR OUR APRIL 2022 GLASS ISSUE COVER WENT TO THE WRONG PHOTOGRAPHER. THE STUNNING SHOT OF THE OWL COLLABORATION FROM DARBY HOLM AND CALM GLASS WAS CAPTURED BY SCOTT SOUTHERN @BORO.VISION. WE REGRET THE ERROR.

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-Wes Abney MAY 2022

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Please email us to discuss advertising in the next issue of Oregon Leaf.

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, product or event within our magazine and on our website, leafmagazines.com. Email makani@leafmagazines.com to learn more about our range of affordable print and digital advertising options and to support Oregon Leaf, the state’s longest-running Cannabis magazine!

WES

national news

east coast

politics

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ew Jersey will allow police to buy and use marijuana once it’s officially and legally for sale. Acting NJ Attorney General Matthew Platkin issued a memo, telling police chiefs they “may not take any adverse action against any officers because they do or do not use Cannabis off duty.” That was codified in the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Act. Cops are treated just like any other customers under the legalization laws passed last year. Officers still may not possess or use Cannabis while on the clock, or performing any work while under the influence.

he U.S. House of Representatives passed a bipartisan marijuana scientific research bill on April 4, removing barriers to research on Cannabis, allowing scientists to access herb from dispensaries of legal states. The Medical Marijuana Research Act passed the House on an overwhelming 343-75 vote. All of the ”No” votes came from Republicans, reports The Hill. Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon introduced the bill in October 2021. It is co-sponsored by 11 Representatives, both Democrats and Republicans.

Both the House and Senate passed earlier versions of the bill in 2020. The Senate also approved a separate marijuana research bill last month.

global

the feds

SPANISH POLICE DESTROY EUROPE’S LARGEST CANNABIS FARM

DOJ GIVES BACK A MILLION BUCKS IN SEIZED CASH

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he U.S. Department of Justice on April 13 agreed to return all cash seized from an armored car company used by legal Cannabis dispensaries during several traffic stops in California last year. The company, Empyreal, had filed a federal lawsuit in response. The seizures occurred during a May traffic stop. In that incident, Kansas officers stopped an Empyreal Logistics car. Conversations between state and federal law enforcement agencies stemming from the stop resulted in a series of events in which Kansas and California officers stole – we mean “seized” – more than $1.2 million. The company soon filed its federal lawsuit detailing how a deputy in Dickinson County stopped one of their vehicles transporting cash from licensed Cannabis dispensaries to banks and credit unions and “seized” more than $165,000 on Interstate 70. Empyreal said the cops issued no traffic citations to their drivers during any of the five stops mentioned in its complaint, but the company said it was forced to stop transporting cash through Kansas because of the seizures.

S 8

HOUSE CLEARS WAY FOR CANNABIS RESEARCH

NJ WILL ALLOW OFF-DUTY COPS TO USE MARIJUANA

panish police destroyed 415,000 hemp plants worth up to 100 million euros ($108 million), dismantling Europe’s largest Cannabis farm. According to the Spanish Guardia Civil, the farm covered 1,025 acres. About 50,000 kg of Cannabis plants were drying in a warehouse for processing into cannabidiol (CBD).

Located in the rural northern region of Navarre, Spain, the farm spreads across 11 fields. The hemp fields alone had a combined area of 166 acres. CBD sales and consumption are legal across Spain and most of Europe, but Spanish law still prohibits the cultivation of Cannabis plants for anything other than industrial uses like textiles and seeds, according to the Spanish Agriculture Ministry. Growing hemp for conversion into CBD or other derivatives, oddly enough, remains a crime. the south

healthcare

KENTUCKY GOVERNOR LOOKS AT EXECUTIVE ACTION ON MMJ

1 OUT OF 5 MEDICARE RECIPIENTS USE MEDICAL MARIJUANA

LEAFMAGAZINES.COM

K

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entucky Governor Andy Beshear is a longtime supporter of medical Cannabis. And now the Democrat is going the extra mile: he’s dedicated to providing ailing Kentuckians access to medicinal weed and his comments April 8 showed his frustration, as the latest IF A BILL LEGALIZING medical marijuana bill is currently MMJ FAILS TO PASS, stalled in the Kentucky Senate. When BESHEAR SAYS HE’S READY TO CONSIDER asked if he could potentially issue TAKING ACTION HIMSELF. an Executive Order making medical marijuana accessible if the bill dies, the governor told reporters, “It’s something we will look at. Its time has certainly come.”

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states and D.C. have legalized the adult use of Cannabis.

may 2022

44%

of college students reported using marijuana in 2020 – a record number.

ne in five Medicare recipients use medical marijuana and two-thirds say it should be covered by Medicare.

Thirty-seven states and D.C. have legalized medicinal Cannabis, but Medicare, the federal health insurance program for older Americans, does not cover it. Possession of weed remains illegal under federal law. Pollsters conducted the survey of 1,250 Medicare recipients in April 2022 and found: one in five use medical marijuana; 23% have used it in the past; and 21% said they currently use weed to treat one or more medical conditions. Two-thirds of patients – 66% – “strongly agree” or “agree” medicinal Cannabis should be covered.

52

marijuana cultivation licenses – the first in the state – have been awarded to hemp farmers in New York.

61%

of Wisconsinites favor adult-use legalization of Cannabis.

$93k

worth of marijuana was found on a group of Guatemalans – including a 4-year-old boy – entering the U.S.

4/21 saw the first legalized adult-use marijuana sales in New Jersey.

STORIES by STEVE ELLIOTT, AUTHOR OF THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF MARIJUANA

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SHOP REVIEW

TOP CROP

Ontario We sat down with Matt Chadwick from the Top Crop group to talk about the humble beginnings behind one of Oregon's most popular dispensaries.

Tell us how Top Crop Ontario got started.

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We started the Eugene shop with myself and a group of my best friends I grew up with since I was about hip-high. We had a long-term friend, Kevin Miller, owner of Frost Factory – he’s been growing weed for a long time and had been planning on opening a dispensary. His hands were a little bit tied trying to balance the grow and a new dispensary, so he proposed the idea of us coming to Oregon from Idaho and helping open up a shop. So, that’s exactly what we did. We all moved down here and started at the Eugene location back in October of 2018. Shortly after that store was up and running, I was looking at other markets to expand into. That’s when we heard that Ontario was looking to lift the ban.

LEAFMAGAZINES.COM

Once the team decided to take a look at Ontario, how difficult was it to find the space you’re in? Very difficult. I drove out

to Ontario and spent four or five days looking at properties. It’s a small town with limited zoning. I just kept pressing. On the last day, I was ready to leave and go back to Eugene empty-handed. I went into the city planning department and bugged the clerks about what might be available – after over an hour of digging they finally passed me Mike Hannigan’s number. It was literally one of the last locations left that worked within the proper zoning for Ontario. I shot him a phone call immediately. The next day we started our relationship with Mike, now he’s an equal partner.

He’s been with us now for over two years.

At this point, ‘Uncle Mike’ is just part of the family.

How does Top Crop stand out from Ontario’s other shops? We’re a flower-focused shop

and a lot of the top-shelf that we stock is exclusive to us, built on the relationships

may 2022

we had through the original store. On top of that, we’ve taken the standard pricing from the west side of the state and brought it out here to the Idaho border. We are just giving the customers what they deserve – top quality products at a reasonable price. From the beginning that has created customer loyalty and turned a lot of those customers into regulars. Now we typically see over 1,000 customers on a busy day.

How do you handle that level of volume and still connect with individual clients? We

learned this from the Eugene shop. We want to create an interpersonal relationship between our staff member and the customer. The same budtender that greets you carries you through the entire transaction. Our standard ticket time is relatively fast, but we don’t pressure anybody.

Sometimes those transactions can go 30 minutes because those customers are coming in not only to seek high-quality products, but to better understand those products.

What would you say is the secret to the shop’s success? We’re a family-owned

business run by a group of friends. We all come from the black market era and we’re stocking the same products we enjoy ourselves. My jars at home are filled with herb

by Evan’s Creek, Frost Factory and Left Coast – and that’s exactly what you’ll see on the shelves at the shop. We’re a close group, too. We don’t outsource individuals for management positions – we develop and train them from within and bring them up. So we have a lot of opportunities for the loyal people who stick through it with us. That feeling of family is the reason why our shops have done so well. Ontario isn’t just an opportunity to help build our company, it’s an opportunity to build up this community and share what we do best.

“We’re a family-owned business run by a group of friends.

We all come from the black market era and we’re stocking the same products we enjoy ourselves.”

Clone Master Matt Tallabas Budtender Tanner Romans

TOP CROP ONTARIO

297 SE 10TH ST. ONTARIO, OR TOPCROPOR.COM (541) 666-7887 9AM-9PM MON-THURS | 8AM-10PM FRI & SAT 8AM-9PM SUN

INTERVIEW by RYAN HERRON @THELOUD100 for OREGON LEAF | PHOTOS by KYLE GREEN @MADLOBSTER34

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THE TRAVEL ISSUE THE CULTURE grow ISSUE tour LEAFMAGAZINES.COM leafmagazines.com

16

real eve farms Real Eve Farms sits in the picturesque countryside of Harrisburg, a small municipality nestled between Eugene and Corvallis.

Owners Ryley McCorquodale and Abe Kohler began their journey in the industry as a BHO-focused facility called Emerald Valley Extracts. But legalization’s wavy waters found their boat bound for greener ground, ultimately pivoting to focus on cultivating instead and committed to calling themselves “Real Eve” – an homage to the brand’s birth (Emerald “E” Valley “V” Extracts “E”).

may 2022

L-R, Head of Sales and Marketing Jim Davis, Garden Assistant Ari Lagos, and Co-owner Ryley McCorquodale.

HARRISBURG, OR STORY & PHOTOS by AMANDA DAY @TERPODACTYL_MEDIA for OREGON LEAF

Real Eve Farms’ famed Georgia Pie.

>>

grow tour

18

REAL EVE FARMS

Devil Driver

LEAFMAGAZINES.COM

Continued from previous page

We met up with McCorquodale, Head of Sales and Marketing Jim Davis, and Garden Assistant Ari Lagos to tour the vigorous vegetation and flourishing flowers. The farm is a cozy Tier II compound featuring a collection of light-supplemented greenhouses and converted shipping containers. The shipping container rooms house a collection of clones and mothers cultivated in a custom soil mix. It’s amended with up to eight different dry ingredients like bokashi and insect frass.

Out in the greenhouses, plants rest their roots directly in the earth, tucked in by a topdressing of soft straw. These vegetative and flowering plants receive a similar supply of amendments, with adjustments according to each season’s needs and the plant’s life cycle.

But defining seasonal needs can be tricky, as there are a host of extra variables that greenhouses face (when compared to indoor counterparts). “All of the seasons throw a different challenge,” explains McCorquodale.

“It’s indoor, but it’s not. The soil’s wetter in certain months, so we have to dial back

may 2022

our water. And during certain times, you better know that there’s way more moisture and so on.

Everything just has to be adjusted constantly.”

But these hindrances can be handled with regular soil testing. It’s a strategy that this grower claims has been instrumental to the farm’s hearty plant health over the past four years at this location. Besides, Mother Nature’s mood isn’t all malice. In fact, she seems to offer something that (like many greenhouse and outdoor growers) McCorquodale also acknowledges.

“I love the living soil. It really cuts down on our overall soil costs and I think it brings out the flavors … as far as taste, the flower just seems more robust.“ Thanks to our perfectly-timed pop-in, we were rewarded with a taste of this robust foliage in full swing. While one greenhouse was still in a

vegetative stage, a second offered a selection of strains in their final week(s) with an array of lush leaves and full flowers to explore.

Naturally, we dove in and asked our host to talk us through it.

He told us that the farm tends to around 12 established cultivars at any given time, but explained that doesn’t include new phenohunt projects.

When we visited, they were actively searching for strains with desirable hash traits.

That’s because Real Eve has lined up some more Imperial Solventless collaborations.

The team continues to run with some rosin favorites – like Banana Crashers – but they are always looking for new flavors.

Gesturing to a patch of stout, sage green buds with plum leaves, McCorquodale made note of their very first

Planted in the earth.

hash hunt: a strain from Dying Breed Seeds known as Gak Melon.

“That has a real unique melon gas profile,” he noted. Next on the agenda: some Fuzzy Pie, a Cannarado Genetic that the whole team is excited to see in its concentrated form.

“It’s got some Grape Pie in it, which is really good for hash. We’re hoping to get some six star out of it. But that kind of depends on the strain. We always go for a little bit of that.

But then definitely some rosin, because it’s selling,” he said.

Concentrates aside, the farm has long been known for flower products.

“Georgia Pie (from Seed Junky Genetics) …

We’ve been growing that for a minute, it’s not new but I really like it,” said McCorquodale.

And when asked about any new, noteworthy nugs, both McCorquodale and Davis agreed enthusiastically. “The most exciting thing we have right now is the Devil Driver from Tiki Madman Seeds. I think it’s going to finish nice and grapey.”

And we have to agree. A gentle bractbrushing and mouthwatering whiff left the senses simply confused. Was it Cannabis?

Or the sugary, purple beverage that stained fingers and childhood memories? One thing was for certain … we wanted some.

real eve farms' favORITES C O N C E N T R AT E S A S I D E ,

the farm has long been known for flower products. “Georgia Pie (from Seed Junky Genetics) …

We’ve been growing that for a minute, it’s not new but I really like it,” said McCorquodale.

And when asked about any new, noteworthy nugs, both McCorquodale and Davis agreed enthusiastically. “The most exciting thing we have right now is the Devil Driver from Tiki Madman Seeds. I think it’s going to finish nice and grapey.”

Georgia Pie

FOLLOW @REALEVEFARMS

STORY & PHOTOS by AMANDA DAY @TERPODACTYL_MEDIA for OREGON LEAF

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feature

22

RE U T L U E C TISSU FUTURE & T H E A G AT I O N OP OF PR

WE ED SC IEN C E

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WALKING INTO CONCEPTION NURSERIES feels a bit like boarding the U.S.S. Enterprise.

It’s astoundingly clean. And shiny. But instead of redshirts milling about pushing glowing buttons, the rooms at Conception’s Sacramento, Calif. facility are packed with bustling PhDs in lab coats and blue nitrile gloves, handling tiny little baby pot plants with the utmost care. Conception is a different type of Cannabis nursery. In its facilities in Oregon and California, it focuses on a science-based practice common in modern agriculture, but relatively new to the world of weed: Tissue culture.

P R O PA G AT I N G A P L A N to pivot and scale quickly was critical for CEO Kevin Brooks chose to spearour business. We started looking at how head Conception after his time working other industries handled this and what the with the Connected and Cookies crews norm was in traditional agriculture, and it in the early lead-up to rec legalization really pointed to tissue culture for consistent in California. In those nascent days, the product and being able to give that predictcompanies had trouble finding ability that growers wanted.” regular supply of viable, A form of both disease disease-free plants for their remediation and massively cultivation operations. scalable plant propagation, “What we found was almost tissue culture offered a path every challenge we had traced forward. Through the tissue back to the mother room,” culture process, Brooks and his Brooks said. “First off, it’s team of science-minded plant very expensive real estate … biologists are able to clean and it was our main source out any diseases that genetic of pathogens. As bugs, pests lines have picked up along the and disease came through, it CEO KEVIN BROOKS way – restoring cultivars to their was almost always through the original glory. mother room. And it was a very difficult “These mother plants, over time, environment to scale up and down. For become tired,” he said. “They lose some companies that were consistently dropof their health and some of their vigor. ping new, cool, hype stuff – being able So part of what tissue culture does, is it

MAy 2022

CONCEPTION NURSERIES comes in and restores its natural health and vigor.

You see higher yields, and you see some of the original attributes that made that cultivar special.

And so, a lot of what we’re doing is cleanup.

[Tissue culture] is also the only way that we’re aware of that will guarantee 100% pest-anddisease-free plants.”

It’s also efficient. His team can propagate seven viable clones from tiny plant nodes in one petri dish.

Brooks says that his 19,000-square-foot facility in Sacramento can achieve the same propagation output as roughly 10 acres of traditional canopy.

CLEARING THE BAR When Brooks initially launched Conception in 2018, he sought similarly science-minded companies to partner with. He partnered with breeders and other tech companies, eager to usher in the future. Unfortunately, one such relationship would result in what Brooks referred to as a “global divorce.”

Conception initially partnered with Phylos Bioscience in 2018, which at the time was accepted by the community with open arms for their work mapping the Cannabis genome via their ambitious Phylos Galaxy initiative. But when Phylos was accused in 2019 of having purposefully misled breeders who had trusted the company with their

genetics, Brooks encountered a significant challenge to his goal of helping breeders enter the modern era.

“We just happened to get involved with them early on, and we were tricked to a certain extent, like a lot of other people, as well,” he said.

What began as a technological and licensing partnership had become something damaging, and Brooks and Conception had to take action.

“The truth came out, and we definitely felt like (former Phylos CEO Mowgli Holmes) was talking out of both sides of his mouth,” Brooks said. “The damage is done.”

Since then, Conception has been going through the aforementioned separation from Phylos, so his company can move forward.

“We’ve canceled as many agreements as we possibly can with them,” Brooks said. “The company needs to stand alone.”

“We have a non-propagation clause in our agreement with our growers,” Brooks said. “That non-propagation clause means that they will not steal, or they will not take that clone and replicate it on their own without permission, and that permission will go back to the breeder. … We have a few customers where they just want moms, and that’s a different deal – where we sell them a fraction of the clones at a higher price, and then we pay a different royalty to that breeder.”

The idea here is to provide a service to the breeder by propagating and distributing their genetics, and to the cultivator by providing a reliable menu of clean offerings.

“We pay meaningful, six-figure checks annually to (some of) the breeders we get clones from...” Brooks said. “We think it’s Through the tissue C U LT I VAT I N G A good for the industry, culture process, N E W WAY O F we think it’s good for Brooks and his team of the breeder, and we DOING BUSINESS Much of how the Conception do everything we can science-minded plant Nurseries model is built is in to give credit where biologists are able to reaction to the way the comcredit is due.” clean out any diseases munity responded to the feeling Brooks aims to help of betrayal toward Phylos. usher the Cannabis that genetic lines Brooks and his team have put community into an efhave picked up along significant efforts into initiatives ficient, scalable future the way – restoring for social good, working with driven by cutting-edge organizations such as Sweetleaf plant science and cultivars to their Collective, The Weldon Project’s mutually beneficial, original glory.

Mission [Green], and the Vetertransparent business ans’ Cannabis Project. relationships.

But more than that, they want “As we see more to change the way people think issues with (hop latent about the genetics side of the business. They’ve viroid disease), and underperforming harvests, built significant safeguards into their contracts and other kinds of viroids that are impacting to protect the breeders for whom they act as productivity, I think there’s going to be more and propagator and distributor, and who they see as more emphasis on delivering true-to-type, clean, of paramount importance to the future of their healthy, vigorous plants,” Brooks said. “Five years business and the industry as a whole. ago, no one was talking about tissue culture in With most cultivators, the agreement is simple: Cannabis. Today, I don’t think there’s a grower out They buy the clones, they grow them up, they there that isn’t curious, or who hasn’t tried it, or harvest them, and they’re done. The breeder gets who doesn’t want to learn more and more.” a percentage of the sale. Rinse and repeat. Other companies they work with, such as Cookies, direct exactly where each clone goes from their genetic CONCEPTIONNURSERIES.COM lineup. In every contract, the breeder is protected. @CONCEPTIONNURSERIES

W HAT IS T ISS U E CULTURE? EXPLANT AND INITIATION Plant tissue is removed from a plant with desirable genetic traits. It is disinfected and placed into a sterile tissue culture vessel with nutrients and growth regulators to encourage growth.

MULTIPLICATION The explant expands as it absorbs the nutrients in the vessel, ultimately dividing into 3-8 explants.

ROOT INITIATION Explants are transferred into a new tray with nutrients and growth regulators that encourage root formation, growing into tiny plants.

ACCLIMATION Plants are then ready to be acclimated to a greenhouse or indoor growing environment where they experience rapid growth in a controlled setting.

STORY by TOM BOWERS @CANNABOMBTOM/LEAF NATION | PHOTOS by CONCEPTION NURSERIES

GREEN STOP @pdxorganicfarms www.pdxorganicfarms.com For use only by adults 21 and older. Keep out of reach of children. Do not operate a motor vehicle while under the influence of marijuana.

patient of the month

CANNABIS FOR A BETTER LIFE

A Revival of Health and Hope

Diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia at just 24 years old, Jeremiah Grosjacques knows exactly what it’s like to live in a body that is at war with itself. Now 31, Jeremiah is a two-time stem cell transplant recipient with a locomotive mentality and a thirst for all the Cannabis wellness knowledge he can absorb and apply to his everyday life. When his health was “looking grim,” he turned to Cannabis as a hopeful outlet and changed the course of his battle with cancer. And after much success, he hasn’t spent a day without a little herb in his system. We walked around Reed College and chatted about life with leukemia – and how Cannabis revived both his health and his hope.

What was the moment you decided to add Cannabis to your rigorous treatment plan? I was up at OHSU and was on

my last bit of chemo, waiting for a stem cell transplant. It was looking grim. I was so sick. I wasn’t sleeping, losing tons of weight – I couldn’t even keep nausea pills down. I was getting an EKG every day because the doctors were concerned about my heart with the amount of anti-nausea meds I was taking. I knew I couldn’t keep doing that to my body. The doctors recommended the synthetic THC medication, Marinol – but it wasn’t very effective, so I had someone drop off RSO capsules the next day. After it set in, I went to sleep for six hours and then ate my first meal in a week. This was the real turning point in my treatment – I noticed I had more energy because I was actually sleeping and able to keep food down. I would take one RSO capsule and I would feel so completely different.

26

LEAFMAGAZINES.COM

Now that you are back home in Eastern Oregon, how do you spend your days? Either hanging with my awesome son,

Jeremiah Grosjacques

Kason, or working at a local warehouse in Pendleton. I like being able to work and keeping my legs moving because I’ve had both my hips replaced and it’s essential to keep active. I was nervous to get back to a job, but knew that it would help me out in the long run. It was honestly nice to get back to some sort of normalcy.

What’s your favorite way to get relief via Cannabis? I

love to take a dab. My tiny MJ Arsenal recycler is like my best friend.

I’m also known to spark a J here and there, but I tend to stick to concentrates. I like my terpenes.

How are you feeling about the future and how is Cannabis a part of it? Optimistic! My doctor recently told

me my blood work has never looked better. They are hesitant to say ‘life without cancer’ – but it isn’t out of the question and that’s super exciting. So yeah, I’m feeling good. I still have frequent appointments here in Portland, but I love to see my friends when I come down and bring Kason here in the summertime. That, and I can hit a different dispensary. Keeping positive and keeping busy is how I make it through.

“The doctors recommended the synthetic THC medication, Marinol – but it wasn’t very effective, so I had someone drop off RSO capsules the next day. After it set in, I went to sleep for six hours and then ate my first meal in a week. This was the real turning point in my treatment” may 2022

STORY & PHOTO by DIANA THOMPSON @DUDE.DIANA for OREGON LEAF | FOLLOW JEREMIAH @GLOKKOLOGIST

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stoner owner

28

JAKE GRANGER

Where does The Potland deliver to?

For recreational orders, we can deliver to anywhere with a Portland address inside the city limits. For medical card holders, we can deliver in the city and to the surrounding metro area like Beaverton and Gresham. Some of the towns outside of Portland opted out of Cannabis sales or don’t allow recreational delivery, but I have seen that changing and now some of those towns are talking about allowing delivery in the future.

OWNER | THE POTLAND

The Potland is a dispensary like none other in Oregon.

There’s no walk-in storefront or showroom – only a small doorway with a humble sign on it marks the online and deliveryonly dispensary. There’s a lot of moving pieces to keep a business like this going and it could seem overwhelming to most, but Jake Granger has it covered with his deep background in hotel and restaurant management. All those years in the hospitality industry gave him the skills to organize, motivate and keep his crew moving forward.

What’s your background in Cannabis and how did you find the plant? I’ve been smoking and using Cannabis since late high school. My parents smoked, so I was around it early – although I didn’t smoke with them until after I graduated. l started growing in the medical program in Washington shortly after finishing school.

I grew for several patients while I worked in restaurants and hotels during the day, and moved up here. We applied for a license in learning that industry too. In 2011, my wife 2017 and the whole licensing process took almost wanted to finish her degree at San Diego State two years to get through. We finally got signed University, so we moved there from Spokane. I off in the beginning of April 2019. Around then actually took a break and stepped back from we decided we wanted to sell, but unfortunately Cannabis and growing then – I was focused on that deal drug on for a year and a half, and didn’t my career and supporting us. That, and it was a work out. In the end, we kept the license and new city to me and I didn’t know anyone at the opened the store we are in now about a year ago. time, so it didn’t feel safe to be involved right then.

Over time, I managed to meet the right people Where did the idea for The Potland concept and build up a network. When my wife graduated, come from? It came about because we decided to get back into it was hard to find a location in our Cannabis. In 2015, we opened a THEPOTL AND.CO area that worked with the OLCC medical dispensary called Seaweed @NEWPOTLAND zoning regulations. There are rules and and we offered delivery. Once regulations about dispensaries not being California passed recreational use, too close to another shop or within 1,000 we wanted to get licensed for that yards of a school, and this location worked out. As – but the rules made it far too expensive for the far as I know, we were the first to ask the OLCC average small business owner. We started looking for a delivery-only dispensary. There really wasn’t a at other states that would be more affordable, precedent for that, so it took some time for the state and that had regulations that would allow us to to make sure it could be done within their rules. open a store … we eventually settled on Portland

What are your plans for the future of The Potland? There’s so many irons in the fire right now. We have a new location opening the first of May on Dekum Street that has a walk-in store. There’s a couple of great spots to grab a drink and eat right next door, like Tough Luck and Ranch PDX Woodlawn. We’ll still have the delivery service, but once that location is open people can come in and shop – or they can still use our delivery service. We’ve also been developing our own in-house brand of solventless extracts and edibles with some very talented people. I can’t say who yet, but they are well-known in their fields [and] I’m excited. I’m also currently working on a big project in New Mexico. The state allows Cannabis consumption [lounges] and we acquired a 35-room hotel and restaurant that we’re remodeling and converting over to a Cannabis-friendly destination. There’s also an old gas station attached that will be our on-site dispensary. So we have several exciting things happening that will unfold this year.

LEAFMAGAZINES.COM

“We’ve also been developing our own in-house brand of solventless extracts and edibles with some very talented people.”

You recently worked the intake of entries for the first annual Leaf Bowl by Oregon Leaf. What was that like? It was so much fun seeing everyone!

There were 260 entries from all over the state.

I saw a lot of beautiful flower, extracts, edibles and products come in. This is the first year and it’s only going to get better and better each year.

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.

may 2022

INTERVIEW by JIM DAVIS @JIMSBIGDREAM for OREGON LEAF | PHOTOS by FLETCHER WOLD @FWOLD_PHOTOGRAPHY

highly likely

ICONIC MUSICIAN & ACTIVIST

WILLIE NELSON H i g h l y L i ke l y h i g h l i g h t s C a n n a b i s p i o n e e r s w h o h a v e p a v e d t h e w a y t o g r e a t e r h e r b a l a c c e p t a n c e.

MY FRIENDS, this column has now been published over 80 times in the family of Leaf magazines. That’s 80 different subjects to admire and learn about in connection to Cannabis. Some are familiar, some not so much. How is it then, that I somehow overlooked whom many consider to be the greatest living Cannabis activist and celebrity? Why I’ve never stopped to write about the weed-fueled life of Willie Nelson … I don’t know. But I correct that mistake this month.

W

CREATIVE COMMONS

LEAFMAGAZINES.COM

30

“THE LEGENDARY SINGER AND GUITAR PLAYER TURNED 89 YEARS OLD THIS YEAR AND FOR MOST OF HIS ADULT LIFE, HE’S BEEN HARD AT WORK TRYING TO DESTIGMATIZE CANNABIS CULTURE. may 2022

illie Nelson is one of the Nelson began to realize not just the greatest country music harmlessness of smoking pot, but artists of all time. His kind, the healing powers of the plant. An gentle demeanor and advocate was born. easygoing sound have endeared The rest, as they say, is history. him to millions upon millions of There’s the story of Willie smoking fans. You never hear anybody say a joint on the roof of the White anything bad about Willie Nelson.

House, and of him attempting to do The legendary singer and guitar the same at the Texas Governor’s player turned 89 years old this Mansion. And there’s all of the year and for most of his adult life, celebrities that have wanted to he’s been hard at work trying to smoke with him, from Snoop Dogg destigmatize Cannabis culture. to Toby Keith to Luke Wilson.

Nelson’s first But Nelson experience smoking wasn’t just content weed was in 1954 at to live the celebrity a roadside bar near life of the world’s Fort Worth, Texas. most recognizable He was 21 years old weed connoisseur and a big drinker – instead, he’s (whiskey being his worked tirelessly choice) when he tried since the late ‘70s a joint given to him to normalize the by a fellow musician use of Cannabis.

– but it didn’t do That’s been done anything for him. primarily through It wouldn’t be until his own serene Nelson on the cover six months later that personality and of Rolling Stone’s Nelson finally figured a sort of honesty April 2019 Weed Issue. out how to properly whenever he’s inhale the low-grade asked about his THC Cannabis of the 1950s. use of the plant, not to mention “One night I did it right,” said his namesake brand of legal weed Nelson. Thus began his love affair – Willie’s Reserve – which proudly with the herb. adorns shelves of dispensaries It wouldn’t be until 1971, across the U.S. however, that Nelson would finally At almost 90 years old, Willie put a reference to weed in a song.

Nelson doesn’t smoke the herb It was a veiled reference (to a as much these days, but he does “green telephone”), of course, still enjoy the benefits of Cannabis because at that time Cannabis via edibles. And for all of us still usage – even in the outlaw country smoking out there, we have people scene that Willie was a part of – like Willie Nelson to thank for was still a taboo subject. But as he paving the way toward Cannabis continued to consume Cannabis, freedom.

STORY by PACER STACKTRAIN for LEAF NATION

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Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of marijuana. For use only by adults 21 and older. Keep out of reach of children.

EXPERT OPINION

HEMP INDUSTRY

Jerry Whiting

dried and/or pressed and can even be grown in a mold to shape the final product.

Whatever you make with it is compostable.

It can replace the plastic packaging used to fit irregular shaped objects into boxes or make eco-friendly containers for cremains or coffins, small pots for seedlings, ice chests to replace those horrible foam ones, and the trays at coffeehouses to hold multiple cups of coffee.

HEMP FOR GARDENS AND FARMS ALIKE

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ATTENTION H PHOTO BY ADOBE

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ENTREPRENEURS!

emp is a valuable crop, but too few people are making money in the industry. The first step is to stop chasing CBD … it’s a crowded market with falling prices. And while there’s a lot to love about hempcrete, for it to really take off, we need to update building codes, train architects and contractors, and grow enough hemp to support the industry. However, there are a number of untapped opportunities to build a new hemp company. You can start by ignoring the flower and focusing on the stems instead. Hemp stems have two parts: the bast on the outside and the hurd (or shiv) on the inside.

may 2022

Some farmers will grow huge amounts of hemp and only hemp. Monocropping isn’t good for the health of the soil and once pests discover big fields, they can wreak havoc.

Wise farmers will add hemp to their crop rotation. Small farms can sell chipped hemp in bulk to attract customers. The more preprocessing done on the farm, the higher the market price.

Peat moss is used as a mulch and in potting soils, but it’s a finite resource. Peat bogs are being stripped for this market and the result is disrupting local ecosystems.

Hemp fiber can replace peat moss and before you say anything, redwood mulch is no better. It takes years to break down and depletes the nitrogen in your soil while it does.

People are curious about hemp biochar.

A quick Google and YouTube search will fill you in about the wonders of biochar, but keep this in mind: Hemp can be used instead of wood. A savvy entrepreneur will charge their hemp biochar by adding fertilizer and inoculants that deliver nutrients slowly over a period of time.

All of these ideas can be done by someone creative WISE FARMERS enough to put the pieces WILL ADD HEMP TO together. Reach out to your THEIR CROP ROTATION. local hemp farmers and ask to play with some of their “biowaste” – the parts of the plants they’re More and more people are enjoying plantnot interested in. based foods. Mushrooms are front and center, including oyster mushrooms which come in a Pick a project or two, read up on what wide range of colors and shapes. They’re easy to others have done, and play. DIY nights and grow, at home or at commercial scale, and they weekends, work-at-home in your basement/ digest cellulose. Guess what? Hemp hurd is full garage/shed type of play. And don’t be of cellulose and oyster mushrooms can be grown discouraged. on hemp hurd.

The oyster mushrooms you eat are the fruiting Keep at it. Invest in your dreams. part of the plant. The mycelium below the surface The hemp products you make will make can be put to good use. Chipped and shredded the world a better place for all of us. hurd can be inoculated with oyster mushroom What better mission statement and spawn. The mycelium grows in the hurd and publicity can an entrepreneur have? binds it together. This matted material can be “HEMP MEET MUSHROOMS, MUSHROOMS MEET HEMP. NOW YOU TWO RUN ALONG AND PLAY TOGETHER.”

EXCLUSIVE COLUMN by JERRY WHITING for LEAF NATION // LeBlancCNE.com/podcast

MOUTH SMACK MOUTH PROUD MOUTH FREEDOM MOUTHTASTIC! ONE TASTE IStaste ALL IT TAKES taunt your tastes one is all it takes

then put something AMAZING in it

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36

OREOZ

CULTIVATED BY HIGHER MINDS HORTICULTURE GENETICS BY 3 RD COAST GENETICS

MAY 2022 may

HERE’S A sweet little snack to kickstart your spring sesh.

Oreoz comes from 3rd Coast Genetics and this month, we’re diving into Higher Minds Horticulture’s rendition of the strain. This family-operated, indoor Springfield facility has been cultivating Cannabis since 2014 with a “science-oriented” approach – so it’s only fair that we fired up an experiment for a first-hand account.

Oreoz is a cross of Secret Weapon and Cookies and Cream. The aptly named nug offers the milky, vanilla kick of its Cookies background with some soft, earthy undertones – the latter likely courtesy of the Secret Weapon lineage. The nose is ready to please picky palates, especially those that stay away from strains with a bouquet of one single, overbearing terpene. It’s a balanced, gentle aroma that seems to lean on its Cookies and Cream heritage. According to the Higher Minds Horticulture company website, this cultivar tends to test high in terpenes farnesene, caryophyllene, limonene and myrcene.

Beefy, nearly-black buds appear faded underneath a dense blanket of pale trichomes, stalks and orange stigmas. But dive a little deeper and you’ll find flecks of light lavender and deep green among the inner bracts.

Smoking this cultivar reveals an accurate translation of flavor as it exits the lungs – exactly what the palate expects after a noseful of the nug. Smooth and subtle with an earthy, nutty, sweet cream smoke and just a hint of warm spice and chocolate.

Much like its cookie correlative, this is probably best enjoyed after a long day.

It’s a strain that supplies ample relaxation and a warm fuzzy feeling fit for ailments like an uneasy belly or incessant insomnia. The experience goes down easy and offers a satisfying amount of comfort, not far from everyone’s favorite cookie.

SMOOTH AND SUBTLE WITH AN EARTHY, NUTTY, SWEET CREAM SMOKE AND JUST A HINT OF WARM SPICE AND CHOCOLATE. H M H O R T I C U LT U R E .C O M @HIGHER_MINDS_HORTICULTURE 27.65% THC | 0.07% CBD 2.96% TERPENES

STORY & PHOTOS by AMANDA DAY @TERPODACTYL_MEDIA for OREGON LEAF

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 TRAVEL ISSUE

40

travel do’s & don’ts

leafmagazines.com

leaf nation’s wes abney offers a word to the wise on weed travel

While many of us are longing for a super stoney vacation this year, nobody wants to end up on an episode of Locked Up Abroad, or find themselves having to return to some ill-fated destination in Anywhere, USA for a court date. The following recommendations for traveling with or without Cannabis are purely anecdotal and not meant as legal advice. Always remember to be safe and follow the rules wherever you may travel.

MAY 2022

Don’t Spark in National Parks

While there’s not much better than getting high in the great outdoors, think twice before you spark up in a park run by state or federal government. National parks are federal property regardless of the state they’re located in, so state Cannabis laws don’t apply there. You can get serious fines and real time for being caught with weed in a national park. The penalties in a state park can vary – unless you’re in California, where smoking in state parks and on beaches is permitted.

security stumbles

Know Before You Go

Familiarizing yourself with the laws of your destination is an absolute must. Depending on where you are going, Cannabis can be completely legal, somewhat legal or entirely illegal – especially if you are traveling internationally. And the places that do offer legal weed in some form, often have confusing laws and policies surrounding the purchase and consumption. Always do your research before packing anything that could potentially lead to trouble. If in doubt … throw it out.

Never Buy Illegally (Especially Overseas) While this might seem like obvious advice, there’s almost nothing worse than being out of weed on a vacay … and it can lead you to do irrational things. What is worse, though?

Getting robbed or busted for buying weed illegally. Chances are the guy offering you a “drug” hookup is just as shady as the street vendor selling “authentic” Rolex watches and “licensed” Gucci gear. Avoid the trouble (and the best case mids scenario) and wait to bake until you get home.

Going through TSA is painful, but it’s worth being smart so you can get your buzz on when you land.

My first time going through airport security with a couple vape pens in my backpack was gut wrenching, complete with sweaty palms and an irrational fear that I would be going to prison for a small amount of weed. This was 2013 and while weed was legal in Seattle and my destination of Denver, I had no clue what would happen if I brought my stash with me.

Years later I heard a quote attributed to a senior TSA official, which I share in paraphrased and off-the-record format: If we stopped every bag with a personal amount of drugs in them, the planes would never take off.

When it comes to a more official statement, TSA policy says: “TSA’s screening procedures are focused on security and are designed to detect potential threats to aviation and passengers.

Accordingly, TSA security officers do not search for marijuana or other illegal drugs, but if any illegal substance is discovered during security screening, TSA will refer the matter to a law enforcement officer.”

Generally, checked luggage and carry-ons are only screened at your point of departure – so if weed is legal where you fly out from, you shouldn’t have a problem getting your bag where you land.

This is not the case for international flights, so don’t risk it. We recommend putting anything sensitive in your checked bag and to only take what you plan to consume.

And don’t forget: Never smoke or vape on a plane (there is one Leaf team member I’m thinking fondly of as I write this). Also remember that eating edibles before a flight might seem like a good idea, but it can be just as bad as taking a hit of LSD if that 100mg nano-emulsified beverage hits a little harder than expected.

don’t drive high

My advice regarding weed and cars is simple: Never drive high and don’t smoke while driving. As a general rule whenever I rent a car on vacation, I always get the walk-away (full coverage) insurance.

I won’t risk driving in a new place without it, and I certainly wouldn’t add weed to the already stressful mix. So if you plan to party, take a rideshare and be aware of your surroundings. Driving in a new city statistically increases your odds of an accident, so don’t make it worse by being impaired.

My first time going through airport security with a couple vape pens in my backpack was gut wrenching, complete with sweaty palms and an irrational fear that I would be going to prison for a small amount of weed.

Stoners & Scooters Don’t Always Mix

While this writer once had an epic group scootering experience while on a lemon-tech dose of psilocybin in Denver (great street graffiti, highly recommended), it’s important to remember that anything with wheels can lead to a DUI. This is more of a concern for happy hour drinkers bar-hopping on scooters, but be careful if you rent something – especially if it has an electric motor and you don’t know your way around town.

STORY by WES ABNEY @BEARDEDLORAX/LEAF NATION | PHOTO by ADOBE STOCK | ICONS by THE NOUN PROJECT

THE TRAVEL ISSUE

top

10

cannabis destinations

From smoke lounges and spa treatments to bus tours and bud and breakfasts – there is no shortage of ways to satisfy your weedy wanderlust.

boston

As the birthplace of the American Revolution, Boston is known as the Cradle of Liberty – a promise they lived up to for pot smokers when Massachusetts legalized Cannabis for adult use in 2016. There are now nearly 180 dispensaries across the state, at least 20 of which are located in the greater Boston area. Beantown is home to the original Chemdog strain and the Boston Freedom Rally – the annual “protestival” held at Boston Common park each September, thanks to the activists at MassCann NORML. When visiting the Common, stop by the bench on “Mount Malta” dedicated to the late, great Cannabis activist Michael Malta – aka the “King of Pot” (KOP) – and pay tribute with a joint. After blazing in the Common, you can grab a quick beer across the street at the famous Cheers bar (from the TV show), then head out on the Freedom Trail – a 2.5-mile walking tour (marked on the road by a line of red paint) that leads to 16 of Highest Attractions Freedom Trail, Sam Adams Brewery, Boston Common, Boston’s most important Revolutionary Boston Freedom Rally (September), Faneuil Hall War sites.

AMSTERDAM

The original Cannabis tourism destination. Long considered the Cannabis capital of Europe, Amsterdam was the seat of Cannabis activism and cultivation for decades. Though not legal, Cannabis has been “tolerated” in the Netherlands since the early 1980s. In addition to the 160-or-so Cannabis coffeeshops, the Dam offers visitors many outstanding museums, a rocking nightlife and of course, the infamous Red Light sex district. Unfortunately, though, the government there has been clamping down in recent years – closing nearly half of the city’s Cannabis coffeeshops and threatening to ban tourists from them by next year. So if you’ve ever dreamed of going, now’s the time.

leafmagazines.com

Highest Attractions Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum, The Bulldog, Greenhouse Coffeeshops (Cookies Lounge), Barneys Farm & Uptown, Sensi Hemp Museum, Smokeboat Canal Tour, Amsterdam Light Festival (Dec).

barcelona

Similar to Amsterdam, Barcelona has 200 quasi-legal lounges/clubs where one can buy and consume Cannabis – the difference being that, to enter, you need to be a member (and technically, a resident). But like most other prohibition laws, there are always gray areas to exploit. Aside from the Cannabis clubs, Barcelona also offers delicious tapas, decadent hot chocolate, spectacular cathedrals and architecture (most notably by Anton Gaudi), hip graffiti and skater culture, museums, nightlife and more. Barcelona is also home to Spannabis, the world’s largest Cannabis convention each March.

Highest Attractions Sagrada Familia Cathedral, Parc Guell, Sensi Hemp Museum, Bulldog Barcelona, Picasso Museum, The 4 Cats Café, Spannabis, Hop On-Hop Off bus tour.

MAY 2022

denver

They don’t call it the Mile High City for nothing! After becoming the first major city in America to legalize Cannabis for adult use in 2012, Denver saw a mass migration of Cannabis lovers. With over 200 dispensaries, multiple Cannabis bus tours and consumption lounges, a smorgasbord of gourmet restaurants and craft breweries, killer street art and a number of 420-friendly hotels (some of which even offer complimentary vaporizers in their rooms) – not to mention the glorious Rocky Mountains, Red Rocks Amphitheater, world-class mountain sports, hot springs, and sister stoner city Boulder all just an hour or so drive away – Denver remains a popular getaway destination for tokers.

Highest Attractions Meow Wolf, Red Rocks Amphitheater, Illuzion glass gallery, International Church of Cannabis, Patterson Inn (420 Hotel), 4/20 Rally - Civic Center Park

the emerald triangle

Comprised of three counties in Northern California (Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity), the “Emerald Triangle” has been considered the Cannabis cultivation capital of America (if not the world) for half a century now – ever since the hippies of Haight Ashbury moved up there to live amidst nature and escape the eyes of the law. But thanks to legalization, decades of suspicious and seclusionary attitudes towards outsiders have given way to an embrace of history and hospitality. Today, the region is exploding with new venues, shops, spas and tours designed to educate the public about Cannabis culture. Sample some of the legacy strains, then explore wineries, the majestic Redwoods and rugged coastline.

NATE WILLIAMS

42

Highest Attractions

The Lost Coast, Avenue of the Giants.

Madrones Hotel, Papa and Barkley Social, Fern Canyon,

HIGHER WAY TRAVEL

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For those on the more adventurous side who don’t mind the cold, we present our wildcard entry on the list: Fairbanks, Alaska. The Golden Heart City is home to 17 Cannabis dispensaries – including Good Titrations, which also features a cultivation facility and the state’s only legal on-site consumption lounge. After you snag yourself some of the region’s famous Alaskan/Matanuska Thunderfuck to puff on, enjoy some of the city’s craft breweries, local delicacies (such as fresh salmon, reindeer and yak), and cool attractions like Pioneer Park, Wedgewood Wildlife Sanctuary and the Ice Art Park. And after freezing your buds off all day, warm up in the local hot springs and gaze up at the awe-inspiring Aurora Borealis. Staring at the Northern Lights while smoking some Northern Lights … what could be cooler than that?

ADOBE STOCK

FAIRBANKS

Highest Attractions Good Titrations, Aurora Ice Museum, Ice Art Park, Chena Hot Springs Resort, Castner Glacier Ice Cave, Fairbanks Ice Museum, World Ice Art Championships (Feb-Mar)

negril, jamaica

For half a century now, visitors from around the world have flocked to the Caribbean paradise of Jamaica to enjoy the pristine beaches, reggae music and (of course) the ganja. The island has been inextricably connected with Cannabis since the mid-20th century, when the rise of the Rastafarian faith and their sacramental use of the herb helped fuel the reggae revolution. Thankfully, after decades of prohibition, Jamaica finally legalized Cannabis in 2015. Negril remains one of the island’s top tourist hotspots – renowned for its pristine, resort-lined Seven-Mile Beach, raucous nightclubs and local flavor. Here, you can dine on fresh grilled Highest Caribbean lobster or jerk chicken, rent a jet ski or a glass-bottom boat, or just lay around in the Attractions sun smoking spliffs and drinking dirty bananas all Rick’s Café, Bob Marley Museum, Coral Cove Wellness Resort, day. In the nearby town of Little Bay, where things Zimbali Retreats are a bit quieter, you’ll find Coral Cove Wellness – Jamaica’s premiere Cannabis resort, complete with its own private reef, on-site dispensary and ganja-filled greenhouses, as well as a full array of spa services. Not far from there in Orange Hill is Blue Hole Mineral Spring, home of Wabba’s Weed Adventure, where you can tour the fields of award-winning ganja.

LAS VEGAS

In addition to gambling and prostitution, Las Vegas also legalized weed for adult use in 2017. Since then, a slew of dispensaries have popped up in Sin City, most of which are located far from The Strip. But much like its extravagant casinos and clubs, the pot shops in Vegas tend to be over the top. Case in point, the city’s two most famous spots: billing itself as the world’s largest dispensary, Planet 13 is a 112,000-square-foot interactive superstore that’s open 24/7 and will soon be the new home of the Cannabition Cannabis Museum. And then there’s NUWU – the 16,000-square-foot dispensary located on tribal land just two blocks from Fremont Street that features a 24-hour drive-thru window and the state’s only legal Cannabis consumption lounge (The Vegas Tasting Room) located inside.

Meow Wolf at Area 15, Jammin’ on Vegas,

Aside from being the entertainment capital of the world, LA is also one of our nation’s stoniest cities – particularly West Hollywood, which aspires to become America’s answer to Amsterdam. Over the past five years, the city has passed ordinances authorizing licenses for on-site consumption, making it one of the only places in SoCal to allow Cannabis smoking in lounges and restaurants. The most famous example of these is the Original Cannabis Café (formerly Lowell Café), where patrons can order Cannabis (and various smoking apparatus) from a menu along with their food and drinks – and enjoy it right at their table during their meal. There are also an array of stoner sightseeing and grow facility tours available, or you can just wing it: stroll down the Hollywood Walk of Fame or the Venice Beach boardwalk, peruse the vintage stores along Melrose, or spend a night on the legendary Sunset Strip.

Highest Attractions

Walk of Fame, Original Cannabis Café, Comedy Store, Nostalgia,

Gusto Green, Rainbow Bar and Grill, Whiskey a Gogo, Cookies Melrose, Alternative Herbal Health Services (AHHS)

vancouver

ADOBE STOCK

Los angeles

With nicknames like “Vansterdam” and “The Big Smoke,” it’s no wonder that Vancouver, B.C. has been Canada’s Cannabis capital for decades (long before weed was actually legalized in 2018). The city hosts the world’s longest-running 4/20 event, the Vancouver Smoke Out, every April. It’s also home to Canada’s most notorious activist/seed merchant Marc Emery – founder of Cannabis Culture magazine and the city’s oldest headshop/vapor lounge, Cannabis Culture HQ (formerly known as Hemp BC). “The Couve” also features several other consumption lounges (such as the iconic New Amsterdam Café), guided Cannabis tours and crawls, as well as numerous compassion clubs and dispensaries (including the city’s first legal marijuana dispensary, Evergreen Cannabis), where one can acquire some of the area’s famous BC Bud. Then, get high and go out hiking, snowboarding, mushroom hunting or whale watching, eh?

ADOBE STOCK

Highest Attractions

Jerome Baker’s Dream Factory, NuWu Cannabis Marketplace, Planet 13, Stratosphere.

Highest Attractions

Cannabis Culture HQ, New Amsterdam Café,

Studio 710, Museum Of Anthropology, Vancouver Aquarium, Capilano Suspension Bridge

STORY & PHOTOS by APRIL & BOBBY BLACK/HIGHER WAY TRAVEL @HIGHERWAYTRAVEL for LEAF NATION

THE TRAVEL ISSUE

Dank Destination

cannabis in catalonia

44

ThispastMarch Iwas in Barcelona,

leafmagazines.com

LA SAGRADA FAMILIA AND THE SURROUNDING BARCELONA AREA

sitting with European street artist Soklak and puffing on a joint apparently filled with Runtz from somewhere in California … if the label is to be believed.

“You look like the Daniel Craig of weed right now,” I blurted out, which is just the kind of icebreaker that could either kill the conversation or take it to the next level. Thankfully, we were all pretty stoned – so we had a good laugh and talked about Soklak’s vision for the future of Cannabis hospitality in Europe.

Soklak is the art director for CRTFD in Europe. CRTFD is a California-born plant medicine-centric lifestyle brand that does everything from providing artists with regularly paying work, to operating Cannabis social clubs and producing high-quality streetwear.

The brand’s Barcelona location is in the city’s old Gothic Quarter, which is a labyrinthine neighborhood with dark, twisting streets. Roman ruins, bars and nightclubs, Modernist architecture and medieval landmarks are the aesthetic markers of the quarter, making it a popular destination for tourists due to its history and proximity to the port, though many tried-and-true locals live here, too. During high season, large cruise ships dock in Barcelona (considered the

MAY 2022

Mediterranean hub for the world’s cruising industry) and in their limited hours on shore, many of the boats’ inhabitants end up exploring the Gothic Quarter’s narrow avenues.

The streets were uncharacteristically empty on the drizzly Sunday morning I walked through the city and across La Rambla to CRTFD from the stylish and affordable Hotel Brummell in Poble Sec where I was staying.

It’s a route I’ve walked many times before. I actually used to live in Barcelona – I got married, did a lot of restaurant, wine and travel writing, and spent a lot of time partying and hanging out in the capital city of Catalan culture.

The city’s Cannabis culture wasn’t new to me, either. I have been a member of Circulo, which is just around the corner from CRTFD, for around five years.

As far as weed culture in Spain is concerned, Barcelona is definitely the country’s epicenter. In fact, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that, thanks to a crackdown on weed tourism in Amsterdam, Barcelona has emerged from Covid as the clear titan of European Cannabis.

The distinction is based on the city’s evolving and growing cultivation and hash cultures (still illegal and therefore underground), along with its positively buzzing private social club culture that operates in

CRTFD’S SOKLAK AND THEIR CLUB.

top barcelona bud bars Like the skate culture vibe displayed at CRTFD, each club in Barcelona has a unique flavor to it. Here are some of the best.

PHOTOS BY TOM BOWERS @CANNABOMBTOM

THERE’S HQ, which ended up being designated the home base for others in town visiting from the United States for the Spannabis conference, as I was. Located in the central L’Eixample neighborhood, HQ featured some of the best locally grown and “imported” weed the city had to offer, as well as a crew of customers dedicated to the evolving California-style hash culture currently taking Barcelona by storm.

COOKIES BARCELONA is no different from Cookies outposts all over the globe, which is exactly what makes it special – especially for enthusiasts who aren’t able to visit California or anywhere else in the United States. This club, which is a favorite of young men in particular, is right up the street from Antoni Gaudi’s famed Sagrada Familia cathedral, making it the perfect stop to toke before taking in the truly psychedelic-looking wonders from one of Spain’s most famed architects. The club is also one of the only places in town to feature Fidel’s famed hash hole joints, which are sold exclusively at Cookies locations.

FIDEL AND JOSH SCHMIDT OF NATURA AT THE HASH HOLES AND DONUTS PARTY AT COOKIES BARCELONA DURING SPANNABIS.

TERPS ARMY, near La Rambla, is a more bare-bones Cannabis enthusiast experience from the famed Amsterdam club by the same name. Lorenzo, the owner, is the OG who invented the hash hole joints and who eventually taught Fidel what he knows. Terps Army is where the hardcore stoners convene, especially those who are particularly into hash. Expect lots of European tourists.

a precarious legal gray area, but results in a comes from California, as well as from cultisemi-permanent scene nonetheless. vations across Europe and probably beyond.

It’s exactly that rich Barcelona subculture It’s a striking change from even just a few that CRTFD has tapped into, so it’s no suryears ago, when it was significantly harder prise the club appears to be flourishing. Even for someone from the United States to find on a dreary weekend morning, the couches passable weed – even in the clubs functionare filling up, coffee cups are being poured ing mostly as safe spaces for those wishing and joints are being lit. to toke up in peace with other like-minded The club is at once stylish individuals. The weed’s and comfortable, but not quality was important, Barcelona snobbish – exactly what the of course, but secondhas emerged cosmopolitan city is about. ary. While the quality of from Covid Plus, Soklak and the rest of Cannabis found in Baras the clear CRTFD’s team is pretty damn celona still has a ways to titan of near certain that Cannabis go, there were genuinely European and art in all its various decent buds to be had forms go hand-in-hand. at every club I walked Cannabis.

“We want to reflect and into. This never used to represent subculture around be the case. the globe,” Soklak told In many ways, what’s me, mentioning that street and skate art are happening at CRTFD and other clubs around cornerstones of the brand’s image. He is prithe city is indicative of Barcelona’s Cannabis marily based in Paris, but spends a lot of time world coming into legitimacy. working in CRTFD’s Amsterdam and BarceStreet art and skate culture have been lona clubs – the latter of which is decked out strong for a long time in Catalonia, the in spray-painted murals by the artist featuring separatist-friendly region of Spain of which his signature script.

Barcelona is the capital.

The dedication to creativity shows up These subcultures dovetail with a robust, throughout the club: The Cannabis jars are politically-left presence in Barcelona, which is made using a special printer and unique particularly exemplified in the city’s squatter graffiti tags, while the clothing features art and anarchist scenes. They have always fed by different kinds of graffiti artists. The weed into one another – with street art, skate cul-

ture, Cannabis use and the squatter lifestyle becoming TINYURL.COM/BCNLEAF @CRTFD.BCN markers of an alternative, more off-the-grid style of living. So, it’s fascinating to see them becoming sought-out spaces, with more public access and a wider mix of people. These things were always cool, but up until recently, you had to be a certain type of person to access it.

I used to live in Barcelona and very much consider it one of my homes, yes … but that’s not how I ended up in that club. I have Cannabis to thank for that.

To me, it’s just one more example of how Cannabis culture fosters community among those who choose to indulge. Just as Soklak and his crew at CRTFD identified, there’s a thread running through all of these subcultures, even though they each have their own thing going on. Once again, Cannabis is the thread tying everything together – even (and especially) in Barcelona right now.

CRTFD BARCELONA

STORY by JACKIE BRYANT @JACQBRY for LEAF NATION | PHOTOS by JACKIE BRYANT & CRTFD

THE TRAVEL ISSUE

46

Dank Destination

the madrones of mendocino exploring the stunning multi-faceted retreat home to a cannabis farm, cannabis retail shop, wine tasting room and more

leafmagazines.com

THE MAJESTY of Mendocino County, with its rolling hills, towering redwoods and craggy coastline, has inspired Cannabis cultivators and winegrowers to plant roots for decades.

Legacy farms nestle next to legendary vineyards in its famed agricultural regions, benefiting from the unique microclimates created by the varied landscape and sunny inland weather colliding with the coastal patterns blowing in from the western shoreline.

It’s this breathtaking confluence of characteristics, along with the romance of nature, that inspired Jim Roberts and Brian Adkinson to create their own experiential enclave here.

That, and the fact that the area is great for producing two of their favorite things: Cannabis and wine.

“The position of the Valley is east-west, not north-south, and because of that we pull the fog in from the coast at night, and it goes back out in the day,” Adkinson said. “So we have cool nights and hot days that make it perfect for growing Pinot Noir.”

MAY 2022

As self-described “partners in work and life,” Adkinson and Roberts founded an ensemble of boutique businesses just outside the town of Philo, in order to offer an array of opportunities for visitors and locals alike to enjoy the flavors and beauty of a region famed for its heritage apples, sheep, Cannabis and wine.

Operating two retreats with overnight accommodations, the 5,000-square-foot Sugar Hill Cannabis farm, a Cannabis retail location, a wine tasting room, and an events facility all next door to one another – the pair are basically collecting everything they love about the region under their own umbrella.

It’s an obvious but rare concept to create a Cannabis tourism destination in a region famous for wine tourism. After all, though it’s still not legal for members of the general public to simply tour Cannabis grows, it’s the natural progression for the community to start to act more like the analogous wine and beer industries as it wades into the mainstream.

“There are a lot of things to do up here,” Adkinson said. “Hiking, wine tasting, cheese

upcoming events June 3: Mendocino Film Festival screening of “Lady Buds” June 5: Cannabis Farmers Market at The Brambles July 16: Dinner and Cannabis Live Auction at The Brambles Aug.13, Oct. 1, Nov. 5: Infused dinner with Bronson Macomber and farm tour weekend

More info at Mendocinofilmfestival.com & themadrones.com/the-brambles

owners jim Roberts and Brian Adkinson

Since it’s in an area surrounded by tasting and great restaurants, and Cannabis traditional wine tourism and coastal vacacan really help elevate that experience.” tioners, their spot often attracts people who The flagship of the operation, The Madrowouldn’t otherwise find themselves stepping nes, is a Mediterranean-inspired collection of into a dispensary. nine guest accommodations, two wine-tast“Sometimes we call ourselves “The ing rooms, The Bohemian Chemist Cannabis Gateway Hotel,’ because we have people retail shop, and Wickson – a restaurant pop into the dispensary and tell us that they named after a local heritage apple that haven’t used pot since they were was in turn named after a pro“Sometimes young,” Adkinson said. They are fessor at Berkeley. we call more than happy to reintroduce After operating The Madrones ourselves the wine-tasting clientele to the for a couple of years, Roberts and ‘The Gateway joys of Cannabis.

Adkinson fell in love with anothHotel,’ Together, the pair and their staff er 12-acre parcel of land fewer because we play host to weddings, business than 500 yards away that was have people retreats, wellness retreats and at home to a forest of beautiful oldpop into the long last, Cannatourism events. growth redwoods. They decided dispensary Roberts, who is on the Board to purchase the land in 2015 and and tell us of Directors for the Mendocino create The Brambles, an event that they Cannabis Alliance, is particularly space and retreat with five guest haven’t used excited about the events planned accommodations. pot since for the summer.

“We just wanted to be the stewthey were They’re screening the Menards of these magnificent beings young,” docino Film Festival’s first-ever for a short period of time,” AdkinCannabis themed film – the locally produced son said of the redwoods on the property.

“Lady Buds” – teaming with Nikki Lastreto and Swami Chaitanya of Swami Selects for a Cannabis auction, and also collaborating with San Francisco Chef Bronson Macomber for a series of Cannabis-infused, seven-course meals as part of three weekend-long farm tourism escape packages. They hope that people continue to visit and fall in love with the region and its distinct flavors, just as they have.

“I think we have a unique property, and the Anderson Valley’s such a stunning area anyway,” Roberts said. “We have first class wineries around us, amazing Cannabis, and we’re so happy we could pull it all together.”

The Madrones & The Brambles 14 guest rooms | Wickson restaurant Wine, cheese, and Cannabis tasting Events space themadrones.com

The Bohemian Chemist Herbal Apothecary Shop 9000 CA-128, Philo, CA Open Thursday-Monday, 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Wednesday, 2 p.m. - 6 p.m. | Closed Tuesdays thebohemianchemist.com

Sugar Hill Farm 5000-square-foot full-term sungrown Cannabis cultivation specializing in landrace strains and the stretchy sativa cultivars that succeed in the Mendocino climate, sold under The Bohemian Chemist brand. Strain highlights: African Orange, Pineapple Sorbet, Sour Cookies, Snowy White. thebohemianchemist.com/sugarhill-farm

STORY by TOM BOWERS @CANNABOMBTOM/LEAF NATION | PHOTOS by BOBBY BLACK @BOBBYBLACK420 | FARM PHOTOS by SUGAR HILL FARM

THE TRAVEL ISSUE

Dank Destination

Matt Onkka will be your guide

48

getting high in style leafmagazines.com

experience the best of oregon’s cannabis culture aboard this pot leaf-covered tour bus

OREGON is notorious for being historically pro-pot. A medical state since 1998, the Cannabis market expanded exponentially when Oregon voters passed Measure 91 to legalize adult-use marijuana in 2014. Since then, green crosses have popped up all across the state, with over 100 weed retailers in Portland alone.

While shopping at a dispensary or opting for delivery is a sweet treat to any Cannabis fan, Portland also offers a unique experience for locals and tourists interested in a daytime weed adventure.

THE POTLANDIA EXPERIENCE

POTLANDIAEXPERIENCE.COM FB.COM/POTLANDIATOURS

may 2022

The Potlandia Experience is the perfect way to kick back, relax, and learn a thing or two about Cannabis culture around Portland. Originally operated by Great Oregon Tours, the Potlandia Experience was once hosted by tour guides Wayne Oppenheimer and his wife Camille. After years of guiding wine tours, they decided to offer a different kind of experience for Cannabis-curious visitors. Legalization opened up new possibilities for weed tourism … what better way to educate and entertain than with a tour bus decked out in every manner of Cannabis paraphernalia?

The bright purple tour bus is decorated with giant pot leaves and lightning bolts, and the interior is even more magical. The plush seats are emblazoned with pot leaves and flashing party lights line the ceiling.

Rolling papers and trays, bongs and bowls are ready to be filled with Oregon’s finest herb.

If the loud exterior doesn’t give away what’s going on inside, fog machines kick on every time guests exit the bus – giving the illusion of a fully hot-boxed scene.

In September 2019, Portland local Matt Onkka acquired the business and continued to offer two Cannabis-themed tours before the pandemic forced Onkka to shut down in March 2020, remaining closed for the following year. “COVID almost eliminated us,” he said. Things were slow to pick back up when Onkka opened for tours again, but he feels confident that the lifted restrictions will boost business.

“I did just recently re-open and we are starting to get some more interest, and hope we will continue to get busier as the pandemic is waning and people are more comfortable getting out and doing more things,” said Onkka.

The first of his offerings, The Marijuana Tour, is a rock ‘n’ roll trip around Portland designed to provide a VIP tour of the city, with plenty of stops along the way. Born and raised in Portland, Onkka has a depth of knowledge about the City of Roses. As the purple bus glides through the city, Onkka offers up the good, the bad and the ugly about his hometown.

Guests learn about the Shanghai Tunnels, the history of Laurelhurst Park, and what exactly the TV show The Simpsons has to do with Portland.

The first stop on the city tour is the Homegrown Apothecary. During the dispensary visit, guests learn a little Cannabis 101 from the knowledgeable budtenders and have the chance to stock up on weed, edibles, topicals, beverages and anything else guests wish to try. There’s no need to worry about legality. The tour bus is private property, making it a safe space for consumption. While guests make use of the bongs and bowls inside the bus, Onkka heads to famous locales like Burnside Skatepark and Pittock Mansion.

An authentic 420 experience, the tours last precisely 4 hours and 20 minutes, beginning at 11:00 a.m. Tickets are $79 and there is a two-person minimum to book.

Guests should bring cash for the dispensary, food carts and other stops along the way.

fog machines kick on every time guests exit the bus

When the munchies kick in, the bus pulls up to the Hawthorne Asylum food cart to grab lunch at one of the city’s famous spots. With various food trucks in every lot, there is undoubtedly a tasty treat for everyone.

The tour continues on to Portland’s Rose Gardens where guests can stretch their legs and take in the beauty of this botanical garden featuring over 10,000 roses. Then, after a little fresh air, it’s off to Voodoo Doughnuts – a favorite for tourists and locals alike.

The second Portlandia Experience is the Weed and Waterfalls Tour. This is the perfect day trip for nature lovers. Bring a camera (and possibly a rain jacket) for this adventure. After visiting Homegrown Apothecary, Onkka takes guests through the scenic Columbia River Gorge. This area is well-known for its breathtaking waterfalls – and guests can exit the bus to take in the views of Horsetail, Multnomah and Latourell Falls.

Onkka stops at Crown Point Vista House, dubbed the “crown jewel” of the Columbia River Gorge. The century-old observatory is now a museum and rest area, complete with a gift shop and some of the most spectacular views in the area.

“The other big thing that has affected us is the price of gas and insurance premiums doubling, but even with those factored in, I’m trying to still provide people with an amazing tour, still at our normal price as I’m trying not to be a part of the inflation problem. It makes it a little harder, but my goal is for everybody to have a great time at a reasonable price,” said Onkka.

Looking forward, Onkka has new offerings in the works. “We have been in talks with a farm to provide a farm tour and also want to do a ‘puff and paint’ event. During the pandemic, I started dabbling with different types of painting and I feel like it would be a really fun thing to incorporate,” he said.

The tour bus is also available for private parties for things like corporate events, bachelor and bachelorette parties, or just a night out on the town amongst friends.

“I even have a TV on the bus and can easily hook up a DVD player, Xbox or Nintendo Wii for added entertainment during longer events,” said Onkka. And don’t forget: Private parties are customizable, so you can be the creator of your very own Potlandia Experience.

STORY by HOLLY CRAWFORD for OREGON LEAF | PHOTOS by DIANA THOMPSON @DUDE.DIANA

THE TRAVEL ISSUE

bud and breakfasts

As the pandemic works its way into the rearview mirror, people have been hitting the road, hopping on planes, and booking vacations left and right.

But what about bringing your trusty friend Cannabis? There isn’t anything like getting your stoney on after a long day filled with adventures, though unfortunately there is still no such thing as lighting one up in your hotel room. Well, you can if you stay at a Cannabis-friendly vacation rental.

50 the tokintree

cave junction

leafmagazines.com

Your inner child will be jumping for joy when you see The TokinTree. This 1BR/1BA rental is located in Southern Oregon and can only be entered via bridge or ladder.

Why? Well, because you will be sleeping in a treehouse, of course! “Cannatourism has gotten quite popular and treehouses are all the rage these days. We figured if we combined the two we couldn’t go wrong.

What better way to get ‘high’ than by going out on a limb?!” says host, Alex. Able to accommodate up to four guests, this quaint treehouse gives stoners a chance to smoke their trees IN a tree! And here’s the bonus: A functioning Cannabis farm is at your fingertips with tours available during the growing season. Complimentary greens from their gardens will also be available for your bowl-loading pleasure. tinyurl.com/tokintree

The Margaux Airstream

the woodland cottage

About 25 minutes from Medford, the Woodland Cottage is perfect for a big group of stoners wanting to escape reality and dive into nature. Nothing like waking and baking to the freshest air you could breathe in Oregon. Enjoy outside consumption at this private retreat and explore the beautiful hikes, lush meadows and secluded orchard. The indoors provide a warm cabin feel with a large library to pick from before you lay in the hammock. Spark up, relax, and get in touch with Mother Nature in a cottage that feels like your own. tinyurl.com/thewoodlandcottage

portland

Looking for a LGBTQ+ and Cannabis friendly stay? The Margaux Airstream, located in the Mt. Scott neighborhood, is a private trailer with a retro vibe and can house two guests. Tap into the nostalgia while staying in this refurbished 1969 Airstream that oozes comfort and fun. “As a host and also a frequent guest in Airbnbs, I’ve picked up on little details that make stays more memorable. Artistic touches, thoughtful amenities, and kind interactions with the host really make all the difference,” says host, Kayla. “I love staying in unique spaces where the host has thought through my needs as a guest and made them accessible. The aesthetic is purely an expression of my own personal style.” In the morning you can wake ‘n’ bake while walking to Heart Coffee Shop and at night you can smoke up and enjoy the hot tub on the property.

Be prepared to be charmed and book another stay in the heart of PDX, because nothing is basic about sleeping in an Airstream. tinyurl.com/margauxpdx

may 2022

jacksonville

the pyramid house

yachats

This insane, 4-story secluded architectural oceanfront home has 3BD/2BA, can sleep five guests comfortably, and has the best views to get high to. There is loads to explore being so close to Cape Perpetua and Thor’s Well. Don’t forget that America’s largest sea cave, Sea Lion Cave, is just a 10-minute drive away.

“I am a holistic doctor, so my place is all about enhancing your healing process in ways one becomes more balanced. Come experience the magic of your being as you integrate with beautiful nature within this 5D, amazing stargate pyramid portal at the sea!” says host, Pamela. Enjoy a sandy walk on the ocean shore, cozy up on the top floor, or head to Yachats Cannabis Company for a curbside pickup then hit the sand dunes. The Pyramid House gives you all the beach vibes and is sure to give you the best high while gazing at the sun setting on the horizon. tinyurl.com/thepyramidhouse

The Westside Bud ’n’ Breakfast

bend

You may have heard of one of Central Oregon’s most prized dispensaries, Tokyo Starfish, but did you know that the second floor is a 2BR apartment ready for your next stoney vacation? This cozy Bud ‘n’ Breakfast comes complete with a complimentary gift card that can be used downstairs on any product that suits your fancy and a king-sized bed for the Cannabis coma you slip into afterwards. “The apartment itself is an updated Westside cottage built in the early 1900s.

Situated conveniently within walking distance to the Deschutes River, downtown Bend, the Old Mill District, Les Schwab Amphitheater, plus dozens of vibrant restaurants, coffee shops, and Market of Choice grocery store,” says host, Jason. With the best of Bend right outside your door and a dispensary directly below, this Bud ‘n’ Breakfast is a stoner’s dream come true. tinyurl.com/westsidebnb

STORY by DIANA THOMPSON @DUDE.DIANA | PHOTOS by AIRBNB/HOSTS

cooking with cannabis

DESPITE DIGGING OUT FROM A FREAK BLIZZARD IN APRIL, May is mostly mild and green. Very green. Fresh fruits and vegetables are arriving on the scene, and hanging outside still seems like the preferable way to go. If you can get to a farmers market, you can choose your meals seasonally – that’s good for you and the farmers. Not to mention the planet … and who doesn’t want to do that? I’ve recently started a more plant-forward diet including nuts, vegetables, fruits and grains.

Meat is not off the table, it just appears more as a side than the main course. It feels good, I have more energy – and I’m taking care of myself and Mother Earth.

Serves four

THAI SHRIMP SALAD R EC I P E S by LAU RIE WOLF P HOTOS by B RUC E WOLF

1⁄2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 4 medium limes) 2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce (nam pla) 4 teaspoons canna-oil 2 teaspoons coconut palm sugar or brown sugar 1 small onion, chopped 1 serrano chile, seeded and chopped 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 pound medium or large shrimp, peeled, deveined and cooked 2 medium green papayas, sliced or cubed 2 carrots, shredded 8 leaves fresh mint, for garnish 1⁄4 cup cilantro, for garnish 1⁄4 cup peanuts, for garnish

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the lime juice, fish sauce, canna-oil, sugar, onion, chile and garlic.

2. In a large serving bowl, combine the shrimp, papayas and carrots. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well to combine.

3. Garnish with the mint, cilantro and peanuts before serving.

54 THIS IS A GREAT WARM-WEATHER SALAD, with an interesting mix of flavors, colors and textures.

I love pairing shrimp with papaya, and the garnishes of mint, cilantro and peanuts really bring it all together.

may play Serves 12

LEAFMAGAZINES.COM

CANNABIS CARROT CAKE FROSTING INGREDIENTS 1 pound cream cheese, softened 4 tablespoons canna-butter, softened 3 cups confectioners’ sugar 1 tablespoon vanilla extract pinch of kosher salt

CAKE INGREDIENTS Cooking spray, for greasing the pan 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 3⁄4 teaspoons baking soda 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1⁄2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1⁄2 teaspoon ground ginger 1⁄2 teaspoon salt (kosher or sea) 2 2/3 cups grated carrots 1 cup chopped walnuts, 1⁄4 cup reserved for decorating cake 1 cup canola oil 4 large eggs, lightly beaten 2 cups packed brown sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 340°F. Spray two, 9-inch square cake pans with cooking spray and set them aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or with a wooden spoon in a large bowl), combine the carrots, 3⁄4 cup walnuts, oil, eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla on medium speed.

4. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture, and mix until just blended, scraping down the bowl as needed.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs on it.

6. Let the cakes cool in the pans.

7. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or use a hand mixer or a wooden spoon in a large bowl), beat the cream cheese and cannabutter on medium speed until very smooth and creamy, 3 to 5 minutes.

8. Add the confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and salt, and beat on medium-high until fluffy, about 3 minutes.

9. When the cakes have completely cooled, turn the first cake out onto a serving plate. Using an offset spatula, spread a little less than half the frosting over the top.

10. Turn out the second layer on top of the first, and spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake. Sprinkle the reserved walnuts on top.

may 2022

Serves two

MEDITERRANEAN VEGGIE AND HUMMUS SANDWICHES 1 small zucchini, cut into thin strips 1 bell pepper, any color, seeded and cut into thin strips 1 small red onion, thinly sliced 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1⁄2 teaspoon dried oregano Salt (kosher or sea) and freshly ground pepper, to taste 1⁄2 cup hummus 2 teaspoons canna-oil 4 slices whole-grain bread

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. 2. Pour the olive oil onto a rimmed baking sheet. Put the zucchini, bell pepper and onion slices on the baking sheet, and sprinkle with the cumin, oregano, salt and pepper. Toss to coat and bake until the vegetables are tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Let the veggies cool.

3. In a small bowl combine the hummus and the infused oil. Spread the hummus equally on all four slices of bread.

4. Divide the vegetables between two bread slices, add more salt and pepper to taste, and top with the remaining two slices of bread.

5. Slice each sandwich in half before serving.

#M ot hersandCannabi s #EatYourCannabi s #Dont FearTheEd ib le # Ma y P la y # BeKind # Weed ALot

edible of the month

YAMBA FLOSS HOT BOX FARMS

As we tip-toe into summer and each day brings us closer to all the things we love about this time of year, Yamba Floss will transport you back to standing in line at your favorite summer event – anxiously waiting for a handheld, pink and blue cloud of delight.

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“A carnival of THC-laden flavor and fun in each and every bite.”

MAY 2022

SPUN SUGAR FLOSS has roots all the way back to the World’s Fair in 1908, when a remarkable collaboration with dentist William Morrison and Tennessee candy-maker John Wharton created the candy floss we know today. But the original gets a new age twist with the Yamba Floss, bringing Cannabis infusion to the summertime classic.

The Yamba Floss version stands out because they created their own Cannabis-infused sugar which they then flavor and color. I recently indulged in the blueberry-strawberry and lemon-lime varieties, both of which delighted the taste buds with summertime vibes. When sharing with friends, all were impressed. The 1015mg dose per person summoned a nice case of giggles and hilarity to the evening, ultimately enlivening our dinner and nixing our dessert from the menu.

The aforementioned laughter is a testament to the quick onset of the Yamba Floss. As sugar floss basically melts in your mouth upon contact, the effects function more like a sublingual dose of THC. We’re talking 15-20 minutes until you’re high, not 90. I found that half of a 25mg package was my sweet spot, but admittedly, the tastiness had me craving more. Sweet tooths beware … there’s a carnival of THC-laden flavor and fun in each and every bite.

Yamba Floss has nailed the classic, billowy, soft texture and nostalgic scent of sweet fruit we all remember.

So if you can’t make it to the fair, circus or carnival this summer, you can always pick up some of this product for a throwback treat that’s sure to make you smile. @YAMBA.JUNK 44.38MG THC PER PACKAGE

REVIEW by DAVE MCDOWELL for OREGON LEAF | PHOTO by DIANA THOMPSON @DUDE.DIANA

1% of all salee gg towarr bee researcc ann educatioo

concentrate of the month LEAFMAGAZINES.COM

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EXTRACTED BY NOGERO C U LT I VAT E D B Y R E U P FA R M S

RUNTZ CARTRIDGE Nogero’s products are a shining example of what a top-tier portable can be.

For the last few years, vape products have felt like a glimpse into the future – an excellent idea hampered by cobbled together e-cig technology and nascent extraction techniques. Now, as the tech catches up with consumer demand, we’re beginning to see its full potential … full-flavored hits of extract, nearly as rich and effective as a dab vaporized by a fiddly bit of torch-warmed quartz.

JUST DON’T CALL IT A PEN. Nogero uses the Maxx, a vape delivery device by Maximum Scientific. It uses a familiar, but proprietary, pod technology and variable voltage to deliver what they are calling Terp Temp Technology. Though the device has a thumb-friendly central button, it is simply there to adjust the voltage between the three temp settings. Inhalation activated, a light draw is all that is needed to kick the device into gear and deliver a thick and flavorful vapor cloud.

The crew at Nogero has made prudent moves in a market where it’s easier to tollprocess extracts than it is to partner with good farms and provide an excellent product.

Working with growers like ReUp and selecting cultivars grown with pride allows them to produce an extract of the highest quality – leaps and bounds beyond the oil that was filling carts in the not-so-distant past. The resulting oil is light gold and perfectly translucent, complete with the same rich flavors and fine nuances of the flower.

This is no surprise considering it’s coming directly out of their NOGERO.COM futuristic lab. The machines they are using for extraction are @MYNOGERO typically reserved for high-end perfume production. Their techs 66.1% THC are making extracts a lot like the way a company such as Dior 0.28% CBD might process rose petals for next season’s perfume. Drawing out 7.53 % TERPS subtleties and compounds that other methods might miss.

Everything about this experience feels dialed in and refined. The pod snaps in with a snug and satisfying magnetic click, while the device simultaneously replies with a tactile buzz to let you know it’s ready to go. It feels smooth and reliable. There’s no concern that this oil is going to leak in a pocket or that the battery will blink beggingly after an extended charge. Just when it seems our oft-promised vision of the future – the hoverboard – is likely a pipedream, Nogero one-ups that idea and brings the future to us with a high-tech vape the size of a key chain.

“Light gold and perfectly translucent, complete with the same rich flavors and fine nuances of the flower.”

may 2022

REVIEW by RYAN HERRON @THELOUD100 for OREGON LEAF | PHOTO by DIANA THOMPSON @DUDE.DIANA

TOPICAL of the month

Industry veterans Medicine Farm Botanicals have been crafting top-shelf topicals since 2015. Their four-person team has successfully launched over 30 products and has recently expanded its offerings into Colorado, as well as preparing to launch in California in the coming year.

TATTOO SALVE MEDICINE FARM BOTANICALS

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“You could walk outside and gather all the ingredients needed to make Medicine Farm products; I strive to keep our products clean and effective.” Owner Shane Patel

may 2022

WHAT MAKES Medicine Farm Botanicals’ products so effective? “A big part of my company ethos is providing clean, natural products that only incorporate the highest-quality medicinal botanicals,” says Owner Shane Patel. Using only full-spectrum extracts, rosin and live resin, Medicine Farm sources Cannabis from notable growers like Indigo Gardens and Fox Hollow Flora. Award-winning extractors like Willamette Valley Alchemy turn their Cannabis into the rich, golden oil infused into each of Medicine Farm’s products.

It’s not just their Cannabis extracts that are top quality – their entire ingredient list adheres to their company ethics. Following an Ayurvedic protocol of harvesting locally, their product line is infused with medicinal herbs, flowers, roots and spices. In these all-natural infusions, you won’t find parabens, sulfates, mineral oils or artificial fragrances. “You could walk outside and gather all the ingredients needed to make Medicine Farm products; I strive to keep our products clean and effective,” says Patel.

When they first launched into dispensaries, Medicine Farm was ubiquitous with their Dragon’s Blend. The Tiger Balm of the weed world, this smooth salve worked quickly to alleviate physical discomfort and before long became a patient favorite. Over the years, Medicine Farm has worked to build its product line – expanding into lotions, bath soaking salts, lip balm and tinctures.

One of their latest and most fabulous creations is their Tattoo Salve. Formulated with a THC, CBD and CBN cannabinoid profile, the salve is made with base oils like apricot and avocado, and infusions of soothing herbs like chamomile, comfrey and calendula.

After a recent tattoo, I picked up a jar of Tattoo Salve to swap out with my regular after-care plan. Patel offered me care instructions and suggested I wait a couple of days after receiving the tattoo to begin using the salve. For anyone familiar with this stage of the healing process, you know that it’s when things get, well, itchy. Then, as the skin begins to dry and flake off, the urge to scratch takes over – but you’ve got to leave it alone or risk discoloration and scarring.

With the first application, I knew that this would become my go-to after-care ointment. The salve is unscented (a must for tattoo care) and the texture is similar to a lip balm. Not greasy or messy, but smooth and easy to apply. I knew it was superior skincare MFBOTANICALS.COM when the itching seemed @MEDICINEFARM to stop right away. The dry THC:CBD:CBN tightness of my healing 150:100:50 skin simply stopped being a bother, and rather than apply the new balm every couple of hours like I was used to, I only needed to apply Tattoo Salve twice a day.

My new tattoo is on its way to total healing – both scab-free and complete with vibrant colors. My skin feels moisturized and it’s a credit to the significant role Tattoo Salve played. If you’re getting inked up anytime soon, do yourself a favor and grab this product for an entirely new experience with getting your skin back to good.

REVIEW by HOLLY CRAWFORD for OREGON LEAF | PHOTO by AMANDA DAY @TERPODACTYL_MEDIA

reviews

off the shelf

TWO KIEFS FROM FRUITY PEBBLES CROSSES … POUR YOURSELF A BOWL.

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HEADS UP BOWL SMOKERS, joint tokers and blunt rollers – this month we’re talking about a Cannabis classic that is a great addition to any of your smoking styles: kief.

Versatile and potent, this collection of trichomes can be sprinkled upon virtually any weed you wish for an elevated high. And with Star Pebbles and Sundae Driver, you’re due a nice dose of Fruity Pebbles that’s sure to bring a smooth and sweet euphoria.

DESCHUTES GROWERY STAR PEBBLES WIZARD DUST

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HIGHLAND PROVISIONS SUNDAE DRIVER

HIGHLANDPROVISIONSCO.COM

My first whiff of this bouquet of spicy citrus and floral really opened up the senses. Adding it to a bowl of hybrid-leaning flower as a topper, the Star Pebbles leaned in with its indica vibes and added an extra layer of comfort to my high.

While this Wizard Dust made my bowl last longer, the flavors that sang through were even more impressive.

The Star Dawg lineage was most definitely present with its peppery goodness, while the Fruity Pebbles left some Purps flavors lingering.

The high was euphoric, comforting and balanced – a perfect tool to let yourself connect through some meditation, or maybe a tranquil mushroom hunt with Mother Nature. Deschutes Growery has been a long time favorite of mine, and their devotion to their craft is unmistakable in every way.

It is not often that you come across a 2.5 gram jar of sugary, lemony, blonde kief. @HIGHLANDPROVISIONS With 2.5 grams to play with, I pulled out the old school penny-sized hash press, 45.93% THC | 2.62% TERPENES dropped in a gram, and gave it the old anaconda squeeze. Next, I rolled a ‘chonky boi’ (LIMONENE, LINALOOL AND doobie and planted that Sundae Driver kief right in the middle. I’m lucky enough to live CARYOPHYLLENE) within a half mile from one of the best ice cream shops in town, so why wouldn’t I take my Sundae Driver doobie for a walk to the ice cream shop?

Sundae Driver is a cross of Grape Pie and Fruity Pebbles, and almost a straight up 50/50 hybrid. With the fruity magic working on my mind, my walk was a mood-lifting, anxiety-dashing, dancing-on-the-sidewalk kind of adventure. I was lost in my own world of weed when I remembered I was en route to get ice cream.

Overjoyed, it wasn’t long before I was making my way back home with a waffle cone of black licorice ice cream in hand and Wu-tang in my ears. I “shimmy shimmy ya, shimmy yam, shimmy yay-ed” my way home. Think stress relief and smiles if you take this Sundae Driver kief for a ride.

“A PERFECT TOOL TO LET YOURSELF CONNECT THROUGH SOME MEDITATION, OR MAYBE A TRANQUIL MUSHROOM HUNT WITH MOTHER NATURE.”

“WITH THE FRUITY MAGIC WORKING ON MY MIND, MY WALK WAS A MOOD-LIFTING, ANXIETY-DASHING, DANCING-ON-THE-SIDEWALK KIND OF ADVENTURE.”

DESCHUTESGROWERY.COM @DESCHUTES.GROWERY 27% THC

MAY 2022

REVIEWS by DAVE MCDOWELL for OREGON LEAF | PHOTOS by DIANA THOMPSON @DUDE.DIANA

HIGH EATS

STONER CUISINE TO THE EXTREME

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WEED-FIRED, WOOD-FIRED

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RUTHIE’S PDX & HIGH NOON’S PLATINUM GARLIC BUTTER

GRANDMA RUTHIE’S RECIPES live on in a tucked-away corner take advantage of the format to stack goodies like house-made of Southeast Portland. On busy SE Division, in between hip bars pork roll and pimento cheese, or fresh rockfish and veggies to and spendy restaurants, is an alleyway food cart that’s serving make an elevated sandwich. up some of the best wood-fired fare in town. You can’t miss it – Speaking of elevated, we brought along High Noon Cultithe little red cart on the left cranking out good music and even vator’s Platinum Garlic Butter as an aperitif. Beyond increasing better food – all cooked in the singular wood-fired oven the appetites, their PGB has the sort of profile that can stand up previous owners installed to cook pizza. against aggressive spice and smoke, while also offering compleBut don’t show up expecting anything that might resemble mentary savory, allium and clarified butter flavors. High Noon’s pizza. Owners Collin Mohr and Aaron Case dig the occasoil-grown “low till” methodology and their penchant for phesional slice of course, but the food they’re no-hunting allows them to select cultivars making hits on a more personal level. As that excel in their dialed-in beds. Instead RUTHIE’S PDX childhood friends growing up in Utah, of adjusting their regimen to fit whatever 3634 SE DIVISION ST, PORTLAND the guys connected with the passed-down hype flavor is trending this season, they RUTHIESPDX.COM @RUTHIESPDX family cookbooks and the lightly competitive gravitate towards the plants that shine in 4PM-9PM THURS-MON atmosphere of the food served at Mormon their garden.

(801) 648-3307 gatherings. Think less green Jello and more Potent herb and fire-cooked food, it’s HIGH NOON seasonal eating, food preservation and the perfect pairing. The sandwich has that HIGH-NOON.ORG (COMING SOON) hearty meals. There’s a reason the farm-tobalance of crisp lettuce and enough heat @HIGH_NOON_CULT table crowd has gravitated toward Ruthie’s. from the spice blend that I’m immediately 25.8% THC | 0.1% CBD The offerings at the cart change with the drawn to take another bite to stave off the seasons and the whims of the owners. When burn. Fresh from the oven, the roll is as asked about their creative musings with the menu, Collin said, good as you can imagine … kissed by smoke and aglow with a “We honestly get stoned, pull out our phones and spitball ideas. buttery sheen.

One of us will text the other something like ‘crispy shrimp’ and Aaron and Collin are cooking the seasonal stoner food we the response is ‘yo, let’s do it.’ The next day it’s on the menu.” didn’t know we needed – honoring Grandma Ruth and blazing There’s just one permanent fixture on the menu: Ruth’s Rolls. their trail by highlighting the bounty of the PNW. The guys are cooking them just as she would have, with the They’re doing their own thing and we’re all better off for it. tried-and-true same flour and honey sourced from Utah. They’re Just follow the smoke on SE Division to find the best feel-good a little larger than Collin’s grandma used to make and the boys food any ganja-loving gourmand could ask for.

may 2022

“Speaking of elevated, we brought along High Noon Cultivator’s Platinum Garlic Butter as an aperitif.”

REVIEW by RYAN HERRON @THELOUD100 for OREGON LEAF | PHOTOS by FLETCHER WOLD @FWOLD_PHOTOGRAPHY

cannthropology

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WORLD OF Cannabis PRESENTS

Pakalolo in the Pacific

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With its mineral-rich volcanic soil, tropical temperatures and abundant rainfall, the Pacific paradise of Hawaii has the ideal conditions to grow some of the most stellar weed in the world, including iconic strains like Puna Budder, Kauai Electric and of course, the legendary Maui Wowie.

But exactly how and when cannabis first arrived on the isolated islands remains one of history’s little mysteries.

INTRO TO THE ISLANDS The first recorded reference to Cannabis in the Hawaiian Islands was published in the Honolulu newspaper Ka Nonanona in 1842, where it was referred to as “pakalolo.” Though probably meant as a derogatory term at the time, pakalolo – which roughly translates to “numbing tobacco” or “crazy weed” by some accounts – remains the name Hawaiians use for the herb to this day.

There’s no doubt that Cannabis had been in Hawaii long before 1842, but how it first arrived there is unclear. Issue of Ko Nonanona newspaper, 1842.

Some claim the original Polynesian settlers (who had previously migrated from Asia) brought it with them when they first sailed to the islands as early as the fourth or fifth century, but there doesn’t seem to be any proof of that. Others claim that Cannabis may have been brought there by the Mexican cowboys (known as vaqueros or paniolos) who came to Hawaii to work on King Kamehameha’s cattle ranches starting around 1793, or by

MAY 2022

Britain’s Royal botanist, Sir Joseph Banks.

sailors on whaling ships around 1820. While either of those groups may have brought Cannabis with them, there’s no evidence that they were actually the first. Rather, the most plausible explanation, according to my research, is that Cannabis was introduced to Hawaii by the first European explorers who visited the archipelago in the late 18th century – thanks to a hemp-loving horticulturalist named Joseph Banks.

SIR JOSEPH BANKS Sir Joseph Banks was the head botanist for the British Empire and an adviser to King George III. He also happened to be a well-established

Cannabis enthusiast who encouraged the monarchy to grow hemp for practical and strategic purposes (essential to use for sails and ropes for the Navy’s ships and to make parchment for writing letters and documents) and urged the King to underwrite voyages of discovery to new regions of the globe, so that he could collect and study samples of any new flora and fauna they discovered.

In 1766, the 23-year-old Banks was elected to the Royal Society and embarked on his first sea voyage, which took him to Newfoundland and Labrador. Then two years later in 1768, he was appointed to a scientific expedition to the South Pacific aboard the Royal Naval ship HMS Endeavor, commanded by 39-year-old Captain James Cook. Later dubbed “the man who mapped the world,” Cook had been commissioned by the British Admiralty to sail to the Pacific Ocean to record the transit of Venus across the Sun – an astrological phenomenon that, if correctly observed and recorded, could help determine the distance of the Earth from the Sun. On both of these voyages, Banks brought with him an array of various seeds with which to trade (at that time, seeds could be used as a sort of universal currency), and this extensive seed bank undoubtedly included several varieties of Cannabis.

Main photo: A View of Karakakooa, in Owyhee — color print of HMS Resolution’s arrival in Hawaii by John Webber (1784).

Banks continued to evangelize for Cannabis for the remainder of his life, and his interest in the plant was in no way limited to its industrial uses.

During his three-year Above: A period map journey aboard the Endeavor, of the Hawaiian (aka Banks visited Brazil, Tahiti, Sandwich) Islands.

New Zealand and the eastern shores of Australia, where he Banks may not have collected over 30,000 plant been on board that specimens and named over expedition to Hawaii, 1,400 new species. In fact, but his seeds almost Australia’s Botany Bay is so Engraving Engraving of of the the HMS HMS Endeavor Endeavor off off the the coast coast of of certainly were. He named because of “the great eastern eastern Australia Australia by

by Julian Julian Ashton Ashton (1770).

(1770). was still the Crown’s quantity of plants Mr. Banks horticultural advisor … found in this place.” and was known to require that a wide variety of When Banks returned home to London in 1771, he beseeds be brought along on all voyages – includcame an instant celebrity in the scientific community. ing Cannabis, which the Brits would’ve wanted to plant on the islands so they’d have hemp THE SANDWICH ISLANDS crops waiting for them upon their next visit.

Banks had planned to accompany Cook on a second voyage to the Pacific in 1778, but was denied permission BOTANY BAY to sail by the Admiralty after a fierce disagreement about Though Banks never the lodgings, provisions and equipment he required for returned to the Pacific, the journey. It was on that expedition aboard the HMS he continued to advise Resolution that Cook would “discover” the Hawaiian the Crown regardIslands (which he named the Sandwich Islands, after his ing policy there for friend John Montagu, the Earl of Sandwich). decades to come. It In 1779, the Resolution made landfall at Kealakekua was allegedly Banks Bay on the Big Island, where the Brits first made contact who convinced the with the Natives. Upon their arrival, Cook was perceived British Government as a divine emissary of the Polynesian god Lono, whose to colonize Australia festival the Hawaiians happened to be celebrating when and turn Botany Bay the ship arrived. Because of this, Cook’s initial interacinto a penal colony – tions with the inhabitants were overwhelmingly positive – later earning him the so much so that he and his crew remained on the island, Old botanical illustration honorific “the Father trading and interacting with the Hawaiians peacefully for of cannabis plant. of Australia.” nearly a month. Unfortunately, Cook later ran afoul of In 1788, Banks reportedly gifted a bag of the Natives after attempting to kidnap their king, Kalahemp seeds to the First Fleet before they set out ni’opu’u, in a dispute over a stolen cutter boat and was to find the penal colony. A letter he received stabbed to death along with several of his men. from the East India Company in 1801 provides evidence that his bags of hemp seeds were still The Death of Captain James Cook, by the Indians of being handed out in the Australian colonies 13 O.Why.ee, one of the Sandwich-Islands - an engraving years later. Throughout that time, Banks continby George Carter. ued to exercise his influence over the colony’s governors to expand hemp production there.

In fact, many scholars believe that the growing of hemp was the primary purpose of the New South Wales settlement and that shipping the convicts there was merely a cover to deceive Britain’s rivals.

CANNABIS CODA In closing, it should be noted that Banks continued to evangelize for Cannabis for the remainder of his life and that his interest in the plant was in no way limited to its industrial uses. In addition to the sativa variety commonly used for hemp fiber, he apparently acquired some of the more exotic indica varietals from British sailors Portrait of the multifarious Mr. who’d traveled to Banks by Benjamin West (1773).

India and came to enjoy their medicinal and recreational benefits. It was eventually revealed through his personal letters that Banks even received shipments of hashish from a British consul in Tangiers named James Matra. And in 1803, he provided some of it to his friend, the Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, along with a note saying that its effects included “almost frantic exhilaration” – making Mr. Banks, on top of everything else, England’s first de facto hash smuggler and weed dealer.

STO RY b y B O B BY B LAC K @ CAN N T H RO PO LO G Y for LEA F NAT IO N

ALL IMAGES IN PUBLIC DOMAIN

A painting of Joseph Banks (second from left), Captain James Cook (center), the Earl of Sandwich (right) and other nobleman by John Hamilton Mortimer (1771).

THOSE WHO CAME AFTER Even if, for whatever reason, Banks’ Cannabis seeds didn’t make it onto the islands during Captain Cook’s visit, they could just as easily have been brought by one of the other European explorers who began trading with the Hawaiians in the years that followed. The two next most likely candidates would be Frenchman Jean François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse (or simply Lapérouse), who became the first European to set foot on the island of Maui in 1786, and British Naval Captain George Vancouver, who visited both Australia and the Hawaiian Islands in 1792.

Top: the French Regardless of the exact year explorer Lapérouse. it arrived or by whose hand, it Above: Captain seems clear that Joseph Banks was most likely the true progenitor George Vancouver. of pakalolo in the Pacific. In fact, it’s even rumored that the fruit of one of Banks’ seeds later evolved into one of Hawaii’s most famous landrace strains, Hawaiian Duckfoot.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE TACOS? I mean, this juggernaut of Mexican culture easily rivals the hamburger when competing for “most delectable” item in the food pyramid. And whether you like your fillings grilled, deep fried or sauteed, all it takes is herding the ingredients into a tortilla and wrapping that baby up to convert your hand into a flavor shovel of extreme awesomeness!

Think about it: Tuesday would be Bluesday if not for the amazing taco. And not just because the two are alphabetically compatible, but because tacos are so damn cheerful, they turn an ordinary meal into a downright fiesta. And with the deliciousness well in hand, all you need is a bottle of to-kill-ya to quickly transform a mundane weekday into a Satur-type-day.

So vamanos on those happy hour margaritas amigo, because we’re going to need some tang to punctuate the party.

Tacos aren’t just yummy for the tummy – they give the meal personality. It’s the rare food item that can relocate your dinner table to a barstool smack dab in the middle of a pinata-filled cantina. Suddenly you’re stoned on some pressed brick weed surrounded by a handful of gleeful hombres with frilly tuxedos and giant sombreros strumming guitars, squeezing accordions and singing like angels, and you’ll swear you’ve been transported somewhere south of the border.

Every country has their own version of a taco, right? Poland has the pierogi, Italy has the pizza, and Israel has the falafel. And the United States has the taco pizza.

But back to the food pyramid. I wonder if that originated in Tenochtitlan – that’s where they used to conduct human sacrifices. Those were some evil bastards.

But then, they didn’t have Cinco de Drinko.

MAY 2022

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