Northwest Chronicle - Northwest Chronicle Spring 2016

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Marijuana

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SKAGIT COUNTY’S #1 RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA STORE 21 AND OVER 2615 Old Highway 99 South Mount Vernon

360-419-9700 lovingfarmsmj.com Mon-Sat 9am - 9pm Sun 10am - 6pm We have the best selection WE HAVE THE BEST QUALITY We also have the most affordable options Ounces from $165 Halves from $85 Quarters From $45 Eighths from $25

AVAILABLE NEXT DOOR Hablamos Español 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 and older. Keep out of the reach of children.

LOVING FARMS

T-SHIRTS AND SWEATSHIRTS

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Squaxin Island Tribe opens firstever retail marijuana store located on a reservation Kamilche, Washington - The Squaxin Island Tribe’s retail marijuana store “Elevation” opened for business on the Squaxin Reservation at 4:20 p.m. Nov. 12, 2015. The store was the first Tribal marijuana retailer of its kind to open in the U.S. The store represents the culmination of years of discussion with the Liquor and Cannabis Board following Washington State voters’ decision to legalize medical marijuana in 2012 and recreational marijuana in 2014. The Tribe has established a strict set of regulatory controls designed to prevent crime, protect safety, and prevent access by minors. Product sales are taxed by the Tribe with proceeds dedicated to essential government services.

Through a compact with the state, the Tribe has worked to avoid jurisdictional gaps and present an integrated system of regulation to the public. Products sold at the store are legal under state and Tribal law, and tested, labeled and packaged in conformance with state safety regulations.

“This Tribe has a long history of working through jurisdictional issues with the state using cooperative agreements,” said Squaxin Councilman Jim Peters. “We’re pleased to be able to work with the state from the beginning on this one.”

Through its adoption of parallel laws and regulations and cooperative enforcement with the state, the Tribe has taken steps to make sure it meets the federal factors for prosecutorial discretion in Indian Country, the Wilkinson memo stated.

“We hope this new revenue stream will create jobs and resources that benefit the entire community,” said Council Treasurer Vicki Kruger.

The store is located at 90 W Highway 108 in Kamilche, across the street from the Tribe’s Little Creek Casino Resort.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

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Editorial Content: Leslie Kelly Cover Photo courtesy of: Suspended Brands

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Childhood friends make a go of it in the world of cannabis

BY LESLIE KELLY | lkelly@soundpublishing.com

What’s a financial adviser, a security and technology expert, and two construction business owners doing growing pot?

Plenty.

Suspended Brands is a state-of-the-art hybrid greenhouse/indoor facility located just outside of Belfair. The 12-acre site, formerly the Belfair Valley Nursery, includes a Tier 3 operation in more than 20,000 square feet of greenhouse/warehouse. The business employs 40 people.

The owners, brothers Nenad and Fadi Yashruti, and another set of brothers that they have known since junior high got their state license in February 2015 to begin their cannabis production and processing operation. The two sets of brothers went to school in Port Orchard and are known to have pushed each other to new heights in extreme sports.

“The four of us have been looking for something to do together for the better half of the last decade,” Nenad Yashruti said. “When this came up (legalization of recreational marijuana), none of us had any moral issue with it so we began evaluating the economics of it and decided to go forward.”

Yashruti said he was the one that previously thought voters in Washington wouldn’t approve legal recreational marijuana.

“But that’s been the catapult that’s brought the industry into the light,” he said. “We got pretty serious about it pretty quick.”

With partners in construction (who want to remain unnamed), the first step was to completely renovate the greenhouses that existed on the site. They purchased the property in a foreclosure auction and “got a good deal” because they were able to be creative. They kept an area that the nursery used as retail, added offices, and added steel-reinforced interior walls for security reasons. Then the real work beContinued on Page 11

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gan: construction of a 12,000-square-foot hybrid facility with a massive amount of automation not used in the industry to date.

Yashruti explained that unlike an indoor growing operation, with their greenhouses, they use natural light and heat to save on electricity. The greenhouses are fully automated, using cutting-edge technology where computer and machines determine the correct temperatures, humidity and number of hours of light plants need to grow and then to flower and produce buds. Each building has two weather stations and, when Mother Nature isn’t cooperating, the technology takes over and provides exactly what environment the plants need.

In the vegetative house, the optimal temperature is 72 to 86 degrees with 60 percent humidity and 18 to 19 hours of light per day. In the flower house, it’s 78 to 86 degrees, humidity below 40 percent, and 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness each day.

The greenhouses also are equipped with automated roll-back ceilings (like at Safeco Field) where they can be opened when weather permits, as well as automated side walls. The automatic light-deprivation system produces the 12 hours of darkness needed to force plants to flower. The company expects about five-anda-half maturing crops each year.

Suspended Brands produces 30 strains of cannabis, which have yet to be crossbred. They are becoming known for their high-quality CO2 vape cartridges that are made on site in a full-scale laboraContinued on Page 12

12 The Northwest Chronicle tory. In addition to the lab and greenhouses, they have a dry room, a room for trimming (six employees prune buds), a packaging area, and a processing area where joints are made. All product is weighed by hand and once ready to be delivered to retailers, the products must remain onsite for 24 hours, as required by the state, in case of impromptu inspections.

There is a combined six decades of growing experience among the company’s head growers. The place operates on its own well, which provides the highest-quality water possible, Yashruti said.

And they have huge electrical power boxes that can provide 250,000 watts of power in each greenhouse. They also have a backup generator in the event of a power outage.

Currently, Suspended Brands’ products are in about 35 retail locations. Most recently, they are stocked in the Suquamish Tribe’s new retail location, Agate Dreams. Additionally, they are well represented throughout western Washington’s retail outlets.

The Yashruti brothers and their business partners are glad they took the risk and joined the world of pot production. They say the future is bright.

“We have room to grow,” Yashruti joked, as he opened the back door of the flowering greenhouse to a very large empty field.

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Anyone wondering about Keif?

BY LESLIE KELLY | lkelly@soundpublishing.com

It’s a word that may be new to many casual cannabis users.

It’s keif.

When a cannabis plant reaches maturity, trichomes holding a majority of the cannabinoids are formed on its leaves and buds. The accumulation of these trichomes (or resin glands) creates a fine, powdery substance referred to as kief (also written as keef or kif).

Kief tends to measure between 75 and 125 microns, according to sources at the publication Medical Jane.

Kief on its own is more potent than traditional flower, but less potent than most extracted concentrates like shatter, budder, wax, and oil. The quality of the kief you are collecting will depend directly on the quality of the plant it comes from.

Kief fairly green in color usually indicates that there is a lot of plant matter mixed in, a clear indicator of low-quality kief that should be further refined. Kief that presents very light tan or blonde with an attractive aroma is usually more pure and of high-quality.

There are many methods of collecting kief, some of which can get sophisticated. The easiest way to collect kief is by using a 3-piece herb grinder. The chamber construction of the grinder allows the ground herb to be caught in the middle chamber as the trichomes continue to fall through a screen, collecting in the bottom of the grinder.

To collect larger amounts of kief, many people create makeshift sifters using layered screens. Using a sifter box and a coin, you can expedite the kief collection process by disturbing the trichomes enough to make many fall off. Be sure to wash your hands and the coins first. Handle both the bud and coin as little as possible to minimize the amount of dirt and oils that get into the kief. Place a couple of quarters on the tray along with your dry herb and begin to shake the box hard for about a minute. After you are done shaking, open the box and inspect how much kief has been collected. Repeat the process until you have a satisfactory amount of kief.

On average, kief tends to measure between 75 and 125 microns, so it can be difficult to separate all of the resin from the plant materials. To make sure you’re collecting the purest kief without unwanted green plant matter, it is recommended that you stack three to four layers of fine mesh screen (each finer than the last) one on top of another.

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When a large amount of kief is collected (more than a few grams), it is important to keep the kief in a cool, dark and dry space. For maximum quality, you’ll want to continually stir and mix the kief every few days using a comb to keep the kief from bunching up and or sticking together.

Here are the top five most common uses for kief: 1. Top off your flowers with kief: This is the easiest way to put your kief to use. Simply sprinkle a tiny bit of kief over the cannabis flowers in your bowl, joint, glass, etc. Kief, when heated, tends to burn quickly and will continue to burn until it is gone. To avoid wasting product while you catch your breathe between bowl hits, it is recommended that you space the kief out by lining the outside of a bowl (as opposed to covering the entire top layer).

2. Add kief to your morning cup of coffee: One of the most popular ways of consuming kief is by putting it in your morning cup of joe. The heat of the coffee or cappuccino will activate the kief ’s cannabinoids, making them more available for consumption. Ingesting kief this way will produce a strong, long-lasting effect after just 15-30 minutes, much like eating an infused edible.

3. Whip up some kief butter: Just like you can make infused butter with cannabis flower or hash oil, you can also use kief to produce a stronger end-product. Simply place butter (not margarine) into a crock pot on medium heat until melted completely. Then add your kief and stir every 10 to 15 minutes for five hours. Remove the kief butter from the heat and place in a heat-proof container (a bowl). After it cools completely place a lid on the container and put it in the refrigerator to harden.

4. Brew kief tea: Much like you can put kief in coffee, you can also add it to your favorite cup of hot tea. It only takes a pinch of kief (1 gram will be plenty for four 6-ounce drinks) to create a powerful drink.

5. Turn kief into hash: Hash is basically just heated and pressurized kief. Applying heat and pressure to kief alters its composition by rupturing the resin glands, changing its taste, consistency, and look. The color of kief typically darkens the more it is pressurized. Just as there are many ways you can collect kief, there are many ways to make your own hash. Here is a simple DIY method that involves parchment paper (not wax paper), an iron, and a Continued on Page 17

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buffer (such as a t-shirt, thin towel or even damp newspaper): Heat iron to lowest setting – no steam Take the parchment (adjust to amount to be pressed – typically about a foot), fold in half and place on an iron-ready surface (preferably an ironing board); Place a light layer of kief on the bottom half of the parchment paper (not too thick – about a ¼ inch) and fold the top half over, keeping the kief toward the fold; Put the buffer over the parchment paper; Apply pressure with the iron for no more than three or four seconds at a time, for about 20 swipes, flipping the paper’s side every few swipes Check your progress and adjust heat or force of swipes if too loose or sticky.

Don’t forget to turn off the iron.

One last thing: The term keif refers to the Arabic word kayf which means “pleasure intoxication.”

Source: www.Medicaljane.com

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Green Leaf Recreational 3435 Birch Bay-Lynden Rd Custer, WA 98240 www.greenleafnw.com 360-306-8635 Green Leaf Recreational 4220 Meridian St Suite 102 Bellingham, WA 98226 www.greenleafnw.com 360-526-2198 The Local Joint 5309 Guide Meridian, Bellingham, WA 98226 www.tljbham.com 360-306-3257 West Coast Wellness 3708 Mt Baker Hwy Everson, WA 98247 www.wcwcannabis.com 425-312-7077 High Society 8630 S March Point Rd Anacortes, WA 98221 www.420highsociety.com 360-299-2211 Loving Farms Marijuana Store D, 2615 Old Hwy 99 S Mt Vernon, WA 98273 www.lovingfarmsmj.com 360-419-9700 221 Inc 18729 Fir Island Rd Mt Vernon, WA 98273 221inc.com 360-445-6221 White Rabbit Cannabis South, 15928 WA-99 Lynnwood, WA 98087 www.whiterabbitcannabis.com 425-745-4242 Herbs House 716 NW 65th St Seattle, WA 98117 www.herbshouse.org 206-557-7388 OZ. Recreational Cannabis 3831 Stone Way N Seattle, WA 98103 www.ozseattle.com 206-251-0630 Hashtag Recreational Cannabis 3540 Stone Way N Seattle, WA 98103 www.seattlehashtag.com 206-946-8157 Uncle Ike’s 2310 E Union St Seattle, WA 98122 uncleikespotshop.com 844-420-4537 Cannabis City 2733 4th Ave S Seattle, WA 98134 www.cannabiscity.us 206-682-1332 Ganja Goddess 3207 1st Avenue South Seattle, WA 98134 www.ganjagoddessseattle.com 206-682-7220

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The Evergreen Market Renton 409 Rainier Ave N Renton, WA 98057 www.theevergreenmarket.com 425-318-8898 The Evergreen Market Auburn 402 16th St NE Auburn, WA 98002 www.theevergreenmarket.com 425-318-8898 Paper & Leaf Bldg 3, 8040 NE Day Rd W Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 paperandleaf.com 206-379-2560 Agate Dreams 15915 WA-305 Poulsbo, WA 98370 www.agatedreams.com 360-598-1315 Pacific Cannabis Company 625 N Callow Ave Bremerton, WA 98312 www.paccanco.com 360-616-2014 HWY420 1110 Charleston Beach Rd W Bremerton, WA 98312 hwy420.xyz 360-932-3182 Crock Pot 1703 SE Sedgwick Rd #113 Port Orchard, WA 98366 www.crockpot420.com 360-443-6262 The Root Cellar 23632 WA-3 Belfair, WA 98528 www.therootcellars.com 360-434-8767 Elevation 90 W State Route 108 Shelton, WA 98584 high-elevation.com 360-462-4025 Miller’s Marijuana 5675 US-12 Porter, WA 98541 www.elmamedicaldispensary.com 360-861-4300 Sweet Leaf Cannabis 100 Old Hill Rd Aberdeen, WA 98520 www.sweetleaf.us 360-537-9333 Zia Recreational 905 Simpson Ave Hoquiam, WA 98550 www.ziarecreationalcannabis.com 360-637-8365

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Issaquah Cannabis Company 230 NE Juniper St #201 Issaquah, WA 98027 www.issaquahcannabiscompany.com 425-677-7232

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Evergreen Cannabis 922 Peace Portal Dr. Blaine, WA 98230 www.egcannabis.com 360-332-8922

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Tax time may not be so bad

BY LESLIE KELLY | lkelly@soundpublishing.com

With Tax Day just a few weeks off, you may need some good tax news. The good news is that Washington state, and maybe even the city closest to you, is getting some money from sales taxes paid by folks who are buying marijuana.

Some $6 million in marijuana tax revenue will be distributed this year, and another $6 million next year. The money — generated from July 2014 to December 2015 — is being paid in quarterly installments and takes into account the amount of marijuana sales within a jurisdiction.

Vancouver, in southern Washington, will receive the most tax money in the state, nearly $800,000, according to the Liquor and Cannabis Board.

Tacoma comes in second, $450,000. Seattle will get $383,316.

Here are the 2015 amounts going to other cities in the area.

Arlington: $54,756; Bainbridge Island, $728; Bellingham $102,286; Bothell, $86,721; Bremerton, $9; Everett, $68,322; Mount Vernon, $36,343; Oak Harbor, $15,832; Olympia, $53,475; Port Angeles, $18,710; Port Orchard, $65,211; Renton, $11,714.

Bainbridge Island and Bremerton’s first stores opened in June 2015, which is why they are receiving smaller shares of tax revenue.

Payments to county governments include: Island, $23,749; King, $965,307; Kitsap, $98,924; Skagit, $88,255; and Snohomish, $349,753.

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22 The Northwest Chronicle As far as where people are buying their marijuana, here are the top-selling retail locations in various counties in Western Washington.

King County: Uncle Ike’s in Seattle, sales $12,237,236, taxes $4,284,905.

Snohomish County: Herbal Nation in Bothell, sales $5,318,372, taxes $1,816,389.

Pierce County: Clear Choice Cannabis, sales $4,946,066, taxes $1,727,397.

Kitsap County: Highway 420 in Bremerton, sales $2,894,781, taxes $1,012,411.

Island County, Kaleafa in Oak Harbor, sales $1,041,792, taxes $377,644.

In total, Washington recreational marijuana sales in the first year operations were legal (July 2014 to July 2015) were $405,888,632. Taxes collected were $117,452,910.

Retail marijuana sales were taxed at 25 percent until July 2015, when the tax jumped to 37 percent.

Funds allocated to local governments are earmarked for law enforcement and will be distributed to sheriff ’s and police departments.

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A spoon full of her syrups make anything go down better

BY LESLIE KELLY | lkelly@soundpublishing.com

Just imagine making your morning tea and adding a bit of Verdita Dragon syrup for flavor.

If you were Jamie Hoffman, that’s just what you’d do.

Hoffman is the founder of a Seattle company called Craft Elixirs, and has eight different pot-infused elixirs — or syrups — which can be added to everything from hot tea to ice cream.

“The idea is that you can sit down with a cannabis cocktail or tea and enjoy a nice high without having to smoke,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman’s company officially opened when she received a state license to operate as a marijuana producer. That was Sept.

30, 2014. But preparation started long before that.

“If anybody tells you they were an overnight sensation, don’t believe them,” she said. “That just doesn’t happen.”

She’d worked on her plan for cannabis infused drinks for at least two years before she got her license. The idea was born from her work infusing mint and other plants into vodka for cocktails.

“I was installing vertical gardens,” she said. That was in Chicago. “I loved working with plants. Once I began infusing mint, I thought I’d try it with cannabis.”

She made a couple kinds of syrups and mixed them with sparkling sodas. And then she had to decide if she was serious about her idea.

“I knew I either had to do it, or just sit back in Chicago and wonder whether it would have worked,” she said. She chose Seattle to locate her business because the state had legal recreational marijuana and because she’d traveled here and knew she loved the place.

In order to make it work, Hoffman sold her home in ChicaContinued on Page 24

24 The Northwest Chronicle go, and “nearly everything else I had,” she said. “I even cashed in my savings bonds and I spent every penny I’d ever saved.”

To get her license, she needed to be a state resident. She began looking for a location for her production plant. She chose the Wallingford neighborhood. There, she and about seven other employees make the syrups. Included are Ballard Beat, a blueberry and orange concoction; Capitol Hill Heat, with habenero and smoke flavors; Verdita Dragon, a combination of pineapple, lime and fresh Jalapeño; and Seattle Simple, a basic syrup used for baking, flavoring or added to coffee, tea or oatmeal for sweetness. They have 60 mg of THC per bottle and suggest 5 mg of THC (a capful) per serving to begin with.

Her work sprung a by product. As she was making the syrups using locally grown fresh fruit which is cut by hand, she dis-

covered she has some leftover fruit which she was composting.

“We tried making candied edible fruit squares, and it worked,” she said. “I just didn’t like throwing away all that fruit.”

Now the edibles are here to stay and include a pineapple chocolate; a pink grapefruit, and a citrus of lemons, limes and oranges. They come 20 pieces to a box and each piece has .5 mg of THC. A recently added flavor is an apple cinnamon candy.

If you ask Hoffman what’s popular, she’ll tell you, “The most recent thing we’ve come out with.”

“That seems to be the case,” Hoffman said. “It was blackberry-lemon (syrup) this past summer. And recently we made an amazing ginger syrup that makes great ginger tea.”

As a former professional marketing director, she knew the value of display merchandising. She put a lot of time into the concept for her product labels. She wanted something that was

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gender-neutral and looked botanical, but not loud. She hired local artist Frida Clements who came up with a design that makes her syrups look as inviting as a bottle of wine.

As for family support, even her grandma, who is in her 90s, and her great aunt, who is in her 80s, came to visit and didn’t think twice about having an edible.

Her products are in about 85 stores. By state law, she can’t sell directly to the public. The business is profitable, but Hoffman said the edibles market represents only 8 to 20 percent of all the cannabis sales in the state. And the mark up from wholesale to retail is two-to-four times what she makes.

“I see this more as a spiritual journey,” she said. “It’s an extraordinary privilege to get to do this. It’s a huge financial commitment, but I’m one of a few very people in the U.S. who gets to do something like this.”

Her hope for the future is to be able to produce a line of fruit syrups that contain no cannabis that could be sold nationwide.

“People are asking for that,” she said. “But the liquor control board says you can’t do that in the same kitchen. So I’d have to rent a separate kitchen to make the virgin products. So that’s on the back burner.”

Find out more at www.craftelixirs.com.

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All-time greats: Movies that mention marijuana

BY LESLIE KELLY | lkelly@soundpublishing.com

Everybody knows some of these titles. And most everyone knows all of them.

But here's some of the best stoner movies, according to popular Internet sites.

“Reefer Madness” (1936): Originally made as "Tell Your Children" and sometimes titled "The Burning Question,” “Dope Addict,” “Doped Youth,” and “Love Madness,” is a 1936-39 American propaganda exploitation drama drug addiction film revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try marijuana—from a hit and run accident, to manslaughter, suicide, attempted rape, hallucinations, and descent into madness due to marijuana addiction. The film was directed by Louis Gasnier and starred a cast composed of mostly unknown bit Continued on Page 28

28 The Northwest Chronicle actors. Some blame it for the passage, the following year, of the Marihuana Tax Act, the first national anti-cannabis law in the United States.

“Humboldt County” (2008): ​A disillusioned and frustrated medical student played by Jeremy Strong, finds himself stranded in the Emerald Triangle for the summer in a rural community of Northern California pot farmers. It becomes a voyage of self-discovery that includes inter-farmer rivalries, law enforcement raids on the fields, and bountiful Northern California hippie weirdness.

“The Big Lebowski” (1998): An American neo-noir crime comedy film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, an unemployed Los Angeles slacker and avid bowler. After he becomes the victim in a case of mistaken identity, The Dude finds a millionaire also named Jeffrey Lebowski who was the intended victim. When the millionaire Lebowski's trophy wife is kidnapped, he commissions The Dude to deliver the ransom to secure her release. The plan goes awry when The Dude's friend, Walter Sobchak (John Goodman), schemes to keep the full ransom.

“Half Baked” (1998):​An American stoner comedy film starring Dave Chappelle, Jim Breuer, Harland Williams and Guillermo Díaz. The film was directed by Tamra Davis, co-written

by Chappelle and Neal Brennan and produced by Robert Simonds. Thurgood Jenkins and his friends, Brian and Scarface, are forced into selling marijuana stolen from the lab where Thurgood works as a janitor. They do this in order to bail their friend Kenny out of jail for $100,000 after he accidentally kills Buttercup, a diabetic police horse, by feeding it junk food. Their business, named "Mr. Nice Guy" in honor of their good-natured incarcerated friend, becomes immensely popular, even attracting famous clientele. Thurgood's personal life is ruined once his adamantly anti-drug girlfriend, ironically named Mary Jane Potman, discovers that he is Mr. Nice Guy. “Dazed and Confused” (1993): Dazed and Confused is writer/director Richard Linklater's quintessential movie about coming of age high in the 1970s. The film was a career-maker for Matthew McConaughey as David Wooderson, the hasbeen-at-20 ex-football star who likes high school girls "because I get older, but they stay the same age." It is May 28, 1976, the last day of school at Lee High School in the suburbs of Austin, Texas. The next year's group of seniors are preparing for the annual hazing of incoming freshmen. Randall "Pink" Floyd, the school's star football player, is asked to sign a pledge promising not to take drugs during the summer or do anything that would "jeopardize the goal of a championship season.” When

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classes end, the incoming freshman boys are hunted down by the seniors and paddled. The incoming freshman girls are also hazed; they are rounded up in the school parking lot by senior girls, covered in mustard, ketchup, flour and raw eggs, and forced to propose to senior boys.

“Pineapple Express” (2008): Combine lots of on-screen toking, snappy comedy writing and an ultra-violent action adventure film, and it adds up to a winning formula for “Pineapple Express.” Seth Rogen co-wrote (with Evan Goldberg) and co-starred in (with James Franco) this likable buddy comedy.

Dale Denton (Rogen) is a high-all-the-time process server who witnesses a drug-related execution. The roach of Pineapple Express weed he leaves behind at the scene of the crime leads murderous drug lord Ted Jones (Gary Cole) straight to Dale's pot dealer, Saul Silver (Franco).

“How High” (2001): The plot is centered on two underachieving pot smokers: Silas (Method Man) and Jamal (Redman). When Silas's friend Ivory (Chuck Davis) dies, Silas uses his ashes as fertilizer for a new batch of marijuana. While both are sitting in the parking lot before taking their "THC" (Testing for Higher Credentials, a parody of the SAT in allusion to Tetrahydrocannabinol) exams for college, neither is able to smoke his individual marijuana stash without the help of the other.

They soon discover that smoking Silas's new batch summons the ghost of the recently deceased Ivory, visible to just the two of them. Ivory tells them the test answers as they take the test and they both score perfect scores. Several dubious colleges offer the pair scholarships. Eventually, Chancellor Huntley (Fred Willard) suggests the two apply to Harvard University.

“Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle” (2004): A stoner comedy about getting the munchies. The two pothead title characters, investment banker John Cho (Harold) and prospective doctor Kal Penn (Kumar), decide to munch out at White Castle after getting high, but when they can't find the restaurant, they have a series of drawn-out comical misadventures.

The film is directed by Danny Leiner, who also directed the stoner classic "Dude, Where's My Car?” in 2000.

“Friday” (1995): “Friday” is a hypnotic, funny, expertly done look at one particular day in the lives of friends Craig Jones (Ice Cube) and Smokey (Chris Tucker) in Los Angeles. Craig, who doesn't smoke weed when the film begins, has recently been fired from his job and his parents are consequently threatening to throw him out. His best bud Smokey is a devoted stoner who's smoking his way through a batch of indo he was supposed to be selling.

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Pot leafs color her world

BY LESLIE KELLY | lkelly@soundpublishing.com

You might say that Karen Averill surrounds herself with nature.

And she's making it possible for you to do that too.

But the "nature" she deals in are beautiful marijuana leaf patterns printed on just about anything you'd dream of.

"My whole goal is to get people to get beyond that awful pot-leaf stamp pattern," said Averill, of Jacksonville, Oregon. "I want people to see the beauty in each leaf."

Averill has created a line of personal, home and business products that feature stylized images of marijuana. She sells then under her business name, Cannaflage.

"It really did all happen by mistake," she said. "My nephew saw a photograph I had taken and said, ‘That would make cool wallpaper.' So I had some made as a gag gift for him and it turned out so well we decided to make a go of it."

That happened on 4-20 (April 20, 2014), naturally, although plans had been in the making for about a year before that. She, and her husband and nephew, are medical marijuana growers and have been since it became legal in Oregon in 1998. Prior to that, she was a paralegal.

She takes photographs of her "girls," (marijuana plants) and uses a computer program to create geometric designs. Those designs are then sent to outside manufacturers who create the products that she sells — such things as wallpaper, window shades, mugs, blankets, shower curtains and garden flags. Her interior design items came first, and now she's expanding into high fashion apparel including purses, dresses, boots and the silk linings of men's suit jackets.

"This stuff is so high end that you can go out on the town in it," she said. "Often times people don't even realize that it's cannabis."

In fact, she likes to tell the story of the lady who asked her where she got her dress.

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"She said she had to have one, but when I told her what the pattern was, she said she could never wear that," Averill relayed.

However, marijuana is becoming mainstream, she said, with recreational pot now legal in several states.

"We find people aren't afraid to be themselves with these items," she said. "And what I've always wanted is for my creations to create a calm, healing environment."

Her items are being used to decorate the interior of many pot shops. To date, her pot-pattern umbrellas are her most popular item. All of the fabric she uses is stretchable, breathable and silky.

"I think the umbrella is popular because it's so unusual," Averill said. "Even in Seattle and Portland where nobody uses umbrellas in the rain. But they are used for sunshade and are great for wind-breaking when you light up."

Right now her items are only available on her website, www. cannaflagedesigns.com. She is working on getting them in retail locations including pot dispensaries. She also has an investor and she hopes to take the products national in 2016. She plans to be at trade shows monthly in 2016.

People also send her ideas of what to make next, including a cannaflage hunting suit, kites and even a sun awning for a boat.

She takes custom orders and plans a line of pot-print pet products.

"If you can imagine it, we can create it," she said. "That's our motto."

For her, each leaf is art.

"This is really art more than anything else," she said. "Everybody sees something different in the images I take. It's very individual."

So much so, that when she is at shows like Hempfest, the art and the calm take over.

"Sometimes people come up and ask me, 'Can I just stand here for awhile,'" Averill said. "They say, 'It's so relaxing.'"

34 The Northwest Chronicle

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36 The Northwest Chronicle In an attempt to explain to the dealer why the weed is gone yet there's still no money, Smokey accidentally incriminates Craig. The dealer, Big Worm gets tired of Smokey "playing with his emotions" and gives the guys an ultimatum: Pay up by 10 p.m. Friday, or be killed.

“Up In Smoke” (1978): ​Cheech & Chong's first feature film was a real trail blazer in many ways. Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong had already been a comedy team for a decade before they reworked some of their best material for “Up In Smoke.”

Tommy Chong plays Man, an unemployed pothead drummer (bit of trivia: his character's "real" name in the movie is Anthony Stoner, but that's only mentioned once). Cheech plays Pedro de Pacas, who picks up the hitchhiking Man, starting their adventures.

Others: “Super High Me” (2007): A documentary about weed, made by a former “Stoner of the Year,” current comedian Doug Benson. “Super High Me” documents Benson avoiding cannabis for a cleansing period and then smoking and otherwise consuming cannabis every day for 30 days in a row. Benson says “Super High Me” is “’Super Size Me’ with cannabis instead of Continued on Page 38

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38 The Northwest Chronicle McDonald’s.” The film includes interviews with marijuana activists, dispensary owners, politicians and patients who are part of the medical cannabis movement.

“Grandma’s Boy” (2006): When he and his roommate can't pay their rent, video game creator Alex (Allen Covert) finds himself homeless and moves in with Lilly (Doris Roberts), his wacky grandmother. Lilly and her elderly pals like to hang out in front of the television all day, but their constant presence puts a damper on Alex's social life and pot smoking. Alex wants to court co-worker Samantha (Linda Cardellini), but he's preoccupied by a rivalry with another game designer, so the would-be relationship is in limbo.

“Easy Rider” (1969): An American road movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced

by Fonda and directed by Hopper. It tells the story of two bikers (played by Fonda and Hopper) who travel through the American "That's Southwest and South. The success not a drug. of “Easy Rider” helped spark the It's a leaf."

New Hollywood phase of film— Arnold making during the early 1970s.

Schwarzenegger, Sources: The Weed Blog; Toke of former governor of the Town; Wikipedia.

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40 The Northwest Chronicle