Sensi Magazine - Northern California (NORCAL) - October 2020

FUEL YOUR HIRE

Break into a canna-career

PARTY LIKE IT’S 2019

COVID-proof social gatherings

NORCAL OCTOBER 2020

WE SPEAK FOR THE TREES Protecting our local Redwoods

CBD IN BEAUTY

Is it more than skin-deep?

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FEATURES

28 36 61

47

Breaking In

How to get hired in cannabis

Parties for the People

The new challenges and rewards of Covid-era catering

The Muse

Does cannabis really make you more creative?

DEPARTMENTS

9 EDITOR’S NOTE 56 THE SCENE Hot happenings and hip hangouts around town 12 THE BUZZ JUSTICE What does News, tips, and tidbits to keep you in the loop SPIRITUAL TOURISM Yurok traditional canoe tours TESLA TYKE The electric car giant’s take on the kids’ car PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT Hello Again sleep tincture GREEN ICE CREAM And we don’t just mean the color.

AIRBNB FOR BOATS Get on the water from anywhere.

18 THE LIFE Contributing to your

cannabis law have to do with racism?

CONSERVATION The nonprofit that protects local forests

68 THE END Capturing the devastating and ever-growing fires that test California.

ON THE COVER

Sanctuary Forest protects some of the last of the old-growth Redwoods on the West Coast.

PHOTO BY PRESTON, ADOBE STOCK

health and happiness CBD IN BEAUTY Is it more than skin-deep?

CANNA-VERDE Introducing F.A. Nino’s new infused hot sauce—and a few ways to use it.

HOROSCOPE What the stars hold for you.

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SANTA ROSA / CALIFORNIA

CANNABIS CO-MANUFACTURING

REGIONAL ADVISORY BOARD

PERMISSION TO COME ABOARD! EMERALD TRIANGLE

Boldtbags Hash Making Supplies Coldwell Banker Sellers, Sandi DeLuca Real Estate Canna-Envy DIY Cannabis Heartwood Mountain Sanctuary Eco-Retreat Center Hendrx Farms Cannabis Nursery Humboldt Patient Resource Center Dispensary Humboldt Redwood Healing Community Humboldt Vape Tech Vape Accessories Kathleen Bryson, Attorney Law Office

KC Financial Services Accounting Mountainwise Farms Topicals Redwood Roots Distribution SoHum Royal Mixed Light Farming Southern Humboldt Business & Visitors Bureau Tourism Sunnabis Regenerative Cannabis Farming Trinity Outdoor Premier Properties Cannabis Real Estate ULEVA Hemp Products Wana Brands Edible Gummies Wildseed, LLC CO2 Extraction

N O R T H B AY

WE CAN PRODUCE:

EDIBLES • HARD CANDY • GUMMIES CHOCOLATE • TOPICALS • TINCTURES VAPES • PRE-ROLLS • FLOWER • BEVERAGES & ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN DREAM UP!

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965 Solutions, LLC Cannabis Manufacturing Advancement Branding Product Branding Aita and Associates Insurance Marketing, Inc Employee Benefit Specialists Coachella Labs Manufacturing Convergence Laboratories Cannabis Testing Laboratory Extreme Towing, LLC. Towing 4 A Cause Flora Terra Destination Dispensary The Galley Commercial Cannabis Kitchen Garden Society Craft Cannabis

Golden State Government Relations Licensing & Compliance Kushla Life Sciences Cannabis Formulations J Distributing Biostimulant Natural Cannabis Art Gallery Red Door Remedies Dispensary; Cloverdale Sonoma Patient Group Dispensary; Santa Rosa Strictly Topical Pain Relief Topicals Vaper Tip Vape Supply & Consulting Wana Brands Edible Gummies

MEDIA PARTNERS

Marijuana Business Daily Minority Cannabis Business Association National Cannabis Industry Association Students for Sensible Drug Policy

INFO@THEGALLEYSR.COM 8

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FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA FAC E B O O K Like Sensi Media Group for the parties, topics, and happenings we’re obsessed with right now.

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Magazine published monthly

by Sensi Media Group LLC. © 2020 Sensi Media Group. All rights reserved.

EXECUTIVE

I

Ron Kolb Founder, CEO ron@sensimag.com Stephanie Wilson Co-Founder, Editor in Chief stephanie@sensimag.com Mike Mansbridge President mike@sensimag.com Fran Heitkamp Chief Operating Officer fran@sensimag.com Lou Ferris VP of Global Revenue lou@sensimag.com Chris Foltz Director of Global Reach chris@sensimag.com Jade Kolb Director of Project Management jade.kolb@sensimag.com Kristan Toth Head of People kristan.toth@sensimag.com EDITORIAL

Doug Schnitzspahn Executive Editor doug.schnitzspahn@sensimag.com Nora Mounce Managing Editor nora.mounce@sensimag.com Leland Rucker Senior Editor leland.rucker@sensimag.com Robyn Griggs Lawrence Editor at Large robyn.lawrence@sensimag.com Jada Calypso Brotman, Dawn Garcia, Sam De La Paz, Mona Van Joseph Contributing Writers

DESIGN/PRODUCTION

Jamie Ezra Mark Creative Director jamie@emagency.com Rheya Tanner Art Director Wendy Mak, Josh Clark Designers Neil Willis Production Director neil.willis@sensimag.com PUBLISHING

Nancy Birnbaum Publisher nancy.birnbaum@sensimag.com Sam De La Paz Associate Publisher sam.delapaz@sensimag.com

EDITOR’S NOTE

It’s been a minute.

Usually, summer races by in a reel of sticky, blackberry-stained snapshots but this year has been… different. How are you? How are your kids? How is your mental health?

We wrapped our last issues of Sensi Emerald Triangle and North Bay in early March, the same week I cancelled my baby shower and the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

Instead of worrying about story deadlines and nursery decor, our lives were shaken like a snow globe as we scrambled to find virtual childbirth classes and order groceries. Parallel scenarios played out in households across the country, as working parents became de facto schoolteachers, families faced agonizing decisions about caring for elderly relatives, and millions of Americans woke up without a job. We’ll never forget the collective mental terror of those first tender months.

New chapters of the COVID-19 horror story are still being written. While the nation’s response to the deadly disease has been fragmented and devastatingly insufficient, the depth of human resilience is on full display. Rising to the cause, nurses have come out of retirement to care for patients. Hotels have transformed into homeless shelters. Mothers and students have taken to the streets to demand change in a nation plagued with systemic racism, violently illuminated in the time of corona.

And last month, wildfires raged across the Golden State with a new and tragic fury, reminding us that climate change is still our greatest foe. Again and again, we hear to reporters, writers, and politicians say, “These are unprecedented times.”

As we trudge into the seventh month of the pandemic, we gleaned insightful perspectives from our readers on how to maintain sanity in a surreal world. We grounded ourselves by returning to the joyful work of making magazines. And we re-branded our Emerald Triangle and North Bay as Sensi NorCal, one resilient publication for an incredibly diverse assortment of people and communities. We’re so happy to be back, listening to your stories, and sharing some of our own. Thanks for being here.

While the nation’s response to COVID-19 has been fragmented and devastatingly insufficient, the depth of human resilience is on full display.

With love + luck,

Nora Mounce nora.mounce@sensimag.com O C TO B E R 2020

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And we acknowledge that. We are firm believers in the idea that the first step to fixing any problem, to spur any change is to admit there is a problem to begin with.

As media attention shifts away from the racial problems our society continues to face, it would be easy to sweep this under the rug, to not address it because the topic no longer trends nightly, despite the ongoing protests, despite the president inciting violence and blaming it on the opposing political party and candidate.

But there is no denying there is a problem—parts of our society are broken. We see it play out on video after iPhone video, news report after social media post: People in positions of authority and power murder black men and women without repercussion.

It’s a huge problem that we as a society must commit to changing. It is not going to be easy, and it is not going to be quick. But it won’t ever happen unless we take whatever steps we can now and continue to push forward, to push back, to create space and lift up the voices long silenced.

We must do what we can with what we have. We at Sensi have a platform, and we intend to use it to lift up and amplify the voices of the people who have been most adversely affected by the prohibition of cannabis and the ongoing, racist War on Drugs.

In Sensi’s culture and values statement, we outline the virtues we wanted to grow our company upon—humility, growth, giving spirit, fun-loving focus. It was not until this summer, after George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were murdered and the racial disparities in our so-

5-STEP COMMITMENT TO CHANGE 1. We want more team members of color, especially in leadership.

While we have always been an equal opportunity employer because we know that working with people from a wide variety of backgrounds makes us a stronger company, Sensi will be adding a diversity and inclusion-focused leader to our core team as soon as financially possible as part of a formalized commitment to creating a diverse environment.

2. Following the lead put forth by industry-leading publications like Cosmopolitan, we will ensure that the visual components of our content, the creators of our content, and the voices featured in our content, across all platforms, reflect the diverse and inclusive world we want to live in. This includes not just race but also gender identity, sexual orientation, body type, and ability.

3. We will continually audit our editorial content to ensure coverage is diverse and inclusive across the board—on covers and in articles. We will make a marked effort to highlight businesses and organizations led by people of color in stories we publish across all platforms.

4. We will develop a specific style guide to inform our writing about race, racism, and racial issues, as well as appropriative language— again following Cosmo’s lead.

5. We will be holding required diversity and inclusion training for all existing and new team members, with details in development.

ciety were in the spotlight, that our blinders lifted, and we saw that what we did not say in our company’s cultural outline is perhaps more important than what is in it.

Nowhere in the document do we discuss diversity or inclusion.

That was a mistake, and it is one we are changing now.

Diversity and Inclusion is now the eighth pillar of Sensi’s culture.

The specific language that will define it is currently being developed, but the gist of it is that Sensi is the sum of its communities, and we must represent the perspectives and reflect the experiences of the people within those communities.

It’s easy to write any company’s cultural pillars off as nothing more than corporate bullshit. But at Sensi, they are more than that—they guide us as we navigate business decisions both minor and major. To not have any mention of diversity and inclusion as part of our culture is a glaring omission that does not reflect our values. We commit to do better, and we will begin by formalizing our commitment.

These are not new tenets for Sensi; they are expanding on and formalizing our commitment to being stewards of the communities in which we operate—our homes. We can do better, and so we must. And we will.

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Spiritual Tourism In the far northern reaches of California, the Yurok Tribe has called the wild Klamath River home for centuries. Located near the Redwood National and State Parks, a world heritage site, the region is home to some of the last remaining old-growth redwoods on the planet. The largest federally recognized tribe in California, the Yurok invite the public to step back in time and experience 12

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their ancient traditions with Yurok Canoe Tours. Each boat, or ol-we-yoch in the Yurok language, is built with a heart, lungs, and kidneys; the Yurok regard each canoe as a living spirit. Stepping into the redwood canoes, used for hunting, fishing, and ceremonies for centuries, the Yurok guides will take you back in time, where the only sounds are the chatter of wildlife and the wooden paddles

breaking the glassy water.

While plans to debut the tours in the summer of 2020 were postponed due to COVID-19, the tribe hopes to offer the unique eco-tourism experience in 2021.

Tours will begin at the Yurok Visitor Center, where each guest will be briefed on safety and outfitted with life jackets.

Tickets for a two-hour guided tour start at $100. / redwoodyurokcanoetours.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE YUROK TRIBE

The Yurok Tribe will offer redwood canoe tours on the Klamath River in 2021.

CONTRIBUTORS

Nora Mounce, Dawn Garcia, Sam De La Paz

BY THE NUMBERS

67%

Move Over, Toy Car! Telsa’s Fancy New Tyke Car

California’s electric car giant, Tesla has partnered with our favorite little red wagon company, Radio Flyer, to introduce the firstever My Model Y children’s ride-on car. No, it doesn’t come with solar panels or charging stations, but it is adorable and pretty overthe-top. The tyke mobile is not only sleek, but relatively affordable with a price tag of a $100.00. The car comes with a honking horn, ergonomic seat, black induction wheels, and working steering. Radio Flyer Chief Wagon Officer, Robert Pasin, is taking his commitment to innovative high-quality products to the extreme, and this really is another Radio Flyer win.

PHOTO COURTESY OF HELLO AGAIN

$100-$500 / Radioflyer.com/tesla

WE HAVE TO FIND A WAY TO LIVE WITH FIRE.”

Percentage of California voters who favor former Vice President Joe Biden in this November’s presidential election.

SOURCE: news.berkeley.edu / Aug. 4, 2020

80

PERCENT Estimated percent of California cannabis sales still from illegal sources.

HELLO SWEET SLEEP Cannabis vaginal suppositories mean a restful night.

Hello Again vaginal suppositories are made for menopausal women, and the CBD/THC combination in their sleep suppositories ensure a deep and happy nighttime. Made by women for women, Hello Again suppositories come in two options: Everyday and Sleep. Everyday is made for staying focused and creative during the day with an 8:1 CBD:THC combination, and Sleep is a 4:1 THC/CBD ratio intended to help curb those bouts of insomnia and the many other sleep issues women-of-a-certainage have to battle. You’ll dream soundly, feel rested and ready for the next day, and live up to Hello Again’s motto: Bring harmony back to your V-force.

Available in Los Angeles, OC, San Diego, and Santa Barbara dispensaries and delivery services such as heyemjay.com, budandbloomoc.com, and thefarmacysb.com.

Retails $54/8-pack / HelloAgainProducts.com

SOURCE: politico.com / Aug. 2, 2020

181% Growth rate of erotica book sales in July 2020 on Amazon.com

SOURCE: publishdrive.com/ July-2020-book-market-updatebest-book-genres-more/

4,928

Anti-racism/George Floyd protests and marches in the U.S. in June 2020.

SOURCE: Crowd Counting Consortium

—J. Keith Gilless, SFgate.com

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THE BUZZ

BILITIES

BY STEPHANIE WILSON, EDITOR IN CHIEF

Green + Creamy

Ice cream free of guilt (mostly).

1 ADD TO PLAYLIST: “Overwhelmed” by Royal & the Serpent. The catchy-as-hell beat gets ya grooving while the of-the-now lyrics get ya moving. This is an anthem of the times: “All of these faces / Who don’t know what space is / And crowds are shut down / I’m overstimulated…”

2 FACE IT: Emerald CBD + Adaptogens Deep Moisture Glow Oil by Herbivore ($48; herbivorebotanicals.com). The women behind the clean skincare brand are advocates for the legalization of cannabis, and they say their goal is “to enlighten and educate on the many wonders of cannabis for everything from chronic disease and pain management to its incredible skincare benefits.” $1 from every Emerald Deep Moisture Glow Oil sold goes to Americans for Safe Access, an organization that supports safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research.

3 DRESSING DOWN: I don’t remember the last time I wore pants with a zipper, and my platform Converse are now considered a dress shoe. Will I ever wear heels to work again? Heel no!

4 FRESHEN UP: Some might consider fresh flowers a frivolous

PHOTO COURTESY OF REVIVAL ICE CREAM

indulgence amid a pandemic that’s decimated my bank account, but I consider each stem an investment in self-care. Tip: Find a local wholesale florist open to the public for ridiculously low prices and an incredible selection. At Denver’s Associated Wholesale Florists (on Mississippi between Federal and Santa Fe), I picked up a few hydrangeas stems last week for $1.80 a pop.

Pandemic-frazzled Americans are simply getting stoned more often.

—Politico.com

We need feel-good ice cream in 2020. Made in the heart of Monterey, Revival Ice Cream not only crafts delicious creamy goodness, it’s also a certified green business. Owner Adriana Shuman is a pharmacist and chemist turned entrepreneur who founded Revival because she wanted ice cream that she could feel good about eating. All Revival’s product use organic ingredients free of GMO’s, soy, antibiotics, or artificial additives; even their waffle cones are vegan and made with zero preservatives. Revival Ice Cream also gives back to the community by supporting organizations through its partnerships with Surfrider Foundation, Last Plastic Straw, and the Plastic Pollution Coalition. To savor the fading flavors of summer, try Revival fan favorite The Bees Knees!

Made with locally sourced Monterey honey, bee pollen, and beeswax, it’s spiked with crunchy pieces of honeycomb candy. Order online for curbside pick-up or have a pint (or six!) shipped straight to your door.

Revival / 463 Alvarado Street, Monterey / 831.747.2113 / Order Online: $99-$119 / 6-pint bundle / Revivalicecream.com

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HEY, BUD! WHAT’S IN YOUR

CANNABIS?

California’s premier cannabis testing lab.

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THE BUZZ

PHOTO COURTESY OF GET MY BOAT

DON’T MISS THE BOAT! Travel behemoth Airbnb is famous for renting treehouses and mansions, but if you’re looking for even more space, consider new territory for your next vacation and get on the water. Get My Boat is the number one boat rental app in the world, offering 130,000 boats in 84 countries. In California, Get My Boat rents everything from palatial Lake Tahoe houseboats to speedboats for jetting across Folsom Lake to kayaks to paddle away from it all.

The company has seen a wild increase in demand in 2020 with rentals up by an eye-popping 3,900%.

Nab a reservation to enjoy the last days of California sunshine this September in safe and socially distant fashion. getmyboat.com @getmyboat

VOX POPULI

Question: How are you staying sane in the eighth month of the pandemic?

RANDY YAP

MALIA ANDERSON

SHAI YASHANOV

RUTH BLANDING

LANIAKEA EVANS

Chief Marketing Officer, Kushla Santa Rosa

Stylist, Style by Malia Santa Rosa

Entrepreneur San Francisco

Homeschool Coach/Multipreneur Sebastopol

___________________

___________________

___________________

___________________

General Manager, 365 Recreational Cannabis Santa Rosa

Listening to more standup comedy on Pandora plus sharpening on hobbies like streaming on the webs and whatnot.

Cooking and hiking.

Getting active and trying new recipes and food has been good for me and my family.

Staying busy with passions and hobbies that I neglected during “normal” life (whatever that is) including gardening, cooking, hiking, photography, and arts and crafts.

“Cocooning” with my family. Decluttering our home, minimizing the items that create a mess. Doing only the things that absolutely must get done. We have slowed WAY down.

___________________

Ingesting a lot of CBD, exercising, discovering new cannabis companies, and hanging out with my kids doing homeschool and trying to keep my 11 month old from climbing the walls.

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CBD The Beauty of

The “it” cannabinoid is the hottest ingredient in skincare, but will it really make you hot?

PHOTO CREDITS (FROM LEFT): JACOB LUND, ADOBE STOCK / COURTESY OF SAINT JANE

TEXT STEPHANIE WILSON

The CBD beauty market is on track to reach $25 billion globally in the next 10 years—a mind-blowing figure when you consider that five years ago, most of us hadn’t even heard of CBD. I hadn’t. Then I did, and soon it was everywhere, being sold as a potential cure for everything, hawked by everyone—the gas station attendant pushing CBD gummies; the elderly neighbor talking about the CBD tincture that got him back on the pickleball court; and even the

girl from high school who stumbled into my DMs reciting practiced MLM scripts and urging everyone in her orbit to join her marketing mission, to get in on the ground level of the cannabinoid craze.

I think about that girl often, especially as I click through my inbox, which received an average 11 unsolicited emails related to CBD every day of 2019, many of those pitching stories on the latest and greatest and most innovative, game-changing CBD product to hit

the (already saturated) marketplace. She’s got a whole lot of competition.

And it grows by the day.

The “it” cannabinoid roared onto everybody and their grandmother’s radar in 2018, and today’s infused offerings run the gamut from awesome to abhorrent. Sometimes it’s not easy to tell the difference between the two, but fret not: We’re here to help. CBD is a beautiful thing with plenty of potential in the beauty industry. Many readers have asked me about CBD beauty products,

so I put together this tutorial for you all. If you like it or if you’re new here, don’t forget to click “like” and subscribe and let me know in the comments. Appreciate you!

First, the Legalities In late 2018, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) federal law, changed the definition of “marijuana” to exclude hemp—a type of cannabis sativa that contains less than 0.3 percent THC by dry weight.

Any CBD derived from hemp is A-OK with DEA.

Saint Jane Luxury CBD Beauty Serum With 500 mg of fullspectrum CBD, plus 20 potent botanicals, this antioxidant-packed superblend promises to hydrate, calm redness, detoxify pores, and restore your natural glow. $125 / saintjanebeauty.com

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THE LIFE

D O N ’ T T RY T H I S AT H O M E

PHOTO CREDITS (FROM LEFT): JACOB LUND, ADOBE STOCK / HUMBLE FLOWER

CBD pillows exist. The science behind the maker’s claims that sleeping on one delivers any cannabinoids to your system, however, does not. Buyer beware.

Oversight of the popular cannabinoid now falls under the purview of the Food and Drug Administration, which retains authority to regulate products containing cannabis or cannabis-derived compounds (hemp included).

That said, the FDA doesn’t do much regulating of the cosmetics industry in general, only stepping in to prevent

products from maiming or killing consumers. The FDA defines cosmetics as “articles intended to be rubbed, poured, sprinkled, or sprayed on, introduced to, or otherwise applied to the human body or any part thereof for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance, and articles intended for use as a component of any such articles.”

Basically, anything you’d find at Sephora.

So to recap: cannabis + cosmetics = legal. But are cannabis cosmetics beneficial, or are companies just capitalizing on the hype, snake-oilsalesman-style? Ingesting cannabis is known to have benefits, but does it do anything when it’s just slathered on your skin? Does it have any beauty benefit?

That’s subjective, since beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all. The science behind these cannabinoid-laden skincare and beauty products is definitely not full coverage.

To use another makeup analogy, it’s more Alicia Keys than Ariana Grande.

But you can find worthy products that fit your needs: do some research, ask friends for recommendations, and read up on the products and the companies you’re considering. And do as any Sephora VIB (Very Important Beauty, of course) would: check the customer reviews, which more often than not offer more insight about whether a product is right for you than any marketing campaign ever could.

Talking Shop Most department and specialty stores have a growing number of cannabis-related prod-

ucts in their portfolio of offerings. But to find the high-end products worthy of your attention and your dollars, start with the high-end stores employing discerning buyers whose job it is to vet products before agreeing to sell them to their customers. You’ll find top-quality lines with price tags to match at Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and so on.

At Sephora, you’re likely to find the most robust number of cannabis-derived beauty boosters for your perusal.

Sephora’s lineup includes items such as Herbivore’s Emerald CBD + adaptogens deep moisture glow oil ($58), made with full-spectrum CBD oil, plus hemp seed oil. Farmacy makes the Better Daze Ahead CBD moisturizer ($68); Kiehl’s has a cannabis sativa seed oil herbal concentrate ($50); and Milk Makeup has KUSH mascaras and lip glosses made with hemp-derived cannabis seed oil.

It’s worth noting here that cannabis sativa seed oil, cannabis seed oil, and hemp seed oil are the same thing, and that thing is very different than CBD oil. You’ve likely used hemp seed oil before—it’s been around for centuries, and it’s often used as a base in-

370% The increase in online searches for “CBD beauty” after the US legalized hemp-derived CBD in 2018 SOURCE: Allure

Humble Flower Jasmine & Rose Body Lotion With 500 mg CBD, botanicals, and pure essential oils, this silky cream delivers instant hydration. $75 / humbleflower.com

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It'ssAlwayss4200attTHCC

THE LIFE

Check This List Thinking of adding some CBD to your skincare routine? Look for quality products that mention these components or practices on the label: • Full- or broad-spectrum CBD, with the quantity clearly listed. Some companies are adding trace amounts to justify jacking up the prices. No official dosage recommendations exist, but if it’s more than a single serving, expect triple digits.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PRIMA

• Organic cultivation practices, free of pesticides, herbicides, and other harmful materials • USA-grown hemp: Imported hemp may have been exposed to chemicals banned by the US. • Third-party lab testing, with results available online

gredient. It’s inexpensive; it’s a good moisturizer; and it doesn’t clog pores (so it’s unlikely to cause breakouts).

CBD oil, on the other hand, comes not from hemp seeds, but from the plant’s stalks and stems. Because it comes

from the whole plant, it contains the same valuable vitamins, minerals, and nutrients found in hemp, as well as the cannabinoids. This magical combo is thought to be why CBD oil may calm irritated skin and combat acne. CBD has antioxidant properties more powerful than vitamins C and E. It’s antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, and it has conditioning/lipid-producing properties that makes it a great moisturizer.

Dr. Cheryl Bugailiskis, a board-certified pediatrician and cannabis specialist with HelloMD, spoke with online magazine Bustle about why our skin can potentially respond very well to CBD. Turns out, the skin has the highest concentration of cannabinoid receptors, to which cannabinoids like CBD bind upon application, working with our endo-

cannabinoid system to help the body reach a state of balance.

Bugailiskis says when CBD is used for therapeutic purposes tied to the skin, it’s believed to work by impacting our skin’s cannabinoid receptors “to better regulate pain, inflammation, bacteria, lipid production (which can lead to acne), the release of histamine, as well as skincell proliferation (which causes psoriasis). While more research is needed, some studies indicate CBD could be effective in calming irritated skin and reducing redness, helping to lessen visible signs of aging, and as a potentially powerful way to combat acne.”

Clearly, there’s a lot of goodness packed into one plant. And our bodies are basically designed to reap its benefits, so slather on a liberal application and reapply as needed.

Clean wellness and beauty brand Prima uses hemp-based CBD in its award-winning line, which is now available at Sephora stores nationwide. $16–$96 / prima.co

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MORE INFO

THE LIFE

faninos.com @faninos_godfatherofsauce

RECIPE

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F.A.’s Smokin’ Frittata Makes 1 Frittata

Gettin’ Saucy F.A. Nino’s turns up the heat.

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TEXT NORA MOUNCE

At F.A. Nino’s in Petaluma, something good is always simmering. Sonoma County’s hot sauce experts since 2010, the family-owned company is best known for its Smokin’ Green and Holy Mole Hot Sauce and dry rubs. True to their Northern California roots, F.A. Nino’s is now bottling up a flavor-packed way

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With 100 mg of THC from Kushla Life Science’s REACT (Rapid Effect Active Cannabinoid Technology) in every sixounce bottle, it’s easy to quickly control your perfect dose. Kushla reports that the effects THC will onset within 5-10 min-

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

8 eggs • Preheat oven to 350ºF. Mix all ingredients in 1/2 cup heavy cream a medium bowl. Pour 3 tablespoons Smokin Green mixture into greased pie Pot Sauce (25 mg THC) or tart pan.

1 cup diced ham • Bake for 30 minutes.

1 cup shredded Swiss Rotate and continue baking for another 15-20 1 cup shredded Parmesan minutes; check for a 1/4 cup chopped chives slightly firm center. Let 1/4 cup fine chopped parsley rest for 20-30 mins. Serve 1 teaspoon kosher salt and enjoy!

utes; a useful thing to know in advance!

With a focus always on fire-roasted flavor, every F.A. Nino’s product is created to complement

the farm to fork flavor of Sonoma County. Look for the Smokin’ Green Pot Sauce at your local licensed Northern California dispensary.

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THE LIFE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mona Van Joseph has been an intuitive since 2002. She is an author, columnist, and the host of Psychic View Radio. She created dicewisdom.com, which also has a smartphone app. mona.vegas

HOROSCOPE

OCTOBER HOROSCOPE What do the stars hold for you?

TEXT MONA VAN JOSEPH

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22

LIBRA

Doors opening are meant for you. Accept all invitations because they are leading you to the next step in something important. It’s time to create your network.

made an incorrect assumption about someone (or something), so it’s time to do your research and get the real story. Avoid those with stinking-thinking.

this vibration by choice, and it may be time to take care of that one thing to finally free yourself.

DEC. 22-JAN. 19

Recommit to personal discipline. It could be diet, exercise, avoiding negative people, reconnecting with spirit, going on a fast, or taking a class. Pick something to do every day in October.

CAPRICORN

Communicate and release SCORPIO your perceived failures this You can’t do what you want month. Recognize that they all by yourself right now. are actually lessons in disIt’s time to allow others to guise. It’s supposed to be a help you get what you want. month of freedom for you, Open most conversations and the last tether is these with, “I need your help,” and old issues. then be grateful that they can and will.

JAN. 20-FEB. 18 OCT. 23-NOV. 21

AQUARIUS

A long-standing situation SAGITTARIUS gets addressed this month.

Give people the benefit of You are tired of feeling the doubt this month. You’ve trapped or limited. You’re in NOV. 22-DEC. 21

FEB. 19-MAR. 20

PISCES

MAR. 21-APR. 19

ARIES

Be totally committed to your work. Whether that is to find a job or rededicate to a current one, this month is all about you being “all in.” You are the king or queen of cooperation this month.

APR. 20-MAY 20

TAURUS

LIBRA, ACCEPT ALL INVITATIONS BECAUSE THEY ARE LEADING YOU TO THE NEXT STEP IN SOMETHING IMPORTANT. IT’S TIME TO CREATE YOUR NETWORK.

Stay in control of your emotions because it’s time to reevaluate your relationships in an almost businesslike way. It may be time to cut your losses and let go of what’s not working.

MAY 21-JUNE 20

GEMINI

the people who don’t. Your connection with spirit will be stronger than ever and will send you signs to guide you.

JULY 23-AUG. 22

LEO

You are magic this month because spirit is guiding you toward the life you’ve always wanted. Look at every single human as though they are conspiring for you to be happy and successful.

All the crap you’ve been going through in 2020 will make a great screenplay.

But that will shift if you pre- AUG. 23-SEPT. 22 pare in October for forward VIRGO movement in November.

This will be your luckiest month of the year. While JUNE 21-JULY 22 that doesn’t necessarily CANCER mean you’ll win Megabucks, More than ever, you’re discov- it does mean your hard work ering your priorities, the peo- is about to yield some pretty ple who align with you, and amazing results.

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So, you want to get a job in the cannabis industry?

Better sharpen your digital networking skills. The competition is fierce.

TEXT ROBYN GRIGGS LAWRENCE

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C

OVID-19 has turned the cannabis job market on its head. Before the pandemic hit, employers were struggling to find and retain talent in the lightning-hot cannabis industry, which boasted one of the country’s fastest-growing job markets, with a job-creation rate of 110 percent from 2017 to 2020 and a median annual salary of $58,511 (11 percent higher than the national average), according to Forbes. Cannabis companies competed mightily for quality workers amid record low unemployment. In Canada, the shortage was so dire that companies were importing workers from the US (those were the days, eh?).

Then in March, it all came to a screeching halt. “For the first time in five years, we had zero job openings for a week,” says James Yagielo, CEO of HempStaff, which does hemp and cannabis recruiting and dispensary training.

For a moment, no one knew what would happen. Denver experienced the shortest prohibition in history when Mayor Michael Hancock closed dispensaries and stores, then opened them a few hours later after dangerous crowds swarmed, looking to stockpile reserves.

Unlike the travel and hospitality industries, cannabis bounced back in an extreme-V recovery as soon as it was deemed an essential business in most states where it’s legal. Sales have soared throughout the lockdown and beyond, and New Frontier Data predicts they could reach $13.1 billion by 2025.

By the end of April, Yagielo says, job listings were back up to about half of what they were pre-pandemic. After the Fourth of

July weekend, when people began to realize their federal unemployment benefits were about to run out, far more resumes than job listings began flooding in.

Recruiters say a lot of resumes are coming from people who have been ousted from jobs in other industries, people who might have considered cannabis too risky or controversial before but couldn’t help but notice that dispensaries and cannabis stores remained open—and quite busy—while the rest of the world shut down. Being deemed essential did a lot for the industry’s reputation.

“What COVID-19 has done, really, is address the stigma around cannabis on the broadest scale,” says Brian Sekandi, founder of Careers Cannabis, a smart-search platform that connects talent with companies in the global cannabis industry. “Everybody was confronted with the fact that cannabis is an essential business

across North America, and that really confronts the idea that cannabis is bad. It’s no longer this nasty underground industry.”

“When it was deemed an essential business, that was a big mindshift for a lot of people,” says Kyle Arfsten, client relation director for Kforce (kforce.com), which builds and manages technology, finance, and accounting teams for top employers, including cannabis companies, nationwide. “People who typically wouldn’t attempt to get into the industry are now open to the idea.”

TOP JOBS The highest-paying jobs in the cannabis industry are consultant (unlimited), COO and CFO ($125,000+), extraction technician ($75,000 to $125,000), grow master ($80,000 to $100,000), and edibles chef ($40,000+), according to Investopedia.

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All that means “a lot of people are trying to transition into the industry right now,” says JR Hindman, founder of Marijuana Resumes, which has been providing job seekers with resumes and cover letters coded for the industry since 2016. “They’re unemployed, sitting at home, and thinking, ‘what is my next move? Why not switch gears and pursue a career I never thought possible?’ These are weird times, so why not get weird with it?”

QUANTITY DRIVING QUALITY In July, HempStaff advertised a customer service job in Los Angeles. More than 1,600 people applied. “Companies are running into the issue where they have an abundance of people applying for jobs, and they have to sort through them,” says Arfsten.

“There is definitely an increase in the talent pool—like the old saying goes, quantity drives quality.”

In addition to all the newcomers from shuttered restaurants and retail hubs, the cannabis industry was already accumulating a stable of experienced workers laid off as the young industry went through some necessary reality checks in the months leading up to Covid.

After being out of work for upwards of six months, Yagielo says, these professionals are willing to take a pay cut if it means steady employment. He has seen master growers’ salaries drop from upwards of $100,000 to $80,000.

“I used to tell people it would take six to eight months to break into the industry,” Yagielo says.

“Now, who knows how long it’s going to be. We’re seeing people with industry experience take six to eight months to find a job.”

“EVEN THOUGH THERE’S TONS OF OPPORTUNITY IN CANNABIS, IT HASN’T BECOME EASIER TO GET IN.”

LEAN OPERATIONS Industry recruiting platform Vangst surveyed 39 US companies about their hiring intentions this year and found that 36% reduced headcount while another 33% used temporary employee furloughs in response to the pandemic.

SOURCE: 420 Intel

—Brian Sekandi, cofounder of Careers Cannabis

LOW AND SLOW Wildly uncertain economic times certainly aren’t helping job seekers right now, as a lot of companies take a more conservative approach and slow down on hiring until they have a better sense of what the future holds. “Unfortunately for individuals in this market, even though there’s tons of opportunity in cannabis, it hasn’t become easi-

er to get in,” says Sekandi.

On top of all the barriers to entry, the type of jobs available and how much they pay have both been diminished since the pandemic hit, Yagielo says. Budtending jobs, which pay between $12.50 and $18 an hour, are the most abundant and available. Budtending has been the most common way of breaking into the industry since the beO C TO B E R 2020

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ginning, but budtenders are more in demand than ever as cannabis retailers open their storefronts back up while maintaining curbside pickup and delivery (which became way too popular during lockdown to let go).

Reviews of budtending as a career starter are decidedly mixed.

It is, after all, a retail job. You have to be able to deal with the public and, sometimes, managers with dubious if not nefarious leadership skills. You may have to throw out a few people who refuse to wear masks in your store, but you’ll also get to be an ambassador for people who have never experienced cannabis before.

“The pay is shit, but the perks are great,” is how one Redditor recently summed it up. “I love getting

free samples all the time. Brands and growers are always kissing our asses with free stuff, and that makes the lousy pay worth it.”

“The folks who stand out in this environment are the ones who do a little bit extra, put in a little more effort,” says Sekandi. “Put yourself out there. Be willing to EXPERT ADVICE learn and listen. Engage without Standard advice for job seekers getting something in return. The in any industry is to get out and key is to get on people’s radars.” network, but as Hindman points Sekandi says his own network out, “it’s not like you can go out has exploded now that he is no and shake hands and kiss babies longer limited by physical boundthese days.” aries. He’s constantly online taking In this age of social distancing, classes and participating in Tech Hindman says, networking has Stars programs and conferences, shifted to LinkedIn and social mewhere he finds ample opportunity dia—so you better get savvy there. to meet and connect directly with Taking an online training or cerparticipants and speakers. tification is another way to meet “In chaos, the world becomes people (while also beefing up your flat,” he says. “I now have access resume), he adds. “People have to so many people who were just to start thinking outside the box if too busy pre-COVID-19. Today they want a career in this industry.” they’ll take the time.”

SCISSORS OUT Want to be a grower?

You may have to start as a trimmer. It’s the most common entrylevel position in cannabis cultivation, according to Cannabiz Team.

HIRED.EXE

Start your online job search with these nine cannabis-centric career aggregates: 420Careers / 420careers.com Full- and part-time jobs and gigs

HempStaff / hempstaff.com Hemp and cannabis industry recruiting

Cannabiz Team / cannabizteam.com Places talent in all areas of the cannabis industry

Marijuana Resumes / marijuanaresumes.com Helps job seekers write resumes and cover letters coded for the industry

Cannajobs / cannajobs.com Jobs in growing, technology, and more

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Careers Cannabis / careerscannabis.com Smart-search platform connecting talent with companies Ganjapreneur / ganjapreneur.com Searchable job board

Ms. Mary Staffing / msmarystaffing.com Dispensary recruiting agency THC Staffing Group / thcstaffinggroup.com Boutique recruitment firm for the cannabis industry Vangst / vangst.com Cannabis industry job board and more

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PARTIES FOR THE PEOPLE COVID-19 makes serving cannabis dinners a little more challenging and a lot more meaningful.

TEXT ROBYN GRIGGS LAWRENCE

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ebruary was an incredible month for my young business, Cannabis Kitchen Events, which provides private cannabis-infused dinners and cooking classes at people’s homes and short-term rentals in Denver. We catered our first wedding on February 22, and our up-

coming calendar was packed with bachelorette and birthday parties well into the summer. We were ready. It was go time.

And then, as we all know too well, it wasn’t. When we suspended operations in mid-March and postponed all events until further notice, I had no idea if we would ever serve Canna-Mango Mules again.

Would anyone be willing to invite

possible COVID-19 carriers into their homes or to gather around tables to share meals? Who would get on an airplane or rent an Airbnb?

We held out hope, taking the pause as an opportunity to refine and improve some of CK Events’ systems and develop stringent COVID-19 safety practices based on everything we could learn from Dr. Fauci, the City of Denver, and O C TO B E R 2020

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the State of Colorado (the most trusted sources we could find).

Food service is all about food safety, so we were already well-versed in handwashing and disinfecting, and we had plenty of boxes of gloves in our inventory. Adding masks to the equation was easy enough.

In June, as Colorado began to open back up, we had our first rescheduled event, a birthday party for 10 that was held on the patio of a private home. Soon we had another, and then another, as Colorado continued to flatten and decelerate the curve. Turns out a lot of people are more willing to eat a meal prepared for them in the safety of their own home than they are to venture out into a restaurant. By July, we were back to where we started— and then some.

People were ready to party. In a July 3 New York Times article, Harvard Medical School infectious disease epidemiologist Julia Marcus summed up how all of us were feeling when she said: “Why can’t the message be: ‘We understand you want to gather with friends. There are ways to do this safely.’ We’re just telling them not to gather. That doesn’t recognize basic human behavior and basic human needs.”

DEEP RESPONSIBILITY Catering has never been an easy business. Nurturing happy clients takes some physical and mental heavy lifting. But it’s worth every minute of the labor and stress when we get to watch diners sigh with pleasure as they enjoy a delicious, perfectly dosed meal and share some deep laughs with their favorite people. We get to help

“WE’RE JUST TELLING [PEOPLE] NOT TO GATHER. THAT DOESN’T RECOGNIZE BASIC HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND BASIC HUMAN NEEDS.” —Julia Marcus, Harvard Medical School infectious disease epidemiologist

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people create occasions they’ll never forget, experiences they may never have again. We take that responsibility seriously.

We sell our clients a lot more than a cannabis-infused meal. We sell them safety. When they sit down to dig into Grilled Colorado Tri-tip with Cannabis Chimichurri, they can be certain they will consume just the right amount of cannabis—never too much. We’re vigilant about this. And now, we’re just as vigilant about making sure none of our clients gets COVID-19.

Has it made things more difficult? For sure. We have to constantly monitor the staff for any symptoms or potential contacts with the virus and train everyone in the new COVID-19 protocol.

We have to be happy and never whine about cooking in masks (it’s harder for some of us than others).

Prepping and events take longer than they used to because of all the extra cleaning, and the exact ingredients we want aren’t always available. But we always make it work.

In the end, it makes us a better company. We communicate more than we did before, and we’re all genuinely concerned about each other’s health. We’ve learned to be more creative in the kitchen and with our menu planning.

Sometimes the substitutions we make for impossible-to-find ingredients are better than the original.

Most of all, after weeks off and facing the potential of never cooking for people again, we have a lot more appreciation for just getting to do what we do—make people happy.

The pandemic may have driven us into isolation, but cannabis is bringing us back together.

SAFETY DANCE

Throw a dinner party without becoming a super spreader by following these guidelines.

• If possible, hold your dinner outside. Indoor spaces have less ventilation, and it can be harder to keep people socially distanced.

• Have one designated server handle all serving utensils.

• Keep food covered when it’s not being served. Bring back those old-school cloches, the dome-shaped ceramic or glass covers for your serving dishes—easy to find at thrift stores.

• Give everyone their own straw that they can slip under their masks to sip.

• Keep the music down so people don’t have to shout, which expels more respiratory droplets.

• Serve beverages in open tubs of ice and segregate them by type so people don’t have to go rooting around for the bottle or can they want.

• Set up hand-washing stations for guests and staff.

• Disinfect all surfaces, including serving areas and guest tables, before, during, and after the event.

• Require all food preparers and servers to wear masks and gloves at all times and to change gloves frequently.

• How you handle mask-wearing in the privacy of your home is up to you, but make sure all your guests are on the same page.

For guests with underlying conditions, it’s just as important to know if masks won’t be required as it to know if they will.

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Canna-Mango Mule Makes 1 mocktail

I N F O R M AT I O N

Made with freshly squeezed citrus, the best ginger beer you can find (it’s worth spending a little extra), and water-soluble THC or CBD, CannaMango Mules were the runaway hit of Summer 2020 and promise to remain CK Events’ most popular mocktail for the rest of the year.

INGREDIENTS

2 ounces mango nectar ½ ounce freshly squeezed lime juice (preferably key limes) ½ ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice 2 ounces ginger beer 1 packet Stillwater Ripple or other water-soluble THC or CBD product 1 lime wheel, for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS

• Fill cocktail shaker with ice. Add mango nectar, lime juice, and Ripple.

• Shake well. Strain into ice-filled glass or cup.

• Pour ginger beer to fill cup.

• Garnish with lime.

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The

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PHOTO EDITS BY JOSH CLARK / ORIGINAL IMAGE BY ALEXANDRE ZVEIGER, ADOBE STOCK

Muse “Cannabis helps my creativity.”

How many times have I heard this over the last four decades?

Big thinkers like Carl Sagan and Steve Jobs are on the record as a scientist and CEO, respectively, who used cannabis. Musicians from Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday to Willie Nelson and Nicki Minaj swear by it. I have never said that cannabis causes me to be creative, but I have argued, like the painter on Sanjay Gupta’s first CNN Weed special, that “It's my favorite way to work.”

But is there anything to this?

Is there really a connection between using cannabis and being creative, and if so, what is it?

Does cannabis actually stimulate people to be more inspired, TEXT LELAND RUCKER imaginative, inventive or artistic?

There are no easy answers, as is the case with much we are still learning about cannabis. It is generally believed and understood

Everybody from Carl Sagan on down swears by the ability of cannabis to influence creativity. Is there anything to it, or is it just an illusion?

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Creativity & Beyond: Culture, Values and Change.

This penetrating look at how cultures throughout history have viewed creativity and consciousness was written by R.P. Weiner in 2000.

cannabis and THC stimulate activity in the frontal lobe of the brain, which is where dopamines (sensitive neurons generally associated with reward, attention span, and short-term memory) are located.

Beyond that, trying to even quantify creativity is a sticky wicket.

Psychology researchers can’t define it. Is creativity the end product of creative work, or is it reflected in the personality of the person?

More interesting is whether creativity might have something to do with the differences between convergent thinking, which is the ability to follow logO C TO B E R 2020

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ical steps to a conclusion, and divergent thinking, which centers around a less linear process to come up with answers.

Most research on the subject relies on tests, generally done against time constraints, to measure “creativity.” One, for example, asked the subject to name as many words as they could in 30 seconds. Though that might be an appropriate scientific way to approach it, I’m unsure that it helps us understand anything about the process. And some of the research seems biased. A 2012 study admitted that little is known about how drugs affect the mind, but suggested that cannabis use might stimulate the sections of the brain (i.e. the frontal lobe) that lead

to divergent thinking. A different test two years later denied those conclusions vehemently. “The improved creativity that they believe they experience is an illusion,” Dr. Lorenza Colzato of the Institute of Psychology at Leiden University said about his study. “If you want to overcome writer’s block or any other creative gap, lighting up a joint isn’t the best solution.

Smoking several joints one after the other can even be counterproductive to creative thinking.”

Those methods don’t even hint at what’s going on when I write under the influence, especially since I’m never being asked to come up with as many words as I can to describe something in 30 seconds to test my creativity. And

they do nothing to explain why so many creative people still use cannabis to produce outstanding, innovative work.

So I began to talk to cannabis users to find out what they see as the link between cannabis and creativity. Most find it hard to accurately describe their experience, but all mentioned some variation on the “divergent thinking” concept.

“I like a ton of input and jam it into my brain,” says Sebastian Vidali, founder of Arcana, Inc, a cannabis-focused brand development group. “Smoke allows an almost Tony Stark thing, or

READ MORE ABOUT IT The Natural Mind: A New Way of Looking at Drugs and the Higher Consciousness.

Andrew Weil’s groundbreaking 1972 work offered a different way to look at consciousness at the same time that cannabis was designated a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act.

“I like a ton of input and jamming it into my brain.”

—Sebastian Vidali, Arcana Inc.

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that’s the way it feels, anyway.

It connects things together in a fluid way and helps create a new picture. I feel less held back by other factors. I’m always running multiple strains of thoughts, and it feels to me that I can dive into one thread and make connections.

It clears the noise in a way.”

“It’s hard to explain, but it opens up the creative river, gets those creative juices going,” says Patrick McGregor, a painter and muralist who works in a lot of different media. “I’ll be uninspired, take a lunch break, smoke a little, and it’ll bring me back into the painting.”

Neil Haverstick is a master at almost any stringed instrument.

He says cannabis is more common than you might imagine in the music biz. “I would say I’ve know many hundreds of musicians that smoke pot; in fact, I’ve only known a few that haven’t.

Of course, I’ve also seen a lotta alcohol use, cigarette smoking, and cocaine sniffing over the years in my field, but fortunately, not much usage of heroin.” he says.

He doesn’t really like playing live while elevated, but cannabis is an important part of his writing process. “When I start to play my guitar (or oud), I find that I often start doing things that I have never done before.

I have ideas that take me beyond the things I usually play— different melodies, rhythms, concepts,” he says. “I surprise myself. Sometimes, I think, ‘where did that come from? Never played that before.’ And that is the key word: surprise. I am often able to create new shapes, patterns, something that did not previously exist.”

Everybody I talked with says cannabis makes them see and think things in a different way.

Sebastian Marincolo is a neuroscientist who lives in Stuttgart, Germany, and has studied the positive potential of cannabis for the last decade. His most recent book, What Hashish Did to Walter Benjamin: Mind Altering Essays on Cannabis, looks into how cannabis was used positively by historical figures like Sagan, Rudyard Kipling, and Miles Davis, among many others, and tries to explain how judicious use of the marijuana high helped them and can help others.

Marincolo began looking into the connections between cannabis and creativity while working on his doctorate in philosophy and neuroscience. His roommate was studying toxicity, and they began to research marijuana as it related to mind enhancement.

They weren’t interested in the medical aspects. “We started looking into how it can help cognitive enhancement of episodic memories,” Marincolo says.

“People have reported, and I have experienced, an enhanced episodic memory—like for instance, you remember events from childhood in greater detail.”

Another fundamental element they found was a hyperfocus of attention. “Whatever you tend to be thinking about is more in focus,” Marincolo says. “Because of that you have an intensification of experience. Things seem to be more detailed and intense because you’re more focused and have the ability to imagine things. Imagination is crucial for creativity. And it’s not just images, it’s also im-

“That’s the key word: surprise. I am often able to create new shapes, patterns, something that did not previously exist.”

—Neil Haverstick, Instrumentalist

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portant for people who compose music or for a chef who is imagining a taste for a dessert.”

He says that many people experience a mind acceleration that is generally associated with a slowdown in time perception. Haverstick mentioned “new shapes and patterns,” and Marincolo corroborated that musicians seem to be especially tuned to this. Using Miles Davis as an example, Marincolo says some artists “can see patterns and similarities between patterns and better understand musical patterns.”

Marincolo also found that many users experience an enhancement of body perception. “Some describe how they can feel cold water going down their throats,

or that they have better touch or sex experiences," says Marincolo.

Users report the ability to understand and connect better with the emotions and moods of friends, children, and partners. “They see patterns in the behavior of other people and understand them better. There can be an enhancement of language understanding, to get into flow of other languages.”

Nobody I spoke with seemed to be of the opinion that you just hit the bong, and boom, the creativity gong hits you in the head. “My conclusion is that I think there is abuse in countries with prohibition, where people have access only to poor quality, black-market product, and they can abuse it as a form of escapism,” says Marinco-

lo, who offers online classes that include hands-on advice for personal growth, introspection, and dealing with personal relationships and sex. The classes emphasize how strains, terpenes, and ingestion methods can influence your creativity. “We all have different needs, and cannabis has a lot to offer—especially now that we are learning about the cannabinoid system and how different terpenes have different chemical profiles.

We need to have this knowledge.”

I think we’ll be waiting a long time for science to catch up with the connection between cannabis and creativity. Until then, Marincolo’s studies and my discussions with other users make sense to me in ways that traditional methods and research don’t.

First, of course, cannabis has to be decriminalized, legalized, and de-stigmatized throughout the country and around the world.

“It’s a cliché of sorts that musicians use ‘drugs,’ but I don’t think of marijuana as a drug,” Haverstick says. “I believe it has many useful properties, and now that it’s becoming legalized for both medical and recreational usage, we’re starting to see just how helpful it can be in a wide variety of situations.”

“We need to consider it as a tool,” Marincolo says. “But only if you know how to use it.”

READ MORE ABOUT IT What Hashish Did To Walter Benjamin: Mind-Altering Essays on Marijuana.

Sebastian Marincolo’s 2015 series of essays looks at significant figures in history and their connection to cannabis.

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What Does Cannabis Law Have to Do with Racism?

The story of cannabis law in America is one of injustice, with people of color bearing the brunt of a system weighted against them.

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TEXT ANDREW DEANGELO

As with many things in America, the cannabis experience for white people has been different from the cannabis experience for people of color.

White citizens have used and traded cannabis at nearly the same rates as Black and brown people, but Black and brown people have been arrested nearly four times as often. In most cases, people of color have done jail time while people like me were able to accumulate wealth in the cannabis industry—both underground and, more recently, legally. There is no doubt that the color of my skin has given me

untold advantages others do not enjoy.

The racist history of federal cannabis prohibition in the United States is the subject of Fab 5 Freddy’s Netflix documentary masterpiece Grass Is Greener.

With his cast of musical icons, the filmmaker exposes the story of how mid-level bureaucrat Harry J. Anslinger ascended to be the nation’s first drug czar on the backs of Black jazz musicians and Brown citizens, a tale both shocking and unsurprising for 1930s America.

For 30 years Anslinger promoted racist propa-

ganda and policy that resulted in much higher rates of drug-related arrests and imprisonment for people of color. Then in 1970, President Richard Nixon, another racist in a position of great power, launched the Controlled Substances Act—famously classifying cannabis as a Schedule I drug so he could go after his two biggest enemies, Blacks and hippies—and the DEA was born. Old Anslinger even came out of retirement for the ceremony.

“It was never about the cannabis,” Freddy tells me, “but about the people who were using it, plain and simple.”

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M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N

PHOTO CREDITS: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Read the full article on Playboy www.playboy.com/read/the-dopetutor-answers-what-does-weedlaw-have-to-do-with-racism

Cannabis prohibition was really just a war on people of color, another way to rob them of opportunity and justice.

Ronald Reagan rode a wave of conservative promises to the White House in 1980. With the launch of the “Just Say No” campaign promoted by First Lady Nancy Reagan, mandatory minimums and racial sentencing disparities proliferated. Widespread workplace urinalysis testing arose in the 1980s, further putting pressure on communities of color as jobs were lost, income obliterated and children removed from families due to a failed drug test or a weed possession charge. As funding for the drug war skyrocketed, even public schools began to embed police and practice urinalysis screening. The so-called

“The fight is trying to clean the American house of this evil infection called racism that is the root cause of everything from drug wars to lack of ownership in the legal cannabis industry, or any other industry.”

—Fab 5 Freddy, director of Grass is Greener

school-to-prison pipeline that haunts some Black and Brown communities to this day is due in large part to the unjust cannabis policies and over-policing that targeted those communities.

So how do we right these wrongs now?

“The fight is trying to clean the American house of this evil infection called racism that is the root cause of everything from drug wars to a lack of ownership in the legal cannabis industry, or any other industry,” says Freddy.

Today, Black Americans own just 4 percent of the legal cannabis industry, while whites own 81 percent. Those in the cannabis business have a moral obligation to commit to social equity (not least because that aligns with the values the plant teaches us).

Given the gross injustices of the past, Black and Brown people must be empowered in the legal cannabis industry to have ownership, equity and wealth created for and by themselves. This is the true promise of cannabis law reform.

Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, put it simply in Grass Is Greener: “The solution has to be more comprehensive than the damage that has been done.”

Most importantly, social equity represents a sacred promise that our industry must keep to right the wrongs of the past and begin to heal the inequities that permeate our society. That promise cannot be kept until more people of color attain positions of power and ownership in the legal cannabis industry.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrew DeAngelo is the cofounder of the Last Prisoner Project. This article is the first installment of DeAngelo’s new Dope Tutor column for playboy.com, an early advocate for cannabis rights

BELOW: Protestors in downtown San Francisco in response to the killing of George Floyd

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THE SCENE CONSERVATION

We Speak for the Trees A nonprofit organization protects our local forests.

TEXT JADA CALYPSO BROTMAN

Growing up in Humboldt, everyone knew the name Julia “Butterfly” Hill. From 1997 to 1999, Hill lived in “Luna,” a 1,500 year-old giant redwood tree. Her daring two-year effort was ultimately successful in saving Luna from the rapacious saws of the Pacific Lumber Company. The inspiring story has been well-documented far and wide. Thanks to environmental warriors and their predecessors like Hill, the last 9 percent of the original old-growth O C TO B E R 2020

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THE SCENE

SANCTUARY FOREST

To donate or volunteer, visit sanctuaryforest.org.

IG @sanctuary.forest FB @Mattole.Sanctuary

redwoods on the West Sanctuary Forest holds Coast still exists today. a total of 14 conservation In Southern Humboldt, easements spanning a 10,000-acre stand is 9,360 acres of privately preserved in a land and owned land in the Matwater trust known as tole River watershed and Sanctuary Forest, the surrounding areas. The same name of the orgaorganization acquired nization responsible for Luna as part of 3-acre ensuring its continued easement designed to existence. preserve the tree after “Sanctuary Forest start- Hill’s famous sit. ed in 1987 in an effort to Today, Sanctuary Forprotect the remaining est is continuing to battle old-growth forests in the forces of short-term the headwaters of the profit over sustainabilMattole River headwaity. In recent years, the ters,” explains Sanctuary organization has been Forest executive director focused on a project to April Newlander. “Our “Save the Van Arken,” the goal is to conserve land third largest tributary in in perpetuity.” the Mattole watershed.

CONSERVATION

With our changing climate, salmon and other native species stand little chance of survival without efforts toward their habitat restoration.

“We are working on buying a forest conservation easement for 1,320 acres in the Mattole headwaters that is completely free from human development,” says Newlander. “This has been a hugely successful public campaign where we have raised over $600,000 from our local community and beyond to conserve this important watershed from clear cut logging and potential development.” Local businesses can help in this ongoing effort by “Funding an Acre” of Van Arken, which gets their name

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THE SCENE CONSERVATION

on the advertised list or endangered. The dry of supporters. season, typically four With our changing months, stretched out to climate, salmon and six months, and the river other native species was drying up during stand little chance of the summer,” says survival without the Newlander. “Salmonid habitat restoration species depend on pools efforts of organizations in the headwaters where like Sanctuary Forest. young salmon and fatten Newlandler explains up or their journey out to that drought in the late the ocean.”

1990s and the effects As a response, Sancof climate change have tuary Forest started its become evident in the Storage and Forbearance Mattole watershed.

Program in 2005. With “All three species of sal- the aid of grant funding, monids—coho, Chinook, landowners are given and steelhead—were water tanks in exchange all listed as threatened for agreeing to forbear

from pumping from the river during the summer.

Newlander says that the program has been largely successful in reducing withdrawals from the Mattole.

Today, holding space and encouraging dialogue about water usage between landowners and policy makers is one of Sanctuary Forest’s primary roles. Balancing the water needs of local landowners and the natural habitat can be a complex situation.

“In the past five years, we’ve been focused on

our stewardship education program to provide landowners to provide technical resources and education about the best management practices for proper land and water stewardship,” says Newlander.

With conscientious land stewardship, the survival of local forests and its diverse habitat stand a much greater chance—without healthy forests, the survival rate of native species and our quality of life on the North Coast will plummet.

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A DV I S O RY B OA R D WA N A B R A N D S

Embracing Veganism and Plant-Based Diets Learn more about the environmental, ethical and health benefits of plant-based products. And why you should check your gummies.

D

id you know that both The Economist and Forbes magazine declared 2019 as the Year of Vegan? They were on to something. In 2019, sales of plant-based food products grew much faster than their conventional animal-based counterparts according to Plant-Based Food Association data.

Vegan diets consist of only plant-based foods. Vegans do not eat meat, eggs, cheese, honey, or other products containing animal-based products. For example, mayonnaise and a lot of baked goods contain eggs, making them non-vegan.

Gelatin is another sneaky animal-based ingredient that can show up in unexpected places like candy, marshmallows, and

even in cannabis edibles. Gelatin is made from animal skin, bones, and connective tissue of various farm animals..

Many people don’t realize that gelatin is a common ingredient in fruit-flavored gummies. Most cannabis gummies on the market today include gelatin in their recipes, but Wana Gummies are gelatin-free, utilizing vegan natural fruit pectin.

Why do plant-based ingredients matter?

For vegans, the decision is about more than a diet. It’s a conscious, deliberate lifestyle choice. Veganism is a way to minimize our impact on the climate by eschewing resource-intensive meat and animal products. Vegans also share a concern for animal welfare and the intensive farming practices used to produce meat

and other animal-based products.

Vegan and plant-based lifestyles are appealing from a health perspective as well. Health is at the forefront of all our minds these days, and plant-based diets have myriad benefits.

If given the option, many people— even non-vegans—choose plant-based products for the benefits to both health and the environment. Most of us in the cannabis community are committed to finding better ways to live, and that includes embracing sustainable, eco-friendly products whenever possible.

When deciding between products, it’s worth asking whether the brand reflects your priorities. Is the brand genuinely committed to sustainable, humane, environmentally-friendly practices? Do the products contain only natural ingredients?

As a vegan or plant-based consumer, you shouldn’t feel as if you have to make a trade-off between health and taste.

With the burgeoning interest in vegan products, businesses are dedicating more time and attention to creating products that are both healthy and delicious.

Wana’s industry-leading food scientists have spent years refining and perfecting the flavor and texture of its vegan-friendly Wana Gummies.

Wana Brands uses fruit pectin and other gluten-free, natural ingredients, offering a high-quality enjoyable product for everyone, vegans and non-vegans alike.

Cannabis and plant-based lifestyles go hand-in-hand when it comes to bringing balance and wellness to your life.

Fortunately, there are a growing number of options on the market, whether your purchase decisions are motivated by health, climate change, or animal welfare.

Category: Edibles Author: Nancy Whiteman, CEO of Wana Brands

The Sensi Advisory Board comprises select industry leaders in a variety of fields, from education to cultivation. They are invited to share specialized insight in this dedicated section.

For a full list of board members, see page 8.

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THE END

MORE INFO

willbucquoy.com @willbucquoy

California Burnin’ Devastating and ever-growing fires test California yet again.

TEXT NORA MOUNCE

Our imaginations have failed us. Though scientists have sounded the alarm on climate change for decades, our vision has been of distant images of vanishing beaches and uninhabitable desert cities. Sad for island nations, sure, but NIMBY-ism has been a cozy bedfellow. In a relentless year of calamity, massive wildfires expelled thousands of Californians into 68

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a smoke-filled hellscape over the past months.

As Californians watched friends and family run for their lives via Facebook Live, we looked at the grief in each other’s faces and said, “It’s only August.” While new vocabulary dominates the daily headlines—dry lightning and fire tornadoes—there are no new words to describe the magnitude of fear, loss, and foreboding.

Bay Area photographer Will Bucquoy captured this hauntingly beautiful image of a blazing sunset falling over Sonoma County’s Walbridge Fire on August 27. In response to countless requests for his arresting images, Bucquoy generously shared his portfolio under the following terms: “When you see a first responder or fire fighter, thank them for their contributions.”

From the bottom of our hearts, everyone at Sensi NorCal is indebted to California’s selfless firefighters, first responders, and essential workers who continue to toil to protect their neighbors, children, and grandparents from fires, pandemics, and whatever deathly hand climate change deals next. #thankyoufirefighters #norcal strong.

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THE MUSE Does cannabis make you more creative?

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