Sensi Florida January 2022

HIGH ON HUES

Fashion paints the town

F LO R I DA WINTER 2022

GREEN FUTURE Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers leads the charge toward sustainable cannabis

DIET WEED

Does THCV live up to the hype?

HAPPY PLACE

Create an emotional escape room

Want a sample of our work? You’re reading it.

Em Agency is proud to be the creative force behind Sensi’s award-winning visual style.

We build brands we believe in—the brand you believe in can be next. emagency.com

FLORIDA SENSI MAGAZINE WINTER 2022

sensimediagroup @sensimagazine @sensimag

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FEATURES

24

Moving Forward

The cannabis industry is toppling every capitalist metric for success but it’s going to have to deal with tough issues like consumer safety, social justice, and an abhorrent carbon footprint.

30

Down to Work

36

The Green Future

Photographer Chris Vicari captures the personalities of California’s cannabis farmers and leaders.

Concerned companies are banding together to create innovative practices and rigorous standards to ensure sustainable cultivation and commerce.

DEPARTMENTS

11 EDITOR’S NOTE 16 THE LIFE Contributing to your health and happiness 12 THE BUZZ HIGH FASHION Welcome News, tips, and tidbits to keep you in the loop THE POT HOUSEPLANT

Meet the company on a mission to change the way the world looks at weed.

IMPERMANENT INK Try made-to-fade tattoos.

COVER STORY New York magazine’s new podcast is hot.

THE HIGH FIVE A fistful of curated stuff you need now.

to the brave new world of dopamine dressing.

FOREST BATHING It’s time to connect to the trees.

43 LOCAL Regional editor Debbie Hall outlines the best whos, wheres, and whens to catch up on this January.

ON THE COVER

The Sustainable Cannabis Commission and Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers are walking the walk when it comes to sustainabilty. See page 36.

PHOTO COURTESY TRULIEVE

50 THE END Go all-in on self-care by creating an emotional escape room.

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ADVISORY BOARD

NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD NCRMA Risk Management COLORADO Agricor Laboratories Testing Lab Aspen Cannabis Insurance Insurance Services Canyon Cultivation Microdosing Cartology Corporation Cartridge Filling Equipment + Hardware Colorado Cannabis Company THC Coffee Concentrate Supply Co. Recreational Concentrates Emerald Construction Construction Green Edge Trimmers Trimmers Higher Grade Boutique Cannabis Hybrid Payroll Staffing & HR Benefits Jupiter Research Inhalation Hardware Lab Society Extraction Expert + Lab Supplies marQaha Sublinguals + Beverages Monte Fiore Farms Recreational Cultivation Northern Standard History of Cannabis PotGuide Cannabis Culture Source CO Wholesale Consulting Terrapin Care Station Recreational Dispensary Toast Mindful Consumption Uleva Hemp Products Wana Brands Edibles Witlon Inc. Payroll Processing

MICHIGAN Aronoff Law (Craig Aronoff) Licensing Law Firm Cannabis Counsel Cannabis Law Firm Etz Chaim Attestations Grapp Lerash Accounting/CPA Services Great Lakes Natural Remedies Lakeshore: Provisioning Center Kush Design Studio Cannabis Facility Design & Build MRB Solutions Human Resources Northern Specialty Health Upper Peninsula: Provisioning Center Pure West Compassion Club Caregiver Connection & Network Rair Medical Flower Solutions by Dr. Dave West Michigan: Hemp CBD Helping Friendly Hemp Company Hemp Topicals NEVADA Eden Water Technologies Water System Technologies Green Leaf Money Canna Business Finanacing GreenHouse Payment Solutions Payment Processing Ideal Business Partners Corporate Law & Finance Jupiter Research Inhalatation Hardware Matrix NV Premium Live Resin Red Rock Fertility Fertility Doctor Rokin Vapes Vape Technology This Stuff Is Good For You CBD Bath and Body

CALIFORNIA 365 Recreational Cannabis Dispensary: Recreational, Santa Rosa Accucanna LLC Desert Hot Springs: Dispensary EventHI Events Flourish Software Distribution Management Green Unicorn Farms CBD Hemp Flower Helmand Valley Growers Company Medical Infrastructure Specialist HUB International Insurance Humboldt Grow Tech Smart Ag Tech Hybrid Payroll / Ms. Mary Staffing Staffing & HR Benefits Ikänik Farms Cannabis Distribution Red Door Remedies Dispensary: Cloverdale Red Rock Fertility Fertility Doctor Southern Humboldt Royal Cannabis Company Mixed Light Farming Sonoma Patient Group Dispensary: Santa Rosa Strictly Topical Inc./Sweet ReLeaf Pain Relief Topicals Uleva Hemp Products Vaper Tip Vape Supply & Consulting Wana Brands Edible Gummies Witlon Payroll

MASSACHUSETTS Corners Packaging Packaging Green Goddess Supply Personal Homegrown Biochamber The Holistic Center Medical Marijuana Evaluations Revolutionary Clinics Medical Dispensary Royal Gold Soil Tess Woods Public Relations Public Relations Vantage Builders Construction

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EDITORIAL

Stephanie Wilson Co-Founder + Editor in Chief stephanie.wilson@sensimag.com Doug Schnitzspahn Executive Editor Tracy Ross Managing Editor, Michigan Emilie-Noelle Provost Managing Editor, Massachusetts Debbie Hall Managing Editor, Spark Jenny Willden Managing Editor, California Will Brendza Managing Editor, Colorado Robyn Griggs Lawrence Editor at Large Radha Marcum Copy Editor Bevin Wallace Copy Editor

EXECUTIVE

Ron Kolb Founder ron@sensimag.com Stephanie Graziano CEO stephanie.graziano@sensimag.com ADVERTISING

Toni Tardif National Sales Director Jade Kolb Director Sales Operations and Global Recruiting PUBLISHING

Jamie Cooper Market Director, Michigan Richard Guerra Market Director, Massachusetts

DESIGN

Jamie Ezra Mark Creative Director jamie@emagency.com Rheya Tanner Art Director Wendy Mak Designer Josh Clark Designer Miguel Martinez Designer BRAND DEVELOPMENT

Richard Guerra Director of Global Reach Neil Willis Production Director MEDIA PARTNERS

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

Nancy Birnbaum Market Director, California Nancy Reid Market Director, Florida MEDIA SALES

CALIFORNIA Omowunmi Lykins Media Sales Executive COLORADO Liana Cameris Media Sales Executive Nancy Seidel Media Sales Executive Tyler Tarr Media Sales Executive FLORIDA Kristen Gross Media Sales Executive Anthony Mckenzie Media Sales Executive NEVADA Pam Hewitt Media Sales Executive MASSACHUSETTS Jake Boynton Media Sales Executive MICHIGAN Eric Lutey Media Sales Executive Kyle Miller Media Sales Executive Will Oostendorp Media Sales Executive Leah Stephens Media Sales Executive OKLAHOMA Diana Ramos Media Sales Executive

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Y

EDITOR’S NOTE

Magazine published monthly

by Sensi Media Group LLC.

© 2021 Sensi Media Group. All rights reserved.

You may not know

that there are a bunch of

FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

FAC E B O O K Like Sensi Media Group to infuse your newsfeed with more of our great cannabis lifestyle content.

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I N S TAG R A M Pretty things, pretty places, pretty awesome people: find it all on @sensimagazine

different editions of Sensi across the country. The original magazine was established in Denver, Colorado, in 2016. One year later, the spawning commenced, beginning with Sensi Southern Colorado, followed by new editions in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Boston, and Las Vegas in 2018. The expansion continued throughout 2019 and into 2020 as we added three more California magazines plus one in Detroit and two in Pennsylvania to our mix.

I was in Florida to celebrate the launch of our first foray into the Sunshine State in January 2020 when I first heard about the novel coronavirus causing alarm in Wuhan, China. The premier Sensi Tampa Bay edition hit newsstands that February … and we all know what happened in March. Sensi paused production on all 15 local monthly print magazines, but we didn’t stop working to fulfill our mission to showcase “the new normal”—cannabis as a legal, beneficial addition to a modern wellness-driven lifestyle.

Over the past two years we have been redefining our approach and evolving our point of view from that of a monthly local cannabis lifestyle magazine to a national media brand. We’re widening our focus to paint a fuller picture of the intersection of cannabis and culture—through art, history, design, food, creativity, politics, science, fashion, fun, and so much more—and highlighting how it can enhance our lives without being the focus of them.

What does this mean for our readers across the country? First, with each new print issue and across our digital platforms, you’ll see stories through the Sensi lens from your local market alongside national features. We’re publishing quarterly seasonal magazines in print that will be packed cover-to-cover with dynamic storytelling emphasizing the role of cannabis in modern culture. We’re rethinking not just what we do but how we do it—in print, and also through our digital editions, website, newsletters, video productions, and social media—so that we can continue to entertain, inform, and delight you and serve our communities across the country.

This shift is a giant leap forward for Sensi. Our culture-obsessed and cannabis-curious audiences comprise a continent-crossing network of people who share an open, nonjudgemental worldview that’s collectively changing the popular mindset. From the start, Sensi’s mission has been to evolve the stereotype of marijuana-smoking lazy stoners into one of discerning, cultured denizens of the creative class. That will not change. I can’t wait to show you what we’ve got in store. For a sneak peak, head to sensimag.com and sign up for our newsletters now. Your inbox will thank you.

We’re widening our focus to paint a fuller picture of the intersection of cannabis and culture— through art, history, design, food, creativity, politics, science, fashion, fun, and so much more

Happy 2022,

Steph Wilson @stephwilll W I N T E R 2022

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Plant the Seed Move over monstera, there’s a new “It” houseplant creating lots of buzz in 2022: Cannabis sativa. Whether you live in a modern pad or a bohemian den, this plant will be right at home in your place. Its iconic slender fan leaves as striking on your coffee table as they are your Instagram. Even if you don’t have a green thumb, you can still add some personality to your decor with a 12

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conversation-sparking piece from Pot Plant, an online shop that sells artificial weed plants meant to be displayed in homes and businesses.

This interior design accent with attitude is the brainchild of company founders Karina Farris, 26, and George Hernandez, 28, who created Pot Plant in hopes of shifting people’s perspective of cannabis.

COURTESY POT PLANT

Meet the company on a mission to change the way the world looks at weed.

CONTRIBUTOR

Stephanie Wilson

You can spruce up your space with 10-inch Clone, 16-inch Teen, 22-inch Adult, and 36-inch Mother plants that are as close to the real thing as possible. All of them are eye-catching, worthy of display anywhere in your home where you want to up the ambiance with a little greenery. The Mother, especially, makes such a statement, you’ll even forget it’s fake.

The hyperreal design for the hyperreal houseplant was created from molds of Lemon Haze cannabis plants grown in the founders’ backyards. The synthetic plants may not grow like proverbial weeds, nor will they offer up fluffy nugs for you to smoke—but the plantlike objets sporting pointy fan leaves once seen as a badge of counterculture are sure to spark some conversations about cannabis. As we keep working toward universal acceptance, incorporating a pot plant into your home decor is an opportunity to contribute to the normalization of a symbol that once caused controversy. potplant.shop

BY THE NUMBERS

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Where cannabis ranks on the list of the most valuable crops in the U.S., which is above cotton and below wheat. Legal cannabis is the single-most-valuable agricultural crop in Alaska, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Oregon.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Agriculture data

5,022,990

LBS.

IF I MAKE MUSIC AND PEOPLE HATE IT, YOU KNOW, WHATEVER. I’LL POOLS DIE SOMEDAY, AND ONE DAY, THEY WILL TOO.”

57

COURTESY EPHEMERAL TATTOO

Made-to-fade tattoos disappear in just one year.

TH PLACE

Weight of weed that is harvested every year at legal grows on the 13,042 licensed farms in adult-use states.

How many Olympicsized swimming pools that happy harvest could fill.

For comparison, that’d be more than 2 billion joints.

SOURCE: Benzinga

—Billie Eilish

Impermanent Ink

THE REAL THING

If you’ve ever considered a tattoo only to realize you’re an ever-evolving human whose tastes change and the design you think is so clever today may be so very cliché tomorrow, consider Ephemeral. The tattoo shop with outposts in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and San Francisco (with more to come) developed a made-to-fade ink that’s used in tattoos that last one year, giving everyone the freedom to express themselves without fear of commitment.

With traditional ink, the pigment particles are too large for your body to break down, and the macrophages—the white blood cells that digest foreign particles in our bodies— just can’t get in there. Ephemeral’s pigments are smaller and wrapped in a polymer complex that degrades over time. As the medical-grade, biodegradable solution breaks down, the particles become small enough to be removed by the body and the ink disappears in 9 to 15 months. It’s a lower barrier to entry for anyone who’s been hesitant to commit to permanent ink. It’s also a great way to try out a design you’ve been considering without being stuck with it forever.

If you want to give your green thumb a go-to grow pot in your pad, the Everything-But-theSeeds kit from A Pot for Pot can help get you all set up. Marijuana seeds can be purchased from select dispensaries in recreationally legal states. apotforpot.com

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THE BUZZ

Listen up!

Sensi recommends Cover Story, a new podcast from New York magazine. The investigative series uncovers the secrets and exposes the darkest corners of the psychedelic revolution through a twisted, deeply personal tale at the intersection of mind, body, and control. New episodes drop on Tuesdays throughout January.

HIGH 5

Elevate your consumption ritual to an art.

Pure Beauty x Jochen Holz Bongs, starting at $875 The London-based master glass artist Jochen Holz, known for his vibrant, organically shaped functional artworks, created 10 one-of-a-kind, abstract bong sculptures for art-forward California cannabis brand Pure Beauty. The collection was unveiled at Nonaka-Hill Gallery in Los Angeles last fall during an exhibit that also highlighted Pure Beauty’s latest artist collaboration: the packaging of the new 5 Pack joints featuring the work of five artists, including Hassan Rahim. purebeautydrugstore.co Henelle Venice Beach Kimono, $130 This silky piece doubles as a smoking jacket with a motif of magic mushrooms and love hearts inspired by the 1970s golden era of Venice Beach. henelle.shop

LEFT PHOTO BY TANYA LAYKO VIA UNSPLASH

“As soon as I realized you could be funny as a job, that was the job I wanted.”

—Comedian and Cannabis Entrepreneur Seth Rogan

Serena Confalonieri Nebula Collection Bongs, 600,00€ With sinuous curves and ethereal shapes inspired by the lightness of smoke spirals and colors in evanescent, transparent hues that recall 1970s psychedelia, the trio of bongs Italian artist Serena Confalonieri debuted at Design Milan last fall epitomize the concept of “high design.” Now available for pre-order and expected to ship in early 2022, each piece in the collection—Nebula Alpha, Nebula Beta, and Nebula Gamma—is made of borosilicate glass hand-blown by skilled Italian artisans. If money is no object, add all three objets d’art to your bong cart. serenaconfalonieri.com/portfolio/nebula/ Embroidery Art by HealTHCareEmbroidery, from $60 Handmade artworks that don’t fall into the trap of stoner clichés, bud-inspired embroidery like this piece by embroiderer Kaitlin Earl, a.k.a. @HealTHCareEmbroidery, are rising in popularity as more artisans take on “craftivism”—the seamless blending of crafting and activism. Get your own embroidery pattern on Etsy or purchase handcrafted products with embroidered flourishes like this one, inspired by the Juddah’s breath strain. etsy.com/shop/HealTHCareEmbroidery Lovepot Little Bud Vase, $75 This buzzy brand only offers delivery of its bouquets of seasonal fresh flowers mixed with smokable hemp flower in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, but don’t fret if you’re outside of the delivery area. The company’s brand’s all-women team blends together dried flower bouquets with smokable CBD hemp that can be dried to enjoy later as a tea, herbal smoke blend, or for an aromatherapy herbal bath. soplovepot.com W I N T E R 2022

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High on Color Dressing loud is the new dressing down. Can bright colors and bold patterns really elevate your mood? Welcome to the brave new world of dopamine dressing.

COVID-19 lockdown sent us into our sweats.

We sat in monochrome cotton surrounded by neutral-colored walls for so long our brains actually lost the ability to accurately track the passage of time. We became starved for stimulation.

We spent 18 months in our khaki-colored apartments, and when we came out, we collectively decided it was time to banish the beige.

It’s no wonder we came out craving color— bright, bold, eye-catching color in rich, satu16

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rated shades of magenta, sage green, and eclectic blue. We wanted to wrap ourselves in it, to cover our bodies from head to toe in vibrant shades.

Color is a mood, and we can’t get enough of it right now. Vibrant hues and bold shades are the antidote to the dark days of winter, and our lives are more saturated with color than ever this year. The post-lockdown world is looking a little more bright and a lot more vibrant. This is the feel-good trend we need right now. From rain-

bow dresses to electric blue suits, the hottest 2022 fashion trends are setting a bold mood— and we’re getting high on color.

Brain Chemistry That high, in fact, comes from dopamine, the brain chemical that influences your mood, emotions, and motivation. Your brain releases dopamine into your body when it’s anticipating a reward, which is what motivates you to do the thing that delivers the reward. Color is

closely associated with emotions—we use it to describe our moods. We say we’re “feeling blue” when we’re sad, “seeing red” when angry, “tickled pink” when filled with glee. But does your mood dictate your color choices or do your color choices dictate your mood? The science is out on that.

What’s not up for debate is that as humans, we give objects (including clothes) symbolic meaning. So our brains start associating that t-shirt we were wearing

PHOTO BY TINE BEK FOR STINE GOYA SS22, COPENHAGEN FASHION WEEK

TEXT STEPHANIE WILSON

(LEFT TO RIGHT) PHOTOS COURTESY HENRIK VIBSKOV SS22/COPENHAGEN FASHION WEEK; RICHARD MALONE X MULBERRY SS22/ IMAX; BROGGER SS22/COPENHAGEN FASHION WEEK; OTTOLINGER SS22/IMAX; BLUMARINE SS22/IMAX

when we had the best night ever with positive memories, and then anticipate making more of them whenever we wear it. It’s that anticipation of reward that triggers the release of dopamine into our systems, ultimately driving us to do it all again.

We wore it, we liked it, so we wore it again.

Then we had to up our dose. Now, head-to-toe monochrome magenta is the norm—and we’re never going back to neutrals.

Dopamine Dressing So what exactly is dopamine dressing? It’s where self-care meets style, where fashion intersects with mindfulness. It’s the big trend right now, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. It’s also simple to follow.

Dopamine dressing is choosing to wear the things that bring you joy—choosing something because it’s fun, not just because it’s practical. It’s not going to your closet and be-

It’s about wrapping your body in hues that make you happy and accessorizing with sparkly or feathery abandon.

ing happy with clothes that are clean and fit, but mindfully selecting items that jive with your vibe. It’s about wrapping your body in hues that make you happy and accessorizing with sparkly or feathery abandon. It’s about elevating your style and defining your aesthetic by choosing pieces in the fabrics, cuts, colors, and prints that send a surge of confidence through your system raising your vibe so high you’ll be giving off Lil Nas X energy.

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THE LIFE SELF CARE

The Art of Forest Bathing

In these days of social distance and world-wide anxiety, one of the best things we can do for ourselves is connect to the trees.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL KRAHN VIA UNSPLASH

TEXT DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

In Japan the term shinrin-yoku refers to the act of getting out and simply walking in the woods and breathing in—both metaphorically and actually— the healing aromas of the trees. The term roughly translates as “forest bathing,” or, more romantically, as taking in the essence of the forest, walking quietly, aware. Shinrin-yoku is not just some poetic Japanese ideal either (indeed, it was coined as a Japanese Forest Agency marketing term in the early 1980s)—it’s based on the healing properties of protective odors, called phytoncides, exuded by the trees. It’s taken so seriously that the Japanese consider forest bathing an important way to combat the stress of our insidiously busy work world— in fact, a piece in Mother Earth News reported that

Japanese researchers have proven that walks in the woods can actually lower cortisol, thus stress levels.

I certainly don’t do enough forest bathing anymore. It seems odd that I live right down the street from a trail that wanders into stands of ponderosa pine and sandstone covered in lichen, a place where bears and mountain lions and songbirds make their homes. But I’m not up there forest bathing, soaking it in. When I do head into those woods, it’s to go for a trail run or walk the dog while checking work emails on my phone. It’s to power through, even if I do find a few mindful moments.

That was not always the case. When I was still in my 20s, I spent six seasons in Montana’s Beaverhead-Deerlodge National W I N T E R 2022

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®

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Call Us: 800-4FoxFarm

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Visit Us: FoxFarm.com

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THE LIFE

PHOTO BY DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

SELF CARE

Forest, building trails and fighting fires. It was, quite simply, the best job I have ever had in my life. Each day, we hiked, hauled big tools, worked the earth, went back to camp, cooked good food, drank clear water, read, slept under the stars… and often engaged in forest bathing.

After swinging a pulaski all day long, I would be pretty sated physically. I didn’t feel like I needed to go for a trail run or mountain bike ride or get in a damn workout. I would bathe in the forest, taking slow, silent walks into the secret places off the trail around our camp.

Things happened. Subtle things. Sometimes powerful things. Walking solo at twilight on the long, bare backbone of Shedhorn Ridge above stands of Douglas fir, I watched three hawks ride thermals up from the open air to circle

above my head. On the way down, in the near dark, I heard elk running through the trees. Another time in the Gravelley Range, I watched as two coyotes harassed a doe in thick sagebrush. Walking later in almost the same spot, I suddenly came upon her fawn— small, pure, curled up in the high grass and shaking with fear. Other times I would just take in the, I don’t know, sense?

Energy? Vibe? of these untouched parts of the Madison Range.

On days off, I would get out and hit it hard— fish, climb, bike, hike to spring ski couloirs. Even in the midst of these quiet walks, I would sometimes push it—climb some small unnamed peak, break into a run— but it all stemmed from a desire to start walking and see where the forest took me. That mindset is

what seems all too easy to lose when the woods are just our playground.

The Swiss writer Herman Hesse said: “When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent.”

I’m older now. And I feel that deep sadness— even more so with the pandemic continuing to rage, megafires consuming my town, and our sense of civil society upended. I worry that I have not lived exactly the way I wanted to live, that I am facing down nothingness. Sometimes fishing helps take it away—the rhythm and mindfulness of casting, watching the fly on the water, the drift.

But sometimes, even that seems like another moment when I’m missing something important.

It’s at these times when I lift up my rod and take a step back from the steam. I indulge in a little shinrin-yoku. I listen to how the breeze makes the slightest song in the aspen leaves. I get the hint of heat bringing off a scent of root beer from the ponderosas. I take a moment to contemplate the branches far above and the way the light plays in them. I appreciate trees that have grown roots in rock or still stand even when they have been undercut by the stream.

Then I’ll get back up.

I check my fly and line.

I head back down to the stream and cast and sometimes catch and feel the joy of being once more. A little bathing in the forest is all we need to get back on track.

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THE FUTURE’S SO

BRIGHT The cannabis industry is toppling every capitalist metric for success—even without banking and tax deductions—but the shades need to come off if it’s going to deal with tough issues like consumer safety, social justice, and an abhorrent carbon footprint.

TEXT ROBYN GRIGGS LAWRENCE

T

en years ago, DaVinci CEO Cort Smith saw cannabis legalization on the horizon and envisioned a nation of home growers, obsessing over genetics and nutrients. He went to his first High Times Cannabis Cup expecting to see farmers in flannel shirts showing off salad bowls overflow-

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ing with their finest flowers. Instead, he found extraction artists loading rigs with oils and waxes—21st-century weed—and he realized the market was never going to be about growing.

Personally, Smith still prefers flower to concentrates, but he ingests his herb using one of DaVin-

ci’s precision-temperature vaporizers made from zirconia and medical-grade parts, an apparatus so aspirational Gizmodo says it could be made by Apple. DaVinci, with roughly $12 million in sales, was acquired by global cannabis accessories platform Greenlane Holdings for $20 million late last year.

In so many ways, Smith’s story is that of the cannabis industry.

With millions in capital flooding in, multi-billion-dollar companies being built from mergers and acquisitions, and global sales predicted to reach $46 billion by 2025, the industry has come a long way since voters in Colorado and Washington legalized adult use in 2012. It’s beating every metric of capitalist success, even without access to basic banking services or the ability to deduct business expenses (and not a lot of hope either will happen any time soon).

made deals while drinking craft beer and smoking rare cigars.

Vince Ning, founder of California-based wholesale-cannabis platform Nabis, was struck by the tremendous difference in professionalism he saw at this year’s conference. “There’s a lot more sustainability in the industry—maybe not necessarily from an environmental perspective, but businesses are more sustainable,” he said during the show’s last hour. “In 2018, it felt kind of like the cryptocurrency space, like there was funny

rage. Ning—whose company distributes more than 125 brands in California, giving him a good view of the overall market—said every one of the still-obscure cannabinoids could be a billion-dollar category in itself, but only if genetics were developed to support them.

Cheeba Chews, the Colorado company that put edibles on the map with its 175mg deca-dose taffies in the 2010s, was at the show to introduce a wellness line containing microdoses of THC along with CBN, CBD, CBG, and

BRIGHT LEADERS FOR A BRIGHT FUTURE

LEFT TO RIGHT: COURTESY DAVINCI, COURTESY NABIS, COURTESY CHEEBA CHEWS

From left: Cort Smith, CEO of DaVinci; Vince Ning, founder of Nabis; Eric Leslie, Chief Marketing Officer of Cheeba Chews

In late October, 20,000 or so industry insiders returned to Las Vegas for the annual MJBizCon convention (after taking 2020 off because of COVID-19) to talk about where the industry stands and where it’s headed.

Top of mind were the brand-new New York market, predicted to be worth $1 billion, and speculation about when unregulated Oklahoma might crash and burn.

Mike Tyson and Lil’ Kim paraded through, with entourages, to announce the latest in a string of celebrity cannabis brands. One of the week’s most coveted invitations was a golf tournament at a prestigious course in Boulder City, where C-suite executives

THCV—products Chief Marketing Officer Eric Leslie considers a breakthrough for consumers who want more than just psychoactive effects. “I’ve been here from the beginning. I have a decade of experience,” he said. “That gut instinct we had about edibles being a rocket Redefining the Industry MJBiz was a showcase of products ship at the beginning–we’re right and services that reflect morphing back there again. We have an opconsumer demands and increasing- portunity to redefine the standards ly sophisticated ways of manipulat- of our industry so that it’s not THC ing the plant, unbundling and spot- only and introduce a wider demolighting its various parts, and more graphic of people to cannabis.”

Edibles themselves were a hot beneficially or powerfully delivertopic at the show, as sales are driving its effects. en to new heights by a pandemic Minor cannabinoids such as CBC, CBG, THCV, and CBN, which forcing the need for more discretion and non-combustible conare being marketed as sleep aids sumption options. “The sales trend and energy boosters, were all the money floating around. But we’ve seen a lot of those players who had unscalable market tactics fall by the wayside. COVID-19 created a pressure cooker, and what’s sifted to the top, I think, is really healthy.”

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Fighting for freedom is Join the revolution at norml.org

LEFT TO RIGHT: COURTESY GREEN DRAGON, COURTESY AZUCA

MUSHROOM MADNESS Perhaps the biggest buzz at MJBiz, as it has been at every cannabis event from coast to coast over the past year, was not about the cannabis plant at all. It was about the meteoric rise of psychedelics, or what many are calling the “next cannabis.”

Allay Consulting CEO Kim Stuck, who helped write Colorado’s adultuse regulations in 2014, is among the flood of pioneers moving over to psychedelics. Now living in Portland, Oregon, she’s on a work group helping the state write the rules for Oregon’s newly legalized therapeutic psychedelic market, and she believes the future is psilocybin. “It’s going to be a market,” she said during MJBiz. “It’s not yet, but licenses will start being given out in December 2023.”

Crafting Colorado’s cannabis rules was a thankless task that Stuck said involved “lots of tears and lots of yelling,” but she’s hopeful this time will be different. At the very least, she said, “I hope we don’t take as many bricks in the head.”

is absolutely clear in any market you’re in, without exception: edibles, edibles, edibles,” said Alex Levine, CEO of Green Dragon, which owns dispensaries in Colorado, California, and Florida. “Every year they become more popular. Absolutely, every year, we see more people shifting to edibles.”

During a quick chat outside Azuca’s booth showcasing a cannabinoid-encapsulation process that makes edibles’ effects more rapid and predictable, CEO Kim Rael said she believes edibles will grow

terpene-testing results—all part of the company’s strategy to become known for consistency and quality while educating consumers. Father-andson team Rich and Rick Batenburg of Cliintel Capital Management Group (CCMG) were there to position their vape brand, The Clear, as the Coca-Cola of cannabis.

Though CCMG’s holdings include two grows in Denver (along with companies involved in every-

BRIGHT LEADERS FOR A BRIGHT FUTURE From left: Alex Levine, CEO of Green Dragon; Kim Rael Sanchez, CEO of Azuca

faster than the overall industry in the next few years because “new adapters will not want to smoke or vape.” She believes fast-acting technology will transform edibles much like broadband transformed the internet. “Why would anybody suffer through slow, unpredictable dial-up once that quality was available?” she asked.

Branding What?

Trade shows are, more than anything, branding opportunities.

MJBiz was no exception. The executive team from premium Colorado grower Veritas was showing off new color-classified packaging matching moods with terpene profiles and offering QR codes to

thing from cultivation to manufacturing), Chief Investment Officer Rich Batenburg doesn’t see cultivation as the future. “That will get commoditized, 100 percent, as will the distribution channels of dispensaries,” he said. “The power is going to shift to brands.

And the more mature the market, the more powerful those brands will become. It will become a lot more like alcohol. You don’t pick a liquor store because you love the store. You pick it because you love the brands they have.”

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ucts and edibles, they care more about strains than branding when buying flower—which still dominates the market. “If people are looking up flower, they look up strains. If they’re looking up vapes, they look at brands,” he said.

Falling Behind Amid the positioning and projecting, there were also dispiriting signs the industry is picking up some of mainstream corporate culture’s worst habits. Leadership is becoming less diverse, and lead-

cent (below the national average of 30 percent) in 2021.

“Women and minorities are not counted in this industry, not financed in this industry, and are not moving forward in this industry,” Simply Pure CEO Wanda James, the nation’s first Black woman to own a dispensary, said during the most-talked-about session at MJBiz. James said seasoned Black entrepreneurs with licenses to operate cannabis businesses struggle to get funding. “Our businesses are not validated in the same way as a

its like Realm of Caring are crunching reams of data that’s never been available before to prove the plant’s efficacy, develop guidelines and protocols for use, and encourage insurance companies to compensate medical marijuana patients. Development Officer Adam Young said Realm of Caring has created a seal of approval that entails visits to farms and extraction and shipping facilities as well as product testing. So far, only five companies have been certified.

These are challenges, to be sure.

BRIGHT LEADERS FOR A BRIGHT FUTURE

LEFT TO RIGHT: COURTESY CCMG (X2), SIMPLY PURE

From left: Richard Batenburg II and Richard Batenburg III, cofounders of Cliintel Capital Management Group; Wanda James, CEO of Simply Pure

ing companies are leaving crucial issues like consumer safety, social justice, and carbon emissions for nonprofits to handle.

Regulatory efforts to support ownership among the communities most harmed by the drug war haven’t made any difference and sometimes do more harm than good. Less than 2 percent of cannabis business owners are Black, compared with 13 percent of the U.S. population, according to Leafly’s 2021 Jobs Report. Minority executives made up 28 percent of all cannabis leaders in 2019 and dropped to 13 percent (about the national average) in 2021, while women accounted for 37 percent of leaders in 2019 but only 22 per-

25-year-old white guy in California that has no business experience or licenses,” she said.

This failure to live up to inclusionary ideals is, at least, a conversation. How growing weed is cooking the planet is not, despite study after study showing indoor cultivation taking up a bigger and bigger piece of the carbon-emissions pie.

Growing an ounce of indoor emits about the same amount of carbon as burning a tank of gas, one of those studies by Colorado State engineers found. “This industry is developing and expanding very quickly without consideration for the environment,” the study’s senior author told Gizmodo.

As for consumer safety, nonprof-

But as Smith was quick to point out during a chat in the MJBizCon press room (about a month before his company’s acquisition was announced), mainstreaming has plenty of upside, too.

“Ten years ago, we were crazy stoners, trying to carve a life out of the back alleys of semi-legality.

Now there’s a lot more awareness, and I think that’s great,” he said. “I’m a fan. I believe cannabis provokes good conversation, friendships, and solution language to problems. The more popular this tool gets, the more problems get solved.”

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THE FACES CANNABIS of

Through his lens, Chris Vicari captured the personalities of California’s cannabis farmers and leaders as the industry was shucking off old stereotypes about the plant and the people who grow it for a living.

TEXT DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN PHOTOS CHRIS VICARI

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hen photographer Chris Vicari fist began shooting portraits of personalities in the cannabis space, he had to build trust with his subjects. After all, cannabis had just become legal in California, where he was working for Green Flower Media, which was on a mission to help the nascent industry present itself as a professional business, and growers were skeptical. “A lot of them would tell me to just shoot their shoulders,” he says.

“It wasn’t working.”

But Vicari, who had previously worked on creating the images for a video game of the Deadliest Catch, wanted real connection to capture images of business people and industry pioneers who had been treated with scorn as cannabis tired to shake off the stigma of stoner culture 30

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Sunshine Johnston

and illegality. So he focused on what mattered most to the people he was photographing: their work in the field and passion for the plant.

“I wanted to make sure that there was a connection to the land with everybody I shot and completely ignored any kind of stigma or preconceived ideas about cannabis growers,” he says. “I just wanted to show them as salt-of-theearth people who are out there working hard. I wanted them to look smart. I wanted them to look badass. I wanted them to look respectable.”

The success of that approach shows in Vicari’s up-close-and-personal images of personalities including farmer Swami Chaitanya and industry leader Steve Deangelo, who had devoted themselves to cannabis when it was still heavily stigmatized. Vicari’s portraits reveal the human, hard-working side of an industry just beginning to gain mainstream acceptance.

Derek Gilman

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“Towards the end, people started trusting me,” he says. “We were really embedded with this group of people who were the leaders of of their industry. And I got an all-access pass to their lives.”

This gallery highlights Vicari’s work for Green Flower and captures the vibe of an industry in the process of gaining respect.

Steve Deangelo (left) and Chris Vicari

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the green future The dirty secret about cannabis? As the industry grows, the cultivation of the plant for profit can take a heavy toll on the planet. But concerned companies like Tallahassee-based Trulieve are banding together to create innovative practices and rigorous standards to ensure sustainable cultivation and commerce.

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PHOTOS COURTESY TRULIEVE

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he cannabis industry is growing like a weed. According to the Leafly Cannabis Harvest Report released last November, US farmers are producing 2,278 metric tons of cannabis per year. That’s a lot of pot—enough to fill 11,000 dump trucks. Line that cannabis convoy up on I-95 and it’d stretch from Miami all the way up to Pompano Beach—a glorious scene of rolling green on its way to deliver the country’s fifth most valuable crop.

While fun to imagine, this hypothetical scene would be an environmental nightmare. Garbage trucks are one of the least fuel efficient vehicles on the road. Plus, the optics would be bad for a nascent industry emerging from the black market with an unprecedented opportunity to make the world a greener place.

With federal legalization becoming more and more likely, the industry can adopt environmentally sustainable practices as a national standard from the outset. Instead of later trying to reduce the environmental impact of operations that already exist, cannabis companies can do it right from the start, ever more necessary as legalization spreads around the globe— something the plant’s generally nature-loving consumers are expecting.

At least one report estimates the cannabis industry’s footprint already accounts for more than 1% of US electricity consumption. That figure continues to rise as the industry blossoms, in part because cannabis is an energy-intensive crop. For a plant with a nickname that suggests it grows as easily as a dandelion, cannabis isn’t an easy plant to cultivate—at least not the high-quality stuff that consumers demand.

Between 40% and 80% of growers do so indoors, contributing to the industry’s huge energy footprint.

Cannabis plants demand warm and low-humidity environments. Along with the grow lights that simulate the sun, they need carbon dioxide pumped in, oxygen pumped out, and lots of fresh air circulated, all of which requires energy.

says Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers. “Applying sustainable business practices will not only have a positive social and environmental impact, it’s the right thing to do.”

Trulieve operates 2.4 million square feet of enclosed indoor facilities and greenhouse cultivation space across Florida, a state particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate

DEEP DIVE Read Sensi’s full Q&A with Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers (shown left) at sensimag.com.

s e tting a s t a n d a rd Tallahassee-headquartered Trulieve leads the industry’s sustainability efforts. With its recent acquisition of Arizona’s Harvest Health and Recreation, the company is now the nation’s largest cannabis retailer, with a footprint spanning 11 states and more than 160 retail locations. It also operates around 3.1 million square feet of grow and production space.

With that much impact, the company is positioned to influence how things are done in the cannabis space. As a cultivator, manufacturer, and processor of cannabis, Trulieve can move the needle on responsible growth and transparency.

“The industry recognizes how important it is to create a positive social and economic impact in our communities. So much of that starts with making sustainability a priority,”

change. Environment is one of the company’s top considerations when it comes to business operations. The Florida greenhouses are a prime example of innovation at work—some of them require zero electricity to operate, containing zero fans or lights, with six-foot sidewalls that allow as much passive airflow as possible.

“We’ve been focused on sustainability at every stage of our growth,” says Rivers. The company’s inaugural Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report, released last November, outlines sustainability at every stage, providing a roadmap for other cannabis operators to follow.

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PHOTOS COURTESY TRULIEVE

own organizations as the industry matures. This is a relatively young but rapidly growing industry that does not yet have standard sustainability measures in place.”

The company has several climate initiatives and is conducting a baseline carbon footprint analysis to establish an emissions target and long-term performance metrics. In addition to reducing use of electricity at its facilities, Trulieve recycles cardboard, metal, pallets, electronic waste, and batteries, and it diverts organic waste to compost. Drip irrigation and rain-and-runoff recapture systems reduce water usage.

More energy-efficient automated systems monitor and control indoor cultivation. Trulieve is exploring solar-generated electricity as a back-up for its facilities.

The company’s greenhouses in Gadsden County were engineered to recapture 100% of all rainwater and irrigation runoff, allowing for the recycling of fertilizer—including the company’s proprietary fertilizer created in partnership with a local company. This not only promotes local economies, it decreases overall costs and reduces emissions that would otherwise be generated by trucking fertilizer from other locations. When deciding on which new markets to target and where to open new dispensaries, Trulieve takes into account delivery route efficiency from processing facilities to ensure they’re reducing travel time and associated emissions.

defining sustainability Trulieve is part of the Sustainable Cannabis Coalition (SCC), a group of industry leaders that seeks to improve sustainability in cultivation, manufacturing, and distribution.

s usta ina bility s na psh o t According to an Environmental Sustainability Study conducted by the National Cannabis Industry Association, the following areas are hospots for better practices.

Soil Degradation. Similar to traditional agriculture, cannabis cultivation can cause soil erosion, nutrient loss, reduction in soilstored organic carbon, and increased acidity. Sustainable practices like soil testing can reduce this degradation. Companies like Pure Life Carbon, whose Charged Carbon soil is the world’s first carbon negative, zero waste grow medium, are helping.

Water. Cannabis, like many crops, often relies upon artificial irrigation, the runoff of which contains pesticides, heavy metals, excess nutrients and other pollutants. Indoor cultivation puts pressure on municipal water systems and wastewater treatment facilities.

Energy. An estimated 63% of commercial cultivation is conducted indoors, with 20% in partial-indoor operations like greenhouses. The energy used for lighting, environmental controls, and hydration require up to 5,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per kilogram of output.

Air Quality. Emissions of air pollutants occur at multiple points in cultivation, processing and transportation. Volatile organic compounds are also emitted from plants as they grow, as well as from solvents during extraction, contributing to ground-level ozone. Emission mitigation companies like Byers Scientific, which works with Trulieve, combine all air mitigation into one unit with a low energy draw.

Waste. GAIACA Waste Revitalization, the nation’s first licensed cannabis waste disposal company that composts plant stems and leaves and re-purposes packaging materials, estimates the industry generates 150 million tons of waste each year. Environmental impacts include contributing to landfills, ocean pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Add consumer waste from vape pen cartridges and single-use plastic and the problem grows. One solution: abolishing the 50/50 mixing rule for marijuana plant waste, in favor of composting and onsite anaerobic digestion.

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PHOTOS COURTESY TRULIEVE

Together with a cohort of 20 cannabis or cannabis-adjacent companies, Trulieve and the SCC support independent research and are pushing for the tools needed to make measuring and reporting on sustainability more efficient and impactful.

With support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency, the coalition seeks to establish green cannabis policies and standards across local, state, regional, and national levels. “The cannabis industry is facing significant challenges but they’re related to all those we face as a modern society,” says SCC co-founder Shawn Cooney. “And consumers are becoming more demanding in terms of their products’ value, safety standards, and sustainability.”

The SCC is collaborating with Trulieve and other industry leaders to develop standards. “It’s not only critical what a business is doing today, but they have to establish baselines and goals—from cultivation and product manufacturing, to packaging and on through the supply chain,” says Cooney. But first, it needs the tools to make this happen.

“We all have a great opportunity—and responsibility—to define the best practices that will codify —Kim Rivers, CEO, Trulieve sustainability as standard cannabis-industry practice,” says Rivers.

The SCC is working with software

“We anticipate more companies will be proactive and transparent in sharing their own standards and goals around sustainability, so we can collectively challenge ourselves to be better.”

company Sustain.Life to develop a tool to help companies track their emissions. It’s also collaborating with Dartmouth’s Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society to perform a complete evaluation and system redesign for indoor grow facilities. The team is investigating every light type, plus how to integrate solar panels, reduce HVAC usage, introduce automation, and much more. The project explores a “radically efficient” cannabis cultivation facility that could produce energy savings of 40 to 80 percent.

Cooney, an urban farmer who’s been producing food using controlled environmental agriculture (CEA) for years, grows leafy greens year round in recycled shipping containers in East Boston at his Corner Stalk Farms. He says the cannabis industry is almost identical to CEA. Sustainability is on its radar, but, he says, “like most industries, it still has a long way to go.”

Everyone agrees: the first step is greater transparency and collaboration. “We know there’s still work to do,” says Rivers. “The cannabis industry is not slowing down. We anticipate more companies will be proactive and transparent in sharing their own standards and goals around sustainability, so we can collectively change the industry for the better.”

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Looking for fun for the whole family? The nonprofit Miami Children’s Museum is a colorful 56,000-square-foot space filled with exhibits that appeal to everyone’s curiosity and creativity. The museum’s 14 themed galleries explore culture, arts, community, and communication.

Outdoor exhibits encourage discovery and play out in the fresh air. Visitors of all ages will enjoy the museum’s opportunities to play, imagine, create, and learn together. miamichildrensmuseum.org

PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT) BY QWESY QWESY; CHRISTINA SPINNEN; USSAMA AZAM

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the Other Half

See the Millionaire’s Row by land and sea with this guided one-ofa-kind land and boat tour. Take in Casa Casuarina (the Versace Mansion), the exclusive Star Island, vibrant Lincoln Road, bustling Ocean Drive, and the famous Art Deco District. The land tour finishes at Bayside Marketplace, then enjoy the beauty of Biscayne Bay, Downtown Miami, and Star Island on a 90-minute boat tour. Guided Segway training and a safety helmet are included. southfloridatrikke.com

Continental ELEGANCE

Built in 1916, this National Historic Landmark in Miami is a little slice of Old Europe. Set on 28 acres, the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens was built by 20th-century industrialist James Deering as his winter home. The Italian Renaissance-style villa features 34 rooms arranged around a central courtyard featuring beautiful French and Italian fountains, pools, and sculptures. Continuing on to the gardens, you’ll see a breakwater at the base of the steps that features an ornately carved barge. The mansion boasts a remarkable collection of European furniture and decorative arts dating from the 15th to 19th centuries. vizcaya.org W I N T E R 2022

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The World’s Most Famous Cuban Restaurant

PHOTOS (FROM LEFT) COURTESY OF VERSAILLES; CBD + MORE

For over 50 years, Versailles Restaurant—“The World’s Most Famous Cuban Restaurant”—has served tasty Cuban cuisine while showcasing the island’s rich culture. Known as the unofficial town square for Miami’s Cuban exiles, it is also a gauge of the community’s pulse. To experience authentic cuisine, try the Versailles Combo, which includes ham and beef empanadas, ham and chicken croquettes, with a side of yuca fries served with cilantro sauce. As an appetizer, try the Fufú Con Masitas—mashed plantains and fried pork chunks. versaillesrestaurant.com

Yasmine Egozi’s long-time vision has been to give individuals alternatives to pharmaceuticals with plant medicine. As part of that vision, she developed Planta Rx products and opened the CBD + More store in Miami Beach. CBD + More is a trusted medical cannabis health center for Florida residents searching for greener pathways to healthier living. The Planta Rx line includes sublingual oils, tinctures, gummies, vapes, and other CBD treats. The store offers one-on-one consultations and individuals can meet with a doctor onsite for prescription medical marijuana cards. As someone of Hispanic descent, Egozi particularly aims to reach underserved and special needs populations. cbdmiamishop.com

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THE END

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PHOTO BY CODY BLACK VIA UNSPLASH

Green Besties: Research shows your houseplants can uplevel your mood.

and keeps us alert. If you’re suffering from seasonal affectivie disorder (SAD), consider adding a sun lamp to your space to get some vitamin D. Accent with aromas.

The scents we smell link directly to the parts of the brain that control our memories and emotions.

Rose and lavender help release stress and anxiety.

Sandalwood can help calm racing thoughts. Lemon and clary sage may help with depression. Avoid scented candles that list “parfum” or “natural fragrances,” which can contain phthalates and other chemicals. Add a few drops of essential oils to a plain wax one instead.

Let the music move This year, go all-in on self-care by creating an emotional escape room. you. Research has shown that music can alter our TEXT STEPHANIE WILSON moods and behaviors, even Some call it a sacred space, of your home to find the impact our physical health. ual. The space is all about some call it a zen den. Ver- right space—the closet Put another way, music you, so customize it to nacular aside, the idea is to floor, behind a chair or is what feelings sound your interests and tastes. create a dedicated spot in plant, that awkward corner Play with color and texture like, so choose music that sounds like the feelings your home where you can in the living room, anythrough artwork, throw you want your self-care go to think all the thoughts where with enough room rugs, meditation pillows, space to instill. and feel all the feels—and for you to tuck into with tapestries, and scarves.

Go even greener. you need one. Setting a pillow to sit on. Select a Let there be light.

Research in the Journal of apart an area for rituals spot that makes you feel Research has shown that or meditation invites you present, spiritually conlighting has a huge impact Physiological Anthropology to make mental, emotion- nected, and joyful. on our circadian rhythms, found that interacting al, and energetic space for Create your altar. Out- which affect our emotion- with houseplants can reduce stress by calming for them—and serves as fit your space with items al and physical health. the sympathetic nervous a visual reminder to do that have purpose and Cool blue lights intersystem. Also, adding some so. Here are some tips to meaning: photos, crystals, fere with the production plants to the space can help you carve out a space candles, flowers, statof melatonin, interfering where you can vibe. ues or mementos, books, with sleep, whereas warm, help purify the air of toxic substances, according to Find your spot. Follow journals, tarot and oracle soft yellow lights spur the a study in Environmental your intuition to the unex- cards, or whatever you production of cortisol, Health Perspectives. pected nooks and crannies need for your self-care rit- which helps wake us up

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