Sensi Florida Spark July 2021

POT IN PANS

A history of eating cannabis

S PA R K F LO R I DA JULY 2021

THE ART OF CONSUMPTION A sensual photo experience from Bingham X

ROLL A BUNT

MLB fans and cannabis

HIGH SUMMER

Killer corn on the cob

SPARK SENSI MAGAZINE JULY 2021

sensimediagroup @sensimagazine @sensimag

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FEATURE

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Consumed by Desire

The discerning content creators at Bingham X capture the seductive side of consumption.

DEPARTMENTS

9 EDITOR’S NOTE 38 THE SCENE Hot happenings and hip hangouts around town 10 THE BUZZ HIGH FLY Major League News, tips, and tidbits to keep you in the loop THE STONER REDUX

Freddie Miller appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live once again.

SMOKING SECTION

COVID-19 restrictions may be loosening—but you will want to keep bogarting that joint.

Baseball should embrace responsible cannabis consumption.

44 THE END Corn on the cob never tasted so good.

MAXIMALISM ARRIVES

The Londubh Studio x Circa Wallcovering collab goes big.

14 THE LIFE Contributing to your

health and happiness POT IN PANS Why the history of eating cannabis matters HOROSCOPE What the stars hold for you

ON THE COVER

Bingham X takes a long gaze into the sensual side of cannabis.

PHOTO BY BINGHAM X

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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 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Accucanna LLC Desert Hot Springs: Dispensary EventHI Events Flourish Software Distribution Management Helmand Valley Growers Company Medical Infrastructure Specialist HUB International Insurance Hybrid Payroll / Ms. Mary Staffing Staffing & HR Benefits Ikänik Farms Cannabis Distribution Red Rock Fertility Fertility Doctor Wana Brands Edible Gummies Witlon Payroll

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 NEW ENGLAND Corners Packaging Packaging Curaleaf Veterans Cannabis Project Flourish Software Seed to Sale Green Goddess Supply Personal Homegrown Biochamber GreenHouse Payment Solutions Payment Processing The Holistic Center Medical Marijuana Evaluations PotGuide Travel & Tourism Revolutionary Clinics Medical Dispensary Royal Gold Soil Tess Woods Public Relations Public Relations

MICHIGAN Aronoff Law (Craig Aronoff) Licensing Law Firm Cannabis Counsel Cannabis Law Firm Etz Chaim Attestations Grapp Lerash Michigan PLLC 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 Oh, Hello Branding Promotional Marketing Perry & Drummy Inc. Commercial Insurance Pure West Compassion Club Caregiver Connection & Network Rair Medical Flower Solutions by Dr. Dave West Michigan: Hemp CBD Helping Friendly Hemp Company Hemp Topicals NORTHERN CALIFORNIA 365 Recreational Cannabis Dispensary: Recreational, Santa Rosa Green Unicorn Farms CBD Hemp Flower Humboldt CCTV Smart Ag Tech Humboldt Patient Resource Center Dispensary: Humboldt Kushla Life Sciences Cannabis Formulation and Products Red Door Remedies Dispensary: Cloverdale Southern Humboldt Royal Cannabis Company Mixed Light Farming Sonoma Patient Group Dispensary: Santa Rosa Strictly Topical Inc./Sweet ReLeaf Pain Relief Topicals Superbad inc. Premium California Cannabis Uleva Hemp Products Vaper Tip Vape Supply & Consulting Wana Brands Edible Gummies

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Women working in cannabis deserve better, so

WE BUILT BETTER

JoIN Us

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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, New England Debbie Hall Managing Editor, Nevada Jenny Willden Managing Editor, NorCal Dawn Garcia Managing Editor, Southern California Robyn Griggs Lawrence Editor at Large Mona Van Joseph Contributor, Horoscopes Radha Marcum Copy Editor Bevin Wallace Copy Editor DESIGN

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

EXECUTIVE

Ron Kolb Founder ron@sensimag.com Stephanie Graziano CEO stephanie.graziano@sensimag.com Lou Ferris Vice President of Global Revenue Chris Foltz Vice President of Global Reach Jade Kolb Director of Project Management ADVERTISING

Nancy Reid Director, Team Building, Sensi East PUBLISHING

Jamie Cooper Market Director, Michigan Abi Wright Market Director, Nevada Richard Guerra Market Director, New England Nancy Birnbaum Market Director, NorCal Diana Ramos Market Director, Oklahoma Rob Ball Market Director, S. California Angelique Kiss Market Director, S. California

BRAND DEVELOPMENT

Richard Guerra Director of Global Reach Amanda Patrizi Deputy 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

MEDIA SALES

COLORADO Liana Cameris Media Sales Executive Amanda Patrizi Media Sales Executive Tyler Tarr Media Sales Executive NEVADA Pam Hewitt Media Sales Executive NEW ENGLAND Jake Boynton Media Sales Executive Peter Dunlap Media Sales Executive Bryant Mahony Media Sales Executive MICHIGAN Kyle Miller Media Sales Executive Leah Stephens Media Sales Executive

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M

EDITOR’S NOTE

Magazine published monthly

by Sensi Media Group LLC.

© 2021 Sensi Media Group. All rights reserved.

My advice to you this month: go sleep under

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

the stars—simply because you can. Late last year, I was browsing the free stock photo site Unsplash like it was Instagram, scrolling through collections looking for visual inspiration for this magazine and adding photos exuding an undefinable “Sensi vibe” to a collection I’ve amassed under that same heading that struck me as something that I’d like to see on our pages. At some point, I came across the most stunning image by @joshgordon taken at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. The shot was taken on the dunes on a moonless night in the certified dark sky zone where the lack of artificial light pollution allows for the Milky Way to shine as bright as day when captured with a long exposure. It’s a striking scene, and I had to have it in the magazine so I could share it with you all. I just needed the right story angle to make it relevant.

It came to me a few nights later while I was working on the February edition: the stunning photograph could serve as a visual reminder to our readers that, although it may still have been winter, but it was time to book summer camping spots. Recreation.gov opens up booking for spots in its campgrounds six months in advance. And the night of I happened to be working on the piece was January 3, six months in advance to this month’s July 4 weekend.

I took my own advice that night and snatched up one of the 40-something spots in Piñon Flats campground in the park—loop 1, site 22. Make a note of that detail if you plan on ever pitching a tent in the national park, because I can now confirm what I had hoped to be the case when I was picking out a spot on that night back in January.

From that site, you’re afforded the very best views of the dunes and of the spectacle nature provides every night at sunset—a kaleidoscopic scene of changing colors in brilliant hues that made the whole excursion so very worth every day of the sixmonth wait.

Which is my long, anecdotal way of reminding you (and reminding myself) that even though we are in the peak of summer right now, the Earth is already swinging back around the sun. The days are getting shorter, winter is getting closer, and the dog days of summer are only a month or so away. If you’ve been meaning to plan a getaway to someplace where you can sleep under the stars, do it now. It’s July; it’s hot; the world is open and waiting for you so get out there and enjoy it.

If you’ve been meaning to plan a getaway to someplace where you can sleep under the stars, do it now.

Stephanie Wilson @stephwilll

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Live with TV’s Most Famous Stoner

Freddie “The Stoner” Miller appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live in late May, the third time he’s been interviewed by the talk show host since January 2020. What is it about Miller that makes him so appealing that Kimmel keeps having him on? Here’s the answer—and more—from TV’s favorite stoner, along with news of an unbelievably happy ending.

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Do you have any idea why Kimmel keeps having you on?

Ha, ha—because I’m funny looking? No, I actually got to sit down and talk with him after we shot our bit, after he flew me to Hollywood. I genuinely think he has interest in me. He’s laidback, cool, and he likes to have fun and make fun. And I think he genuinely has fun with me.

How did this newest development—you going on the show live—occur?

This time it was out of the blue. I didn’t know they were going to contact me at all.

But the premise of the episode was that Jimmy had seen an ad for an internship for a marijuana-delivery service called Emjay in California. They wanted to hire three interns or just one to try out 600

CONTRIBUTORS

Tracy Ross, Stephanie Wilson

of their products and do reviews. Jimmy saw that and said to himself, “I know a guy for the job.” They wanted to do a three-way interview with Jimmy, me, and the CEO. How did the interview go?

I don’t know if it went good or bad, but I did get the job. On the interview, Jimmy had me smoke two of their joints and do a quick elevator pitch for the product. In my honest opinion, I think Jimmy twisted this man’s arm. Chris, who is the CEO, was telling me about the amount of applicants they’ve had—1,100 for three positions—from around the world. I told them they should hire the guy from Mexico. Jimmy cut in and said, “No, no, I really think this is the guy for the job. Can you move him into your house?” Chris answered, “I’ll have to ask my wife and kids.” I offered to stay in his dog’s house (and not get his dog high). And Chris doubled with, “Well, we can probably get you an Airbnb.”

I did bring a copy of my résumé, too—a hand-written one from the airplane (see picture).

Are you nervous about taking the job?

I’m always a nervous person, but yes, slightly. I think it’s a 90-day internship, and there are 600 products I’d need to review. I do intake a lot of THC and cannabis, so I might be able to function through it just fine.

What needs to happen in order for you to sign on?

Well, it’s a paid internship, part-time. It doesn’t really pay $100,000, and it’s expensive to stay out in California. My dad said that if I was offered a job, I should probably take it.

PHOTO BY MARIDAV, ADOBE STOCK

This could lead to your big break. You could end up with your own show, or in a movie!

That’s true. There aren’t a lot of Hollywood producers out in Buchanan, Michigan, where I live.

What have you learned from this ongoing experience?

The most important lesson to me, and complete honesty here, is how important people can be to one another. For me, I’m kind of baffled by it all. Because I’m a relative nobody but I seem to be a very important person to a lot of people. And I’m starting to realize my own importance and the importance of other people in my life. To me, it’s like an unending butterfly effect. When you start to realize the importance of people around you, it goes on and on.

BY THE NUMBERS

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Day-supply medical marijuana patients in Pennsylvania can now legally stock up on according to a bill Gov. Tom Wolf signed in July. The previous limit was 30 days.

579,858

The number of medical marijuana patients who are registered in the state of Florida as of July 2021, alongside 2,593 qualified physicians. That number will only go up as the state will add 19 new medical marijuana treatment center licenses this year.

$3 MILLION The amount Oklahoma Rep. J.J. Humphrey is offering for the “live and humane” capture of Bigfoot in the Sooner State where there have been multiple sightings of the elusive hairy legend.

Maskless, but on the Defense Even with mask mandates lifted, doctors still advise smokers to keep their joints to themselves.

In March of 2020, CelebStoner.com advised its readers: “Due to the new health paradigm, we recommend no sharing of joints, pipes, bongs, and vape devices.” But what to do now that 45 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated and, in Michigan, the statewide mask mandate has been lifted?

In a gobbledygook answer overusing the word “vaccinated,” doctors interviewed for CelebStoner’s story said, “If you’re vaccinated and the person you’re with is vaccinated, then sharing a joint should be as safe as two vaccinated people kissing.”

But even though Covid cases are now plunging, protecting ourselves not only from Covid but the flu is reason enough for CelebStoner’s resident canna-medicine expert Dr. Mary Clifton to deter people from sharing their cannabis implements. “Fully vaccinated people can resume sharing but should be aware that even the ordinary flu has a 10 percent rate of cardiac complications, and multiple other respiratory viruses have potential neurologic complications.”

So, as sad as it may be, it’s still smart to protect yourself by smoking your own joints, says Clifton. It’s not the 1960s anymore, when cannabis was less plentiful and sharing was a necessity to get more people stoned, CelebStoner adds. The upshot? Go ahead and share your weed, for sure, but smoke it in your own device.

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THE BUZZ

MAXIMALIST BILITIES STYLE

BY STEPHANIE WILSON, EDITOR IN CHIEF

1 GETAWAY CAR: Parking space is the new personal space. Pinterest Predicts, the brand’s “not-yet-trending report” prognosticates that in 2021, cars will become the new “third space” for everything from date nights to man caves—which I can totally see happening ... for people who drive something larger than a Fiat.

2 FIFI THE FIAT: My car didn’t come with an owner’s manual; she came with an app. And the first time I opened it up, it greeted me with this statement/question combo: 85% of Fiat owners name their cars. What’s your Fiat’s name?

3 FIFI. Her name is Fifi.

4 I BROUGHT HER HOME ONE DAY IN AUGUST ALMOST EIGHT YEARS AGO, and she still makes me smile when I see her.

She’s just cute, and her name fits her.

5 NOT MUCH ELSE FITS IN HER THOUGH, WHICH BRINGS ME BACK TO THE ORIGINAL POINT: Fifi doesn’t offer much space inside, but she can get me to places where space abounds. I am forever grateful for her tiny little engine that struggles a whole helluva lot trying to get up Colorado’s mountains. (Fifi’s more of a Florida girl at heart—#same. And also #soon!

6 AS IN: As soon as cannabis becomes legal for recreational use in the Sunshine State, expect to see Fifi cruising back to the tropics.

If you tag or send us an Insta of your and your (named) car (@stephwilll), we’ll be sure to wave if we see you when we’re out there on the road again.

Londubh Studio x Circa Wallcovering debut a lit wallcover collection.

Minimalists: this is not your year. After a year spent dreaming of the days we could safely reconvene to celebrate life and let loose in high style, we have some pent-up energy we need to release all over everything. The time is upon us, and our walls want to get dressed up for the party.

Lucky for us, then, Londubh Studio and Circa Wallcovering recently released an apt teaser for their maximalist debut wallcovering collection, which features Londubh’s signature style with bold graphics, gold, and color. The two designs—“High Style” featuring cannabis symbology and “Enlightenment” playing with magic mushrooms—both make for a shimmering dope drop of glamour and psychedelia swathed in gold and color. With more people across the world recognizing the healing capacities and need to legalize these ancient medicines, Londubh’s designs aim to indulge those who love to imbibe.

“Our best visions never come when we sit down with a cup of coffee and a pencil at nine in the morning,” says the designer. “They’re birthed from a spirit we share of wanting to celebrate life, our mutual abandonment of societal expectations if they don’t help us manifest our dreams, and our shared conviction that more is indeed more when it comes to the decorative canvas and its ability to fuel us to live our best lives.” circawallcovering.com

“However you feel about drugs, chances are you are involved with one of them and caffeine is the most common.”

—Author Michael Pollan on Larry Willmore's podcast Black on the Air

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Pot In Pans

Why the history of eating cannabis matters.

From ancient India and Persia to today’s explosive new market, cannabis, the hottest new global food trend, has been providing humans with nutrition, medicine, and solace— against all odds—since the earliest cavepeople discovered its powers.

We write history books, in part, so we don’t repeat our mistakes. The history of cannabis food, rich and deep, is marred with the stains of prohibition, propaganda, and persecution— abysmal mistakes we’ve only just begun to rectify.

This history is a long way from being written— though many like to say we’re now on the right side of it as centuries of fearmongering finally start to unravel. Finally, but still painfully slowly, cannabis is taking its rightful place as a unique culinary ingredient that has proven through the centuries that food is medicine.

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Locally, nationally, and globally, we’ve reached a pivotal moment in the history of a plant that has been beloved by the masses, reviled by the elite, and shrouded in conflict and secrecy for centuries. Cannabis has been outlawed and demonized since the powers-that-be first realized they could control the commoners by prohibiting a plant that they relied on for food, fiber, medicine, and mind and mood alteration. For the hard-working classes, who often lived in hopeless poverty, cannabis was magical for its ability to act as both stimulant and soporific and its promise of gentle relief from the drudgery and humiliations of daily life—a far cry from the sinister reputation foisted upon it by centuries of propaganda.

We are reaching the end of a centuries-long story, born in the Mazanderan mountains in ancient Persia

in the 12th century and used throughout history in racist campaigns to prove that cannabis makes people violent, insane, and uncontrollably horny (parents, hold onto your white daughters!). The legend of Hassan-ibn-Sabbah, the Old Man of the Mountain who plied his disciples with splendid food, fine women, and a hashish confection so they would assassinate his enemies— popularized in the West by explorer Marco Polo— would forever associate hashish with assassins and sinister business.

In the 1930s, during his successful drive toward cannabis prohibition, US Federal Bureau of Narcotics chairman Harry J. Anslinger masterfully fomented Americans’ racist and increasingly moralistic national mentality with a propaganda blitzkrieg that included a book and motion picture titled

Marihuana: Assassin of Youth—based upon his discovery of the Old Man of the Mountain legend. In testimony before Congress and in newspaper interviews, Anslinger said marijuana, a frightening “new” drug used primarily by Mexicans and African Americans, could turn upstanding, middle-class kids into helpless victims and raging monsters.

His campaign resulted in cannabis being effectively outlawed through draconian taxes and regulations in the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937.

Down through the ages—through multiple prohibitions on every continent, imposed by sultans, colonialists, and a pope—cannabis had managed to somehow survive, and even thrive. But never had it faced an enemy so formidable or iron-fisted as the United States in the mid-20th century. When

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TEXT ROBYN GRIGGS LAWRENCE EXCERPTED FROM POT IN PANS: A HISTORY OF EATING CANNABIS FOOD

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Fighting for freedom is Join the revolution at norml.org

THE LIFE

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ILLUSTRATION BY ECATERINA SCIUCHINA, ADOBE STOCK

Pot in Pans: A History of Eating Cannabis Food Rowman & Littlefield / $34

US Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon appointed Anslinger and tasked him, for whatever reason—and speculation is rampant—to wipe out cannabis, he intended the war to be global.

Throughout the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st, the United States used its considerable influence to force cannabis prohibition around the world, leaving people in countries where it had been used and enjoyed for centuries scratching their heads in confusion—and finding ways around the laws.

In Canada in the 1930s, when Royal Mounted Police officers told an elderly woman they had to eradicate the hemp plants she grew to feed her canaries, she chased them away with a broom. In Indonesia, cannabis continued to be a key ingredient in the traditional “happy” soup served at weddings and celebrations, just as it always had. India managed to keep on the right side of the United States while quietly allowing people to drink bhang, a traditional holy drink made from cannabis. By the 1970s, the Netherlands had adopted a policy of tolerance toward retailers and users while making cannabis cultivation and production

illegal, creating a “back door” problem that no one wanted to replicate.

It was more than clear by the 1970s that the global war on drugs was a failure. Violent cartels were ravaging South and Central America, and heroin, cocaine, and cannabis remained readily available to those who wanted them. In the early and mid-1970s, several countries and US states decriminalized cannabis, but this attitude change was short-lived, squelched by marijuana’s association with dirty hippies and the counterculture. The Nixon administration doubled down, sending military helicopters to scorch cannabis farms from Orange Hill, Jamaica, to the mountains of Colombia’s Cauca region and declaring cannabis a Schedule I drug with no medicinal value, alongside heroin and LSD. For a century now, cannabis has existed in most parts of the world only because humans’ love for it is so great that they’re willing to sacrifice being persecuted, imprisoned, having their teeth pulled out, and even being put to death for cultivating and nurturing it. The irony of prohibition, of course, is that the lucrative black market made it worth

For a century now, cannabis has existed in most parts of the world only because humans’ love for it is so great that they’re willing to sacrifice themselves to cultivate it.

the risk and only drove breeders to develop ever-mightier plants delivering whopping amounts of psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. In the face of adversity, cannabis was no shrinking violet. The plant grew stronger, better, faster, and more potent—unstoppable, no matter how much paraquat the DEA threw at it.

If the history of cannabis proves anything, it is that you can’t keep a good plant down. A cabal of global elites is no match for this one, which in its cunning evolved to provide humans with nutrition, fiber, medicine, and, if you believe many ethnobotanists, the ability to make huge mental and spiritual leaps as a species. Had it not been for the latter—all due to the presence of that THC molecule—this would be a boring tale about a multifaceted, utilitarian plant that served humans in many different capacities for centuries. This is not that.

This is a story with many layers, spanning many continents, held together by the thread of an Islamic confection created to inspire a band of 12th-century fedayeen, which was ported throughout the Middle East, Central Asia, and beyond, invoking hilarJ U LY 2021

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THE LIFE

ity and hostility wherever it went. Inspired by this legend, Western intellectuals and literati, and then the masses, discovered and enjoyed cannabis, hashish, and majoun (a Moroccan candy mixed with cannabis) for much of the mid19th century and into the 1930s, when Anslinger shut that down.

This is the story of how Brion Gysin, an ex-patriot artist and writer in Tangier, discovered majoun, typed up a recipe, and sent it to Alice B. Toklas, an ex-pat writer in Paris, to include in a cookbook published in New York and London, causing a minor scandal in the mid-20th century and leading to a major mix-up in a major motion picture that morphed majoun into the pot brownie, and turned the pot brownie into a Western icon forevermore. It’s the story of the rowdy band of artists, rebels, and intellectuals who partook of majoun’s charms and an activist who made the pot brownie a symbol of compassion.

Down through the ages, the cannabis plant has gathered about it a charismatic and eclectic assortment of protectors and advocates, from the Hindu lord Shiva, who was said to sustain himself for long periods

by eating cannabis, to Brownie Mary, whose insistence on baking cannabis-laced brownies as medicine for AIDS patients in San Francisco, despite several arrests, drew huge public sympathy in the 1990s and eased the way for California to legalize medical marijuana in 1996.

And that, really, may have been the beginning of the end of the pot brownie. Several states and countries followed California in approving cannabis for medical use, and in 2012, Colorado and Washington voters took the game-changing step of legalizing all adult use. More states followed, then Uruguay, then Canada. Cannabis-infused edibles grew into a robust and well-regulated industry with no room for crumbly chocolate cakes that had miserable shelf lives and were impossible to imprint with the new THC warning stamp some states began requiring.

In most cases, pot brownies have evolved into shelf-stable, easier-to-dose chocolate bars, one skew in a wildly popular category of cannabis-infused products that no one saw coming in the early 2010s.

In addition to a range of chocolate products from gourmet truffles

to peanut butter cups, today’s cannabis consumers can enjoy infused potato chips, gummies, hard candies, raw cacao butter, soda pop, caramel corn, coffee, tea, cookies, pies, and nuts—all readily available at cannabis stores in legal states.

They can buy water-soluble cannabis-infused liquids and powders to stir into beverages or add to any recipe for immediate gratification. With such a wide range of culinary opportunities and resources literally at their fingertips, only the laziest or most unimaginative eaters are choosing the brownie.

We stand on a precipice. Once criminalized, cannabis is now being rapidly commodified, and there’s no putting that genie back in the bottle. Analysts predict cannabis will be a global industry worth $57 billion by 2027—investment fi rm Cowen and Company suggests that will reach $75 billion by 2030—numbers that are respectful enough to prevent cannabis haters like US Attorney General Jeff Sessions (the 21st-century’s answer to Anslinger with legislative power) from prosecuting companies working within legal state infrastructures.

Money talks.

Money’s talking.

Scotts Miracle-Gro and Monsanto are circling. Food conglomerates are dipping toes, preparing to jump in when—and everyone now agrees it’s a matter of when— federal cannabis prohibition ends in the United States. Hemp is legal, and a bill has been submitted to Congress to legalize psychoactive cannabis.

Cannabis is now the second most valuable crop in the United States after corn. Chefs, foodies, and nutritionists are playing with this new functional food ingredient, finding creative uses for every part of the plant, as the world’s attitude toward cannabis normalizes.

This may sound farfetched, particularly to people who live in places where cannabis remains illegal, where citizens— inordinately, people of color—are rotting in jail because of a plant. It will never be okay that (mostly) white men in suits rake in millions of dollars on cannabis and cannabis products while others go to jail over the very same plant. As we celebrate the strides we’ve made toward liberating cannabis, we must never forget that this progress has been made on the backs of those willing to pay the price before us.

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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

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THE LIFE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mona Van Joseph is a professionally licensed intuitive reader in Las Vegas since 2002.

Author, radio host, and columnist, she created the Dice Wisdom app and is available for phone and in-person sessions. mona.vegas

HOROSCOPE

JULY HOROSCOPE What do the stars hold for you?

TEXT MONA VAN JOSEPH

very aware of coincidence. Ac- NOV. 22-DEC. 21 CANCER cept all random invitations, es- SAGITTARIUS The truth is that you cannot pecially if you’re placed in the Not all decisions have to be sustain toxic relationships. spotlight to help in some way. yours, and you don’t have It’s time to step back from to have all the answers. You people who are so self-abare not responsible for the SEPT. 23-OCT. 22 sorbed that they will sacri- LIBRA world, only your world. Defice their relationship with It’s time to claim expertise fer choice to the person it you to succeed. most affects, and enjoy the in your craft this month. A deep dive into your creativ- release and peace.

JULY 23-AUG. 22 ity is the path to personLEO al happiness. The mantel of DEC. 22-JAN. 19 Move away from emotionthis new identity leads you CAPRICORN al investment in people who to important relationships. You will be set free this month but not necessarily in the way have deserted you. Instead, you want. You’ll want to stay focus on what you know you OCT. 23-NOV. 21 where you are with “the devils do well. Allow the people SCORPIO who really care about you to You don’t want to be where you know.” Please consider the devils you have yet to meet— step forward. you are anymore—bored, it’s a better arrangement. stressed, out-of-sorts. The AUG. 23-SEPT. 22 challenge is that you’re goVIRGO ing to have to be willing to JAN. 20-FEB. 18 Stay centered this month, con- move if you want something AQUARIUS Take care of the people who trol impulsiveness, and be better or different.

JUNE 21-JULY 22

CANCER, IT’S TIME TO STEP BACK FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE SO SELFABSORBED THAT THEY WILL SACRIFICE THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU TO SUCCEED.

have taken care of you. Express gratitude to those who have encouraged you and kept you focused. It’s pragmatic and appropriate to reward to those who’ve helped you shine.

parisons of others (their jealous energy) will undermine your efforts, especially those that don’t serve them.

Enjoy your secrets.

FEB. 19-MAR. 20

Watch out for the cheap people this month. A man in your circle has the nerve to think you’re supposed to keep serving him. Just stop and see what (if anything) comes back to you.

PISCES

APR. 20-MAY 20

TAURUS

Now that you’ve realized your potential, it’s time to act on situations you’ve earned. List five things that you want in your life and relax into vibrational attraction. You now have the ener- MAY 21-JUNE 20 gy and the credentials: act GEMINI on your wants.

Your talents are more diverse than you typically adMAR. 21-APR. 19 mit. Invest in those talents ARIES for yourself this month. ReBe quiet about your success- start a project that should es. The small-minded comhave been yours all along.

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CONSUMED BY

DES

The discerning content creators at Bingham X capture the seductive side of consumption.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND STYLING BINGHAM X

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ORIGINIAL PHOTO BY ANDRII IURLOV, ADOBE STOCK; EDITED BY JOSH CLARK

High Fly Major League Baseball should embrace cannabis.

TEXT DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

The people who run Major League Baseball do not like baseball. Find me a fan who disagrees with that statement. The people who run baseball want it to be the NBA or some type of arena sport (and I say that as someone who loves the flow and beauty and raw power of the NBA; it’s just a different game).

They want to end games in a hurry with the gimmick of putting a runner on second base in extra innings. They want to upend the strategy of the game by keeping pitchers who are getting lit up on the mound.

These are old guys who think they know what the kids want. These are marketers who are neglecting the very essence of what makes their product so damn good.

Baseball is a long, slow, then suddenly thrilling, intensely complicated love affair. It’s lyric

poetry. It’s action movies before CGI (Think: Raiders of the Lost Arc or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). It’s an old-time game that persists in a world of stats and deep analysis. It endures. But don’t think it’s boring or out of synch with the digital age. It is international and inclusive; the biggest sensation in the game is Japanese, and most clubhouses chatter as much in Spanish as English. It’s a game that can be broken down by new geeky analytics like barrel rate and xFIP (expected fielding independent pitching). At the same time, it gives the finger to stats over the short term—while we can place a percentage on every outcome, we can’t predict what will happen in any one at bat. There’s always the chance a light-hitting utility infielder can go deep against a Cy Young

winner. Baseball is full of seats. One of the reasons responsible cannabis passion and the dreams use is so popular is that and bat flips of a new it gives us the chance generation of players to slow down, to take making it where giants the edge off. As does once tread. But the people who run baseball baseball: sit down in that want to change the game seat, feel the breeze of a summer evening, find in ways that break its the rhythms, observe the natural flow because subtleties of how fielders they think baseball position according to needs to appeal to low a hitter’s tendencies or attention spans. I say, how a runner digs in a expand our attention.

Embrace what’s beautiful heel before stealing a about the game. Give the base. Relax. And it’s a little easier to ease into this fans weed. vibe with a 5mg gummy.

Baseball could use I’m not saying the responsible cannabis.

And after the rant above, players should be stoned.

Though as legalization I hope you believe that continues to sweep the when I say that, I do US, many of them are it as a fan of the game.

Getting high might actu- seeking relief in CBD and THC from the aches and ally help some fans slow injuries of a 162-game down, see more, relax season in a sport that into simple rhythms requires tricky bursts of punctuated by intense surges of emotion. And it athleticism. For all my might bring the newcom- griping about the people who run the sport, since ers that those base2020, Major League Baseball-hating bigwigs so ball has allowed players desperately want in the J U LY 2021

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PHOTO BY TODD TAULMAN, ADOBE STOCK

THE SCENE

to use cannabis as long as they are not under the influence during a game (and they cannot be sponsored by or endorse cannabis brands).

Furthermore, cannabis is no longer listed as a banned substance by MLB, where it used to be considered in the same category as opioids and cocaine. Many baseball players are addicted to dangerous painkillers (including Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs who died of an overdose of drugs including oxycodone), and the league realized that legal cannabis could be a safe option for those seeking relief.

So why not let the fans enjoy it? Consuming cannabis during games would only add to spectators’ enjoyment of the sport—and it’s not as if baseball has shied away from alcohol. It’s a fine thing to enjoy a cold beer in the cheap seats, so why not a gummy? The teams would profit on the concession (and lord knows owners who seem more interested in money than winning—think the Colorado Rockies—would like that). It would bring in new fans and maybe enhance their ability to sit and enjoy the game. Sure, the stoner stigma stands in the way of main-

One of the reasons responsible cannabis use is so popular is that it gives us the chance to slow down, to take the edge off. As does baseball.

stream appreciation of cannabis, and this is supposed to be a family game—but stoned spectators don’t usually shout obscenities and spill beer on your kid.

No matter if you agree with me on controlled, responsible, legal cannabis at baseball games or not, I do hope you go to the ballpark this year and think about it. Enjoy the passing moment of a lazy fly ball, the joy of the hero-shot home run, and learn a new stat. Think about how baseball can become a game that continues into the future, without changing what’s great about the game.

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Growin g the Industr y.

Upcoming shows are: Detroit, MI June 25-26 Chicago, IL August 6-7 New York, NY January 7-8 2022 Oklahoma City, OK March 31-April 1 2022

Shop, Learn, and Network at the Nations Leading Cannabis Conference and Expo.

Tickets at CannaCon.org

P R O M OT I O N A L F E AT U R E N AT I O N A L C A N N A B I S R I S K M A N AG E M E N T A S S O C I AT I O N

Risk Management What you don’t know can hurt you.

E

very business owner knows about risk; it is a constant presence in their lives. The specter of risk drives critical business decisions, from funding and hiring to liability coverage.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the fast-changing and continually evolving cannabis industry. Cannabis is one of the most highly scrutinized industries in the country, so operators owe it to themselves to ensure that they have properly protected their investment. That’s where the National Cannabis Risk Management Association (NCRMA) comes in.

As the nation’s only dedicated risk management association focused solely on cannabis, NCRMA brings a level of expertise to its members that enables long-term sustainability and success. It provides the education, support, and ex-

pertise necessary to mitigate potential threats and help cannabis industry professionals keep their businesses safe, compliant, and thriving.

NCRMA lives its mission statement: Making our members better through education, support, and expertise.

“Our level of expertise spans from seed to the consumer with a team of consultants bringing a combined 75 years of experience in property and liability, risk, cannabis operations, occupational safety, compliance, and agriculture,” says NCRMA Chief Risk Management Officer Alex Hearding.

“This culmination of experience and expertise allows us to offer one-ofa-kind tools and cannabis-specific solutions designed to improve overall business results, optimize daily operational efficiencies, decrease unnecessary expenses, and increase

the bottom line.” Through the use of the NCRMA’s proprietary cloud-based platform, CRP2TM (Cannabis Risk Prevention PlatformTM), its consultants are equipped to quickly identify potential threats through a scorecard and detailed report. These results allow the NCRMA to address risks in a holistic manner and create customized solutions that minimize the potential for business interruptions.

Recognizing the explosive growth in the cannabis industry, NCRMA has regional offices and vetted service partners across the country, which work directly with NCRMA members to provide knowledge, proficiency, and “A common support—and much more.

NCRMA’s Chronic Risk podcast cannabis offers detailed insights from cannabis industry industry leaders. Through its innovamyth is that tive association-owned captive model, by having NCRMA has a network of Appointed Brokers who offer insurance products insurance, you are and coverages. Then, there is NCRM Academy—an online learning platform properly that provides members access to over managing 30 different courses on all aspects your risks, of cannabis operations. All of this when in combined ensures that your business reality, is prepared and your risks addressed.

“A common cannabis industry myth insurance is only a is that by having insurance, you are properly managing your risks, when small part in reality, insurance is only a small of the risk part of the risk management framemanagement work,” says NCRMA Chairman Rocco framework.”

Petrilli. “Having a firm grasp over risk management is vital to the success of —NCRMA Chairman any business.”

Rocco Petrilli

National Cannabis Risk Management Association The nation’s only cannabis risk management association ncrma.net J U LY 2021

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THE END

LOREM IPSUM

Bus prempor dit quunto tem ipis alit aut exped quia cum eliciet audam renit, eaquat ute

Kicked-Up Corn Summer is in full swing—it’s time to spice up your maize.

TEXT JOHN LEHNDORFF

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INGREDIENTS

• • • •

4 ears sweet corn, shucked 4 tbsp plain greek yogurt 4 tbsp light mayonnaise 1⁄4 cup grated cotija or parmesan cheese • ground red chile powder or chili powder mix, to taste • 1⁄4 cup cilantro, finely chopped • 1 lime, cut into wedges

INSTRUCTIONS

• Grill sweet corn, rotating occassionally until cooked through with grill marks.

• In small container, mix yogurt and mayonnaise then spread over grilled corn.

• On each ear, sprinkle cheese and chile powder, followed by cilantro.

• Squeeze lime wedge over the whole thing and chomp away.

PHOTO BY FAZEFUL, ADOBE STOCK

Our sweaty summer culminates in an embarrassment of sweet vegetables and fruits ripe for the picking—including our seasonal favorite: sweet corn. Excellent corn is grown all over the country. Stop by the farmers’ market for enough ears on which to gorge, then spice up your late-summer barbecues with this recipe for elote, the Mexican-style street corn.

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