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THE ACTION ISSUE
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Huckleberry Hill Farms Founder Johnny Casali went from serving out a sentence in federal prison to owning a legal Cannabis business and thriving in the hills of Humboldt.
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SHOP REVIEW BLUE RIDGE WELLNESS
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NULEAF PROJECT JEANNETTE WARD HORTON
FLETCHER WOLD
TIM RIFENBERG
PATIENT OF THE MONTH JESSIE BUNK
BAXSEN PAINE
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32 Dear Biden-Harris Leaf Nation Editor-inChief Wes Abney minces no words in an open letter to the Biden-Harris Administration, calling for those in The White House to follow their halcyon campaign promises and end the war on drugs, the policies of which many in their own administration created or enforced.
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EDITOR’S NOTE N AT I O N A L N E W S LEGALIZED IT? CANNABIS LAW PLANT PROFILES BUDTENDER Q&A PAT I E N T P R O F I L E MD SHOP REVIEW STRAIN OF THE MONTH THE ACTION ISSUE THE CHANGEMAKER DEAR BIDEN-HARRIS FROM PRISON TO POT EQUITY IN CANNABIS S U S TA I N A B L E C A N N A B I S CANNABIS PHILANTHROPY GLASS ART HIGHLIGHT C O N C E N T R AT E O F T H E M O N T H CANNTHROPOLOGY STONEY BALONEY
E S TA B L I S H E D 2 0 1 0
T H E E N L I G H T E N E D VO I C E
N O RT H W E S T L E A F / O R EG O N L E A F / A L AS KA L E A F / M A RY L A N D L E A F / CA L I F O R N I A L E A F / N O RT H E AS T L E A F
A B O U T T H E C OV E R The globetrotting artist Joshua Boulet is renowned for his unique sketches and portrait work, which he has brought to more than two-dozen Leaf Nation covers over the last decade. Chock full of icons, moments and whimsy, Boulet’s delightful illustration for the cover of The Action Issue faithfully captures this powerful moment for our country. As the Cannabis industry reckons with change, and the future of legalization looks ever more promising, there has never been a greater need for our community to come together, rise up, and speak out!
ILLUSTRATION by JOSHUA BOULET @JOSHUABOULET JOSHUABOULET.COM
FOUNDER
CONTRIBUTORS
WES ABNEY | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
BOBBY BLACK, FEATURES JOSHUA BOULET, ILLUSTRATION TOM BOWERS, FEATURES JEFF DIMARCO, PHOTOS EARLY, PRODUCTION STEVE ELLIOTT, NATIONAL NEWS TAYLOR MARTIN, FEATURES JOSHUA MITCHUM, PHOTOS BEN NEFF, PHOTOS BAXSEN PAINE, FEATURES MIKE RICKER, FEATURES MEGHAN RIDLEY, EDITING TIM RIFENBERG, PHOTOS MIKE ROSATI, PHOTOS MIKE ROTHMAN, LAW COLUMN ZACK RUSKIN, FEATURES FLETCHER WOLD, PHOTOS
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We are creators of targeted, independent Cannabis journalism. Please email us to discuss advertising in the next issue of Maryland Leaf Magazine. We do not sell stories or coverage. We can offer design services and guidance on promoting your company’s medicinal, commercial or industrial Cannabis business, product or event within our magazine and on our website, LeafMagazines.com. Email wyatt@leafmagazines.com for info on supporting and advertising with MD Leaf!
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WES
ABNEY
Editor’s Note Thanks for picking up The Action Issue of the Leaf ! EVERY PUFF IS A PROTEST, and we’re so full of smoke that we had to blow this Action Issue towards our beautiful Cannabis community.
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Pot might be legal where we live, and it sure feels good to express that freedom, but we have not yet reached the promised land of Cannabis freedom around the world. Our cover highlights a fictional protest for this very reason – with amazing detail including hiding myself and a few Leaf team members by artist extraordinaire Joshua Boulet – but the message goes beyond a fun piece of art. We still have many items to take action on, starting with our community coming together and OUR PEOPLE returning to the roots that drove Cannabis from the underground HAVE SPOKEN, to the mainstream.
AND WE DON’T BELIEVE THAT ANYONE DESERVES TO BE LOCKED IN A CAGE FOR A PLANT.
When I began publishing Northwest Leaf in 2010, the Cannabis community was small, full of passion, and its members at risk of getting arrested on nearly a daily basis. It was activism that drove legalization from idea to reality, from the early pioneers in the ‘60s and ‘70s, to the MMJ pioneers I grew the Leaf with. It was the caucus of voices that led to Hempfest’s spirit of protestival, the enduring Boston Freedom Rally, and the cries of the masses who called for the end of prohibition for the plant we know and love. We stand on both a rich and sad history, as the true cost of our freedom was others losing theirs as victims in a battle on our own soil. As I state in my open letter to the Biden-Harris Administration printed in this issue, the war on drugs is quickly becoming a war on the American way of life. Our people have spoken, and we don’t believe that anyone deserves to be locked in a cage for a plant. Or any other drug. So we must keep raising our voices, acting as activists, and bringing the spirit of protest to every pulpit until this unjust war is ended – and we are all free to share our plant and voices as one. I hope that the stories within this issue inspire you to take action and give you pause when you take your next legal toke of Cannabis. And as you exhale, thank those that fought for us to enjoy that right – letting your spirit be filled with a desire to take action until everyone shares that same freedom.
-Wes Abney may 2021
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cannabis NEWS
politics
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TRENDS
LEGAL CANNABIS ARRIVES EARLY FOR VIRGINIANS
NEW BILL WOULD ALLOW VA TO PRESCRIBE MMJ TO VETS
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U.S.
Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) on April 17 reintroduced legislation to allow doctors at the Department of Veterans Affairs to prescribe medical Cannabis to veterans in the 36 states that have established medical marijuana programs, reports Maui Now. “In 36 states, doctors and their patients have the option to use medical marijuana to manage pain – unless those doctors work for the VA and their patients are veterans,” Sen. Schatz said. “This bill protects veteran patients in these states and gives their VA doctors the option to prescribe medical marijuana to veterans, and it also promises to shed light on how medical marijuana can “...IT PROMISES TO help with the nation’s opioid SHED LIGHT ON HOW MEDICAL MARIJUANA epidemic.” CAN HELP WITH THE In addition to creating a temporary, five-year safe harbor NATION’S OPIOID EPIDEMIC.” protection for veterans who use medical Cannabis, the bill would also direct the VA to research how medical marijuana could help veterans better manage chronic pain and reduce opioid abuse.
west coast
UAE DETAINS LAS VEGAS MAN OVER CANNABIS
A leafmagazines.com
legalization
Las Vegas man who consumed Cannabis before he visited the United Arab Emirates has been detained for almost two months, his lawyer and officials confirmed to KLAS. Peter Clark, 51, flew to Dubai in late February for a business trip, according to his lawyer. After Clark became ill with pancreatitis and was hospitalized, a test found traces of marijuana in his system. Clark was detained and jailed. While recreational marijuana use is legal in Nevada, it’s definitely not in the UAE. Clark now faces a prison sentence of several years according to his attorney, Radha Stirling.
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years have now passed since Pennsylvania legalized medical use of Cannabis.
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percent of the U.S. population now lives in states where recreational adult-use Cannabis is legal.
AMERICANS OVERWHELMINGLY SAY CANNABIS SHOULD BE LEGAL FOR RECREATIONAL OR MEDICAL USE
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ow, it’s down to the few. Fewer than one out of 10 U.S. adults (8 percent) are still saying that Cannabis should not be legal for any purpose, according to the latest survey from Pew Research. An overwhelming share of American adults say either that marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use (60 percent) or legal for medicinal use only (31 percent). 53 PERCENT OF ADULTS A separate AGES 65 TO 74 SAY question, asking CANNABIS SHOULD whether Cannabis BE LEGAL FOR BOTH RECREATIONAL AND use should be made MEDICAL USE. legal, has shown a “steep, long-term rise in support for legalization,” according to Pew Research. Older adults are far less likely than young people to favor Cannabis legalization for recreational use, according to the survey. This is particularly true of adults ages 75 and older, with just 32 percent saying marijuana should be legal for recreational/ medical use. By way of contrast, 53 percent of adults in the next-oldest age group, those ages 65 to 74, say Cannabis should be legal for both recreational and medical use. Among younger adults, there is even wider support for legalization for medical and recreational uses, including 70 percent of adults under age 30.
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pounds of Cannabis were seized by Texas Dept. of Public Safety troopers last month near the Rio Grande River.
irginia lawmakers voted in April to move up the legalization date of recreational Cannabis in the state to July 1, 2021, reports ABC 3 News. Both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly had in February passed legislation legalizing marijuana for adult recreational use. The legalization date had initially been set for January 1, 2024, but Gov. Ralph Northam added amendments to existing bills to fast-track the legalization. Northam, when proposing the accelerated timeline, THE LEGALIZATION said many Virginians DATE HAD INITIALLY BEEN SET FOR would be on board with JANUARY 1, 2024. speeding up the process. “While not everybody is in favor of moving this forward, the great majority of Virginians are and that’s what this is about,” Northam said. “When you’re in public service, you listen to Virginians and then move their thoughts and initiatives forward.”
GOP: WISCONSIN WON’T LEGALIZE MEDICAL CANNABIS
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he Wisconsin Legislature won’t be legalizing either medical or recreational marijuana during this legislative session, the Republican leader of the State Senate said. Although Gov. Tony Evers and Democrats have for years urged legalization of both medical and recreational Cannabis, they’ve not had any luck in convincing the GOP-controlled Wisconsin Legislature. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Ooostburg) ruled out even the possibility of recreational or medical marijuana becoming law any time during the next year. “First of all, we don’t have support from the caucus, and that’s pretty clear,” LeMahieu said. “We don’t have 17 votes in the caucus for medicinal purposes or recreational purposes.” LeMaheiu claimed Republican senators have “societal concerns” about Cannabis legalization. He also claimed states shouldn’t legalize medical marijuana before the federal government does.
19.9k $342m black market Cannabis plants were seized by the Riverside County, California Sheriff’s Department in April.
dollars is the estimated size New Mexico’s recreational Cannabis market will be one year after legalization.
$1.2b
Canadian dollars (about $950 million American) were lost by Canopy Growth during the first nine months of its current operating year.
STORIES by STEVE ELLIOTT, AUTHOR OF THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF MARIJUANA
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LEGALIZED IT? W h at h a p pe n s whe n t h e wi ll of t h e p e ople i s ove r t ur ne d?
On November 3, 2020, marijuana advocates celebrated a clean sweep on the ballots as voters approved legalization in all four states considering the reform. Yet while the Cannabis community enjoyed the spotlight on Election Day, prohibitionists have been working in the shadows ever since. The result has been a muddying of democracy as we know it.
Montana residents approved legalization with 57 percent of the vote in November. However, the state’s adult-use law is still up in the air.
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A voter-approved constitutional amendment legalizing Cannabis in South Dakota has been overturned. The amendment, passed by 54 percent of voters, would have allowed possession of up to an ounce of Cannabis and implemented retail sales. It also established a 15 percent tax on pot and permitted home cultivation. While the amendment included a provision allowing local governments to ban Cannabis sales in their jurisdictions, state officials felt the need to ban legalization altogether. Governor Kristi Noem (R), who opposed Cannabis legalization in South Dakota from the start, instructed Highway Patrol Superintendent Col. Rick Miller to file a lawsuit challenging the amendment on her behalf. Unsurprisingly, the Circuit Judge hearing the case, who was appointed by Noem in 2019, agreed with the governor and ruled that the amendment passed by South Dakota voters was unconstitutional. Judge Christina Klinger wrote, “Amendment A is unconstitutional as it includes multiple subjects in violation of [the South Dakota constitution] and it is therefore void and has no effect…” Essentially, Klinger found that the amendment went beyond a single issue – making it a revision to the constitution and not an amendment. In other words, several powerful prohibitionists came up with a bullshit technicality that allowed them to suppress the will of the voters and keep Cannabis illegal. And, despite Noem denying her role in the suit to void voter-approved marijuana-law reform, an executive order signed by the governor in January states that on “November 20, 2020, I directed Rick Miller to commence the Amendment A Litigation on my behalf in his official capacity.” Noem is also on record asserting that voters in South Dakota – the same voters that elected her – made “the wrong choice” when they approved the legalization amendment. The issue will now be heard by the state Supreme Court after attorneys representing marijua-
MAY 2021
na-law reform advocacy groups appealed Judge Klinger’s ruling. Normally, the South Dakota Attorney General’s office would defend such a challenge to a state law. However, AG Jason Ravnsborg dropped his defense of the amendment. Gov. Noem stated that she’s “confident that the South Dakota Supreme Court” will uphold the Circuit Court’s decision. The governor personally appointed two of the high court’s five justices. South Dakota’s new medical marijuana law, approved by over 69 percent of voters on Election Day, isn’t safe from the governor either. Noem tried to push the program’s implementation back a year, from July 2021 to July ‘22 and, when that failed, she attempted to change the law to add restrictions. / / M O N TA N A / /
Montana residents approved legalization with 57 percent of the vote in November. However, the state’s adult-use law is still up in the air. Three separate Republican-sponsored measures are currently being considered. Unfortunately, all three bills change the original proposal that was laid out in the ballot initiative and approved by voters. The legalization bill favored by Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte would create a system where local jurisdictions have to “opt in” to the legal Cannabis industry. The original law approved by voters allowed for an “opt-out” provision. This change makes the state’s default position “out” of legal Cannabis, and is sure to have a negative impact on the success of the program.
The bill would also delay the start of retail sales and reroute the majority of pot tax revenue to a fund proposed by the governor for substance abuse treatment. And while the state’s recreational pot law is somehow being rewritten by the very people who opposed legalizing pot in the first place, at least one state senator has proposed a referendum for the ballot to repeal legalization. But, at the moment, Montana appears to be moving forward with some version of a taxed and regulated system with retail sales. // NEW JERSEY //
Gov. Phil Murphy clashed with lawmakers, refusing to sign a bill establishing the state’s regulatory framework until amendments were made detailing penalties for underage possession. During the resulting two-month stalemate, people continued to be arrested for pot possession in the Garden State. Legislators ultimately passed a cleanup bill that satisfied Murphy. Shortly thereafter, on February 22, the governor signed the legal framework bill into law, legalizing Cannabis. Murphy also signed a decriminalization bill that ends pot possession arrests. Unfortunately, in the three and a half months between legalization passing on Election Day 2020 and the governor signing the Cannabis bills in late February ‘21, more than 6,000 people were arrested for minor marijuana possession in New Jersey.
STORY by MIKE GIANAKOS @MIKEGEEZEEY/NORTHEAST LEAF | ART by ADOBE/FRESHIDEA
FLOWER. ELEVATED.
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“During the fall of 2020, Senator Feldman assured us he was ready to help make legalization a 2021 priority,” said Jones. “By the time the 2021 session began, however, it became clear that there were a lot of caveats and expectation-lowering by Senator Feldman … Some influential medical Cannabis license holders did not want the adult-use legalization bill to pass in 2021, and they put resources into that effort. We should not craft our policy reform timeline based on what paid lobbyists and current license holders want.” Jones believes that the failure to pass Cannabis legalization this year was caused by the corrupting influence of money in politics.
Activism and Positive Impacts on the Cannabis Community
CITIZEN
JONES “I
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M
aryland should have been ripe for legalization legislation this past session — even before Virginia and New York passed their legalization laws. As evidence, he points to the following undisputed facts:
Luke Jones | Director of the Maryland chapter of NORML
this year, the same bill had to be cross-filed didn’t set out to work for the legalization in the Maryland House of Delegates and the of Cannabis. I don’t even get paid for the Maryland Senate early on. And it needed work I do on behalf of Cannabis reform,” co-sponsors who would vigorously defend said Luke Jones, Director of the Maryland the legislation against frivolous attempts to chapter of the National Organization for the Reform derail it through delay and distraction. of Marijuana Laws (NORML). “I do it because I Over the summer of 2020, Jones worked want to educate myself about Maryland politics and with the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) to how citizens can effectively participate in Maryland’s identify legalization bill sponsors, arranging political process. I have an expansive view on freea meeting between Senator Feldman (D-15) dom and a real desire to impact public policy.” and Delegate Lewis (D-24) in the first week of Luke Jones was politely answering questions November 2020 before the session. over the whoops and laughter of his two sons as it “We brought them neared their bedtime. together last fall to In his role at NORML, Jones meet each other, iron wears many hats each day – out differences, and be dutiful employee, concerned prepared to cross-file Maryland citizen, Cannabis the bills in both houses advocate, devoted father. of the legislature,” said But as the fiftieth year of proJones. hibition passed, the job of endWith Lewis, Jones ing the criminal punishment of knew he had a talented Cannabis users and creating a politician who could marketplace of safe and healthy listen to opposing products can wait no longer. interests, discuss them “If legalization of marijuana rationally, then defend in Maryland is so popular, and “Democracy is stronger the merits of his position. we all agree by a wide margin In Feldman, Jones that reform should happen when people engage with thought he had a comnow, why hasn’t it happened their representatives – rade-in-arms. Maryland already?” This was the question that’s the way it’s supposed Senate President Bill FerJones began to ask himself in guson (D-46) assigned the summer of 2020. What to work.” -Luke Jones the legalization bill to more could he do? How could Feldman, who was happy to be the lead he personally speed along the political process and sponsor. But when the session started, it was make conditions ripe for consensus? Jones reaclear that something had changed. soned that if a legalization bill was going to pass
POINT 1: Maryland’s Medical Cannabis Program brought in nearly $50 million in dispensary sales in March 2021, and total sales have already exceeded $1 billion. POINT 2: According to Maryland’s 2019 Uniform Crime Report, the State had more than 15,000 marijuana possession arrests annually, which has barely moved since the enactment of medical Cannabis legislation in 2014. POINT 3: Two-thirds of Maryland citizens support legalization. POINT 4: Cannabis legalization is central to both police reform and increasing state tax revenue – the top two legislative priorities in the Maryland General Assembly in 2021. But rather than expanding this popular program to include more people and more participants, Maryland kept the current medical Cannabis program in place, protecting market access for a limited number of businesses – the very result current license holders wanted. “Politicians are rightly saying, it’s a complicated issue,” said Jones. “But citizens should not have to fight paid lobbyists to secure our personal freedoms. Forming a coalition, making compromises – these are essential aspects of any legislative campaign. However, no legislator should take cash from the businesses they seek to regulate. Democracy is stronger when people engage with their representatives – that’s the way it’s supposed to work. The political system gets messed up when companies jump in and start throwing money at politicians – this has been our biggest obstacle to progress here in Maryland.”
Since 2008, Mike Rothman has counseled clients regarding Cannabis laws and regulations as the founder and principal of the Medical Cannabis Law Group and the Law Office of Mike Rothman in Rockville, Maryland. Mr. Rothman has testified on Cannabis laws and regulations before the Maryland House of Delegates, taught classes, and lobbied the federal government on behalf of patients and businesses. Mr. Rothman’s Law Office focuses on criminal defense, including use of the medical Cannabis defense.
may 2021
COLUMN by MIKE ROTHMAN, ATTORNEY & PRINCIPAL | MEDICAL CANNABIS LAW GROUP
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plant profiles
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The name Powerzzzup comes from a combination of powerful Cannabis – some of which will put you on your ass, hence the “zzz” – and the lifestyle of a Cannabis connoisseur. These masters of genetics partnered with Cookies and Culta in Maryland about a year and a half ago in order to bring some of this state’s top strains to market. We got to hang out with Kenny Dumetz (seen at right) and Jason Mejia, the founders of Powerzzzup, during their trip to Baltimore in April. An undeniable takeaway from our sesh was how authentic these guys are, and how much they truly love Cannabis.
up Powerzzz Powerzzzup Kenny got his start in Cannabis when his two female neighbors had some quality herb for a solid price. Smoking became a lifestyle for him and he soon developed a strong love for the plant. For him and Jason, this love always comes first when doing business in the Cannabis industry. Jason was sick of paying high prices for weed and wanted to start growing himself, and did so with a single light operation.
LEAFMAGAZINES.COM
Kenny and Jason’s hands are deep in the genetic pool and they pop seeds on a monthly basis while working on R&D nonstop. They decide on what strains to cross, see what works, test their products, and make the necessary modifications. While their grow is relatively small in terms of size, they are doing big things. As for the package design, they kick around ideas with Berner, and the Cookies design team goes to town bringing end-users iconic Cannabis packaging design. Both Kenny and Jason are very happy with the Culta partnership in Maryland, as head grower for Culta Jay Bouton – and his team in Cambridge – are doing their genetics a solid. Culta takes good care of them when they come to town, including setting up immersive experiences where patients who are fans get to meet the guys behind the scenes. Most recently for 4/20, they did a tour of several dispensaries, meeting hundreds of patients at locations where Culta’s Cookies flower was dropping. As you read this article, you can rest assured these guys are working on fire genetics that you can expect to see coming to the Maryland medical market sooner rather than later. There’s no denying that Cookies has made its way into a much larger portion of dispensaries in Maryland in the past year and a half, so kudos to Culta for being able to keep up with production without sacrificing quality in any way. Huge shoutout to Kenny, Jason and the whole team for their efforts to push Cannabis culture forward and create a harmonious feeling around the plant.
This was enough to keep up with his personal consumption needs and then some. He realized rather quickly he was pretty good at what he was doing and wanted to learn more about it, so he did a deep dive and went legit with Proposition 215. The rest is history. Jason learned everything from the internet, sifting through the bullshit to get to solid information. Trial and error led him to successful breeding, and finding what works was not a quick or easy process. They also worked closely with someone who we will call “The Painter” – whose vast understanding of the genetic breeding of Cannabis rubbed off on them. Making connections throughout the industry opened up a plethora of genetics that they couldn’t previously get their hands on. Now they have access to many, if not all, of the strains they want to cross – with two
MAY 2021
hands on the wheel as a driving force in the Cannabis industry nationwide. One of their secrets to success has always been trying to improve their craft and the quality of the end product. Looking at the vast amount of competition in California has allowed them to stack themselves up and compete with some of the biggest players in the industry. The love that goes into their products and the thoughtfulness behind each strain from the genetic cross to the name, is one of the many reasons they have been so successful. More times than not these days, people want a craft product and Powerzzzup is filling that niche. Jason’s aha moment was when the Snowman was released, and they knew they had something special. Those frosty, powerful buds created a reaction from Cannabis users that can only be described as phenomenal. Kenny describes his aha moment as “the F1 Durb, the other half of Cookies – she was a lot different than everything else out there. Purple and green with bright thick orange hairs and a pissy smell. Everyone was in awe.”
COOKIES.CO | CULTA.IO
STORY by WYATT EARLY @ERRLYWYATT/MARYLAND LEAF | PHOTOS BY JILL JASUTA, JILL BAR & RENIER FEE
Cannabis, just the way you like it. Select is available throughout Maryland. Elite Live Carts. Ratio Drops. Fresh pens. America’s #1 selling cannabis oil has your better experience covered. It’s quality, variety and convenience, together at last. And it’s all available near you.
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INTERVIEW
MARYLAND LEAF BUDTENDER OF THE MONTH
ALEXANDRA WILLINGER WHAT EFFECT HAS CANNABIS HAD ON YOUR LIFE? Cannabis has saved my life, honestly in so many ways. Not only personally, but as a budtender being able to give other people access to Cannabis is pretty amazing. I get to see how people heal and hearing their stories is proof that I’ve made an impact on them. I mostly use Cannabis for PTSD and insomnia – people really don’t realize how much of an impact a good night’s sleep has on your body. Cannabis also allows me to get moments to myself, where I can connect with where I need to heal.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT WORKING AT RISE? I have such a great relationship with all my patients there, some people even come in and call me their ‘weed daughter.’ It’s amazing to have people who come to me for help and guidance in their medical product needs. Working at Rise gives me the ability to work closely with patients and take my time with each and every one of them. DO YOU FEEL LIKE WORKING AS A BUDTENDER MAKES AN IMPACT ON THE CANNABIS COMMUNITY? Of course! I feel like we are the front line workers of the Cannabis industry because we’re the ones physically in the dispensary every day. Also, the connections you make with people while working create an impact on their knowledge of Cannabis, which they can then take and share with others.
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WHAT IS THE BIGGEST LESSON YOU HAVE LEARNED ON THE JOB? Having patience with my patients. I can see how my personal behavior towards others has an effect on the way they respond to me and their day as a whole. Everybody has their bad days, but I have learned to take a step back and remember why I’m doing this – for the patients. On a larger scale, some dispensaries have turned into ‘Walmarts of weed’ – but at the end of the day, patients want a quality experience in a smaller setting.
A
LEXANDRA WILLINGER puts her patients’ needs first, creating an experience that leaves patients both informed of their products, but hungry to learn more. She has formed strong bonds with the patients, building a level of trust that is hard to come by. Be sure to ask for Alex when you head into Rise — you can thank us later!
RISE JOPPA 702 PULASKI HWY, JOPPATOWNE, MD RISECANNABIS.COM (410) 676-1123
may 2021
WHAT MAKES AN INFORMED CANNABIS CONSUMER? I don’t think information is as readily available for patients as it should be. Knowing about the soil composition and curing of a product is a great starting point. Watching out for weed that has been under-cured or is underdeveloped is something patients can look out for. Reaching out to the companies in your state for information, or even a tour, can give patients the information they need.
“IT’S AMAZING TO HAVE PEOPLE WHO COME TO ME FOR HELP AND GUIDANCE IN THEIR MEDICAL PRODUCT NEEDS.”
IF YOU COULD SMOKE WITH ANY CELEBRITY, WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHY? Naturally I’d pick all dead people first like Jimi Hendrix, Marley, Da Vinci, Tesla. Haha, but for the living ... I’m probably going to have to go with Jimmy Page. He has a huge vintage record collection, and if we could just kick it and burn while he showed me all the obscure rare finds and original classics, it would make my heart so full. ‘Music is my religion’ – and that would take me to church! Not to mention his closet and interest in the occult.
INTERVIEW by WYATT EARLY @ERRLYWYATT/MARYLAND LEAF | PHOTOS by JOSHUA MITCHUM @THE.BLAIR.MITCH.PROJECT S E N D N O M I N AT I O N S F O R B U D T E N D E R O F T H E M O N T H T O W YAT T @ L E A F M A G A Z I N E S .C O M
PATIENT OF THE MONTH
CANNABIS FOR ENDOMETRIOSIS
JessieBunk Jessie Bunk is on the road to recovery. A talented artist and professional model from Frederick, Jessie underwent laparoscopic surgery February 12 to remove endometrial implants – clumps of tissue that had grown outside of her uterus, causing severe pain since she began menstruating.
“When you’re dealing with chronic illness, you just kind of suck it up and keep going,”
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“ON AVERAGE, it takes 7-10 years for a woman to be diagnosed,” Jessie said, noting her diagnosis took 13 years. “It’s a really serious disease and a lot of people don’t understand how debilitating it can be.” The inner strength required to fight such a lengthy battle has left the 26-year-old wise beyond her years – arming herself with a wellness lifestyle and coping mechanisms to push through the tough times and continue to grow. “Cannabis is my medicine,” said Jessie, who has served Maryland communities in a variety of capacities that include CBD wellness educator, dispensary agent and Cannabis caregiver. She was hired in January as the sales manager for Fingerboard Farm Market – an e-commerce CBD boutique shop based out of Ijamsville, Maryland. She raves about the compassion and empathy of the farm’s owner, Dawn Gordon, who has made accommodations as Jessie recovers from surgery. Jessie uses Cannabis “in almost every way, shape or form,” and is quite fond of CBD, taking a daily 1:1 tablet and applying topicals to reduce eczema. She enjoys smoking flower to stem the intense discomfort that comes with an elongated monthly cycle. “My pain, I live with it,” she said. “It can put a lot of strain on my mental health. I deal with depression and anxiety, but I just do my best every day to be comfortable and be happy.” While Mary Jane is the friend that holds her hand through dark times, healthy habits like proper dieting, exercise and positive affirmations provide a strong foundation to stand on. “I used to tell people this at the dispensary,” she said. “If you don’t use Cannabis properly, get daily exercise and drink enough water, you’re not gonna get the full medicinal effect you’re looking for.” Yoga has been a fantastic coping outlet for Jessie, whose reproductive complications also include premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) – severe irritability and depression triggered weeks prior to her monthly cycle arriving. The movement has been “great for mood enhancement,” and a commitment to weekly practice has led to an increase in flexibility, strength and confidence. “When you’re dealing with chronic illness, you just kind of suck it up and keep going,” said Jessie, who also takes courses at Frederick Community College. “I’m dedicated to being the best sick person I can be. But also, I’m determined the next 13 [years] are going to be much better than my last.” While her chase for a degree is temporarily on hold, her lessons in movement continue off the mat. Jessie is a self-taught artist whose skills have recently broadened, gaining exposure on social media for her ambidextrous talents. The Frederick native creates videos of her freehand drawing and coloring entire pieces – with both hands in rapid time. “This past October, I was sitting at the beach and I was a little stoned,” she smiled. “I remembered being young and writing with both my hands, but in elementary school they tell you not to. That day, I picked up two hands, discovered a hidden talent and I haven’t stopped since.” Jessie currently has her artwork on display at a variety of local establishments. “I’m glad people like it,” she said. “It helps me release a lot of the pain that I have. It’s one of the ways I can cope. It just flows out of me. I put out all these colors through flowers and butterflies. There’s too much pain in my world and I’m trying to fill it with some color,” Jessie added. “The world can be a pretty dark place and I’m doing a little piece to make it a little brighter for myself, and hopefully for others.”
J
essie has incurred pain from a variety of complications involving her reproductive system for over a decade, with endometriosis and adenomyosis packing a persistent one-two punch to the ovarian and uterine wall. “[Adenomyosis] caused my uterus to be enlarged by twoto-three times the normal size, pressing on all the nearby organs and creating a lot of pain,” she said. “It’s been this way since I was 13, when I got my first period. For the last 13 years of my life, I would have it for two weeks every month. The doctors just told me it was normal.” Endometriosis is a common, yet poorly understood, disease that is estimated to impact 10-20 percent of American women of childbearing age. The disease can affect nearly every aspect of a woman’s life: her ability to work, her ability to reproduce, her relationships, as well as physical and mental health.
may 2021
SE E SOME OF JESSIE’S ARTWORK AT L INKT R.E E/J ESSIEBUNK | @JMBUNK ART
STORY by BAXSEN PAINE @BAXSENPAINE for MARYLAND LEAF | PHOTO by TIM RIFENBERG @TIMRIFENBERGPHOTO
new product. same performance. Enjoy the journey with the same award-winning performance technology and design you expect from Airo Brands. Engineered to deliver 3X more vapor than any other brand on the market, Airo Brands delivers a cannabis experience that’s already in a class of its own. Ask your dispensary about AiroSport today!
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SHOP REVIEW
BLUE RIDGE WELLNESS SETTING & VIBE As the lone dispensary on the well-traveled Harford Road, Parkville’s Blue Ridge Wellness (BRW) leaves locals feeling the warmth of its familial and friendly “Mom and Pop” shop vibe. A short walk from the parking lot leads to a wheelchair-accessible ramp. You’ll then be greeted by the head of security, Jonathan, who ensures a safe and healthy environment with COVID-19 temperature checks. Patients are then signed in to the MMCC by Jacqueline – who also maintains a smooth, upbeat playlist as the resident DJ – while a bevy of knowledgeable patient consultants wait to take your order.
FLOWER
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BRW maintains a well stocked menu of 50+ strains that include a large variety of eighths, grams and pre-rolls to choose from. “Our flower draws the most attention,” said budtender TJ Davis, highlighting Star 91 and Poochie Love – a pair of strains testing above 30% THC. Cookies drops from Culta make for a frenzy of activity inside the store, while bud from Curio, GLeaf, Grassroots, Nature’s Heritage and Strane are also heavily featured.
CONCENTRATES The pandemic may have put a temporary freeze on Blue Ridge’s unique deli style concentrates, but that hasn’t stopped the dispensary from stocking their fridge with badders, shatters, sugars and more, ranging from half-gram containers to two-gram live resin boxes from Culta. “Sometimes flower just doesn’t do it in terms of pain management,” said General Manager Malcolm Roberts, hinting at a post-pandemic return to deli style.
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EDIBLES Roberts and the team proudly serve an assortment of Verano troches, while also keeping up with the seasonal chews from Curio, noting that strawberry basil was on the way. Dixie and Betty’s Eddies are steady products found on the shelves, while Dr. Solomon’s 1,000mg RSO allows for a stronger dose of medicine.
QUICK HIT Since opening its doors in January of 2019, Blue Ridge Wellness has enjoyed catering to the Parkville community, focusing on educating and enhancing the lives of local patients by way of Cannabis. Patients and patient consultants are often on a first-name basis – a personal tone set from the top-down, as Owner Chad Scott can often be found inside the building, offering a hands-on approach. “He’s very active,” Roberts said. “Since day one, he created the team we needed and gave us everything we needed to succeed and help grow.”
may 2021
“OUR FLOWER DRAWS THE MOST ATTENTION,” - B U DT E N D E R TJ DAV I S
PRODUCT R E VIEW
PIE CRUST DIAMONDS & SAUCE BY MPX
ONE OF THE THINGS I love about sauce from MPX is the transparency of their product testing. You get results for cannabinoids and terpenes of both the sauce and diamonds Diamonds separately. I chose to crush 97.89% Total up the diamonds and make cannabinoids an “apple sauce” to keep .967% Terpenes a proper consistency from dab to dab. Grow West’s Sauce Pie Crust extracted by MPX 59.45% Total Cannabinoids is a beautiful example of 16.892% Terpenes quality concentrate. On the exhale was a smooth balance of cakey and gassy flavors. The anxiety relief I experienced after one dab was unparalleled. I could finally take a deep breath of fresh air. MELTINGPOINTEXTRACTS.COM @MPX_US
BLUE RIDGE WELLNESS
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STORY & PHOTOS by BAXSEN PAINE @BAXSEN PAINE for MARYLAND LEAF
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STRAIN OF THE MONTH leafmagazines.com
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TESTING 24.61 thca 3.07 total terps 1.38 myrcene .86 pinene .32 limonene .2 linalool .11 caryophyllene
ORANGE GROVE
A LUXURIOUS HYBRID EFFECT … I ACTUALLY SMOKED THIS FLOWER ALL DAY LONG. may 2021
EVERMORE CANNABIS COMPANY’S NEW P ROJECT, ORANGE GROVE, IS OU R FEATU RED FLOWER THIS MONTH – BRINGING A MOST SATISFYINGLY MELLOW AND FLAVORFULLY ELEGANT BUD.
grown by
EVERMORE CANNABIS COMPANY
As I understand it, in addition to the many strains Evermore produces in Maryland, they also run several small batch breeding projects in tandem with their regularly scheduled production. These projects are put to the test, literally and figuratively, by processing their first runs into a concentrate and running it through rigorous scientific and market testing. They are first evaluated based on an in-depth analysis of the terpene and cannabinoid profiles, and then sent to market to see how the public enjoys the new cultivar. This is a long and meticulous process, but ultimately leads to genetic selections that have been carefully vetted for high quality profiles and strong desirability. Orange Grove is one such vetted genetic, emerging triumphant to earn a place in Evermore’s catalogue. The terpene profile features a luxurious hybrid effect produced by a 1.38% myrcene dominance, tempered with a nearly equal focused and uplifting dose of .86% pinene and .32% limonene, followed by the tranquil tail of .2% linalool and .11% caryophyllene. Orange Grove comes on gently and delicately, softening the mind and loosening the body in a slow, incremental direction, lingering long after each exhale and slowly evolving throughout the day. My eighth came out with three perfectly cured, pine cone shaped nugs that had the ideal amount of moisture content and plenty of intact, resinous trichomes. I actually smoked this flower all day long, never getting so high I couldn’t function – but it definitely had a stronger psychoactive effect than I anticipated. The flavor is true to its name with a significant citrus aroma that is slightly floral with a bit of blueberry. The orange notes are at the top of the nose and the florally goodness gently brushes against it, with the hints of fruit coming through on the exhale. After my first couple tokes, I could feel the familiar sensations creeping in as the anti-inflammatory and anxiolytic properties emerged, but as time went on, I slowly felt myself getting higher and higher. It was as if the terpenes were continuing to promote effects long after the cannabinoids settled in, and to me, this quality makes Orange Grove a special headspace to explore. A high quality and flavorful ride, hats off to Evermore for producing such a truly exquisite profile and providing patients with so much bang for their buck!
REVIEW by TAYLOR MARTIN for MARYLAND LEAF | PHOTO by WYATT EARLY @ERRLYWYATT | EVERMORECOMPANY.COM @EVERMOREBRANDS
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THE ACTION ISSUE
30
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THROUGHOUT HISTORY, advocates for social and political action have repeatedly returned to the same wellspring of change: The Protest. The French Revolution. The Suffragette Movement. The Civil Rights Movement. Tiananmen Square. The 1999 WTO Protests in Seattle. Arab Spring. The Occupy Movement. Last year, hundreds of thousands of people broke free from couch-locked quarantine to protest the killing of George Floyd by a public servant who should have knelt at Floyd’s feet rather than on his neck. People who’d never held a protest sign in their lives took to the streets. People who’d never given to charity before held fundraisers for equity causes. More voters turned out for the 2020 election than any other election in the history of the United States. That’s why we chose a protest scene as our cover on Leaf Magazines’ first-ever Action Issue. It’s the classic visual representation of change motivated by
mAY 2021
ADOBE/PATRONESTAFF
HOW THE CANNABIS COMMUNITY CONTINUES TO FIGHT TO FIX THE SYSTEM.
unrest. The Cannabis community is no stranger to the protest, and is no stranger to action. Since the dawn of the plant’s prohibition and criminalization, advocates have taken to the streets to fight for legalization, for expungement – and for understanding. And while the face of change is often an angry mob that’s reached its breaking point, we want to look past the protest line and spend this issue showcasing those warriors within the Cannabis community who wake up every day fighting to change the system. They do so in offices, in the fields, and in the halls where legislation is crafted. In the following pages, you’ll find stories filled with hope and positive momentum. We connected with an Oregonian woman of color who fights for legislative change with one hand, while using the other to help equity applicants find funding to realize their dreams. We got to know a small Cannabis company in Alaska that makes a huge positive impact in its surrounding
community. We spoke with a California farmer who served nearly a decade in a federal prison camp for cultivating Cannabis, only to go on to become one of the most respected sungrown producers in Humboldt’s legal market. We sat down with the founder of the Emerald Cup, one of the most respected drivers of Cannabis culture on the West Coast. Lastly, because no social action would be possible without a healthy ecosystem to support us all, we connected with an organization that hopes to steer the Cannabis industry toward sustainability and ethical responsibility. We hope you find inspiration in these stories, as we did while putting them together. Next time you feel that call to action – whether it be to pick up a sign and hit the streets, or pick up the phone and call your local lawmakers – may you succeed in making the positive change you want to see in the world.
STORY by TOM BOWERS @PROPAGATECONSULTANTS/LEAF NATION
CHANGEMAKER ELLEN KOMP | DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CA NORML
Ellen Komp’s desk is always in chaos. That’s a good thing. If you need to know something about a Cannabis bill in the California legislature, just ask Ellen. Odds are, if she didn’t play a direct role in crafting the bill, she’s carefully tracking it or already preparing an action alert to send to the membership of California NORML. Established in 1972, California NORML is a separate membership and financial base from the national organization, but one that keeps plenty busy as the only organization in the state devoted specifically to marijuana reform for consumers. And at the center of it all is CA NORML Deputy Director Ellen Komp, elected to the board of directors back in 1992.
31 “We don’t discriminate against someone using alcohol off-the-job, right? That was also the number one thing we She’s essentially positioned wanted to fix immediately after Prop 64 passed. California NORML as a I got calls the next day, all day, from people who watchdog to ensure those were being drug tested by their employer and expecting an automatic wanted to know if it was OK for them to use expungement aren’t left Cannabis now. No, sadly they were not OK, even short of the finish line. if they had a medical reason. What’s so ironic is that states which later passed their own medical marijuana laws – even less-progressive states like Arkansas – put it right into their law because of >> C A N O R M L . O R G what happened with California.” A third area of focus for Komp and California NORML is the expungement of criminal records. “I mean, even Joe Biden – who wants to continue arresting people for marijuana – wants to expunge past convictions for marijuana,” she noted. “That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but that’s where we are.” While California ostensibly led the way when former San Francisco DA George Gascon announced he’d be initiating automatic record expungements in 2019, Komp counters that well-intentioned promises do not always translate to a clean final product. For that reason, she’s essentially positioned California NORML as a watchdog to ensure those expecting an automatic expungement aren’t left short of the finish line. “I think people are still going to have to take some action,” Komp reasoned, “at least to check that their case has been fully wiped out. There have been all of these announcements about wiping out these records, so people might think they’re good to go when there are actually still several more steps that need to happen before their records are completely fixed. That’s roll-up-your-sleeves kind of work.” Whatever type of work may be needed, California NORML’s track record shows that they’re always ready to meet any challenge head on. Komp’s myriad of focuses also confirms that despite recent progress, there is still much, much left to be done. Thankfully, with the likes of California NORML around, we can always count on action to be taken when it comes to protecting Cannabis patients and consumers.
STORY by ZACK RUSKIN @ZACKRUSKIN for LEAF NATION | PHOTO by NORML
leafMAGAZINES.com
IN THOSE DAYS, Komp was all in on hemp, even serving as an editor on the ninth edition of Jack Herer’s legendary book on the subject, “The Emperor Wears No Clothes.” In short order, however, the advent of Prop 215 would set Komp on a career course she’s still navigating today. In the wake of voters approving Prop 64, her work now also centers on advocating for improvements to a system few, if any, would mistake for an ideal outcome. For the most part, that translates to tracking and garnering support for Cannabis-related bills now making their way through the state’s legislature. Speaking with Leaf, Komp highlighted a few of the bills she’s closely following at the moment. One is SB-311, which is also known as Ryan’s Law. “That would require hospitals and hospices to allow terminally ill patients to use Cannabis,” Komp explained. “It’s called Ryan’s Law after a man whose son, Ryan, was unable to use Cannabis at the end of his life. His father is pushing this bill. It passed last year, almost unanimously through the legislature, but was vetoed by Governor Newsom over concerns the hospital industry had that they might lose federal funding.” Such outcomes are a frequent part of the process, where bills are often required to be filed again and again, tweak after tweak, before ultimately having a chance to evolve into law. Sometimes, the issue isn’t the language of the bill, but the lawmaker sponsoring it. That’s what happened in the case of AB-1256: an employment rights bill Komp and California NORML are supporting. For the past several years, the bill was sponsored by Assemblyman Rob Bonta, but following Bonta’s recent promotion to California Attorney General, Assemblyman Bill Quirk has stepped in to carry AB-1256 forward. A big goal with that bill is to ban discrimination based on testing for what’s known as inactive THC metabolites, which essentially translates to the leftover THC that sticks around in your system long after the effects have concluded. In California, if an employee tests positive for inactive THC metabolites – which is all a urine or hair test can detect – that is currently still a legally acceptable cause for termination. For Komp, such a situation seems tantamount to madness. “We’re trying to get employers away from the idea of discriminating against someone using on their own, off-the-job,” she said.
the ACTION issue
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION It is with the deepest respect that I share these thoughts, with great regard for the difficulties faced in leading our beloved country. Upon being elected, the global community exhaled in relief when you were elected to lead the United States, but your Administration continues to perpetuate the war on drugs, which has become a war on the American way of life. It is time to acknowledge that the foundation of the war on drugs is racist, predatory, and not fitting with the American ideals we project around the globe. It is also evident that the laws and law enforcement regulating drugs are more dangerous than the drugs themselves. Americans deserve their constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness, and this includes the right to consume Cannabis.
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In the last six months we have seen New York and New Mexico legalize Cannabis by legislative action, and the voters of New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota and Montana joined a total of 33 states whose voters all approve of an American’s right to use Cannabis. Your response to overwhelmingly positive polling for legalization has been to fire White House staff members who admitted to using Cannabis. This is direct proof that your policies and beliefs do not reflect the will of the people.
What is mind-boggling is how can you have the vision to pull troops out of Afghanistan to end our country’s longest war, while continuing to wage a domestic campaign of terror featuring no-knock raids and mandatory minimum sentences for simple drug possession? Like the people of AfghanWE ARE CALLING ON YOUR ADMINISTRATION istan who are left worse off than when we began our needless war of aggresTO TAKE ACTION AND sion 20 years ago, today Americans FOLLOW THROUGH are worse off on the battlefield called ON YOUR CAMPAIGN Main Street – where innocent victims PROMISES, AND are killed, arrested and robbed through TO CORRECT THE asset forfeiture by a militarized police SHAMEFUL LEGACY OF THE WAR ON DRUGS force with less oversight than that for our THAT BOTH THE armed forces overseas.
PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT HELPED SHAPE AND ENFORCE.
We are calling on your Administration to take action and follow through on your campaign promises, and to correct the hypocritical legacy of the war on drugs that both the President and Vice President helped shape and enforce. We know your history and we are looking for you both to evolve with Americans, for America.
leafmagazines.com
Madame Vice President, your legacy as a prosecutor includes thousands of lives fractured by the war on drugs. President Biden, as a senator you helped craft the language of the war on drugs that has led to the militarization of police, private and for-profit prisons, and decades of lives ruined by drug policies – vowing in 1989 to hold “every drug user accountable,” adding that there aren’t “enough police officers to catch the violent thugs, not enough prosecutors to convict them, not enough judges to sentence them, and not enough prison cells to put them away for a long time.”
mAY 2021
Mr. President, you recently stated that gun violence in the U.S. is shameful and that we need to limit legal gun ownership – but said nothing about the average of three lives taken daily by police shootings since the murder of George Floyd. I personally find your lack of action on police accountability, the continuation of the war on drugs, and giving police reasons to arrest and kill innocent people in minor possession of drugs, to be shameful – which predominantly affects people of color and impoverished communities.
Please, let’s end police violence, gang violence and cartel violence. This comes by removing criminal penalties for minor drug possession, and redirecting funds from law enforcement and the criminal justice system towards social support, mental and addiction health care – making direct investments into communities affected by the war on drugs. When a person chooses to use Cannabis or other drugs, they choose their pathway to happiness – and criminalizing their decision is what creates criminals. It justifies the cartels, the violence, and even the corruption that drives both the criminal organizations and the criminal justice system. Let’s repeat an earlier mantra: Americans deserve their constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness, and this includes the right to consume Cannabis and other substances in the safety of their own homes. Sincerely, Wesley Abney Founder | Leaf Magazines
STORY by WES ABNEY @BEARDEDLORAX | ART by JOSHUA BOULET @JOSHUABOULET for LEAF NATION
HUCKLEBERRY HILL FARMS | FOUNDER JOHNNY CASALI
the ACTION issue
INCARCERATION TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP
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Johnny Casali was 24 years old in 1992 when federal agents came calling at the door of his multi-generational farmhouse in California’s legendary Humboldt County. It was a fateful day that would lead to nearly a decade of federal incarceration for simply cultivating plants in the style and tradition handed down by his parents. Now, nearly 30 years later, Casali holds a position of respect among the legal cultivators in the Humboldt Cannabis community. His path has not been easy, and his story, while unique in its details, rings with a familiarity that reverberates through an industry still shaking off the shackles of a failed Drug War.
leafmagazines.com
F A M I LY L E G A C Y
“From the age of 10, I was following my mother around, watching her, learning from her how to cultivate Cannabis, and vegetables and fruit trees,” Casali said of his mom, Marlene Bandoni. “I really just fell in love with participating with my mother, and learning her techniques, learning what made her a master grower, per se, in the Emerald Triangle community’s mind.” For Casali’s family, Cannabis was one of a number of crops and income streams that included fishing, crabbing and mainstream agriculture. “We were really just living off the land, and supplementing our income with small bits of marijuana,” Casali said. The budding cultivator’s interest grew along with him, and by the time he was a teenager, his mother struggled with whether it was OK to let her son begin to grow on his own. At age 15, she decided to allow him to grow 10 plants, as long as he agreed to hand over the Cannabis to her and put the money either into a college fund, or a wise investment. “You couldn’t buy a motorcycle, you couldn’t go on vacation,” he said. His first solo grow yielded about 12 pounds.
mAY 2021
“I ended up being able to make enough money where I put a down payment on 11 acres of property on the Eel River,” he said. His parents co-signed. “That was my first experience with making money from Cannabis, and really, from that point, it was just on.”
plant count in order to maintain harvest volumes. Being twenty-something, carefree, wave-riding Cannabis growers, they didn’t realize that the increase in plant count also increased their chance of attracting the wrong kind of attention. F AT E C O M E S K N O C K I N G
Early one morning in 1992, Casali heard a noise on the farm that didn’t sound quite right. After a couple of years of college, Casali’s par“I heard somebody driving up the driveway really ents bought a commercial fishing boat, and handed fast, and I just thought it was maybe one of my the farm over to Johnny, who cultivated Cannabis friends who wanted to go surfing, or this or that, but with his best friend, Todd Wick. we had a rule that you just don’t drive fast on the This was in the late 1980s, and with the Reafarm,” he said. “So I came running out the door, gan-era War on Drugs in full force, enforcement but instead of meeting one of my grew far more intense in the friends, this time I met a guy in camTriangle. “Since I learned ouflage with a 9mm to my head, “You would see convoys along everything from my and there were 30 federal agents.” the roadways, you would see helimom, I thought it was so They gave him the option to leave copters overhead,” he said. “You important to just honor the property, but he chose to stay could no longer grow out in the her, and to share her while they searched the farm, conopen if you wanted to make it.” story with people. So fiscating, among other things, seed They had to start cultivating every strain that I grow packs and 13 pairs of trimming underneath the tree canopy, with here today is bred with scissors. They gave him a yellow such low per-plant yields that they a strain that she used to ticket, and they left. His lawyer, Ron had to significantly increase their SEA CHANGE
grow 45 years ago,” -Johnny Casali
Listen to Leaf Life Podcast Show #52 “Cannabis Prisoners” Visit www.LeafMagazines.com
PA S S I N G O N T H E L E G A C Y
Sinoway, warned that the Feds had a five-year window to return, and were likely to arrest and convict him. “He said, ‘If you’re planning on cooperating with them, I want you to walk straight back out of my office right now,’” Casali said. That’s the moment he knew he’d found the right lawyer. THE TRIAL
After a year and a half, the Feds came back for Casali and Wick, kicking off a two-and-a-halfyear trial during which the pair faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years to life. At one point, they saw a glimmer of hope in the potential that they could get a reduced sentence as nonviolent first-time offenders. In the end, the linchpin wasn’t the Cannabis, but the trimming scissors. “The prosecutor was able to tell this judge that 13 pairs of scissors could only mean that I had 13 workers,” he said, “and these seed packets that I had in my house could only mean that I had a prior grow, since I had those seeds.” In the end, Casali and Wick were sentenced to the mandatory minimum of 10 years at Lompoc Prison Camp in Santa Barbara County. SERVING TIME
When describing his sentencing and his internment at Lompoc, Casali fights back tears – his voice shaking under the weight of regret. “I didn’t feel bad for myself. I felt bad because of the pain that I had brought to my mother and father. All they wanted to do was to give me the best life possible, and they felt very guilty for what had happened because they blamed themselves.” Casali recalls his walk up to the gates, where he waited with a group of 10 inmates for intake. “They asked me how much time I had gotten, and I told them ‘120 months,’ and they were just
flabbergasted that they were looking at someone who had more time than anyone else at the camp at that time,” he said. Casali spent seven years building relationships with the other inmates, as well as the farm managers and guards, working the cattle and cultivating vegetables. He formed a particularly strong bond with the man who ran the prison camp, Ray Escobedo. “I used to bring him little plants, habaneros and things, and he would plant them in a little garden,” Escobedo said when contacted via phone for this story. Escobedo remembers Casali as being an exemplary farmhand, and by the end of the first year of his sentence, Casali had already earned a solid reputation at the camp. “One afternoon, I heard my name come over the speaker from the chaplain’s office, and you never want to hear that, because it’s never anything good,” Casali said. “My inmate friends, they all looked at me, because that’s what you do, like, ‘Oh, God, what happened?’ I went to the chaplain’s office, and that’s when they told me that my mom had passed away. She was actually scheduled to visit me the next day.” Escobedo went to the Warden and vouched for Casali to leave the prison with a Marshall to attend his mother’s funeral. After seven years, Casali and Wick were transferred to a drug program in Las Vegas, then to a halfway house in San Francisco for six months, before being given probation. They were then granted leave to start their own landscaping business, Eel River Landscape. “We were mowing lawns, and trimming bushes and hedges for little old ladies in town,” he said. “I still look back at those times, and just remember that first day when I got back up to Humboldt, and everything just put a smile on my face. I could sit out in the yard for hours, and the air smelled amazing – that’s what life should be like for all of us, all the time.”
After nearly a decade of federal incarceration for operating his family’s legacy farm in Humboldt, Casali feels overwhelmingly lucky to be able to finally share his craft with the California Cannabis community. “Since I learned everything from my mom, I thought it was so important to just honor her, and to share her story with people. So every strain that I grow here today is bred with a strain that she used to grow 45 years ago,” he said. “I do that in her honor. There are some that are named after her, called Sweet Marlene. There’s one that’s called Whitethorn Rose, and they’re all bred with her strain that she bred with my best friend’s mother, called Paradise Punch. I like the idea that nobody else in the world grows these strains, and whether they’re the best or not the best, it’s part of the story of Huckleberry Hill Farms. It’s part of her story, and it’s part of my story.” Like so many people who’ve seen the damage caused by failed drug policies, the retired prison camp manager Escobedo now sees Cannabis in a different light. “It shouldn’t be illegal,” Escobedo said. “It’s no different than alcohol. It’s probably better than alcohol, you know. But it was illegal then.” In recent years, Escobedo and another former prison camp manager came to visit Casali at his farm. “He gave me a couple of seeds,” Escobedo said, “and I planted them here, and I made some creams out of them, for medicine, you know.” Despite the freedom Casali now enjoys, he still regards helicopters overhead with a watchful eye, and can’t shake the fear of the potential blowback that could happen to him as retaliation for speaking out. Even though his livelihood Johnny and and his craft are his girlfriend, considered legal under Brittany Rose California law, it is still Moberly. federally illegal. “All it would take is for them to come here, and find something that they can point to,” he said. “More often than not, someone like me should be quiet and fall by the wayside, but that doesn’t really help anybody. I owe the community to speak out about where this multibillion-dollar industry was created.”
STORY by TOM BOWERS @PROPAGATECONSULTANTS/LEAF NATION | PHOTOS by BEN NEFF @BNEFF92 for LEAF NATION
the ACTION issue
EQUITY IN CANNABIS NuLeaf Project Co-founder Jeannette Ward Horton on collaborating with edible maker Wana
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The failed War on Drugs destroys countless lives, with racist and classist policies that tear communities of color apart at the seams. Jeannette Ward Horton, cofounder of Oregon’s NuLeaf Project,
will absolutely not rest until our broken, oppressive, unbalanced system serves all of the communities it touches. As a burgeoning new sector, the Cannabis industry is the perfect place to focus on the monumental work of halting the destructive, regressive and oppressive policies that still impact communities of color around the country, and repairing the damage done. It’s a multifaceted mission, comprising political action, mentorship, and a rebalancing of the fiscal playing field. mAY 2021
POLITICAL POWERHOUSE
Horton’s organization was a primary driver for the Oregon Cannabis Equity Act, HB3112, which seeks to establish a Cannabis Equity Board within the Governor’s office to provide equity oversight of the state’s Cannabis industry. Among her many contributions, Horton sought to change the language around equity in order to specifically speak to race in the state’s efforts. The goal is to provide opportunity and representation for those most impacted by the War on Drugs – specifically to Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o/x communities. Notably, as part of her efforts, Horton was able to include the divestment of Cannabis taxes from funding the police. “I wouldn’t let that shit go,” Horton said. “And it worked.” Horton and NuLeaf also provide mentorship, grants and avenues for funding for equity entrepreneurs looking to grow and thrive in the Cannabis industry. In order to get funding for these efforts, NuLeaf partners with companies in the space who recognize the need for change.
SPREADING LIKE ROOTS
In addition to the work with Wana in Oregon, NuLeaf is branching out to take on other missions with collaborators around the nation, including a partnership with Ben’s Best Buds in Colorado, the upcoming Cannabis brand from Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s. Their collaboration will be laser-focused on the funding piece of the equity puzzle. The overall goal, Horton says, is to build a future with a healthy economic ecosystem rich in diversity and opportunity for systematically oppressed and underrepresented communities. “Our mission is to build generational wealth for our communities,” she said. “This is not about just building Cannabis businesses. This is about repairing harm, and building it into these wealth opportunities for the Black community.”
The goal is to provide opportunity and representation for those most impacted by the War on Drugs – specifically to Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o/x communities.
A SHARED MISSION
As with so many people in the Cannabis industry and beyond, the social revolution of 2020 – sparked by the killing of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and countless people of color by public employees being paid to serve and protect them – inspired Wana to spring into action. “That lit a fire underneath us,” Wana CEO Joe Hodas said. “What do we do here? This is a crisis.” A significant operator in the national edibles scene, the Wana team heard about Horton and NuLeaf’s work on HB3112. That dedication to positive political action, and NuLeaf’s efforts to connect equity entrepreneurs with the funding they need to achieve their goals, was what brought Wana to the table with Horton and her organization. “To give someone a license, that’s great, they have a license,” Hodas said. But without funding, the license is simply a document. That’s where Wana came in, providing a financial contribution to NuLeaf in order to assist in their efforts. Wana also hired its first-ever Director of Corporate Social Responsibility, Karla Rodriguez, to work on the collaboration with Horton and other company projects in the CSR realm. The goal is to create robust collaborations that connect their company with the greater cause of equity and inclusion at a deeper level. “Companies tend to operate in a vacuum,” Karla said. “You can throw money at it, you can throw donations at a cause. But working with NuLeaf … we can learn what needs to be addressed in each market.”
>> N U L E A F P R O J E C T. O R G @NULEAFPROJECT >> W A N A B R A N D S . C O M @WANABRANDS
“To give someone a license, that’s great, they have a license,” Wana CEO Joe Hodas said. But without funding, the license is simply a document. That’s where Wana came in, providing a financial contribution to NuLeaf in order to assist in their efforts.
STORY by TOM BOWERS @PROPAGATECONSULTANTS/LEAF NATION | PHOTOS by FLETCHER WOLD @FWOLD_PHOTOGRAPHY & COURTESY WANA
the ACTION issue leafmagazines.com
38
REGENERATIVE ORGANIC AGRICULTURE Prior to 1996, nowhere in the United States had legalized Cannabis. And while progress has been slow over the past 25 years, the country has witnessed steady improvements allowing for the medical use of Cannabis in 36 states. With New Mexico’s most recent legislative success, 17 are now considered legal Cannabis states. But with great power comes great responsibility. A 2017 study by Ithaca College found large-scale commercial production of Cannabis destructive to the local environment. Northern states rely heavily on the use of artificial indoor operations, which are ideal for maneuvering the difficulties of cold climates. The indoor cultivation of Cannabis requires an enormous amount of electricity, relying on high-intensity bulbs, ventilation, dehumidifiers and air-conditioners to power production. Without land-use policies to limit its environmental footprint, the impacts of Cannabis farming could get worse, the study showed. Until then, the onus of nurturing Mother Earth’s finite resources rests in the hands of the growers. Many will chase the dollar, consequences be damned. Others have their eyes on leaving the world a better place than they found it.
mAY 2021
Aaron Howard, Mason Walker and Nathan Howard. East Fork Cultivars
Naomi Lamb Top Hat Concentrates
CREATING SUSTAINABLE CANNABIS BUSINESSES
BLAZING THE TRAIL
“We are in a climate crisis,” said Oregon resident and activist Les Szabo. “We can’t talk about expansion without thinking about the environmental disruptions this industry could create.” Szabo is a board member for Sun+Earth Certified, a nonprofit regenerative organic certification program for the Cannabis industry. Regenerative organic certification is considered the new high-bar in growing standards, covering soil health, animal welfare and worker fairness in a single certification. The company’s goal is to have its Cannabis and hemp farmers making high-quality, organic products while leaving a positive impact on the local environment. “It goes a little deeper into ethical land stewardship,” said Executive Director Andrew Black. “Our approach focuses on no-till, mulching, composting and cover-cropping as essential parts of the farm.” Sun+Earth Certified opened its doors on Earth Day 2019 with a pilot program that featured 14 partnering farms. In two years of operations, the company has expanded to 45 partners, covering California, Colorado, Michigan, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. “We’ve been really happy with the progress,” said Szabo. “This type of certification makes sense to both the producer and consumer.” ONE STEP FURTHER
While they don’t share a partnership, Top Hat Concentrates (THC) Alaska embraces the same farming values as Sun+Earth Certified. “It all starts with clean Cannabis,” said THC Alaska President and CEO John Nemeth. “We believe Cannabis is medicine that helps people in a myriad of ways, and adding chemicals seems counterproductive.” Based in Juneau, the state capital of America’s northernmost state is run largely on renewable energy by way of hydropower. This has allowed for THC Alaska to minimize its ecological footprint. “Essentially what we’re trying to do is give back more than we take from the environment,” said Head Cultivator Naomi Lamb. Lamb, 33, has been in the industry for 15 years, sharpening her skills in her home state of California before joining the team in 2015. In Humboldt County, Lamb witnessed firsthand the
impact of a grow facility placing the value of the dollar above the environment and local community. “My introduction to Cannabis was not pretty,” she said. “I came into the industry working for folks who valued quantity over quality. They were using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. It was really ugly.” In what she described as a “disheartening” experience, Lamb said, ”As a consumer, I had an expectation of the people who were growing having a more well-rounded concept that they were producing medicine.” Armed with a team of forward-thinking activists, Nemeth hopes Top Hat Concentrates can lead Alaska into preserving what is considered The Last Frontier. “The first step is creating business partnerships with people who want to do what we’re doing,” said Nemeth, voicing aspirations that regenerative agriculture could become the model for the country. “There are a lot of problems on Earth and climate change is a big one. Where the tech industry has failed, I think the Cannabis industry has a chance to step up and really set a trend.” THE CONSCIOUS CONSUMER
Monique Ramirez SunBright Gardens
Nick Mahmood Green Source Gardens
“We can’t talk about expansion without thinking about the environmental disruptions this industry could create.” - Les Szabo
“If we’re serious about addressing the combined threats to our health, environment and economy, we must take bold action quickly,” said Black. While Sun+Earth Certified farms take responsibility for creating clean Cannabis, the company hopes the cultural mindset circles the supply chain. MedMen Enterprises, or MedMen, has helped their cause, lending some of its 29 retail stores in a variety of states to support organic growers. “There’s some real momentum behind this movement,” said Szabo. “But to have these major multi-state operators on-board is going to be really important for consumers going forward. They are a good vehicle for translating our values in concrete action.” And then there’s the consumer. “Buying mindfully,” is how Lamb describes it. “It’s the same as when they talk about voting with your dollar,” said Lamb, a third-generation farmer. “You can educate yourself, source where your Cannabis is coming from and be mindful of the production methods behind it.” Education, the industry experts all agreed, was the key to navigating a 21st-century landscape. “People don’t understand the scope and the scale of Cannabis’ impact, both positive and negative,” said Szabo. “When we forecast the legal industry, we’re talking 50-60 billion dollars [per year]. This one crop is bigger than all of the organics in the U.S. When you talk about climate change, you can’t talk without thinking about the environmental disruptions this industry could create. “We just want to let people know there is an alternative way that is safer and cleaner for the consumer.”
PHOTO BY @SONDERFELTLLC FOR LEAF NATION
mARKET YOUR BRAND IN THE JUNE 2021 ISSUE!
email wyatt@leafmagazines.com
LEAFMAGAZINES.COM | @NWLEAF | #NORTHWESTLEAF STORY by BAXSEN PAINE @BAXSENPAINE for LEAF NATION
the ACTION issue
40
CANNABIS PHILANTHROPY leafmagazines.com
H O W A L A S K A’ S T O P H AT C O N C E N T R AT E S IS GIVING BACK TO THEIR COMMUNITY
Puff, puff...Pass out a $10,000 check? After witnessing a crippling of the local economy at the hands of a worldwide pandemic, Juneau’s John Nemeth and his colleagues at Top Hat Concentrates (THC) Alaska decided to step in and lend a hand to their friends at the South East Alaska Food Bank (SEAFB). Nemeth, the company’s President and CEO, was joined by Founder Ben Wilcox in personally delivering a five-digit donation to help families in need during these troublesome times. “They reached out to us last May and said, ‘Hey, we want to help out the communities,’” SEAFB Manager Chris Schapp recalled. “It’s not very often you get a $10,000 donation.” The financial aid came at the right time.The food bank was able to provide healthy and nutritious food to 42 non-profit agencies across Southeastern Alaska. SEAFB witnessed more than a doubling of applications for assistance – rising from an average of 65 per week to a high of 193 at the peak of the pandemic.
mAY 2021
THC Alaska has delivered Cannabis products, including CO2 extracted concentrates, to the most northern parts of the United States since 2015. The Cannabis is grown through farming and growing practices that are geared towards helping reverse climate change.
“In a COVID year, it was a little different,” Schapp said. “We got hit really bad. For us in Juneau, so much of our economy is driven by the tourist industry.” The state was hit hard following a shutdown of international travel through Canadian waters, nullifying an estimated 1.4 million tourists expected to travel to Alaska by way of cruise. As the region’s hub and the state’s capital, 99% of the ships stop in Juneau. Alaska’s tourism economy accounts for one in 10 jobs in the state, and results in more than $4 billion in total revenue. >> T H C A L A S K A . C O M “I just think that in the early stages of 2020, not knowing what was going to happen, we felt as though it was a good opportunity to give back,” said Nemeth, whose previous philanthropic endeavors include service to Habitat for Humanity and the United Way. The THC Alaska team is composed of like-minded activists and their outreach in 2020 only empowered their natural inclination, leading the group to expand its efforts in 2021. “There are a lot of problems on Earth – it’s about climate change, social equity and reform,” Nemeth said. “Our initial goal was to set a trend and get other Cannabis organizations involved. 2020 really opened our eyes to new opportunities.” THC Alaska has set its course for its next philanthropic adventure, working in concert with The Last Prisoner Project – a non-profit organization dedicated to Cannabis criminal justice reform. Leading the fight is political liaison, Lacy Wilcox, who is also the President of the Alaska Marijuana Industry Association (AMIA). “We’re all activists first,” said Wilcox. “Our hearts are for the plant, but also for building the industry and making a difference. It was really important that when we all came in, we understood this was an evolution and would need fine tuning, possibly for decades.”
STORY by BAXSEN PAINE @BAXSENPAINE for LEAF NATION | PHOTO by TOP HAT CONCENTRATES
glass art
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WAUGHSTREETGLASS Hailing from Georgia, Will Waugh, better known as Waugh Street Glass, discovered his passion for glass art at the age of 17 through the glassblowing documentary “Degenerate Art.” During his early experiences in headshops, buying his first pipes, he became enamored with the color-changing effect of fumed glass. When he found out that it was the result of essentially “painting the glass” with fuming metal, he was inspired to learn more about the niche of fume work within the world of glass pipes. This quickly led to a rabbit hole of exploration in the world of fume work, which his artwork is most known for today.
“The cleanliness of scientific glass paired with the niche of fume work, that’s my main focus.”
As he learned more about glass, Will became influenced by the clean, crisp work of artists such as Merge Scientific, who started as a scientific glassblower, and Siren Apparatus, who deftly juxtaposes the look of scientific glass with a heady aesthetic.
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The delicate precision of Will’s finely detailed, immersive fumed patterns wasn’t a skill that came overnight. Will has spent countless hours in deeply focused practice and experimentation honing his fuming skills, learning along the way from other glass artists. It’s that level of discipline, determination and curiosity that has allowed him to create such balanced and immersive functional glass.
@waughstreetglass
MAY 2021
STORY by PETE THOMPSON/LEAF NATION | PHOTO by JEFF DIMARCO @IAMJEFFDIMARCO
Charity Hair Cutting Event! FRIDAY MAY 21ST
KLIPS!
@KIPMARYLAND KIP teams up with Wigs For Kids in a donation event to remember! Some of us will be cutting our hair RIGHT here and donating it to an amazing cause! KIP x WIGS for KIDS Call 410-403-0280 or visit wigsforkids.org for more info
*Medical Cannabis Products are for use Only by a Certified Patient*
REQUIREMENTS
Hair must be a minimum of 12 inches. Hair cannot be chemically processed or colored Hair must be clean and completely dry before donating.
concentrate of the month
CRESCO LABS CRESCOLABS.COM @CRESCOLABS
LIVE RESIN SUGAR
46
leafmagazines.com
BLUNIVERSE This month’s featured concentrate is a pungent live resin sugar that comes out of Cresco Labs, earning its place by bringing one of the more unique flavor profiles found in the Maryland scene. Bluniverse is an interesting cross between Blue Magoo and Ms. Universe, resulting in this live resin sugar that is an absolutely mouthwatering and luscious dab. may 2021
HEALTHY SIZED CHUNKS OF CRYSTAL coalesce with a beautiful golden sauce, making this concentrate one that can be smelled across the entire house (I know because my wife upstairs asked me what I was smoking when I had only just opened the jar). The aroma is piquant and complex with notes of glue and berry fruits, and overwhelmingly reminiscent of hard candy and bubblegum. Truly, it smells like cherry apple Jolly Ranchers were crushed and chewed into a couple sticks of bubblegum, and then lightly coated in a delicate chemical adhesive. Low temp dabs reveal the fruitiness of the bubblegum flavor in bursts. Imagine if you will, a candy factory – full of the concentrated candy flavors in tubes ready to be mixed and matched into fun combinations. If you took some of the concentrated cherry, a little bit of apple and a smidge of pineapple, then injected that into a fresh batch of cotton candy flavored bubblegum – you would get the terpene burst that initially hits your palate on the inhale. The exhale is where the sharper adhesive notes round out the dab, and almost lock in and seal the initial candy flavor. One dab had my body relaxed and my joints loosened up enough to go about my day with only a slight sense of sluggish fog. I would put the effects on the indica-hybrid spectrum – a few more dabs scattered throughout my day really maintained a slow and steady pace that allowed me to de-stress but still maintain productivity, albeit not my most productive pace. The large dollop of myrcene tempered by a healthy distribution of the other major terpenes places the high on the calming and pain relieving side of the spectrum, creating a “take it easy, stop and smell the flowers” kind of high.
Truly, it smells like cherry apple Jolly Ranchers were crushed and chewed into a couple sticks of bubblegum. TESTING 81.6% thca 6.22% total terps 2.57% myrcene .79% ocimene .5% caryophyllene .5% pinene .36% linalool .31% limonene
REVIEW by TAYLOR MARTIN for MARYLAND LEAF | PHOTO by WYATT EARLY @ERRLYWYATT
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Order Online and Pick Up In-Store at Either gLeaf Location 808 Hungerford Drive Rockville, MD 20850
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WORLD OF Cannabis PRESENTS
Yippie High-Yay! COURTESY DANA BEAL
48
Dana Beal (with arm on speaker) leads a Yippie rally at the White House (1977).
COURTESY DANA BEAL
Occasionally referred to as “Groucho Marxists,” the Youth International Party (aka the Yippies) were a radical leftist group from the 1960s that used absurd, satirical stunts to make their political points. Among the many counterculture luminaries involved with the Yippies over the years is Dana Beal, a man who was personally recruited by founder Abbie Hoffman and ended up succeeding him as the group’s leader.
AN ACTIVIST IS BORN Growing up in Lansing, Michigan, Beal displayed a passion for social justice from an early age. In August 1963, at the age of 16, he hitchhiked to Washington D.C. to attend Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Two months later he organized his first demonstration against the Ku Klux Klan back in Lansing. At age 17, Beal managed to avoid the Vietnam draft by getting himself committed to a psych ward, then went AWOL and took off for New York City. Once there, he quickly established himself in the Lower East Side activist scene. During the Grateful Dead’s first-ever New York concert in Tompkins Square Park on June 1, 1967, Beal organized the first of many “smoke-in” protests – blazing out the 3,000+ crowd. That August, Beal was busted for selling LSD to a narc, prompting a series of protest marches on his behalf. His support in the community was so impressive that it attracted the attention of another prominent activist by the name of Abbie Hoffman.
FROM HIPPIE TO YIPPIE Both Jewish, anti-war activists, Hoffman and Rubin met in 1967 in New York while planning an upcoming demonstration in Washington and immediately hit it off. On August 24, 1967, they pulled off their first major media stunt: From the visitor’s gallery at the New York Stock Exchange, they threw out handfuls of one dollar bills onto the exchange floor – interrupting trading and eliciting both cheers Young Dana freed and curses from the brokers below. after LSD arrest. On October 21, Hoffman and Rubin invited Beal and his crew down to D.C. to attend a massive anti-war demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial. Hoffman then led half the crowd across the Potomac, where they encircled the Pentagon and began singing and chanting in a supposed attempt to “levitate” the building. Naturally, the building never moved, but the group had found their purpose. It wasn’t until three months later – while tripping in Abbie’s apartment on New Year’s Eve – that they found a name for their merry band of miscreants when friend Paul Krassner spontaneously shouted out “Yippie!” and they instantly identified with the exuberant exclamation (later elaborated to Youth International Party). On January 16, 1968, the Yippies published a manifesto – inviting activists across America to a massive protest outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that August. Dubbed the “Festival of Life,” it was a mock
For more on Dana Beal and the Yippies, listen to Episode #11 of our podcast at worldofcannabis.museum/podcast.
convention held in Grant Park. Skirmishes between police and the nearly 10,000 protestors that week soon escalated to riots. Weeks later, Mayor Daley issued a report blaming the violence on “outside agitators,” and on March 20, 1969, a grand jury indicted eight of those agitators. Among these “Chicago Eight” (later changed to the “Chicago Seven” after Black Panther Bobby Seale’s mistrial) were Rubin and Hoffman. The trial was a national media circus – providing the Yippie leaders a perfect platform for their political theater. On February 18, 1970, both Rubin and Hoffman were convicted of inciting a riot and sentenced to five years in prison (their conviction was ultimately overturned in November 1972). Beal, who was unable to attend the event, stepped in as the group’s de facto leader in their absence. And on July 4, 1970, when President Nixon threw an “Honor America Day” rally at the Lincoln Memorial, Beal organized a Yippie counter-rally at the Washington Monument to shout it down.
Story and photos originally published on worldofcannabis.museum and reprinted with permission.
STORY by BOBBY BLACK @CANNTHROPOLOGY for LEAF NATION
KEVIN SCHUMACHER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOM FORCADE Another influential Yippie leader was Tom Forcade – a former Air Guardsman turned weed smuggler from Phoenix who connected with them after moving to New York in July 1969 to run the Underground Press Syndicate. Forcade’s moment in the spotlight came on May 13, 1970, when – after testifying at the US Senate’s Commission on Obscenity and Pornography dressed as a preacher – he shoved a cream pie into the face of a committee member. After that, “pieing” became a signature Yippie tactic (Yippie Aron “Pie Man” Kay continued pieing controversial figures for many years). Unfortunately, Forcade and Hoffman never saw eye to eye. Forcade allegedly felt that Hoffman and Rubin were “burned out” after their trial, and that they were selling out by Tom Forcade (left) and Abbie Hoffman Poster for 1973 “May Day” Smoke-In in NYC. abandoning their more radical tactics and endorsing (right) in “Movement Court.” a candidate (George McGovern). Their rift came to a head over payments regarding accusations and essentially resigning from the Yippies. With Rubin Hoffman’s “Steal This Book,” which Forcade had and Hoffman gone, Forcade’s faction took control. But by that time, worked on. A counterculture “Movement Court” was Forcade had more pressing issues to deal with: namely, the new convened to settle their dispute, but ultimately neither magazine he’d launched called High Times. Tragically though, just party accepted the verdict: Forcade refused to shake four years later on November 19, 1978, Forcade committed suicide Hoffman’s hand, and Hoffman never paid Forcade – leaving Beal as the Yippies’ last leader standing. the agreed amount. In the decades to come, Beal continued to hold the annual Yippie The schism grew so severe that in Janusmoke-ins in Washington and New York. And when New York ary 1972, Forcade formed his own group, City Mayor Rudy Giuliani attempted to kill the protest using the “Zippies” (Zeitgeist International Party). police intimidation in 1998, Beal reached out to international Caught between the two factions, Beal sided allies and rebranded the NYC Pot Parade into the worldwide In the decades with Forcade and became a Zippie. Feeling Million Marijuana March. Within just a few years, the event had to come, Beal betrayed, Hoffman and Rubin attacked Forexpanded to over 300 cities around the world. continued to cade – publicly accusing him of working with DENOUEMENT the police. Tensions quickly led to threats hold the annual and incidents of violence, including an asAbbie Hoffman finally resurfaced in 1980 – but sadly, like Forcade, he also Yippie smoke--ins committed sault on Rubin by one of Forcade’s goons. suicide in 1989. Jerry Rubin sold out and became a Yuppie before in Washington being killed by a car on the streets of L.A. in 1994. Krassner died of natural TRANSFORMATION, TRAGEDY causes in 2019 at the age of 87. Thankfully, Kay and Beal are all still alive and New York. AND TRANSCENDENCE and kicking. In October 1972, Beal launched his underground newsIn the past decade, Beal has been arrested for trafficking marijuana four times—though paper the Yipster Times. A few months later, Beal moved only one charge stuck. In September 2011, while in police custody in Wisconsin, he sufinto the three-story building at 9 Bleeker Street that would fered a heart attack and died for three and a half minutes before being revived. Tragically, become his home – and Yippie headquarters – for the next during his incarceration in 2013, the Yippie Museum was closed, and in 2014, 9 Bleeker four decades (eventually opening its doors to the public as was foreclosed on and sold. Nevertheless, Beal remains defiantly hopeful – looking forward the Yippie Café & Museum). to finally seeing the end of America’s pot prohibition, which he insists is imminent. In spring 1974, Hoffman skipped bail on a cocaine charge “The War on Drugs is just no longer at the top of the list of things to deal with in this and went into hiding. Months later, Rubin issued an apolocountry,” he said. “It’s impossible to go to jail for pot anymore – they just take the weed gy to Forcade in the Village Voice, disavowing his previous and let you go. That’s how I know legalization is actually coming.”
WORLD OF CANNABIS MUSEUM
When NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani attempted to kill the protest using police intimidation in 1998, Beal reached out to international allies and rebranded the NYC Pot Parade into the worldwide Million Marijuana March. Within just a few years, the event had expanded to over 300 cities around the world.
WASTING TIME
It's
50
LEAFMAGAZINES.COM
by Mike Ricker
an oxymoron actually, because it is impossible to waste time if you are here and experiencing life. The fact that you are actively conscious means that you are utilizing the energy that motors your body to gain experience. Therefore, the time is not wasted at all, but in fact, utilized. And further, how can you waste something that is free? If you gave nothing to get it, then you are entertaining yourself with something you did not have before you began. But time is a concept – a construct of our imagination – not a tangible asset in a physical sense. Therefore, it is impossible to waste. In fact, the word “waste” is only a figure of speech. So, figuratively speaking, to waste time is to do something that does not uphold the value of the expectation that was set to optimize the moments of life you have. And there are many ways to frivolously attend to your life. Like wondering what someone else is doing with their time... Let’s take Thom Yorke, for instance. He’s the singer for the band Radiohead. I wonder what he is doing right now? Is he on the phone? Is he on the toilet? Is he taking a bong hit? All three maybe? But what does it matter if he is not in my presence, and why am I spending my precious time wondering with time I can never reclaim? It’s arguably wasteful, but not a waste. Kind of like a box in bubble wrap inside of another box that’s inside of another box with Amazon packing tape striped around it … and what’s inside of the first box is a thumb drive. Like, was it necessary to quadruple pack that bastard? It’s wasteful, but not a waste – because you received the necessary item. People are stupid. Shit, that was a wasteful comment.
may 2021
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