Dr. Tod Mikuriya (1933-2007)

Remembering the late Dr. Tod: From Government Mole to Cannabis Champion

Author’s Note: This profile was taken from transcript, The Lost Interview, Berkeley, California, 2004, Interview by Paul J. von Hartman.

Many may be familiar with the late Dr. Tod Mikuriya as one of the architects and co-authors of Proposition 215, making California the first state to legalize cannabis as medicine.

But many more aren’t aware that he was once hired by the U.S. Government to discredit cannabis in a political move, as the psychoactive properties within the plant promoted critical thinking at a time in history when the people were rising up.

The year was 1967 and Mikuriya had been hired by the National Institute of Mental Health Center for Narcotics and Drug Abuse Studies to research marijuana for negative outcomes. The National Center for Drug Abuse would be created in 1974, solely funding studies on cannabis and other drugs for abuse, while shelving positive findings.

One such infamous study on pregnancy from the 1970s in Jamaica was slatted to last 20 years, but was shut down after the five year olds given cannabis tea since birth were shown to excel in every area. This was after their mothers were monitored drinking the tea while pregnant, with positive outcomes noted.

“One of my assignments was to spy on the communes in California because at the height of the fear of the Vietnam War, the year of the Tet Offensive, and the total embroilment in the conflict in the United States, as well as Vietnam,” he shared. “They were fearing the fall of civilization as manifested by certain rebellious behaviors, principally on the West Coast.”

The Tet Offensive was an escalation of military campaigns during the Vietnam War against forces in South Vietnam, at a time when our failure to excel in the conflict was kept from the people, until The Pentagon Papers revealed the deceit.

The powers that be understood that psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin mushrooms, along with cannabis, were being used socially, and became a big part of the anti-war movement. The more Mikuriya learned of the campaigns against what he found to be beneficial and useful compounds, the more he rebelled.

“Frankly I was aghast at being part of this machine back in D.C. that could be so blind and mean-spirited,” he continued. “Their take on marijuana was, ‘how can we suppress it and prevent it,’ because this is something that promotes that dangerous trait of critical thinking. Because it was linked with the rebellion of the anti-war movement against the military machine, the military industrial complex.”

Third Eye Open

Dr. Mikuriya didn’t linger on the theories of demonizing hemp for industry or the plant’s potential competition with big pharma. He was trained in psychology and understood completely the government’s fear of psychedelics opening up the third eye, with critical thinking a threat to being a good soldier, being led into the jungle for a war that was little understood.

The same year Mikuriya was hired by the government to demonize the plant, Timothy Leary shouted out to 30,000 hippies in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, “Turn on, tune in, drop out,” further cementing the theory that psychoactive plants and compounds don’t make good foot soldiers.

Interesting to note, in 1974, alleged MK Ultra survivor, Cathy O’Brien, was asked at a lecture podium what she knew about cannabis and why the government opposes the plant. Without a beat, she responded, “Because it blocks mind control.” This is poignant, as MK Ultra was said to have been a covert government mind control project.

“So, basically, I defected,” he said of his post that lasted less than a year.

At this point in the interview, von Hartman interjected, “Excuse me for interrupting, but you were told not to find any positive result in your research, is that true?”

“Correct,” Mikuriya responded, firmly. “They were interested in finding anything toxic, anything that could be used to dissuade the use of Cannabis. But at the same time they recognized, although it couldn't be admitted, that it was relatively benign. The big problem with dealing within the federal bureaucracy - or I suppose any bureaucracy - is the compartmentalization, that restriction on the flow of information.”

The Doctor’s Journey

There is no mention of Mikuriya’s gig with the federal government in his obituary in the New York Times upon his passing in 2007. They do go into great detail on his advocacy for the plant and subsequent persecution.

Mikuriya was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania on September 20, 1933, to parents who raised he and his two siblings as Quakers.

“The Quakers were proprietors of the Underground Railway, I’m proud to say,” he was once quoted, making reference to the underground route to safety for slaves in Colonial America.

His mother, Anna Schwenk, was a German immigrant and a special education teacher. His father, Tadafumi Mikuriya, was the descendant of a Japanese Samurai family, trained as an engineer.

Mikuriya earned a bachelor’s degree from Reed College in Oregon in 1956, and his MD from Temple University in 1962 - where he stumbled upon a reference in a pharmacology textbook on the uses of medical marijuana.

Intrigued by the many medicinal applications listed, he decided he needed to experience cannabis first hand.

“... I was smitten by an attack of idle curiosity during my sophomore year in medical school during the pharmacology course,” he explained. “I happened to unintentionally read a chapter on Cannabis in Goodman & Gilman, which described the medicinal uses and described also, fairly Draconian punishment for its use. This was consistent with what social attitudes existed back then in 1959.”

Reading up what was available at the library, he said that summer he traveled down to Mexico to score some weed. Using some slang words for cannabis on a street dealer that he said approached him upon crossing the border, he succeeded in his quest.

Mikuriya said he took the man up to his hotel room and at random picked one of the 10 hand-rolled marijuana cigarettes laid out, instructing the dealer, “Okay, light it up, take a few puffs." When the man showed no hesitation to partake, Mikuriya was relieved to see it was not poisonous, and partook himself.

With his curiosity whetted, he said he quickly realized he should keep the experience to himself, and that this was not something he would submit to any department for a research project, because it would surely have been the end of his medical career.

“So, then I embarked upon my personal bioassay experience,” he continued. “I put this down after a while, having no one to communicate with and no source, until 1964. At which time, during my psychiatric practice training up in Oregon I became aware of it.”

After finishing his psychiatric residency at Mendocino State Hospital, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a medic. Shortly thereafter, ironically, he became Director for a drug addiction treatment center of the New Jersey Neuropsychiatric Institute in Princeton, under the tutelage of Dr. Humphrey Osmond, who was well versed in psychedelic drugs.

“I then was headhunted by the National Institute of Mental Health Center for Narcotics and Drug Abuse Studies, with the specific assignment of research into marijuana,” he said. “Needless to say, this seemed to be right up my area of interest, and left New Jersey for the psychosis inside the Beltway.”

Reefer Madness, Part 2

The psychosis inside the Beltway refers to the Reefer Madness he experienced while working in Washington DC researching cannabis, then finding that the laws weren’t exactly copesetic to what he knew to be the plants full potential.

He also came to the realization that cannabis had been part of the American Pharmacopoeia for at least 200 years prior to it being politicized in the late 1930s. Thankfully, the plant was added back to the list fairly recently in 2016.

“First stop was at the National Library of Medicine, where I ran across many more medicinal and pharmaceutical papers that motivated me to assemble what I felt to be the 'creme de la creme' and put it into a book, The Marijuana Medical Papers :1839 to 1972,” he shared, of the compilation still available today.

Mikuriya became a consultant for the Shafer Commission, formerly known as the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, appointed by then President, Richard Nixon, with the report released in 1972.

The commission’s now infamous report, Marijuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding, called for more research and the decriminalization of cannabis possession. But, Mikuriya said it was, “D.O.A.,” (dead on arrival), and ignored by Nixon’s White House, who proceeded to add the plant to its failed War on Drugs.

“This was part of the Nixon administration's distraction and palliation of the scientific and medical communities, as he put together the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, that classified Cannabis as having no medicinal redeeming importance and being Schedule One, highly dangerous, to be avoided - which was a total lie,” he said. “But this is the way it is today. That federal law still is driven by this insanity, put together by the Nixon Justice Department apparatchiks.”

So good was the government’s campaign against the plant, that at the time a mere 12 percent of Americans supported its legalization, with public sentiment viewing cannabis users as dangerous. In reality, the committee found them to be more “timid, drowsy and passive,” concluding that cannabis did not cause widespread danger to society, further outing the political hoax.

“The use of cannabis goes into antiquity, as probably everybody knows, but what is not known, or what is not appreciated, is the fact that it was clinically available for roughly a hundred years in America and Western Europe for a variety of therapeutic uses. It was called ‘cannabis,’” he explained. “And the term 'marijuana' was described as a ‘mongrel word,’ that was applied to the Mexican use of cannabis, that very few agencies within the federal government at the time back in 1937 understood that it was the same as Cannabis, so they thought that marijuana was really a separate plant, a separate material. And didn't connect it with the medicinal uses.”

In the years that followed, Mikuriya would go on to document 200 case studies from his own clinical research from patients successfully using cannabis as a serious medicine for both emotional and physical issues. But, as long as cannabis was listed on the Department of Health’s Schedule 1, showing no medicinal value, he was shouting at the wind.

The Endocannabinoid System (eCS) wouldn’t be discovered until 1988 by researchers Allyn Howlett and William Devane at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, in a government controlled study that also discovered the body’s CB1 and CB2 receptors; the pathway for plant compounds to distribute themselves throughout all human biological systems.

As they say, timing is everything. Having the knowledge of the eCS during the Shafer Comission’s work might have saved the plant from the crossfire of the failed War on Drugs, but we’ll never know.

California Medicine, Federally Illegal

The disappointment of the Shafer Commission’s report fail may have had the good doctor fleeing Washington DC, but it only empowered him as an advocate once back in California, where the LGBTQ community had already championed cannabis as medicine for AIDS patients.

By the mid-1990s Mikuriya became one of the architects and co-authors of Proposition 215, with California voters giving a green light for residents to become cannabis patients. Mikuriya was the first physician in the state to write a Script, recommending cannabis as medicine for the first cannabis patient.

A collective sigh of relief was heard throughout the world, as California became the leader in compassionate care and education on cannabis as medicine. Mikuriya thought it would be smooth sailing from then on, that the voters had spoken and the people would finally be educated on this powerful plant. But, the celebration was cut short.

“Within a month after we passed the law back in '96, there was a meeting at McCaffery's office in the White House,” he said. “The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, where they hatched schemes to nullify the state laws, either directly in court or through other means - and the other means would be to go after both the patients and the physicians.”

Barry McCaffrey was the first “Drug Czar” for the The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), established by President Nixon overseeing his War on Drugs. The position is still just one step down from the Oval office, with it and its agency’s existence just one Executive Order away from the President’s pen.

The State’s Attorney General, he said, opposed the proposition before it passed, and was dedicated to “blocking and suborning it.” With this, the DEA became empowered, imbedding themselves into local law enforcement agencies in the state, in fiscally subsidized partnerships, causing a financial dependence that continues today, even in legal states.

Physician, Heal Thyself

Mikuriya became a thorn in the side of the DEA, claiming representatives from the privatized “prison-industrial complex, our version of the military-industrial complex,” were big supporters of the War on Drugs, funding the Partnership for a Drug-Free America (now, Partnership to End Addiction).

“These are the subversives that are imbedded in the civil service system,” he said. “The California Narcotics Officers Association believes that medical marijuana is a hoax, and have sponsored and organized statewide meetings within the criminal justice system for orientation and training, in actuality laying out templates of ways for blocking it.”

An outspoken patient himself, ordinances dictate that doctors aren’t allowed to touch the plant. They aren’t educated in medical school and they can’t prescribe cannabis as medicine, they can only “recommend.”

With the plant still federally prohibited, with no medicinal value admitted, Mikuriya was hotly criticized, with an attempt made to strip him of his medical license.

“In my case, an undercover agent was sent to infiltrate a clinic of mine, not even bothering with the niceties of the Medical Board, filtering and embellishing it, went directly to the AG’s office,” he said. “So, there’s been this clique of opponents who are doing their damndest to hurt the physicians and dissuade participation in the law.”

The incident happened in 2000, with the Medical Board of California giving Mikuriya five years probation and a $75,000 fine for what they called “gross negligence, unprofessional conduct, and incompetence” for failing to conduct proper physical examinations on 16 patients for whom he had written scripts.

The truth was, Mikuriya had given out around 9,000 scripts all told. With the said, 200 documented cases, his knowledge of what the plant treats was extensive. Today, the lists of ailments allowed to treat in each medically legal state pales when compared to what the plant can help with.

The fact that they pinned 16 questionable scripts on him with probation and a fine seems to have been a weak attempt to slow him down, as he continued his private psychiatric practice, as a cannabis clinical consultant, until his death.

“I want to see cannabis defined as an easement, which is not a narcotic, not a psycho-stimulant, not a hallucinogen,” he surmised. “One of the things in managing chronic conditions with cannabis is the absence of side-effects as being the critical factor. Cannabis has a remarkable profile compared with any synthetic pharmaceuticals. In fact, it really enhances both the quality of life and rehabilitation from illness. Since cannabis both modulates and activates certain kinds of very positive healing functions of the body.”

Hiater's Emerald Cup

Mikuriya concluded the interview with a story retold in his first effort, Marijuana: Medical Papers, 1839-1972. It’s also one of the first stories he read that intrigued him to try cannabis as a medical student, changing his life - and ours - forever.

(paraphrased)

"In the year 658 AD, Hiater, the chief of aesthetics and self-chasteners lived in rigid privation on a mountain between Mishibor and Roha where he established a monastery of fakirs.

Ten years had he spent in his retreat without leaving, ‘till one burning summer's day, he departed alone to the fields. On his return, an air of joy and gaiety was imprinted upon his countenance.

He received the visits of his brethren and encouraged their conversation. On being questioned he stated that being struck by the aspect of a plant that danced in the heat as if with joy, while all the rest of the vegetable creation was forfeit. He had gathered and eaten of its leaves.

He led his companions to the spot. All ate and all were similarly excited.

A tincture of the hemp leaf in wine or spirits seems to have been the favorite formula in which the sheik Hiater indulged himself. An Arab poet sings of "Hiater's Emerald Cup" an evident allusion to the rich green color of the tincture of the drug.

The sheik survived the discovery ten years, subsisting chiefly on this herb. And on his death, his disciples by his desire, plante, d it in an arbor about his tomb.”

“And that, Mikuriya concluded, “was the first case of severe depression relieved by cannabis.”

Dr. Mikuriya Published Papers (1933-2015) /National Institute of Health (NIH) https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2020/02/25/tod-mikuriya-papers-now-available-for-research/

Dr. Mikuriya Obituary, NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/health/29mikuriya.html

For more information on the Society of Cannabis Clinicians visit, https://www.cannabisclinicians.org/

To purchase, Marijuana: Medical Papers, 1839-1972, visit, https://www.amazon.com.mx/Marijuana-Medical-1839-1972-Tod-Mikuriya/dp/1577331672

Search within US Pharmacopeia for cannabis, https://www.usp.org/search?search_api_fulltext=cannabis

Article on cannabis back on USP, https://www.cannabissciencetech.com/view/everything-old-new-again-cannabis-returns-usp

Ingrid Hart & The Humboldt Honey

The iconic Humboldt Honey poster celebrates 40 years

When Humboldt State University Journalism major, Ingrid Hart, created the Humboldt Honey in 1983, she had no idea the young woman pictured wearing the uniform we’ve all come to know as part of the culture of cannabis would cause such a stir, or continue to be relevant to this day.

In the early 80s, posters posing the question, Are you a Nerd? or Are you a Valley Girl? were doing the same thing, detailing the wardrobes of a nerd from the film Revenge of the Nerds, or Moon Unit Zappa’s one hit wonder, Valley Girl, inspiring Hart to bring the Humboldt Honey to life, posing the question, “Are you a Humboldt Honey?”

“I created the poster of the young woman for myself, and never planned on printing more than one for my own room,” she explained. “At that time I didn’t know about press runs and that one poster would cost as much to print as one thousand, so I had the minimum printed at a thousand copies.”

While most in the community understood the uniform, the conservative faction of Humboldt County, comprised of the lumber and fishing industries, were appalled. How could someone glorify a character from the drug community? Everything they fought against and hated about the cannabis community was represented in this one photo of a hippy girl, and they were not happy about it.

On April 17, 1983, Humboldt’s daily newspaper, The Times-Standard, put the poster on the front page above the fold, helping it to sell out in less than two months. Hart had distributed it to about 15 shops around the county at four dollars each, with the intention of making it affordable for students.

“Sam Blackwell did a story for the Times-Standard,” she continued. “When the story ran my vibration was so high the posters ran out quickly and everyone wanted more. Then the nasty grams started and I received lots of hate mail. I’m an intuitive - a sensitive person - and it really affected me.”

She agreed to an interview on a radio station she was unaware leaned conservative, and was bullied live on air by callers hating on her Honey.

In those days there weren’t any cell phones, with phone number listings published in a physical phone book given free to every household with a landline. Hart said she ended up having to disconnect her phone to stop the calls.

“I shut the whole thing down,” she said. “I just couldn’t deal withe the negative energy surrounding her. It was just too much for me. In my mind, she was a positive force to be reckoned with, not something to be hating on.

In the 40 years since the first printing, Hart said she’s barely earned a penny from the Humboldt Honey, who she has never marketed or merchandised since she arrived on the scene in 1983. Albeit, except for one shop in Humboldt who has sat on a stack of posters for years, selling a few here and there as a novelty for tourists.

“After 40 years, this is a gift I’m giving back,” she surmised. “I never wanted to make money off of her, that would go against everything she represents and that I believe in. You can see it in her garb - she’s not a sell-out.”

The Subject

As a journalism major at Humboldt State University, Hart’s Honey reflected much of herself and her values, shared by what the young woman was holding, reading, and subsequently advocating.

Hart had studied each and every piece on the young woman, creating a prototype with her roommate first, then seeking out someone in the community to feature in the poster.

Her subject, Leoni Nicol, was found in front of the old quonset hut that was the first Arcata Co-op, in the Humboldt city known as 60s by the Sea. The photo was shot by local photographer, Patrick Cudahy, as technically his first commercial shoot.

Nicol was from Scotland and was just passing through town. We could assume she may have been a Trimmagrant, one of the thousands of young people who follow the growing season, trimming cannabis flower for money as they travel through the Emerald Triangle - the cannabis growing regions that make up Mendocino, Humboldt, and Trinity counties at the top of the state.

She wasn’t dressed as a Humboldt Honey when Hart found her. As a side, Nicol had been part of British punk band, The Molesters. According to an article penned by Kevin Hoover, of the past weekly, The Arcata Eye, the band’s single can still be heard online at Rhapsody.com/themolesters.

“What she’s wearing represents what we all believe in, and what I believed in at the time and still do,” Hart said. “She even has Liberty Caps in a velvet pouch her bag - because I too was experimenting with psilocybin mushrooms at the time.”

As another reflection of the times, the hits of mushrooms were dubbed Liberty Caps, as they were said to liberate - or free - your mind. How ironic that the psychoactive mushrooms are now being widely accepted in the US and around the world as medicine, used as a reset for a bevy of mental disorders, including depression. Proving further that our Humboldt Honey is still relevant today.

The Anatomy of the Humboldt Honey

You can still find the Humboldt Honey in the hills of Humboldt County, but her presence isn’t limited or confined to tending weed within the fertile redwood soil to the north in California.

Around the world there are progressive communities who still aspire to the norms and beliefs of the 1960s, in which she was spawned.

You’ll find the Humboldt Honey and her counterparts at The Farm in Tennessee; in Austin, Texas with its patch of blue in a sea of red; in the State of Vermont - said to be the Humboldt County of the east coast; in the south of France in Marselle, where they grow some of the finest weed in the country (turned into the finest hash); and in Amsterdam, where the High Times Cup was launched in 1988 - just five years after the Humboldt Honey made her debut.

“She’s really about comfort and the farming life,” Hart said. “You wake up in the morning and it’s cold, so you layer. As the sun comes up, you peel off the layers. This look is all about practicality. But, she’s also making political statements of the times.”

Her layers are made of hemp and cotton. Her No Nukes t-shirt is part of her personal belief system. On her head is Bobby McGee’s dirty red bandana, made famous by the song, Me & Bobby McGee, by Janis Joplin. The button on her fringed hippy vest warns, Question Authority - something we are still doing today where cannabis is concerned.

High Times would have rather she hold a copy of its iconic magazine, but this honey is reading Rolling Stone, Mother Earth News, Mother Jones, and the book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, by author Tom Wolfe; wherein he details his acid-laden, cross-country ride in the infamous converted school bus, Further, with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters.

And, of course, she’s holding a joint filled with Humboldt’s finest weed.

“Beloved plant medicine opens our Sixth Chakra and fills our minds and hearts with ideas and potential possibilities,” Hart surmised. “I probably wouldn’t have created this iconic being if a veil hadn’t have been lifted from my consciousness while in Humboldt. Because my life before Humboldt was completely different from the life I found to the north.”

Hart’s Humboldt Calling

Hart was born in Brazil, but the family moved to the United States and the conservative enclave of Orange County, California, when she was just seven years old.

“I loved the beach, but my third eye wasn’t opened up in Southern California,” she laughed. “I grew up in the 80s, in the time of Reagan - it was called the me generation - with an attachment to designer labels; the importance of what kind of car you drove, how big was your house, and what neighborhood you lived in. I grew up in a materialistic society in SoCal.”

After high school she first studied at Orange Coast Community College (OCCC), writing for the college paper, as a features writer, penning human interest stories.

“I first smoked cannabis in college - actually, after I met Sailene Ossman,” she explained. “We both worked at Hamburger Hamlet and we’ve been friends ever since. We did a lot of magic mushrooms together, made leys for our hair with flowers, wore dayglow colors and listened to Jefferson Airplane. She came up to Humboldt with me to check out the university, and we both fell in love with its alternative lifestyle. It felt like we came home for the first time being there.”

The two ended up attending the iconic North Country Fair on the Plaza in Arcata, still run by the Same Old People, founded in 1974, and still continuing today on the third weekend in September. There they purchased two old-school, cannabis laden chocolate brownies out in the open in the middle of the event.

“There was food, music and everyone was dancing,” she recalled. “It was a magical place and still is today. We were amazed that we could buy a pot brownie like that. It was a different world, but one we were anxious to be a part of.”

Ossman would go on to establish Venice Beach, California’s first cannabis delivery service. Today, she owns the Brewja Elixir in Joshua Tree, California, serving up CBD and herbal elixirs. Ossman has also penned a book on CBD Cocktails (High Times, November 2022).

“I knew I would fall in love with the rivers, the ocean, and the redwoods” Hart added. “But, I was also excited about living in a place that had a higher vibration with the plant, grown with love. And one thing I remember is, I never had to buy weed in Humboldt, because it was everywhere.”

Aside from a degree in Journalism from Humboldt State University, Hart would go on to obtain a master’s degree in Cultural Spirituality from Holy Names University in Oakland, California. She’s also certified as a Conscious Aging Facilitator from the Institute of Noetic Sciences.

As an author, Hart won an award for penning the book, My Year in California: a journey toward midlife renewal, detailing one year spent in California City (Cal City), an experimental development from the 1970s, that Hart called, “a life affirming journey.”

The Humboldt Honey commemorative poster will be available January 1, 2023, sold at $25 each, still keeping it affordable, as the Honey would have wanted.

“Humboldt was a happy and carefree time for me,” she concluded. “The Humboldt Honey was a defining moment among many moments in Humboldt that would define my life, and still influences my life today. Many people say they left their heart in San Francisco, but I left my heart firmly planted five hours north of the city by the bay in Humboldt - where the spirit of the Humboldt Honey still lives today.

For more information on the Humboldt Honey, or to pre-order the poster visit, www.thehumboldthoney.com

Julian Marley

Livity, living a righteous Rasta life, meditating to medicate

Julian Marley’s legendary father, Bob Marley, is credited to bringing the Rastafarian culture and music to the world through lyrics instilled with political and theological messaging, based on ancient Christian texts. Once his music gained international recognition his raw interviews became teaching moments of Rastafari livity, teaching the principles of a balanced lifestyle, steeped in love, giving thanks daily, as a practice.

“I wake up every day and give thanks and praise before everything else,” he shared. “It’s a meditation. Sometimes I put on some good Ethiopian music - some orthadox music, and start the day out with spirituality before we take time for physicality.”

Physicality defined in the modern world, Julian explained, is the world of the iPhone, social media - Instagram, namely. If it’s a business call that’s different, but starting the day with a spiritual life, giving thanks, is part of livity.

“It’s good to make it a practice, then it becomes a habit, then it becomes you,” he added. “Everywhere we go, we give thanks for the day - a few moments of thanksgiving everyday. If we are driving, we say ‘yes, God, yes you see everything, but it’s nice to thank him. Then we play in the park, chat with friends, see the children.”

Raised in London, Livity in Jamaica

Born in British Jamaica, Julian was raised in London by his mother, Lucy Pounder, but learned of the Rasta beliefs during visits with his extended family in Jamaica.

“When I read the Bible as a kid I thought the history was only happening in England - it was the language - written in old English - and in my mind it took me far away from my roots in Jamaica. But when I went back to visit my brothers, I saw that everyone looked like me, and heard the old teachings, and realized the origins of the ancient beliefs.”

Like their father, Julian said the Rasta man has a message to spread to the four corners of the earth - one aim, one unity, one love - with justice and equality in the mix.

“They are gone now, but the children learned all the teachings from our father’s mentors in Jamaica,” Julian shared. “We learned the old ways, and cannabis is keeping in meditation.”

His brother, Damien, sings of cannabis as a medication, but Julian speaks of it as part of a practice, a meditation.

“Medicating is always there,” he said. “Medication, meditation - it’s the same. When you smoke, you go into yourself,” he explained. “Depends on the reason, but the herb doesn‘t tell you what to do - it opens you to see what your conscinesses is doing. The plant doesn’t make you bad or good, that’s the person. When you drink alcohol, we do know that it can make someone bad - if you drink too much, you can get bad.”

The herb, he said, is transparent and an enhancer, uplifting the partaker to be open to be themselves, to learn something - to be lighter, not dark or bad.

“But, what are you learning?” he asked. “Something good or something bad? That’s each individual’s decision.”Everyone wants to blame the plant when things go wrong, but you can’t stop a plant that was here before man walked on the earth - a plant that was in the Garden of Eden. A plant that was part of the Holy Anointing Oil of Christ - why would you fight something like that?”

“God said, ‘See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit, they shall be yours for food.’ - Genesis 1.29

Canadian author, Chris Bennett, penned in his compilation of references to cannabis in the Bible and ancient times, Cannabis and the Soma Solution, that cannabis in Holy Anointing Oil was brought to the Baby Jesus as a medicinal offering, not unlike the Frankincense and Myrrh, openly said to be gifted - not merely fragrant incense for the vulnerable infant cradled in a bed of straw.

“Maybe they want to fight it because when it opens our minds it keeps us away from the good healing, the good teachings of love and reasoning, of community and unity - what everyone is supposed to have, brotherly love. They paint a bad picture of the herb to distract us from the good picture, the best picture of ourselves.”

Music as Practice

Growing up in London, Julian said he was surrounded by music.

“Both my grannies sing - my father’s mother, my mother’s mother sang in church,” he said. “Walking through London there was music everywhere - to the train, the bus. You go under the subway and there were skillful musicians playing. I was always drawn to the music before I could play a note.”

His mother wasn’t musical, but she loved music, with her vinyl’s making their way into his own record collection.

“At one point, she stopped playing the records and I started playing the music,” he said.

His latest single, The Tide is High, is a cover from an classic Reggae song by Jamaican born singer/songwriter, John Holt. With many musicians covering the song over the years, notable is Debbie Harry’s version for the band, Blondie. Surprisingly, Harry’s chart topping pop hit in 1980 is very similar to the slower version recorded by Holt in 1967.

According to Encyclopedia.com, Rastafarian music evolved after the 1970s and into the 80s to have a faster tempo, and subsequently, more danceable.

“The world was a different place before the 1980s, the vibe was slower and different - we could really use some of that back” Julian waxed poetic. “The tempo changed, hip-hop changed, the tempo get faster. What we see is the world running on this fast-track, not saying, hey, slow down and use every moment to do something positive with your life. Do something constructive - take the time to do it right. If your life is fast, fast, fast, it might leave a hole for something bad to happen. Make sure you build on solid ground, and build it slow and properly.”

One People, One Love, Many Languages

Julian expounds on he and his siblings taking the Rasta Livity message of positivity out into the world for the greater good, to enlighten the masses on the positive side of life, getting the “good message” into the world.

“Negative doesn’t like positive, but positivity is in the minority,” he continued. “The Devil is still here on earth, but if there’s one soul out there doing good work, Jah will use that soul as an instrument to get the good message out into the world - like our father used his celebrity in interviews. Jah used him as an instrument to enlighten people, and now he uses us.”

Jah and God are interchangeable, and Julian says languages are a barrier to all mankind being in unity.

“It doesn’t matter who you are talking to - Ala, Jah, God - the Creator,” he added. “Every name is different, but it’s all the same, the same teachings - one love, one people - not divided. We learn other languages and learn to say the same things, but the name of the Creator is always different. Man is one, but language divides. Inside the heart we are the same.”

Live right, live humbly, listen to that ancient mystic in your ear. These are the teachings of Rastafarian culture.

“With the teachings, with the daily meditations with the herb, you can learn to know yourself,” he concluded. “By the cosmic love of Jah anything can happen. We can be that one good soul who helps other souls to see the light of love and the light of God.”

Zane Witzel, Ceo, Cannador

This entrepreneur heeded to a higher calling for freshness

Zane Witzel founded Cannador, a humidor storage system for cannabis, in an effort to raise the bar for cannabis storage. But, his conservative Catholic upbringing, combined with a Christian college education, makes him an anomaly in the cannabis industry.

“I was baptized Catholic, but rejected practicing and attending in grade school,” he shared. “My parents knew that I had my own feelings and voice at a young age. I believe in allowing your child to choose their own path where religion is concerned.”

The first time he tried cannabis was in high school where he grew up in Upstate New York. In a setting similar to That 70s Show, a group of friends sat in a circle in someone’s basement and passed around a joint. He said he enjoyed it right away - never feeling guilty about his use.

“I played on the Lacrosse team and was Class President of both my Junior and Senior classes, pulling As and Bs, so no one could call me a non-productive stoner in high school,” he laughed. “I proved the stereotype wrong and leaned into my use and belief that the plant was not harmful because of the kind of person I was. The stereotype just didn’t apply to me or my friends - it never has.

Raised in Upstate New York, Witzel set his sights on California for his first degree in telecommunications from Pepperdine University in Los angeles. Pepperdine is one of the top private Christian universities in the country, with the perk of overlooking the tawny beach town of Malibu and the Pacific Ocean.

Every Seed Bearing Plant

God said, “See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit, they shall be yours for food.” - Hebrew, Genesis 1.29

Witzel said he was well aware that Pepperdine was run by the Church of Christ, and that his cannabis use may be in question, but the campus overlooking the ocean was compelling.

“Aside from Pepperdine being a great university, with an excellent communications department taught by A-listers in the TV and film industry, the location was a definite draw,” he said. “I lived on campus, and though the university had strict rules about drugs and alcohol, I found my tribe of cannabis users pretty easily. The tribe finds each other, no matter where you are. Turns out, Christians like weed as much as anyone else.”

Cannabis as a superfood is how the plant began its life on earth. We as a species have upped the level of THC over the decades via hybridization.

When the late Lawrence Ringo from Southern Humboldt, California, hybridized cannabis plants to have lower tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), he referred to his first high cannabinoid (CBD) cultivar as the “God plant,” as the original plant measured in at around four percent of the psychoactive compound before human hands messed with it.

Witzel said there was never a discussion with his colleagues on the status of cannabis within the church, the Bible, or any guilt associated with its use.

“I never understood why the church rejected cannabis,” he said. “There were many in my tribe at Pepperdine who were way more into Christianty than I, and they used cannabis. I never read anything in scripture saying thou shalt not partake of this plant. My cannabis use has nothing to do with my relationship with God or my faith. To date, no one has proven to me that weed is heatheness.”

To put his Pepperdine tribe experience into perspective, Witzel detailed fellow students as brilliant and gifted, with better test scores than he had - all partaking of the plant. To get into Pepperdine you had to be smart, and if you didn’t have a full scholarship, you pretty much had to come from money. This fact further cements the truth of the demographic of the plant, crossing lines of race and status in society.

He likened one classmate to the Nobel Prize winning mathematician, John Nash, profiled in the film, A Beautiful Mind.

“We shared a wall in the dorms, and I could hear him tap, tap, tapping, as he worked out these long, complex mathematical problems on a board on the wall between us - much like Nash did at Princeton University. My point in retelling this story is, the students who used cannabis at Pepperdine were not slackers. We didn’t fit the stereotype at all. These were believers of God from conservative and, for the most part, upper class families.”

With a love for movies and TV shows, Witzel set his sights on a career in the entertainment industry, but upon graduating in 2009, on the crest of a global financial crisis, projects went astray. He also wasn’t thrilled at the aspect of working from project to project, as is common in the entertainment industry.

Realizing he had to pivot, he enrolled in Druckers School of Business at Claremont Colleges in the City of Claremont, California; 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

With a focus on strategies in business, Witzel worked for a management consulting firm while studying at Claremont. Still smoking cannabis and hanging out with friends, he had what he calls a “lightbulb moment,” when a buddy set a shoebox on the coffee table, with his stash in disarray inside.

“I thought to myself, we can do better than this,” he laughed.

A Functional Stash

After some research, Witzel came across a humidity control system originally used for cigar humidors. After making a few adjustments to the product, he was able to adapt the humidity setting to accommodate a lower relative humidity, which is necessary for cannabis. Witzel then purchased the patent from the original owner and rebranded it to “VaporBeads.”

Citing a study from 1975, Cannador’s website educates on weed storage, “The Stability of Cannabis and its Preparations on Storage,” wherein the best storage was found to be at room temperature in a dark, sealed container. The researchers observed the plant material for two years, noting changes in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) potency.

The outcome showed that properly stored cannabis plant material with a correct amount of moisture retains higher terpene and cannabinoid counts - the compounds where flavor, scent and medicinal efficacy is found.

The study also confirmed that humidors made for cigars have a higher moisture content, and are not suitable for cannabis. It’s a fine line of humidity that keeps cannabis fresh, flavorful, and mold-free.

A big difference between cigar and cannabis humidors is the interior wood and the way they maintain humidity. Most cigar humidors maintain a higher relative humidity and utilize chemicals like propylene glycol. Additionally, cigar humidors are lined with cedar, whereas cannabis humidors should be lined with a more neutral wood like mahogany. Cannador’s patented VaporBeads allow just the right amount of moisture to maintain the terpene’s aroma and taste by only adding water. A relative humidity (RH) for cannabis is best kept between 58 to 65 percent. Anything over 70 percent RH runs the risk of mold growth.

Cannador’s boxes are beautiful and functional, made from mahogany, not cedar, which is typical in cigar humidors and retain more moisture. Cedar adds to the flavor of cigars, and we don’t really want that for cannabis, which has its own set of unique flavors.

Keeping the Faith, Keeping it Fresh

With the holiday season upon us, Witzel is gearing up for gift-giving season, offering up his limited edition 3-strain Cannador Artist Collaboration, designed by Chelsea Van Voorhis, who specializes in working with veneer products.

Also in the mix are his handcrafted walnut and mahogany roll trays, and leather toolkit for travel.

Giving back in the cannabis industry is important and Cannador is passionate about sustainability, pledging to plant one tree for every Cannador purchased, as part of Plant-it 2020, a global non-profit operating in Colorado, dedicated to properly planting, maintaining, and protecting as many indigenous trees as possible.

For Witzel, his mission is clear, provide the best and most beautiful products to keep cannabis as fresh and flavorful as possible - because, after all, he too still enjoys the plant.

“I still enjoy cannabis, but not everyday,” he said. “I really like good wine, and if I’ve had too much I like to reset by smoking cannabis. It helps get me out of my shell and converse more easily with people. I like to vape or smoke joints, but no more bong rips for me. Everything in moderation - and that actually reflects what the Bible says about alcohol.”

Witzel’s focus is still as clear as it was at university, on being a productive human.

“My alma mater probably doesn’t want to hear this, but cannabis always made everything more interesting for me,” he concluded. “I still love listening to music while high. I balanced school, sports, and work around my cannabis use. I don’t think there always has to be some kind of trade-off, you simply work hard and have fun responsibly along the way - and cannabis will always be a big part of that for me.”

For more information on Cannador & VaporBeads visit, www.cannador.com https://vaporbeads.com/

Visit Cannador’s Limited Collections page here, https://cannador.com/collections/limited-edition

Visit its accessories page here, https://cannador.com/collections/accessories

For more information on Plant-it 2020 visit, https://plantit2020.org/

Dr. Rebecca Siegel

Author, The Brain on Cannabis

A Psychiatrist’s take on cannabis, the brain, and what her patients already knew

Dr. Rebecca Siegel’s book opens to her admission that as a teenager in the 1980s, she was raised on the stereotype of “marijuana,” believing it was only used by unproductive and underachieving “potheads.”

The good doctor said she had to be hit over the head with a frying pan with the knowledge of the benefits of cannabis after listening to her patient’s success stories, prompting her to write her first book, The Brain on Cannabis.

“My life changed while in private practice when one of my patients, I call her Patient 0, opened my mind to cannabis as medicine,” she shared. “After that experience, I was more apt to listening to other patients with similar success in using cannabis for real ailments and disorders.”

As detailed in her introduction, insomnia, depression, ADD, PTSD, and aiding symptoms from treatments for cancer, were just a few of the disorders and symptoms her patients were helped with using cannabis, either by smoking and/or ingesting concentrates.

And while Dr. Siegel still must adhere to the unknown, specifically dealing with the cause and effects of today’s high tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) cultivars, she’s been enlightened to the plant as a superfood, able to treat a wide range of ailments and disorders.

“We still do not know enough about the effects on the brain of long term THC use for recreation,” she began, setting the tone for the interview and the book. “But I’m still listening and observing my patients, and have taken deep dives myself in research all I can to understand. My work has become an evolving education on this plant.”

Path to Enlightenment

Growing up in what she refers to as the suburbs of New York in New Jersey, Dr. Siegel’s father was a doctor, and she shared she had always dreamed of becoming a doctor herself. But it wasn’t until after she had a family of her own, at 29 years of age, that she went back to school to study psychiatry at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Today Dr. Siegel is a certified as a Diplomate by both the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In 2004, she was selected to win the Women in Psychiatry award from the Mount Sinai Department of Psychiatry.

Her focus is on adult and child psychiatry, and she’s on staff at the Amen Clinic in New York City. The Amen Clinics are a group of mental and physical health clinics that work on the treatment of mood and behavior disorders, founded in 1989 by Daniel G. Amen, a self-help guru and psychiatrist.

Dr. Siegel became a licensed prescriber of medical cannabis in New York State after listening to her patients’ success stories. She has a particular interest in research on the therapeutic effects, risks, and benefits of cannabis treatment, overall.

“My focus in therapy is on adolescent and adult women,” she said. “I believe in treating the whole person with a range of therapeutic techniques and approaches, and if one of my patients is successfully using cannabis to treat a particular disorder, I want to know how and why it works for them.”

Myths & Facts in Real Time

Until the U.S. Federal Government addresses the use of cannabis as medicine and removes it from the Department of Health Services’ Schedule 1, denoting no medicinal value, the myriad healing stories of successful cannabis use around the world are referred to as “anecdotal.”

As said, Dr. Siegel listened to her patient’s stories of healing with an open mind, prompting her to write The Brain on Cannabis, but the restrictions, along with the decades old negative stigma of the plant, stop doctors like Siegel from fully accepting the plant as one hundred percent beneficial - leaving more questions than answers.

As is common with cannabis studies, the caution given for adolescents and teen use due to the assumed damage to the developing frontal lobes, often comes from narrowly conducted studies, using high tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) formulations on lab rats and mice. To date, long term use in real time with real kids or adults has never been done.

The highly controversial Patent #6630507 filed and accepted by the U.S. Patent Office naming cannabinoids as neuroprotectants makes it tough for those in the cannabis caregiving community to take contradictory studies citing damage to the frontal lobe seriously, especially with children. Especially since many in the cannabis community have smoked weed consistently for 30 or 40 years - many starting in adolescents or teens, with nary a smidgen of neurosis or psychosis in sight.

The THC Dilema

The plant didn’t start out with high THC counts. In fact, the original God plant - the plant said to have been included in the formulation of Holy Anointing Oil from the Bible - only registered with upwards of five percent or less THC.

We as a species caused the controversy of high THC cultivars. We upped the levels of THC to the heights we have today via hybridization, and now we must defend the compound and educate on how to dose properly and effectively.

Taking a non-therapeutic dose of a high THC cultivar, either by smoking or ingesting, will most certainly cause an uncomfortable reaction. Using high THC formulations in studies meant to show cause and effect for mental disorders is controversial in itself.

Got Studies?

Taking the summation of a study at face value doesn’t always work when it comes to cannabis. Questions to be asked are, who funded the study, what outcome were they looking for, what were the perimeters of said study - for example, what formulation/strength and dosing were used and for how long?

For decades the National Institute on Drug Abuse funded studies outside of the U.S., looking for negative outcomes on the abuse of cannabis. That’s been its goal, to find and define the abuse.

One such study funded by NIDA in Jamaica in the 1970s, observing pregnant women and their children drinking cannabis tea, was slatted to last 20 years. But when both the pregnancy phase, and the follow-up observation of the children at five years of age showed positive outcomes, NIDA shut it down.

The five year olds drinking cannabis tea each morning didn’t show signs of psychosis or neurosis or any kind of mental disorders. On the contrary, they were far more alert, with stronger immune systems than their fellow students. The mother’s were also healthier through the pregnancies, with no edema or swelling, nausea, or other complications often associated with pregnancy.

Using Granny Storm Crow’s List as a reference tool (see Higher Profile: Granny Storm Crow), the modes of delivery and formulations used in many studies, as well as the duration and scope of said studies on cannabis and the brain vary widely.

Lab rats injected with a high THC formulation right into their frontal lobe cortex are mentioned in one such study showing a not surprising negative outcome of severe psychosis.

In dosing my dogs I’m painfully aware of their size in correlation to my own, and dose accordingly by weight. Would an observational study of a high THC formulation show negative cognitive results in a small animal? Would summation of said study make a good headline for NIDA, feeding the myth of neurosis and psychosis with the use of cannabis?

The larger question is, what came first, the mental disorder or a dose of THC that goes far beyond a therapeutic level? Cannabis is an enhancer, with the ability to enhance or aggravate an existing disorder. Since many young people aren’t diagnosed with mental disorders until their early 20s, it’s a grand assumption to think the plant caused the disorder.

We in the cannabis caregiving community have witnessed more success stories than not of kids on the Autistic Spectrum, or those diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, helped with focus merely by smoking at a young age - either in adolescents or as teenagers. And they continue to use it because it works, they just don’t understand how or why. That was my story.

When anecdotal stories become facts

At the age of 16, I suffered with an undiagnosed Processing Problem on the Autistic Spectrum, with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). I was considered not very bright, as I couldn’t learn in school and had a tendency to daydream.

Peer pressure caused me to take a couple of hits off a joint on my way to high school one morning, and that day was the first day I was able to focus in school. To this day, I’ve never written anything without medicating first by smoking. Not for television, newspapers, or this magazine, without first smoking to focus, because it works for me.

I’m 63 years old today, and after smoking for decades I can honestly say I’ve never suffered from neurosis or psychosis. In other words, I never went mad from smoking weed, and I turned out to be a highly productive adult to this day.

The amount of CEOs leading multi-million dollar companies in the cannabis industry that I’ve interviewed who began smoking cannabis in adolescents to focus from ADHD has been an eye opener.

Due to the failed Drug War and lack of understanding, all I learned after being helped at 16, was that I was a stupid stoner who needed to hide my use.

Do we need more studies? Yes. Do we need to ignore some of the more extreme studies and do some observational work on those who have used this plant for multiple decades to get to the bottom of the myths? Most definitely.

Anecdotal Open Minds

As Dr. Siegel continues her personal and professional journey in listening to her patients use the plant with successes and failures, she continues to learn, as many of us have, that the more we know about this plant, the more we don’t know - or the more we need to know.

The book is a good primer on some of the effects of cannabis on the brain. The fact Dr. Siegel had the courage and the wherewithal to pen such a work in the first place is admirable.

Doctors listening to patients brave enough to share has historically been the way most medical professionals find out about cannabis and plant-based medicine in general, as they are just not taught about the way plants work with us biologically in medical school.

Dr. Siegel’s willingness to listen and learn is appreciated beyond measure. Her first effort is a good one. We can’t wait to see what she does next.

Granny Storm Crow’s List/Brain Studies https://grannystormcrowslist.wordpress.com/brain-business-of-cannabis-2015-2020/

Higher Profile: Granny Storm Crow https://hightimes.com/activism/higher-profile-granny-storm-crow-grass-roots-advocate/

US Patent, Cannabinoids as Neuroprotectants https://patents.google.com/patent/US6630507B1/en

Pregnancy & Cannabis Study NIDA https://www.weedworldmagazine.org/2018/12/21/pregnancy-cannabis-myths-dispelled-shelved-and-rediscovered/
Mom’s using cannabis for pregnancy https://www.weedworldmagazine.org/2018/12/21/notes-from-the-field-mom-as-cannabis-patient-by-sharon-letts/

Shannon DeGrooms

Founder, This is Jane Project

Supporting women and non-binary female survivors of trauma

As Shannon DeGrooms often shares, it took a gun to her head to try cannabis for Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD), often referred to as Childhood Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. But her story really began with a lineage of trauma, with DeGrooms eventually healing herself with the plant, now helping to heal others - as is so often the case.

She came out to her mom and stepdad late in life, at 27 years of age, at a Chinese Restaurant.

“It was our tradition to read the fortunes out loud at the end of the meal, and when it came to my turn, instead of reading my fortune, I said, ‘Mom, I’m dating someone and its a woman!” she shared. “I had dated guys, but never really felt safe with them. I was always falling in love with my girlfriends. After I announced, my mom asked, ‘It says that in your fortune cookie?!’”

DeGrooms founded the This is Jane Project to help other women who may be in the same situation as she, trauma survivors - with women across the female spectrum helped emotionally and physically, with emotional support and a compassionate care program that provides access points to cannabis for those in need.

“After I was helped with the plant, I thought to myself, there must be others like me who need to know,” DeGrooms said. “I needed to challenge the stigma of medicating with cannabis for women and non-binary women. Many of the groups already established offering help are well intended, but have extensive applications that can be triggering, and we get that.”

Righting the Wrongs

DeGroom’s own CPTSD began due to childhood sexual abuse by a close family member.

“The person who sexually abused me smoked weed everyday,” she said. “I was told my abuser did these things to me because they were on drugs. So, I grew up thinking if you did drugs you would harm people.”

Born in South Carolina, her mom moved her and siblings to New Jersey when she was 14. That same year, she tried smoking cannabis, but didn’t really enjoy it - blaming peer pressure for the experience.

“It made me feel uncomfortable, but at the time, I didn’t understand what anxiety was,” she said. “When I was 17, I began a life of clubbing in New York City. I found solace in underground nightclubs - realizing now I was retraumatizing myself by being promiscuous and dancing professionally. I was handed a modeling contract after being picked up off the street - but I chose drugs instead”

Her clubbing life lasted for 10 years, until she was 27 years old - never doing the work to ease her pain or deal with her trauma - with Ketamine and ecstasy her daily doses, merely numbing the pain.

“Everyone from my school counselor to my therapist tried to help me, but I was too smart for them - or so I thought,” she laughed. “I was prone to fighting and depression, and while the drugs didn’t really help, they helped me cover everything up.”

She gives credit to Narcotics Anonymous (NA) in helping her tap into her inner strength and do away with the drugs.

“I got clean in rehab and stayed clean for 10 years,” she said. “I was ‘Miss NA, indoctrinated. I read all the books, sponsored other women. Being clean was my life and my identity.”

And then, in 2016, she was hit by a car while walking down the street where she lived in Oakland, California, and everything changed.

“I had a few surgeries for different reasons,” she explained. “But the reparative surgery on my nose from doing drugs was botched, leaving me with a super bacterial infection of e coli and klebsiella combined, chronic sinus issues, and no septum. I didn’t recognize myself and I couldn’t leave the house for seven months. Then, the day I was finally able to go out, I was car-jacked.”

The assailant held a Glock pistol to the back of her head, while leading her to the middle of the road. She thought she would die right then and there.

“He took my purse and the car,” she said. “The car was found days later, but the immense trauma that followed kicked up everything I hadn’t dealt with from my past, and then some.”

To add to her trauma, the thief, who still had her keys and her address, came back to her home, tried to take a second car, failed, and ended up vandalizing the car instead.

“In 48 hours I moved to Los Angeles,” she said. “I was suffering when a friend suggested I try cannabis for my PTSD from the incident. I said, no way was I doing drugs again! But I tried it and it opened up a whole new world for me.”

In time she went up to Humboldt County in Northern California - cannabis capitol of the world, and her friend, Dave Stanley, who farmed cannabis, teaching her everything about the plant and being a farmer.

“I’ve been up several times since, helping with the crops,” she added. “The cultivar Sunset Sherbert changed me. I was awoken felt productive, and it motivated me to create the This is Jane Project.”

Cannabis in Recovery

Her doubts, on the other hand, told her the NA people who had supported her all these years would think she was crazy to add cannabis to her recovery program - and they did, accusing her of “using” again. Even though the plant helped her immensely, she lost many NA friends for this reason.

“I needed to destigmatize the plant, not only for the greater good of so many suffering, but to show people in recovery that the plant could be the right choice for them, as well,” she concluded.

The dominant terpenes in Sunset Sherbert are caryophyllene, limonene, and humulene. Rather than go with the myth of uplifting Sativa or calming Indica, it’s important to look at the terpene profile. That’s where the unique and helpful characteristics of cannabis are found.

Caryophllene has the unique ability to bind with CB2 receptors, relieving anxiety.

Limonene is also found in citrus and is said to reduce stress and elevate mood.

Humulene is also found in hops, what beer is made from, and has a relaxing effect. It’s also said to boost creativity and calm the mind.

Beneficial plants have fragrance because we have a nose. We are drawn to the plants we need to keep us healthy, happy, and to create homeostasis in our bodies, or a place where illness cannot dwell.

The revolution is trauma Informed

The project began as a photo and messaging campaign for social media, documenting women and their stories, poignantly photographed in stunning black and white - denoting no gray area in this conversation.

Home gatherings became a good vehicle to help on an up close and personal level, hosted in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn, New York, with more cities planned as donations come in. They talk, support each other, share stories, and do art therapy, among other healing modes of therapy.

Women and non-binary people with a lifetime of trauma have come forward, some with intimate partner violence, many with sexual trauma. One woman, who was stabbed 20 times, lifted her shirt during one gathering to show how grateful she was to be alive and for the Janes.

“Survivors seemed to be getting a lot out of the gatherings and the portraits being shared with their stories, but there was little support afterwards, other than the friendships and connections made. We took a hard pause just before the COVID lockdown and decided it clearly needed to be more than a social media campaign.”

After restructuring into a not for profit organization, they added compassionate care, with companies donating products to be given in a program named, Survivors Without Access.

“We also have free monthly Healing Happy Hours on the fourth Wednesday of each month, with Janes from across the country joining is on Zoom,” she said. “Nurse Heather Manus, who is a trauma survivor herself - also helped with cannabis, spoke to us on Post Traumatic Growth. We’ve had Mindful Movement Yoga seshes, talks on overcoming imposter syndrome, with much more planned.”

Curaleaf and Weedmaps have both come through with donations to fund the compassionate care program, with many more companies stepping up to help.

“This project has helped many, but its also helped me,” she surmised. “I trust myself enough now to stand in my own power to attract the right people into my life. We learn to tell the truth, especially if it makes people uncomfortable - even if your voice is shaking. Our voices and our truth can’t be silenced. In that respect, we are all Janes, and we can all move forward and heal together.”

For more information on This is Jane Project visit, https://thisisjaneproject.com/

Follow @thisisjaneproject on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn & Twitter

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MDbio

Dr. Babak Larian & Dr. Siamak Tabib

Cannabinoid products created by doctors for their patients

When California Head & Neck Surgeon, Dr. Babak Larian, realized that some of his more fragile senior patients were sailing through radiation, and his 40-something buff males were having a hard time pushing past, he began asking some of his seemingly healthier patients what their secret was.

“Some of my patients would giggle and not answer me,” he shared. “Then one elderly woman finally admitted to me that her grandson was rolling her joints. She said it gave her an appetite, she was less anxious, used less narcotics, and wasn’t in pain or depressed.”

Dr. Larian began noticing this was a common thread that was happening more and more over the past ten years, as cannabis became more accepted in the mainstream via legalization across th country.

One myth of legalization is that more people will become wasted, with crime on the rise - and what about the children? But the reality of legalization is that more people feel comfortable to experiment, and that edible taken to get high for recreation becomes a medible very quickly if a patient is experiencing illness or pain - with symptoms quelled and little to no negative side effects.

Board Certified, Self Educated on the eCS

Dr. Larian is a Board Certified Surgeon and the Chairman and Director of the Center for Advanced Head & Neck Surgery in Los Angeles. Earning academic and humanitarian distinctions from UC Irvine School of Medicine, Dr. Larian completed a six-year residency at Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

Nationally renowned for his expertise in minimally invasive surgery techniques in the treatment of parathyroid disorders, Dr. Larian was the Clinical Chief of the Division of Otolaryngology at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles from 2009 to 2011.

“After repeatedly witnessing cannabis patients doing better than those who didn’t use the herb, I began to educate myself on the Endocannabinoid System, as there was no mention of it in medical school,” he explained. “No one even knew what it was, but more and more the common thread was, these patients were having an easier time during serious treatments.”

Got eCS?

Dr. David Allen is a surgeon who educated himself on the Endocannabinoid System (eCS), stating that many of the surgeries over the past 30 years he performed may have been unnecessary.

“I took it upon myself to phone up medical schools, asking if they have the eCS in its curriculum,” he said. “Out of 157 schools queried, just 13 percent said they merely mention the system that works with plant compounds to keep us healthy.”

The eCS was discovered in 1992 by Lumir Hanus, a Czech analytical chemist working in famed cannabinoid researcher, Raphael Mechoulam’s lab in Israel at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, with American pharmacologist, William Devane.

The two isolated the first known endocannabinoid in the human brain, naming it anandamide, after the Sanskrit word for joy or bliss. The discovery of these receptors resulted in the uncovering of naturally occurring neurotransmitters that are endocannabinoids.

Eastern Mentality in the Western World

“We didn’t evolve to take high doses of anything, we evolved with plants” Dr. Larian continued. “In Guatemala there’s a tree and its bark lowers blood pressure. They’ve been using it for thousands of years, passed down through generations.”

We evolved to eat plants, and Dr. Larian said that the compounds within them have myriad benefits to address many issues, helping to bring the body back into balance.

“That’s really what this is all about - balance,” he added. “The presumption that we need to take medications to treat everything is faulty, at best. Getting your body in balance with natural practices, such as healthy eating and exercise, that’s where you start.”

The daily stressors of life, Dr. Larian said, adds to our bevy of human illnesses - along with the toxins in our environment and empty foods that can cause inflammation and infection.

“The masses are under duress from many directions and its making us sick” he concluded. “We’ve gotten accustom to plentifulness and that’s not always good for us. We used to forage our meals, with many plant compounds in our diet. We’d catch a fish, maybe a rabbit every once in a while. We didn’t evolve to eat as much meat as we do today.”

The doctors of MDbio are all schooled in the U.S., but hail from the Middle East, with Persian customs that include centuries of plant-based medicines.

“My family traditionally used plants as medicine,” Dr. Siamak Tabib said. “Remedies were passed down from grandparents to parents to children. I began realizing that cannabis has the whole conglomerate of beneficial compounds within it when Dr. Larian began telling us how many of his own patients were doing better clinically than those who weren’t using the plant during traditional treatments.”

Dr. Tabib is a graduate of the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, completing his residency in Internal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and a fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the combined UCLA/Cedars-Sinai medical program. A Board Certified Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist, Dr. Tabib has a private practice in Beverly Hills/West Los Angeles; and also serves as Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCLA.

Dr. Tabib said he began looking into his patients’ use of cannabis, with surprising results.

“I gently brought up the topic to my patients and was surprised to find out that a good number of them were already using cannabinoid therapies, but were afraid to tell me about it,” he said. “They thought it might be an issue in my taking care of them - but, what it did was inspire me to learn more.”

What he found was his own patients were silently and successfully treating colitis, Chron’s Disease, inflammatory bowl disease and more - iIncluding quelling any negative side effects from the pharmaceuticals he was prescribing.

It’s long been known in the cannabis community that patients are already treating illnesses with cannabis and other plants, waiting for doctors and legislatures to catch up. When doctors listen to their patients, then get educated, it propels the entire movement forward, because the healing can’t be denied.

“I started attending lectures, going to cannabis conferences, and learning all I could about this plant and its many uses,” he said. “We all learned a lot, but then, where do we go from here? Once my patients trusted to talk to me about it, I then needed to learn about dosing - how many milligrams for what ailment? I honestly didn’t know. How could I? I couldn't say, just go smoke some weed.”

The doctors felt it was their duty to help their patients figure out how to most effectively use cannabis - not to necessarily replace pharmaceuticals, but help them navigate using the plant with the treatments they offered.

“I think there’s a role cannabis can play in replacing pharmaceuticals, but what we’ve witnessed first hand is the actual reduction of many pharmaceuticals, including addictive pain killers when using cannabis in tandem,” Tabib said. “We just needed to compile evidence at this point - not just to prove the efficacy of cannabis, but also to aid us in further developing formulations and dosing to help our patients who were already treating themselves.”

Trials & Tribulations

The Board Certified doctors, who include, Urological Oncological Surgeon, founder the Comprehensive Urology Medical Group at Cedars Sinai Medical Tower in Los Angeles; and Foot & Ankle Surgeon, Kamran Jamshidinia, resident training specialist, also at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, began looking at clinical trials, not just their own patient observations, and noted a correlation of advanced healing.

“We took more than three years to research and formulate what we felt was a good start,” Dr. Tabib said. “We’re still developing our formulations, per our patient’s needs. It was a grueling process, but we needed the science to be right. All the while, our patients were asking, ‘do you have something for us yet?’”

Important to note, these doctors aren’t just white labeling a CBD product with their name on it. With MDbio’s own observational studies from their own patients - who initially taught them - they are now in the process of running clinical studies in order to keep improving the products.

So far, the brand includes four formulations using whole plant CBD in gel capsules: MDcalm, MDsleep, MDimmune+ and MDrelief, targeting sleep, pain, anxiety and prevention via immune system building.

Not just full spectrum Hemp CBD (hybridized cannabis cultivar high in cannabidiol) in each product, but a combination of healing herbs that actually increase the efficacy of the CBD for the issue at hand.

For instance, MDrelief includes white willow bark and frankincense in the mix. White willow bark’s active ingredient is Salicin, and the stuff German pharmaceutical company Bayer created Aspirin for to treat arthritis in 1899. Not just incense for the Baby Jesus, frankincense is a medicinal compound, said to reduce pain via anti-inflammatory properties. It is also said to improve gut function, aids in bronchial afflictions, and is said to be an antioxidant - or a compound that kills cancer cells.

“What we’ve found so far is remarkable efficacy from these products that we’ve held back long enough,” Dr. Tabib concluded. “While I don’t think cannabis can cure everything in the world, in conjunction with other a lot of other therapies, the results have been stunning.”

For more information visit, https://www.mdbiowellness.com/

Doug Fine, Hemp Farmer & Goat Herder

Evangelizing goats & gardens to save the planet

Doug Fine with Deborah Colburn, Interpretive Program Supervisor, harvesting hemp manually for the first time in 100 years at George Washington’s farm at Mount Vernon, in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Photo Courtesy of Doug Fine.

Doug Fine wants to save the planet by teaching humans about a regenerative and sustainable lifestyle. A lofty goal for a hemp farmer and solar-powered goat herder, but Fine persists. That’s the thing about saving the planet, it takes tenacity. It takes Evangelizing in the Biblical sense, from our mouths to their ears. They may not want or be able to walk the talk, but they will hear you.

Author of six books to date, Fine’s first effort, Not Really an Alaskan Mountain Man, was published in 2004, reflecting his introduction to nature as a guy who grew up in the suburbs of New York. Another published in 2008, Farewell My Subaru, details his life living “green off the grid,” demonstrating how to drastically reduce the use of fossil fuel in order to live sustainably. This was followed in 2012, by Too High To Fail, with a focus on the regenerative side of the emerging cannabis industry at the time, and the green economic revolution - that’s now in full swing ten years later.

In 2013 he appeared on Tedx Talks in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where his farm, the Funky Butte Ranch, is located in a remote area hours from the nearest city. The talk, tilted “Why we need goat herding in the digital age,” is a call to arms, with the intent of luring humans back to the garden to save their souls - and health.

Fine introduces himself, “I stand before you today, a neo-rugged individualist, solar-powered goat herder.” Thus begins his humorous, yet informative talk on how and why he supports his family by tending goats off the grid.

In 2014 he published Hemp Bound: Dispatches from the front lines of the next agricultural revolution, wherein he shares his life on his farm, expounding on the many uses of hemp - and how it can help save the planet.

His latest effort published in 2020, American Hemp Farmer, Adventures and Misadventures of the Cannabis Trade, wherein David Bronner, CEO of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap, exuded, “A fantastic piece of Americana that shows the way to a sustainable future.”

American Hemp Farmer has been developed into a TV series, with a pilot and episodes in the can, and more in production now, seeking distribution.

The series includes visits to the Rosebud Sioux tribal lands, with Fine advising on its organic hemp cultivation. Other visits within the show include George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate, with Fine historically manually harvesting for the first time in a hundred years, wearing a full outfit of Colonial-style clothes made of hemp, of course.

Evangelizing a Sustainable Life

As detailed within his TEDx Talk, his first experience with nature was moving to rural Alaska in 2003, where learned about sustenance fishing, catching salmon in the wild.

He enjoyed the thought of sourcing food from the backyard, so to speak. This he said, got him in touch with what he calls the Indigenous Gene, or I-gene, calling humans back to our Paleolithic roots from living off the land as hunters and gatherers.

“Despite all our digital age accouterments, as humans we are still the same hunter-gathers that we’ve been for tens of thousands of years,” he said. “I feel at my absolute best self and more relaxed when I’m out milking a goat at first light of day, with the locals owls returning from date night. For me, it’s this feeling of living as one is intended to live.”

The experience in Alaska reawakened a vital part of himself that he’s been cultivating ever since, moving to New Mexico two years later, establishing his Funky Butte Ranch, to nourish his soul, with the end result of giving him a sense of contentment. Balance, he said, between the digital age and our indigineous selves.

And then there’s Climate Change, for those who understand the ramifications.

“We’re at the bottom of the ninth with two outs when it comes to tackling climate change, and we’ve got a game plan,” he advises. “Teaching that to everyone is my day job.”

And teach he does, with courses offered from his website, as well as hundreds of speaking engagements around the world under his belt.

To date, the most high profile talk given was a plea to the United Nations, in association with The European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug (ENCOD), an organization working for better drug policies, globally. In this nearly five minute talk he urged change within the failed War on Drugs.

On February 27, he’ll be the Keynote speaker at SXSW’s Eco-Ag Conference in Montana for its 50th Anniversary, with the event airing on C-SPAN.

His “Johnny Hempseed” journey teaching the citizens of the earth how to help heal the planet is seemingly endless, as he presents himself clad head to toe in hemp - including hemp boxers made by his longtime companion.

Hemp can Heal the Planet

The stats on how sustainable industrial hemp is are remarkable, when one thinks of all the trees felled over the years - not to mention the amount of plastics now littering the earth that could have been made with hemp and other plants.

“The prohibition of cannabis, and subsequently industrial hemp, was a terrible mistake that a great country made,” he explained from the ranch. “In my talks I bring with me a little plastic goat made of hemp, created using a 3-D printer. We don’t need to use petroleum byproducts - we never did.”

The benefits of industrial hemp are many, able to be used for everything from fuel to building materials, to pulling toxins from the ground after contamination - demonstrated at what is now Ukraine, at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear melt-down, where thousands of hemp plants have been planted.

Fine’s own hemp seeds from his farm are being used in an experiment to clean contaminated soil in a New Mexico University study, with initial reports of great success in pulling uranium.

“I can confidently write that hemp cleans up radioactive soil,” he wrote within a blog at Vote Hemp.com. “Not, I heard it does, or I wish it did, or even someone told me they used it a Chernobyl. It actually does, according to this study.”

As explained in an article published by the Global Hemp Associations, the process is called Phytotech, wherein plants can actually decontaminate soil by pulling toxins - with hemp being exceptionally good at the process, decontaminating at a very high rate, eating up chromium, lead, copper, nickel, and more.

Cleaning air quality and soil is nothing new for plants, but our understanding of how they work is.

“When you look at how many trees it takes to make anything, and how many years it took for those trees to grow big enough to use, it’s stunningly ignorant of us to ignore these facts,” he explained. “Before we began synthesizing petroleum byproducts, everything we made and used came from the earth - and it was all regenerative and sustainable. There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t turn this around.”

To give one example, as noted by the European Industrial Hemp Association, hemp contains upwards of 65 to 70 percent cellulose, whereas wood measures in at around 40 percent. The Ministry of Hemp.com informs that one acre of hemp can produce as much paper as four to 10 acres of trees over a 20 year cycle. Hemp stalks grow in four months, whereas trees take 20 to 80 years, depending on the species.

One can see why the “Plant for the Planet” movement was founded, encouraging humans to plant as many trees as they can - with the goal of one trillion trees planted globally by 2030.

“It’s such a no-brainer,” Fine laments. “Hemp paper is more durable than paper made from trees, because it doesn’t break down over time. Building materials made from hemp are also mold and fire resistant. Not to mention the devastating effect deforestation has on the climate and health of the planet.”

Climate Change at the Door

Several years ago a massive, 130,000 acre wildfire hit the Funky Butte Ranch, devastating years of hard work on the farm.

“This is not a dress rehearsal, it’s really happening now, and its at the door” Fine said of Climate Change and the forever fires, super storms and flooding around the world predicted years ago.

Fine said he watched a bear flee the wildfire, then attacked all but one of his goats, as he tells the story to show the collateral damage from the devastation.

“The destruction affects everything,” he continued. “Fires, floods, and water levels rising due to melting glaciers. All of this compels me to keep talking, keep teaching, and keep growing regenerative hemp. The good news is we have two new baby goats on the farm now, blessings abound!”

The ever hopeful Fine explained that we don’t all have to become farmers, but we can begin to understand the process by growing a little patch of something - even if its a bunch of basil in a pot on a city balcony.

He does believe that farmers can lead the way, while being supported by the masses by small changes made to the way we live everyday.

“Supporting small, local farmers by buying locally-sourced products, getting produce from community-supported co-ops or farmer’s markets - or even working in community gardens, are all valuable contributions,” he surmises. “Who knows, you may find, like me, that farming or gardening and growing your own food is the most fun you’ll have outside the bedroom!”

For more information on Doug Fine visit, https://www.dougfine.com/

Link to Doug Fine & American Hemp Farmer, to be aired on C-SPAN February 27, 2022 https://www.c-span.org/video/?516447-1/american-hemp-farmer

For more information on the Phytotech process visit, https://globalhempassociation.org/2021/01/20/hemp-and-the-decontamination-of-radioactive-soil/

For more information on Plant for the Planet visit, https://a.plant-for-the-planet.org/

U.S. Hemp Organizations:

https://ushempga.org/

https://atach.org/

https://www.nihcoa.com/

https://nationalhempassociation.org/

Jesce Horton, CEO, LOWD

“The intersection between Urban Culture & Epic Nature”

Jesce Horton founded LOWD, a craft cannabis company located in Portland, Oregon, in 2015. Immersed in Oregon cannabis causes and beyond, Horton was appointed by Oregon Governor Kate Brown to the Task Force for Cannabis Environmental Best Practices in 2016; and sits on the Board of Directors for both the Oregon Cannabis Business Association and the Oregon Cannabis Association.

With his wife, Jeannette Ward Horton - also an established industry leader in the space - they founded NuProject, a non-profit seeded in-part by the City of Portland since 2019. The organization provides grants, loans, educational resources, job matching assistance and entrepreneurial services to cannabis business owners and start-ups.

Nationally, Horton co-founded the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA); founded and is an advisory board member for Marijuana Business Daily; and is involved with, and past Board member of, the Resource Innovation Institute (RII) - a national leader in establishing and educating on standards of farming practices.

An advisory board member of Ben’s Best, a venture by Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company, its focus is on funding black-owned cannabis companies, supporting the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition and the Last Prisoner Project.

He’s also on a number of federal, state, and local cannabis regulatory advisory committees, helping to design and strengthen cannabis markets in both Oregon and California, and then some.

Horton’s resume may read as though he was born into the cannabis industry, but his journey to his place in the space, and to the Pacific Northwest from his birthplace of Charlottesville, Virginia, really began before he was born, when his father was arrested for carrying less than an ounce of weed.

Less than an ounce, one seed & persecution

Horton knows first-hand how the failed War on Drugs can negatively affect just one small family for years, as his father was arrested for cannabis before he was born, with a lifetime of struggle to follow.

The charge should have been simple possession for carrying less than an ounce, but the bags were individually wrapped, sending him to prison for the maximum five year sentence for distribution, serving four years for good behavior.

“After I was born the charges followed us and my family would have to move wherever he could find work,” he shared. “As I grew older the family did everything they could to keep me away from cannabis. It wasn’t that they were against it, it’s just that they didn’t want me being arrested.”

His family’s good intentions were all for naught, as he was indeed arrested a number of times. Mostly for misdemeanors - all surrounding cannabis.

“Once I was stopped coming home from a party and they padded me down and found one seed in my pocket,” he shared. “I spent that night and others in jail, but never went to prison.”

It’s no secret that white neighborhoods do as much drugs as neighborhoods with People of Color. It’s also no secret that minority neighborhoods are policed more often and heavier than lighter hoods. This fact, this imbalance of justice, leaves a mark - with or without prison time.

“Just having a record means opportunities lost, depression, anxiety, and a lack of belief - feeling like your life is ruined because of this plant,” he added. “It’s never made any sense.”

Engineering a One Room Grow

Moving from state to state for his father’s work eventually led the family to Florida, where Horton majored in Industrial Engineering with a minor in mathematics and physics. He graduated from Florida State University in 2007 and was hired by German engineering company Siemens, one of the largest engineering firms in the world.

“I started out in Atlanta with Siemens, then they sent me to Baltimore, then Houston,” he said. “I spent about a year and a half in Munich, Germany, when they transferred me back to the states and Portland, Oregon in 2011.”

Still working for Siemens, Horton set up a one-room grow op in the basement of his home, growing medicinal cannabis under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP), helping a Fraternity brother and his wife.

“He had chronic pain in his knees, but his wife had breast cancer,” he said. “I worked with their caregiver to provide plant material and the caregiver would make cannabis oil capsules and suppositories for them.

The Art of Urban Craft Cultivation

From his greater good basement grow, to overseeing 24,000 square feet of indoor, and 12,000 square feet of greenhouse space today, Horton has come full-circle in the burgeoning essential industry too big to fail.

Notable is its win for Best Medical Hybrid at the 2016 Dope Industry Awards, with its 503 Wifi, bred from Wifi OG (White Fire OG) using cultivars, Fire Og and The White.

Quoting its website, “LOWD exists effortlessly at the intersection of urban culture and epic nature unique to the City of Portland.”

The brand’s SLAG jars, or “Smoke like a Grower,” jars, hold “intentionally selected buds” stick-trimmed right into the ultra-violet resistant glass jars, resulting in a slow cure - making the end-partaker the first one to touch the flower.

It’s attention to detail like this that makes a craft cannabis farmer stand out. But, what does this mean at the distribution site? How does one differentiate between slow cured craft flower and large-scale production bud - and should there be a pricing difference?

This conundrum is not lost on Horton, who laments the literal abandonment of legacy farmers - and the outright alienation of the industry's pioneers.

“Legacy farmers in particular have found coming into compliance daunting, to say the least,” he said. “But, craft farming is the future of the high-end cannabis market. I really believe that portion of the market will increase in size and pricing will rise up accordingly. That’s my hope anyway.”

Regarding the ongoing debate on whether high THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) cultivars are more in demand than a fuller profile via flavorful terpenes, Horton is forever hopeful.

“High THC isn’t a straight line to better cannabis,” he concluded. “People aren’t as discerning right now - they aren’t knowledgeable, but the more information we get out there about genetics, methodologies, the lack of pesticides and just growing healthy, flavorful plants, I feel more will gravitate to the craft cannabis market.”

Amanda Reiman, Founder Personal Plants

Helping to find your way back to the garden, on the path to Personal Plants

Amanda Reiman has worn many hats in the cannabis space. After receiving her PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, she was named Director of Research and Patient Services at Berkeley Patients Group, one of the oldest dispensaries in the country.

She also became Manager of Marijuana Law and Policy for the Drug Policy Alliance, a national non-profit set-up to draft and lead campaigns of initiatives across the U.S. and abroad.

As if this part of her resume isn’t impressive enough, Reiman also taught courses on substance abuse and treatment, and drug policy at U.C. Berkeley for ten years.

As an internationally acclaimed cannabis expert and public health researcher, she’s been dubbed “The Brain” by Elle.com, she’s a leader in the area of cannabis as a substitute for alcohol and other drugs, presenting her research on cannabis dispensaries and the use of cannabis as a substitute for opiates all over the world.

Also an expert on local, national and international cannabis policy, Dr. Reiman was named the first Chairwoman of the Berkeley Medical Cannabis Commission; also sitting on the Oakland Cannabis Regulatory Commission.

Personal Plants #NotJustCannabis

Reiman recently founded Personal Plants, a multi-media platform supporting home cultivation and processing of therapeutic plants. The site hosts articles and videos of experts teaching every aspect of growing a beneficial garden; with how to’s on harvesting, processing and recipes for making remedies from the garden.

She says there are three different types of folks, those who grew up gardening with a green thumb; those who have always felt they can’t grow anything; and those who have no idea how to form relationships with plants, good or bad.

“I fell in love with the act of growing my own medicine,” she shared. “One of my first gardens was in Chicago in a closet with one light. I self-medicated illegally at that time for diagnosed arthritis. When I began my PhD program at U.C. Berkeley, I also became an official personal gardener in California.”

Reiman said she grew plants on her balcony initially, finding great satisfaction in taking a seed or a clone, adding dirt and watching it grow into cannabis - or her medicine.

“Lots of people have never seen a cannabis plant growing in the ground - or at all,” she said. “Some have only seen them in magazines. And information on growing was hard to find. Mostly, you’d read about a grower explaining how much they knew, rather than conveying easily digested information. For this reason, much of my early growing was done through trial and error.”

She eventually left city life for country life and a chance to grow her own outdoors, in the sun, as God and Goddess intended.

“I never missed the concrete jungle of the Bay Area,” she laughed. “When I moved to Mendocino I had land to farm - and grew sage, calendula, chamomile - as well as cannabis.”

Recognizing that many plants held medicinal and healing properties, she also found a community of gardeners. And they didn’t always talk about cannabis.

“I began to investigate a whole new world of plants,” she added. “Personal Plants was created to teach people not only how to grow their own cannabis, but to grow many beneficial plants in an age where people are becoming more suspicious of the negative side effects of pharmaceuticals and are intrigued to go into the garden to heal.”

The recent pandemic, she said, had a lot to do with her encouraging others to grow their own, no matter what the plant, as she watched many posting newly planted gardens on social media, as part of lockdown therapy, if you will.

“People are looking for alternatives, and with Personal Plants, we aim to lead them back to the garden in a simple way,” she concluded.

Gardening, Understanding & Advocacy

At U.C. Berkeley Reiman became frustrated at the amount of people slamming those visiting dispensaries in the newly created medical cannabis space, stating the consumers appeared to be healthy young men in their 30s.

“We did a survey about cannabis use to get to the bottom of who was using cannabis the most in this legal market,” she explained. “Most people assumed the demographic for cannabis use was younger, but we found the average person was in their 40s.”

The survey found that many dispensary customers were dealing with sports injuries and subsequent chronic pain from their youth, while other seemingly healthy young men were medicating for industrial or construction work injuries. This led to the common assumption, you can’t judge a book by its cover.

“If you go to a health club or gym and see who’s there, they are fit and healthy - why do they need to go to a club?” she pondered. “They go to the gym to stay that way. It’s the same thing with cannabis. We found they were going to the dispensaries in an attempt to feel better, quell their chronic pain and continue to be well.”

One of the main reasons Reiman said she earned the PhD is to add a layer of legitimacy to the work she wanted to do in the cannabis space.

“I knew that if I had the doctorate people would listen to me, plain and simple,” she said. “I was looking at the potential benefits of cannabis, and knew the work I did would be discounted from the get-go by both the academic and cannabis communities. I used my medical cannabis patient status and the fact I was an academic in order to challenge the stigma of what a cannabis patient or partaker looks like.”

Gardener, not Grower. The language is changing.

With Personal Plants, a main goal is to change the stereotype, while educating people about what it means to be a cannabis patient. Adding other beneficial plants to the mix from the common garden helps do that.

”Propaganda is the use of emotion to impact opinion,” she waxed poetic. “We need to replace the assumptions with a different emotion. As a scientist, I get frustrated after sharing all the studies, graphs, tables - and then someone will still say, ‘I just feel… ‘ We need them to feel something different - something not based on political bias - which is where the misinformation is coming from.”

Reiman said the masses need to understand the healing benefits of all plants - and to realize that cannabis, aside from the psychoactive effects of THC, has many of the same properties as other beneficial plants, or superfoods.

To add another layer, THC or tetrahydrocannabinol, the compound in the cannabis plant that causes one to feel high, was increased over the years via hybridization by human hands. The plant did not begin with upwards of 30 percent THC, it became potent over time.

Historically, the cannabis plant was said to have weighed in at around five percent or less THC. Knowing this makes the argument against THC hard to bear. That said, THC does have a place in medicine. It’s a beneficial compound in its own right, it just needs to be managed in order to find your therapeutic dose.

Positive benefits of the plant include fighting inflammation, infection - just two components of many beneficial plants from the healing garden.

“With Personal Plants, we are attempting to reach people who do not think of themselves as cannabis experts or connoisseurs,” she added. “We are looking for people who have real health issues, and are looking to the garden for help - wanting to learn how to grow their own - not just cannabis.”

The right to grow your own cannabis, she said, is actually a social justice issue.

“Everyone should have the right to grow beneficial plants,” she said. “Take tobacco, for instance. It’s a beneficial plant when grown and processed naturally. The additives used by the tobacco industry makes it a toxic plant, with the tobacco industry working to restrict the right to grow it themselves. This is when gardening truly becomes a social justice issue.”

As COVID and lockdowns change the way people look at sustainability, Reiman said there are many lessons to be learned from the garden.

“Everyone should know how to make a simple tincture or salve,” she said. “With Personal Plants, we don’t just show them how to grow beneficial plants, we also teach them how to harvest, process, and make their own remedies.”

Gardening is not new, but for many, it’s a whole new world of sourcing your own and doing it yourself. It also brings satisfaction in knowing where your medicine comes from.

“People are thinking now, what if the supply chains we depend on are disrupted, what are we going to do?” she surmised. “Self-sufficiency becomes everything. Knowing I can grow my own cannabis and other healing plants makes me feel more secure if drug store chains fall off the face of the earth. I can still find relief from the garden, and so can you.”

For more information on Personal Plants visit, https://www.mypersonalplants.com/

Mae Bereal, Founder LAV8

From Coupon Queen to Cannabis Industry CEO

Mae Bereal is the Founder and CEO of Los Angeles based, LAV8 (pronounced elevate), a vertically integrated cannabis operation launched in 2017. Initially founding High End Society, an edible and topical company, she was the first license holder to produce up to ten, four-day cannabis events per year in Los Angeles.

Aside from the cannabis companies, she also created her own charity program, 2 Buds, 1 Stone, donating one product to a cannabis patient in need for every product her company sells.

In 2018 she was named in Marijuana Venture’s list of 40 Under 40, stating, “My account executive says I have too much of a giving heart, but for me, that’s where all this comes from - I’m a mom and I naturally want to nurture and take care of people. They need these meds and they are really expensive.”

Bereal knows a thing or two about social equity, not just in the cannabis space, but in real time. Raised in low-income housing in Long Beach, California - a suburb of Los Angeles, as a person of color, Bereal still didn’t fit in.

“My mother was an immigrant from the Philippines, and I’m a mixed bag of some Black, some Mexican and a little Caucasion,” she shared. “My grandmother made us learn Tagalog, the language of the Philippines, because my siblings and I presented as black and she didn’t want us to be fooled - which happened often. The Filipinos thought because I’m Black I didn’t know anything.”

In fact, Bereal is no fool when it comes to knowing who she is. Even though her Filipino counterparts tested her with language.

She became a mother at a young age. As a stay-at-home mom of four for ten years, she learned to make do and worked the coupons, often leaving a store with groceries, goods and money in her pocket.

“I learned from other coupon users how to get the most out of the savings,” she said. “Let’s say shampoo is on sale that day, two bottles for five dollars, and the store says buy three and they’ll give you a five dollar gift card, and the coupon says buy two and take five dollars off - do the math and you don’t pay for anything.”

Stores like Target and online shops like Living Socail began sending her cease and desist letters, and she had to learn the laws, saving her from confrontations with store managers, which happened often. She ended up being dubbed the Queen of Coupons, interviewed by U.S. News and Yahoo Finance as a “money-saving expert.”

Disruptive Innovator

Growing up in the projects didn’t break her, it made her resilient.

“When you gain knowledge and educate yourself it’s enlightening and opens doors,” she added. “I learned to be a savvy coupon counter out of necessity, but the research and work it took gave me a wide skill set to tackle other projects - like entering into the cannabis industry.”

Called a disruptive innovator, Bereal helped to change the limited multi-use facility rule in the City of Long Beach for cannabis companies; then fought a daunting battle and won, in obtaining and keeping her cultivation, manufacturing and distribution licenses in the City of Los Angeles.

“The powers that be seem to put obstacles up, keeping a majority of people out of the game,” she said. “People with their heart in the right place can get discouraged, because the playing field is so narrow. You have to have the wherewithal to believe that what you desire will come to pass. You may scrape your knees climbing, but if you have faith, there really ain't no mountain high enough when you believe in what you are doing.”

Unwavering faith, she said, is what her first company High End Society was founded on. It’s aso what led to her being instrumental in a groundbreaking decision by a church in Los Angeles to open its doors via a pop-up CBD event, allowing members to learn about the benefits of CBD and the cannabis plant itself.

Enlightening Moment

Bereal said she first tried cannabis in high school and knew it helped, but she didn’t understand why or how - she only knew she felt better.

“It wasn’t easy growing up as a biracial kid in the projects,” she said. “Depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts plagued me until I tried cannabis. While others around me were self-medicating with opioids and worse. At that time I didn’t know what cannabinoids were, or what the endocannabinoid system was. Doctors wanted to give me anti-anxiety and antidepressant meds, but I had a talk with God and told him I’d use His plant instead.”

Even though she chose cannabis at a young age, seemingly with God’s blessing, she said she still wasn’t fully on-board with her faith. It took a seizure and a bump on the head to turn her around.

“It happened just before the 40 Under 40 photo shoot,” she explained. “I was doing well in business, but was under a lot of stress and had a seizure, falling and hitting my head on a countertop. I went ahead with the shoot, then went to the ER the next morning.”

Bereal said she felt she hadn’t fully trusted in God, hadn’t been fully obeying His word.

“I was still practicing free-will,” she concluded. “Now, when I pray I surrender my will.”

God Created, Women Crafted

Under the LAV8 brand, Bereal said they make a Vegan, organic, full spectrum multivitamin CBD gummy (25 mg, with 25 mg Vitamin C, 25 mg zinc) that she consumes daily, with 8.5 mg of THC in the form of a vitamin shot, with 60 mg CBD.

Her products have actual flowers in the balms and essential oils, and arrive in a 100 percent sustainable and compostable envelope, with benefits written on seeded paper.

“If you plant the paper, wildflowers grow from it,” she shared. “Even if it’s thrown in a landfill, flowers may come from it. It costs more to use these materials for packaging, but I don’t mind paying more to help heal the earth that we’ve damaged so badly. It’s the least we can do.”

She also uses her own lavender-rose CBD candles, which purifies the air. The hot wax, she said, also works on sore spots, topically, as well as using her own Rose Gold Body Balm and Rose Body Oil. But, she no longer smokes the flower.

“When I first began self-medicating with cannabis I was just smoking the flower, because there wasn’t any education out there yet about ingesting and all that it can do,” she said. “So a big part of the work we do with LAV8 is in educating our consumers about all the benefits of the plant and of the many ways to consume it.”

Speaking out at conferences, cannabis events, and podcasts, Bereal said she considers it part of the job to get the good word out on God’s plant, giving 11 percent of her profits to her own church, the Hillside Tabernacle in Altadena, in Los Angeles County, California, where she makes her home.

“My church gives a lot back to the community,” she said. “They feed the poor and shelter them when they have no place to stay. Some of the funding we’ve been able to give have been used to build computer centers, and I’ve been able to see, firsthand, how much their outreach helps others.”

Another cause near and dear to her heart is helping Veterans suffering from PTSD, through the Santa Cruz Veterans Alliance (SCVA), founded by Veterans, Jason Sweatt and Aaron Newsom; with now partner, Seth Smith - whom Bereal has since befriended.

Sweatt said he began cultivating and using cannabis, finding that the cultivation itself was therapy, as quoted in Culture Magazine.

“Planting something and watching it from start to finish - taking care of it, nurturing it. You know, after watching a lot of death and destruction - you know, mayhem - it was a very calming and rewarding aspect. The whole process.”

After dating a Veteran, Bereal said she had a soft spot in her heart for them, stating, “All I want to do is help people and make them feel good.”

Bereal said there have been many challenges faced since entering into the cannabis industry as a woman of color - often the only woman, let alone black woman, in the room.

“When I first began this journey, I felt intimidated,” she surmised. “Eventually, I was able to fill the shoes set before me. Once I understood the steps, and knew I rightfully had a seat at the table, I learned to hold my head up high - while still remaining humble. Using my womanly charm and applying a mother’s love, I was able to warm rooms, win hearts, and essentially close business deals. But I give it all up to God, because this is HIs plant. I’m just a cog in His wheel of education and healing.”

Note from Sharon: The day this story was published online at High Times, Vera Twomey received a call from someone from Parliament. The following working day she received another call from the Minister of the Department of Health, letting her know the rule would be changed and the CBD/THC medicine would be paid for, rather than wait months for reimbursement.

Vera Twomey, A Mother’s Love

An 11 year fight for the right to use cannabis as medicine in Ireland

In 2010, four months old Ava Barry began having seizures - dozens of seizures. The little girl would endure thousands more, including two heart attacks, due to the nightmare going on in her brain.

Diagnosed with Dravet Syndrome, her mother, Vera Twomey, listened to the doctors as her infant daughter was initially prescribed phenobarbital, a highly addictive benzodiazepine.

Eleven medications in all were eventually prescribed and exhausted, to no avail. The list included Benzodiazepines, Frisium and Rivotril, phenobarbital, Keppra, Topamax, Stiripentol, Zoegran, Rufinamide, Epilim, Lorazepam and Phenytoin.

“There was a time when Ava was taking 15 tablets a day of pharmaceuticals, but they never stopped the seizures entirely” she shared. “The side effects of the drugs actually set her back developmentally - and did more harm than good.”

At the time of diagnosis they were told by a neurologist that Ava would never walk or talk, and that she would be in a wheelchair in residential care for the rest of her life.

After suffering for five years with no help in sight, in 2015, news came from America about a type of cannabis oil high in the compound, cannabidiol or CBD. With trace THC and little to no psychoactive properties. The oil had been given to Dravet patient Charlotte Figi in Denver, Colorado, with great success, with the plant becoming her namesake, Charlotte’s Web.

In September of 2016, Vera spoke to Joel Stanley of Charlotte’s Web at the Hemp shop on Capel Street in Dublin, where she was able to purchase a bottle of Charlotte’s Web CBD oil.

“The Dravet community is small, but it’s global. Word traveled to us about Charlotte,” she said. “Joel’s caring attitude and experience solidified my confidence that I was doing the right thing in giving Ava CBD oil. We decided to ask our trusted neurologist about using it for Ava.”

Ava’s private neurologist listened as she and her husband, Paul, suggested the use of CBD with a small amount of THC, as a treatment option for their daughter.

“He seemed on board, but could not help us, as CBD was considered a food supplement only at that time in Ireland, and what we could get didn’t have the full spectrum of compounds,” she explained. “We were expected to accept the fact that we’ve exhausted every medication out there without being able to try alternative therapies. I can’t tell you the feeling we had, knowing our beautiful little girl could die at any time, and there might be help out there, but there was nothing we could do about it.”

Time to Woman Up

Vera decided she would make a direct appeal to the Minister of Health, Simon Harris. The mother of four, who had never before spoken publicly about anything, let alone her daughter’s struggles, decided to use social media to circulate a petition to help garner public support for Ava.

“It really didn’t matter that I was shy or often nervous in public, my daughter was going to die if we didn’t get her the help she needed and deserved,” she shared. “We were lucky we didn’t lose her after the cardiac arrest - it was time to ‘woman up.’”

It took months for Vera and Paul to get a meeting with the then Minister Harris, but the much anticipated meeting fell flat, with nothing promised and nothing gained, just a meeting with the explanation that these things are “complicated.”

“After reading testimonials from children in America being helped I could no longer listen to doctors or politicians telling me it wasn’t an option,” she explained.

During a second meeting with Health Minister Harris with Michael Martin, the leader of the Fianna Fail party, Martin said the state could act as insurer, taking responsibility away from the doctors and hospital, while singularly allowing her access to medicinal cannabis. This was possible, he said, because he had allowed it under his tenure as past Health Minister. But again, the meeting went nowhere, with nothing accomplished and no follow-up.

CBD with THC to the Rescue

After purchasing Charlotte’s Web at the Hemp Shop in Dublin, Ava began using the oil with two percent THC in October of 2016.

“The results were instantaneous,” Vera shared. “There was an abrupt reduction in the number of seizures. Paul and I would look at each other in disbelief during those first days. Whas this real? You learn not to hope too much when every previous drug has ended in failure.”

Hesitant to post on social media right away, the couple waited until Ava was seizure-free for a substantial amount of time.

“For 13 days Ava’s been seizure free!” Vera explained in a Facebook post. “No tonic-clonic, no absences, drop seizures or myoclonic jerks, with no change to Ava’s routine or medications. She appears brighter and even more engaged than previously.”

It’s important to note, that between the months of October through December Ava had a total of 12 seizures while taking Charlotte's Web. Prior to taking the oil, Ava would typically have this many seizures in a two hour period.

Aside from the significant reduction in seizures, there were side effects from the CBD - but nothing like from the pharmaceuticals - the side effects from CBD, she said, were positive.

“Ava had an increased appetite - which was needed, because she had to put on weight,” Vera said. “It was getting easier for her to fall asleep at night and exhibited less pain when standing. She was still non-verbal, but her language began to develop and her teachers said she was engaging more with her peers. It was a revelation - life changing. We were able to see a whole new side to our child.”

The Importance of THC

It’s an unspoken rule that some THC is needed for a high CBD oil to have effects on seizures. Cultivars hybridized to have a high CBD content have trace amounts of THC, and often parents must increase the amount of THC with the CBD dosing for increased efficacy to combat the seizures.

Too much THC can actually trigger a seizure, but used in combination with a high CBD cultivar, it’s highly effective. In countries where THC is not legal, this adds another layer to the fight to help children with life threatening seizures.

The CBD/THC ratio medications they needed is called Bedrolite and Bedica, made in The Hague by Transvaal pharmacy, and measures in at just two percent THC.

Vera got back up on her soapbox, begging for at least delivery of the medicines her daughter so desperately needed; then begging for the large sum of money to be paid up front, rather than out-of-pocket.

In November of 2016, Vera decided to shed light on her daughter’s plight and began walking to the Dail in Dublin, to force Health Minister Harris into another meeting. Harris urged her to stop walking, again promising her help. But, again, his promises of help meant nothing.

Note: The Dail is the lower house of the parliament of the Irish Republic.

Mom goes rogue in Spain

By February of 2017, Vera realized they needed to obtain more oil with the additional THC in the mix, and she decided to make a point and travel to Spain to access it.

Spain has been legal for cannabis as medicine since 1999, with researchers making advanced findings on the plant as medicine for decades.

Vera naively believed that if she was able to get a prescription filled and purchase the oil legally in Spain, that she would be allowed back into Ireland with it.

“We visited the Kalapa Clinic in Barcelona for a prescription where the oil was available,'' she explained. “But when we presented at the airport, they had lined up all the passengers like we were criminals, with dogs sniffing everyone - but they didn’t detect the oil.”

Customs seized the medications, but Vera said the agents looked as though they didn’t want to do it.

“I was a criminal that day, but I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Vera concluded. “The attitudes and the law need to catch up in this country to help people like us. The good news was, for every person who got in our way, there were a hundred more supporting us.”

Walking the Talk

After the trip to Spain failed, Vera was more adamant than ever to be able to access the medicine in her own county, and continued to reach out to legislators. But, all her efforts to communicate with officials failed and she was once again ignored.

“I remembered my fathers words, ‘if the mountain would not come to Mohammed, Mohammed would have to go to the mountain,’' she shared. “I also realized if my father were still alive, he’d have fought alongside me to save his granddaughter’s life.”

Determined to shed light on Ava’s story and force Harris into helping, Vera decided to complete the walk to Dublin.

“I believed Minister Harris when I met him in June, so what I deemed to be the subsequent inaction over the four months prior was inexcusable,” she added. “For me it was simple, the minister needed to get the legislation already drawn up moving forward. My husband and I would both walk over hot coals for Ava, and now was the time to prove it.”

When Ava’s condition worsened in the weeks that followed, Vera set out walking to Dublin again where she left off from the 17 mile mark, carrying little else but her coat, phone, a bottle of water and a couple of pears.

“The outpouring of support from every creed and nationalities along the way was truly astonishing,” she said. “I was joined by thousands of people from all walks of life - Catholics, Muslims, Jews - all praying in their own way for Ava.”

Hundreds of people turned out for this second walk, with thousands lining the streets of Dublin, stretching nearly two miles from the gates of Leinster House to Trinity Corner. Strangers along the way gave food and gifts. Other invited her in for meals and to soak her blistered feet in Epsom salt, as she was forced to use crutches, then a wheelchair during the final stretch when her knees gave out.

The number of sympathetic citizens was in drastic comparison to the few politicians playing politics with the plant, insisting on upholding laws that kept Ava from the help she and other children in Ireland so desperately needed.

The level of support from the people of Ireland on the walk to Dublin forced Minister Harris to meet with Vera once again. A long meeting into the night ensued - again, with no progress made and no help for Ava.

Exiles for a Plant

Vera and Paul realized that there was no alternative than to leave the country for the Netherlands where they could access the CBD oil with the much needed THC. Reluctant, but having no other options, they would need to crowdsource to fund the six months they’d have to spend away from home.

“With no access to a low THC medicine my husband and I had no choice but to reach out to strangers for financial help,” she said. “The help we received was humbling - something I feel deeply appreciative of to this day.”

In June of 2017 The family packed up their belongings, forced to leave their home country of Ireland to save Ava.

The General practitioner who met with them in the Netherlands was thoughtful and understanding, causing Vera to shed happy tears for the first time in a long time.

“It was so nice to deal with progressive and positive people, who understood why the CBD and THC were both necessary to help Ava,” she said. “Ireland’s officialdom was regressive and stuck in an out-dated grudging mindset.”

The medication, Bedrolite, was acquired from Transvaal pharmacy. It contained two percent THC and 10 percent CBD, causing Ava to become a remarkable 95 percent seizure-free.

In addition to the Bedrolite, Ava’s diet and supplements were addressed - something they were never asked about in Ireland. A number of supplements were added, including Krill oil (fatty acid), vitamin D3, Zinc, coriander and chlorella.

“You could see she was less constricted and not in pain,” Vera shared. “Before we went to The Hague, Ava would never respond to her name - now she would turn and seemed to have more understanding. She was more engaged, active, her appetite improved, and she was constantly wanting to run around the garden.”

The improvements were not lost on the neurologist in the Netherlands, finally feeling like he could grant a licence for her to access the medications. Back in Ireland, the Department of Health and Health Service Executive (HSE) could no longer deny that medicinal cannabis was working.

With Ava improving dramatically daily, Vera and Paul would need to travel every 12 weeks to the Netherlands to get enough supply of Bedrolite, at 9,500 euros a pop. Forcing Vera to fight for the right of having it delivered to Cork County, Ireland and their home in Aghabullogue.

Signed, sealed, delivered - at a cost

“It takes five weeks to obtain a refund of medication costs,” Vera said. “At this point, we are requesting funding up front to relieve the crippling financial burden.”

Grateful to have the medication, grateful to have it delivered to Ireland from the Netherlands, but still needful of the medicine to be paid for up front, like any other medication in Ireland, Vera fights on.

Important to note, Ireland’s healthcare system is considered to be a comprehensive system, with a public health service funded entirely by the government.

“I’m still begging,” she said, only partly amused. “But now, it’s not just for my family or Ava, there are other children and families suffering right here in Ireland, and this medication needs to be available for everyone at no cost - just like any other medicine. Healthcare isn’t a privilege, it's our right.”

Pride Spotlight

Ian Hackett, CMO, Napa Valley Fume

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”

— Paraphrased by Nelson Henderson, Canadian Farmer; via Rabindranath Tagore, Indian Poet

California cannabis patient Ian Hackett crossed over from a 20-year career in mainstream, corporate marketing into the cannabis industry as chief marketing officer and head of compliance for Napa Valley Fume, parent company to Lake Grade, a sun-grown, craft cannabis company specializing in fine flower and pre-roll packs.

Hackett grew up and came of age in San Francisco. Raised by immigrant parents, with his mother of British descent, coming over to America from Liverpool, England, and his father hailing from China.

His first experience with cannabis was in adolescence, partly under peer pressure. His second was in high school, with friends partaking near where he lived in a park near the Presidio neighborhood of the city, where military officers are housed in mansions overlooking San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge.

“I was a latch-key kid, and was off on my own after school,” he explained. “A friend had gotten some weed from an older brother, and we smoked in the park—hiding from MPs as they patrolled. I remember coughing a lot, with euphoria coming mostly from the fact that we were hiding out from the military police and being cool.”

Other sessions were awkward, with Hackett realizing that everyone else seemed more engaged than he was with the process.

“I pulled away and didn’t have a great time,” he added. “Later, when I was coming out as a gay, young man, I realized part of my anxiety was due to that stress.”

Members of the LGBTQ community deal with a PTSD that comes on early in life, with having to hide who they are from the very people tasked to protect them and show them the way, their parents. Fitting in with siblings and extended family members is difficult enough—let alone fitting into the community at large as they grow older. It’s a post-trauma linked to a person’s identity, often from a very young age, that few could relate to.

“The first job I ever had, I remember holding the door handle for a moment before going in, thinking to myself, ‘Are you going to be you? Who are you going to be?’ I often presented who I thought people needed me to be. It’s exhausting pretending to be something you are not.”

Therapy, he said, has helped him deal with who he is, but using cannabis purposefully with therapy was definitely a contributing factor, helping him see through the frustration, pain and daily anxiety of becoming himself.

“After one particularly difficult panic attack, I began trying CBD with great results,” he shared. “ I tried a tincture in a 1:1 ratio first, then increased the dose to an 8-1 CBD to THC, and it really works for me. I use tincture because it’s discreet and portable. There’s also something textural about it when I put it on my tongue. The practice of absorption has become a meditative practice for me.”

Weed in the City

Coming of age in San Francisco in the 1980s, Hackett was able to witness conflict in both the queer community and the cannabis community, as they were one in the same during the AIDS epidemic in the 1970s and 80s.

“When Brownie Mary was arrested for delivering brownies to AIDS patients, I remember my mom saying, in proper English, ‘Pastries! How could anyone get arrested for delivering pastries!’”

The cannabis industry has the LGBTQ community in San Francisco to thank for propelling the plant into the medicinal spotlight, with not only the late Mary Jane Rathbun and her highly medicinal brownies, but the late Dennis Peron—as a gay man, establishing the first cannabis collective in the city, helping quell symptoms of the then-mysterious “gay flu” that would become the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Marketing Diversity

After working for 20 years in mainstream marketing in-house with corporate entities like Este Lauder, Hackett crossed over into the cannabis space after meeting Napa Valley Fume’s co-founder and CEO, Eric Sklar.

“Eric is truly a good human to his core. He has two daughters and wants to follow the golden rule of leaving the earth better than you found it,” Hackett shared.

Hackett was able to develop an outreach program for the company called the Give Back Program.

“We were able to team up with One Tree Planted, a global, non-profit organization focused on reforesting the planet,” he added. “We plant one tree for every product we sell, focusing our work on replanting the regions where California fires devastated the local communities, including our farm.”

In 2017, the Tubbs fire took their farm in its first year of operation, with the nearby Kincade fire of 2019 causing additional damage to the surrounding region and communities.

“As a leader of the company, Eric trusts me to try new things—and I thrive in that kind of environment,” he continued. “Because of this trust, I can dive deep into product research and choose serious cultivars. I have the place to say if something isn’t good enough or that we can do better.”

One of Hackett’s first research expeditions prior to the Lake Grade brand launch, was attending the trade show, Hall of Flowers, in neighboring Santa Rosa.

“After seeing the beautiful flowers and work done at that event and then going back into the Lake Grade operation, I was nervous,” he admitted. “I was the new kid on the block at that point. But, when I walked in the General Manager turned to me and said ‘get to work,’ she didn’t care who I was, just that I had two hands and was able bodied.”

Hackett said he learned every aspect of the operation that he would soon promote from the ground up - literally. He went beyond his marketer's skill set, learning everything he could about the medicinal aspects of cannabis as a superfood, including work with terpenes, cannabinoids and more.

“From my research, I was actually able to help my mother,” he added. “She was aging and going through depression—especially this past year during the COVID lockdown. She now takes a 1:1 ratio of CBD to THC with great results.”

The conversation between Hackett and his mother on unpacking who he really is, is ongoing, but where cannabis is concerned, she’s fully onboard. As far as the masses accepting his gayness, he’s hopeful for the future.

“Opening doors and walking into rooms, I can still pause before going in because of who I am,” he said. “I’ve trained myself to listen to the message and not words. I also wear my Pride bracelet all year long. If they’re familiar with the bracelet and what it stands for, it’s my way of putting them on warning—to mind their Ps and Qs. It’s important for me to be wholly who I am wherever I go. I’m representing—not taking it all on. We make our own difference.”

Recently, he was met with harassment in public, and was happily defended by two women nearby.

“I’m six-foot-four, but I still get bullied from time to time,” he said.

Lake County, like Mendocino, Trinity and Humboldt—making up the Emerald Triangle—was once the home of the conservative logging, fishing and ranching industries, until the cannabis industry took over. Thus, it’s conservative base creates a paradox of clashing cultures on the rural North Coast.

As far as hiring from a more diverse employee pool, Hackett said it’s up to Human Resources to hire outside the box. When your circle is small, Hackett said, it reflects your immediate social network in terms of hiring, overlooking diversity, even if unintentional.

“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel; we just need to build it stronger and better, starting with inclusion and acceptance,” he surmised. “There will naturally be a more diverse employee base emerging as we go forward, pulling in more people from mainstream industries. When you have diversity at your table we already know you’ll have higher sales, with a more productive and happier base.”

Loriel Alegrete, CEO and Co-Founder of 40 Tons, Los Angeles

A brand from the ashes of the failed drug war.

“Just because someone carries it well, doesn’t mean it isn’t heavy”

Loriel Alegrete co-founded 40 Tons, a premium cannabis clothing and accessories brand in Los Angeles, California. As CEO, she oversees macro strategy and strategic partnerships between other brands, advocacy groups, and organizations representing the victims of the failed war on drugs.

Both the name of the brand and the story behind her advocacy are personal, with 40 Tons giving a nod to the amount of cannabis her husband and friend were associated with in a pool of charges.

To tell Alegrete’s story, you really need to start with her husband’s longtime friend, Corvain Cooper, and his tale of being handed a life sentence for the subsequent non-violent cannabis charges and last minute reprieve from former President Trump in the final hours of his term in February of 2021.

To back up further, and to demonstrate the endurance and strength of this woman, when she was just a teen her brother was arrested for being accessory to a murder, causing her to help care for the family, while also supporting her brother in prison. This gave her a painful understanding of the justice system at a very young age.

Fast forward and Alegrete’s prison woes continued with the incarceration of both her husband, Anthony Alegrete, and his close friend, Cooper, on cannabis charges.

While her husband's sentence was less harsh, Cooper's accumulated charges, combined with 100 other associated cases within the bust, along with the court using an newly obsolete three-strikes law (per then-sitting President Obama), gave him life without parole.

When Anthony was released, cannabis laws began to relax across the country, with the husband and wife now focusing on Cooper’s release.

“Corvain never once acted like he was serving a life sentance,” Alegrete shared. “All during those nine years served, he kept saying, ‘the same thing that landed me here will free me,’ and he was right.”

It wasn’t that Corvain denied any wrongdoing; on the contrary. Alegrete added he acknowledged breaking the law, but with the laws changing all over the country, albeit the world, with God as his higher power, he believed all would be corrected in time.

As explained during an interview with Cooper by Montel Williams on his podcast, Let’s Be Blunt, he watched from his cell as Trump was impeached a second time, holding his freedom in the balance. But by the time Trump boarded the helicopter, heading back to Mar a Lago, he had signed the orders releasing Cooper in his final hours, after nine years served, with five minutes to “get your shit and get out,” per a prison guard.

A Life of Advocacy, #notjustcannabis

A first-hand education on the U.S. justice system in her teens prepared Alegrete for a lifetime of advocacy, whether she wanted it or not.

Prior to his incarceration for cannabis, Alegrete and her husband, Anthony, were already active in their former community in Las Vegas, supporting and visiting Holocost survivors in retirement homes, as Anthony is of Jewish-Italian descent.

“Our heritage is important to us,” she explained. “The stories of both our lineages from being Black and Jewish, are fraught with persecution and suffering. But the stories are also of advocacy, redemption and subsequent freedoms.”

Ever the advocate, Alegrete also founded Jump for Joy while in Las Vegas, a community outreach for children facing obesity.

Fashionably Looking Forward

What Alegrete didn’t count on throughout her advocacy was using her degree acquired from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles (FIDM).

“I thought I had put that career in the rear view mirror,” she laughed. “I had plateaued in the space, after working in retail right out of the institute as a retail manager in clothing shops. Now I’m looking forward to dipping my toe into the design pool and putting my degree to good use for the cause.”

The website sports the usual hats, sweatshirts, t-shirts—and face masks—all with the 40 Tons logo on them. More clothing for women is now planned, with sports bras and yoga shorts on the top of her list to design and market.

Interesting and sad to note, during Cooper’s ten years of probation following his release, he isn’t allowed to partake of the plant, and isn’t allowed to even wear any article of clothing with the cannabis leaf on it. Hence the 40 Tons logo without any trace of the plant.

As states in the U.S. and other countries legalize or decriminalize, we see more acceptance for the plant across the globe, both medicinally and recreationally. But the archaic criminal brutalities within the failed war on drugs in the U.S. continue, with little to no education on its benefits persuading the powers that be to acknowledge it as medicine.

“I’m grateful that my husband and Corvain have been released,” she concluded. “But, it’s heartbreaking how slow legislation in the U.S. is in turning things around. Our goal at 40 Tons is to continue to support those incarcerated and help to educate and change the laws for the better. I know this has been said a million times, but no one should go to prison for a plant.”

Karina Wolford, Raw Chef

Juicing for Multiple Sclerosis

In 2010 Chef Karina Wolford was at the top of her game. Twenty-nine years old with a culinary degree from Portland’s elite Le Cordon Bleu culinary school, her resume included the five-star Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, followed by two gigs in the Virgin Islands. Life was good, and then everything fell apart.

“The lifestyle choices I was making were not good,” she shared. “I was drinking heavily, getting little sleep, and I feel that contributed to my illness,” she said.

Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, Wolford was nearly bedridden and unable to continue working. She packed her bags and went home to her parent’s for care, as her health and body continued to fail.

Take 20 Pills and Call Me in the Morning

“The only treatment for MS is a shot of Interferon,” she explained. “It doesn’t work to cure the illness; it’s supposed to merely slow the progression. In the end I was taking more than 20 prescription meds.”

According to Web M.D., Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is “a chronic disease that damages the nerves in the spinal cord and brain, as well as the optic nerves.”

Translated, Sclerosis means “scarring,” from extensive scar tissue created by nerve damage, causing “multiple” symptoms, including loss of muscle control, balance, vision and speech; causing extreme weakness and numbness in limbs, with muscle spasms leading to difficulty in walking, frequent tripping, and falling.

Wolford believes MS patients rack up so many meds due to the domino effect of medicating myriad symptoms using pharmaceuticals with equally multiple side effects.

“I spent between 18 and 22 hours a day in bed,” Wolford continued. “They had me on uppers, downers, anti-seizure meds, muscle relaxers – you name it. I was on so many medications I didn’t know who I was, and remember little.”

Chemical Culprits

The cause of MS is illusive at best. Bad genes seem to be widely accepted, with the National MS Society focusing on the Central Nervous System.

Groundbreaking Biologist Rachel Carson discovered the dangers of the widely used pesticide Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane or

DDT in 1939, yet her page-turner “Silent Spring” wasn’t published until 1962.

Already widely used by 1945, the pesticide created by Monsanto and manufactured by DuPont is in the “chlorinated hydrocarbon group,” chosen for it’s reasonable cost, effectiveness, and versatility in dealing with pests from agriculture, and prevention against Malaria and Typhus abroad. In other words, it was the seeming lesser of the evils when it came to pest control, and is still used in third world countries for vector control.

An experiment conducted by the U.S.D.A. (Department of Agriculture) Bureau of Entomology in 1945 widely reported the findings of a five-pound per acre solution sprayed over a gypsy moth infested 1,200 acre oak forest near Moscow, Pennsylvania. Quoted as being “terrifyingly effective,” within hours every moth died along with more than 4,000 birds in eight days.

Carson’s tell-all details how pests are killed by the chemical attack on their central nervous system – paralyzing and rendering them defenseless until their immune system fails and each organ stops functioning until they suffocate. Those familiar with Parkinson’s or Lou Gehrig’s disease just got a chill.

Poisoned Little Planet

Although our bodies must deal with many toxins coming at us from earth, wind, stream and sea, research has shown DDT stays in genetic bloodlines up to five generations that we know of.

Illnesses such as MS affecting the central nervous and auto immune systems include Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, epilepsy; all the attention deficit disorders; the entire and ever broadening autistic spectrum, including anxiety, panic attacks, and a bevy of psychiatric nightmares, causing some to grab a semi-automatic and head for the mall.

DDT wasn’t pulled from U.S. markets until 1972, with Carson’s book inspiring both the Clean Air and Water Acts of 1973 and 1974, respectively. Sadly, the damage was done, with more than 1,350,000,000 pounds of the stuff infused into water, soil and food in the U.S. in its 30 year reign.

The Will to Live

The debilitating illness caused great apathy in the young woman who had just been living a dream life in a tropical paradise.

“It was like I was four years old again and had to be shown how to do everything,” she said. “I cried most of the day, every day, and felt very sorry for myself.”

Though Wolford said she couldn’t end her own life, she had lost the will to live.

“My friend took me into her home and taught me about having a positive outlook on life,” she said. “Overnight I went off all my meds and went on a raw foods diet.”

Within days Wolford said she felt better.

“I could think off the meds,” she continued. “I was able to take a few more steps each day and wasn’t needing to spend as much time in bed.”

After much hard work, within weeks she was up and walking around the block.

“Everyday my head was clearer,” she added. “I lost 65 pounds in six months, cleansed my liver and my colon and felt great.”

Got Leaf?

Wolford’s been symptom free four years now since healing herself with raw foods, a positive vibe – and adding raw Cannabis leaf to her regiment, with excellent results.

“It’s challenging obtaining enough leaf on a regular basis, but when I can add it to my juice I feel amazing!” she explained. “It gives me a sudden burst of energy and feels like it literally gives me life.”

Wolford uses a masticating juicer as opposed to a centrifugal or a “Vita mix,” stating she feels the unit’s heat up the material, activating the Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) the psychoactive properties of Cannabis.

“I rarely smoke anymore, so I’m not really into the psychoactive effects,” she shared. “I’m after the pure medicine of the plant.”

The medicinal properties of the plant are still being discovered, but the Cannabinoids or CBDs are a stated factor in healing, speaking to the human body’s own Endocannabinoid System present throughout the body, including the brain, and why the plant rights what’s wrong within us.

“Eating raw foods or juicing, especially Cannabis leaf, won’t get you “high” in the recreational sense, but you may feel high on energy and life force,” she said.

(Note: Bottom or fan leaf is best for non-psychoactive ingesting. The flower and leaf close to the bud with visible crystals will have trace THC)

No Quick Fix

Technically forever in remission, Wolford has made her life’s work around her own raw foods diet, completely re-thinking her role as a traditionally trained chef in the kitchen.

“There is no quick fix,” she surmises. “Changing the way you live and the way you eat takes dedication, will power, and the desire to heal yourself. What is your health worth to you? Is it worth giving up meat, gluten, dairy and processed foods?”

The petite, soft-spoken young woman has learned to speak out and help others, writing a book of her experience with plans of opening a raw foods café and juice bar in Eugene, Oregon where she makes her home.

“Our bodies are very powerful and capable of nearly anything if we fuel them with high quality, organic ingredients! It’s not easy, and it’s sure not a magic pill – it’s about loving yourself. In my wildest dreams, I did not know the life I’m living now would be possible, but I’m so grateful I made it here.”

Tara Wells, Founder Ganja Goddess, California

Premium brand with innovative statewide delivery service

Cannabis industry leader, Tara Wells, began her career in television as Executive Producer of The Amazing Race for CBS. As a producer, her skill set includes having a head for business and numbers, public relations, marketing, being extremely organized, and being able to run large-scale operations with multiple employees answering to her.

Wells' brand, Ganja Goddess, established in 2011, offers up carefully curated cannabis products with two other companies under its umbrella—one with a focus on CBD, and a delivery service proving to be a great success in California.

In 2014 Wells opened a recreational retail storefront near downtown Seattle. Reviews from its Google Business page reflect well-stocked shelves, a knowledgeable staff, and “the coolest vibe in town.”

CBDGoddess.com, launched June of 2020 is a national e-commerce site devoted to the sales and distribution of CBD products for people and pets.

During the 2020 Pandemic Wells launched Ganja Goddess Delivery, servicing California residents throughout the state. The delivery arm turned out to be needed as an essential business during the time of COVID, as it propelled the Ganja Goddess brand into a stunning 100 percent growth spurt before the year’s end.

Special to the delivery service is its attention to detail, specifically in making deliveries a priority to small and rural areas that may not be served otherwise.

The combined sites host an average of 75 cultivars and more than 150 products at any given time. All sites and services host farmers and producers who are largely organic and environmentally aware, with products sourced solely from the U.S.

Recognizing Women’s Purchasing Power

With more than 10 years of experience in the retail cannabis space, Wells is considered a pioneer in terms of representing female entrepreneurs in the industry.

Seeing that women were sorely underserved, she founded the company with a mission for change, keeping a close eye on the company’s direct-to-consumer data on consumption habits and trends, helping her keep up with the rapidly growing and ever-changing marketplace.

“The female demographic in the U.S. has always had the buying power and the cannabis marketplace is no different. According to Insurance Business Magazine.com, women make up 70 to 80 percent of all consumer purchasing in the cannabis space,” said Norman Ives, broker and cannabis practice leader at NutraRisk.

In a 2019 report by Headset it was reported that women are more likely than men to use cannabis for its health benefits, rather than for recreation. Women are also more open to try different products, such as capsules, topical creams and sprays.

Women also make up 36 percent of the cannabis industry workforce. Also noted within the study is the evolution of marketing to women in the cannabis space, with the welcome absence of bud and boobs as marketing tools when women market to women.

Late to the Table

On a personal note, Wells was a self-admitted late bloomer when it came to discovering cannabis, abstaining until well into her late 30s.

“Once I finally tried it was like a beautiful flower opening up in my field of awareness,” she explained. “The first time I tried it in earnest it was by eating a chocolate cannabis-infused truffle—I was instantly smitten! Cannabis enhanced my creativity and made my body feel great.”

In her past life as a television writer, director and producer, she had only used the plant in the evening to unwind after a long day on set, but it eventually became a tool for writing.

“My brain would see things in a different light,” she continued. “I also used cannabis to help with joint pain in my knees, as a result of being very athletic in my teens.”

Wells said she began planting seeds in her garden at home, resulting in enormous Blue Dream cultivars.

From Homemade Brownies to a National Platform

“From then on I began harvesting wonderful bud and started making edibles for myself and friends,” she said. “I used a brownie recipe from my family and experimented with butter and dosage until I got the perfect mix.”

The brownies developed within California’s legal medical market in 2006 eventually became her now infamous “Ganja Goddess Brownies,” becoming an instant hit all over California. The brownies that started it all are still available on its website.

Realizing cannabis as an ingestible remedy for pain also gave her immediate relief from severe arthritis in her joints and knees—a throwback from being an athletic teenager.

“Cannabis and CBD products helped me, both from topical use and ingesting,” she concluded. “The results were so outstanding that I wanted to show people the different effects and dosages of CBD on my own body, so I created an online tutorial, available through the CBD Goddess site. What ended up happening is we began hearing stories of healing from friends, family members, patients and customers, with them sharing how much our products have helped them.”

Testament to the Plant

One heartwarming story involved a family member in her 80s, who had suffered through several bouts of cancer, with doctors prescribing, what Wells referred to as “heavy pharmaceutical pain killers.

“It was Thanksgiving and we all knew it would be her last,” she said. “She was having trouble eating, but would not use cannabis, thinking it was a ‘bad’ drug.”

Wells made her a small batch of her own tincture and she became more comfortable with taking it after the family agreed to take doses together on Thanksgiving morning.

“The next morning, within two hours of taking the tincture she was laughing, smiling, and her pain had completely subsided,” she shared. “When it came time for dinner, she ate—for the first time in weeks—a whole plate of food, and had a second helping of my pie.”

From that day forward, until her death several months later, she took Wells’ tincture three times a day, successfully quelling the pain, with no waste-away whatsoever, and a good appetite.

“Her daughter told me that the difference in her end-of-life care and the quality of her life was enormous, and even her hospice care workers contacted me to get bottles sent to their other patients,” she said. “It really hit home how important access to this medicine is for everyone. I became a true believer in the healing power of cannabis.”

“Since that day, some 14 years ago, I’ve had thousands of patients reach out with stories of healing with cannabis, and I feel honored to be able to participate in spreading the good word about this plant—and so many healing herbs we’ve come to know since.”

Andrew DeAngelo, Strategic Cannabis Consultant

Following in his brothers footsteps, finding himself

Andrew DeAngelo was just ten years old when his older brother, Steven, was holding cannabis smoke-outs in front of the White House in Washington D.C., where they were raised.

“Steve dropped out of school and ran away from home to become an activist in the cannabis space,” Andrew shared. “I stayed home, and during Steve’s early days of activism I was in college in California, watching from afar. During breaks I’d go home and hang out at the Nuthouse with Steven and crew, and ended up designing lighting for events. I was an actor who had some behind the scenes skills.”

Andrew also had high hopes of becoming a tennis pro, but an injury when he was 16 curbed that dream.

“My brother handed me a joint for the pain,” he explained. “I remember the exact moment - we were in the kitchen. I guess you could say that was my first time medicating with cannabis. But, my first actual time of being intoxicated came a few years earlier when my brother as teacher and guide gave me a pot brownie.”

In high school Andrew said he wrote a paper advocating for legalization for an Advanced Placement government class. The teacher became enraged at the notion, but couldn’t stop the young advocate now following in his brother’s footsteps.

“The argument at the time was for personal freedom and that cannabis prohibition was wrong,” he continued. “That strategy was wrong,, but we didn’t know that in the early 80s. We didn’t know enough about medical use at that time - and that’s really been the game changer.”

The AIDS epidemic in San Francisco that came into its own in the early 1980s changed the face of cannabis users, proving the plant's efficacy for pain, infection, and for building the immune system.

“I always knew it helped me feel better - I smoked for injuries, pain, and when distraught over my tennis career ending,” he said. “It always made me feel like everything was going to be alright.”

Smoking cannabis is known to lift endorphins as quick as a morning jog. This is the euphoria most feel, helping to literally lift mental states. The word “stoned” comes from the alcohol and the drinking culture, and has nothing to do with the elevation of endorphins, creating dopamine. This is where the word “high” comes from.

While the boys were discovering cannabis and the advocacy that followed, their father was working his way up the government ladder. First in city planning, working for the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; then moving the family to Washington D.C., for a job in the Kennedy administration.

“My parents were political people and they inspired us to be engaged politically,” he said. “But if not for cannabis, we would not have been involved in politics. We would have been creative people.”

Andrew first studied acting at Chapman, earning his BFA. He then went on to study acting at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, and would briefly teach acting as a professor at the university years later - but his higher calling was yet to come. He met Dennis Peron and began working on cannabis legalization.

Capitalism & Cannabis

In 2006, the DeAngelo boys founded Harborside, a dispensary Oakland, California, eventually opening up locations in San Jose, San Leandro; a 47-acre farm in Monterey County; and a dispensary in Desert Hot Springs in California, with a now infamous drive-through window option.

With more than 250,000 registered customers, Harborside has flourished as the first retailer in the country to provide education for seniors, veterans, and families with severely ill children. It was also the first cannabis retailer to demand testing on all products, free from pesticides, and insuring verifyable potency levels of THC and CBD.

Andrew waxes poetic when discussing the free market and capitalism in the cannabis space.

“We obviously need capitalism for a legal cannabis market, but we also need to ensure sustainability and social justice happen in our industry,” he explained. “Sometimes capitalism is not good in that area. When capitalism fails, the environment and the people are exploited. The system needs to be reinvented and redesigned - we need to think of a new way of doing things. I believe that cannabis presents capitalism with opportunities to give a fuck.”

He added that it remains to be seen if capitalism can embrace the promise, because there really is not choice.

“Look at the wildfires burning or the hurricanes blowing,” he continued. “Look at the pandemic. How much longer can capitalism go without caring about those things? But capitalism needs teachers to help them integrate those values, and that is one of the things I try to do as a strategic advisor to the global cannabis industry. I want to build a new type of industry, not just a new industry. I believe cannabis can be a model for capitalism at large, and I intend to help make that happen.”

Unfortunately, we have a long way to go, as he added that capitalism is a stubborn animal, but if we feed it enough cannabis, he thinks we can get to that place.

“Clearly that’s what’s happening right now with the CBD movement,” he concluded. “The plants are coming to the rescue of capitalism, hopefully in the nick of time. We are their feet and voice - they’ll take care of the rest. You can’t stop the healing, and that’s really what the plant and the industry is all about.”

Always a Patient

Since his high school injury, Andrew has always considered himself a cannabis patient.

“All uses are in the medical camp,” he said, emphatically. “All uses are for wellness. You are engaging your endocannabinoid system, and that’s a good thing. End of story.”

And, although he openly admits to enjoying getting high, his eCS is not denied.

“I medicate everyday,” he shared. “My primary delivery of cannabis oil is with capsules - whole plant, solvent-free. My favorite brand is Prana - all day long.”

Andrew no longer manages the Harborside Wellness dispensaries, instead spending his time advocating for the release of prisoners, with non-profit, the Last Prisoner Project (LPP). He and brother Steven co-founded, with Andrew sitting on the Board of Directors as Treasure.

“Right now we are advocating for Michael Thompso serving time in Michigan,” he said. “He’s been in prison close to 26 years now - I was still in my 20s when he was incarcerated.”

With LPP, released prisoners will receive help with relocating, housing, employment, and expunging records.

Another endeavor is Dab Productions, founded by the brothers. It’s mission is “to create new mythologies for cannabis in pop culture, smashing the stigma of the lazy stoner, and replacing it with fresh and positive representations of cannabis in society.”

He ended his role as a founding member of the Board of Directors of the California Cannabis Industry Association (CCIA) in January of 2020, where he served from 2013. The association was created to promote responsible and legitimate cannabis industry and work for a favorable social, economic and legal environment for the industry in the state.

Aside from his work with LPP, and Dab Productions, Andrew is now putting his energies and lending his unique skill set toward helping companies in the cannabis space, with consulting and strategic advice.

“All of us that are walking the path of the plant, trying to create a new industry that follows the values of the plant,” he surmised. “The cannabis industry could be the new model for all other industries in this respect. It doesn’t matter how big or small your company is, the journey is very unique - just like me and my brother’s. It’s been a wild journey with this plant and no two paths are alike.”

For more information on Harborside visit, www.shopharborside.com

For more information on the Last Prisoner Project visit, www.lastprisonerproject.org

For more information on Andrew and Dab Productions visit, www.andrewdeangelo.com

Sisters of the Valley, Mexico

Answering to a higher calling for the plant and its people south of the border

The Sisters of the Valley began in California’s agricultural hub, in the Central Valley, by Sister Kate—also known as Christine Meeusen—after a doctor suggested using cannabis to treat symptoms of menopause. After being helped herself, she then crossed over from the corporate world of finance to the cannabis industry, dawning a new habit, in more ways than one.

Inspired by the Beguines, a non-denominational order of women who served the rural communities of France from the late 12th through the 17th centuries, Sister Kate created six vows that make up the order's mission.

“A vow of servitude—which is making medicine with the cannabis plant, in serving the people,” she began. “A vow of obedience to the moon cycles, as we make all our medicine within this cycle; a vow of ecology, to protect the earth; a vow of activism, to protect the plant and access to it; a vow of living simply; and a vow of chastity, though we don’t believe you have to be celibate to be chaste.”

Devoted to serving its communities, records show the Beguines were apothecaries or medicine makers using plants for remedies—centuries prior to pharmaceutical use. They were also weavers and made clothing for their communities, with Sister Kate adding, “We can assume their garments were made from hemp.”

The Sisters in California serve some of the poorest agricultural working families in the state, including immigrants who have been working the harvests for decades. They do it for the greater good, for the healing that comes from what they believe to be God’s plant.

The Sisters in Mexico

Sister Luna and Sister Camila first heard of the order in California upon the launch of the documentary Breaking Habits at the Cannes Film Festival in France, profiling the order in California.

“We sent Sister Kate an email letting them know we were starting a cannabis business, and were invited to the farm for as long as we wanted,” Sister Luna shared. “Our first farm stay was two weeks.”

The two were about to enter postgraduate degrees in Mexico—Luna in biomedicine and Camila in social sciences.

“Sister Kate asked us to be members of the order, living in Mexico,” she said. “We were the first Spanish speaking Sisters to be accepted. It was very emotional and we couldn’t answer right away, but were very happy to accept.”

The Sisters are living, working and attending University in Tijuana in Baja California, just across the border from California.

Tijuana, like Mexico City, has a thriving cannabis community, and the Sisters began teaching plant medicine workshops this year.

Science, Cannabis, and Society

“Our main activity is finishing our postgraduate degrees, with a focus on activism,” Sister Luna explained. “We also want to teach people who want to learn the plant’s many medicinal uses. We present the plant as sacred.”

Sister Luna has a Master’s Degree in biomedicine, with her research and projects focusing on vaccines to fight cancer. Sister Camilla is working toward a PhD in Social Sciences, with her research project on a transfer of scientific knowledge to the cannabis industry.

“Before starting the projects we decided to work on postgraduate studies, since we always like studying and learning,” Sister Luna said. “But we also want to demonstrate and prove that the projects we have are serious.”

The seriousness of their work is meaningful, as they hope to garner respect for their work with cannabis in Mexico, while helping to do away with the negative stigmas associated with cannabis use.

“Our goal is to have credibility and seriousness,” she added. “Our postgraduate courses are indirectly focused on cannabis, since it’s not yet direct research on the plant, but in the future, when we finish our courses, we will focus on research issues within the cannabis industry from what we’ve learned.”

The connection between science, cannabis, and society is an important one to the Sisters, eventually wanting to set up a research center for medicinal plants, including psychedelics, gaining widespread acceptance in the U.S. today.

Merging Old Ways With New Meaning

“Our grandmothers in Mexico used many herbs, including cannabis to heal,” Sister Luna explained. “They used many teas and herbal remedies—in ritual and practice. The most traditional remedy that we know of is an alcohol maceration that’s smeared on muscles for pain.”

Otherwise known as a poultice, this is an age-old method of applying plant compounds topically.

In their workshops, the Sisters teach how to make extracts in a “simple and friendly way,” with the ultimate goal of having a “more inclusive community and equal rights for all.”

“The stigma of the plant still causes discomfort to many people who would otherwise like to learn,” she added. “Our own research and knowledge; along with witnessing others heal, and our own experiences with healing from the plant, causes us to be committed to informing all people of its benefits.”

The Sisters of the Valley are known for planting and making remedies by the full moon cycle, and this is part of what they share with the participants of their workshops.

According to Almanac.com “... seeds will absorb more water during the full moon and the new moon, when more moisture is pulled to the soil surface. This causes the seeds to swell, resulting in greater germination and better-established plants.”

Tolerance and Acceptance

As of this writing, the Mexican Senate is deliberating on a Bill to legalize both the medicinal and adult recreational use of cannabis. This is happening, while the industry is already emerging, with private clubs as dispensaries already operating within a gray area, since its Supreme Court voted to do away with prohibition in October of 2018.

Within this gray area, Copa Cannabica, Mexico’s cannabis cup, is already operating throughout the country, with one just held in Baja California’s Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico’s wine country, just under two hours from the Tijuana border.

Both Sister Luna and Sister Camila were in attendance.

“We had not been to a competition before, but found it was a good place to make contacts and see how the cannabis market has grown in the country,” Sister Luna said. “Precautions still need to be taken, but education on the plant is happening now, and the products we are seeing are beautifully made.”

As far as legalization goes, Sister Luna said they are aware of the skills of the Mexican people in growing cannabis already. The products are already here, the plant is already being grown in mass quantities, with many interested in the industry on many levels.

“Sadly, the people of Mexico have a lot of knowledge in growing cannabis, but they have been the last to benefit monetarily in the illicit market,” she continued. “Hopefully, in the legal market, this knowledge can be put to good use and the people can earn a living wage in the cannabis industry in Mexico.”

Though corporate involvement is expected in any emerging industry, the Sisters of the Valley in Mexico dread the prospects, and hope the citizens of the country can ultimately benefit.

“We in Mexico have lived with the violence of the Drug War for a very long time,” she said, knowingly. “When we officially legalize the plant, drug traffickers will surely take advantage of laundering money. The cartel’s money, infrastructure, and equipment will no doubt be part of the industry here initially. We just hope the rules will be written fairly for the people, so they can thrive—not just financially, but by allowing the education and healing that follows legalization to happen.”

For more information on the Sisters of the Valley visit, www.sistersofthevalley.org

Follow them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @sistersofcbd

For more information on the Sisters of the Valley Mexico visit, www.sistersofthevalleymexico.com

Follow the Sisters of the Valley Mexico on Instragram @sistersofthevalleymexico ; Facebook Hermanas de Valle

Black History Month Spotlight

Antoinette Wade, Founder, Gratitude Blossom

A former Naval Officer finds her higher calling in the cannabis industry

Newly minted cannabis business owner Antoinette Wade began her career much in the same way as she’s starting her new chapter in cannabis—with the desire to help others.

“At times of confusion in my life, I’ve looked to the wisdom of the late Maya Angelou,” she shared. “During a Power of Women luncheon with Oprah Winfrey, the book The Seat of the Soul, by Gary Zukav, was discussed. My take-away from Oprah was, ‘authentic power is when your personality comes to serve the energy of your soul, when you are able to align who you are, you become the world, with what you came to do in the world, when your personality serves your soul.’ I just got it.”

As a young woman in North Carolina, Wade said she worked as a child behavior specialist for troubled youth. Though she has always been called to help others, it was a challenging position, and soon she looked elsewhere for a new career, enlisting in the U.S. Navy with a desire to work with planes.

Her journey to her true self, the person she was meant to be, came through struggles and successes as she moved up the ranks of the Navy, traveling the world, only to end up as a recruitment officer in a shopping mall on the corner of Crenshaw and Slauson, in the heart of los Angeles' notorious South Central—home of the riots in 1992 that nearly obliterated the still crime-riddled, struggling community.

“The first thing I learned as a recruiter is, it’s a 24/7 job,” she said. “If a future sailor needs to go to the doctor or someone in the neighborhood is in need, we are there. We are a part of the community and there to help.”

After three years in this position, facing violence daily—including the occasional brick being tossed into the recruitment center itself—her tour ended and she requested a transfer to San Diego, a location she’d been in prior and enjoyed.

She had met and married her husband, who was also in the Navy, while working at the recruiting office in Los Angeles. They eventually both received orders taking them to San Diego, where in two years time they had their child, Zoe. Soon he was off on tours, leaving her at home with their newborn, and a bad case of PTSD from her time on the flight line.

“I presented with anxiety and panic attacks,” she explained. “After a year of treatment I was medically retired from the Navy, with PTSD, major depression, and an anxiety disorder, along with an array of physical issues. I had been introduced to CBD with small amounts of THC, and as I followed a daily protocol, my life became more balanced.”

CBD Voodoo & the Number Three

Along with her health and well-being improving, Wade said she decided to block all negative people from her life, including a few in-laws that were a little too harsh regarding the crystals she was now meditating with.

“They thought I was practicing ‘voodoo,’ she remembered. “I knew I had to take charge of my life again, and draft a basic blueprint in my mind on how I was going to heal. I kept praying and meditating, asking God, what my next step was. I even saw a psychic who couldn’t see where I was supposed to be, geographically.”

Understanding the law of abundance, and knowing she was indeed not only abundant in resources, but in wisdom and knowledge—even in her mistakes, she knew she could succeed in being of service.

“I completed my Masters in Public Health and began applying for various related positions, with no luck,” she continued. “But, I remembered Maya saying, ‘When one door closes, say thank you, because that’s your rainbow in the clouds. So, I put in an application to complete my PhD. Then, I thought, I can really make a difference!”

What’s little known is, all throughout her military career and in between, Wade was put in the middle of sensitive altercations on the street—with homeless people, many suffering from mental illness. She never hesitated from pulling over in her car, and assisting in situations others would run from. It was already in her to be of service. This was and still is her calling.

“During this time of helping people on the street, I realized there had been three in a row put in front of me in a three-day period,” she said. “So I looked up the number three for meaning, and found that seeing the numbers 333 repeatedly is a sign from your divine protectors—the angels that were created by God to guide you throughout your lifetime on earth.”

In the spirit world, she said, there are also guides that show up during certain phases of your life to assist you on your journey.

“In clicking the link again for more clarity, it says, ‘the angel number 333 is an encouragement to deeply explore the skills and talents you were given, and to share them with the rest of the world, she added. “So, I thought, I can help ease other’s pain with some of the tools I’d discovered in my own journey. I thought about what Oprah had said about ‘serving the energy of my soul.’”

A New Leaf, Literally

Her initial reaction from this epiphany was to work for a non-profit or a holistic clinic, and began sending resumes out, to no avail.

“Oprah said, ‘luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity,’” she concluded. “So, I said aloud to Maya’s spirit, here it is! At that moment, I decided to forget the job and the PhD, and focus on the one element of my alternative wellness practice that helped me the most, CBD.”

Wade’s online shop, Gratitude Blossom, is launching on February 11 of this year, offering up CBD products under her brand, with THC licensing pending.

“The name Gratitude Blossom came to me immediately, because I remain grateful for the cannabis flower, and for the flower I feel blooming inside of me,” she surmised. “All the products have positive affirmations written on them, signed by me, with love and light.”

Help in forming the business came from C.E. Hutton, a minority-focused business development firm within the legal cannabis industry.

“Upon opening the page, right under its name, were the words, ‘faith, integrity, trust,’ so I knew this was the place. Then I saw a photo under ‘coaching’ of a beautiful Black woman with golden locs. Her name is Khadijah Adams and she is amazing. I held my breath when I made the appointment, and then Khadijah herself called me back.”

Upon researching for the type of cannabis business she wanted, Wade had typed in “non-profit cbd,” and information on compassion centers popped up.

“The idea of a compassion center became my obsession,” she said. “Soon after I was speaking to C.E. Hutton himself, and ever since that moment, I’ve had this feeling of completeness and purpose. My goal is for Gratitude Blossom to become a safe place for mind, body and soul, welcoming all who seek growth, with a personal message from me, ‘I believe in you.’”

For more information on Gratitude Blossom visit, www.gratitudeblossom.com

Higher Profile: Heather Jackson

Co-Founder & President, Realm of Caring

If you want to see change in the world, tell a mother she can’t help her child. That’s how Heather Jackson came into the cannabis space, for the love of her child, Zaki.

“I am a byproduct of the 1980s, ‘this is your brain on drugs, egg in the frying pan,’ ‘Just Say No’ campaigns,” she explained. “So, I always believed that marijuana was probably bad for you. Although I have never been one to believe anything anyone in authority told me, blanketly.”

When her son Zaki was diagnosed with a rare form of childhood epilepsy, all the failed War on Drugs rhetoric went out the proverbial window.

“We discovered help for him with CBD after 17 failed pharmaceutical prescriptions, believe it or not!” she exclaimed. “He came off the last two, one of them being heavy hitting and very addictive—benzodiazepine—within a year of starting the cannabis treatment.”

Zaki was helped with cannabidiol, or CBD, one compound from the cannabis plant, derived from Charlotte’s Web of Denver, taking a 200 milligram dose, daily.

Due to the success of Zaki’s treatment, Jackson became immersed in helping other families in the same situation. The outcome was in establishing the Realm of Caring Foundation, with just four families initially signed up in 2012. Today, the network, which hosts a free call-center, has grown to a staggering 100,000, with patients from around the world being helped; nearly surpassing Israel’s registry run by the Israeli Ministry of Health; and Canada’s now closed registry managed by Health Canada.

“We are doing innovative and first-of-its-kind research with John Hopkins University, collaborating on what has become the largest cannabis registry in the country,” she added. “The research has been used to deliver revolutionary education to the community. This past summer we published our first peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.”

Realm of Caring has also distributed nearly three million in grants to families in need, something Jackson said she is most proud of.

“We’ve been able to assist with the inception of cannabis legislation reform efforts in over 20 states, and are changing the face of cannabis and the way we think about this plant and who uses it,” she said.

It’s been more than eight years since Zaki began taking his preventive maintenance dose of CBD oil. The first media coverage of his story was titled “Pot for Tots,” embarrassing the proud mother, who had worked so hard to explain the seriousness of help received from the plant.

“To give you an idea of how things have evolved from education, a more recent headline read, ‘Growing Hope.’ So, perceptions have changed dramatically,” she added. “I’m thankful to the many families who have been vulnerable enough to share themselves with us and the world.”

Healing her family, healing herself

Jackson had experimented with cannabis as a teenager, partaking until she was 20, then stopped when she became pregnant with her first son, thinking that was the responsible thing to do.

“I hadn’t used any form of cannabis until recently, in the past five years, when I experienced my own neurological issues and declining health,” she shared.

Looking back, Jackson said the symptoms she was feeling were more than likely from the intense stress she went through as a mother caring for a sick child, then feeling the heavy responsibility of helping others from what she’d learned.

“There we were in the doctor’s office, going down the same traditional path of Western medicine that had betrayed our family prior with Zaki,” she said. “The doctor initially diagnosed me with migraines, but I knew that wasn’t it. I was eventually able to turn my own symptoms around using plant medicine, including cannabis, frankincense, other essential oils, with the goal of reducing inflammation in my body and resetting my brain and body from all the trauma.”

Her more holistic treatments and protocols included counseling, healthy eating, movement, better rest, and taking care of herself in a more loving way.

“In the end, I wasn’t just caring for one child, I was helping thousands, and I desperately needed to rest to give my adrenals a break,” she said. “Now, I take 25 milligrams of CBD by Charlotte’s Web everyday for prevention.”

“When my son was helped I wanted to help guide families and be a source of light and hope,” she concluded. “We knew we needed to collect more data, so we could educate about what the plant could do for those considering its use,” she surmised. “For the most part, many of the people we’ve helped had already run the gamut of what Western medicine had to offer. We give credit where credit is due - to the plant that has helped, and continues to help so many.”

Zoe Wilder

Publicist with a Higher Calling

Publicist, Zoe Wilder, loves the sound of the greeting, y’all. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, southern charm is not lost on this beauty.

“The people are polite, the weather is nice, and the food is absolutely decadent,” she expounded. “Y’all is a perfectly intelligent contraction!”

Wilder moved to Virginia after high school, attending The College of William and Mary, with a focus on English literature, earning a Bachelor of Arts. From there she went directly to New York City, where she began her career in publishing and communications at the American Thoracic Society (ATS) in Manhattan, where she spent ten years honing her craft, assisting the Managing Editor and Director of Communications, working with the press.

“ATS is a prominent lung health association responsible for the publication of peer-reviewed medical journals covering the topic,” she explained. “In fact, the ATS published some of the first favorable studies on cannabis and lung health.”

During that time, Wilder said she began writing for High Times and other cannabis publications, as well as mainstream health publications.

While working at ATS, the ever goal oriented Wilder earned a master’s degree in Social work from Fordham University, studying harm reduction approaches for substance abuse.

“I was able to witness first-hand how cannabis can improve the quality of life in people who suffer from mental health and medical issues,” she said. “During that time, I counseled and empowered individuals from marginalized communities, created social programs for children, teens, and adults on the Autistic Spectrum. I also was able to teach teens about important social and cultural issues.”

Day Job vs. Night Life

Wilder said the work was rewarding, but a bit dry, so she turned her Brooklyn loft into a performance space.

“My day job lacked some of the creativity I craved, so as a result, I spent time as an entrepreneur, producing cool art salon parties in my loft, choreographing performance art pieces for underground raves, reading original poetry at events around the city, and shadow dancing alongside my favorite DJs and bands.”

She also began interviewing indie artists for publications, modeling for photographers, promoting bands and coordinating street teams in the live music scene, starting a record label, and producing hundreds of weekly dance parties.

Modeling still continues with Wilder working with Harlee Case, Emily Eizen, and Kaitlin Parry, to name a few photographers; coming back full circle to the plant, incorporating cannabis in stunning artistic photo shoots.

Though the fun away from work was feeding her muse, she also understood that everything she did was also contributing to her skill set in communications and public relations, promoting artists she worked with on the Howard Stern Show, while booking performances at The Whitney Museum of American Art. She’s even helped clients land sponsorships and partnerships with American Apparel, Ace Hotels, New York Fashion Week and iHeartRadio, to name just a few of the more high-profile entities she’s worked with.

“The modeling began when I was a child, with consignment shop runway shows and photo shoots for catalogs for various companies, like Ferrari” she said. “It’s turned into a fun hobby that allows me to flex my creativity muscle.”

Childhood Advocacy

Her path was not happenstance, as Wilder’s childhood included enlightenment on the cannabis plant from her mother.

“My mother enjoyed cannabis openly and normalized the plant for me,” she shared. “I understood, from a very young age, that cannabis helped alleviate the stress of motherhood, working full-time, divorce. She never apologized or made excuses for imbibing. It was just part of her daily routine, and I never questioned her about it.”

This knowledge during elementary school came at the height of the failed War on Drugs in America, and the D.A.R.E. program, causing Wilder to become a young hallway vigilante.

“They plastered D.A.R.E. posters all over the hallways,” she said. “Knowing that cannabis is a pathway to wellness, these posters angered me. So, when no one was looking, I’d tear down the propaganda from the school’s walls and toss them in the garbage… save one. I kept a poster and hung it up in my college dorm room my freshman year – the art depicted purple, pink and red fractals alongside the D.A.R.E. logo – and, quite frankly, despite the lies it represented, it fit well with the rest of my trippy décor.”

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program was founded in Los Angeles in 1983, as a partnering initiative with the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles Police Department. Police officers are financially subsidized to come into the classroom and teach about drugs. The program is widely thought of as a failure, with many past students claiming they learned about drugs for the first time, said to enable the students to use them. Today, in legal states, cannabis has been taken off the list of substances discussed altogether.

Tripping & Defining Life Moments

By the mid-nineties, Wilder said she was hitting up 420 rallies in Piedmont Park with friends to show support for the movement.

“We’d stock up on the way, twist one up upon arrival, bop to reggae, and mingle amongst the trees with the backdrop of Atlanta shimmering in the background, dreaming of a day when we could set the plant free,” she mused.

Wilder’s first experience with smoking cannabis was on the Chattahoochee River with her boyfriend and his best friend.

“It was a summer day, the sun sparkled on the ripples of the river, and I was surrounded by friends,” she remembered fondly. “My friend encouraged me to take a hit off of a joint, so I did. What ensued after must have been hours of giggling, howling, rolling around on the banks of the river until we got hungry and went to the Waffle House for scattered and covered hash browns.”

But it was during college at the end of the 90s, when she traveled to Amsterdam during Spring Break, that she had one of her most memorable hallucinogenic experiences.

“As soon as we settled into the Flying Pig Hostel, we beelined it to the Magic Mushroom Gallery, where the nice woman behind the counter explained which buzzes different mushrooms produced. We listened closely – it was all news to me. After much deliberation, we decided on Copelandia cyanescens. She said, ‘They’re stronger than Psilocybe cubensis fungi, expressing more profound visuals with luminous, tropical colors.’ After all, we wanted to taste the rainbow.”

Another defining moment came after stocking up on “space cakes, space shakes, hash and grass,” she said of the hash and mushroom-induced vision.

“The following nine days were a blur of new sights, sounds and smells,” she continued. “We walked the Leidseplein Square in circles, sat on giant penis chairs in the Sex Museum, and reclined in plush red velvet seats at a local movie theater, drinking from icy glass bottles of Grolsch – while sneaking tokes of sativa – our eyeballs rolling around in our heads as we watched ‘Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas.’”

Wilder said she found herself sitting in a coffee shop, her tummy fluttering, while wallpaper breathed and the scent of hash circled around her nostrils, then filled her lungs.

“I surveyed the scene in slow motion and when my head turned left, I noticed a bathroom with big metal chains hanging down where a door should be. Men stood there peeing, their asses grinning back at me,” she said of the hash-induced vision. “It was in that very instant I realized we’re all simply shitting, eating, breathing animals. I found supreme comfort in that knowledge – and still do. Immediately, I was one with the world – less alien, more connected.”

This story, Wilder said, is one of her favorites, as it was a defining moment in her life, bringing her directly down the path to where she is today, with no coincidences.

From fun to Purpose

Today, Wilder said she still uses cannabis to inspire creativity, explore nature, enjoy music, and just have good old-fashioned fun. But the plant has also become a big part of the work she does today on a grand scale.

Ever humble, her firm has a policy of not name-dropping their clients. But if you visit the Last Prisoner Project website, alongside Damian Marley and Tahira Rehmatulla, one celebrity stands out, with the firm expertly guiding actor, Jim Belushi, through the complex network of the cannabis community and onto television, with his new Reality show on the Discovery Network, “Growing Belushi,” produced from his farm in Oregon.

“We work with celebrities, cultivators, and companies all across the supply chain” she shared. “Our clients are featured in many publications, from High Times to the New York Times. We also support non-profits in the sector, like Success Centers in the Bay Area, with a focus on inclusivity in the space for People of Color, as well as artists in the LGBTQ+ community.”

To give back, Wilder sits on the Advisory Board of, with her firm also supporting, the Last Prisoner Project, a non-profit set up to assist in the efforts of releasing cannabis prisoners with unreasonably long sentences.

“It’s important that prohibitionists begin to understand what a wonderfully natural and powerful plant cannabis is,” Wilder concluded. “It has incredible health benefits, and that’s the real reason we’re seeing so much support for it now. It’s helping people live better lives. There are naysayers, I get it. People have been scared into believing it’s a gateway drug, but much of it is nonsense. The best antidote to fear is science, and it’s out there - the research is real. It’s simply time for the politics of prohibition to evolve.”

Rosie Mattio, Founder & CEO, Mattio Communications

From Wall Street Wife to Cannabis Mogul

In 2014 Rosie Mattio founded one of the top cannabis public relations agencies in the country, Mattio Communications. Named #1 PR Firm by the Greenmarket Report, her impressive client list includes Headset, Canndescent, TerrAscend, and LeafLink.

Raised in the Bronx, New York, she now makes her home in the New Jersey suburbs. Her path to the plant and its industry came after a stint in Chicago for her husband’s work, then Seattle.

Eventually, she moved her company to New York City, diving headfirst into representing movers and shakers in the cannabis industry from coast to coast.

Her husband, Daniel, eventually left his prominent finance career as a hedge fund portfolio manager to be a stay-at-home father, so Rosie could focus on her company.

“I’m very domestic,” she explained. “I love to cook, love to do things around the house – but, I’m laser focused on work.”

With four daughters under the age of 10 at home, Mattio said she is blessed to have, Daniel, who understands what it takes for her to have a successful business and a fulfilling family life at home.

“I’m unapologetic in my lifestyle, and I suppose that makes me a feminist,” she laughed. “Women can choose a man who supports their endeavors. You can run a business and have a good homelife with a family.”

She also takes time for herself, working out six days a week, but that’s also a nod to the hubby.

“My husband is amazing,” she gushed. “He has so much patience and shines in his role at home with the girls. When my business started taking off Daniel stepped up to the plate and said, I’ve got this. I was a soccer mom, so it wasn’t easy letting go of that part of my domestic life, but it’s working out perfectly.”

From Seed to Boom

Educated in public relations and image management, Mattio earned a degree from Boston University. Her mainstream public relations knowledge came from working with Alison Broad Marketing & Communications, then Rubenstein Assoc., with a focus on social media influencers and branded content.

In the past year her company has doubled in size to 20 employees, 75 percent of whom are women. And though she doesn’t consider herself a hardcore feminist, she’s proud of the female vibe in the office.

Mattio said she’s worked with Headset from its beginning, six years now, but her first two clients were from the food and tech wheelhouse, with The Stoner’s Cookbook and Herb – a beautiful coffee-table worthy cookbook that tips the stoner stigma on its head.

“I wanted to step-up and knew I could bring my mainstream experience to the cannabis industry,” she added. “It didn’t hurt that the New York Times was clamoring to write the story.”

In 2019, Mattio raised a seed round to fuel the growth of the company. Never having raised funds prior, she actually found she enjoyed the process of sourcing seed money.

“We closed the first round of funding and expanded services from public relations to SEO, investor relations, event planning, thought leadership, and influencer marketing,” she detailed. “People never say raising funds is fun, but I really thought it was. We went to strategic funders and they all said yes on the first phone call. We had a vision of bringing tremendous value to the industry. This is why we’ve grown as we have.”

All about the plant

Cannabis had not been part of Mattio’s everyday life until she relocated to Seattle in 2014, on the eve of recreational use in the state.

“When I moved to Seattle I wanted to learn as much as I could about cannabis,” she said. “I found that the more you learn, the more you become an advocate. You can’t help but make it your mission to move the conversation forward.”

Mattio said she tried various products, and paid attention to the marketing and use of social media in promoting products.

“In learning the rules, and learning to work within the rules, we’ve become experts, intimate with the plant,” she said. “Most of our employees consume the plant in some way.”

As for herself, Mattio said she uses Papa & Barkley’s tinctures and capsules. She says CBD loosens her up, helps her to push a little harder during her workouts.

“I hurt my back last year and started using the Papa & Barkley patches. Massage oils help, and I use both CBD and THC products. Actually, 3:20 is my CBD hour,” she laughed. “If I have a sweet tooth, I’ll enjoy a Kat’s Naturals high CBD in dark chocolate.”

When her husband turned 40, he had never tried cannabis prior and felt it was time.

“He really wanted to try, what he called, ‘pot chocolates.’” She laughed. “Get me 10 milligram edibles and call me in the morning! We were laughing so hard my face hurt. He doesn’t consume regularly, but he does like and use the tinctures and balms now.”

With her supportive husband on board all the way around for her business, Mattio sees nothing but success ahead.

“We generated four times the revenue in 2019 than the year prior,” she concluded. “This happened while simultaneously managing school drop-offs and getting home-cooked dinners on the table!”

Mattio feels hopeful for the future of the industry, in doing away with the stigma, and in her company helping others move forward in a positive way.

“The fact that cannabis was deemed essential during the pandemic was a huge development for our industry,” she surmised. “The skies the limit on what we can do now with this plant and for each other in the space.”

Doreen Sullivan, CEO, My Bud Vase™

How a covert op turned into a beloved bong

Doreen Sullivan didn’t intend to create one of the cannabis community’s favorite bongs or water pipes. The design sprang from a quick-thinking, covert operation in her living room.

“I was hitting on my bong when a repair man came to the door,” she explained. “Wanting to hide my cannabis use and the bong, I quickly put it on a shelf with some bud vases and turned the bowl around.”

When the repairman left, she noted how similar the bong was to the flower vases and took one down, putting it to her lips. The rest, as they say, is herstory.

Sullivan’s foray into the cannabis space was driven by the bud vase design, along with a desire to beautify and normalize partaking of the plant. She didn't need to start-up another business, having owned her own highly successful media company for decades.

Hollywood Brat

Sullivan was raised in the shade of the Hollywood Sign, so to speak, with her father, a prop maker in television and film in Los Angeles. Her first degree was actually in theater at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

“As a broke actress, I transitioned over to merchandising, then advertising and marketing in the industry,” she shared

The legacy of Sullivan’s advertising and marketing company is phenomenal – five Super Bowls working with ESPN, 30 years developing brands and doing promotions for entertainment marketing companies – including product development.

“My Bud Vase evolved to what it is today, but it’s really been more fun to run than anything - a creative escape from my day job,” she mused.

Sullivan said she never intended for the bud vase company to feel like a work project, she wanted it to come from the heart.

“If it starts feeling too corporate or restrained, it’s uncomfortable,” she added. “The fun part is, I’ve had no limitations with this product – the sky has been the limit, and the designs just keep coming.”

Female-friendly, Man approved

Unlike the classic, man-sized bongs of the past, My Bud Vases are sized for easy handling by the female form - yet, many are masculine enough for men to admire. Sullivan knows her target market, because she’s part of the demographic.

“When I started using them myself, I realized how much I really do love them and love smoking from them,” she said. “It’s also rewarding for me to see them being used and loved by others.”

Sullivan said she spent more than six months in trial and error, sourcing vases to transform and learning how to work with various materials – glass, ceramic, and porcelain, with the entire process a labor of love.

If she was traveling for her day job in media, she’d pack her drill and peruse antique shops in her off hours, looking for the perfect bud vases. She also works with vase makers globally, customizing unique vases for bud.

The first vases Sullivan sent to market were from her Artisan line, all one-of-a-kind bud vases.

Then she added the Signature Collection, with matching sets of trays, bud jars and vases; with pieces specifically designed for the collection, such as the DeAngelo.

“The DeAngelo was created to honor longtime cannabis activist, Steven DeAngelo, and comes with a matching bud jar and tray. It’s dark and earthy - more masculine than most of our pieces, and we are so happy to have Steven included in our line. He sent me a message saying, ‘Your works of art are potentially destigmatizing. Well done.’ That was the best compliment, because that’s a huge goal for us, to do away with the stigma of using cannabis.”

A portion of each DeAngelo sold will go toward Steven’s pet project, The Last Prisoner Project, helping to free longtime cannabis prisoners in the U.S.

Not included in any line is a special cut crystal bud vase created especially for Martha Stewart, then gfted to her by Snoop Dogg. Other celebrities enjoying a My Bud Vase are Jim Belushi, Amber Rose, Miley Cyrus, The Chain Smokers, and Margo Price.

The newest addition to the Signature Collection is Yemaya, a mermaid-fin vase with a nod to the African Water Deity, said to be the Goddess of the living ocean.

“Yemaya quickly became a favorite among our customers,” she said. “We had to be careful in describing and honoring her, as many take her meaning very seriously,” she added.

The social media and ad campaigns for each bud vase have become events in themselves, with Yamaya’s photo shoot nothing short of epic.

“We used a male merman with long dreads in a fantasy suit underwater - and he is spectacular!” she gushed. “Of course, we used some lovely female mermaids, as well - with beautiful female mermaids frolicking in the ocean and underwater in a swimming pool.”

Sullivan enjoys working with Social Media Influencers, like Jessica Gonzalez, otherwise known as The Mommy Jane on Instagram. Gonzalez was chosen along with other influencers in the space to be in video montages and stills, promoting her bud vases.

In 2019, the My Bud Vase musical commercial made it to the big screen in Times Square in New York City.

“Because of her background in media and marketing, everything Doreen does is big,” Gonzalez said. “You can feel her energy when she walks into a room - and she puts all that energy into her brand, with the ultimate goal of normalizing plant medicine.”

Gonzalez said she’s also grateful for the immense feminine energy and scaled-down designs she has brought to the industry.

“When all is said and done there’s not much I would rather be doing than normalizing cannabis through creative products,” Sullivan surmised. “Cannabis is my medicine, too - and I feel that using beautiful tools normalizes the process. It brings me complete joy to be able to make and market these beautiful vases all over the world.”

For more information on My Bud Vase visit, www.mybudvase.com

Ben Larson, CEO Vertosa

A concentrated effort for the greater good

Vertosa is a cannabis infusion technology company, developing customized emulsion systems to infuse brands’ products, including beverages, topicals and edibles, with THC and other cannabinoids in the mix.

Ben Larson, it’s Chief Executive Officer, said when he stepped into the cannabis space he did not have a relationship to the plant, but today, his refrigerator is always filled with products to test, making the process part of his own daily, self-medicating.

“To say, I eat my own dog food, is an understatement,” he laughed. “But, I really do love the experience, sociability, and ease of the infused beverage format. Second to the ready-to-drinks, the cannabis cocktails made with the infusions are a real crowd pleaser.”

Larson said the same social creativity many have enjoyed with a home bar, but using cannabis infused products make for a healthier experinece.

40 Under 40

The 39 year-old Larson graduated Cal Poly with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, spending six years in transportation systems planning. While he loved the engineering side of the work, it wasn’t the type of career he was looking for, as the gratification from the work done was slow in coming.

“The world of engineering is in stark contrast to what I was able to do in the world of start-ups,” he added. “I realized my life’s passion for helping others create and realize their dreams. I’ve now worked with early stage businesses and startup ecosystems all around the world, and that has provided me the fortunate opportunity of playing a big role in the cannabis industry in California.”

In fact, his proudest professional accomplishment was putting his career on the line to back the cannabis industry.

“It was a risky endeavor, but in just two years time, I helped create an influential name in the industry, building a valuable portfolio of companies spanning agtech to cryptocurrency, ushering in an emerging legal California market,” he added.

Recognized by the San Francisco Business Times in 2018 in its 40 Under 40 top entrepreneur list, Larson is a self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur, investor and start-up advisor.

“To be a serial entrepreneur is to have a relentless drive to create, to make something out of the concept of risking everything to will something into existence far less attractive than the allure of a steady paycheck and benefits - we are drawn into the fire like a moth to a flame,” he said. “I’d probably make a terrible cog in the wheel at this point in my career - I’d rather design a whole new clock! I think this is what drew me into the cannabis space. There’s so much to build and so much positive impact to bring to the world - and, of course, there’s no shortage of fire.”

Larson has made it his mission to help the burgeoning legal cannabis industry mature and grow through his Gateway start-up incubator.

“We launched the incubator program in 2015, as a nexus for California cannabis start-ups and mainstream capital and mentoring, and the rest is history” he shared. “Gateway has added more than 20 cannabis start-ups to its portfolio and recently launched a second $20 million venture fund.”

Aside from Gateway, Larson said he also works as an advisor and mentor with non-profit Youth Business USA, which is dedicated to coaching underserved young entrepreneurs.

Engineering the Stash

Vertosa’s process is to emulsify and reduce the size of the cannabis oil droplets to infuse products - including beverages. This process has allowed the company to be able to create a better delivery mechanism, resulting in faster absorption, greater efficacy, and consistency of experience.

With infusions coming off the line at work, Larson’s stash is filled with products and concentrates to test.

“I naturally consume the most through infusion experimentation and product testing,” he said. “Second to that, because it’s so easy to infuse anything, and I’m usually on the run or off to bed, plain old water infusions are probably my most common delivery.”

Larson said he’s a “huge fan” of Try Chemistry’s full spectrum oil smoking extracts, stating the complexity of the high with the convenience of a vape is hard to beat.

“With all the uncertainty surrounding vapes and the ingredients within, this is honestly the only oil I care to consume” he added.

Try Chemistry is another California company specializing in smoking oils and tinctures. The company sources from sun grown, craft cannabis farms from Northern California, such as Moon Made and Alpenglow of Humboldt County; and Croft Farms of Mendocino.

When all is said and done, flower rules for the concentrate aficionado.

“There’s always a place in my heart for flower,” he said. “You really can’t replace the experience. A high quality pre-roll, like Henry’s is always good to have on hand. And, just for fun, trying my hand at growing my own using the all-in-one kit from A Pot for Pot really ties it all back to this beautiful plant, helping me to remember what it’s all about in the first place. A beneficial plant.”

Henry’s Original is one of Northern California’s heritage cannabis farms in Mendocino. The Clean Green certified farm uses organic techniques.

A Pot for Pot is a company providing ready-to-grow kits with everything needed to start and grow a cannabis plant. The kits come with a box pot, seeds, soil, watering can/sprayer, nutrients, and plenty of support to ensure a healthy plant.

Aside from the enjoyment and healthful benefits of the plant, Larson’s bottom line in the cannabis space is to see the plant thrive, not decline among capitalism and politics.

“History aside, we’re fortunate to find ourselves in an era where many have accepted cannabis as legitimate medicine once again,” he concluded. “And this lends itself to greater investment, research and technological advancements. This was not the path I intended as an engineer, but I couldn’t be more happier than where I am today - in this greater good industry, with so many positive outcomes and healing happening everyday.”

For more information on Vertosa visit, www.vertosa.com

For more information on Henry’s Original visit, www.henrysoriginal.com

For more information on a Pot for Pot visit, www.potforpot.com

For more information on Try Chemistry visit, www.trychemistry.com

Farmer Tom & Paula: A Love Story

Once upon a time…

In a city by the sea,

Two people met,

Because it was meant to be.

Farmer Tom Lauerman is known far and wide within the cannabis industry. From his farm in Vancouver, Washington, he advocates for the plant – traveling the festival and conference circuit, speaking out about the importance of organic farming and clean medicine, with the intent of ending prohibition, or at least in hopes of strengthening sometimes poorly crafted ordinances.

And while he’s out there on the road, his better half, Paula, is back home on the farm tending the family business.

It’s a mutual relationship of understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses, but their bond of understanding really began in the early days of cannabis as medicine in California in 1999, on the heels of a raid.

Punk Rock Surfer, turned Farmer, turned Dowser

In 1989 Tom’s father, who was living in San Diego, California, suffered a heart attack, and he was called to service as his caregiver.

“I had been spending summers in Baja California, surfing, and winters in Hollywood, until returning to San Diego to care for my dad,” Tom explained. “About this time I met my then partner in a punk rock bar and that’s when I was introduced to farming, dowsing, and rural living on her family’s cattle ranch in Benson, Arizona.”

“I was walking with her Dad looking for possible well water sites, and he gave me a forked stick,” he shared. “At one point, it literally ripped out of my hands – and sure, enough, there was water at that location.”

According to Geology.com, Dowsing is still a viable practice for finding well-water and anything else needful of being located, with thousands of success stories stated on its site.

“Dowsing is somewhat of a lost art,” Tom said, “it’s an intuitive practice.”

“You get in touch with your higher-self” he said, knowingly. “If you’ve heard of muscle testing, Dowsing is similar, allowing left-brain conscious awareness to access energies that are naturally inherent within the body. Then using dowsing rods or a forked stick you set the intention of your quest before you begin – to find water, or locating underground utility lines, and such.”

Raids & Pain

The energy of the dosing rod was nothing compared to the energy felt by the future Mrs. Farmer Tom, but I digress.

His activism began as an advocate for Medical Cannabis with “The Compassionate Use Act of 1996” California’s Proposition 215 which became the ground breaking Health and Safety Code section 11362.5.

By 1999, however, his relationship had failed due to irreconcilable differences concerning his Medical Cannabis use, leading to another change as Tom became involved with San Diego’s first legal Medical Cannabis Cooperative established in 1997 in the (still) predominately Gay neighborhood of Hillcrest behind the historic ‘Brass Rail’.

“It was a true, old-school collective – when you came in to sign-up you brought your own grow light, and we’d hang it up, and after harvest we provided the medicine,” he explained. “Because of the neighborhood we were in, we serviced the Gay community - many with AIDS- as well as those with rheumatoid arthritis, glaucoma, cancer, and mobility issues.”

During this time, Paula, who helped found the original cooperative was the in-house massage therapist who serviced the outreach portion of the collective. She was already a Holistic Health Practitioner and in 1999 was attending nursing school to further her health education. Today these types of outreach services and programs still exist and are a blessing to many within the cannabis community.

Since California adopted Cannabis as a legal option in 1996, many cities remain hostile and unobservant of the law to this day and raids have been common in San Diego. The State did not put ordinances into place for its Cannabis Industry until just this year, 2016, leaving those in compliance without a safety net for a very long time.

“Everyone thought it was safe to come out of the closet, but we were wrong, and were raided,” Paula added. “We were actually installing wheel chair ramps when the thing went down.”

As is typical when raiding legal medical dispensaries or collectives in California, it’s political, and due to a favorable twist of fate Paula and Tom were not targeted, nor charged after his initial arrest.

She and Tom had met in passing prior to the raid, but in the aftermath of stress and legal proceedings and pain that followed, Tom decided to sign-up for his first ever therapeutic massage. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Energy & Healing

“The minute I laid hands on him, I had this energy feeling that I’ve never felt before or since – only with him. We got through it,” Paula laughed. “He booked another massage a week later.”

Paula said she had only been a Holistic Health Practitioner for a couple of years, and the feeling of full body chills, and this feeling she had never felt before while working on Tom, actually scared her.

“But literally 15 minutes into the second massage, I knew in that moment I was going to change everything in my life to find out who this guy was and what our connection was all about,” she shared.

At the time Paula said she was 40 years old, her daughter was grown and gone, and she had two gigs waiting for her in Los Angeles.

“I was literally on my way out of the industry,” she continued. “I was close to graduating and had a nursing job waiting for me in Los Angeles – and massage therapy work at Elysian Fields, a then nudist resort in Topanga Canyon.”

One month after what Paula calls, “my epiphany about Tom,” the Collective received a Notice of Eviction from the landlord. That’s the all-too-common tale of a failed raid on a legal establishment in a legal state, if you aren’t persecuted by the powers that be, you still lose everything. Game over.

Life is Change

With just two months to graduating, Paula was faced with nowhere to live.

“I’m not a kid, yes this guy’s unusual, but I’m taking this slow – then I’m forced to move in with him two months later,” she laughed. “The downside was his family had no idea who I was and was thinking I might be taking advantage as this was an unexpected whirlwind relationship.”

Tom was already the pot-smoking, black sheep of the family, and Paula had to prove to them she was sincere. She graduated but never went into nursing, and soon the two began doing high-end landscape construction, outside of the cannabis space for the next couple of years.

“But doors kept slamming in our faces in Southern California,” Paula continued. “Then when the city announced they were going to add fluoride to the water, and I already suffered from chemical sensitivity and environmental illness, we decided to look to the north for a new place to live.”

Meanwhile, back on the Farm…

Their first stop was in what Paula refers to as “hippy-dippy” Williams, Oregon, to be land partners on 40 acres with an older couple. They lived in a tent over the summer of 2002 while building a yurt; and when that didn’t work out, they moved to a Seed Farm and Wild-crafting gig near Grants Pass, where Tom served as the Farm Manager under meager circumstances.

“It was difficult to make ends meet in Southern Oregon. The income to cost-of-living ratio was way out of balance as far as being able to have our own place and we struggled. We were involved with the local community and having construction and electrical skills were asked to help built and wire for solar the first, free-standing straw bale house in the U.S. – made with bamboo pole reinforcement,” Tom added. “That gig opened the path to a real job in the solar industry in Portland and it all came together when Tom’s father passed away leaving a modest inheritance, enough to move and make a down payment on The Farm across the border in Vancouver, WA.

“We drove up to look around for the first time in late January 2004 and this was the third place we looked at on Saturday morning. We signed the papers for ownership that afternoon. But it sure didn’t look like this!” she laughed. “We have transformed the place over time, as we have been transformed by being here.”

“Tom started in solar, but ended up in the corporate world so we could make ends meet while trying to realize our dream of operating a successful small farming business. Over time we have grown all manner of vegetables and salad mix. We’ve tried the regular CSA model even delivering shares into Portland for several years. A lack of time and money, however, meant we weren’t able to compete commercially, but we learned so much over the years. When the vote for legalization passed in Washington the end of 2012 we decided to use our greenhouses for Cannabis and have done so since that time, still unable to compete commercially”.

When Washington State adopted new legalization ordinances this year, limiting the amount of Cannabis one household can grow, while simultaneously doing away with the highly successful Medical Collective Model, many farmers in the state had to pull up roots, so to speak – or go back into the black market, as many have.

Tom, however, has stayed out in the open, is following the rules, and continues to advocate. In fact, he has stepped up his efforts, getting out on the road, getting in front of cameras, and speaking out for the greater good. A voice for those left behind in the chaos and confusion.

Today, the future looks green due to his popularity and notoriety. Tom’s face is soon to be marketed and distributed throughout the Western United States.

Living off the Land, in Love

Paula and Tom both agree, their little five acre farm is everything; it’s the reason they are who they are.

“Living an organic lifestyle is important for everyone, and Tom keeps this realization at the forefront,” Paula concluded. “Modern-day technologies with synthetic compounds create sickness and disease. The main reason we bought our farm was to have some control over what we put in our bodies.”

The couple have been forced to differentiate and focus on what's really important, and Paula said, that this has been the foundation of hanging in there through the “for better or worse” portion of their relationship.

“We are opposites in every way possible, and have come to value those qualities – realizing that a successful tractor operator requires numerous and various skills to run,” Paula surmised, wisely. “Our combined life experiences, before we were together and after, covers most everything necessary for us to keep moving forward. Yes, we are best friends, partners in what needs to be done, and indeed are stronger now than ever before.”

For more information about Farmer Tom, please visit, http://www.farmertomorganics.com

Marelyn Shapiro

Founder Granny Buds Farm, Chicken Rescue & Dog Hospice

This witch in the woods rescues wild animals with cannabis

Marelyn Shapiro, first used cannabis at 15 years-old, after being sent away to boarding school in Texas. A difficult child, with learning disabilities and a challenging home life in New York, Shapiro said she was soon kicked out of private school for sharing her weed with other students.

Known as a tomboy, Shapiro said she was a wild child, dealing with the remnants of sexual abuse from a grandfather. She came into her own in the 70s, as a lesbian.

“We didn’t have mentors in those days – no TV shows with women kissing,” she shared. “We had to hide.”

She worked for FedEx for ten years, buying her own home in Berkeley, California. Then she earned a master’s degree, becoming a special education teacher – which she loved.

A carpentry program at the local community college used the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as a classroom, where she learned a multitude of skills building homes.

She eventually set up a grow room at her home in Berkeley, California, but shut it down when she began fostering special needs kids.

“I ended up fostering seven kids, all with significant issues and needs,” she explained. “In Berkeley, at that time, there was a trend to have foster kids foster kittens. We fostered hundreds of kittens, and all the kids had their turns of being woken up in the wee hours of the night to bottle feed them.”

Her own first rescue was at the age of nine, when she locked a cat in the family garage. Caring for the kittens, she said, turned out to be the perfect antidote for her high maintenance kids, as they learned compassion and caring, as well as social skills in dealing with adopting them out.

“They were able to gain a better understanding of their own situation of being fostered,” she said. “It was also good for them to see the kittens moving on to their own forever homes after being damaged themselves.”

A move to Las Vegas to help her aging parents included six kids, one grandchild, three dogs, and six cats.

“That empty property with just a house, some grass and few trees was the start of Granny Buds’ Farm, Chicken Rescue & Dog Hospice,” she said. “In a few years we had fruit trees and were growing our own vegetables.”

As the children became older and able to understand, Shapiro said she returned to growing cannabis, with the grown children now involved in the process from the ground up.

“I’ve taught all the kids framing, drywalling, irrigation, and painting,” she added. “We build all our own chicken coops, and we also help build grow rooms and install irrigation for others in the community. Everything we do goes back into caring for the animals and rescues on the farm.”

Fostering seven kids all-told wasn’t easy, but, Shapiro said, the farm and care of the animals was an excellent way to rear them. The menagerie also proved to be a life-affirming situation for Shapiro.

“I had worked 20 years in unfulfilling jobs when I became a teacher,” she surmised. “Then, after 40 years of loving kids and always having them around, I felt that something was lacking, and I really wanted my own. Being a single lesbian, I didn’t have many options other than insemination – and that really wasn’t for me. Fostering turned out to be a perfect fit for me. Caring for the animals and becoming well-versed in using cannabis as a remedy for rescues was a bonus.”

Rescued With Weed

The farm has three rescue partners who call on them to treat a variety of animals, including wild birds, chickens, and dogs. They are also called on to provide sanctuary for some of the worst-case dogs who would otherwise be euthanized – blind, deaf, neurological conditions, arthritis, and old age.

“We’ve rescued chickens, ducks, and turkeys from feed stores,” she said. “They get a shipment in and many of these young creatures languish until they die in the cages. One tiny drop of cannabis oil and they typically pop-up in record time.”

One profound case was a neighbor’s dog, who was unable to walk and on many pharmaceuticals. Shapiro said after the first dose of cannabis oil given, the dog was up the next day and climbing stairs in a week.

Other success stories include a Clydesdale horse and an old donkey from a nearby ranch.

“The horse had an awful skin infection and would need a large amount of salve,” she explained. “The donkey had an open wound infested and infected with flies. So, we cleaned them up and I made a huge bath and we slathered it on. By the next week both were healing with no sign of infection.”

Another dog rescued was treated with cannabis for emotional issues.

“Prince came to us from Linda Gilliam from Connor and Millie’s Dog Rescue, who deals with the hardest to place dogs,” she said. “He was viciously biting us the first month he was here, so we dosed him into oblivion with high THC oil in an attempt have him reset.”

Shapiro said his oil-induced stupor allowed them to pet and show Prince affection, gradually lowering the dose.

“At sundown he’d get worse, and we’d just let him spin in circles in the living room filled with other dogs, rabbits and birds in cages, and the occasional goat or turkey on the scene,” she laughed. “That’s our living room, that’s our world. Prince eventually calmed down and became part of the family – but I have no doubt in my mind that the cannabis oil did, in fact, help him to be reborn.”

Meanwhile, Back On The Farm…

All told Shapiro said she’s been growing for more than 50 years and has gone through a historic lineage of cultivars from California, and now in Nevada.

She makes salve for topical use, tinctures, and the stronger cannabis oil – with both CBD and high THC cultivars, depending on the ailment at hand.

“We call the salve ‘Incredibly miraculous Salve,’ because it works like a miracle,” she said. “Some of the high THC cultivars I use include Big Banger, Blue Cheese, Pineapple Chunk, Gorilla Glue, Mango, and Black Dog. In my salve, I use Ringo’s Gift high CBD, Critical Mass, CBD Kush, and Critical Cure. But I also started adding other beneficial plants, like lemon verbena, rosemary, lavender and ginger.”

Her topical salve, she said, has treated numerous animals and dogs both by topical use and ingesting. Several dogs have been particularly helped with collapsed tracheas by eating the mix.

“After many pharmaceuticals failed, we’d give the dogs this topical salve orally, and put them under a blanket with one drop of Doterra’s Breath on the blankey,” she said. “We discovered that the non-stop, all-night hacking stops immediately – and the treatment lasts up to five hours, minimum. One disabled dog, with four luxating patella’s and chronic pneumonia with allergies came to us for hospice and lived five more years!”

After a bout of Inflammatory breast cancer when the kids were small, Shapiro said she started taking every herb she could find with an indication they might help.

“Back then, we didn’t know about the cannabis oil for cancer. Aside from the chemo and radiation, I did acupuncture, Beta6 Glucan, Selenium, CoQ10, mushroom extract, Astralagus, Coral Shell Calcium, and more. I became a vegetarian, and I healed – but, I also realized I had never had a baby of my own or owned a Harley Davidson. So, I bought myself a Harley and rode topless in the Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco,” she laughed.

Last year marked 19 years after her initial cancer diagnosis, and she finds it ironic that she now helps others with cannabis for cancer and other ailments.

“Before the kids, I had a secret grow room in my basement in Berkeley, with a hidden door, but today, my state is legal, and my grown kids are a big part of the healing happening now with the plant,” she concluded. “They’ve witness hard to heal animals from the wild thriving, and lots of people, too. I’m still amazed and surprised every time someone or an animal heals from this plant.”

Jesse Stanley, CEO Stanley Brothers Holdings

Stanley Brothers ReCreate itself, with THC in the mix

The Stanley Brothers, the Colorado company that followed the launch of non-psychoactive CBD or Cannabidiol, via Charlotte’s Web, is now taking a deep dive into whole plant formulations, including activated THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, with its new brand, ReCreate.

Charlotte’s Web was first put in front of the American public and the world, when CNN’s Sanjay Gupta visited Denver, Colorado, and interviewed members of the Stanley family, responsible for helping then, four-year-old Charlotte Figi, the brand’s namesake.

As the story goes, Charlotte suffered from Dravet Symdrome, enduring up to 300 grand mal seizures a week, when her mother, Paige, got wind that a type of cannabis plant was available by the brothers, with little to no THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, which causes the head high or feelings of euphoria. The oil made from the plant reduced the seizures substantially, with Charlotte’s seizures reduced to just two or three times a month.

Charlotte’s success opened the doors for many children and adults alike to be helped in the U.S., as CBD only became widely accepted in the mainstream supplemental market.

The remedy also helped do away with the fear-based question, “What about the children?” Turns out, the children being helped opened the doors for more humans in general to be helped around the globe.

The Healing Web of Weed

Today, Jesse Stanley may be CEO of Stanley Brothers USA Holdings, but his first experience of cannabis was uneventful, with no idea of how the plant would change his and his family’s life forever.

“My first experience with cannabis was probably the same as most, starting with someone passing me a joint,” he shared. “I had no idea that cannabis was medicine. My brothers and I grew up in a very conservative home. But, I never felt that cannabis was bad enough that we had to outlaw a plant. Natural is supposed to be good, right?”

When Colorado legalized use of the plant for recreation, enacted in 2014, Jesse said eat that point everything changed. Even though cannabis had been legal for medicine, the freedom of legalization meant that people felt safer to experiment with it as remedy, then more healing happened – not more people merely getting high.

“Ironically, legalization opened doors in the medical space,” he continued. “It allowed Charlotte’ mother to feel more comfortable seeking it out for her daughter. It allowed us to go forward as a company. We saw results, lives changed – it was a snowball effect, really.”

There are many stories of healing that sprang from the non-psychoactive compound of the plant, but one that directly impacted an entire country is most compelling.

When Monterrey, Mexico, Attorney, Raul Elizalde, first heard of Charlotte’s Web helping a child with Dravet Syndrome, he immediately jumped into action, requesting the remedy for his own daughter, Gracela, who was suffering from Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome, with hundreds of seizures a day.

Through one failed court hearing, then one successful meeting one-on-one with a district judge, Elizalde single-handedly convinced he Mexican Government to allow CBD oil to be imported into Mexico, with more than 500 children suffering from similar diagnosis on a waiting list for help.

His daughter, Gracela, was the first child allowed the imported oil, with Raul stating that first night they gave her the oil she slept peacefully, without a single seizure.

Today, CBD only formulations are allowed in a majority of states and countries, able to be shipped across state lines, and into Mexico with a doctor’s recommendation.

It’s important to note, that since doctors are still not being educated on cannabis as remedy or plant-based formulations in general in medical school, they are still not allowed to prescribe, only recommend.

To THC, or Not to THC?

The percentage of THC allowed in CBD, or the compound, cannabidiol, is set at point three percent as per the Department of Agriculture’s regulations, mandated many years ago in the Hemp industry. And while it’s considered a safe percentage, many cannabis patients feel that THC, and the many other beneficial compounds found within the whole plant should not be overlooked.

ReCreate is the name of a new brand of products launched under the Stanley Brothers banner, on June 18, with a play-on-words for recreation. It’s also an attempt to re-create the image of cannabis, or specifically the THC so badly misunderstood by the masses.

Verbiage from the new ReCreate website is under the banner, Stanley Brothers, with the message that the low percentage of THC included in the new formulations is not intended to be mind-altering, rather life-enhancing, with optimal levels of THC and CBD.

Ayurvedic botanicals added include, Turmeric, Valerian Root, Lemon Balm, Lion’s Mane, and Ashwagandha – an ayurvedic herb cultivated in India for generations.

Ayurveda is a system of medicine with historical roots in India that integrates body, mind, and spirit; using holistic practices by emphasizing diet, herbal remedies, exercise, meditation, breathing, and physical therapy.

“The stigma of cannabis is a created stigma, it’s not the truth of the plant,” he said. “Many people who use cannabis for recreation are also medicating – even though they may not realize it. Everyone is really a patient, reaping the benefits of the many useful compounds of the plant.”

Acknowledging that THC is a beneficial compound, by the company who helped make CBD mainstream is noteworthy.

“There’s a symbiotic relationship we have with plants that’s been lost today,” he surmised. “We medicate in so many ways every day, and we don’t recognize it – we use watching television to relax, coffee to stimulate – this is all self-medicating. When you get passed that joint, you might think it’s to recreate, but if it helps you relax, it’s remedy – and the THC has a lot to do with that. It’s beyond time to look at the compound in a positive light, with everything in moderation.”

Madison Margolin, Co-Founder, DoubleBlind Magazine

A lineage of advocacy for alchemy-changing plants

Madison Margolin was born into a life of advocacy. As the second youngest daughter of Bruce Margolin, infamous California cannabis and drug law attorney, and longtime director of the Los Angeles Chapter of N.O.R.M.L. (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), her path was forged as a child.

She didn’t have to leave home to be influenced from just about every high profile drug advocate her father brought in the door, including psychedelic guru, Timothy Leary, whom he represented.

Her sister, Alison, began her own career working with their father, but now has her own practice with a focus on cannabis and drug laws. Bruce is still in practice with his own firm, began at 25 years-of-age, fresh out of law school in 1967.

“I was young when I realized what my dad was doing,” Madison shared. “I remember he smoked weed – I could smell it – but, he typically never did it in front of us kids.”

The fact that her father had a jingle playing repeatedly on the radio promoting his work, “1-800-420-LAWS, Bruce Margolin is down for the cause,” didn’t help her away from home - especially in the classroom. No matter that it was written by the Kottonmouth Kings, for her father’s California Gubernatorial run against Arnold Schwartznager. He lost the seat, but the tune stuck.

Madison remembers being bothered by officers in the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) in middle school; with teachers letting her know they’d heard the jingle, much to her embarrassment.

Important to note, the D.A.R.E. program that began in 1983 and ran until 2009, was widely believed to be ineffective. Rather than dissuading children from trying drugs, it was said to teach them about drugs, putting actual examples in front of them, detailing them in photos and literature; with many adults admitting years later that the D.A.R.E. program is where they learned how to identify and use drugs.

A new D.A.R.E. program launched in 2014, however, has cannabis taken off the list of drugs in states where they’ve legalized the plant. The program was and is federally subsidized, giving police officers incentive via income to speak to kids about the drugs included in the Government’s failed War on Drugs.

“I was a good kid – a straight A student,” she continued. “The officers knew who I was, knew who my father was. They would ask me how are things were at home. I was shy and really didn’t like the attention. I just wanted to be left alone.”

Madison said she was just a baby at Timothy Leary’s memorial, with her father’s friend Ram Dass also in attendance. Years later she would realize that the spiritual world was connected to the drug culture she grew up in, along with teachings on Judaism and Hinduism. Cannabis, and the culture surrounding it, was just another part of the backdrop of her upbringing.

Raised with Ritual

The first time Madison smoked cannabis she was just 16 years old, but said she didn’t really get into it until she was 18 years-old, and had acquired a medical cannabis card.

“Today, I’m not much of a heavy cannabis consumer, but I do like spliffs,” she shared. “I smoke weed socially, and I’m not that into edibles. I do take CBD daily, mainly for inflammation and anxiety. The brand I have now is from Prismatic Plants, but I switch it up sometimes.”

The first time she tried psilocybin mushrooms was during winter break during her freshman year of college.

“I was with two of my closest friends and my older sister and a medical marijuana doctor who supervised us,” she explained. “We were on Venice Beach in Los Angeles, and it was truly one of the most magical, transcendent days of my life. I finally understood the whole ‘be here now’ thing. Although, I’m still integrating it into my daily, sober life.”

Since that first time, Madison said she’s had many equally interesting experiences since, from taking ayahuasca in cramped Brooklyn apartments, to dropping acid on the beaches of Goa, India.

“By far, however, my favorite ‘psychedelic’ is MDMA,” she said. “I don’t have one specific experience with molly that stands out more than others, but I have a good relationship with the entheogen, and feel like MDMA really gets me.”

MDMA, Madison explained, is really more of a heart opener. And, while it has stimulating properties, it has shown to help people with PTSD and clinical depression, while Psilocybin has also been found to help people with depression.

DoubleBlind

After graduating from U.C. Berkeley, then Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 2015, Madison began writing for The Village Voice, with a focus on cannabis, then for Rolling Stone, Vice, and Playboy.

By late 2018, friend and fellow Columbia classmate, Shelby Hartman, had an epiphany and DoubleBlind was born. The name of the publication she and partner Hartman created, Hartman culled from the process of what a substance or remedy is put through in trials – a placebo against a formulated compound for effect, in a double-blind study.

The publication that’s printed bi-annually, with more stories hosted online, uses psychedelics as a starting point to explore mental health, social equity, environmental justice and spirituality.

“We’ve included online courses on how to grow mushrooms, and offered a webinar using psychedelics for intimacy,” she explained. “We’ve also enlisted the help of small artisan craftspeople in the medicinal plant space to white-label our own brand of sacral balancing oil; and we feature artisan kava on our e-commerce platform.”

Some may assume the magazine began on the heels of Denver, Colorado’s nod to decriminalizing psilocybin mushrooms, but the launch actually took place six months before the fact.

“One month after Denver’s decision, the City of Oakland, California also decriminalized the substance,” she said. “I wasn’t surprised, because psychedelics have been in the trajectory of cannabis acceptance for a while now.”

Madison said the time has come to cover psilocybin and other entheogens. And though the occasional essay on a personal acid-trip may be enlightening, submissions will be reviewed with traditional journalistic standards in mind.

“We take journalistic ethics seriously, with investigative standards,” she said. “One story that just came out in our third print issue explores the potential of psychedelics to treat patients in vegetative states, caused by traumatic brain injuries.”

Madison said she penned a story for DoubleBlind’s last issue detailing an anecdotal study showing the use of ayahuasca for conflict resolution between the Israelis and Palestinians.

“I’m thinking that psychedelics are about five to ten years behind cannabis,” she surmised. “While substances like MDMA and psilocybin are soon to become FDA approved prescription medications in assisted psychotherapy, we’re also going to see more grassroots groups around the country pushing for decriminalization.”

Jay Jackson, aka: Laganja Estranja

Laganja struts her stuff for the cause

Jay Jackson is Texas raised, but California savvy, when it comes to his favorite herb of cannabis. As a California cannabis patient, the drag queen’s persona, Laganja Estranja, embodies the plant, with her signature fingers-to-mouth, taking a drag off a joint pose, outing herself at every dip and turn.

Trained classically in dance since a child, Jackson studied at the Booker T. Washington School for the Performing Arts in Dallas, Texas, then earned a bachelor’s degree in dance at Cal Arts; the Disney owned arts college located in Los Angeles.

While studying in California, a chiropractor advised Jackson to try cannabis for chronic pain suffered from a dance injury while performing. Cannabis helped the performer replace pain killers and sleeping pills, with emotions also kept in check by medicating with the plant.

“The herb keeps me calm under pressure and my emotions level,” he shared. “It also deals with the physical pain of a career in dance, and helps immensely with physically getting into my drag costumes, which can be painful in itself.”

Presidential Awards & Persecution

Laganja Estranja debuted as a Drag Queen at Micky’s in West Hollywood, Los Angeles in 2011. She became a regular “Show Girl” after winning the Amateur Competition shortly thereafter. Just three years later, Laganja was presented to the national stage at the age of 24, when she appeared on Season six of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2014.

But, Jackson’s recognition as a performer began as a teenager when he was awarded the Presidential Scholar in the Arts, performing at the White House for then sitting President, George Bush, Sr. As an adult, Jackson returned to the program as a mentor and artist in residence. This experience moved the performer to tears, as he shared, “I was respected as an artist.”

Respect is meaningful when you are a member of the LGBTQ community. Add being a cannabis advocate, and you are constantly asserting yourself in the face of misinformation and daily discrimination. Add the layer of Drag Queen to the title, and the obstacles become more complicated.

The stigma of cannabis became more apparent as he was strip-searched and made to give up his cannabis remedies, after arriving for production of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Though the show filmed in his home state of California, where Jackson is a registered patient, nationally aired television shows must adhere to federal law where sponsors are concerned, and ban all restricted substances from set.

The lack of remedies affected the emotional drag queen, as evidenced in the outtakes. Taking herbal remedies away from someone who relies on them can be just as impactful as withholding prescription medications from a full-fledged patient with diagnosed maladies - symptoms and ailments present themselves quickly.

“Without the herb during production of the race, I was challenged emotionally and physically,” he shared. “My emotions ran high, tears flowed, and my body ached – I was not at my best and it showed.”

Fortunately, Laganja “sashayed away” with eighth place and her popularity intact.

Starpower Worthy of Inclusion

Today, Laganja crisscrosses the globe, delivering athletic performances to adoring fans, all the while promoting her favorite beneficial herb.

Jackson has choreographed for celebrities such as Miley Cyrus and Brooke Candy. Laganja opened next to Cyrus and a plethora of drag queens for Cyrus’ performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2015. He’s taught dance around the world, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Peru, Australia, Germany, and London. Jackson worked with super model Heidi Klum on Germany’s Next Top Model; was featured on the television show, Inked (cover Dope Magazine, 2014); has appeared twice on Viceland’s Bong Appetite; and has been producing Puff Puff Sessions, for RuPaul’s World of Wonder Productions since 2016.

Jackson has several television show concepts in the works, including a variety show with Laganja Estranja blending the colorful fun of Pee Wee’s Playhouse with the iconic 70s Diva, Elvira, “Mistress of the Dark.”

Laganja recently launched a podcast, HIGHconic, which features segment, What’s the THC?, referenced from the LGBTQ community’s saying, “What’s the T,” as in truth.

Jackson has produced many musical singles, including, “Look at Me,” and “Smoke Break,” with highly produced music videos on Langanja’s YouTube channel. His first official album, HIGHconic, is launching soon, with a Trademark pending for the catchy phrase.

Civilized 420 Games invited her to its event this past year, but, the one role left off her resume to date is celebrity Influencer at any number of cannabis events.

“The games were awesome, and I was honored to be a part of them, but I’d like to be more involved in the cannabis festivals as an Influencer in the space, overall,” Jackson shared. “My persona is able to reach a wider audience than has been accessed by the, shall we say, mainstream cannabis crowd? Gays and men in drag get just as high as white straight men at cannabis cups.”

This past year he partnered with Roxanne Dennant of Fruit Slab of Los Angeles; creating organic, vegan, Kosher certified, infused fruity candy in 10 milligram doses, emphasizing the importance of inclusivity and gender expression.

“Every Pride month each year, they introduce a new flavor that I have the honor of creating. Last year’s flavor, Pride Passion, was a mix of passion fruit, mango and lemon-lime,” Jackson shared. “I definitely think the industry is changing, as more LGBTQ entrepreneurs step up and create products with opportunities for us.”

Jackson said the collaboration with Fruit Slabs was meaningful, as the company is the real deal when it comes to supporting the LGBTQ community.

“You can’t just slap a rainbow sticker on a product and say you are inclusive, you actually have to include us,” he added, with a wink.

As an Influencer within the cannabis community, Jackson’s selling power can’t be denied; for the buying power of the LBGTQ community can’t be ignored at more than one trillion a year in the U.S. alone.

As reported by Bloomberg in 2016, Bob Witeck, of Witeck Communications in Washington DC., has been gathering stats on the LGBTQ community for nearly 15 years, stating, this fact has caused many mainstream companies, such as Disney, Target, and Dow Chemical, to raise a rainbow flag of inclusion, ignoring federally mandated laws that may discriminate, updating company policies and practices to protect their employees and those who shop with them.

This year Jackson said he’d like to launch the release of his new album on National Dab Day on July 10.

“Coming together as a community is something both the LGBTQ and the cannabis communities already do, naturally. Four-twenty is global, but it’s a puff, puff, pass event – and those events are changing as we speak with the current pandemic,” Jackson laments. “Perhaps it’s time for a dab day – bring your own silicone hit protector and be safe. Party hats aren’t just for the bedroom, kids.”

As Laganja Estranja currently performs by live stream during California’s lock down during the current COVID-19 pandemic, Jackson shares, “Performing is my life and as tragic as it is, a little virus won’t stop these legs from dancing. But, I do look forward to everyone being well again – and for the festival season to begin, that’s where I shine. Those are my people, that’s my tribe. No matter if you are straight or gay, we can rise above and come together over the plant.”

For more information on Laganja Estranja visit, Laganja Estranja www.laganjaestranja.com

Follow Laganja Estranja on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @LaganjaEstranja

Aaron Riley, CEO CannaSafe

From mugshot to headshot, this CEO is legit

Twenty-nine year-old Aaron Riley is CEO of CannaSafe, the first ISO accredited cannabis laboratory in the world. This means the lab has complied within the International Organization for Standardization, dealing with testing and methodology.

The company is set to be honored as one of the fastest growing businesses in America by Inc 5000, with a bottom line of 20 million in revenue in 2019.

But, his journey into the cannabis space began by meeting supply and demand of cannabis in college, with his skillful hustle landing him in the court system in record time.

Riley attended Furman College in Greenville South Carolina on an athletics scholarship, playing football as a Defensive End, but by the end of his sophomore year he was knee deep in cannabis and court dates.

“It was my own fault,” he thoughtfully responded. “My operation grew too big, too fast. My initial investment of $1,000 grew to $75,000 in just four months.”

As an entrepreneur in the illicit market, Riley was the organizer, with his friends helping out.

When a student was caught smoking a bong in a dorm room, he ratted out one of Riley’s friends to save himself. Soon after, Riley dropped his friend off for a $20 sale, unknowingly to an undercover agent.

According to Riley, the way the agents questioned and propositioned the friend, unprompted, was stated as clear entrapment.

A full swat operation ensued back at Riley’s apartment, with a dozen officers in bulletproof vests and assault rifles busting out of the back of a van. They put a gun to Riley’s head and took him down.

Blue-eyed and Privileged

This writer was working in-house at a newspaper in Humboldt County, when the mug shot circulated. His blond, blue-eyed, youthful face, bloodied, was seen as another casualty in the misunderstood world of weed within the failed War on Drugs. Seriously, who in college did not smoke weed? It was a highly relatable story.

Findings included between five and six thousand dollars in cash, and an undisclosed amount of cannabis, leading to a laundry list of Federal charges.

Aaron spent just two days in jail, but his legal ordeal dragged on for nearly two years. In the end, he was accepted into another college on another football scholarship in Jacksonville, Florida, earning a Bachelor’s degree and an MBA in the process.

But, the experience of being persecuted for meeting supply and demand of a plant that’s now becoming legal around the world stayed with him.

If he was a person of color and not a footballer with a scholarship, would he have gotten off as he did with just two days in jail; or would he have landed in prison with the mandatory sentence of five years? The plot thickens, as the five other people arrested in the sting were people of color, though all college football players. Was there privilege involved? We can only guess.

Because of the seeming inequity of his ordeal, CannaSafe participates in Los Angeles’ Social Equity Program, helping promote equitable ownership and employment opportunities in the cannabis industry, in order to address the long-term, adverse impacts of the failed War on Drugs.

“We sponsor expungement clinics and organizations such as Social Equity LA and The Social Impact Center,” he said. “I’m painfully aware that People of Color are four times more likely to be arrested and sentenced for cannabis than a blue-eyed guy like me. And that’s why being involved in these equity programs is important to me on a personal level.”

Criminal or Cannabis Patient?

The irony of all of this is, while playing college football, Riley suffered many injuries, including a broken tibia, and a dislocated elbow, still causing him chronic pain today, helped by cannabis.

“I get sick on opiates,” he shared. “I just don’t like pharma. When I had my Wisdom teeth removed I only took Vicodin the first day. I was playing football in college when I realized cannabis for pain. I’d say, sixty-five percent of the players medicated with cannabis in college. My friends and I were providing relief.”

Riley said he uses cannabis topically often, on his neck, elbows, and knees – his hot spots from injuries; and enjoys products from Pappa & Barkley and Mary’s Medicinals.

“Smoking depends,” he said. “I don’t smoke much for pain, it’s more for relaxing and to disconnect. I actually wish I could smoke more, but with my 75 to 80 hour work week, it’s become a weekend thing right now.”

Being a bonafide patient was a mind-bender for Riley, as due to the arrest and subsequent court proceedings he was judged harshly.

“Everyone gave me a hard time,” he said. “My parents, friends, and teachers – everyone treated me like a criminal. I was kicked off the football team at Furman. But, we all know now that cannabis is medicinal. But, you can go through the court system and still succeed legitimately in the industry.”

From Illegal to Legit

After his legal woes the only work he could get was in construction, so he opened his own used car lot in Florida. He knew he wanted to get back into cannabis, but he wanted his foray back to be legal this time.

He used proceeds from car lot to invest in CannaSafe, which acquired in 2018. Maxing out his own credit cards and putting all the cash he had into the business, that first year they lost a great deal of money.

“I slept on an air mattress – it was an all-in endeavor,” he explained. “The regulations weren’t even finalized in California yet. And then we were ten percent uncollectible – people weren’t paying, but we were able to climb out of the hole.”

And climb out of the hole they did, generating $20 million by the end of 2019. To date they’ve tested more than one billion dollars’ worth of product.

“The 2020 forecast looks even rosier,” he added. “CannaSafe currently has a staff of 150 and is opening five new locations in the second quarter. I’m personally projecting a fifty percent growth by the end of next year.”

Mainstream mentions include a feature in the LA Weekly, a Los Angeles weekly publication; a segment on the television show, The Doctors; and write-ups on its success in many more publications.

Keeping the Cannabis Safe

CannaSafe’s President is Antonio Frazier. The two have been friends since his days at Furman University, and played football on the team together before Riley’s bust.

Frazier holds a Bachelor of Science from Furman University, and a BS in Materials Engineering from Clemson University, also in South Carolina. He began his career as a Nuclear Quality Engineer for the Tennessee Valley Authority, then moved to aerospace engineering in a testing laboratory for SKF USA in Baltimore.

Frazier brings his extensive and serious skill set to the table, ensuring upright standards are adhered to in the cannabis industry. He said he’d be doing this type of work anyway, and the fact it’s cannabis is a bonus.

To give an idea of the work being done, Riley uses multiple award-winning, sun-grown, Northern California-based Papa & Barkley, located in Humboldt’s county seat of Eureka, as an example.

“We are happy to work with Papa & Barkley, as they’ve challenged other companies in the industry to assess their own supply chains,” he explained. “They self-regulate and triple-test to provide clean cannabis products. This ensures safety and efficacy.”

The cannabis industry is heavily monitored, and multiple testing on many levels is mandatory within legal states in the U.S. The five key principles for clean cannabis are:

• Organic and regenerative farming practices

• Solventless process

• Whole plant infusion

• Clean ingredients

• Triple-tested by third party

Triple testing is costly and the bane for many in the space, but it’s a much needed process, ensuring clean material and products all throughout the supply chain – and that’s the ultimate goal, to provide clean meds for health and well-being.

After all is said and done, Riley said he feels lucky, plain and simple.

“I’ve been fortunate to have these opportunities put in front of me,” he surmised. “I was an entrepreneur in college, selling weed, yes, but it taught me viable entrepreneurial skills. You can take what you’ve learned from the illicit market and make it work in the legal market. I’m living proof.”

Cannabis Chef Brandon Allen

Low carbs, high on weed, this chef educates with taste

Chef Brandon Allen grew up splitting time between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where he worked in his mother and step-dad’s pizza and sandwich shop. His first foray into cooking came when he was asked to develop an all Vegan menu for the restaurant. This, he said, was the beginning of his foray into cooking.

“I loved food too much to deprive myself of so much pleasure,” he said of eventually giving up the Vegan diet. “I was watching Anthony Bourdain’s show, Kitchen Confidential, and he really turned me around. I brought a pizza home one day and devoured it, loved it – then ate a bacon cheeseburger the next day and never went back.”

Allen said he anticipated either being sick after eating meat again, or having digestive issues, but nothing came.

He studied culinary arts at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, apprenticing with an Olympic Culinary Team and Executive Chef, Sean Culp. He then moved to Denver, where he met his finance, Megan. The two then spent time in Austin, Texas, then Los Angeles and San Diego, California, before relocating to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where his now finance is from. The experiences in each region, he said, further added to his culinary education and cannabis savvy.

“The biggest thing that shifted me was falling in love with food,” he explained. “I’ve tried Pescatarian – which is adding fish to a Vegetarian diet; took a dive into Paleo; but now continue to bounce back and forth between a Keto carnivore diet and low carbs. No more Vegan or Vegetarian for me. Based on science, Vegan, as a whole, defies what the body needs. I fell for cherry-picked data when I initially went Vegan.”

Keto & Cannabis

Born with decreased lordosis (sway back), herniated disks and arthritis, Allen said he began smoking cannabis at the age of 14.

“The first time I got high we were smoking out of a tin foil bowl in a baseball field dugout, during the summer carnival in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania,” he shared. “I first started consuming cannabis again as an adult. Once I got my medical card, I was smoking flower and eating edibles. It’s funny, just this week I was driving around my old stomping ground and came across the baseball field, so I stopped by and said hello to the dugout!”

Allen said the chronic pain he’d suffered with all of his life eventually led him to the Ketogenic diet, in an attempt to reduce inflammation in his body in an effort to reduce the pain. He said the diet worked wonders, but he still suffered from flair-ups.

“Then I discovered the anti-inflammatory properties of cannabis – and everything changed. I was able to bridge the gap between Keto living and cannabis - and I truly believe that the human body’s ultimate state is achieved through a combination of nutritional ketosis and cannabis supplementation. For the first time I found something that worked to finally replace the pills for good, and I didn’t think that would ever be possible.”

According to WebMD, a Ketogenic diet is a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet that leaves out sugary foods, including fruits, starches, and wheat-based products; such as rice, pasta and cereals. Ketosis is a natural biological process that happens when the body doesn’t have enough carbohydrates to burn for energy, and subsequently, burns body fat for fuel.

“The ability to achieve homeostasis starts with fuel, otherwise known as food,” he added. “Then cannabis as a medicine is added to help supplement what food alone cannot achieve. If you’re not giving your body the proper fuel, you’re only making it more challenging on the supplementation side. The reason I’ve combined cannabis and ketosis is because of the amazing paralleling benefits that being in ketosis and consuming cannabis share.”

Addressing everything from cognitive function and clarity, to fat metabolism and cellular repair, with ketones and cannabinoids, Allen’s convinced he’s found a powerhouse duo for health and well-being.

Certified Interpener

Allen’s enthusiasm for cannabis aligned with legalization throughout the country. While in Denver in 2016, he enrolled at the Trichome Institute, becoming certified as a Interpener.

Institute founder, Max Montrose (High Times https://hightimes.com/culture/whats-your-stash-max-montrose-founder-trichome-institute/), created the Interpening program in 2008. Similar to a wine Sommelier, Interpeners learn to predict cannabis effects, based on physical and aromatic evaluation.

The program puts a strong emphasis on terpenes and cannabinoids as principle compounds, encouraging students to ignore THC (tetrahydrocannbinoid) counts, and focus on whole plant compounds for better effects.

“The stars aligned two years ago in 2018, when I partnered with Max at Trichome,” he shared.” I first came on board as a part-time consultant and we now run the institute together. I helped redevelop the interpening program; edited the book, “Interpening: The Art and Science of the Cannabis Sommelier;” and helped add three new courses, one on consumers, another on industry professionals, and one on extractions.”

Allen’s work with the institute has been nothing short of inspiring, and he said more courses are in the works.

“We were just reviewed and accredited by the American Culinary Association for cannabis cuisine,” he said. “The certification was based on a test, with four resources submitted, and one of them was the Interpening book. It was a huge accomplishment and one we are really proud of.”

Montrose said Allen has taken Trichome Institute’s curriculum and platforms and turned everything into a better version of itself in a very short amount of time.

“Brandon is a dynamic, pragmatic, logic-seeking chef, who appreciates and understands the complex nature of cannabis – and society’s understanding of the plant,” Montrose said of his partner. “Trichome Institute was custom-made for people like Brandon.”

Among Allen’s many achievements in a very short time in the space, he won the competition as High Times’ first Top Cannabis Chef.

“The first competition at a Cup was in Las Vegas in 2017, but a storm shut it down,” he explained. “When they rescheduled, not everyone that initially signed up could make it. There was one slot to fill and I got in. Now, mind you, I was ready, but completely unknown in the world of cannabis cooking. Everyone else in the competition were already known, had hosted cannabis dinners, had edible lines, and authored books on the subject.”

The event was hectic, but Allen said it’s what he trained for as a chef, to think and cook under pressure.

“It was brutal,” he continued. “I was the new guy, but I kicked some serious ass and it was awesome.”

Allen feels that cannabis is many things to many people, but one of the most amazing side effects of the plant, he said, has been all the opportunities given to so many.

“Cannabis gives opportunity to feel better, to be healthier, to experience life differently, and to let loose,” he concluded. The plant gives us an opportunity to relax and be in the moment. But it has also provided me with an opportunity to have an amazing career, travel the world, and meet some of the most fascinating people. This plant and community have changed my life in many internal and external ways, and all for the best.”

For more information on Chef Brandon Allen visit, www.twitch.tv/chefbrandonallen

Follow him on Instagram @chefbrandonallen

Subscribe to Chef Brandon Allen’s YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoyiPKa6YFfNerdcocUpi-A

For more information on the Trichome Institute visit, www.trichomeinstitute.org

Liz Jackson Smith & Angela White

Success Centers, providing equity and equality in the cannabis space

It’s no secret, the U.S. Government’s failed War on Drugs has created generations of felons since its implementation in June of 1971, when then President Richard M. Nixon declared drug abuse to be “public enemy number one.” Since then, the war has focused on minorities, with People of Color being incarcerated ten times more often than those in the white population.

Success Centers launched in 1983 by Superior Court Judges, initially to provide education and employment opportunities to youth in San Francisco’s juvenile detention facilities. This effort evolved into helping populations that have been impacted by unjust laws, racial bias, and social inequities, as seen within the War on Drugs. Once released into the general population, this group of citizens often have little resources or skills to start over. Many return to the prison system without assistance to help point them in another direction.

As explained in its Vision statement, “Success Centers’ theory of change recognizes that meaningful change must include the very communities that have been most affected by systemic inequities, without placing the onus of responsibility solely on these communities.”

A Life of Community Service

Liz Jackson-Simpson came to Success Centers as Executive Director in 2010, with more than 32 years of experience in workforce development and juvenile justice experience.

She retired from the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department, where she spent 16 years creating job training programs at the Log Cabin Ranch for boys; and then developed re-integration services for young people released from incarceration. After retiring, she then spent five years as the first Executive Director of Program Development for the YMCA – a position created especially for her extensive and unique skill set.

While studying art at San Francisco State University, Jackson-Simpson fell in love with community service work, and began working with the Private Industry Council, now known as the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. She became an expert in workforce development and education programs, eventually co-authoring a Youth Opportunity grant from the Federal Department of Labor, known as YO!, securing $28 million for youth employment programs in the city.

Under Jackson-Simpson’s supervision as Chief Executive Officer, Success Centers’ revenue tripled, taking it from a $450,000 to a $3.5 million dollar operation, doubling staff, bringing in new donors, and the acquisition of a new location.

Budding Jobs

Two years ago Jackson-Simpson brought in Angela White, a graduate of Oaksterdam University in Oakland, White is a pioneer in cannabis in California in her own right. She helped launch one of the first Medical Marijuana collectives under California’s Proposition 215 in East Palo Alto; then opened a dispensary in San Jose, bringing first-hand knowledge from the industry to Success Centers.

Adding the cannabis industry to its list of job opportunities came after a “sticky wall” activity wherein they posed the question to its young people, “What will you and your friends need over the next five years to be successful?”

“The response was that it was cool we were helping them get jobs in retail, administration, dog walking and restaurant work, but they really wanted “nontraditional” jobs like construction, tech, cannabis and the arts,” White explained. “Their insights were the key elements to our organizational strategic plan, and as a result, we have training programs in all those fields, including hospitality and health. “

Its Budding Industry Job Shop evolved from this discussion.

“The Job Shop is different from a job fair, because it brings job seekers and employers to an intimate environment to learn about the company where they may be working,” White said. “Employers are looking to hire in all areas, from budtenders to executive assistants, to presidents.”

The outcome was telling, with participants stating they wanted jobs doing things they were interested in, and they wanted to learn from people who looked like them – because trust is an issue.

“The War on Drugs turned out to be a war on people, with the lives of entire families left in ruin,” she said. “Putting their trust and faith in us to help turn things around is a responsibility we don’t’ take lightly.”

A Lineage of Pain, A Lifetime of Knowledge

One story White shares is of a young woman, Reece Benton, who shared the War on Drugs took nearly everyone in her family.

“Her mother died from crack cocaine when she was a teenager, and her mother’s parents died from complications of crack cocaine use; and her father is in prison due to drugs,” she explained. “Although she has lost a lot, she’s built a delivery business, Posh Green Delivery, right here in San Francisco. She’s created her own product brand, and is working to open a dispensary as a sole proprietor. If that isn’t a success story of drive, ambition, tenacity and will, I can’t tell you what is.”

Success Centers’ Equity for Industry Program provides a series of workshops for incubating Equity Applicants. The program element also provides the opportunity for businesses to give back and to be compliant. The program also brings together business owners to share industry and business practices to assist Equity Applicants obtain the business acumen necessary to be successful in the legal marketplace.

“Due to wealth disparities and the exuberant cost of rent, many Equity Applicants are unable to secure a location to open their businesses,” White said. “It costs a minimum of $500,000 to open a cannabis business in town. Many are looking for investors or incubators to work with because they need Capital.”

Another story from the Budding Industry archives is of a young man who everyone thought just wanted to get high.

“In reality, he wished he could have extended the life of his grandmother with edibles and tinctures,” Jackson-Simpson shared. “This young man now studies environmental science at the university level, with dreams of becoming a master grower.”

Those transitioning from an illegal market will have wild skills to share, and though the terminology is changing, White said you can’t beat their edge on knowledge and experience.

“I think livable wages for work like trimming and bucking needs to be revamped in the legal industry,” she concluded. “This is very tedious and time consuming work that not just anyone can do. We want to be more attractive to those coming from the illicit market with years of experience under their belts. People can’t live off minimum wage – especially in the Bay Area, or California in general. We will ask folks who are offering employment, ‘could you live and feed your family on minimum wage?’ The answer is usually no.”

Relating to Weed

On a personal note, both White and Jackson-Simpson have their own stories of cannabis.

“At one point in my life I thought I’d never stop smoking weed,” Jackson-Simpson laughed. “In fact, I wrote my college thesis on the Legalization of Marijuana in 1983! But, while raising my children, with a husband who abstains, I stopped.”

Since taking on this work with the cannabis industry, Jackson-Simpson said she was reintroduced to the plant.

“I’ve discovered CBD products, like Papa & Barkley that I use for aches and pains – and they really help,” she shared.

White, on the other hand, suffered from serious migraines beginning in the 1990s, helped by cannabis.

“Often I would be bedridden, in the dark, with a scarf covering my eyes,” she shared. “I spent many days away from my children in pain, until my doctor – off the record – told me to ‘go buy a dime bag of weed.’ This female plant has all the properties to nurture the mind, body, and spirit – without the negative side-effects from pharmaceuticals.”

White said that during her years of working at a dispensary as a budtender, she heard from patrons from all walks of life, with varying types of health conditions, sharing how this plant worked miracles for them.

“I became fascinated with this female plant, and discovered that I wanted to bloom and uplift the spirits of everyone that crossed my path,” she said. “My relationship with it has changed over the years, and I maintain my ‘one hitter quitter’ regiment on the onset of symptoms since the nineties, and this protocol continues to keep me migraine-free.”

White’s background with Oaksterdam University in Oakland continues with Success Centers, through a partnership.

“We provide scholarships with Oaksterdam University, where participants can attend Cannabusiness and Horticulture seminars,” she said. “We also bring in local industry professionals to conduct workshops. Participants can also visit a cultivation operation at MD Farms and learn first-hand knowledge of what it takes to operate a farm.”

As the cannabis industry expands into one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world, White is confident those who are transitioning into the legal market are up to the challenge.

“We work hard every day to support our community and protect them from the inequities faced by our constituents,” she surmised. “We remain hopeful and demonstrate day after day, that given the right resources and opportunities, our folks have proven to be Captains of the Indust

Robert Jungmann, Founder, Jungmaven

Better Living with Hemp

The Mission Statement for Jungmaven, the hemp clothing company founded by Robert Jungmann, begins with the credo, “We believe the earth belongs to everyone.”

Caring about the earth is a common refrain within the hemp and cannabis communities. After caring comes advocacy and action, with renewed interest in hemp education growing, as it’s planted once again across the country.

Education is everything when you are talking about a sustainable plant that was literally prohibited from being grown,” he said. “Education is the only way to stop making the same mistakes over and over again.”

Jungmann grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. In the summer of 1984 he and family traveled to California for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. They then headed north, relocating to Seattle, Washington, as his father had gotten a promotion.

“I fell in love with the trees, the mountains and the water,” he shared. “I climbed a tree and found a glass pipe with a fully loaded bowl of weed. It’s as if the universe said, ‘Welcome to Washington, here’s a loaded bowl, my friend.”

Jungmann, who was 15 at the time, brought the bowl back to his house, inviting friends over for a football game, stating, “We had a chest full of beer, I got everyone high, and we are all still friends to this day.”

Schooled in Hemp

After graduating high school in 1988, Jungmann attended Central Washington University in Ellensburg, studying environmental studies and journalism, with a minor in business.

“There was a professor who taught environmental studies who would rip your heart out every day, he shared. “He would spell out facts of how humans went from living sustainably to being detached from our environment. His course changed my life.”

The Pacific Northwest is known for its logging and ranching, with many students taking sides. Jungmann said the professor helped everyone listen to each other to find common ground.

“The professor talked about the history and politics of hemp, and how we didn’t need to tear our forests down for lumber, because hemp was enough,” he added. “Studying journalism helped shape my voice and enabled me to decipher and discern between misinformation and truth. That’s a skill set I’m glad I have in today’s world of alternative facts.”

The experience caused Jungmann to take a deep dive into hemp, reading Jack Herer’s page-turner, The Emperor Wears no Clothes; a whistleblowing account of the politics of the demise of hemp, the rise of petroleum byproducts, and subsequent ruination of the environment.

“I met Jack in 1994 at the first Hemp Industries Association conference in Arizona,” he shared. “We discussed integrity, and using legitimate hemp, keeping people in check. We talked about the need to find balance if we want to continue to thrive sustainably. I couldn’t look at the country the same way, let alone the planet, after this newfound knowledge. I knew I wanted to be a part of the positive change to get back to living sustainably on the earth.”

When Vivian McPeak and team began the first Seattle Hempfest in 1993, Jungmann said he and friends were afraid to go in.

“We hung out above the park on the perimeter, afraid we’d get busted smoking weed in the park,” he laughed. “No one knew what to expect. Huge thank you and great respect for everything Viv and team have done for the hemp industry. He’s up there on the top ten list for people who have made a huge contribution to the changes in the industry that spread across the country.”

Jungmann said that by 1996 there was a hemp shop opening up in just about every other week across the country, and Viv played a big role in inspiring the sustainable trend.

The Business of Hemp

Jungmann began his first company, Manastash, named after his favorite mountain bike ride, Manastash Ridge, while in college. He later learned the name is derived from a Native American word, meaning “new beginning” or “new growth.”

He had been working as a real-estate appraiser, but said the gig was “sucking the life out of his soul.” The first purchases made were a computer and a stack of hemp fabric.

By that time the American Hemp Mercantile opened up on the fifth floor of a warehouse in Seattle, filled with hemp products.

“There was just about everything that could be found there,” he said. “Hemp shoes by Adidas were a huge development and really pushed the conversation forward in the mainstream market.”

Manastash made mountain bike and rock climbing clothing, because that’s what they were into.

“We made things we liked to wear,” he explained. “We shopped exclusively at second hand stores – because that’s all we could afford in college. We’d buy favorite pieces and wear them out, then recreate them in hemp. One of our friend’s mom’s would make us shorts out of hemp.”

In 1995 Jungmann set up a booth at an outdoor retailer show in Reno, and witnessed, first hand, the impact hemp would have in the world of business. He also realized the only people in the world that seemed interested in hemp was the Japan market.

“Everyone at this trade show were in suits and ties, and there we were – these 20-somethings - in a bamboo hut we’d made ourselves,” he explained. “But, they were all over us. Our first substantial order for twenty-thousand dollars of goods came in during a Christmas party over a carbon fax machine that sat next to my couch - that also doubled as my bed. It was an awesome gift of opportunity.”

At the time there were only a handful of hemp stories, and Jungmann and team opened one on the Avenue in Seattle – a popular shopping district near the university.

By 2005, Jungmann said 80 percent of his business was from Japan, and ended up selling the business to a Japanese entity, starting Jungmaven in the same year.

Jungmaven is a play on words, using the first part of his last name, and the combination of his first company, Manastash, and it’s logo, a raven.

The Jungmaven brand today hosts a line of simply designed hemp clothing, with a 70 percent knit wear line of shirts and sweatshirts; a 30 percent woven line of jackets, pants, dresses, shorts, jumpers, hats, wallets; and a 100 percent hemp home line that includes bedding.

The challenges in keeping a hemp manufacturing business going in the states, he said, is the fact that the country has just begun to plant hemp again, and the equipment needed to process the stalks isn’t fully available everywhere just yet.

“It will take some time to ready the infrastructure – mainly degumming and decortication machines, that separate the fiber from the stalk,” he informed.

Hemp for the Planet

Aside from the manufacturing materials hemp provides, Jungmann expounded on the fact that the plant itself can clean the environment.

“Trees take decades to grow back, hemp regenerates in a few months,” he said. “Hemp also produces oxygen, aerates the soil, and consumes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Hemp is our one hope to mitigate climate change.”

Hemp, he said, requires no irrigation, pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and it doesn’t come in a GMO seed, making it a perfectly clean and beneficial plant for supplements and remedies.

Within the Jungmaven website is an Apothecary page, with hemp derived personal care and supplemental products. Its Everyday Oil is a multi-purposes cleaning, healing and moisturizing hemp oil made with a combination of beneficial plants.

Signature unisex perfume, Maven, was developed by alchemist, Andrea Shanti of Holistic Body Therapy. It’s a woodsy blend of 24 extracts, including agarwood, myrhh, sandalwood, spikenard, frankincense and cardamom – referred to as “sex in a bottle.”

Intriguing is its line of beneficial plant powders labeled, Transformational Foods, that include superfoods such as Moringa, Ashwagandha, Lion’s Mane, Prash; and He Shou Wu Rejuvenation tonic, a Chinese herb said to enhance immune function.

Currently, he and his girlfriend are on lockdown in Washington State as the world deals with the pandemic of the coronavirus. He said the situation has given him time to think about how his actions affect others and making the world a better place – which is the core of the hemp community’s philosophy.

"Seems like the lockdown is a giant restart for the planet," he surmised. "Like a three month surf trip in Central America with no internet. It's definitely needed right now. The world needs to slow down and take a look around at what we are doing, think about what we value in life, and realize what we need to do next. The basics for me are healthy air, water, land and communities we can thrive in – and hemp is a big part of that.”

For more information on Jungmaven visit, www.jungmaven.com

For more information on photographer Katie O’Neil visit, https://katieoneillfoto.wordpress.com/author/katieoneillfoto/

William Courtney, M.D.

AC/DC: Alternative Cannabinoid Dietary Cannabis

When the cultivar AC/DC first hit the market many supposed it was a tribute to the 70s rock band or the infamous scientist who first discovered the electrical current, Nikola Tesla.

But, it was actually Northern California physician, Dr. William Courtney, formerly based in Mendocino County, who created the cultivar with a high cannabindiol or CBD content, specifically for juicing leaf.

Dr. Courtney’s education began at the University of Michigan with a Bachelor’s of Science in Microbiology. He then earned a Doctorate in Medicine from Wayne State University, interning for his Residency in Psychiatry at California Pacific Medical Center. He’s currently a member of the American Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine, the International Cannabinoid Research Society, the international Association of Cannabis as Medicine, and the Society of Clinical Cannabis. He also teaches Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses in clinical cannabis.

Known for advocating for juicing the fan leaf as a dietary supplement, Dr. Courtney helped put his now wife Kourtney’s Lupus into remission after she traveled to California to be helped by him. Kourtney was told she’d never have children, but ended up marrying the good doctor and they proceeded to have three children together.

He next made headlines in 2013 when he crossed over from the non-psychoactive delivery of juicing leaf, to the high tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, concentrate of cannabis oil, successfully helping to put an eight month old infant’s brain tumor into remission.

The Father of AC/DC

Dr. Courtney is the father of AC/DC, creating the cultivar from Cannatonic seeds acquired during a visit to Barcelona, Spain from Resin Seeds.

As detailed in the New Settler Newsletter (Autumn 2011) Courtney’s trip was purposeful, as he is known for being on the lookout for high CBD strains.

“We gave some presentations while there,” Courtney was quoted. “But, the primary goal was to find more board prolific genetics.”

The story includes hash making locals and weed-eating goats, but Courtney brought the seeds home, potted them up and the rest, as they say, is history.

According to Leafly.com highlights of AC/DC are it is a sativa-dominant phenotype of the high CBD cannabis strain, Cannatonic, with a ration of 1:20, or one part THC to 20 parts CBD. In fact, the CBD often tests highest than others at upwards of 19 percent, with no psychoactive properties to speak of.

There is actually no compound within the plant called THC. In its raw form the compound is called THCA, and doesn’t become the psychoactive compound of THC until heated. Like its sister compound, THC, THCA has anti-inflammatory properties, with many neuroprotectant properties, promoting brain function health. It’s also been sited with slowing the growth of certain types of cancer cells.

“If you don’t heat marijuana, you can go up to five or six hundred milligrams and use the plant strictly as a dietary supplement by upping the anti-oxidant and neuro-protective levels which come into play at hundreds of milligrams of CBDA and THCA,” he explained. “It is this dramatic increase in dose from 10 milligrams of psychoactive THC to the 500 milligrams to 1,000 milligrams of non-psychoactive THCA, CBDA, and CBGA that comprises the primary difference between traditional medical marijuana treatments and using cannabis as a dietary supplement.”

In other words, juicing allows the patient to get the maximum whole plant compounds without the high. Aside from using a juicing machine, a handful of leaves can also be added to a blender with other fruits to make a beneficial smoothie.

Alternative Cannabinoid Dietary Cannabis

Cultivar names can be vulgar, are often silly, or plagiaristic, but when Dr. Courtney thought up AC/DC, it was nothing short of meaningful – with humor thrown in for good measure.

From a hand written note, Dr. Courtney penned:

The strain of plants we have recently identified I’m now calling ‘Alternative Cannabinoid Dietary Cannabis’ – that’s AC/DC.

The name, in part, was selected because of the humorous nature of cannabis strains.

In this case, the humor is: If you heat the plant, you will decarboxylate THC-acid and you will get high, you will get your 10 milligrams. If you don’t heat it, you can go up to five or six hundred milligrams and use it as a dietary cannabis. – Dr. Wm Courtney

Granny Storm Crow, Grass roots advocate

Covertly compiling cannabis studies for the cause

For more than ten years Granny Storm Crow has been compiling studies on cannabis from around the world, maintaining a comprehensive database online. She does this to inform, evangelizing the fact that the plant has indeed been studied in depth for decades, contrary to the uneducated mantra, “We need more studies.”

Granny Storm Crow’s List, that began with 60 pages published on her 60th birthday in 2007, has grown to more than 6,000 pages of links to articles, studies and published papers on cannabis.

Many advocates for cannabis use pseudonyms in the space to hide their identity. Most do it for legal reasons; either they live in an illegal state, they work within a federally funded organization, or they work in the medical field - which, ironically, is against the rules in the U.S.

Granny took on the pseudonym due to a past school district job, and the job security of family members.

“I was a well-respected teacher’s aide when I began this work,” she explained. “Even though I am legal in my home state to use cannabis as medicine for a real ailment, schools forbade its use and I had to hide in the shadowy world of the internet, as I influenced followers world-wide.”

Advocacy via Pain

With every story of advocacy there’s a backstory with a history of illness, accidents, and subsequent struggles to be well. Granny Storm Crow’s story is no different.

“When I was three years old I suffered a major head injury when another child - perhaps five years old - tried to kill me with a hammer,” she shared. “I was left with dents in my skull and frequent migraines. By the time I was five, my bedroom had black curtains to block the light.”

By the time she reached 19 she tried cannabis and liked it; but, it took about a year for her to realize that when she smoked cannabis she didn’t have the migraines. The nightmares that had plagued her since childhood also disappeared, quelling symptoms of severe PTSD from the accident.

“Some will say the migraines may have just disappeared as I grew older, but that’s not the case,” she continued. “I quit using cannabis for three years when I began working for the school district, and they came back with a vengeance. I’ve been using cannabis medicinally for more than 40 years now, and it’s still as effective.”

The List

“To most folks, the List as appears as this huge, unchanging monolith of information,” she said. “But, the information is constantly changing. Abstracts become full studies, and vice versa; URLs are changed and moved. It’s a constant job to update and can be mind-numbing, but the golden nuggets of information I’ve found make it worth the work.”

The List is divided up into sections, with news articles comprising the first section, and a mini-dictionary of scientific terms to help the reader decipher the studies themselves.

“Most of us old-timers had to learn about cannabis bit by bit from scattered sources,” she informed. “I’ve found that news articles often contain details the official abstract of the study may not cover, so they are worth reading. I’ve also made it easy to use by adding a Beginners section that gives all the basic information.”

New studies covering the past four years are found in Section 2, dating from 2015 through Mid-August of 2019.

“It’s the biggest section simply because new studies are coming out at an amazing rate now!” she exclaimed. “This section can be the most useful for students, medical professionals and patients.”

A large Cultivation section with articles on farming cannabis dating back to 1789 is intriguing. She also has hundreds of recipes listed under Methods of Use, with information on both ancient and modern techniques for farming and remedies made with cannabis listed under History.

Got Omega-3?

The most compelling information comes from Section 3, with details about Omega-3 and subsequent deficiencies in the Endocannabinoid System (eCS).

“The information on Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency and Omega-3 is quite thought provoking,” she continued. “In my opinion, the eCS and its genetics is the future of medicine. Diets in the western world are actually deficient in Omega-3, depleted further by our use of Omega-6 oils in our diets and in processed foods.”

The earliest study found with this problem is from the National Institute of Health’s Pub Med site (#21278728), titled, “Nutritional Omega-3 Deficiency abolishes endocannabinoid-medicated neuronal functions.”

In other words, in an Omega-3 deficient diet – or, as Granny says, the average western diet – the CB1 receptors (and likely others) are left “uncoupled” from their G-proteins. Granny explains it as, “like a radio with a loose wire – you get no music; and when your endocannabinoid system aint working right, nothing is working right!”

The most chilling finding in this scenario is the last sentences in the abstract at hand, “Finally, the dietary-induced reduction of CB(1)R functions in mood-controlling structures was associated with impaired emotional behavior. These findings identify a plausible synaptic substrate for the behavioral alterations caused by the n-3 PUFAs deficiency that is often observed in western diets.

Meaning, our emotional health is suffering along with our physical health, since we’ve been led away from the garden.

To drive the point home, excessive amounts of Omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), as found in today’s western diets and majority of our cooking oils, promotes the pathogenesis of many diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases – and increased levels of Omega-3 exert the exact opposite effects.

“So, violence and ‘behavioral alterations’ are commonplace, with most Americans walking around with a nutritionally damaged Endocannabinoid System – and the majority of doctors and medical professionals in the country are completely unaware of the situation, and offer no help at all.”

Copy & Paste for the Greater Good

Knowledge is power, and the woman known as Granny Storm Crow has spent years combing through mind-bending studies for our benefit.

“Above all, I’m an educator and feel that knowledge must be shared,” she concluded. “My list is just copy and paste and a bit of organizing. Pretty simple stuff, really. It’s the information contained in the list that’s important.”

Some of the most outspoken advocates in the cannabis space don’t have degrees in medicine or political science, they are driven by knowledge and truth.

“I’m not a doctor, I don’t have a PhD and you don’t know me – so, why should you listen to me?” she asks. “The answer is in the list. If you promise to read and learn, I’ll promise to continue to update and keep it out there for the greater good.”

To access Granny Storm Crow’s List visit, https://grannystormcrowslist.wordpress.com/

Follow Granny Storm Crow on Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/GrannyStormCrowsList/

Emily Paxhia

Co-Founder/Managing Director, Poseidon Asset Management

Emily Paxhia’s dad was a hippie. You can see him in the audience in the film Woodstock, as Jimi Hendrix plays the Star Spangled Banner.

Emily’s mom and dad preferred cannabis over alcohol, but for the sake of the children, they kept it to themselves.

“My dad grew his own because he liked to know where it came from,” she shared. “I never witnessed him smoking, though – he was worried about the repercussions and gave it up for the kids. I was a D.A.R.E. kid, so that made sense, as I was taught to believe it was harmful and ultimately a gateway drug.”

When both her mother and father presented with cancer she and family witnessed firsthand the toll taken after being prescribed opioids and myriad pharmaceuticals. When a hospice nurse brought up the subject of cannabis, everything changed.

According to Hospice Nurse, Marci Cooper of Denver, Colorado, fifty percent of all in care are already using cannabis, with successful outcomes (High Times, December 2019)

“When they have a nurse that looks at them and says, yes, this is OK, it changes everything—they have respect for my knowledge—and their families listen, too,” she said. “That’s huge, as families are divided on cannabis use, and they need to hear it from a medical professional in order for it to be real.”

Paxhia’s D.A.R.E. education became moot quickly, as the nurse educated the family on the benefits of cannabis in care; specifically, patients who add cannabis are said to need less pain pills, are more alert, and have a better overall end of life experience.

“Hospice nurses are great, because they don’t have an agenda – their entire goal is to make the patient comfortable,” Paxhia said. “That changed everything, and we gained a newfound knowledge of help from the plant.”

The D.A.R.E., or, Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, begin in 1983 under Pres. Ronald Regan. The Justice Department has long since found the program to be ineffective, and thought to make the drug abuse problem worse by subjecting children to the information at all.

As each state legalizes, cannabis has been removed from the Federal program that encourages police officers to participate, by subsidizing paychecks via Federal funds from the equally failed War on Drugs.

Interesting to note, the war is run by each administration’s Director (or “Drug Czar”) appointed by the President, for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Meaning, every sitting president has had the opportunity to end it.

Going Green

Paxhia’s family lineage in business on the east coast is in bricks and mortar, but she didn’t follow the family footsteps into the real-estate market. Rather, she majored in Psychology, earning a degree at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. And, though she never used the degree itself, it’s come in handy for a career in finance.

“Psychology and emotion play into investing, start-ups, and managing business,” she surmised. “It’s actually been an invaluable tool in this space.”

In 2011 Paxhia moved to San Francisco and noted the cannabis industry evolving.

“There were beautiful retailers opening up – like the Apothecarium and SPARC in San Francisco, who is in five locations today,” she said. “I called my brother, Morgan, up and told him this industry is our industry for our generation – it’s defining our generation, and we discussed how we could participate.”

By 2013 the two launched Poseidon Asset Management, but found that raising funds in the mainstream market for investing in the cannabis space was another story altogether.

“True story, we were at a tech investor forum, looking for investors for a data analytics company in the cannabis industry, when a representative from a large angel investor in Silicon Valley asked the question, ‘What are you going to do, smoke your data?’ You can’t make this up – stoner jokes in the middle of an investor inquiry. We were literally laughed out of the room.”

While stoner jokes in a business setting may seem inappropriate, they are a common occurrence when cannabis industry professionals face the mainstream market. The negative stigma cultivated for decades is stronger than the truth of the industry’s bright future in commerce, allowing for a level of disrespect not found in any other sector.

“We persisted,” she continued. “When those things happened it gave me the energy to prove them wrong. This year I’m hearing, that without question, the cannabis industry is the fastest growing industry in the world. It’s actually growing a little too fast, as we can attest to the failed tax structure in California as a good example.”

The cannabis industry is the most taxed, with the most regulations, of any business model in the world, placing an unprecedented strain on any start-ups; especially those who must cross-over and come into compliance in the legitimate market from the once covert space.

Global Market

Paxhia and her brother went forward with the motto, “Slow and steady wins the race,” proving to be a solid mantra, as today they are one of the longest running and highest performing (no pun intended) funds in the cannabis industry.

“We started investments with less than one million dollars,” she said. “Today we have more than 150 million in investments. Our smallest projects started at $50,000 to $100,000 in 2014, to $3 million plus today.”

An initial investment was to a biodynamic farm in Mendocino, part of the Emerald Triangle on the North Coast of California, which became one of its portfolio companies. And, while farming is near and dear to the core of the industry (and her heart), Paxhia and team chose to focus on tech companies that didn’t touch the plant.

Headset, Flowhub, Respira, and Wurk, are just a few tech companies they’ve taken on, with successful first rounds for each. At a time when women are scarce in both tech and cannabis in general, Paxhia sits on the Board of Directors for three of the companies, with Poseidon holding board seats with many others.

Poseidon’s help to the more than 50 companies in its portfolio often came when other investment firms shunned some of the early start-ups. Emily’s positive reputation has also allowed the company to secure access to proprietary deal flow.

Its help goes beyond investing, though, as the team comes to the table with expertise to help shape pitches, formulate market strategies, execute product launches, and advise day-to-day on operations.

Poseidon has also seen potential abroad, investing beyond the United States, with other countries more apt to embrace a departure from America’s failed War on Drugs. Columbia, Mexico, Canada, and parts of Europe, now have start-ups and mainstream company’s crossing over, funded by Poseidon.

“We’ve met with both the Morena and Pan Parties in Mexico – both are aligned with regulating and implementing a law for cannabis medical use,” she explained. “We’ve invested in a locally Grupo Landsteiner Scientific, which is a long running Mexican owned company, employing more than 700 workers, coming into the space from an herbal and pharmaceutical background.”

Healing the Investor

Paxhia became a cannabis patient herself at the age of 39, after suffering from digestive issues for years.

“Smoking alone helps my tummy issues,” she shared. “I also use an 8-1 CBD to THC ration via sublingual drops every day. It also helps with anxiety and stress. I like to use a vape pen – Besito pen offers a lower dose, and it’s always in my bag.”

Being sensitive to everything, Paxhia said the low dose works for her, and she prefers a balanced hybrid, leaning to sativa for creativity and energy.

“My favorite cultivar is Forbidden Fruit – it smells like heaven, it’s so fragrant,” she explained. “Sometimes I’ll use a PAX2 for flower, and the healing effects are instantaneous. I talk about this plant and its healing benefits every day, and I’m still amazed it works so well!”

As cannabis companies’ struggle to step-up and get into compliance, many have fallen, unable to meet the challenges faced. It’s heartwarming to know that an investor with a heart is there to lend a helping hand for the greater good, with complete understanding of the plant.

Morris Beegle, Founder, We are for Better Alternatives

From music mogul to hemp entrepreneur

Morris Beegle was born and raised on a farm in Loveland, Colorado. His parents encouraged his creativity, allowing him to choose whatever path his passions directed.

No stranger to cannabis culture, he partook of the herb at a young age, but didn’t really realize it as remedy until he needed it for chronic pain as an adult, after back surgery via shaving a herniated disk in 2001.

“They gave me opiates for pain control,” he shared. “Vicodin, Percocet – all washed down with alcohol. I was self-medicating with pills and alcohol for the pain, when I transitioned off the pharma for cannabis. The last time I took a Percocet was in 2010. Cannabis has given me more relief than chasing Vicodin with a bottle of wine.”

Beegle manages his pain now with CBD products daily, including full-spectrum tincture and capsules, topping off with smoking, as needed. This entourage effect is most desirable for many patients, as smoking raises the efficacy of any other remedy you are dosing with, be it ingesting plant-based remedies or taking pharmaceuticals.

His business partner, Elizabeth Knight, hails from a 20-year career in sales and management. With her three acre parcel and a warehouse now hosting 360 plants, research and development is in progress to create products for industry and health and wellness.

Music & Weed: it’s all part of the culture

Music became the place where Beegle’s entrepreneurial skills were honed, with a 30 plus year career, founding Hapi Skratch Records in 1995; a one-stop distribution, manufacturing and marketing hub.

After reading Jack Herer’s book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, Beegle began to have a better understanding of what the plant was about – that hemp was cannabis, with myriad uses for manufacturing, as well as nutritional and health benefits.

“I began making hemp shirts and hats for some bands we were representing,” he explained. “In 2012 I had an opportunity to launch a hemp products and services business, and started the Colorado Hemp Company.”

He’s come full-circle with his entertainment finesse, establishing We Are For Better Alternatives (WAFBA), overseeing a collection of brands within the hemp industry, including one of the largest hemp networking events in the world, the NoCo Hemp Expo.

NoCo 2020 takes place in Denver, March 26 through the 28th. It’s said to be the most diverse and comprehensive trade show and conference on the planet. Bringing together the health faction of the industry, as well as manufacturing; as hemp and cannabis cover just about every niche out there – many without ever touching the plant.

Ever the progressive event, this year the NoCo welcomes a Mushroom Pavilion, as the psychotropic fungus joins the ranks as a beneficial plant in Denver; as the city voted to decriminalize the fungus in May of 2019 for remedy, treating mental disorders and depression.

Another intriguing company under WAFBA umbrella, bringing the synergy of his music and entertainment career together, is Silver Mountain Hemp Guitars, with a manufacturing base in the U.S. and Canada. Coming soon to the brand are hemp cone speakers from Tone Tubby, a 20-year leader in the product, used by the likes of Carlos Santana, and many other notable musicians for years.

Ukuleles, guitar straps, guitar picks and volume knobs will all be made from hemp in an effort to promote the plant and educate the masses on the many clean and sustainable applications for industry.

Better Alternatives

Beegle’s passion for hemp, and the sense of urgency he feels in providing the planet with a better and more sustainable way to build, drives his project-oriented, entrepreneurial spirit forward.

So far, he has 12 brands under the WAFBA umbrella, all geared to educating and providing hemp products for the masses. Its Let’s Talk Hemp podcast, along with an informative newsletter, is where all the progress comes together to inform and enlighten on hemp and cannabis.

“We are into the industrial applications of hemp, but we are also into the nutritional side of both hemp and cannabis,” he surmised. “The industry can be as multifaceted as the plant itself, and we are more than happy to expound on all it brings to the table for the greater good.”

Beegle said it was natural for him to traverse from music to education on hemp and cannabis.

“We’ve been synergistically fine-tuning every platform, allowing them to work together,” he summed up. “There’s a powerful force out there putting up road blocks. The pharmaceutical industry lobbies for its corporate interests. They know this is coming. They know the people are becoming educated and this is a beneficial plant, not a drug - and they obstruct every chance they get. Education on hemp and cannabis is sorely needed for the health of the planet and the people.”

Marcie Cooper, Hospice Nurse, copacetic to cannabis

Marcie Cooper’s path to educating nurses on cannabis in hospice was cleared by a family tragedy, after her father suffered a heart attack that left him brain dead.

“I wanted to let him go, but the final say wasn’t up to me. He was weaned him off the ventilator, and put on a feeding tube,” she shared. “We watched him waste away, and I kept praying for him to be set free.”

Cooper was already in training to become a Registered Nurse, and she would go on to receive her Master of Science in Nursing; but, the experience inspired her to be a hospice nurse, eventually becoming an Advanced Holistic Nurse – Board Certified.

She couldn’t make a difference for her father, but she could help others by giving them the compassion her situation lacked.

Cooper is currently Assistant Clinical Director of a palliative and hospice center in Denver, overseeing 40 patients; as well as part-time After Hours Field Nurse on the weekends for a larger hospice with 220 patients.

Due to the sensitivity of the work she does, the names of the organizations she works for have been withheld. Though, her work is solid, with many continuing to be helped daily, the stigma keeps many medical professionals from entirely coming out of the smoky closet of prohibition.

Care at Home

St. Christopher’s Hospice in England was the first official hospice, developed and founded by Dr. Cicely Saunders in 1967, who felt that bringing the patient home for a more comfortable passing was better for both patient, family, and loved ones.

According to Psychology Today, the focus of hospice has always been on pain relief, symptom management and comfort, not cure; with four levels of care denoted, routine, continuous, general inpatient, and respite.

Cannabis use in hospice is becoming more widely accepted, with more patients turning to the plant for its analgesic properties; allowing them to be more present than with traditional end-of-life care pharmaceuticals, such as morphine, typically prescribed for end of life care.

What this means is, more hospice nurses are learning about the benefits of cannabis, adding another layer of care for their patients – many of which are already using cannabis through their illness.

Holistic Hospice

Cooper attended the University of Memphis’ Lowenberg School of Nursing, landing a job initially in the oncology unit at Babtist Memorial in Memphis.

“The hospital experience was distressing to me, and I came home crying every day,” she shared. “Lots of chemo and blood transfusions – and very little healing – too much suffering.”

After witnessing the heartache of an oncology ward, Cooper decided she needed a few more tools under her belt, and began studying holistic nursing, becoming proficient in Acudetox, essential oils, and hypnotherapy from the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA).

The hard fact that the south just wasn’t progressive had her looking west, to Colorado in 2009.

“I moved to Denver and that’s when everything changed,” she said. “I was hired to do the boring job of MDS Coordinator at the Denver North Care Center, a dual diagnosis addiction recovery center, if they let me be the Holistic Therapy Practitioner.”

At the time Colorado was already legal for cannabis as medicine, and its administrator, Tami Kendall, NHA (nursing home administrator), was thinking of creating a space for cannabis patients to medicate.

“Dual disorders mean the patient was already suffering from mental disorders when they began self-medicating with damaging and addictive drugs,” she explained. “It’s a common tale. Dr. Kendall said she’d rather they go outside and smoke a joint, than be in here having a melt-down. She got it, I wasn’t in Mississippi anymore!”

Cannabis, she found was a good tool in addiction recovery, especially in dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD), and other emotional disorders. She ended up studying Chinese medicine, learning Accudetox, a protocol developed in the Bronx in New York in the 1980s, helpful in addiction recovery.

“With Chinese medicine we look at emotions, and the same emotions that happen with PTSD happen in recovery,” she explained. “I thought this type of therapy would also be helpful in hospice, as they deal with grief, anger, fear – the three main emotions.”

After a year working in recovery, she landed a job at the oldest and largest hospice in town, where holistic therapies were already in practice.

Just Add Cannabis

Cooper is in tears as she explains what happened next.

“I had witnessed so much suffering when I was working in the oncology unit, that it really left a mark on me,” she said. “One day, I saw a Facebook posting stating that cannabis cures cancer, and I was really angry. I’ve seen everyone from children to grandparents suffer and die from cancers, and I just couldn’t see how cannabis could help! I thought it was irresponsible to say so.”

Then she began researching and met Justin Kandor online, reading his book, Cannabis Extract Report.

“Then I got really, really angry!” she exclaimed. “We have people suffering and dying everyday – I’ve lost friends and family I wish I could have helped. When I think of all the lies they’ve told us about this plant. How dare they keep this from us?”

Since coming into the cannabis space, Cooper said she has many success stories to share on how cannabis helps with end of life care in hospice.

“I’d say at least fifty percent of hospice patients are already cannabis patients,” she shared. “I found my voice and got to a place where I could talk to them about it. I could say, ‘have you tried cannabis? It might help your pain. One man was taking 180 milligrams of OxyContin three times a day and sleeping 23 hours a day, still miserable, with no life at all. He really wanted to make his daughter’s wedding, which was weeks away.”

With Cooper’s suggestion, his family purchased the oil and they were able to wean him off the opioids, allowing him to be awake and mindful up to six hours a day.

“His quality of life was improved drastically in a short amount of time,” she shared. “He was eating, laughing, and present – spending quality time with his daughter. And, though he missed the wedding, the last six weeks of his life spent enjoying his family were priceless. That’s the power of this plant.”

Is there something else?

The most challenging times for Cooper have been in the wee hours of the night, when patients are in the most discomfort, and the morphine isn’t working.

“That’s what they say at two in the morning, after taking morphine five times a day, barely awake, they tell me they don’t want to take any more morphine and isn’t there something else?” she said, sadly, in tears. “Now I can say, yes, there is something else, we have recreational cannabis here in Colorado. You don’t even need a doctor’s script, you can get these products and add them to your protocol, reduce your meds and get relief.”

Cooper said her tool bag used to consist of acupressure, essential oils, and more, but cannabis, she explained, is a game changer.

“When they have a nurse that looks at them and says, yes, this is OK, it changes everything – they have respect for my knowledge – and their families listen, too,” she said. “That’s huge, as families are divided on cannabis use, and they need to hear it from a medical professional in order for it to be real.”

Cooper said she’s also had to educate other hospice nurses, as well as family members.

“I sent a nurse out to see about a patient who was close to passing, struggling to breathe, and they hadn’t given morphine, because they just wanted her to have CBD – cannabinoid only tincture,” she said. “I told them she needs THC for the pain. The nurse said the patient was too agitated and cannabis with THC would make it worse. But the agitation was due, in part, to withdrawal symptoms form the morphine they were withholding. Cannabis oil can quell the pain of withdrawal, while dealing with the pain. So, I’m sitting there thinking the nurses need as much education as the patients and their families.”

Another issue is education on the differences between CBD and hemp hybridized from cannabis, isolates from Industrial Hemp, and whole plant concentrates.

“Many are under the impression that CBD is enough for pain,” she added. “If its Hemp hybridized from cannabis it should have trace THC, but even that might not be enough for end of life pain. People fear THC, but at the end of the day, the proof is self-evident. I won’t tell anyone not to use morphine or pharmaceuticals, because sometimes they are warranted. I only know what I’ve witnessed – that cannabis gives a better end of life experience, while dealing with the pain.”

Cooper has taught nursing, adding cannabis to the syllabus. She also gives talks at nursing homes and senior centers to standing room only crowds.

“Everyone is hungry for knowledge on cannabis,” she concluded. “The nurses are eager to learn, and the geriatric population are suffering and hungry for education on this plant. When I speak, I like to end with a joke, so I’ll leave my favorite one here. An elderly man and woman are sitting together, when the man says, ‘my joints are stiff.’ The woman replies, ‘you are rolling them too tight!’ In light of the disinformation and disrespect this plant has gotten over the years, sometimes humor is the only way to break the ice.”

Bradley King, Life Coach with a higher calling

For the past five years, Bradley King has been a successful Global Life coach, inspiring and encouraging clients around the world. Two years ago, after a client shared that cannabis helped them deal with life’s issues, King found his own life being coached, with his sessions diving deeper and able to move forward more quickly than anything he’d ever witnessed prior.

King soon realized just how many of his clients were self-medicating with cannabis for various disorders, and that it was as much a part of their lifestyles, as it was his.

According to Life Coaching Press, the life coach industry in the U.S. officially crossed over as a valid option to mainstream therapy in the 1980s. The industry exceeded the billion dollar mark in 2017, with the International Coach Federation listing more than 50,000 members, worldwide.

Life Coach Press reports that more corporations are now hiring life coaches, rather than traditional mental health counselors, to assist employees through tough patches and/or work related stressors. This, they say, is due to the negative stigma of old-school therapies that can last years. Life coaching was developed to provide a path forward with more immediate results.

Listening Differently

“I remember the first time a client let it slip that he used cannabis and it helped him,” King shared. “Our sessions had been awkward before that, because of his anxiety issues, and I asked if he would be more comfortable if he smoked a little. I had just recently started smoking again myself, after a long break, and I asked if it was alright if I take a hit or two, as well - to maybe help him feel more comfortable.”

King said he’s a big believer of micro-dosing – keeping smoking to a minimum for optimal effect – especially during coaching sessions.

“We didn’t overconsume and chatted slowly. The session changed,” he continued. “This client was typically anxiety-driven, but after taking a hit or two, he calmed down substantially and opened up more than he ever had before.”

At the time, King was offering a ten-session package, and during the first four sessions, the client seemed to be stuck. With King admitting that it wasn’t entirely the client’s fault.

“I started listening differently,” he explained. “My sessions became deeper - more spiritual. It really opened my eyes, and I knew this was something I had to offer others.”

King is now known as the Cannabis Coach on social media, with his roots firmly planted in the methodology of a life coach.

Medicated, not High

“Many of my clients have admitted to overmedicating with cannabis,” King shared. “I can tell right away when a client has smoked or ingested too much,” he said. “They ramble and rant. They may even become more anxious, and the session fails. It’s hard to get them back, but it also creates a learning moment at the top of the next session, when I remind them that I’m not a therapist, I’m only here to guide them down a path to reach their life’s goals, and focus is everything.”

Too much THC can trigger anxiety, and King said that unfortunately many of his clients suffer from the malady, sharing, “They say, ‘I’m smoking and smoking and smoking, and I’m not getting any better!’ I always share information on micro-dosing first.”

Sessions might include a discussion on the use of tinctures, using products topically, and how much THC is enough for his client’s personal needs. Not as a medical professional, but as a life coach, helping them add to their sessions, moving forward, while getting the most out of cannabis use in their daily lives.

He also discusses the benefits of using cannabis consistently every day, and how regular dosing relates to long-term benefits, while adding to the coaching experience - including the differences between a CBD rich cultivar and one high in THC.

CBD, the Chill Pill

Cannabinoid (CBD) high cultivars have been found to reduce anxiety more substantially than high tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) cultivars, especially when over medicating via smoking.

In a paper published by the University of Washington, authored by none other than Susan A. Stoner, PhD, Research Consultant (true story), she surmises that due to the high percentage of THC in modern-day weed, tolerance becomes an issue, with the endocannabinoid system playing a role in brain function, where anxiety, fear and stress is concerned.

From the paper, “Endocannabinoids appear to modulate highly interactive stress and reward networks, consisting of the endocannabinoid system (ECS), dopamine system, and hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical axis. These networks establish the balance between distress and well-being. Like social interaction and exercise, marijuana intoxication produces a sought-after state of calmness or contentedness, mediated by interactive anxiolytic effects of increased cannabinoid and oxytocin receptor activation and rewarding effects of elevated dopamine.”

Stoner also makes the point to say that “cannabis withdrawal is associated with lower ECS tone, partially medicated by release of stress hormones and reduced dopamine levels.”

In other words, just as in using pharmaceuticals for increased brain function, when using cannabis for mental health issues, stopping cold-turkey presents negative effects, causing the patient to possibly dive deeper into depression and/or anxiety symptoms, including panic attacks.

CBD, on the other hand, Stoner states, “appears to have robust anxiolytic effects without anxiogenic effects at higher doses. In fact, the anxiolytic effects of CBD in humans were first demonstrated in the context of reversing the anxiogenic effects of THC.”

Stoner sites twenty-three human studies showing that dosing with 300-600 milligrams of CBD, taken orally, reduces experimentally induced anxiety in patients without anxiety disorders; and reduces anxiety in patients with diagnosed Social Anxiety Disorder.

Bottom line, King insists on moderation when medicating with cannabis high in THC for anxiety and related emotional issues, and that finding and knowing your dose for the level of help needed is key.

The Cool Weed Coach

The most successful life coaches fulfill a niche in the field, able to command six-figure incomes. And, like, King, they’ve become social media Influencers. Some with Rock-Star-like followings.

From his social media postings, many new clients might be compelled to session and wanted to get high with the celebrity weed coach, but King said he’s all about educating his clients on how cannabis works with our bodies and our psyche, as part of a life coaching experience; helping them get beyond whatever trauma or obstacles that brought them to him in the first place.

“My knowledge in this area is personal, as I’ve witnessed trauma myself. I was sexually raped when I was 16 years-old,” he shared. “I dealt with anxiety, PTSD, depression – and attempted suicide a few times. I was unable to cope with life, and fell into the trap of abusing drugs and alcohol at a very young age.”

To complicate an already difficult situation, King said he was also dealing with the fact that he was Gay. He became sober just prior to turning 17, but it would take four more years to come out of the closet to his parents, at 21 years of age.

“I met my husband when I was 22, the year after I came out,” he continued. “I had walked through a few fires at a young age, and got through it with what felt like an old soul – ready to help others, if given the opportunity. Four years later, I became a certified life coach.”

Today he and his husband have a nine year-old son they adopted via Fostering. Aside from the stigma of being a Gay, married father, King’s professional focus is on breaking the stigma of the stupid stoner.

“That’s really what this is all about for me, breaking all the stigmas now,” he surmised. “The world needs to know that you can be married, have a child, a nice house – and a mental disorder - all the while being a productive member of society, medicating with cannabis.”

For more information on Bradley King, the Cannabis Coach, find him on Instagram @cannabis_coach

Bradley King will be speaking on mental health and cannabis at Coachella, October 26, during the edible launch part for Space Cadet. He’s available for speaking engagements in the cannabis space.

For more information on Bradley King, or to book a session with Bradley as Cannabis Coach visit, https://cclifecoaching.com/

Study on cannabis and anxiety: https://adai.uw.edu/pubs/pdf/2017mjanxiety.pdf

Mindful Education

Uwe Blesching’s thoughtful look at the plant

Author Uwe Blesching would like to be part of the solution in finally ending the failed War on Drugs, via education, science, and mindfulness.

His literary contributions include, Breaking the Cycle of Opioid Addiction, Supplement Your Pain Management with Cannabis (July 2018); The Cannabis Health Index: Combining the Science of Medical Marijuana with Mindfulness Techniques to heal 100 Chronic Symptoms and Diseases (2nd ed. 2015); and in the works, Healing with Cannabis, Optimizing Your Ideal CBD:THC Ratio.

“The medical element of cannabis has always held a sense of wonder for me,” Blesching shared from his home in Berkeley, California. “It’s an easy argument to make that all cannabis use is medicinal. The mind-body science is only now coming together. Neurotransmitters or hormones have a strong correlation with plant compounds – and the endocannabinoid system is the bridge.”

The negative stigma of cannabis developed from the failed War on Drugs, and the misinformation that followed, he said, are the biggest obstacles to change; and changing your mindset leads to leaving the stigma behind and embracing the healing happening globally.

“People have been socialized with the narrative from the War on Drugs,” he said. “They go to their doctor - and they don’t want to take opioids – but are now terrified, faced with the stigma of cannabis. Their first experiences with cannabis may be worsened because of a lack of knowledge on dosing or the stigma alone. One little thing can make them give up on cannabis, when it could be a positive medicine for them.”

Education is Everything

Blesching was a Paramedic for the City of San Francisco for twenty years. He holds a BA in Humanities from the New College of California; an MA in Psychology; and a PhD in Higher Education and Social Change from the Western Institute for Social Research.

As shared on his website, he is a medical writer, contributing regularly in the fields of cannabinoid health sciences, mind-body medicine, phytopharmacology, and evidence-based illness prevention and treatment protocols, with a life-long passion for Integrative Medicine.

His journey into cannabis from mainstream media is personal, as shared in the introduction of his astonishingly thorough Health Index, while working a long shift as an EMT, he and his partner witnessed the power of mindfulness as it relates to the biological systems of the body. This led to knowledge of the endocannabinoid system – what he calls the bridge to mindful, plant-based prevention and healing.

His blog on his website covers everything from cannabis and malaria, to Veterans and PTSD, to a compelling piece on re-thinking the feeling of euphoria, and its simple, root meaning of being “well.”

“Let’s think about it for a moment,” he ponders. “Why is an emotional experience that otherwise could be described as a peak experience, an extraordinary state of consciousness, a heightened awareness, a moment of bliss, a sense of majesty, a brush with spirit, a touch of soul rich with substance, or an awareness of the immortal in oneself somehow thought to be an adverse effect like a skin rash or nausea? This judgment is even more irrational when we consider that expansive experiences of this nature can quickly shift neurological and psychological pain and dysphoria responses toward those that elicit expansive affect, which is clearly associated with therapeutic potential. You don’t need to be a doctor to notice that this feels a heck of a lot better than depression or fear.”

Such is the world of Uwe Blesching, challenging what we think already know, then adding another layer.

Cannabis Studies Databank

Aside from finishing up his latest book with a focus on CBD to THC ratios, Blesching has been busy building a multi-media health and wellness platform, hosting a databank of studies on cannabis’ healing properties on certain illness and disorders.

“The studies will be curated by hand and rated individually, as well as collectively, for each ailment,” he explained. “This is done to provide the user with an instant understanding of the underlying strengths of science, as well as specific and practical information, helping the patient to make informed decisions about how to use cannabinoid medicine for what ails you.”

Another reason for creating the databank was due to the constant need to update the Health Index, as more studies are documented on cannabis as medicine.

“Unfortunately, the science of the endocannabinoid system, and its processes for utilizing cannabis and other substances, have not been clearly communicated, are poorly understood, and are woefully underdeveloped,” he said. “Too often patients, doctors and even the cannabis industry, have been left to determine health and wellness decisions with inadequate and inconsistent information.”

Changing the Narrative

“It’s astonishing the amount of misinformation that’s out there on cannabis as a viable alternative to what is called traditional medicine,” he continued. “And even more so, the amount of people who believe it! The only opposition to the truth has been the narrative of the War on Drugs. It’s a global problem – I’ve seen its effects and the impact of that drama when I travel to other countries.”

Thankfully, he said, people are being educated, studies are being conducted, and the healing is happening in spite of politics or closed minds.

“Personally, I learn more from one patient who has been helped,” he concluded. “When people have a chronic condition for 15 or 20 years, with a lack of results, they are ready to become informed – they are ready to make a change. When someone is open to suggestion, it’s absorbed quickly. When you witness them transitioning from many pharmaceuticals to just one plant, you learn.”

For more information about Uwe Blesching and his work visit, https://www.uweblesching.com/

To order The Cannabis Health Index or Breaking the Cycle of Opioid Addiction visit, Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1583949623/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Mohan Sundaresan: Artist with a Message

Michael Pelletier’s work in the spotlight

The Last Prisoner Project in Austin

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Photos (l to r) California Artist, Mohan Sundaresan with his metal work; painting from memory of cannabis prisoner Michael Pellitier; Sundaresan’s donated work to LLP

California Artist Mohan Sundaresan said cannabis has given him a newfound freedom with his art, and it pains him to think of anyone sitting in prison for a plant that brings so much good to so many.

“I love being in the unknown,” he surmised. “In the unknown I can’t be anything else but me. I don’t use cannabis for recreation or medicine, it helps me recreate my thoughts. I just let go and whatever turns up is what’s meant to happen.”

Cannabis also replaced alcohol for the artist.

“I had been drinking alcohol since I was 17,” he shared. “I stopped overnight in 2015. I used to paint on canvasses, but no one wanted them. One night after drinking a lot, I cut up two of my best works in disgust and threw them into the garbage. The next day I looked at the strips of canvas and started weaving them together. When I turned it over I almost had a heart attack.”

Sundaresan’s friend, Professor Mandel at the University of San Diego, said the new work was the closest thing he’d seen to Einstein’s Theory of Random Order.

“After that I started weaving all my paintings,” he continued. “I said to myself, I don’t need to drink any more. From that moment forward, I integrated cannabis into my art.”

His colorful, twisted cannabis leaves are something to behold. But, recently, he created an aluminum piece in a series, specifically meant to donate to the newly established campaign to free cannabis prisoners in the U.S., The Last Prisoner Project.

Sundaresan can’t discuss the prisoners without being overcome with emotion. His donated piece depicts a cannabis leaf entangled in woven bars.

“We have to let them out,” he struggles to speak through tears. “There are bigger criminals running free, while innocent people – who have done no harm to anyone, are sitting in prison for this plant that now being accepted by so many. When I walk in the evening near my home – and I pass a retirement home, where three elderly people in their 80s are on their way back inside, and one says, ‘Let’s have another drag before we go back in.’ And then I think of people sitting in prison for that same drag. Where’s the justice?”

Serving Time for a Plant

Sixty-three year-old Michael Pelletier was 11 years-old when a farming accident on his family’s potato farm in Maine caused him to lose the use of his legs. When he was 15 he began to smoke cannabis, stating that it helped him cope with his new life of a T-7 Paraplegic, specifically with bladder spasms, replacing Oxybutynin.

“Marijuana became my friend, and helped me cope with depression, spasms, and kept me motivated,” he shared. “My family didn’t know what society finally knows now – that at such a young age, I was right about cannabis. Today, I feel respect from my family that I had before my time with cannabis. It has medical uses and it helped me cope with my situation.”

He began bringing small amounts of cannabis down from Canada for his own use, stating the quality was better. When friends wanted to share his medicine, he began bringing larger amounts down. Though the exact amounts he trafficked into Maine are still in question, prosecutors and “snitches” inflated everything, with Pelletier ending up with a life sentence.

Pelletier began painting in prison, with two of his paintings being auctioned off alongside Sundaresan’s piece for the Austin fundraiser, benefiting the Last Prisoner Project.

“A life sentence is worse than a death sentence,” Pelletier said from prison. “A death sentence you die once – a life sentence, you die a little every day!”

The Mission Statement of The Last Prisoner Project is poignant and to the point, “Imagine sitting in a cell for years, decades, or even for life, convicted of an activity that is no longer a crime, while thousands of other people build intergenerational wealth doing exactly the same thing.”

While more than 40,000 cannabis prisoners face that very bleak situation, the Last Prisoner Project is dedicated to fighting the “fundamental injustice inflicted upon those who have suffered criminal convictions and the consequences of those convictions.”

“Through intervention, advocacy, and awareness campaigns, the Last Prisoner Project will work to redress the past and continuing harms of these unjust lass and policies.”

While Sundaresan enjoys his freedom, creating art while partaking freely of the herb, his comrades suffering is not lost on him.

“Those prison bars can bend,” he waxed poetic. “We need to release them. We need to free the plant and its people. The truth must be told. If we can use art to do that, then we must do everything we can until it’s done.”

For more information on the Last Prisoner Project visit, www.lastprisonerproject.org

A private fundraiser is being held September 19, in Austin, Texas, for the Last Prisoner Project.

For more information on prisoners of the Drug War and Michael Pelletier visit, www.drugwarstories.com

For more information on Mohan Sundaresan visit, www.mohanlajolla.com

Billy Hayes

Riding the Midnight Express

An old hash smuggler tells his story in a new world of weed

Billy Hayes likes to say he’s been in the cannabis industry for the past 50 years, and is amazed at the progress made in the new world order of weed.

“I recently visited every dispensary in Las Vegas,” he shared. “As I walk in each door, I can’t believe that this exists. I was like a kid in a candy shop! It’s absolutely mind-blowing to see all the products out there now from this one amazing plant that’s sustained humankind for thousands of years.”

Recently, he hit the pavement in his hometown of Las Vegas to promote his one-man play, “Riding the Midnight Express with Billy Hayes.” The play has him reliving his experience, while telling the truth of his time in a Turkish prison for smuggling two kilos or about four pounds of hash out of Istanbul, Turkey. The show plays one night only in Las Vegas on Saturday, August 17th at 8 p.m. at the Big Springs Theater.

“The movie, Midnight Express, was loosely based on my book, but had a lot of misnomers – specifically of my speaking out in court against the Turkish people. I love Turkey and its people. At the time I went into court I had been practicing the Zen of yoga – I was into love and light, and there’s no way I would have screamed out my hatred for the Turkish people – that just didn’t happen.”

The riff with Turkey has long since been settled, and he’s been welcomed back since. The other fallacy from the film was that the arrest was the first time he had smuggled hash out of Istanbul.

“I had done it three times prior, with no issues,” he explained. “It was a common thing to do back then. I was in my senior year of college in Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to become a journalist, when a friend who had just returned from Istanbul shared some hash with me, and that’s when everything changed. “

His friend conveyed how cheap the hash was in Turkey, that you could buy it on the street, and they didn’t check baggage or frisk you before boarding the plane. But in the late 1960s, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and its army began blowing things up, leading to a crack-down on security, and he was searched. Hayes was one of the hash smuggling victims, if you will, from another country’s war.

The irony of his arrest and subsequent prison sentence (reduced from life to 30 years), is that on his very first night in prison he was handed a hash pipe. This trend would continue, as hash was commonly enjoyed in Turkey and in prison. In fact, of the tourists in prison with him, most of them were there for smuggling hash. Offers continued upon his escape, rowing 17 miles to Greece and freedom, with offers to buy hash at each turn.

“For me, to be able to walk into a dispensary today and purchase whatever product I want with cannabis, concentrates – hash, is bitter sweet. There are still people sitting in prison all over the world for selling weed, and here I am enjoying the bounty in the now legal state of Nevada. It’s surreal, to say the least.”

Hayes, who was just 14 hours shy of receiving a degree in journalism upon his arrest, said he wanted to travel to see the world, to be able to tell stories. But, he never imagined a lifelong gig of being the guy who escaped a Turkish prison for smuggling hash.

His escape in 1975, after five years in prison, was indeed a story. The book, Midnight Express, is named after what they call an escape. It was published in 1977 and quickly optioned for a film of the same title, written by Oliver Stone. By 1978 he was at the Cannes Film Festival, where the film won awards and received accolades. But the real prize was meeting his wife, Wendy. The couple are still together today after 39 years of marriage.

In his backpack during his arrest was a book on yoga, Light on Yoga, by B.K.S. Iyengar, and he credits his continued practice on helping him get through prison and the aftermath of fame to follow.

“Yoga saved my life in prison and it still does every day,” he said. “I’d get up before dawn every morning, spread a blanket and do my yoga. I was so lucky to discover yoga when I did. Yoga keeps me healthy, but more importantly, it keeps me emotionally balanced. It keeps me reasonably sane and I’ll take reasonably sane any day of the week!”

Hayes doesn’t consider himself a cannabis patient, sticking to smoking flower of sativa from a glass pipe, in lieu of dabs or concentrates.

“I like to be high,” he laughed. “The first time I smoked I was in college – it was 1966 when I was passed my first joint. We were in an attic, sitting in a circle and I took a hit. My friends said not to take in too much, but I took a really big hit, held it in for as long as I could. As the smoke flowed out of me, my whole body tingled. I really, really liked it and knew it was for me.”

He's proud to say he’s smoked weed just about every day of his life since. Rather than call him a criminal for smuggling hash out of Turkey to the U.S., you could say he was meeting supply and demand. In light of legalization spreading across the world today, that’s not a stretch.

Hayes has performed his one-man show, “Riding the Midnight Express with Billy Hayes,” hundreds of times around the world. He’s happy to share the story in this new age of cannabis and hemp acceptance.

“In visiting dispensaries in Vegas to promote my show, I’ve loved the energy of the young people I’ve met,” he shared. “They are healing the world, and I’m happy to be a small part of that healing 50 years later.”

Riding the Midnight Express with Billy Hayes

Saturday, August 17, 2019

8:00 p.m.

Big Springs Theater

333 South Valley View Blvd., Las Vegas

For more information visit, http://www.ridingthemidnightexpresswithbillyhayes.com/blog/schedule_tickets

Surviving and Thriving with Cannabis: Annie King Garat

One Vet’s journey from rape and betrayal to wellness.

You might say that Annie King Garat was born into the military.

“My great uncle was a Marine,” she began. “My mother is Bavarian, her grandfather served in the Austrian Army. My father was from West Virginia and had very little options other than mining. Going into the military is common in that part of the country. I have four brothers, two were in the military – my second oldest brother was in the German military, another was a Marine – he’s why I joined the Marine Corp.”

Garat was born in 1979 at Fort Riley in Kansas, but lived around the world as the child of a soldier. She became a Marine in 1998, giving up a college scholarship and a career in basketball.

“I joined to get away from my family and the situation I was in,” she shared. “I had already been raped twice before I was a teenager.”

The first time she was raped at 11 years-old, the family was stationed in Stuttgart, Germany.

“A group of teen boys held me down while one of them raped me. I played soccer with one of them,” she said. “I already felt like I was nobody, due to the constant traveling with the military, and didn’t feel it was worth it to file charges. I was told nothing would be done anyway. There’s no justice system, there’s only a legal system.”

The second time she was raped was by her former stepfather.

“David Eugene Dennis raped me,” she continued. “I can say his name now, for years I couldn’t. He started grooming me when I was six with inappropriate touching, then sexually raped me when I was 12. We reported it, but nothing was done. After my mom divorced him, he was in another relationship and raped that woman’s adolescent daughter – then, he went to prison for about 10 years.”

Boat Rocker

While serving in the Marines during her Alpha-school, or trade school, in Pensacola, Florida, Garat said she was sexually assaulted by a non-commissioned officer, off-base at a hotel room party.

“He was a Sargent, I was a Private First Class – he was also in training,” she explained. “He followed me into the bathroom and assaulted me. I reported it, he was Court Marshalled and spent some time in the Brig – maybe a year or less, for adding to my lifetime of PTSD. I never even knew his first name – we only go by last names in the corp.”

Two years later, she was sexually battered along with some other women by a Command Sargent Major, while on active duty in Okinawa.

“I didn’t press charges, personally – it was up to the commanding officer after we reported it to him,” she explain. “They made him go away, it was a career ender – he was relieved of duty. Again, I didn’t really know what happened to him – we aren’t allowed to report or know the outcomes in the military. Ours is not to wonder why, ours is but to do or die.”

According to an article in the Daily Beast (January 2019), via a poll, two-thirds of women in the U.S. military stated they had been sexually harassed or assaulted while serving. By comparison, a study commissioned in 2015 by the Defense Department reported that a mere 27 percent of women had had endured abuse.

The reason stated for the discrepancy is the fact that many women simply do not tell their commanding officers for a number of reasons, including shame, intimidation, or fear of not being promoted – eerily similar reasoning to civilian sexual assaults in the workplace.

“I could have dropped out, but I stayed in, and went on to California for more training,” she said. “I eventually became what they call a ‘chaser,’ we chase our own. We handcuff our own and take them to the brig. I became a boat rocker – I rocked the boat.”

Cannabis: both illicit and common

In Bavaria she remembers gathering magic mushrooms in the forest. But, the first time she tried cannabis her family was living in Colorado and visiting family in Tennessee.

My older brother and a cousin passed me a joint. We were hanging out in the garage. I had no hesitation, it was lovely and funny. I remember giggling and feeling joyful,” she remembered.

A woman she was close to – an adopted aunt, came out and scolded them, but Garat said it was in jest.

“I was never against cannabis, it was in our culture,” she continued. “My boyfriend and his friend were known as Cheech & Chong, but I was an athlete and didn’t partake regularly – didn’t want to risk my game.”

Garat was married twice and has two children. Both of her husbands were in the military; one was a Marines, the other in the Air Force - both were drinkers with anger issues.

“Drinking is common in the military – it’s all they have that’s legal for self-medicating,” she said. “Then, they add pills and it makes it worse.”

She had always used cannabis, but had to keep it a secret.

“We lived on the base and had to be discreet,” she said. “There were other women, service members and marines who smoked, but everyone hid their use. I was medicating with other moms – we had our little tribe. A lot of them were in the church. Cannabis definitely united everyone.”

Garat received an honorable discharge in 2005 and left the Marines, but carried the trauma of a lifetime of abuse with her. In 2011 she had relocated to Southern California, and was still smoking cannabis, but didn’t yet understand it as remedy. By 2014 she was taking many prescription medications, while drinking alcohol to deal with PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

According to the Mayo Clinic, PTSD is a mental health condition, triggered by a terrifying event. Symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares, and severe anxiety.

Psychiatrist, Sue Sisley, just concluded the first triple-blinded study on cannabis and help for Veterans with PTSD, with results due later this year.

CEO and Founder of Veterans Cannabis Coalition, Eric Goepel, was quoted in an article in Forbes at the conclusion of Sisley’s study as stating, ““Current research supports the potential efficacy of cannabis in dozens of different applications, all of which could have direct positive impacts on overall veteran health. Whether for pain relief, as a sleep aid, or for help in overcoming stress and anxiety, so many veterans find relief in cannabis because it provides an alternative way to manage their conditions far better than a slew of toxic pharmaceuticals.”

Soldier’s Suicide Kit

They call the bevy of pharmaceuticals given to soldiers a “Suicide Kit,” with a laundry list of psychotropic medications prescribed in epidemic proportions. Add alcohol, and the kit becomes dangerous.

“I was still drinking alcohol when I left the corp. It helped with the PTSD. I don’t feel I abused alcohol, but the pills took me over the edge and I accidently overdosed,” she shared.

Though Garat said she didn’t drink an unusual amount of alcohol – maybe a half a beer, the combination of prescribed Flexeril, Ambien, Zoloft, and Tylenol with Codeine in her system was too much for her body to handle.

The father of one of her children used the overdose, as well as her cannabis use, to take one child away. After a long courtroom struggle, her kids are with her and she is a full-fledged cannabis patient in California.

“Ironically, when I was in the military, one of my positions was being a Substance Abuse Control Officer, and a Urinalysis Program Coordinator – the ones who do the pee tests,” she laughed. “I went from being an honorably discharged Marine, to being told I was a criminal - taking my child away - to finally being accepted as a cannabis patient.”

A female psychiatrist advised she get a medical cannabis card. The doctor was from Israel, where cannabis has been legal and understood as medicine for many years.

“Today, everyone from my VA treatment team to my therapist, to my medical doctor, approve of my cannabis use,” she said. “There’s education available now we just didn’t have before.”

After the overdose she increased her cannabis intake and stopped all the medications.

“I upped my game by ingesting medibles, taking tinctures, vaping and burning flower – you name it,” she laughed. “Cold-turkey, no negative side effects. Actually, the only negative side effects were consequences from my doctor, and having to listen to their bullshit, because they didn’t understand that ingesting and smoking was dealing with the withdrawal symptoms.”

The analgesic effects of cannabis have been said to quell the pain and body discomforts of withdrawal from pain killers and more, giving a smoother transition from pharmaceuticals to plant-based remedies.

“I’m just lucky I was never able to take the Oxy they gave me. It made me sick,” she surmised. “That probably would have been harder. But, the lack of education on what I was doing was harsh – everyone gave me grief for my cannabis use. I had to be a warrior on many levels – defending myself to my family, the military and doctors.”

Quiet No More

Garat is currently being counseled by a female therapist at the Long Beach VA, Women’s Mental Health Center, in Los Angeles County; with a recommendation from the Vet Center (link below).

“I’m using my experiences to help others now,” she proclaimed. “I’m not going to be quiet about it. As a spiritual being, I’m learning to be open every day. Being open and honest about what I’ve been through helps me and others to heal.”

Garat received her Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Human Services with a focus on the non-profit sector; and is now working toward her Masters degree in Social Work, with a concentration on non-profit management.

She has become an outspoken former Marine, advocating for cannabis as remedy, and lending comfort and support to the many other women in the military who were raped and abused.

“You are not alone, and guess what? You won’t be,” she concluded. “I stopped going to organized church because of the judgements, due to my own personal path and experiences.”

Quoting the Bible, Garat waxes poetic, siting Matthew 18:20, “’For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.’ God doesn’t judge or demand you be in a crowded room and tithe. You are loved. You have purpose. Let your message help others. It makes the world a kinder place – even with all the pain.”

Following are links to organizations offering support to those abused in service:

Vet’s Center

www.vetcenter.va.gov/Military_Sexual_Trauma.asp

USN Veteran Denise Nelson and

Women Veterans Community Hub

https://instagram.com/womenveteranscommunityhub?igshid=14vnfczyzdbzv

SoCal Veterans Coalition

https://instagram.com/socalveteranscoalition?igshid=1i138g4gsnev7

Weed For Warriors Project OC

https://instagram.com/wfwp_oc?igshid=taaikafl58ha

Lupe Gonzalez

Lady Veterans Project

https://instagram.com/lady_veterans_project?igshid=y8izxcqhkz9x

Veterans Walk And Talk

https://instagram.com/veteranswalkandtalk?igshid=qn4giohcae6v

Candyman, David Klein

Inventor of the Jelly Belly, finds his calling in cannabis

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David Klein’s claim to fame is his invention of the world’s most beloved candy, the Jelly Belly; but his sweet disposition is his trademark and his sincere desire to help others, his legacy.

No longer connected to the historic bean he created in 1976, this past year he launched his own line of CBD (cannabinol) infused, non-psychoactive jelly beans, with flavors to rival the jelly bean that made him famous.

“All the good I’ve done for people comes back in spades,” he shares. “I’m so thrilled to be in this culture that embraces and cares about other people. The cannabis industry is definitely a greater good community, and I’ve been instantly welcomed into the fold.”

Over the years he’s been asked to create a cannabis infused bean, either with or without the THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) that causes the high, or psychoactive response, but he declined due to the legalities.

With CBD (cannabinol) only now legal across the country, and the promise of no jail time, the space was opened up for his creations. But, it took an accident involving his wife and a fall to get him fully onboard.

“My wife Rebecca and I were in a hotel near Colorado Springs, and she slipped 25 feet off a patio that wasn’t level,” he explained. “The pain was tremendous. We visited a dispensary in Trinidad, Colorado, and bought some cookies with activated THC. When I saw how much it helped her level of pain, I was helped to get on board, and the CBD bean idea began.”

Klein admittedly has never done drugs – he’s never smoked cigarettes, let alone cannabis – never had a sip of alcohol, let alone street drugs of any kind. So, his introduction to cannabis and THC via his wife’s fall was a learning moment.

“People who use cannabis are forward thinkers,” he said. “You have to think out of the box when it comes to this subject, because the Federal Government is still insisting there is no medicinal value. All I know is, it helped my wife with that nasty fall.”

Since launching the CBD infused jelly beans, Klein said he’s been contacted by many people all over the country with real ailments, all helped with the use of cannabis in some form, be it with or without the high from THC.

Known for creating exceptional flavors with the Jelly Belly, his current line of 38 flavors with 10 milligrams of CBD in each bean, is no exception, with plans to create more unique flavors on the horizon.

His line of Spectrum™ Jelly Beans and Sour Jelly Beans are sweetened via a powdered sugar-like dextrose to mask the flavor. Dextrose is a type of sugar made from corn, similar to fructose and chemically identical to glucose – which is blood sugar; with dextrose used by doctors to raise a patient’s blood sugars when low.

His Spectrum™ Sugar Free Jelly Beans are dusted with maltitol, a sugar made from alcohol. Other similar alternatives would be plant-based stevia, agave, and coconut.

“The taste of cannabis has to be masked,” he explained. “What better way to mask the flavor than in a jelly bean!”

Concerns of sugary cannabis products disguised as remedy are hotly criticized by many, with bans on kid-friendly designs shunned; but that line of thinking also ignores an entire demographic of cannabis patients who’d rather eat a piece of candy than take a pill.

Case in point is Primrose Engaged Living center in Santa Rosa, California. A private facility caring for Parkinson’s, dementia and Alzheimer’s patients allowed to use cannabis as remedy, with permission from their private doctor and families.

“Dementia patients don’t really like to take pills,” explained Dan O’Brien, RN. “It’s easier for them to eat a piece of candy. We give them 15 milligrams of an infused chocolate bar with activated THC after dinner. The patients given the candy are more alert, less agitated, and are able to sleep through the night. It also quells tremors associated with Parkinson’s and anxiety disorders.”

Children on the Autistic Spectrum, suffering from disorders such as ADD or ADHD helped by CBD, also warrant a piece of candy, rather than a pill.

Shelly Matthews’ is a medical cannabis refugee from Ohio, now living in California. Her son, Robert, was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyper Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD) and Bi-Polar Disorder at 11. While still in Ohio, she began making him cookies covertly, with results too good to ignore.

“He’d eat one before school, and the staff asked me what changed, as it really calmed him down” she shared. “I just told them we changed his meds and left it at that. They said the new meds wore off by lunchtime. If I would have had infused candy available I would have given it to him, without hesitation.”

Today, Robert is 23 and still medicating via ingesting edibles and smoking dabs, with continued success in treating his disorders.

Jamie Cooper is founder and CEO of Cannabiz Connection, a networking platform for the industry in Michigan. Her six year old son, Kylan, was diagnosed at the age of four on the Autistic Spectrum, with a Sensory Processing and Development Delay.

“I give him infused CBD in a gummy – it’s definitely the easiest way to dose him,” she shared. “We treat it like a vitamin. We’ve used the gummy bear type candy before, and I really don’t see an issue. The package is secure – we keep it in a safe place just like any other medicine.”

Education is key in treating anyone with cannabis infused products, and Jamie agrees that understanding the plant and how it heals is half the battle. Once you are helped with cannabis – CBD only or THC activated, it becomes more difficult to criticize the delivery if the outcomes are positive.

As for Klein, he feels that cannabis is God’s plant, and everything he’s done up until this point – including his success with the Jelly Belly – has brought him to this place of helping others.

“I’m more excited about this product than any other candy I’ve ever made,” he joyously shared. “It’s something to help mankind – and that gives me the motivation to go forward. I was born to make jelly beans, and if they heal people, so much the better.”

For more information on Spectrum Confections visit, https://www.spectrumconfections.com/products/

Boo Williams

From the NFL to a life of giving back

After former U.S. National Football League (NFL) player Eddie “Boo” Williams’ athletic career ended via blunt head trauma and subsequent damage to his frontal cortex, he thought his life was over. Laying down on railroad tracks, waiting to die, he was rescued by homeless men who took him to a friend’s home.

Chronic concussions in football, specifically with damage to the frontal cortex, limits complex thinking and impulse control, causing a short fuse, with former football players becoming erratic, angry, and worse. Dealing with the pain alone, with its subsequent laundry list of pharmaceuticals, is a whole other matter, typically leading to addiction and an early death.

Though Williams said he never became abusive, he knew he had some serious issues to work through.

“I was watching the Khloe & Lamar docuseries, and they were interviewing a friend of Odin’s who was depressed, then got help at a place in California called, the Crosby Clinic,” Williams shared. “I knew I had to get there, and called them. In one week, I was there.”

A video clip on YouTube produced at The Crosby Clinic in Southern California, features Williams getting healthy, looking good, and advocating for the center; stating, he found a sense of well-being after overcoming injuries, emotional distress, and subsequent drug abuse.

The Crosby Center focuses on individualized programs for drug and alcohol recovery; with Williams proudly proclaiming he added another dimension to the programs offered, including using cannabis to overcome emotional obstacles.

“Crosby isn’t about alternative medicine, but if your doctor approves it, you can use cannabis,” he explained. “We had a session around a fire pit at Crosby one night. We introduced the plant to the players there with an open discussion. Everyone was able to open up about their true feelings – they were able to say what was really bothering them – some of them for the first time. It was helpful in going into the group sessions – now they were able to share, when they weren’t before.”

Williams believes cannabis helps open up your third eye, allowing you to see past the emotional chains that often binds someone to a hurtful or abusive past.

According to a piece in Waking Times.com, Canadian author, Chris Bennet, who has penned books on the spiritual and Biblical history of cannabis, states that our Pineal Gland, or the “’Seat of the Soul,’ as described by Rene Descartes; “… is the focal point of our spiritual guiding system which makes us go beyond the five senses of rationality and become multisensory; tuned into and aware of higher dimensions of consciousness within a holographic cosmos.” Bennet continues, “Cannabis or Marijuana among other psychedelics, facilitates the activation of the pineal gland and helps turn on the third eye or the mind’s eye, directing our spiritual evolution to wholeness.”

This theory was not lost on Williams, who, prior to recover, felt lost emotionally and broken physically, after his football career ended.

As quoted in Vice.com, via David Davis, “I was in a dark place,” he said. “I thought I was a small person in a big person’s body. I felt like I had no purpose.”

“Before cannabis, I only had a green light on all the emotions I was feeling – there was no yellow light to red, and no stopping if things got heated,” he shared during a phone conversation. “Cannabis gave me a yellow light, to stop and think about how I’m feeling, and gives me a red light, keeping my emotions in check.”

Once he began ingesting cannabis via medibles and tinctures, both his pain levels and emotional well-being notably improved.

“CBD is like taking an aspirin, you don’t feel it working, but the pain is gone,” he shared. “Add THC and it replaces SSRIs – helping your emotions, anxiety – everything is in check in a more natural way, with no bad side effects.”

Williams was inspired to start his own line of cannabis products via BooBeary Products. His current line is comprised of tinctures, liquid capsules, and topical creams, available online via his website and in several locations throughout Louisiana and Florida.

Testimonials include help with muscle pain via the lotions and body pain via the capsules.

“It took me every ounce of energy to move my legs, then enter Boo Williams, stage left, and I started taking BooBeary capsules,” Michelle Vogel said via a Facebook posting. “My quality of life has improved, I can walk much better and even my mental state is getting better. I thank God for putting Boo and his products into my life. A BooBeary a day keeps thee dumb-ass specialists away!”

Leann Bird-Robbins writes in another post, “My girlfriend’s mom used your cream on her hands that are filled with arthritis, and the pain was gone within hours! She was in disbelief – has tried everything and nothing worked like the BooBeary cream.”

Since being helped himself, Williams said he’s walking the talk, reaching out to people in need, giving them some love and hope – and not just with CBD products. His home state of Florida continues to be ravaged from hurricanes, and he’s been there in real time to lend a hand with his Floridian not-for-profit Corporation, BooBeary Kares, Inc.; also a Federal 501c3 non-profit.

This year BooBeary Products joined forces with Summit Harbor Holding, Inc., and Limitless Venture Group, Inc., bringing BooBeary into the publically traded market. At this time they are seeking investors for several projects, including help in building a multi-unit retreat center out of hemp, as temporary housing for those displaced by hurricanes along the Florida and Gulf Coast.

The property slatted for Logan’s Retreat in Youngstown, Florida, is owned by Shelly Summers, is already set-up to host multiple families. Logan was Summers’ son, who was killed in a car accident. Williams and Summers are eager to build hemp structures in her son’s memory.

After recovery, using cannabis as one of the tools in his kit, he said he was led to a life of service – to the community at large, for the greater good.

“When celebrities go to Vegas, they don’t visit shelters, but I do,” he shared. “I live near the same neighborhood I grew up in, and people here need help from hurricanes. My crew will go in, set up a barbecue, and hand out clothes, personal care products – whatever they need. Then, I can talk about cannabis and how it changed my life.”

This form of educating via volunteerism is working for Williams and the people he’s reaching.

“Cannabis helped me get off the drugs – including the legal prescription meds,” he surmised. “Cannabis helped me find my gifts; showed me who I am; and what I was put on this planet to do. Football was a big part of my life, but it’s not my entire life now. I believe was put here to help and inspire others. And cannabis helps me do that every single day.”

For more information on BooBeary Products visit, www.boobearyproducts.com

Shona Banda

Though 70 percent of residents in the mid-western State of Kansas support cannabis as medicine, including a nod from the state’s older sect, the “Kansas Silver Haired Legislature,” two Bills presented this past year failed to win approval in the state’s legislative session.

The Marijuana Policy Project (MMP) calls Kansas’ cannabis laws “Draconian,” with the smallest spec of pot landing its residents in jail for up to a year with a thousand dollar fine. Second offense with another crumb and you could face felony charges, up to three years in the pen, and drained of one hundred thousand dollars in fines.

According to the Rand Corporation, studies have found harsh penalties do not reduce drug usage, and all the money in the world thrown at the miserably failed War on Drugs won’t deter humans from partaking.

But what if you are in an illegal state such as Kansas, and you have been enlightened to plant-based medicines, specifically cannabis, where other traditional meds have failed? What if it was the only thing that helped, would you do it anyway?

A recent interview with rocker Melissa Etheridge (Dope Magazine, October 2015) found the artist’s only hesitancy in using cannabis for cancer symptoms was the fear of losing her children. Even though she was in a legal state to do so, the fear was there. She had heard the horror stories of Child Protective Services taking children away from legitimate patients in legal states, let alone in states like Kansas.

“That part was scary,” Etheridge said. “I was being helped by this plant, and I was in a legal state, but I still had that fear that they could come and take my kids.”

Kansas born Shona Banda was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease in 2002. Also suffering from Auto-Immune Deficiency, said she took every medication they gave her, and when the meds stopped working, she tried another, then another, until multiple gastrointestinal surgeries were the only option.

According to the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America, there is no known cause to the stated “chronic” ailment that affects more than 700,000 Americans between the ages of 15 and 35. While family history plays a part, one’s environment and diet seem to play a role, appearing most frequently in developed countries.

Similar to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s suffers present with persistent diarrhea, rectal bleeding, urgent need to move bowels, abdominal cramps and pain, sensation of incomplete evacuation, and constipation (obstruction). Daily symptoms can include fever, loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue, night sweats, and loss of a normal menstrual cycle.

While diet and stress can aggravate symptoms, the irritants are not cause of the disease. Cronh’s appears to weaken the immune system, with the patient unable to fight off the mildest of inflammation and infections, with a cocktail of prescription meds needed to quell myriad symptoms.

The good news is cannabis helps.

In a placebo-controlled study published by the American Gastroenterological Association, researchers found the patients who were administered cannabis (via smoking only) went into “complete remission” from all symptoms of Crohn’s Disease. Three patients were weaned from steroid dependency, with all reporting improved appetite and sleep, with no significant side effects.

Many patients are now traveling on the green train of wellness to legal states for healing. But many stay in their home states preferring to be surrounding by family, taking chances on persecution or worse if caught.

Shona Banda tried to stay put initially, but the plant material in her home state was not inspiring, to say the least.

“When I first started to smoke for pain it was around 2003,” Banda shared. “Finding cannabis was hard at times, however, even 10 years ago it was possible. Everyone knows someone, no matter the geographical location you live in. The quality wasn’t always great, but I had been in pain for so long I was praying for sleep or death at that point.”

Her two kids watched her go through 11 surgeries in seven years. At one point she was taking 52 pills a day, including Remicade, at a cost of one thousand dollars a month. The lengthy warning list of the FDA approved drug states a possible side effect of “spontaneous pneumothorax,” or partial lung collapse, which sent Banda to the hospital for nearly two months.

Most of her kid’s young lives were spent watching their mom suffer greatly, then be helped by a plant they were told was dangerous – and then her husband begged her to try cannabis.

“I was a D.A.R.E. child and would have nothing to do with it,” she explained. “One day I was puking in the toilet and my husband was holding my hair back for me, saying he had brought me a joint to smoke. He pleaded with me to understand that this helped cancer patients, and if I had those same symptoms I should feel the same relief.”

Banda said she reluctantly took the offer out of sheer desperation, literally falling to the ground sobbing, as the pain left her body after just smoking the herb.

“Cannabis had taken my pain away better than anything I had ever been given by a physician,” she said. “It was like finding out Santa was not real as an adult. This green cigarette had done so much for my cramping and pain, my thoughts were spinning in my head as I realized I had been lied to my entire life. This was the best thing for me and it was illegal.”

Soon she was vaporizing to get cleaner medicine into her weakened lungs, and began making medicine via oil to ingest, putting her condition into complete remission.

“I had seen the movie, ‘Run from the Cure,’ and I knew I needed to eat this in a pill, just like real medication.”

“Run from the Cure” is Rick Simpson’s story - re-creator of the strong cannabis oil that puts cancer and other serious ailments into remission (Dope, July 2015).

In 2010 she penned “Live Free or Die,” detailing her struggles and help with cannabis for Crohn’s Disease. She and husband moved the family to Colorado, and Banda soon became an advocate for legalization. An association with Rick Simpson and the Phoenix Tears Foundation was begun, and Banda worked on the second version of his story with “Run from the Cure II.”

“My oil was the first ever tested for CBD in Colorado, and I have been the only oil maker Rick Simpson himself has ever endorsed,” she shared. “However, while there, no one was interested in CBD only oil.”

About that same time the Stanley brothers were growing what would become Charlotte’s Web, a CBD strain used to make oil for kids with epilepsy, but Banda was just slightly ahead of her time.

Her husband’s infidelity and subsequent separation had her struggling to survive in the high priced state, and she was forced to pack up and go back home to Garden City, Kansas.

“I just want to survive, I want to provide, and I want to grow and live with my children,” she said. “That is no crime. That is sheer will. That is what love is, to do whatever it takes to stay alive and provide for your children. The only crime here was forcefully taking a child from his mother.

The story in the media was that her 11 year-old-son spoke up during a D.A.R.E. event or anti-drug rally at school. The truth is it was a mock counseling session involving the entire class with many different topics. Her son’s responses were directed at teaching the counselor why his mother did not believe “marijuana” was bad. He also let the counselor know that in the family home they referred to the plant as “cannabis.”

It was a bold move by a naïve child to defend his mother, her health, and her medicine. What followed was anything but civil. Her son was taken from the class, Child Protective Services (CPS) was called, and he was questioned extensively by the Garden City Police Department about the processes of medicating. The only difference being, the substance was not considered to be medicine by the interrogators, and his mother was being accused of being a dealer, not the healer she is.

Banda said that what became an “interrogation” of her son without her or his father’s knowledge by the Garden City Police Department was leaked to the press by the department itself.

“It would not be farfetched of me to say that law enforcement will lie,” she continued. “It would not be farfetched of me to say that law enforcement in Garden City act routinely in favor of the State, or as in my particular case, they were simply ‘enforcing law.’ We do not see civil servants; we do not see protectors of oath.”

“To Protect & Serve” was thrown out the proverbial window as her son was taken from her, her medicine was confiscated, she was put in jail with bail set at $50,000, and the State of Kansas moved forward on criminal charges of “manufacturing, distributing and processing marijuana,” with her parenting skills in question.

Banda said the “blatant police force on behalf of the states has become rampant across the nation,” and she hopes her case will bring some much needed attention to the more human side of medicating with cannabis for severe illness.

The report derived from the interrogation of the child claimed he was subjected to abuse and neglect in the home by having to watch people process or trim the plant, his mother and others using it as medicine, and having to observe making medicine with it. In the context of Kansas law where fines and jail time are levied for having a seed in your pocket lining, perspective on healing gets a bit muddled.

Hope came via one dismissal for a “Child in need of Care” (CINC) request on September 30, with charges dismissed with the minor child remaining in his mother’s care.

The State’s criminal preliminary hearing is now set for November 17 of this year, with politician Ron Paul defending Banda on the Ron Paul Institute’s website, stating “If there ever was a ‘poster child’ for the absurdity of the drug war, the case of Shona Banda must be it.”

Looking at upwards of 30 years in prison for pot in the Draconian State of Kansas, Banda is countering, with attorney Matt Pappas filing a Federal suit against everyone involved in questioning her son, to taking him away, to those misunderstanding her “manufacturing and processing” the good medicine that saved her life.

Those named are, the State of Kansas; Governor Sam Brownback; Kansas Department of Children and Families Department (KDCFD); Phyllis Gilmore (KDCFD); Garden City Police Department (GDPD); James R. Hawkins (GDPD); Garden City USD 457 (GC Unified School District); Tyler Stubenhoffer (GCUSD); “DOES 1 to 10 (defendants not yet named).

Among the many infractions Banda is siting as a parent, is the fundamental right to make parenting decisions even when the court may be forced to disagree based on State law, citing Troxel (530 U.S. at 65, 72-73) “… Due Process Clause does not permit a state to infringe on a fit parent’s fundamental right to make child rearing decisions simply because a court disagrees with the parent or believes a better decision could be made.” (Rogers v. Rogers, 2007 WI App 50, 300 Wis.2d 532, 731 N.W.2d 347 ¶ 18.)

For this writer, whose work focuses only on medicine and healing, it’s painful to watch as real patients, getting real, and often lifesaving help with cannabis in illegal states, are persecuted for finding relief where traditional treatments continue to fail. Cannabis is the most proactive medicine anyone can use today, and Banda’s belief that “self-taught knowledge” is crucial to being healed is more relevant than ever.

On a personal note, after doing away with breast cancer and 10 prescription meds for multiple Thyroid Disease and Menopausal symptoms, would I – could I ever live in an illegal state? Realistically, I could, as the medicine is there. Would I be taking a chance of being persecuted for my good medicine? Yes, I would, as many are.

“Cannabis is the safest, most non-toxic substance on the planet, period,” Banda said, emphatically. “It puts cancer into remission, cures disease and illness and stops pain. It’s an essential nutrient for the human body and our endocannabinoid system – it is food. All plants have cannabinoids or CBD-type compounds, it just so happens that cannabis is the most abundant. We just need to let our people grow. Live free always!”

Reference List:

“Life Free or Die” by Shona Banda (Amazon) www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00ZRSDNWC/reasonmagazineA

Marijuana Policy Project (Kansas MMP): www.mpp.org

Kansas Silver Haired Legislature: www.cpaaa.org/silver-haired-legislature

Rand Corporation (failed Drug War): www.rand.org/pubs/external_publications/EP20090627.html

U.S. National Library of Medicine (controlled study cannabis/Crohn’s): www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23648372

Ron Paul Institute (Nullify Shona Banda): www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2015/june/23/shona-banda-drug-arrest-a-prime-case-for-jury-nullification

Dr. Molly Fry

The Good Doctor

Note: This feature was first published in 2008 for both the High Times Medical Journal (quarterly at the time); and the San Francisco Chronicle’s cannabis blog, Stop the Drug War.

Sacramento – After more than six years of litigation, and three years of appeals for charges of manufacturing and conspiracy to manufacture and distribute Cannabis, Dr. Marion Fry, 54, and her husband of 25 years, Civil Attorney Dale Schafer, 57, surrendered to matching five-year Federal prison sentences at the U.S. Courthouse in Sacramento, May 2.

Proposition 215 making Medical Marijuana, or MMJ, legal in the State was enacted in 1996. However, due to Federal prohibition the couple was denied a medical defense.

The Fry/Schafer home located in the town of Cool just outside the State Capitol of Sacramento was raided in 2001 with 34 plants confiscated - well below the 99 plant limit set forth by State guidelines. It took Federal Authorities another four years to gather enough evidence to press charges against them.

Fry discovered MMJ after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998, suffering through a double mastectomy and two sets of chemotherapy. She founded the California Marijuana Medical Research Center and armed with both a medical degree and a specialty in psychology, helped patients using Cannabis.

Longtime supporter and former legal team organizer Bobby Eisenberg still runs the clinic in Cool Fry founded. Eisenberg has written extensively on the case and is convinced the delay was due to a lack of any wrongdoing.

“The Government never succeeded in buying marijuana from these two people,” he said. “They continually sent undercover agents into Dr. Fry’s clinic hoping to prove its case. One of the unfounded charges was they were selling plant starts ‘by the thousands’ but of course, nothing was found. The majority of the 34 plants on the property at the time of the raid were mite infested, sitting by the compost pile.”

When the couple began to grow Cannabis on their property in 1999, the El Dorado County guideline for growing MMJ was six plants and one pound per person. By April of 2003 the limits were raised to 20 plants, and then went back down to 10 plants by August of the same year. Today El Dorado County MMJ patients and caregivers are allowed 20 immature plants, 10 mature plants, and can keep up to two pounds of processed bud in their medicine cabinet.

According to Schafer, the couple had never grown more than 44 plants in a given year for their own prescribed use, and then for Fry’s patients, but never for resale.

Under Federal law more than 100 plants grown in a five year period, accumulatively, is cause for the mandatory five year sentence, overriding any compassionate care laws in California.

Among the evidence brought against them by the U.S. Magistrate were incriminating photos found on a young photographer’s Web site, documenting a harvest when Fry was in the midst of chemo-therapy. The young man said he intended to write a story on “Culture, Cannabis and Kids” for High Times, but the story never happened.

“Mom was sick, I was dying, it was a family project to grow my medicine,” Fry shared later. “We felt everything should be out in the open, with the kids, with the community. It’s not against the law in California to grow Cannabis if you are sick, and I was very, very sick.”

California Cannabis guru Ed Rosenthal is an instructor at Oakland’s infamous Oaksterdam. He’s authored several books on the subject and pens “Ask Ed,” a “Dear Abbey” of Canna for High Times magazine. His advice to State sanctioned growers is simple, “Don’t keep records or photos that show prior grows on premises. Don’t indicate that kids were involved in the project. Remove all dead plants, root balls, stems, leaf and any other materials that might indicate prior grows, or raise the plant count.”

The family drew attention to itself in many ways. As passionate about her faith as her medicine, Fry knew her calling to help people was from God, and though there were red flags she Evangelized MMJ.

“We were the first to have radio ads,” she informed, “I told it on the mountain. God was on my side and my every move was determined by His will. Health is a state of mind, body and spirit. The majority of my patients decreased the use of conventional pharmaceuticals, and Cannabis helped them feel better enough to face whatever illness they were dealing with, Amen.”

Her outspoken manner allowed her ample media time. At rock concerts she was “Cool Doc Fry,” and invited on stage where she was likened to Abbey Hoffman - sans the American flag apparel, shouting “Fuck the Government!” to cheering crowds. For this was California, land of the free, home of the brave and Cannabis is legal.

Fry’s lineage includes seven generations of outspoken doctors. Family notables include, grandfather, Dr. Francis Marion Pottenger, celebrated for being at the forefront of curing tuberculosis in the early 1900s, and founding the field of Internal Medicine in the process.

Her grandmother studied under Carl Jung in the 1950s, founding a Jungian institute in Houston in the 1960s. Fry’s mother became a physician in the 1950s and her father was a Psychiatrist.

“When I was young my mother told me I could do whatever I choose to do with my life. She told me the United States of America is a free country,” Fry explained.

Schafer also studied medicine, worked at Kaiser during college, but ended up with a law degree from The University of Northern California, School of Law.

Also an MMJ patient, Schafer is the country’s oldest living Hemophiliac. Daily IV treatments as needed can run $6,000. a pop - in prison the amount jumps to $60,000 each time he bleeds. Schafer also suffers from Failed Back Syndrome resulting from a fall from a bunk bed at 10 months of age. Surgery left him with chronic pain. Under constant medical care, medicating with Cannabis worked for him. (See sidebar for list of medications with and without Cannabis.)

Four years after the raid and one year after the indictment, the Federal Magistrate denied both Fry and Schafer the right to use medical marijuana.

Schafer’s doctor Jerry Powell is head of both Oncology and Hemotology at U.C. Davis. Powell testified to the necessity of Marinol use in lieu of morphine for Schafer’s pain. The U.S. Attorney presented, not a doctor or specialist for cross examination, but an article published in Playboy magazine in 1999 which revealed marijuana users abusing Marinol prescriptions as a cover for Cannabis use, since there was no difference in the drug test.

President of AAMC Mitch Fadel said the irony was that most of the Playboy article favored Dale’s situation in substituting one for the other, sighting the substitute is legal and accepted by public opinion in all 50 States.

“The Government began its argument stating, ‘It is the government's position that the defendant has an almost impossible burden to show why he should receive special drug testing conditions different than every other drug dealing defendant who comes before the Court.’ In that statement they referred to Dale as a ‘drug dealing defendant.’ I thought we were innocent until proven guilty?” Fadel said with disbelief.

The “drug dealer” reference didn’t go away the entire length of the trial. In fact, Sacramento Bee reporter Peter Hecht raised the question in a pre-surrender article titled, “Martyrs or Drug Dealers?”

“I wouldn’t use those two words when talking about Medical Marijuana in a million years,” Fadel continued. “Heroin, cocaine, meth - not Cannabis. This has nothing to do with drug dealers.”

Humboldt County’s District Attorney Paul Gallegos has long said Cannabis is not a safety issue, but an education and health issue, stating, “Frustrating, expensive, destructive, deadly and ineffective could all be used to describe the current drug policy.”

Fry and Schafer have been referred to as “Pioneers” in the field of Medical Marijuana. What that means, Fry said, is they flew by the seat of their pants where concerning regulations, thumbing their noses at the man, knowing what they were doing was right and good.

“We weren’t selling medical Cannabis to my patients,” Fry said. “We had staff and were charging $10 for delivery only, and that’s a common practice today.”

Fifteen years after Proposition 215 was voted into effect by the people of California deeming MMJ legal, many cities and counties are still without workable ordinances for medical marijuana providers.

Mark Lovelace sits on the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, with a chair on the Medical Marijuana Advisory Panel. In a county whose economy is based on the Canna trade, Humboldt has yet to establish guidelines for outdoor medicinal grows – a practice of historic and grand proportions in the County - with edibles barely making it to the ordinance table to date.

“Federal prohibition prevents us from regulating those things that are clearly in the public interest,” Lovelace explained. “We can't regulate herbicide or pesticide use, we can't ensure food safety of marijuana edibles, we can't regulate impacts to wildlife or water quality, and we can't effectively track commerce. We can't even track the money from this industry because Federal intervention prevents legal growers from putting their money in the bank.”

The biggest challenge, Lovlace said of local controls, is the fact that local entities are left unto themselves to create regulatory systems without any guidance, and with conflicting messages from the State and Feds, adding, “We are working against a constantly shifting backdrop of legal challenge that redefines the limitations of local government’s authority.”

As an attorney Dale said he did his homework where ordinances were concerned. He also helped his wife’s patients without hesitation, often meeting with them more frequently than she did.

“When the local Sheriff’s deputies asked us to see patients, I researched the law and the way to actually run a practice such as ours,” he said. “I helped patients with County and State guidelines, helped them avoid arrest, and if they were arrested I worked with their attorney to get them out of trouble, including testifying in court four times as an expert in medical cannabis.”

Schafer said he conferred with everyone on the topic, including State Attorney General Bill Lockyer. After a phone call to the El Dorado County District Attorney’s office was left unanswered, he ran for District Attorney himself , forcing MMJ into local debate, and placing third at the polls.

He also attended regular “Round Table” meetings at the local Grange Hall, organized by the El Dorado County patient advocacy group American Alliance for Medical Cannabis, or AAMC, with the intent of creating guidelines. Eisenberg said local officials were always at the table, including law enforcement.

El Dorado County Sheriff Detectives Timothy McNulty and Robert Ashworth visited the property on several occasions with both Schafer and Fry feeling confident they were doing nothing wrong.

“McNulty testified in court during the trial he never thought they were running a ‘legitimate business,’” Eisenberg said. “He also admitted he was being ‘nice and going along with everything,’ and the entire time he was working with the Feds, building a case against them. As far as I’m concerned, that’s called entrapment.”

Rosenthal suggests a counter attack to local meddling.

“The State cannot protect patients from the Federal laws,” he advised. “As far as local officials cooperating with the Feds, they are breaking State law and should be sued. They are hired to enforce State, not Federal laws.”

Two years before the raid Fry said local officials asked her to let them know who of her patients were “really” sick and who wasn’t. Dumbfounded, Fry told them it wasn’t her job to police patients, stating later, “Did they ask pharmacies in the community who was abusing pain killers? Who really needed Oxycontin?”

Like many of Fry’s patients, singer songwriter and civil rights activist Glenn “G.P.” Bailey attributes the quality of his life to her guidance.

“Ten years ago he underwent neck-fusion surgery with complications. I was told not to expect to walk normally again,” Bailey shared. “My entire left side was numb and my dream of playing guitar for a living was unrealistic.”

Faced with a lifetime of chronic pain, he was sent home with a big bottle of Methadone - a synthetic opiate and commonly known replacement for Heroin. WebMD lists Methadone’s side effects as causing “severe, possibly fatal, breathing problems and heartbeat problems … Nausea, vomiting, constipation, lightheadedness, dizziness, dry mouth, drowsiness, sweating …”

“I woke up every hour of the night and took 20 minutes to get back to sleep each time. This is not a good drug,” he said. “I was in a Zombie-like state 24/7. In 2004 after seeing an ad in the local paper, I went to see Mollie Fry.”

Fry told Bailey about marijuana butter, commonly referred to as “budder,” wherein dairy butter is cooked down with Cannabis. This budder can be used in baking and cooking, making what are otherwise known as “edibles,” a common way to ingest Cannabis.

“What a game-changer!” he exclaimed. “I eat three cookies each evening and sleep eight uninterrupted hours.”

Take a walk down any grocery store “Sleep Aid” isle and Cannabis’ competition is apparent. According to the National Sleep Foundation (sleepandyou.com), some 70 million U.S. citizens have sleep problems.

“No wonder the drug companies are afraid of marijuana!” Bailey added. “Two and a half years ago I met my and married my wife, Tracie. I walk unassisted. I play guitar again, perform and have released two CDs in the past two years. With this medicine I have actually gotten better. Mollie Fry means the world to me.”

Nancy Steiner, her husband and son are all disabled. A devout Catholic, Nancy said she met Fry at James Catholic Church in Georgetown.

“She helped us get away from all the pain meds and mood altering pills, and taught us how to use Cannabis to treat our symptoms,” Steiner said. “I went to a couple court appearances and was horrified by their total lack of ability to defend themselves. Patients were not able to testify. They would not recognize her as my physician; they saw her as my drug dealer!”

Fry’s sometimes seemingly unorthodox methods included taking addicted patients into her own home, helping in the rehabilitation process. Ultimately it was staff, Schafer said, who broke rules and added to the list of penalties against them.

“I helped more than fifty people kick alcohol and other drugs, like meth,” she said. “We always had someone living here, helping them, giving them work.”

Patients turned employees sometimes disappointed, and Fry said the worst offender was damaged by drugs and alcohol, didn’t understand the rules and sent a care package to a patient via UPS using Schafer’s name.

“We fired anyone who wasn’t following the code of the law,” Schafer said. “But it didn’t matter to the Feds. We had no protection.”

The final blow came one week prior to the raid when two undercover FBI agents attended an edibles workshop at the local Grange held by Fry’s clinic for 215 cardholders. Fry said the chef teaching the class made the dire mistake of sending workshop attendees home with some of the edibles made, and two agents left with treats.

Fry said comments were also made during the class that may have been misunderstood by the agents, saying it was a comedy of errors with a not so amusing ending.

Schafer was home with his 10 month-old granddaughter upstairs in her crib, making breakfast for he and Mollie’s two children when the Feds came knocking. Fry was pulled over on her way to work and brought back to the house. Another son arrived home from school and was thrown down on the floor and handcuffed. Schafer’s oldest daughter Heather, who suffers from Lupus, was approached at work. Though the six hour ordeal was filled with unforgettable trauma, Fry said later she was most upset they were not allowed to comfort Heather’s baby when she woke up crying.

“We were treated like criminals,” she said. “If they would have asked me to come down to the office I would have, but that wasn’t an option.”

Bailey said he attended the first day of the trial, but when it was announced no medical evidence would be allowed, he left and never went back.

“Our Government doesn’t represent its people well,” he said. “I had to leave before I started screaming. Mollie and Dale are being punished for speaking out loud and early in this movement.”

Problems arose during jury selection as prosecutors tried in vain to find Sacramento residents unfamiliar with medical marijuana.

“One by one the jurors were being disqualified for admitting they knew anything about this case or medical marijuana,” Eisenberg said.

Local radio talk show host Christine Craft fielded calls at the end of the day and hosted Fry in an attempt to let people know what was happening. Since they were muzzled in court they took to the air. Word got out of the program, the U.S. Attorney threatened jury tampering and Fry, once again, was silenced.

Eisenberg said he felt jurors had to have told white lies about their knowledge of MMJ to get on the jury, but no matter, for throughout the two week trial council was silenced again and again on the topic of medical marijuana, Fry as doctor, Prop. 215, or the mere mention of the word “patients.”

In the end a plea bargain was offered. Due to the UPS infraction Schafer was offered 18 months in prison but Fry would lose her license. The couple passed on principal, as is their mode of operendi. “Free my medicine!” Doc Fry declared, humbly insisting it’s the plant that is being punished.

After ten years of defending themselves the couple has more questions than answers.

“Cannabis is proven medicine. Why would the State of California create laws based on what the people want, and then allow the Federal Government to override them?” Fry asks. “I had cancer, we were growing medicine. I was helping people.”

Carved in stone at the entrance to the Federal Building in downtown Sacramento, an inscription reads, “There are not enough jails, not enough policemen, not enough courts to enforce a law not supported by the people.”

Sacramento’s J Street Wellness Center Director Ron Mullins helped organize the rally held prior to Fry and Schafer’s surrender. He too believes the answer to all conflict where Cannabis is concerned is education.

“We cannot be incarcerating our healers. It runs counter to all logic,” he said. “We need to educate people, normalize and legitimize this medicine in the public arena. I believe in America. I have seen this country change from unfair practices to civil, intelligent laws in my lifetime and I believe America will one day end this cultural war and embrace its medical cannabis communities.”

Note from the author:

This story was written during the days prior to Mollie and Dale’s surrender. They are currently being held at the Sacramento County Jail. On Mollie’s first day, May 2, she lost all privileges and is unable to speak to anyone. A concerned inmate called the family to let them know Mollie was sitting on her cot in her cell, rocking and crying day and night. Dale did not receive medication and was not seen by a physician until Wednesday, May 4. The prison physician disagreed with his current prescriptions written by Dr. Jerry Powell, head of both Oncology and Hematology at U.C. Davis, and cut his pain meds down by three quarters. They will be transferred and interned into the Federal Prison system at the West Coast Federal Inmate Hub in Las Vegas (date unknown). From there Dale will be sent to Taft and Mollie to Dublin. The family is grateful they will both remain in California.

The couple’s grown children with grandkids have moved back into the family home in an effort to save the home and keep the family strong together. Status updates and a Pay Pal account has been set up for donations via Web site www.bodymindsoulandlife.info . “Cool Madness,” a book written documenting the trial by author Vanessa Williams is available online on Amazon.com, or directly on www.lulu.com/product/paperback/cool-madness . “Mollie Fry” can be found on Facebook. Donations and correspondence of support can also be sent to the family, P.O. Box 634, Cool, CA 95614.

Amy Mellen

Transitioning from Oxycontin to Cannabis

Note Amy’s story has been published around the world on many platforms.

In 2006, then Oregon resident, Amy Mellen, was in a near-fatal auto accident, increasing a dependency to pain medication that began with debilitating migraines.

“I rolled my car three times,” she recalled. “My head and left arm hit the asphalt on the highway each time I rolled. After five hours in surgery I woke up in a hospital bed with a morphine pump that didn’t even touch the pain – so, I was then given Dilaudid - and that’s what began my nightmare into addiction.”

According to Drugs.com, Dilaudid (hydromorphone) is an opioid pain medicine, created for “moderate to severe pain.” A narcotic, its many side effects include that it can slow or stop breathing; with misuse said to cause addiction, overdose and death.

“I had never used pain meds before, except for the migraines,” Mellen explained. “And I knew nothing about what they do to our bodies and brains. I went home from the hospital after two weeks with bottles of Oxycontin, Percocet, muscle relaxers, and more.”

By 2008, after 18 months on the Oxycontin, 30-year-old Mellen said she began seeing news reports of people becoming gravely addicted.

Accidental Addict

The U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that opioids killed 63, 600 people in 2016 - more than any year on record, causing the U.S. mortality rate to drop for the first time in decades.

“I thought to myself, no, that will never happen to me!” Mellen said, emphatically. “I had never done drugs, let alone been addicted to them. My doctor suggested I switch from Oxy to Methadone, and that’s when I became a legal junkie. I asked her, ‘isn’t that for heroin addicts?’ But she really had no other help for me. All she could offer was the lessor drug.”

Mellen said she was also offered Suboxone, a drug commonly used in addiction treatment centers to replace Oxycontin with some success.

“I chose not to use Suboxone because I thought, what’s the point of taking another pill that would do the same thing – and I would still be addicted?” she added. “I’ve seen tons of testimonials on the web of people just as addicted to Suboxone, and then needing higher doses.”

Replacing Pharma with a Plant

Mellen said had never tried cannabis when a friend of her husband, Todd, reported he had cut his Oxy intake in half just by smoking.

“I first smoked to see if it really worked,” Mellen said. “When it gave me relief, I asked ‘what’s next?’”

On May ninth, 2015, Amy said she took a half grain of rice-sized piece of cannabis oil with a spoonful of peanut butter.

“Every two weeks I increased the dose, but I was still on the pills,” she said. “As the oil started working my blood sugars dropped.”

The Metformin, previously needed for Type 2 Diabetes, was the first prescription med to leave Mellen’s pharmacopeia, which had ballooned to 41 prescription pills and supplements a day.

“On July 31, 2015 – less than three months after starting the oil, I took my last five milligram Percocet,” she shared.

Regina Nelson, PHd, has had many experiences with patients at The eCS Therapy Center in Denver, with a stated one hundred percent of all cases reducing pharmaceutical use.

“Reports show that prescriptions for opiates and narcotics may be reduced up to 25 percent in legal states such as Colorado, but most don’t appropriately credit cannabis as being a contributing factor,” Nelson said.

Greener Pastures

Mellen said it took three months to replace the pills, with one hundred pounds shed within the first year; and 205 pounds shed, all told.

According to a paper published in the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s National Institute of Health’s website (PMC 4204468), while cannabis is said to stimulate appetites in HIV/AIDS and cancer patients, in studying the general population of short and long-term cannabis users, a “lower body mass index” was found. In other words, cannabis is said to stimulate appetites where needed, while regulating metabolism in the average weight bearing person.

Mellen just celebrated her two-year anniversary of replacing pain killers with cannabis. Her doctor is currently weaning her off a low dose of anti-depressant, Wellbutrin – her last prescription medication.

“I’ve self-detoxed 27 times over the years, and it’s not a pretty sight to transition off opioids – ask my family,” she said. “In retrospect, I know it wasn’t a good thing to do without having something better to replace it with. Now, I feel confident to share my story with others, so that they can be helped. The situation with opioids in the U.S. is serious, and you can’t just tell someone to stop taking them. I would have never been able to do this without transitioning to cannabis.”

While Mellen is frustrated with the health industry today, she doesn’t blame her doctor.

“My doctor’s hands were tied,” Mellen said. “I believe our government’s denial of cannabis as medicine keeps doctors from knowing the truth. When I told my doctor I took my last Percocet, and finally explained my cannabis use, she actually started tearing up and said she wanted to run to the top of the building and shout it out to the world, but she couldn’t.”

Educating Doctors

While Amy’s physician witnessed Mellen’s transformation and went on record to say she is “fully supportive of Amy,” she hesitates to make her name public, fearing patients will reach out to her for advice, when she isn’t trained in cannabis as medicine.

“Amy is really the one who did one hundred percent of the work,” her doctor explained. “It’s super amazing that she is now speaking out and can be a role model and mentor others who are going through similar struggles.”

Sunil Kumar Aggarwal, MD, PhD, FAAPMR, is a physician based out of Seattle, with a focus on cannabis as medicine, science, and medical geography. Aggarwal said he’s not surprised about Mellen’s story in the least.

“Significant dose reductions in chronic opioid use, improvement in blood sugar control, improvement in mood, migraine prevention -- all of these effects have been documented in the clinical trials and epidemiologic literature for cannabis,” he explained. “Not to mention early 20th century medical literature, wherein Sir Dr. William Osler, the father of Internal Medicine, and founder of Johns Hopkins [Hospital], was known to be of the opinion that cannabis was the most superior treatment for migraines.”

Aggarwal said if cannabis had been used in the beginning of Mellen’s treatment, many problems could have been avoided, stating, “This too, is a common refrain from patients who have discovered this treatment.”

In 2016, 47-year-old Mellen moved from Oregon to Maryland after her husband, Todd, was promoted at work. She immediately began speaking out in a very public way, becoming one of Maryland’s first registered cannabis patients in its new medical program.

“The most heartbreaking part of my story is, if I had known about the cannabis oil I’m on now years ago, I might not have had to go through so much, and put my family through so much” she lamented. “It could have saved me a world of pain, literally and figuratively.”

Sharon Letts

Sharon Letts

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