DOPE Magazine - The 420 Issue - April 2018 by DOPE Magazine

THE 420 ISSUE

N AT I O N A L FREE

APRIL 2018

SMOKING ON PREMIUM GAS CULTURE

CULTURE

ENTERTAINMENT

TRAVEL

DOPE ON THE ROAD: HAWAII

SEPARATING CANNABIS FACT FROM FOLKLORE

THE FUTURE OF VIRTUAL REALITY

MOROCCO, PART THREE

DEFENDING OUR PLANT EVERYWHERE

CULTURE THE BONG BUS IS BACK!

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APRIL 2018 | THE 420 ISSUE

EDITOR’S LETTER

TOP VIDEOS

2 CHAINZ DOPE LIFE

t’s the most wonderful time of the year! You’ve landed on the pages of DOPE Magazine’s most anticipated issue of the season—the 420 Issue. We touch on the more serious components of cannabis, such as testing regulations and the future of roadside sobriety tests, but we’ve also got some playful pieces suited for the 420 frame of mind. We look at modern trends in strain-naming conventions, tracing the folklore of hybrid strains such as Chemdawg and classics like Jack Herer, named after Oregon’s late “Emperor of Hemp.” 2 Chainz, touted by critics and music columnists as one of rap’s “most colorful writers,” embellishes our cover in a way only 2 Chainz can. Smart, funny and quick to recognize opportunity, 2 Chainz has been making the rounds as host of the video series “Most Expensivest Shit” and recently announced a new album, “Rap or Go to the League,” following 2017’s “Pretty Girls Like Trap Music.” Of course, in the style of 2 Chainz, he made his album drop announcement on a blimp. A blimp!

FIELD TRIP

GOLD LEAF GARDENS

We amp up the fun to 11 by exploring the future of the Volkswagen bus, which will undergo a facelift come 2022—a modern, electric and a semi-autonomous incarnation of the hippie travel van? Yes, please. We dive into the history and future of Virtual Reality, discussing the immersive simulation technology and its influence on culture, art and science. And what 420 Issue would be complete without a thorough dissection of the history of the bong? As the industry’s most coveted holiday approaches, we hope you all celebrate responsibly and take a few moments to reflect on the history of the plant that makes what we all do possible.

QUICK HITS

Stay DOPE! The DOPE Editorial Team

To view these and more DOPE videos, visit: DOPEMAGAZINE.COM/VIDEOS

RECENTLY CORRECTED ARTICLES We would like to note an error in our February 2018 Entertainment Issue. Danny Bedrosian was credited as Illustrator and Co-Creator of AIMJG Comic. The illustrator and Co-Creator is in fact Marc Sokpolie. In our Southern California March 2018 Advocacy Issue we referred to the Co-Owner of Cornerstone Collective as Erica Campos. Her name is Erica Kay.

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D O P E M AGA Z I N E .CO M

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THE 420 ISSUE

N AT I O N A L FREE

APRIL 2018

SMOKING ON PREMIUM GASS CULTURE

CULTURE

ENTERTAINMENT

TRAVEL

DOPE ON THE ROAD: HAWAII

SEPARATING CANNABIS FACT FROM FOLKLORE

THE FUTURE OF VIRTUAL REALITY

MOROCCO, PART THREE

DEFENDING OUR PLANT EVERYWHERE

CULTURE THE BONG BUS IS BACK!

DOPE MAGAZINE APRIL 2018 | THE 420 ISSUE You’ve landed on the pages of DOPE Magazine’s most anticipated issue of the season—the 420 Issue. 2 Chainz, touted by critics and music columnists as one of rap’s “most colorful writers,” embellishes our cover in a way only 2 Chainz can. Smart, funny and quick to recognize opportunity, 2 Chainz has been making the rounds as host of the video series “Most Expensivest Shit” and recently announced a new album, “Rap or Go to the League,” following 2017’s “Pretty Girls Like Trap Music.” As the industry’s most coveted holiday approaches, we hope you all celebrate responsibly and take a few moments to reflect on the history of the plant that makes what we all do possible.

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COVER PHOTO: ALBRICA TIERRA D O P E M AGA Z I N E .CO M

EFENDING UR LANT VERYWHERE As a lifestyle publication, DOPE Magazine is dedicated to creating purposeful, relevant conversations. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve built a steadfast framework of inclusivity when speaking about gender, race, class, politics, family and cultureâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;with the ethos DEFEND. Not just our plant, but our people, patients, and planet. Our highly curated content continues to focus on people and lifestyles that have a relationship with cannabis. While cannabis remains our central theme, it is our belief that creating conversations about real people and relatable experiences is the best way to normalize the understanding of cannabis in society as a whole. Our aim is to continue to illuminate issues that deserve our attention and must be addressed if we wish to both promote and create change. We are grateful for your time, we welcome your feedback, and are truly grateful for your participation to create positive change in our world. Defend efend Our Plant Everywhere. verywhere.

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THE 420 ISSUE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEATURES 030 ENTERTAINMENT

THE FUTURE OF VIRTUAL REALITY

AN INTERSECTION OF CULTURE, ART AND SCIENCE 038 TRAVEL

MOROCCO, PART THREE

MOROCCO’S FARMERS ARE NOW PRODUCING HIGH-QUALITY ROSIN AND BHO 044 EDUCATION

APRIL

KNOW YOUR STRAIN

SEPARATING CANNABIS FACT FROM FOLKLORE 048 SCIENCE

TESTING FOR THC IMPAIRMENT WHY SETTING A LEGAL “HIGH” DRIVING LIMIT MAKES NO SENSE 056 #SCOUTEDBYDOPE

CELEBRATE THE HISTORY OF 420 WITH THESE GROOVY PRODUCTS! 058 DOPE SHOTS

WINNER ADRIAN RAMOS

060 EDITOR’S CHOICE

THE ABC’S OF CBD

A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO CANNABIS’ HEALING COMPOUND 062 CULTURE

THE BONG BUS IS BACK! AN ELECTRIC, SEMI-AUTONOMOUS VW BUS IS COMING IN 2022 068 SCIENCE

CANNABIS TESTING REGULATIONS C4 LABORATORIES AIMS TO SET THE STANDARD 072 CULTURE

DOPE ON THE ROAD

THE HAWAIIAN CANNABIS EXPO

020 COVER FEATURE

2 CHAINZ SMOKING ON PREMIUM GAS

PHOTOGRAPHY: ALBRICA TIERRA

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F E AT U R E

SMOKING ON PREMIUM GAS DAVID BAILEY

ALBRICA TIERRA

“Y

ou can sleep when you die, you can sleep when you die!” Tity Boi, Tauheed Epps, 2 Chainz—regardless of how you know him, you know him. 2 Chainz has erupted over the past decade: air time on the hottest radio stations, collaborations with VICE and GQ, guest appearances on The View. He even put up with Nancy Grace. This trap king has made a name for himself on just about every level, from the streets to the screen. Epps has an appeal, a way of connecting with people. He’s likeable. Not to mention, he loves good weed. What most don’t realize is his commitment to the hustle. We flew down to Atlanta and got to experience it firsthand. Luckily for us, 2 Chainz doesn’t do 6 a.m. mornings—or does he only do 6 a.m. mornings? His “sleep when you die” sentiment is for real. While traveling back and forth between NYC, LA and ATL, he quite literally doesn’t sleep several days a week. As the father of three children, owner of a record label and multiple recording studios, TV show host and devoted philanthropist, there just isn’t time for it. We didn’t meet with 2 Chainz until the middle of the night, while he was in between work days; he was ending one day, with meetings at 2 a.m. the next. So we crept into the studio to meet with him at 12 a.m., like you do. He was juggling projects, recording and planning his newest album drop, tour and GAS cannabis line. Totally normal. For 2 Chainz, this is normal.

THE EARLY DAYS Atlanta—the birthplace of some of the most famous musicians to date, including OutKast and T.I., is where 2 Chainz calls home. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, an immediate suburb of Atlanta, 2 Chainz is the only son of a single mother. His previous moniker, Tity Boi, is derived from being just that. Calling someone a “titty boy” just means they were breast fed, or a spoiled child who was never told “no”; it’s not meant to be an obscene or misogynistic term. To broaden his mass appeal, however, he became 2 Chainz. Since the name change, Chainz has risen to a level of success few people will ever see, especially coming from the bottom. So how did he get there? Remember waaay back in 2007, when Weezy and Ludacris were running the Southern rap game? That’s when we saw Tity first jump off—and a big jump, at that. “Duffle Bag Boy,” a single off Supply & Demand, was his first intro to the big leagues as half of the Playaz Circle. With Lil Wayne on the track, it easily went viral; today, it has more than 16 million views. Unfortunately, the album never saw the single’s same commercial success, and while some have attributed it to his Tity Boi moniker, others have blamed it on being part of a duo rather than working as a solo artist. Personally, I think it just wasn’t his time—and I only say that because his time is clearly now. He’s had a plethora of chart-topping songs every year since 2012, hosted two incredibly popular shows, and done hundreds of interviews about everything from the effects of cannabis legalization to why his dog fell asleep on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Chainz proved himself as one of the most devoted artists in the game when, despite a broken leg, he carried out an entire album tour in a tricked-out wheelchair. If that doesn’t explain how he got here, I don’t know what will.

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D O P E M AGA Z I N E .CO M

“

WHAT I’M TRYING TO PUT OUT TO CONSUMERS IS A LEVEL OF LUXURY WHEN IT COMES TO THE FLOWER . . . I’VE BEEN SAYING ‘SMOKING ON GAS’ SINCE MY FIRST SINGLES IN THE GAME . . . AND IT BASICALLY MEANS STRONG OR PREMIUM.”

”

THE INTERVIEW

While plenty of the inter views I’ve done have been in the middle of the night, after a performance or something similar, I’ve never scheduled a start time at 11 p.m. Pulling up to a nondescript building in the middle of the night in an unfamiliar town to meet with a superstar, I was just hopeful he’d have enough juice to get through the interview. It was here where I learned Chainz really believes what he says: you can sleep when you die. We walked into a fully hopping business. From producers working the tables to people charging up his Maybach (a really fancy Mercedes-Benz most of us have never seen, and never will), this was a fully operational, 24/7 show. As I walked the long corridor of the facility, I could see 2 Chainz standing with his manager— actually, standing over him might be more accurate. At 6’5” in his distinctive red Gucci jacket, his star power was felt from across the room. Immediately receptive to our presence, he greeted us, then went right back to what he was doing: work. As the photographer and videographer set up, I slipped past the Maybach and into the studio with Chainz and his crew. To say he smokes tough would be an understatement; there was not a time in the two-plus hours we were there that he wasn’t smoking. That’s even after I passed around two hand-rolled cannagars packed full of oil, kief and, of course, some GAS flower from his new cannabis line. When it came time to get busy, he hopped right into the photoshoot, never missing a beat. I’ve honestly never seen someone multitask so aggressively—and so flawlessly. Executing his poses, he was more comfortable in front of the camera than Tyra Banks, yet conversations with his team never left his focus. He discussed everything from new features on songs, collabs with other artists, his upcoming tour, and the opening of his LA GAS line.

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As soon as we finished shooting, it was straight over to the inter view—but not without a new joint, of course. With his Gucci fanny pack and glistening chains, his quiet confidence can be felt in his direct stare. “What I’m trying to put out to consumers is a level of luxury when it comes to the flower,” Chainz shares. “I’ve been saying ‘smoking on gas’ since my first singles in the game . . . and it basically means strong or premium.” His jump into the cannabis space isn’t because he wants to make a quick buck; cannabis is an intimate part of his everyday lifestyle. If a new weed line wasn’t enough for fans, we can already expect another album to drop. “The name of my new album is called Rap Or Go To The League,” he explains, “and when I say that, I’m basically speaking about African American culture, as far as that being something that was often heard or said in our community that I felt was a stereotype.” Chainz is referring to the perceived idea that the only way for POC to be successful is to get into hip-hop or “go to the league,” i.e., become a professional athlete. 2 Chainz is an example of bottom-up success, and many don’t understand how meaningful that can be to one’s hometown. As Chainz puts it, “In a community like ATL, you gotta be someone that can show people it’s attainable. You gotta be that person. Do things in front of the youth, inspire. That’s the culture in Atlanta.” You can feel that ideology in every project he executes. He’s already achieved greatness—so what else is out there for Tauheed? “I’m gonna get a Grammy next year,” he asserts. I’m gonna shoot a movie next year . . . I’m trying to be legendary status when I leave.” TO SEE AN EXTENDED PHOTO GALLERY WITH 2 CHAINZ, VISIT DOPEMAGAZINE.COM/2-CHAINZ/ 2CHAINZ.COM @HAIRWEAVEKILLER @2CHAINZ

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D O P E M AGA Z I N E .CO M

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E N T E R TA I N M E N T

AN INTERSECTION OF CULTURE, ART AND SCIENCE

P. GOTTI

D O P E M AGA Z I N E .CO M

here’s an urban legend about the first moviegoers seeing a train on the big screen in 1896. As the audience viewed the Lumière brothers’ L’arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat (Train Pulling into a Station), the film’s locomotive seemingly crashed down on them; myth says audiences abandoned their seats and cleared the theater to avoid the train’s presumed path of destruction. The nugget of truth in this tale is that three-dimensional video really did astound the people at the Lumière screening, but they by no means fled the theater in terror. First-time reactions to today’s VR (Virtual Reality) games are more well-documented, luckily for us and the sake of hilarity—tears, screams and bewilderment abound in countless VR reaction videos.

THE SCIENCE In 2014, The Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery of GPS cells, neurons in the brain’s hippocampus responsible for processing information about location and environment. A recent UCLA study captured the VR community’s attention when it concluded that GPS cells go haywire in VR. In the experiment, mice appeared to operate normally, while brain scans showed them so unable to process location and environment that portions of the brain totally shut down. In presentations given around the country, lead UCLA scientist Mayank Mehta, PhD, compared the hippocampus to a symphony, balancing two complex and interrelated processes: rhythm and intensity. In VR, intensity drops off completely. Rhythm, by itself, cannot create a “cognitive map” of a location. The mice in the experiment couldn’t figure out where they were, and wouldn’t remember if you asked them. Scientists are still far off from understanding the brain in VR, but future findings have the power to rock the gaming industry.

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CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT AND LANGUAGE Eugene Capon received his degree in Film, YouTube and Physics from Evergreen State College (where students choose “areas of emphasis,” rather than a major) and dove into the early VR industry. When discussing my prior VR experiences, he asked me, “When you took the headgear off, did reality feel less real? That’s what happens to everyone their first time.” Eugene co-hosts Glitched, a talk show (in VR) currently entering its third season. Along with co-host Topher Welsh, Capon hosts the show on a virtual stage through look-a-like avatars, and their audience also attends in VR. You can see highlights at Capon Design TV on YouTube. Eugene believes in a coming paradigm shift, where artists will create shows and even movies within VR and game engines. It’s much cheaper to produce, he argues, and the tech is advancing rapidly enough that people are watching more game engine-based entertainment. In the early 2000s, an Internet show, Red vs. Blue, gained notoriety for filming 100 percent within the Halo game engine. At the time, this hadn’t been done. Now, watching another human play within a game engine (called a “Let’s Play”) is a common form of entertainment, especially among children and gamers. YouTube has evolved from its early history as an unstructured new space to a curated video platform that rewards content creators of a certain pedigree. It’s come so far that it’s become the home for kids to “YouTube and Chill,” as Red Cyborg, a cool fifth grader and avid gamer, recently told me. Cyborg spouted off more than ten YouTube channels he watches every day, including Let’s Plays, animations, reviews and tutorials. So much for Saturday morning cartoons! While YouTube and Let’s Plays are now the norm, the nature of more experimental online VR communities remains problematic. These communities exist in an entirely new space without shared language, culture or structure. They offer the potential for unadulterated artistic expression, perhaps at the expense of a raw social experience. The future of VR is exciting, but is not without necessary examination.

VIRTUAL ART Artist Tony Taj gave me a tour of 1408 Post Alley, an art gallery hosting various traditional and Mixed Reality (MR) artists here in Seattle. Tony imagines that hardware will reach a development plateau, and that our understanding of VR will evolve in such a way that talented artists can profitably create and sell “experiences.” Tony recalls eBay revolutionizing the art industry, and excitedly awaits the next wave with VR. “My art is always more impressive in person,” he acknowledges, “and I look forward to more artists adopting VR, so people can experience pieces the way they’re intended, from home. Art is an exciting place to be right now, because the gallery model is becoming antiquated.”

THE FUTURE IS NOW

During a particularly beautiful series of sunny winter days in the Pacific Northwest, I chatted with a friend at sunset, just downhill from Seattle’s Gum Wall. A loud rattling caught our attention and we craned our necks to see humankind strutting forward in its always-fashionable way. There stood a thick cloud of smoke. An elderly gentlemen with a close cropped beard, well-built and dressed 20 years his junior, emerged from the cloud. In one hand he held a hot vape pen; smoke trailed from his mouth and nostrils. In the other hand, a fresh bouquet of flowers from Pike Place Market. He zoomed by us on an electric skateboard, leaving us cracking up in his minty wake. The future is here, now. VR may seem too abstract to some, but if seniors can zoom by on futuristic boards while lighting up with an e-pen, anything is possible.

D O P E M AGA Z I N E .CO M

“

WHEN YOU TOOK THE [VR] HEADGEAR OFF, DID REALITY FEEL LESS REAL? THAT’S WHAT HAPPENS TO EVERYONE THEIR FIRST TIME. – EUGENE CAPON, VR EVANGELIST

”

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T R AV E L

MOROCCO’S FARMERS ARE NOW PRODUCING HIGH-QUALITY ROSIN AND BHO JENNIFER MACFARLANE (“SESHATA”) & PIERRE-ARNAUD CHOUVY SESHATA

n the final part of our series on the recent changes to the cannabis industry in Morocco, we’ll take a closer look at the new extraction methods gaining popularity among the farmers of the Rif. This new development, in combination with innovations in modern and organic cultivation techniques, could help Morocco maintain its position among the world’s top suppliers of cannabis derivatives for many years to come. However, it’s clear that the challenges facing the industry are severe and widespread, and that innovations are necessary for many farmers otherwise at risk of losing their livelihoods.

Supply, Demand and Quality

As we’ve described in our previous articles, the Moroccan hashish industry has undergone dramatic changes in recent years. A relatively young industry, it emerged in the 1960s, largely in response to European demand, and dramatically intensified in the 1980s. In those initial decades, it transitioned from a small-scale phenomenon to an extremely valuable, ubiquitous system of mass production. In the early years, the hashish produced in Morocco was typically small-batch, artisanal and made to a high standard of quality. By the 1980s, the market was flooded with “very large quantities of very low-quality powder,” and Moroccan hashish increasingly began to suffer from a poor reputation on the international market. This trend has continued up to the present day. Alongside this, cannabis laws in some European countries have relaxed and domestic production of high-quality cannabis has significantly increased over the last decade or so. European consumers now have greater availability of connoisseur products and demand for Moroccan hashish has seriously declined. By the early 2010s, the farmers of Ketama and Bab Berred had begun to accumulate stockpiles of unsold, poor-quality hashish, and some began to seek new ways to maintain their income.

D O P E M AGA Z I N E .CO M

An Influx of European Influence in Morocco

Cleaning Up the Dry-Sift Technique

Europeans have had involvement in the Moroccan hashish industry since its earliest inception, and have continued to heavily influence the industry over the decades. As the largest buyers of Moroccan hashish, Europeans are uniquely positioned to affect the industry in Morocco, through direct investment, variations in demand and dissemination of new ideas, techniques, equipment and modern, high-yielding cannabis varieties. Over the years, many lasting relationships between Moroccan producers and their long-term European clients have been established. In some cases, Europeans rent land from or enter into partnerships with Moroccan landowners, and are directly involved in the production of cannabis and hashish. The nature of Moroccan-European business affiliations varies widely, but typically the European partner provides capital, seeds, technical knowhow and equipment. The European partner may own or have interests in a coffee shop or cannabis social club, or perhaps a black market destination for the hashish produced. European expertise is now arguably one of the most sought-after business commodities in the cannabis industry in Morocco. Not only do they provide the bulk of the knowledge needed to improve the standard of traditionally-produced Moroccan hashish, they also bring entirely new methods of cannabis extraction.

A few years after European investments and an influx of highyielding seed varieties began, a minority of Moroccan cannabis farmers started to adopt modern techniques to make high-quality, highly potent cannabis extracts. During our fieldwork, we witnessed the heightened care and attention given to the traditional process for making sieved hashish, which remains by far the most important commercial activity in the Rif. To make such high-quality “dry sift” hashish, the cannabis is carefully harvested and dried—contrary to the usual method of piling freshly-cut plants on the ground, where they pick up dust, and the drying method of simply piling plants on a hot roof in the sun. The cannabis may be hand-trimmed to remove the leaves, and after drying may be frozen in order to solidify and embrittle the trichomes. When sifting, “static tech” may be used—a technique whereby the trichomes are attracted to a static charge, separating them from any impurities. When all steps are performed with the utmost care, producers can yield dry sift hash of extremely high purity, with over 95 percent trichome heads and less than five percent impurities in the very best examples.

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The Rise of Modern Extraction Methods

Additionally, modern extraction techniques are now also becoming more popular, such as iceo-lator or “bubble” hash, butane hash oil (BHO) and rosin. Reports of the use of industriallypurified solvents such as butane gas have been sporadically popping up since the 1970s at least, in Morocco, Afghanistan and various other hashish producing regions. The ice-o-lator technique, originating in the Netherlands in the late 1990s, has been used on many occasions in Morocco since then. However, the explosion in popularity of highstrength cannabis extracts (which began in around 2010, with the ongoing trend towards legalization throughout the United States, before reaching Europe very soon afterwards) has led to a consequent uptick of interest in these forms of extraction in Morocco. According to producers we spoke to, ice-o-lator is typically made directly from cannabis, but BHO and rosin are usually made from good-quality sieved hashish. The expected yield from processing hashish of the utmost purity (95 percent+ trichome heads) into BHO or rosin could be as high as 80-90 percent by weight. One European contact operating in the Rif reported yielding up to 80 percent return at best, with an average yield of somewhere around 60 percent. How this translates in terms of absolute value is not clear, as a market for Moroccan extracts in Europe has not yet been fully established. A gram of good-quality Moroccan hashish sells for around €8-16 ($10-20) per gram in European coffee shops and social clubs, while a gram of rosin or BHO could fetch anywhere between €40-80 ($50-100). That’s an obvious increase in value, although it’s also likely that Moroccan extracts will command an overall lower price than European extracts derived from indoorgrown cannabis.

Uneven Adoption of New Extraction Methods

Of course, not every farmer in the Rif has adopted these new techniques simultaneously. In fact, since modern extraction techniques are mostly foreign-introduced, require technical knowledge and cost money to set up, their adoption rate and scale is still limited. To become a producer of high-quality, modern cannabis extracts, a comparatively high initial investment is needed.

For example, vacuum ovens (used to purge extracts of residual butane) typically cost €1000 ($1225) or more, electronic rosin presses may cost several thousand euros, while closed-loop BHO systems may cost tens of thousands. On top of this, several of our contacts reported extraction equipment being refused entry by Moroccan customs officials when attempting to import it from Europe, sometimes leading to significant financial losses. Furthermore, it takes time for word to spread among farmers that the new techniques work and are commercially successful. Farmers are understandably fearful of changing their methods, making new investments and putting themselves at further risk in times when their incomes are already suffering. Lastly, access to European expertise is by no means universal, and many farmers may not have the means or opportunity to take advantage of it. Limited adoption of new techniques may be due more to their inaccessibility than to ignorance or fear of change on the part of most Moroccan farmers.

What’s Next For Moroccan Hashish in the Global Market?

It is all but impossible to find reliable statistics on the Moroccan hashish industry or imports of hashish to Europe, as the illegal nature of the industry (along with the political sensitivity of the issue) precludes open and direct analysis. The UNODC has reported that cannabis cultivation (and therefore hashish production) declined by up to two thirds between 2003 and 2013. However, it appears that the introduction of high-yielding varieties and improved crop care techniques have acted as a powerful counterbalance. Thus, even if total crop area has reduced, the amount of hashish that can be produced per hectare potentially increased by an estimated three to five times. Morocco is clearly still a top contender in the global hashish trade, and as market forces evolve with the worldwide trend for legalization, it’s clear that producers in the Rif will not all be left behind. However, adoption of new practices may now be the only means of survival, and a portion of farmers may not be able to afford or access the necessary resources. For those farmers and their families, the future is far from certain, particularly in an area that offers so few alternatives.

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AS THE LARGEST BUYERS OF MOROCCAN HASHISH, EUROPEANS ARE UNIQUELY POSITIONED TO AFFECT THE INDUSTRY IN MOROCCO, THROUGH DIRECT INVESTMENT, VARIATIONS IN DEMAND AND DISSEMINATION OF NEW IDEAS, TECHNIQUES, EQUIPMENT AND MODERN, HIGHYIELDING CANNABIS VARIETIES.

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SEPARATING CANNABIS FACT FROM FOLKLORE

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D O P E M AGA Z I N E .CO M

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IF PEOPLE DON’T KNOW THE TRUTH [ABOUT STRAINS], IT’S NATURAL THEY WANT TO FILL IN THE GAPS IN A WAY THAT’S ENJOYABLE FOR THE LISTENER, LIKE A HUNTER OR FISHERMAN TELLING THEIR TALE. – TREY RECKLING, FOUNDER OF SEATTLE CENTRAL COLLEGE’S CANNABIS INSTITUTE

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nce upon a time, some guy attended a Grateful Dead concert in Indiana. There, he bought one ounce of highquality cannabis with a potent, vaguely chemical-like odor and arranged to have more mailed to his home on the East Coast. As the legend goes, he then crossed those cannabis seeds with a Colorado strain named Dog Butt, inventing a new hybrid he called Chemdawg. Today, you can find the strain at just about any dispensary near you. For decades, origin stories like this one— perhaps based on fact, but often told more like folklore—were all most cannabis consumers had to go on in trying to understand the strains they smoked, as prohibition made it nearly impossible to categorize them through more scientific methods. “Humans are storytellers,” explains Trey Reckling, founder of Seattle Central College’s Cannabis Institute, where he teaches a class on strain science and folklore. “If people don’t know the truth, it’s natural they want to fill in the gaps in a way that’s enjoyable for the listener, like a hunter or fisherman telling their tale.” The modern trend in naming cannabis strains began in the 1960s and ‘70s, around the same time as the burgeoning War on Drugs, when breeders imported naturally-occurring strains from around the world which would become the basis for dozens of subsequent hybrids. Many of these original “landrace” strains have names reflecting their geographic origins, like Panama Red, Acapulco Gold and Afghan Kush. From there, self-styled breeders operating outside the law built up the genetic diversity of stateside cannabis through hybridization. Varieties like Chemdawg became identified by a combination of their parent strain names, while others were named for prominent cannabis advocates like Jack Herer, Oregon’s late “Emperor of Hemp.” With so many breeders working independently and word of mouth as the only means of disseminating information, Reckling acknowledges that “there are probably a lot more strain names than true genetic variety, because you have some that get renamed several times . . . In [my] class, we pay a nod to that folklore because it’s part of our community, but we want to respect it for what it is—not something you can rest on, like you can with science and legitimate data.”

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STRAIN GLOSSARY Brush up on the origin stories behind some of your favorite strains— just remember to take each tale with a grain of salt!

OG KUSH

ALBERT WALKER

G-13

The exact origins of this ubiquitous indica are unknown, but it was supposedly transplanted from Florida to L.A. in 1995 with The Bubba. Together, the two parent strains gave birth to Bubba Kush.

D e s c e n d e d f ro m A f g h a n Skunk and bred in the Pacific Northwest, this strain gained fame as a supposed favorite of the Grateful Dead’s road crew and band members.

In perhaps the tallest tale of all, this indica was among the strains gathered by federal agencies to study at a secret Universit y of Mississippi installation in the ‘60s. An anonymous technician snuck out one cutting of the plant and bred it for posterity.

regulations for how growers should test and label potential new varieties. Along with legalization, brand marketing has become another new influence on how we assess our cannabis, with more strains being distinguished not just by their adopted name but by their producers, as well—i.e., Artizen Blue Dream. Then there are celebrities like Willie Nelson and Snoop Dogg, who lend their name to specific cannabis brands in which marketing may matter just as much as quality level or genetic makeup. Reckling remains hopeful that continued genetic testing will ensure consumers and growers are more reliably informed about the strains they smoke, yet confident the rich folklore surrounding cannabis will live on long after federal prohibition has ended. “We won’t ever be able to remove the mystery of it, because that’s part of the culture,” he maintains. “People say Lamb’s Bread was Bob Marley ’s favorite strain, so for some people that has a special place in their heart, whatever the genetics say.”

Indeed, our current, inherited methods of identifying strains may be massively flawed. Neurologist and cannabis advocate Dr. Ethan Russo observed as much in 2015, stating, “ The sativa/indica distinction commonly applied in the lay literature is total nonsense and an exercise in futility . . . The degree of interbreeding is such that only a biochemical assay tells a potential consumer or scientist what is really in the plant.” Luckily, with legalization efforts succeeding in an increasing number of U.S. states, the science has finally begun catching up to the folklore thanks to increased genetic testing and ambitious cataloging efforts. The Phylos Galaxy, for example, is an online resource using samples to map out an everexpanding genetic “galaxy ” with which users can trace the lab-tested origins of their favorite strains. There’s also Steep Hill Labs, a cannabis testing company now selling kits that help home-growers identify the genetic makeup of their latest hybrids. Still, there’s no registry for cannabis strains, or even clear-cut

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D O P E M AGA Z I N E .CO M

DETECTING THC

simple “ They looked stoned” isn’t enough to convict someone of impaired driving under the influence of cannabis. Some states have set a threshold level for THC, the high-inducing chemical in cannabis, in the bloodstream. As it turns out, however, this threshold is arbitrary. It’s impossible to know how much THC is affecting the brain without fancy brain-imaging techniques, and assuming impairment correlates with THC levels is wrong. Because of the fat-soluble nature of THC and other cannabinoids, as opposed to the aerosolized nature of alcohol, there are numerous challenges for THC detection in the body and the interpretation of how it relates to impairment. Unlike alcohol, where levels in the blood reflect effects on the brain, you can have a high blood THC level with very little reaction in the brain; it largely depends on the time blood is drawn in relation to when you last consumed cannabis. Most importantly, you can’t predict impairment by blood THC concentration alone. Genetics (and even your last meal!) can influence the proportion of THC that reaches the brain, as well as the speed, strength and duration of its effect. Use history also affects how stoned you become. Long-term toking reduces the number of brain receptors for THC to act upon, so equivalent THC levels in the blood of a novice may lead to substantially greater impairment than that of a seasoned weed veteran. Fewer targets, weaker action. And let’s not forget that predicting cannabis intoxication becomes even more challenging when additional cannabinoids are thrown into the mix, like cannabidiol (CBD), which can counteract some of THC’s effects. Most legislators, law enforcement and scientists agree that trying to infer impairment from a blood THC level is pointless. But when Colorado legalized recreational cannabis, they set an arbitrary limit of five nanograms THC per milliliter of blood as a compromise between those pushing for zero tolerance and the cannabis lobby, who feared that THC released from the body’s fat cells into the blood long after consumption could trigger a positive test result. In states like Washington and Montana, THC levels above this threshold result in an automatic DUI, whereas Colorado uses this number to simply infer impairment.

Science shouldn’t be a guessing game, but when it comes to determining exactly how high someone is, we simply don’t have the technology—yet.

Number of states with cannabis-specific impaired driving laws. 12 of these states have zero-tolerance policies, where any amount of THC detected can lead to arrest.

Nanograms THC per milliliter of blood produced by four puffs of a 1.75% THC joint, more than ten times the legal driving limit in states like Washington, Colorado and Montana.

1.5-4 The most common range of hours between arrest and when blood is drawn to test for THC.

73 PERCENT The average percentage of THC in the blood 25 minutes after smoking. But there’s massive variability! THC clearance can range from 3% to 90%.

0.5 Lowest amount of nanograms THC per milliliter of blood now detectable by new breathalyzer technology, which can be determined up to six hours after smoking.

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Law enforcement uses blood to establish THC levels because limitations in other detection methods have traditionally lacked in sensitivity and reliability. But getting blood samples is invasive and requires a warrant, which delays the time to sample collection. New detection strategies had to be devised. Urine was proposed, but detection is fraught with handling challenges; cannabinoids can absorb into the sample container, break down in light and decompose if too warm. At lower temperatures, on the other hand, they become unevenly distributed in the sample, leading to falsely high results. Cannabinoids can also precipitate out of solution entirely. Spit can be used to test THC levels, but remains subject to many of the same challenges as urine.

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BECAUSE OF THE FAT-SOLUBLE NATURE OF THC AND OTHER CANNABINOIDS, AS OPPOSED TO THE AEROSOLIZED NATURE OF ALCOHOL, THERE ARE NUMEROUS CHALLENGES FOR THC DETECTION IN THE BODY AND THE INTERPRETATION OF HOW IT RELATES TO IMPAIRMENT.

B re a t h t e s t s a re e m e rg i n g a s t h e m o s t promising means of assessing THC levels. But because THC doesn’t easily vaporize, like alcohol— unless heated, of course—the amount of THC that can be detected through the breath has been traditionally too low, and the window for detection too short. Not surprisingly, then, a bulk of research funding in states with legal cannabis is devoted to improving breathalyzer technology. Proponents of legal weed shouldn’t look upon these efforts with scorn. These detection devices will hopefully lead to safer roads, improved transparency between law enforcement and the community and help establish a clearer understanding between THC and impairment. The real frustration should be over the five nanograms THC per milliliter of blood threshold and its automatic DUI charge in some states. That just makes no sense.

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he ABC’s of CBD: The Essential Guide for Parents (And regular folks too) by Shira Adler explains “Why Pot Is NOT What We Were Taught.” A natural healer, it’s no wonder Alder’s passions led her to become a vocal advocate of CBD, or cannabidiol, a nonpsychoactive cannabis component known for its healing properties. She spent years as a non-denominational interfaith minister and healer, as well as a certified Past Life Regressionist, among other vocations. Adler shares what she has seen, learned and experienced about cannabis as medicine, speaking out loudly and proudly on natural we l l n e s s , p e r s o n a l e m p owe r m e n t a n d alternative healthcare whenever she gets

the chance. She’s been featured on The Today Show, Bravo’s Extreme Guide to Parenting and Good Morning America. Her path to advocacy hasn’t been without roadblocks, however. As she details on her website, “I’m ‘that’ mom who transmutes my own shocking experience of having been reported to Child Protective Services (more than once) into a powerful platform to encourage and uplift others. Basically, my throat chakra has no off switch.” The ABC’s of CBD is the per fect intro for anyone curious about cannabis. Brush up on your canna-knowledge or gift this to a nonbeliever for a look at all things cannabis, hemp and CBD from past to present. PRICE PAPERBACK $13.99 KINDLE

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AN ELECTRIC, SEMIAUTONOMOUS VW BUS IS COMING IN 2022 SCOTT PEARSE COURTESY OF BUS ADDICTS AND VW MEDIA

he Volkswagen Kombi. The Bulli. Splitty. The Microbus. Hippie Van. It goes by many names. The vehicle known simply as “The Bus” had the longest production run of any vehicle ever, and was still being produced in Brazil until 2013. Unsurprisingly, anticipation surrounding the bus’s next generation is buzzing. Scheduled for production in 2022, the all-new VW bus, now known as the I.D. Buzz, retains many of the bus’s most endearing features, including the large versatile interior and distinctive shape. But the connection ends there. The new bus will be all-electric and ready for autonomous driving. Other than the peace symbol, there are few designs more closely linked to the counterculture movement of the 1960s than the VW bus. A new generation of admirers may have mostly done away with tie-dye and flared jeans, but the scene around the bus is still strong. Brothers Dimitrious and Joshua Nichols run Bus Junkies, a social media space for bus enthusiasts, from Santa Cruz. “Santa Cruz is known to have more than its share of classic buses cruising the local beaches and cliffs,” they note. “The love

D O P E M AGA Z I N E .CO M

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OTHER THAN THE PEACE SYMBOL, THERE ARE FEW DESIGNS MORE CLOSELY LINKED TO THE COUNTERCULTURE MOVEMENT OF THE 1960S THAN THE VW BUS.

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affair for the bus began in the 1960s and never left. The concept of #buslife and #vanlife in social media has brought the love of the open road, expressing creativity and living an independent lifestyle back into public consciousness.” At the I.D. Buzz launch, Dr. Herbert Diess, CEO of VW brand management, remarked: “(The bus’s) success story is deeply connected to California. In the sixties, the idea of love, peace and happiness inspired people all over the world. Back in those days, driving a Microbus represented freedom. It took you everywhere—together with your friends and boards. It was a car, but also a home on wheels. It was a mover of young families. It was both reliable and unconventional. And it was highly emotional, putting a smile on everyone’s faces.” For bus enthusiasts, the news that a new bus will emerge from VW factories is met with some trepidation. As the Bus Junkies explain, “The general consensus is that they should bring the bus back, but that they will kill the original concept in some fashion in the process of trying. Unfortunately, part of the charm of the vintage buses is the connection you have to the road and the mechanics of the vehicle, including the manual transmission. It’s a visceral and fun experience to drive.” The I.D. Buzz is being billed as a “tablet on wheels,” according to VW engineers. The square steering wheel will recede into the dash when in autonomous drive mode, and engineers have achieved their long-held ambition of doing away with secondary switches and buttons by using a touch interface on the center console. The seating configuration is transformable and capable of seating eight. It will have a range of close to 300 miles from one charge and be powered by a “chocolate bar-like battery” that can be easily upgraded as technology evolves. No matter how the I.D. Buzz finally arrives on our streets, the boys from Bus Junkies see one huge advantage over the vehicle’s historic predecessor: “A self-driving mode might be just the thing for today’s recreational pot smokers!”

MEET THE NEW BUZZ—SAME AS THE OLD BUS?

I.D. BUZZ

1961 TYPE 2 BUS

The new I.D. Buzz was crafted in the spirit of the Volkswagen classic, but the similarities end there.

HORSEPOWER

MPG

MPH

SIZE

Has a 40 horsepower motor

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Reaches 0 to 60 mph in about 75 seconds, with a top speed of 60 mph

Car length: 177.4 in

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Can do 0 to 60 mph in about five seconds, with a restricted top speed of 99 mph

Car length: 194.6 in

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SCIENCE

A N N A B I S

E S T I N G

D O P E M AGA Z I N E .CO M

yan Treacy, founder and CEO of C4 Laboratories, knows there’s a problem in the cannabis industry when it comes to bridging cultivation, cannabis production and science. He also knows there are solutions. But before fixes and compromises can be made between companies like his and the cannabis manufacturers and producers in the world, he believes a trusting partnership must be formed. Without that, Treacy argues, the industry may stumble and, instead of landing in a ditch, may fall off a cliff. “We don’t intend to create undo concern,” he n o t e s . “ B u t we d o w a n t t o p ro t e c t o u r consumers and our industry.” Treacy’s Arizona-based company, founded in 2014, is a research and testing facility working to ensure the safety and potency of cannabis. “We want to be the guiding hand,” he asserts. “ The guiding light of science.” Treacy, who worked in corporate America for 15 years, hopes his organizational and management skills can translate to the burgeoning cannabis industry. “Cannabis changed my life,” he declares. “After a bad car accident left me with a severely injured left leg, cannabis allowed me to holistically take care of my pain.” W h i l e Tr e a c y h a s n o p r o b l e m w i t h recreational cannabis, in founding C4 he hopes to mend the gap between the manufacturing and scientific sides of the industry so that the plant can be grown, honed and protected specifically for medicinal purposes. “It gives me goose bumps to know we can play a role in that,” he reveals. But there’s been opposition, he tells me, which may come as no surprise, stating, “We’re going to have growing pains.” As legal cannabis is still in its infancy, producers are receiving mixed results from labs—some of whom, Treacy says, may not be as above board as C4. And other issues exist. For example, if Farmer A takes over Farm B and grows plants via proper measures, they still may, when tested, encounter problems; prior growers on that site may not have been compliant with their pesticides or growing methods, allowing for residual contamination from previous cultivators. As a result, the new farmer may lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. Given this possibility, Treacy says, it makes sense why producers wouldn’t want testing to be done on their crop without reasonable considerations as to what may be causing the issues. Who would want to face such losses? But, he adds, if the industry doesn’t take a hard look at itself, problems may pile up and the whole shebang could be at risk. C4, Treacy posits, is a means to better ends. “Cultivators have to know how they can continue to refine their craft while still meeting

E G U L A T I O N S C4 LABORATORIES AIMS TO SET THE STANDARD JAKE UITTI

SAMUEL VASQUEZ

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all the different compliance requirements of each state. Until we mend that gap, I think we’re stunting our ability to meet our full potential as an industry.” Another reason these problems exist, Treacy maintains, is because there are no universal (read: federal) standards for cannabis production, no universal limits for microbial elements, pesticides or potency levels in the plants. And, in his home state of Arizona, Treacy says, there are so few regulations for cannabis license holders that cultivators and producers are left to the “honor system.” Given that the cannabis industry is still in its infancy, producers are loath to add new hurdles to their workload. “There are pitfalls galore that cultivators and product producers face that quite often have significant financial impact,” Treacy acknowledges. “So, obviously, it’s not going to be very popular with them. So far the reaction has been pretty poor.” But, he wonders, “Should we not test? Of course we should!” If, say, a well-intentioned farm encounters problems due to, say, a former tenant and the new producers can “show and prove and provide data that poor cultivation practices are no longer being used, we do need to take that into consideration and allow people to have plans in place as opposed to cut their Achilles’ Heal. That’s being collaborative and flexible, which is what’s realistic.” Despite the myriad hang-ups, C4 Laboratories has begun to make headway. “After really holding on by a chin hair,” Treacy recalls, “reputable operators are coming around and are now our clients because they trust us. They can rely on our data and start making changes, optimizing their process and allowing the data and science to guide them. We’ve developed consumer confidence, and that happened because we stayed true to understanding our role.” Many in the cannabis industry maintain resistance to C4’s sciencebased tests for toxins or contaminants that could, the CEO recognizes, hurt those whose immune systems are weakest. While most of the cannabis products on the market are safe, Treacy notes, the industry shouldn’t ignore the real risks contamination poses to consumers. About 95 out of 100 (more like 99 out of 100) people that consume cannabis, he explains, have a strong enough immune system that normal and moderate microbial activity in their cannabis would not affect them—microbes exist everywhere in our day-to-day life, from our cell phones to the food we eat and just about everything we touch. But there are immune-compromised folks (like chemotherapy and HIV patients) who may suffer without mandated testing across the board. “There’s a rush to the trough of innovation,” Treacy says. “People want the newest product, the most innovative, most popular, best flavoring— and that’s well and good. But if we don’t consider everything about the plant and the means of production, we’re potentially providing unsafe products.” And if even one unsafe product is consumed, it could submarine the whole industry, Treacy warns. “Every state has some type of challenge when it comes to testing regulations and its methodology,” he affirms. “But we’re here to help. We want to ensure the best products hit the market for years and years to come.”

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PEOPLE WANT THE NEWEST PRODUCT, THE MOST INNOVATIVE, MOST POPULAR, BEST FLAVORING—AND THAT’S WELL AND GOOD. BUT IF WE DON’T CONSIDER EVERYTHING ABOUT THE PLANT AND THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION, WE’RE POTENTIALLY PROVIDING UNSAFE PRODUCTS. – RYAN TREACY, FOUNDER AND CEO OF C4 LABORATORIES

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C U LT U R E

THE HAWAIIAN CANNABIS EXPO JONAH TACOMA

JESSICA LARUE

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he warm island air hit me in the face as I stepped off the Boeing airliner and onto the jet bridge at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. It had been a rainy 40 degrees when the crew left Seattle, and we were all ready for some time in the sun. We were here to cover the third annual Hawaii Cannabis Expo, which would be kicking off the following day. I had been a part of the expo since its conception in 2015, recruited by a small group of Hawaiian cannabis entrepreneurs at a California High Times event and had instantly fallen in love with island culture. The cannabis community in Hawaii is a strong one, and cannabis has been flourishing on the islands for hundreds of years as a result. Cannabis itself was not of Hawaii, like almost everything on the islands; it was brought here by early settlers, flourishing in the warm humid weather of the South Pacific. Man came to the islands in 300 CE when a small group of Polynesians seeking religious freedom struck out for unknown waters, following the North Star some 2,000 miles by canoe before eventually discovering and colonizing the chain of eight islands now known as Hawaii. It was set up day and things were in full swing as we arrived at the Blaisdell Center, home to the Hawaii Cannabis Expo. This was the first attempt at a mainstream cannabis event in Hawaii, and the Blaisdell Center had been somewhat of a begrudging host for the last three years, though the relationship seemed to be warming.

I was surprised to see some familiar mainland brands among the locals. We stopped by Exotic Genetics on our way in, and their booth was plastered in Cannabis Cup awards of all shapes and sizes. “This is about half, we don’t have room to bring all of them anymore,” said owner/founder Mike Menigoz, motioning to their collection. Third generation California farmer and DNA Genetics co-founder “Crockett” was also on hand, and I started to get the feeling that next year’s Expo was going to be a lot bigger. While recreational use was still illegal, medical cannabis came to the state in 2000, granting licensed patients the right to grow, possess and consume marijuana on the islands. The general attitude towards cannabis on Oahu seemed to be shifting towards the positive, and the Expo was serving as a kind of temperature gauge. The first Cannabis Expo had not been without its challenges. The local police department maintained a visible presence throughout the event, while promoters juggled to meet the demands of the Blaisdell center, who seemed to be unsure of just what they had gotten themselves into.

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ONE IN SIX HAWAIIANS ARE LIVING UNDER THE POVERTY LINE, AND THAT NUMBER DOUBLES FOR NATIVES. HAWAII IS BECOMING TOO EXPENSIVE FOR THE HAWAIIANS TO LIVE THERE, AND THEY’RE LEAVING THE ISLANDS IN RECORD NUMBERS.

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tense, exacerbated over the years by the large American military presence and the never-ending stream of tourists, all seen as encroachments by many of the native-born Hawaiians. My personal experiences in Hawaii over the years couldn’t have been more positive. As members of the cannabis community, the doors were thrown open for us and we were welcomed as family by locals as hungry for the exchange of knowledge and friendship as we were. One in six Hawaiians are living under the poverty line, and that number doubles for natives. Hawaii is becoming too expensive for the Hawaiians to live there, and they’re leaving the islands in record numbers. According to the 2000 U.S. census there were more native Hawaiians living on the mainland than in Hawaii itself. Here, like on the mainland, cannabis represented economic mobility, a second chance for a people pushed to the edge of cultural extinction. As day three came to a close, an old industry friend stopped by the booth. “Ever seen a real Hawaiian grow?” he asked me. I shook my head no. While any medical patient could grow up to seven plants, large-scale grows are relatively unheard of on the islands. Flipping through his phone my eyes widened at the rows of hoop houses and lush plants surrounded by jungle. He looked at me, smiling. “What do you know about the Hawaiian sovereignty movement?” To be continued.... DABSTARS.COM @JONAH_TACOMA

We were almost arrested the second year for running a rosin press at our booth. The thing had cost us $400 to bring to the island, and people lined up all day long for a chance to squish their own buds. Halfway through the day we got a heads up that Vice would be paying us a visit, and we barely made it out of the building and into a waiting Uber as local PD piled in a side door. Halfway through the first day of year three and the difference was night and day. Blaisdell staff laughed with the vendors, sampling the wares and enjoying the event as much as the hundreds of tourists and locals filing through the exhibition hall. The police were nowhere to be seen and a smoking area had been roped off for visitors over 21. Life on the islands had not always been so peaceful, with each island maintaining strong religious and political identities until their violent unification in 1810, under the rule of King Kamehameha, establishing the sovereign Kingdom of Hawaii. Kamehameha’s monarchy would live on until January 17, 1893, when then ruling Queen Liliuokalani was ousted by a group of white missionary businessmen conspiring with the aid of U.S. military troops to overthrow the then-independent island nation. The coup was a success, and in 1898 Hawaii was officially declared a U.S. territory. A group of guys from Molokai walked by our booth. One wore a shirt reading “American By Force,” reminding me that not everything in paradise was as it seemed. Relations between the locals and off-islanders had always been a little

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