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After much research and speaking to many breast cancer survivors, here’s what I know about the relationship between medicinal cannabis and breast cancer -- nothing is definitive. The more stories I heard from breast cancer survivors about how well it worked for them, the more I became a believer. But the more research I did, the more confused I became -- leaving me at an impasse. In this issue, we profile three women who used medicinal cannabis to great success with regard to alleviating the pain, anxiety, insomnia and nausea associated with chemotherapy and radiation during their breast cancer treatment. All three would highly recommend using it for treating the side effects of chemotherapy. I don’t think there is any doubt medicinal cannabis offered immense relief to these individuals. However, my quandary is with the effect cannabis has on cancer itself. I found one recently published article that proclaimed ‘cannabis oil cures breast cancer.’ It stated: Researchers have discovered that cannabidiol (CBD) found in the cannabis plant has the ability to ‘switch off’ the gene responsible for metastasis in an aggressive form of breast cancer called triple negative. Just as quickly I came across another article that cautioned, “Cancers that involve estrogen, however, may actually spread in response to large amounts of THC.” So as much as I believe in the power of cannabis in alleviating pain and suffering, the use of cannabis to treat and cure medical conditions and diseases is very much in its infancy and a moving target. Furthering the problem, research and studies in the U.S. have been handcuffed because marijuana is a Schedule 1 drug. Due to the regulatory hurdles of being classified as a Schedule 1 drug, it’s difficult to study the effect of cannabis in patients which means there’s a scarceness of data to quantify the many claims about cannabis’s safety or medical efficacy. And research is critical to future generations of women because approximately 12 percent of women in the U.S. will develop invasive breast cancer during their lifetime, according to a June report from the American Cancer Society. So all of this leads me to my point -- just like any other medicine you take for a disease or condition, you must do your own research. Just as there are different kinds of breast cancer that each requires specialized types of treatment, there are various strains of medicinal cannabis that have varying makeups of healing properties. Medicinal cannabis is not one size fits all. You must consult physicians and experts to decide what will be optimal for your type of breast cancer, ensuing treatment and, most importantly, you.
With an open mind,
PRESIDENT I am about to make a curious statement for someone who helped start a medicinal cannabis magazine. I have never been a proponent of marijuana, medicinal or otherwise. Never, that is, until my good friend Tracy Dean, whose story is profiled on page 11 of this issue, started to treat the side effects of chemotherapy with medicinal cannabis. During her first few rounds of chemotherapy, Tracy took the traditional route using prescription pills to combat the pain and anxiety from her breast cancer treatment. It was sickening to see how badly the chemo affected her and even worse to see how poorly the prescription pills worked. She couldn’t eat, hold a coherent conversation or find any relief from the pain caused by chemotherapy. Then a friend encouraged Tracy to try medicinal cannabis. She finished the worst of her chemotherapy using cannabis and the difference was dramatic. During Tracy’s last two chemo rounds, I can remember her calling me at night, as she sat on her patio listening to the waves outside her ocean-side condo, and having full and lucid conversations with her. The difference was so profound that I started to reconsider my thoughts about marijuana. I do not know if there is any medical benefit to marijuana but I definitely do know that the relief cannabis offers is real. And I do know the pain relief and sleep aid that medicinal cannabis offers can’t be compared to any prescription drug sold in today’s marketplace. I became involved in the medicinal cannabis industry because I truly do believe in it. I believe it will bring a lot of relief to people who are suffering and hurting as a result of various conditions and diseases. It needs to be recognized by the federal government as a pain, anxiety and sleep aid for anyone with intolerable pain. I watched helplessly as both my grandmother and grandfather suffered agonizing pain at the end of their lives before passing away from cancer. More than two decades ago my grandfather, who was 6’3”, wasted away to 60 lbs. before dying. My grandmother passed away four years ago and was in a tremendous amount of pain and highly medicated at the end. I wish medicinal cannabis had been around and available to them to stimulate their appetites and help them to find relief from their pain. Beyond the medicinal benefits, I love the idea of being a pioneer in a new industry that is in its infancy. Like the Gold Rush or the Industrial Revolution before it, I wanted to get in on the ground floor of a burgeoning industry -- especially one that I actually, truly believe in versus chasing gold on the other side of the country with no idea what that meant. I actually know what this means and I am proud to be a pioneer in a field that has the potential to bring a lot of help to sick people who are suffering.
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elevatenv.com | october
CONTENTS 7 11 7 Cooking with Cannabis Caramel Spice Apples
9 Healing: the Power of Medicinal Cannabis Opening my eyes to better health
11 Hooked on Health Tracy Dean finds relief from pain using a holistic approach to battle breast cancer
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15 Pretty in Pink Get glam and give back in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October
17 “Crazy Girl” turned Cannabis Advocate Breast cancer survivor extols benefits of using medicinal cannabis during her treatment and recovery
20 A Little Bit of ME
17
Following her breast cancer treatment a decade ago, Melissa Etheridge has an awakening that sends her down the road less traveled
30 Legalease Go ahead and order pizza, but think twice before ordering cannabis
36 In Tribute Rock ‘n’ Roll Chef -- Kerry Simon
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g n i k o Co
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Cannab
CARAMEL SPICE APPLES
is
by Elevate Culinary Consultant chef Robert Teddy who is competing on Food Network’s “Halloween Wars” premiering Sunday, October 4 at 9 p.m. This gooey and exotic homemade caramel may take a little time, but it’s totally worth the effort and perfect for dipping crispy autumn apples into a delicious treat. (To watch chef Robert Teddy make this recipe and others, please visit elevatenv.com to check out his cooking videos.) INGREDIENTS Servings: 6 medium apples (or 12 mini apples) 6 medium or 12 mini apples 1 cup sugar 1 cup light corn syrup 1/4 cup water pinch of salt pinch of baking soda 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1 Tbsp ale reduction sauce from a bottle of pale ale 1/4 cup cannabis butter, in pieces 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream Optional: 2 cups chopped peanuts, cashews or pistachios Waxed paper Popsicle sticks
PREP: Wash and dry your apples then insert a wooden stick into the bottom of each and chill. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper and grease the paper. PALE ALE REDUCTION: Pour the bottle of pale ale into small saucepan and boil until it reduces to 1 1/2 Tbsp and darkens, but short of burning. Remove from heat and set aside. CARAMEL CREATION: In a large heavy saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup and water; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Stir in salt, baking soda, cinnamon, vanilla, and pale ale reduction. Stir in butter until melted; gradually add cream, stirring constantly. Cook and stir until a candy thermometer reads 242° (firm-ball stage). Remove from heat and cool to 200°. Optional: Place nuts in a shallow dish. Dip apples into caramel mixture until completely coated, then dip the bottom and sides of each in nuts. Return to baking sheet; chill and enjoy! Please remember that when cooking with medicinal cannabis you are cooking with a drug and the amounts of the drug and portions of the food ingested should always be taken into consideration. Always start out with small portions or doses and wait 30 minutes to an hour before eating any additional portions of food prepared with medical cannabis.
october | elevatenv.com
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HEALING THE POWER OF MEDICINAL CANNABIS
OPENING MY EYES TO BETTER HEALTH
F
or years I struggled with chronic headaches that caused sleepless nights, depression and hormone imbalances due to anxiety and stress caused by my job and a difficult family situation. Therapy, acupuncture, holistic, over-thecounter and prescription medications all helped control the pain and side effects but I was convinced there wasn’t a cure. I accepted that they were a part of my life. While on a vacation to one of those “high states,” my husband begged and pleaded with me to try marijuanainfused edibles. “No, no, no, no, no, no!” I adamantly resisted.
...over-the-counter and prescription medications all helped control the pain and side effects but I was convinced there wasn’t a cure. After growing up in a liberal town where pot was pretty accessible (even in the ’80s & ’90s) and going to college where pot was the only illegal drug to which I was ever exposed, I took great
By MJ Knight
pride in my “pot-free” status (even my parents claimed they had never tried it) and intended to keep it that way. That was until later that afternoon when the stress of travel, the altitude and the heat had coalesced into a debilitating headache. Headaches disrupting otherwise terrific experiences had become the rule, not the exception and I didn’t want to let it ruin this day too. So, with tears in my eyes, I asked my husband to take me to a dispensary -- I was willing to give it a try. He nearly cried, he was so relieved. My eyes were opened to an unexpected sight. Instead of a dark, smoked-filled room, the dispensary was clean, bright and organized. Nervously my husband told the well-dressed young man behind the counter about my anxiety-induced headaches and my trepidation of trying edibles. He was witty and kind, recommended the lowest dose edibles they offered (10 mg) and suggested that I start with just half (5 mg). But that was only the first step. It took nearly an hour for me to find the courage to actually eat the candy. Within 15 minutes my headache was gone—not dulled, not tolerable—GONE. Even better, I wasn’t acting like a wasted stoner as I had anticipated. I was a painfree, functional adult. There was still one
minor problem: I had to apologize to my husband for being so stubborn. More than a year later I still have headaches, but I manage them much better. They don’t interfere with my daily activities the way they had in the past. At the first sign, I eat half of a Gummy candy and within 15 minutes the pain is gone. More importantly, I can control the headaches early on and keep them at bay for days, even weeks at a time. (By the way, I even told my parents).
october | elevatenv.com 9
Hooked on Health Tracy Dean finds relief from pain using a holistic approach to battle breast cancer By Deanna Rilling
T
racy Dean has never been fond of conventional medicine. So when the 45-year-old was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago, the path to a plethora of pharmaceutical prescriptions was an inevitable future. Or was it? “I’ve always been pretty holistic, so it was very hard for me to trust the whole system, but I did,” she says. “I had to do six rounds of chemotherapy. I had an aggressive type of cancer called HER2/neu-positive. Basically what that means is it’s a small mass, but it grows at a very fast rate. Had it been found when I was 10 years younger
there would not have been a cure for it because the FDA didn’t approve a drug that I was able to get now called Herceptin.” For treatment and pain management, Dean says she was prescribed everything from antidepressants to Percocet, Oxycodone, Valium, Xanax and more. “I don’t want to call it like a factory, it’s just I don’t know how else to explain it. If you talk to 50 girls, we are all on the same things.”
october | elevatenv.com 11
...one of the very big positives about medicinal marijuana is I could function that next day and not be in a cloud.
That rote approach of taking pill after pill to treat the side effects of chemotherapy didn’t sit well with Dean. “Chemotherapy is like the worst hangover, the worst jet lag and the worst food poisoning all at the same time. And you have 18 bottles of prescriptions to try to mask all that stuff, on top of the poison that’s already in you! I knew chemotherapy was key to my treatment but the pill regimen -- I was a big fan of not doing that.” It was a friend from Colorado who suggested Dean try medicinal marijuana edibles, that come in the form of gummy candy, rather than use pharmaceuticals to deal with her pain and the effects of chemotherapy. Dean had tried cannabis recreationally many years ago but didn’t enjoy it. “I tried it, but wasn’t a fan. It burned my throat and I didn’t like that. So I knew there was no way I was going to smoke it. “It took me three weeks to get up the courage to take them [the gummies]. I was scared. It’s funny that I was more afraid of the holistic than the poison they were giving me. But I was constipated, I had had the mastectomy, I was doing chemotherapy -- everything hurt. I couldn’t eat, I had lost a lot of weight so I finally decided to try them. It was amazing! The candy would help me very much relax and go to sleep, take the edge off any kind of nausea.” In fact, the edibles were so relaxing that Dean had the tendency to forget about some of the challenges associated with breast cancer. “I remember when I first started eating edibles, watching an infomercial late one night about hot rollers and I thought I have to have those hot rollers. It wasn’t until I stood up to get my credit card that I passed a mirror and remembered I was bald now and couldn’t order hot rollers for hair that I didn’t even have,” Dean recalls with a hearty laugh. “I was so not in pain and relaxed and it was a great feeling. I remember thinking I love these things,” Dean says of the gummy edibles she used for six months during the worst of the chemotherapy. “I would wake up and not be groggy. It’s very hard when you are in a pain pill funk. That is one of the very big positives about medicinal marijuana is I could function that next day and not be in a cloud.” When Dean initially started her treatment, she opted for a unilateral mastectomy. But this past summer she made the personal choice not to expose herself to more risk and had a prophylactic mastectomy, in turn, dropping the return rate of her breast cancer to four percent. What have also dropped are the prescriptions thanks to a daily regimen of the cannabinoid CBD. “A very dear friend of mine is the owner of a company called CannaVest. He immediately sent me a very generous package of something called CBD, which I had never heard of before,” Dean explains. “Straight CBD feels like you have taken an Ibuprofren 800. It almost feels like an antiinflammatory. I take capsules to go to sleep at night and I have a spray I put under my tongue.
“I can go an entire day without feeling stoned. I already have chemo brain so I couldn’t be stoned with chemo brain, too,” she says, laughing. “[I use CBD] if I have pain and it takes away stress. I do things to get my body strong again like exercising and it takes away the soreness. “I can’t imagine that I didn’t have [CBD oil] from the beginning. Besides the medicine that I needed for treatment—not the additional medicine they prescribed—it got me through everything.” From CBD’s anti-inflammatory properties to battling pain, Dean has found relief from stress and anxiety-related insomnia as well. “Sleeping pills are pretty brutal because it’s hard to wake up the next day. I take about a 25mg capsule of CBD oil. I weigh about 120 pounds and it just takes that edge off,” she explains. “Ibuprofen 800s are extremely hard on the stomach, they’re not good for you. I’ve replaced them completely, and am not taking the Ibuprofen anymore. My last surgery was three weeks ago and besides the morphine button in the hospital, I went home and just used CBD!” Dean splits her time between Las Vegas and Laguna Beach, where she chose to be treated at UCLA and Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian. “I have a studio on the ocean in Laguna, so it was easier for me to heal here than Las Vegas because I didn’t drive a lot,” she says. To keep friends and family up-to-date on her recovery and progress, Dean started a Facebook page called ‘Team Tracy D.’ “I do as much as I can for the cancer world and I share my story and journey with as many people as I can help,” she explains. She’s also helping others with her Tracy Dean Skincare, which is 100 percent pure virgin coconut oil. Ten percent of proceeds are donated to cancer research. “As far as I am concerned I am good,” Dean says with regard to her prognosis. “Now I am an advocate for all of it. I just wish there was more education. I believe in [cannabis] so much and so many people haven’t heard of alternate treatments. Health insurance doesn’t pay for this stuff, and it just sucks. The fact that you can’t get it [cannabis] legally or that it’s not covered by your insurance, but you can get oxy for $4 -- that is very weird to me,” Dean says. “Ninety percent of oncologists will not even listen to anything holistic, anything to do with marijuana. I’m sure they will jump on the bandwagon as it gets popular, but the fact that it has to become popular to do what’s best for the patient, not the money-making field that they’re in, would be a blessing. “I’m hooked on trying to be as healthy as possible,” Dean relays. “My hair is growing back now. I swim, I paddleboard, I walk. I just try to live my life as healthy and calmly as I can. I have an addictive personality, so I love the benefits of CBD—I love the marijuana, too. The edibles were fantastic and amazing for cancer patients. I’d recommend it 1000 percent.”
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october | elevatenv.com 13
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october | elevatenv.com 15
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CR A Z Y GIRL TURNED CANNABIS ADVOCATE Breast cancer survivor Shellee Renee extols benefits of using medicinal cannabis during her treatment and recovery By Jocelyne Childs
Shellee Renee was one of the original, world-famous “Crazy Girls” who performed nightly to adoring audiences at the recently shuttered Riviera Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
“Back then I did a lot. I would be a spokes-model at conventions from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. then go to the showroom, take a little nap and then do three shows. I always did extra stuff -- acting, modeling, commercials, and movies.”
After showcasing her more statuesque assets from 1990 to 1996, Renee decided it was time to plan for a future without the “Crazy Girls” and earned a degree in Communication at the UNLV graduating in 2005.
october | elevatenv.com 17
Shellee Renee during her vaunted days as a Crazy Girl in the ’90s (left) and during her treatment for breast cancer (right).
“I was asked, ‘What would you do if you weren’t in the show?’ I would go to college and get a degree in public relations. I earned my B.A. of Communication. It’s one of the best things I’ve done with my life. I have no regrets about anything, but the degree has served me very well. It’s one of the things that I’m very proud of. I’m the first one of my family to graduate college.” Putting her degree to use, for the next seven years Renee concentrated on a career in public relations working for some of the city’s biggest communications companies including R&R Partners, MGM Resorts International and Charlie Palmer Group. Then life threw a curveball as it often does. A family illness caused her to rethink the trajectory of her life in Las Vegas. Her mother was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2008 and took two rounds of chemotherapy treatment, only to die of brain cancer in 2010. Renee went back home to the Pacific Northwest to be closer to her father and sister. “I was devastated by my mother’s passing from brain cancer so I moved from Las Vegas to Portland to reconnect with my remaining family in June of 2012,” Renee explains of re-shifting her priorities and ensuing decision to move back home. In a strange twist, right before she relocated her life to Portland, Renee
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elevatenv.com | october
discovered she, too, had cancer – for the second time. “I had everything packed up to move to Portland and I got the news two days before the move,” recalls Renee of her 2012 diagnosis. She had a lumpectomy in the same spot in 2009 but opted not to do any radiation or follow-up. “I was really in work mode,” she says of her first bout with breast cancer. “I had the lumpectomy and didn’t think it was necessary to devote the time to daily radiation treatments.” When her breast cancer came back in 2012 it was much larger. “It was two centimeters originally (2009) and when it came back a second time, it was about six centimeters. My reaction when I found out was: ‘what have I done?’ because I should have had the radiation the first time.” Renee continued to Portland and spent another month finding a doctor to perform the surgery. The cancer grew to ten centimeters and spread into her lymph nodes requiring a mastectomy and six months of chemotherapy, followed by six weeks of radiation. In September 2012 when Renee began chemotherapy she also began taking a regimen of pain and anti-nausea pills. The pills, however, did not work. To combat the joint pain and nausea she felt on a regular basis resulting from the
chemotherapy treatments, she turned to medicinal cannabis for relief. “Although I’ve never been a fan of smoking, I had heard that marijuana helps with nausea. With the first inhale, I immediately felt my nausea dissipating,” she explains of her decision to ease the side effects of chemotherapy with cannabis. “[The doctor] had given me antinausea medication and it wasn’t working. I was so nauseous that one of my neighbors said, ‘try smoking this – it will make you feel better.’ I noticed then that I went from feeling really sick to feeling really great. It surprised me, too, because I had smoked it recreationally in my teen years but I had no idea how effective it was for pain and nausea.” Growing up in the Pacific Northwest she was raised to lean more towards natural remedies for ailments and not immediately turn to prescriptions and over-the-counter medications so using medicinal cannabis was not that much of a stretch for Renee. “My grandparents raised all of our chickens and cows. We had a garden; we just did everything naturally. We went to the co-op and my family was into organic, basically homegrown everything -- I mean, I’ve plucked chickens.” Renee made a point to be up front with her doctors about the fact that
she was using marijuana to help with her pain and nausea. While medical marijuana was legal in Portland, they warned her against smoking of any kind because it would inhibit her healing. She then turned to cannabutter (cannabis-infused butter) to alleviate her suffering. She would spread cannabutter on her toast every morning to help lessen her nausea and discomfort. “When I was in Portland and since I didn’t really like to smoke, the medical cannabis grower gave me cannabutter to try. I would just get up in the morning put a little butter on my toast and it would be not so much like a high but your body would just feel good. I would walk around work for eight hours and be fine.” At the end of her radiation treatments Renee used cannabis as well because, “the radiation burns became more painful with each treatment.” Although Renee finished her cancer treatment in April 2013, she is in the process of breast reconstruction and so is, again, using
cannabutter as well as drops to help with the pain. “Drops I discovered when my mom was suffering with cancer, she had already gone through surgery and a full round of chemo, but the cancer came back, and she had to take another six-week treatment. I talked to a friend about my mother, telling them that she would not smoke anything. They said they could get drops from the dispensary. You just put 10-12 drops under your tongue, you don’t have to eat or smoke and it makes you feel better. It’s kind of the same thing as the butter; it doesn’t get you high, it just makes the body feel good. The drops have kind of an alcohol taste.” Renee is passionate about recommending medicinal cannabis
to others. “The side effects of chemo are absolute nausea where you feel like you could throw up at any minute. To be able to quell that in two puffs or two drops or with a pat of butter is amazing. It helps you mentally, with the anxiety that accompanies illness, as well. I do recommend it to people. Most definitely, I recommend it all the time.” However, not everyone is open-minded to the benefits of medicinal cannabis. Throughout her treatments Renee encountered a lot of naysayers. So many so that she is “fed up with the ‘stoner’ mentality” and the stereotype that accompanies marijuana users. “I believed that stereotype too, then I found from personal experience that cannabis has amazing medicinal properties that really help alleviate suffering.”
a little bit of
ME By Beth Schwartz
FOLLOWING HER BREAST CANCER TREATMENT A DECADE AGO, MELISSA ETHERIDGE HAS AN AWAKENING THAT SENDS HER DOWN THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED.
C
alling herself “the least active activist there is,” singer-songwriter-guitarist Melissa Etheridge continues finding herself at the forefront of social, political and ecological movements that run the spectrum of gay rights to saving the environment. “Believe me, I only wanted to be a rock star. I just wanted to be rich and famous, I didn’t want to do any of this,” Etheridge says with a laugh, “but it has become the path.” She continues, “I see myself as just somebody who is living life and making choices and speaking truthfully about them. And because I am on a public stage I answer truthfully about it and it gets magnified out there so it looks like I am quite an activist but I tell people I am the least active activist there is. I just speak truthfully about it and say, look, this is my truth.” Since rocketing to stardom as a result of her 1993 hit album Yes I Am which produced hit songs “Come to my Window,” “I’m the Only One” and “If I Wanted To,” Etheridge has had 20+ years to become familiar with a rocker’s mantra of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. However, the 54-year-old eschewed the usual rock star perils to find her high in music. So there’s a note of irony that the raspy-voiced
singer would now be speaking up for cannabis – making it her latest cause of choice. But really, it should come as no surprise that once again the anti-activist is on a mission with a personal story to tell -- one that begins with a diagnosis of breast cancer in October 2004. Etheridge turned to cannabis to combat the side effects of chemotherapy with “no hesitation whatsoever,” she explains of her treatment for breast cancer. “It was so clear to me. I wasn’t a regular cannabis user. I definitely enjoyed it. It was probably my choice of relaxation over drinking, but I wasn’t a consistent user. “Then when I was diagnosed and knew the treatment I was going to go through, my friends, especially David Crosby, said, ‘Melissa, anybody who has gone through this they say cannabis, just do it now.’ The doctor offered me five different kinds of pills for the side effects of the chemo and they would tell me about the side effects that the pills would have, and I was like are you kidding me? I said, ‘No, I will just take this one natural herb that will take care of everything.’” To combat pain and to stimulate her appetite, Etheridge first started medicating with cannabis by smoking it. “Then in the deepest depths of chemo, it got to the point where that was too harsh for me and I vaped it for a while. At the very end of the chemo, I would just have to ingest it. We would make a cannabutter and I would just put the butter on potatoes and eat that.” One of the main reasons Etheridge turned to cannabis was for anxiety relief. “There’s so much anxiety and panic in this treatment and it would take that down to where you could kind of start thinking on a different level. It’s hard to explain. It just helps you handle everything differently, it gets you in a calm space.”
october | elevatenv.com 21
It has been over 10 years since Etheridge had her bout with breast cancer but she continues to use cannabis. “It’s my relaxant of choice. At the end of it day, it helps me sleep. It still takes away my anxiety. I have a full career and four children and there’s a little bit of anxiety that comes with that,” she says with a small laugh. “It helps with that. I use different products. I use a rub for muscles. It’s just a big part of my life.” Such a big part of Etheridge’s life that she was keynote speaker at the 2nd Annual Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo (CWCBExpo) in mid-September, is part owner in a dispensary, and has created her own line of cannabis-infused wine called Know Label. In 2011 Grammyand Oscar-winning singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star. Etheridge is pictured with her children during a ceremony where she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“I was so moved and changed by my health experience and by cannabis that I actively went out and searched for what I could do,” the singer says of her ownership in a dispensary. “I am very vocal about this and I believe very greatly in it. I believe it’s the next frontier.” In the attempts to legitimize cannabis, Etheridge sees shades of past social causes she has fought to change. “I feel it is so similar to the LGBT marriage equality fight because there are so many cannabis users who are in the closet, who are afraid to say they are cannabis users because they will be stereotyped. There’s a stereotype that, ‘Oh you are stoner, you are a pothead,’ and people think you can’t do your job as well or whatever
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they bring to that thought. I tell people it’s about coming out of the closet, tell people about it, be proud of it, there’s pride in it, you are taking care of yourself, talk about it in your family, talk about it everywhere. Each of us needs to show that they are a cannabis user and their life is fine. That’s the way change comes is to get rid of fear.” True to her word, Etheridge practices what she preaches. She is very open with her children about her cannabis use. “The way we talk about it in this house, is this is medicine. My little daughter, I remember her asking a couple of years ago, ‘Do you smoke?’ I said, ‘I do not smoke cigarettes. Cigarettes are very different than the medicine that momma smokes.’ And we always refer to it as medicine.”
But educating people about cannabis’ medicinal value, Etheridge acknowledges, is going to have its share of challenges. “As my friend Steven Spielberg always said, ‘That in any movement there are the people who laid down on the barbwire so everything else can go over them.’ That’s kind of what we are. We are the front lines, we are the ones who are pushing this and taking the risks. And we will reap the rewards and we will win. That’s where we are going. That’s society, it’s a freedom, it’s an understanding, it’s a way of life that we had over 100 years ago and we will return to. But it’s not like going back, it’s moving forward with an understanding of this and how good it is for us.” Etheridge is not only passionate about a person’s right to use cannabis but in her belief of the plant’s natural remedies. “Cannabis is the head bird in the v, it’s the tip of the spear. In the new way, in the new age, in the new paradigm of health, we are finally beginning to understand that we are responsible for our own personal health. That starts with my body and the food I put into it and its maintenance. “Our circulation, our nervous system, our lymph system, all of the different systems in our body, our gastrointestinal system, they all work together and we give it all the best food and we use plant medicines for calming and lowering stress. You can do all these great things but if you are stressed, forget it you are just going to get sick. Stress is a big thing we just don’t look at in our American problem-solving consciousness life and so cannabis has been a big part of slowing me down to look at that.
“Our diseases are a result of what is going on inside us and cannabis helps us find and maintain that balance. Cannabis is helping us find that understanding that that’s how it works.” In fact Etheridge’s biggest health revelation has to do with her cancer treatment in 2004. “If I knew what I know now, I wouldn’t have done chemo or radiation. I might not have even done the surgery the way that I understand my body and cancer now. “I have a deep belief and call me crazy, call me names, whatever you wanna say, I believe very deeply that cancer is a symptom of a body out of balance and you can put that body back in balance and cancer is made to go away. A tumor is when our bodies realize that our cells have gone rogue, they have been in so much acid that they go bad and then our body covers them in a tumor so that we can see it and it says, ‘Hey, you better take care of this.’ If we get our bodies back into balance that tumor will go away and those cells will return. I have a deep belief in that. I have seen it. It takes a great discipline and a belief. But I think if there is someone who believes that says, ‘Yes, I can do this than they absolutely can do it.’ But shifting paradigms, whether healthrelated or otherwise, is nothing new to Etheridge, the accidental activist. “I am a gay person, I am married to a woman, and I have four children and we are living our life. I am a cannabis user, as my wife is, and this household is open to that, that’s our medicine, that’s our choice of relaxation in the evening. That’s our way of life. I love this country and that I have the freedom to do that.”
october | elevatenv.com 23
IN THE KNOW-LEDGE MELISSA ETHERIDGE INTRODUCES LINE OF THC-FREE CANNA-WINE Melissa Etheridge’s passion for the health benefits of cannabis inspired her to create her own line of cannabis-infused wine called Know Label. Although it sounds innovative, combining cannabis and wine is nothing new. According to Smithsonian.com, a personal wine cellar in a Canaanite palace in modern day northern Israel was discovered in 2013. Dating back to
1600 B.C., it’s the oldest cellar that has ever been found, with approximately 528 gallons of wine infused with cinnamon, honey, mint and psychotropic resins. “It’s an ancient art. They found wine casks from 2,000 years ago back in the days of Jesus that had cannabis and wine together. It just goes far back. Vineyards have been doing it on the side, without anyone knowing, forever,” explains Etheridge. Etheridge has joined forces with farmergrower-vintner Lisa Molyneux of Santa Cruz dispensary Greenway to make cannabis-infused wine or tincture. “We have been making cases and cases of it and storing it until we figured out how we were going to sell it. We just found out this last month we can actually do it on a large level and we are gearing up to present it on a mass level.” Because it contains no THC, Etheridge will be able to sell it as she would any wine. “It’s a cold extraction so there’s no THC in it, it’s just CBD. It’s like a Charlotte’s Web sort of thing and
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so I can actually sell it under any state law. It will be sold as a wine that is medicated in a sense. It’s not like an ingested medicine. It’s not like an edible, it’s a tincture,” explains Etheridge. “It is actually for people who enjoy wine and the effects of wine but you can have that relaxed feeling with one glass of this wine where you might need three glasses of another wine and you will not have a hangover. You will feel better, the medicinal part of it relaxes your nervous system and body without the THC high. So it’s actually a wonderful product for people who want sort of the stress relief without the euphoric high. It’s really good stuff.” Etheridge originally called her cannawine No Label for practical purposes. “When we were making the bottles we couldn’t afford labels so I said we are going to call it No Label wine. And we actually found out there is something else called No Label so now we are calling it Know Label,” Etheridge says noting the double entendre with a knowing smile.
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ELEVATE YOUR STATE
Medical cannabis updates from across the United States
COLORADO – For the first time in history, a state has generated more annual revenue from taxes imposed on marijuana than from taxes imposed on alcohol. According to the Colorado Department of Revenue, the state collected nearly $70 million in marijuana-specific taxes and just under $42 million in alcohol-specific taxes from July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015, the Marijuana Policy Project based in Washington, D.C., reported. Marijuana tax revenues jumped from $25 million in the first five months of 2014 to $44 million in the first five months of this year.
CALIFORNIA – In mid-September California lawmakers passed the state’s most significant medical-marijuana legislation in almost two decades. The legislation paves the way for a regulatory framework for the state’s multibilliondollar medical cannabis industry. The California Senate and Assembly voted to approve the historic Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, which will require licenses for cannabis dispensaries and create a new state agency, called the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation, to oversee the industry. Although California residents voted to approve medical marijuana in 1996, a regulatory plan has eluded policymakers until now. Legislators finally reached a compromise on three bills, which have been sent for final approval to Gov. Jerry Brown, who is expected to sign them into law.
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NEVADA – Euphoria Wellness, Clark County’s first legal medical cannabis dispensary, opened during the last week of August. Located at 7780 S. Jones Blvd., Euphoria received final state and county approvals to be the first dispensary to open its doors in Southern Nevada. During its first week, Euphoria had six strains available to patient cardholders: Kosher Kush, Strawberry Cough, Blue Dream, RKS, Cheese, and San Fernando Valley. Euphoria is not the first dispensary to open in Nevada. Silver State Relief, located in Sparks, Nevada, claimed that distinction, opening July 31st.
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NEW YORK – New York City’s first medical marijuana dispensary will open in January 2016. The dispensary located on 14th Street between Second and Third Avenues will be operated by Columbia Care, one of five companies awarded licenses by the state in July to open medical marijuana shops. The other four licensees include Bloomfield Industries, Empire State Health Solutions, Etain, and Pharmacannis. Each license allows for the operation of one manufacturing facility and four dispensaries, all of which must be based in New York State. New York’s medical marijuana laws only allow for liquid and oil preparations.
PADDLE, WALK AND GOLF FOR A CAUSE Calendar of events for Breast Cancer Awareness Month OCTOBER 10 The 7th annual Rose Regatta Dragon Boat Race & Festival is Saturday, October 10th at Lake Las Vegas where festivalgoers will have the chance to support their favorite dragon boat team. The Festival is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and offers attendees the chance to remember those who have been lost to or affected by breast cancer with rituals that include Flowers on the Water Memorial, Light the Way Lantern Tribute, and a Painted Paddles Gallery. The annual event raises funds for St. Rose Dominican’s
R.E.D. Rose program, which provides free clinical breast exams, mammograms, ultrasounds, surgical consultations and biopsies to women and men 49 and younger. For more information on the Rose Regatta, please call 702.616.4910.
OCTOBER 25 The Las Vegas Chapter of the American Cancer Society is holding its Making Strides of Las Vegas walk on Sunday, October 25 at Red Rock Casino Resort and Spa. Participants will walk in
honor of survivors and those who they have lost to breast cancer while raising funds for the American Cancer Society. The opening ceremony begins at 8 a.m. and the 3-mile noncompetitive walk begins at 8:30 a.m. Walkers can also visit the Survivor Tent where information about American Cancer Society’s programs and services will be available. To form a walk team for Making Strides of Las Vegas, please call 702.798.5938.
OCTOBER 29 Southern Highlands Golf Club is holding its Ladies
Pink Tee on Thursday, October 29th. The Pink Tee is an annual ladiesonly giggle golf and social event established to raise money for local breast cancer organizations in Southern Nevada. Presented by Southern Highlands Charitable Foundation and MJ Christensen Diamonds, participants dress in pink and kick off the day with a chipping and putting contest, 9-hole ‘Shoot for the Cure’ golf scramble and finish with shopping, cocktails and dinner. To sign up for Ladies Pink Tee, please call 702.220.6565.
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U.S. CONGRESSWOMAN DINA TITUS URGES PUFF, PUFF, PASS THE BILL
by Rio Lacanlale
With the medical marijuana industry budding in Nevada, Congresswoman Dina Titus of Nevada’s 1st District spoke in support of recreational marijuana use at a University of Nevada Las Vegas press conference in mid-September. “I haven’t really come out in favor for recreational or adult use of marijuana, but I think it’s something that the voters will decide here in Nevada,” said Titus of the Nevada Marijuana Legalization Initiative which will be on the ballot in November 2016. Last time Nevada voters got to decide was in 2000
when they voted to legalize medical marijuana use. In 2013, the state legislature passed an enacting statute to build the regulatory framework. In recent months, the valley has watched as many medical cannabis dispensaries have begun preparations to open their doors for the first time. “I think it will pass,” said Titus, who is part of a Congressional cannabis working group, of the 2016 ballot initiative. “If it does, again, I will be supportive of doctors, patients and businesses in the state.” Her continued support has induced her co-sponsorship
of a number of bills dealing with medical marijuana and marijuana rights. As a ranking member of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Committee, Titus co-sponsored the Veterans Equal Access Act. Introduced in February, this bill would allow the VA to educate veterans about the use of medical cannabis for pain treatment and post-traumatic stress disorder. In April, Titus announced the introduction of the Respect State Marijuana Laws Act to protect individuals and businesses from federal prosecution of drug crimes in
states where marijuana use, medical or recreational, is legal. On Nov. 8, 2016, the Nevada Marijuana Legalization Initiative will be on the ballot as an indirect initiated state statute. Upon voter approval, this measure would legalize the possession of one ounce or less of marijuana for recreational use and the taxation and regulation of marijuana for adults at least 21 years old. Titus believes legalizing recreational marijuana use in Nevada would boost the economy and be effective in achieving criminal justice reform. “I say, puff, puff, pass the bill,” said Titus.
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Delivery is Meant for Pizza not Cannabis By Amanda Connor
Across the nation, many individuals pick up the phone to order cannabis to be delivered to their home, just like when they order a pizza. However, a staggering number of those cannabis deliveries are illegal. In Nevada, patients have relied on and utilized delivery services to obtain their medicine for years. However, cannabis delivery services – places that only deliver – are illegal in Nevada. Only state licensed dispensaries, and only in limited situations, may deliver cannabis to patients. The distinction of who can legally deliver and what is an illegal delivery service may seem trivial, but it is of vital importance. If a patient utilizes an illegal delivery service, the patient is committing a crime. Law enforcement has been busting illegal delivery services and patients utilizing those services. Patients have been arrested and held due to use of illegal delivery services. Therefore, let’s break down what is allowed under Nevada law. If you visited well-known cannabis websites such as Weedmaps.com or Leafly. com today you would see that anywhere from 15 to over 20 “delivery-only” dispensaries are listed as serving patients in the Las Vegas area. Some of these places even claim to serve out-of-state patients. Some of the “delivery-only” places have professional looking websites leading a patient to believe they are legitimate. Much as if I were utilizing a coupon on Dominos.com, I could utilize the “Deal of the Day” coupon at Weedmaps.com to receive 2 grams of top-shelf flower for only $30 at one shop. Even a simple Google search tends to suggest delivery-only shops are legitimate. I can do a Google search for pizza delivery and am led to places like Dominos or Pizza Hut and when I Google cannabis delivery I get listings for Weedmaps, Leafly and Where’s Weed. Therefore, many innocent patients believe these to be legitimate businesses. The issue is that the websites that list these delivery-only services take no responsibility for the illegal action they are facilitating. Yes, they are aware that delivery-only
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is illegal in Nevada but they continue to list them. Therefore, patients unknowingly utilize these services. To be clear – the only place to legally obtain medicine in the State of Nevada is to purchase it from a state licensed dispensary or to grow it in your own home. So how would a patient be able to tell if a business is a state licensed facility or an illegal delivery service? First, look for the state license. State licensed dispensaries are required to have their license hanging in the waiting area of the dispensary. Second, look at the website listings. A listing that advertises “delivery-only” is not a state licensed facility as the state licensed facilities are required to have a brick and mortar facility to service patients. Third, ask to see an employee’s state issued agent registration card. If an employee is working in a state licensed facility, even on a delivery to a patient, they will have an agent registration card issued from the State of Nevada that permits them to work in a state licensed facility. Tonight when you pick up the phone, do not hesitate to order a pizza for delivery. However, if cannabis delivery is what you need, be cautious. Locate a state licensed dispensary and see if they are able to deliver to you. A call to a cannabis delivery service could very well lead to you calling someone to post your bail.
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PROFILE
Evergreen Organix Cultivates Homemade Taste Into Every Edible They Make
With a product line that runs the gamut from chocolate squares, French-made macaroons and double chocolate brownies to cranberry oatmeal cookies, Gummy candy, and vegan sugar-free GMO bars, Evergreen Organix Cultivation and Production is the Willy Wonka of Nevada’s medicinal cannabis space. But Evergreen Organix Cultivation and Production is offering much more than just the tastiest edibles in the marketplace. They are doing it in one of the most sterile environments in the industry. “We are trying to set a standard of quality and cleanliness that will translate into safety for the patients,” explains Kurt Barrick, master grower for Evergreen Organix Cultivation and Production. That strict adherence to safety translates into Evergreen Organix cultivation employees showering upon their arrival to the facility and then donning a decontamination uniform. Should an employee leave, they will have to go through the cleaning process again upon their return.
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“We put them in a quarantine type of situation before they are even allowed to come out on the floor so it’s a very, very extremely clean product,” explains Barrick. “You go to Washington, Colorado, California, Oregon, and Arizona and they are buying product that’s been grown outdoors or is from greenhouses so the difference with Evergreen is we produce our own product. The cleaner the product we start with the better the quality and cleanliness of the product you end up with especially on the extraction side. Everything is cleaned, controlled and sterile which is very critical to the end product.” The secondary benefit of such a controlled environment is a lot of pesticides don’t have to be applied. “We don’t even have to apply organic pesticides or fungicides. We run a sterilefree zone and we don’t spray our plants. The anti-microbial, sterilization and cleaning we do helps us to reduce any pesticide and fungicide use,” says Barrick. Evergreen also doesn’t use preservatives in its product. “One of the keys to keeping the product fresh is
elevatenv.com | industry connect
we use a blast freeze that retains all the taste and allows us to hold the product longer,” says Barrick. Equally important to Evergreen’s line of edibles is taste. The company has hired three chefs who each possess their own distinctive set of skills for creating edibles in Evergreen’s 4,000-squarefoot kitchen. One specializes in French pastries, another is skilled in crafting sugar-, gluten-, and GMO-free confections, and the third has a medical background and will produce vegan, gluten- and GMO-free masterpieces. “We did lots of taste tests with each chef to make sure we were confidant in the product they could make. The infusion isn’t really difficult -- that’s the really easy part,” explains Barrick. “The more complicated part is getting that homemade taste into the edibles, which is really important to us and the product we are creating.”
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PROFILE
Zem Media Offers Dispensaries Control of Guest Experience
One of the biggest challenges dispensaries will face is managing an ever-changing supply of medicinal cannabis strains. More challenging yet, will be keeping patients up-to-date with what strains are available at the dispensary and the various conditions and diseases they treat. Digital signage is an effective option dispensaries are using to display inventory while saving on paper costs to maintain an environmentally friendly approach. “Our digital signage product is user friendly, scalable and gives our customers everything they need to take control of their digital marketing to enhance the guest experience at their dispensary,” explains Bill Connell, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, of digital media signage company Zem Media. “At the heart of the system is how easy it is to make changes to the signage on a daily basis. Each client has their own portal, a content management system, on our server that can be accessed through any internet connection. No special workstation is required to manage your signs. It puts the owners
in full control of their medium,” says Bill of the electric signs. Zem Media is currently working with 14 Las Vegas-based dispensaries on their signage needs. Using Zemplates, which are preset formats of signs in varying configurations and sizes, the dispensary is able to create signage unique for their establishment. The digital marketing company has numerous Zemplates available for their dispensary customers to choose from based on their needs and wants. Additionally, custom Zemplates can be created. Programming Zem Media digital signage is simple -- clients just upload, drag, drop, and display. Changing the signage is easy too. Zem Media clients can go into their system and change a product’s price with the click of a button and upload the change simultaneously to one screen or 1,000.
says Bill. “We just implemented signage at one dispensary that had 10 screens with a different message on each one and they were all constantly changing.” The overall experience for the dispensary patient is further enhanced by Zem Media’s digital signage as the perceived wait time (the time a person believes they are waiting in line) is typically reduced by 40 to 60 percent. Bill further describes the ancillary benefits the signs have for the dispensary patients, explaining that “our signs can educate customers before they get in the purchase room so they know what particular strain can affect which particular illness. It’s almost like having extra employees by reducing the amount of questions the customer has to ask the employees about what each strain does.” Bill sums it up, “The better the patient is educated, the better the experience.”
Dispensaries can also stream video and play You Tube videos on Zem Media’s digital signage. “They can stream as many videos as they want. Their imagination is their limitation,”
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Sugar Mill Studios’ Hector Leyva has his lens focused on leaders of the cannabis industry
A sampling of Leyva’s photography portfolio.
Photographer Hector Leyva, owner of Sugar Mill Studios, can relate to the freshly minted founders of Nevada’s medicinal marijuana establishments (MMEs). He, too, left a good corporate job to follow a dream that had its risks. “I quit a corporate job and was done with corporate life. I wanted to figure out what I wanted to do and I did,” says Leyva of making a career change to become a professional photographer. Leyva’s career transition came as a result of his hobby building lowrider cars. “My cars always got featured in magazines like Lowrider and so they were photographed a lot. One of my friends, and now a mentor, Saul Vargas, showed me a picture he took of one of my cars then he made me move my car a half-foot and it changed the shot like night and day. I thought to myself, I need to learn how to do that because
look how something so minimal made such a huge difference.”
I am scheduled to do a model in a little bit, and tomorrow morning is a baby.”
A professional photographer for the last six years, Leyva started dabbling and “one thing led to another and next thing I know people are paying me to take pictures. My first paying gig was a family portrait,” explains Leyva. “I really love to photograph people but rarely do they like getting their picture taken. They don’t really look forward to it. Especially guys, they are the worst. I am really good with babies and kids, they are a big part of my work. You gotta be able to have that interaction with people that makes them feel comfortable.”
The Los Angeles native has also worked in the medicinal marijuana industry taking food shots for The Happy Chef THC’s cookbook as well as doing work for Travel Joint, a few labs, and product shots of medicinal marijuana. But it’s the people behind the industry he is most excited to photograph.
Leyva’s subjects are diverse -- shooting everything from real estate to medicinal marijuana. “I do a lot of automotive photography,” says Leyva, though noting that “the diversity of my pictures is what I love. Today was real estate,
“It’s the leaders, the doctors, the people behind the scenes -- that’s who I would like to capture. The normal, everyday professionals who are starting these businesses and are at the forefront of the movement are the most fascinating to me.”
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IN TRIBUTE TO ROCK ‘N’ ROLL CHEF
KERRY SIMON 1955 – 2015
Photography by Denise Truscello
Las Vegas lost one of its most celebrated luminaries last month with the passing of rock ‘n’ roll chef Kerry Simon. Exalted by foodies of varying palates -- from five-star dining connoisseurs to junk food lovers -- Kerry brought many a much ballyhooed culinary twist to a city that loved him as much as he did it. Who else could, in one fell swoop, redeem cotton candy from its lowrent position as a circus side show along with convenience store staples Rice Crispy treats and Ding Dongs into an indulgent platter fit for whitetablecloth dining? The same kind-spirited soul who pioneered so many innovations on the culinary landscape also steered our attention to, and familiarized us with, Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) upon his diagnosis. In turn, we had a front seat to Kerry’s courageous battle as he used his celebrity status to fundraise and draw attention to the obscure neurological disorder. His efforts led to a Global MSA Research Roadmap Conference which was held at the city’s Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health/Cleveland Clinic last November. It was through Kerry’s influence that key medical leaders from four continents, 12 countries, 30 academic institutions, and 15 pharmaceutical companies came to Las Vegas to share MSA research. He also shared the story of his experience with MSA in the inaugural issue of this magazine earlier this year, of which, we will be eternally grateful. Even though Kerry is gone, the work he began continues. His advocacy and fundraising efforts created a clinic dedicated to MSA at the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health which is focused on the continued study of the disease while also providing treatment for MSA sufferers. Later this month, the Keep Memory Alive Center at Downtown’s Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health will host a celebration of Kerry’s life. The private event will feature celebrity chefs making Kerry’s most well-loved dishes, pajama-clad servers in ode to his popular brunch at Simon, and bands playing his favorite music -- a bash truly befitting of a rock ‘n’ roll chef. To support MSA research, visit keepmemoryalive.org.
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EVERGREEN ORGANIX CULTIVATES HOMEMADE TASTE
into every
EDIBLE THEY MAKE