Metro Times User's Guide, Summer 2022 by Chava Communications

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Publisher Chris Keating Associate Publisher Jim Cohen EDITORIAL Editor in Chief Lee DeVito Digital Content Editor Alex Washington Investigative Reporter Steve Neavling Staff Writer Randiah Camille Green ADVERTISING Associate Publisher Jim Cohen Regional Sales Director Danielle Smith-Elliott Multimedia Account Executive Jessica Frey Account Manager, Classifieds Josh Cohen BUSINESS/OPERATIONS Business Support Specialist Josh Cohen Controller Kristy Dotson CREATIVE SERVICES Creative Director Haimanti Germain Art Director Evan Sult Production Manager Sean Bieri Graphic Designer Aspen Smit CIRCULATION Circulation Manager Annie O’Brien

Contents: What to expect when you’re expecting weed............6 Are celebrity weed brands better than regular weed? ..............16 Strange magic.............24 How a psilocybin retreat helped me find the divine and my true self

Too much weed? ........34 An abundance of growers and plummeting marijuana prices are smoking out small cannabis businesses

Directory.......................38

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What to expect when you’re expecting weed Here are things you should know before your first trip to a cannabis dispensary By Alex Washington GOING TO THE DISPENSARY for the first time can be both overwhelming and incredibly intimidating. We’ve traded the days of meeting someone in a parking lot for a quick dime bag for tech-savvy budtenders in showrooms so well-lit that they can make the Apple Store look dim. Once the initial shock of being in the shiny new retail space wears off, you’re often left standing unsure of what to do next. That’s what happened to me during my first dispensary visit. Here are some things I wish I knew before I went into a shop on my own.

Research the dispensary before you go All dispensaries are not created equally. Some dispensaries are for medical marijuana patients only (with a valid state-licensed medical card), some are recreational (open to adults 21 and older with a valid ID), and some offer both. Shopping for cannabis through a dispensary is a lot like shopping around for a new car — you want the best quality and the best price. Recreational

dispensaries that offer curbside pick-up tend to keep their website inventory updated with all the products that are currently available in store. This means that the options are constantly changing, but give you a clear idea of what type of products are in stock and what their descriptions are.

Have your ID ready In Michigan, you have to be 21 to purchase smoking products, whether tobacco or cannabis. Most dispensaries are not only checking your ID, they are also adding you to their customer database. Your legal name, address, and telephone number are now a part of their system and they might go the extra step of scanning your driver’s license or state ID.

Bring cash Something that isn’t discussed often is the need to carry cash, due to difficulties with banking because of the federal prohibition of cannabis. While some dispensaries do accept cards as a form of payment (and might charge you a fee to do so), many will prefer that you play in cold, hard cash. If you forget the bucks, don’t worry, many dispensaries have ATMs conveniently located in the lobby.

Security might be friendly, but they’re there for a reason The first person you see when you walk into a dispensary isn’t going to be the friendly receptionist or budtender, it’s likely going to be a security guard (or two). This might be strange to some, but when you think of what you’re doing and the type of store they’re securing it makes all the sense.

Budtenders know their shit You are not expected to know everything about cannabis when you walk into a dispensary — that’s the budtender’s job. While shopping for weed might be intimidating, it’s easy to forget the staff are true

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professionals. They are there to do more than ring up your order, it’s their job to make sure your cannabis buying experience is a pleasant one, and it’s OK to trust them and ask their opinion. More often than not, if you express what you’re looking for to a budtender, they will gleefully tell you their favorite products, inquire more about your needs, and offer an abundance of suggestions for you.

Sign up for the rewards Many dispensaries offer deals or discounts to first time customers and a rewards program for returning clients. Some even offer special deals and pricing like a happy hour, or discounts for students. Not only is it an easy way to track your purchases, signing up for rewards programs and text alerts keeps you in the loop for when new products are released, favorite strains return, and when weekly flash sales drop.

Terms to be familiar with before you buy Sativa: If you’re looking for a boost of energy, sativa is the cannabis type for you. Sativa tends to have a higher THC than its relative plant Indica. This is a great plant for people who are looking for a stimulant, something that helps them focus, makes them feel happier, and can help ease depression. A sativa leaf is taller, thinner, and lighter than an indica leaf. Indica: This dark green cannabis plant is best taken at night or when you’re looking to unwind. Indica is known for its relaxing properties, great for people who might be suffering from anxiety, muscle pain, and

Cannabinoid: Cannabinoids are a chemical compound found in marijuana that have an effect on your body’s endocannabinoid system (found in the central nervous system). The two cannabinoids commonly found in marijuana are tetrahydracannabinol (THC), which causes a high, and cannabidiol (CBD), which does not cause a high but is touted for other health benefits like pain relief. Since it doesn’t get you high, you can find CBD products for sale at a variety of stores that aren’t dispensaries. When used together, THC and CBD can have what is called the “entourage effect,” which enhances the properties of both. You can find products that mix THC and CBD and many dispensaries.

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insomnia. An indica leaf is shorter, wider, and darker than a sativa leaf. Hybrid: It is exactly what you think it is, a combination of both sativa and indica strains. Hybrids are unique in that they can be grown to have a dominant strain which means that while you feel the effects of both strains, you might feel the edge of one a little bit more. They can have both relaxing and stimulating effects and be cultivated to be suited for specific needs. Terpenes: If you’ve ever opened a bag of cannabis and said “wow, that’s funky,” you have encountered terpenes. In the simplest terms, terpene is the compound that gives a plant its aroma and flavor, whether sweet, woodsy, or other. A non-cannabis example of terpene would be the sweet herb scent of mint that comes from the terpene ocimene. Cannabinoid: Cannabinoids are a chemical compound found in marijuana that have an effect on your body’s endocannabinoid system (found in the central nervous system). The two cannabinoids commonly found in marijuana are tetrahydracannabinol (THC), which causes a high, and cannabidiol (CBD), which does not cause a high but is touted for other health benefits like pain relief. Since it doesn’t get you high, you can find CBD products for sale at a variety of stores that aren’t dispensaries. When used together, THC and CBD can have what is called the “entourage effect,” which enhances the properties of both. You can find products that mix THC and CBD and many dispensaries.

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Are celebrity weed brands better than regular weed? We tried six strains to find out By Randiah Camille Green IT SEEMS LIKE every time we open our internet browser (which is often) there’s another celebrity dropping a branded cannabis strain. Some of them are straight up licensing deals to slap a familiar name on a product, while others are true partnerships between the famous person and a trusted cannabis company. We aren’t knocking either, because we’re down to try any and all weed. OK, maybe not any, because we’ve definitely had bad experiences smoking an anonymous joint making its way through the lawn at Pine Knob, but that’s beside the point. The point is that we tried a few of these celebrity weed strains to see if the hype was warranted. With a plethora to choose from in Michigan, we settled on The 8th by White Boy Rick, Detroit rappers Blade Icewood and Southwest T’s strains, and Khalifa Kush (it should be obvious who’s behind that one).

for unfair prison sentences and abuse of power during the so-called “War on Drugs.” Weed was legal in Michigan upon Wershe’s release, so he started his cannabis brand The 8th in collaboration with Pleasantrees as a sort of “fuck you” to the federal government. The 8th is a play on words and nod to both a unit of measurement for weed and the 8th Amendment, which outlaws excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment. The amendment is even written on The 8th’s packaging. The 8th comes in a couple of different strains, which Pleasantrees chief legal officer Benjamin Sobczak tells us were pre-existing from the brand’s genetic library. Wershe chose to partner with Pleasantrees due to the brand’s commitment to social equity issues in the cannabis industry, and he worked hand-in-hand with their cultivation team to curate the right selection. SinMint Cookies: Wershe ain’t playing with y’all on this one. At 30% THC, SinMint Cookies is an Indica strain that will leave you incapacitated. We weren’t ready to be knocked on our asses when we smoked this, and honestly felt it was a bit harsh. This is best suited for experienced weed heads only, otherwise, just a few modest hits will leave

The 8th by White Boy Rick Time is money. No one knows this better than Rick Wershe Jr. (aka White Boy Rick), who spent nearly 30 years in prison for cocaine possession after the FBI used him as a drug informant when he was only 14, the youngest FBI drug informant in history. He’s not a celebrity in the sense that he makes art or music, but he’s the poster child 16 | metrotimes.com | METRO TIMES 2022 USER'S GUIDE

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you blazed and glaze-eyed. The buds glisten with trichome crystals and have a pleasant, citrusy aroma. Motown Funk: Motown Funk is much more gentle, with only 20% THC. We got this Indica strain in a handy set of five prerolls that feels like a hard plastic case of cigarettes. When you pop it open, you’ll notice the slogan “time is money” on the inside, which feels pretty cheeky. In stark contrast to SinMint Cookies, Motown Funk gave us the relaxed high we were after. It’s a nice one to chill out after a long work day and it made us ready to sink into the couch for a Netflix binge. But about 30 minutes later, we were feeling oddly upbeat and ready to wash the dishes.

Southwest T In comes another BMF — Detroit rapper Southwest T of 263. Beyond having a STARZ TV show produced by 50 Cent inspired by him and his brother Big Meech (the show is called BMF), Southwest T has released four marijuana series through HYMAN Cannabis. Each series has its own tagline and includes several strains. There’s Black Magic (“walk by faith, not by sight”), Loyalty (“let no man separate what we create”), Death B4 Dishonor (“after us, there will be none”), and The Code (“I did it for y’all”). Unlike White Boy Rick’s The 8th, Southwest T’s weed didn’t come from pre-existing strains. HYMAN used pheno-hunting to develop them exclusively for the Detroit rapper. Pheno-hunting is a process of creating new strains through seeds (phenotypes) from a female cannabis plant that are created after it’s bred with a male plant. “For each collaboration that we do, we never tie an existing strain to their name,” HYMAN Cannabis director of public relations Ryli Kant tells us. “Our head cultivators work with farmers within the

industry to source the best plants, get seeds from various different strains and then grow several different crops from that seed. We went through that process for each drop to see what strain fits what they’re looking for.” The pheno-hunting process can take several months to over a year. Southwest T’s Death B4 Dishonor line was released just days before the premier of BMF’s first season in 2021. This year the rapper and HYMAN partnered together once again to drop “The Code” to coincide with the show’s second season. The Code: This Sativa strain took a while to kick in and we didn’t even realize we were high until about 40 minutes later when we got the insatiable urge to reach for every crunchy snack on top of the fridge. Though Hyman describes it as “creative, energizing, and happy,” we could feel our eyelids getting heavy after a few puffs. We did feel suspiciously talkative, though. None of Southwest T’s strains felt particularly strong for us, which is a good thing. Black Magic: Black Magic had a slightly spicy and earthy taste that hit real smooth. The high was very gradual and laid back. One unpleasant thing we noticed was some

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serious cottonmouth after smoking it. This isn’t completely uncommon, but we didn’t experience this with any of the others we tested, and feeling like your throat is closing in on itself is not fun!

Lil’ Blade After hitting the Blade dance, it’s time to hit the Blade weed. Or maybe you hit the weed first and then dance. Either way, the late Detroit icon Blade Icewood’s son Lil’ Blade is honoring his father’s legacy with this strain, which was also released through HYMAN. Icewood Rose Gold: Rose Gold is a hybrid with a fruity flavor and slightly tropical aroma. It’s supposed to have around 28% THC, but it didn’t seem that strong. It left us feeling upbeat and ready to dance, which made for a good night out. We got Rose Gold in a preroll, which was surprisingly fat and included a glass tip. Unfortunately, the tip broke off, giving us a mouth full of bud. (That’s probably our fault for taking it out of its protective glass tube and stashing it in a bra to sneak inside a concert.)

Wiz Khalifa Kush Last but not least is Wiz Khalifa’s Khalifa Kush, which entered the Michigan scene

in June through a partnership with Gage Cannabis. Khalifa Kush: The “Black and Yellow” rapper’s weed is described as a “potent, all-day Indica Dominant Hybrid OG with a classic terpene profile,” on Gage’s social media accounts. By “all-day” we can only surmise that they mean you have to keep smoking it all day to keep your high, because we found it wears off quick. Smoking it on a camping trip, we felt at one with nature as we settled into a hammock to read a book, but the high didn’t last that long and we were lighting up again soon after. We could see the “Wiz Kid” smoking Khalifa Kush in between recording songs on a full day at the studio. Khalifa Kush is only available at Gage Cannabis locations. So is celebrity branded weed somehow superior to regular weed? From our smoke test, not really. That doesn’t mean it’s not good. We thoroughly enjoyed White Boy Rick’s Motown Funk and Icewood Rose Gold, which was probably our favorite. But instead of choosing our weed based solely on the name attached to it, we’ll stick with the desired effect and THC content strategy, like usual.

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How a psilocybin retreat helped me find the divine and my true self By Randiah Camille Green “RANDIAH,” THE SPIRITUAL healer called to me in the darkness. “Come with me. I want you to meet God.” I raised my eyebrows so high it felt like they would detach from my forehead. My face couldn’t seem to figure out how to express the excitement, skepticism, and curiosity simultaneously running through my mind. I followed the healer, Princella, to a glass door. The curvy, brown-skinned woman with a messy bun of locs stood in front of it, peering outside into the night. With an arm embracing me, she pointed at the sliding doors and asked, “What do you see?” Standing there, reflected in the dark and slightly obscured by the rain-spattered glass, I saw myself. Now, I’m not here to tell you that I’m God in a religious sense. I am here to share the story of my first journey with the natural medicine psilocybin, also known as magic mushrooms. And I’m here to try to explain how I was able to release trauma on the way to realizing my true self. Last March, I joined a three-day plant medicine retreat hosted in Detroit by three spiritual healers: medicine woman and celebrity chef at B*tch I’m Vegan Princella “Vizion” Zeno, yoga and meditation teacher Lisa Hillary Johnson, and certified plant medicine practitioner Amanda Elise. Psilocybin mushrooms have been used to

connect with the Earth, the divine, and other realms of consciousness since early humanity. Ancient civilizations in Central America, mainly the Mayans and Aztecs, have use documented as far back as 1,500 BCE. Now it’s 2022, and entheogenic fungi and plants — including psilocybin, ayahuasca, peyote, dimethyltryptamine (aka DMT), and mescaline — have been decriminalized in cities across the country, including Ann Arbor Detroit. Activist groups Decriminalize Nature and Students for Sensible Drug Policy have filed a ballot initiative to legalize the possession and adult use of these plants across Michigan, aiming to bring the issue to voters in 2024. I joined the retreat hoping for answers to my very human problems — how to start a relationship with my absent father at 31 years old and whether or not to end things with my romantic partner at the time — but the medicine showed me something far deeper. No part of this story has been fabricated, and the re-telling of the journey is to the best of my memory.

Day 1 My stomach grumbled as I drove up the winding road toward the Airbnb where the retreat was to take place on a Friday evening. We had all been asked to do a threeday fast of only grapes and water prior to the retreat, and I was starving. Participants began to arrive and congregate around the dining room table, asking who was a first-timer, who wasn’t, and fielding awkward getting-to-know-you questions. Princella’s husband Zeno came and sat down next to me. “Randiah, I’ve heard so much about you,” he said. “I heard that you’re going to be writing about the retreat. How did that come about?” “To be honest, I feel like it just sort of appeared to me,” I replied. “That’s how my

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life goes. The universe puts whatever I need in front of me at the appropriate time, and I just run with it. Also, Instagram.” He felt like such a kind and welcoming presence. All of them did. When I finally met Princella, Lisa, and Amanda in person after corresponding through email and Zoom for a month, I felt like I had known them my entire life. Like there was a mutual understanding of what was about to take place. Like our souls recognized each other, and there was nothing but love. When it was time for the ceremony to begin, we gathered in our all-white attire in an open dining room with yoga mats on the floor where we would lay for a meditation. Before ingesting any medicine, however, we wrote our intentions on white glass candles, lit them, and placed them on the mantle. They would remain there for the duration of the weekend. We began by receiving hapé, a medicinal herb powder traditionally used by Amazonian tribes in rituals and rites of passage. The powder is stuffed in the end of a wooden pipe, which is placed underneath

From left: Princella Zeno, Lisa Hillary Johnson, and Amanda Elise.

the nostril. The person administering the hapé — typically a shaman, but in this case Amanda — blows at the other end, sending the powder up your nose. It’s then repeated on the other nostril. As soon as Amanda blew into the pipe it was like fire traveling up to my brain. It writhed through my nose into my skull, flames licking wildly to reach around my mind, grabbing it like a malevolent hand and squeezing. I let the fire spread down the back of my neck as she blew into the other nostril. You have two options when confronted with such discomfort — react or sit and feel. I chose to sit with it, allowing the sensation to come and pass eventually, as all things do. Next the ritual of psilocybin began. We each plucked a hair from our head and mixed it with sacred tobacco in a bowl, committing ourselves to receiving the wisdom beheld by the plant medicine. We gave thanks to the Earth, to the ancient

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technology that we were about to receive in our physical vessels. I downed the concoction of five grams of mushrooms, lemon juice, and water, and it was awful. The sour lemon combined with the mushroom’s earthiness was enough to make me gag, but I forced it down. Afterward, we laid on the floor for a sound meditation led by Lisa to take us into the deeper realms of consciousness. Immediately, when I closed my eyes, I felt like I was floating through space, traveling to other dimensions and timelines. I saw a reality in which my then-partner and I got married and had children. I saw another reality in which we broke up. Somehow they both existed simultaneously. Everything exists, a voice spoke within me. Everything is real. Everyone is you. All realities are true. As I flew through constellations, bouncing from stars and planets, I felt all the energy in the cosmos. We all come from the same cosmological field and when we strip away the labels we’ve created to define who we are, we are part of the same whole. I opened my eyes to make sure I hadn’t moved. I was still here, on Earth, in this house in Detroit with Lisa, Princella, Amanda, and the other participants. How much time had passed? Was the house real? Or were all the galaxies and expansiveness of space the true reality? real? I had to sit up. To ground myself and glue my butt to the floor to stay present, or else I may have dissipated like stardust into the expansiveness of space. The next time I closed my eyes, I found myself in the past. I saw my mother’s trauma. I saw my partner’s trauma. I saw everything that I knew intuitively, but had never been able to verify. I felt their emotions, an overwhelming sadness and pain. Someone screamed. Not in the past, but in the present. In the house in Detroit where my physical body sat. I opened my eyes as the screams turned into agonizing wails.

Go to her, the internal voice spoke once again. I hesitated at first, until my legs began moving underneath me beyond my control. In the living room another participant was lying on the couch, releasing through sound, purging through cries. I sat by her side. My physical body and my consciousness were separate and disconnected. I felt my hands come together in prayer as I whispered, “It’s OK, let it out.” Somehow, I understood what her cries were communicating without words. What seemed like minutes, hours, days later Princella’s voice pulled me out of the daze, telling me to go with Zeno, who led me back to the room where we started our initial meditation. “Thank you,” he whispered. “You were called to do this.” To do what? Was I there to help? To lead others on their journey? What about my journey? What innate knowledge did I unknowingly possess? I felt in that moment Zeno was no longer the human entity I had met earlier. He was a spirit guide and we had entered the spirit realm. I stood in the middle of the room watching over the other retreat attendees, making sure they were safe. I was no longer traveling through time — I had arrived in this moment as a protector. Everyone has their part to play, and I felt overwhelmingly that my role was as the healer. “It’s your turn, Randiah. Come on in here,” I heard Princella say. Her voice is what tethered me to this realm, to this version of simultaneous reality. I started to go toward her voice in the living room, but I had to use the bathroom and somehow my consciousness detached once again. I was lost in darkness, or perhaps it was light. A light in darkness that wanted to swallow me. But there is no difference between the dark and the light; it’s just a matter of being able to see. Wait. Where am I? How much time has

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passed? Wasn’t I supposed to meet Princella? Suddenly, she appeared. “Did you get lost?” she asked. I had, though I had been standing still in the same spot. Lost in an eternal feedback loop. She led me to the bathroom, where I avoided looking at my face in the mirror, afraid of what I might see. Upon exit, I got “lost” again in the basement, scanning the room, not entirely sure what I was looking for. “Randiah,” Princella called to me in the darkness. “Come with me. I want you to meet God.” I followed Princella to the glass door she stood in front of, peering outside into the night. With an arm embracing me, she pointed at the sliding doors and asked, “What do you see?” “This is a trick question,” I answered, laughing, after what seemed like an eternity of racing thoughts. In reality, it’s more likely that only a few minutes had passed. What did I see? I saw a blanket of grass covering the backyard. I very clearly saw a stack of decorative rocks. But most importantly, I saw myself. Am I God? Or are the rocks and the grass God? Though I couldn’t bring myself to utter the words out loud at the time, I now know the answer is all three. “Do you know that you are an ancient African queen,” Princella said. We were back upstairs on the couch. She had taken a larger dose of psilocybin than any of us, saying it would allow her to see what we were dealing with on the higher realms of consciousness. There’s a reason her nickname is “Vizion.” “Your soul is so old,” she told me. “It’s been here since the beginning, and has lived so many lives. But this time, she said, ‘We ain’t doing this again.’” Not doing this again meant to transcend. I laughed with my eyes half closed at her words, fighting the way my essence was being pulled between the present moment and somewhere else in time. I wanted to

talk with her in this timeline, but I couldn’t. Then Princella said something that snapped me, or at least a version of me, back to this reality. “I want to talk to eight-year-old Randiah,” she said. I rifled through my memories, looking for an eight-year-old version of me, but there was nothing. “You don’t have to find her. She’s always there,” Princella said. “What happened to you when you were eight?” A grin I didn’t recognize spread across my face as my mouth formed the words in a defiant tone. “I don’t want to go there right now.” Though they came from me, the words were not my own. It was as if someone else was talking. “It’s not about me. It’s about you,” my subconscious said to Princella. Then the veil of my conscious mind reappeared as if a spell had been lifted. We were no longer in the timeless void. My subconscious — my scared eight-year-old self — did not want to be called forth, so she put up a wall to fade back into the darkness. I was myself again — the present-day version of myself. Eventually, Lisa and Amanda joined us on the couch. We laughed. We talked. We broke our fast with gluten-free bread. We snuggled up to each other and talked loudly like old friends having a reunion. Occasionally, someone would leave to check on the other retreat attendees and come back. That couch was our communal space where our souls — who had perhaps always known each other, even though our human bodies hadn’t previously met in this life — sought refuge. Around 5 a.m. I retired to bed, not sure how to make sense of it all. Had it all been real? How could I have traveled through space, experiencing the future and the past, if I was inside that house in Detroit? Why does it feel like I

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know Amanda, Princella, and Lisa from past lives? What happened to me when I was eight?

The author meditates after taking psilocybin, or magic mushrooms. Detroiters recently voted to decriminalize the entheogenic substance.

Day 2 On the second night, Lisa led us in a meditation to unlock blocked energy in the seven chakras after we drank the psilocybin. I told Princella I wanted a slightly higher dose this time so I could go deeper. During the meditation, I had the same sense of floating, except I wasn’t traveling through time because time had ceased to exist. When we got to the throat chakra, where Lisa told us to release whatever sound we were holding back, I cried out in despair. I started fighting and flailing around on the floor, bawling, and reaching out for help. My memory is sparse, but eventually someone was able to calm me down and I slipped back into those lower realms of consciousness. I felt a faint feeling of bliss, as if I was bathing in light, but something was holding me back, preventing me from experiencing it fully. I got up from the floor, trying to find a comfortable spot away from the other participants. I wanted to be alone, to find out what was truly ailing me. I came to lie down on the couch, feeling that something about my energy was off. I wasn’t myself. There was a burning in my chest that belonged

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o to someone else. It was someone else’s pain that I had been carrying, someone else’s energy that had attached itself to me. Now it needed to leave. The burning in my chest intensified and I had to get the fire out. With my eyes closed, I began to dig into my chest and symbolically pull out whatever was inside. “This is not mine,” I said out loud as I tossed the foreign presence to the side. Someone came and put their hand over my heart. “My pain is not there,” I said to them, placing my hand on top of theirs, guiding their touch to my womb. “My pain is here.” As I held their hand over my womb, chills began to travel down my body, turning into an electric shockwave. I nearly screamed at the person, “Don’t touch me!” The words weren’t really for them. I was reliving a memory. “I needed to say that,” I said to her. And I yelled it over and over again, kicking and screaming. “Don’t touch me! Get out!” I didn’t regain any concrete memory of what happened when I was eight but I felt it energetically in my body. It was as if that experience had been following me, lurking

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in the shadows my entire life. Princella and Zeno rushed to my side, waving incense and chanting over me. As I opened my mouth and breathed in the scent, I began to feel more at ease, but something still wasn’t right. Something was still stuck inside that needed to come out. I felt as if I would vomit. Purging isn’t uncommon for psychedelic trips. I asked someone to lead me to the bathroom. I didn’t want to open my eyes, because that would bring me back to the physical realm and I wanted to stay in the energetic realm where time was an illusion, so I could experience and heal my pain. As we walked, flashes of white, glowing light illuminated the way. Someone asked if I wanted them to turn on the light. “No,” I replied. “I am the light.” I sat alone in the bathroom, hunched over the toilet bowl. As I opened my mouth to vomit, an inhuman sound, which I have never heard or imagined my voice could sound like, came out. It was a low, guttural howl that wouldn’t stop. There was no use fighting it. I clutched at the toilet, tears streaming down my eyes as I expelled the sound, like something crawling out from my bowels. Lisa burst in and wrapped her arms around me. “He’s gone,” I said. I didn’t know who he was, but I felt somehow lighter. Lisa and I laughed, we turned my name into a song and she told me she loved me. It was a moment of pure joy and I felt finally free, but I needed to go outside so I could feel the earth. Lisa led me outside and I gasped as my feet touched the wet grass, rain gently touching my skin. I could feel the connection between myself and the Earth, and all living things on the planet. I clutched Lisa’s shoulders and said, as if I were making a confession, “I am the Earth. I am the sky. I am the dirt. I am the trees. Everything that exists here, exists within me.”

I was led back into the house where I lay down to bask in this interconnectedness. Lisa placed white candles around me and left me covered with a blanket. I felt pure bliss, absolute love, and everlasting peace. I wanted to stay in that moment forever with my eyes closed, taking it all in. Why would you want to return to normal life where there is so much suffering and sadness after experiencing such a loving presence? Princella came to me and I held her hands. “How does it feel to know that you are God?” she said to me. I smiled and I cried silent tears that seemed neverending. How do you describe a feeling that’s indescribable? “Repeat after me,” she said. “I am love. I am peace. I am he. I am she. I am we.” I could finally be at peace.

Day 3 On the last day of the retreat, we decompressed from our respective journeys. Princella gave a vegan cooking lesson, we talked about using mushrooms for manifestation, and we hula-hooped in the sun, allowing our bodies to move freely. I still don’t fully understand what happened to me. What I do know, however, is that God is within all of us. God is a universal consciousness, an inner knowing from the cosmos that connects all life — human, animal, plant, or otherwise. A beautiful thing happens when we are able to break the seal of human consciousness and connect with this divine energy. It is always there within us and once you have tapped into it, you cannot return to a mundane existence. The solutions to the human problems that plague us are within, too. Subconsciously, we know — just as I already knew the answers to my questions before taking the medicine. The questions themselves weren’t the real issue, it was that I didn’t trust myself enough to accept answers that were uncomfortable. Now I do.

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An abundance of growers and plummeting marijuana prices are smoking out small cannabis businesses By Steve Neavling PRICES FOR LEGAL marijuana have hit all-time lows in Michigan, even as inflation is driving up the costs of most other products, like gas and food. For now, the trend is great for cannabis consumers, who can find deals on flower, edibles, and concentrates that are comparable or better than what’s on the black market. But for small growers and dispensaries, the plummeting prices are making it difficult to stay afloat. The average price for an ounce of recreational flower dropped from more than $512 in January 2020 to $131 in May, a 74.4% decline, according to the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency. During the same period, an ounce of medical flower dropped from $267 to $117. The market is oversaturated with marijuana. There are more than 1,000 dispensaries in Michigan, and nearly half of them sell recreational cannabis. Every week, the state is approving new permits for cannabis businesses, and more cities and townships are allowing recreational dispensaries to open. If all goes as planned, an additional 100 recreational dispensaries will open in Detroit, the state’s largest city. To compete, dispensaries have been

steadily decreasing their prices since recreational sales became legal in December 2019. And that means cultivators are getting less and less for their products.

Struggling growers When Mark Marion first opened his small grow business Med+IQ Pharm to Pharm in Kawkawlin Township in March 2021, he was charging dispensaries about $2,800 a pound. Now, some dispensaries expect to pay less than $1,000 a pound, which barely covers the cost of production. “We have our overhead like everyone else,” Marion tells Metro Times. “License fees, taxes, power, infrastructure — it’s outrageous.” Marion says large companies are running down the price. He likens the price squeeze to Lowe’s and Home Depot underselling local hardware stores. “The smaller shops are getting hammered,” Marion says. “All the bigger ones want to do is push out as much flower as they can. We want to make sure we produce good flower, and they are running everything down.” Med+IQ Pharm to Pharm produces 10 different strains and up to 120 pounds a month. By comparison, some of the bigger cultivators produce more than 10 times that amount. For growers like Med+IQ Pharm to Pharm, price isn’t everything. Marion’s son works at the grow facility 15 hours a day to ensure the highest quality product, he says. “There’s nothing that goes on here that he doesn’t know about,” Marion says. “Our focus is on good quality flower.” Smaller grow operations like Med+IQ Pharm to Pharm depend on dispensaries that value local businesses and high quality flower.

Corporate weed One of those dispensaries is the Greenhouse of Walled Lake, which prides itself on its local roots. On the side of its building

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Photo: Frank Marra, Greenhouse Of Walled Lake

Too much weed?

Photo: Frank Marra, Greenhouse Of Walled Lake

those customers are spending less each visit. The goal, he says, is to remain vigilant because it’s a cutthroat business. “The big guys are coming for us. I’ll put up a hell of a fight.”

Taking a bite out of edibles

Greenhouse of Walled Lake owner Jerry Millen.

is a mural that reads, “Greenhouse vs. Corporate Weed.” Owner Jerry Millen says he prefers smaller growers, even if the prices are higher. “I’m trying to help the mom and pop owners,” he tells Metro Times. “I’m paying some of them more than I can get from other places.” Millen worries that the plummeting prices are going to force smaller dispensaries and growers out of business. “The big guys are trying to crush the little guy,” Millen says. “They have the money to do it. What happens when the little guys are pushed out? Do the prices go back up?” Millen says the trick to staying competitive is keeping customers happy by offering a unique experience with plenty of specials, giveaways, and consistently high quality products. It means going beyond cannabis, he explains. Millen plans to sell doughnuts and coffee out of an enormous old truck he recently purchased. He’s also considering hosting concerts and poetry readings, as well as cannabis education nights. “You have to find a niche and find a way to keep customers happy,” Millen says. “I want to be the Samuel Adams of cannabis. I don’t want to be the Budweiser.” On an average day, the Greenhouse serves between 1,100 and 1,600 customers. But

The fastest-growing product at recreational dispensaries is edibles — cannabis-infused gummies, candy bars, baked goods, mints, chocolate bars, and brownies. The average monthly sales of edibles increased more than three-fold, from $53,000 in January 2021 to $180,000 in May. In March, a company called Ripple opened an 8,000-square-foot manufacturing and processing facility in Dimondale near Lansing to produce quick-acting edibles. Since then, the small company has lowered its prices by a third. The price drops are “affecting not just cultivators and retailers, but everyone in the food chain that is cannabis,” Rachel Reed, Michigan sales director for Ripple, tells Metro Times. “It’s wild.” Amid the heated competition, Ripple’s products continue to stand out because they’re unique, Reed says. The products are water-soluble, and the company touts studies that show a measurable amount of THC enters the bloodstream within 10 minutes, compared to 30 minutes to two hours from fat-soluble products sold by other companies. Reed says she can’t imagine prices getting much lower. If the prices don’t rebound soon, the big companies have the advantage, she says. “They have the deep pockets to ride this out, but unfortunately a lot of the homegrown, local guys are really feeling the crunch and that sucks,” Reed says. For now, though, there’s one clear winner in the industry. “If you’re a Michigan cannabis consumer, it is a great time to be alive because you have desperate retailers,” Reed says.

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Directory WAYNE COUNTY 1ST QUALITY MEDZ River Rouge, 313-406-4688, firstqualitymeds.com 3FIFTEEN 8 Mile & Lahser, Detroit, 313-977-9911, 3fifteen.com 3FIFTEEN 8 Mile & Hoover, Detroit, 313-924-8942, 3fifteen.com 3FIFTEEN 8 Mile & Gratiot, Detroit, 313-466-3366, 3fifteen.com 420 FACTORY Detroit, 313-808-7171, detroit420factory.com 5 & DIME DETROIT Detroit, 313-733-6006, fiveanddimedet.com 96 WEST DETROIT Detroit, 313-693-4065 CHRONIC CITY Detroit, 313-733-4031, chroniccity313.com COMMON CITIZEN Detroit, 313-228-0250, commoncitizen.com COOKIES Detroit, 313-242-0680, cookiesmich.com CORKTOWN COLLECTIVE Detroit, 313-265-3740, corktown-collective.business.site DETROIT HERBAL CENTER Detroit, 313-397-2738, dhc313.com EVERGREEN WELLNESS GROUP Detroit, 313-766-5662, shopevergreenwellness.com GREENCARE PROVISIONING CENTER River Rouge, 313-406-5617

GREEN CROSS Detroit, 888-420-2790, thegreencrossdet.com GREEN DOOR ALTERNATIVE Detroit, 313-254-9468, greendooralternative.com GREEN GENIE Detroit, 313-977-9027, greengenieprovisioningcenter.com GREEN PHARM Detroit, 313-914-4323, greenpharm420.com HELPING HAND PROVISION CENTER Detroit, 313-733-6693 HERBAL HEALING PROVISIONING River Rouge, 313-451-8007, shophhp.com HERBOLOGY River Rouge, 313-757-7684, shophcc.com HOUSE OF DANK Livernois, Detroit, 833-746-7463, shophod.com HOUSE OF DANK 8 Mile, Detroit, 833-746-7463, shophod.com HOUSE OF DANK Fort St., Detroit, 833-746-7463, shophod.com HOUSE OF DANK Gratiot, Detroit, 313-499-1703, shophod.com HOUSE OF ZEN CARE CENTER Detroit, 313-744-7987 INHALE DETROIT Detroit, 313-499-1078 JARS CANNABIS Detroit, 586-298-6440, jarscannabis.com JARS CANNABIS River Rouge, 313-466-7888, jarscannabis.com HOLISTIC HEALTH WAYNE Wayne, 734-725-5343, hhwayne.com

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KAHN CANNABIS Detroit, 313-474-2592, kahncannabis.com KING OF BUDZ PROVISIONING Detroit, 313-571-3558, kobdetroit.com LIBERTY CANNABIS Detroit, 313-450-1400, libertycannabis.com MICHIGAN’S FINEST Wayne, 734-895-8277, mi-finest.com MICHIGAN SUPPLY AND PROVISIONS Detroit, 313-426-0521, michigansandp.com MOTOR CITY KUSH Detroit, 313-707-0903, motor-city.kushcart.us MOTOWN MEDS Detroit, 313-914-2319, motownmedswest.com NATURE’S MEDICINES Detroit, 734-881-0008, naturesmedicines.com OZ CANNABIS Detroit, 313-924-5773, ozcannabis.com PLAN B WELLNESS CENTER Detroit, 248-470-4638, planbwellnesscenter.com PLEASANTREES CANNABIS COMPANY Hamtramck, 313-774-0700, enjoypleasantrees.com PLEASANTREES CANNABIS COMPANY Lincoln Park, 313-572-0110, enjoypleasantrees.com QUALITY ROOTS Hamtramck, 313-263-0360, getqualityroots.com REMEDY DETROIT, remedy-313.com SHAKE N’ BAKE Detroit, 313-340-2253, shakeandbakedet.com SOUTHWEST MEDZ Detroit, 313-436-1680, southwestmedz.com STICKY DETROIT Detroit, 313-551-5751, stickydetroit.com THC DETROIT Detroit, 313-266-7738, thcdetroit.com TASTE BUDS Detroit, 313-733-4114, tastebudsdet.com THE BOTANIST MICHIGAN Detroit, 313-356-3666, shopbotanist.com THE CURING CORNER River Rouge, 313-436-5616, curingcorner.com THE FLOWER BOWL Inkster, 734-895-8753, flowerbowl.com THE GREEN MILE Detroit, 313-826-1479, thegreenmiledetroit.com THE HOUSE OF MARY JANE Detroit, 313-340-9202, housemaryjane.com THE REEF Detroit, 313-992-4202, findthereef.com THE WOODS Detroit, 313-499-1178, thewoodsdetroit.com TREELATED HEALTH CENTER Detroit, 313-397-4817, treelatedshop.com

UTOPIA GARDENS Detroit, 313-332-0544, utopiagardens.com VIOLA Detroit, 313-724-6486, violabrands.com WAYNE RELEAF Wayne, 734-600-0420, waynereleaf.com OAKLAND COUNTY BAZONZOES Walled Lake, 248-926-1518, bazonzoesmi.com/walledlakemenu BREEZE Hazel Park, 833-927-3393, breeze.us COMMON CITIZEN Hazel Park, 248-776-0100, commoncitizen.com GAGE CANNABIS CO. Ferndale, 248-504-0506, gageusa.com GREEN BUDDHA CANNABIS CO. Ferndale, 248-955-1500, shopgreenbuddha.com GREENLIGHT WELLNESS Troy, 248-390-0574, greenlitetroy.com LIV FERNDALE, 248-420-4200, livferndale.com LUME CANNABIS CO. Walled Lake, 947-214-2700, lume.com NEW STANDARD Hazel Park, 248-873-0420, anewstandard.com MELLOW CANNABIS MARKET Madison Heights, mellowcannabisco.com OAKLAND ORGANICS Rochester, 248-841-4806, oaklandorganicsdelivery.com SKYMINT Hazel Park, 313-379-5369, skymint.com THE GREENHOUSE OF WALLED LAKE Walled Lake, 833-644-7336, greenhousemi.com MACOMB COUNTY CLINIC CANNABIS COMPANY Center Line, 586-459-5683, cliniccannabisco.com CLOUD CANNABIS Utica, cloudcannabis.com JOYOLOGY Center Line, 586-838-1010, joyology.com NIRVANA CENTER Center Line, 586-782-4936, nirvanacenter.com PLEASANTREES Mount Clemens, 586-221-0020, enjoypleasantrees.com THE CLINIC CANNABIS CO. Center Line, 586-459-5683, thecliniccannabisco.com WASHTENAW COUNTY 3FIFTEEN Ann Arbor, 734-436-4017, 3fifteen.com APOTHECARE Ann Arbor, 734-800-2007, apothecareannarbor.com

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ARBORS WELLNESS Ann Arbor, 734-929-2602, arborswellness.com BLOOM CITY CLUB Ann Arbor, 734-585-0621, bloomcityclub.com CLOUD CANNABIS COMPANY Ann Arbor, 734-619-1204, cloudcannabis.com CROSS STREET SHOP Ypsilanti, 734-961-2770, crossstreetshop.com DEPOT TOWN CARE CENTER Ypsilanti, 734-340-2941 EXCLUSIVE ANN ARBOR Ann Arbor, 734-494-0772, exclusivemi.com GREEN PLANET PATIENT COLLECTIVE Ann Arbor, 734-845-2172, greenplaneta2.org HERBANA Ann Arbor, 734-212-1040 HERBOLOGY Ann Arbor, 734-219-4334, myherbology.com HIGH PROFILE Ann Arbor, 734-821-9333, highprofilecannabis.com HOUSE OF DANK, Ypsilanti 734-484-1990, shophod.com HURON VIEW Ann Arbor, 734-882-2970, a2huronview.com INFORMATION ENTROPY Ann Arbor, 734-929-4207, informationentropy.com LIBERTY CANNABIS Ann Arbor, 734-773-3075, libertycannabis.com MICHIGAN SUPPLY AND PROVISIONS, Ann Arbor, 734-794-3416, michigansandp.com OM OF MEDICINE Ann Arbor, 734-369-8255, omofmedicine.org OZ CANNABIS Ypsilanti, 734-328-1155, ozcannabis.com PEOPLE’S CHOICE Ann Arbor, 734-369-8573, peopleschoiceprovisioning.com PURE ROOTS Ann Arbor, 844-325-3900, followpureroots.com SKYMINT Ann Arbor, 734-627-7360, skymint.com STICKY YPSI Ypsilanti, 734-879-1204, stickyypsi.com THE PATIENT STATION Ypsilanti, 734-544-9999, thepatientstation.com TREEHOUSE 603 Ann Arbor, 734-773-3895, treehouse603.com GENESEE COUNTY 3FIFTEEN Flint, 810-484-2117, 3fifteen.com BACCO FARMS Flint, 810-877-6538, baccofarms.com BIGFOOT WELLNESS Burton, 810-744-0998, bigfootwellnessburton.com BLOOM CITY CLUB Burton, 810-820-7696, bloomcityclub.com BURTON CANNABIS COMPANY Burton, 810-715-9584, burtoncannabiscompany.com

CLUB MEDZ Flint, 810-234-4778, clubmedz.gramstands.com COMMON CITIZEN Flint, 810-223-0700, commoncitizen.com DORT HWY DISPO Burton, 810-337-1420, dorthwydispo.com THE GREEN BEAN Flint, 810-232-4400 GREEN CULTURE Flint, 810-742-2000 GREEN GALAXY MEDS Flint, 810-407-7472, greengalaxymeds.com LIGHT’N UP PROVISIONING & MICROBUDDERY Flint, 810-391-2180, lightnupprovisioning.com LINDZY’S MED STATION Flint, 810-265-7565, lindzys-med-station-inc.business.site MICHIGAN ORGANIC SOLUTIONS Flint, miorganicsolutions.com THE BARN Burton, 810-742-1500, barnpharm.com THE SWEET LEAF Flint, 810-259-2571, facebook.com/ thesweetleafflint NATURE’S RELEAF BURTON, INC. Burton, 810-768-3397, naturesreleaf.com JACKSON COUNTY 20 PAST 4 Jackson, 517-883-4200, 20past4provisioningcenter.com ELITE WELLNESS Jackson, 517-395-4728, elitemich.com FUEL 420 Jackson, 517-748-9326, fuel420.com GREENHAUS CANNABIS Jackson, 517-962-2413 JC3 Jackson, 517-962-2564, jc3life.com LUME CANNABIS CO. Jackson, 517-888-0404, lume.com SEED CALLER Jackson, 517-879-2801, seedcellar.com THRIVE PROVISIONING Jackson, 517-795-2825, thrive.kushcart.us THE FLOWER POT Michigan Center, 517-926-0420, theflowerpot.us OUTSTATE BUD BROTHERS Battle Creek, shopbudbrothers.com BUD BROTHERS Bay City, shopbudbrothers.com GAGE CANNABIS CO. Adrian, 888-424-3463, gageusa.com PLEASANTREES East Lansing 517-237-3050, enjoypleasantrees.com PURE LAPEER Lapeer, 810-660-8403, puredispo.com QUALITY ROOTS Monroe, 734-244-0200, getqualityroots.com XPLORE CANNABIS CO. Lapeer, xplorecannabis.com

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Metro Times User's Guide, Summer 2022

Articles inside

Strange magic

Are celebrity weed brands better than regular weed?

Directory

What to expect when you’re expecting weed

Too much weed?