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FEATURES SMOKED SESSIONS Allen St. Pierre FL INTERVIEW: EDDY LEPP Russ Belville OBAMA’S LEGACY OF PARDONS Ngaio Bealum LIFE FOR POT Cheri Sicard RADIO FOR CANNABIS LOVERS Steve Bloom FLYING HIGH IN LAS VEGAS Chris Thompson HIGH TEA RECIPES Cheri Sicard
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NEWS & REVIEWS WORD ON THE TREE Mona Zhang CANNABINOIDS FOR HEALTH Paul Armentano
DEAR JERRY TRIBUTE ALBUM Roy Trakin KWAHTRO, RIPPED ; KELLER WILLIAMS, RAW John Fortunato EVENT CALENDAR
C O N T E N T S
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COLUMNS EDITOR’S NOTE Steve Bloom SSDP 2017 CONFERENCE Frances Fu NORML: WORKPLACE DRUG TESTING Ellen Komp PIONEERING PROFS AT OAKSTERDAM U. Dr. Aseem Sappal THE IMPORTANCE OF GUIDED CONSUMPTION Amanda Reiman SNOOP DOGG & TED CHUNG’S VENTURES Matt Chelsea THE PESTICIDE PROBLEM Rick Pfrommer
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CELEBRATING ST. PADDY’S DAY Watermelon PURE HEMP BOTANICALS TEA Erin Hiatt PIZZA FELLA Neal Warner
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EDITOR’S NOTE
Contemplating Sessions Although newly approved Attorney General Jeff Sessions seems obsessed with marijuana, at press time he had yet to make an official statement on the subject. Instead, the task of explaining the administration’s position has fallen to President Trump’s embattled press secretary, the hapless Sean Spicer. In response to reporters’ questions on Feb. 23, he typically made a mess of it by trying to link recreational marijuana to opioid abuse. First, the good news: Spicer gave a green light to medical marijuana more explicit than any previous administration, and he even seemed to call for the renewal of the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment, which prevents the Feds from intervening in medical-marijuana states. However, regarding recreational use, we got a vague threat: “I do believe you’ll see greater enforcement of it…. There is still a federal law that we need to abide by when it comes to recreational marijuana.” Pardon us if we don’t panic, because Sessions is, after all, a politician who follows the polls, and each day they show ever-greater support for completely legalizing marijuana. On the same day as Spicer’s presser, Quinnipiac University released a poll that shows a whopping 71% of voters “oppose the government enforcing federal laws against marijuana in states that have already legalized medical or recreational marijuana.” The real wild card is the president himself. Where does he stand on marijuana? Trump talks a lot about getting rid of drugs, but seldom mentions pot. He’s for medical use, but is concerned about “bad” things happening in legal states like Colorado and Washington. Allen St. Pierre, who writes about Sessions on page 30, thinks PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, a Republican and Trump supporter, might have some sway over Trump’s pot policy. St. Pierre told Marijuana Times: “If rumors are to be believed that Peter Thiel, a major cannabis space investor, will influence the selection of FDA commissioner, and
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U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions that the next commissioner will be making a recommendation for de-scheduling cannabis or down-scheduling cannabis, at minimum, from Schedule I to II, then it’s likely that Sessions will begrudgingly implement the change in policy.” Well, we can hope. In addition to ruminating about the future of cannabis, Issue 23 delves into the lives of prisoners, many of whom are serving life sentences on marijuana charges. Cheri Sicard has been working diligently with the Marijuana Lifer Project to get the word out (page 46). And Russ Belville interviews grower Eddy Lepp, who is now home after eight years in jail (page 40). Lastly, it’s March, which means, among other things, St. Patrick’s Day. On page 68, Vancouver cannabis activist Watermelon makes her Freedom Leaf debut by reminiscing about her old stoner friend Paddy.
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Steve Blo m
Steve Bloom Editor-in-Chief
ISSUE 23
MARCH 2017
FOUNDERS Richard C. Cowan & Clifford J. Perry
PUBLISHER & CEO Clifford J. Perry
ART DIRECTOR Joe Gurreri
VP OF OPERATIONS Chris M. Sloan
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Steve Bloom
VP OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Ray Medeiros
VP OF SALES & MARKETING Charles Mui
NEWS EDITOR Mona Zhang COPY EDITOR G. Moses
SENIOR POLICY ADVISOR Paul Armentano
VP OF ADVOCACY & COMMUNICATIONS Allen St. Pierre COMMUNITY & NONPROFIT MANAGER Chris Thompson
CONTRIBUTORS: Ngaio Bealum, Russ Belville, Matt Chelsea, Mia Di Stefano, John Fortunato, Frances Fu, Chris Goldstein, Erin Hiatt, Ellen Komp, Mitch Mandell, Beth Mann, Rick Pfrommer, Amanda Reiman, Dr. Aseem Sappal, Cheri Sicard, Roy Trakin, Neal Warner, Watermelon
Copyright © 2017 by Freedom Leaf Inc. All rights reserved. Freedom Leaf Inc. assumes no liability for any claims or representations contained in this magazine. Reproduction, in whole or in part, without permission is prohibited.
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GABE KIRCHHEIMER
Ethan Nadelmann Leaving DPA After 23 Years
Ethan Nadelmann: “I’ve been thinking about making this transition for almost two years.”
On Jan. 27, Ethan Nadelmann, founder of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), announced that he’s “stepping aside” from his post as Executive Director. Derek Hodel, formerly DPA’s Deputy Executive Director, will head the organization while it conducts a search for Nadelmann’s replacement. After founding the Lindesmith Center, Nadelmann started the DPA in 2000. A prominent voice in the national debate concerning the War on Drugs since 1993, he is a frequent speaker at conferences and trade shows, and a widely quoted source in mainstream media coverage of drug policy reform issues. In 2013, Rolling Stone called him “the Real Drug Czar.” In a letter to DPA staffers, Nadelmann outlined some of the reasons for his resignation: “I’ve been thinking about making this transition for almost two years, for all sorts of reasons: the prospect of
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turning 60; my growing sense of multiple missions accomplished, as evidenced by transformations in public opinion, our political victories, and the rapid expansion of our organization and movement; and also, I must say, by a desire for new adventure and challenges.” Funded primarily by George Soros, the DPA has long advocated for sweeping changes in drug policy, from marijuana legalization to clean needles for addicts. In 2015, Nadelmann told Freedom Leaf (Issue 10): “The fact that I grew up in a religious environment, in a moral environment with a strong sense of social justice, and the fact that I went off to college and started smoking marijuana and wondered why people were getting busted for it, and then the fact that I wanted to be a professor and find something that was emotionally engaging—I think all those things came together around this cause of ending the War on Drugs.”
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Legislators Make Changes in New Legal States Last November’s election delivered surprising results for supporters of cannabis legalization as eight out of nine state ballot measures passed. But the fight for legalization doesn’t end there; in fact, it’s just beginning. Since Massachusetts voters approved Question 4, which legalized the use and sale of cannabis for adults, opposing legislators have been chipping away at it. First, state lawmakers approved a bill to delay the implementation of the law by six months (until July 2018). The decision was made on Dec. 28 during an informal session, with no public hearings or a vote. Three weeks later, on Jan. 20, Sen. Jason M. Lewis (D–Winchester) sponsored several additional bills that would limit home growing (reduced from 12 to six plants per household) and possession amounts (reduced from 10 ounces at home to two ounces), restrict potency, increase the new law’s 3.5% excise tax, allow municipalities to prevent cannabis businesses from operating and delay sales of infused products, and potentially ban them altogether. In Maine, after a recount of the Question 1 ballot initiative proved fruitless, a
bill to delay issuing business licenses for three months, until February, 2018, was approved by a legislative committee on Jan. 19. In stark contrast, California and Nevada, the two other states to legalize cannabis on Nov. 8, have seen no legislative pushback. On Jan. 18, Lori Ajax, California’s chief cannabis regulator, told a roomful of marijuana growers, “We will not fail, and will make this happen by January 1, 2018, because we have to.” On Dec. 1, incoming California Attorney General Xavier Becerra pledged to defend Prop 64 against Trump administration threats. In Nevada, on Feb. 8, Question 2 advocates cheered when the Nevada Department of Taxation announced that dispensaries would be allowed to open their doors to non-patients as soon as July.
SCOTUS Pick Gorsuch a Moderate on Cannabis In his second week of office, President Trump nominated Judge Neil M. Gorsuch to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat. Like Antonin Scalia, whom he would replace if confirmed by the Senate, Gorsuch is a conservative constitutionalist. He currently serves as a judge at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver. Gorsuch has ruled on several marijuana-related cases, such as Neil Feinberg et al. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, in which dispensary owners sued the IRS over typical tax deductions that cannabis companies, under tax code Section 280E, are barred from taking. Gorsuch ruled in favor of the IRS, deciding that the plaintiff failed to show that
Trump with Judge Gorsuch and wife, Louise.
“without an immediate remedy they will face an irreparable injury.” The judge acknowledged the “mixed messages the federal government is sending these days about the distribution of marijuana,” and indicated his famil-
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iarity with the complex conflict between state and federal laws, and the Cole and Ogden memos regarding marijuana policy issued by President Obama’s Justice Department. In 2013, Gorsuch ruled against a dead man, Ryan Wilson, who was fatally Tased by a police officer after he admitted that he possessed cannabis plants; Wilson’s parents sued the police department for using excessive force, and lost. In 2010, Gorsuch showed no sympathy for a couple that claimed religious freedom as a defense against the charge of possession with intent to distribute marijuana. However, when it comes to the Fourth
Amendment, Gorsuch has a more moderate record. In a case where an officer found a pound of meth in a car, the judge ruled that the drugs were inadmissible as evidence because the officer violated the defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights by relying on a license plate database that was known to be faulty. None of these cases shed much light on what Gorsuch really thinks about cannabis and drug policy reform. A professor at the University of Colorado Law School since 2008, he’s been described as “widely respected among his disproportionately liberal peers, colleagues and students.”
Widely viewed as one of the most restrictive medical marijuana laws in the country, New York’s Compassionate Care Act’s list of qualifying conditions is relatively short, no flower or edibles are permitted and only five registered organizations (ROs) are licensed to manufacture and sell products. After one year in operation, the program continues to struggle with low patient participation (12,764 patients were enrolled at press time) and difficulty in finding and accessing registered doctors (833 have been certified), and one of the original ROs has already changed ownership; in January, California-based cannabis firm MedMen acquired Bloomfield Industries. No other companies were allowed to apply for the valuable license. MedMen, which has worked with Bloomfield since October, said it would move the current cultivation and production facility from Queens to Utica, N.Y. The company will also operate four dispensaries, one in Manhattan. Due to the strict regulations, the program has struggled to get off the ground. While none of the ROs are in the black, Bloomfield’s financial constraints reportedly led to the change in ownership. Meanwhile, one of the other ROs, Vireo Health, has also been in the news. On Feb. 6, two former employees of Vir-
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Daniel Yi/ MedMen
New York Medi-Pot Program in Constant Flux
MedMen co-founder and CEO Adam Bierman
eo’s Minnesota-based parent company, Medical Solutions, were charged with illegally importing 5,585 grams of cannabis oil to New York in 2015; Vireo claims the oil never made it to New York (see “Vireo Health Under Investigation,” Issue 16). On a positive note, on Jan. 11, Vireo announced it would be the first RO in the state to make deliveries. In Nov. 30, the N.Y. State Department of Health began to allow nurse practitioners to certify patients (see “Practitioners Make Perfect,” Issue 21), and announced a regulatory amendment to add chronic pain to the conditions list. The public comment period for the amendment ended Feb. 6; adoption is expected to follow.
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NFL Players’ Union Calls for MJ Policy Reform NFL players are no strangers to cannabis controversy. Many have been arrested for marijuana possession or suspended for positive drug tests. Currently, players who test positive for cannabis four times are suspended for four games without pay. A fifth positive test triggers a 10-game suspension, and a sixth is grounds for a yearlong ban. Now, the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) is considering proposing that the league adopt a “less punitive” cannabis policy. “If our board approves the proposal, we’ll sit down with the league and we will make the proposal to them,” says NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith. “If we think that this is medically, scientifically and therapeutically the right position, then we will tell the league.”
In November, the NFL stated: “Medical experts have not recommended making a change or revisiting our collectively bargained policy and approach related to marijuana, and our position on its use remains consistent with federal law and workplace policies across the country. If these medical experts change their view, then this is an area that we would explore.” There’s voluminous scientific evidence that medical cannabis is an effective treatment for chronic pain and many other conditions. For example, Seantrel Henderson of the Buffalo Bills uses cannabis to counter the effects of Crohn’s disease. But the offensive lineman was suspended twice during the 2016 season for failed drug tests.
Trademark Troubles in the Cannabis Industry Girl Scouts USA has sent cease-and-desist letters to at least two California dispensaries—Studio City’s Buds & Roses, in 2015, and Oakland’s Magnolia Wellness, on Jan. 6—regarding the popular marijuana strain Girl Scout Cookies. The letters state that “only GSUSA has the right to license, endorse or sponsor a product bearing the Girl Scout Cookies name.” Both dispensaries renamed the strain upon receiving the letters. When Magnolia received the letter, Executive Director Debby Goldsberry urged other dispensaries to also rename Girl Scout Cookies products. Magnolia’s menu currently lists Platinum GSC for $15 per gram. “Retail stores have the responsibility to refuse delivery of any product in violation of trademark laws,” Goldsberry tells Freedom Leaf. “It’s essential that any business in the cannabis industry learn these laws and follow them. It should start with the suppliers.” Goldsberry, in fact, has been involved
with the Girl Scouts since she was a young girl, starting out as a Brownie in grade school, working as a camp counselor after high school and serving as a leader for her daughter’s troop. “I have nothing but respect for this revered institution, and want to do my part to help stem this problem,” she says. In another trademark dispute, the Oregon-based Stash Tea Co. has taken issue with two cannabis companies that include “stash” in their names. While the Stash Pot Shop in Seattle changed its name to Lux Pot Shop, Stash Cannabis Co. in Beaverton, Ore. refused to make a similar alteration, prompting the tea company to sue. The lawsuit, filed last April in U.S. District Court in Portland, seeks unspecified monetary damages. Yamamotoyama Tea Co., headquartered in Japan, owns Stash Tea. Mona Zhang publishes the daily cannabis newsletter Word on the Tree. Subscribe to WOTT at wordonthetree.com.
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The NAS’ Keck Center in Washington, D.C.
Cannabinoids for Health The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine provide more evidence that medical marijuana works. By Paul Armentano Cannabis is therapeutic in the treatment of chronic pain, does not cause lung cancer and is not linked to workplace accidents. These are among the conclusions of a comprehensive new report, The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids, issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NAS) on Jan. 12. This is the third such report from the NAS, a private society of more than 500 distinguished scholars who provide independent advice to the U.S. government regarding matters of science and technology. The group initially addressed the cannabis issue in 1982 with a report that concluded, “Cannabis and its derivatives have shown promise in the treatment of a variety of disorders,” particularly glaucoma, nausea, spasticity and seizures. The NAS further challenged prohibitionist dogma in 1999 when it stated that marijuana is not a “gateway” to other illicit substances, has far less depen-
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dence liability than alcohol and possesses therapeutic compounds. The 2017 report, which summarizes the results of more than 10,000 scientific abstracts published since 1999, further pushes the envelope by acknowledging that “conclusive or substantial evidence” exists for the efficacy of whole-plant cannabis and its derivatives for people suffering from chronic pain, multiple sclerosis and other disorders. “Patients who were treated with cannabis or cannabinoids are more likely to experience a clinically significant reduction of pain symptoms,” NAS experts found. “For adults with multiple sclerosis-related muscle spasms, there was substantial evidence that short-term use of oral cannabinoids improved their reported symptoms. Furthermore, in adults with chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, there was conclusive evidence that certain oral cannabinoids were effective in preventing and treating ailments.” The NAS findings are at odds with the draconian federal classification of the
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The NAS findings are at odds with the draconian federal classification of the cannabis plant as a Schedule I prohibited substance. cannabis plant as a Schedule I prohibited substance with “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States” (the DEA upheld this designation in August—see “DEAja Vu” in Issue 18). While the report’s authors refuse to make any explicit recommendations for regulatory changes, they note the “challenges and barriers in conducting research,” and that “the classification of cannabis as a Schedule I substance impede[s] the advancement of research.” The report also addresses marijuana’s effects on overall health and safety. Not surprisingly, the authors (who include noted oncologist Dr. Donald I. Abrams) acknowledge that it may pose some potential risks for certain groups of people, such as adolescents, pregnant women and those with a family history of mental illness, and for those who drive shortly after ingesting cannabis. A pair of recently published metaanalyses indicate that some of the NAS’ concerns may be overblown. A September 2016 article in Obstetrics & Gynecology that evaluated more than two dozen case-control studies assessing maternal drug use concluded that “maternal marijuana use during pregnancy is not an independent risk factor for low birth weight or preterm delivery after adjusting for factors such as tobacco use.” And an article in the March 2016 issue of Addiction that assessed the culpability rates of THC-positive drivers in motor vehicle accidents determined that marijuana’s impact on accident rates is “low.” (A Jan. 16 article—“When Are You Too Stoned to Drive?”—posted at themarshallproject.org posits that pot’s “impairment appears to be modest—akin to
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driving with a blood alcohol level of between .01 and .05, which is legal in all states.”) As to the validity of other health-related concerns, the NAS team found little or insufficient evidence to support claims that cannabis use is linked to lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), heart attack, stroke, occupational accidents or injury, or overall mortality—results commonly associated with the consumption of other licit substances, such as alcohol, tobacco and opioids. NAS’ conclusions that cannabis possesses therapeutic utility and an acceptable safety profile when compared to other psychoactive substances are not surprising. Scientific evidence with regard to marijuana’s health and safety has been mounting for decades. Unfortunately, U.S. marijuana policy has largely been driven by political rhetoric and fear, not science and evidence. A search on PubMed, the repository of peer-reviewed scientific papers, for the term “marijuana” yields more than 24,000 studies referencing the plant or its biologically active constituents—a far greater body of literature than exists for commonly consumed painkilling drugs like acetaminophen, ibuprofen or hydrocodone. Unlike modern pharmaceuticals, cannabis possesses an extensive history of human use dating back thousands of years, thus providing longstanding empirical evidence as to its relative safety and efficacy. Currently, 29 states (and Washington, D.C.) permit physicians to recommend marijuana therapy. Some of these state-sanctioned programs have been in place for as long as two decades. At a minimum, it can be readily concluded that we as a society now know enough about cannabis—as well as the failures of cannabis prohibition—to regulate its consumption by adults, end its longstanding criminalization and remove it from its undeserved federal Schedule I status. Paul Armentano is Deputy Director of NORML and Freedom Leaf’s Senior Policy Advisor.
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Students for Sensible Drug Policy
GABE KIRCHHEIMER
SSDP2017 Is Coming to Portland
Columbia University professor Carl Hart will deliver the keynote speech at SSDP 2017.
On Mar. 24–26, more than 400 students, alumni and supporters will gather in Portland, Ore. for Students for Sensible Drug Policy’s annual conference. A full weekend of events begins on Friday with pre-conference programming from 10 a.m.–4 p.m., followed by an opening reception at 6 p.m. and the annual SSDP Congress, where student board members are elected. All students are invited to participate in defining what SSDP is. The conference kicks off in earnest on Saturday with educational programming and Expo Hall activity from 9 a.m.– 6 p.m. The hottest topics in the drug policy will be discussed, including online organizing in the surveillance age; fundraising for change; supporting people in recovery; novel psychoactive substances; and drug use in indigenous cultures. That evening, SSDP hosts the annual awards ceremony where outstanding students, alumni and other network members are recognized, followed by a fun dance party. Sunday offers more speakers and panel discussions, and Dr. Carl Hart will
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deliver the conference’s keynote speech at 5:15 p.m. A longtime friend of SSDP, Dr. Hart, an author, researcher and professor of psychology and psychiatry at Columbia University, is known for his research on drug use and addiction, and for his award-winning book, High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society. Regional meetups, networking meals and other conference events will offer nearly non-stop opportunities to connect with advocates and leaders of the drug policy reform movement. “If you’ve been to an SSDP conference before, you know it can be a life-changing experience for young drug policy reformers,” says Deputy Director Stacia Cosner.
What: SSDP2017 When: Mar. 24–26 Where: Red Lion Hotel on the River, Portland, Ore. Website: ssdp.org/events/ssdp2017 Cost: $250–$45
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THE DRUG THEFAILED. DRUG WAR Start making sense™ WAR FAILED. Start making sense™
Start a chapter, join the Sensible Society, and learn more at Start a chapter, join the ssdp.org Sensible Society, and learn more at
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ssdp.org
NORML Pushes for Workplace Drug Testing Policy Reforms
By Ellen Komp Ever since 2012, when state laws legalizing the adult use of marijuana began to be passed, people have been contacting NORML chapters across the country wondering if they’re now protected against employment drug testing. Unfortunately, for most people, the answer is no—or at best, not yet. California’s failed Prop 19, to legalize adult use, in 2010 specifically protected employees’ rights, which prompted strong opposition from business groups. Subsequent legalization measures (including California’s Prop 64, which passed last year) have either been silent on the issue or contain language stating that the measure does not affect employer policies restricting the consumption of marijuana by employees. Maine’s new adult-use law includes such language, but also states that an employer may not refuse to employ someone over 21 for consuming marijuana outside of work. On the medical front, in 2008, in the Ross v. RagingWire Telecommunications case, the California Supreme Court decided that the state’s medical marijuana law does not protect employees against workplace discrimination. The supreme courts of Oregon and Washington have issued similar rulings. Eleven states have language in their medical marijuana laws protecting pa-
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tients from employment discrimination: Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Those laws do not apply to workers in safety-sensitive positions, who are still subject to mandatory urine testing under federal law. Reformers in Oregon and Washington are backing bills to protect marijuana users’ rights in the workplace. Oregon’s Senate Bill 301, proposed by employment law attorney Beth Creighton and NORML legal committee attorney Leland Berger, applies the same language that protects cigarette smokers against workplace discrimination to all state-legal marijuana use. Washington’s House Bill 1094, sponsored by Washington NORML, would protect medical marijuana patients from employment discrimination. California NORML hopes to sponsor a similar bill, modeled on a measure that was vetoed by former Governor Schwarzenegger in 2008.
A Brief History of Drug Testing Widespread drug testing started with the Reagan administration in 1986, when the president signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to implement urine-testing programs for the purpose of
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Reformers in Oregon and Washington are backing bills to protect marijuana users’ rights in the workplace. creating “drug-free” federal workplaces. The Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988 followed, which required certain federal contractors to establish drug-free workplace policies (but did not mandate drug testing). Court rulings upheld the act, and in 1991 the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act passed, requiring drug and alcohol testing of safety-sensitive transportation employees like truck drivers, airline crews, train crews and pipeline employees. In 1982, former Drug Czar Dr. Robert DuPont and former DEA Administrator Peter Bensinger formed Bensinger, DuPont & Associates, which continues to provide corporations with “a full-service solution to drug testing with management and training.” Soon, many employers were commonly screening all prospective employees for drug use, whether they were required to or not. In 1995, the Drug & Alcohol Testing Industry Association (DATIA) was formed. The trade association, now with 1,500plus members, represents laboratories, collection sites and testing device manufacturers. An estimated 80% of Fortune 500 companies currently perform some type of drug testing.
Drug Tests Needlessly Demean Employees
The explosion of workplace drug testing
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happened despite the fact that it hasn’t been proven to advance safety. Particularly in the case of marijuana, urine testing does not measure workers’ on-thejob impairment, but in effect spies on them by detecting whether or not they used cannabis days or even weeks before a test. The recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report (see page 12) found “insufficient evidence” to support an association between cannabis use and occupational accidents or injuries. Another study published by Health Economics last July concluded that absenteeism is lower in states with medical marijuana laws, and a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in October reported greater workforce participation by adults 50 and older in cannabisfriendly states. Although few employers have halted their drug-testing programs since Colorado legalized adult marijuana use in 2012, some are starting to complain about being unable to properly staff their companies because of invasive employee drug testing. There’s a better alternative: Impairment testing. This technique employs game-like computer tests to measure reaction time, decision-making ability and hand-eye coordination, and screens for important factors such as fatigue, stress and illness that can also cause impairment.
A Call to Action
NORML is launching a nationwide education and legislative campaign, starting with lobbying days in California, Connecticut, Virginia and Wyoming. The campaign seeks to educate workers, employers and legislators about the injustice of drug policies that don’t improve workplace safety and discriminate against a population of productive workers by infringing on their right to privacy in their off-the-clock hours. For more information, go to norml.org. Ellen Komp is Deputy Director of California NORML.
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The Pioneering Professors of Oaksterdam University By Dr. Aseem Sappal An educational institution is only as good as its teachers. At Oaksterdam University, that means studying with the most respected names in the cannabis industry. Whether you’re interested in horticulture, law, activism, science, business or the culinary arts, Oaksterdam features nine academic disciplines and more than 150 faculty members, many of whom are industry pioneers. How does one become a cannabis professor? Before Oaksterdam, there was little traditional training for anything remotely cannabis-related. Many of OU’s faculty have been key members of the legalization movement for decades, paving the way for the industry we know today, and some have faced prosecution; Robert Raich took several cases (Gonzales v. Raich, in 2005, and U.S. v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, in 2001) all the way to the Supreme Court. Another of our trailblazers, Jeff Jones, became involved in cannabis reform in 1994 after watching his father pass from cancer. When he learned marijuana might have eased his father’s suffering, Jones dedicated his life to helping patients secure access to cannabis. In 1995, he co-founded one of America’s first dispensaries, the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative (now the Patient ID
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Clockwise, from left: Oaksterdam’s Jeff Jones, Debby Goldsberry and Ed Rosenthal.
Center). His OU classes include Horticulture 101 and 102; Dispensary Operations; and Advocacy. Activist and entrepreneur Debby Goldsberry is another Bay Area legend employed by OU (see “Women of the Year,” Issue 21). In 1999, she co-founded the Berkeley Patients Group, developing standard operating procedures and best practices for procurement, product safety, patient relations and business manage-
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ment. Goldsberry currently runs Magnolia Wellness, in Oakland, Calif. At OU, she teaches classes on Patient Relations; Procurement & Allocation; Dispensary Operations; and Business Management. Several authors of California’s landmark 1996 medical marijuana initiative, Prop 215, are on our faculty, including Chris Conrad, who teaches the Politics and History class. He’s the author of a number of books such as The Newbie’s Guide to Cannabis and the Industry (reviewed in Issue 14), and is an expert court-qualified witness who has testified in more than 200 cannabis cases. We’re also proud to have Ed Rosenthal, known to many as “The Guru of Ganja,” on our faculty team. One of the biggest names in cannabis horticulture, he’s the author of more than a dozen marijuana books—The Marijuana Grower’s Handbook and Beyond Buds are used as OU textbooks—and teaches our advanced growing seminar, Horticulture 102, which covers indoor and outdoor cultivation as well as irrigation
systems, nutrient imbalances, CO2 and much more. Oaksterdam has many other cultivation specialists, including Kyle Kushman, Joey Ereneta, Big Mike Parker and Jimmy Sadegi. OU’s most comprehensive program, the Classic Seminar, includes all facets of the cannabis industry over the course of 14 weeks; students more pressed for time can do their schooling on weekends with OU’s Condensed Classic. Seminars at the Oaksterdam campus in Oakland are offered twice a month, Saturday through Tuesday; tuition is as low as $40 per credit hour. This year marks Oaksterdam University’s 10th anniversary. We look forward to a great 2017, with additional campuses opening in Las Vegas and Jamaica. We’re also planning to get our curriculum online so that Oaksterdam can come to you. Dr. Assem Sappal is Provost and Dean of Faculty at Oaksterdam University.
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The Importance of Guided Consumption By Amanda Reiman While other states might take a springbreak, party-bus approach to cannabis tourism, California has a special responsibility to create opportunities for education and guided consumption, especially now that marijuana has been legalized in the nation’s largest state—the world’s sixth-largest economy. Here are three things to consider as the Golden State moves forward:
• Responsible use requires social learning.
Thinking back to my first few encounters with alcohol, they could have gone better. Rushed, mindless use often resulted in overconsumption and too many bentover visits to the toilet; eventually, after moving to California and visiting wineries, I was introduced to alcohol in a new way. With marijuana, it doesn’t have to be like that: While some might claim that overconsumption of cannabis is a fairly benign rite of passage, we can instead create environments where those new to the plant, or returning to it after a few decades, have positive experiences and interactions with marijuana. This is vitally important because…
• People internalize their experiences and base their decisions on them, even political decisions. Soon, tourists 24 www.freedomleaf.com
will begin flocking to California, as they have to Colorado, looking to experience legal marijuana. This can go one of two ways: They can have amazing experiences where they learn about the plant—how it’s grown, how it can benefit health and why it’s been prohibited all these years—and return to their home states. Tell all their friends about what they learned and become activists to end prohibition. Or, they can buy a bunch of products, take them back to their hotel rooms and learn nothing about the new legal cannabis economy, other than it got them stoned. Creating opportunities for positive interactions and education can be the key to moving this issue forward in harder-toreach states. This is also important because…
• Cannabis can save the world.
Industrial uses of the cannabis plant might very well hold the key to ending our dependence on oil, lumber and many pharmaceuticals. Expanding sustainability practices and philanthropic endeavors, as well as the roles of women and those impacted by the drug war, are vital to the success of the cannabis industry. We’re the ambassadors for the positive future of cannabis, and success depends on our ability to engender the mindfulness and education that will last long after the high wears off. Amanda Reiman is Communications Manager at Flow Kana in San Francisco.
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Snoop Dogg with his manager and business partner, Ted Chung
Snoop & Chung They’re not a comedy team or a law firm, but rather one of the hottest duos in cannabiz today. By Matt Chelsea Ted Chung may not stand out as a household name in the celebrity pantheon, but he’s well known in the music business as the longtime manager of hip-hop giant Snoop Dogg. Ranked No. 2 along with Snoop on Billboard’s Pot Power List of music industry players, Chung heads the Cashmere Agency, an L.A.-based branding firm. In an interview with Freedom Leaf, Chung says Snoop’s presence in the cannabis industry evolved over decades, dating back to the early 1990s when he had hits like “Gin and Juice.” Their business efforts on this front intensified after adult use in Colorado exploded. “Snoop is the leading figurehead for the cannabis lifestyle movement, es-
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pecially on a global basis,” Chung contends. “Expressing his liberties in the cannabis movement had been primarily through his content—audio, TV, film and tours. At the early stages of legalization, he was always a strong proponent for cannabis usage. A few years ago, we put together a real think tank with our companies and with outside executives to focus on how we’d enact our strategy in the cannabis space.” In 2015, Snoop Dogg and Chung launched Leafs by Snoop, the rapper’s branded cannabis product line now available in more than 120 retail stores in Colorado and Washington State, with plans to expand to Canada (see Freedom Leaf’s review in Issue 13). “We’re very particular in our [product] offerings, and respectful of local regu-
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lations,” Chung explains. “We have a spectrum of flowers—indica, sativa and CBD strains. We offer infused products, such as chocolate bars, gummies and lozenges as well.” Chung also spends a good deal of his time on Merry Jane, his and Snoop Dogg’s other major cannabis enterprise, a digital media content and data provider aimed at millennials. “There was a point in time, especially for those in entertainment, when you could categorize demographic groups by the genre of music they listened to,” Chung observes. “But nowadays, certain millennials wake up and listen to Drake or 21 Pilots or Taylor Swift or Kanye West or Florida Georgia Line.Everyone has a very diverse palate when it comes to content.” But cannabis cuts across all of these differing tastes for the post-2000 generation. “Every generation wants to leave its mark as early as they can on society, and this is one of those changes of counterculture going mainstream—like rock & roll in the mid-20th century, or social media of this century. People can unite around [cannabis] and leave a mark, with a positive impact for generations.” Merry Jane has made a major impact with its TV shows—MTV’s Mary + Jane and VH1’s Martha and Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party—concert tours (The High Road, featuring Snoop and Wiz Khalifa) and festivals (Snoop Dogg’s 4/20 Wellness Retreat). The business also produces Snoop’s online talk show, Double G News Network, as well as Rolling with Rogen (Seth Rogen and Miley Cyrus are Merry Jane investors). Finally, as the third prong of their strategy, Snoop and Chung founded Casa Verde Capital, a venture-stage investment firm that seeks opportunities in the cannabis industry to fund companies that provide related supplies and ser-
vices; the company is focused on investments in media, technology, agriculture, health, wellness and consumer products. A distinct business entity in Snoop Dogg’s empire, run by its own set of executives, Casa Verde listed a target of $25 million from investors in a 2015 regulatory filing. Along with its stake in Merry Jane, in November Casa Verde invested in Denver-based FunkSac, which makes FunkGuard child-resistant packaging, FunkSac cultivation bags and FunkZip security bags at manufacturing sites in Ohio. The dollar amount of the investment was not disclosed. In 2015, Casa Verde took part in a $10 million round of financing for Eaze, a cannabis delivery service known as the “Uber of weed.” In 2014, Snoop invested in the social media site Reddit. To be sure, even the star power of Snoop and Chung doesn’t guarantee a rich future for their companies. Any startup faces plenty of risks; if a venture capital fund gets one or two winners out of 20 investments, it’s typically considered a success. But with Merry Jane and other ventures, Chung sees an opportunity to ride a big wave comparable to the swell in social media companies in recent years. “With cannabis legalization advancing forward, the economies of scale are tremendous,” Chung says. “You’ll find entrepreneurs coming into the space at a very rapid rate.” Asked if he sees a possible bursting of the cannabis bubble if too much capital flows in too quickly, Chung thinks it’s possible, but the business will survive: “Every industry has its ups and downs. The cannabis industry has been around long enough on the medical side that it has a more predictable market size. That means it’s more secure as an investment.”
“This is one of those changes of counterculture going mainstream.” TED CHUNG
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Smoked Sessions O Donald Trump’s Attorney General is no friend of marijuana. By Allen St. Pierre ne can only imagine the collectively held breath of thousands of cannabis-related companies, tens of thousands of industry employees and millions of pot consumers during the confirmation hearings for Sen. Jeff Sessions (R–AL) at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. in January, just prior to Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th president of the United States. As the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings played out, cannabis supporters waited for any indication of whether
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or not Sessions, as Attorney General, would continue the policies of the Obama administration, or apply traditional federal criminal justice resources and enforcement in states with liberalized marijuana policies for adult and/or medical use. It’s an $8 billion question. Since 2014, when adult-use sales began in Colorado and have since gone into effect in three more states, $8 billion in cannabis commerce has been generated. Will Sessions and Trump stomp all over the marijuana industry, or allow it to flourish? Looking at Sessions’ track record, the most likely answer is the former. An ex-prosecutor and longtime culture warrior, Sessions has vehemently opposed any measure of cannabis law reform no matter how slight, making discordant comments during his three terms in the Senate, dating back to 1995. He’s particularly known for: • Stating that he thought the KKK was “OK, until I found out they smoked pot.” • Telling a Senate hearing that “good people don’t smoke marijuana.” • Criticizing the Obama administration for failing to enforce federal anti-cannabis laws in legal states like Colorado. During the nomination hearings, Sessions was questioned by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D–VT), who hails from a state that legalized medical access to cannabis more than a decade ago, decriminalized adult possession in 2013 and last year came within a few votes of becoming the first state in the union to legalize cannabis via legislation rather than through a popular voter ballot initiative. Here’s how the exchange went: Sen. Leahy: “Would you use our federal resources to investigate and prosecute sick people who are using marijuana in accordance with state law even though it might violate federal law?” Sessions: “I won’t commit to never enforcing federal law, Senator Leahy, but absolutely it’s a problem of resources for the federal government. The Department of Justice under [AG Loretta] Lynch and [AG Eric] Holder set forth some policies that they thought were appropriate to define what cases should be prosecuted in states that have legalized, at least in
some fashion, marijuana, some parts of marijuana.” Sen. Leahy: “Do you agree with those guidelines?” Sessions: “I think some of them are truly valuable in evaluating cases, but fundamentally the criticism I think that was legitimate is that they may not have been followed. Using good judgment about how to handle these cases will be a responsibility of mine. I know it won’t be an easy decision, but I will try to do my duty in a fair and just way.” Sen. Leahy: “The reason I mention this is because you have some very strong views, you even mandated the death penalty for anyone convicted of a second offense of drug trafficking, including marijuana, even though mandatory death penalties and, of course, unconstitutional.” Sessions: “Well, I’m not sure under what circumstances I said that, but I don’t think it sounds like something I would normally say.” Sen. Leahy: “Would you say it’s not your view today?” Sessions: “It is not my view today.” Sen. Mike Lee (R–UT) followed up with this question: “You have an interesting set of circumstances with our controlled substances laws concerning marijuana. For the first time in a very long time you’ve seen some attention paid to federalism, but in a limited area associated with marijuana. There are federal laws prohibiting the use of marijuana, the sale of marijuana and the production of marijuana that apply regardless of whether a state has independently criminalized that drug, as every state, until recently, had. Then you had some states coming along and decriminalizing it sometimes in the medical context, other times in a broader context. The response by the Department of Justice during the Obama administration has been interesting and it’s been different than it has been in other areas. They have been slow to recognize, for instance, federalism elsewhere; they chose to recognize it here. My question to you is, did the way they responded to that federalism concern run afoul of separation of powers? Can the department’s
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Jeff Sessions’ Wilcox County High School yearbook photo in 1965 and with his classmates.
approach to this issue be identified as a federalism issue?” Sessions: “I’m not sure I fully understand the point of the question—you’re talking about separations of powers within the federal government, right? The three branches of federal government? Sen. Lee: “Yes.” Sessions: “And how does that implicate the marijuana laws?” Sen. Lee: “Yes. Are there separation of powers concerns arising out of the Department of Justice’s current approach to state marijuana laws?” Sessions: “I think one obvious concern is that the United States Congress has made the possession of marijuana in every state, and distribution of it, an illegal act. If that’s something that’s not desired any longer, Congress should pass a law to change the rule. It’s not so much the Attorney General’s job to decide what laws to enforce. We should do our job and enforce laws effectively as we’re able.”
Southern Man
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III was born on Dec. 24, 1946 in Selma, Ala. The son of working-class parents, Sessions was an Eagle Scout and a Young Republican growing up. In 1969, he graduated from Huntington College, in Montgomery, where he was student body president, and in 1973 he graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law, in Tuscaloosa. He served as a captain in the Army Reserve from 1973–1986.
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After a couple of years in private practice, in 1975 Sessions was appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, thus beginning his political career. Six years later he was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to become the U.S. Attorney for the district. Sessions was confirmed and held the position until 1993. However, Sessions’ second nomination by Reagan, for a U.S. District Court judgeship in 1986, didn’t go as well. In a bruising and public rebuke, the Senate rejected his bid to serve in that position based on his history of racial insensitivity during his employ as U.S. Attorney. Coretta Scott King and the NAACP opposed that nomination primarily due to Sessions’ prosecution of three AfricanAmerican community activists on trumpedup voter fraud charges in 1985 (one of the accused, Albert Turner, was a former MLK aide); the “Marion Three” defendants were ultimately acquitted. “Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens.” King wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Mar. 19, 1986. “I urge the Senate Judiciary Committee to deny his confirmation.” Sessions has also been accused of calling the NAACP and the ALCU “un-American” and “communist-inspired,” and of referring to a black Assistant U.S. Attorney as “boy.” When his crass comment about the KKK smoking marijuana (he said that in 1981, while investigating the murder of a black man killed by two Klansmen in Mobile, Ala.) was
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“
On President Obama:
It is inconceivable to me that a person of this attitude is qualified to be a U.S. Attorney, let alone a U.S. federal judge.” Although Sessions was not confirmed (by a 10-8 vote), the rejection didn’t derail his political career. In 1994, he won the race for Attorney General of Alabama, and two years later he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
We need grownups in charge in Washington to say marijuana is not From Senator to the kind of thing that Attorney General ought to be legalized... Unlike many other elected policymakers of his generation, the 70-year-old attorI think it’s one of his ney from Mobile has no stated experience with using cannabis, and appears great failures. His lax to have lived a life in which marijuana was not prevalent. treatment and comments In Sessions’ time in the Senate, he has concentrated on criminal justice about marijuana [were] matters and has opposed drug policy reforms, while at the same time being a obvious. It reverse[d] 20 strong proponent of civil forfeiture directed at drug-related activity. Sessions has years almost of hostility consistently been ranked by non-profit policy reform groups as one of the to drugs, begun when drug staunchest opponents to marijuana law in the Senate, along with fellow Nancy Reagan started the reforms Republicans Rob Portman (OH), Chuck (IA) and John Cornyn (TX). Just Say No program. Grassley Sessions made his most famous
“
brought up in the 1986 hearings, Sessions called it a joke—“a silly comment, I guess you might say I made.” (At his 2016 hearings, he further explained, when asked, in writing, about the quote: “My words have been grossly mischaracterized and taken out of context…. I was discussing the value of treating people for using dangerous and illegal drugs like marijuana, and the context in which treatment is successful.”) At that time, over 30 years ago, committee member Sen. Ted Kennedy described Sessions as “a throwback to a shameful era, which I know black and white Americans thought was in our past.
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statement about cannabis, that “good people don’t smoke marijuana,” at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last April dubbed “Protecting the Public from the Impact of State Recreational Marijuana Legalization,” where his decidedly anachronistic and unpopular views about marijuana were on full display. Sessions discussed at length his admiration for Nancy Reagan and her Just Say No anti-drug campaign in the 1980s, which he claimed “moved this country from 50% of high school seniors using marijuana or another drug to less than half of that.” He praised the Reagan administration for “the creating of knowledge that this drug is dangerous, you cannot play with it, it’s not funny, it’s not something to laugh about,” and for “trying to send that message with clarity that good people don’t smoke marijuana.”
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From John Mitchell to John Ashcroft: The Nine Worst Attorneys General Since the early 1960s, those holding the office of U.S. Attorney General—the nation’s chief law enforcement officer— have had a profound effect on federal cannabis policy. • The modern War on Drugs didn’t begin in earnest until Richard Nixon defeated Hubert Humphrey in 1968 to become the 37th president. Nixon’s Attorney General (AG) for most of his time in office was drug-war architect John Mitchell. From 1969–1972, arrest rates for cannabis began to soar; minorities were targeted for arrest, prosecution and incarceration; the absurd Controlled Substances Act was passed; and the Drug Enforcement Administration John Mitchell was launched. • Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980 plunged the nation into a generationlong public policy hole where Nixon’s War on Drugs was not only re-embraced, but magnified many times over, with dozens of anti-drug laws passed, increased use of the military in domestic law enforcement, the institution of mass drug testing and complete official rejection that cannabis was anything but a dangerous and deadly narcotic. Reagan’s two AGs—William French Smith and Edwin Meese— were overtly hostile to any cannabis law reforms, and fought both science and the will of the public during the Just Say No era.
• Elected in 1988, George H.W. Bush’s choices to head the DOJ—Dick Thornburgh and William Barr—were carbon copies of Reagan appointees. Both ratcheted up the drug war in any way possible. • The 1992 election of the nation’s first Baby Boomer president, Bill Clinton, offered little change from the Nixon/Reagan/Bush drug war doctrine, with his AG appointment of get-toughon-crime prosecutor Janet Reno, who supported mandatory-minimum sentencing and opposed state voter initiatives that allowed medical access to cannabis. • Clinton’s successor, George W. Bush, had no incentive to deviate from his party’s rigidly anti-cannabis policies. His three AGs—John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales and Michael Mukasey— all blocked marijuana law reforms, and notably harassed, arrested and prosecuted patients and dispensary owners in a number of Western states. In particular, Ashcroft targeted Tommy Chong; in 2003, the comedian was arrested for interstate sale of paraphernalia (bongs) and spent nine months in federal prison. As if to punctuate nearly 40 years of failed cannabis policy, by the time Bush and company departed Washington in 2008, an all-time record high of nearly 900,000 annual marijuana arrests nationwide (in 2007) had been reached. —Allen St. Pierre
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John Ashcroft
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“
ON “JUST SAY NO”:
It was a prevention movement, it really was so positive. The creating of knowledge that this drug is dangerous, you cannot play with it, it’s not funny, it’s not something to laugh about. Trying to send that message with clarity that good people don’t smoke marijuana.
“
Sessions also attacked President Obama over the issue, saying, “We need grownups in charge in Washington to say marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized,” and, “I believe the president needs to reassert some leadership on this. I think the president needs to speak out. I think it’s one of [Obama’s] great failures. It’s been obvious to me. His lax treatment and comments about marijuana have been obvious. It reverses 20 years, almost, of hostility to drugs.” He issued the following warning: “If we go back into this path, we’re going to regret it…. Lives will be impacted, families will be broken up, children will be
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damaged… and people may be psychologically impacted the rest of their lives with marijuana.” Those who think Sessions will tread lightly on legal states are likely to be disappointed. At the confirmation hearings, he particularly directed invective at Colorado, which he described as “one of the leading states that started the movement to suggest that marijuana is not dangerous.” According to Sessions: “You can see the accidents, traffic deaths related to marijuana, a 20% jump…. You’ve got huge increases in marijuana-related emergency-room visits. This is as obvious as night following day.” He even posed the question: “Is there any sense that Colorado might reevaluate what they’ve done?” Which brings us back to Sessions’ rejoinder regarding federal law at January’s hearings. By putting the onus on Congress to update cannabis laws, he proved to be no more or less radical or inflexible than Obama’s first AG, Eric Holder, who, when asked by inquiring senators during his 2009 confirmation hearings about the ever-increasing number of states with medical cannabis laws, also chose to punt the issue to Congress. The soon-to-be-announced nominees to head the DEA and Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), who Sessions will have a huge hand in choosing, will reveal more information about a Trump/Sessions national cannabis policy. At press time, Acting DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg had been retained by the Trump White House, but Drug Czar Michael Botticelli was out, replaced by Acting Drug Czar Kemp Chester. The Trump administration has other crucially important personnel decisions pending that will directly impact federal cannabis policy, including installing the heads of NIDA, the FDA and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Interestingly, a big difference between the national cannabis policies of Obama and Holder compared to those expected from Trump and his Cabinet is that in 2009, no state had yet created a regulated market for medical cannabis.
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Donald Trump with his Attorney General, former Alabama Senator Jeff Beauregard Sessions III.
Soon after Obama took office, the state legislatures of New Mexico and, more importantly, Colorado effectively ended medical cannabis prohibition by passing legislation that created licensed, regulated and taxed cannabis for patients who possessed a physician’s recommendation. Twenty-nine states have now passed legislation or voter initiatives allowing medical access to cannabis; 16 states and the District of Columbia have decriminalized adult possession; and, most significantly, eight states have legalized cannabis outright, to be sold and taxed similarly to alcohol and tobacco products. Trump and Sessions are inheriting an entirely different and more diffused federal cannabis policy that, under Obama and AG Holder (and later, AG Lynch), allowed states and municipalities to collect well over a billion dollars annually in cannabis-related licenses, fees and taxes. If Trump and Sessions want to return the federal government to recklessly enforced and unpopular anti-cannabis policies (according to recent surveys, 80% of the public supports access to cannabis for medical purposes and 60%
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support legalization), they will do so in direct opposition to the states that assert their autonomy under federalism and receive taxes and other revenue from marijuana commerce popularly approved either by voters or elected policymakers. If the old saying is true that “personnel equates to policy,” Sessions will soon provide the first real indication of whether the Feds’ long-failed cannabis prohibition policy has, in fact, ended in America—or if he will re-embrace Reefer Madness. To help lobby the Trump administration and Congress in favor of allowing states to continue leading the way on marijuana legalization, contact your elected members of Congress and the Senate to inform them of your strong support for ending federal cannabis prohibition, and for allowing states continued autonomy to legalize and tax cannabis. And join and support cannabis law reform organizations such as NORML, DPA, NCIA, MPP, ASA and SSDP. Allen St. Pierre, the former Executive Director of NORML, is Freedom Leaf’s VP of Advocacy and Communications.
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Freedom Leaf INTERVIEW by Russ Belville
Eddy
Lepp
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On the morning of Aug. 18, 2004, DEA agents raided Eddy’s Medicinal Gardens and Multi-Denominational Chapel of Cannabis and Rastafari in Upper Lake, Calif. They arrested Charles Eddy Lepp, who had been allowing patients to cultivate cannabis for medical purposes on his property; the 24,784 plants confiscated on his 20 acres were clearly visible from State Highway 20. In 1997, he was raided, arrested, charged and acquitted by local and state authorities for doing the same thing. But then the Feds stepped in: Lepp was convicted of federal drug felonies in 2007, and sentenced in 2009 to a 10-year mandatoryminimum prison bid. Born on May 14, 1952 in La Harpe, Ill., Lepp was raised in Reno, Nev. and served in the U.S. Army’s military intelligence unit in Vietnam from 1969–1972, where he discovered cannabis. Lepp’s epiphany on the medical use of marijuana came in 1987, when his father used it to battle cancer, and then rose in prominence as a marijuana activist in the early 1990s. He and his late wife, Linda Senti, gathered signatures for California’s Proposition 215, and soon after its passage in 1996, Lepp formed the Medicinal Gardens that earned him his first arrest. During his time in
prison, Senti passed away, and eight states, including California, legalized the adult use of cannabis. On Dec. 9, Lepp was released from prison into a halfway house in San Francisco, where he began the probationary portion of his sentence. Freedom Leaf spoke with Lepp by phone in January. What exactly were you convicted of and sentenced for in your case? Originally, I was looking at four life sentences, plus 40 years and $17 million in fines on six or seven different charges. The judge threw all of the search warrants out of court, completely and totally. What I was actually convicted of was conspiracy to manufacture a controlled substance, which is growing marijuana, and conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, which was the marijuana. I received no fine and a 10-year sentence. It’ll be eight years and two months that I’ve been in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, by the time I get out of the halfway house. It’s been a long ride. Where were you imprisoned? I originally was taken to Lompoc [in California]. I ended up being there almost a year. I had come up to San Francisco to go back to court. That judge sent a letter saying, “Why isn’t he in a camp?” They transferred me to the camp at Lompoc, where I spent nearly two years. Then I was transferred to Latoona in El Paso, Tex., and to the federal prison in Florence, Colo., which is about 20 miles south of Pueblo. I thought that was kind of funny because by the time I got there, Colorado had legalized marijuana. What was it like in prison? Well, you know, you kind of put everything on hold when you go to prison. For example, I had to deal with quite a few deaths—my wife, Jack Herer and a lot of other people. You can’t deal with that aspect of your life, you have to kind of pretend it didn’t happen and get on with the day-to-day. Now that I’m out, I’ll cry
for everybody I’ve lost. But you can’t show that kind of weakness in there. While you were behind bars, there was a remarkable change in the legal status of marijuana commerce in a number of states. How does that make you feel? I hope to go back to doing what I’ve been doing for 20 years mostly, which is being an advocate for the full legalization of hemp as an industrial product. Jack Herer and I seldom talked about the uses of cannabis—what we talked about mostly was industrial hemp and why it wasn’t being used for the purposes that God intended it. Today, the most-used commodity in products is sea kelp. It’s used in 1,200 to 1,500 products, everything from shoe polish to toothpaste. It’s been estimated that if they had the same freedom to experiment with hemp like they do with sea kelp, that hemp would be in 5,000 to 10,000 products within two years, and in over 25,000 within five. Hemp is truly God’s gift to His children, not just for spiritual use and medicinal use, but as an industrial product, second to none. There have been big changes in that area, too, with Colorado, Oregon, Kentucky and other states beginning to legally grow hemp. That must warm your heart a bit. I was told time and time again, when I was in prison, by various prison employees, that my problem was that I was 15 or 20 years ahead of my time. So, it wasn’t really a surprise to me, because I did see it coming many, many years ago. As you look at this developing industry, are you worried about profit motive—about this Green Rush that’s happening? Just as I foresaw what was going to happen 20 years ago, I can foresee what’s going to happen now. It’s big business. The big players are trying to get involved, all the time. The Scotts fertilizer company is getting involved—this is a billion-dollar
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From left, clockwise: Eddy’s Medicinal Gardens in California.; prior to jail, with a giant doobie; post release, with Heidi Grossman.
Should marijuana be taxed?
company. And there’s no way to get around it; America is based on capitalism, and it always has been. So I’m not at all surprised that there are people who want to make money off of marijuana. Personally, I don’t have any trouble with that.
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It should not be taxed at any higher rate than any other agricultural product. Now, I know that all of the politicians in the world see this as the golden goose laying the golden egg. But they’re completely and totally wrong about this. This plant is a gift to His children from Jah. It is not meant to be exploited by man or government. And the fact that they’re exploiting it is ridiculous. I think back to when California first legalized medical marijuana through Prop 215. There was this big hue and cry about everybody having to get state-issued registration cards so they would be registered marijuana users. I told numerous public officials: “You want to register a recommended or prescribed product like marijuana, fine, we’ll do it. But first, make a registration card for everybody that’s on pain pills, and a
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,,
Hemp is truly God’s gift to His children, not just for spiritual use and medicinal use, but as an industrial product, second to none.
,,
registration card for everybody that’s on anti-psychotics, and a registration card for everybody that’s using all these other drugs. Then I’ll be glad to get one for marijuana.” Is the marijuana juggernaut too big, at this point, to stop economically? I see no reason in the world why Donald Trump would want to stop it. Trump doesn’t hang out with congressmen and senators; he buys and sells them. I’m just talking historically, the way his world runs. Who does he hang out with? The other guys on the Fortune 500 list. That’s who he eats lunch with, who he plays golf with, who he goes into business with. There are all kinds of major national and international corporations getting into the marijuana industry. Why would Trump piss on his friends? That’s what he’s going to have to do to be totally anti-marijuana. Personally, I don’t see it happening. I think that Trump may, in fact, be a very good thing for the marijuana industry. Where Obama didn’t have the courage to follow up on his campaign promises, and do what he said he would
do, Trump may very well, in fact, do it, because marijuana is a cash crop. State governments are concerned about consumers growing their own cannabis and undercutting tax revenue. Wouldn’t it be in Trump’s friends’ best interest to kill home growing? Are you aware of the fact that every American has the legal right to produce, without permits or interference from the government, 500 gallons of wine and 500 gallons of beer each year? Despite Budweiser and Coors, and all of these other billion-dollar alcohol companies, everybody has the right to make their own beer and wine. These giant corporations make billions of dollars selling the same product. I’m not saying that there aren’t people trying to kill it. But, I will reiterate: Marijuana should be treated the same as any other agricultural product. How can readers get in touch with you? I’m on Facebook. My girlfriend, Heidi Grossman, is on Facebook. Heidi will see to it that I get any and all messages. I’m looking forward to going home to Heidi. With any luck, there may be wedding bells in the future shortly. Russ Belville hosts The Russ Belville Show daily at radicalruss.com.
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Obama’s Legacy
of Pardons and Commutations By Ngaio Bealum I’d like to offer a big thank-you to Barack Obama for pardoning and commuting the sentences of nearly 2,000 prisoners, most of whom were convicted of drug offenses; he granted 330 commutations on Jan. 19, his last full day in office. Since common sense tells us that drug use is a social and health issue and not a criminal justice issue, I’d also like to thank Obama for doing his best to create long-lasting judicial reform despite years of Republican obstruction. It’ll be great for these prisoners to go home to their families and return to being constructive members of society. It’s a shame he couldn’t have released more. It’s also too bad Obama didn’t get marijuana descheduled during his eight years in office, but I understand that if Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders had won, perhaps we might have had a chance for true federal marijuana law reform. Such is life. Also, big-ups to all the advocates and activists, like Cheri Sicard from the Marijuana Lifer Project (see her article on page 46) and Adele Falk at pow420.com, who’ve worked tirelessly to free prisoners, giving their time and energy to liberate our fellow citizens.
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I can only hope President Trump (how it galls me to have to say that) will follow Obama’s lead in this area, and that the spirit of justice will compel him to continue Obama’s work of freeing people who have no business being in jail. Unfortunately, Trump has shown no interest in social justice. As I write this, we’re 10 days into the Trump presidency, and already his disrespect for women and racist nationalism has prompted gigantic protests all over the country. And while marijuana may be low on his list of priorities, there’s no telling what will happen to cannabis users, let alone to the cannabis industry. Sometimes I think that conservatives who believe in states’ rights and the power of money will be able to talk Trump into leaving cannabis users alone, but then I remember that the entire War on Drugs was created by President Nixon as a way to legally throw anti-war activists, pot proponents and hippies in jail. A return to the old days of federal raids would be a drag. But what if we’ve already won and there are too many of us for them to stop? Ngaio Bealum is a Sacramento-based comedian and activist who regularly appears at cannabis events.
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Life for
Craig Cesal
Pot You’ll be shocked to know so many prisoners ARE SERVING LIFE SENTENCES IN PRISON ON MARIJUANA charges. For many, the only hope is a presidential pardon.
By Cheri Sicard Craig Cesal thought there was no possible way a judge could sentence a first-time offender, who did nothing more than recover and repair trucks that had previously hauled marijuana, to serve a life sentence without parole. Cesal was wrong. Some of the trucks he was called on to retrieve had been used to smuggle drugs. The abandoned truck Cesal recovered in Gainesville, Ga. in 2002 had no marijuana in it; the cargo had been seized at the Mexican border. Nonetheless, he was charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana. It always shocks the public—even the marijuana-consuming public—to learn that there are actually people serving life sentences for nonviolent marijuana offenses, right here in the so-called “land of the free.” Once this fact settles in, many people jump to all kinds of logical-sounding yet inaccurate conclusions: The prisoner must have been importing tons of marijuana, been violent or had some serious prior offenses, or perhaps “three strikes” came into play. It’s true that some marijuana lifers imported lots of weed. But in many cases, the defendant was a minor player and was never caught with so much as a single seed—what prisoners call “ghost
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dope.” Some people like Cesal and John Knock, who received not one but two life sentences for conspiracy, were first-time offenders. And while there are violent offenders serving life sentences for cannabis, none of the men represented by the Marijuana Lifer Project, a non-profit organization I founded in 2016 to advocate for these prisoners, had any violence charges brought in their cases. Once people learn that nonviolent prisoners are serving life for pot, some assume that these prisoners must be relics of a bygone era, when the U.S. used to give out long sentences for marijuana. Since the majority of the marijuana lifers are now senior citizens who’ve been incarcerated for decades, it’s easy to see how this misconception got started. This, too, is inaccurate: In 2014, Corvain Cooper received his sentence of life without parole; and two others were sentenced to life in 2016. The believability factor surrounding this issue has been one of the toughest obstacles I’ve had to fight as an advocate; it’s all so incredible that most people simply don’t believe it. When you tell the average person that someone is serving a life sentence for pot, they naturally assume there must be a dead body somewhere. And while it may seem logical that this would be necessary in order to receive such a harsh sentence, sadly our elected leaders see nothing wrong with locking up nonviolent offenders for the rest of their natural lives in order to
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“protect” U.S. citizens from the horrors of marijuana. The reality is, a conspiracy charge earned the majority of the marijuana lifers their egregious sentences. This word scares the general public, but it shouldn’t; nearly everyone reading this article could be guilty of a conspiracy. All it means is you know someone involved in, or knew something about, a “crime.” The law holds everyone involved in a conspiracy equally responsible, regardless of how much or how little they actually participated. This is how Leopoldo Hernandez-Miranda, a Florida day laborer who watched over a storehouse of marijuana, ended up serving life without parole. John Knock
No physical evidence is needed for a prosecutor to win a conspiracy conviction. All it takes is the testimony of another “co-conspirator,” who most likely is also trying to avoid prison time. This explains how, in many cases, the true “kingpins” these laws were designed to protect the public from end up serving little or no jail time, while minor players like Cesal and Hernandez-Miranda end up with life sentences. The system is designed for defendants to take plea deals; anyone who stands their ground and exercises their 6th Amendment right to a trial and loses is punished far more severely than if they’d simply copped a plea in the first place. The deck is severely stacked against these defendants.
For marijuana lifer Paul Free, admitting guilt by taking a deal and incriminating others was never an option. He’d been offered a plea deal numerous times, but it involved testifying against others, some of whom he was acquainted with, and some he’d never known, seen, met or even heard of. Free told me, “What good is life if you can’t look at yourself in the mirror?” Now 66, and in his 22nd year of incarceration, Free was one of the lucky ones on President Obama’s pre-Christmas clemency list. Unlike a handful of other marijuana lifers who also won the “clemency lottery,” Free will not see immediate release; instead, Obama reduced the Coronado, Calif. native’s life-without-parole sentence to 30 years. With time off for good behavior, he could be free by 2020. Even luckier are some of the other lifers I’ve advocated for who gained freedom via a stroke of the president’s pen before he left office. Former Marine Billy Dekle, Charles Cundiff, Alberto Rosales and Craig Frazier were all released to either halfway houses or home confinement within weeks or, in some cases, days of getting the good news. Zionist Coptic priest James Tranmer, 73, who considered his incarceration religious persecution, also made it to Obama’s final round of clemencies. Announced the day before the Trump inauguration, Tranmer felt “overwhelmed” by the news that he would finally reunite Leopoldo HernandezMiranda
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Paul Free
with his family after 24 years behind bars. President Obama, in comparison to his predecessors, was generous in granting clemencies. According to the Justice Department, the Obama administration received 31,149 clemency petitions; 1,715 were granted (including 504 life sentences). However, only a tiny percentage of these were for marijuana-only crimes. By comparison, Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, granted just 189 petitions. In the four years since I began doing this work, 11 lifers I’ve personally worked with have been granted clemency or were released through other legal maneuvers. For an activist like myself, there’s no greater reward. At the same time, it’s difficult to fathom the logic that’s left so many other deserving prisoners between bars. Corvain Cooper
Most shocking of all for me was when 81-year-old first-time offender Antonio Bascaro, the world’s longest-serving marijuana prisoner, received a clemency petition denial letter. A Cuban war hero who has served 37 years of a collective 70-year sentence (some sentences served concurrently) for his part in a marijuana conspiracy, Bascaro will go to home confinement release in a year and a half, if he makes it that long. Another mystery is what will happen to Michael Pelletier, 60, a wheelchair-bound paraplegic who’s serving life without parole for his part in a cannabis conspiracy. Unlike the other marijuana lifers who either were granted clemency James Tranmer
or received a denial letter, Pelletier got neither. He continues to wait in limbo at USP Terre Haute, the maximum-security federal penitentiary in Indiana. Perhaps the biggest question of all is what, if anything, will occur to correct these injustices under the Trump administration, especially with notorious drug warrior Jeff Sessions serving as Attorney General. While clemency remains the best and sometimes only hope for those serving life sentences for marijuana, the only certainty going forward is that activists will continue to fight, and prisoners and their families will continue to hope and pray for freedom. For more information, go to marijuanaliferproject.com.
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for Cannabis Lovers Pot podcasting comes to life on Cannabis Radio. By Steve Bloom
From Tommy Chong to Freedom Leaf columnist Ngaio Bealum to Los Angeles celebrity magnet Dr. Dina Browner, the Cannabis Radio network hosts a strong and diverse group of podcasters that makes it well worth tuning in to their Internet-driven programming. “We try to build the content around them, and find the person who has the most amount of awareness, or people we think are diamonds in the rough who have amazing information to offer, but just haven’t had a platform to do it,” says Cannabis Radio co-founder and President, Brandy Shapiro. “Hosting a radio show gives them that second wing to fly.” Shapiro and her husband, Daron Babin, founded the network in 2015. Both have backgrounds in media: Shapiro used to work at Clear Channel, and Babin at the NBC affiliate in Houston. They started WebmasterRadio.FM in 2004 before directing their attention to CannabisRadio.com.
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The network is available on cannabisradio.com, iTunes and iHeartRadio, as well as other platforms. It rotates shows, promotional pitches and news reports from USA Radio Network and other syndicated networks. Cannabis luminaries, like Vivian McPeak, Russ Belville, Mitch Earleywine and Kyle Kushman, host most of their shows. Based in Phoenix, with production facilities in Florida, Cannabis Radio derives revenue from advertising, sponsorships, production fees and its white-label SEO services. For the show hosts, it helps to have requisite radio skills and a ready-made audience of devoted followers. Each host is paired with a trainer and a show producer, who help them “shape their content, and make sure they personify themselves the way they need to in order to reach their stakeholders. We support them to have a voice that continues their expert status in the industry,” Shapiro explains. Hosts are not paid, but they can make money by bringing advertisers to the network. “They stick with us, because it’s keeping them relevant and gives them authority,” she adds. A non-smoker, Shapiro was drawn to
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the cannabis industry due to her mother’s sickness. “She was in incredible shape physically when Alzheimer’s hit,” Shapiro says about Beverly, whose accomplishments included advising the governor of Massachusetts on physical fitness and sports. “People
Cannabis Radio’s husbandand-wife team, Daron Babin and Brandy Shapiro
having access to a plant that enhances the dignity and quality of their lives? I’m all about it.” While continuing to improve the listener experience at Cannabis Radio— more business programming is planned— Shapiro is particularly excited about their next move into video. “On Election Night, we did six hours of live TV and radio simulcast,” she says. “That gave us the bug. For starters, we’re going to produce a six-episode newsmagazine-style show. Each episode will focus on different cannabis business subjects.” Shapiro expects the video series to roll out “in the next four months.”
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Top Pot Jocks Chip Baker
The Real Dirt with Chip Baker The CEO of Cultivate Colorado offers news from the Centennial State, and an insider’s take on the industry.
Ngaio Bealum
Rollin’ with Ngaio The standup comic, writer (turn to page 44) and advocate is perfect for radio. He brings the noise and some jokes, too.
Russ Belville
The Russ Belville Show The longtime activist writes for Freedom Leaf and High Times. His daily show keeps listeners focused on current events.
Dr. Dina Browner
Cannabis Confidential Browner is tight with Snoop Dogg, 2 Chainz and many other L.A. celebstoners who appear on her show.
Tommy Chong
The Tommy Chong Podcast Chong tells humorous stories about his years working as Cheech & Chong, and discusses current affairs.
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Mitch Earleywine
Burning Issues The NORML Advisory Board member and Professor of Psychology at SUNY Albany delves into a variety of issues, mostly focused on health.
Joe Klare
The Stoner Jesus Show Sort of The Man Show for stoners, Klare promises to “bring live radio to new heights of debauchery,” and delivers.
Kyle Kushman
The Grow Show with Kyle Kushman The legendary breeder/grower—he’s known for Strawberry Cough—dispenses horticulture wisdom.
Heather Manus
Good News with Nurse Heather The founder and President of the Arizona Cannabis Nurses Association provides medical information for concerned listeners.
Vivian McPeak
Hempresent The Executive Director and co-founder of Seattle Hempfest brings a distinctly Northwest slant to the network’s programming.
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flying high in
las vegas
With its dazzling lights, famous stage shows and spectacular casinos, theres ‘ plenty for a stoner to do in Sin City. by chris thompson
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Left: The High Roller Ferris wheel; above: the Bellagio Hotel’s famous fountains.
v
ery soon, Las Vegas may just eclipse Denver as the marijuana tourist capital of the U.S. Do you want to visit the newly green Sin City, but are unfamiliar with the marijuana laws, or what to do there? To really have the best Las Vegas experience possible, acquiring Mary Jane is an absolute necessity. Since the landmark 2016 election, which saw the passage of Question 2, marijuana is now legal to possess in Nevada. Non-patients can have up to an ounce of flowers and 3.5 grams of concentrate; patients can possess up to 2.5 ounces of flower. Nevada officials are currently fast-tracking legislation to allow dispensaries to sell to recreational users by as early as July. Until then, residents will need a medical card to purchase legal pot in a dispensary, if you suffer from one of the specified qualifying conditions. Patients with cards from other states are accepted. Unfortunately, no social-use regulations are in place, so you can’t smoke legally on the famous Las Vegas Strip just yet, and smoking a joint in the many casinos remains prohibited.
Take a Spin on the High Roller
One of the most prominent features of the Las Vegas skyline is the High Roller giant Ferris wheel, next to The LINQ Hotel (355 S. Las Vegas Blvd.). At an impressive 520 feet in diameter and 550 feet high, it’s the world’s tallest Ferris wheel. This monstrous attraction boasts 28 cabins that can each hold up to 40 people. The spherical cabins are encased in glass, so you get a mind-boggling view of the Strip. There are also “Happy Half Hour” drinking cabins. But despite Nevada’s recent legalization, there have been no reports of any official “High Half Hour” smoking cabins for stoners. However, the ride’s announcer does inform passengers when they’re at the 420-foot mark. Rides cost from $8–$47.
Watch Waterworks at the Bellagio
The famous fountain show in front of the Bellagio Hotel (3600 S. Las Vegas
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MATT BEARD
Above: Cirque Du Soleil’s Mystère at Treasure Island; right: The Fremont Street Experience.
Blvd.) is one of the Strip’s most iconic features, and easily the city’s best free show. The fountain show happens every 30 minutes from 3 p.m.–8 p.m., and every 15 minutes from 8 p.m.–midnight, when lighting enhances the effect. Each show is spectacularly choreographed to different music—everything from classical pieces to modern pop hits. The fountain’s powerful jets shoot water more that 450 feet in the air; it’s mesmerizing to watch. Inside the luxurious hotel there’s a conservatory room that changes décor with the seasons. During my most recent visit, it had a Chinese New Year theme with beautiful flowers and fountains.
Get Lost in Miracle Mile
If you’re looking for a unique shopping experience, I definitely recommend the Miracle Mile shops at Planet Hollywood (3663 S. Las Vegas Blvd.). The mall is diagonally across the street from the
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Bellagio, right in the heart of the Strip. One large section inside looks like a Moroccan bazaar, complete with a painted sky-blue ceiling and decorative shop roofs. This section of the mall, formerly known as the “Desert Passage,” was built in 2000 with a $300 million price tag in the reconstructed Aladdin Hotel. It’s the perfect place to be if you’re looking to spend your money on something other than gambling.
Blow Your Mind at Cirque du Soleil
Many different shows take place nightly on the Strip. Magicians, like David Copperfield and Piff the Magic Dragon, and illusionists, like Criss Angel, are popular attractions, as are the many music-based shows like those performed by Blue Man Group and Human Nature Jukebox. And then there are the many Cirque du Soleil options: The Beatles LOVE at the Mirage Hotel, KÀ at the MGM Grand and Mystère at Treasure Island. After taking a few hits
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of Sour Diesel, I saw Mystère—two hours of laughs and gasps of amazement at the crazy costumes and acrobatic stunts. There are two shows per night Saturdays through Wednesdays. Tickets range from $54–$102.
Green Valley Ranch offers good odds and has fewer tourists.
Experience Fremont Street
A number of gambling and entertainment venues located right next to the Strip, the Fremont Street Experience, with its impressive lighting display, is indeed an experience in itself. There are plenty of bars and attractions, includ-
ing a zip line, street performers and live music. (The huge zip line hovers above the entire street, if you’re feeling brave
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Freedom Leaf’s Chris Thompson at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
enough to give it a try.) If you’re high and want to take in a different side of Vegas, make sure to check out Fremont Street; I had a blast at the Zombie Bar Crawl.
Gamble Away from the Strip
Since gambling can be expensive on the Strip, and you don’t get the best odds at the casinos there, I suggest smaller spots like Silver Sevens (4100 Paradise Rd.), Silverton (3333 Blue Diamond Rd.), Green Valley Ranch (2300 Paseo Verde Pkwy. in nearby Henderson) and the many Station casinos around town (the Palace Station at 2411 W. Sahara Ave. is the closest to the Strip). These options offer better odds, and are less touristy and generally more relaxed than the hustle and bustle of the Strip casinos. If you’re traveling on a budget, the hotels off the Strip are cheaper to stay in and gamble at, and still give you the Las Vegas vibe.
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Take a High Hike Sometimes you need a break from the bright lights, soaring fountains and casino cacophony. Luckily, gorgeous desert mountains surround Las Vegas. Less than half an hour from the city limits, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area offers 23 trails to choose from, ranging from easy to strenuous for hikers of all experience levels. However, beware of the poorly mapped paths that can easily get a stoner lost in the desert. Also, note that since Red Rock is a National Conservation Area, it’s on federal land, so be careful not to puff around strangers or BLM officers. If you prefer not to rough it, there’s a 13-mile scenic drive you can take without leaving your car. Chris Thompson is Freedom Leaf’s Community & Manager and socialmedia specialist.
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Many growers use them, and now they’re getting caught. By Rick Pfrommer When commercial scientific testing of cannabis began in 2010 with the founding of Steep Hill Labs, in Berkeley, Calif., aficionados were ecstatic. Finally, cannabis sample data—initially regarding potency, as indicated by the percentage of THC, and now including CBD and other cannabinoid percentages, and the presence of any microbiologic contaminants like aspergillum—was available to consumers. Lab testing quickly spread to Colorado and Oregon, where cannabis was available medically before adult use was voted in. Consumer buying patterns reflect the importance of this data, as people routinely choose the more potent options. Buyers for dispensaries use the data to eliminate any samples that test positive for mildew or molds, many of which are not visible to the naked eye. When states began to legalize marijuana in 2012, testing was built into the new laws. But as more cannabis labs have opened, state oversight and regulations have lagged far behind the unfortunate reality of the prevalence of pesticides revealed by today’s supersensitive testing, creating cannabis product shortages.
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Pesticide testing and terpene tests are relatively recent additions to the testing pantheon. The states where pesticide testing is now mandated (Oregon, Colorado and Washington) have each adopted different standards regarding the maximum allowable level of pesticide residue. Until last year, pesticides were measured in parts per million (PPM); now, it’s parts per billion (PPB). No common standard exists for pesticides in plant material to be smoked, other than those for tobacco, so most states have adopted levels specified for allowable pesticide amounts in food. Since the body processes edible chemicals far differently than smoked ones, these standards are, in fact, not applicable or effective. As a result, most businesses have adopted a zero-tolerance policy for pesticides in cannabis. While zero tolerance seems like a good idea, in practice it’s having a devastating effect on everyone from edible bakers and extract makers to flower growers and the dispensaries that sell cannabis products. These problems stem from the lack of standard testing protocols, as well as the incredible sensitivity of the instruments used today, primarily high-grade
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pressure liquid chromatogand working hard raphy (HPLC) machines, to ensure that they which can detect minute have adequate suplevels of contamiplies of clean cannanants. bis. “We’re down to In Oregon, these only having a counew levels of sensitiviple of suppliers that ty have sent shockwaves we can count on to through the industry. Many consistently deliver producers, from flower growclean shake,” says ers to hash makers, and disJoe Gerlach, owner pensaries have had to lay of Korova Edibles, off workers, and one of California’s the flow of goods largest edibles has slowed due companies. “We to many prevididn’t think about ously acceptable this last year. Legalproducts being ization for adult use flagged for unachas changed so ceptable pestimuch of our busicide levels. In ness model in a reresponse to this ally short time. It’s crisis, in Decemgoing to be hard to ber the Oregon scale up to the size Marijuana Authorwe want to with this ity loosened the pesticide problem. rules until May, It’s very frustrating.” while it reviews California will the standards. need to learn from It bears Oregon’s situation. Pesticides like Eagle 20EW are banned from use by health departments in adult-use states. repeating that The Golden State’s all of these market is larger standards have been set with little to than those of all the other legal states no previous data on pesticide levels in combined, yet there’s still no regulatory cannabis. While everyone agrees that framework for, or standardization of, lab pesticides have no place in cannabis cultesting. This can result in a sample protivation, the reality is that going from an ducing different results at different labs. underground, unregulated industry to a Obviously, no one wants pesticides fully transparent one takes time. in any amount in their herb, but the cold, Cross-contamination is also an issue: hard reality is that much of the nation’s If the HPLC machines are not properly sun-grown cannabis has long been cleaned between uses, pesticide resisowed with pesticides. At this year’s dues may contaminate a new sample. Emerald Cup (see Issue 22), more than The lack of standard lab protocols and 25% of the entries tested positive for pesenforcement contributes to this problem, ticides—and this is a contest that boasts as well. Oregon, with fewer than 5 million of its organic outdoor entries. people, offers a glimpse into the probThe pesticide problem and how the lems the cannabis industry faces as Calindustry deals with it will be a major issue ifornia, the world’s sixth-largest econoover the next several years. Many people my, moves forward to implement its new will have to learn how to grow their crops adult-use cannabis law. without resorting to toxic poisons. Many of the larger and more forwardthinking companies in California are alRick Pfrommer is the Principal Consulready aggressively testing for pesticides tant at PfrommerNow.
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s s m roo pre f w p e a n ac d “Fascinating: a highly coherent, comprehensive, and fully compelling account of the fusion of jazz, the igniting influence of drugs, and the emergence of the Beats. Torgoff is a terrific storyteller.” —John Tytell, author of Naked Angels: The Lives and Literature of the Beat Generation
“This exuberant appreciation, made luridly entertaining by all of the intoxicants, captures the wild energy and fertility of these seminal movements.” —Publishers Weekly
“Torgoff cuts between scenes with the skill of a consummate filmmaker.... A sometimes harrowing but essential read.” —Buffalo News
“Excavates the origins of the great American youth revolt that Allen Ginsberg called the ‘bop apocalypse’—the musical, literary, sexual and narcotic experiments of the late 1940s and early 1950s.... Mr. Torgoff has an aficionado’s knowledge of music and drugs.” —Wall Street Journal
SS R E pany P O om
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recipes
High Tea
By Cheri Sicard
Photos by Mitch Mandell
A proper British-style high tea—a light meal eaten in the late afternoon or early evening—requires a nice selection of teas and an assortment of dainty sandwiches, and scones served with jam and clotted cream. To make it a truly high tea, all you have to do is add cannabis. I use decarboxylated dry-ice kief to medicate most of the items at my ganja-infused tea parties, since it pretty much disappears into the sandwich spreads and fillings, and it’s easy to dissolve into the honey I like to serve with tea; you can skip the honey altogether and stir some decarbed dry-ice kief directly into hot tea. To decarboxylate, simply place the kief in a rame-
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kin or ovenproof dish and bake for 20 minutes at 250 degrees F.
Medicated Honey
Use this honey to add some medicated sweetness to your tea. 1/2 cup honey 1 gm. decarboxylated kief Place honey in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add kief and heat, stirring constantly, until kief is dissolved. Cool. Serve with hot tea, with either lemon or milk.
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Blueberry Orange Scones You can’t have a proper high tea without scones. I’ve often found traditional scones to be dry and bland, so I changed that with the addition of fresh blueberries and a sweet orange syrup glaze that makes these medicated scones moist and flavorful (although you can also serve them with jam and the traditional Devonshire, or clotted, cream).
Scones:
2 cups all-purpose flour 1 tbsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 3 tbsp. sugar 3 tbsp. cannabis-infused butter 2 tbsp. unsalted butter 1 cup fresh blueberries 1 cup plus 1 tbsp. heavy cream 2 tbsp. coarse raw sugar, optional
Glaze:
1/4 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice 1 tbsp. lemon juice 2 tsp. butter 1 cup confectioners sugar Grated zest from 1 orange Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a baking sheet with a silicon mat or parchment paper. Place flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a food processor bowl and pulse to combine. Add butter and cannabutter, and pulse to combine until butter is incorporated into the flour in coarse crumbs. Transfer mixture to a medium-size bowl. If you don’t have a food processor, use a pair of forks or a pastry blender to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resem-
bles coarse crumbs. Gently fold blueberries into the batter mixture, taking care not to mash blueberries. Make a well in the center. Add heavy cream and gently fold everything together until just incorporated. Work dough as little as possible; this will keep the scones tender. Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface and press it together into a rectangle-shaped log about 12 inches by 3 inches. Cut the log in half, then cut the pieces in half again, equaling 4 squares. Cut each square in half on a diagonal, equaling 8 triangles. Place each dough triangle on the prepared baking sheet; brush tops with a little cream. Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees F. or until lightly browned. Remove and place on wire rack to cool. While the scones are baking, prepare the glaze. Mix orange and lemon juice with confectioners sugar in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves and glaze is smooth. Whisk in the butter and orange zest and smooth out any lumps. Spoon glaze over scones. Sprinkle with coarse raw sugar, if desired. Serve warm or cooled. Makes 8 scones.
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recipes
High Tea Sandwiches: Four Variations Cute little tea sandwiches are a staple of any traditional high tea. A lot of recipes call for plain old white bread, but I find it tends to get soggy. Instead, I use quality breads like sourdough, rye or pumpernickel. For a nice presentation, use a variety of different breads. Just make sure they’re thinly sliced and the crust is removed; cut off the crust and trim the remaining bread into squares or rectangles. For a slightly fancier but still easyto-make presentation, use cookie cutters or the top of a glass to cut shapes or circles out of the crustless bread for your sandwiches. Each of these recipes makes eight small tea sandwiches.
Cucumber Tea Sandwiches with Lemony Dill Spread
These classic tea party cucumber sandwiches have so much flavor, thanks to the tangy, lemony dill spread, you probably won’t even notice the cannabis. 16 slices sourdough, rye and/or pumpernickel bread 1/2 large English (seedless) cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced 2 oz. cream cheese 1 tbsp. fresh dill, chopped 1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice 1/4 tsp. lemon zest, finely chopped 1/2 gm. decarboxylated kief 1/8 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. black pepper Place cream cheese, dill, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, pepper and kief in a food processor bowl and blend until smooth and ingredients are incorporated; or mince all ingredients finely and use a fork to mash cream cheese and other ingredients together until smooth and well incorporated. Cut bread into sandwich shapes. Coat each sandwich bread with lemony dill spread. Add layer of thinly sliced cucumbers on bottom half of sandwich and top with second bread. Garnish tops of sandwiches with additional cucumber slices and dill sprigs.
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Smoked Salmon Tea Sandwiches
Thinly sliced salmon adds a sophisticated smoky flavor to this popular tea sandwich.
8 slices sourdough, rye and/or pumpernickel bread 1/8 lb. thinly sliced smoked salmon 1/4 cup mayonnaise 1/4 tsp. lemon juice 1 tsp. fresh dill, minced 1/4 tsp. kosher salt 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper 1/2 gm. decarboxylated kief Cucumber ribbons and dill sprigs for garnish, optional In a small bowl, mix mayo, lemon juice, dill, salt, pepper and kief until well com-
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1 tbsp. mayonnaise 1/2 gm. decarboxylated kief 1-1/2 tsp. whole-grain mustard 1-1/2 tsp. chopped fresh dill 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper, optional Salt and pepper to taste Olive slices and dill sprigs for garnish, optional Cut bread into desired sandwich shapes. In a small bowl, combine finely chopped eggs, olives, mayo, kief, mustard, dill, cayenne, salt and pepper. Use as sandwich filling for 8 small tea sandwiches. Garnish on top with a small sprig of fresh dill and an olive slice.
Roast Beef Tea Sandwiches
A tangy horseradish spread carries the medication for this tea sandwich variation.
bined. Cut bread into sandwich shapes. Spread each sandwich bread with dill mayonnaise. Add layer of thinly sliced salmon on bottom half of sandwich and top with second bread. Garnish tops of sandwiches with a thinly sliced ribbon of cucumber and dill sprigs.
Egg & Olive Tea Sandwiches
Green olives give this medicated egg salad a lot of flavor and a touch of sophistication. 8 slices sourdough, rye and/or pumpernickel bread 3 boiled eggs, peeled and divided 1/4 cup finely chopped pimientostuffed green olives 2 tbsp. celery, minced
16 slices sourdough, rye and/or pumpernickel bread 1/8 lb. thinly shaved roast beef 2 oz. cream cheese 2 tsp. prepared horseradish 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 1 tsp. green onion, minced 1/2 tsp. kosher salt 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper 1/2 gm. decarboxylated kief Cucumber strips or slices for garnish, optional Place cream cheese, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, green onion, salt, pepper and kief in a food processor bowl. Blend until smooth and incorporated; or mince all ingredients finely and use a fork to mash the cream cheese and other ingredients together until smooth and well incorporated. Coat both sides of each sandwich with horseradish spread. Add a layer of thinly sliced roast beef on bottom half of sandwich and top with second bread. Garnish tops of sandwiches with additional cucumber slices. Cheri Sicard is author of The Cannabis Gourmet Cookbook and Mary Jane: The Complete Cannabis Handbook for Women.Visit her blog at CannabisCheri.com.
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Remembering Paddy on
St. Patrick’s Day By Watermelon
When I was a young lady, my best friend happened to be an old Irish bootlegger named Paddy White. In good Irish fashion, he spent many years drinking heavily. Paddy often played drunken characters for television shows on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) shows. He was a method actor in that way. By the time we began hanging out, Paddy had stopped drinking entirely. Instead, he preferred to mix an ounce of chopped-up marijuana into a tub of shredded tobacco, and make hand-rolled “cigareets,” as he called them. Outside Notte’s Bon Ton Pastry & Confectionery in Vancouver, BC (3150 W. Broadway), nobody seemed to realize that the crazy old man loitering around with eagle feathers in his hat and whistling “Dixie” was smoking that “wacky tobacco.” Paddy loved cakes and confections before, during and after his spliff. As he grew older, CBC no longer had any roles in Paddy’s age range, so he quit acting and sold T-shirts at Vancouver’s notorious nude Wreck Beach. Quick-witted, hard-assed, dedicated, goofy and kind, Paddy was the greatest friend a young lady could have. He also loved to cook. For hours after dinner, he’d regale me with tales of his shoe-shining days and of horse races and rotten bookies. Sometimes he’d eat magic mushrooms with me and laugh at the moon, which was really a streetlamp. Paddy was more full of life than most folks my own age. I was upset when he told me he was leaving to spend the winter in Florida with “old people.” He never made it: Paddy was hit by a car in Montgomery, Ala. a few weeks later and died. After he passed, I inherited all his old jokes and
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cans of sockeye salmon. I loved that guy, and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day every year in his honor. Since Paddy believed “marijuana and bacon go with everything,” here’s my recipe for marijuana-infused bacon: 10–12 strips of thick-cut bacon 4 grams of cannabis shake flour Grind 4 grams of pot into fine flour, sift and pour into a salt shaker. Lay out the bacon on a large cookie tray and generously sprinkle each piece with the shake flour. Bake at 300 degrees F until desired consistency is achieved. These can be eaten alone, or wrapped around or served with delicious accompaniments such as cantaloupe, asparagus, prawns, pickles, chocolate, hardboiled eggs or avocado wedges. Watermelon is a writer and cannabis food expert based in Vancouver.
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Pure Hemp Botanicals’ Alex Seleznov in his greenhouse
Denver Tea Company Sources Colorado Hemp By Erin Hiatt The market for cannabis-based products grows by leaps and bounds each year, with soaps, lotions and topicals leading the way. But CBD-infused tea? Pure Hemp Botanicals’ Hemptealicious tastes a bit like green tea, but contains the added health benefit of 25 mg of CBD from plants grown at the Denver company’s Brighton, Colo. production facility. “The tea is unique,” says CEO Alex Seleznov. “You get something that you can’t get out of an extracted product.” In addition to Hemptealicious Peppermint Mate Hemp tea ($24.95), the Pure Hemp Botanicals product line includes CBD oil tinctures (300 mg–1,500 mg, $34.95–$134.95), CBD oil cartridges for vape pens (500 mg, multiple strains, $49.95), CBD oil softgels (30 10–30 mg capsules, $34.95–$134.95) and CBD concentrate crystals (250 mg–500 mg, $29.95–$49.95). An environmentally conscious vegan, Seleznov says hemp “doesn’t care how it’s utilized, and it doesn’t take a lot to make it flourish. Hemp is beneficial, from essential and amino acids to actual cannabinoids.” The longtime hemp advocate adds, “It always seemed like such a miracle crop, I could never figure out why we couldn’t have more utilization.”
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All that changed when Colorado’s Amendment 64 passed in 2012, followed by the 2014 U.S. Farm Bill that allowed farmers to start growing hemp in Colorado. Before launching Pure Hemp Botanicals in 2014, Seleznov worked for Tagawa, a greenhouse and nursery in Centennial, Colo. “I presented them with the business idea of starting a hemp operation,” Seleznov recalls. “They were kind enough to join me and offer me some of their resources.” Since then, Pure Hemp Botanicals has grown from three employees to more than 30, and Seleznov is proud of the financial impact his company has had in just three short years, as it continues to contribute to the local economy and provide jobs. As a member of the Colorado-based National Hemp Association, Seleznov is working to bring hemp more into the mainstream, and to help craft proactive legislation. “I expect to expand our reach, in terms of the number of consumers and the number of products we’re offering,” Seleznov says. “Most importantly, we’re impacting society by offering a plant that represents compassion in action.” Erin Hiatt writes about the cannabis industry for Freedom Leaf and THC Magazine.
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REVIEWS
Dear Jerry: Celebrating the Music of Jerry Garcia By Roy Trakin For most tie-dyed-in-the-wool Deadheads, Jerry Garcia’s wizened beard, beatific countenance, Zen coolness and Beat hipster jive are synonymous with the famous band he co-founded. It was the beneficent Captain Trips who helped form the Warlocks in Palo Alto in 1964 with Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Bob Weir from Garcia’s previous band, Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions, before the addition of Bill Kreutzmann on drums and Phil Lesh on bass, laying the foundation for the Grateful Dead. Two decades after Garcia’s death on Aug. 9, 1995, the long, strange trip continued. In the summer of 2015, to celebrate the Grateful Dead’s 50th anniversary, the band played the Fare Thee Well series of five concerts in Santa Clara, Calif. and Chicago. Featuring the “Core Four”—Weir, Lesh, Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart—the shows promised to be their last together. Six weeks earlier, on May 14, 2015, Keith Wortman had managed to bring together a diverse collection of musicians to perform the songs of Jerry Garcia at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md. The problem was that, due to their Fare Thee Well contractual commitment, the Core Four couldn’t perform together as a group at Wortman’s “Dear Jerry” tribute concert. But they came really close. The performers heard on Dear Jerry: Celebrating the Music of Jerry Garcia include now-deceased New Orleans icon Allen Toussaint; reggae superstar Jimmy Cliff; jam bands O.A.R., Widespread Panic, moe. and Disco Biscuits; classic rockers Peter Frampton and Jorma Kaukonen; modern country star Eric Church;
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and bluegrass pickers David Grisman and Sam Bush. Don Was and Buddy Miller led the outstanding house band. You can’t go wrong with Lesh kicking things off with his band, Communion, which includes his son Grahame on guitar. The opening track, “The Wheel” > “Uncle John’s Band,” a 17-minute excerpt of the original 30-minute concert version, flows timelessly through one of the Dead’s signature medleys. It’s Lesh’s only musical contribution to the album. Weir, Kreutzmann and Hart join Cliff on a stirring “Fire on the Mountain,” then return for the closing all-hands-on-deck final salvo of “Touch of Grey” and “Ripple,” offering Deadheads a peak at what would come at Fare Thee Well. Kreutzmann’s Billy and the Kids provide perhaps the album’s overall highlight, first performing the Blues for Allah medley “Help Is on the Way”/”Slipknot”/ “Franklin’s Tower” before being joined by the Disco Biscuits for the rollicking “Scarlet Begonias” > “I Know You Rider” medley, with Kids’ guitarist Tom Hamilton and Biscuits’ keyboardist Aaron Magner leading the way. Not that there’s anything wrong with Toussaint’s spirited version of “Get Out of My Life Woman,” a song he wrote that was covered by Jerry Garcia Band
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JOE GURRERI
REVIEWS
Billy & the Kids’ guitarist Tom Hamilton is among the many special guests on Dear Jerry.
in 1991; the homespun roots offered by Trampled by Turtles on “Brown Eyed Women,” with Ryan Young’s lively fiddle making you wonder why the Dead never incorporated that instrument in their electric iteration; Yonder Mountain String Band’s “Shakedown Street”; or Grace Potter’s bluesy “Friend of the Devil,” a duet with Bob Weir that has the right combination of country twang and soulful sass. Even the head-scratching choices of Frampton and Church pay some dividends, illuminating Garcia’s interest in jazz-driven soul (Junior Parker and the All-Stars’ [“I’m a] Road Runner,” performed by Frampton) and honky-tonk rhythms (the jaunty, Leon Russell-esque swagger of “Tennessee Jed,” performed by Church). By the time Dear Jerry gets to its life-affirming “Touch of Grey” (“I will get by/I will survive”) finale and gospel-tinged “Ripple” benediction, the latter’s cosmic entreaty rings true: “If I knew the way/I would take you home.” On this night, friends and admirers managed to return the spirit of Jerry Garcia to his faithful. Dear Jerry: Celebrating the Music of Jerry Garcia is available both as a twoCD, 145-minute version of the concert and a DVD/Blu-ray edit of the four-and-ahalf hour show.
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New Jerry Garcia Band Live Album Rounder and ATO Records are releasing GarciaLive: Vol. 8 on Mar. 10 that was recorded on Nov. 23, 1991 at Bradley Center in Milwaukee. The band features Melvin Seals, John Kahn and David Temper. The tracks include “Deal,” “Lay Down Sally,” “Cats Under the Stars,” “Tangled Up in Blues” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” This is a first of several Garcia releases leading up to what would be his 75th birthday on Aug. 1. Roy Trakin writes for All Access and Freedom Leaf.
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REVIEWS
A Double Dose of Keller Williams
By John Fortunato
Enjoying his distinction as a veritable one-man jam band, prolific Fredericksburg, Va.-bred singer-songwriter Keller Williams has embarked on many diverse musical undertakings since debuting with the formative Freek in 1994. A guitarist with a warmly whispered tenor voice, Williams’ expansive discography includes several one-word-titled solo projects (Buzz, Spun, Laugh, Dance, Home, Vape), a fine prog-bluegrass venture with the String Cheese Incident (1999’s Breathe), several live recordings (Loop, Stage) and projects with the Keels (Grass, Thief) and Grateful Grass (Dos). Recently he has been leading the stylishly diverse combo KWahtro, and the band’s new album, Ripped, has been released concurrently with Williams’ album Raw, a solo acoustic folk-blues set. After touring for all of 2016, KWahtro assembled Ripped, an album featuring well-honed material polished to perfection on the road and given crisp, clean arrangements for the record. Williams’ tightly knit ensemble—guitarist Gibb Droll (Bruce Hornsby, Brandi Carlisle), upright bassist Danton Boller (Roy Hargrove) and drummer Rodney Holmes (Santana, the Brecker Brothers)—innately integrates reggae, jazz and Afrobeat. On Ripped, the quirky KWahtro deliver reflective folk-derived extrapolations, blissfully somber acoustic retreats and funky Caribbean beats with precision; the songs possess a relaxed groove and
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Prolific singer-songwriter Keller Williams
melodic elegance. From the fluid guitar interplay of the breezily whimsical opener, “Ripped 6-Pack,” to the surreal tropical splendor of the instrumental funk interlude, “Watchoowantgurl,” to delicate half-spoken verses and genteel guitar riffs on the pleasantly understated “Baby Mama,” to the swift rhythmic closer, “Running on Fumes,” KWahtro’s tunes are gentle on the mind. The band ably contrasts the comedic novelty of “Missing Remote”—an amusing homegrown number about celebrity magazine exposure (“only if I pose with weed”—with serious social matters on “Hategreedlove.” Overall, Ripped has the goods to secure a few new Williams admirers. On his simultaneously released new solo project, Raw, Williams offers traditional country-folk in the style of slide guitarist Sam McGee, leaving each arrangement skeletal, but never unfinished. Perhaps not as immediately captivating as Ripped, its mellower tones will please disciplined six-string fanatics. The fastidiously fingerpicked “Thanks Leo”
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REVIEWS honors string master Leo Kottke with a reverential polyphonic spree. Meanwhile, rural woodsiness informs “2BU” and “Ella.” Williams is not above getting giddy on a few Raw tracks. The offhand 78-second spoof, “Short Ballad of Camp Zoe,” tersely tells of a backwoods Rasta party getting busted by carpooling DEA, IRS, FBI and ATF agents and on “Short Show,” he hilariously recounts the time Kings of Leon were pissed off about a pigeon shitting on them from above the stage during a concert. Arguably the album’s most accessible tune, “I Forgot,” Williams’ jittery traveling ode, nervously recalls a fearful clock-less journey as his stammering guitar complements the clipped verses. A reworking of his Customs-defying anec-
dote, “Doobie in My Pocket” (from 2010’s Odd), also provides a few snickers. Whether chattering about mundane daily rituals, analyzing funny situations through brief, entertaining sketches or simply constructing intricate instrumentals, Williams proves highly capable of working within a variety of acoustic styles. Though he lacks the emotional persuasion and wide vocal range of seminal folk-blues forerunners, his fragile tenor maintains a casual thoughtfulness and rustic warmth. Williams, who crafts complicated compositions around his unfettered fretwork at an astonishing rate, makes it look easy. John Fortunato publishes the website beermelodies.com.
BERLIN
10-12 APRIL 2017 Maritim ProArte Hotel
U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher
Franjo Grotenhermen, MD
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EVENTS
MAR
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Spannabis, the biggest marijuana expo in Europe, takes place from March 10–12.
High Times Cannabis Cup Moapa Event Grounds, Moapa, NV cannabiscup.com/las-vegas
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CalCanBizExpo Sheraton Marina Hotel, San Diego calcanbizexpo.com
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CCIA Policy Conference Sheraton Grand, Sacramento, CA cacannabisindustry.org
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Spannabis Fira De Cornella, Barcelona, Spain spannabis.com
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Cannabis Cultivation Conference Oakland Marriott City Center, Oakland, CA
APR
CannaTech 2017 Trask and Reading3, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel canna-tech.co
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cannabiscultivationconference.com
SSDP 2017 Red Lion Hotel on the River, Portland, OR ssdp.org/events/ssdp2017
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Heart of Nature Festival Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa, CA heartofnaturefest.com
Abra Ca Dabs Festival Heritage Field, Adelanto, CA abracadabsfestival.com Institutional Capital & Cannabis Conference Hayes Mansion, San Jose, CA imn.org Hash Bash University of Michigan, Ann Arbor hashbash.com
ASA 2017 Unity Conference Loews Madison Hotel, Washington, D.C. safeaccessnow.org/unity_2017 International Cannabis Business Conference Maritim ProArte Hotel, Berlin, Germany internationalcbc.com/icbc-berlin
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