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CONTENTS
52
FEATURES 22
THE GREENING OF THE GREAT WHITE NORTH MONA ZHANG Canada’s provinces are creating the nation’s new legalization regs.
42
THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA WAY AMANDA REIMAN Lounges, tours and craft cannabis are coming to NorCal.
26
A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDIBLES CHERI SICARD An excerpt from The Easy Cannabis Cookbook.
48
LIFE DURING THE RULE OF SESSIONS ALLISON MARGOLIN & RAZA LAWRENCE Two California lawyers lay out a strategy for combating the federal assault on cannabis.
36
PATAGONIA VS. TRUMP ERIN HIATT The outdoor retailer wants Utah national monuments to stay just as they are. 6
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52
THE GARDEN STATE STEVE GELSI With the election of Gov. Phil Murphy, New Jersey is on the path to legalization.
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CONTENTS
62 16 56
FREEDOM LEAF INTERVIEW: DJ MUGGS STEVE BLOOM The Cypress Hill cofounder talks about the band’s partnership with Bhang Chocolate.
62
BIRDMAN ROY TRAKIN CBD helped Mimicking Birds’ bassist Adam Trachsel recover from a brain tumor.
COLUMNS
10
EDITOR’S NOTE
12
NORML I JUSTIN STREKAL
14
SSDP I RICHARD HARTNELL
16
WOMEN GROW I GIA MORÓN
18
OAKSTERDAM U. I DR. ASEEM SAPPAL
68
THE FREEDOM LEAF BOOK CLUB We review Grass Roots, So Much Things to Say, The Leafly Guide, There Are No Dead Here, The ABC's of CBD, When They Call You a Terrorist, The Most Dangerous Man in America, Gold Dust Woman and Did It! 8
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46
CALIFORNIA UPDATE I NGAIO BEALUM
82
EVENTS CALENDAR
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EDITOR’S NOTE
Freedom Leaf editor Steve Bloom at the famous Weed sign in Northern California in 1991.
A NEW YEAR BRINGS FRESH CHALLENGES WELCOME TO THE Winter 2018 edition of Freedom Leaf! Heading into the New Year, with legal cannabis sales in California just beginning and Canada just around the corner, we’re focusing on newsgathering. This year you’ll see four quarterly editions of Freedom Leaf: Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. There’s so much to cover that we’ve bulked up the news feed at freedomleaf.com. Please make sure to go there; while some articles also appear in the magazine, many are web-only. For instance, we recently broke a story about how the Anschutz Foundation—owned by the billionaire family that runs the Coachella Festival in California—has been making donations to antipot groups in Colorado since 2000. If you’re going to Coachella, which doesn’t allow marijuana-smoking on site, keep that in mind. The main focus of this issue is the federal pushback against medical marijuana and adult-use legalization. California lawyers Allison Margolin and Raza Lawrence lay out the obstacles (Congress, prosecutors, law enforcement) and how to deal with them on page 48. Meanwhile, in Northern California, cannabis tourism plans are moving forward (page 42). On the East Coast, there’s a lot of excitement with Vermont becoming the ninth recreational legal state (sans commercial sales, however), Massachusetts readying for legal 10 FREEDOM LEAF
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sales later this year and New Jersey considering legalization legislation (page 52). Canada’s provinces are setting regulations for when legal sales start in the Great White North this year as well (page 42). In the back of the magazine, you’ll find our first-ever “Freedom Leaf Book Club” (page 66). It includes Emily Dufton’s Grass Roots, about marijuana-law reform in America; The Leafly Guide; The ABCs of CBD; biographies of Bob Marley, Timothy Leary, Stevie Nicks and Jerry Rubin; and books by drug-policy advocates Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno and asha bandele. As the coauthor of several cannabis books—Pot Culture and Reefer Movie Madness—I hope our readers will support writers who spend large amounts of time researching subjects of great importance and providing that information in readable form. Whether they’re hardcover or paperback, Kindle or audible, these books are often a life’s work. Similarly, we hope you’ll enjoy each issue of Freedom Leaf and be inspired to make changes in your individual communities. There’s nothing fake about our news. It’s real and it’s spectacular.
Steve Blo m
Steve Bloom Editor-in-Chief
FOUNDERS Richard C. Cowan & Clifford J. Perry
PUBLISHER & CEO Clifford J. Perry
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Steve Bloom
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Richard Groberg
ART DIRECTOR Joe Gurreri
VP OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Ray Medeiros
SENIOR EDITOR Steven Wishnia
VP OF ADVOCACY & COMMUNICATIONS Allen St. Pierre
NEWS EDITOR Mona Zhang
DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL MARKETING Chris Thompson
CONTRIBUTORS: Ngaio Bealum, Russ Belville, Mia Di Stefano, Steve Gelsi, Richard Hartnell, Erin Hiatt, Raza Lawrence, Mitch Mandell, Beth Mann, Allison Margolin, Doug McVay, Mitch Myers, Amanda Reiman, Dr. Aseem Sappal, Cheri Sicard, Justin Strekal, Roy Trakin, Bill Weinberg, Mikel Weisser Copyright © 2018 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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NORML Rep. Barbara Lee
THE MARIJUANA JUSTICE ACT IS THE NEW NORMAL BY JUSTIN STREKAL TWO WEEKS AFTER Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatened a crackdown on state-sanctioned marijuana programs in January, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), along with 18 cosponsors, introduced the Marijuana Justice Act into the House of Representatives. The bill is the most comprehensive piece of legislation ever introduced to end federal cannabis prohibition, and it also addresses the egregious harms it has wrought, particularly on marginalized communities. It’s also the first time companion measures to remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act have been introduced in both chambers of Congress. The Senate version of the Marijuana Justice Act, introduced in 2017 by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), provides relief for people either convicted or currently incarcerated for federal cannabis crimes by creating a national program to expunge their criminal records. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, African Americans are arrested four times as often as whites for marijuana offenses, although both races consume cannabis at roughly the same rate. One of the ways the Marijuana Justice Act would work to reverse this disparity is by monitoring the states that choose not to legalize cannabis. If any state does not reduce the racial dis12 FREEDOM LEAF
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parity in pot-arrest rates, it would lose various federal funding streams, including for prison construction. The bill would also allow all federal inmates serving time for sales and possession of marijuana to petition the courts for resentencing. Though this would affect only the relatively small number of individuals in federal prison, it would set a national precedent on how to deal with nonviolent marijuana offenders in local and state correctional facilities, as would the expungement program. “In the wake of Attorney General Sessions’ decision to rescind the Cole memo, it’s clear that the Trump Administration is doubling down on unjust marijuana-criminalization policies,” Rep. Lee commented on Jan. 17. “Now, it’s up to Congress to end federal marijuana prohibition and help the victims of the failed War on Drugs rebuild their lives. The Marijuana Justice Act is a bold proposal to reverse decades of discriminatory drug enforcement and to bring federal marijuana policy in line with the wishes of the American people.” Send a message to your federal lawmakers in support of the Marijuana Justice Act as well as other pending legislation at norml.org/act. Justin Strekal is NORML’s political director.
july 2016 WINTER www.freedomleaf.com 2018 FREEDOM LEAF13 13
SSDP
Doe Memorial Library at UC Berkeley
CANNABIS ON CAMPUS: WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS? BY RICHARD HARTNELL “WHERE DOES YOUR group stand on legal weed on campus?” students commonly ask representatives at SSDP tables at the numerous University of California locations. “We’re for it,” the SSDP rep generally responds. “But did you know that campus police are still writing possession tickets to students?” Now that marijuana is legal in California for both recreational and medicinal use, students need to know what’s permitted on campuses in the Golden State. The 1986 Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (SDFSCA) requires universities to tell students that illicit drugs are bad and drug possession isn’t allowed on campus. The law inevitably comes up in conversations with university administrators about cannabis on campus: It bars “an institution of higher learning from receiving funds or any other federal financial assistance, including any federally funded or guaranteed student loans, unless it certifies that it has adopted and implemented a program to prevent the use of illicit drugs and the abuse of alcohol by students and employees.” However, in 2012, the Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General reported that SDFSCA had not been enforced from 1998-2010. “Many schools are not in compliance,” the report said. 14 FREEDOM LEAF
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“There has been no true enforcement.” Schools can change their own policies in order to prevent the greatest threat to students who use cannabis by, for instance, not fining students caught with small amounts and not turning them over to police. Possession charges can also prevent students from receiving financial aid, damage or destroy their eligibility for housing, cost them their job, and put up barriers to future employment. In some cases, students drop out of college altogether. While they can apply for an exemption from the financial-aid ban, our nation’s students would be better off doing coursework rather than filling out cumbersome federal forms. For decades, “states’ rights” has been a rallying cry for conservatives like Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Despite his careerlong record of claiming that he opposes federal overreach, it now appears that he wants to take the country back to the time when federal agencies robbed dispensaries at gunpoint and drove students from their rightful college educations. So even with legalization, it’s best to remain cautious about cannabis use on California’s college campuses. Richard Hartnell is on SSDP’s Board of Directors.
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WOMEN GROW
622
Annie Nelson (left) and Lauren Rudick show off ther jointrolling skills.
SISTER SUMMIT: WOMEN GROW MEETS UP IN DENVER BY GIA MORÓN ON FEBRUARY 1-2, more than 500 people gathered at the Westin Hotel in Denver for the fourth annual Women Grow Leadership Summit. The theme, “Change-Transition-Evolution,” addressed shifts in the cannabis industry. Speakers included 12-year-old patient Alexis Bortell, who’s among the plaintiffs in a suit to remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act; medical-marijuana pioneer Alice O’Leary; Michelle Dumay, a courageous mother who gave an emotional talk about being an African-American Muslim woman that treats her daughter’s seizures with cannabis; and Annie Nelson, wife of Willie Nelson and proprietor of Annie’s Edibles. TED-style “Lightning Talks” drew the likes of Hope Wiseman, the youngest African-American dispensary owner (Mary and Main in Capitol Heights, Md.); Caela Bintner, who discussed the #TimesUp movement and sexual harassment in the workplace; Dasheeda Dawson, who segued from her show-stopping hip-hop dance (a summit first) to a discourse on facing adversity; Lynnette Shaw, one of California’s first dispensary owners; and Cannabis Cultural Association’s Jake Plowden, Nelson Guerrero and Joe Bondy. One of the most popular breakout sessions, “Know the Law to Joint Rolling Sessions with Jane West,” had the whole room fashioning joints and spliffs. Another session offered advice on “Investing and Raising 16 FREEDOM LEAF
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Capital for Your Cannabis Business.” Women Grow CEO Kristina Garcia announced the following leadership changes: Dr. Chanda Macias is the new chair of the Board of Managers. She’s a former research specialist for Colgate-Palmolive and current CEO of National Holistic Healing Center in Washington, D.C. Cofounder Jane West stepped down as chair, but will remain on the board. The seven-seat board also includes Garcia and Jazmin Hupp, with three seats open. In addition, the organization is expanding into several new markets and will soon launch the Women Grow TV channel on Twitch.tv in partnership with LOOT Interactive. This spring and fall, we’ll be connecting with colleges and universities across the country for a series of “Women Grow Campus Talks.” Our goal is to continue to support and build the next generation of cannabis leaders while forming stronger relationships inside and outside of the industry by creating unique strategic partnerships. “The 2018 theme truly tied into the heart of the direction of which we’re taking the company,” Garcia stated. “Women Grow is an important organization for women in cannabis today and we must keep pushing the envelope forward.” Gia Morón is Women Grow’s executive vice president.
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OAKSTERDAM UNIVERSITY
JAMAICA ISSUES FIRST CANNABIS LICENSES
The new ganja law is starting to take effect. BY DR. ASEEM SAPPAL THOUGH MANY HAVE the perception that Jamaica is all about free-flowing cannabis, that’s not officially the case. It’s true that the country’s tropical climate and fertile soil provide perfect conditions to grow ganja, and that reggae music and Rastafarian religious practices exalt the herb. But Jamaica’s government has opposed its use throughout most of the country’s history. Cannabis was originally brought to Jamaica by East Indian laborers (who called it ganja) in the mid-1800s. By the 1930s, the plant had become widely used and a foundation of Rastafarian religious practices, even though the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1903 made possession, cultivation and trafficking of marijuana illegal, with harsh prison sentences for violators. Cultural perceptions became more permissive in the 1960s and 1970s, especially as Rastafarian and outspoken spliff-lover Bob Marley became Jamaica’s best-known citizen abroad, his music bringing the island nation’s culture to the world. But with Jamai18 FREEDOM LEAF
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ca becoming a major exporter of ganja to Europe and North America, officials rejected attempts to relax the laws, for fear of violating international treaties. In 2015, the Dangerous Drugs Act was amended to decriminalize small amounts of ganja for personal use. Now, possession of up to two ounces is a petty offense, and cultivation of five or fewer plants per household is legal. Adult Rastafarians are permitted to use cannabis for religious purposes. The 2015 amendment also made medical cannabis legal and created the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA), which is responsible for regulating cultivation and distribution. There is still a precarious relationship between the herb-smoking public and the police. Some officers turn a blind eye to cannabis possession (under the new law, it’s a petty offense with a fine of J$500, about US$4, more than three times Jamaica’s hourly minimum wage), but others have resisted the change or are fighting ganja with renewed vigor.
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OAKSTERDAM UNIVERSITY In the meantime, the CLA is working to establish and regulate Jamaica’s legal ganja and hemp industries, including all matters related to cultivation, transportation, processing, retail, and research and development, each of which requires a license. The authority has designed a closed-loop medicinal system, in which each licensee is required to conduct transactions only with other licensees. This requires applicants who’ve been granted licenses to agree to business terms amongst themselves, and advise the CLA about them. At press time, the CLA has issued just three licenses for legal operation in the cannabis industry to Timeless Herbal Care, Epican and Everything Oily. “Applications are being continually processed, with 270 in progress, including over 57 conditionally approved and five licenses granted, some of which are close to being issued,” CLA chair Hyacinth Lightbourne said in a press release in October. “The Ministry of Health has been training and certifying doctors in accordance with their stipulation for doctors to be trained for the writing of ganja-related prescriptions. These are indicators that the industry is viable and progressing. Although it has appeared to be a long process, we are confident that the medical ganja industry in Jamaica is being developed responsibly and in a manner which can stand the test of time.” In addition to the CLA, Jamaica’s Ministry of Health regulates cannabis processing and products, and keeps tabs on THC and CBD percentages in each strain. The ministry also provides training for physicians and health practitioners who want to recommend cannabis, though this is not legally required. Medical practitioners who recommend it must be registered with the Medical Council of Jamaica, the national agency that licenses doctors. With one of the lowest economic growth rates in the developed world, a regulated cannabis industry could help boost jobs, income and tourism on the island. Banks are cautious about working with cannabis businesses, however. There are also concerns from both ends of the political spectrum, with ganja-infused “cannabis edibles” banned 20 FREEDOM LEAF
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Dr. Aseem Sappal in Negril
RASTAFRARI ROOTZFEST From Dec. 15-17, I attended the 2017 Rastafari Rootzfest, which has become Jamaica’s premier cannabis event (licensed and approved by the government). Based in Negril, the event featured educational panel discussions, the Ganjamaica Cup, live reggae by Capleton and others, yoga, meditation, and food, craft and clothing vendors. As a major sponsor of Rastafari Rootz-fest, Oaksterdam University faculty members were on hand to offer advice about horticulture, product development, legalization policy and many other subjects. —Dr. Sappal
last May amidst fear they would be sold to children, and other Jamaicans worried about maintaining the “cultural” aspects of ganja. Jamaica remains careful about how legal ganja will affect international relationships, particularly with the U.S. The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs treaty prohibits the manufacture and distribution of cannabis and other drugs, and Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ government is fully aware of the Trump administration’s position on cannabis and the potential influence the U.S. has over trade. As with several U.S. states that have legalized cannabis, expect Jamaica to overcome its regulatory challenges and ultimately evolve with positive results. Dr. Aseem Sappal is provost and dean of faculty at Oaksterdam University.
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Greening OF THE GREAT THE
North WHITE
CANNABIS LEGALIZATION IN CANADA BEGINS THIS SUMMER. BY MONA ZHANG
CANADA IS MOVING full steam ahead with its plan to legalize recreational marijuana. The federal government, however, has delegated much of the responsibility for ironing out the details of regulation to individual provinces. In November, the Department of Finance announced that excise taxes on cannabis flowers would not exceed $1 per gram or 10% of the product’s sale price, whichever is higher, and that marijuanatax revenue would be divided equally between the provinces and the federal government. Unhappy with the 50-50 split, provincial leaders came out against the proposed regulations, arguing that since their governments are doing most of the regulatory work, they should receive a larger share of tax revenue. “The federal government must be smoking something to think it will work for the provinces,” Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci fumed. “It’s unacceptable. We need to get into a room together to work this out.” Quick to respond, Ottawa officials met with the 10 provinces and hammered out an agreement that would give provinces 22 FREEDOM LEAF
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75% of marijuana-tax revenues for the first two years of legal sales. The provinces signed off on the proposed $1 per gram federal excise tax. Products would be subject to provincial sales taxes as well, so the final purchase price will vary. Taxes on an $8 gram of cannabis would bring the price up to $10.33 in New Brunswick, but only $9.45 in Alberta, which has no provincial sales tax. Patients and medical cannabis producers, however, are not happy about the government’s plan to tax medical and recreational cannabis at the same rates. Patient advocates argue that medical marijuana should be exempt from taxation, as other medicines are. But lawmakers fear that would give recreational consumers an incentive to seek out medical marijuana for its cheaper prices. “Our expectation is that by keeping prices low, we’ll be able to get rid of the black market,” Finance Minister Bill Morneau stated after meeting with provincial leaders. “However, that will happen over time.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who favors legalization, is determined to put the thriving black market out of busi-
Canada’s 10 provinces have been empowered to make their own cannabis regulations.
PROVINCE’S CANNABIS REGULATIONS: Government-run shops, home-growing banned Private and Government-run shops Private retailers Government-run shops
ness. “This may surprise you, but I agree that marijuana is problematic for the developing brain, that we need to keep it out of the hands of our young people,” he said at a town-hall meeting in Nova Scotia in January. “However, it’s not working. Right now the current system we have means there’s already marijuana in our high schools.” The legal age for cannabis consumption in Canada will be in line with that for alcohol: 18 or 19 years old, depending on the province. While the provinces have created general frameworks for their cannabis regulations, many details still need to be ironed out. One thing is clear: Nine out of the 10 provinces will allow home growing of up to four plants (Quebec won’t).
• ONTARIO: The government of the country’s most populous province will have a monopoly on weed sales. Pot will only be sold through government-operated stores overseen by the province’s Liquor Control Board, which plans to open up to 150 stores by 2019. Meanwhile, it’s also considering licensing marijuana lounges for public consumption, which would be a boon to the tourist business in Toronto.
• QUEBEC: The province that’s home to
Montreal and Quebec City has proposed selling cannabis through just 15 government-run shops to serve its 8.4 million people. Regulators are adopting a zerotolerance rule for driving, allowing police officers to use saliva tests to claim drivers are impaired, despite the fact there is no such test that reliably measures impairment levels.
• NOVA SCOTIA: The island province off the East Coast will sell cannabis out of government-operated shops run by the Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. The provincial government has yet to announce how many dispensaries there will be.
• NEW BRUNSWICK: The province that borders Maine will create the Cannabis Management Corporation to oversee sales of recreational marijuana to adults and manage 20 retail outlets. Home cultivation will be allowed as long as the plants are “secure.” • MANITOBA: The Midwestern province is adopting a “hybrid model,” where its WINTER 2018
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Liquor and Lotteries Corp. will manage the supply side of the cannabis market, and private retailers will be able to apply for dispensary licenses. Online sales and deliveries are also being considered.
Scotia will operate four cannabis retail outlets for its 150,000 people. It will also offer an online platform where consumers can order for next-day delivery.
• BRITISH COLUMBIA: Known for its
ince to the west of Manitoba will award 60 licenses to private retailers via a lottery system. The Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority will regulate the retailers in the same way it oversees commercial alcohol sales.
plentiful grow operations and already home to many illegal dispensaries, the Pacific Coast province will allow both public and private cannabis shops, but has not released further details.
• PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND: The small Maritime province just north of Nova Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has led the campaign to legalize cannabis in Canada.
• SASKATCHEWAN: The prairie prov-
• ALBERTA: The province to the west of Saskatchewan will allow private retailers to set up physical shops, while the government will sell cannabis online. The proposed framework also leaves open the possibility of marijuana lounges. It’s shaping up to become one of Canada’s most cannabis-friendly provinces.
• NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR: The New-
foundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation in this Maritime province will license private stores to sell cannabis. It also plans to allow online sales. Arguing that police need more time to prepare, law enforcement and some Conservative Party senators would like the federal government to delay the legal cannabis rollout. But the Senate usually doesn’t block legislation that’s been passed by the House of Commons. Whether or not the senators manage to delay the bill, Canada is well on its way to becoming the first G8 nation to legalize cannabis. Mona Zhang publishes the daily cannabis newsletter Word on the Tree. Subscribe to WOTT at wordonthetree.com.
24 FREEDOM LEAF
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A Brief History of
CANNABIS
EDIBLES WHAT BEGAN WITH A TEA IN CHINA HAS EVOLVED INTO POPULAR POT PRODUCTS. BY CHERI SICARD
B
efore you start cooking, let’s briefly examine the incredible plant you will be working with. No other individual species of flora has been so misunderstood. Some malign it, exaggerating and even inventing all manner of fear-mongering propaganda. Others laud it as a miracle cure for anything and everything that ails humanity and the planet. Like most polarizing topics, the truth is somewhere in between those two extremes. Our ancient ancestors had a far more intimate relationship with food as medicine than most of us do today. Many plants familiar to us—basil, cinnamon, cumin, fennel, mint, oregano, thyme and cannabis—were intertwined in both kitchen and apothecary throughout history. Our earliest written references to cannabis appear around the 15th century BCE in China, where it was consumed as a tea. However, scholars agree that surviving ancient medical texts speak of cannabis use in the past tense, giving the impression that it had been a common medical staple long before written texts confirmed the fact. By 1000 BCE, cannabis (or bhang) was being cultivated in India, where the Vedas, collections of Hindu religious texts, considered it one of five sacred
plants. Bhang is also the name of what is arguably the world’s oldest marijuana recipe, an ancient cannabis-laced drink that remains popular in India today. During the Middle Ages, soldiers customarily consumed bhang for fortification before going into battle. Even though cannabis is technically illegal in India today, bhang is still sold, especially during the Hindu Holi festival. It’s such an essential, traditional part of the celebration that the government has found it easier to turn a blind eye than fight it. Around 1474, the Italian writer and gastronomist Bartolomeo Platina put the first cannabis recipe into print, in what is considered the world’s oldest known cookbook. Platina advised his readers on making cannabis-infused oil, not unlike what we do today. Moroccan ancients consumed their cannabis in the form of hashish, as referred to in the original One Thousand and One Nights collection of folk tales (also known as The Arabian Nights). An ancient Middle Eastern marijuana recipe still popular today is mahjoun. This uncooked jam features dates, nuts, honey, spices and hashish rolled into bite-sized balls—and provides a healthier sweet than most of today’s infused edibles. In the 1840s, France’s intellectual, literary and artistic elite gathered in Paris’ Club des Hachischins (Club of the Hashish-Eaters) to consume hash in their coffees and WINTER 2018
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EDIBLE CANNABIS TIMELINE 15TH CENTURY BCE: The Chinese consume cannabis tea.
CIRCA 2000 TO 1400 BCE: The India Vedas consider cannabis, or bhang, one of the sacred plants.
1937: Federal marijuana prohibition begins in the U.S.
1880-1900: Cannabis edibles and tinctures are common in the United States. Harry Anslinger
1954: The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook, which includes a recipe for Haschisch Fudge, is published.
teas and via candy and infused tinctures. Before cannabis was prohibited in the U.S. in 1937, many American medicine cabinets contained it, usually in the form of tinctures, but edible candies and other foods had been common in the late 19th century. An 1862 issue of Vanity Fair carried an ad touting the Gunjah Wallah Company’s “Hasheesh Candy” as a “medicinal agent for the cure of nervousness, weakness [and] melancholy.” Alice B. Toklas, life partner of author Gertrude Stein, ushered in the era of modern edibles while simultaneously resurrecting mahjoun’s popularity for modern generations when she published her recipe for Haschisch Fudge in The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook (1954). Toklas’ 28 FREEDOM LEAF
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CIRCA 1990: Mary Jane Rathbun, a.k.a. “Brownie Mary,” illegally bakes and serves brownies to San Francisco AIDS patients.
recipe uses ground bud and contains no hash. It resembles neither fudge nor brownies, despite it entering the popular lexicon as “Alice B. Toklas Brownies,” thanks to the 1968 Peter Sellers film I Love You, Alice B. Toklas. In the movie, Sellers’ uptight attorney character consumes a pot brownie that forever alters his world. The movie permanently changed the public’s perception of marijuana edibles, and from that point on the “pot brownie” became embedded in the mainstream consciousness as the most popular way to consume edible cannabis. But history is always in the making, and since the experience of edible marijuana is about so much more than pot brownies, it’s time to create new history.
CIRCA 1474 CE: The world’s first cookbook, by Bartolomeo Platina, is released and includes a marijuana recipe.
16TH CENTURY CE: Morocco becomes a hub for hash making. 1839: Researcher William O’Shaughnessy brings quantities of hemp and cannabis from India to Britain, and introduces modern medical cannabis to the Western world.
CIRCA 1845: France’s intellectual elite indulges in hash eating. Alexander Dumas
1996: California becomes the first state to legalize medical marijuana, ushering the era of store-bought, commercially made edibles.
CANNABIS: THE UNSUNG SUPERFOOD
While the word “superfood” is assuredly more a marketing term than a medical one, it does refer to nutrient-dense foods, usually plant-based, that are shown to bring health benefits when consumed. By this definition, marijuana qualifies as one of the planet’s most powerful superfoods, even without taking into account all the illnesses it can combat and prevent. All mammals, including humans, are born with a natural form of cannabis, or endocannabinoids, in their systems. Endocannabinoids, along with cannabinoid receptors in the brain and body, make up what is known as the endocan-
2014: Colorado, the first state to legalize recreational marijuana, imposes a limit of 10 mg of THC per serving for edibles.
nabinoid system, which is essential for maintaining homeostasis throughout the body. Some scientists theorize that because of the ravages of modern living, including poor diet, decreased exercise and a prevalence of toxic chemicals in our air, water and food, most people are now endocannabinoid-deficient. Since the body’s own natural endocannabinoids can’t keep up with the demand needed to maintain optimum health, supplemental cannabinoids from marijuana can give it more ammunition to fight disease. One of the world’s foremost researchers on the subject, Dr. Robert Melamede, the former chair of the biology department at the University of Colorado in WINTER 2018
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ALICE B. TOKLAS USHERED IN THE ERA OF MODERN EDIBLES. TOKLAS’ RECIPE RESEMBLES NEITHER FUDGE NOR BROWNIES, DESPITE IT ENTERING THE POPULAR LEXICON AS “ALICE B. TOKLAS BROWNIES.” Colorado Springs, says: “Cannabis is an essential nutrient for modern man. The endocannabinoid system of vertebrates is a major regulator of inflammation, and by increasing our endocannabinoid activity we can lower the damage caused by excessive inflammatory responses.” Cannabinoids and terpenoids are the chemical compounds within the marijuana plant responsible for its medicinal effects. Scientists have isolated over 110 cannabinoids in marijuana, including THC, CBD, cannabinol (CBN), cannabigerol (CBG) and cannabichromene (CBC). Terpenoids, or terpenes, give all plants —not just marijuana plants—their aromas. They also have powerful medicinal effects. More than 200 terpenes have been identified in cannabis, and these
Alice B. Toklas
too play an important role in the plant’s health-giving qualities. Terpenes interact with cannabinoids and are responsible for many of the nuances of how different marijuana strains make you feel. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) gets all the hype because it’s the component responsible for the high you feel after eating or inhaling marijuana. But there’s far more to THC than just getting high, not that there is anything wrong with that— the mild euphoria that comes with a cannabis high is indeed a medicinal effect. It can also help provide relief from pain, glaucoma, insomnia, nausea, PTSD and a host of other ailments. Cannabidiol (CBD) is typically a nonpsychoactive cannabinoid, meaning most people will not feel high when taking it. It can be effective for treating seizures, anxiety, pain, inflammation and more. Rather than isolating CBD or THC, know that cannabis works best as a whole-plant medicine with all the terpenes and cannabinoids working together and enhancing each other’s effects, something scientists call “the entourage effect.” Excerpted from The Easy Cannabis Cookbook. © 2018 by Cheri Sicard. Reprinted by permission of Rockridge Press, Emeryville, Calif. All rights reserved.
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Winter Reci es p FROM THE EASY CANNABIS COOKBOOK CHICKEN MATZO BALL SOUP This soup is comfort at the highest level. When you come down with a cold, it will be your go-to meal for cozy healing. • 4 cups strong chicken stock • 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced into rounds • 1 celery rib, chopped into ¼-inch pieces • 1 large parsnip, peeled and diced • ¼ cup water or seltzer water • 2 tbsp. cannabis oil • 2 tbsp. vegetable oil or chicken fat • 4 eggs • 1 ⅛ cups matzo meal • 1 tsp. salt • ½ tsp. black pepper, freshly ground • 2 tsp. garlic powder (optional) • 1 tsp. dried parsley (optional) 32 FREEDOM LEAF
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In a medium bowl, beat eggs, water, cannabis oil and vegetable oil with a fork until well combined. Mix in garlic powder and parsley (if using), and salt and pepper. Add matzo meal until thoroughly combined. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes. While waiting, bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Pour stock into a large pot and add the parsnip, carrot and celery. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the vegetables soften, about 10 minutes. Moisten your hands with cold water and form the chilled matzo mixture into 8 balls. Drop them into the salted boiling water. Lower heat to a simmer, cover pot and cook for 30 minutes. Do not open the lid. Place 2 matzo balls in each bowl and fill with the soup. Serve immediately.
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BEEF AND BEAN CHILI Using a slow cooker lets you prep this recipe early in the day and forget about it until dinnertime. Nothing beats coming home to a hot, comforting meal that’s all ready to be dished out. • 3 lbs. boneless beef chuck, trimmed of fat and cut into ¾-inch chunks • 2 oz. dried chili peppers (6-8 peppers) • 1 15-oz. can kidney beans, drained • 3 ½ cups beef stock, divided • 4 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided • 1 tbsp. cannabis oil • 1 medium yellow onion, diced • 1 tbsp. garlic, minced • 1 tbsp. salt • 2 tsp. black pepper, freshly ground • 1 ½ tsp. cumin, ground • 1 tsp. oregano, dried • ½ cup black coffee • 1 tbsp. cider vinegar • 1 tbsp. brown sugar • 1 corn tortilla • ½ tsp. cayenne pepper (optional) Place peppers in a cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat and toast until fragrant, 34 FREEDOM LEAF
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about 2 minutes per side. Be careful not to burn them. Place toasted peppers in a bowl, cover them with boiling water and soak until they’re soft, about 20 minutes, turning them once or twice. Heat the tortilla in a dry skillet, about 1 minute on each side. When it’s cool enough to handle, tear it into pieces, blend them in a food processor and set aside. Drain peppers, then split them open and remove seeds and stems. Place peppers in blender or food processor with cannabis oil, salt, black pepper, cumin, oregano and cayenne (if using). Purée the mixture, then add 2 cups of beef stock and continue to blend until it’s a smooth paste. Transfer to the slow cooker set on high. Return skillet to medium-high heat and add 2 tsp. of olive oil. Brown the beef in two batches on both sides. Drain and add cooked beef to the cooker. Add remaining 2 tsp. of olive oil to the skillet and cook onion and garlic, stirring often, until the onion just starts to brown, about 2 minutes. Transfer to the slow cooker. Add the puréed tortilla, beans, the remaining 1½ cups of beef stock, coffee, cider vinegar and brown sugar to cooker, and stir to blend well. Cover and let cook for 4-6 hours or until the beef is tender. Serve immediately.
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patagonia vs.
TRUMP
The outdoor retailer wants Bears Ears to stay just as it is—untouched. BY ERIN HIATT ON DEC. 4, in an unprecedented repudiation of Theodore Roosevelt’s 1906 Antiquities Act, Pres. Donald Trump, at the behest of Utah lawmakers and energy and mineral interests, slashed the sizes of two national monuments in the state’s wild southeast corner, reducing Bears Ears by 85% and Grand Staircase-Escalante by 47%. In immediate response, Ventura, Calif.-based outdoor retailer Patagonia, founded in 1973 by former accredited
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rock climber Yvon Chouinard, and several other groups banded together to sue the Trump administration. “Utah lawmakers have always been hostile toward tribes,” says Natasha Hale, lead staffer of the Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition, who Patagonia has made contributions to via the Conservation Lands Foundation. “They’re completely disrespectful. And it’s been pretty evident in this campaign that they totally disrespect Natives. It’s an institutional racism and an outright
blatant racism. There’s a denial that we have any type of say in our landscape.” San Juan County, home to Bears Ears and Rainbow Bridge National Monument, is a rare place. Native Americans, including Pueblos and Navahos, outnumber white residents by 50% to 46%. It has some of the most stunning and fragile landscapes in the world, dotted with ancient dwellings, relics and petroglyphs. However, beneath the soil lies a multitude of extractable materials that are at the root of this controversy. Patagonia, which trains athletes and tests products at Bears Ears, has an long history of environmental activism. The company is a California benefit corporation, meaning it’s legally obligated to give 1% of its annual net revenue to nonprofit organizations that promote environmental conservation and sustainability. It’s pledged $74 million since 1985. Many of the groups Patagonia has supported protect wild places in their local communities, including through national monument designation. The creation of Bears Ears was a direct result of Patagonia’s efforts. President Barack Obama designated Bears Ears as a national monument shortly before he left office, on Dec. 28, 2016, after consulting local stakeholders, including San Juan County officials and tribal leadership. The designation protects Native American sites from vandals, theft
and looting; preserves the delicate landscape; and makes extraction industry activities more difficult. Obama was well within his rights to create Bears Ears. The Antiquities Act states that the President is authorized to designate historic landmarks, structures and “other objects of historic or scientific interest.” While it also says that the monuments “shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected,” that standard has proven to be very subjective. “We wanted to protect, as tribes, 1.9 million acres,” says Hale. They compromised on 1.3 million acres, which left the Daneros Uranium Mine outside the boundary for Bears Ears. Colorado-based Energy Fuel Resources, owners of Daneros, recently lobbied the Trump administration to have the monument shrunk. The Patagonia lawsuit asserts that the company will suffer “direct and immediate injury from the revocation of the designation of the landmarks, structures and objects of the Bears Ears National Monument.” “The Administration’s unlaw-
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ful actions betray our shared responsibility to protect iconic places for future generations and represent the largest elimination of protected land in American history,” Patagonia president and CEO Rose Marcario stated. The company says that “removing protections for federal lands could result in permanent destruction of these treasured places,” and cites polls showing that 67% of Americans think that public lands should be protected. Utah lawmakers called the designation a federal land grab, despite the fact that 66.5% of the state’s land is owned by the federal government. At the heart of the conflict is what many Western interest groups see as federal overreach; they’ve been smarting ever since President Bill Clinton’s designation of Grand StaircaseEscalante in 1996. The Nevada-based Bundy family has been the most publicly extreme example of this, but they’re not without support among Utah politicians. In 2014, they joined current San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman in an all-terrain vehicle joyride up Recapture Canyon in Blanding. Lyman spent 10 days in jail and received three years probation for the stunt. Cliven Bundy, the family patriarch, later forced an armed standoff with federal authorities in Nevada over millions
of dollars in unpaid grazing fees, and in 2016, his sons Ryan and Ammon illegally seized and ransacked the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. Some see Patagonia as a puffy-jacketed liberal interloper whose sole desire is to leverage the lawsuit for marketing purposes and to usurp Western land interests. But Patagonia has demonstrated loyalty to Utah by anchoring the Outdoor Retailer Sports Expo and Conference in Salt Lake City, which brings outdoor retailers like REI and Black Diamond to the state, along with millions of dollars. That relationship soured when Patagonia caught wind of a scheme between Utah lawmakers and the Trump administration in early 2017. Sen. Orrin Hatch, Rep. Rob Bishop and Gov. Gary Herbert saw an ally in Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke, and began plans to sue the U.S. gov.ernment to shrink Bears Ears. Zinke has shown strong allegiance to ranching, oil, gas and mining interests looking to increase their exploitation of federal lands. “Governor Gary Herbert and his buddies have spent years denigrating our public lands, the backbone of our business, and trying to sell them off to the highest bidder,” Chouinard wrote on the company’s website. “He’s created a hostile environment that puts our industry at risk. He should stop his efforts to
PATAGONIA’S HEMP LINE Patagonia has 22 hemp items in its catalog, including shirts, T-shirts, tops, pants, shorts and coats (from $39-$149 at patagonia.com/shop/hemp-clothing). “Though our hemp is not ‘certified organic,’ it’s grown organically using all natural ingredients: compost, animal manure and available rainfall,” its website explains. “Patagonia makes garments with 100% hemp or blends it with other fibers like recycled polyester, organic cotton and spandex… We currenly import our high-quality hemp fabric from China and continue to hope this remarkably useful plant will one day grow without restrictions again.”
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1
Clockwise from top left: Moon Tower in the Valley of the Gods and Fish Canyon in Cedar Mesa (photos by Josh Ewing), and House on Fire in Mule Canyon.
transfer public lands to the state, which would spell disaster for Utah’s economy.” Despite the fact that Utah’s outdoor industry employs more than 120,000 people and brings $12 billion to the state each year, far surpassing the output of extraction and ranching interests, Herbert was unswayed. This resulted in Patagonia withdrawing from the recent Outdoor Retailer Sports Expo, which then decided to move moved to Denver. The Trump administration argues that national-monument designations violate the intent of the Antiquities Act, contending that they’re too large. It also believes the land must be mined for national security, to break American reliance on foreign sources for critical minerals and create energy independence. However, 90% of public lands are already available for oil and gas development; there are more than 7,500 drilling permits covering more than 19 million acres of unused public land leases. Zinke and Trump are not stopping at 40 FREEDOM LEAF
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Bears Ears and Grand Staircase. Also in their crosshairs is Nevada’s Gold Butte National Monument, another recipient of Patagonia’s environmental patronage. “There has been this power among the shared interests of Patagonia and the tribe,” says Hale, who believes that Patagonia’s involvement has raised the profile of their work and inspired environmental and land-use awareness among other outdoor retailers. “It’s been exciting to see the tribes and Patagonia come out so strong.” Gavin Noyes, executive director of Utah Diné Bikéyah, a Native Americanrun nonprofit that supports indigenous communities in preserving their heritage and is a co-complainant on the lawsuit, says it’s business as usual while the saga unfolds. “I feel optimistic that we will prevail in the lawsuit,” he declares. “The president doesn’t have the authority to shrink monuments.” Utah native Erin Hiatt writes for several cannabis magazines.
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Northern The
California Way
Now that pot is legal in the Golden State, the Emerald Triangle and other parts of NorCal are gearing up to handle a ‘Green Rush’ of consumers.
By Amanda Reiman
In the past 21 years, ever since medical marijuana was legalized in California, the Golden State has developed a significant cannabis industry. However, the lack of state regulations kept its size and growth rate in check. Now that recreational marijuana is finally available, many are wondering what the cannabis market in the world’s sixth-largest economy will eventually look like. Northern California has taken a more active approach to cannabis regulations
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than its southern counterpart. This is partly due to necessity, since so much of the cannabis grown in California comes from the Emerald Triangle, the northwestern region made up of Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties. It was also due to culture. The Bay Area has the reputation of being one of the most progressive metropolitan areas in the world, from the Summer of Love in San Francisco to the liberal mecca of the University of California at Berkeley to the social-justice warriors of Oakland. Here are five exciting things to look forward to in Northern California:
1. CANNABIS LOUNGES
In the early 2000s, Oakland had not yet officially banned public cannabis smoking. The city eventually did through a no-smoking ordinance, which outlaws public smoking and doesn’t limit the ban to tobacco (the state law specifies tobacco). While the law stands, Oakland has already shown its willingness to embrace social consumption by permitting a farmer’s market and dab bar at Magnolia Wellness. Similarly, in San Francisco, Harvest has a consumption lounge, and you can vaporize at SPARC. Prop 64 lets localities license on-site consumption at dispensaries. I predict the state will license standalone consumption lounges that also sell food and coffee.
2. CANNABIS AND…
Private events that mix marijuana with other fun activities are popular in the Bay Area, such as cannabis and yoga and cannabis and cooking. At Puff, Pass & Paint in Oakland, patrons sample cannabis and then create create art. And, while they haven’t formally organized events like “high hikes,” many northern California cannabis companies pitch their ad campaigns towards residents’ fondness for the outdoors. Some design waterproof bags to make it easier to take your herb with you on an adventure. With the state
offering a cannabis events-license, I see more opportunities to combine pot with other activities—and not just by hot-boxing in the parking lot.
3. CANNABIS TOURISM
Many consumers, even those who’ve been ingesting cannabis for decades, have never seen a plant in the ground. This is primarily due to prohibition and the necessity that growing operations be kept secret. The product just showed up, in a baggie, and you paid whatever the person selling it charged. Not having any interaction with the farmer or the live plant has been to a detriment to consumers. Cannabis tourism will change that. Trips to the Emerald Triangle will be akin to wine-country vacations. Farm tours will include tastings and knowledge transmitted from farmer to consumer. In the Bay Area, cannabis tourism is our chance to educate the public rather than just get them high, to teach safe and mindful consumption—so a couple visiting from Nebraska will be less likely to have a bad experience with an edible or a prerolled joint. Companies like Emerald Country Tours offer history and culture as well as vape hits. I expect to see much more cannabis tourism opportunities in the future, including those with allied industries like wine and food.
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COURTESY OF FLOW KANA
Large sun-grown marijuana plants at Green Mountain Ranch in Mendocino County
4. FARM-TO-TABLE CRAFT CANNABIS
Many of the small family pot farms in the Emerald Triangle are off the grid. Yes, the farmers care deeply about the environment, but this is also a result of prohibition, when detection was an issue. Now that prohibition’s over, these farmers are continuing their practices of solar power, water recycling and regenerative soil. They’re not only on the cutting edge of cannabis, but of modern-day food production as well. Organic methods and the use of living soils also set an example for the food industry. In a prohibition market, there’s no way to discern quality from quantity, primarily because of lack of information about the product itself. In the age of legalization, consumers will be able to make better choices about what they consume. And, if the consumer is concerned about the impact of industrial agriculture on the environment, they can and should choose sun-grown, organic outdoor cannabis. Legalization could enable high-quality craft cultivators to take center stage. But we must be vigilant that the regulations are not overly burdensome on the small farmer, and that they enjoy the same tax incentives and direct-to-consumer opportunities as those in the beer and wine industries.
5. INCUBATOR OF IDEAS
Northern California has been a leader in all things cannabis since the 1960s. In 1992, San Francisco voters passed Prop P, a ballot initiative promoted by AIDS activist Dennis Peron and others that 44 FREEDOM LEAF
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made the medical use of cannabis the lowest law-enforcement priority. In 1996, Californians voted in favor of Prop 215, the first statewide medical-cannabis law in the country. In the East Bay, Berkeley has had the same three dispensaries for more than 20 years, and was one of the first jurisdictions to allow adult-use sales on Jan. 1. In 2011, when Oakland tried to move forward with licensing cultivation facilities, it received a threatening letter from the federal government. Oakland also created the state’s first cannabis-equity program, which gives priority to residents from lower economic backgrounds. Oakland and Berkeley both sued the federal government when it threatened to shutter their largest dispensaries, Harborside Health Center and Berkeley Patients Group, in 2012. The Emerald Triangle has also tried some progressive cannabis policies, such as the 9.31 program in Mendocino County in 2010 that allowed farmers to register their plants with the Sheriff’s office. The Feds shut that down too. Legalization has come to California and all of its 38 million residents. Much of the state will continue to be a dry, barren landscape of commercial cannabis bans and unworkable regulations. Some SoCal cities have created a framework for cannabis commerce. But, Northern California is, hands down, the cannabis capital of the world, and with 20 years of dipping their toes in regulations behind them, the Bay Area and Emerald Triangle are ready for the post-prohibition era. Amanda Reiman is vice president of community relations at Flow Kana in Northern California.
“My goal is to have cannabis recognized by the American Medical Association as a viable medicine for various ailments, including Epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, MS, Cancer and who knows what else. That’s my goal.”
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LEGALIZATION IN CALIFORNIA:
How’s It Going? BY NGAIO BEALUM
WEED SALES HAVE been legal in California since January 1. People can buy recreational cannabis in places that used to provide marijuana just for patients, so business is booming. Lines are long and spirits are high. Jobs are being created. Cannabis businesses are hiring. Billboards are chock-full of pot-themed ads. Lawyers and consultants and marketers and packaging suppliers and all kinds of folks are making money on the new green industry. During a recent visit to A Therapeutic Alternative on H Street in midtown Sacramento, the joint was jumping. Store owner Kim Cargile told me that while she was happy to have the extra customers, the new regulations have made doing business twice as expensive than it used to be, though it’s still worthwhile. Simply put, the taxes are too damn high. After the excise tax, the state tax, the city tax and whatever other random fees that get added on, cannabis taxes are in the area of 25%-30%. Exorbitant taxes will not make the black market go away. Calaveras County, in the Sierra Nevada foothills southeast of Sacramento, started recruiting cannabis cultivators two years ago, but pulled a bait-and-switch in January, 46 FREEDOM LEAF
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A THERAPEUTIC ALTERNATIVE store owner Kim Cargile (left) and cannabis counselors (above)
when it banned commercial cultivation completely. This move left farmers and investors on the hook for millions of dollars and will most likely spark several lawsuits. Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the California Growers Association, has filed a lawsuit challenging the removal of the oneacre cap on commercial farms. Prop 64 was designed and sold to small growers as a way to give the “mom and pop” small-scale cannabis operators a head start before giant corporate interests try to corner the market. Removing this cap makes it harder for outlaws to go legit. Prop 64 allows anyone with a cannabis conviction to petition the court to have the record expunged if the past infraction is no longer a crime or if the “crime” is now a misdemeanor instead of a felony. Some cities, such as San Francisco and San Diego, are searching their databases in an effort to provide relief to the thousands of people that have been unfairly punished by the Drug War. Other cities like Los Angeles, not so much. That people can petition the courts to have charges and convictions removed from their records is probably the best thing about California’s cannabis legalization so far. Ngaio Bealum is a comedian and activist as well as a writer based in Sacramento.
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Life During the Rule of
SESSIONS
Two California lawyers lay out a strategy for combating the federal assault on cannabis. BY ALLISON MARGOLIN AND RAZA LAWRENCE
O
n Jan. 4, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a new memo on marijuana-law enforcement that left many people in legal states confused or worried. The memo rescinded the 2013 Cole Memo, which instructed federal prosecutors to consider their limited resources when contemplating going after sales or cultivation that were legal under state law. Instead, Sessions promised “a return to the rule of law” and directed “all U.S. Attorneys to enforce the laws enacted by Congress and to follow well-established principles when pursuing prosecutions related to marijuana activities.” In practice, this means that each U.S. Attorney in charge of one of the nation’s 94 judicial districts can set his or her own policies on marijuana prosecution, ranging from hands-off to aggressive— opening the way to a crackdown on recreational cannabis in the nine jurisdictions where it has been legalized, eight states and Washington, D.C. Sessions dropped this threat just as California and its many cities were getting their new cannabis-regulation systems up and running. For the first time in the state’s history, cannabis will be grown, distributed and sold in a highly regulated environment, generating a substantial amount of jobs and tax revenues. All of its biggest cities have already created elaborate licensing systems for medical and non-medical commercial cannabis activity. Many California politicians criticized Sessions’ move. “We hope the federal government will align itself with the will of, not just Californians, but Americans and not go to a tired playbook of the
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War on Drugs,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti stated. In the past, he’s taken strong pro-cannabis positions, including appointing activist Cat Packer to head the city Department of Cannabis Regulation. Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia and San Leandro Mayor Pauline Cutter joined eight other U.S. mayors, including New York’s Bill de Blasio and Denver’s Michael Hancock, in sending a letter to Sessions condemning his decision. “President Trump and the Department of Justice should not waste our law enforcement resources and taxpayer money on prosecut-
RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA IS CURRENTLY IN A GRAY AREA WITHOUT ANY PROTECTION FROM FEDERAL PROSECUTION. ing legal activity and instead prioritize their efforts on ending the scourge of the opioid crisis,” they wrote. “We will do everything we can within the rule of law to keep our residents safe, end the opioid crisis, and ensure our businesses, residents and visitors are protected from this overreach.” On the other hand, Adam Braverman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California in San Diego, hailed Sessions’ new policy, saying it “returns trust and local control to federal prosecutors” to enforce the Controlled Substances Act. “The Department of Justice is committed to reducing violent
GAGE SKIDMORE
Attorney General Jeff Sessions
crime and enforcing the laws as enacted by Congress,” he explained. “The cultivation, distribution and possession of marijuana has long been and remains a violation of federal law. We’ll continue to utilize longestablished prosecutorial priorities to carry out our mission to combat violent crime, disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations and stem the rising tide of the drug crisis.”
PRESERVING WHAT’S LEFT OF FEDERAL PROTECTIONS WITH THE ROHRABACHERBLUMENAUER AMENDMENT Since December 2014, the RohrabacherFarr amendment to the federal appropriations bill, now known as the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment for the two House members who sponsor it, has prohibited the Department of Justice from using funds to prevent states from implementing their own state laws that authorize the use, possession, cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana. The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ 2016 decision in the U.S. v. McIntosh case interpreted this to provide de facto protection for anyone facing federal criminal prosecution for medical-mar-
ijuana activity allowed by state law. It effectively prevents U.S. attorneys from prosecuting any such cases in court, even though marijuana use, possession, cultivation and distribution remain crimes in all circumstances under federal law. The Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment has been included in various shortterm spending bills. Unfortunately, the most recent extension expired on Feb. 9. Based on the number of times it’s already been extended and the shifting public opinion in favor of marijuana legalization since the amendment was first implemented, it will probably be extended again. An appropriations-bill amendment sponsored by Reps. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.) would override Sessions’ nullification of the Cole Memo and expand the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment’s protections to recreational-marijuana states. For now, medical-marijuana use, possession, cultivation and distribution remain protected from federal prosecution by the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment and the U.S. v. McIntosh decision. But recreational marijuana is in a gray area, clearly legal under state law, but illegal under federal law, and without any protection from federal prosecution. WINTER 2018
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TOM WILLIAMS/CQ ROLL CALL
The amendment named for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (right) and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (left) protects legal medical-marijuana states.
ASSET FORFEITURE REMAINS A PROBLEM, BUT SIMPLE REFORMS WOULD HELP Asset forfeiture took off in the 1970s as a new way to fight organized crime and money laundering. Predictably, government agencies found it an easy way to raise funds. Unlike in criminal cases, the government doesn’t need to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt; it just has to make a case by a “preponderance of the evidence.” The owner doesn’t have to be convicted of any crime in order to have their property seized. Under this system, it’s easy for innocent people unfamiliar with the legal system or who don’t keep detailed records to lose their money and property. Forfeiture laws are a recurring threat to cannabis-related businesses. They allow the government to seize assets (bank accounts, cash, vehicles, and homes or other buildings) that the government alleges are tied to the distribution or production of controlled substances. Because marijuana is illegal under federal law, the government can seize assets linked to conduct that’s fully legal under state law, such as cultivation or sales. As the abuses and unfair results of forfeiture gained more exposure, there have been reform efforts. In 2015, then-Attorney General Eric Holder announced new policies restricting schemes where the federal government would encourage local governments to seize money and share profits. But Sessions reversed that policy last July 50 FREEDOM LEAF
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by reinstating the “adoptive forfeiture” process, in which a state or local law-enforcement agency seizes property pursuant to state law and then requests that a federal agency take the seized asset and forfeit it under federal law. Adoptive forfeitures, however, are only a small fraction of overall asset forfeitures. Fortunately, more than half the states have recently passed reforms curtailing the power of police to seize assets. Many state now require a criminal conviction before property or money can be seized. As most crime and law enforcement occurs at the local level, the federal government rarely gets involved in asset forfeitures unless a state gets them involved. Currently, the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment and the McIntosh ruling restrict prosecutors from seeking forfeitures against patients and companies in legal medical marijuana states. Much of the federal government’s asset forfeiture work is done by the DEA, the FBI and U.S. Attorneys, which are all part of the Department of Justice. The Rohrabacher-Blumenauer law severely restricts the avenues that the federal government would have to seize money or property related to medical marijuana. However, until the McClintock-Polis amendment passes or other protections are enacted, non-medical cannabis activity will remain subject to forfeiture. Allison Margolin, “L.A.’s Dopest Attorney,” and Raza Lawrence are founding partners of Margolin & Lawrence.
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Garden State THE
WITH THE ELECTION OF GOV. PHIL MURPHY, NEW JERSEY IS ON THE PATH TO LEGALIZATION.
By Steve Gelsi
N
ew Jersey’s newly elected Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy touted the economic and social-justice benefits of legalizing cannabis during his campaign last year. Now proponents are anticipating that such legislation will be enacted this year. Murphy marks a 180-degree turn from his anti-pot Republican predecessor, Chris Christie. Two bills that would legalize recreational cannabis have been introduced in the state legislature in Trenton. While Assemblymember Reed Gusciora’s (D-Trenton) measure would allow home cultivation (12 plants per household), state Senator Nicholas Scutari’s (D-Linden) wouldn’t. Gusciora’s plan would also tax pot at a lower rate (7% in the first year) than Scutari’s (25%). Both would allow regulated commercial cultivation and sales, but on different scales. Democrats control both chambers of the legislature. “We’re going to look at the legislation and discuss how we segue into the adultuse market,” Scott Rudder, president of New Jersey Cannabusiness Association (NJCA), told 800 industry hopefuls on January 25 at the New Jersey Cannabis Symposium at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. “On adult use, we still have a long way to go. We’re targeting June to get something done. We’re working with the governor and the legislators. We need people to get involved.” 52 FREEDOM LEAF
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In one of his first moves in office, Gov. Murphy ordered a study of expanding the state’s largely ineffective medical-marijuana program, which should be completed by March. On the table are allowing home delivery and purchases of up two ounces a month by patients, a speedier application process, making edibles available and expanding the list of qualifying conditions. There are currently just five dispensaries and 10,000 patients in a state with nearly nine million residents. Reforming the medical program is a more immediate priority for Gov. Murphy than adult-use legalization. Most likely legal recreational cannabis will not be on store shelves in the Garden State until 2020. “Murphy has done the kind of due diligence to really prepare New Jersey to be successful,” smoke shop owner Michael Thompson told Freedom Leaf at the symposium. “I’m really interested in tapping into an industry that’s so much different from a lot of other mainstream industries. This has a lot of upside. I’m optimistic.” However, resistance is already mounting. In January, the Monmouth County Freeholder Board voted to formally oppose legalization. Other local bans may follow. The anti-pot group New Jersey Responsible Approaches to Marijuana Policy praised the move. “People who are going to lose the most money have the most to gain by stopping this,” Rudder commented. To answer questions from influential politicians such as state Sen. Ron Rice (D-Newark), the NJCA set up a meeting in Trenton in February with CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, the American Civil Liberties Union, a retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent,
Brian Staffa (left) and Joshua Bauchner were among the speakers at the inaugural New Jersey Cannabis Symposium in January.
and others. That meeting came on the heels of a fact-finding trip to Las Vegas by Gov. Murphy and other New Jersey lawmakers to study Nevada’s cannabis laws. Rudder cites research that shows a 25% drop in opioid overdoses and reduced alcohol use in states with legal cannabis. “People are making healthier choices when you give them healthier options,” he says. “That’s what we’re really trying to do.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy
The two bills propose creating licenses for cultivation, processing and manufacturing, transportation, retail and wholesale. The Assembly bill would allow for 80 retail stores and 15 cultivation facilities statewide (this would to expand to 25 in the second year of operations). “The way to start the conversation is to ask people in the industry if this is enough,” remarked BSC Group founder Brian Staffa, who was among the symposium’s speakers. “We resoundingly think no. We will have to magnify that voice.” Any legislation enacted would inevitably create a Department of Marijuana Enforcement, which would release a set of proposed rules and regulations, followed by a 30-60 day comment period. Staffa urged people interested in launching cannabis businesses to read the proposed rules carefully. “If there’s something you don’t agree with, like if you’re looking to get into the transportation side and they cut that out, this is the time to really have your voice heard,” he explained. “Changes happen. Delivery service is usually a hot-button issue and if there’s a loud enough voice, it will change.” Another symposium speaker, Joshua Bauchner, a partner with the Ocean WINTER 2018
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More than 800 people attended the New Jersey Cannabis Symposium at NJPAC in Newark on Jan. 25.
REFORMING THE STATE’S MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAM IS HIGH ON GOV. MURPHY’S CANNABIS AGENDA. Township law firm Ansell Grimm & Aaron, pointed out that cannabis businesses need to start preparing now for the license review process by setting up management teams, raising capital, finding properties for retail and wholesale use, negotiating with landlords, figuring out their corporate structure and how to handle banking, and doing background checks on employees. “The licensing process is like visit to the proctologist,” he joked. “It will be a full-cavity search.” To win licenses, cannabis businesses will be required to reveal their founders’ tax returns and show employee manuals, business and quality-assurance plans, accounting procedures, and security and badge systems to limit employees’ access to cannabis. The state will also want to know if applicants have ever been arrested. Those convicted of crimes can get their arrest records expunged, but for a substantial fee. Despite these challenges, the state’s cannabis supporters sense positive change is coming. For Heather Kumer, a law associate at Connell Foley, reform has been on her radar since she joined Students for a Sensible Drug Policy in 2004, when she was in college, and asked Democratic presidential candidate John 54 FREEDOM LEAF
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Kerry a question about legalization. Now her firm is assisting clients with the dispensary-permitting process. “I’ve been working on this for 14 years,” Kumer said excitedly. “I became involved when we were just worried about college students getting their financial aid taken away for nonviolent drug offenses. I’m a real-estate and landuse lawyer now. It’s kind of cool to be from that background and come full circle to incorporate things I’ve always been passionate about and always wanted to do in my home state.” David Lande, who ran unsuccessfully against a Republican state senator in central Jersey last November, now wants to get into the extraction side of the business. During his campaign, he proposed “Amsterdam-like coffeeshops” to improve economically challenged areas like Atlantic City. He’s not sure how long it will take to win over reluctant state officials. “I don’t think the legislature is there yet,” he sighed as the large symposium crowd headed for the exits after a long night of networking. “We have to do this in baby steps and see how things go.” Steve Gelsi is a financial writer who lives in New Jersey.
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MATT EMRICH
DJ Muggs at the ICBC event in Kaua’i
FREEDOM LEAF INTERVIEW
DJ MUGGS
INTERVIEW BY STEVE BLOOM I MET DJ MUGGS (née Lawrence Muggerud) in 1991 when I was working at High Times. His Los Angeles-based hip-hop group, Cypress Hill, was just getting going and were playing a show at New York’s Apollo Theater (Cypress Hill was fifth on the bill). Along with MCs B-Real and Sen Dog, Muggs had fashioned the band as marijuana advocates. Their self-titled debut album contained songs with cannabis-themed titles like “Stoned Is the Way of the Walk,” “Light Another” and “Something for the Blunted.” They appeared on the March 1992 cover of High Times with a pile of weed and holding blunts. Their next album, Black Sunday, went all the way to No. 1 in 1993, thanks to the hit single, “Insane in the Membrane.” Since then, they’ve released just six more albums, with their ninth, Elephants on Acid, scheduled to come out this year. In 2010, Muggs, who was born and raised in New York, left Cypress to focus on other projects, and was replaced by Julio G (percussionist Eric Bobo is also in the group). He produced the new album and is involved with Cypress’ rollout of custom strains and its partnership with Bhang Chocolates for the legal California cannabis market. I caught up with him at the International Cannabis Business Conference in Hawaii after his panel discussion in December.
partnered up with Bhang Chocolate. We’re releasing a whole suite of products. The first one is a CBD beet juice called The Beet. It’s like a shot of beets, turmeric, ginger and CBD (25 mg). There’s another one with caffeine from green tea. The flowers and prerolls come from my and B-Real’s grows—his Insane OG and my Lamb Daddy Purps and Elephant Acid. We haven’t jumped into the game wholeheartedly yet. We took our time, energy and preparation to do it right, to bring something premium that’s going to represent us for the last 26 years. It was really organic. It’s going to be fun to have an outlet to release our music with CHB products.
How did you connect with ICBC? A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to be on a panel and I said absolutely. My schedule was open, so I rolled out to Hawaii.
You plan to tie this all together with the release of Elephants on Acid? Yes.
Tell me about Cypress Hill’s new cannabis products. After all these years, we’re about to launch our own brand. It’s called CHB. We’ve
So the pot shops are going to be the new records stores where you get your music? That’s where they’re going to get their Cypress Hill music. Now you can go to one spot and get your weed and your record instead of having to go to two stores. We’re going to have super-unique packaging that celebrates the music and incorporates vintage band photographs and videos, stuff you’ve never seen before. It’s interactive and is going to be a way to distribute our music through our cannabis products. A lot of the songs will solely be distributed this way, being that there aren’t record stores any more. There are more headshops and places that sell weed than records anymore.
What’s the release date? Tentatively, right now it’s mid-April. 4/20? We’ll see. WINTER 2018
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I Was Sampled by Cypress Hill! It was 1993 and I’d just received a copy of Cypress Hill’s sophomore album, Black Sunday. DJ Muggs had asked me to supply recordings of people talking about marijuana that he could sample for it. I gave him a tape of a panel from the New Music Seminar in New York that featured B-Real and myself. The group also asked me to write the album’s liner notes, which were 19 facts about hemp and marijuana. As I listened to song after song, I came to “Legalize It,” a 46-second interlude before “Hits from the Bong.”
Marijuana is the hemp plant and it’s used for many other things than just smoking. That’s how the track begins. It was my voice! Muggs had sampled me. “Legalize It” ends with the late Kentucky firebrand Gatewood Galbraith quoting the Bible: “Genesis 1:12: I have given you all the seed-bearing plants and herbs to use.” “Thanks for making me famous on Black Sunday,” I told Muggs during our recent interview. “That’s killer, dude,” he replied with a big smile. “Look at us, we’re still here, baby.” —Bloom
Are your products licensed in California? It’s more about getting permits than before. We’re about aligning ourselves with the right people. If I can’t get a license, I know people who do have a license.
Why did you step away from Cypress Hill? I was doing other things.
Are you going to do edibles too? Yes, we will down the line. I’d like to do some Hershey’s Kisses-style skulls. Promoting wellness and a healthy lifestyle is something we’re about. I’m vegan. So is B-Real. Everyone trains and lift weights. We’re constantly eating good and working out.
How’s legalization going so far in California? It’s a work in progress. I’m looking forward to a bright future when all the dust settles. We’re happy. We’ve been pushing for this for years. To even see it is almost surreal. Oh, shit, this really happened.
How did the Bhang deal come about? I met with a lot of people. When I sat down with Richard (Sellars) and Scott (Van Rixel) from Bhang, they understood the band. Scott’s a big fan. He knew our history and our lyrics, plus he’s a chocolatier. It was like, I was meant to meet these guys. What’s your status with Cypress Hill? We’re still brothers. We have other business endeavors together. We’re working on the album together. I produced this album (Elephants on Acid), the whole album. 58 FREEDOM LEAF
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You didn’t have the time to tour? Right, exactly.
It’s even more surreal that this is happening while Trump is the president. You’re optimistic despite Trump and Jeff Sessions? What are you gonna do? The fuckers are gonna do what they’re gonna do. The ones before them are gonna do what they’re gonna do and the ones after them. You know what I mean? It’s one donkey or another. George Bush is looking really good about now. Ever see Idiocracy? It’s happening. How do you like B-Real’s other group, Prophets of Rage? I love them. I’m the biggest Rage fan. I’m
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A young Cypress Hill, circa 1992: (from left) Sen Dog, B-Real and DJ Muggs
“NOW YOU CAN GO TO ONE SPOT AND GET YOUR WEED AND YOUR RECORD INSTEAD OF HAVING TO GO TO TWO STORES” the biggest B-Real fan. I’m he biggest Public Enemy-Chuck D fan. I’m a big fan of DJ Lord. Put all that together and it’s like, Oh goddamn! That shit is amazing. What else have you been working on? I produced nine songs on Die Antwoord’s Donkey Mag album. They’re South African. I just did Gems from the Equinox with Meyhem Lauren, Rosebudd’s Revenge with Roc Marcianao and some stuff with MF Doom.I’m having fun. I’m making some raw hip-hop music. Doesn’t Die Antwoord have their own weed brand? Yeah, it’s called Zef Zol. It’s a good sativa. They like to keep it light. They don’t want to get zonked out. Well, it’s South Africa… 60 FREEDOM LEAF
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Right, it’s Durban Poison down there. I brought a bunch of seeds back. It takes along time. It’s a whole other monster. How old were you when you left New York? I was 13. I always went back. I went back in the ’90s and the 2000s. Do you still have family in New York? All my family is in New York. I don’t have any family in L.A., except for my daughter.Do you still live in New York? Yes, I live in the Bronx, where hip-hop was born. It’s the last place that hasn’t been gentrified in New York City. Exactly. I’m glad you’re still there. You’re one of the OGs that’s holding it down, man.
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In his spare time, Adam Trachsel works at the Portland dispensary Uplift Botanicals. 62 FREEDOM LEAF
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Birdman
Musician Adam Trachsel says CBD helped him recover from a brain tumor. •BY ROY TRAKIN•
A
dam Trachsel started having seizures when he was a teenager. “Maybe I was just self-medicating,” he recalls about his early marijuana use. “Even back then.” Four years ago, Trachsel, the bassist/ synthesizer player for Portland, Ore., indie-rock band Mimicking Birds, discovered he had a brain tumor that needed to be surgically removed. Trachsel had lost his father to cancer years before. Remembering his dad’s struggles with chemotherapy and radiation, he decided to have the operation at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, whose post-operative plan did not include chemo. “When I woke up, I couldn’t speak, couldn’t do math and walked with a limp,” Trachsel relates. “I had to take speech therapy and learn to walk again, but I had no trouble playing music.” Mimicking Birds, led by singer-songwriter Nate Lacy, just released their third album, Layers of Us, on Modest Mouse founder Isaac Brock’s Glacial Pace label (see review on page 64). The band frequently tours nationally and has built a strong following via the Internet. Born and raised in Iowa, Trachsel studied classical and jazz at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. “I chose the school for its good music program and because it was the closest state with more cannabis-friendly laws,” he says. “I moved to Portland for its growing music reputation, West Coast location and liberal attitude.” In addition to Mimicking Birds and
his own side project, Yours, Trachsel has gigged as a session musician in the Northwest, recording with the Lumineers and Vance Joy as well as various other bands. He also works part-time at the Portland dispensary Uplift Botanicals. Trachsel’s partial to high-CBD oil made from strains like Harlequin Tsunami and Critical Mass in gel-cap form. CDB (cannabidiol) is known to relieve aches, pains, inflammation and anxiety. In addition, he’s used “Rick Simpson Oil” (RSO)—the thick, black, sticky high-THC extract its creator claims cures cancer. “There was a definite physical effect on the electrical activity in my brain,” Trachsel says. “It prevented swelling. It also calmed me down, and helped with my disorientation, sensitivity to light and facial recognition.” Last year, an MRI revealed a small spot on Trachsel’s brain, prompting another surgery to “clean up” what was left of the initial tumor. This time he was conscious during the operation. “That way, they can more finitely concentrate on which part of the brain is problematic,” he notes. “They were giving me real-time language tests, telling me to move my fingers.” Once he recovered, Trachsel entered an exclusive amino-acid therapy trial in which his own cancer cells were injected back into his body in a vaccine to immunize against their return. “Every MRI since then has been clear,” he boasts. CBD has helped him maintain, but also got him into trouble with the law in 2015 while the band was on tour and passed through Post, Tex., not far from Buddy Holly’s hometown of Lubbock. During a traffic WINTER 2018
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stop, police searched the Mimicking Birds’ van and found Trachsel’s CBD gel-caps. “They stopped us for a dim license-plate bulb,” he says. “I think they were just profiling us because we had Oregon plates and were in a rock band. You can cross state lines with a gun, but not marijuana. That’s hypocritical.” In Texas, only patients diagnosed with epilepsy are allowed to possess and use CBD. Trachsel spent a night in jail and faced a possible second-degree
felony (CBD is considered a “produced compound,” like hash). Eventually, the charges were dropped. “CBD is just a miracle drug,” Trachsel extols. “There are so many ways it can be used. I can’t say it cured my cancer with any certainty. There were too many other factors to consider. I was very lucky. I still need to see more proof, but it certainly helped with my recuperative process. It should be available at every CVS and Walgreen’s across the country.”
CBD should “ be available at
every CVS and Walgreen’s across the country.
”
Pink Floyd-Like Layers of Us Mimicking Birds’ third album Layers of Us further advances lead singer/songwriter Nate Lacy’s obsession with time, space and the great outdoors. Enhanced by Adam Trachsel’s synth work, the release lives up to its name, an atmospheric, multitextured work that recalls Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd in its swirling, gauzy soundscapes. Trachsel’s recovery from brain surgery informs the album’s hopeful tone and attempts to balance the natural and virtual worlds. The lead track, “Sunlight Daze,” perfectly captures that endless cycle, from dawn to dusk, with a glorious vision of the nighttime sky as “starlight perforates space/Puncturing holes in our cage to ventilate it.” Modest Mouse’s Brock takes a verse on “Island Shore,” whose environmental theme is hard to ignore: “Cuz we settin’ the trap and took two steps back with our own bait anyway/Yeah, you don’t like the world getting beat on the ass in the final fucking round.” “Great Wave” starts with an ominous synth line, then takes on global warming with 64 FREEDOM LEAF
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a sense of mournful urgency: “The shorelines are all dried up/The horizon is rising.” A jangling banjo marks “A Part,” a meditation on how everyone’s interconnected, even after we’re all “long buried and gone,” while the dreamy “Belongings” wistfully details the transience of our time and the connections we leave behind: “Things are, what they will/And I will, but you won’t/Belong to me long.” “Lumens” is another nod to “the light in the east with autumn more south,” a cosmic, God’s-eye view of the world’s natural wonders, and man’s place: “We are each and every creature in outer space on land and in the sea.” Like Floyd, Lacy obsesses over time and its effect on humanity’s ashes-to-ashes destiny, which he repeats in the snippet “Time to Waste” and its only lyric, “All that time to waste.” The rueful love song “One Eyed Jack,” which closes out the album, asks, “How long until a memory fades?” as a child’s voice recites, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” ending with the reminder that “life is but a dream.” Even Mimicking Birds know that dreams are temporary. —Trakin
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THE FREEDOM LEAF
BOOK CLUB HERE’S WHAT WE’RE READING THIS WINTER.
Emily Dufton
GRASS ROOTS: THE RISE AND FALL AND RISE OF MARIJUANA IN AMERICA AUTHOR I EMILY DUFTON PUBLISHER I BASIC BOOKS
REVIEWED BY ALLEN ST. PIERRE
When did the campaign to end pot prohibition exactly begin in America? Trivial Pursuit fans will learn in Emily Dufton’s Grass Roots that the first modern marijuana-law-reform activist was Lowell Eggemeier, who in 1964 lit up a joint in San Francisco’s Hall of Justice and dared police to arrest him, which they did. “I’m starting a campaign to legalize marijuana-smoking,” he declared. A year later, LeMar (short for Legalize Marijuana) was founded (without Eggemeier’s help). 66 FREEDOM LEAF
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Through numerous interviews with many of the principals involved in early cannabis-law reform efforts, Dufton aptly discusses the origins of the first three separately organized pioneering groups: LeMar and Amorphia, which, in a short time, became the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), founded in 1970. With NORML leading the public charge, Congress formed a commission that recommended decriminalizing marijuana, in the 1972 Shafer Report. Despite President Richard Nixon disparaging its findings, 11 states decriminalized pot in the ’70s, starting with Oregon in 1973. Dufton also correctly acknowledges glaucoma sufferer Robert Randall, who received cannabis from the federal government from 1975 until he died in 2001, as the first bona fide medical-marijuana patient in the U.S. In the ’80s and ’90, a myriad of second-wave reformers like Randall and his organization Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics pivoted away from advocating primarily for decrimi-
nalization in favor of enabling patients’ access to medicinal cannabis. The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980—who toughened drug-law enforcement on multiple fronts, and, along with his wife, argued that people should “just say no”—put a chill into the legalization movement, but Dufton notes that a 1978 scandal involving NORML and White House drug czar Peter Bourne didn’t help. While examining the work of cannabis activists and their strategies over the last six decades, Dufton casts nearly equal light on much lesser-known anti-marijuana groups like the Parents Resource Institute for Drug Education (PRIDE) and the “parents’ movement” of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Government funding kept PRIDE and other similar groups going. In contrast, cannabis-law reformers relied largely on small donations from hundreds of thousands of stakeholders. That changed in the mid-1990s, when a triumvirate of supportive billionaires provided the massive funding necessary for a series of state medical-marijuana ballot initiatives from 1996 to 2001. The passage of California’s Prop 215 in 1996, establishing an individual’s right to use cannabis therapeutically, marked the end of the grass-roots advocacy era in cannabis-law reform. After that, “grasstops” organizations such as the Drug Policy Alliance, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Marijuana Policy Project relied almost entirely on the largesse of a few rich individuals and family foundations, most of which eschewed focusing on cannabis consumers and activism in favor of ballot initiatives and litigation. For anyone who wants a deep understanding of how cannabis went from verboten to Main Street commerce in the U.S during the last 50 years, Dufton’s Grass Roots is a must-read.
EXCERPT: “The battles over marijuana the country experienced in the 1970s are once again coming into sharp relief, though this time with the added wrinkle of states legalizing, and not simply decriminalizing, recreational use of the drug.”
SO MUCH THINGS TO SAY: THE ORAL HISTORY OF BOB MARLEY AUTHOR I ROGER STEFFENS PUBLISHER I W. W. NORTON & CO.
REVIEWED BY ROY TRAKIN
While such esteemed authors as Stephen Davis and the late Timothy White penned terrific biographies of Robert Nesta Marley, no writer has more knowledge about the Reggae King than Roger Steffens. It took him many years, but he finally completed his book, So Much Things to Say. Steffens is curator of the world’s largest reggae archives, which bursts the seams of his modest Echo Park bungalow in Los Angeles. The Vietnam veteran and photographer/archivist/historian has been an obsessive fan since he was mesmerized by a 1973 Rolling Stone review of the Wailers’ Catch a Fire. The next day, he watched the seminal Jimmy Cliff film, The Harder They Come, cementing his lifelong obsession with reggae. Starting by quoting an old Jamaican folk saying, “There are no facts, only versions,” Steffens has created a reggae RaWINTER 2018
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DEVO STEFFENS
BOOK CLUB
Roger Steffens
shomon in telling Marley’s story through more than 75 different interviews which frequently contradict each another. You won’t find much about Marley’s personal life or his series of relationships, though there’s plenty of input from Cindy Breakspeare, the former Miss World and mother of Marley’s son Damian, who Bob famously holed up with in London after the attempt on his life in Kingston in 1976. Whether the storytellers should be taken at face value is up to the reader, but the harsh judgments of former Wailers Bunny Livingston and Peter Tosh must be weighed against their own grievances. The oral-history method sometimes leads to needless repetition, but the distinction between the thick patois of Bunny, Peter and Rasta compatriots like Pablove Black, and the Westernized views of managers Danny Sims and Don Taylor or Island publicist Jeff Walker makes clear the narrow path Marley tried to walk in maintaining his Jamaican roots and expanding his sound to reach the Western world. Steffens even asked University of the West Indies professor Dr. Matthew Smith to “penetrate the patois,” especially when it comes to 68 FREEDOM LEAF
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some of Bob’s enigmatic colloquialisms. The eyewitness accounts of the shooting at Marley’s 56 Hope Road home, the Smile Jamaica show and subsequent One Love Peace Concert—where Marley famously got opposing political-party leaders Edward Seaga and Michael Manley to join hands—are given a 360-degree view that incorporates a wide range of reminiscences. Bob himself appears only rarely; Steffens hung out with Tuff Gong for a handful of interviews, then devoted his life to exploring the ripples that moved outward from that very vibrant center. Some of the more fascinating revelations include girlfriend Esther Anderson’s insistence that “I Shot the Sheriff” is, in part, about birth control (“Every time I plant a seed/He said kill it before it grow”); a young Betty Wright, who opened for Marley, having to cover her face with wet towels to fend off the thick ganja fumes because of her bronchial condition; and Rita Marley serving breakfast in bed to a cancer-riddled Bob. The trajectory of Marley’s story—his mixed-blood heritage, retiring to the country to farm, a stint in Delaware working as a janitor, seeing Haile Selassie’s 1966 visit to Jamaica, the assassination attempt, the triumphant Independence Day concert in Zimbabwe in 1980, his final show in Pittsburgh later that year and Tuff Gong’s shockingly quick demise from cancer—is all in So Much to Say, which reads almost like a primal superhero-creation story. For many of Steffens’ interviewees, Marley was just that, a God-like figure who tried to galvanize the Third World with his songs of revolt, romance and, ultimately, redemption.
EXCERPT: “Island released Catch a Fire with a painting of Bob with a slightly menacing look as he sucked on a giant spliff, a defiant challenge to all the antiherb factions lining up to disparage Marley’s open use of marijuana. This man was a rebel.”
THE LEAFLY GUIDE TO CANNABIS: A HANDBOOK FOR THE MODERN CONSUMER AUTHOR I THE LEAFLY TEAM PUBLISHER I TWELVE BOOKS REVIEWED BY RUSS BELVILLE
Leafly.com is a fantastic online search engine for finding marijuana strains and dispensaries. You probably know Leafly’s colorful strain guides, which are reminiscent of the periodic table of elements. They also post quality news stories. You can find a few of their iconic strain reviews in The Leafly Guide to Cannabis. The value of this book, however, is its focus on the consumer’s experience. From the young person who’s come of age in a world of medical and legal marijuana to the older user who knows what a three-finger lid is, it covers everything you need to know if you plan on smoking, vaporizing, eating or using cannabis products in any way. The “Cannabis 101” chapter establishes the basics about marijuana, such as the differences in types (sativa, indica, hybrid), and the numerous cannabinoids and terpenes. This is followed by an overview of strains (“A Definitive Guide”). The “Smoking” chapter starts by asking if it’s bad for you. You may not like the answer: “Cannabis smoke exposure is
associated with negative cardiovascular effects and lung-function abnormalities.” This section is all about smoking devices: joints, blunts, spliffs, pipes, bongs and grinders. Obligatory how-to-roll illustrations are provided. We also learn that “the first recorded use of a joint was in Mexico in 1856.” The next four chapters dig into the various ways to use cannabis, from “Vaporization” and “Edibles” to “Topicals” and “Oils and Concentrates.” The “Vaporization” chapter compares pens with portables and tabletop models like the legendary Volcano, which earns its own sidebar. Whether to vape flower or concentrate is a major discussion point. “Edibles,” which are often misunderstood, begins with some basic rules to follow (“Lesson #1: It Takes Time”). There are recipes for cannabutter, oil and tinctures, and basics such as smoothies, brownies and granola. However, take notice that “it’s nearly impossible to calculate potency” of homemade cannabis edibles. While the “Topicals” chapter is slim (just six pages), plenty of space is devoted to dabbing in “Concentrates and Oils.” The chapter also answers the hot-button question, “What is Rosin and How Can I Make It at Home?” More advice can be found in the “Better Buying and Consumption Tips” and “Troubleshooting” chapters. Rather than shy away from the fact that some people, especially new users, can have bad reactions to marijuana, the latter chapter devotes five pages to “What to Do If You Get Too High” (“Lesson #1: Don’t Panic”). The Leafly Guide to Cannabis is for people who want to be competent and informed consumers. While older adults investigating a return to cannabis consumption in legal or medical states will like its textbook style, younger users may find most of the information too rudimentary for them.
EXCERPT: “‘Blasting dabs’ has be-
come a dividing point within the community, both because of the intense high that it produces and for the image that it presents to outsiders.” WINTER 2018
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THERE ARE NO DEAD HERE: A STORY OF MURDER AND DENIAL IN COLOMBIA AUTHOR I MARIA MCFARLAND
Drug Policy Alliance executive director Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno, a veteran Latin America specialist who formerly worked at Human Rights Watch, tells a grim, but inspiring story in There Are No Dead Here. It details the efforts of three courageous Colombians to bring to light official complicity in the reign of paramilitary terror in the country over the past generation. These three won a measure of success, but at the cost of relentless death threats and assassination attempts. One paid the proverbial ultimate price. Their interlocking tales paint a picture of Colombian officials’ staggering cynicism, especially during the 2002-2010 presidency of Álvaro Uribe, whose administration was thoroughly integrated with the ostensibly illegal right-wing paramilitary networks, even as Uribe denied everything and portrayed himself as a centrist democrat. The book opens with the figure that became a martyr in the quest for truth— Jesús Maria Valle, a Medellín attorney and human-rights defender who was among the first to raise the alarm about the mounting paramilitary violence in the 1990s. Uribe was then governor of the department of Antioquia, where Medellín is located. Valle initially tried to alert Uribe about the violence in rural communities, before determining that the governor’s own anti-guerilla militia force was cooperating with the paras. In 70 FREEDOM LEAF
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Maria Mcfarland Sánchez-Moreno
1998, armed men invaded Valle’s office and murdered him. Antioquia proved to be a testing ground for the strategy Uribe would apply nationally as president. Iván Velásquez, the prosecutor and jurist who doggedly investigated the Uribe government’s collaboration with paramilitary groups, picked up Valle’s torch. Uribe blocked Velásquez every step of the way, launching a media smear campaign against him, while paras operated in the shadows with threats and attacks on his team. Velásquez was greatly aided by the work of Ricardo Calderón, an investigative journalist with Bogotá’s Semana newsweekly. Calderón eventually concluded that Uribe’s intelligence agency, the Department of Administrative Security (DAS), was working closely with the paras, spying on judges, journalists and opposition politicians, and feeding the information back to the illegal and ultra-murderous right-wing militias. This became a major scandal in Colombia, and in a measure of justice, DAS was disbanded in 2011. With Uribe out of office and the paramilitaries officially disarmed under a political deal with their leadership, some of the para leaders—now extradited to the United States and doing time on cocaine
GEORGE BAIER IV
SÁNCHEZ-MORENO PUBLISHER I NATION BOOKS REVIEW BY BILL WEINBERG
“Cheech Marin is one of the biggest influences on my comedy and my marijuana advocacy. Whatever you do, do not smoke this book, read it!” —DOUG BENSON, COMEDIAN
ON SALE NOW
CHEECHMARIN.COM
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Available in hardcover, ebook, and audio
FREEDOM LEAF 71
BOOK CLUB charges—started to sing. The big boss of the network, Salvatore Mancuso, came clean from his U.S. federal prison cell on Uribe’s effective collaboration with the paras during his time in power. But Uribe, maddeningly, is free today and continues to lead Colombia’s rightwing opposition. In 2016, when new President Juan Manuel Santos negotiated a peace deal with the left-wing guerillas of the FARC, Uribe campaigned bitterly against it. The book ends on a tentative note of hope, as the peace deal with the FARC goes ahead, despite the best efforts of Uribe to sabotage it. The story McFarland tells is an important one, but with the relentless accounts of assassinations and atrocities, it’s easy to lose the narrative thread. She writes that the government’s war on the cocaine cartels was a “parallel” conflict to that of the civil war that pitted the FARC against the security forces and their paramilitary allies. But after the cartels were crushed, the “drug war” and the civil war were really the same war. The demise of Medellín kingpin Pablo Escobar and his Cali-cartel competition in the ’90s set the stage for the paras and the guerillas to enter into a direct struggle with each other for control of the narco-economy. It’s the key to real political power in Colombia. McFarland hardly mentions this. There’s also little mention of “Plan Colombia,” the massive U.S. military aid package that backed Uribe’s armed forces through the bloodiest years of the conflict when state collaboration with the paramilitaries was at its peak. The story of Washington’s complicity in Colombia’s state terror still needs to be told.
EXCERPT: “Starting in the late 1990s, the paramilitaries carried out a bloody expansion campaign throughout much of Colombia. Fueled by an endless stream of drug profits, they committed gruesome massacres in the name of defending the country from the brutal Marxist guerillas of FARC… Nobody, it seemed, was trying to stop them.” 72 FREEDOM LEAF
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THE ABC’S OF CBD: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE FOR PARENTS (AND REGULAR FOLKS TOO) AUTHOR I SHIRA ADLER PUBLISHER I VALPOSA BOOKS
REVIEW BY MIA DI STEFANO
CBD is the unsung hero of the cannabis plant, while the psychoactive THC takes the spotlight. Shira Adler dispels myths about cannabidiol and highlights its numerous benefits in The ABCs of CBD. Best-known for treating inflammation, CBD’s properties range from antibacterial to anti-nausea and anti-convulsive. Adler traces CBD to 8,000 BCE, when hemp was cultivated in East Asia, and then to the American Revolution, when George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were the country’s most famous hemp farmers. Adler uses “cannabis” to denote the marijuana cultivar of the cannabis plant and distinguish it from hemp, and is quick to explain that “CBD can be derived from both cannabis and hemp plants. Hemp doesn’t flower and cannabis does.” She further delineates that “far less THC exists
in the hemp plant” and, in a comical discussion about the CB1 and CB2 receptors in the brain, compares the body’s endocannabinoid system to the Oompa-Loompas and a set of bowling pins. Although there’s a heavy dose of opinion on a variety of subjects, the book provides a lot of information in its 192 pages, including the parental favorite, “Conversations with Your Kids.” Addressing one of cannabis’ biggest controversies—CBD isolate versus full-spectrum oil—Adler sides with whole-plant extraction. In the “What, How and How Much” chapter, she explains the different ways CBD can be ingested (from infused water to tinctures), various extraction methods for cannabis oil and exactly why the source of CBD matters. In “Federal Law: The Down and Dirty,” Adler details what’s legal, what’s not and the fuzzy lines in between. CBD extracted from the cannabis plant is federally illegal. CBD extracted from hemp stalks is not. For those who want to investigate the cannabis plant, hemp and the War on Drugs further, Adler tucks a “News & Resources” section in the back of this Shira Adler
rather nondescript-looking book. Consider The ABCs of CBD as a starting point on the long journey of your cannabis and hemp education.
EXCERPT: “Let’s look further into
what CBD is, and what it does as a chemical compound, to help understand it can combat addiction, and many other physical and emotional challenges. CBD changes lives.”
WHEN THEY CALL YOU A TERRORIST: A BLACK LIVES MATTER MEMOIR AUTHORS I PATRISSE KHAN-CULLORS
AND ASHA BANDELE PUBLISHER I ST. MARTIN’S PRESS REVIEWED BY NGAIO BEALUM
This book is powerful, maddening, joyous, sad, romantic, uplifting, humble, honest and true. Patrice Khan-Cullors (with asha bandele) does a fantastic job telling her amazing and yet all too typical story. Amazing, because Khan-Cullors, a black, queer woman, has managed to create a community full of love, respect and activism in a world not made for her. Typical, because the harassment and abuse she and her family have suffered at the hands of overzealous law enforcement officials and abusive prison authorities happen to black and brown people every day. When They Call You a Terrorist is not a long read, but it took me a while to finish, mostly because I had to stop occasionally to process and think about the many points the authors make. Like how, in the aftermath of the Columbine shootings in 1999, it wasn’t predominantly WINTER 2018
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BOOK CLUB white schools like the one Khan-Cullors attended that installed metal detectors, even though mass shootings are much rarer in predominantly black schools. Like how the young men in her neighborhood would be terrorized by the cops and strip-searched on suspicion of minor infractions, even though the white weed dealer at her high school had no fear of getting arrested. One scene describes police coming into Khan-Cullors’ home without a warrant to arrest her activist boyfriend. He hadn’t broken any laws. How did the cops know where he was? His name wasn’t on the lease. It reminded me of when Chicago police assassinated 21-year-old Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton in 1969. How many young activists are targeted before they even really get started? Khan-Cullors and bandele make sure to recognize all of the activists they’ve worked with, from Los Angeles to Ferguson to Florida. If readers are paying attention, they’ll pick up tips, techniques and planning strategies that will help them become not just better activists, but better people. Patrice KhanCullors
THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: TIMOTHY LEARY, RICHARD NIXON AND THE HUNT FOR THE FUGITIVE KING OF LSD AUTHORS I BILL MINUTAGLIO AND
CURTIS MOORE
STEVEN L. DAVIS PUBLISHER I TWELVE BOOKS REVIEWED BY MIKEL WEISSER
When They Call You a Terrorist should be required reading in high schools and colleges everywhere in America. As a longtime cannabis activist, it’s inspired me to keep going, to do more, to be better—not just for cannabis, but for social justice. America has changed and grown more than a little since the protests and riots of the ’60s, but as this book and Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow demonstrate, some things haven’t changed much at all. 74 FREEDOM LEAF
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Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis’ The Most Dangerous Man in America (their previous book, Dallas 1963, received a PEN Center literary award for research nonfiction in 2014) doesn’t read like a nonfiction book as much as it feels like watching the film version of a book. It’s set in the circa-1970 era of antiwar protests, riots and terrorist attacks. At the time, American society was fracturing as the unpopular war in Vietnam fueled dissent. The Weather Underground, the Black Panther Party and other revolutionary groups considered violence a necessity. In the middle of this commotion was the mild-mannered
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DENNIS DARLING
Steven L. Davis and Bill Minutaglio
former Harvard professor turned psychedelic evangelist, Dr. Timothy Leary. A consummate showman, Leary spent years promoting the use of psychedelics, in particular LSD, and free love to the outrage of establishment America. First at an estate in Millbrook in upstate New York, then in Laguna Beach, Calif., he offered a psychedelic-driven message with catchphrases like “turn on, tune in, drop out” and “question authority.” To hippies, he was the sybarite philosopher king, a celebrity messiah of all things groovy. To President Richard Nixon and his supposed “Silent Majority,” Leary symbolized all they couldn’t stand in the cultural and political upheavals of the time. Nixon hated hippies and the drugs they used. Law enforcement savaged antiestablishment groups and activists with harassment and bogus prosecutions, including FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’s secret COINTELPRO program of infiltration and provocation. Though the book’s title and Leary’s reputation hang on LSD, its plot is driven by weed. After an appeal of his 1968 pot bust got the federal Marihuana Tax Act ruled unconstitutional—it was replaced by the Controlled Substances Act of 1970—Leary was sentenced to 10 years in a California prison for possessing two roaches. The outrage of the punishment inflamed Leary’s followers, and 76 FREEDOM LEAF
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the Weather Underground helped him escape from a minimum-security prison in 1970. Leary eluded capture for 28 months while traveling to three different continents. The backbone of the book is the high-stakes cat-and-mouse game between Leary and the mercurial former Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, who harbored him in Algeria. Eventually, authorities seized Leary in Switzerland in 1972. Like any crowd-pleasing stoner blockbuster, the jokes, joints, celebrities and insights keep coming. The Most Dangerous Man not only satisfyingly chugs across the finish line at breakneck speed, it crystalizes both the establishment and antiestablishment moods of the era. Even those who lived through the ’60s and ’70s will be amazed at how dangerous America actually was back then, and how the true story of Leary’s exploits was even wilder than any Hollywood fiction writer could have ever imagined.
EXCERPT: “Catching his breath, bracing for shouts and barks and bullets, Tim skitters in circles in the dark until he finally spots his glasses near the fence. Jamming them on, he crouches and begins running serpentine style until he suddenly caroms down a rocky hill.”
PETER SIMON
Stephen Davis
GOLD DUST WOMAN: A BIOGRAPHY OF STEVIE NICKS AUTHOR I STEPHEN DAVIS PUBLISHER I ST. MARTIN’S PRESS REVIEWED BY BETH MANN
Gold Dust Woman, the unauthorized biography of Stevie Nicks by famed rock biographer Stephen Davis (Hammer of the Gods), brings to mind the quote, “Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backwards and in high heels.” Throughout the singer’s five decades in rock ’n’ roll, she managed to blossom professionally in spite of the frequent dismissive treatment she endured from
record company executives, music producers and fellow band members, including her tempestuous boyfriend, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. Born in Phoenix on May 28, 1948, Nicks spent much of her youth moving around the country. At an early age, she sang harmonies with her grandfather A.J. Nicks, a struggling country & western singer, and later learned to play guitar and write songs at Menlo-Atherton High School in California. That’s where she met Buckingham, who invited her to be in his band, Fritz. They move to Los Angeles and formed the duo Buckingham Nicks, which released one album before they joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975. “I started off the year as a waitress and ended with Lindsey Buckingham and I millionaires,” Nicks reflected. The album Fleetwood Mac, which includes Nicks’ hit song “Rhiannon” (No. 11, 1976), was followed by Rumors, which reached No. 1 in 1977, won the Grammy award for Album of the Year in 1978 and eventually sold more than 20 million copies. This book was named for the last track on the album, written by Nicks. By then, Nicks and Buckingham had broken up, singer/keyboardist Christine McVie and bassist John McVie were on the brink of divorce, and drummer Mick Fleetwood’s marriage was also on the rocks. When 1979’s critically panned Tusk came out, band members were barely speaking to each other. WINTER 2018
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BOOK CLUB Disillusioned by the scant credit she received for her contributions to Fleetwood Mac’s massive success, Nicks embarked on a solo career. Even though she had a number of hits in the ’80s (“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” with Tom Petty, “Stand Back” and “Talk to Me”), addiction to the sedative Klonopin clouded her path. While her overuse of cocaine is well known (yes, she apparently did burn a dime-sized hole through her septum), she blames Klonopin for turning her “into a zombie” for seven years. Nicks eventually got clean. Because Gold Dust Woman is an unauthorized biography, Davis relies heavily on previously published material. It reads like Fleetwood Mac for Dummies. For the Nicks newbie, the 332-page hardcover is an adequate way to get to know the singer, but dyed-in-the-wool fans will undoubtedly crave more. The book also has a creepy male gaze that becomes disconcerting at times. No, I don’t need to know when Nicks got her first period or how that beige dress shaped her breasts just so and was “to die for.” I lost count of Davis’ mentions of her breasts. In the current #MeToo climate, the shame here is that Nicks’ steely power and focus to succeed isn’t chronicled better. Strength and the ability to survive in the male-dominated music world come in all sizes. One could argue that any woman who succeeds in rock is a feminist icon. Unlike today’s top female artists, Nicks, a self-proclaimed “prude,” crafted and honed an archetypal look, invoking a spirit and digging a little deeper creatively for longer-lasting resonance with her fans. Like Ginger Rogers, she performed as well as the male rockers of her time, only backwards and in black velvet platform boots.
EXCERPT: “Crazy Land was full of cocaine. The men snorted massive rails of white powder up their noses while Stevie and Christine wore tiny silver spoons around their necks, discreetly sniffing small doses until the men ran out and came looking for theirs.” 78 FREEDOM LEAF
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DID IT! FROM YIPPIE TO YUPPIE: JERRY RUBIN, AN AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY AUTHOR I PAT THOMAS PUBLISHER I FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
REVIEWED BY MITCH MYERS
The Youth International Party (Yippies) went beyond the simple peace-and-love mentality of the hippies of the ’60s and ’70s. They were politicized hippies and psychedelicized activists who took their protests against the Vietnam War and America’s repressive status quo to the streets, often theatrically. Jerry Rubin was one of them. Along with rabble-rousing peers like Abbie Hoffman, Paul Krassner and Stew Albert, they stirred up dissent on a national scale. While Hoffman was the subject of Steal This Movie in 2000, little has been written about his Yippie running partner until now, thanks to Pat Thomas’ exhaustive Did It! Designed in a scrapbook-style homage to the structure of Rubin’s 1970 classic Do It! and Hoffman’s Steal This Book, Did It! balances the scales of history, giving Rubin his due as a flawed but vital member of the counterculture. Among his Yippie highlights were throwing dollar bills to
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Pat Thomas
a bevy of greedy brokers at the New York Stock Exchange, nominating a pig for President, encircling and pretending to levitate the Pentagon, and turning the incredibly undemocratic proceedings of the infamous Chicago 8 trial in 1969-70, in which he was one of the defendants, into five months of political theater. Back then, Rubin and Hoffman manipulated the media with the ease of carnival barkers at a county fair. Thomas traces Rubin’s complex personality as he made his way through the late 20th century, dealing with outsized individuals like Hoffman as well as Timothy Leary, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Bob Dylan, and more. He sets the record a little straighter by pointing out the inherent misogyny of the period in interviews with many of the women who were inte80 FREEDOM LEAF
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gral to the group activism that made Rubin and Hoffman stars. Rubin’s reinvention of himself in the late ’70s as a New Age-yuppie networking guru was viewed as antithetical to the Yippie ideals and forever devalued his important contributions to the counterculture. Sadly, he died in 1994 of a heart attack after being hit by a car.
EXCERPT: “Jerry Rubin lived the
mythological American dream: be whoever you want to be. In Jerry’s case, he succeeded in both of our nation’s most popular dream-myths: Revolutionary-Patriot and Entrepreneur-Capitalist. ‘Do it!’ he cried, and he Did it!—like no one else had done before or since.”
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EVENTS CALENDAR
APRIL 7
HASH BASH University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
7-8
RENO CANNABIS CONVENTION Whitney Peak Hotel, Reno, Nev.
7-11
{ { FEBRUARY SSDP 2018 BALTIMORE, MD
15-17
CANNACON Washington State Convention Center, Seattle, Wash.
THE HEMP & GARDEN SHOW Scratchouse, Austin, Tex.
YALE BUSINESS OF LEGAL CANNABIS CONFERENCE Edward P. Evans Hall, New Haven, Conn.
20
CANNAGATHER Galvanize, New York, N.Y.
20
CALIFORNIA CANNABIS INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION POLICY CONFERENCE Sheraton Grand Hotel, Sacramento, Calif.
22-24
MARCH SSDP INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Embassy Suites Hotel, Baltimore, Md.
82 FREEDOM LEAF
TERPENES AND TESTING WORLD CONFERENCE San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, Calif.
CANNATECH Trask, Tel Aviv, Israel
CHAMPS Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nev.
SPANNABIS Fira de Cornellรก, Barcelona, Spain
10-11
19-20
19-21
9-11
CANNABIS CULTIVATION CONFERENCE Marriott City Center, Oakland, Calif.
13-14
16
2-5
12-14
NATIONAL MEDICAL CANNABIS UNITY CONFERENCE Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C.
MCBA CANNABIS OPPORTUNITY SUMMIT University of Denver, Denver, Colo.
24-25
NEW ENGLAND CANNABIS CONVENTION Hynes Auditorium, Boston, Mass.
WINTER 2018
{ICBC { BERLIN, GERMANY
11-13:
INTERNATIONAL CANNABIS BUSINESS CONFERENCE Maritime Hotel, Berlin, Germany
14
BOISE HEMPFEST Julia Davis Park, Boise, Idaho
20
4/20 events across the nation and around the globe
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2018 CONFERENCE SCHEDULE BERLIN, GERMANY APRIL 11-13 VANCOUVER, CANADA JUNE 24-25 PORTLAND, U.S.A SEPT. 27-28
The International Cannabis Business Conference, with prior events in Europe, Canada and the U.S., is the world’s premeire cannabis industry destination. The groundwork the ICBC has put in place has become the foundation for the industry’s strongest and most productive global networking event. Returning to the Maritim ProArte Hotel in Berlin this April 11-13, the ICBC comes right to the heart of the European cannabis industry, capitalizing on Germany’s new burgeoning market. Then it’s off to Canada just one week before national legalization, June 24-25 at Sheraton Wall Centre in Vancouver, BC. The ICBC finishes the year back in the U.S., with an event in Portland, Oregon Sept. 27-28. All of these events will be instrumental in shaping the direction of their respective markets, so join us as we ride the wave of global cannabis expansion at the International Cannabis Business Conference, where the world meets cannabis!
TICKETS AND MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE AT INTERNATIONALCBC.COM 84 FREEDOM LEAF WINTER 2018