Southern California Kush Magazine by Randy MALINOFF

kush

southern california’s premier cannabis lifestyle magazine

70 72 features

20 LA Law

Winning the Lottery takes on a whole new meaning in the city of Los Angeles as over 200 registered collectives vie for the top 100 spots.

70 Malibu

Southern California beaches provide a great reason why we all choose to live here. Malibu, home of the stars and one of the finest beaches in So Cal is featured this month.

72 Ice Cream

America’s favorite dessert, be sure to visit one of these great ice cream shops. You’ll be glad you did!

90 Atmosphere: The Kush Interview Slug discusses how an Atmosphere can create its own sustainable orbit.

94 Music Roundup

It must be spring. After many of you survived Coachella, open air venues such as the Hollywood Bowl, Greek Theater and Santa Barbara Bowl, begin a season of great concerts. Check it out!! 6

inside

12 | This Month in Weed History by Josh Kaplan 26 | The Business Park by Dan Downey 34 | Grandma Marijuana by Mary Lynn Mathre 42 | The Health Report: Blood Pressure by J.T. Gold

from the editors

kush

southern california’s premier cannabis lifestyle magazine

ush Magazine has decided to declare the month of April as Weed History Month.

After all, not only is it the month of 420, but it’s also the month that Kush celebrates the second anniversary of our Southern California publication and the first anniversary of our San Diego publication. Not only that, but Kush is going stronger than ever. With five monthly magazines and plans to move into several more markets this year, Kush Magazine is proud to be involved in the cannabis industry. We want to thank each and every reader, advertiser, advocate and contributor that has helped make Kush Magazine the premiere cannabis lifestyle magazine. We ask for your continued support, as there is still a lot of work to be done. Kush is excited to branch out the Southern California issue to the Inland Empire. We welcome several new advertisers in Riverside, Colton, San Bernardino and surrounding cities. With increased distribution into the Inland Empire, Kush hopes to have a dedicated Inland Empire edition in the coming months. In the meantime, check out our Inland Empire advertisers on pages 28 through 33.

To many, 420 is a day to celebrate cannabis, gather with friends and enjoy the herb that

Quinn Micklewright , Charlene Moran, Fred Rhoades

we know possesses medicinal qualities that still, to this day, are refuted by naysayers. As

Designers | Avel Cupla, Marvi Khero, Joe Redmond

long as the Federal government continues the misclassification of marijuana as a Schedule

Traffic Managers | Kevin Johnson , Alex Lamitie, Ryan Renkema, Jordan Selan, Rachel Selan Distribution Manager | Alex Lamitie

Be sure to read about the continuing saga that is playing out in the city of Los Angeles, with the latest on the lottery that is supposedly going to determine the fate of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city.

Contributing Writers Alex Baker, Chef Herb, Julie Cole, Charlotte Cruz, Tyler C. Davidson, Dan Downey, Lisa Faye, J.T. Gold, Cyree Jarelle Johnson, Josh Kaplan, Jade Kine, Mike Marino, Mary Lynn Mathre, Jake McGee, Wasim Muklashy, Robert E. Selan, Mike Sonksen, Bill Weinberg, Dillion Zachara

1 drug, the stigma attached to marijuana will perpetuate. Kush has continued to support advocacy groups who work daily to educate the public and who help assure safe access for those who rely on cannabis for their medical ailments. Kush is extremely fortunate to have Cheryl Shuman, considered one of the top 5 women in the cannabis industry to be part of the Kush family. Be sure to read about Cheryl’s medical cannabis journey on page 74.

Accounting | Dianna Bayhylle Internet Manager Dailybuds.com | Rachel Selan Dailybuds.com Team | JT Kilfoil & Houston

For those looking to rediscover Downtown Los Angeles, be sure to take Mike The Poet’s Downtown Walking Tour featured on page 78. And for an out of this world cannabis, the strain of the month is Planetary OG (page 64). It will definitely take you to the moon and back! On a more serious note, be sure to read about the continuing saga that is playing out in the city of Los Angeles, with the latest on the lottery that is supposedly going to determine the fate of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city. So as you pick up this issue of Kush, be sure to look for all of the 420 specials being offered throughout the magazine by the dispensaries in your neighborhood and surrounding areas (get extra karma points for telling them that Kush Magazine sent you), get outside, and enjoy Weed History Month. And remember…medicate responsibly!

Kush Editorial Board, www.dailybuds.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS KUSH Magazine is also available by individual subscription at the following rates: in the United States, one year 12 issues $89.00 surface mail (US Dollars only). To Subscribe mail a check for $89.00 (include your mailing address) to : DB DOT COM 24011 Ventura Blvd. Suite 200 Calabasas, CA 91302 877-623-KUSH (5874) Fax 818-223-8088 KUSH Magazine and www.dailybuds.com are Tradenames of Dbdotcom LLC. Dbbotcom LLC 24011 Ventura Blvd. Suite 200 Calabasas, CA 91302 877-623-KUSH (5874) Fax 818-223-8088 To advertise or for more information Please contact info@dailybuds.com or call 877-623-5874 Printed in the United States of America. Copyright ©2011. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without the written written permission of Dbdotcom LLC.

This Month in Weed History By Josh Kaplan

To celebrate April, KUSH magazine would like to pass on the obvious celebration of 4/20, and the numerous different theories on how that special number came to be: whether it’s the amount of chemical compounds in Marijuana, or the time in between classes that was designated to the very needed midday session - we don’t care! It’s always 4:20 around here, so we’ve decided to celebrate a man whose work supersedes all Marijuana folklore. A man who has conquered the world of music, books, film, political activism, and entrepreneurism, along the way becoming a spokesman and icon for the legalization and understanding of our beloved plant - Willie Nelson, born April 30, 1933. Willie Nelson started his musical career at the young age of seven, writing songs, and eventually performing them by nine. While early success would propel him to the fast track, Willie refused to get stuck in any rut. As a high school student, he excelled in baseball, football, and basketball. With the Korean War starting, Willie devoted nine months to the Air Force, only to be released due to a chronic back problem. His musical capabilities would prevail though. Songwriting was his true forte, and allowed Willie to write for and/or collaborate with the very best musicians from all genres. With his roots resting in country music, he worked with all the greats including Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline, Neil Young, and Toby Keith and even joined Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash to form The Highwaymen in the mid-80s. Having great crossover appeal has also allowed Willie to play with the likes of The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Ringo Starr, Al Green, Keith Richards, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ben Harper, Kid Rock, and even, most recently, fellow Marijuana torchbearer, Snoop Dogg. He even landed himself a coveted spot at 2007’s Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, alongside a lineup that included Rage Against the

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Machine, Bjork, and The Roots. Currently touring as Willie Nelson & Family, Willie surrounds himself with family and friends, both on stage and off, as part of his rolling circus. Since his tax evasion issues in 1990, due to the poor financial management and investments, Willie has been on tour ever since. Taking just three years to pay off his $6,000,000 settlement, Willie has been busing his way through “most” checkpoints across the United States, playing everywhere from stadiums with luxury suites to the mom and pop diners dotting the American landscape to just about every state fair in the land. Turning seventy-eight this month doesn’t seem to slow down this musical genius. Of the many times I’ve seen Willie in concert, he has always been entertaining, and sharp. His band of many years has learned to follow his lead - on their toes, and ready to jump. With a cache of hundreds of songs to choose from, he has his hands on the wheel, and will often take a sharp turn musically, really challenging those sharing the stage to follow accordingly. Willie’s off the cuff style often includes taking requests from the audience, or daisy chaining songs together thematically, just because. His sharpness, and ability to story tell through his scraggily voice and chewed up acoustic guitar (named Trigger after Roy Rogers’ horse) is a truly American sound, possibly above and beyond any other, and his branding as an “American Icon” doesn’t fall short. His philanthropic work forming Farm Aid (along with Neil Young and John Mellencamp) has brought a huge awareness along with financial help to the farmers who need assistance. Since 1985, these concerts have brought together musicians, actors, and politicians, all to help this growing issue. His work doesn’t stop on the road, or in the farmers’ fields. He is also the co-chair on the NORML advisory board. His run-ins with the law over Marijuana possession have become notorious. Willie’s outspoken stance, and admittance to being a pot smoker has brought a lot of welcomed attention. His notoriety has even led him to the White House, where as friends with then President Jimmy Carter, he was admittedly spotted on the roof by the Secret Service smoking what he called a “big fat Austin torpedo.” Is there anyone else that can get away with smoking a joint on the roof of the White House? This man’s life has seen so many miles, met so many people, played so many tunes, and has accomplished too many awards and recording accomplishments to mention. What’s more noteworthy is Willie’s passion for life. He hasn’t slowed down in his elder years, and continues to challenge himself almost nightly onstage. Though he has cut his iconic long braids recently, his power still remains. He captivates every crowd he plays for, and never leaves anything behind. His closeness with his fans leads him to sign anything from posters to guitars at the end of every show. He will literally bend down from the stage to his fans and sign their memorabilia. This is the sign of someone who appreciates his position in life. He is as thankful for his fans, as we are of him. If you haven’t yet, give yourself the gift of experiencing him live. Do it now, while you still can.

LA LAW A Lottery of BS

ollowing years of non-action, the Los Angeles City Council finally got around to regulating medical marijuana dispensaries in the city last year. The infamous, but for the most part now defunct, Los Angeles Medical Marijuana Ordinance, passed last year, came under legal scrutiny after dozens of lawsuits were filed by dispensary owners challenging its constitutionality. Apparently, it seems the City Attorney who drafted the ordinance took a sick day from law school when they were learning about Due Process. As a result, a judge struck down key portions of the ordinance, painting the city council as inept, and enjoining the city from enforcing many parts of it. However, this time the City Council, clueless as to what to do next after asking the same judge for his guidance, passed a halfwitted temporary medical cannabis ordinance that caused an uproar amongst collective managers and patients alike. In the latest attempt to regulate dispensaries, the City Council, in its wisdom, has incorporated a lottery as the defining method of who, or rather which, collectives in the city may continue to operate and which must close their doors forever. Didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the city already lose on Due Process grounds the first go around? In the latest ordinance, although be it a temporary one, the first 100 lucky collectives that win the lottery get to stay open. Everyone else must immediately close! Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right, win the lottery and open a pot shop. Go figure. There appears to be a complete disconnect between the basic principles of Due Process and basing the entire medical cannabis industry in LA on a game of chance. There is no rhyme or reason as to why a lottery has been chosen to accomplish the regulation of medical marijuana or why 100 has been selected as the maximum number of collectives that will be permitted to survive. Nor is there any rational basis for using a ping-pong ball to determine which collectives will be permitted to continue to operate. While new applications were required to enter the lottery, nothing

by Bob Selan, Esq.

contained in the applications is being used by the city to determine who is best qualified to stay open, or, on the flip side, who is not qualified. So this again puts medical marijuana in Los Angeles in a state of flux, leaving already flustered patients frustrated and uncertain when and where they will be able to secure their medical cannabis needs in the future. In the meantime, between the time the first ordinance was thrown out and the new temporary ordinance came into play, numerous brand new collectives have found spots to open throughout the city. If there was a problem with how many shops existed before the ordinance was struck down, Katie bar the door, because there are a lot of new contenders that the city will need to confront once the lottery has been completed. The city on the other hand has filed an appeal to the injunction that was issued against the original ordinance, asking that the status quo be restored and to be able to enforce it as passed back in June of 2010. At least one group (and there are sure to be more) has filed another wave of lawsuits against the city, again challenging it on constitutional grounds. These are very confusing times for marijuana patients here in the Southland. It is probably safe to say that the city of LA, with its current city council constituency, will fail to get medical marijuana right. It is going to be up to the voters to promulgate and pass laws at the state level to once and for all fix the medical cannabis laws. While reasonable zoning regulations may be appropriate for where collectives can be located, local laws that take away peoples constitutional rights will never be. The city has not (as of the date we went to print) announced the date or details of the lottery.

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Cannabis industry professionals work to increase the legitimacy of medical marijuana businesses and transform the sale and production of a federally controlled substance into an emerging economic engine. Marijuana is a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. This is a fact. It’s also a unique challenge for businesses in the cannabis industry. So, how do businesses successfully navigate the production, sale and use of a federally controlled substance? Many in the medical cannabis industry are finding out, often by costly trial and error. But trials and errors do not a viable business make, particularly when a business is just starting out, or considering an expansion. Investors aren’t going to place money into half-baked businesses operating in direct opposition to Federal laws. Furthermore, navigating legal gray areas can be treacherous and devastating for any sized business. The cannabis industry changes every day. The insight and expertise earned through experience in the industry is indispensible. Legislation, municipal guidelines, national leadership all impact the industry as a whole, probably more so than any other industry in history. In order to address inherent and emerging issues confronting cannabis business owners, a handful of professional services firms have joined together to develop a reliable resource for the cannabis industry, The Business Park. The Business Park partners found that what businesses need are agencies and organizations that understand the intricacies of the industry, professionals who can appreciate the unique challenges cultivators, dispensary operators, product manufacturers and suppliers face in the community and the industry at large. Guardian Data Systems, a founding partner says: “Our clients constantly ask us who to trust for taxes and accounting services. Some even ask who we should use to advertise our business. The Business Park provides that portal, the professional resources our clients are asking for.” So, while common business acumen does not condone a purely “trial and error” approach, State legislation, compassionate use laws and a general acceptance of medical marijuana as a viable alternative medicine, have prompted massive growth in the cannabis industry over the last several years; this in an industry which, according to Federal guidelines, is trafficking in contraband. How, then, does an industry go from black market to free market? How do dispensaries, cultivators, caregivers and manufacturers comply with state and local medical cannabis guidelines and operate businesses free of constraint and criminality? They employ the help of industry supporters and experienced service professionals. They look towards The Business Park. The medical cannabis industry is exploding. The massive influx of entrepreneurs and investors flooding the medical marijuana industry might not be unlike the flood of fortune seekers heading West in the middle of the nine-

teenth century. And, not unlike the Gold Rush of the 1850s, there are more than a few speculators, carpetbaggers and snake oil dealers setting up shop in states across the nation. The Medical Cannabis industry yields tremendous opportunity, both for success as well as for failure. Smart business owners and entrepreneurs do their homework, they work with professionals who know their industry and in an industry like medical cannabis, with so many gray areas and legal issues, business owners can’t be too careful. “When dealing with our advertisers on many occasions,” says KUSH Magazine, “we are asked about basic business necessities such as who provides insurance, merchant services, security systems, or other professional services. The Business Park has proven to be a good source of quick and thorough answers to many of these questions.” Every Business Park partner and affiliate maintains a standing client base in the cannabis community and understand the changing guidelines and business needs of this burgeoning industry. They also know the inherent dangers. And what better way to combat shortfalls, missteps and potentially catastrophic mistakes than by enlisting the expert advice of those experienced in the industry. According to Mike Aberle, a founding partner, “each member of The Business Park has been qualified and proven to uphold select standards, and partners frequently utilize each other to fulfill their own needs.” Flashfog, a commercial burglary protection company and founding member, has been working with companies from The Business Park for some time. “The professional services offered were just what our clients needed.” Specialists in their own fields, The Business Park partners understand the markets, the vendors and the mutability of this burgeoning industry. As the cannabis industry continues its trajectory towards legalization and decriminalization nationally, and as investors, entrepreneurs and opportunists continue the Green Rush into the medical marijuana industry, one group will continue its support of this legitimacy and work to maintain integrity and honesty in the community. The Business Park will continue to promote the legitimacy and support the viability of the industry and will work to move medical cannabis cultivation, sale and distribution from a black market trend to a legal economic engine. More information about The Business Park and links to Business Park partners is available at www.thebusinesspark.org

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Patients Out Out of of Time: Time: Patients Introduces you to: Introduces you to:

The Legendary Grandma Marijuana

Mae Nutt by Mary Lynn Mathre

Some say that Mae Nutt started the compassion club idea. We say that Mae was a true pioneer in the medical marijuana/cannabis movement. Mae and Arnold Nutt lived in Beaverton, Michigan and had 3 sons - Keith, Dana and Mark. Their middle son, Dana developed lung cancer around the age of 6 and died a few years later in the late 60s. In 1978 Keith was diagnosed with testicular cancer while at college. Keith returned home following his initial surgery because he was too ill to continue with his studies. He soon began the dreadful chemotherapy and became violently ill with nausea and vomiting to the point that he couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even stand the smell of food. Mae had just read a small article in the Bay City Times newspaper about marijuana being used to treat nausea and vomiting.

Her sons had grown up knowing that marijuana would not be tolerated while under the watchful eyes of their parents. But Mae was desperate now and suggested to Keith that he try it. He tried it and it worked. No nausea and vomiting following the chemo and Keith was eating again. Mae was now angry and a bit confused because she had always been taught that marijuana was a dangerous drug, but she could see that it helped Keith. Mae was a mother first and she was willing to try anything to help her son. She set out to find a supply of this medicine for Keith and her first stop was with her minister, who responded with a home delivery that evening. Mae then reported the situation to the local newspapers that ran stories about Keith. As a result of some of this press, Mae stated, â&#x20AC;&#x153;We had marijuana rain on our house. We had marijuana on the front Mae, Arnold, Keith and Mark Nutt

the age of 83, Mae was a huge hit at our 3rd conference when she sat on steps, on the back steps, in the mail box.” Mae was gaining notoriety on another panel, Mothers Know Best. See video: http://www.youtube.com/ the issue at the same time a medical marijuana bill was being considered. watch?v=KcMAX72exUkst. Mae’s health began to decline and in 2005 Keith was able to testify and the bill was finally passed on October 26, she moved to California to be near her remaining son Mark. Grandma 1979 while Keith was back in the hospital for more chemotherapy. Keith Marijuana died a few years later on New Year’s Day in 2008. died that same night, but at least he knew he helped other patients in Today we have 15 states and Washington DC with medical mariMichigan with his testimony. juana (cannabis) laws as the struggle continues to end the cannabis Mae found herself with an overwhelming supply of cannabis and prohibition. But imagine the U.S. back in the late 1970s when Mae, like thought it should be shared with others who could benefit from its meall Americans, was brought up in the midst of ‘reefer madness.’ There dicinal use. She had been volunteering on the oncology unit at Midland were no cell phones then and certainly no internet. It was very difficult Hospital, where Keith was treated. Mae’s next step was to tell the staff that to find any information on the positive cannabis really helped her son and effects of cannabis. But Mae was a strong she would like to share her supply woman who saw for herself that cannabis with other patients who could benefit was therapeutic. Rather than discreetly from it. Since no one specifically care for Keith, Mae brought attention to agreed or disagreed with her plan, medicinal cannabis that helped start the she took their response as a yes. Mae grassroots movement to fight for the end would visit with the patients and the cannabis prohibition. their families. She would hear about The federal government continues to the nausea and vomiting most of the forbid the use of cannabis and maintains patients experienced when receiving it has no therapeutic value. How ironic chemotherapy and discreetly pull that dronabinol (Marinol®), synthetic a parent aside and suggest they try THC, has been available in pill form cannabis. She would supply them since 1985. Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabithe medicine. In light of the fact that nol or “THC” is the primary psychoacsome patients or parents of patients tive cannabinoid in cannabis - it’s the were concerned about smoking, and chemical that causes the “high.” Patients many were too sick to keep a pill who are suffering from nausea and vomdown, Mae learned how to make caniting find it difficult to keep a pill down. nabis suppositories. Mae Nutt became In addition, many patients have a hard affectionately known as “Grandma time with dosing because of the delayed Marijuana.” onset of the effects with the oral route. Mae was not to be stopped or When inhaling cannabis (by smoking silenced. During one of the hearings, or vaporizing) a patient can easily titrate the family met Robert Randall, who to get an appropriate dose. Cannabidiol was the first patient allowed into the (CBD) is a non-psychoactive cannabiCompassionate IND program in Mae & Keith Nutt noid that also works as an anti-emetic which the federal government supand when consumed in whole cannaplied him with medicinal cannabis. bis it helps to dampen down the psychoactive effects of THC. There is She became a board member of the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics absolutely no logic in forbidding the use of the safe and effective herbal (ACT), along with Robert Randall and Alice O’Leary. Mae made numermedicine, claiming that it is a drug of abuse, while allowing the primary ous appearances on local and national television and was featured in nupsychoactive substance in the plant as a legal medicine. merous local and national papers and was becoming quite famous. Mae Patients Out of Time urges all Americans to learn more about this testified at the NORML & ACT vs DEA hearing in which the DEA was wonderful plant and fight back against the reefer madness myths and lies. challenged by petition to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule II. Grandma Marijuana was a pioneer in this fight. We all need to follow her Now in her late sixties, her elderly persona won over the DEA’s Adminislead to end the cruel and unjust cannabis prohibition. trative Law judge. She was the epitome of a wise and loving grandmother. Wanting to remain active, Mae joined Patients Out of Time as one of For more information on Mae and Patients Out Of Time, visit the founding board members in 1995. In 1997, Arnold suffered a major MedicalCannabis.com• stroke and Mae devoted her time in caring for him until his death in 1999. In 2000, Patients Out of Time held The First National Clinical ConMary Lynn Mathre, RN, MSN, CARN is President and Co-founder ference on Cannabis Therapeutics in Iowa City that was co-sponsored of Patients Out of Time. She is a qualified cannabis expert and the by the University of Iowa’s College of Nursing and College of Medicine. editor of Cannabis in Medical Practice: A Legal, Historical, and Mae sat on a panel presentation - The Voices and Experiences of Families Pharmacological Overview of the Therapeutic Use of Cannabis and coand Care Providers. In 2002, Mae shared her and Keith’s story during editor of Women and Cannabis: Medicine, Science and Sociology. our benefit dinner at our 2nd conference in Portland, OR. In 2004, at

first thing that usually happens when you visit any health practioner is the taking of your vital signs, including blood pressure. They strap the cuff on your arm and listen with their stethoscopes as the tension lessens from the cuff and air pressure is released. Unless your blood pressure is abnormal, the nurse or other person administering your test may just spout out the number and say something like, “it’s fine.” Those two words are not to be taken for granted. Blood pressure is the gauge that keeps the body’s central nervous system on track and affects everything and every way our body functions and performs. So if it’s been a while since you have thought about your blood pressure, let’s take a crash course. By Definition Blood pressure pressure exerted by circulating blood upon the walls of blood vessels, and is one of the principal vital signs. During each heartbeat, bp varies between a maximum and a minimum pressure. The mean bp, due to pumping by the heart and resistance to flow in blood vessels, decreases as the circulating blood moves away from the heart through arteries. The Numbers The blood pressure test monitors the systolic and diastolic pressure. Systolic pressure is the pressure of the blood flow when the heart beats and diastolic pressure is the pressure between heartbeats. Written like a fraction, the top number represents systolic pressure and the bottom number represents diastolic. Normal range for adults is 120/80 or below. Prehypertension begins when blood pressure reaches 120-139 over 80-89. Stage 1 hypertension ranges are 140159 over 90-99. Prehypertension Prehypertension is the precursor to high blood pressure and most people who fall in this range can and will develop high blood pressure unless they adopt healthier lifestyles. When your doctor tells you it’s time to eat better, get more exercise and stop smoking, this is why. High blood pressure is known as the “silent killer” so it’s important to stay as far away from prehypertension as possible and get regular readings. Hypertension (high blood pressure) High blood pressure is a common condition and affects most people eventually but can be controlled with medication. Maintaining healthy and normal blood pressure throughout your life is one of the best things you can do to stay healthy. High blood pressure can lead to stroke, heart disease and heart failure and can go undetected without symptoms for years - another reason to check your bp regularly. Staying in the Safety Zone Essentially, we control our own destiny when it comes to blood pressure. The most important factors are diet, exercise and stress. A diet full of greens and healthy grains is a good start and you should get at least 45 minutes of exercise 3-4 times a week where you get your heart rate up and break a sweat. Go easy on rich dairy and fatty meats! Meditation is an excellent way to maintain blood pressure. Learning to breathe and focus while relaxing the mind and letting go of anxieties is key to staying clam and keeping your heart beating and blood lowing smoothly. Even if you aren’t a practicing meditator, 20 minutes of silent or quiet, calming relaxation can help. As counter-intuitive as it may sound, you should find the discipline to chill on a daily basis. Blood pressure is serious business and it’s never too soon or too late to take care. Be well.

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When a box gets delivered to your office and the first thing you pull out is an apple pipe, you have to wonder…how did no one think of this before? I’m not talking about taking a plastic lunchline knife and a paperclip and cleverly fashioning a pipe out of a stale cafeteria granny apple behind the gym locker room…because yes, I know, we’ve all been there before. I’m talking about the grown-up sophisticated version…the kind of apple that rests in the teacher’s desk, not on it. The kind of apple that doesn’t attempt to offer any nutritional value, but rather focuses on medicinal value. I’m talking about, of course, the glass blown apple pipe.

Yup. This, our loyal readers, is just one of the quirky takes on 21st century canna-tools that Prestige Pipes is carefully sending out from their warehouses one-at-a-handblown time. A quick scroll through their site and you’ll see everything from sexy bubblers to tattoo spoons to springtime chillums, lizard-like sherlocks, volcano vaporizers, and wide stemmed zongs (yes, Zongs). Kush felt compelled enough to reach out to Robert Owsley, the company’s owner, to talk to him about his inspiration, motivation, and, well, whatever other madness we might be able to get our hands on. “The reason I call it Prestige is because I don’t have the talents to make the

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products,” tells us Owsley, “but I have a lot of respect and admiration for the glass blowers that do. I would like to give more recognition to these glassblowers in the United States that are trying to make a living.” The inspiration came when he was out shopping for a new piece and realized that everything he was finding was “that same sort of psychedelic 70s, Cheech & Chong era stuff,” he tells us. “And I thought, well, aren’t we in the 21st century? Haven’t we moved on yet?” So he did a little research and “I was talking to more and more glass blowers that were of the new generation and they were frustrated by the fact that they had too few venues to sell their products.” Being in the warehouse business of shipping and receiving products already, he figured he had enough of the infrastructure and experience to take on the role of filling that void, “so, in May of 2009, I thought, well, this would be something that could be easy to buy and sell and ship.” Robert figured all he really had to do was play the middle-man between the glass blowers and the public, and furthermore, he’d do it all through a website. “Basically what I wanted to do for Prestige was to sell products that weren’t normally found in head shops or in brick and mortar stores.” But don’t be fooled, he’s not playing the role of a distributor – as a matter of fact, he refused to take bulk orders. “I don’t want to do bulk,” he states emphatically. “I can be more exclusive this way, and also, it’s less of a strain on the glassblower.”

you’re purchasing,” Robert recognizes. “People respond to being taught something…being given the gift of knowledge.” So on PrestigePipes.com, you’ll find a full section detailing how to use each and every piece and product Prestige carries, from the vaporizer to the bubbler to the spoon. “If you’re a 60 or 70 year old baby boomer who’s sick of prescription pills and their side effects and recently turned to medical marijuana as a means of helping with your insomnia, glaucoma, pain or the effects of chemotherapy,” Prestige Pipes provides “a great tool to use in the privacy of their own home,” Owsley empathizes. “I didn’t want Prestige to just be another site to make money, where I’d buy a bunch of product and flip it,” he expresses. “I wanted something more.”

Lucky for us, he’s given it all. To upgrade your collection to the 21st century, or simply to learn how to use the pieces you are sure to soon have, visit PrestigePipes.com (and tell ‘em Kush sent you…)

Through statements such as that one, it was quite refreshingly apparent that for Robert, it’s all about the art and the goodwill of the medical cannabis culture. “I certainly believe that smoking is a way of curing ailments medically and I think the more educated someone is about it, the more comfortable they’d feel about doing it and can make better choices for themselves,” he told us. So in addition to a virtual store with a uniquely personal experience, he created the site as a way to increase awareness and education. “It could be intimidating for a 60 year old to walk into a head shop full of twentysomethings and ask them how to use a bubbler or a vaporizer, but if you’re on a website, you can look at it whenever you want, and feel much better about what

NCIAkushad3_v.4 3/18/11 4:30 PM Page 1

Cannabis industry leaders from across the country have recently come together to form the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA), the first cannabis trade association in the U.S. NCIA is already working in Congress to address problems facing the cannabis businesses community â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from banking to reforming unfair tax laws to eliminating unreasonable Drug Paraphernalia statutes. NCIA is the only organization representing the cannabis industry on the national stage and we need your help. For as little as $100 a month or $1,000 a year, your business can be part of the growing list of industry leaders that make up the National Cannabis Industry Association. Membership also includes member discounts, access to exclusive industry events, and a listing in our industry directory. Contact us to join or receive more information today. National Cannabis Industry Association Phone: (202) 379-4861 E-mail: info@TheCannabisIndustry.org P.O. Box 78062 Washington, DC 20013

NCIA Board of Directors: Tristan Blackett

Wanda James

420 Science, HI

Simply Pure Medicinal Edibles, CO

Cheryl Brown

Dale Sky Jones

MMBA, CO

Oaksterdam University, CA

Brian Cook

Rob Kampia

Altitude Organics Corporation, CO

Marijuana Policy Project, DC

Troy Dayton

Ken Kulow

The ArcView Group, CA

Chameleon Glass, AZ

Steve DeAngelo

Jill Lamoureux

Harborside Health Center, CA

Colorado Dispensary Services, CO

Becky DeKeuster

Michael McAuliffe

Northeast Patients Group, ME

Sensible Nevada, NV

Adam Eidinger

Erich Pearson

Capitol Hemp, DC

SPARC, CA

Etienne Fontan

Bob Selan

Berkeley Patients Group, CA

Kush Magazine, CA

Jim Gingery

Brian Vicente

Montana Medical Growers Assoc., MT

Sensible Colorado, CO

Len Goodman

Bob Winnicki

New MexiCann Natural Medicine, NM

Full Spectrum Labs

Justin Hartfield

Joe Yuhas

Weedmaps.com, CA

Arizona Medical Marijuana Assoc., AZ

Central Park in L.A.?

Los Angeles State Historic Park:

A California State Park Hidden in by Alex Baker

With the warmer months upon us it’s a great time for heading outdoors. If you live in the city, that usually means spending a day in the park. Unfortunately, Los Angeles has historically been one of the most park-poor urban areas in the country, especially on the eastside, where, for decades, going to the park on Saturday has meant battling the crowds at Griffith or Elysian. But there is in fact a little known alternative option for Angelinos in search of a little park life. Just off the northern edge of Chinatown, tucked in between Lincoln Heights and Solano Canyon, you’ll find Los Angeles State Historic Park. LASHP opened its gates in 2008 and is located on a previously barren 32-acre patch of land known for years as “the cornfield.” The park was developed as a result of a community action to halt proposed industrialization of the area and envisioned as a green and open space that would offer respite from the urban congestion of downtown L.A. Although the park is fully accessible to the public, just over 13 acres of the space have been developed for use so far. These developed areas consist of great, open expanses of grass interspersed with small hills and planted with lines of young trees. The wide-open green spaces make the cornfield a great place for having a picnic, throwing a Frisbee or kicking a soccer ball around. The many enclaves of trees are ideal for practicing your tai chi or you might just want to chill in the grass beneath the shade of the high wall dividing the park from the Gold Line on its southern edge. Trails popular with dog-walkers and bicyclists wind through the park and a 1.1-mile jogging track rings its edge. You can follow the trails out to explore the undeveloped portion of the cornfield, which mostly consists of dense overgrowth that sprung up after a field of corn was planted as an art project prior to the park’s development. If you make it all the way down to the arches of the Broadway Bridge at the far western edge, you’ll find the park’s office along with another interesting art project utilizing planted flowers. The original advisory report for the park mandated that it maintain a sense of the area’s history, so, as its name would imply, Los Angeles State Historic Park has a number of historical features on its grounds. For over a century the area was the site of a bustling transcontinental rail-yard and there are creative landscaping installations delineating the outlines of where the depot, roundhouse and mas-

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sive freight warehouse once stood. Through the park’s fence across the metro tracks it’s possible to glimpse an excavated section of the “Zanja Madre,” the original aqueduct used to bring water into the Pueblo del Los Angeles. You can also see several historic buildings from within the park including the Capital Milling Company, which dates back to 1883. But LASHP is an urban park and its most distinguishing feature is the broad, unobstructed view of the downtown skyline you can enjoy from anywhere within its grounds. The entrance to the park is located right at the Chinatown Gold Line stop, making it not only adjacent to Chinatown, but just a short walk from historic Olvera Street. Abundant parking is available and there are portable restrooms on-site, as well as a snack shack that serves coffee, cold drinks and health food. During the warmer months, the park plays host to diverse cultural and community events ranging from indie rock concerts and film screenings to Native American festivals. Work is ongoing in completing the park’s development but future plans include establishing a native wetland habitat on the site and adding a physical connection to the L.A. River, which runs past the park’s westernmost point. Beyond its open green spaces, views and convenient location, LAHSP’s greatest asset is its low profile. People simply aren’t aware of it. Even on a sunny Saturday it’s never crowded and there’s always parking. With people fighting for a patch of grass over at Griffith and Elysian, a day at Los Angeles State Historic Park is as easy as what it was meant to be: a walk in the park. Los Angeles State Historic Park 1245 N. Spring Street Los Angeles CA 90012 Park hours: 8:00am to sunset daily For more information, search Los Angeles State Historical Park at parks.ca.gov

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by Charlotte Cruz

Living Well: Jogging Starting the Engine As with any exercise, you have got to get the blood flowing and the muscles loose to prevent injury. Weekend warriors are often injured by jumping into an activity without properly warming up the body. If you are new to jogging, it’s a good idea to stretch longer than you normally would since the muscles you use while jogging may have been asleep for a while. The benefits of a stretch are maximized when the circulation is good and the muscles are warm, so it’s advised to start stretching after a 5-10 minute brisk walk. A jogger’s cool down should be very similar or exactly like the warm up and is equally important.

Form is Everything

ome people love it and others would rather swim 14 miles to not have to do it for 10 minutes: Jogging - the

cheapest, easiest way to stay fit (and the trickiest of sports). It seems so simple enough.

While form is vital to staying injury-free, that doesn’t mean that everyone jogs the same, but the basic rules apply. According to running and exercise gospel, a jogger’s foot should make contact in the middle as they stride. Since you’re absorbing all of that shock to your feet, it’s best to try to keep it evenly distributed and mimic how you naturally walk. Jogging is not about lifting the knees; it’s about continual, fluid motion at a comfortable pace (the norm for measuring correct pace is breathing deeply and steadily but still able to maintain a conversation) for a prolonged amount of time. Taking big strides or kicking backwards can cause injury to the joints and leg muscles, so avoid these common mistakes.

We all did it as kids and millions of people continue to strap on their running shoes for a 4-miler before breakfast and actually enjoy it. The tricky part is knowing your body well enough to detect injury, maintain proper technique and have the proper equipment to perform the arduous task of literally pounding the pavement. The basic rules to live by are to properly warm up, keep your form, and, of course, don’t forget to breathe.

Don’t Skimp on Shoes If jogging is, or you want it to be, a part of your regular exercise routine, you have got to take care of your feet. While other sports require bulky and expensive equipment, all you really need to jog is a place to do it. Proper footwear, however, can make all the difference in the world and should be considered a worthwhile investment. Go to a runner’s shoe store and let the staff help you determine what shoe is best for your foot. It’s so worth it.

Jogging is free and anyone in good health can do it. It’s a great workout, can be a very social activity and the more you do it, the stronger and better you get. So get off the couch and you’ll be signing up for your first 5K in no time…and completing it just as quickly! 60

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It does exactly what its name implies…throws you clear into outer space. One hit puts you in the shuttle. Two hits blasts you out of the atmosphere. Three hits allows you to make the best of your window seat view, and four hits…well, after four hits, you’re not really paying much attention anymore. The Planetary OG family’s indica dominant foundation is unmistakable, and is often considered the most powerful of the OGs. It’s a 20% THC strain, putting it in the upper echelons of medical marijuana potency, and the incredible density of the sparkly trichomes make the buds look like they were dragged through wet spiderwebs. The bright orange hairs and damn-near-fluorescent green leaves almost make you want to just look at it and not smoke it. Eh…almost. The strain has an aroma that’s extremely earthy and piney and flowers that, if cured correctly, are fluffy and sticky. The taste? Almost the same. You’ll definitely savor the fresh, and almost citrus, brisk mountain morning taste (with curious hints of a hash-like aftertaste) and you’ll most certainly feel stuck to your couch. As far as the hit itself, it’s a surprisingly smooth smoke for such a powerful strain. It has a slight expanding effect, just to make sure the THC hits all your right lung’s cappilaries, but not so much that you spend half your high coughing up your left one. Planetary OG proves to be an extremely sedating strain, making it a perfect choice for treating acute and chronic pain, nausea, headaches, anxiety and insomnia. It proves to be a heavy creeper whose effects seems to overtake you in waves with every stretch and every yawn, almost like an edible. After you get over how high you are, uncontrollable giggling is an oft experienced effect. After all, it’s not everyday you get to laugh outloud in zero-gravity. By now you’ve probably gathered that this is not a strain for doing any work that requires any sort of focus. Couchlock? Yes. So be sure to medicate in a comfortable spot. Munchies? Yes. So be sure to keep a box of frosted red velvet cookies on hand. Actually…on second thought…don’t! Ok, maybe just one…

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Tell me about your work with Americans for Safe Access. Since I started, my goal has been to build dispensaries, train people how to grow, and give them legal training. ASA went around to virtually every early dispensary and gave trainings on what we termed “Know Your Rights” - which is really just, when the arrest happens, shut up, don’t say a goddamn thing until you’ve seen your attorney.

fter campaigns to shut down the Livermore nuclear weapons lab and the Energy Department’s Nevada Test Site, he found himself working with the Cannabis Buyers Cooperative of Berkeley or CBC - Berkeley’s first cannabis dispensary - and the advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA). Told by doctors he would be confined to a wheelchair for life, he is today walking freely - a testament to the human spirit, and the curative powers of cannabis. Reporter Bill Weinberg spoke with him at a coffeeshop near his home in downtown Berkeley.

I heard you were also dispatched to Montana to try to get things going there. Yeah, well I dispatched myself, basically. I have friends who live up there. The [2004 state medical marijuana] law had passed, but nobody had done anything for two and a half years. So I told my friends in Missoula, “OK, I’ll come up.” I started working to build up the scene in Missoula. And I guess Missoula hadn’t had a radical for a while. I got there and set up a table with literature about medical marijuana, and the cops said, “No, no, you can’t do that, we’ll arrest you for that.” And I went, “Well, I’m not really prepared for an arrest today. Hey, I’ll tell you what. We’re going to do this again at both our convenience. I’m going to call you, and say I’m going to be at this corner at a specific time. You can count on that.” So I got in touch with the Wobblies. I’m an old Wobbly, and the first free speech fight ever in the United States started in Montana, with the Wobblies, in 1909! I was like, “That was almost exactly a hundred years ago! This is gonna be great!” So I just put out a blast, I said, “I need freight-train riders, Wobblies, anybody - to Missoula! There’s going to be a free speech fight!” I organized and I talked around town. And we set up a table. The cops saw us from around a hundred feet away. It was only me and another guy, but they had gotten some intelligence about who I was and what I was about, and how bad it would be to (mess) with me on this. So they just decided, “No, no, we’re not going to do anything. It’s now legal.” Do you want to tell me how you became a medicinal user? I broke my neck in December of 1994 and was instantly paralyzed from the neck down. It was a diving accident in Central America. I was in Belize. And I’ll tell you, it did not look good. I was taken to a jungle clinic, where a doctor eventually showed up and poked and prodded me and said, “Can you feel this, can you move that?” I said no. “You’re paralyzed.” He was really smart, I could tell. [Laughs.]

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So you were rescued and taken to a clinic... After I got hypothermic from being in the river, they knew I had to get out. So they went into the village and dismantled the altar from the church - the only large flat board in the village! So they put the board from the altar underneath me and raised me up. Now one of the side effects in males of a broken neck is priapism... like guys who get hanged. It turns out it’s true! So I was raised from the river on the church altar with a raging hard-on! Wouldn’t wanna embarrass ‘em! [Laughs.]

Eventually you were medevaced to Florida. How did that happen? They decided I was stabilized enough that they were going to transport me into Belize City. And when I got there, they took an X-ray and showed it to me. I was missing one of my vertebrae. It was gone. You could see spinal chord naked, like a string, and my head was the f’n balloon! Fortunately, my friends in the states went to work and got my ass out of there. I wound up in Bayfront Medical Center, in St. Petersburg. I got decompression surgery and then they put me in a medical coma. When I came to, I was in a mini ICU. My friends had started to fly in. The first one to arrive, every time I saw him for the first two days I was like, “It’s so good to see you! When did you get here?” It was like the first time I’d seen him. Then I started encoding memory. But I was contorting uncontrollably. I was on the maximum dosage of Baclofen, the pharmaceutical anti-spastic. My friends had taken me out of the hospital into this courtyard. And they wanted me to smoke pot. I was completely skeptical. I had just rehabed my lungs so I could breathe on my own. But they were like, “Dude, you’ve smoked pot before. It’s no big deal.” So I was like, “OK, I’ll humor these bastards.” They held the pipe to my lips, and I inhaled. And as I’m exhaling, my body starts to relax. I’d been tense and contorting, and my whole body relaxed— for the first time since I’d broke my neck. All the muscle contortions stopped. And I was like, “OK. So... I’m a believer.” Later, I began to regain function. I started to slowly build back the ability to move and to walk. It took two and a half years, all the way. And this was contrary to the original prognosis...

Yeah. The original prognosis had been that I would never move a thing. I was supposed to be in an electric wheelchair for life. To what do you attribute the fact that you’re now walking? You know, it’s complex. Some of it is physical, and some of is...maybe spiritual, even. I think the fact that I dove into a river and stayed in until I was hypothermic helped cut down swelling. That was helpful. The fact that I’d smoked pot twenty minutes before I’d broke my neck - that was probably helpful. Oh? Yes. I do believe there are neuroprotective properties of marijuana. How far do those neuroprotective properties go? They don’t really know. That’s why researchers are interested in me. And you’d say that cannabis played a significant role in your recovery? It at least enabled me to deal with the spasms. You see, when you’re muscles are all firing simultaneously, you can’t really move at will. That’s part of the problem with a spinal injury - for the brain to get a message to the proper muscle. Marijuana helped me do that. I kept taking pharmaceuticals—looking for ways to knock out the pain - Baclofen, Dantrium, Carbamazepine - but the problem with being on those drugs is that you don’t get to use your brain for anything like...thought. About two or three years post-accident, I finally got rid of all the pharmaceutical drugs. Now, I just smoke pot. When I wake up the morning, I still contort around. I have to organize the muscles to get out of bed, stumble over and do a bong hit, and then... [sighs] OK, now I can function again. Tell me a little bit about your life before the accident. I’m originally from outside of Detroit. I was adopted. And I had some serious difficulties with my family...to the point that I started living on my own at the age of twelve. And I spent the next year and a half incarcerated. I closed the institution down. That’s where I learned organizing. When did you get to the Bay Area? I got here when I was 22. I’d been squatting in Detroit, and decided that

freezing my balls off in an abandoned building sucked, and it was time to leave. So you started squatting in San Francisco and got involved in the Livermore Action Group... Right. They felt that non-violence involved praying, sitting down, and waiting to be hauled away. But I was like, “What about mobile tactics? Keeping this place closed as long as we can!” They were like, “That’s violence.” I said, “No, violence is violence. This is just having a good time!” This was the mid-80s and your accident was in the mid-90s. What happened in those intervening ten years? Well, we shut down the Nevada Test Site. Seeds of Peace was formed as a logistical group that helped other organizations do really big public events. We provided portable kitchens, shitters, water, trailers. We could set up a city for ten thousand anywhere. And at the Test Site, we worked with American Peace Test. And we were successful—we took control of the test site. We disrupted their last test in ‘92. By this time, glasnost was happening, so some Soviet generals came over to witness one of our tests - and they got to see us dancing on Ground Zero rather than a test! And the Soviets’ test site in Kazakhstan had already been shut down by fifty-thousand people storming it which we helped inspire. So now you’re living in Berkeley... Uh-huh. Causing trouble here. Although I might be moving to Washington soon, to start a new dispensary, on a different model. The economy’s for shit. People are desperate for work. So everybody’s growing pot, and the price keeps going down. All agricultural commodities have gone through a cycle of boom and bust. So you’re anticipating a bust. Yeah. It will become so not profitable that people will start leaving - and then we’ll go back into another boom cycle. The federal government is looking for a model as a way out of prohibition. If the only model they see out there is the alcohol model, which guarantees that somebody is going to profit and somebody is going to be a consumer, that’s what they’re going to go for. I don’t want to see another big industry. There’s got to be an alternative.

Bill Weinberg is a freelance writer in New York City. His websites are GlobalGanjaReport.com and WorldWar4Report.com

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When Jim Alekson looks at the medical marijuana industry, he sees a promising yet scattered landscape. He explains, “I think the issue at hand really is that no one, when they originally started approving marijuana legislation, ever gave any thought about just how large the industry is as a whole. I’m talking about the industry, not only the medical marijuana side, but obviously the entire industry of marijuana.” Alekson doesn’t use marijuana, yet he still sees the benefits it gives to society at large. “We believe that there is a place in American society for the medical therapies that are available through the use of medical marijuana. We find that there’s a lot of compelling evidence that it helps. And I know a lot of people that are currently in various states that have medical marijuana cards, and that they use it for pain control, arthritis, and other joint ailments, and it works very well as an augment to synthetic drugs.” With this in mind, Alekson set out with his business partnerChester Soliz- to figure out how to give the industry some consistent organization. This led to them developing the Medicine Wheel Project. “We’re looking at it from a much more business-like approach,” he says, “as opposed to what you normally find in the industry at the moment. There are a lot of excellent business people, there are a lot of entrepreneurial individuals, but they’re not all working together, they seem to be somewhat fragmented. We’re hoping that we’re gonna be able to create a sort of central location, if you will, as a clearing house for all information. We’re wanting to bring it all together under one roof, and then begin to see how the industry can be vertically expanded at the same time that it continues to grow horizontally.”

Their first offering to the industry comes from his other company, Medical Marijuana Delivery Systems, in the form of Tetracan, a skin patch that transcutaneously delivers THC at a certain dosage level over a set period of time. Developed in 2000 by Walter Cristobal, Alekson see it as “a clear departure from the age-old delivery method of smoking. It really begins to move it into a whole different realm. For example, young people who are going through chemotherapy, you can’t very well feed them marijuana in its traditional way. But if you put a patch on, then now they’re starting to feel better, the nausea begins to dissipate, as we all know that happens when using marijuana in its typical modality of delivery. “Or patients who have lung cancer, they can’t very well smoke, and the patch allows them to be able to gain the therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana without having to smoke the product. “I just think that there’s a real opportunity for the patch. Not to take over the industry, but certainly to be an augment to the industry, because not everybody likes to smoke.” While the Tetracan patch is still months away from being available in stores, Alekson says they’ve been inundated by dispensaries across the country, wanting to sell the new form of delivery. “For example,” Alekson prides, “in Colorado, we’ve been approached by one particular distribution group that can get it into 300 dispensaries across the state. “We’ve been talking with two major pharmaceutical companies, who are interested in potentially coming with us, and manufacturing the patch for distribution within each of the states that have approved medical marijuana legislation.” Medical Marijuana Delivery Systems expects to have Tetracan ready by year’s end. In the meantime, they’re hoping the Medicine Wheel Project takes off. “I think that it’s time that the industry as a whole began to organize itself. Again, I emphasize that there’s a lot of very well-meaning organizations and very well-meaning people that are involved in the industry, but there doesn’t seem to be any overall organization of all the participants. “Where we see ourselves coming into picture is, we’re brand new to the business. We look at this as an opportunity to be able to take something that’s very fragmented, and begin to give it some organization. “Are we gonna do it right? You know, we’re gonna make some mistakes along the way, but we’re eventually going to accomplish this. One thing about Chester and I is, there is no ‘Plan B’ in our lexicon, so therefore we will prevail as time goes on. It’s just a matter of working hard and getting the right people involved.” http://www.themedicinewheelproject.blogspot.com

hat do you think of when you think of Malibu? I can tell you that right now I’m singing the Hole song, remembering my blue bathing suit clad Barbie who would not at all approve of the haircut I gave her, and imagining Matthew McConaughey on the beach playing Frisbee without a shirt (his stock entertainment rag photo). Malibu is home to the uber-wealthy and uber-famous. If you are a resident of the coastal paradise, your neighbors may include A-list athletes and movie stars, hedge fund kings, real estate moguls and other people you likely have very little in common with. While the residents make up an impressive list, even more interesting is the story of how they all landed along this pristine stretch of coastline. From the turn of the 20th Century until 1938, Malibu was exclusively owned by a single family - Frederick and Mary Rindge, the Massachusetts millionaires who founded Southern California and Union Oil. They owned all 27 miles of coastline and kept the world out with chained gates and armed guards who patrolled the hills on horseback. The Malibu Colony was finally opened to the public in 1929 when the widowed Mary Rindge was having financial trouble (I know…how can you own SCE and Union Oil and need money, right?) and offered a few of her celebrity friends the opportunity to build vacation homes on her private beach. In the late 1930s, Mrs. Rindge decided to allow the residents to buy their properties rather than just rent them and the rest…is privileged history. Today, someone famous owns nearly every house along the coast and they still take great pains to make sure that the public

is kept at bay. From Pacific Coast Highway you can see a wall of the backs of houses, but the front remains off limits. Every time a natural disaster hits California, Malibu seems to get hit the hardest. Mudslides, wildfires and earthquakes have all but leveled the community several times, yet it remains the most famous and sought-after real estate in all of Los Angeles, maybe even the country. Why? Because Malibu is gorgeous. The beaches are flawless, the hills are littered with wildflowers and the town is quaint and quiet. It’s a place where you can be Jack Nicholson and hang out at a bar without being bothered and a place where your front yard is the sand. It’s paradise. Malibu is home to some of the most beautiful beaches in California including Topanga, Surfrider, Point Dume and Zuma. The best surfing is at Surfrider, which is just North of the pier. There are 2 entrances. First Point has a staircase that leads to the beach and Third Point offers a nice quarter-mile trail through the lagoon to the beach. The lagoon was created by the run-off from Malibu Canyon and is a bird sanctuary. There are concessions at many of the beaches and food is easy to find. There are options for every budget, from fast food to pizza but if you want to really experience Malibu and splurge a little, try Moonshadows or Geoffrey’s for gorgeous beachfront dining with classic California cuisine and spectacular views. We may never wake up on the sand and look outside our window to the gleaming Pacific before going to the set to make 5 million a picture, but a visit to our own secluded paradise will make you feel like it.

Try as hard as you can and I’ll bet you can’t think of a bad moment when ice cream was involved. Ice cream is a true pleasure and has been since the invention of the cow. It makes us happy and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone that doesn’t have a favorite flavor. I could die happy if I knew they served Ben & Jerry’s Coffee Heath Bar Crunch in heaven. From the sound of the ice cream truck nearing your block or the cylindrical scoop from Thrifty’s/Rite Aid, ice cream is good no matter how you get it or where it comes from. The only bad cone is the one that topples onto the hot pavement before you take the first taste. Good ice cream is made with good ingredients. Whether you’re a simple vanilla fan or fall more into the pistachio buttermilk sage category, ice cream can be infused with just about anything. I once knew a guy who made himself a blend of bacon and Gran Marnier ice cream because he, well, liked both bacon and Gran Marnier. Before you go experimenting like he did, try some of the best scoops in town, of which there are plenty. Milk 7290 Beverly Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90036 TheMilkShop.com 323 939 6455 Glacier creates everything from scratch; even their caramel and hot fudge sauce. They use locally grown produce when available and even make their whipped cream. There are over 300 flavors of ice cream, sorbet, gelato and frozen yogurt and each one is a custom invention of goodness, but Glacier is not just an ice cream & gelato shop. They have milkshakes, malts, hot fudge sundaes, fresh waffle cones, banana splits, root beer floats, and customized ice cream cakes. For the health conscious, they feature over 20 smoothies including 10 non-dairy concoctions…but when you walk into Glacier, consider exploring your gluttonous side. Sometimes that can be more beneficial than you may think. Saffron & Rose Ice Cream 1387 Westwood Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90024 (310) 477-5533 I’m a get- it- off-the- truck kind of gal, but gourmet ice cream is truly one of the most wonderfully decadent creations on earth and Saffron & Rose, whoever they are, must be some sort of angelic herbily named couple with a dairy farm and an organic garden full of berries. Of course they might just mean actual saffron and actual rose, which is (I guess) more likely since the flavors here are floral. You can try saffron pistachio or watermelon before settling on lavender. If you like the tangy, the fruity, the pucker-up kind of experience, try this adventurous ice cream place right away. Hans’ Homemade Ice Cream 3640 S Bristol St Santa Ana, CA 92704 (714) 979-8815 Way to go, Hans! You rock, Hans! Hans, you’re the man! Hans did it. He made homemade ice cream that tastes homemade, uses flavors we all love like mocha chip and Oreo cookie and blends it all together to make delicious, ridiculous, smooth as silk ice cream for you. The interior is a vintage ice cream parlor and will take you back in time in a wonderful way. No frills, no tea-flavored ice creams here, just the real deal. 72

Cheryl Shuman:

The grass keeps getting greener

Cheryl and Tommy Chong

Cheryl with ASA Executive Director Steph Sherer

Cheryl with NORML Women’s Alliance Sabrina Fendrick

She was 3 years old when her parents divorced and separated. And it might have been the best thing that ever happened to her. Cheryl Shuman, mother of two, successful optician to the stars, Forbes Magazine featured selfmade entrepreneur, never saw it coming. Cheryl’s parents, who had separated under un-amicable terms, announced they were getting back together and getting married on Valentines Day 2006, more than 4 decades after they had split. Cheryl, who was working in Los Angeles at the time, immediately packed up her stuff and drove cross-country back to her home in Scioto County, Ohio. “I was going to have a family again!!” she remembers excitedly. But this excitement did not last long. Reality has a funny way of slapping you in the face in the most unexpected of ways. In Cheryl’s case, it happened as soon as she walked up to the door. One of the first things her mother said to her was “Something about your color doesn’t look right,” Cheryl clearly remembers. Her uncle had just recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died just three weeks earlier. While she brushed it off as stress and exhaustion from her demanding workload back in Los Angeles, mother’s instinct won the battle and insisted Cheryl go see a doctor. “So I did,” Cheryl remembers clearly. “Just to be safe make mom happy.” But this didn’t make anyone happy. Rather, Cheryl’s entire world was about to be turned upside down. All it took was one ultrasound to immediately determine that tumors had spread throughout her ovaries, bladder, colon, and uterus. “I was rushed into emergency surgery, and the doctors told me I probably wouldn’t live through the rest of the year.” After spending the next several months preparing for her own passing, all the way down to the brutal task of setting up her own cremation, she came to a point where she was getting sick of being, in effect, a dead body. After all, she was still alive. And in a testament to the power of the mind, she made the switch: Cheryl decided that she was going to live.

Cheryl with Melissa Etheridge

Around this same time, through a chance meeting she ran across an old high school friend, Frederic Rhoades. Rhoades happened to be an organic farmer who was growing produce for clients that included Whole Foods and Kroger, as well as his own Rhoadeside Organic Market. As fate would have it, in addition to produce, he happened to have expert experience as a cannabis cultivator from a previous stint in California so, naturally, he suggested marijuana. At first she was extremely skeptical, for “I had never had a drug in my system. I’ve never even had a cigarette.” But as she began to take stock of the cornucopia of pharmaceuticals she was

by wasim muklashy

ingesting daily “just to stay alive,” and as she thought of the morphine drip that she was depending on to numb her pain, she decided, “it couldn’t hurt. At the very least, I’ll die with a smile on my face.” Over the course of the next couple of months, her use of cannabis helped wean her off the more than 2-dozen pharmaceuticals prescribed to her. Within less than 6 weeks, her outlook began to improve, her activity level was beginning to return to normal, and she began to regain some of the weight she lost through the treatments. While she began to feel and look better, and evidence in the form of CAT Scans and MRIs had shown that the tumors from the initial prognosis hadn’t gotten any worse, her battle had, in a sense, only just begun. The new tests had shown tumors that were not seen before… tumors that had metastasized to her liver. Once again, there was a timestamp on her life. The clock was again ticking…this time, quicker than ever. By this time, The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) had caught onto Cheryl’s story and invited her to the NORML Conference in San Francisco in 2009. This laid the foundation for what would eventually bloom into one of the most prominent and tireless activists in the nation. She had found what she was looking for...a respected community dedicated specifically to the ordeals that she had been facing. Cheryl Shuman was invigorated. She soon found herself as the Director of the Beverly Hills chapter of NORML, which, under her direction, grew bigger and quicker than any chapter in the organizations 30year history. “Cheryl Shuman is without question one of the most proficient public relations people I have ever had the pleasure of working with,” expresses Keith Stroup, founder and legal counsel of NORML. “She is a delight to work with and always exceeds expectations.” However, all was still far from rosy. In April of 2010, Cheryl suffered a transient ischemic attack (TIA), in essence, a mini-stroke. More often than not, TSIs are soon followed by a full stroke. While going through the list of medications with her doctor, she was cornered into admitting that she is a legal medical cannabis patient. This was the moment that changed everything. “There’s no way you’re going to ever get a liver transplant Cheryl,” expressed her doctor. “Cannabis is a Schedule 1 drug.” On top of it all, she was informed that her insurance would also be cancelled. Not exactly what a stroke patient wants to hear. Before he could finish what he was saying, she looked over at Frederic, “we need to get out of here. NOW!” That very afternoon, there was a city council meeting in Los Angeles that was hearing the case

for and against closing the city’s dispensaries. Cheryl and Frederic literally left the hospital and headed directly to the meeting. “I had never spoken in front of city council,” remembers Cheryl. “I had to fight back tears and emotions, but when my name was called, I tried to condense a lifetime of experiences into 60 seconds of testimony. I was terrified and intimidated, but felt like I had to say something.” “I had no idea that video cameras were capturing my testimony and I certainly had no idea that the video would be spread virally throughout the Internet and make it to other news outlets.” This, in effect, played a huge role in saving her as well as helping to put a precedent in motion for patients to come. Because of the pressure the media was putting on the insurance giant, Aetna, rather than cancel her policy, helped push her through the red tape and got her into the UC Davis Oncology Treatment program. But Aetna’s ‘goodwill’ only lasted until the media frenzy died down. Once her premiums were raised to almost 3000 a month, Cheryl was forced to drop it…at a time she was requiring 24hour care. Around this very time, Michigan’s 420 University approached her. She was introduced to various cannabis-based treatments spearheaded by Dr. Robert Melamede, prominent University of Colorado biologist and premiere researcher of endocannabinoids, especially relating to their medical uses in combating cancer. “They told me about all these uses of cannabis I had never heard of including cannabis oil capsules, the juicing, and eating the raw leaves, and all these different diseases that had been cured by employing some of these methods,” Cheryl remembers. “So when he asked me if I would be willing to be a guinea pig for some of his experimental methods, I said certainly.” Once again, she began seeing immediate results. Her strength was regained, her appetite began to come back, her nausea decreased, and she was able to live a semi-normal life again. Kush Magazine was so intrigued by her story, they felt compelled to bring her in and offer her a job. They figured, who better than Cheryl and what better than the success of Cheryl’s story to help propel the movement of medical cannabis to the next level? Her newfound energy and life has quickly catapulted her into the position of being one of the most influential medical cannabis activists alive today. “It appears that people are responding and I’m happy to try to make a difference,” she expresses. “Now I realize that we need to educate the mainstream as to how these laws are truly impacting patients, families, and the community as a whole. The legal system is confusing at best. We need to clarify concise, and consistent legislation.” So, in addition to her full-time work as the Director of International Marketing & Public Relations with Kush, Cheryl is a member of the Steering Committee and Board of Directors for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), she’s a National Ambassador for Americans for Safe Access (ASA), and has volunteered alongside Sarah Lovering for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), and way too many other accolades to list here. “I don’t know how it works, I don’t know why

it works, but I know that it seems to be working and I’ve literally dedicated each and every minute of the rest of my life to educating people about the benefits of this plant and how it’s worked for me,” she manages to squeeze out between tears. “I feel it’s my moral and ethical obligation to do so.” And she’s doing it with a fierce determination reserved for someone who’s life literally depends on it, the very fierce determination that could save other people the harrowing experiences she has been through. As a matter of fact, her case could be the first case in U.S. history to be accepted for FDA clinical trials, leading to legalization, decriminalization, or, at the very least, reclassifying it from a Schedule 1 drug, which says it has no medicinal benefits, to at least a Schedule 2, that states there is at least currently accepted medical uses in the States. “When we have full legalization, with a tax and regulate business model, the world will see the true benefits of this miraculous plant,” Cheryl expresses. “We will see health improved for millions not only through cannabis medicines, but through the funding of educational programs, mental health programs, support for our veterans suffering from PTSD and other health issues.” Until that point, Cheryl will not slow down. In addition to all her activist work, Cheryl Shuman, along with her business partner Frederic Rhoades, have started a small farm in Northern California, where they grow fully organic medicinal cannabis that they provide through their private non-profit medical marijuana collective, “Shaman Therapeutics.” Also, Kevin Booth, director of Showtime’s wildly popular documentary “American Drug War,” has deemed her story so vital to the movement, he decided to prominently feature Cheryl in the upcoming follow-up, “American Drug Wars II – Fight For Your Life.” “We’re really setting out to expose the professional side and look of this industry, and I think Cheryl is a really good spokesperson for this,” explains Booth. “She’s someone that people will take seriously.” Needless to say, Kush Magazine is absolutely honored to have such a fierce and tireless warrior on their side. “Her work ethic is incredible, and it’s a pleasure to have her affiliated with Kush magazine,” expresses Editor-in-Chief Lisa Selan. “She fills a void that the industry desperately needs; genuine passion mixed with a professionalism seldom seen these days.” “She’s an absolute go-getter and is the perfect bridge between us and the community,” adds Kush CEO Bob Selan. “Cheryl brings extreme value and legitimacy to the movement and her positive and energetic disposition about life, especially considering her own personal experiences, continues to awe and inspire us on a daily basis.” With films such as “Medical Cannabis and Its Impact on Human Health,” and Len Richmond’s “What if Cannabis Cured Cancer,” along with high quality research becoming more readily pursuable and available, the minds (and pockets) of influential medical, political, & culturally influential forces are opening up, all due in no small part to warriors like Cheryl Shuman, who seems to have taken pleasure in leading the charge.

Cheryl and Joe Rogan

Cheryl and Danny Glover

Cheryl and Governor Gary Johnson

Keith Stroup and Cheryl Shuman

Downtown LA is the most exciting district in 2011 Los Angeles. Many attribute this to epic new projects like Staples Center, the Disney Concert Hall and LA Live; but it’s actually been the many cumulative smaller developments that have electrified the city center. In fact, downtown’s population has doubled over the last 10 years. Downtown Los Angeles holds districts within districts. The area is large enough to have several small neighborhoods but small enough to be a tight-knit community. Though the districts have some outlined boundaries, they are effectively smaller subdistricts of the bigger downtown. Whether you’re an architecture student or just one who appreciates the city, there are pockets in Downtown that can only be described as sublime. It’s big enough for countless options, but small enough to be within striking distance at a moment’s notice. So come with me, let’s walk the streets to pay homage to the preservation of historic architecture and to bear witness to an emerging landscape of progressive galleries, bookstores and eateries. Let’s start at City Hall on First and Spring. Seen in countless films, this art deco masterpiece represents early 20th Century pride with its sleek design. On Monday through Friday you can go to the 27th Floor observation tower of City Hall for no charge. The breathtaking view is matched by a marble conference room adorned with photos of mayors past. The area in the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles is the largest collection of Pre-World War two architecture anywhere in America. If San Francisco has her “Painted lady Victorians,” Downtown LA has a plethora of poured concrete queens. City Hall is a block north of the Old Bank District. Spring Street was once called Wall Street of the West and the heart of the financial district. These buildings are all architectural gems in styles like 78 78

Beaux-Arts, Art Deco, Italian Renaissance Revival and Spanish Baroque. Many of the banks between Second and Ninth were designed by City Hall’s architect John Parkinson. Parkinson designed over a dozen buildings on Spring from the turn of the 20th Century until the Second World War. He also did the Memorial Coliseum, Bullocks Wilshire and many other important and iconic LA structures. As a matter of fact, there’s a seemingly forgotten brass plaque at 5th and Spring honoring Parkinson’s contribution to the city. Spring is starting to see a few fashion boutiques, coffee bars and new restaurants pop up and down the row.The Pacific Stock Exchange between Sixth and Seventh on Spring is a grand deco structure from 1930 now used as a supper club, film location and concert space. The Falls is a cozy bar next door to the old Stock Exchange. The Hive Gallery is on Spring between Seventh and Eighth. Along with the graffiti art gallery Crewest on Main and Winston, they are a few of the leading galleries in LA’s emerging Gallery Row. On the monthly art walk every second Thursday hundreds of food trucks come, the galleries open up and the area in the Historic Core turns into a street party with live music, spoken word and swap meet street art for sale. Broadway is perhaps the only street that could match Spring’s stock of historic buildings. “Blade Runner” fans know the Bradbury Building. Biddy Mason Park, just south of the Bradbury, celebrates an early Los Angeles pioneer. Biddy Mason was an AfricanAmerican woman from the 19th Century that has been called “LA’s Mother Theresa.” The Million Dollar Theater on Third and Broadway is the oldest surviving movie palace in the world, built in 1917 by Sid Grauman. The façade of the theater has a decadent arch and ornamented sculpture over the front featuring a dancer, writer, actor, musician, technician and painter representing six critical figures of the entertainment in-

dustry. They don’t build theaters like this anymore, they build shopping malls. Angels Flight is a funicular railway just north of Fourth Street that goes up Bunker Hill. The ride is less than a minute long. It goes from across the street of the Grand Central Market up to the California Plaza courtyard below a pair of 50-story skyscrapers. California Plaza holds great live concerts in the summer. The Museum of Contemporary Art is adjacent. Disney Concert Hall on Grand Avenue’s emerging “Cultural Corridor,” is the newest icon in Downtown. Designed by Frank Gehry the curved steel and titanium panels are sculpted together like a carefully curled rose or decadent cruise ship. The garden on the roof is laced with rare plants and flowers from around the world. Central Library is an art deco masterpiece that ranks with any library in America. With over a dozen eateries between Spring and Flower, Seventh Street is often being referred to as Restaurant Row. Bottega Louie on 7th and Grand is the most well-known with its New York super-restaurant feel.They have a scrumptious bakery, small grocery store and beautiful people. Their weekend brunch gets slammed, so go early if you can. And while you’re there, don’t miss my favorite part of Seventh, the Fine Arts Building on Seventh and Flower. Little Tokyo is centered on First and Second Street just east of City Hall. The few square blocks of Little Tokyo are rich with restaurants, boutiques, galleries, museums, bars, public art and Buddhist Temples. First Street intersects generations, cultures, religions, and periods of architecture in a short distance. One of my favorite Japanese eateries is the humble restaurant “Suehiro,” on First just west of Central. Simple but exceptional Japanese food, they have a big menu covering the Japanese pallet without busting up your wallet. There are many other great restaurants in Little Tokyo and some more trendy, but Suehiro is as dependable as your favorite sneakers.

From there, move onto the Arts District, just southeast of Little Tokyo. A mix of converted warehouse lofts, restaurants, industrial factories (still in operation), rail yards and the Southern California Institute of Architecture, also known as SCI-ARC. The Arts District is aptly named. Some parts of it are more polished and some parts of it are still raw. Traction Avenue has several eateries. There are also other nodes in the Arts District along Mateo and Santa Fe. One final iconic image of downtown Los Angeles is any of the concrete bridges built by Merrill Butler. Everyone has seen these bridges in films like Grease or the Terminator, or for that matter on their own travels around Los Angeles. Butler was the city’s bridge engineer from 1923 to 1961. He built a dozen bridges over the river and each one is unique. The bridges were originally built when the Los Angeles River would flood frequently. In 1938 over 80 people were killed in a flood and this eventually led to the river being placed in its present concrete channel. The Sixth Street Bridge is the longest and many Eastsiders consider it the proper entrance into Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles. Butler left his mark on the city with his collection of bridges. His bridges were built in the City Beautiful Tradition of the early 20th Century when monumental public architecture was used to celebrate the city and uplift the character of its residents. Even in 2011, Butler’s bridges remain timeless like other City Beautiful era structures like the Griffith Observatory and City Hall. And with that I leave you…from one side of the bridge to the other, to explore and attempt to understand the rich history that binds this city and its people together. We may be spread out from Calabasas to Corona, Sherman Oaks to Redondo, but we all sprouted from the same bean fields that now play host to our skyline. Know this.

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Smaller than most cell phones, the IoLite provides a powerful vaporizer with a discreet, funky exterior. The IoLite is available in over nine colors for all of your moods and its lightweight, sleek look goes well with any outfit. Powerful enough for all of your vaporizing needs and rechargeable, the IoLite is a greener alternative to battery operated portable vapes. Weighing in at just under three ounces, the IoLite is a lightweight, sleek, and popular way to get your dose of girly green. The IoLite is produced by Oglesby & Butler Ltd, an Irish company renowned for its gas products, which makes it a great mix of quality and sex appeal. In addition to its good looks, the IoLite also provides friendly customer service through its American and European help-lines. The IoLite promises a full two hours of vaporizing before recharging and upgrades are available, so for those who can afford the price tag the IoLite is the epitome of usability and taste. (Cyree Jarelle Johnson)

Price: Around $14-75 cannafresh.com

With storage containers available for both businesses as well as patients, CannaFresh provides quality glass containers to assure your cannabis will stay fresh. “Our containers will keep your product fresher and more flavorful. We use only the highest quality materials, so when it has to be fresh think CannaFresh™.” With glass jars ranging in size from 4 ounces up to 2.5 gallons, they easily service the needs of both patients as well as dispensaries. CannaFresh also offers unique branding options and customization of jars. This provides store owners the opportunity to brand their shop, create promotions and provide gifts for their patients all with their logo branded onto the jars. CannaFresh also provides custom collections (checking out their Cheech and Chong series is an absolute must!). So for those patients and businesses seeking a great storage option for their product, check out Cannafresh. (Lisa Faye)

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Welcome once again, my faithful floral facilitators! This month I will explore the hows and whys of organic gardening, be it for medicinal cultivation or just rockin’ some killer tomatoes on the back porch. There is no shortage of hype about organics these days- my favorite is the assertion that organic corn makes better ethanol to run your car! (umm no, not exactly…) On the plus side, there is quite a bit of emerging research out there that organic farming, whether on a large or small scale, can be even more productive than we once thought. First, some of the hype; organic farming will save the world through reducing nasty chemicals sprayed on our food supply. Lots of truth to that, but also some hype- after all, just because a substance is organic does not mean that it is automatically safe or nontoxic. Just ask Socrates about his organic hemlock… Also, even organic fertilizers can cause nutrient rich runoff that damages soil and surface water, causes unhealthy algae blooms and poisons groundwater. Hog farmers and cattle feedlot owners, among others, constantly have to deal with this problem. Another hyped idea (by those opposed to organics) is that you can’t treat insect, fungal or microbial infestations organically. NOT true! Turns out there are plenty of organic repellants and pesticides out there including my favorite, pyrethrum sprays. Very effective against spider mites, this spray can be manufactured from plant sources and in fact growing garlic or marigolds (a member of the pyrethrum family) around the perimeter of your garden significantly reduces pests. Now, on to some of the research being done. It turns out that many of those microbes in the soil that people used to either ignore or attempt to eradicate

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are extremely helpful to the process of growing plants in ways science is just beginning to discover. For instance, some microbes are very helpful in assisting nutrient take up through the plant’s root system, in some cases even manufacturing nutrients or breaking down substances into forms the plant can use. Fungi known as micorrhizae actually act as root system extenders to help your plants take up nutrients faster without having to grow more roots themselves. Others eat old, dead roots and thereby allow the plant to regenerate itself, a process that happens continually, even in healthy plants that live 90 days or less… Still more of them assist in buffering the soil or water medium, helping stabilize pH, eating harmful organisms and again, making more nutrients available right where the plant needs them. Who knew? I wholeheartedly encourage you, no matter what your growing situation, to ‘go organic’, not only because of its sustainability and all the above advantages, but also simply because of an idea so obvious I don’t hear people mention it- the fact that these microbes and plants evolved together, symbiotically, and that attempts to enforce a ‘divorce’ lead to reduced productivity, less vigor, and increased susceptibility to infestation and disease. The best advice on what to use for your specific situation can be found wherever organic supplies are sold or on the internet. Remember that the ultimate goal of organics is to create ideal conditions for your plants- AND for the little microbes in your growing medium who are working so hard to help you out! That’s it for this month, so happy growing! As always, any comments or questions can be sent to my email address and I’ll be happy to answer them! indoorcultivationconsulting@gmail.com

Double-dazed and purple-hazed, he had journeyed from the cheap wine and endless row of topless bars that formed a phallic phalanx along the fog drenched streets of San Francisco’s wet dream North Beach...caressed the Golden State’s left coast as though fondling an asphalt breast...whoopin’ and hollerin’ and campin’ and campin’ it up and down on the Pacific shores at Big Sur with love. Then, Death Valley with its shimmer, dunes and mountain hues, purple and copper in color, and then crossed the border into Old Mexico looking for a new life among old Mexicans and even older Indians who held the secrets of peyote. He was already high when he walked into the dusty hot sun baked village, himself as dusty and tired as the old siesta men already asleep against adobe buildings. Holographic mandalas appeared as the mescaline hit he had taken just an hour before began to take effect, causing them to swirl in the air to the strains of a marching band, bold as brass. He marvelled too at the hallucinatory batons that were silver, tossed high, higher than he had ever seen, high into the bosom of the sky by young zen cheerleaders in revealing skirts of catholic plaid. Haiku visions followed him down the streets and into the cantina, visions of poets and hemp happy hipsters spinning out of orbit with a post-beat cadence, swimming and sailing as great Ahab whaling ships in search of a great white whale in a kaleidoscopic sea of murals filled with mermaids. Beastly large frescoes, obscenely obese as magneto generators deep inside the industrial vagina of old Henry the Ford’s not enough eyeliner, yet, too much Rouge Plant, downriver, back home, years back, eons ago, in Detroit. Now he was well beyond home, and far past the exhaust of a creative blaze orange blue-collar sunset. The mescaline massaged him with gentle fingers of hallucination as the dust swirled at his feet as he entered the cantina and ordered a drink. Soon he could see only the dilated vacant alley eye socket stares of the institutional disabled and he could now eavesdrop on those

silent screaming voices in the victim’s head. Victims imprisoned in wheelchairs, straightjackets and hopped up on narco midnight pills while interjecting injections of sweet dreamy morphine. Drug induced circumnavigating their own private Polar Ice Caps, past giant icebergs, round and round the Cape we go, circular explorations they were, easy to negotiate, except for those 90 degree corners of fleeting reality that appeared only as more hallucinations obscuring what they really were. Those recesses, the corners, the 90 degree forks in the road, were illuminated in deep shadow by electric currents, pulsating and twitching in orgasmic release as the tequila he was now drinking in the cantina, had wormed it’s way home to the grand nerve central station, exposing the masks of drunkards with tankards, comedians and dexadrinians. The broken mirror in the men’s room fired back olfactory warning shots over the head and as he ducked he could see the pile of neon lipstick tubes lying in the bottom of an empty William Holden swimming pool, empty except for Holden floating on top with a bullet in his back, on the fading estate of old Sunset Boulevard. The drugs finally shielded him from the visions of bright lights emanating from a very secretive Left Bank French underground, thick with homosexual transsexual mascara that penetrated deep into the bowels of the cabaret underworld of a bereft Berlin. A socialista workers paradise appeared in it’s glitzy place, forewarning of a possible fornication as he sat down on the floor of the bar to watch Tom Joad and the False Maria getting it on, electing eventually to erect monstrous and preposterous monuments to Karl Marx, Frederich Engles and Papa Ooo Mao Mao! The subliminal droning of the Industrial assembly lines hummed a tune that was a delightful color, and as colorfully imposing as Diego Rivera’s blue-collar steel-grey Soviet Stalin hues. I looked around, my head spinning around and then...I stumbled, I tumbled and swore as I fell, face down, ass up onto the cantina’s jukebox floor – passed out and

pissed off in Ciudad de Juarez in 1966. Dreaming drunk, vivid and vibrant, I walked the dog of Chihuahua through the desert of the same name. The desert, now deserted except for techno-color fragrance of nighttime, dreamtime nightshade and bella donna blooms. I could have been snorin’ in Sonora with a senora or senorita or two, dos, passos, pesos, but instead travelled in suspended cartoonic and catatonic animation through fully phallic fields of the cactian cosmos astride a fully loaded, fuel injected heavy metal steely dan saguaro…locked and loaded. I found buttons in the surrounding hillsides, and ate one only to feed a hunger and to quench and squash a thirst. Soon I was assailed by the sounds of laughter and unfamiliar dialects, not chinee but mex me thinks, with the dust swirling like little dustbowl tornados created by little brown feet belonging to the little brown kids of the little brown mestizo village who danced delirious in the dormant dirt of the dusty catholic plaza… Saint San Shit or something or other. A lone tree, stood, still, silent, leafless, but flashed on and off with liquid-light, bright with Robert Johnson hues of blues and the hot reds of deep south negroid rhythms, bumps and grinds, bullfrogs, gators, bayou crickets, and big invisible swampy snakes with blank faces. The mescaline band, mucho mariachis in hand, performed a flaming tight pants’d flamenco with a flamingo of dubious gender on the table, tanked up on too much tequila. Then the trumpets, blaring out festive fiesta fandagos with a serape serenade for sweet scheherazades, with wave after wave of music, like lyrical tsunamis crashing to shore, deep inland and further yet to reach the lagoons and Indonesian caves. In my dream, or someone’s dream, can’t remember now, I stood alone, with all the others, fixed in place fixated on all the empty eye sockets of the other prisoners of Zen, in the Jesuit jail, white stucco’d, caucasion calked and adobe’d, surrounded again like Saturn confined to rings of debris, by anxious urchins, begging, imploring to fill the piñata with more peyote and tequila dreams. I lowered the mache of paper to the dusty ground below, filled it, packed it like a pirates cannon full of shrapnel words, not in any particular or peculiar order of sentence or structure of any kind. Then it was raised by the numerous Pablitos by its frayed rope high above the blindfolded assemblage who couldn’t wait to swing a stick at it like Mussilini hanging upside down in the square like a slab of fascist meat. Sticks swang and swung and swinged, wildly, no hits, no runs, no errors until ol’ Number Seven connected with a direct hit. As the ball flew out of the stadium, words, so many of them, fell from the punctured piñata complete with punctuation, like so many pieces of pretty candy flying out without wings in every direction. It was an explosive array of metaphors, verbs, nouns, some were renowned nouns while others merely unknown nouns. The cascade of the english language fell not to the ground but found sanctuary on the linen pages of a book waiting for them in illiterate alleys, for their very arrival, survival and grammatical revival. The children, the smart ones, not the adults, gathered up the little candy like words together, and together they spent the morning forming sentences and paragraphs until the no-sense finally made sense, mainly socialista mumbo jumbo about a lady named Frida, Che Guevara and the flats of tortilla. Soon the words became sentences, the sentences paragraphs, and soon it was a book, a tome, that I read a little of. Soon in my dream my eyes became heavy with drink and mescaline and I had to rest. I laid the invisible book on the invisible table next me and was glad to sleep. The alcohol and peyote were wearing off as the plaza and the piñata began to fade from view and my reach. Voices disappeared too, decibel by decibel until there was only a loud silence. I had some tea in a cup and it smiled back at me, a weird Cheshire cat got your tongue grin, and then I doubled over and threw up…

Next day…the sun rose in the east as I suppose it feels it has to, that is what we hired it for after all. It warmed my face as I sat up, refreshed in spirit with a hollow stomach. Sitting in the corner, quiet as a saint was the mysterious Doc Yucatan, a haiku hobo of recent acquaintance from Denver. “Damn Doc, I had the weirdest dream last night, or I think it was my dream and not someone else’s. It was one long string of dream beads or shells strung together.” Doc motioned for me to get up as it was time to head out, so we both got up to leave old Mexico after I had splashed rancid brown water on my face and grabbed by backpack by the bedstead. Doc and I walked through the sleepy village and down the sleepy road where even the dogs were to goddamn lazy to bark at us, we lit a joint and walked out into the desert… the Haiku Hobo and the Dharmabum in search of the Peyote Coyote in the kingdom of cactus…

How a guy with his level of respect and success can attribute it to luck rather than undeniable talent, an insanely grueling schedule and work ethic to match, I’ll never understand. But that simple quote just plays testament to his character…full of humility, tenacity, and an unwavering commitment to his craft almost impossible to find in our ADHDay and age. Hell, when I called him, he answered the phone while it was balancing between his shoulder and chin at the same time he was loading up his truck to go to work. Just another day in the life of you and me. Just another day in the life of Sean Daley. As he prepares for the drop of his outfit’s 12th release, “The Family Sign,” the Atmosphere front man, who we all know and have grown to love as Slug, reflects on the evolution of his style, his lexicon, his views, and his psyche in this revealing interview with Kush Magazine. “To me it’s all a matter of continuing to write music and set moods to reflect how I think, how I feel, how I live,” he tells us. And it’s an evolutionary process that may not please all his fans at once, but pleases different age groups in a Darwinian manner…eventually catching up with everyone through the process of maturity. As for the ones that have grown with him, they get it completely, but because of his cross-generational appeal, you still have “a lot of people, when I read the little comments underneath the YouTubes and this and that, who bring up that we should go back to rapping like we did on ‘Overcast,’ the first record. Then we got a couple that are like, ‘nah, go back to (second album) Lucy Ford,’ then there’s the (third album) ‘God Loves Ugly’ crowd. It goes on with each album and I understand why…but I think that it’s like, don’t you get it? The reason I keep changing is to be who I am that year that I made it.” And he doesn’t get angry or irritated, or even bothered, by these comments and criticisms, but rather embraces them…for he knows where they stem from…he knows the truth. “And the truth is, there is not a 39 year old man commenting on YouTube that ‘Overcast is the illest shit.’ The kid that wrote that was between the age of 17-24 and it makes sense that he’s going to connect to those words because he’s going through some of the same shit right now. And I love that!” What he’s essentially telling us is that, just like everything in life, it’s all a matter of perspective, something, in this case, he possesses through circumstance. “I got a teenage son and I see what he’s feeling and it’s more aggressive music than what I listen to,” Slug admits, “but it makes sense…that’s what you’re supposed to be peeping out when you’re younger and figuring out how to fight the world. So I get it, you know?” And that’s why your Lil’ Jons and Romeos will come and go, while Sean Daley and Anthony Davis have been here the whole time. At the beginning of their recent long and productive 14-year day, Sean Daley was just another man with a dream. A dream that he interpreted through his own words, interpretations that have become realities, realities that have culminated in a successful career as one of underground hip-hop’s most formidable, and steadfast, forces. And it all started with a chance meeting with Anthony Davis, or Ant…the man behind the beats. They’ve managed to create their own time zones, their own galaxies, and their own seemingly indestructible orbit…and it all started because of weed. As a matter of fact, if it wasn’t for our beloved plant, Atmosphere may never have even existed.

Well, at least that’s the way we see it.

The way Slug tells it, “Me and (fellow rapper) Musab (then known as Beyond) met through another rapper and it just so happens Musab was an ‘environmentalist.’ Upon realizing that, you have a few choices of who to call, but I’d rather support another rapper, especially if he’s a cool dude, so I started hitting him up and we became good friends. From there he was like ‘I want to do a song with you’ so I went over to his producer’s house and his producer was Anthony.” You would assume, after listening to the pairing’s work over the past decade and a half, that they immediately clicked and the rest was history…but it was a bit more complicated than that. A sort of courtship first had to ensue. “I think that Anthony saw the potential in me, but I don’t think he was necessarily trying to work with me. It was me that was like ‘yo, can I start coming to you for beats?’ Now he might tell the story different because in his heart of hearts he was trying to work with me and it was all a mind game to get me to come over there, but from my perspective, whether or not I was coerced into it, I was gravitating towards his beats.” Once they began spending a bit more time together, they fed off of each other’s incredible work ethic. “Everybody else I knew who was rapping was going to parties and kicking it and chasing ass and doing all this other shit. I was in my mid 20s, had a kid already, and was working a full time job that was manual labor, so I was just like ‘man, my time away from my responsibilities, I’d rather come over here and make songs.’ I think he was attracted to my work ethic as well, so we just started banging out shit, right out the gate. None of it was good, but it didn’t matter, it was all about the art of learning how to make.” And make they did. Since those fateful days almost 15 years ago, it’s been 12 albums, all of which have done nothing other than increase their fan-base and showcase their timeless never-ending talents and abilities, year in and year out, performance after performance, verse after verse, kick after kick. His role as one of the co-founders of Rhymesayers Entertainment (along with Ant, Brent Sayers, and Musab Saad) certainly didn’t hurt things. The label, credited with launching some of underground hip-hop’s most formidable careers, including MF Doom, Brother Ali, and Eyedea & Abilities, continues to thrive, even in this seemingly post-apocalyptic music-business decade. “One half of me wants to stay away from (talking about) that because I don’t want to jinx it…you never really know what’s around the corner. Now there’s the other side of me that’s proud of what I’ve accomplished and wants to say that it’s based off of good people working with each

other towards good goals, and that’s probably the most arrogant thing I’ll say to you…I don’t want to work for assholes. Even if you’re the dopest rapper in the world, if you’re an asshole, I don’t really want to deal with you.” Imagine that…integrity lives and works…even in show business. And as you would imagine, it carries over into “The Family Sign,” out April 12 on Rhymesayers Entertainment. Upon first listen, it’s immediately apparent that we’re in for a much more introspective and almost buddha-esque journey than some of the more aggressive behavior of days and years past. There is a much more sophisticated take, lacking an impending sense of urgency, and replaced with thoughtful, patient, calculated analyzation of the world they live in and the world around them. They’re not recording or releasing this record to impress anyone or prove their skills…they’re long past that. At least for Sean, Slug is doing this one for Slug. “The Family Sign” is Atmosphere all grows up, an embrace of growth and maturity and lack of fear of any retribution for it. And as far as the herb? Is that still playing the part now that it did back in the early days? “Not to say that sometimes it’s not involved in the creative process,” he explains, “but I use it more for after I’m done…for studying the stuff afterwards, looking for the flaws and the holes in the story.” But as a father, recently a husband, and, whether he cares to admit it or not, a full grown role model, he prefaces his answer with a caveat: “It can be limiting for artists too. I know plenty of artists that can’t have it anywhere near them. I’d hate for some 15-year old to be like ‘this is what I gotta do’ and the end result being the 15-year old does nothing but play video games and smoke weed on the couch. It’s different for everybody,” he emphasizes. “Do me a favor…put that disclaimer in there…” Duly noted. Check out “The Family Sign” (April 12/Rhymesayers Entertainment) and rhymesayers.com/atmosphere for tour dates and everything else Atmosphere.

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Kush Concert Calendar

Southern California’s Live Music Preview: Lil’ Wayne

March/April

4.21.11 @ Staples Center (LA Live) 4.23.11 @ Honda Center (Anaheim)

Weezy, baby. In the last 20 years there isn’t a rapper who has made such a miraculous, yet deserved, climb to super-duper stardom. Lil’ Wayne trots into Staples Center in LA and Honda Center in Anaheim for two nights of hip hop that can’t be matched. I’ve personally been lucky enough to see this performance live on several occasions, and would be honored to see the man many many more times. Sorta fresh out of jail, the (only!) 28 year old Dwayne Carter is going to blow minds on April 21st and 23rd. Make sure one of those exploding domes is your own. lilwayne-online.com

Kylie Minogue

5.20.11 @ Hollywood Bowl (Hollywood)

Kylie Minogue comes to LA as one of the first shows of the year at the gorgeous and breathtaking Hollywood Bowl. The Australian pop singer, songwriter, and actress began her career as a child actress on Australian television, but has been focused solely on music since the late 80s. Her 11th and latest studio album, Aphrodite, was released back in July of 2010, with some superb dancey, uplifting songs. Just a rad concert at the bowl to see an international pop icon. Get there! kylie.com

Robert Plant & The Band of Joy

4.23.11 @ Greek Theatre (Hollywood) 4.25.11 @ Santa Barbara Bowl (Santa Barbara)

Robert Plant, the legendary singer and leader of Led Zeppelin, is playing a 12-city North American tour, with SoCal taking the April 23rd and 25th slots. The tour will feature Plant with the ’Band of Joy,’ who are the same diverse group of musicians that appear and play on the album of Plant’s latest project. The new album will be released in late summer or early fall. As Plant puts it: “It’s been a blast working on these new songs… and I’m enjoying such creativity and vitality. It’s been a remarkable change of direction for all of us and as a group we all seem to have developed a new groove.” The album is the first since Raising Sand, the multi-platinum, 6-time Grammy winning collabo with Alison Krauss. It will be exciting to see what Robert Plant has been working on, and this oughtta be a real sweet little preview.robertplant.com

Zion I & The Grouch

4.26.11 @ El Rey Theatre (Wilshire)

Oakland natives, The Grouch and Eligh team up for a night of classic, legendary Cali hip-hop at the El Rey in our beautiful city of Los Angeles. Zion I is the the duo of MC Zumbi + DJ AmpLive; The Grouch is a member of the Livings Legends, the LA based indie rap crew which also includes Murs, Luckyiam, Aesop and many more. Zion I have been busy as always, releasing their latest full-length album Atomic Clock back in November of last year, and followed up with March 22’s Heroes In The Healing Of The Nation, the second collaborative effort with The Grouch, who himself recently released his newest project Three Eyes Off The Time, an album that “aims to free listeners from the daily grind and bring some positivity to the game.” If you like real hip-hop with a positive message, this is your ticket. zionicrew.com; therealgrouch.com

Dengue Fever

4.30.11 @ Detroit Bar (Costa Mesa)

Dengue Fever, the mosquito driven disease also known as break bone fever, is an infectious tropical disease that causes fever, headache, a bad skin rash, muscle pains, and joint pains. Dengue Fever, the band, is a six-member group from Los Angeles who combine Cambodian pop music and lyrics with psychedelic surf rock. While the virus is an ugly, unpleasant beast, the band is quite pleasant... standing at polar opposite ends of the pleasure spectrum. Inspired by a trip to Cambodia, the band does a lot of charitable work for the country and likely named the band such in order to raise awareness. Their lead singer was a famous karaoke singer in Cambodia before being discovered by brothers in the band, Ethan and Zac. A really solid band that you should not miss down in Orange County on this late April night. denguefevermusic.com

Atmosphere

5.05.11 @ Fox Theater (Pomona)

Atmosphere is on the road with their “The Family Tour,” which features Blueprint, Grieves w/ Budo, and some other notable artists. They come to Fox Theater in SoCal on May 5th, and it’s a concert not to miss this month. Atmosphere’s latest album, The Family Sign, released April 12th, includes the two previously released singles ‘Just For Show’ and ‘She’s Enough.’ Although the Minneapolis based guys have been working on a lot of side projects lately, they are still

This Page: Peter Bjorn and John Right From Top: Lil’ Wayne, Dengue Fever, The Kills, Kylie Minogue, Zion | & The Grouch

producing great new hip hop under the Atmosphere name. Working together since 1993, Slug and Ant still bring the heat with a live show that includes live drums, keys, and guitar. Solid hip hop with lyrics that hit you emotionally and really make you think. Should be a fun show.www.facebook.com/atmosphere

Fleet Foxes

5.07.11 @ Hollywood Palladium (Hollywood)

Fleet Foxes, the Seattle based folk band signed to Sub Pop and Bella Union, is one of the better folk rock groups around right now. They rose to prominence in 2008, with the release of their second EP, Sun Giant, and their debut, self-titled full length. Both albums received vast critical praise and, often noted for their use of refined lyrics and smooth vocal harmonies. Self described as “baroque harmonic pop jams,” Fleet Foxes will be around for a while and are worth checking out at the Palladium on this night. fleetfoxes.com

The Kills + Cold Cave

5.13.11 @ The Music Box (Hollywood)

The Kills are a UK rock group composed of American singer Alison Mosshart and British guitarist Jamie Hince (VV & Hotel). Their three albums, Keep On Your Mean Side, No Wow, and Midnight Boom are all full of the same kind of rocking energy you can expect from their live set. Cold Cave is an experimental synth-pop project led by Wesley Eisold in NYC. Eisold sings, writes songs, and basically is Cold Cave, although he obviously collaborates and plays live with others. A solid concert at the Music Box, always a pleasant venue in its own right. thekills.tv; coldcave.tumblr.com

Peter Bjorn and John

5.14.11 @ El Rey Theatre (Wilshire)

Swedish indie-rockers Peter Bjorn, and John - or PB&J - formed in Stockholm in 1999 and have soundtracked a sunny day for millions of people. Best known for getting that damn whistle from 2006s ‘Young Folks’ stuck in your head, the one you’ve probably driven co-workers and friends nuts with, PB&J are as strong as ever. Releasing their latest album, Gimme Some, in March of this year, the band has plenty of new material to fill your ears with sunshine at the El Rey on this Saturday night.peterbjornandjohn.com

More Great Shows! Girl Talk : 3.26.11 @ Hollywood Palladium Metallica + Slayer + Megadeth + Anthrax : 4.23.11 @ Empire Polo Fields Jamaica : 4.23.11 @ Echoplex The Airborne Toxic Event : 4.27.11 @ El Rey Theatre; 4.28.11 @ The Music Box; 4.29.11 @ Ford Amphitheatre Chris Cornell : 5.04.11; 5.05.11 @ Ford Amphitheatre Kesha : 5.06.11 @ Hollywood Palladium Andre Nickatina : 5.06.11 @ City National Grove (Anaheim) Ghostland Observatory : 5.08.11 @ Club Nokia Of Montreal : 5.14.11 @ Avalon Rusko : 5.14.11 @ The Wiltern The Cool Kids : 5.19.11 @ Detroit Bar

GROWERS GROVE

It’s hard to discuss the politics of medical Cannabis without focusing on the issue of money. Who’s making how much? Many theories abound about how lucrative growing pot can be. The truth is that many growers in saturated medical Cannabis markets aren’t making nearly as much as they used to. New growers struggle to compete with older, more established gardens. In part one of this candid look at the price of pot over the last decade, we looked at how the reduction in grower’s margins have led to both a loss of high-quality, longer flowering strains as well as an overall reduction in the quality of Cannabis in many areas. We also looked at how everyone in the emerging Cannabis industry wants in on as much of the grower’s margin as possible. From the hype of the hydroponics industry salesmen to doctors selling overpriced “grow licenses”, there is no end to the number of people circling the grower’s margin like vultures. Even as the rise of closet gardens spike exponentially, large “mega-garden” grows are being planned in many areas. With rising costs, thinning margins and flooded markets already squeezing medium size, “mom-and-pop” gardens, the future of high-quality Cannabis production is suddenly as uncertain as it is promising. A Shifting Economic Landscape The doctors, dispensaries, and hydro salesmen that clamor for the grower’s profits are just some of many examples where the non-growing segment of the Cannabis community has lost sight of what it really takes to grow fine medicine. I could also call out PG&E and everyone else determined to make growing pot the least profitable part of the industry. (GASP!!!) He said the word “profitable”. Yeah, as a side note, there’s absolutely nothing in the current laws that prohibit making a profit on Cannabis. Just so you know. The idea that Cannabis must be non-profit is completely erroneous and is perpetuated by law enforcement agencies eager to keep illegally prosecuting medical Cannabis dispensaries and patients. The claim made by these ignorant task force officials is that pot only costs $500 per pound to produce (WTF are these guys smoking?) and so selling Cannabis for any more than that is illegal, even though there is no legal basis to the belief that medical Cannabis must be non-profit. California law simply states that nothing in the law “condones” profit. Nothing prohibits it either. A crafty wording perhaps, but then again, don’t pharmaceutical companies make hundreds of millions of dollars worth of profit every year? Why can’t growers make an honest living producing quality medicine? 96 96 96

You know what else? Growers should be paid premium market prices. They should make good money on their hard work. There, I said it. When premium Cannabis is differentiated from the rest and the grower is compensated accordingly, the whole community benefits from better quality medicine. Simply put, the good shit costs more in every other industry out there from wine to chocolate to vegetables to cell phones, so why would it be any different for fine Cannabis? Why would basic economic principles magically stop applying to this industry? I guess dispensaries that carry lots of mediocre cheap herb haven’t considered that this is California and there are already millions of discerning pot snobs out there looking for the premium herbs. It’s not like they’re going to suddenly settle for less when there’s this much pot around. They’ll just keep looking for the chronic and their search may well lead them away from dispensaries unless higher quality standards are held and better growers are compensated more. Growers prefer to work with cooperatives and are willing to exchange some margin for a reduction in risk. But unfortunately, Cannabis growing is still fraught with risks, both financial and legal, and some growers have begun to direct their Cannabis elsewhere since their significantly lowered margin hasn’t been proportional to the slight decrease in risk. In fact, there are so many patients around in saturated markets that some growers have simply gone back to selling at concerts or meeting patients at clubs and then working out deals to sell directly to them. At 4/20 events across California, savvy growers and discerning patient consumers are meeting up to arrange better deals on better medicine. Patient to patient sales are legal in California and for people who don’t need regular store hours, the quality of grower direct buds is often superior. The customer gets the best pot again and the grower gets their margin back. Now, when the garden needs new breakers or an A/C unit or a dehumidifier, or an extra light, or a better veg area, the grower can simply invest in their garden and not feel pressured to take the cheap and easy way out. It’s a small effect now, but I see it growing. In fact, it may even become its own industry within an industry especially as municipalities stack heavier and heavier taxes on medical Cannabis or concentrate the market into a handful of dispensaries. They may find themselves unable to compete with the open market (I guess that’s “black market” to some).

(continued on page 98)

For example, I recently heard of a series of Cannabis “speakeasies” opening in Oakland; I can only imagine that they are sprouting up elsewhere as well. Oakland is one of the largest Cannabis markets in the country, but for the last several years, the patients have been limited to only 4 dispensaries in the entire city. Known for being one of the most progressive Cannabis markets, Oakland is less known for how few outlets there are for Cannabis. There was a brief movement to create a grower-direct “farmer’s market” in Oakland, but that idea was shot down. (Although Craigslist is still the online farmers market of Cannabis for those daring enough to try hooking up from internet strangers.) Perhaps the rise of speakeasies was inevitable. Simple economics has created a situation where directto-market Cannabis has arisen in a heavily controlled Cannabis distribution network. Due to a recent California law that reduces possession of less than an ounce from a misdemeanor to an infraction, many people don’t consider their recommendations necessary (I strongly recommend keeping your doctor’s recommendation current. Get one if you do not already have one). Some people who view full legalization as being right around the corner are catering to this crowd. The risks are greater for them, but again, basic economics shows that the extra incentive creates more motivation and someone willing to fill the role of “better pot for less”. Without the burden of taxes or extensive overhead, a higher quality product goes to market and the savings is passed on to grower and consumer alike. Economy of Scale to the Rescue! (Maybe) Last month, Oakland announced plans to open a handful of new dispensaries as well as take a second attempt at licensing a few 50,000 square foot marijuana farms. The idea here is that the economy of scale will allow higher quality products to retail at lower prices. The grim reality is that the larger the commercial grow is, the less outstanding the product is. Unless, of course, the farmer invests heavily in labor and expensive equipment, which then elevates the cost of production and significantly negates the economy of scale. Plus, massive gardens simply don’t have the flexibility to keep up with new market trends. Let me give you an example. I remember when the purple craze hit Oakland hard in 2003. I was managing 300 lights worth of warehouse production for Compassionate Caregivers (CCG), the largest Cannabis Dispensary in California at the time – the notorious “Third floor” in Oakland. When a competing club opened up literally across the street from CCG Oakland and had half a menu of nothing but top shelf purples, they actually managed to pull business away from what was otherwise an unstoppable Cannabis dispensary juggernaut. Simply offering a different color of Cannabis was enough to get the owner to breathe down my neck about the need for more purples. “Slender!” (Jade wasn’t my moniker back then) “How are those purples coming along?’ he kept asking me. I was pretty intimidated by the guy and usually replied something like “They’re coming as fast as possible.” In my mind though, I’d be thinking something like: “Well, let’s see. We got clones of every purple strain 2 weeks ago. We just now took a few clones off each. We flower in a sea of green method. The batch sizes that we plant range from 200 – 1500 clones at a time. Let me get back to you in several months.” And that’s 98 98

just how long it was going to take just to get it planted. Then add flowering time, drying time, trimming time. Let’s just say it’s not an overnight kind of process on that kind of scale. 80 lights can be cut and hung in just a few hours but it would be a long time before the 6 person trim crew that worked 40 hours a week would finish it. The extra margin gained from the economy of scale didn’t mean as much when the otherwise excellent but green medicine suddenly didn’t sell. Small growers with just a few grow lights, however, could immediately respond to the market shift. They could have ordered and raised seeds of purple varieties and still beaten us to market by several months. Back then there weren’t as many 1 and 2 light growers, but today, the hydroponic industry caters to the smaller grower in search of easy to use, plug and play garden fixtures and there are hundreds of thousands of lights scattered across the market in 1 and 2 light increments. This will drastically change the way that the market can respond to new trends. Now when a particular flavor of Kush becomes the only thing people want; it’ll be the mom and pop growers who can immediately get a few cuttings and plant a light with it. Recently, several articles came out regarding high CBD strains. All of a sudden, people were obsessed with finding high CBD strains and weren’t interested in anything else. With so many unique plants yet to be discovered, I have to think that the only constant in the industry will be change. Cannabis consumers love variety and small scale farmers will always be able to respond to trends faster. Now, don’t get me wrong, there can be advantages to the economy of scale up to a certain point. But there are also many self-limiting factors to Cannabis production as well. High grade, hand trimmed, controlled environment sinsemilla is a product that was born into a particular market scale and is largely a result of the scale on which it originally was produced - somewhere between a closet and a house worth of garden. Bud that comes from a larger scale operation than that is typically commercial grade in quality. Smaller gardens receive better care because they are easier to tend and manage. Also, patients who grow where they live are able to monitor and respond to their crops at all hours of the day and night, which is an important advantage for crop management as well. Growing in houses has received a stigma because irresponsible growers have created house fires from poor wiring. While this is a valid concern and should be addressed, I believe this concern is inflated by hysteria. Anything negative associated with pot is an extremely newsworthy story. Less noteworthy are all the occasions when people start fires by leaving their oven on. We’re not out shutting down people’s kitchens and telling them they now have to buy their cookies from one of the 4 commercial kitchens in town. Also, the influx of plug-and-play lights, tents and other growing equipment along with an emerging market of electricians and tradesmen who cater to the Cannabis growing community are greatly reducing the desire by growers to wire something themselves. While it seems easy to simply scale-up the methods that currently exist, there is a more intrinsic connection between superlative Cannabis and the relatively small scale of the home grower. Still don’t believe me? I’ll give you one more example.

It’s common knowledge amongst growers to shake their nutrient containers before mixing the products with water in order to make sure the nutrients haven’t settled in the bottle. Massive warehouses would require 55-gallon drums of fertilizer that have the same problem of settling. Now invent an OSHA approved way to shake your 55-gallon drum before every use. Of course, it’s certainly possible to invent various ways around this problem, but having done it, I’ll tell you that even the simplest aspects of home growing become very complicated on a large scale. You can put a pump in it, but it better not be a magnetic drive or it’ll pull the micronutrient metals like iron out of solution before they’ve even left the barrel. Maybe a propeller? Ok, but it better be made of plastic or non-reactive metal to avoid reacting with the raw fertilizer’s chemical balance. Plus, you have to be very careful how the assembly gets into the drum. Any openings can allow spores into the drum and you’d be surprised the type of organisms that can actually grow in raw fertilizer. Even if they’re not pathogenic to plants, their growth can change the chemistry of the solution. A simple process that becomes a second nature motion for the home grower is now an engineering challenge on a large scale, requiring time, labor and specialized machinery to adapt to it. So, for the “potrepreneurs” (see also: pot profiteers) who want to take an industry based on small-scale, carefully tended varietals of Cannabis and turn it into an industry filled with cheaply made, mega-store shwag, they should consider that it might not be so easy. I think there will be many, many Cannabis consumers like myself that will pay a little more for premium buds grown with TLC than whatever cheaply made offerings are produced by the Costco of Crap. I mean, Walmart sells wine. But if you asked 100 wine drinkers where they buy their wine, I doubt many of them would say Walmart (and the ones that do probably wouldn’t be proud to admit it). Again, growing Cannabis is a skilled trade. You can have all the business degrees in the world, but if you’ve never worked with lumber in your entire life, you can’t just take a weekend class on woodworking and then suddenly pretend you’re a contractor the next week. You definitely shouldn’t sink everything you have into starting a construction business as though you knew what you were doing. - Jade Kine Tune in next month for the third and final installment of ‘The Price of Pot,’ where Jade Kine talks to us about The Green Rush bubble and how to avoid being caught inside it holding a bag of shwag. (Growers Grove writer Jade Kine is a former greenhouse manager for the medical Cannabis industry with over a million plants worth of experience. He is also the founder of CannAcademy, a trade school dedicated solely to horticultural training for growers. Got a grow question for Jade? Drop him a line at JadeKine@gmail.com Complete bio at JadeKine.com)

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Spring is a time when youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find some of the most tender and juicy fruits and vegetables in our markets. To celebrate, I have compiled some great spring recipes for all to enjoy!

To learn more about

Chef Herb cook with herb

go to www.cookwithherb.com

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Strawberry and Spinach Salad

Herbed Fish Wrapped in Lettuce

Ingredients 2 bunches spinach, rinsed and torn into bite-size pieces 4 cups sliced strawberries 1/2 cup THC olive oil 1/4 cup white wine vinegar 1/2 cup white sugar 1/4 teaspoon paprika 2 tablespoons sesame seeds 1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Ingredients: 3 tablespoons THC butter, softened 2 tablespoons chopped mixed fresh tarragon and/or parsley 1 tablespoon chopped shallots 4 6-ounce white fish fillets, such as flounder, sole or tilapia 4 large green or red leaf lettuce leaves, center rib discarded

Directions In a large bowl, toss together the spinach and strawberries. In a medium bowl, whisk together the THC olive oil, vinegar, sugar, paprika, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds. Pour over the spinach and strawberries, and toss to coat.

Mixed Greens with Grapes & Feta Ingredients 1/4 cup THC olive oil 2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste Freshly ground pepper to taste 8 cups mesclun salad greens (5 ounces) 1 head radicchio, thinly sliced 2 cups halved seedless grapes (about 1 pound), preferably red and green 3/4 cup crumbled feta or blue cheese Directions To prepare dressing: Whisk THC olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper in a small bowl (or jar) until blended. To prepare salad: Just before serving, toss greens and radicchio in a large bowl. Drizzle the dressing on top and toss to coat. Divide the salad among 8 plates. Scatter grapes and cheese over each salad; serve immediately.

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Directions Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease a baking sheet and set aside. In a large shallow bowl, mix together the cheese, herbs, and pepper. Dip each chicken wing into the THC butter and then dip into the cheese mixture and roll to coat. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes, then flip over. Bake for an additional 1015 minutes, or until golden.

Garlic Asparagus with Lime Ingredients: 1 teaspoon THC butter 1 tablespoon THC olive oil 1 clove garlic, minced 1 medium shallot, minced 1 bunch fresh asparagus spears, trimmed 1/4 lime, juiced salt and pepper to taste Directions Melt THC butter with THC olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in garlic and shallots, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in asparagus spears; cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Squeeze lime over hot asparagus, and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to serving plate, and garnish with lime wedges.

Spring Garden SautĂŠ Ingredients 2 pound(s) asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces 8 ounce(s) sugar snap peas, strings removed 3 tablespoons THC butter 1 pound(s) radishes, each cut into quarters Salt and pepper 4 tablespoon(s) snipped fresh chives Directions Heat large covered saucepot of salted water to boiling on high. Fill large bowl with ice water; set aside. To saucepot, add asparagus and snap peas; cook 4 minutes. Drain vegetables; cool in bowl of ice water. Drain vegetables well. Meanwhile, in 12-inch skillet, heat THC butter on medium until melted. Add radishes, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; cook 10 minutes or until tender-crisp. Transfer to bowl; keep warm. To same skillet, add asparagus, snap peas, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; cook 5 minutes or until tender-crisp, stirring occasionally. Stir in 2 tablespoons chives. Transfer to serving bowl; arrange radishes around edge. Sprinkle with remaining chives

Walnut Pot Butter Cookies Ingredients 1 pound of THC butter, softened 4 cups of all purpose flour 3/4 cup of powdered sugar 2 tsps of vanilla 2 Tbls of water 1/2 tsp of salt 8 to 12oz of chopped walnuts Extra powdered sugar for dusting

Diabetic Peanut Butter Cookies Ingredients 1/4 cup THC butter, softened 1 cup creamy style peanut butter 1/4 cup egg substitute 2 tablespoons honey 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup Splenda Granular 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt Directions Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat THC butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer until creamy, approximately 1 minute. Add egg substitute, honey and vanilla extract. Beat on high speed for approximately 1 1/2 minutes. Add Splenda and beat on medium speed until well blended, approximately 30 seconds. In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture, beating on low speed until well blended, about 1 1/2 minutes. Mixture may be crumbly. Roll level teaspoons of dough into balls and drop onto a lined sheet pan, about 2 inches apart. Flatten each ball with a fork, pressing a crisscross pattern into each cookie. Bake 7-9 minutes or until light brown around the edges. Cool on wire rack.

Directions Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Using a wooden spoon, mix together the THC butter, flour, powdered sugar, vanilla, water and salt in a large mixing bowl. Mix together until the mixture forms a doughy consistency. If the dough if too sticky to handle just add a little more flour. Add the walnuts. Pinch the dough and roll it in a long shape about the size of your finger. Curve into a crescent shape and place on a buttered cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes. Let the cookies cool before dusting them with powdered sugar.

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