Millia Magazine Issue #002

This April, a trucker passing through Idaho was arrested and charged with possession of 7,000 pounds of marijuana.

Idaho police called it the “biggest drug bust in state history.”

7PVKN VJG[ VGUVGF VJG EQPƂUECVGF ETQR CPF HQWPF VJCV KV YCU legal industrial hemp from a licensed farm in Oregon.

Suddenly, they found themselves with egg on their face, and an angry trucker on their hands.

The trouble is, hemp and marijuana are the same plant, so they’re visually indistinguishable.

They’re impossible to distinguish by smell too; not even by a dog. This has led to a surge in false positives in K-9 checks for marijuana, which can then be disproven only by lengthy and expensive laboratory testing. These tests check the concentration of THC in the material; hemp is classified as under 0.3% THC, whereas marijuana contains just under 20%. Not only is there no accurate roadside test to differentiate between the two, but most town and city police departments don’t have the laboratory facilities to distinguish between them. As a rule, State Investigative Bureaus do have the technical facilities, but lack the resources to conduct this volume of testing on behalf of every municipal government in the state.

The result is that many of these tests simply never happen. Citizens have their legal hemp products confiscated, with little legal recourse, simply because it looks like something you can smoke. Even worse, innocent people are spending weeks in jail because the police can’t prove they haven’t done anything wrong. It’s a guilty-until-proven-innocent scenario, and it can’t be allowed to continue. Incarceration is a traumatizing experience for an individual and a community; in the most nefarious of cases, arresting people for legal hemp could be construed as a way for anti-hemp law enforcement officers to protest the decriminalization of hemp. In any case, preemptively arresting people on the off-chance that they might be breaking the law is not how this whole justice thing is supposed to work.

And it only gets worse. If you’re reading this, you’re likely to be something of an aficionado; that is to say, you wouldn’t believe how much some people don’t know about this sort of thing. Some cops, for instance, don’t even know that legal hemp is a thing. You read that right: they may not realize that a legal manifestation of the cannabis plant even exists. And we all know how understanding cops can be while they’re busting you for something. How likely are they to take your word for it that you’re smoking a legal, low-THC hemp product, when they’ve never even heard of such a thing?

Not very. And at the risk of sounding like the 10th grade English teacher that I was truly born to be, the only solution here is education. First of all, education of law enforcement that legal cannabis products do exist. Second of all, research into how to quickly detect what might be legal hemp, as opposed to illegal marijuana, so that citizens aren’t spending their valuable time fighting erroneous charges. And most importantly, advocacy on behalf of the entire cannabis-using community that marijuana needs to be decriminalized entirely.

Millia page 4

False Positives ARE ONLY

Negative [ WRITTEN BY: BEVERLY MARTIN ]

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FLYIN H TSA VS. LEGAL CANNABIS

Do you live in a state where recreational marijuana is legal?

Good for you.

Would you like to travel to some other location where recreational marijuana is legal? Perhaps within the same state, or to another legal state?

Cool, have fun.

Oh , you want to take your legal weed with you? To another place where it’s also legal?

That could get complicated.

Let’s discuss.

Millia page 8

ING HIGH Despite being legalized in 22 states,

marijuana is still a federally scheduled substance, and the TSA is a federal organization. So they’re not really supposed to be cool about weed. But at the same time, they’re an administrative organization, not a criminal one.

So they can’t actually arrest you on drug charges.

They can call the cops on you, but if you’re not breaking any state laws, the police won’t do much either, besides waste your time. Not like you’re in C JWTT[ VT[KPI VQ ECVEJ C ĆƒKIJV QT CP[VJKPI And depending on how spiteful the TSA agent is feeling that day, they might let you board . . .or not.

6JCVoU CUUWOKPI VJG[ Ć‚PF QWV CDQWV KV According to our sources, that doesn’t usually happen. In most places, the police seem to have given up trying to catch people themselves, in favor of tactics designed to trick people into giving themselves away. Airports in Colorado employ so-called “Amnesty Boxes,â€? offering travelers a last chance to ditch their pot before VJG[ DQCTF 6JG HCEV VJCV KVoU CEVWCNN[ NGICN VQ Ćƒ[ with marijuana within the state is not mentioned.

These boxes accumulate everything from pre-rolls to gummies, often in a half-concealed state, as though their owner intended to carry them on board but chickened out at the sight of the stern signs and imposing security checkpoints. Similarly, on the Nebraska side of the Colorado-Nebraska DQTFGT [QWoNN Ć‚PF NQVU QH UKIPU UC[KPI “Drug Sniffing Dogs In Use,â€? but you’re not likely to Ć‚PF OCP[ FTWI UPKHĆ‚PI FQIU +PUVGCF UVCVG troopers are standing by, watching for people to DTGCM VTCHĆ‚E NCYU KP VJGKT JCUVG VQ FKURQUG QH potentially incriminating evidence.

That’s the kind of thing you’d expect from cops.

Of course, some cannabis companies have realized that the more you throw away, the sooner

you have to buy more. For that reason, some cannabis companies are allying themselves with the feds. One cannabis company has taken out ad space in the security area of the LA airport, not for their products, but for a sign that reads:

CANNABIS IS LEGAL Traveling with it is not.

Leave it in California.

The fact that cannabis products are legal to travel with in-state is barely implied. The fact that this campaign presents medical marijuana patients with the ultimatum of choosing between their medications or their travel plans is not implied at all.

So what’s to be done?

Unfortunately, if your cannabis products are medically critical for you, the safest bet is just to stay home. I know. It’s garbage. You don’t deserve to be quarantined within one state just because of the medicine you take, but that’s the state of the legislation in our country right now.

However, for recreational users, or for medical WUGTU YJQ ECP CHHQTF VQ TKUM KV Ćƒ[KPI EQWNF DG worth a try. In-state travel is totally legal, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Even on KPVGTUVCVG ĆƒKIJVU VJG KPEQPUKUVGPE[ QH HGFGTCN XU state legislation on the subject means you might get lucky. Then again, you might also get held up KP UGEWTKV[ CPF OKUU [QWT ĆƒKIJV QT JCXG [QWT OCVGTKCNU EQPĆ‚UECVGF 9JKEJ CICKP KU ICTDCIG The law isn’t supposed to be a dice roll, but seeing as our federal legislators can’t seem toget their act together, it’s up to us to fend for ourselves.

[ WRITTEN BY: BEVERLY MARTIN ] Millia page 9

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After some time doing research and development, they landed on the perfect solution, and Shine Papers was born.

Millia page 17

"Shine, the gold papers, are an incredible product, that's our crown jewel, that's always going to be the thing that lets us open some unique doors. But ultimately, it is a product that people, not all but most, use in a celebratory way. And so it's a Friday night, it's a Saturday night, it's a birthday party, it's a wedding."

But in all of that R&D, they discovered one thing that really sets the product apart.

PHOTO CREDIT: Shine Papers

And it’s not just the gold.

While the gold certainly puts the product over the top, the quality begins with the papers themselves. Thus, two new products came forth: Pure Leaf, which is hand-selected precut broadleaf tobacco, and Blaze, which is the same paper that they use in the Shine papers, but without the gold.

"What PureLeaf does, and Blaze papers does as well, is give us an opportunity to interact with our fans Monday through Thursday, and give them products that are very high quality, and still stay within our family of products."

While the success of the company is booming now, it's been a bit of an uphill battle.

"Retailers were a little bit skeptical of the product, but we knew we had something because online sales were right. And it was a big credibility statement for them, getting them over the fear. Because this is an industry that you do see a lot of you see a lot of product innovation and invention. But there's only a small percentage of it that actually sticks and is sustainable.

The biggest challenge was, at the beginning, overcoming the objections of people being very used to products failing in this industry, while also giving them extremely obvious reasons why we would fail. They thought the price was insane, and they were concerned about the health. Of course we are too, we don't want to hurt people."

So how did they get past the walls of skepticism? Well, they went to the people.

"We had to spend a lot of time engaging with customers online, in the comments, explaining it from a health perspective, here's what we're looking at the actual science behind how the paper works, you're not actually inhaling the gold, you're not actually burning it, because the temperature that your paper gets to when you're burning, it is nowhere near the temperature where gold actually burns. We're all educated on that."

And the price? Well, it seems people don’t mind paying for some extra shine in their lives.

"It was very interesting to watch us start at that place where 70% of the comments were negative. And six months later, it was maybe down to 20%. And now, nobody says anything about either of those issues."

In the process of talking with the customers and potential customers directly, Shine built up a community of support. Even if gold papers aren't your scene, they’re clearly here to stay with a number of innovative products.

"People just trust the brand now. They know that it's going to be high quality, they know that it's going to be innovative in some aspect, and now they're a part of the tribe."

Pure Leaf and Blaze papers are an exciting addition to the repertoire, and they're already selling fast around the world.

If you'd like to join the Shine tribe, check for them at your local retailer, or at shinerollingpapers.com.

Millia page 19

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Mysterious Ways: Where Marijuana Meets Faith An Interview With Anne Louise Pass {WRITTEN BY BEVERLY MARTIN}

There’s a lot of preachers in the world. And there are lots of marijuana lobbyists.

But there aren’t many people who are both.

So when I met Anne Louise Pass, the Methodist minister-to-be whose disabled siblings have inspired her to spend the last 7 years advocating in favor of medical cannabis in Alabama, I had a lot of questions. As we sat down, we noticed the table before us had left a religious tract on the table in lieu of a tip. She groaned and hid it in her purse, DQG IURP WKDW PRPHQW , NQHZ ZH ZRXOG JHW DORQJ MXVW Æ“QH 6WLOO WKH URDG IURP FDQQDELV DGYRFDF\ LQ $ODEDPD WR Millia page 21 Duke Divinity school is quite a journey, and I needed to know how it all came together.

So tell me about your work as a medical marijuana advocate. What kind of organization were you working through?

I didn’t work through an organization actually; I have two younger siblings, seven and three years old, with seizure disorders. They both have cerebral palsy. We put them on an army of medications that basically kept them sedated all the time and weren’t really doing much to control the seizures, [my brother] was still having maybe ten, twenty a day.

And so my mom started looking into alternatives, just kinda researching. I didn’t know much about it, in fact, I distinctly remember in high school writing an essay against medical marijuana. Because I didn’t know anything about it! And my family was super conservative at the time, and we tried a whole slew of things, like essential oils, which seemed to maybe bring him out of it a little bit faster. Restrictive diets, like the ketogenic diet is one people use to control seizures, but it didn’t really do much for him. But we just got really desperate because his medications were so interfering with his quality of life, and that was right around the time there was the documentary called Charlotte’s Web by Sanjay Gupta, telling the story of a group of brothers who were treating a little girl named Charlotte in Colorado with CBD oil. And my mom saw it and thought “this is not something I ever thought would be a possibility for my family, but it’s working.”And my brother, for about four years of his life, he didn’t smile or laugh, at all. We lost his laugh. And so like I said, we were desperate, and so my mom started researching and realizing there was so much potential for this as a treatment. We got connected with other families whose kids had seizure disorders or other kinds of disabilities who would benefit from it. There was a guy, he was a small-town cop, and he had a daughter with a seizure disorder, and he started drafting what became known as Carly’s Law, after his daughter. The intention initially was to decriminalize medical cannabis. It kinda morphed into trying to having more restrictions, so it wouldn’t legalize it, but it would provide an affirmative defense if you were caught with it you couldn’t be prosecuted. So this whole community of special needs families just kinda came together and stormed the capitol building. I lived really close to Montgomery, so my family went down there a lot to meet with politicians. We brought my brother in there so that if they were gonna say no, they would have to say no to our faces. And largely what we were encountering was a lack of education, no understanding, like most of the politicians were openly hostile because “ooh, marijuana, it’s bad,” plus like, Alabama, big red state. Really really really big red state, and it was coming close to election year, too. So that was really disheartening, because that was the first time I realized that politicians...I don’t wanna say they don’t care, but really they were saying something like “yeah, I don’t really know much about this so I’m just gonna vote no, because I don’t really know, and I’d rather maintain the status quo if I don’t have a chance to make sure that what I’m voting for isn’t harmful.” And I’m like, that’s your job! That’s literally your job! It’s really not that hard! I get that legislation can be complex, but this is a big deal.

And what year was this?

So this whole community of special needs families just kinda came together and stormed the capitol building.

This was 2012 or 2013. It was my last year in high school. So I started going with my family to meet with politicians, and when they started actually debating and voting, families from all over the state came and brought their kids and just like, wheeled their wheelchairs up and down the hallways. We just had ten or twelve families in their faces. There were moms who brought gallon ziploc bags with their kids’ medicine in it, and just sit it on their desk and say “this is what I am giving to my child. Come on.” And it wore them down. The legislation changed; they debated and debated and debated, so what they ended up doing was voting unanimously for Carly’s Law in its much-abridged state, which was that they were gonna start a study at UAB to start investigating whether it had medical benefit.

Specifically CBD, I think what they used was similar to Epidiolex, if I’m not mistaken, but we didn’t know much about what they were gonna use, we just knew it was gonna be there.

[The study] was supposed to not be capped; it was supposed to be open to whoever could benefit. Once they actually started doing it, they capped it at fifty adults and fifty kids, and so a lot of the families that fought for it in the first place weren’t sure that they were even gonna be able to be a part of it. And so one mom in particular started drafting her own legislation, too, I think again with Mike Ball, and that again was either passed unanimously or I think with one dissenting vote, a year after Carly’s Law was passed. It was intentionally written very broadly, if you have a debilitating condition, mine is anxiety, then you can use medical cannabis as long as it’s under 3% THC. How you get it is kinda [unclear].

Thankfully what I use to treat my anxiety falls within federal regulations, it’s under .3% THC, so I can get it shipped to me, and the company that I use markets it as a botanical oil and not like a cannabis product so I can get it shipped and it’s legal and I can use it wherever, so I’m lucky. There are families that have had to move, still, because it’s still federally illegal, so you get into drug trafficking laws and stuff like that. So definitely a long way to go, but it’s baby steps because it is Alabama. I think a lot of the politicians had this idea that most of the people who were advocating for medical cannabis were people who were like “I have a headache� but really just wanting to smoke it, and had this very specific idea and stereotype of who supported it, and here you were with all of these middle-aged parents of special needs kids.

My mom’s an interpreter for the deaf, my dad’s a missionary, he was a youth minister for seventeen years, they’re the most vanilla people you can imagine. And here they are, begging to have an alternative option to treat their kids. So I think that shook a lot of the stereotypes and I think that’s largely why it was so successful. Obviously a lot still needs to happen, there are baby steps being taken. My family has continued to advocate a lot. Our federal representative, Martha Roby, we had been trying to get meetings with her for a long time because she’s been very openly opposing any federal rescheduling of cannabis, and my mom saw her in the grocery store and actually stood in between her and the bathroom and was like “Hey, I’ve been trying to meet with you!� and got a meeting. My mom’s a force, she really is. So we met with her in DC, and she said a similar thing to what we’ve been hearing, which is that “I don’t really know that much about it, and I don’t really feel okay voting for something we don’t know much about, and there’s not a lot of research done on it so we need to do more research,� which, that in and of itself shows a lack of education, because there is research! You haven’t read it! And the limitations on the research are there because it’s federally a Schedule I drug, and only recently have people been able to do any kind of controlled clinical trial in areas where it is legal. So at the time I was deciding whether I wanted to do a thesis to graduate with full honors from the honor’s college at Auburn. So I came out of that and messaged my thesis advisor and said “can I do a case study on cannabis?� and I did, and that was my response to [Rep. Roby], like “oh there’s not enough research? Cool, I’m gonna go do some. Cuz this happens to be my field.� So I did my undergraduate research thesis on cannabis and its effects on epilepsy and I ran a case study and I ran the stats. I’m actually working on trying to publish it right now. I’ve found mostly with politicians, at the federal level even more so than the state level, there’s a lack of willingness to learn. And part of it, with [Alabama] politicians in particular, there’s so much tension within their own party right now, they really don’t wanna shake things up. This last election was a fight for that particular representative because she had spoken out against some of the things that Trump had done, and that alienated a lot of her conservative supporters. That I think has been the biggest barrier, is that there’s so many complex motivations when it comes to the people who actually have the power to do something. It’ll take some time.

But we’re making some progress!

“Oh, there’s not enough research? Cool, I’m gonna go do UQOG %W\ VJKU JCRRGPU VQ DG O[ Ć‚GNF q 5Q + FKF O[ undergraduate research thesis on cannabis and its effects on epilepsy and I ran a case study and I ran the stats.

5Q VQ ENCTKH[ [QWoTG CNUQ C OGFKECN WUGT [QWTUGNH! It’s funny because I grew up in a really conservative family, or at least we were conservative for a long time. That was kinda the time when we started switching, or just being more thoughtful about what we believed. And it was always a joke; my nickname in high school was “Saint Louise,� and suddenly I became the weed person!

And I’ve never used it in like a recreational way, because I’ve never lived in a place where it was legal to, and I’ve never wanted to. THC is not great for anxiety if you get too much of it, so I try to steer away from anything with too much THC in it. What I use is a 10-to-1 CBD-to-THC ratio, I use it in an oil that goes under my tongue. And especially because part of the success of the advocacy that we’ve done has been because it’s very grassroots and family-oriented, and it would kinda ruin that if I went

off and started getting involved in illegal usage of it. So no, I’ve never used it, but I know a lot about its chemical composition!

So you’re concerned that if you used it recreationally that it would cast aspersions on your goals?

Yeah, I’m not really in a position where I could use it recreationally. I don’t think it would be good for me personally, because of what I use it for. But it does make for a good joke about the future preacher who does weed advocacy! I’ve preached a sermon on it before, no joke. I was talking about the tendency for people to dig their heels into a certain frame of mind and stay there. Specifically, I was talking about politics, but the scripture I was working on was about the tendency to worship human traditions over God, and how harmful that can be. So I talked a lot about how my family had felt very called towards adopting my siblings, and this seemed to be the way that God was providing for us to take care of them. And had we dug our heels in, so to speak, we would not have been able to care for them in the ways that we have. My brother was on four different really heavy pharmaceuticals. He can shake off a Klonopin like nothing, he has such a high tolerance to it. But now we have his laugh back. He’s happy and he’s much more aware, much more able to interact with people, and thriving in a way that he wasn’t. He has maybe one seizure a week now. He was having twenty a week, on all those different medications, and now he’s just using cannabis oil. Now granted that’s really high quality, and it’s medical grade, and we know exactly what’s in it. CBD products are so common now, there are good things and bad things to it not being super regulated. If you’re gonna use it to treat seizures, you have to be really careful of the quality product you’re getting. But it’s made a huge difference for him, and for my sister too. She’s three now, and she started having seizures about a year ago, and we started her on the CBD oil. She takes the same thing that I do, the ten-to-one CBD-to-THC ratio, and she has almost no seizures now.

...the documentary called Charlotte’s Web by Sanjay Gupta, telling the story of a group of brothers who were treating a little girl named Charlotte in Colorado with CBD oil. And my mom saw it and thought “this is not something + GXGT VJQWIJV YQWNF DG C RQUUKDKNKV[ HQT O[ HCOKN[ DWV KVoU YQTMKPI q Charlotte, pictured left 5Q VGNN OG YJCV [QWoTG JQRKPI HQT VJG HWVWTG YJCV FQ VJG PGZV Ć‚XG [GCTU NQQM NKMG HQT [QW! I’m trying to get my cannabis study published right now, that’s the immediate thing. That’s gonna take a while because of publication processes and peer reviews and those kinds of things. I would like, ideally, to be able to use that when I talk to politicians about furthering the use of medical cannabis. Ideally, I’d love it if we could just reschedule it entirely! But that’s not gonna happen in the near future. But we can take baby steps. One of the things I’m really frustrated with right now with the legislation, that I would really like to see change, and that I will try to work on talking to politicians about, is CBD’s becoming so mainstream that people are starting to have not quite such a stigma about it in political realms. So like, the FDA approved Epidiolex, which is really cool. But CBD’s not the only cannabinoid out there, and it’s not the only useful cannabinoid out there, and it’s not the only cannabinoid out there that isn’t harmful. All of the cannabinoids are useful in how you use them, like THC-A is really useful for treating seizures. THC is really useful for treating pain; you have to know how they work, but again, the research is so limited right now, and most of the research that’s being done is being done on CBD. Epidiolex is a CBD isolate, which doesn’t work as well in treating medical conditions as a whole-plant product does, because of something called the entourage effect, where all the cannabinoids tend to work better together than they do separately. But people get scared of THC. So they say “oh, if THC’s the harmful stuff, well THC bad! CBD good! Let’s do just CBD, we don’t need any kind of legislation change, because that’s all legal!â€? Which also isn’t entirely true, because the law is so grey that people think CBD is legal everywhere. Functionally it kinda is, because more people aren’t gonna arrest you for it, but a couple of months ago there was a grandmother who brought her CBD oil into Disney World, and she got arrested for it, because it’s not legal there. Somebody had told her that CBD was legal everywhere, and it’s not. So there’s so much misinformation, and this line of thinking that CBD is the only good thing, and it’s legal, means that people are kinda resting on their laurels and not doing anything, when in actuality the

legislation is still really vague and it gets people into trouble. You also have all these other useful parts of the plant, and all these other useful chemicals that tend to work better together, and they’re not being researched. So I would really like to see at least a rescheduling of cannabis as a whole, to open up the possibility of doing research and being able to understand it better. I would love for people to see cannabis advocacy as the civil rights issue that it is, because again there’s the stereotype that it’s all hippies wanting to have fun, where really it’s a healthcare issue. I know a family in Georgia with a little girl who had serious seizures that were life-threatening and she died before there was a chance to even try cannabis oil for her. Your zip code should not determine your quality of healthcare, but it does. My family can’t up and move to Colorado. Partly because our life is in Alabama, but also because of the altitude, it messes with my siblings, they’re not used to it. Their medicine isn’t covered by insurance, and we’re lucky that we can afford to take care of them, but people from low-income families are much more likely to have misinformation, less likely to be able to afford it, they’re not gonna be able to afford to move somewhere. Even beyond that, it has consequences for the opioid crisis. My grandfather has chronic neck pain; he was prescribed a fentanyl patch at the highest dosage you could get prescribed, and he’s been able to switch to only using a cannabis product and it’s doing a better job controlling his pain than the patch ever was. Part of the reason we have the opioid crisis is we prescribe it and people get addicted to it and it doesn’t actually do the job that it needs to all the time. If we could replace it with plant-based oil that does a better job, we’d have a much easier time keeping people safe! It has consequences for mass incarceration! All the people from low income areas, mostly people of color who are being arrested, I mean. The joke is that if you’re white you don’t get arrested for weed, and unfortunately it’s kinda true. It even has consequences for border security, and all of these drug cartels that people are so freaked out about, if cannabis was legalized they wouldn’t have the same kind of market. It has so many areas that it touches on. Maybe this is wishful thinking on my part, but I think if people could see it as an actual issue that affects peoples’ lives, then I think you would see more of a push towards change. I’m going back to Alabama after I graduate to work, probably in prison ministry. Ideally I would really love to work with the Equal Justice Initiative.

Tell me about that, what kind of organization is that?

Have you heard of the book Just Mercy, by Brian Stevenson? He’s a lawyer who works with death row inmates, mostly.

The Equal Justice Initiative does a lot of advocacy work for justice system reform, and I would love to work with them and see if that would provide an avenue to kinda connect some of my thoughts to actual action, because that’s kinda hard to do, particularly when you’re in grad school. But my hope is that I’ll continue to do advocacy work on the side, and eventually go back and get a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and focus on this kind of research.

So how does all of this tie into your religious career?

That’s something I’m still kinda figuring out, to be honest. One of my big problems in life is, I feel like I have about fifteen different passions, and trying to pin them all together is really hard. Weirdly enough, cannabis advocacy is probably the closest I have to marrying them all, because I’m so interested in healthcare and mental health specifically, since my background is in psychology. I’m getting a concentration in prison ministry right now, I’m big into prison reform. And that can be lots of different things; it can be justice reform. I will probably work as a chaplain in a prison at some point. Right now, the methodist church has two tracks for ordination: deacon, and elder. An elder is exactly what you’d think of as a traditional pastor, whereas deacons work in a much more flexible setting and that’s what I’m going for. Deacons are supposed to be focused on compassion and justice more so that preaching and administering sacraments. Deacons typically work outside of the church in the nonprofit sector, to be able to connect the community to the church but also to make the church aware of what’s going on in the community. And ideally that functions in a way where deacons can say “this is what’s going on, you guys need to pay attention.” That lends itself much more to advocacy work than being on staff as a pastor in a church. I don’t know what nonprofit I’ll work at, but in order to be fully ordained, I have to finish my Master’s of Divinity, go back and work for a few years as a provisional member, and then apply for ordination. So probably what I will do is go back and work in either a prison as a chaplain, or with a nonprofit that does advocacy work, like EJI. I’ll feel out what kind of role cannabis advocacy will take in that time, I’m not exactly sure. But like I said, I do feel like my passions are kinda all over the place, and I’m trying to find something that can unite all of these things, because this is something that’s really close to my heart. My siblings are my whole life. They are my best friends, they are my whole heart. My little sister, she lights up like a Christmas tree when she sees her family, and she’s so freakin’ cute. And my brother is such a teddy bear; he loves to love. They have changed everything about who I am, everything about the way that I see the world: the way that I vote, the way that I see my faith. They’ve taught me more about who God is than anyone I can think of, and I wouldn’t have them in the same kind of capacity that I do if it wasn’t for cannabis.

Millia page 25

Create something beautiful with us.

WWW.MILLIAMAGAZINE.COM

Banking on Dank Earlier this month, the federal regulators of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) announced that credit unions will not be punished solely for working with a marijuana business. What

this means is that credit unions in states where medical, and/or recreational marijuana is legal can

Ć“QDOO\ DFFHSW FDVK GHSRVLWV IURP GLVSHQVDULHV $V long as the credit union sleeps with one eye open.

Though members of the NCUA have publicly stated that they support the rise of the growing marijuana industry, there are still other federal

agencies that perceive the plant as nothing but

criminal. Chairman of the NCUA, Rodney Hood, has expressed that a lot of uncertainty in banks receiving money from marijuana businesses could

be dismissed if Congress simply descheduled

marijuana. In fact, Hood has been involved in presenting the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which involves

actions such as decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act, expunge

prior

requiring

federal

marijuana-related

courts

to

convictions,

allowing prior offenders to request expungement

of their criminal records, and imposing a 5% sales tax

on

marijuana

and

marijuana

products.

Good news:

This bill has already beenintroduced to Congress.

Bad news:

The bill hasn’t been touched since it was introduced to Congress on 12/13/2018

Why is national bank support such a big deal to the marijuana industry?

Well, without a bank or credit union backing a business, a business cannot set up a credit or debit account. This means that all digital transactions must be carried out through a third

party system (no thank you “convenience” fees) or that the

business only accepts cash. As annoying as those hurdles seems, they also inadvertently support a much more serious threat:

dispensary robberies It has been proven that legalizing

Congress, it has become a gamble to

away from the black market. And it’s

a credit union could support (and

marijuana takes power and money

no secret that marijuana dispensaries have to have large sums of cash on

hand to meet the demands of their everyday, legal transactions. Because of this, dispensaries have become a

target to many robberies. Some have even resulted in the deaths

of employees, security guards, and

customers. With credit unions given

the blind eye by some federal agencies and static silence by

invest in dispensaries. On one hand, SURƓW RII D OXFUDWLYH EXVLQHVV 2Q the other hand, they could have all of

that money seized, depending on

which federal agency looks at their

transactions through a microscope.

“It’s a business decision for the credit unions if they want to take the

deposits,” Hood told the Credit Union Times. If you were the head of a credit

union, which would you choose?

Dr. KEA Millia page 29

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Millia page 31

color remediation tek?

Basically, it is the process of running actively suspended resins through filter mediums to capture color pigments. written by: My goal is to explain the process rather than condone or condemn it. Really what is happening here is that manufacturers have found a way to make darker, less-commercially-viable product a clearer appearance, sometimes even water-clear, which gives the appearance of a higher quality product. This is done by taking darker (usually trim) runs while the resins are still suspended in the solvent during extraction and pushing them through a series of filter mediums in a cartridge to remediate or remove color.

The cartridges can be filled with a number of different filter mediums but most commonly Silica 60, Magsil, and T5 clay are layered and packed. These cartridges are then fit in line into the extraction system. There are a few variations in technique and types of chemicals used, like buchner funnels and columns. As the extract passes through the filters, each medium pulls different pigments from the material, resulting in a much clearer final product.

There are some concerns. I have seen some testing of the filter mediums after they have been used, and it seems they are filtering more than color. Apparently, THC and other cannabinoids are being filtered out as well. The other concern is, if the silicas aren’t filtered properly, they could end up in the final product and that is bad news. Silicates are not good to inhale at all. Most commercially available cartridges have sintered discs that keep the silicates out so really the biggest concern is the home grown scientist rigging up something unsafe.

Color can indicate a number of things, from the quality of the initial material to the maturity of the resin glands. Color can be a good thing; knowing your product and how it was handled, grown, extracted, and produced is always a great thing.

Millia page 33

What has CBD done for your pet lately? pet cbd Testimonials

Millia page 34

DUCKIE We got Duckie when she was a couple years old. We don’t know what happened to her before the shelter, but it clearly wasn't good.

She’s so sweet, but she’s afraid of everything, and always seems worried. She gets separation anxiety, she pees when she’s startled, she whines when you're doing housework, she even shows obvious avoidance behavior when there's heated discussion on television. We later had kids; she worries when they cry. She's afraid of hard floors, loud noises, everything. She’s getting older now and is experiencing some arthritis, and honestly, that's what sparked the idea to try CBD. We thought it would help with her stiffness, and it did. But more importantly, she relaxed for what seemed like the first time in years. Now she can hang out on the couch with us during a thunderstorm. It’s amazing!

gravy I've had dogs my whole life; Gravy is by far the dumbest. She’s always getting into some ridiculous predicament. If something can go wrong, Gravy will find it. She's the reason we have to lock our pantry and kitchen trash can. We keep the yard pretty well secured, but not because we’re worried about her getting lost. No— the few times she’s gotten loose, she just comes and sits on the front porch. But if something else gets in the yard, she's going for it. Doesn't matter what it is. Bird, squirrel, or even ants. That's right, ants. She’s gotten injured so many times chasing other animals, I don’t know why I was surprised to find her covered in (and trying to fight) an entire fire ant army. What's this got to do with CBD? Well, once she gets injured or stung or whatever, she always ends up with stitches or medication or something from the vet, and I use CBD to help keep her calm enough to not rip her stitches. The fire ant stings made her MISERABLE. To make matters worse, she was already recovering from a different injury that had left her with stitches in her ear. She was scratching so bad she couldn't sit still, we worried that her previous stitches might come open. CBD did the trick, taking the edge off the inflammation enough that she could sleep. I was finally able to relax too!

We always keep some in the "Emergency Gravy Cabinet."

oscar When Oscar was a puppy, he was hit by a truck and nearly died. He had to be revived three times before he was stable.

He's grown up to be an amazing dog without many issues since then, other than anxiety. He's terrified any time he hears a car, or when one drives down our street.

Whenever there's a storm, he starts to shake, and will try to hide under whatever he can. He used to destroy whatever room he was in because of his anxiety. We've tried a lot of things to calm him down, ranging from thunder jackets, or vet-prescribed medicine. None of it really worked as well as we'd hoped; he would end up ripping through a thunder jacket after one or two storms, and he just wasn't himself on the medicine. Needless to say, it got expensive fast. I heard about CBD helping anxious dogs, and decided to try it out, since nothing else was really working. I got him some CBD-infused dog treats and started giving them to him

CHUBBZ

before we went on walks, or if I knew it was

Chubbz loves his CBD! It helps

supposed to rain. At first I wasn't sure if it

him to not be so anxious when

was really helping, but I stuck with it. Within

we have friends and visitors

a couple of weeks, for the first time in his

over to the house!

adult life, he was able to stay calm during storms. He stopped hiding and wasn't trembling. He just went about his day and wasn't acting terrified! When we went on walks, he wouldn't rip my arm off trying to run from cars. I was so happy to see him not dealing with the fear and anxiety he had for so long. I've kept up with the dog treats ever since. I can honestly say that CBD gave my fur-baby his life back.

ZORAH Zorah is a 3 year old chihuahua American Eskimo cross. She came into my life when her mom was rescued from Texas and her owners, and my then-coworkers, received her and discovered she was pregnant! On August 2, 2016, Zorah and her 4 other siblings were born. She was the smallest. They didn’t think she would live that night, so they nursed her and prayed. At 12 weeks old, she was strong enough to start her life with me and become my therapy dog. She was diagnosed young

ryder Patricia Shepherd is a well known in the AKC pug breeding community. She has built a reputation around her advocacy for the breed, not only by maintaining a high standard of excellence in her own dogs, but also by helping to maintain that standard for the breed as a whole in her work as president of the Greater Atlanta Pug Club.

Pat has another dog, though, who didn't come from such a careful upbringing.

Ryder is a fun loving and somewhat rambunctious mixed-breed rescue dog. His friendly disposition makes him a perfect big buddy for all of the little dogs in the pack. Unfortunately, he has trouble with his blood sugar. Whenever it dipped too low, the poor pup would even get seizures! Pat heard about the benefits of CBD and decided to try some for her ailing pooch.

She says she saw improvements immediately. Along with closely monitoring his diet, Pat now gives Ryder broad-spectrum CBD as part of his routine, and has seen significant improvement in his health and mood.

with underdeveloped lung functions, and the vet said she’d struggle to breathe from time to time, but that it wouldn’t affect her quality of life. After meeting my (now) husband, Brent, he insisted we try. We got the first bottle for dogs under 10 pounds and started giving it to her at breakfast with her food. Within days we had a heat wave, and heat is her biggest breathing issue. So we were able to see firsthand what CBD could offer her almost right away! It was surface of the sun hot in New Hampshire for 3 days and not once in that time did she even wheeze! I’m so glad to not have to settle for less anymore! It increased the amount of time my little buddy could keep me company outside on projects, and gave her what I think are the first easy breaths she’s ever taken.

SPROCKET is a 4 year old pitbull-mastiff mix with hip dysplasia, which often makes it difficult to stand up from a sitting position. Since we started him on a daily CBD regimen, Sprocket is back to playing hard and jumping high!

HAIRLESS HAVEN CATTERY Brandy Cobb from Hairless Heaven Cattery states that many sphynx cats have skin and digestive issues that could benefit from supplementation of CBD products. For more images of her adorable naked babies, search Hairless Heaven on Facebook or Instagram!

ONLY THE BEST CBD PRODUCTS FOR YOU AND YOUR HUMANS GALAXYLABS.CO

Millia page 41

Starting a business is one thing; building a team is another.

Sitting down to interview Ron Manela, the owner of the newly formed Vangarde Group LLC, it’s immediately apparent what his priorities are. With him, everything is “we”; in 2019, it’s heartwarming to see a business owner who’s so focused on developing the talents and contributions of everyone on his team. The trouble is, it’s almost impossible to tell where his team ends! Because not only has he pulled in a massive amount of talent to launch the various brands that will fall under the Vangarde umbrella, but his focus extends to other non-affiliated brands, and even to the most casual of consumer. You get the sense, talking to him, that while he’s passionate about his business, his ultimate goal is building up the culture. As he says himself, “we look at ourselves as a group of individuals who sit on the forefront of advancement of the cannabis industry, as well as in the social change that’s going on right now.” This guy is an idealist with a plan, and he was good enough to sit down with us and go over every detail.

Millia page 42

So, Ron!

(KTUV VJKPIU ƂTUV what’s your favorite slang term for

marijuana?

I had a great conversation about this with my close friend and business partner and one of the favorite slang terms that resonated with all of us was “chronic�. It reminded us of the first transition of California Cannabis in the 90s when you had these stereotypical bricks of weed or bags of things that looked like grass trimmings then all of a sudden these beautiful nugs and trees hit and we’re commonly referred to as “Chronic�. The potency, the smell, the overall aesthetic was elevated. It set the table for what high quality Cannabis looks like today.

Millia page 43

9JCV ƂTUV FTGY [QW VQ VJG ECPPCDKU KPFWUVT[!

It’s always been around, since I was younger, and I don’t mean that in a parental sense! I just mean growing up in LA, in California, it’s always been part of the social group I grew up with...and I was never really able to use it, prior to this I was in the executive banking industry for seventeen years, heavily regulated, heavily tested, it was really frowned upon. But having played sports a lot growing up, suffering injuries, normal medication is always pain meds. So after my early retirement from banking about four years ago, it has really opened the door wide open into trying this medicinally full force. And so, ever since then, it’s been four years, and it’s like wow, I’ve never had to go back to any sort of pain meds, ever. And that really was the saving grace for me, to be honest.

5Q VJGP YJCV KPURKTGF [QW VQ UVCTV 8CPICTFG )TQWR! Well, there was a really close parallel to what we were trying to do in the vape industry. seven years ago I launched a company on the vape industry side that created e-liquid, and really saw benefits of people quitting smoking and moving to that alternative. Being able to see what creating a company and a product that’s able to move you from one form or function to another one that’s healthier, can do...so we married the two with a group of people that we’ve known for quite some time, great growers, great people and said ‘hey, I think there’s some synergy here that we can put together, put a good foot forward in terms of trying to bring this industry out of the shadows.

Now, I hear you grow your plants KP DQVJ KPFQQT CPF QWVFQQT HCEKNKVKGU 9JCV OCFG [QW FGEKFG VQ IQ YKVJ VJKU FQWDNG RTQPIGF CRRTQCEJ! It’s always been around, since I was younger, and I don’t mean that in a parental sense! I just mean growing up in LA, in California, it’s always been part of the social group I grew up with...and I was never really able to use it, prior to this I was in the executive banking industry for seventeen years, heavily regulated, heavily tested, it was really frowned upon. But having played sports a lot growing up, suffering injuries, normal medication is always pain meds. So after my early retirement from banking about four years ago, it has really opened the door wide open into trying this medicinally full force. And so, ever since then, it’s been four years, and it’s like wow, I’ve never had to go back to any sort of pain meds, ever. And that really was the saving grace for me, to be honest.

Millia page 45

So that brings up another question, YJKEJ KU VJCV HQT C UWEJ C PGY EQORCP[ [QW IW[U RTQXKFG CP KPETGFKDN[ YKFG TCPIG QH FKHHGTGPV RTQFWEVU 9JCV FTQXG [QW VQ ETGCVG UWEJ C DTQCF QHHGTKPI! Haha, and we’re probably gonna launch even more by the time this article comes out! Because we’re literally gonna touch on every aspect that we’re able to do in the cannabis industry. Every point in delivery is our target; we already know how to do flower production really well, we already know how to do oil production really well, but we’ve got partners that are great edible makers, and I don’t mean just taking candy and sprinkling on THC or CBD. I mean, they’re making edibles and chocolates from the bean, and getting to really good thresholds, and almost zero tolerances for outside THC content. Those are the people that we’ve been able to meet and incorporate into our group over the last year. The more talent you bring in, the more innovative products that you’re able to do, the more delivery systems that you’re able to provide, you’re just benefitting the consumers all the way around.

Because it’s really about fit! What fits for one person isn’t gonna fit for another. We’ve got a really big demographic of people who are like ‘I only smoke flowers,’ and then you’ve got a lot of newcomers who are like ‘I really just wanna try this from the oil perspective,’ and there’s a lot of people now who just want edibles, or lotions, or oils, or creams...it’s not about fitting people into a mold, it’s about fitting products into what people need for their lifestyle.

5Q QP VJCV PQVG YJCVoU [QWT RGTUQPCN RTGHGTTGF OQFG QH EQPUWORVKQP! I personally, especially as of late because of travelling a lot throughout the state and being able to use it on the go, really like the pod systems, especially the ones that we’re coming out with, haha! It’s just an easier fit for the lifestyle that I’m in right now. But then again, nothing beats a good bowl packed, or a good bong rip, if you’ve got the equipment, you’ve got the free time, to be able to really enjoy it? Absolutely nothing beats a good fresh bong rip.

What’s your PERSONAL HCXQTKVG GFKDNG! I’m sad to say this, but one of my favorite brands we used to get all the time, made these watermelon slices, these gummies that were just so easy to take, and were really effective and potent to the proper extent...sometimes edibles are hit-or-miss, and we’ve seen a lot of misses, some that aren’t dosed properly, some that aren’t effective at all, some that the effect comes on like three hours later, those surprise ones aren’t the ones that you want, you want standardization. But these watermelon slices were consistent, they were really good and the effect was consistent every single time we got it, and now they’re no longer around! So I’m like ‘great, now we have to make something!’ Which is fine for us, but it’s also nice to be able to support other brands at the same time. And that’s the weird thing too right now, is you have a lot of brands that are coming and going and I really figure it’s got a lot to do with licensing. So keeping up with who’s producing what, what it’s called now, is just a lot.

What can you tell me about the new dispensary you’re RNCPPKPI VQ QRGP KP . # !

Yeah, we’re gonna have our flagship in L.A. and we’re in a position to get that up and running before the end of the year or right after the turn of the year. And the great thing is, the group that we have in place for our dispensaries, we really want a professional, welcoming environment. That’s what a lot of dispensaries have done really well...it’s no longer hiding in a hole in the wall. What you’re stepping into is a reflection of how we grow. It’s all about transparency for me, for our group. It’s really, open up the lifestyle, show that it’s not bad, show that you’re welcome. The biggest thing for us is customer service; there’s no judgement, no snootiness, we will not tolerate that at all. Now that everyone’s able to do it recreationally in California, you’re gonna have a million questions! And that’s what we want!

Whoever comes in the door, come in and ask questions!

Millia page 47

Tell me about your

ARTISAN LINES,

UQOG QH VJCV VCNGPV [QWoTG DTKPIKPI KP To me that’s the key to any operation; that whole artisan spin is what made me decide to go into it. When we first started out, we really paid attention to how people are growing. Kindof their processes, how they take care of it, but more importantly, can they go to scale? It’s one thing to grow in small locations and take care of five or six plants, but can you do that on thousands of plants? What does it take? What type of technology, what type of people do you need to have in place? And that’s where the growers really come into play, and that’s where the artisans really come into play, because they set the backbone for everything that’s gone out. They’re the ones who are crossing genetics, they’re looking for different types of strains, that’s what good growers are looking for, and then finding out whether we can take that to scale, to make sure that all of the thousands of plants that we’re putting out are all of the best quality. And it’s been quite a marvel to see...this is not about just coming in and growing for us, it’s: what do YOU want to create? What’s your masterpiece? This product that you’re putting out is a reflection of you. And you’re gonna see that, you’re really gonna let the caliber of the grower show through.

Millia page 49

9JCV CTG [QWT NQPI VGTO JQRGU HQT 8CPICTFG IQKPI HQTYCTF! That artisan spin is really gonna build a niche for itself, and I think it already has, seeing ‘hey, these are different crosses and strains’ where you’re used to hearing just ‘oh, I’d like some OG kush,’ or jack herer, and those have been staples and classics for quite some time and we’re gonna continue to the produce those, especially under our Legends line. But there’s gonna be the Exotic line coming out, and there’s new ones, Apple Fritters and all these other different ones, Wedding Cake’s probably one of my favorites these days, those ones are just amazing...and that really comes down to the genetics and what the grower is able to do.

So what Vangarde’s trying to do is produce all of the different products, all the way from seed to shelf, and every aspect in between. So what we’re gonna launch right off the bat is our Legends brand, which pays homage to the classic strains which we know everyone takes en masse, it’s their favorites, a lot of the classic strains that people really gravitate towards. We really wanna pay our respects to where this industry’s been, not just where it’s going. And that’s what the Legends line is gonna do, and that’s also gonna allow us to introduce the exotics line under our Pure Fyre brand as well as our pod system.

Shortly thereafter we’re gonna be releasing our Med-x line, and that’s gonna be tailored more towards the high-CBD medicinal properties. So we’re gonna have a lot of high CBD concentrates, and that’s where the edibles and tinctures will probably fall as well. And as soon as we launch all of the dispensaries, we’ll add that to the branding and the marketing and the release.

Vangarde has plans to open dispensaries in LA before the end of the year, with hopes to expand shortly thereafter in Northern California, Texas and the east coast.

Be sure to check them out if you see them crop up in a location near you!

Millia page 50

SETTING NEW STANDARDS FOR

Medicinal Cannabis Extracts

TERROIR Our world possesses a wealth of diverse microclimates.

This geography has given heritage cannabis farmers the opportunity to breed cultivars specific to their unique location. Some cultivars have been bred for hot dry environments and will express different phenotypes while others thrive in cooler moist coastal environments.

By encouraging certain genetics unique to their location, cultivators have been able to offer a wide range of highly unique cannabis products that all have a story to tell.

SOIL COMPOSITION Soil composition makes a large impact on how a plant grows and what characteristics the final product will have. Native soil has a rich microbiome that creates terroir. Manufactured soil is less likely to be as diverse and may contain synthetic nutrients.

SUNLIGHT EXPOSURE The source of sunlight that a plant receives will make an impact on its phenotype. Easterly exposed plants for instance receive more red light due to the light spectrum of sunlight at dawn. Gardens located on a hillside, therefore, may exhibit different traits than a cultivation site that is on flat ground

HUMIDITY LEVELS The surrounding humidity makes a great difference in the phenotype of a plant. Some varietals are bred to thrive in humid, coastal environments, whereas others prefer more arid settings. Generally speaking, there is an ideal humidity level that plants thrive in, but stressing them by changing this factor could have interesting and unpredictable results.

“TERRE” FRENCH FOR “EARTH” The etymology of the word “terroir” gives us some insight into the term. Just like other agricultural products, cannabis is changed by the qualities of the earth where it is grown. There may be even more qualities that we have yet to discover. Note the origin of your cannabis and the resulting experience, what do you prefer?

PHENOTYPE The unique characteristics expressed in a plant of the same genetics. Like brothers and sisters, plants can have similar genetics and express widely different traits.

“OF THE EARTH” Terroir is the term to describe the unique characteristics imparted on a plant due to the unique location where it was cultivated.

HUMIDITY, BUD ROT & “LARFY BUD”

PLANT GENETICS

Buds that grow densely packed together may be more susceptible to mold or powdery mildew. Alternately, bud that is spaced out is known as “larfy.” Although this term carries a negative connotation, this type of bud structure is more amiable to humid environments.

Perhaps the most crucial factor that determines a plant’s phenotype is its lineage.

Due to decades of cross breeding, cannabis varietals can have an extensive range of unique characteristics. This is also the reason why the large majority of cannabis plants are “hybrids.” Very few true landrace varietals are cultivated.

FULL SUNLIGHT & TERPENE CONTENT

MICROBE POPULATIONS & SOIL COMPOSITION

Preliminary research has shown that full-spectrum light increases terpene production in cannabis plants.

Terpenes are the chemical compounds that are present in the trichomes of the cannabis plant and many other plants with distinct smells, like lavender!

There is a complex relationship that exists between a plants’ root systems and microbes in the soil. We are just beginning to understand this relationship but microbes can impact plant’s nutrient uptake which in turn impacts plant growth rate and development.

© 2019 Goldleaf Ltd., All Right Reserved Content created in collaboration with Farmhouse Artisan Market & Haiikuu Design More information available at goldleaf.org

Millia page 53

D U WHY WRITTEN BY: DR. KEA

Millia page 54

Operating a vehicle

is a privilege, not a right.

Though less than 69% of the population can legally drive, there are more than 225 million licensed drivers in the United States. It may not come as a surprise that accidents (unintentional injuries) are the 3rd leading cause of death for Americans. According to the NHTSA, around 1.5 million people are arrested in any given year for driving under VJG KPƃWGPEG QH CNEQJQN CPF QT QVJGT FTWIU That averages out to about 1 in every 150 licensed drivers receiving a DUI each year.

What’s worse, is that those numbers only refer to the drivers that have consumed a drug, driven, and then were caught.

Imagine how many do it and get away with it.

I’m not here to argue which drugs are worse to have in your system while driving.

I admit that some drugs are more debilitating than others. Yet, the key principle remains: any drug that hinders brain activity and reaction time puts a driver and anyone else on or near the road in an elevated state of danger. Alcohol is

the number one substance known to increase the risk of vehicle operation impairment. Since alcohol is also the most studied and reported recreational substance, cannabis studies often use alcohol as a reference when trying to better understand what exactly smoking pot does to the mind of a driver. Doctors from the study The Effect Of Cannabis Compared With Alcohol On Driving concluded that “driving and simulator studies show that detrimental effects [from marijuana consumption] vary in a dose-related fashion, and are more pronounced with highly automatic driving functions, but more complex tasks that require conscious control are less affected, which is the opposite pattern from that seen with alcohol. Because of both this and an increased awareness that they are impaired, marijuana smokers tend to compensate effectively for their impairment by utilizing a variety of behavioral strategies such as driving more slowly, passing less, and leaving more space between themselves and cars in front of them.”

As the adage goes:

RUN

drunk drivers stop signs

stoners wait for them to turn to turn green

Despite its implication on the driver, marijuana is the most common drug reported in DUI arrests in California. The number of cases are only growing. The number of DUI drug cases reviewed by the LA County District Attorney’s QHĆ‚EG JCU OQTG VJCP VTKRNGF DGVYGGP VJG [GCTU 2017 and 2018, and being on the receiving end of a DUI is no joyride. Vehicle Code 23152(f) states: “It is unlawful for a person who is under VJG KPĆƒWGPEG QH CP[ FTWI VQ FTKXG C XGJKENG q Resulting arrests and convictions for DUI are the same regardless of the substance the driver may have taken. This is another instance of marijuana being lumped in the same class of drugs like heroin, peyote, and LSD in the eyes of the government.

In California, penalties for a first DUI can include: r # ƂPG • Mandatory attendance of DUI school for 3-9 months • 6-10 months license suspension; which can be converted to a restricted license • 3 to 5 years of DUI probation • Up to 6 months in jail

Millia page 56

DUI’s are meant to be traumatic enough that the recipient will never want to drive under the KPĆƒWGPEG CICKP 9JKEJ UQWPFU ITGCV KP VJGQT[ but as more and more Californians are discovering, DUI’s can be issued for marijuana GXGP KH [QW CTGPoV CEVWCNN[ WPFGT VJG KPĆƒWGPEG

As previously mentioned, alcohol is the primary substance in when it comes to PGICVKXGN[ KPƃWGPEKPI FTKXGTU #NN UVCVGU and territories of the U.S. have agreed upon the established legal intoxication NGXGN QH 2CVTQN QHƂEGTU KP GXGT[ division of law enforcement are trained to identify signs of alcohol intoxication and JQY VQ RGTHQTO RCTCNNGN ƂGNF UQDTKGV[ VGUVU They are also adequately equipped to RTQXKFG PQPKPXCUKXG CPF UEKGPVKƂECNN[ accurate ways to measure levels of alcohol in the body through handheld breathalyzers. This is not the case when it comes to law enforcement and marijuana.

For a substance that is still federally viewed as a Schedule 1 Drug, marijuana and cannabis laws in states where recreational usage is legal, understate law, are quite divisive. There is no universally accepted level of how much THC (the psychoactive component of marijuana) results in a debilitating intoxication. There is no uniformly accepted way of measuring how much THC is in the driver’s bloodstream at the time a driver is stopped. There aren’t even consistent ways QH RGTHQTOKPI ƂGNF UQDTKGV[ VGUVU HQT marijuana intoxication amongst adjacent counties, nor different law enforcement agencies policing in the same state.

Let’s get

scientific real quick...

Millia page 57

Numerous studies have calculated the peak plasma concentrations of delta VGVTCJ[FTQECPPCDKPQN Î&#x; A6*% QT LWUV THC) from smoking a single cannabis cigarette can be achieved in less than 10 minutes. In contrast, peak plasma concentrations from oral ingestion can arise anywhere from 1-5 hours after consuming an edible cannabis product.

Meaning that when a person is most NKMGN[ VQ DG WPFGT VJG KPĆƒWGPEG QH 6*% greatly depends on when and how they consumed cannabis. Once cannabinoids (THC and CBD) are introduced into the bloodstream, they quickly dissipate in the blood plasma, and are rapidly absorbed into fatty tissues and into organs like the brain and muscles.

Though cannabinoids are quickly removed from the bloodstream, they are also slowly released back into the circulation by normal biological processes. However, when the cannabinoids are reintroduced to the blood, they are now at such small concentrations that they no longer have any noticeable effects. Meaning, a person can have evidence of THC in their

sleep tight

blood, but they are no longer getting high from it. Now let's take a look at JCNH NKXGU p*CNH NKHGq KU VJG UEKGPVKĆ‚E VGTO used to describe the time required for a quantity to reduce to half of its initial value. i.e. how long it takes for something to be reduced by 50%.

Because cannabinoids trickle back into the blood at such a slow rate, the half-life for THC in the body is disproportionately extended in comparison to the onset of its peak concentration. The half-life of THC for an infrequent user is around 1.3 days, and for frequent users, half-lives can vary anywhere between 5-13 days. In biological sciences, we say that it takes 5 half lives for a drug to be considered completely eliminated (5 x the half life = complete clearance of a drug). However, that calculation is only effective if a person only consumes cannabis once until the byproducts are completely eliminated. Studies have shown that THC can be detectable in one’s plasma 2-7 days after a person has smoked just one marijuana cigarette.

tell me: who do you know

that only smokes

Millia page 58

1 joint a week?

I present this information to you,

fellow stoner, not to scare you but to inform you.

I also bring it up to show just how asinine the current law enforcement policies and procedures are in regards to DUI’s involving marijuana. On the street and in clinics, the most common way for testing if a person has cannabinoids in their body is by examining their DNQQF UCNKXC CPF QT WTKPG $NQQF TGOCKPU VJG forensic standard to measure intoxication in %CNKHQTPKC DWV QP VJG ƂGNF KV OC[ VCMG CU NQPI CU VYQ JQWTU CHVGT C VTCHƂE UVQR VQ IGV C FTKXGToU blood drawn. Not to mention the ethical FGDCVGU VJCV ECP CTKUG HTQO CP QHƂEGT demanding someone’s blood. Unfortunately, a positive blood test only indicates the presence of THC in the blood. It gives no evidence of intoxication, when a person last consumed cannabis, how much they consumed, nor implies an inability to operate a vehicle. The same is true for urine and saliva tests.

Thankfully, to be convicted of a DUI, the police and prosecutor must prove that a driver was under the influence at the time of arrest . But to be arrested on

UWURKEKQP QH FTKXKPI WPFGT VJG KPĆƒWGPEG CNN CP QHĆ‚EGT JCU VQ FQ KU UVCVG UQOG UQTV QH QDLGEVKXG evidence, such as the smell of marijuana, and form the opinion that the driver is under the KPĆƒWGPEG 2QNKEG OC[ QT OC[ PQV WUG GSWKROGPV to check whether or not a driver has marijuana byproducts in their body. The San Diego police have been using a drug-detecting device called the Dräger DrugTest 5000 during DUI checkpoints since early 2017. A study published in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology found these exact detectors “did not absolutely correctly identify DUID (driving under the KPĆƒWGPEG QH FTWIU QHHGPFGTU FWG VQ HCKTN[ NCTIG proportions of false-positive or false-negative results compared to drug concentrations in blood.â€? The California Highway Patrol does not use these devices. The Los Angeles Police Department did, but are no longer using them KP VJG Ć‚GNF

Millia page 59

Most DUI arrests begin when a driver is pulled over after EQOOKVVKPI C VTCHƂE XKQNCVKQP 6JGUG XKQNCVKQPU CTG QHVGP used as evidence to imply the driver was impaired while driving. In reality, that time a driver rolled through a stop sign or was caught speeding, they could have been completely sober, yet still happen to have traces of THC in their body. In other instances, there may not need to be any evidence of impaired driving at all. A driver may also be stopped for an equipment violation, such as a cracked windshield or faulty brake light, or randomly stopped as part of a DUI checkpoint operation. In these instances it is literally just a matter of opinion. The police’s opinion.

The lack of a uniform screening, established protocol, and objective intoxication standards opens the door for innumerable unnecessary arrests, fear-driven plea deals, CPF ECP GXGP EQPVTKDWVG VQ TCEKCN RTQĆ‚NKPI FWTKPI XGJKENG stops. A driver can be arrested for suspicion of driving WPFGT VJG KPĆƒWGPEG CPF CU C TGUWNV ECP URGPF VKOG KP LCKN before ever appearing in court. “As a black man in America, I think that’s a no-brainer,â€? states Virgil Grant, a cannabis entrepreneur. “If we left everything up to law enforcement in our community, we would be getting locked up at even more alarming rates.â€?

He is not alone in that sentiment.

Millia page 60

SHADES OF

People of Color in the Cannabis Industry [ WRITTEN BY: BEVERLY MARTIN ]

When I moved into my sophomore dorm, I received a note from the University warning me to be careful with how I hung my posters, because there was asbestos in the walls. The building was over a hundred years old; they didn’t know it was dangerous back then. I was eighteen and didn’t know much about it either, but I had grown up listening to those commercials: if you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma as a result of CUDGUVQU GZRQUWTG ECNN VJG NCY QHĆ‚EGU QHe CPF PQY VJGTG + YCU expected to live in it, with no prior warning, no alternatives, and no advice besides “be careful with the walls.â€? And I was careful.

Was I careful enough? Probably. Hopefully. Without waiting 30 years to see if I get mesothelioma, it’s hard to know.

Millia page 62

That’s how racism is in America. It’s in the walls. It was built into the structure hundreds of years ago.

You have nowhere else to go. You have nothing to do but hope you can be careful enough. If you get hurt, everyone will remind you that you have no one to blame but yourself. After all, you got the note just like everyone else. Don’t touch the walls.

And marijuana? Marijuana’s a big fat scratchy thumbtack.

People of color are astronomically more likely to be incarcerated for marijuana-related charges than their white cohort. Studies suggest that black and latino defendants are four times more likely to be sentenced to prison than white defendants for the same marijuana possession charges. None of this should surprise you; this has been the case since the launch of the war on drugs in the ‘70s, which spawned from the Jim Crow era, which arose as a means of maintaining racial oppression after the downfall of slavery.

This is all history 101; it’s not pretty, but it’s not surprising.

What’s surprising is that, now that marijuana has been legalized in 22 states, POCs in those states are reluctant to participate in the industry. Studies show that less than 5% of dispensaries in the US are owned by minorities, with less than 1% being Black Americans. Then again, maybe it’s not so surprising that after generations of being told to be careful, they’re still suspicious of the potentially toxic aspects of the structure they’ve been trapped in for hundreds of years. After all, “legal” doesn’t mean “welcome.” How can we expect people to start productive small businesses when running the same business one state over would cost them hard time?

That’s not a rhetorical question: there are lots of potential solutions on offer.

0QY KVoU LWUV C OCVVGT QH ƂPFKPI QPG VJCV YQTMU Groups like the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA) have emerged, seeks to address the structural barriers impeding progress by liaising with politicians and other businesses, using a holistic approach that advocates for ƂPCPEKCN GSWKV[ KPKVKCVKXGU /CUUCEJWUGVVU JCU NCWPEJGF QPG UWEJ 5QEKCN 'SWKV[ 2TQITCO D[ CNN accounts a well-designed system that aims to help minority entrepreneurs access the resources and services they need to start their enterprises. It provides both licensing and ownership opportunities, as well as professional careers with management and potentially executive trajectories. It offers training and trade jobs to those with transferable skills, and entrepreneurship paths for inventors. There are even provisions for those reentering the workforce after incarceration, who may have little in the way of pertinent experience. Individual towns within the state were allowed freedom to apply the law as PGGFGF VQ DGUV UGTXG VJGKT WPKSWG RQRWNCVKQPU 6JG VQYP QH 5QOGTXKNNG KUUWGF C TGSWKTGOGPV VJCV half of all licenses must be given to people of color. And yet, they haven’t been seeing the enrollment numbers they had anticipated. #EVKXKUVU CUUGTV VJCV GSWKV[ RTQITCOU ECPPQV DG built upon a foundation of injustice. As long as the government continues to disproportionately victimize POCs, POCs will continue to be wary of the government. As

long as people are beaten and jailed, they will continue tobe afraid. It’s not hard to understand.

Millia page 64

0GXGTVJGNGUU FGURKVG VJGUG Ć‚PCPEKCN CPF psychological obstacles, there are some business people of color making strides forward in the legal cannabis industry. Perhaps there are not as many as might be desired, but their relative scarcity renders them all the more important to the industry as a whole. If we want the cannabis KPFWUVT[ VQ TGĆƒGEV VJG FKXGTUKV[ QH VJKU PCVKQP CPF we do) we must continue to foster the minority-owned businesses that have been established, and promote further initiatives to drive further minority-owned growth. But more importantly, we must continue to advocate for the federal descheduling of marijuana. We must demand that marijuana charges be expunged from the records of all those who are burdened by a criminal record as a result of something that should not be considered a crime. We must release all prisoners being held solely on marijuana charges. And

most importantly, we absolutely must end the double standard whereby people of color are subject to arrest on marijuana charges that are transparently ignored for white people.

We cannot let people go on living in fear of what the government might do to them for exercising their rights.

Millia page 65

Millia page 68

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-Boss, Lady, and Selena own Cheryl Mandel, Creative Director

-Astrid owns Beverly Martin, Executive Editor

-Doctor and Miss Potts own Ashley Scarbrough, Lead Designer

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-Biscuit, Crumble, Meatball, Panda, and Layla own the Smiths: R.D. Smith, Publisher & Tracy Smith, Managing Editor

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