EDITOR NOTE

THE ENLIGHTENED VOICE

WES ABNEY

CONTRIBUTORS Michael Consalo Features Boom Media Photos Tom Bowers Features Steve Elliott National News Aniyah Lee Photography Brandon Palma Illustration Bria Price Features Meghan Ridley Editing Pacer Stacktrain Features Laurie & Bruce Wolf Recipes PUBLISHER WES ABNEY | founder & editor-in-chief Wes@nwleaf.com 206-235-6721

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Daniel bermaN | photography & design daniel@bermanphotos.com

STATE DIRECTOR AND ADVERTISING

joshua stahle | ADVERTISING SALES Josh@AKLeaf.com | 907-317-2536

We do not sell stories or coverage. We are happy to offer design services and guidance on promoting your company’s recreational, commercial or industrial Cannabis product or upcoming event. We are targeted and independent Cannabis journalism. Email or call to discuss advertising.

Editor ’ s Note

Thanks for picking up this special issue of Alaska Leaf!

Our Concentrates Issue is my favorite of the year for one simple reason: I love dabs! 11

My first dab was around 2011 - in the century old boiler room below the now closed Northern Cross Collective Gardens in Bellingham, Washington. I remember feeling the oil touch the red hot nail as the vapor burst into my lungs with the force of a thousand bong hits. The world closed in around me and I felt the reverberation of raw THC as it pulsed through my LOOK CLOSELY AND YOU’LL SEE THAT CONCENTRATES blood and into my mind, sending me away for the next few hours - humming with a high that was unlike anything else. COVER EVERY ASPECT OF CANNABIS

ABOUT THE COVER Concentrates have come a long way and we wanted to showcase just how big of an impact the extract market has, with our 2nd annual Concentrates Issue cover. We tapped longtime Leaf contributor and frequent cover artist Brandon Palma for this beautiful and inspiring cover piece that makes us want to get right into it and heat up our torch.

ILLUSTRATION by BRANDON PALMA for Leaf Nation | @8thDayCreate

Exclusive Cannabis Journalism

Over the last decade of publishing and working in Cannabis, I have personally seen the concentrate world evolve from homemade Rick Simpson Oil and open-blasted butane hash oil, to highly medicinal mono-cannabinoid extracts and vaporizable concentrates of all kinds, to being the precursor to a new world of edibles, topicals, capsules and more. For our Concentrates Issue we sought out the best examples of the different types of extractions, to share how they affect the body and the science behind the scenes.

Concentrating Cannabis means exactly what it sounds like: taking a full plant and using a process or solvent to extract the purest essence of it. This makes it incredibly important to only consume high quality, pesticide tested concentrates. Quality concentrates have the ability to impart healing values that Cannabis flower alone cannot replicate, delivering a pure flavor and experience that captures the taste and effect of fresh Cannabis in a perfect dab. Look closely and you’ll see that concentrates cover every aspect of Cannabis - every product beyond flower - from medical to recreational uses and benefits.

NORTHWEST LEAF / OREGON LEAF / ALASKA LEAF / MARYLAND LEAF / CALIFORNIA LEAF Our comprehensive Concentrates Issue covers the different extraction CONNECT WITH THE LEAF methods, terminology, ways to consume and much more. So take a dab, flip through this beautiful and informational issue, and learn something new that you can share with someone in need of Cannabis @NWLEAF | @NWLEAF @NWLEAF ISSUU.COM/NWLEAF - as a plant and a medicine. And as always, thanks for reading and FREE ONLINE ARCHIVE sharing the Leaf! -Wes Abney JUly 2020 Correction | Our June 2020 Budtender of the Month Q&A with David Johnson asked about his spirit animal, and he mentioned being a bear because his grandmother was a bear, meaning his familial totem of the bear was passed onto him through the lineage of the women of his family, also known as matrilineal, writes eagle-eyed reader Mary May. It was misprinted as nature lineal. Alaska Leaf regrets the error.