EDITOR NOTE

THE ENLIGHTENED VOICE

ABOUT THE COVER Concentrates have come a very long way and we wanted to showcase just how big of an impact the extract market has, with our 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 reliable old torch.

ILLUSTRATION by BRANDON PALMA for Leaf Nation | @8thDayCreate

CONTRIBUTORS Steve Elliott National News Danielle Halle Features Daniel Kim Photography Aniyah Lee Photography Malina Lopez Styling Brandon Palma Illustration Jeff Porterfield Design Bria Price Features Mike Ricker Features Meghan Ridley Editing Zack Ruskin Features Pacer Stacktrain Features Jonah Tacoma Features Jerry Whiting Hemp Laurie & Bruce Wolf Recipes

PUBLISHER WES ABNEY | founder & editor-in-chief wes@nwleaf.com 206-235-6721

STATE DIRECTOR

NATE WILLIAMS | ADVERTISING SALES nate@californialeaf.com 415-717-6985

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

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WES ABNEY Editor ’ s Note

Thanks for picking up this special issue of California Leaf!

Our Concentrates Issue is my favorite of the year for one simple reason: I love dabs! My first dab was around 2011 - in the century old boiler room 7 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

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.

Our comprehensive Concentrates Issue covers the different extraction 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 - as a plant and a medicine. And as always, thanks for reading and sharing the Leaf! -Wes Abney juLY 2020