Aug. 2023 - Northeast Leaf

THE PSYCHEDELIA ISSUE

NORTHEAST

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WES ABNEY ABOUT THE COVER

This month's incredible cover comes to us from renowned psychedelic artist Chris Dyer. Writes Dyer, "I painted this image in Montreal back in 2001, as a college project. The teacher, Carmelo Blandino, didn't mind the illegal subject matter depicted, as he knew my art style was something unique and it deserved to be encouraged, not censored. He ended up buying the watercolour off me and we've stayed friends. When Leaf Magazines asked me to do the cover for the mag, I felt it was time to revamp this image, as it was neverdone correctly,sincemytechnicalabilitieswerestill growingbackthen. The image, named "Life," depicts an interdimensional creature of life, enjoying the electric blessings of the herb."

ART BY CHRIS DYER FOR LEAF NATION @CHRIS_DYER | POSITIVECREATIONS.CA

CONTRIBUTORS

BOBBY BLACK, DESIGN + FEATURES

JOSHUA BOULET, ILLUSTRATION

TOM BOWERS, FEATURES

AMANDA DAY, FEATURES

JENN DOE, SALES

CHRIS DYER, ILLUSTRATION

EARLY, PRODUCTION

STEVE ELLIOTT, NATIONAL NEWS

GILBERT GJERSVIK, FEATURES

MATT JACKSON, FEATURES

BAILEY JONSON, REVIEWS + PHOTOS

SARA MILLS-GAINES, SALES

BOBBY NUGGZ, REVIEWS + PHOTOS

LEXI PADUSSIS, SALES + FEATURES

BAXSEN PAINE, FEATURES + PHOTOS

MORIAH RATNER, PHOTOS

MIKE RICKER, FEATURES

JAKE ROBINSON, SALES + FEATURES

BRIAN SANNER, REVIEWS + PHOTOS

JAMIE VICTOR, DESIGN

DAN VINKOVETSKY, FEATURES

KATHERINE WOLF, FEATURES

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Thanks for picking up The Psychedelia Issue of the Leaf!

Like Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole, it feels like society has tripped and awakened into a new age of enlightenment and acceptance for the developing world of psychedelic experiences. This new class of drugs are following the policy road paved by Cannabis – using a combination of science and personal testimonies to advocate for the medicinal and recreational use of natural, plant-based psychedelics and laboratory-derived drugs.

From mushrooms containing psilocybin to ayahuasca in the jungle, the research done via personal experience for decades with shamans and at festivals is shifting to clinical analysis – providing the legal basis for freeing these chemicals and entheogens. It’s all about changing perception, which is ironic given the ego-killing 20,000 foot view of life a good trip provides, and convincing mainstream America that shrooms are more than a hippy escape or the flashback to a bad trip. In a society where we’ve been taught that there’s a pill or doctor for everything, could repackaging mushroom trips into therapy sessions be the missing link?

“WE ARE AT THE BLEEDING EDGE OF EXPLORATION THAT IS FINALLY BEING ALLOWED. ”

Oregon is embarking on this journey with the first state-licensed psilocybin producers, therapy centers and facilitators of psychedelic experiences. I had the pleasure of touring Satya in Medford where the first patients have passed through the veil into a legal trip, complete with pre-trip intake analysis, and a reintegration process to take the experience and apply it into lessons for therapeutic healing back in the “real world.”

Whether we are discussing entheogenic drugs like mushrooms, ayahuasca or toad DMT, or looking at laboratory-developed drugs like MDMA, LSD and Ketamine, we are at the bleeding edge of exploration that is finally being allowed. Research that began in the ‘60s and ‘70s and continued under strict hospital conditions at Johns Hopkins, is now happening all over the world. While recreating Cannabis as medicine in the lab was a failure (search Marinol for more), we can learn a lot by isolating and synthesizing the chemicals that make us trip. In the search for acceptance, we must also search to provide experiences that are familiar in normal life – so that our parents, teachers, police officers and veterans can head to a therapy center, take a capsule or ingest a tea, and have the opportunity to experience the world through the lens of a psychedelic experience.

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If we really want to change the world, it starts with shedding the ego and the manipulation of mainstream media and governments – returning humanity to a simpler state of mind that rewards connection, community and love for each other. And if we are really going to start with change in America, I recommend a heroic dose for every politician in the country. That’s the true melting pot that a new age of enlightenment can be spawned from.

-Wes Abney

DEPUTIES SEIZE $200K WORTH OF DRUGS AT THE GORGE

Thousands of grams of weed, psychedelics such as LSD, and even cocaine were seized in July during two Dead and Company shows at the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington state. Officials said the street value of all the drugs seized totaled more than $200,000.

"The Grant County Sheriff’s Office said 13 arrests were made by detectives, who conducted nine different investigations."

The Grant County Sheriff’s Office said 13 arrests were made by detectives, who conducted nine different investigations, resulting in more than 15 felony drug distribution charges. Dead and Company is a band featuring several former Grateful Dead members.

“Many concert events attract narcotics users, as well as people involved in the distribution of illegal narcotics and controlled substances,” the sheriff’s office claimed on Facebook. “The types of controlled substances seized by law enforcement over the weekend ranged from hallucinogenics (psilocybin mushrooms, LSD), dissociative anesthetics (Ketamine), stimulants (MDMA, MDA, cocaine), and Cannabis.”

normalization

LEGAL CANNABIS HELPS COMPANIES RELAX DRUG TESTING

Businesses are at last cutting back preemployment marijuana testing as a condition for hiring. This happy news comes thanks to increased weed legalization, shifting attitudes and efforts to build more diverse pools of job applicants, reports Bloomberg Law.

Recreational Cannabis use in the work force hit “historic highs” in 2022, according to Quest Diagnostics – one of the largest American drugtesting corporations.

August marked Minnesota becoming the 23rd state, plus D.C., to legalize adult-use Cannabis. Most states, with a few benighted holdouts, now allow some form of medical marijuana.

2

percent or less of a state’s population typically enrolls in a medical Cannabis program.

GERMANY UNVEILS LEGALIZATION BILL

Germany’s Health Ministry has unveiled a bill to legalize adult-use Cannabis, submitting it to officials and the public for review, reports Marijuana Moment.

The legislation would allow adults 18 and older to cultivate three plants for personal use. It would also sort out rules for “social clubs” where they could buy weed.

Officials also plan to introduce a second measure establishing programs for commercial sales in cities throughout the country. No extraction of oils or concentrates from Cannabis are allowed under the measure.

PENNSYLVANIA LAWMAKERS FILE LEGALIZATION BILL

A bipartisan duo of Pennsylvania legislators in July introduced a bill to legalize adult-use Cannabis in the Keystone State. Senate Bill 846 was filed by Sen. Dan Laughlin (R) and Sen. Sharif Street (D) on July 6. “Legalized adult use of marijuana is supported by an overwhelming majority of Pennsylvanians and this legislation accomplishes that while also ensuring safety and social equity,” Laughlin said. The 224-page bill would allow adults 21 and up to buy and possess up to 30 grams of flower. Registered medical marijuana patients could grow up to five plants for personal use. No recreational home cultivation would be allowed. Pennsylvania legalized medical marijuana in 2016.

MORE THAN 1 MILLION FLORIDA VOTERS WANT LEGALIZATION ON BALLOT

Over a million Floridian voters want to see an adult-use Cannabis legalization measure on the 2024 general election ballot, reports Forbes. The data comes from the Florida Division of Elections.

State officials in June revealed the proposal from Smart & Safe Florida got enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

With the current count, the initiative has more than 120,000 signatures beyond the 891,000 required.

But it still must pass muster with the Florida Supreme Court, which must determine the measure is limited to a single issue and is not likely to “confuse voters.” The same court has already invalidated legalization bids on two separate occasions in 2021.

NORTH CAROLINA GOP RESISTANCE DOOMS MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Opposition from recalcitrant, regressive Republicans in North Carolina has likely doomed a move to legalize medical marijuana in the state this year, reports Marijuana Business Daily Legalization in North Carolina has been considered a long shot, reports the Associated Press. But the North Carolina Senate in March overwhelmingly passed what sponsors called the Compassionate Care Act.

The bill would have allowed patients with one of 15 medical conditions access to smokable flower in a tightly controlled, limited-license market.

But the North Carolina House took no action at all. That is, other than an emotional committee meeting in early June. According to House Speaker Tim Moore, there are too many Republicans who oppose the bill for it to move forward.

Quoted

-Tourist Zach West, visiting Neptune Beach, Florida last month with his mom, who called local police. The sandy, stinky scene revealed several tons of loose, unpacked marijuana washed up on the beach. Police warned the public not to try to pick up the marijuana or take it home, saying it was degraded and rotten.

MIDWEST S.D. POLICE COMMISSION FORGIVES COPS FOR USING CANNABIS

Two law enforcement hopefuls in South Dakota were given forgiveness for past marijuana use by the state police commission in July.

One police officer and one sheriff’s deputy are now eligible for certification. Parkston Officer Kody Beckers had a seven-year-old guilty plea to THC wax possession during his freshman year of college in Minnesota.

A future Roberts County sheriff’s deputy now gets a shot at becoming certified despite using a tribal medical marijuana card, which isn’t recognized by the state. She was treating pain with Cannabis last summer after a surgery.

12

states have medical CBD laws that forbid highTHC marijuana.

19

percent of U.S. adults say they have used Cannabis in the past year.

37

states have what Marijuana Policy Project considers effective medical marijuana laws.

60

percent of U.S. adults approve of recreational pot legalization.

91

percent of U.S. adults say Cannabis should be legal in some form.

“I did pick it up and smell it to see what it smelled like, and it was weed. So, I was like, ‘OK, that’s kind of crazy.’ ”

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STEVE RONDO

Fear, he says, is a big theme in the music he writes. “Either on a macro scale of global warming, or a micro scale of what is going on with me personally, the fear of growing up or not living up to your full potential – it’s that sort of thing,” he said.

Steve has never received an official diagnosis, but he has experienced “tough times where those intense feelings of anxiety or stress come on” and manifest physically, mentally and emotionally in his body.

Steve felt as though he was the “black sheep” growing up, born with different colored eyes and hair from his entire family. And he’s been trying to prove he belongs ever since. In an attempt to fit in, he found it better to stand out – ultimately leading to being the frontman of a rock band.

“I think really leaning on things like music, or surfing and snowboarding, have been the best way to get me out of my own head,” he said. “They’re almost monotonous in their activity, but if you do enough of it, you’ll be breathing heavily, your blood will be pumping and you’ll be out of your own head.”

Cannabis edibles have also provided a necessary levity when needed.

As the summer sun escaped a mid-July horizon, rockstar Brandi Carlile stepped in front of thousands of joyous fans, all clamoring for one more dose of dopamine courtesy of the Levitate Festival in Marshfield, Mass.

Following performances by Ziggy Marley and Rebelution, the Grammy-nominated Carlile waxed poetically of past festivals, expressing gratitude for serving as the headliner under these particular Sunday night lights.

Brandi cherished the destination, but the journey, she insisted, made her current standing all the worthwhile.

That message hit home with many, including Boston’s Steve Rondo.

Two days prior, the 29-year-old had served as the bookend to Carlile’s close, opening the 10th annual celebration at the Marshfield Fairgrounds Friday afternoon, 30 miles south of Boston.

“A lot of people took half days, so by the time we finished, there were a couple hundred people that had trickled in,” said Steve, lead vocalist and guitarist for The Steve Rondo Band.

Just as Carlile celebrated her ascension to the top of the set list, Steve was celebrating an appearance at the biggest festival of his life. And as a self-proclaimed surf and snowboarding addict, he was over-the-moon happy to have shared a billing with some of the country’s elite jam bands – courtesy of the surf-and-skate shop, Levitate.

“I think Levitate is one of the best communities that’s formed over the last 20 years,” said Steve, who graduated from Wachusett High School in Holden, Mass. “The festival has grown every year and what they represent for the surf culture – embracing music,

pulling a beach town together, and giving back through grants and charities – it’s really a beautiful thing to be a part of.”

Steve and his fellow band members –Richie Aversa (lead guitarist), Eric Donovan (drums), Keelan Smithers (keys/vocalist) and Trevor Knowles (bass) – spent Saturday in a boat on the ocean celebrating their triumph, but returned Sunday to take in more of the festival.

“We got to talk to a ton of the bands and that was cool, because you see people the next step ahead of you, or five steps ahead of you. And that motivates you to keep working hard,” he said.

Described as “stadium-ready Americana” by 92.5 FM The River, The Steve Rondo Band has been together for five years. Steve writes the song lyrics, consulting with Keelan before working with the band to create a sound around the story being told. His lyrics often take a deep dive into themes of struggle, authenticity and finding balance in life.

“When I started singing, I was ‘out’ on the idea of smoking [Cannabis],” he said. “With my style of singing, I project my voice very loud, adding a lot of rasp and growl to it. If I play three days in a row, my voice will be shot after that. If I were to smoke, it accelerates that process – making it harder to maintain that stamina over time.”

He takes gummies to relax.

“I don’t think I live with [anxiety] on a daily basis, but there are stressful moments when you can feel it come on your body and it’s hard to cope with,” Steve said. “Talking to a friend or a professional is also a positive [outlet] if you can find someone to talk to.”

When all else fails, putting a pen to paper and writing about things that trouble him has helped Steve, as well as countless other fans who tune in to iTunes or Spotify for a listen.

“When all else fails, putting a pen to paper and writing about things that trouble him has helped Steve – as well as the countless fans who tune in to iTunes or Spotify for a listen.”

“As a young male, it’s not really a common thing to open up and write about the things I write about,” said Steve, referencing songs like Afternoon Rebellion, which was featured on Spotify’s editorial playlist Fresh Finds Indie.

“Songwriting gives you a good opportunity to try that while masking the lyrics behind the music so people don’t have to look too hard if they don’t want to.”

The Steve Rondo Band is in the midst of a summer tour, featuring stops in New York (July 30), Nantucket Island (Aug. 3-5), as well as Salisbury Beach Stage on the North Shore of Massachusetts for 92.5 FM The River’s “Riverfest” on Saturday, Aug. 26. The band will then step into the studio this fall to record their first album. There’s a momentum building behind the music and Steve believes they have what it takes to go all the way.

“I’ve heard Brandi [Carlile] talk about embracing the whole journey and I really hope that is happening for us,” he said. “I’m not a big planner, but there are certain things I want to check off. Three or four years ago, Levitate was one of those things. Now I’m not in a rush, because sooner isn’t always better. So I’ll take it however and whenever it comes.”

TribeTokes

“Your vibe attracts your tribe!” It’s the tagline for TribeTokes – a New York-based company with small beginnings, but fast becoming one of the most interesting and visible Cannabis brands in the Northeast. Co-founded by Degelis Tufts Pilla and Kymberly ‘KymB’ Byrnes, the company started out in 2017 marketing a single battery pen paired with a modest selection of CBD carts sourced from California. Today TribeTokes – with over 150 SKUs including a skin care line – exceeds $2 million in annual sales, has launched in the adult-use market of Massachusetts, is launching in New York State this August, and will be coming to New Jersey this fall!

It’s an exciting time for TribeTokes and for KymB, whose title of Chief Marketing Officer is just one of the many hats she wears when speaking about her lifelong journey as a member of the Cannabis Tribe.

“I am a patient first and foremost,” said KymB. “And I am a Cannabis activist and an advocate for being able to grow your own plant medicine.”

She is currently on the boards of the New York City Cannabis Parade & Rally and the New York State Home Grow Association; on the advisory board of the CWCBExpo (Cannabis World Congress & Business Exposition); and an ambassador for Women Grow. Those of you in New York City may remember her time as a vice president and community liaison with Cannagather – a monthly meet-up of the canna-curious – where she enthusiastically delivered the latest news with her “Cannabis With KymB” segment at each packed session!

She rounds her work out with a ganja grand slam: running a Cannabis-friendly, four-bedroom Airbnb about 15 minutes from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

The spark of her love affair with the plant began at the age of 15. “I smoked my first bowl … and I was kind of like, not sure how I felt about it – but I knew that people wanted it, so I started selling it!” said KymB. “But 17 was the age when I really started to just get into it.”

KymB defined herself during those years as a teenage runaway. “I moved around a lot, so my home was wherever I felt like running away to. I look back now and I’m like, Cannabis was my cure-all for everything.”

In her early 20s, KymB moved with her future ex-husband to Florida from Staten Island after 9/11 – where they ran into a problem. “We couldn’t find good weed,” she said, “so we decided to start growing some plants in our house.” The internet was not what it is today, and she described the learning curve for their closet grow – including going to bookstores incognito (sunglasses, baseball caps) to buy books on growing by Ed Rosenthal.

CO-FOUNDERS KYMBERLY “KYMB” BYRNES, LEFT, AND DEGELIS TUFTS PILLA IN NEW YORK CITY.

They got their genetics by making international calls to seed banks in Amsterdam, charging their orders to American Express.

While in Florida, KymB also ran several pilates studios and gyms. “I would get invited to our wealthy clients’ houses and parties and I would always bring joints and everyone said that the weed was so good!” she reminisced. So good, in fact, that they bought a house and expanded the scale of their home grow. But plans changed when her father in New York became seriously ill. “I sold my business to go live Upstate and take care of my dad as a caregiver.”

KymB and her husband moved into a house she owned prior to their marriage. “We turned the whole three-car garage into an indoor grow, and that’s when things started to get exciting!” she shared enthusiastically, describing a period of time growing New York Sour Diesel and Sour Diesel for $600 an ounce. “That was it. That was all people wanted back then. We were selling it to our friends in the city because again, everybody wanted it at that point.”

As her father’s health declined, KymB saw how overmedicated he was by the doctors. “They just kept throwing stuff down his throat,” she explained. “And so I started making brownies. At first I was like, ‘I’m going to give my dad brownies because the opioids are constipating him and he’s really uncomfortable.’ But then I realized the brownies were helping me too! I could have taken my dad’s opioids, I could have started drinking alcohol – but instead I found my way through Cannabis, which I’m so fucking grateful for!” KymB also happens to be a daily microdoser of psilocybin and a staunch advocate for the medicinal use of psychedelics.

But it was in 2013 – in the span of two weeks –that her father died and her husband left her. “It was

really like the beginning,” said KymB. “And it was an ending and beginning all in one. It was like the rebirth of Kymberly Byrnes!”

KymB moved back to New York City and took a job as Director of Pilates at an Equinox gym where, waiting in line for a smoothie one day, she met an older gentleman who would take her life in a new direction. “He turned around and said to me, ‘I’m going to put some Cannabis in my smoothie’ – and he took out this little tiny bottle and I was like, ‘Whoa! Tell me about this!’ It was CBD, and he was from California.”

From there, KymB began “spreading the good word of CBD.” As she put it, “I couldn’t even talk enough about it. My customers and my pilates clients were sick and tired of hearing about this Cannabis that doesn’t get you high. And I knew that this is what I was going to do with the rest of my life.”

That older gentleman in the Equinox smoothie line also told her about a Cannabis group called Women Grow that met regularly at the law offices of Duane Morris, which specializes in Cannabis-related law. “I went in and I started hysterically crying,” said KymB, “because I couldn’t believe there were so many women of every race, creed and denomination – it was incredible for me to see!”

It was at a Women Grow event that she connected with TribeTokes co-founder Degelis Tufts Pilla. “She [Degelis] had an idea for a vaping company and started TribeTokes,” KymB explained. “I saw her walk in with a cool outfit and I walked right up to her … the synergy was just so amazing that TribeTokes was

really born! Degelis invited me to come on as a co-founder and we started from the bottom.”

With their TribeTokes brand, KymB and Degelis have made licensing deals with strategic partners to make their adult-use THC products – including vape carts, gummies and pain cream. “And we are going to launch some interesting flower products,” said KymB, who would not yet reveal any details. “We’re in the process of trademarking some things, I’m not at liberty to announce that yet – but I can just say we’re not doing it the same. We’re doing things differently. We’ve taken a different approach to what products on the market look like. Our company manifesto is: “Never sell anything you wouldn’t give your own mother!”

I asked KymB about the meaning of tribe. “I think it’s a community of like-minded individuals with the leader, the chief, being the plant,” she said. “We’re all here honoring the plant together, which gives us a common bond, a common denominator – and there is no demographic for people who use Cannabis … I see these wonderful connections and this wonderful healing.”

When it comes to the many moving parts in her life, KymB has a masterful way of making the juggling act seem effortless. “I don’t even focus on the balance. It’s just my true authentic self,” she shared.

“I live extremely organically and authentically and it just happens … I think it’s from being a 25-year pilates instructor – where I’m just used to educating people in health and wellness. It’s just a natural progression for me – this is my lifestyle … and how I encompass Cannabis as my own personal lifestyle. I can’t help but create this infectious aura that comes around me … it just feels like what I’m supposed to do. I think it’s my calling.”

“WITH THEIR TRIBETOKES BRAND, KYMB AND DEGELIS HAVE MADE LICENSING DEALS WITH STRATEGIC PARTNERS TO MAKE THEIR ADULT-USE THC PRODUCTS – INCLUDING VAPE CARTS, GUMMIES AND PAIN CREAM.”

Strawberry Jalapeño Pâte de Fruit

WE TRIED the strawberry jalapeño Pâte de Fruit (fruit paste) and I feel confident in declaring that it was the best edible I’ve ever had! That’s no small statement … so let’s get into the reasoning behind this pot proclamation.

Firstly, SeaWeed Co. uses pectin instead of gelatin – making the texture of each piece smooth and soft without any unpleasant mouthfeel or tough chewy bits that get stuck in your teeth. This reason alone would keep me coming back for more and staying loyal to this brand. All too often, infused fruit snacks will have an unappealing consistency – but this is hands-down one of the best textures on the market.

Next, the strain-specific full-spectrum Cannabis oil is a big flex. Being able to source quality Cannabis for an edible from one plant is largely unheard of, but this product shows that it’s not only possible to accomplish such a feat – it’s actually the preferred method.

For the Pâte de Fruit we sampled, SeaWeed uses the strain Sky Lotus – a hybrid plant from Bodhi Seeds. Taking nine weeks to flower on average, this plant is a labor of love that truly pays off.

Its mixed berry terpenes and abundance of trichomes make Sky Lotus the perfect strain to be utilized here. The effects are balanced and buzzy with an undeniable positive energy and healing vibe.

Lastly, the flavor combination is insane! Strawberry jalapeño is far from boring (and in fact, it’s really tasty). This mash-up is unexpected and welcome in a world of sometimes bland and boring fruit snacks. Not too spicy, the jalapeño gives this edible the edge it needs to really stand out and keep you coming back for more. It settles in the stomach nicely without any unwanted after effects – like indigestion –that you may have experienced with peppery foods in the past. And that’s a good thing, because this flavor combo is really addictive. I ate the whole package in one sitting without even realizing it.

Bold, fun … and interesting indeed!

SeaWeed Co. is known for being purveyors of quality Maine Cannabis, and this delicious and innovative edible is a strain-specific delight that truly impresses and leaves you coming back for more. With such care and craft, it’s easy to sense the professionalism and love that goes into this gourmet treat.

Greenfire OG Live Rosin

There’s something special about the OG Kush terpene profile. The strain has been one of my all-time favorites for as long as I can recall and as a true OG fanatic, I knew I needed to give Mammoth Inc.’s Greenfire OG a taste test when it graced the Rhode Island extraction company’s live rosin menu.

IN ADDITION to my desire to hunt out high-quality Kush, I also make it a priority to seek out releases from Greenfire Genetics. The legendary Alaina from Greenfire has long been considered one of the best breeders in the industry and her projects never disappoint. The Greenfire OG seemed particularly special as the company’s namesake strain, a cross between Green Crack and Fire OG.

When it comes to extracts in Rhode Island, Mammoth is the name to know. The company has quickly become the state’s finest producer of quality solventless concentrates and the genetics Mammoth grows are as premium as it gets. Just seeing Mammoth’s packaging excites me because I know it is going to contain a very heady gram of hash.

The Greenfire OG concentrate is single-source, live rosin batter made in-house by Mammoth Inc. They carefully cultivated the strain prior to extraction, growing the Greenfire flowers hydroponically with absolutely no insecticides or pesticides. Considered their premium spectrum, the Greenfire OG rosin was pressed from 90u-120u first-pull bubble hash and tested at 68% THCA.

The first thing I noticed about this live rosin was the impressive color – a beautiful light gold. At the same time, it must be noted: The Greenfire OG absolutely kicks you in the nose with robust aromas of lime candy and fresh-squeezed lemonade once you crack the jar.

This rosin really delivers on everything you could hope to get from a true OG Kush variety.

As for dabbing temperature, Mammoth suggests 540 degrees as the ultimate temp for a hearty but terp-filled dab.

With my recently acquired temperature controlled Dabrite, I was ready to go.

My first dab of the Greenfire OG felt like a detonation of terps in my mouth, with long-lasting flavors of gas and citrus candy. It was a bit like having a lime rickey on a hot summer day.

For me, this is what dabbing is all about – an emphasis on flavor and, of course, the high.

I enjoy OG strains in large part due to their sedative and creative effects – and while this

>> Pro Tip... Keep some water close by when you’re ready to dab – cottonmouth is inevitable and you will want to go in for a second round on the rig right away.)

rosin put me in a conversational mood and calmed my anxiety in a public setting – the experience was not a mild one. In fact, if you’re lucky enough to sample the Greenfire OG rosin, you had better buckle up and prepare to take flight – this concentrate takes you on quite the journey.

You can find Mammoth Inc. live rosin at many of Rhode Island’s eight statewide dispensaries. I’d also recommend signing up for Mammoth’s VIP drops, so you can get first dibs on all of the irresistible varieties they have to offer.

“BUCKLE UP AND PREPARE TO TAKE FLIGHT – THIS CONCENTRATE TAKES YOU ON QUITE THE JOURNEY.”

Staff Picks

Fast-Acting

These THC gummies deliver potential effects in 5-15 minutes! Natural fruit flavors. Vegan and gluten-free.

These stylish, convenient pens are formulated with high potency distillate and naturally derived terpenes.

“A SMOOTH SMOKE THAT EVOKES ORANGE CITRUS AND VANILLA FLAVORS WITH EARTHY UNDERTONES.”

Mac

hybrid cross between MAC (Miracle Alien Cookies)

CULTIVATED BY NANTICOKE

NEW YORK

Nanticoke goes to great lengths to ensure that true fans of flower can see all that Mac Nilla has to offer thanks to an eco-friendly, transparent and compostable container that provides a full view of the magnificently manicured nugs.

Cured and trimmed to perfection, Nanticoke makes use of both mechanical trimming and a good old-fashioned, final hand trim. Mac Nilla’s light green, dense buds – positively covered in trichomes and orange hairs – are easy to break up and roll in a joint or blunt with the help of a grinder, or simply by using your fingers.

The Mac Nilla boasts a smooth smoke that evokes orange citrus and vanilla flavors with earthy undertones – a tasty combo that’s truly a pleasure to toke! A great daytime strain, it produced an extremely happy, uplifting feeling that lasted for hours.

If you’re facing a busy schedule, Mac Nilla’s energetic, heady high is perfect for getting things done – you might even find that you’re having a good time taking on those “to-do” list chores. And for those dealing with physical discomfort, Mac Nilla is just what the doctor ordered with its potential for alleviating chronic pain.

Nanticoke is a family-run farm that’s celebrating 50 years in operation in Broome County, New York after starting as a local vegetable nursery. Chip Schafer is now Nanticoke’s lead cultivator, but he has managed the greenhouse nursery for over 25 years. When the original owner decided to retire over a decade ago, Chip and brother Pete Schafer bought the nursery.

After taking control of the farm, the brothers were awarded one of New York state’s coveted hemp cultivation licenses in 2018. Nanticoke was also one of the first companies in the Empire State to receive a recreational Cannabis cultivation license and ultimately, the farm was also awarded a recreational Cannabis processing license. You can find Nanticoke Premier Cannabis products in many of New York state’s newly opened adult-use dispensaries.

nanticoke.co | @nanticoke__ | 27% THC

MAC NILLA MAC NILLA

Nilla is a sativa-dominant

and Nilla Wafers. With a whopping 27% THC, the Mac Nilla is best enjoyed by those with a higher toking tolerance.

PHOTO

Many people believe that when we consume psychedelic entheogenic medicines, we tap into both an inner space as well as an interdimensional, shapeless plane of existence too vast and complex for us to describe or define with our limited human capabilities. Through his art, Chris Dyer attempts to give a physical, visual form to concepts, beings and feelings conjured to his mind in part from his many experiences as a spiritual psychonaut. We had the chance to tap in with the Canadian-Peruvian skateboarder and psychedelic visionary to learn more about his life, his artistic process, and what he’s seen and felt during his many experiences with various journey-inducing substances all over the world.

ON THE INFLUENCE HIS PERUVIAN UPBRINGING HAD ON WHO HE’S BECOME:

Peru’s tricky. When people think of Peru, it's like, ‘Oh, it's so beautiful with the llamas running around the mountains and the ruins and the Incas, and then you go to the jungle and you drink ayahuasca – la la la.’ But no, for me, growing up in the ‘80s and the ‘90s in Lima, Peru was terrorism and blackouts and getting mugged four times a year for being white. I went to an all-boys school, so it's just like hyper-masculine scenarios where everyone's fighting over power, and me being a sensitive artist, I had to build a bunch of armors to protect myself from getting too energetically robbed. It gave me a lot of challenges that I've had to work through in my life. I'm better now, but I recognize where the wounds started.

ON THE INTERCONNECTED EXPERIENCES AND VISIONS REFLECTED

IN TRIBAL ART THROUGHOUT

GLOBAL HISTORY:

Cultures around the world somehow had access to the portals that take you to … the same center of creation, and it comes out and it manifests as a head in Mexico, or a carving in Nepal, or some motifs on textiles in Peru. This tribal artwork

from ancient times, they were all tapping to the same place. And I'm tapping to the same place. Yes, I am Peruvian and I grew with a certain influence, but I've also traveled to 45 different countries around the world and observed the similarities. Then I go into that place of oneness and try to understand what these interdimensional consciousness beings are and what they're trying to tell us, and how they're trying to help humanity throughout time. They're in a place past time, so they're just waiting for us there. In that other dimension, they exist. If I were to go into an Ayahuasca ceremony today, I’d tap into that place. It's the same exact time and place –since it's timeless – that the pre-Inca cultures tapped into, and many other cultures around the world.

ON THE EXPERIENCE OF AYAHUASCA:

When I'm there, I'm like, ‘What the fuck's going on here? What is this place? Is it alien? Is it collective consciousness? Is this an aspect of God? Is this God itself?’ A couple weeks ago, I did my 45th ceremony in Willow Creek – I was sitting in the other dimension for a few hours just observing it and letting it teach me how to fix my own corrupt coding so that I can shine more and help empower others to shine more. And thus, together we shine together and create a flame of

humanity that is so strong that we'll break through the darkness that's trying to hold us down as a humanity. … What is this fractal consciousness reality that feels like many souls in one, that wants to help me and wants to help us? It's almost like the elders are cheering us from the place before and after life. That's where I go with Aya.

ON THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AYAHUASCA AND OTHER ENTHEOGENIC MEDICINES:

When I did Bufo, I went somewhere else. Bufo took me to a white place where I wasn't even there anymore. And thus, I don't have many memories of it. There wasn't even a ‘Chris’ left to observe because I had dissolved into everything-slash-nothingness, and there's a subconscious part of me that remembers that place of expansion in my dreams. positivecreations.ca | @chris_dyer

With mushrooms, you can get to that place that Aya takes you, but you gotta take like, a lot of mushrooms. … I think all of these medicines open different portals, and really, once the portal's open, those places are so big it makes the physical plane that we live in – with our planet, our solar system, our galaxy, the universe – look small compared to the astral plane where there's no up and down and it just goes on into infinity or eternity. Once you're there, it seems like that's the real place and this is the fake little video game that we play to kind of experience physical reality, and this array of human emotions and pain and joy. In the end, we're from beyond, and these places that we go through these medicines are closer to our real self. I would say our true, pure, real self is what we understand to be God –that oneness, the absolute energy of love and expansion. But that's just my personal belief.

“What is this fractal consciousnessreality thatfeelslikemany soulsinone,that wantstohelpmeand wantstohelpus?It's almost like the elders arecheeringusfrom theplacebefore and after life.”

"NATARAJA SHIVA"

"GOLDEN BOY, LET IT GO."

"PACHAMAGO"

"THE PROCESS OF EVOLUTION"

"MURAL AT MENDOJA FARMS"

ICONS ICONS PSYCHEDELIC PSYCHEDELIC

ALBERT HOFMANN

The Swiss chemist who first synthesized LSD while working with the ergot fungus in 1943. After purposefully taking a dose of acid, his historic afternoon bike ride on April 19, 1943 has become a revered psychedelic holiday. The author of “LSD: My Problem Child,” Hofmann believed LSD could be used to increase society’s respect for our place in the natural world.

MARIA SABINA

Posters of the famous mushroom shaman of Mexico still line windows in Oaxaca where Sabina lived until 1985. She famously used mushrooms – which she called “the children” – to cure sick members of her community and communicate with the divine. This ritual, or velada, was reported in LIFE Magazine and was responsible for an explosion of interest in psilocybin research.

ALDOUS & LAURA HUXLEY

Authors of numerous cornerstones of psychedelic literature including “The Doors Of Perception,” “Islands” and “You Are Not The Target” –the Huxleys believed using psychedelics could unlock the secrets of the mind, and perhaps existence. Aldous believed psychedelics help us achieve a spiritual and philosophical experience that has benefits for everyone. Laura – a self-described "restrained investigator of LSD" – believed acid and mescaline could help you navigate the heavy jungles of the human mind. In 1963, she helped her husband pass peacefully, administering 100 micrograms of LSD to him on his deathbed to ease his journey.

PAUL STAMETS

Over the last 40 years, Stamets has become one of the most famous mycologists of our time – spreading the message that mushrooms have the power to save the world. His stance that psilocybin mushrooms are a non-addictive, life-changing substance has helped him discover new types of hallucinogenic fungi and even inspired a character in “Star Trek.”

TERENCE MCKENNA

He’s been called a mystic, ethnobotanist, pioneer, and even “the Timothy Leary of the ‘90s.” Throughout McKenna’s travels in Jerusalem, Mexico and Nepal, he experimented using plant-based psychedelics to increase the spiritual connection to a combined consciousness. In 1976, he and his brother wrote “Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide” outlining spore cultivation techniques for the home enthusiast.

TIMOTHY LEARY

Referred to as the “father of the psychedelic movement” of the '60s, Leary was a psychologist who studied psychedelics and personality at Berkeley and as a faculty member at Harvard. He inspired young people everywhere to experiment with acid. Famous for the phrase "tune in, turn on, drop out" – he co-founded the Harvard Psilocybin Project and the League for Spiritual Discovery. President Richard Nixon called him "the most dangerous man in America."

RICHARD ALPERT (RAM DASS)

A researcher at Harvard who was fired in 1962 for giving psychedelics to his undergraduate students, Alpert worked with Timothy Leary to found the infamous Millbrook Commune – aka the League for Spiritual Discovery. Later, he’d journey to India and be renamed Baba Ram Dass by a guru, before returning to become a spiritual leader and write the influential book “Be Here Now.”

ALFRED M. HUBBARD

The Johnny Appleseed of LSD, it’s estimated that Hubbard dosed six thousand people between 1951-1966. Hubbard wanted to change the world by dosing influential and prominent figures in society. Using LSD he obtained from Hofmann himself, Hubbard preached the key importance of “set and setting” during an acid session and felt promoting psychedelic therapy was his angelic calling.

ANN & ALEXANDER “SASHA” SHULGIN

Together, this husband and wife team created and tested over 200 psychoactive compounds in their home laboratory. The process was documented in their 1991 book “Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved” and its follow-up “Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved” – commonly referred to as “PiHKAL” and “TiHKAL.” While not the inventor, Alexander’s work introducing MDMA throughout the ‘70s and ‘90s earned him the nickname “The Godfather of Ecstacy.”

HUNTER S. THOMPSON

Author, journalist and psychonaut who defined the literary style we now call “Gonzo.” Throughout his career, Thompson notoriously supplied the first psychedelic dose to influential artists, writers, actors … and even Hells Angels. He often used psychedelics to invite the unknown to write his next paragraph. “As for LSD, I highly recommend it. The feeling it produces is hard to describe. 'Intensity' is a fair word for it."

AUGUSTUS OWSLEY STANLEY III

“Clandestine chemist” is the best way to describe this pivotal figure in the ‘60s psychedelic scene. It was his talent for manufacturing acid that helped iconify the Monterey Pop Festival and fueled the Merry Pranksters’ Acid Tests. The Oxford English dictionary defines Owsley as a noun for a particularly pure form of LSD.

KEN KESEY

After volunteering in a 1959 government program that studied the effects of psilocybin, amphetamine, LSD and other psychoactive drugs, Kesey used the experience to write “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.” With his group of Merry Pranksters, he sought to defy conformity and promote psychedelic discovery. Their exploits were documented in Tom Wolfe’s novel “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.” (For more on Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, check out this month’s Cannthropology).

HEADY THREADS HEADY THREADS

THE BINDLE CONSPIRACY

Luke started The Bindle Conspiracy in 2016 after exploring Europe, Southeast Asia and Central America, then driving his van across the United States, Mexico and Canada. “A few things sparked my interest as potential careers while I was traveling,” he explained, “but really one thing stayed constant for me: my love for clothing.” So, he decided to learn how to make it from scratch and has been cutting and sewing every single piece by hand since. Currently based out of Boulder, Colorado, his one-of-a-kind wearables feature fun fabrics, trippy textures and playful patchwork. thebindleconspiracy.com | @thebindleconspiracy

KILLER ACID

Rob Corradetti has been making art for over 25 years and launched Killer Acid in 2010, which specializes in screen prints, t-shirts and psychedelic accessories. While the brand is based out of Santa Cruz, California, Rob’s style blends “head shop and punk rock” inspired by the technicolor coming-of-age in New York City – full of cartoon characters, bright colors and subtle references to classic art. So far, Killer Acid has done some killer collaborations with brands like Meow Wolf, Zumiez, VICE, Adult Swim and Santa Cruz Skateboards. killeracid.com | @killeracid

BROKEN PROMISES CO.

Founded by Mandee Bence and Jason Blake, Broken Promises Co. is “rooted in the expression of human emotions, with products that allow people to express their feelings by wearing them when sometimes itʼs hard to talk about how you feel.” Based out of Southern California, the brand has its own app where it drops an exclusive new collection every Saturday morning and has collaborated on capsules with Hot Wheels, Beetlejuice, Mountain Dew, Death Note and others. brokenpromises.com |@brokenpromisesco

A ROUNDUP OF ARTISTS AND CLOTHING BRANDS MAKING THE MOST WONDERFUL WEARABLES FOR YOUR NEXT TRIP.

SKULLY VIBES

Skully Vibes has been making art his whole life but started drawing skull characters in high school. He continued to evolve his spooky-stoney style, and the Skully Vibes brand was officially born in 2021 with a passion project called Smoking Skulls – a collection of 710 different hand-drawn skull characters with a poem to go with each one. Now, the skulls are a staple throughout his multimedia art including prints, stickers and t-shirts –each embroidered to order in Denver.skullyvibes.com @skully.vibes

GRASSROOTS CALIFORNIA

Grassroots began making hats for a documentary film in 2009 and has since hooked up artists like Method Man, Jerry Garcia and Griz with the headiest headpieces. They’re known for their signature holograms and designs on the interior of the hats, made with environmentally-friendly materials such as hemp. The company donates 1% of all sales to charity and has done limited-time collections with psychedelic artists such as Vincent Gordon and The Frank Brothers. grassrootscalifornia.com @grassrootscalifornia

Michelle started Wook Wear a couple of years ago to create stash bags for all her friends, specializing in “prizedpossession pouches” that are perfect for terp pearls or marbles. She designs her own patterns, cutting and sewing everything from scratch by hand, and says she “loves making insulated bags for hash or your favorite glass and psychedelic supplies – just about anything you can dream of!” Don’t miss the drops on her Instagram at 4:20 p.m. on #wookwearwednesdays. @wook.wear

STRAIGHT TRIPPIN CO.

Armed with his friend's printing press and his mom's old embroidery machine, Tyler started Straight Trippin Co. in 2021. Today, he makes shirts, hats and beanies that are each dyed and embroidered by hand in Austin, Texas. He draws inspiration from his own psychedelic experiences and says he started the brand to “challenge the prevailing stigma associated with substances often frowned upon in society.” straighttrippinco.etsy.com | @straighttrippinco

SHELTER CULTIVATION PROJECT

The Shelter Cultivation Project is an experimental retail space and apparel brand in Burlington, Vermont featuring zines, clothing, artwork and home goods by a collection of makers. Founder Shawn Dumont says, “This is really just a weird art experiment, and we only make something new when we have an idea worth pursuing or find an artist that we really want to work with.” Shelter has done a few group gallery shows, created a toll-free hotline for talking to exotic plants (give it a call at 1-844-Plant-Talks), and recently held a concert with Michael Nau and Benny Yurco. sheltercultivationproject.com | @sheltercultivationproject

MUSHROOM METHODOLOGY

MUSHROOM METHODOLOGY

Pioneers fearlessly plant flags in uncharted territory. By that definition, Dan Huson and Bjorn Fritzsche of Rose City Labs are pioneering the future of psilocybin mushroom testing.

Huson was one of the first to start a Cannabis testing laboratory in Oregon –where he initially connected with Fritzsche, a German born and educated chemist.

“I started Rose City by myself back in 2011, and then eventually started hiring people,” Huson said.

“Bjorn was one of the first, and it was pretty cool watching the way his brain worked – developing different types of testing and further legitimizing the testing we were doing.”

Fritzsche became known for adding dashes of whimsy to Huson’s expertise in the lab, with his penchant for building robots and sharing cat videos further endearing him to the intrepid team at Rose City – a group on the tip of the spear in those early days of Cannabis legalization, getting licensed with the state in 2013 and earning accreditation in tandem with the launch of Oregon’s adult-use market in 2016.

Inside the groundbreaking work being performed at the psilocybin testing facilities of Rose City Labs in Portland.

decriminalized in a handful of micronized pockets of the world and is intensely prohibited everywhere else. Huson is one of those rare people.

A trailblazing plant medicine advocate, Huson saw it as a natural development to add psilocybin mushroom testing to his list of state-licensed services.

“I’ve been testing mushrooms for a while,” Huson said. “I love natural medicines, and I think that the government telling us what we can and cannot use to treat ourselves – whether it comes from the Earth or not – is not acceptable. They believe it has to come from a chemical in Western medicine, and I don’t believe so. Chinese and other medicines have been going for eons. I’ve always believed in it.”

It takes a rare person to stand before the government and insist that they be allowed to develop a legal, licensed testing lab for something that is only

“When I’m passionate about something like I am about alternative medicines, it’s just a no-brainer,” Huson said. “We’re going for it, and we’re going to just do it and be the first. I love the challenge. I’ve actually been flying airplanes since I was 13 years old, so I’ve been dealing with the federal government and inspectors and all that stuff my whole life.”

The only thing he’s been doing longer, Huson adds, is smoking pot – which he’s been doing since the age of 11.

When it came time to enter the realm of mushroom testing, Huson reconnected with his former lab director, Fritzsche, and brought him on as his Senior Research and Development Chemist.

“Basically, part of the reason why I came back here is because it felt like the next frontier,” Fritzsche

said. “I really enjoyed the early days of the Cannabis space – the ability to develop something new, the ability to do something that hasn’t been done at scale before.”

The two put in the work to develop testing methodologies that will act as a baseline for this emerging industry.

“Anytime I’m like – ‘Hey, I want to add this test, make it happen’ – he’ll do the research and come back and go: ‘OK, no problem’ or ‘Hey, you can’t really do that.’”

And thus, Fritzsche developed the lab’s testing methodologies for psilocybin and psilocin in Psilocybe Cubensis mushrooms using High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) lab technology, and Rose City became the first state-licensed psychedelic mushroom testing facility in the country.

“I do the research, see if it’s feasible to do, determine what equipment is needed, determine

Zachary Huson, Sales Manager, shows off a handful of Southwest Pink Buffalo mushrooms, containing psilocybin.

what standards and analytes are needed, and then develop the method, get the equipment to operate properly, make sure that we’re producing numbers that are making sense, and eventually run multiple days of quality-control tests on the developed methods – then give all that data to the State so that they can accredit us and we can show the State that what we’re doing works and is precise, accurate and repeatable,” he explained.

When conducting research to find a baseline for testing psilocybin and psilocin, the two primary necessary analytes in Psilocybe Cubensis, Fritzsche found one of the only existing methodologies in an unexpected – or perhaps expected – place.

“One of the few published methodologies that was already used for testing mushrooms was from the DEA,” Fritzsche said. “That’s actually what they do for prosecuting. It wasn’t a very good method, and it was definitely not applicable to a production laboratory like us, where it has to work every day multiple times. There cannot be room for easy mistakes. It has to be a robust method.”

Fritzsche used his history running analytics and state-of-the-art Cannabis extraction laboratories and applied it to his shroom work.

They started with white button mushrooms, which they injected with pure psilocin before testing. Then they “magically obtained some real ones,” Fritzsche said, in order to conduct repeated tests and ensure that their results were within expected ranges.

“Then it came down to just making the whole thing as robust as possible, so that I don’t have to run the test always myself, but we can have lab techs do this – depending on how much scale this will reach,” Fritzsche said. “And then it was a matter of validating the whole methodology, showing the State that, yes, we can really do this, this really works. Since there was no published method, we had to give them a bunch of data points. … All this gets tied into a nice big data packet and emailed to the State.”

Eureka, they were accredited under Oregon Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program. Huson, Fritzsche and the team at Rose City currently not only test for potency, but for potential contaminants – similar to what’s done in Cannabis. But while their lab and team in Portland are equipped and able to test for safety and potency for any drug available on the market, Rose City can only accept Cannabis and Psilocybe Cubensis mushroom products from state-licensed producers. That, Huson says, is a shortfall of the program.

They started with white button mushrooms, which they injected with pure psilocin before testing. Then they “magically obtained some real ones,” Fritzsche said, in order to conduct repeated tests and ensure that their results were within expected ranges.

“Basically, because I’m a licensed OLCC marijuana laboratory, and I’m now a licensed Oregon Health Authority Laboratory, I’m not even allowed to use the test strips or anything like the bars are,” Huson said. “I’m not allowed to because I have marijuana on the premises and I have psilocybin on the premises, and I’m like, ‘Oh, so a bar can do it, but a laboratory can’t. … Wow.’”

Huson and Fritzsche hope policy starts to reflect the safety needs of a public that is increasingly comfortable with and interested in plant-based recreational and medicinal substances. In the meantime, there are labs that aren’t licensed by the state that will run safety and potency tests for concerned consumers.

“Every consumer of products has the right to know what is in them,” Huson said. “So, if you buy something and think it’s not working or whatever – send it to a laboratory. A laboratory can analyze it for you and tell you if what you’re buying is legitimate or not.”

ROSE CITY LABS ROSE CITY LABS

THE TEAM | Tyler Byrne, senior laboratory technician, Dan Huson, laboratory owner and CEO, Brytney Young, laboratory technician, Anand Carpenter-Shrestha, microbiology chemist and laboratory technician, Bjorn Fritzsche, senior chemist, and Joel Noble, microbiology director.

Mushrooms containing psilocybin are transferred and diluted into sample vials after undergoing a homogenization process. rosecitylabs.com

THE ART OF BRIAN

Aspreadfrom“

TWO HITS OF TWO HITS OF

BRIAN BLOMERTH might not have written the book on psychedelic history, but he’s certainly illustrated the novel.

A cartoonist and visual artist, he’s created work for Dead and Company, VICE, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, as well as Phish. Inspired by manga artist Suiho Tagawa and Disney legend Floyd Gottfredson, his art reflects the visual style of comic strips from the ‘40s and ‘50s. “The ‘funny animal’ genre of cartooning looks to me like the gold standard,” he told us from his home in Brooklyn. “I love it and think it’s utterly insane.”

Blomerth’s two graphic novels present stories from the history of psychedelics. “Bicycle Day” recounts the time Albert Hofmann took that historic dose of LSD, while “Mycelium Wassonii” involves R. Gordon and Valentina Wasson's experiences with mushrooms and is described as a “globetrotting vision of hallucinatory science and

religious mysticism with appearances by Life Magazine, the CIA, and the Buddha.”

Blomerth’s two graphic novels present stories from the history of psychedelics.

“Bicycle Day” recounts the time Albert Hofmann took that historic dose of LSD, while “Mycelium Wassonii” involves R. Gordon and Valentina Wasson's experiences with mushrooms and is described as a “globetrotting vision of hallucinatory science and religious mysticism with appearances by Life Magazine, the CIA, and the Buddha.”

He explained initially getting the idea while watching a documentary where Hofmann recounted his experience during that first intentional acid trip. After reading Hofmann’s book “My Problem Child,” Blomerth knew this was the perfect choice for jumpstarting the project. From there, his fascination and respect for the history has only grown. “Hofmann really believed LSD had an actual home as a substance within medicine …The Wasson’s were amateur mycologists,” said Blomerth. “They read about and researched mushrooms as a hobby and that snowballed into their meeting with Maria Sabine.”

You might assume this artist starts each project off with a heroic dose and a pad of paper, but the process really begins with tons of investigation. “I try to read as much as I can about the subjects, even things by other minor characters in the books, compile as much research as possible, then simplify it down as far as it can go,” he explained.

With each book, he’s illustrating more than a story – creating a visual language that reflects the substance. “In ‘Bicycle Day’ I used Neon Inks … which is made in a lab like LSD. For ‘Mycelium Wassonii’ I used watercolors because they have a long tradition of use by naturalists documenting plants, and because they are natural pigments,” said Blomerth. “Also, since language seems to play a big part in a mushroom trip, I gave one to the mushrooms in the book.”

Blomerth is crafting an easily digestible version of history for future generations. In his eyes, the quick-to-read, easy-to-follow path comic books carve out for readers can present dense information, but in an extremely simple way.

”Psychedelics are currently being re-evaluated by science and things are opening up in that regard,” said Blomerth.

“So I think a simple book about them is an easy way to get that history out there and maybe inform someone that wouldn’t normally go for a larger text. I don’t think that any of these will change someone’s mind about psychedelics … but the history to me is fascinating.”

We asked what his next book is about, hoping to catch a glimpse – but he answered cautiously. “I’m only on page 50 and it still has a way to go. These books all sort of work like puzzles and I’m still in the pulling my hair out phase.”

brianblomerth.com | @pupsintrouble

Blomerth’s two graphic novels, “Bicycle Day” and “Mycelium Wassonii,” published by Anthology Editions.

OF HISTORYOF HISTORY

All Things Cannabis For All People

SIGN LANGUAGE #

231

THANKS

Further Education

Despite being “too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a hippie,” author Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters played a pivotal role in transitioning between the two subcultures and launching the psychedelic revolution.

MK

ULTRA

After earning a BA in journalism from the University of Oregon in 1957, aspiring author Ken Kesey moved to the hip Perry Lane neighborhood of Palo Alto, California to enroll in Stanford University’s graduate writing program. There, he forged friendships with fellow writing student (and future BFF) Ken Babbs and a psych major named Vic Lovell – who informed him that the nearby Menlo Park Veterans Hospital was paying volunteers $75 a day to participate in a series of drug experiments, which Kesey immediately signed up for.

Codenamed Project MK Ultra, it was a military research program designed to study the effects of mind-altering substances. Over several weeks in 1959, Kesey ingested various psychedelics – including LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, peyote and others (all of which were still legal) –then underwent physical and psychological testing afterward. Through these experiments, Kesey realized the potential of psychedelics to transform society.

Kesey landed a job as a night attendant at the hospital so that he could smuggle the drugs out to share with his friends and the rest of the world. His interactions with patients there (often while tripping) inspired his best-selling novel, “One Flew Over the

Cuckoo’s Nest.” Published in 1962, the book was an instant success – adapted into a Broadway play, then an Oscar-winning film. The money he earned from “Cuckoo’s Nest” funded the next phase of his life as a counterculture icon.

MERRY PRANKSTERS

Word about MK Ultra soon made its way to Beat legend Neal Cassady (the basis of the Dean Moriarty character in Kerouac’s “On the Road,” which Kesey loved) – who, in 1960, also came to Palo Alto to partake in the experiments.

The growing influx of bohemians, coupled with psychedelics Kesey was supplying them, led to huge orgiastic parties in Perry Lane (aka “Sin Hollow”).

But in summer 1963, Kesey relocated to nearby La Honda – buying a ranch in the mountains and starting his second book, “Sometimes a Great Notion.”

By the time it was finished in 1964, he’d attracted an entourage of beatniks and freaks to his property –including his buddy Babbs, who after returning from Vietnam, allegedly came up with the moniker “Merry Pranksters” for their menagerie of miscreants.

The core cadre of Merry Pranksters consisted of 14

people, each of whom adopted new Prankster nicknames: Babbs became “Intrepid Traveler,” Cassady became “Sir Speed Limit,” and Kesey took on the title of “Captain Flag.” Kesey’s goal was to “explore what would happen when hallucinogenic-inspired spontaneity confronted what he saw as the banality and conformity of American society.” To manifest that vision, the Pranksters would embark on an epic entheogenic odyssey.

ON THE BUS

With the release of his second novel and the World’s Fair both happening in New York in the summer of ‘64, Kesey decided to lead his band of Merry Pranksters on a cross-country road trip. To accomplish this, he purchased a 1939 International Harvester school bus converted into a camper, and Pranksterized it: installing cameras and microphones, placing a stage on the roof, and painting it inside and out with psychedelic Day-Glo artwork. They christened their new magic bus “Further” (or “Furthur”) – a reference to their expanded consciousness.

On June 17, 1964, with Cassady at the wheel, the Pranksters set off with a lysergically-laced jar of orange juice on their own madcap version of “On The Road.” Along their trip, the Pranksters dosed as many willing recipients as possible, played a bunch of improvised pranks, and filmed the entire experience. Their mantra became: “You’re either on the bus, or you’re off the bus.”

Ken Kesey, from the film “Magic Trip.”

A poster of the Merry Pranksters cruising down the highway in their psychedelic bus “Further.”

Further arrived in “Madhattan” on June 29, where Cassady introduced the Pranksters to his beat buddies Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Kerouac was apparently unimpressed with their antics and distanced himself from the group. Ginsberg, however, embraced them –even making arrangements for them to drive upstate to meet fellow LSD pioneers Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert in Millbrook. Unfortunately, like Kerouac, Leary was not “on the bus” – he’d not yet embraced the dissemination of acid to the masses, still believing it should remain a controlled scientific pursuit.

By August, Further was back in La Honda with 40 hours of footage. Their two-month, cross-country sojourn – immortalized by several books and films, including Tom Wolfe’s 1968 classic “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” – is rumored to be the inspiration for The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” and is considered by many to be the beginning of the psychedelic 1960s movement.

THE ACID TESTS

Once home, Kesey launched the next stage of his plan to turn on America: a more inclusive version of the MK Ultra experiments they dubbed the Acid Tests. The Acid Tests were multimedia “happenings” featuring spoken word, art, music, projected video, fluorescent paint, funky lighting and of course, loads of acid (courtesy of the their personal chemist Owsley Stanley) distributed in cups of Kool-Aid. The goal was to “usher in a societal paradigm shift” – away from egoism towards what they called “intersubjectivity.” After a few trial runs – including a three-day party in August 1965 at La Honda at which Hunter S. Thompson and the Hells Angels first tripped on acid – they were ready to take their message to the masses. The first semi-public Acid Test occurred on November 27, 1965 at Babbs’ ranch in Soquel, known as “The Spread.” The gathering was promoted via handwritten handbills asking “Can YOU pass the Acid Test?” distributed at Babbs’ Santa Cruz bookstore, The Hip Pocket. Around 50 attendees were dosed with acid and treated to hours of sensory stimulation – including live music by a local bar band called the Warlocks (who, mere days later, would change their name to The Grateful Dead).

The following year, more Acid Test parties followed at various locations around California (then later Oregon, Canada and Mexico). The Grateful Dead became the unofficial house band of these events, although other psych rock legends (such as Jefferson Airplane and The Doors) also made appearances – as did other counterculture figures who quickly became part of the Prankster entourage, including performance artist Wavy Gravy and Carolyn “Mountain Girl” Adams (who would eventually have a daughter with Kesey, then later marry Jerry Garcia).

MARIJUANA BUSTS & TRIPS FESTIVAL

Unfortunately, their parties attracted the attention of authorities, who began surveilling Kesey’s home. On April 23, 1965, DEA agents raided Kesey’s ranch, where they caught him flushing a jar of weed down the toilet. Ultimately, 14 people were arrested on marijuana charges, including Kesey, Cassady and Mountain Girl. Kesey was later found guilty and sentenced to six months at the San Mateo County Jail. Just two days after his sentencing, Kesey and Mountain Girl were again arrested on marijuana charges while smoking a joint on the roof of a house on Telegraph Hill. Kesey posted bail and returned to preparing for their biggest Acid Test yet, set to take place two days later: the Trips Festival at San Francisco’s Longshoreman’s Hall.

Held on January 21-23, 1966, the Trips Festival featured mime and acting troupes, dancers, avant-garde artists, light shows, and live music from The Dead and Big Brother and The Holding Company in their debut performance (pre-Janis Joplin). Over 10,000 people reportedly showed up, drank the Kool-Aid, and partied with the Pranksters. Considered the first true hippie event, the Trips Festival is credited with kick-starting the psychedelic scene in San Francisco.

Of course, since Kesey had just been arrested two days prior, he was forced to attend in disguise – wearing a spaceman suit and helmet. And with fears of a possible five-year sentence now hanging over his head, Kesey made a desperate decision.

FUN-LOVING FUGITIVE

On January 31, 1966, Further was found abandoned on a seaside cliff outside Eureka, along with what appeared to be a suicide note. Kesey hadn’t actually committed suicide – in another

prank to misdirect police, he’d jumped bail and escaped into Mexico. The media seemingly bought into the ruse; the FBI, however, did not – they launched a manhunt for the “fun-loving fugitive” but couldn’t locate him.

Meanwhile, the Pranksters were hosting more Acid Tests in Los Angeles, where Wavy Gravy filled trash cans with LSD-laced fruit drink and began handing out 300-microgram-dose cups – coining the term “Electric Kool-Aid” for the beverage (hence the title of Wolfe’s book).

After the LA tests, the Pranksters – along with Kesey’s family – drove Further down to Mexico to meet up with him. It wasn’t until after making their clandestine return to the Bay in the fall of ‘66 that authorities finally apprehended Kesey. Luckily, he was offered a plea deal that allowed him to spend only six months (including the Summer of Love) in a work camp, but the deal reportedly had one unfortunate stipulation: Kesey allegedly agreed to publicly disavow LSD.

GRADUATION & DISSOLUTION

With LSD becoming illegal in California on October 24, 1968, the Pranksters planned their last big hurrah for Halloween night at a warehouse in San Francisco: The Acid Test Graduation. They all wore caps and gowns, Cassady handed out “Acid Test Diplomas,” and Kesey delivered a “commencement address” in which he encouraged attendees to “graduate” beyond needing LSD. It was essentially an Acid Test party without the acid, which predictably didn’t go over very well: Only a couple hundred attendees showed up, and many reportedly grew bored and left early.

Sadly, the Acid Test Graduation party proved to be the Merry Pranksters’ swan song. They held a few more minor events and even took Further to Woodstock in 1969 … but after that, Kesey disbanded the group, took his bus and moved back to Oregon, where he spent the remainder of his life on a farm with his family. Kesey died of complications arising after liver surgery on November 10, 2001, at the age of 66.

While Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters may not have ushered in the utopian America they envisioned, the impact of their exploits created countercultural shockwaves that still reverberate to this day.

To read the full, unabridged version of this story and listen to our Cannthropology podcast, visit worldofcannabis.museum/cannthropology.

The Merry Pranksters’ epic entheogenic odyssey— rumored to be the inspiration for The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour”—is considered the beginning of the psychedelic movement.

LSD pioneer Timothy Leary “on the bus” with Further driver and beatnik icon Neal Cassady.

*ALLEN GINSBERG

Ken Babbs in a superhero mask at one of the Acid Tests.

Acid Test flyers.

PEEK INTO SOMEONE’S FRIDGE, AND YOU GLIMPSE THEIR SOUL. Because what one chooses to store in the crib’s chilliest place provides clues to those with inspective impulses while grabbing a glass of water. Are there indications of plans for the unexpected (or expected) Armageddon, or is it a bare bones, protein shake and salad with raspberry vinegarette affair?

Food lends definition to our existence. And what we choose to stock in the container of cool mirrors our personality. This inventory often reflects how we manage our bodies, entertain people, and what we stand for as members of society.

And the volume speaks volumes.

For instance, if you find frozen Salisbury steak television-ready dinners amassed on the freezer shelves, chances are good that the person bathes at least once a week – whether he needs it or not. If the veggies appear visibly abundant and there’s oat milk and faux meat, she most likely keeps a yoga mat close by. And if a tub of Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream and leftover Domino’s pizza is evident, then it’s obvious they are a stoner. However, some may find that contradictory because a stoner probably wouldn’t have any Ben and Jerry’s ice cream left. So, let’s pretend they just made a grocery run.

And by the way, the Cap’n Crunch that sits on top of the refrigerator does indeed deserve inclusion.

It’s almost like the refrigerator is your butler. It stands ready at the guard; you chat with it. You audit the innards and shuffle the contents accordingly.

Its interior reflects a calendar of sorts, most items categorized by preference while others stay static – the capers, the horseradish, the sauce you took a chance on –accessibility based upon frequency.

This cold cache is an indirect barometer of your success. It’s important that you’re content with the contents. And it’s where you stash your quality dabs. Right next to the Devil’s lettuce.

EXTREMELY TASTY & POTENT

Whole bud flower is infused with a proprietary process that combined diamonds, natural botanical terpenes and pure kief all contained within the pre-roll to produce a potent flavor explosion and high THC content for that desired Lift o or couch lock without the mess and burn of a traditional pre-roll.

This product has not been analyzed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). There is limited information on the side e ects of using this product, and there may be associated health risks. Marijuana use during pregnancy and breast-feeding may pose potential harms. It is against the law to drive or operate machinery when under the influence of this product. KEEP THIS PRODUCT AWAY FROM CHILDREN. There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product. Marijuana can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. The impairment e ects of Edibles may be delayed by two hours or more. In case of accidental ingestion, contact poison control hotline 1-800-222-1222 or 9-1-1. This product may be illegal outside of MA. Please Consume Responsibly.  For use only by adults 21 years of age or older. Keep out of the reach of children. There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product.