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NORTHEAST
THE HARVEST iSSUE EXPLORING HEMP & CANNABIS ACROSS THE NORTHEAST F RE E / L E A F M AGA Z I N E S . COM
Tap Root Fields hemp farm in Upstate New York
INDEPENDENT CANNABIS JOURNALISM SINCE 2010
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Harvesting HomegrowN in Maine
HIGH POINT HEMP ROCHESTER, MASS.
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BAILEY JONSON
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BAYGROWN FARMS ROCHESTER, MASS.
42 The Sinsemilla Story
Way back before there was a Leaf Nation and even before there was a High Times magazine, the groundbreaking Cannabis publication Sinsemilla Tips provided aspiring Cannabis heads and growers with all the tips, tricks and news they needed to survive and thrive in the underground scene. ///////////// story by bobby black
NOV. 2021
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SHOP REVIEW ROSE MARY JANE | PORTLAND, ME
DAN VIMKOVETSKY
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CHARLES TAGGART
30 YEARS OF CHEMDOG
7 EDITOR’S NOTE 8 N AT I O N A L N E W S 10 L O C A L N E W S 16 R E E F O R M N J 18 R O S E M A R Y J A N E 20 3 0 Y E A R S O F C H E M D O G 24 S T R A I N O F T H E M O N T H 28 TA P R O O T F I E L D S 30 H I G H P O I N T H E M P 32 B AY G R O W N F A R M S 34 M A I N E H O M E G R O W N 38 D I R I G O D A N K C O T M 40 B O S T O N H E M P I R E T O T M 42 C A N N T H R O P O L O G Y 46 S T O N E Y B A L O N E Y
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CANNA PROVISIONS
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CHARLES TAGGART
the HARVEST issue
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Please consume responsibly. This product may cause impairment and may be habit forming. Marijuana can impair concentration, coordination and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. This product has not been analyzed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration 4FDA). There is limited information on the side effects 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. The impairment effects of Edibles may be delayed by two hours or more. Massachusetts: in case of accidental ingestion, contact poison control hotline 1-800-222-1222 or -1-1.
the HARVEST issue
FEATURE
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LEAFMAGAZINES.COM
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TAP ROOT FIELDS NE Leaf explores this stunning Upstate New York hemp farm.
NOV. 2021
STORY by DAN VINKOVETSKY @DANNYDANKOHT/NORTHEAST LEAF | PHOTOS by MARY BUTTOLPH @MARYBUTTOLPH
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T H E E N L I G H T E N E D VO I C E
N O RT H W E S T L E A F / O R EG O N L E A F / A L AS KA L E A F / M A RY L A N D L E A F / CA L I F O R N I A L E A F /
A B O U T T H E C OV E R For our second-annual Harvest Issue, photographer Mary Buttolph documented the busiest time of the year at Tap Root Fields, a beautiful hemp farm located in Upstate New York. This month’s special edition features hemp and Cannabis farms in Massachusetts, Maine, New York and New Jersey — but if you want to see exclusive photos and stories from outdoor farms in the other states the Leaf covers, we encourage you to spend a sesh with our free digital archive at Issuu.com/nwleaf & LeafMagazines.com. Our sincere thanks to all the farmers who welcomed our team in this month!
PHOTO by MARY BUTTOLPH for NORTHEAST LEAF @MARYBUTTOLPH
CONTRIBUTORS
WES ABNEY | FOUNDER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
JUSTIN ALLEN, PHOTOS EMMANUEL BELLE, PHOTOS BOBBY BLACK, DESIGN + FEATURES JOSHUA BOULET, ILLUSTRATION MARY BUTTOLPH, PHOTOS EARLY, PRODUCTION MIKE GIANAKOS, FEATURES P. AIDEN HUNT, FEATURES BAILEY JONSON, FEATURES + PHOTOS DAN MCCARTHY, FEATURES + PHOTOS BOBBY NUGGZ, FEATURES + PHOTOS BAXSEN PAINE. FEATURES JEFF PORTERFIELD, DESIGN MIKE RICKER, FEATURES MEGHAN RIDLEY, EDITING PACER STACKTRAIN, FEATURES CHARLES TAGGART, FEATURES + PHOTOS JAMIE VICTOR, ILLUSTRATION DAN VINKOVETSKY, FEATURES
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ABNEY
Editor’s Note Thanks for picking up The Harvest Issue of the Leaf! WE’VE BEEN publishing our harvest issues for many years now and it continues to be one of my favorites. There is something truly special about outdoor Cannabis – and the people who put their livelihoods or medicinal needs on the line to grow a plant for six or more months – with no guarantee of success. Welcome to farming! On top of the sacrifices and risks they face, they also face stigma about the quality of the product they have worked so hard on.
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But let me tell you this: Cannabis is a plant. And the natural expression of terpenes and flavors that the plant produces when exposed to sunlight can never be replicated in an indoor environment. I encourage all of our readers to flip through our scenic harvest special, read the stories of true farm life and enjoy this magazine that we worked so hard on. But I also challenge you to purchase sungrown Cannabis and experience the plant in a natural form. Believe me when I say that while it may look different than indoor flower, it’s no less beautiful – and much more tasty than the mid-grade indoor Cannabis flooding the market.
“MY VOTE GOES TO ORGANIC FRUITS AND VEGGIES FOR OUR FAMILIES, AND AN AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM THAT GIVES BACK TO THE EARTH.”
On a sustainability note, our planet, societies and industries are all at a turning point, with our futures decided by us as enlightened consumers. Do we want synthetic, harmful products for our bodies? Do we want hothouse-grown and pesticide-sprayed vegetables or weed?
My vote goes to organic fruits and veggies for our families, and an agricultural system that gives back to the Earth. So, what impact do we want our favorite plant to have on our planet? Society votes and decides its future with dollars, and I hope that everyone reading this gives outdoor Cannabis a try. It supports both the farmer and the environment. Not to mention, both your head and your heart will thank you for it! As always, thank you for reading – and please enjoy our Harvest Issue while sampling the bounty of this year’s crop!
-Wes Abney NOV. 2021
leafmagazines.com
PUBLISHER
WES
N O RT H E AS T L E A F
national news LEAFMAGAZINES.COM
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eattle in October became the largest U.S. city to allow adult cultivation and consumption of mushrooms and other psychedelics, as the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a resolution to decriminalize non-commercial use around natural psychedelic substances. The Emerald City joins a handful of other enlightened cities in decriminalizing psilocybin and similar substances POLICE WILL since Denver MAKE IT AMONG kicked off a THEIR LOWEST wave of such PRIORITIES TO changes ARREST OR three years PROSECUTE ago. ANYONE IN Police ACTIVITIES will make it RELATED TO among their “ENTHEOGENS,” lowest priorities to arrest or prosecute anyone in activities related to “entheogens,” reports Bloomberg. That category includes natural substances like psilocybin and ayahuasca, often used for spiritual or religious purposes. Psilocybin, a mind-altering substance found in magic mushrooms, is a Schedule I drug, the most-restrictive category. Seattle becomes at least the ninth U.S. city to take such landmark action in recent years. It joins Denver, Washington D.C. and Ann Arbor, Michigan, among other cities. In 2020, Oregon became the first state to legalize psilocybin for therapeutic use.
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suspects broke into a Norman, Oklahoma medical Cannabis dispensary in October and stole thousands of dollars worth of products.
NOV. 2021
politics
NBA AGREES TO END RANDOM DRUG TESTING
SEATTLE BECOMES LARGEST CITY TO DECRIMINALIZE PSYCHEDELICS
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SOUTHWEST
NORMALIZATION
northwest
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he NBA has agreed to not randomly test players for marijuana this season. “We have agreed with the NBPA to extend the suspension of random testing for marijuana for the 2021-22 season and focus our random testing program on performance-enhancing products and drugs of abuse,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in October. Marijuana remains prohibited in the league’s collective bargaining agreement. But negotiations between the league and players’ association loosened restrictions, reports ESPN. “Usage was already fairly common among players,” writes Dan Feldman at NBC Sports. “As momentum moves one direction both nationally and within the league, the NBA seems unlikely to take what’d now become the drastic step of reimplementing random testing.”
ARKANSANS ARE EMBRACING MMJ
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ince that first dispensary opened in 2019 in May, Arkansans have spent about $430 million to purchase almost 64,000 pounds of medical marijuana,” said Scott Hardin, with the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission. “Which I think it’s safe to say, that exceeds our expectation, because you never know how many people will participate.” Hardin said the medical Cannabis industry has thrived during the pandemic. Medical marijuana is taxed 10.5% in Arkansas. There’s a 6.5% sales tax on most retail items in the state. The 4% privilege tax goes to the University of Arkansas for Medical Science, to establish a national cancer institute. “If you walk into a dispensary and spend $100, you’ll spend $10.50 additionally in state taxes,” Hardin said. “Those two taxes – we’ve collected just under $50,000,000, $49.6 million to be specific.”
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new licenses were issued in October by the New Jersey Medical Marijuana Commission.
770
pounds of “high-grade” marijuana were found in a storage locker in Florida, according to the BCSO.
The groundbreaking ceremony Oct. 6
FEDERAL CANNABIS GROW OPENS IN NEW MEXICO
C
annabis has been in a cultural process of “mainstreaming” for awhile now, in New Mexico and nationwide. But the federal government has remained a stubborn roadblock to progress. However, federal officials are finally allowing the plant to be researched. The Bright Green Corporation has obtained a federal permit for a sanctioned marijuana grow in Grants, New Mexico, reports KOB 4. “We are one of three, in the United States of America, that are federally legal to handle Schedule I drugs,” said Terry Rafih, chairman of Bright Green Corporation. “We chose Grants, New Mexico because of the climate.” “If you look at the number of people that are dependent on opioids for many different pains and ailments that we deal with, the product that we are going “WE ARE ONE to be proOF THREE, IN ducing out of THE UNITED here and the patents that we STATES OF AMERICA, THAT have – hopeARE FEDERALLY fully – we’re LEGAL TO hoping it will HANDLE eliminate, SCHEDULE I eventually, DRUGS,” SAID opioids. That TERRY RAFIH, is our goal,” CHAIRMAN OF Rafih said. BRIGHT GREEN The strucCORPORATION. ture of a greenhouse has already been erected at the New Mexico facility. The entire facility will soon be a 115-acre research and manufacturing Cannabis plant. With more than 100 employees, company officials say it’s worth more than $300 million in investments.
64k
marijuana distribution charges were sealed by Virginia in October along with 330,000 simple possession charges.
CRIST PROMISES LEGAL MARIJUANA IF ELECTED FL. GOV.
F
lorida gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist announced in October that he would legalize marijuana if elected governor next year, reports the Tampa Bay Times. Crist added he would also expunge misdemeanor or third-degree “IF I’M felony records ELECTED related to GOVERNOR Cannabis. I WILL “Let me LEGALIZE be clear, if MARIJUANA I’m elected IN THE governor I will SUNSHINE legalize marSTATE.” ijuana in the Sunshine State,” Crist said in a video posted on his Twitter. “This is the first part of the Crist contract with Florida,” the candidate said, reports The Hill. “For too long we have focused on incarceration, when we should be focusing on rehabilitation,” he said. “We know that people across racial and income levels use marijuana at the same rate. And yet, for decades, it’s been poor, Black, and/or Hispanic folks targeted for prison on marijuana charges,” Crist said in December 2020. “That tells me that marijuana has been legal now for a while, if you had the right skin tone or the right paycheck.”
$1b $2.1b
in legal marijuana sales were recorded in Nevada for the 2021 fiscal year.
deal makes Florida’s Trulieve the nation’s largest retailer of medical Cannabis, according to an October news release.
STORIES by STEVE ELLIOTT, AUTHOR OF THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF MARIJUANA
Stem is your cannabis comfort zone, where there’s always a warm welcome and a ready recommendation, right in buzzing downtown Haverhill. We stock the broadest, most exciting variety of top-quality products in the region, and our sociable staff will help you discover the best cannabis experience for you. So, if you’re ready to feel at home, soak in some eclectic tunes, and kick back with our brilliant budtenders, then join us. And no matter where you’re from, consider us your local joint.
Flowers • Edibles • Concentrates Tinctures • Accessories • Artisan glass
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S T E M H AV E R H I L L The Local Joint for All @stemhaverhill
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Please Consume Responsibly. This product may cause impairment and be habit forming. For use only by adults 21 years of age or older. Keep out of the reach of children. This product has not been analyzed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). There is limited information on the side effects 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. The impairment effects 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.
LOCAL NEWS
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NEW YORK ENDS EMPLOYEE DRUG TESTING
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orkers can no longer be tested for THC in New York State. The Department of Labor (DOL) effectively ended drug testing when it announced new guidelines last month that prevent employers from testing their workers for Cannabis use. New York is not the first state to end penalties for positive pot tests in the workplace. However, it is the first state to actively ban testing by employers. The DOL explicitly states that workers cannot be tested, even if an employer is following federal law that permits drug testing. While the new THC testing policy protects most workers in the state, there are some exceptions, including people employed by the federal Department of Transportation. In addition to ending drug testing, the DOL is also making it much more difficult for employers to penalize workers for using Cannabis on the job. New rules specify that employers must prove a worker is actively impaired – and simply smelling like pot is not considered legitimate evidence. According to the DOL, an employee can only be punished for pot use if they “manifest specific articulable symptoms of impairment” while on the job. And, the guidelines explain that these symptoms must also hinder job performance and “interfere with an employer’s obligation to provide a safe and healthy workplace, free from recognized hazards, as required by state and federal
90 Percent of Maine Towns Ban Retail Pot
occupational safety and health laws.” Furthermore, the DOL states that employers aren’t required to punish workers for using or possessing Cannabis while on duty. But if they choose to, the burden of proof is substantial and it rests squarely on employers, thanks to the state’s new rules. After a slow start, legalization is starting to take shape in New York. New Gov. Kathy Hochul has made important regulatory appointments that will allow the state to move forward in implementing its pot program – a program that had stalled under the leadership of former Gov. Photo by Curtis Adams Andrew Cuomo. The Cannabis Control Board, a five-member commission that oversees the state’s marijuana industry, has already made an important change to the medical pot program. Medical dispensaries in New York will now be allowed to sell Cannabis in flower form for the first time. Previously, the state’s medical program only allowed patients to access edibles and extracts.
But, the industry will ultimately fail to reach its full potential if 90 percent of the state continues to ban Cannabis businesses. One issue the state will have to address is the distribution of marijuana tax revenue. Under the current system, all retail pot sales tax goes to the state and not the jurisdiction where the sales were made. Maine Cannabis Industry Association President Joel Pepin suggests the lack of payoff at the local level could be a reason so few towns have embraced legal pot businesses.
LEAFMAGAZINES.COM
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ust 10 percent of Maine towns have opted in to the recreational Cannabis industry. The vast majority of jurisdictions in the state – an incredible 90 percent – currently do not allow adult-use retail stores, according to the Bangor Daily News. That means that just 47, out of about 500 jurisdictions statewide, allow recreational pot shops to do business. Those 47 towns account for less than 30 percent of the state’s population. The small number of municipalities that have embraced legal Cannabis is even more surprising considering the success of Maine’s retail pot industry. Since adult-use sales began in October 2020, the state has managed to set a new retail record each month. According to the Office of Marijuana Policy, which oversees the Cannabis industry in Maine, the state hit the $10 million milestone for the first time in August 2021, as retail sales accounted for approximately $10.2 million that month – up from $9.4 million in July. The state’s 133,969 Cannabis sales in August brought in about $1 million in tax revenue. Statewide sales accounted for a total of approximately $1 million when adult-use retail launched last October. At that time, just six licensed shops serviced the entire state. Now, 58 adultuse shops are operational throughout Maine. And the increase in supply has helped to drop pot prices, which were initially above average for the region.
NOV. 2021
Photo by Cambridge Jenkins IV
CANNABIS CORRUPTION
IN MASSACHUSETTS H ost Community Agreements (HCAs) in Massachusetts are under fire in the wake of a lawsuit claiming a Cannabis company was excessively charged by the town of Haverhill. Recreational retailer Stem revealed in its lawsuit against Haverhill that the city is charging an annual impact fee of $1.3 million for its three Cannabis businesses. HCAs are a unique aspect of the state’s adult-use Cannabis law. They require pot companies to sign an agreement with the town in which they wish to operate. However, the agreements also include an impact fee. An impact fee is ostensibly a tax the town charges the Cannabis company to offset issues involving anything from increased policing to parking issues associated with the new marijuana business. But in reality, impact fees – and HCAs – are the dirty little secret of Massachusetts’ recreational pot industry, allowing towns to fill their coffers with what is essentially a pay to play bribe. Some have even called the state’s HCAs and impact fees legal extortion. The use of HCAs gives local elected officials outsized power over would-be pot businesses. And while this dynamic may not often lead to extortion per se, advocates are concerned with the legal demands officials make of applicants – including donating to local charities, pledging their employees’ time to municipal functions and other “good faith” payments. There’s also plenty of evidence of less-than-good-faith payments. Earlier this year, the former mayor of Fall River, Jasiel Correia, was found guilty of taking $600,000 in bribes from Cannabis businesses. Additionally, a study
conducted by the University of Massachusetts found that local governments in the state have collected nearly $2.5 million more than allowed by law through HCAs. In 2019, a Massachusetts law firm found that nearly four out of five HCAs were illegal. That same year, the FBI began looking into corruption in the Massachusetts pot industry. In the case of Stem, the City of Haverhill is charging the three Cannabis businesses Photo by Karolina Grabowska $1,312,268.65 a year to offset their economic impact. And $866,930 of that annual fee will go directly to the Haverhill Police Department, along with a one-time fee of $156,798. According to the city, this money was needed to pay for six additional police officers to cover Cannabis shops and impaired driving, two additional cruisers, training to recognize marijuana impairment, the creation of a Behavioral Response Unit and the cost of weapons and gear for the cops. So, essentially, the revenue created by the Cannabis businesses in town will go directly to policing the Cannabis customers in town. We can only hope that the extra attention the lawsuit has created for HCAs and impact fees in Massachusetts will lead to some much needed reform. Or perhaps more jurisdictions will follow the example of Northampton, which stopped collecting Cannabis impact fees in January 2021.
CURBSIDE
CANCELLED
FOR REC POT C
urbside pickup is no longer an option for recreational Cannabis customers in Massachusetts. The program, which began in May 2020 as part of the state of emergency declared by Gov. Charlie Baker due to the coronavirus pandemic, was well-liked by customers for its safety and convenience. While the Cannabis Control Commission voted to extend curbside pickup for medical marijuana patients, it did not reinstate the option for recreational purchases, which technically expired September 1, 2021. Recreational curbside pickup had already been extended beyond the governor’s state of emergency, but some customers were hoping it would continue given the increase in coronavirus cases caused in part by the Delta variant. However, officials noted that adult-use consumers who wish to limit contact while purchasing Cannabis can use the state’s delivery program. The state’s recreational marijuana delivery program is relatively new, but growing. And, as delivery licenses are currently exclusively granted to qualified equity applicants, opting to have your pot delivered will help support Massachusetts’s social equity program.
Photo by Rodnae Productions
STORIES by MIKE GIANAKOS @MIKEGEEZEEY
LOCAL NEWS
>> Continued from pg. 11
CELEBS SELL CANNABIS P
12 Photo by Grav
op star Justin Bieber is the latest celebrity attempting to transition to pot star, as the singer has released his own Cannabis product. Bieber partnered with the California Cannabis company Palms and NETA dispensaries in Massachusetts to release a limited edition line of pre-rolls. The product contains seven pre-rolled joints and a branded lighter, and is called “Peaches,” after a song from his latest album. Peaches packs debuted in October at dispensaries in four states, including NETA’s two locations in Northampton and Brookline, Mass. Later this year, they will be available at the new Franklin location as well. According to Bieber, this foray into pot is all about normalizing marijuana use. “I’m a fan of Palms and what they are doing by making Cannabis approachable and helping to destigmatize it – especially for the many people who find it helpful for their mental health,” he said in a statement. Ten percent of all sales of Peaches will go to the advocacy groups Veterans Walk and Talk and Last Prisoner Project. Not to be outdone by the Biebs, Steven Van Zandt – best known as the guitarist for Burce Springteen’s E Street Band and for playing the role of Silvio Dante on “The Sopranos” – also released a line of pre-rolls in October. Van Zandt’s pot product, Little Steven’s Underground Apothecary pre-rolls, will be available exclusively through Canna Provisions, which has locations in Lee and Holyoke. Little Steven’s pre-rolls come five to a pack and contain high-CBD, Massachusetts-grown Cannabis, which Canna Provisions says provide “less of a stoned high and more of a full-body balancing effect with uplifting pep.” In addition to destigmatizing Cannabis use, Van Zandt was motivated to release a pot product to improve people’s quality of life and personal wellbeing. Ten percent of sales of Little Steven’s Underground Apothecary pre-rolls will go to NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws).
VERMONT’S POT PLAN LEAFMAGAZINES.COM
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new report from Vermont’s Cannabis Control Board estimates that retail pot sales could bring in as much as $225 million a year by 2025. If marijuana purchases reach that lofty height, it would create $46 million annually in tax revenue for the state. The board submitted its report, including suggested rules and regulations for the new retail industry, to legislative committees as the state prepares for the launch of adult-use sales. In an effort to create a competitive program, the report examined many aspects of the marijuana market. It estimates the state will require 450,000500,000 square feet of Cannabis canopy to grow enough pot. To provide that canopy, the board proposes creating different tiers for grows, with 1,000 square feet or less the smallest, and up to 25,000 and 37,500 square feet the largest tiers for indoor and outdoor grows, respectively. The board also suggests two retail license types: one being the traditional Cannabis storefront and the other a nursery, which would provide seeds, clones and plants. Existing medical dispensaries will be allowed to sell recreational Cannabis when the program launches. While it doesn’t specify, the report allows for additional license types, like delivery businesses. State law requires that licensing fees must meet the program’s annual budget, but the board appears cognizant of the fact that higher fees make the industry less inclusive. The report proposes fees as little as $750 annually for the smallest grows, and up to $37,500 for the largest indoor grows, which have the most environmental impact. Additionally, the report proposes a sliding scale for lower income applicants and waiving fees for qualified social equity applicants.
NOV. 2021
Photo by Crystal Weed Cannabis
Vermont legalized Cannabis in 2018. However, the initial law only allowed for personal possession and cultivation of marijuana. The state worked toward creating a tax and regulate program and ultimately legalized retail sales of Cannabis in 2020. Beginning in October 2022, adults 21 and older can purchase pot products from dispensaries.
THE WAITING GAME N ew Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy now believes retail Cannabis sales won’t begin until the middle of next year. The governor’s assessment comes as frustration continues to grow over the implementation of the state’s adult-use pot program. Industry hopefuls are concerned with the apparent lack of urgency on the part of officials. New Jersey’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission was supposed to begin accepting applications for adult-use businesses in September, but had to delay the process. However, the Commission did award 14 new medical marijuana licenses in mid-October. Ten new licenses were granted to medical Cannabis cultivators, while four additional licenses went to vertically integrated medical companies. The medical licenses were from an application request in 2019. However, a court case delayed the process by more than a year. All of the new licenses were issued to minority or women owned businesses. The new medical licenses should help increase supply for the state’s 117,000 registered pot patients. Officials acknowledge that the state should currently have 26 medical Cannabis cultivators and 61 dispensaries in operation. As we go to press, patients rely on just 23 dispensaries supplied by 10 cultivators.
Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich
Regulators in New Jersey contend that licensed medical marijuana businesses will be best positioned to transition to adult-use sales. But first they must operate as medical Cannabis companies for a minimum of one year and pay fees to the state, before they can eventually provide retail weed. After legalizing Cannabis on Election Day 2020, New Jersey had a huge lead on neighboring state New York, and looked certain to beat its rival to the recreational marijuana market. But a difficult legislative process caused delays in getting a bill signed into law and, since the law took effect, the Garden State has faced uncertainty, delays and (many) local opt-outs. While New York ultimately passed its own Cannabis law in the spring of 2021, the program languished as former Gov. Andrew Cuomo failed to create an integral regulatory board. Nevertheless, New York now appears on track under new Gov. Kathy Hochul. And while retail sales may still be months away, the Empire State could get there before New Jersey. At the moment, officials from both states foresee public pot sales beginning sometime in 2022.
Progress for CT Pot Patients R
ecreational Cannabis is legal now in Connecticut, but the state’s medical program is benefiting. The Department of Consumer Protection decided to increase the monthly allotment of medical marijuana each patient is allowed to obtain, from 2.5 to 3 ounces. And, more good news for the state’s 54,000 pot patients: They no longer have to choose just one dispensary to patronize. Patients are now allowed to purchase Cannabis at any of Connecticut’s 18 medical marijuana dispensaries. Industry insiders view these changes as steps the state is taking to protect the medical pot program as retail weed ramps up. Some believe the monthly limit of medical Cannabis will ultimately increase to 5 ounces before retail sales begin. Officials anticipate the adult-use market launching in 2022. Connecticut’s legalization law also allows medical pot patients to grow their own Cannabis at home. The new rule went into effect October 1. Patients 18 and older are permitted to grow up to six pot plants – with a maximum of 12 plants in households with more than one qualified patient. Recreational users will have to wait a bit longer before they can start their home grows, as non-patients will be allowed to grow at home beginning in July 2023. The state hopes to have adult-use sales well on the way by then. Connecticut’s law legalized the possession of up to 1.5 ounces of Cannabis and up to 5 ounces in a private residence.
Photo by Green Force Staffing
STORIES by MIKE GIANAKOS @MIKEGEEZEEY
feature
REEFormNJ New Jersey entrepreneurs bring social equity brand REEForm to East Coast
ocial justice in Cannabis has become a popular topic, however, actual change is elusive. But two New Jersey Cannabis entrepreneurs are building a business around making a difference in their community – they’re trying to deliver on the promise of social equity in Cannabis. On September 14, New Jerseyians gathered at the Doubletree Hilton in Newark to learn about improving their futures. While some states still enforce federal Cannabis prohibition, others have paved the way for expunging criminal Cannabis records. Expungement erases convictions, removing lasting penalties for breaking a broken law. Brendon Robinson and Stanley Okoro co-founded 420NJEvents as a Cannabis-adjacent business – one of the many companies that serve the Cannabis industry without actually manufacturing or selling Cannabis products. Instead, they use their website, podcast and events to focus on education and inclusion. The childhood friends, who refer to each other as brothers, recently partnered with celebrity activist Weldon Angelos. Their new brand, REEForm NJ, will help New Jersey’s remaining Cannabis political prisoners.
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Brendon Robinson and Stanley Okoro co-founded 420NJEvents, which hosted a free Expungement Clinic Sept. 14, 2021 in Newark, NJ that cleared low-level Cannabis charges for New Jersey residents.
Before they even recorded the interview in August, Okoro and Robinson had teamed up with Angelos on a new venture. “We saw the work he was doing with his nonprofit,” Okoro told us, “and just hit it off.” Angelos told them about a company called REEForm Cannabis – a brand that pledges to put part of the proceeds from each sale toward the commissary accounts of nonviolent federal Cannabis prisoners. Okoro and Robinson jumped at the chance to bring that same promise to New Jersey. “Me and my brother knew right then and there that we had to be a part of this,” said Okoro. F R O M P O D C A S T T O PA R T N E R S H I P Angelos understands the plight of people “We got into it back in 2017, when Stan had serving time for Cannabis convictions better than this idea,” Robinson told Northeast Leaf. “This most. The former music producer received a 55organization has an opportunity to educate Black year federal Cannabis sentence in 2003. After a and Brown folks about Cannabis as a business 13-year bipartisan campaign that opportunity, as well as an alternative REEForm aims to included the judge who sentenced medicine.” Robinson used a decade of exhelp nonviolent him and a variety of celebrities, he released from prison in 2016 perience in commercial banking to federal Cannabis was and fully pardoned last year. pursue the dream he shared with his prisoners stay Angelos founded The Weldon lifelong friend. For the first few years, safe, fed and in Project and launched its Mission they weren’t sure if the idea would work out. However, when Cannabis contact with their [Green] initiative to raise awareness help other drug war victims, by activists and consumers turned their loved ones. This and finding a way to help those servfocus to social equity, the new attigoal struck home ing time for Cannabis to sustain tude offered new opportunities. themselves. for Okoro and “We saw the responses to our “If you don’t have money,” said posts,” Robinson said. “Whether it Robinson. Angelos, on the September podcast, was on our website, on Instagram, “you’re going to bed hungry every night. Without on LinkedIn, you know. It really made me realize having friends and family putting money on your the opportunity here for us to make a difference.” books, you struggle.” Prisons have commissaries One of the ways Robinson and Okoro eduto buy necessary products, but you can’t earn cate and inform is through their Higher Learning money for extras while locked up. with 420NJEvents podcast. Earlier this year, they REEForm aims to help nonviolent federal reached out to Angelos to be a guest and planned Cannabis prisoners stay safe, fed and in contact to talk to the music producer turned activist about with their loved ones. This goal struck home for his initiative, Mission [Green], to help those Okoro and Robinson. who’ve suffered the consequences of the drug war.
NOV. 2021
“I remember when my uncle actually got locked up,” said Okoro. “I saw the toll that took on him and his family.” Robinson was a collateral victim of the drug war as well. When he was 13, his father was put in prison for a mandatory minimum 10year sentence. With REEForm NJ, founded in May, the serial entrepreneurs hope to at least mitigate the harm still being inflicted. FROM VICTIMS TO VICTORS
The expungement event held in September helped almost 80 people to shake off the shackles of drug conviction. With a clean record, they may be eligible to find good employment in a growing field. In addition to 420NJEvents and REEForm NJ, Okoro and Robinson also co-founded the Minority Cannabis Academy in March. The nonprofit aims to provide online and in-person instruction to help minority candidates succeed in the Cannabis industry. Like many sales pitches for higher education, MCA touts a focus on job placement in the industry. However, having Cannabis multi-state operators like Columbia Care and The Apothecarium co-sponsoring the expungement clinic suggests these two have big plans and business reach. “We are working on a career Cannabis fair.” said Okoro, of future plans. “It’s gonna be a two-part event.” The first part, Okoro said, will be a resume building workshop. The second part will put those resumes to the test with a Cannabis job fair to connect New Jersey’s Cannabis employers with an engaged workforce. “So that’s something to keep an eye out for.” REEFORMCANNABIS.COM | @REEF_ORM 420NJEVENTS.COM | @420NJEVENTS
STORY by P. AIDEN HUNT @PAIDENHUNT81 for NORTHEAST LEAF | PHOTOS by EMMANUEL BELLE @THEPRINCENETWORK
feature
Rose Mary Jane Portland, Maine dispensary highlights the fight for social justice An Oakland, CA Cannabis company with a passion for pot-law reform opened its first retail storefront in Portland, Maine this fall. The group behind the new dispensary, Rose Mary Jane, celebrated Cannabis freedom while stressing the importance of social equity at the store’s grand opening on September 23.
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UPON ARRIVING at Rose Mary Jane, visitors are greeted by beautiful stretched canvas artwork on the building’s walls – an inviting and welcoming touch. After showing ID, customers enter a well-appointed display room with wood-framed glass cases containing a large variety of locally cultivated craft Cannabis products, as well as an assortment of smoking accessories. Overall, Rose Mary Jane had a warm, professional atmosphere. Shelves were filled with a variety of books about marijuana, while artwork hung on the walls featuring slogans extolling the virtues of social justice in Cannabis and the importance of women-run businesses. And all the employees present at the opening, including budtenders, managers and a Cannabis purchasing agent, were very well informed, helpful and enthusiastic. While the Portland shop is Rose Mary Jane’s first R OS E M A RY JAN E adult-use retail location, the company has been in 327 ST. JOHN ST. operation for nearly three years with the mission of using PORTLAND, MAINE the Cannabis business to move social justice issues OPEN DAILY 10A-9:30P forward. That goal is more than just a slogan for RMJ ROSEMARYJANE.COM Founder Erik Murray and Social Justice Director Evelyn @ROSEMARYJANECO LaChapelle.
While the Portland shop is Rose Mary Jane’s first adult-use retail location, the company has been in operation for nearly three years with the mission of using the Cannabis business to move social justice issues forward.
Socia l Justice Director Evelyn LaChapelle and Rose Mary Jane Founder Erik Murray
“Portland, Maine is the ideal destination to serve as our first East Coast retail location, in what we feel is the most diverse, equitable and sustainable city on the Eastern seaboard.” -Rose Mary Jane Founder Erik Murray
In 2013, LaChapelle was pregnant and finishing college in California when she was sentenced to 87 months for a small role in a friend’s marijuana business. Like so many others who’ve suffered similar fates, LaChapelle was left with inadequate resources to rebuild her life and faced ongoing employment discrimination. She understands the financial and emotional repercussions of the War on Drugs – which have disproportionately impacted so many people of color in this country – because she has experienced them firsthand. Now, she’s passionate about helping others who have been caught up in the criminal justice system because of prohibition. LaChapelle met Rose Mary Jane founder Erik Murray while working with the Last Prisoner Project – a nonprofit devoted to addressing the past and continued harms caused by the drug war with a mission to secure the release of the 40,000 people incarcerated nationwide for Cannabis-related crimes, expunge their records and find ways to get them restitution. During the ribbon cutting ceremony at the dispensary’s opening, Murray explained, “Portland, Maine is the ideal destination to serve as our first East Coast retail location, in what we feel is the most diverse, equitable and sustainable city on the Eastern seaboard.”
“At Rose Mary Jane, we believe the Cannabis industry is a force for good when legalization, automatic record expungement and social equity are prioritized,” he continued. “We look forward to working with the greater Portland community to break down the stereotypes and stigmas of our industry.” After the ribbon cutting, LaChapelle told Northeast Leaf of plans to open Rose Mary Jane locations in Boston, New York City and New Jersey, while also acknowledging the challenges of Cannabis-law reform in these large metropolitan areas, which have a long history of social injustice. The grand opening event also featured guest speakers, including Maine State Representatives Grayson Lookner and Benjamin Collings, as well as Bruce King – the Co-Executive Director of the transformative justice group Maine Inside Out – who told the crowd, “We have fought incredibly hard to be where we are today, with marijuana legalized … But the War on Drugs is not over. There are people who are still suffering behind bars. So to find an organization out here that’s doing the work, not just in stores but also with their own initiatives, was incredibly powerful.”
STORY & PHOTOS by CHARLES TAGGART @KINDBUD.PHOTOS for NORTHEAST LEAF
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30 YEARS OF CHEMDOG
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Three decades later the original Chemdog, or Chem 91, thrives by its namesake’s hand in Western Massachusetts with Canna Provisions.
NOV. 2021
Long after the fabled tale of how Chemdog came into being in the legacy market in 1991 – in short, a young Greg “Chemdog” Krzanowski on the tour lots of the Dead – the original 1991 clone of the original mother plant is still pumping out those classic Chemdog flavors of gas and skunk, of citrus petrol kissed by earthy hops and black pepper. The main difference? After Krzanowski emerged from legacy market cultivation exile 10 years after being a victim of the unsuccessful War on Drugs, the man behind Chemdog is now Director of Cultivation at Canna Provisions – where he and his whole team of green thumbs (notably Grow Operations Manager Johnny Greenfingaz) operate in Sheffield. It’s here where they exclusively grow Smash Hits Cannabis for Canna Provisions using Chemdog’s genetics, as well as decades of combined experience in top notch, craft Cannabis cultivation.
“I KNEW I’D GET ARRESTED EVEN FOR SIX PLANTS BACK THEN, SO I WANTED TO MAKE IT THE BEST WEED I COULD MAKE EACH GROW.” Greg “Chemdog” Krzanowski
BUT FIRST, it’s worth hopping back in time to a young, 18-year-old Chemdog, living in Northampton, Massachusetts just down the street from Joe’s Pizza back then. He began growing after moving in and was harvesting the first batch of Chemdog in fall/winter 1991. “That first harvest was very much like the original batch of weed I got in Deer Park, Indiana from Joe B and Pbud at the Grateful Dead show,” Krzanowski says of the historic crossing of destinies. “That classic skunky, gassy flavor, which expanded when I smoked, which made me cough when I took that hit. Back then it was ‘if you don’t cough you don’t get off,’ and that first harvest was very fresh and green. I did a great job.” That first harvest was cultivated under 600-watt, high-pressure sodium lights in a contraption called Olivia’s Garden – basically a six-pot passive hydroponic system – bought at Wormsway in Worcester, a famous garden supply store for years for green thumbs and underground growers of the age. “That thing grew soda can sized buds,” he says almost wistfully, noting that when he later switched to an even more organic soil-based system, the strain really took off for him. “I knew I’d get arrested even for six plants back then, so I wanted to make it the best weed I could make each grow,” he says. “I really love weed, so I’d scour the Grateful Dead lots at shows looking for kine bud, since everyone that had it back in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s would be at a Dead show. If you weren’t growing it yourself back then, then you weren’t getting the best stuff. They were basically the archetype for weed culture at shows of that caliber. The lots were our seshes to find the best bud.” Fast forward 30 years and you land right here, right now. Krzanowski says he still loves growing Chem 91 – it’s one of those strains that delivers every time. “Our cultivation in Sheffield is now growing with an expanded canopy and outdoor greenhouse, so we currently have several Chem 91 clones out there,” he says. “Which means Smash Hits will be producing outdoor, legal, pure Chem 91 Cannabis for the first time ever.” Call it yet another reason to celebrate the availability of Chem 91 on the legal market.
Chem 91 by Smash Hits Cannabis is available exclusively from Canna Provisions stores in Lee and Holyoke, Massachusetts. CANNAPROVISIONS.COM @CANNAPROVISIONSGROUP
HARVEST GUIDELINES AT A COMMERCIAL GROW BY CHEMDOG & JOHNNY GREENFINGAZ
“Probably our most important aspect of a successful harvest is following all SOPs. We follow those to the letter to ensure we are always consistent, and that translates right down to the bud. Everything from making sure the trichomes are turning amber in order to reach full potency, to proper flushing to bring out the terps and remove all salts from the bud, we always try to apply the same standards each and every time to ensure the highest quality and supreme plant health. This goes for all strains (the only thing that changes is the maturing time for each) and due to that, each harvest has improved every time in small ways thanks to the consistency and process.”
Chem91 bud
STORY by DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF for NORTHEAST LEAF | PHOTOS by DAN MCCARTHY & CANNA PROVISIONS/JUSTIN ALLEN
Contact michael@LEAFMAGAZINES.com for ADVERTISING RATES & INFO! LEAFMAGAZINES.COM | @NORTHEASTLEAFMAG | #NORTHEASTLEAF
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OVER
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STABILIZED STRAINS AT THE TOP CALIFORNIA, OREGON, OKLAHOMA & MAINE DISPENSARIES
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nov. 2021
MASSMOSA
STRAIN OF THE MONTH
NORTHEAST
grown by
CANNA PROVISIONS “SURE TO IMPRESS FLAVOR HOUNDS AND CONNOISSEURS WHO ARE LOOKING FOR A BIT OF THAT WEST COAST SWEETNESS WITH THEIR MASS. GAS.”
20% THC
SEEING MASSMOSA LIVE AND FLOWERING IN ITS HOME OF SHEFFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS IN THE BERKSHIRES, IS A VISION TO BEHOLD. At only 30 days or so in, it displays attributes of a plant much further along in the grow cycle, and for that matter, shows odd characteristics including the hyper-concentration of bud clusters and sugar leaves jetting out in unusual places. To some, it would sound like you’ve got a worrisome x-factor to keep an eye on. To Johnny Greenfingaz, Director of Grow Operations for Canna Provisions, it’s all part of bringing Massmosa to Massachusetts. “I went through hundreds of phenotypes to find one that hit just the right notes,” he says. “Out of all of them, the only one I found that had the perfect showing of sweet flavor, best yields, easiest buds to manicure, is the one we’re dropping. It just blew every other one away.” But the real test, he says, was once they commercially produced it. Would it land with the grow team, including originator of the Chemdog strain family and Cultivation Director Greg “Chemdog” Krzanowski? In the words of Greenfingaz: “It quickly became everyone’s fave smoke in the grow, the key go-to.” All of which signals this may be one of the new strain stunners coming out of the blossoming Massachusetts cultivation scene, and one sure to cause flavor hounds and connoisseurs who are looking for a bit of that West Coast sweetness with their Mass gas, to come from far and wide to land some of this coveted Smash Hits new classic. Hailing from a lineage boasting Clementine and Purple Punch as parents, you get a plant reeking of sugar fruit and citrus frosting, and lots of an ethereal but solid plumage of gas, earthy lavender, and overripe clementines ripped open under crisp mountain rain. Dried buds are often similar in size before being manicured, and those gorgeous trichomethick flowers bring hybrid effects that are fast and welcoming. Think a mishmash of wake-and-bake uplift and heady euphoric highs, as well as a supercharged creative spirit – leaving any anxiety or paranoia at the door opened by the high terpene value and rich limonene, pinene, caryophyllene and myrcene represented across the entire consumption experience. For anyone in the Massachusetts market, the upside is there will be only one place in the state to land it: Canna Provisions in Lee or Holyoke (Smash 220 HOUSATONIC ST. LEE, MA 380 DWIGHT ST. HOLYOKE, MA Hits is their exclusive CANNAPROVISIONSGROUP.COM brand). For anyone else, @CANNAPROVISIONSHOLYOKE two words for you...
CANNA PROVISIONS
Road trip.
REVIEW by DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF for NORTHEAST LEAF | PHOTO by CANNA PROVISIONS/JUSTIN ALLEN
The Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition Brothers Grimm Seeds presents
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growing together! The 2020 Virtual Boston Freedom Rally continues a storied legacy of radical cannabis activism that must now begin to confront the challenges of legalized cannabis.
NORTHEAST
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the HARVEST issue
tap root fields
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pstate New York’s Finger Lakes region is known for boating and fishing, as well as some of the best wines the Northeast has to offer. Now, the area has become a hotbed of hemp cultivation, despite some erratic weather conditions that sometimes threaten to ruin harvests before they can even happen.
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H A RV E ST I N G AT TA P R O OT F I E L DS
While we take a tour of the farm during harvest, Tap Root Fields CEO Joshua Allyn tells me, “This is our third year growing hemp outdoors on this property. The first year was a veritable washout with monsoons. Last year, we suffered through a drought and this year we had over 28 inches of rain during the growing season – 10 inches in just the last month! We even put in bluetooth-controlled irrigation and never even had to use it.” Chief Farm Officer Travis Williams explains how much work goes into dealing with so much wetness. “We were out here every day, propping up plants with bamboo stakes, shaking off the rain and dew in the mornings and making sure our soil can absorb extra moisture using organic amendments and cover crops.” The workers planted 3,500 plants this year and the strains are divided between two main varieties. One field was filled with Matterhorn, a CBG-rich strain from HGH Genetics (High Grade Hemp) that they will use to make future CBG products. The other side of the field is filled with Orange Peel, a high-CBD variety from KLR Genetics bred by The Garden Warlock.
NOV. 2021
A strong citrus scent fills the air as we walk among the plants, admiring the glistening trichomes at their peak maturity. There’s also a smaller field of four varieties grown for a study at nearby Cornell University. “We put in two wells and recently dug two ponds for potential irrigation, and built everything here,” Travis said. “Our goal is to be sustainable and regenerative in every way and eventually, we plan to to be a boutique destination farm that will have heirloom fruit trees, and many other rare and beneficial plants, as well as a live music venue.” The plants are grown in an organic soil amended with an organic compost mixture. Tap Root Fields brews their own EM1, a microbial inoculant, for foliar spraying as well as to run it through their drip irrigation. They also make use of a “chicken train” – a moveable coop in which the chickens eat grasshoppers, crickets and other bugs while pooping up a storm for extra nitrogen. Joshua tells me with a knowing look, “If the last three years have taught us anything about growing in the Northeast, it’s that we’re at
SKANEATELES, NY the mercy of nature – but there’s also plenty you can do to ensure success. We switched to no tilling and using plenty of cover crops instead of plastic.” The cover crops they use include white and crimson clover, hairy vetch, perennial and annual ryes, winter pea and even eco-till radishes to loosen up the soil. This not only sequesters carbon in the soil, it enables it to soak up excess water and avoid the devastating puddling they’ve experienced in the past. As for the actual harvesting, choice tops are taken down to dry and cure separately for smokable hemp, while the rest of the plants hang to dry in the head house with big fans and dehumidifiers. After that, the bulk is processed at Beak and Skiff Apple Orchards. The products they produce from all of this hemp grown at Tap Root Fields include the aforementioned CBD-infused tinctures and gummies for daytime and nighttime use, as well as their unique Hydro Boost water-soluble CBD – perfect for adding to smoothies, sauces and dips. They even created a fantastic SPF 30, CBD-infused, reef-safe sunscreen for the face and body that works wonders while toiling in the fields!
TAPROOTFIELDS.COM @TAPROOTFIELDS
“If the last three years have taught us anything about growing in the Northeast, it’s that we’re at the mercy of nature.”
OTTO MEDIA PICS
Tap Root Fields’ hemp is used in the company’s line of CBD-infused tinctures, gummies, Hydro Boost water-soluble CBD, and even a SPF 30 reef-safe sunscreen designed for the body and face.
STORY by DAN VINKOVETSKY @DANNYDANKOHT/NORTHEAST LEAF | PHOTOS by MARY BUTTOLPH @MARYBUTTOLPH
the HARVEST issue LEAFMAGAZINES.COM
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high point hemp STORY & PHOTOS by DAN VINKOVETSKY @DANNYDANKOHT/NORTHEAST LEAF
Wantage Township in Northern New Jersey, bordering New York State, was formed several years before the American Revolution in 1754. Recently, a new uprising has begun here in Sussex County, as local farmers have diversified their traditional crops to include fields of lush and legal hemp plants. Tree Farm owner and operator Clay Allison of Beaver Creek Nurseries has been specializing in awardwinning Japanese Maples, among other rare topiaries, for years and is now gearing to harvest two and a half acres of smokable CBD-rich hemp flowers. We decided to stop by the farm and visit them while they were taking down their many thriving plants. NOV. 2021
WANTAGE TOWNSHIP, NJ
T
his is the second year of hemp growing on the land and hands-on farmer Ben Martin (of Twin Creek Farms down the road) admits that their attempt to grow five acres last year proved to be a bit too much. Without an existing market for their flowers, they struggled to move the bulky biomass and decided to pare it down this year. Consultant Aramis “Church” Torres has had plenty of previous experience working for Altitude Organic Medicine in Colorado, and is now bringing his Cannabis grow knowledge to High Point’s hemp farm – utilizing techniques previously employed in legal THC-rich weed fields, such as training the plants extensively during growth to produce more flowering tops. Church tells me, “This year, we’re growing less plants, but yielding far more smokable flower by ‘skirting’, ‘lollipopping’ and selectively pruning the plants relentlessly as they grow in their vegetative stage, in order to be more efficient on less land.” The farm is growing four different strains: The Wife, Cherry Wine, Box OTTO and Church’s favorite, Big Booty Judy. They put in 2,600 plants a little later than they had hoped – the first week of June – using a three person operated, water-wheel planter. Ben tells me, “Due to all of the rain this year, we only irrigated once, right before we planted. The problem wasn’t just an abundance of rain, but that the sun would come out right after and cook our plants. We’d have to be out there all the time, shaking off the rain and taking off damaged leaves and flowers. I’m used to growing corn and soybeans, but this was a little bit different.” The harvesting at High Point Hemp is all done by hand with the tops being hand-trimmed and the rest going through the Centurion Pro trimming machine. Church continues, “We cut off the selected tops first and wet trim all of those to keep them pristine. The rest of the plants hang dry and get the machine trim after they’ve been up there for a while. We dry low and slow to preserve terpenes and make sure all of our hemp looks and tastes good. We are committed to treating our smokable hemp with the same care that marijuana farmers treat their crops to maintain flavor, integrity and the effectiveness of the CBD for patients.”
The farm is growing four different strains: The Wife, Cherry Wine, Box OTTO and Church’s favorite, Big Booty Judy.
SMOKEABLE FLOWER AND OTHER PRODUCTS AVAILABLE FROM LBS LAB BUILDER SUPPLIES | LABBUILDERSUPPLIES.COM
the HARVEST issue
baygrown farms
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ayGrown Farms epitomizes a true New England cultivation. From sunup to sundown the 10-person BayGrown team works tirelessly, producing some of the highest quality Cannabis in the region – grown in full sun and in greenhouses. BayGrown
recently harvested their first licensed outdoor crop in Massachusetts, consisting of over 3,000 plants, all of which were taken down for pre-roll
ROCHESTER, MA
NOV. 2021
production. Northeast Leaf had the opportunity to tour the BayGrown facility and speak with Co-Founder Jonathan MacDougall.
H O W L O N G H A S B AY G R O W N F A R M S O P E R AT E D A S A N E W E N G L A N D H E M P A N D C A N N A B I S C O M PA N Y ?
BayGrown Farms was formally established in 2019. With 15 years of cultivation experience and history in the New England area, we have gained a reputation for consistent quality, friendly business and [providing] a wealth of information. We are regulated by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and hold a cultivation and processing hemp license. And we grow and manufacture our own line of organic, natural CBD products. Our reputation landed us the opportunity to partner with Coastal Cultivars in early 2020, and enter the legal Cannabis industry at their licensed farm in Wareham, Mass. AS SEASONED GROWERS IN NEW E N G L A N D, W H AT ST R A I N S D O YO U THINK ARE THE BEST TO GROW IN T H E R E G I O N ’ S C L I M A T E ? Over the
years, we have seen the best results with strains finishing in late September due to our harsher climate in the fall, which is known to bring about botrytis and powdery mildew. We have had a lot of success in the past with Girl Scout Cookies, G-13, and an old-school cross of R.K.S. This season we had excellent results with Humboldt Seed’s Hella Jelly (formally Jelly Rancher) and Squirt. Ethos' Crescendo and Planet of the Grapes also did exceptionally well. All were harvested before the first of October.
W H AT A R E S O M E O F YOUR PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES TO ENSURE A H E A LT H Y H A R V E S T ?
Outdoor growing is all about understanding the ecosystem and how to transfer nutrients to keep the cycle going to grow healthy plants. That being said, we prep the plants for harvest by doing a full leaf strip a couple days before we cut, mimicking autumn when the leaves fall to the ground and start the decay process. This also saves time in processing the plants. Some other main issues you want to be aware of throughout the season leading up to harvest include rainfall and soil drainage, plant airflow, pest management, trichome maturity and your plant support system.
entering the drying facility. From the field to the racks in the drying facility, we have eight different quality control points for people to review the product and eradicate any foreign substances.
Outdoor growing is all about understanding the ecosystem and how to transfer nutrients to keep the cycle going to grow healthy plants.
H O W A R E YO U A B L E TO M A I N TA I N YOUR QUALITY CONTROL ON SUCH A L A R G E S C A L E ? Multiple eyes on every
plant, every day. We walk the field multiple times a day ensuring that we are not missing any problems. When a problem does arise, immediately decipher the root cause and fix it. We also run everything two times on the belts to make sure there is no mold on any flower
WHERE CAN READERS FIND YOUR PRODUCTS AND WHERE WILL YOUR CURRENT CROP B E AVA I L A B L E F O R R E TA I L I N M A S SAC H US E T T S ? The 2020 crop
that we grew for Coastal Cultivars will be branded under their company name and sold as a line of prerolls. Coastal Cultivars has a dispensary opening up in Great Barrington, Mass. this winter and you will be able to find their products [including our collaboration] there. BayGrown Farms CBD products can be found on our website, as well as in recreational dispensaries in Massachusetts, including Bask and Bud’s Goods.
BAYGROWNFARMS.ORG @BAYGROWN_FARMS
STORY by BOBBY NUGGZ @BOBBYNUGGZ_OFFICIAL for NORTHEAST LEAF | PHOTO by BAILEY JONSON @BAILEYANDTHEWORLD
the HARVEST issue
Harvesting HomegrowN in Maine
There’s something so special about growing your own garden. It requires hard work – time invested in turning the soil, sowing the seeds or planting the starters, weeding, watering and pruning – but come harvest time, you realize all that work comes with a fantastic reward. Homegrown gardens produce the best tasting fruits, vegetables, and of course, Cannabis.
W
hen a friend in Maine recently invited me over to see his home garden, I jumped at the opportunity. As this had been a great year for growing outside, he promised it was one of the best he had ever grown. When I arrived and began walking across the lawn, I spied the garden in the back of the yard. I could see a few rows of tomatoes still staked in their supporting wire cages, empty areas where lettuce, spinach and carrots had grown, as well as a large patch still covered with squash, cucumbers and pumpkins. However, it was the fenced in, private garden behind the veggies that he wanted to show me. With deep pride he again insisted that this was one of his best grows yet. He then opened the gate to reveal the four plants allowed for home cultivation under Maine’s adult-use law. Tall, bushy, Tall, bushy, eight-foot-plus eight-foot-plus plants filled the 20x20 garden, each grown in a 100-gallon pot – plants filled the with the space discretely surround- 20x20 garden, ed by fencing to keep his beautiful each grown in bounty from prying eyes on the a 100-gallon road or at nearby houses. With the cooling of the autumn pot – with the nights, two of his eight-foot-plus space discretely monster plants were quickly finsurrounded by ishing out and needed to be cut, fencing to keep his trimmed and hung to dry. A pile beautiful bounty of yellow and purple tinted sun leaves covered the ground below from prying eyes the plants, mixed here and there on the road or at with a few oak and maple leaves nearby houses. from the trees surrounding the backside of the property. Branch by branch, the last of the sun leaves and fan leaves were cut off, leaving only the closer sugar leaves on the flowers to be trimmed. Next, the branches were cut from the stock and brought in handfuls to wet trim and then hang. Turning on a fan in the room, my friend smiled and told me there’s just eight to 10 days until the final trim. Then the perfectly manicured buds would be stored for curing. He estimates it will be November by the time the batch is fully cured. The burping process will be finished around Thanksgiving – just in time for the holiday cornucopia of Cannabis, pumpkins and squash his garden will provide.
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STORY & PHOTO by CHARLES TAGGART @KINDBUD.PHOTOS for NORTHEAST LEAF
All Things Cannabis For All People
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ME, MYSELF AND HIGH
(Stoned and alone?) THIS MONTH:
#139 THE S.H.A.F.T. ACT (Text message regulating) #140 PEACE AND WAR (Why war and not peace?) #142 PSILOCYBIN (Micro vs. Macro)
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Marijuana products may be purchased or possessed only by persons 21 or older. This product has intoxicating effects and may be habit-forming. Marijuana can impair concentration, coordination and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product. For use only by adults 21 and older. Keep out of reach of children.
Danny Danko teaches you everything you need to know to get growing now!
YOUR SOURCE FOR CULTIVATION INFO, INTERVIEWS, NEWS, ACTIVISM AND PRODUCT REVIEWS! Grow Bud Yourself podcast is available on all streaming platforms and whereever you get your podcasts! Send questions to info@growbudyourself.com
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Jorge Cervantes, Kyle Kushman, Tommy Chong, Aaron from DNA Genetics, Jenn Doe, Milo/Big Buddha Seeds, Swerve/The Cali Connection, Ed Rosenthal, Chemdog, and Adam Dunn!
Growing your own marijuana can be both a liberating and political act.
Former HIGH TIMES Magazine Senior Cultivation Editor and author of the book “Cannabis: A Beginner’s Guide to Growing Marijuana” Dan Vinkovetsky (Formerly known as Danny Danko) and cohost former HT Editor-in-Chief Mike Gianakos provide news, activism reports and cannabis cultivation tips for connoisseurs, aficionados and medical patients alike. Bonus: Interviews with expert growers and professional seed breeders, ‘Strain of the Fortnight’ and ganja growing questions & answers.
concentrate of the month
DIRIGO DANK
“A very sweet grape and berry flavor with a slight twist of nutty dough."
WEDDING PIE LIVE RESIN Dirigo Dank out of Maine makes one of the most flavorful concentrates I’ve ever tried!
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Winning first place in both the Hash Bash at Hash House this summer in Portland and the NeCann Boston 2021 solventless concentrate category, their Wedding Pie live resin is what dabbing is all about – great flavor and lasting potency. The packaging features their beautiful sailing boat logo on a black dab container and upon opening, the initial scent is of spicy berries. It’s a beautiful golden ochre hue, similar to peanut butter color with a cake frosting texture as I put the dabbing tool into the resin. Taking a small dab from the mini-rig banger, a few low-temp, cold-start vape puffs filled my mouth with a beautiful taste. The resin brings a very sweet grape and berry flavor with a slight twist of nutty dough, and after another round of puffs, I started to feel my shoulders and back muscles relax very quickly. I really enjoyed a couple dab sessions like this during the day – a perfect complement to my coffee and a slice of pie. Around 4:20 p.m., I wound up with a serious case of couchlock. I was far too high to do any work and definitely had no desire to be driving. The only thing that was clear was why this live resin has so many people talking about it, and continues to win awards.
nov. 2021
DIRIGODANKCANNABIS.COM | @DIRIGO_DANK
REVIEW & PHOTO by CHARLES TAGGART @KINDBUD.PHOTOS for NORTHEAST LEAF
topical of the month
On sale for $49.99, 2oz stick
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BOSTON HEMPIRE 1000MG CBD HEMP EXTRACT HEALING SALVE
When looking for a good CBD topical, one must first ask: What benefits do you seek? From the sweet smelling and girly-esque oils with pretty, eye-catching colors and gold leaf flakes, to the no frills, medicinal quality salves that are both odorless and effective, there’s no shortage of options to choose from. In the case of this topical from Boston Hempire, it sticks to being simple and direct – with loads of CBD (topping out at 1096mg), this is definitely one of the highest CBD content topicals I’ve ever reviewed.
When it comes to the packaging, this salve features a retractable stick – making it perfect for your purse or gym bag, as the applicator can be used during travel and on-the-go. With a silhouette of Boston popping and an exquisite red border along the edges, there’s a city-slick vibe that is both eye-catching and distinctive. The overall vibe exudes power and makes you feel like this product is really going to work.
nov. 2021
The ingredient list is short and sweet, with standard ingredients like coconut oil, olive oil and beeswax, along with more specialty stuff like lavender oil, arnica oil, vitamin E, peppermint oil and lemongrass oil. The lavender adds a pleasant, spa-like touch along with the peppermint and lemongrass creating a sweet trifecta of aromas for the user, and the arnica is a medicinal ingredient said to ease inflammation, organically. This topical also contains comfrey oil, which is considered to be an essential anti-aging ingredient, containing both allantoin and rosmarinic acid. Allantoin promotes the growth of new skin cells and rosmarinic acid acts as a painkiller and reduces inflammation, while comfrey can also soften skin and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Overall, this topical is made for people who work hard and play harder – all wrapped up in a tough and street smart package.
“The lavender adds a pleasant, spa-like touch along with the peppermint and lemongrass creating a sweet trifecta of aromas.” BOSTON HEMPIRE 90 ROCKLAND ST STE 3 HANOVER, MA 781-924-1011 | BOSTONHEMPIRE.COM @BOSTON_HEMPIRE
REVIEW & PHOTO by BAILEY JONSON @BAILEYANDTHEWORLD for NORTHEAST LEAF
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This product has not been analyzed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). There is limited information on the side effects 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. The impairment effects of Edible Marijuana Products may be delayed by two hours or more. In case of accidental ingestion, contact poison control hotline 1-800-2221222 or 911. 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. Marijuana should not be used by women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
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For more about Tom & Sinsemilla Tips, listen to Episode #16 of our podcast at worldofCannabis.museum/cannthropology.
PRESENTS
a l l i m Sinse y r o t S 42
As Cannabis culture began shifting away from smuggling towards the “grow your own” philosophy at the end of the 1970s, a demand arose for more in-depth grow advice than what High Times offered at the time. From that vacuum, a new underground magazine emerged that would revolutionize Cannabis cultivation in America: Sinsemilla Tips.
RAID & REVENGE
LEAFMAGAZINES.COM
An assortment of Sinsemilla Tips issues over a “sea of green” garden— a technique that they covered first.
Billed as “the nation’s only technical journal for the marijuana industry,” Sinsemilla Tips was created in 1980 by a grower named Tom Alexander as a sort of revenge fantasy against the establishment. Alexander had been living on a primitive 160-acre homestead in the backwoods of Corvallis, Oregon, where he planted around half an acre of quality Hawaiian genetics. But before he could harvest his first crop, a timber scout spotted his garden and reported it to the sheriff. On Sept. 27, 1979, 16 officers with semi-automatic rifles raided his homestead – confiscating his 1,200-plus plants and arresting him and his wife. Fortunately for them, the charges were ultimately dismissed due to an error on the search warrant regarding the location of his property. The authorities still kept his weed though, of course … and weeks later, three of the sheriffs involved were arrested by state police for attempting to sell it themselves. Unlike Alexander, however, who’d faced a $100,000 fine and possible 20 years in prison, the crooked cops were sentenced to just three years of probation. Incensed by this blatant injustice, the outraged outlaw set out to exact his revenge on the establishment through the written word. He decided to write a book about Cannabis cultivation, but was quickly persuaded by his grower friends to publish an ongoing journal instead. Without a lick of experience in journalism or publishing, Alexander sat down
NOV. 2021
with a typewriter, a kerosene lantern (he had no electricity), and some rubber cement and got to work. The result was a 16-page, typo-ridden newsletter that he christened Sinsemilla Tips.
TWO MOONS RISING
COURTESY OF TOM ALEXANDER
Cannthropology
WORLD OF Cannabis
After printing around 1,000 copies, Alexander drove up and down the coast from Mendocino to Seattle selling the newsletters for 50 cents apiece at grow stores, on street corners, or Sinsemilla Tips founder Tom Alexander. wherever he could. It was while visiting those horticulture shops in Humboldt and Seattle that he noticed all of the growers with wads of hundreds buying fertilizers and grow lights, that he had another bright idea. One month after starting the journal, he opened Oregon’s first hybrid indoor/outdoor grow shop: Full Moon Farm Products. “It was a 5,000-square-foot grow shop on Main Street in downtown Corvallis, right in front of everybody,” Alexander boasts. “It had windows that were 12 feet high, and we put grow rooms with 10foot tomato plants in those two front windows to show what could be done with those lights.” Upstairs from the Full Moon shop became the offices of New
Issue #3 - Fall 1980
STO RY b y B O B BY B LAC K @ CAN N T H RO PO LO G Y for LEA F NAT IO N
MAGAZINES & PATCH FROM WORLD OF CANNABIS MUSEUM COLLECTION
Story and photos originally published on worldofCannabis.museum and reprinted with permission.
“I saw three unmarked cars in the parking lot with people sitting in them, and I said to myself, ‘Shit—they’re gonna hit me next!”
Moon Publishing, where he produced the magazine. Though unsophisticated in its design, Sinsemilla Tips began providing a wealth of groundbreaking cultivation information from the world’s top Cannabis experts, including Robert Connell Clark, Ed Rosenthal, Skunkman Sam, Michael Wolf Segal (originator of the now-legendary “sea of green” gardening method), and Jorge Cervantes. “Jorge came into my store in 1983 Alexander entered through the back door, called his lawyer, and and said, ‘I’m going to write a book waited. When he opened his doors at 10:30 a.m., agents rushed on marijuana,’” Alexander recalls. “I in, followed by TV cameras, threw down a search warrant and said, ‘Well, come back when you finish began seizing his entire stock. it.’ Six months later, he comes back in “They backed a U-Haul up to the store and just started taking and throws this book down, and I said, out inventory,” Alexander laments. ‘Great – let’s go out back and smoke a joint,’ and we became best friends.” OPERATION GREEN MERCHANT Thanks to partnerships with Last Gasp The basis for these raids was a statute added to publishing in San Francisco and Homethe Controlled Substances Act in the early 1980s stead Books in Seattle, the magazine’s that allowed for certain grow equipment to be reach soon expanded nationwide. classified as drug paraphernalia alongside Best buds: Murphy Stevens, Ed Rosenthal, David Tatelman, “Me, Jorge, David [Tatelman] of bongs and pipes, provided that they were “inTom Alexander, and Jorge Cervates. Homestead, Ron Turner at Last Gasp tended” to be used to manufacture an illegal … we all became close-knit friends. They substance (marijuana). To establish that illicit intent, helped distribute the mag, and it just took the DEA had conducted a two-year-long entrapment off.” scheme codenamed Operation Green Merchant. Starting in late ‘87, the DEA sent undercover SINSE SENSATION agents to dozens of grow stores – particularly, those who On Dec. 26, 1985, the New York Times advertised in Sinse Tips and High Times – and Operation Green published an article about Sinsemilla Tips asked workers there for information about growing Merchant patch. NY Times article about Sinse Tips, 1985. entitled “Magazine for marijuana. Aware of this possible legal jeopardy, Ambitious Marijuana Growers.” That most shop owners (Alexander included) gave explicit instructions to never article led to more press, including appearances on discuss marijuana in their stores for any reason, and even to eject any customers who Geraldo, Phil Donohue, Nightline and the Today spoke of it. Unfortunately, employees at some shops failed to heed that warning; in the show – thrusting Alexander into the spotlight as an case of Full Moon Farm, the agents had posed as Vietnam vets with PTSD and persuadoutspoken new celebrity activist. ed some veterans working there into selling them equipment. These interactions provid“In all those TV shows, I would be on stage with ed the DEA with the legal justification needed to secure wiretaps, subpoena shipping Charles Rangel and the head of the California DEA, records from UPS, and confiscate millions in merchandise. and they would put forth totally ludicrous arguments, In the case of Full Moon, authorities seized around $75,000 in merchandise – while I would be in a suit and tie looking presentable which, under the civil forfeiture laws, they were never required to return even though and making credible arguments. That really pissed Alexander was never actually charged with a crime. Instead, the Feds offered him a them off.” simple ultimatum: sign an agreement relinquishing all rights to the merchandise and The publicity generated by the media coverage agreeing to never sell grow equipment again, or be charged with criminal conspiracy. helped Sinse Tips go from an underground paper to Under advice from his lawyer – and pressure from his wife – he accepted the deal and a legitimate commercial magazine. Soon, Alexander closed the store. was able to buy a new Mac, hire a staff, and up the publishing frequency from quarterly to bimonthly. By AFTER THE FALL the late 1980s, the magazine was up to 72 pagOf course, Operation Green Merchant didn’t end after the busts of Black Thursday es, printing 10,000 copies, and grossing around – the investigation soon expanded, attempting to link the shop owners in a criminal $100,000 a year. With both his businesses booming, conspiracy with a prominent seed company in the Netherlands (that’s another story) and Tom Alexander seemed to be riding high … but the marijuana mags in which they all advertised. Since the First Amendment prevented sadly, his fortunes were about to change. the Justice Department from targeting the publications directly, they simply shut down or scared off all of their advertisers in an attempt to starve them out instead. High Times BLACK THURSDAY managed to survive by eking out issues on a shoestring budget for a while, but sadly On Oct. 27, 1989, DEA agents raided dozens Sinse Tips was forced to fold – publishing their final issue in early 1990. of horticultural supply stores across 46 states and Luckily for him, Alexander had seen the writing on the wall: A year before Green Merarrested over 100 people – a day of infamy in the Cannabis chant, he’d started a separate, Cannabis-free magazine called Growing Edge, which was able to community that became known as Black Thursday. scoop up most of Sensi Tips’ former advertisers. He ran Growing Edge until retiring from pub“I was getting calls all morning from people on the East lishing in 2009, then spent another decade serving as an expert witness for Cannabis cases and Coast saying, ‘I got the DEA here … my store’s being raided!’” speaking at various conferences before finally leaving the world of weed behind. Alexander remembers. “I got to the store about 8:00 a.m. and “I’m out of the Cannabis industry now,” Alexander admits. “I don’t smoke anymore … I had a saw three unmarked cars in the parking lot with people sitting in heart attack a year ago, and the smoke in my lungs cuts my oxygen, so my doctor told me to stick them, and I said to myself, ‘Shit – they’re gonna hit me next!’” to tinctures and edibles. I had a good 45-year run, but now I’m done.”
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cannaprovisions.com Please Consume Responsibly, This product may cause impairment and may be habit forming. For use only by adults 21 years of age or older. Keep out of the reach of children.This product has not been analyzed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). There is limited information on the side effects 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 AW AWAY FROM CHILDREN. There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product. Marijuana can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. The effects 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. | License #: MR281796 & MR281778
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I SHARE THAT SEDIMENT
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by Mike Ricker
e all know the 10-second rule. When you drop a piece of food, if you pick it up within 10 seconds, you have beaten the decomposition clock – essentially rescuing the item from the armies of crazed little germs that lie in waiting for food fumbles. In your mind’s eye, these microscopic creatures are blood thirsty vampires, lurching, smothering it with toxic juices and dripping fangs, rendering your Funyun a potential risk to your body’s wellness. Your taste buds, however, may not excuse your blunder. There is not a moment to waste for the fast action determination that will either land that flavor into your mouth, or sadly, litter the ground with another dead soldier. This is a decision factored on the intensity of your saliva, painfully anticipating the explosive zest while the impatient clock races to the point of no return. You grow weary of your surroundings, weighing the risks of irreparable illness, or judgement from any onlooker within eyeshot. Do you forego the hazards and redeem the gaffe, or exponentially enhance the chance that a frenzy of multiplying bacteria could foster an unpronounceable condition? Tick, tick, tick. You’re down to 007. You stare upon it, frazzled by the dilemma. This is an exceptional, onion-flavored ring, and you are not one to waste tasty salt. The forehead begins to bead. Slow motion ensues. There is a finite number of Funyuns in existence and this one is yours. You put the fun in Funyun. You reach down and pinch the item with two fingers, brush any dirt across your jeans, inspect it momentarily, then hammer into the crunchiness with a shear jaw clamp. You chew and finish. You do not lick your fingers this time, but wipe the hand on your jeans and go about your extremely busy day. In this unpredictable world where the strong survive, acquiring good food comes with challenges, and you are not one to be wasteful. Besides, those little critters are pure protein. Kind of like a ladybug on a blooming nug of weed. Not that you would ever eat one. Unless of course, it came after your Funyun.
nov. 2021
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