STONER OWNER NATHAN HOWARD

NATHAN HOWARD and his brother, Aaron Howard, founded East Fork Cultivars - and have since become one of the most respected craft Cannabis brands in Oregon, and in the United States. In recent months they have become vocal supporters of psilocybin psychotherapy, and have become strong supporters of the Oregon-based Psilocybin Science Initiative, which seeks to establish Oregon as the first staterun psilocybin therapy program. We connected with Nathan in February to discuss his experience and his goals with the mushroom-based medicine.

EAST FORK CULTIVARS NATHAN HOWARD

“WE’RE MORE EXCITED ABOUT THE SPACE OF PLANT-BASED MEDICINE, GENERALLY, AND PSYCHEDELICS ARE ESSENTIAL TO ALL OF THIS, ALONG WITH CANNABIS.”

YOU’VE BEEN VOCAL ABOUT YOUR SUPPORT FOR PSILOCYBIN THERAPY. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH PSILOCYBIN?

I had my first of what I would call a macro-dose, or large dose of psilocybin earlier in 2018 - with my partner, Leslie, who was sober looking after me and essentially being what people call a shaman or a guide. She talked me through some stuff as I started to regain consciousness, and talked me through moderate discomfort toward the beginning and the end, when I was aware but in moderate paralysis.

And then, in the coming days, weeks and months now, she’s also talked with me and we’ve worked through some of the things that I realized in that moment and afterward. Patterns of behavior that I really dislike, ways of connecting with people that I really dislike or like - and want to foster more of or less of. It was a game-changer. I felt immediately - and it sustained - that I was able to connect with people better. I looked at my time in (Mayor Ted Wheeler’s) office working on politics a little bit better. I talked more with my parents about my brother Wesley’s passing in 2017. It kind of unlocked some... I think some of it was cognitive distortions, and some of them were just really well-worn behavior ruts that I couldn’t get out of.

HOW DO YOU THINK YOUR EXPERIENCE COULD TRANSLATE TO A CLINICAL SETTING? That process that we went through - it would be infused with best practices and would be much more rigid, and I’d have a better understanding of what I was ingesting and the whole supply chain. That is essentially what we’re talking about doing through the Psilocybin Service Initiative (PSI) in Oregon, the first state-legal and run psilocybin-assisted therapy program in the world that we know about. The reason we got more involved with PSI was because of that experience, where I took the leap and I knew that smaller doses of psilocybin and psychedelics can be helpful.

We know that MDMA has recognized federal uses and benefit. We know that the federal government has been researching LSD and psilocybin and psychedelics since the 1950s, and clinical studies have remarkable rates of success when it comes to things like smoking cessation, or end-of-life anxiety treatment, drug-resistant anxiety and depression treatment.”

WHAT IS THE MISSION BEHIND THE PSILOCYBIN SCIENCE INITIATIVE?

They’ve been working on what ultimately is a statewide ballot measure for no less than five years, with the goal of creating a program where people can walk in and get affordable psilocybin-assisted therapy. Our involvement, and my involvement, has been helping structure some of the campaign, helping staff. Tom and I talked about the possibility of me running the campaign.

I’ve consistently said no to paid political work, because I know it’s going to pull me away from East Fork, our family farm. I’d like to think that we’re at a point where it’s sustainable, and will survive until my children’s lifetime, but it still needs more work.

So my involvement has been as a volunteer, but helping with some of the politics of running a statewide ballot measure.

The campaign’s at the point now where we have several staff, several lead donors. Of course, you have Tom and Sheree, who are two of the best ambassadors for psychedelic medicine and the power of psychedelics and psilocybin in the world.

We’re collecting signatures to get it on the ballot, and we’ve got people out on the streets right now, talking to folks and getting the signatures. If we’re successful, we’ll have a campaign to win come November 2020. At the same time that we’ll be electing a new U.S. President … we’ll also be finding out whether or not Oregon has become the tip of the spear for progressive drug policy in the world.

WHAT DOES YOUR INVOLVEMENT – AND EAST FORK’S INVOLVEMENT – MEAN TO YOU AND THE COMPANY? We’re more excited about the space of plant-based medicine, generally, and psychedelics are essential to all of this, along with Cannabis. People on our team are public about their relationship with psychedelics. They’re public with the way that it has helped them with depression and anxiety.

The team and the East Fork founders, my brother Aaron and I, it’s personal to us. And it also aligns squarely in our mission around affordable plantbased medicine. We have people on the team that are excited about the Psilocybin Service Initiative.

Doing things like ending the war on drugs, creating affordable pathways for psilocybin therapy, educating around the benefits of psychedelics - that’s our mission. That’s who we are. If we just want to breed and grow Cannabis, that’s one thing.

But the fact that we’re focused on medicinal herbs generally, medicinal plants, requires us - if we’re going to stay true to our mission - to explore increasing access to psychedelics. The measure, the campaign, is not going to create a marketplace. It’s not going to create brands. At least I hope it doesn’t.

Wilson J. Griffin Using Cannabis to treat ulcerative colitis

“This is just as much a physical battle as it is a mental battle.”

WILSON J. GRIFFIN is a retired veteran from the United States Marine Corps who uses Cannabis to treat ulcerative colitis and other health issues. After being medically retired from the Marine Corps in 2014, he obtained his OMMP card the same year and began using Cannabis medicinally. As a wellrespected member of the Oregon Cannabis community, he has found our growers are always there to help patients in need. Griffin continues to pay this kind of Pacific Northwest hospitality forward through ongoing patient advocacy. ntil Griffin retired from the military, he could not aptly use Cannabis to treat his ongoing ulcerative colitis. For those who don’t know, ulcerative colitis is an irritable bowel disease that causes ulcers (sores) in the digestive tract. This ongoing inflammation causes a serious amount of pain, and in certain cases, can result in surgery. Luckly, Griffin resides in Oregon and has access to arguably the best Cannabis and related products in the country. “I use Cannabis to help maneuver through the battle of ulcerative colitis and all of its side effects,” reports Griffin. “I have found over the last eight years of flaring, this is just as much a physical battle as it is a mental battle. Cannabis helps me on the physical battlefront with the arthritis and joint pains, abdominal pain, anemia, nausea, loss of appetite and insomnia that often accompanies colitis. On the mental battlefront, Cannabis helps me keep my brain computer from going into overdrive and short circuiting from hypervigilance, stress, anxiety and depression. The ability to not immediately respond to outside/internal stress factors can be a blessing. Especially when one bad day can send a patient into a flare up. Where the mind goes, the body flows.”

One of the best aspects of Cannabis is that it helps a spectrum of health issues, so users can battle multiple ailments at once. Many Cannabis advocates like Griffin also experience mental health issues like anxiety and depression - on top of physical problems. Here, Cannabis is like a metaphorical blanket that soothes multiple symptoms at once.

“In my experience, I’ve found that strains, cannabinoids and terpenes are tools in the toolbox, and it’s up to the avatar to decide what tools work best for a specific mission,” says Griffin. “Linalool is one of the first terpene tools that I learned about, and happens to cover fire on the physical and mental sides of the battle. It helps activate your body’s parasympathetic response, which helps you rest and heal. LA Confidential and Grandaddy Purps do a fine job at taking the edge off of those waves of anxiety and depression. Jack Herer and Dutch Treat contain pinene, which is another terpene tool I find provides a good amount of abdominal/joint pain relief, while allowing me to still be active, clear headed, and get missions accomplished.”

Griffin doesn’t limit himself to one type of consumption when it comes to Cannabis. He has found that depending on what he is dealing with, that dictates how he goes about medicating himself. It’s important that Cannabis users understand different forms of Cannabis are more efficient in certain situations, and this knowledge takes time and trial-and-error to dial in.

“I have used this beautiful plant in about every way possible,” says Griffin. “I’ve found that its different forms provide different kinds of relief. U Some are used daily, and others as the situation dictates. If I’m feeling nauseous, can’t stop vomiting, or don’t have an appetite - my quickest way to relief would be to smoke some flower. If I have more deep and intense pain, and my bones and joints are feeling like a brittle pencil that’s about to snap, then I’ll break out the Echo Electuary live resins and heat up the trusty quartz banger for some dabs. If I’m getting a migraine (not a headache - a real migraine) then smoking or dabbing usually just makes it worse for me. So my technique is to rub my neck, temples, and hairline with a topical THC salve, drop a THC bath bomb in a hot bathtub, and soak that migraine away in the dark. Plus, I make sure to hydrate and sleep. I’ve used topicals on shingles when I’ve had them, and I’ve used Dirty Arm Farms Adabinol to help me drift away from insomnia. I use TJ’S CBD oil in the mornings like a multivitamin to help temper the intestinal inflammation experienced with ulcerative colitis and Crohns.” Despite his success with Cannabis, Griffin still deals with the unwarranted stigma around using Cannabis as a healthy and natural treatment option. His loved ones often don’t understand, which makes it difficult for Griffin to talk about his progress with the plant. Instead, he lets the quality of his health since using Cannabis do the talking for him, in hopes that his family will soon warm up to the idea of validating Cannabis as a worthy long term treatment option. Griffin admits it took time before he had his Cannabis profile dialed to exactly what he needed and what treatments worked the best for him. More information and dosage labels help, but it took him awhile to get his treatment just right. FINDING WHAT WORKS “If half of your family lives in a ‘reefer madness’ time machine like mine does, one may still find themselves battling the social stigmas with loved ones who don’t quite grasp the reality of their situation. Don’t worry, just love them like their respective entity would, and once they see how it helps your quality of life, they should begin to come around. If not, cut that baggage loose and watch the universe fill that gap with something beautiful. Also, dialing-in an individual’s patient profile has been one of the biggest challenges I’ve seen and experienced. It can take a lot of trial, error, and cold hard cash when it comes to finding out how each form of Cannabis affects your body. Once an individual dials in what works, will that strain or product consistently be available to them? And can they afford to purchase the necessary treatment amount on a regular basis? Always reach out. Always ask questions. We are a community, and the real gangsters will always help a patient in need. I would highly encourage everyone to always study what you are battling. And those looking to use Cannabis as treatment, learning to ‘catch your own fish’ is the surest way to make sure you’ve always got clean medicine on hand.”

Matt Kovarsky northwest leaf budtender of the month

“I THINK OF CANNABIS AS A VITAMIN NOW.”

THE NOVEL TREE

1817 130th Ave NE Suite B, Bellevue, WA | (425) 867-2700 | Novel-Tree.com NOVEL TREE IS DIVIDED INTO TWO SHOPS UNDER ONE ROOF: RECREATIONAL AND MEDICAL. BEING ON THE MEDICAL SIDE, HOW HAS YOUR FORMAL EDUCATION PREPARED YOU FOR THIS ROLE OF CANNABIS EDUCATOR? I wish college programs for Cannabis had existed when I was in school. There are multiple universities that are taking the lead on the growing aspect, but I don’t know if there are any focusing on the cannabinoids, terpenes and medicinal benefits - so there are still huge gains to make there.

ON THE LEAF LIFE PODCAST SHOW TITLED HIGHER EDUCATION, WE INTERVIEWED A PROFESSOR AT OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY WHO HAS A CLASS CALLED REEFER MADNESS IN MASS MEDIA. IF YOU WERE TO TEACH A CLASS, HOW WOULD YOU APPROACH IT AND WHAT WOULD IT BE CALLED? I think it would be called Endocannabinoid Studies. The endocannabinoid system that all these terpenes and cannabinoids are interacting with is important, and having talked with doctors, they are still not teaching it in medical school. So, there’s this giant system of the body that oversees maintaining homeostasis and balance that is vital to health, and people in the medical industry aren’t being educated about it - which is ridiculous. There are some doctors who are educating themselves because they are interested in the results, but it’s moving very slowly. If I were to go back to when I was in school, I’d focus on biochemistry, physiology and important systems of the body. That’s what I’m doing now just by reading papers, but there’s only so much information available.

WHAT PAPERS ARE YOU READING? White papers as much as possible, PubMed. It’s where medical papers are published and where a doctor would publish research done on Cannabis. Dr. Ethan Russo has been one of the best resources we have in understanding the endocannabinoid system and being able to explain it to people. The Leaf Life Podcast, as you mentioned already, is a great place to get a lot of information - and Northwest Leaf, of course!

THANKS FOR THE PLUG, MAN! Thanks for what you guys do!

HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO LEGALLY ADVISE SOMEONE WHO COMES TO YOU WITH DIFFERENT AILMENTS? I think of Cannabis as a vitamin now. Our body produces chemicals very similar to THC and CBD, and by using phytocannabinoids we can enhance how our body is naturally dealing with pain, stress, sleep, anxiety, etc. What’s tough is that everyone has a different endocannabinoid tone. Everyone’s body is different, their chemistry is different and their response to stress is different. So, we have a good understanding of where to start with people, but the dosage matched with their preferred method of consumption is unique to the individual. Hence the reason why we have so many different products to offer, and therefore effectively pair the product to the person.

WHAT MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO? Tool, Queens of the Stone Age and Jay-Z, those are my top three.

IF YOU SHARED CANNABIS WITH MAYNARD JAMES KEENAN OF TOOL, WHERE WOULD YOU LEAD THE CONVERSATION? I’d talk to him about wine because he’s got a vineyard and I know there are a lot of similarities to growing Cannabis outdoors and growing grapes. You can have two vineyards next to each other producing very different things. Well, it’s the same with Cannabis - where you give 10 different growers Blue Dream and you’re going to get 10 different results.

The first thing to grab your attention when entering this spacious emporium will be the smiling face greeting you at the door. There, you will be cordially pointed in the right direction to peruse the countless options. You can really spread out here as there is lots of room to roam. And to make this the easiest experience you’ve had yet, you’ll find the brightly lit space is divided into sections - one wall with mostly flower while the next displays oils and cartridges. And then there are cases full of every imaginable edible product on the market. Also, all your needs for wellness products are handily displayed in addition to a full case dedicated to pre-rolls. And they’re not done yet, because on the far side of the store is the home for Ray’s Lemonades and some of Washington’s finest hash rosins refrigerated for freshness. And don’t forget about the eye-popping glass paraphernalia and other smoking accessories found right there on the floor and behind the checkout counter.

PRODUCT SELECTION

When it comes to variety, this is where these guys really outshine the competition as their choice of flower options reflects their roots in medical Cannabis. And speaking of roots, there’s a deep sense of respect paid to the local flower producers in the Spokane area like BudCo, Blue Roots and New Day Cannabis. The larger players get their nod, too, with the presence of Phat Panda’s wide variety of choices, Smokey Point Productions, and Flight 9’s unique tin packed pre-rolls. Every price point has several options whether it’s a $10 bag of shake or a $50 eighth. But behold, oil is where The Green Nugget truly excels, with one of the deepest selections in Spokane. You can always grab a perfectly decent $20 gram of shatter, choose from one of the 10-20 flavors from Refine, or even treat yourself to a tasty gram of solventless hash rosin from Dank Czar. These friendly folks are well versed in expertise to ensure you go home with the right goods.

HISTORY & VALUES

Owner Scott O’Neil, along with his partner Sean Fitzgerald, started in the business back in the day by operating Pacific Northwest Medical Supply in Spokane and Shoreline. Then, in 2015, Scott proudly hung his first sign for The Green Nugget. And only three years later, it was time to continue following the dream of providing the ultimate Cannabis shopping experience by relocating to this current location on Division Street in August of 2018. And who better to call upon but his own blood, so he recruited his brother Jason to help with the renovations. Now, you can see for yourself that their pride in the medical days is evident in every aspect of design and distinction.

BUDTENDERS & SPECIALS

The goal here is to provide people with a memorable shopping experience, allowing them to view the products up close and browse as long as needed before engaging with a budtender. The friendly staff can be seen roaming the floor with order pads in hand, interacting directly with their customers while educating these fine folks on the finer points of the products, all the while assisting with personal suggestions. They are quite aware that this attention to detail creates the necessary comfortable shopping experience for each and everyone who enters. And when it comes to specials, they’ve lined up one for every day of the week. Monday Funday is the perfect way to start things off with a 20% discount on all flower. There’s also Stock Up Sunday with deals on full ounces, pre-rolls and edibles. And if wellness products are what you need, they’ve even created an extra special deal on every other Sunday where customers get 30% off. And don’t forget about the loyalty program that provides participants with one point for every dollar spent. 200 points gets you a 15% discount, 420 points 20% off, and 710 points will save you 30%.

QUICK HIT

If you are looking for a fun shop that has over 2000 different products from over 136 vendors, look no further when in the happening city of Spokane. From the name, you would think that The Green Nugget is a superhero - not a shop to find all your favorite Cannabis products. But then again, who says it’s not?

Their love of Cannabis from the medical days is apparent in every aspect of the new location.

Sizzle of Spokane