Sensi Magazine - Colorado - November 2020

HACKING THE FEAST

How hippies had Thanksgiving

WAKE UP!

Change your thinking about ADHD

C O LO R A D O NOVEMBER 2020

TRIPPY HEALING The promising properties of psychedelics

UPPER CRUST

How to really make apple pie

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COLORADO SENSI MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2020

sensimediagroup @sensimagazine @sensimag

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FEATURES

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Trippy Healing Psychedelics are the new medical marijuana.

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Rhythm of the Night

This is a story about ADHD… or it kind of is.

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Ladies, It’s Time to WIN

Women investors could change the landscape of the tech and cannabis industries forever.

ON THE COVER

New research puts the “psyche” back in psychedelics, suggesting they have the potential for treating mental illness and addiction.

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EXECUTIVE

Ron Kolb Founder + CEOÂ ron@sensimag.com Mike Mansbridge President Fran Heitkamp Chief Operating Officer Lou Ferris VP of Global Revenue Chris Foltz VP of Global Reach Jade Kolb Director of Project Management BRAND DEVELOPMENT

Richard Guerra Deputy Director of Global Reach Tuva Hank Music Director, Sensi Presents Neil Willis Production Director ADVERTISING

Nancy Reid Director, Team Building, Sensi East Joel Bergeson Director, Team Building, Sensi West

M E D I A PA RT N E R S Minority Cannabis Business Association Students for Sensible Drug Policy

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PUBLISHING

COLORADO Liana Cameris Market Director, Colorado liana.cameris@sensimag.com Amanda Patrizi Media Sales Executive amanda.patrizi@sensimag.com Nicholas Sheppard Media Sales Executive nicholas.sheppard@sensimag.com Tyler Tarr Media Sales Executive tyler.tarr@sensimag.com SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Rob Ball Market Director Angelique Kiss Market Director NEVADA Abi Wright Market Director NEW ENGLAND Richard Guerra Market Director Jenna Scandone Media Sales Executive MICHIGAN Jamie Cooper Market Director Ernie Butcher Media Sales Executive Chelsea Carter Media Sales Executive Kile Miller Media Sales Executive Leah Stephens Media Sales Executive Constance Taylor Media Sales Executive NORCAL Nancy Birnbaum Market Director Toni Malvesta Media Sales Executive Sam De La Paz Media Sales Executive

C ont inued DEPARTMENTS

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17 EDITOR’S NOTE 20 THE BUZZ

News, tips, and tidbits to keep you in the loop TAKE IN TAKE-OUT How are we doing Restaurant Week?

RECIPES FOR CHANGE The new hemp-centric cookbook MASKED CRUSADER Masks that scream “VOTE” so that

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you don’t have to HIGH-END The luxe new dispensary in Aspen SACRED MEDICINE Learn more about healing rapéh.

READING ROOM New and upcoming releases to keep an eye out for

30 THE LIFE

Contributing to your health and happiness HACKING THE FEAST How the hippies hijacked Thanksgiving and had a feast that can’t be beat CONTAINING THE TROPICS Houseplants that bring island vibes no matter the weather out your window HOROSCOPE What the stars hold for you

78 THE SCENE

Hot happenings and hip hangouts around town

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UPPER CRUST The art of truly baking apple pie HEALTH A cannabis solution for that time of the month AN AMERICAN TALE How diversity shapes Thanksgiving CALENDAR Stuff your month with holiday festivities.

HIGH SOCIETY Recapping The Green Solution’s tenth

anniversary event

104 THE END Take a deep breath, sweetheart. Whether that deep breath involves a joint is up to you.

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R EG I O N A L A DV I S O RY B OA R D

FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA FAC E B O O K Like Sensi Media Group to infuse your Newsfeed with more of our great cannabis lifestyle content.

TWITTER Follow @sensimag for need-to-know news and views from Sensi headquarters.

I N S TAG R A M Pretty things, pretty places, pretty awesome people: find it all on @sensimagazine

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Agricor Laboratories Testing Lab Aspen Cannabis Insurance Insurance Services Canyon Cultivation Microdosing Cartology Corporation Cartridge Filling Equipment + Hardware Colorado Cannabis Company THC Coffee Concentrate Supply Co. Recreational Concentrates Emerald Construction Construction Green Edge Trimmers Trimmers Higher Grade Boutique Cannabis Hybrid Payroll Staffing & HR Benefits Jupiter Research Inhalation Hardware Lab Society Extraction Expert + Lab Supplies marQaha Sublinguals + Beverages Monte Fiore Farms Recreational Cultivation Northern Standard History of Cannabis PotGuide Cannabis Culture Source CO Wholesale Consulting Terrapin Care Station Recreational Dispensary Toast Mindful Consumption Uleva Hemp Products Wana Brands Edibles Witlon Inc. Payroll Processing

Magazine published monthly

by Sensi Media Group LLC. © 2020 Sensi Media Group. All rights reserved.

A

Stephanie Wilson Co-Founder + Editor in Chief stephanie.wilson@sensimag.com Doug Schnitzspahn Executive Editor doug.schnitzspahn@sensimag.com Robyn Griggs Lawrence Editor at Large John Lehndorff Dining Editor Diane Blackford, Emma Joss, Nora Mounce, Rachel Svoboda, Mona Van Joseph Contributing Writers MANAGING EDITORS

Tracy Ross Michigan Debbie Hall Nevada Emilie-Noelle Provost New England Jenny Willden NorCal Dawn Garcia Southern California

DESIGN/PRODUCTION

Jamie Ezra Mark Creative Director jamie@emagency.com Rheya Tanner Art Director Wendy Mak Designer Josh Clark Designer V I D E O

Jeremy Pape Head of Production John Gray Production Videographer

EDITOR’S NOTE

As I write this, Election Day is so close

that pundits have started counting the hours rather than the days, the weeks, the months, the years. That’s how long so many of us have been anxiously waiting for the day to arrive that the presidential race is called.

If there’s a silver lining of 2020’s signature turmoil, it’s that we have lots of practice when it comes to letting go of expectations. Ever since the new decade roared in, so little has gone as planned—for every person on the planet. If there’s a gold lining to the global pandemic, it’s the feeling of unity that results from knowing we’re all in this together. That unity gives me hope.

Hope is the central message of the month—hope for a better future, for a better life, for us all. Sensi’s editor at large Robyn Griggs Lawrence is to thank for that. At our editorial calendar planning meeting last fall, November was a particular challenge, given that the themes stem from predictions about the mood of the nation, and the last four years taught us to anticipate chaos.

Then Robyn offered us “hope,” and the calendar was complete.

Alas, a lot of our best-laid plans of 2019 became casualties of the pandemic when we paused production in April. When I think about the days leading up to that pause—and the months that followed—I get flashbacks to an enduring dread. I feared that the company we’d spent five years building, dreaming of a day when the our bank balance didn’t result in low-balance alerts (a day that had finally arrived), would not make it. But I had hope.

And the dream endures, thanks to the steady faith of all the humans listed to my left and on p. 14 who worked for eight long months to reenvision Sensi’s mission. Because they, too, had hope.

Hope is the bedrock of the American Dream. And in the America I dream of, all humans are created and treated equal— and they all have safe and legal access to cannabis to use as they see fit. Because it’s a pretty miraculous little plant, and I don’t know that I would have made it through the last eight months as sane as I did without it. Nor do I want to experience November without its calming effects. Breathe in the good, exhale the bad, and keep hoping for the best. Keep hoping for us all.

If there’s a gold lining to the global pandemic, it’s the feeling of unity that results from knowing we’re all in this together.

That unity gives me hope.

Stephanie Wilson @stephwilll N OV E M B E R 2020

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Falling for Restaurant Week The robust, thriving restaurant scene that Colorado’s Front Range had become known for has taken quite the beating during the pandemic.

Gone are high-profile-profile dining rooms like Acorn, Racines, Old Major, Meadowlark Kitchen, The Market at Larimer Square, 12@Madison, Vesta, Euclid Hall, and we could go on but it’s just depressing. It’s 20

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also depressing to think about how many months have gone by since we all gathered together at our favorite eateries and toasted to good food and the good life.

The restaurateurs miss us as much as we miss them, and they’ve showed us that every step along the bumpy path the shutdown has taken. They’ve added take-out and delivery options; they’re

serving cocktails in to-go cups and walking them out to your car.

Visit Denver wants to bring Denverites together (safely, of course) to celebrate these entrepreneurs, to give them a boost of business. So the tourism board is organizing the first-ever fall edition of its super popular restaurant week. Running from Nov. 13 to 22, Fall Denver Restaurant Week

has both dine-in and take-out/delivery options available at the typical Denver Restaurant Week prices ($25, $35, $45 depending on the caliber of the establishment).

With limited seating capacity due to COVID-19, reservations are gonna go quick so make yours now.

View the participating restaurants and the menus at denverrestaurantweek.com

PHOTOS COURTESY VISIT DENVER

A special fall 2020 edition of Denver Restaurant Week will take place Nov. 13–22.

CONTRIBUTORS

Emma Joss, Stephanie Wilson

BY THE NUMBERS

$35 BILLION Projected size of the legal domestic cannabis market by 2025 SOURCE: New Frontier Data

Hemp for the Hungry PHOTO CREDIT (FROM LEFT): COURTESY SHADI RAMEY / COURTESY SWADDLEDESIGNS

Want a Recipe for Change?

Check out this new hemp-centric cookbook.

Can a cookbook be a force for good? Farmer and chef, Shadi Ramey, author of the soonto-be-released cookbook Hemp Can Change the World, thinks so. All the recipes in the book, which is printed on 100-percent hemp paper, are both vegan and gluten-free. Many also qualify as keto- and paleo-friendly. One dollar per book sold will go to support the nonprofit Last Prisoner Project, and 1 percent of the book’s proceeds will be donated to the 1% for the Planet organization.

A series of live and virtual events supporting the book’s release this month are in the works.

Pre-order your copy at hempcansavetheworld.com.

67 PERCENT

MANDATED ACCESSORY

MASKED CRUSADER Put your conviction where your mouth is with this au courant “VOTE” mask by SwaddleDesigns.

Designed by Lynette Damir, RN, these masks are fitted to minimize leakage around the nose, on the side of the face, and under the chin. Using the most-current research, SwaddleDesigns masks yield superior filtration of aerosolized droplets compared to some of the other masks on the market by using three layers of tightly woven 180-thread-count cotton fabric. With the bold message emblazoned on the front, this required protective gear insists that everyone around you read your lips.

of Americans support full federal legalization, an increase from 41% in 2010

230 MILLION Americans who live in states with legalized medical or adult-use cannabis, representing 70% of the U.S. population

41.85 PERCENT

of all cannabis consumers in North America are over the age of 40 Source: Compliance technology provider Akerna

Every now and then you have to get away from that ugly Old Politics trip, or it will drive you to kicking the walls and hurling AR3’s into the fireplace.”

—Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72

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LIVES ARE AT STAKE EVERY TIME YOU GET BEHIND THE WHEEL. PLAN AHEAD. DON’T DRIVE HIGH. Dr i veHighDUI. c om

THE BUZZ

BILITIES

BY STEPHANIE WILSON, EDITOR IN CHIEF

High Country

The highest of high-end boutique dispensaries just elevated Aspen’s shopping scene.

HOPE. In a world in turmoil, I have hope.

PHOTO CREDIT: AHRLING PHOTOGRAPHY

A “good time” for a deadly worldwide contagion doesn’t exist, but an election year is the best time as any—because it makes it so much more evident that our elected leaders impact our lives, that our votes have impact, that our choices matter.

By the time you read this, election day almost certainly has passed. We may still be waiting for the results, those results may be being contested, or the foundation of our democracy may be in peril if the occupant of the White House as of this writing is refusing to accept defeat and unwilling to leave.

Still, I have hope. In the face of difficulty, of uncertainty, I have the audacity of hope, to use Barack Obama’s phrase. As our former president once said, “In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.”

“I’m not talking about blind optimism,” he said, “the kind of hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or the road blocks that stand in our path. I’m not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to just sit on the sidelines or shrink from a fight. I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.”

IT WAS LIKE A SCENE FROM THE FINAL HOURS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE: EVERYWHERE YOU LOOKED, SOME PROMINENT POLITICIAN WAS DEGRADING HIMSELF IN PUBLIC.” —Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72

The opening of Dalwhinnie Farms’s flagship boutique in the heart of downtown Aspen in September is a signal that the connoisseur side of cannabis has a home in Colorado.

The elegant concept storefront carries top-of-the-line products and showpiece accessories from all over the world—plus a specifically curated selection of designer apparel, jewelry, and home goods. Think: Badash crystal ashtrays, YRI Designs belt buckels, Pasotti Ombrelli umbrellas, Rogue Paq leather carrying cases, Nomatiq tiger’s eye crystal pipes. And of course top-of-theline cannabis. The carefully curated collection and high-minded design—rustic aged leathers, brass accents, antique mirrors— mimic the culturally relevant elite aesthetic for which Aspen is known.

Speaking of Aspen elite, the privatehedge-fund types don’t have to mingle with the masses who stop by to procure Dalwhinnie Farms’ wares during standard operating hours (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.). From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. daily, the shop offers private shopping experiences available by appointment only, which surely appeals to the type of paparazzi-trailed clientele this elevating and elevated boutique is hoping to attract.

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Our award-winning Native Elite vape line is engineered to provide the cleanest connoisseur-grade concentration of active cannabinoids and native terpenes available on the market. Extracted only from the highest quality, organically grown, single-strain, single-batch cannabis, using proprietary helium and CO2 based extraction methods. We use no synthetic flavorings, propylene glycol, butane, propane, toxic solvents or additives of any kind in our production process. Native Elite extracts contain only cannabinoids and terpenes found in the source cannabis plant, giving you an all-natural experience with flavor and effect like no other. That’s the Northern Standard!

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THE BUZZ

QUICK HIT The highest concentration of cannabis consumers in the country are in Colorado, Oregon, Washington D.C., and Vermont, according to New Frontier Data.

PLANT MEDICINE

PHOTO COURTESY THE SABINA PROJECT

KNOW THIS: RAPÉH Rapéh (pronounced “hay-peh”) is a sacred plant medicine from the Amazon region often referred to as "blank-slate-medicine."

It’s non-psychoactive and totally legal, making it an amazing and powerful ally for meditation and a great entry point for people looking to experiment with more plant medicine. It's known for its grounding qualities that can help calm even the busiest mind and help you tune into your body for a deep meditative experience.

The rapéh is blown high up into the nostrils with a kuripe pipe, a small, portable, v-shaped blowpipe traditionally used by the indigenous peoples of South America for the self-application of the plant medicine, which is taken usually in a ritual or ceremonial setting. The intense blow of rapéh is said to immediately focus the mind, stop the chattering, and open the entire freed mind space for your intentions. This helps to release emotional, physical, and spiritual illnesses and eases negativity and confusion, enabling a thorough grounding of the self.

This is all according to the founders of The Sabina Project, a platform for Black-led psychedelic education, training, and harm-reduction. Founded with the belief that sacred plant medicine is often mystified to the point of seeming inaccessible, TSP is on a mission to change that. As a part of that mission, TPS

co-creators Undrea Wright and practitioner Charlotte James are leading group ceremonies and meditations, including the upcoming New Year’s Eve Rapéh Intention Setting Ceremony.

The virtual ceremony, open to everyone no matter their familiarity with rapéh, opens with an intention setting and a grounding prayer. Participants then collectively blow rapéh, and settle into a healing crystal sound bath. The ceremony closes with guided breathwork and meditation that will help everyone align with the communal energy.

Along with a ticket to the ceremony, TBS is offering a Ceremony + Kuripe package for $62, Ceremony + Rapéh and Kuripe for $94. James and Wright spent months designing their signature 3-D printed kuripe pipes, making them lightweight, and easy to use at home for individual ceremonies. TSP’s kuripes are locally made in Baltimore using non-GMO corn based filament and the design features white etchings inspired by Mudcloth textiles.

Five percent of all proceeds from the new collection goes to their Mutual Ceremony Fund, which provides monetary assistance for BIPOC looking to explore psychedelic healing work through The Sabina Project’s workshops.

Learn more at thesabinaproject.com.

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THE BUZZ

—Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72

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READING ROOM

New and upcoming releases to add to the stack on your bedside table, to your Goodreads “want to read” shelf, or to your hold list on the Libby app (free e-books and audiobook loans for anybody with a library card). You do you, as long as you are reading. Because as that famous Mark Twain quote says (paraphrasing here), those who do not read have no advantage over those who can’t. We present this list without context, because we think you actually can tell a lot about a book by its cover and title.

The Cold Millions

by Jess Walter

Homeland Elegies

by Ayad Akhtar

Daddy

by Emma Cline

Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes by Elizabeth Lesser

Let Love Rule

by Lenny Kravitz

The Selected Works of Audre Lorde, edited by Roxane Gay

What Would Frida Do? A Guide to Living Boldly

by Ariana Davis

Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen

PHOTO BY THOUGHT CATALOG, UNSPLASH

“The whole framework of the presidency is getting out of hand.

It’s come to the point where you almost can’t run unless you can cause people to salivate and whip on each other with big sticks. You almost have to be a rock star to get the kind of fever you need to survive in American politics.”

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Hacking The Feast How the hippies hijacked Thanksgiving and had a feast that can’t be beat.

TEXT JOHN LEHNDORFF

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sity in Montreal in the early 1970s when our household decided to host the hippest Thanksgiving ever. We recorded a soundtrack on a reelto-reel tape deck of our favorite songs—some early Springsteen like “Rosalita,” lots of country rock including Emmy“My friend and I went lou Harris’s “Bluebird up to visit Alice at the Wine,” and, of course, restaurant” I grew up loving Thanks- “Alice’s Restaurant.” The tunes were supposed to giving with our large, fit the various stages of overextended family of the festivities, including Austrian, Sicilian, and digestive tunes for the Polish relatives who aftermath. Some of the contributed ethnic side memories are a tad foggy, dishes. The bird was always filled with mashed but it was a great time. potato and Italian sausage stuffing. However, “Had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be the title track of Guthbeat” rie’s Alice’s Restaurant We were antiestablishalbum describes a holment, so we kept the iday with friends that sounded much more like parts of Thanksgiving we liked—the wine and a party than the somethe pies—and got rid of times nerve-racking the parts we couldn’t family feasts we knew at home. Because of the stand, such as the need to dress up. Long before epic, 16-minute talking blues track by the son of it caught on with mainstream, the counterculfolk icon Woody Guthture hosted vegetarian rie—the singer-song“This song is called Thanksgivings with a writer behind classics ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ and big-tent approach that such as “This Land Is it’s about Alice and the welcomed side dishes of Your Land”—nonderestaurant, but Alice’s all denominations. What nominational ThanksRestaurant is not the name of the restaurant” giving Day soon became mattered was gathering like-minded members of the hippies’ unofficial When Guthrie’s Alice’s your tribe. national holiday.

Restaurant Massacree Besides, Thanksgivdebuted in 1967, the song ing with friends was also “Now it all started two immediately became the one holiday bash Thanksgivings ago” an underground hit. other than New Year’s I was an American stuFor young males like Eve when we could enjoy dent at McGill Univerme approaching the Back before football and the Black Friday frenzy came to dominate the day, Thanksgiving was the stodgiest of the big American holidays. The national feast day was mostly a quiet family home meal with the same turkey, boxed stuffing, and green bean casserole. It was traditional, but not necessarily that much fun.

I come from Massachusetts where Thanksgiving was always a big deal. The Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians got together for a three-day harvest feast in 1621 about 50 miles from where I grew up. More importantly, I was just down the turnpike from Stockbridge, the town where folk singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie and a friend dumped trash over a cliff in 1965.

That seminal moment sparked a folk song that would change Thanksgiving history.

age when we could be drafted into the military to fight in Vietnam, the song about questioning authority was a call to action as well as a cautionary tale. It was also about the communal nature of Thanksgiving.

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THE LIFE

Long before it caught up with the mainstream, the counterculture hosted vegetarian Thanksgivings that welcomed dishes of all denominations. What mattered was gathering like-minded members of your tribe. highly illegal cannabis along with beer and wine.

“And everything was fine, we were smoking cigarettes and all kinds of things, until the stead of hosting an elabosergeant came over” rate meal. I feel their pain.

Over the years, I’ve hosted Thanksgiving or “I walked in, sat down, I helped stage the feast dozens of times, but not was hung down, brung down, hung up, and all without combating the kinds o’ mean nasty prevailing paradigm. ugly things” Magazine covers and Turkeys have been overTV shows show perfect cooked and undercooked birds, oh-so-easy side when I’ve hosted. I’ve dishes, and 126 things you can do to decorate burned dishes that only your home for the hapneeded to be warmed. py feast day. You must Once the fridge was remain the relaxed and packed, and I was tired gracious hostess or host. on Thanksgiving night It is a fairy-tale feast so I left the turkey carcomplete with unreacass on the back porch sonable expectations, on a near-freezing night. because stuff always hap- I awoke to a brutally attacked turkey scatpens. No wonder folks tered across the porch end up making reservaand back yard after an tions at a restaurant in-

ing Thanksgiving. I’m getting nervous even as I write this, because this year everybody’s coming to eat at my house. I figure it’ll be worth it for the leftovers. alley gang of obnoxious raccoons broke in. I “Kid, have you rehabilitated yourself?” mourned the lost meat In a 2017 feature on and soup. feast dishes for 50 states in the New York Times, “You may know somebody in a similar cannabis got special atsituation, or you tention. “It’s difficult to may be in a similar assess exactly how much situation” legalization…may have changed the ThanksgivAnother year, I knew that slicing the turkey in ing menu. But it has indubitably increased the the aluminum pan was snacking that goes on afa really bad idea, but I terward,” the esteemed went ahead anyway. I publication noted. sliced through the pan, We would remind the and the hot, fatty, deTimes that cannabis and licious collected juicTurkey Day have been es started pouring out on the cutting board, intersecting for many decounter, and floor. cades in many places. And The thing is: we all If I’m going to bust my get anxiety over hostbuns pulling off ThanksN OV E M B E R 2020

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THE LIFE

giving, then I want enough goodies so I can relax and enjoy the meal in the days that follow.

“Had another Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat” I look forward to turkey breast BLT’s, dark meat turkey in French dip sandwiches with gravy replacing the au jus, and turkey tacos in chocolate-chile mole sauce. I love making waffles out of leftover bread stuffing, and serving latkes made from Italian sausage and potato stuffing topped with eggs.

I turn that precious

turkey into a hearty broth that becomes frozen cubes that I bag for later use in sauces, soups, and such. A month (or three) from now, I’ll dig into the freezer and smile when I find carefully packaged gravy, cranberry sauce, turkey, and side dishes for a comforting, easy dinner.

stations have made it traditional to play the 16-minute protest song on Thanksgiving Day, sometimes several times.

If Grandpa and Grandma get a silly gleam in their eye when they hear “Alice’s Restaurant” playing, they may have been hippies. There were challenging times, chronicled in the song, that they lived through in the late 1960s to the early ’70s. It wasn’t all peace and love, either.

“You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant, excepting Alice” Ironically, our antiestablishment countercul- “If you want to end war ture ended up creating and stuff you got to sing rituals that are followed loud” annually. Many radio Is hosting a Thanksgiv-

ing feast really worth the hours of prep, the cleaning, the shopping, the cooking, and commotion of inviting others into your home for a dining experience fraught with so many possible disasters?

My answer is still yes.

What I remember best about Thanksgiving dinners is not food or faux pas, political tiffs or football games. I am thankful for the funny, argumentative, and heartwarming moments shared among the folks who filled the circle around the table on evenings in November.

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TM

xploration 1:10 4/19/2020

Discovery 18:20 4/19/2020

THE LIFE GARDEN

Containing the Tropics PHOTO BY NEW AFRICA, ADOBE STOCK

Baby it’s cold outside, but these easy-breezy houseplants can add an instant island vibe to your home no matter what’s happening out there. TEXT DIANE BLACKFORD

Your dreams for a Carib- palm trees and verdant fobean getaway this year liage growing out of every get dashed by a pandem- available space. You can ic that most of closed the do the same, and I highly country’s borders, too? encourage it. Plants proWhile it’s not quite the vide oxygen, clean the air, same as frolicking on sug- and are shown to elevate ary soft beaches flanked levels of happiness. Not by palm trees and lapped to mention if you get by shimmering turquoise enough of them growing, waters, I’ve done my best you’ll raise the humidito turn my apartment ty in your place—someinto a tropical oasis with thing every Coloradan

needs. Trust me, your hair, skin, sinuses, and more will thank you for adding more moisture to the air.

My apartment’s large southern-facing windows deserve a lot of credit for helping to transform an empty apartment into a lush landscape, no doubt. But even if your place rarely sees any direct sunlight at all, you

too can grow some palm trees a mile high.

Everyone can be a tropical gardener, and thanks to the houseplant-crazed millennials demanding more—and more exotic—greenery to grow in their homes, it’s easier than ever to cultivate a true island vibe indoors—even in the coldest of climates.

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THE LIFE GARDEN

IMAGES VIA ADOBE STOCK

(Fun fact: the fifth-coldest temp this country has ever recorded was in Maybell, Colorado, when it dipped to -61°F on February 1, 1985. As I write this, it’s 14 degrees outside and the temps are falling into the single digits tomorrow, making Denver one of the coldest places in the country right now.)

“It may be a little tricky at times, but adding that special warmth and color to your home definitely can be done,” confirms Andrea Haywood, a certified master gardener from South Florida.

While Jack Frost is not a friend to most greenery native to climates where temperatures hover above 75°F, we’ve rounded up some of the easiest tropical plants that you can

grow indoors all year long. You can find these varieties and others like them at your local garden center, where the staff can

help you pick out the right its uncanny resemblance type for your home’s light to the feathered creature and offer tips to help you with the same name. care for the tropical trans- The unusual shape of its plant. So take your green flowers makes the plant thumbs out of your gloves a superb conversation and get growing on your starter that adds a welown tropical paradise. come burst of color to any household where it Bird of Paradise (above) blooms, which doesn’t This colorful plant spehappen without a TON cies got its moniker from of natural sunlight. But even without the namesake flower, the large plan adds a ton of tropical flair to any room, thanks to its glossy leaves fanning out.

Bromeliad (left) There are over 3,000 species within this standout family of tropical plants. Most have bold leaves that are often colorful, but many bromeliads’ most distinguishing characteristic is an exotic flower spike. Given the long-lasting blooms N OV E M B E R 2020

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THE LIFE GARDEN

Dracaena Marginata (below) Often called the dragon tree, the spiky houseplant is native to Africa.

The tricolor cultivar, also known as the rainbow plant, adds an instant island vibe to any household with its pink, cream, and yellow stripes on narrow, green leaves.

Hibiscus (left) Huge, dramatic blooms up to eight inches in and ornamental foliage, among the easiest to grow, diameter add terrific you may assume these and you can find varietsplashes of color (albeare high-maintenance ies in all shapes and sizes it short-lived) to this houseplants but you’d be with different preferences shrub. It needs plenty of mistaken. They tend to be for light and heat. water and well-drained

soil to survive, and it needs lots of sunlight to bloom, which it can do from late spring through fall in the right conditions. You can find versions with flowers in a dizzying array of colors, making it easy to match your home’s color palette. If you don’t have bright, direct sunlight, don’t let that stop you from adding this stunner to your collection. Keep it indoors during the winter then move it to the balcony or porch when it warms up outside to enjoy its seasonal blooms.

IMAGES VIA ADOBE STOCK

EDITOR’S CHOICE: PONYTAIL PALM The cascading curls flowing from the top of this plant just make it seem like all sorts of bubbly fun. It’s technically a succulent, not a palm tree, but we won’t tell if you don’t. A native of the dry desert states of eastern Mexico, it does well in Colorado’s low humidity, and its bulbous base stores water like a camel’s hump, making it a good choice for people who tend to neglect their plants.

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THE LIFE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mona Van Joseph has been an intuitive since 2002. She is an author, columnist, and host of Psychic View Radio. She created dicewisdom.com, which also has a smartphone app. mona.vegas

HOROSCOPE

NOVEMBER HOROSCOPE What do the stars hold for you?

TEXT MONA VAN JOSEPH

ed is telling you to indulge in MAR. 21–APR. 19 ARIES a pricey, high-quality thing You can’t control the world’s you want. You naturally seek Imagine you are surroundevents. However, you can ed by magic. Spirit has held value and have earned the control how you respond to right to that desire. things back from you in rethem. Encouraging people to cent months; that all changes share their stories of prob- JAN. 20–FEB. 18 now. Be delighted about what lem-solving will go a long will be presented. You’ve AQUARIUS way to ease your mind. earned these opportunities.

Loving partnerships and awareness of the people who NOV. 22–DEC. 21 truly care about you are the APR. 20–MAY 20 SAGITTARIUS focus of this month. Inspired TAURUS You’ve taken on burdens Reconnect with those who reenergy flows through you. that shouldn’t be yours. Be- When undecided, ask your- ally care about you. The peoing a team player is one self: “What’s the most loving ple around you are baffled thing; being taken advanby your mood and self-isothing I can do today?” tage of is quite another. lation. You’ve been resistant Speak up about what is fair; FEB. 19–MAR. 20 and assumptive—that’s what if you don’t, the situation is working against you.

PISCES will continue.

Work the political environment around you as though MAY 21–JUNE 20 DEC. 22–JAN. 19 all the energies are support- GEMINI CAPRICORN Plot twist! Delays by othing your goals and dreams.

You’ve been stingy with Ignore anything that would ers have actually done you yourself. The energy present- cause you emotional distress. a cosmic favor. Though you OCT. 23–NOV. 21

SCORPIO

SCORPIO, ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO SHARE THEIR STORIES OF PROBLEMSOLVING WILL GO A LONG WAY TO EASE YOUR MIND.

may have had to regroup, in with the people you really the long run it will be better like. Eat your favorite tacos. for you to move forward and AUG. 23–SEPT. 22 create your own dream.

VIRGO

Keep telling spirit what you CANCER want. Keep karmic awareThere are so many people ness in your heart and act as around you who love and though all the puzzle pieccare about you. Stop waiting es are falling in the right for them to call you. Initiate places. Keep the faith. Love a gathering or two. Decide will find you and success is to host Thanksgiving this working though you. year—for all your people.

JUNE 21–JULY 22

SEPT. 23–OCT. 22 JULY 23–AUG. 22

LIBRA

You have no choice but to follow your heart now. Give yourself permission to do what you really want to do.

No procrastinating. Write that screenplay. Connect

Do what relaxes you and brings you a sense of harmony. Pragmatic and thoughtful wins the day. Discover what allows you to lose track of time and gives you a sense of awareness of the moment.

LEO

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TRIPPY HEALING Psychedelics are the new medical marijuana.

TEXT ROBYN GRIGGS LAWRENCE

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I

keep a photo of myself from the bad year, when I left the job I thought defined me and broke up with the man I’d planned to marry. I’m wearing a sleeveless dress no adult who weighs 93 pounds should be wearing, with my undernourished limbs and oversized head. I make myself look at it once in a while because I don’t want to forget.

My life once felt so bleak that I didn’t want to be here. I couldn’t kill myself because I love my children, but I thought about it all the time. I starved myself and told people my new retirement plan was to die young.

Around that time, private ayahuasca ceremonies were becoming a thing from Laurel Canyon to Park Slope, so I went to one in a multimillion-dollar house with a Jewish shaman who played New Age music on a boom box. I had read everything I could get my hands on about this ancient medicine made from sacred Amazonian plants—not all that much at the time, and a lot of it pretty terrifying—and I waited with more than a little trepidation for the big bang that would fix me.

When the mood wasn’t right and nothing happened, I was disappointed and then bored, listening to the guy next to me groan and sob and watching the guy across from me paint pictures in the air with his hands. I snuck into the garage to vape.

I took that experience as another sign of what a hopeless, crusty loser I had become. Not even drinking this legendary brew could bring back my appetite for food, for life. I figured this ayahuasca thing was just

more bullshit, a hallucinogenic Landmark Forum for entitled people who have exhausted their therapists’ patience.

I was wrong, of course, as Cosmic Sister founder Zoe Helene, a seasoned journeyer who drinks ayahuasca only in Peru (where it’s legal and revered) would prove.

Helene awarded me one of the first Cosmic Sister Plant Spirit grants so I could travel to the Nihue Rao healing center outside of Iquitos and experience traditional ayahuasca ceremonies with shamans where Mama Aya lives.

I spent four hellish nights in the rainforest, wrestling with anger and despair about my father dying before I was born—deep, pre-language demons I thought I’d dealt with in the Landmark Forum, with God knows how many therapists.

My journeys were desolate and brutal, total annihilation of the universe and terrifying solo rocket launches into empty orbits. I felt

my father’s heart attack, and his crushing angst about who would take care of me was the sword that finally cut through the dark energy I’d been born with. I forgave him for dying and myself for thinking he didn’t care enough to stick around and meet me. I told him he could let go, I would take care of myself now. Free for the first time in my life, I spent the last night juggling exclamation points, tossing them up to pop pink balloons that rained down sparkles of love on everyone around me.

The pink glow lasted. I went home and started rebuilding my skeletal self and reinventing my career—as a cannabis cookbook author and chef, no less. I met a nice guy who feeds me when I’m in work mode. I never considered suicide again.

Coffee, Tea, or Ayahuasca?

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—Kenneth Tupper, British Columbia Centre on Substance Use

ical marijuana, offering a world of therapeutic possibilities for so many things that ail us, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), debilitating grief, opiate addiction, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)—and Americans are more interested in them than they’ve been since the 1960s. In a recent YouGov survey, 53 percent of Americans said they support medical research into psychedelic medicines, and 63 percent said they would be open to having medical treatment with psilocybin, ketamine, or MDMA if the substances were proven safe.

In December 2016, the Journal of Psychoparmacology dedicated its entire issue to psychedelics. Michael Pollen’s 2018 book about psychedelic therapy, How to Change Your Mind, which he said took him to “places I’ve never been—indeed, places I didn’t know existed,” was an immediate bestseller. In 2017, in the widely acclaimed book A Really Good Day, Ayelet Waldman wrote that microdosing, or taking about onetenth of a normal dose of LSD on a regular basis, helped her deal with severe mood swings. Silicon Valley executives microdose LSD for a gentle blast of focus and creativity.

Psilocybin from “magic mushrooms” is emerging as a treatment for smoking cessation, alcoholism, and cocaine dependence, and terminal-cancer anxiety, while MDMA, aka Ecstasy or Molly, is showing great promise for treating PTSD and autistic adults with social anxiety because it lets them safely reprocess traumatic experiences that normally leave them N OV E M B E R 2020

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KNOW YOUR PSYCHEDELICS AYA H UA S C A Made in the Amazon from the ayahuasca vine and the chacruna leaf containing the psychoactive substance DMT

COULD TREAT: Depression, suicidal thoughts

P E YOT E

Vision-inducing woolly cactus used by indigenous people containing mescaLSD line, a psychedelic Synthetic psychedelic phenethylamine made from lysergic EFFECTS: SevenEFFECTS: Helps jouracid in the fungus teenth-century ethneyers come to terms that grows on rye nobotanists reported with deep trauma EFFECTS: Producthat eating the plant’s COULD TREAT: PTSD, es visuals, intentop “causes those depression, eating sified sensory devouring it to be disorders, suicidal perception, synesable to foresee and to thoughts thesia, sense of deep predict things” interconnectedness COULD TREAT: Alcoholism and addiction IBOGAINE COULD TREAT: PTSD, A compound in the alcoholism, anxiety, bark and roots of depression P S I LO C Y B I N taberanthi, a small Entheogenic (meanAfrican bush tree ing “to generate god MDMA (AKA ECSTASY, MOLLY.)

within”) found in over Enactogen developed 75 mushroom species

by German scientists EFFECTS: Disturbs during WWI with normal nerve cell properties similar to interaction and seamphetamine and rotonin functioning, mescaline creating heightened sensory experiences, EFFECTS: Soaks the COULD TREAT: Alcohol- brain with serotonin, perceptual distortions, hallucinations, oxytocin, dopamine ism and addiction and synesthesia and prolactin to inCOULD TREAT: Depresvoke what psycholK E TA M I N E sion, end-of-life anxiogist Ralph Metzner A disassociative anes- described as “a natu- ety, trauma, addiction, thetic discovered in ral state of innocence, couples therapy 1961 and used during before guilt and unthe Vietnam War worthiness arose” EFFECTS: Induces COULD TREAT: Couples deep relaxation, out- therapy, PTSD of-body experiences

EFFECTS: As activist Dana Beal described, “your entire life and those spooky archetypes you see distantly in your dreams are projected on the back of your eyelids”

overwhelmed. MDMA, which emerged in the late 1970s as a tool for psychotherapists and made its way into the hands of ravers and yuppies, was “the drug that LSD was supposed to be, coming 20 years too late to change the world,” Newsweek wrote in 1985, the year the DEA made it a Schedule I substance. In 2017, the FDA gave MDMA breakthrough therapy status based on its effectiveness in PTSD studies, and it could be approved for legal therapeutic use by 2021.

As for ayahuasca, scores of medical journal articles are now exploring how journeying changes the very brain chemistry to beat back the anxiety and depression. Every weekend across North America, thousands of seekers gather for not-so-underground ceremonies like the one that didn’t work for me. For $11,000, San Francisco-area startup professionals can travel to the Amazon with Entrepreneurs Awakening for the real deal—but they don’t have to go to all that effort. In San Francisco, self-help guru Tim Ferriss told the New Yorker in 2016, drinking ayahuasca is “like having a cup of coffee.”

LSD, Past Lives, and Outer Space Psychedelics affect the brain by binding to the same receptors as the feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin and facilitating communication between disparate regions that normally don’t talk to each other. Kenneth Tupper, director of implementation and partnerships at the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, told NBC News that under carefully controlled conditions, psycheN OV E M B E R 2020

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delics “can create experiences of wonder and awe and a connection to a ‘divine realm’ that leads to significant behavioral changes.”

At a recent international conference on the science of psychedelics in London, psychiatrist Ben Sessa explained that psychedelic therapy “offers an opportunity to dig down and get to the heart of the problems that drive long-term mental illness in a much more effective way than our current model, which is take daily medications to mask systems.”

At the Johns Hopkins University’s Psilocybin Research Project, studies found that people had a more “open” personality, greater appreciation for new experiences, and enhanced curiosity and imagination—effects that persisted for 14 months—after a single psilocybin session. And in 2018, a study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology found that people feel more connected to nature and less supportive of authoritarian views after a psychedelic trip.

That anti-authority effect is, of course, the reason psychedelics— which encouraged an entire generation to drop out and make love when the government desperately needed them to join up and make war—are illegal. In the 1950s, LSD was sold under the name Delvsid and used in conjunction with psychotherapy to treat anxiety and obsessive neuroses. A good number of researchers and therapists were studying the effects of drugs like LSD, which Canadian psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond called “psychedelics” from the Greek word for “mind manifesting.” Hollywood stars including Esther Williams and Cary Grant were outspoken

about its effectiveness, Anais Nin wrote about experimenting with it, Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson tried it as a means to sobriety, and the CIA slipped it to unsuspecting victims to see how they would respond.

“THESE INCREDIBLE COMPOUNDS… CAN BE USED TO HAVE INCREDIBLY POSITIVE RESULTS. AND WHAT DO WE DO? WE CRIMINALIZE THEM.”

A Threat to Police States Timothy Leary, the ex-Harvard professor who told people to “turn on, tune in, and drop out,” probably did more than anyone else to antagonize the government into making psychedelics illegal.

President Richard Nixon called Leary “the most dangerous man in America” for his proselytizing about LSD. Leary told Playboy in 1966 that it was “the most powerful aphrodisiac ever discovered by man,” kicking up those age-old fears about young people’s virtue and predicted it would “enable each person to realize that he is not a game-playing robot put on this planet to be given a social security number and to be spun on the assembly line of school, college, career, insurance, funeral, goodbye. … Instead of relying on canned, static, dead knowledge passed on from other symbol producers, he will be using his span of 80 or so years on this planet to live out every possibility of the human, prehuman, and even subhuman adventure.”

Or, as Hunter S. Thompson would explain in Playboy eight years later, “If acid helps people see through conditioned hallucinations, then acid’s a threat to such police states as now exist in America and in Russia.”

All too much for the US government. In 1968, a year after the —Amanda Fielding, founder of the Beckley Foundation Summer of Love, LSD possesN OV E M B E R 2020

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sion was banned. Two years later, nearly every psychedelic known, including LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, peyote, and cannabis, was declared a Schedule I drug with no medical value. The message–drugs are bad–would be impossible to ignore for the next several decades.

That message is antiquated. As we wrestle with so many seemingly intractable issues—opioid abuse, mental illness, mass shoot-

ings and violence, PTSD, and skyrocketing suicide rates—we can no longer afford to ignore tools that psychiatrist Stanislav Grof wrote, in the foreword to Albert Hoffman’s 2005 book, LSD: My Problem Child, “make it possible to study undercurrents that govern our experiences and behaviors to a depth that is not by any other method and tool available in modern mainstream psychiatry.”

Perhaps Amanda Fielding, founder of the think tank Beckley Foundation, summed it up best in a recent Wired interview. “There are these incredible compounds that synergize amazingly well with the human body and can be used to have incredibly positive results,” Fielding said. “And what do we do?

We criminalize them. I mean, they are more carefully controlled than nuclear weapons. It is mad.”

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THE RHYTHM OF THE NIGHT So, I am so not a morning person.

TEXT STEPHANIE WILSON

This is a story about ADHD. Or it kinda is. It’s a story with a few side stories, because that’s how my brain works. I speak (and write) in parentheticals, often going off on tangential asides that suddenly become more interesting than the 58

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story I was telling before, which I may or may not ever get back to.

My mind thinks in circles— there’s nothing linear about it—which is pretty fun actually.

I like to think of my ADHD as a superpower.

Which brings me back to the point I want to make: October is ADHD awareness month. If you’re thinking, “Wait, isn’t it November?” you wouldn’t be mistaken. It is. Truth: I meant to put something about ADHD awareness in the Oc-

me like a drug-seeking addict looking for uppers each month when I went to refill my prescription for the generic version of Adderall. I was seeking drugs—the drug (aka “medication”) prescribed to me by my doctor whom I met with every three months so we could evaluate and adjust the dosage as necessary. I wasn’t seeking drugs, but the pharmacists in Miami had a way of making me feel ashamed whenever I filled a prescription, and as a result, I came to consider the condition shameful, and so I kept it a secret. I didn’t even tell my mom I was diagnosed with ADHD and I told her everything. She would have loved these Colorado sunrises…

Anyway, back to my point: I realized now is as good a time as any to open up about how my ADHD brain works.

PHOTO BY STEPHANIE WILSON

THE HYPERFOCUSED IMPOSTER

tober issues of Sensi but my attention was elsewhere last month, I lost track of time, all ADHD cliches rooted in reality. Point is, I want to raise people’s awareness about ADHD, to bust some clichés about being distracted by shiny objects and small furry creatures, to put a new face on what is most often thought of as a label given to kids who don’t love school. “Over-diagnosed,” many people declare. “And the kids are over-medicated!”

I’m not going to get into that, I have no experience with it and

didn’t dig into the research because this wasn’t the direction I planned on going when I started this story, which I intended to be about the science behind why the sunrises are so spectacular in Colorado this time of year. And they really are abso-stunning-lutely incredible in November, December, and January. But I got distracted and we ended up here, talking about raising awareness for ADHD as I come out of the chaotic closet where I had been hiding after years of pharmacists in Florida treating

Pertinent background info: I have ADHD, diagnosed at age 28. I’m a high achiever, always have been. I did well in school. I loved reading as a kid and would spend weekends and summers lost in books.

Hyperfocus is real. Bruises stemming from a lack of spatial awareness, also real. We’ll get into that.

First, some more background: This is not the direction I planned on going with this feature, which was shaping up nicely, I had all the info needed in there, I could have turned it over to my design team six days before I did…but I didn’t.

Because I was bored. Bored writing it, bored reading what I wrote about it, bored for the reader who may try to read it. Was it informative? Yes. Did it provide readers with news they could use, with actionable items that could potenN OV E M B E R 2020

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tially enhance their lives? Sure.

It was—is—a fine piece. But it lacked personality. If it were a person, it would be wearing pleated khakis not because said khakis have a decidedly hipster vibe but because they…lack personality. Circular thinking, I know. I believe I even warned you. But that’s good, because now we’re back to the beginning and I can start again.

The sunrises that saturate Colorado skies with brilliant hues are worth losing sleep to see this time of year. I wrote a whole piece diving into the science of why, but meh, you learned this in grade school science. If you don’t remember the details, a quick refresher: It has to do with the wavelength of the visual light spectrum; blue light has a short wavelength, red and orange are longer. Light traveling to Earth from the sun is “scattered” when it hits our atmosphere, which is why we see dawn before the sun appears on the horizon. With-

out our atmosphere, we’d have a Dark Side of the Moon–like delineation of day and night rather than a gradual illumination every morning. Other factors at play in stunning sunrises: clouds and a lack of pollution, which allows the atmosphere to act like a giant strobe light, bouncing light all around, causing the spectrum to scatter and making even the air we breathe appear to glow.

That’s really it—not really enough there to warrant a feature, so I was gonna round it out with photography tips (use a tripod, use a longer exposure or raise your iso, play around with focal point and perspective, play around with the saturation in photo editing apps), but the photography? Definitely worthy of a full feature. So here we are, talking about ADHD and distraction while distractingly stunning photos compete for attention on these pages.

Speaking of photos, you don’t need a fancy camera to capture the

spectacle; your iPhone or whatever will work just fine. I did a ton of research on the subject and took full hard drives worth of photos myself while working on the original piece intended for these pages. I never actually turned that article over to copyediting or to design, I just kept trying to work on it while getting lost in other creative projects: redoing my gallery wall (74 pieces and counting), playing with my new acrylic pouring paints, wallpapering the door to the bedroom, painting the door jam to my office, expanding the collage wall of magazine pages featuring photographs by Mitch Feinberg in my bedroom, setting up the tripod and rearranging furniture and decor by the windows in hopes of staging the perfect sunrise photo from my living room…

Basically, anything but writing about sunrises while occupying my time waiting for sunrise to arrive.

If you’re a task-orientated type of person who loves lists and schedules and order, the chaos N OV E M B E R 2020

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PHOTO BY STEPHANIE WILSON

within which I operate would drive you nuts, but chaos is where I thrive; it’s where I do my best work; it’s where I find the space to create. While it looked like I was spinning from one mindless art project to the next, my brain was working in the background to formulate a plan of subsequent paragraphs that would replace the uninspired sunrise feature you don’t see here.

I wasn’t actively thinking about this piece. I wasn’t even aware really that my brain was processing it like it was an app being updated in the background. Pop-up notifications, if my brain gave them, would have read: “ADHD is about being distracted and forgetting things, you should put something into the November edition about how you meant to put a piece on ADHD awareness into October’s mags but you got distracted and forgot.” And, “Damn, that cover feature is boring, and you don’t do boring. You hate boring. But really you are boring, you aren’t even a good writer, no one will read it anyway, you make boring magazines, you always have, you’ve faked your way to the top, you didn’t deserve to be named one of the Folio: Top Women in Media 2020 this year, it’s a good thing the awards ceremony in New York was cancelled because of COVID-19, otherwise everyone would have seen right through you, known you are an uninteresting person who’s awkward as hell, too. Nobody likes you, nobody likes your work.”

Brutal self-talk, and that self has a name you may recognize: imposter syndrome. Its bio: “a psychological condition that is

TURNS OUT IMPOSTER SYNDROME IS ADHD’S BFF—THE TWO CONDITIONS HANG OUT TOGETHER ALL THE TIME. IN FACT, IMPOSTOR SYNDROME HANGS OUT WITH ADHD TYPES WAY MORE THAN THE GENERAL POPULATION, ACCORDING TO SOME PEOPLE WHO THINK ABOUT SUCH THINGS.

characterized by persistent doubt concerning one’s abilities or accomplishments accompanied by the fear of being exposed as a fraud despite evidence of one’s ongoing success.” (Really, that’s its definition in Merriam-Webster, our dictionary of choice.)

Turns out imposter syndrome is ADHD’s BFF—the two conditions (or whatever you’d call them) hang out together all the time. In fact, imposter syndrome hangs out with ADHD types way more than the general population, according to some people who think about such things.

I didn’t think about such things much at all during the decade that lapsed between my ADHD diagnosis, which came about because a friend gave me an Adderall to help me finish a paper in college. Boom!

It was like a switch flipped and turned me into the type of person who accomplished all the tasks on their to-do list with ease. Which is not an unusual result of ADHD meds like this one—central nervous system stimulants (deemed a Schedule II drug by the DEA). Some 70 percent of adults with ADHD show improvement when taking central nervous system stims.

I’ll let the experts at ADDitude magazine explain why: “ADHD is a developmental impairment of the brain’s executive functions. People with ADHD have trouble with impulse-control, focusing, and organization.”

ADHD is not a behavior disorder, it’s not a mental illness, it’s not a learning disability. It is instead “a developmental impairment of the brain’s self-management system” according to ADDitude. ADHD brains have low N OV E M B E R 2020

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levels of a neurotransmitter called norepinephrine, which is linked arm-in-arm with dopamine, which helps control the brain’s reward or pleasure center.”

Those of us with ADHD don’t lack attention. Instead, we have trouble deciding what to focus said attention on at any given moment. Thoughts race around our brains’ at breakneck speeds, pulling our attention in every different direction. But sometimes we can take all that attention and train it in on one subject, getting

lost for hours, forgetting to eat, to pee, to take the dog out, to do the assignment that’s due tomorrow. We’re hyperfocused (and often times blind), digging into the minutia of a topic no matter its importance. It’s less “oh look— squirrel!” and more “there are 285 species of squirrels, and they are found on every continent except Antartica and Australia. A squirrel can eat its own body weight every week and can jump distances up to 20 feet. In Colorado, it’s illegal to keep a pet squirrel but in Indi-

ana, you can have a pet squirrel if you get a permit.” At which point, your research took a turn and you came to hours later researching apartment buildings in a state you had never considered moving to before nor ever will again.

THE SOUL OF THE BEHOLDER Sunrise is at 7:25 a.m. today, and there is almost a hundred percent chance I’ll be up for it. Every sunrise is a glorious one, but some of them are “ablaze with brilliance and arouse all the passion, all the yearning, in the soul of the beholder,” to quote author Mary Balogh. But it’s likely going to be rather unremarkable, at least according to the proprietary algorithms that power SunsetWx’s sunrise and sunset quality forecasts, which I’ve found to be extremely accurate since I first discovered the meteorologist-led website while researching the original topic for this feature, before my ADHD brain told me to hyperfocus on a piece that accurately depicts what it’s like to have an ADHD brain…and to do so while also making images of colorful sunrises relevant. Somehow.

I wonder if I am pulling it off. I hope so, because I’ve scrapped that other feature I was working on and I put all my money on this one. An impulsive choice, no doubt, which you’ll not be surprised to learn is another hallmark characteristic of ADHD brains. I’m really good at impulsive behavior; I am terrible at planning. I hate doing it. I avoid it and the obligations that arise from doing it, because, whenever I make plans, I do so impulsively and more often than not I do so forgetting about a previous obligation on my calendar.

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Last month, I booked an appointment to donate blood at Children’s Hospital on a whim when I heard my friend making an appointment for the next day… when I was scheduled to appear on a panel during the Emerge Cannabis Conference. A similar bad of mine led a friend to break up with me this summer after I gleefully accepted an invitation to dinner at her house that night only to have to cancel two hours later when I remembered that I had already committed to something that evening. She saw inexcusable flakiness in what were common ADHD symptoms like poor time management, weak impulse control, and executive dysfunction.

Check, check, check. I know those symptoms well, but that’s not an excuse. It’s an explanation, and for me it explains a lot of my actions that I had attributed to shitty personality flaws for most of my life—38 of my 39 years in fact.

Yes, I did say I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 28, but I never really thought I had it had it. I just thought stimulant meds would help anyone focus and work the kind of crazy-round-theclock work hours I’ve kept ever since my first magazine job in 2003. Turns out, research shows that for non-ADHD brains, the meds can have the opposite effect, impairing cognition and memory rather than enhancing it.

I learned all this after an acquaintance posted a screenshot of an ADHD meme he had taken in a Facebook group called—shocking—“ADHD Memes.” I was like, oh that sounds fun, I wanna see ADHD memes, so I joined the group. And glorious, relatable memes abound-

I KNOW THESE SYMPTOMS WELL, BUT THAT’S NOT AN EXCUSE. IT’S AN EXPLANATION, AND FOR ME, IT EXPLAINS A LOT OF MY ACTIONS THAT I HAD ATTRIBUTED TO SHITTY PERSONALITY FLAWS FOR MOST OF MY LIFE.

ed. (I took some of my favorites and started a Pinterest board titled “High Functioning.” My username is @stephwilll with three Ls if you too want to giggle at it’s-funnycause-it’s-true web comics.)

I wanted more, so I joined more ADHD groups on Facebook, starting with “ADHD Shitposting” and “ADHD and Chill,” and (my current fave) “ADHD Tokeposting” for the cannabis-loving executive dysfunctional among us. I recognized myself in a lot of the jokes, related to a majority of the stories shared from people around the world. But it was a post about ADHD causing a lack of spatial awareness that finally made it click.

I often walk into things without noticing. My whole life I’ve found random bruises on my arms and legs that I have no recollection N OV E M B E R 2020

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A Trusted Voice of the Industry Every weekday J and Paul bring you the latest news and info on the cannabis industry locally and globally.

Tune in to hear from industry leaders and take advantage of The Daily Dose deals on our webpage.

Broadcast live on Gnarly 101.3 FM Monday-Friday, 6-7am and 6-7pm

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getting. Because I didn’t notice getting them. Because my brain doesn’t focus on the details.

Holy shit, I thought, I have ADHD...which I had been told by doctors 10 years prior, but that’s not the point. The point is…what was my point?

PHOTO BY STEPHANIE WILSON

MY SUPERPOWER Back to the beginning: ADHD Awareness Month was in October but as my very long narrative just concluded, I have a tendency to miss things. I missed ADHD Awareness Month, but I’m not letting that stop me from raising awareness about it. I want to share my story to help dispel stereotypes and get rid of the stigmas that surround ADHD. It’s not something that destines the people who have it to a life of struggle and failure.

Not to humble brag but to brag outright, I’m fairly successful. I mean, I cofounded this magazine

and before the pandemic forced us to pause production, we were publishing 15 magazines a month covering markets coast to coast.

I love what I do, where I live, the gentleman I live with, the dogs that insist on sleeping between us.

I struggle, for sure, from inattention, lack of focus, poor time management, hyperfocus, and more. I struggle to keep the urge to interrupt others and blurt out answers or asides in check, I have trouble sleeping (when I attempt to do it a few nights in a row), and my weak impulse control has drained my bank account more often than I’d like to admit.

But on the flip side of the known negatives that accompany this brain of mine are characteristics that lead me to call ADHD my superpower. I’m energetic, spontaneous, willing to try anything twice. I’m creative, rarely boring and never bored. I can carry on

a conversation with a wall, and I see connections and relationships between things that may seem disparate to “neurotypical” brains.

I think in circles, come at topics from all angles, piling all the information I can find into my brain and seeing what comes out. Pretty often, what comes out is unexpected, original, chaotic, colorful, somewhat messy, fun, and all sorts of other good things.

It tends to be excessive as well.

Much like this article, which hasn’t gotten to the point: the sunrise.

Sure, it can be uneventful some days, even dull. But sometimes, it’s brilliant, saturating not just the sky or the clouds but radiating in the air, the sun’s rays dousing the earth and atmosphere with the most vibrant warm hues in the spectrum. It’s a spectacle, a phenomenal natural phenomenon.

You’ll want to be awake for it.

I know I’ll be.

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Ladies, it’s Ti How women investors could change the tech and cannabis industries forever.

TEXT RACHEL SVOBODA AND DAWN GARCIA

I

n cannabis, women make up a third of the industry, and while it has historically been an inequitable space for women of color, diversity and inclusion are becoming a dynamic part of the industry.

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According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 33 US states have legalized cannabis for medical use, and 14 states (plus Washington, DC) have legalized cannabis for recreational use for people over 21 years old. It’s

a fact that women make up half of the population—for every 102 males, there are 100 females— which means our buying power should be as persuasive as our male counterparts. So why are we not using our influence as women

PHOTO BY PALIDACHAN, ADOBE STOCK

ime to WIN to move the needle on purchasing power in industries like tech and cannabis by becoming investors?

The Angel Capital Association reports that only 22 percent of angel investors in the US are women.

In Europe, those percentages are even lower, with women amounting to just 14 percent in the UK and 5 percent in France. In places

like Tel Aviv, the number of female investors can be counted on one hand. To further drive the point home, according to a 2019 survey by the American National Venture Capital Association, women account for just 11 to 20 percent of investment partners in American venture capital firms.

As we continue to veer toward

online activity, keeping our minds active is fundamental to our dayto-day productivity and overall sense of self. Part of that is not just focusing on the latest fitness apps, getting creative in the kitchen, or venturing down that entrepreneurial path; our sense of well-being relies significantly on a sense of financial health, too.

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Merrill Lynch conducted a study asking women why they invest. The first and most popular response was to “fund my retirement,” and a close second was “to become more financially independent.” Creating financial stability is key to alleviating stress (and it’s safe to say we all have buckets of stress these days). By laying the foundation for an independent and secure financial future, it allows women to thrive, which is good for two prominent (and continually growing) industries: cannabis and technology. But how can women stay informed and find trustworthy resources to guide them when making their initial investments?

One female-run company has realized the need for women to gain control of their own financial wealth, including investments: The Arcview Group. CEO Kim Kovacs says, “We believe everyone should have the opportunity to build wealth.” The Arcview Group is a vertically integrated investment and research firm that has been servicing the cannabis industry for the past 10 years. Forbes labeled the group the “top marijuana investment and research firm.”

This year, Arcview relaunched its Women’s Investment Network (WIN) as a dedicated Membership Tier with a redefined focus on supporting women investors in the cannabis industry. The mission is to empower women with facts, conversations, camaraderie, and deal flow so they can become successful investors in the cannabis industry.

Arcview WIN’s message is clear: “The Arcview Group is taking a stance for women in cannabis. We are championing the movement

Benefits of a WIN Membership For as little as $497 per year, you receive the following: • Invitation to • Access to Cannamonthly Arcview bis Investing: First Base, a four-part Access Elite webinar “After Parties” educational video series for first-time • Access to mentor investors—plus one matching program free online seminar • Opportunity to • Access to Tales be spotlighted on from the Top, a seArcview blog, Linkeries of video interdIn Lounge, and views with Arcview other social media WIN members in • One guest to each the industry Arcview Metro and • Two free virtual Signature Events tours per year (at guest rate)

to bring more women investors, companies, and products to the forefront of the industry. We are redefining the word ‘investor’ from its traditional meaning to include all those that are invested in the success of women in the cannabis industry. We have a strong voice and are thought leaders in

• Monthly WIN Webinars • Consideration as competitor or judge for WIN pitch competition • Invitation to join the WIN Slack channel • Use of WIN badge on professional sites and social media • 25% discounts to Arcview Metro and Signature Events

our communities. The Women’s Investor Network is our platform.”

According to S&P, “only 26 percent of American women invest in the financial markets, despite 41 percent saying now would be a good time to invest.” Investing was created by men, for men, meaning the “gender-neutral” N OV E M B E R 2020

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MORE INFO

Arcview WIN Program arcview.com/win

tools in place have been failing women for decades. However, S&P Global Women’s Investor Report reported that women’s control of the world’s investable wealth may reach $72 trillion by the end of 2020, adding to female influence as major investors in global financial markets—and, by extension, national economies.

We talked with Kovacs to get a clear understanding of how the Arcview WIN program is helping grow the number of women investors in the space.

PHOTO COURTESY ARCVIEW GROUP

What is your advice to first-time female investors?

Do this with a team versus trying to go it alone. First-hand experience, for example: I invested in a product that worked great on other cannabis plants to conserve water use, but it killed my plant in one day. If I had a few folks who knew more about the grow portion of the industry, it would have saved me $25K. Also, in joining the Collective Fund for example, you can be invested in a dozen or more companies so you can diversify your portfolio right away, investing alongside industry leaders.

How can women investing in cannabis impact the bigger picture of women leading the charge in financial fortitude?

Cannabis is a perfect industry for women to reshape with their investment dollars. Women were tag-alongs for tech, life science, pretty much everything else. But for cannabis and fem tech—and a few other frontier industries—we get to decide how they look and act. For example, Arcview is diversity- and inclusion-focused with

“I don’t see it as a leap so much as a great first step....Get to know everyone, get to know the industry, build your own thesis, and then take a leap.”

—Kim Kovacs, CEO of Arcview Group

our collective fund and signing a pledge to protect minority investment to effectuate social change.

What would you say to women who are considering taking the leap and joining WIN? I don’t see it as a leap so much as a great first step. Women are conservative and risk-averse; rarely do we leap. So I like the toe-in-thepool approach with WIN. Get to know everyone, get to know the industry, build your own thesis, and then take a leap.

Does WIN guide investments?

No. We are here to normalize the investment process and provide access and education. Once you are a WIN member, you will have direct access to companies, other investors, and the Collective Fund, which does guide on investments.

What is the goal for WIN in the next two years?

The goal for WIN is to build a community of one million women and men focused on advancing women in this space, providing capital, opportunities, and supporting products that have purpose for women.

This is our platform.

As the industry continues to change in cannabis investing, tech and otherwise, women are catching up financially and are increasingly taking advantage of the tools and communities to help them get started. The recent market declines may have created an entry opportunity just like that of the 2008–2009 financial crisis. The financial knowledge shared through WIN builds confidence and the freedom to pursue the financially independent future you want.

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Zen and the Art of Apple Pie Become one with the dough and bring a taste of flaky bliss to the table.

TEXT JOHN LEHNDORFF

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First, there is that apple-cinnamon/caramel steam that grabs you by the nose. Then you see the whole pie emerge from the oven and, finally, a warm apple pie wedge whose juices mingle the melting vanilla bean gelato. You take a bite and smile, because you know you crafted the pie yourself.

I know what you’re thinking: “Not me. I’m happy to eat pie. Baking a pie from scratch? Not so much.”

Listen, it’s okay to admit you’re scared. You may be embarrassed that the dessert that defines

America terrifies you. Pie anxiety is a very common affliction replete with nightmares about soggy bottoms, cardboard tops, undercooked fruit, and heavy-handed spicing. Many bakers give up in the face of performance pressure and buy their holiday pies at a supermarket. That is so very sad and unnecessary! If you are open to learning the way of the crust, I will share what I have learned about transcending dough-phobia during a long and varied life of pie.

Be present and grin.

The first step is to forget everything you think you know about how to make a pie. Really. How you choose to achieve that pleasant, receptive state of mind is up to you, but it is essential.

Your real problem with pie is that you think of it as a challenge to overcome. In fact, pie is play and with all kinds of cool ingredients. Remember when you messed around with clay or Play-Doh as a kid? It’s like that, only actually edible.

Manifest lightness as you make pastry.

Don’t “work” the dough, be gentle on the pastry.

Don’t overmix the crust.

You’re crafting delicate pastry, not relieving N OV E M B E R 2020

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THE SCENE

Once you are still, everything must chill.

The butter, shortening, or lard must be near frozen so it won’t melt into the flour to achieve Achieve stillness. maximum flake. Chill To push everything the bowl and even the from your mind is easier rolling pin. Naturally, thought than done. In my hot hands are a no-no. decades as a pie judge, I have encountered many You and the pastry terrible pies baked by dis- need a nap. tracted cooks who don’t To be at its flaky best, the organize the ingredients disc of finished dough and equipment beforemust rest in the refrigerhand. Multitask at your ator before being rolled own pie peril. out. The same holds true

PHOTO CREDITS: (PREVIOUS PAGE) FAHRWASSER, ADOBE STOCK / (THIS PAGE, LEFT TO RIGHT) FEDOROVACZ, ADOBE STOCK / XXXX

a muscle cramp. Men seem especially prone to over-kneading and heavy-handed rolling.

Lighten up, dude.

for the baker, who should either manifest patience or take a snooze.

cutting board and you have to scrape it off and start over. Roll out pie crust between sheets of wax Play more than one note. paper or in a gallon freezer Granny Smiths apples bag. That makes it easy to are tart and firm but transfer to the pie plate. single note in terms of flavor and texture. Add You deserve the best. harmony by mixing in If you only make a few some Jonathans, Braepies a year you might as burns, and McIntoshes. well use the best ingreNever ever bake with dients, which includes mealy Red Delicious. high butterfat, flavorful European-style butter.

Embrace wax paper.

Buy small quantities of Frustration can result if spices and fresh flour. continued on p. 85 your dough sticks to the

AMERICAN PIE Charlie Papazian is best known as the father of America homebrewing and founder of Denver’s Great American Beer Festival. In 1975, he was a Boulder school teacher.

He told his students that he was declaring his birthday, January 23, to be National Pie Day because he liked candles on a birthday pie, not a cake. The holiday is still celebrated across the nation on January 23 every year.

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THE SCENE

John’s Double Crusted Apple Pie Makes 4 to 8 slices

INGREDIENTS For the crust

2½ cups all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons sugar ½ teaspoon salt 2 sticks (1 cup) chilled unsalted butter 1 tablespoon lemon juice Ice water ¼ cup ice cold milk

PHOTO BY MYVIEWPOINT, ADOBE STOCK

For the filling

4 tablespoons butter 8 cups peeled apples, chunked and sliced 1 cup sugar 3 tablespoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Pinch salt ½ teaspoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon lemon zest ¼ cup cornstarch

INSTRUCTIONS For the crust

• Combine flour, sugar, and salt in bowl. Add chilled or frozen butter in random chunks and blend into flour until crumbly. Do not overmix! Colorado’s low humidity means your flour is drier than it should be.

• Mix lemon juice into ice water and sprinkle on as you make the dough pliable. Work dough gently until it forms a ball.

• Form into two discs and cover. Let dough rest at least 90 minutes in refrigerator.

For the filling

• Melt butter in a saucepan, preferably nonstick, over medium heat.

• Add 4 cups apples. Stir in sugar, lemon juice, vanilla

across bottom crust. Top extract, salt, cinnamon, with warm apple filling and and lemon zest. Sprinkle in spread evenly. cornstarch, stirring constantly.

• Cook until filling bubbles and • Add top crust. Crimp edges and cut a few vents in top thickens. Add water if needed. crust. Brush top with milk.

For the pie A sprinkling of cinnamon • Preheat oven to 450°F. sugar on top is optional.

• Transfer disc to work surface • Bake on a cookie sheet on and flatten with a rolling pin. the low shelf for 20 minutes.

The butter bits will roll out • Lower heat to 325°F and bake in thin sheets. Work fast so for another 40 to 50 minutes they don’t warm up. until juice is bubbling up all • Turn and roll, long enough to over. Bottom crust should be get a uniform thickness. light golden brown.

• Roll out bottom crust and • Continue baking if needed. place in a 9-inch, deep-dish Shield the crimp from glass pie pan. (Glass cooks burning by lowering the heat more evenly and lets you see and adding a foil covering. if bottom crust is brown.)

• Remove from oven and allow • Spread remaining apple to cool for at least an hour before slicing. chunks and slices evenly N OV E M B E R 2020

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THE SCENE

The taste might inspire you to bake more often.

Complete the pie cycle.

While the pie bakes, clean up the mess you made of the kitchen. It will all work out better.

Trust me on this one.

PHOTO BY KERKEZZ, ADOBE STOCK

Do you want to make a recipe or a pie?

Students sometimes ask for my best pie recipe.

I respond: “Who is asking?” In this column, I’m sharing my tips and a recipe but you should tweak them as you see fit. By the way, you can also leave the butter, salt, vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest out of the filling recipe, and it will still be tasty. Experiment and improvise. Repeat. If you wish for a perfect recipe yielding guaranteed success, go buy a pie.

Pie is a process, not a dessert.

To master pie, you cannot abdicate authority to a cookbook, thermometer, or timer. I have at least a hundred cookbooks involving pie with thousands of pie recipes and variations. None of them can really tell me how I can make a pie. It’s a recipe, not a sacred text.

Recipes are only broad roadmaps because of the many variables, such as your oven’s true temperature. That’s why you must

maintain attention until the pie emerges from the oven to have success.

There is only one truth: pie is kindness.

You need to bake a lot of pies to master

the art, and you don’t want to eat all those pies yourself. Your pie practice will produce something tangible that allows you to bring bliss to others.

Give anyone a home-

made pie and they will love you. If you are one of those rare pie masters, consider passing along your skills to a new generation in dire need of pastry skills.

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a good book. (Chilling out is the point). After inserting the suppository, I set a pillow under my bum and relaxed. It was nice! Though I might have gotten a touch high, it was only the kind of garden-variety mood elevation that comes from carving out time for self-care.

The following week, my cycle inevitably arrived, so I used Kiskanu’s suppository as a medical application to dial down the cramps, digestive woes, and general fatigue. Again, I didn’t feel significantly altered, but it helped take the edge and I felt more at ease in my body. By Day 2, I was in enough discomCannabis suppositories offer relief and comfort. TEXT NORA MOUNCE fort to pop a Midol, but coupling pharmaceutical and holistic therapies felt As a cannabis writer livNearly every woman en Miller explained that empowering. ing in Humboldt, CA, I has traumatic memories of cannabinoids would be I recommend everydon’t shy away from try- menstrual pain or a host absorbed directly by the one try new products for ing new things. CBD eye of yucky symptoms, inpelvic region’s many themselves, as with all cream? Sure! Sea salt car- cluding headaches, nausea, blood vessels. cannabis therapies, to see amels with a micro-dose diarrhea, fatigue, and deOne afternoon, I found how their own unique of THC? Obviously! pression. But what if there myself at home with bodies react. It’s exciting So when it came time was a holistic solution? a few hours to myself. to see innovative holistic to try cannabis supposKiskanu, a plant-based Though not menstruatwomen’s health therapies itories, I didn’t blink. skincare company in ing, I had some crampemerge, but also importA firm believer in the Eureka, California, has ing and was eager to try ant to remember that power of plants, I’ve developed its suppositothe suppositories out. relaxation and emotionmade my own infused ries for anal or vaginal Following Miller’s tips, I al support are equallubricant (make sure the usage. Each yellow torpopped the suppository ly important factors in oils are compatible with pido-shaped package is in the fridge for 15 minoverall wellness. I plan your birth control) and packed with coconut and utes and made myself a to continue using vaginal agree that every chance calendula oil, along with comfy nest on the sofa. cannabis suppositories as to swap out synthetic for 60 milligrams of THC and Though I didn’t need it, regular care to keep my natural is worth taking.

15 milligrams of CBD. I kept a hand towel near- vagina healthy and well But break up with my Typically, that’s way over by for leaks along with a loved all month, regardMidol? Never. my nut, but CEO Gretch- big mug of herbal tea and less of the moon.

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THE SCENE TASTEBUDS

A Stuffing Tale

Diversity rules the side dishes that fill our feast table. TEXT JOHN LEHNDORFF

I was well into high school before I got an inkling that lasagna was not a traditional Thanksgiving side dish and that turkey stuffing usually involved cubed bread.

The earliest feasts tucked

in the cubby holes of my memory were eaten in shifts around a large table at my Sicilian-born grandparents’ apartment in Connecticut.

You had your classic roast turkey with gravy

and cranberry sauce.

There was always a baked pasta dish for the Italians and kielbasa and kraut for the Polish-American guys who married two of my mom’s sisters. Pie

was involved, as was a bowl full of the family’s Italian sausage and potato stuffing. My Austrian-born dad loved all of it.

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THE SCENE

PHOTO COURTESY JOHN LEHNDORFF

TASTEBUDS

the US almost a hundred years ago. Family lore is that Nanna had never seen a turkey before, never mind a stuffing.

She sought advice from a French-Canadian woman named Rose who lived down the hall. Rose suggested a meat and potato stuffing reminiscent of the filling in tourtière pork pies. My grandmother improvised using the fennel-andchile-flake-spiced Italian sausage my grandfather made downstairs in his Italian market. It was a quintessentially all-American dish.

I’m not a hardcore traditionalist, but I observe certain rituals that connect me directly to my ancestors on the day before Thanksgiving.

To make the stuffing, I use a pan I inherited from Nanna to boil the spuds and a huge, old cast-iron skillet to fry the sausage. While I work, the soundtrack is usually the Grateful Dead’s three-disc Europe ’72 album. This was the music I loved listening to when I first started making the stuffing on my own in college.

The a-ha moment in the process comes just after I combine the potatoes, meat, spices, butter, and broth and start muscling the separate parts into the ideal mashed-

Nanna and Papa Mazzola

but-not-totally-mushed state. The first taste of the stuffing always gets me going—but then so do the second and third as I tweak the spicing.

This stuff transcends its humble ingredients, especially in what we call the “bird stuffing” that exits the carcass infused with even more flavor and fat. The stuff baked in a pie pan is good, but we regard that as backup “dressing.” There are many Southerners who have vigorously disagreed with me about that naming distinction. We have hotly debated the proper ingredients for a stuffing, i.e., bread, cornbread, oysters…at

I’m not a hardcore traditionalist, but I observe certain rituals that connect me directly to my ancestors on the day before Thanksgiving.

least until they taste my stuffing. I love it when there are two, three, or more kinds of stuffing on the table.

Some worry about the moistness of the turkey, whether the white and dark meat is equally roasted and the skin dark brown. Most of us care a lot more on the fourth Thursday in November about what’s within the bird and the array of side dishes, from deviled eggs to dessert.

There are foodie snobs among my friends who would virtually ban green bean casserole and ambrosia “salad” made with canned fruit, sweetened coconut, marshmallows, and

SHOP & MASH LOCALLY About 50,000 acres in Colorado’s San Luis Valley annually produce more than 2 billion pounds of Russets, Yukon Gold, various fingerlings, Colorado Rose, Kennebec, Purple Majesty, and many other potato varieties.

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Dream (or Cool) Whip.

I figure every single one of us sitting down at the feast deserves to enjoy the dishes that say “Thanksgiving” to them, whether it is caramelized Brussels sprouts with pecans, pomegranate, and pecorino or baked candied yams under a toasted marshmallow toupee. We set aside our omnipresent diet for one day a year and indulge.

Feel free to ignore the measurements in the following recipe. I change it from year to year and sometimes include celery, fennel, and pine nuts. I know folks who make this stuffing with chorizo instead of Italian sausage and add roasted green chilies and others who substitute crumbled tempeh and mushroom broth.

Now it is their family’s traditional Thanksgiving stuffing, a fact that always amazed and amused my mom, who taught me how to make it.

This Thanksgiving, may your home be perfumed with spicy sausage and sage and graced with a brace of pies. At this year’s feast, let us raise a toast in gratitude to the immigrants who got us here so we could gather around the table again.

Lift another to the folks who grew and harvested the crops in Colorado and elsewhere.

Italian Sausage and Potato Stuffing INGREDIENTS

5–6 pounds potatoes (Yukon gold, Colorado red, and/or Russet), peeled and chunked 4 pounds bulk Italian sweet sausage (hot and/or mild) 2 medium sweet yellow onions, minced 3 or more large cloves garlic, minced ½ pound butter Salt and ground black pepper, to taste 1 tablespoon ground sage or poultry seasoning, to taste 5 large cloves garlic, minced Turkey broth, as needed Celery and fennel, minced

INSTRUCTIONS to make the elements marry.

Taste repeatedly to tweak the • Boil potatoes in plenty of water seasonings. This recipe can be until barely tender, not mushy. made and refrigerated up to • Drain and mash in a large pot two days before the feast. over low heat while adding • When it’s time, push stuffing butter. (I save the potato deep into all the nooks and water for making turkey crannies on both ends and soup a couple of days after roast the bird as usual.

Thanksgiving.)

• Crumble sausage in frying pan NOTES with onions, garlic, celery, and • I usually peel the russet fennel. Cook until light pink. potatos, but not the thin• Drain fat. Do not overcook spuds skinned Yukon golds or sausage. They will cook again • This stuffing freezes well and in the bird/oven. can be a weeknight dinner • In a large pan, combine sometime in the doldrums of sausage and potatoes along January. It also serves as a with pepper and poultry griddled base for a change-ofseasoning. Add broth as needed pace eggs Benedict.

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THE SCENE CALENDAR

TOP: GRAND ILLUMINATION

On the Calendar

Events to distract you from the still-too-far-off promise of turkey and stuffing.

While gathering in large groups is not on anyone’s agenda this month, there are still some things you can do this month both online and out of the house.

21st Annual Festival of Wreaths Nov. 3–Dec. 11 Aurora History Museum towncenterataurora.com

For more than two decades, artists and other members

of the community have decorated and donated wreaths for this holiday-themed fundraiser. Wreaths will be on display at the Aurora History Museum and sold through an online

auction. This year’s proceeds will help ensure the continuation of exhibits, programs and preservation efforts that have been affected

by COVID-19. Reserve an entry time

to visit the museum to view the wreaths and vote on your favorite.

Denver Arts Week(end) Nov. 6–8 Various galleries, museums, and attractions throughout Denver denverartsweek.com

The Mile High City celebrates its vibrant creative community every year with Denver Arts Week(end).

This unique citywide happening returns with a lineup of innovative, inspiring and fun activities and events. Denver Arts Week(end) takes

place at neighborhood art districts, several museums and dozens of art galleries, as well as virtual events to enjoy from the comfort of your home.

DISCLAIMER: In the age of COVID-19, things change quickly, as do regulations about what types of gatherings are allowed. Be sure to check the events' websites to confirm details before you venture out.

Urban Holiday Market Nov. 7–8 Skyline Park, Downtown Denver coloradoevents.org/ urbanholidaymarket

This two-day, open-air Urban Holiday Market in the heart of downtown Denver is the place to get all of your gift shopping done in one funfilled weekend.

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TOP: GRAND ILLUMINATION BELOW: BLOSSOMS OF LIGHT

ists today, as Castle Rock businesses and residents prepare to celebrate Starlighting downtown on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

Grand Illumination Nov. 27 Denver Union Station Free unionstationindenver.com

collection of local art, crafts, holiday gift, specialty foods and much more.

Denver Christkindl Market Nov. 20–Dec. 23 Civic Center Park, Denver Admission is Free christkindlmarketdenver.com

Blossoms of Light Nov. 20–Jan. 3 Denver Botanic Gardens, York Street Tickets: $18–$21 Nonmembers botanicgardens.org

Denver Botanic Gardens is proud

to host Blossoms of Light, an annual family-friendly event that has become a tradition for people across Colorado.

Go interact with incredible light displays—a large field of sound-reactive, animated LED lights—plus sip warm drinks and nibble on tasty treats as you stroll.

The Castle Rock “Lighting of the Star” is a beloved community event dating back to 1936. The same spirit of volunteerism, generosity and love of tradition ex-

As part of Downtown Denver’s Winter in the City program, Downtown Denver’s Grand Illumination event will light up downtown, from Denver Union Station to the City and County Building at Civic Center Park .

Stroll through the Colorado countryside along a winding path glistening with lights.

Features this year include a three-sided light tunnel, illuminated antique and model tractors, a children’s play area, and warm holiday food and drink. Visitors must purchase a ticket online for a specific day and time.

Jackalope Virtual Holiday Market Nov. 28—Dec. 18 Online jackalopeartfair.com/ virtualmarket

Trail of Lights

Farolito Lighting & Pinecone Ceremony

Nov. 27–Jan. 3 Denver Botanic Gardens, Chatfield Farms Tickets: $13.50 botanicgardens.org

Nov. 29, 4 p.m.

The Fort Restaurant, Morrison Free tesoroculturalcenter.org

Castle Rock Starlighting Nov. 21, 5 p.m.

Downtown Castle Rock Free castlerock.org

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THE SCENE HIGH SOCIETY

The Green Milestone The Green Solution (TGS) celebrated its 10th anniversary yesterday with a customer appreciation event at the company’s first dispensary location in Northglenn. TGS honored the occasion with special appearances from Jim Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as well as Denver football legend Ray Crockett.

Belushi and Aykroyd arrived in a Bluesmobile, a 1974 Dodge Monaco sedan, to commemorate TGS’s partnership with Belushi’s Oregon-based cannabis farm and the debut the farm’s pre-rolls in Colorado. The pre-rolls will be available at all TGS locations in Colorado by the end of the year.

TGS chief executive officer Steve Lopez presented a $1,000 donation to the Colorado Veterans Project, a nonprofit that raises awareness and funds for local veterans and veterans’ organizations to build a strong, supportive community.

TGS hosted pop-ups from select vendors including Lucky Mints, Altus Mints, Stillwater, 1906, Joy Gum, IoVia, Dixie, and more.

Throughout the event, customers received complimentary items including gift bags, a signed copy of Crockett’s new book, Bump and Run, and meals from local food truck favorite, Smokin’ Bones BBQ.

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A DV I S O RY B OA R D WA N A B R A N D S

Practically everyone knows about the joys of cannabis gummies. And their growing popularity is understandable when you consider just some of the reasons for their use. Cannabis gummies can be a healthier option. Because they’re consumed through the digestive system, they don’t adversely affect the lungs like smoking and vaping. Plus, many cannabis gummies are low-calorie, vegan, kosher, and even gluten-free.

Cannabis gummies are easy to consume. Because of their small size, they can be carried practically anywhere and used discreetly, something that can’t be said for smoking and vaping. And each gummie is dose-specific, making it easier for consumers to know precisely the amount of cannabis they’re using.

Cannabis gummies are enjoyable to consume. Of course, we have always insisted that, for something so important when it comes to enhancing our lives, it is only appropriate for cannabis gummies to be enjoyed as a ur industry has changed perception that consumption came in treat. That’s especially easy today with dramatically in the past really just one form—smoking. That old- all the new fruity flavors and gummie decade since cannabis school inhalation method remains solidly varieties—traditional or new fastwas first legalized in popular, but it’s far from the only one acting—coming on the market today. a handful of states. Today, adult-use enjoyed by consumers. These days, both If you have not tried cannabis gumcannabis is legal in 11 states, while recreational and medical cannabis users mies, now is the a perfect time: Wana medical cannabis programs exist in 33. have an array of consumption choices, Brands and Three Wells, an online And this doesn’t count the legality in ranging from smoking and vaping flower cannabis information platform for older U.S. territories or D.C. to using concentrates, topicals, or subAmericans, are uniting to present the While public opinion on cannabis has lingual oils. One of the most prominent first-ever National Cannabis Gummie evolved, so, too, have consumers and choices is cannabis-infused products.

Day on Nov. 19. You might even want to their preferences. And for the first time, Infused products are so popular today ask your local dispensary if it’s running legalization efforts have advanced as that a recent Forbes article, citing New special pricing for gummies that day. far as Congress, as evidenced by the Frontier Data, called the product segment The new holiday will finally put cannaMarijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment “explosive” and forecast legal retail sales bis gummies on the calendar and remind and Expungement (MORE) Act, which of THC-infused products to exceed $21.5 everyone about the multifaceted use the House already has approved, and billion between 2020 and 2025. cannabis can have in our lives today. with the proposed SAFE Banking Act, Of infused products, the most popular which would create legal pathways so is edibles, which come in a lot of that state-licensed marijuana businesses different forms, from baked goods to new The Sensi Advisory Board comprises select industry leaders in a variety of fields, from can engage in legal relationships with beverage products. But no edible form education to cultivation. They are invited to financial services, including banks. has the reputation or allure—or even the share specialized insight in this dedicated section.

In the beginning, it was a common versatility—of today’s cannabis gummies. For a full list of board members, see page 16.

Category: Edibles Author: Nancy Whiteman, CEO of Wana Brands

Something to Chew On

National Cannabis Gummie Day is in November.

O

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Deep Breath You need to calm down.

You seem stressed. Understandably, of course, but still, really stressed. Us too. Let’s take a breath. Inahle, Take a deep breath in, hold it for a beat, and exhale. Repeat.

Slowing your breathing calms you—so says science.

In a 2017 paper published in Science, researchers found a direct connection between breathing and the arousal center of the brain, concluding that taking deep, slow breaths can calm the brain’s overall activity level, which—duh—you knew instinctively. But now you know there’s science that proves it.

A different study, this one by Washington State University scientists published in April 2018 in the Journal of Affective Disorders, suggests that smoking cannabis can significantly reduce short-term levels of depression, anxiety, and stress (but may contribute to worse overall feelings of depression over time, so easy there tiger).

Duh squared. Your personal research showed you that, once you got over the paranoia that plagued your high school seshes. (Just us?) The WSU research team sought to quantify how modern cannabis affects real-life consumers outside of lab settings, and their official findings concluded that one puff of cannabis high in CBD and low in THC is optimal for reducing symptoms of depression, two puffs of any type of cannabis is sufficient to reduce symptoms of anxiety, and 10 or more puffs of cannabis high in CBD and high in THC produces the largest reductions in stress.

To recap, taking deep breaths helps calm the mind; inhaling cannabis helps calm the mind. We suggest putting the two together to enjoy a compounding effect. That’s our nonscientific hypothesis, and we also hypothesize that there’s a solid chance—given the uncertain state of the world right now—your mind could use some extra calming. May we suggest the following regimen: 1) Get a joint (this one from TrūFlora is nice) and place one end in your mouth.

2) Light the other end.

3) Take a deep breath in, hold for a beat, and exhale.

(Aka, “Puff.”)

4) Repeat as necessary to get the warm fuzzy feelings you seek. (“Puff.”)

5) Bogart that joint. In the age of COVID-19, puff-puffpassing is a thing of the past. (“Pass.”)

All we can do is keep breathing.

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PHOTO CREDIT: TRUFLORA

THE END

TRIPPY HEALING

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