Sensi Magazine - NorCal - November 2020 by Sensi Magazine

TRIPPY HEALING

The promise of psychedelics

CANNABIS CARTS

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NORCAL SENSI MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2020

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FEATURES

Hacking the Feast

How the hippies hijacked Thanksgiving and had a feast that can’t be beat

Trippy Healing

Psychedelics are the new medical marijuana.

DEPARTMENTS

9 EDITOR’S NOTE 14 THE LIFE Contributing to your health and happiness 10 THE BUZZ MINDFUL BAKING Flour, News, tips, and tidbits to keep you in the loop MAKE THE LEAP Skydiving over Half Dome PRODUCT RAW’s handsfree smoker RECIPES FOR CHANGE A hemp-centric cookbook THE CLIMB Cut your teeth at the Boulder Farm before you hit Yosemite.

sugar, and the flow HOROSCOPE What the stars hold for you

42 THE SCENE Hot happenings and hip hangouts around town THE ART OF RESISTANCE

The style and strength of the Black community ON THE COVER TRAVEL How COVID-19 Get away from it all—and has changed the trajec- then come flying back tory of canna-tourism down to it at 120 mph. PHOTO COURTESY SKYDIVE YOSEMITE

52 THE END As if to counter the craziness, there is a beautiful phenomenon to be found glowing on California shores.

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EXECUTIVE

Ron Kolb Founder, CEO ron@sensimag.com Stephanie Wilson Co-Founder, Editor in Chief stephanie@sensimag.com Mike Mansbridge President mike@sensimag.com Fran Heitkamp Chief Operating Officer fran@sensimag.com Lou Ferris VP of Global Revenue lou@sensimag.com Chris Foltz Director of Global Reach chris@sensimag.com Jade Kolb Director of Project Management jade.kolb@sensimag.com Kristan Toth Head of People kristan.toth@sensimag.com EDITORIAL

Doug Schnitzspahn Executive Editor doug.schnitzspahn@sensimag.com Leland Rucker Senior Editor leland.rucker@sensimag.com Robyn Griggs Lawrence Editor at Large robyn.lawrence@sensimag.com John Lehndorff, Nora Mounce, Mona Van Joseph, Chris Van Leuven Contributing Writers

DESIGN/PRODUCTION

Jamie Ezra Mark Creative Director jamie@emagency.com Rheya Tanner Art Director Wendy Mak, Josh Clark Designers Neil Willis Production Director neil.willis@sensimag.com PUBLISHING

Nancy Birnbaum Publisher nancy.birnbaum@sensimag.com Toni Malvesta Associate Publisher toni.malvesta@sensimag.com Sam De La Paz Associate Publisher sam.delapaz@sensimag.com MEDIA PARTNERS

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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 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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Fly Over Half Dome, Jump Out of a Plane “We offer the most unique views in skydiving and the most unique staff I’ve ever worked with,” says Nate Neilson, a tandem instructor with Skydive Yosemite. For the last seven years, he’s worked at drop zones from Georgia to California. Open year-round, Skydive Yosemite, based out of the Mariposa-Yosemite Airport, provides an adrenaline-pumping, outrageous way to experience Yosemite. While climbing to 14,000 feet in a small plane, you peer out the cockpit window for a bird’s eye view of the park. El Capitan and Half 10

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Dome poke out of the landscape like skyscrapers. Then the door opens, the instructor helps you grab the airplane strut and, moments later, you’re airborne. As if plummeting earthward while clipped to another human at terminal velocity isn’t exciting enough, don’t be surprised if your instructor has you take the toggles. “It fell into place perfectly,” says Skydive Yosemite parachute packer Max Crouch, who wears a permanent grin. Crouch moved from Moab to California shortly after Skydive Yosemite opened

two years ago. He came out west to follow his love of skydiving and explore the park’s vertical walls. “Every day I slackline, do yoga, or climb before work. Then I greet people when they come in and help them get ready for their first time jumping out of a plane. Somedays, I pack up to 25 parachutes.” In addition to offering tandem skydives for jumpers of all experience levels, Skydive Yosemite provides sport jumps to those qualified to parachute without an instructor. For a small fee, sport jumpers can hop

PHOTO COURTESY SKYDIVE YOSEMITE

Skydive Yosemite offers visitors an unforgettable experience and breathtaking views of the park—especially when traveling toward the ground at 125mph.

CONTRIBUTORS

Dawn Garcia, Emilie-Noelle Provost, Chris Van Leuven

PHOTO CREDITS (FROM TOP): COURTESY RAW ROLLING PAPERS / SKYDIVE YOSEMITE / SHADI RAMEY

BY THE NUMBERS

in for a ride and jump solo if there’s room on the plane. That’s how Crouch has logged 285 jumps where the grandeur of Yosemite and its majestic waterfalls and cliffs continue to inspire him. “My favorite way to jump is shirtless; it feels wild and free,” he says. Owners Paul and Julia Wignall, who for 25 years have called Yosemite home, promise more than incredible skydiving; they offer an insider’s view of Yosemite and the surrounding area. And the staff of seasoned tandem instructors further add to the experience, each bringing their flavor to the occasion. One instructor has jumped in a Tigger suit, another one skydived in a tuxedo shirt and when he landed, witnessed a wedding at the landing zone. “Julia put a nice tablecloth out, and we put out the champagne and a wedding cake,” says Crouch, recently ordained, who married the couple. “We also had a big bouquet of flowers to help them celebrate. I wore a nice button-up shirt, the bride was in a white dress, and the groom had a suit on. They jumped in their wedding attire.” “Paul paid for me to get ordained so I could marry folks,” continues Crouch. “I did my first marriage ceremony at Skydive Yosemite. I just booked another one for next summer.” Skydive Yosemite is located at 5020c Macready Way in Mariposa, California. To book reservations, call 209-3725001 or visit skydiveyosemite.com.

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PUFF HANDS FREE No one said you had to hold your own joint. RAW, the maker of the well-known rolling papers, has taken the smoke game to a new level. Thanks to this hands-free smoker, you can puff while doing … well, whatever you need to use two hands for. CEO Josh Kesselman found his joint holding issue to be a problem, so in true RAW form, he came up with a solution. We’re not saying this will change your life, but for those whose endless days at home involve gaming from dusk til dawn, streaming obsessively to the point where getting up is a task, cooking up a gourmet meal like the new home chef you know you are, or even toking while getting in your cardio, this hands-free smoker is for you. Rawthentic.com, rollingpaperdepot.com

Hemp for the Hungry 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 soon-to-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 1% for the Planet. A series of live and virtual events supporting the book’s release are in the works. Pre-order your copy at hempcansavetheworld.com.

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THE BUZZ

BILITIES BY STEPHANIE WILSON, EDITOR IN CHIEF

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

PHOTO COURTESY BOULDER FARM

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.”

“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.” —Ruth Bader Ginsberg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice/Badass

Prepare For Yosemite Climbing With A Visit To The Boulder Farm

“It’s the best thing to come to Mariposa,” says Sean Jones, 50, who spent a lifetime putting up first ascent rock climbs in and around the Yosemite area. Jones is referring to “The Boulder Farm,” a six-acre hillside peppered with 10- to 25-foot tall, crisp granite boulders that have been meticulously excavated and power-washed by the owners. Opening in early 2021 and managed by a father and his adult son, The Boulder Farm, located one hour west of Yosemite, offers private top-roping and bouldering on a cluster of dome-shaped rocks. The area offers guests a chance to properly move over the stone before getting down to business in the national park. Yosemite is known as the Center of the Universe to climbers from all over the world. It’s also an intimating, challenging place to climb, and since the stone is slick from glacier polish, it requires the perfect blend of balance and agility. The Boulder Farm offers one-on-one instruction, lodging and insiders’ tips on Yosemite climbing to help visitors get ready. N OV E M B E R 2020

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PHOTO BY ANTON, ADOBE STOCK 14

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Flour, Sugar, and the Flow

My favorite life moments are when I completely lose track of me. I’m chopping toasted walnuts, simmering Jonathan apples with vanilla bean, and working butter, salt, and flour to a consistency only my fingertips can recognize. Playing with the dough like a kid, I layer the filling over the bottom crust and mess with the upper, my open artist’s canvas. When the kitchen is perfumed and the finished product emerges from the oven tasting like a party and looking like a wrapped gift, a certain kind of bliss envelopes me. When I bake, my noisy brain shuts up for a little while. According to Kathy Hawkins of Denver’s

Kathy Hawkins Counseling, I am engaged in one of the best wellness-enhancing rituals. In her counseling practice, Hawkins often recommends mindful meditation. “There are many kinds of mindful meditation besides sitting. Walking and doing art can be meditations and baking can be also,” she says. Hawkins knows food psychology firsthand, having owned and managed restaurants in addition to being a waitress and sommelier. “Baking is a serious way to show people you love them, and there is a lot of reward for both the baker and the recipient,” Hawkins says. You can have your cake and heal with it, too.

How mindful baking heals the baker and spreads buttery bliss. TEXT JOHN LEHNDORFF

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THE LIFE

This is Your Brain on Baking Research has shown that mindful meditation can be good for heart health, and reduces blood pressure and anxiety. “Baking creates a flow state where you are enveloped in the moment. You are not worrying about the past or the future. People who are healthier mentally and emotionally tend to live in the flow state more of the time,” Hawkins says. Baking can also change brain chemistry. “When you create something tasty, the immediate payoff is a hit of the brain chemicals dopamine and serotonin which improves your mood,” Hawkins says. Besides butterfat satisfaction, there is the

“Baking creates a flow state where you are enveloped in the moment. You are not worrying about the past or the future. People who are healthier mentally and emotionally tend to live in the flow state more of the time.” —Kathy Hawkins, Counselor

lure of the sweet. “When you eat the baked goods, you get a dose of sugar, which lights up the same area of the brain as cocaine,” she says. That may partially explain why we celebrate the major occasions of our lives with cakes, pies, and cookies, not salads and nachos. Big festive desserts are designed to be shared—no matter how many guests are on hand—at birthdays, quinceañeras, weddings, and funerals in almost every culture. The Power of Positive Cooking According to local bakers and pastry chefs, the biggest payoff of baking is feeding the soul. “They say that you cook for yourself but you always

bake for others,” says Jennifer Bush, cofounder of Lucky’s Bakehouse and Creamery in Boulder. After toiling in basements as a restaurant pastry chef, Bush designed her bakery with an open kitchen. “When people come in, I get to see those eyes light up as they taste something. With cakes, I’m a part of so many people’s lives—their joy, their grief. It never gets old,” Bush says. It’s almost like a super power, says John Hinman, producer of artisan bread, bun, pastries, and pies at Denver’s Hinman’s Bakery. “When I’m working our booth at the farmers market and I see a sad kid walking by, I always have to give them a chocolate chip cookie. To see that grin makes me know I’ve N OV E M B E R 2020

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THE LIFE

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake Makes one 9-inch cake ABOUT THE BAKER

Jen Bush, pastry chef and founder of Lucky’s Bakehouse and Creamery in Boulder, shares this gluten-free cake recipe.

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INGREDIENTS For the Cake

6 oz unsalted butter, room temperature ¼ cup granulated sugar 1 cup almond paste 4 eggs ½ cup high-quality unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Black Onyx cocoa powder) Slivered almonds, garnish

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For the Glaze

½ cup heavy cream 2 tbsp honey 1 tsp instant coffee 8 oz semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate INSTRUCTIONS For the Cake

• Cream the almond paste in a stand mixer until all the clumps are broken up.

• Stream in the sugar. Continue mixing for one minute until sand-textured. • Slowly add butter, then add eggs one by one until mixture is smooth. • Sift cocoa to remove lumps and add to mixture. Mix until combined. Remember to scrape sides of bowl. • Line a 9-inch cake pan with parchment paper or use nonstick spray. Scrape

mixture into pan and bake at 325º F for 20 to 25 minutes, until cake is firm to the touch. Let cool completely before inverting on a plate. For the Glaze • Gently heat cream, coffee and honey. Pour over chocolate and whisk until combined. • Pour over cake; decorate with slivered almonds.

THE LIFE

changed the course of their day,” he says. It’s all about the power of memory. “A muffin or pie or cake can take you back to a happier place and time,” Hinman says. Desserts—especially those involving chocolate—have a strong association with love. “It can be a real pick-me-up and make the world seem like a good place,” says Genny McGregor, “Cocoa Coordinator” of Piece, Love & Chocolate. The Boulder-based chocolatier offers artisan truffles, candies, pastries, and drinking chocolate. Sometimes visitors to the shop become visibly, physically moved by tasting a particular confection. “This look comes over people’s faces. They close their eyes. It almost looks like they are…well, they look happy,” McGregor says with a smile. Salted Caramel on the Right Side of the Brain Bakers are different from other culinary creatives. “There is a balance between science and creativity. I like all the numbers involved, the exact measuring and setting out the ingredients and tools for an amazing dish before you start,” says Jennifer Akina, a celebrated cake artist at Denver’s Azucar Bakery. Akina studied

chemistry and biology in college, a common background among bakers (not to mention brewers and distillers). Akina is preparing to open Melted at The Source with restaurateur Bryan Drayton (of Acorn, Oak, and Corrida), featuring artisan cookies and Thai ice cream sandwiches on freshly baked French rolls. “I’m doing recipe testing now so I get to play with the millions of flavors in my head,” she says. Part of what she calls her “therapy” is following defined steps of pouring, proofing yeast, sifting, stirring, and plating. “Working with my hands gets the stress out for me. I have to focus and forget about everything else,” Akina says. Pastry creation is fundamentally tactile, not unlike massage therapy. “When I am training somebody, I have to show how to do techniques with my hands. I can’t tell them,” she says. “I am the worst with words. But I can show someone I care without saying anything by baking something for them. They know what I’m feeling.” Become a Mindful Baker Escaping into baking can help you learn to relax and gain confidence, and it’s a safe way to try

“Working with my hands gets the stress out for me.…I am the worst with words. But I can show someone I care without saying anything by baking something for them. They know what I’m feeling.” —Jennifer Akina, Cake Artist

something new, according to Hawkins of Kathy Hawkins Counseling. “It also is such a thoughtful expression of affection because you took the time. You didn’t just pick something up at a store,” she says. Many home cooks are intimidated by baking to the point of being “pastry-phobic” because they don’t bake often enough to feel good at it. The answer is to begin a mindful baking practice and intentionally create treats for others on a regular basis. First, relax, breathe, and forget about being “gourmet” or making elaborate edible sculptures, Hawkins says. “I think back to my mother. Every weekend she would make Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls with icing from the can. It was her way of showing me that she loved me.” Don’t bite off more than you can bake. “Make sure you have a solid, simple recipe. Start with granola or cookies, not apple pie. See how happy it makes you feel and then get more complicated,” says Bush of Lucky’s Bakehouse and Creamery. Try making a dessert you don’t particularly love because you know how happy it will make someone else. “You get outside yourself, think N OV E M B E R 2020

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It'ssAlwayss4200attTHCC

THE LIFE

PHOTO BY JORDANE MATHIEU, UNSPLASH

about what others need and enjoy the feeling of altruism.” Hawkins says. If you are a perfectionist, baking could be a source of anxiety. Serious bakers will regale you with self-deprecating tales of burned crusts, sunken souffles, and banana bread baked with salt mistaken for sugar. “You can’t be afraid. It’s not life or death. It’s just cake. We say: ‘No blame, no shame.’ You learn and move on,” says McGregor of Piece, Love & Chocolate. Consider embracing the Japanese concept of wabi sabi, seeing the beauty in imperfection. Besides, you can always add more frosting. Encourage family and friends to join you by scheduling a holiday cookie exchange this season. Honor an elder by asking them to teach you how to make a comforting family favorite. All You Knead is Love Bakers serve as pastry therapists for the rest of us, but those who create sweets need love, too. Hinman and others in the Denver hospitality industry have formed an organization called Chow, which offers support services to deal with addiction, suicide, and mental illness among cooks, bakers, bartenders, and waiters. The idea

A B O U T T H E AU T H O R

John Lehndorff was the former executive director of the American Pie Council, chief judge at the National Pie Championships, and spokesperson for National Pie Day (Jan. 23). He enjoys making and receiving double-crusted wild blueberry pies.

is to promote work/life balance in kitchens where the prevailing culture has often been quite brutal. Hinman says he rarely has leftover pies at his bakery, but on a recent Saturday found himself with a dozen or so. “I decided to bring them to

Azucar Bakery because I knew they were working really hard,” he says. You would think that the last thing a baker wants to eat would be additional baked goods. “When John [Hinman] brought us pies at the bakery, the whole staff

lit up. Who brings a baker a pie? It was so wonderful,” Akina says. Ultimately, making the attempt and investing the thought and time is the sweetest part for folks when we show up at the front door with home-baked goodies. N OV E M B E R 2020

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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

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HACKING THE FEAST How the hippies hijacked Thanksgiving and had a feast that canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be beat. TEXT JOHN LEHNDORFF

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ack 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.

“This song is called ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ and it’s about Alice and the restaurant, but Alice’s Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant” When Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant Massacree debuted in 1967, the song immediately became an underground hit. For young males like me approaching the 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.

“My friend and I went up to visit Alice at the restaurant” I grew up loving Thanksgiving with our large, overextended family of Austrian, Sicilian, and

Polish relatives who contributed ethnic side dishes. The bird was always filled with mashed potato and Italian sausage stuffing. However, the title track of Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant album describes a holiday with friends that sounded much more like a party than the sometimes nerve-racking family feasts we knew at home. Because of the epic, 16-minute talking blues track by the son of folk icon Woody Guthrie—the singer-songwriter behind classics such as “This Land Is Your Land”—nondenominational Thanksgiving Day soon became the hippies’ unofficial national holiday.

“Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago” I was an American student at McGill University in Montreal in the early 1970s when our household decided to host the hippest Thanksgiving ever. We recorded a soundtrack on a reel-to-reel tape deck of our favorite songs—some early Springsteen like “Rosalita,” lots of country rock including Emmylou Harris’s “Bluebird Wine,” and, of course, “Alice’s Restaurant.” The tunes were supposed to fit the various stages of the festivities, including digestive tunes for the aftermath. Some of the memories are a tad foggy, but it was a great time.

“Had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat” We were antiestablishment, so we kept the parts of Thanksgiving we liked—the wine and the pies—and got rid of the parts we couldn’t stand, such as the need to dress up. Long before it caught on with N OV E M B E R 2020

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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. mainstream, the counterculture hosted vegetarian Thanksgivings with a big-tent approach that welcomed side dishes of all denominations. What mattered was gathering like-minded members of your tribe. Besides, Thanksgiving with friends was also the one holiday bash other than New Year’s Eve when we could enjoy highly illegal cannabis along with beer and wine.

“You may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar situation” It is a fairy-tale feast complete with unreasonable expectations, because stuff always happens. No wonder folks end up making reservations at a restaurant instead of hosting an elaborate meal. I feel their pain.

“I walked in, sat down, I was hung down, brung down, hung up, and all kinds o’ mean nasty ugly things”

“And everything was fine, we were smoking cigarettes and all kinds of Turkeys have been overcooked things, until the sergeant came over” and undercooked when I’ve hostOver the years, I’ve hosted Thanksgiving or helped stage the feast dozens of times, but not without combating the prevailing paradigm. Magazine covers and TV shows show perfect birds, oh-so-easy side dishes, and 126 things you can do to decorate your home for the happy feast day. You must remain the relaxed and gracious hostess or host.

ed. I’ve burned dishes that only needed to be warmed. Once the fridge was packed, and I was tired on Thanksgiving night so I left the turkey carcass on the back porch on a near-freezing night. I awoke to a brutally attacked turkey scattered across the porch and back yard after an alley gang of obnoxious raccoons broke in. I mourned the lost meat and soup.

Another year, I knew that slicing the turkey in the aluminum pan was a really bad idea, but I went ahead anyway. I sliced through the pan, and the hot, fatty, delicious collected juices started pouring out on the cutting board, counter, and floor. The thing is: we all get anxiety over hosting 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.

“Kid, have you rehabilitated yourself?” In a 2017 feature on feast dishes for 50 states in the New York Times, cannabis got special attention. “It’s difficult to assess exactly how much legalization… may have changed the Thanksgiving menu. But it has indubitably increased the snacking that goes on afterward,” the esteemed publication noted. N OV E M B E R 2020

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We would remind the Times that cannabis and Turkey Day have been intersecting for many decades in many places. And If I’m going to bust my buns pulling off Thanksgiving, then I want enough goodies so I can relax and enjoy the meal in the days that follow.

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.

in the song, that they lived through in the late 1960s to the early ’70s. It wasn’t all peace and love, either.

“If you want to end war and stuff you got to sing loud”

Is hosting a Thanksgiving feast really worth the hours of prep, the “You can get anything you want at cleaning, the shopping, the cookAlice’s Restaurant, excepting Alice” “Had another Thanksgiving dinner ing, and commotion of inviting that couldn’t be beat” Ironically, our antiestablishment others into your home for a dining I look forward to turkey breast counterculture ended up creating experience fraught with so many BLT’s, dark meat turkey in French rituals that are followed annually. possible disasters? dip sandwiches with gravy replac- Many radio stations have made it My answer is still yes. What I reing the au jus, and turkey tacos traditional to play the 16-minute member best about Thanksgiving in chocolate-chile mole sauce. I protest song on Thanksgiving Day, dinners is not food or faux pas, polove making waffles out of leftover sometimes several times. litical tiffs or football games. I am bread stuffing, and serving latkes If Grandpa and Grandma get a thankful for the funny, argumentamade from Italian sausage and po- silly gleam in their eye when they tive, and heartwarming moments tato stuffing topped with eggs. hear “Alice’s Restaurant” playing, shared among the folks who filled I turn that precious turkey into a they may have been hippies. There the circle around the table on evehearty broth that becomes frozen were challenging times, chronicled nings in November. N OV E M B E R 2020

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TRIPPY HEALING Psychedelics are the new medical marijuana. TEXT ROBYN GRIGGS LAWRENCE

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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? Psychedelics are the new medN OV E M B E R 2020

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“[ P S YC H E D E L I C S ] C A N C R E AT E EXPERIENCES O F WO N D E R A N D AW E A N D A CONNECTION TO A ‘D I V I N E R E A L M’ T H AT L E A D S TO SIGNIFICANT B E H AV I O R A L C H A N G E S .” —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.” N OV E M B E R 2020

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Resistance

The Art of

A Sonoma County creative styles the strength of the Black community. TEXT NORA MOUNCE PHOTO LOREN HANSEN

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As Malia Anderson watched the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement play out across the nation, she wanted to join the protests in a way that resonated with her life’s work. A classically trained image consultant, Malia is the creative spark behind Style by Malia, a Santa Rosa– based brand consulting agency. Anderson works with women, professionals, and businesses throughout the Bay Area, helping people feel powerful in their personal style. “I needed to protest in a way that was visual,” explains Anderson, who organized the June photoshoot of 17 Black women on the steps of the Museum of Sonoma County. Wearing vibrant jewel-toned hues, each woman sparkles in collective resistance to the police violence and historical racism that continues to plague America. “I wanted people to understand Black women are the creator of movements, not just the voices people report on,” says Anderson. Shot by photographer Loren Hansen, the 17 women are Bay Area mothers, students, healers, counN OV E M B E R 2020

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ty officials, and political activists. Anderson created the concept behind the powerful images and personally styled each woman. This summer, small towns throughout Northern California joined the massive protests across America in response to the murder of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis. The Black Lives Matter movement dates back to 2013 when three organizers started using the hashtag #blacklivesmatter in

“I wanted people to understand Black women are the creator of movements, not just the voices people report on.” —Malia Anderson

response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman. According to the independent research group Mapping Police Violence, police officers killed three people per day in 2019. Black people accounted for 24% of those killed, despite making up only roughly 13% of the population. And from 2013-2019, in 99% of killings by police, no officers were charged with a crime. Protesters in San Francisco, Oakland,

Santa Rosa, Ukiah, Fort Bragg, and Arcata took to the streets this summer to stand up to a federal government who has taken little action to address structural racism and violence in the U.S. Clad in masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, mothers, families, teenagers, immigrants, and Americans of every color and creed have endured tear gas, rubber bullets, and willful ignorance as they collectively demand systemic change in America. Enough is enough. N OV E M B E R 2020

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THE SCENE CANNA-TOURISM

Tour de Force

Despite all the crises of 2020, the future of the canna-travel sector looks bright TEXT MELISSA HUTSELL

In January 2020, two of California’s multi-billion dollar industries merged to create an entirely new travel experience: cannabis tourism. But another force, COVID-19, put that industry on hiatus. Now, nearly seven months into the outbreak, canna-travel is evolving to meet the needs of a socially distant world. In 2019, tourism brought nearly $145 48

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billion to California—a figure higher than the GDP of most nations— and provided 1.2 million jobs, according to Visit California. Canna-travel, which includes tours, retreats, conferences, bud and breakfasts and more, is proving to be a further economic driver. The Emerald Cup, an annual cannabis event in Santa Rosa, for example, generated more than $17 million to Sonoma County in 2018,

according to the Sonoma Index Tribune. Research conducted in early March by NLightn Strategies and MMGY Global finds an estimated 18 percent of all Americans express an “interest in cannabis-related activities while on vacation.” Their primary destination? California. These travelers identify as foodies, wine enthusiasts, festivalgoers, and beach bums, ex-

plains Brian Applegarth, co-founder of NLightn, and the California Cannabis Travel Association (CCTA). Their research also reveals that “cannabis travelers stay longer and spend more than the average leisure travelers.” The traditional travel industry is starting to understand that cannabis tourism, “is a real segment—and there are real dollars to be had,” explains Applegarth. In

COURTESY THE SONOMA COUNTY EXPERIENCE/THE GARDEN SOCIETY

Last month, The Sonoma County Experience and Francis Ford Coppola Winery held a yoga class to raise funds for the Sonoma County Resilience Fund to help those impacted by recent wildfires.

THE SCENE

PHOTO COURTESY THE MENDOCINO COUNTY EXPERIENCE

CANNA-TOURISM

fact, Cal Travel introVardijan and his fellow duced a cannabis tourism cofounder Misha Frankly committee this year, improvised—something which Applegarth chairs. they credit to their background in theater. Since COVID-19 Safe Tours they could no longer take 2020 was expected to be travelers to Mendocino, a breakout year for canthey’d bring Mendocino nabis tourism. “This was to quarantined audiences. the year that 4/20 was The company began an entire month,” says offering virtual tours, Chris Vardijan, cofound- and publishing a weekly er of The Mendocino cannabis history webCounty Experience, a series. It also introduced cannabis farm tour and a socially distanced Canwine tasting company. nabis Farm Tour, where Tours were booked as tourgoers can drive far back as 2019 by travel- themselves to each desers from nearly every con- tination on the itinerary tinent. Then, like a Game for all-outdoors attracof Thrones plot twist, they tions and activities. were cancelled. As the “[It’s that] improv Orange County Register background—you find reported, “California’s the magic in whatever tourism bubble…burst, an the situation is,” says economic victim of the Vardijan. “It’s not just coronavirus outbreak.” that we’re adjusting;

we’re finding ways to make it be the best thing it’s going to be within these new parameters.” Adapting to Two Crises The Sonoma County Experience—a separate wine and weed tour company based in Santa Rosa—also introduced a socially distanced summertime series. The company partnered with Garden Society, a women-founded cannabis brand, to create outdoor yoga classes and wine tasting sessions hosted by local wineries. Traditional tours will not resume until 2021, says cofounder Jared Giammona. Giammona credits his adaptability to his experience with wildfires, including this summer’s LNU Lightning Complex Fire. Those experiences continue to serve him well, and as one of the worst fire seasons on record unfolds, Giammona has already canceled outdoor classes due to fire and smoke. However, like the COVID-19 crisis, the situation is fluid, requiring him to be proactive, prioritize safety, and keep a daily eye on air quality and to the direction of the winds. Cannabis is Essential According to Visit California’s 2020 Outlook, immersive experiences—

particularly those that highlight local culture— and tastings were leading the overall tourism sector. The pandemic only accelerated that. “The pent-up demand for travel is very existent, and people are starting to re-think, ‘How do I travel?’” says Applegarth. “Whether you visit vineyards or cannabis farms, you can’t help but feel the culture intertwined with the craft.” As of September, California’s travel related-spending dropped by 40 percent from domestic travelers and 75 percent from international ones, reports Visit California. But cannabis spending increased, hitting a record-breaking $348 million this July, according to cannabis data firm Headset. Applegarth says 2020 is still a big year for the intersection of these industries—just in a different way. At the beginning of the year, conversations focused on proving how cannabis can be an economic driver for the travel industry. Now, he explains, the conversation has shifted to “How can cannabis, as an essential business that put up record sales in the middle of a pandemic, be used as a stabilizer for the industry in times of crisis?” N OV E M B E R 2020

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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 8.

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

Something to Chew On

National Cannabis Gummie Day is in November.

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Ocean Glow

In these crazy days of distance and political rage, there’s solace and beauty to be found at night near the sea.

These days are tough. But heading to a spot like Sonoma County’s Goat Rock Beach can give you some solace and a sense of space beyond human problems. When local photographer Guy Miller recently headed to the place on a moonless night hoping to capture some images of the starry sky and the sea, he was treated to a rare sight—the waves and water lit up with bioluminescence, glowing with each crash of the surf. “The

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rarely-seen glowing blue light is caused by a marine microorganism, a single-celled creature called a dinoflagellate,” explains Miller. “It was truly a magical scene.” The chemical reaction is controlled by a circadian clock so that the glow only comes out at night. During the day, the plankton recharges so that it can put on another show the next evening. While these displays are hard to predict here in California, in some spots, like

Puerto Rico and Florida, they take place at predictable times. Capturing the image was par for the course for Miller who seeks out scenes of wonder in the natural world. “To me, photography is an art of observation,” he says. “It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place. I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”

PHOTO CREDIT: GUY MILLER, GUYMILLERPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

TEXT DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

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