Sensi Magazine Massachusetts - Spring 2023

HIGH CLASS

Get schooled on the ins and outs of cannabis

GREEN PARTY

Make your next elevated shindig one for the books

WEIRD WEED

An abnormal history of The New Normal

FEATURES

28 Elevated Events

How to properly host a a cannabis-infused gathering.

34 Not a Fan of the Leaf?

The fan leaf, once a symbol of counterculture, is now seen by some as a tired cliche. But, like it or not, it’s ours.

DEPARTMENTS

11 EDITOR’S NOTE

12 THE BUZZ News, tips, and tidbits to keep you in the loop

FIZZY LIFT Maison Bloom’s elevated seltzer

CHEAP DATES The 10 best cities for a ordable dates

BALANCE ON THE STRIP How Las Vegas navigates legalization

WEEDED BLISS A new wedding line from House of Pu

LATEST HITS Four new products on the shelves

JUST SAY YES Ode to the Cannabis Medical Council’s new pro-canna campaign.

18 THE LIFE

Contributing to your health and happiness

WEED 101 New to the high life? This is your crash course on all things cannabis.

EDBLES COMPLEX Stories of rst-time edibles users full of fun, fear, and lessons learned.

38 THE SCENE

Hot happenings and hip hangouts around town

420 REVIEWS Sensi’s executive editor weighs in on her favorite products in 2023.

HIGH SOCIETY Recapping the Sensi Connects Carribean Carnival event

THE ABNORMAL HISTORY that made today’s “New Normal” what it is today.

50 THE END

MASSACHUSETTS SENSI MAGAZINE SPRING 2023

EXECUTIVE

Ron Kolb Founder ron@sensimag.com

Jamie Cooper President jamie.cooper@sensimag.com

Jade Kolb jade@sensimag.com

PUBLISHING

Jamie Cooper Market Director, Michigan

Richard Guerra Market Director, Massachusetts

Jake Boynton Market Director, Massachusetts

Keeley Thornhill Market Director, Oklahoma

EDITORIAL

Jen Bernstein Executive Editor Jen.Bernstein@sensimag.com

Mike DiPaola Copy Editor Mike.Dipaola@sensimag.com

Aaron Bible Contributor, Colorado

Will Brendza Contributor, Colorado

Elana Frankel National Contributor

Debbie Hall National Contributor

Meredith Freed Contributor, Massachusetts

Elizabeth McWilliams Contributor, Michigan

DESIGN

Jamie Ezra Mark Creative Director jamie@emagency.com

Rheya Tanner Art Director

Wendy Mak Designer

Josh Clark Designer

Andrew Ontko Designer

PRODUCTION

Neil Willis Production Director & Client Support Specialist

MEDIA SALES

COLORADO

Tyler Tarr Media Sales Executive

FACEBOOK

Like Sensi Media Group to infuse your newsfeed with more of our great cannabis lifestyle content.

Whether you’re busy celebrating our favorite stoner holiday at home, out with your buds, or working (we see you cultivators, budtenders, and business owners), we are all so grateful to be working in the cannabis industry alongside and serving you!

In fact, it wasn’t too long ago that there wasn’t even a cannabis industry to write about. We found news and information through word of mouth, on Grateful Dead tours or worse … in the police blotter.

H Happy 420 to all our Sensi Family and Friends.

So, every year when 420 comes around, I can’t help but be amazed at how far we’ve come and still, how much further we have to go with cannabis legalization. I’ve been entrenched in the cannabis industry (which is itself a phrase I never thought imaginable) since 2011, when I first joined High Times as their number two in charge of herding professional potheads to produce the monthly magazine. Oh, and there’s also that part of the job where I was flown all over the country judging the best weed in the world.

TWITTER

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

During that time we were hosting Medical Cannabis Cups and weed-related industry events were our thing: no one else was hosting cannabusinesses (a word I first used to describe the new boom of businesses dealing in soon-to-be legal weed) at large event expos. We were watching the cannabis space evolve right before our eyes and in real time. It was mind-blowing as we made the jump from medical competitions serving patients to the recreational scene and adult-use. Standing on top of a table for a better view, and breathing in that sweet skunky smell in the air, it was absolutely thrilling watching upwards of 35,000 attendees light up at 4:20 pm on 4/20 at the first-ever Legal Cannabis Cup in Denver back in 2013. It still gives me head-totoe chills and a huge sense of accomplishment. As a kid on career development day, I never dreamt that there’d be a career responsible for weed Disneyland!

INSTAGRAM

Pretty things, pretty places, pretty awesome people: nd it all on @sensimagazine

As luck would have it, my journey advocating for cannabis and mainstreaming marijuana media continues to evolve and grow with Sensi Media Group and this 420 issue. These pages, which are chock full of cannabis lifestyle content that we’ve carefully curated for you, embrace a little something for everyone. Whether you’re a cannabis noob or aficionado, we’re so excited to continue to grow our Sensi family and community with you in it.

Hugs, nugs, and happy 420!

Jen Bernstein @nycjamgal

Every year when 420 comes around, I can’t help but be amazed at how far we’ve come and still, how much further we have to go with cannabis legalization.

Elevated RTDs

Maison Bloom introduces Elevated Seltzers for bubbly choices

Trendsetter Maison Bloom has launched its signature Elevated Seltzers, offering strain-specific, whole plant, and single-barrel beverage choices.

Ready-to-drink beverages (RTDs) are predicted to grow by double digit percentages in several choices, according to CSP Daily News. Headset Data reported in “Cannabis Beverages: Examining category performance & trends” that the “market share of beverages has increased over 40 percent in the US and Canada since the beginning of 2021.”

Maison Bloom embraces the culinary world’s farm-to-table aesthetic with sun-grown craft cannabis blended with single-origin strains from the Sun+Earth and OCal-certified sustainable ecosystem of Sonoma Hills Farm.

Its Elevated Seltzers are crafted with 100 percent all-natural botanical extracts and sparkling water offered in three flavors, with a limited-edition flavor that rotates seasonally. Choices include Strawberry Provençal + Lemongrass, Watermelon + Pink Peppercorn, Pêche + Wild Honeysuckle, and current seasonal Stone Fruit + French Vanilla, all available in 11-ounce glass bottles in various 4-pack configurations.

For more information on Maison Bloom Elevated Seltzers, visit lovemaisonbloom.com and follow @LoveMaisonBloom on socials.

BUDGET CONSCIOUS

Do you live in one of the best cities for inexpensive dating?

Dating, to nd love or your person of the moment, continues throughout time. However, with costs of fuel, food, beverages, and clothing skyrocketing, dating can become very expensive. Still, some cities are more a ordable than others to go out to dinner (including wine) and then to a show or movie.

According to a survey by SmartAsset, dating is most a ordable in these 10 cities. The Sooner State features two a ordable cities, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, each costing about $50 per couple for a night out. Nearby Texas makes the list with two cities, Corpus Christi and El Paso, for an average cost of $55 per couple. Arizona can also brag about its inclusion on the list with two cities—Chandler and Mesa—featuring dinner and a show date for $57 per couple. Mobile, Alabama; Wichita, Kansas; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Spring eld, Missouri, round out the list.

Next time you’re looking for love, if you live near one of these cities, make it a date.

BY THE NUMBERS

420 HIGHWAY

King’s Highway 420, commonly referred to as Highway 420, connects the Queen Elizabeth Way with downtown Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada.

3

SPECIES

There are three species of cannabis, sativa, indica and ruderalis.

200

Slang Words for cannabis, including dope, kush, grass, and weed.

483 CHEMICALS

found in cannabis, which includes approximately 65 cannabinoids.

Pioneering Model

Consumption lounges follow Nevada’s lead

In Southern Nevada, Clark County Commissioners voted in December 2022 to allow consumption lounges to be operated within the county, which includes the Las Vegas Strip. In February, the Las Vegas City Council approved cannabis consumption lounges within city limits. However, there are strict regulations, including that each lounge must be 1,000 feet apart from the next closest lounge unless one obtains a special waiver from the city or county.

While the rest of the country watches, Southern Nevada is unique for several reasons. There is the city of Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County, with two di erent locally governing entities. Also, the casinos located downtown and on the Strip are regulated by the federal government, so they cannot participate in consumption lounges on their properties. However, dispensaries such as Planet 13, located within walking distance of the Strip, are planning to open lounges. The cities of North Las Vegas, Henderson, and Boulder City have not yet voted on the lounges. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about three-fourths of the state’s population resides in Southern Nevada.

The city of Las Vegas attempted to pave the way for consumption lounges in 2019 with the opening of the Vegas Tasting Room. Housed in NuWu Cannabis Marketplace is owned and operated by the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe on tribal land just two blocks north of downtown Las Vegas. Then the pandemic happened and the lounge was forced to close, although there are plans to reopen later this year.

PHOTOS (FROM TOP) BY AMAURY MICHAUX; COURTESY OF PLANET 13

WEDDING UPDATES

The age-old tradition of tossing the bouquet just got a little more interesting (and updated). Instead of running for the hills when the bride turns her back to predict who will be next in line to marry, watch men AND women gather together to grab the arrangement for a future sesh.

Kristina Lopez Adduci, founder and CEO of House of Pu , believes that the magic of the plant can elevate the overall bridal experience—just like all of your owers, menu, decor, music, and party gifts. Adduci has put together House of Pu ’s Ultimate Wedding Planning Guide (thedrawingroom.blog/how-to-plan-the-best-weedwedding/) including helpful tips.

• Before you say High Do, take time to research state laws, and plan for guests who do and don’t partake.

• Cannabis is more elevating than alcohol and more a ordable than bubbles or doves.

• Select cultivars to suit your wedding day vibe.

• Infuse specialty treats at just the right levels and make sure to label everything correctly and in large print (all ages and stages will be attending the big day).

• Parting gifts? Everyone loves an accoutrement or accessory to take home.

New on the shelves

Pucker Up

Just in time for warmer weather, Kiva Confections launches Camino Sour: terpenes-tailored, vegan gummies with 5mg of THC.

• Watermelon Spritz: Uplifting.

• Citrus Punch: Bliss.

• Orchard Peach: 1:1 Balance.

Chocolates

TILT and Coda Signature launch in Massachusetts, as Coda begins to build an East Coast following. Look for signature chocolate bars; French Fruit Notes, a reimagined take on gummies with natural flavors and real fruit purée; and topicals and infused bath bombs. Best news: Starting in Massachusetts, the brand is also launching its products with sustainable packaging.

114 Race St. Holyoke, MA

Hooked on the Cannabis Media Council's I'm High Right Now campaign

First of its kind cannabis-advertising trade council launches a playful campaign to highlight elders getting elevated and enjoying life. The CMC aims to destigmatize and normalize consumption through multistate consumer campaigns.

Top 5 reasons to share the buzz with elders:

1. To unlearn misinformation about the plant and understand the bene ts.

2. To enjoy the pleasures of pickleball, golf, gardening, and sex … without aches and pains.

3. To normalize adult consumption (like we did with wearing elastic-waist pants to the family dinner).

4. Because legalizing for personal use is, well, personal.

5. How much more fun would tea or tee time be with the grandparents if everyone was high?!

“This campaign, and future campaigns from the Cannabis Media Council, will not only combat outdated prohibitionist propaganda, but serve as a necessary element of the industry. We need to show publications and media outlets that the cannabis industry is serious and mature, has resources and will purchase ads. That will encourage more publishers, previously apprehensive to support cannabis, to run our ads and marketing messages. This campaign is the rst step to achieving that goal.” —Laura Fogelman, vice president of communications and public a airs of PAX, Cannabis Media Council Visionary Donor

Spring Seltzer

Levia launches its newest seasonal flavor: Key lime pie seltzer. The flavors: Tart, citrus and vanilla. The intended effect: Inspired and alert. The limited run features original artwork from Patrick Pollard, a local Massachusetts illustrator specializing in figurative visual art.

Levia’s cannabis-infused seltzers have rapid onset effects, typically beginning within 15-20 minutes. Made in Georgetown, Massachusetts, and crafted with locally sourced buds and simple all-natural ingredients. Each 12-ounce can of seltzer contains 5mg THC, zero calories, and zero sugar.

Craft Batch

Finally, legacy cultivators Mike and Taylor Ronnie have harvested their first collection of artisanal flower on the East Coast, covering flavors from fruity to gassy, and potencies from 23%-31%. With 20+ years of experience growing deep in California with some serious OG mentors, plus top genetics from around the country, the husband and wife team are poised to change the Massachusetts cannabis landscape. Two words: Elevated Menu. And even better, they believe in hand trimming and biodegradable mylar packaging. We cannot wait to inhale some showstopping Triangle Mints, and strains with hints of fresh cut papaya and fresh-baked apple fritter.

Want to get into cannabis (or get back into it after a long hiatus) but don’t know where to start? Then start here.

ORIGINAL TEXT RANDY ROBINSON

Your fi rst visit to a dispensary can be overwhelming. There are tens of thousands of exotically (and humorously) named strains, a smorgasbord of name-brand edibles, and an endless assortment of hashes and tinctures and vapes and lotions and gummies and, and, and—you get the picture.

Maybe you’re brand-new to this whole “cannabis” thing. Maybe your last encounter with the plant was last millennium. Maybe you just want a refresher, or an easy resource to introduce to others. Well, consider this your crash course in all things cannabis.

What is cannabis? Is it the same as marijuana?

Cannabis sativa is the proper name for the once-demonized plant with many benefits. “Marijuana”, The Mexican-colloquialism-turned-legal-term, is Cannabis sativa with over .3 percent THC—the stuff that gets you high. Cannabis sativa with less than .3 percent THC is considered “hemp.”

Industrial hemp was federally legalized in 2018 Farm Bill (aka the Agriculture Improvement Act). Marijuana legalization is decided on a state-by-state basis, and can range from full legalization to decriminalization, meaning possession of certain amounts is no longer a crime.

As of 2023, there are only four states—Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina and Wyoming—where cannabis remains completely criminalized. Try to avoid having weed there, if you can help it.

How does cannabis work as a medicine?

It sure does; ask the millions of Americans who say it relieved their pain, inflammation, chronic conditions, and mental or neurological disorders, when nothing else could.

In fact the human body has an entire system dedicated to synthesizing cannabis-like compounds.

Our endocannabinoid system (ECS) is like climate control; a network of receptors detect and correct imbalances in automatic processes. Normally, the ECS can only be activated by a specific type of neurotransmitter called an endocannabinoid. But there is one other type of molecule it reacts to. Cannabinoids, compounds like THC and CBD which can only be found in cannabis, are just the right shape to bind with ECS receptors and activate or alter its regulatory functions.

There’s a lot we still don’t know about the ECS (thanks, prohibition). But it may be the secret to the cannabis’s success as a breakthrough medicine.

What is a cannabinoid, anyway? Cannabinoids are the “active ingredients” of cannabis—any com-

pound that can interact with our bodies. There are at least 100 cannabinoids, but there are two that stand out from the rest. THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), is the oft-maligned cannabinoid that delivers the trademark high. Its more well-mannered partner, CBD (cannabidiol), has no psychoactive effects, instead carrying many of the healing benefits.

So if Cannabis is sativa, then what is indica? Indica and sativa are two general “types” of cannabis. Indica plants grow short and bushy, while sativas grow long and thin. Indica plants usually makes a smoker feel relaxed, sluggish, and sedated. Sativas tend to provide energy, focus, and an uplifting euphoria. However, those descriptions aren’t terribly clear cut. Sativas and

indicas can be cross-bred to produce hybrids, and most commercially available cannabis is some kind of hybrid, so this distinction is really only helpful if you’re getting into the weeds with weed.

What’s the whole “420” thing about?

“420” is a sacred number within the cannabis community. It’s often used as a code word, but it also represents special times to get elevated. Some consumers ritualistically smoke at 4:20 pm every day, and April 20 is officially the unofficial cannabis holiday, when consumers may congregate to light up with friends and peers. As for where it comes from, well, no one knows. Some people claim to know, but they don’t. It’s OK, though. We can have some mystery in our lives.

Low Minimums, quick turnarounds

W W W . W E M A K E C O R N E R S . C O M 20 MASSACHUSETTS SPRING 2023

Made

How does a dispensary compare to a retail store? Both sell cannabis and cannabis products; the difference is in those products’ use. Dispensaries tend to carry cannabis tailored for medical use, while retail stores exclusively sell recreational-use products, which is why they can also be called “rec” stores. (Not to be confused with a Head Shop, which sells paraphenalia such as bongs, pipes, grinders and dab rigs, but not the cannabis itself.)

What does it feel like to get high?

It depends on a lot of factors—the dosage, the strain, the method of consumption, and the individual. That said, the average “high” has a few common effects—euphoria, relaxation, hunger, creativity, and a giggly, happy mood. It lasts a few hours, and the feeling changes over time as your blood concentration of THC increases, peaks, and then fades. The best way to understand the feeling is to experience it yourself.

Can cannabis hurt you if you take too much?

In a medical sense, no; no one has ever died or been injured from “getting too high.” But overconsumption does cause some common side effects in-

cluding increased heart rate, anxiety, paranoia and confusion. In other words, it’s a very unpleasant feeling if you’re not prepared for it—enough to scare some people out of ever trying cannabis again.

How do I avoid getting too high?

Our rule of thumb is start low and go slow. Work your way up to higher dosages. Consider inviting a trusted, experienced friend to partake with you and be there to help you if you need it.

If you do get too high, just remember to breathe. You’ll be OK in a few hours. You could also try some common cures to curb the high, such as black pepper, whole milk (for edibles) or a hot shower.

What’s the difference between “buds,” “flowers,” and “nugs”? Absolutely nothing. They all refer to the same thing: the smokeable part of the plant. While most people are familiar with the iconic cannabis leaf, the part with the highest concentration of cannabinoids is the flowering part of the plant, hence the names.

What are strains?

Anyone 21 or over can shop in a retail store, but only registered medical marijuana patients, who may be any age, can buy from a dispensary. Dispensaries offer more potent products at a lower cost, because of its use as a medical-grade product.

Also known as genotypes or cultivars, a strain is a certain breed of cannabis—the same way a chihuahua is a breed of dog. Remember your high school days when you learned about the Punnett square, named after that guy who cross-bred a bunch of pea plants to see how genes get passed down? Cannabis strains are made in pretty much

the same way, in a process called pheno hunting. A special type of grower called a breeder crosspollenates plants with different traits to create the best possible combination of those traits.

What’s with all the weird names?

It may not look like it, but strain names do usually describe some aspect of the product. Some are named for their smell (Grape Ape or Blue Cheese) or their taste like (Ice Cream Cake), characteristics defined by an entirely different set of cannabis compounds called terpenes (or terps). Others are named for their concentrations of THC and CBD to deliver specific types of “high.”

While crazy names have stuck around as holdover from and homage to classic stoner culture, they can also be a barrier of entry for the new buyer—what information is someone who’s never tried cannabis before going to glean from “Original Glue”? Luckily, most dispensaries employ knowledgable budtenders who are there to help new consumers navigate the nonsense and recommend the ideal product for their experience level.

Got a question we haven’t answered here? All you have to do is ask.

Don’t want to smoke? You’re in luck! Smoking is just one consumption method. Here are just a few popular examples of the many other ways to get cannabis into your brain and body.

VAPES. A vape heats up your buds to boil the cannabinoids and terpenes get boiled o into a vapor that you inhale. Since the bud isn’t combusted, you aren’t inhaling black ash. Some vapes feature temperature control allowing you to customize your experience. THC vaporizes at 314.6°F (157°C), while CBD vaporizes around 320°F (160°C).

EDIBLES. Eat your pot or drink it too! Edibles are, as they sound, edible products infused with cannabis extracts. And there are some delicious options out there—brownies, of course, but also gummies, chocolates, cookies, granolas, colas, co ees, anything you can think of. A standard serving is 10 mg THC, and the long-lasting e ects can take up to two hours to hit.

SUBLINGUALS. A subgenre of edibles, sublinguals are administered under the tongue, bypassing the digestive system. The resulting e ects are pretty fast-acting, and mild enough to not impair judgment or hinder performance. They tend to be used medicinally, with selections like lozenges, tablets, tinctures and sprays. If you’re new to cannabis, or are in an area/industry where it’s still taboo, you’ll love this discreet, convenient consumption method.

TOPICALS. If you want to enjoy the pain relieving bene ts without the mood-altering e ects, try topicals. These lotions, ointments, creams, and oils don’t usually contain any THC at all; CBD does all the heavy lifting here. But if THC is present, it’s only to strengthen the analgesic e ect, as it can’t reach the bloodstream through the skin. The only exception is the transdermal patch, which has chemicals that can penetrate the skin barrier.

EXTRACTS. It’s everything we love about cannabis, without the cannabis. Think of it as juicing: Pressing and rolling owers yields a yellowish, waxy substance called hash—basically raw cannabinoid goop, and it’s as potent as it sounds. Also called hashish or concentrate, hash can take on di erent textures like budder, wax, shatter, or honey oils, depending on the extraction method. Chemists are constantly developing stronger, purer extracts, which is why we don’t recommend them for rst-timers. You’re practically asking to overdo it.

Edibles Complex

Edibles users tell tales—hilarious, healing, and horrifying—of their rst time.

ORIGINAL TEXT JOHN LEHNDORFF

There’s something about edibles that sparks wild experiences, even in veteran, longtime cannabis smokers who are not unacquainted with the effects of THC.

“On the whole, edibles are a very different beast from smoking bud or a vape pen. It’s THC, but it’s a different quality of high. Because of the way it is absorbed, it affects people very differently,” says Dr. Bill Costas, a Denver-based clinical psychologist who has worked in the metro area for more than 30 years. His experience with edibles took place in the early years of legalization. “It was both a body and a head high, and I was really messed up on both levels to the point of feeling very uncomfortable. I couldn’t manage to stand up and go outside. I couldn’t do it 30 or 45 minutes later. You are along for the ride, and it’s a much longer ride than you expect,” he shares.

Part of the problem is what Costas calls the “hysteria” surrounding edibles (and cannabis in general), including a lot of alarmist headlines that prime novice users of edibles to be anxious.

Sensi asked readers to share their memories, and they responded with tales that are horrifying, healing, and hilarious. Because of sensitive employment situations or simple embarrassment, the writers are not identified. The stories are all real … or, at least as real as remembered.

“So, I took 20 mg more to get in the groove.” A reader who had stopped smoking years earlier decided to give edibles a try when she had a chance to see Furthur, a reformation of the Grateful Dead (sans Jerry Garcia).

“I bought a 100 mg edible. Everyone I talked to said try 10 mg at first and see how you feel. Well, I took it at the beginning of

the show and by the end of the first set, I felt almost nothing. So, I took 20 mg more to get in the groove for the second set. Move the clock forward about 30 minutes, I could barely stand up. By “China Doll,” I thought someone had slipped me a dose of LSD 25. With about four songs to go, I asked my husband if we could go home. He looked at me like I asked him to commit murder. I couldn’t stand up without help, and I almost dragged my husband into the bathroom to help me. The end result? No one was injured or hospitalized and a lesson was learned.”

“The cops came, the paramedics came” A reader related a story about a friend who visited Colorado soon after legalization: “She hadn’t smoked in four decades but picked up some chocolate. We split like 10 mg, she freaked out and thought she was having a heart attack, and called 911. The cops came, the paramedics came. I had the giggles while the officer explained to her that she was going to be fine, and that she wasn’t the first person this happened to. In fact, she wasn’t even the first person that week. The officer noted that the worst case he had seen was a

woman who ate some edibles and was picked up running down the side of the road ‘butt naked.’”

“The only thing that got my brain to shut off” Edibles came to the rescue in the case of a Denver mother. “I got pregnant after fertility treatments. It ended up being ectopic, I nearly died and had emergency surgery. Afterwards, I had a lot of grief and anxiety that I couldn’t calm down. I spent about eight months trying everything to sleep. I finally decided to try a small amount of edible gummies. It worked immediately, and it was the only thing that got my brain to shut off so I could sleep. I rarely use them now, only once in a while in very small doses. It takes a while to metabolize, so it allows me to fall asleep as well as stay asleep. I have been very grateful for this medicinal aspect of it.”

“How edibles education happens”

“A friend said, ‘Hey, do you want some chocolate?’ and a big discussion about dosage ensued. My potophile friend said, ‘Eat the whole thing, I always do.’ My occasional-user friend said, ‘Nah, she better start off slow.’ So I had a nibble of the most

delicious mint chocolate and felt great. It was fun, like “having-a-second-glass-of-wine” fun. Fast forward a month and I found my nibbled-on chocolate sample and an extra piece. I ate one and it tasted so good I munched down the next. What could it hurt? That’s how I discovered the difference between a fun dose and a ‘now I can only crawl from my bed to the bathroom’ dose. Live and learn.”

Overcoming Overconsumption

When you’ve overdone the edibles, time really is the best medicine for its unpleasant effects. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t do anything to alleviate the anxiety.

“First, you have to remind yourself that you are along for the ride however long it lasts. If

you are focusing your attention on time, you will spiral down the rabbit hole,” says Costas. “Next, remember that you can’t overdose on THC. It has never happened. Nobody has ever died simply from a high dose of THC.”

Costas’ number-one strategy for dealing with an edibles episode? The power of positive thinking. “Detour your thinking from fear, anxiety, paranoia. Any time your thoughts go to a negative place, intentionally redirect them. It sounds too simple, but turn the experience into having a good time,” he says.

“Think of something fun—the music, something you’re looking at or tasting. Get lost in a pleasant dreamy moment instead of, ‘When will this end?’ I know that if I can direct my thoughts, I can affect

my emotional state. It changes my awareness, my breathing, and my brain chemistry. It means that I do have control. I may not be able to become less stoned, but I can make myself less anxious.”

To have a better experience, consider some practical precautions before you swallow the THC-infused goodies. Choose your set, setting, and company carefully: Where you will you be when the full effect of the edibles happens? Who will be with you? What sort of sensory environment will you be in? Make sure you have scheduled enough time, given the slow onset and lingering effects of edibles.

Be sure to eat edibles before the big meal, not after, or the effects will linger much longer.

“For me, I’m not going to have an edibles experience at Denny’s with strangers. I might go into the mountains. It’s good to have the right music. If you watch TV, you may not want to turn on Criminal Minds,” Costas suggests. Edibles taste much better than they used to. There are advances in microdosing, rapid absorption and targeted cannabinoids for specific therapeutic effects. Better dose control, packaging, and instructions make it more likely that the first time is a good time for edibles novices. However, in the end they are still edibles and subject to the variables that make eating different from smoking and vaping. It will still be up to each users’ self-awareness and learning over time.

How to properly throw a cannabis-infused gathering

A HOSTING HANDBOOK

E L V

TEXT ROBYN GRIGGS LAWRENCE

was cripplingly intimidating.

For me, hosting a cannabis dinner is a lot like teaching a yoga class. As the leader, I’m responsible for every person’s well-being and experience, from understanding their physical limitations and apprehensions to curating a playlist that keeps them motivated, relaxed, and flowing. They should leave happier than they came.

That level of culpability makes

bis hospitality industry employs professionals in everything from event planning to budtending. Consumers dab in elegant lounges, sip canna-mocktails, and indulge in CBD coffee stations and s’more bars stocked with infused chocolate. They taste cultivars as they’re paired with courses like wine. They dine on infused foie gras custard while inhaling from bowls of terpene vapor at $500-a-plate dinners.

derstanding how people can get this really beautiful effect without ever being overwhelmed,” a skill anyone who entertains with cannabis should be honing. Stupefied or paranoid guests suck the soul out of a party as quickly as obnoxious or passed-out-drunk ones—and then there’s that part about being responsible for their well-being. If you haven’t had nightmares about diners slumped

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Botera

BY LIZ WILSON

over their plates and leaving in wheelbarrows like the hobbits at Bilbo Baggins’ 111th birthday party, you probably shouldn’t be hosting a cannabis shindig.

HAVE AN “OH, SHIT KIT.”

Overconsumption happens, even with the pros. Though he rarely has to use them, Scottsdale, Arizona–based chef and restaurateur Payton Curry stocks up on water with electrolytes and Undoo softgels (a mixture of vitamin E, olive oil, and olivetol that promises to “unhaze the blaze”) when he hosts cannabis-infused dinners. For a few larger events, he’s even hired nurse practitioners to administer IV bags.

“Americans have been programmed to sleep it off or make themselves throw up if they have too much to drink,” Curry says. “With cannabis, it’s different. We say, ‘Here’s a pizza, a movie, and six gallons of water.’”

At Denver-based Irie Weddings and Events, the staff keeps an “Oh, Shit Kit” full of homeopathic rescue remedies; lavender, eucalyptus and chamomile essential oils; 5-Hour Energy; and ground pepper (said to mitigate anxiety and paranoia).

Budtenders at these events always ask about guests’ experience and tolerance, and signs at the bud bars remind people to sit down or call over a friend if they feel lightheaded or dizzy. No matter what, they never lets anyone suffer alone.

KNOW YOUR OWN LIMITS.

FLOAT-FREE GOODIES

If there are any minors at your party, or if anyone chooses not to consume, they’ll still want to eat. Here is a vegan dessert option everyone will want to taste. (Of course, you could infuse it, too. It’s your party.)

Vegan Carrot Cake

Recipe by Liz Wilson / Makes two 8-inch cakes

INGREDIENTS

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar

¾ cup plant milk + 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

¾ cup vegan sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla

¾ cup canola oil

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups shredded carrots

½ cup vegan cream cheese

½ cup vegan butter

PHOTO

Hosting with the most means being there for someone who thinks they’re dying. (It’s physically impossible to overdose on cannabis, but the time for a biology lesson is

4 cups powdered sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

For the cake

• Preheat oven to 350º

F. Grease two 8-inch cake pans and line with parchment paper.

• Whisk together plant milk and vinegar. Set aside.

• In another bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.

• In a large mixing bowl, add the brown sugar, sugar, sour cream, oil, vanilla, and milk mixture. Mix. Add in dry mixture and blend until combined.

• Fold in carrots.

• Pour even amounts of batter into each of the pans. Bake for 30–35 minutes.

For the frosting

• In a large mixing bowl, add butter and cream cheese. Beat until fluffy.

• Slowly add powdered sugar and continue beating. Add plant milk to reach desired consistency. Add vanilla.

• Assemble and ice the cake after cake layers have fully chilled. Top with nuts if desired.

Chef’s Note

• Our favorite vegan substitutions are Earth Balance, Miyokos Kitchen, and Follow Your Heart brands.

the hard work during the event so you can socialize.

Create a consumption area

A designated smoking lounge isolates fumes and frames a ceremonial space.

Have a policy for minors. Are kids allowed? Are they allowed in the consumption area?

Tailor consumption methods to your guests. Dabs are a little much for relatives who haven’t smoked since senior prom. Canna-mocktails allow accurate microservings and are more discreet.

Have music. If you won’t have a DJ or a band, make a playlist long enough to last the soiree, and test it. Even at operational consumption levels, you don’t want to be messing with the music—or worse, not have any.

Think brunch. Having a late-morning gathering allows your guests the afternoon to enjoy being high and happy.

posted.

Give gifts. The party shouldn’t stop when guests walk out.

Cheri Sicard, author of The Cannabis Gourmet Cookbook, sends them home with infused cookies during the holidays.

Make sure no one drives impaired. Lyft and Uber make it easy.

owner of Top Shelf Budtending, a service that offers certified “cannabis sommeliers” who present a holistic introduction to the plant’s botany, tastes, aromas, and effects. Mieure specializes in serving first-timers and people returning to cannabis after a long while, and they heighten his sense of obligation to deliver only smooth, groovy adventures.

“Their experiences,” he says, “can make or break the future of cannabis in America.”

NOT A FAN OF THE LEAF?

Iown two pieces of clothing with cannabis leaves on them: warm, fuzzy socks that were a gift from a dear friend and a three-year-old Women Grow t-shirt, vintage in this young industry and soft from many washings. I love wearing both in Colorado and California, where they spark good conversation.

When I visit my family and friends in the conservative Midwestern state where I grew up, I leave those items at home. I’m a sissy rebel—or maybe no rebel at all—because I wear them only in legal states, where the fan leaf is a ubiquitous in cannabis marketing and networking. So ubiquitous, in fact, that I’ve considered not wearing my socks or shirt to industry events because I’m slightly embarrassed about what a cliché it has become.

Maybe there are more subtle symbols for cannabis. Some say that pineapples are the new pot leaf; others wear jewelry shaped like THC and CBD molecules. Even modern bongs and pipes are crafted with aesthetics in mind, able to be displayed in the open like modern art. But in the end, whetner you love it or hate it, nothing says “I love weed” quite like the leaf.

THE LEAF’S LONG LINEAGE

If you’ve been in the cannabis industry for a minute, you can’t help but catch the yawn. We’ve all gotten used to seeing A-listers like Rihanna, Bella Hadid, and Miley Cyrus subtly (and not-subtly) working fan leaves into their looks and products. It’s been nearly a decade since Mara Hoffman dressed her New York Fashion Week models in dresses and pants

woven with green cannabis leaves.

Mara wasn’t breaking new ground; she was following in the well-worn footsteps of Gram Parson, who had suits embroidered with cannabis leaves made for him and his Flying Burritos Brothers bandmates to wear on the cover of their first album in 1968.

But even that is far from the beginning of the leaf’s history. Its earliest known depiction dates to the Neolithic era (10,000–5,000 BC), painted on a cave wall on the coast of Kyushu, Japan. Many believe the pointy leaf often shown above the head of the ancient Egyptian idol Seshat, goddess of architecture, astronomy, astrology, and mathematics, was a cannabis leaf.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, when cannabis was a common ingredient in over-the-counter elixirs, the leaf could be spotted on medicine bottle labels—

The fan leaf, once a badge of counterculture, is now seen by some as a tired cliché. But, like it or not, we’re stuck with it—we might as well make it classy.

ORIGINAL STORY ROBYN GRIGGS LAWRENCE

though not nearly as often as today. It went underground with the prohibition in 1937, largely forgotten until it re-emerged alongside tie-dye and peace signs in the ’60s as a countercultural icon.

Jerry Rubin, the flamboyant radical who told hippies never to trust anyone over 30, anointed the leaf when he said: “Smoking pot makes you a criminal and a revolutionary. As soon as you take your first puff, you are an enemy of society.”

In 1966, the Saturday Evening Post described college students who used marijuana as fitting into “a general pattern of rebellion against society’s values.” The very fact that marijuana was illegal, according to a 1967 Life magazine article, was part of its appeal for young people. “Seeing themselves in rebellion against the empty, materialistic striving of their parents, they turn the whole pot scene into a protest tool which they use to mock a middle-class culture they disdain,” the article stated.

We all know what happened next. Hippies became yuppies. Nancy Reagan told us to “Just Say No.” Cannabis leaves went underground again—disappearing even from rolling paper labels and dorm room posters—and it stayed down. When Adidas attempted to unearth it by replacing its corporate logo with a cannabis leaf to market hemp sports shoes in 1998, US drug czar Lee P. Brown slammed the company for attempting to “capitalize on the drug culture.”

Despite the best efforts of reefer madness reactionaries, prohibition is ending. Attitudes are changing, and the leaf has never been more popular—for better or worse.

IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM

The mainstream fashion world still thinks the fan leaf is edgy. We in the industry have seen that guyin-a-pot-leaf-suit often enough to know better. (You don’t see leggings covered in grapes or earrings shaped like grapevines at wine festivals, do you?)

But our ennui is a problem of privilege—albeit one that should be a right for all—and I do know how lucky we are that we can display cannabis leaves as a universal symbol of pride, solidarity, and advocacy without fear of persecution.

More than half of the US continues to criminalize recreational use, and there are still 13 states where even medical use is outlawed. Currently, cannabis has only been legalized in around 40 countries. Emojis have become practically part of the written language, but even in 2023, we are stuck with the “maple leaf” and “wind” emojis to express our 420-friendliness.

So let’s not pretend that cannabis has “made it” completely. We could talk all day about the irony of Baby Boomers exploiting cannabis for profit as part of the very middle class they once disdained—but let’s save that for a sesh. The fan leaf is our icon, and we’re stuck with it. Let’s try to be respectful of its defiance. Those of us who get to experience the normalization of a symbol that once sparked conflict and controversy need to keep working toward universal acceptance, even as we fold it into our marketing materials.

We’ve come far, but we’re not there yet. We will have arrived when our phones come equipped with cannabis leaf emojis.

EAT YOUR GREENS

Fan leaves, once considered a waste product, have come into their own as a nutritional and medicinal powerhouse packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. They have a distinctly earthy, slightly bitter taste that makes a tasteful addition to smoothies, juices, salads, pesto and tabbouleh, or as a garnish for soups or sh.

DESPITE THE BEST EFFORTS OF REEFER MADNESS REACTIONARIES, PROHIBITION IS ENDING. ATTITUDES ARE CHANGING, AND THE LEAF HAS NEVER BEEN MORE POPULAR—FOR BETTER OR WORSE.

420 Reviews

What’s grabbing my attention this 420?

This quintessential quartet exempli es the best of the best during our favorite festival season.

TEXT JEN BERNSTEIN, EXECUTIVE EDITOR

INTENTION-ALLY ELEVATED

Make your 420 mean something and commit to setting a cannabis intention – by keeping a cannabis journal. Whether setting intentions or creating a more mindful practice, educational design company Goldleaf makes it easy to follow through with their guided journals, informational art prints, and educational cards. The company empowers through education, elevates through beautiful botanic design, and has helped cannabis patients, growers, and your coworkers since their start in 2016. Make your marijuana memories meaningful. shopgol eaf.com

EDIBLE EDIFICATION

Life shouldn’t have to be hard — that’s why I reach out for fast-acting Betty’s Eddies chews when the going gets tough. And, it’s like their tastemakers KNEW I’d be reaching for their delicious, 100% all-natural fruit chews every chance I could get … whether popping the pineapple Take It Easy Eddies ta y-like chew that tastefully includes lightly infused THC and other minor cannabinoids for stress; or needing to peacefully unwind from my day with the perfectly curated Bedtime Betty’s raspberry creams that include dreamy CBD and CBN designed for a restful sleep. Dosed perfectly at 5mg with additional cannabinoids included for desired e ect — Betty’s Eddies are my go-to day changer when my vibe needs lifting. Available in: Massachusetts, Maryland, Puerto Rico, Delaware, Maine, and Rhode Island, www.bettyseddies.com

HOBBIT-FORMING MASTERY

Hey Pu co, the Council of the Wise called and they want to know your spellbinding secrets. How is it humanly possible to one-up the intense magic that goes into the high-tech design and functionality of the Pu co Proxy? Concentrate cannaseurs who invest in only the highest quality vaping apparati will reach that coveted Gandalf-level status/stature when they bring their Pu co Proxy Kit to elevate their sessions. If you’re still in search of a superior crafted handheld vaporizer, look no further than the Proxy Wizard*, which will no doubt make you the envy of the Shire.

*Beard not required, www.pu co.com/products/proxy-kit-desert

ESCAPE ARTISTS

Remember the thrill of sneaking a quick toke in between work meetings or while hiding out in the bathroom dodging your toddler? The team over at Escape Artists brings that discrete level to an all-time high with their fast-acting, no odor, refreshing Escape Artists Flights mint strips. You don’t have to feel naughty about doing something good for you, not with the bene ts of 2.5mg of THC and 2.5mg CBD found in the appropriately dosed strips, 30 to a pack – all secured for you in a child-resistant tin. As your mint strip dissolves so will your stumbling blocks – leaving you to enjoy an energetic, microdosed high. letsescape.com

HIGH QUALITY AFFORDABLE ACCESSORIES AS STYLISH AS YOU

JUST A FEW OF OUR PRESTIGIOUS RETAILERS

C Connects Meets Caribbean Carnival Culture

Green Gold Group, Western Front, and Papi Cann Present Sensi Connects Brands and Retail B2B Networking” on February 28th at La Fabrica Central in Cambridge’s Central Square was a cannabis industry experience like no other! Worcester Caribbean American Carnival Association (WCACA), Boston Society of Caribbean Culture and Heritage (BSOCCAH), Joint Venture & Co, and Sensi came together to co-produce the night. Local cannabis partners braved the passing winter storm to grow their businesses and experience authentic Caribbean entertainment & culture.

Chef Nick Escoto (@Ki.th.cen) crafted Caribbean-inspired small bites and cocktails. NikNikStyles’ custom costumes, modeled by @stunningstef_ & @a.tensionn, set a mesmerizing vibe. While performances by Mr. Fenty on Steel Drum, Roots Alley Collective, and DJ Trizz transported attendees to a Caribbean Carnival experience

SENSI CONNECTS

WHERE: LA FABRICA CENTRAL

WHEN: FEBRUARY 28TH

PHOTOS: PATRICK ROGERS

Burlington, VT Ma

Hartford, CT May

Chicago, IL June

Augusta, ME Aug 5-6

Albany, NY Sept 29-30

Atlantic City, NJ Sept 8-9

Boston, MA March 22-24

This article was originally published in November 2018. It has been edited for length and clarity.

An Abnormal History of The New Normal

I don’t know about you, but I’m glad Dave’s still here.

ORIGINAL TEXT LELAND RUCKER

There was a time when Cheech & Chong kept me sane. It was winter 1971–72, and the world was warning me that smoking pot was going to destroy my ambition, rob me of my motivation and, for all I knew, send me straight to hell. Everything I read said that marijuana would turn me into a low-IQ couch potato, yet here I was smoking a joint then cleaning the house and weeding the yard. It just made no sense.

And in the midst of the madness, along came Cheech & Chong and Big Bambú, two records that amplified and crucified the stoner clichés of the era. Those albums kept me, and as it turns out,

millions of other tokers, laughing our asses off, whether at Bob Bitchen enthusiastically going for the hash on the C&C’s 1980 Let’s Make a Dope Deal album, the hapless “Pedro and the Man at the Drive-Inn” downing their stash to keep from getting busted by the police on 1973’s Los Cochinos, or Sister Mary Elephant screaming at her class to “SHUUUUUDDUP!” in the skit bearing her name. Nobody said “far out, man” better than Tommy Chong. Their most famous routine, “Dave’s Not Here,” became part of stoner mythology. Everybody knew “Dave’s Not Here.”

Cheech & Chong’s comedy, far ahead of its time and with a minority focus—Richard “Cheech” Marin is Mexican-American, and Tommy Chong is of Scottish-Irish/Chinese descent—provided a secret language for our then-illegal, secret society. C&C made it so much less clandestine. They

poked holes in marijuana myths—wink, wink— which made us giggle, and at the same time convinced the anti-pot crowd that that’s how people act when they’re high. We knew better. But the stoner stereotype was born.

Fast forward about 46 years to September 2018, and I’m eating catered Cracker Barrel pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs on paper plates chatting with Tommy Chong in Lucy Sky, a Denver dispensary that carries Chong’s Choice, his brand of cannabis products. What once was an underground cult with its own code and buzzwords is now a worldwide, multibillion-dollar industry that even Coca-Cola is interested in investing in.

Darkness and Lies

Thinking back, it’s pretty amazing the lengths that the federal government went to—and still does, the budget for the Drug War this year is about 36 billion dollars—to try

to keep Americans from “getting high.” Despite that pharmaceutical drugs and alcohol get you “high,” too, American leaders on both sides of the political aisle have tried their damnedest to stop millions of Americans who use cannabis as a part of their lives.

International cannabis policy is still governed by the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, convened in 1961 and updated in 1971 and 1988 by the United Nations. The Single Convention was based on the idea that addiction “constitutes a serious evil for the individual” and is a social and economic obstruction to mankind’s progress.

The “solution” was an approach that included incarceration for users and dealers and, except for medical and scientific purposes, total elimination of all illegal drugs. To be honest, it hasn’t worked out very well after a half-century and who knows how many dollars

PHOTOS BY ANDRE VELEZ

spent, and it’s not surprising that some signatories are beginning to question this wisdom, especially in light of legalization efforts in the US. At this point, American states that allow legal marijuana are technically breaking international law.

The Convention was used by President Richard Nixon and Congress to help pass the Controlled Substances Act in 1970, and since then, the federal government has desperately tried to stop you and me and lots of other people from doing something they find enjoyable and that, given the alternatives, seems fairly benign. So pleasurable, in fact, that millions of Americans are willing to continue to break federal and international law to do it.

Nixon, who wandered the White House corridors drunk and babbling to paintings in the dark days before his resignation, was phobic about a lot of

things—Jews, gays, hippies, and drug use among them. His aide John Ehrlichman later admitted the administration put cannabis in the same classification as heroin to give Nixon extra legal leverage over hippies and minorities—that period’s “enemies of the state.” This was after the administration’s Shafer Commission concluded the only problem with marijuana was its illegality. For a short period, the US government helped Mexico spray its fields with the herbicide paraquat to kill pot plants in the early 1970s in an effort to curtail use. In March 1978, 33 percent of marijuana samples found in the US were found to be contaminated with the chemical, a known pulmonary toxin.

But even then, the hypocrisy was already beginning to unravel. I remember reading about a 20-something-yearold man named Robert

Randall, who, after years of court battles, won the right to have the US government supply him with marijuana to keep him from going blind back in the 1970s.

Randall’s eye doctor had given him the unfortunate news that severe glaucoma would render him unable to see by age 30. After smoking a joint, he noted that the halos he usually saw around streetlights, a symptom of his disease, had disappeared. He started self-medicating and working with his ophthalmologist, who noted that cannabis was lessening the glaucoma symptoms. He began growing his own plants, and in 1975 was arrested after a search warrant was executed on his property. Instead of pleading guilty to a misdemeanor possession charge, Randall challenged the government, arguing that he was forced to break the law to keep from going

blind. And he won. When he found that the feds were growing marijuana on a farm in Mississippi, he demanded that the government supply him with marijuana to keep his disease in check, and Randall became the first recipient of the shortlived Compassionate Investigational New Drug program, which supplied him with a tin filled with 300 hand-rolled joints every month for many years. The label on the bottle: “Smoke as directed.”

When Randall died in 2001 at age 53 of AIDS-related complications, he still had his sight. So marijuana was as bad as heroin, the

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government was telling us, unless you had glaucoma. Did they think we weren’t paying attention because we were all as stupid as Cheech & Chong were pretending to be when in character?

Ah, and then there were the Reagan years. Ronald Reagan, the handsome former actor and corporate spokesperson, became president in 1980 and reinstated the goal of zero tolerance for all drug users and sellers. Richard Nixon reborn, Reagan demonized marijuana much as he did communism, calling for a nationwide crusade “to rid America of this scourge.”

The dope jokes were running thin, but Cheech & Chong’s string of hit films after 1978’s Up in Smoke coincided with the

who could forget President Bill Clinton claiming that he never inhaled?

Still, attitudes toward legalization began to change in the 1990s, as the numbers of people incarcerated for cannabis continued to rise, and states, beginning with California in 1996, petitioned to allow cannabis for medical purposes.

sophisticated gadgetry, mandatory sentencing, and harsher punishments, the government hasn’t been able to stop anybody who really wants to from using cannabis.

Reagan years and found another eager generation, this one the recipients of Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” and the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) abstinence campaigns. I’m always reminded of those two failures every time I attend a cannabis function, since many of the brightest people in the modern cannabis industry grew up in the clutches of those programs.

If anything, President George H. Bush was even worse, hiring William Bennett, a compulsive gambler and nicotine addict, as his first Drug Czar.

“The white middle-class user needs to be coerced, needs to be told that his behavior won’t be tolerated,” Bennett once said. He still believes that. And

Undaunted, the DEA, unable to stop the flow of cannabis into the country from our borders, targeted American growers, unwittingly leading to cannabis becoming the largest cash crop in America. On several occasions, the government went after paraphernalia shops. During one of those, 2003’s Operation Pipe Dreams, Tommy Chong was arrested and served nine months in prison.

The New Normal

The fact is, as Cheech & Chong continue to remind us, that humans are always going to find ways to change their consciousness. Always have, always will. The War on Drugs has been extremely effective at putting Americans, especially minorities, behind bars. (In 2017, 659,700 Americans were arrested for marijuana offenses.) But despite endless cash, “Just Say No” and D.A.R.E. campaigns, zealous border patrols,

More than 30 states allow some kind of medical marijuana, and nine states and the District of Columbia allow adults over 21 to purchase cannabis. More than 200 million Americans have access to legal marijuana. Celebrity brands are growing, with Tommy’s Choice among them.

Chong, who turned 80 in May, has never been the character he plays on stage and screen, and he says he’s pretty much a one-toker these days. Almost as many people recognize him from his appearances on television’s Dancing with the Stars as from his routines with Marin. “It’s pretty funny having young fans come over and grab the old stoner for a selfie,” he says, grinning.

Daves not here

He and Marin do about two months worth of live gigs every year, many of them in casinos, he says. The Cheech & Chong act has transformed from a series of skits about stoners into a kind of a play. It’s somehow still comforting to know that Dave’s still here.

420 FAVES WITH MOONALICE GUITARIST ROGER MCNAMEE

Favorite munchies: medjool dates

Favorite music to get high to: Beatles, Grateful Dead

Favorite 420 anthems: “It’s 4:20 Somewhere” and “Am I High?”

Am I High?

Bay area psychedelic pioneers of pot and merrymaking musicianship, Moonalice rolls out a fun 420 cover song in time for our fave green holiday.

TEXT JEN BERNSTEIN

downloads, it’s defi nitely worth revisiting Moonalice’s original “It’s 4:20 Somewhere,” which has been downloaded over 4.6 million times.

LESTER AND DYLAN CHAMBERS

Favorite munchie:

Lester and Dylan both love making peanut butter sandwiches with sliced fruit. Go-to fruits are bananas and blackberries.

Favorite music to get high to: psychedelic and soul

Favorite Moonalice songs: “Time, Love Peace & Happiness”, “People Get Ready” and “Yes, We Can, Can.”

Harkening sounds reminiscent of “jazz cigarette” days and reefer madness, the inimitable, psychedelic rock 10-piece band Moonalice comes barreling at our earholes this April 20 with a special green holiday cover of Asleep At the Wheel’s “Am I High?” that’s sure to tickle funny bones and incite some giggles.

“Am I High?” questions just that — is it

possible and most likely probable that it was the booze or the blow that caused the vocalist to experience “rubberized legs”? Crooning the swanky and soul-felt bridges is OG writer/ composer Ray Benson (founder of the eighttime-Grammy-winning Asleep At the Wheel).

No strangers to supporting the cannabis movement, Moonalice have been active and ad-

vocating for legalization in what feels like forever, having performed their fi rst concert at a medical marijuana benefit in 2007.

Moonalice also holds the title of being the fi rst band to livestream concerts on Facebook Live … and the fi rst band without a label to achieve one million downloads of a song from its own servers. While “Am I High?” is sure to garner a lot of

By the fi nal tokes, I mean notes of “Am I High?” you’ll be exhaling ecstatically and feeling just as lifted as the moon, Alice!

Check out the free download here: Be sure to follow Moonalice on all their heady tours n trips down the road here: moonalice.com

PHOTOS BY BOB MINKIN