Sensi Colorado October 2021 by Sensi Magazine

LEAF411

The non-profit pot hotline

C O LO R A D O OCTOBER 2021

WORK FROM HERE The wide and winding road of the digital nomad

THE WONDER OF DOGS Why we love them so much

MODERN-DAY MUSE

A new musician for the new era

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Thank You! TO OUR INCREDIBLE FAMILY & COMMUNITY

FOR EVERYTHING YOU DO! TO OUR CUSTOMERS

I want to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU. I appreciate your support during these uncertain times while we work to keep our stores safe, clean, shelves stocked, and open. The Maggie’s Family has been humbled by the kindness you continue to show us, and more importantly, to each other.

TO OUR ASSOCIATES

I am astonished with your operational excellence and grateful for you, you are the real heroes in this story! Your commitment to Maggie’s Farm and our communities is absolutely inspiring. From our Support Staff to our Farmers and all of our Retail Associates working on the front lines, we couldn’t do what we do without you, THANK YOU. After 10 great years in business, we know we can get through any challenge together. Bill Conkling & Your Maggie’s Farm Family

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COLORADO SENSI MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2021

sensimediagroup @sensimagazine @sensimag

FEATURE

Lessons of a Digital Nomad Here’s what we learned from living on the go—and what we would change if we did it again.

DEPARTMENTS

15 EDITOR’S NOTE 46 THE SCENE Hot happenings and hip hangouts around town 18 THE BUZZ NEW AMERICAN MYTH News, tips, and tidbits to keep you in the loop DIAL LEAF411 This hotline answers all your cannabis questions. SWEET SIPPER Ceria Brewing is breaking ground with cannabisinfused non-alcoholic beer. BIG BUDS Black Dog’s LEDs do the trick. SOOTHE MOVE Stratos brings CBD-salve relief. PACK IT UP Meet the perfect joint carrier. SENSIBILITIES Our editor finds friendship in fear.

Here’s a peek into the process of musician Lillian Seibert, aka Lillian and the Muses.

56 THE END Lifetonic is pioneering a brand-new, totally novel method of cannabis extraction.

ON THE COVER

The life of a digital nomad is not always this easy. PHOTOS VIA ADOBE STOCK

26 THE LIFE Contributing to your

health and happiness THE WONDER OF DOGS For

many of us, a life without animal companions would be a lesser life.

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ADVISORY BOARD

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

MICHIGAN Aronoff Law (Craig Aronoff) Licensing Law Firm Cannabis Counsel Cannabis Law Firm Etz Chaim Attestations Grapp Lerash Accounting/CPA Services Great Lakes Natural Remedies Lakeshore: Provisioning Center Kush Design Studio Cannabis Facility Design & Build MRB Solutions Human Resources Northern Specialty Health Upper Peninsula: Provisioning Center Oh, Hello Branding Promotional Marketing Perry & Drummy Inc. Commercial Insurance Pure West Compassion Club Caregiver Connection & Network Rair Medical Flower Solutions by Dr. Dave West Michigan: Hemp CBD Helping Friendly Hemp Company Hemp Topicals NEVADA Eden Water Technologies Water System Technologies Green Leaf Money Canna Business Finanacing GreenHouse Payment Solutions Payment Processing Ideal Business Partners Corporate Law & Finance Jupiter Research Inhalatation Hardware Matrix NV Premium Live Resin Red Rock Fertility Fertility Doctor Rokin Vapes Vape Technology This Stuff Is Good For You CBD Bath and Body

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA 365 Recreational Cannabis Dispensary: Recreational, Santa Rosa Green Unicorn Farms CBD Hemp Flower Humboldt Grow Tech Smart Ag Tech Red Door Remedies Dispensary: Cloverdale Southern Humboldt Royal Cannabis Company Mixed Light Farming Sonoma Patient Group Dispensary: Santa Rosa Strictly Topical Inc./Sweet ReLeaf Pain Relief Topicals Uleva Hemp Products Vaper Tip Vape Supply & Consulting Wana Brands Edible Gummies SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Accucanna LLC Desert Hot Springs: Dispensary EventHI Events Flourish Software Distribution Management Helmand Valley Growers Company Medical Infrastructure Specialist HUB International Insurance Hybrid Payroll / Ms. Mary Staffing Staffing & HR Benefits Ikänik Farms Cannabis Distribution Red Rock Fertility Fertility Doctor Wana Brands Edible Gummies Witlon Payroll

NEW ENGLAND Corners Packaging Packaging Green Goddess Supply Personal Homegrown Biochamber The Holistic Center Medical Marijuana Evaluations Revolutionary Clinics Medical Dispensary Royal Gold Soil Tess Woods Public Relations Public Relations Vantage Builders Construction

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EDITORIAL

Stephanie Wilson Co-Founder + Editor in Chief stephanie.wilson@sensimag.com Doug Schnitzspahn Executive Editor Tracy Ross Managing Editor, Michigan Emilie-Noelle Provost Managing Editor, New England Debbie Hall Managing Editor, Nevada Jenny Willden Managing Editor, California Will Brendza Managing Editor, Colorado Robyn Griggs Lawrence Editor at Large Radha Marcum Copy Editor Bevin Wallace Copy Editor

EXECUTIVE

Ron Kolb Founder ron@sensimag.com Stephanie Graziano CEO stephanie.graziano@sensimag.com Jade Kolb Director Sales Operations and Global Recruiting ADVERTISING

Toni Tardif National Sales Director PUBLISHING

Jamie Cooper Market Director, Michigan Richard Guerra Market Director, New England

DESIGN

Nancy Birnbaum Market Director, NorCal

Jamie Ezra Mark Creative Director jamie@emagency.com Rheya Tanner Art Director Wendy Mak Designer Josh Clark Designer

Diana Ramos Market Director, Oklahoma

BRAND DEVELOPMENT

Richard Guerra Director of Global Reach Amanda Patrizi Director of Marketing Neil Willis Production Director MEDIA PARTNERS

Marijuana Business Daily Minority Cannabis Business Association National Cannabis Industry Association Students for Sensible Drug Policy

Nancy Reid Market Director, Florida MEDIA SALES

COLORADO Liana Cameris Media Sales Executive Amanda Patrizi Media Sales Executive Tyler Tarr Media Sales Executive FLORIDA Anthony Mckenzie Media Sales Executive NEVADA Pam Hewitt Media Sales Executive NEW ENGLAND Jake Boynton Media Sales Executive MICHIGAN Eric Lutey Media Sales Executive Kyle Miller Media Sales Executive Leah Stephens Media Sales Executive

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Magazine published monthly by Sensi Media Group LLC.

When “Amendment 64” passed in Colorado, I, for one,

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had no idea how much of an impact it was going to have on my life. And I don’t just mean that in the sense that cannabis is legal now and I can buy it in a store. I mean, when I voted for that counterculture piece of legislation almost a decade ago, I certainly didn’t appreciate the wave of change that was about to wash over this state. I didn’t understand that cannabis was about to become a cornerstone of our economy—that it would explode as a thriving industry that would touch almost every Colorado city. I had no clue it would become a driving force of culture and a fuel for this new era in the place I’d called home my entire life. And I certainly didn’t realize it was going to nudge me into a career of my own. That was nine years ago. You could say things are different in the state now. But it’s still, at its core, the same old Colorado it always was. It’s just even more colorful than it used to be: it’s “bluer” and “greener” in all the right places, and it’s getting more diverse by the day. I won’t make the case that it isn’t busier, and some of the things I miss are now gone. But at the same time, there’s no way I could ever make the case that the choice to legalize cannabis recreationally here made life worse. Life has changed mostly in good ways. In my own case, I’ve gotten to cover almost every kind of cannabis event or topic you could think of: Cannabis 101 classes for senior citizens, cannabis cooking classes, cannabis tastings, cannabis massage classes, cannabis business functions, and cannabis activist rallies. I’ve met scientists who sent cannabis to grow on the ISS, I’ve talked with hemp farmers who gave up high-paying high-ranking corporate jobs to make CBD because they saw how it stopped their mother’s epileptic seizures, and I’ve interviewed local Denver “criminals” who wasted decades of their childhood rotting behind bars for getting caught with the same substance I was privileged enough to use, legally, afterward. That’s all to say I’m grateful for what’s been happening in Colorado since 2012. I’m grateful that cannabis is being normalized and that it’s benefitting so many people in so many different ways—medicinally, recreationally, financially, peripherally. And, I’m excited to be the new Colorado managing editor here at Sensi magazine. I’m excited to continue helping move this needle (one local article at a time) toward a brighter, greener future—to help elevate people and cultivate our Colorado community. We’ve bought the ticket and we’re on the ride—let’s see how far we can take it.

I’m excited to continue helping move this needle one local article at a time toward a brighter greener future

Will Brendza @juanwilder

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Fully Realized Plant Factories One of the biggest challenges any grower in the cannabis industry faces today is consistency. Tiny changes in variables like humidity, temperature, and the spectrums of light to which plants are exposed can create drastic differences in the end product—even between clones from the same mother plant. But, thanks to Agri18

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fy, that might not be such a challenge for much longer. Agrify’s highly engineered and uniquely designed vertical farming units (VFUs) not only allow growers to achieve extreme consistency—in perfectly controlled grow units— but they improve product yield and potency as well. You get better weed, and more of it, consis-

tently. Agrify calls its VFUs “fully realized plant factories”—they’re completely independent hardware units that are remote controllable, automatable, and offer insights and real-time updates for cultivators. And, of course, they’re stackable, which means a grow can double or triple its potential grow area with these units.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF AGRIFY

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CONTRIBUTOR

PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP) COURTESY OF LEAF411, WILL BRENDZA, CERIA BREWING

Will Brendza

Colorado’s Non-Profit “Pot-Line”—Leaf411 When Katherine Golden and Jennifer Axcell were working at a cannabis clinician’s office in Colorado, they realized there was a staggering amount of disinformation floating around out there. Wouldn’t it be great, they thought, if there was a hotline where people could talk to cannabis-trained nurses like themselves, and get real answers to real questions? Wouldn’t it help people better understand the real effects, benefits, uses, and risks of cannabis? Nothing like it existed—so they created it. Dial Leaf411 any time of the day, and you’ll be connected with a knowledgeable cannabis-trained nurse who can answer any cannabis question (or any health question generally), no matter how absurd or complicated.

BY THE NUMBERS

68 PERCENT The decrease in marijuana arrests made in Colorado between 2012 and 2019 SOURCE: cdpsdocs.state.co

500 The number of ghost towns scattered across Colorado

SOURCE: filmincolorado.com

8.3 MILLION The number of acres of public land in Colorado SOURCE: blm.gov

CONCENTRATE ON WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY TO YOURSELF AND YOUR FRIENDS. FOLLOW YOUR INNER MOONLIGHT; DON’T HIDE THE MADNESS. YOU SAY WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY WHEN YOU DON’T CARE WHO’S LISTENING.” —Allen Ginsberg, poet, author, beatnik

222

Wildlife areas in the state of Colorado SOURCE: filmincolorado.com

BREAKING BREW GROUND Keith Villa was on the forefront of the craft-beer explosion in Colorado—and now he might be at the forefront of the craft-THC-beer explosion, too. Years ago, he worked for Coors as a brewing scientist, where he created Blue Moon Belgian white ale. The beer was a hit, and it helped a lot of beer drinkers realize just how much craft beer had to offer. Now, Villa is doing it again—only this time, he’s on his own. And this time, instead of alcohol, he’s brewing his beers with THC and CBD. His new business, Ceria Brewing, is breaking ground with its cannabisinfused nonalcoholic beers: Grainwave, a Belgianstyle white ale brewed with blood orange peel and coriander (5mg THC); and new Indiewave, an India pale ale (10mg THC). Villa also just authored a book, called Brewing with Cannabis: Using THC and CBD in Beer, full of cannabis beer recipes like Belgian-style tripels, IPA brown ales, and even peanut butter porters and hard seltzers. The book also describes regulatory compliance, cannabinoid and terpene effects, and agronomy. If you want to try your hand at home brewing some cannabis-infused beer, there is currently no better resource out there to guide you.

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THE BUZZ

VOX POPULI

Question: What are you up to this fall?

RACHEL LAUX

ARLO CARPENTER

SHELBY MARTIN

DOUG FENSKE

ALLY FEILER

Account Manager Boulder

Quality technician at Kiewit, drummer extraordinaire Denver

Holistic nutritionist, Crossfit champion Broomfield

Distribution manager at Bonfire Brewing Eagle

Founder/Owner/CEO, Green Tree Medicinals Berthoud

___________________

I will be celebrating the autumn equinox with a hike and labyrinth meditation in Louisville.

I plan to spend the majority of the fall fly fishing. I am also planning a trip to Wisconsin to visit family and friends for the first time since the emergence of COVID-19.

Focusing on Green Treets, an innovative line of goal-focused products that are proven to be consistently effective, like our Focus Gummies and our Sleep Chocolates.

___________________

___________________ I’m starting a brand new That sounds like a job, getting weird in loaded question. Portland for Halloween with my best friends, seeing Leon Bridges, celebrating my favorite people’s 30th birthdays and continuing to explore backcountry skiing.

PHOTOS ( FROM LEFT) COURTESY OF BLACK DOG, STRATOS

BLACK DOGS, BRIGHT Stratos Soothe(ER) LIGHTS, BIG BUDS is Bett(ER) Kevin Frender has been obsessed with agriculture for as long as he can remember. It’s been a lifelong passion of his. If you venture into his basement, you’ll find over 400 different species of plants—from tropical fruit trees to carnivorous flowers and hydrangeas. Today he’s developing Black Dog’s hightech LEDs, which are some of the best on the market for indoor growing—be it personal or commercial, fruit trees or cannabis plants. Black Dog’s PhytoMAX2 LEDs allow growers like Frender to dial in light spectrums to perfectly match growing seasons and maximize their size and yield while minimizing stem and leaf size. They’re also very energy efficient, which isn’t just good for a cultivator’s wallet, but for the environment at large. And to top that all off, they don’t run as hot as most grow lights, meaning growers can vertically stack them (since the bulbs won’t burn the plant like traditional fluorescent bulbs), doubling or tripling potential home-grow or pro-grow output. blackdogled.com

Sometimes it’s hard to tell when a CBD salve works. Sometimes you slather that stuff all over and sit there wondering if there’s anything actually to it, or, if it’s all just some placebo scam. But not with the Stratos Soothe(ER). This medicinal salve contains 300mg of CBD, 300 mg of THC, and arnica essential oil, black pepper oil, clove oil, helichrysum oil, lemon oil, peppermint oil, and wintergreen essential oil. So it smells great and feels even better. Apply to sore joints and muscles pre- or post-workout, or bring it into a massage and let your masseuse go to town with it. No matter how you use Soothe(ER), you’ll feel noticeable relief and experience significantly faster recovery. stratosthc.com

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THE BUZZ

BILITIES BY STEPHANIE WILSON, EDITOR IN CHIEF

1 STOP ME IF YOU’VE HEARD THIS STORY: The first time I ever got high, I went to a haunted house.

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Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.” —Edward Abbey, writer, journalist, anarcho-environmentalist.

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had a last name pronounced doo-bie.

3 MS. DOOBIE [NOT HOW IT’S REALLY SPELLED] had borrowed her mom’s car that night and picked up me and two other girls on the way to the haunted house on the other side of town. On the way there, one of the girls convinced her to pull off into a cul-de-sac so her three passengers could smoke a joint in the woods all stealth-like—my puff-puff right of passage.

4 THE HAUNTED HOUSE IN OUR TOWN WAS NO JOKE. Kids and adults alike would line up at the spooky house on the hill outside of town to be subjected to fits of terror. Whether they knew it or not, they were there to get high on fear.

5 WHEN YOU EXPERIENCE FEAR, your body’s natural fightor-flight response triggers the release of endorphins and dopamine into your system. When that happens in a safe environment (like a haunted house or while watching a scary movie), the pleasure response is heightened even further. That’s why safe-but-still-so-scary attractions exist: We’re just seeking our next dopamine hit. 6 IN MY FIRST-TIME-HIGH STATE, my inhibitions were lowered and my guards were down. I let myself be scared—terrified—at every turn, as did my friends, and the three of us found ourselves huddled in a pile together in the corner of one dark room at the end of the tour, giggling and crying good tears, and giggling some more.

7 TURNS OUT, getting safely scared with friends is a bonding experience. Science says so, as does my anecdotal experience: Twenty-five years later, those two girls remain my bestest of friends, although I don’t know whatever happened to the girl named Doobie.

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The Wonder Of Dogs For many of us, a life without animal companions would be a lesser life. TEXT LELAND RUCKER

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PHOTO BY RITA KOCHMARJOVA, ADOBE STOCK

I had a dog once that played music. Really. Any time my friend Gil and I got out our guitars, Ricky grabbed a squeaky toy, planted himself between us, and started making noise. He had no sense of time or rhythm—it was pure skronking jazz—but this Belgian Tervuren was into the music. Whenever he heard the Cheers theme on TV, he began, uh, singing along. We have many audio tapes, but alas, no video of him while he wailed. He would be a viral sensation today. It’s been more than 20 years since Ricky died, but I think about him a lot. I think often about all the dogs that have graced my life. No other canine has shown any degree of musical aptitude, though I have tried mightily. But each one has been a good friend, and each has taught me something about myself. I couldn’t live without a dog. They are my companions, friends, and teachers. Humans, especially Americans, are animal crazy. As of 2018, according to Statista, a statistics portal for market data, 60 percent of US households included a dog, and 47 million had a cat. That’s 80 to 90 million dogs, give or take a

few million. Many have both, and that doesn’t count the multitude of fish, rabbits, ferrets, iguanas, snakes, birds, guinea pigs, mice, hamsters, and other animals we keep. Maybe we’re not all Leona Helmsley, the hotelier who left most of her inheritance to Trouble, a Maltese who lived in luxury until she died at age 12, yet we managed to spend almost $70 billion on our companion animals in 2017, half of that on food and treats, and we’re on target to spend more this year. I was afraid of dogs as a child and grew up with the general belief that non-human animals— we are all animals, after all—acted solely by instinct. The difference between humans and other animals, we were told, is that we humans are sentient, conscious, emotional beings, and other animals aren’t. Animals belong to us, the reasoning went. Not being around them, I didn’t give it much thought until I got my first dog at age 27. I’ve never been without one since. A big part of the disconnect about whether animals are conscious beings is that they can’t tell us what or how they’re feeling or how O C TO B E R 2021

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PHOTO BY RITA KOCHMARJOVA, ADOBE STOCK

THE LIFE

intelligent they are in a language that, as smart as we are, we can understand. Their “intelligence,” such as it is, might not resemble ours, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. It’s not hard to find YouTube videos that show ravens and crows making complex decisions to get food. Border collies have been trained to distinguish between hundreds of words. Watching the famous video of Robin Williams and Koko the ape interacting, it’s hard not to suggest they are showing genuine empathy for each other while rubbing each other’s bellies and laughing. We can put GoPros on their heads to see the world from their point of view, and The New York Times reported recently that a canine researcher

is performing MRIs on dogs to try to see inside their brains, but there is still no way we can experience life as animals do. That’s a secret they keep to themselves, and it drives us crazy. When I once suggested to a researcher in Yellowstone it would be cool to be inside a coyote’s brain for five minutes, he replied that he would give anything for just one second inside there. Dominion vs. Domination The way we look at animals has changed a lot, especially over the last 50 years, and we are finally coming to terms with animal sentience, or at least the concept that animals have feelings, too. The Biblical injunction comes early, in its first chapter. “And

superior species, and we are allowed to do what we want,” he says. “But dominion doesn’t mean domination.” Religion has played its role, he explains, in passages like the one above that claim only humans have souls. “Another reason is that if you distance yourself from other animals,” Bekoff says, “it allows you to do what you want.” This kind of detachment allows us to control animals, whether God said, ‘Let us make that means shooting man in our image, after them for trophies, keepour likeness,’” Geneing them in zoos, or prosis 1:26 reads. “And let ducing them for research them have dominion purposes. “In terms of over the fish of the sea, industry, you can unand over the fowl of the derstand where people air, and over the cattle, come from,” Bekoff says. and over all the earth, Allowing that animals and over every creeping have feelings changes thing that creepeth upon that dynamic considerthe earth.” ably and begs even more That one word in questions. there—dominion—has That humans are proved problematic. unique was accepted What does dominion dogma for most of hureally mean? Does it man history. Charles mean we humans must Jonkel, the recently exert control over all deceased bear bioloother creatures or be gist, grew up poor but their caretakers? Marc learned to trap and hunt Bekoff is an ethologist at an early age as part (someone who studies of a subsistence famthe science of animal ily. When he went to behavior) and research- school in the 1950s, bear er who has been workbiology was a relatively ing with animals his new field. Jonkel already entire life. “A lot of this knew a thing or two is driven from the view about animal behavthat as humans we are a ior, but he also knew to O C TO B E R 2021

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THE LIFE

PHOTOS (FROM TOP) BY ALEKSANDR MATVEEV; POLOLIA, ADOBE STOCK

CBD 4 K9s CBD is all the rage these days—and not only for humans. More and more veterinarians are learning about this compound and are now suggesting it to their canine patients for pain relief, anxiety and behavior issues, and inflammation, especially in older dogs. A clinical study from Cornell released earlier this year suggests that CBD oil can help increase comfort for dogs with osteoarthritis. My local humane society now stocks CBD products, and my vet says she hasn’t found any real downsides, although she suggests talking with a doctor about medications the dog might already be taking before starting a CBD protocol. There are lots of choices, but one place to start might be Mary’s Whole Pet, a new farm-to-table line from Mary’s Medicinals and Elite Botanicals. All plants used for the oil are grown on an organic, chemical- and pesticide-free family farm in Colorado, and the list of products includes drops (in two potencies based on weight), capsules of different dosages, and a transdermal gel pen for fast-acting relief for dry skin, cracked nose or paws, or surface wounds. One warning: THC, the compound generally associated with the cannabis high, should never be given to dogs. Keep your edible products away from your canine companions. Because it’s federally illegal, no scientific tests have been done on dosage levels for animals. As suggested with humans, start low and go slow to find the right dose. And always remember that every animal is different; what works for some won’t work for others.

keep his opinions about animal intelligence and sensitivity to himself because, as he explained it, that wouldn’t help get you a degree. In those days, he said, you didn’t talk about that kind of stuff out loud, and it wasn’t until he graduated that he was able to pursue his real studies. Bekoff has worked with and written books with Jane Goodall, perhaps the best-known ethologist for her work with apes. When they started writing about animal sentience, they ran into the same kind of resistance for questioning established beliefs. “For a long time, Jane and I were kinda sideshows,” he admits. “We got heavily criticized for talking about the emotional lives of animals. But I basically really believed in what I was doing and kept doing it.” Bekoff ’s view of dominion has more to do with stewardship than domination, based around the concept that humans, the dominant species, are charged with taking care of what we have. And though humans might consider themselves more intelligent than animals, we really have to try and see things from the animal’s perspective. “It’s not how smart an individual

animal is, it’s what they feel,” Bekoff says. “We’re all smart in some ways, but there are different types of intelligence. Rats are really smart. Maybe not as smart as humans, but they have emotional lives just the same.” Companion Animals What does this have to do with the way we interact with our dogs? I scoffed originally when the city of Boulder, Colorado, changed the word “owner” to “guardian” in its ordinances almost two decades ago. It’s nothing more than a symbolic gesture, one of those “only in Boulder” things, I told myself, agreeing with a city attorney who at the time called it “social engineering.” I have since come to appreciate the distinction. Ownership, as noted above, suggests that you can do whatever the hell you want, and, at its worst leads to behavior that obliterates all distinctions and leads to atrocities like dog- or cockfighting. Thinking of yourself as a guardian instead of an owner suggests a different way to approach your responsibility toward your animal companions. One of the best places to learn about dog behavior is dog parks, the O C TO B E R 2021

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THE LIFE

fastest growing segment of city parks these days. Most major US cities have at least one, and they have become a kind of a cultural phenomenon. In his new book, Canine Confidential: Why Dogs Do What They Do, Bekoff says dog parks are like rich petri dishes of dog culture, working classrooms for human/ canine understanding and citizen science on the subject. “They’re gold mines for learning about both dogs and people,” he writes. “Visits can serve as myth breakers or icebreakers. For hours on end, the interactions never stop: dogs are watching dogs, people

are watching dogs, dogs are watching people, and people are watching one another as they care for, play with, and try to manage their dogs.” I’ve spent some time in dog parks in the last few years, and Canine Confidential, which is written in a casual, conversational style, reinforces the things I’m learning and pushes me to learn even more. “Life is very vivid to animals. In many cases, they know who they are,” says Carl Safina, whose Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel is a scientific and observational study of elephant, wolf, and whale interaction and societies. “They

know who their friends are and who their rivals are. They have ambitions for higher status. They compete. Their lives follow the arc of a career, like ours do.” Thinking about animals in that context provides a much better way to look at my dog. Rather than drag her away when she wants to spend time sniffing at a certain spot or chastising her every time she gets into a scuffle, I try to see it from her point of view. It’s taken me a long time to realize that, if we just allow them, dogs can be our teachers and not just our pets. We can learn a lot from them. I have had an exceptional-

ly difficult time with my dogs’ deaths. But I have also come to realize that, hard as they are, those deaths are a reminder that life is precious and that grieving is a part of it, too. It’s their final lesson for us, and it’s a big one. Though I’m still looking for another dog that can make music like Ricky, I’ve learned that every dog is unique and special in its own way. We have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go, and it can never come too quickly for Bekoff. “The bottom line,” he says, “is that if we’re going to make change, we need to recognize sentience.” O C TO B E R 2021

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LESSONS FROM THE UNEASY HIGHWAY

PHOTOS OF AIRSTREM BY LEE STONEHOUSE

What I learned as a digital nomad—and what I’ll do differently next time.

from San Francisco, and families from Seattle—younger adults with full-time jobs and no interest in pickleball or water aerobics. Watching the rain pelt the couple next to me as they wrestle with their sewer lines, all I can think about is how these new nomads (“newmads”) are going to make finding a place to park the Flying Cloud—already next to impossible because RV infrastructure hasn’t kept up with the number of vehicles on the road—impossible. Even before this influx, reservations at state parks and desirable RV resorts needed to be made months in advance. It’s the week after Memorial Day. I’m screwed. On the radio, Kenny Loggins sings “Celebrate Me Home,” a ballad lamenting the uneasy highway.

PHOTO COURTESY OUTSITE.CO

My summer gig on Orcas Island just fell apart after a week. I don’t know where to go. I’ve parked my Airstream at the Deerwood RV Resort on the outskirts of Eugene, Oregon, so I can figure things out. It’s raining. I know that’s what it does here, but every drop feels personal. I’ve been on the road for two years, traveling from San Diego to the San Juans, with detours to Spain and Mexico and Michigan and a few stops to see my kids in Denver. I’m gritty. Campgrounds have just reopened after the early pandemic lockdowns. A startling number of Cruise America rentals are filing into Deerwood, tentatively driven (and more tentatively parked) by a whole new class of RVer: techies from Silicon Valley, gay couples

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PHOTOS (FROM TOP) COURTESY OF AIRBNB; BY MARTAKLOS VIA ADOBE STOCK

As I sing along, “and I never know where I belong,” I start crying. I don’t want to do this anymore—ricocheting from place to place; retreating to hotels and Airbnbs when living in a trailer gets claustrophobic, then moving back into the trailer when other people’s rules get claustrophobic; bunking with friends to ward off loneliness; falling in love with other people’s dogs and having to leave them. I need a home to go home to again. I’ll sell the trailer to one of these newmads and settle down near my kids for a while. Think about what mortgage I’d been paying on an just happened. Figure out how I’ll appreciating home in Boulder. A Sprinter van would have givdo this better next time. en me a lot more freedom and Here’s what I know. mobility, and I hope to try one I WON’T BUY ANOTHER for an extended trip (they’re too AIRSTREAM (OR ANY RV). small for me to live in full time, This is hard to admit, because my though lots of people do). I can nomad dreams were so wrapped rent one for somewhere between up in romantic ideas about tour$70 and $700 a night, meaning I ing around in an Airstream, but could journey for two weeks in a the shiny trailer never sparked the basic wagon for around $1,000 or kind of joy it should have for all the most tricked-out, badass mothe money it cost—and kept on bile out there for about $10,000. costing—in aftermarket products, Either way, I’ll spend a fraction of ongoing maintenance, licensing, what it would cost me to buy, outinsurance, gas (my truck avefit, license, insure, and maintain a raged about 13 mpg when haulvan of my own. ing), and hookups at campgrounds and RV resorts (when I’LL EXPLORE CO-LIVING. I could get them). On the West RVing wasn’t for me, but I did like Coast, the minimum per night in a how easy it was to meet people campground where I felt safe was in RV parks and campgrounds. $55, and the nicest parks run well There’s instant community when over $100 a night. When I was travelers circle their wagons (and lucky enough to book a parking there’s a hot tub). I didn’t realize spot for a month, it cost around how much I needed that camara$1,600—about the same as the derie until I spent a month in an

Airbnb on Bankers Hill in San Diego, where I knew no one. I made a couple unsuccessful attempts to connect with humans—a coworking space, Tinder—and spent a lot of time alone. (Loneliness, it should be noted, is consistently the number-one thing that causes digital nomads to give it up and go back home.) O C TO B E R 2021

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Digital Newmads

My mood and perspective changed completely when I moved to a co-living house on the beach in Encinitas, the surfer paradise just north of San Diego. I got to chat with fellow travelers over coffee in the morning and share sunsets with them in the evening, and everyone was respectful of each other’s work needs during the day. It felt like college again, but with people who have been to cool places and done inspiring things. As more people discover co-living, its popularity has soared— even through the pandemic. Rates at Outsite and other companies that offer private and shared rooms in houses around the world have skyrocketed since I stayed in early 2020 (like everything, I guess). Coliving.com, a sort of Airbnb for co-living houses, offers some more-affordable options.

I’LL STAY LONGER IN FEWER PLACES. In two years, I spent a week or more in 24 locations. That’s not 40

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the way to do this. According to a survey conducted this year by the website A Brother Abroad (abrotherabroad.com), digital nomads overwhelmingly prefer to stay in one place for about six months at a time. Longer stays let you relax and get to know a place, embed in the community. They’re also easier on the body (travel takes its toll), a lot more conducive to getting work done, and more affordable (long-term stays are cheaper, and getting from place to place always costs something.) I’m working through my commitment issues. Next time, I’ll stop and stay a while.

I’LL BUDGET. I recently read the average digital nomad spends $1,875 per month, or $22,500 per year—and I was incredulous. I consistently spent double that, sometimes triple in expensive California. I wasn’t prepared for how much everything cost. Next time, I’ll be more responsible. It’s not that

PHOTO BY HALFPOINT VIA ADOBE STOCK

Digital nomads (aka digital gypsies) are people who use technology to do their jobs from anywhere on the planet. According to the Jerusalem Post, you have to move locations at least three times in a year to qualify. And workers are doing it in increasing numbers. • The number of digital nomads in America has gone up by 49 percent, from 7.3 million in 2019 to 10.9 million in mid2020, a study by Emergent Research and MBO Partners found. • There are 35 million digital nomads of every nationality living and working across the globe, according to a 2021 survey by the website A Brother Abroad. • While vacation paradises from Anguilla to Bermuda to Costa Rica to Dubai are all attempting to lure remote workers with year-long visas and incentives, Mexico is home to the most (14 percent), followed by Thailand and Portugal, A Brother Abroad found.

restrict their citizens’ rights, though, so I doubt I’ll ever check that box.

I’LL BRING MY OWN WI-FI.

hard—I don’t even have to learn QuickBooks. Apps like Destigogo and The Earth Awaits are available to help me calculate where I can afford to travel based on my time frame and how much money I have. Radical.

PHOTOS (FROM TOP) BY CMOPHOTO NET, PEGGY ANKE VIA UNSPLASH

I’LL GET MAIL SERVICE. I never got counted in the 2020 Census. I was having mail sent to a friend’s house in Boulder when it happened, and the letter with the code I needed to get counted online never made it to me. There was a lot going on at my friend’s house, and forwarding my mail wasn’t a priority. I get it. I chose to use my friend’s address not because I was worried about my mail—I pay my bills and do most transactions online anyway—but because of all the things attached to an address, from health insurance to vehicle and voter registration. I like having Colorado plates and voting in a blue state. But next time, I’ll spring for a professional mail service like PostScan Mail or Earth Class Mail

Finding reliable Wi-Fi is digital nomads’ number-one complaint. Being able to hotspot my phone was a lifesaver when I started traveling in 2018, but it never gave me all the bandwidth I needed to work and watch Netflix. I was constantly data starved. The good news is, portable Wito sort, scan, and shred my mail, Fi technology (like all technolothen send digital copies and forgy) has improved exponentially ward important documents (like over the past couple years, and the Census letter) and checks (I now I can buy a high-speed pormay have missed a few of those, table hotspot like the Skyroam too). Most of these companies are Solis, which can handle unlimited in Texas and South Dakota, which data and up to 10 devices. have low income tax rates and I’ll also research Wi-Fi speeds loose residency requirements, and before I plan an extended stay in they can also help me become a another country because some citizen of one of those states even don’t have the bare minimum to if I never live in them. I’m not support remote work, and this down with the way those states is beyond frustrating. The Digi-

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Specialize in Coloring and Razor cutting

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tal Nomad Index (circleloop.com/ nomadindex) and Nomad List (nomadlist.com) give good snapshots of global internet speeds, and provide a lot more info nomads need.

IMAGES VIA ADOBE STOCK

I’LL BRING MY OWN COFFEE. If coffee doesn’t matter to you, you can skip this section. (I’ll never understand you.) Too many times, while staying at Airbnbs or dog sitting or visiting friends, I found myself in a kitchen in the morning without a way to make coffee. It seems unfathomable to me, but apparently some people are not caffeine junkies and they overlook this morning ritual. I put together this kit to make sure I never have to wake up without caffeine again: • An Aeropress (a plastic tube with a plunger that makes an excellent cup of coffee) • A stainless steel reusable filter for Aeropress • A portable immersion heater (a

little clip you put inside a cup to heat water) • Ground coffee • Powdered milk (I like my coffee brown)

didn’t fit into my Airstream. That wasn’t entirely true. I stashed furniture with my kids and friends, and I had to rent a storage unit for the bins full of memorabilia and photographs I couldn’t let go. I cursed my sentimentality every I’LL BRING MY DOG. month when I paid that bill. My Catahoula died right before I Even after spending months hit the road. I borrowed a friend’s purging almost everything I toy poodle for the first leg of my owned, I still carried around journey, but when I had to give him back after four months, lone- things I didn’t need and never used, detritus that weighed liness set in. Not having a pet me down and cost me—in gas to makes traveling easier and gives haul my overstuffed trailer and in you more options—just watch baggage fees when I transferred how many available rental propclothes I never wore into a big erties drop out when you filter for “pets allowed”—but extended pink suitcase to travel by air. Everything I need to live my travel without a best friend was life, full stop, can fit into a carunbearable for me. The first thing I did when I land- ry-on suitcase and a backpack. That’s what I’ll take next time, ed in a home again was adopt a no matter where I go. Unencumsenior Shih Tzu. He’s grumpy but adaptable enough to travel. I’ll plan bered. No excuses. my next journey around his needs.

I’LL BRING LESS STUFF.

I’LL WORRY LESS, APPRECIATE MORE.

Before I set out, I bragged about getting rid of everything that

At least, I hope I will. I’m always working on this one.

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Lillian Seibert, aka Lillian and the Muses, is bending genres, combining Americana and hip hop to craft songs for a new sensibility. And in the midst of the pandemic, the Vermonter hit the road for California in search of endless spring, collaboration, and new visions. Here’s a peek into the process of a musician who is breaking ground for a generation on the rise. TEXT DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

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PHOTO BY GOLD WING PHOTOGRAPHY

New American Myth

PHOTO BY HOLY SMOKE PHOTOGRAPHY / HOLYSMOKEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

After drivinig 10,00 miles and spending three months on the road, Lilian Seibert found her muse—make that Muses. A musician, photographer, and videographer who was raised in rural Vermont and studied at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, the 24-year-old Seibert records and performs as Lillian and the Muses, but the pandemic hit the up-and-coming

talent hard, as it has so many performers. And like so many other musicians faced with the isolation of COVID-19, Seibert created art in the midst of it all. Lillian and the Muses combine song and sight; Siebert often sees the visual narratives of songs as she writes them. So the Vermonter headed to the sunny sands of Los Angeles to film videos of “Cigarettes” and “Devil

in the Details” from Lillian and the Muses new, eponymous EP. The plan was to collaborate with Alissa Lise Wyle, a friend from Berklee who creates as Holy Smoke Photography (holysmokephotography.com) and chase spring across a country slowly awakening from the pandemic (“Spring” is also the title of Lillian and the Muses first single, which features a video shot back home in Burlington, Vermont). So Seibert and her father converted a van, and she was off to California for a few months before chasing spring back to Vermont. O C TO B E R 2021

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Growin g the Industr y.

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PHOTOS BY HOLY SMOKE PHOTOGRAPHY / HOLYSMOKEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

THE SCENE

Lillian and the Muses may just be hitting the scene, but the music hinges on the crest of a wave of young artists who are not afraid to mash up genres. Trained in opera, Seibert centers herself in Americana and is influenced by a line of Green Mountain State stars she saw growing up, including Grace Potter and Anais Mitchell. But the new EP puts hip hop beats down under multi-layered vocals. It’s a unique sound representative of Gen Z’s streaming and genre-bending sensibilities but grounded enough to be an ear worm for any genera-

tion. Seibert took the time to talk to Sensi about her art, process, and, of course, muses. You are a musician, a photographer, and a videographer—how do the visual and the musical come together in what you do? I see them as intertwined. I can’t really have one without the other—at least in my mind. When I’m writing, I’m doing it from a place of a vision or a story, and, to do that, I need to be picturing it. So when we are making music videos, it’s a process of bringing that initial vision back to life. The video is very important to me—almost as much

as the music. I grew up with a lot of Americana and outlaw country, so I am heavily influenced by stuff like John Prine and the glam of Dolly Parton. Then there are current artists I’ve always been into like Rachael Price from Lake Street Drive and Lana Del Rey, and there’s a great Norwe-

gian singer Aurora who I really love. A lot of those groups focus on pretty dramatic retellings of music through a video. How do you think about transforming a song into a video? It usually takes the form of sitting down and listening to the song on repeat with my eyes closed until I can picture every second of every frame. Then I just write it down like a crazy person. I just start scribbling. I have a tendency to know exactly how I want the shot to be done because I’m familiar with lenses and framing. So I usually come in with an O C TO B E R 2021

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THE SCENE

You are a videographer yourself, but you hired LA-based Alissa Lise Wyle of Holy Smoke Photography to make videos for the songs “Cigarettes” and “Devil in the Details” from your new EP. Why? So this is funny. Alissa and I have completely opposite styles when it comes to video. But I absolutely adore that; it’s why I hired her. I wanted what she can do, and that is not my specialty. It was one

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of those things where I could outsource to someone who’s awesome. And I was happy to do that because I appreciate her work. As far as shooting my own stuff goes, I’m a big proponent of anybody who can do everything on their own—make their own beats, sing their own stuff, shoot their own video—but I’m really focused on community. I would so much rather have specialists and people who are invested and excited in my work to create something you can all be proud of instead of trying to go it alone. It was exciting be-

cause I was going to be able to give Alissa more wiggle room with a narrative. I’m always trying to structure everything perfectly, so that everything’s cohesive and the little nods to each moment make sense in a storyline—but with “Devil in the Details,” there’s a lot more room for metaphor. It’s much more aesthetically driven, loose, with imagery that can be interpreted however the audience wants to interpret it. That gave Alissa a lot more freedom. I said, “Okay, these are the scenes that I’m picturing. You go crazy and

have fun.” That was great because, I really want to give the artists I work with a chance to make something that they are proud of, not just something to which I’m looking forward. Who are the Muses? Are they your band? So I am Lillian and the Muses. The Muses name is derived from Greek mythology, and the idea of different muses for poetry, music, art… I’m very much of the mind that the world around you influences your work. So I think of myself as Lillian and the music is something omnipresent. That being

PHOTO BY HOLY SMOKE PHOTOGRAPHY / HOLYSMOKEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

Excel spreadsheet with a second-to-second time code. Then we take it from there.

THE SCENE

PHOTO BY HOLY SMOKE PHOTOGRAPHY / HOLYSMOKEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

said, it’s also great when I have people on stage with me; they suddenly become the muses. The music takes on a more acoustic, soft Americana country sound to it, much truer to my roots. You say you are influenced by Americana but, in the studio, you’re bringing a new twist with hip hop. How do you see that working, and how do you like to meld those very different influences? I try to not be too precious with each song that I write. I think a song can be produced by so many different people and have a completely different sound. On the EP I just released, the beat maker is Jarv, a rapper and producer based in Vermont. He had been intrigued by the idea of taking my acoustically written, pretty, country-inspired music and seeing if we could make it kind of classic hip hop and see where that would go. So we just started playing around with it, and we found stuff that we really liked. We started mixing in a lot of my layered vocals, which added a completely different texture. It maybe pulled us a little bit away from classic hip hop, but much more into

my own sound. I’m just trying to do my best to pay homage to what I know is my sound and also try on different hats while I’m doing it. I’m not afraid to try a new genre or a new producer because who knows? It could sound awesome. It could sound awful. It’s like cooking—give it a try, add something. It might seem weird, but I’m sure the first person who put salt on chocolate said, “This has gotta be nuts.” And, to spread out the influences even more, you studied opera in college. Is that still a big part of your music? Opera prepared me for my work now, but it’s definitely not where my heart ended up. That being said, you can definitely hear it in the layered vocals in some of the work I’ve done. There are some pretty high operatic things happening in the background. There’s a sweet spot in my life for opera, but specifically choral music has always been something that I adore. I started it in middle school and didn’t stop all through college. I was so inspired by the layering of many, many voices, which is reflected in my music when I do all this vocal layering. I love that O C TO B E R 2021

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THE SCENE

feeling of a choir, how it can be so immersive like an ocean, an overwhelming presence. When I’m writing, I write almost everything a capella in lieu of instruments, with vocal melodies that I just layer on top of each other. Sometimes, I take that to some of my bandmates and they’ll just interpret it into chords and play instruments instead of the vocal melodies. In some cases, like in “Spring,” we just keep the vocal melodies and that’s the heart of the structure of the song.

PHOTOS BY HOLY SMOKE PHOTOGRAPHY / HOLYSMOKEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

What do you most want listeners to get out of your work? The music has to speak

for itself. You can talk music all day, but you can’t really explain a sound or a feeling. So I’m excited to fi nally have this debut project out so that people can get a feel for it. I’m excited to incorporate more live instruments in the future as well. The sound of the pedal steel is something that I’ve been dreaming of for years, and I’m so excited to integrate it into my music. What’s next? I’m going to be putting out more music, more singles that are going to accumulate into an album. I’m excited about exploring some more

of this kind of acoustic space and tracking some of that music, because, you know, muses are flying in and out. I want

to make sure that Lillian and the Muses continues to be a malleable voice that grows and changes. LISTEN UP Check out Lillian and the Muses’ EP on Spotify and catch the videos for “Spring,” “Cigarettes,” and “Devil in the Details” on Lillian and the Muses YouTube channel or on the website. Follow Lillian and the Muses on Facebook and Instagram.

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P R O M OT I O N A L F E AT U R E W C I H E A LT H

Best of Both Worlds The founder and CEO of WCI Health, Dr. Lola Ohonba is on a mission to educate those who are suffering about the science behind plant medicine.

orn in Nigeria, Dr. Lola Ohonba has a unique perspective on plant medicine. She understands traditional uses—that deep knowledge passed down through generations—but she’s also a Western-educated pharmacist, a biologist and chemist, trained in hard science. Her desire to share that perspective spurred her to found WCI Health after a successful career in the mainstream pharmaceutical world. “After the passage of the Farm Bill,

you saw CBD everywhere,” she says, “and I felt like there needs to be education in the space. Education is the key.” WCI Health does just that, drawing on the experience Ohonba (Dr. Lola, as she’s known) has in both worlds to help dispensaries, who want to use botanicals, cannabis, and psychedelics as medicine make the right decisions. And she has become a prominent voice in the effort to destigmatize plant medicine as a public speaker as well as the author of the bestselling

book A Pharmacist’s Guide to Cannabis: Perspectives of a non-conformist clinician and the host of the podcast Let’s Talk Plant Medicine: Cannabis, Psychedelics, and Pharmaceutics. Beyond advocating for new perspectives on alternative medicine on these platforms, Dr. Ohanba is seeking to bring diversity and inclusion to the space. “I preach equity,” she says. Dr. Ohanba suffered from a disability that limited her movement as a child, and that experience gave her a unique empathy for those who feel as if they have no hope when it comes to finding relief from debilitating conditions. She’s especially focused on those with disabilities and those who served in the military and suffer from mental health related disorders like PTSD. She defines equity as making sure anyone in need is equipped with the knowledge to find healing. “Very few people have the background of knowing how plant medicine works and how conventional medicine works,” she says. “I’m able to break it down to the average person’s level without the medical jargon. I can say, ‘This is medicine, and I have science to back it up.’”

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The Lifetonic Extraction Breakthrough Some startups are fortunate enough to have garages inside which to start up. Russel Thomas says he wasn’t quite that lucky, but it didn’t stop him and his wife from pioneering a brand new, totally novel method of cannabis extraction—one that doesn’t use butane or carbon dioxide or even cold water to make cannabis concentrates. He theorized you could, alternatively, use vapor. So he and his wife put their heads and their hands together and built what is essentially the world’s first volcano vaporizer inside their own home. “We built this prototype in our living room, and it was so heavy I had to build a platform because the 56

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floor was buckling,” Thomas says. “We put every last dime we had into it, so it’s a good thing it worked out as well as it did.” And it works like this: cannabis goes in one end, where it’s vaporized and pumped through a chamber where it’s flash-extracted directly from the plant material’s vapor, pulling concentrate out of the air to produce higher-potency extracts with higher-quality terpene content. And it does so in a matter of seconds. No dangerous gasses necessary. Thomas has over 40 patents on this technology, and he’s very excited to bring it to market.

PHOTO COURTESY OF LIFETONIC

TEXT WILL BRENDZA

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