Sensi Michigan September 2021

HIGH FASHION

Weed’s mid-century makeover

MICHIGAN SEPTEMBER 2021

THE REAL DEAL Oak Cannabis founder Jason Tueni built a brand by staying true to his Michigan roots

NEO-RENAISSANCE

Rube Zilla’s post-Covid vision

CART NOUVEAU

Bong carts > beer carts

Express Yourself

NOW AT In honor of Pride Month, we will donate a percentage of all proceeds to The Trevor Project to help LGBTQ youth.

Learn more about their mission at thetrevorproject.org | franklinfields.com | thebotanical.co

MICHIGAN SENSI MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2021

sensimediagroup @sensimagazine @sensimag

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FEATURES

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Welcome to the Renaissance

Artist Rube Zilla is on a mission to show us hope in the ashes of the pandemic.

Authenticity Matters Oak Canna’s Jason Tueni is staying true to Michigan’s original cannabis culture.

DEPARTMENTS

17 EDITOR’S NOTE 35 LOCAL Regional editor Tracy Ross outlines the whos, 20 THE BUZZ wheres, and whens of News, tips, and tidbits to keep you in the loop PRETTY AND HAPPY Edie Parker is the first brand to fully merge the worlds of fashion and flower.

CANNABIS’ COOL KIDS

Michigan.

EXPLORE Food trucks and Rob Zombie EXPERIENCE The Wolverine State’s Disneyland MEET Heroes, leaders, and advocates TASTE Spanish food and craft spirits

Pay attention to these brands on the rise.

SENSIBILITIES Our editor ON THE COVER shares her thoughts Oak Cannabis founder and—surprise, surprise— THE SCENE Jason Tueni built his bong carts are high on brand in Michigan.

Have you heard?

The bong her list.

PHOTO COURTESY OF OAK CANNABIS cart is the new bar cart— HIGH 5 A fistful of stuff but better.

Here’ s why you you need to have. have to have one.

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50 THE END A yoga teacher tells how her tattoos helped her feel right in her body.

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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 CCTV Smart Ag Tech Kushla Life Sciences Cannabis Formulation and Products 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 Superbad inc. Premium California Cannabis 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 Flourish Software Seed to Sale Green Goddess Supply Personal Homegrown Biochamber GreenHouse Payment Solutions Payment Processing The Holistic Center Medical Marijuana Evaluations Revolutionary Clinics Medical Dispensary Royal Gold Soil Tess Woods Public Relations Public Relations

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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 Robyn Griggs Lawrence Editor at Large Will Brendza Contributor, Colorado Radha Marcum Copy Editor Bevin Wallace Copy Editor DESIGN

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

EXECUTIVE

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

Nancy Reid Director, Team Building, Sensi East PUBLISHING

Jamie Cooper Market Director, Michigan Abi Wright Market Director, Nevada Richard Guerra Market Director, New England Nancy Birnbaum Market Director, NorCal Diana Ramos Market Director, Oklahoma Rob Ball Market Director, S. California Angelique Kiss Market Director, S. California

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 Kyle Miller Media Sales Executive Leah Stephens Media Sales Executive

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E

EDITOR’S NOTE

Magazine published monthly

by Sensi Media Group LLC.

© 2021 Sensi Media Group. All rights reserved.

Every September, I

start to get The Feeling.

FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

FAC E B O O K Like Sensi Media Group to infuse your newsfeed with more of our great cannabis lifestyle content.

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

It washes over me with the smell of wildfire smoke and the earliest decaying of leaves.

It’s a memory lodged deep in my heart and every filament that somehow knows how to store the moments and events that have most defined us. One of these events for me was driving with my parents from Idaho to Michigan for my senior year in high school. I’d been accepted to Interlochen Arts Academy near Traverse City.

I was a theater major—not that that matters. What matters is that when I applied, I was running from childhood trauma. My stepfather hadn’t been good to me—let’s leave it at that—and after much involvement with courts, child protective services, foster homes, and then being abruptly reunited with my family, I was a mess of low self-esteem, misunderstood feelings, lots of anger, and a need to disappear into a place that could maybe heal me.

Interlochen was that place and more. The school for young artists is tucked inside a state forest. Gentle paths wind beneath enormous trees that shade buildings in which students create. I haven’t been there since 1989, but, this fall, I will get to wash myself in at least an approximation of The Feeling when I travel to Marquette to teach a class called Mapping Our Stories at Northern Michigan University, close to the place I started mapping mine.

Michigan, I’ve loved you for decades. My teenage connection makes it all the more meaningful to bring you the stories in this magazine. Learning all of the ways that Michigan is leading the cannabis industry—in the social justice realm, in particular— only makes me love the state more.

I think this is because I survived thanks to a society that was just. Your esteemed arts school up in the woods helped me, too. If you ever get a chance to watch the kids there perform, do it. You just might encounter a child whose life is being transformed before your eyes.

Michigan, I’ve loved you for decades.

My teenage connection makes it all the more meaningful to bring you the stories in this magazine.

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

Tracy Ross @writertracyross

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HARNESS THE POWER OF SCIENCE & FLOWER

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Pretty Things to Make You Happy

The first brand to fully merge the worlds of fashion and flower, Flower by Edie Parker is the line of cannabis and smoking accessories that portray the same clever, fashion-forward wit as its namesake, Edie Parker—the accessories brand known for its signature acrylic clutch handbags. (We’re partial to a pink one emblazoned with a cursive “weed” in big, bold letters—subtlety is overrated.)

“Edie Parker is all about surprising and delighting and displaying your accessories— showing them off, whether it’s a handbag or an ashtray,” says the brand’s founder Brett Heyman. Under her direction, Edie Parker launched Flower by Edie Parker in early 2019, not just as a cannabis-adjacent accessories line but as an actual cannabis line with Edie Parker Flower THC products available in California and Colorado (Michigan and Massachusetts on the way).

The progression into cannabis came naturally for the Edie Parker team. Riding the high of the successful launch of its home collection in 2016, the small, all-female group knew there was still so much more they could do. The fashionable women with refined-yet-playful sensibilities began talking about “the lack of considered—and frankly pretty—cannabis accessories,” Heyman shares. “Everything in our experience has been either something you buy in a 20

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PHOTO COURTESY OF EDIE PARKER

Flower by Edie Parker’s colorful mid-century-inspired collectibles are made for friends in high places.

PHOTOS (FROM TOP): COURTESY OF SUPERETTE, EDIE PARKER

headshop or something extremely masculine, or something that felt very medicinal or like things you hide away in your drawer.”

The line is cheeky in the best of ways, with nary a fan leaf marring any of the offerings. “We’re accessory designers,” Heyman laughs. “We would never do something that obvious. We are used to marketing products that can infer something. You know what it’s for—you know it’s end use— but it doesn’t have to be hitting you over the head.” (The limited-edition “This is How I Roll” t-shirt collection that dropped earlier this year exemplifies this sentiment. See the one picturing two fried eggs and the phrase “these are your boobs on drugs” for proof.)

Elsewhere in the very giftable Flower by Edie Parker line are stash jars, hard-edge lighters, grinders, rolling trays, joint clips, doob tubes (“supHerb storage containers”), “Weedie Parker” smell-proof stash bags, and a bunch of other colorful covetables.

But what we covet the most is the tabletop lighters, which start at $450 and come nestled inside their own ashtrays—because that’s how they roll.

BY THE NUMBERS Sup reWork Sweet Nature Crewneck ($120), Superette & 4ye Vintage garments made modern with handdrawn illustrations depicting cannabis culture make every item in the Superette + 4ye collab a win.

15

MARKETS The number of markets across the U.S. about to publish print issues of Sensi in April 2020. Then COVID-19 hit

∞ LOVE For everyone who kept the faith and kept us going—yes, you included.

We couldn’t have done it without you: our team, our clients, our friends, our families, our readers, our cannabis community.

93

MAGAZINES The number of digital-only Sensi magazines we’ve made since April 2020. No, really!

You can read them all at sensimag.com.

So. Much. Good.

Content.

[HIGH] FASHIONFORWARD While we were away, we kept our eyes on these brands—the coolest kids in cannabis right now. Except for the grannies.

They’re the hippest grannies in the game.

Fleur Marché is the one-stop-shop for rigorously vetted, top-tier CBD products and brands. Tokyo Smoke, the hip Canadian shop for the sophisticated and curious cannabis explorer, is for “those who embrace high design and alternative states of mind.”

Mister Green is a lifestyle brand and retailer that distinguishes itself through “a minimalist design sensibility and dedication to a new cultural perspective.” Miss Grass is a brand on a mission to make the world good at weed. (We’re obsessed with the “Good at Weed” sweatpants.) Designer Adam Lippes is a partner in the LGBTQ-owned and led Farnsworth Fine Cannabis in the Berkshires, where the luxury dispensary is stocked with vintage accessories, including an old lighter of Jack Kerouac. Sundae School is where cannabis meets casual streetwear collections. House of Puff makes luxury smoking accessories for the modern woman and was founded by a former art mag editor—and we're obsessed. Superette is a retail brand dedicated to “creating moments of delight” and making buying cannabis and accessories as enjoyable as consuming it.

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BILITIES

BY STEPHANIE WILSON, EDITOR IN CHIEF

1 BONG CARTS ARE THE NEW BAR CARTS. It’s gonna be the hottest home decor trend of 2022, just you wait...as long as we can get people over their hang-up about the word bong. The whole bong cart concept: fire. Getting people to call their newly transformed bar cart into a holder of bubblers and bud by its obviously awesome name, the bong cart: not so fire. Let’s troubleshoot. My Insta DMs are open, @stephwilll.

2 POSHMARK TIP: Never buy an item outright. Hit the heart, like the item, and sit back and let patience be a virtue. Typically within 24 hours, the seller will offer you a discounted price and boom!

You’ve saved money and you are a proud consumer supporting the circular fashion movement, breathing new life into a used item.

Everybody wins.

High 5

After a full year of enduring the same old, plain old things day after day, we all deserve a break from the ordinary. These items elevate your consumption ritual to an art.

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3 APPARENTLY THERE’S A POSHMARK FOR GEN Z and it’s called depop, but I cannot confirm or deny whether there’s a heart for you to like to potentially save money because I’m the most elder of the millennials and only just learned about depop via New York mag earlier today.

4 PELOTON’S GOT NOTHING ON SOULCYCLE, and this is a stance I will ride until I die. Sure, I’ll be riding a Peloton, but I’ll be doing it to the beat of the music playing from my iPad where I’m streaming one of Ross’s motivational movement therapy classes from the Equinox app.

Products 1. Crack is Wack Rolling Tray ($60) by K. Haring Glass Collection D.A.R.E. was right in this case: crack is wack indeed.

2. Cookies X Stündenglass Gravity Hookah ($600) A work of engineering art in a sleek design that can send you to the moon: this thing offers a full 360° of “woah.”

3. Nude With Attitude Matches (three for $12)

by Higher Standards x Rogue Paq These retro matches will quite literally charm your pants off.

4. Gucci Swirls Resort Collection Rolling Papers ($28 for the kit) by Papers + Ink Spark an abstract ode to the cruise collection with these customprinted organic papers 5. CBD Ritual Wild Berry Gumdrops ($45) by Lord Jones Hand-crafted confections with natural fruit essences and 20 mg hemp-derived CBD in each must-taste morsel. Gwenyth Paltrow and Oprah Winfrey approved.

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5 BUT THE EQUINOX APP has absolutely nothing on any class taken at any studio IRL. Real humans bring real energy into a room that can’t be replicated even in the best virtual setting. There’s no digital substitute that measures up to the human connection.

6 “TIE-DYING” IS NOT A EUPHEMISM for recreational drug use. Long story, but a funny one. I’ll tell you it the next time I see you in real life.

5

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AFTER THE PLAGUE CAME

THE RENAISSANCE Even if you haven’t heard of him, Rube Zilla is already watching you through his ubiquitous art in the cannabis space and beyond. And the Scorpio is on a mission to show us hope in the ashes of the pandemic.

TEXT STEPHANIE WILSON PHOTOS MARIO MASITTI

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even notice them in New York at a Buffalo Bills game, in Miami at Art Basel, in Los Angeles at the LA Art Show, in a still-in-development-andso-cool immersive space planned for Las Vegas. You’ll see the eyes on public artworks commissioned by the city of Denver and even on the walls of a Colorado middle school.

You’ll see the cannabis artist’s unmistakable style everywhere...but you won’t see a fan leaf in any of it.

“I don’t have cannabis motifs in any of my work,” Rube explains when asked what makes him a cannabis artist. “But I feel like at this point in my career, I’ve made my faces synonymous with cannabis culture.” And what lies within that association of art and cannabis is the power to propel the societal rebirth Rube believes art can drive.

A former marine with Puerto Rican roots and a Buffalo, New York, upbringing, Rube is a bit of a dichotomy—but he’s not a Gemini. He’s a Scorpio, which means according IT’S ALL IN THE EYES Look around, and you’ll notice Rube to astrology.com that he travels in a world that is black and white with litZilla eyes staring at you from all tle use for gray. The black and white sorts of places—from large-scale that covers most surfaces in Rube’s murals in cities across the country, world represents the illusion that we from Timbuk2 bags, from custom-commissioned shoes. They look are individuals separate from others.

The straight lines and the compleout from the Zilla Charter tour bus in Denver, in which top street artists menting curves stand for a necessary balance in structure and creativity, like Dinkc lead cannabis-friendly male-female energy, and emotion. tours to discuss their works around “Since the beginning, black and the city. You’ll find those eyes on a white has always represented the tin of full-spectrum rosin gummies duality and polarity of reality,”

by Dialed In, in his coloring book he says as he sketches the first

by High Times, and on carb caps, faces on what becomes the zodibangers, rolling trays, and pipes.

Rube’s illustrations cover dispen- ac-themed canvas. It’s late July sary waiting rooms across Colorado 2021, and we’re at his friend Jereand adorn the Buddy Buddy Indoor my’s place in downtown Denver.

Jerm, as he’s known, was the first Natural in San Francisco (the Calperson to ever buy one of Rube’s ifornia cannabis producer has even pieces, cementing a friendship and created a Rube.Zilla Kush). You’ll ccording to astrology, rebirth and revival are written in the stars. According to Ruben Del Cabrera (Rube for short), they are also written in Spirit of the Zodiac, the artwork he and Sensi created for this magazine. The piece (see page 27) invites viewers to get lost in a solar system of faces while trying to discover and interpret the 12 signs of the zodiac illustrated among the astral elements—subtle details depict the completion of a cycle, a return to our societal roots.

Hidden amid a black-and-white maze of emotions depicted in Rube Zilla’s signature style are symbols representing a restart. A slogan of hope is becoming popular as so many try to make it through COVID-19: After the plague came the Renaissance. Looking at the world with Rube's vision, you see a modern renaissance has already begun.

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kicking off a collaboration/representation relationship between the two. Rube’s son, Remy, watches his father work intently.

“There’s always someone watching,” says Rube, who laughs as he draws another face. The eyes specifically are inspired by a recurring scene in Scooby Doo, one of his favorite cartoons growing up, when the only things seen on an otherwise dark screen were sets of glowing eyes peering out from the dark. “It was the creepiest thing in the world!”

Rube laughs. “Just knowing that people in the dark are watching.”

WHAT DO YOU SEE WHEN YOU REALLY LOOK? It’s fun to watch Rube work. He doesn’t plan out his pieces; he just picks up the pen (or marker or can of spray paint, depending on the project) and gets started. He’s a

thinker, a dreamer, as well as a makeshit-happen doer. It’s easy to like him; it’s easier still to see why people like to be around him. He’s got the best interests of his communities in mind. He has been envisioning a more utopian future for quite a while now, and he’s doing what he can to make it happen.

Make no mistake: Rube is a badass on his way to being the badass, the guy who doodled his way into the zeitgeist and then sketched out the defining spirit and mood from within. He’s expressing himself through a defined visual identity that’s a relatively recent development. (Scroll back to the start of his @rube.zilla Instagram page for the visual proof.)

What’s surprising is that he’s relatively new to the whole art thing.

After spending 10 years in the military, he settled in Denver and began working in finance. He was bored

out of his mind. He had been doodling since he was a child, and he made the risky decision to pursue art full time rather than stay miserable in a more stable career. He took a job at a hotel in downtown Denver, “just working overnight security, hours to burn,” he says, “and I would doodle, I would draw.” The position afforded him the opportunity to just create, to see where his mind took his markers on the paper.

Rube Zilla's now-signature style soon began showing up—the faces—in his drawings. The motifs struck him as “hauntingly beautiful,” so he began working on their structure and form. He had only been at it for a few days when one night as he was arriving for work, he had the traumatic experience of witnessing a man jumping to his death.

“A moment like that will change you,” Rube says.

Rube Zilla Spirit of the Zodiac, 2021 24" x 36" Acrylic on canvas

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“I relived that moment every day for a year,” Rube says, feeling trapped in the trauma—and it was through drawing mazes of augural faces depicted by the stark black lines and curves of a Sharpie that he mapped his way out. The night of the incident, he stayed at the hotel.

“I just grabbed a stack of computer paper and a box of Sharpies and I just kept drawing faces over and over,” he says. “In a way it was to just process emotion—just to find a way to move through it. It’s funny how if you follow these patterns—follow grooves and stay the course—it’s like seeking a new plan, finding your weed and holy shit you talk to god, you go paint on walls. Now they call flow. And it ends up creating these it hieroglyphics—cave dwellings once-in-a-lifetime moments.” and whatnot.” Rube feels that we are at the start of a second renaisBRINGING EVERYTHING TOGETHER sance. “Real talk though: ‘After the Cannabis has been a part of the healing process as well. The night of plague came the Renaissance.’ It was the artists who gave life back to the incident, Rube smoked a joint the world. People came out to see with “the valet kid,” a young guy named Jerm (see above). Jerm now the murals, they couldn’t wait until Michelangelo was done with the runs Enigma Projects, representSistine Chapel.” ing a community of artists, includRube is a walking, talking art hising Rube Zilla. “We went from this tory lesson, focusing on the Medici thing that happened—the birth of these emotions—and we were able family, which first attained wealth and political power in Florence in to ride that energetic transition to the 13th century. It was the family’s the light in a sense.” support of the arts and humanities Jerm commissioned a custom in the 1400s that made Florence the piece by Rube, asking him to deck cradle of the Renaissance, accordout a Timbuk2 bag with his illusing to History Channel editors. trations. While in San Francisco a Rube’s lesson is a little less forshort time later, Rube wore the bag to an event attended by the brand’s mal: “There was a family that was CEO, and it caught her eye. “Shout- like, ‘Yo, we got all the gold and jewels on this side of the world. out Patti Cazzato!” Rube says.

We got money. So, we control now.

“That night, she said to me, ‘I’m We want to control then and the going to change your life tonight, future.’ So how do you control hisyoung man.’ And she didn’t lie.” tory? You tell the story. The Medici Rube seeks a communal relationship between art and cannabis. family understood that they needed to tell the story, so they asked “Cannabis and art have always had themselves, ‘How do we support a connection,” Rube says. “Smoke

Rube with his son Remy

the people who will carry on for the next generation?’ So they supported the artists.”

In the renaissance we are entering now, Rube suggests that the arts can be supported not by a single family but by an entire industry that’s already focused on changing the world.

“The cannabis industry can be the Medici family,” Rube says. What if we’re able to support and uplift the people who are telling the story about why cannabis is important?

Then we control the history of it.”

A successful cannabis industry “can’t be why we have more space billionaires,” he says. “It needs to be why we have more community sustainability. It’s all about passing the joint, passing the kinetic energy, the success, and bringing it back to our circles at the end of the day.”

We’re collectively hungry for art, culture, and connection. Rube cites Crush Walls’ urban art event that took place September 2020 amid COVID-19. “What did people do? They pulled up to the streets, smoked weed, and looked at art.

That didn’t stop. That happened in the renaissance.”

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Real Roots Oak Canna’s Jason Tueni has seen ups and downs in the cannabis business—but his shop has thrived by sticking to his mission of connecting with customers, staying authentic, and remaining true to Michigan’s caregiver culture.

A

ll too often the cannabis industry can be a struggle—against regulations, stigmas, the sheer effort of running the business. Oak Canna has done all that—and made it through to thrive. Now, the brand is giving back, using its experience (bad and good) to help caregivers and those left out by the cost and privilege of running a cannabis business make it.

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Sticking to It It all started in 2015 when Detroit native Jason Tueni and partner Steve Gatie opened their first dispensary, The Clinic at 13815 West 8 Mile in Detroit. Two years later, while going through the licensing process, they received a “cease and desist order” from the city of Detroit and a messy three-year fight in court commenced.

“I never really thought they had a right

to shut us down,” says Tueni. “Every time we’d win, based on old laws we’d been grandfathered in under, the city would try to deny us based on new laws.” The battle went on and on until November 2020.

At last, Tueni and his crew got a break. After they brought three lawsuits against the City of Detroit, a judge forced the city to award them a license.

Oak Canna reopened its legacy location on August 15. A second store is set to open in Warren. Since March, Oak Canna has been operating a cultivation and full-service processing facility, where it’s manufacturing the Petro and Banned edible lines. And those products are currently sold in more than 100 stores throughout the state.

In the middle of all this turmoil, Tueni is most proud of the way his original team has stuck together. “A lot of businesses can’t say that,” he says with a laugh. “My team is so good. I feel sorry for our competitors.”

S P O N S O R E D F E AT U R E OA K C A N N A

But he does offer those considering joining the cannabis industry some hard-won advice from years of nothing coming easy.

“Don’t give up,” he says. “Whatever you think opening a provisioning center or cultivation facility is going to cost, it’s going end up being triple that. It’s a very hard process dealing with cities, municipalities, lobbyists, and lawyers.”

Care for the Caregivers Tueni started his journey in cannabis as a caregiver in 2008. Although he says the process “is not for everyone,” he does believe the caregiver market is key to the industry in Michigan and the ability of individuals to find their place within it. “I care about the caregiver market,” he says.“I never want to us to not care about caregivers.”

But it’s often difficult for individual caregivers—who are unregulated—to transition their enterprises to licensed facilities—which are regulated— because of the often overwhelming obstacles they face, something with which he also has experience.

“A lot of talented people learn to cultivate on a small scale as a caregivers,’ he says. “And you don’t have to spend $5 million and harvest three to four years in a row to learn the craft of cannabis. You can get a four-light cultivation set up and learn to create

great quality cannabis. Take the time to learn, to educate yourself, and to eventually get tested. Then, once you have a business plan, prepare, prepare, prepare.”

Tueni believes that caregivers were the originators of cannabis culture in the Michigan cannabis industry. “But they were forgotten, left behind when the big suits came in,” he says. “The suits tried to mold the industry to look like they wanted and used caregivers for information. They gave them a couple of checks, but not many were brought to the dance.” As a leader in the regulated adult-use industry, Tueni wants to keep the original caregiver culture alive, while being receptive to a new culture that is “more than one thing.” To that end, Oak Canna has partnered with the FORCE (Faithfully Organizing Resources for Community Empowerment) Detroit and Clean Smoke to identify individuals eligible for social equity and help them move past barriers.

“I hear people say I want in the cannabis space, but I don’t have $5 million,” he says. “And I say you don’t need $5 million—you just need some packaging, marketing, and product.

We’ll get you in on our license.” Oak Canna plans to launch its first 12- to 18-month accelerated mentorship

program before the end of the year.

“We’re “We’ll start participants at the bottom about our of the employment hierarchy, and clients and every two months, move them into how good a new position. Then, if, after 12 to 18 months, we believe they’ve met we can the qualifications, we’ll back them make this ourselves, becoming a dispensary cannabis owner and partner with them.” They’re and hit the also doing this at the cultivating and processing stage, says Tueni. “It’s very core of our important to us. It’s how we’re going customers.” to get involved with the community.”

That willingness to connect, coupled —Jason Tueni, Executive Chairman with a commitment to preserve and of Oak Canna, LLC grow Michigan’s cannabis culture, is what sets Oak Canna apart; it’s what will help it thrive going into the future.

And that future looks bright based on the 900 people per day who currently visit Oak Canna’s two locations. Sure, they’ve got some of the best cannabis on the market, but they’re also “100 percent transparent to our customers,” says Tueni. “We’re about our clients and how good we can make this cannabis and hit the core of our customers.”

Oak Canna Dispensary and Small Batch Artesian Farmers motownfarmers.com S E P T E M B E R 2021

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explore

experience

meet

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Food trucks and Rob Zombie

The Wolverine State’s Disneyland

Heroes, leaders, and advocates

Spanish food and craft spirits

local PHOTO COURTESY OF ELDORADO GENERAL STORE

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local

explore

EAT, DRINK, &

Rock On

Experience the best of Michigan’s food, brews, and live music at these festivals.

SEPT. 4

Brews and Beats

Pentwater, MI / pentwater.org Twenty breweries from around the state will showcase their beer, wine, and ciders while The Drew Hale Band jams and drinkers play ever-rowdier rounds of lawn darts and Bocce. Sip some apple, nibble an edible, and swivel to Hale’s “roots rock with a Texas heart,” as displayed on his album Made for Summertime.

SEPT. 11

SEPT. 18

Grand Rapids, MI / kentwood.us What’s not to love about 30 food trucks, a beer tent, and live music all in one place and on one day? GR8 Food Trucks is sponsoring this one and says the type of food will extend across the board, from burgers to BBQ, Greek-inspired to Creole-inspired, and desserts will include ice cream sandwiches, shaved ice, cookies, lemonade, popcorn, and other options. Music by Bucket O Maybes, DJ Snax, Moonshot Band, and Last Gasp Collective. Beers by Railtown Brewery. Don’t forget your appetite.

Clarkson, MI / 313presents.com White Zombie cannabis is a potent hybrid strain with purported cerebrally-focused effects conducive to creativity and stress relief. It’s also said that White Zombie’s creator was a Rob Zombie fan. The first claim is great; the second is fun to think about. Either way, Rob will be at the DTE Energy Music Theater on day one of Riff Fest. Listen to his industrial metal sound with tons of fans, some of whom might have White Zombie.

Kentwood Food Truck Festival

WRIF Riff Fest Featuring Rob Zombie

Caregivers Rally at the State Capitol

Sept. 15 / Lansing, MI Leaders from state patient-advocacy organizations, elected officials, and cannabis patients will speak to hundreds (or thousands) of cannabis consumers on the steps of the state capitol building starting at 11:45 a.m. Come if the issues are close to your heart or if you just want to know more about cannabis democracy.

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local

experience

PHOTO COURTESY OF ELDORADO GENERAL STORE

PADDLE TO TURNIP ROCK

Michigan is stacked with gorgeous outdoor locations but Turnip Rock in Port Austin on Lake Huron is special. It looks like a turnip popping out of the ground, or, in this case, the water. You get there via kayak, which you can rent online. Starting from the shop, hug Huron’s shoreline for 3.5 miles. The land around Turnip Rock is privately owned, so the only way to reach it when the lake is not frozen is by boat. That means you and the few people who know about it will slice through crystal clear, shallow water—beneath which you can see beautiful glistening multicolor rocks— without the crowds. portaustinkayak.com

TAKE ME TO Eldorado

­

Michigan’s Disney

Thousands of visitors a year head to Hamtramck to visit one of Michigan’s most significant works of folk art, “Hamtramck Disneyland,” built over a 35-year span by one Dmytro Szylak, who died in 2015. Driven by the energy and support of the town of 22,000 people, a group of residents and artists formed to save Michigan’s Disney. Hatch Art, which operates an art gallery and studios in the former Hamtramck police station, took ownership in May of 2016. Today, you can visit Szylak’s work and see a gallery show on Thursdays and Saturdays. Toke first and the creations are even better. hatchart.org S E P T E M B E R 2021

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Law Offices of Craig A Aronoff, PLLC 1212 South Washington Avenue, Royal Oak, MI 48067 (248) 808-6351

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GANDER These are the h and everyday eroes, legends, advocates people who g , et it done.

Survivor of a corrupt legal system is now thriving

Michael Thompson spent more than two decades behind bars before the very drug that put him there began providing him with a new, life-changing opportunity. On March 2, 2021, he began working at Ubaked Cannabis, a cultivation and processing facility in Burton, Michigan. Ubaked’s CEO says Thompson “isn’t allowed near the product,” but that his involvement, as a “brand ambassador” is a “win-win” because it both gives Thompson a job and also gives him a platform to inform the industry on social justice issues that he’s only too painfully, personally aware of. ubaked.us.com

Medical providers honor a son and brother

The Hempire Collective exists to honor family member Tai Porter who left the U.S. Army after 10 years of service in 2014 and was diagnosed later that year with a rare form of Stage 4 kidney cancer. After seeing how cannabis helped to alleviate Tai’s cancer symptom pain, manage the anxiety and PTSD he developed from military service, and significantly improve his overall quality of life during his final days, the Porters discussed, as a family, becoming patient caregivers. Today, their Class C license allows them grow up to 1,500 plants. “The vibe of the Hempire is really relaxed,” says co-owner Mario Porter. “Whereas I feel as if most dispensaries are still acting like they’re doing something wrong or shady, we are open and chill here. We stay compliant, but, at the same time, we like to have a good time because we celebrate that we are selling cannabis legally.” thehempfirecollective.com

Engaging government for better understanding

Mark Passerini co-founded Om of Medicine, an adult-use and medical cannabis provisioning center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He founded the Ann Arbor Medical Cannabis Guild for which he served as president during its first two years. He currently serves as vice-chair of the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association. “Every business owner should take it upon themselves to educate all their elected officials from local to federal,” he says. “When Om opened, we invited the chief of police, our state senator, state rep, mayor, and entire city council into our facility. Over the years, we have had numerous federal officials visit as well as our governor and attorney general. These meetings are informative, educational, and eye opening for these elected officials and it’s an opportunity to show them what we do, how we do it, and most importantly--why we do it!” missiondispensaries.com

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local

taste

Spanish Food Soars

Perched atop the 120-foothigh Amway Grand Plaza in Grand Rapids, MDRD Spanish food restaurant, with spectacular views of the city and beyond, is “a bright shining beacon” for the city, says chef de cuisine Stephan VanHeulen. MDRD is pronounced like you think you’d say it given the Spanish influence (Madrid).

The food is ostentatious in a good way—think Galacia-style octopus in squid ink vinaigrette and croquettes with wild mushroom, manchego, fig jam, and sundried tomato aioli. Satisfy your sweet tooth with citrus and cinnamon-infused baked custard. Sabroso! amwaygrand.com/dining/mdrd

Distillers Look to Local Ingredients

JUSTICE IS Served

Chartreuse, in Detroit—a Yelp! Restaurant of the year in both 2017 and 2018, and a Food Network’s Best Date Spot in Detroit—dazzles the senses with a seven-foot garden installation and a plethora of local ingredients, including produce from local urban gardens.

Working with Recovery Park, formed in 2010 to spearhead community redevelopment, Chartreuse’s food comes with a side of social justice, too. Order the burrata with bread fresh from the oven, the Seabream (smashed fingerling, bacon, sauerkraut, and dilly bean), or the clam spaghetti (with Key West shrimp, preserved lemon, caper, mizuna, and sourdough breadcrumb). chartreusekc.com

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Heart the Cart Bong carts are the new bar carts—you need one.

PHOTOS & TEXT STEPHANIE WILSON

In May, dining website-meets-community Food52 asked the question that’s been on interior stylists’ minds for a while now: Are bar carts on their way out?

To which I say, um, do you really have to ask? If there’s a question about the continued longevity of any trend’s lifespan, it’s safe to assume that it’s on its way out.

Sure, the author posed a question to her Instagram crowd about whether bar carts were “out” or “still cool,” and 84 percent of the responses came back in favor of the bar-on-wheels-as-openstorage, but that’s not surprising. Lots of people thought hanging wooden carvings of “live laugh love” on their walls would be the writing on the wall that told the world just how deep and spiritually sound they are. They 44

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lived. They laughed. They loved. And to this day, some of them keep right on loving.

Side story: During the early days of the pandemic lockdown, memes kept my spirit alive. You could say that because of memes, I lived. I certainly laughed. And, my god, some of them I loved—especially the one that just showed a wooden carving of the word “gather”

hung on a beige-gray wall. The simple caption: “That’s illegal, Karen.”

I died. I lived. Laughed.

Loved. I still do. Perhaps I am the lowest common denominator?

Either way, I’ve never had a bar cart. I did purchase a wheeled two-shelf unit in a mid-century modern style that could to the untrained eye be confused for a bar cart, but it’s not a bar cart. No,

no, no. Bar carts are out even if home decor sites are hesitant to declare the trend dead quite yet. Perhaps there’s been enough death this past year, or perhaps they worry that the plebes who embarked on home improvements while spending so much time in said homes would revolt if they read that one of the trendy, musthave pieces they just incorporated into their

got my Jane West Beaker on my bong cart, too! #twinning.

And if you’re somewhere in between, I encourage you to take your smoking accoutrements out of whatever hiding place they’re stashed.

Bong carts aren’t just for bongs, you know. Pipes, stash jars, grinders, rolling trays, dab rigs, and all of the other objets d’art cannabis accessories can live on the cart, too—just as long as they’re nice and clean. Put them on display unless you’re living with rambunctious kids, or decor was suddenly as that says “humble & kind” jumpy cats, or any other taboo as gathering with hanging on the door creature that could knock unvaccinated strangers in above my home office. them over. Then proceed close quarters while not I picked it up one day at with caution. Always keep wearing a mask. a Home Goods where it the stuff you put into the Let them revolt, I say. was on clearance for $10.

Or let them in on the Although the message secret that surely isn’t made me shudder, I going to be a big secret for thought I could use the much longer because— canvas and turn it into you heard it here first, something cool. I never folks—it’s going to be the got around to attacking it hottest home decor trend with some paint, but I did of 2022. Whether you’re tack two oversized Postgetting one brand new or Its on either side of the updating your existing message. The first reads, bar cart into one of the “If you think you’re,” and bong varieties, you too the latter wraps it up with will get to say you helped “you’re confused.” It’s spark the latest rage in now perfect.) interior styles.

But if you’re like, omg, If you’re wondering I’ve already been storing my smoking devices secured why you would want a Jane West Beaker on my old safely away from any bong cart, maybe it isn’t bar cart but hadn’t realized minors or pilfering roomfor you. Keep gathering.

I should stop calling it my mates who shouldn’t have Keep on living, laughing, old bar cart yet! Well, access to your stash. and loving. (Confession: now you know! You and If you consume canI do have a wooden sign I should be friends, I’ve nabis, there’s no need to

hide it away in a cabinet or drawer as if it’s something you’re ashamed of, no matter what you may have been told in D.A.R.E. But there’s still a whole lot of stigma surrounding it today, even as more Americans than ever are in favor of its legalization.

After legalization comes normalization. The bong cart (or bud cart, or cannabis cart if you must, but I like bong cart because it’s a better play on the “bar cart” phrase— that’s what we’re going for here) is a statement. If you’re not quite ready to admit that bongs—with water filtration and the ability to deliver a cool, smooth hit—are a superior way of consumption,

that’s OK. You’ll get there. And when you do, I’ll have tons of recommendations for products that will look right at home on the bong cart in your home.

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P R O M OT I O N A L F E AT U R E BLAZE DELIVERY

Enhanced Experience The delivery-based cannabis market is here to stay—and Blaze is making it all easier.

T

he massive rise in delivery-based business during the pandemic has transformed how customers interact with their favorite brands across the United States and the world.

Consumers now expect everything from alcohol to toiletries to be available at their doorstep. As legalization spreads across the country, that expectation of seamless delivery is extending into the cannabis industry. Currently, 14 states permit regulated cannabis deliveries, but that number is expected to rise over the next few years.

For most dispensaries, however, the idea of quickly implementing online

Blaze’s software addresses backend logistics and the tracking and managing of drivers. It also creates a delivery service that will pass each state’s regulatory status, avoiding legal headaches. Designed by industry veterans, the delivery software integrates directly with a store’s POS system to allow accurate inventory tracking. It features signature capture and ID verification, and it provides delivery drivers with a complete manifest and inventory ledger.

To enhance the consumer’s experience, the Blaze Delivery app easily captures customer signatures, verifies IDs, and tenders orders—customers can even pay ahead. Plus, it offers the ability for drivers to communicate securely with dispatch or with the customer for last minute changes.

A recent report from Uber showed that delivery revenue grew 103% in 2020, a number that is expected to continue to rise moving forward. There is no reason why cannabis businesses cannot get in on that trend and expand too. They just need the proper framework in place to make it happen.

purchasing and delivery is daunting, to say the least, if not downright impossible to navigate safely, efficiently, and legally. That’s where Blaze can step in, offering state-of-the-art delivery software and POS systems designed to provide seamless solutions to cannabis purveyors.

“We feel that delivery is going to be a key piece for retailers who are looking to grow their businesses,” says Chris Violas, the CEO of Blaze.

“We think it’s here to stay and we’re doubling down on that market by continuing to develop new features BLAZE Delivery to streamline and scale delivery Delivery POS Systems operations.” blaze.me S E P T E M B E R 2021

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Women working in cannabis deserve better, so

WE BUILT BETTER

JoIN Us

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P R O M OT I O N A L F E AT U R E SKYMINT

Live Uplifted Skymint blends culture and cannabis into an elevated but accessible lifestyle.

A

customer’s first visit to any Skymint dispensary is a shock to the system.

They typically pause to look around and make sure that they have entered the right building. All Skymint dispensaries are designed with large windows for natural lighting, feature an open floor plan for discovery, and showcase a variety of cannabis products and accessories that you can browse. The space invites you to lounge and learn about living life uplifted—a welcome shift from the clinically sterile settings found in most Michigan dispensaries.

Creating a feeling of inclusivity and approachability is all by design. It’s why Skymint is rapidly becoming the favorite spot to shop for the canna-curious and connoisseurs alike.

“Not only does Skymint grow and sell the best cannabis Michigan has to offer,

we also curate a lifestyle that elevates the way people think and talk about cannabis. We look forward to bringing together the worlds of cannabis, fashion, food, and music to create an approachable place where people can come to feel amazing,” says Skymint’s president of retail Summer Ransom-Cleveland.

The largest vertically integrated cannabis company in the state with 15 retail locations, Skymint is the perfect place to head for premium products that fulfill all your cannabis lifestyle needs. Skymint’s two extensive indoor grow facilities and the Midwest’s largest outdoor cannabis farm allows the dispensary to offer a farm-to-stash freshness that keeps prices affordable and produces unique strains found only in Skymint stores.

Skymint’s recently launched Jolly Edibles line offers delicious, full-flavored products with benefits. Fun

twists of both CBD and THC strains provide balance and deliver fuller, more personalized effects. Plus, a firstof-its-kind partnership with Bellaire’s Short’s Brewing Company invigorates the edible market with craft-beer-inspired flavors that cement Skymint and Short’s as innovators in the space.

Needless to say, Skymint is a breath of fresh air in the cannabis world.

Its retail floors are welcoming and relaxing; its products are high-quality at approachable prices; and its commitment to your happiness is evident.

It’s easy to see why the beloved brand has grown into the largest cannabis retailer in Michigan.

Skymint Premium Cannabis Brand skymint.com S E P T E M B E R 2021

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THE END

Enlightened Ink Colorado yoga teacher and spiritual guide Bri Leonard found a way to love her body through her tattoos.

“I am someone who comes from trauma and humble beginnings,” says Colorado-based yoga teacher and tarot reader Bri Leonard, whose body is a canvas of tattoos: a dagger down her chest, a fortune teller on her arm, a scorpion on her back. “Yoga and occult practices have saved my life and given me tools to face the challenges of this world.” She cultivates a practice that is beautiful and powerful both physically and emotionally. Her classes combine creative, challenging movement on the mat with deep introspection (and the occasional dose of Prince or classic metal in the music mix).

Through a podcast and members-only classes with Healing House (healinghousepodcast.com), which she co-founded, Leonard encourages students to dig into the past and shuck off the pain and negativity that keeps them from personal evolution.

“Our goal with Healing House is to give back and support anyone on the path to holistic healing— with a little touch of humor and magic,” she says.

Leonard’s tattoos are an important part of her identity and ground her in her teaching. “They have helped me love my body,” she says. “Before I started getting tattooed, I never liked what I saw in the mirror. I felt like a visitor in my own body. As my collection of art began to grow, I noticed an evolution in my self-perception. I began to feel strong, confident, like me.”

Leonard swears by the work of her artist Danny Boy at Landmark Tattoo (landmarktattooing.com) in Denver. “He's a kind, warm, talented soul,” she says. “That place feels like home.”

We want to see your tattoos and know the stories and passions behind them. Post them to Instagram and tag us @sensimagazine.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF BRI LEONARD

TEXT DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

“AND INTO THE FOREST I GO TO LOSE MY MIND AND FIND MY SOUL.” –John Muir

1983 BENZIE HWY.

3465 SHERIDAN AVE.

240 ARTHUR ST.