THE WEED ISSUE The Berkeley Beacon April 30, 2021
STUDENT DEALERS ON WHAT IT’S LIKE BEING “THE PLUG”
BOSTON DISPENSARIES TURN A NEW LEAF DURING THE PANDEMIC
CANNABIS CRIMINALIZATION IS DEEPLY ROOTED IN RACISM
April 30, 2021
H ar me out Josh Sokol
“America’s cannabis criminalization is deeply rooted in racism” Page 4
As more white-owned dispensaries pop up across the country, Black Americans are still incarcerated for cannabis charges at disproportionate rates—epitomizing America’s racist history with weed criminalization.
Features Ann E. Matica
“Boston dispensaries turn a new leaf during the pandemic” Page 6
M.J. Magazine Editor Katie Redefer Editor-in-Chief Dylan Rossiter Operations Managing Editor
Just as recreational dispensaries found their footing in Boston, the pandemic dealt a swift blow to the budding businesses. Forced to follow new health regulations, dispensaries have learned to adapt.
Maximo Aguilar Lawlor Multimedia Managing Editor Charlie McKenna & Dana Gerber
Copyeditors
Contributors Ann E. Matica Campbell Parish Clarah Grossman Joshua Sokol Karissa Schaefer
Any and all comments on articles can be directed to Magazine@BerkeleyBeacon.com Courtesty / Jakob Menendez: Josh Carone lighting a joint in his bedroom in downtown Boston.
Campbell Parish Karissa Schaefer
“Let’s be really Blunt: Student Dealers on what it’s like being “The Plug” Page 10
The Beacon sat down with three student dealers for a blunt conversation about the highs and lows of selling weed on campus.
The only student newspaper of Emerson College. Editorially independent, Founded in 1947.
The Arts
Clarah Grossmann
“Cannabis legalization doesn’t matter when you can’t legally smoke anywhere” Page 14
Pitches can be emailed directly to our incoming Editor-in-Chief at Charles_Mckenna@emerson.edu
With cannabis use prohibited on campus and in public spaces, students of legal age have limited options for places to smoke. Coffee shops—social cannabis consumption businesses—could be the solution.
172 Tremont Street, Room 309 Boston, MA 02117 (617) 824-8687 Contact@BerkeleyBeacon.com
HOW TO SECRETLY SMOKE IN YOUR DORM
*ABSOLUTELY DO NOT TRY THIS AT EMERSON COLLEGE Magazine Editorial Team
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nce again, if you go to Emerson College you might as well stop reading this right now, because absolutely none of this advice will apply to you in any fashion. Weed. Mary Jane. Pot. Grass. Dope. Skunky. Chronic. Reefer. There’s no one way to break it up, and certainly not a singular way to toke it, but just as so, there’s no surefire way to ensure that you don’t get caught smoking that precious green stuff in your dorm room. For millennia, teenagers everywhere have been eluded by this seemingly impossible task: have a good time, smoke a little oui’d, eat a little food, and don’t get caught. It seems simple enough—but the powers that be are never content with our pleasure, so they shackle us with these arbitrary rules like, “No ripping your bong and blowing out of your street facing balcony window on the 8th floor of the Colonial Building.” It’s ridiculous, but alas we have no choice but to succumb. Fortunately, throughout these dawns, the brightest minds the world has to offer(most likely your high parents or ancestors) crafted feats of engineering similar to Leaning Tower of Pisa to combat this very issue. For starters, there’s the elusive towel, for which we have 17th century Turkish merchants to thank for. This strategy is pretty cut and dry(get it?). Just take that raggedy thing hanging up or sitting balled up in the corner of the bathroom floor, fold it flat two or three times, and
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jam that thing under the wooden door of your two bedroom square box. That should do the trick...right? For the artisan in your friend group, we have the comically named sploof. While there’s dozens of ways to make them, this is the method that a senior once told me as a first year: Take the Gatorade bottle that you used as a chaser the night before and give it a good run under the sink(you can throw away the cap). Then take a thick fistful of lavender dryer sheets and stuff the empty bottle halfway full of them. Afterward, fill the bottle ¼ of the way with cotton balls, and finish with another ¼ of dryer sheets. Then just burn a few small holes into the bottom and voila: a sploof. After you take that milky chop, blow your smoke right through the top of the bottle, and instead of the dank
smoke you’re used to, what smells like kinda-fresh laundry will meander out the bottom. For this last trick, you’ll need an engineer, or simply anyone that owns a small desk fan and actually has an opening window on campus. Position the fan so that the wind is blowing directly out of the open window. While it may seem like a waste of energy at first, the genius comes by blowing your smoke into the back of the fan, which tosses it right out of your room and into the clean silky Boylston St. air. Unfortunately even with all of these marvelous protections, it still is technically like illegal or whatever—but Let’s Be Blunt, unless you’ve got like an ounce on you, if you get caught you’ll likely be fine. Just show the campus cop this article and you’ll be in the clear.
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H ar me out Emerson’s premier destination for sharing opinions
America’s cannabis criminalization is deeply rooted in racism By: Josh Sokol
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n 1936, a film titled “Reefer Madness” hit the silver screen. Originally titled “Tell Your Children,”, the black & white cinema explored the “dangers” of smoking weed through a tale of a young, WASP-y boy who dabbles in the devil’s lettuce. After one puff of a “marihuana cigarette” the protagonist, Bill, descends from a model citizen into a frenzied sex addict and a violent criminal, bringing his friends down with him in his fall from grace. This type of movie, or more accurately, propaganda, was a precursor to conservative America’s War on Drugs movement, which was largely perpetuated by the Nixon Administration in the 1970’s and the Reagan Administration in the 1980’s. Nancy Reagan, as First Lady, traveled to elementary and middle schools across the country with her slogan, “Just Say No,” encouraging children to dismiss any interaction with drugs, to keep the “innocence” of America’s children strong. Henry Anslinger, the former head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics under the presidencies of Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy, utilized fear, racism, anti-immigrant sentiment and yellow journalism (sound familiar?) to strike panic in the hearts of Americans regarding weed usage. Anslinger blamed “jazz culture,” a racist dog whistle for “Black culture,” for the uptick in cannabis usage in America’s suburbs. When American singer and songwriter Billie Holiday refused to stop performing her song “Strange Fruit,” a haunting and sobering potrayal of lynching in the American South, Anslinger targeted and threatened
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her. As Holiday lay dying in 1959, Anslinger handcuffed her to her hospital bed on charges of drug use and possession. “Marijuana is taken by musicians,” Anslinger said, speaking to Congress in 1937. “And I’m not speaking about good musicians, but the jazz type.” When President Nixon took office, he swore to declare a war on drugs that was descending on America, mainly against heroin addiction and the increas-
ing commonality of cannabis use among college students, he said in a 1969 speech to Congress. But as the threads and secrets of history become unraveled in more recent decades, a former aide of Nixon and Watergate co-conspirator John Ehrlichman revealed to Harper’s Magazine that the war on drugs was a method to disrupt the two main enemies Nixon had, “the anti-war left and Black people.”
Now, in 2021, I’d like to think that as a country, we have a much more informed and positive outlook on the benefits of medical and recreational weed use. But, much like most movements in American history, the legalization of weed is steeped in hypocrisy and racism. As more and more dispensaries open up in heavily gentrified neighborhoods and look more and more like high-tech hipster cafes, people of color, particularly Black people, are still disproportionately incarcerated for non-violent, weed related charges. Legal cannabis sales hit $3.4 billion nationally in 2015, more than the combined revenue of Dasani and Oreo, according to Marijuana Business Daily. As profit within the cannabis industry booms, white people are disproportionately reaping the rewards. 81 percent of cannabis businesses are white-owned, while Black cannabis business owners only make up for 4.3 percent, according to an ACLU report. In Seattle’s Central District, a cannabis dispensary named Uncle Ike’s is causing more concern than relief for the community it seeks to serve. As Uncle Ike’s popped up, luxury apartments, starting at $1,600 for one-bedroom rentals came with it. The gentrification has led to a white-washing of the district, displacing the once thriving Black-led economy and population from 73 percent in 1970 to just 20 percent in 2016. In the Grist article “As sales boom, pot shops have become the new face of gentrification,” Sara Bernard writes “on the very same corner where many Black men were arrested for dealing or smoking pot, a white man is now legally bringing in seven-figure sales.” As weed grows out of the hands of individual dealers and into the hands of larger businesses who turn selling weed into a branch of corporate capitalism, people are still punished by Draconian cannabis laws and watch the legalization of weed from prison cells. Even as white and Black people use cannabis at similar rates, Black people are 3.64 times more likely to be arrested on charges of weed possession, according to a 2020 ACLU report. In some states, such as Illinois and Kentucky, the number is as high as 10 times more likely. In 2018 alone, almost 700,000 people were arrested for possession of cannabis. As we see more and more politicians, namely Democratic Senator Cory Booker
3.64X Black people are
more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than white people even though consumption are nearly identical
Source: ACLU
of New Jersey and State Representative Cori Bush of Missouri, come out in support of federal cannabis legalization and “direct funding to the Black and brown communities devastated by the war on drugs,” it is important to think of the lives cut short and the lives incarcerated from outdated, racist laws and regulations. The criminalization and stigma of cannabis in America has its roots deep within racist American political structures. Remember this when you go to your local neighborhood dispensary, that the convenience you are able to access is a privilege not extended to most. Remember those who lost their freedom, then ask what you can do to become part of the solution.
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Josh Sokol is a frequent contributor to The Berkeley Beacon and a junior studying journalism.
joshua_sokol@emerson.edu
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Boston dispensaries turn a new leaf during the pandemic
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By: Ann E. Matica
ure Oasis, the first recreational dispensary to open in a major city on the East Coast, opened its doors for the first time in Boston on March 9, 2020, only to close them two weeks later. The shop was shuttered for two months after Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker issued an emergency order barring all non-essential businesses from operating due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Baker’s order was issued on March 22, 2020 and followed by another order that same day from the Cannabis Control Commision—which oversees the licensing and sales of medical and recreational cannabis in Massachusetts. The order called on all dispensaries in the state to cease cannabis sales for at least two weeks, with the exception of medical cannabis, which was deemed as essential. Massachusetts was the only state in the country that forced dispensaries to halt adult-use cannabis sales. The co-owner of Pure Oasis, Kobie Evans, says those orders and the ensuing whirlwind of the pandemic left him and his business reeling. “We had no idea that it would land right at our doorstep, we just thought it was a world away and the next thing you know we’re shutting down for two months,” he says. The two weeks of estimated closure time for adult-use cannabis sales turned into a month and then two, leaving Evans and other dispensary owners wondering when, or if, they would ever be able to reopen. Finally, on March 18, 2020, Baker announced the stay-at-home advisory would be relaxed and some businesses would be allowed to reopen under strict social distancing guidelines. Under Baker’s new plan, adult-use dispensaries were finally allowed back in business, although with some altered operational guidelines. Dispensaries were required to take all orders online or over the phone and provide curb-side pickup to customers. “We were just learning how to operate as a regular retail business and then we had to operate as a curbside only and we had no idea how to do it,” Evans says. “We were trying to figure it out and it only lasted for a couple of days, and then we were able to have people in the store on a limited basis.” Josh Winokur, chief executive officer
of Berkshire Roots, says the reasoning behind shutting down recreational cannabis sales was public safety. “[Baker] didn’t want travelers coming into Massachusetts, specifically to go to cannabis stores. I think because recreational [sales] tends to draw many more customers than the medical side, he didn’t like the idea of too many people gathering at a dispensary,” he says. “Early days there was just so much unknown about how to protect people, and not bringing them together was the primary way to [do that]. We and the other dispensaries were able to demonstrate we’re probably doing more than most public places are doing to keep people safe.” Berkshire Roots, originally founded in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, opened its second location in East Boston in July 2020. The pandemic proved to be a slight roadblock in the opening in Boston, Winokur says. “We would have been able to open earlier than that if it were not for COVID but obviously things got a little delayed at the beginning of the year,” he says. “The first thing was the unknown, ‘What is happening? What do we need to know? How do we protect our staff? What does that mean for patrons?’ We were pretty quick to establish policies in production, in the retail environment for our staff and for our guests and we’ve been pretty healthy as a company.” Berkshire Roots implemented a plethora of new safety procedures as they slowly welcomed customers back into their shop. Winokur says they installed barriers between stations, social distancing signage, strict sanitization of the counter and debit card readers after every customer and staff interaction, limited capacity dictated by the state, and required mask and glove wearing by all staff. When the pandemic first struck Massachusetts last year, many every-day essential items like toilet paper, cleaning supplies, and hand sanitizer were in short supply. Berkshire Roots, along with other dispensaries in Massachusetts, volunteered to manufacture hand sanitizer for the state. “There were probably half a dozen of us in Massachusetts that volunteered to create hand sanitizer, because we have those extraction labs and we have some knowledge of how to do things like that,” he says. “The state actually turned to companies like us and said ‘Hey would you like to do this?’ and we volunteered. It wasn’t necessarily protocol but that was kind of a
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Courtesy / Jakob Menendez: Josh Carone, posed with a lit joint in his mouth. Carone likes the consistency that dispensaries offer.
state cannabis industry partnership.” Because Berkshire Roots’ East Boston location has only operated while COVID-19 raged, Winokur says its been difficult to gauge the pandemic’s impact on business, but, he says he feels the ensuing isolation helped many people take time to care for themselves and their mental health. “That did enhance people’s interest and desire to help their well being. There’s a big portion of the market that fits that category ‘It helps me with something, anxiety, sleep, nausea, if you are a cancer patient’ and all kinds of things,” he says. A sophomore communications studies major at Emerson, who wished to remain anonymous due to privacy concerns, says he was diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis—a group of genetic disorders that causes tumors to develop—and found smoking cannabis helps him cope with the anxiety that stems from his disability. “I get anxiety a lot and have dealt with some depression, so smoking usually helps with the anxiety. I use strains that usually lift you up and make you feel happier. I smoke once every two weeks, sometimes more depending on how I feel and how often Emerson puts us in lock down with nothing to do,” he says. The regulations surrounding legalized recreational cannabis sales in Massachusetts make him feel safer about buying and consuming cannabis, he says. “I just want to go through a place that I know is regulated. If I’m going to be smoking in Boston, I might as well have the legit stuff,” he says. Evans says all medical and recreational dispensaries in the state must follow the same set of guidelines set by the Cannabis Control Commission. “We all have the same strict regulations regarding cameras and making sure there’s no product that’s leaving the store unauthorized,” he says. “It’s similar to a bank or any business with high security because to a certain degree it’s still a controlled substance and you don’t want it to get into the hands of someone underage. We wan’t to make sure that everyone stays safe and that the product is always under the watchful eye.” While some students smoke for the medical benefits, others say it’s just plain fun. “We all know it’s fun, it can be a nice change from alcohol, and I personally think it’s a lot better than alcohol use,” Winokur says. “There’s certainly a big part of the market and when adult use opened up that really freed people to take advantage
of that without going through the medical part.” Josh Carone, a junior visual and media arts major, says he first visited the New England Treatment Access, or NETA, location in Brookline, Massachusetts as soon as he turned 21 last year. “You’re just curious to find out what a dispensary is like because it’s weird buying a drug legally from a government issued place,” he says. “It’s actually in an old bank. It looks like a government building because it was a government building.” He says he enjoys smoking with friends and watching movies.“You watch the movie Rango under the influence of weed and it’s an experience unlike anything other,” he says. “For me, especially as someone who likes watching movies and talking and laughing and it’s just the perfect supplement.” While he still buys from dealers in the Boston area because of cheaper prices, Carone says he likes the consistency in product that dispensaries offer. “I will say it’s very expensive. The first time I went there I was aghast and the guy was like ‘Yeah Taxachusetts.’ It’s like $55 plus $10 tax. It’s a good product but you are definitely paying the piper.” An eighth of cannabis from Massachusetts dispensaries average between $50 to $60 before tax, according to The Boston Globe. While the average street value for an eight in Boston varies from $40 to $45, Carone says. Massachusetts implemented a 20 percent tax which is made up of a 6.25 percent tax on all retail purchases of cannabis products, a state excise tax of 10.75 percent, and an optional local tax of 3 percent since July, 2018. Since Jan. 1, 2021 the cannabis industry in Massachusetts has generated a total of $311 million, according to the Cannabis Control Commission. A senior at Emerson who is currently studying remotely from California and wished to remain unnamed because of job prospects, says of the dispensaries he has visited in the Boston area, Berkshire Roots has been his favorite because of its prices. “When I was buying a couple months ago Berkshire [Roots] just had the better prices and that is what really it comes down to sometimes,” he says. When he was studying in Boston last semester, he says he felt safe going to Berkshire Roots with all the COVID-19 protocols set in place. “A lot of places were allowing you to order beforehand and then just pick it up which was super nice. With
Berkshire [Roots] you could just order on your computer, you schedule a certain time to pick it up, it’s like a window of an hour or two,” he says. “You stand outside, there’s no one really waiting inside, it’s only a certain amount of people that are checking out, like maybe three or four [people] and then they consistently rotate people out through a different door.” As a California native, he says he’s excited to see the cannabis industry begin to bloom in Boston and throughout the state. “Boston is kind of known as a drinking city,” he says. “There’s literally bars on every street in Boston and liquor stores that stay open past the 10 p.m. usual cut off time. It’s definitely cool to see that [dispensaries] are starting to pop up around Boston and supply people who are looking for [cannabis]. It brings in more money for the state, brings in more money for medical research, medical supplies, things that weed can help with.” Evans says as a person of color who has been targeted by over-policing, starting his own dispensary in Boston and creating more job opportunities in his community is a part of why he opened. “Being someone that has been targeted by police for the suspicion of selling drugs, now owning a dispensary and having access to all this product that was once vilified and criminalized, it’s just an interesting paradox that now all of a sudden it’s legal. It’s just surprising at times.” He says as the pandemic begins to relinquish its hold, he hopes to grow Pure Oasis by opening more locations in Boston, as well as neighboring states as legalization is expanded. He also says he hopes to create Pure Oasis cultivation facilities to create their own products instead of strictly sourcing them from other distributors in Massachusetts. “Early on there were people that were afraid to come out and there are people who are still afraid to come out,” he says. “It’s a small population. I think that overall we adapted to having to wear masks and social distance. We ultimately just adapted to the whole COVID situation.”
Ann E. Matica is the Deputy News Editor at The Berkeley Beacon and a senior journalism major.
ann_matica@emerson.edu
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Let’s be really Blunt: Student Dealers on what it’s like being
“The Plug” By: Campbell Parish & Karissa Schaefer
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ollege students, often overwhelmed by the pressures of schoolwork, social life, and on-campus extracurricular commitments, not to mention jobs, have increasingly turned to weed as an outlet for their anxieties. In a 2019 study by the University of Michigan, 43 percent of college students reported using the drug at least once in the past year, the highest total in 35 years. This is despite the fact that cannabis is legal for recreational use in just 16 states, according to Business Insider. Use of the drug for medical purposes— including mental health disorders, cancer, and chronic pain or nausea—is okayed in 36 states. At Emerson, students face a strict no-cannabis policy in the residence halls, even if the student is above the age of 21 or has a medical cannabis card. However, the college’s alcohol policy is more flexible— students over the age of 21 are allowed to possess limited amounts of alcohol in their dorms, per college policy. Due to the federal ban on use of the drug, Emerson cannot allow students to use weed in on-or-off campus housing, according to The Boston Globe. Yet, despite this fact, weed is legal for adults over the age of 21 in Massachusetts, thanks to a 2016 ballot initiative. But college students are crafty, and to no one’s surprise, Emerson students have found ways to circumvent federal and college policies barring use of the drug. Three drug dealers––Jamie, Alex, and John––who’s names have been changed as they spoke with The Beacon on the condition of anonymity, discussed their lives in the shadows and how it impacts their customers.
Alex: I needed a source of money and I couldn’t get a job here because I just have so much going on. I needed a quick way to make cash and I know a lot of students here don’t want to buy weed from people that they don’t trust because it could be laced with anything like Fentanyl and stuff, so I have a safe dealer and I make sure I test it to make sure it’s all clean and everything. A lot of people were buying from me and my friend because it was safe and it was
get any of them, so I knew I needed some spending money to use just to live in Boston. Jamie: I’ve been selling on and off since my senior year of high school and that’s because I have a couple dealers that have sold to me for cheaper, so then I would sell it for more for profit. In my senior year, I had a job, so I was only doing it a couple times just to make more money on the side. Basically, I just do it when I see the opportunity to. Q: What do you think the culture around smoking weed is like at Emerson? Jamie: I think it’s something that most people do and especially because it’s a large community, like I know a bunch of people that just do it in the Common, the Garden, like people do it, I do it. I think at Emerson, the culture around the students at least, it’s good. I just know that a lot of people do it and there are a lot of benefits to it, and I think that a lot of people at Emerson would agree. John: People sort of expect it. I think this is a pretty stoner school so I don’t think people are really bothered by [weed], or concerned with it. I think there’s a positive outlook [on weed], but I think there’s definitely people that are buying that are very strict about their prices even if the prices are totally fair, which sometimes they’re not. People come from all around the country where prices are maybe different or maybe lower, so they think that the prices should be just like that so people get annoyed by that. But that’s probably the only thing that people have an issue with.
Answers were lightly edited for grammar and clarity.
quick transactions. We would sell out within like a day or two right off the bat, because everybody was looking for [weed]. I just needed the money and I know a lot of people who have mental illnesses here, so it’s a good way to combat that because weed helps with anxiety for most people and houses less stress. It was kind of benefiting both me and other people on the way, because I got to take their stresses away.
Question: Why did you start selling weed?
John: Because I didn’t have a job. I applied for a lot of campus jobs and didn’t
Q: How has your financial situation changed since you began dealing? John: I haven’t made a ton of money from this. It was really like, okay, I know that I’ll be spending some amount of money each month. I want to be able to like, not lose money. I want to be able to go to college and not come back with less money than I left home with… I’ve made about $600 to $800, I think. Alex: I haven’t been selling recently, it
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was only for like a two or three month period, but I think I made, in total like, $400 overall for profit. But if I were to split it with my partner then probably something like $200.
people that are stoners and they’ve never tried anything else. They just use that to get through the day in order to have less stress, because life is stressful and weed slows it down.
Jamie: Here, first semester and second semester, I’ve probably made like, nearly a grand, but I think I’ve spent a lot of that.
John: I could see it helping people relax. But at the same time, I could also see it negatively affecting your work ethic. And I’ve experienced that. So it’s when I was selling, I wasn’t like morally, ‘Oh, am I doing something wrong here?’ because my thinking was, if people are going to do it, they’re going to do it anyways. Me not selling to these people isn’t going to change how they’re acting.
Q: Do you think students should be allowed to possess cannabis on campus? Alex: We have a drug called alcohol, that is if you’re 21, which is allowed in dorms. I understand the smell factor of weed, but there’s edibles and there are things like dab pens that really don’t release any smell, so I think 100 percent it should be allowed in the dorms if it doesn’t smell. Emerson should allow it even if it’s off campus, or not in the dorms, because it’s healthier than alcohol. Jamie: Yeah, I get that [weed] is still federally illegal. But it does make me a little irritated that there’s people with medical cards, and they don’t have the ability to smoke, even if it’s just in their room. It irritates me that they can’t, so I would hope further down the road that Emerson sees this and is more lenient about [weed] as an okay thing to do. John: I feel like their policy, given that you can have alcohol on campus if you’re 21, doesn’t make a ton of sense. But it also adds up because it’s a federally funded college, and so they have to abide by federal law. I haven’t gotten in trouble with anybody for weed. But if someone did get in trouble, then I would hope that the [college] would be a little relaxed about it. Just because, hey, it’s Massachusetts, maybe they’re 21, it’s fine. But if that’s not the case, then it is a little illogical, but it does add up for a federally funded college. Q: Do you hear positive weed experiences from your customers? Alex: Oh yeah. Some of the people that I have sold to, literally they come to me to ask for stuff because they’re going through a situation and they just need to calm down. It keeps people going through their day without having to do anything harder. [Some people] say weed is a gateway drug, but it’s not. I know so many
Q: How do you think alcohol and weed are different? Jamie: Yeah, I feel strongly about that. I know alcohol is looked at in American families as being completely fine, and [there are] a lot of kids that sip their parents’ alcohol. It’s kind of ridiculous that something that has no positive effects on the human body is something that is looked upon so nicely, compared to something that has so many more health benefits. I don’t think kids should be drinking and smoking at a young age obviously. I’m not even saying to change the age of when you can drink or smoke, I’m just saying that I think the perspective of marijuana here in the U.S. in general is completely off, I think it’s off cause it’s not nearly as damaging as alcohol ever will be. Alex: Alcohol destroys your liver whereas to weed, the only side effect I guess would be if you’re like a pothead, it would like decrease your breathing maybe a little bit. The health benefits too, like alcohol doesn’t really have any health benefits where weed has so many beneficial factors to it, like [treating] anxiety, depression. Weed should honestly be more prioritized than alcohol at this school I think, as long as the smell isn’t bad in the dorms because obviously that affects other people. Q. How do you ensure to your customers your product is safe? Alex: When we sell out, they have to go to some outside source from Emerson, to some stranger in Boston that they don’t trust at all. It could be laced with so many different drugs, whereas I show customers that it’s pure THC because it’s from
a dispensary. We’re not going to outside sources like a random drug dealer on the street. I want there to be more drug dealers when it comes to weed so that people have a safer way of using this drug instead of going to someone where they can harm themselves. I also feel like it should be legal to sell weed in a sense that if it is not laced with anything and it’s pure THC, then it should not be a crime to sell this drug. While if it was laced with something, then of course I think that you should know your own supply and you should know who you’re selling to and if you’re selling to someone where it’s laced, then there’s a problem. No matter what age you are, if you’re a drug dealer in the sense of weed and it is pure THC, I think that it should honestly be legal because there are no issues with what you’re selling being that they know what they’re getting. Q. Do you prefer students to buy from you or dispensaries? Jamie: I don’t have anything against buying from a dispensary cause those also are products that are definitely good, cause I was getting my supply from someone who bought it from a dispensary, so I don’t have any problem. Get it how you can, there’s respect to anyone who can get it from a quality source that’s not gonna screw them over..I’ll definitely sell it to them for cheaper cause that’s expensive there, but if anyone needs it for any capacity, I hope they go to a dispensary if it’s not me cause I know for a fact it’s a quality source, it’s not gonna lace them. Q. What is the easiest form of cannabis to sell? Jamie: Edibles, they’re easiest to sell.. Having actual bud would reek up your room and get you more likely to get in trouble, so I think first edibles, then under that, dab cartridges are the easiest thing to sell cause of the fact that they don’t have a smell and it’s harder to catch cause you can easily hide it. Q: Has selling weed benefited your college experience? John: I guess it does, in that I have easy access to things whenever I want them, but not a ton. It’s really just money.
Honestly though, I’ve worried about these people [customers] just talking to me because they want to buy from me, so that’s something that I’ve thought about. Alex: Oh yeah, I got to meet like tons of people, make new friends, and like have a sense of trust that someone isn’t going to snitch on me, which is really cool because a lot of people aren’t trustworthy these days. It benefited me in a way, I just feel like I’m helping other people while helping myself. I got to meet tons of people, make new friends, and have a sense of trust that someone isn’t going to snitch on me, which is really cool cause a lot of people aren’t trustworthy these days. Jamie: It benefits me in a way where I’m making more money, since I don’t have a job here. It’s cool when someone texts me to meet them in a room I’ve never been to before, so I’m actually meeting someone new, so that’s also cool too. I’ve met more people and I’ve made money, so that’s awesome.
Campbell Parish is an Assistant Living Arts Editor for The Berkeley Beacon and a first-year journalism major. campbell_parish@emerson.edu Karissa Schaefer is the Deputy Arts Editor for The Berkeley Beacon and a first-year journalism major. karissa_schaefer@emerson.edu
Cannabis legalization doesn’t matter when you can’t legally smoke anywhere By: Clarah Grossman
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here we were, three college seniors in pajamas on the back porch, huddled close together in the Boston cold, sharing a celebratory joint after one of us got a full-time job post-graduation. Except, it was hard to celebrate when we kept looking over our shoulders. We froze our sesh when a neighbor came out with their dog because we knew this cluster of apartments were all owned by the same landlord, thus we all shared the same lease—which prohibited smoking. Not wanting to risk smoking in our apartment and unable to smoke in public, we accepted the risk of the back porch, and passed the joint quickly round. In 2016, a ballot question known as “The Massachusetts Marijuana Legalization Initiative” legalized the sale and possession of maijuana in small amounts. While recreational dispensaries have been increasingly popping up around Massachusetts and Boston since 2019, there still isn’t anywhere to smoke. Massachusetts law dictates that it is illegal to smoke in public places, which leaves renters and people in public housing with nowhere to legally blaze. While the initiative included social cannabis licenses, there has been little action by Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker beyond pushing the plans to create social smoking spaces and introduction of social cannabis licenses to Massachusetts properties further and further back. Other states that have legalized the sale of cannabis have also promised to open cannabis cafes, though there has been little action, aside from one which opened in Los Angeles in 2019, which has since been thriving.
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The Los Angeles cafe offers a wide menu of cannabis treats and products, but it also serves seasonal dishes complimentary to THC’s effects. The cafe also offers “tableside flower service,” in which a “flower host” comes to your table and to talk about the different strains offered and their effects. There’s even a non-smoking patio for people to enjoy wine and beer with their meal instead. It’s not quite as casual as the coffeeshops known in Amsterdam, where patrons can openly smoke inside, but The Original Cannabis Cafe is a first-step towards cannabis-friendly spaces where it is legal to smoke and sell cannabis. My roommates and I reminisced about those Dutch coffeeshops on our back porch, remembering the semester we spent at Kasteel Well and about the days we spent in coffee shops, smoking and relaxing. After the decriminalization of cannabis in Amsterdam in 1976, coffee shops became one of the largest tourist industries. My roommates and I joked about the joint we learned to roll and the chill atmosphere that accompanied all shops. Most coffeeshops have you buy a drink or food along with the cannabis product, as the cannabis in Amsterdam is known to be much stronger than what American tourists are used to —a result of larger amounts of THC that growers have spent years cultivating. While cannabis isn’t legal in the Netherlands, it has been decriminalized and regulated through coffee shops since 1976. There was something unique in sitting on a patio, drinking a hot cup of tea while sharing a joint. My roommates and I laughed about our naivety the first time we went to a Dutch coffeeshop. Our abroad program
had warned us that some places didn’t sell to foreigners, and when we stepped up to the counter and asked in broken Dutch for a pre-roll, the budtenders gave it to us without a second thought—though we did get a few weird looks. Being in a coffee shop for the first time was a surreal experience, as someone who always hides their smoking habits. Coffee shops are seen as a place of relaxation, and many people treat them like real cafes and go there to socialize, do work, or just read a book. Coffee shops and cannabis culture in Amsterdam is inviting, and as my roommates and I passed the celebratory joint between us, we reminisced and tried not to think about how, unlike in the welcoming Dutch coffee shops, we were risking eviction to smoke. The Cannabis Commission Control, which controls the licenses to social consumption establishments, launched a pilot program in 2019, making the first steps towards breaking ground on a cannabis cafe in Massachusetts; however, it will still take years for an actual cafe to open under this program and most of the timeline is still unclear. My roommates and I, standing on our back porch, think about how we have taken easy access to cannabis for granted, and how there are numerous families and people in the city struggling to toke as they please. Hopefully, Gov. Baker will get on to baking soon. Clarah Grossman is a frequent contributor to The Berkeley Beacon and a senior creative writing major.
clarah_grossman@emerson.edu
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