FALL 2018 • FREE
HORROR HIGHS PAGE 6
FRIENDS OF POT
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CANADA FIRST PAGE 10
2 GREEN ZONE QUARTERLY FALL 2018
GREEN
ZONE QUARTERLY
FALL 2018 COVER ARTIST Caleb Walsh ART DIRECTOR Derek Harrison
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he leaves are changing. The twilight of 2018 is in full view: Days are becoming shorter, darker, gloomier. It's a time that calls for light, maybe a little fire, maybe, perhaps, a little smoke out of Bill Hunton's handmade clay pipes (page 4). It might even help you conquer your fears in this season of ghouls, ghosts, goblins and melting faces (page 6). It might even inspire a newfound appreciation for our neighbors to the north, who've legalized cannabis throughout their country (page 10). It might even have you sitting by a roaring fire at night contemplating the changing seasons, your existence in this big, beautiful world and re-evaluating what you thought you knew about weed, separating the magic from the myth (page 14). Indeed, what a wonderful time to be alive! n
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BE AWARE: Marijuana is legal for adults 21 and older under Washington State law (e.g., RCW 69.50, RCW 69.51A, HB0001 Initiative 502 and Senate Bill 5052). State law does not preempt federal law; possessing, using, distributing and selling marijuana remains illegal under federal law. In Washington state, consuming marijuana in public, driving while under the influence of marijuana and transporting marijuana across state lines are all illegal. Marijuana has intoxicating effects; there may be health risks associated with its consumption, and it may be habit-forming. It can also impair concentration, coordination and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. Keep out of reach of children. For more information, consult the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board at www.liq.wa.gov.
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FALL 2018 GREEN ZONE QUARTERLY
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Glazed to Blaze Bill Hunton hopes to light a fire under his homemade pipe business as he nears retirement BY SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL
T
ucked near the furnace in a small room in his basement, Bill Hunton handcrafts hundreds of clay pipes each year at a small work table, forming clay tubes around dowels and stamping geometric patterns and artistic animals into each one. Some of his pipes feature abstract representations for zodiac signs, while others have a waspy, flower-like shape that he says represents a human being. Each one is intricately adorned. After firing the pipes in a kiln in the other room, Hunton cleans them, glazes them and fires them again, before one last wash. The colors come out striking: deep maroons and blues blend together on some, a rainbow mish-mash flows in trippy patterns on others. Nearby is a much larger workspace where his wife perfects her own artwork and makes some of the stamps he uses to adorn his pipes. She’s got the real talent, he explains. “I call her stuff ‘treasures’ and my stuff ‘trinkets,’” he says with a smile. Since around 2005, Hunton has worked on making and perfecting his pipes, but it wasn’t until more recently, in the last few years, that he actually got into selling them, going to the trouble to get permits and licensing to sell at places like Hempfest and Barter Faire. Now he makes and sells his wares under the name Cherokee Bill Pipes and Novelties (he’s a member of Cherokee Nation) and he hopes to be able to start online sales through a distributor like Amazon in the next couple of years.
Bill Hunton shows off his clay pipes. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO His foray into pipe work was nearly acmuch less likely to break than some other cidental: Back when he still used a spinning materials. wheel, he was making a series of bottles “It’ll still break on ya, but it’s a lot better when an idea struck him. than glass,” he says, taking one of his pipes “I took the neck and said, ‘Now this and hitting it on the edge of a table a dozen looks kind of like a peace or more times to show its pipe,’” says Hunton, who strength. Those interested in buying says he doesn’t personally That said, he still has one of Bill Hunton’s pieces partake in smoking cangreat deference for the can email him to find out nabis but has gotten guidartistry of glass workers, more at cherokeebillceramics ance on how to improve and says he loves having @gmail.com or check to see his work from a relative competition. if they’re in stock at Piece of who does. For now, Hunton, born Mind in Spokane Valley. He still makes other and raised in Spokane, trinkets like marbles and still works full time in a dice, but the pipes have local print shop, so the become his main focus. One of the main pipe making is mostly a hobby. In winter he improvements he’s made since those early makes hundreds of pipes in his free time, days is the inclusion of two knobs on the then hauls them to events where he can sell bottom of each pipe so it can rest on a table them in the summer. But he’d like to make bowl-side up without rolling around. more out of the work eventually. He also touts the pieces as tough. “I’d love to be able to retire into doing Although not at all indestructible, they’re this,” he says. n
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Just in time for fall, nine retro splatter flicks you can enjoy after a few tokes BY NATHAN WEINBENDER
A
s the air gets crisper and the days get shorter, I’m always in the mood for a horror movie. But not just any horror movie: I want a movie that’s kinda dumb, a movie that had more thought into the obviously fake special effects than story, a movie that (perhaps it goes without saying) is easily enjoyed under the influence. Sure, The Shining is great and all, but killer robots and shark-fighting zombies are way more fun. Scouring the libraries of Amazon Prime and the horror service Shudder (Netflix’s selections are just too classy for this exercise), we found some European curiosities, awesomely bad ’80s cheese and cult favorites with over-the-top, gooshy gore that would be a lot more entertaining after a few hits, if that’s your thing. (You should also be warned that none of them are for the squeamish.)
GOOFY & GORY
Demons (1985): Oblivious people trapped in a creepy old movie theater start turning into flesh-eating ghouls one by one. Cue neck ripping, eye gouging, head smashing and green goo vomiting. Oh, and a monster emerges from a person’s back. It’s bonkers. Shudder.
Warning: This product has intoxicating effects and may be habit forming. Smoking is hazardous to your health. There may be health risks associated with the consumption of this product. This product should not be used by women that are breastfeeding or pregnant. Marijuana can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the unfluence of this drug. For use only by adults twenty-one and older. Keep out of the reach of children.
6 GREEN ZONE QUARTERLY FALL 2018
The Return of the Living Dead (1985): If you enjoy the slapstick genius of Evil Dead II, you’ll probably dig this gratuitous tribute/parody of George Romero’s zombie films. Severed limbs, shuffling cadavers, melting flesh, and it’s all very, very ’80s. Amazon Prime. Society (1989): A truly weird, almost dreamlike satire of Reagan-era yuppiedom, wherein a preppy teen realizes his
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HORROR, ITALIAN STYLE
Blood and Black Lace (1964): The most surreal and disturbingly beautiful horror came out of Italy in the ’60s and ’70s (dubbed giallo), and Mario Bava’s tale of a gloved killer stalking fashion models is arguably the first-ever slasher film. Stylish above all else, but what style. Shudder. Deep Red (1975): Another bloody Italian classic, this one from giallo master Dario Argento (Suspiria), about a British pianist who seems to be a magnet for weird, elaborate killings. Contains a laughing porcelain doll that will haunt your dreams. Amazon Prime. Zombie (1979): OK, this gorefest about idiotic Americans on a cursed Caribbean island is admittedly kinda boring. But it has two totally off-the-wall sequences: 1) A shard of wood goes right into a fake eyeball, and 2) an actor dressed as a zombie fights a real shark underwater. Seriously. Shudder.
SO BAD THEY’RE GOOD
Chopping Mall (1986): Super cool teens partying in a mall after hours face off against some laser-shooting security robots run amok. Keep your eyes peeled for a righteous head explosion. Though it’s sort of in on its own joke, it’s still charmingly stupid. Amazon Prime. Maximum Overdrive (1985): Stephen King’s sole directorial effort (based on his short story “Trucks”), a coked-out, AC/ DC-scored nightmare about sentient automobiles attacking a roadside diner. Watch out for killer carving knives, lethal soda machines and a pissed-off Emilio Estevez. Amazon Prime. Pieces (1982): A surreally inept Spanish slasher concerning a chainsaw murderer collecting body parts on a sexually liberated college campus. Amongst its weird lapses in logic: Nobody seems all that worried about the murder spree, and the killer keeps leaving his chainsaws at the crime scenes. Most horror films wish they could be this insane. Shudder. n
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FALL 2018 GREEN ZONE QUARTERLY
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PEEPS
Friends in High Places After a sexual harassment scandal took out one of Washington state’s most influential politicians on marijuana legislation, who’s next in line?
F
BY DANIEL WALTERS
or several years, there was one key person in the Washington State House to talk to about marijuana legislation: Rep. David Sawyer of Tacoma. And when the Inlander interviewed him earlier this year, he said he planned to resurrect a bill next year requiring a vote of local citizens, not just of a city council or a board of county commissioners, to implement local marijuana bans or moratoriums. But Sawyer won’t get that chance. A sexual harassment investigation revealed he sent “multiple inappropriate and offensive text messages” to one of his employees and made “multiple inappropriate and offensive comments and jokes” about another employee’s sexual orientation. Even before he lost his primary in August, House Democrats stripped him of his position on the Commerce & Gaming Committee, paving the way for new leadership in the state Legislature on marijuana issues. And we won’t know who takes his place until after the November election, when committee assignments are made. Current Commerce & Gaming Committee chair Rep. Shelley Kloba, of Bothell, is one contender. But her seatmate, Rep. Derek Stanford, is also interested in the chairmanship, and he has seniority. Both are Democrats. Not only that, but the committee’s ranking Republican member — Rep. Cary Condotta from Wenatchee — has retired. “That does take a great deal of the institutional knowledge away from the committee,” Kloba says. Fortunately, many of the biggest issues — like melding together the recreational and medical marijuana systems — have already been largely solved. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of questions left to be answered. “When the voters approved of Initiative 502, there was some specific components
of the excise tax that was supposed to go to research,” Kloba says. But, for the most part, she says, that hasn’t happened. “I will be doing a big push toward increasing the research dollars,” Kloba says. There are many areas that local universities could focus on: Some of them could be researching the growth of marijuana like any other crop — what’s the best way to get the largest yields with the smallest input? She also says universities could dig deeper into the effectiveness of treating
“I would say the joke was that Senate Labor & Commerce was where marijuana bills go to die.” cancer patients using marijuana. They could research how to clearly measure what level of marijuana leads to driving impairment. According to former state Sen. Chris Marr — today a lobbyist for the marijuana industry — it’s not the House that’s the challenging spot for marijuana legislation. “I would say the joke was that Senate Labor & Commerce was where marijuana bills go to die,” say Marr. Part of that reason, Kloba says, is that back when Democrats controlled the House and when Republicans controlled the Senate, the fights over larger, more partisan issues dominated the Legislature’s time. In fact, marijuana, says Sen. Ann Rivers (R-La Center), has been one of those few issues that defy simple partisan labels.
8 GREEN ZONE QUARTERLY FALL 2018
“Outside [Spokane’s Sen. Michael] Baumgartner, most Republicans are afraid to even talk about marijuana,” Rivers says. “But many say that it’s here and it has to be managed.” And Rivers, who serves on the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee, is one of them. “I have really worked hard to shut down the black market,” Rivers says. In southwest Washington, she says, teen use has actually gone down with marijuana legalization, as the legal regulated market has made it almost impossible for dealers to make a profit selling illegally. But one big hurdle remains: The federal prohibition on marijuana means that many banks won’t lend to pot retailers or businesses. That means much of the business still needs to be done in cash. “Where there’s cash, there’s questions. There’s the possibility of the continuation of a black market that feeds off our young people,” Rivers says. “It is my hope that we are able to move to our cashless system within two years.” She says she’s been working with federal legislators in both parties to clear the way for that system. n
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anada. Land of Molson, moose, mounties and, very soon, marijuana. Our ally to the north went legal with the stuff officially on Oct. 17, making it the only country in the Northern Hemisphere with federal laws allowing the consumption, purchase, growth and sale of marijuana for its citizens. While weed has been decriminalized and used for medicine widely around the world, the only other country to sanction all-out legalization is Uruguay. Think of it like Washington and Colorado in 2012, but the whole country. Cool… But! The Canadian cannabis biz is only in its infancy, and it’s hard to tell what its future is. It is important, however, to understand that Canada has been on the forefront of medicinal marijuana for years now. But recreational use? Here’s what U.S. and Canadian media have been reporting lately:
MAD MONEY
“Buy now! Ya hoser!” Investments in the business are apparently going nuts. “Canada’s Investment Banks Are Big Winners in Marijuana Boom” declares a headline from the Wall Street Journal: “Investors are piling into the sector ahead of Canada’s legalization of recreational marijuana use in October. Market values have ballooned, leading some to draw comparisons to last year’s bitcoin rally and the tech stock bubble of the late 1990s.” As the industry matures, investors — including those in the U.S. where marijuana is still illegal — might lighten up on pot, the Journal says.
LÉGALISÉR
10 GREEN ZONE QUARTERLY FALL 2018
Marijuana investment in Canada could mean good things for its economy, but not all of its citizens are exactly thrilled with the idea. As you can imagine, older, more conservative Canadians are worried, while younger, progressive, entrepreneurial Canadians see a bright future in the near future, the New York Times
MING O C E R A S Y A ID THE HOL
Sorry Yanks, Canada First
HUGE ! S E L SA
Rounding up the headlines swirling around Canada’s blossoming legal cannabis scene BY QUINN WELSCH reports from Montreal. Meanwhile, the country’s thriving “illegal medical dispensary” market appears to be the biggest pain in the newly legal industry’s side. Long before legalization was announced, unauthorized dispensaries have been “peacefully breaking the law,” selling unregulated weed from storefronts to anyone who comes in, Rolling Stone reports from Toronto. Authorities have raided some dispensaries, but as of Oct. 17, who’s breaking the law? Federal law in Canada is unclear, though unauthorized sellers in Nova Scotia could face $10,000 fines, according to the Canadian Broadcast Corporation.
STATUS: IT’S COMPLICATED
The United States has enjoyed a close relationship with Canada for at least the last the century. Under the Trump administration, that has changed. The United States’ relationship with Canada has become somewhat murky. Likewise, the United States’ relationship with marijuana is also in a bit of a gray area. For instance, the Trump administration recently approved the importation of certain marijuana products into the United States from Canada for research purposes (something domestic producers have not yet been allowed to do). However, Canadians who use, work or invest in marijuana could face lifetime bans at the border, according to an article in Rolling Stone in September. Plan on crossing the border? Best bet is to toss out any weed you might have in your car. Even if it’s medicinal, Len Saunders, an attorney in the sleepy border town of Blaine, Washington, tells the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
CANADA’S FINEST
Robbers who attacked a weed store in a Canadian town east of Toronto were repelled by the “Bong Ninja,” aka Joshua LewisBriant, in September, VICE News reports. Charging through blasts of bear mace, Lewis-Briant grabbed a bong from the shelf of the shop and met the attackers head on. Instant legend. n
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FALL 2018 GREEN ZONE QUARTERLY
11
HEALTH
Hooked on Pot Weed can be addictive; what that means for you BY WILSON CRISCIONE
A
ttitudes toward marijuana have always been extreme. In people’s minds, it’s either just like any other hard drug that will get you hooked and completely ruin your life — as was the thinking for decades — or it’s just no big deal, a substance with medicinal qualities that may do more good than bad. With dozens of states legalizing cannabis for medical or recreational use, the population is starting to lean toward the latter way of thinking. A majority of Americans — about six in 10 — support legalization. Drive
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around the states where it is legalized, and you’ll see giant billboards advertising pot. And often, they’re selling the idea that weed is better and harder to become addicted to than other substances you might use on a daily basis, like alcohol or tobacco. But has the pendulum swung too far that way? Is weed addiction a potentially serious problem? Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, says people need to know the truth about marijuana. And the truth is likely somewhere in the middle of the debate over cannabis. “If you want to say, ‘Well, it’s less addictive than heroin,’ that seems to be true,” Humphreys says. It’s not as addictive as other drugs, or even alcohol. But it’s not harmless, either. About one in 10 cannabis users report having problems with it, such as trouble quitting, or problems with concentration, short-term memory or motivation. And there are, in fact, withdrawal symptoms for regular users. Those include irritability, trouble sleeping, decreased appetite and anxiety, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Advocates of the drug sometimes try to differentiate between “psychological” and “physical” addiction, but there isn’t much of a difference, Hum-
phreys says. “From the point of view of neuroscientists, it’s all physical,” he says. “When people say it’s in my mind, not my body, we say, ‘the mind is a reflection of the body.’” The number of people who regularly use marijuana and become dependent is small — around 9 percent, studies have shown, compared to about 15 percent for alcohol. And it can, in fact, cause cognitive issues that derail someone’s life. Humphreys notes that those people might Keith Humphreys get mocked for being “stoners,” but people don’t realize they are battling addiction that can be tough on them. Some populations are at greater risk of dependence than others. Generally, the later in life you start using cannabis, the harder it is to become addicted. A middle-aged person who starts using cannabis is very unlikely to become addicted. But a high-school kid who uses cannabis regularly? They’re at a much greater risk. “The reason why is the same reason why you can acquire a foreign language earlier: Brains are more plastic at a younger age,” Humphreys says. n
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NEWS
Reefer Madness and things like it helped to perpetuate myths about pot.
Weeding Out Myths about marijuana debunked
A
s a shaggy-haired kid sitting in a circle with friends, the wild assertions abounded about the herb people were inhaling. The one that stuck with me most was that smoking marijuana would lead to ball cancer. As in testicular cancer. That was around 2009, when a Seattle-based study linking “soaring marijuana use” and increased incidences of a particular type of testicular cancer was published. Researchers cautioned that the link was only a “hypothesis” and needed further exploration. A more recent review of studies from the 1990s found that “those using cannabis on at least a weekly basis had two-and-a-half times greater odds” of developing that particular type of testicular cancer. Still, for as long as people have smoked it, myths about marijuana have stuck around. Here are a few more we’ve found to be not so credible.
MYTH FOUR-TWENTY IS COP CODE FOR POT
It’s totally believable that punky stoner
BY MITCH RYALS
kids who overhear the fuzz mumble “fourtwenty” in a radio whilst also grinding the joint they just confiscated under their boot heel would reclaim the phrase. But the actual origin of the official stoner holiday (April 20) is more unlikely. It’s not Bob Marley’s birthday (but it is Hitler’s birthday), it’s not the number of chemical compounds in marijuana and it’s not the sum of the numbers in that one Bob Dylan song multiplied. In fact, the official origin, identified just last year in the Oxford English Dictionary, is a group of bell-bottomed stoner kids in San Rafael, California. The group would pass each other in the hallway and whisper “4:20” to each other as reminders to meet up after school and spark a doobie.
MYTH WEED IS NOT ADDICTIVE
Earlier this year, the Atlantic published a groundbreaking story challenging the notion that weed is not addictive. Smokers and former smokers describe debilitating effects and an inability to quit. “If not necessarily because of legalization, but alongside legalization, such problems are becoming more common,”
14 GREEN ZONE QUARTERLY FALL 2018
the author, Annie Lowrey, writes. She cites the National Institutes of Health, which report that the share of adults with marijuana-use disorder has doubled since the early aughts. (See page 13.)
MYTH GOOD PEOPLE
DON’T SMOKE MARIJUANA
These are words from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who, if you follow President Trump on Twitter, has more to worry about than legalized weed.
MYTH MARIJUANA CAUSES MAN BOOBS
First of all, what the hell, CNN? In 2013 the network published a convoluted article article by Detroit-based plastic surgeon Anthony Youn, citing a report from 1972, which “made the initial connection between cannabis and gynecomastia,” the medical term for man boobs. Or moobs, if you will. Youn acknowledges that “few studies have examined a direct causative effect” between smoking pot and moobs, and cites another study from 1977, which showed no association. “So can smoking pot really give you man boobs?” Youn asks. “Probably.” That’s quite a leap. Luckily, other outlets rushed to debunk the good doctor’s claim, citing research showing “no scientific evidence” that smoking weed will give you man boobs. n
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