From the Archives: Secrets of the Alien Growers Revealed! (1988)

A famous writer from California was held hostage by an evil Queen from Outer Space who intended to keep him as a pet,” states Dr. Franz Berber, a leading San Francisco psychiatrist. The writer, Edward P. Hassle, managed to escape with the help of another alien.

Berber, a well-known hypnosis expert who specializes in treating the rich and famous, made this startling revelation at a recent regressive hypnosis conference held at the University of Illinois, in Urbana, Illinois.

“I know revealing this information is a violation of my doctor-patient relationship,” admits Berber, “but I feel it must be done in the interest of science and the future of the human race.”

According to statements made by the 42-year-old Hassle while in a trance, alien beings have been inhabiting remote sections of the planet and harvesting plant material from around the world. For some reason, the aliens seem particularly interested in marijuana.

“I have played copies of the sessions with Mr. Hassle to many leading experts in the UFO field, and all of them agreed that Mr. Hassle was abducted by an alien craft on October 16, 1986,” says Berber. “He disappeared for two weeks before mysteriously returning to his home with a case of temporary amnesia.”

What makes the disappearance even more suspicious was the fact Hassle was working on an article on UFO’s for HIGH TIMES magazine. After the editors rejected the article for lack of evidence, Hassle resigned from the magazine and began documenting his theory with photographs. It was at this time that he mysteriously disappeared. [See HIGH TIMES, Jan. ’87, page 14.]

“There have been many cases of people abducted by aliens, but this is the first time an alien has tried to hold a human being against their will for an extended period,” says John Holmstrom, executive editor of HIGH TIMES. “This case represents a new and potentially dangerous twist on the current rash of UFO sightings.”

Although Mr. Hassle was contacted at his home in Humboldt County, he refused to comment on the story. “Ed doesn’t want to talk right now,” explains his wife, Sunflower. “We’re still very concerned that the aliens might come back.”

According to an unpublished manuscript obtained by the Weakly World News, Hassle’s discoveries began after he noticed a decline in the potency of the marijuana plants in his backyard. At first this decline was attributed to the fact the plants had been cloned for several years; so, Hassle began growing from his original seed stock. However, the quality of the plants continued to decline.

Hassle put a 24-hour watch on the plants, and on the evening of September 2nd, 1986, he observed a small UFO hovering over his house. A long tube with a suction cup on the end appeared from the bottom of the craft. The craft descended until this tube was directly over his largest marijuana plant. The craft glowed momentarily, then took off at incredible speed, disappearing in an instant. Hassle contacted the police and wrote an account of the incident for HIGH TIMES. “Everyone laughed at him,” says Berber. “It was the beginning of a very traumatic time for Hassle. The police came and just confiscated his plants. He became obsessed by a story no one would publish.”

Hassle began visiting other marijuana growers in the area, and discovered everyone was experiencing a similar decline in potency. Armed with only a notebook and camera, he traveled from one grower to the next. Each night he kept vigil over a different patch of cannabis plants. Within a few weeks he photographed several alien crafts.

However, on the evening of October 16th, while Hassle was alone in a marijuana patch, he mysteriously disappeared. “Ed went to the patch, we saw some flashes of lightning—and he never came back,” Sunflower was quoted as saying at the time. Two weeks later, Hassle appeared in his own backyard, confused and disoriented. He had no knowledge of what had happened, and was plagued by insomnia and anxiety for several months. Finally, he sought treatment with Dr. Berber.

Who are these people?

Who are these strange aliens, and what are they doing on earth?

“They are star travelers from a different solar system,” explains Berber. “They are basically very rich tourists who have become bored with life on their own planets. They can remain on Earth as long as they don’t interfere with life here, but most of them spend their lives in constant space travel, since it’s the only way to stay perpetually young.”

There are actually two different alien civilizations visiting the planet, and they are in constant competition which each other. “They used to use the planet as a hunting ground,” says Berber, “but after they killed off all the dinosaurs, their governments signed an agreement not to disturb the planet any longer. It was at this time that cannabis was introduced to Earth in the hopes it would help pacify what had become a very violent planet.

According to reports published in a recent issue of The Alien Times, Hassle and the Alien Queen engaged in a “smoke-off.” For four hours, the Queen brought out dozens of different varieties of hashish, each time offering the pipe to Hassle after taking a hit herself. The hash was so strong Hassle could barely function, but he pretended to be unimpressed. “You must have something better than this,” he told the Queen. “This one tastes like Colombian dirtweed.”

“You’ve tasted better?” asked the incredulous Queen.

“Sure,” said Hassle. “I’m on my way to the HIGH TIMES harvest festival in Amsterdam next month. They’ve got much better dope than this.”

Eventually the Queen could smoke no more, and left on her anti-gravity couch.

“At that point, the little grey men surrounded Hassle and began patting him on the back,” says Berber. “Hassle became an instant hero. One of the grey men befriended him and eventually helped him escape.”

Humans are the result of breeding experiments conducted with several species of apes. The aliens are far superior to us in intelligence. “Consequently, they pay little attention to man and his minor ‘accomplishments.’ They’re mostly interested in harvesting the purest and finest resin droplets from the tops of the finest marijuana plants.”

And what about the little grey men? As usual, the truth is stranger than fiction: “They are the Queen’s offspring, test-tube grown and genetically altered to make them into servile creatures somewhere between man and dog. They spend their lives catering to the Queen’s every whim.”

In order to populate her kingdom the Queen has constant sexual intercourse, sometimes with other aliens, but mostly with human captives. The captives are always released soon after copulation.

Hassle was given a tour of the alien grow rooms before being released. While under hypnosis he told of “large vats of pure resin being produced by cell division.” Interestingly enough, this synthetic resin is not considered as good as the finest Humboldt sensimilla.

In the meantime, Hassle has not left his house since he returned. “Ed’s not looking for any publicity,” says Sunflower, “he’s just hoping this whole thing will blow over soon.”

Excerpted from The Mysterious Case of Ed Hassle, published by The Weakly World News.

High Times Magazine, April 1988

Read the full issue here.

The post From the Archives: Secrets of the Alien Growers Revealed! (1988) appeared first on High Times.

source https://hightimes.com/culture/from-the-archives-secrets-of-the-alien-growers-revealed-1988/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=from-the-archives-secrets-of-the-alien-growers-revealed-1988

A Brave New World

When Oregon voters passed Proposition 109 in 2020, they cleared a path for greater access to the therapeutic use of psilocybin mushrooms and products that contain their active compounds. The ballot measure, which was approved with more than 55% of the vote, authorized the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to create a program to permit licensed service providers to produce and administer psilocybin-producing mushroom products to adults 21 years of age or older.

A model for progressive drug policy reform, Prop. 109 also laid the groundwork for a new industry in Oregon. The OHA’s Psilocybin Services Section is charged with drafting rules to license and regulate the manufacturing, transportation, delivery, sale, and purchase of psilocybin products as well as the provision of psilocybin services, with a mandate to have the program up and running in 2023. The agency is already accepting applications for psilocybin business licenses and savvy entrepreneurs are launching new enterprises to service a rising industry.

A New Business is Born

George Sellhorn, founder and principal scientist at Flourish Labs in Portland, is one of the business owners preparing for the launch of legal psilocybin in Oregon. He has had a personal relationship with psychedelics, including psilocybin mushrooms, since he was a teenager and acknowledges that psychedelics have had a “huge impact” on his life. He is also an avid cannabis enthusiast and, with tips and encouragement from High Times, has been growing his own plants since 1993. His interest in and passion for cannabis inspired his academic pursuits, with Sellhorn earning a Ph.D. in plant biochemistry from the University of Washington in 2006.

At that time, the legal cannabis industry in the U.S. was in its infancy, and positions in professional fields were few and far between. Sellhorn turned to biotechnology to begin his career, with stints working on cancer therapeutics and an HIV vaccine. Before long, however, friends with businesses in the emerging industry encouraged him to open a cannabis testing lab. Intent on seeing where his chosen path would take, he decided against going into business for himself, although he did dabble in the industry a bit and helped a couple of friends get labs set up. It seemed right for Sellhorn at the time, but it didn’t take long for him to wish he had decided differently.

“A few years later, I kind of was kicking myself saying, ‘I probably should have started a lab, and I’d probably be a lot happier than I am right now,’” he tells me in a telephone interview.

After the passage of Prop. 109, things came full circle. Once again, friends in a soon-to-be legal industry encouraged him to open a lab. The ballot measure includes provisions directing the OHA’s regulations for testing psilocybin products for contamination. Additionally, therapists would want to know the dosage of active compounds they were administering, leading to a need for potency data throughout the supply chain.

Sellhorn remembers thinking, “I’ve been down this road before,” and decided he wouldn’t leave himself open to later regrets this time around. He began ordering the lab equipment and supplies he would need to launch the operation in September 2021, and by the beginning of 2022, Flourish Labs was ready to start taking in samples and running tests.

Sellhorn says that testing mushrooms is quite similar to lab analysis of cannabis, but with one key difference. Like many cannabis labs, Sellhorn uses high-performance liquid chromatography incorporated with ultra-violet spectroscopy (HPLC-UV) to separate the molecules of a given sample and determine its makeup. However, unlike cannabinoids, which are fat-soluble (hydrophobic), the alkaloids in mushrooms are water-soluble (hydrophilic), necessitating a change in the approach to make it work. “So, same methods as cannabis, but just the opposite chemistry,” Sellhorn summarizes.

Lab Testing for Psilocybin, and More

Much of the time Sellhorn spends in testing involves determining the amount of psychoactive alkaloids, or potency, a particular sample contains. More than 50 species of mushrooms produce psilocybin, which is expressed at different levels determined by factors including genetics and cultivation practices.

“The most potent mushroom that I’ve seen from different people is an Albino Penis Envy or an APE,” says Sellhorn. “Eve tested anywhere from 0.1% alkaloids, up to 2.3% was the highest one that I’ve tested so far. So, there’s a pretty big range. The average, I’d say, is about 0.5% to 0.7% alkaloids [by dry weight].”

Initially, Sellhorn’s business plan primarily involved analyzing mushrooms that contain psilocybin and related alkaloids, including psilocin, psilocybin, norpsilocin, baeocystin, and norbaeocystin. Since opening Flourish Labs, he has also developed testing protocols for other products made with psilocybin mushrooms that are likely to be part of Oregon’s upcoming regulated market.

“I can also do fruiting bodies and gummies, chocolates, and extracts, whether it be liquid extract or dry extract” he explains. “So, I have a protocol for all of the possible products that could be made, that I’m aware of, as of now.”

High Times Magazine, February 2023

Dosage is Key

Sellhorn notes that the renewed interest in the reported health and wellness benefits of psilocybin has fostered a new culture of microdosing, which Sellhorn has been practicing for more than four years. To microdose, only a tiny fraction of a psychedelic dose of psilocybin is taken, perhaps 0.1 to 0.2 milligrams, Sellhorn suggests. With mushrooms of average potency (rounded up to 1% total alkaloids), that translates to about a tenth to two-tenths of a gram of mushroom biomass. “That’s like a really nice microdose, and you can adjust it based on body weight,” he says. “A microdose should be enough to lift your mood but not feel any of the psychedelic effects like you’re about to trip.”

At the other end of the spectrum is macrodosing, which involves taking enough psilocybin to produce a strong psychedelic effect, which can either be a heck of a fun trip or a space for life-changing spiritual or psychological breakthroughs, depending on the intention with which the drug is taken. To macrodose, Sellhorn says a dosage of 30 milligrams to 50 milligrams of psilocybin (approximately 5 grams of mushroom biomass) should be about right for an intense trip. And within the extremes of micro and macrodosing, “there’s doses in between there for whatever you’re looking for.”

In addition to potency, Sellhorn notes that the form of psilocybin taken can also influence the effects of the drug. While eating dried mushrooms is the classic method of consumption, extracted psilocybin and products made from it can modify the drug’s effects.

“It’s abundantly clear to me now that the mushroom biomass itself acts like a time-release capsule. So, if you take a mushroom that has, say, five milligrams of psilocybin in it, and you eat that, you’ll get a certain effect,” he explains. “And it’ll take a certain amount of time to hit you. But if you take five milligrams in a gummy or a chocolate, it hits you way faster, it’s much more intense, and it gets over more quickly.”

Sellhorn’s work in the lab has given him an opportunity to increase his knowledge about other psilocybin best practices, as well. He notes that proper storage is very effective at preserving the potency of psilocybin mushrooms. When a client was looking for data on potency degradation, an in-house study determined that mushrooms stored in a vacuum-sealed bag and kept in dark conditions at 60° Fahrenheit retained 98% of their potency after four months.

An Expanding Scientific Field

Although he sees a strong market for analyzing psilocybin-containing mushrooms coming to Oregon, Sellhorn realized that demand for lab testing may be limited until the industry is more established and generating revenue. Although the state’s regulations will likely eventually include requirements for testing for microbial contamination or the presence of heavy metals in addition to potency, such testing is not yet in high demand. So, to supplement his business plan, Flourish Labs has also begun lab testing of so-called functional mushrooms including cordyceps, reishi, and amanita muscaria (famous in folklore and pop culture) for compounds that could have health and wellness benefits. Additional species to be tested by the lab in the coming months include lion’s mane, chaga, maitake, tremella, and turkey tail.

When regulated production and administration of psilocybin for therapeutic purposes begins in Oregon later this year, it will launch a new industry in the state and become a milestone in the continued evolution of drug policy reform. Leading the way will be a new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs, including Sellhorn and Flourish Labs.

This article was originally published in the February 2023 issue of High Times Magazine.

The post A Brave New World appeared first on High Times.

source https://hightimes.com/news/oregon/a-brave-new-world/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-brave-new-world

California Cannabis Department Grants Nearly $20 Million to Academic Institutions

The California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) granted $19,942,918 to 16 academic institutions with plans to research cannabis on April 26. The grants will be dedicated to research initiatives exploring the effectiveness of cannabis on “mental health of young people, novel cannabinoids like Delta-8 and Delta-10 THC, and a first-of-its kind study of California’s legacy cannabis genetics, intended to preserve the history, value, and diversity of the communities that steward them,” a press release stated.

According to DCC chief deputy director Rasha Salama, the goal is to have these particular initiatives lead the way in cannabis studies. “It is the Department’s aspiration that these studies will advance the body of scientific research, further our understanding of cannabis, and aid to the continued development and refinement of the legal framework,” said Salama. “These studies will provide valuable insights on topics of interest to California’s consumers, businesses, and policy makers and the Department looks forward to sharing them once they are completed.”

Grants were awarded to institutions in six categories, including cannabis potency, medicinal use of cannabis, health of the cannabis industry, monopolies and unfair competition, California legacy genetics and genetic sequencing, and “other” topics. A total of 98 proposals were considered, and 16 were chosen from that pool based on “strong scientific methodology, their ability to provide useful information for policymaking, their advancement of public understanding of cannabis, and their potential to generate foundational research that will support exponential future knowledge.”

The institution that received the highest grant amount of funds was Cal Poly Humboldt with $2,699,178, which will be sued to tackle the topic of “Legacy Cannabis Genetics: People and Their Plants, a Community-Driven Study.” 

According to a press release, a nonprofit organization called Origins Council and the Cannabis Equity Policy Council is partnering with the Cal Poly Humboldt to work on the initiative. “This research seeks to empower and protect California’s legacy cultivation communities who have overcome great adversity to innovate and steward one of the most important collections of cannabis genetic resources in the world,” stated Origins Council executive director Genine Coleman.

Additionally, the University of California, Irvine and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) received $2 million each, and both will be conducting cannabis potency studies.

UCLA-based studies secured six grants, and University of California, Berkeley (UCB) received grants for three. Other institutions included University of California, San Francisco, University of California, Davis, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Cal Poly Humboldt.

One particular collaboration between UC Irvine and UCLA will conduct the “first double-blind, placebo-controlled, federally compliant, drug-administration study evaluating the intoxicating effects of inhaled cannabis plant compared to inhaled concentrates. It is expected [to] establish a clinically significant threshold to define high and low THC concentrations.”

In February, the DCC also announced a new grant program offering $20 million to help support and expand the state’s cannabis industry. “Expanding access to California’s retail cannabis market is an important step towards protecting consumer safety and supporting a balanced market,” said DCC director Nicole Elliott. “The retail access grant program ultimately seeks to encourage legal retail operations in areas where existing consumers do not have convenient access to regulated cannabis.” The grant application window ends on April 28, and $10 million of the grant funds will be awarded by June 20. After that, an additional $10 million will be “available to previous awardees as they issue licenses.”

The DCC released a statement in early March regarding the enforcement statistics from the past two years. According to the agency’s report, the DCC led 61 search warrant operations in 2021, but conducted 155 in 2022. In 2021, the DCC seized more than 41,726 pounds of cannabis (approximately $77,772,936 in value), but that number increased to 144,254 pounds in 2022 (estimated to be more than $243,017,836 in value).

The post California Cannabis Department Grants Nearly $20 Million to Academic Institutions appeared first on High Times.

source https://hightimes.com/news/california-cannabis-department-grants-nearly-20-million-to-academic-institutions/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=california-cannabis-department-grants-nearly-20-million-to-academic-institutions

Travis Barker on Healing Power of Cannabinoids, Barker Wellness

Famed drummer and producer Travis Barker founded Barker Wellness, his own vegan wellness company combining the effects of broad spectrum CBD, cannabichromene (CBC), cannabigerol (CBG), and other ingredients.

Often drummers aren’t the star of the band, unless you’re Barker: Rolling Stone named Barker one of the “Greatest Drummers of All Time,” including his roles with The Aquabats and more importantly as one-third of Blink-182. While former Blink-182 alumni Tom DeLonge shifted to filmmaking and the unexplained, vocalist Mark Hoppus recently announced he’s cancer-free and is back in the studio.

Twenty years ago, Barker joined supergroup the Transplants with Tim “Lint” Armstrong (Rancid and Operation Ivy), rapper Rob Aston, Kevin Bimona (Interrupters), and others. Through the years, he’s done work with too many artists to mention, including Slash, Machine Gun Kelly, and Post Malone, and dabbled in reality TV with everything from MTV Cribs to Meet the Barkers and The Kardashians. Today he lives with his wife Kourtney Kardashian and children.

Courtesy Barker Wellness

Early in his career, Barker described himself growing up as a “stoner” at Fontana High in California to Men’s Health. Lately though, he seems more interested in healing with the help of cannabinoids, and he says a healthy lifestyle is “everything” to him. A brush with death in a 2008 plane crash prompted him to change from vegetarian to vegan.

Musicians and athletes across the board have turned to CBD and other cannabinoids for muscle relief, something that Barker picked up boxing and training for Muay Thai.

“After boxing for years, training Muay Thai, playing drums, and training for tours… recovery became a big issue for me, just figuring out how to keep going and not break down,” Barker tells High Times. “I was using so many different types of CBD products and different lines of CBD it became something I was really passionate about so I wanted to create my own line.” Muay Thai trainees say CBD’s anti-inflammatory properties are what draws martial arts students to the compound. CBC is believed to have modest antinociceptive as well as anti‐inflammatory effects.

Barker tries the products out himself before giving his stamp of approval. “Every opportunity I can I’ll use the Barker Wellness products because they’re such high quality and I know they work for me,” he says, “whether I need to wind down and take a bath at the end of my day or restore my mental clarity and focus.”

Enter Barker Wellness

In order to get the maximum benefits, combining cannabinoids including CBD, CBC, and CBG leads to a better effect.

Numerous athletes including John Salley (Detroit Pistons) and Floyd Landis (Tour de France) learned that combining CBD with a cooling ingredient like menthol or eucalyptus in topicals makes them work better if you’re actually trying to penetrate deep into muscle tissue—using the right tools for the right job, so to speak. 

Combining CBD and menthol “definitely” makes topicals work better, Barker says. “The ingredients have an amazing aroma and help with absorption, they also have healing properties that help with pain and inflammation. The different cannabinoids combined with menthol make the formula really effective. The Barker Wellness Muscle Therapy Balm is great for when I’m sore after working out or drumming. It helps ease my muscle tension and reduce joint pain.”

Courtesy Barker Wellness

Similarly to the balm, CBD & CBC Muscle Therapy Cream also has cooling ingredients and is made with a blend of 250mg of CBC, 75mg of CBG, 75mg of broad spectrum CBD, plus menthol, bisabolol, shea butter, jojoba, aloe vera, sunflower, eucalyptus, and vitamin E. 

CBD & CBC Bath Soak is made with a blend of broad spectrum CBD and CBC with lavender, bergamot, hibiscus, copaiba oil, and hydrating daikon seed extract. “I love taking baths because it’s such an amazing way to unwind, especially after a long day,”  Barker said in the announcement.

Organic CBD & CBC Recovery Gummies support your immune system and soothe your mind and body with a blend of organic CBD and CBC, plus vitamins C, D3, and B1 for additional immune system support. 

To learn more, check out the Barker Wellness website. 

The post Travis Barker on Healing Power of Cannabinoids, Barker Wellness appeared first on High Times.

source https://hightimes.com/celebrities/travis-barker-on-healing-power-of-cannabinoids-barker-wellness/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=travis-barker-on-healing-power-of-cannabinoids-barker-wellness

GOP Senators Kill Veterans Cannabis Research Bill

Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted this week to block a bill that would have directed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to conduct research into cannabis as a treatment for chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In a procedural vote on Wednesday, the Senate declined to advance the Veterans Affairs Medicinal Cannabis Research Bill (S. 326) with a vote of 57-42, falling short of the 60 votes needed to continue debate on the measure.

The bipartisan legislation was introduced by Montana Democrat Senator Jon Tester earlier this year with co-sponsorship by Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska. In February, the bill was approved by the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee with a vote during a closed-door session. 

Under the bill, the VA would be required to conduct a large-scale observational study that evaluates the safety and efficacy of cannabis as a treatment for PTSD and chronic pain. An identical bill (H.R. 1003) sponsored by California Democratic Representative Lou Correa is also pending in the House of Representatives, with Republican Representative Jack Bergman signed on as a co-sponsor.

The clinical study would explore the positive and negative health outcomes of cannabis use by military veterans, including whether using marijuana reduces the use of alcohol or opiates. The study would also investigate other aspects of medicinal cannabis use, including pain intensity, sleep quality, agitation, and overall quality of life. Once the study is complete, the legislation requires the VA to report back to Congress on the results and the feasibility of conducting clinical trials.

Vote Blocks New Research For Veterans’ Health

When he introduced the bill earlier this year, Tester, the chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in a statement that the legislation would give military veterans new choices to manage their health care.

“Our nation’s veterans deserve options when it comes to treating the wounds of war, which is why VA needs to have a better understanding of how medicinal cannabis plays a role in their healing,” he said. “Our bipartisan bill ensures VA is listening to the growing number of veterans who find critical relief from alternative treatments like medicinal cannabis, while working to empower veterans in making safe and informed decisions about their health.”

A total of 41 GOP senators voted to block the bipartisan bill, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer then changing his vote to “no” in order to keep the bill alive under the Senate’s rules. 

In a social media post, Tester wrote that “41 Senate Republicans just chose partisan political games over providing our nation’s veterans their hard-earned benefits and care. 41 Senate Republicans are telling the men and women who have defended our country that their government doesn’t value their sacrifices.”

“Not only are they blocking VA from *researching* medicinal cannabis as an alternative treatment for veterans dealing with chronic pain or PTSD—they’re blocking improvements to veterans homeownership efforts, community-based support, outreach, and more,” he continued. “It’s totally unacceptable.”

In a floor speech before the vote, Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas, one of the eight Republican senators who voted to advance the cannabis bill, said the measure “is an effort to make certain that veterans are not doing something that is harmful to them and to help them make an informed decision,” according to a report from the Military Times.

But the senators backing the bill on Wednesday were not enough to keep the measure moving forward. GOP Senator John Cornyn of Texas said that the decision to block the cannabis research bill came after “spirited debate” during a Senate Republican policy lunch before the vote.

Cornyn told CNN that there were concerns among GOP senators about the methodology of the clinical trial authorized by the bill because “this retrospective study would be done strictly through volunteers who would come forward and talk about their experience with marijuana and PTSD,” and “it depends on people to self-select and we don’t know how that would skew the results.”

The senator also said that Republicans were not given “assurances” that they would be given the opportunity to offer amendments to the legislation, adding that there were concerns about whether the bill would be taken up by the House of Representatives and the chamber’s GOP leadership.

Political concerns may have also been in play, with critics of advancing the bill suggesting that the potential success of the legislation could be seen as a win for Tester, an incumbent Democratic senator up for re-election in a conservative state.

Cornyn indicated that negotiation on the bill would continue and that the legislation could be revived in the Senate. He explained that Wednesday’s vote was “hitting the pause button” on the measure. Schumer described the vote to stop the bill as “regrettable,” adding that he hopes efforts to resurrect the legislation in the Senate at a later date are successful.

Jeffrey M. Zucker, president of Denver-based cannabis-focused business strategy firm Green Lion Partners and vice chair of the Marijuana Policy Project board of directors, expressed disappointment at the decision to delay action on the Veterans Affairs Medicinal Cannabis Research Bill.

“I’m deeply saddened to hear that the Senate Republicans have blocked a procedural vote to advance this bill. It’s frustrating to see how politics can prevent progress on an issue that could make a huge difference in the lives of veterans and should really have no controversy surrounding it,” Zucker wrote in an email to High Times. “However, I’m still hopeful that lawmakers can come together to pass a bill that allows research into medical cannabis and eventually allows veterans to enjoy the benefits of medical cannabis. Our veterans deserve the best care possible, and medical cannabis could provide much-needed relief to those suffering from chronic pain, PTSD, and other conditions. It’s time for our leaders to put aside their differences and do what’s right for our veterans.”

The post GOP Senators Kill Veterans Cannabis Research Bill appeared first on High Times.

source https://hightimes.com/news/gop-senators-kill-veterans-cannabis-research-bill/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gop-senators-kill-veterans-cannabis-research-bill

Higher Profile: Remembering Lawrence Ringo, Father of CBD (1956-2014)

Cultivar Charlotte’s Web was first introduced to the world from Denver, Colorado, via a television documentary. But what viewers couldn’t know is that the high CBD variety actually began many years prior on a farm in Southern Humboldt County, in Northern California.

When the U.S. Cable News Network (CNN) aired Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s documentary episode “Weed” in 2013, Charlotte’s Web seemed like a miracle plant. High in one of the cannabinoids, cannabidiol or CBD, and low in the psychoactive compound of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, with little to no psychoactive properties, it was the seeming answer to ending the stupid stoner stigma. 

What was difficult to wrap one’s head around was the fact that this was the same plant as the cannabis we’d known that tested high in THC. The differences within the some 400 compounds in the plant were minimal, albeit for the excess of CBD.

The cultivar Gupta introduced was named after then-four-year-old, Charlotte Figi, who suffered from Dravet Syndrome, with Figi enduring up to 300 grand mal seizures per week. The toddler benefited greatly from the oil derived from the cultivar, with her story told on national television via Gupta’s documentary, with much fanfare after its airing and international recognition for the Stanley brothers, who provided the plant.

As a sidenote, Charlotte Figi’s mother had found an article penned in 1949 stating that “marijuana” successfully treated epilepsy. When she heard that the Stanley brothers had a cannabis cultivar with little to no psychoactivity, she asked to make oil from the plant to treat her daughter.

Due to the legalities of the prohibition of cannabis, the story of the cultivar’s lineage was left untold. As Charlotte’s Web actually came from a combination of seeds and starts purchased from the Southern Humboldt Seed Collective, after being painstakingly hybridized for nearly 15 years by longtime Southern Humboldt cannabis farmer, Lawrence Ringo.

Another little known fact is that a group of some 40 children suffering from seizures were already being helped with Ringo’s CBD cultivars, long before Figi’s story made headlines. Due to the historically covert nature of the Emerald Triangle in Northern California, combined with a fear of having children taken away by federally funded Child Protective Services, the stores of healing from the unique cultivar were kept under wraps until Gupta got wind of the Figi’s in Colorado.

Important to note, the day before Gupta’s documentary aired, the CNN Medical Correspondent/Producer/Neurosurgeon, went on Piers Morgan’s talk show and apologized to the American people (and the world), for being ignorant on the plant’s potential, confirming that cannabis is medicinal. Sadly, that was 2013 – 10 years ago, with nary a change in descheduling the plant by the Federal Drug Administration to reflect beneficial use.

How High is High Enough?

Historically speaking, it was the cannabis farmers in Northern California who first focused on hybridizing the psychoactive properties of the plant to the heights we have today for a more elevated experience.

Ringo had been growing weed since he was 15 on the Central Coast of California, then farming in Southern Humboldt for 35 years, founding the Southern Humboldt Seed Collective in 2010. He was one of the farmers who focused on raising the levels of the cannabinoid THC in cannabis for decades.

Even today, the debate of how much THC is really necessary or is there a plateau reached with an elevated amount of THC intake, rages on. In the plant’s unnatural state of high THC, testing upwards inn the 20 and 30 percentiles, we do know that too much can cause anxiety, panic attacks, paranoia, and trigger (not cause) psychosis and neurosis in those already prone to emotional episodes. 

When Ringo began hybridizing the THC back down on some of his plants by taking the low THC cultivars and pollinating them together by hand, he had no idea the one compound of cannabidiol (CBD) would be raised to new heights. Why this one compound was lifted and not the hundreds more within the plant remains a mystery.

It’s important to note, that before cannabis farmers as hybridizers began upping the level of THC in the plant in the 1960s, cannabis overall had tested with an average of just 3% of the psychoactive compound, producing a very mild and more therapeutic dose.

The cultivar Sinsemilla from Southern Mexico is the first known cultivar documented to have the THC hybridized up to 15%, brought up to the states in the early 1960s (High Times archives, 1999).

Ringo’s intent of lowering the THC back down was personal, as he’d suffered from severe back pain since childhood, missing a disk between his third and fourth vertebrae. His widow, Kat Hart, said this bone on bone pain required more than pharmaceuticals could offer.

He hybridized the plant back to what he called the “God plant.” Back to its origins, said to be used in Holy Annointing oil from the Bible. 

It’s also interesting to note, that this low THC version was also found in more than 250 marketed remedies prior to the creation of the pharmaceutical industry in the late 1930s, and the plant’s prohibition in the 1940s.

Hart also added that the low THC cultivars enhanced Ringo’s guitar playing in a way the high THC cultivars didn’t. This anecdotal story demonstrates the versatility of the plant as a crossover from recreational to medicinal in one strum, so to speak.

“His first love was music, then weed,” Hart laughed. “His grandmother, Hazel, encouraged his first solo performance on the guitar at Margaret Harloe elementary school when he was seven years old. He loved writing music – mostly rock and roll, but he also loved classical compositions.”

During the 1980s, Ringo was known throughout Northern California as the “Guitar Monster,” playing at Reggae on the River in Humboldt County in 2006, with international reggae artist, Jade Steel, who was born and raised in Humboldt.

Mike Grafton aka Granddaddy Purp, back facing me, talking to Ringo, 2011 HT Cup. / Photo by Sharon Letts

A Gun, a Good Deed & the Hells Angels

Ringo was born in the conservative enclave of Orange County in Southern California. By 1971, he was living in the small town of Arroyo Grande, two miles south of Pismo Beach on the Central Coast of California.

When he was just 15 years old, he found a snub-nosed .38, a sapphire gold ring, and a film can of cocaine. He threw the cocaine away, returned the ring and gun, and noted a rather large sativa plant in the man’s yard.

The man was none other than the leader of the local Hells Angels chapter. When the man asked what he wanted for returning the items, he quickly replied he wanted to learn how to grow weed. And the rest, as they say is history.

He would eventually settle on 40 acres he’d purchased in Blocksburg, a rural farming region in Southern Humboldt, after raising his boys as a “Gorilla grower” within the illicit market in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Ringo worked for Seagate Technologies from 1989 to 2001, helping to start-up its 540,000 square foot research and development facility in Longmont, Colorado, returning to his beloved Blocksburg, where he lived out the rest of his life.

From Gorilla Grower to Innovative Farmer

The cultivars he originally worked with were landrace cultivars from Mexico, Thailand, Afghanistan, to name a few. He made all the F-1 crosses, crossing male genetics with those from the female to produce a “first generation cross.”

The lineage of the plants he ended up producing is complex. For instance, the plants grown from New York City Diesel seeds, purchased from Canadian Marc Emery, were crossed with Sour Tsunami starts to get the Sour Diesel we know today. The irony of the lineage of Charlotte’s Web continues, as Emery would later spend time in prison for selling seeds across borders.

Ringo relied solely on the cultivars he developed to control his pain. In an O’Shaughnessy’s Journal article published in 2011, Ringo stated, “I’ve been to every doctor and chiropractor. No one can really help. When my back really hurts I do the high-CBD kief. Two pipe loads and I can go out and do anything – ride a motorcycle, work in the garden.”

Though Ringo is known for his hybrids, he’s also known for using Light Deprivation (light depo), starting in 1980 – a technique commonly used today, tricking plants into thinking it’s time to flower.

Ringo used the technique by covering his greenhouse, blocking out all sunlight. This encouraged early sexing, enabled females to be planted in early May, and ensured that large plants would harvest earlier. 

The light depo process also ensures fresh medicine through the summer months when there is typically a void of plant material until a fall harvest. Because the CBD cultivars are not trimmed, allowing for whole plant compounds, there is no excess.

Ringo purchased seeds from Emery’s seed company, and with eight initial cultivars, Ringo developed 20 new ones, starting Kush Seeds, then the Southern Humboldt Seed Collective, or SoHum Seeds.

According to Hart, Sour Tsunami was the first low CBD cultivar Ringo created, then Harle-Tsu, Canna-Tsu, Swiss Tsu, and ACDC.

Author’s Note: ACDC was developed in Mendocino by Dr. William Courtney, as a cultivar to be juiced, putting his wife Kristen’s Lupus into remission (High Times, Higher Profile: Dr. William Courtney).

The day Samantha Miller of California laboratory, Pure Analytics, called to let the team know his Sour Tsunami measured in upwards of 11.3% CBD, while retaining 6-7% THC, Hart said everyone cheered. 

This was the first time Miller had come into contact with high CBD cultivars, and the findings were not lost on her. The bigger news from Miller was that Ringo had eight other cultivars that also had the potential of testing high in CBD.

“At that point we knew very little about CBD, but Samantha conveyed its importance,” Hart shared. “It was really a defining moment for So Hum Seeds.”

Current cultivars available in its catalog include ACDC, Canna Tsu, Cheesel, Purple Cheesel, Pineapple Cheesel, Harle Tsu, Hula Budda, Pineapple Tsunami, Purple Diesel, Sour Tsunami, Swiss Tsu, and OG Ringo (cultivars subject to change).

The Lineage of High CBD

Ironically, legalization in Colorado allowed the Figi and CBD story to be told, which, in turn, has helped change public perception of the plant altogether. 

It’s safe to say that it probably took the handsome, blonde, blue-eyed Stanley brothers to introduce CBD to the world via television. The story may have never been told coming from its originator, a seemingly old hippie from the left coast, sporting classic tie-dyed t-shirts in the heart of the Emerald Triangle.

Hart said it stung when a version of Ringo’s CBD cultivar took center stage in the CNN documentary, laughingly referred to as a “Hippie’s Disappointment,” for lack of THC. Its Humboldt lineage went unmentioned due to the legalities of crossing state lines with the seeds and starts.

Records provided by Hart reveal that Charlotte’s Webs’ ancestry may stem from a combination of Harlequin and Sour Tsunami, but Hart said the profiling shows a grab bag of varieties, albeit, with Ringo’s strains predominantly in the mix, with no other farmer claiming the years of work on bringing the THC back down, as Ringo had.

“Phylos Bioscience, a lab up in Portland, Oregon, genetically tested Charlotte’s Web and it does show a connection, but it also shows that we were not the first to work with high CBD strains,” Hart shared.

What Phylos Bioscience discovered, is that while Ringo was honing his CBD in Southern Humboldt, breeders in Spain were working on the same exact process. If the universe really is aligned, then cannabis was a conduit in this instance.

Where Charlotte’s Web is concerned, Hart said Ringo remembered selling Harle Tsu seeds to the proprietors of Charlotte’s Web during a High Times Cannabis Cup in Northern California.

Ringo’s assistant remembered the Stanley brothers coming to the farm after the Cup and purchasing both Harlequin and Sour Tsunami starts, spending nearly two hours in what she called a failed attempt to explain the medicinal qualities of the high CBD plants. When during Gupta’s documentary the plant was referred to as “Hippie’s Disappointment,” their ignorance to the lesson was confirmed.

Remembering Ringo

We lost Ringo in 2014 from cancer. With little warning, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer and given just two months to live.

Though Hart said they consulted with some of the top experts in cannabis medicine, they were encouraged to do a round of radiation due to the severity and the location of the tumor.

“He immediately began eating the oil,” Hart shared. “He was ingesting his own CO2 high THC oil, with a 3:1 ratio of CBD. He never regained any strength after the radiation to even be able to try the chemo.” 

The genetics he left behind are his legacy, carried on by his children, who were raised in the farming life.

His eldest son, Levi and his wife Danielle, now run the SoHum Seed Collective, and are the keepers of the cultivars.

“The cooperative was formed to help support local farmers and be able to provide enough CBD medicine to meet supply and demand,” Hart explained. “We provide clones of our genetics, the farmers grow it, and the cooperative purchases it.”

Hart said she’s not the farmer Ringo was, but she’ll never be far away from the magic he made.

“CBD is everywhere now and we as a cooperative are very proud of Ringo’s legacy,” she concluded. “He was extremely generous, which is why the cultivars he created are so widespread. He believed in helping others for the greater good.”

For more information about Lawrence Ringo, the cultivars he created, and to purchase seeds, visit the Southern Humboldt Seed Collective.

The post Higher Profile: Remembering Lawrence Ringo, Father of CBD (1956-2014) appeared first on High Times.

source https://hightimes.com/culture/higher-profile-remembering-lawrence-ringo-father-of-cbd-1956-2014/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=higher-profile-remembering-lawrence-ringo-father-of-cbd-1956-2014

Emerald Mirror Pt. 2: The Money Left the Worm and the Apple

Let go of some of the nuanced or specific issues some of these big box canna brands have. Let go of the spiritual relationship ideology we have with plants. (Honestly most people create romantic mythics around relationships between living things, like humans and plants, while still lacking a detailed understanding of the mechanisms behind them. The order of it all.) The mythos becomes nuanced the more it stands as a placeholder to reality, a shadow on the cave walls. It doesn’t mean that the relationship between human and plant isn’t even more critical, but the early mythos has placed humans above plants in the hierarchy of order and complexity. Does that change the critical role of plants? No, of course not, and in all of our scientismo and mythical stories, plants preceded humans. They are older in existence and because of that fact, they will exist before and after human life, always. Does that make them a god? No. They are an element in the symbiotic order of all life here, in this moment, on this planet. All connected in some way by the life that preceded them. We were and are here to benefit by their position in existence, play our role as caretakers and give them a name. Perhaps go even deeper and reciprocate thought and intention so like us, that form of critical life is also evolved. 

Zoom back in a little. 

What’s going on in the cannabis space?

Here’s my guess. Things were going south prior to COVID. The pandemic created a false world in many industries. Cannabis was one. Operators in the cannabis space are gamblers. It’s in the blood. Every run is a gamble, every sale, every call or meeting. When you clean up the odds it’s an incredible high. Also, like most gamblers, degenerate behavior is concentrated. Some of it we can live with, some of it we can’t. And almost everyone in this space has been guilty of creating terribly muddy deals where the space for ethically faded behavior can thrive and grow. Those two elements collided with the pandemic false world. Now we are back where we were and everyone is scratching their heads like the last three years wasn’t a sugar laced death pill.

If you’ve been on the sidelines just watching and not participating or if you have entered the space in the last ten years it would be easy to think that all of these bad deals are the result of some newly maligned precedent. I can tell you, it is not. It is the same behavior from back in the medical days just amplified by more money and the majority acceptance of the people. That can change. Big time. There are already pushes for that and the current state is volatile. Things are chaotic in the overall world, and new trends or ideas from another world view can easily emerge. 

So if we are watching the old guards’ degeneracy bloom into a self eating parasite, there needs to be a quick shift with whoever is still operating and isn’t planning to sell their company to big pharma, tobacco, AG, beverage, or worse, investment groups like Blackrock. Those of us who still have gas in the tank, still love the craft and have some equity in the industry, we have to bury the hatchet, clean up the mess and move forward with a new mission statement and an evolved order of how we work with each other. 

I’ll provide an example of how this is not happening and the cost. New York is coming online and the clandestine growers of New York are now stepping out. Some of the best weed I’ve ever smoked was grown in New York. What’s happening is that products from flooded markets are hitting New York at flooded prices rapidly reducing the early value that existed in early markets prior. The New York growers are now sitting in the same world as many small growers in California but without the time those growers have to at least make an attempt using early market pricing to build and grow. The resentment is there and it will grow. Another tribe will form. 

The possible value that Cali growers supporting New York growers would have for the overall global market has now been reduced. The advantage lost to territorial pissing. 

On the licensed end it wouldn’t surprise me if some NY conglomerate sues the state of California for utter negligence in managing their program. They have a case. It’s an ugly one. 

So my proposal to everyone is that we at the very least begin to try something else. We can start by letting go of this Pinky and the Brain pursuit and make choices that benefit more of the whole and less for the one. The benefit for the one is also not a good look or flex. In fact if your persona is based on material gain and wealth you are not reading the room well. That is a dead way. So table the degeneracy, the one-upmanship, and the motley-crew-meets-death-row trajectory. Stop practicing the role of the predator and start practicing the role of the caretaker. In service to the people (your customers), the future of the industry and the enjoyment that comes from working with this plant. The drama is tired. It used to have a bit more humor, but it’s hard to laugh because the humor of it all is what’s supposed to initiate the change in behavior. It’s not funny when it doesn’t fire off. This era has fucked all our heads up. It’s becoming a black mirror. 

The garden is the mirror of our actions.

This tech world is a mirror of self-centered illusions. Which isn’t surprising. It was built by nerds obsessed with fantastical superheroes in fit forming tights.

The post Emerald Mirror Pt. 2: The Money Left the Worm and the Apple appeared first on High Times.

source https://hightimes.com/weirdos/emerald-mirror-pt-2-the-money-left-the-worm-and-the-apple/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=emerald-mirror-pt-2-the-money-left-the-worm-and-the-apple

Pornumental, Gaseosa Light y Humo de Marihuana: ¿Más Cannabis en el Cine XXX Argentino?

Nota por Hernán Panessi publicada originalmente en El Planteo. Más artículos por El Planteo en High Times en Español.

Síguenos en Instagram (@El.Planteo) y Twitter (@ElPlanteo).

“¿Están un poquito nerviosos?”, pregunta el entrevistador, sentado al borde de la cama. En plano, una pareja desplegada sobre el centro del sommier responde que sí, que un poquito sí. Mientras ella se acomoda el pelo, él se prende un porro. Ahí, los tres -entrevistador, ella y él- forman parte de una situación que –saben- será sexual.

La escena forma parte de una película XXX argentina titulada Pornumental, del año 2004, y es una de las pocas que introduce al cannabis a la cosmogonía chancha criolla.

Contenido relacionado: ¿Drogas en el Cine XXX Argentino? Conocé ‘Los Desviados’, La Película de César Jones Llena de Marihuana y Barbitúricos

En rigor, se trata de un documental porno que contiene elementos del amateur, del subgénero de “entrevistas reales” y del gonzo. En Pornumental hay sexo grupal, inversión de roles, lluvia dorada, carne sobre carne y todo tipo de situaciones hardcore.

Bueno y, también, marihuana.

Encuentros cercanos del tercer tipo

“Es una película que en una época me gustó mucho: en primera instancia por la organicidad de la propuesta, presente como en ninguna otra de las películas que había intentado hasta entonces. Luego, por su poder de síntesis, aunado a un redoble en la apuesta –ya bien bosquejada en Las Fantasías de… Sr. Vivace– por la imbricación de humor y sexualidad, lejos de los efectos contraindicativos entre ambas instancias”.

Quien habla es César Jones, director de Pornumental y cineasta de verba letrada, lengua refinada y un cine extremo, ¿para qué mentir?

Contenido relacionado: Un Ex Pastor Porno Junta a la Fe con la Marihuana: ‘El Cannabis me Conectó Más con mi Espíritu’

Volvamos a la escena en cuestión. La conversación del entrevistador y la pareja busca recovecos sexuales: hablan de fantasías, de tríos, de historias callejeras. El sexo no tarda en llegar. Una vez que termina el franeleo, la escena continúa en un balcón. Los ojitos de la pareja protagonista estallan de lujuria pero, también, de combustión 420.

—¿Los calentó que los filmaran?

—Sí, sí.

Humo(r) y sexualidad

“Pornumental me gusta por la exploración documental e hiperrealista. Por el deseo enunciado y puesto en acto por los entrevistados, que redundó en escenas de múltiples resonancias eróticas”, se ensancha Jones, uno de los directores más importantes del cine porno nacional.

En el film, Daniel Rico, el anfitrión de los “encuentros”, regala destellos de humor involuntario, que muchas veces terminan generando momentos demenciales. Y se da, también, una relación colorida –y no exenta de malicia- entre el anfitrión y el director.

“El marco reflexivo de la propuesta despliega un metalenguaje fluido y a resguardo de la sobreactuación. Todo eso juega a favor de mi pornumental elección. Y es que incluso lo fecundo de este reticulado de elementos hace que las aparentes precariedades que pudieran achacársele al sonido y a la imagen, acaben reconvertidas en eficientes alfiles al servicio de la causa”, reconoce el sofisticado director de Pornumental.

Porro y Coca (Cola)

Aquí, por caso, emerge una de las cuestiones más singulares del film: una de las parejas que participa de la “experiencia” del pornumental -¿se entiende la contracción, no?- tiene un ritual, digamos, singular.

Contenido relacionado: ¿Qué Importancia Tiene el Porno para OnlyFans?

¿Cuál? Tomen papel y lápiz. ¿Están listos? Ok, vamos: beben Coca-Cola Light y fuman marihuana como un afrodisíaco previo a los encuentros sexuales. ¿Alguna vez escucharon semejante alquimia?

Más contenido de El Planteo:

• Cómo Fumar Marihuana
• Cómo Cultivar Marihuana
• Cómo Quitar el Efecto de la Marihuana

The post Pornumental, Gaseosa Light y Humo de Marihuana: ¿Más Cannabis en el Cine XXX Argentino? appeared first on High Times.

source https://hightimes.com/espanol/pornumental-marihuana-cesar-jones/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pornumental-marihuana-cesar-jones

Cumbia Lunática, Películas y Provocación: Para Dick Nada Es Demasiado

Nota por Lola Sasturain publicada originalmente en El Planteo. Más artículos por El Planteo en High Times en Español.

Síguenos en Instagram (@El.Planteo) y Twitter (@ElPlanteo).

Dick el Demasiado, uno de los más locos y particulares hijos adoptivos de estas tierras, está de vuelta en Argentina para brindar un show en La Tangente y presentar en el BAFICI su último largometraje If Yes, Ok.

Dick Verdult, holandés de nacimiento y ciudadano del mundo, es músico, cineasta, artista visual y escritor. Al fin y al cabo, un agitador cultural. Y un provocador. Hoy, Dick es principalmente conocido por su cumbia lunática, su propia marca personal de cumbia experimental psicodélica.

La última vez que Dick el Demasiado se presentó en vivo en Argentina fue en 2019. Dick ama este país: por el trabajo de su padre, vivió parte de su infancia en Buenos Aires. 

Contenido relacionado: Milo Lockett Habla del Arte más Allá de la Obra: Derriba Mitos, Sale de los Lugares Comunes y Reivindica el Disfrute

Promete que el de La Tangente será un show con poco y nada de letras: sólo charla entre las canciones y algún que otro “poema feo”, en sus palabras.

¿A que se refiere con “feos”? “A que el holandés es un idioma bastante pobre en comparación con el castellano, y cuando un holandés rima siempre rima con la última parte de cada frase. Por ejemplo: ‘Estoy solo en la estación, para mi fue la solución’. Entonces yo traduzco lo mismo al español. Es antiliterario pero funciona y es fácil de hacer”, ríe.

En el show lo acompañará el conjunto argentino Del Caos y la fiesta Guateke Sounds, con Don Plock y Dj Pinchado en las bandejas.

Dick guarda una relación muy próxima con su público argentino: siempre se queda conversando después de los shows, se saca fotos, quiere conocerlos. También se escribe con ellxs constantemente. “A mí, cuando se enganchan, sinceramente me conmueve”, cuenta. “Porque yo nunca quise ser músico, a mi me sucedió nomás. Entonces ves que de repente es importante para la gente y eso conmueve”.

Músico por accidente y festivales imaginarios

En total, Dick lanzó 5 discos que exploran la interacción entre la cumbia, la electrónica y la psicodelia. Siempre conocido por sus letras entre absurdas y mordaces, hoy prefiere la música instrumental: “Me gusta fusionarme con el público, y cuando cantás letras sos más como un artista que está trasmitiendo sus problemitas y cómo se siente él. Cuando toco como estoy tocando ahora, yo simplemente arranco y que todo siga, nomás”.

¿Cómo llegó a convertirse en un músico? Como era de esperar, es una historia atípica y muy interesante. Corría el año 99 y Dick pertenecía a un grupo de artistas con el que habían ganado mucho dinero gracias a un proyecto. Con esas ganancias compró boletos de avión para las doce personas del equipo: el destino era Honduras y el objetivo era ver cómo vivían allí a un año del huracán Mitch que devastó el país. 

“Queríamos aprender de esa genialidad, cómo reparar las cosas, cómo restablecerse después de algo así”, recuerda.

La experiencia resultó en un material precioso, y Dick se preguntó cómo podría compartirlo con el mundo sin crear un producto, ni un documental ni una exposición. Entonces creó una plataforma online de un supuesto festival de música totalmente inventado, con bandas y artistas inventados. Hasta el género parecía inventado en su momento: cumbia experimental. Cada artista tenía su web y en esas páginas colgaba el material de lo que habían visto en Honduras.

Contenido relacionado: Berner: el Rapero que Se Enamoró del Cannabis y Fumó con los Más Grandes de la Música

Entonces, ¿por qué no encarnar una de estas bandas ficticias? Ese fue el disparador para la creación de Dick el Demasiado, el músico. Se lanzó a hacer su idea cumbia experimental y ahí salió el primer disco, No nos dejamos afeitar. Una pandilla de argentinos en Barcelona lo escuchó y le dio la bendición.

Sinceridad cumbiera hecha en Holanda

La elección de la cumbia se remonta a su infancia. En los años que vivió en Argentina, la cumbia era la música que escuchaba la empleada doméstica en su casa. 

“A ella le tenía enorme cariño y había una gran diferencia entre el mundo de la empleada que escuchaba cumbia y el de la gente de dinero que escuchaban el Club del Clan e imitaciones de Elvis. Yo le veía la sinceridad a la cumbia”, recuerda, remontándose muchas décadas atrás.

“Nunca se fue de mí. Es bien bonito eso”.

Ahora, la cumbia está de moda también en Europa, lo cual le trajo un nuevo público joven que agradece mucho. Pero el artista destaca que “le trajo muchas amistades y también muchos chupamedias. Mucha gente de pueblo y mucha gente cheta”.

Contenido relacionado: El R Jota, Protegido de El Noba y Voz en Alza del RKT: “No Puedo Hacer un Tema que No Haga Sentir Identificados a mis Amigos”

“Allá por 2003 entraba a foros de música electrónica de Buenos Aires y veía que hablaban mal de mí y de la cumbia. Luego descubría a esos mismos tipos haciendo cumbia dos años después. Hubo una apertura bien bonita pero también una apertura que trataba de exprimir el jugo para llenarse el vaso nomás”.

Por esos años, al inicio de su carrera musical, se dio cuenta que era imposible encontrar MP3s de cumbias viejas o de cumbia colombiana. Todo era cumbia villera. Y le encantaron Damas gratis, Meta Guacha, Pibes Chorros y “todo eso”, enumera.

“Así me fui profundizando y vi una entrevista que era buenísima de Pablito Lescano cuando todavía era joven. Explicaba cómo hacía la música, era bien bonito. A mí me gustan los músicos que saben explicar cómo la herramienta te lleva a hacer la música que hacés, y él sabía explicar eso”.

Lo que le encanta de la cumbia villera es su sonido alegre y bailable, en aparente contradicción con el contexto en el que es producida. “En el sonido del rap está el enojo, en el sonido de la cumbia, no. Si vos pasas cumbia villera en un kindergarten de Estocolmo, las madres van a bailar con los niños”.

Amor por las limitaciones

Hablando de herramientas, Dick necesita variarlas para llegar a resultados diferentes. Ahora está encantado con un aparato lleno de botones que imita el concepto de las de las computadoras de fines de los ‘80. Con este aparato se presentará el sábado.

La lógica del aparato se remonta a las primeras sampleras, que tenían muy poca memoria y sólo podían tomar samples mínimos. Una naturaleza experimental que se intentaba usar para hacer pop. “Con ese pensamiento de los pequeñísimos sonidos te hacías canciones. Y era tan difícil hacer una canción normal, pero igual la gente intentaba hacer una canción de ABBA con eso”, se ríe.

La voz le gusta usarla como un instrumento más que para cantar. “No como música de vanguardia sino como un trance, como algo medicinal. Yo lo llamo celulitis popular”.

Celulitis Popular es, también, el nombre de su último LP. El concepto celulitis evidentemente lo convoca: también tiene un álbum compilatorio llamado Celulitis Iluminati editado en vinilo en 2020 por un sello alemán.

Otra cosa que le encanta de su nuevo aparato, además de sus limitaciones, es que le permite hacer música solo mientras viaja. “Siempre cuando vengo hago una canción a la espera del avión, El reto era hacer una canción en la noche esa siempre, y tocarla”, cuenta. Este show no será la excepción.

Anti Amelie

Este viernes 22 de abril Dick presentó en Buenos Aires su sexta y última película, If Yes, Ok. Lo entusiasma porque sus películas siempre fueron bien recibidas en el BAFICI.

Dick escribe y dirige. Los diálogos los escriben junto a su esposa.

“Dicen que es una comedia pero yo pienso que es como una fuerza centrífuga: se mueve y se mueve y te puede tirar para afuera. Te tenés que agarrar para seguir la película, es como estar en una atracción de kermesse”, advierte Dick.

Contenido relacionado: Dame Sangre, Dame Drogas, Dame el Cine de Tarantino: Revisamos Película por Película

La película trata sobre el último capricho de una quinceañera mimada hija de padres millonarios: convertir las notas y reflexiones que toma sobre su vida en representaciones de teatro kabuki en la cochera de la casa, con actores y directores contratados. 

“Este capricho lentamente se vuelve un Frankenstein que cada vez exige más y cada vez es más ácido, hasta finalmente canibalizar la familia”, sigue Dick. Un horror simbólico sin violencia en el sentido literal de la palabra.

“Yo la defino como una película anti Amelie”, sentencia con genialidad.

“El encanto de Amelie era todo de color de rosa, romance y zona de confort. Una hamaca que te duerme. Eso a la gente le encantó, pidiendo ‘dame un poco más’ mientras la paseaban de la manito por la película. Esto es todo lo contrario. También trata de una niña, pero no te lleva de la mano ni es romántica, es dura y fría y con su carácter bizarro”.

La película, por supuesto, tiene música de Dick el Demasiado, en una versión de sí misma más misteriosa y críptica. “No entendés qué tipo de música es y eso es bien bonito, le pone mucha atmósfera a la película”, sigue el director, y explica que la música que compuso funciona más como contrapunto que como música incidental. “Hace que te tragues la película más fácil pero se va en otra dirección que el contenido”.

El artista destaca orgulloso las palabras sobre If Yes, Ok del escritor colombiano Juan Cárdenas, alguien a quien admira mucho. “Un fuego canibalista. Dijo que yo había puesto toda la carne al asador, hecho un asado y en el humo se olían los cadáveres del cine de siglo veinte”, cita y se le vuela una sonrisa.

Tocarle las bolas al león

Pero los tiempos cambiaron mucho, y hoy no es tan simple ser un hombre blanco y europeo haciendo cumbia y cantando versos como “Si sos blanco y alegre, besá mi chanchito de a oro/ Si sos negro, oscuro, macabro, deseá mi Mercedes”. ¿Cómo le pega esta era a un artista tan irreverente e incorrecto como Dick el Demasiado?

“Son tiempos difíciles, claro. Pero a mí me da igual. Segundo, considero que yo estuve siempre en una vena sincera, intenté eso y habré cometido errores y seguiré cometiendo errores. Y tercero, me encanta la confrontación. Si el otro tiene razón o me hiere, acepto, es un aprendizaje también. Yo me equivoco, pero si haces poesía, uno dispara la bala antes de mirar casi siempre”.

Holanda está bajo la fiebre de la corrección política, dice, lo cual tiene sus cosas buenas y sus cosas malas.

Pero en lo que respecta a hacer cumbia y el contenido de sus canciones, está contento porque los argentinos y latinoamericanos nunca dudaron de su sinceridad. 

Contenido relacionado: Humor, Feminismo y Estados Alterados con Alexis de Anda, Comediante Mexicana

“En Argentina vieron que yo tocaba un nervio verdadero. La gente no tuvo problemas en reconocer que efectivamente yo estoy con esto ya desde el 2000”. La clave, supone, es no tratar de apropiarse. “Te digo sinceramente, lo que yo hago no es cumbia. Yo lo llamé cumbia lunática, lo llamé cumbia experimental, pero el pensamiento es que me gusta la cumbia, no tratar de imitarla”.

Con respeto y jugando para el lado del bien, a Dick siempre se le dio fácil incomodar. Y cuenta que en su nueva película hay una línea argumental que toca estas cuestiones, la de un chofer que dice ser vietnamita y no lo es. “Pongo el dedo en un nervio del cliché y luego lo llevo a otro lado. Es como tocarle las bolas al león y después acariciarlo un poco”.

Una veintena de porros

Llama la atención que, con su cumbia delirante y siendo holandés, Dick no sea un gran consumidor de cannabis. Aproxima: debe haberse fumado máximo veinte porros en toda su vida.

“La gente en Argentina siempre, siempre ha pensado que fumo. Todos pensaban que yo estaba súper duro, que había tomado demasiado o que se yo. Se fantaseaba que yo venía del país de las drogas y que yo sí estaba en modo turbo. Pero yo no tomo nada”.

Esos veinte porros, reconoce, se los debe haber fumado todos entre sus 20 y 25 años. Le gustaban los submarinos: le equivalente a un bong hecho con un cilindro de papel higiénico.

Le cuesta opinar sobre la cultura coffee shop porque es algo perfectamente cotidiano para él hace décadas. Por ese lado vienen sus reflexiones sobre el consumo de marihuana en su país. Fumar porro no es una personalidad para los holandeses. 

“No hay ningún tabú con la marihuana en Holanda y tampoco es como ‘uy, tengo una revista porno’ cuando nadie tiene una. No sos Robin Hood o algo así. Y no, no sos Manu Chao en Holanda si fumas un porro”, bromea. “Lo hacen cuando verdaderamente lo quieren y no como parte de una vestimenta. No es religión ni rebeldía”.

Contenido relacionado: Sexo, Drogas y Millennials: Eurotrip y la Amsterdam de los 2000

Sí le causan gracia, como a la mayoría de los locales, los extranjeros sobreexcitados por fumar porro y conseguir drogas. Y en muchos casos no están listos: “Caen en la trampa de estar en lugar ajeno y súper fumados”, dice, y destaca que la marihuana holandesa es fuertísima porque hay carreras en la facultad de agronomía volcadas especialmente a eso. “Causan accidentes, y muchas veces los veo muy perdidos”, cuenta.

Lo que le agradece a la cultura marihuanera es, principalmente, la admiración por Jamaica. Dick es un gran fanático del dub. Lo suyo, dice, es fumar por los oídos.

Más contenido de El Planteo:

• La Queen: Una Entrevista a la Diva Drag de Fuerte Apache
• Señorita Bimbo: ‘Mientras Sea Ilegal, Vamos a ser Todos Narcos: Entonces, Seamos Narcomodelos’
• Taichu: El Sueño Pop de una Chica Trap, o Viceversa

The post Cumbia Lunática, Películas y Provocación: Para Dick Nada Es Demasiado appeared first on High Times.

source https://hightimes.com/espanol/dick-el-demasiado-verdult/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dick-el-demasiado-verdult

The Vibrancy of Life

Burgandy Viscosi has over two decades of experience developing beautifully vivid paintings designed to awaken humanity to our collective consciousness. While she displays most of her work at her art gallery in Seattle, Washington, she also has painted many murals at various local businesses and has some featured at John F. Kennedy International Airport and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Every artist has an origin story, and Viscosi’s is a powerful one. Following the events of a devastating car accident when she was only 20 years old, Viscosi was unconscious for at least 10 hours. During this time, she witnessed visions that eventually became a potent source of inspiration for her art.

“I had so much information [after the accident], I feel like most of the workings of the universe were answered, and then [I was] just trying to figure out how to translate that into information that I could gift to the world,” she explains. “My body was pretty demolished, but my arms and hands were fine. That’s really when I started painting, and then I never really looked back. I just kept painting. It helped heal me, and then I just was devoted to it from that point on.”

Ancient Future Messenger / Courtesy Burgandy Viscosi

One main theme of the vision she received is still an inspiration across many of her paintings.

“Kind of the universal nature of reality—just kind of a matrix of all existing beings connected to each other was so prominent in my original vision,” Viscosi says.

Other influences come from frequent meditation and her current surroundings at home or while traveling.

Cannabis also plays a part in the early stages of her creative process, especially when she begins to imagine the layout of a new piece or determine where certain elements should go. Viscosi says tinctures are her consumption method of choice, whether she’s doing yoga and meditating or working through how to tie certain elements together in her work.

“Cannabis is a great activator to kind of switch perspective so that I can see maybe a different angle of how these things can actually be incorporated or different transitions,” she says. “I love it for transitionary ideas.”

Between Venus and Mars / Courtesy Burgandy Viscosi

Viscosi’s paintings are brilliantly colored with a wide variety of detailed patterns such as honeycombs and geometric forms, often featuring humans and animals, but there’s also a separate layer of the viewing experience that can only be seen through special glasses.

“I use a technology—it’s not the classic 3D glasses, so if you try those, it’s not going to work—they’re called Chroma Depth,” Viscosi explains. “And I use a color theory (the science and art of how we perceive color and the visual effects of how colors mix, match or contrast with each other) with these. What they do is they put the spectrum in order. And what I do is I place things in certain ways in certain colors and [the glasses] provide depth.”

Chroma Depth was initially created for 3D websites, but Viscosi uses it to give her paintings additional depth.

“3D websites were a thing for a moment, and the glasses were created for them. When you design these websites, you use a certain color theory in designing them. And that’s what will make it 3D, right?” she says. “So it’s just me using that same color theory. And because I paint so vividly, it registers the same as a computer screen because I put sharp colors next to sharp colors.”

The result is a one-of-a-kind experience for those who stop by her gallery, where they see her colorful displays come to life through a new lens.

Meeting of the Mind / Courtesy Burgandy Viscosi

“When people come in the gallery, I give them the glasses, and then I do a light show,” she says. “So they full-on have a psychedelic experience, [and] I’m able to, like, microdose people basically. It’s really interesting to watch people from all walks of life come in. At first, they’re super nervous, and they’re like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if this is my thing.’ But if I can get the glasses on them, the moment of suspended belief is amazing because humans just turn into children. They’re just like, ‘Oh, my gosh, how is this happening?”’

Viscosi is the former art director for a Seattle-based cannabis company called Leaph. Although the business is no longer in operation, she helped feature a variety of artists across the globe on Leaph’s packaging. She has also become well-known in the surrounding Seattle area for promoting the local art and cannabis industries, where she has designed art for the packaging of Mobius infused cannabis drinks and has contributed to Art Cannabis, which strives to promote local artists and cannabis in Washington state.

@burgandyviscosi
burgandyviscosi.com

This story was originally published in the September 2022 issue of High Times Magazine.

The post The Vibrancy of Life appeared first on High Times.

source https://hightimes.com/culture/the-vibrancy-of-life/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-vibrancy-of-life