Correr la maleza para trazar un camino. De aquello, un poco, se trata todo esto. Por eso, proyectos como el dePorro y Pelis, un sitio de reseñas de películas que probablemente no conozcas, destacan por su carácter valioso: allí hay data, ahí hay soluciones.
Desde octubre de 2018 que Lucas Sequino, estudiante de artes audiovisuales y fanático del cine, esgrime la noble tarea de recomendar películas para fumar churro.
“La cuenta de Instagram fue creada principalmente para darle un hogar a las capturas de los fotogramas que saco de las películas que veo. Cuando hay diálogos interesantes o imágenes que quiero recordar, saco captura y lo archivo. Tengo un disco externo repleto de fotogramas de lo que fui viendo en aproximadamente los últimos 5 años. Soy algo así como un acumulador digital”, cuenta el responsable de Porro y Pelis a El Planteo.
Después, el joven fue soltándose en la escritura de reseñas y, a partir de allí, con este nuevo skill sobre sus dedos, empezó a mandarse unas recomendaciones más completitas. Porro y Pelis es, al mismo tiempo, un registro personal de su propia curaduría y una agenda de recomendaciones de películas “para ver fumado”.
Algo personal y algo colectivo
El feedback que se generó con la gente, dice, se convirtió en el principal motivo de la constancia de la cuenta. Hay un grupo de Telegram en el que siempre se arman charlas de todo y de nada. “Me acercó a mucha gente linda del ambiente artístico y es algo que se dio solo”, festeja.
“Me gusta que, sin tener una regla estricta de lo que subo, la gente me escribe y me dice ‘esta es una peli para Porro y Pelis’. Hay como un sello distintivo de lo que comparto y me encanta. Si bien yo decido cuáles son las pelis, lo siento como algo colectivo a su vez”.
Para configurar sus recomendaciones, Sequino busca que los ejes centrales de las películas tengan tintes oníricos, surrealistas, psicodélicos o que, simplemente, experimenten narrativamente.
“Busco data de pelis de todos lados: libros, listas de Letterboxd, IMDb o recomendaciones que me hace llegar la gente. En Porro y Pelis no interesa cuántos premios ganó ni tampoco hago mucho foco en la carrera de los actores”, completa.
Porro y Pelis: películas para ver fumado
Con un estilo sencillo y dinámico, las recomendaciones hacen close-up sobre el contexto de la película, en aspectos visuales y en la trama.
Lo explica: “El arte está todo conectado entre sí. Es una gran red. Busco entre esas conexiones también: a qué autor, a qué canción o a qué pensamiento me llevó la peli. También trato de acercar la recomendación como si le estuviera contando a un amigo que no está súper familiarizado con el lenguaje cinematográfico ni su mundo”.
El ciclo de cine
Por estos días, el proyecto Porro y Pelis saltó el cosmos de los celulares y ya preparan un nuevo encuentro cinéfilo en el Cine Club Lucero. En la casa de María María, el ciclo de cine cannábico de El Planteo que hoy anda en stand-by, Porro y Pelis complementa y engorda el menú con Audition, el thriller de psicohorror japonés del maestro Takashi Miike.
“Verla en pantalla grande la sube. Arranca como un drama romántico pero a medida que transcurre se va poniendo cada vez más podri”, se entusiasma. La de Audition será la séptima proyección de Porro y Pelis y, en breve, proyectarán Waking Life, de Richard Linklater, una rotoscopia que se enreda en temas filosóficos y existenciales.
Pistas para una cinefilia cannábica
Se queman los tronchos, vuelan las volutas de humo. Para Lucas, el cannabis forma parte de su vida cotidiana. Autocultivador desde hace aproximadamente 5 años (“A un nivel intermedio”, avisa), siempre está tratando de aprender un poco más entre cosecha y cosecha, intercambiando tips y consejos con otros cultivadores y perfeccionando los resultados.
“Es una actividad hermosa, y hace poco saqué el REPROCANN, así que estoy más motivado. Ahora voy a empezar con el famoso living soil y su proceso”, devela el agitador cultural.
¿Y cómo mecha a la marihuana con sus recomendaciones cinematográficas? “La marihuana eleva nuestros sentidos y percepciones y el cine es un universo inmenso que puede nutrirnos de ideas, experiencias y revelaciones”.
En sus reseñas, Sequino juega a algo que llamó “Al Bong”, un bong imaginario donde introduce diferentes elementos que va encontrándose en la película, ya sea un gag sonoro o visual, alguna metáfora o referencia cultural.
“Me hace acordar un poco al libro de ¿Dónde está Wally?, que además de buscar a Wally, en la parte de atrás, tenías diferentes situaciones para que también busques. Más allá de la selección de películas que hago para Porro y Pelis, siento que cualquier peli es una invitación a darle unas secas”.
Proyectos y más proyectos
En la actualidad, Sequino está dándole forma a un canal de YouTube con el que expandirá su contenido y lo llevará al formato audiovisual. Además, está cocinando un newsletter con el que conversará sobre cine y porro con diversos artistas y talentos. Y sueña, incluso, con armar su propio festival de cine o concurso de cortometrajes.
“Y, por supuesto, quiero buscar más espacios para armar proyecciones, mi grano de arena para que el cine esté en las calles”, cierra.
Lucas Sequino
Más contenido de El Planteo:
Colin Hanks: Cannabis y Pañuelos Para Todxs, de Modelos a Mecánicos
Eric André Demanda a Policía Aeroportuaria por Cacheo de Drogas Racista
“Heavily-armed police officers arrived in a well-to-do Barcelona suburb before dawn to raid a two-storey house that turned out to be packed with 800 marijuana plants growing under powerful lamps,” Reuters journalists Horaci Garcia and Joan Faus wrote. “The recent raid, on which Reuters accompanied the officers as they arrested two Albanian nationals, is part of an almost daily police routine in the Spanish region of Catalonia as it cracks down on the booming illegal production of marijuana, often run by local and international drug gangs.”
Catalonia, home to the majestic city of Barcelona, has a fraught relationship with the Spanish government –– and the tension has extended to cannabis policy.
It is “now Spain’s top producing region, with most exports channelled by road to France,” according to Reuters, which noted that the region is “attractive because producers can use properties left empty after the bursting of Spain’s property bubble in 2008, the process to evict them is lengthy, theft of electricity does not carry a jail sentence, and marijuana-related crimes carry lighter sentences than in neighbouring countries.”
The ruling put the cannabis clubs that had sprung up around Barcelona in legal limbo, but as Reuters noted in its story this week, the clubs now operate under “self-imposed rules,” under which they “grow their own marijuana, only let in adults who can buy up to 60 grams monthly and take 15 days to approve memberships to put off short-term tourists.”
“But many clubs, which are often barely recognisable from outside, do not stick to the rules because they are voluntary,” according to Reuters.
“We believe the lack of (legal) control is causing many problems,” Eric Asensio, head of the Catalan federation of cannabis clubs, told the news service.
Cultivating cannabis is against the law in Spain. Last year, Spanish lawmakers approved a measure that would authorize medical cannabis treatment in the country.
“The Civil Guard has seized the largest cache of packaged marijuana found so far. The Jardines operation has concluded with the seizure of 32,370.2 kilograms of marijuana buds, the largest seizure of this substance, not only in Spain, but also internationally. Its equivalence in complete plants would be approximately 1,100,000 copies,” Spanish police said at the time.
“The twenty detainees – nine men and eleven women between the ages of 20 and 59 – were part of an organization with offices in Toledo, Ciudad Real, Valencia and Asturias, which controlled the entire drug production and distribution process,” the police continued in the announcement, detailing the arrest. “The investigation began with an inspection by the Civil Guard of several industrial hemp plantations in Villacañas (Toledo). The main [plantation] investigated owned a company with which they acquired the seeds. A second transported and planted them. Another company was in charge of the care, maintenance, collection and drying of the specimens.”
The police said that the detainees packaged the contraband in “different formats to send them both to places in Spanish territory and to European countries, mainly Switzerland, Holland, Germany and Belgium.”
Even though the recreational cannabis market has not quite experienced the explosion of Rick Simpson Oil (RSO) products compared to edibles and vape pens, it is still an important product for many in the medical cannabis community. Since RSO is known for its high THC content, it has been a staple for patients seeking relief from a variety of ailments, particularly for cancer. What was once considered a niche market, has grown in popularity, so much that it can now be found in a number of states not traditionally known for its cannabis market.
Where To Buy Rick Simpson Oil
When searching for where to get real RSO, it may not be as easy as one would think. There are a number of factors to consider, including buying from licensed, and verified brands such as RickSimpsonOil.com, which has been around since 2009. RSO made incorrectly can have a lot of impurities. Because it is black in color, it is easy for unregulated brands to add fillers to their oils with unwanted pesticides. Most RSO comes in an oral syringe, however, there are other forms such as capsules, suppository, tinctures and edibles.
Finding a legitimate retailer is difficult because most dispensaries are not allowed to ship cannabis and will only sell to local customers with a valid state ID card. The best option for patients who have limited access is to buy Rick Simpson Oil online from the official Rick Simpson website: RickSimpsonOil.com. This is currently the only licensed retailer that is permitted to ship both domestically and internationally.
Previously, states like Texas and Florida had legalized medical marijuana to a certain degree, but high THC products like RSO were still illegal. Today, those laws have evolved and state medical marijuana programs are allowing patients with specific medical conditions, such as cancer, epilepsy, and HIV/AIDS, to use marijuana for treatment purposes.
As for recreational cannabis, there have been a number of initiatives aimed at passing legislation for full legalization.
As the popularity of RSO for cancer patients grows, so do the amount of scams. Social media sites such as Facebook are notorious for scamming users. Many scammers will create bogus profiles or RSO group pages with stolen content and images from legitimate websites. They often target older individuals who they know are not as tech savvy. One of the most obvious signs of a scam is when they require one to only pay through unsecured means such as: Zelle, Money Order, CashApp, Venmo, Wire Transfer and Cryptocurrency. These methods of payment offer zero protection. The scammers will vanish once payment has been made.
Finding real Rick Simpson Oil (RSO) can be quite a challenge. Many patients end up relying on friends and relatives. Some even attempt to make it themselves. Rick Simpson Farmacy has answered the call by offering real RSO to both medical and recreational customers.
What is Rick Simpson Oil?
Canadian engineer and activist Rick Simpson experienced the healing power of cannabis for himself when he used RSO to treat his basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer. After using it, the spots from his cancer healed.
Rick Simpson Oil (RSO) can provide significant relief for cancer patients struggling with the harsh side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. One of the great things about RSO is that it preserves all of the important terpenes, flavonoids, chlorophyll, carotenoids and other cannabis compounds of the plant. Some members of the cannabis community view it as a “miracle cure,” touting benefits like pain relief, lowered blood pressure, depression, anxiety and of course as an effective cancer treatment. RSO can be consumed orally, or can also be applied topically to the skin. Making RSO involves a long and tedious extraction process that results in a near-black colored oil.
Does RSO Treat Cancer?
RSO can be used as the sole treatment for cancer, or alongside traditional therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation. Although RSO can be used to treat all cancers, the most common types include: Lung, Skin, Breast, Prostate, Ovarian, Colorectal, Squamous Cell, Brain, and Leukemia.
Studies have shown that cannabis can treat pain, nausea, and improve appetite. Cannabis oils that contain THC may also help control nausea and vomiting for those undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
One of the most common uses for RSO is chronic pain. Back pain is so prevalent that 80% of people experience it at some point in their life. Although most RSO formulas are indica dominant, and high in THC, CBD and sativa options do exist. The final product can be intoxicating, therefore, a gradual dosage increase is recommended to build up tolerance. Since THC binds with CB1 receptors in the endocannabinoid system where the brain and nerve receptors exist, pain is greatly reduced.
Aside from chronic pain relief, RSO has therapeutic effects, such as stress relief and appetite stimulation, which in turn, can aid insomnia and nausea.
What Does The Research Say?
Rick Simpson started using cannabis oil after reading the results of a 1975 study that tested the use of cannabinoids in mice with lung cancer. The study found that both THC and another cannabinoid called cannabinol (CBN) slowed the growth of lung cancer in mice. Since then, there’s been much research involving cell samples that look at the effects of cannabinoids on cancer growth.
A 2013 study showed that the use of RSO severely reduced a terminal 14-year-old patient’s leukemia with no toxic side effects.
A 2014 study on mice examined the effects of THC and CBD extracts alongside radiation therapy. The results showed that cannabis extracts increased the effectiveness of radiation against an aggressive type of brain cancer. The study’s authors concluded that THC and CBD helped to prepare cancer cells to respond better to radiation therapy.
Most recently in 2022, a breakthrough in cancer research marked the first time immunotherapy alone eliminated the need for chemotherapy, radiation or surgery. All participants in the study were 100% cancer free.
For cancer patients across the globe in search of where to buy RSO, there are options.
The Global Demand for RSO
Rick Simpson’s self healing journey has become a worldwide phenomenon. Countless medical studies have revealed that cannabinoids in Rick Simpson Oil destroy and stop the growth of cancer, while preserving healthy cells.
Speaking last Friday at the Psychedelic Science 2023 Conference in Denver, Jaden Smith credits psychedelics with improving relationships with his family members, USA Today reports. The actor and rapper, 24, is the son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, brother to Willow Smith, and half-brother to Trey Smith. Despite being what the kids like to call a “nepo baby,” Jaden has created a name solely for himself, largely thanks to his non-binary icon status. Jaden is known for his gender-defying fashion and helped cement the Smith family’s progressive reputation. His comments on psychedelics only further associate the Smith family name with being ahead of the curve. But Jaden wasn’t trying to pay lip service to the psychedelic movement to score cool points. He described, in relatable detail to anyone who’s gained clarity from a trip, how by increasing empathy, psychedelics help him rise above any pettiness and find peace with his loved ones.
“Siblings can argue so much and fight so much, and lord knows me and my siblings have done so much of that in the past,” he said. “But the level of love and empathy that I can feel for them inside of the (psychedelic) experiences and outside of the experiences has been something that’s profound and beautiful,” Smith said at the conference. This point is crucial because it demonstrates that healing doesn’t end when a trip does. Through integration, one can continue implementing the wisdom gained during a psychedelic experience into daily life.
Furthermore, Smith says that his mom introduced the family to the benefits of psychedelics. “I think it was my mom, actually, that was really the first one to make that step for the family,” he said of Jada Pinkett Smith introducing psychedelics to her kin. “It was just her for a really, really long time and then eventually it just trickled and evolved and everybody found it in their own ways.”
Science backs up his mom’s wisdom. As a 2020 study shows, psychedelics such as psilocybin, ayahuasca, LSD, and mescaline can increase emotional empathy. The research suggests that improved empathic functioning can bring about more openness, increased social connectedness, and prosocial attitudes.
For instance, Jaden Smith described how his family members would fight and then make up after taking psychedelics and experiencing a new perspective. “It will actually help us to open up our minds to get out of the old ways of thinking that got us into lots of these arguments and open it up so that it just releases and makes room for you to work it out and massage it out until it’s completely gone,” Smith said.
From sex-positive conversations on the talk show Red Table Talk, starring Jada, Willow, and Jada’s mom, Adrienne Banfield-Norris (and never-ending speculation over her open relationship with Will Smith), it doesn’t come as a surprise that Jada would be down with something as progressive as taking psychedelics with her family. While science is on her side, too many moms would still clutch their pearls at the idea of introducing their family to psychedelics.
However, this could be changing. A poll from the University of California, Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP), also presented at the Psychedelic Science 2023 Conference, shows that 61% of Americans support legalizing psychedelic therapy.
One of the biggest hurdles the psychedelic industry faces are limitations imposed by the federal government. Due to scheduling, it can be tricky to get solid research on these promising treatments. However, in more good news, the FDA, also on Friday, issued the first-ever guidance for clinical studies on psychedelics, suggesting that before you know it, your mom may be into bonding through tripping, too.
If you have ever sat there, smoking a nice dark purple, and wondered to yourself, “What makes this purple so darkly colored,” then what you are really asking is, what are flavonoids? Read on to learn the basics of these powerful chemicals responsible for some of the flavors, colors, and medical benefits of the food we eat and the cannabis we ingest.
Discovery of Flavonoids
The discovery of flavonoids is directly linked to the isolation and identification of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) by the Hungarian Nobel-prize winning researcher Albert Szent-Györgyi during the 1930s. Dr. Szent-Györgyi originally named this new class of chemicals “Vitamin P” because of their capillary permeability, which gave them benefits for fighting scurvy, a major health scourge.
Flavonoids – Not Just Flavors, Colors Too
Despite the name “flavonoid” being very similar to the word “flavor,” and them being widespread through a range of commonly eaten foods, they actually play a limited role in the flavors of what we eat, generally imparting a bitter, undesirable flavor, often masked by other flavors. For example, “Cocoa … is particularly rich in flavonoids—specifically, flavanols … Although flavanols impart a bitter astringent flavor to foods, the flavor is frequently masked in chocolates by aggressive processing and the addition of other flavors.” In addition to flavanols, another subclass of flavonoids is flavanones, which “are responsible for the bitter taste of the juice and peel of citrus fruits.”
Another subclass of flavonoids of note are “anthocyanins,” which are not flavors, but pigments in plants. Anthocyanins occur predominantly in the outer cells of dark red, blue, and purple colored fruits such as blueberries, raspberries, red grapes, and black currants. Anthocyanins can even change color depending on the pH; if they are in an acidic condition, anthocyanins appear as red but once the pH increases they turn blue. Interestingly, the “cyan” color range, which is one of the root words in “anthocyanin,” is actually the spectrum of bright, greenish-blue colors, like teal, not dark colors like sanguine or plum.
Anthocyanins – Why Purples Are Purple
As we just discussed, anthocyanins are what make plants have a purple hue, and that is no different with cannabis. In addition to the pH influencing the color, it additionally changes based on the structure of the anthocyanins, the light while the plant is growing, and the temperature. I’ve heard from many growers that it takes very cold temperatures for purple cultivars to actually become purple, but it seems like there are other techniques that can be employed when growing to influence color (i.e. soil pH). Research using LED lights has shown that using the right spectrum of light can alter anthocyanin production.
Shutterstock
The Role of Flavonoids in Nature
In plants, flavonoids act in a similar manner to terpenes, attracting pollinators, serving as messengers, or as defenses against a range of environmental stressors and predatory animals (herbivores, insects, etc). It has been proposed that flavonoids can also act as defense against UV light (think of them as plant sunblock) but this has not been confirmed.
Flavonoids in Cannabis
Even though they exist widely in nature, flavonoids are one of the less well-studied groups of chemicals in cannabis. Research has shown that “More than 20 flavonoids have been identified in C. sativa, most of which are flavone (apigenin and luteolin) and flavonol (kaempferol and quercetin) aglycones and glycosides.” Research has also shown that, as with hashishene, cannabis has some unique flavonoids found almost nowhere else, cannflavin A, B, and C; though Cannflavin A has “been identified in Mimulus bigelovii, a plant in the Phrymaceae family.”
Potential Medical Benefits of Flavonoids
While flavonoids have been demonstrated to have a range of medical benefits, they have limited bioavailability due to “limited absorption, extensive metabolism, and rapid excretion.” Broadly speaking, flavonoids are effective free radical scavengers in test tubes, but they are present in minute amounts compared to other antioxidants like vitamin C. It is believed that part of their antioxidant activity is a result of their ability to bind (chelate) metal ions, specifically for iron and copper, which can catalyze free radical production.
Beyond their antioxidant properties, studies have shown that the dietary intake of flavonoids leads to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Similarly, the dietary intake of flavonoids has been shown to have benefits for people with diabetes, specifically, consumption of berries rich in anthocyanins is beneficial to people with type 2 diabetes. Another area that benefits from dietary flavonoids is cognitive impairments due to aging. Finally, while various flavonoids in animal models have been found to inhibit the growth of some cancers, that data is not “convincing evidence that high intakes of dietary flavonoids are associated with substantial reductions in human cancer risk.”
While studies on cannflavins are limited, they have hinted at numerous medical benefits, “most notably as an anti-inflammatory agent.” There have been specific studies looking at Cannflavin A, which has been shown to be both a neuroprotective against Alzheimer’s disease and have anti-cancer effects against bladder cancer which were synergistic to cannabinoids like THC and CBD.
The feature film American Pot Story: Oaksterdam will have its Hollywood premiere on Thursday, June 29 at the Dances With Films festival in Los Angeles, with festivities planned for the event including an appearance from weed icon Tommy Chong and a Q&A with the film’s directors, Dan Katzir and Ravit Markus. The premiere continues a successful string of screenings for the film about the cannabis legalization efforts of Oakland-based cannabis training school Oaksterdam University, including the world premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival in January that garnered the prestigious Audience Award for Unstoppable Feature.
American Pot Story: Oaksterdam follows two of the driving forces behind the institution, founder Richard Lee and executive chancellor Dale Skye Jones, over a pivotal decade for both the pioneering cannabis college and the marijuana legalization movement.
“In 2010, we read in the newspaper that a group of activists was saying they’re going to do a legalization ballot measure in California,” director Dan Katzir explains in a virtual interview. “To us, it seemed like the media was laughing at them in their faces treating them as stoners that think they can change a policy that will never be changed.”
Courtesy American Pot Story
Film Documents More Than 10 Years Of Activism
Katzir and Markus followed Jones and Lee’s campaign for Proposition 19, the 2010 ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana in California that captured nearly 47% of the vote. The effort led to the film Legalize It, but the proposition’s failure at the polls gave the film a “sad ending,” says Katzir.
“We didn’t want to end our journey into this world of cannabis activism with that sad defeat,” he continues. “We had a feeling that the story of marijuana policy reform is not over yet, so we decided to do a new film about Oaksterdam, America’s first cannabis school that transformed the entire downtown of Oakland into a hub of marijuana resistance.”
Jones says in a telephone interview that she found it “borderline excruciating” to watch herself on American Pot Story: Oaksterdam when she first viewed the film. But overall, she is quite pleased with the outcome.
“I’m so terribly proud of the story they managed to tell,” she says. “It really did capture the essence of what we were trying to get across.”
To gain support for Proposition 19, the campaign focused largely on how the prohibition of marijuana and the resulting War on Drugs has consumed resources that could be going to other needs including public education.
“It’s my job to tie, whatever it is you care about to the drug war,” states Jones. “Because I promise, the drug war is only one degree of separation from stealing resources from something you care about, including maybe someone you care about.”
“Once you can start drawing lines of the cost of putting someone in prison versus the cost of putting someone in college or even more importantly, putting them in preschool, it really starts to hit home,” she adds. “And I think that’s what this movie does.”
The film also follows the evolution of Oaksterdam over more than 10 years, including a 2012 raid by the DEA that many blame on the efforts to pass Proposition 19. The film also follows the push to draft a new initiative that resulted in the legalization of cannabis in California in 2016.
Hollywood Premiere This Week
The Hollywood premiere for American Pot Story: Oaksterdam will take place on Thursday, June 29 at the TCL Chinese Theatres on Hollywood Boulevard as part of the Dances With Films festival. Running through July 2, Dances With Film is celebrating its 25th year in 2023, featuring screenings of more than 250 films.
The premiere will be followed by a Q&A with Katzir and Markus and film participants Dale Sky Jones, Jeffrey Jones and actor Tommy Chong. Later, an after-party will be held at Teddy’s nightclub at the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel for ticket holders and special guests.
The directors of American Pot Story: Oaksterdam hope the film will be screened at additional events through the summer and have applied to several other film festivals for consideration. They also are vying to be selected by a streaming platform, a process that Katzir says fans can support by following the film on Instagram and Facebook.
In recent years, conversations around cannabis as it pertains to athletes and the sports industry have amped up. Between the debates surrounding whether or not cannabis is a performance-enhancing substance and if drug testing requirements should be eased, or research showing that cannabis use can help to ease muscle recovery and assist with exercise, a new finding gives further insight on how cannabis use could help athletes.
A new study titled “The modulatory role of cannabis use in subconcussive neural injury,” published in the journal Cell, found that chronic cannabis consumption has the potential to offset the effects of repeated blows to the head. The research could be especially beneficial for professional athletes like boxers, football and soccer players, seeking to reduce the risk of long-term brain damage.
The research was sponsored by funds from the Indiana University Office of the Vice President for Research and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Another Athletic Benefit of Cannabis Use?
Athletes were at the center of the research from the start, as authors noted the increasing popularity of cannabis among athletes. The trial included 43 adult soccer players, split into a group of 24 cannabis users (at least once weekly for the past six months) and 19 non-cannabis users. The average cohort age was 20, including folks who prefer smoking, vaping or eating edibles.
Researchers embraced a controlled heading model to maintain uniform intensity, frequency and create a standardized model for the team to study. First, researchers looked at oculomotor function, when eyes adjust and coordinate during movement, of post-header soccer players. They selected a near-point of convergence (NPC), the closest point to the face before the eyes begin to see double. The non-cannabis users’ NPC moved farther away up to 72 hours after the controlled heading, but for cannabis users, NPC stopped growing after 24 hours.
Researchers also looked at S100B markers, a protein marker associated with brain damage and neurodegenerative diseases in higher concentrations. Once again, cannabis users came out on top, showing a reduced amount of S100B compared to non-cannabis participants, pointing to less risk of neurodegenerative impact.
The study also conducted Neurofilament light chain blood tests, which are meant to assess sports-related concussions, neurodegenerative diseases and neuronal damage. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups.
Promising Findings Only the Tip of the Iceberg
“Our data show that chronic cannabis use may be associated with an enhancement of oculomotor functional resiliency and suppression of the neuroinflammatory response following soccer heading,” authors concluded. “NPC has benefited from cannabis use in relation to faster recovery from 20 headings, while serum S100B level reflected the cannabis’s anti-inflammatory effects.”
Researchers admitted that the 72-hour post-heading timeframe meant they were unable to evaluate how long the elevation of NPC and S100B lasted before returning to the baseline for non-cannabis users. They also noted the lack of “ecological validity” in the study’s heading intervention, but they also argued that the study’s design was “one of the purest ways” to isolate the effects of head impacts and potential benefits of cannabis use, while limiting potential confounding factors.
While their model was more limited, researchers said, “strong group differences observed in our repeated measures design support the validity of our findings. It may be worth considering future clinical approaches focusing on randomized control trials.”
Additionally, while participants were told to refrain from other drug use, no drug toxicology tests were performed. Researchers also suggested a randomized controlled trial using standardized cannabis products and dosages. Authors also said that future research on the anti-inflammatory properties of cannabis in the brain is needed moving forward.
A New, Ongoing Chapter for Cannabis in Sports
It’s possible that this, and similar, research could help to push further studies on cannabis and sports injuries, or at the very least continue the current momentum easing long standing cannabis restrictions in sports.
Earlier this year, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) revealed the terms of a new deal that would remove cannabis from its banned substances list for players and allow players to promote and invest in cannabis companies.
The NBA joins other sports organizations, like the National Football League, Major League Baseball and the Ultimate Fighting Championship, introducing new cannabis reforms over the past several years.
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill last Thursday that includes an amendment allowing the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) doctors to recommend medical cannabis for their patients in legal states. It will now move forward as part of the approved legislation that funds the VA for the 2024 Fiscal Year.
The amendment, which passed via a voice vote, was sponsored by Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon. It will lead to the same results desired in a standalone bill refiled in the House with bipartisan backing by Representative Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Oregon, and Florida Republican Representative Brian Mast, who lost both legs while serving in the Army in Afghanistan. Collectively they are the co-chairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus.
The more recent measure that just passed in The Senate Appropriations Committee “simply says, in states that have a medical cannabis program, that a veteran’s doctor can talk to their veteran patient about the pros and cons of medical cannabis and fill out related paperwork should a veteran decide to participate in a state program where such paperwork is required,” Merkley said.
The amendment yields the same outcome as The Veterans Equal Access Act, which has not yet been implemented despite passing in committees and clearing floor approval multiple times with bipartisan (not to mention veteran) support.
In December of 2022, a coalition of more than 20 veterans service organizations (VSOs) wrote a letter to congressional leaders that just about had to beg lawmakers to pass a cannabis and veterans research bill before the end of the previous Congress session.
“For decades, many veterans have called for medicinal cannabis as an option for treating the unseen wounds of war and other injuries sustained through service,” the letter reads. “Veterans and caregivers have consistently communicated their anecdotal experiences regarding how cannabis offers effective treatment in tackling some of the most pressing health concerns they face upon returning from war.” Given what vets give for this country, and Americans now say that cannabis is safer than alcohol and cigarettes, it is more than a fair ask.
No such legislation passed in time. However, thanks to the approval of the latest spending bill, vets can now talk to their doctors about medical cannabis. Research continues to show the valuable role cannabis can play in treating PTSD, depression, anxiety, and many other conditions that, unfortunately, are all too familiar among vets.
Late last year, a study published in the journal Neuropharmacology by researchers from Wayne State University showed evidence that low doses of THC help treat adults with PTSD. While there is plenty of previous research on cannabis and trauma, this was the first to explore how THC affects corticolimbic brain activation.
Additionally, for those vets with injuries or chronic pain, cannabis offers a safer and harm-reduction path to treating such pain and allows many vets to opt out of opiates.
“We remain committed to the VA’s goal of conducting research into the efficacy of medicinal cannabis as a treatment for veterans with chronic pain, PTSD, and Traumatic Brain Injuries,” their letter continues. “However, as a Schedule I drug under the [Food and Drug Administration], research into the efficacy of cannabis has been stagnant, cumbersome, and convoluted with red tape. Federal research into cannabis faces many bureaucratic hurdles that hinder researchers.”
In related news, Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican from Iowa, filed different legislation in May that would promote research for treating conditions such as PTSD and chronic pain within the VA, and that’s just one of many bills currently making their way through Congress.
In April, bipartisan House representatives and Senators also refiled bills to legalize medical marijuana for military veterans. If made into law, it would allow veterans to legally possess and use cannabis on a federal level (but following state law) as recommended by their doctor.
Visitors to Las Vegas will soon have places to legally smoke weed as Nevada regulators have issued the state’s first three conditional licenses for cannabis consumption lounges. The Nevada Cannabis Control Board (CCB) issued two licenses for businesses in the Las Vegas Valley, while the remaining permit was issued for a lounge to be located in Washoe County in the northwestern corner of Nevada.
Before they can invite guests in to light up, the three Nevada businesses must first receive local approval and undergo a final inspection by board agents with the CCB. But with their conditional licenses in hand after approval by the board at a meeting on June 20, the lounges can finish planning and constructing their sites and prepare for opening.
“Receiving this confirmation from the state allows us to move on to the final design and buildout of our consumption lounge,” said Larry Scheffler, co-CEO of Planet 13, a dispensary complex near the Las Vegas Strip that received one of two licenses issued in Clark County. “The consumption lounge will be a huge step to unlocking the full potential of the SuperStore as a cannabis destination. It will give customers the ability to try products prior to buying, watch live entertainment, and enjoy food and drink in a social setting that matches Planet 13’s incredible experiential design standard.”
Planet 13 vice president of sales and marketing David Farris said that the company is still in the planning and construction phase for its lounge. The company had originally considered a restaurant concept for its lounge, but at the CCB meeting, Planet 13 general counsel Leighton Koehler told the board that the company is considering a range of ideas from a “modest” tasting room to a more expansive nightclub experience.
“It’s a strict business, pencil out the math (decision)—we’re still looking at that and trying to decide how much it costs to implement,” Koehler said during the meeting.
Representatives of the vertically integrated cannabis firm said that they plan to submit their plans to Clark County in the coming weeks for a review by county officials that could take several months. Neither Planet 13 nor Thrive Cannabis Marketplace, the second business to receive a cannabis consumption lounge in Clark County, have set an expected opening date. Thrive hopes to open its lounge on Sammy Davis Jr. Boulevard in time for the MJ Biz Con cannabis industry trade show in late November.
Chris LaPorte, managing partner of Reset, a cannabis consultant firm representing Thrive, said the company’s approximately 3,000 square-foot lounge venue Smoke and Mirrors would be a place for “cannacurious” tourists to be introduced to different marijuana products without visiting a dispensary.
“It’s just a vibe,” LaPorte said. “It’s like any other Las Vegas nightlife hospitality, but instead of a liquor bar, it’s cannabis as social lubricant.”
Edward Alexander, the owner of SoL Cannabis in Washoe County, said that he envisioned his business as a gathering site for the community, but many patrons had questioned why they were not allowed to consume the products they had just purchased at the dispensary.
“Every weekend during the summer, we do music at our facility,” Alexander said during Tuesday’s CCB meeting, as quoted by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “And every weekend, the old grouchy, tattooed hippie is out there saying, ‘I know you’re at Disneyland, (but) you can’t ride the rides.’”
At its June 20 meeting, the CCB also amended the air quality regulations for cannabis consumption lounges by reducing the required number of air exchanges per hour in smoking areas from 30 to 20 exchanges per hour and from 20 to six exchanges per hour in non-smoking areas. The change will “allow for greater flexibility in air ventilation requirements for cannabis consumption lounges further reducing barriers of entry for all potential licensees including social equity applicants,” according to the board. Officials made the change after applicants for the lounge licenses said that building an air conditioning system to meet the stricter requirements is too expensive.
“If you’re moving air every minute or two minutes, it’s a massive power consumption challenge,” said LaPorte.
Late last year, the CCB conducted a digital drawing to select 40 businesses for prospective cannabis consumption lounge licenses “via a random number selector to determine the issuance of independent cannabis consumption lounge licenses for non-social equity applicants and social equity applicants,” according to a statement from the agency. Prospective license holders must submit all required documents for a suitability investigation by CCB board agents in order to receive a conditional license.
A pair of United Airlines workers are facing legal turbulence after getting busted for stealing marijuana from passengers’ checked luggage.
According to various media reports, the two employees––Joel Lamont Dunn and Adrian Webb––worked as ramp cargo agents for United at San Francisco International Airport.
It was there that the two allegedly operated a scheme involving other workers who were paid good money to steal the contraband from the luggage.
The Los Angeles Times, citing a criminal complaint from the FBI, reports that Dunn and Webb “were charged on June 9 with conspiring to distribute a controlled substance.”
“Starting in 2020, Dunn and Webb oversaw an operation where other workers were paid $2,000 or more in cash each shift—or up to $10,000 a week—to steal large quantities of marijuana from checked luggage,” the Times reports.
The San Francisco Standard, citing prosecutors in the case, that one of the airline workers approached by Dunn to join the scheme subsequently became a confidential source for law enforcement officials.
Things began to unravel for Dunn and Webb in June of 2021, when they were “robbed at gunpoint in the [San Francisco International] employee parking lot near their vehicles,” according to the San Francisco Standard.
While Dunn and Webb reported the robbery to law enforcement, they did not mention the stolen marijuana.
The Los Angeles Times reports: “Video surveillance footage from before and after the robbery showed the two men and other employees carrying 15- to 20-gallon black trash bags out of the secure area of the airport, the FBI complaint says. The video also shows Webb carrying a black trash bag, walking through the parking garage, heading toward his vehicle. Subsequent video footage from October 2022 showed the two men engaged in similar activity, taking bags of unknown contents from the secured area of the airport to their personal vehicles, according to the FBI. Contacted by law enforcement, one of the men initially denied that the contents belong to them but later recanted. A search warrant revealed that a black trash bag and two boxes contained multiple vacuumed sealed bags of what lab testing confirmed was approximately 30 pounds of marijuana, the FBI said. At least five people were involved in the operation, according to the complaint, but so far only Dunn and Webb have been charged.”
As more states legalized recreational cannabis use, restrictions on traveling with pot have also been relaxed. The Transportation Security Administration says that its “screening procedures are focused on security and are designed to detect potential threats to aviation and passengers,” adding that its officers “do not search for marijuana or other illegal drugs, but if any illegal substance is discovered during security screening, TSA will refer the matter to a law enforcement officer.”
Because airports are locally operated, officers generally defer to their local laws. In other words: if pot is legal, you’re probably good to fly with it. But travelers should be wary of the laws at their intended destination. Some airports, like O’Hare International in Chicago, have installed “amnesty boxes” for travelers to ditch their weed before flying.
“We’re not encouraging people to bring cannabis through the airports at all,” Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Maggie Huynh said in 2020, after the boxes were installed at O’Hare. “But if for some reason you have it on you, we have those amnesty boxes out there so that you can dispose of it prior to getting on the airplane.”
Today, let’s talk gravity bongs. We’ve all used them, and the same sentiments about them seem to be widespread: they were a fun way to smoke as a teenager, they’re a little complicated to make and use, and they get you absolutely baked beyond belief. Essentially, they were a fun time, but more trouble than they were worth unless you had the necessary items for one on hand. Still, a fun time is worth a lot, and they bring a beautiful sense of nostalgia for people who grew up making them. But, you may be asking, how do we recreate that smoking experience and technology for the modern day sesh? Not everyone wants to smoke out of plastic 2-liters anymore, which is totally fair. So how do we take what we’ve learned from the gravity bong, modernize it, and apply it to today? Well, by creating the GravIX, The Kind Pen has tackled that question and come up with a pretty damn good answer.
The GravIX is an updated take on the classic hard-hitting gravity bong. It’s easy-to-use, and lets you experience the powerful hits that gravity bongs are known for without the hassle of having to MacGyver one. The GravIX will give you a smoother, more satisfying hit than a traditional gravity bong would—but will still leave you feeling equally pleasantly high.
So, a quick primer on what a gravity bong is and how it works: A gravity bong is a device that uses gravity to create suction, pulling smoke into a chamber. The classic, standard version of the gravity bong involves using a plastic bottle (typically a 2-liter) with the bottom cut off (very easy way to accidentally get poked) and a bowl attached to the top (usually with duct tape or something similar). That half-bottle is then placed in a larger container filled with water, and as you light the bowl, you slowly lift the bottle out of the water, creating suction and filling the chamber with smoke. Once the chamber is filled, you remove the bowl and inhale the smoke, pushing the bottle down, which then pushes the smoke into your lungs through the vacuum created in the chamber.
While the classic gravity bong is great and certainly one of the more effective methods of smoking, it can be a huge hassle to make and use. Not only do you need to have a plastic bottle on hand, but you need to cut the bottom off with a knife or scissors, attach a bowl, find a container of water to use, and be careful not to spill any water or break the bottle. Plus, the resulting hits can be overwhelmingly harsh, and while it is a hazard of smoking anything, nobody wants to cough up a lung.
With the GravIX, The Kind Pen took all of the most beloved aspects of the classic gravity bong and improved upon them in a number of ways. Most importantly, it’s incredibly easy to use compared to a standard homemade gravity bong. There isn’t any need to cut or modify any plastic water bottles, and the device is completely self-contained, so you don’t need to worry about splashing water anywhere or breaking anything, really. All you need to do is fill it with water, pack the bowl with your herb, press the button to start the suction, and light it up.
Because it’s a bong, the GravIX also helps to cool the smoke down before it reaches your lungs. The device uses a diffused downstem to break up the smoke into smaller particles, which allows it to cool down while running through the water and therefore become less harsh. This means that you can enjoy a smoother hit, and one less likely to make you cough or irritate your throat.
Courtesy The Kind Pen
The absolute most standout feature of the GravIX is its sleek, matte black design. The device is made of durable, high-quality materials and boasts a polished, modern aesthetic. The smooth, curved lines and bold black color give it a minimal but sophisticated look, making for a great addition to any collection. It’s a great piece for the mantle, and a particularly good one to show off to your friends. And unlike the traditional gravity bong, the GravIX is designed for reuse, so users don’t need to worry about constantly making new ones or searching for the right materials.
But what sets the GravIX apart from other gravity bongs on the market is its innovative technology. The device uses a suction mechanism attached to a hose to create the necessary vacuum, allowing for a smooth and controlled pull. This eliminates the need for users to use their hands to lift the bottle or container, reducing the risk of spills or accidents. The GravIX also has a unique carb cap feature that allows users to adjust the airflow and control the density of the smoke.
Of course, as with any smoking device, it’s important to use the GravIX responsibly—know your limits. While the GravIX is designed to be one of the most efficient and effective smoking devices on the market, it’s still an extremely powerful tool that should be used with care. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the intake of smoke. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to start with a small amount and gradually increase as needed, and to take breaks between seshes until you know how this specific device hits you. It’s like edibles; it will affect everyone differently.
The folks at The Kind Pen have clearly put a lot of thought and effort into perfecting the gravity bong with designing the GravIX. The company has even gone so far as to create a user-friendly guide to help users get the most out of their device. The guide includes step-by-step instructions for assembly and use, as well as helpful tips and tricks for cleaning and maintenance. And yet another benefit of the GravIX is its convenience—the device is fairly portable (it comes in a cool trunk case), making it easy to take with you on the go. Overall, the GravIX is a fantastic modern twist on the classic gravity bong. It’s a sleek and stylish device that offers convenience, efficiency, and innovation. Whether you’re a seasoned smoker or just starting out, the GravIX is definitely worth checking out. So why not give it a try and see for yourself what all the fuss is about? Who knows, it might just become your new favorite way to smoke.
John West Thatcher is not your average, run-of-the-mill, depraved, weird, long-haired, hippie drug smuggler. For starters, Thatcher doesn’t drink, curse or smoke. Not even cigarettes. He’s a God-fearing, born-again Christian who eats lunch at his unpretentious desk, wets his hair and combs it straight back, works six days a week and goes to church on the seventh.
He’s also a Kiwanis Club member, Davidson College trustee, retired lieutenant colonel and chairman of the Miami chapter of Youth for Christ. With a cover like that, who would ever suspect that Thatcher is the number one cocaine importer in Florida, maybe in the nation—a distinction he earned without really trying. Or spending a day in jail.
John Thatcher’s business is bananas. Literally. He imports the yellow fruit from Colombia to Miami, 150 million oblong tropical delights each year. He also imports—inadvertently—a lot of cocaine, something Thatcher, a deacon of the Presbyterian Church, finds hard to explain. The nose candy comes in with the rest of Thatcher’s cargo on the three big banana boats he owns. Like Thatcher’s bananas, the coke comes in bunches. Sometimes 50 pounds, sometimes 150 pounds at a time.
What the railroad did for the American West, the banana boat is doing for Colombian cocaine. The connection is easy and efficient. In the last three years, well over a ton of coke has moved through it. Over 750 pounds has been wasted by Customs narcs who watch all banana boats that dock in Tampa or Miami. The top three seizures on the DEA all-time hit parade took place on banana boats. Together, the seizures account for one out of every eight pounds of coke the feds have put their hands on, an incredible $190-million payload of snow. For every pound that’s wasted, it’s certain that three, four or maybe five pounds end up in someone’s nose.
The banana boat offers the big-time coker some significant advantages. Scheduling is one of them. At least two banana boats leave Colombia for Florida every week. Their schedules are as regular as the airlines’, and there’s less chance of losing your baggage.
The banana boats travel the fastest water route possible; they’re nonstop and refrigerated to boot. Unlike their airborne competition banana boats require no overhead, since the coker, in essence, is hitching a ride. There’s no maintenance or licenses to worry about. Not even gas.
Another big advantage is the banana boat’s size. The 300-foot-long ships may look like huge hulks of scrap metal and twisted steel to the untrained eye, but they offer cokers up to 90,000 cubic feet of storage space and a million and one nooks and crannies to hide a stash.
The only limit is the coker’s imagination, which is to say no limit at all. Coke has been found everywhere on Thatcher’s ships. In the pipes, the walls, the electrical paneling; in oil containers and soap boxes. Also in the crew’s lockers, the bilge, abandoned generators, rope lockers, the engine room, the galley and in tin cans. If a suitable compartment cannot be found, it can usually be constructed. Cokers have put in false pipes, false walls and false floors.
A stash of 157 pounds was found in the banana boat’s bilge behind 6,000 boxes of bananas and a layer of decking. Another 42 pounds was inadvertently discovered by a fastidious female narc who marveled about one boat’s galley crew and how they neatly wrapped their garbage. The “garbage” she stumbled past was worth $10 million on the street.
Some of the best places to put small amounts of coke are on Thatcher’s crew. Each banana boat carries more mules than a box of borax soap. The mules pack coke in the heels of their shoes, their underwear, their crotches and sometimes their girdles. The mules are recruited in Turbo, Colombia, where the banana boats dock. The selection process is not an arduous one. Any sailor who understands that there are rewards for poor vision and penalties for sharp eyes can qualify. Mules coming into Miami can expect $1,000 or more for every kilo that is safely delivered.
Luis Eduardo Arias never collected his mule’s fee. He never safely delivered his cocaine. Arias once tried to move 18 ounces of coke off the banana boat Cubahama by stuffing it deep inside his stained jockey shorts. But it wasn’t the telltale bulge of Arias’s crotch that gave the Colombian sailor away. It was the empty quart bottle of Pepsi he never returned.
Two Customs narcs routinely trailed Arias as he left the banana boat, crossed the Miami River and walked to Little Havana, Miami’s Cuban, coke-snorting enclave. They didn’t notice the enormity of the sailor’s groin. At least initially. They did notice the soda bottle and became suspicious when Arias entered a convenience store but didn’t return the bottle for a deposit.
“The Colombians are creatures of habit just like the rest of us,” one of the arresting narcs later said. “None of them would pass up a chance to deposit a bottle. Not one of the big ones that pay a dime.”
Joaquin Fernandez also got burned. Not by Customs; by a competing mule. On a humid and uncomfortable August night in Tampa, Fernandez walked the deck of the banana boat EA, fought with the mosquitoes and waited for his contact. It wasn’t long before a boyish-looking American appeared. “Puta,” the American said in the middle of his conversation, “is Spanish for whore.”
That was Fernandez’s signal. The Colombian moved back into his quarters with great purpose. He then ran into the engine room and started removing the 117 bolts that kept the hatch plate on the water tank and everyone from his stash. Fernandez worked fast, but the last few bolts were stuck. The American who had boarded the boat offered a hand. As Fernandez moved away to make room, he turned and pissed in his pants. Four other men were standing behind him. They all carried guns. The men were Customs agents, tipped off by another sailor suspected of carrying his own load.
Arias and Fernandez ended their American vacation by being hauled before a federal judge and given a lecture and a fine they couldn’t pay before being deported to Turbo, a fishing village turned boom town on the Colombian coast from whence they came.
Virtually nothing happens in Turbo—a town of 30,000 inhabitants, small bars and rutted streets—that doesn’t involve bananas or cocaine. A one-wharf town, 22 miles from the end of the closest paved road, Turbo sits on the edge of the Colombian jungle, where the rich soil produces millions of Cavendish bananas and the surrounding hills produce communist guerrillas.
Bananas provide most of the jobs in Turbo. Cocaine provides most of the wealth. In the best of times, bananas retail for 25 cents a pound. Cocaine, at any time, sells for more than ten times the freemarket price of gold. Turbo’s snowfall has given Colombian cokers the money necessary to buy the fastest planes, the biggest haciendas and the prettiest women. It has given successful mules the chance to purchase one of Colombia’s most sought-after status symbols—a house with a concrete floor.
In Turbo, the wise peasant drinks his aguardiente, a clear liquid made from the essences of anisette and kerosene, with his eyes turned toward the ground. That is a sure way to stay alive in Colombia’s Dodge City. Only one Turbo official ever had visions of becoming Wyatt Earp, and he is dead. He was the captain of the port of Turbo, and three years ago he tried to stop the cokers. The captain was shot dead in the town square at noon. His assassins were never apprehended. There were no witnesses. The men of Turbo continue to drink with their heads lowered.
One of Thatcher’s banana-boat captains calls Turbo “the end of the world.” It is a good place for a gringo to get mugged while trying to freelance cocaine.
But getting coke aboard a banana boat is no problem for Colombia’s cocaine cartel. It takes 30 hours, 100 Colombian stevedores and Thatcher’s 20-man crew to load one boat with bananas. It takes only a modest tip paid to the right Colombian customs inspector to get a stash aboard.
“Anyone with a raft or a canoe,” admits Thatcher, “has access to our ships.” One DEA agent who has been to Turbo and gives the cokers there considerable credit believes they could load a submarine.
Thatcher, the Colombians and our own narcs have tried everything to peel the Banana Boat Connection. There was one effort to leave only one door on the ship open, but that proved inefficient. There was also an attempt to restrict the crews’ shore leave and forbid them a chance to see their women friends. That nearly provoked a mutiny.
The Colombians have beefed up their customs detail in Turbo, but duty there is considered as attractive as Vietnam. Most Colombians just sit tight in Turbo and wait for their tour to expire.
The narcs who cover the Miami waterfront are more enthusiastic. There’s something about this cat-and-mouse game through an oily, grimy, hot banana boat hull that warms the cockles of a narc’s heart. The whole thing is reminiscent of Mad magazine’s “Spy vs. Spy” and, what the hell, it’s taxpayer financed.
“We study them and they study us,” explained one narc. “We know their modus operandi and they know ours. Most of the mules aren’t dumb. They send scouts out to the ship’s bridge with binoculars. Sometimes we’re eyeball to eyeball. The whole thing is fun.”
The narcs don’t like to lose at this game, but the odds are against them by virtue of their numbers. It takes six narcs at least half a day to thoroughly search a banana boat. That’s more men than Customs can regularly afford. Customs has to settle for surveillance of crew members and spot checks.
John Thatcher also takes the Banana Boat Connection to heart. He’s done everything he could to destroy it. For years, Thatcher tried to strike at the cokers with the vengeance of Frankenstein trying to slay his monster. There were times that Thatcher couldn’t sleep at night, so he tried tongue-lashing the crew. Behind his back, in Spanish, they laughed, so Thatcher began to fire them. He fired anyone suspected of being a mule, from sailors to their captains. The turnover rate on Thatcher’s ship soared to over 100 percent a year.
In one of his more desperate moments, Thatcher spent several thousand dollars employing sleuth Ivan Nachman to go to Colombia and break up the smuggling ring. Nachman is a former Miami constable who was raiding lockers at Miami High, searching for heroin, when he wasn’t testing bulletproof vests in his office with a Smith & Wesson .38. Nachman’s search for heroin produced four ounces of grass. His search for a perfect bulletproof vest produced a few holes in the walls of his office.
Nachman left Thatcher’s headquarters for Colombia armed with his sunglasses, his cover as a photojournalist and a sense of bravado developed in the years when copping a few joints from a hippie was considered a big bust. Nachman returned with a portfolio of glossy pictures of the Colombian countryside, an equally flashy bill and no significant new information. The Banana Boat Connection continued undisturbed.
Along the Miami River, John West Thatcher is sometimes called the “man who smuggles bananas and imports cocaine.” The tag used to make Thatcher angry. Now, in an unguarded moment, he can talk about cocaine and laugh.
Forty-six pounds of coke was recently seized near Thatcher’s ship Oro Verde, which in Spanish means “green gold.” Thatcher now thinks he may rename the ship Oro Blanco, or “white gold.”
As American hemp farmers struggle to accurately sex plants and prevent their crops from going hot—going over the potency definition of what makes the plants hemp or 0.3% THC on a dry-weight basis—technology is improving to make these tasks a little easier. With the help of some of the top minds at Texas A&M University, Louisiana-based Mariposa Technology has created a digital farming tool for hemp and marijuana farmers using a database and software that allows them to test their crops at any stage of the growing season without having to cut any samples. Using a small laser-operated spectroscopy tool, THC content and plant gender can be determined without waiting for a lab to process the data.
The Mariposa Technology team developed Predictive Analytical Modeling Application for Plants (PAMAP), a protocol for rapid, in-field testing of live plants. It gives farmers the power to self-test, saving them weeks of valuable time that would normally be taken up by mailing cut samples for lab testing.
“The only plants that we have in our database, as of today, are cannabis plants, primarily hemp; however, the technology can be used for other plants in the future,” says Mariposa Technology Chief Operating Officer Michael Dalle Molle. “We are focusing on hemp primarily because we see major pain points in the industry that our technology can solve for farmers.”
The process of scanning the plants involves a handheld device that utilizes Raman spectroscopy. Raman spectroscopy is an analytical lab technique where scattered light from a laser is used to measure the vibrational modes of molecules—thereby detecting the chemical composition of materials. The laser light interacts with molecular vibrations and provides a chemical fingerprint.
“So essentially, you have a handheld device that is paired with our database, that’s comprised of millions of different data points, and you fire off a laser through the scanner, it scans live complex living tissues, so this is a non-destructive, non-invasive test,” says Molle. “And that scan produces a spectrum, and the spectrum is then sent through our application, it’s read by our algorithms, and you’re produced a result.”
High Times Magazine, February 2023
Hot Hemp Horrors
Just how bad is the hot hemp problem? According to New Frontier Data, over 4,000 acres of roughly 243,00 hemp plants in the U.S. were destroyed for going hot in 2019. In 2020, this only increased to 6,234 acres—despite there being fewer acres planted. According to data from recent years, this number could go up beyond 10,000 acres destroyed, given the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) 2021 definition change of THC limits—now not only limited to 0.3% delta-9 THC, but total THC.
“We’ve talked to farmers who have had to destroy their entire crops before; this is happening less and less because people are becoming more aware of the problems and more aware of how they can mitigate these problems,” Molle says. “But it’s only happening less for the farmers that are aware of it.”
Hemp farmers can usually effectively single out hot hemp, though by the time they’re aware of it, often thousands of dollars have already been wasted. Still, in many states, a lot of hot hemp biomass makes its way into regulated cannabis markets and is sold in vape pens or other products.
“Our tool allows you to become aware of this before you get a COA [certificate of analysis]. Before you send any tests into your local governing bodies, you’re able to use PAMAP to basically predetermine when you will go hot,” Molle says. “So it’s an optimization tool, as well as a testing tool. And it allows farmers to really understand, you know, the levels of THC and understand when they might need to harvest or if they’re too late to harvest, unfortunately, and then they need to kind of come up with a plan B. Our test is able to provide them with all of that information.”
Sexing Plants
In Volume 27, Issue 15 of the peer-reviewed journal Molecules, released in August 2022, Mariposa Technology co-founder and President John K. Roberts III and Molle joined five other co-authors—Nicolas K. Goff, James F. Guenther, Mickal Adler, Greg Mathews, and Dmitry Kurouski—to publish their study of using Raman spectroscopy to sex plants. The journal article demonstrated how they can determine hermaphrodite, male, and female hemp plants based on the detection of different amounts of carotenoids. Carotenoids, or tetraterpenoids, are yellow, orange, and red fat-soluble pigments found in certain plant varieties including cannabis.
The concentration of carotenoids is the greatest in female cannabis, and hermaphrodites demonstrate the lowest carotenoid content, with males in the middle. Specifically, the intensities of carotenoid vibrations detected via spectroscopy were much more intense in female plants than male plants and less intense in hermaphrodites.
“We believe that it’s the carotenoids in the plant,” Roberts says, explaining how they can tell the difference between males, females, and hermaphrodites. “But we haven’t determined it. We have proven that we can successfully do it 100% of the time from male and female plants and 98.7% of the time for monecious [hermaphrodite] plants. But the actual reason that we’re able to determine it is still somewhat of an open scientific question.”
Gender is controversial in the hemp plant world, leading to efforts to ban male hemp plants. In Oregon, Corvallis-based Oregon CBD has fought the state legislature to ban male hemp plants since 2014. The company said wind-blown pollen from a neighboring farm ruined its crops, amounting to an estimated $2.5 million in damages.
Cross-pollination from rogue males creates problems. It’s bad for hemp producers and processors focused on CBD and other non-psychoactive cannabinoids because a pollinated hemp crop loses up to half of its biomass and around 30% of its total cannabinoid content. For farmers focused only on fiber, it’s not as much of a big deal. If plant gender could be determined earlier, some of the damage might be mitigated.
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What is Raman Spectroscopy?
Dmitry Kurouski, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at Texas A&M, specializes in Raman spectroscopy technology, using it for everything from identifying components of cannabis to crime scene analysis. For example, Kurouski demonstrated in a study that Raman spectroscopy could determine if a crime scene hair was dyed or natural hair color, something that’s always been a bit of a challenge for law enforcement.
Like with human hairs, Raman spectroscopy can also be used to determine components of cannabis. The laser excites molecules, causing them to vibrate differently from one another and produce different spectra in the readouts.
“A laser is fired, and it only has a millimeter-wide focal point,” Molle says. “So you’re firing a laser into a very concentrated area, and it creates excitation within the photons and the electrons. You then get a vibration that is picked up by the device and reader within the device. So the laser creates excitation, the device picks up that excitation and creates a spectrum based on the vibrations of those molecules. And that’s the reason why it’s such a precise instrument.”
The motivations behind technology in the world of cannabis go beyond just saving time and money. Hot hemp—especially in states with high altitudes susceptible to higher UV light, which is a trigger for THC production—is an ongoing problem.
Roberts explained that the piece of hardware that does the scanning has existed for about 10 years and is manufactured by Agilent Technologies, though until now, it hasn’t been used for cannabis. Agilent Technologies focuses primarily on ways to improve the overall laboratory workflow. The company was formed as a spin-off of Hewlett-Packard in 1999.
The same tools used previously for crime scene analysis turned out to be ideal for determining characteristics in cannabis as well.
“What happened was Professor Kurouski at Texas A&M, our collaborator and partner in this, discovered that this particular device, which is used for chemical identifications in a wide range of scenarios, had just the right laser, nanometer, and the power of the handheld device that eliminated background scattering from the spectra on live agricultural products,” Roberts explains.
The handheld scanning device is one thing, but it’s essentially worthless if you don’t have the correct data to compare readouts. Mariposa Technology plans to soon offer the handheld detection device via a subscription service following a software update.
“The hardware itself produces a numerical representation of what it’s scanning organic compounds and spectra that you can look at, but it tells you nothing unless you have a data set and a library available to refer and compare that,” Roberts says.
Beyond expediting the cannabis testing process, this technology can further revolutionize the cannabis testing industry by reducing its impact on the environment, given the new shortcuts around materials such as chemicals and solvents used by labs. It’s also a fix that can reduce transportation and other costs.
“What we’re doing is trying very hard to also reduce the carbon footprint of the cannabis testing industry at large,” Molle says. “Our device is very easy to use. And one of the main reasons for that is that you don’t need to have any chemicals or solvents. You don’t need gloves. There’s much less waste involved. There’s no transportation of samples, you know, with a licensed handler, none of that exists with us. So on top of all of the other things that we’re doing, we’re also hoping that we can make the cannabis industry just greener and more eco-friendly at large.”
This article was originally published in the February 2023 issue of High Times Magazine.
Nimesh Patel doesn’t walk over familiar ground in his latest special. The title alone spells that out loud and clear: Lucky Lefty OR: I Lost My Right Nut And All I Got Was This Stupid Special. The damn good special, which is available to watch on YouTube, is about Patel’s experience being diagnosed with and treated for testicular cancer.
Once again, Patel is doing his own thing on stage.
Lucky Lefty is his second self-produced special following Jokes to Get You Through Quarantine and Thank You China. In 2017, Patel was hired as a writer for Saturday Night Live. In addition to SNL, he wrote for Hasan Minhaj’s The White House Correspondents Dinner and the Chris Rock-hosted Academy Awards.
Patel is on the road at the moment, and at the beginning of September, he’ll kick off his Fast & Loose Tour. If you haven’t seen Patel perform yet, start live or go with his Lucky Lefty special, which is 40-minutes of both comforting and cringe-inducing comedy.
Recently, Patel talked to us about his latest special, his experiences on the road, and how cannabis helps his writing.
High Times:When did you know the material was ready for a special?
Nimesh Patel: Well, I feel that way the instant I start to hate it already, so I just want to get it out. But I knew that the material I was working on was gonna be something special, so I decided I would give it about a year as the calendar amount of time I wanted to spend on something. And that’s how I worked on that one. Usually, though, as a comic, it’s like the instant you’ve said something more than once, it’s like, “Alright, I need to retire this immediately.”
Your story, though, it’s not a story you’ve heard in every special. You must have known this could be a comedy gold mine, sadly…
Yes. You know, as it was happening, I was taking notes every day. I recapped every day what was going on. It just so happened that every day of the five days that the whole situation was happening, something stupid happened. I was like, “I can’t wait to hit the stage.” I hit the stage at the Cellar about a week after surgery. Once I hit the stage and I knew I said the things I had experienced and everyone laughed, I was like, “Okay, this is gonna be something.”
Congratulations on being cancer-free, by the way.
[Laughs] Oh, thank you, man.
People are typically very uncomfortable talking about cancer, as you pointed out in the special. When you first performed some of this material, though, did you get the sense that talking about testicular cancer is different for a crowd?
I think when I started, I was a little coy and kind of cognizant of the fact that cancer’s the other C word and people are like, “Oh shit. Is this what it’s gonna be?” People get solemn. But the instant I ripped the bandaid off and made it aware that everyone could laugh at it, then people were like, “Alright, well he’s laughing at himself. We might as well.”
Strangely made me feel better when you’d just casually acknowledge we’re all going to die.
Yeah, yeah. Sorry, sorry for that bleak outlook.
[Laughs] I didn’t think it was that bleak, just honest. It wasn’t like a five-minute monologue about this is meaningless. It was just casually being like, “Hey, just a reminder, we’re all going.”
Yes, thank you for saying that. You know, it was me, I think when I talk to people who have had actual cancer [Laughs], I think they get a little annoyed that it’s treated so casually. But people who haven’t experienced it are kind of relieved that there’s someone who can talk about it without the “woe is me” attitude. I’m not saying all cancer patients are like that. I think many people have a better version of my attitude. They’re just not comedians.
Was the reaction to the material positive right from the start?
Yeah. I mean, I started by talking about the fact that my balls were shaved while I was awake, and that was the funniest part of the whole thing, outside of the grand irony. Once that unbelievable thing was out and people were laughing at it, it was easy to realize that it was the climax of the set. As long as I happily built towards that, it would be a fun rollercoaster ride for everybody.
Is there also something comforting about controlling the conversation about your experience by being on stage and talking about it?
Yes, I think you nailed it. Now I never have to talk about it outside of the stage. I mentioned at one point in the set the biggest fear that people who survived cancer or went through cancer had is social isolation. It’s one of those studies that I read. People who aren’t comedians don’t have the outlet to go on stage and talk about it as freely as I do. So, they talk about it at places like Chipotle with their friends, and that can be burdensome. Luckily for me, I don’t have to bring it up over guacamole. I can just say it on stage, and when we’re out watching the Knicks, we can talk about how shitty the Knicks are instead of how shitty it is that one of my balls is gone. It kind of leaves things compartmentalized, which is great.
[Laughs] How much material did you find yourself having? Like, was it just a treasure trove of jokes?
Yes, it was. I was incredulous at the amount of ridiculous things that were happening every day. When reality is stranger than fiction, that’s what it felt like. The only thing I had to be cautious of was not overdoing it with the ball puns. They were flowing out easily, and I had to stop myself because I realized it was getting excessive. At one point, I remember being on stage and doing like 20 ball puns in a row just to get it out of my system [Laughs]. Around the fourth one, the crowd was quiet, like, “Alright, man, come on.” But I was like, “Nope, I gotta do all 16 more of these.”
There’s a nice push and pull in the special. You can say an uncomfortable joke, but then a minute later, you’re like, I feel for this guy.
Thank you. Yeah, that was a challenge. I think a lot of the challenge was not becoming the sympathetic character in the story. In the one I told, it’s easy to be that sympathetic person, like, “Oh man, this guy…” So, how do I make you not like me but still like the joke? That was a deliberate choice. I wanted to veer away from the “woe is me” comedy, where it’s like, “Oh my God, can you believe this shit happened? I felt so bad about this shit happening to me.” I made sure to avoid that. The best way to do that is to have hard jokes that are unexpected.
I wanted to design the set like that because it’s easy to root for me, and then suddenly you don’t want to root for me because I said this stupid thing, but it’s too funny to not laugh at, you know?
Like, the women’s rights jokes.
Right. And by the end, when my wife says the ultrasound joke and calls it back when I’m getting my ball shaved, it always gets an applause break. It’s always from the women whose arms were folded up front when I said the women’s rights thing. I can track it. It’s a hundred percent conversion rate [Laughs]. That’s my favorite type of comedy, where you don’t want to like me, but that joke is too good. And now I brought it all back, and you can feel good about how you feel about me being an asshole.
Given the experience you’re talking about, did you also think you’d get more free passes for those jokes?
I’m sure subconsciously that was going on in my head. There were moments throughout the development of the set where if something didn’t work, I would be like, “Guys, remember I had cancer, remember?” [Laughs] But at the same time, I didn’t want to play that card too hard. I didn’t want to be a victim or play victim comedy. This is just something that happened to me, and I didn’t want to use it excessively. I don’t think I did.
Before you even first told your wife’s joke, did you know it’d win back some of the audience?
When I wrote that joke, I knew it would be the save, and once I said it on stage, it became the save. I knew it could clear up the earlier tension and mess that I made with the inappropriate comment directed toward women. Once I discovered it would be the perfect place for the callback, I was like, “Oh, this is perfect. It solves everything for this particular problem set.”
Photo by Preet Mandavia
How have your experiences in writers’ rooms shaped how you structure your act and material?
My first writing job was with the Oscars and Chris Rock. Being in that writers’ room with about 20 people, and I was relatively new in comedy, it was intimidating. But what I learned from that experience was that there was no need to be timid. You’re in the room for a reason, so throw a bunch of stuff out and see what happens. I had a similar approach when I was at SNL.
As for how it impacted my writing on stage or for myself, it taught me that it’s a numbers game. Just keep throwing stuff out there, and even if I bombed in front of Chris Rock and other funny people, bombing in front of non-comedians shouldn’t bother me as much. It’s about being comfortable with throwing things out there and experimenting.
Working with Chris Rock, I remember we were working on a joke about acting [being] brave during the Oscars when there were no black nominees. I pitched a joke about acting not being brave and instead said drinking a glass of water in Flint, Michigan is brave, considering their water crisis. Chris tweaked it to say drinking a glass of Kool-Aid in Flint, Michigan, and it hit even harder. He came up to me afterward and emphasized the importance of specificity. That lesson stuck with me, and I try to apply it to my writing whenever possible. The more specific you can be with a reference that people still get, the better it’s going to be.
As you said, don’t be timid, so when did you start feeling comfortable on stage as a comic?
I think almost immediately [Laughs]. I either faked it or never had stage fright. But about two years into comedy, my friend Mike Denny approached Michael Che to start a show called Broken Comedy. We did the show for a total of five to six years. Every Monday night, we would go up on stage and develop as comics. We started with only a few people in a room meant for a hundred, constantly bombing and trying out new material. But we learned to be okay with the silence and the small laughs from three people, and that took years of consistent shows. It helped me become comfortable with any situation.
Doing spots at Stand Up New York and Caroline’s in front of small and sometimes rowdy crowds also contributed to my comfort on stage. Those experiences built up over time and prepared me for any stage perspective. Now, after being on the road for two and a half years, I’ve seen almost everything you can throw at a comic, which further solidifies my comfort on stage.
What’s been thrown at you on stage?
In Phoenix, the fire alarm went off about 10 or 15 minutes into my set. It wasn’t a typical fire alarm; it was the mall’s fire alarm, loud as hell. For about seven minutes, I had to navigate the situation with uncertainty. I didn’t know if it was a real fire, and no one from the club was communicating with me. Eventually, someone said it was a false alarm, but those seven or eight minutes were completely unexpected. I had never experienced anything like that before. I had to hold the audience’s attention and keep them engaged. Fortunately, everyone had a great time, and no one was hurt. It was a unique learning experience.
Bombing nights are often talked about because they teach you a lot, but killing it on stage can be just as informative. When you’re in the zone and everything is clicking, it gives you a surge of confidence. You learn how to capture that momentum and use it to your advantage, like throwing in new tags or tweaking jokes on the spot. It’s about harnessing that energy and being able to replicate it even on nights when you’re not killing. Having the confidence to try new things and explore different angles comes from those successful moments on stage. So, there are valuable lessons to be learned from both bombing and killing.
Does cannabis play a role in your creative process?
It’s something I’ve incorporated a lot, and I’m constantly experimenting with how to utilize it. In the past few years, I’ve honed in on how I use it. Typically, after a set, I’ll go back to my hotel room and either smoke a little or smoke a lot. Then I’ll pace around, think of new material, or revisit the set I just performed. Most of the time, the ideas that come up are garbage, just scattered thoughts. But that one time out of ten, I’ll have an interesting angle I hadn’t considered before or a funnier way to say something.
Do you usually smoke or enjoy edibles?
Now, I’m trying to cut back on smoking because I’m 37 and my lungs hurt. So, I’ve been using edibles more. I’m still figuring out the right dosage because I’ve taken 25-milligram edibles and ended up barely being able to talk. But just last night, for example, I took a 12-milligram edible, waited for it to kick in, and then sat at my desk. Suddenly, ideas started flowing, and I could see what was unlocked in my brain as I stared at my outline.
That’s great.
It’s like a tool that helps me access a different part of my personality and allows me to be more playful and goofy. It’s been a valuable addition to my writing process. It’s all about finding what works for you and experimenting with different techniques. I’m always learning and adapting, and incorporating cannabis into my writing process has been a positive and transformative experience.
