The sheer amount of work that goes into publishing a book, from the challenges that arise during research to the technicalities behind photography, is often overlooked. This is especially evident for books about cannabis and cannabis culture. Higher: The Lore, Legends, and Legacy of Cannabis, written by Dan Michaels and featuring photography by Erik Christiansen aka Erik Nugshots, was recently released by Ten Speed Press. The book explores the legends, legacy, and lore of cannabis, including 100 portraits of the most popular strains out there, specifically 50 classic strains and 50 modern strains. It also provides information on lineage, taste, the ranges of THC content, and common effects, while including the hijinks and historical milestones that shaped the world of cannabis.
The project is nothing new for the duo: Christiansen and Michaels have worked together on several books in the past including Green: A Marijuana Journal, Green: A Pocket Guide to Pot, and Green: A Field Guide to Marijuana. With several cannabis books under their belts, they’ve learned a thing or two when it comes to what works and what doesn’t in a cannabis book.
Photo by Erik Christiansen, @erik.nugshots
Higher traces the evolution of modern cannabis, going back to the Hippie Trail of Central Asia up to the Emerald Triangle in California. It also provides a historical timeline from prohibition days, including the Marihuana Tax Act, the War on Drugs, medical cannabis, and the rise of availability for adults.
On the scientific side, the book explores plant anatomy, breeding of wild landraces, the first domesticated cannabis crops, and consumption. Importantly, it covers the world’s most influential cannabis strains ever created. We’ve showcased the original building blocks of cannabis, the landrace cultivars, within this spread.
Narrowing down the list of strains was by far the hardest part of the process, Michaels said. Part of the problem was that choosing which strains are top is based on objective experiences.
“We started with the varieties that we chose from experience, knowing what people were smoking at the time and what I thought were really important strains—whether for historical value, or genetics value, or a combination of both,” Michaels said.
It’s one thing to have a particular strain in mind, and another to verify that information and have a current, accessible source for the photography.
“The challenge was finding a particular variety and making sure it was authentic, making sure it came from the right place,” Michaels, who is also the founder of Sinsemedia, said. “The other challenge was that I didn’t want to exclude some varieties, especially in the newer ones that, you know, kind of are sort of important now. But again, at the same time, there are ones that we wanted to include that we couldn’t find and so we didn’t get them all. We probably could write about another 100 strains. But I think I’d say we got probably 90% of the ones we really wanted to include in there.”
Maui Waui (aka Maui Wowie) / Photo by Erik Christiansen, @erik.nugshots
Narrowing Down Content & Strains
Gathering information and photography was inevitably impacted by outside factors, often out of their control.
“Availability of the particular strains, finding a good grower, being able to trace the genetics back to the breeder, all those things are really important to make sure we were actually providing all the right information for the strain,” Michaels said.
Michaels explained that the primer section is a combination of things, partly an extension of the information he put together years ago in the Green books, with lots of updates, given the nearly 10-year span after 2014, when his first book on cannabis was published.
“I also wanted to include a lot of the lore element of cannabis, which would be some history, some evolution, you know, where it came from, how it got to where it is today, things of that nature, which I thought were important to sort of document,” he said.
He maintains that he didn’t set out to make a history book; instead, Higher includes some major milestones in the history of the plant, but he understands that you can’t please everyone.
“No matter what you put down, you’re always gonna have somebody telling you, ‘You are wrong,’ or that ‘You missed a particular detail,’” Michael said. “So I tried to make a point to not be general, but at least, if I knew it was a fact, I presented it as a fact. If it’s sort of still sort of a debatable thing in the industry—which a lot of things still are—I tried to present it that way.”
Acapulco Gold / Photo by Erik Christiansen, @erik.nugshots
Sticking to the facts also meant telling the truth about THC, not the inflated numbers you might see on the label in a dispensary. He explained that when you look at a THC percentage of a product on a dispensary menu, it’s going to give you an idea of the THC range but not a precise number as so many other factors can impact a batch.
“People are drawn to the THC, it’s almost like people are drawn to alcohol content,” Michaels said. “We consciously made an effort to instead of including a number I tried to do a range of THC just because that’s the right way to do it. Because I mean, you can grow a particular variety, and you’re not going to get consistent THC, you know, to the decimal point every time. So consciously, I made a point to include a range.”
Christiansen explained the challenges surrounding intellectual property and protecting his work. He remembers a specific incident in 2011—actually the first time any cannabis publication published one of his shots of the plant, using it in one of their ads. Protecting his work is a bit more straightforward nowadays.
“It’s a little easier to protect my work today,” he said. “We have tools that can search the internet and find photos that have been posted on websites and stuff. And back in the day, I was running a blog where I was posting my photos so they were out there in higher resolution so people could easily just swipe them.”
Appreciating Stack Photography
Getting the richness of colors and detail in the photos requires some background knowledge. The photography Christiansen delivers is a result of a layering process that enables him to focus on all parts of the plant.
“Basically, with photography, the closer you get, the less it is in focus,” Christiansen said. “So focus stacking is basically a way to kind of overcome that problem. You basically take a picture, and then move the camera or the subject forward until what’s in focus has moved out of focus. And you capture the next slab of focus. And then you repeat that process all the way through the subject until you’ve captured everything that you want in focus in your final picture. And then there’s computer software that you put all those pictures in, it detects the focus areas in each photo, and then combines them together.”
Durban Poison / Photo by Erik Christiansen, @erik.nugshots
Self-taught in the field of photography, Christiansen is a pioneer of focus-stacked photography, particularly cannabis flower. His hyper-detailed macrophotography has been featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine, and you can also find his work in Time magazine, Slate, NPR, and Mashable.
Several factors are needed in order to capture the true beauty of cannabis flower. At his Nugshots online store, Christiansen sells prints, calendars, and other products featuring his brilliant captures of the cannabis plant.
Christiansen said he needs at bare minimum a couple of things in order to capture the sparkle of the trichomes best.
“First of all, the grow needs to have been not touched. That’s the biggest thing. If I get to a plant and the grower squeezed it to check the terpenes, you’re going to see those popped to trichomes in the picture. So first and foremost, it needs to be an untouched sample. And then beyond that, just good lighting, good lens, and then the focus stacking is really what brings out that depth and really makes it pop.”
Print is really where Christiansen’s work can be seen best, Michaels said, adding that it’s only when the photography reaches that resolution can it be fully appreciated.
“When you see Erik’s stuff online, like on a screen, I don’t think it really shines like it does when it’s in print,” Michaels said. “Because, you know, you can see things on screen and you could kind of cheat things in terms of resolution quality. When Eric’s imagery is printed, and especially in this new book, I think people are going to appreciate it way more.”
This article was originally published in the May 2023 issue of High Times Magazine.
The House Rules Committee recently cleared two cannabis and psychedelic-related amendments on Sept. 23 to be discussed on the floor. Days later on Sept. 27, the House approved the two amendments—Amendment No. 48 and Amendment No. 137—to be included in H.R. 4365, or the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2024.
Amendment No. 48, supported by Texas Reps. Dan Crenshaw and Morgan Luttrell, would provide $15 million Department of Defense funding for psychedelic medical clinical trials. Through a voice vote, it passed with 240 in favor and 191 opposed.
The second amendment, Amendment No. 137, was sponsored by only Crenshaw and would ask the Defense Health Agency (DHA) to submit a congressional report on how to provide options for active-duty service members who suffer from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and PTSD. It would also allow them to participate in clinical trials through the Department of Veteran Affairs to study psychedelics.
Luttrell spoke ahead of the vote on Amendment No. 48, explaining how he “personally attest[s] to the benefits in treating post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury and chronic traumatic encephalopathy through the use of psychedelic substances.”
Luttrell served as a SEAL for 14 years, and endured through a nearly fatal helicopter crash that left him with a broken back and a TBI. In June, Luttrell spoke openly about using ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT as treatment for his injuries at a press event at the capitol with the introduction of a federal grant bill for psychedelic research. “If you find yourself in a place that you were lost, and no other modalities have worked, this could possibly be that tool,” Luttrell said. “And I can honestly stand in front of all of you and the American public and say I was reborn. This changed my life. It saved my marriage. It is one of the greatest things that ever happened to me.”
At the most recent hearing, Luttrell explained why the amendment should be passed. “There’s a stigma that exists within the [House] that I believe stems from a lack of education experience around the clinical use of plant-based, or psychedelic, medications,” Luttrell said. “I understand that when many of my colleagues hear the word ‘psychedelics,’ they think of mushrooms and so on. This isn’t what we are talking about today.”
“Unfortunately, the stigma has led to the slow or no adoption of medical procedures that may have saved countless lives, and our service members, veterans and first responders,” Luttrell continued. “It is our duty to explore all options when the lives of our nation’s most precious resources our sons, our daughters, our mothers, our fathers, brothers and sisters are at stake.”
Rep. Betty McCollum spoke to oppose Amendment No. 48, claiming that the DHA can’t realistically implement these measures because of current “clearances, legal hurdles, and logistics,” and “reluctantly” denied support.
Crenshaw later spoke to congress for Amendment No. 137 in defense of psychedelic clinical trials, describing it as an important step forward. “…there’s no reason that we should not be looking into the benefits of this research for our men and women that are already currently serving our country actively,” Crenshaw explained. “This is not about legalization. This is not about recreational use. It’s about honoring our promise to our military families and confronting the high incidence of suicide in the military and veteran community.”
“We should be listening to the stories. They have come up on Capitol Hill multiple times,” Crenshaw added. “For the members who say, ‘Well, we need to learn more. We don’t know enough’—well then why would you get in the way of more research?” he asked. “We shouldn’t make them come up here and spill their guts anymore. We should listen to them and we should act on it.”
The SAFER Banking Act was passed in the Senate Banking Committee on the same day that these amendments were approved in the House. Seven previous iterations of the bill (formerly called the “SAFE” Banking Act”) have progressed to varying levels of congress before, the most recent of which was in December 2022 was it was left out of the Defense Spending Bill.
Many legislators support passing the SAFER Banking Act to protect both financial institutions and cannabis businesses. A joint statement from senators Jeff Merkley, Steve Daines, Kyrsten Sinema, Cynthia Lummis, and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer collectively spoke in favor of the bill and its necessity. “This legislation will help make our communities and small businesses safer by giving legal cannabis businesses access to traditional financial institutions, including bank accounts and small business loans,” the joint statement said. “It also prevents federal bank regulators from ordering a bank or credit union to close an account based on reputational risk.”
On Sept. 28, Schumer spoke about the next steps for the SAFER Banking Act. “The next step is to bring SAFER Banking to the floor for a vote, which I will do soon,” he said. “I worked long and hard for years to get us to this point, and now the Senate is one step—one crucial step—closer to helping cannabis businesses operate more efficiently, more safely and more transparently in the states that allow cannabis to be sold.”
A herd of sheep grazing near Almyros in the Thessaly region Greece invaded a medical cannabis greenhouse and ate at least a hundred kilograms of pot, local reports say. The incident was spurred by displaced livestock in Greece after Storm Daniel ripped through the Mediterranean country.
NPR reports that over 600 pounds of cannabis were consumed by sheep in the Thessaly incident, while other sources mention 220 pounds of cannabis. Either way, it was a massive amount of medical cannabis. Sheep throughout Europe are known to be attracted to eating cannabis, often becoming unruly or behaving strangely from the effects.
A farm owner said the sheep were noticeably high, particularly in the way it caused them to jump around in ecstasy, however he admitted the situation is hilarious. It’s only been months since the first medical cannabis operations in Greece were launched.
“I’m Michel Martin,” a reporter said for NPR.” A flock of sheep with a serious case of the munchies hit the jackpot after they snuck into a greenhouse in Magnesia, Greece. Their reward was 600 pounds of medical marijuana. The sheep were looking for shelter after Storm Daniel brought heavy rain and flooding to the region. After the feast, farm owner Yannis Bourounis said the sheep were jumping higher than goats, which we are told never happens. Way higher than goats, presumably.”
Sheep normally graze on grass, legumes, clovers, forbs (wildflowers), and other pasture crops. Wildflowers are typically among their favorite foods and they first eat forbs before the other plants. It’s not the only flower they’re after, apparently.
Storm Daniel Wreaks Havoc for Animal Feed in Greece
Greek Reporterreports that the Thessaly area was flooded recently thanks to Storm Daniel, and over a hundred thousand animals have been killed, as well as 17 people. Floods swept Thessaly and parts of central Greece.
“I don’t know if it’s for laughing or crying,” farm owner Bourounis told TheNewspaper.gr, after learning that sheep devoured the cannabis.
“We had the heatwave, and we lost a lot of production. We had the floods, we lost almost everything. And now this…The herd entered the greenhouse and ate what was left. I don’t know what to say, honestly.”
Not just mammals, but nearly all animals—including vertebrates and invertebrates—have been found to have endocannabinoid systems. This of course includes sheep and even microscopic creatures like hydra that have neural networks. This is often the reason that THC isn’t recommended for smaller pets, as the effects might be too strong.
The mayor of Tyrnavos, Yiannis Kokouras, said, “if there is no immediate aid in animal feed, then the livestock that survived the disaster will die of starvation. The flooding has struck a huge blow to livestock and agricultural production not only for the region but for the whole country. Large livestock units were lost and unfortunately it is the period of the production process. Rural and country roads were destroyed. Thousands of acres of farmland are under tons of water.”
Agriculture in Thessaly—the bread basket of Greece—has been particularly impacted. It also caused livestock to search for food in unusual areas. Αlmost 70 percent of the cotton crop in Thessaly, Greece is estimated to have been destroyed. Farmers near Mount Pelion, overlooking the plain of Thessaly, say their apple crops were devastated from the flooding as well.
“There is already a flock of sheep roaming the village causing a nuisance,” Swansea County Councillor Ioan Richard said. “We could have an outbreak of psychotic sheep rampaging through the village.”
Medical Cannabis in Greece
The sheep in Thessaly appear to be attracted to cannabis after they devoured over one hundred kilograms. In January 2023, Greece’s first-ever medical cannabis production plant was inaugurated at Examilia, near Corinth. Tikun Europe, a subsidiary of Israel-based Tikun Olam, invested €40 million into Greek operations with a 56,000 square meter area in Examilia. The location also boasts 21,000 square meters of greenhouse space—near the area invaded by sheep.
The investment was initially welcomed by the then-Greek Development & Investments Minister Adonis Georgiadis who said at the time that this is “a product which we will be able to export throughout Europe because this factory can carry out huge exports to all major European countries.”
Along with new medical cannabis laws comes new responsibilities that were not a problem before, such as livestock getting into the medical cannabis.
Con tan solo 21 años, Lucho SSJ ya cuenta con una carrera establecida en el mundo de la música urbana. No se trata de una revelación, porque lleva años rondando en la escena, pero su ambición por terminar de consagrarse apenas arranca.
Nacido como Luciano Nahuel Vega en el barrio de Escobar, y tiempo antes de romperla con singles hiteros y discos de estudio, ni bien se adentró en el terreno de las batallas a pura competencia, Lucho SSJ se erigió como una de las nuevas promesas del freestyle argentino.
“La primera batalla que me tocó presenciar fue una de Dtoke y desde ese momento se convirtió en mi primera gran influencia. Me llamó tanto la atención la actitud con la que rapeaba. También su estilo, bien de barrio, y el hecho de que representaba toda esa movida. Me encantó su manera de serlo. Fue el gran referente que agarré del freestyle”.
Desde aquel entonces no hubo marcha atrás.
Días de gallos
Fue a mediados del 2016 cuando Luciano descubrió que competir en la escena del freestyle era el rumbo que le interesaba seguir. Y con apenas 14 años dio sus primeros pasos en el mundo de las batallas, hasta que le tocó subirse al escenario de El Quinto Escalón y ya nada fue lo mismo.
“No tuve tantos nervios cuando llegó el momento de mi primera batalla en El Quinto Escalón porque estaba contento de haber clasificado y de haber estado ahí. Era todo muy distinto comparado a las competencias en las que yo me venía presentando”, le dice Lucho SSJ a El Planteo.
El arte de rapear en modo freestyler ya corría por las venas del joven MC.
“Ya había visto tantos videos y a tantos pibes que eran de Argentina compitiendo ahí, que una vez que clasifiqué, ni siquiera lo pensaba. No estaba nervioso ni nada, solamente quería competir y estaba con muchas ganas de pisar El Quinto Escalón”.
Nuevos aires
Pero el pequeño Lucho SSJ resultó ser tan inquieto que luego de consagrarse entre los freestylers más importantes de Argentina, decidió pasarse a otro rubro.
El recambio apostó por abandonar las batallas y empezar a probar suerte en el ámbito del trap.
“La verdad es que se dio todo muy natural porque me estaba rodeando de mucha gente que se estaba metiendo en la música, y fueron quienes me dieron una mano para meterme en los estudios”.
Así llegó Nivel, su primer trabajo discográfico que vio la luz en el 2020.
De manera sucesiva aparecieron Baller y Buscándome, editados en 2021 y 2022, respectivamente. Así las cosas, el proceso de grabación estos trabajos lo sacó por completo de la escena freestyle, pero sin perder el gusto por la improvisación.
“Una vez que empecé a grabar sentí que me gustó muchísimo más la música que el freestyle competitivo. El freestyle lo sigo haciendo con mis amigos y lo sigo disfrutando, pero no a nivel competición”.
Juntos sin dinamita
Y si hablamos de grabar en estudios, hablamos de colaboraciones.
Además de juntarse con estrellas masivas como Bizarrap, Lucho SSJ no le escapa a las composiciones entre varias voces. Los featurings son moneda corriente en el mundo del trap, y la asociación entre diferentes referentes de la escena actual es un combo irresistible al que ningún artista se puede resistir.
“Siento que se dio súper natural esta comunidad que se armó en la escena. Porque antes que nada somos amigos. La verdad es que nos conocemos entre todos y nos llevamos súper bien”, cuenta.
Una de las que marcó a fuego a Lucho fue la unión junto a Duki, Khea y C.R.O. para el remix de su simple Jimmy Fallon. También –por supuesto- de su participación en “Tumbando el Club (Remix)”, junto a un dream team de la música urbana, y sus frecuentes colaboraciones con el astro del trap Duki, con quien comparte crew. Ambos son “SSJ” o “Súper Sangre Joven”, un juego de palabras que refiere directamente a Dragon Ball Z y sus “Súper Saiyajines”.
Además, Lucho destaca la unión en varias canciones con Cyril Kamer, uno de los cantantes que más admira y de quien se siente muy orgulloso como colaborador.
“Me encanta colaborar con artistas internacionales como Cyril porque tuve la suerte de conocerlo cuando no era tan popular y me encantó lo que hacía. Disfruto poder darle una mano a artistas que yo siento que se merecen el lugar y que tienen el talento. Hoy en día, Cyril la está rompiendo por su lado y eso me pone super contento”.
Lucho SSJ en modo 420
Sabemos que el trap y el cannabis van de la mano, y Lucho no estuvo exento de contarle a El Planteo sobre su relación con la marihuana.
“La verdad que el porro no influye mucho en mí, por lo menos a la hora de hacer música. Porque puedo hacerlo fumando o no. Suelo usarlo muchas veces porque yo soy de fumar habitualmente. Esa es la única verdad del tema”, señala.
—Para alguien de tu edad, ¿qué pensas de los políticos que buscan acercarse al público joven a través de la cultura musical y del cannabis?
—Respecto a ese tema, yo entiendo que ahora el mundo de la política quiera adentrarse en lo que es la música urbana por la explosión que tuvo, pero a mí no me interesan ni los políticos ni nada de eso, así que trato de mantenerme al margen.
Future’s cannabis brand Evol is now available in Nevada in partnership with cultivator Redwood Cultivation, a Sept. 22 announcement reads. After first being announced last April, then conquering California, Nevada marks the next strategic step in expanding Evol to the next state on the list.
As of last Friday, adults in Nevada can purchase eighths of premium pre-packaged Monster Kush, the first product to roll out, with more products from Evol by Future and Redwood Cultivation that will follow in the months ahead.
“Millions of people regard Future as one of the most influential artists of this generation. So we’re thrilled to collaborate with Future and Carma HoldCo to introduce his suite of premium EVOL by Future THC products,” said Paul Schloss, president and CEO of Redwood Cultivation.
“We can’t wait for Q4 of this year when Future’s top-shelf blunts, pre-rolls, and concentrates will be available here in Las Vegas,” said Schloss.
After proving themselves and winning with powerful crosses in the past, and numerous partnerships, Redwood Cultivation will take over Evol’s Nevada operations with new strains to drop soon.
Redwood Cultivation
Redwood Cultivation is led by Schloss, and the company has a 20,000 sq. ft., state of the art cultivation facility that’s primed with automated fertilization, drip irrigation, HVAC, lighting, and a Co2 system. It was originally founded by Harris Rittoff and Cherry Development in 2014. In 2016, Redwood was chosen to be the exclusive distributor in Nevada for Willie’s Reserve, the cannabis company run by Willie Nelson. They’ve also done partnerships with Cheech Marin’s cannabis company.
You can look at Redwood Cultivation’s work in the past to see how the Evol deal will play out. Check out recent strains that Redwood Cultivation dropped prior to Evol, including Scoops ( Gelato x Cookies & Cream x Tina) or Chem Sorbet (GMO x Sherbcrasher). Redwood also sells products like Stacked Decks, packs of pre-rolls designed to sell.
“Future’s influence is second to none. Evol by Future will resonate with millions of cannabis enthusiasts as his music has millions of listeners, and we can’t wait to share Future’s exceptional strains in Nevada with Redwood Cultivation,” said Adam Wilks, CEO of Carma HoldCo.
Why no lineage is immediately available, Monster Kush is typically a hybrid with 20 percent indica-leaning genetics and 80 percent sativa genetics. It has an impressive genetic lineage and spawned from the crossbreeding of Mexican, Colombian, and Thai genetics, along with G13 Hash Plant genetics for power.
Future and the Launch of Evol
High Times caught up with Future last April 20 to discuss Evol and the overall plan to expand.
“Evol was about timing,” Future toldHigh Times last April 20. “I’ve had offers before. But this is different. Evol is about longevity, consistency, hard work, and having a quality product to share with the culture. And it’s got to feel natural. And I’m having fun with it too. And it’s a blessing to be here.”
The company also acknowledged to High Times the hurdles that celebrity-endorsed cannabis brands face, and that consumers want to know who is growing the cannabis.
“Consumers are smart,” said President and Chairman of Carma HoldCo, Chad Bronstein. “They know when someone as hardworking, consistent, influential and selective as Future puts his name on something, it will deliver. And that’s exciting for everyone, his fans, our customers, and the industry at large.”
The partnership with Carma HoldCo is the result of a carefully conceived plan. “As an artist, I strive to enlighten the world with different perspectives and experiences, whether through my lyrics, live performances, or other creative endeavors. With Carma HoldCo, I can apply that creativity to build a new cannabis lifestyle brand that resonates within my community and delivers a high-quality product to my fans and a much wider audience,” Future said in a statement when first announcing Evol.
The company plans to roll out more THC, CBD, and Delta 8/9 THC products to its Nevada operations. But it’s more than just a venture, it’s a plant that is prohibited around the world with laws that have impacted Future directly.
Future’s DJ, Cisco, fought out the hard way that cannabis isn’t tolerated in the Middle East. Cisco shared an experience to MTV in 2015 about his ordeal when he was locked up in jail in Abu Dubai for possessing cannabis. Airport security found weed in his luggage, a familiar scenario for Americans traveling outside of the country. Cisco ended up spending 56 days in a Dubai jail, along with a Taliban member. Officials from the U.S. embassy got involved, but it took them weeks to sort things out.
Check Evol’s finder tool to find out existing locations that carry Future’s cannabis products.
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM) is continuing to ramp up its medical cannabis ballot campaign for a third, and hopefully last time.
NMM officially launched its campaign on Sept. 13 with two different measures: The Patient Protection Act and The Medical Cannabis Regulation Act. The former would provide protection for both patients as well as caregivers, and the latter would set up a regulated market. In order to qualify for the November 2024 ballot, NMM must collect at least 87,000 signatures per measure by July 3, 2024.
NMM campaign manager, Crista Eggers, who has been involved in previous ballot initiatives for medical cannabis in her state, is remaining hopeful and steadfast in her mission. “I do know that day will come when I get to tell [my son] and that he will understand that by sharing something that’s very personal and very painful, he helped make a change. Someday there will be a parent that I get to talk to and they won’t have had to fight this battle,” Eggers told the Nebraska Examiner. “It will be worth it for that one parent that does not face what so many of us face.”
Eggers is a mother of a nine-year-old son who has suffered from epileptic seizures since he was two years old. Although they had tried a myriad of pharmaceutical medications, medical cannabis became the best option. In 2020, Eggers praised the possibility of the first medical cannabis legalization ballot initiative as a way for parents to help get treatments for their children without being criticized. “Right now to get our son the help he needs, we’re criminals and that’s what this is about, empowering Nebraskans to have this choice and be patients, not criminals,” Eggers said at the time. “We do expect the opposition to do whatever possible to derail this.”
The 2020 Nebraska Medical Marijuana Initiative did not make it on the ballot because the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the initiative violated the state’s single-subject rule.
Eggers and other advocates also pushed for legalization again in 2022. “We’ve received so much encouragement from individuals all across the state, who support the many patients like our son Colton, who desperately need access to this medicine,” Eggers said. “No matter what your political background is, we should all agree that criminalizing a medicine that has the potential to alleviate suffering, is both cruel and inhumane.” The 2022 Nebraska Medical Marijuana Initiative also did not make it onto the ballot in 2022 because volunteers did not collect the necessary 5% of voters signatures from a minimum of 28 out of the state’s 93 counties.
In January this year, Eggers explained that she will continue to advocate for legal access to cannabis as medicine. “There is one thing we will not do, and that is give up,” she told the Nebraska Examiner. She also said she’s hopeful that more progress can be made with a new administration and new governor.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen took office in January 2023, and his stance on medical cannabis is similar to that of his predecessor, former Gov. Pete Ricketts. “Access to medical marijuana should only happen if it has undergone the FDA-approved process,” Pillen has previously said.
Sen. Anna Wishart, who co-chairs NMM alongside former Sen. Adam Morfeld, has been a longtime supporter of medical cannabis legalization. Wishart has previously introduced medical cannabis bills on the legislative side, including one bill in 2021 that was two votes short of passing in a judiciary committee.
Also in January 2023, Wishart introduced another medical cannabis bill, Legislative Bill 588, entitled the “Medicinal Cannabis Act,” which Wishart described as “one of the most conservative medical cannabis bills in the nation.” “It is long past time that Nebraskans have access to a far safer alternative medicine,” Wishart added. Although LB-588 was introduced in January, it did not receive any further hearings after April.
In Nebraska, legislators are limited to two consecutive terms, and must wait for four years to run for congress again. Wishart is somewhat nearing the end of her two terms in January 2025, and expressed her desire to fight for medical cannabis while she’s still in office.
Legislative opposition to medical cannabis has been presented with negative, antiquated comments. In 2021, former Gov. Ricketts said: “If you legalize marijuana, you’re going to kill your kids.”
Eggers responded to the comment, explaining that she knows better than Ricketts in terms of what’s best for her son. “I know what is killing my child, and that is having horrific seizures daily for the last five, six years,” Eggers said, noting that cannabis was helping, not harming.
Nebraska is just one of a few states that have not legalized medical cannabis at this point, including Alabama, Idaho, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wyoming. Even in these regions where cannabis has not yet been embraced, progress is slowly making its way forward.
For example, although North Carolina has no medical cannabis, let alone recreational cannabis, the North Carolina Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians recently voted on a proposal to approve recreational cannabis sales and regulation on its territory. The Tribal Council must now choose to pass the proposal in order for it to become official.
Despite the dramatic shift in opinion about cannabis in America, Kentucky law enforcement agents continued to charge people with cannabis-related charges at a steady rate, in tandem with offenses across the board.
According to analysis of the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) data, more than 300,000 people in Kentucky have been charged with a cannabis-related crime over the past two decades. That’s nearly two people every hour, every day between June 2002 and July 2022, the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy wrote. To be fair, just one out of 10 of the 3.1 million people charged with a crime in Kentucky in that time period faced cannabis charges, but the numbers are still too high.
“Every corner of the commonwealth has seen people charged with cannabis crimes with some counties having dozens charged and others tens of thousands,” Kentucky Center for Economic Policy wrote.
“Data also reveals starkly different conviction rates, with some rural areas nearly twice as likely to convict someone for a cannabis charge than Kentucky’s biggest city. Still, as much of the country has moved to more permissive policies, Kentucky continues to subject people to incarceration, burdensome fines, community supervision, and criminal charges for cannabis crimes. These consequences have lasting, harmful effects on people’s economic security, employment, health, housing and ability to fully participate in community life. And these consequences often fall disproportionately on low-income and Black and Brown Kentuckians.”
Possession remains the most common cannabis charge in Kentucky, a Class B misdemeanor that can lead up to 45 days in jail and a fine of up to $250.
Cannabis Charges Impact Lives
Just how widespread is the issue? The report’s county-by-county data also shows that every community in the state is affected. “Every Kentucky county had people charged with cannabis offenses during these two decades—from 68 people in Robertson County to 72,717 in Jefferson County,” the report reads. “Expressed as the number of annualized cannabis-related charges per 1,000 county residents in the two-decade period, 1.5 people per 1,000 had a cannabis charge in Robertson County in contrast to 8.4 people per 1,000 in Carroll County. Lyon County is an outlier, where 16.4 people per 1,000 had a cannabis charge.”
“While most of those 300,000 people were charged with possession, their lives are still impacted,” Kaylee Raymer, policy analyst for the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, told Fox 56. “Whether it’s through fines and fees, it could affect their ability to get public housing or their ability to get a job if that’s on their record. So there are still consequences that come with cannabis-related charges.”
The Kentucky Legislature reduced the penalty for cannabis possession in 2011 and the 2023 General Assembly took an important step in legalizing a limited model of medical cannabis starting in 2025. The only qualifying conditions are chronic pain, chronic nausea/vomiting, epilepsy/seizure disorder, multiple sclerosis, muscle spasms/spasticity, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
That said, Kentucky is still among just 18 “cannabis desert” states that continue to prohibit cannabis in spite of the shift in public opinion.
Over the past two decades—running from July 1, 2002 to June 29, 2022—an estimated 303,264 people in Kentucky were charged with various cannabis offenses, according to AOC data published by the Vera Institute of Justice. Since 1983, the prison custody population has increased 168%, the Vera Institute of Justice reported in its recent Incarceration Trends Report.
In 2019, 20,087 people were charged with a cannabis offense, with a 53% conviction rate. But due to the pandemic, there were much fewer arrests and case delays as most courts were closed.
Curiously, despite cannabis being viewed as virtually harmless by many, cannabis conviction held steady in tandem with conviction rates for all offenses. Between 2003 and 2021 the conviction rate for people charged with cannabis offenses was 59% and for all offenses was 63%, on average.
New Changes in Kentucky Cannabis Law
There are also new laws in place, particularly regarding hemp-derived cannabinoids.
On March 23, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed a bill to regulate hemp-derived delta-8 THC products. Beshear signed an executive order last year to regulate delta-8 THC and similar products, but that only affected the packaging and labeling of products.
House Bill 544 mandates that only adults 21 and over can buy products containing delta-8 THC—a hemp-derived compound frequently marketed as psychoactive—which began on August 1.
Per the bill, the state will regulate “any product containing delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol or any other hemp-derived substance identified by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services as having intoxicating effects on consumers.”
A new study conducted by New York’s Columbia University researchers used a massive database from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in an effort to determine whether cannabis users had higher levels of any of 17 different metals in their blood or urine.
The study ultimately revealed that cannabis-only users had higher lead levels in their blood and urine, compared to non-users of tobacco and cannabis, along with elevated levels of cadmium — ultimately affirming the need for testing of cannabis products for heavy metals in the legal market and the need for regulated cannabis as a whole.
Examining Cannabis Use and Heavy Metals in Body
Cannabis is a hyperaccumulator, a class of more than 700 plants that accumulate metals from soil, water and fertilizers at levels far greater than average, often hundreds or thousands of times more than other plants.
To investigate the amount of metals in the blood and urine of cannabis users, researchers analyzed data from 2005 to 2018 representing 7,254 participants who reported on their diet, health, demographics and drug use, while providing single blood and urine samples. Researchers could not tell what kind of cannabis these individuals used, where it was sourced from or where participants lived, though they adjusted for other factors that can affect exposure to and excretion of metals (namely race/ethnicity, age, sex, education, and seafood consumption).
The study found that cannabis-only users had 27% high blood lead levels and 21% more lead in their urine when compared to non-users of tobacco and cannabis. They also had higher levels of cadmium — 22% more in their blood than non-users. Lead and cadmium can cause long-term health damage, like cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cognitive impairments and increase the risk of cancer.
In regulated cannabis markets where products are tested, any cannabis that fails must be destroyed or remediated, with legal cannabis states often issuing recalls for any products that fail and mistakenly hit store shelves.
Tobacco Users Fare Much Worse
None of the other 15 elements researchers evaluated — like arsenic, cobalt, manganese and mercury — has a clear causal association with cannabis use, though tobacco users saw much higher levels.
Urinary cadmium levels among tobacco users were three times higher than those of cannabis-only users and their blood lead levels were 26% higher. The study also found that tobacco use was associated with higher levels of antimony, barium, tungsten and uranium.
In general, regulated cannabis undergoes more intense testing than tobacco, and previous studies have long documented the heavy metal content in cigarette smoke.
Underscoring the Importance of Legal Cannabis Regulation and Testing
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest known study on biomarkers of metal exposure in participants who exclusively use marijuana in a representative population of U.S. adults,” authors noted. The study findings reinforce that regulated, legal cannabis provides for more consumer safety, as illicit cannabis does not undergo this same testing.
Authors note that the study was limited by its small sample of exclusive cannabis users, along with its inability to hone in on the type of product used (i.e. vapes, combustibles and edibles) which kept researchers from determining the difference in metal concentrations by product.
Given that the data was taken from 2005 to 2018, it’s also uncertain how much cannabis was obtained through the legal or illicit markets — though it’s likely that most was illicit use, as the first states to legalize cannabis only began in 2014 and adult-use legalization was still limited in the years that followed.
“We found overall associations between internal metal levels and exclusive marijuana use, highlighting the relevance of marijuana for metal exposure and the importance of follow-up studies to identify the long-term implications of these exposures,” researchers stated.
“Future investigations of cannabis contaminants must assess other contaminants of concern and potential health effects to inform regulatory, industry and other key stakeholders, to safeguard public health and address safety concerns related to the growing use of cannabis in the United States.”
I like to get what I need in the place I’m visiting, because scoring adds another dimension to the trip. I presumed it would be easy in L.A., but the first thing “Clarissa” said when I arrived at the airport was, “I hope you brought some of that good New York coke.”
“No, as a matter of fact…” “Oh shit! It’s really expensive out here, and it’s usually been stepped on so much. Luckily I happen to have the best connection, but the cheapest is $125 a gram.” “Yeah. I’d like to get some grass too.”
“There’s a shortage. I haven’t seen any in weeks.” It took four days to find an ounce. During the search, I asked the dealers why. There are a lot of very rich people who use drugs, and the movie and record companies often write off “drug budgets” as part of their expenses. I heard things like: “They spent $200,000 for coke on such and such a movie,” and “So and so walked off the set of his latest because they wouldn’t include a coke budget.” Therefore the dealers who have good drugs have no reason to be interested in the buyer who wants one gram when they can be making big sales on a regular basis. If you were a drug dealer and you moved to Hollywood, you would gradually phase out your smaller customers, because you could be making more money dealing with fewer people in a safer situation.
“Michelle” told me: “Los Angeles is based upon prestige. Here prestige comes from money. Money is a language.” If California were a country on its own, it would be the eighth richest country in the world. Angelenos are naturally attracted to money. In the supermarket the cashier gives you a little card with your change. You scrape it with your fingernail and a number appears. If you hit the jackpot, you win $777.77. I never saw anybody win, but we stood around scraping those cards just as soon as we got them.
The third day I was there someone asked me to participate in a golden chain letter. “If you’ll invest $100 in cash right now, you are guaranteed to make $300,000 in six months.” She was a nice girl, and quite serious about it. I tried to point out the fallacy, but I couldn’t help liking her let’s-make-some-money attitude. After a week, I was saying “Let’s make a deal” regularly. In Los Angeles you are surrounded by so much luxury, whether you possess it or not becomes almost irrelevant. In Los Angeles, you are rich.
I stayed at the Tropicana Motor Hotel on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, ten minutes from Beverly Hills. The Hollywood-Beverly Hills area is where a majority of the most interesting Angelenos live and play. The Tropicana is located in the middle of it. It is run by a friendly young staff. The rooms are comfortable, cheap—my large suite cost $33 a night—and the other guests are not unpleasant to look at. Duke’s, its coffee shop, is a fabulous place to eat.
The “Trop” also has its legends, which lend a distilled elegance to its slightly faded facade. This is where Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey filmed Heat, with Joe Dallesandro and Sylvia Miles. Tom Waits lives in one of the cottages out back. Providing a scenario for traveling musicians, photographers, writers and hustlers, it is often referred to as the “Chelsea West.” In an unpretentious way, the Trop lives up to its promise. Its atmosphere will facilitate your necessary adjustment to the extremely pleasant rhythm of daily life in Los Angeles.
Which it is only natural to initially fight. By the fifth day I caught myself thinking: “Er… take it easy, Vic. Why not lie out by the pool for a few hours? I mean, this is California, man; you’re missing out on the experience cooped up in your room all day writing about why you hate people.” But I couldn’t see how to make the transition without losing the majority of my energy.
I needn’t have worried. The pace of L.A.’s perpetual spring climate makes life’s intricate days much simpler. After a while, gnawing concern about getting everything done evaporates, because everything, from going shopping and parking the car to getting your laundry done in an hour while talking on the telephone, is so easy.
There is little friction between people. Even the exchanges with shopkeepers, gas-station attendants and waiters are so charmingly handled that, just as one’s skin gradually changes from a pale sickly green to beige, one’s nerves straighten from a mangle of barbed wires to make a series of smooth connections. The soothing sunshine complements the pretty space. Undisturbed, the Los Angeles environment treats its organisms remarkably well. As Reyner Banham affirms in his superb book Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies: “Los Angeles remains one of the ecological wonders of the habitable world.”
Ecology is that science which studies the relationship between an organism and its environment: in order to understand this city, which, ironically, attracts so much scorn, I became an organism in the Los Angeles environment and spent a month learning the city’s language.
To mention one amusing result that anyone can understand right away, sex is notoriously better in L.A. I started to pick up on this the evening of the fifth day. A friend invited me to the Mater Dei High School football championship finals in Santa Ana. “Don” has a Lotus Europa, and after turning on and tuning up at a Taco Hut, I found myself gazing up at the electrographic architecture of uninterrupted neon from where I lay in the passenger racing seat as the car rocketed down the freeway in the balmy night and thinking, “California is exactly what you imagine it will be.”
We walked into the arena during the intermission. Here were three or four thousand well-fed, well-dressed, relatively smart and uniformly beautiful “perfect Aryan” teenagers excitedly sitting in this glaringly lit, oval stadium with nothing to do. The score was zero-zero.
I looked down onto the brilliant green field and saw six blond girls. They were wearing yellow knee socks, brown skirts and yellow sweaters and were running through their routine, bursting with sex. The combination of the swift drive in the Lotus, excellent grass acquired from a student and my first sight of live cheerleaders, sweat glistening on their supple flesh in the giant spotlights, got me so hot that within seconds of entering this magic arena of teenagers I was jumping up and down, clapping and pointing out the cutest to Don, ignoring the fact that I was making a spectacle of myself before these pediatricians, executives and detectives of the future. A few hundred of them turned their attention on me, and as the teams ran back onto the field I was dragged down into the stands and found myself surrounded by grinning kids.
Two minutes into the second half Mater Dei scored a touchdown: it was as if my unexpected, unexplainable and unrepeatable presence had been a signal from some messenger in a Cocteau scenario. Pandemonium ensued. They started to push me onto the field to jump with the cheerleaders, who were also focusing their attention on me, pointing and cracking up as they performed their frenzied victory dance. The energy being directed toward my image was phenomenal. I was actually about to make my way onto the field and grab the microphone from the deejay, who was trying to maintain contact with an audience he was clearly losing, when a stab of intuition held me back. Seconds later I sensed the hysteria was about to drown us in a tidal wave of rejection for being too strange. I was dressed in some variation of a New York punk outfit. “Let’s get the fuck outa here!” Don suddenly yelled. I saw fear in his eyes. We ran out of that arena fast, sprinting away into the night like the spirits we had somehow become for those magic 15 minutes.
Driving home, drenched in sweat and exhausted, we talked about it, although there was little to say except “What the fuck was that about?” It did seem magic at the time. What it was about more than anything else was the eternal delight of electric energy. This visit to Mater Dei gave me an enormous boost. And by the end of my first week in L.A., I found that I had begun swimming every day, friends were beginning to swarm by and I was eager to see more and more people. I was drying off in the sun one morning when the poolside phone rang and it was “Valerie” inviting me to drive out to Cal Arts, where “I am a film instructor,” that afternoon. She said she would pick me up at one.
During this very beautiful drive she explained that in the ’50s Walt Disney went to Europe and everyone asked him to speak, so he got the idea people thought of him as an intellectual. He concluded that he should endow an institute devoted to film making, so he put up the money for the Cal Arts Film School. His idea was that there should be ramps from which the public could watch the students learning. He wanted to create an environment in which the students and teachers could live in harmony. Herbert Marcuse was going to be the first president, but then he and Angela Davis were discovered swimming nude in the pool at midnight. (That could be a rumor.) The problem is Walt died before the place was perfected. They call Cal Arts “Disney’s Last Dream.”
After Valerie had rattled off this info, simultaneously driving and rolling a slim joint, she directed my attention, which had been darting between her and the breathtaking desert landscapes on the outskirts of L.A., to the driving conditions. Except on the freeways, everyone drives gracefully and slowly. “Los Angeles is the only city in the world where the architecture was created to be viewed at 15 miles an hour,” says David Hockney in British Vogue. The danger is that you get hypnotized by the montage of forever-lush brightly colored visuals, think you’re in a movie, and space out. But you have to concentrate, because the L.A. traffic cops are mean. In the late ’60s a new breed of California police officer—often Vietnam veterans—spread throughout California. Now, the highest rates of alcoholism, divorce and suicide exist in the L.A. police force, with its inbred sense of minority paranoia. Driving drunk or stoned, I was warned by everyone, will get you treated extremely harshly.
Freeway driving is a satisfying, physical experience. It creates an uplifting feeling of vastness and relaxation. Angelenos have the most advanced car culture in the world. Drivers on the freeways have worked out a system of communication with each other. You get between two cars that are speeding; if either car slows down, it has spotted a police car. As long as you’re in the middle you’ll always be warned in time. This convoy driving is done consciously, with drivers voluntarily taking the point positions. Some people apparently develop these intense intercar relationships, overtaking each other with frosty glares, leapfrogging back and forth around each other and generally using the machine to harass. Whenever I drove, I reflected on how sharp my vision was, how alive and “in” the present I felt. Again, the environment has provided a superior situation for its organisms.
I felt like I was in the future, walking down the wide, empty, shining corridors at Cal Arts with “Juliette,” who was conducting the guided tour. There were very few people around. She told me that no one ever goes to classes and nothing happens. I spent a couple of hours in the empty building full of expensive unused equipment.
FILM MAKING IS TOO DIFFICULT FOR ME reads a sign someone painted on the wall in the basement. Further down the hall there is a GOOD FUCK door, on which a list of names is drawn. After a while I asked Juliette where the people were; I had seen someone waft around a corner, but he seemed to be doing little more than wafting. “They’re over by the pool,” she said.
Most of the students over by the pool were naked. Someone was playing a flute in an upstairs room, and the music wandered over the idyllic scene, from which there was nothing lacking except a bar. Juliette said, “We don’t need a bar because we all take drugs.” On cue, a security guard ran by saying he had just repelled a raid by a group of ten year olds.
“I guess they wanted to see the cocks and tits,” someone said. But, “No,” the guard replied, catching his breath, “they’re after the marijuana.” The students grow their own.
Los Angeles is a misunderstood, unique city that deserves a much better reputation than it has. As an inhabitant of Manhattan, I am often accosted around the States with extremely negative remarks about the place I live in, and I find them to be exclusively based upon ignorance. As a recent champion of Los Angeles, I have found an equally high and caustic level of response to that place, also based on boring, useless ignorance. There is no sense in comparing Los Angeles to any other city in the world, because the factors that combined to create it are extremely unusual. In fact, nothing remotely like it could ever occur again.
An almost perfect climate, which reigns over a large area of extremely fertile earth, provided the initial inhabitants (1781) with a solid basis of wealth in land and field produce. Around the turn of this century, vast quantities of oil were discovered, and oil quickly became an important primary industry. When the first movie was made in 1910, Los Angeles was well on its way to becoming a wealthy town with a population of 800,000 who had come from the Midwest, Mexico and Europe. It was the end of a geographical frontier but the beginning of a mental one.
By 1930, Hollywood had attracted its unconventional and truly unrepeatable population of genius, neurosis, skill, charlatanry, beauty, vice, talent and eccentricity. While other cities have had to invest centuries in accumulating their cultured and leisure classes, Los Angeles has witnessed the greatest concentration of imaginative produce in the history of man in less than a hundred years. No city has ever been produced by such a perfect mixture of space, wealth, talent and natural resources.
Los Angeles has continued to develop and so remains our most modern city in many vital ways. If there are American traditions, there is no better place to inspect them than in Los Angeles, where to speak in superlatives, believe what isn’t true, dress dramatically and tackle the impossible are habits. Unlike other cities, where people are squashed together in a labyrinth of cultural monuments that control their growth, Los Angeles has room to make changes that the conventional metropolis cannot contemplate. This sense of possibilities ahead is a vital part of the basic lifestyle of L.A., where people want to live in the present. One provocative current idea envisions L.A. as a model for our first space platforms.
After graduating from Mater Dei and Cal Arts, I called Professor Timothy Leary. He is an outspoken champion of Los Angeles, and I wanted to hear what he had to say about it. I also wanted to alert him to the fact that William Burroughs was flying out and would be staying at the Tropicana for a week.
Leary, 62, who currently lives in a West Hollywood studio apartment from which he issues books and stories out on lecture tours, was initially hard to reach because he is always rushing off somewhere. Our phone calls continually missed each other’s until, one night, walking into a petite, tasteful restaurant called Oscar’s Wine Bar, I bumped into him sitting with High Times writer Michael Hollingshead and three young women. Exclaiming, ‘Aha! We meet at last!” Leary leapt up. I grabbed his tennis racket. But, as if that were the gist of it, I found him initially difficult to interface with. His sense of himself as a public figure seemed defensive.
A few days later I met him under more relaxed circumstances in the apartment of a mutual friend over after-dinner drinks and was able to get a better picture: he’s energetic and enthusiastic about whatever he is discussing. Tim doesn’t really talk, he sings.
His theory about Los Angeles is that it is in the process of becoming the next center of intelligence. He says the power has moved out of Washington, is moving west, and the intelligence is moving from New York to Los Angeles. “Swarming,” he emphasised, “is the key concept.”
By the time William Burroughs and his secretary, James Grauerholz, moved into the Tropicana, I had all but become an Angeleno myself. Apart from living and working in Hollywood, I was in love with Venice (the boardwalk on Sunday), Malibu (where the sea is your backyard) and Griffith Park (a monument to the genius of D.W. Griffith). I was in love with the city, and a few of its inhabitants, and had completely adjusted to the environment’s rhythm while gaining, rather than losing, energy. There is no question at all that a large part of being happy in Los Angeles has to do with the connection between your body and the atmosphere: one is simply healthier in L.A. on a daily basis than one could possibly be in a similarly large metropolis. It is a complete myth that the inhabitants laze around the pool all day in a stupor of relaxation. I found all kinds of creative people and enormous amounts of energy in Los Angeles. They work very hard out there, because there’s so much money. Don’t forget, this is where some of the greatest works of art of the twentieth century were made.
I gave a party to welcome William to L.A. Leary was at the top of my guest list. I also invited Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy. Ken Tynan moved to L.A. quite recently and seems to have assumed a social responsibility for the British intellectual community out there. He’d given a party for Princess Margaret the previous week and mixed Hockney and Isherwood with the likes of Paul Newman, Ryan O’Neal and Swifty Lazar. Tynan came with his wonderful wife Kathleen. David Blue, whom I’d continually met at Dantana’s (a good late-night hangout), came, along with Paul Getty, Ron Kovic, Randall Kaiser, Hiram Keller, Paul Jabara, Ulli Lommel, Frank and Laura Cavestani, Paul Krassner, Jack (Jimmy Olson) Larson, Jim Bridges, John Rechy, Julian Burroughs (who thinks he’s William Burroughs’s son)…
I threw the party in New York-cheapo style, and I think that’s why it was successful; in L.A. they do tend to give fairly lavish entertainments, and this was refreshing; also, because the people all came from different fields there was no power imbalance and everybody could just enjoy talking to each other. All I’d been able to do was buy a gallon of vodka, six bottles of wine and mixers. I rolled up 20 joints. “God, I’m having such a wonderful time. L.A. is incredible!” I said. “I know,” said a guest. “Don’t tell anyone. We’re trying to keep it quiet.” The party spilled out of the suite onto the terrace and around the pool. Marcia’s accompanying pictures tell the story.
The following morning, William, James, Paul Getty and I drove in a convoy of three cars out to Isherwood’s house by the sea in Santa Monica, where he lives with artist Don Bachardy, who wanted to draw William’s portrait. Isherwood has lived in Los Angeles since he left England in 1939. He presents a good example of an older person whose career has been stimulated by the L.A. environment. His relationship with the city has been extremely productive. At 73, he is agile, alert, working on three books.
Noticing that time was slipping by and our appointment at the Getty Museum was drawing precariously close, I went into Bachardy’s studio to warn him we’d have to leave soon, but he was working so intently I couldn’t speak; so I gave William a note: “Christopher is psychic. We have to go in ten minutes.”
Ten minutes later, we dashed along the majestic Pacific Coast Highway to the majestic Getty Museum, which you may only visit by appointment because they have adequate underground parking space for just 100 cars. We were very lucky to be escorted through the collection by young Paul.
That evening, we decided to dine at Lucy’s El Adobe Cafe, an excellent Mexican restaurant on Melrose. We had called ahead for a reservation, but when we arrived, “No reservaçion, Señor.” Slipping past the maître d’ one by one, we commandeered an empty table for six. It is hard to move six hungry people. The waiters looked worried but hastily served us, and we gave little thought to whose table we had stolen.
After the meal we got stuck running into a bunch of guys in the congested corridor that leads to the exit. Shuffling along, I found myself face to face with Jerry Brown. He looked a little tired and spaced out, as if he were waiting for a bodyguard to tell him what to do, his jacket slung over his shoulder.
Metaphorically, I see Los Angeles as a series of opening doors. Inside each room people come and go dispensing information. You walk in and meet someone, and then someone else comes in and you are introduced. Days later, in a different configuration in another room, the same people appear escorting new people. Many impromptu meetings of this nature occurred, as if on cue. It was quite extraordinary how many people I met by chance in such a short time.
“Excuse me, Mr. Brown,” I said, touching his arm, “I’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to William Burroughs.”
Brown stuck out a hand and said, “Not the William Burroughs, the novelist, author of Naked Lunch?”
“The very same,” replied Bill. Brown studied Burroughs intently. William seemed shy at first. Then he said, “Well, we came out here to fight Proposition 6 [the California antigay bill].” Brown replied, “You’ll win. The establishment is against it. Have you been in touch with Henry Miller recently?” “No, I haven’t seen him in years.”
Brown looked embarrassed. “I somehow always associate you with him,” he said. Then, pointing to the table we had just vacated, he said that he’d been waiting for them to get this table ready and graciously invited us to dine with him. We declined, hurried to our cars laughing and drove off to look at some dildos in the Pleasure Chest, a great sex shop down the block from the Tropicana.
Considering I was there for a month, had a fabulous time meeting people every day and can only remember one really bad night with dumb people, there must be some truth in Leary’s theory about intelligence swarming toward L.A. Most of the people I met there were super bright and active. I did go to one cult religious service “just for the experience,” but they were geeks. When somebody does freak out in L.A., they tend to go the whole way, but I don’t suppose religious cults can do you any harm if you have absolutely nothing to do with them. Anyway, the majority of negative things you could dig up on L.A. would tend to involve the residents. Los Angeles is a charming place to visit. In my opinion, you couldn’t put a foot wrong taking a vacation there. But charm is a power that is hard to pinpoint, I was thinking as I stood on the veranda outside my room the evening before I flew back to New York. I gazed past the palm trees and the humming birds hovering in the orange light of the setting sun, down at the pool and the now-empty chairs and tables set aside for sunbathers. I noticed for the first time how cream the stucco coloring of the two-story L-shaped motel building is. I was thinking about my gold Chevrolet Caprice parked in the back and how Los Angeles had changed my mind and body during the month I’d spent there, when a spectral form glided up, a vodka and tonic (no ice) in its right hand. My eyes traveled to the spectacles of William Burroughs as he looked out over the city and said, “I will tell you about it. The sky is thin as paper. The whole place could go up in ten minutes. That’s the charm of Los Angeles.”
Few brands can say they breed, grow, process, package, and sell everything in-house—let alone with their own award-winning genetics and a team of people that could all fit in a studio apartment. Built on a history of 20 years of collecting, preserving, and developing unique cannabis genetics, Archive has gone from an idea to a company that’s grown to encompass every aspect of originator Fletcher Watson’s passion for cannabis. This vertically integrated company was the first seed vendor in the U.S. to have a retail location where you could visit and purchase clones or seeds. Since opening the Portland, Oregon store in 2016, the operation, which now has three distinct working parts, has become a seemingly impossible perpetual motion wheel, continually finding new tricks from well-known favorites, creating new varieties you’ll only find at the shop, and keeping old strains for safekeeping.
There’s a lot of documentation on the history of Watson’s mission to preserve cannabis genetics or his work to promote cultivation techniques during the online forum days when he went by “ThaDocta.” You’ll find more than a few articles on his work with Dosidos, RudeBoi OG, Moonbow, Rainbow Belts, and other strains that hold places on Archive’s wall of fame.
High Times Magazine, August 2023
But this company has done so much more than just cultivate killers. Despite falling prices, competition from well-funded corporate interests, and increased oversaturation, Archive continues to increase its market share and reputation. This story is one of pioneering the sweat equity, vertical integration model. Building off of this history, and crafting careful partnerships, empowered Archive to grow and expand in ways the team could never have seen coming.
What Has Three Legs & Award-Winning Genetics?
The Archive name comes from founder and primary partner Watson’s well-known mission to create a repository for the wealth of genetic diversity in cannabis. The goal of the company, when it started over a decade ago, was to hold on to all these incredibly diverse types of cannabis that were running through the scene, being grown for a couple of years, then fading into the background as the market continued the hunt for that new-new.
Watson’s lifelong dedication to cultivation and community stretches far beyond 2012 when he released the first packs of seeds under the Archive moniker. (Fun fact: those first packs were a strain called #32 that Watson created from crossing Albert Walker and Manic.) Cultivars are sitting in their rotation right now that may never go into retail but have been safely stored since 2003, kept alive so that we don’t lose any history.
Secret Lemons / Photo by Erik Christiansen, @erik.nugshots
The Archive triangle—also part of the brand’s iconography—is comprised of A.) the seed business, B.) the cultivation/processing facility, and C.) the nursery/retail store.
As Archive Seed Bank, Watson operates his mad scientist lair, maintaining a rich genetic library that’s the equivalent of Batman’s trophy vault—breeding and hunting for new strains while storehousing countless old-school Pacific Northwest cultivars that might otherwise be forgotten (remember a strain called Corn?).
Having cut his teeth in Seattle when his parents moved him out from Virginia at 15, Watson developed a deep-seated passion for cataloging and preserving all the genetic diversity in cannabis. He compares it to how colonial Americans cultivated thousands of varieties of apples before industrialized agriculture began selectively breeding and harvesting them for things like color, ease of transport, and weight, bringing us down to a mere 100 types commercially produced today. This drive to capitalize on supply caused us to lose out on so many astounding varieties of fruits and vegetables that have passed into the pantheon of forgotten produce. Watson sees it as Archive’s job to make sure as many cannabis varieties as possible don’t end up lost to time or ravaged by market trends.
Where Strains Are Born
Adam Bush runs Archive’s cultivation and processing arm at the Oregon facility. Bush grew up with Fletcher in Virginia and moved to Oregon to learn how to blow glass in the early ’00s. After growing in California’s Mendocino County, he returned to Oregon to begin cultivation while helping his childhood friend with the many cannabis competitions Archive was attending. He and the team test new strains to see how well they’d produce for a retail market and supply all the flower and hash for their retail store.
Moonbow Rosin / Photo by Erik Christiansen, @erik.nugshots
When the time came to create a home base for Archive, the state of Washington (where Watson resides) wouldn’t allow for a fully integrated company, however Oregon, where Bush lives, was more than happy to let them create a place where they could take all the things Archive had accomplished thus far and provide a headquarters.
Watson and Bush knew they wanted to elevate the brand from being popular with just breeders, growers, and weed nerds and make them accessible to people who weren’t part of the forum crowd. They found a warehouse and storefront space suitable for their needs and called in the final member of the triad to help build Archive’s new home in the City of Roses.
Visit the Shop, Smoke the Weed
Archive Portland, where the dispensary and nursery are located, is run by partner Mac Laws. It’s the hub where fans of the brand can come experience everything they’ve seen online. The relationship between cultivation and retail has provided crucial consumer feedback that’s helped shape the course of their special store-only drops.
Laws and Watson met in Washington state, where they bonded over a shared love of genetic preservation. Laws was a reputable cultivator who believed in the brand enough to come down to Oregon and head up the nursery program and retail operations.
Moonbeam Hash / Photo by Erik Christiansen, @erik.nugshots
“I didn’t know anything about running a dispensary before this,” Laws admits, “but we knew that Fletch had created this really special thing, and it needed to have a place to take root. With my experience in cannabis, I felt more than comfortable running a nursery. The rest almost came naturally from just loving the brand so much.”
Laws’s positive effect on the organization has even allowed Archive to expand its efforts with plans to open an event space in late 2023, something none of the three partners envisioned when they broke ground together.
With Archive Portland, the trio has discovered an opportunity to establish branding, which they’ve done through merch and artist partnerships with heavy hitters such as Trevy Metal and Lot Comedy. The store has evolved from Archive’s home base to one of Portland’s destinations for cannabis tourists and locals looking to experience the most exclusive flavors in the state’s retail market. Being one of the most widely recognized brands both in and outside of Oregon, many people make the trek just to stop in and pick up clones, try out their favorite strain as rosin, or hunt down seed packs that might be unavailable online.
Cultivating Brand Identity
Archive’s genetics have dominated cannabis competitions for years, but they looked towards external optics to expand brand recognition to the broader world.
As Bush explains, “the extra cost [of branding] is part of why we’ve been able to make the name such a thing here in Oregon. Nobody else was investing in custom packaging and identifiable products when we started, but we knew that part of creating Archive’s home was flushing out that recognizable brand for regular consumers who might not know us from the competitions.”
Bush understands the visual aspects of a brand represent a company just as much as the weed it’s putting out.
Rainbow Belts / Photo by Erik Christiansen, @erik.nugshots
“I love growing, but it can really be Groundhog Day sometimes—you know, rinse, wash, repeat,” Bush says. “We know our product can hold its own. That gave us the freedom to look at how we cultivate the brand identity. I have an art background, so coming up with packaging design ideas and going over them with Fletcher and Mac is where I have some of the most fun.”
The close bond between Watson, Bush, and Laws shows how far a good team will take you. With all three members operating their pods, running small groups, and coordinating their efforts, they’ve spit-shined and oiled the operation. That way, Archive can accomplish something that usually takes a much larger workforce.
Few can claim to be a completely self-funded operation these days, and fewer still can say they created most of what they offer. Except for partnering with Smokiez to launch their edible line, the business is a closed-loop system, able to create, grow, and sell everything in-house. Archive has built its reputation on the strength of its genetics and upholds that high standing by directly offering its flowers and hash to the people. At a time when the industry is searching for solid footing, Archive stands tall on a trinity of strength, a position that few cannabis producers in the country can lean on.
This article was originally published in the August 2023 issue of High Times Magazine.
