A bill to legalize medical marijuana in Kansas is dead for 2024 after the state Senate blocked an effort to bring the proposal to the floor for debate. Had it passed, the measure would have legalized the medicinal use of cannabis by patients with certain qualifying conditions in one of the few states that have yet to legalize medical weed.
Last month, a Kansas Senate legislative committee voted to table the proposal, Senate Bill 135, after hearing from both supporters and opponents of the measure. On Friday, an effort to revive the bill and pull it out of committee failed to gain the support of enough senators and was rejected by a vote of 12-25, according to a report from the Associated Press.
The Kansas Senate also failed to advance a bill to expand Medicaid coverage in the state, an opportunity from the federal government under the 2010 Affordable Care Act that has been adopted by 40 states and the District of Columbia. State Senator John Doll, a western Kansas Republican who voted for both measures, criticized his state for failing to follow the lead of much of the rest of the country.
“We’re behind the times,” Doll said on Friday after the Senate votes.
Bill Covered 21 Qualifying Conditions
Had the legislature approved Senate Bill 135, the measure would have legalized the use of cannabis for patients with one or more of 21 serious medical conditions including cancer, epilepsy, spinal cord injuries and chronic pain. Patients would be required to have a recommendation to use medical marijuana from their doctor and pay $50 for a state identification card to participate in the program. Patients would also pay a 10% excise tax on their purchases of medical cannabis.
The bill also regulated the cultivation, processing, distribution and sale of medical marijuana. Four different state agencies—the Department of Health and Environment, the Board of Healing Arts, the Department of Revenue’s Alcohol and Beverage Control (which would be renamed to Alcohol and Cannabis Control) and the Board of Pharmacy—would be responsible for overseeing the medical marijuana program.
Opponents of the medical marijuana bill cited the experience with legal medical pot in neighboring Oklahoma, where voters passed a legalization initiative in 2018 with nearly 57% of the vote. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond and other Republican state officials have said that the loose regulations in his state’s medical marijuana law have led to an incursion of organized crime and foreign nationals eager to enter the lightly regulated market, many with plans to illegally distribute their crop to states that still prohibit weed.
“We had no idea we were going to have 10,000 growers, way more than they have in California and all these other states, and anybody with a hangnail could get a medical card,” said Republican Governor Kevin Stitt.
But Cheryl Kumberg, a registered western Kansas nurse and president of the Kansas Cannabis Coalition, said Oklahoma’s problems stem from the state’s legalization statute, which has remarkably lenient regulations compared to other states. She said Kansas residents who can obtain weed from other states are already using the drug, putting themselves in legal jeopardy in the process.
“It’s ridiculous,” she said. “I can go 45 minutes one way, a couple hours in the other direction, and you can just you can just use it however you want.”
Medical Marijuana Bill Tabled by Panel Last Month
Senate Bill 135 was stopped in its tracks on March 14 when the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee adopted a motion to table the measure. After the committe’s move, Democratic Governor Laura Kelly expressed frustration at the development. The governor, who has urged state lawmakers to pass a medical marijuana legalization bill in the past, also encouraged residents who back marijuana policy reform to contact state lawmakers and call on them to bring the proposal up for a vote.
“I am disappointed that some legislators are saying they don’t want to move forward with legalizing medical marijuana this year – effectively turning their backs on our veterans and those with chronic pain and seizure disorders,” Kelly wrote on X on March 16. “If they get their way, for yet another year thousands of Kansans will be forced to choose between breaking the law and living without pain. I encourage Kansans to call their state legislators and tell them to legalize medical marijuana this session.”
After Friday’s vote failed to bring the bill to the Senate floor, Democratic Senator Cindy Holscher said it is disappointing to see Republicans block the medical marijuana legalization bill despite the efforts of residents eager for cannabis policy reform.
“Over the past three weeks, scores of Kansans have reached out to their senators voicing support for medical cannabis as they have done for nearly the past decade,” Holscher said, according to a report from KAKE television news. “Sadly, supporters have faced many hurdles on this important measure.”
As it turns out, researching the efficacy of MDMA to treat PTSD may be pretty complicated. The initial efforts to secure governmental sanction for a psychedelic substance for mental health care, in this case, MDMA, are facing some serious scrutiny over the clinical trial process, the Washington Post reports.
MDMA has long been lauded as a treatment for PTSD, which affects 6% of the U.S. population. Per a Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Substances (MAPS) 2023 study on how the drug can treat PTSD, the researchers found that, as High Times reported, in the MDMA group, 86% showed improvement in their standard PTSD assessment. 69% of those in the placebo group also improved. A standard PTSD assessment evaluates the intensity of PTSD symptoms, which can include anxiety, phobias, insomnia, and emotional numbness, among others. When the study wrapped, 72% of people within the MDMA treatment group no longer matched the criteria for PTSD, compared to 48% of the placebo participants.
Given how awful PTSD can be and, to be honest, how fun (and effective) MDMA can be compared to other treatment methods, this research was generally met with enthusiasm. While SSRI antidepressants like Zoloft are FDA-approved to treat PTSD, research shows it’s not always effective. The study in question shows that it had a response rate of 60%, which is obviously lower than the 86% improvement rate that came with MDMA.
However, per an independent analysis into the reliability of patient studies that are backing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) application for MDMA, apparently, it’s pretty tricky to discern how effective these results are. Compared to other treatments, there are some serious hurdles associated with studying and then implementing psychoactive substances such as MDMA.
While the bliss that MDMA can bring is generally considered a plus, it may make it trickier to study. One of the biggest challenges that arose when looking at the MDMA trial is that participants in the placebo group, who received a fake version of MDMA, could tell they hadn’t received the real thing because they experienced no changes in perception or euphoria, so it was rather obvious that they were in the placebo group, as noted in a draft report by the nonprofit Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER). This lack of “blinding” in the trial, crucial for assessing the drug’s impact, potentially compromises the validity of the results.
The second hiccup when studying MDMA for PTSD came from the possibility that therapists were skewing the results. They basically thought that the therapists who were a part of the trial, there for mental health support, were biased in favor of MDMA, perhaps along with the participants, many of whom had previous positive experiences with the drug and, as a result, couldn’t provide the neutral ground required for a reliable study.
The report also highlighted worries that participants who received MDMA felt “pressured to report good outcomes and suppress bad outcomes,” per the Washington Post. It also pointed to a documented instance of therapist misconduct that heightened safety concerns. While MDMA can be used to treat PTSD for sexual assault survivors, the psychedelic community may have some damage control of their own that needs a reckoning. Apparently, the ICER staff talked to folks who were part of a New York Magazine podcast investigating the MAPS’s clinical trial, in particular, patients who said they were victimized by therapists or coerced into reporting beneficial outcomes. According to one account, a woman in a MAPS trial states she was abused by her assigned therapists.
ICER staffers, after speaking with several former patients and individuals associated with MAPS trials, observed that some adverse effects mentioned in the trial were not captured in the data they reviewed. While MDMA could help relieve horrid symptoms of PTSD, which include self-harm and thoughts of suicide, both of those were also included in the side effects (for both the MDMA group and those who got a placebo). People who have taken MDMA recreationally sometimes speak of “suicide Tuesday,” aka the crash after enjoying the spike of the drug on the weekend, and not only does this appear to roar its head within the trials, but those who spoke on the subject voiced concerns that there may be underreporting of such negative side effects.
While some of this seems shocking when laid out in print, remember that none of the adverse claims or concerns are news to those in the psychedelic community. There is no medicine that exists without side effects; the silver bullet is a myth. If one finds healing through psychedelics, enjoy it while understanding the well-established risks (and benefits) that come with such a medicine.
Big Tech is a hotbed for psychedelic microdosing—especially among the highest ranking thought leaders. So-called “tech bros” are gulping down microdoses of psychedelics, be it LSD, ketamine, psilocybin, 5-MeO-DMT, or other drugs, and the trend is spreading like wildfire throughout Silicon Valley. Microdoses of psychedelics aim to improve mood and wellbeing without inducing hallucinations and strong psychoactive effects.
The Independentreports April 26 that what began as a turning point for Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, the use of psychedelics for therapeutic purposes, now extends to the top tech magnates in the world today.
A “tech bro” is someone, usually a man, who works in the digital technology industry. They are also sometimes called “brogrammers” or “technocrats.” Tech Bros are gravitating towards psychedelics in order to survive the daily grind in a highly competitive industry.
Many of the top tycoons in the industry are openly sharing their experiences with microdoses of psychedelics. They’re also experimenting with psychedelic retreats, meditation, weird diets and even food deprivation (see Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.) In 2022, Wired called the phenomenon “The ‘Shamanification’ of the Tech CEO.” These approaches to well-being are being explored more often in the industry.
SpaceX founder and billionaire Elon Musk opened up about his experiences with ketamine in June last year. He argued that the psychedelic is better than the alternative, which is antidepressants that often cause side effects such as even worse depression. “Depression is overdiagnosed in the US, but for some people it really is a brain chemistry issue,” Musk tweeted. “But zombifying people with SSRIs for sure happens way too much. From what I’ve seen with friends, ketamine taken occasionally is a better option.”
He’s also open to the benefits of other psychedelics. “A lot of people making laws are kind of from a different era,” Musk said at the 2021 CodeCon conference. “As the new generation gets into political power, I think we will see greater receptivity to the benefits of psychedelics.”
Then Google co-founder Sergey Brin opened up about microdosing psilocybin. Psilocybin microdosing is the repeated self-administration of mushrooms at doses small enough to not induce hallucinations but with reported effects on feelings of wellbeing. It’s being explored for the treatment of conditions like depression.
“There really is a critical mass of intelligent people collectively coming together to say that we need to change policy around mushrooms—that we need to take them from the underground and put them into the mainstream in a safe and responsible way,” Dennis Walker, a mushroom podcaster and business adviser, told The Independent. “Because these are profound and effective treatments for many indications, and they’re also the birthright of human beings.”
Jobs especially liked talking about the world’s most potent hallucinogen, and suggested it played a role in the invention of personal computing and other innovations. “LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin,” Jobs said, adding “and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it.”
The study, published last October in the peer-reviewed journal Substance Use and Misuse, analyzed data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health and looked at trends related to use of LSD.
Researchers looked at data from over 168,000 adults over the course of the years 2006-2014 and found that people who identified themselves as managers in their field had experienced a notable increase in LSD use in the last year of the study, significantly more so than other full-time employees who did not identify as managers.
“The results suggest that the prevalence of past year LSD use increased over time at a greater rate among business managers than non-managers and that this difference cannot be accounted for by changes in business managers’ perceived risk of LSD use or general substance use relative to non-managers,” the study said.
Study participants self-reported their own drug use which included information on psychedelics including LSD. Researchers used this information to form correlations and they found that business managers and leaders experienced a .07% increase in LSD use over the last year of the study whereas other full time employees who were not in a leadership position only increased by .02%.
Trends show that tech billionaires are helping to normalize the use of psychedelic microdoses for therapeutic purposes.
The topic of odor is prevalent among communities in close proximity to cannabis cultivation operations, and Santa Barbara is no different. Recently the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors met on April 23 to discuss how to tackle the issue, and ultimately voted 3-2 to commission a study to evaluate further options.
According to Santa Barbara Independent, there are some expensive tech devices such as carbon filters (nicknamed “scrubbers”) that could potentially reduce cannabis aroma, ultimately preventing it from being detected outside of the facilities. However, scrubbers are priced at $22,000 a piece, and in order for them to be effective, a grow would need one for every 10 acres. More fees are factored in later with “electrical upgrades,” which the Santa Barbara County planners told the board it would be a “potentially prohibitive expense.”
Both Board Chair Steve Lavagnino and Supervisor Das Williams, who helped push along Santa Barbara County’s 2018 cannabis ordinance, stated that it wouldn’t be fair to require cultivators to purchase such machines. Supervisor Joan Hartman agreed as well, and the trio voted in the majority to have a six-month study commissioned.
Currently, there are only five greenhouses that have scrubbers, out of a total of 20 operating in Carpinteria Valley, located east of the city of Santa Barbara.
The study would analyze “power upgrades that may be necessary in advance of scrubber installations,” according to Santa Barbara Independent. Hartman said that she supported scrubbers for greenhouses, but also wants to see a resolution for the cannabis aroma that comes from sungrown operations as well. She claimed that the smell that exists between Highway 246 and Santa Rosa Road, detectable in Buellton and Solvang (located northwest of Santa Barbara) needs to be addressed. “It’s really a disservice to our public not to regulate cannabis odor for the most sensitive people,” Hartman said. “We need to find out where we’re measuring odor, what tool we’re measuring it with and what’s the limit.”
The two supervisors who objected to the study included Bob Nelson and Laura Capps, stating that they wanted to see scrubbers required by all cannabis greenhouses. “My frustration level is coming to a place where I feel we just need to push forward with something,” Nelson said. “… Sometimes, we do too much planning.”
Capps also spoke out about requiring scrubber power upgrades. “Is it our role to be deciding what a business can afford to do?” she asked. Capps concluded that more studies are not what is needed, because “people continue to suffer.” “I don’t think we’re doing our job if we kick the can down the road longer,” she continued. “…Who are we trying to serve? I don’t know what more studies are going to get us, other than more frustration from the neighbors.”
In response, Lavagnino supported the many locals who have gained jobs because of the cannabis industry. “There’s a lot of people who are also our constituents who work at these places,” Lavagnino said. “That’s why when we talk about the cost of these facilities, it matters. People could lose their jobs.”
The study will specifically focus on three primary areas where a strong cannabis aroma is often detected. County planners will utilize a device called a Nasal Ranger, which can measure odor strength.
Carpinteria Valley locals have reported 3,700 odor complaints but none of them have been “verified” by the county, because it’s impossible to find which greenhouse the aroma is coming from. Without verification, the county can’t make any decisions to require scrubbers or other technological devices. “This isn’t working,” Nelson said. “…It’s wildly unsuccessful.…Zero verified complaints is really alarming. Additional planning or studies is not the solution.” Nelson also suggested that scrubbers should be required by growers starting when they renew their license to cultivate. “We could solve this problem and it would no longer exist, and we could stop having these hearings and these issues,” he added.
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted in February 2018 to allow cannabis cultivation in unincorporated parts of the county. Within the past six years of the passing of this ordinance, the board has only issued one odor violation notice. Carpinteria Valley has 170 acres of land approved for cannabis cultivation, with about 116 acres currently being utilized.
In the past 15 months, reports have shown that another odor technology that utilizes plant oils in misting systems is working to mask the smells. However, it doesn’t fully eliminate the smell, and instead residents began to complain about the “laundromat” odor from the mist instead.
At the April 23 meeting, numerous cultivators spoke up asking the board not to employ a “one-size-fits-all” type of resolution. Pacific Dutch Group co-president, Tadd McKenzie, explained that growers have already been taking steps to reduce the odor. Improvements “have already been made and will continue to be made by operators,” McKenzie said. “…Using valuable county resources on costly regulatory updates instead of improving ongoing compliance will only make market conditions more favorable to non-tax-paying black-market competitors.”
Another grower, Autumn Shelton from Autumn Brands, said requiring her to install scrubbers or other odor technology would render her business financially infeasible. “While scrubbers is a really great idea, when the market crashes only two years ago, it’s really hard to come back from that and continue to spend and spend and spend,” Shelton said.
Toward the conclusion of the meeting, Williams explained that growers need to continue to work toward some kind of resolution. “The longer anybody delays, the more burdensome the final result will be,” Williams said. “I hope there’s a clear warning sign that progress needs to be made…”
Nelson warned that something will need to change soon to address the ongoing issue. “This is an issue I see coming,” he said. “I want to say again to this industry: Get ahead of it. At some point, if you’re not ahead of it, you’re going to get run over by it.”
Green isn’t just the color of cannabis, but cash, too. And thanks to your valiant efforts of consumption, the industry is looking to help out the economy. Info from the newly released MJBiz Factbook reveals that the economic impact of regulated marijuana sales in the U.S. could exceed a whopping $112.4 billion in 2024. That’s a 12% growth compared to last year.
Overall, the Congressional Budget Office forecasts a slowdown in economic growth for 2024 due to higher unemployment levels and reduced inflation. As a result, the Federal Reserve is likely to lower interest rates starting in mid-2024. After this, economic growth is expected to rebound in 2025 (mark the year in your calendars hopefully you’ll have extra money for weed) and then level off in the following years. So, while 2024 isn’t likely going to be one of the best economic years on record, that’s not the cannabis industry’s fault. Without it, we’d be $112.4 billion poorer as a nation. And as new cannabis markets emerge, the industry is projected to contribute over $200 billion in additional spending to the U.S. economy by 2030.
While there were sales dips in established western markets (licensed retailers in California reported taxable sales exceeding $5.1 billion in 2023), marking a 4.7% decline from the previous year, according to the latest year-end data from the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, you may have read about the California mass extinction), the cannabis industry continues to see growth through the expansion of new recreational and medical marijuana facilities in states like Maryland, Missouri, and New York.
While it’s exciting to see that the cannabis industry is going to add hundreds of billions of dollars to the economy, keep in mind that MJBiz’s date doesn’t account for potential U.S. government actions like federal rescheduling or legalization, each of which could boost revenue and economic impact. While Biden has said he’d reschedule cannabis and expunge more cannabis convictions, he hasn’t turned out to be the great liberal hero who legalizes marijuana for all. Donald Trump has been all over the place when it comes to cannabis. Thirty years ago, he said drugs should be legal, but he has backpedaled in modern years to appeal to his conservative voter base. Twenty-five years later, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, he said that he thinks marijuana legalization is “bad” and that he feels “strongly about that.”
To come to the figure of $112.4 billion of economic impact, MJBizDaily applied some epic math by looking at comparable industries. Then, they used a standard multiplier to estimate projected sales for recreational and medical marijuana. The economic multiplier illustrates the broader economic impact of the cannabis industry. It suggests that for every dollar spent by consumers and patients at adult-use stores and medical marijuana dispensaries, an additional $2.50 is circulated into the economy. This money primarily benefits the local economies that sell the cannabis in the first place.
Keep in mind that the economic impact of the marijuana industry is different from supply-chain revenue, which is commonly utilized to gauge an industry’s ‘total size.’ According to the MJBiz Factbook, total U.S. sales for adult-use and medical cannabis are projected to hit $32.1 billion in 2024 and rise to $58 billion by 2030.
The term “economic impact” describes the effect of an industry (or an event) on the economy of the corresponding region or country. This includes economic growth, employment, wages, and overall economic activity changes. The economic impact includes direct impacts, such as the immediate benefits from business spending and salaries; indirect impacts, such as additional economic activity from local suppliers fulfilling new demands; and induced impacts, which happen from employees spending their paychecks locally. Knowing the economic impact helps stakeholders understand the economic value of different industries and make corresponding decisions.
The projections represent the best estimates available for the ever-evolving marijuana industry, which is different from others as it operates under a complicated and ever-changing set of state regulations yet is still illegal federally (until, of course, we elect someone down to make some real progress). The cannabis industry is vast and includes agricultural, manufacturing, and retail sectors, as well as businesses that don’t sell weed but help the cause, like lighting suppliers and cannabis-friendly accounting firms. The number even includes 420-friendly events and hospitality businesses, which can really improve our economy, per the data, and make you feel good about taking part in your local cannabis community.
Cannabis is widely used to help mitigate the symptoms of a variety of conditions and diseases. Specifically, a number of state medical cannabis programs list HIV/AIDS as a qualifying condition, as cannabis can help to eliminate a variety of symptoms associated with HIV/AIDS treatment.
Though, some clinicians have expressed concern how regular cannabis treatments in this regard may impact patient cognition.
Researchers affiliated with the University of California at San Diego sought to investigate the cognitive impacts of cannabis use in people with HIV through a newly published meta-analysis in the journal Current HIV/AIDS Reports.
Ultimately, they conclude that neither the use of whole-plant cannabis or cannabis-based medicines are associated with significant cognitive changes in those with HIV.
Cannabis Use Among People with HIV
In the study abstract, researchers note the potential benefits that cannabis use can offer patients with HIV while recognizing this population’s “high burden of persisting neurocognitive impairment” and physician concerns with adding cannabis into the mix, specifically its potential cognitive effects.
Cannabis use among those with HIV is far from a new trend. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration first approved synthetic oral THC capsules (dronabinol) to treat HIV-induced cachexia, or loss of appetite, in 1985.
Additionally, surveys have consistently affirmed that cannabis use is common among people with HIV, with one 2007 study predating the bulk of medical reform measures in the U.S. still finding that more than 60% of HIV/AIDS patients self-identified as medical cannabis users.
Another more recent 2022 study noted that 77% and 34% of people with HIV reported lifetime and past-year cannabis use, respectively.
While some of these patients report recreational use as one reason, research over the years has found that cannabis is largely used among people with HIV to stimulate appetite, reduce pain, relax and ease anxiety and help with sleep.
‘Little Evidence’ of Harmful Cognitive Cannabis Impacts
With plenty of existing data to pull from, researchers reviewed data from 34 clinical studies to determine the extent that cannabis impacts cognition among patients with HIV. The results, according to the study, revealed that there is “little evidence” to support that cannabis has a harmful impact on cognition among those with HIV.
“Overall, the number of reported adverse effects were largely outnumbered by beneficial or null findings, providing insufficient support for the detrimental impact of CU [cannabis use] on cognition in PWH [people with HIV],” researchers reported, adding that the results suggest both cannabis and cannabis-based medications can be prescribed to people with HIV “while posing little threat to cognitive function.”
The topic of cannabis use and cognition has seen a recent uptick in popularity, especially given recent conversations surrounding cannabis-induced psychosis (which has largely been linked to pre-existing conditions and vulnerabilities and is not a widespread issue among cannabis consumers, with some advocates arguing that the focus on this topic is a repackaged version of “Reefer Madness” propaganda from decades past).
Of course, it’s important to look at the full picture and recognize how cannabis use and abuse may impact a variety of populations, and myriad studies attempt to look a bit more broadly at the topic.
Recent research shows that cannabis users may actually have a lower chance of cognitive decline overall. Previous studies have also noted links between heavy cannabis use and cognitive performance, though researchers noted that particular products used, methods of consumption and the reasons for use can also impact cognitive effects associated with cannabis use.
Another recent study similarly found that adolescents who occasionally use cannabis do not see cognitive differences compared to those who abstain, once again highlighting a distinction surrounding frequency of use among other variables.
Entering the gardens of Sun Roots Farm in Covelo in Mendocino County is like entering a botanical fever dream. Giant purple cannabis plants rule instead of humans, and weed flowers the size of buildings sway under the weight of their own colas. Below their sticky canopy, medicinal and edible companion plants twist, bloom, and communicate in soil alive with insects and mycelium.
This sungrown Eden is a place where cannabis is encouraged to express her wildest potential. According to Forrest Gauder and Patricia Vargas, the husband-and-wife team of regenerative farmers who founded Sun Roots in 2015, the less human intervention on this potential, the better.
“The plant has its own potential that is not influenced by humans,” Vargas said. “When it’s exposed to a multitude of beneficial components, such as high-quality soil, the energy of the sun and the moon, clean water, clean air, and the intention we put into caring for it, everything works in synchronicity.”
Sun Roots is a regenerative farm, meaning its practices are centered around healing and regenerating life on earth by improving soil health, bolstering native biodiversity, carbon sequestration (capturing and storing carbon dioxide to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere), water conservation, and enriching the health of the overall Covelo community.
High Times Magazine, April 2024
As opposed to the extractive farming practices often employed by cannabis farms, in which pesticides kill everything in proximity to the plants, poisoning the environment and sometimes even the consumer, regenerative agriculture uses a closed-loop system of cultivation that produces no waste and nurtures the environment while doing so.
While Vargas grew up in urban Connecticut and Gauder in the hills above Covelo, California a shared belief in the power of plants ultimately led them to one another.
Vargas’s ancestors were tobacco farmers from Puerto Rico, with her mother often in the garden as she was growing up. She attended Keene State College in New Hampshire, which she describes as “super hippy dippy.” After 10 years of working on farms in the area, she traveled to California through WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms) to grow vegetables year-round.
Gauder is a second-generation cannabis farmer who grew up in the self-reliant culture of the traditional market.
“We were taught by my father to grow our own food on an off-grid apple orchard, homestead-style,” he said. “I’ve always been drawn to the cannabis plant. I love learning from the plant and building the wisdom I gain from it every year. In the same way that it grows, I grow too.”
Shortly after Vargas moved to Covelo to work on a mutual friend’s weed farm, she and Gauder found each other one summer night on a full rose moon.
“I decided to go to a drum circle, and Forrest ended up being there,” she said. “We immediately walked up to each other like magnets. We just knew.”
At that time, Covelo was a different place. Like all corners of the Emerald Triangle, the endless pitfalls of legalization drastically altered the existence of cannabis farmers.
Magu’s Fruit.
“When I came here, there were so many people from all over the world,” said Vargas. “There was such a robust culture and an energy of excitedness and abundance. The wildlife was so healthy, and the landscape was so beautiful.”
When state voters approved a legal adult-use cannabis marketplace in 2016, things began to change.
“Prices just started dropping,” Vargas said. “Now your profit wasn’t as high because you’re giving all your money to compliance people or taxes. Everybody’s getting a cut. Things went from being amazing, feeling like we were on top of the world, to feeling like we had a ball and chain attached to us.”
The “green rush” and its subsequent fall negatively impacted the environment of Covelo, as well. Due to its rural, secluded location, people began implementing extremely destructive farming tactics to turn a profit as fast and as recklessly as possible. They burned through the valley, leveling huge swaths of forest for makeshift mega-grows, siphoning water from the river, covering mountaintops with plastic tarps, and leaving the trash when they were done.
“We were all like, ‘This is the dark side of this whole culture,’” Vargas said. “That’s why a lot of us going legal were pushing for environmental rights because we saw it happening in our own community.”
The soil quality at Sun Roots Farm makes a huge impact on the quality of flower.
Undisturbed Soil
The reason Covelo is such a hotbed of cannabis activity is because of its ideal soil. Covelo is located in Round Valley, which is exactly what it sounds like: a big round valley with a flat bottom and hills extending up from its perimeter. It used to be a swampy floodplain for Round Valley Creek that ran through it until colonizers built an outlet that drained the valley in the 1920s.
“The mountains drained into the valley, creating these deposited silt beds that are particularly rich in the area beneath our farm,” Gauder said. “There are three to four feet of chocolate-colored soil. It’s really beautiful, full of worms and bugs and life and nutrients. Just think of all the stuff that’s been deposited there throughout the years.
“Our farm is one of the best spots in the valley. Some parts are too rocky or sandy or dense with clay. But where we are, it’s a perfect top layer of dirt for growing weed and food, then under that, it turns to rocks and sand, so it drains really well.”
Sun Roots Farm is the definition of true “living soil,” a hallmark of regenerative agriculture, which has become a buzzy marketing term for greenwashing brands in the industry. While we often see the term applied to indoor grows who put a couple of earthworms in their pots and then dump the soil after harvest, true living soil is cared for and nurtured like a living organism.
“Anyone who’s dumping every year, that’s not living soil,” said Vargas. “Living soil is living. You continue to work with it. You don’t just throw it away. You feed it through compost and biomass and mulching, and the plants that you create. If you dump it, how are you honoring the life of your soil?”
“Because you’re adding more decomposing matter every year, you build it with the aim of disturbing the soil as little as possible,” added Gauder. “The less you disturb it, the more mycelial networks that are going to be present, the richer your soil, and the greater the ecosystem.”
This idea that the plants, the soil, and the ecosystem they create thrive in the absence of human intervention is integral to the Sun Roots Farm philosophy. Their hands-off approach to cultivation is born from a deep trust in nature and her ability to do what she does better than we can.
The thing about plants is that without them, we die. But without humans, plants thrive. Humans often interpret cultivation as manipulating the plant to make it do what we want. Sun Roots does the opposite.
“It’s about allowing things to be their most natural and not interfering too much,” said Vargas. “I think with cannabis, a lot of us think—or the habit has been—to go out and buy soil or buy these products for this, to manage this, and control that. What we’ve learned in our practices is that nature is the ultimate teacher. Nature knows what she’s doing. Leave her alone, and let her do her thing.”
Alpacas help to fertilize plants in a closed-loop system.
Alpaca Helpers
One of the most beneficial components of Sun Roots’s regenerative, closed-loop system is their herd of alpacas. Not only do they help control various plant populations on the property, assisting with fire suppression, but their manure is an incredible fertilizer for the cannabis.
“Part of regenerative agriculture is stacking functions, so when we invest in something, we need to make sure it has many uses,” said Gauder. “We’re using their manure as our main fertilizer for all of the crops. They have super hygienic dung piles, so it’s easy to collect, which means that we don’t have to run tractors or burn fossil fuels. They also slim down the brush to a certain height, creating a perfect distance for fire suppression.”
Instead of ripping out plants by their root systems like many other livestock, alpacas maintain the seed cycles of native plants on the farm through rotational grazing, composting them in their stomachs, and redistributing the seeds back into the earth through their manure.
“We also use their shearings as mulch on the earth, which creates a nice layer of fiber and moisture barrier for decomposing nutrients,” said Vargas. “The mycelium love it. Then we’re able to draw in species like edible mushrooms that feed us and the bees and can also be put into fertilizer teas. The cycle continues in a circular motion where everything is in constant use, and nothing is ever wasted.”
Velvet Purps.
A Focus on the Flowers
Sun Roots flower is a culmination of intention, high-vibe growing practices, and, of course, a little magic. Famous for their sparkly, dark purple nugs and fruity, complex terpene profiles, their flower has an energetically dense high that transcends just getting stoned.
They specialize in a Velvet lineage, which started as the sister plants (or different phenotypes) of Jah Goo, a cross of Purple Jasmine and Afghan Goo that is a uniquely acclimated cultivar made in Covelo. Two plants in particular stood out over the years, with which they have continued to create seeds.
The first is the crystal-laden Velvet Purps, with its magenta trichomes, neon leaves, and a high that leaves you happy, buoyant, and at ease. The second is their Magu’s Fruit, a personal favorite of mine for her uplifting and effervescently creative energy, originally dubbed Silver Goo for the silver gown of buds that cascade down the giant plants. These varieties, as well as a number of crosses like Velvet La Flor, Magu’s Velvatron, and Velvet Citrine, are available through retail shops such as Redwood Roots and Solful.
“This is intentional medicine for spiritual health,” said Vargas. “It’s not just recreational. I’m here to get stoned, yes, but a lot of us are using this for our mental health. So we make sure that we’re putting positivity into this. We need more positivity in this world. We need more love in this world. For us, to be growing a plant that we get to share with the world is an honor. Our greatest hope is that people will feel the medicine behind it. That they will take that seed they’ve been given, and they go on and share it with others.”
This article was originally published in the April 2024 issue of High Times Magazine.
Volutas de humo titilan al encuentro del cinco contra uno: la cabeza se enciende, las manos bajan, la fiebre sube. Son tiempos de encerrarse con uno mismo, de entregarse a la magia de la masturbación. Chorros poquitos, churros gigantes. Eyaculación de a montón, porro del millón.
¿Acaso será una buena idea ver porno fumados? ¿Aumentará el goce? ¿El placer pondrá un foco distinto? ¿Qué pasa por la cabeza y el cuerpo cuando vemos XXX estando re locos?
“Siento que la conexión que uno agarra con su cuerpo, cuando está con todo su sistema cannabinoide activo, hace que todo sea mucho más placentero y mucho más disfrutable”, asegura la actriz XXX y activista cannábica chilena Tía Cogollo.
Suena bien, ¿o no?
Por eso, de la mano (y en compañía) de la Tía Cogollo, El Planteo armó esta guía exclusiva para ver porno fumados.
UNO: porno y weed
Tía Cogollo hace porno estando fumada. En realidad, dice, está fumada todo el día pero, aún así, no le recomienda a sus “colegas” crear contenido high si no tienen una relación cercana con la marihuana.
Ahora bien, vamos a lo importante: ¿recomienda ver porno fumado? “Sí, lo recomiendo”, confirma.
Y acá, un nuevo pero: “Sólo a personas que ya tengan una experiencia con la marihuana porque uno le agarra mucho más gusto a las sensaciones físicas, a los sonidos y al placer en general, como que se activa mucho más y se pone mucho más perceptivo”.
A partir de ahí, una revisión del tiempo: pasa más lento. Entonces, se engolosina la percepción, los minutos se hacen más anchos.
DOS: cepas
Los que más saben recomiendan que, en estos menesteres, se escojan cepas más cercanas a las índicas antes que a las sativas. Aunque puede haber un ideal: las mezclas “siempre son súper ricas”.
Habla la Tía Cogollo: “Recomiendo un mix de 50/50 entre sativa e índica. Eso siempre se disfruta. Quizás algo que no sea tan somnoliento, como para que uno siga activo después de un buen rato y, después, si terminás en un buen orgasmo en tu sesión, vas a quedar súper relajado y disfrutando al máximo”.
TRES: géneros
Ahora bien, ¿qué ver? ¿Da todo lo mismo? ¿Cuál es el género ideal para una inmersión 420 al cosmos de la chanchada?
“Recomiendo el P.O.V. (point of view) porque lo que uno está viendo se siente mucho más interactivo. Cuando hay una cámara en primera persona se siente como que uno está dentro de la película y eso es mucho más maravilloso cuando uno está volado”, sugiere la experta.
De pronto, hay más géneros que pueden maridar con la marihuana, como el caso del comedy porn, más vinculado con las familias sativas. “Recomendaría el comedy como para disfrutar mientras estás teniendo un orgasmo y te largás a reír”.
¿Y búsquedas más concretas? Bueno, bien vale alguna mención paraKeisha Grey, otra paraAmarna Millery un search veloz al tag “weed porn”. Las coordenadas son de Tía Cogollo, así que sólo queda confiar.
CUATRO: cuidados
Hablemos de cuidados. Sí, obvio: hay que tenerlos, ¿qué se piensan? A ver qué dice la Tía Cogollo… “Hay que tener principal atención a lo que está pasando afuera de tu habitación porque uno se embarca en un contexto súper íntimo donde pierdes el control. Por ejemplo, el control al volumen que tú estás haciendo a los gemidos. Al volumen de los suspiros, también. Entonces tú puedes creer que estás haciendo muy poco ruido y en verdad estás haciendo mucho. Así que la recomendación sería prestarle atención al contexto externo de tu habitación”.
¿Algo más? Y… siempre hay más: una buena opción sería acompañar la sesión manuelística con una playlist bien psicodélica. Y, obviamente, tener todo listo y dispuesto para el post sesión íntima, como algunas cuestiones de limpieza y tener a mano algo rico para comer.
CINCO: ritmos y velocidades
Para el hecho en sí, la sugerencia de la experta es comenzar de forma lenta y sensitivamente e ir poco a poco aumentando la intensidad. “Es bueno partir lento, hacer una sesión larga y placentera y avanzar dentro de tu sesión incrementando la velocidad, pero ir variando entre un ritmo y otro”, detalla Tía Cogollo.
Pero cada cuerpo es un mundo. Y cada mundo, una paja.
El reloj marca su compás, el cuerpo pide salsa. ¿Da igual un horario que el otro? Bueno, al parecer, no. La Tía Cogollo sugiere que el mejor horario para ver porno fumados es a las 23:00hs.
¿¡Por qué!?
Uno puede suponerlo pero mejor si lo explica ella: “Porque no están todos muy despiertos. Hay algunos que están durmiendo. Y si vives solo, no vas a molestar a tus vecinos. Y, después, en el mismo sentido, el horario full AM onda 7:00 de la mañana, justo después de fumarte un porro, también va. Siempre y cuando sea después de una buena caña”.
El porro agarra sintonía fina con el porno porque “puedes completar mejor tus fantasías en solitario”. Predispone a una actitud más placentera, más activa, más sexual, más rica. Y, ahí, el horario juega su parte.
SIETE: fin, ¿y ahora?
“Si tu cuerpo está relajado, la finalización de tus sesiones serán demasiado placenteras. Y lo peor es que uno se queda con ganas de más. En lo personal, me ha pasado que he estado en procesos de grabación estando volada y uno queda con ganas de más, de continuar y continuar, y la sesión ya acabó”.
Chef Maverick is as multi-talented as they come, and the titles of chef, caterer, product developer, Chopped 420 competitor, author, businessperson, brand designer, and more are all just a glimpse of explaining her skillset. From catering small- and large-scale dining events (both with cannabis-infused dishes and non-infused meals) to creating her line of infused sauces and snacks, she’s highly ambitious and strives to craft flavor-packed foods using only the best ingredients.
Maverick is a Los Angeles native who discovered her passion for food at 5 years old and has spent her life cooking for her friends and family. Instead of pursuing a culinary education in college, she attended school in Georgia and Tennessee and earned her bachelor’s degree in computer science and software engineering. During her college education, she also worked at numerous restaurants, from Red Lobster to Applebee’s and IHOP, and would experiment with cooking and recreating menu items from those businesses at home.
“I would go home and recreate certain things that I liked, that worked, or put my little twist on certain things is basically how I developed my culinary skill set,” Maverick explains.
After graduation, she spent nearly five years as a corporate sales rep. Her culinary career took off in 2015 when she moved back to Los Angeles and began building her reputation as a private chef and caterer.
Her introduction to cannabis came a few years later when she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and multiple sclerosis, in addition to learning that she was allergic to gluten and soy. Edibles helped her manage the symptoms of her conditions. Still, she found that the selection was limited—the cannabis industry was oversaturated with sweets, but somehow, none of them catered to her new dietary restrictions.
“I realized at the time that edibles were very popular, but a majority of the edibles that were available were mostly gummies, cookies, brownies, you know, things like that,” Maverick says. “I also didn’t see any specific gluten-free, vegan, soy-free options. And because I found out I had allergies to gluten and soy, I couldn’t really eat any of the edibles that were available at the time.”
This prompted her to develop a line of infused sauces, dubbed Mav Sauce, in 2018. At first, she developed cannabis pesto, ketchup, mustard, maple syrup, honey, and BBQ sauces, and her rise in popularity on social media prompted her to expand her sauce lineup to include new flavors including jerk BBQ sauce, Memphis sweet BBQ sauce, vegan chipotle aioli, organic maple syrup and honey, balsamic vinaigrette, sriracha ketchup, and sweet chili sauce.
Her infused sauces became so popular that she wrote a cookbook incorporating them, released in May 2023. Sauced Up! 420 Recipes Featuring Mav Sauce includes 14 recipes that offer creative ways to use her various Mav Sauces, such as adding her infused Memphis sweet BBQ sauce to smoked BBQ jackfruit enchiladas or using infused pesto in a Caprese stuffed mushrooms recipe.
Chef Maverick Catering GLAAD Event in December 2023
Photo by Chessa Mehlman, LezzChaseLight
Maverick later developed dietary-friendly infused sweets called Mav Snacks after her savory successes. These include a variety of options from rice cereal-based treats to cookies, brownies, gummies, and more that are gluten-free, soy-free, and some of which are also vegan.
According to Maverick, her fruit juice gummies are some of her bestsellers.
“Certain gummies may have two flavors; some of them have three,” Maverick says. “So it may be pineapple, watermelon, and strawberry or something like that, you know, so people love them for that, and they’re very good.”
Her vegan strawberry lemonade cookies, including a lemon-flavored cookie with strawberry jam in the center and a drizzle of strawberry lemonade icing, are also a bestseller and one of her favorites.
Not only are Maverick’s sauces and snacks packed with flavor, but she also maintains high standards when using quality ingredients.
“The thing about Mav Sauce and Mav Snacks is that they’re exclusively gluten-free, soy-free, and non-GMO. I don’t use crappy ingredients. I use mostly organic ingredients: organic butter, organic this and that, as much as I can. All my herbs are all organic because I feel like cannabis is supposed to be something used to help you feel better,” Maverick says. “But if you’re smoking trash, it’s not going to help you. If you’re ingesting stuff that is trash, it’s just gonna get you high; it’s not going to be helpful. You know? So it’s really important that the ingredients are quality for me, and when I put out a quality product, people can actually benefit from it versus like most companies, especially these edible brands, are probably in it just because it’s profitable.”
Courtesy Chef Maverick
Many of Maverick’s long-standing customers are medical patients suffering from a variety of conditions, such as endometriosis, cancer, and Parkinson’s disease. She recounts heartwarming messages that she has received from fans explaining how Mav Sauce and Mav Snacks have helped them manage their symptoms and improved their quality of life.
“I’m just glad that I’m able to help people, you know, through their stuff,” Maverick says. “And that’s really like, for me, the best part of what I do. I really, really love helping people and getting that feedback that what I’m creating, it’s not just gonna get someone high, it’s changing people’s lives.”
Maverick moved to Georgia toward the end of 2023, citing being “over L.A.,” but the decision to swap the West Coast for the east won’t hinder her plans for growth. A new chapter is beginning, and Chef Maverick is cooking up even more ambitious plans for the near future.
Sweet Chili Coconut Shrimp
By Chef Maverick
Servings: 4
Prep time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 25 mins
THC mg/serving: 12.5 mg
Ingredients
1 lb jumbo shrimp
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup breadcrumbs
½ cup gluten-free flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Baking Flour)
6 tbsp vegan eggs (I use JUST Egg)
1 ½ tsp sea salt
¾ tsp black pepper
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ cup Mav Sauce Sweet Chili Sauce
Oil (for frying)
Sriracha (for garnish)
Cooking Instructions
In a shallow bowl, whisk together the shredded coconut, gluten-free flour, breadcrumbs, and all the seasonings.
A second shallow bowl should have your vegan egg.
Dip the shrimp into the beaten eggs, then coat with the coconut and breadcrumb mixture.
In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the shrimp in batches and fry until golden brown and cooked through, about 2-3 minutes per side.
Transfer the cooked shrimp to a paper towel-lined plate to drain excess oil.
In a bowl, toss the coconut shrimp with the Mav Sauce Sweet Chili Sauce, and enjoy!
Notes:
Tablespoon of Mav Sauce Sweet Chili Sauce = 6.25 mg THC or CBD.
Suggested serving per person = 2 tablespoons.
To make a non-infused version of this, simply swap out my Mav Sauce Sweet Chili Sauce for any store-bought sweet chili sauce you desire. To make a vegan version, simply substitute vegan konjac shrimp instead of real shrimp.
Excerpted from Chef Maverick’s cookbook Sauced Up! 420 Recipes Featuring Mav Sauce.
This article was originally published in the April 2024 issue of High Times Magazine.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has urged a federal appeals court to deny a doctor’s attempt to administer psilocybin to dying patients under so-called Right to Try legislation, arguing that such laws do not provide for exemptions to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
Dr. Sunil Aggarwal, co-founder of the Advanced Integrative Medical Science Institute, a psychedelics research and treatment clinic based in Seattle, has sued the DEA several times for authorization to use psilocybin as a treatment for depression and anxiety by terminally ill patients. Aggarwal’s legal actions are based on federal and state Right to Try laws, which permit patients with terminal illnesses to use investigational drugs for therapeutic purposes before they are approved for general use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Psilocybin, the compound primarily responsible for the psychedelic effects of magic mushrooms, has been shown through clinical research to have great potential as a treatment for serious mental health conditions including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance misuse disorders. The compound has been designated as a “breakthrough therapy” by the FDA but remains a Schedule I drug under the CSA, a classification reserved for drugs with no medical value.
The state of Washington approved a Right to Try bill in 2017, the same year former President Donald Trump signed the federal Right to Try Act into law. Aggarwal argues in his legal action that the legislation gives him the right to administer psilocybin to his patients with terminal illnesses.
The DEA, however, has rejected Aggarwal’s attempts to gain the authority to administer psilocybin to his patients. In its rationale for rejecting a 2022 petition seeking such authority, the DEA argued that treating terminally ill patients with psychedelics would be inconsistent with maintaining public health and safety. Aggarwal also claims the DEA wants him to register as a researcher to administer psilocybin, which is not a requirement of the federal Right to Try Act.
Aggarwal appealed the DEA decision to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, arguing that it was arbitrary and inconsistent with public health interests and established legal precedent. In February, he argued that the DEA must explain how its decision is consistent with the CSA and its own policies, noting that the agency has issued waivers for the therapeutic use of other Schedule I drugs, including the use of medical cannabis by children.
In a filing to the court last week, the DEA said that the Right to Try Act amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act but does not affect the CSA. The agency also said doctors who wish to administer controlled substances must abide by both statutes.
“The CSA and the FDCA (which the Right to Try Act amends) are separate regulatory schemes with separate requirements and restrictions,” the DEA wrote, as quoted by Green Market Report. “Nothing in the Right to Try Act changes that.”
The DEA also argued that the court should reject Aggarwal’s claims because he has not provided sufficient evidence to support them. The law enforcement agency also said it could not adequately evaluate his plan to administer psilocybin because he did not give enough information to justify the waiver he was requesting.
Shawn Hauser, a partner at the cannabis and psychedelics law firm Vicente LLP, slammed the DEA’s position, saying the agency “continues to overtly misinterpret the law using unlawful delay tactics to deny terminally ill patients access to life-saving medicines that federal law affords them access to.”
“Federal Right to Try laws were designed to allow eligible, terminally ill patients who qualify to use investigational new drugs that have undergone clinical trials (such as psilocybin), even if they are Schedule I substances,” Hauser wrote in an email to High Times.
“The law includes a clear exception to the FDCA’s safety/efficacy requirements that allow the use of unapproved, investigational drugs, such as psilocybin, that have completed successful FDA trials, by terminally ill patients,” she added. “This seems to be another excuse and obstruction by the DEA to deny patients access to a life-saving treatment that studies clearly demonstrate can be used safely as medicine.”
