WASHINGTON, D.C.—Currently there are approximately 140,000 college graduates in America who can’t find work commensurate with their level of education. While through-out the ’60s and ’70s American colleges feverishly pumped out a steadily increasing volume of highly trained and educated people, the local market for their services has actually diminished, thanks to computerization and the reluctance of established industries to branch out into alternative modes of development, such as solar power, geothermal energy, etc. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Planning Association, by 1985 there should be 700,000 overqualified college grads competing for what few specialized brain jobs still exist. Says congressional spokesman Robert Hamrin, “More college students [should] become aware of the oversupply and lower their educational goals.”
In 2023, more Americans than ever traveled to Barcelona, Spain to attend the week-long festivities surrounding Spannabis. For years now, weed enthusiasts of the world have been gathering at this international cannabis event to meet, break bread, and share techniques. As society continues to focus its gaze on cannabis, the bridges they’ve been building are starting to show up all over social media. This year, along with plates of jamón and a peek at La Sagrada Família cathedral, there was one other must-have on everyone’s lists—the hash.
The week surrounding Spannabis plays host to a dazzling array of competitions, most with multiple categories for hash. Full melt, dry sift, cold cure, fresh press, and just about every kind of resinous expression you can imagine was on display at the judges’ tables and throughout the city’s numerous social clubs where members can consume cannabis safely off of the street. The grey area laws surrounding cannabis in Spain say you can consume privately, but that clubs cannot operate for profit, meaning the things you pick up there are part of your member services. Barcelona in particular has been attracting hashmakers from all over the world and creating a buzz for the level of quality they’re pushing out. To properly talk about hash culture in Barcelona and where it’s going next, we spoke with some highly respected voices in the community.
The Heart of Hash
Doc Hazed is a well-known name that’s secured multiple awards this year for full melt, dry sift, and rosin. According to him, “the heart of the hash scene in Spain, or even Europe, is in Barcelona.” He first came to Spain in 2016 from Italy, where he taught himself how to make hash by studying message boards and forums. For him, moving to Barcelona was crucial to working with the quality and quantity of material he needed to reach a higher degree of success. Over the last few years, he said the work he’s seen, specifically with ice water hash and rosin, has been “raised to another level.”
Around five years ago, he noticed a lot of people switching to processing fresh frozen material.
“After the switch, the full melt that started coming out was better than anything else on the scene,” he said. “Some of the social clubs around the city started adding high-quality dry sift and water hash to their menus and this got a whole crowd of smokers interested in trying higher quality hash.”
As these patrons of the arts grew to understand the effort and costs involved, they were willing to pay a little more. Demand started to grow and over time these resin artists were able to increase production and stabilize costs so that more people could try some at their local club.
One of these social clubs was HQ, where David Madilyan runs not only one of Barcelona’s premiere smoking spots but also its in-house rosin brand and a competition that brings worldwide players in to compete in a single category. For Madilyan, the goal has always been to provide access to these kinds of products. Over the years HQ has become a place known for promoting, offering, and celebrating rosin. When he first opened the doors of the club he had already been a longtime fan of dabbing. Even back then, making rosin with a hair straightener, he could tell this was the wave of the future for cannabis smokers.
To help bring rosin and full melt further into view, he’s had a string of talented hashmakers come work with the club to make sure the menu always has some for members to try out. After their most recent star finished his tenure and left to create his own brand, Madilyan thought about all the time he’d spent working alongside these artisans. He decided to launch a line of products he would press under the name Babushka Farms as a way to show the people who visit HQ what good material can do when it’s met with what he calls “a passion for hashin’.”
Masters of Rosin, the competition HQ launched six years ago, has grown to become a respected part of the European competition lineup and brings people together to compete in a rosin-only smackdown for the crown.
“People are getting used to what it’s like to take a dab,” Madilyan said. “We’ve smoked in Spain for years now but it’s traditionally been either pure flower or traditional hash. If we look over the last 20 years at how we’ve bred thousands of strains for resin production, or how popular rosin has become in the last five years it’s obvious that hash is making some major strides in a very short period of time.”
Slite23, HQ’s former hashmaker turned solo artist, believes the internet also played a pivotal role in where things are now.
“During the pandemic, everyone was either lurking on their phone or working in the lab,” he said. “Thanks to things like Instagram, we had a chance to see what people were smoking around the world.”
Having relocated to Barcelona from Italy eight years ago, Slite23 says he witnessed this sudden explosion of content create a spike in quality along with a whole new crowd of hashmakers entering the space. What’s taken longer to catch up, he says, is the supply and demand for glass, butane, torches, and all the gear to bring in new smokers.
Sunset Sherbert live rosin, Slite23
La Sagrada Farm, another favorite of the Barcelona community, believes recent advancements in electronic rigs and vape pens are breaking down the barrier quite a bit. The team feels these devices have helped people understand how and why we smoke hash by, as they put it, “unlocking the power of fashion and industrial design.”
Known for their insanely flavorful work, which took first at Spannabis Champions Cup and second at Masters of Rosin this year, La Sagrada’s head hashmaker and collective founder Arturo went into more detail about how full melt and rosin are cresting the hill after an uphill battle with a combination of tradition and mindset.
There’s a longstanding history of Europeans mixing hashish with tobacco and, in Arturo’s opinion, Catalonians have been at it for so long that smokers there feel like they have an innate understanding of what something should look like and how much it should cost. To him, it makes their job harder but it’s this familiarity and ease with cannabis that also makes Barcelona one of the only places they could do something like this.
“Here, even a 50-year-old taxi driver has smoked more weed and seen more drugs than you,” he joked.
In Barcelona, he said, people seem to have this idea that a higher price for these newer items is in some way due more to hype than cost. Slite23 brought up how most of the people he knows have grown up smoking Moroccan hash, with a gram running you the price of a fast-food meal. Getting someone used to a jar of hash, let alone one that can cost up to eight times more than that, takes time. Along with pricing, there’s still a stigma they’ve had to overcome. Not just with cannabis but with using a torch and all the other accessories needed to take a dab.
Fruittella Piattella, Uncle’s Farm
Introducing Piattella
With it still being illegal to grow anything above personal, non-profit use, part of what makes the Spanish hash scene so special is the result of their limited cultivation space. Many find themselves producing single-source and small-batch simply by necessity. Every round has to count and there’s little room for error, so breeding and growing specifically with resin production in mind is of prime importance. Slite23 and Doc Hazed both expressed how farmers and breeders have been crucial in helping them thrive by providing reliable genetics and desirable options for the European community. This innovation and desire to keep pushing are what’s helped lead a group of them to develop something that’s begun to create a stir, bringing even more eyes to their arena—Piattella.
You’ve seen it all over the internet, this single word rattling through countless Instagram posts and memes, but what exactly is Piattella? Hassans710, a European hash brand that’s been working with the stuff since 2019 described it as the result of “cold curing full-melt [hash] to achieve a premium level of terpene retention.” Looking like a wet piece of spice cake, the growing interest in these soft bricks is something like when that awesome track you dropped four years ago suddenly goes viral on TikTok.
Speaking with Uncle’s Farm, a social club and grow operation which is accredited with its creation, Piattella (pee-ah-tell-uh) is cold cured Ice-O-Lator hash named after the Italian word piatto meaning “flat.” Adding the diminutive suffix “-ella” changes the definition to something more like “little brick,” a reference to the most popular way of presenting these concentrated hash cakes. The word has a few other meanings as well, including plate, which is why googling Piattella often brings up a list of nearby Italian restaurants. When asked if the word was spelled with one T or two, the overwhelming response was that since it’s based off of the Italian word, it should have the traditional Italian spelling. Arturo of La Sagrada Farm, which is also credited with the creation of this new form of hash, pointed out that there is also a connection to the slang term piattello, which is a clay hunting target known in English as skeet. Again, referencing that shaped appearance, which Uncle from Uncle’s Farm says is one of the steps in their cold curing process.
Barbara Bud Hash, La Sagrada Farm
Each glistening loaf of Piattella is aged, full-melt hash, meaning the brick is actually made up of thousands of tiny trichomes. While it might look sticky, if you rub a dot of it between your fingers,it actually feels like wet sand. As Uncle put it, “you can dab it, drop some in a hash pipe or even roll it into a joint,” which he calls cannolos. This terpy mixture of American and European techniques has been refined over the last five years but only in the last few months has the fire been brought to a furious boil. La Sagrada referenced posts from back in 2018 and 2019 where they showed pictures of the technique in its early stages.
“We were so excited when we finally found a resin that would stay wet after curing from six star,” Arturo said. “We asked people online what they thought about curing full melt and after four months we still hadn’t seen the level of impact we thought this project could have.”
Throughout 2019 La Sagrada continued to make small batches locally as they, along with Uncle’s Farm and a few others, worked on identifying what cultivars would create the best expression of this product.
Hassans710, who apprenticed under Uncle’s Farm said that, for him, the biggest difference between this and uncured full melt is the humidity the material holds. He added how the process takes time, patience, and comprehension of resin in order to create not just a batch but also to break that down into smaller pieces. He prefers Piattella for its high level of terps and the experience of slicing into a nicely matured piece, believing that “all hash flavor, in general, translates better when it’s cured and aged properly.” When asked how he felt about the sudden explosion of interest, he asserted, “Piattella is the next big thing out there and has been for a while now. It’s about time we get to share it with the world.”
For the growing crowd of people interested in curing up a batch themselves, Uncle’s Farm summed it up like this: making Piattella is more about practice than any one specific trick or method. This was something that La Sagrada also stressed. Not all strains will make that nice, wet brick of Piattella. Arturo was clear that you have to “work with the resin on each plant to see how well the material will hold those terps and how long it can be stored before beginning to dry out.” Hashmakers who want to try this out should know that there’s a large degree of trial and error that went into compiling the list of cultivars they now know can produce the level of product that people travel to Uncle’s Farm to experience.
Watermelon Zkittlez live rosin, La Sagrada Farm
A Global Movement
This giant, ongoing discussion about Spain’s hash, its makers, and their techniques represents the heartbeat of a global community and shows just how highly Spain has risen in the hash scene in such a relatively short time. Not to say they weren’t already in the room with their name carved into the desk, but with over 25,000 confirmed cannabis lovers roaming the streets of Barcelona this year, many of them scarfing ham and smoking hash, the Catalan’s out of the bag. We have to stand in awe of the level of professional work that’s coming out of an area that doesn’t have the same large consumer pool we enjoy here in the states. La Sagrada said they always try to keep in mind how cannabis is a product that, in Spain, is consumed by people who don’t want to spend a lot of money on weed or dabs. In a sophisticated country that still pays on average $8 to $9 per hour, the incredible artisan products we’ve been talking about in this article might be borne from unlimited passion but they’re served to a limited crowd.
Everyone we spoke with agreed the next big push in Spain is the one toward legalization. A couple even said they’ve been standing at the gate saying “any minute now” for the last five years or more. This current system of loopholes is one that they’re happy to work with for now but there are dreams and aspirations about no longer fighting with large governing bodies about the value of what they do, or worrying about being caught delivering to the clubs. The tone seemed to be one that was hopeful but not in a rush. They’ve watched the way things have evolved elsewhere and they’re wary of losing what they’ve already built.
This current relationship between the American and Spanish hash communities has been taking root for almost a decade. Now, with people asking for a Masters of Rosin U.S. and companies offering to bring Europeans over for residencies, this connection is gaining speed like a bullet train. Slite23 said his inbox has been stuffed with new faces and requests for info about his work.
“With vaccine restrictions lifted, so many came to the city for Spannabis this year and we finally got to show all of our efforts in person after two years of waiting,” he said.
The sound of all these stories, posts, and reposts has been reverberating through the hash halls of the West and East coasts. This 4/20, Madilyan of HQ was walking down the streets of Manhattan in his Masters of Rosin hoodie and was stopped by someone who recognized the design from following NorCal hashmaker Professor Sift.
There’s history being made on the streets beneath the breathtaking La Sagrada Família cathedral, one that no doubt will be part of Europe’s advancement into the next age of cannabis. Whether it’s full melt, dry sift, rosin, or Piattella, the solventless scene around Barcelona is a lightning rod—attracting a renaissance of resin that’s inspiring and reminding us of the love and passion that brought us here in the first place. Whatever they do next, the world will be watching.
This article was originally published in the July 2023 issue of High Times Magazine.
Haizi Haze is redefining what it means to be a stoner in the digital age. Originally from Boston, the 25 year old recording artist now lives in Los Angeles, and has found success working between the worlds of music, cannabis, & tech. You may recognize Haizi from her work with Weedmaps, Vice, and Raw Papers. With her loyal following on social media, Haizi Haze continues to position herself as a premiere tastemaker in the cannabis industry.
Her latest song, “Indica Sativa,” hit all major streaming platforms on 4/20 at 4:20am, and serves listeners with a refreshing blend of vintage vibes & cannabis-infused bars. Since its release, the song has gained over 100K streams on Spotify, while the music video has gained over 200K views on Haizi’s YouTube channel. “Indica Sativa” has added a new flavor to 420 playlists around the world, and can be played seamlessly in rotation with vintage Snoop, Wiz Khalifa & Curren$y records.
“I want to represent for the female stoners, who stay pretty & productive.” says Haizi. “Indica Sativa is a song made by a stoner for other stoners. It’s a much needed Re-Up for the listeners who enjoy these classic vibes like I do.”
The cover art for “Indica Sativa” was designed by Ron “RiskieForever” Brent, the same artist who designed 2PAC’s iconic “Makaveli” album art in 1996. Riskie & Haizi met through Instagram & the two soon began collaborating on cover concepts over Facetime. When asked how cannabis influenced the art for Makaveli, Riskie says “Working with 2Pac was a dream come true. While working on the Makaveli artwork, I would blaze & paint, paint & blaze, and bump 2Pac’s music. He gave input; I’d paint the ideas.” When asked about his experience with Haizi, Riskie says “she’s a dope artist and very kind; it was easy to work with her. The track had a real laid-back West Coast vibe; so that was gonna be my concept behind the art—64’z, Chronic leaves, and Haizi blazing that good good!” The final cover design features a painting of Haizi Haze in many shades of green, and Haizi has the painting (original 1 of 1 signed by Riskie) proudly displayed in her studio. Haizi’s collab with Riskie pays tribute to timeless art in hip-hop & bridges generations of hip hop fans.
Shot & Edited by Lenny Coote, the music video for “Indica Sativa” takes viewers on a weed filled journey with Haizi Haze. From Herbarium to a huge 420 party, it is evident Haizi has a high tolerance and can smoke with the big dogs. In the first shot of the video, smoke billows out of the windows of an old car while Haizi (barely visible through the smoke) sparks up another joint in the driver’s seat. The visual play between vintage & modern imagery is constant with Vinyl Records, Magazines, Books, & Payphones causing viewers to reflect on the past & think about the future.In a world of constantly evolving stoner technology, there are a few innovative products & devices seen in the video that are worth noting. The futuristic glass piece Haizi is seen holding is the Cenote by Auxo. This new Smart Rig retails at $400, and is described as the ultimate concentrate vaporizer. “I love dabs, but I don’t love the process of torching a bowl until it’s red hot,” says Haizi. “I think the Cenote is a much safer alternative if you want to avoid accidentally burning yourself. I use the app on my phone to heat up the rig to the perfect temperature, and it honestly tastes so clean.”
After dozens of dab rips, Haizi is seen using the Smoke Thrower by Fuma Enterprises to smoke out an entire crowd at a 420 party. The Smoke Thrower retails at $600, and uses an air pump trigger to shoot massive amounts of smoke through a network of PVC pipes. “That party was wild, so many people were lining up to get blasted, and we just kept repacking the bowl all night.” Describing it as a “Canna Gun,” Wiz Khalifa went viral using the Smoke Thrower to wake up his cousin, and its popularity has been rapidly growing ever since.
When we discuss icons in the stoner community, the discussion almost always includes Bob Marley, Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, Cheech & Chong, Willie Nelson, Seth Rogan to name a few. However you look at it, there is a notable lack of women on this list. As a black woman working in both the cannabis and entertainment industries, Haizi recognized this void & identified a serious cultural need for an iconic female stoner. She has captivated audiences around the world with her voice, her natural beauty, and her genuine love for weed.
Originally from the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Haizi has been a cannabis enthusiast long before moving to California. She still spends time in Boston to visit family, but now she has opportunities to work with new cannabis brands based in Massachusetts. “I’m bi-coastal, constantly in and out of Boston. It’s crazy to see how far the recreational industry in MA has come, I’m seeing so many new shops & cannabis billboards popping up everywhere,” says Haizi. “Personally, I think the pricing is still a little high in the city, all of the shops with affordable prices are 30-40 minutes outside of Boston. Overall though, I think MA is doing a good job, and legal cannabis is easily accessible for Bostonians who need it.”
Within one week of moving to Los Angeles, Haizi got hired to work as a budtender at a medical cannabis dispensary. Over the next few years, Haizi became a very familiar face in the cannabis community, and worked with several shops & brands based in Los Angeles. While managing a shop on Melrose Ave in West Hollywood, Haizi released her debut music project “FREE DABS.” This cannabis inspired EP enabled Haizi to cross promote her music in dispensaries, and she was able to make many meaningful relationships with customers who still work in important roles in the cannabis & music industries.
As a professional stoner, Haizi has accumulated some priceless memories. She has rolled & smoked RAW Challenge Cones with Josh Kessleman the founder of Raw; she witnessed Tommy Chong hit a 6 foot bong at a Super Bowl Party in Bel Air; she’s laughed with Seth Rogen on Zoom Calls; she’s thrown weed parties with NBA Celtics Champion Paul Pierce; she’s smoked custom AK-47 joints in Compton with Lil Eazy E; and she’s smoked blunts in Brooklyn with Lil Cease, Nino & T’yanna (daughter of the late great Notorious BIG). Most importantly, she remembers being a young girl in Boston with a dream of moving to Hollywood. Now based in West Hollywood, Haizi has stayed humble & true to her core values. She has tactically built her own brand, and carved out a unique lane that allows her to independently leverage original music & content, to secure partnerships with major brands.
For more information about Haizi Haze and her upcoming projects, please sign up for updates on www.haizihaze.com and follow her on Instagram @HaiziHaze
“Indica Sativa” is now available on all major music platforms, including YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal.
The High Times Cannabis Cup Arizona: People’s Choice Edition is back in the Grand Canyon state and it’s been refined to be bigger and better than ever before, presenting Arizona’s finest cannabis. People’s Choice means that anyone can participate in the judging process regardless of expertise and background. Arizona will be the last stop of the 2023 year for Cannabis Cup: People’s Choice Edition competitions, with crowd-sourced judging beginning in November.
Who will win the titles for the best cannabis products in Arizona? You be the judge. The event will be the second Cannabis Cup that is open to the Arizona public after going virtual in 2021, and the event will host the largest pool of judges in the state’s history, providing an ideal way for brands to get their products into the hands of consumers in the state.
This year’s event is recreational only, and all products must be licensed by the Arizona Department of Health Services (AZDHS). Judge Kits go on sale on Saturday, Nov. 18, and Judges can login to the Judging Portal and critique products based on flavor, bouquet, potency, burnability, and so forth. Judging deadline is Sunday, Jan. 21. Winners will be announced via a digital Awards Show on Monday, February 5.
This year will feature more categories than ever before, expanding the palate of taste and smell to exemplify the best and most potent cannabis Arizona has to offer.
High Times Cannabis Cup Arizona: People’s Choice Edition Categories
The High Times Cannabis Cup Arizona: People’s Choice Edition will feature products from 12 different categories including Indica, Sativa, Hybrid, and Sungrown Flower, Non-infused Pre-Rolls, Infused Pre-rolls, Non-Solvent Concentrates, Distillate Vape Pens & Cartridges, Live Resin & Rosin Vape Pens, Edibles: Gummies & Fruit Chews, and finally Edibles & Non-Gummies.
The quantity limits are set: Entry quantity requirements are 228 one-gram units of flower, 228 2-gram pre-rolls, 228 vape pens or cartridges. Infused Pre-Rolls will be capped at a max of one-half gram concentrate and 2.8 grams of flower. There will also be 228 half-gram units of Solvent Concentrates & Vape Pens. (We will not accept any one-gram entries of Solvent Concentrates & Vape Pens, and batteries required for carts.)
Entry quantity requirements in other categories include 100 half-gram samples of Non-Solvent Concentrates, and 100 samples of Edibles with 50 mg of THC max. Entry fees are $250 for one entry, non-refundable, $100 per entry for two entries, and $100 per entry for three entries. High Times will waive all entry fees for top-tier sponsorships.
The good people of Arizona voted to legalize adult-use cannabis in 2020 via the statutory provision Prop. 207, found in Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) Title 36, Chapter 28.2. This voter initiative allows adults over the age of 21 to possess, purchase, transport, or process up to one ounce or less of cannabis, or five grams or less of cannabis concentrate. This is what makes events like the Cannabis Cup: People’s Choice Edition possible.
In the face of COVID-19 with events being forced to shutter across the globe during 2020-2021, High Times once again proved its resilience despite statewide lockdowns across the country. We’ve reinvented our renowned competition to let all those at home get in on the fun and crown the region’s best.
High Times Cannabis Cup: A Background
High Times Cannabis Cup was originally created by former High Times editor Steven Hager over 35 years ago. Back then, the Cannabis Cup was originally held each November in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
In 2014, after 27 years in operation, Amsterdam held what was likely the final High Times Cannabis Cup in that country, due to increasing pressure on cannabis businesses and a 2010 raid by Dutch police that took place at the Cannabis Cup. The Netherlands, once known as a safe haven for cannabis smokers, is not what it used to be. Eventually it moved to the states, and the first U.S. Cannabis Cup was held in 2010. Around 2018, Cannabis Cup shifted its winter schedule in November to mostly summer and spring events.
High Times has become a multistate operation and now holds People’s Choice Edition Cannabis Cups in Illinois, Colorado, Oregon, Oklahoma, Southern California, Northern California, Michigan, Massachusetts, Nevada, and New Mexico. The High Times Cannabis Cup events frequently feature live music, educational seminars, and showcase cannabis-related products from cannabis-oriented businesses. The High Times Cannabis Cup New Mexico: People’s Choice Edition this year, for instance, will feature Method Man and Redman as headliners and will be hosted at the Rio Rancho Events Center in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Each Cannabis Cup event is different based on local restrictions.
The medicalization narrative in corporate psychedelia is out of control. Virtually overnight, hundreds of FDA-worshiping rent-seekers have founded non-profits, PBC’s, media platforms, professional societies and for-profit corporations to trumpet the benefit of psychedelics as rigidly controlled tools within the medical industrial complex.
Whether it’s PTSD, depression, anorexia, or IBS, there’s a new magic pill in town to treat your symptoms without actually addressing any of the macro societal issues that cause the conditions in the first place. Those championing this forthcoming era of mainstream medicalized psychedelics often do so in a humorless and hubristic sense that emphasizes the importance of being in a clinically controlled environment far removed from any recreational, indigenous, or church setting.
There are even a number of companies actively devoting themselves to the noble task of removing the trip from psychedelic substances, so as to further cement their status as the newest portfolio asset in the pharmaceutical industrial complex.
Pill-popping culture has engulfed the psychedelic renaissance, trampling upon indigenous sovereignty, individual autonomy and good old fashioned fun in the process.
Perhaps there’s a bright future in tripping on FDA approved, patented novel molecules in a clinic with strangers who will bill your employer-provided insurance handsomely, but I’ll still be eating homegrown mushrooms in a hot spring and smoking spliffs with my friends long after that time comes.
Remember when tripping on mushrooms in the forest and taking MDMA on a dance floor at an underground rave was fun?
When LSD was something you did in your friends basement on the weekends and at music festivals, and you couldn’t stop laughing about the most ephemeral and mundane aspects of life as everything around you pulsed with idiosyncratic meaning and the trees started breathing and communicating with you?
Not on the corporate psychedelia watch. Psychedelics are tools of the medical establishment now, cogs in a closed loop economy dictated by pharmaceutical conglomerates and their armies of gatekeepers. Tripping is now serious business, and recreational use is dangerous and shameful.
Trying to cope with untenable social and environmental conditions imposed by ecological collapse, soaring costs of living and a rapidly unraveling social fabric?
Oh, that little quandary has been conveniently fit into an ambiguous and clinically-validated little box called ‘depression’ that puts the onus on you as an individual to find ways of coping with radical societal inequities, rapidly disappearing biodiversity, and the general collective crisis of meaning beleaguering humanity.
Try hippy flipping in a clinic with a couple of therapists who took a 40 hour online course about psychedelics last year if you need a quick salve for your constant anxiety amidst our legit existential crisis.
Or maybe hire a coach to help you spiritually bypass it all. Anything except address the root causes of the myriad symptoms collectively signaling a mental health crisis.
As the newly appointed research fellows and establishment credentialed psychedelic scientists will tell you, “Trust the data. Let’s get psychedelics over the line.”
What fucking line? The line between cognitive liberty and rigidly hierarchically controlled pill popping? It’s a curious fact that most data agrees with those funding the research and setting the cultural norms.
And of course millennia of indigenous use does not constitute data, because white men didn’t get to control for the placebo in these contexts.
One of the preferred slogans of the psychedelic establishment is to confidently proclaim that “the hippies failed” and that we need medical data to decide who gets to access psychedelics, where, and for what reasons.
Psilocybin mushrooms aren’t for elevating your creative potential and exploring your own consciousness – they’re for treating depression and anxiety, for restoring your mental health under the guidance of a state validated healthcare professional without changing anything else about the societal status quo.
On that note, when did the flagship molecules of the psychedelic renaissance become a horse tranquilizer and an amphetamine?
I deeply angered a leading corporate psychedelia advocate with that joke earlier this year even though I explained in advance that it was indeed a joke; apparently there’s no room for humor and laughter in our new psychedelic medicine paradigm.
Remember when Shroom Stocks were a thing? And then everyone who has never grown or eaten mushrooms invested in them and quickly lost a lot of money?
Maybe the handful of biotech companies actively working to remove the psychedelic experience from DMT and psilocybin have it right. If they can sell that ruse, they deserve the money they’re after. However, given the performance of these companies over the last few years, this crusade is more of a race to the bottom than a rising tide for the psychedelic renaissance.
Or we could just keep pushing Microdosing, because it’s the perfect bait and switch. “Look! Psychedelics are socially acceptable now because they fit nicely within the prevailing societal ethos of habitual consumption! It’s almost like an SSRI, but a little more edgy!”
I respect that a medicalized approach to psychedelic-assisted therapy should be an option available to people, and that many will benefit from such a hierarchical and centralized system.
But when pharmaceutical executives are contacting me from their vacation house in Aspen asking me to jump on board with their push to politicize psychedelics, we no longer have any kind of renaissance on our hands.
The sudden onslaught of overnight authorities positioning themselves as champions of mental health and chomping at the bit to advocate for psychedelics as a clinical treatment for X, Y, and Z without consideration of underlying socioeconomic and environmental determinants conspiring to create the mental health crisis in the first place is laughably myopic and disingenuous.
Maybe we should entrust the keys to consciousness to the rent-seeking, pill-popping culture-devoted gatekeepers who often have little to no experience with altered states themselves. But maybe there’s still room for weirdness, levity and laughter in the coming age of mainstream psychedelics.
If you need me, I’ll be frolicking in the forest with friends tripping on some homegrown cubensis.
According to Willamette Weekly, nearly three years after voters in the state approved a ballot measure to legalize it, “Oregon Psilocybin Services is nowhere near paying its own way,” despite promises from its backers that “Oregonians would get access to a life-changing compound in a safe, legal setting, and, after a two-year startup period, it wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime.”
The outlet noted that advocates of the 2020 ballot proposal, Measure 109, asserted that the licensing fees paid “by mushroom growers, testing labs, trip facilitators and service centers would cover the costs of a new bureaucracy within the Oregon Health Authority.”
That has been far from the case.
“Fee revenue is anemic because too few people are seeking the various licenses (“Stuffed Mushrooms,” WW, May 24). Just four manufacturers, two testing labs, and eight service centers have been licensed. All three types of entities pay a one-time fee of $500 and then $10,000 a year to operate. Many more facilitators have been approved (88), but they pay only $150 up front and then $2,000 annually,” Willamette Weekly reported in a story published on Wednesday.
“So far this year, Psilocybin Services has raised just $318,419 in fees, OHA says. That’s in line with estimates by WW. Tallying the number of permits issued and multiplying by all the fees, we came up with a total of $342,425 since the program began licensing participants on Jan. 2.”
“Backers of Measure 109 said the program would cost far more—$3.1 million a year—to run. To fill at least part of that gap, Oregon lawmakers appropriated $3.1 million from the taxpayer-supported general fund for the two-year period that started July 1. OHA is betting that shroom fee revenue will pick up as the biennium proceeds, making up the rest of the shortfall,” the outlet continued.
Measure 109 passed in 2020 by a fairly narrow vote, with 50% of Oregon voters approving and 44% voting against. It made Oregon the first state in the country to legalize psilocybin.
Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) Section Manager Angie Allbee called it “a historic moment as psilocybin services will soon become available in Oregon, and we appreciate the strong commitment to client safety and access as service center doors prepare to open.”
At the time of the announcement, Oregon Psilocybin Services offered a refresher on how the program will work.
“Under the statewide model, clients 21 years of age or older may access psilocybin services. While they won’t need prescriptions or referrals from healthcare providers, clients must first complete a preparation session with a licensed facilitator. If they meet the criteria to move forward, they may participate in an administration session at a licensed service center, where they may consume psilocybin products in the presence of a trained and licensed facilitator,” the agency explained. “Afterwards, clients may choose to join optional integration sessions, which offer opportunities to be connected to community resources and peer support networks for additional support. Once licensed, service centers can employ and/or contract with licensed facilitators who are trained in providing preparation, administration, and integration sessions to clients. Service centers will sell psilocybin products that were produced by licensed manufacturers and tested by licensed laboratories. To date, OPS has issued three manufacturer licenses, one laboratory license, five facilitator licenses, and 84 worker permits. OPS expects to issue more licenses and worker permits in the coming months.”
The state finalized the rules for the psilocybin program at the end of last year.
Albee and André Ourso, the administrator of the Center for Health Protection in Oregon, said at the time that Oregon Psilocybin Services “received over 200 written comments and six hours of comments shared in the public hearings during the November 2022 public comment period.”
“These comments helped to further refine and improve the rules, which have now been adopted as final. The final rules are a starting place for the nation’s first regulatory framework for psilocybin services, and we will continue to evaluate and evolve this work as we move into the future,” they said.
In response to this week’s report by Willamette Weekly, Oregon Health Authority spokesman Afiq Hisham urged patience.
“It takes time to build a new section in state government and to become 100% fee-based, specifically because ORS 475A is the nation’s first regulatory framework for psilocybin services and required an intensive two-year development period,” Hisham told Willamette Weekly.
An official at the Department of Health and Human Services recommended to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) that cannabis be reclassified from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act in a leaked letter.
HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine sent a letter dated Aug. 29 to DEA Anne Milgram, recommending that cannabis be reclassified. The HHS confirmed on Tuesday that a representative sent its findings to the DEA. “Following the data and science, HHS has expeditiously responded to President Biden’s directive to HHS Secretary [Xavier Becerra] and provided its scheduling recommendation for marijuana to the DEA on August 29, 2023,” an HHS spokesperson said.
The move was called “historic,” sent cannabis stocks soaring, but was also called insufficient in ending cannabis prohibition as it would remain a controlled substance, albeit with fewer restrictions.
Last October, President Joe Biden requested that the HHS secretary and attorney general conduct a review of the classification of cannabis under federal law. Cannabis currently falls under Schedule I, meaning the DEA considers it a drug “with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”
The DEA defines a Schedule III substance as “drugs with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.” The DEA says that the potential for abuse of Schedule III drugs is less than Schedule I and Schedule II drugs—but more habit-forming than Schedule IV (Xanax, Valium) and Schedule V drugs (Robitussin AC). Examples of Schedule III drugs include pills and drugs with less than 90 mg of codeine per dosage unit (Tylenol 3), ketamine, anabolic steroids, and testosterone.
It’s important to note that under Schedule III, cannabis would still be federally prohibited although it would open doors for researchers. Some leaders in Congress applauded the move, while others said it’s not enough.
What Happens Now?
NORML reports that the HHS recommendation now heads to DEA, to conduct its own scientific review. The DEA adopted its own five-factor test to determine if cannabis should be rescheduled, and it’s different from the HHS’ criteria. But the DEA determined that cannabis failed to meet its five criteria four times.
“It will be very interesting to see how DEA responds to this recommendation, given the agency’s historic opposition to any potential change in cannabis’ categorization under federal law,” NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said. “Further, for decades, the agency has utilized its own five-factor criteria for assessing cannabis’ placement in the CSA—criteria that as recently as 2016, the agency claimed that cannabis failed to meet. Since the agency has final say over any rescheduling decision, it is safe to say that this process still remains far from over.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement that HHS had recommended that cannabis be moved from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance. “HHS has done the right thing,” Schumer said. “DEA should now follow through on this important step to greatly reduce the harm caused by draconian marijuana laws.”
Is Schedule III Enough?
“This is a step in the right direction but it is not sufficient, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), founder and co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus said in a statement. “I hope it is followed by more significant reforms. This is long overdue.”
Cannabis coalitions applauded the move as historic, while it would not fully decriminalize cannabis at the federal level.
“The Biden Administration just took a major step toward ending our nation’s failed war on cannabis,” stated Adam Goers, co-chair of the Coalition for Cannabis Scheduling Reform. “For decades, cannabis has been a Schedule I controlled substance, on par with heroin and above fentanyl and meth. This was completely baseless, and we now know that the FDA and Department of Health and Human Services agree.
“The federal government is now on track to recognize cannabis as medicine, regulated alongside Schedule III drugs such as Tylenol with codeine which have demonstrated medical uses and low risk of abuse. Our ultimate goal is full legalization of cannabis, and we believe that rescheduling is a key step on the way there.
Spending even 1 penny of federal tax dollars to criminalize cannabis is stupid. Pleased to see @HHSGov recommend that @DEAHQ remove cannabis from Schedule I. HHS recommends that cannabis be listed under Schedule III.
The news impacted cannabis trading. ETF.com reports that the AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF soared 21%. Other cannabis-related funds, including FMG Alternative Harvest ETF and Global X Cannabis ETF were up 10.79% and 7.44% respectively. Eight cannabis-related ETFs are traded on U.S. markets, with total assets under management of $630.76M.
Publicly traded cannabis companies also saw spikes based on the news. Canopy Growth rose 13%, Tilray Brands soared by nearly 9%, and Aurora Cannabis rose by 6%.
