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A curated news hub focused on hemp regulation and policy changes, cannabinoids (CBD/Delta-8/Delta-9/hemp-derived THC), lab testing and COAs, product safety, brands, and industry trends.

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https://hightimes.com/

From the Archives: Bring Me Your Love (1983)

Harry walked down the steps and into the garden. Many of the patients were out there. He had been told that his wife, Gloria, was out there. He saw her sitting alone at a table. He approached her obliquely, from the side and a bit from the rear. He circled the table and sat down across from her. Gloria sat very straight, she was very pale. She looked at him but didn’t see him. Then she saw him. “Are you the conductor?” she asked. “The conductor of what?” “The conductor of verisimilitude?” “No, I’m not.” She was pale, her eyes were pale, pale brown. “How do you feel, Gloria?” It was an iron table, painted white, a table that would last for centuries. There was a small bowl of flowers in the center, wilted dead flowers hanging from sad, dangling stems. “You are a whore-fucker, Harry. You fuck whores.” “That’s not true, Gloria.” “Do they suck you too? Do they suck your dick?” “I was going to bring your mother, Gloria, but she was down with the flu.” “That old bat is always down with something. Are you the conductor?” The other patients sat down at the tables or up against the trees or they stretched out on the lawn. They were motionless and silent. “How’s the food here, Gloria? Do you have any friends?” “Bad. And no. Whore-fucker.” “Do you want anything to read? What can I bring you to read?” Gloria didn’t answer. Then she brought her right hand up, looked at it, curled it into a fist and punched herself in the nose, hard. Harry reached across and held both of her hands. “Gloria, please—” She began to cry, “Why didn’t you bring me any chocolates?” “Gloria, you told me you hated chocolates.” Her tears rolled down profusely. “I don’t hate chocolates! I love chocolates!” “Don’t cry, Gloria, please. I’ll bring you chocolates, anything you want. Listen, I’ve rented a motel room just a couple of blocks away, just to be near you—” Her pale eyes widened. “A motel room? You’re in there with some fucking whore! You watch X-rated movies together, there’s a full-length mirror on the ceiling!” “I’ll be right near you for a couple of days, Gloria, so I want to bring you everything you need—” “Bring me your love, then,” she screamed. “Why the hell don’t you bring me your love?” A few of the patients turned and looked. “Gloria, I’m sure that there is nobody who cares for you more than I do.” “You want to bring chocolates! Well, jam those chocolates up your ass!” Harry took a card out of his wallet. It was from the motel. He handed it to her. “I just want to give you this before I forget. Are you allowed to phone out? Just phone me if you need anything at all.” Gloria didn’t answer. She took the card and folded it into a small square. Then she bent down, took off one of her shoes, put the card in the shoe and put the shoe back on. Then Harry saw Dr. Jensen approaching from across the lawn. Dr. Jensen walked up smiling and saying, “Well, well, well…” “Hello, Dr. Jensen,” Gloria spoke. “May I sit down?” the doctor asked. “Surely,” said Gloria. The doctor was a heavy man, he reeked of weight and authority. His eyebrows looked thick and heavy, they were thick and heavy. They wanted to fall into his wet circular mouth and vanish but life wouldn’t let them. The doctor looked at Gloria. The doctor looked at Harry. “Well, well, well,” he said, “I’m really pleased with the progress we’ve made—” “Yes, Dr. Jensen, I was just telling Harry how much more stable I felt, how much the consultations and the group sessions have helped. I’ve lost so much of my unreasonable anger, useless frustrations and much of my destructive self-pity—” The doctor smiled at Harry. “Gloria has made a remarkable recovery!” “Yes,” Harry said, “I’ve just noticed.” “I think it will only be a matter of a little more time, and then Gloria will be home with you again, Harry—” “Doctor?” Gloria asked. “May I have a cigarette?” “Why, of course,” the doctor said, pulling out a pack of exotic cigarettes and tapping one out. Gloria took it and the doctor extended his gold-plated lighter, flicked it to flame. Gloria got her light, inhaled, exhaled… “You have beautiful hands, Dr. Jensen,” she said. “Why, thank you, my dear—” “And a mind that saves, a mind that cures—” “Well, we do the best we can around the old place… Now, if you’ll both excuse me, I have to check out a few other patients.” He got his bulk up from the chair and made toward a table where a woman was visiting a man. Gloria stared at Harry. “That fat fuck eats nurses’ shit for lunch.” “Gloria, it’s been good seeing you, but it was a long drive and I need some rest. And I think the doctor’s correct, I’ve noticed some progress.” She laughed. But it wasn’t a joyful laugh, it was a stage laugh, like a part memorized. “I haven’t made any progress at all. In fact, I’ve retrograded… immensely.” “That’s not true, Gloria—” “I’m the patient, Fishhead. I can make a better diagnosis than anybody.” “What’s this ‘Fishhead’?” “Hasn’t anybody ever told you that you have a head like a fish?” “No.” “Next time you shave, take a look. And be careful not to cut your gills off.” “I’m going to leave now, but I’ll visit you again, quite soon.” “Next time bring the conductor.” “You sure I can’t bring you something?” “You’re just going to that motel room to fuck some whore.” “Suppose I bring you a copy of New York? You used to like that magazine—” “Jam New York up your ass, Fishhead! And follow it with Time!” Harry reached across and squeezed the hand she had hit herself in the nose with. “Keep it together, you’re going to be well soon.” Gloria gave no response. Harry got up, turned and walked toward the stairway. When he got halfway up the stairs he turned and gave Gloria a little wave. She sat, motionless. _________________ They were in the dark, going good, when the phone rang. Harry kept going but the phone kept going. It was very disturbing. Soon, his cock went down. “Shit,” he said and rolled off. He switched on the lamp and picked up the phone. “Hello?” It was Gloria. “You were fucking some whore!” “Gloria, do they let you phone this late? Don’t they give you a sleeping pill?” “What took you so long in answering the phone?” “Don’t you ever take a crap? I was in the middle of a good one, you got me in the middle of a good one.” “I’ll bet I did. You going to finish after you get me off the phone?” ”Gloria, it’s your goddamned extreme paranoia that has gotten you where you are.” “Fishhead, my paranoia is often the forerunner of an approaching truth—” “Listen, get yourself some sleep. I’ll come see you tomorrow—” “Okay, Fishhead, finish your fuck!” Gloria hung up. Nan was in her dressing gown, sitting on the edge of the bed with a whiskey and water on the night table. She lit a cigarette and crossed her legs. “Well,” she asked, “how’s the little wifey?” Harry poured a drink and sat down beside her. “I’m sorry, Nan—” “Sorry for what, for who? For her or me or what?” Harry drained his shot of whiskey. “Let’s not make a goddamned soap opera out of this thing.” “Oh, yeah? Well, what do you want to make out of it? A roll in the hay? You want to try to finish? Or would you rather go into the bathroom and beat it off?” Harry looked at Nan. “Goddamn it, don’t get smart-ass! You knew my situation as well as I did. You were the one who wanted to come along!” “That’s because I thought if you didn’t take me you’d bring some whore!” “Oh, shit,” said Harry, “there’s that word again.” ”What word? What word?” Nan drained her glass, threw it against the wall. Harry walked over, picked up her glass, filled it, handed it to Nan, then filled his own. Nan looked down into her glass, took a hit, put it down on the nightstand. “I’m going to phone her, I’m going to tell her everything!” “Like hell you will! That’s a sick woman!” “And you’re a sick son of a bitch!” Just then the phone rang again. It was in the center of the room where Harry had left it. They both leaped from the bed and charged toward the phone. On the third ring they both landed, each holding a piece of the receiver. They rolled, breathing heavily, all legs and arms and bodies in desperate juxtaposition, being reflected in the full-length overhead mirror.  Read the full issue here.
https://hightimes.com/

Back to Amsterdam

Gezellig is a fantastic Dutch word that encompasses a whole mood and defies translation. I think it means a combination of things: the warm feeling of belonging, being in the right place at the perfect time, surrounded by the most genial company. You hear the word a lot in Amsterdam; the concept of gezellig is at the heart of Dutch culture. Finding the sweet moment, relaxing into it, being as cozy and comfortable as possible… it’s a prescription for any stressed-out modern soul. Factor in the world’s best hash and cannabis, set against the twinkly Advent-calendar beauty of the “Venice of the North,” and you’re in absolute heaven. Every time I’ve visited Amsterdam, I’ve experienced this untranslatable feeling. It’s potent stuff—a swirl of strong coffee and ice-cold foamy glasses of beer, bicycle bells dinging, and rose-ringed parakeets flitting through the Vondelpark in late-afternoon sunshine, all suffused by the sweet aromas of weed and hash. When I booked a trip to Amsterdam last summer while dreaming of my previous hazy visits, I considered the perils of pining for bygone days. To quote author Brené Brown, “Nostalgia is… a dangerous form of comparison. Think about how often we compare our lives to a memory that nostalgia has so completely edited that it never really existed.” This would be my first trip to the Netherlands in almost a decade, and I was curious to see how the city’s legendary cannabis culture had evolved—or, perhaps, declined, with Barcelona’s rise to prominence as a new European weed capital. In 2013, I worked the 26th Annual Amsterdam High Times Cannabis Cup during a long November week that lives in my head as a series of frosty snapshots. I judged the Seed Company Sativa category and was a live wire for five straight days as I sampled 21 strains from legendary outfits like Elemental Seeds, Reserva Privada, and Karma Genetics. That year’s winners were genetic heavyweights Tangie, Sour Power, and a super-tasty Sour Diesel cross called Headbanger. Dutch authorities shut down the Cannabis Cup Expo at the last minute that year, and the High Times staff had to scramble to keep vendors and attendees happy. I remember a lot of long, chilly walks along glittering canals, shuttling back and forth to shows at the Melkweg from coffeeshops that had entered the competition. My judges’ kit powered me through it all like a little weed jetpack, especially on the night my phone died, and I got hopelessly lost. Fortunately, I somehow found my way to the judges’ dinner, where I was enveloped in a cloud of good cheer and great smoke. Gezellig! This time around, my travel companion and I had no plans beyond eating, smoking, and visiting museums for three days to unwind after a few weeks in the U.K. Our train from London pulled into Amsterdam Central Station at 4:20 p.m. We were in the flow. We dropped our bags at our hotel and headed right for the iconic coffeeshop Green House in the area known as De Wallen, or the red light district. We pulled up as the sky was darkening into evening shades of purple. The neon sign in the window cast an amber glow over the scene humming in the coffeeshop. It was cinematic and gorgeous, and it smelled great. A laughing girl bumped into me on her way out as we ducked inside. I could feel the days I’d spent in London melting off me, almost hissing as they swirled away. We were in the right place at the right moment. What a relief. My memories of Amsterdam weren’t nostalgic; this was now. Inside the glow of Green House, we were greeted by Joa Helms, the CEO of the Green House Seed Company. He gestured to the menu on the wall illuminated behind the busy budtenders and asked what we wanted to sample. “Super Lemon Haze, of course,” Helms said with a grin, “and how about some Ztrawberry?” We gratefully—almost wordlessly, I think—sank into a booth next to the window with the two packets of flower he handed us, along with rolling papers and a grinder. “It’s made from hemp,” Helms said of the grinder, as he departed into the night with a friendly wave, leaving us with our treasures. Green House Seed Company has won countless awards for legendary strains like White Widow and Super Silver Haze, as well as for Super Silver’s progeny, Super Lemon Haze, which won back-to-back Cannabis Cups in 2008 and 2009. As my friend and I stuck our noses into the bags of flower to determine which way our evening would bend, one sniff of Super Lemon Haze was all we needed to know how it was going to go. Roll up, smoke, relax, repeat. We floated out of Green House into the cool September night after a while, turning left, right, and left again on our evening adventure. We babbled through our Haze-y buzz as we passed by sex workers posing in windows, their neon lingerie popping under black lights with drapes barely concealing rudimentary beds just behind them. Moving through a crush of tourists with unclothed bodies on display for the gawking masses was elemental and deeply weird, but it also felt exactly right because I knew this would likely be the last time we’d see De Wallen like this. In a move billed as an antidote to the effects of hedonistic tourism, the Dutch government has hatched a plan to relocate the red light district to the outskirts of town. The proposal would shut down sex workers’ windows in an attempt to reset the city as a family-friendly destination. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema is leading the charge to redefine the city’s reputation—and she also wants to ban non-residents in coffeeshops by enforcing a national residents-only rule. Halsema says that banning tourists from coffeeshops is unavoidable in order to tackle tourist nuisances that arise from the “soft drug” sector—i.e. cannabis. My friend and I chatted about the complicated nature of sex work and drug culture as we strolled along the canals. Prostitution in Amsterdam has been legal and regulated since 2000. Cannabis, however, has never been legal in the Netherlands—the government’s policies tolerate the possession and sale of small quantities of weed and psilocybin, and it’s decriminalized for personal use, but it’s not legal. And for decades, that was just fine, until conservatives like Halsema decided it wasn’t. The tide has turned for the counterculture in Amsterdam as politicians debate about what’s best for the city. It’s certainly the end of an era. As we finally made our way back to our hotel, my buzz was wearing thin, but my bud stopped to roll up some Ztrawberry, popping open our second fragrant pouch. We perched next to each other on the edge of a canal barge, watched by a well-fed cat who sat cleaning its puffy tail with an eye on us. I was pretty faded after our glowy Super Lemon Haze’d evening, and I was ready to call it quits. But the click of my friend’s lighter and the pass of a joint turned it all around.  Ztrawberry is a Runtz x A.M.S. cross—it’s got a heavy kick from its Gelato parent sweetness, which fades to a perfect, heady buzz. Holy smokes, I thought, sitting on the edge of the canal barge as I gazed back at the Dutch cat. OK, you are NOT TIRED. You feel great. You feel clear and calm, and in the perfect state of being… oh, wait, this is… yes, it’s gezellig. This article was originally published in the January 2023 issue of High Times Magazine.
https://hightimes.com/

Mickey Mouse Will Now Run Wild in Public Domain

This week, the Disney corporation must be delighted. Despite the company’s several attempts to prevent this news, Mickey Mouse – who debuted in 1928’s “Steamboat Willie” alongside Minnie Mouse – is now in the public domain. No doubt, production companies and artists were waiting in the wings for Mickey to join the public domain party, with a floodgate of adaptations ready to be told without the Bob Iger-led company. To kick off the fun, get ready for Screamboat Willie, people. The horror-comedy adaptation comes from filmmaker Steven LaMorte. The story will follow a “mischievous” and “monstrous” mouse with a “taste for tourists.” The critter will devour passengers and crew members aboard a boat off the coast of New York City, just as Walt Disney always dreamed.  LaMorte is ready to turn a figure of dreams into a star of nightmares. “Steamboat Willie has brought joy to generations, but beneath that cheerful exterior lies the potential for pure, unhinged terror,” LaMorte said in a statement. “It’s a project I’ve been dreaming of, and I can’t wait to unleash our twisted take on this beloved character to the world.” The director previously helmed The Mean One, a panned horror-comedy about The Grinch truly ruining Christmas.  LaMorte isn’t the only producer behind a Mickey Mouse horror movie.  A trailer has already been released for Mickey’s Mouse Trap. In the future Best Picture Winner, a killer dressed as Mickey Mouse takes out amusement park guests and employees one by one. The independent pic hails from director Jamie Bailey, who wisely took a tongue-in-cheek approach to the Mouse. “We just wanted to have fun with it all,” Bailey said in a statement. “I mean, it’s Steamboat Willie’s Mickey Mouse murdering people. It’s ridiculous. We ran with it and had fun doing it, and I think it shows.”  This isn’t the first time a beloved, kid-friendly character has joined the public domain, and horror filmmakers went wild. Two years ago, A.A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” became game, and Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was unleashed upon the world. The film was more fun on paper than in execution, but it proved successful with $1.8 million earned at the domestic box office and a sequel in the works.  Really, Disney should consider itself lucky. They already got away with controversial extensions. Originally, the Walt Disney-founded company was set to lose the copyright on “Steamboat Willie” back in 1984. Crisis was averted. The last extension was due to the Copyright Term Extension Act in 1998, which many called The Mickey Mouse Protection Act. Disney, mainly then-CEO Michael Eisner, lobbied hard for the bill, not to mention donated a significant amount of cash to politicians. The bill was criticized for allowing the rich to continue to profit off what many believed belonged to the public. Disney never messed around when it comes to Mickey Mouse. Remember, it is The House That Mouse Built. Even under the protection of parody laws, the company played hardball. In 1971, artist Dan O’Neill published an underground comic, “Air Pirates Funnies,” which showed the mouse smuggling drugs and having sex. Disney sued O’Neill for copyright infringement. After eight years in court, and to avoid jail time, the independent artist paid off the corporation and agreed to never draw Mickey Mouse again. The company still has its ways to protect itself, or in other words, sue the hell out of people. The company retains copyright to more modern depictions of the Mouse. Considering the modernizations aren’t too far off from the original Steamboat Willie design, things could get sticky and murky. Disney recently stated it will continue protecting Mickey Mouse. “Ever since Mickey Mouse’s first appearance in the 1928 short film Steamboat Willie, people have associated the character with Disney’s stories, experiences, and authentic products,” a Disney spokesperson shared with the Associated Press. “That will not change when the copyright in the Steamboat Willie film expires. More modern versions of Mickey will remain unaffected by the expiration of the Steamboat Willie copyright, and Mickey will continue to play a leading role as a global ambassador for the Walt Disney Company in our storytelling, theme park attractions, and merchandise.” For a long time, Disney has been accused of having a little too much power and sway, whether in the state of Florida or Congress. As Florida Congressman Ron DeSantis played a game of chicken in the press with Disney CEO Bob Iger, Republican lawmakers vocally opposed extending protection for Steamboat Willie. The Mouse is now free to play. Independent artists and thinkers can have fun with the character, not just a company making comic-book movies, sequels, and remakes of remakes. Whether the forthcoming horror spins on the Mouse are awful or not, it’s simply good news the character is no longer restricted by the creative restraints of Disney and is where he’s belonged since the ‘80s, the public domain. 
https://hightimes.com/

Study Shows LSD Is Effective Treatment for Anxiety

The results of a recent study show that LSD, the psychedelic drug commonly known as “acid,” can be an effective treatment for patients with anxiety. The research, which included a cohort of nearly 200 subjects, found that an LSD medication from New York-based psychedelic biotech company MindMed produced statistically significant improvement in participants with generalized anxiety disorder. The clinical trial for MindMed’s LSD-based treatment, known as MM-120, began in August 2022 after receiving FDA clearance in January of that year. At that time, the research marked the first time LSD had been studied in a medicinal setting in more than 40 years. GAD is an anxiety disorder characterized by excessive and persistent worrying about daily issues. The condition affects about 6.8 million U.S. adults, about 3.1% of the population, each year. Women are nearly twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder in their lifetime, according to data from the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. In addition to frequent worrying, the symptoms of GAD include restlessness, fatigue, trouble concentrating, irritability, increased muscle tension, and trouble sleeping.  “Generalized anxiety disorder is a common condition associated with significant impairment that adversely affects millions of people and there remains a serious unmet need for this patient population,” said MindMed chief medical officer Daniel Karlin, M.D. “The pharmaceutical industry has largely ignored GAD over recent decades as it has proved extremely difficult to target. Few new treatment options have shown robust activity in GAD since the last new drug approval in 2004, making the strong, rapid, and durable clinical activity of a single dose of MM-120 observed in the trial particularly notable.” To conduct the Phase 2b clinical trial, researchers recruited 198 participants with a primary psychiatric diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The study participants were enrolled in the trial from 20 sites across the country. Participants were randomized to receive a single administration of MM-120 at a dose of 25, 50, 100 or 200 micrograms or a placebo. The single dose was administered in a monitored clinical setting with no additional therapeutic intervention. The primary objective of the study was to determine the dose-response relationship of the four different doses of MM-120 compared to placebo as measured by the change in the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A), a diagnostic tool used to measure the severity of anxiety symptoms. The study met its primary endpoint, demonstrating a statistically significant dose-dependent improvement in HAM-A scores after four weeks. The clinical activity was observed to be rapid and durable beginning on the second day of treatment and continuing through the fourth week of the study with no loss of activity observed on either the HAM-A or the Clinical Global Impressions-Severity (CGI-S), another psychiatric diagnostic tool used by researchers. On average, participants receiving higher doses of the drug experienced a 2-unit improvement in the CGI-S score after four weeks, with statistically significant improvements observed as early as one day after treatment and continuing at all evaluated time points through the fourth week.   MM-120 was generally observed to be well tolerated, with mostly transient mild-to-moderate adverse events that appear consistent with the pharmacodynamic effects of the drug. MindMed’s MM-120 is a form of LSD that has been slightly altered to reduce the intensity and duration of the psychedelic effects of the drug. The company plans to continue research to investigate the potential of the drug to treat GAD, with other studies planned to study MM-120’s effect on patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). “We are excited by the strong positive results for MM-120 in GAD, particularly given that this is the first study to assess the standalone drug effects of MM-120 in the absence of any psychotherapeutic intervention,” Robert Barrow, chief executive officer and director of MindMed, said in a recent statement from the company. “These promising findings represent a major step forward in our goal to bring a paradigm-shifting treatment to the millions of patients who are profoundly impacted by GAD.”  “We look forward to sharing additional study results in the coming months – including topline 12-week results in the first quarter of 2024 – and working closely with FDA as we finalize the Phase 3 development program for MM-120 in GAD,” he added.
https://hightimes.com/

There’s No Heightened Cardiovascular Danger with Cannabis Use, Study Indicates

According to a study published in the journal Heart Rhythm, middle-aged adults who have a history of using cannabis are not at an elevated risk of experiencing atrial fibrillation (AFib), aka an irregular heartbeat, NORML reports. The relationship between cannabis and heart disease is currently under close scrutiny and attention.  This longitudinal study was conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. The team looked at the connection between cannabis use and AFib in a very large sample size, a group of over 150,000 individuals aged between 40 and 69. This group of people was made up of people who didn’t use cannabis, occasional users, and frequent cannabis users. They monitored participants over six years. The findings reveal no significant evidence suggesting that people who used cannabis had a bigger chance of developing atrial fibrillation compared to non-users. “Among a large, prospective cohort, we were unable to find evidence that occasional cannabis use [defined as more than 100 times] was associated with a higher risk of incident AF,” the study writes. “To our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal cohort study to assess such recreational use and the first to report an absence of a relationship between cannabis use and risk of AF.” AFib is a heart rhythm disorder identifiable by a rapid and irregular beat of the heart’s upper chambers, aka the atria. This arrhythmia can cause disruptive, settling, and potential dangerous symptoms like heart palpitations, shortness of breath, fatigue, dizziness, or chest pain. Some people may not experience any symptoms at all. AFib is dangerous because it increases the risk of blood clots forming in the heart. These can then develop into strokes. Over time, AFib may also weaken the heart, which could result in heart failure. Before you panic and have an anxiety attack that you mistake for AFib, know that it needs to be diagnosed by a doctor and is done so using electrocardiograms (ECGs). The treatment for AFib is focused on controlling the heart rate to return to a normal heart rhythm using medications or medical interventions, in addition to lifestyle changes.  As NORML reports, in October, research findings suggested that middle-aged folks who use weed don’t have a higher risk of atherosclerosis, aka which is the hardening of the arteries, compared to those who have never used cannabis. This conclusion was backed up by a meta-analysis published in May, concludeding, “Cannabis use insignificantly predicts all major cardiovascular adverse events,” referring to conditions like myocardial infarction and stroke. However, at times, the data is conflicting. A contrasting report from September of 2024 in the journal Addiction highlighted that adults involved in problematic cannabis use do have a heightened risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes.  As High Times reported, the research analyzed medical data from nearly 60,000 adults in Alberta, Canada. It specifically looked at diagnostic codes for “cannabis use disorder,” keep in mind, this is a publication with a focus on addiction. As High Times reported, they define cannabis use disorder as an inability to cease cannabis use despite negative consequences.  They compared these with codes for various cardiovascular issues, including heart attacks, heart failure, and strokes, occurring between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2019. The study’s findings were a bit alarming: “Canadian adults with cannabis use disorder appear to have an approximately 60% higher risk of experiencing incident adverse cardiovascular disease events than those without cannabis use disorder,” it reported. “Importantly, this evidence suggests that cannabis use may place a healthier population at increased risk of major cardiovascular events. As a result, our study points to the importance of educating our patients about the potential risks associated with cannabis use and cannabis use disorder,” reads the study.  It additionally revealed that people diagnosed with cannabis use disorder who were otherwise deemed ‘healthy’ (having no co-occurring mental health disorders, doctor visits in the past six months, prescribed meds, or no other medical conditions) were at a greater risk for these cardiovascular events. But, to end on a more reassuring note, know that this too has conflicting evidence. Research published in August of 2023 in the American Journal of Cardiology indicates that middle-aged adults using cannabis are not at an increased risk of heart attack. The study, which compared people who used cannabis with non-cannabis users, found that individuals who consumed it monthly over the past year did not face a heightened risk of heart attack.  
https://hightimes.com/

Iran Hangs Nine Convicted Drug Traffickers

Nine convicted drug traffickers have been recently hanged in Iran, according to several middle eastern news sources all citing the Islamic Republic News Agency. Details on the matter were sparse, but it appeared that three drug traffickers were hanged at a prison in the northwest Iranian province of Ardabil on charges of buying and transporting heroin and opium. Iran is located more or less dead center on a major opium smuggling route between Afghanistan and Europe which has led to sky-high rates of opiate addiction in the area. The other six convicted traffickers were executed separately for trafficking charges related to methamphetamine, heroin and cannabis though it was unclear if all six were charged for all three substances.  Iran has some of the harshest penalties in the world for drug dealing and executions. A Reuters article from July of this year reported that Iran had executed 20 drug traffickers in one day. Figures released in June by Amnesty International, a United Kingdom-based human rights advocacy group, reported that Iran had executed 173 people for drug-related offenses and 282 people total in the first half of 2023 after what they described as “systematically unfair trials.” “The shameless rate at which the authorities are carrying out drug-related executions, in violation of international law, exposes their lack of humanity and flagrant disregard for the right to life. The international community must ensure that cooperation in anti-drug trafficking initiatives do not contribute, directly or indirectly, to the arbitrary deprivation of life and other human rights violations in Iran,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa. The same report from Amnesty International said that around 20 percent of executions in Iran targeted a community known as the Baluch or Baloch people, a poor pastoral Muslim ethnic group living chiefly in coastal Pakistan and Northwest Iran. Amnesty International said that the death penalty trials often target the poorest of Iranians who are unaware of their rights or of how to properly fight for their own defense.  “The judges in Revolutionary Courts will ask if the drugs are yours and it makes no difference if you say yes or no. The judge at my trial told me to be quiet when I said the drugs were not mine. He said my sentence was death and ordered me to sign a document accepting it. He didn’t even allow my lawyer to speak in my defense,” an Iranian Death Row inmate said to Amnesty International. Another relative of a death row inmate told Amnesty International that the prisoner’s court appointed lawyer basically extorted them for a large sum of money and then vanished entirely.  “She never saw her court-appointed lawyer. He gave the family false promises that he would have her death sentence overturned if they paid him an extortionate amount of money,” the relative of a Death Row inmate said.” They sold everything they had to pay him, even their sheep. Once he took their money, he disappeared and left the family with a lot of debt.” Another relative of someone executed in Iran, a teenager, told Amnesty International he was now faced with the choice of making money to support his family or paying his school registration.  “I should be worried about my exams like other children, not going to work. My wages do not cover my family’s necessities because of all the loans we have. I don’t even have the money to cover my school registration for next year. If my father hadn’t been executed, I would be thinking about my future right now, not thinking of how to make money for my family,” the teenager said.  A 2022 Amnesty International report said that Iran had the second highest rates of executions in the world, surpassed only by China. The same report said the rate of execution in Iran increased by 83 percent from 2021 to 2022 largely due to an increase in murder and drug trafficking convictions.  “States and intergovernmental bodies must condemn the Iranian authorities, in the strongest terms, for these arbitrary executions, call for an official moratorium on all executions, send representatives to visit prisoners sentenced to death, and seek attendance at trials involving capital crimes. Given the crisis of impunity for mass arbitrary executions, they must also urgently pursue meaningful pathways for accountability,” Eltahawy said.  In early 2023 Amnesty International reported five people were executed for engaging in protests, a man was executed for adultery due to having engaged in a consensual sexual relationship with a married woman, and two social media users were executed for “apostasy,” meaning the abandonment or renunciation of religious beliefs, and “insulting the Prophet of Islam.”
https://hightimes.com/

The Secret to My Marriage Is Daily Cannabis Consumption

Recently, my partner and I celebrated our anniversary the way we spend most of our days, with our cats and cannabis. If I am being completely honest with myself, there haven’t been more than a handful of days in our nine-year relationship where one of us wasn’t high. This hasn’t bothered me in the past, but lately, with every bong hit, I wonder if our partnership is really love or if we’ve just spent the course of our relationship in a lavender-kush haze.  Mary Jane has begun to feel like a third wheel in our marriage. Cannabis is a constant in our daily lives and sometimes I wonder whether that’s healthy. We both consume cannabis for medical reasons (and sometimes just for fun) and don’t have any sort of cannabis use disorder. Despite this I find my whole body tensing up when I hear my partner cough, counting bong hits in a way I haven’t since we first started dating. On my brightest days, I know in my soul that cannabis is a life-saving medicine for me. I’ve spent the last ten years as a medical marijuana patient and the last five years as a cannabis journalist. To say that weed has permeated every aspect of my daily life is an understatement. I’ve made huge health and career strides “under the influence” of this plant.  But on my darkest days, there is still that voice in my head nagging that these accomplishments as nothing more than self-delusion; a way to justify the fact that our partnership doesn’t look like everyone else’s. I strongly believe there is no problem with consuming cannabis—either medically or because you like the effects. I’ve even made my career out of it. Am I a hypocrite for feeling shame that our friends view us as the “cannabis couple”? Red flags were going off in my head on our first date. I had known him for years, we went through grade school together. He had a crush on me but I had my sights set on city life, eager to leave the small town I grew up in. Just over a decade later we found ourselves both single at the same time and decided to give it a shot. Right before we were going to leave for dinner, he pulled out a glow-in-the-dark Batman bong and asked if I minded if he hit it before we left (and offered me a toke of course, he’s a gentleman). I hadn’t had weed in years; I dabbled in high school and would partake at university parties. But I was hardly the loud and proud professional pothead that I am now. The cannabis itself didn’t make me uncomfortable but I was concerned that he needed to get high to get through a date with me. We had hardly just begun the night and he already wanted to escape? In my mind, having a bowl before dinner felt the same as a date taking a few shots—totally fine but something “respectable” people did only after 9 pm.  He was consuming cannabis for his anxiety and stomach (in addition to just enjoying it). The poor guy was all worked up about our first date, wanting it to be perfect, the one who got away and all of that. But in the moment, I found myself counting bowls and correlating them to how much fun (or lack thereof) he was having. I eventually had some myself and we went to an unreal pyro-circus performance. The date was a success but I couldn’t help feeling conflicted about how much weed he consumed. In the beginning, I decreed that we would have one day a week without cannabis, deemed Sober Sundays. Everything we did had to be weed-free; I think he went with it willingly because he knew it wouldn’t last. It snuck back in a little at a time; we were doing something fun and wanted to enhance it or I was having a bad pain day and needed it.  Sober Sundays were actually how I realized that cannabis wasn’t just fun for me—it was medicine. When we abstained I noticed a chain reaction in my body; my joints hurt more, my muscles were tense and painful, and my ADHD symptoms were amplified. I didn’t understand the therapeutic effects of the plant yet and dismissed what I felt, thinking I just didn’t notice these symptoms as much when I was stoned. It wasn’t until a pain specialist asked if I had ever tried cannabis to manage my symptoms that my whole life changed. He had exhausted pharmaceutical medications, injections, physiotherapy and other conventional options. I was 30 years old and barely able to walk for more than 10 minutes without debilitating pain. Some days even walking to the bathroom took planning, mobility aids, and a ton of curse words.  I sheepishly admitted that I had used cannabis in the past (it wasn’t legal in Canada yet and I didn’t have a medical authorization so I was scared to say yes). He wasn’t comfortable prescribing it himself, most physicians still won’t in Canada, so he referred me to an MD who specialized in cannabinoid medicine.  Cannabis-enthusiast couples are more common than my prohibitionist mindset likes to think. I’ve even interviewed successful partnerships where one consumes and the other doesn’t. If I woke up tomorrow and said I was never consuming cannabis again, logically I know our relationship wouldn’t fall apart. But there would be so many little moments that I would miss. Daily 4:20 tokes: Every day when my partner gets home from work, he packs our 4:20 bowls. After a long day alone plugging away on my computer and his processing scrap metal at a recycling plant, we are both exhausted. When the 4:20 alarm goes off on his phone we both light up—literally and figuratively. It’s a wonderful way to reset from work, a fun little daily tradition to help us transition into the evening, and gives us both something to look forward to when afternoons are dragging. The middle-of-a-fight toke: This habit has been a lifesaver, especially in the beginning when things get extra spicy. For us, it keeps the argument from escalating. I know non-consumers will scoff at this concept (I used to!) but walking away, taking a breath and allowing the moment to let emotions settle is super helpful. Whether it was a hot-headed argument about nothing or a make-or-break relationship fight, we’re on year 9 because of this habit.  Sesh before sex (IYKYK): There’s sex…and there’s stoned sex. Cannabis before any activity can elevate the experience but there is something transcendent about this one. Enjoying a smoke together before getting it on can be bonding in itself, plus there’s the amplification of everything from the effects of cannabis. The intensity of the connection, increase of sensation and way-more-explosive-than-usual finale.  “You know you’ll have to smoke less pot if you want to start a family,” my best friend said to me recently. The comment made me uncomfortable, not because she was wrong, but because no one ever brings up the medications I take that would be unsafe during pregnancy (except my doctor).  Although it’s unconscious, even my closest friends assume that weed is an integral part of my personality and partnership. People always joke that they think of me when they smell cannabis or envy how my partner and I can indulge on a Sunday afternoon while doing menial tasks like meal prep.  Despite cannabis helping the chronic pain I have from a genetic condition, I still feel guilt and shame for building a relationship while under the influence, especially one that was going to be for the long haul. I often wonder what our relationship would look like without Mary Jane. If we had toasted our engagement with booze instead of bud, would we be more relatable? More worthy of our love story in some way? Are we the cannabis couple? The childless couple? The still-figuring-it-out couple? I can’t control what people think of our so-called lifestyle but I also don’t have to gaslight myself about it either. We aren’t a “cannabis couple”; we’re just a pair of married folk who enjoy the medicinal and recreational aspects of the plant. And for now, that’s enough.
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AMA Rolls Out New Psychedelic Therapy Codes as FDA Mulls Over Prescription MDMA

The American Medical Association, aka the AMA, has recently implemented new standards to assign specific codes to psychedelic therapies. This move coincides with the Food and Drug Administration’s (otherwise known as the infamous FDA) ongoing review of an application to legalize MDMA as a prescription drug in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These codes, known as Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) III, were established in July as a result of a collaboration between the AMA, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies Public Benefit Corporation (MAPS), and COMPASS Pathways.  On September 13, 2023, MAPS released the findings from their latest Phase 3 Trial, which investigates the effectiveness of MDMA-assisted therapy in treating PTSD. After intense expert peer review, these results were published in the esteemed journal Nature Medicine. The research involved 104 participants with PTSD. They were randomly assigned to receive either MDMA or a placebo pill across three sessions, each spaced a month apart, over a three-month period. Upon completion of the study, results found that 72% of the participants in the MDMA group no longer met the criteria for PTSD, in contrast to only 48% in the placebo group. Effective starting on Monday, New Year’s Day of 2024, these codes aim to standardize psychedelic treatments and provide coverage and reimbursement for these therapies — contingent upon FDA approval, of course.  Currently, it’s pretty impossible to get insurance to cover any psychedelic meds. This development would be a near miracle moment, an integration that previously seemed impossible to cover for many seekers or simply those trying to heal themselves. This added a financial barrier to entry for many people with PTSD, such as vets, who may have a more challenging time finding work to pay for the treatment, cruelly ironically, getting in their way of work and contributing to the economy in a way necessary to enjoy the treatment.  The FDA is now evaluating a drug application submitted by MAPS. The FDA has a deadline of mid-February to determine whether to accept or reject this application. If granted, this would require the FDA to complete its evaluation within six months, as opposed to the typical 10-month review period. “Having recently filed a new drug application for MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, these new CPT codes are an important step forward to pave the way for its future use should it be approved by the FDA,” Amy Emerson, CEO of MAPS PBC, said in a press release on Tuesday. “It is critical that there is a path to cover not only the MDMA but also the medication sessions should this novel investigational approach be approved.” And now for some seemingly boring but crucial information: The CPT III codes are provisional classifications created to track the utilization of emerging technology. Their purpose is to make the reimbursement processes easier and support the accessibility of psychedelic therapies. If they’re deemed effective, these codes can become permanent CPT I codes, which would help facilitate the aforementioned coverage and reimbursement. Among the codes approved by the AMA, one is specifically designated for compensating healthcare professionals who oversee and intervene in psychedelic-assisted therapy. The other two are intended to reimburse ancillary health professionals and clinical staff involved in treatments. If approved, MDMA would be the first FDA-approved psychedelic to treat a mental health condition. This comes after three decades of research into the medicine. Currently, ketamine, which is used off-label, is technically a dissociative anesthetic with hallucinogenic effects, but often embraced by the psychedelic community, it is the only federally legal similar medicine used to treat PTSD and treatment-resistant depression.  Numerous studies have shown that psilocybin, the trippy ingredient in magic mushrooms, also has the potential to aid patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression, especially when combined with therapy. In Oregon, the first state to legalize psilocybin (remember, it’s still illegal on a federal level), the demand for psilocybin services is so high that there are over 3,000 individuals on the waiting list to visit a legal psilocybin service center, which folks flocking from all over the world to seek treatment in a safe and monitored setting. Research also recently found that psilocybin could be a promising treatment for depression in bipolar patients. 
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Study Shows Pot Makes Workouts Enjoyable, Doesn’t Boost Performance

According to the first-ever study on how legal, commercial cannabis impacts exercise, carried out by the University of Colorado Boulder, weed makes working out fun, but you’re not going to get some super-boost unless you’re some sort of cannabis superhero. The study, which was published December 27 in the Sports Medicine journal, was a long time coming, as Colorado has now had legal cannabis for a decade, and many other states have also embraced cannabis as the norm, so it stands to reason that cannabis is also becoming normalized in the world of fitness, although it has remained a contentious topic in sports. Many well-known athletes—notably U.S. sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson—have gotten in trouble for cannabis consumption.  The research looked at 42 different runners to get information about how they used cannabis and how their use impacted their activity.  “The bottom-line finding is that cannabis before exercise seems to increase positive mood and enjoyment during exercise, whether you use THC or CBD. But THC products specifically may make exercise feel more effortful,” explains first author Laurel Gibson, a research fellow with CU’s Center for Health and Addiction: Neuroscience, Genes and Environment (CU Change). This kind of tells us what we already know: “couch-lock” is not necessarily going to happen to you just because you consume cannabis.  “We have an epidemic of sedentary lifestyle in this country, and we need new tools to try to get people to move their bodies in ways that are enjoyable,” said senior author Angela Bryan, a professor of psychology and neuroscience and co-director of CU Change. “If cannabis is one of those tools, we need to explore it, keeping in mind both the harms and the benefits.” An earlier study of cannabis users turned up a massive amount of cannabis users, as Bryan’s researchers revealed 80% of those surveyed use cannabis before or after they exercise. They asked 42 Boulder-based cannabis users and runners about when they consumed and how. They had participants consume cannabis that was high in either CBD or THC. They were then asked both under the influence of cannabis and without using it how they were enjoying their exercise during a light 30-minute run on a treadmill.  It almost doesn’t need explaining—cannabis generally enhances enjoyment of activities we like, and the folks in this study liked running. But interestingly, enjoyment was even greater in the CBD group than the THC group, suggesting some of the enjoyment came from lower pain levels during exercise.  THC users also claimed that the run felt more difficult, though also more enjoyable, and harder in intensity than when they were sober. That also tracks with the way cannabis can enhance average experiences. Bryan also posited it could be because cannabis increases heart rate.  Another study conducted by Bryan and Gibson revealed that runners ran 31 seconds slower high than sober, though they still reported more enjoyment.  “It is pretty clear from our research that cannabis is not a performance enhancing drug,” said Bryan. Additionally, the latest research shows that only certain people will experience the “runner’s high” phenomenon. Naturally produced brain chemicals called endogenous cannabinoids often kick in after exercise for some folks to make them more euphoric and alert. In other words, cannabis and exercise will work in tandem for a pleasant experience for some, while others might just feel overly tired.  “The reality is, some people will never experience the runner’s high,” Gibson says.  But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a reason to safely consume cannabis to enhance a workout. The science behind cannabinoid receptors and the way folks consuming it during the study felt points to the fact that CBD and THC can help produce a euphoric feeling during a short workout or enhance enjoyability or take away soreness during a longer workout.  Of course, one should always be careful when pairing substance use and exercise, even if it’s just cannabis use. Weed can cause dizziness and loss of balance for some, which could make working out under the influence dangerous in the wrong conditions. And based on this data, those looking to train very seriously or participate in competitions may want to avoid cannabis entirely or only use it for recovery.  For those who simply want to enhance the occasional workout, however, or for people who want an added boost to get in the zone and enjoy moving their bodies, this could be just the ticket.  Bryan specifically underscores how powerful this discovery could be for folks who struggle with motivation for exercise or find it painful. For those people, finding something that makes exercise pleasant and inviting would be a game-changer.  “Is there a world where taking a low-dose gummy before they go for that walk might help? It’s too early to make broad recommendations but it’s worth exploring,” she concludes. So next time you struggle with motivation to up and move, remember, healthy cannabis consumption might help you go the extra mile—but you probably won’t do it at a record-breaking speed. 
https://hightimes.com/

UFC Removes Cannabis from Banned Substances List in New Policy

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced the details of its new Anti-Doping Policy, which took effect for all UFC athletes beginning Dec. 31, 2023, and with it comes a progressive stance on cannabis, reflecting a larger trend of reviewing cannabis policy and bans in sports. The UFC announced that it will remove cannabis from its banned substances list, mirroring a larger shift in the world of sports and cannabis use. The ruling comes after the UFC’s 2021 decision that cannabis would no longer be penalized for testing positive for THC. The policy deemed that positive tests for carboxy-THC, a THC metabolite, would no longer be considered a violation “unless additional evidence exists that an athlete used it intentionally for performance-enhancing purposes.” According to a statement from UFC Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell, the newest iteration of the program raises “the bar for health and safety in combat sports.”  Campbell highlighted the UFC’s goal for its Anti-Doping Policy to be “the best, most effective, and most progressive anti-doping program in all of professional sports,” adding that the UFC is proud of the advancements it’s made in the policy throughout the past eight years. Campbell affirmed that the UFC will continue to maintain an “independently administered drug-testing program” to ensure that all UFC athletes will compete under fair and equal circumstances. UFC Senior Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitzky similarly nodded to the new policy as a means to protect competitors, citing that the new program came about after “years of input and trial and error taken by UFC, our athletes, and third parties who have assisted UFC in operating the program.”  Similarly, Novitzky noted that the policy is a “living and breathing document” that will continue to evolve and adapt in the future.  The move continues the pattern of changing policy regarding cannabis, THC and CBD in the sports world. The National Football League (NFL) has drastically altered its cannabis testing procedures over the years. The NFL reworked its policy in 2021 so players would no longer be drug tested for THC during the offseason from April to August. The testing period was also reduced, so players would only be tested for THC between the start of training camp and the first preseason game. The NFL also changed the threshold for a failed THC test, from 35 ng/ml to 150 ng/ml. If a player does exceed the threshold for a test, they will also no longer be suspended. Rather, the NFL now looks toward treatment rather than punishment; the intervention program’s first stage involves a review of the case by a panel of medical experts to determine if the player needs treatment for addiction and suggest appropriate care.  Only players who don’t follow the proposed medical treatment are fined and moved to stage two. Further failure to comply could lead to suspension. Most recently, the National Basketball Association (NBA) also removed cannabis from its list of banned substances. The new collective bargaining agreement went into effect on July 1, 2023 also allows the league’s players to use cannabis and invest in cannabis companies under specific circumstances.  The new contract notes that players cannot be high at games, practices or other team functions, and any cannabis use that becomes problematic will still be subject to action from the NBA. Despite these changes, the World Anti-Doping Agency has maintained its ban on cannabis, in that it “has the potential to enhance sport performance; it represents a health risk to the athlete; and it violates the spirit of sport.” This rule drew particularly strong backlash recently when U.S. runner Sha’Carri Richardson was suspended from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for a positive cannabis test. Given the physical nature of these sports, reform on cannabis policy is often seen as a progressive approach in allowing athletes to seek out specific care to best treat injuries and prevent further harm to their bodies.  A growing number of retired athletes have shared that they used cannabis during their active years to treat aches and pains, and growing research has confirmed the efficacy of cannabis in treating athletic injuries and maintaining a sense of health for sports professionals. In a recent survey, 93% of athletic participants said they felt CBD helped them with recovery from exercise while 87% said the same about THC. Researchers noted that “Individuals who habitually use cannabis, CBD or THC, and regularly engage in exercise do feel that cannabis assists them with exercise recovery.” Another survey examining the opinions of sports medicine doctors showed that most have favorable attitudes about cannabis use — 72% of respondents supported the 2018 removal of CBD from the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned substances list, while 59% supported removing cannabis as a whole. A majority of respondents also said that they believe CBD and THC are not performance enhancing (approximately 76% and 66%, respectively). A 2023 study even found that regular cannabis use has the potential to offset repeated blows to the head, showing potential promise for professional athletes like boxers, football and soccer players seeking to reduce the risk of long-term brain damage.
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New Law Brings Secret Shoppers to Oklahoma Weed Dispensaries

A new law in Oklahoma gives the state’s cannabis regulators the authority to launch a medical marijuana dispensary secret shopper program. The legislation, which was passed by state legislators and signed into law in 2022, tasks the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) with inspecting at least 50 licensed medical marijuana retailers for violations of the state’s regulations each year. The new law, House Bill 3971 (HB 3971), went into effect this week along with several other bills designed to rein in control of Oklahoma’s burgeoning medical cannabis industry. Medical marijuana was legalized in the Sooner State in 2018 with the passage of a statewide ballot measure, leading to an explosion of licensed weed businesses in the loosely controlled industry. Since then, state lawmakers have been working to regulate pot businesses, passing several bills in 2022 after an initiative to legalize recreational pot failed at the polls. State Representative Josh West, one of the sponsors of HB 3971, said that the new law is designed to protect Oklahomans who consume cannabis products. “Constituents, people in the industry, people outside of the industry, the average public, they wanted some checks and balances in place,” West told local media in a recent interview. The legislation authorizes OMMA to send undercover secret shoppers into the state’s medical marijuana dispensaries. Under the program, secret shoppers will purchase medical marijuana products so that they can be lab-tested by the regulatory agency. The law requires OMMA to investigate at least 50 medical marijuana dispensaries per year under the secret shopper program. West said that he wants the OMMA to have the same authority as the Oklahoma Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission (ABLE), the state’s alcoholic beverage regulator. “Consumer safety is the biggest part of it,” said West. “And we want to ensure that we are keeping the bad actors out. And so it’s no different than what ABLE does when ABLE goes into a liquor store and ensures that they’re following the law.” HB 3971 was passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Republican Governor Kevin Stitt in May 2022. The bill’s language delayed implementation of the law until 2024 in order to give OMMA time to develop regulations and processes needed to carry out the legislation. “Now granted they’ve had two years to figure this out,” West said. “And so I haven’t talked to Director Berry, and so I would assume that they knew this was going to be coming along.” West said that he has heard from legitimate medical marijuana business owners who are struggling to compete with operators diverting cannabis to the unregulated market. He added that the new law requires all businesses to uphold the same standards. “If I have a dispensary, I’m going to ensure that not only myself, but that my employees know at any point that someone can come in there and make sure they’re following the laws,” West said. “So I think that it will be a positive thing for the industry, and at the end of the day it’s a positive thing for the consumers.” After being asked about the new medical marijuana secret shopper law, OMMA declined to offer details about the program. “We appreciate the public’s interest in our ongoing efforts to implement new state laws,” the agency wrote in a statement to the press. “We will provide the latest information on our website, social media channels and newsletters.” Several other laws related to Oklahoma’s medical marijuana industry also went into effect this week. Under Senate Bill 1704 (SB 1704), employees at licensed medical marijuana businesses are required to apply for and obtain identification cards from OMMA. Those who fail to receive the proper credentials are subject to losing their jobs and the right to continue working in the state’s medical cannabis industry. Another new law, House Bill 3929 (HB 3929), regulates product quality at cannabis testing laboratories. The legislation sets standards and rules for process validation OMMA will be required to follow and authorizes sanctions for failure to comply with state requirements. House Bill 4056 (HB 4056) establishes a process to submit feedback about Oklahoma’s medical marijuana program. The legislation tasks certain entities with submitting recommendations for standards and best operating practices to OMMA. The new law also requires the regulatory agency to advocate for rules to govern the industry and to require cannabis testing labs to comply with the regulations. West said the state legislature could be working on cannabis regulations for the next 30 years. Oklahoma lawmakers return to the state Capitol in Oklahoma City in February for the launch of the state’s 60th legislative session. 
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New Mexico Regulators Revoke Licenses for Two Cannabis Farms

In a news release on Tuesday, the Cannabis Control Division (CCD) of the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department said that Bliss Farm and Native American Agricultural Development Company (NAADC), two cannabis farms located within miles of each other in Torrance County, New Mexico, had been ordered to “immediately stop all commercial cannabis activity” and “pay large fines.” The two farms were cited for “exceeding plant count limits, not utilizing the state’s mandatory track and trace system and unsafe conditions, among other violations,” which resulted in the revocation of their licenses. Additionally, Bliss Farm and NAADC must “each pay $1 million in fines for their illegal activity,” the Cannabis Control Division said. The fines will “be remitted to the State Treasurer and are to be deposited by law in the Current School Fund,” according to Tuesday’s news release. “The illicit activity conducted at both of these farms undermines the good work that many cannabis businesses are doing across the state,” Clay Bailey, the Acting Superintendent of the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department, said in a statement. “The excessive amount of illegal cannabis plants and other serious violations demonstrates a blatant disregard for public health and safety, and for the law.” Todd Stevens, the director of the Cannabis Control Division, said that he hopes the sanctions serve as a warning to other would-be violators. “Compliance within the industry is the CCD’s main priority and our office is committed to ensuring New Mexicans have access to safe cannabis products,” Stevens said. “The team worked diligently on both of these cases to determine the appropriate action for violations at a scale we hadn’t seen before. The outcomes were justified under the law based on the egregious conduct of these individuals and I hope this serves as a reminder to those who might be violating the laws and rules the state has put forth.” Last year, local news station KOAT conducted an undercover investigation that revealed “how some cannabis dispensaries were not following the rules and were selling marijuana coming from outside New Mexico.” The state’s cannabis law requires all cannabis programs to be grown and regulated in New Mexico. Acting Cannabis Control Director Andrew Vallejos told KOAT last year that the state needed “to devote some more resources to enforcement.”  This week’s announcement suggests that might be happening.  The Cannabis Control Division uncovered the violations at Bliss Farm and NAADC during inspections carried out by compliance officers. At Bliss Farm, those officers “discovered multiple alarming violations including numbers of cannabis plants far exceeding the allowable limits under the Cannabis Regulation Act, not utilizing the state’s mandatory track and trace system, unpermitted structures, unsanitary conditions of the production facility, pests, and more,” according to Tuesday’s news release. “In total, Bliss Farm was cited for 17 violations. The farm’s large number of cannabis plants on site and evidence of a recent harvest without records entered into the track and trace system led the division to conclude the plants were transferred or sold illicitly,” the agency said. The Cannabis Control Division said that it “filed a Notice of Contemplated Action against Bliss Farm on August 14, 2023,” and that the business “requested a hearing on the matter which was set for October 19, 2023.”  “At the hearing, the farm’s attorney stated that all violations had been remedied. However, upon returning to the facility, compliance officers did not see any evidence that the violations were fixed. The hearing  officer agreed to revocation and the imposition of fines which were set by the CCD after determining the appropriate amount,” the Cannabis Control Division said. Native American Agricultural Development Company (NAADC), meanwhile “was cited for eight violations, including exceeding the allowable number of cannabis plants under the Cannabis Regulation Act, improper security measures, no chain of custody procedures, and ill-maintained grounds with trash and pests throughout,” according to the news release. And much like at Bliss Farm, the Cannabis Control Division’s compliance officers “also saw evidence of a recent harvest at NAADC, but no plants had ever been entered into the mandatory track and trace system,” the release said. “The CCD filed a Notice of Contemplated Action against NAADC on October 12, 2023. The hearing on the matter was conducted on November 22, 2023,” the news release continued. “At that time, representatives from NAADC and the CCD were given the opportunity to present their cases. The hearing officer agreed with the state’s recommendation to revoke NAADC’s license and impose a fine.” New Mexico legalized recreational cannabis for adults in 2021, when Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the Cannabis Regulation Act into law. Legal adult-use sales began in 2022, topping $300 million in the first year of sales. In Tuesday’s news release, the Cannabis Control Division said that it has “revoked six licenses to date and has levied more than $2.3 million in fines related to illegal activity.”
https://hightimes.com/

Cannabis Still the World’s Most Used Substance, UN Report Says

Cannabis use around the world continues to eclipse other drugs––and is increasing. Opioids, meanwhile, continue to cause the most harm. Those are just some of the takeaways from the United Nations’ annual “World Drug Report” for 2023. “Drug use continues to be high worldwide. In 2021, 1 in every 17 people aged 15–64 in the world had used a drug in the past 12 months. The estimated number of users grew from 240 million in 2011 to 296 million in 2021 (5.8 per cent of the global population aged 15–64). This is a 23 per cent increase, partly due to population growth,” the report’s “executive summary” said.  According to the report, cannabis “continues to be the most used drug, with an estimated 219 million users (4.3 per cent of the global adult population) in 2021.”  That number is also trending upward––perhaps a byproduct of legalization in the United States and elsewhere. But the report also showed a gender divide when it comes to pot use. “Use of the drug is increasing and although globally cannabis users are mostly men (about 70 per cent), the gender divide is reducing in some subregions; women account for 42 per cent of cannabis users in North America,” the report said. Opioids, meanwhile, “continue to be the group of substances with the highest contribution to severe drug-related harm, including fatal overdoses,” according to the report.  That will come as little surprise to those in the United States, which has been mired in an opioid epidemic for more than two decades. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of people in the U.S. who died from a drug overdose in 2021 “was over six times the number in 1999” and the “number of drug overdose deaths increased more than 16% from 2020 to 2021.” Among the nearly 107,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2021, more than 75% involved an opioid, according to the CDC. The CDC says that the “rise in opioid overdose deaths can be outlined in three distinct waves.” “The first wave began with increased prescribing of opioids in the 1990s, with overdose deaths involving prescription opioids (natural and semi-synthetic opioids and methadone) increasing since at least 1999. The second wave began in 2010, with rapid increases in overdose deaths involving heroin. The third wave began in 2013, with significant increases in overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, particularly those involving illicitly manufactured fentanyl. The market for illicitly manufactured fentanyl continues to change, and it can be found in combination with heroin, counterfeit pills, and cocaine,” according to the CDC. The UN’s report said that an “estimated 60 million people engaged in non-medical opioid use in 2021, 31.5 million of whom used opiates (mainly heroin).” Opioids remain “the leading cause of deaths in fatal overdoses,” the repot said, accounting “for nearly 70 per cent of the 128,000 deaths attributed to drug use disorders in 2019.”  “Opioid use disorders also accounted for the majority (71 per cent of the 18 million healthy years of life lost owing to premature death and disability in 2019,” the UN report said. According to the report, “most drug use disorders are related to cannabis and opioids, which are also the drugs that lead most people to seek drug treatment, but opioids remain the most lethal drug.” “Among all countries that ranked the drugs leading to drug use disorders, the majority (46 per cent of countries) reported cannabis in first place, 31 per cent of countries reported opioids in first place, mainly heroin, whereas amphetamine-type stimulants, in particular methamphetamine, were reported in first place by 13 per cent of countries. The ranking in each country is determined mainly by two factors: prevalence of use and dependence potential,” the report said. The UN report also provided a regional breakdown of drug use. “There are clear regional differences in the primary drug reported by people entering drug treatment: in most of Europe and most of the subregions of Asia, opioids are the most frequent primary drug of people in drug treatment, whereas in Latin America it is cocaine, in parts of Africa it is cannabis, and in East and South-East Asia it is Methamphetamine,” the report said. The report also identified an uptick in intravenous drug use. “An estimated 13.2 million people were injecting drugs in 2021,” the report said. “This estimate is 18 per cent higher than in 2020 (11.2 million). This increase is due to newly available estimates in the United States of America and in some other countries. Eastern Europe (1.3 per cent of the adult population) and North America (1.0 per cent) remain the two subregions with the highest estimated prevalence of people who inject drugs, and, in absolute terms, North America now has the highest number of individuals that report injecting drugs, ahead of East and South-East Asia.”
https://hightimes.com/

Snoop Dogg To Cover Summer Olympic Games in Paris for NBC

Joining the team of NBCUniversal, Snoop Dogg is on deck to cover the Olympic Games Paris 2024 this summer. Snoop will relocate to Paris to provide regular reports for the Olympic Primetime Show, which is scheduled to begin on July 26 on NBC and Peacock.  According to a Dec. 31 announcement, Snoop is scheduled to join NBC Olympics host Mike Tirico and provide American primetime viewers with his own unique spin on the Olympics in Paris. He’s scheduled to do rounds of the city’s notable landmarks, attend Olympic competitions and events, and visit with the athletes, their friends, and families. “I grew up watching the Olympics and am thrilled to see the incredible athletes bring their A-game to Paris. It’s a celebration of skill, dedication, and the pursuit of greatness,” said Snoop Dogg. “We’re going to have some amazing competitions and, of course, I will be bringing that Snoop style to the mix. It’s going to be the most epic Olympics ever, so stay tuned, and keep it locked. Let’s elevate, celebrate, and make these games unforgettable, smoke the competition, and may the best shine like gold. Peace and Olympic LOVE, ya dig?”  His upcoming role as an Olympic announcer was first announced on New Year’s Eve during halftime of Sunday Night Football’s coverage of the Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings on NBC and Peacock. Snoop joined Kevin Hart to cover the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, however the COVID pandemic put a major damper in the game activities, and Snoop’s coverage was a small highlight amid a notably quiet Olympics year. Now with the pandemic out of the way, he’s doing it again. “Snoop is already an Olympic gold medal commentator, generating tens of millions of views for his highlights commentary on Peacock of the dressage competition during the Tokyo Olympics,” said Molly Solomon, Executive Producer and President, NBC Olympics Production. “That performance alone has earned Snoop a job as our Special Correspondent in Paris. We don’t know what the heck is going to happen every day, but we know he will add his unique perspective to our re-imagined Olympic primetime show.” Snoop as a narrator came front-and-center several years ago when programmers ingeniously cast him as the narrator for Planet Earth and Planet Earth II, aka Plizzanet Earth. It was a big hit. On New Year’s Eve, during halftime of Sunday Night Football, Snoop starred in a “Snoop Year’s Eve” promotional video for the Paris Olympics. In a 75-second video, Snoop jokes with Team USA athletes Suni Lee (gymnastics), A’ja Wilson (basketball), Jagger Eaton (skateboarder), and duo Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes (beach volleyball) about their past wins and defeats in the Olympics. The content was shot last November at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, California as part of NBCUniversal’s promotional shoot for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Scheduled for Paris this summer, the world’s greatest athletes will go head-to-head in Paris where the modern Olympic Games (as opposed to the Ancient Roman Olympics) were conceived 130 years ago. This will be the third time Paris has hosted the Olympics—the last times being 1900 and 1924—tying London for the city with the most years as a Summer Games host. Los Angeles (1932, 1984) will tie those two cities when it hosts the first Summer Games in the U.S. in 32 years in 2028. The organizers of Paris 2024 plan to do a few new things this year to make them more accessible to the public and to showcase the city: First, competitions will be held adjacent to iconic landmarks in Paris, for instance with beach volleyball near the Eiffel Tower, equestrian at the Palace of Versailles, and urban sports at Place de la Concorde. Organizers think this will make the games more attractive to people from different walks of life. Last May, NBCUniversal announced that the NBC broadcast network and streaming service Peacock will be the company’s primary platforms for its coverage of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, which is scheduled for July 26-Aug. 11. Click on the NBCUniversal website for more programming information and here for information about the Paralympics, which will take place Aug. 28 – Sept. 8. NBCU owns the U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2032, which are scheduled for Paris (2024), Milan Cortina (2026), Los Angeles (2028) and Brisbane (2032). The host city for the 2030 Olympic Winter Games has not yet been chosen. This year, with the addition of Snoop Dogg and notable Parisian landmarks, Olympics organizers hope to bump up the ratings.
https://hightimes.com/

New Washington Law Protects Job Applicants Who Use Weed

Applicants for employment in Washington gained new protections on Monday as a new law barring discrimination based on a worker’s off-duty cannabis use went into effect throughout the state. The legislation, Senate Bill 5123, was signed into law by Democratic Governor Jay Inslee in May 2023 after being passed by state lawmakers three weeks earlier. Under the new law, employers in Washington are barred from taking action against newly hired workers for using cannabis off the job and away from the workplace. The prohibition also applies to new employees who have failed an employer-required drug screening for non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites in their hair, blood, urine or other bodily fluids. Pre-employment drug screenings for cannabis will still be allowed for workers applying for certain safety-sensitive positions. The legislation also includes exceptions for law enforcement officers, firefighters and other first responders, as well as candidates for positions in certain industries such as airlines and aerospace. Jobs that require a federal background check or security clearance are also exempt from the law. The new law also does not affect workplace policies that require current workers to undergo drug tests for cannabis use while off the job. As the bill was being considered by the Washington state legislature last year, Democratic Senator Karen Keiser, the bill’s sponsor, noted that the legislation does not apply to employees after the hiring process is completed.  “If your employer wants to test you every week after you’re hired, they’re still able to do that,” Keiser said in a statement quoted by the Seattle Times. “This is simply opening the front door of getting into a job. Because too many people who see that they have to take a drug test to even apply, don’t even apply.” Supporters of the legislation note that most currently available drug screenings for cannabis do not detect or measure impairment from marijuana use. Instead, they rely on detecting metabolites present in the system after a person uses weed. Burl Bryson, the executive director of The Cannabis Alliance, told lawmakers at a public hearing in January that potential job candidates can consume cannabis legally “and still test positive for weeks later.” “If the same approach were applied to alcohol, employers would refuse employment to anyone who enjoyed a beer or glass of wine on the weekend,” Bryson said. “It simply doesn’t make sense to base an employment decision on that kind of unreliable outcome and test,” Keiser told her colleagues on the Senate floor before they voted in favor of the legislation. Paul Armentano, the deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), said that laws for workplace drug screenings must evolve as cannabis is legalized in states across the nation. “Urine screening for off-the-job cannabis consumption has never been an evidence-based policy,” he said in a statement from the cannabis policy reform advocacy group in May. “Rather, this discriminatory practice is a holdover from the zeitgeist of the 1980s’ war on drugs. But times have changed; attitudes have changed, and in many places, the marijuana laws have changed. It is time for workplace policies to adapt to this new reality and to cease punishing employees for activities they engage in during their off-hours that pose no workplace safety threat.” “Those who consume alcohol legally and responsibly while away from their jobs do not suffer sanctions from their employers unless their work performance is adversely impacted,” Armentano added. “Those who legally consume cannabis should be held to a similar standard.” NORML noted that numerous studies have shown that workers who use cannabis while off the job do not pose an increased safety risk compared with employees who do not consume marijuana. In a detailed review of the relevant data, the US National Academy of Sciences found that “There is no evidence to support a statistical association between cannabis use and occupational accidents or injuries.” Washington is not the only state where laws protecting workers who use cannabis while off the job are going into effect with the dawn of the new year. In California, a new law to prohibit employers from taking action against employees who test positive for cannabis in a hair or urine test also went into effect on Monday. Nevada and Michigan have also recently adopted legislation to protect new hires from pre-employment discrimination based on their use of cannabis. Other jurisdictions including Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Montana, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island have expanded policies to limit cannabis testing for both new hires and existing employees. 
https://hightimes.com/

DEA Notice Shows Increase in Research Amounts for THC, Psilocybin, DMT, and More

The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) posted a notice on the Federal Register on Jan. 3, which includes the most recent breakdown of Schedule I Substances in its 2024 aggregate production quotas (APQ), as well as a wide variety of public comments and DEA responses. According to a Federal Register article published in November 2023, delta-9 THC (referred to as “d-9-THC” on the list) included a proposed amount of 900,610 grams for 2024. Now, the 2024 APQ includes a delta-9 THC of 1,523,040 grams. In comparison to last year, the established quota for delta-9 THC in 2023 was listed at 384,460 grams, while the revised quota amount was increased to 628,460. According to the same November 2023 Federal Register article, the proposed amount of “all other tetrahydrocannabinol” was listed at 790,010 grams. Now, the 2024 APQ lists the THC quota at 1,166,130 grams. In an October 2023 APQ adjustments report, the DEA listed general THC at 15,000 for 2023 established quotas, and 350,000 for proposed revised 2023 quotas. The DEA also included a request for 20,000 grams of psilocybin (which was established in October at 8,000 grams but increased to 15,000 grams). DMT (5-Methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine) was also listed at 3,000 grams in October and November 2023, but was updated to reflect an increase to 11,000 grams in the most recent January 2024 report. Production goals for other substances such as marijuana (6,675,000 grams), marijuana extract (1,000,000 grams), psilocin (24,000 grams), ibogaine (150 grams), MDMA (12,000 grams), and mescaline (1,200 grams) saw no changes between November 2023 and now. Over time, the DEA has gradually increased the quota for many of these substances due to increased interest. In the November report, the DEA explained its expectation for this trend. “There has been a significant increase in the use of schedule I hallucinogenic controlled substances for research and clinical trial purposes,” the DEA wrote. “DEA has received and subsequently approved new registration applications for Schedule I researchers and new applications for registration from manufacturers to grow, synthesize, extract, and prepare dosage forms containing specific Schedule I hallucinogenic substances for research and clinical trial purposes.” The public comment portion of the report was compiled of 4,699 public comments “from DEA registrants, people with chronic pain, patients with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), pain advocacy associations, U.S. professional associations, U.S. nurses, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, the Australian ADHD Professionals Association, the ADHD Foundation Australia, and others.” Those comments varied in topic, from opioid drug shortages, stimulant drug use in both the U.S. and Australia, and more. In one of the comments, three manufacturers requested that the proposed APQ for “dexmethylphenidate (for conversion), lisdexamfetamine, and psilocybin be established at sufficient levels for manufacturers to meet medical and scientific needs.” Additionally, the DEA also received quota applications “for 4-Anilino-N-phenethyl-4piperidine (4-ANPP), all other tetrahydrocannabinol, delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol, dimethyltryptamine, fentanyl and pentobarbital.” Another public comment referred to the religious use of Schedule I substances (specifically “psilocin, psilocybin, mescaline, ibogaine, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), 2-(4-Iodo-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl) ethanamine (2CI), dimethyltryptamine (DMT), 5-methoxy-NN dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT)”). In one case, the Native American Church requested that the APQ for mescaline (aka peyote) be increased for their use, and allow its planting in the wild due to shortages. The commenter claimed that the DEA “has disregarded their legal religious use of psychedelics as a factor when setting the production quotas of these substances,” and requested a hearing if the agency does not grant their requests. The DEA’s response didn’t address the statement, and only wrote that the DEA has worked with indigenous communities in the past. Another request included listing the fruiting bodies that contain psilocybin and psilocin, as well as “peyote buttons containing mescaline,” in the quotas, rather than just the pure chemicals. However, the DEA responded by stating that the APQ listings are based on the Controlled Substances Act and it will continue to label them in accordance with the act. Also technically, peyote is categorized separately from mescaline. The DEA recently issued a warning to the state of Georgia for independent pharmacies selling low-THC cannabis oil products. “All DEA registrants, including DEA-registered pharmacies, are required to abide by all relevant federal laws and regulations,” a letter sent to pharmacies in December 2023 stated. “A DEA-registered pharmacy may only dispense controlled substances in Schedules II-V of the Controlled Substances Act. Neither marijuana nor THC can lawfully be possessed, handled, or dispensed by any DEA-registered pharmacy.” Georgia pharmacies officially began selling low-THC cannabis oil in October 2023. At the time, only three pharmacies received a license to sell cannabis with less than 5% THC, although there are more than 400 independent pharmacies that could be a part of the program throughout the state. With substances like fentanyl rising as one of the most common sources of overdose death last year, it’s imperative that research on the benefits of cannabis, psilocybin, DMT, continue to progress.
https://hightimes.com/

Sam Jay: Comedian or Therapist?

Sam Jay might be from Beantown but she’s been in New York long enough to master its rhythm. When Sam is not in production on various film and TV projects or touring, you can catch her stoned pretending to be a therapist to her talented comedian friends on stage during her live comedy “On Site” show. I met this Bostonian-New York transplant several months ago where all the cool and hip creative types meet in NYC—Soho House. With an invite from a friend and killer stand-up comedian Petey Deabreu, who was previously one of Sam’s “patients,” I pulled up. It was probably one the most enjoyable NYC nights I had in a while. Petey was joined by comedian and SNL writer Rosebud Baker and her husband, comedian Andy Haynes, along with one of my favorite rappers, Smoke Dza. Jokes were cracked effortlessly left and right, countless laughs were shared, and lots of weed was passed around.  Fairly recently was another quintessential NYC evening featuring Sam Jay. One of the more exciting new events in NYC featuring live comedy is a new partnership between my home team collective, The Good Life!, and NYC hip hop and comedy impresario, Cipha Sounds. “Underbelly Comedy” is a new monthly show at the Wythe Hotel’s intimate theater space, of which Sam Jay was the headliner of the second show, and she murdered it—with some real notable comics, like Shane Torres and Daniel Simonson. I was truly in awe of Sam’s set, as she says everything about pop culture that we are all thinking, but would never say out loud. The event clears out into a little speakeasy bar where Cipha Sounds holds court and tonight the beautiful and talented DJs and twin sisters Angel & Dren take us home! Hysterical jokes were made, uncontrollable laughs were had, and copious amounts of cannabis was consumed, as per usual. But the night was far from over.  Eventually, Sam and the gang migrated to an undisclosed location with The Lost Canna Club. After some vibes out there, we bounced to the freshly reopened Fat Buddha/Hidden Tiger bar for this year’s live recording of Bun B and Statik Selektah’s TrillStatik 3. As it turns out, Sam and Statik are really good friends with a lot in common. In fact, Statik produced music used for Sam’s latest special. And now Sam is here to lay down a very based outro for his album. Upon arrival, we were overwhelmed with legendary presence from the likes of Method Man, Talib Kweli, Rome Streetz, Smif N Wesson, Benny The Butcher, and star of the show, Bun B. If you read my article on Trillstatik 2, just know I was on my best behavior this time and didn’t bother Bun until most of his writing was done. The event was sponsored by Archive, who produces some of my favorite flower called Moonbow 99. The Astor Club family was on hand to roll that with some of their Blue Dream Cookies x Chemchi hash to create one hell of a donut for yours truly. So this time, delicious Trill Burgers were consumed, raps were recorded, and an amazing hash-hole was smoked. Moreover, I still had yet to interview Sam Jay, which was on the agenda. I figured, let’s go and do this where consumption is not only allowed, but encouraged—the place where everyone knows my name, the Astor Club. This was a great place for me to wait for Sam who was running behind. I was privileged enough to try amazing cannabis as well as pick out some edibles for Sam who still gets really high a lot, just not from actually smoking the flower anymore. With Astor Club being the cultural hub that it is, it was almost no surprise that our familiar friend Statik Selektah happened to stop by, which made for even better vibes than expected. Upon Sam’s arrival, I gifted her a collection of edibles I curated from the menu, including one of my favorites called Astronaut Food, as well as some more edibles from Archive which were vegan, gluten free, 100 mg per package and made from actual fruit purées. I ate a couple myself. Then I let the Bostonians catch up about the Celtics game, waited a bit for those gummies to kick in, and then proceeded to alley-oop my questions. How did it all start with you and your relationship with cannabis? You know what’s crazy? I didn’t even smoke weed till like 25. I was like a D.A.R.E-ass kid, bro. I was scared as fuck of drugs. I was really brought up to believe that weed was a gateway drug, like I would be smoking crack. I literally believed all of the rhetoric—I was scared, and my mom was really anti-drug. It was not something that was acceptable in my house. Nobody talked about that kinda shit in my family. It wasn’t till I started smoking weed that I found out everyone was doing some shit, but when I was in Atlanta, my cousins was always rolling up and smoking.  I don’t know what made me start, but I know I was a little drunk one night, and I just looked at my cousins who [were] constantly smoking, like fuck it, they ain’t dead and have been smoking for years, and I just went for it. So at first, it was just something I would do with them. I couldn’t roll or anything. But, I kept saying to myself, smoking weed is straight. I just love how expansive it made my mind. Honestly, I was like, “I kinda like how my brain feels on this.” One day, I was with my cousin, and I asked him to roll me a blunt, and he was like, “Nah you smoking too much, you do it!” Once I rolled my own blunt, I started buying my own weed. And just like that, I was a weed smoker.  What would you have to do in order to cop weed when you were 25 years old in Atlanta? I was living on the south side, at that same complex that Trinidad James shot the “All Gold Everything” video. There would be all these kids outside selling, like 2-for-$10, 3-for-$15, type-shit. So, you can buy weed, but there was no education. They would just say they had “gas.” You really did not know what you were smoking, but if it looked green enough, you’d buy it.  Okay, so what was it like hitting Los Angeles and going to the dispensaries for the first time?  That was crazy! But when I was going, you still needed that medical shit first. That was nothing for real, you was just paying for it, really. They ain’t give a fuck about what was wrong with you! So, I went to the weed store and I bought weed like a regular person and I loved it. I never wanna go back to having to find a dealer. Motherfuckers would sell you weed, but they acted like they were selling bricks of cocaine! The whole way they used to treat it was so fuckin’ crazy! I remember, my man made me pull over, he walked by a trash can, then he got back in and said, “Now you go by the trash can.” I’m like, “Are we really doing all of this for some fucking bud? When I started going to the store, they had drinks and mad other shit I had never seen before, and once you smoke that California weed, you don’t ever go back to smoking mid. It actually made me realize how much mid I would actually have to smoke in order to get high.  Now you are a stoner and a touring comedian, any issues getting to the weed while you are on the road?  No, once you are a known comic, everyone offers you drugs. It actually becomes very easy to buy drugs. It’s like, once you get into the town, n****s are like, “Hey! Let me know if you need drugs!” And that’s as soon as you get there. So, you don’t have to do much to find it. I mean, I could go to the club owner, and be like, “I need weed,” and he’ll be like, “Okay, we’ll figure it out!”  But, when I wasn’t so prominent, I did a lot of hoping I wouldn’t get robbed and praying for an upstanding drug dealer with a good moral compass.  Or, another thing I used to do was become cool with the weed man. When I lived in Atlanta, there was this young n**** named Piff. He was selling drugs, but had nowhere to go to do what he needed to do. So, he would use my crib just to bag up and burn with me. People got 5 different hustles in Atlanta, and I wasn’t really working, so he would show up at 8am and that was the morning blunt.  I had a feeling you had a deep appreciation for the plant. I really respect the level of honesty you have been able to reveal about yourself, especially on your show, Pause. What were the difficulties, if any?  It was easy and it was hard. It was hard because the format didn’t exist at all. In my head, I was like, “I think I can do this.” But, I wasn’t sure about the execution at all. I really wanted that shit to feel like a party, you feel me? I wanted to get people to talk the way they actually talk, and that’s hard to get on TV  because people are too conscious of themselves when they know they are on TV.  I had to tell HBO, “I don’t want any standing cameras and I don’t want my friends staged. Like, I don’t want you to tell my friend to go stand here…” So, we ended up putting 3 people on body cam. They had roaming cameras that moved around the room. I wouldn’t allow boom mics. Everyone was mic’d, so there was like 14 different channels of sound. The sound man hated me. We needed everyone to be chill, so we would have a party before, to get everyone comfortable using the mic, and hope they would forget they had it on. Then, we transferred them to the Pause party. Nobody knew the topics but me. So, I would start conversations and steer them where I want them to go. Also, I was high!  You were high the entire time?   For most of it.  Something that I wanted to highlight from Pause is that you are a self-proclaimed “Suck my dick!” kid. My punk rock spirit relates to this so heavily, please elaborate!  I was just a very, “Don’t tell me what to do” type of kid. Don’t try to control me. Any sign of control, I was going the other way. Even like, being black and living in the hood, people were like, “You gotta be like this,” I was like, “No, I’m going to go listen to alternative, and be the opposite.” I’ve always been like that. Even in a dumb way, sometimes, because I have to ask myself, “Are you making this decision because this is what you want to do, or just doing this because you don’t want to do what everyone else is doing?”  Well, I think it’s pretty punk rock that on Pause you just kinda decided to be a journalist, and now your live show “On Site” you’re basically a whole entire therapist. How does that even happen? “On Site” really came from the desire to do a live show that wasn’t pure stand-up. Then my homie Keith Johnson, who I do the show with, was like, “You are always yelling at us, bullying us, and telling us how to run our lives. Maybe it’s a show where you fuck with comics the way you fuck with us!” And yeah, I thought it could be kinda fun to put comics in a different space and just fuck with them in a different way. It’s a really fun time, and it’s always fun to do that kinda thing with comics because they can throw it back at you. And I am also a mess, so I think that’s the underlying theme in all my work. With Pause as well, it’s like, “Well, I don’t know…” We are exploring these ideas—I’m not necessarily correct. We used to go into Pause and think it was okay for me to be wrong at the end of the journey or have my mind changed. I try to undercut that seriousness about it because [we’re all] humans that be fucking up.  I find that most stand-up specials on streaming platforms are trash. What do you think? I think they are putting out a lot of the same voices. And, you can’t really see the diversity until you’re out in the clubs and really see what’s happening in the streets.   How did you and Statik link? Statik Selektah: “We’re the same age and came to New York the same year.” Hip-hop is something you obviously love and keep up with. Where does that come from? My brothers are older than me. So by the time I was kid, my brothers were way into hip hop. One brother was very into De La Soul and Native Tongues, and my other brother was very into Big Daddy Kane and Run DMC—that type shit. I would listen to whatever they would listen to, until I got outside and started hearing what other kids was listening to. But, all of my hip-hop knowledge came from inside the house.  What do you like or dislike about current hip-hop/rap music?  I like a lot of new hip-hop. I don’t dislike anything, I just think there are things I don’t understand anymore. Like, I don’t get Playboi Carti. I don’t think it’s good, or bad, it’s just not for my ears. My little cousins, they are totally tapped in. They seem to understand it. It’s giving them something they need, so I don’t judge it. Gimme the beats, gimme the booms and baps, and gimme the lyrics—I’m an East Coast kid.  How did you get Statik to give you an original beat for your HBO special?  I just asked him. I just told him that’s what I wanted to do. A lot of times, when you do specials, they are open to creative shit—you just have to come with creative shit. I think it adds a real dope-ass element to the special, even when I watch it, it just sets the tone. It’s dope to have an original Statik beat. I’m such a hip-hop head—it feels cool to say that I have one now.  TrillStatik 3 is out everywhere you can stream music, and Sam Jay’s new HBO special “Salute Me Or Shoot Me” is a must-watch. Please go see her live when she hits your city! For all things Sam Jay click here! 
https://hightimes.com/

Johns Hopkins University To Spend $10 Million Studying Medical Cannabis

A new multi-million dollar study at Johns Hopkins University aims to analyze how patients nationwide respond to medical cannabis treatments.  Johns Hopkins University, which championed one of the largest and most widely referenced studies on medical applications of psilocybin mushrooms, announced the launch of a medical cannabis study in the winter edition of their Brainwise newsletter.  According to the newsletter, the study will take a nationally representative sample of about 10,000 medical cannabis patients in an attempt to “fill [the] information gap” that exists when comparing medical cannabis knowledge to other elements of modern medicine. In other words, they are attempting to learn just as much about cannabis and how it can be used to treat medical maladies as other potential treatments which have all typically undergone extensive peer-reviewed scrutiny before ever being used in a medical setting. Cannabis is already used nationwide to treat a range of ailments like pain management, anxiety and ADHD but little is certain about long-term practical efficacy of such treatments other than anecdotal information from people who say it helps them.  “We have the availability of cannabis as a therapeutic, but we’re lacking the quality of data that we have with other medicines,” said a written statement by Ryan Vandrey, one of the initiative’s creators and a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Our mission with this research is to understand the health impacts of therapeutic cannabis use,”Vandrey said. “We hope to provide some starting points for understanding what types of products may or may not be helpful and what types of products may be more risky for use in certain populations or for certain therapeutic purposes.” The initiative is supported by a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and plans to collect data from patients such as methods of ingestion (smoking, edibles, vaping etc.), dosage, interactions with other medications and the chemical composition of different products.   “We’re tracking them with multiple assessments over the course of their first year with more tightly spaced assessments toward the beginning because our assumption is that as people are starting their medical cannabis journey, they’re likely going to try different products until they find the products that best help them with their symptoms,” said Johannes Thrul, associate professor of mental health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who is collaborating on this project with Vandrey.  One of the issues with quantifying, analyzing or studying cannabis in general is that it’s such a versatile plant that can be ingested and used in so many different fashions that it has somewhat puzzled medical and pharmaceutical professionals in the past who tend to rely on cut-and-dry medications which can be easily patented. This is not the case with cannabis products or cannabis users which tend to vary greatly. How does one compare the experience of dabbing to combustion of flower or distillate gummies to hash gummies without extensive study that, up until recently, was ineligible for any form of federal funding. The new Johns Hopkins study aims to put a dent in that research deficit.  “Under the umbrella term of cannabis exist hundreds of products that are all different in very important and significant ways,” Vandrey said. “We’re trying to narrow the scope a little bit, find areas of real promise and focus the science on those.” Vandrey said that the data from this study could have practical applications across the board from guiding decisions made in clinical settings, to legislative policy decisions, to providing regulations for additional clinical trials. This is even more evident based on the policy and clinical decisions which have already been made from the aforementioned psilocybin study which paved the way for decriminalization in several cities across the country as well as additional clinical trials and direct legalization for medical use in states like Oregon.  The researchers at Johns Hopkins will be working closely with the National Institute on Drug Abuse as well as Realm of Caring, a Colorado-based nonprofit that provides information about cannabinoid therapies. The researchers will analyze and track data from patients over a year or more of their own respective cannabis-based treatments.

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