Cannabis Lifestyle
Cannabis Lifestyle
Things You're Better At While Stoned
We all have those feelings that when we're high we aren't as good at some things. I, for example, can never hand write neatly when I'm high, and I can't explain why. However, just like there are things that I'm not as good at stoned, there are plenty of things I'm better at while I'm high! For example, when I'm sober I find that my rolled joints never come out as straight as they do when I'm high, and also, I can read a lot faster, and more comprehensively, when I'm stoned as well. There are plenty of different things that you may find you're better at while you're stoned too! Check out a few of the benefits that we have experienced! 1. Eating Of course, this might seem obvious, but I don't just mean the fact that you get the munchies, and can decimate a large pizza in 30 minutes or less. I'm talking about the fact that when you're baked, you want to have an amazing food experience, so you're more likely to put care into the food you're making and eating. Many people that I've talked to claim that after a certain amount of time of smoking cannabis they've developed a tendency to shy away from fast foods or unhealthy snacks in favor of cooking real meals to satisfy the munchies. There have also been reports claiming that marijuana is linked with decreasing obesity rates. 2. Trying new things It's easy to lose your self in the moment when you're high; you want to be a part of the experience that is surrounding you. Even if you just want to be more open to the people around you and have decent conversation, that is a part of expanding your horizons. Of course it can also lead to more adventurous opportunities, like exploring the world of nature when you're baked! Trust me, there's no more wonderful of a feeling than doing something exciting outdoors when high on a nice sativa! 3. Being Yourself It's harder to pretend when you're baked, and why would you want to? That much focus kills the high! The beautiful thing about cannabis is that it brings together people who just want to let themselves go and have an honest experience with the people around them. On top of that, when you're high you don't lose control of yourself in the same way you do when you're using other substances like alcohol. Instead of totally wrecking your coordination and thought-process, cannabis will at most make you slightly inattentive, and have you throwing out some of the wackiest highdeas your friends have ever heard of! 4. Focusing For some people, and also depending on the strain, cannabis can help you focus on the task at hand. You can give it your all and refuse to be taken away from progress by any distraction, other than maybe a pizza. There have been quite a few times back in my school days when I would pull out a specific strain that I only used on nights for studying that would keep me awake until the early morning. While other kids were looking for prescription drugs to make them focus, I was just using the same ol' herb I've always turned to! 5. (or) Multitasking On the other hand, if you feel as if cannabis makes it difficult for you to stay on track with one thing at a time, it's quite likely you have amazing multitasking capabilities. Don't believe me? Try it out! Spend some time cooking in the kitchen while reading over some notes, or listening to language recordings, you may find that you just haven't been having enough to do in the past! 6. Creative Projects When baked your creativity soars a different path than the one of normal imagination. It's not to say that cannabis makes you more creative than when you're sober, but it takes you on a different journey of thought, one that explores the areas of your mind that you have yet to fully experience and develop. Some of the world's most renowned artists, writers, and celebrities have claimed to smoke marijuana, such as Maya Angelou, Morgan Freeman, Rihanna, and dozens of others. --- These are just a few of the many, many ways that cannabis can help supercharge your day! Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments!
The Top 10 Smoke Spots of /r trees
We all have that one magical spot that we go to to clear our minds and light one up. Sometimes it’s a corner in the closet, sometimes it’s directly under the bathroom fan, but sometimes it can be somewhere awesome, like atop a mountain or on a ski lift. Everybody has their own favorite place to toke, and these are some of the coolest smoking spots that we were able to find on /r trees. How do they stack up compared to yours? Check ‘em out below! So where is your smoke spot located? Is it somewhere exotic like these places? Or a little bit more comfortable, like a fire pit in the backyard or your computer battlestation? Let us know in the comments!
Being a Stoner in an Alcoholic's World
It is an individual person’s choice whether or not to drink, just as it is their choice whether or not to try cannabis, but do you feel like society makes it easier to choose alcohol? With cannabis still illegal in most countries, it can be easy to see how that is the case. How does this affect the average, everyday stoner? Check out some of the indicators of being a stoner living in an alcoholic world below! 1. Be an activist Buy a sticker, put it on your binder. Throw a magnet on your fridge. Maybe even represent the ol’ rasta colors every now and then, do as much more or less as you would like, but don’t be passive! Give something to the cause, even if it’s just your internal support. Cannabis is outlawed in most countries in the world still today, and is making it’s move for legality in countries around the world, if you want to see legal cannabis in a store near you someday, it will only work with your help! 2. Being discrete Discretion is key. Discretion. Is. Key. Unless you live somewhere like Washington or Colorado at least. If you’re at home, this means paying attention to the smell mainly, so I recommend lighting up some incense, candles, or make yourself a spoof (a paper-towel roll stuffed with dryer sheets, trust me). When you’re going out and about however, you’re facing a whole different set of dilemmas. Staying out of sight, keeping the smell from sticking in any one area, appearing high; and you have to deal with transporting your goodies, say to a park, a concert, or just to pick up the pizza. One way you can easily deal with the problem of being prepared is purchasing a SMOcan Smoking System from GrassCity; it contains a storage compartment, a single-hitter bat, a grinder, and even a place for you to store a mini-BIC lighter, perfect for all-around on the go use! 3. Bitch, moan, cry your heart out. (Then light it up) Personally, I smoke enough cannabis to hardly ever pick up a drink. Although a beer or a glass of wine every now and then is something that I enjoy, it’s not something I enjoy every day by a longshot. When you’re surrounded by bars, booze, and stumbling drunks in every downtown scene and on every Friday night, it can seem like you have nowhere to go. There’s no comfy couch in a corner with your name on it to sit in and enjoy your cannabis whilst nibbling on some kitchen-fresh appetizers, not yet, at least. You feel left out, while half of your friends continue on into the hazy corridor, the other half are looking for a discrete place to toke. So what do you do in a situation like this? Smoke more cannabis, of course. 4. Finding stable employment The true curse of cannabis is not that it is illegal, or the fact that there is no conclusive research as to its negative effects, but rather the fact that it sticks around. Due to the fact that cannabis leaves traces of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) lasting in your bloodstream after ingestion, for anywhere from days to months after, it can lead to difficulties finding employment at establishments that do a regular multi-testing paneled drug test. While some employers may still ignore the traces of THC in your system, it is nearly impossible to flush the THC out completely with anything other than time. This gives other substances like alcohol, LSD, and amphetamines an unfair advantage over cannabis, due to their active ingredients half-lives extending to around 48 hours on average, meaning that there is no trace of those drugs in an individual’s blood stream two days after use. --- What other facts of life exist when you’re a stoner living in an alcoholic world? Share with us in the comments!
Morgan Freeman Defends His Marijuana Use: "I'll Eat It, Drink It, Smoke It, Snort It"
“They used to say, ‘You smoke that stuff, boy, you get hooked! My first wife got me into it many years ago. How do I take it? However it comes! I’ll eat it, drink it, smoke it, snort it! This movement is really a long time coming, and it’s getting legs—longer legs." Freeman doesn't stop there, he continues on to make comments about his distaste to alcohol, "Now, the thrust is understanding that alcohol has no real medicinal use. Maybe if you have one drink it’ll quiet you down, but two or three and you’re fucked.” Freeman continues on to explain his support of marijuana for medicinal uses, “Marijuana has many useful uses,” he says. “I have fibromyalgia pain in this arm, and the only thing that offers any relief is marijuana. They’re talking about kids who have grand mal seizures, and they’ve discovered that marijuana eases that down to where these children can have a life. That right there, to me, says, ‘Legalize it across the board!’” “Look at Woodstock 1969. They said, ‘We’re not going to bother them or say anything about smoking marijuana,’ and not one problem or fight. Then look at what happened in ’99.” This in reference to the festival's revival in that same year which resulted in arrests and riots due possibly caused by less marijuana friendly policies. --- How do you guys feel about this? Does it make you feel any different about the marijuana movement now that God is on the supporting side?
Recipe Round Up: 6 Cozy Cannabis Recipes To Keep You Warm This Winter
The holidays are officially over, but there's still plenty of winter left for us to get through. That means bundling up for the weather, sitting in our cars while warm up and cozying up at home after a long day in the cold. One of the best ways to enjoy this wonderful time of the year is to settle in with something cozy and delicious—and cannabis-infused, of course (no one really keeps their New Year's resolutions, do they?). Check out these cannabis recipes that will certainly get the warmth going! Because of the versatility of cannabis concentrates and various extraction methods, you can definitely find a way to introduce cannabis into almost any of your favorite meals with relative ease. Brownies are so 2015, so upgrade your cannabis cooking skills and try some of these outstanding recipes that will keep you warm this winter. Feature Image: Marie C Fields / Shutterstock
Sasquatch Glass: The First Glass Super Brand?
It’s a legend that lingers from a previous era. It’s a holdover from a time when myth and reality were woven together into tales told under the dancing shadows of campfires to future warriors who lay on their backs counting stars now obscured by city lights. To this day, the Sasquatch has remained a primary thread in the fabric of American mythology. He’s a mighty legend of the Pacific Northwest that continues to tantalize the minds of the region’s more imaginative, the continued claims of which perpetuate the narrative and keep the mythical creature suspended in a purgatorial gray area between fact and fiction. Think Fox News, but more interesting and with slightly better documentation. Sasquatch Glass owner, Scott Hunter, may not be an eight foot tall Wookie with super-human strength that always turns out blurry in photographs, but he and the company he has built might hold more in common with the mythical ape-man than one would suspect. And though he may not be super-human, the name he is building could arguably be categorized as a super-brand. Hunter is a certified rarity among the throngs of fledgling entrepreneurs of the glass world, a style of businessman many would argue is nonexistent within the confines of the counter cultural trade. Where others see a niche, he sees a potential for transcendence. While others engage in an endless cycle of imitation, he is forging a new trail. And while his peers spend their days building pipes, he is spending his life building a brand. His secret is simple, really, and it’s not even really a secret; more of an underrated truth. Though it’s important to understand where you’ve come from, the real key to success in any business is knowing where you’re going. For Hunter, that direction can only be up, from the subcultural bubble in which the industry was born into the mainstream where it can thrive. Or, as legendary medical dispensary owner, Steve Deangelo, so famously put it, “Out of the shadows, into the light.” As Hunter sees it, legalization is now inevitable, an impending reality for the nation that has already come to fruition in the state of Washington where he currently resides. With new legitimacy comes a new market, which according to Hunter, will be the older bracket, age 35 to 60, to be exact. It only makes sense that this would be the case. The myths and stereotypes of the prohibition era have long-since lost their hold on the public consciousness. The so-called “Gen-Exers” are now settling comfortably into middle age, having traded in their flannels and Doc Martins for Polos and sensible-dad tennies. The Reefer Madness generation is fading away. For those of this age bracket that have already been partaking, this means they’re no longer relegated to sneaking tokes from a metal one-hitter behind the shed. For those who have adhered to the archaic laws still in place from a dead era, this means they can finally join their friends without fear of prosecution. This is the market Hunter hopes to capture with Sasquatch Glass. “It's something that the entire glass industry is completely ill-prepared for,” Hunter says of this emerging bracket. “They're going to be 75% of the pie,” he later adds. “They're going to go from 10% to 75% . . . There's truly nothing that I can think of that I have seen in my research and history where an industry has flip flopped it's demographic that much in such a short period of time. It's massive.” Hunter has obviously thought long and hard about what it will take to reach his audience. Though his brand is very art-centric, he is adamant that the market will demand more than just another heady glass collection. They want sophistication. Subtlety. Simplicity. But, “the most important thing they're looking for,” Hunter interjects, “is lack of intimidation. I say this to people very simply: if it looks more like it's for meth than for weed, that's not what that market wants. When I go to the shows and look at what's being made, a lot of it looks like it's for hardcore drug use, even though it's not. If you're a 35-year-old parent, that's not what you want. You want something that you can leave out on the coffee table that won't be an issue with your kids around, something that your mother in law won't give you a hard time about. There are still are social issues connected to this.” So, what exactly constitutes what he’s described? “Look at what I sell on my website. That answers your question. There are a lot of straight lines. . . there are no honeycombs; I don’t do recyclers. I'm using nice, clean, highest quality glass beakers and tubing. It looks like something a BMW owner would use. Again, what I’m trying to do is sell into the types of brands that this consumer uses.” Really, more than sell into other brands, Hunter is creating a brand that can stand on its own. More than just a glass brand or a brand centered on smoking, however, the name he is creating is meant to encompass the bigger picture of the entire lifestyle; the aesthetic of the modern adult, the enlightened professional, if you will, who appreciates the finer things in life but finds comfort in simplicity. As mentioned before, what he wants to create, and may have already created, is a super-brand. In order to accomplish this, Hunter wants the Sasquatch paw print that denotes his company’s namesake “to be embedded in your house and involved in all of your activities. When you drink, that paw print is on your glass. When you take a bath, my paw print is on your towel . . . When you eat, my paw print is on the plate. If you have art in your house, you collect the art that we did with Vincent Gordon and Sean Dietrich that are amazing pieces of work. That's what it's about. It's about everywhere you turn, there are Sasquatch-branded products in your house.” So the far, the model has proven successful. Sasquatch Glass, though only in existence for the last five years, has very quickly rocketed to the forefront of the smoking accessories market as well as the glass art scene in general. But with new growth comes new problems and Hunter isn’t any more hesitant to discuss his trials than he is his triumphs. Through the strides he has taken, Hunter has found himself at the precipice of another level of growth, but it’s one that requires new capital. As the cliché goes, it often takes money to make money. “Last year, we raised $750,000,” he tells me. “Currently, we're in the process of raising another million dollars so we can expand our production, because right now, we're having growth issues in that department. We're in the manufacturing business. This is a very difficult product to manufacture . . . There are significant barriers to entry. I'm not talking about the individual glassblowers. You've got to have a shop, you have to train people, you've got to have an assembly line mentality. All of my people come from pharmaceutical companies. They're real pharmaceutical glassblowers. Those are the hardest people to find that are that well trained.” With his existing track record to back him up, Hunter has little doubt he’ll find the capital he needs. It’s just a matter of continuing to etch out his place in the market and finding the right person to help him do it. “At the end of the day,” he speculates, “the type of person who will invest in a company like Sasquatch Glass will be somebody who wants to be involved in this whole cannabis revolution but doesn't want to touch the plant. That's the kind of person we're looking for.” Sasquatch. A legend of epic proportions, a mythical beast whose notoriety has reached total ubiquity in culture, feared by some, revered by others, treasured by all. It’s only that fitting Hunter would choose such a moniker. Scott Hunter and his business partner, Spencer Ward.
Sustaining Art: Mountain Jam Glass
Dorene at Mountan Jam Glass might think she’s just selling cool pipes. But in the light of the massive trends that surround (yet fail to envelop) her business, she may actually be the remnant of a growing resistance. Granted, that may sound a touch like a conspiracy theory, or even a little too soaked in the syrup of a certain SciFi/Fantasy epic, but there is some truth to consider lying beneath that bombastic appeal. The world economy is becoming an increasingly mechanized one. Price point and efficiency have now trumped quality and satisfaction as the primary considerations in the production of our goods. Lifeless, homogenized, mass-fabricated gadgets have replaced the offerings of the artisanal trade, leaving the true artists and craftsmen at the unemployment line. Meanwhile, the modest-but-fair earnings of their former trades are siphoned to the top, carried on the backs of third world sweat shop workers performing a pale shadow of the job they used to do. Accumulation of wealth is not only the bottom line, but the only line, and is achieved through corner cutting, planned obsolescence and a continual devaluing and deemphasizing of the brilliance of the individual. All the while, the average consumer sees none of this, instead distracted by the illusion of choice and the unsustainable abundance that characterizes the age. Who cares if it breaks? China’s pumping out millions of them for pennies every day. Just grab another. Pay no attention to the landfill behind the curtain. The pipe world, though a movement of the artisan at its very core, is no exception to this trend. Glass factories are now the norm. They pump out replica after replica in assembly-line fashion, reducing their workers to a cog in a machine as they reduce the sacred device they produce to a widget whose value is measured in pennies. Thankfully, there are still exceptions; companies out there who still find value beyond that which can be quantified on an annual report. In the world of pipes, Mountain Jam Glass is a shining example of that exception, one whose existence is becoming more novel by the day. “We have very, very high standards,” Dorene says, explaining what differentiates their glass. “I'm selling these to people and I don't want them to be disappointed. I would be disappointed if I got a crooked bowl. Treat people how you want to be treated is what I always say. Give them what you would want.” Within her words, there is the first inkling of the underlying values that fuel their departure from the business norms. She’s selling the glass to people; not to consumers, not to the market, but to people. She recognizes the human element in commerce, something that is too easily lost within the aforementioned trends of today’s climate. It’s not just the end customer whom she values, it’s also those who create the product she sells. Glass Sidecar- Fumed Cobalt Glass with Color Carb and Marbles Mountain Jam Glass isn’t another glass factory or even another glass production facility. You could call the business a distributor, but truthfully, it’s more of a collective, not in the traditional sense that it’s owned by its employees, but that it is the commercial center of an independent network of individual glass artists and artisans in and around the thriving glass community of Eugene, Oregon. “All of our glass comes from individual artists,” Dorene emphasizes. “They have their own space they working and they bring it here.” Glass Sherlock Pipe - Light Green Frit and Worked Green Eyeball For the artists involved, that means a mechanism by which they can achieve sustainable and dependable success without giving up their independence or creative freedom. For the people buying the glass to take home and use, that means unprecedented access to artisanal quality glass at a fair price and the knowledge that every purchase supports an artist rather than a sweat shop. It’s barely a step away from picking out a piece on an artist’s blanket at a Phish lot. Glass Sherlock Pipe - Fume with Trap Reticello Galaxy Style & Color Encalmo Lines Obviously, the products we’re talking about here are American made, which denotes a higher price tag, but for the user, that jump in price is far exceeded by the jump in quality. We’ve already discussed surface points, i.e., the aesthetic value of a work of art versus a commodity, the supporting of an American artist, etc. But there are also the lesser known factors often lost on the average person just looking for a pipe. For one, with imports, there’s no certainty as to how it was made, what chemicals were used during the process, etc. There’s also the annealing process, which is often skipped in factories overseas. Annealing is a specific cooling process that allows freshly heated glass to achieve room temperature without stress cracks. This not only means that your piece will last significantly longer; it also means that you aren’t inhaling random chips of glass and god-knows what kind of residue left behind in the factory every time you smoke. “It's just cheap and crappy glass,” Dorene remarks of the imports, a dismissive shrug audible at the edges of her voice. “Usually, there are small fractures through it.” From her experience, though, there’s really no reason for bitterness. The import may seem to have taken over the market, but she knows there will always be a need for the quality domestic product she offers. Glass Spoon Pipe - Fumed with Tree Themed Art - Green “We've had our issues through the years with battling it, but it always comes back around to the quality thing. People have too many pipes that have broken, so they'll go back to a quality piece that will last them a long time. It's kind of an ebb and a flow thing. It's scary when it first starts but then you realize that at some point, it's going to change and go back. They just don't have the quality that we have in U.S. glass.” Started in a garage in 2000 as a family business by Georgia transplants who wanted to start a new life in Eugene, Oregon, Mountain Jam Glass is now an institution in the smoke shop industry, a force for good to be reckoned with that pushes back against the corporate mechanization of the era with the sustaining strength of the individual. The model has worked with unprecedented success, too. Having worked with GrassCity since 2002, they are one of the website's largest and longest running glass providers, proving once again that people want more out of their buying experience than just a price point. Dorene sums it up even better. “We've been dedicated for over 15 years to try to put quality pipes in peoples' hands, to make them happy. We want to give them something they can have for a long time. We try to have good customer service. If there are ever any problems, we always want to help people out. We just want to support the local glassblowers in our scene and push their products out there to the world for people to see because it's such good quality products. Eugene was the home of first class pipes so we want to represent Eugene with a good quality product for people and make them happy.” Heady Glass Double Disc Vapor Bubbler - Greenish Gold Sparkle with Clear Spikes
Cannabis Thumbprint Tea Cookies Recipe
CANNABIS THUMBPRINT TEA COOKIES Ingredients: 1 C. 4:20 Butter (cannabutter) 1/3 C. Powdered Sugar 1 Tsp Vanilla 1 & 2/3 C. Flour Fruit Filling: 8 oz. jar your choice of favorite Jam/Preserve/Jelly, 4:20 VG Tincture Chocolate Filling: 12 oz. your choice of chocolate, cannabis oil YIELD: 3 Dozen Thumprint Tea Cookies Step 1: In a large mixing bowl, cream together cannabis butter & powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Fold in vanilla. Step 2: Mix in flour, place finished dough into refrigerator for 30 min. Step 3: Pre-heat oven to 350. Line cookie trays with parchment paper. Form dough into 1" balls, then place onto tray, 12 to a tray. Once the cookies have cooled, use the back of a spoon to make indentations into the cookies that will be filled later. Cook for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool completely before filling. Fruit Filling: Using your favorite Jam/Jelly/Preserve, place contents of one jar into a medium saucepot on low heat. Add 2 Tbs. of water and heat until warm and manageable, then remove from heat. Stir in 2-3 Tbs. of 4:20 VG Tincture (can be adjusted to your personal levels.). Fill each cookie and let sit for 15 min before placing in to refrigerator for 30 min. Store & enjoy. Chocolate Filling: Melt your chocolate of choice 1-2 min in microwave, then stir in 2-3 Tbs. 4:20 oil (can be adjusted to your personal levels). Fill each cookie and let sit for 15 min before placing into refrigerator for 30 min. Store & enjoy. [gallery columns="2" size="medium" ids="1728,1729"]
The Origin of SYN
As someone who grew up wading in the murky currents of Southeastern Virginia’s Atlantic shores, I was programmed very early on to equate the name, SYN, with the pinnacle of quality in the world of functional glass art. The West Coast had their Snodgrass and JBD and Europe had their ROOR. But out on the East Coast, the land all but forgotten by the counter-cultural tastemakers of the day, we were unrepentantly fixated on the iniquitous renderings of North Carolina’s best kept secret. SYN, as a brand, is said to have been born somewhere near the Outer Banks of North Carolina around 2002, but the exact dates are shrouded in ambiguity. Original founder and glassblowing legend, Fat Mike, had spent the preceding decade slinging his wares on the road, setting up shop anywhere and everywhere he could. As with most of the early pioneers of his ilk, he most often found himself on the fabled lots of the jam band culture. But having left home at the age of 15, Mike didn’t take to the torch immediately. “We did a lot of grilled cheeses and stuff,” he told me in a conversation we had back in 2013. “That was when I first left home and was getting into that whole culture . . . you know tie-dyes, all kinds of different stuff, jewelry, just the whole vibe.” Eventually, Mike would get into the glass game, which at the time, was still a very new industry that largely operated under the radar, thanks to prohibitionist tendencies of the era. “1990, I started selling glass,” he recalled. “In ‘93, I started blowing glass. ‘92 or ‘93.” Consider that: ‘92 or ‘93. Only five or six years after Snodgrass attended his first Dead show; only a year or two after Jerome Baker launched his own iconic career on the torch. The origin of SYN is about as OG as it gets in this industry. SYN Glass – Jet Pack Detachable Recycler Fast-forward back up to the early part of the new millennium, when Mike had finally taken his show off the road and established himself as a true force to be reckoned with. The SYN name was officially created and immediately became synonymous with quality. Though the brand could have easily competed on the national market, Mike wisely kept it regional to avoid attracting the attention of wrong people, a policy decision that was readily adopted when the company was absorbed by the immensely successful East Coast retail outlet, Island Dyes, back in 2008. Really, though, as purveyors in the same overly-persecuted industry, the store’s owners, Brian and Russell Lowe, had already been operating in a very similar fashion, a fact to which they attribute the impressive longevity of their business in an era of intense instability. “We were exclusively regional,” Brian recalled. “We stayed away from doing business over the internet or crossing state lines. We stuck with customers we were familiar with and we could survive with. “The beginning for us was weathering a storm,” he went on. “As far back as Pipe Dreams, we were predominantly just a head shop and like most guys, we had problems just getting pipes in. So, at that point we just . . . had to hang on. In the end, we did better than just hang on. We were able to grow through it. But we stayed small. We didn’t want to overly advertise ourselves, or get too big too fast, because we figured those were the guys that were gonna get nailed.” As the policies of the nation gradually evolved, so too, did the policy of the company. Slowly, but strategically, the new owners of the SYN line spread the tentacles of their freshly acquired brand into one state after the other, quietly opening new accounts across the nation and solidifying their status as one of the premiere names in American glass. Today, what started nearly a decade and a half ago with one guy selling glass to a few stores in a remote corner of the Bible belt is now a major producer, with a facility that boasts 14 glassblowing stations and a reach that extends into 41 states, Canada, Puerto Rico and Amsterdam. SYN Glass – Mini Disc Perc Bong – Red Label Don’t think for a minute, though, that the growth in sales and production has somehow compromised the quality. SYN is still putting out some of the best American glass on the market, faithfully adhering to the standards of their mythic founder, but also looking forward and continually pushing the lines of originality and innovation. To Brian and Russell, what they are creating for you, what you are purchasing when you pick up a piece by SYN is “more than a pipe,” as Brian put it; it’s a timeless piece of art, functional, but still art. It’s something that “will be in your homes that you’ll be completely comfortable with . . . it’s not just smoking . . . It’s like a nice set of china. . .” Unlike a set of china, though, a piece by SYN will boast a durability and functionality of proportions rarely paralleled. It might not be just for smoking, but the smoking experience is still at the heart of the magic of what they do. “I bought a Double Fullsize Showerhead and wow!” wrote one reviewer from Suffolk, Virginia. “Best pipe I have ever bought and I have definitely paid more . . . these guys are the real deal,” Indeed they are. Brian attributed this to the tangible passion they put into each and every step of their process. “There’s an element of customer service you have to offer people in order to make them want to buy from you,” he explained. “And that is, excitement in the product. It starts with us being excited and enthusiastic in what we do and then building that excitement around that product . . . It’s packaging that excitement and then when you’re selling it, whether you sell it out of your own store or you sell it at wholesale, if you bring that level of excitement, it’s going to be sold.” It takes more than just feelings, though. It requires a commitment to quality in every detail. “You can’t make the sales rep at the store counter look stupid by saying, ‘Oh, it’s a great product,’ when you’ve really just given them a piece of junk. You have to deliver, right? It’s executing every step.” SYN Glass – Hitch Hiker Glass Bubbler – Rasta Label
Pan-Roasted Brussels Cannabis Flavored Sprouts with Bacon
Pan-Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon Recipe Type: Main Cuisine: American Author: Tony Aiello Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 25 mins Total time: 40 mins Serves: Feeds 4 If you know anything about cooking with cannabis, you know you can’t cook at too high a temperature if you want to keep your THC from being ruined by the heat. And if you know anything about pan-roasting Brussels sprouts, you know the best way to do it is in a cast-iron skillet over a serious flame. What gives? As with comedy, cooking is about timing. But while they say tragedy plus time equals comedy, with cooking, too much heat for too long always equals tragedy. So the trick here is to know just when to add your THC—for this recipe in the form of cannabutter. Ingredients 1 pound Brussels sprouts 3 or 4 strips bacon, preferably thick-cut 4 garlic cloves 1 small onion 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil 2 tablespoons cannabutter or oil Instructions Heat cast-iron skillet on high for 5 to 7 minutes, then reduce heat to medium. Chop or slice and add bacon. Cook bacon for 2 minutes, then add butter or oil. Cut sprouts into halves and chop garlic and onion. When butter is melted, add garlic and onion and brown for 1 to 2 minutes before adding sprouts. Place sprouts cut side down and cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Turn over sprouts and continue cooking for another 3 to 5 minutes until browned and soft. Turn off heat, mix in cannabutter or oil and let sit for 2 minutes to heat and absorb into food. 3.3.3077 One of the great things about Brussels sprouts is their versatility, allowing them to be used as both a side dish and an entrée, as well as the ease with which they combine with other ingredients and both absorb and complement other flavors. This recipe can serve as an entrée paired with a grain or pasta and a light side salad or another cold vegetable. As a side dish it goes well with just about any meat or fish recipe, but because of its heartiness, any other side dishes you make should be on the lighter side. This dish uses bacon both as a fat to assist the cooking and as a main ingredient, but vegetarians and anyone preferring not to use bacon can just as easily use a little extra olive or grapeseed oil and a flavorful vegetable substitute like sundried tomatoes, garlic scapes, red or green peppers, or even chipotle peppers to replace the bacon. If you know anything about cooking with cannabis, you know you can’t cook at too high a temperature if you want to keep your THC from being ruined by the heat. And if you know anything about pan-roasting Brussels sprouts, you know the best way to do it is in a cast-iron skillet over a serious flame. What gives? Comedy and cooking are both about timing. But while they say tragedy plus time equals comedy, with cooking, too much heat for too long always equals tragedy. The trick here is to know just when to add your THC—for this recipe in the form of cannabutter.
Nixon, Vietnam and the Black Drug Dealer
Two thirds of American forces in Vietnam smoked marijuana. If those troops were worried about copping a joint once they returned to America, they need not worry. The marijuana plant, which grew in abundance in Southeast Asia, was now available at home, sold by the archetypical black drug dealer. If America “lost its innocence” after the Kennedy and King assassinations, that innocence was replaced by fear. Richard M. Nixon knew that whites were reacting to economic and societal changes that threatened to destabilize the mythical image of post-World War II prosperity. This “Silent Majority” instead embraced fear mongering, often at the expense of the freedom of young black men. This new sentiment in public discourse was a shocking reversal to the course set by Lyndon Johnson to lead the entire nation into a greater society, one that defended minority rights to vote, eliminated racial segregation and created a greater safety net for those who were in greatest economic need. The hard-won Civil Rights Acts of ’64 and ’65 soon gave way to raging protests against the war in Vietnam, making civil rights seem more like an early victory in a much longer cultural war. This culture war often set noisy young men and women wrapped in clouds of marijuana smoke against the older demographic of what Tom Brokaw called the “Greatest Generation.” Those who had won WWII, and in the celebrant Baby Boom following the war, had given rise to a massive young constituency that insisted on shaking up the status quo. To battle this counter-culture wave, Nixon capitalized on fear, focusing on the issue of criminal violence. Law and order would be the theme of his 1968 presidential campaign. Drug were a particularly fruitful topic, as it combined violent crime with undercurrents of anti-hippy sentiment and, most potently, residual racism and resentment from the civil rights movement. In a letter to former President Eisenhower, Nixon stated; “Ike, it’s just amazing how much you can get done through fear. All I talk about in New Hampshire is crime and drugs, and everyone wants to vote for me-and they don’t even have any black people up here.” Large American cities became, in Nixon’s narrative, evil citadels of under-served African Americans. Many had once been part of a working-class existence. But the phenomenon of deindustrialization saw inner city steel mills and factories leave the U.S. for overseas. The now giant abandoned factory mills served as tall moss covered trees in a swamp that was a breeding ground of menial-paying jobs, low-skilled labor and eventually, the high-paying but dangerous short lived career of a drug pusher. This setting would serve Nixon perfectly. The bait of hate would win him the 1968 presidential election, and set in motion three decades of fierce drug prohibition and incarceration, one that affected young black men far more than any other group. Even with legalization dawning since the new Millennium, the residual scars from Nixon’s assault on freedom are still seen in the inner-city strife and anti-authority protest of today. Generations of missing black persons swallowed whole by the drug war will take more than a few legal joints to repair.
Stoner Detectives In Cinema
The gumshoe—hard-boiled, two-fisted, fedora-wearing, skirt-chasing sleuths—is as all American as the slice of processed cheese on his pie or the Lucky Strike jib dangling from his lip. Those smokes, however, were strictly tobacco, and the old school tough guys like Bogie’s Sam Spade were more likely to drown their troubles in bourbon then they ever were to partake of the hippie lettuce. But, times change, and from somewhere out of the purple haze of the late ‘60s there arose a new archetype for a groovier world: stoner detectives. These cats may seem like slackers, but really they just prefer to let their minds unwind in order to solve the crime. Phillip Marlowe – The Long Goodbye (1973) Director Robert Altman made his long and legendary career by basically taking any genre he touched and shredding it into cinematic confetti; case in point: casting laconic wise ass Elliot Gould as Raymond Chandler’s iconic L.A sleuth Phillip Marlowe Gould’s Marlowe is snarky cool and in control, even while seemingly forever hung-over.. He gets pushed around by the cops, the crooks (including a young, beefy Arnold Schwarzenegger as a mob goon), his friends, and even the naked hippie chicks that live next door. But Gould’s Marlowe manages to keep it all together by floating over the noise until it’s the time to turn the tables, close the case and wrap up the nasty loose ends. Larry “Doc” Sportello – Inherent Vice (2014) Sporting muttonchops as thick as T-Bone steaks, and slipping so deep into character his bloodshot eyes would probably get him pulled over, Joaquin Phoenix plays “Doc”, a shambling, burnt out mess of a P.I. in Paul Thomas Anderson’s smoke-filled take on Thomas Pynchon’s hyper literate, factoid laden and almost impenetrable 2009 novel. Operating out of his shabby 1970 Venice bachelor pad, Sportello gets tangled up in a trio of missing persons cases, though he barely seems capable of finding the number for the pizzeria down the street. Our hero rides the metaphorical wave and follows the clues to a larger conspiracy involving a multi-million dollar real estate swindle, a cult like drug rehab center, corrupt cops, Neo Nazi biker gangs, gun running Black militants and a cabal of heroin dealing dentist’s called “The Golden Fang.” It doesn’t matter if all the subplots never quite line up, because the mystery is just a backdrop for satire of a hazy California dream tainted by weirdo charlatans and mercenary capitalists alike. Rustin Cohle - True Detective Having escaped the purgatory of co-starring in endless Kate Hudson rom coms, Matthew McCounaghey willed himself back into critical relevance with a comeback starting as a cocky, male flesh peddling Stripper daddy in Magic Mike, then culminating in Oscar winning turn as a macho redneck turned maverick A.I.D.S activist in Dallas Buyer’s Club. What really secured his rejuvenation though was his genius turn as the deeply haunted, existential investigator Rust Cohle, alongside his real life ganja loving, naked-bongo-playing partner in high, Woody Harrelson on HBO’s groundbreaking , instant classic, gritty TV novella True Detective. As a former narc and future addict, Cohle didn’t discriminate in his drug intake, but his mind-altering view of reality, and observations like “Time is a flat circle” certainly don’t come without at least a few trips down the THC rabbit hole. Jeffrey “ The Dude” Lebowski – The Big Lebowski The Cohen brothers notorious flop turned cult icon is maybe the single most quotable script in movie history; chock full of dozens of killer lines that have wormed their way so deep into our brains that we can hardly remember our sad little lives before it. A madcap romp through the seedy underbelly of Hollywood glitz, Lebowski has become a staple of college dorm movie nights, and the new template for intelligent stoner comedy (and anti-plot detective narrative), though few imitators have really tie a room together. Jeff Bridges brilliant performance as accidental detective Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, was so immersive that the Oscar-winning actors now seems content to traipse through life like the goofball, Zen master we all want him to be. And who doesn’t want to get so stoned that they turn into a human bowling ball? Norville “Shaggy” Rogers –Scooby Doo You could say that technically Scooby is more of a paranormal researcher than a detective, but if it wasn’t for him and his pesky friend’s meddling around haunted houses, abandoned factories and TV studios, then dozens of blackmailers, saboteurs and disgruntled librarians would have gotten away with scarring the shit out of generations of townies. You could also say that he was just an innocent Saturday Morning cartoon character, but my man road around the country in a conversion van, had the munchies like it was his job, constantly thought he was seeing phantoms and ghost pirates, partied with Mama Cass and had lengthy, philosophical conversations with his Great Dane. You do the math homey.
