Browsing: Culture

Ana Izquierdo, better known as La Reina de Mota (“the queen of marijuana” in Spanish) has been a longtime advocate for cannabis as a remedy for certain forms of trauma and other mental health diagnoses. Izquierdo herself has survived her own struggles, such as drug addiction in her early adult life and fighting homelessness for five years. After seeing how cannabis positively impacted her own life and personal battles, she decided to dive head-first into different avenues in Colorado’s new industry, from cannabis fashion to social responsibility with other cannabis industry leaders.

Izquierdo has used her role in cannabis to organize clothing kits for the homeless and provide aid to Puerto Rico with other cannabis leaders after the region was struck by hurricanes Maria and Irma. Now a YouTube channel host who gives advice to others struggling with addiction, Izquierdo hopes her story will inspire people who faced the same battles that she did while considering cannabis as a way to heal and find new communities of friends. We caught up with Izquierdo to learn more about what pulled her into the cannabis space, the challenges she’s faced as a woman in the industry, and how she’s used the plant to propel herself forward.

Imagine stepping into a tub full of steaming hot water, sinking in to maximize your relaxation. As you soak, you start to feel euphoric, full of bliss, and…high. But is that actually possible?

In Colorado, where pot is legal and we clearly care about self-care (Colorado ranks in the top-ten in Google searches for that term over the past five years), it is. Maybe you’ve seen bath products while shopping for flower or edibles at the dispensary and wondered whether indulging was worth your time and money. Maybe you’re just finding out about them now.

o many Sesame Street characters are iconic. Bert and Ernie. Oscar the Grouch. Back in 1977, Big Bird was on an iconic Sports Illustrated cover with tall, shaggy-haired Detroit Tigers pitcher Mark Fidrych. Elmo was responsible for an all-time toy craze in 1996. And still, none of them compare to Cookie Monster.

Toddlers loved that blue fur and simple vocab. We envied his diet, and some of us still do. But as parents start watching the show with their kids and reconnect with Cookie Monster, some see a sad reflection of addiction and America’s sugar intake — or maybe that’s just the ranting of someone stoned off his ass on Cookie Monster, a Herculean strain with alleged Girl Scout Cookies and OG Kush origins that I’ve been smoking a lot lately.

I had eleven family members in town for a week during the holidays, and about half of us smoke pot. Safe to say, I made a lot of dispensary runs for edibles, which are are still exotic foreign goods to out-of-staters. During all of this shopping for candy bars and gummies, I couldn’t help but notice the same weed-jar label at four or five stores around Denver: Bazookies.

Bazookies isn’t named after the giant à la mode cookie sliced like a pizza (that’s a pizookie), nor is it the same as Zookies, a mix of Animal Cookies and Gorilla Glue #4. No, Bazookies is a hybrid of Bubblegum and Girl Scout Cookies, in which old and new genetics meld into a relaxing yet productive high that works almost any time of day.

The realization hit me like a depressing hailstorm: I’m old. It wasn’t the receding hairline, or the weird looks that college Chads and Beckys gave me after I accidentally bought (and used) student tickets to a Colorado State University basketball game. It’s the pain. Oh, baby, do I hurt. Both elbows, a shoulder and a wrist from getting hit by various things with wheels or legs over the past few months. Sleeping on my neck wrong or walking a couple of miles in Vans can make the next day a pain in the ass.

This new, never-ending fight with a slower healing process rekindled my interest in high-CBD strains, which I’ve generally avoided after discovering some trustworthy CBD oils in an effort to curb my smoking. And let’s face it: CBD strains generally smell and taste like booty. Finding one that doesn’t smell like an old sock can be a challenge. However, there are some tastier exceptions, like Terrapin Care Station’s Wife Lemonade, or Desert Ruby, a Colorado creation that has been flying under my nose for at least three years.

Riding to dispensaries and cultivation tours on weed-friendly buses, learning how to cook edibles, and playing in dab-and-disc-golf tournaments have all been activities featured in our weekly Cannabis Calendar, but cannabis-friendly paint classes seem to have found the strongest footing since the state legalized the plant in 2012. Just like a boozy painting session, instructors use cannabis to help lubricate their students’ creativity, helping them find their inner Bob Ross by painting portraits, nature and plenty of happy trees.

After operating in private venues and gray areas for over six years, cannabis classes and tours are now receiving official licensing through local and state measures that recognize social pot consumption. But Keila Castillo already had it figured out: She runs her cannabis painting class out of the Coffee Joint, the only licensed pot lounge under Denver’s social consumption program.

We’ve reached peak sniffle season in Colorado, when a third of your office mates sound like their sinuses are more clogged than the toilets at a Chipotle. And even though we’re not supposed to, many of us are still smoking cannabis and tobacco during these bouts with the flu, colds and other common contagions.

It’s usually a good idea to take a break from smoking while dealing with throat and respiratory issues, but people aren’t full of good ideas. To protect you and others from hacking germs all over each other during your next session, follow these six rules of cannabis use:

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