Being a cannabis critic isn’t all joints and blow jobs. Some of these strains are hard to understand, especially for an outsider to the industry. Amendment 64 passed five years ago, in November 2012, and Denver now houses over 200 retail pot shops and MMJ dispensaries, with hundreds more around Colorado. How could one person possibly profile everything they stock?
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We all have our own reasons for loving cannabis, and one of my biggest is the way it enhances nostalgia. Cartoons, music and food from my childhood all have a little extra meaning after I smoke pot — and let’s face it: No one my age has any other reason to watch Good Burger. My love for Halloween has undoubtedly returned to peak levels thanks to the plant, leading me to geek out on slasher films, popcorn balls and pumpkin carving during and after each smoke sesh this past month.
Every day millions of people battle with social and daily anxiety. It’s something more and more people are speaking up about, which is a strong and beautiful thing. Depression and anxiety is not to be ashamed of: It’s to be talked about.
Taking antidepressants is something I chose to do a few years ago, because medicine and therapy work. But I didn’t want to rely on pills such as Xanax for anxiety, so I looked elsewhere. The research in how marijuana affects mental health is extremely rare, but has picked up some traction recently as caretakers deal with troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. We know of the many benefits cannabis has in regard to physical health, but could it have the same effect on the brain?
One of the country’s most well-known think tanks is calling out United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his repressive attitude toward cannabis, particularly medical marijuana. On October 25, the Brookings Institution published an essay criticizing Sessions for his “biases on the issue, a division of opinion between him and the president he serves, and a federal government effort to stand in the way of the free conduct of research” with regard to growing medical marijuana for research purposes.
Growing and processing industrial hemp has become a big business as barriers break down in states with legalized cannabis. Now one Boulder laboratory is starting a study with a university agriculture program to learn more about desirable hemp genetics, much as that program has studied grapes for the wine industry.
One of the challenges of the campaign to legalize cannabis across the country is the lack of benchmark data that compares social-health issues before and after states legalize pot. Now the University of Colorado hopes to fill in some of those gaps with a long-term study on groups of test subjects with very similar makeups: twins.
Dear Stoner: I see hemp oil advertised in soap, lotions, etc. Is all of that the same as CBD oil? Sooo many oils…
Bella
The effects of legalized cannabis on Colorado are still being debated, but the state’s top health official believes that we’ve been pretty responsible about this pot thing. Dr. Larry Wolk has been the chief medical officer and executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment since 2013, a period that includes the state’s implementation of regulated adult-use cannabis in 2014, and he’s confident enough about the process that he’s telling other states and even countries that not only has the sky not fallen in Colorado, but we’re actually doing all right.
I get a little spooked whenever I see a strain named after another drug. Ecstasy OG and Herijuana make me feel like I’m about to smoke something other than cannabis, and it’s never good to have a grimy state of mind when lighting up. LSD, however, conjures a different vision: The expanding psychedelic effects of the drug never really scared me, so maybe that’s why the strain named after it seemed more approachable than Herijuana. (If it was called “Acid,” that might be different story.)
Dear Stoner: I’ve noticed the CBD and THC percentages on my marijuana products, but what is CBN? That percentage is also on the bottle, but I’ve never heard of it.
Derrick