Category: Cannabis

It’s difficult to admit this—especially to the readers of High Times—but for most of my life, I flat-out hated the hippies. That’s curious, considering I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and, for a quarter of a century, have lived just three blocks from Golden Gate Park—ground zero for the very counterculture I went out of my way to avoid.

But my aversion to dancing bears and patchouli oil didn’t come out of nowhere. It was forged last century in a scene I can only imagine has played out in households across America over the past sixty years—when one member of the family starts wearing tie-dye, smoking weed, dropping acid, and then takes off to follow the Grateful Dead.

My Hippie Brother

As a teenager in the 1980s, I remember how painfully embarrassed I felt by my brother, who wore Birkenstocks and wooden beads, and looked like a mashup of Charles Manson, Jesus Christ, and a street poet carrying a tambourine. He danced around our high school with abandon, sharing messages of peace and love with everyone he met. I was mortified. But my brother was just being himself.

At the time, I was too young to grasp what I was witnessing. All that I could see was that my brother worshipped a band named after dead people—who seemingly all used drugs—and had images of skeletons wearing top hats plastered everywhere. None of it seemed the least bit fun or whimsical then. In fact, it scared the living daylights out of me.

That fear became real when my brother disappeared one day and couldn’t be found. Eventually, word arrived that he’d overdosed at a Dead show after ingesting an entire sheet of LSD, resulting in a full-blown medical emergency and a stint in rehab—which created a staggering amount of chaos in an already fractured family.

With all eyes on my brother, everyone forgot about parenting me. It went unnoticed that I was dyslexic and failing all of my classes, or that I, too, had been using drugs but simply hadn’t been caught. At just sixteen years old, I dropped out of high school and beauty college—both at the same time—and none of it was pretty.

Then, as often happens to people who live in a black and white world without a touch of grey, I buttoned up, flung myself in the opposite direction, and never looked back. After enrolling in community college at seventeen, I figured out some learning hacks, earned a master’s degree, and accomplished things I didn’t know were possible, which made me feel responsible.

But somewhere along the way, I let judgment take the wheel and distanced myself from anything counterculture. Burning Man, psychedelics, or even a whiff of kombucha was a hard pass for me, and I doubled down on my boycott of the Grateful Dead. It felt like self-protection rather than what it really was: a hardened heart. 2009 was the last time I’d seen or spoken to my brother.

How I Changed My Mind

Eventually, all of that unprocessed trauma caught up with me; it always does. For twenty years, I did all the “right things,” dragging myself to doctors’ appointments and therapy sessions all over town, spending incalculable amounts of time and money in the process. None of it moved the needle.

Having exhausted all available options and ready to give up, I reluctantly agreed to try therapist-assisted psychedelic therapy—a process where a trained facilitator administers psychedelics and guides patients to release deep-rooted trauma. Because these treatments are still largely illegal, I wasn’t a good sport about it at first and backed out several times before my first session. But much to my astonishment, it worked, and each session unlocked something new.

It wasn’t inexpensive, but I learned the hard way that chipping away at those layers cannot be done alone and requires a professional who can help navigate the process. I would never recommend this work without a qualified facilitator.

Eventually, I became curious to try psychedelics out in the wild. My friend Lisa came over with a boombox and a bag of mushrooms, and we walked to Golden Gate Park. I quickly realized I didn’t like it, as the medicine had become too sacred for casual use.

Then, as a group of people passed by, a humbling truth finally landed: I’d become the person I’d once criticized—fuzzy vest and all—doing psychedelics in the park. I snapped a photo so I couldn’t unsee the cold, hard truth: I owed my brother an apology.

I reached out shortly thereafter, sharing my journey and apologizing for being such a profound asshole. He received it with immense grace, and we began repairing our relationship one text at a time. Then, something truly unbelievable happened.

Facing the Music

The universe has a way of rewarding a humble heart with a bit of magic. I’d just taped a quote to my computer monitor that I’d heard for the first time in a meeting moments before. It arrived with a sense of urgency that compelled me to write it down: “The fortune is in the follow-up.”

Staring at the directive, I immediately thought of a business advisor I hadn’t spoken to in a while and picked up the phone. He mentioned he’d just been given an extra ticket to an upcoming benefit concert at the Oakland Zoo for a charter school he supports, and he invited me along.

The performer? Bobby Weir and the Wolf Brothers.

I had only recognized the name as being connected to the Grateful Dead, but I didn’t fully grasp the profound significance of what I was about to encounter—even as I drove from San Francisco to Oakland, crossed the bridge, and rode a gondola to the top of the zoo, a place I’d visited often as a kid.

Once there, I spotted my advisor among the small group of guests, and we discreetly stepped outside to smoke a joint before finding our seats. It was only then that I was struck by the irony that I wouldn’t be leaving this earth without seeing a Dead show after all.

As the performance got underway, I finally understood exactly who I was looking at, despite having never laid eyes on him before. Standing just ten feet away from me, in all of his glory, was a man who had started an actual revolution—right down the street from where I live—whose influence extended far beyond music. He was also the same person that I’d unfairly held responsible for the pain in my family I’d experienced growing up.

While I may have refused to hear his message before, I had somehow found myself face-to-face with Bobby Weir in a moment of reckoning. As he stared directly into my eyes with a haunting, soulful intensity, it became clear to me that I was meant to hear his message now—so I listened.

It was a formal, seated event, but after a few songs, I got up and danced anyway. I danced for my brother. I danced for the good fortune that I had ended up in that room. I danced because the things that had felt stuck inside me wanted to move. I danced with abandon.

Bobby sang the Bob Dylan cover “When I Paint My Masterpiece” right to my face. I’d never heard it before, but it struck a chord, and the lyrics mirrored the places I’d been—and what I’m quietly building. I decided to make it my song and use the title’s words as my new mantra.

I took very few photos that evening, remaining fully present as I opened my heart as wide as possible and took everything in. Then, with tears in my eyes, I chose to close a very difficult chapter of my life once and for all, silently apologizing to the beautiful spirit that had been serenading me, until I felt something inside me shift.

Arriving Full Circle

Following the incredible evening, I went online to learn more about Bobby Weir and was surprised to find out that like me, he had undiagnosed dyslexia and had dropped out of school. I’ve since done a deep dive on all things Bobby Weir & The Grateful Dead, but on that occasion,  as I made my way to his personal website, I discovered that tickets for Dead & Company’s sold-out residency at The Sphere had just been released for its opening weekend—which also happened to be my birthday. 

Knowing that a private concert with a few dozen people was hardly the same as attending a true “show,” and without any hesitation, dropped a small fortune for two VIP tickets and a suite at the Venetian and invited my boyfriend to join me. It was, hands down, the best concert I’d ever seen.

The same magic happened when Dead & Company played their final three shows in Golden Gate Park in August 2025. When I noticed that tickets had become available for the sold-out performances, I bought super VIP “Golden Road” passes for the first and last shows. I invited my brother to join me, but he told me his concert-going days were already behind him. With my fella out of town, I walked the last few blocks of my long spiritual crossing alone, and made up for lost time.

But the most important full-circle moment took place in Oregon, after I boarded a plane to visit my brother and his family for the first time in fifteen years. We stayed up until the wee hours sharing stories of our parents—who had both since passed away—and compared notes about our childhood. It was a revelation for him to learn how much I had struggled growing up, and his sadness for my younger self felt like a final layer of ice melting away.

In a special moment I’ll never forget, he gave me an olive green medicine pouch that had been a sacred part of his own healing journey. He wanted me to have it for mine. As we bonded over the music that I had now come to also love, we watched videos of old concerts while he told me what it was really like to leave home and follow the Dead. I looked at the gentle, kind person I’d distanced myself from for decades—and realized with a shock of joy that we had actually become a lot alike.

The Final Revolution

When the sad news broke that Bobby Weir had passed away, I felt a quiet, profound sense of awe—not just for the music I came to love, but for the miracle of giving me my brother back.

In the days that followed, I watched two outstanding documentaries—The Other One: The Long Strange Trip of Bob Weir and the six-part Long Strange Trip—to catch up on everything I’d missed, and finally understood the full message of the Grateful Dead. It turns out that I was wrong about the hippies.

Bobby Weir presented a masterclass in life and demonstrated for everyone—especially those of us who see the world differently—how to create a blueprint that hadn’t existed before but will echo for generations.

“The fortune is in the follow-up” wasn’t a business quote or a concert ticket after all. It was the immense value of making things right. I saw the masterpiece he created by staying true to himself—even when the world wasn’t wired for him. I chose to follow his lead—and now I’m part of the song.

All images courtesy of LL St. John.

This article is from an external, unpaid contributor. It does not represent High Times’ reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.

Oxnard, CA – Off The Charts, the fast-growing cannabis retail brand founded by Norman Yousif, has officially opened a new dispensary in Oxnard. Located at 220 S A St, Oxnard, CA 93030, the new store expands the company’s footprint on California’s Central Coast and brings its signature combination of value, selection, and service to the local community.

Off The Charts has built a strong reputation across California for offering premium cannabis products at highly competitive prices. Under Norman Yousif’s leadership, the company has steadily grown into a multi-location retailer known for customer education, transparency, and a welcoming in-store experience.

Off The Charts – Dispensary in Oxnard

The newly opened Oxnard location is designed to serve both recreational and medical cannabis consumers with a focus on accessibility and value. Customers can expect:

• A huge selection of top-tier cannabis flower, edibles, concentrates, vapes, and wellness products
• Best-price guarantee, beating any local competitor’s price by $1
• A highly rated shopping experience with knowledgeable staff
• Cashback and loyalty rewards for returning customers

Hours: Daily from 9 AM to 9 PM
Phone: +1 805-253-0065
Website: https://offthechartsshop.com/oxnard
Map: https://share.google/jFVzkkYrZFib6rMTE

About Off The Charts

Founded by Norman Yousif, Off The Charts is a family-owned cannabis retailer focused on combining quality products with fair pricing and exceptional customer service. The brand has expanded to numerous locations throughout California, consistently emphasizing community engagement and responsible cannabis retail.

Norman Yousif’s vision for Off The Charts has always centered on creating dispensaries where customers feel comfortable, informed, and confident in their purchases. This philosophy continues to guide the company as it opens new locations and enters new markets.

“We’re excited to officially open our Oxnard location and become part of this community. Our goal has always been to offer the best cannabis products at the best prices while providing an experience that makes customers want to come back,” said Norman Yousif, Founder of Off The Charts.

With its Oxnard opening, Off The Charts continues its mission of making high-quality cannabis accessible, affordable, and approachable for communities across California.

An Arizona Senate committee last week advanced a proposal seeking to create a new misdemeanor crime for excessive cannabis smoke and odor, 13 News reports.

The bill, SB1725, would treat the issue as a public nuisance concern, making it a class 3 misdemeanor to cause or create “excessive” cannabis smoke — even on private residential property. Another bill, SCR1048, seeks to put an identical proposal before voters as a ballot initiative.

Neither bill explicitly defines what “excessive” means in the context of what qualifies as a public nuisance. The bill does, however, state that “it is presumed that a person who creates excessive marijuana smoke and odor causes a condition that endangers the safety or health of others.”

The bills’ sponsor, state Sen. J.D. Mesnard (R), said the proposal is not looking to solve “some sort of major crime issue, but it is trying to highlight what has become a growing problem.”

Mesnard said that he’s encountered the issue at his own home, having detected the smell of cannabis smoke outside of his childrens’ bedroom windows.

“If we’re going to have recreational marijuana in Arizona, we need to be responsible about it, especially as it could impact kids.” — Mesnard, in a statement

The Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee voted 5-2 to advance the proposal on Friday.

Source: https://ganjapreneur.com/arizona-senate-bill-would-ban-excessive-cannabis-smoke/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=arizona_bill_would_ban_excessive_cannabis_smoke_denver_fines_licensed_cannabis_lounge_10k_and_more&utm_term=2026-02-23

Let me tell you something they won’t say on cable news, something that makes too much sense to survive the standard political discourse: the United States is losing a chemical war, and the only way to win it is to get its citizens legally, safely, and gloriously high.

Not on the Chinese stuff. Not on the fentanyl — those microscopic grains of synthetic death that are killing 75,000 Americans a year. Not on the K2, the bath salts, the grey-market research chemicals that have been slowly filling the void left by decades of prohibition. No. I’m talking about the real thing. The plants. The molecules that humanity has been dancing with for ten thousand years before a bunch of suits in Washington decided to make them illegal.

I’m talking about MAGA Drugs. Make America’s Goods Again. Homegrown. Quality-controlled. Taxed. Educated. Safe. American.

Before you click away, let me walk you through what is actually happening in the world right now, because the full picture will make your head spin — and not in the fun way.

The Chemical War Nobody Wants to Name

In December 2025, the United States government did something unprecedented. They classified illicit fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction. Let that land for a second. The same legal category as nerve agents, anthrax, and dirty bombs. Fentanyl. A drug you can measure in grains of salt. A drug that is now the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45.

At the same time, eight major cartels — including the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartel — were designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The U.S. military was authorized to engage “narco-boats” and disrupt what Washington is now openly calling “narcoterrorists.”

The architecture behind all of this is grimly fascinating. Congressional investigations have revealed that Chinese chemical companies, with the backing of PRC government tax rebates, are subsidizing the manufacture and export of fentanyl precursors directly to Mexican cartels. These companies advertise on social media. They ship precursors in containers labeled as furniture parts, makeup, vases. When U.S. law enforcement sends formal requests for assistance to Beijing, PRC security services reportedly tip off the targets before they can be interdicted.

The financial mechanics are equally jaw-dropping. Chinese Money Laundering Networks — CMLNs — have become the preferred financial infrastructure for cartel money. Through a system called mirror transactions, cartel cash in Los Angeles gets converted into pesos in Mexico without a single dollar crossing a border. Wealthy Chinese nationals use the same networks to move money out of China and into U.S. real estate. Between 2020 and 2024, financial institutions flagged over $53.7 billion in suspicious CMLN-linked activity. It’s a circular economy of devastation, elegant in its structure and catastrophic in its consequences.

This is not a drug problem. It’s a geopolitical assault using chemistry as the weapon and addiction as the delivery system.

So what do you do? You send in the military? You bomb the labs? You impose tariffs? Sure, try all of that. The United States has been doing versions of it for fifty years. The Mérida Initiative poured billions into Mexico. The kingpin strategy took out cartel leaders one after another. The result? The cartels fragmented, diversified, and got more dangerous. The drugs got cheaper and more lethal. The “whack-a-mole” approach has a 100% failure rate because it treats the symptom — supply — while ignoring the engine — demand.

And demand, my friends, is a human constant that no government has ever legislated out of existence.

K2, Bath Salts, and the Monster Prohibition Built

Here is something the pharmacology textbooks will confirm and the drug warriors would rather you not think about too hard: K2 and Spice exist because cannabis was illegal.

When you criminalize a substance that people want — and have always wanted — you don’t eliminate the demand. You redirect it into a shadow market with no quality control, no consumer protection, and no accountability. Into that shadow market crawls the most opportunistic chemists alive, who synthesize novel compounds specifically designed to mimic the effect of the illegal substance while technically existing outside the law.

The pharmacological difference between natural THC and synthetic cannabinoids like K2 is the difference between a partial agonist and a full agonist. THC, the active compound in cannabis, partially activates the CB1 receptor in your brain. There is a biological ceiling on how activated that receptor can get from natural cannabis. This is why a fatal marijuana overdose is, for all practical purposes, impossible.

K2 hits the same receptor as a full agonist — maximum activation, no ceiling. Binding affinities 10 to 100 times stronger than THC. The result: seizures, acute kidney injury, cardiovascular failure. These are not cannabis side effects. These are the side effects of a prohibition-manufactured substitute that never would have found a market if the original, infinitely safer plant were available at a licensed dispensary.

The same logic cascades across the entire drug landscape. MDMA, a relatively well-understood compound with a credible therapeutic safety profile, gets replaced on the street by bath salts — cathinone derivatives with unpredictable psychosis risks. LSD, a substance with perhaps the lowest toxicity-to-effect ratio of any psychoactive compound known, gets replaced by novel research chemicals that nobody has studied and nobody can test for. Natural cocaine, a plant-derived stimulant with a pharmacological profile not dramatically more dangerous than alcohol at recreational doses, gets replaced by fentanyl-laced street product that will kill you by accident.

The synthetic drug crisis is not a failure of human virtue. It is the direct, predictable, documented consequence of prohibition policy. You banned the agrarian drugs — the ones that grew from the earth, that humanity developed a relationship with over millennia, that the human body has evolutionary context for — and you created a vacuum that industrial chemistry filled with something far more dangerous.

China didn’t create the fentanyl market. Prohibition did. China just found a way to weaponize it.

The Case for Organic: Earth’s Drugs vs. The Lab

There is a simple, elegant truth at the center of this argument that cuts through the politics: natural drugs derived from plants and classical synthesis are categorically less dangerous than the synthetic alternatives that prohibition forces people to consume.

Cannabis. Psilocybin mushrooms. Peyote. Ayahuasca. MDMA. LSD. Cocaine. These substances share something important in common — they have been used by human beings for hundreds or thousands of years, which means we have extensive observational data on their effects, their risks, and the conditions under which they are and aren’t dangerous. The human body has, in many cases, literal evolutionary context for these molecules. The endocannabinoid system exists. The serotonergic system that psychedelics interact with exists. These are not alien compounds hijacking your neurology; they are keys for which locks already exist.

The risk profiles, examined honestly, are manageable. Cocaine’s primary danger in 2026 is not the cocaine — it’s the fentanyl that gets mixed into street product, and the complete absence of any dosage information, quality control, or harm reduction guidance. Pharmaceutical-grade cocaine, known purity, known dose, used with awareness of the cardiovascular considerations — this is not a public health catastrophe. It is a substance that lawyers, executives, and entertainers have used recreationally for decades, mostly without ending up in the emergency room.

This is not a pro-drug argument. This is an argument for honesty about risk. We permit alcohol — a substance with a well-documented association with violence, liver disease, cardiovascular damage, addiction, and approximately 95,000 deaths per year in the United States — while simultaneously treating cocaine as an existential menace. The inconsistency is not accidental. It is the product of a century of political decisions dressed up as public health policy.

The Licensed Drug Model: A Driver’s License for Your Mind

Here is the framework that makes this work politically, practically, and ethically. You don’t just legalize everything and put it on a shelf next to the energy drinks. You build a system — intelligent, phased, and grounded in genuine education rather than the abstinence propaganda that has been failing for sixty years.

Phase one: licensed consumption. Before you can purchase any substance beyond cannabis, you get a drug license. Think of it like a driver’s license, except the vehicle is your own consciousness and you are about to change the channel on your perception of reality. The licensing process is not punitive. It is educational. You learn the pharmacology — what the substance actually does, how it interacts with your body’s systems, what the real risks are. Cardiovascular risks for cocaine. Serotonin syndrome risks for MDMA combinations. The importance of set and setting for psychedelics. Drug interaction contraindications. Dosage guidance.

Your license comes with a card. On that card, in plain language: “Cocaine increases cardiovascular stress. If you have heart disease or hypertension, this substance poses elevated risk. Know your body.” Not a scare tactic. Not propaganda. A fact, presented like the facts on a pharmaceutical label, because that is what respect for the consumer actually looks like.

For teenagers, the conversation changes but doesn’t disappear. The new framework isn’t silence — it’s honesty. “Drugs are legal now, but access is licensed and age-gated, and here is why: your developing brain is more vulnerable to dependency patterns than an adult brain. Here is what these substances actually do. Here is how to make informed decisions.” That is actual harm reduction. That is what the DARE program was pretending to be.

Phase two, after roughly a decade of data collection, outcomes monitoring, and cultural adjustment: remove the licensing requirement for adults 25 and older. By that point you have a population that grew up with honest drug education, a decade of real-world outcome data, and a legal market that has been systematically undercutting the black market’s product quality and price. The cartel’s customer base has been legally poached by Uncle Sam.

The heroin and opioid piece requires its own track. This is the Swiss model, and it works. Pharmaceutical-grade heroin, administered in supervised facilities, free of charge, for people dependent on opioids. This is not enabling addiction — the addiction already exists. This is replacing a Chinese-manufactured WMD with a medically supervised, pharmacologically pure alternative. Every person who walks into a supervised consumption site and accepts pharmaceutical heroin instead of street fentanyl is a person who is not funding the cartels, not funding the CMLNs, not funding the PRC’s subsidized precursor industry. They are, in the most literal sense, refusing to participate in a geopolitical attack on their own country.

Uncle Sam’s H. It’ll get you there. It won’t kill you. And it won’t make anybody in Wuhan rich.

The National Security Math

Let’s look at this from a purely strategic angle, because that is what this ultimately is — strategy.

The fentanyl supply chain runs: PRC chemical manufacturers (subsidized by Chinese government VAT rebates) → Mexican cartels → American streets. The financial counter-flow runs through CMLN mirror transactions into U.S. real estate and back to China. The entire system depends on American demand for illicit opioids being serviced exclusively by this supply chain.

The moment you introduce a legal, free, supervised alternative for the opioid-dependent population, you sever the demand side of that chain. Not theoretically — empirically. Switzerland did it. The heroin-assisted treatment programs of the 1990s essentially collapsed the street heroin market in participating Swiss cities. Crime dropped. HIV transmission dropped. The cartels lost customers. This is documented, not speculated.

Extend the same logic to the broader drug market. Every dollar spent on legal, taxed, domestic cannabis is a dollar not flowing to the Sinaloa cartel. Every MDMA purchase from a licensed dispensary is a demand unit that the black market doesn’t get to fill with bath salts. Every cocaine user who can access quality-controlled product through a licensed channel is a consumer who is not buying fentanyl-laced street powder.

The revenue from taxation funds the education system, the harm reduction infrastructure, and the law enforcement that goes after those who violate the new framework — aggressively, because the rules have been made lenient and the remaining violations are therefore genuinely serious. You want to sell unlicensed drugs to minors? You want to traffic synthetics in competition with the legal market? The consequences are severe precisely because everything else has been decriminalized.

This is how you MAGA the drug supply. You domesticate it. You regulate it. You educate around it. You strip the cartels of their market, the CMLNs of their revenue streams, and the PRC’s subsidy program of its downstream customers. You do it not by force — force has failed completely and repeatedly — but by the oldest competitive principle in capitalism: give people a better product at a better price with less risk.

American drugs. Clean. Tested. Taxed. Educated. Against Chinese drugs. Contaminated. Lethal. Criminal. Unregulated.

For a rational consumer — even one in the grip of addiction — that is not a difficult choice.

The Sticky Bottom Line

Human nature does not submit to legislation. The evidence for this is overwhelming and spans every culture, every era, and every substance. People alter their consciousness. They always have. They will continue to do so regardless of what any government decides. The only policy question that matters is: under what conditions does this happen?

Right now, those conditions are: in the dark, with unknown substances, of unknown purity, at unknown doses, purchased from criminal networks that funnel the proceeds through Chinese money laundering operations into geopolitical leverage against the United States. That is the current system. That is what “keeping drugs illegal” has built.

The alternative — licensed, educated, quality-controlled, domestically supplied — is not utopia. People will still make bad decisions. Addiction will still occur. There are no risk-free choices in this space. But the comparison is not between the legal model and a perfect world. The comparison is between the legal model and what we have right now: 75,000 Americans dead from fentanyl last year, a WMD designation for a drug that fits in a salt shaker, and a geopolitical adversary that has figured out how to wage chemical warfare with plausible deniability.

They allegedly got El Mencho yesterday — the man at the top of the CJNG, the biggest fentanyl exporter in Mexico. And if you believe that changes anything structurally, I have a kilo of pharmaceutical-grade optimism to sell you. The kingpin dies. The organization survives. The demand persists. The supply adapts. This is what fifty years of war has taught us, and we keep forgetting it the moment there is a press conference with a trophy.

The war on drugs cannot be won with bullets, borders, or bans. It can be won with something far more disruptive to criminal enterprise: a legal, affordable, honest alternative.

Make America’s Goods Again. The drugs of the earth, regulated, taxed, and freely available to educated adults who have chosen to alter their consciousness on their own terms. Against the chemical weapons of a geopolitical rival, dispensed through criminal intermediaries, with the specific intent to devastate the American social fabric.

That is the choice. And it is not even close.

 

CHINA ON CANNABIS, READ ON…

CHINA WARNS ON US CANNABIS LEGALIZATION, READ ON..

Major breakthroughs in dry herb vape tech have pushed performance to new levels of potency and power. At-home vaporists are experiencing stronger, more flavorful sessions than ever before, and a new level of cannabis extraction has emerged.

What Is a Ball Vape? 

Ball vapes are a newer type of dry herb vaporizer that can deliver a dab-like flavor and intensity using small doses of dry herb. They’re like a tiny espresso machine, but for weed vapor. Instead of hot water, these vapes use super-heated air. Much like espresso, this vapor can be thick and potent.

Ball vapes use powerful convection to vaporize dry herb without combustion. Tiny glass or ruby balls inside the convection heater increase surface area and maximize heat transfer while maintaining high airflow. The result is a fast, open, direct-inhale vaporizer designed to extract 0.1–0.3g of dry herb in a single session.

There’s no secret about what makes these vapes work. The technology was developed by vape enthusiasts and DIY builders seeking more performance than the broader vape market offered. Glass or ruby balls were initially added to existing vapes to increase thermal mass and power. The technique first appeared around 2017, and by 2020, a new category of dry herb vaporizers had emerged.

Most ball vapes are desktop vaporizers designed for use with a water piece, as their vapor is often hot enough to benefit from additional cooling.

How Ball Vapes Work 

The heated balls never touch your herb. Instead, they heat the air, and that air passes through a small pressed puck of dry herb. Trichomes absorb the heat and release vapor as the air moves through.

Much like an espresso machine, a finer grind and a perfectly tamped bowl yield the best results. 

Modern ball vapes use a coil heater to warm a ball-filled housing and maintain a stable temperature. The balls store heat, like a battery. Air is drawn through the heated balls and directly through the cannabis. The super-heated air vaporizes the trichome heads using convection. 

The experience is typically a fast, open inhale, and many users consider it one of the most potent and flavorful ways to consume cannabis. These vapes are designed for rapid extraction, often finishing a bowl in one or two inhalations.

What Makes a Ball Vape Different? 

Dry herb vaporizers have used convection for decades, and powerful units have existed for years. However, ball vapes generally require less specialized inhalation techniques and are engineered for higher heat delivery than many traditional vaporizers. After reviewing hundreds of devices, ball vapes clearly represent a distinct category.

Flower Dabs 

Ball vapes operate in a class of their own. Their high-heat convection can deliver vapor intensity that some users compare to dabbing. For first-time users, the experience can feel surprisingly strong.

The hit and overall effect from a ball vape can be intense, especially at higher temperatures. Because there’s no combustion, vapor can feel cleaner and more concentrated. Some models are capable of extracting up to 0.5g in a single session, while others are optimized for microdoses around 0.1g.

Ball Vapes are Still Evolving 

These vapes are the cutting edge of dry herb vapor extraction. Today’s innovators are refining the experience to make it more user-friendly while further optimizing the flavor. 

Many ball vapes aren’t ready for the mainstream. These devices have hot surfaces and require dedicated space. The tech is only pushed by the demands of vapor enthusiasts and early adopters. 

Consumer-ready ball vapes come as wireless desktop vaporizers. The coil is mounted in a stationary housing, and the ball vape stays heated there. The hot ball vape is only removed when in use. As an added advantage, the stationary coil can be used to heat traditional quartz bucket bangers for a true dabbing experience, making wireless ball vapes the truest dual-use desktop vaporizer. 

Most wireless ball vapes use a standard 30mm, 25mm, or 16mm coil. 

Factors of Flavor & Performance 

Ball vapes are made for flavor chasers and frequent usage consumers. The evolution has been driven by the demand for maximum potency without sacrificing flavor. These vapes cook the herb evenly, which means fewer wasted cannabinoids. 

Ruby balls are the material of choice for most ball vapes. Ruby tastes as pure as glass, but with better thermal performance and durability. Smaller balls yield more power potential, but at the cost of airflow restriction. Most ball vapes are using 2mm-4mm balls.

Reducing the amount of metal used in the heater and airpath, or eliminating it completely, maximizes the flavor purity. The Universal Baller by Terp Chasers Club features an all-glass bowl and a glass-lined ball chamber, providing a 100% all-glass air path. This vape has a protective metal exterior wrapped around an all-glass heater. 

Temperature Control & Customizing the High 

Ball vape temperatures don’t directly translate to vape temperatures. It’s one of the gotcha points of the category. PIDs are used to control the coil temperature, and the balls are usually several insulating layers beneath the coil. Coil temperatures range from 500F to 650F, but the vaporization temperatures are lower. 

Higher temperatures and darker roasts often yield a more stoney and sedative high. Indicas will have even more of the expected indica effects at higher temperatures.

Lower temperatures leave more behind, but yield a headier high. Sativas can get even more driven with an intense low-temperature hit. These vapes deliver the most complete presentation of a strain’s potential flavors. 

Effects will ultimately depend on cannabinoid and terpene content rather than simply indica or sativa labeling.

Some ball vapes are designed to leverage conduction and radiant heating for even deeper levels of flavor and extraction. Industry-leading ball vapes, like the Universal Baller, feature a modular design that allows them to be fully customized. It’s also the first ball vape to use a fully glass-lined air path. 

Are Ball Vapes Safe? 

These devices are intended for experienced adult users. They operate at high temperatures and can cause burns if mishandled. A dedicated space and attention to safety are strongly recommended. Many modern designs incorporate coil guards or protective housings to reduce accidental contact.

Ideal Uses 

Ball vapes are currently best suited for experienced or frequent consumers. Those who prefer at-home sessions and powerful extraction will likely appreciate their performance.

Portable ball vapes exist, but the category remains primarily desktop-focused.

All images provided by Terp Chasers Club.

---

About the author: Troy / 420vapezone 

Troy has been reviewing vaporizers since 2015. He’s been deleted from YouTube twice and remains an independent vape reviewer. He documents and reviews the evolution of ball vapes and other dry herb vaporizers on 420vapezone.com.

More than a decade ago, my fitness coach and friend, Jenny, called me in distress. She had just been attacked and severely beaten by her ex-boyfriend, a member of a German police arrest unit. He had called her to return his apartment keys a few days after their breakup. She waited in the hallway outside his apartment, and he showed up drunk, fresh from Stuttgart’s massive October beer fest. He started to scream at her, then he began to beat her up. She was fit, in shape, tall, and in training to become a police officer, but she said the only thing she could do was to curl up in a ball, hoping to survive. 

Neighbors called the police. Officers arrested him and searched his apartment, where they found a bag with one gram of cannabis in his safe when they took his service weapon. He immediately claimed the cannabis bag was hers.

Guess who faced the more severe consequences? The attacker received a mild disciplinary penalty. Jenny endured hair testing with a result in a “grey zone”; she nearly lost her career as a police officer in training before it even began. A drunk cop beats his girlfriend? Manageable. But the possession of a gram of cannabis? Almost career-ending.

Germany’s Partial Legalization is Working, But Conservatives Want it Gone

When Germany introduced the “Cannabis-Gesetz” (CanG) to partially legalize cannabis in April 2024, it faced criticism not only from conservatives but also from proponents of legalization, who argued it could not achieve its goals without a fully regulated adult-use market. The reform came in two phases: Pillar 1 legalized home cultivation and non-profit cannabis cultivation associations similar to cannabis social clubs in Spain, but without permission for a space for common consumption. Pillar 2 promised regional pilot programs for licensed retail sales. 

However, after the progressive, social-liberal, and environmentalist “Traffic Light” government coalition collapsed, the new government, led by the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) with the Social Democrats (SPD) as a partner, announced a legislative revision of the CanG. Conservatives seem determined to roll back what one of their leading figures dismissively calls a “shit law” and have proposed a restrictive amendment to outlaw telemedicine services for cannabis flowers. The final readings of this amendment are anticipated for spring 2026, with a final vote in the Bundestag expected in early 2026.

But here’s what the CDU doesn’t want you to know: the reform is working. The federal government’s first official assessment, the EKOCAN interim report published in October 2025, paints a picture that contradicts every doomsday prediction. The problem is, the system is only half-built. Home growing requires space and know-how many Germans lack, and cannabis associations are rolling out slowly due to licensing delays in conservative-led federal states. So far, these associations serve less than 0.1% of the country’s demand, forcing the medical cannabis system to carry a weight it was never designed for, a pressure conservatives are now exploiting to torpedo the project.

Patient Access Has Exploded – For Now

One of the biggest achievements of Germany’s reform has been the explosion in patient access. With the reclassification of cannabis, doctors can now prescribe it on a standard prescription rather than a special narcotic one. This change alone has been a game-changer for tens of thousands of patients. Telemedicine platforms have stepped in to fill the void left by Germany’s shortage of cannabis-literate doctors, connecting hundreds of thousands of patients with physicians who understand their needs. They have also contributed significantly to patient education regarding safer and more productive use.

As a result, cannabis imports reached record levels in 2025, with official BfArM data showing over 43 tonnes imported in the second quarter alone. For the first time, a significant portion of German consumers has a safe, legal, and reliable way to access regulated cannabis products.

The Black Market is Shrinking, and Public Health is Improving

Despite the incomplete rollout, evidence shows that even this partial legalization is achieving its core goals. Police-recorded cannabis offenses have plummeted, reflecting the new legal thresholds and freeing up resources for serious crime. Meanwhile, the public health crises predicted by conservatives have not materialized, just as they didn’t in the U.S., the Netherlands, Portugal, or Uruguay after their significant legal steps towards legalizing cannabis. 

Youth consumption in Germany continues a downward trend that began in 2002, and wastewater monitoring shows adult consumption remains stable. Most importantly, the black market is shrinking. The EKOCAN report explicitly states that the legal market share is growing as the illicit market contracts. While Canada took four years to reach a 78% legal market share, Germany is finally heading in the right direction.

A Story of Beer, Power, and Hypocrisy

So why does the CDU want to reverse this progress? One reason lies in a well-documented network of political and economic interests. The party’s actions reveal a deep-seated allegiance to Germany’s powerful alcohol industry. In 2009, when a federal drug commissioner proposed an alcohol prevention plan, the head of the Bavarian Brewers’ Association coordinated with CSU leaders (the CDU’s Bavarian sister party) to kill it. The CSU’s Peter Ramsauer later boasted, “I think with this approach we have succeeded in preventing the drug commissioner’s plans for new and completely inappropriate restrictions on alcohol consumption”.

The ties are structural. The German Brewers’ Association is an official member of the CDU’s Economic Council and regularly bestows the title “Ambassador of Beer” upon the very politicians responsible for regulating their industry. This explains the blatant double standard: at a brewery anniversary in 2022, Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder (CSU) declared that people should stick with Bavarian beer as it is “much healthier” than cannabis. This is a political choice, not a scientific one, aimed at protecting an established industry from a market competitor—a playbook the U.S. alcohol industry has used for years.

The Cultural Fear of Looking Inward

This political hypocrisy is built on a deeper cultural fear. In his landmark 1966 book, On Intoxication in the Orient and Occident, the Swiss scholar Rudolf Gelpke argued that Western culture embraces alcohol because it promotes extroverted, social behaviors that serve a productivity-obsessed society. Gelpke observed that societies favor drugs that reinforce their core values. For the West, alcohol is the ideal intoxicant: it lowers inhibitions and fuels the kind of boisterous, outward-facing energy that can be channeled into work.

Cannabis, he argued, encourages introspection and contemplation, states of mind less useful to a system built on external achievement. It fosters a reflective, often critical, perspective. This inward turn potentially calls into question the relentless drive for productivity and external validation. My friend and mentor, the late cannabis expert and Harvard Associate Professor of Psychiatry Lester Grinspoon, came to a similar conclusion independently of Gelpke in his landmark book Marihuana Reconsidered in 1971.

Thus, the resistance to cannabis isn’t about protecting people from a dangerous drug; it’s about protecting a cultural worldview that privileges one kind of intoxication over another. Gelpke also predicted that Western culture would eventually dominate the Eastern hemisphere, a prediction that has largely come true, bringing shifted cultural attitudes toward cannabis with it.

A New Era of German Militancy and the Shifting Narratives of Prohibition

This cultural bias is gaining relevance as Germany enters a new historical phase. Facing a resurgent Russia, Germany is undergoing its most significant military rearmament since World War II. The nation’s leaders have declared a Zeitenwende(historic turning point), expanding the Bundeswehr to become the backbone of European defense. This shift brings a cultural emphasis on aggression, readiness, and collective defense. A substance with a reputation for making people more peaceful and introspective may be seen not just as counter-cultural, but as a national security threat.

History provides a chilling parallel in the United States. In the 1930s, Harry Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, portrayed cannabis as a drug that turned users into violent killers to back up his prohibition. Two decades later, in the anti-communist climate of the McCarthy era, his propaganda did a complete 180. Anslinger and other “Cold Warriors” claimed cannabis was a weapon used by Communist China to “pacify” the American population and undermine its will to fight. The narrative was never about the drug’s actual effects; it was about leveraging public fear to serve a political agenda.

What Happens Next

Germany stands at a crossroads. Cities like Berlin and Frankfurt are ready to launch Pillar 2 pilot projects for licensed sales. The infrastructure is ready; what’s missing is political will. If the CDU succeeds in rolling back reform, hundreds of thousands of patients will be forced back to the black market, and the country will trade a regulated, tax-paying industry for a return to failed prohibitionist policies. The world is watching. The data from Germany provides further evidence for reformers everywhere: legalization, even when partial, can work and make a profound difference for society.

The question is whether Germany’s politicians will listen to evidence or ideology, to scientifically informed public health experts or the alcohol lobby. Our attitude toward cannabis is not only rooted in cultural history but also responds to its perceived impact on society in specific historical situations. 

As the case of US propaganda shows, these perceptions are usually disconnected from science and shaped by cultural biases, political opportunism, and irrational beliefs. History teaches us that prohibitions built on fear and protectionism create havoc. The haunting question is whether anyone still seeks a rational perspective in this dawning post-truth era.

This article is from an external, unpaid contributor. It does not represent High Times’ reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.

 

 

 

 

DOWNLOAD FOR FREE ON PODOMATIC

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/karmakoalapodcast/episodes/2026-02-23T01_55_25-08_00

A very enjoyable conversation with Griffen.

We were going to talk about that EO prior to Christmas but both decided that was somewhat boring so just dived into the state of the cannabis industry in the US today and how state and federal politics play a much larger role in the industry than many commentators and industry “leaders” would like to openly admit.

Very refreshing to speak to someone working with the cannabis industry but not beholden to it.

The koalas thank Griffen for her openess and lack of fence sitting especially when it comes to discussing how much policy and legislation thinking in 2025 and 2026 in the US suggests an increasing bias towards the top end of town rather than the middle and those developing new business in the space from the ground up.

It’s a pattern being seen throughout the the US economy and won’t serve the country well over the longer term. As former Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, is arguing these days, it looks more like a 21st century version of feudalism than capitalism as we understand it from a 20th century prism.

Griffin Basden is a senior client manager at AlphaRoot, where she specializes in risk management for businesses operating in complex, regulated industries. Working closely with clients, she helps develop coverage strategies that support long-term growth while providing clarity and confidence around risk. Previously, she served in similar roles at Founder Shield, Aon, and ECM Solutions.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/graebasden/

The arrest occured one day after an undercover investigation foiled a drug smuggling attempt along the Jordanian border.

A 30-year-old resident of Jaffa was arrested after a search of a compound yielded dozens of doses of cocaine, the Israel Police confirmed on Wednesday.

A non-lethal grenade was also found and confiscated. In addition, five security cameras that had been recording nearby public areas were removed.

Israel Border Police foil drug smuggling attempt at Jordanian border

An undercover investigation by the Israel Anti-Terrorism Unit led to the arrest of a 30-year-old Bedouin resident suspected of trafficking nearly 14 kg of drugs on Tuesday night, according to a statement by the Israel Police on Wednesday.

Read more

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/jaffa-resident-arrested-search-compound-172627734.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALxIu1PT1VhdnU8eBW8xitDdGT1qjWcc576GoyJh_w72IAOLdT6biQfQLttT6IE5g8YAiy4GS8amLKVz7T0-ARAL4j8mYMsSmlfnMUUjzQ-eQAaljwbIl4OazkaradhByuysegSUJpNd3k1QsPaAB7_pxlWGBUoZBebbWFQ7pvQY

Why?

Well it’s very simple.

This INCBA CLE presentation

The Changing Face of Raising Money: From Equity to Debt & Convertible Debt

Was presented by

Samantha Gleit |  Tahira Rehmatullah, President |  Nicholas Vita

Note that last name, Nicholas Vita

 

Mr Vita has just landed himself in very hot water in the B.C. courts for the following (see below BIV report) and knock me down with a feather but here at CLR we get the sense that he’s providing information in this sanctioned INCBA CLE programme that costs $USD75 for non members  on the very same topic that a judge in Canada has just said Vita was

“Fully liable for a debt he guaranteed through an offshore margin account, despite the man’s claims that the arrangement was an illegal sham.”

CLR has not listened to the CLE presentation as it is behind the $USD75 paywall but the very title, “The Changing Face of Raising Money: From Equity to Debt & Convertible Debt” more than implies he’s providing advice on the topic.

I presume this disclaimer on their website, they believe, removes any liability on their part.

INCBA’s website includes facts, views, opinions, and recommendations of third parties deemed to be of interest. INCBA does not guarantee the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of, or otherwise endorse these views, opinions, or recommendations. You acknowledge that any reliance upon any such opinion, advice, statement, memorandum, or information shall be at your own risk. INCBA does not endorse any person for any skill, concentration, or expertise. The use of the Internet or this form for identification of or communication with any member does not establish an attorney-client relationship.

© 2026 Canbar Association DBA International Cannabis Bar Association. All rights reserved.
International Cannabis Bar Association, Cannabis Law Institute, Canbar Forum, and INCBArchives are service marks of the Canbar Association.

If Vita were on a normal zoom/you tube chat fest provided via the INCBA this would neither be here nor there but the fact that his opinions are part of a paid for CLE programme do leave cause for concern and make one think about their vetting processes for CLE speakers at the INCBA.

To be honest I’ve never taken that close a look at the INCBA CLE programme which is obviously their main cash cow these days.

But I think it is probably time to comb through and take a closer look at the topics and the presenters.

For example with the quickest of cursory glances, within seconds, I notice this CLE presentation.

Anybody with a long enough memory will remember that the first presenter on “Hold Fast – The Rule of Law and the Rules of Professional Conduct”, Jessica McElfresh had a run in with the courts in California back in 2018 on exactly the topic being presented.

Yes the DA did drop the charges as we reported at the time

But it must be noted

The San Diego County district attorney’s office has agreed to drop felony charges against Jessica McElfresh, an attorney who represents marijuana businesses and whose case generated national attention.

McElfresh vowed to plead guilty in 12 months to violating San Diego municipal code, an infraction. An agreement signed Monday stipulates that she cannot violate any laws within that timeframe.

McElfresh declined to comment. Her attorney, Eugene Iredale, did not respond to an interview request.

The agreement also stipulates that McElfresh must pay a $250 fine, go through a state bar ethics program and pass a professional responsibility exam, and complete 80 hours of community service.

Source: https://voiceofsandiego.org/2018/07/24/da-drops-felony-charges-against-lawyer-who-defended-marijuana-businessman/

At Long Last San Diego DA Drops Charges Against Lawyer Jessica McElfresh

 

McElfresh is a seasoned cannabis lawyer who has been through the ringer and CLR suggests that both she and the INCBA could have used a little more thought before putting her on this particular CLE Program.

Maybe they thought her experience was exactly why she should be the presenter, CLR would argue that with a paid CLE program that thinking is drawing a fine line

BIV Canada write

B.C.’s Supreme Court has ordered a former cannabis company executive to pay more than $7.4 million after he engaged in a high-stakes financial workaround designed to bypass U.S. securities regulations.

Handed down Feb. 12, the decision from Justice Simon R. Coval found Nicholas Vita was fully liable for a debt he guaranteed through an offshore margin account, despite the man’s claims that the arrangement was an illegal sham.

In 2019, Vita was CEO of two cannabis companies, Columbia Care LLC and Columbia Care Inc., when they closed a major deal with the Canadian financial services firm Canaccord Genuity Corp. to take the company public on the Canadian stock exchange.

Vita and Columbia Care’s executive director and chairman Michael Abbott raised the idea of leveraging their shares in the businesses as collateral for a multimillion-dollar loan.

Known as a “margin account,” such a loan allows the account holder to borrow against the value of the securities it deposits as collateral.

Both sides agreed that as a Canadian company, Canaccord could not open a margin account for Vita personally because he is a U.S. citizen subject to U.S. regulatory laws, according to Coval’s ruling.

“Instead, the margin account was opened in the name of Amaranthus, an Isle of Man company beneficially owned by Mr. Abbott’s family trust,” wrote the judge.

That summer, more than 10.6 million shares from Columbia Care were deposited into the account at a value of about $6.50 a share. Canaccord then paid loans into the account totalling US$11.3 million.

Four months later, Vita asked Canaccord for Amaranthus to borrow another US$2 million.

Read more

https://www.biv.com/news/economy-law-politics/bc-court-orders-former-us-cannabis-ceo-to-pay-74m-after-offshore-deal-collapses-11881049

 

More Vita …talking the talk. It’s all about the mighty $

About CropKingSeeds

Established in 2005, Crop King Seeds has been perfecting the genetics of the cannabis plant for medical and commercial grower seeking maximum results in THC levels and harvest size.
From classic strains to new age hybrids, our seeds are ideal for beginners and advanced growers wanting the best from the crop.

About CropKingSeeds

Established in 2005, Crop King Seeds has been perfecting the genetics of the cannabis plant for medical and commercial grower seeking maximum results in THC levels and harvest size.
From classic strains to new age hybrids, our seeds are ideal for beginners and advanced growers wanting the best from the crop.

About CropKingSeeds

Established in 2005, Crop King Seeds has been perfecting the genetics of the cannabis plant for medical and commercial grower seeking maximum results in THC levels and harvest size.
From classic strains to new age hybrids, our seeds are ideal for beginners and advanced growers wanting the best from the crop.

The Psychosis Paradox: Why Society Fears the Wrong Things

Let me tell you something that’s going to piss off every pearl-clutching prohibitionist from here to Capitol Hill: your kid has a better statistical chance of losing their grip on reality from living in your “safe” metropolitan neighborhood than from smoking a joint on the weekends.

I know. I can already hear the outcry. “But Reginald, what about all those studies showing cannabis causes psychosis?”

Yeah, what about them? Let’s actually read the damn things instead of just the headlines.

The Numbers Game Nobody Wants You to Understand

Here’s the reality that gets buried under every sensationalized headline about “marijuana-induced madness“: the baseline annual incidence of psychotic disorders in the general population is approximately 0.0027%. That’s 2.7 cases per 100,000 people. You have better odds of being struck by lightning.

Now, when we factor in cannabis use, even among daily users of high-potency products, that risk climbs to somewhere between 0.008% and 0.011% annually. Over a ten-year period, we’re talking about a cumulative risk of 0.08% to 0.11%.

Let me put that in terms even your prohibitionist uncle can understand: if you gathered 1,000 daily cannabis users in a room, after a full decade of daily consumption, statistically one of them might develop a psychotic disorder. Maybe.

But here’s where it gets interesting—and where the entire narrative collapses like a house of cards in a hurricane.

The Things We Actually Accept That Shatter Minds

While we’re busy demonizing a plant that’s been used by humans for millennia, we’re completely ignoring the environmental and social factors that have far more potent psychosis-triggering effects. And not only are we ignoring them—we’re actively encouraging them.

1. Childhood Trauma: The Silent Psychosis Factory

Society loves to talk about “resilience” and “overcoming adversity.” We’ve turned childhood trauma into a character-building narrative, complete with inspirational quotes and motivational seminars.

The science tells a different story: individuals who experienced severe childhood trauma are roughly 3 to 12 times more likely to experience psychosis later in life. That’s not a typo. We’re talking about a risk multiplier that makes cannabis look like a rounding error.

The mechanism is well-understood: severe adversity during critical developmental windows fundamentally alters the brain’s dopamine regulation systems—the exact same pathways implicated in psychotic disorders. It’s a “kindling effect” that primes the brain for hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia decades before any symptoms manifest.

But do we see public health campaigns warning parents that screaming at their kids or exposing them to domestic violence carries a psychosis risk twelve times higher than daily cannabis use? Of course not. That would require acknowledging uncomfortable truths about our own behavior.

2. Sleep Deprivation: The Culturally Celebrated Mind-Breaker

You know what’s really fascinating? We can induce psychotic symptoms in nearly 100% of the population with perfect reliability. No genetics required. No pre-existing conditions. Just keep someone awake for 72 to 96 hours.

Total sleep deprivation causes hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia in otherwise healthy individuals with a near-perfect success rate. It’s one of the most reliable ways to trigger a psychotic-like state that we know of.

And yet, we celebrate it. We venerate the college student pulling all-nighters. We applaud the entrepreneur who “sleeps when they’re dead.” We give military medals to soldiers who push through exhaustion. New parents are expected to simply “tough it out” through months of severe sleep disruption.

The irony is exquisite: sleep deprivation can cause a psychotic break in anyone, regardless of genetic predisposition, but we reserve our moral panic for a plant that might slightly increase risk in a tiny fraction of genetically vulnerable individuals.

3. City Living: The Aspirational Psychosis Incubator

Here’s something that should be front-page news but somehow never is: people born and raised in major cities have approximately 2 to 3 times the risk of developing schizophrenia or psychotic symptoms compared to those in rural areas.

This isn’t speculation. This is one of the most consistent findings in psychiatric epidemiology. The mechanism is straightforward: constant low-level social competition (“social defeat”), chronic noise pollution, lack of green space, and unrelenting sensory stimulation all act as chronic stressors on the brain’s threat-detection systems.

In other words, the “urban lifestyle” that we’ve normalized—that we’ve made the default setting for modern success—is literally driving people insane at rates comparable to or exceeding heavy cannabis use.

But nobody’s calling for public health warnings on apartment leases in Manhattan or San Francisco. Nobody’s suggesting we restrict young people from moving to cities until their prefrontal cortex fully develops at age 25. That would be absurd, right?

Exactly as absurd as the current approach to cannabis.

4. Social Isolation: The Modern Plague Nobody Mentions

Humans are obligate social animals. Our brains developed in the context of constant social interaction, using other people as “reality anchors”—external validators that help us distinguish what’s real from what’s imagined.

Remove that scaffolding, and the brain starts generating its own internal stimuli. Chronic social isolation carries a relative psychosis risk of approximately 2 to 3 times baseline—right in line with heavy cannabis use.

Yet we’ve built an entire society around digital-only interactions and solo living arrangements. We’ve normalized conditions that fundamentally deprive the brain of the social input it needs to maintain a stable grip on consensus reality.

The loneliness epidemic isn’t just making people sad—it’s making them crazy. Literally. But you won’t see that statistic splashed across newspaper headlines.

The Comparison Nobody Wants to Make

Let’s put this in a simple table, shall we?

Factor	Estimated Relative Risk	Social Perception
Heavy Cannabis Use	2.0 – 4.0x	Highly stigmatized
Urban Living	2.0 – 3.0x	Aspirational
Severe Childhood Trauma	3.0 – 12.0x	“Private matter”
Social Isolation	2.0 – 3.0x	Modern reality
Sleep Deprivation	Nearly 100% if extreme	Badge of honor

Notice anything interesting? Cannabis carries a comparable or lower psychosis risk than multiple factors we not only accept but actively celebrate.

The Confounding Variables They Don’t Want You Thinking About

Here’s what really undermines the entire “cannabis causes psychosis” narrative: the overwhelming majority of psychosis risk in cannabis users is driven by two factors that have nothing to do with the plant itself.

First: genetic predisposition. If you have a family history of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder—particularly specific polymorphisms in the COMT and AKT1 genes—your brain’s dopamine regulation is already compromised. Cannabis doesn’t cause your psychosis; it potentially accelerates a timeline that was already written in your DNA.

Second: the neurodevelopmental window. The age range of 16-25 represents the highest risk period because the adolescent brain is undergoing massive structural changes—synaptic pruning, myelination, prefrontal cortex development. Early exposure to any mind-altering substance during this critical period can disrupt these processes.

But you know what else disrupts these processes? Trauma. Chronic stress. Sleep deprivation. Social isolation. Urban environmental stressors.

Yet somehow, we’ve decided to laser-focus our public health hysteria on the one thing that’s been used safely by millions of people for thousands of years.

Why the Narrative Persists

So why does the “cannabis psychosis” panic endure when the actual evidence shows it’s a statistically minor risk compared to accepted societal norms?

Because acknowledging the real psychosis triggers would require us to confront uncomfortable truths about how we’ve structured modern society. It would mean admitting that our cities are making people sick. That our work culture is pathological. That our acceptance of childhood trauma as “just life” is literally breaking brains. That our atomized, digitally-mediated existence is severing the social connections that keep us sane.

It’s much easier to blame a plant.

The prohibition machine doesn’t run on evidence—it runs on fear. And fear requires a simple villain. Cannabis fits that role perfectly because demonizing it doesn’t require any of us to change our behavior or examine our societal structures.

The Sticky Bottom Line

Look, I’m not here to tell you that cannabis carries zero risk. Nothing in life carries zero risk. Coffee can trigger arrhythmias. Aspirin can cause internal bleeding. Driving to work is statistically more dangerous than smoking weed, but we don’t see congressional hearings about the “automobile epidemic.”

The question isn’t whether cannabis can, in rare cases and vulnerable individuals, contribute to psychotic episodes. The question is: why are we treating this particular risk as a moral emergency while ignoring or celebrating risk factors that are equally or significantly more dangerous?

If we actually cared about preventing psychosis—if this was genuinely about public health rather than prohibition politics—we’d be mounting massive campaigns to address childhood trauma, urbanicity, social isolation, and sleep deprivation. We’d be restructuring cities, reforming work culture, and investing in social connection infrastructure.

Instead, we’re arresting people for possessing a plant that carries a 0.008% annual psychosis risk while ignoring the fact that making them live in a cramped urban apartment, working 80-hour weeks with four hours of sleep, completely isolated from meaningful human connection, carries a far higher risk of shattering their sanity.

The absolute risk of cannabis-induced psychosis is low. The relative hypocrisy of those pushing this narrative is astronomical.

Maybe it’s time we started asking the tough question: if we’re so concerned about psychosis, why are we only afraid of the things that don’t threaten the status quo?

 

DOES CANNABIS CAUSE PSYCHOSIS, READ ON…

DOES CANNABIS USE AS A KID LEAD TO ADULT PSYCHOSIS?

The head grower at a 100,000-square-foot facility was getting hammered over flat yields.

Investors wanted “efficiency,” the CEO wanted a silver bullet, and everyone wanted a clean story to explain why the numbers would magically go up next quarter.

Under that pressure, leadership did what struggling operations often do: they switched nutrients and bought a new fertigation system.

Recirc pumps, dosing equipment, touchscreens, the works. It looked like progress, it photographed well, and it sounded like the kind of fix executives love to talk about on calls.

Six figures later, the irrigation room was a showroom. Pallets of the old fertilizer were shoved into a corner while the new system rhythmically clicked along.

On paper, they had “addressed” the yield problem. But in the grow rooms, nothing had changed.

I’ve watched this same decision pattern repeat inside enough commercial grow operations to know that equipment rarely fixes what execution broke. 

The Wrong Upgrade

Six months in, yields hadn’t budged, and production costs had actually increased. The culprit wasn’t nutrients. It was neglect.

Stock plants were old and tired. Moms that should have been replaced at four months were still in service at 18, some pushing two years. Their woody branches and crispy fan leaves towered over the staff. The propagation crew called them “grandmas,” a joke that stopped being funny when cloning success only hit 40%.

When the cuttings didn’t root, the scramble began.

Immature plants got pushed into veg, or overages from previous lots were dragged forward to plug gaps. By the time the room flipped, plant height and structure were all over the place. Irrigation became a guessing game as workers struggled to avoid overwatering or underwatering the wildly uneven crop.

Drip lines weren’t flushed or maintained between runs, so salt buildup clogged the emitters, leaving some plants bone-dry while the rest looked fine. The only way to find the victims was to wait until they visibly wilted, then rush in and water by hand.

Stressed plants did what stressed cannabis plants do: they hermied and seeded their neighbors. Yields barely met minimum per-square-foot targets, while production costs matched those of a well-run facility twice its size.

By the time leadership realized the return on their shiny new installation was a financial rounding error, the money was already gone.

The problem was never the crop. It was the discipline. And there wasn’t any.

The Wrong Focus

Everyone involved believed the new system was the solution. Ripping out old equipment, installing high-tech gear, and stacking pallets of fresh fertilizer with loud labels is the kind of story executives are eager to tell. You can point at it. You can show it to investors. You can stand in front of it for photos and talk about progress.

A neglected mother room doesn’t give you that. Neither does a boring three-ring binder full of maintenance schedules and sanitation SOPs.

Visible problems tend to get visible solutions. A fertigation system that looks dated is easy to replace. You can assign a budget, a vendor, and a project plan. It’s easy to list features and mistake complexity for sophistication.

But try telling your board that yields are down because your stock plants look like yard waste and no one is following a cloning playbook. Those sound like excuses, while shiny hardware sounds like action.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: this facility didn’t have a yield problem. They had an executive attention problem. Leadership kept cutting checks for equipment because it is easier to buy equipment than to enforce standards. Discipline only holds when leaders set expectations, back the grow team, and step in when standards slip.

The new system didn’t just fail to fix the issue; it made it worse. The head grower spent hours mastering touchscreen menus instead of regenerating mother plants, codifying propagation protocols, or ensuring preventive maintenance. Whatever consistency remained quickly evaporated.

What Actually Works

In my 25 years across ornamental, vegetable, and cannabis production, the most reliable operators I’ve worked with abandoned clever fixes long ago and built their success on boring, repeatable execution.

Greenhouse vegetable growers figured this out a long time ago. There was never a hype cycle in tomatoes. Margins are thin, and nobody is wiring six figures to rescue an operation that can’t hit its numbers.

Walk into a serious commercial greenhouse, and you won’t find heroics; you’ll find discipline. Weekly crop measurements. Bi-weekly sap tests. Monthly maintenance logs that are signed and double-checked.

Cannabis had the opposite problem. For years, fat margins let operators get away with chaos. Yield problems got “solved” with new equipment rather than enforcement and accountability.

That era is over.

Execution Wins

Survival won’t come from the next piece of hardware or the latest nutrient recipe. It will come from the tedious work nobody posts on Instagram: clear standards for mother plants, propagation KPIs that trigger action, and SOPs that are actually followed.

That kind of discipline is ultimately what will determine which facilities last. Not budget, but execution that looks the same on Tuesday as it does on Sunday, where mothers never become “grandmas,” and the process does its work.

The people best positioned to fix these problems usually aren’t the ones approving budgets from a distance. They’re the ones who’ve lived inside enough operations to recognize when execution has quietly become the constraint.

Before you buy another upgrade, ask what you’re really fixing: yield, or execution?

Photos courtesy of CRYSTALWEED cannabis.

This article is from an external, unpaid contributor. It does not represent High Times’ reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.

The Recreational Cannabis Foundation was founded with a clear mission: the legalization of recreational cannabis. But with an ambitious vision: to bring stakeholders together across borders and promote knowledge exchange on cannabis regulation. Rooted in the proven success of the Dutch model, we recognized the importance of connecting local expertise with international developments. We believe that by collaborating with organizations that have shaped the recreational cannabis market, we lay the foundation for the future.

This is why we are building a platform from the Foundation: the Union of Cannabis Retailers (UCR). We work on harmonizing policies and promoting cooperation between member states. We now have a global network, bridging regions, sharing best practices, and contributing to international policy dialogue.

The structure of the Union of Cannabis Retailers reflects our mission, with dedicated efforts at three levels: national, European, and global. Each level plays a crucial role in promoting knowledge-sharing, fostering collaboration, and ensuring that cannabis regulation serves public health and public order.

 

McGlinchey has made the decision to close its doors after 51 years of operation. The firm’s final day providing legal services is January 31, 2026.

Across five decades, McGlinchey’s attorneys and legal professionals have focused on solving clients’ legal problems creatively, collaboratively, and effectively. We are immensely proud of the culture we have built, the excellent service we have delivered, and the team we have assembled.

Many of our people have already transitioned to the next step in their career and practice journey. The firm wishes them many years of continued success.

A small team will continue working to wind down operations and close the business. If you have specific questions, please contact the email addresses listed below.

For file transfer and records questions, email recs_mgmt@mcglinchey.com.

For billing questions, email AP-FirmExpense@mcglinchey.com or Accountsreceivable@mcglinchey.com.

For all other inquiries, email inquiries@mcglinchey.com or call (504) 586-1200.

The collapse of McGlinchey Stafford has now moved into federal bankruptcy court, with filings showing the defunct law firm owes more than $10 million to lawyers, banks, and other creditors. The Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, filed in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, outlines substantial liabilities tied to the firm’s abrupt shutdown and the financial fallout that followed.

McGlinchey Stafford, a long-established New Orleans-based law firm, officially ceased operations before seeking liquidation under Chapter 7 of the US Bankruptcy Code. Court documents indicate that both the firm’s assets and liabilities are estimated to fall between $10 million and $50 million. The filing lists hundreds of creditors, including former attorneys, financial institutions, vendors, and other business partners.

More Than $10 Million in Outstanding Debt

According to the bankruptcy petition, McGlinchey Stafford’s debts exceed $10 million. The liabilities reportedly include obligations to former lawyers for compensation and partnership-related payments, as well as outstanding amounts owed to banks and service providers.

Read more at 

McGlinchey Stafford Collapse Owes $10M to Lawyers and Banks

 

Heading up the team was Heidi Urness

She has gone back into private practice and also has a teaching gig in San Francisco.

More info at Linked In

https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidinurness/

 

 

Perry Salzhauer served as their Co-chair of the Cannabis Industry Group in Seattle and can now be found here

 

Chase Stoecker: was a partner at the firm in Fort Lauderdale and had also served as the Membership Vice-Chair of the ABA Cannabis Law and Policy General Committee (2023-24).

He is now at Hinshaw

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chase-stoecker-68a1774/

 

Zelma Murray Frederick: A Member of the firm for 17 years who was part of the cannabis litigation and regulatory team. is now at 

 

Time seems to go by so fast. In reality, it moves no faster—or slower—than ever, but there’s a very specific feeling, distinctive of these times: we are so immersed in routine and the constant repetition of activities that we end up operating on autopilot. Days seem to “fly by” because, by automatically repeating actions, our brain saves energy, compresses our experiences, and reduces the capacity to pay attention to other details.

Modern life fosters a contemporary malaise: overstimulation, multitasking, multiple screens at once, and an accelerated pace that diminishes the capacity for mindfulness. Looking back, bam!, “the years condense into just a few highlights, while the everyday hours vanish into oblivion,” notes Rocío Zorzon, a physician specializing in therapeutic cannabis and phytomedicine, with a poetic touch.

Thus, memory, in its eagerness to synthesize, “gives us back an abridged version of lived time, reinforcing the impression that everything is happening faster,” she continues. Furthermore, the constant pursuit of productivity and the dizzying pace of technological advancement generate stress and fuel a persistent feeling of “not wanting to miss out on anything.” In this sense, weed could help slow down that speed.

Let’s talk a bit about this. “Cannabis, especially through CBD, acts as an anxiolytic and helps reduce anxiety. On the other hand, THC, the main psychoactive compound, interacts with the endocannabinoid system, which regulates processes such as sensory perception and the body’s internal rhythms,” Zorzon explains.

This interaction affects areas of the brain linked to memory, attention, and time perception. Meanwhile, “many people report that during the onset of THC’s effects, time seems to ‘slow down,’ generating a subjective experience in which minutes feel longer and the experience becomes more intense.”

Are there any specific strains that work best and lend themselves more to introspection and slowing down? “Yes, without a doubt, indica or indica-dominant hybrid strains, rich in terpenes like myrcene, linalool, and terpinolene, which induce physical and mental relaxation, help us enter contemplative and peaceful states.”

These days, it’s difficult to “disconnect,” and with such momentum, a distinctly epochal symptom emerges: the rise of the infamous FOMO, a phenomenon that generates anxiety, digital dependence, and various difficulties in our daily lives, such as the inability to disconnect from obligations and, especially, from social media. In simpler terms, FOMO is understood as the perception of “missing out” while simultaneously compulsively maintaining connections via social media.

And once more, weed. An “antidote” to boredom, and thus, with the aim of countering idleness, it can become a powerful tool. The professional says: “Neuroscience shows that moments of ‘doing nothing’ are not only productive, but essential. They allow the brain to rest, reorganize, and enhance key functions such as creativity, memory, and decision-making.”

Therefore, it is recommended to incorporate conscious pauses in which nothing is done, not even overthinking. Difficult, right? “These pauses act as a simple yet profound technique to reconnect with the present moment and give time a more human rhythm,” explains Zorzon.

At the same time, the incorporation of some “slow practices” such as yoga and mindfulness are recommended, as they are especially valuable. “They help us remember the importance of being in the here and now, carefully observing our thoughts, emotions, and activities. In this way, we can experience each moment with greater awareness, avoiding falling into automation and doing things mechanically.”

Nevertheless, the pursuit of slowing down can sometimes lead to passivity and even escapism. Beware of giving in to mental wandering, of burning out your brain by burning one. It’s all in the eye of the beholder. In fact, the pursuit of slowing down can involve certain risks if it’s confused with passivity or a way of escaping reality.

“The real secret,” the professional assures us, “lies in finding balance: being productive, but also reserving space for leisure, mindfulness, and relaxation. Slowing down is valuable when it’s understood as presence and connection, not as immobility or escape.”

In short, the danger arises when “living more slowly” is interpreted as “not living fully.”

And, strictly speaking, cannabis is profoundly linked to the purpose for which it is being used. The key lies in the intention: what is the substance being used for? There is a fine line between the different forms of use, since the effect is highly subjective and varies from person to person. “When used in moderation and with a conscious intention, both options can acquire a therapeutic character. Of course, it is essential to remember that nothing in excess is beneficial,” Zorzon warns.

And in a society—at a time, in a place—that demands more from us, more feeling, more hustle, more producing, going against the grain and slowing down can ignite countercultural sparks. The idyllic image of children playing freely in the street, of adults sharing time together, of social spaces as community hubs is gradually fading. A good response might be: do less, produce less, and hit the brakes. That’s where mindfulness, yoga, meditation, and mindfulness practices come in. And when the urge arises, because it always does, weed.

“More and more people are becoming interested in, training in, and incorporating these practices into their daily lives, seeking a deeper connection with consciousness and the present moment. For me, all of this represents a new stage in our human evolution: a conscious return to more integrative and connected ways of living,” Zorzon concludes.

The mind is a master editor, and we whirl through the accelerated montage of a life lived at breakneck speed, the absence of intermediate moments, and ever-lower peaks. If life is but a breath, perhaps the key lies in fighting against this acceleration and learning to expand the present as much as possible, leaving it at a semicolon, right here.

In rapid succession, the federal government initiated two cannabis policy changes that, taken together, represent the most consequential realignment of the industry in more than half a century.

First, federal law redefined hemp, tightening allowable THC thresholds for consumable products and restricting certain synthetic cannabinoids, with an effective date set for November 2026. Shortly thereafter, the administration directed federal agencies to begin the formal process of reclassifying marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act.

Viewed independently, each development is significant. Viewed together, they reflect a deeper shift in federal posture. Cannabis policy is no longer operating in parallel lanes for hemp and marijuana. Instead, federal action is pushing toward a more unified, compliance-driven cannabinoid framework, one in which states, not Washington, will determine which markets remain viable and which business models survive the transition.

For operators across hemp, medical cannabis, adult-use cannabis, and adjacent industries, the next 12–18 months will not be defined by federal headlines. They will be defined by state law mechanics, political timing, and strategic positioning in a converging regulatory ecosystem.

A Federal Pivot Toward Managed Regulation

The hemp redefinition and the move toward Schedule III rescheduling are often discussed as separate initiatives. In practice, they are complementary.

The hemp change tightens the consumer cannabinoid lane, narrowing what qualifies as lawful hemp products and reducing tolerance for intoxicating formulations that proliferated under prior interpretations of federal law.

Schedule III rescheduling, by contrast, legitimizes the medical cannabinoid lane by formally ending the federal position that marijuana has no accepted medical use, even though full federal legalization remains out of reach.

Together, these actions reflect a consistent federal posture. Intoxicating cannabinoids will no longer be tolerated in a regulatory vacuum. Medical cannabis is no longer treated as legally fictitious. States are expected to regulate cannabinoids through defined, enforceable systems rather than informal carve-outs.

This is not deregulation. It is regulatory consolidation.

This shift is not about loosening controls, but about clarifying them. As my partner Cory Parnell, CPA at BGM, recently observed:

“This is not a moment of deregulation, it’s a moment of definition. Cannabinoids are moving out of ambiguity and into formal systems, and that transition will expose which markets were built on policy and which were built on assumptions.”

The Emergence of a Federal Medical Cannabinoid Lane

Alongside rescheduling, federal agencies have been directed to explore medical cannabis pilot programs within federally administered healthcare systems. While details remain limited, the purpose of these pilots is not market expansion but data generation.

These programs are intended to evaluate cannabinoid-based therapies under controlled conditions, with an early focus on seniors and other vulnerable populations. The emphasis is on safety, dosing, outcomes, and comparative effectiveness, particularly where cannabinoids may serve as alternatives or complements to higher-risk pharmaceuticals.

Importantly, these pilots are not designed to displace existing state medical cannabis programs in the near term. Instead, they represent a parallel federal effort to build clinical evidence and institutional familiarity with cannabinoids inside traditional healthcare systems. Over time, the data generated through these programs is likely to influence physician education, standards of care, and future federal policy decisions.

For now, they should be understood as infrastructure-building exercises rather than a shortcut to federal legalization.

Compounding Pharmacies in a Schedule III Environment

Within this emerging framework, compounding pharmacies warrant attention.

As entities already accustomed to handling controlled substances under physician oversight, compounding pharmacies are structurally aligned with a Schedule III environment focused on medical supervision and standardized delivery methods. In the context of pilot programs, they may play a limited but meaningful role in developing non-smokable, dosage-controlled cannabinoid formulations suitable for clinical evaluation.

This does not imply broad retail access, nor does it suggest that state dispensaries become pharmacies. It reflects how federal medical systems traditionally engage with controlled substances during early-stage evaluation and research.

CBD, Medicare, and Incremental Normalization

One of the clearest signals in current federal policy discussions is the distinct treatment of CBD relative to other cannabinoids.

Federal directives accompanying rescheduling efforts have emphasized preserving access to non-intoxicating, full-spectrum CBD while restricting intoxicating products that pose public health risks. In healthcare settings, CBD is often viewed as the most administratively and politically feasible entry point for cannabinoid-based therapies.

Any future consideration of Medicare coverage is likely to follow this incremental approach. Rather than broad reimbursement for cannabis products, early federal efforts, if pursued, would almost certainly focus on CBD formulations used under medical supervision for specific indications.

In this sense, CBD functions as a policy bridge, connecting hemp, medical cannabis, and federal healthcare systems without forcing immediate resolution of more complex issues surrounding THC, adult-use markets, or interstate commerce.

Why State Law Will Decide the Outcomes

Despite the significance of federal action, outcomes will not be uniform nationwide. As has long been true in cannabis policy, state law, not federal announcements, will determine whether cannabinoid businesses can legally operate.

Each state maintains its own Controlled Substances Act, and the way those statutes interact with federal scheduling changes varies considerably. In the context of hemp redefinition, states generally fall into three categories:

• Automatic-trigger states, where federal scheduling changes are adopted by default unless affirmatively blocked.
• Rulemaking or legislative states, where state action is required to conform to federal changes.
• Discretionary adoption states, where alignment with federal law is optional.

In automatic-trigger states, failure to act before the federal hemp changes take effect in 2026 could result in the sudden loss of existing hemp protections, potentially reclassifying products overnight. In discretionary states, the same federal change may have little immediate effect.

The same principle applies to Schedule III. Rescheduling does not convert state dispensaries into federally lawful pharmacies, nor does it authorize interstate commerce. Instead, it alters the policy and risk calculus under which states operate.

In both cases, timing matters. States with short legislative sessions, slow rulemaking processes, or politically divided governments face heightened risk of unintended disruption simply because they fail to act in time.

Hemp and Marijuana Are No Longer Separate Conversations

Perhaps the most consequential implication of these developments is conceptual. Hemp and marijuana are now part of the same regulatory conversation.

States are increasingly viewing cannabinoids as a single policy category rather than two unrelated industries. As a result, hemp products that no longer qualify under revised definitions may be redirected into licensed cannabis systems or prohibited entirely. Hemp operators may be forced to evaluate medical or adult-use licensing as a survival strategy. States without adult-use cannabis may rely more heavily on medical programs as the only lawful cannabinoid pathway.

In practical terms, hemp businesses are inheriting cannabis-style compliance risk, while cannabis businesses are inheriting hemp-style competition and consumer expectations. The regulatory distance that once separated the two is closing.

Business Implications Are Already Material

This convergence is not theoretical. It is already reshaping day-to-day business realities across the cannabinoid economy.

Operators across hemp and cannabis markets are experiencing increased banking scrutiny, heightened contractual risk, intellectual property constraints, and growing pressure to adopt state-specific operating models rather than national distribution strategies.

A Note on 280E

One of the more tangible consequences of Schedule III, once finalized, will be the elimination of Internal Revenue Code §280E for plant-touching cannabis businesses. While this will materially improve after-tax cash flow for many operators, it also introduces a period of structural reassessment. Business models and entity structures designed for a punitive tax regime may no longer be optimal in a post-280E environment.

Here again, state-level tax conformity and implementation timing reinforce the importance of jurisdiction-specific planning rather than one-size-fits-all assumptions.

Strategic Paths Forward

There is no single playbook for navigating this transition. Strategy will depend on jurisdiction, product mix, capitalization, and risk tolerance.

What is clear is that inaction is itself a strategic choice, and often the riskiest one.

The Bottom Line

The federal government has sent a clear signal. Cannabinoids will be regulated, not ignored. Hemp redefinition, Schedule III rescheduling, federal pilot programs, and emerging CBD policy all point toward a more structured and less forgiving regulatory environment.

For businesses that understand their state’s legal mechanics, engage early, and plan deliberately, the transition can be managed. For those that assume current protections will persist by default, the risk is not incremental disruption but sudden loss of legal footing in core markets.

Next Steps

These developments will not affect every business the same way. Their impact depends on where you operate, how your products are regulated today, and how quickly your state moves over the next 12–18 months.

If you would like to discuss how these federal shifts intersect with your business or market strategy, you are invited to schedule a conversation with Peter M. Prevot, CPA to assess options before critical state-level decisions are made.

This article, “Federal Cannabis Policy Is Forcing a State-by-State Reset,” by Peter Prevot, CPA, was originally published by Bridge West Consulting and is republished with permission.

 

The Denver Post

Tetra Lounge was at risk of losing its license last year, but will remain open

A Denver cannabis lounge that was at risk of losing its license will remain open and has instead been ordered to pay a $10,000 fine by the city’s Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection.

Tetra Lounge, located at 3039 Walnut St., was fined after a hearing last November in which it had to respond to allegations that violated several laws during special events it held on April 20 and July 10, both notable cannabis holidays.

The business has been ordered to pay $10,000 within 90 days and is effectively on probation for a year. If it incurs another violation, Tetra Lounge will have to pay an additional $10,000 and close for 60 days, according to a final decision issued Thursday by Molly Duplechian, executive director of the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection.

This is the first licensing discipline case for a marijuana hospitality business in Denver, according to department spokesperson Eric Escudero. Tetra Lounge owner Dewayne Benjamin said he plans to appeal the decision.

Last year, city officials issued Tetra Lounge an “order to show cause,” prompting a hearing in which the business had to defend itself and explain why its license “should not be suspended or revoked.” In the order and subsequent hearing, city inspectors said they visited the business on April 20 and July 10 of last year and witnessed unlawful activity, including the sale and sampling of marijuana onsite.

Opened in 2018, Tetra Lounge is what’s technically called a cannabis hospitality business; however, marijuana sales are not permitted under the conditions of its license. Instead, patrons bring their own weed and pay an entry fee to smoke on the lounge’s outdoor patio.

Inspectors alleged that cannabis consumption was happening inside Tetra’s building – which is not part of the licensed premise – and that vendors at both events were unlawfully distributing marijuana products. They said there were also booths selling psychedelic substances such as psilocybin and DMT, which is illegal. (One of the officials lost their position with the city after consuming a mushroom gummy on the job during the April 20 inspection. Technically, the booth was located outside of Tetra Lounge’s property.)

While the inspectors provided circumstantial evidence, such as pipes with burnt marijuana sitting inside Tetra Lounge and booths with listed product prices, they purportedly didn’t see sales transactions happening first hand, according to testimony presented at the hearing. One inspector was, however, told marijuana products were for sale. He also saw people congregating inside the space, which did not have a certificate of occupancy, on April 20.

Woodstock is one of those words that still carries heat. It’s the 1969 festival mythos, the long shadow it cast over American counterculture, and the way cannabis quietly threaded through that era’s music, politics, and refusal to play along. It’s also a real place—Woodstock, New York—where the vibe isn’t a slogan so much as a lived-in current that runs through every record shop, gallery, and mountain road.

For over half a century, “Woodstock” has meant something: a moment when peace, love, and music collided with a generation’s refusal to accept the official story about war, freedom, or the plant that became a symbol of rebellion. Now, Woodstock is also a cannabis brand trying to do something harder than printing their iconic dove and guitar on packaging: deliver products that feel worthy of the name.

In a legal market full of loud promises and short attention spans, Woodstock Cannabis is staking its claim on whole-plant quality, culture-forward storytelling, and a consumer experience that’s more than the THC count. The mission isn’t nostalgia. It’s delivering on the values that made Woodstock matter in the first place—authenticity, community, and questioning authority. 

Questioning Authority Since 1969

If there’s a through-line connecting Woodstock the festival to Woodstock the cannabis brand, it’s the same instinct that built High Times: questioning authority.

Martin Mills, who helps manage the Woodstock Cannabis brand in New York and New Jersey, put it plainly: “High Times was questioning what the norm was on cannabis for as long as the Woodstock generation.” Both brands were born from the same cultural movement that insisted cannabis wasn’t what the government claimed it was.

That shared DNA matters because it’s not just branding—it’s mission. For more than a century, cannabis has been wrapped in prohibition lies. High Times carried the counter-narrative through the media. Woodstock carried it through music and culture. Now, in the legal era, Woodstock Cannabis carries it through meticulous product quality and, of course, music and the arts. 

The 1969 Woodstock Festival, where cannabis, music, and counterculture converged into a movement that would define a generation.

Honoring the Whole Plant

The Woodstock generation didn’t just show up for three days of music in 1969. They showed up to reject what was happening around them: war, injustice, racism, and a system that told them what to think. Cannabis was part of that rejection—a plant that represented freedom, community, and a refusal to play by rules designed to control.

Woodstock Cannabis isn’t trying to recreate 1969. It’s trying to honor what that moment represented: authenticity over hype, community over profit, and a belief that culture—music, art, conversation—can change the world.

That philosophy shows up in how the brand thinks about its products. “We focus on whole plant products,” Mills explained. That means full-spectrum thinking: terpenes, minor cannabinoids, not just THC potency. It means pre-rolls made with “whole flower”—never shake, never trim. It means vapes made with live resin or whole-cured resin, not distillate shortcuts with added flavoring.

“We don’t add potent THC or terpenes from other plants,” Mills said. “We add the extract that’s coming from the material that we’re using to make it.” 

That whole-plant philosophy shows up across Woodstock’s product line: pre-rolls filled with whole flower (never shake or trim), full-spectrum vapes using live resin and whole cured resin, and a hemp beverage line that layers minor cannabinoids with functional mushrooms like Lion’s mane, reishi, and cordyceps. It’s cannabis designed for the effect, not just the number.

It’s a standard people can understand immediately, and it’s a way to bring the conversation back to the plant itself rather than letting the experience get hijacked by potency culture.

The pitch isn’t “ours is better.” It’s “know what you’re buying.” In a market where shelves are crowded, and consumers get rushed, that distinction matters.

Never shake, never trim: Woodstock’s pre-rolls use whole flower, and their vapes prioritize live resin and whole cured resin over distillate shortcuts.

When Music Does the Marketing 

Woodstock can’t separate itself from music without losing the plot. Mills doesn’t treat music like a marketing theme. He treats it like the most natural environment for cannabis to make sense.

“Nothing is better than smoking a joint at a concert and listening to music,” he said, describing music as a way to “break down the barriers” and help people seek something beyond their daily routine. “Seeking is the backbone to revolution. Seeking is the backbone to discovering music, and seeking is the backbone to discovering cannabis.”

That matters because, as Mills pointed out, dispensaries remain confusing for many shoppers. “When a customer comes into a dispensary, it’s confusing,” he said. “There’s not a lot of brand recognition. There’s not a lot of knowledge around all the products available… People don’t know the difference between a distillate vape and a full-spectrum resin or rosin vape.”

So Woodstock’s job—beyond showing up on dispensary shelves—is to educate in the places people actually feel open: live music, cultural events, moments where someone might ask the right question and get a real answer. Education without a lecture. The old-school way: in the crowd, in the culture, with the music loud enough to make you feel open.

Woodstock Goods hemp beverage line now features six flavors ranging from 2.5mg to 10mg, enhanced with functional mushrooms and minor cannabinoids.

How the Outlaws Became the Stewards

Mills’ personal path to Woodstock is very on-theme for the era he fell in love with. He discovered the 1969 Woodstock documentary as a kid—”maybe 13, maybe 12″—and that first glimpse of cannabis on screen landed hard. “After seeing that movie, I was obsessed with 60s culture. I was obsessed with the music of that culture,” he said.

He lived on tour with Phish in the late ’90s and early 2000s, worked in cannabis in California during the prohibition era, and eventually landed in Woodstock, New York, with his wife, designer Erin Katigan. They started a “psychedelic rock and roll hotel” and lived what Mills called “the Woodstock lifestyle in real time.”

When New York legalization arrived, Mills connected with Radio Woodstock and helped create Cannastock—a series of cannabis events that introduced the Hudson Valley to what adult-use culture could look like. That led to a role managing the Woodstock Cannabis brand in New York and New Jersey, acting as both cultural steward and quality control voice.

His story matters not because it’s exceptional, but because it’s representative. Prohibition punished people like Mills for decades. Legalization gave them a chance to do it right—to build something that honors the plant, the culture, and the people who carried both through the dark years.

New Cherry Pomelo (Drift) and Salted Melon (Bliss) have 10mg of hemp derived THC for consumers seeking a stronger dose.

Woodstock in 2026: Same Values, New Formats

Woodstock is bigger than one person, one product line, or one moment in 1969. The name has survived because it represents a feeling people still want: community, music, rebellion, and the kind of freedom you can’t legislate into existence.

The question for the legal era is whether “Woodstock” can stand for quality, too—whether it can become a signal on shelves that means something beyond nostalgia. Woodstock Cannabis is trying to answer that with whole-flower standards, full-spectrum extraction choices, and hemp beverages designed for the next wave of social cannabis use.

The dispensary shelves carry those whole-plant pre-rolls and vapes. The hemp beverages reach beyond dispensaries entirely—available in select states for people looking to replace alcohol or unwind with something cleaner. This month, the Woodstock Goods’ beverage line is expanding with two new delicious 10mg flavors, Cherry Pomelo and Salted Melon. 

The brand isn’t trying to recreate the past. It’s trying to prove that the values from that era—authenticity, community, questioning authority—still matter when you’re making product decisions in 2025.

If Woodstock keeps treating the name like a responsibility instead of a shortcut, the future looks less like a throwback and more like a continuation: new formats, new markets, same cultural spine.

To learn more about Woodstock—the town, the culture, and the brand—check out High Times’ video on YouTube.

All photos courtesy of the Woodstock Festival Archive and Woodstock Cannabis Co