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GreenLeaf<br />
May 20<strong>18</strong><br />
Feature Article:<br />
Dirty Water Organics<br />
an Indepth an Indepth Interview Interview with with Peezy Pez<br />
Magazine<br />
What<br />
is<br />
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and Why<br />
and Why<br />
Should<br />
Should<br />
We Care?<br />
We Care?<br />
Sherbinski<br />
The Creator of<br />
Gelato and<br />
Sunset Sherbert<br />
Spring Time Breeders’ Edition<br />
Orange Harle Tsu<br />
The Legal Weed Series<br />
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What’s Inside<br />
Page 9<br />
Strain Review:<br />
Orange Harle Tsu<br />
by Kaitlyn Buckley<br />
9<br />
Page 10<br />
Page <strong>18</strong><br />
An Interview with the Famous:<br />
Sherbinski<br />
by Wayne “the Cannabis King”<br />
Burinni<br />
The Legal Weed Series:<br />
New Jersey Weedman,<br />
Political Prisoner #420<br />
by Mark Ward<br />
10<br />
Page 24<br />
Feature:<br />
DIRTY WATER ORGANICS<br />
An Interview with Peezy<br />
by Kaitlyn Buckley<br />
<strong>18</strong><br />
Page 32<br />
Page 39<br />
What is CBD, and<br />
Why Should We Care?<br />
by Kassie Kristoff<br />
Moldy Mass Medical<br />
Cannabis<br />
by Mike “Cann” Crawford<br />
32<br />
J4<br />
39
<strong>Greenleaf</strong><br />
Magazine<br />
Brett Cogill<br />
Founder<br />
bcbudz@greenleafmagazine.com<br />
Editors<br />
Kaitlyn Buckley<br />
Editor<br />
indicaazula@gmail.com<br />
Anna Coletti<br />
Assistant Editor<br />
sparklebudz@greenleafmagazine.com<br />
Photography:<br />
Jerry Krecicki Photography<br />
jerry@greenleafmagazine.com<br />
www.jerrykrecicki.com<br />
Sly Vegas Photography<br />
www.slyvegasphoto.com<br />
Jennifer Correia<br />
@JENuimeVISION<br />
jenuinmevision@gmail.com<br />
Writers:<br />
Mike “Cann” Crawford<br />
www.mikecann.net<br />
Mark Ward<br />
mmwpi@aol.com<br />
Lauren C. Moore<br />
wordthatwander@livel.com<br />
Kassia Kristoff<br />
kkristoff30@mail.com<br />
Wayne Burinni<br />
thecannabisking@gmal.com<br />
SNAFU<br />
thepotninja@greenleafmagazine.com<br />
24<br />
Cover Photograph Courtesy of Dirty Water Organics<br />
Cover Photo: Barnyward Animals<br />
Contents Photo: Katsunana Kush<br />
J5
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Strain Review<br />
by Kaitlyn Buckley<br />
Orange Harle Tsu<br />
Orange Creamsicle x Harlequin<br />
Breeder: HBK Genetics<br />
Orange Harle Tsu is a cross between Orange Creamsicle and Harlequinn,<br />
the original high CBD strain that helped pave the way for the current widespread<br />
knowledge of the compound. Though little information is available on<br />
this strain, HBK Genetics have done a great job creating this beauty. She is a<br />
strong plant, that produces resinous, white trich flowers with bright orange<br />
hairs which does best taking her 70 days until harvested. The aroma and flavor<br />
of Orange Cremesicle Popsicles comes through very prominately.<br />
I have only grown this strain indoors thus far, though I am sure she<br />
would grow well outdoors also. I would recommend using continous preventative<br />
foliars on her for bugs. And would suggest to keep her covered during<br />
the fall rains. Orange Harle Tsu is a very relaxing body high without any<br />
overactive brain stimulation and racey thoughts. It is great for bed time and<br />
anxiety relief. Though she is not a heavy indica, body pain management is<br />
available with this medicine.<br />
J9
y Wayne “Cannabis King” Burrini<br />
An Interview with the Famous:<br />
Sherbinski<br />
J10<br />
Mr. Sherbinski aka Sherbs, and/or Mr. Sunset Sherbert! Mr. Sherbinski, breeder, grower, Muay Thai<br />
Instructor, creator of thee Sunset Sherbert, Gelato, Mochi (a pheno of Gelato) Gello (another phenol of<br />
Gelato) and Acai Berry (yet, another phenol of Gelato) and Owner of the Flavor factory, a fully licensed<br />
California grow facility, which pumps out his famous Sherbinskis line, as interviewed by Wayne<br />
“Cannabis King” Burrini aka “CK”!
CK: What/Who is the CookieFam and how did you become involved?<br />
SHERBS: CookieFam is a group of guys from San Francisco responsible<br />
for making GSC (Girl Scout Cookies) and a bunch of other fire genetics.<br />
I met Jigga through my friend Matt, one of my Muay Thai students.<br />
Jigga and I became close friends and we started experimenting in my<br />
gardens, the rest is history. I have a lot of love and respect for that<br />
man, we did our work with love and positive intentions for good medicine<br />
to come out of the work we did. We would pray over the seeds<br />
before we sprouted them. And you know what? We changed the<br />
world for the better. That’s what our life work is about and we did that<br />
together. He has a gift for working with plants, and he helped me find<br />
out I have been given that gift as well, the connection with the plant.<br />
CK: How old were you when you first smoked a joint?<br />
SHERBS: My mom (RIP) let me go on the side of my house with my sister and her boyfriend and smoke<br />
a joint when I was about 12. My mother was a free spirited hippie.<br />
CK: Which do you prefer, joint, bong, vape? Flower or concentrate?<br />
SHERBS: I’m a flower/Joint guy for sure. And I like a good vape pen with some live resin in it.<br />
CK: How did you come up with the famed Sunset Sherbert Strain?<br />
SHERBS: Jigga and I worked together for many years, the Sherbert got made in the first grow that<br />
Jigga and I had together. It was in the basement of my Grandma’s house on Alemany Street in San<br />
Francisco. I put a small Pink Panty plant inside a flowering room to help me see what sex it was. I came<br />
back 3 or 4 days later and it pollinated<br />
the room. I was upset at first, but those<br />
seeds got sprouted and ended up being<br />
the Sunset Sherbert. We called it Sherbert<br />
because it had all types of flavors,<br />
and Sunset because we all lived in the<br />
Sunset District in San Francisco.<br />
CK: Sunset Sherbert who are the<br />
parents?<br />
SHERBS: Pink Panties x GSC<br />
CK: Sunset Sherbert is classified an Indica<br />
dominant hybrid your thoughts?<br />
SHERBS: Sunset Sherbert is a hybrid<br />
that is a very well balanced variety. It<br />
has the heaviness of a indica, however<br />
it’s Burmese grandparent (sativa dominant)<br />
gives it a well balanced uplifting<br />
effect. It increases your sense of well<br />
being while allowing one to use this as<br />
a daytime “functional” smoke. Sunset<br />
Sherbert is also the strain of choice for<br />
people who suffer from PTSD.<br />
CK: When and why did you start growing<br />
and what was the first strain you grew?<br />
Acai Berry<br />
Gelato<br />
SHERBS: I grow to provide safe, quality<br />
medicine for myself and others. At<br />
first I just grew for myself, but people<br />
seemed to like my work so I kept doing<br />
it. I’ve been growing for 15 years. I was<br />
27 when I first started growing. The first<br />
strain I grew was the Afgooey. I grew<br />
buds the size of two liter soda bottles<br />
my first run.<br />
CK: Which do you prefer, growing Indoors<br />
or Outdoors?<br />
SHERBS: I prefer organic lightdep<br />
greenhouses. You get indoor quality<br />
but you are utilizing the sun. That light<br />
can’t be reproduced indoor, they try but<br />
Mother Nature has got ‘em on that. Indoor<br />
will always be “less damaged” and<br />
pretty because it’s protected the most<br />
by being indoors and doesn’t face the<br />
brutality of an outdoor environment. But<br />
that’s what a greenhouse does, protect<br />
the plant and the sun gives the plants a<br />
spectrum that indoor lights cannot do.<br />
So I see the genetics really doing what<br />
Mother Nature intended them to do and<br />
it’s always the best smoke to me.<br />
J11
CK: What would your perfect grow set up look like?<br />
SHERBS: It’s all about having a perfect grow environment, so for me having all the proper equipment.<br />
Lighting, air conditioning, dehumidifiers etc. all have to be proper so the plants can grow without issues.<br />
CK: Ok, let us talk genetics, that word seems to be popping everywhere where weed is becoming legal<br />
whether recreationally or medicinally…how do you explain genetics?<br />
SHERBS: When I explain genetics to friends of mine that are not in the industry, I explain it like this.<br />
Cannabis has males and females. Let’s say your parents had 100 children. Out of those children there<br />
is going to be variations in appearance, height, intelligence,<br />
etc. but they will all look similar. When<br />
you work with cannabis plants, we select the best<br />
“children” out of the seeds that we sprout. Just like<br />
parents having kids. It’s selective breeding.<br />
CK: What is your favorite medium to grow with?<br />
SHERBS: I use soil outdoor, and coco indoor.<br />
CK: What are your favorite products to use?<br />
The First Envirocann Certified Organic<br />
Nursery in California. The New Home<br />
of Sherbinskis Mothers.<br />
SHERBS: Vital all the way, shout out to Bri<br />
an at Vital Garden Supply on grass valley,<br />
California. He’s the best in the business,<br />
hands down, the owner showed me how to<br />
farm Organic.<br />
CK: Are there any certain lights that you<br />
prefer?<br />
SHERBS: I like to use Gavita double ended bulbs for flower and 630MH for veg. Generally speaking.<br />
CK: In veg do you do <strong>18</strong> or 24 hours of light or something different?<br />
SHERBS: <strong>18</strong> hours, plants need to sleep just like we do. They sleep for 6 hours.<br />
J12<br />
CK: How did you come up with the strain names…<br />
SHERBS: When you taste it for the first time, you try to capture what it tastes like and how it makes<br />
you feel medicinally. Those subtle hints that hit your senses guide you to a name. That’s the fun part<br />
and it is amazing when a name fits the strain perfect.
CK: Please explain how you germinate?<br />
SHERBS: I use Jiffy Pro forma Cells. They work great you can drop seeds in them, or use them for<br />
clones. They have a small charge, so only need to give it water the first few weeks and it really takes<br />
off. Highly recommend jiffy’s pro forma products.<br />
CK: Any tips on how to sex your plants?<br />
SHERBS: A few ways to sex your plants:<br />
Nowadays they have genetic testing where<br />
when the plant is very small (a few inches)<br />
Acai Berry<br />
you can cut a small part of the leaf off, have it tested<br />
and in a few days they can tell you of it’s a male or<br />
female. These tests have become more popular in<br />
recent years as a tool for farmers to sex earlier and<br />
save valuable time in the long process of breeding.<br />
Another way is to let the plants grow up a little<br />
and about <strong>18</strong>-24 inches normally the plant will show<br />
you during veg what sex it is. You look at the nodes<br />
and if she has got two little hairs sticking up it’s a<br />
female. If it’s got two little “nuts” on the plant nice it’s<br />
a male. And that is pretty damn accurate. Sometimes you have to wait longer to see on some plants.<br />
CK: Let’s talk pheno…recently I bought a zip of Gelato #41…I fuqin LOVED it…why #41? Why Phenos?<br />
I am starting to think a few of your famed strains Gello & Mochi, are just different phenos of Gelato…<br />
can you describe what pheno means to you?<br />
SHERBS: Let’s get something straight, the 25, 33, 41, 45, 43, 47, 49 are all phenos of Gelato.<br />
I explain phenos like this to people, those numbers are the numbers that were on the side of the pots.<br />
That’s all it is. When they don’t have names yet, all you can do is give it a number. It is funny to me<br />
how the numbers stuck. Now you see all types of people copying that. Imagine your parents had 20<br />
kids, each child is a different phenotype. There will be variations of your brothers and sisters, however<br />
most of them will look alike but have their own qualities.<br />
CK: What are your favorite strains to grow? What is your hardest strain to grow?<br />
SHERBS: Favorite strain to grow is Mochi. She’s short and fat and throws huge buds.<br />
Gello is the most difficult strain I work with. She can’t take the stress the other strains can.<br />
J13
CK: What are your top favorite strains to smoke?<br />
SHERBS: Gelato of course, specifically Mochi and<br />
Gello. I like a good OG as well.<br />
CK: Gelato, Who are the parents?<br />
SHERBS: Sunset Sherbert feminized polin x GSC.<br />
Gello, Mochi, Acai berry are all gelato phenos I selected.<br />
CK: How can you best describe “breeding”?<br />
SHERBS: Breeding is something that is not as hard<br />
as people may think. When you stick a female in a<br />
room with a male, what tends to happen? Well many<br />
times as humans we mate, plants are not that any different.<br />
You place a male together with a female and<br />
nature takes its course, and they mate!<br />
CK: Is there any special tips you can give any<br />
grower to help them be more one with the plant?<br />
SHERBS: It’s true that we “growers” are blessed with<br />
the honor of caring for these amazing plants. It’s a gift<br />
to be able to grow and care for these magic medicinal<br />
plants. I don’t like to use the word “magical” but it’s<br />
truly what it is. This plant gives so much more to us<br />
then we could ever give to it. It cares for us, provides<br />
for us. And it will live on, long after we are gone. It’s<br />
here to help and nurture us. And that’s why I’ve dedicated<br />
my life to this plant and to the people that need<br />
it in this world. That’s a life worth living. The best way<br />
to connect to the plants is to<br />
care for them. When you<br />
begin to care about the<br />
plants well being, you<br />
start to begin to understand<br />
the level of commitment<br />
to the growing<br />
process it takes<br />
to make good medicine,<br />
and when one is<br />
passionate about that, it<br />
takes you over and it becomes<br />
more then a job, it’s<br />
a lifestyle. And the plants “always”<br />
come first no matter what.<br />
Gelato<br />
CK: Any new flavors coming from you soon?<br />
SHERBS: I’m seeing a lot of people just cross<br />
gelato back to more gelato. All these so called<br />
“new strains” are just old regurgitated crosses<br />
I’ve connected with Josh D, Bubba, and my friend<br />
Ian. These guys brought Kush to California many<br />
years ago, and helped make Kush what it is today.<br />
I want to take the old school, and work it into<br />
some of my new school and see what we come<br />
up with. I have a few other tricks up my sleeve as<br />
well. Europe is knocking on my door, so it may be<br />
time to do some work on that side of the globe<br />
this year as well.<br />
CK: What exactly is the flavor factory?<br />
SHERBS: Flavor factory is what we call our<br />
f first grow facility in Sacramento, California.<br />
We pump out flavors, that is what we do.<br />
Sungrown, Organic Cannabis<br />
Sherbinski trimming some<br />
of his topshelf Flowers<br />
J14<br />
Disposable Vaporizer that<br />
goes inside the Double Barrel.
CK: What is the future of Sherbinski Farms?<br />
SHERBS: At The Flavor Factory a fully licensed<br />
California facilitiy, we have worked very hard to<br />
revolve with the industry and we are proud to be<br />
in a position to expand and being able to continue<br />
to bring our products to the great people of<br />
California and the other legal states we will be<br />
working with as Sherbinskis solidifies it’s licensing<br />
deals this year.<br />
CK: Are there “official“ dispensaries that carry<br />
your strains and your Sherbinskis line?<br />
SHERBS: Look for Sherbinskis products in Medmen<br />
in SoCal. The Greendoor in SF, Garden of<br />
Eden in Hayward, and a few other select dispensaries.<br />
We will be delivering straight to consumer<br />
through a new delivery service we are launching<br />
Acai Berry Gelato<br />
this year. Any of our products delivered to you in<br />
30 minutes in LA and SF.<br />
CK: Let’s discuss the new SHERBINKSKIS product<br />
line… What is coming? Vape pens, pre-rolls,<br />
clones, seeds...I wanna know everything you have<br />
and are planning and when we can expect it!<br />
SHERBS: We are launching our apparel this year,<br />
our merchandise and apparel will exclusively be<br />
available on WWW.Sherbinskis.com Check is<br />
out. In addition to our world famous flower (what<br />
we are known for) we are now bringing our vape<br />
line to market. We have partnered with one of<br />
the top manufacturers of vape products in California<br />
and are excited being that to market. We<br />
also have our prerolls and concentrate line available<br />
at select dispensaries in California. Contact<br />
your local shop and let them know you want<br />
Sherbinskis.<br />
CK: Cannabis is now outright legal in California,<br />
your thoughts? With legalization a reality, where<br />
do you envision the future of Sherbinskis?<br />
SHERBS: I’m excited that people have safe access<br />
now and that our kids don’t have to grow up<br />
in a environment like we did, I would get busted<br />
for having a single bowl of weed. Sherbinskis is<br />
going to continue to service the cannabis community<br />
and work hard to be a role model for compliance<br />
and share my knowledge with the people<br />
that have built this community and do it for all the<br />
people that gave their lives in one way or another<br />
for us to be where we are today. One love and<br />
please stay up to date on what we have going on<br />
by following us on:<br />
Instagram: @sherbinski415 and @sherbinskis<br />
Please check out our Website:<br />
www.Sherbinskis.com<br />
An Indoor Grow Facility run by Sherbinski<br />
J15
WORLD'S FIRST
The Legal Weed Series:<br />
by Mark M. Ward<br />
@ReadLegalWeed<br />
New Jersey Weedman,<br />
Political Pristoner #420<br />
J16 J<strong>18</strong>
It is early February, 20<strong>18</strong> and as legalization<br />
initiates in the state of New Jersey many are<br />
overcome with great feelings of excitement and<br />
jubilation, while others… not so much. While<br />
some have plans of big business venture and expanding<br />
profit margin, some still have concern of<br />
being targeted or incarcerated for what for them,<br />
may still be considered cannabis crime. Some<br />
feel this soon to be instated legalization will only<br />
benefit modern kings and not the common. Case<br />
in point: NJ Weedman, who now is nearing his<br />
344th day incarcerated without bail, for a charge<br />
he was found not guilty of 3 months prior to present<br />
time.<br />
Robert Edward “Ed” Forchion, Jr. (born<br />
July 23, 1964), also known as NJ Weedman, is<br />
an US military veteran, Rastafari, cannabis rights<br />
activist, free speech and jury nullification activist,<br />
writer, as well as a restaurateur. Forchion, a resident<br />
of New Jersey and California, is a registered<br />
medical cannabis patient. He has been arrested<br />
and convicted for some of his activities and has<br />
taken part in several legal defenses and contested<br />
laws regarding cannabis. In his home town<br />
of Trenton, he also owns a licensed eatery “NJ<br />
Weedman’s Joint”, which is a 420-friendly soul<br />
food restaurant that is changing the concept of<br />
NJ cannabis, as well as medical cannabis consumers<br />
choices in healthy eating.<br />
Directly adjacent to NJ Weedman’s Joint<br />
you will find his registered sanctuary and cannabis<br />
church, the “Liberty Bell Temple III”. Forchion<br />
created this sanctuary as a place of safe refuge<br />
for those that, in their religion choose to use cannabis<br />
as a form of holy sacrament, or ritual tool<br />
of ceremony. As a Rastafari himself, NJ Weedman<br />
finds great need for such places of worship.<br />
Others who also consume the plant as sacrament<br />
come from near and far to enjoy this holy place<br />
and their right to freedom of religion and the use<br />
of to their ritual herb.<br />
Forchion’s latest saga of what he and<br />
many others feel is corruption and race-based<br />
incarceration, initiated when he and patrons of<br />
his restaurant and sanctuary began being approached<br />
by Trenton police, as they entered or<br />
exited the establishments. Local police didn’t stop<br />
there, but also ticketed and towed patron vehicles<br />
while they were in use of the restaurant or<br />
church. Not even Forchion’s iconic Weedmobile<br />
was safe, as it was also soon impounded and<br />
crushed by local authorities.<br />
The accounts of what NJ Weedman had<br />
considered blatant intimidation and harassment<br />
only continued. The Trenton police soon began<br />
issuing late night citations to the restaurant itself,<br />
under what they filed as a business operating<br />
past 11:00 pm zoning hours. This continued to<br />
transpire even though Forchion had brought to<br />
their attention that NJ Weedmans Joint was in<br />
fact in the business zone which can close shop at<br />
2:00 am according to business zoning and planning<br />
charts (ordinance 146-22). Tickets and citations<br />
accrued according to Weedman, “They went<br />
so far as to ticket the restaurant when it wasn’t<br />
even open, but the Temple was in use.” Forchion<br />
explains.<br />
Without being able to conduct proper<br />
business under legal hours and without being<br />
able to practice his religion freely with his peers,<br />
Forchion decided neither the restaurant, nor his<br />
sanctuary deserved such a fate. As last-ditch<br />
effort to save the integrity of both, Weedman filed<br />
a (religious) federal civil rights lawsuit against<br />
the City of Trenton for harassment on March<br />
8th, 2016. This, of course wouldn’t sit lightly with<br />
Trenton’s Police, as Forchion was well aware.<br />
What Weedman didn’t know and What Forchion<br />
would soon learn was that on March 10th, 2016<br />
and only 2 days after he filed his lawsuit, Police<br />
Detective Yolanda Ward hired a confidential informant,<br />
in attempt to finally close down Weedman’s<br />
Joint for good.<br />
Well a rat is never good in a restaurant,<br />
and this time was no different. On numerous<br />
occasions this unknown informant would pose<br />
as a NJ Weedman’s Joint patron. Often while at<br />
the 420-friendly eatery the informant would ask<br />
Forchion if he had any available sacrament or<br />
cannabis for sale. This was to no avail time and<br />
time again, as Forchion denied his requests.<br />
After some time, the informant made himself<br />
right at home, as rats do. Eventually this informant<br />
became a faithful restaurant customer and<br />
Temple member and even donated $300.00 to<br />
the church. As a shared blessing and sacrament<br />
between trusted friends and clergy, the informant<br />
was able to procure cannabis.<br />
Trenton police found this all that need be<br />
to incarcerate Forchion, so on April 27th, 2016<br />
Weedman was arrested by officials, based on<br />
informant testimony. This however was not Ed’s<br />
J19
“Ed” Forchion, aka NJ Weedman,<br />
smelling the Flowers of an<br />
HPS Flower Room<br />
J<strong>18</strong> J20<br />
final arrest during this debacle of ongoing<br />
citations and charges. On May 13th,<br />
2016 Weedman was arrested for cyber<br />
bullying of Officer Flowers, after making<br />
comments about him on social media.<br />
This too was not Weedmans final arrest<br />
that led him to his 344-day stint behind<br />
bars.<br />
A lawyer named Edward “Heftybag”<br />
Heyburn soon contacted Weedman,<br />
stating that he wanted to represent<br />
him and his case pro bono. Forchion<br />
accepted his offer, which may have witness,<br />
as this would make his name no<br />
longer confidential rendering the motion<br />
moot.<br />
At this point, Weedman admittedly<br />
was gloating about the prosecutions<br />
weak defense openly online, also as<br />
part of Heyburn’s strategy. Forchion<br />
accounted “I exercised my free speech,<br />
to openly complain about the police<br />
tactics” Weedman explains over his call<br />
with me while imprisoned, “And between<br />
August 2016 and February 2017 my<br />
lawyer Heyburn and I sought the public’s<br />
help in identifying my RAT. Once<br />
identified, we sought info on him and<br />
once gained through legal means, we<br />
exposed that info online which included<br />
the RATS criminal activity, his living conditions,<br />
his addictions, and his personal<br />
info which was all legally obtainable for.”<br />
Heyburn coordinated & pre-approved of<br />
the posts and claimed STATE vs MIL-<br />
LIGAN, justified this strategy. In retaliation,<br />
the state called it “Witness Tampering”.<br />
After this strategy was already<br />
put into effect, on Feb 23rd, 2017 Judge<br />
Massi signed the prosecutors requested<br />
protective order (5 months late). Even<br />
though Weedman already put his informant<br />
on a social media blast prior to this<br />
signed order, he still was indicted for<br />
witness tampering on Feb 28th, 2017.<br />
“This is in violation of the EX POST<br />
FACTO clause of the US Constitution”<br />
Forchion explains, “Nothing we did<br />
between August and February was in
violation of any order, so to be charged after<br />
the fact is unconstitutional. Additionally, I was<br />
the only one charged with witness tampering for<br />
HEYBURNS legal strategy!”<br />
On March 3rd Robert Edward Fochion Jr.<br />
was arrested and detained on the current witness<br />
tampering charge. To add final insult to injury<br />
Weedmans attorney Edward Hayburn did the unthinkable<br />
and quit his position as Forchion’s defense<br />
council and started working for Forchion’s<br />
prosecution. The state of New Jersey filed a<br />
motion on March 7, 2017, for pretrial detention<br />
to incarcerate Forchion until trial. Forchion held<br />
a hunger strike for nearly two weeks while being<br />
held without bail, calling himself a political prisoner.<br />
The trial began October 26, 2017. On November<br />
8, the jury found him not-guilty of one charge<br />
of second-degree witness tampering, which<br />
supposedly was the charge that had clause of<br />
being held without bail and the jury was hung on<br />
another charge in the third degree.<br />
So why is it that on January 20<strong>18</strong>, NJ<br />
Weedman was again denied bail pending a re-trial?<br />
Why is it that only after having his business<br />
targeted and even his business license revoked,<br />
did the city clerk and zoning officer both admit<br />
that the revoked license and in turn the original<br />
citations for 11:00 pm closing hour were done in<br />
error? Why is it that 43 charges, a hung jury and<br />
a not-guilty verdict later, a man is sill in jail almost<br />
a year for non-violent charges? Is it because Ed<br />
Forchion is dangerous, or is he just NJ Weedman,<br />
Political Prisoner #420?<br />
J21
This product is part of<br />
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Featured Article<br />
An Interview with Peezy the Owner and Breeder of:<br />
Dirty Water<br />
J24<br />
Sour Dubb Tre
Peezy has been growing and breeding cannabis since the early 90’s. Born and raised<br />
in Massachusetts, he grew up with a family of the same trade. Learning skills from his<br />
father and uncles, he was blessed to have access to great genetics passed on to him<br />
as well as ones he has acquired throughout the years. He began outdoors, crossing<br />
the few strains he had at the time. In 1999, he started to line breed for generations<br />
using an old Northern Lights and DJ Short 90’s Blueberry Pollen. Back then the Blueberry<br />
was highly sought after. Around that same time, he started getting ordering<br />
seeds from across the pond, collecting genes from festivals/concerts he would attend,<br />
other growers and friends, all to widen his span of genetics to work with. In those<br />
days, there were a lot of skunks and dog bud, diesel, lots of hybrids from Amsterdam,<br />
Canada, Cali, Washington and the Northeast. Over time, the landraces slowly disappeared<br />
and the name game started to boom on the scene, the popular names you hear<br />
of today. Throughout time Peezy has created an extensive collection of strains to work<br />
with that most people do not have access to today.<br />
Peezy had the name Dirty Water Organics locally for years. Around 2010 he<br />
started to come out more publicly, at least on the internet. Around that time he linked<br />
up with Bean Boys Genetics as their second head breeder and crew chief and head<br />
breeder for Karma Kings. Under those companies he had many world wide seed releases,<br />
all while continuing to do his own thing under D.W.O. in MA. Eventually, he left<br />
BBG and Karma Kings, took all of his work with him and went “officially” live and public<br />
with D.W.O. in 20<strong>18</strong> and hasn’t looked back since. D.W.O. is a “real breeding” craft<br />
seed company that only uses living organic methods to grow, create seeds and make<br />
clones.<br />
by Kaitlyn Buckley<br />
Organics<br />
What are some of your favorite strains? Overall as well as<br />
one(s) you have created.<br />
PEEZY: I like Skunks / Chems / Diesels / Kushes / Cookies and<br />
Hazes. I really love everything to be honest. Anything from<br />
the Chemdog Ffamily has to be on my favorite list. Chemdog<br />
91, Chem d, Chem 4, etc etc. Also the old Original Diesel stuff<br />
as well as. That Kerosine Gas Rank Dank. Love the old OG<br />
Kushes, a few types of Old Hazes and a bunch of old land races<br />
are for sure my favorites. There is many out there it is hard to<br />
choose just a few. Some of our stuff would have to be Kookie<br />
MOB aka MOAB, Fooman Chu, Cinco de Chem. Our Old<br />
Mass Chem Skunk work, some of our newer Cookie crosses<br />
and Old Diesel, Old Chem work. All the Kush stuff. East Coast<br />
Sour Dawgz, Katsunana, Chalet Creme, there’s so many… It’s<br />
all awesome in its own way really. You can’t go wrong with any<br />
of our seed/clone cultivars.<br />
Katsunana Kush<br />
J25
MOAB<br />
aka Mother of all Berries<br />
Featured Article<br />
You make both feminized and regular seeds, which do<br />
you prefer or focus on?<br />
PEEZY: I prefer regular sex breeding and seeds in general.<br />
But I do like feminized too. We make both types avail to<br />
cater to everyone’s likes and needs. Some want fems. Others<br />
want regs. They both have their advantages and disadvantages<br />
as well as both have their place in the market .<br />
How far do you normally take your breeding process F1,<br />
F2, F3, F4 so on and so forth.<br />
PEEZY: It all depends on the projected outcome of the project.<br />
If I’m just making some new outcrosses, I’ll just bring<br />
it to it’s first and second generation, but if I’m working the<br />
line, I like to go further. I go to f3-f4-f5. Usually stop around<br />
then to keep vigor and less drift, and I’ll back cross back to<br />
the original f1 cross parent or p1 parent of the cross if I’m<br />
trying to pick something like either of those parents. I will<br />
also use the cubing method to lock down a specific parent in<br />
Seed form. This means no forward filial breeding, but only<br />
backcrossing. For instance. Say you make a Kush Cross F1<br />
x Kush p1. = Kush bx1 then take Kush bx1 x Kush p1. = Kush bx2 etc. etc. Doing<br />
this to bx4-5 will eventually lock down that Kush into seed form so most seeds will be<br />
very similar to that Kush parent originally used for the bx. This needs to be done with<br />
proper selections though as this takes years to do if done right. We do this also but it’s<br />
not something that’s released much. If I’m breeding for new traits I like to filial breed<br />
with one side a semi/stable poly. Or true hybrid or landrace ibl then uses a poly hybrid<br />
parent and cross them together and you will get less variation than a poly x poly but<br />
Velvet Cookies<br />
enough to still get a bunch of new things to hunt for, this in turn will make it easier<br />
later on to line breed your selections further. There’s many ways<br />
to line breed. I love having fun with it really. It’s a huge passion of<br />
mine. Always has been.<br />
J26<br />
What are some ideal phenotypes in your opinion?<br />
PEEZY: Ideal “plant types”. As I call them, would really depend<br />
on what it’s being used for or the person who is choosing it and<br />
their likes. But me personally I think a short flowering time, not<br />
too tall, med/large height/med stretch, perfect internode length<br />
, big chunky nugs from the bottom up but not too dense or airy,<br />
big thick calyxes and Minimal pistils. Also it has to be very resisto<br />
molds and bugs, and very sexually<br />
stable and easy to grow / not<br />
Fooman Chu<br />
finicky. Big yields. Amazing terpenes/smell,<br />
taste and bag appeal.<br />
High resin content and high potency<br />
, High calyx to leaf ratio. Throw a<br />
little CBD and other healing cannabinoids<br />
in there for good measure<br />
besides just high THC. And last bit<br />
not least, it would be a great breeder<br />
to pass on it’s genes to other plants<br />
perfectly.<br />
09 Animal bx<br />
aka Chalet Creme
How do you choose strains you want to work with?<br />
PEEZY: I choose things based on my many years of breeding and growing experience, also what I personally<br />
like and want as well as I’ll listen to what the market is looking for at the time. It also matters on the projects being<br />
worked on. I’ll choose differently for things like terpenes or a fast finisher or a high cannabinoid profile like<br />
high CBD or THC etc etc. Smell and taste are extremely important to me and we like to impart that in all our<br />
work. Who wants something that doesn’t smell or taste good. I know I don’t. I highly suggest to your readers to<br />
use real Living Organic methods when growing our seeds or anyone else’s, this is how one will achieve superb<br />
outcomes in all departments. I used to grow non organic for years and when I switched, and have never looked<br />
Barnyard<br />
Animals<br />
back. It was like a night and day difference. Explosive terpenes and resins,<br />
yields and smoothness of smoking flowers is off the charts. Just remember,<br />
everything you put into your cannabis when growing it will be in its final product.<br />
Less is always more when growing living organic all natural cannabis as a<br />
medicine or for recreation.<br />
What type of terpene profiles do you tend to lean toward?<br />
PEEZY: I like anything really, but I’m always going for the gassy funky super<br />
stank dank. I really love the fruity sweet stuff too. Big time. We breed for it all.<br />
It is a one stop shop with us. I’ll never hate on any type of cannabis or terpene,<br />
strain etc etc. I embrace it all with as much love and respect as I can.<br />
Chalet Creme<br />
Pink Monster<br />
Preferred method for collecting pollen? Picking the<br />
best males?<br />
PEEZY: I mainly breed and pollen collect in many<br />
breeding/pollen chambers, both big and tents rather<br />
than one big area. This helps me to be able to do nu<br />
merous things at once, collecting pollen, testing<br />
males, testing females, selecting plants, pollinating<br />
plants with different pollens, reg and fem breeding,<br />
plant preservation, clone keeping, mother keeping,<br />
vegging flowering , propagation, plant reversals etc. etc.<br />
It is imperative for a real breeder like myself to have 20-<br />
40 different air tight light tight smaller spaces to do all<br />
this. The only time I’ll use big open spaces is when I’m<br />
open pollinating for Seed increases naturally as well as<br />
selectively . I like keeping projects as far away from one<br />
another as possible, especially when pollen in involved.<br />
I collect it as well as use it in live pollinations. To collect<br />
it you need one male in its own small chamber, run it<br />
till it’s finished and cut most leaves off wet before the<br />
latter part of the pods open, this helps with collections<br />
later on when the plant dries out. Keeps the mess down<br />
and more pollen can be directed toward the area of<br />
collection…then once it’s dry and cured the pollen will<br />
be a mustard yellow in color , now it’s time to collect it.<br />
Once collected it needs to be screen sifted/ cleaned for<br />
debris and can be used right away or stored for many<br />
years. I personally use rice mixed with the pollen to absorb<br />
moisture when stored in its final container. Then<br />
we use the freezer to store our pollens. The longest I’ve<br />
used frozen pollen was 6 years old stored in the freezer.<br />
J27
I’m going to be testing some 10 year old frozen pollen next to see if it will<br />
work. Fingers crossed…<br />
Picking the best males involved many things. I personally like to<br />
do this over a long Period of time. First I like to keep seed plants in tiny 9<br />
ounce keg cups . Run them in veg very late to see if they start to flower in<br />
veg from the small pots. If they do, usually I won’t use it. But it also depends<br />
on the type it is. Some have more auto tendencies in their genes. Also<br />
some are acclimated more to certain climates or grow styles. Like landraces<br />
for instance. If it’s one of these I’ll give it a second chance and grow it in a<br />
regular pot. Fluctuate veg times to see if it auto flowers. Also see how well<br />
it takes drought and over water. Then when it comes to flowering, I’ll do all<br />
the same stuff but do heavy nutrients and no nutrients alike, also over and<br />
under water, light intensities, time fluctuations, all types of pruning and<br />
cropping/and even topping right before flower and during flower (usually<br />
topping happens in the second test run as I like to see how it fairs untopped<br />
first ). I’ll run them very deep in flower. Basically try to stress them out as hard as I can to see if they can<br />
handle it without throwing herms or dropping leaves or being very finicky. I call it stress testing in the tent of<br />
torture. Usually only the most smelly, vigorous males make it to-this test. Also resinous males can be great to<br />
look for but not all males breed the same so it all matters how it breeds. This is why resinous males aren’t a big<br />
factor in my personal selection process but it definitely helps. Smell and stability is a big thing for me. Usually<br />
I can just tell how well a male is gonna be by just looking at it . It’s sort of like having an eye for it and after 25<br />
years experience , you tend to know what to look for. The best way is just to test the male with a few well known<br />
females to make some out crossings, then run the progeny to see what said male has to offer. It’s best to use females<br />
your familiar with in other crossings, for instance, what they pass over when out crossed. This way you can<br />
better judge what the male has passed on. All this is very time consuming so this is why it is important to have<br />
many places to do this all at one time. You can’t do all this in one room. The only things that can really happen in<br />
one room is pollen chucking mostly.<br />
If you had to chose one strain (any strain ever) to work with or grow what would it be?<br />
PEEZY: One would probably be something like a northern lights #5 x Neville’s haze (nl5haze).<br />
Or straight old school northern lights, a skunk 1 or old Hindu/afghani/Thai. etc etc. I love the old stuff. Those<br />
genetics have changed the game years back and are in so many of today’s cultivars. They are basically referred to<br />
as building blocks of today. It’s very hard to honestly say what one plant I would like. I adore them all so much.<br />
Barnyard Animals<br />
Kookiez 91<br />
I don’t know what I’d do with myself if I only had to pick<br />
just one. There is some stuff from our genetics, like in our<br />
Katsunana Cultivar, East Coast Sour Dawgz or our Mass<br />
Chem Skunk among many others of that I could see myself<br />
choosing. This question has really got me stumped to<br />
be honest. Haha.<br />
J28<br />
One of<br />
DWO’s<br />
Breeding<br />
Males<br />
Kookie<br />
MOB
Featured Article<br />
Branded Animal Fire<br />
What are the hardest strains to work with in your opinion?<br />
PEEZY: Old Hazes or landrace Thai’s, any long flowering Sativa<br />
and or old Sativa landraces are the hardest to grow in my<br />
opinion.<br />
Now that there is the availability to have strains tested for<br />
aspects such as THC, CBD, THCA (to name a few) percentages,<br />
terpene profiles, has that become part of your regime<br />
for breeding selection?<br />
PEEZY: No. We breed the old school way. The way our fore<br />
fathers have been doing it for centuries. Selective breeding and<br />
testing the long way. The only way I’d see myself using labs<br />
for breeding would be to make high CBD strains, or specific<br />
cannabinoid profile strains for a patient or someone who requests<br />
such a thing… Although it is cool to know your plants<br />
potential, I’ve just always found it to be sort of cheating in<br />
breeding sense. There’s no skill, experience, or even work involved in lab test<br />
breeding. It also sort of takes the spiritual connection and passion it takes to<br />
have “the eye for it “ out of it as well. Lab test breeding is not something I’d<br />
never do. I’m open to try anything. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll give it a<br />
whirl.<br />
Tell us about your garden environments and techniques. i.e. Lighting, temperatures,<br />
soil or hydro. organic or synthetic nutrients/technique or No-till<br />
living soil.<br />
PEEZY: Well, my garden isn’t really a garden per-say. It’s all for breeding for us<br />
here mainly so<br />
Cherry Pup<br />
Pie Mother<br />
it is made up of<br />
a many gardens - small chambers and tents all<br />
with their own micro climate for all the different<br />
projects we are constantly working on. Line<br />
breeding isn’t your typical clone only pollen<br />
chucking one and done type of deal. No sir. Real<br />
indoor breeding and selecting involves many<br />
many different environments all going on at the<br />
same time in my opinion. managing this gets<br />
very tiring and tough at times. If I didn’t keep<br />
notes I would probably forget what half of the<br />
projects are doing as there’s so much going on at<br />
once to deal with. I’m sort of an OCD perfectionist<br />
so it’s hard to find good help who will actually<br />
understand how I want things and do things. It’s<br />
mostly taken care of by myself.<br />
I love led lighting, I think that’s the future as<br />
its power consumption and heat output are very<br />
minimal compared to other methods like hid<br />
lights. We only use living organic methods so all<br />
natural and organic ingredients in our own soil<br />
mixes, we use top dressings or sometimes super<br />
soils style or spikes or teas, it really is the bene-<br />
Dirty Water Organic Stardawg Cut<br />
J29
Featured Article<br />
cial organisms that make what we do great . The method used really all matters on what’s being done. I’d like to<br />
try out soil no till beds for some seed increases soon so that’s my next venture to try out. Surprisingly I haven’t<br />
done that yet with breeding. It’s up next on the bucket list.<br />
What are some of your most sought after strains?<br />
PEEZY: I would say our Kookie MOB aka MOAB. Or our Velvet Cookies or The Cinco de Chem or our Mass<br />
Chem Skunk line. Fooman Chu, Puptarts, Chalet Creme, Barnyard Animals, Katsunana, Sour Dubb Tre., Mob<br />
Stomper, there is a bunch of them!<br />
What are some of your tips/tricks/methods for germinating seeds?<br />
PEEZY: I suggest using a glass of distilled water with a little bit of h202. I call this our float tek.<br />
You put seeds on top of the water in the cup, put a cover on top so it’s dark and kept moist , keep in warm area /<br />
room temp works fine. Don’t move the cup and let seeds sit there till they all open up and shoot out nice size tails<br />
while floating on top of the water. It can take a few days. Don’t sink them. You can plant them right away after<br />
or put them in between wet paper towels to finish opening up and shed their shells and then plant. Your choice.<br />
If Seeds are hard to pop or old I’d suggest some skuffing or shaving along the seem with a file or emery Board to<br />
help water get in. One could even crack the shells in between ones fingers. Also good enzymes or using gibb acid<br />
bath. Even a positive pressure seed bomb with gibb acid can help a lot. The gibb acid will help give old Seed legs<br />
again. They will be a bit stretchy but pop none the less. I never suggest putting cannabis seeds directly in soil<br />
when buying them on the market. You never know where a Seed has been or where it’s been sitting before it gets<br />
East Coast Stardawg<br />
aka ECSDawg<br />
to you. It’s best to keep them in the fridge but not all breeders<br />
and seed vendors do this, so germ rates go down. We however<br />
keep all ours in our 3 dedicated seed fridges as ideal temps so<br />
even our old Seeds still pop good. There’s many ways to germ a<br />
cannabis seed. These are just a few tried and true methods to try.<br />
For our New England gardeners, which of your strains will<br />
grow the best outdoors around this part of the country?<br />
PEEZY: For outdoors I’d say Katsunana, Sour Dubb Tre, Chalet<br />
Creme, Fooman Chu. Star Stomper, Branded Animal Fire, pretty<br />
much anything as most things finish within 9ish weeks give or<br />
take. We try to run things outdoors too but it’s usually all tested<br />
indoors with some of them having the outdoor test. By now, a<br />
lot of our strains we offer at the vendors have been ran outdoors.<br />
Acclimation might be a bit different at first but they will grow<br />
into it eventually. We want everyone to do what they want with<br />
any of our genetic offerings.<br />
Meaning we love<br />
it when others use them<br />
for their own breeding<br />
plans, if you want to<br />
make more generations,<br />
crosses, use males,<br />
females etc etc. Please<br />
do so as we do this for<br />
the community and our<br />
gene pool as well as for<br />
ourselves. It’s an honor<br />
when we hear someone<br />
gets some use out of our<br />
J30<br />
Chalet Creme
work. Genetics made indoors will acclimatize better<br />
for outdoors when bred outdoors over a few generations<br />
in my own experience with it. I’ve had things<br />
grow way better outside than indoors. And visa versa.<br />
If you could give a few “words of advice” on growing<br />
to other growers who may not be as experienced as<br />
you what would those be?<br />
PEEZY: Advise I can give to someone starting out or<br />
in their early years would be to have an open mind,<br />
be willing to try anything and keep your mind like a<br />
sponge. Stay in the grow room constantly and immerse<br />
yourself in it all. Practice everything and mess up as<br />
much as you can cause we learn best from our mistakes.<br />
Trial and error is the best form of learning, in<br />
my opinion. Strive for excellence.<br />
Who are some breeders you look up to (or have<br />
respect for)?<br />
PEEZY: I’ve always been a huge fan of the legendary<br />
breeders Nevil Schoenmakers and<br />
Shanti, also Henk Van Dalen, Luc Krol, Wernard<br />
Bruining, Ben Dronkers, Soma, Tony from Sag, Simon<br />
from Serious, DJ Short, Angus from Real Seed Co,<br />
also the guys from Cannabiogen and Ace etc etc. So<br />
many others. Too many to list. Also some newer guys<br />
too like Bodhi and Mephisto, JJ NYC, Nespecta. There<br />
are lots of underground folks too including my fathers<br />
side of the family which whom I learned from when<br />
I was a kid in the early 80’s to the early 90’s. When<br />
I finally started myself already going into it with a<br />
vast knowledge of old landrace cultivars and growing<br />
plants. Thanks Dad.<br />
What is your opinion on auto flower seeds?<br />
PEEZY: I myself personally Am not a big fan of auto<br />
flowering seed. I understand their worth and respect<br />
what it takes to truly breed them properly like the guys<br />
from Mephisto. I’m just not really into them nor do I<br />
have a use for them or breed them. I’ll probably never<br />
make autos available for our customers.<br />
What are some new strains/projects you are working<br />
on?<br />
PEEZY: We are constantly working on numerous<br />
line breeds to further stabilize specific seed cultivars,<br />
there is lots of new out cross breedings happening in<br />
the form of new Seed Series releases set to be let out<br />
sometime this year in both regular and feminized<br />
form. I don’t want to reveal too much, but folks can go<br />
check out our social network pages for more up to date<br />
info in real time as it happens. We are updating our<br />
Instagram profile daily with pics and info, just search<br />
for our company name, Dirty Water Organics and it is<br />
easily found.<br />
There are many more exciting new ventures<br />
that have been in the works as well in the form of new<br />
seed/clone/flower collaboration companies, all sorts of<br />
great stuff happening in the near future. We will be at<br />
some upcoming events here in mass as well as others<br />
across the country to meet folks in person. We also will<br />
have some cool t-shirts and sweatshirts available soon<br />
as well, which will be announced where and when over<br />
on our Instagram page for those interested.<br />
Where do you see yourself/company in the future of<br />
the upcoming times of recreational/legalization of<br />
cannabis?<br />
PEEZY: I see myself and my companies going much<br />
further as the times switch into a more normalized<br />
industry. We don’t plan to be going anywhere anytime<br />
soon. This is just the beginning of a new era as far<br />
as I’m concerned. There’s going to be obstacles and<br />
hardships but stuff like that is no stranger to us here as<br />
being on the demonized side of underground breeding/growing<br />
the better part of my life the past 25 years<br />
or so. I think the legal side shouldn’t be much different<br />
in terms of hardships and obstacles, it just changes the<br />
types there will be… I see myself and our companies<br />
prospering more as the times change. This is and has<br />
been my whole life’s passion and life blood. We want to<br />
help others who are legal get the best most unique actually<br />
bred, real organic, non GMO all natural cannabis<br />
seeds to grow for their much needed medicine and/<br />
or for recreation as well as for novelty souvenirs and<br />
preservation until laws change around the globe.<br />
Where can our readers purchase your seeds from?<br />
PEEZY:<br />
Neptune Seed bank<br />
Oregon Elite Seeds<br />
Labyrinth Seed Co<br />
The Rare Seed Store<br />
Horror Seeds<br />
FireStax Seeds<br />
Manchester Seeds<br />
Kookie MOB<br />
J31
What is CBD,<br />
Kassia Kristoff<br />
kkristoff30@gmail.com<br />
and Why Should<br />
We Care?<br />
At this point in human history, almost everybody has at<br />
least a basic understanding of what THC is. Even my 85<br />
year old grandmother can probably tell you that it has<br />
something to do with that wacky weed plant that all those<br />
kids have been smoking ever since women were accused<br />
of burning their bras in the sixties. In fact, if you are<br />
reading this article and you don’t know that THC, otherwise<br />
known as tetrahydrocannabinol, is the psychoactive<br />
cannabinoid in cannabis that is currently getting you<br />
so stoned that you are having trouble making out the<br />
words on this page, please set your lighter down right<br />
now. You’re cut off.<br />
Yes, we all know about THC, and why shouldn’t<br />
we? For much of American history, cannabis has been<br />
viewed singularly as a tool to get high, making THC and<br />
its mind-altering effects the sensible focal point for most<br />
Darrell Gudroe, owner of Pharmer’s<br />
cannabis users, along with every doomsday politician<br />
Market in his local cannabis caregiver storefront<br />
located in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.<br />
and hysterical anti-marijuana campaign from the 1930’s<br />
on. Until recent years, very few people were looking at<br />
cannabis as a medicine, and those that did were not being taken seriously. Today, we know differently. And<br />
because we know differently, we are getting more familiar not only with THC and what it can do, but also with<br />
some of the other 200-odd cannabinoids and terpenes in the cannabis plant. With so many contenders to<br />
choose from, the only logical place for researchers to start was with THC’s sister cannabinoid, CBD.<br />
CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it, like THC, is present in virtually every strain of cannabis that exists.<br />
In fact, plants with primarily CBD content and.03% or less THC are not even regulated as cannabis, but are<br />
instead classified as hemp. You can look at CBD as the yin to THC’s yang; in the simplest of terms, CBD and<br />
THC balance each other out. While it is true that the type of cannabis plant (Indica, Sativa, or hybrid) plays a<br />
large role in determining what our experience will be when we light up, this is also affected by the ratio of THC<br />
to CBD, in addition to the presence of a host of other cannabinoids and terpenes, deemed the “entourage<br />
effect.”<br />
CBD is not only a major factor in determining the quality, or “flavor” of the high experienced from smoking<br />
cannabis, but, like THC, possesses a host of medical benefits. It is an all-star at treating inflammation and<br />
related pain, anxiety and seizures, and it is frequently used for the treatment of PTSD, ADD and ADHD, due<br />
to its anti-anxiety effects and its ability to enhance focus and concentration. It serves the additional purpose of<br />
regulating the degree of psychoactivity that is experienced as a result of THC. CBD on its own is non-psychoactive,<br />
and doses of it can be administered to level out, or completely negate, a THC high.<br />
So why should we care about CBD, aside from the medical benefits and the fact that too much of it may<br />
prevent us from getting so blitzed that we begin wondering if Beyonce is, in fact, a reptilian invader from another<br />
galaxy? The answer lies in the question, my friends. Because CBD is non-psychoactive, it is not regulated<br />
by the federal or state government, and is legal for anyone to harvest and to sell, provided their plants meet<br />
THC content guidelines and are subsequently classified as hemp. There are the two types of CBD found in<br />
CBD products: isolates and whole plant extracts. Whole plant extracts are seen by many in the industry as the<br />
J32
A Variety of CBD Products available at<br />
Pharmer’s Market.<br />
J34<br />
preferable option, as they still contain all of the terpenes,<br />
cannabinoids and other beneficial qualities of<br />
the hemp plant. The isolate holds its own, however,<br />
and is a great option for someone who gets urine tested<br />
regularly, and doesn’t want to risk trace amounts of<br />
THC causing them to fail a drug test.<br />
Because CBD is legal, you can buy CBD products<br />
just about anywhere without a medical card. That<br />
being said, it is important to know what you are buying,<br />
because all products are not created equal, and<br />
all vendors are not created honest. Buying CBD from<br />
a non-verified vendor is sort of like accepting a drink<br />
from a stranger at a bar- it could be a vodka tonic, or<br />
it could be GHB. You want to know your supplier, and<br />
you want to see the lab results from their products.<br />
Reputable CBD vendors will have this information<br />
available for you, should you ask for it.<br />
CBD is a miracle not only for those without<br />
legal access to cannabis, but also for those who just<br />
plain don’t want to get stoned. This concept may be<br />
mind boggling to some, but it turns out that a lot of<br />
potential patients, particularly those belonging to older<br />
generations, avoid medical cannabis as an option because<br />
of the psychoactive effects, and also because<br />
of the stigma surrounding its use.<br />
CBD is a miracle not only for those without<br />
legal access to cannabis, but also for those who just<br />
plain don’t want to get stoned. This concept may be<br />
mind boggling to some, but it turns out that a lot of<br />
potential patients, particularly those belonging to older<br />
generations, avoid medical cannabis as an option because<br />
of the psychoactive effects, and also because<br />
of the stigma surrounding its use.<br />
I had an opportunity to sit down with Darrell<br />
Gudroe, a cannabis consultant and co-owner of<br />
Pharmer’s Market, a local cannabis caregiver storefront<br />
that has become quite well-known in Boothbay<br />
Harbor, Maine for its wide variety of CBD products.<br />
Said Gudroe, “I will start [first time patients] by saying,<br />
‘If you have never used either [THC or CBD products],<br />
and you have no inclination to be high, then let’s start<br />
you with the stuff that doesn’t get you high, and if<br />
that’s not enough for you then we can talk about using<br />
the other products that you may have to deal with<br />
having the psychoactive effect from.’” Gudroe went on<br />
to say, “The reality is that the aging population is trying<br />
to keep their clarity…they are excited to be able to<br />
come in and get a product that is going to relieve their<br />
pain, with the knowledge behind it that will tell them<br />
that they won’t get high, and they are still participating<br />
in not using pharmaceuticals to get there.”<br />
CBD is so effective at treating anxiety, inflammation<br />
and pain that many of Gudroe’s medical<br />
card-carrying customers rely on it solely to control<br />
their symptoms, even with the option of THC products<br />
available to them. Gudroe himself, a two-time cancer<br />
survivor who deals with chronic pain as a result of<br />
multiple knee and back surgeries, uses cannabis in all<br />
of its forms, but swears by CBD topicals for generalized<br />
aches and pains. Says Gudroe, “I use cannabis<br />
and CBD all of the time, but when it comes to the topical<br />
that I am putting on, it’s just the straight CBD.” He<br />
never leaves the house without his CBD body butter,<br />
and after being given a sample, neither do I. It works<br />
marvelously for my joint aches and pains, as well as<br />
any muscle soreness that I may be experiencing.<br />
I spoke with Ryan Leighton, a resident of<br />
Newcastle, Maine, who used the CBD body butter
to recover from a hand injury that doctors told him<br />
would require physical therapy. After hearing about<br />
the Pharmer’s Market and reading glowing testimonials,<br />
Leighton decided to give the butter a try, and was<br />
astounded when he regained full dexterity in his pinkie<br />
within three days, despite assurances from a physical<br />
therapist that this would take much longer. Says Leighton<br />
of the discovery of CBD products, “I don’t have to<br />
go to the hospital and spend thousands of dollars every<br />
time I have a quirky pain. I can go buy a jar of CBD<br />
butter for forty bucks.”<br />
I spoke also with Terry Serino, another patient<br />
at the Pharmer’s Market, about what CBD has done<br />
for her. Said Terry, “It’s not a cure for what ails you. But<br />
it improves the quality of your life so much… It would<br />
kind of disingenuous for me to sit here and say well,<br />
I’m a candidate for a double knee replacement. I have<br />
arthritis, I have bone spurs…my knees are just a train<br />
wreck. It would be stupid<br />
for me to say, now with<br />
the CBD, I don’t have to<br />
have a knee replacement.<br />
That’s not true. But<br />
because of CBD I am<br />
not living with constant<br />
pain. Therefore, if I’m<br />
not in pain, I can extend<br />
the amount of time before<br />
I have to have a knee<br />
replacement….if you<br />
can cut down the pain,<br />
it’s not going to improve<br />
the functionality, but it’s<br />
going to allow you to function<br />
as a normal person.”<br />
Serino, like many<br />
others, was initially concerned about the legality<br />
of CBD, as well as the stereotypes and stigma surrounding<br />
cannabis use. Gudroe captures the essence<br />
of the issue of misinformation and stigma when he<br />
describes the weeks surrounding the opening of the<br />
Pharmer’s Market; “When people first started coming<br />
into our store… they came with big, brimmed hats and<br />
big glasses, and they came in their husband’s trucks<br />
because they didn’t want their cars to be seen in the<br />
driveway. And they sent their husbands. We had police<br />
officers that came in here because their wives were<br />
interested in the products but they didn’t want people<br />
to see them in the marijuana store. And after the first<br />
month, when everybody did that or sent their friend…<br />
they started coming in as teams. To bring their friend in<br />
so that they would dare to come in and see what it was<br />
that we had, because they really wanted what we had<br />
but they didn’t dare to come in.”<br />
Leighton acknowledges this issue as well, addressing<br />
those who hold outdated views of cannabis as<br />
he tells me, “I think the social norm of marijuana being<br />
taboo is changing, and I think we should have a more<br />
open mind when it comes to products. One may think<br />
that these products with cannabis have a ‘witch doctor’<br />
healing effect. In reality, I know for a fact that when I<br />
apply [CBD body butter] to an area that is experiencing<br />
pain; the pain is then alleviated almost instantly. [CBD<br />
is] just a great use of the cannabis plant, something<br />
found in nature…it’s legal, over the table, non-psychoactive,<br />
and you’re not smoking anything. I would<br />
recommend it to anyone who is experiencing pain,<br />
whether a little or a lot, because it could be a remedy.”<br />
In addition to bringing relief to a wide<br />
variety of more conservative patients, CBD is also a<br />
god-send for another population that very few peo<br />
Gudroe standing behind the CBD display<br />
in his store.<br />
ple consider when<br />
thinking about medical<br />
cannabis: children.<br />
I spoke also with Laurel<br />
Sheppard, a Nurse<br />
Practitioner who has<br />
been practicing at the<br />
Falmouth, Maine branch<br />
of Integr8 Health, a<br />
medical marijuana clinic<br />
with a second location<br />
in Manchester, New<br />
Hampshire, for the past<br />
5 years. A nurse of 30<br />
years and Nurse Practitioner<br />
of 16, Sheppard<br />
began studying Integrative<br />
Medicine and training<br />
under Integr8’s Dr.<br />
Dustin Sulak. Sheppard was amazed at the staggering<br />
success rates of cannabis treatment, and became<br />
dedicated to joining the fight to improve lives through<br />
medical cannabis.<br />
The main conditions that Sheppard’s pediatric<br />
patients are being treated for at Integr8 are epilepsy,<br />
chronic pain, cancer, ADHD and Tourette ’s syndrome,<br />
and she tells me that CBD has been shown to treat<br />
autism as well. Sheppard says that she has treated<br />
children who came to her non-verbal and watched<br />
them, through CBD treatment, cut back on their seizure<br />
meds and improve their comprehension to the point<br />
where they were eventually able to speak. When all<br />
conventional forms of medical treatment have failed<br />
their children, medical cannabis is the final frontier for<br />
many parents, and it is very often successful.<br />
J36
To make parents feel more<br />
at ease, Sheppard shares information<br />
about the safety of cannabis.<br />
Says Sheppard, “The more we learn<br />
about this medicine, the more<br />
amazed we are by its potential,<br />
and it is so unbelievably safe. The<br />
research study that was done recently<br />
wanted to see how high could<br />
they pump the dose of CBD and<br />
THC and still have no organ damage,<br />
and no effect to the heart and<br />
the lungs. And obviously they couldn’t<br />
do human studies, so they did<br />
animal studies. And they raised<br />
the dose to 1,000 times above the<br />
recommended dosing range and<br />
there were absolutely no heart or lung issues, and no<br />
organ damage. I think these mice ate for three days,<br />
and then they slept. They were so chill.”<br />
Though cannabis is incredibly safe even in astronomical<br />
doses, the smallest effective dosage is always<br />
preferable from a medical standpoint. There are<br />
a couple new players in town that are showing great<br />
promise when it comes not only to decreasing dosage<br />
ranges, but even micro-dosing, and these new<br />
up-and-comers are THCA and CBDA, or tetrahydrocannabinolic<br />
acid and cannabidiolic acid, respectively.<br />
They are the pre-cursors to THC and CBD, essentially<br />
the cannabinoids in their raw, wet form. Once dried, or<br />
decarboxylated, either naturally or through the process<br />
of adding heat, the acid component is removed,<br />
transforming THCA into THC, and CBDA into CBD.<br />
This is especially relevant in the case of THC,<br />
as it is the conversion of THCA into THC that activates<br />
the psychoactive factor - put more simply: if it<br />
ain’t dried, you get no high. THCA can therefore be<br />
used in its raw form in tinctures and other varieties to<br />
treat patients without the mind altering effects, while<br />
still preserving specific medicinal qualities. CBD is<br />
already non-psychoactive, but CBDA, like THCA,<br />
is showing itself to be far more potent, with a much<br />
smaller amount going a much longer way.<br />
The increased potency of raw cannabinoids<br />
is important: because raw cannabinoids have a<br />
much smaller dosing range than their heat activated<br />
counterparts, or range of dosing that is necessary<br />
to achieve a therapeutic effect, this translates to a<br />
smaller price tag for patients, who are paying out of<br />
pocket for cannabis currently. In addition to this perk,<br />
a smaller dosing range also helps to shorten the often<br />
lengthy process of helping patients to find relief. The<br />
versatile qualities of cannabis allow it to be tailored<br />
specifically to each patient and their individual needs;<br />
unfortunately, the flip side to this coin is that the pro-<br />
CBD Products by Healing Harbor, varying<br />
in Tincture, Roller Relief cess and of finding Lotion the right combination and dosage ca<br />
n sometimes be frustrating. Because every patient’s<br />
endocannabinoid system and receptor sites are not<br />
uniform, the same strain of cannabis or combination<br />
of cannabinoids will affect individuals differently. When<br />
it comes to cannabis treatment, there is no such thing<br />
as “one size fits all,” though there does appear to be a<br />
size to fit almost every patient, if they have the patience<br />
to discover it.<br />
Sheppard estimates that Integr8 has been prescribing<br />
THCA to medical patients for the last 12-<strong>18</strong><br />
months, and CBDA for mere months. Because<br />
research is still in its infancy, THCA is generally only<br />
prescribed at Integr8 for pain and seizures, though<br />
Sheppard expects both THCA and CBDA to be used<br />
with much more frequency as research continues.<br />
Countering the psychoactive properties of THC with a<br />
larger dose of CBD is still, at this junction, the preferred<br />
method when treating patients who need the<br />
benefits of THC without the high.<br />
As cannabis continues to be studied and<br />
experimented with, it is becoming clear that the possibilities<br />
for its use are, quite literally, endless. The<br />
only thing going up in smoke is the stigma that labels<br />
cannabis a dangerous drug, and portrays its users as<br />
extras from “Reefer Madness”. Cannabis is instead<br />
showing itself to be one of the safest and most versatile<br />
medicines known to date, with CBD and raw<br />
cannabinoids further proving that cannabis’s ability to<br />
get us stoned may very well be the least remarkable<br />
thing about this bountiful plant. So stick that in your<br />
pipe and smoke it.<br />
J37
J42
NEWS<br />
Moldy Mass Medical Cannabis<br />
Contaminated flower may be getting patients and employees sick<br />
by Mike Crawford @mikecannboston<br />
Anne Hassel had high hopes for a new career when<br />
she applied for a job serving medical marijuana<br />
patients at New England Treatment Access (NETA),<br />
a registered medical dispensary (RMD) in Massachusetts.<br />
A licensed physical therapist, she believes in the<br />
efficacy of cannabis and says that she appreciated<br />
how NETA was presented “as having a new business<br />
paradigm, one of worker input and responsive management.”<br />
That was then. Now, nearly a year after<br />
she quit working at NETA and filed a complaint with<br />
the Occupational Safety and Health Administration<br />
(OSHA) claiming she was<br />
regularly exposed to mold<br />
via cannabis flower, Hassel<br />
mockingly says NETA stands<br />
for “Never Ethically Treating<br />
Anybody.” “Mold was an issue<br />
at both [NETA’s] Franklin<br />
cultivation center and the<br />
Northampton dispensary,”<br />
Hassel wrote in her complaint<br />
to OSHA. The former<br />
budtender reported that she<br />
“observed powered mildew<br />
flower” while trimming cannabis<br />
in 2016 in Franklin but<br />
was instructed by a supervisor<br />
to “cut around it.” She<br />
also says that management<br />
dunked “marijuana flower into<br />
a hydrogen peroxide solution<br />
to treat the mold.”<br />
In response to a<br />
request for comment, a NETA<br />
spokesperson wrote, “Our<br />
product is tested for mold,<br />
yeast, bacterial and other biological pathogens, by<br />
independent laboratories… No product is delivered<br />
to the dispensaries that has not passed state testing<br />
protocols.” Regarding hydrogen peroxide, the<br />
spokesperson offered information that was previously<br />
unavailable in the company’s response to regulators:<br />
“NETA has been open and public about our use. The<br />
[response to Hassel’s OSHA complaint] pertained to<br />
our Northampton RMD and would be misapplied when<br />
discussing our harvest practices.” In her May 2017<br />
complaint, in which she detailed her employment as<br />
an RMD agent from September 2015 through March<br />
2017, Hassel claimed that she was “not informed” that<br />
people were breathing in potentially hazardous mold.<br />
She says, and another former employee confirms,<br />
that NETA supervisors said the use of hydrogen peroxide<br />
to clean moldy cannabis is the “industry standard.”<br />
But some experts claim otherwise.<br />
According to Dr. Jordan Tishler, a Harvard<br />
Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital-trained<br />
physician who specializes<br />
in cannabis treatment,<br />
“Hydrogen peroxide isn’t going<br />
to contaminate the flower as<br />
peroxides are too unstable to<br />
remain. However, they are quite<br />
caustic and will react with the<br />
plant material. This may change<br />
the cannabinoids, as well as<br />
general plant material, into God<br />
knows what. So, not a great<br />
idea. Moldy flower should be<br />
tossed.” Hassel’s complaint,<br />
drawn from her experience as a<br />
budtender at NETA, continues:<br />
In the dispensary the marijuana<br />
flower is kept in bins that are<br />
constantly opened in order to<br />
weigh the flower in front of the<br />
patient. At times while dispensing<br />
I would experience allergic<br />
reactions including throat<br />
irritation. On multiple occasions<br />
I observed moldy flower in the<br />
bins and when management was approached, I was<br />
told to take out the visibly moldy flower but sell the<br />
remainder in the bin. The NETA spokesperson wrote:<br />
“Regarding the use in harvest, hydrogen peroxide<br />
applied to harvested plant material last occurred more<br />
than two years ago to remediate powdery mildew. We<br />
are pleased to report that there have been no signs of<br />
this issue for the past <strong>18</strong> months at our cultivation facility.”<br />
(Ed. note: Not to be confused, mold and mildew<br />
J39
J40<br />
Experienced and educated cannabis consumers<br />
are concerned about mold in their medicine. They<br />
talk about it at conferences and online, and report<br />
negative experiences to vendors, hoping for corrections.<br />
Patientadvocates I contacted for this story said<br />
that another Massachusetts RMD, Sage Cannabis,<br />
has a record of addressing such a complaint with<br />
transparency. Contacted for this story, Sage CEO<br />
Michael Dundas emailed: We had a patient inform<br />
us that there appeared to be mold on several buds in<br />
an ounce of White Walker Kush. We asked the patient<br />
to return the unused portion of the product and<br />
immediately began an investigation. We pulled all<br />
remaining units from the same batch off the shelf and<br />
inspected them. No contaminants of any kind were<br />
found. According to Dundas, Sage additionally took its<br />
response a step further: “We also reached out to every<br />
patient who had purchased any product from the<br />
same batch and informed them of the situation. They<br />
were given the opportunity to return the product for an<br />
exchange or refund. To my knowledge, none of those<br />
individuals reported finding any contaminants.”<br />
Sage has been applauded in chat forums and<br />
among more learned cannabis consumers for its handling<br />
of said complaint. In the case of NETA, OSHA<br />
closed Hassel’s complaint without consulting other<br />
employees, past or present, or even visiting the workplaces.<br />
While NETA responded to the federal agency<br />
by denying the presence of mold, stating that<br />
it has not used hydrogen peroxide as charged.<br />
As proof of its position, the RMD included lab<br />
results of tested cannabis marked as moldfree.<br />
I have spoken with several former NETA<br />
employees, all of whom confirm the presence<br />
of mold as well as hydrogen peroxide used<br />
to clean affected cannabis. Said one source:<br />
“When I worked in cultivation everyone was<br />
getting red rashes. … No ventilation in the<br />
room and certainly no one forcing us to wear<br />
a mask for safety.” Another ex-employee<br />
confirmed the presence of “H2O2” (hydrogen<br />
peroxide), posting on Facebook: “I was… a<br />
cultivator there at the point when they decided<br />
“dunking” [cannabis in hydrogen peroxide] was<br />
somehow a good idea. … There’s no way in<br />
hell they threw all of that [moldy] crop away. …<br />
They prided themselves on “do the right thing”<br />
everywhere they go but couldn’t manage to<br />
put out a good product because of the lack of<br />
care for the environment the crops were growing<br />
in.”<br />
—///—<br />
In September, one of the NETA founders,<br />
Kevin Fisher, had a scare related to<br />
banned pesticides at a dispensary he co-owns<br />
in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. As was reported by<br />
the Aspen Times, after “tests by the Colorado Department<br />
of Agriculture showed that there was a pesticide<br />
called Avermectin Bla found in some of the [dispensary’s]<br />
marijuana,” “the Colorado Department of<br />
Revenue sent out a public health and safety advisory<br />
for some marijuana grown by Rocky Mountain Remedies.”<br />
In response, Fisher denied the allegations. “I<br />
know that we didn’t spray it,” he told reporters. “If we<br />
sprayed it, we would spray it at all of our grows.” He<br />
added, “that product’s not out there. … It hasn’t been<br />
sold,” and said the pesticide “might have came from<br />
cloned plants that had been properly acquired from<br />
a third-party vendor.” Fisher’s run afoul of the Commonwealth<br />
regulatory process as well. As the Daily<br />
Hampshire Gazette reported in 2014, “The executive<br />
director of the company planning to open medical<br />
marijuana dispensaries in Northampton and Brookline<br />
resigned over the weekend after misrepresenting his<br />
academic credentials in an application to the state.”<br />
Following the incident, NETA announced Fisher’s<br />
resignation from his executive director role. But<br />
Fisher has had a continued presence at their facilities<br />
as a registered agent and consultant, speaking at<br />
subsequent employee meetings in Northampton and<br />
Franklin.<br />
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In an attempt to understand<br />
ow such an issue can contine<br />
unmitigated, I reached out to<br />
<br />
S Department of Labor respond-<br />
<br />
ormal complaint, emailing: The<br />
<br />
non-formal (phone/fax ) investiation.<br />
It contacted New England<br />
reatment Access describing the<br />
afety and health concerns raised<br />
y an employee. It accepted New<br />
<br />
ritten response to the complaint<br />
egarding hazards alleged by the<br />
omplainant in the Northampton<br />
ispensary and the non-formal<br />
hone investigation was closed.<br />
<br />
gency “does not regulate or have<br />
ny jurisdiction regarding the safey<br />
of the marijuana product(s) for<br />
onsumers or the public,” but “is<br />
illing to review additional informaion<br />
regarding employee exposure<br />
o hydrogen peroxide and mold<br />
s a result of work activities in the<br />
orthampton dispensary and could<br />
onsider re-opening the investigaion<br />
in order to perform an on-site<br />
nspection.” Furthermore, the<br />
pokesperson wrote: “There is no<br />
<br />
old in the workplace,” while<br />
igations<br />
do not normally include<br />
n investigation to verify employer<br />
tatements made in response to a<br />
omplaint.”<br />
In her part, Hassel has<br />
ontinued to pursue the issue<br />
ith regulators and has also<br />
ontacted the Mass Department<br />
f Health and the state attorey<br />
general. She worries that<br />
ome former NETA workers are<br />
fraid of being blackballed by<br />
ther dispensaries and that by<br />
omplaining they could violate<br />
<br />
<br />
lone in speaking out publicly,<br />
<br />
ETA employee, Gregg Padula,<br />
posted his grievance on<br />
Facebook: “I personally soaked<br />
hundreds of plants in [hydrogen<br />
<br />
<br />
the powdery mildew enough to<br />
get it into the dispensary. The<br />
<br />
solution—strong enough to<br />
<br />
high gloves slipped off. Plants<br />
dripping water, strewn all over<br />
the ground, then hung back to<br />
dry. I have a list of at least a<br />
dozen ex-employees who are<br />
sick. You can literally taste the<br />
<br />
Padula and another<br />
former NETA employee, Maggie<br />
Kinsella, also spoke about their<br />
experiences on a July show of<br />
my WEMF Radio program The<br />
Young Jurks. They describe an<br />
experience in which employees<br />
who expressed concerns about<br />
their safety were unfairly scrutinized,<br />
ignored, and intimidated.<br />
Though NETA has reportedly<br />
been unresponsive to employee<br />
gripes, there is one case in<br />
which management responded<br />
to a problem that was covered<br />
by the Globe. Last May, reporter<br />
Kay Lazar revealed that NETA,<br />
among other dispensaries,<br />
“placed low-income patients<br />
on waiting lists for discounted<br />
products—creating delays that<br />
run afoul of state law.” And they<br />
were “effectively denying those<br />
low-income patients the discounts<br />
state regulations require<br />
cial<br />
hardship, with no cap on the<br />
number.”<br />
Following the Globe report,<br />
NETA reportedly honored<br />
<br />
hardship patients.<br />
<br />
—///—<br />
<br />
dispensary operation in Mass<br />
with political ties, but its prox-<br />
<br />
From the start, as was reported<br />
in the Globe in 2014, the<br />
company employed a patient/<br />
medical director who was “a<br />
key former DPH staff member,”<br />
and “a nurse who helped craft<br />
na<br />
regulations before retiring<br />
from government.” It may have<br />
been good luck or such plentiful<br />
connections in high places<br />
that helped NETA get over the<br />
hurdles formed after Fisher,<br />
a founding co-owner, ran into<br />
tion.<br />
In 2014, then-Gov. Deval<br />
Patrick said, “If somebody lied<br />
on their application, they are<br />
not going to get a license.” But<br />
dentials<br />
being misrepresented,<br />
that rule apparently did not ap-<br />
<br />
whether, in fact, it was a lie,”<br />
Patrick told reporters in 2014.<br />
<br />
certainly an inaccuracy, and<br />
<br />
of that.”<br />
In the end, NETA got the green<br />
light from the DPH.<br />
Critics of the dispensary<br />
who were contacted for<br />
this article point to the top of<br />
<br />
is owned by recreational cannabis<br />
operators with established<br />
Colorado grass roots, so to speak,<br />
<br />
<br />
who, according to a Bloomberg<br />
-<br />
<br />
<br />
Hospital, United Way of Massachusetts<br />
Bay, Babson College and<br />
<br />
Kessler, a Palm Beach<br />
staple who has hosted Hillary and<br />
J43
ill Clinton at his $30 million beachfront estate,<br />
as given to the campaign funds of multiple<br />
lected pols. According to the Massachusetts<br />
<br />
ontributions over several years include $8,000 to<br />
ecretary of State William Galvin, $2,000 to Gov.<br />
harlie Baker, $1,000 to Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito,<br />
3,000 to Treasurer Deb Goldberg, and $1,000<br />
<br />
ave made comparable contributions, spreading<br />
oney all across the state into the war chests of<br />
<br />
Also of note, former US Congressman<br />
arney Frank was for a short time listed as<br />
<br />
elations—until NETA was approved by then-Gov.<br />
<br />
-<br />
<br />
<br />
—///—<br />
in Boston, including Brigham and Wom-<br />
<br />
<br />
ospital.”<br />
Kessler, a Palm Beach staple who has<br />
osted Hillary and Bill Clinton at his $30 million<br />
eachfront estate, has given to the campaign<br />
unds of multiple elected pols. According to the<br />
<br />
inance, his contributions over several years inlude<br />
$8,000 to Secretary of State William Galvin,<br />
2,000 to Gov. Charlie Baker, $1,000 to Lt. Gov.<br />
aryn Polito, $3,000 to Treasurer Deb Goldberg,<br />
nd $1,000 to Boston Mayor Marty<br />
<br />
omparable contributions, spreading<br />
oney all across the state into the war<br />
<br />
Also of note, former US Conressman<br />
Barney Frank was for a short<br />
rnment<br />
and community relations—until<br />
ETA was approved by then-Gov. Pat-<br />
<br />
o MassLive, “Fisher said Frank served<br />
-<br />
<br />
e on staff moving forward.”<br />
—///—<br />
Hassel, as well as the other former NETA<br />
employees who spoke for this story, fears that<br />
she was exposed to a moldy product, as a worker<br />
and as a consumer, that negatively impacted<br />
her health. She says she paid to have physical<br />
evaluations, the results of which she offered: “My<br />
<br />
high for cadmium.” Last June, she wrote a letter<br />
to the DPH: Two months after beginning to consume<br />
NETA products, I began to experience the<br />
following symptoms: headaches, sore throat and<br />
na<br />
concentrates (shatter, wax) were released in<br />
2016, I began consuming them. My symptoms<br />
progressed to bloating in my abdomen, nausea,<br />
<br />
Neurological symptoms such as neuropathy<br />
(numbness in the toes and ball of my foot)<br />
and tetany (spasms) in my calves greatly increased<br />
in escalating pain intensity and frequency<br />
starting November 2016, and I also began to<br />
experience fasciculations (twitching) in my calves<br />
when seated in the beginning of 2017.<br />
NETA, meanwhile, is apparently eyeing<br />
the legal market. As was reported by the Globe<br />
<br />
<br />
ries,<br />
advocated for cracking down on gray market<br />
providers, all while asking that existing medical<br />
<br />
consumers. Considering how things have gone
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