S03E16: He has a 420-friendly event space ready to go while Denver figures out social use

Published: Aug 4, 2017, 2:35 pm • Updated: Aug 4, 2017, 2:35 pm

By The Cannabist Staff

Featured guest: Herban Space founder Cliff Gordon.

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LOTS TO TALK ABOUT

• While Denver works out how to enact its first-of-its-kind voter-approved social marijuana use initiative, some spaces are finding ways to be 420-friendly in the meantime.

• Vaping vs smoking, the debate rages on: Should one be allowed indoors while the other is sequestered to the open air?

• Getting the munchies while enjoying edibles: A tale of imbibing too much.

Watch: More videos on YouTube about marijuana in Colorado and beyond

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TOP MARIJUANA NEWS

Upcoming solar eclipse causing record demands for weed: Next month there will be a solar eclipse that some people are calling “The Great American Eclipse” because such large swaths of people across the United States will be able to see it. Since this is such a rare occurrence, many people are planning to trek around the country for the occasion. Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the most popular destinations for viewing the eclipse is Oregon, and it all has to do with marijuana. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission estimates that one million people will visit Oregon to view the solar eclipse, and predicts that demand for marijuana will be at an all-time high. They’re also recommending that business begin stocking up on product so they don’t run out the day of the eclipse. –Report by Civilized’s Joseph Misulonas

Opinion: Employers testing for weed will increasingly miss out on good workers: In Youngstown, Ohio, the employment problem is not a shortage of jobs. Nor is it a shortage of workers. The problem is not stingy employers who don’t want to pay enough to attract good workers. Nor is the problem that potential workers are too busy playing video games to show up for their job interviews. So what’s the trouble? The only thing standing between willing employers and willing workers is a drug test. Unfortunately, these aren’t jobs where you can say uptight, moralizing employers are prying too deeply into the private lives of their employees. They’re industrial jobs where the risk of accidents — potentially fatal accidents — is high. Employers cannot run the risk of people showing up intoxicated and killing themselves or their co-workers. Even if they were willing to run their workplace that way, safety inspectors and insurers wouldn’t let them. –Report by Bloomberg Views’ Megan McArdle

Scientists go through trouble to research if regular weed users are more relaxed than others: Recreational marijuana use is now legal in eight states plus the District of Columbia, giving public health researchers more leeway than ever to investigate some of the foundational underpinnings of cannabis culture: How much weed is in a joint? What happens to your brain when you get high? And now: Are chronic marijuana users really more relaxed than everyone else? You might be surprised to learn that the research to date on this question is mixed. One recent study found that while low doses of THC (the active chemical compound in pot) helped people cope with stressful situations, moderate to higher doses actually made people stress out even more. –Report by The Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham

Willie Nelson video interview: America’s political divide, Jeff Sessions and marijuana: In an interview with The Washington Post aboard his tour bus, Willie Nelson urged Americans to bridge what he calls a great divide in politics. At 84 years old, Willie Nelson still has a strong voice as one of America’s leading songwriters. He sat down in his tour bus with The Washington Post’s Libby Casey to talk politics, pot, and what Americans can do to come together. He even sang The Washington Post’s new motto. –Report by The Washington Post’s Libby Casey

STRAIN THEORY

Blue Dream: I’m not sure which I’ve recommended more over the past five years: Blue Dream or “Breaking Bad.” The former is seemingly ubiquitous in Colorado, and there’s something fitting about such an active, uplifting strain bearing our standard. The latter is a cable show and not marijuana, for those of you too cool to own a television but who can still afford a giant rock to live under. If I had cataloged the most common request at dispensaries where I’ve worked, it wouldn’t be, “What’s going to get me the highest?” but rather, “What can I smoke that won’t knock me out?” Then I’d recommend something with the word “dream” in the name and they’d look at me like I was high. –Review by The Cannabist’s Jake Browne

Gorilla Glue #4: When I talk about self-medicating with cannabis it’s with trepidation, as if I’m an illicit drug user and not one of the millions of Americans who choose something like coffee or seconds at dinner instead. It’s that pesky “self” in there. Diagnosis is fine when it comes from a medical professional, not Google. So when I say that tonight I’m treating the mild obsessive-compulsive disorder that I’m fairly sure I have, and I’m doing so with Gorilla Glue #4, I’m painfully aware of the potential reactions. Then, I get to exhale them away until they vanish into the yellow light below my ceiling fan. And I don’t need to clean the ceiling fan. –Review by The Cannabist’s Jake Browne

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