NUG Magazine Issue 27

Only patients with legally recognized medical cannabis ID cards may obtain cannabis from medical cannabis collectives/dispensaries. In strict compliance with Prop215 and SB420 HS11362.5 & HS11362.7”

PUBLISHER’SLETTER

CONTENTS10\\:NUG TIMES

12\\:ACTIVISM

14\\:LEGAL

16\\:PATIENT PROFILE

19\\:MIND-BODY HEALTH

20\\:PURESEL

22\\:BIZ SPOTLIGHT: THREAD

24\\:GRACE SLICK

26\\:COOKING

28\\:GROW

31\\:BOOK REVIEW

34\\:THE CHRONISSEUR

36\\:PERPETUAL MOTION

40\\:PHAT REGGAE DUB

42\\:ARTIST PROFILE

44\\:NUG LIFE

45\\:EVENTS

46\\:PRODUCT REVIEWS

DECEMBER 2011 VOL. 3 ISSUE #12

NUG Magazine Staff:

Publisher: Ben G. Rowin Associate Publisher: M.J. Smith

Editor: Dion Markgraaff Associate Editor: George Alberts

Copy Editor: Marco Alvarez

Events Calendar: Gio Blitz

Photographers: Eric Fowler, Jennifer Martinez, SCR Photos

Videographer: Chris Gabriel

Contributors: “SD OG Grower”, Dion Markgraaff, Canna Chef Kim, Marc Emmelmann, Pamela Jayne, Tiffany Janay, Jed Sanders, George Al-berts, R.J. Villa, SD Liz, Bahareh, Esther Rubio-Sheffrey, Aaron Evans, Brom Richey, Marco Al-varez, Jon Block, Rachel Anders, Scott Whytsell, Medicinal Michael Boris, Kimberly Simms, Gio Blitz, Michael Cindrich, Antoinette Duenas

Comics: Joshua Boulet, Georgia Peschel

Sales Director: Ben G. Rowin

Advertising Sales Reps: Dion Markgraaff, Brom Richey, Kirk L.

Art Director: Ian Rie Finance Manager: M.J. Smith

Marketing Manager: Marc Emmelmann Distribution/Subscriptions: Beau’s Distribution Service [email protected]

NUG Magazine Staff Contact Information:9880 N. Magnolia Ave #168

Santee, Ca 92071(619) 616-4961

For general information or to reach our Publisher: [email protected] all art/design information: [email protected] all editorial related information: [email protected] submissions: [email protected]

NUG Magazine is published and distributed by NUG Magazine LLC. All contents are for entertainment and educational purposes only and are intended for mature audiences. We are not responsible for any actions taken by our readers nor do we condone any illegal activity. Advertisers are responsible for their own ads and content. Only patients with legally recognized medical cannabis ID cards may obtain cannabis from medi-cal cannabis collectives/dispensaries. In strict compliance with Prop215 and SB420 HS11362.5 & HS11362.7” All opinions expressed are those

of the writers and not necessarily of the magazine. All submissions become our property and may be used for publication. At times we may use materials placed in the public domain. If you own it let us know and we will acknowledge you. Reproduction of any content is encouraged if

you get permission from our Publisher. All contents copyright. 2011

Welcome to another issue of NUG Magazine, San Diego’s Original Cannabis Publica-tion! Last month we all took some time to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday, and we here at NUG have a lot to be thankful for! We want to send a special thanks to all of our advertis-ers, previous and current! We appreciate every single one of them. Their support allows us to continue to bring our readers all of the dynamic editorial content that we strive to bring you every month!

This month we have a great issue for you once again. We have an amazing interview with artist Grace Slick, a legendary ‘60s rock icon who is unveiling her 420 Collection at downtown’s Alexander Salazar Fine Art Gallery. We also have an interview with local arts & culture guru Swendoza of Art Rocks! Radio, and one of our newest contributing writers, Antoinette Duenas, is bringing you a business spotlight on Thread that is a must read! Shopping local and supporting local products and services is a MUST!

Speaking of shopping local, we have been sharing some of the best cannabis recipes with you since our very first issue thanks to Canna Chef Kim…so you can imagine that her book of medicinal recipes would make an incredible holiday gift! Make sure to pick one up for the chef that you love at www.motherearthcoop.com.

And if you like our amazing cover this month, check out the ad on page 11 for more information on how to order Christmas cards, each hand signed by local artist Kelly Hutchison: www.darkvomit.com.

As always, we are bringing you some great local music coverage, including SD Liz’s coverage of Tribal Theory and MJ’s piece on up-and-comers Phat Reggae Dub. Aaron Evans has brought us another amazing glass artist to profile in his Perpetual Motion column and The Chronisseur is reviewing the top 3 strains from the Halloweed Cup!

With another holiday right around the corner, we at NUG want to wish all of our readers, contributors, advertisers, friends and family a blessed holiday!

-Ben G. Rowin

NORML Attorneys file multiple constitutional challenges to federal medical marijuana crackdown http://www.canorml.org/news

NORML Attorneys Matt Kumin, David Michael, and Alan Silber, have filed suit in the four federal districts in California to challenge the Obama Administration’s recent crackdown on medical marijuana operations in the Golden State. Aided by expert testimony from NORML Deputy Di-rector Paul Armentano and research from California NORML Director Dale Gieringer, the suits seek an injunction against the recent federal intrusion into state medical marijuana laws at least and at most a dec-laration of the unconstitutionality of the Controlled Substances Act with respect to state regulation of medical marijuana.

The NORML attorneys allege the federal government has engaged in entrapment of California patients and their caregivers. They point to the courts dismissal of County of Santa Cruz, WAMM et al. v. Eric Holder et al. where the Department of Justice (DOJ) promised a federal judge that it had changed its policy toward the enforcement of its federal drug laws relative to California medical cannabis patients. So after 2009, California providers had reason to believe that the federal government had changed its policy. The legal argument is called “judicial estoppel”, which basically means that courts can’t hold true to a fact in one case and then disregard it in another.

Kumin, Michael, and Silber also argue the government has engaged in “equitable estoppel” which most people commonly think of as entrap-ment. The suit says,

“Under established principles of estoppel and particularly in the context of the defense of estoppel by entrapment, defendants to a criminal ac-tion are protected and should not be prosecuted if they have reasonably relied on statements from the government indicating that their conduct is not unlawful. That principle should be applied to potential defendants as well, the plaintiffs in this action. Such parties, courts have noted, are “person[s] sincerely desirous of obeying the law. They accepted the information as true and [were] not on notice to make further inquiries.” U.S. v. Weitzenhoff, 1 F. 3d 1523, 1534 (9th Cir. 1993).”

The US Constitution figures prominently in the legal challenge as well. The 9th Amendment says that, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others re-tained by the people.” The NORML attorneys argue that threatening sei-zure of property and criminal sanctions violates the rights of the people to consult with their doctors about their bodies and health.

The 10th Amendment provides that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” The NORML at-torneys argue that the States have the “primary plenary power toprotect the health of its citizens” and since the government has recog-nized and not attempted to stop Colorado’s state-run medical marijuana dispensary program, it cannot suggest Colorado has a state’s right that California does not.

The 14th Amendment says that all citizens have equal protection under the law. The NORML attorneys argue that the federal government:1. Actively provides cannabis for medical purposes to individuals through its own IND program.2. Actively allows patients in Colorado to access medical cannabis through a state-licensing system that allows individuals to make profit from the sales of medical cannabis.3. Actively restricts scientific research into the medical value and use of cannabis to alleviate human suffering and pain.

Thus, according to Kumin, Michael, and Silber, the government can’t be allowing Colorado medical marijuana commerce, engaging it its own IND program that mails 300 joints a month to four federal medical mari-juana patients yet squelching all attempts to study medical valueof marijuana, then have a rational basis for shutting down medical mari-juana dispensaries in California. Under the 14th Amendment, the feds can’t treat Californians differently than Coloradoans and differently than four US citizens who get legal federal medical marijuana.

Finally, while acknowledging that Raich v. Gonzales 545 US 1 (2005) set the precedent that the Consti-tution’s Interstate Commerce Clause does allow the feds to prosecute California’s medical marijuana, the NORML attorneys argue:

“It is still difficult to imagine that marijuana grown only in California, pursuant to California State law, and distributed only within California, only to California residents holding state-issued cards, and only for medical purposes, can be subject to federal regulation pursuant to the Commerce Clause. For that reason, Plaintiffs preserve the issue for further Supreme Court review, if necessary and deemed ap-propriate.”

Medical Marijuana Advocates Appeal Conviction of San Diego Dispensary Operator -Court to decide on legality of “sales” & whether dispensary operators are entitled to a defense http://www.safeaccesssd.org/

Medical marijuana patient advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) today appealed the Sep-tember 2010 conviction of San Diego dispensary operator Jovan Jackson in a case that has received widespread attention. The case against Jackson has become a symbol of the effort by District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and other prosecutors across the state to criminalize storefront collectives. Due to state jurisprudence, California Attorney General Kamala Harris will now defend Jackson’s appeal rather than Dumanis, who originally tried him. The ASA appeal not only contests Jackson’s conviction and his denial of a defense, but it also challenges the prosecution’s assertion that “sales” of medical marijuana are illegal under state law.

“Jackson and other medical marijuana providers deserve a defense under the state’s medical mari-juana laws and these are issues for a jury to decide,” said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford, who authored the appeal brief filed today. “The denial of Jackson’s defense was unfairly used to convict a medical marijuana provider who was in full compliance with state law.” At Jackson’s trial, San Diego Superior Court Judge Howard Shore referred to medical marijuana as “dope,” and called California’s medical marijuana laws “a scam.”

The Jackson case represents one of the first medical marijuana-related criminal appeals for Harris, who was elected one year ago after a hard-fought campaign against Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley. Before taking office as Attorney General, Harris was the San Francisco District Attorney during the implementation and enforcement of her city’s dispensary licensing ordinance, one of the first in the nation.

Jackson operated his storefront collective for years without incident until he was raided by law enforce-ment in 2008. Jackson was tried for marijuana possession and sales in 2009, but was acquitted by a jury. Dissatisfied with that result, District Attorney Dumanis tried Jackson again on the same charges stemming from a September 2009 raid by a multi-agency task force made up of local and federal law enforcement. It was at his second trial that Jackson was denied a defense and ultimately convicted. Judge Shore gave Jackson 180 days in jail before his conviction was appealed.

Several District Attorneys have asserted that medical marijuana “sales” are illegal under state law, despite guidelines issued in 2008 by the California Attorney General and legal case law to the contrary. This contention -- that patients must take part in collective cultivation and “till the soil” -- has been used to deny Jackson a defense, even though other lower courts, like those in Los Angeles and Butte Coun-ties, take a differing view.

For example, in Williams v. Butte County, the Superior Court held that, “the legislature intended collec-tive cultivation of medical marijuana would not require physical participation in the gardening process by all members of the collective, but rather would permit that some patients would be able to contribute financially, while others performed the labor and contributed the skills and ‘know-how.’”

Jackson is currently out on bail pending appeal, but he no longer operates his medical marijuana col-lective. The Attorney General has 30 days to reply to the appeal.

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A conference of peacemakers in the world’s “war on drugs”By Dion Markgraaff

The 2011 International Drug Policy Reform Conference held in downtown Los Angles this past November was the biggest and best meeting of free-dom fighters in this epic ongoing “war on drugs.” The bi-annual gathering of peacemakers in this war came togeth-

er for three days to renew their com-mon agenda of ending the largest war of the modern era, in terms of length of time, cost, and damage. Over 1200 people from around the globe and representatives from every state in the U.S. convened to discuss, debate, and inform one another about differ-ent undertakings and strategies to end and reduce the harmful consequences of this world war.

This is a conference for activists, cops, academics, health officials, ex-cons, unions, politicians, students, and any-one who wants to get plugged into making changes in drug policy. This meeting of the minds concerned all drugs (legal and illegal), how society handles them, and the impact of the different policies. There was a main room with booths from different orga-nizations, like NORML, MPP (Mari-juana Policy Project), LEAP (Law En-

forcement Against Prohibition), ASA (Americans for Safe Access), SSDP (Students for Sensible Drug Policy) and more.

The main information was in the many presenta-tions on different strategies with different ideas and perceptions. These ongoing forms were punctuated by speeches and presentations in a massive main hall by some excellent and inspi-rational people. There were incredibly impressive speakers led by California’s Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, Former New Mexico Governor and cur-rent U.S. Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson, travel writer Rick Steves, California NAACP Head Alice Huffman, and Mexican movement leader and poet Javier Sicilia. In addition, Richard Bran-son of Virgin Airlines skyped into the conference on big screens to condemn the war on drugs and thanked everyone for their own personal efforts to make changes in drug policy.

What’s up with California Cannabis Ini-tiatives in 2012?There were excellent panel discussions on vari-

ous California cannabis initiatives: three legalization efforts, one increasing the amount decriminalized, and one focused on establishing medical cannabis regulations. There were representatives there to discuss each other’s strengths and weaknesses. However, everyone agreed that the biggest is-sue facing all of the proposed initiatives was the lack of money. The large donors of years past are not impressed with the poll-ing numbers being low and the grassroots people being too divided, unorganized, and poor.

The Regulate Marijuana Like Wine initiative would end canna-bis prohibition and set up a system of regulated distribution. It mandates the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to set up regulations for sales by 2013. The Repeal Cannabis Prohi-bition Act would repeal all of the California laws against can-nabis with an obligation for the government to create a “Cali-fornia Cannabis Commission” to set up a system to regulate cannabis commerce. Interestingly, the government would have to act to set up this system within 6 months or there would be no regulation of cannabis in California at all. A different initia-tive, Marijuana Penalties Act, would decriminalize cannabis for everyone up to 2 ounces (currently 1 ounce). The California Economic, Environmental, Hemp Restoration Act of 2012, a project of the Budget Economic Environmental Protection Al-liance, would legalize industrial hemp, medical cannabis, and

recreational cannabis for people 21 and over. This initiative is still in the drafting phase. The Proposition 19 organization has morphed into the California Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform and is now advocating an initiative to regulate medical cannabis in the state.

There is more hope for legalization efforts in the states of Colo-rado and Washington. Most of the leaders in the cannabis com-munity were at the conference to add valuable observations from their work in the field, elevating the level of the discussions. A new development in the evolution of the cannabis revolution was the addition of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) cannabis division, which was led by Dan Rush. This national union seems to be bringing a new element to the fight for cannabis with professionalism and the uniting power of the community’s collective strength.

We all live in this illogical world war, but news from the frontlines of the “war on drugs” is good, as the arc of truth is still bending to-wards the light. One of the main speaker’s most profound obser-vations was that this struggle for our human rights is a marathon, not a sprint. Can a lie be reformed? No! The 2011 International Drug Policy Reform Conference was more of a meeting for a greatly needed revolution.


By: Michael E. Cindrich

On November 5, 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act (CUA). The CUA added section 11362.5 to the California Health & Safety Code, which created an affirmative defense for people who use and cultivate marijuana for their own personal medical use pursuant to a doctor’s recommendation. The CUA also created a provi-sion for designated primary caregivers who consistently assume responsibil-ity for the housing, health, or safety of a medical marijuana patient. In 2003, the California legislature passed Senate Bill 420, also known as the Medical Marijuana Program Act (MMP). The MMP was put into effect in January 2004 and amended the Health & Safety Code to add several additional sections, specifically sections 11362.7 through 11362.83.

Anticipating that judges would be confronted regularly with probationers who had been recommended medical marijuana, the legislature included in the MMP § 11362.795 Health & Safety Code: (a) (1) Any criminal defendant who is eligible to use marijuana pursuant to Section 11362.5 may request that the court confirm that he or she is allowed to use medical marijuana while he or she is on probation or released on bail. From my personal experience, requests to use marijuana on probation al-most always take the form of a formal written motion submitted to the court and argued in front of a judge. Often times, this is the judge who did your sentencing, but not always. Also, the DA will often file an opposition to this motion, requesting that the court specifically prohibit your use of marijuana on probation. The court’s ability to request or deny your motion will be based on several factors outlined later in this article.

Besides drafting a persuasive motion, you will also want to present evidence at the hearing. At a very minimum, you will want to have medical records supporting your condition and the doctor who wrote your recommendation. Ideally, you would have your treating physician, not just a doctor who writes marijuana recommendations for his livelihood. This is because most judges do not give any weight or credibility to the testimony of “medical marijuana doctors.” Though these judges are often times ignoring the law, they will con-tinue to make these rulings until challenged and overturned on appeal. Simi-larly, they will second-guess your reason for using medical cannabis if they feel that your illness is not severe enough to warrant the use of marijuana while on probation. They may also order you to try other medications, some

of which may be extremely addictive and dangerous. Again, these judges are ignoring the law and placing themselves in a position where they are essentially in-volved in the unauthorized practice of medicine – decid-ing what medicine you can and can’t use to treat your illness. This goes entirely against the CUA, which spe-cifically allows the use of marijuana for “any condition for which marijuana provides relief.”

If you don’t make a request for the court to allow you to use medical marijuana on probation, and you test dirty, you still have a defense. At issue in the seminal case of People v. Tilehkooh (2003), 113 Cal.App.4th 1433, was whether the defendant could assert a Compassionate Use defense for a probation revocation. Answering in the affirmative, the court held that the language of sec-tion 11362.5: “Precludes the imposition of a ‘criminal sanction’ for the use and possession of marijuana and ensures the right to use and possess marijuana when the user satisfies the conditions of section 11362.5. For this reason, section 11362.5 provides a defense to a probation revocation based on marijuana possession or use. In this case, depriving a defendant of the right to predicate a defense to a probation revocation upon section 11362.5 denied him due process.” Tilehkooh at 1444-1445. The court in Tilehkooh further held: “We are directed to give sense to all of the terms of an enactment. To do so requires that we give effect to the purposes of section 11362.5 to ensure the right to obtain and use marijuana. In particular, we must give effect to subdivision (b)(1)(A), which establishes a ‘right to obtain and use mari-juana for medical purposes,’ and which links the right to use marijuana with the prohibition on the imposition of a ‘criminal prosecution or sanction.’ It is readily apparent that the right to obtain or use marijuana is not “ensure[d]” if its use is not given protection from the adverse conse-quences of probation. Since the use of marijuana is not a crime, the term “prosecution or criminal sanction” must be read to apply to any criminal sanction for the use of marijuana. The immediate candidate is probation, the regulation of which is within the penal code provisions on punishment and the violation of which subjects a pro-bationer to significant restrictions on his or her liberty. (Pen. Code § 1203.2.) Indeed, it would completely frus-trate the purpose of section 11362.5 if a violation of pro-bation for the medical use or possession of marijuana is permitted while barring a criminal prosecution for the identical conduct.” (Id. at 1443, emphasis added) Tilehkooh stands for the proposition that a condition of probation, which in effect prohibits the lawful use of a prescription drug, serves no rehabilitative purpose and

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is invalid. In Tilehkooh, the Court of Appeals had to decide whether a probationer, who uses marijuana for medical pur-poses in compliance with the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (Prop. 215), can have his probation revoked and sanctions imposed for possessing or testing positive for marijuana. The Tilehkooh court, following the California Supreme Court’s lead in People v. Mower (2002), 28 Cal.4th 457, 482, analogized the use of marijuana under Prop. 215 to the use of a prescription drug. The court held that (where no claim is sustained that the probationer was endangering others or diverting marijuana for non-medical purposes) a condition, which in effect prohibits the lawful use of a prescription drug, serves no rehabilitative pur-pose and is therefore invalid. Consequently, the order revoking probation had to be reversed.

The court in Tilehkooh remarks that, “California courts have tra-ditionally been wary of using the probation system for any non-rehabilitative purpose, no matter how superficially rational.” (Tilehkooh, supra, at 1444) The court goes on to hold that, “A rehabilitative purpose is not served when the probation condi-tion proscribes the lawful use of marijuana for medical purpos-es pursuant to section 11362.5 any more than it is served by the lawful use of a prescription drug.” (Id.) Citing People v. Lent (1975) 15 Cal.3d 481, 486, the court relates the fundamental rule that a valid probation condition must be “reasonably re-lated to the crime of which the defendant was convicted or to future criminality.” (Id.) The court then concludes, “However, it ordinarily cannot be said that the treatment of an illness by law-ful means is so related.” (Id.)

Interpreting the rule set forth in Lent, the court in People v. Brooks (2010), 182 Cal.App.4th 1348, denied the defendant’s motion to mod-ify his probation. In Brooks, the defendant was stopped for a traf-fic violation and found with approximately two pounds of marijuana. (Id. at 1350) The defendant was arrested for possession of marijuana and methamphetamine. (Id.) Though the defendant had a doctor’s recommendation, the court found that the defendant’s possession of marijuana was for sale, rather than personal use. (Id.) The defendant attempted to argue that there was no “nexus” between his underlying offense and his use of marijuana under Prop. 215. (Id. at 1352) The court held that the defendant’s probation condition forbidding the legal use of marijuana under Prop. 215 was sufficiently connected to his il-legal possession because the defendant was hiding his illegal selling operation behind the legal front of Prop. 215. (Id. at 1353)

In sum, if the underlying offense in your case is in no way related to the unlawful possession of marijuana, you may have a shot at get-ting your probation modified to allow your use of medical cannabis. In San Diego courts, it will depend on the seriousness of your condition, the credibility of your doctor, and the judge who hears the motion. However, if you do not succeed in getting your probation modified, I do not recommend continuing your cannabis use and relying on the Tilehkooh case above for your defense. The probation department in San Diego will almost always ignore Tilehkooh and initiate probation revocation proceedings against you. If you get a judge who is anti-marijuana, you may ultimately get revoked and be forced to fight your case on appeal. My best advice: contact a knowledgeable attorney to discuss your situation before using cannabis on probation.

Michael E. Cindrich is an attorney practicing criminal law in San Diego and can be reached at (619) 262-2500.

The State of Medical Cannabis in San Diego: More Patients than Patience

By: Pamela Jayne

Disclaimer: This was written in a state of raw emotion in reaction to the U.S. Attorney and the Department of Justice’s decision to shit on the rights of medi-cal cannabis patients and providers. The following words are neither eloquent nor offensive, but true. And like my Mom has always said, “The truth will stand when the world is on fire.” Thanks for the wisdom, Mom…and sorry about the F-bomb.

I’m just going to tell it like it is. There is no use in sugarcoating what has hap-pened to San Diego’s medical cannabis community in the past month. We have been forsaken by our own government whose job it is to protect our rights, and although we know that there is a light at the end of this unjust tunnel, we also know that it may take quite some time to see that light. Recent headlines have proudly proclaimed the news that “Pot Shops Must Shut”. Local, state, and fed-eral officials have declared victory, but victory over what? –Victory over a God-given plant that has existed since the dawn of time? Hell, they may as well de-clare war on oxygen, which would not make any less sense.

Something else that strikes me as odd, and by odd, I mean corrupt; why is it that politicians have no qualms with telling patients and doctors what is and is not ac-ceptable medical treatment, but there has never been a case where a doctor was allowed to walk into a courtroom and make a decision on a legal matter?

I could rant and rave about my disdain for the establishment until the cows come home, but I would much rather get back to the heart of the matter, the patients. They are the ones who have been hung out to dry by the politicians who would cut off their own noses just to spite their face…and of course, to win the next election or be appointed to an even more powerful position.

The recent news that Brianna Bilbray has gone against her father’s well-known political leanings against medical cannabis has given me hope and sadness; hope that more strong willed survivors like Brianna will speak out, and sadness that her own father is still hesitant to publicly support the plant that has helped his own daughter to endure the brutal and caustic, yet necessary, process of chemotherapy. God, I hope for her sake that he is more supportive in private than he is in public. This reminds me of all of the patients I have had the honor of meeting and writing about. Some of them are alive and well, some of them are still fighting, and some have, sadly, lost their battle. They all told me that in their decision to use medical cannabis, they had the complete support of family and friends. Now these people may not be as important as Brian Bilbray thinks he is, but at least they have the decency to stand by their loved ones. I know for a fact that if I were in Brianna’s shoes, my Daddy would not hesitate for a single second to come to my defense. Again, I pray that his public statement is not indicative of his true beliefs.

Yes, I am angry. I am very angry that the very people entrusted to protect our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have, for all intents and purpos-es, said that they do not care if we live or die, or if we prosper or suffer. Hell, they have refused to even comment on the matter. Guilty conscious? Or just covering their own asses? I’m guessing the latter.

What frightens me the most about the forced closure of medical cannabis collec-tives in San Diego is the stark reality that it has all but ended safe access to a medi-cine that literally saves lives. I know sev-eral patients who have said that they will have to stop using cannabis as medicine because they are not comfortable with “going to the streets” to obtain marijuana. Not only are some patients uncomfortable with doing this, some are simply unable. Not only is expecting an end-stage cancer patient to resort back to alley drug dealers inhumane, it is flat-out fucking ridiculous!

So what does the future hold for San Di-egans who rely on medical cannabis for relief? It is definitely touch-and-go at the moment, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the truth and what is right will ulti-mately prevail.

Despite my anger at the situation and my instinct to say, “Fuck the government!” I am not willing to give up or surrender to the bitterness that often accompanies disappointment. I have faith that, sooner than later, we will prevail. The powers that be, those that believe they can rule, will shortly come to find that We The People will not be silenced. We will not let our votes or our voices go unheard. We will, we will, prevail. They may have won this battle, but we will win the war, because we are in this for the long haul.

Sorry about the rambling rant. I am just so very raw, angry, despondent, and fired up to be eloquent or objective. I promise that next month I will be back with the story of a patient, and I will put his or her story ahead of my own selfish desire to prove a point. As a wise man, who happens to front one of my favorite bands, once said, *“GOD MADE IT, MEN USE IT, GOVERN-MENTS PUT PEOPLE IN CAGES FOR IT.”

*Corporate Avenger

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The holidays and the end of 2011 are upon us. As I mulled over how to close out the year (with a practice on gratitude, healthy holiday reci-pes, and gifts for wellness – so much to choose from!), I came across this quote:

“Every sacred place is the place where eternity shines through time.”1

I read it again and thought it appropriate to embrace an opportunity for grounding amidst the sometimes contrasting nature of this time of year. Contrasting, meaning the presence of opposites: chaotic traffic, peaceful darkness, joyous moments, tragic realities. The highs and lows are on display at their extremes and, through all of it, we make the choice of riding the emotional waves or finding stillness in our sacred place.

Life has a way of distracting us and changing our well thought-out plans. Though we seek comfort and happiness, all pleasures are bal-anced with pain. So what are the alternatives to riding the rollercoaster of life? Does finding a sacred place mean abandonment of all we know and those we love? Is this sacred place in a remote hermitage or in a Himalayan cave?

A sacred place is unique to you. It can be over-looking the ocean at the stillness of sunrise; it can be found in your yoga practice or at home holding your child as he falls asleep. A sacred place is a space that we make sacred. It’s a space that brings us healing and allows us to experience our truth. Our sacred place is really inside of us and appears when we allow it to

shine through. It represents an inner strength that is beyond the ups and downs of life; an inner strength that is eternal and joyful as it floats down the stream of life and the changes brought by time.

The next question is how to cultivate and honor this inner sacredness at this very special time of year. The task is to create an external place that reflects your internal truth, your light, your bliss. Again, this will differ for all of us. Think about what this means to you. Some recommendations:

Create a sacred space in your home – We tend to naturally create these • spaces. A place where you can go to be quiet and free of distraction; a corner where you hold treasured objects (perhaps not of high material worth, but of high personal value); a room where you light candles and seek quiet; your pillow where you sit to meditate; a peaceful space where you go to pray. The act of creating this room, this shelf, or this corner will give you a place to return to and re-experience in less than peaceful times.

Create a ritual to honor your inner sacred place – Maybe this is your • morning surf session or your evening walk. The point is to create a regu-lar action that brings you peace and connects you to your inner self; an experience to reconnect you with your sacred space, and that knowing of eternity shining through time.

Notice the use of the word “create”. With these tasks or actions, you are creating or externalizing from what already exists inside of you, from your soul, your spirit, your truth – whatever you believe in or whichever term you would like to use.

What is your sacred place and how do you honor it?

In health,Bahareh

Bahareh is a certified health and wellness coach based in Encinitas, Califor-nia. She empowers others to live healthier, happier lives by achieving bal-ance, reducing stress, and eating well. www.mindbodyalliance.com

Mind-Body Health & WellnessWhere Eternity Shines Through Time

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Africa is known for many of its natural resources, such as gold and diamonds, but there is so much more to the land; the plant life is as rich as its minerals. Puresel is a new company determined to provide high quality plant life to people who can’t so easily travel around the world to get it themselves.

I spoke with Marleen, one of the partners in the company, and she shared with me some of her favorite treasures from Africa. If a trip across the globe isn’t in your near future, no worries, you can pick it up from www.Puresel.com

On their website you can find common products such as Kratom and Kava Kava, but they also offer new competitive products that most other companies don’t have. The reason is because they are working directly with the farmers and have good relation-ships with their growers who provide them with insight into which plants and which parts of plants, in general, are most effective and beneficial. They like to know where it came from and where it’s going on its way to packaging. They have also done extensive amounts of traveling because it’s very important to do site visits and meet face-to-face with people to be sure of where their supplies are coming from.

The company just launched in November and the product line will be expanding over time as they continue to do more research and become inspired by plants. Marleen says she was drawn to this business because she feels that there is a lot of information to learn from other cultures, and she is fascinated by the anthropology of it all. It has been a long process to get to the point where it’s a business and not just a hobby.

Depending on what your experience level is, you will be able to find a variety of forms in which to purchase the plant and it will determine its potency to help you have the best experience possible.

Throughout the world, there are many cultures using plants to help with different types of ailments, and they have been using them for thousands of years. Due to research, it is now accessible to us in our modern world.

One plant that has really impressed her is from South Africa – Sceletium Tortuosum. It’s very wildly used by indigenous and mainstream people over there; yet, it is a mystery to many people in this country. It’s a succulent and has been in recorded use since the 1600s. Back then, shepherds would use it while going on long treks to take their animals to pasture. They would chew on it because it was an appetite suppressant and could stop thirst, and it was also useful as an anti-depressant and a relaxer. In modern day, there have been clinical studies that have shown it as effective as pharmaceutical anti-depressants. In South Africa, veterinarians are using it in liquid form to mist the face of an animal and completely relax it within minutes.

A seed the size of a golf ball called Entada Rheedii, also from Africa, has been used traditionally for inducing dreams, which is why it is also known as The African Dream herb. The seeds are typically found washed up on beaches in East and South Africa. Many people seem to be interested in having lucid dreams and increasing awareness and memory of dreams, and this has been used to encourage that exploration.

Blue Lotus is a water lily that comes from Northern Africa and parts of Asia. There is research that shows it can help with Alzheimer’s and migraine headaches. Careful though, because there are reports that show it has a Viagra effect as well. It is said to cause euphoric feelings and relieve pain. It is, overall, known as a blood flowing stimu-lant. You can make a tea out of it, smoke it, or soak it in a high-grade alcohol for a few days. Depending on how you use it will determine the effect. She recommends letting it soak for about 20-30 minutes to make a tea, and then give it a try.

PureselBy: Tiffany Janay

My concern with using sacred plant life from other countries is taking away from their land to meet the mass demand. How do the indigenous people feel about the extraction of the precious pieces of their land?

Puresel says that they try to do things as sustainable as possible and are looking to connect with people who are already farming and selling the plants. They find someone who is interested in working with them and are already doing it to support their culture. For example, with kava kava, Marleen feels there is more supply than there is demand, so she believes they are supporting the culture by purchasing it from them and paying the fairest prices they can. They are not looking to take advantage of anybody.

Take your journey down the natural path a bit further and give some other plant life a try.

By: Antoinette DuenasI’m sure most women out there would agree that if given the opportunity, we would gladly accept the power to snap our fingers and have the perfect one-of-a-kind outfit appear right before our eyes. Lucky for us, unlike most major department stores, Thread has a great selection of apparel and accessories without the huge price tag. And with America being in such an economic rut, we need to start weaning ourselves off the corporate chain stores and products and start supporting more local businesses like Thread, which recycle a much larger share of their revenue back into the local community.

I got in touch with the owner Christina Gomez for an online interview to learn more about the inspiration and fashion behind Thread.

Did you grow up in San Diego? I grew up between San Diego and LA. I was born in LA and moved back and forth as a child, but I have been in San Diego since I was 12. I love LA, but I definitely con-sider San Diego my home. I think living in both cities helped shape my sense of style though; I feel like it’s a good mix of both cities.

What were you doing before Thread?Before opening Thread, I was in banking for 5 years. It was my first real job right after graduating from USD. I was a business banker, and then I did home loans. It was a good experience, but it was never really for me. I knew that wasn’t what I wanted as a long-term career. Did you have any prior experience in the fashion industry?No. Only vicariously…obsessing over Vogue and watching shows like Project Runway. I had a little retail experience briefly working at Nordstrom while I was in college.

When did Thread open its doors, and what inspired you to start up a women’s bou-tique?My grand opening was August 14, 2011. I had a DJ and a fashion show; it was a blast. I have always been into fashion and been a bit of a shopaholic. Friends often asked for my fashion advice and wanted me to accompany them shopping to help them select outfits. It was always a dream of mine to own a boutique, but I never thought I’d make it a reality. When I grew unsatisfied with my prior job, because I just didn’t have a passion for it anymore, I started doing some research and realized that I could make it happen.

How would you describe your boutique?Thread is a clean, open space filled with carefully selected trendy pieces. It looks like a cool little warehouse because it has exposed piping like a lot of downtown places do. It’s also very quaint and homey. I have an antique coffee table and a red couch in the center, so people can relax while whoever they’re accompanying tries on everything in the store.

What separates you from other boutiques or clothing businesses?I think a lot of people have an impression of boutiques as being too expensive, and some definitely are. I try to pro-vide trendy, quality clothing at great prices. There are prob-ably a couple of things here that you can find somewhere else, as the designers I carry aren’t exclusive to me. But for

the most part, the styles I carry are not things you can find at other stores or boutiques. I select everything myself. It’s my own taste and sense of style brought exclusively to my customers, so they won’t be caught at the bar in the same dress as someone else.

What kinds of clothing do you sell?I sell trendy clothes and accessories, from party dresses to slouchy sweaters, sheer blouses, bandage minis, cropped jackets, double finger rings, clutches, scarves and basic tees.

Who or what are some of your inspira-tions when it comes to your business or fashion? I think Rachel Zoe is amazing. She started her career in styling and now has her own clothing line as well. She has great style, but she’s also a very savvy busi-nesswoman.

What do you enjoy most about your job?My favorite part is buying for the store. I love that I get to shop all the time. I also really enjoy styling. It’s so much fun when girls ask me to help them pick out a Vegas dress, something for their bachelorette party, a first date, etc.

What are some dislikes? Were there any obstacles for you when you started up the business?My dislikes are the tedious things like inventory and cleaning. It’s also very stressful when you’re the boss and there’s no one to hold your hand and tell you how to do things. You make mistakes and learn as you go. I had lots of obstacles when I was starting out. Figuring out financing was difficult. With my banking experience, I was very aware that it’s tough to get business financing, especially as a start-up. Finding a location was also difficult.

Why do you feel supporting local busi-nesses is important?Supporting local businesses is good for the economy, especially the local economy. We generate significant tax income, which helps the local community. Small businesses also create variety and diversity for con-sumers.

What do you want customers to take away from Thread?I want them to know that they can always come here and find that special outfit they’re looking for. I also want them to feel like this is their friend’s shop. I like getting to know my customers and helping them find what they’re looking for.

Thread is what women need now, so stop wasting your time at those department stores and start shop-ping local. It’s the smart way to dress!

658 9th Ave San Diego, CA 92101(619) 231-1947Open Mon-Sun 10am-8pmwww.threadsd.comCheck out updated styles on Facebook!

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Grace Slick, legendary ‘60s rock icon turned artist, will unveil her 420 Collection at downtown’s Alexander Salazar Fine Art Gallery, from Dec. 1st through Jan. 31st. The newest series of paintings raise awareness about the benefits of medicinal marijuana through colorful, thought-provoking pieces; often featuring Wonderland’s famed White Rabbit.

Once a Woodstock performer, Slick is no stranger to the controversies of drugs, free-dom, and rock ‘n’ roll. Outspoken and often blunt, Slick speaks with NUG Magazine about her personal struggle with drug use, the politics of the drug war, her fascination with Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and how the book has influenced her life, mu-sic, and art.

“Somebody read Alice in Wonderland to me when I was about four, and it has resonated with me since,” Slick said. “The rabbit has been a constant in my life. I was born in the year of the rabbit…I went down the rabbit hole, metaphorically, in the ‘60s. A ceramic rabbit was the only thing to survive when my house burned down years ago, so I go with it.” Aside from feeling like the White Rabbit–Alice in Wonderland theme has surrounded her life, Slick genuinely loves the story’s message.

“There is no prince charming. Alice does it herself,” Slick said. “In most stories, there is always some prince chasing the woman around, but that is not the way it goes. Many women think they’ve met ‘Prince Charming’, so they get married and have a bunch of kids, and then oh shit, he wants a younger woman. He leaves and she is left with kids and no skills. You have to get yourself together first before you do all of that. Women need something to fall back on that makes you your own person. Alice becoming her own person first is a really good idea, and it is a story that ought to be read to all [young] women.”

Slick also likes that Alice in Wonderland, more than any other children’s story, features the use of drugs and ponders whether parents think about the things they read to their children. “Drug taking happens in a lot of children’s books and that is why I wrote ‘White Rabbit’,” she said. “In Peter Pan, you sprinkle some dust on your head and suddenly have a great adventure. You fall down in a field of opium poppies in the Wizard of Oz and off you go on another journey. What I got from Alice and all of these other things when I was little was that chemicals would give you some kind of interesting adventure.”

The War on DrugsSlick’s musical career, which spanned three decades, was her first avenue of artistic ex-pression. With her powerful and supple contralto voice, Slick helped to propel Jefferson Airplane into rock history with musical hits like “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit” – a song that reflected on society’s relationship with pharmaceutical drug use.

Her personal drug battle began at an early age, long before she was a rock star. Al-though her parents were the typical ‘50s couple, where dad was the breadwinner and mom stayed home, they were lenient with Slick and allowed her to indulge her curiosity. She drank for the first time at 15 years old and smoked cigarettes as a teenager. Later in life, her parents would ask her, “Why do you take those chemicals?” Slick considered the question hypocritical. “They were sitting there with a glass of scotch, come on! That is one of the hardest drugs known to man. Alcohol is a drug,” she said.

Of all the drugs Slick has tried in her life, which include marijuana, acid, and her personal favorite, Quaaludes, it is with alcohol that she has had the most problems. “I come from a long line of alcoholics. Everyone in my family was practically one,” Slick said. “They were all functioning alcoholics though; no one lost their jobs or families because of it, or anything like that, and they were all actually very funny. I am the only one who would turn into a shit.”

Although sober now for 14 years and for the majority of the ‘80s, Slick described herself as a periodic alcoholic. “When I drank, I would get shit faced. I could drink for 24 hours straight, but it was never an everyday thing,” she said. “I would get very stubborn and mouth off to cops too.” While never arrested for drunk driving, she was arrested four times for drinking-related incidents. “I was sitting under a tree once, reading a book, hav-ing lunch, and drinking a bottle of wine. A cop came by and said, ‘What are you doing?’ and I replied, ‘What does it look like I am doing?’ ‘You can’t drink on public property,’ he scolded me, and I went into one of my tirades about everything being public. From there, it just escalated, and I was off to jail. Many women are scared about going to jail, but it is no big deal. I just go to sleep. With the band, at least one of us was routinely going to jail.”

Of her sobriety, Slick says she feels free and in control. “Some unfortunate side effects are that I can be a real asshole, and I speed a lot while driving,” she said. “I have had good lovers and husbands, and lots of good times in my life, but now there is nothing driving me to drink, nothing I want to forget. Besides, getting drunk now would be suicidal. The older you get, the less your body likes of anything, and I just couldn’t handle the amount I like to drink.”

“I don’t mind being sober, but I didn’t mind being drunk,” she added with a laugh, quickly switching to a serious tone. “Alcohol is a very powerful drug. So are nicotine and caffeine, and today the biggest problem is pharmaceuticals. There are a bunch of drugs, and at the end of the day, the least harmful is marijuana.”

“When I was a kid, you were not supposed to smoke or drink, but that is what we did anyway. The more you tell someone not to do it, the more they want to,” Slick said. “Nancy Regan in the ‘80s with her ‘Just Say No’ campaign was all a bunch of bullshit! When people do not read history, they are bound to repeat it and make errors in judgment. Marijuana, unlike alcohol, is a natural.”

San Diego Art Gallery Embraces Grace Slick’s 420 Collection By Esther Rubio-Sheffrey

Her other issue with how marijuana is looked down upon is that it is con-stantly referred to as a gateway drug. “Everything is a gateway drug,” Slick said as she laughed. “You do not necessarily start with marijuana. More than likely, you start with alcohol, and once you discover chemicals take you places, anything is a gateway. Marijuana is no more a gateway drug than everything else is. We should be more concerned about which drugs we will regulate than which ones will act as a gateway, and which ones to keep away from kids, because they are going to come across them anyway.”

She considers the war on drugs to be misguided and feels the best ap-proach is education. “It all depends on the family, but my philosophy is if you want to be an alcoholic by the time you are 12, fine, just do not get into a car and drag anyone down with you. But take drugs or not, I am going to tell you about what drugs will do to you,” she said. “Before the band took acid, we met a young, beautiful, and nerdy chemist who worked for Shell. He gave us books to read, had us look at drawings to prepare us for what we might see, and we really learned about the drug. No one taught me about alcohol and they should have. I do not know if it would have helped, but it would have been a good idea.”

Slick respects marijuana, both for its medicinal and recreational use, but it was not a drug that she enjoyed. “Everyone handles drugs differently. For some people, certain drugs work really well and others do not,” she said. “Quaaludes really worked on me. I do not know why, but it was pleasant. I did not want to drive. I did not want to yell at cops. It was as if I had found peace. At the end of the day, that is what people are looking for with drugs, a form of peace.”

The idea of peace reminds Slick of an Indian guru she once knew and the first experience he had with acid. “He was very quiet through it all, and afterward he said, ‘You can visit, but you can not stay,’” she recalled. “Noth-ing has ever been truer. You have to work at it spiritually to eventually find peace.”

The 420 Collection & Other WorksSlick stopped singing in the mid-‘80s and chose to express her voice through paintings rather than music, although she feels drawn to all means of artistic expression. “I can do and probably would love doing any of the arts with the exception of dancing because I am a klutz,” she said. She admits, however, that her reason for paint-ing might have sprung out of her admiration for animators. “I have always loved animation; it is very simple, it is in your face and very colorful. That is what I did with music, and that is what I am doing with painting.”

Her weapon of choice when painting is acrylic paint, which she applies onto her canvasses with a variety of different brushes. “I am 72. I don’t have time to spend dicking around waiting for paint to dry,” Slick said. “I create a lot of stuff. They are fairly simple pieces, so I work fast.” At first, she used to work on one piece at a time, but nowa-days, she works on roughly four pieces at once. Some pieces take 30 minutes; others can take up to two weeks. Slick’s workspace is tidy, and because of her musical ear, she works in complete si-lence to avoid distractions.

“I am lucky enough to work for myself,” Slick said. “It is a busi-ness though,

so half of my art I create at the suggestion of my manager and paint what sells; and the other pieces I create for my own pleasure.” One of the pieces that Slick refers to is one of “screwy ideas”; it is the “Witness Relocation” piece that will also be on display. “It is somber,” she said. “I got the idea from watching crime shows and started thinking about how lonely the life of a witness, who is uprooted and relocated, must be.”

An example of a suggested piece is the “Pot Luck” painting in her 420 Collection. It is an iconic image recognizable to most; but instead of the dull-looking farm couple holding a pitchfork in front of their farm, Slick painted two white rabbits dressed as farmers. She left the pitchfork, but gave them each a joint.

The White Rabbit is a constant in many of the 420 Collection pieces. One of Slick’s favorites is “Your Choice.” It features a rabbit in a sling with two medical options – Vicodin or marijuana. The drug side effects are listed below each option. “I am not saying all pharmaceuticals are bad, but you want to start with something that has the least negative side effects, and mari-juana is that choice,” Slick said. “Everyone has seen those commercials featuring the miracle drug and happy people while the narrator calmly goes through an insane list of side effects. It’s nuts!”

“A majority of people either have or currently use marijuana for fun,” Slick added. “Everybody knows that; it is no secret. Comedians like Bill Mahr and Jon Stewart joke about it, and the truth is that nobody really cares, but politicians like to scare people. History will be amused by the ineffectiveness of the war on drugs. It is just not possible. [Authorities] are just dancing around the edges; they will never get to the core of it.” Through her art and the magical powers of the White Rabbit, Slick hopes to encourage people

to indulge and pursue in their own curi- osities. “There is always the possibility that you will go too far with something, but get out and

explore things. Life is short; my life has gone by like a lighten-ing bolt. When you have a body that can take it, travel,

see what you want to see, and do things you want to do. Why would you stay home and protect your-

self? That is stupid. When you get to be old, it is not what you did that you regret, but what

you did not do.” Meet Grace SlickIn addition to the 420 Collection, the Alexander

Salazar Fine Art exhibit will feature a large selection of

Slick’s most recent surrealist paintings, and it will dig deep

into her archives to display some of her best-known work. To

preview Slick’s art, or learn more about the artist, visit www.limelighta-

gency.com.

Gallery Exhibition: Dec. 1 – Jan. 31 Alexander Salazar Fine Art1040 7th Ave, San Diego, CA619-531-8996 [email protected]

Written by Canna Chef Kim ~ The REAL Mother Earth Co-op ♥ Proudly serving San Diego MMJ patients since 2005

Long before Christmas, people celebrated the winter sol-stice. First nation people, Native Americans, and a greater part of the world felt that these celebrations made the sun god happy and hurried the coming of spring. Celebrations were held on the eve of the shortest day of the year, usu-ally the 21st of December. A big log, called the Yule Log, was burned in a huge bonfire. Everyone danced and sang around the warmth of the fire. Families hung mistletoe from the doorways of their homes for good luck. Some people decorated their homes with evergreens. Eventually, many of the winter solstice traditions were made a part of the Christmas traditions as more people became Christians. The winter solstice is still celebrated, however, by many cultures around the world and is also a part of the Wicca religion.

Assortments of studies have been performed on the effects of the holiday season, which encompasses quite a few feast days, sometimes challenging our health. A majority of these studies have concluded that the health changes that occur during the holiday season are not reversed during the rest of the year and have a long-term cumulative effect over a person’s life, and that the risks of several medical problems increase during the Christmas and holiday season. With that said, we need to keep on top of our health and watch for any warning signs that may trigger or implicate that there is a potential health concern. Keep a healthy low stress lifestyle and practice random acts of kindness now, more than ever, during the holiday season. Be kind to yourself and to others on a daily basis. Life is too short to be a hater and we all have experienced how sad it is when we see people who are miserable and try to spread it to others. The best counterattack is to continue to be kind, keep the haters in your daily offering, pray that they may like themselves, and at least try to make the world a better place to live!

This month we have a few new therapeutic recipes for your favorite patient with, of course, our medicinal twist! Some of the following recipes are new experimental ones with some taken from the real Mother Earth Co-op’s “Special Medici-nal Recipes – A Medical Cannabis Cookbook.” Canna Chef Kim © 2008 Cookbook available at finer co-ops, collectives, and physician offices, or online at www.motherearthcoop.com/products

PUFF & PASS STARTERS(Appetizers)

1 cup water 1 cup all-purpose flour1/2 cup cannabutter* 4 eggs 1/2 teaspoon salt

FILLING:1 (8-ounce) cream cheese (softened) 2 tablespoons fresh chives1/4 cup mayonnaise 4 cloves of garlic (chopped)6 ounces crabmeat 1 teaspoon Worcestershire1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese 1/4 teaspoon pepper

In a small saucepan, bring water, cannabutter and salt to a boil. Add flour all at once and stir until a smooth ball forms. Remove from the heat; let stand for 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Continue beat-ing until mixture is smooth and shiny. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls, 2 inches apart, onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350° F for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks. Immediately cut a slit in puffs to allow steam to escape. When cool, split puffs open; remove tops and set aside. Discard soft dough from inside. In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and mayonnaise until smooth. Stir in remaining filling ingredients. Just before serving, spoon filling into puffs; replace tops.

ELECTRIC HOLIDAY SPECIAL SALAD(Salads)

5 tablespoons cranberry vinaigrette salad dressing 1/4 teaspoon of kief*5 cups mixed salad greens with spinach 1/2 cup of pistachios3/4 cup sweetened dried cranberries 1 avocado (peeled, pitted and diced)3/4 cup glazed walnuts 1/2 red onion (thinly sliced in rings) 1 (15-ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained 3/4 cup crumbled blue cheese

Mix kief in salad dressing and shake well until all of the kief is well-blended in salad dressing. Allow dressing to stand with kief in fridge for about an hour or more before adding to salad. Place the salad greens into a salad bowl and sprinkle with dried cranberries, walnuts, mandarin orange sections, onions, blue cheese, and avocado chunks. Drizzle the salad with the dressing, toss, and serve.

CURRIED GIFITI SQUASH & PEAR SOUP (Soups) 1 butternut squash (about 2 3/4 pounds) 1/4 teaspoon of kief*2 tablespoons cannabutter* 3 teaspoons curry powder2 cups chopped Bartlett pear (1 pound) 1/4 teaspoon salt1 1/2 cups thinly sliced onion 1/8 teaspoon black pepper1 cup water 1/2 cup half-and-half1 cup pear nectar 1 small Bartlett pear (thinly sliced)3 cups vegetable broth

Preheat oven to 375°F. Cut squash in half, lengthwise; discard seeds and membrane. Place squash halves, cut sides down, on a baking sheet; bake at 375°F for 45 minutes or until tender. Cool. Peel squash; mash pulp. Set aside 3 1/2 cups pulp, reserving remaining squash for another use. Melt cannabutter in a large Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add chopped pear and onion; sauté for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Add squash pulp, water, pear juice or nectar, broth, kief, curry, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; partially cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 40 minutes. Place 1/3 of squash mixture in a blender; process until smooth. Pour puréed mixture into a large bowl; repeat procedure with remain-ing squash mixture. Return squash mixture to pan; stir in half-and-half. Cook over low heat for about 3 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with pear slices. Serves 8 medicinal servings: 1 1/4 cups each.

Note: “Gifiti” is a new word I learned about after scuba diving in Central America with some new friends last week. It’s a local drink on Utila that is rum soaked in “special island herbs”.

WILD FUN & BERRY NUTS RICE (Vegetables)

1 onion (quartered) 5 teaspoons shallots (finely chopped)1 carrot (quartered) 3 tablespoons dried cranberries1 stalk of celery (quartered) 2 apples (chopped small or diced)1 cup wild rice 3 tablespoons walnuts (chopped)3 tablespoons canna olive oil* 2 teaspoons parsley (finely chopped)1 teaspoon red wine vinegar 4 teaspoons scallions (finely chopped)salt and freshly ground black pepper

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Cannabis Cooking withCANNA CHEF KIM

WILD FUN & BERRY NUTS RICE Cont.Wash the rice in a colander under cool running water until well-rinsed. Place rice, onion, carrot and celery in a large saucepan with canna oil; cover with cold water. Season with salt and pepper. Bring water to a boil and immediately reduce heat; simmer until the rice is tender and fluffy: 45–60 minutes. Drain rice and remove the onion, carrot, and celery pieces. Combine the rice in a bowl with all the remaining ingredients and re-season. Serve hot or warm. Makes 4 to 6 curative servings.

BRAISED PANAMA RED CABBAGE(Vegetable)

1 large head red cabbage 2 teaspoons rendered goose or duck fat1 cup red wine 1 medium onion (sliced)2 teaspoons red wine vinegar 2 Granny Smith apples (cored & diced)1 bay leaf 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt 1/4 teaspoon of kief* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper1 teaspoon red gooseberry or currant jam

Remove and discard any damaged cabbage leaves. Core and quarter cabbage, then cut into 1/4-inch shreds. Combine wine, vinegar, kief and bay leaf in a bowl. Wisk for a few minutes until totally blended. Heat goose or duck fat in a large, deep casserole over me-dium heat. Stir in onion and sauté until lightly browned, 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cabbage, apples, and wine-vinegar mixture and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook slowly for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. TOTALLY BAKED SILLY GOOSE (Poultry)

6 to 8 lb goose 2 Granny Smith apples (cored & diced)3 celery stocks (chopped) 2 yellow onions (chopped or diced)4 garlic cloves (finely chopped) 2 sprigs of rosemary2 tablespoons cannabis 3 teaspoons shallots (finely chopped)4 tablespoons cannabutter* 1 cup of white wine1/4 teaspoon sea salt 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Wash goose completely inside and out. Slice apples, celery, garlic, cannabis and onions and mix well together. Place inside the washed and dried goose’s empty body cavity to remove any strong flavor left in it. The apples and vegetables will bring an aromatic and pleasant flavor experience to the meal.

Preheat oven at 350°F. Season goose with cannabutter, sea salt and pepper and rub it in lightly all over. Place on an oven cooking pan. Baste the goose often with a mixture of cannabutter and a white wine or keep heated on the stovetop. The roasting time required will depend on the size of the bird, about 20 minutes per pound. Roast the goose for at least 1 ½ – 2 hours at 350°F.

Note: The goose is done when both legs can be moved back and forth very easily. Wild geese have less fat than domestically raised birds and will not be so messy in the oven. For farm raised geese, cover lightly with some aluminum foil to keep the grease spatters down.

SILLY GOOSE IN A BAG

Alternatively, a goose can be cooked in a cooking bag with your favorite seasonings or the recipe above. At 350°F, a cooking-bag goose will take about 2 hours. A 6 lb. goose will feed 4 – 6 people, and an 8-lb. goose will feed 6 – 8 people.

TOKAHONTAS INDIAN PUDDING (Desserts)

6 cups of milk 3 eggs (beaten)1/2 cup cannabutter* 1/3 cup brown sugar1/2 cup yellow cornmeal 1 teaspoon of cinnamon1/4 cup flour 1 teaspoon of nutmeg1 teaspoon salt 1 cup golden raisins 1/2 cup molasses whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

Scald the milk and cannabutter in a large double boiler, or heat the milk and cannabutter for 5 or 6 minutes on the stove on high heat until it is almost boiling. Turn heat down to medium. Preheat oven to 250°F. In a separate bowl, mix cornmeal, flour, and salt; stir in molasses. Thin the mixture with about a 1/2 cup of scalded milk, a few tablespoons at a time, and then gradually add the mixture back to the large pot of scalded milk. Cook, stirring until pudding starts to thicken. Temper the eggs by slowly adding a half cup of the

hot milk-cornmeal mixture to the beaten eggs, whisking constantly. Add the egg mixture back in with the hot milk-cornmeal mixture; stir to combine. Stir in the brown sugar and spices until smooth. If the mixture is clumpy, run it through a blender to smoothen it out. Stir in the raisins. Pour into a 2 1/2 quart shallow casserole dish. Bake for 2 hours at 250°F. Allow the pudding to cool for about an hour to be at its best. It should be reheated to warm temperature if it has been chilled. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Makes 8 to 10 medicinal servings.

Note: This medicinal dessert is great for the patient who has difficulty with appetite, as this will make them want to eat it all up! Try a dollop of ice cream or whipped cream to top it off.

“KIEF” is an age old way of extracting trichomes from plant material. Kief is the product derived from the kiefing process. Kiefing is a method in which you rub dry trim, buds and small leaves with crystals on them over a silk screen. The THC glands will form a powder that comes through the screen, which can then be used for cooking or for smoking. It is usually a pale green to light brown dependant on the strain of cannabis. Kief powder that is pressed together is called hash.

Note: Kief boxes are sold at some smoke shops and are easier to work with than silk screens. In a kief box, the screen is above the collection drawer allowing the THC glands to pass through the screen and into the drawer. This makes it easy and compact for the average user to collect the kief and use for smoking or for cooking.

*Cannaoil is any high quality food grade oil such as coconut oil, hempseed oil, olive oil, or canola oil that has been infused with high-grade medical cannabis. *Cannabutter is dairy butter that has been infused with high-grade medical cannabis.

The recipes for cannaoil and cannabutter can be found in the first copy of NUG Maga-zine or online at www.MotherEarthCoop.com

Wishing you a hempy journey to a healthier you! Please remember to continue the 2011 challenge of being kind to each other & practice random acts of kindness each and every day!!!

Peace, Love & Gratitude, Kim


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By: SD OG Grower

If you’re living in CA, or especially SD, then you are aware that the nutritional value of our produce and foods is more important than ever! Farmers of all crops are feeling the hard times of the economy with the inventory of produce they are having trouble getting rid of. But not all farmers and growers are having these problems. The old school, passionate, knowl-edgeable growers are still doing just fine. Their market is thriving because they produce a product that is unique, of the highest nutrition levels, best fragrances and aromas, etc.; basil plants glistening with oil glands, and strawberry plants and other berries so sweet that they taste like sugar. Not all produce is the same, and that’s why you may pay more at a whole foods market; it tastes a lot better and is a lot healthier for you. It doesn’t matter if you’re growing lettuce, berries, tomatoes, peppers, or any kind of flower or produce; people want the highest quality and will pay more for it! You get what you pay for in life, especially with the produce and food, or nutrition, we put in our bodies.

One of my last articles was “How to be a Top Shelf Grower” and a lot of it focused more on the environment and building of the room itself. However, the nutrition we feed our plants is equally as important as the environment and room. The nutrition we put in our bodies and the foods we eat makes a world of difference in how we feel and perform. I also wrote articles on using fresh organic microbial teas to inoculate your medium and plants with the proper microbial life and enzymes to create a living, healthy, thriving eco-system in the root zone. My good friend Scott learned most, if not all, of what he knows from his partner Mike who runs the commercial division of IGS, which focuses on small scale greenhouses and operating their own 100’ greenhouse that they use for research and development for all types of nutrients, microbial beneficials and additives. IGS also runs a commercial greenhouse for produce that they often have for sale at their store in Pacific Beach. Because IGS’s greenhouse focuses a lot on research and development, companies often have them test and run products for whatever crops are growing at the time. Often, they hook me up with a custom batch of nutrients or teas to run and test for them, and I’ve got to say that whatever they’re brewing up and doing is working with AMAZING RESULTS! Besides just having great products, and a great grow room and environment, you still need to be educated and know and understand your plants, how they work, what they like, and what does what. There are so many different nutrient lines out there, but most of them are the EXACT same. If you read the back label,

you’ll notice that most of them are derived from the same ingredients. But if we’re consuming the produce we’re growing, wouldn’t it make sense to understand the qual-ity of ingredients in our nutrients? Be educated enough to know what is good and healthy for our plants, and on the other side, which additives out there are toxic and carcinogenic; as in yes, they can cause cancer! Many pesticides out there are not for use on EDIBLE crops, or crops for human consumption, but your local shop prob-ably didn’t mention that to you. They probably just told you to spray this and your bugs will go away. And they forgot to mention that it could also cause cancer in hu-mans if ingested in any way!

The main problem with the foods we eat today and the produce being sold and consumed is that, for the most part, they are not of the highest nutritional value, not even close. The strawberries, lettuce, and all of the other produce I have tried from IGS’s farm has been the sweetest, tastiest, most nutritional and healthiest produce I have ever eaten! But why? –Because of the knowledge, education, and understanding of the plants that Mike has and uses to run the greenhouse. It’s be-cause of his knowledge from growing without soil for over 30 years, learning how to create a healthier and more nutritional product. Scott has taught basic introduc-tion growing classes and had great turn outs, and now IGS is starting a learning/teaching institute in 2012! Mike

will be teaching the classes with some of the indus-try’s leading representatives, who are ALL VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE, TOP SHELF HORTICUL-TURALISTS!

I advise EVERYONE TO GO TO IGShydro.com and look for the Pre-Enrollment for a FREE in-

troductory course link and register as soon as possible! They will be giving

courses on all aspects of growing, teaching spe-

cial growing tips and techniques to customers, educating them about the proper way to grow plants, and sharing the overall understanding of plants that leads you to be-coming a top shelf grower. The growers I know, including myself, who have been running some of their new prod-ucts (not available yet), have all reported better weights and the best produce they have ever seen: healthier plants with much larger, healthier root structures, tighter internodal spacing, and just better harvests and plants overall. If you want to take your garden to the next level and be a part of the ELITE GROWERS, then you need to check out IGShydro.com and sign up for the Pre-En-rollment Introduction Growers Course; it’s FREE! What other company cares enough to create an actual learning center, or teaching institute, to make sure that growers understand, keep learning, and get the most and best out of their garden?

Education and knowledge is the most important recipe for success in ANYTHING you do in life. And I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about when I say that normal, average fruit or produce available in MOST stores, clubs or markets is not of the greatest quality, nutritional value, or taste! Just like our bodies, we are what we eat. Mean-ing, if all you eat is junk food and fast food, then that is bad for you; it has little, if NO, real nutritional value. It is doing nothing but clogging up your system and pollut-ing it with poisons! The same goes for plants; they will taste like what they were fed: the nutrients and quality of the water they were given. By understanding a plant’s needs through nature and Natural Plant Science, we can grow the healthiest, most nutritional, and sweetest tast-ing fruits and vegetables. It’s possible; it’s the way nature intended it to taste.

Green Candy Press Releases A

Six-Volume Strain Resource Guide

By R.J. Villa

Cannabis Indica: The Essential Guide to the World’s Fin-est Marijuana Strains, Volume I

Our friends at Green Candy Press have recently released Cannabis Indica: The Essential Guide to the World’s Finest Marijuana Strains, Volume I, their first book in a series of six that sets a new standard for cannabis strain guides. As you turn through its pages, you will find a great guide featuring genetics from over 100 different seed breeders and strains from various countries, such as Afghanistan, Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, India, Paki-stan, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, and all throughout the United States. Each book in the series looks to highlight 100 breeders and 100 strains.

Such an extensive strain guide shows us how much the seed industry has evolved over the last couple of years. A lot of your favorite seed companies can be found in this book, but it also opens your eyes to some of the new up-and-comers starting to make a name for themselves with high quality genet-ics. The works of well respected companies, like DJ Short, High Bred Seeds, Holy Smoke Seeds, Paradise Seeds, Sagarmatha, Serious Seeds, and even Subcool and TGA get their props, as well as our local San Diegan companies, OtherSide Farms and Riot Seeds.

“I think it is difficult to pick any one country, as each one has a thriving and in-teresting cannabis community doing fantastic work,” explained S.T. Oner, editor of Cannabis Indica. “From a North American perspective, it can seem as if the USA and Canada have the most forward thinking breeders in the world, and we are treated to some real talent over here. But once you start scratching the sur-face of the worldwide scene, you will be amazed at what is going on globally.”

“Europe is a veritable hotbed of activity at the moment and it is not just limited to the Netherlands and Spain anymore; France, Germany, Switzerland and the UK are all getting in on the act and producing some amazing strains. I really love the Mazar-I-Sharif from Ukraine’s Bomba Seeds that is featured in the book, and the story behind it is so interesting. A soldier brought it back from Afghanistan after he was done fighting there. He was a pacifist forced into the army, and bringing the plant back was his way of honoring the local breeders and growers that he had connected with.”

“But beyond Europe too, there is some fantastic work being done with the cli-mate in places like South Africa and Australia, giving rise to plants that we just could not grow in North America. Russia also has a surprisingly great scene. My favorite breeder there, Original Seeds, is so passionate about landrace strains that it is hard not to be impressed. It was particularly nice for me to be able to include a Danish company, Zenseeds, as when I went over there, I was blown away by the quality of genetics and the skill of their breeders and growers.”

Oner is a highly successful grower, chef, and author of the best-selling can-nabis books Marjuana Chef Cookbook and Marijuana Outdoor Grower’s Guide. This resource guide, six-part series takes an in-depth look at an unprecedented number of new and established cannabis pioneers and the plants they are fa-mous for. Their list of 100 breeders and 100 strains compiles more than all previous strain guides combined. The information found within the pages of this book is invaluable to connoisseurs, enthusiasts, growers, patients and ven-dors alike. This is a perfect resource guide for those looking to identify specific strains, helping them zero in on the best cannabis to treat their particular medi-cal condition.

“Because of the legal aspects of growing in Europe, they tend to have freer access to good genetics; but that doesn’t necessarily mean that their genet-ics are superior,” Oner said. “Some of the best genetics I have found come from extremely small-scale breeders and growers who live in countries where the penalties for cultivation are extremely harsh. This book is really about the worldwide culture of marijuana strain breeding and the benefits to be had from looking further than your own front door for seeds and clones as well as bud. I am really into the work being done in California and Australia at the moment, and they are two places to watch when it comes to breeding.”

Oner’s research for Cannabis Indica did bring him into contact with breeders from all across the globe, but he is well aware of our own domestic efforts in breeding superior and designer strains. He did have some kind words for active

CLOCKWORK ORANGEBY RIOT SEEDS

seed companies in California, even mentioning a few of our local efforts here in San Diego with Riot Seeds and OtherSide Farms.

“I love the scene in California, especially the San Diego area where I cannot get over the wide variety of high quality genetics available. One of my fa-vorites in the area is the fantastic Clockwork Orange by Riot Seeds (pages 50-51). That strain is amazing and people should definitely check out the work being done by those guys. Really cool stuff.”

“OtherSide Farms also has great stuff in your area, like their Olivia Kush (pages 144-145). These are breeders and growers to watch out for, espe-cially for cannabis enthusiasts and medical patients in the San Diego area where NUG Magazine is based. You have a great scene there.”

The introduction at the beginning of the book was written by Greg Green, best-selling author of The Cannabis Grow Bible and The Cannabis Breed-er’s Bible. The introduction goes on to give us a crash course on the break-down of what an indica truly is. It explains its differences from sativa, both in effects and growing characteristics, something us patients are becoming more familiar with. It grazes the subject of growing differences between strains and the effects that ruderalis has had, as it is starting to be bred into the stronger and more potent strains.

Green identifies indica’s genetic history and how most indica genetics are rooted in Afghani or Kush origins. The plants’ resilience, reliable genetics, and impressive results mirror that of the will and energy of the people of Afghanistan. From one of the most battled for and war torn regions of the globe, comes the killer herb we look for in its potency, couch lock, and body relaxing properties.

“The genetics harvested from Afghanistan are some of the best indicas out there,” Oner commented, on Green’s introduction. “When I talk about the heyday of the scene in Afghani-stan, I am obviously referring to the ‘60s and ‘70s. Before things got so crazy over there, they had a very interesting and knowledgeable scene and a lot of talented breeders. I am a strong supporter of landrace plants and I think we should give massive respect to local growers in that area who have maintained these plants for centuries. I do not think that a bunch of Westerners should go over to steal their genetics, obviously. More so, we should embrace growers in that region and have a healthy exchange of work and passion for the plant to promote a more global cannabis culture.”

That is exactly what Green Candy Press is doing with their six-volume strain guide, helping promote a global cannabis culture that continues to grow. Their attempts to document these strains and their breeders have revealed that the talent among the industry continues to evolve today. This is no advertising book, every strain and breeder is documented by the merit of their work and product. This book gives them the appropriate platform to showcase what they are capable of in the world of cannabis. Even at 100 strains and 100 breeders, Oner still felt inclined to give some honorable mentions to those that did not make the cut for Volume I.

“Honestly, I could have had 200 different strains in this book, but I wanted to keep it down to 100,” admitted Oner. “It was difficult to cut some breeders and strains, but it turned out to be necessary and it is by no means a reflection of the strain or breeder’s merit. I am a real fan of Eddie Funxta’s work and I would have loved to get his strain ‘Funxta’s Get Rite’ in the book. It was a bummer, but Eddie was totally cool about it and he is going to be featured in my next book. I am planning on doing six volumes of this strain guide and he is definitely in volumes 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. I want people to look at these books in 20 years and get an accurate picture

of all of the incredible genetics available in our lifetimes, like the definitive encyclopedia of strains, you know? The Encyclopedia Pottanica. –Haha!”

Cannabis Indica: The Essential Guide to the World’s Finest Marijuana Strains, Vol-ume I is the first in a series of six. The next in the series, Cannabis Sativa: The

Essential Guide to the World’s Finest Marijuana Strains, Volume I, will be out in May 2012. Oner is currently working on it as we speak, diving into the

interesting histories of how these various strains have been acquired.

“I am a huge sativa fan and so many sativa strains have interesting histories, with some like the Chems being totally shrouded in folk-

lore,” says Oner. “I am currently talking to breeders and gath-ering the content, so it is an exciting time for me and I learn something new everyday. To do these books is really a dream come true for me.”

To NUG Magazine and our readers, Oner had some final words for us.

“I really love the scene in San Diego and I always have a blast when I visit,” revealed Oner. “OtherSide Farms and Riot Seeds are great breeders and growers in the area, and I would love to see more San Diegans support these guys in their work…because they have really cool genetics. I would always encourage smokers, growers and breeders to remember why

they love this plant and to give back to their local scene when they can. I hope your readers enjoy my books and I would love to hear from more growers and breeders down there. I would also love to hear whether ‘San Diego’ re-

ally does mean ‘A whale’s vagina,’ or not…if they can clear that up for me. Haha! Gotta love Anchorman!

Peace, and thank you San Diego. You have a great scene and you are blessed with some fantastic

genetics there!”

Cannabis Indica: The Essential Guide to the World’s Finest Mari-juana Strains, Volume I is available in all good bookstores and on Ama-zon. Storefronts can get copies from Homestead Book Company and Quick Distribution. For more information, please visit:www.greencandypress.com

<<OLIVIA KUSHBY OTHERSIDE FARMS

33 | NUGMAG.COM<<OLIVIA KUSHBY OTHERSIDE FARMS

This month’s samples are courtesy of the The Halloweed Gathering, an exclusive event that was held just before Halloween, where the cream of the crop was put to the test by San Diego’s finest. Out of 11 total strains, Purple Kush, Tokyo OG, and J-1 came in on top at first, second, and third place, respec-tively. Although our Chronisseur was a judge at the event, he was more than happy to revisit these three prime strains for this month’s edition.

Tokyo OG: (Private Grower)“This bud is so full of trichomes, to the point that the bag it was in looked like a mirror. It is so shiny! A really great looking piece; grown very well. These trichomes actually appear to have a little bit of bud sap…Nice! Smells like a musky OG. It’s very earthy, very pleasing. The hit was also enjoyable because it was not too harsh and still provided quite an expansion. Great flavor, exactly what I would expect from any OG. This is definitely medicine for both body and mind. Kudos to the grower, I really enjoyed this sample.”

J-1: (Connoisseurs Club)“I have to start by saying that I am a huge fan of the J-1. This particular sample has thick orange hairs accented by quite a few trichomes and green leafy goodness. This was clearly grown with care. The aroma is very traditional Jack with a sweet smelling overtone and a piney fragrance. It also smells of lemon and earth. Excellent flavor with a nice head high to follow, and only a slight cough. This strain would be perfect for natural anxiety relief. It offers an uplifting cerebral high. Just a great sample all around. This grower is obviously very experienced.”

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Purple Kush: (Alpine Alternatives) “This beautiful little nugget is on the lime green side of the color scheme with a touch of purple. It is also covered in orange hairs. Breaking it open, I can see trichomes shining all the way to its center. The aroma is more on the floral side, almost like a GDP. I am really looking forward to sampling this one. Very nice; the flavor is also very floral with a Kush undertone. The hit immediately packed a punch followed by a soothing, relaxing high. I would recommend this for relaxation, tension, muscle and joint pain, and overall mental well-being. The grower did an excellent job in all categories: appearance, flavor, fragrance, and effect.”

Not surprisingly, this session with The Chronisseur came with a heavy dose of melancholy. Hopper was beyond bummed as he talked about how he was forced to close his pride and joy, The Green Door Collective. After years of serving San Diegans in legitimate need of medical cannabis, he had no choice but to close shop. Adding salt to an already open wound, in the weeks before closing, three of his long-time patients succumbed to their diseases and are no longer with us. Countless others are in extremely vulnerable states due to sickness and will no longer have safe access to the cannabis that improves their quality of life and allows them to go about their day-to-day routines with some semblance of normalcy without the harsh side effects that are inevitable when taking pharmaceuticals. Another huge bummer is the fact that The Green Door’s annual charity events for The San Diego Food Bank and Toys for Tots will not happen this year. That means thousands of pounds of food will not be delivered to the hungry and hundreds of toys will not be given to less fortunate children. Donations will not be made to the YWCA or to The Alpha Project. Because of the actions of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Depart-ment of Justice, people will go hungry, children will not have gifts to open on Christmas, abused women will receive less aid, and the homeless will have fewer opportunities. Thanks, Duffy. You’re a real class act.

By: Pamela Jayne | Photos by: Phil Calvin for SCR Photo

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By: Aaron EvansIt’s been said that change is the only constant, and I’m constantly reminded of this time-less truth. Our universe is dictated by a ballet of billions of molecules all seeking the path with the least resistance. Yet, no matter how fluid and peaceful a stream may appear to be on the surface, it’s almost guaranteed that below in the depths, each drop’s resolve will be tested by boulders, rocks and fallen branches. Our ability to embrace adaption decides how effortlessly we, as individuals, will dance through life’s playlist. If change is inevitable, then sitting stagnate, idling in place, is an insult to the progression of the universe.

This month, Perpetual Motion has taken on, yet, another meaning, for Perpetual Motion is in essence a synonym for change. I now see that glass is an ideal metaphor for life’s constant twists and turns. Life, like glass, never stops moving and, therefore, never stops changing. True at most times, the change is so finite and methodical that the movement goes unnoticed; but turn up the heat and a frenzy ensues that can either be harnessed as a catalyst to reach new levels of creation, or to incapacitate those unwilling to nurture its raw power and potential.

From the Occupy protests, to the recent federal crackdown on MMJ, to the upcoming calendar year marked by the Mayans as an apocalyptic end of the world as we know it, one thing is for certain; the flame of change is burning bright and the temperature is rising by the minute, and how we respond to the current climate of our world will either usher in a new era of freedom or leave us in ruin.

Fortunately, this month’s featured blower, Chad G, is a windy city glass wizard who flour-ishes and thrives off change. Looking at his art, you could almost say that change is his addiction. He even told me that sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night with a vision for a new piece and can’t sleep until he manifests his idea. While most blowers in the industry focus on 2 to 4 lines at a time, Chad remains unbridled, looking to always keep his creations fresh, innovative and different.

Perusing the pictures on his website www.chadg.net and on GlassPipes.org (Where he is currently a featured artist), you can see for yourself just how many different designs his

imagination dreams up. Everything from ice cream cones, potato bugs and lawn mowers, to mountable wall pieces with an almost me-dieval magical edge incorporated. Weed wackers, building blocks, spaceships, pinecones, and the list goes on and on. If change is a word we must reexamine, then Chad’s art speaks volumes about the benefits of embracing change rather than resisting it.

As previously stated, Chad is a Chicago native with over 15 years as a torch worker under his belt, and believe me, it’s a belt full of notches notating his many accomplishments. On top of being a topic of constant buzz on GlassPipes.org and making appear-ances at glassblowing conventions around the country, he’s also been featured in Smoked Vol. 2 and had his work displayed at Easy Street Gallery. Yet, outside of being shown the ropes by a dear friend, Joshua, who has since passed onto the next world’s bless-ings, Chad is a self-taught artisan who enjoys the freedom allot-ted to him by managing his own career. Working for yourself and building your own empire is a trait passed down by his father, and this family theme resonates into his present day life where his wife and four children are the central focus of his day-to-day activities. He told me that the constant chaos of conducting and supporting a full household actually fuels his drive, as each day is full of growth, spontaneity and surprise. The change he sees everyday within his kingdom is an ongoing reminder that to stay on top of his industry, he must be ready at a moment’s notice to flip the script and keep moving forward.

I caught up with Chad as he was returning from the GLASSROOTS Art Show, from which he came home sold-out! He told me that this is, hands down, his favorite show of the year, as it captures the en-ergy and vibe of his Midwest upbringing and gives him a chance to

reconnect with old friends in the glassblowing community. His voice spar-kled as he talked of the Flame Off, a live competition pitting blowers in head-to-head battle. I asked him about the high level of competitiveness amongst his fellow artists, and he told me that he feels the competitive spirit is key in pushing the craft, as a whole, forward. He was also excited to share the news of the debut of Marbel Slinger’s new documentary “Degenerate Art,” a film about the American glassblowing culture. You can bet your ass I’ve already taken steps to line up coverage of that in the near future; it sounds amazing.

Without further dilly dallying, let’s dive into talking about his dazzling work and the pieces he created for NUG. Being that change is ever present, this month, let’s start by looking at those sick glass logs seen on the left. I think this little story about their origin exemplifies taking an unwanted or, at the very least, unexpected change and turning it into a positive note. “A few years ago, an inland hurricane hit the town where I live. Not many human fatalities, but thousands of trees fell; 106 mph winds average. No power or water for 5 days. All I was doing was cutting and clearing trees. After the power came back on, I decided to just make some things for fun. I felt I should honor the trees that fell...” How about that, rather than mourn the loss, he honored what once was and moved forward making each piece a memorial to his tattered friends of the forest. If only we could all have such a positive outlook when confronted with a suddenly contorted reality.

The technique used to create these logs dates back to 16th century Italy; it’s a technique called “Incalmo”. Incalmo is the process of melting two separate pieces of glass together to create the appearance of a solid structure. Now some of you may think, “How hard can it be to melt two pieces of glass together?” And truth be told on a very simple, basic level, it’s not. But to create something with such a seamless flow, both centered and straight, at the connection point is a skill not easily obtained. One slight slip of the hand and the lines at the end of the log would fall off base and the piece would lose its aura of perfection. I’m absolutely a sucker for anything that resembles pinstripes; and though this pipe has a rustic feel, it also carries a natural eloquence. Next time I have a date with Mother Nature, I’m bringing this piece along; I think she’ll be quite impressed.

Using a butter knife to shape out the texture in the bark and sculpt the knots in the wood, each piece embodies fingerprints or snowflakes. Although they may be pro-duction line work, each piece has its own subtle individuality. I’m pretty excited about the little one hitter too. I’d love to see a park ranger try to find that on the ground next time I’m out hiking around SoCal. He better have the eyes of a hawk if he thinks he’ll be able to spot this when dropped into its natural environment. It’s always good to have a toss away piece for travel, and this little dude and I are definitely going on some adventures.

Next, I want to examine Chad’s old school pieces, some of which he creates wall mounts for that add extra flair to the overall presentation. These creations stand on their own as impeccable works of art; but for me, the added touch of the wall mount really sends these pieces into a higher level of orbit. For as much as I love all the sculpting taking place in the culture, it’s nice to see a top shelf blower staying true to glassblowing’s abstract roots. His use of color and patterns is phenomenal, offsetting striking glass stalagmites against smooth areas of transition. I could see one of these pieces hanging on the wall at a recording studio or art lab, as they are just bursting with inspiration.

In closing, I asked Chad about his feelings on why we need to end marijuana prohibi-tion and he offered this: “I feel people need natural medicine everywhere. I also think people need to be released from prisons on non-violent marijuana charges. It seems like the government is wasting a lot of people’s tax dollars. In general, I feel marijuana does way more good than bad for people’s lives.” WORD! I couldn’t agree more. The time for change is now!

To keep up with Chad and his ever-evolving creations, stop by his website at www.chadg.net. And if you’re looking for that perfect present for the persnickety loved one on your holiday shopping list, look no further because Chad G has something for everyone! And if you can’t find anything that’s your cup of tea, wait a day or two; he inevitably will be forging into new horizons of expression and creativity.

With that, it’s a wrap. I’ll see you all next year for more breathtaking talent here at Perpetual Motion. Till then, keep the fire burning. You know I will.

For more info on the author, please visit: www.aaronevansimagination.com

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By: SD Liz

Tribal Theory consists of Aberay (AJ), Seuko, Dominic, Rich, Paul, Nico, and Peter. They are a 7-piece band playing…well, I’m not sure exactly. In a recent interview, they told NUG they have yet to define their music, but overall, it is a mix of R&B, Hip-Hop, and island-style Reggae. Their greatest inspiration drew from playing ukuleles and performing Polynesian dances. Together, Tribal Theory has a passion for music and visual arts. Read on to find out what the winners of the Vans Warped Tour’s Battle of The Bands, San Diego edition, did to make it to Warped Tour, how they’ve grown since 2005, and where they plan to go in 2012. This is one band looking into the future!

All of the guys are from San Diego, California with the exception of the band’s new bass player, Peter Cruz, who recently came from Guam. Ac-cording to the band, members share Polynesian roots, but most of them came together through a dance group they created called P.I.A. (meaning the Pacific Islander Alliance), which grew into a band originally deemed Last Minute that later turned into Tribal Theory by the addition of more players. Also, according to members, the ukulele brought the band together because each of them started playing the instrument first, and this instru-mental play influenced the members to produce music.

The band has accomplished a great crowd through their “reggae party” sound, especially playing with such names as Steel Pulse, The Wailers, J Boog, and SOJA. They draw influ-ence from such bands as Grounda-tion, Damian Marley, and even lo-cal names, like Stranger and Diego Roots. Much of their music focuses on having a good time and displaying good vibes.

NUG Magazine got a chance to speak with the boys in Old Town about their music.

How would you classify your music?We don’t like being confined to one genre [because] of our different interests and influences in music. If I had to choose only one, I would call us “Reggae +” (Reggae plus R&B, Hip-Hop, Rock, etc.). We started as Island Rhythm, but as we grew, the music changed. Nico gave us more options, AJ has the R&B voice, Seuko with the Rasta voice, and Dominic – well, we’re not sure what that is. (Laughs)

So, how did the current Tribal Theory form?Some of us went to high school together, but the dance group is what formed us. The original members are AJ, Rich, and Dominic. Seuko was in and out. We started with a different drummer, bass player, singers, and no keys. We broke up shortly after that. A few months later we reformed with new members.

What do you think of your audience response?Some people come for the music, and some people come for the atmosphere, and some just come to go out. With our music, I can tell people get excited, and those we capture are those who want to have fun. They have fun with our music. Our music is fun, upbeat, and relatable. If you’re drinking, we’re drinking; if you’re having fun, we’re having fun. We have some songs for the chillax people, but right now, we’re riding kind of the wave that is the big wave, and that’s the fun wave. On top of that, we’re some sexy-ass dudes! There are some chicks out there who just want to check out some sexy-ass dudes on stage.

What are some of your favorite San Diego bands?HI Roots, Stranger, Through The Roots, Diego Roots, Kahi Lofa, Quino; there’s a lot of talent in SD.

How was Warped Tour in San Diego?Playing at the Warped Tour this year was an eye-opener. Winning the preliminaries and getting to play at this

big event felt so rewarding. Seeing what goes into a huge event like that humbles you and smacks you in the face, saying, “This is the real deal.” The response was awesome, even if we were out of our genre. The SD crowd showed us love, and hopefully we returned that love. We were definitely stoked! It was an awe-some experience all around and even more so knowing that we earned our spot in the showcase.

Tell us some of your most memorable stops outside of SD.Hawaii was memorable and felt like home. Las Vegas was…hor-rible for one of us…but, we were there twice; once with Ooklah The Moc and then with Iration, Tribal Seeds, and Anuhea.

What is the message of your music?(Sings) It’s A Party, It’s A Party, It’s A Party…. Also, hey, here we are! We’re different, but we know you can all vibe and relate to us. We’re an island family who loves to share positive vibes with everyone.

Where do you see yourself in 2 years?Traveling and seeing the world…doing an interview with Oprah! Nah, definitely collaborating with other bands.

You have a song about 2012. Tell me about it.We wrote it because one of my cousins passed away, and I have a verse that talks about it; and why would you do that when it’s selfish? I worked on it with alcohol. Seuko’s verse is about situ-ating yourself and figuring out what you’re doing. It’s not neces-sarily about if we believe in the 2012 prophecy. We named it that because AJ sang a verse and we were like, ‘2012.’ So appreciate your life, accept it for what it is, and things are going to happen, ya know? It’s an anthem for those people facing devastating per-

sonal struggle. The message to those individuals is to be strong and persevere. There is always a reason to be happy and there is always a reason to go on living.

Hmm, well, what do you think about the 2012 prophecy?We tend not to think too far ahead because something is always going to happen. If things were going to end, then ‘seize the day’ now! Why worry about it? Let it come. The best thing to do is live life with no regrets. Be happy. Don’t let your mind be occupied with negatives.

So, Peter is a brand-new member. How did you guys find him?Peter: I was watching them play one night and I met AJ and Frank (their manager). We were talking, and a few weeks later I gotta call from Frank; so I jumped on and learned all their songs. The bass player is taking a break with school.

Frank: We’re both from Guam and I knew his dad and told him about Tribal The-ory. His dad mentioned he played and the next day Peter texted me ‘Nice meeting you.’ Well, the bass player wasn’t available, so then I called him, asked if he played bass, and told him to come to practice.

Can some of you tell me your favorite strains of cannabis?God’s Gift and Michael Phelps.

What about a favorite dispensary in SD?Sons of Beaches!

Tribal Theory is currently working on another EP and they hope to release a song titled “DeJaVu” this month. They will also be hitting up San Francisco again this month and plan on playing in Hawaii too, as well as Guam next year. They would like to give Big Ups to Selah Int’l, Zhen Music, and Alpinestars. For more informa-tion on the band, visit www.tribaltheorymusic.com or look for them on popular social networks.


40 | NUGMAG.COM

By: M.J. Smith

Ahhh, the sounds of sweet youth…Phat Reggae Dub re-minds me of my teenage years, “Cause there’s no where I’d rather be, chillin’ with my friends in the city by the sea.” Oh how I long for life to be that simple again…Not to say that their music is simple, their classic reggae sound has an unexpected depth provided by skilled musicians, mul-tiple singers, and a saxophonist. Their lyrics are honest and real, sharing their struggles as they try to navigate the realities of the adult world, and their appreciation for the SoCal lifestyle they grew up in is evident. Though the band claims Huntington Beach as their hometown, their bassist and vocalist, Brad Janelli, currently attends college here in San Diego. Other members of the band include Josh Ullrich – Guitar/Vocals, Daniel Castaneda – Drums, Justin Quarress - Keyboard/Vocals, Eric Roebuck – Guitar, and Roman Brambila – Saxophone.

Phat Reggae Dub played their first show in March 2009 at The Office in North Park. Since that time, they have been playing shows all throughout Southern California with bands such as Pepper, Tribal Seeds, Collie Buddz, Groundation, Ballyhoo, One Drop, Seedless, Pacific Dub, Stranger, The Supervillains, Pato Banton, Bizzy Bone, The Beautiful Girls, The B Foundation, and Tomorrows Bad Seeds. They finished their first album Be Free at 17th Street Recording Studio and released it on iTunes last April. Their aforementioned Back to the Pad was released to iTunes in early December 2010. And now the band is set to release its new self-titled EP on December 6th! Every so

often a band comes along that stands out among the others. In my opinion, Phat Reggae Dub is that band! I can see these guys going as far as their desires will take them.

We had a chance to ask the guys a few questions about their new release, their experiences in the SoCal music scene, and, of course, get their opinion on our favorite subject, cannabis.

Love the cover…can you tell us about it?An old friend of our bass player/singer Brad was introduced to the band. His name is Matt Flood and he has been painting and drawing pretty much all of his life. It’s great because when we play shows, he’ll bring all of his own artwork to sell and enhance our set. When it came time for a new album, we hit him up to draw us one. What he created is amazing, a world held by mankind. Inside is actually quite a trip, you’ll see a ying and yang sign with nature on the left, with opposing symbols represent-ing Babylon, and corrupted society on the right.

Can you describe your music for those who may not have heard you? We have tried to incorporate many different styles; reggae and dubbed-out echo effects of course, as well as a bit of ska, hip hop flows, and a bit of rock. However, with the lyrics, we try to keep it extremely conscious with thoughts most people think, but don’t know how to effectively communicate or express.

Who writes the songs?The entire band writes the songs with a lot of practice and communication. Brad Janelli and Josh Ullrich write their own lyrics and add them to the songs once the instrumentals are complete.

What other songs/bands are on your playlists right now?Right now we listen to a range of stuff: SOJA, Tribal Seeds, Stick Figure, the old 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Dirty Heads, J Boog, and many others, especially a lot of the underground reggae artists com-ing out of the Irie Ites sound studio in Jamaica.

Any pre-show rituals?We usually try to get past all of the stress of self-management and hangout to-gether. And, of course, smoke a joint or seven and get hyped on the show we are about to play. We definitely have to get rid of any negativity that could be floating around and be confident.

Do any epic band moments come to mind?Just anytime we play with bands we’ve looked up to; one in particular, we played a show in LA with just us and Steel Pulse. We all got free beer and food and got to play in front of 1000s of new fans! Also, it’s great to show up at events and have people we’ve never seen before and hear them singing along. –As well as many good circle pits at the House of Blues and downtown Huntington Beach during the U.S. Open.

Any crazy fan experiences?People asking for our autographs is always crazy. One time a guy came up to us saying he drove from 5 hrs away to see Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and thought our opening act was better…haha!

What is your ultimate venue to play and/or band to play with?We definitely loved playing at the Canyon Club. We would love to one day play alongside The Dirty Heads and SOJA, and we have the resources to; it’s mostly just a matter of time. Also, it would be dope to play at a huge festival such as Ragga Muffins.

What is your favorite show played so far?We played a great show opening for Collie Buddz, then afterwards, we hopped on the party bus we rented with all of our good friends and partied all the way home!

Any thoughts on legalization or the current MMJ crackdown?Weed is a plant. It’s not harming anyone; plus, the U.S. is ridiculously deep into debt. Anyone with a brain would vote to legalize it.

What’s your favorite way to use cannabis?Anyway that gets us high! Although, a nice phat joint is always a tasty way to get down.

Indica, Sativa, or Hybrid? Any favorite strains?Besides the Phat Reggae Dub OG, probably a very strong sativa. We have a thing for Headband, but only the high-grade!

Tell us about the new album/tour.Because we are all still in college, no major tours…But, we will definitely be taking advantage of local street fairs, as well as a few shows with Don Carlos, Groundation, and a few others…you’ll just have to wait and see! As far as the album, we’ve been working very hard the last year to produce top-quality music over at 17th Street Recording Studios with the man, Lewis Richards. Keep in mind, this is the same studio that The Dirty Heads, Slightly Stoopid, and many other reggae bands have been recording their music at.

Playing any SD shows anytime soon?As far as now, we don’t have any planned, but definitely be on the lookout for us playing at the OB street fair.

Anything about SD that you guys particularly like? Well, our bassist/singer Brad goes to school in Point Loma; he loves it down there, and every time we visit, it’s always a great time! –Lots to do and many crazy people to be seen.

Any sponsors? Shout-outs?Ganja Juice Smoothies, Lewis Richards, all of our friends who’ve supported us throughout, Mike Quarress, and our newest clothing sponsor, Creative Minds and Visions.

Where can someone find out more about the band?Just type our name into Google. We’ve got Facebook, YouTube, Myspace, our own website, as well as iTunes, Napster, Amazon and all the good stuff.

42 | NUGMAG.COM

By Jed Sanders.

Swendoza is the one and only “Chanter of Personality”. Every Wednesday night, he broadcasts live from “Border-town USA” with wsRadio.com on the world-famous Art Rocks! Radio program. His media coverage of the local arts and culture here in San Diego has spanned for nearly a decade, and he has interviewed well over 1,000 differ-ent local artists, guests, and celebrities.

Upon the recent ninth anniversary of the program, Swen-doza turned the tables and allowed me to interview him on his show. This, I can tell you, was no easy task. He is a true pro and makes it look easy. The following is a transcription from the live Art Rocks! Radio show on November 9, 2011.

So what made you get started with Art Rocks! Radio?Art Rocks! Radio really came along almost by accident. I moved back home to San Diego from New York City. I got emerged in the art, fashion, and music scene there – when it was really rockin’ in the lower Eastside. I had to come home for family reasons. Art Rocks! Radio came out of a magic moment when I was at a telemarketing gig.

My voice is what God gave me and what I can make mon-ey off of, right? I spent a lot of time in the telemarketing business, and one day an inbound call came and it was the wrong number. They were looking for wsRadio.com. I had been told many times in the telemarketing gigs, ‘You know you have a great voice,’ ‘Are you a disc Jockey?’ ‘Is this a recording?’ ‘Are you a robot?’ ‘Is this a real person?’ And then I checked out wsRadio.com the very next day after I asked this guy a few questions about it. wsRadio is a brokered station where every individual host buys their own time. We are our own executive producers. That’s where it really began, in 2002.

What would you say is one of the worst parts of doing your job?I would say that the worst part is just getting here ev-ery Wednesday to do this show, ya know? I’m still a very stage-frightened kid in a lot of ways. I get very nervous before each show, and apprehensive. A lot of times, I get concerned I am going to say something dumb that is go-ing to embarrass one of the guests. I am always con-cerned about that.

What is one of your favorite interviews that you have done?Paul Stanley from Kiss has been on the show a couple of

times. When he was not on the road with the band, he was doing art. He came through San Diego a couple of times with his art shows. What I remember about Paul Stanley was an answer he gave to one of our questions with my partner Ally Bling Bling. I ex-plained, ‘This is a one word answer question, Paul... If you were not a rock and roll star, what would you be?’ His answer in one word without missing a beat was ‘Broke’. We have had all kinds of great guests on the program. We had Grace Slick a few times. We had Peter Max. The list goes on and on. Mario Torero is a great San Diego artist and was the very first guest on the Art Rocks! Radio show.

What do you like to do for fun in San Di-ego?Fun in San Diego is the great outdoors. Just being out there and knowing you can step out there 300 days a year. Balboa Park is one of the greatest insti-tutions in the country. A little known fact is that Cen-tral Park of New York City will fit inside Balboa Park. It is very large physically and is culturally how I got started with my appreciation for art. I grew up in San Diego, that’s where the art thing came from. I would go to the museums in Balboa Park.

What are the “Raging Art Bull” episodes about?Raging Art Bull came about because there were so many things on my mind after interviewing so many different kinds of artists. I would hear their stories, how they got started, and the struggle they were involved in, from artists of all levels of success. The struggles were all very similar in terms of the dues they have to pay in order to keep it going. One thing they all had in common was that they didn’t care about the dues, because they were just going to keep on doing it no matter what. I felt that there was some-thing keeping that development from happening faster than it should have.

Do you mean by something that is suppressing the artist?Yes. Usually, when I try to articulate this, I get the usual looks and charges that I am some sort of conspiracy theorist and so on. I don’t think I have to do that any-more now that we have all seen the Ma-trix movies. It demonstrates a lot of the political scene I see in America. When I went to school, I was a History major and I earned a PHD in History. When I was studying History, the art of the past was very important in understanding a time period. European history is a lot deeper with the fine arts, while American History deals with a lot of the folk arts, fashion, and music. I have always felt there is a dimension of art that I call the ‘Political Economy of Culture’. I stole the term from a great historian, who I recommend everyone to read, by the name of Eu-gene Genovese. He wrote a book called the Political Economy of Slavery. He was a Marxist scholar and painted for me, very early in grad school, what the ‘Ma-trix’ was all about. It was something you knew that was there, but you had to con-nect the dots. It isn’t always a solid thing you can grab a hold of. There is a ‘Matrix’ in San Diego. I call it the ‘Arts Mafia’. It is a sensationalized term and I don’t deny that. With ‘Raging Art Bull’, I wanted to turn the dedication and sacrifice that a lot of artists have gone through into a rage that was welling up in me because they weren’t better treated. It is my feelings on the political economy of culture. San Diego is a microcosm that one can study to find a better way of promoting the arts and to take better care of our artists.

Through the Raging Bull epi-sodes, what do you find that is one of the biggest frustrations that a lot of artists go through?It would be with the gallery system. The system is geared for the interests of the collector, not the artist. It turns art into a commodity. It’s a good thing because it is easier to sell as a commodity. There is the old saying that if you can put it in a bottle, then you can sell it. It is essential for artists to understand that most gallery operators today do not even own their own business. What I mean by that is that they rent a space. They borrow the inventory; they don’t buy it, and their in-terests are in cultivating collectors. That is their business. I’m not saying that is ‘evil’, but that is the way it is. I find some-thing wrong with gallery operators who

try and convey the impression that they are the best friend an artist can have. ‘We are such a good friend of yours, Mr. and Ms. Art-ist, that you should pay us. You, the artist, should pay us for helping you.’ That bothers me. A lot of the gallery operators are like a priesthood in the medieval church.

Have you seen any effect from Rag-ing Bull? Has anyone called you up and cussed you out, or are you just ruffling feathers?It is hard to tell. We have a Teflon oligarchy here in San Diego. Nothing sticks to them. The only thing that does is cold hard cash, and that insulates them somehow from even paying attention. On the internet, I have ruffled quite a few feathers. It is good for debating and getting things rolling. As far as Raging Bull making an impact, I could not say because I’m not finished yet. The level of public discussion of the arts in San Diego is pretty pitiful. I got a thing on Facebook today from Kinsee Morlan, the arts editor of the San Diego City Beat newspaper, and she was talking about this panel discussion that they were having on whether San Diego should create a county board of art; in other words, a big bureaucracy or another board of some sort to help people know what kind of art to buy, and to pick and choose the win-ners and the losers. I got to thinking to my-self that if it is still going on, I haven’t made much of an impact. I added my voice to the general round of cheers that Kinsee was get-ting for the announcement by saying this is yet another exercise in the expansion of the ‘circular firing squad’ that is the public discus-sion of art here in San Diego. They are just going to have a bigger circular firing squad. There will be more people in the circle who will be on the public payroll speaking for what they say is their constituency, which is the ‘art community’. Would you expand on that more?I would like to say something positive about the San Diego art scene. It is blowing up. There is so much hidden talent here, which is another reason I started Art Rocks! Radio. San Diego is the epitome of a border town. More people cross the border here than any-where in the United States. The scenery of the art scene is blowing up. These people who are trying to form this large umbrella of an organization, ‘The County Board of Art’; they are trying to hijack the percolating cultural thing that is going on in San Diego. They want to hijack it so that they can take advantage of it and continue to control it the way the cultural alagardes, who are already in place, do. If anyone would like to challenge me on this and debate about it, I would be happy to do it.

That sounds like an exciting debate and one that I would like to hear.That is what Raging Art Bull is about. Obvi-ously, I have not been invited to participate on this panel discussion. I don’t care about that. I have been to a few of these panel discussions and it’s like listening to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb. They are missing the point entirely. The media coverage of the art scene in San Diego misses a lot because it does not address these kinds of issues. I have had debates with other cultural journal-ists about this and they seem to think that all cultural journalism is to tell people the time

and date of the new art opening, or when the next fashion show is, or the next band event. That is the depth of their coverage.

You mentioned that you have a PHD in History. What part of his-tory interests you the most?When I was studying history, it was at a time when computers were becoming used as a tool for historical research. I did a quantitative study of a political movement in the Midwest during the mid-19th century. I won’t bore you with all the details, but it was one of the first studies ever done utilizing that computer technology. In those days, it was the big computer you had in the middle of campus where you had to bring the big tapes and the IBM cards. I was one of the very first to do what they call ‘quantitative history’. I had become a bit disillusioned in graduate school with what I was learning in history, as I learned I was actually training to become a court historian; to speak for the house. I found something very unsatisfactory about that. I found when you get lost in the numbers like that, you lose your sweet spot, you know? That sweet spot you have for art and culture. I was getting to a point where I was bored reading my own dissertation. It was boring compared to the great masterpieces of history that have been written. History does not always repeat itself entirely. One of the great masterpieces that everyone should read is the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. It was an 18th century masterpiece that the founders of our country knew backwards and forward. It is important for people to know that America was founded almost as a clone of Rome. The founders were so concerned about that because of course they knew what happened to Rome. They wanted to avoid those problems that brought the Roman Empire down. Well, guess what? The problems the founders were nervous about...They are here to the max right now.

It is frightening to think that we are on that downward spiral. I don’t think it is downward. It is in a different direction and this is how art can save us. The world is in a bad place and people can learn from history. I see art having a lot of similarities to religion. People go to religion for solace and spiritual support. As religion falls along the wayside, people are going to have to find a way to deal with finding that solace and spiritual support. Human nature does not change. Those feelings will always be there, and a need for spirituality.

I believe that all artists are touched by God. I mean...all people are touched by God in one way or another. But artists have a special touch that came from God; however, one wants to define ‘God’. I’m not here to preach any particular faith.

Are there any artists, dead or alive, you would like to interview?Vincent Van Gogh. I spoke about how I feel artists are touched by God. Well... I believe Vincent was [tormented] by God. In recent revelations, it is showing that he did not commit suicide. He was accidentally shot by some boys playing with a gun. This is a new theory that is coming around now. He was not suicidal. He was locked in an insane asylum because he had dared to shock the establish-ment with a new kind of art that was naturalistic. He painted everyday people in everyday situations, rather than the grandees who were paying for the big fancy portraits and the landscapes of their manors. If any artist could talk about how they are touched by God, or even tormented by God, it would be Vincent Van Gogh. You can see it in his work. Nature is not an easy thing in Van Gogh’s work. It’s in constant turmoil.

Where would you like to see yourself and Art Rocks! Radio in 10 years?That is a tough question. I do have some things I am working on right now that I am going to bring out in 2012. I have been thinking of different ways artists can sell their art. I have some ideas in mind. I am working on a new blog that I am going to launch before 2012. It will be a different side of me; more of the histo-rian side. I like to write. –That’s if God helps us get through 2012. The Mayan calendar tells us it’s all coming to an end…Who knows? I do hope that art plays a larger role in the emerging 21st century. This is a great time for the culture of the world to get more involved with the political economy of the world. A great book, written by Margaret Tuchman, called The Proud Tower was a study of European culture on the eve of the First World War. Things were changing transcendentally in Europe at that time. People were going to do things differently. I kind of think we are at that same moment now. I hope that The Proud Tower does not repeat itself and that we allow ourselves the cultural enlightenment not to be smothered by war hysteria.

Thank you for taking the time to answer all of our questions.

To listen to the full interview and past episodes on the Art Rocks! Radio program, go to wsRadio.com and click on the Art Rocks! tab.

NUGMAG.COM | 43

Ho! Ho! Ho! Medicinal Mike here, commenting on another month of living the NugLife. Merry Chriskwanzakkah, everybody! We are so blessed to be a part of the NUG family. The NugLife Radio Show is celebrating its one year anniver-sary and, looking back, it has been the best year ever. New Year’s Eve is also on the horizon, a time for reflecting on the actions we put into this world.

While I was sitting on the beach in my favorite writing spot and smoking on some beautiful Tokyo OG (seriously strong), I was thinking, “There’s been a lot of ruckus lately in the MMJ community.” I’ve seen a lot of anger in patients over the government’s shady involvement with trying to repress medical marijuana, and I think that it’s very important that we all remember, regardless of all the frustrations that we deal with in life, that life is about experiences. These great experiences, good or bad, are what we will take with us through time, so always remember to keep fun in your life and take a minute to appreciate everything you have. Don’t forget the NugLife Crew is there to help you find the fun.

This month’s good times started with legendary seven-year veteran, San Diego comedian Zoltan Kaszas; who was pleased as a punch to pose for his NUG Photo. Zoltan headlines regularly all over San Diego, especially at the Comedy Palace. Zoltan came into the NugLife studio with nothing but good intentions and left with red eyes and a smile after we dove into the psyche of a comedian. Zoltan explained how hard it was for him to overcome the stereotypes of being named Zoltan. If you’re ever looking for a night of pant-wetting laughter, find this guy and bring a change of shorts.

I’d like to give a big shout-out to the Alpine Care Collective for winning the Halloweed Cup with a stellar strain of Purple Kush that overtook the best of the best. I smoked this strain and it had the most expansion of any strain of Purple Kush that I’ve ever hit. If you were there, you know what I mean. I was impressed with all of the strains and proud to be a part of the San Diego grow scene.

If you’re in San Diego and are into things that sound like rockstar tribal angels, check out Odys-sey9. They are a San Diego rat pack who are about to blow up! I was so stoked to have them in the studio playing live. They have a hypno-chant sound that really takes over the mind. Lead sing-er William Wolf spends his days helping the MMJ community get their meds and his nights crooning to the ladies. Wolf truly lives the NugLife and we love him for it.

We’d also like to thank everyone who came out to downtown to support your rights as an MMJ patient. You know the NUG family was all over it. Thanks Hopper, Jonesy, and Eugene.

When you go into your local co-op, don’t forget to drop off a few cans for the home-less this season, and remember to check out NugLife on www.nugliferadioshow.com

Medicinal Mike says: If “everyone” around you is a pain in the ass, it’s probably just you.

NugLife LivingBy: Medicinal Michael Boris

December Calendar of Events1.So*Cal VibesAt Hennessey’s Gaslamp @ 8

Each of the DaysAt Ruby Room @ 8

2.Silence Betrayed At Ruby Room @ 9

Oh, GuardianAt SOMA @ 6

Tower of PowerAt Sycuan Casino Theatre @ 8

3.Snow FreaqFeat. Don Santino, Bass Case & moreAt Spin Nightclub @ 9

Mower w/ Warner DriveAt 710 Beach Club @ 4

Jason MrazAt Belly Up @ 8

Thousand Watt StareAt The Shakedown Bar @ 8

Little Hurricane & Heavy GuiltAt Casbah @ 8

4.Nipsey HussleAt Porter’s Pub UCSD @ 8

Los LobosAt Belly Up @ 8

6.TRAIN OF THOUGHT Poetry/Spoken Word/Acoustic/Comedy At Queen Bee’s @ 8

She Wants RevengeAt Belly Up @ 8

7.Shoreline Rootz w/ DJ Carlos CultureAt Winstons @ 9

8.The AmbassadorAt Gallagher’s @ 8

9.Lee “Scratch” Perry w/ Shoreline Rootz, EN Young & DJ CarlosAt 4th & B @ 9

Real BrewAt Muller College @ 7

10.Project: Out of BoundsAt Swami’s Cafe @ 9

Sunny Rude, Split Finger & Mikey BeatsAt 710 Beach Club @ 9

C-Money and the PlayersAt Boar Cross’n @ 9

Live ReggaeAt Stage Bar & Grill @ 8

91X Wrex the HallsFeat. Florence and theMachines, Cage the Elephant & moreAt Valley View Casino @ 6

The AdolescentsAt Brick by Brick @ 8

11.Lenny KravitzAt House of Blues @ 7

91X Wrex the Halls IIFeat. Everlast, Pennywise, Social Distortion & moreAt Valley View Casino @ 6

The LoonsAt Casbah @ 8

12.Electric Waste BandAt Winstons @ 9

13.Bad Neighborz At Winstons @ 9

TRAIN OF THOUGHT Poetry/Spoken Word/Acoustic/Comedy At Queen Bee’s @ 8

So*Cal VibesAt Winstons @ 9

14.Z90 Jingle JamPitbull, Wiz Khalifa & moreAt Valley View Casino @ 7

15.Sunny RudeAt Hennessey’s @ 10

So*Cal VibesAt Pier View Pub @ 9

Brian McKnight, Surface & moreAt Valley View Casino @ 7

Real BrewAt Boar Cross’n @ 8

16.Subliminal Trip w/ ReeformAt 710 Beach Club @ 9

As I Lay DyingAt SOMA @ 6

17.Chris CornellAt Balboa Theatre @ 8

Reason to RebelAt Hensley’s Flying Elephant @ 1 PM

Live ReggaeAt Stage Bar & Grill @ 8

Stranger & Mean Dinosaur At Boar Cross’n @ 9

19.Electric Waste BandAt Winstons @ 9

PinbackAt Belly Up @ 8

To add your events to our monthly calendar listings send us an email to [email protected].

23.SoulwakaAt RT’s Longboard @ 10

29.Sunny RudeAt Gallagher’s @ 10

31.Victory NightlifeThe Block Party NYE At House of Blues @ 9

The Silent Comedy, Transfer & moreAt Casbah @ 8

Sanuk R.A.S.T.A lineJust in time for holiday shopping, we received some samples from Sanuk to tell our readers about. Sanuk is a company with the environment in mind, making SUPER comfortable shoes that are also eco-friendly! They have loads of different styles and options. In fact, some of my favorite flip flops that I own are a pair of Sanuks made from recycled yoga mats. But today, we wanted to tell NUG readers about their new R.A.S.T.A project. Sanuk has partnered with team rider and eco-surfer Dave Rastovich to produce the project, which stands for Recycled And Sustain-able Trade Alliance, and their goal is to even further reduce its impact on the world by providing footwear that is truly impact free. I asked a company rep to tell me a little about the new line: “We didn’t want to do it halfway, so a lot of research went into the creation of this line to be certain we made a low-impact Sanuk. For example, the outsoles are made from recycled tires, which are sourced from within 100 km of the factory. All of our materials were chosen to have the smallest impact possible: jute, hemp, natural latex, real cork and recycled PET (recycled plastic bottles). As the eco-industry evolves and develops, we will implement the materials and processes that make the most sense to us without affecting style or comfort.” In my opinion, Sanuk has done it again and their new line is AMAZING! Get some for the ECO Warrior in your life this season! You can learn more online at: www.sanuk.com or www.rastaproject.org

420 PreserveA few months ago, our boys at 420 Science sent over another one of their new products. It took me a few months to give it a good run through, so I could review it. The new product is 420 Preserve, a botanical storage spray. When I first got them, I thought the bottles were empty because they were SO light; but the natural gasses inside weigh nothing and the cans were full! I took two identical jars (also from 420 Science) and stuck a couple of grams of the same strain into each jar, filling one with the 420 Preserve before fitting the lid on, and the other jar with no Preserve. I left both jars in cabinets for over a month, returning the other day to check them out. The jar with the 420 Preserve in it was obviously the fresher of the 2 samples after a month. The aromas were stronger and the nugs were less dry than the ones that came out of the other jar, showing me that this product really works! It would be perfect for those of you with large harvests that need to be stored. I only left my samples in there for a month and could see, smell, and taste the difference. I recommend this product to ALL growers who are going to be storing and curing their buds in jars! 420 Science has done it again! This and all of their other products are absolutely TOP SHELF! Pick some up today at your local retailer or online at:

www.420science.com

NUG Magazine Issue 27

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Transcript of NUG Magazine Issue 27