This is a post I wrote back in April but never published but felt compelled to pull it out of the archives for your reading pleasure. ENJOY!
Dang y'all....I had such an awesome weekend at Cannabis Cup, presented by High Times in Denver.
It was the first legal & open to the public Cannabis Cup in the US!
WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP!
We took the trip because my man & his business partner were launching their hilarious new comic book,
The Adventures of Super Stoner. It's a series of stories about a regular ole dude who loves & grows weed. He has a magical bong that he uses to fight off evil vilans such as "Meth Man" (a nasty meth cooker) & "Kandy Kane" (a cocaine-addicted stripper). Super Stoner wants to keep the streets clean so he always comes in to save the day from the poisonous, toxic chemicals of horrible man-made drugs which are destroying our world! Its full of fun, campy humor & educational information about the benefits of Cannabis. What a hit! (har har har)
The event was an intense experience of meandering through a crowd of some 30,000 people...all hazy, smily & friendly folks excited about the green!
This was the most calm event I've ever been to...
No one fought.
No one got out of control.
No problems, no issues.
No EGO.
Just really chill people.
This is what happens when you invite the green goodness of Mother Nature's magical bounty into your life. If you still believe in the propaganda of
Reefer Madness, well it's "high time" you cross over the rainbow bridge of happiness! I won't even begin my endless list of why good ole Mary Jane should be your homegirl, but I will say that everyone at Cannabis Cup was so damn kind.
Yes it was pretty wild to explore the 1,000 vendors & hop in & out of circles of really awesome people only to turn a corner & see something totally spectacular like a
Cheech & Chong sized joint. The novelty was on-point. It was like a hanging out in weed city within a city. Needless to say, the people-watching was incredible!
It was interesting to witness the multitude of various approaches for communing with Marijuana. It seemed there was less focus on the flowers, the classic plant part which you may or may not have smoked at some point in your life, and there was much more attention on wax (aka DABBS), which is a butane-based extraction process which, if prepared by professionals with appropriate machinery, is purged of as much butane as possible to create a very high in THC/low CBD content material. For you herbalists out there, I equate it with a type of solid extract with certain chemical constituents still held in place, in this case a very concentrated amount of THC. Apparently the high is 10 times more potent than your typical hit of flowers. That kinda freaks me out. Does anyone need to get "that high"?
I don't feel there is as much safe, consistent, holistic medicinal value in this delivery system, although many will disagree. To me it seems to attract more of those who just wanna get out there....numb out of reality for awhile.....ehh....that's another topic all together!
I don't dabble in the dabb for many reasons, one being it's such a recent fad with not a lot of long-standing support behind it. I will continue to research this preparation method out of shear curiosity & for it's viable application in a healing setting with disease & chronic pain. Granted, the wax has been around for years. However, I prefer old fashioned raw plant medicine in its natural state in general. For instance, do I take supplements of Beta-carotene or do I eat the whole carrot? I eat the carrot!
I love the adage,
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.....
Cannabis Cup wasn't just faded out stoner kids & smoke & mirrors though. A wide variety of celebrities, health specialists, medical professionals, growers, advocacy groups & big time people showed up! There were classes, lectures & seminars each day, sharing the medicinal research, health benefits & political awareness for the attendees. Hot topics were: support for veterans & PTSD, children, trauma, cannabis & yoga, edibles & more.
Twas a wonderful & interesting experience to say the least & I'd definitely go back again.
And how interesting to consider the amount of money Colorado has made already since legalization. I wonder which state will be next?!
