Tuesday 31 October 2017
Snoop Dogg In A B-List Horror Movie Is The Weirdest Thing You’ll See This Halloween
Wes Craven’s late 90s film Scream put horror back in vogue. Unlike the 80s schlock crop, celebrities lined up to star in 90s slashers like I Know What You Did Last Summer or The Faculty. Snoop Dogg had made plenty of appearances on the big screen, from Training Day to Half-Baked, but he didn’t have any first-billings. Bones was an early 2000s horror where he put down the joint long enough to pick up a machete.
“It was about time for me to get into the movie world,” he told human serviette Nardwuar in an on-set interview.
While the script was created for a Snoop Dogg, Bones wasn’t a total write-off. It was directed by Ernest Dickerson, Spike Lee’s longtime cinematographer and director of Juice and the cult film Demon Knight, a horror gem that acts as a four-part essay about how Billy Zane deserved more work. Dickerson would also go on to direct many episodes of The Wire.
Most critics panned Bones, except for the New York Times, who liked Dickerson’s grotesque and thrilling imagery. Especially the netherworld, a writhing, oily wall of human torture. Influence seemed to come from Hellraiser as much as blaxploitation horrors like Scream Blacula Scream and J.D.’s Revenge. It even has Pam Grier in a supporting role as a psychic. All that said, even if this is a Bush-era horror film where a character says ‘post-racial,’ make no bones about it. This is a dumb, dumb movie.
Bones follows a group of young entrepreneurs, siblings (including Juice’s Khalil Kain and Ginger Snaps’ Katharine Isabelle). Purchasing an old dilapidated house on the rough side of the tracks, they aim to turn it into a nightclub. Little do they know that the house was the once-residence and current crypt of Jimmy Bones, 70s hustler and neighborhood defender who mysteriously vanished. Bones was filmed in Vancouver, and in reality, the spooky narrow red brick was an old cheese factory.
While Jimmy Bones’ corpse rests, the premises are still guarded by a demonic doggie dog who eats meat to feed its master. That meat can come from hamburgers or human flesh. The clueless kids adopt the dog thinking it nothing more than a lost pooch. This was their key mistake, believing they lived in a world that doesn’t have monster dogs who eat people.
They discover the corpse of Jimmy Bones with a ring on his finger and a switchblade spiked in his chest. They recall a schoolyard song that is essentially a rewrite of Krueger’s ‘one-two he’s coming for you’ with lines about ice and nicer suits. They decide to keep the body a secret as not to discredit their business venture.
The club opens, ‘Illbient,’ a portmanteau that somehow feels like it’s using the ‘nauseous’ connotation of ill more than the slang one. This party from hell is like a nightmare version of the Who Am I? video. The horniest DJ is lured away by a mysterious woman who transforms into the demon dog, devouring him like so many nice sofas. Now full of meat, Bones awakens, filling the club with fire and maggots.
Cordell Broadus, Snoop Dogg’s son, said that the maggots scared him the most. “Every time I get a cup, I look into and make sure there are no maggots or anything,” said Broadus. “I’m traumatized from this day on.”
And there are plenty maggots. They fall from the ceiling. They writhe across the dance floor. The dog blasts maggots at people like a firehose. The last thing you see in this movie is maggots. There’s even a record scratch gag with maggots.
After the club burns, Pearl (Grier) reveals the truth. Bones was betrayed. A cop and a drug pusher pressured everyone to allow crack into the neighborhood. Drawing a line, Bones refused to allow crack on his streets, but the dealers weren’t taking no for an answer. They force Bones to take a hit from the pipe, putting him in a dazed panic and a shootout ensues. To spread incrimination, the cop forces Bones’ own friends to stab him with the switchblade. The kids realize this includes their own father.
Snoop clearly wanted to play both the superhero and the Dracula. He’s both a phantom on a killing spree, and a vigilante offing crack dealers. It’s as if Death Wish starred Jason Voorhees. The 70s scenes could easily be from a different movie. When he’s resurrected, Bones looks more like The Undertaker than his own flashbacks.
In hell, you encounter Bones’ true form: A Snoop Dogg who’s aged badly. Despite all the autotuning in his career, Snoop seemed to forgo any voice filter as a demon. He just snarls a monster voice like he’s reading his kids a bedtime story about dragons.
On the one hand, Bones is ultimately undone because it’s a decent movie wrapped around Snoop Dogg, who is impossible to find as scary as Chucky or Leatherface. On the other hand, had Snoop Dogg not starred in Bones, why would you watch it? If the novelty of seeing Snoop Dogg crack “I get a supernatural high” before slaughtering two guys doesn’t appeal to you, just watch Demon Knight this Halloween. It rules.
The post Snoop Dogg In A B-List Horror Movie Is The Weirdest Thing You’ll See This Halloween appeared first on HERB.
from HERB http://ift.tt/2z3blq2
via IFTTT
Monday 30 October 2017
Sunday 29 October 2017
Saturday 28 October 2017
Friday 27 October 2017
These Veterans Think Armchair Politicians Shouldn’t Tell Them Weed Isn’t Medicine
There’s a wave of change happening in the military, and it is being led by its own rank and file. Veterans like John Tescione, Shamus O’ Reilly, and Bruce Frampton say that medical cannabis has helped to improve and even save their lives.
“A life without cannabis,” says John, an 18-year Canadian veteran, “I would be an alcoholic, and I would be dead eventually.” It’s a fate that finds many returning veterans. Nearly half of service members in the US report binge drinking according to National Institute on Drug Abuse. The rate of opioid addiction among vets is also over two times that of the civilian population according to statistics from the US Department of Defense.
The cocktail of opioids that are currently prescribed by doctors have come to be known among veterans as, “zombie drugs” for their cataleptic effects. But most veterans who return from deployment just want a chance to live a normal life, not a sedated one.
Unfortunately, as these vets point out, the generational stigma around cannabis has misinformed their friends and family and resulted in some broken relationships – all over their choice of medicine.
“How people think about the high that you get from cannabis has really been distorted.” Shamus insists.
Most recently, that distortion has led to a change in policy in Canada, where marijuana will be legal recreationally in 2018. A new policy from Veterans Affairs Canada, announced in May, has the lowered the daily limit for prescription coverage from 10 grams a day to just three. The reason? A review from VA found that that the cost of medical cannabis had increased significantly over the past ten years because of an increase in use.
So it would appear that as veterans are turning to marijuana, the government is turning away. The VA’s new policy does allow for vets to receive uninsured cannabis elsewhere. The only issue is the last Operational Stress Injury (OSI) clinic in the country to offer medical cannabis stopped doing so in January.
“These are people,” Dr. Anthony Njoku of the Fredericton OSI clinic told CBC, “who are struggling. You don’t want to be the one who’s added on top of that all in the vain attempt at helping them. You then end up making them much worse.”
This closure comes despite the fact that the science is out, and a wide range of studies have fallen consistently on the side of marijuana’s therapeutic effects.
In the U.S., the situation is even more difficult for vets. The VA has recently changed their policy, but not in any way that could meaningfully get veterans their medicine. Those who receive their healthcare from the VA are now allowed to consult a doctor about the use of cannabis – though the VA still won’t cover that medicine, even if the doctor recommends it.
It’s a policy that appears to hinge on internal frustration. The VA knows its veterans have been advocating for this medicine, but its hands are tied by federal law which lists it as a Schedule 1 drug with no medical benefits.
“There may be some evidence that this is beginning to be helpful,” VA Secretary David Shulkin said in a statement made in the spring of 2017, “but until the time that federal law changes, we are not able to prescribe medical marijuana for conditions that may be helpful.”
For the more than 9 million veterans enrolled in the VA’s health care system, that conflicting policy has forced them to look elsewhere, and has also shaken their faith in the system itself.
“Vets who have to deal with the VA should be given weed just to treat the frustration of having to deal with a shitty health care system,” One U.S. Marine Staff Sargent and Iraq War veteran who wished to remain anonymous told HERB, “it should be prescribed to us just for having to put up with the VA.”
He agrees – as Shamus points out – that PTSD has a broad definition and could mean anything from PTSD flashbacks to depression. But the Staff Sargent says believes it’s because very little research has been done on the condition – especially when it comes to treatment with cannabis. The legal maze the federal government has built around medical cannabis has even prevented the VA from participating in a study specifically designed to test whether cannabis could help veterans with PTSD.
Instead, he says, those decisions are being left to anti-cannabis politicians which he believes should count as a conflict of interest.
“Those decisions are being made by someone in Washington,” He says, “who has never served in the military, never seen battle, never had PTSD, has never smoked weed in their lives and are only against it out of some misguided policy their party has established – maybe we shouldn’t be letting them decide what kind of medicine we need.”
The post These Veterans Think Armchair Politicians Shouldn’t Tell Them Weed Isn’t Medicine appeared first on HERB.
from HERB http://ift.tt/2hiacTW
via IFTTT
This Eco-Village Will Make You Want To Ditch Society’s Stresses For Unbridled Freedom (Photos)
In 2015, photographer Kevin Faingnaert traveled to the mountains of northwest Spain to explore and record a small, isolated “ecovillage” called Matavenero.
The old mining town was initially abandoned in the late 1960s after a forest fire, but sprang back to life in 1989 when a group of five German friends came in without “even the grand idea to start an ecovillage.” They were joined later by a few Danish people from the self-declared sovereign Copenhagen town of Christiania, and the town has since swelled to about 60 people, all of whom share one desktop computer. Cell service is available—a 30-minute hike up a hill. The town runs its own Twitter and Facebook accounts to reach out to others who might be interested in joining the cause.
Despite how isolated it is, the town is a functioning one. Matavenero has a school, “a shop that sells staples such as rice, tobacco, juice, and fresh vegetables from the village gardens,” a bakery, and even “a communal sauna and […] library.” Residents are bound by the goal of transforming the way they live their lives, “[sharing] a green philosophy to live as ecological[ly], autonomous[ly], and self-sufficient[ly] as possible—though this varies strongly from person to person.”
When asked why people wanted to move to such a small, isolated place, Faignaert explained to HERB that they were, “tired of the bustle of modern life. They all had […] decent job[s], but quit to live somewhere else. […] They heard about Spain’s many abandoned villages and headed out to look for one where they could settle in. I guess Matavanero was the most scenic and remote.”
“They wanted to live more slowly and closer to nature. According to the people in Matavenero, many of us grow increasingly disillusioned with our money-and-machines approach to the world. We are not free.”
“In Matavenero, they don’t live for work or money.”
“This sense of freedom really binds them together. They’re together living their dream. They’re all people who are transforming their ideals into deeds and hard work.”
The village has largely been cobbled together by its inhabitants, honoring the true pioneering and self-starting ethos of the entire operation. “The houses are built on a mountain flank. Most of them are built with natural and recycled materials. Some are built from scratch, and some are rebuilt from the ruins of the original village.”
“Some are crappy make-shift buildings that won’t last long; some are very well-built. There’s definitely a lot of creativity in each design.”
Out of the whole town, one building, in particular, held Faingnaert’s attention the most. “At the bottom of the village, there’s a big yellow geometric dome. It’s the place where celebrations are held.” Something about the dome seemed spiritual and mesmerizing to the photographer. “You see the dome from everywhere. I could watch that dome for hours. It looks so beautiful and surreal in the landscape.”
Matavenero is proof that sometimes happiness emerges from simplicity. Faingnaert says “I haven’t returned, but one day I will.”
The post This Eco-Village Will Make You Want To Ditch Society’s Stresses For Unbridled Freedom (Photos) appeared first on HERB.
from HERB http://ift.tt/2gMPbUs
via IFTTT
Thursday 26 October 2017
You Know Times Are Changing When A Cop Returns A Man’s Dropped Weed-Stash
Police aren’t necessarily known for their lax attitude towards cannabis—arresting over seven million people for cannabis possession from 2001 to 2010. But in bodycam footage shared on World Star Hip Hop, one man was lucky enough to encounter a bicycle cop who didn’t seem to want to make a possession arrest.
The video shows the man dropping his stash on the ground while fumbling around with his shoe.
“Doing alright?” The cop asks.
“Yeah,” explains the man, worried. “I’m selling this shoe.”
“Uh-huh,” remarks the policeman with doubt in his voice. “Did you drop something?”
“Hmm? No,” answers the man, shuffling around.
“Take a step back,” orders the cop, pointing into the man’s chest. He picks up a black bag that the man had dropped and moves it to reveal a small baggie lying on the ground. The cop then casually remarks, “Eh, that’s just marijuana, put that away.” The lucky man continues to smoke his cigarette and brushes some ash off of his coat with the shoe he was “selling.”
“These are size 13,” the man continues his story even though he’s been let off of the hook, “I’m trying to sell ‘em. How you doin’ over there?”
“Doin’ great,” the policeman responds.
“Good job.”
“Just remember not to display it or smoke it in public,” the cop begins to turn away towards someone else who’s being ticketed. “Thanks.”
The fight for cops to enforce state, not federal, pot laws
Unlike in places like Los Angeles, where some local ordinances permit marijuana smoking in public and cops seem to simply largely ignore the act, it’s technically still illegal in the recreation-approved state to smoke in public. The penalties are pretty lenient, though, with fines of $27—the same as drinking in public. Smoking in private spaces depends on the owner of the property allowing it, and there’s no smoking allowed at “places of employment.” Naturally, you also can’t drive high—or smoke as a passenger.
In a 2007 op-ed, Dominic Holden of the Stranger’s Slog blog detailed “a three-justice panel from [California’s] 4th District Court of Appeal” ruling that police should enforce state laws about marijuana (which at the time was only available in a medical capacity) and not federal ones. The District Court of Appeal argued that the police should return the confiscated 8 grams, while the town of Garden Grove claimed that it would be “a violation of federal law.”
But, the justices explained,
“It must be remembered it is not the job of the local police to enforce the federal drug laws as such. For reasons we have explained, state courts can only reach conduct subject to federal law if such conduct also transcends state law, which in this case it does not.”
Arguably, the cop in this video could’ve gotten into a similar snafu had he taken the pot (which may have been medical). There seems to be nothing on the books about displaying pot in public, only not smoking it, which is confusing considering the officer’s claim that the man shouldn’t have his weed out. Granted it’s always safer not to show your weed to police regardless of state laws, but the cop may have just been practicing pragmatism to make sure that he didn’t get into trouble with the court.
Regardless of the reasoning, this man definitely lucked out. Just make sure you don’t take the same chance—and if you do get yourself into this situation, maybe come up with a better alibi than selling your shoes.
The post You Know Times Are Changing When A Cop Returns A Man’s Dropped Weed-Stash appeared first on HERB.
from HERB http://ift.tt/2i8sLd9
via IFTTT
Wednesday 25 October 2017
Tuesday 24 October 2017
Monday 23 October 2017
Sunday 22 October 2017
Saturday 21 October 2017
Friday 20 October 2017
Thursday 19 October 2017
Wednesday 18 October 2017
Tuesday 17 October 2017
These Badass Mothers Are Resisting The DEA By Starting A Suburban CBD Oil Revolution
Last year, through a sneaky bureaucratic maneuver, the DEA took steps to deny medical cannabis patients critical access to CBD oil, despite research that shows promising therapeutic affects for a myriad of different afflictions. Even while medical cannabis gains scientific legitimacy, it still faces political scrutiny.
Many medical marijuana patients turn to CBD oil as an alternative to smoking. Wendy Lockman from Atlanta did exactly that on a trip to Europe. Since she couldn’t travel with her medicine, her son bought her some CBD oil from a store in Switzerland to treat her fibromyalgia. While she was initially wary of the effectiveness of CBD oil, since that trip months ago, Lockman says “I don’t have to smoke weed anymore.”
Lockman went to CBD oil because of her experience with traditional pharmaceuticals that treat fibromyalgia, specifically Pregabalin. “I felt like I was crazy on that stuff. I wouldn’t recommend it for anybody,” she said.
CBD oil is such a fundamental part of Lockman’s health regimen that she learned how to make it herself, and stockpiles it, in case of a government crackdown.
“No matter what, I’m going to use it until it stops working,” says Lockman.
The fear of a government crackdown is not unfounded. Last year the DEA clarified it’s position on CBD oil stating that, despite its non-psychoactivity, it is no different than any other cannabis product.
That lack of distinction combined with an Attorney General who thinks marijuana is only used by morally flawed people puts the legal status of CBD oil in jeopardy. The irony here is many people who use CBD would like the government to become more actively involved in research, much like the support lent by Israel to its MMJ research programs
Kelly Woods uses CBD oil to treat her muscle spasms. At first, she just took ibuprofen, but the pain caused her to take too much too often, and it affected her digestive track. “The pharmaceutical route solved one symptom but caused another,” she recalled.
Like Lockman, Woods makes her own CBD oil as well, but for different reasons. Because CBD oil isn’t regulated, figuring out exactly how much of the cannabinoid is actually in a given solution can be difficult. “There are a lot of companies out there that have fantastic marketing, but really low-end products,” she said.
This uncertainty has Woods wishing for more control over her medication intake, though she recognizes that government control could have adverse effects if married with corporate profiteering. “It’s a double-edged sword if the government took more control. But I hope it will be regulated,” she said.
Others fear what may become of CBD oil not for themselves, but for their children.In Texas, Jill Pollard is one such person. Pollard’s daughter has a host of different medical issues. “You could call her a medically complex child,” she says.
Pollard was already curious about CBD oil. In her research, she had come across it online, but that was never enough to persuade her to try it for her family. “I don’t think I ever would have touched it if it weren’t for a doctor’s recommendation.”
After her daughter had a seizure, doctors diagnosed her with a seizure disorder and prescribed a popular pharmaceutical. It stopped the seizures, but the side-effects were totally debilitating.”They gave her powerful stuff, especially for a three-year-old,” she said. To stop this she sought a second opinion. Her new doctor prescribed CBD oil. His theory was the seizures weren’t the result of traditional epilepsy, but rather the result of brain inflammation.
After spending a few weeks weaning off the side-effect inducing pharmaceutical and transitioning onto CBD oil, not only did her daughter not suffer any more seizures, she showed significant cognitive improvements. “She sleeps better. She eats better, and our main goal for the past five years has been to keep her off a feeding tube,” Pollard says.
But Pollard is not only nervous about the legal implications of using CBD oil to treat her child. A friend of hers, who also uses CBD oil to treat their child, was reported to Child Services. “They accused her of doping her child. She’s a wonderful, hardworking mother,” Pollard says.
“We’re law-abiding citizens. But for whatever reason, they just don’t want this miracle product on the market.” Like many people in similar situation, Pollard understands that morality and legality are not always synonymous
The post These Badass Mothers Are Resisting The DEA By Starting A Suburban CBD Oil Revolution appeared first on HERB.
from HERB http://ift.tt/2iiNOx8
via IFTTT
Monday 16 October 2017
Can We Get A Slow Clap? Harvard Is Getting A Little Less Whitewashed
Harvard University has been in the news a lot recently after rescinding a fellowship offered to Chelsea Manning and then hiring Trump’s ex-Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
In a separate incident, two male Harvard history professors complained to the administration when a qualified Black female doctoral applicant who had served a prison sentence applied to the doctoral program. They argued that “Fox News would probably say that P.C. liberal Harvard gave 200 grand of funding to a child murderer.” The applicant was swiftly rejected.
While Harvard has done its fair share of capitulation to the cis, white patriarchy, it is notable that the university’s incoming freshman class is majority non-white.
While the BBC claims that this is the first time in 381 years that this has been the case, the LA Times picked up on official numbers from the Harvard Gazette that show that not only is this not the first year that minorities are the majority, the numbers are actually down from last year. This year’s minority admissions are at 50.8%, whereas last year’s were 51.4%.
Harvard spokeswoman Rachel Dane said the numbers in the Gazette were accurate. –Ann M. Simmons and Melissa Etehad
2017’s breakdown is still notable, at 22.2% Asian American, 14.6% African American, 11.6% Hispanic and Latino, and 2.5% Native American and Pacific Islander. 15.1% are first-generation students. Harvard is also one of the schools where men and women are generally admitted at equal rates.
The legal battle over diversity
Despite seemingly dropping minority admission numbers, Harvard has still come under fire for its acceptance policies. CNN reports that the Department of Justice is exploring a complaint
Filed by a coalition of 64 Asian-American associations in May 2015 [which] “alleges racial discrimination against Asian-Americans in [Harvard’s] admissions policy and practices.” say Nancy Coleman and Sarah Isgur Flores.
The complaint may seem strange considering that Asian Americans dominate the spread of minority admissions. It challenges the basic structure of Affirmative Action, arguing that “the Supreme Court was misled” and that there was
An elaborate mechanism [in place to hide] Harvard’s systematic campaign of racial and ethnic discrimination against certain disfavored classes of applicants […] created for the specific purpose of discriminating against Jewish applicants [and used] today […] to hide intentional discrimination against Asian Americans- Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College
It’s a hefty claim and Harvard, for its part, has denied all allegations, which are also alleged to include “admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants”:
Harvard spokeswoman Melodie Jackson said in a statement that the college’s admissions process “considers each applicant as a whole person” and is “consistent with the legal standards established by the US Supreme Court.” writes Nancy Coleman
And though the minority admissions numbers haven’t set a record overall this year, there are some communities who have had higher acceptance rates: Latino and Hispanic applicants, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders and, interestingly enough considering the lawsuit, Asian Americans.
The post Can We Get A Slow Clap? Harvard Is Getting A Little Less Whitewashed appeared first on HERB.
from HERB http://ift.tt/2zrro0V
via IFTTT
Sunday 15 October 2017
This 63-Year-Old Woman Built A House Entirely Out Of Hemp To Prove A Point About Climate Change
As human-caused climate change pushes us ever further to meteorological extremes, the tendency is to reach for advanced technological solutions. But Pamela Bosch believes we can achieve some of the same solutions without some romantic, sci-fi, Elon-Musk style technological breakthrough. We just need to fundamentally rethink the function of the home.
Bosch, an artist, and environmental activist, started researching hempcrete in 2015, a bio-composite mixture of hemp and lime, which can be used as insulation.
Bosch believes that hemp has the potential to be the perfect building material: cheap, well-insulated, mold free and pest resistant. Most importantly, the material’s ability to trap heat in the winter, and keep the house cool in the summer, means it has an exceptional potential to save energy.
As Bosch writes on her website, “While building with hemp and lime is a bit novel, the awareness that we need to change the way we build and consume energy is an urgent reality. According to the US Department of Energy, buildings in North America account for 39% of the consumed energy. This needs to change.”
Scientists have declared humanities transgression into a new geological age—or epoch—called the Anthropocene, which is defined by humans’ extreme impact on the planet and its atmosphere. As such, thinking critically about our everyday relationship to our environment will be essential. Research has shown energy efficiency to be an indispensable tool for preventing catastrophic climate change. It is by far our most ubiquitous, inexpensive and immediate resource. It’s also the easiest to implement. The cumulative effects that a nationwide, energy efficiency campaign would have on the economy could be astronomical.
In order to demonstrate the feasibility of hempcrete as a material, Bosch decided to construct an entire home out of the material, which should be finished this upcoming spring. According to Bosch, hempcrete is extremely easy to make.
How to make hempcrete
Bosch gives the recipe in full to Dope Magazine, which basically involves mixing hemp, lime, and water together in a cement mixer, getting it to the right consistency, then using it the same as you would concrete. The end result is a look that isn’t too different from stucco.
On her website, Bosch muses about how we must necessarily change our living habits to protect ourselves from climate change, and how these changes might spill into other aspects of our life. There’s no reason why our quality of life cannot grow in tandem with environmental conscientiousness.
“So, as the Hemp House was envisioned, the role of the single-family home in the setting of a small urban environment was contemplated.” As Bosch concludes on her website. “Can this ever ubiquitous bastion of American life transition to a future that supports a more integrated humanity? How should our contemporary castles of middle-America hold the spaces or be the places where we learn to thrive in balance with our living environment? How can our living spaces support our adaptation to a less consumptive way of living that is also of higher quality?”
Bosch’s project seems to suggest that hempcrete can provide a solution to at least some of these questions.
The post This 63-Year-Old Woman Built A House Entirely Out Of Hemp To Prove A Point About Climate Change appeared first on HERB.
from HERB http://ift.tt/2xHsqsp
via IFTTT
Saturday 14 October 2017
Friday 13 October 2017
Thursday 12 October 2017
Research Says Cannabis May Revitalize Elderly Brains And Help Fight Dementia
Using marijuana gives way to paranoia, and paranoia gives way to frightening Google searches about the long-term effects of marijuana. Up until now, those search results have been less than uplifting. But new research has demonstrated a connection between using marijuana and higher brain function in the elderly and may give insight into how to treat dementia.
This new study was led by Andreas Zimmer from Germany’s University of Bonn. The research, which was recently published in the journal Nature Medicine, divulges the impacts of marijuana on the elderly mouse brain.
According to research from the University of Bonn, THC might help reverse the aging of the elderly brain and fight memory-related diseases like dementia.
Researchers gave mice aged two months, twelve months, and 18 months old THC over the course of a month. Keep in mind, the average lifespan of a mouse is about two years, so the 18-month-old mice are elderly in mice years. The amount of THC administered was relatively small (and reportedly not enough to get the mice high, in the way you’re familiar with.)
While young mice were adversely affected by THC—displaying signs of decreased memory and learning capacities—elderly mice thrived. In fact, it was like turning their brains back in time to their most youthful, and highly functioning age. Connections between brain cells became more active. Memory and learning capacities were boosted. Signs of brain aging were reversed.
“We repeated these experiments many times,” says Zimmer to New Scientist. “It’s a very robust and profound effect.”
These results were discovered by subjecting mice to tests such as complex mazes, and capacity for facial recognition (of other mice they had met before).
You might be tempted to use these findings to justify encouraging your grandparents to get high with you.
But, as Susan Weiss, director of the Division of Extramural Research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse tells Scientific American, it’s important not to jump to conclusions too fast. While mice are often used for lab tests due to their biological and behavioral similarities to humans, they are, quite simply, not humans. Further research is necessary to find out whether these findings also apply to the human brain.
It’s also important to note that unlike CBD—which has become widely popular for medical use due to its lack of psychoactive properties—the cannabinoid used in this study was THC. This means that if the research findings here can be extrapolated and applied to humans, getting “high” will likely be necessary to reap these potential benefits. Depending on whether or not you enjoy this feeling, this is either a huge benefit or major roadblock to medicinal use.
Still, the study’s findings are remarkable. As Scientific American writes, the result of administering THC to elderly mice was that “neurons in the hippocampus—a brain area critical for learning and memory—had sprouted more synaptic spines, the points of contact for communication between neurons.”
“It’s a quite striking finding,” Says Zimmer to New Scientist.
Researchers see this study opening new avenues for further research into diseases that affect aging brains, like dementia. It’s strange to imagine considering weed usually makes one forgetful and easily confused, but breakthrough research is usually counterintuitive. Hopefully, further research can confirm these theories. Until then, I would hold off on asking your gram and gramps to light one up.
The post Research Says Cannabis May Revitalize Elderly Brains And Help Fight Dementia appeared first on HERB.
from HERB http://ift.tt/2zjv8RU
via IFTTT
Wednesday 11 October 2017
Tuesday 10 October 2017
Monday 9 October 2017
Sunday 8 October 2017
Saturday 7 October 2017
If You Can’t Eat Due To Nausea, Then Smoke These Strains To Munch The F*ck Out
On the grueling days when nausea has you squirming, it can be hard to concentrate, motivate yourself, and least of all eat. For some people, this paralyzing state of affairs is called Sunday morning, but for others, it can be a recurring bout of illness that rears its head for no apparent reason. The solution is not always simple, and there’s something altogether unwholesome about knocking back a whole jug of neon pink feel-good juice.
So, what are we to do about that sick-to-your-stomach feeling? If you’ve come this far you already know that the answer is cannabis, but what are the strains that will help the most when it comes to nausea?
Jack Herer
This Sativa-dominant hybrid is named for the author of the Emperor Wears No Clothes – who was also known as the Emperor of Hemp. As a medical strain, we could hardly pass this one up since it was created by Sensi Seeds and distributed to pharmacies in the Netherlands in the 90s. With somewhat of an even blend between Indica and Sativa, this strain will help lift your spirit without launching you totally into the clouds. Often recommended to cancer patients it is sure to take care of that dizzying feeling within a few minutes.
OG Kush
If you want something to eliminate that sick to your stomach feeling, but you’d still like to keep your head spinning this is the strain for you. A hybrid of legendary status OG Kush will cure what ails you with a burst of energy or a good nap depending on the phenotype you prefer. Just make sure you keep it locked away somewhere airtight because this strain has a distinct and powerful aroma. On the upside, it’s fast acting and will leave you feeling blissful, as if you were walking in the woods, while you’re melting into your couch.
Sour Diesel
Another legendary strain Sour Diesel is Sativa that is a top choice among medical patients. People usually like this strain for its energetic high and migraine relief, but its effect on appetite and nausea will have you raiding the fridge in no time. As the name might suggest, Sour Diesel has quite a strong aroma. While many call It the perfect daytime strain because of its uplifting qualities, it does have the potential to knock you out in higher doses.
Berry White
This Indica is as sweet and smooth as its R&B namesake. It will take care of your nausea and hold you comfortably for a few hours. What it probably won’t do is write you a song, but you could always throw something on while you relax and enjoy. Heavy on the munchies, this strain will surely bring back your appetite while lighting a fuse in your brain that’ll have your thoughts flowing quite freely. The head high for Berry White might make it a little difficult to concentrate, but its sweet flor is a fair tradeoff. The strain brings with it a mellow body high without gluing you to the couch like other Indicas.
Chemo
If all else fails, go with chemo. This BC born strain of Indica was said to have been created by scientists to fight the side-effects of chemotherapy. Short of being hit over the head with a pine tree this is the closest you’ll come to being knocked out by something with a strong foresty aroma. A small dose will take care of your nausea since that is what it was designed to do. Just don’t make any plans for the night and be sure to stock your kitchen. As many patients have attested this strain will help you to think clearly, but you may have to wait a while before acting on those thoughts – unless it’s a trip to the fridge. In any case, this strain will bring back your appetite with a vengeance. The only downside is that some consider Chemo to have a harsh citrus bite which might make vaping the best option.
The post If You Can’t Eat Due To Nausea, Then Smoke These Strains To Munch The F*ck Out appeared first on HERB.
from HERB http://ift.tt/2xq9ZU8
via IFTTT
This Is How Elizabeth Warren Is Fighting For Your Right To Get High
It seems like a strange irony that a 7 billion dollar industry is unable to gain access to the banking system in the United States. Especially when the businesses trying to open a checking account are perfectly legal within their state. This is the reality of the legal cannabis industry, where business is conducted in cash while heaps of it are sent to the IRS every year. If that seems like a strange set of circumstances, that’s because it is and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts thinks so too.
Warren’s home state voted to legalize recreational use in November becoming one of 28 states that have legalized either medical or recreational use. But the federal government continues to classify marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act. As a result, federal regulations which govern banking have made financial institutions wary of the money that their regulators still consider dirty.
This legal grey area has left those in the cannabis industry on a virtual banking blacklist, unable to do business without the use of cash or private vetting services like Hypur, a background checking service which acts as a middleman between businesses and banks.
As a member of the Senate’s Banking Committee, Warren and nine other senators sent a letter to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in December of 2016.
The letter points out that it’s more than just growers and dispensaries that are affected. Chemists, security guards, and even lawyers have been denied bank account and credit card applications because of their association with the industry.
The letter goes on to say that preventing these legitimate businesses from accessing the country’s banking system, “serves no one’s interest” pointing out that such a policy invites more criminal activity rather than preventing it.
Considering that many of these businesses are forced to hold massive amounts of cash, they are exposed to robberies while also being expected to report their income to tax collectors that consider them an illegal industry.
“It’s just a plain old safety issue.” Warren has said, “You don’t want people walking in with guns and masks and saying, ‘Give me all your cash.’”
As the result of changes made by the Treasury Department under former President Barrack Obama, the number of banks that have opened their doors to the cannabis industry rose from 51 to 301 in just two years. However, the current administration with it’s tough on drugs policy seems unlikely to help Warren and her colleagues to increase that number.
In addition to the opposition, she may face from the White House and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a long-time opponent of legalization; Warren also faces debate in the Senate. Among those opponents is Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) who tweeted in criticism of Warren’s letter claiming it was the reason Democrats have lost recent elections.
Her priorities? Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to pull pot shops out of banking limbo https://t.co/l63hRPJBUP
— JohnCornyn (@JohnCornyn) January 3, 2017
No wonders Ds are losing https://t.co/ESlFU1FP6k
— JohnCornyn (@JohnCornyn) January 3, 2017
Despite the criticism from Republicans, Warren gained some serious cred among her own party when she became a vocal critic of President Trump both before and after the election. name is even being thrown around as a potential presidential candidate in 2020.
Warren’s name is even being thrown around as a potential presidential candidate in 2020. For now, she’s fighting for the rights of canna-businesses with the know-how of someone who spent 20 years as a professor at Harvard Law School.
Under the current administration, it seems unlikely that Warren’s efforts will result in any major policy changes. With both the House and Senate under Republican control, the best bet for the senator and her allies is the coming 2018 election. That contest will be an opportunity for pro-cannabis candidates to take control of the lawmaking arm of government and ensure some real changes take place.
Still, for anyone who has seen Senator Warren in action, it has to be encouraging to have someone on your side of critical cannabis access. The cannabis industry still has a long way to go regarding winning over Washington (even though it’s legal in the District) and Senator Warren is bringing us all that much closer.
The post This Is How Elizabeth Warren Is Fighting For Your Right To Get High appeared first on HERB.
from HERB http://ift.tt/2z6C9pa
via IFTTT
A Pharmaceutical Company Faked Cancer Patients For Over 3 Years To Sell Lethal Fentanyl
When pharmaceutical company Insys Therapeutics realized their new cancer pain medication, Subsys, wasn’t as profitable as they expected, they settled on a chilling solution—artificially expand the customer base.
Subsys, a sprayable form of fentanyl, is a potent opioid intended to help cancer patients who are experiencing “breakthrough pain.” Last week, an unbelievable report from a congressional investigation into Insys, lead by Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo), revealed that Insys employees had been calling insurance companies and posing as doctors to obtain coverage for Subsys for customers, many of which did not even have cancer.
The risk of addiction and overdose of Subsys is so high that the Food and Drug Administration has mandated special training for doctors who wish to prescribe the drug. Tragically, Insys’ sales of the medication have already resulted in one fatal overdose. The woman involved in this case, Sarah Fuller of New Jersey, was prescribed Subsys by her doctor after an Insys employee had obtained insurance coverage by posing as a doctor in a phone call to Fuller’s insurance provider. In a recording of the phone call, the employee can be heard using wordplay to make Fuller’s insurance provider believe she had cancer, without explicitly saying so. For example, when the employee was asked for Fuller’s diagnosis, she gives the impression she is reading through Fuller’s file and mumbles that Subsys is “intended for the management of breakthrough cancer pain,” followed by the diagnosis code. The insurer on the other end of the phone takes this as an indication that Fuller has cancer, and later attempts to confirm the diagnosis. The employee responds by saying that the prescription is “for breakthrough pain, yeah,” while omitting the word “cancer.”
You can listen to the full interaction, which was made available by CNN, here.
Fuller’s tragic case is unfortunately far from the only instance of fatal fentanyl overdoses. The opioid epidemic currently facing the U.S. has already resulted in the deaths of 183,000 Americans between 1999 and 2015 and continues to claim the lives of tens of thousands of Americans each year.
Statistics from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that “[d]rug deaths involving fentanyl more than doubled from 2015 to 2016.”
The death rate for opioid overdoses obtained over the black market has skyrocketed in recent years, thanks in part to the proliferation of fentanyl. Insys’ crime is particularly appalling in this context.
Last December in Boston, six former Insys executives, including the company’s former CEO, pleaded guilty after being indicted on fraud and racketeering charges. While no decision has been reached on their case, other employees including regional managers for Insys have since pleaded guilty, and given statements about how sales staff were trained to bribe doctors into increasing the volume of Insys products they prescribed to patients.
While the investigation is ongoing, the case has quickly become one of the most horrendous pharmaceutical scandals in recent memory. McCaskill is currently involved in a “wide-ranging investigation into the business practices of the manufacturers of America’s top-five prescription opioid products.” The investigation hopes to determine how other manufacturers of opioids might also be contributing to this deadly epidemic.
The post A Pharmaceutical Company Faked Cancer Patients For Over 3 Years To Sell Lethal Fentanyl appeared first on HERB.
from HERB http://ift.tt/2y2Kuu1
via IFTTT
Salvador Dali’s Illustrations of Alice in Wonderland Will Ruin Your Childhood
If Salvador Dali was anything, he was a rule breaker. He completed art school but didn’t graduate because his oral exam response to a single prompt about Raphael was that he knew the Old Master’s work better than the proctors. His art was no different in its attitude: operating by its own rules and within its own language.
After being expelled again, this time from the surrealist movement for his apoliticism, Dali responded simply, “I myself am surrealism.” He developed “nuclear mysticism” as a response to atomic warfare and Einstein’s theories of relativity, splintering his iconography in a near-psychedelic frenzy. And he even dabbled in pop art with work like the macabre, large-scale “Portrait of My Dead Brother.”
Dali was no stranger to shapeshifting. So it was no surprise that when he was commissioned in 1968-69 by a Random House editor to illustrate an edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, he came out with a new and exciting style.
The images are startling and wonderful in their own way, even featuring callbacks to Dali’s earlier work. Many of the twelve main pictures show Alice as an incidental figure, a small ballerina-like girl with impossibly long hands extending above her head. This image is featured in Dali’s earlier work, including 1934-36’s “Morphological Echo”: an isolated figure in Dali’s strange wastelands much like Alice was within Wonderland. Alice seems to simply be there, an incidental participant, someone to whom things are happening and not someone with much agency—an interpretation echoed in Carroll’s book.
An image of two knight-servants holding cards shows little Alice under the feet of the knight holding the splotched Red Queen’s image, itself a callback to Dali’s 1923 “Portrait of My Sister.” In a way, it’s as though we are reading Carroll’s Wonderland through Dali’s mind, intertwined with his back catalog of thoughts and images. Alice—both as the thin Dalian figure and Carroll’s character—exists simultaneously within the book and outside of it within readers’ minds, both inside Wonderland and in the garden while asleep and dreaming next to her sister.
The images are psychedelic and haunting, with an ominous foreboding exuded by Carroll but not by the original illustrator of the book, John Tenniel. While Tenniel’s work aimed to clarify scenes, Dali’s compresses them into one image—Alice’s arm sticking out of a house while a caterpillar climbs up its stairs, for instance. It reflects Dali’s propensity for the collision of themes that initially seem disharmonious, and in a way mirrors the horror of the unknown that Carroll and children’s storytellers before him seemed to aim for.
(And for those wondering—yes, Dali’s illustrations influenced the mid-70s Alice in Wonderland series by Hunter S. Thompson’s illustrator Ralph Steadman.)
The post Salvador Dali’s Illustrations of Alice in Wonderland Will Ruin Your Childhood appeared first on HERB.
from HERB http://ift.tt/2y7vkVV
via IFTTT
Friday 6 October 2017
If Your 9 to 5 is Crushing Your Soul, These Strains Will Cure Your Stress
After you’ve just worked a full day at a stressful job, sitting on your couch, and remembering it’s only Monday is a soul-crushing experience. Advocates of shorter work weeks refer to numerous studies that demonstrate that the nine-to-five grind can not only have health implications but is not necessarily productive.
Hopefully, logic will eventually prevail and encourage more employers to implement more reasonable work schedules. But until then, from contractors to television personalities, the first thing many do when they get home from their nine-to-five job is to reach for their stash to decompress.
These strains, in particular, have the power to boost your mood, cure your sorrows and heal your soul:
1. Blue Dream
Blue Dream is a Sativa-dominant strain that combines the relaxing experience of the Indica-dominant Blueberry and the uplifting, mood-boosting properties of Sativa-dominant Haze. It’s no shocker then that the two leading effects of this strain are relaxation and happiness. It’s also known to target depression and stress. So if you’re fed up with life in the East Coast urban meat-grinder, Blue Dream will give you a perfect dose of the laid-back West Coast lifestyle.
2. Pineapple Express
Yes, it’s a real strain. And yes, it’s incredible. Pineapple Express, a cross between the hybrid Trainwreck and Sativa-dominant Hawaiian, is a go-to strain for those experiencing depression. If you use Pineapple Express, you should expect to get an instant uptick in mood—the strain’s prominent effects are happiness and uplifting euphoria. Just like Blue Dream, this strain is also fantastic for treating stress and depression. In fact, the only downside to Pineapple Express is the possibility of cotton mouth. With consistently fantastic reviews from users, Pineapple Express has the added novelty of being the weed that sparked a Seth Rogen blockbuster. In fact, you might just say this is “the dopest dope” you’ll ever smoke.
3. Blue Diesel
Remember when you first started smoking weed, and you couldn’t talk to a grocery store clerk or gas station attendant without bursting into an uncontrollable fit of giggles? If you’re looking to laugh, Blue Diesel is the strain for you. This strain is a cross between the Indica-dominant Blueberry and Sativa-dominant NYC Diesel. Users of this strain should expect a nice, relaxing body buzz without the “couch-locked” experience of other, heavy Indica strains. If you just got home from an important meeting only to discover you had a strand of spinach stuck in your teeth the whole time, you’ll want to take a puff of Blue Diesel. Laughter might be the best medicine, but Blue Diesel is the best medicine for laughter.
4. Durban Poison
If your nine-to-five job involves hard labor leaving you exhausted at the end of the day, Durban Poison is for you. This strain is renowned for its energy-boosting properties. This is probably due to the high level of THCV in Durban Poison, a cannabinoid that works to restore energy and offers a clear-headed, euphoric high that dissolves stress. Users of this strain often compare it to drinking a strong cup of coffee. So if you’ve been drinking coffee all day to get you through work, and you don’t want any more caffeine in your system, this strain will keep you going throughout the afternoon. The top effects of Durban Poison are a surge in energy and uplifted mood.
5. Laughing Buddha
If you’re looking for a practitioner to cure your spiritual fatigue, who better than the Buddha of weed strains? This strain is another excellent choice for those looking to indulge in non-stop laughter. The Laughing Buddha is a Sativa-dominant strain and winner of the 2003 High Times Cannabis Cup. Its parent strains are the Sativa-dominant Thai and Jamaican. The Laughing Buddha has a euphoric effect that will leave users feeling giggly and carefree. If your nine-to-five job is crushing your soul, killing your vibe and making you wonder what it’s all worth, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better therapist than the Laughing Buddha.
The post If Your 9 to 5 is Crushing Your Soul, These Strains Will Cure Your Stress appeared first on HERB.
from HERB http://ift.tt/2wClHeL
via IFTTT
This Engineering Masterpiece Lets You Smoke a Bowl and Chug a Beer Simultaneously
Canada is a big, cold and desolate place. Seven months of the year, the entire country is nearly devoid of joy. But in these cold, dead winters people come together… usually to get drunk and smoke weed. For one group of friends, these circumstances invited a challenge: is it possible to take a hit of weed and chug a beer at the same time?
“Originally, we were just trying to make something to chug a beer real fast,” says Alex Mullen who is a co-creator of The Knockout, and currently manages the business.
With engineering backgrounds, The creators of The Knockout were uniquely skilled in designing the ultimate intoxication tool.
They knew that a straw in a beer bottle creates a low-pressure environment inside the bottle, forcing air and beer through the straw. This is the way all beer bongs and other chugging aides work. But partiers have known to put a straw in a beer to make it easier to chug for decades. The real breakthrough came when the group noticed an inefficiency in that process.
“We thought, what if instead of air, smoke went through,” Mullen says.
So, they slapped a one-hitter bowl at the of the straw, and the Knockout was born. They didn’t think anyone had done this before, and they were pretty psyched. But after, “thoroughly testing the product,” according to Mullen, they saw it could turn any glass bottle into a bong. Then they realized they had a disruptive invention on their hands. That was four years ago, and the Knockout has enjoyed a steady following ever since.
Even Snoop Dogg hailed The Knockout as one of the greatest weed-inventions he has ever seen.
Almost immediately after they perfected the first Knockout, they started thinking about how to get the same results with a can. But the group’s background in aviation and engineering had hit a dead end, so they brought on an industrial design house.
In only three tries the team put together the Knockout XL, which works the same way as the original Knockout except the bottom piece stretches to fit over cans, mason jars, and the group’s personal goal: the Red Solo Cup.
“We knew if we could get it over the Solo cup, we were golden,” says Mullen.
The Knockout team built that prototype pretty quickly and launched the Knockout XL yesterday.
The new Knockout team has added a handful accessories, like a bowl piece that screws on the end of a straw for more convenient bong use. They’re also working on a piece that will let people use the Knockout for dabs. Chugging a beer and taking a dab would be another first, as far as anyone can tell.
You can look to the sun-swept Californian streets for the next hot app. Up in Canada, they’re focused on the inventions that matter.
The post This Engineering Masterpiece Lets You Smoke a Bowl and Chug a Beer Simultaneously appeared first on HERB.
from HERB http://ift.tt/2xnZMYp
via IFTTT
New Weed Infuser Makes Cannabutter as Easily as a Pot of Coffee
Weed edibles are fun to eat, not so much to make.You have to be a virtual chemist to get the temperature right: hot enough to decarboxylate, but not hot enough to burn the bud. Then, half of the product gets stuck on the spoon. Until you perfect the technique, the result is almost always sad and uninviting.
A new product called LEVO believes it can eliminate the struggle of making cannabutter and weed-infused oils altogether.
Their new product is a machine that infuses oils with herbs as quickly and easily as a coffee maker. You just pack your herbs into a metal cylinder, place it into a larger metal bowl filled with oil, and close the lid. After choosing a temperature and setting the timer, you press start, and away it goes.
Chrissy Bellman, Founder & CEO of LEVO, explains that she got the idea for LEVO after witnessing her housemates attempt to make cannabutter for the first time. In an interview with Westword, she describes it as “a very dramatic moment as I was watching these people make a huge mess…stink up the entire house, argue over each other about the best practices.” Bellman explains that her idea for LEVO was to streamline the process of weed infusion so thoroughly that it would be as simple as brewing coffee. The company also aims to eliminate the confusion of consulting Google, where every blog offers different methods.
While the concept didn’t get a great reception in New York, the company took off once she took the idea to Colorado—the first state (along with Washington) to legalize cannabis for recreational use.
The team at LEVO is so dedicated to simplifying the baking process, they’ve even supplied an online calculator that lets you determine the best temperatures and times to use for different herb and oil recipes. Some may choose to steep the weed for as long as 24 hours, but it isn’t necessary.
The brilliance of the LEVO is that if you wake up and decide you want to get stoned and eat pancakes, you can have pancakes cooked in freshly infused canna-oil within minutes.
“With LEVO, depending on what you want, if you want a really high in THC edible, or if you want a really high in CBD or THC-A, you can use strain choice, temperature and time to customize all those factors to make your own.” Says Bellman to Westworld.
The machine is also reportedly effortless to clean, eliminating the inevitable pile of greasy pans that plague your sink for days.
While the LEVO was built with the intention of making cannabutter or canna-oil, it isn’t explicitly marketed that way (instructional videos show a user making lavender infused oil). Bellman’s favorite use of the LEVO is making homemade skin scrubs. The oil infuser costs $199, which is pretty fair when taking into account its versatility and depending on how excruciatingly incompetent you are in the kitchen.
The post New Weed Infuser Makes Cannabutter as Easily as a Pot of Coffee appeared first on HERB.
from HERB http://ift.tt/2y0gcrE
via IFTTT
Thursday 5 October 2017
XJ-13 Is The Ideal Wake-up Weed For A Blissful Day
By combining two of the cannabis world’s most renowned Sativa and Indica strains, Jack Herer and G13 Haze, cannabis breeders have created a potent Frankenstein strain that’s quickly surged in popularity within the marijuana community: XJ-13
G13 Haze, an Indica strain, is believed by some to be the product of a covert CIA operation in the 1960s to develop the most potent marijuana in the world. While this is likely an urban myth, the fact that enthusiasts had to concoct a government-scandal conspiracy just to describe the potency of this strain is telling in and of itself.
The other half of XJ-13 is the popular Sativa strain, Jack Herer, which is well known for its victories in the Cannabis Cup. Contrary to the debilitating “couchlock” effects of G13 Haze, Jack Herer is known primarily for its energy-boosting properties—the type of marijuana you might reach for if you’ve run out of coffee.
The result of mixing an energetic strain like Jack Herer with the slow-motion-inducing G13 Haze is a strain that might be understood as the cannabis version of a vodka-Redbull. The high experienced from XJ-13 has been described as euphoric, yet functional. In other words, it’s not a social anxiety or pass-out during a movie strain; users of XJ-13 should prepare to have really good conversations (at least they’ll seem that way to you). If you’re preparing for a night out, this strain will fast become your pre-bar ritual.
XJ-13 is also an extremely palatable strain with complex citrus flavors and earthy, pine notes. Many are quick to comment on its unique, pungent flavor. Those who are not regular marijuana smokers may find the flavor overwhelming, but it’s best to think of this strain as an acquired taste. Don’t let that scare you off though, as XJ-13 is a great strain for beginners or those who become anxious easily.
Those who have used XJ-13 like to describe it as the perfect early morning strain, thanks to being half Jack Herer, while providing a satisfying body buzz (unlike the shakes you get from too much caffeine). It’s also a great strain for those experience depression, due to its euphoric properties.
If you’re embarking on a project that requires creativity, XJ-13 will keep you clearheaded, leaving you feeling focused, energized and imaginative.
XJ-13 is average in terms of its difficulty to grow, bountiful in its yield, and only requires seven to nine weeks of flowering. Unfortunately, the plant can be difficult to find as it’s only available to buy as a clone. Therefore growers are encouraged to maintain a mother plant so that you’re always able to grow more, and share the wealth. For best results, keep the plant at a temperature between 68° and 80° Fahrenheit.
If you’re stressed out, in need of an energy or mood boost, or simply looking for an exciting strain that can replicate the success of your past favorites, this strain should be your next buy.
The post XJ-13 Is The Ideal Wake-up Weed For A Blissful Day appeared first on HERB.
from HERB http://ift.tt/2krgEMo
via IFTTT