Last Friday, police officers on Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington campus had to deal with an unusual incident: A man was spotted jogging at three in the morning wearing only a pair of black sketchers. Officers stopped the man after “seeing nude buttocks illuminated by a streetlight,” according to the police report.
Why would someone be out there doing something like that? Was it a prank for a fraternity? Some sort of new trendy and drunken exercise? Or someone who had simply lost their mind? As it turns out, it was actually just someone trying to prepare for the winter: The Seattle Timesreports that the man told police “trying to build up his immune system to fight the cold weather.”
If you tune into the Super Bowl on Sunday, you’re sure to see commercials hawking beer, soda, junk food and lingerie among other consumer goods. What you won’t see? Ads for cannabis.
But it’s not for a lack of trying. Despite being legal in eight states — including Massachusetts, the home state of the favored New England Patriots — marijuana is still too controversial of a topic for mainstream advertising.
But just for the heck of it, let’s review a MarijuanaDoctors.com commercial submitted (and summarily rejected) for last year’s Super Bowl.
In this tongue-in-cheek, 60-second spot was produced in 2014 and the cannabis outfit tried and failed for a high-priced placement in 2016. The ad features a rather hackneyed analogy between buying illicit sushi and black-market weed.
It’s not just marijuana that got the heave-ho from the NFL. Vitamin and supplement retailer GNC planned a 30-second commercial that was rejected by the league because it sells products — synephrine (a stimulant) and DHEA (a steroid) — banned by the NFL. Marijuana is also on the banned substance list.
Over the years, Super Bowl advertising has become a huge revenue stream for TV networks. More than 100 million will watch the telecast. According to Ad Age, spending for commercials last year was roughly $380 million. The cost of a 30-second spot exceeds this year will run $5 million, more than twice the rate of 10 years ago.
Despite being denied pricy air time, the cannabis industry will be in force in Houston over the weekend. Doctors for Cannabis Regulation will have a presence in the Super Bowl city. In addition, the pro-cannabis group is running a national campaign to engage the NFL in hopes of changing the league’s cannabis policy.
The organization’s goal is clear:
In solidarity with many current and former NFL players, we recently submitted an Open Letter to the NFL. We recommend that the NFL and its Physicians Society:
treat cannabis like alcohol under the Policy
consider medical marijuana as an alternative to opioids for pain management
support promising research into potential neuroprotective effects of cannabinoids
play a leading role in addressing the overprescription of opioids across the league
The open letter is signed by a host of doctors, researchers and nine former NFL players.
What do you do if you a) love beer and b) feel you need to donate money to help the world?
Boston-based freelance writer Will Gordon recently decided to keep track of all the beer he drinks and donate a dollar for each to the ACLU, a nonprofit and nonpartisan legal advocacy program. That’s what we call a win-win. It’s like he’s tipping his bartender, but the bartender is also the ACLU!
The ACLU made headlines this week by leveraging a stay (yay, legal jargon!) on President Trump’s recent Muslim travel ban, rendering it dormant for now. The organization also received $24 million in donations in a recent weekend, six-tuppling (just go with it) their annual donations in mere days.
“I just had this general feeling of impotent rage,” said Gordon to Draft Magazine. “
I’m sitting watching people being detained at airports, and I’m drinking beer and reading Twitter and wondering if I can do anything. And as this was spinning in my head, the ACLU was actively doing something good.
And Gordon’s act has been picked up by others, including John Laffler, from Off Color Brewing.
I’ll be donating $1 for every drink I have from now through the end of Feburary to @ACLU & I drink *a lot* Hope you’ll join me #drinkforgood
And still more are getting involved. Folks from Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee and Mystic Brewery in Massachusetts are pledging donations. And so has Todd Alstrom, founder of Beer Advocate, who announced they will donate $1 to the ACLU for every subscription or renewal.
“There’s a level of guilt associated with drinking beer while all this is going on, beer being such an optional luxury item,” Gordon said to Draft. “I’m certainly not going to stop drinking good beer, but maybe I can use it to mitigate my role in the end of the world.”
Sunday marks the 51st Super Bowl in American history. But the sneaky reality of this game, which is generally cheered on and loved by millions of people, is that this year the matchup is pretty boring. We are either going to see the New England Patriots, led by quarterback Tom Brady, win their fifth championship — YAWN! — or we are going to see a team from Atlanta without much star power win their first and likely their last.
Atlanta and New England don’t have a rivalry, or really anything else in common, which means we have to spice things up this year with our good friend BEER! That’s right. Time to pack the fridge, fill the coolers with ice and crack open a cold one this Sunday. Here are a seven choice picks that won’t sideline your snacks.
Nachos & Brown Ale
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If there’s a god, she gifted us nachos and brown ale for exactly this reason. The crunch of the tortilla chip paired with the oozy-salty cheese flavor is perfect for the medium-bodied brown ale with a kiss of malt finish. You might think nachos deserves a lighter beer (think: Corona) and that would be fine, but try pairing the world’s number one food with a brown ale (Newcastle) and you’ll know divinity.
Pizza & Saison
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I know what you’re thinking: Well, what the hell is a Saison? It’s basically a beer mutt, mostly like a pilsner or wheat beer in that it’s light, but its flavors are celestial and all over the map.
The style is named after the seasonal farm workers who made the stuff in their spare time. And while pizza’s flavors are big and bold, the Saison (Fremont Brewing’s Saison, perhaps?) will slip into the cracks and complement that melted mozzarella and pepperoni like a gentleman complimenting a first date’s attire.
Burgers & Sour Ale
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Sour Ales are the world’s first beer. All beer when the stuff was originally concocted was sour. And burgers are the world’s first hot lunch (probably). So they two go hand-in-hand. The pucker flavor of the sour balances the big, centered profile of the meaty burger and the light, crisp accompanying lettuce, tomato and onion (which should be on any and every burger) will dance in unison with the fruit notes of the sour (Duchesse De Bourgogne, perhaps?).
Doughnuts & Pilsner
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Not all Super Bowl foods have to be savory. Some love the glazed and sweet. But it’s easy to over do it on the doughnuts or cake side. If you didn’t think about calories, it would be easy to down a dozen doughnuts. So, in that case, let’s keep things light on the brew side. Crack open your favorite light beer (Rolling Rock, perhaps?) and sip along with your sweet tooth.
French Onion Soup & Stout
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An off the beaten path snack, but one many love. The best part of French onion soup is that layer of stinky cheese baked over the top of the bowl, which, when peeled back, exposes the dark broth. It’s like an antidote to winter in a soup bowl. And what other antidote is out there? That’s right! Dark beer – or, more specifically, a stout (Guinness works, or if you want something heavier, try Old Rasputin Imperial Stout). Yum!
Cheese and Crackers & IPA
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Maybe the best beer and food pairing for a party. Everyone loves cheese and crackers and most everyone also loves IPA’s. The bitter, floral quality of a good IPA (Redhook’s, perhaps?) jumps, swirls and dives when paired with a nice blue cheese or smoked gouda. You can thank us later.
Chicken Wings & Amber Ale
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No Super Bowl party is complete without chicken wings. But wings can be served in any number of ways: dry rubbed, sweet and sour, BBQ, hot and spicy, dipped in ranch, salt and pepper. We could go on and on. So pair them with a beer that’s versatile and in the middle of the road (like Stone’s Arrogant Bastard). No need to tamp down the versatility of wings with a beer that won’t compromise!
A study commissioned by industry journal American Banker reveals that the nation’s four largest banks have opened accounts for cannabis shops and marijuana businesses.
Conducted by MRB Monitor, a firm that helps financial institutions identify the risks associated with the marijuana industry, the study examined public records in the state of Massachusetts and found that 34 percent of businesses that filed to operate medical marijuana dispensaries in Massachusetts between June 2015 and September 2016 had one or more accounts at Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, or JPMorgan Chase.
If a similar pattern of working with the marijuana industry takes hold in Washington D.C. and the U.S. states that have legalized marijuana, the prospect of financial services for cannabis outfits may not be as dire as it at first appears.
Bank of America seems to have been the most accommodating. Over half of the marijuana businesses included in the survey had accounts at the bank, though it previously told the Statesman Journal that, “As a federally regulated financial institution, we abide by federal law and do not bank marijuana-related businesses.”
Guidelines issued by federal authorities in 2014 appeared to have offered financial institutions a legal avenue to provide their services to marijuana-related businesses (MRBs). Back then, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), part of the U.S. Treasury Department, provided guidance it said was meant to enhance the availability of financial services for, and the financial transparency of, marijuana-related businesses.
Yet, under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), it is illegal to manufacture, distribute, or dispense marijuana, and marijuana – like heroin, LSD and ecstasy – remains a Schedule 1 substance under the statute.
In December 2016, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, along with nine other senators sent a letter to FinCEN requesting guidance on how banking services might be offered to ‘indirect businesses’ that provide services to the state-sanctioned marijuana industry.
Hopefully, after nomination season comes to a close, a response to that letter will be forthcoming; there’s a lot at stake. As ArcView Market Research wrote, “Cannabis is arguably the fastest growing industry in the world. Regulated marijuana sales in North America totaled $6.9 billion in 2016, a 30 percent increase from 2015. Sales are projected to increase to $21.6 billion by the year 2021 representing a 26 percent compound annual growth rate.”
For more cannabis business coverage, visit the MJ News Network.
Medical marijuana advocates are taking full advantage of the upcoming Super Bowl LI in hopes of persuading the National Football League (NFL) to loosen its anti-drug policy as it pertains to cannabis medicine.
Earlier this week, a group of physicians known as “Doctors For Cannabis Regulation” gathered at the Revention Music Center in Houston, Texas to present evidence on how marijuana can be used as an effective pain management tool. The event also featured keynote speeches from NFL stars, including former Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon and former New Orleans Saints offensive tackle Kyle Turley, who credit medical marijuana for helping kick opioid addiction and treat chronic pain.
“Cannabis is not a cure-all for severe pain and all these real bad, horrific injuries, but you can deal with it better and you don’t get addicted, and you can walk away from this, like walking away from drinking coffee or Coke, or even pizza,” Turley explained. “It just takes some willpower. I know what it’s like to come off heavy prescription medication. That was not fun.”
As it stands, any NFL player who tests positive for marijuana is subject to stiff penalties, which can include a fine, multiple game suspensions and even termination from the league.
In 2014, the NFL agreed to a minor change to its marijuana policy. The THC threshold for players was raised from 15 nanograms per milliliter of blood to 35 nanograms.
Last week, the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) announced that it was on the verge of submitting a proposal aimed at taking a “less punitive” approach to dealing with players who use marijuana. Although the details of the proposal have not yet been revealed, the union board’s executive director, DeMaurice Smith, said he is “convinced that we should be looking at it a little bit more of the way that we looked at it in 2014.”
In the past, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has been apprehensive to make significant changes to the league’s anti-marijuana rule, but he recently signaled that additional amendments to the league’s drug policy might be on the horizon.
“We certainly haven’t seen [the NFLPA’s proposal] or read it. I’ve spoken to (Smith) about it,” he said. “But I think what it’s signaling from our standpoint is that the labor agreement we have has worked incredibly well for the players, for our clubs and for I think the game, in general. It’s encouraged investment. We see the salary cap, which may be projected to increase by $15 million a club. In the last four years alone, the salary cap has jumped almost $1.7 billion including benefits. That’s extraordinary and historically has never come close to being achieved before.
“So what we have is a labor agreement that’s working well for all parties, but we sent the union last spring a list of issues that we wanted to address as the league and as ownership. I expect, and we put on that list, the drug policy as one of those issues,” he added.
But while it is possible the NFL could see a reduction in pot penalties and perhaps even another increase in its THC threshold, it is highly doubtful the league will allow players to use medical marijuana anytime soon – at least not until the federal government decides to downgrade the herb’s Schedule I classification or end prohibition altogether.
Incidentally, a recent ESPN poll that 71 percent of the players in the NFL believe marijuana should be made legal all across the nation.
Sipp Industries has entered into a distribution agreement with Colorado Craft Distributors for the release of a hemp-infused beer throughout the Denver area.
Major Hemp, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sipps, in partnership with Denver’s Sleeping Giant Brewing, completed production of the initial 50 barrels, which yielded nearly 100 kegs of premium brown ale formulated with quality hemp-seed powder.
The initial strategy is to supply Denver’s more highly populated and affluent establishments with inventory to gauge consumer response before determining a strategy for wider distribution.
“Our approach involves delivery into primarily the local target market, with a focus on thriving areas, where there is a high concentration of bars and pubs that have a relatively progressive crowd, patrons interested in innovative and emerging trends,” stated Ted Jorgensen, President of Major Hemp. “Then, based on the level of success determined, we can move forward with a much larger brew in preparation for expanded distribution and the possibility of bottling and canning.”
“Major Hemp Brown Ale” was skillfully brewed by contracted Sleeping Giant Brewing, a distinguished beerhouse that brews for over 15 companies inside and outside of Colorado. By aligning with Sleeping Giant, Sipp Industries has control and own all legal rights and intellectual property to the hemp beer recipe. Because Sleeping Giant does not brew its own beer, the potential for any conflicts of interest with ownership and intellectual property does not exist.
As the proprietary ale hits the Denver craft brewery scene, management anticipates a highly favorable outcome. In light of its successful unveiling at previous 4/20 event, having already received such favorable reviews for its appealing color and authentic taste, pre-production interest has remained relatively high.
Working with proprietary water-soluble hemp powder, Jorgensen and Osterman determined that the Brown Ale style of craft beer blends best with hemp powder. This infusion provides a smooth refreshing taste while enhancing the beer with the numerous healthy attributes of hemp.
For more cannabis business coverage, visit the MJ News Network.
While its tremendous size and odd shape prevents him from having sex or doing really any sort of regular physical activity, the man who says he has the largest dick in the world claims he’s happy with it and someday hopes to become a porn star.
“I am happy with my penis, I know nobody has the size I have,” Roberto Esquivel Cabrera told Bancroft Media earlier this year. “I would like to be in the Guinness Book of Records but they don’t recognise this record.”
Doctors have urged him to have penile-reduction surgery so he could have sex and live a more normal life but he’s so far rejected their advice because, as one doctor put it, “he’d rather have a penis bigger than the rest of the people.”
One doctor even suggested that Cabrera has artificially enhanced his dick’s size. “He began with this enlargement since he was a teenager, wrapping some bands around his penis with some weights and trying to stretch it,” Dr. Jesus David Salazar Gonzalez told the Mirror UK.
The giant penis, the Mirror notes, cause all sorts of health problems including frequent urinary tract infections, chafing, and an inability to sleep unless he has a pillow to rest his penis on.
“I cannot wear a uniform like anybody in the companies and also I cannot get on my knees, he added. “I cannot run fast and so the companies think badly of me. They say that they will call me, but they never do.”
He also can’t have sex because of his penis’s girth.
So why would he want to keep it?
“I am happy with my penis and I wish to go back to the USA and spend the rest of my life over there,” he said. “I would like to be a porn star and I think I would make a lot of money over there.”
He added: “I don’t feel sad because I know in the USA there is a lot of women. One of them will be the right size for me.”
Smoking outdoors gets some serious star power with the Sun Token vaporizer, a novel take on the vape that harnesses the power of the sun.
Made from cherry wood with borosilicate glass and a walnut finish, the Sun Token is a beautiful piece that’s suitable for sitting on display as it is taking to the park on a sunny day.
They’re calling it the “world’s first solar dome vaporizer,” and as far as we can tell, they’re right. There are solar-panel vapes and solar-charged USBs for vapes but getting lit with a decidedly analog device, no electronics needed, seems to be completely novel.
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As we’ve previously noted in our guide, vaping can give a milder, easier-to-control high than smoking. Since you’re activating raw plant matter without combustion and not lighting anything on fire, you’ll get a cleaner-tasting inhale. With the Sun Token, the sunlight that’s beamed from an included magnifying glass moves around the plant, warming it up and creating smoke that you then inhale like you would a normal bowl or bong.
“Snap on the magnetic dome, and align the sun rays over the bowl using a magnifying lens (included). Smoke will stream upwards and dance around the dome. This method burns 3,000 degrees fahrenheit less than a conventional lighter. It is healthier, better tasting, more efficient, wind proof, fun, ecological, and beautiful to watch. Sunlight travels 150 million kilometers and 500 seconds all to reach your solar dome.”
Hand-crafted in Fredericksburg, Virginia by Hector Campos, the full Sun Token kit is $145. If you have your own bowl already, you can purchase individual pieces or replacement parts.
Progress, innovation, and (re)invention have been the driving factors of the modern coffee boom. Experts and super-fans alike spend countless hours tinkering with coffee to continue to provide the very best product, and we’re lucky for it. We are in a better place in terms of the availability of fantastic coffee, because of it. In these terms, “what’s next for coffee?” is a beneficial way of thinking as it continues to provide better and and better takes on the core product.
Yet, as we reach a point of comfortable saturation for excellent coffee, our modern need for constant innovation has lead us down a path into a murky middle ground between striving for a better cup of coffee and creating coffee-related products to appease a market that’s always seeking something new, something different.
We are in a heyday in terms of coffee. Our storefronts are packed with more and more speciality coffee cafes serving the caffeinated beverage in what many believe to be it’s purest form. The simple coffee bean, and its preparation, has made leaps and bounds from the acrid sting of pre-ground, canned Folgers, and watery “convenience” of instant coffee. The world of coffee is now a diverse and obsessive one, preparation styles rising and falling with new research and quickly changing trends, all aimed at perfecting the way we ingest the simple coffee bean. Coffee drinkers of every ilk, in most major cities, can now find a perfect cafe or roaster that prepares/roasts their beans in a manner that suits their specific tastes to a tee. Be it the subtle nuances of a lighter roast prepared via pour-over or a Carcasa Frappuccino from Starbucks, the options feel unlimited.
A few weeks ago, I was sent an article about a company called Four Sigmatic. Their product: mushroom coffee, a package of instant coffee that combines liquified and then freeze-dried mushrooms with coffee and “all-natural ingredients.” By way of a YouTube video, Four Sigmatic founder Tero Isokauppila claims that mushroom coffee, consumed for centuries by the “indigenous people” of Finland (his birthplace), will provide the awakening aspects of coffee without its negative side-effects. And as lovely as this sounds, when we start doctoring our coffee with substances outside of, say, milk, sugar, and even the occasional squirt of syrup, the question becomes: has innovation overstepped its bounds? And in our efforts to create a cup of “coffee” divorced from its negative side-effects, are we even asking “what’s next” for coffee? Or are we just asking “what’s next?”
There’s nothing wrong with Isokauppila wanting to dip back into traditional Finnish coffee preparation to try and find something beneficially different in terms of the way we drink coffee. Drinking ten cups of coffee at ten in the morning and not having caffeine seizures until ten at night sounds fairly wonderful. But are we still talking about coffee or are we talking about a product riding the coattails of coffee because there’s no other marketable category it can be squeezed into? At this point with the massive amount of coffee-related options on the market – bulletproof coffee, cheese lattes, cascara syrup, etc. — it no longer feels like we’re trying to better coffee, we’re just trying to find a larger customer base. We’re just trying to find a product that resembles coffee enough that it’s sellable to anyone.
And again, this isn’t a bad thing, just an ill-defined one. Look at the recent explosion of cold brew products in coffee shops and grocery stores alike. Ten years ago, the preparation of a cold coffee beverage was relegated to dumping ice into a steaming hot cup of joe or a dumping a whip-creamed covered Frappuccino down your throat. Yet, coffee experts saw a need, and after extensive tinkering, cold brew has become an excellent product endorsed and encouraged by speciality coffee pioneers like Stumptown and Blue Bottle, amongst others. But, don’t fool yourself; cold brew was the solution to a business problem — how do we get people to keep buying a hot beverage when it’s 80 degrees outside? — a delicious one, but a business-driven solution, nonetheless.
So, yes, striving to change the way we drink coffee can lead us down interesting, and occasionally financially appealing side paths, cold brew being a solid example. Yet, when we start tinkering with the basic concept of coffee – liquid meets roasted, ground beans — we aren’t talking about innovation anymore, we’re talking about invention. We’re working towards a new product, coffee-related or otherwise, aimed at addressing a consumer want (“coffee without the jitters” in the case of mushroom coffee).
Speciality coffee isn’t perfect, it never will be, but through innovation of the existing product — coffee beans — the industry continues to expand its reach and its ability to sate a wide spectrum of coffee drinker’s needs. Mushroom coffee, and those beverages like it, are aimed at a customer base, those who want a coffee-like product without the negative side-effects, but let’s not go as far as deem this a step forward in terms of discovering what’s next in the world of coffee. It’s a product that may incorporate coffee, but beyond that, it’s something entirely new and different. It may have the benefits of coffee, but it’s more akin to tea or matte, then a black cup of drip coffee.
Products like mushroom coffee fail to address the question of “what’s next in coffee” because they aren’t seeking to answer it. Instead, they seek to create a beverage that expands the overall world of caffeinated beverages, the term “coffee” becoming more an easy descriptor than an accurate one.
