Interview with Lonnie Kessler: From Fighting Stigma to Facing Death
Written By Casey Renteria
Through all the ups and downs with his health, cannabis was always there. He told me he was on 13 pills - but with cannabis, he’s down to 3 pills twice a day, and I'd say that's a huge improvement! But he also talked about how hard it was to open up to his family about his choice to use cannabis. “It's finding a balance between family, friends, society, and quality of life you have to choose and I choose the quality of life…Cannabis will be the one thing I use until the very end,” he said.
The Evolution of Hall of Flowers: An Interview with Rama Mayo
Written By Leah Cerri
“The show has to evolve as the industry evolves. Every year, we talk to all our exhibitors after the show to get their feedback. They said we really have the B2B side dialed in and have been asking us what else we can do to support their customer sales and help them connect to their consumers. Day two now provides them with the opportunity to talk and sell directly to their customers, face to face. You don’t get to do that in dispensaries and via your distributor.”
An Interview with Chip Paul
Written By Casey Renteria
“We had no money, we had to beg, borrow, and steal for everything we did. It was a pretty historic moment for us, and very grassroots in the way this movement came up. I’m very proud and humbled by that. I like to think God put me in that position, cannabis just stuck and this is where he wants me to be.”
The Law of Attraction: How Small Cannabrands Are Embracing Authenticity to Better the Industry as a Whole
Written By Kelly Ebbert
As a small business, breaking into the cannabis industry can be daunting. It takes immense courage, jockeying with dominant players to gain a foothold. These businesses work tirelessly to stand out among the crowd.
From glass-blowing manufacturing to dispensaries to hand-crafted cannabis products, small business owners are rallying around the motto of authenticity to increase brand presence and awareness and leave their mark on the budding industry.
Green Doesn't Always Mean Go
Written By Ali Lopez
For the most part, other medical professionals are surprised that I am a consumer. I break their stigmatized idea of what “a stoner” looks like to them. When they find out I have an autoimmune condition, and it helps with some of my symptom management, they are sympathetic and curious. They start to change their minds a little bit about consumption.
An Interview With Waxy Brown
Written By Casey Renteria
“They will either fear my footprint, or my fist print. When I’m gone, there will still be veterans who need access to this. Psilocybin is on its way, and there are still ketamine conversations to have. Talking about it is great. But what are we going to do about it? That is the line between advocate and activist. We love the advocates and we need advocates, but feel free to step over that line into activism at any time. If not, don't worry, we’ll throw full punches until the plant is on the farmer's market table.”
“Let's remember, that the intoxicating cannabis they are talking about was never toxic to begin with!”
The Russell Langhammer Interview
Written By Steve Kravets
It is because first my doctors told me to go home and to take care of whatever business I needed to do before I died. Then a priest came in behind him and gave me Last Rights, again. I said to myself, screw you both. I am not that type of person. I am Russell Langhammer, I compete head-to-head and we Langhammer’s do not quit. I will not walk away from this challenge, even if it is the biggest I have ever faced before, in my 54 years of living so far.
An Interview with Jeremy Smith
Written By Casey Renteria
At 35 years old he was diagnosed with Crohn’s and eosinophilic esophagitis. Three weeks later he collapsed at work when blood clots hit his heart. “My CK levels skyrocketed, becoming severely anemic, herniated discs in my neck, a tumor was found on my pituitary stock, and I started to develop arthritis”, he recalled. Not long after that incident he narrowly escaped losing a child from the side effects of pharmaceuticals.
From Marketing Agencies To The Vermont Cannabis Market: An Interview With JB Sugar, Founder of Route 7 Brands
Written By Casey Renteria
After talking with JB, it’s clear that he makes products that he loves, but also are aimed at having a good time and maybe even rediscovering a love of cannabis. “I think there's a huge market for those who are re-entering, people are kinda scared to get back into it for whatever reason: it’s too strong, stigmas, or fear. I’m trying to give people permission to have fun again, weed is supposed to be fun.”
The Power and Potential of Plant Medicine: An Interview with Johnny Broadcast
Written By Jessica Reilly-Chevalier
Johnny Broadcast: I was diagnosed with stage 2 colo-rectal cancer in 2017. My doctor immediately wanted to do $150,000 surgery and take out part of my rectum, leaving me with a colostomy bag. When I told him I wanted to try oils and plant medicine, he screamed at me that I was going to die if I didn’t do chemotherapy.
CannaCon: A Family Affair & The Call to Cannabis A Q&A W/ Angela Grelle
Written By Casey Renteria
Event season is here and I’m so excited to share the first of many conventions I’m attending this year and arguably the one I’m most excited for so far. I got the chance to talk with the Director of Marketing Angela Grelle about not just how CannaCon came to be but also how she came to cannabis. She is such an amazing, passionate woman & you can tell she truly loves what she does. I can’t wait to meet the whole team and see how they manage to make it happen every year.
Every Question Deserves An Answer
Written By Kellie Frederick
“As I dealt with bugs and mold, some things had to be dealt with leaf by leaf sometimes all the way back to the tent. I realized because the nets were locked into the tent, there was no way to turn the plant around if I had a rotating stand to sit it on. I bought some of those trying to fix a problem, and that worked until I trellised the plant. So, okay, I need the trellis to rotate too. And I'm a product developer. I'm an inventor. I write patents. So I began to think about an invention that would suffice.”
The Future of Cannabis Science: An Interview with Jeff Rawson
It was my pleasure to sit down and talk with the Founder of the Institute of Cannabis Science Jeff Rawson. I’m a bit of a science junky myself so I was thrilled to hear Jeff’s thoughts on where the industry is headed & what he’s doing to help it get there… I left our conversation so eager to see where the institute is in a couple of years. With someone like Jeff behind it, the changes this industry needs are closer than we might think.
Florida Cannabis with Legacy Views
Written By Alex Popoff & Matthew Dean
Prepare to step into an earlier time, a time before cannabis donned its "licensed" attire. Matthew shares the experiences he’ll never forget. And, experiences many of us have never lived. It is important to share these stories.
Matthew's dreams were coming true in the 90s when he left Florida and sought a new life in California. Matthew would inhabit the same spaces as the founding fathers and mothers of the cannabis movement at the legendary San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club.
Organic Revolution: A Conversation with NubsFarms on Regenerative Farming and the Future of Cultivation
Written By Alex Popoff
Today, I had the pleasure of speaking with Trenton & Dave from NubsFarms, a company on a mission to make future generations healthy by preventing the sickness and diseases that plague our world. Through organic and healthy agriculture farming practices, they aim to shift traditional cultivation methods to cleaner, organic, and healthier growing practices.
“We feel like part of a family, and the majority of our products come from Northern California. We're problem solvers, and we're here to make things simple for farmers.”
Montel Williams Veteran, Celebrity, Patient, Advocate
Written by Dustin Hoxworth, Lindsey Gunter
When most people hear the name Montel Williams, they immediately think of daytime TV, and not necessarily his reputation as one of the strongest cannabis advocates of our time. For Gen Xers and some Millennials, “The Montel Williams Show” was a staple in our households. The show ran for 17 years, the topics were sometimes sensational in nature and his guests at times controversial, which makes a lot of sense, as Montel was always someone who used his show to discuss the things he wanted. The show also provided the beginnings of a platform he needed to take on something even bigger, life changing, and life saving for so many people around the world; but before we get into Montel the cannabis advocate, there’s a lot you might not know about Montel Williams the person. Fat Nugs Magazine was privileged enough to interview and get to know him, his cannabis journey, and his predictions for the future.