The Cannabist Show: He’s writer and comedian Josh Androsky

Featured guest: Writer, comedian, podcast host and one-time skateboarding rabbi Josh Androsky.

LOTS TO TALK ABOUT

•  Unlocking creativity with cannabis, and how it can lead to Spongebob Squarepants.

•  Left of liberal: The Democratic Socialists of America and marijuana.

•  Being a professional troll: Protesting and demonstrating in 2017.

TOP MARIJUANA NEWS

Legal marijuana sales in Uruguay face challenges from banks: The legal sale of marijuana in Uruguayan pharmacies is facing challenges as banks refuse to deal with companies linked to the drug in order to follow international financial laws. A government official said Friday that Uruguayan banks risk running afoul of laws that ban receiving money tied to the drug. The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. In July, marijuana went up for sale at 16 pharmacies as part of a 2013 law that made Uruguay first to legalize a pot market covering the entire chain from plants to purchase. –Report by The Associated Press’ Leonardo Haberkorn

Five reasons you probably shouldn’t smoke weed before a blind date: Your date’s less than 25 minutes away. You’re ready: You look good, feel good — you even smell good. You’re on track to make a positive first impression. But you’re anxious. Dinner really counts. The movie — a bad idea you’re now realizing, the two of you sitting there silently, awkwardly, next to each other for two whole hours — isn’t a certainty if you screw dinner up. Your date could leave after the appetizer, not feeling you. Damn. A bong rip would help you relax, you think. Weed has been your go-to for so long, especially going out somewhere. Anywhere. (And drinking too early is a terrible idea, of course.) Yet the angel on your shoulder tells you: Smoke later, after your date ends … maybe tomorrow. –Report by The Cannabist’s Daniel Jones

Oregon gov, police chief say Sessions’ marijuana claims based on flawed, leaked, draft report: Oregon’s governor and the head of the state police responded Tuesday to a letter from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in which he said cannabis legalization in the state had not done enough to curb black market grows. Like leaders from Washington and Alaska in letters last week, Gov. Kate Brown and Oregon State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton said that the data Sessions used to draw his conclusions came from a report that was inaccurate. In her letter dated August 22, posted on the state’s website, Brown noted, “The Oregon State Police determined that the draft report required significant additional work and revision, because the data was inaccurate and the heavily extrapolated conclusions were incorrect.” –Report by The Cannabist’s Polly Washburn

Pro tip: When flushing weed to dodge cops, don’t include container: Aspen Police Officer Dan Davis knew the drill.

It was late February and he’d just caught a 22-year-old local man and a juvenile in a locked bathroom at Rio Grande Park with the smell of freshly burnt marijuana hanging in the air. The local man, Eduardo Alvarado, told Davis they were “chilling,” denied having any drugs on him and allowed the officer to search him, according to documents filed in Pitkin County District Court. –Report by The Aspen Times’ Jason Auslander

Cannabis industry “deluged” with résumés from millennials: Growing up in a Colonial home in Downingtown, Alessandro Cesario cultivated an interest in the family garden, trying to become “in tune” with plants and insects, and by the time he was 16, he knew he wanted to work with plants in his career. Specifically, one plant: cannabis. So he spent four years at Delaware Valley University, taking courses in hydroponics and working in greenhouses and on farms. His ambition was no pipe dream: After he graduated in 2013, Cesario made the jump from vegetables to cannabis — moving to Las Vegas to become the director of cultivation for Desert Grown Farms. –Report by The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Justine McDaniel

Lagunitas teams up with cannabis vape company to brew new IPA: Brewers like to describe super-hoppy IPAs the way that they might talk about marijuana: “dank,” “resinous,” “sticky.” It makes sense, after all: Both cannabis (pot) and Humulus lupulus (hops) are members of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants, and both rely on compounds called terpenes to provide their essential flavors and aromas. While breweries have tried to mimic the flavors of marijuana in beer – see Lagunitas’s the Waldos, DC Brau’s Smells Like Freedom and Oskar Blues’s Pinner Throwback IPA – few have actually attempted to brew with marijuana extracts. Last week, Lagunitas debuted SuperCritical, an IPA made with marijuana terpenes provided by CannaCraft, a California company that makes cannabis vape cartridges called AbsoluteXtracts. –Report by The Washington Post’s Fritz Hahn