Jake Browne is a Denver-based comedian, writer and co-host of both the comedy game show Uncalled Four and the Whiskey and Cigarettes podcast.
Marijuana at the Cannabis Cup: Out-of-state companies, along with Colorado businesses that don’t hold state licenses, were running low on samples by the end of Saturday after being swamped with visitors as the only outlets for free or paid samples. Yes, paid.
For the second year in a row, the U.S. Cannabis Cup — the largest event in High Times magazine’s portfolio — kicked off Saturday at the Denver Mart with speakers and vendors from throughout the country, and plenty of free marijuana.
Colorado pot businesses can’t sample their goods at the Cannabis Cup on 4/20 weekend. It’s bad news for the industry, but it’s worse news for the fans.
A great choice for spring cleaning, Lemon Skunk is always perfect for providing a nudge in the right direction, that being directly below the kitchen sink. All of a sudden, I found myself dusting the ceiling fan.
Cannabist pot critic Jake Browne considers the backlash over 4/20 celebrations: Whether you professionally approve of it or not, people will coalesce around cannabis every April. My challenge to the industry and my peers is to stop with the 4/20 shaming.
Comic Doug Benson shares his thoughts about being sober (sort of) this April, his Denver Comedy Works 4/20 shows, his stoner Mount Rushmore, what’s going on with his latest documentary and much more.
For a hybrid, Space Queen draws out the more playfully sativa headiness of the Romulan in the same way your old dog still surprises you with a spry day every now and then. With winter drawing to a close, I love strains like this to boost my mood.
Opinion: We need more spaces to legally consume cannabis. Since most Colorado voters support the idea of members-only pot clubs, what are we waiting for?
It almost starts off like a bad joke: A touring comedian walks into a pot shop … But the joke is on comedy fans, given the rash of incidents across Colorado involving stand-ups overindulging on legal marijuana before their shows in Denver, Grand Junction and beyond.
Bio-Diesel usually has two distinct waves for me: Holy $%*# I’m feeling it, followed by a more attentive high and heavy body stone. The former can be a shock, as if it shakes your head like a giant Magic 8 Ball with the singular answer “Reply hazy try again.” The latter is ideal for poker, so I usually smoke 30 minutes prior to our 8 p.m. game.
Like Skinnygirl and its creator Bethenny Frankel, ‘skinny pot’ is old news. Here are four strains that never leave our pot critic rummaging through the fridge for needless snacks.
Tangie typically stands above the rest of other “orange” strain offerings in terms of smell. It’s an orchard flush with Cuties clementines that was hit by the spray of a skunk a few days prior. I’m usually looking for muted green foxtails, but it’s usually the bright orange hairs that will catch your eye first.
Usually landing your dream job comes with the caveat that you’ll need to quit smoking pot. At least until you pass that pesky drug test. Instead, I spent 2014 packing bowls, vaping and, on occasion, rolling up some of the best weed in the world. Here are my “Top 10 strains I smoked this year.”
Review: Gorilla Glue #4 is an indica-dominant hybrid marijuana strain with a deep body stone to match a calmer concentration.
After Seth Rogen tried in vain to throw a cannabis-friendly cinematic experience in Denver on Dec. 8 for a special screening of “The Interview,” Rogen and co-director Evan Goldberg were left roaming the crowd with a bottle of tequila, pouring shots into the mouths of anyone within arm’s length.
The irony of coming from Colorado to be a judge of coffee shop cannabis at an unexpectedly transformed Amsterdam Cannabis Cup wasn’t lost on me, or most people I talked to over the five-day trip. Why travel 5,000 miles to smoke marijuana when it’s legal right down the street?
A vape sesh at an Amsterdam coffee shop with the widely-available Tangerine Dream provides a more reserved high than anticipated: “Usually, this is a strain that floors me with euphoria. Euflooria, if you will. Instead, I was unremarkably even.”
Don’t tell High Times the Amsterdam Cannabis Cup is canceled, shut down or in any way shuttered. Determined to proceed with the 27th annual event, organizers opened the Melkweg on Monday morning as if it were business as usual at the venue.
Afghan Haze is the kind of strain that makes everything a skosh more fun. You’re engaged and situations are amplified. And it comes with a fair measure of pain relief and muscle relaxation, to boot.
While Herijuana is great for pain relief, I recommend reserving it for the end of the day. This is a strain that gives you a bear hug you don’t want to end. It’s a head-over-heels kind of high in that I’m flat on my back, warm from the numbness that becomes increasingly more pervasive.
Where a buzz hits you can tell you a lot about what you’ll be in for. Here, the 303 Kush sat in the center of my head — right behind my eyes — and camped out. This is the kind of “Magic Eye High” where you find yourself looking at something, but also through it at the same time. And, to be fair, this is exactly what I was looking for.
Sour Diesel — a.k.a. Sour D — is a ubiquitous sativa strain that won’t knock out heavy pain, but will provide a focused energy.
Strain Theory: I usually love sativa-dominant hybrids like this for the mood and energy stimulation. Instead, the high-CBD Harlequin proved contemplative and internalized a lot of my energy.
With 31 marijuana-related companies present for Tuesday’s job fair in Denver, CannaSearch looked to build on the success of its first job fair held in March. Instead, a steep drop in attendance meant job seekers had ample opportunities to talk one-on-one with prospective employers.
Alien Napalm has an unfortunate name that I’m sure is an attempt to describe the feeling of having your entire body coated in THC. There’s an immediately sedative buzz that hits every limb and some people’s tongues.
Excuse me if I sound dismissive of an anonymous woman in Washington state who feels she’s being smoked out of her own backyard. When it comes to our fundamental rights, I can’t imagine anything more American than plumes of legal cannabis rising from backyards like so many Fourth of July barbecues.
It’s all here: places to stay, places to go, getting around, scoring some herb and something to smoke it out of, and nearby eats and entertainment.
Strain Theory: There’s a decent mood elevation that makes this passable for daytime smoking. However, as I mostly use it before bed, it’s kind of become my “sleep number” strain. No matter what’s going on with me, it adjusts.
The Seattle Hempfest and Denver’s 4/20 Rally have a lot in common. Both, for instance, claim to be the largest event of its kind. They also contribute to large amounts of marijuana smoke drifting into the sky. But what’s the scene like for each? And where can you find the best weed?
Borrowing its name from a tribute strain named for the late Jack Herer that was crossed by Sensi Seeds, Jack Flash is at its core a beautiful cross of haze and skunk.
Strain Theory: This Black Rhino smelled more like I walked into a grow room. I was catching nutrients and old trim, managing to coax the smallest waft of that rubber band smell when grinding it between my fingers.
Strain Theory: For people who haven’t smoked in a few years and think there’s a certain novelty in buying a Willie Nelson-themed type of pot, start with one hit and hold on.
Two hits of the Grape Stomper and I had a very Headband-esque buzz pulsing through my face and body, with my mind racing and everything else coming to a screeching halt. It was as if I was the guy revving his engine at a stoplight that wasn’t turning.
For the first time I can remember (insert memory joke here), I’ve felt like I’m too busy to get high lately. As a daily toker for years, this makes frighteningly little sense. I point to examples of high-functioning peers all the time when confronted by the “Pot makes ya dumb!” crowd, yet here I find myself apprehensive to indulge.
Neither of us felt particularly chatty, though, which made this an egregious choice of herb. I wish I could say we were too stoned to interact, or that we had achieved some Zen-like state of consciousness. Nope. Just nothing much to say. It was Maui Waui personified in a mood.
As an industry that often decries “Big Pharma,” we’ve all been turned and burned at a number of dispensaries lately. At the risk of being overly didactic: Have we forgotten the true meaning of marijuana in Colorado?
If Afgoo looked out of place at a slick marijuana shop like Euflora, it’s only because it harkened back to an earlier age when strains weren’t tinkered with endlessly to produce modern super-buds. Trapped there in a display jar, it looked more like the oldest lion in the zoo. I wanted to free it.
If Dave Chappelle is now a purported recluse, you wouldn’t know it by his time in Denver. First, he rolled through town with the Oddball Comedy Festival in September, returning a scant two months later for what felt like at least a hundred shows at Comedy Works.
With both “Star Wars Day” (May the Fourth Be With You — get it?) and Cinco de Mayo coming up, here’s a Denver guide to two completely unrelated events that you’re allowed to be stoned at.
As a big fan of sativas, I had expected to enjoy the Green Crack high I’d always had. Primarily, a dialed-in and centered buzz that allowed me to knock out tasks as they came up. Instead, I was all over the place.
It’s a unique feeling to be at a Cannabis Cup — where there is literally too much weed for tens of thousands of people to smoke. It’s hard to have a bad time. Here’s what you missed on Sunday, April 20.
The indica Ultra Sonja provides a healthy dose of pain relief: The dull ache that had been plaguing me was suddenly gone, accompanied by a cheeriness I hadn’t felt in days.”
It was everything you expect from the Cannabis Cup on Day One. Long lines. Confusion. A guy riding a Segway with a literal monkey on his back. Yes, the Cup runneth over with the kind of weirdness you can only imagine when tens of thousands of stoners get together to celebrate legal marijuana.
Denver’s 4/20 festivities kick off as early as April 16. All of a sudden, 4/20 has turned into your annoying friend who insists it’s her “birthday week.” Want to make the most out of your marijuana weekend? Here’s a schedule of events any stoner can pull off with a little ride planning and a modicum of motivation.
Jake Browne: I’ve been a fan of Reddit for years, so when I looked at their AMA (Ask Me Anything) calendar and saw that Thursday was looking light, I thought I’d give this unconventional interview format a shot. There are always questions coming in after the bell on these AMAs, so I wanted to address the five “best of the rest.”
People are always asking for recommendations for good daytime smoke that won’t knock them out, and Agent Orange definitely delivers in that regard. “As we stepped into the coffee shop equivalent of the feminist bookstore in ‘Portlandia,’ I knew two things: we were in Boulder and I wasn’t nearly high enough.”
Of course there’s the parade, and many other things to do, including conventional stuff (kegs and eggs) — and extremely unconventional (dream interpretation?) “Would you believe me if I said the parade is the least exciting thing going on this weekend?”
Definitely leaning OG, Kuchi proved to be sedative and numbing without much going on upstairs. Clusters of amber trichomes were notable on this indi-dominant hybrid. “In retrospect, I suppose I was blinded by them.”
Pre ’98 Bubba Kush has some heavy indica roots. “A heavy body buzz kicked in immediately. There was a stacked lineup of comedians at Herb’s for a Sunday night, so I figured a little smoking and joking were in order. In retrospect, Bubba was a poor choice of companion.”
Review: Blue Dream is a sativa-dominant hybrid marijuana strain crossing sativa Haze with indica Blueberry to spark energy and wild ideas.
