The CannaRoast of Audrey Hatfield

Last night's CannaRoast of Audrey Hatfield at the Speak Easy Vape Lounge in Colorado Springs was by far one of the best times to be had on a Friday night. Although you can go next door for a drink, the atmosphere and the crowd inside here are a little different. Many of us know each other but even the strangers smile widely as their eyes meet and greet each other without hesitation. It's an easy place to spark up a conversation, make a new friend, learn about the cannabis community, and of course inhale\exhale for those 21 years and up.

Entry, only two dollars at the door, and an intimate feeling of friends remains. True to Stoner form I arrive a full 1 ½ hours past doors opening and I haven't missed a thing. We arrive and are greeted by the ever charitable Ms. Audrey just outside the front entrance. As we said our hellos and hugged I realized just how excited I was, I bet she was nervous.

If you don't know Audrey Hatfield now, it won't take much for you to look her up. Check Facebook, her use of the social media website the subject of many a jibe throughout the CannaRoast. Ms. Hatfield is the fearless leader of C4CPR, the group determined to fight for and restore confidence to medical cannabis patients in the state of Colorado. You can thank her for never backing down to Dan May and for her endless efforts of patient’s rights education. Her opinion may be loud and her voice may be strong (both claims Audrey confirmed during her portion of the roast) but we couldn't ask for a better role model, friend, mother, sister, daughter, teacher, and advocate. My thanks go not only to Audrey but to the board of C4CPR who took the time to put together the jokes and roast her, as well as my gratitude to Speak Easy and Weed Pimps.

The crowd of the Speak Easy matches the laid back atmosphere, there are no overly enthusiastic drunken ‘I love yous’ being flung around the room, or stumbling hugs with greetings that are slurred. In fact, even our clapping and cheering is well within the range of respectful. If you do already know Audrey you understand why I had to go. What in the world were they going to say? I couldn't come up with any of my own jokes so I had to see for myself where they could go with this. I was not disappointed!

JDub, of Weed Pimps, was sure to state and reinstate his love of Audrey in attempt to clear himself for the aftermath. If you want to hear the jokes however you'll have to search for video footage.

Jaymen Johnson, of the Speak Easy says they will be trying to incorporate CannaRoast into their schedule on a quarterly basis. Voting ballots were cast and by a single vote JDub will get ‘vaped’ next. You can head down to 2508 East Bijou Street, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80909 for more event information and I’m certain they’ll be happy to give you a tour.

Audrey was also the winner of a custom vaporizer which incorporated her likeness.

Even not getting started on time and having its typical, technical, Stoner difficulties, we were able to get home to the sitter by 10:30 PM. That's not to say that the Speak Easy is only a place for an old stick in the mud like me. The crowd always varies in age, from Twentysomethings into the 70s, yet somehow operates without a generation gap. With music, dance floor, good friends, good vibes, good herb and the whole night ahead of them I'm sure most of the crowd partied into the wee morning hours. The night included the nostalgic announcement of an after party at an all-night diner, but long gone are the days of 3 AM waffles for Sweet Mary Kane. Whether you roll deep or fly solo, puff grass or vape concentrates, have just arrived here on Earth or have lived many decades you'll find your space at the Speak Easy: ‘where everybody knows your strain.’

Just go with your gut Sweet Mary Kane

                   Despite what you may have thought, over here in Colorado, we have to pick the stems out of our bags just the same as you. What I haven't seen in a long time though is any seed come through. When you buy your cannabis from a dispensary, finding seeds in your sack would create an immediate conflict of interest. They can't have you turning around and growing your own if they want to stay in business now can they? So I'd say finding a seed around here is pretty much like finding gold.

Say you did get a seed though, what would you even do with it? Well if you were not paying much attention you'd probably smoke it. You would hear it too, that moment. You pull the Bic flame back from the bowl as if they could save the poor seed inside. Like a kid who finds an empty Easter egg, that same instant you would feel the crushing reality of empty promises. Okay so maybe that's a little bit dramatic.

Instead, you might find yourself uninterested or too busy and simply eat the seed or throw it out. Maybe you feed it to your dog, I had a dog once who love to find my stash. Perhaps as a practical joke you poke the seed into the planter box in front of the police station and hope for rain.

You may, on the other hand, find yourself drawn to bring life to this little seed. The bookshelf next your desk just might be filled up with books about cannabis from seed to sale. If the first two are true, plus you owe your life to cannabis, there's no avoiding a trip to the nursery for potting supplies. For me,  there has been something about finding the seed and making the effort without investing financially that makes this project fun. I appreciate the challenge of it, I can feel my synapses firing wildly, and I like it. So I spark a blunt, put my feet up, and start seeking solutions. Before you get too carried away, you may want to prove your seed can be germinated.

GERMINATION CONFIRMATION

You will need:

• Ziploc baggie
• Paper towel
• Water

First for the paper towel so that it is fixed on both sides and will fit into the Ziploc bag. Next dampen the paper towel with tepid water (guys if you don't know what dampen the means go ahead and stop here, and start searching the Internet for the difference between moisten, dampen, and soak). There now we can move along. Place your seed inside with equal thickness on both sides and set aside in a warm area out of direct sunlight with the Ziploc unsealed for two days. Peek at your seed. Is it getting green? Does it seem to have a life? Place Ziploc in a warmer area with some direct sunlight for part of the day. Around lunchtime blaze some herb and decide to make a grilled cheese sandwich. Eat your sandwich outside, dining surrounded by all this life will remind you that you are trying to grow life yourself inside. Check on your seed, did it sprout? It did! Amazing so did mine.

Nice job Sweet Mary Kane, now what you can do with this? For now leave it in this baggie until I come up with a free idea. Eat dinner, have ice cream and brownies for dessert, realizes Solo cup is the perfect idea. (In the morning I found out I didn't have any Solo cups, I lucked out though and found a $.49 starting pot.) I wouldn't consider that if financial investment. As a matter of fact, I don't consider five dollars a financial investment, so when I saw the bag specifically labeled seeding soil cost $4.20 I took it as a sign.

Before lunch this day I was transferring my little seed with the squiggly tail into its new home. I watered the soil and let the water drain. Then I covered the planter with ‘press and seal’ and poked some holes across the top. For now,  I'll be keeping it in a warm place out of direct sun. Can't wait to see what happens next and of course I haven't named it yet. We have yet to meet. For pity sake I didn't give my son a name for two weeks after we did meet! There's no way I can choose what to call this plant without the pleasure of knowing it. I am, however, open to suggestions.

*The paper towel shown in photo one is not actually pink it was the best I could do to contrast the sprout for visibility.

A Tuesday Tantrum brought to you by SMK

I occasionally I spend so much time with people who are pro-Cannabis I forget there are people out there who don't understand. For instance today I went to see my nail tech. He's asked me before what I've done for a living, and I've answered him that as he's Vietnamese and English is the cyclic language he didn't quite understand until today. Once he figured it out his response was to tell me “you're crazy”. For the next hour, he cracked jokes about me on a pot smoker  even questioning if I had tried crack? Don't get me wrong I nail tech isn't a bully he's a funny guy. Nevertheless I could tell that the propaganda and stereotype of Cannabis that he held in his head was negative.

How is it that people can be so easily convinced that Cannabis is harmful? Was I ever convinced? I think back to my days in D. A. R. E. It was an overcrowded classroom with one teacher and one police officer to supervise nearly to 40 kids. The handouts were like a coloring book and officer stories were so mild I don't think anyone was convinced. I don't remember him mentioning harder drugs or legal drugs like alcohol and pharmaceuticals. Which together rack up death tolls around 175,000 annually in the United States. I don't remember considering it as truth for even a moment when he told me that plant Cannabis was a drug either. In fact, what I remember most about that D. A. R. E. class was the segment that covered AIDS. Maybe some of the kids had never heard of drugs before as I'm pretty sure many have never heard of AIDS. After the officer gave a brief description, he attempted to shake the hand of the boy sitting in the desk behind me. The boy would not extend his hand to the officer. As I had already had this discussion with my parents, and knew it wasn’t transmitted by a handshake, I eventually leaned back over his desk and took the officer's hand. Perhaps some people just believe the first thing they hear. Especially as children who are taught never to question anything.

After discovering tons of immensely ridiculous ads making outlandish claims that Cannabis can: kill you, be shot up, trigger you to switch teams, drain your beauty, ruining your teeth, etc. The propaganda and how it influences our society is in the forefront of my mind. To those of us who are in the Cannabis industry or on the edges of it, know people in the industry, and/or are inclined to read actual empirical evidence find these outrages blatant lies are nothing more than something for our amusement. Aren't we outnumbered though? If more people buy into the misleading campaigns against Cannabis than have the ability to recognize it as nonsense, why should we let that be a joke? Should we not stand up and call for blackout of such misinformation? It seems to me that our tolerance is every bit as liable for the gap in communication, understanding, and knowledge between anti-and pro-sides of the issue.

The problem with this type of thinking is that it stems from the belief that humans are capable of sharing a unanimous opinion. It blurs the line between ‘we’ and ‘I’. It allows right and wrong to pose as a reality inside my mind when in truth there is only ‘is’. So how can this thing that bothers me change? Since I can only lay claim to my own actions and since I am such a tiny piece of a large puzzle how can I make an impact?

I don't know. Maybe it can't be changed. It is probable there will be little to no impact from my immediate action is anyways. I'm not the kind of girl who backs down from a fight though. So what am I going to do? The same thing that I've always done, which is write letters to the people that are responsible when something upsets me, only now I'm going to do it without sharing the actual propaganda itself.