It could be so easy to believe that cannabis culture is something that has been fully claimed by the profit-driven forces of capitalism.

The polished packaging that lines the shelves of dispensaries.

The slick branding that populates the websites of many cannabis advocates and cannabis-centered companies.

But somewhere on the streets of Harlem, Logan Grendel—artist, urban gardener, musician, revolutionary community organizer, and “very, very modern version of the village witch”—offers a different vision of what is possible: cannabis as a source of radical hope, connection, and collective liberation. 

The Cannabis Connection

A cannabis plant grown by Logan in a previous season. Photo credit: Logan Grendel. Used with permission.

Logan’s insight into cannabis arises from years of interaction with this mentor plant.

“I have allegedly had a personal relationship with cannabis since I was a young teenager,” they said. “And that relationship, the personal relationship, has been medicinal, it has been healthy, it has been, sometimes, a coping mechanism—because the world is hard when you are multiply marginalized and living through capitalism, et cetera.” 

Nowadays, Logan is very intentional about the ways they interact with cannabis. “I don’t partake that much anymore,” they continued. “At this point, it is largely medicinal and spiritual. The spiritual use can depend on the ritual: sometimes I like Big Clarity, but sometimes cannabis will be something I add. Whatever ritual work I am doing, getting out of my own way is part of that, and cannabis can be really helpful there.”

“Sometimes cannabis is just for relaxation, you know? Some people—and I am also some people—would have a glass of wine at the end of the day: sometimes I would prefer a little touch of the water pipe instead, as it were.”

Logan also sings the praises of the medicinal gifts of cannabis. “There is nothing better for settling a stomach that I have found,” they said. “Also, sometimes when the emotions are too loud, it just helps turn down the volume so you can—it may seem paradoxical—have a little bit more clarity during a situation and help you to weather the worst of the storms.”

Despite the fact that they rarely directly imbibe cannabis, their life is nevertheless significantly shaped by this plant and her medicine: their current work with cannabis grows from the soil of a small urban garden, where the flowers they grow and tend become living tendrils of community connections. 

You Can Just Grow

Logan tends to the Infinity Garden. Photo credit: Logan Grendel. Used with permission.

Over the last six years, Logan has frequently posted about the development and growth of their backyard urban garden, known as the Infinity Garden. 

“The Infinity Garden—as with basically all things I do—is a syncretic and alchemized crystallization of magick, science, art, political praxis, and just—the practical,” they said. “I like to grow things.” 

“So I decided to grow things in a way that made sense for me,” they said. “I mean, I’m a city kid. So, I don’t have acreage. I don’t have fields to plow nor yaks and oxen to plow them. What made sense to me was to take repurposed containers and some fabric pots as well—and 5-gallon buckets that I took out of the garbage outside of restaurants and such in my neighborhood—and turned those into growing vessels.”

They began volunteering at a nearby community garden, and through that experience gained additional layers of knowledge about growing edible and medicinal plants. Now, they are committed to encouraging others to establish gardens of their own…

and then empowering those folks to inspire others to establish gardens of their own, 

which will then inspire still others to plant seeds of their own… and so on and on and on. 

You see why they named their garden the Infinity Garden?

“Yes, the Infinity Garden is based on the idea of the Victory Gardens from World War II,” they said. “Because I have been seeing the trajectory of what is coming toward us. A lot of people didn’t see it before, but I can bet you they are seeing it now!”

The word-choice pivot from Victory Gardens to Infinity Gardens was a well-considered one.  

“It’s not an Infinity Garden until you have convinced someone else to grow one,” they said. “The gardens replicating themselves, the eternal infinite replication, the spreading of green through the gray of cities, through what humanity has put on top of the ‘natural’ spaces—we are putting back the green onto it, even literally atop the gray.”

“And you don’t need anyone’s permission. You can just grow.”

Kindness Spreads

Vegetables harvested from the Infinity Garden. Photo credit: Logan Grendel. Used with permission.

The combination of cannabis’s natural abundance (especially when she is lovingly tended in the way that Logan tends the plants in their garden) with Logan’s infrequent personal indulgence in cannabis means that they have an abundance to share within their community—a practice that they can incorporate into their daily dog-walking rhythms. 

“Since I grew last year, I have just been carrying some with me and giving it out,” they said. “I will see someone, maybe someone who is already smoking, maybe someone who I have a nice interaction with, just a random human interaction—Hey, that’s a nice coat you’ve got on or Oh, I like your hat, whatever—and then I will just offer them some.”

“It really has been such a lovely way of passing along literal community connection and good feelings in the area I live in.”

Indeed, several times throughout our interview, Logan needed to pause mid-thought and mid-sentence to greet the many people they knew who crossed their path, their voice full of warmth and genuine interest in every interaction. 

“I strongly believe that kindness spreads just as sure as hatred and vitriol spread,” they said. “You do something nice for someone, and they are just in a better mood, and they are more likely to do something nice for the next person—it really is that simple.”

The other side of this coin, of course, is that there is nothing about this practice that exists outside of the overarching context of white supremacy, patriarchy, and extractive ways of living that define the overculture. “I do like to center People of Color and people who are apparently Black cis men,” Logan said. “Of all the people on the planet, these are people who are least often approached with simple acts, just to offer something nice, just to make their lives easier.” 

The impact of the overculture makes building these connections harder at times than one might expect. “It is so sad how—a couple of times I have been refused because they were just suspicious that I was going to then launch into a sales pitch or that there was something wrong with it,” they said. “It’s just really sad.”

“But a couple of times, they have just been so beside themselves with joy, and that makes it all worth it, really. It has brought me such happiness to be able to bring a little happiness.”  

Community, Care, and Cannabis

A cannabis plant grown by Logan in a previous season. Photo credit: Logan Grendel. Used with permission.

As it turns out, growing and sharing cannabis, building community, and community organizing are all deeply connected, at least as far as Logan is concerned. “This is the mycelium, too: the community organizing that we do is one way of spreading mycellially (if that’s a word), but also this cannabis connection is another one.”

“And the people I share with aren’t necessarily all people who I would have political discussions or social/political conversations with, who I wouldn’t engage in a conversation about pronouns or such,” they added. “But we meet each other where we are, and through cannabis have an area of simpatico that we can grip onto.”

Building community networks is of vital importance right now, and cannabis is uniquely positioned to help with the problems that we are collectively facing. “The biggest threats to liberation right now are misinformation and disconnection,” Logan stated directly. 

“But to get to the next part, to what brings us toward a more liberatory future—what we need is to continue educating each other, and that starts at every level,” they said. “You know, one of the reasons that I have been giving out cannabis and also just other types of plants from my garden, just giving them out—it starts these little relationships. It provides an opportunity to bridge gaps locally.” 

“The healing here is not just the literal properties of stomach settling and pain management and emotional regulation that cannabis provides, but it’s also the social connections,” they said. “You can give and receive affection and community and care for no reason other than that you exist and that—honestly, that is some of the biggest healing.”

“And it is just—we spread information like the mycelium, like nature itself spreads seeds, and we have to do that to reeducate ourselves and others because of all the gross miseducation that has been done on every level.”

The Web of Hope

Kale and cannabis grow in the Infinity Garden. Photo credit: Logan Grendel. Used with permission.

The good news is that, according to Logan, healing from misinformation and disconnection is one of the most natural processes we can commit ourselves to. 

“I think we want to be part, we want to feel ourselves as part of a living web, as part of the exchange, the interplay between things,” Logan said. “The world is not naturally transactional, and I don’t think that we are so naturally transactional as society makes us believe.”

“There are neighbors who I share plants with, and have for a number of years now,” they continued. “I’ll give them some tomato starters, they’ll give me some sunflower starters, whatever—that right there is so hopeful. We do want to share. We want to give, and that is the hope.”

And it is undeniable that there is something uniquely magical about sharing cannabis. “Cannabis is, like, the best thing for that, because it’s got so many different levels to it!” Logan noted. “It’s got the pure joy, it’s got the potentially medicinal aspects, it makes you feel like you’re kind of sharing in a little skulduggery because of its recent illegality (and still being illegal in some places, ludicrously enough).” 

Of course, alongside the joys and gifts of cannabis are the sobering realities of the world at large—a world in which cannabis’s gifts are so direly needed. “With the collapse of all things, dear gods, we are going to need to have ways to get each other everything we need,” Logan observed. “And cannabis is something that—whether it is for medicinal reasons or just for recreational ones, or whatever the reason—I think it is one of the most important plants for us to be cultivating and sharing with each other.”

Resistance Is Fertile

The Infinity Garden in one of its many incarnations. Photo credit: Logan Grendel. Used with permission.

Logan is among the growing number of people who have recognized how deeply empowering it is to claim their independence from cannabis capitalism. 

“Growing and sharing cannabis is a way to put power back into the hands of the people, right?” they said. “Because even though it is legal now and you can buy it without having to do anything sketchy or worry about getting arrested (at least if you’re in a place where it’s legal), the people who still have control over that process are getting money from you.”

“And growing and sharing cannabis could literally be something that you just do in your neighborhood, or you have people in your community who grow,” they continued. “And that is political control. That is political power. Every resource that we have control over as the people, that we can share between each other without the need for usury, or without the need for money, or without somebody else coming into our neighborhood and bringing it for us—that really is the big thing,” they said. “When people bring things in to sell them to you, when they are bringing them in and you can’t produce it yourself, they have control over you, especially if it is something that you really want and/or need.” 

“Resistance is fertile. We grow the future that we need,” they added. “It’s not just about everyone being nicer—even though that’s actually true, because when people are less desperate they are able to be kinder—but it’s because it just makes more sense. Kindness makes more sense. Mutualism makes more sense.”

Culture Appears

A cannabis plant grown by Logan in a previous season. Photo credit: Logan Grendel. Used with permission.

And it is a sort of sense that a lot of people are here for. “You cannot walk down the street in the city—I have not probably in my life, even when it wasn’t legal—” and here they paused.

“Actually, I didn’t see anything. Before it was legal, I never saw anything,” they said. “But now that it is legal, it’s like every block, at most every other block, you see someone smoking. So, having control of production of that would be so powerful—and again, that would be another thing people could share.” 

This could ultimately shape cannabis cultivar development away from unilateral, quantifiable metrics such as the sole focus on THC percentages… and back to the experiences, needs, and preferences of the people who are the roots and life of cannabis culture. 

“You’d have local strains that are just like, Oh, yeah: that’s the one everyone in Harlem grows, because of one person who shared all these seeds,” they said. “And oh yeah: you’ve got a North Brooklyn strain. And this is something I foresee in the future, whether you’re talking about vegetables, whether you’re talking about cannabis, whatever it is you’re talking about—clothing, music styles—”

“The way that culture actually grows is that when you leave humans the fuck alone to provide for themselves, they do—and then culture appears,” they continued. “Culture, to me, includes the things that people do that are expressions of this process—whether we’re talking about clothing, whether we’re talking about music, or style of talking, dressing, what they eat or how they eat it, and how they smoke.”

“And cannabis—for all the reasons that we’ve talked about here—can serve as a connective tissue for a lot of those experiences.”

Growing Toward a Better Future

The conversations Logan has with their neighbors, and every tomato seedling and cannabis bud they share, are not separate from the overarching work they are committed to: continuously growing toward a better future.  

“I always say the most selfish thing you can do is be good to everyone you meet,” Logan said. “Because then you will not create any enemies. Then you will get to experience joy. Then you will be welcomed wherever you are.”

“Getting back to the idea of the village witch: that is kind of how I see myself really,” they said. “I am a very, very modern version of the village witch, you know? Like, I have some cannabis, I have medicinal herbs, I have some plants and witching herbs that I will share with people, and that’s—we need that.”

“With the future that is coming, what we need to do is rely on each other,” they added. “We need to make lines that are drawn based on who we are and who we want to be, as well as what really appeals to us as people—and what we really can do for each other.” 

This may sound daunting, but it is also the most natural thing in the world. “This is our natural state,” they said. “We are part of each other. We are part of the world. We are from this planet. We need to reindigenize ourselves by restoring our connections—and cannabis is one of the ways we can do that.” 

Logan emphasized the importance of starting seeds, literal and figurative. “I hope that more people will start growing—in every way, not just cannabis. Everything we get is going to come from the ground up.” 

“I really feel like we have to remember that everything good—everything really good—and everything real is on the other side of this.”

This article is from an external, unpaid contributor. It does not represent High Times’ reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.

<p>The post Resistance Is Fertile: A Conversation With Logan Grendel of Focused on Infinity first appeared on High Times.</p>

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This article originally appeared in High Times’ 50th Anniversary print issue. Get yours here.

In the Rif Mountains, Indigenous Berber farmers have grown cannabis for generations and gone to prison for it. Now the country wants their hash on the global medical cannabis market. A dispatch from Morocco’s kif country with veteran activist Abdellatif Adebibe.

In the Rif Mountains of Morocco, the cultivation of kif (the word for cannabis in Arabic, which means “pleasure”) has long sustained thousands of Indigenous Berber farmers and their families, despite colonialism, state repression and ongoing structural inequalities. “We have resisted to preserve the temple of the plant,” says veteran reform activist Abdellatif Adebibe, as he smokes from a wooden pipe filled with Morocco’s endemic Beldiya strain, mixed with tobacco.

Adebibe, 70, would like to take his final breath, whenever that day may come, in the simple home where he was born in Morocco’s impoverished High Central Rif, which is, for him, the temple of kif. It’s a remote region where tall cedar trees line the hillsides some 1,600 metres above the nearby Mediterranean sea and, according to a myth popular with the locals, where Noah is said to have built his ark. But first, he wants to complete his mission to help liberate his people from the tyranny of anti-cannabis laws, which sometimes saw peasant farmers arrested as drug traffickers for producing Morocco’s vaunted hashish.

The King’s Pardon

That future came a step closer last year, when Morocco’s king Mohammed VI issued a royal pardon for almost 5,000 people convicted or wanted over illegal cannabis growing. In 2021, the country had legalized cultivation for medical purposes across three provinces, in a first for a Muslim country. At the time, Adebibe alluded to a song sung to welcome the Prophet and said the full moon had just appeared.

“We want to escape from being persecuted, but thanks to God now we will be ok, we just need to find a way to export,” says Adebibe, lamenting how countries which have legalized cannabis usually have strict controls over imports.

“We are also fighting for [permission to launch] an eco-tourism project so that people from all over the world can come here and experience our culture,” he adds. That vision includes legal coffeeshops and avenues for tourists to visit kif plantations, currently forbidden. Still, it’s not difficult to find a tucked-away cafe to smoke kif from a long terracotta and wood pipe in Chefchaouen, the home of illegal cannabis tourism in Morocco.

With some Rifian villages destitute, roads in disrepair and a general lack of basic infrastructure, Adebibe says it’s a no-brainer for Morocco to take its reforms one step further and bring cannabis tourism out of the shadows. “They need to legalize it because it’s a natural plant,” he says, “We have the knowledge to make the number one [cannabis globally].” He’s backed by his 30 years of campaigning, which has taken him to the UN in New York and Vienna, as well as South Africa and Jamaica.

When the State Was Absent

How long Rifian farmers have grown cannabis is unclear, but it has certainly been for several hundred years. Adebibe claims it is a thousands-year-old native plant, and rejects the well-documented evidence that cannabis somehow originated in India. Certainly, however, it was not until the early 70s when growers in the Rif began adopting the Asian method of collecting the resin from cannabis flowers and compressing it into hashish, a more potent product that was also easier to transport abroad.

“The drug baron is the cornerstone of the community,” a farmer said to Bloomberg in 2022, reflecting the deep mistrust of central authorities and big business. “When the state was not shouldering its responsibility towards this region, the drug baron was taking care of us by buying the crop every year.”

Moroccan hash quickly flooded Europe and fuelled countercultures as dealers like the Welshman Howard Marks, better known as Mr Nice, gained notoriety, fame and wealth. But today, in the Muslim country, even as cannabis becomes legal around the world, kif remains extremely stigmatized, says Khalid Tinasti, a research associate at the Switzerland-based Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding.

“15,000 men were sentenced over the years for farming cannabis. It caused socio-economic problems because men ran away from their homes. And so until recently you’d find families where there were just women and children,” he adds, detailing how the state criminalized entire villages. Even today, despite the reforms, “young men in the poorest parts of the country are still going to prison for smoking a joint,” Tinasti adds.

And yet, kif is everywhere. “You want happy?” hash-cake sellers in surf towns ask tourists discreetly, while holding very indiscreet platters of psychoactive baked goods. Other dealers mumble “hashish, kif?” with less poetic verve but equal sincerity. In Marrakesh, the smell of hashish sometimes wafts into your orbit, though, as in other cities, it’s not sold as openly.

What Comes Next

The prices for foreigners may start astronomically high, but they can go as low as $2 per gram. Equally, the quality can vary wildly, depending on where you are, from dried-out bunk to the most delectable hashish you are ever likely to smoke. Perhaps the dealers are right to put a premium on their product, which Adebibe refers to as the country’s “treasure”. The Rif’s farmers have reportedly been receiving about 4% of the profits from Morocco’s illegal market, but that figure could triple once all sales are legal, even while the market expands significantly, potentially reaching a staggering $15 billion.

Still, there are serious concerns that small growers could be left out of a legal market, as they have elsewhere in the world, with the Rif’s legacy of defiance co-opted rather than preserved. “Multinationals want to get their hands on it,” says Adebibe. “But it is our cultural heritage. It brings you up. [When you smoke kif] You’re very lucid, very calm, you think well, you eat well, and you make love well.”

For him, Morocco has everything in place to be a global cannabis leader: history, expertise, climate, quality and reputation. In the days following our conversation, Morocco officially entered the international medical cannabis market with its first export, of 50kg of Beldiya, to Australia, the beginning of a new chapter where the crop is no longer sped out on Zodiac boats, but shipped legally. It is the natural next step, perhaps, for a plant that has been a quiet ally in the Rif’s long battle for dignity and autonomy, representing both heritage and contraband, lifeline and liability, caught between centuries of rebellion and an uncertain future.

As the summer’s harvest ends in late August, Adebibe is positive about what the future holds, while remaining philosophical. “This is a story of man, and kif.”

<p>The post There’s a Mountain in Morocco Where Everyone Grows Hash. The Locals Call It the Temple of the Plant. The Government Called It Illegal. first appeared on High Times.</p>

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From robot canopy scanners to algorithmic breeders to AI-powered dispensary counters, artificial intelligence is remaking cannabis at every level. The question nobody has fully answered: does this help the people who built the culture, or does it replace them?

Somewhere in Fredericton, New Brunswick, a robot is watching the weed grow.

It moves along cables strung above the canopy. Slowly, methodically scanning every leaf and bud site in an 86,000-square-foot cannabis facility owned by PURPLEFARM, one of Canada’s premier genetics enterprises. The machine is called the Spyder. It was built by Neatleaf, a Santa Cruz startup founded by Elmar Mair, a former head of perception at Google X. It never sleeps. Twenty-four hours a day, it generates millions of data points on plant height, chlorosis patterns, early signs of mildew, temperature differentials between air and leaf surface. Then it feeds everything into an artificial intelligence system that suggests actions to growers.

PURPLEFARM says yields have jumped 20 percent since the Spyder arrived.

To understand the scale of what that machine is doing, consider what it replaces. On the weekend this piece came together, the author visited some agronomic field trials for hemp varieties. A team of three or four technicians and agronomists collected fewer parameters than Spyder captures in a single square meter. That manual process took at least 30 minutes. You get the picture.

Across the American cannabis industry, from genetics labs to dispensary checkout counters, AI has moved from pitch decks into actual operations. The technology is monitoring grow rooms, predicting potency before harvest, automating compliance paperwork, and deciding when to text a customer about a sale. The question that hangs over all of it — the one that matters to growers, trimmers, budtenders and small-shop owners — is straightforward: does this help me, or does this replace me?

The answer turns out to be complicated. And far more interesting than the hype suggests.

Robots in the canopy

Cannabis cultivation has always been a data problem. Indoor grows require constant calibration of humidity, temperature, CO₂, light spectrum, irrigation and nutrients — variables that interact in nonlinear ways and shift with every strain and every room. A great grower holds all of this in their head. But even the best grower cannot be in every room, watching every plant, around the clock.

Neatleaf has deployed its Spyder in more than 30 facilities, with a waiting list that now includes berry producers. iAnthus brought the system into its New Jersey grow and reported reduced crop loss through early anomaly detection. At 22Red in Arizona, head of cultivation Stephen Hess described it as a way to escape the tyranny of manually cross-referencing dozens of environmental readings. Other players occupy different pieces of the same territory: AgEye Technologies develops spectral imaging for crop monitoring; Jushi Holdings has embedded machine learning into its entire building-management system; companies like iUNU and AEssenseGrows specialize in computer vision that detects pest infestations at stages invisible to the human eye.

Some cultivators have pushed further still, using AI-powered spectral imaging to measure cannabinoid potency directly on the plant and screen for diseases like Hop Latent Viroid. In November 2025, researchers at the University of Adelaide published a method combining hyperspectral leaf scanning with machine learning that predicted cannabinoid concentrations weeks before harvest with 94.74 percent accuracy.

Breeding by algorithm

Below the grow room, AI is beginning to reshape the genetic identity of cannabis itself. Breeding has always been slow work — pick parents, cross them, grow out thousands of seeds, phenotype the best, repeat over years. Machine learning compresses this by simulating potential crosses computationally before a single seed hits soil.

Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan and Renaissance Bioscience demonstrated that by feeding genetic markers, growth data and chemical assays into AI models, breeders can predict how combinations will influence cannabinoid content, terpene profiles and plant morphology. Companies like Phylos Bioscience and Front Range Biosciences have built their businesses around this approach.

The promise is extraordinary. The peril is equally real. Legal markets already incentivize a narrow band of traits — high THC, fast flowering, extraction-friendly architecture. AI could accelerate that genetic bottleneck, eroding the diversity that makes the plant adaptable and culturally rich. The monoculture problem that hollowed out corn and wheat genetics could arrive in cannabis on a compressed timeline, turbocharged by algorithms optimizing for quarterly earnings. California has recognized the stakes: the Department of Cannabis Control funded a study to catalog and preserve legacy cultivars. Whether the industry moves fast enough to protect those archives before the algorithms narrow the field remains an open question.

From the lab to the license

Between the harvest and the shelf, AI is making quieter but consequential inroads. On the processing floor, sensor-laden extraction equipment now monitors temperature, pressure and solvent ratios in real time. Machine learning models adjust parameters mid-run, maintaining consistent potency and terpene profiles across batches — turning what used to be one technician’s personal recipe into a continuously improving digital playbook. Robotic trimmers are getting smarter. Automated packaging lines sync with inventory systems. In the testing lab, algorithms trained on vast chemical databases help HPLC and gas chromatography systems identify cannabinoids faster and detect contaminants at levels below human perception.

Then there is compliance. Cannabis is among the most regulated industries in almost every state. Seed-to-sale tracking, testing mandates, labeling rules and sales reporting all vary by jurisdiction, change frequently and punish errors with fines or license revocation. CannabisRegulations.ai has trained a language model specifically on state cannabis statutes and enforcement actions, allowing operators to ask jurisdiction-specific questions and receive cited answers in seconds. Flowhub uses the tool when entering new markets. Prelude offers an AI-powered ERP that automates reporting and syncs with Metrc, the tracking system now running in 30 regulated markets. Solink provides AI video analytics that cross-reference POS data with camera footage to catch mis-weighing, unauthorized discounts and internal theft.

All of this — the autonomous robots, the algorithmic breeders, the compliance bots — paints a picture of an industry being remade by technology at every level. Depending on your disposition, it sounds either thrilling or terrifying. What it rarely sounds like is human.

What actually happened at the register

To get a more grounded view, the author called Rocco Del Priore. He is a computer scientist who dropped out of college with eight credits left, worked as an engineer at Apple and co-founded Sweed — a point-of-sale and retail platform that today powers hundreds of dispensaries for some of the largest cannabis companies in the United States, including Verano and Curaleaf. He has spent nearly nine years building technology for cannabis retail and is, by his own description, a pot guy. His company has an entire team dedicated to AI. He is exactly the kind of person who should be bullish on the technology’s transformative power. He kept undercutting the hype.

Sweed was among the first cannabis tech companies to pilot an AI recommendation engine at the point of sale, running a test in Arizona about two years ago. The early results caught Del Priore off guard.

“In the beginning, it wasn’t suggesting a whole lot of products that the customer wasn’t going to purchase anyway. But it was creating this really magical experience at the cash register.”

Rocco Del Priore, co-founder, Sweed

He described a returning customer walking up to the counter. The budtender pulls up their profile. Instantly, the system surfaces their usual order. The budtender says, “Welcome back. Blueberry or pear today?” Before anyone talks about upselling, something more fundamental happens: a better human interaction.

“I didn’t expect that. I thought the story was going to be about sexy sales numbers. But the budtenders were excited to have a better relationship with the customer.”

Rocco Del Priore, co-founder, Sweed

Meanwhile, the feature many in the industry had predicted would be the breakout — a guided AI tool that asks consumers how they want to feel and recommends products accordingly — fizzled. “Our lived experience did not match up with the case studies we were reading,” Del Priore said. “A small group of users engaged heavily. The vast majority didn’t interact with it at all.”

What moved the needle was something far less glamorous. Sweed built a feature called “smart sending” that uses AI to determine the optimal moment to deliver a marketing message to each individual customer, rather than blasting everyone at 2 p.m. The result: a 10 percent bump in ROI across every campaign that used it.

Del Priore had expected the opposite — the guided experience to be the headline, smart sending to be a footnote. The data reversed his assumptions.

The future is not ours to see

The tempting narrative about AI in cannabis is about consolidation — big companies deploying big technology to crush small operators. Del Priore thinks it could go the other way.

He asked for a picture of two businesses. A 150-store MSO with a four-person regional marketing team designing campaigns and building customer segmentation strategies. Then a three-store independent where one person — often the owner — handles purchasing, discounting, staffing and marketing alone. There is no way that solo operator matches the output of a dedicated enterprise team.

Unless AI does the work for them.

“If you give these people tools that will do a lot of this work, suddenly you could see a smaller chain marketing in a similar way to a larger enterprise-based chain. I think that could create a really interesting change in the ecosystem.”

Rocco Del Priore, co-founder, Sweed

He also described a near-future he called “proactive AI”: the system analyzes inventory, identifies a slow-moving SKU, cross-references it with the right customer cohort, drafts a promotional message and picks the optimal send time. The operator approves. “Instead of me going to the computer and saying, I would like you to do something,” he said, “imagine the computer coming at me and being like, ‘I think I should do something. Will you let me’?”

According to this optimistic view, AI in cannabis retail could function as a leveling mechanism — handing the analytical firepower of a Fortune 500 marketing department to a family-run dispensary in St. Paul.

425,000 workers and counting

The U.S. legal cannabis industry supports 425,002 full-time equivalent jobs, according to the 2025 Vangst Jobs Report. That figure dipped 3.4 percent from the prior year — even as retail sales grew to $30.1 billion. About 30 percent of those jobs sit in cultivation, 23 percent in retail, 17 percent in processing and packaging, and 30 percent in ancillary services. Cultivation and processing — roughly 200,000 positions — are the segments most directly in the path of automation, with entry-level roles like trimmers, harvesters and packaging-line workers first in line. By one estimate, between 60,000 and 90,000 positions face meaningful disruption over the next three to five years.

But Del Priore says the industry is already desperately short-staffed. “You go to any organization, small or large, and you ask them if they need more or less people,” he said, “and all of them are going to say more.” He attributes the shortage partly to the lack of mainstream software support caused by federal prohibition and partly to the industry’s expansion outpacing the supply of experienced talent. AI, in his view, fills gaps rather than eliminates positions.

“There’s a world in which those jobs are at risk. But the demand is so high right now that cannabis is unlikely to be impacted the way you might see software engineering.”

Rocco Del Priore, co-founder, Sweed

It is a plausible argument with a built-in expiration date. Whether it holds depends on two variables nobody can predict: the pace of legalization and the pace of AI development. If both accelerate simultaneously, his optimism stands. If the technology matures faster than the market expands, jobs will be lost. That dynamic is already visible in the year-over-year numbers.

The menu and the waiter

Near the end of the conversation, Del Priore offered an analogy worth sitting with. Imagine walking into a restaurant. You sit down, pick up the menu, read through all the dishes, narrow it to two choices. Then the waiter comes over and you ask: what do you think — the branzino or the chicken parm?

The technology is already good enough to monitor canopies, predict potency, automate compliance and sharpen marketing. It will get better. Jobs will shift. Genetic diversity will need defending. Consumers should be aware of the ever-increasing impact of algorithmic marketing on what they buy and why. And the question of what happens when algorithms start deciding which brands win deserves a serious answer.

Still, there might be a version of this future that serves the culture, the plant and the people who have built their lives around both.

We will be watching.

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How a 52-year-old first-time grower turned trial and error into a show-stopping harvest

The first time I zipped open my grow tent, I didn’t just see a plant. I saw proof.

Proof that a 52-year-old guy from Cincinnati—born and raised—could still learn something new. Proof that cannabis doesn’t belong only to corporations, legacy farms, or twenty-something influencers documenting every leaf online.

And proof that if you respect the plant, it will reward you. 

Two years ago, I was a beginner with a pack of seeds, a basement setup, and more questions than answers. Today, I’m standing in front of a Blueberry Chemdog that stops people mid-sentence.

Building the Basement Garden

The journey started in February 2024, when I decided to build my first real indoor grow. Like most beginners, I leaned into quality equipment to control the environment as much as possible. A 4×4 tent. Smart lighting. Controlled airflow. Dialed-in humidity.

From day one, climate wasn’t the issue. But as every grower eventually learns, controlling the room doesn’t mean you’ve mastered the grow.

Year One: Humility

My first harvest taught me something simple and brutal:

You can buy great equipment and still grow mediocre flower. The buds smelled good. The flavor was there. But the structure? Larfy. Airy. Underwhelming.

Looking back, the problems were obvious:

• Not enough plant training
• Not enough pruning
• Constant nutrient issues

Indoor growing reveals itself quickly—it’s not just gardening. It’s a balancing act: Light intensity. Airflow. Vapor pressure deficit. Root health. Feeding. Structure.

It’s science disguised as a hobby. Year one humbled me. But it also hooked me.

Year Two: Learning the Language of the Plant

The biggest change in year two wasn’t equipment. It was mindset. Instead of reacting to problems, I started reading the plant. Water quality was my first breakthrough. Dechlorinating and dialing pH to 6.8 stabilized nutrient uptake almost immediately.

Then came a turning point: walking into a local grow shop and actually talking to experienced growers. That changed everything. Switching nutrient lines, learning better feeding habits, and adding microbial support transformed my root zone—and my results.

I also made a couple of key changes that paid off immediately: moving up to 10-gallon fabric pots and transitioning into a Pro-Mix HP/CC nutrient approach. That combination gave the roots more room to thrive and made feeding more consistent and predictable.

It reinforced something I wish I knew earlier: Your local grow shop isn’t just a store. It’s a knowledge base. And in today’s world, growers actually share what they know.

Changing the Structure

The next leap forward came from how I handled the plant itself. Two changes made the difference:

• Adding under-canopy lighting to reach lower sites
• Removing undergrowth earlier and more aggressively

Instead of wasting energy on popcorn buds, the plant redirected everything into the canopy. The result? Dense, stacked colas where there used to be fluff.

Enter Blueberry Chemdog

The strain that brought it all together was Blueberry Chemdog. A bold hybrid—sweet berry terpenes layered over that unmistakable fuel backbone. I didn’t choose it because it was easy. I chose it because it demanded precision.

This time, the grow looked different. The canopy filled evenly. Buds stacked with symmetry. Deep green flowers developed purple hues as nighttime temps dropped. And the trichomes—thick, frosted, undeniable. But the real moment wasn’t visual. It was when people walked in and didn’t ask: “How long have you been growing?”

They asked: “Who grew this?”

And I got to answer: “I did.”

The Real Reward

The biggest validation came when the breeder himself reviewed both my first and second-year results. What stood out wasn’t just the final product—but the progression. The aroma. The structure. The terpene expression. But more than anything, the growth behind the grow.

The best part wasn’t yield. It wasn’t even the compliments.

It was the quiet moments: Checking trichomes in the morning, or adjusting airflow at night. Even just walking into a room where everything just feels right.

Growing teaches patience in a way few things do. You can’t rush it. You can only earn it.

I’m not a legacy grower. I’m not commercial. I’m not a brand. I’m a 52-year-old guy from Cincinnati who decided to try something new.

And I didn’t do it completely alone.

From the very beginning, my friend Paul was in my corner—encouraging me, reminding me I could do this, even during the moments I doubted myself. That kind of support makes a difference, especially early on.

And that’s the point. Cannabis culture isn’t regional anymore. It’s everywhere. If I can go from fluffy first harvests to dialed-in flower in two years, then anyone staring at a pack of seeds wondering if they’re too late should hear this: You’re not too late. You’re just early.

The plant doesn’t care about your age. It cares about your effort. And effort always shows.

Photos courtesy of Michael Davis

This article is from an external, unpaid contributor. It does not represent High Times’ reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.

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The government opened the UAP vault. Politicians are talking. The internet is spiraling. High Times offers a galactic thought experiment rooted in cannabis, sovereignty and the humble power of growing your own.

This morning, May 8, 2026, the Department of War released the first tranche of declassified UFO files under President Donald Trump’s PURSUE program (Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters). The release includes Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 mission imagery, FBI infrared stills, and a Department of War carousel of 17 image assets covering decades of unresolved UAP cases. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, FBI Director Kash Patel and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman all signed on. More tranches are coming on a rolling basis.

“The American people can now access the federal government’s declassified UAP files instantly,” the Pentagon press release reads. “No clearance required.”

The galactic open house, after years of speculation, is now an actual government portal you can bookmark. So before everyone loses their minds, let’s draw the blinds on paranoia for a second.

Consider this precise and delicate moment in history. It seems far-fetched, but in the United States, the government just made it considerably less far-fetched. The Pentagon is in galactic “open house” mode, and the most important politicians in the world have been hinting at what we suspect. And, by the way, that’s something many of us are waiting to find out.

So, while the planet spirals into a panic attack worthy of a bad mushroom trip, you have to be there, firm, with your grinder in hand and a cool head. Weed can save you. Weed can save us.

The politicians already know something

“Exopolitics” sounds like something from a boring conference, but it’s pure galactic conversation, and we can cultivate it. In fact, there are already signs of it. Let’s look at some examples: Mr. Burns emerging from the forest, skinny and fluorescent, offering “peace.” Barack Obama dropping suspicious hints on Jimmy Kimmel’s show — he said he couldn’t reveal anything, and Kimmel jokingly demanded his facial expressions be analyzed — or when he addressed the subject on James Corden’s late-night show, as this CNN article points out.

Bill Clinton telling Jimmy Kimmel that “If we were visited someday, I wouldn’t be surprised. I just hope that it’s not like Independence Day.” Donald Trump, the self-styled dealer of declassified extraterrestrial files and the main promoter of this whole thing, selling you Martian bobbleheads with MAGA hats (a dystopian souvenir that, at this point, is more of a prediction than a parody).

Probably, if what many think is coming actually happens, the confirmation that we are not alone will be a truly epic season finale: the ultimate crossover between X-Files, Ancient Aliens, and High Times. But be warned, if the news breaks and the financial system collapses, the real way out isn’t in Ned Flanders’ bunker, but in your own garden.

Cultivation as the ultimate survival strategy

Now, in this picture we’re painting, cultivation will be the ultimate form of resistance. If everything goes bonkers, if chaos takes over the streets and people start praying to every saint: whoever has a plant will have sovereignty. In a collapse scenario, flowers could become currency, the universal language of cosmic diplomacy, and the only anchor against the vastness of the cosmic void.

Furthermore, self-cultivation isn’t just a hobby or a trick for the “green thumbs” out there. It’s a biological insurance policy. In a world where supply chains are disrupted and fiat currency becomes less valuable than toilet paper, your ability to produce medicine and relief can keep you out of the line of the desperate and, conversely, place you among the providers.

Terpenes as the universal language

If these aliens managed to master interdimensional travel, it’s because they understand sacred geometry and the molecular composition of matter. What we know: cannabis is not just a plant. What we will learn: there could be life beyond Earth. What this could add to our understanding: terpenes are nature’s binary code. Limonene and myrcene could be the aromatic keys to unlock a conversation that transcends the language of words. A peace protocol that mainstream politics has yet to decipher. And which we hope they read as a recommendation.

Who told us the endocannabinoid system is exclusive to humans? There may still be a card to play there. Maybe, somewhere across the galaxy, visitors might also have biological receptors waiting to be activated by Earth’s flora.

Because, well, imagine this scenario: the aliens land on Earth and the first thing they see is a human desperate to upload a short video to TikTok. They’d flee in terror, right? We need to start preparing for a different kind of conversation. As former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe pointed out to Fox News: “We’re talking about objects (…) that engage in actions that are difficult to explain, movements that are hard to replicate, that we don’t have the technology for.”

Will they arrive? When? Where?

Today’s Pentagon release is the first tranche, not the last. More files are coming on a rolling basis. So aside from the breaking news and the “exopolitical” dilemma, will they arrive now? Are they really “selling” it as something imminent? Will they arrive around the time of the World Cup, under the watchful eyes of every continent? Will it be more discreet? Or will they wait until the Total Solar Eclipse of August 2, 2027? Will they appear over the pyramids of Giza or over your indoor space? Who knows.

The strategy, if it happens when the time comes, is to be there: calm, chill, keeping your cool. Although if these guys crossed galaxies, they most likely won’t come for our disposable technology. They’ll probably come to see how we manage to be happy on this absurd giant rock. And, clinging to a universal truth, nothing says “I’m at peace with the universe” like a good homegrown harvest.

Homegrown plants will be our techno-weed version of Noah’s Ark. Having full control over your own production means that, faced with uncertainty, you’ve got the most valuable resource: absolute independence from pharmacies and markets. It’s the ultimate survival tool, since it barely requires more than sun, water, and a little patience. So while the Pentagon rehearses its next tranche of releases, news programs explode with red banners, and social media swells with anticipation, you just focus on keeping your plants healthy.

Even Jimmy Carter, who claimed to have seen a UFO in 1969, said he would never make fun of people who report unidentified objects in the sky. So, what are we going to do? This is an invitation to reflect on this whole issue, which just got a lot more official. We prefer to call it solutions journalism.

Meanwhile, at least in our own corner, we maintain that the code of survival lies in having good seeds. Because if these visitors turn out to be cool, they’ll surely bring something to share with us. And if they arrive with conquest in mind, well, at least they’ll catch us with full jars, and we can figure out how to handle it. The truth probably isn’t out there, but in your own garden. Infinity is closer than we think.

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Triploid cannabis has been around for years. Outdoor growers are increasingly putting it to the test, and the results are complicated.

For outdoor growers, pollen is the enemy. One rogue male, one stressed hermaphrodite at the wrong moment, and an entire field seeds up. Premium sinsemilla becomes something you can barely move. The industry has tried feminized seeds, aggressive male elimination, tight protocols. The threat never fully disappears.

Triploid cannabis offers a different answer: a plant so genetically scrambled it can barely reproduce at all.

That’s the idea driving a quiet but accelerating movement in cannabis genetics. Companies like Humboldt Seed Company and Mavericks Genetics have spent years developing triploid seed lines, and by 2026 the category has spread from California into the EU, Morocco and Latin America. More seed companies are entering the space every season. The technology is no longer a breeder’s experiment. Growers are running it in the field, comparing notes and pushing back on the hype in equal measure.

What Three Chromosomes Actually Do

Most cannabis is diploid: two sets of chromosomes, one from each parent. Triploids have three. That odd number disrupts meiosis, the cell division process that produces gametes, making it extremely difficult for the plant to generate viable pollen or seeds, even under direct pollen pressure. Think of it as a genetic dead end, by design.

“No more worrying about rogue males ruining your harvest,” says Pablo Miguel Gomez, CEO of Mavericks Genetics. “It translates into denser, seedless flowers and better quality.”

Beyond sterility, triploids show increased vigor, faster flowering and potentially heavier yields, though results vary by strain and environment. A peer-reviewed study in Plants (Philbrook et al., 2023) confirms that triploid cannabis can occur naturally and may offer real production benefits. Researchers at Utah State University found enhanced biomass and cannabinoid concentration in field trials, though they caution that outcomes depend heavily on genotype and growing conditions (Crawford et al., 2021).

“Triploids flower in six to eight weeks,” says Benjamin Lind, co-founder and chief science officer at Humboldt Seed Company. “We’ve had California Octane flower in as little as 37 days.”

Faster cycles mean real savings: less water, fewer inputs, a shorter pest-management window. “Triploids are faster to market and more resistant to pests,” Lind adds. “That translates to fewer inputs and a smaller carbon footprint.”

For growers chasing potency and novelty, there’s more. “Those focused on higher THC will get what they’re looking for,” Lind continues, noting that some triploid strains express rare cannabinoids and terpenes not typically found in diploids. “The extra chromosome unlocks flavors we hadn’t seen before.”

Not everyone sees the upside applying equally across the board. Sergio Martínez, CEO of Blimburn Seeds, is direct about the limits. “The game changer is in large-scale outdoor cultivation, not home grows,” he says. “Most homegrown growers grow indoors and there are no male flowers anywhere. This is really about commercial farms that need predictability and uniformity.”

The Rogue Male Problem, Mostly Solved

Accidental pollination is one of the oldest problems in cannabis cultivation. A single rogue male can release enough pollen to seed an entire crop, turning high-THC flower into something diminished and hard to sell. For outdoor growers in states like Oregon and California, where multiple farms operate side by side with varying genetics and practices, the risk is seasonal and real.

Triploids offer a structural buffer. By producing flowers that are sterile, not just feminized, they could give outdoor growers reliable protection against stray pollen. Even hermaphroditic plants, which occasionally throw pollen sacs under stress, would have a harder time compromising a triploid crop.

The science supports the mechanism. A 2019 study by Canopy Growth and Carleton University successfully induced tetraploidy in a drug-type cannabis strain and observed roughly a 40% increase in trichome density on sugar leaves, along with a statistically significant 9% increase in CBD concentration in buds, though researchers found no significant difference in total dried flower yield or THC levels (Parsons et al., 2019).

That study focused on tetraploids, plants with four chromosome sets, but the principle carries over. When a diploid is crossed with a tetraploid, triploids often result. In agriculture, that’s exactly the outcome breeders want: the sterility and performance potential, without the instability of tetraploidy itself.

Sterile By Design. Mostly.

Here’s where growers should read carefully.

In theory, triploid plants are sterile because their odd chromosomal count makes viable gametes difficult to form. In practice, sterility isn’t absolute. The evidence has gotten more nuanced as more growers have run these genetics at scale.

A peer-reviewed study in Agronomy Journal (Reyes et al., 2023) confirmed that triploid cannabis substantially reduces seed production but is not fully immune to pollination. Field trials by Cornell University and Oregon CBD found that under heavy pollen pressure, triploids still generated some viable seed, just far fewer than diploids.

More recently, some triploid lines on the market have shown an above-average tendency toward hermaphroditic traits, a meaningful concern for growers betting on sterility as the main selling point. Not all lines behave the same way, and genetics matter enormously. But it’s a variable worth factoring in before committing a full outdoor run to triploid stock.

“The triploid era has just begun,” says Gomez. “It’s an ongoing revolution, but only a few growers have had the chance to try them so far. We’re confident that as they expand and improve, these genetics will pave the way toward even more advanced seeds.”

Lind puts the real-world value in grower terms. “Triploids could very well become the best choice for farmers in places like Morocco, which experience a huge amount of pollen drift,” he says.

For indoor cultivators, the math is different. Male plants are already eliminated by protocol, and pollen drift is a non-issue. But for sun-grown farms where that control is harder, even 80 to 90 percent sterility is a meaningful edge over nothing.

What You Gain, What You Give Up

The upside is real: faster cycles, fewer inputs, reduced pollination risk and, for some strains, genuinely novel terpene and cannabinoid profiles that don’t exist anywhere else in the catalog.

“Adding a pair of chromosomes to the classic OG caused it to morph from a knockout OG to candy gas,” Lind explains. “That translated to new flavors we hadn’t tasted before, and a new favorite among both growers and consumers.”

Gomez frames it as a fundamental shift in how growers think about genetics. “These plants grow with more force, generate more biomass and yield significantly denser flowers, which improves total production,” he says. “It’s a more robust, stress-resistant structure overall.”

Not everyone is ready to rewrite the playbook.

“We already have concerns with feminized seeds,” says Martínez. “Triploids will add a new layer to that. We’re saving time and money, but we could face future issues with biodiversity. Male plants are already hard to find. It could get worse.”

That tension between efficiency and genetic diversity isn’t new in cannabis. And it’s not a North American issue alone.

“In South America, we’re not just catching up. We’re adapting cannabis genetics to meet the realities of the Global South,” says Nicolás José Rodriguez, M.A. in Cannabis Public Policy from The New School and High Times contributor. “At La Huerta del Diablo in Argentina, breeders are developing triploid and polyploid strains that are resilient, high-yielding and discreet, ideal for small-scale and outdoor growers facing legal gray zones and extreme climates. These innovations aren’t just about potency or profit; they’re about sovereignty, accessibility and building a cannabis future that works for our conditions, not just North America’s.”

Gomez adds that Mavericks is focused on keeping access open. “We’re not patenting these genetics or locking them down,” he says. “Our goal is to empower growers everywhere, not restrict them.” The company’s triploids are produced by crossing diploids with colchicine-derived tetraploids, a classic agricultural technique with no genetic modification involved. “We’re selecting for traits like biomass, resilience and stability, especially for regions where growing conditions can be extreme.”

Triploid genetics are spreading. The technology is documented. The production benefits are measurable. The long-term effects on breeding diversity, market access and cultivation ecosystems are still playing out.

For the outdoor grower who’s ever lost a season to a rogue male, a plant that won’t seed isn’t a gimmick. It’s the whole point.

An earlier version of this article appeared in Forbes on June 2, 2025.

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Cuttings are selling for up to $1,566 each. Three California events in May are drawing international growers, hashmakers and breeders for the elite genetics they need to stay competitive in a $60 billion U.S. market with $9 billion in new European demand on the horizon.

The cannabis genetics arms race has gotten spring fever this May.

At least three events in California are drawing international growers, big and small, for the top-tier strains they need to stay competitive in the legal cannabis era.

Hendrx Nursery releases 100 clones of Tire Fire OG for $1,566 each at the first Clonetopia, a CANNA nutrients-powered clone release festival, May 16-17 at 7 Stars dispensary in Richmond, California, and Solful on Irving Street in San Francisco.

Joining Hendrx, Purple City Genetics will release their closely held Habibi (Z x Moroccan Peaches) for $500. Plus, a fast-flowering sativa called Lemon Cherry Congo (Red Congo x Lemon Cherry Gelato x Z).

Also, Haze Valley Nursery releases a $1,000 Tom Hill Haze 3-pack for vintage sativa breeders and lovers. Plus, $32 cuts of Grape Lobster, Hash Burger, Modified Mule, and Bodhi’s Strawberry Headband.

Down in Southern California on May 17, Green Dragon releases the most hype strain of 2026, Toad Venom, for $1,000 for three cuttings.

And Green Dragon’s former collaborator turned rival Ronin Seeds preempts Green Dragon with a May 9 drop of (alleged) Toad Venom cuts at GOAT Global for $500 each.

The events evoke memories of Seed Junky’s $1,000 Cap Junky clone drop at the 2021 Emerald Cup. Why the hype?

Because elite clones are blueprints for money trees in the $60 billion U.S. cannabis market, as well as globally. New international markets like Germany and Czechia are forecast to add $9 billion in revenue in the coming years.

It’s like buying Prada patterns in Milan, Italy, to go make your own new bag.

Buying a ‘golden ticket’

New genetics are a capital expense for a large cannabis business. Businesses are spending $1,500 on one plant to make their money back many times over. They turn the clone into a mother plant, then make more clones, grow those out, and sell the bud. They use them in new breeding projects.

“I spent $10,000 on a tray of OG back in the day,” said Green Dragon’s co-owner and operator Glen. “They put me on something that gave people something different than what was out there. I didn’t know how else to get it, and that’s what you did. I never regretted it because I made more than my money back. That’s for sure.”

Grabbing an elite clone is way cheaper than a licensing deal from a nursery, or popping packs and finding and testing a pheno.

Daniel Hendricks of Hendrx Nursery said he is fueling the next big OG Kush wave. Tire Fire OG is (OG Kush x Triangle Kush) x SFV OG. It combines selections from CSI Humboldt, CHA Genetics, Kevin Jodrey, and Hendrx Nursery.

“It’s got all the legends of the game,” said Hendricks. “This thing stood up against all the other OGs I could find.”

“OG is a fucking huge market. Everybody needs an OG that can commercially produce and then is going to keep its nose. This is like a business-to-business golden ticket.”

Daniel Hendricks, Hendrx Nursery

The 100 buyers of the Tire Fire OG get exclusive access to further work on the line, he said.

“It’s an invitation to sit down at the big table,” he said. “Everybody at the table is a professional commercial farmer who buys clones and understands commodities and is jumping at the opportunity.”

Dropping in on the Peach and Lemon Cherry Gelato waves

PCG’s Habibi release (Z x Moroccan Peaches) puts buyers in the middle of the 2026 peach strain wave. Moroccan Peaches is a flower and hash all-star right now, and the current center of a lineup of new seed crosses from PCG for 2026.

Still, PCG has held back Habibi for their own use, and the strain predates the rest of the Moroccan Peaches work. “It’s a really beautiful one. We run it for in-house consumption,” said Auryn McCafferty.

“Hashmakers are going to win with this,” said McCafferty. “It’s mixing two kings of the hash market. This is the all-star of our El Krem work, one of our favorites personally, and the community is going to be like, ‘Wow.’”

PCG’s other release Lemon Cherry Congo takes the current top flavor in weed, LCG, into sativa country, with a super-fast 8-week finish. It’s candy for the young adults who’ve never had a sativa, let alone one that finishes in eight weeks.

“The Congolese is an amazing Mount Rushmore strain for effect. This is landrace work but more palatable for the consumer and grower,” said McCafferty.

Accessing vintage highs and breeding tools

The $1,000 three-pack of Tom Hill Haze cuts from Haze Valley Nursery are akin to buying the same gear used to record The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” or Nirvana’s “Nevermind.”

Haze Valley Nursery’s Sjoerd Broeks obtained the three phenos from the legendary, reclusive Humboldt breeder Tom Hill himself. Tom Hill has rabid fans of his pure Haze sativa work.

“It’s really about the power of that high,” Broeks said.

The Tom Hill Hazes are a straight, pure, original Haze from Dave Watson, refined for the last three years by Tom Hill. They’re tall but manageable, with 11- to 13-week flowering times as opposed to 16-20 weeks. You’re going to taste vintage Thai, southern India and Colombia weed with notes of pepper or metal.

You can mom them, take cuts, flower some pure Hazes, plus mess around and make something else. Remake a Blue Dream, the best-selling strain ever. The drop allows you to own a benchmark reference standard for what we mean when we say “Haze.”

“If you’re working with the original Haze, you’ll be making similar seeds that I was making in the late ’90s,” Broeks said.

Broeks said the Tom Hill Hazes are pretty stable and true-breeding. “If you cross them to something else that’s pretty stable, and [the cross] works, the stuff is going to be pretty close to an F1 already.”

Authentic access in an era of ‘cutfishing’

Frugal home growers might get some heartburn at the steep price for such rarities. The average clone price in California is about $25.

Both Clonetopia and the Green Dragon event will have plenty of regular-priced clones for the masses. Talking Trees | Rootimentrees offers $47 GDP x Urkles, and Strawberry Pops with a dealer’s choice, buy one get one plant deal.

Glen said $1,000 for three Toad Venom cuts is drawing customers from as far as Spain who want to avoid getting “cutfished.” That’s a term for being sold a counterfeited strain variety in clone form. Ronin Seeds has reportedly muddied Toad’s waters once before with a fake Toad release.

Similarly, you can meet all the actual nursery operators at Clonetopia to get grow help.

“It’s so easy to get cutfished. To get it from the person where it’s 100%, never been out of their facility, never been a mix-up, it’s worth it.”

Glen, co-owner, Green Dragon

There are so many online nurseries these days selling unverified cuts, said PCG’s McCafferty.

“We’ll really validate the genetics. We’ll grow them out. This is what we say it is,” said McCafferty. “You could try to get those trays for that high price online, but are you sure it is what they say it is?”

After this raft of genetics events this spring, get ready for a terpy fall full of Toad Venom, Tire Fire, peaches, Haze, Hash Burger, and more.

Where to upgrade your garden

Clonetopia powered by CANNA nutrients NorCal Clone Release Festival, May 16-17, 7 Stars, Richmond, California, 3219 Pierce St. and Solful, 900 Irving St., San Francisco.

Green Dragon Toad Venom Release, May 17, 7235 Fulton Ave., North Hollywood.

GOAT Global Westwood Toad Venom Drop, May 9, 2299 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles.

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The Trump administration’s rescheduling order moved FDA-approved marijuana drug products and certain state-regulated medical marijuana products from Schedule I to Schedule III. But for Americans who grow their own at home, the most basic question, did anything actually change for me?, depends entirely on which cannabis attorney you ask. We asked four. They disagree.

On April 23, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed an order rescheduling two specific categories of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III: FDA-approved drug products containing marijuana, and marijuana products regulated under qualifying state medical marijuana licenses. It was the biggest federal cannabis shift in decades. For the commercial medical marijuana industry, it was a landmark moment. For home growers, the picture is considerably murkier.

We put the same core question to four of the country’s leading cannabis attorneys: Does the rescheduling order cover home growers? They read the same order. They cited the same language. They landed in different places.

The disagreement turns on a deceptively small distinction: whether a state patient cultivation card is a “license” in the federal sense, or merely a state-level permission slip that still sits outside the Controlled Substances Act. That distinction, business versus person, commercial supply chain versus backyard grow, is doing enormous legal work in a document that doesn’t spell out the answer.

What the order actually says

The relevant language is specific. The order moves into Schedule III: FDA-approved drug products containing marijuana, and marijuana “subject to a qualifying state-issued license.” It then defines “state medical marijuana license” as “a license issued by a state entity authorizing the licensee to manufacture, distribute, and/or dispense marijuana or products that contain marijuana for medical purposes.”

Everything else remains Schedule I. “Any form of marijuana other than in an FDA-approved drug product or marijuana subject to a state medical marijuana license remains a Schedule I controlled substance,” the order states, subject to all applicable “administrative, civil, and criminal sanctions.”

So the question is: does your home grow qualify as marijuana “subject to a state medical marijuana license”? Bob Hoban, one of the country’s most recognized cannabis attorneys and a longtime fixture in federal drug policy debates, says ordinary personal home grow remains outside the framework. Michael McQueeny, Partner and Co-Chair of the Cannabis and Hemp Group at Foley Hoag, agrees. Steven Schain, Of Counsel at Malkin Law and a cannabis law professor at Stockton University, takes the opposite view: state-licensed patient cultivation drops to Schedule III. Marshall Custer, who co-leads Husch Blackwell’s cannabis team of more than 80 attorneys, lands somewhere more complicated: personal-use home growers remain federally illegal, but state medical cultivation permit holders may now face Schedule III obligations rather than freedom.

The strict reading: home grow stays Schedule I

Hoban draws the line clean.

“Home cultivation lives on that other side. It doesn’t fit within an FDA-approved framework, and it doesn’t clearly fall within the definition of products containing marijuana subject to a qualifying state-issued license. A patient card, a statutory right, a backyard grow — those are not the same as a licensed, regulated entity operating within a closed system.”

Bob Hoban, cannabis attorney

Hoban traces the reasoning back to the international treaty framework underpinning the entire order. The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1961 UN treaty that Blanche used as legal authority for the rescheduling, requires centralized government control over cannabis production. No decentralized cultivation. No backyard supply chains.

“That treaty doesn’t leave room for ambiguity. It requires nations to tightly control medical cannabis through a government-supervised structure, effectively a monopoly over production and distribution. No home grows. So when you ask whether a patient card equals a license, the answer under this framework is almost certainly no. One is participation. The other is permission to operate within a controlled system.”

Bob Hoban, cannabis attorney

McQueeny agrees and points to the order’s own regulatory text as the clearest evidence.

“The federal legal risk for home growers is therefore the same as it was the day before this order. Marijuana they grow, possess, or use without a qualifying state license to manufacture, distribute, or dispense remains Schedule I as a matter of federal law.”

Michael McQueeny, Partner, Foley Hoag

McQueeny notes that the order’s expedited DEA registration pathway contemplates applicants seeking federal registration as marijuana “manufacturer, distributor, or dispenser,” commercial language built for institutional infrastructure. A patient growing six plants under a state patient card doesn’t fit that description.

Also read: Hidden in the Rescheduling Order: Could the DEA Become the Nation’s Biggest Weed Dealer?

He flags one genuine gray area: caregiver cultivation licenses, state-issued licenses that authorize a designated individual to grow and supply cannabis to patients, could theoretically qualify under the order’s language, depending on how a state structures the permit. But personal cultivation for personal use is clearly outside the framework, in his reading.

“The most dangerous misconception is that rescheduling means broad and unfettered legalization, or that if your state says you can grow, the federal government now agrees. For home growers specifically, it would be a mistake to read the April 23 order as extending any federal protection to personal cultivation.”

Michael McQueeny, Partner, Foley Hoag

The broader reading: licensed patient cultivation drops to Schedule III

Schain gave the most direct pro-home-grow reading of the order. His position is concise and categorical: if a state has issued a license for patient cultivation for medical purposes, those plants qualify.

“State-licensed patient cultivation or home grow for medical cannabis drops to Schedule III.”

Steven Schain, Of Counsel, Malkin Law

In his reading, a state-issued patient cultivation license is enough. He also noted that the practical federal enforcement risk for home growers hasn’t changed either way, because federal enforcement of home cultivation was already minimal before the order. States were the primary enforcers of these rules, not the feds.

The third answer: Schedule III may bring obligations, not freedom

Custer offers the most complicated answer of the four and, in some ways, the most important one for home growers to hear.

On personal-use home cultivation, he is unambiguous, as that pull quote makes clear. But when it comes to crops produced under a state medical permit, his reading is closer to Schain’s than to Hoban’s, with a crucial twist. He says marijuana crops produced under a state medical permit may now be Schedule III. But that is not necessarily good news. If you qualify, you may now be required to register with the DEA as a Schedule III handler, a significant federal compliance obligation that most individual patients and caregivers are completely unprepared for.

“If you are growing as a licensed medical caregiver, the DOJ order requires that you register with the DEA to handle Schedule III substances. This is going to be a heavy lift for most caregivers. Perhaps DEA will issue additional guidance to address the administrative burden of this process, but I would not count on it.”

Marshall Custer, Partner, Husch Blackwell

That is the twist buried in the rescheduling order that almost nobody is talking about. Qualifying for Schedule III doesn’t mean freedom from the federal system. It may mean entry into it, with all the registration, compliance, record-keeping and DEA oversight that entails. A system built for pharmaceutical manufacturers, not patients growing medicine at home.

Custer’s broader warning goes further. For years, the federal government largely stayed out of state-regulated marijuana, while Congress barred the DOJ from using certain funds to interfere with state medical marijuana laws. That era, he says, is ending.

“In general, the federal medicalization of marijuana is not good news for small companies and home growers. In the long run, federal requirements are almost certain to be stricter than state programs. And as the federal government ramps up oversight and control of medical marijuana, enforcement will follow.”

Marshall Custer, Partner, Husch Blackwell

He draws an analogy that lands hard. There is a place for home brewers in a world where alcohol is commercially regulated. There may eventually be a place for home growers in a world where cannabis is federally medicalized. But it is not guaranteed, and the path there runs through a federal regulatory framework that was not designed with the backyard grower in mind.

Adult-use home growers: nobody says this helps you

This needs to be said plainly. None of the four attorneys, including Schain, who gave the most favorable reading of the order for medical home growers, said the rescheduling order helps adult-use home cultivation in any way. Schain was explicit: the order “creates no complications nor protections for adult-use cannabis home growers.” Adult-use home grow remains Schedule I under every reading of this order.

What would actually fix this

McQueeny is direct about what real federal protection for home growers would require. The June 29 hearing, which will consider broader rescheduling of all marijuana, could theoretically help if it results in all marijuana moving to Schedule III. But even then, Schedule III still means controlled substance. Still means federal registration requirements not designed for someone growing a few plants at home.

“True protection for home growers would most likely require either descheduling marijuana entirely, removing it from the Controlled Substances Act, or enacting legislation that creates an express federal safe harbor for personal cultivation consistent with state law. Neither of those steps is on the immediate horizon.”

Michael McQueeny, Partner, Foley Hoag

Hoban frames the longer-term tension clearly. Two systems are now running on parallel tracks: federal medicalization on one side, state home grow rights on the other. When those tracks collide, it won’t be theoretical.

“While Schedule I was a blanket prohibition, messy and unevenly enforced, Schedule III could become something different: a structured system with defined participants and defined outsiders. Home growers may find themselves not just illegal in theory, but increasingly incompatible with the economics and politics of a regulated market.”

Bob Hoban, cannabis attorney

The bottom line

Here is what the attorneys collectively make clear. For ordinary personal-use home growers, the federal answer is mostly unchanged: you remain outside the framework this order created. For medical patients and caregivers with state-issued cultivation permits, the answer is genuinely contested, and even if your grow qualifies for Schedule III, that may mean new federal compliance obligations rather than freedom. For adult-use home growers, nothing in this order helps you.

The most dangerous thing you can do right now is assume that because your state says it’s legal, the federal government now agrees. It doesn’t, at least not clearly, and not for most home growers under any reading of this order.

The fight for home growers runs through descheduling. And descheduling is not on the immediate horizon.

Rescheduling is movement. It is not freedom.

High Times, December 2025

This article is legal analysis and reporting, not legal advice. Home cultivation rules vary by state, and anyone facing legal risk should consult counsel in their jurisdiction.

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Plastic pots are the default choice for most growers, but they may be quietly limiting your yields, stressing your plants and stunting your roots. Here is what to do instead.

Growing top-quality cannabis involves time, love and care, but the pots you use play a bigger role in root development than most growers realize. This piece is not meant to give plastic pots a bad name. It is about the benefits of aerating your growing medium to encourage root pruning, and what happens when you do not.

I will cover how and why plastic pots promote root-bound growth, walk through the different types of roots and their roles, and lay out several pot solutions to help you avoid root-bound plants for good.

How Plastic Encourages Root-Bound Plants

We have all been there when repotting. You pick up your plant, turn the pot upside down, and check the roots, only to find them jam-packed, white, tangled and healthy, growing in the exact shape of the pot. In some cases, roots are already pushing through the drainage holes at the base.

It can look impressive. But root-bound cannabis plants come with real problems.

The Signs of Root-Bound Cannabis Plants

If your plants seem off, check this list before assuming it is something else.

The Benefits of Fabric Pots

Having grown with thousands of plastic pots over 20 years, I can say without hesitation that fabric pots are a genuine upgrade. Unlike plastic, fabric allows air to pass through the container walls, which changes how roots develop entirely.

What Is Root Pruning?

Root pruning happens naturally in fabric pots. As roots grow outward and hit the fabric wall, they come into contact with air. The tip stops elongating and instead branches into new lateral roots. The result is a denser, more efficient root system.

• A more prolific root system overall
• Greater nutrient uptake capacity
• No root-bound formations
• Better air circulation through the growing medium
• Faster drying, which reduces the risk of pathogens

The Different Types of Roots

Understanding what each type of root does will make you a more effective cultivator.

Taproot

The first root visible during germination. It grows downward and anchors the plant in the growing medium.

Fibrous Roots

Extensions of the taproot with a thin, fishbone-like structure. Fibrous roots grow horizontally to increase surface area. Fabric pots are particularly effective at encouraging abundant fibrous root development.

Adventitious Roots

These grow on the stem above the soil rather than below it. Most common in high-humidity environments, you may also notice them on freshly rooted clones.

Other Ways to Avoid Root-Bound Plants

Fabric pots are not the only option.

• Air pots use the same air-pruning principle and work well, though they tend to cost more than fabric
• Fabric pots remain the most affordable air-pruning solution
• Drilling 1cm holes into the sides of existing plastic pots is a low-cost workaround
• Net pots are a good choice for air-pruning young plants in early stages

Three Tips Worth Knowing

Repot on a Schedule

If plastic is more practical for your setup, build a repotting schedule and stick to it. Consistent repotting encourages strong root development and prevents plants from outgrowing their containers.

Make Your Own Air-Pruning Pots

A drill and some old plastic pots are all you need. Holes around the sides and base turn a standard pot into a functional air-pruning container and keep plastic out of landfill.

Inoculate Your Growing Medium

Whatever pot you are using, adding beneficial bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi to your growing medium will have a significant impact on root health and nutrient uptake. It is one of the highest-return moves you can make at the start of a grow.

“Regardless of whether you are growing in plastic or fabric pots, inoculate your growing medium with beneficial bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi. The roots of your plants will thrive.”

Once you see what air-pruning does for root development, plant structure and yields, switching from plastic to fabric becomes an easy call. If you are still not convinced, run a side-by-side test: one plant in plastic, one in fabric, same conditions. By harvest, the difference will speak for itself.

This article is based on the author’s 20 years of hands-on cultivation experience.

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How weed, music, and the mountains shaped my life—and put me in office.

I didn’t set out to become a mayor. If you had met me years ago—somewhere in a crowd at a Grateful Dead show, completely wrapped up in the music and the feeling of connection—you probably wouldn’t have guessed politics was anywhere in my future. What stayed with me from those early days wasn’t just the sound, it was the sense of community. Everyone was open, present, and connected. Cannabis was part of that space, but it wasn’t the headline. It just existed there, woven into the experience.

That was the beginning of my relationship with cannabis. It was social, tied to music, something shared. Over time, it became everything else.

When Cannabis Became More Than Social

For a long time, cannabis stayed in that lane. Through college, it showed up in the same way—music, gatherings, traditions that revolved around community. It was light, fun, and familiar. But as I got older, my relationship with cannabis changed.

After I moved to Colorado, I developed Raynaud’s phenomenon, a condition that restricts blood flow and makes cold weather physically painful. If you’ve ever been to Colorado, you know it’s not exactly known for its lack of cold months. I was offered prescriptions, but I started noticing something on my own. When I used cannabis, my circulation improved. The pain eased. It wasn’t abstract; these were real, tangible results. 

That realization shifted everything. Cannabis stopped being something I used occasionally and became something I depended on. And once it becomes medicine, you start asking different questions. You want to know how it’s grown, what’s in it, and whether you can trust it.

In 2009, I got my medical card and started growing my own plants. At first, it was about access. But it quickly became something deeper.

I fell in love with the process.

I grew up around plants, especially orchids. My mom had a natural ability to care for them, and I didn’t realize until later how much that shaped me. I paired that instinct with my background in chemistry and started diving into cultivation in a serious way.

Cannabis became a teacher.

I started as a caregiver, growing for myself and for others who needed it. But the more time I spent in the garden, the more intentional it became. I wanted to understand everything—how different plants expressed themselves, how environment affected outcome, how small changes created big results.

When I moved to Montezuma, Colorado, I brought orchids with me from my childhood home. Somehow, at 10,400 feet, they bloomed.

A friend saw them and said, “You are the Mountain Orchid.”

The name stuck.

The Town That Nudged Me Into Politics

Montezuma is small—fewer than a hundred full-time residents—and remote in a way that makes everything feel a little more real. You can’t hide from problems in a place like this. You have to deal with them.

When Colorado legalized recreational cannabis, our town didn’t follow. A small group of people controlled local decisions, and they resisted change, even though many of us felt differently. I was serving as a trustee at the time, watching how things operated, and it didn’t sit right with me.

Then the mayor resigned. The board planned to appoint a replacement instead of holding an election. That’s when I spoke up. What if I want to be mayor?

That question forced an election for the first time in decades. It wasn’t smooth. There were disputes, illegal votes, and a lot of tension in a very small town.

But I ran anyway. And I won.

Winning didn’t mean things got easier. My first years as mayor were tough. The town was divided, and I was constantly working against resistance from people who didn’t support the direction I believed in.

Then the mountain stepped in.

A spring melt destroyed the only road into town. Overnight, we were cut off. There was no room for politics—just a problem that needed to be solved. I worked alongside county and state officials for months to restore access and keep people safe.

Moments like that change things. Over time, trust replaced resistance. Today, the town feels united in a way it didn’t before. We’ve found common ground, even if it took a while to get there.

Building The Mountain Orchid

Somewhere in the middle of all of this, I built The Mountain Orchid.

My business partner and I created a cultivation facility from scratch, designed around one idea: cannabis deserves hands-on care. We didn’t want a warehouse. We wanted a living environment. I started everything from seed. No outside clones. No shortcuts. Phenotype hunting became my obsession—searching for plants that stood out, especially in aroma. If it doesn’t stop me in my tracks, it doesn’t stay.

We hand-water, hand-harvest, and stay involved in every step. In a market that’s increasingly about scale, we stayed small on purpose.

Music in the Garden

Music has always been part of my life, so it naturally found its way into the grow.

During COVID, our friend Keller Williams came and played a private set in the garden while we were working. It changed the energy in a way I’ll never forget. After that, it became tradition.

Every harvest is now named by a musician. I call them Harvest Hosts. Their music plays throughout the flowering cycle, and many of them come in and perform live for the plants. It might sound unconventional, but I’ve seen the difference. Plants respond to their environment. Energy matters.

Some of our most meaningful moments have come from those sessions—hearing live music fill the garden, watching the plants thrive, feeling that connection between sound, growth, and intention.

It brings everything full circle for me. Music and cannabis have always been connected in my life. Now they’re inseparable.

Rolling With It

The hardest part of this journey hasn’t been politics or even personal setbacks.

It’s staying in business. The cannabis industry has shifted fast. Prices have dropped, taxes remain high, and large-scale grows can produce at a fraction of the cost. As a small, hands-on operation, we can’t compete on volume.

So we don’t.

We focus on quality, on relationships, on the people who understand the difference between something grown with intention and something mass-produced. But it’s not easy. The margins are tight, and survival isn’t guaranteed.

Still, I believe in what we’re doing.

Cannabis has been a constant in my life, even as everything else changed. It started with music and community. It became medicine. Then it became my work, and eventually, it led me into politics. It shaped how I see the world, how I care for people, and how I build things.

I didn’t plan any of this. But standing here now—as a grower, as a mayor, as someone who’s built a life at 10,400 feet—it all makes sense.

Cannabis didn’t just influence my path. It created it.

Photos courtesy of Tobin Voggesser/NOCOAST

This article is from an external, unpaid contributor. It does not represent High Times’ reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.

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