The league pulled marijuana off its banned list in the new players’ agreement. In the same document, it banned psilocybin, DMT and ibogaine for the first time.

The WNBA just stopped treating weed like a problem. It picked a new one in the same breath.

Under the long-form collective bargaining agreement, the league and the players’ union executed on May 22, marijuana no longer appears on the list of prohibited substances. Under the old deal, it sat under “Drugs of Abuse.” The substance-list details were first reported by Marijuana Moment.

But on the way to loosening up, the agreement tightened somewhere else. For the first time, it names four psychedelics as banned: psilocybin and psilocin, the compounds in magic mushrooms, plus DMT and ibogaine. Synthetic cannabinoids got added too, including delta-8 THC and its byproducts. So the plant comes off the list while the substances that a growing wellness movement has been championing go on it.

Dropping weed is not the same as a free pass. Players can still be tested if they enter the league’s Drugs of Abuse Program, if they are found under the influence during team or league activities, or if there is a dependency issue. Skip a referred treatment program and the fines start at $300 a day. But the everyday, random “are you smoking” testing for cannabis is gone.

Players Can Invest, With Strings

The deal also spells out money. Players can hold a stake in a marijuana company as long as it stays passive, meaning no management or executive role, and stays under 50%. They can actively promote and endorse CBD products, though if those products come from a marijuana company, they need sign-off from both the league and the union first, and the CBD cannot be tied to a marijuana brand in a way that blurs the line.

That structure leans on federal scheduling. The agreement bars players from owning any piece of a business that makes or sells a Schedule I or II substance. Marijuana sat in Schedule I from 1970 until this April, when the Trump administration moved state-licensed medical cannabis and FDA-approved cannabinoid products to Schedule III. A broader rescheduling hearing is set to begin later this month.

Last To The Party

The WNBA is not breaking new ground here so much as catching up, and it has further to go. Its old cannabis policy was harsher than the NBA’s. The NBA dropped marijuana from its banned list in 2023 and cleared players to invest in and promote cannabis companies. The NFL reformed its policy in 2024, cutting fines and raising the THC threshold. The NCAA pulled weed from its Division I banned list the same year.

The change also lands on a league that produced the most globally recognized cannabis-prohibition story in American sports. Brittney Griner, the WNBA center detained in Russia in 2022 over cannabis, became the face of how far punishment for the plant could reach. The league that once tested for it has now taken it off the list. The substances replacing it are the ones the next reform fight will be about.

<p>The post The WNBA Just Dropped Its Weed Ban. It Banned Psychedelics In The Same Breath. first appeared on High Times.</p>

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In New South Wales, Australia, patients can legally use medical cannabis with a prescription. So far, so good. But the question that has complicated the lives of thousands of patients for years goes beyond that: what if you take your medication, get behind the wheel, get pulled over, and test positive for THC?

Can authorities suspend your license even if you’re not under the influence? Does it matter if you took your medication the night before? Is there a legal limit? Or is even a trace amount enough to get you in trouble?

That is precisely the issue the New South Wales government is now seeking to address. Chris Minns’ Labor administration announced proposed reforms to drug-driving laws so that registered medical cannabis patients are not automatically penalized for having small amounts of THC in their system.

The measure does not legalize driving under the influence of cannabis. Nor does it eliminate roadside checks. What it proposes is more specific: preventing the law from treating an impaired driver the same way it treats a patient with a prescription who has minimal traces of THC but is not necessarily impaired.

What’s Changing for Medical Cannabis Patients in New South Wales

Until now, New South Wales law has penalized the presence of THC in a person’s system, without requiring proof of actual impairment while driving. This meant that someone could have taken their medication hours earlier, driven normally, and still faced a fine or license suspension after testing positive on a saliva test.

Under the proposed reform, patients with a valid prescription would be eligible for a limited legal defense. To qualify, they must register with Transport for NSW, provide proof of their prescription, and complete an online course on cannabis and road safety.

If a registered driver tests positive on an initial saliva test, they will still face an immediate 24-hour driving ban while the sample is analyzed in a laboratory. That part would remain unchanged. Police will continue conducting roadside checks and can temporarily remove drivers who test positive from the road.

The key difference comes afterward. If the lab test shows THC levels below the proposed maximum threshold, there will be no charges or further action. According to ABC, that limit would be less than 50 nanograms per milliliter of THC in saliva.

In other words, a positive test would no longer automatically lead to a fine, suspension, or a criminal record. For patients, the system would shift from a “zero-tolerance” approach to one based on thresholds, record-keeping, and subsequent evaluation.

The Warning System: Two Strikes Before Standard Penalties

The reform also introduces a warning system. If laboratory tests show that a registered patient is above the permitted limit, they will not automatically lose their license upon the first detection. Instead, they will receive a formal warning.

The same would apply if they exceeded the threshold a second time within a two-year period. The idea, according to the government, is to allow patients to adjust their doses, schedules, or medication routines before facing harsher penalties.

However, if they test over the limit a third time within that two-year window, the standard penalties for drug driving will apply: a fine of up to AUD 704 and a minimum three-month license suspension.

The reform will not apply to everyone: holders of learner or provisional licenses, as well as commercial drivers, for instance, would be excluded. If alcohol, other drugs, or multiple substances are detected, the standard rules will still apply. And in the event of a serious crash, registered patients may be required to undergo blood or urine testing.

In other words, this is not a broad authorization to drive after using weed, but a regulated exception for patients with a valid prescription, with limits, conditions, and continued enforcement. 

The Core Issue: THC Doesn’t Always Mean Impairment

At the heart of the debate lies a scientific and political question: does detectable THC in saliva necessarily mean one is unfit to drive?

Reform advocates say not necessarily. THC can remain detectable for hours, or much longer depending on the type of test, even after the psychoactive effects have worn off. For this reason, patients and legal reform organizations argue that the current system punishes residual traces, not dangerous driving.

This issue is particularly sensitive in regional areas, where driving is not a luxury but a necessity. For many patients, losing their license can mean losing their job, independence, access to healthcare, or contact with their family. Some accounts reported by Australian media describe people who stopped taking their medication out of fear of a traffic stop, even when they were using it for chronic pain, anxiety, insomnia, or PTSD.

On the other hand, the opposition and some road safety groups warn that there is still no clear consensus on which THC level reliably indicates impairment across all drivers. They argue that people react differently and that setting a specific threshold could be risky without stronger evidence on impairment.

The government is trying to find a middle ground: keep roadside checks and the 24-hour preventive driving ban in place, and penalize people who repeatedly exceed the threshold, while no longer automatically punishing patients who use a legal medication. 

The reform follows a recommendation from the 2024 Drug Summit to create a medical defense for drivers who have been prescribed cannabis. Now, more than a year later, New South Wales appears to be moving toward a less punitive model, one closer to the way other prescription medications that can affect driving are treated.

The change would be reviewed after its first year of implementation. Until then, the official message is clear: this is not about freely allowing driving under the influence of cannabis, but rather about recognizing that trace THC does not always mean impaired driving.

<p>The post Medical Cannabis Behind the Wheel: NSW Proposes ‘Three Strikes’ Before Penalties first appeared on High Times.</p>

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The Mobb Deep co-founder and Queensbridge native opens The Bridge in Astoria this weekend, with The Alchemist, Funk Flex and Kid Capri on the bill. He calls it ownership, not an endorsement.

Havoc has repped Queens for more than three decades. This weekend, he plants a flag in it. The Mobb Deep co-founder and Queensbridge native opens The Bridge, a licensed adult-use cannabis dispensary at 25-15 Broadway in Astoria, with a grand opening weekend on June 6 and 7.

What separates it from the usual celebrity cannabis move is the structure. Plenty of artists lend a name to a strain or sign a licensing deal. Havoc is an owner, investing directly in one of the country’s fastest-growing legal markets, in the borough that raised him.

“Hip-hop gave me a platform, but ownership creates a legacy,” Havoc said in a statement. “The Bridge is about building something lasting in the community that raised me.”

The opening doubles as a New York hip-hop reunion. Producer The Alchemist and radio fixture Funk Flex headline Saturday’s reception, with The Alchemist scheduled from 4 to 5 p.m. and Funk Flex from 5 to 7. Kid Capri joins the public opening on Sunday, when doors open at 11 a.m.

The move lands where New York’s market keeps heading, with legacy culture and licensed business colliding in real time. For a borough that helped build East Coast rap, a Queensbridge legend behind the counter of a legal shop is about as full-circle as the new market gets.

Watch Our Conversation With Havoc

High Times sat down with Havoc earlier this year. Watch that conversation below.

<p>The post Mobb Deep’s Havoc Is Opening A Dispensary In Queens. The Alchemist, Funk Flex And Kid Capri Are Coming Through. first appeared on High Times.</p>

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Update, June 3, 2026: Jabari Brown was released on June 1 after Paraguay’s Public Prosecutor’s Office determined that, in his role as a contracted co-pilot, he had no knowledge of the marijuana found on board and no involvement in the case. SENAD Minister Jalil Rachid confirmed the release in a press conference. The three other Americans who were detained, Marisol Rivas, Anthony Vásquez and David Thomas Wise, remain in pretrial detention. Brown has maintained his innocence on social media. The original story, published June 1, follows below.

A story that once sounded like peak internet fantasy has taken a very real turn. 

Jabari Brown, the young pilot who went viral after winning a private jet in a MrBeast challenge, was arrested in Paraguay after authorities said he was one of the people connected to a private aircraft where agents found more than 261.6 kilos of marijuana. According to Paraguay’s National Anti-Drug Secretariat, known as SENAD, the plane had arrived from Miami and landed at Silvio Pettirossi International Airport, the country’s main airport, located outside Asunción.

The arrest instantly turned the case into a headline machine: a viral YouTube winner, a private jet, several U.S. nationals, cannabis authorities described as high-THC, and what investigators suspect may have been a route into the Brazilian market.

Authorities said Brown was arrested Saturday night at a hotel in Asunción, becoming the fourth person detained in connection with the case. Three other U.S. nationals identified by Paraguayan media as Marisol Rivas, Anthony Vásquez, and David Thomas Wise were also arrested after agents discovered cannabis hidden in luggage being unloaded from the aircraft. Local outlet ABC Color reported that prosecutors filed international drug trafficking charges against the detainees.

From Viral Aviation Dream to Alleged Trafficking Case

Brown became known online after appearing in MrBeast’s 2025 aviation challenge, 100 Pilots Fight For A Private Jet, where pilots competed for a Hawker 400XP valued at around $2.4 million. At the time, the story was framed as a feel-good internet moment: a 20-year-old pilot beating out 99 other contestants and walking away with a multimillion-dollar aircraft. 

In the video, the contestants were put through a series of physically and mentally exhausting aviation-themed challenges before the final winner took the jet. Brown, who has also been known online as Treezy, reportedly hoped to use the aircraft to launch a charter business.

Just months later, his name is now tied to a very different kind of aviation story.

SENAD said the seized marijuana was a “premium” variety with a high THC content. Authorities stated the shipment was found as several suitcases were being transferred from the aircraft to a vehicle believed to be headed toward Asunción.

The agency estimated the cargo could be worth around $14,000 per kilo in the Brazilian market. At 261.6 kilos, that would place the shipment’s estimated value at roughly $3.6 million.

Who Owned the Plane?

One of the stranger twists in the case is that Brown was not identified by Paraguayan authorities as the alleged owner of the aircraft.

SENAD said the aircraft was allegedly owned and piloted by Keith Siilats, an Estonian citizen whom the agency identified as a co-founder of Bolt Mobility in the United States. Paraguayan outlet Última Hora also reported that Siilats was believed to have piloted the aircraft and left the country before the operation that led to the seizure and arrests.

That detail leaves several major questions open, including who organized the flight, who owned the cargo, and what role each person aboard the aircraft played.

As of now, there is no public indication from authorities that MrBeast or his company had any connection to the case beyond Brown’s prior appearance in the viral competition. The connection is a bit more cultural than legal: Brown’s internet fame is what made the arrest travel far beyond Paraguayan crime pages.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on June 1 and has been updated to reflect Jabari Brown’s release. Paraguay’s Public Prosecutor’s Office determined that he had no involvement in the case. The remaining charges and allegations described here are based on statements from Paraguayan authorities and local media reports, and the other individuals named are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. There is no public indication that MrBeast or his company had any involvement in the case beyond Brown’s prior appearance in the YouTube competition.

<p>The post He Won A Jet On MrBeast. Then Paraguay Detained Him Over A 577-Pound Weed Bust. Prosecutors Cleared Him. first appeared on High Times.</p>

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The years-long push to lock foreign visitors out of the city’s coffeeshops just died in coalition talks. The new deal keeps the doors open and pushes the tourist tax to the highest in Europe.

For years, it looked like Amsterdam might finally pull the welcome mat out from under its stoner tourists. As of this week, that plan is dead. A ban on foreign visitors buying weed did not make it into the new coalition agreement the city’s governing parties unveiled on June 3, which means the mecca of cannabis tourism stays open to everyone.

The deal, struck between PRO Amsterdam, the merged PvdA and GroenLinks, and D66, and titled “Jouw stad is mijn stad. Ons Amsterdam [“Your city is my city. Our Amsterdam”],” quietly dropped the so-called ingezetenencriterium, the residents-only rule that would have barred non-residents from buying cannabis in the city’s roughly 166 coffeeshops. The long-debated plan for an erotic center near the RAI got cut in the same stroke.

The ban has been circling Amsterdam since at least 2021, championed for years by Mayor Femke Halsema, who could have imposed it by decree but always said she wanted the council behind her. Last year, the PvdA wrote it into its platform. The catch: GroenLinks and D66 never backed it, and once the PvdA merged with GroenLinks into PRO, the plan effectively died inside the party that had been pushing it.

The argument that won is the one coffeeshop operators have been making for years. Banning tourists does not kill demand, it hands it to street dealers. Criminologist Dirk Korf, who has studied the issue for years, found that roughly a quarter of foreign tourists would turn to the black market if the shops were closed to them, trading a regulated product for whatever someone on a bridge is selling.

The industry celebrated. Arjan Roskam of the Green House chain and Joachim Helms of the cannabis retailers’ association BCD, who spent months lobbying against the measure, framed the outcome as a win for the city’s street safety as much as for their own business.

The timing is the interesting part. Cannabis tourism is cooling almost everywhere else. Germany’s 2024 legalization means Germans no longer need to cross a border for a legal joint, Thailand’s weed boom is wobbling, and Europe’s newer markets keep their rules tight. Amsterdam, the original, just decided to keep its doors open while much of the world pulls back.

That does not mean the city is rolling out the red carpet. The same agreement hikes the tourist tax from 12.5% of the room rate to 16% next year, climbing toward 20%, comfortably the highest in Europe. Amsterdam will not stop you from visiting its coffeeshops. It will just charge you more for the bed you sleep in afterward.

<p>The post Amsterdam Won’t Ban Tourists From Its Coffeeshops After All. It’s Coming For Their Wallets Instead. first appeared on High Times.</p>

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A story that once sounded like peak internet fantasy has taken a very real turn. 

Jabari Brown, the young pilot who went viral after winning a private jet in a MrBeast challenge, was arrested in Paraguay after authorities said he was one of the people connected to a private aircraft where agents found more than 261.6 kilos of marijuana. According to Paraguay’s National Anti-Drug Secretariat, known as SENAD, the plane had arrived from Miami and landed at Silvio Pettirossi International Airport, the country’s main airport, located outside Asunción. 

The arrest instantly turned the case into a headline machine: a viral YouTube winner, a private jet, several U.S. nationals, cannabis authorities described as high-THC, and what investigators suspect may have been a route into the Brazilian market.

Authorities said Brown was arrested Saturday night at a hotel in Asunción, becoming the fourth person detained in connection with the case. Three other U.S. nationals identified by Paraguayan media as Marisol Rivas, Anthony Vásquez, and David Thomas Wise were also arrested after agents discovered cannabis hidden in luggage being unloaded from the aircraft.  Local outlet ABC Color reported that prosecutors filed international drug trafficking charges against the detainees.

From Viral Aviation Dream to Alleged Trafficking Case

Brown became known online after appearing in MrBeast’s 2025 aviation challenge, 100 Pilots Fight For A Private Jet, where pilots competed for a Hawker 400XP valued at around $2.4 million. At the time, the story was framed as a feel-good internet moment: a 20-year-old pilot beating out 99 other contestants and walking away with a multimillion-dollar aircraft. 

In the video, the contestants were put through a series of physically and mentally exhausting aviation-themed challenges before the final winner took the jet. Brown, who has also been known online as Treezy, reportedly hoped to use the aircraft to launch a charter business.

Just months later, his name is now tied to a very different kind of aviation story.

SENAD said the seized marijuana was a “premium” variety with a high THC content. Authorities stated the shipment was found as several suitcases were being transferred from the aircraft to a vehicle believed to be headed toward Asunción.

The agency estimated the cargo could be worth around $14,000 per kilo in the Brazilian market. At 261.6 kilos, that would place the shipment’s estimated value at roughly $3.6 million.

Who Owned the Plane?

One of the stranger twists in the case is that Brown was not identified by Paraguayan authorities as the alleged owner of the aircraft.

SENAD said the aircraft was allegedly owned and piloted by Keith Siilats, an Estonian citizen whom the agency identified as a co-founder of Bolt Mobility in the United States. Paraguayan outlet Última Hora also reported that Siilats was believed to have piloted the aircraft and left the country before the operation that led to the seizure and arrests.

That detail leaves several major questions open, including who organized the flight, who owned the cargo, and what role each person aboard the aircraft played.

As of now, there is no public indication from authorities that MrBeast or his company had any connection to the case beyond Brown’s prior appearance in the viral competition. The connection is a bit more cultural than legal: Brown’s internet fame is what made the arrest travel far beyond Paraguayan crime pages.

Editor’s note: This is a developing case. All charges and allegations described in this story are based on statements from Paraguayan authorities and local media reports. The individuals named are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. There is no public indication that MrBeast or his company had any involvement in the case beyond Jabari Brown’s prior appearance in the YouTube competition.

<p>The post He Won A Jet On MrBeast. Now He’s Linked To A 577-Pound Marijuana Trafficking Case. first appeared on High Times.</p>

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Travelers flooded the comments admitting they fly with weed. A top cannabis lawyer says that is not the federal exposure people think it is. The confession that counts is the one operators are signing to go legal.

High Times posted a routine update. The TSA had quietly changed a line on its website about traveling with medical marijuana, and the comment section did something worth paying attention to. It filled with people admitting they had been doing this for years.

Comment after comment said the same thing. They had flown with cannabis for years, some for decades. Flower, vapes, edibles, concentrates. A handful copped to amounts well past anything personal. The throughline was that the TSA had never seemed to care, that the agency was looking for weapons and explosives, and waved the rest through.

Plenty of others read it differently. They called it a trap, a setup, a sting, and joked about how many feds they figured were reading the thread. Which gets at the question we had too. If you publicly admit you have been flying with weed, is that a confession the government can use against you?

We put it to Bob Hoban, a cannabis attorney who, by his own count, has drafted marijuana laws and regulations in over 35 countries and roughly a dozen U.S. states, often working directly for the governments doing the regulating. His answer reframed the whole thing.

Start with what is true. Rescheduling did not legalize carrying weed through an airport. Recreational marijuana is still Schedule I, and simple possession is a federal offense under 21 U.S.C. 844, the statute covering personal-quantity possession. Even the state-licensed medical products moved to Schedule III in April are not automatically legal to possess, because a Schedule III substance is lawful to hold only with proper authorization, and whether a state medical card satisfies that federally is one of the questions the order left open. On paper, a joint in your carry-on is still a federal risk. Hoban’s point is about how that law actually gets enforced.

Federal enforcement, in practice, tends to focus on trafficking-scale quantities rather than personal possession. When the TSA comes across someone’s personal stash, its own policy is to refer the matter to local law enforcement, not to call in federal agents. Depending on the state, that can mean a shrug, a confiscation, a small fine or a ticket. The federal system tends to hand the small stuff off.

So a person in the comments saying they fly with weed is, in Hoban’s read, describing conduct that is technically illegal and realistically not the thing federal authorities are going to pursue. The risk is real on paper and small in practice.

Which makes it the wrong confession to fixate on.

The Real Confession Is On A Federal Form

Here is the one that counts. On April 23, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed an order moving state-licensed medical marijuana from Schedule I, the federal government’s most restrictive drug category, to Schedule III, the tier reserved for drugs with accepted medical use. To collect the benefits of that move, including relief from Section 280E, the tax rule that blocks cannabis businesses from writing off normal expenses, medical operators have to register with the DEA.

That registration form is where the legal tension becomes unavoidable. Section 4, the Liability Questions, asks each applicant one question that many operators in the country have to answer the same way:

“Has anyone who will be involved in the ownership or operation of the firm previously manufactured, distributed, and/or dispensed any controlled substance without a DEA registration authorizing such activity?”

DEA Medical Marijuana Dispensary Information Submission form, Section 4

Read it again. A state-licensed cannabis company that has manufactured, distributed or dispensed marijuana, a controlled substance, without a DEA registration, because that registration did not exist until now, has an honest answer of yes. And a yes comes with instructions: name every person involved and write a brief explanation of the conduct, as Cannabis Business Times laid out when it first flagged the question.

In plain terms, the form asks operators to account for what they did before this registration existed. Answer honestly, and you may be documenting federally illegal conduct. Answer falsely, and you create a separate legal problem. Filing false information on the application carries up to four years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The Government’s Answer

Cannabis Business Times, which first reported the issue in late April, put the question to the DEA directly. The agency’s position is that this is routine. It described the question as standard background information relevant to compliance, said it is not limited to any particular timeframe, and later added that it is not meant to work as an automatic bar to getting registered.

The constitutional question is not clean either. Courts have long upheld broad disclosure requirements in regulated licensing systems, which is part of why this sits in legally murky territory rather than on clearly unconstitutional ground.

Hoban does not dispute that the language tracks the kind of disclosure any regulated industry demands. Alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, all of them make you open the books to get a license. His point is narrower and harder to wave off. In every one of those industries, the conduct being disclosed was legal when it happened. For cannabis operators, it was not.

Why Going Legit Is The Trap

This is the bind Hoban built a career inside. When he started, he says, the lawyers working in cannabis refused to put anything on paper. No leases, no contracts, no invoices, because every document was evidence of a federal crime. Hoban argued the opposite. If you wanted to be treated like a real business, you had to paper yourself like one, and hand the government the records it needed to license you, tax you and let capital in.

For years, one thing made that gamble survivable. The Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, a budget rider Congress kept renewing, barred the Justice Department from spending money to go after state-legal medical marijuana. It was never extended to recreational cannabis. So the real exposure always sat on the adult-use side, where the federal shield never reached.

Which is why Hoban’s read on rescheduling runs opposite to the industry’s celebration. Schedule III is being sold as relief, and for a medical operator, it may be exactly that. The complication is that most operators are not only medical. They run adult-use, too, and adult-use marijuana stays Schedule I. To claim the medical benefits, you register with the DEA. To register, you account for your conduct. And if you are still selling recreational marijuana on the other side of the business, you are either describing ongoing federal crimes or betting the government will not connect the two halves of your own company.

His advice to clients is structural. Put the medical licenses in one company, the adult-use and hemp licenses in others, commonly owned but run and located separately, so a problem on one side cannot reach across to the other.

For a decade, the industry was told to come out of the shadows, put it on paper, become a legitimate business. The paperwork finally arrived. To prove they qualify now, operators may have to describe the years when federal law still treated their state-licensed work as a crime.

Editor’s note: This article draws on public records, linked reporting and an interview with attorney Bob Hoban. It describes federal law and one attorney’s legal analysis. It is not legal advice and is not a suggestion to travel with cannabis, which remains illegal under federal law. Where the application of federal law remains unsettled, that is stated in the text.

<p>The post Our Readers Admitted Flying With Weed. A Cannabis Lawyer Says The Real Self-Incrimination Risk Is Going Legal, Not Getting High. first appeared on High Times.</p>

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Conan O’Brien, a self-described straight edge who “keeps cutting things out” of his life, is being gently talked into edibles by his own assistant. Two weeks in, he has managed to nibble a quarter of one gummy. The High Times connection goes back 20 years, to a bong he accepted on live TV.

A few weeks ago, Conan O’Brien’s executive assistant, Sona Movsesian, brought several tins containing cannabis gummies to the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast.

“I don’t really do anything,” the redheaded host said about using marijuana, other substances or alcohol. “I used to enjoy some wine, but I don’t even do that anymore. I just keep cutting things out of my life.” Then, to Movsesian, he explained: “I’ve been a little intrigued lately because you’ve always preached the positive qualities of edibles. I never did it, never tried it. But you have said that more than anyone you know, you think I would benefit from these.”

She brought a bag full of her “favorite brand,” Camino gummies. “This one is for energy.”

“Do you think I need energy?” O’Brien asked.

“They taste good,” Movsesian said. “Some just make you feel good.”

“I’ve never felt good,” O’Brien joked. “What’s that like?”

“Things will be funny to you that have never been funny before.”

“Things are always funny to me that no one else thinks is funny.”

“You make comedy for potheads,” Movsesian maintained.

She passed him a “chill one that will mellow you out.” O’Brien did not sample them on air and took them home.

O’Brien Updates The Gummies Saga

In Conan Vs. Edibles, Part 2, O’Brien offered an update:

“I have turned taking gummies into a chore. I have nibbled on the corner of the sleep one. I want to say less than half. First of all, they’re delicious. They taste great and paired with the right wine, fantastic. What I’ve managed to do in two weeks is nibble a quarter of one. I’m a redhead, so I’m very tolerant, so of course I’ve felt nothing so far. But I haven’t gone whole hog. Chill is the one that interested me and I have not tried one yet.”

“You’re overthinking it,” Movsesian pointed out. “Are we peer-pressuring you?”

“That’s the dictionary definition of what you’re doing,” he retorted. “Yeah, I guess I’m feeling a little bit of pressure. But I’m going to do it.”

O’Brien Details His Lack Of Experience With Drugs

“My dad was a doctor, he was against us taking anything,” O’Brien said about his microbiologist father. “Aspirin was a big leap. My dad was an authority on antibiotic resistance. He was in favor of the right antibiotics. That’s the culture that I come from. We’ve got to go to Catholic Church, we have to stay on it and that has been my way. It’s forbidden fruit, so you don’t go there. Now, I think I made a big step by eating a quarter of a sleep gummy.”

Movsesian called him “straight-laced, straight edge,” noting: “It’s not a bad thing.”

When O’Brien suggested his size (6-foot-4) was partially why the gummy didn’t affect him, she replied: “That’s why I thought a half or maybe a full 5 milligram would work.”

“I’m not ready for that yet.”

“That’s OK. Baby steps.”

“I’m going to get to this,” O’Brien insisted, “I promise.” So, stay tuned for Part 3.

Conan O’Brien And High Times

O’Brien actually smoked a joint provided by Seth Rogen on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on TBS during the last week of the show in 2021.

Fifteen years earlier, when I worked at High Times and was producing the Stony Awards, we decided to give O’Brien the award for Best Late-Night Talk Show. Cast member and former Stonys host Brian McCann cleared the way for me to present the award in O’Brien’s 30 Rock office (he couldn’t attend the Stonys).

From my article at CelebStoner:

When I got there I met Conan, but it quickly became clear he wouldn’t be participating in the acceptance sketch on the set.

Brian dressed up as Preparation H Raymond and was joined by HempBot, Smokey the Bong, the Masturbating Bear and their “constantly wasted announcer Joel.”

“We have no idea why we were chosen, but we will treasure this fully functioning trophy for years to come,” Brian drawled. Then he instructed the bear to “go ahead, masturbate.”

Cute, but no Conan. The show took place at BB King’s in Times Square. Redman hosted. NORML’s Allen St. Pierre announced the Late Night award. All went well. But no Conan. Of course, we didn’t expect him to attend the show; that’s why they made the video.

A week went by and I was watching Late Night. During the first segment after the monologue, sitting at his desk, O’Brien deadpanned:

“Last Wednesday night, Late Night won a prestigious award. That’s right. There are a lot of awards out there that might be worth having, but this seemed rather special. The good people that publish High Times magazine [audience laughs] held their annual Stony Awards at BB King’s right here in New York. It was a big event. Apparently, we won for Best Comedy Program. High Times magazine thinks we’re the best comedy program. And they gave us this trophy.”

He took the glass Stony Awards bong from behind his desk and placed it on the desk to laughs and wild cheers. “We want to thank you, High Times,” he continued. “It’s nice of you to recognize us and we will put this award on display in our lobby.”

Then band drummer Max Weinberg broke in: “Hey Conan, the band and I were thinking maybe you shouldn’t leave that statue in the lobby. Maybe we should keep it in our dressing room.”

“Hey, if you want it, it’s yours,” Conan replied.

“Hey guys,” Max yelled, “we got a bong!”

Conan held it for a minute and stared at it. “So that’s a bong.”

More High Times Stonys

• Seth Rogen Confesses His First Award Wasn’t An Emmy, It Was ‘Stoner of the Year’
• Ethan Hawke’s First Acting Award Was a Bong From High Times. He Has Not Forgotten It.

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For nearly a decade, the Netherlands has been trying to put Europe’s most dangerous drug lord behind bars. The cost has been lawyers in prison, journalists shot in the street, and a justice system that no longer feels safe defending its own rules.

On the western edge of Amsterdam, between a cemetery, a public park, and rows of identical middle-class residences, sits a building called “the Bunker.” From the outside, it looks like an unassuming office space – and at one point in time, it was. Since 1997, though, it has functioned as a courtroom: the most heavily guarded in all of the Netherlands, used for the hearings of such notorious criminals as Willem Holleeder, who in the eighties made headlines for kidnapping Freddy Heineken, then CEO of the internationally renowned brewing company of the same name. 

For nearly five years, the Bunker has been the stage of another, even more infamous event in European criminal history: the Marengo trial. The events that led to the trial began in 2017, when a member of the so-called Moroccan (“Mocro”) Mafia – a leading crime syndicate trafficking cocaine and synthetic drugs through Europe via ports in Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and the Netherlands – turned himself over to the police. His testimony as a crown witness, along with hundreds of thousands of decrypted PGP-secured messages, brought to light the existence of what Dutch media has repeatedly described as a “well-oiled killing machine,” responsible for liquidating dozens of people in the criminal underworld. 

During the trial, however, this killing machine also began targeting the civilian overworld, threatening law enforcement and judges, and killing lawyers, journalists, and family members of witnesses in an unprecedentedly brazen attempt to obstruct justice. For these reasons and more, Marengo – its long-awaited verdict appealed after the mafia’s kingpin, Ridouan Taghi, was sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2024 – has shaken Dutch society to its core. Likened by one person to a “virus you never get rid of,” many fear it sets a new standard, one where violence and intimidation can effectively undermine the rule of law. 

Mocro Mafia

According to Dutch crime journalists, the Mocro Mafia is but one element of a larger super-cartel that includes other criminal organizations from Italy, Ireland, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Operating from Dubai, where a fugitive Taghi was apprehended in 2019, the cartel is thought to smuggle more than 100,000 kilograms of cocaine per year into the Dutch harbor city of Rotterdam alone, most of it imported from Colombia and Ecuador and transported to Europe by way of the fruit trade. 

Taghi and his co-defendants – 17 in total – were not brought to trial for drug trafficking, though. Instead, they stand accused of orchestrating a string of liquidations that can be traced back to 2015, when an employee of a shop selling GPS trackers, burner phones, audio recorders, and other security and surveillance devices was shot in front of his own residence – ostensibly for leaking information to the police. 

Also killed around this time was criminal-turned-crime blogger Martin Kok, one of the first journalists to mention Taghi by name and killed – presumably – for that very reason. In 2018, after writing a story about the Mocro Mafia, the Amsterdam offices of crime magazine Panorama were blown up by an antitank weapon. The perpetrators were members of motorcycle gang Caloh Wagoh, subsequently revealed as the Mafia’s go-to hitman service. Later, a car filled with sixteen jerrycans of gasoline crashed into the front office of the national newspaper De Telegraaf, catching fire. Neither attack resulted in casualties; their objective, it seems, was not to silence but to send a message. 

Once underway, the Marengo trial bore witness to another series of attacks against the civilian overworld – several of them deadly. The brother of the aforementioned crown witness was killed in 2018, after the latter argued in vain that the police should protect not just his wife and kids but also his extended family. Killed next were the crown witness’s lawyer, Derk Wiersum, and confidant Peter R. De Vries, the country’s most famous crime reporter, shot in the streets of central Amsterdam moments after stepping off the set of a television studio.

Each of these hits is thought to have been ordered by Taghi personally, communicated to the outside world through the lawyers visiting him at the maximum security prison where he was being held. Later stages of the Marengo trial saw the arrest of both Youssef Taghi, his cousin and personal attorney, and his criminal defense attorney Inez Weski, who has since been accused of relaying more than 8,000 messages to Taghi’s eldest son, among others. 

Narco-state

The collateral damage incurred throughout Marengo led some to conclude that the Netherlands has devolved into a narco-state. Trial hearings at the Bunker certainly call to mind scenes from Medellín or Sonora: heavily armed cops and military officers stand sentry on street corners, their identities hidden under balaclavas. Snipers line the rooftops of surrounding buildings, drones buzzing overhead. “When he’s there,” one person told newspaper Groene Amsterdammer back in 2023, meaning Taghi, “there’s a helicopter, too, with one of those machine guns sticking out the side.” (“My bicycle is parked next to the entrance,” another quipped in the same piece. “It’s the only one in the city that doesn’t need a lock.”)

Also reminiscent of narco-states is the culture of fear and paranoia that now looms over the Dutch legal system and those who work in or around it. Lawyers, public prosecutors, judges, and reporters tied to the trial have been forced to take all kinds of safety measures, from monitoring cars in their rearview mirrors to telling their children never to open the front door without knowing who’s on the other side. Some have changed their locks and installed fire escapes under their windows in case they need to get away quickly. 

As documented by Groene Amsterdammer, the constant vigilance has taken its toll on people’s mental health. One journalist admits to mistaking a deliveryman from a nearby restaurant for a hitman stalking his building, while a lawyer said he had taken to writing down the appearance and license plate of any stranger who gave him a bad feeling. 

“Once, while I was chatting with the lady who lives next door,” a prosecutor who talked under condition of anonymity told the newspaper, “a man walking by reached inside his bag. I biked away as fast as I could. Later, I heard he was her new cleaner. That’s what it does to you.” 

Many of those interviewed preferred not to disclose their identities, but this fear extends to the underworld as well. Apparently, patrons of hookah lounges frequented by the Mafia talk about Taghi as if he were Lord Voldemort; rather than speak his name, they cross their fingers to make a “T.” 

Growing fear has led to tighter security. The judges presiding over the trial have remained unknown to the public, and many public servants were granted bodyguards by the government. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough personnel to keep everyone safe at all times; one lawyer recalled having to cancel weekend plans because no one was available to accompany them. 

Among journalists, fear led to self-censorship. Different newspapers began reporting on the trial as a single unit, their reporters hiding among one another like fish in a school. Articles were often published without bylines, and newsrooms held meetings to identify “Taghi triggers” – information that could, on its own or if worded a certain way, attract the Mafia’s attention. Some journalists have attested to retracting details out of fear, while others now avoid covering certain topics altogether. Indicative or not, it’s worth noting that – even to this day, two years after the trial’s initial verdict – none of the sources High Times reached out to wished to comment. 

Something Rotten in the Netherlands

As Marengo unfolded, many wondered whether the trial and the criminal activities behind it were exceptional or whether they signified a new norm moving forward. Today, the consensus seems to be that the Mocro Mafia represents a break from previous strands of organized crime in the Netherlands. Where Holleeder’s generation was homegrown and operated almost exclusively within the country’s own borders (he once, incidentally, came to my high school’s parking lot to intimidate the son of a former associate he’d fallen out with), the Mocro Mafia is much more multicultural and multinational, and their use of violence – like placing the severed head of a 23-year-old in the middle of a busy street – more performatively brutal. 

Where previous generations of criminals laid down their arms when caught and recognized the legitimacy of the justice system, the Mocro Mafia has proved willing to wage war against the state itself. According to Groene Amsterdammer, Marengo has not just exposed cracks in the foundation of the Dutch rule of law but has also deepened and expanded them, further obstructing the administration of justice. The Mafia’s control over criminal defense attorneys, through coercion or other means, has prompted more than one legal scholar to ask: What do we do when the risk becomes so great that no one wants to take up Taghi’s defense – his constitutional right?

More broadly, there is worry that this control has created a rift between said attorneys and the public prosecution service. Some prosecutors have attested to distancing themselves and withholding personal information from attorneys, lest they are in cahoots with their defendants. Meanwhile, attorneys have complained of increased suspicion and surveillance – at one point, two were spied on by the state while on a work trip in Dubai. Where the various elements of the Dutch judicial system once acted in unison, pursuing a common goal, now they are divided – or, at least, seem to be. 

If Marengo represents the future of crime and criminal justice in the Netherlands, how should the legal system adapt? Sven Brinkhoff, a law professor at the University of Amsterdam, has argued that the trial shows the dangers of using a crown witness to build cases, regardless of how strong the resulting case might become. Not only can crown witnesses provoke retaliation from their former associates, but it’s also difficult to ascertain the reliability of their testimony. In short, they’re a “contaminated investigative measure” better left unused.

Speaking to the Dutch newspaper Trouw shortly after the Marengo verdict was reached, Laura Peters, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Groningen, suggested that the Netherlands should learn from the Italian justice system, which is more experienced in prosecuting its own, equally powerful mafia organizations. In Italy, they also work with crown witnesses. Only there, she says, security measures are much more extensive, protecting both the witnesses and their family members.

Marengo has also prompted journalists and researchers to examine what has made the Netherlands so attractive for organized crime in the first place. Damián Zaitch, an associate professor of Law, Economics, and Governance at the University of Utrecht has proposed that “the conditions which make the Netherlands attractive to illegal trade are the same conditions that make it attractive to legal trade,” including high-quality infrastructure, a high density of sea and airports, fast internet speed, favorable tax regimes that facilitate the whitewashing of drug money, and a judiciary slowed down by its extensive bureaucracy.

For the time being, Marengo appears to have done little to combat organized crime. The mafia is too large and too well-connected to other organizations in Europe to be dismantled piecemeal; whenever one person is put behind bars, another comes to take their place, though even in jail, Taghi seems to have remained in charge of his section of the larger network – a testament to its stability and sophistication. And with the appeal process in motion, more chaos has followed. 

As of May 2026, no Dutch criminal defense lawyer will represent Taghi in his appeal. The council of deans approached every criminal defense lawyer in the country under a framework designed specifically for high-impact cases. All declined. Three of Taghi’s previous lawyers have been arrested for passing messages on his behalf. A fourth withdrew. His appeal is now at a standstill, and the question legal scholars have been asking throughout Marengo, what happens when the rule of law can no longer guarantee even the right to a defense, is no longer theoretical. 

This article is reported analysis based on publicly available court records, Dutch and international news reporting, and academic sources. All individuals described as accused or suspected have not been convicted of those charges unless explicitly stated. The Marengo trial remains under active appeal as of publication. High Times does not endorse or encourage illegal activity of any kind.

<p>The post Inside Marengo: The Mob Trial No Lawyer Will Touch first appeared on High Times.</p>

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Garcia Hand Picked left California once. Now it is coming home, tying Jerry Garcia’s name to the small sun-grown farms of the Emerald Triangle at a moment when much of the state has run the other way, toward scale, efficiency and cheap weed. This time, the return feels different.

Garcia Hand Picked, the cannabis brand built by the family of the late Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, is returning to California. Beginning June 5, the brand’s products will be back on licensed dispensary shelves across the state, manufactured by Solful, a California company known for its sun-grown cannabis retail model and boutique manufacturing operations.

California is where it started. Garcia Hand Picked launched in the state in 2020, then pulled out, and the years since have not been kind to anyone selling flower here: prices have fallen, supply keeps outrunning demand, and the illicit market still dwarfs the legal one. So the brand could have come back anywhere. It chose to come back to the craft end of the hardest market in the country, the small-batch sun-grown corner least built for a price war, and the one closest to where Jerry came from.

So why come back, and why now? That’s the question High Times put to the people behind the brand ahead of the official announcement.

What Went Wrong The First Time

The brand is a collaboration between The Garcia Family and Holistic Industries, a multistate operator. On the operational questions, the family pointed to Robby Saady, Holistic’s EVP of corporate development and partnerships. His explanation for the first California exit comes down to one word: ecosystem.

“People loved the Garcia Hand Picked products, but to successfully scale in the regulated cannabis industry, you need an ecosystem of suppliers and partners that are aligned with your brand promise and standards in each market,” Saady said. “The first time around, we didn’t have the right ecosystem on the ground in California to be able to deliver the high-quality flower over the long term that the Garcia Hand Picked brand stands for.”

So, he said, the brand paused, reassessed, and waited until it found partners it believed could deliver at scale. What changed this time, by his account, was finding Solful, which runs boutique manufacturing operations in Santa Rosa and Humboldt County and built its reputation on sun-grown flower.

“We learned that a partner ecosystem that operates successfully in the California market, aligns with the Garcia Hand Picked brand values and has a proven track record of delivering at scale is everything, and we didn’t have that the first time around,” Saady said.

Coming Back To A Market That Tests Everyone

California cannabis has become one of the toughest balancing acts in the industry. Falling prices, oversupply and a still-massive illicit market have squeezed everyone from multistate operators to legacy farmers. It’s the market everyone watches and few have figured out. Asked why Garcia Hand Picked would step back into it, Saady framed the brand as playing a different game than the one being fought on price.

“Every cannabis market in the country is tough in its own way. California is no exception, but it’s not unique in that regard,” Saady said. “What we’ve learned across every market we operate in is that Garcia Hand Picked is a brand people seek out because they trust the quality and authenticity behind it, and they come back because it consistently delivers.”

He pointed to a limited run the brand did with Solful the previous summer, during Jerry Week, as the proof of concept. The demand from that run, he said, is what convinced them the market wanted the brand back. Going from a limited festival release to a long-term statewide brand is a very different test, and Saady went there himself when asked what success would look like.

“It’s one thing to deliver an exceptional product in limited quantities for a festival run. It’s another to maintain that standard consistently as distribution grows,” he said. “Consumers have to keep choosing Garcia Hand Picked because the product keeps earning it, not just because of the name on the package.”

The Bet On Small Farms

The most interesting part of the strategy is where the flower comes from. Every product in the California line is sourced from small, sun-grown legacy farms in the Emerald Triangle, the region spanning Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties that has grown some of the world’s most celebrated cannabis for generations. Those same growers have been hit from every direction by oversupply, price compression and the cost of compliance. At a moment when much of the market has drifted toward scale and value pricing, Garcia Hand Picked is leaning the other direction, and tying its name to the people who built the region’s reputation in the first place.

Saady sees that as the durable choice, not the risky one.

“We believe that leaning on small, legacy growers is actually what makes this model sustainable, not what puts it at risk,” he said. “A lot of them are barely hanging on. Working with Solful, and now the Garcia Hand Picked brand, gives them a consistent, committed buyer with a brand that commands a real price premium. We’re not extracting from them, we’re investing in them. And in return, we get the best craft cannabis in the world, grown by people who’ve dedicated their lives to it. That’s not a romantic bet, it’s a supply chain built on mutual interest and those tend to be the most durable ones.”

The launch lineup reads like a roll call of the region, among them Canna Country Farm, Greenshock Farms, Galactic Farms, Rebel Grown and Sunrise Gardens, each contributing a distinct strain, several of them Emerald Cup honorees. Two of the growers weighed in on the partnership.

“Jerry Garcia represents something real to many of us when it comes to cannabis culture, especially in the Emerald Triangle, Northern California, San Francisco and the Bay Area,” said Dan Pomerantz, founder of Rebel Grown, which farms in Southern Humboldt’s Palo Verde appellation. “Working with Garcia Hand Picked as they return to California just made sense, it means a lot to be connected to the culture so many of us grew up in.”

“For us, working with Garcia Hand Picked is about honoring the culture of California cannabis and producing products people can genuinely connect with,” said Mark Greyshock, founder of Greenshock Farms.

The Name On The Jar Has To Earn It

The celebrity cannabis graveyard is crowded. For every brand that lasts, a dozen amount to little more than a famous name slapped on someone else’s flower. Trixie Garcia, Jerry’s daughter, went straight at that when asked what makes this one different and what the family owes the name on the package.

“As a family, we feel a real responsibility to honor our dad in authentic ways. Cannabis was part of his life, the way he connected with people, brought communities together, and fueled both his musical and visual creativity,” Trixie Garcia said. “It’s about carrying forward the whimsical magic of someone who genuinely valued creativity, connection, community, and laughter. We want Garcia Hand Picked to feel true to who he was and the culture he was part of.”

She said the family spent a long time looking for the right partner before landing on Holistic.

“It’s generally easy to find someone willing to attach a celebrity name to cannabis, but we spent a long time looking for the right partner,” she said. “The farms behind Garcia Hand Picked are small operations where the growers put so much pride into their work. We’re not sourcing from whoever happens to have inventory.”

Jerry Garcia’s relationship with High Times runs deep. He appeared on the magazine’s cover as far back as February 1989, in an interview where he used the platform to sound the alarm on rainforest destruction, and the magazine devoted its January 2001 issue to him years after his death. The brand carrying his name returning to California is, in that sense, a story close to home.

Jerry Garcia on the cover of High Times: February 1989 (left) and the January 2001 tribute issue (right).

The California line launches with 5-pack pre-rolls, 2-pack “Double Doobies,” and whole bud flower, with more products promised based on demand, distributed statewide through Kiva Sales & Service. The brand is also planning a “Summer 2026 CA Tour,” a run of free community events in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and the Bay Area featuring flower tastings, hand-selected photography from Jay Blakesberg’s archive of Jerry, and live musical tributes. Garcia Hand Picked currently sells in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

There is something fitting about where this lands. A brand built on Jerry’s name, coming home to California by way of the small farmers who kept sun-grown craft alive while much of the market chased the bottom. That is the part worth rooting for, and the part that feels true to him. The rest is up to the flower. By Saady’s own measure, the real answer won’t arrive for a year, when the novelty of the homecoming has worn off and all that’s left is what’s in the jar. If it’s as good as the people behind it believe, the jar will do the talking.

<p>The post Exclusive: Jerry Garcia’s Cannabis Brand Is Back In California, Betting Craft Can Survive The Cheap Weed Era first appeared on High Times.</p>

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