Great Moments In Weed History W/ Abdullah And Bean

Social media deletes, throttles and shadow-bans weed related accounts regularly, often without warning and with clear bias against independent creators. When YouTube erased Arend Richard's account "The Gay Stoner" with nearly 200K subscribers, he did get mad, but he also got even by bringing together a group of prominent "weed tubers" to form their own independent platform. Abdullah and Bean talk with Arend about the highs and lows of fighting the system. While exploring the suppression of cannabis education and entertainment as a free speech issue that's all-too-often ignored in the raging debate about cancel culture. EPISODE ARCHIVE Visit our podcast feed for 60+ episodes of our classic Great Moments in Weed History format, and subscribe now to get a new weekly podcast every Weednesday. PATREON Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video versions of this podcast and private seshes, plus cool rewards like a signed book. And it truly helps us make the best

Cannabis is a sacred plant in Shinto and Sumo wrestling—two of Japan's oldest and most vital traditions. And hemp was once the island nation's second biggest crop, after rice. Marijuana prohibition arrived via the American military occupation that followed World War II, Ironically, it's now the success of legalization activists in the United States that's inspiring a movement of homegrown advocates to return cannabis to its rightfully exalted place in Japanese culture. In this episode, Abdullah and Bean talk with Naoko Miki, co-founder of Green Zone Japan, a leading organization pushing for the rights of medical cannabis patients. CHANGE.ORG PETITION This is the change.org petition referenced in the episode, regarding the case of Ryujiro Oyabu, a celebrated ceramic artist who is currently challenging Japan's federal ban on cannabis. Please sign and share with your friends. EPISODE ARCHIVE Visit our podcast feed for 50+ episodes of our classic Great Moments in Weed History format, and subscribe now to get a ne

From Afghanistan's Kush Mountains, to LA's early 90s hydro grows, the story of game-changing weed strain OG Kush is one of the greatest cannabis tales ever told—with cameo appearances from Cypress Hill, Xzibit, Snoop Dogg, and Dre Dre. But this fascinating history was completely hidden until very recently, when the original growers who put the OG in OG Kush finally came forward to claim their glory. So roll up a fat joint of this skunky, lemony, piney legend (or whatever you've got to smoke), and settle in for a sesh with Abdullah and Bean as they give you the inside dope on the ultimate high-status strain. HIGH 90S This episode of Great Moments in Weed History is sponsored by High 90s. Their Nineties OG Kush is a cross of San Fernando Valley Hindu Kush x Chemdawg that’s got all the incredible flavor, potency and soaring high that made OG Kush one of the all-time game changing cannabis strains. . High 90's is also launching two new OG strains this month! White Fire OG, a collaboration with OG Raskal and Mamb

A new report confirms the cannabis industry added over 100,000 new jobs last year —a 33% increase—so there's never been a better time to start your legal weed career. But whether you're a hardcore trapper looking to come in from the cold, a supply-chain specialist hoping to ditch your boring widget gig for a cool weed one, or a young person seeking something entry level, gaining entree into your first green job can be daunting. Enter Abdullah and Bean, who offer solid advice for finding and landing your dream job based on their decades of experience in and around the industry. Plus, our usual dose of silly nonsense and serious weed puns. Here's the 2022 Leafly Jobs Report referenced throughout the episode. Visit our podcast feed for 50+ episodes of our classic Great Moments in Weed History format, and subscribe now to get a new weekly podcast every Weednesday, including these special Moment in Weed episodes. PATREON Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to vi

Whenever cannabis and capitalism collide, legacy weed farmers find themselves caught in the crossfire—trapped between hyper-capitalized mega-grows with corporate lobbyists and the corrupt government bureaucrats who do their bidding. In a just-published article for Rolling Stone, ace cannabis reporter and longtime friend of the podcast Mary Jane Gibson details how a shady backroom deal pulled the nug out from under California's old-school weed growers. As a result, a confluence of extinction-level-events now threatens to bring down the state's entire legal weed system via an impending market crash. But fret not—the Hempire has only begun to strike back. Mary Jane Gibson joins us for this episode of Moment in Weed, which includes a ceremonial smoke sesh. Here's a link to Mary Jane's original article in Rolling Stone. Find Mary Jane on Instagram here. And connect with Weed + Grub, her podcast with brilliantly blazed stand up comedian Mike Glazer. PATREON Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon.

Within the Church of Entheogenic Plants, a dozen varieties of psilocybin (aka "magic") mushrooms await those who wish to incorporate use of psychedelic fungus into their religious and spiritual practices. Two years ago, the church was raided by local police, but they re-opened the next day and still plan to sue in federal court to affirm their religious liberty. So take a trip (yes, pun intended) with Abdullah and Bean to this incredible oasis in Oakland, California to see for yourself, while also learning about the long history of mushrooms and other psychedelics for spiritual and ceremonial use. The Church of Entheogenic Plants is also known as ZIDE DOOR. The organization Decriminalize Nature has been at the forefront of successful efforts to decriminalize magic mushrooms and other psychedelics. Double Blind magazine has information and resources about psychedelic culture, cultivation and best practices. MAPS is a leading organization advocating for legal access to psychedelics for medicinal use. PATREON Pl

When Heisman Trophy-winning tailback Ricky Williams famously chose natural grass over professional football back in 2004,, the NFL, sportswriters and many fans reacted with horror and anger. How dare one of the greatest football players in history walk away from the game that made him rich and famous? With the Super Bowl coming up this weekend, Abdullah and Bean decided to ask the man himself, and found out that from his first time getting high, to starting his own cannabis company (appropriately called Highsman), to studying Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine, Ricky Williams has always blazed his own path in life. He also led the way for a generation of athletes who successfully pushed back against professional football's hypocritical and draconian ban on cannabis, leading to a new era where the NFL has now stopped drug testing players for weed, and has just donated $1 million to study how the plant's medicinal properties could actually help players deal with pain management and provide neuroprotection from conc

From his incendiary album "Legalize It" to his defiant speech denouncing Jamaican officials to their faces for their downpressive laws against ganja (delivered while smoking a spliff on stage), Peter Tosh fought for the equal rights of cannabis people around the world. While also promoting the plant's myriad of therapeutic benefits in detailed ways decades before the medical establishment started to catch up. Along the way, he created some of the most seminal and iconic reggae music of all time, working solo and as part of The Wailers alongside Bob Marley and Bunny Livingston. We're honored to have Niambe McIntosh—Peter Tosh's daughter and founder of The Peter Tosh Foundation—as our guest to discuss her father's life and work.  PATREON Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video versions of this podcast and private seshes, plus cool rewards like a signed book or signature lighter. And it truly helps us make the best show possible. 

In 2004, Weldon Angelos was sentenced to 55 years in prison for selling $900 worth of weed. That's what you get for bringing some of the earliest hip-hop shows to Salt Lake City, Utah. A music producer who has worked with legends like Snoop Dogg, Tupac's Outlawz, Nas, and Pink,, Weldon's case became a symbol of the racism and injustice that plagues our criminal justice system. But as you'll hear in this interview, from the moment he arrived at a maximum security prison—to serve a virtual life sentence—he began advocating for himself and other non-violent cannabis prisoners. Now head of The Weldon Project, he's built a truly bi-partisan coalition—Cory Booker, Rand Paul, Charles Koch, Alicia Keys—that pushed President Barrack Obama to commute his sentence in 2016, followed by a full pardon from President Donald Trump in December 2020. In September, Weldon sent the Biden administration a letter signed by more than 150 celebrities (Drake, Killer Mike, 2 Chainz, Ty Dolla $ign, T.I.), athletes, politicians, law enf

Celebrate 2021's weediest highlights with Abdullah and Bean's inebriated recounting of the year's most impactful cannabis news stories. PLUS: Our annual re-telling of the classic Chrstmas tale "Santa Claus is a Siberian Mushroom Shaman." Recorded IRL in a "holiday hashish hot box," this episode also gave rise to a conspiracy-themed spin-off show called "The Green Pill," and introduced our new sponsors Human Meat and Vlad's Blintzes.  PATREON Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video shows and seshes, plus access to cool rewards like a signed book or signature lighter. And it truly helps us make the best show possible.  ARTICLES MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE Our round-up of 2021's biggest marijuana stories featured these articles and journalists:: LEAFLY REPORTS Leafly Cannabis Harvest Report this year (by David Downs) Leafly Jobs Report (by Bruce Barcott, Beau Whitney, and Janessa Bailey) Leafly Seeds of Change Report (by Janessa Bailey) Altria, Maker of

When cannabis and capitalism collide, our community's best laid plans for an equitable industry all-too-often go up in smoke. Enter Shaleen Title, a longtime drug policy activist who in 2017 became one of five inaugural commissioners of Massachusetts's Cannabis Control Commission. Described as “the people’s weed watchdog” by Boston Magazine, Shaleen is widely recognized for her focus on social and racial justice and her efforts to make the cannabis industry more fair and inclusive. She's also an avid listener of Great Moments in Weed History who supports the podcast on Patreon—just saying... and she shares that among her personal great moments was being the first person to order legal cannabis delivery on the East Coast. Naturally Shaleen's weed and gummies were provided by a social equity company that represents everything she works for as an advocate, attorney and now head of the Parabola Center—a think-tank she co-founded to "support people not corporate profits" in the cannabis industry. Please join us f

When prominent author Marie Lee published an essay titled "Why I Give My 9-Year Old Pot" in 2009, it set off a media sensation. Years before CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta ever touched the subject, Lee's vulnerable and defiant description of desperately seeking relief for her severely ill son—and finding it in cannabis—struck a nerve with parents worldwide. Now a teacher in the creative writing program at Columbia University, Marie Lee joins Abdullah and Bean to relive her son Jay's difficult, rewarding journey using medical cannabis to treat severe autism and other debilitating conditions. Including the life-saving help they got along the way from Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, underground marijuana growers, and the weed community writ large. We also get an update on Jay, who is doing great! SUPPORT "GREAT MOMENTS IN WEED HISTORY" ON PATREON Sign up for our Great Moments in Weed History Patreon for special bonuses and fun surprises. PLEASE VISIT OUR SPONSORS! This episode is brought to you

In the 1990s, a new federal law banning any student with a drug conviction from receiving financial aid led to the formation of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP). Created online by a swarm of young activists in the early days of the internet, the organization quickly grew into the largest student organization in the United States. Today SSDP has over 5,000 active members on 300 college campuses around the world, all of them dedicated to advocating for the legalization of cannabis and the end of the War on Drugs. To hear the antiestablishment history of this game-changing organization, Abdullah and Bean sit down with founding member Kris Krane, who has also served as SSDP's Executive Director. SUPPORT "GREAT MOMENTS IN WEED HISTORY" ON PATREON Sign up for our Great Moments in Weed History Patreon for special bonuses and fun surprises PLEASE VISIT OUR SPONSORS! This episode is brought to you by Tweedle Farms, Northwest Oregon's premier, family owned hemp farm, specializing in farm-to-table, terpene rich,

In remote areas of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Southeast Asia, indigenous farmers cultivate cannabis on small plots that date back centuries. Maintaining their precious landrace strains has been an uphill battle in an age of rapid industrialization, but now the effort to preserve this living cultural and botanical history has gone global. The Indian Landrace Exchange is a a grassroots, locally-led, globally crowdsourced effort to support these traditional cannabis-growing communities while preserving some of the oldest cannabis strains on Earth before they're lost forever. In this episode, Abdullah and Bean speak with @irrazinig—co-founder of the Indian Landrace Exchange—about growing up surrounded by post-colonial cannabis, making a fateful trek to "the Humboldt County of India," and forming a mutually beneficial bridge between indigenous communities and the world of legal weed. SUPPORT "GREAT MOMENTS IN WEED HISTORY" ON PATREON Sign up for our Great Moments in Weed History Patreon for special bonuses a

As America's most thoroughly freak-powered cannabis festival celebrates its 30th Anniversary, we share a sesh with legendary street activist Vivian McPeak,, who co-founded the Seattle Hempfest in 1991. From the event's radical roots as a "protestival" occupation of a public park, to the glory days of legends like Jack Herer and Woody Harrelson addressing 100,000+ stoners at 4:20 from the main stage amid a massive cloud of smoke, Vivian explains how a combination of hippie idealism, pothead pragmatism, mutual support and civil disobedience helped establish Seattle Hempfest as a people-powered working model for every freaky weed fest to follow.. Plus the inside story of the first-annual Bong-A-Thon, and a weed pun battle for the ages. Learn more and get involved at hempfest.org and check out Vivian's podcast Hempresent. SUPPORT "GREAT MOMENTS IN WEED HISTORY" ON PATREON Sign up for our Great Moments in Weed History Patreon for special bonuses and fun surprises PLEASE VISIT OUR SPONSORS! This episode is brought

Upon turning 80, rock legend David Crosby gets lit with us and lovingly recalls the greatest moments of his own illustrious weed history. From blazing out The Beatles, to sailing the high seas with the 1970s most prolific pot smugglers, he's seen and smoked it all—and lived to tell the tale. Croz also explains why he loves growing his own, and just might write a song about it. Special thanks to Mighty Croz, his personal weed brand, for arranging the interview. And check out his excellent new album For Free. SUPPORT "GREAT MOMENTS IN WEED HISTORY" ON PATREON Sign up for our Great Moments in Weed History Patreon for special bonuses and fun surprises PLEASE VISIT OUR SPONSORS! This episode is brought to you by Tweedle Farms, Northwest Oregon's premier, family owned hemp farm, specializing in farm-to-table, terpene rich, high CBD hemp flower, concentrates, vapes, edibles and topicals. Use promo code “greatmoments” for 20% off your next order shipped anywhere in the United States.

Ross Rebagliati won the first ever Olympic gold medal in snowboarding, only to have it stripped away when officials reported he’d tested positive for marijuana on a post-race drug test. Ross soon found himself in a Japanese police station, under heavy interrogation for hours and potentially facing a long prison sentence simply for having a few nanograms of THC metabolite in his urine. He tells Abdullah and Bean his entire epic Olympic story, from being fifteen and one of the first serious ski racers to switch to snowboarding, to smoking weed on the chairlift while training for World Cup events, to everything he went through at the 1998 Olympics and its aftermath, and his new career as the founder of Ross’s Gold, a Canadian cannabis company.  He also offers words of comfort and encouragement to sprinting sensation Sha'Carri Richardson, who was disqualified from this year’s Tokyo games after testing positive for THC. JOIN US ON PATREON Sign up for our Great Moments in Weed History Patreon for special bonuses an

July 10th (7/10) is the 4/20 of hashish, a day to celebrate cannabis concentrates and culture in all forms—from the traditional sieve and hand-rub methods used in places like India, Morocco and Nepal for millennia to the modern world of BHO extracted dabs, with its many oils, waxes, shatters, crumbles, resins, and rosins. Sound confusing? Don't fret, because Abdullah, Bean and special guest expert Ry Prichard (Bong Appetit) will demystify and explain the fascinating history of cannabis concentrates, including how they're made, how they're consumed, and how to get the most out of this incredible way to inhale your weed without greening out. Best of all, after a long, long time recording over Zoom, we're back to blazing together IRL and so happy to share our first official sesh back on such an auspicious occasion. Program note: Bean gets really, really high in this episode! PATREON Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video shows and seshes, plus access to

Brownie Mary's "magically delicious marijuana brownies" brought healing and joy to thousands of AIDS and cancer patients in San Francisco, even as she shouted down the police and took on City Hall. As this self-described "little old lady" once declared, shortly after being released from lock-up: "If the narcs think I'm gonna stop baking brownies for my kids with AIDS, they can go fuck themselves in Macy's window," We're proudly re-posting this episode from Season 1 of Great Moments in Weed History as the conclusion of our month-long Pride celebration. Special thanks to our sponsor Tweedle Farms for supporting this podcast, including this special Pride series of episodes! PATREON Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video shows and seshes, plus access to cool rewards like a signed book or signature lighter. And it truly helps us make the best show possible. 

Dennis Peron first tried cannabis in Vietnam. After smuggling two pounds of high-grade herb home from the front, he became a charismatic and defiant leader of San Francisco's medical cannabis and gay rights movements. A fiery street-fighting optimist, Dennis suffered multiple stints in prison and even took a bullet in a police raid—all without ever giving up or backing down. As part of our ongoing Pride Month celebration, we're proudly re-posting this Season 1 episode that gets at the root of how the LGBTQ+ movement played a central role in not just changing the laws in California (and subsequently around the world), but in subverting a propaganda campaign against weed engineered by the government, law enforcement, and the medical establishment. Our Pride programming will conclude next week with our episode about Brownie Mary, another indomitable activist who fought for medical cannabis during the height of the AIDs crisis. Special thanks to our sponsor Tweedle Farms for supporting this podcast, including thi