The weed issue

It’s been almost two years since Nevada dispensaries opened their doors to recreational cannabis users. In the first year, sales smoked expectations with a total of $69,759,783 in wholesale and retail taxes collected from purchasers. And it looks like this year’s sales will produce even more revenue and tax dollars. With five months of data left to compile, the state of Nevada Department of Taxation already reports a total of $55,990,991 collected in taxes during the 2019 fiscal year. The numbers indicate one thing for certain; Nevadans of all different kinds are consuming cannabis. It also seems the stigma associated with marijuana is lessening.

During a recent private event called the High Sierra Smokeout, attendees packed into Jub Jub’s Thirst Parlor, 71 S. Wells Ave., to listen to music and get high in the venue’s large concert hall. The event drew adults of all ages. From favorite strains to biggest stereotypes about smokers, we asked some of them to share their thoughts on pot with us.

David Daniels
Self-employed

Do you have a favorite local dispensary?
I do. I like RISE.
Where’s your favorite place to hang out while on cannabis?
I like Jub Jub’s, actually. Or, you know, down by the river is cool, too. The River District is awesome.
Tell us about the first time you got high.
I was 15, I think. We actually smoked it out of computer paper. We ripped up a piece of computer paper and rolled it up. It was pretty crazy.
What’s your favorite way to consume?
Just a joint.
What’s your favorite music to listen to when you’re high?
Stoner doom metal.
What’s your favorite movie or thing to watch when you’re stoned?
I like conspiracy documentaries.
What’s the best thing you’ve cooked while high?
I’ve got to think here. I’ve cooked all sorts of things. My favorite edibles right now are raspberry shortbread cookies. They’ve got about 100 milligrams in them.
The celebrity with whom you’d most like to partake?
Tommy Chong.
What’s the most inaccurate stereotype about pot or pot smokers?
Laziness. It depends on the person, though, right? Some people it really does make lazy. Some people, it doesn’t affect them.

Jenes Carter
Artist/entertainer

Do you have a favorite local dispensary?
I do have a favorite local dispensary. It’s Silver State Relief. They get really involved in the community. There have been so many shows we’ve done with [my band] Mojo [Green], and they’re there. They’re part of it. … It’s really nice how they place themselves in our community.
What’s your favorite place to hang out while on cannabis?
The movies. I’m feeling all deep. I’m trying to be in the moment.
Do you prefer indica, sativa or hybrid?
The way my body is set up, things that are uppers take me to different places than things that are technically downers will. So I like indicas, because it’s the opposite for me, and it makes me feel more up—even though it’s not, like, “the one” for that.
Tell us about the first time you got high.
OK. So I started out smoking Black & Milds. And blunts kind of look like that, so it just sort of happened. Then I was like, “Oh, OK, I’m high.” And it was mostly just like that, not amazing, but it just happened.
What’s your favorite way to consume?
Just a simple joint. I can do a blunt—but joints get me to the right place. … It’s just like if you’re drinking something, you know, you want to be balanced. You don’t need to over do it. You get to that point where you don’t have to get fucked up. Smoking a joint does that for me.
What’s your favorite music to listen to when you’re high?
I like Bone Thugz[-n-Harmony].
What’s the best thing you’ve cooked while high?
I feel like everything I cook is good. … For the most part, when I’m in the moment, I’m really cooking—and I’m cooking good, because I’ve got to eat it. When I’m high, it’s like it adds that bit of Emeril Lagassé to my cooking—like, bam, uh oh! I’ll start throwing in different condiments and spices, get a little daring. As long as I’m not cooking while I’m high and hungry—because then it gets weird.
The celebrity with whom you’d most like to partake?
I don’t know if there’s anyone else I’d like to get high with, but I’ve already been able to smoke with Snoop Dogg. … I’d just gotten into the LEX, just got in the club. The security guard pointed me out and said, “You come up here.” I met Snoop, and I was asking dumb questions like, “How do you feel about having to ask for straws now when you get a drink.” He’s like, “I don’t drink as much.” I was like, “That’s crazy, because you’re not sippin’ on gin and juice. You’re just laid back. Either way you’re fucking amazing.” And then he lit a blunt. He rolled a blunt, and it was like he was snapping almost. He put it in one hand, put all the stuff in there, and then, basically, in one snap, it was a blunt. It was magical.
What’s the most inaccurate stereotype about pot or pot smokers?
I don’t know if there’s one most inaccurate stereotype. I feel like people will try to identify smokers as people who are not motivated, people who won’t go out there and do their best. But there are so many people. The people who are running businesses—who are selling it—they obviously smoke it, and somehow they’ve been able to create a lucrative business.

KiKi Brisker
Budtender/podcaster

Do you have a favorite local dispensary?
It’d be Silver State Relief. That’s where I work, and, I mean, that’s my favorite dispensary. That’s my biased answer.
Where’s your favorite place to hang out while on cannabis?
After I’m stoned, I definitely go get some food somewhere. Lately it’s been Firehouse Subs. It’s pretty fire. They’re really good.
Tell us about the first time you got high.
It was right when Wiz Khalifa dropped that mixtape, Kush & Orange Juice. So it was 2010. That was the first time I smoked, and it was really trippy—really trippy, like movie, cinema-type trippy. I don’t know how else to explain it. It was like I was seeing things in frames, type of thing.
What’s your favorite way to consume?
Lately, the easiest way for me has been vaping. I have two cartridges on me at all times.
What’s your favorite music to listen to when you’re high?
I guess you could say neo soul. I really like jazz, and I really like hip-hop. And I made up a genre called “jazz-hop,” but I don’t know if that’s a real genre. I really like soul music and R&B and instrumentals.
What’s your favorite movie or thing to watch when you’re stoned?
I try to find new things all the time to watch. I never really stick to one thing. I go off references a lot.
What’s the best thing you’ve cooked while high?
I’m thinking too hard about it. Let me think recent. I made some shrimp and spinach Alfredo noodles. It was so fire. I snapchatted that.
The celebrity with whom you’d most like to partake?
This is a no brainer—Wiz Khalifa. I met him, but it was at a radio station in Vegas. … My real answer would be Dizzy Right, too. I could smoke with my homey again and have a real conversation—because we haven’t since he blew up. He’s from Vegas too. My fan girl answer was Wiz.
What’s the most inaccurate stereotype about pot or pot smokers?
That it’s a sin to use it. That is my biggest aggravation—people who think that way, that it’s not healthy to use it or that it dumbs you down when you use it. In certain aspects it can, but it’s all about education, about learning how to use it and not abuse it. … With me being a budtender, I’m so fascinated with the science.

Patti Collins
Retiree

Do you have a favorite local dispensary?
No. My boyfriend lives in Reno. We’ve been to Mynt, and I don’t know the others.
Where’s your favorite place to hang out while on cannabis?
I smoke all the time. It’s nonstop. And where I live is really beautiful. There’s a beavers in a creek that runs through my backyard. There’s all of this wildlife. It’s in Quincy.
Do you prefer indica, sativa or hybrid?
Indica, for sure. Afghan, they used to say. They don’t say that anymore.
Tell us about the first time you got high.
I didn’t think I felt anything, and when I went to take a step the floor wasn’t where I thought it was going to be.
What’s your favorite way to consume?
I just smoke it. I love dab, but we smoke a lot of blunts at our house—or vape. I have a Volcano Vape.
What’s your favorite movie or thing to watch when you’re stoned?
I like a good romantic comedy. We don’t watch a lot. We play Super Scrabble. It’s a bigger board. We watch America’s Got Talent or sports.<br<b>What’s the best thing you’ve cooked while high?
I make edibles—candy and cookies.
The celebrity with whom you’d most like to partake?
Willie [Nelson].
What’s the most inaccurate stereotype about pot or pot smokers?
That it makes you stupid. I get mad. I have two older friends who—if they say something stupid or they do something stupid—they’ll say, “Well, I’m stoned.”

Adam Sousa
Woodworking craftsman

Where’s your favorite place to hang out while on cannabis?
The desert. I like to be outside. … I smoke a bowl on the top of Mount Rose every year.
Do you prefer indica, sativa or hybrid?
I usually go with a hybrid.
Tell us about the first time you got high.
It was out of a homemade bong. It was one of those plastic Garfield the Cat cookie jars with a Bic pen and a foil bowl. And that was the first piece I ever smoked out of.
What’s your favorite way to consume?
Bong or food. I made a weed beer before, which was my absolute favorite way to consume. I do chicken pot pot pie and weed beer.
What’s your favorite music to listen to when you’re high?
Electro-swing or Tool.
What’s your favorite movie or thing to watch when you’re stoned?
The Lord of the Rings series or the Hobbit series, that kind of stuff.
What’s the best thing you’ve cooked while high?
The chicken pot pot pie. That was a thing of genius. The name works. The taste works.
The celebrity with whom you’d most like to partake?
Tommy Chong.

What’s the most inaccurate stereotype about pot or pot smokers?
Lazy stoners. I smoke, and I get to work.

T.R. Spriggs
Bartender/DJ

Do you have a favorite local dispensary?
I guess Mynt, but whatever’s convenient.
Where’s your favorite place to hang out while on cannabis?
My living room.
Do you prefer indica, sativa or hybrid?
I like to get high when I’m off of work, so I prefer an indica because I want to unwind from the day.
Tell us about the first time you got high.
It took me probably about a dozen times of smoking weed back in the ’90s before I got high in the first place. And I had a crush on a girl who wanted me to be a pot head with her, so I kept trying and never got high. Finally, about the 10th time, I got high. It works that way for some people. I was one of those people.
What’s your favorite way to consume?
I like to smoke weed.
What’s your favorite music to listen to when you’re high?
Lately I’m into podcasts. I’ve been picking out music as my job since 1997. That’s 22 years later, so the podcasts are nice—because it’s not music.
What’s your favorite movie or thing to watch when you’re stoned?
I like comic book movies. I’m a classic ’90s dude. I have a gargantuan comic book tattoo on my side.
What’s the best thing you’ve cooked while high?
Drawn butter—we made bud butter and grilled shrimp and dipped the shrimp in the butter. That was the highest I’ve ever been. … That was bonkers. Don’t do that.
The celebrity with whom you’d most like to partake?
That’s a crazy good question. If I could meet any celebrity it’d be Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails, high or not. I’d like to shake his hand. I’ve smoked weed with my weed heroes already. B-Real from Cypress Hill smoked me out.

Andy Poncia
Poker dealer

Do you have a favorite local dispensary?
Not at the moment. I used to have one in Santa Rosa. I lived in Quincy and Santa Rosa and went back and forth.
Where’s your favorite place to hang out while on cannabis?
Anywhere where there’s music.
Do you prefer indica, sativa or hybrid?
Indica is what I’d rather have. I have pain issues, too, so that’s kind of how I started—and that was, like, in 1976. I was 21.
Tell us about the first time you got high.
I was driving—which probably isn’t a good thing. I thought I was following my friend, and then when I caught up to the car, it wasn’t him. I ended up getting lost in a town I wasn’t really familiar with. I mean, not too bad—I knew in general where I was. But I was confused as to where I was at for a little while.
What’s your favorite way to consume?
I prefer joints. I do dabs and the vape pen. I use creams, too, for muscle pain—and edibles. And I found CBD helps. … Marijuana has been wonderful. I’ve been all for it since I started smoking it.
What’s your favorite music to listen to when you’re high?
Mojo Green. If you haven’t seen them—I go there, and sometimes I don’t feel so good, and I have to just sit, but I’ll catch myself dancing in my chair or just having to get up. It’s just because of the music. It’s just a good draw—and a bunch of wonderful people, also.
What’s your favorite movie or thing to watch when you’re stoned?
I like comedy—something like Caddy Shack.
The celebrity with whom you’d most like to partake?
Probably a lot. I’m trying to think. I mean, times have changed since I was young. Willie Nelson’s was a very cool cat, I think, in my time. Now it would be different probably. Snoop would be cool, too.
What’s the most inaccurate stereotype about pot or pot smokers?
There’s a lot. But I got to convince my parents, so I don’t know. I made them realize how beneficial it was for me—with sleeping and being in less pain. They accepted it, but they made fun of hippies and people who smoked pot back in the day.