Cooking with Cannabis: Exploring Stoned by Ann Allchin

Margaret 00:00:06 Welcome friends to episode 269, and today I am doing a review of a book written by an Alaskan. That name may sound familiar. You'll find out why in just a moment. Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles where I help you take control of your high life. I'm your host and Certified Ganjier Margaret and I love helping cooks make safe and effective edibles at home. I'm so glad you're here. And greetings, friends. Welcome back to another fantastic episode of Bite Me! I am so glad that you're here for. And if you're tuning in for the first time, welcome! This will be a great episode for you to discover the show. A great entry point if you will, and if you've been around for a while. My heartfelt thanks goes out to you because without those regular listeners, I wouldn't be sitting here now. Things are going to be a little bit different today for a few different reasons, some of which you can't see unless you happen to watch the video that I recorded this episode, which I had to restart a few times so you'll miss.

Margaret 00:01:08 I post these videos to the webpage for each episode happen for a little while. They are raw and unedited, so all the mistakes, all the ums and oz and filler words that get edited out are all still in there. What you didn't catch today was the what felt like 47 times I did the intro for this particular episode. Sometimes it just feels like I'm all tongue tied, and things don't roll off the tongue in the way that I want them to. But alas, that is the work that we podcasters do. So also, I'm hoping the audio turns out okay for this. I've got a new setup I am setting up in the basement at my dad's house, which is maybe I'm looking around it right now. I'm like, it's this large. It's all mine. My dad never comes down here. Really. It's kind of creepy. There's wood paneling on the walls. It's mostly painted, but if you were to see the video behind me, there is that vintage mid-century modern, what looks like original pine wood paneling or wood.

Margaret 00:02:09 I don't know if it's pine pine paneling or wood paneling on the wall behind me. I'm just not sure about the acoustics. I have a few things to sort of dead in the sound a little bit. Hopefully that will sound acceptable for you, but otherwise this will be my new recording space because my dad's 93, I don't want to be telling him, hey, can you get out of your office so I can do some recording? And almost every time I'm like, hey, I got to do a zoom call. He's always just like, do you need the office? I'm like, no, no, no, it's fine. I'll go to a different space. A lot of times it's in my bedroom or whatever, but if I'm doing like an interview or actual like recording time, he'll give me the office. Of course, he doesn't really care. He's either watching TV or he's on his computer watching YouTube videos or whatever, but it's just nice to have a space that's a little more dedicated to recording so that if I do have to do a zoom or recording or something to that effect, I'm not having to disrupt his routine.

Margaret 00:03:10 And it's a win win for all of us. I just have to figure out the sound proofing or the sound because I suspect with the concrete floors, the tall ceilings, the fluorescent lighting, I may need to dress it up a little bit. And right now I don't have a backdrop either. I do feel like I would prefer some kind of backdrop. I am going to be setting up a grow tent down here very soon as well, so that's kind of a new, exciting development. It arrived today, so I don't know if my sister knows this yet. By the time this recording comes out, I probably will have built it. Or will I have. I'm not really sure, but I'm hoping to recruit my sister to help me when she comes down to visit. But told my Canadian listeners, by the time this episode comes out, it will be just prior to Canadian Thanksgiving. So I hope you're enjoying or plan to be enjoying some delicious edibles over your Thanksgiving weekend. I know I will be including some pet treats.

Margaret 00:04:16 I have made some pet treats recently. I'm still experimenting with them a little bit. There is an episode coming out soon with those. I have tested them out on one pet, and I hope to test them out on a couple more before the episode, and also maybe try another recipe or two, or try the same recipe and tweak it a little bit, because I did run into a couple of snags and quite frankly, my first attempt at them, the dog ate them. But aesthetically speaking, or far cry from the picture that was on the web page where I found this recipe. Mine did not look that great. They looked okay. You could kind of tell if they were in the shape of a dog bone, because I actually specifically went out and got a cookie cutter for these dog treats. And yeah, you could kind of tell that that's what they were, but not really. So they need a little improving. Is it worth improving these ones or not? Time will tell. Which is why I feel like I need to test them on some real test subjects first before I bring them to you.

Margaret 00:05:14 The masses for your pet friends. Today I'm really excited to talk about a book that I received. I got an advance copy, very excited about that, and it came from my friend and Alduin. And that name may sound familiar because she has been on this podcast before. I have featured her a couple of times actually, and is a lovely human being who wrote the book Butter and Flour. I have done at least one episode with one of her recipes as well. I think that was the Canadian snowballs. If you haven't tried those Fantastic. They have a little pinch of cayenne in them which really chef's kiss really make them in my opinion. And of course, if you're not a spicy fan, easily admit it omitted so you can have your more vanilla Canadian snowballs if you choose. But an has been working on another project, and this project is this beautiful book that I'm holding in my hands right now. Cannabis infused recipes for sophisticated happy hour. I mean, for starters, I love that stoned with biographies celebrating 100 years of Counterculture by an allusion and photography by Magdalena m.

Margaret 00:06:38 And this book is beautiful. So if you do happen to catch the recording, you can always skip to the part where I'm holding up the book. It is a beautiful, large format coffee table book with recipes in interwoven with stories from counterculture, which is what helped us bring us to the point where we are today. Anna and I are both Canadian. We both enjoy legal cannabis. That is a privilege that I know many of you listeners out there don't enjoy. But as time goes on, I'm hoping to see more and more places come to their senses and realize that cannabis is not the reefer Madness plant that they once thought it was. And projects like this book that Anne has produced is another step to helping to break the stigma. And this book is beautiful. Yes, it has recipes. She's also assured me, like I told her, that I loved how it opened and it would stay open, but she assured me that the copies that would be coming out for the pre-order would lay flat as well, so that when you're creating in the kitchen, it would be easy to reference the recipes inside.

Margaret 00:07:48 And there are so many delicious recipes. But before I even get into that, the way that she lays this book out, I absolutely love. If you're thinking of this book for yourself, you should, because treat yourself, I always say, and there's nothing better than a new cannabis cookbook, in my humble opinion. But this is a wonderful book. Two for the can of curious as well. And those who may have less experience with cannabis, but they're looking for something, a book that's maybe, again, a little more sophisticated, less pot leaves splashed everywhere, beautiful photography, like a wonderful book for somebody who is new to the cannabis world. And how many people come to cannabis through food. But I know plenty of people who found cannabis through food because it's so accessible, and you can just easily incorporate it into your life. And that's one of the things that this book really highlights. You start out in the beginning, and I love that she dedicates the book to all who have made sacrifices supporting the use of this plant, because there are many who have made major sacrifices, obviously, to get to where we're at.

Margaret 00:08:54 She has a table of contents, so you can see the different categories of the recipes and the stories that she includes in the book. And then she has a note from the author, of course, which is an excellent read. She even gives a guide on how to use the book. There's a word of caution, which of course, any responsible author would include when writing about ingesting cannabis through food, because there are certain certain caveats that, of course, we all need to live by when consuming cannabis in this way. Because, you know, we're all a little living on the edge, aren't we? We all know the power of this thing that we're consuming. She has a section on the herb itself and what makes it so wonderful? Its potential. What makes it good or bad for you? Things to think about when you're buying cannabis. Some of the risks, because there are sometimes certain risks associated with consuming anything that can alter your state of mind. She even has some bad press debunked.

Margaret 00:09:51 A timeline of cannabis usage in the history of human beings. Cannabis chefs tool belt as well. The key tools, optional tools. Things you might need for specific recipes, VIP tools which are fun to haves but not must haves. And then she gives some additional details on infusion recipes for the edibles in this book. And this book has beautiful photos in it and larger print. Because it is a full size book like this, is it larger than an eight and a half by 11? And again interwoven with beautiful stories about the cannabis plant from people who have long supported cannabis? And with Anne's permission, I will be reading one of the stories from this book today to help entice you to support this local Canadian author. So the story that I'll be reading from this book, and a lot of the stories that she covers in this book cover various time frames in more recent cannabis history, Stiff Sentences and The Last Prisoner Project. You know, it's all fun and games until someone goes to jail. That's how the saying goes, right? People have and still are.

Margaret 00:11:00 And when I say people, I'm saying mostly people of color sacrificing chunks of their very lives for doing something that business people are now all too happy to cash in on. Let's talk about some risks people have taken for the penalties they've endured for this overhyped, stigmatized drug. John Sinclair he is a poet and activist who's best known for being sentenced to ten years in prison for passing two joints to an undercover officer who pestered him for them in 1969. Lots of famous people came to his defense for the stiff sentence at the time, including John Lennon, who wrote and performed a song at a benefit concert for him in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Go ahead and queue it up. It's a dope song that maybe, maybe could have used a couple of fewer goddess in the chorus. But who am I to judge John Lennon? Sinclair was released three days after the benefit concert at the end of 1971, and was the first person to buy legal recreational cannabis in Michigan in 2019. Rosie Rowbotham was a Canadian hippie drug dealer.

Margaret 00:12:07 Or is he's alive? But I'm not sure of his dealing status at the moment. By dealer we're talking about we're talking that the first time he got busted, it was for a ton of hashish at the airport in 1977. Rosie was unapologetic with the judge by unapologetic. I'm saying that he spoke for an hour about how the courts would be throwing him to the wolves and prison for creating a thriving, peace loving drug business. The speech was especially rambling and impassioned because our dear Rosie had eaten a quarter ounce of hash a couple of hours before delivering it. He was sentenced to 14 years in jail. That first time in appealed it down to nine. You might be thinking to yourself, well, this guy was a big blunt. He got what he deserved. But if you've enjoyed weed in a legal environment, where where do you think it came from? In 1985, Rosie was charged with conspiracy to import, distribute and sell £15,500 of hash. He got 20 years, the longest ever Canadian sentence for a marijuana related offence.

Margaret 00:13:10 In total over Rosie's career. He was sentenced to 69 years and more served more than 20. James Geddes was walking with a friend in Oklahoma when he was arrested in 1992. The house his friend was renting was searched. James didn't live there, but he was a frequent visitor. They found a small amount of weed, some paraphernalia, and five cannabis plants in the garden. James stood firm for his innocence and refused to plea bargain. He was sentenced to 75 years and one day for possession and another 75 years and one day for the plants. James appealed, and in 1995 his sentence was reduced from 150 years to 90. He was released in 2003 after more than 11 years in prison. Alan Martinez, a nurse, was charged for cultivation in Sonoma County, California in 1997. Shortly after, prop 215 for state legalization of medical marijuana was enacted for having fewer than ten plants. Alan was a medical cannabis patient as an epileptic, but he and his former partner also grew for others with medical needs. They had been hoping that prop 215 would have stopped medical marijuana prosecutions, but they were forced to use it as a defense instead.

Margaret 00:14:31 Alan quit cannabis while awaiting trial. How does a suspected seizure while driving went off the road into the car and died? Jonathan Bagby was paraplegic, hit by a drunk driver, and when he was four he was also a person of color. Jonathan was photographed in his wheelchair as a literal poster child with Ronald Reagan to commemorate the National Respiratory Therapy Week at the age of five inches 1982. In 2004, in D.C., though when he was 27, Jonathan was a passenger in his cousin's car when they were stopped and found with a gun, cocaine, and cannabis. Jonathan's cousin copped to the gun and Jon pled guilty to the weed. He was sentenced to ten days in prison, even though it was his first offense and he needed round the clock care. The judge didn't have the respirator that he needed and his mother was denied access, so Jonathan died four days into his sentence. At the inquiry, the judge stated that she had followed through on the sentence because Jonathan had admitted he would continue to use cannabis even after his release to manage his pain.

Margaret 00:15:37 And of course, those Brittney Griner, just a short time ago, Britney was sentenced to nine years in a Russian jail to be served in a forced labor camp for bringing less than a gram of forgotten cannabis oil into the country. The two time gold medalist and WNBA star had spent off seasons playing in Russia since 2014 because women athletes underpaid in the States. The maximum salary for WNBA players in 2022 was 228,000. I was very worried about poor Brittney being LGBTQ and trapped in Russia, but just as we were going to print, she was released in exchange for Viktor Bout, a notorious arms dealer. Now I'm worried about arms dealing, but it is what it is. These stories are an absolute blip in the volumes. I could have written about excessive bipartisan sentencing that has occurred throughout the war on drugs, and despite people of all racial backgrounds using and selling drugs at similar rates, people of color, especially black men, are more likely to be imprisoned and hence forced to become members of a permanent underclass. Michelle Alexander describes a structural racial discrimination far more eloquently than I ever could in her book, The New Jim Crow.

Margaret 00:16:54 The book is aging, but it has an updated intro. Please read it. Here are some highlights. Hopefully I haven't bastardized its wisdom. I've also infused things with a few stats from other sources you'll find in the references list. From the start, people of color are disadvantaged in the US. A black person is five times more likely to be stopped without just cause than a white person. So the drug seizures aren't reflective of who's actually using similar rates across races, as I said earlier. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, 80% of those in federal prison and 60% in state prisons for drugs are Black or Latino. Trials are avoided and prosecutors have control. people plead out to avoid more trouble and greater risk. Public defenders don't have time or resources to fight, or people are convicted without legal representation at all. Juries are not representative and have unconscious bias. More than one of every six black men between 25 and 54 is disappeared from daily life due to incarceration or early death. In the US, the huge majority of people sentenced to prisons and jails and dealing with post-conviction repercussions like remote monitoring, parole, housing and benefits restrictions, poverty, lack of civic participation, a black mark and trying to get work and general stigma are for non-violent crimes.

Margaret 00:18:21 1 in 5 incarcerated people is for drug offenses. This stat makes it seem like drug convictions are lower than those for violent crime, but the latter are generally in prison longer, which skews the numbers of the 862 arrests for drug law violations in 2019. 1,351,533. 86.7% were for simple possession of a controlled substance. 35% of those arrests were for cannabis, with 32% of all drug arrests still for cannabis possession only. The US has 2.5 million people in prison, more than anywhere else in the world. This is an increase from 300,000 over 30 years, with drug convictions accounting for the majority. A further 4.5 million people are out of prison but under state control. More than 20% of Americans have criminal records. See underclass above. Women are far from being off the hook. Incarceration of women has increased 800% over the past 30 years, and black women are twice as likely to go to jail as white women. 62% of women in state prisons have minor kids so that their mothers are gone. 1 in 4 women in the United States has a loved one locked up, increasing to nearly one and two for black women.

Margaret 00:19:48 Women supporting struggling families and a system rigged against them. Because this mass incarceration doesn't come cheap, and because white people are starting to make money in the legal drug trade, it's recently come into fashion to demonize, detain and deport people of color, once again serving as a privatization income stream between 2007 and 2012. 260,000 noncitizens were deported for nonviolent drug charges, 34,000 were for simple cannabis possession. The war on drugs and its fallout have broken struggling, struggling families and communities. Jim Crow racial marginalization continues, having morphed into a new form. Let's cheer ourselves up. There's better awareness of the impact on the war on drugs these days. Weed decriminalization and legalization helps. Penalties for crack and powder cocaine were aligned some time ago. Same drug, different racially based perceptions and penalties. And 2013, the attorney general announced smart on crime policies that focused federal prosecutions on large scale traffickers rather than the little guys. In 2014, Obama launched an executive Clemency initiative to help people serving long mandatory minimum sentences. On his way out the door, as in his last day in office, Donald Trump granted clemency to a dozen cannabis prisoners, most of whom are serving life sentences.

Margaret 00:21:20 I don't really understand this one guy only does things that are self-serving. Apparently his son in law advocated for cannabis prisoners, and Ivanka phoned some with the news, must have money and weed themselves if someone knows what's up with this, please enlighten me. Also, there's The Last Prisoner Project LP, supported by cannabis advocates like Mary Bailey, managing director, Steve D'Angelo, founder and Jim Belushi, advisor that works to right the wrongs on the war on drugs by trying to free every last one of the 40,000 cannabis prisoners still incarcerated. The LP works on prisoner release through state and federal clemency programs, advocates for criminal records clearance, supports constituents through incarceration and reentry. And let's throw in a word on Canada. We're not innocent of racism up here. Of course, black people are imprisoned at higher rates than whites. In 2014, 12% of federal prisoners incarcerated on drug charges were black, even though only 3% of Canadians are black. Also, despite recreational cannabis now being legal and the government being the biggest drug dealer where I live, 500,000 Canadians have a criminal record for possession of less than 30g.

Margaret 00:22:36 The government is willing to issue pardons, but not expungement of records. This means that rather than the conviction being erased like it never happened, the record history is merely suspended so that it could be revived under certain circumstances, like if the government were to change and not be supportive of what good old Trudeau has done. Just an example. A pretty sure retracting legalization would be the biggest show of Canadian unity since the war on legalization and decriminalization elsewhere has brought a lot of relief, but we still a ways to go. Let's give the final word to our friend Rosie. The government has turned the pot economy over to the people who lost the drug war, the cops and politicians who are responsible for destroying so many lives by turning pot smokers into criminals, writes Rosie in The Guardian. In 2018, just prior to Canadian recreational cannabis legalization. If I'm a criminal, What word would you use to describe Fantino, the former Toronto chief of police who compared legalizing legalizing pot to legalizing murder but subsequently opened a weed business, and all the other ex cops and politicians who are now looking to get rich by switching to the other side.

Margaret 00:23:50 A simple amnesty is not enough. It should include an apology for ruining the lives of hundreds of thousands of people for no legitimate reason. They should be asking us to forgive them. I sentenced them to have to live with themselves for the rest of their lives. And that concludes that section, and I will be sure to link to the last prisoner project in the show notes and the program for Canadians who are looking for a pardon. I should note, also one of the critiques of the Canadian system for a pardon for for minor drug offenses, cannabis offenses, offenses is that not only do you not get your record expunged, but you have to pay for that. Pardon? The last I checked, it was about $600, and for some people, $600 is out of reach. It's a lot of money for something just to have the government say, okay, well, we'll we'll pardon you, but not expunge it from your record. So there and perhaps it's gone up since then. I'm not really sure I should look that up and put that in the show notes as well.

Margaret 00:24:56 So these are just some things to keep in mind. We've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go. And an finishes this book with an excellent references and further reading list, which I love. So if there's anything you want to dive into deeper, then you have a list here of where to start. And this list is pretty comprehensive. And of course there is an index at the back of the book as well, so you can find what you're looking for easily. And Anna has also given me permission to share a couple of the recipes from the book. I'm going to be trying them out my home kitchen and sharing the results with you in some later episodes, so keep an eye open for that in the next coming months. This is a beautiful book, and I think you would be very happy with it if you picked it up, so I'll be sure to include the pre-order link in the show notes and when it is live as well. That link to I'll update it.

Margaret 00:25:49 This book, as far as I know, won't be available on Amazon, which I kind of like that move because sometimes I worry that if we all shop at Amazon too much, it will one day become the only option that we have. And when that day happens, that'll be a sad, sad day indeed. So support your local bookseller. Perhaps you can also order it through your local bookseller. I'm not sure. I'll have to double check with Anne on that one. But Anne, you've written a beautiful book. I'm really excited to share it with the listeners of Bite Me. If you do end up picking up the book, let me know what your favorite recipe is. I think that's it for this week. I'm your host, Margaret. And until next time, my friends stay high.