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Cannabis Sales booming even amid this pandemic

It’s not rocket science,

Big scary invisible virus + Anxious Americans stuck inside = the demand to pay your plugs rent in exchange for weed

Even as restrictions were tight around the world, cannabis sales have surged in places like Oregon.  In April, legal cannabis sales in Oregon exceeded $89 Million which is a record for the state. Thats a sharp increase from 2019, a 45% increase or something like 40 mil! Even Canada was getting a piece of the pie.

Canada has also seen a huge spike in sales during this pandemic. In March like many other Americans, Canadians were “panic-buying” weed. Sales increased by about 17% and  went from $151.9 million (in canada) in February  to $181.1 million (in canada).

Here is a breakdown of the sale from Canada’s 4 most populated cities for all the nerds

-Ontario: 21% to CA$47.3 million.

-Quebec: 29% to CA$37.7 million.

-British Columbia: 12% to CA$23.5 million.

-Alberta: 21% to CA$40.4 million.

Hopefully this shit encourages other states the legalize the damn plant. It seems to be picking up speed in New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota. Legalization could definitely be the catalyst that could get alot of these states out of their coronavirus-related debts.

Virgina decriminalizes cannabis

Virginia becomes the 27th state to decriminalize weed this week. Shoutout to my mans Gov. Ralph Northam. I gotta bring up this photo everytime I hear his name. The Law goes into order on July 1st. The new law allows citizens caught with an ounce or less to be subject to a fine of no more than $25 and no jail time. The law also states that possesion of low amounts of weed won’t go on a person’s criminal record and records relating to arrests, charges, and convictions for marijuana possession will be sealed “except in certain circumstances.” What are the certain circumstances you may ask? I imagine it involves any form of minorities caught with posession of cannabis. I trust Gov. Northam will make the correct decisions just due to the fact of his past.

Sources:

https://www.kgw.com/

First Issue! With my boy Martin mothafuckin Chavez on the cover! CHECK IT OUT

This is more of a pre-Instagram era topic or rather, it actually meant something back then.

An “accidental ABD” is pretty self-explanatory. It’s when two skaters do the same trick at the same spot by accident. It’s a cool concept just because it was much harder to know who did what first just because full-length videos took like 5 fuckin years to make. The principles of ABDs and NBDs remind me of the saying from George Berkley :

“If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?”

the saying is a bit outdated. We are skaters so we obviously don’t give a shit about trees. I would change the saying to

” If a skater gets a clip in the streets and he doesn’t post it to Instagram, did it really happen?”

This type of thing makes you realize how important filmers/ editors and photographers are. Without them, skateboarding would be based on hearsay and myths. Basically, it would be the equivalent of Christianity but instead of Jesus Christ and God and shit, we have Mark Gonzales and Rodney Mullen.

Since everyone knows who’s done what at whatever spot on the planet (or at least California), you don’t see too many accidental ABDs. Another reason could be the fact that the bar has been raised like 100 times over the last few years so people stopped giving a shit about ABDs.

So I decided to give myself a “reason” to watch skate videos and find 10 of my favorite accidental ABDs.

Tony Fergusson- Girl, Mouse and Guy Mariano – Girl, Mouse

Switch Varial Heel

Same trick, same spot, same video, maybe even the same day?!  It kinda looks like Tony’s was done earlier in the day though. What makes it weird is that Tony’s clip is an ender and Guy’s clip is in the middle of the part. Kinda shows how crazy Guy Mariano was back then.

Andrew Reynolds- Baker, Baker 3 and Tony Cervantes- Zero, New Blood

Nollie flip the Hollywood High 12

(S/O to Derrick Gerlach for this one)

First things first, who the fuck is Nollie flipping 12 stairs these days? Hollywood High will always be the spot where any trick done down it is a testament to how far skating has come. Also, it says plenty about how gnarly skating was back in the early 2000s.

Some cool background info about this is that they were apparently done in the same week in 2005! Reynolds did it first but it’s crazy to think that Tony was AM when this came out. Really proving he can hang with the big dogs!

Andrew Reynolds- Baker, Baker 3 and Chris Cole- Zero, New Blood

Bs flip Sw Manual sw 180 out

Reynolds again? This is a weird one to me because it’s a not simple manual trick. Like at all. This is the kinda shit I’m talking about, like how does that happen. I guess when you get two of the best skaters out at the same spots, it’s bound to happen

Mark Suciu- Habitat, Habitat Origin and Ben Gore- Welcome to M.I.A.

Gap to Back lip

This one stood out to me because of how this is another trick that requires finesse and not everyone can make it look good. 2 things Mark Suciu has no problem achieving. Plus that fakie front blunt was letting people know he’s the best.

It’s also pretty cool how they both got double angles

Bobby Puleo- Static 2 and Daniel “Snowy” Kinloch-Landscape, Portraits

Ollie up, Nollie 360

Both of these skaters are probably not on your radar,( unless you are an old head, at that point I would just like to congratulate you on being alive this long) but these clips were too cool to pass up. You have to take into consideration that New York doesn’t really have spots. Their idea of a spot might be a dirty water puddle, a rectangular patch of new asphalt on a street, a trashcan or whatever the hell this is?

Furby- Supra web edit and Tom Asta- Zero, Strange world

Nollie BS Heelflip the Hollywood High 12

Yall remember Furby? Latino Antwan Dixon? I wonder what happened to him?

Anyways, Tom Asta did this one like 5+ years before Tom Asta did it. I wonder if Furby knew that Tom Asta did it. I’d like to think that Furby saw the footage and said “Nah fuck that, hold this clip”

Forrest Edwards- Wild Power and Pricilliano Alvarez- MOOD:

Switch 50-50

I saw this one recently and had to include some local legends. These clips are crazy because only a small percentage of skaters have the chops to do switch front 50s on roundbars.

Chad Tim-Tim- Element, This is my element and Chad Tim-Tim – Dekline, True Blue

Sw Bs 5-0 Sw 360 shove out

Okay okay I know I said accidental but I had to include this one. I like when skaters go back to old spots and outdo themselves. Plus I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sw Bs 5-0 Sw 360 shove ever. Shout out to Tim Chad-Chad

Na-kel Smith and Christian Henry- Transworld Checkout

BS Tail Shuv-it

This post kinda made me want to write this article. Na-kel really didn’t know that someone else did it. Now it’s kinda crazy because since so much fucking footage comes out every week, it’s almost like it didn’t happen! I didn’t even know Christian Henry did it, and I don’t really think anyone did.

Shareef Grady and Clint Walker- Birdhouse, Saturdays

Ollie the Wilshire 15 over the barriers

This one was a pretty recent accidental ABD. And I decided to save it for last because of how it really depicts the state of skateboarding. These days you can not be holding on to footage at famous spots for more than a year and a half if you still want it to be relevant. Shit like this will happen. No one even knew that Clint Walker did it first(and apparently had a thrasher cover lined up for it). And Walker was bitchin about it to as if that type of shit doesn’t happen. He was just mad because Shareef’s was cooler anyways.

Remember everyone is good these days and will upload anything to instagram

Comment any Accidental ABDs that I may have missed or confessionals or missed connections ads……

S/O to my guy Fredward for the illustration. Check out his NSFW( or SFW depending where you work I guess) illustrations and his clips on his IG @notmuchelsetodo

Active Ride shop becomes inactive and has closed its doors last month. For most of the skate community their closing may have come as a shock, a slap in the face almost.  There had been rumors going around for about a year prior but it was all speculation. I assumed it was because they couldn’t sell all of the pickle rick merch from last year or possibly too many insta-baddies who don’t know what thunder trucks are (lookin at you Redlands).

I decided to ask some of the homies active Redlands and see what they had to say about it..

Casey Frey

My first question would be what was your position at active and how long have you been working there?

I was a store manager for Redlands and Rancho for about 5 and a half years.

So how exactly did the company go out of business? I heard something about a bad loan.

Our company’s financial records have not been the greatest in recent years. Online shopping is making it increasingly difficult for all retailers to keep their doors open. Our new CEO was supposed to lead us to a stable business but failed incredibly bad. Active will be auctioned off Jan. 25th (I believe) to hopefully be purchased by anyone else besides our CEO.

So do you think that the company could possibly come back?

There is a small possibility. Not under the current CEO. Hopefully, there’s a couple of old Active heads trying to lift it up again and outbid the Jon (current ceo)

How was the last day?

The last day was terrible. 1st time in my life I ever had to do it. They only gave us a 3-day notice so we didn’t have time to plan much. But I have to say we had a fuckkn rager one of the nights and if you were there you won’t ever forget it haha

And what do you think shops can do to stay afloat even when a chain like active closes down?

Not sell to a fuckin corporation that has nothing to do with the skate industry. Active blew it when we let these shitty investors start taking over. And trust me when I say no one wanted it besides a select few. Skate shops need to stick to core skateboarding. That’s it. If you support the industry, you’ll have the support of the people in it. There are only a select few shops that are doing it right and I back it.

Amazing Advice! Which shop do you think is killing it rn?
Programme is one of the rarest shops out there. Straight skate and Records. They have crazy ass shows in their store and it’s always been a personal favorite of mine. That’s what the core skate culture used to be.. fuck all this hype brand bullshit and looking like a pretty boy.. kids are too worried about making skatepark edits while wearing some Gucci shit and supporting brands that don’t support skateboarding..

Did the Heineken board have anything to do with the company going bankrupt in the past?

Naw the Heineken board was just a play off graphic. Active’s done a bunch of quick release graphics that have actually done pretty well.

Did you have anything planned for another job?

Right now I’m just taking it one day at a time. Skating, drinking, writing music and drawing. All these things have been my passion for years, I finally have time to do all of them so I’m embracing it. But I have been thinking about the next step.. and that might be opening up my own shop. We’ll just have to wait and see tho.

In addition I wanted to get some more intel from the shop workers and shop riders perspective, the people that gave the shop it’s “cool” vibe that almost made it feel like real skateshop. Josh Thrower gave me the rundown of what been going on the last few months.

It’s sad to see a company with that many loyal workers and even more loyal customers just sell the fuck out and shit on their whole community. Now I wasn’t the biggest fan of active but I have made so many memories over the years. I remember the time I broke my truck skating to work( fuck ventures) and I had to get a new set of trucks and the active shop worker helped me put on trucks asap and I was able to make it to work only a few mins late. Or the time I got high as shit and watched skate videos in the Rancho shop for hours with some of the skaters I looked up to. There was also the time at the Active X Skate Mental/3D demo when Brian Anderson(before I knew who he was) shoulder checked me but made sure I was good. Trevor Colden even gave me some props for landing a trick that day. Shit like that is memorable and stays with you forever.

All I can say is Rhythm Skateshop is open, go buy all your shit from there, support your local shops and I hope you guys used all of you active bucks!

I decided to have some people say a few words

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It looks like Pennsylvania is making some noise in the industry with its new senate bill to legalize cannabis recreationally. If legalized PA would become the 11th state to fully legalize cannabis. Introduced by Sen. Sharif Street (D-Philly) and Sen, Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery) the bill has been dubbed as the “gold standard” legalization bill for the free world. The issue was so important that Governor Tom Wolf and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman(who looks like the character “Luther” that Kegan-Micheal Key portrayed at the 2015 White House correspondents dinner) hosted a 3-month state-wide listening tour to personally gather information on whether Pennsylvanians are ready for legalization.

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Some of the main pieces of this bill are;  immediate expungement of all cannabis-related convictions, allowing for cannabis lounges in the state and a mass improvement on Home-grow laws.

DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200

Now before you get all happy and start smoking your dirt weed in public, you should know that Pennslyvania is still CONSIDERING legalization. So there are still some hurdles to get over before it gets voted into law. Even though Gov. Tom Wolf says he is in favor of legalizing cannabis, there is no support coming from the Republican lawmakers (no surprise there). The Republicans are not only worried about the safety of their baby lungs, they are also afraid of what legalization may do to their 2nd Amendment rights.

Since cannabis is still a federally scheduled narcotic it means that it is illegal to have weed and protect it with a firearm. In the first-ever hearing on recreational cannabis in PA, the conversation was mostly about the rights of every gun owner in the state. I mean sure 66% of the city supports legalization but you won’t be silencing the 27% of Pennsylvanians that are packing heat. Let us not forget, this is the same state with the “rod of iron church”. You know, the church where everyone just wears bullet crowns and have their AR-15s out during prayer. If a church in PA gives couples the opportunity to just “accidentally” shoot their spouse at their own wedding vow renewal, I doubt, they will be changing gun laws anytime soon. So unfortunately many Pennslyvanians have to choose between the two.

What do you mean only 7 grams?

Another issue that PA is currently dealing with is the medical marijuana drought that has been happening since July.  Even though there is are a growing number of medical patients, there seems to be a shortage of cannabis due to there only being 10 licensed cultivators in the whole state.

As if that wasn’t already bad, the regulation process is a bitch. It’s very time consuming and it doesn’t keep up with the demand of the new market. Luckily, the Department of Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine says that it’s a goal in the future to increase the number of growers/processors in the state. Until that happens, dispensaries in cities like Philadelphia have been forced to ration their supply (like it’s 1918) and have been restricting medical patients to 7 grams up to 14 grams if it is even available.

Every Narc’s wet dream

Another issue I have to mention is the Weed breathalyzer, every Narc’s wet dream. Some haters at the University of Pittsbittsburgh created a prototype recently and the damn thing works just like a regular breathalyzer but now it also checks for THC residue from your mouth. The good news is that it has a long way before it can become a reliable tool for local police and your average construction site managers. Unlike Alcohol, there isn’t an accurate way to detect the level of how fucking “smacked” you are. There isn’t even an agreed-upon blood thc concentration limit so it, unfortunately, makes the rules arbitrary and leaves room for bias and unlawful convictions based on the fact that you still have THC in your system. I’m sure as more research is done, we will actually have an accurate THC breathalyzer and I’m sure I’ll be getting a DUI sometime afterward.

I’m sure this would put republicans on the fence with passing marijuana laws. Just for the simple fact that legalizing cannabis laws will likely add more high drivers on their roads but they would finally have a tool that can detect if someone is driving under the influence.

These pressing issues alone may set back Pennsylvania’s plan to quickly pass Marijuana legalization laws. However, the state still does have a chance next year with the elections because the whole state’s house of representatives will be up for grabs, as well as half of the senate seats. If they were to win a majority in both, they have a better chance of passing legalization laws in 2020.

What is in the bill?

Sources:

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Pennlive.com

Merry Jane.com

The Pennsylvania Capital Star

Washington Post