Vernell Varnado on Panama Red, Vietnam and 60 Years of Weed
From his first joint overlooking San Francisco to “happy smoke” in Vietnam, backyard plants in Inglewood, postal routes, Amsterdam coffeeshops and today’s legal dispensaries, Vernell “Papa Snoop” Varnado has lived through nearly every era of modern American cannabis culture. Vernell Varnado remembers the date he arrived in California. “August 28, 1966,” he says. He had […]
New York to Allow Weed Sales at Farmers Markets, Giving Small Growers a Fighting Chance
New York has expanded access to Cannabis Showcase Events, giving licensed microbusinesses more ways to participate in temporary markets and reach consumers beyond traditional dispensaries. The change creates new opportunities for small operators, although events remain tightly regulated and growers still face the broader challenges of cost, competition, and compliance. Buying vegetables, artisanal cheese, and […]
Rick Ross Doesn’t Want Dispensary Weed
He smokes in boardrooms, but he’s still on that underground frequency. This content originally appeared in the High Times Spring/Summer 2026 print issue. Get yours here. “You’ve taken control of your life when you decide when, where, and what you smoke,” Rick Ross says. Not posturing, not flexing. Just his take on success. A measurement […]
Sharon Stone Reveals Why She Quit Weed: ‘They Put So Much Stuff in It Now’
Sharon Stone says she quit cannabis after years of using it to cope with seizures and other neurological effects of the stroke she suffered in 2001. She now presents both that decision and her efforts to reduce her medications as part of a broader attempt to reclaim control of her life. Sharon Stone had been […]
The Weed I Smuggled in 1974 Kept Showing Up in High Times Centerfolds. It Took Me a Year to Figure Out Why.
This article originally appeared in High Times’ 50th Anniversary print issue. Get yours here. Cannabis movement pioneer Steve DeAngelo on the night the first High Times arrived at Yippie headquarters in 1974, the Colombian Gold and Thai sticks he was smuggling at the time and how the magazine kept publishing pictures of the loads he […]
Texas Built a Weed Market Without Legalizing Weed
Texas still prohibits adult-use marijuana, but hemp legalization, a restricted medical program, and uneven enforcement have created an active market, hiding in plain sight. Texas has not legalized adult-use cannabis. It has, however, spent the past several years creating conditions in which a person can walk by “Free Weed” signs into a store, buy an […]
Watch: In New York, You Can Smoke Weed in Front of a Police Station. The World Cup Just Brought the Whole Planet to Find Out.
Ethan Zohn was diagnosed with cancer in New York and found cannabis there before the state made it legal. He went back for the World Cup and found a city where the rest of the world is discovering you can just walk in and buy it. The World Cup brought the planet to New York. […]
‘It Feels Like 2016 Again’: A Week in Germany Reminded the Weed Industry (and Berner) How to Have Fun
Mary Jane Berlin brought tens of thousands of people into one building and reminded them why they fell for this plant. Then came the other side of Germany’s cannabis story, a pharmaceutical grow so strict it took half an hour of biosecurity just to reach the plants, and a castle where the industry felt like […]
Five Years and $100,000 Later, New York Finally Let Me Sell Weed
After five years, two applications, six figures in expenses, and a maze of shifting rules, one New York cannabis entrepreneur finally secured a retail license—and learned how legalization can still punish the people it was supposed to help. The process to get to this point has been, in a word, farcical. From shifting goalposts to […]
Krayzie Bone Nearly Died, Put the Weed Down, and Found a New Purpose. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony Are Back.
Three years after a ruptured artery in his lung nearly killed him, Krayzie Bone is back with a renewed sense of purpose, a new Bone Thugs-n-Harmony album in the works, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star on the way, and, notably, no weed in his life anymore. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony are one of the only rap […]