HSU: where you can roll a (fake) fatty in class and no one bats an eye
To prepare for the greatest holiday in Humboldt County, we asked Humboldt State University students to roll their best joint… without actual ganja for legal purposes.
Tag: 4/20
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4/20 at HPRC
Article by Juan Herrera
Video by Juan Herrera and Chelsea Medlock
Right when you enter, the strong aroma of medicinal marijuana hits your nostrils so hard you can almost taste it. Over twelve different strains clog your nose of smelly cannabis and yummy edibles. Humboldt Patient Resource Center, also know as HPRC, has been serving Humboldt county for over 15 years.
Michelle Sealy, a bud-tender at HPRC, discusses the patients most preferred cannabis offered.
“Gorilla Glue #4, Girl Scout Cookie, and Titan OG are the winners of the people,” Sealy said.
Girl Scout Cookie at HPRC. | Juan Herrera Sealy also talks about concentrates and edibles that all their patients love.
“When it comes to concentrates our customers love the live resin by Mr. Nice Guys, or any of the Sour Extract $30 grams,” Sealy said. “As far as edibles, the KIVA bars are a huge hit as well as the smaller size called KIVA bites.”
Sealy explained how each KIVA bar has 100 milligrams of THC, the mind-altering substance in marijuana, compared to 5 milligrams for the bites. According to Ricardo Baca, an author for the marijuana publication The Cannabist, the average dose for a person is 10 milligrams.
Another budtender from HPRC, Mark Moore, talked about the exciting plans their clinic has for the special day of April 20.
“To start off this exciting holiday we will be giving out 420 goodie bags full of different cannabis strains and edibles from the different vendors we use,” Moore said. “There will also be many special deals the clinic is offering as well as live music playing.”
HPRC lighter and matches. | Juan Herrera Moore goes on to mention how HPRC will also be hosting a delicious barbecue for their patients and also to the community at their location on the corner of 6th and J street in Arcata.
Caeden Williams, a new worker at HPRC, discussed the changes they have seen in patients since the medicinal marijuana laws have passed.
“There has been a lot of anxiety in the air with the new change of what the outcome or end will be,” Williams said. “A lot of patients are scared that the prices are going to skyrocket, while others are anxious to see how far this industry will go.”
Williams explains how as a new employee he is excited to adapt with the new change, but also nervous to see how it will play out.
Moore had one last thing to say the patients of HPRC.
“We are here to fulfill the needs of everyone, from new patients to old ones, we have what you need,” Moore said.
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Cannifest Manifests Happiness
Humboldt County’s Cannifest brought local cannabis culture to Redwood Acres Fairground on April 15 & 16
Reporting by Ali Osgood
Photos by Marcos Villarreal and Devyn Session
Visitors check out local vendors in Area 215 at Cannifest. Area 215 required a medical card for admission and featured local cannabis growers products available for sampling, purchasing, and inspection. | Photo by Marcos Villarreal 
A visitor inspects a bud. Visitors with medical marijuana cards were able to enter Area 215 where a wide variety of harvested cannabis was on display. Cannifest also hosted medical consultants so that visitors without cards could apply for one and be admitted to Area 215 to check out the local goods. | Photo by Devyn Sessions 
Stephen Gieder, Cannifest organizer and “ideas man” spent the two day festival hosting the Humboldt Grow Games. “This is my favorite part. I love being apart of it!” Gieder said. | Photo by Marcos Villarreal 
A team carries bags of soil through the obstacle course during the Humboldt Grow Games. The six teams competed in a variety of activities from repotting plants to setting up an irrigation system. | Photo by Marcos Villarreal 
Team The Sungrowers pull a 150 gallon pot of soil 65 feet during the Humboldt Grow Games. Six different teams competed for the fastest overall time. The Sungrowers walked away with first place on Sunday, April 16. | Photo by Marcos Villarreal 
A variety of strains of marijuana are lined up for visitors to inspect. Cannifest attendees holding medical marijuana cards were able to vote on their favorite strains featured throughout the weekend. | Photo by Marcos Villarreal 
Cannifest hosted over 23 musical acts with four different stages and a silent disco. Headliners included Prezident Brown, The Polish Ambassador, Sassafras Belly Dancers and local bands including the Dubbadubs and Kingfoot. | Photo by Marcos Villarreal 
The Sungrowers receive their trophy on Sunday afternoon after winning the Humboldt Grow Games. Cannifest held the Cannifest Bowl, a competition for the best buds at the event, as well as awards for best live art and best glass. | Photo by Marcos Villarreal -
Women in Weed
Cannabis industry take over
By|Megan McDaniel
It’s not just about blunts and babes when it comes to women in the cannabis industry. It’s about hard work, courage, strength, and determination of working in a field dominated by men. Surprisingly there are multiple cannabis companies in Humboldt County ran by women, who grow, harvest, and cultivate, all by themselves.
It’s not easy to identify a woman grower since most of them don’t drive around in lifted trucks and flaunt their wealth. Instead most of them are everyday moms who have a special green thumb. The cannabis industry isn’t for every woman. The industry mostly operates on the black market which means pay is under the table and one may never know when it’s going to come and if it’s going to be the correct amount owed.
There are many cases that aren’t talked about where woman have been kidnaped, sexually assaulted, and even killed when they thought they were just going to trim in the hills. Brandie Wilson, co-founder of Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction which focuses on reducing harm through education and advocacy. Wilson also created Harm Hill Reduction to teach people how to be safe when working in the hills. This program gives tips like ask what the drug and alcohol policy is on the hill, bring friends, drive yourself, and tell someone in town where you are. People don’t realize the real risks they take going to an unfamiliar hill.
The misconception that women are only trimers in the industry is not true. Companies like Space Gem Candy, Sarkara Cannabis Confections, Honeydew farms, Arcana Delights, and Humboldt Harvest are examples of companies owned and created by women. These women are healers focused around providing clean medicine for all their patients. Most of these companies hire women to help package, design, and distribute which keeps the local economy flowing. Woman get disrespected and not taken seriously in the industry which needs to stop. They have proved that they are strong and smart enough to work in the fields.
Humboldt County even has it’s own Women’s Cultivating Community, “Women helping women, working together with the love for the cannabis plant to heal the community.” The group has been together since 2015, and has expanded ever since. One of their supporters and promoters is our local dispensary Humboldt Patient Resource Center. The cannabis industry wouldn’t be where it is today if it weren’t for the females in our community.
Woman make up a huge part of the cannabis industry which shouldn’t be taken for granted. So before you hire a woman to work for you remember she’s human too and has bills to pay.
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HSU cultivation
More than a 4/20 education
By | The Lumberjack Editorial Board
What is the first words that come to mind when you think of Humboldt State University? While it should be environmentally-conscience, often HSU is associated with marijuana culture.
Don’t let this issue’s dedication to 4/20, the nationally celebrated marijuana day, fool you. Although Humboldt county is a main hub of cannabis production, HSU isn’t as accepting of marijuana culture as our reputation suggests.HSU may not actively promote this image — But HSU doesn’t do a thing to stop it either. Students come here thinking that the cannabis culture of Humboldt County will extend to HSU’s campus. Students are shocked when they get fined, suspended or even expelled for possession of cannabis.
Sure the HSU Student Rights and Responsibilities policy states that under federal law the sale or possession of marijuana are felonies carrying prison terms of seven years or more, but hey… HSU is located in the Emerald Triangle- the largest cannabis-producing region in the U.S. HSU collects on the persona of an accepting weed culture; a culture that attracts new students.
HSU’s conflicting views on marijuana was witnessed with the treatment of Christina DeGiovanni, a former HSU student and founder of Emerald magazine. In 2012, DeGiovanni was arrested for possession of marijuana sales, and being armed in the commission of a felony.De Giovanni states in her first letter from the editor that the negative and ostracizing treatment she faced from HSU and the community during her trials encouraged her to start the magazine that embraces the stereotypes associated with cannabis users.
Not all look to weed culture as positively as Humboldt residents. Critics reject HSU as a serious academic university because of the casually flaunted 4/20 culture. While we are known for our Green initiatives, we are still mocked for being influenced by the marijuana industry that throttles Humboldt County.
If we want to be taken more seriously as a top University to potential students, we have to do more to address the stereotype that HSU is only about the weed. It attracts students to an area where they feel they will be welcomed into the throws of Humboldt Counties cannabis culture, often a risky and even dangerous endeavour.Yes, Humboldt County heavily thrives on the Marijuana industry but HSU is more than just a community of growers, trimmigrants, and stoners. It is irresponsible and flat wrong for a university to benefit from a generalization about its campus, while simultaneously ignoring and demonizing that generalization. Weed: Either love it or hate it HSU.
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HSU’s 4/20 Fame
Exaggerating stereotypes of Humboldt and it’s cannabis culture
By|Domanique Crawford
“Are you going to Humboldt just so you can smoke weed?”
My friend- who for none-embarrassment purposes we will just call Jane- asked me when I announced what school I was transferring to.
Jane’s reaction wasn’t surprising or even uncommon. Anyone I mentioned my school choice to immediately connected HSU with the thriving cannabis industry in Humboldt County. This became an annoying phenomenon, to say the least.
Some people where even scandalized by my choice of schools, and would jokingly [I’m pretty sure] say that I had to be careful or else I will stumble across a weed farm in the Redwood forest and get shot. My friends and family members, had dramatic interpretations of the HSU student and community lifestyle assuming that anyone in the county is either involved in the weed industry or is a pothead.
Before I started to attend, I carried some of those crazy misconceptions about HSU being all about cannabis with me. Outside of Humboldt County smoking marijuana was this taboo thing that you did behind closed doors. I was a little ashamed to mention that I was attending HSU just because of all of the stoner stereotypes that captivate HSU image and the quickness people immediately associated HSU to marijuana.
I don’t know if it’s because of the 21 century’s obsession with legalizing weed, or the fact that HSU is within the Emerald Triangle, but HSU’s 420 friendly attitude pushes to pass the university’s green initiatives and its well-celebrated environmental science programs. People were not interested to hear that I was attending HSU because of its affordability and I respect the strong student force of social activism. Everyone felt the need to reduce HSU cannabis industry that surrounds HSU and not on what makes HSU a great university.
Being inside of the Humboldt community brings on a new understanding of the marijuana industry located here. Residency of the community isn’t only a collection of people consumed with running marijuana organizations. In fact, marijuana is medicinal staple product, like talking about aspirin.
Despite what people may believe, the county isn’t overrun with homeless stoners trying to sell weed. The industry is taken very seriously and enacted in a professional manner. You have to get a doctor’s recommendation and everything.
There is the occasional trimmigrant who will stop you on the street to ask you if you want to buy marijuana, but a simple no will have them moving on their way. Students shouldn’t feel ashamed of attending HSU and when someone attempts to reduce our university to nothing but cannabis culture, correct them with whatever motivates you to attend HSU.