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A Tale of Two Fests
Santa Cruz Film Festival and Santa Cruz Comedy Festival share the spotlight in this week’s cover package, with separate stories by Stockton and DNA.
Smoke Circles
Why two puffs, and why pass to the left? Richard Stockton explores the unwritten rules of sharing cannabis and the bonds formed around a smoking circle.
Lightning Struck
Sleepbomb brings a live psychedelic and post-doom score to the 1931 Frankenstein at the Rio Theatre, inviting fresh sympathy for its misunderstood creature.
Cannabis for Sleep?
Richard Stockton gives up cannabis for a week and asks sleep researchers whether weed really helps people sleep—or simply changes how they experience it.
Weed Heaven
Cannabis judge Christopher Carr explores aroma, terroir, legacy genetics and why Santa Cruz home growers may produce some of the world’s finest weed.
From Rockets to Oil Rigs
Richard Stockton traces how SpaceX launches, a new federal review of California’s coastal program and possible offshore oil leasing have converged into a larger fight over who controls California’s coast.
He Said, She Said
Richard Stockton talks with Washington State University psychologist Carrie Cuttler about research into how cannabis may affect men and women differently—from appetite and memory to pain tolerance.
Smoke or Vape?
Smoking remains the classic cannabis ritual, but dry-herb vaporizers may reduce exposure to tar, carbon monoxide and other combustion byproducts. Richard Stockton weighs the pleasures, health concerns and practical tradeoffs.