Pride Month at Gorge Greenery!

Gorge Greenery is LGBTQIA2S+ friendly!

In celebration of Pride Month, we have created three custom Gorge Greenery pride hats celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community. Gorge Greenery will be donating all profits of our pride hat sales to the Columbia Gorge Pride Alliance. The Columbia Gorge Pride Alliance is a local Hood River Oregon non-profit program. Donations collected will go towards, but not limited to, gender affirming clothing, youth services and programs. These proceeds cover the areas all throughout the Columbia River Gorge including Hood River, The Dalles, White Salmon and Bingen Washington.

Help show your support for our LGBTQIA2S+ community members.

"When all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free." - President Barack Obama

What does LGBTQIA2S+ mean?

LGTBQIA2S+ is an acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and/or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Two-Spirit, and the countless affirmative ways in which people choose to self-identify.

Why Gorge Greenery? We're not your average dispensary

In November of 2014, Oregon voters approved of Measure 91, allowing recreational sales of marijuana. Ever since that date, the Green Rush came to Oregon. It brings with it a swath of new and bustling industry where there was only black market and shady dealings before. Now, in 2017, cannabis dispensaries can be found in almost every corner of the state. There are 167 dispensaries in the city of Portland alone. This now begs the question: what's the difference between these shops anyway? What sets one cannabis dispensary apart from the other? How important is it that I choose the right shop?

When consuming cannabis, it's important to know where the product came from, more so if its the right choice of strain or edible for you. Many dispensaries out there pay this important detail no mind, and simply want to sell you marijuana. It's a brave new world out there, and we here at Gorge Greenery™ make customer service our mission, as well as being a standout, high-quality dispensary. Here's what sets us apart from the rest.

Budtender Knowledge

Our budtenders have years of knowledge when it comes to all things cannabis. Its important to choose a knowledgeable budtender when choosing the cannabis product that is right for you. Top Gorge Greenery™ budtenders have received level 2 certification from the Trichrome Institute in Colorado. The Trichrome Institute educates with a scientific approach and coaches our staff to identify strains of cannabis by look and smell alone. The Trichrome Institute also educates attendees on how to identify inconsistences and deficiencies in cannabis. By taking this course, our staff can guarantee only top quality and organic products are on our shelves.

Sourcing Products

At Gorge Greenery, we stand behind our products. We take the time to learn more about the Oregon growers and producers with the intention of selling flower, concentrates, edibles and other cannabis derived products. We only accept the highest quality products.  To achieve this, we strictly adhere to the following:

• We ensure all flower is grown without use of pesticides, herbicides or fungicides and cultivated using natural and organic practices. We tour every farm that is featured on our menu.
• Our concentrates and vaporizer cartridges are pure. No glycol, no butane, no additives, no artificial flavors.
• Quality edibles from talented bakers, confectionists, and chocolatiers.
• Effective and relieving topicals from skilled processors.

Sourcing our products is extremely important. The Cannabis industry is a bustling and growing industry.  By taking the initiative to visit each and every farm and producer that we carry, we are preventing low-quality or unsound products from reaching the shelves. This extra step is a part of our promise to protect the consumer and provide the highest quality products.

Sustainability

We strive to achieve sustainable practices at the Greenery. We package all flower in-house using glass jars, which can be returned using a sustainable, eco-friendly reward program. We are strong advocates for reducing plastic waste and more sustainable practices industry wide. We are the only certified dispensary that is licensed to handle organic products in the Columbia Gorge. Our staff and dispensary is certified by Clean Green and Certified Kind foundations whom are working towards recognizing and promoting clean, organic cannabis.

Locally Owned and Operated

We are as local as it gets here in The Gorge! All of our staff has been drawn to the Columbia River Gorge with the passion for adventure and cannabis. We love the lives we live in this beautiful area. We are proud to be a locally owned business that promotes exploration and enjoyment of the Columbia River Gorge to locals and tourists alike

4/20 at Gorge Greenery

It's the day of the year we've all been waiting for. April 20th (4/20), the official marijuana holiday, is nearly upon us!

The counter-culture holiday takes its roots from the "official" time of the day cannabis lovers gather and smoke with one another: 4:20 pm. Many different urban legends tell us origin stories of why this time in particular was chosen; some say it was the police code number for marijuana use, though the most accepted story of origin refers to a group of friends, the "Waldos", who had a set meeting time of 4:20 pm to gather together and search for a hidden marijuana crop. 4:20 pm has since become the de-facto marijuana smoking time for cannabis lovers across the world.

It was only a matter of time before April 20th became a holiday in and of itself. When the calendar strikes 4/20, marijuana enthusiasts rejoice and dedicate the entire day to the plant they know and love.

Gorge Greenery™ will be doing the same. On Thursday, April 20th, the Greenery will have sales all day long. Here are just some of the specials we will be offering:

• Clean Green Certified grams starting at $5
• $4 Pre-rolls from Otis Gardens and sofresh farms (Clean Green Certified Grower)
• $20 dab specials from Dab Society
• Edible specials from Peak Extracts
• Giveaways and GG swag all day

Come and join us for our favorite day of the year. And remember: always pass it to the left.

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Life with plastics, and how to move away from it

Plastics have transformed our world. They revolutionized manufacturing. They triggered an explosion of economic development. Plastics helped with the advancements in technology and medicine that reached every corner of the globe. Plastics helped make the world what it is today. Without them, modern life would not be the same.

But at what cost?

We have a plastic use for just about everything. It’s used to preserve our fruits and vegetables, it makes for convenient and disposable carry-out bags, and even the keys on this keyboard are made of plastic. Hospitals were modernized with plastics, creating cheaper medical necessities such as syringes and sterile bandages. Many modern automobiles have plastic chassis. There is no doubt that plastics have provided countless uses and advantages to living comfortably in this world, but at what point does it become wasteful and harmful?

Plastic’s positive trait is also its negative: it lasts virtually forever. Plastic products can take, on average, 450-1000 years to biodegrade, and this leads to a buildup. The more plastic you make and use, the more of it, inevitably, ends up in the environment, and that’s where the most damage is truly done. “Single use” plastic products have the most lasting and damaging effect on the environment. Things such as plastic bags, plastic utensils and cups, plastic and Styrofoam takeaway containers, and plastic bottles serve only as a single use item before they are disposed of. This results in a high amount of waste generation, and is often completely unnecessary.

Take a look at this article out of the South China Morning Post. Hong Kong locals are lamenting over the excessive amount of trash that is washing up on their beaches. A local videographer points out that much of this waste comes from excessive packaging.

Do you see any similar patterns in our grocery store with the repacking of bulk fruits and vegetables?

Single use plastic cling wrap. Single use styrofoam trays. Why not chop your veggies at home?

This is an unnecessary and wasteful amount of plastic packaging. And while packaging products for transport and a prolonged shelf life does make sense in terms of preserving the product, there is such a thing as too much packaging. Chopping up vegetables and sticking them in yet another plastic package as a means of selling a product is an unnecessary waste. Why are we repackaging bulk fruits and veggies to entice the consumer to purchase? At what point do we stop putting profits ahead of generating avoidable waste? Do we have to sacrifice profits to prevent generating new waste?

The art of reusing and repurposing plastics is a growing trend. Again, the buildup of plastics continues and landfills are reaching capacity with plastics. They inevitably spill over into our environment, thus polluting it. Marine life is often poisoned, stunted or killed by plastic products. Public lands grow more polluted with plastics every day. All of this pollution creates incentive to curb it and roll it back, and when large organizations get behind this movement, much can be achieved. Take Ikea, for example.

Ikea is pioneering a new movement of recycling plastics and completely repurposing them, in this case for furniture, cupboards and countertops. If there is an abundance of a resource that isn’t going anywhere for a millennium, why not use it? This sort of environmentally friendly business practice makes a measurable difference in the world. Ikea also announced that it sent zero waste to landfill across all of its UK and Ireland facilities in 2016, achieving a 90% recycling rate in the process.

Ultimately, the best way to reduce plastic trash in the short term is ending the use of unsustainable single-use plastics entirely. One of the most harmful and common forms of plastic waste are plastic bags that you find at large retail outlets or grocers, and people are pushing for a complete plastic bag ban. The state of California voted to approve Proposition 67, enforcing a statewide ban on carry-out plastic bags. There is a similar sentiment in our own town of Hood River. On March 1st, all retailers with more than 50 employees (Walmart, Safeway, Roseauers) are now prohibited from using plastic bags, and retailers with less than 50 employees have until July 1st to comply with the new city ordinance. Here at Gorge Greenery, we package all of our cannabis in reusable glass jars and use reusable fabric exit bags.

Plastics aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. However, we can curb some of the adverse impacts, and even reduce the negative impact it has on our environment. All it takes is a little effort in reducing personal use, and some creative thinking to repurpose waste that is already here to stay. It can be done, we just have to change a few comfortable habits!

Test Results anyone? THC, THCA, Formula...

States that have legalized in cannabis require testing for potency and contaminants in cannabis, and lab-testing cannabis is quickly becoming an important part of the industry. The tests for pesticides, mold, contamination, etc. don’t require any new or special analytical techniques and are part of standard practice for other agricultural products as well. With the right lab equipment, chemists can measure cannabinoids to a certain degree of precision if they do it right, but the lack of a standardized way of looking at the data has everyone confused.

The subject of this issue is Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), which occurs naturally in the plant. THCA needs to be heated so it changes into THC, the active form that gets you high. All cannabinoids occur naturally in their acid forms, that’s just how their enzymes make them. The difference between THCA and THC is a carboxy group. Upon smoking, cooking or vaping heat gets rid of the carboxy so THCA gives of CO2, losing about 12% of its weight in the process. Why does this matter for lab testing? Because THCA is heavier than THC, and lab results are given in percent mass.

The root of the confusion is the fact that different lab techniques give inherently different potency values. Depending on the lab, the analysis machine might use one of two separation methods: gas chromatography (GC) or liquid chromatography (LC).

GC happens at high temperatures, enough to completely decarboxylate all the cannabinoids in the mixture. The oven it happens in decarboxylates THCA before passing on to the detector, so it only picks up THC. This makes GC almost useless for testing edibles, because you need to be able to tell the difference between orally inactive THCA and active THC. Furthermore, decarboxylation happens incompletely at those high temperatures in the injector port, conserving no more than 70% of THCA, according to one study.

Liquid chromatography happens at room temperature and does not decarboxylate any cannabinoids, giving separate values for THCA and THC, which are always both present. These results need to be interpreted correctly, and hold hidden information about how the sample was handled and temperatures it has been exposed to.

Let’s look at an example. Given one lab result you could get three THC potency readings depending on how you read it, but only one method really stands to reason. Consider a made up lab result of Hypothetical OG that used LC, say it has 22.32% percent mass of THCA and 2.41% percent mass THC (active THC).

If you just look at the THCA value, you might think it has 22.32% THC. If you add the THC value to that, you might think this strain has 24.74% THC. Neither of these values is correct.

To get a real potency value you need to consider both THCA and THC, but with a correction factor for THCA before you add in THC. To calculate THCTOTAL:

THCtotal = (%THCA) x 0.877 + (%THC)

0.877 is the molecular mass (mm) of THC divided by that of THCA; this factor boils it down to a simple formula: take 87.7% of the value for THCA, then add on the value for THC. This formula also holds true for finding the active CBD content (CBD TOTAL) because CBD and THC have the exact same mm. Therefore the correct value of THC TOTAL for Hypothetical OG is 21.98%, the weighted average of THCA and THC.

To get a real measure of the potency of a strain of pot, you need to look at THC TOTAL. This is because the relative amounts of THCA and THC depend on the amount of heat the flower, dry bud or extract has been exposed to. Since this is always different, lab testing needs to see past this variable.

Since GC doesn’t work for edibles, many labs are switching to LC to test for edibles. If you know you’re looking at a lab test that used LC, you’ll need to use this formula to get a consistent value of THC TOTAL.

When looking at lab results, make sure to take this into consideration. Be suspicious of lab results that just give you one number for %THC. If the lab used GC, you won’t have this issue at all. The %THC given from a GC machine roughly reflects THC TOTAL.

Read the original article from High Times HERE.

Clean Green Certified!

We are now Clean Green Certified!!

Here at Gorge Greenery we never stop striving for the best, and are one of the few Clean Green Certified Dispensaries. From sustainable labels and packaging, reclaimed wood and recycled furnishing, to Clean Green Certified cannabis and gardens with extended pesticide screening, we are always striving to protect consumers as well as our environment.

Clean Green Certified is the number one certifier nation-wide for cannabis cultivated using sustainable, natural organically-based and biodynamic practices. Legally, marijuana cannot be called organic — no matter how environmentally friendly the cultivation practices used to grow it — because the term is federally regulated and the USDA does not recognize cannabis as a legitimate agricultural crop. The Clean Green Certified program was created in 2004 as a way to regulate legal cannabis-products that called themselves "organic." Consumers can rest assured when they buy a Clean Green Certified cannabis product that it has met all of the requirements of the rigorous program.

Modeled on national and international sustainability,  organic and biodynamic program standards, the Clean Green program requires on-site inspections. Clean Green Certified goes further that the USDA organic in some areas, requiring more strict regulations on pesticide testing for all operators and each cannabis operation must put into place a carbon footprint reduction plan, water conservation measures and fair labor practices.

Clean Green Certified has a certification specifically for cannabis processors and handlers. Whether it be a store-front or a cannabis concentrate company, certification audits the processor/handler's ability to keep Clean Green cannabis separate from cannabis grown conventionally. A consumer can have greater confidence when buying cannabis or a cannabis product from a Clean Green Certified outlet that it was grown fair-trade and sustainably, without the use of synthetic pesticides. 

Check out the Clean Green website here: www.cleangreencert.org

Have you tried our Inyanga Tinctures?

We carry Inyanga's THC Tincture, CBD 3:1 Tincture, and CBD 9:1 Tincture. These tinctures are oil based for those who don’t want to consume alcohol. We use an organic extra virgin olive oil and a coconut oil blend and add essential oils for healing power and taste. Our organic cannabis adds cannabinoids and terpenes for cell repair, anti- inflammation and pain relief with peppermint flavor.

In-yãn-ga from the zulu word “nyanga”, is a shaman or witchdoctor that heals primarily with plants and animals.

Inyãnga Farms is nestled in the lush pine forests of Central Oregon. Our 40 acre farm is surrounded by nature and far from the hussle and bussle of the city and it’s pollutants. Our plants breathe clean, pine scented air that is cleansed by the fresh Oregon rain.

All of our plants are grown in humus rich soil rather than hydroponically. I feel that the soil adds flavor and aroma that you just don’t get with hydroponics. Our soil is alive with beneficial microbes, organic matter and composted manure and our plants just love it. It shows in their strong branches, nice green leaves and huge, crystally, flavor-filled buds. We only use organic fertilizers and pesticides on our marijuana and this is evident in the test results we receive from the labs that test our cannabis. When you buy our cannabis products you can rest assured that you are getting extremely high quality, pesticide free marijuana that we use ourselves and also supply to friends and family. Our products are clean and only contain what is on the label, no coloring or additives. Satisfaction guaranteed!

Inyãnga Farms specializes in organic  high CBD Cannabis concentrates which are currently available in medical marijuana dispensaries in Oregon.

This site is also an information center for learning more about cannabis and all of its amazing properties, please visit our blog for interesting stories and tidbits on the cannabis world.

Here is a great testimonial about their product:

"I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer when I was 21 and my entire thyroid was removed followed by radiation. In early 2016 (ten years after my initial diagnosis), doctors found a nodule where my thyroid had been removed and lab work showed an elevated tumor marker hormone level. Thyroid cancer has a high recurrence rate and it looked like the cancer might have come back. The nodule was too small to biopsy to know for sure, so my doctors opted to wait 3 months then check again for any growth or changes.

Several months prior I had also started experiencing severe abdominal pains, lower back pain, nausea and lack of appetite. My doctors were also exploring possibilities of Crohn's Disease, IBD, and endometriosis.

I've suffered from migraines since I was 6 years old and last year started using Inyanga Farms CBD Tincture for really brutal migraines which were occurring a few times a month every month. The CBD tincture is a powerful elixir when I need to crawl into a dark room and knock out the pain and nausea, but isn't practical for me for functional day time use. A few months ago, I started using Inyanga Farms CBD Max 9:1 Tincture during the day for abdominal and gastrointestinal pain and nausea on a daily basis. In addition to ameliorating the abdominal pain and suppressing my nausea, I was also migraine free for 3 months. But the most exciting effect of the CBD Max is that I recently had my thyroid cancer check-up and the nodule was gone and the tumor marker hormone level was undetectable!

I'm sure my doctor won't say for certain that the CBD tincture contributed to the disappearance of the nodule and lowering the tumor marker hormone levels, but I can say for certain that Inyanga Farms' CBD line has positively changed my life. A friend of mine also recently found a nodule in her thyroid and I will be sharing this medicine with her. I can't recommend Inyanga Farms' medicine more highly and their CBD tinctures are must haves in my daily health regimen. Thank you Inyanga Farms for making this medicine and sharing it with Oregon!"

Learn more about Inyanga on their website: http://inyangafarms.com/

Why we need to rebrand the term "HIGH"

“My patients need that THC; they don’t really get a lot of benefit from CBD-only products,” says Bryan Krumm, a psychiatric nurse practitioner who currently works with about one thousand PTSD patients in New Mexico.

He has seen whole-plant cannabis heal all types of patients throughout 25 years in the psychiatry field. He has seen it relieve struggles with PTSD (including his own), as well as other psychiatric woes such as depression and addiction.

“There’s nothing wrong with that psychoactive effect,” he says. “People opposed to cannabis complain that this is a euphoriant and that it makes you high. But that’s what we do in psychiatry. We try to induce euphoria, to lift people’s moods. We don’t want people to be down and low and depressed.”

The difference between Krumm and a lot of other psychiatrists is this: he refuses to ever prescribe another pharmaceutical.

His only exception is the FDA-approved Marinol, a synthetic version of THC developed in the 1980s. A lot of cannabis physicians and practitioners frown upon Marinol because of negative studies and because whole-plant cannabis seems to be more therapeutic with its additional 100+ cannabinoids and multitude of terpene profiles.

But Krumm prescribes Marinol to certain patients when they travel out-of-state to places where cannabis remains prohibited. And some of his patients, contrary to what the studies tell us, actually prefer it to whole-plant medication.

By talking and listening to so many patients, Krumm has discovered that a lot of the studies out there are inaccurate.

In general, the term “high” is supposed to have good connotations, Krumm says.

“If you do the right thing morally and ethically, you’re said to be taking the high road. When we want to get smarter we pursue higher education. We set out to improve ourselves and lift ourselves, and we try to raise ourselves up out of poverty.”

But, like with so many other things applied to cannabis, the idea of getting high immediately gets a negative connotation, he says. “We need to change our understanding and reclaim that term as something positive – which is what it’s supposed to be.”......

Another expert I talked to, Sebastian Marincolo – a cannabis philosopher and writer who has been researching the herb for 10 years now – likes the difference between high and stoned. “When we say stoned we think of that couch-lock state of mind where you’re sedated, not thinking clearly – and for some people this is the desired effect,” he says.

“But the ‘high’ is something else,” Marincolo continues. “It is more euphoric and energetic – a different state of mind which comes with systematic changes in cognition and perception. And most people underestimate all of this and they don’t understand the full bouquet of changes.”

Where a lot of people view the psychoactive element as the adverse side effect of marijuana, Marincolo has methodically explored and laid out what he calls the bouquet of cognitive effects offered by the plant.

In Marincolo’s new book What Hashish Did To Walter Benjamin, he writes about many of these cognitive effects:

• Hyper focusing
• Episodic memory retrieval
• Pattern recognition
• Enhanced imagination
• Increased empathy
• Associative & lateral thinking
• Deeper introspection

“It doesn’t really give you a total enhancement of cognition, but there are a bunch of possibilities,” Marincolo says. “No matter what you do, you always have some functions enhanced and some that get worse.”

Read the whole article at GreenFlower Media HERE.

A BIG THANK YOU!

A big thank you to all who came out yesterday! 420 was a great success. From our staff, to patients, customers, and neighbors, we all had a blast. A special thank you to Matt from Freshies Bagels and Juice for manning the much needed munchies food cart, and to Cesar for hosting our Cannabis 101 social as well as those who attended it, including Dr. Steve from MAMAs. We are looking forward to our next class event. Follow us on social media for great deals, news and classes in the meantime!

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