Features
It’s almost amazing that the same institutions that brought us the 2008 financial crisis have a problem with selling glass pipes. Almost.
The truth is that an industry's past sins are only held against it when the money isn’t right. Big banks were willing to risk cratering the U.S. housing market because the profits were too good to ignore. But the cannabis industry rolls a different kind of paper, so instead of a slap on the wrist, it gets a surcharge.
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Smokeshop and counterculture enthusiasts enjoy discovery as part of the experience. Customers enjoy browsing. When they walk into a shop, they don't simply grab a product and leave. They look for something new.
This is the main reason flyers and posters still work. Smokeshops and dispensaries are highly visual environments. You want to see bold artwork, psychedelic graphics, and street-style posters that naturally capture attention.
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The use of cannabis in professional sports has always been a controversial subject. While some are firm believers that all substances should be banned from professional sports altogether, most people aren’t thinking about cannabis when they’re discussing performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). In fact, there have been countless cannabis users in the world of professional sports throughout the years; some of whom are more open about their love for the plant than others.
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North Carolina might save us all. A new state bill may be the industry’s best option to save itself from demise when new federal cannabinoid bans take effect in November. And it could use your support.
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Hemp is often considered for the things that it is not. It is not intoxicating, it is not illegal, and it is not marijuana. However, now we are seeing a focus back to what it can be. The plant is moving into the level of wine and chocolate and becoming a movement and a culture.
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It’s been several months since President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reschedule cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III within the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). On paper, the recent executive order, entitled “Increasing Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research,” is a huge step in the right direction for cannabis smokers across the country.
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For years, we’ve been told that this industry is the Wild West: a place where the only law amounts to whatever the guy with the gun says. But over the last 12 months, state governments have passed a spate of new regulations that promise to swap the relative lawlessness of poor enforcement of vague rules with real law and order.
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“Winter rain
Now tell me why
Summers fade
And roses die.”
– Bob Weir, “Weather Report Suite”
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For years, Jennifer Mansour felt them coming.
“You can’t stop one,” she said. “As soon as I’d notice that the lights felt a little too bright, I knew I was done for. I’d tell my boss, and then I’d get in the car and pop on my sunglasses because I could feel another one coming on, and I couldn’t do a thing to stop it.”
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We love a good music festival here at HQ Magazine. Now that the major music festivals in the U.S. are starting to release their initial lineups, we figured it would be a great time to review some of the best 2026 music festivals in cannabis-friendly states.
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There are objects Americans buy because they need them, and objects Americans buy because they let them be a certain kind of person. A perfectly functional version exists, usually for a fraction of the price. But the other version comes with a name, a story, and a reason to pay extra.
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Walk into any warehouse rave, desert gathering, or rooftop after-hours in 2026, and you’ll feel it: the psychedelic underground is back, louder, weirder, and far more self-aware than its ‘60s predecessor ever imagined.
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In 62 BC, Julius Caesar announced his plan to divorce his second wife, Pompeia. She had been involved in an ancient Roman sex scandal, accused of flirting with another man during a women-only religious event.
