For the Culture By The Culture
A Blacklight investigation into how celebrity cannabis branding has warped the meaning of icon and overshadowed the activists, caregivers, and families who carried the plant through criminalization. This feature exposes the cultural amnesia that elevates market-friendly faces while burying the movement’s real architects and the sacrifices that made modern legalization possible.
Hemp’s long exile from American agriculture ended with the 2018 Farm Bill. Once banned as contraband, it’s now a cornerstone of sustainable farming and wellness culture. From hempcrete to CBD, this plant’s comeback shows how truth outlasts propaganda. The Hemp Redemption traces its journey from demonization to global commodity.
A hundred years after the 1925 International Opium Convention first outlawed cannabis, prohibition still stands as one of the biggest policy failures in modern history. From colonial fear and racist propaganda to Nixon’s drug war and global treaties, the cost has been human lives, stolen freedom, and wasted truth. The plant survived. The lies didn’t.
Cheech Marin turned weed money into a monument. The Cheech isn’t just a museum, it’s a cultural counterpunch, a stoned out cathedral built for the artists the art world ignored. No permission, no filter, no apologies. This is the untold story of how one rebel flipped the script, lit the fuse, and made Chicano art impossible to erase.
In this exclusive interview, Chris Simunek, former Editor in Chief of High Times, reflects on the outlaw era of cannabis culture when speaking up about weed was a risk, not content. He takes us inside the raw and rebellious movement that existed before legalization and corporate cannabis.
Weed culture didn’t just happen; it was built in smoke-filled rooms, protest rallies, and courtroom battles. From 420’s origin to corporate takeovers that nearly killed it, these are the moments that shaped cannabis history. Discover how legends like Jack Herer, Steve Hager, and the Waldos created a movement bigger than any strain.
