Anyone reading this who doesn’t at least recognize the name Dave Matthews is probably fresh out of their cave for the first time in three decades. But you’re excused from knowing the name Brian Monk, even though he had a somewhat indirect part in launching the now iconic Dave Matthews Band’s career. Monk was one-third of the Boyd Tinsley Trio when the band took Matthews and his crew out on tour, but that threesome quickly disbanded before Boyd Tinsley himself became the fiddle player for the Dave Matthews Band and the ants began to march.Monk kept going musically, but started to fall in love with Santa Fe and during the COVID pandemic moved here full time and eventually found work slinging weed at Kure downtown. He says it was the barrage of questions he faced as a budtender that inspired him to launch NM Higher Education. Monk can still be found behind the counter, but he’s also working on launching educational videos he hopes will clear up a lot of those daily questions he still hears.

Weed lounges, or the more dry term "consumption areas," are really a thing in New Mexico, thanks to the Cannabis Regulation Act passed in 2021. Lounges where you can legally puff in public have not taken off as quickly or become as prolific as dispensaries, but one retail spot down in Albuquerque figured out a twist on chillaxing with your favorite strain. Nia Harris, owner of Herban Oasis Apothecary, figured out that folks may want to do more than toke up in a recreated version of their respective living rooms. Enter weed yoga. After paying for the class, attendees pick up a pre-roll from the dispensary and head upstairs where they’ll be greeted by one of the two teachers who guide folks through stretches, breathing and meditation. After taking a puff or two, the uber-mind expansion starts. The dispensary also offers some products that are light on the THC and heavy on CBD, so blasting off into the stratosphere is not a requirement. Harris says one of her goals is to connect with the cannabis community, so she also launched a “puff and paint” class and has more ideas on the way.

Looking to grow your own? It’s the time and the season to start thinking about how and when to get cannabis seeds or clones in the ground. Some Santa Feans have years of experience with growing the green at home, but now that it’s 100% legal for adults do so, conversations about the specifics can be more frank and open. Internet research might be fine for many, but Urban Rebel Farms owners Jerome Baca and Joey Jacques are not only a good local resource for growing weed at home, they are also bowls full of knowledge when it comes to anything you might want to grow in your garden this year. The two started out with a micro-greens production biz, then pivoted to opening an all-around garden supply store when legalization started to look like a reality.

Do you sit down with your kids and explain to them that mommy and daddy like a smoke shesh before bed? If so, when do you have that conversation? Do you skip the conversation all together and hide it from your kids like you did with your parents at some point in your life? Leah Maurer, who has a wild story about being a cannabis-growing parent when it was very illegal, says it all depends. Hear from her about the stigma of being a cannabis-using parent, even in a state where it’s legal, plus a perspective from Dr. Dominick Zurlo, who heads the New Mexico Medical Cannabis Program.

We’ve all heard heartfelt stories about family coalescing and diving head first into a new business venture. Southside Santa Fe dispensary Endo has an origin story that checks many of the standard boxes and then some. Staff writer and Leaf Brief Podcast host Andy Lyman takes us to Endo for Episode 2 and hears from father and son Ian and Stephan Aarons about the genesis of their nearly year-old company. Ian talks about how a tragedy in his personal life finally spun him away from the path of becoming a lawyer like his dad, who is a criminal defense attorney, and spurred him to follow his dreams of growing and selling cannabis.

Explore New Mexico’s cannabis landscape with Andy Lyman. This month, hear from Mateo Frazier, who knows a lot about a lot, but about water systems and cannabis in particular. He lives just outside Española, where he’s in the process of launching a cannabis company soon. And, he serves on his local acequia board, giving him a unique perspective on the state’s newest industry and its most precious resource. Plus, he’s a long time associate professor at Northern New Mexico College and he’s been part of its new education programs around cannabis.

Andy Lyman brings his award-winning cannabis journalism to the Santa Fe Reporter's newest podcast. The first episode drops in January 2023!