The band’s debut release, known for hits like “Machinehead” and “Glycerine,” solidified Bush’s 90s legacy. They continued with chart-topping releases, including 1996’s follow-up Razorblade Suitcase, and maintained momentum through the 2000s. Their latest album, The Art of Survival, released in 2022. 

The combined endeavors created a lasting impact in the ears and minds of listeners, amassing 24 million records sold and over a billion streams across various platforms. With Gen-Z leading a 90s revival in recent years, the band has earned scores more fans while reminding older listeners that unlike some 90s acts, Bush isn’t a nostalgia act. 

That’s great and all, but why are we talking about this in a weed publication?

Great question! It all boils down to authenticity. Gavin Rossdale’s eager engagement with New York’s weed culture, exploring both licensed and unlicensed scenes, stands out in the saturated world of celebrity weed narratives that few others have been willing to embark on. In doing so, he created a lasting experience for himself and hopefully readers. 

The Licensed Dispensary Experience

We introduced Rossdale to New York’s licensed cannabis scene with a stop at The Travel Agency in Union Square, a sleek, all-white interior dispensary with discreet marketing, thanks to state laws. Despite its unassuming street presence, marked only by a small sign above eye level, a joint-styled art installation in the window lets passersby know what’s inside.

Rossdale mentioned previously visiting one of the city’s untold number of unlicensed shops in the city. He discussed how the shop gave off a lack of trust and fostered shopper uncertainty about product quality and trust. 

“You’re just basically buying it old school from some dude on the corner,” he remarked. Rossdale felt similarly uncertain about licensed shop products, likely due to his unfamiliarity with many of the brands sold in the store and an inability to smell flower. 

However, he took a keen interest in learning. Photographer Jhalil D. Wright and I peppered Rossdale with facts about the market, products, and particular brands. Typically, this type of info dump leads many to tune out or lose interest. To the singer’s credit, he soaked up the information, showing an eagerness to learn about topics like market trust, sprayed terps, and drying and curing methods.

While shopping, the Bush frontman discussed his preference for smoking flower and largely avoiding pre-rolls. After browsing for a few minutes, Rossdale bought an eighth of Mimosa from Etain despite the restrictions on examining product before buying. He also scooped up edibles from Eaton Botanticals, infused olive oil from Chef for Higher, and Flintts Mints.

The experience was fine enough, or at least as much as a shop can deliver under New York law. But, like many legacy consumers, Rossdale seemed to be seeking something more hands-on. To get that, we visited the underground hotspot Astor Club. 

On the ride over, Rossdale discussed his preferences for weed over alcohol, stating that drinking and hangovers do not benefit singers while on tour. No matter the substance, Rossdale likes to remember that it should amplify the moment or intention, not bring someone down. He’s shared this with his three sons under-18. 

He emphasized the importance of telling them the truth. “Use it to amplify the moment instead of pull you down,” he explained. “My main thing is just to be a guy, to be helpful, not a hypocrite,” he said, noting that pot makes him feel creative. To maintain the effects to his ideal level, Rossdale tends to consume every few days. 

The Legacy Experience

At Astor Club, Rossdale found the cannabis experience he was looking for. No shade to The Travel Agency or any other licensed spot. It’s not their fault. The current state and federal regulations don’t allow dispensaries to compete with the flower or features found at underground meccas. On the other hand, Astor Club has cultivated a reputation for sourcing the top bud from elite producers across the country—all while creating an environment synonymous with the culture. 

After rolling up a J of Cookie Dough from Khashtree Mason, Rossdale was convinced. “It’s like Cristal Champagne,” he said, offering ample praise for the bud and the lounge. The Bush founder was so fond of the strain that he almost stuck to it exclusively. Staff ended up reminding him of their extensive menu, all top tier options in their own right. Eventually, a few different strains were selected and smoked.  

After smoking another J, Rossdale discussed his career and personal life in-depth. Feeling that living with intention, learning, and striving to improve are all important, he said, “You have to put everything into it.” As evidenced by Bush’s new harder rock and detuned sound, Rossdale said he loves finding new sounds and ways to play music, as evidenced by the detuned sound on the band’s 2022 album The Art of Survival. 

A greatest hits album, Loaded, was released in October 2023. Originally hesitant to put out a hits compilation and be seen as a fading act, Rossdale is now eager to see the band’s top works compiled together. 

“It’s been really fun to look back and see what those songs have done for other people,” Rossdale said, sharing a similar feeling when playing live. “When I play those big crowds, it’s really fun, because there’s all these memories emanating like shooting stars out of all the audiences.” The band embarks on a summer tour starting June 1. 

Despite the ongoing passion for music and performing, Rossdale does see retirement happening at some point. A self-proclaimed fan of restaurants and food, he recently put his passion on screen hosting his own celebrity cooking show, Rockstar Kitchen Chronicles, featuring guests such as Tom Jones and Jack McBrayer. 

Despite a love for food, music, the plant, and more, Rossdale envisions dogs as his ideal next career. “I would like to run a huge ranch for rescue dogs and animals,” he said. 

Enamored with the menu of choices, Rossdale, Jhalil and I departed Astor Club with a few more selections, including more Cookie Dough and Moon Doh from Archive. 

An Authentic Celebrity Experience

Credit to Rossdale and his public relations team. All too often, PR will pitch Zoom interviews and carefully curated celebrity press ops that blanket numerous outlets and reporters, often regurgitating the same talking points no matter the outlet. 

After years of writing up celeb features that didn’t do much for the plant or reader, I have chosen to steer clear of most star-studded coverage, especially those making the media rounds hawking their new seeds, strain, brand, etc. Rossdale was no doubt in press mode, promoting his new tour and latest single. But unlike far too many celebrities, he didn’t have a stake in the weed game. He just wanted to pick up, smoke, and talk shop. 

This simple, authentic concept is one few outside of hip hop have even flirted with on the record. And that’s a damn shame. The standard media approach does little for readers and, as sales seem to indicate, it does little to help most brands boost sales or awareness. Rather than Zoom-ing or calling it to discuss a fondness for weed, Rossdale showed up, discussed his own experiences, and demonstrated an authentic desire to learn more. In doing so, he got to see both sides of New York City’s weed community, and got hella high in the process. And, unless I fucked up in my role as the storyteller here, the Rossdale approach makes for a better story every time. 

Factor in the world’s best hash and cannabis, set against the twinkly Advent-calendar beauty of the “Venice of the North,” and you’re in absolute heaven. Every time I’ve visited Amsterdam, I’ve experienced this untranslatable feeling. It’s potent stuff—a swirl of strong coffee and ice-cold foamy glasses of beer, bicycle bells dinging, and rose-ringed parakeets flitting through the Vondelpark in late-afternoon sunshine, all suffused by the sweet aromas of weed and hash.

When I booked a trip to Amsterdam last summer while dreaming of my previous hazy visits, I considered the perils of pining for bygone days. To quote author Brené Brown, “Nostalgia is… a dangerous form of comparison. Think about how often we compare our lives to a memory that nostalgia has so completely edited that it never really existed.” This would be my first trip to the Netherlands in almost a decade, and I was curious to see how the city’s legendary cannabis culture had evolved—or, perhaps, declined, with Barcelona’s rise to prominence as a new European weed capital.

In 2013, I worked the 26th Annual Amsterdam High Times Cannabis Cup during a long November week that lives in my head as a series of frosty snapshots. I judged the Seed Company Sativa category and was a live wire for five straight days as I sampled 21 strains from legendary outfits like Elemental Seeds, Reserva Privada, and Karma Genetics. That year’s winners were genetic heavyweights Tangie, Sour Power, and a super-tasty Sour Diesel cross called Headbanger.

Dutch authorities shut down the Cannabis Cup Expo at the last minute that year, and the High Times staff had to scramble to keep vendors and attendees happy. I remember a lot of long, chilly walks along glittering canals, shuttling back and forth to shows at the Melkweg from coffeeshops that had entered the competition. My judges’ kit powered me through it all like a little weed jetpack, especially on the night my phone died, and I got hopelessly lost. Fortunately, I somehow found my way to the judges’ dinner, where I was enveloped in a cloud of good cheer and great smoke. Gezellig!

This time around, my travel companion and I had no plans beyond eating, smoking, and visiting museums for three days to unwind after a few weeks in the U.K. Our train from London pulled into Amsterdam Central Station at 4:20 p.m. We were in the flow. We dropped our bags at our hotel and headed right for the iconic coffeeshop Green House in the area known as De Wallen, or the red light district.

We pulled up as the sky was darkening into evening shades of purple. The neon sign in the window cast an amber glow over the scene humming in the coffeeshop. It was cinematic and gorgeous, and it smelled great. A laughing girl bumped into me on her way out as we ducked inside. I could feel the days I’d spent in London melting off me, almost hissing as they swirled away. We were in the right place at the right moment. What a relief. My memories of Amsterdam weren’t nostalgic; this was now.

Inside the glow of Green House, we were greeted by Joa Helms, the CEO of the Green House Seed Company. He gestured to the menu on the wall illuminated behind the busy budtenders and asked what we wanted to sample. “Super Lemon Haze, of course,” Helms said with a grin, “and how about some Ztrawberry?” We gratefully—almost wordlessly, I think—sank into a booth next to the window with the two packets of flower he handed us, along with rolling papers and a grinder. “It’s made from hemp,” Helms said of the grinder, as he departed into the night with a friendly wave, leaving us with our treasures.

Green House Seed Company has won countless awards for legendary strains like White Widow and Super Silver Haze, as well as for Super Silver’s progeny, Super Lemon Haze, which won back-to-back Cannabis Cups in 2008 and 2009. As my friend and I stuck our noses into the bags of flower to determine which way our evening would bend, one sniff of Super Lemon Haze was all we needed to know how it was going to go. Roll up, smoke, relax, repeat.

We floated out of Green House into the cool September night after a while, turning left, right, and left again on our evening adventure. We babbled through our Haze-y buzz as we passed by sex workers posing in windows, their neon lingerie popping under black lights with drapes barely concealing rudimentary beds just behind them. Moving through a crush of tourists with unclothed bodies on display for the gawking masses was elemental and deeply weird, but it also felt exactly right because I knew this would likely be the last time we’d see De Wallen like this.

In a move billed as an antidote to the effects of hedonistic tourism, the Dutch government has hatched a plan to relocate the red light district to the outskirts of town. The proposal would shut down sex workers’ windows in an attempt to reset the city as a family-friendly destination. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema is leading the charge to redefine the city’s reputation—and she also wants to ban non-residents in coffeeshops by enforcing a national residents-only rule. Halsema says that banning tourists from coffeeshops is unavoidable in order to tackle tourist nuisances that arise from the “soft drug” sector—i.e. cannabis.

My friend and I chatted about the complicated nature of sex work and drug culture as we strolled along the canals. Prostitution in Amsterdam has been legal and regulated since 2000. Cannabis, however, has never been legal in the Netherlands—the government’s policies tolerate the possession and sale of small quantities of weed and psilocybin, and it’s decriminalized for personal use, but it’s not legal. And for decades, that was just fine, until conservatives like Halsema decided it wasn’t. The tide has turned for the counterculture in Amsterdam as politicians debate about what’s best for the city. It’s certainly the end of an era.

As we finally made our way back to our hotel, my buzz was wearing thin, but my bud stopped to roll up some Ztrawberry, popping open our second fragrant pouch. We perched next to each other on the edge of a canal barge, watched by a well-fed cat who sat cleaning its puffy tail with an eye on us. I was pretty faded after our glowy Super Lemon Haze’d evening, and I was ready to call it quits. But the click of my friend’s lighter and the pass of a joint turned it all around. 

Ztrawberry is a Runtz x A.M.S. cross—it’s got a heavy kick from its Gelato parent sweetness, which fades to a perfect, heady buzz. Holy smokes, I thought, sitting on the edge of the canal barge as I gazed back at the Dutch cat. OK, you are NOT TIRED. You feel great. You feel clear and calm, and in the perfect state of being… oh, wait, this is… yes, it’s gezellig.

This article was originally published in the January 2023 issue of High Times Magazine.

Speaking of cannabis, the High Times Cannabis Cup New Mexico: People’s Choice Edition 2023 is scheduled to take place Dec. 9 at the Rio Rancho Events Center in Albuquerque, with a headlining act from the iconic duo, Method Man and Redman. It’s here that anyone can be the judge to determine the best weed New Mexico has to offer.

Below we list must-see attractions in New Mexico that will keep you busy during your stay in the desert dreamland, where you can see the stars in the sky and get a taste of Southwestern art.

International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell

Ufologists agree that Roswell is one of the top UFO hotspots on the planet. In 1947, an unidentified craft crashed into the ground in Roswell, and wreckage from a “flying disc” was recovered on the property of a local rancher. Local, typically credible papers ran with the story. The most logical first stop is the International UFO Museum and Research Center, and the tourist traps around it.

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum 

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum is ground zero for the artist’s finest work with a collection of 3,000 pieces including 140 oil paintings, 700 drawings, and hundreds of other works. O’Keeffe was known for her powerfully direct approach to expressing the divine role of females, and she experimented with peyote. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum  located a few blocks northwest of the Santa Fe Plaza in downtown Santa Fe.

Gila Cliff Dwellings

Nomads used the caves above Cliff Dweller Creek as temporary shelter about 1,000 years ago. In the late 1200s, people of the agricultural Mogollon (Southern Ancestral Pueblo) culture settled there, built rooms, crafted pottery, and raised children in the cliff dwellings for one or two generations. By approximately 1300, the Mogollon had moved on from the Gila Cliff Dwellings.

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

Santa Fe is a very old city, especially by American standards. In 1598, the Spanish declared Santa Fe “New Spain” initially. While most of The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi was built in 1886, an older church used to exist on the same site, built in 1626, but was destroyed in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. Catholic or not, this cathedral has history. 

New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science

The New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science in Albuquerque offers a fun and interactive experience. The museum’s new hall, titled Ancient Life, features hundreds of never-before-seen fossils. The Planetarium has a 55-foot Sky-Skan Definiti, full-dome theater which is great for edibles.

Four Corners Monument

Here you can stand in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado—simultaneously. The location is marked by a granite and brass plaque and surrounded by flags representing the tribal nations and states that share the region. At the site, you’ll find vendors selling homemade jewelry, pottery, crafts, and art. The cost to visit this monument is $5 per person.

Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway

Got a fear of heights? According to Trip Advisor, Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway is the state’s number one tourist destination. The tram takes visitors 2.7 miles and 10,378 feet up the Sandia Mountains. You can witness views of over 11,000 square miles of New Mexico from that vantage point.

Taos Pueblo

Taos is home to art galleries, hot springs, spellbinding scenery and excellent skiing opportunities. Most notably, Pueblo adobe dwellings that have lasted over 1,000 years. In Taos, visitors can choose between several museums: The Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos Art Museum at Fechin House, and the Kit Carson House & Museum.

Bandelier National Monument

With ruins that date back to 1150 CE, the Bandelier National Monument provides 33,000 acres of beautiful landscape, showing off New Mexico’s incredible natural wilderness. This includes homes carved into soft rock. You can see historical relics from the ancestral Pueblo tribes who built structures in the area for thousands of years.

Petroglyph National Monument

Petroglyph National Monument is home to nearly 25,000 petroglyphs, 90% of which are believed to have been drawn by ancient Pueblo people. Many of the meanings behind the petroglyphs is unknown. Drivers will have to pay $1 per vehicle on weekdays and $2 on weekends. 

White Sands National Park

Forget the Sahara Desert: White Sands National Park is a stunning dune-filled region located within the Tularosa Basin and it happens to be home to the earth’s largest gypsum dune field. More than 73,000 acres of white sand stretch out all the way to the horizon. 

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Carlsbad Caverns National Park is home to over 100 limestone caves. You can choose between two underground trails, The Big Room Trail and the Natural Entrance Trail. The former is the most popular route, taking visitors through one of the largest cave chambers in North America. You can witness 400,000 Brazilian free-tailed bats exit the cave in search of food each evening. 

Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Yet another Pueblo site, Chaco Culture National Historical Park was given its name in 2013 . No permanent outdoor lighting exists in order to protect nocturnal wildlife and the natural rhythms of humans and plants that depend on an unaltered night sky. Within the park, visitors can see evidence of the huge structures built by the Ancestral Pueblo people between 850 and 1250 AD.

High Times Cannabis Cup New Mexico: People’s Choice Edition 2023

Or you can attend the High Times Cannabis Cup New Mexico: People’s Choice Edition 2023.

A live awards show is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 9 at the Rio Rancho Events Center in Albuquerque. The event will be headlined by Method Man and Redman, who will be joined by Devin the Dude, Paul Wall, Haizi Haze, and Lil’ Flip. New Mexico’s own will judge the cannabis and products that will prove their worth.

It’s like going back in time. Weed is weed. Some cats are experts, but most of the folks you meet don’t really know the names of the strains they are trying to sell you. I found something nice, and my friends and I decided it was Northern Lights 5 (NL5) x Haze. It had that cream soda mixed with pinene aroma indicative of NL5 x Haze, and it is the kind of strain a story about time travel should have, but the guy who gave it to me didn’t know the name. It was just “weed” 1998 style.

“So basically, when we talk cannabis in Germany, there are two strains for the people: Haze and Standard. That’s everything.” So says my homie “Cakez” from the Gas crew, a loose knit collective of premium German gas growers. He has been a weedman in Berlin for 20 years, and is starting a legit grow in Canada, with an eye toward exporting to the legal German market when the time is right. We sat in his friend’s apartment, smoking his signature strain, known as Gascakez. I should add that on the elevator ride to the apartment, one of his neighbors complained about the smell of cannabis emanating from the building. (They had this whole conversation in Turkish while I stood around looking cute. Cakez speaks like four languages.) Cakez talked him down and everything proceeded smoothly. What Cakez didn’t mention is that his homie’s apartment has a grow room accessible via a secret panel, and they had just harvested, so the cannabis curing in the bathroom was stinking up the building. Remember growing weed in secret? Time travel. Cakez had a nice setup. LED lights do a lot to reduce suspicion. The grow room is small, maybe 3 x 10 feet, but the plants look great and it feels kind of good to be an outlaw again, even if only for a few hours. Cakez tells me that for the longest time, folks would smuggle weed and hash from the Netherlands, but with growing international interest in German cannabis policies, the weed is getting better and people are starting to learn.

“There’s one thing that has to happen here in Germany. The people have to get educated too. Don’t mix the cannabis with the tobacco. You can’t mix diesel fuel with gasoline, the car is not gonna work,” he says. Vroom vroom.

To be fair, the German cannabis scene isn’t all underground drug deals and clandestine meetups for dime bags. In Berlin, cannabis is somewhat tolerated by the authorities, and there is a growing (heh) “chronnissuer” scene. I was able to check out two events: the Mary Jane Berlin festival and the Full Moon Sesh. The Mary Jane Berlin is your typical trade show/cannabis event. There are lots of booths selling seeds and grow gear and rosin presses and whatnot. Plus there was a really nice outdoor area with plenty of places to smoke and a bunch of cool people to smoke with. The German medical cannabis program imports a bunch of pot from Canada and Israel, and some of it manages to show up at these sorts of events. I smoked a homegrown Israeli Creme Brulee (very nice flavor and excellent smooth effects), and I managed to get some Triple Sec (fruity and mellow) from the Israeli company known as Space Labs. 

Apparently, German medical cannabis standards are very strict. Medical cannabis producers love to use the word “pharmaceutical,” as in: “It’s not the same medical as California. It’s pharmaceutical grade. So it’s much more strict. You have to cultivate and process and eventually package everything by [European Union Good Manufacturing Practice] standouts, very similar to pharmaceuticals. And we can only be distributed to pharmacies, OK?” OK. I get it. Sheesh. It was hella good though. I gotta say that smoking medical cannabis on a party boat overlooking the Spree river on a sunny day was very therapeutic. Just what the doctor ordered. 

The Full Moon Sesh is a week-long cannabis concentrates competition. Say that three times fast. A tongue twister and a tantalizing terp-fest. Hash makers from all over the world managed to sneak some of their finest creations into Berlin. I didn’t catch all of the events, but I managed to make it to the awards session and it was great to see the hash heads in all their glory. I got to sit next to Dank Duchess and Mila the Hash Queen while they compared notes and talked shop. All the dabs were great and I really enjoyed the Banana from California-based company Hash & Flowers. There were some other ones as well, but I was too high to write things down. Probably because Terpy (a social club in Barcelona) was handing out small but mighty infused pretzels (250 mg THC each). Things got kinda blurry after that and I didn’t even eat the whole pretzel. 

To sum it up: Berlin has good weed, but you gotta hunt for it a little bit. As a canna-tourist, the best bet is to show up during a weed fest. If you don’t, you run the risk of having to find good weed the old-fashioned way. Viel glück!

Scooping our baggage, Damian drives us out to Finca El Huerto. As we pull up, I look through the open air foyer and directly out to the Andes Mountains. My mouth drops open as I walk onto the splayed-out ranch estate. Bougainvillea and other flowering trees and shrubs form a semicircle around the infinity pool. The rooms of the house encircle the trees and I instantly feel wrapped in a cocoon of nature’s luxury.

We relax, smoke some provided pre-rolls, and chat as the chefs prepare our first dinner. Damon tells me his vision for Wind Hill Tours as the first all-inclusive resort experience focused on wellness through the lens of cannabis. I advise him that he will be able to provide the best possible experience for his guests once his own cannabis grow is established. There is nothing like providing single-source quality as flower or hash. Though the industry is nascent—personal consumption in Colombia is decriminalized and a proposal to legalize cannabis for adults is currently in motion at the time of my visit in fall 2022—there are no growing conditions quite like those found in Colombia with its fertile volcanic soil and consistent 12/12 photoperiod. I open the pre-rolls and reroll them with rosin smeared on the paper.

That’s better.

At the crack of dawn the next day, I throw on a light hoodie, grab my already packed chillum, and pad out to the pool. I appreciate the lightly scented breeze that whispers through the valley songs of contentment. Facing out to the Maravelez Valley, I take a deep hit and surrender to the thick smoke which overtakes my airway, charges down into my lungs and blossoms into a pleasant warmth before sliding back through my lips. Almost immediately I feel tension releasing from my face. I had slept very well, but sometimes I need THC-laden moments like this to truly let go. The sun has just begun banishing the thick fog that had been blanketing the mountains when I finish the last of my chillum. I knock it firmly into my palm and allow the ashes to fall down before disappearing in the fragrant wind.

Our first stop is a coffee finca, La Pradera. We start on a small hike to the property, crossing bamboo bridges over rushing creeks, wild coffee bushes crowding the path, and other tropical flora. Santi gives us the coffee tour, plucking unripe, yet still potent, berries for our sweet sucking pleasure. Upstairs at the coffee terrace, we sip perfectly prepared coffee, appreciate the mountains, and enjoy the sweet sounds of salsa and merengue.

Newly charged with caffeine we head over to the cannabis farm, IQ&A. We are warmly welcomed and sensing our haste, the team hustles us into blue scrubs and head coverings before ushering us into the greenhouse. My face alights with joy seeing these wonderfully healthy plants. Although each household in Colombia can grow up to 20 THC plants, this legal grow is strictly CBD. We sashay through the rows; admiring the bountiful life and delight in the various terpene rich varieties. The grow is as impressive as any in California’s Emerald Triangle. We finish off the tour in a lofty perch, smoking chillum and talking about the amazing view of the Andes.

Sunday morning finds me laying by the pool and puffing flower and rosin in my chillum before it is time for yoga with Jimy Betancurt. I slide through the poses with ease as I am in the zone; uncaring of any of life’s trivialities. Jimy assures us that with proper breathing and technique, we can achieve the same state of oneness and stillness that we get from our cannabis. I believe him, but I take another puff just in case.

A few hours later, we pass around joints of Cholado, Bubblegum, and Bubba Kush as we head for Salento, a small town known for its wild color; as if some larger than life artist had selected all of the doors, shutters, tiles, and window sills, and splashed every surface with a different hue. We traipse through the town and up 242 stairs directly to the Alto de La Cruz lookout which gives us the best view of the town. The combination of the glaring pigments, the sun beating from above, and the effects of several joints has my head swimming in surreal, slightly off kilter awe.

After a much-needed lunch, and under a persistent mist, we make our way to the nearby Valle de Corcora. We are looking to see the tallest wax palms in the world. As the Jeep barrels steadily down the road, trees and grasses sporting the most verdant leaves reach out to further entice our senses. Between the grand flora, we get glimpses of wild horses running with wild abandon; oblivious to our wide eyed stares. A few waterfalls punctuate the grand landscape.

We arrive at the valley under relentless rain and I look at the proposed hiking path dubiously as the sodden ground squelches with every step. I awkwardly slip and slide my way over the fairly steep course and just when I am exhausted from the thigh workout (and mentally pooped from the lack of THC), I see the turnaround for the loop. It is a beautiful overlook of the valley and the wax palms, some of them 200 feet tall, stand erectly and in complete defiance of gravity. We have been advised not to fly the drone, but the view is just too tempting. Truthfully I too am ready to throw care to the wind and I take out a vape pen to replenish my endocannabinoid system. I plop down at the feet of a statue of Groot and I shake my head in wonder at all of the lusciousness of this whole endeavor. Colombia has been good.

This adventure has been a heady expression of nature’s beauty and bounty. As THC has coursed through my body, my mind has soared wildly; buoyed not only by the cannabinoids, but also the sense of wonderment as Colombia reveals its next fascination. I have spent my time in Colombia reveling in the psychedelic experience of smelling, tasting, hearing, feeling, and seeing everything in a larger than life way. In one weekend, Wind Hill Tours has made considerable strides in its mission to provide a safe oasis for personal rejuvenation through cannabis and immersion in nature, as well as contribute to a new narrative of all that Colombia can be.

This article was originally published in the March 2023 issue of High Times Magazine.

In any other Latin American country, people would talk about their leader’s private wealth with scorn. But Charlie’s tone is one of praise, excitement, even pride. It’s a sentiment I encountered again and again while traveling through El Salvador, and for a good reason. Until recently, the country was known and feared as the “murder capital” of planet Earth, with 1 in every 10,000 residents falling victim to homicide. Today, four years after Nayib Bukele assumed office, the number of annual killings has dropped from 5,000 to just 495: a statistic that has earned him the lifelong gratitude of his constituents. “I can finally go outside without worrying,” a student from Universidad Don Bosco in Soyapango, previously the most dangerous suburb in the capital city of San Salvador, told me. “It still doesn’t feel real.” 

Born to a Muslim family that emigrated from Palestine, Bukele served as the mayor of San Salvador before setting his eyes on the presidency. A dark horse candidate, his anti-establishment, anti-corruption agenda allowed him to score a surprise victory against El Salvador’s entrenched elite. Many presidential candidates in Latin America promise to “drain the swamp” and put an end to the corruption that keeps their countries impoverished and oppressed, only to become a part of the establishment they vowed to tear down. Bukele is the rare example of a politician that not just kept his word, but managed to hold onto power while doing so. 

One of Bukele’s top priorities was to hunt down El Salvador’s biggest gangs, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and 18^th Street, which earn money through prostitution, drug smuggling, human trafficking, and transporting aliens across the U.S.-Mexican border. The government’s pursuit of the gangs resembles less of a crackdown than it does an all-out war. To this day, tens of thousands of heavily-armed soldiers are regularly mobilized to besiege and infiltrate criminal strongholds. 

Drastic problems require drastic measures, and Bukele’s was to arrest and imprison anybody who had even the slightest affiliation with the criminal underworld. As of 2023, more than 72,000 Salvadorians have been taken off the streets and stuffed into the country’s already overcrowded prisons. 

Bukele’s policies on crime, while effective, come at a cost. While the state has managed to round up many dangerous offenders, it also detained a significant number of individuals who – after close examination – turned out to be completely innocent. Gabriela, a lifelong resident of San Salvador and tech entrepreneur I met at a Miami-esque beach party in the surfer town of El Tunco, told me how, one day, her private driver stopped answering his phone. After contacting his sister, she learned he had been taken by the police while standing on the street drinking Pilsner – El Salvador’s national beer – with former gang members.

Accusing Bukele of human rights abuse, journalists and activists argue mass imprisonment won’t solve El Salvador’s problems but only make them worse. His proponents beg to differ: by cleaning up the streets, the president is able to develop public works that will improve the country’s economy and infrastructure. While highways and libraries can’t justify the injustice suffered by Gabriela’s driver, traveling through this new and improved, and above all, safer, version of El Salvador is making me kind of agree with the average citizen that these are, to an extent, necessary sacrifices. “I do not agree with everything Bukele does,” was the standard response I kept hearing from people, “but we are doing better than we were in the past – and that makes me feel hopeful about tomorrow.”

Where so many corruption-stricken Latin American countries live in an inescapable present, El Salvador is able to look towards the future. In addition to his war on crime, Bukele is best known for his embracement of cryptocurrency. Shortly after setting up shop in San Salvador’s casa blanca, the 42-year-old leader surprised the world by investing a sizeable portion of government funding in Bitcoin. In hindsight, the decision wasn’t all that surprising. The crypto craze was at an all-time high back then, and with Bitcoin’s value on the rise, Bukele saw an opportunity and must have thought he was about to triple the country’s coffers, even quadruple the amount of money he’d put in. Unfortunately, his announcement came moments before the crash of FTX and the federal investigation of its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried: events that set the crypto world on a downward spiral it has yet to escape from. While exact numbers are hard to come by, El Salvador is rumored to have lost upwards of $70 million.

You’d think such a blunder would damage the country’s economy, not to mention Bukele’s credibility, but that does not seem to be the case. In contrast to neighboring Guatemala, where a despotic Attorney General is currently attempting to undo the ascension of a democratically elected, left-leaning president with an agenda not unlike that of his Salvadorian counterpart, El Salvador remains stable, peaceful, even prosperous. One of the biggest benefits of Bukele’s war on crime is that the resulting safety opened the country up to an industry that had hitherto been all but non-existent there: tourism. At Coatepeque, construction workers are building a litany of hotels, hostels, and clubs to accommodate growing numbers of travelers. Still more projects are in the works at Lake Llopango, located outside San Salvador. 

“This place used to be extremely dangerous,” Gabriela told me as we walked up to a breathtaking mirador, or viewpoint, looking over a thick and seemingly endless canopy. “It’s where all the gangs from Soyapango went to hide.” 

More confused than concerned, I glance over at two soldiers standing guard, their fingers on the triggers of their loaded shotguns. Laughing, Gabriela informs me that their presence is purely ceremonial: Bukele, needing to maintain the standing army he’s amassed for his war, sends troops across the country to act as glorified bodyguards. Not to protect visitors from kidnappers – those odds, she says, are low – but so they have something to do until they are called to lay siege to the next criminal hideout. 

Though not as large as Guatemala and Honduras to the north, or as environmentally diverse as Nicaragua and Costa Rica to the south, El Salvador has much to offer the curious traveler. There’s Santa Ana, a colonial city near the Guatemalan border from where you can visit Coatepeque and climb the Santa Ana volcano, filled not with lava but with pools of boiling water. There’s El Tunco, the aforementioned surf town where you can test your skills on some of the largest, longest, roughest waves you’ve ever seen – or watch others do it from the beach. 

Aside from the grueling traffic, San Salvador is a surprisingly organized capital where neon-lit hipster cafes share parking spaces with hole-in-the-wall pupuserias – barebone cafeterias serving El Salvador’s signature dish: thick tortillas made from corn or rice, stuffed with cheese, pumpkin, spinach, or chicharron, to name only a handful of ingredients. 

While exploring El Salvador is no longer life-threatening, it’s still very adventurous. If you want to get from one place to another, you usually cannot book a private shuttle. Instead, you will have to hop on a public “chicken” bus, retired American school buses the U.S. government deemed too old and broken to transport children, but were given a second life in Central America. In many towns, you also have the opportunity to rent motorcycles. If you have never ridden one before, don’t worry – they neither require a license nor experience, and the roads of El Salvador are so chaotic that you’ll become a pro by the time you make it to your destination. That is, so long as you weren’t sent flying by some knee-deep pothole or camouflaged speed bump. 

The biggest adrenaline rush (or panic attack) I had in El Salvador was a group tour of the Siete Cascadas or Seven Waterfalls near the town of Juayua, a 1 hour motorbike ride south of Santa Ana, where what I had expected to be a calm and peaceful stroll quickly turned into something out of the survival novel Robinson Crusoe. Walking barefoot through a jungle infested with spiders, snakes, and crabs – yes, crabs – I was so taken aback by the absurdity of my predicament that I didn’t even think to object when my tour guide (a 9-year-old, crab-catching boy called Cristian) told us to climb up the waterfalls rather than go around them. “I don’t think this tour was approved by the Salvadorian Health and Safety Department,” I half-joked, latching on to the slippery, moss-covered rocks and praying I would live another day. 

As much as I ended up enjoying my stay, I originally didn’t plan on visiting El Salvador. Although I had heard of what Bukele was doing, I still pictured the country as it was in the past, the way it looked when I saw it on the news, or in an episode of World’s Toughest Prisons. Instead, I thought that I would spend more time in what the media portrayed as its safer, friendlier neighbor: Guatemala. Ironically, it was Guatemala that proved to be more unpredictable as, mere days after I entered El Salvador, rightfully-outraged Guatemalans clashed with law enforcement and barricaded the borders. Weeks later, they still haven’t managed to stop the old government from persecuting their president-elect. But that’s a different story. 

The inaugural Shroom Sabha attracted mycophiles from all corners of the subcontinent, and struck an acute balance between professionalism and playfulness that brought out the best of each quality. 

While the “Shroom Boom” happening in the West has garnered headlines and primetime coverage for the last several years, the mushroom revolution in India has somehow managed to evolve in relative isolation from the rest of the world. 

The laws and social mores around psilocybin mushrooms, and mushrooms in general, still skew heavily conservative in the country of 1.5 billion people. But the legacy and lore of mushrooms in India extends back to ancient times, and what’s happening now is in some ways a reclamation effort more so than a cutting edge development. The renowned ‘Soma’ ritual drink mentioned in millenia old Vedic texts has been conjectured to be an entheogenic fungi by a number of notable researchers and historians, and indigenous tribes throughout the subcontinent have long used numerous different species of fungi for food, medicine, materials, and a variety of other purposes. 

In addition to dozens of types of fungi with documented indigenous use cases as food and medicine, India is home to myriad different strains of psilocybin mushrooms. Animals such as cattle, elephants and rhinoceroses provide a turnkey substrate with their manure, and the humid tropical environments found across large swathes of the country provide for the natural incubation and fruiting of psychoactive fungi. Some of these, such as the Orissa strain, have already likely found their way into your local supply. Other species such as the elusive Psilocybe wayanadensis from the Wayanad area where Shroom Sabha took place are harder to pin down and present an exciting opportunity for spore collectors and mycophiles to research. 

Additional psychoactive fungi species from India include Copelandia cyanescens, Paneaoleus tropicalis, Psilocybe cubensis, and Psilocybe semilanceata among a number of others. 

A constellation of Indian mycopreneurs congregated in person for the first time at Shroom Sabha to share research and best practices from their respective fields within the rapidly developing and globalizing field of mycology. Prithvi Kini of Indian mushroom startup Nuvedo presented a rigorously documented and cited study of entheomycology (the study of cultural use of psychoactive fungi) across the world as found in the traditions of the Mazatec and Siberian cultures among others. The presentation closed with a call to action that was also recently issued in the peer-reviewed Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge: 

Does India Have Entheomycology Traditions?

The oral nature of ancient tribal fungi knowledge in India has made it difficult to trace the legacy of psychoactive fungi knowledge across the distributed indigenous cultures here, but the ubiquity of psychoactive fungi species and the intimate relationship that these tribes have with their environments and other types of fungi suggest that there is a strong likelihood of an entheogenic fungi use legacy among them. 

Beyond the subject of entheogenic fungi, a wealth of fungal knowledge with immediate practical applications and commercial potential was shared by conference participants.

Indian mycopreneurs such as “M” of Terra Myco and Harikrishnan MT (@Indiantoadstool on Instagram) led wild mushroom identification forays into the dense tropical forests surrounding the reserve, while a ‘mushroom chef masterclass’ by Goa-based OG Mushroom incorporated some of the wild fungi found by the group – including the massive Pleurotus giganteous specimen. Nuvedo Co-Founder Jashid Hameed shared his aspiration for the startup he founded last year to be the #1 supplier of mushroom supplements in India by 2025, a goal which they are making considerable progress towards. 

From cooking with mushrooms, to biofabrication of mushroom leather and materials, to cutting edge research into the medical potential of psilocybin mushrooms, to fungal diversity reports mapping out the Funga of India and forays into the extraordinarily biodiverse Periya Forest reserve in search of rare and potentially undocumented fungi, Shroom Sabha showcased an impressive wealth of Indian mushroom research and practical applications that so far have been happening in a silo largely disconnected from the rest of the world. 

Each evening of the four day festival featured a musical performance and dance party, as well as a mesmerizing 90-minute drum circle on one of the nights and a closing Mardi Gras party. Highlights included Bonny Abraham giving an astounding performance on the oud, a traditional stringed instrument from Syria, multiple appearances from rare instrument collector and performer Xen Kat, and mycophile turned electronic music composer Siddharth. We were even treated to a properly mind blowing magic show that was as hilariously interactive as it was baffling. Sanjay (@illusionistsanjay on IG) showed us that magic and mushrooms are compatible in more ways than one might think. 

As the United States grapples with the legacy burden of bad policymaking and cultural baggage attached to psychedelics from the burst bubble of scientific research and cultural adoption in the 1960’s, modern India has a ‘tabula rasa’ from which to approach any potential benefits that may be offered by psilocybin and the inherent potential of mushrooms as tools to catalyze regenerative industry across multiple sectors. 

For example, a number of young mushroom entrepreneurs showcased their mycomaterial prototypes such as Reishi leather, mycelium bowls, and a rather impressive pure oyster-mushroom mycelium disc with the consistency of wood. The potential for sustainable biomaterials as such to scale is currently being demonstrated by the American company MycoWorks, which recently closed a $125 million Series C round and has just opened a full-scale mycelium leather production plant in South Carolina.

Dr. Gokul Raj presented an in-depth analysis of medical research into the therapeutic benefit of psilocybin, lending an academically and professionally credible lens to the potential for the adoption of psychedelic science as a legitimate area of focus for the scientific community at some point in India’s future. Dr. Raj also spoke about the intersection of psychedelic medicine with traditional Indian yogic and Ayurvedic principles, which prioritize the wellness of mind and body through plant medicine and a healthy diet conducive to mental and physical health. This perspective also empowers a uniquely Indian framework for the potential integration of psychedelics into the broader culture, rather than relying on an explicitly western framework. 

The stigma around fungi is slowly beginning to shift in India thanks to the research and contributions of the Shroom Sabha community and a rapidly growing class of mushroom enthusiasts across the country. As globalization accelerates and development in remote corners of the country continues to encroach upon tribal cultures, the largely undocumented and predominantly oral corpus of indigenous fungi knowledge here is up against potential extinction. Shroom Sabha partner organization and global NGO Fungi Foundation is mounting a heroic effort to document and archive this priceless ethnomycological legacy spread across our planet while the window of opportunity is still open, as are a rising number of other activists and conservationists around the world. 

The inaugural Shroom Sabha demonstrates that the mushroom revolution in India is officially underway, and the future for the 1.5 billion citizens of India may indeed be designed and built with a little help from our fungi friends.