Our sister paper The Portland Mercury originally published this interview.

ALEXANDER VOLKOV / ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS

It’s T-minus 256 days until Oregonians can legally start tripping, and the state’s still deciding how best to manage the production and administration of psychedelic drugs.

In 2020, Oregon voters passed Measure 109, permitting the use of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms. In the months since, members of a volunteer advisory board made up of invested parties—therapists, doctors, researchers, mycologists, and others—have worked on a framework for implementation with a deadline of Jan 2, 2023, when various production and facilitation groups can start applying for licenses.

But what does that

We love this classic pho bac shot. Phởcific Standard Time

For a city known far and wide as a drinking town, Seattle lacks an iconic cocktail, a drink synonymous with a sense of place. With respect to the generations of world-class bartenders who have called Seattle home, we have no equivalent to the Singapore Sling, invented by Ngiam Tong Boon at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore; no Sazerac, invented by Antoine Peychaud in New Orleans; no Caipirinha, built to combat a wave of Spanish flu in Sao Paulo. And so forth. Why no one has done a moody-ass grey-blue version of a lemon drop and called it The Rain

(L-R) Lux pot shop co-founder Shea Hynes, Sen. Patty Murray, and like 1/16 of WA State Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti, all stumping to let pot shops use the banks. Courtesy of U.S. Senator Patty Murray’s Office

Thanks to recalcitrant Republicans and a couple power-drunk conservative Democrats in Washington D.C., Congress remains paralyzed on any issue unrelated to greasing the wheels of the war machine, building roads, and I guess shoring up the postal service. But at a press conference in Tukwila on Wednesday morning, Washington Senator Patty Murray said she saw a real path forward for the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, a long-suffering proposal that would give

Thinking about protecting pot shop workers, probably CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES

4/20 BLAZE IT: Today is one of those magical fake holidays like Pi Day (March 14), except for weed! Weed! Our friends at EverOut already compiled a big ole list of where the potheads will party this fine 20th of April. Hit up Carnival 420 in Georgetown or “Inhalen,” a cleverly named tribute to Van Halen at Growler Guys. Catch Cucci Binaca’s 4/20 dragstravaganza later tonight and end the night with an edible of choice to soothe you to sleep.

As a non-weed-smoker (I know, I’m a boring nerd with a family history of schizophrenia that creeps up when