Inside an Amsterdam Coffeeshop - Part Four

by Bobby Black, Thu May 21, 2009

These past two days have been the most revealing yet. I’ve left the relative glamour of coffeeshop life behind and descended into the shady underbelly of the business—the secret life of the runner.

Runners are like delivery services for coffeeshops. They are responsible for supplying the shops with all of the weed they sell and must be on call at all times during shop hours to replenish whatever stock is running low. They operate out of hidden little rooms called “runhouses” or “drophouses” where they store, sort, weigh, bag, seal, label and deliver all of the shop’s inventory of strains. To experience what their job is like, I rented a bike and followed one of these runners on his rounds, helping him package and deliver a few runs. Then today, I met with the head runner, who brought me to the main inventory storehouse. I gotta tell ya, working at HIGH TIMES I’ve seen some pretty big piles of weed before, but this …READ MORE

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Coffeeshop Insider: Barney's Farm Gallery

by Bobby Black, Wed May 20, 2009

Y'all asked for a photo gallery? Well, here it is! More to come soon...

Head to Inside an Amsterdam Coffeeshop for more on Bobby's Amsterdam experience. 

tags: bobby black, amsterdam, cannabis cup, seed company, almost infamous 16    « add a comment

Inside an Amsterdam Coffeeshop - Part Three

by Bobby Black, Tue May 19, 2009

Wow… I’m back here at Amnesia after a fun, busy few days. This weekend, I had the amazing opportunity to travel to [Location Withheld] and visit six of the growrooms that comprise Barney’s Farm. The two guys entrusted with this crucial job of breeding and maintaining Barney’s and Amnesia’s entire genetic stock are known as Genesis and Jeepster.

The gardens were scattered across a few different cities and contained several strains in various stages of development. This included rooms of males, mothers, clones, and flowering females bursting with seeds and ready to put forth their bounty. Genesis demonstrated his seed harvesting methods and gave me a chance to get my hands sticky and harvest a batch of K9 seeds. I also learned how to trim and pollinate, saw some beautiful views along the coast, and ate some unique local cuisine - including squid, rabbit, octopus, and an entire bowl …READ MORE

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Inside an Amsterdam Coffeeshop - Part Two

by Bobby Black, Mon May 18, 2009

I'm sitting here in Coffeeshop Amnesia, where it's about to turn 4:20. Of course, back in the states its only 10:20 am, which means my coworkers back at HT are just starting their days. Me, I’ve already been working for about 4 hours—that is, if you consider weighing out grams of hash and mixing milkshakes “work.” The manager here—a beautiful brazilian girl named Raphaela—has been kind enough to teach me how to work the weed counter and handle the rest of her duties. After my quick training session, I'm soon wheeling and dealing—first, I sold a gram to a nice dude from Virginia. A few minutes later, I sold another American guy an assortment of strains, including G13, Utopia Haze, and Laughing Buddha.  It’s a wild feeling …READ MORE

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Inside an Amsterdam Coffeeshop - Part One

by Bobby Black, Sat May 16, 2009

DAY 1

I arrived this morning, hopped a train into Central Station and met Derry at Barneys Breakfast Bar for coffee. He hooked me up with a nice chuck of Malana Cream and a few grams of Hawaiian Snow. As I got my hippie speedball on, he filled me in on what’s been going down in town. His main coffeeshop is closed for remodeling and won’t be open until September, so he’s temporarily transformed this smaller store on the corner into his coffeeshop. Then, after some brunch across the street at his Uptown restaurant, he takes me out to the place where I’ll be staying for the next two weeks—it’s a former drophouse (a secret storage site for inventory pickups and dropoffs). It also happens to be a penthouse with a balcony overlooking the river. Obviously, it pays to be a playah.

Sissi was waiting for us when we arrived. I met Sissi on my first trip to the Cannabis Cup back in 1994 (the 7th), and over the past 15 …READ MORE

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Inside an Amsterdam Coffeeshop - Introduction

by Bobby Black, Fri May 15, 2009

When you think about stoner dream jobs, there’s one place (other than HIGH TIMES!) that’s at the very top of every tokers list: working at a coffeeshop in Amsterdam.

To live in this stonertopia city and be surrounded by, smoke and sell the world’s best weed, seems almost too cool to be considered work. But this romanticized vision is only half the story. What’s it really like to own and run a coffeeshop, and be a Cannabis Cup champion? What’s it like to work behind the counter at a coffeeshop, and is it really possible for an American to leave everything behind, run away to the Netherlands and land a job selling weed legally?

These are the questions I’m here to answer. And to do that, cannabis power couple Derry (owner of Barneys) and his wife Sissi (owner of Amnesia) have afforded me exclusive, unprecedented access to cover the operation of their coffeeshops from the inside …READ MORE

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2009 Doobie Award for Lifetime Achievement - Johnny Winter

by Bobby Black, Fri Mar 13, 2009

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ALMOST INFAMOUS - WEEDLORD

by Bobby Black, Fri Mar 6, 2009

See the debut of Weedlord here

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BOBBY BLACK WITHDRAWS FROM PRESIDENTIAL RACE, ENDORSES OBAMA

by Bobby Black, Tue Nov 4, 2008

Well, the time has finally come—Election Day. Since declaring my candidacy back in March, I have made every effort to inspire and motivate you stoners out there to get involved—to write to your representatives, to join and donate to NORML, and to register and get out and vote.

tags: smoke the vote, presidential campaign, bobby black, almost infamous 7    « add a comment

SMOKE THE VOTE PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO

by Bobby Black, Mon Nov 3, 2008

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ALMOST INFAMOUS - Beer & Choking on the Campaign Trail Pt. 2

by Bobby Black, Tue Oct 21, 2008

THE HIGHWAY
After our night at Mt. Rushmore, my FFL and I were back on the road—driving east on I-90 across South Dakota, then turning down into Nebraska and crashing in Omaha the next night before hitting I-80 through to Chicago. We’d have to be careful lighting up here: the pigs ‘round these parts are fed a steady diet of steroid-enriched, genetically engineered uber-corn. Some even shoot up high-fructose corn syrup like junkies. But it turned out cops were the least of our problems. From the moment we entered Iowa until the moment we left, we were bombarded by a blizzard of Biblical proportion. Blind and desperate, I wrestled with the road while the Gods vomited all manner of fury upon our windshield—wind, fog, rain and even hail. After hours of meteorological persecution, we finally emerged from the deluge and entered Illinois—the home state of my homeboy Barack.

My next appearance was at a little smoke shop in …READ MORE

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PAKELIKA'S PRESIDENTIAL ATTACK ON BOBBY BLACK

by Bobby Black, Thu Oct 16, 2008

My Friends,

Throughout my entire campaign, I've tried to inspire hope and spread a positive message to stoners everywhere—that they matter, that their persecution cannot and will not go unchallenged, and that by speaking out and working together we can bring change to Washington and make a real difference in our national drug policy. I've clearly laid out my philosophy, my platform, and have kept the discussion on the issues.

My opponent Pakelika, however, has not. Several weeks ago,  we participated in the first ever HIGH TIMES presidential debate. Unfortuntely, my opponent used this historic opportunity not to address the concerns of America's stoner constituency and offer solutions, but rather to attempt to belittle my achievements, smear my character, and insult my integrity as a stoner. His wild, gesticulatory antics and foolish banter turned a serious political forum into what can only be described as a circus. As if his behavior …READ MORE

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Pakelika Campaign Ad

Wed Oct 15, 2008

The presidential race between HIGH TIMES' Bobby Black and Kottonmouth Kings' Pakelika is taking an ugly turn as the smear campaign of these two political machines begin to churn.

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SMOKE THE VOTE: A BENEFIT CONCERT FOR NORML

by Bobby Black, Fri Oct 10, 2008

I'm sad to report that according to NORML, today marks the 20 millionth marijuana arrest in America. Of those arrests, approximately 90% are for minor marijuana possession - not trafficking, cultivation, or sale. Estimates project that law enforcement now arrests almost one million cannabis users each year.

This disturbing milestone illustrates all too clearly why I've chosen to run for president, and why in the past year I've traveled across the the country trying to inspire pot smokers to come out of the grow closet, register, vote, write to their representatives, and join NORML. Only by standing up, speaking out, and supporting our legalization lobby can we end this destructive madness and live without fear.

Before my campaign comes to an end on Election Day, I wanted to do …READ MORE

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HIGH TIMES PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: BOBBY BLACK VS PAKELIKA

by Bobby Black, Fri Sep 26, 2008

tags: almost infamous, bobby black, politics, debate, pakelika, kottonmouth kings, presidential campaign 17    « add a comment

BOBBY BLACK FOR PRESIDENT CAMPAIGN AD

by Bobby Black, Fri Sep 19, 2008

tags: bobby black, almost infamous, presidential campaign, smoke the vote, willie nelson 6    « add a comment

ALMOST INFAMOUS - Beer & Choking on The Campaign Trail Pt. 1

by Bobby Black, Wed Sep 17, 2008

LEAVING LAS VEGAS

Dawn is coming up in Vegas now: 4:20 a.m. I can feel the rumble of early-morning hunger in my gut as I load up the car. Stuffed with her numerous plants and two cats, the backseat of my girlfriend’s Saturn resembled an episode of Wild Kingdom on wheels. These were the last of her worldly possessions, the rest having already been boxed and bound for the Big Apple. She was leaving a lot behind to become my Future First Lady (FFL): her family, friends, the dry heat of the Southwestern desert—not to mention a crazy ex-roommate who’d shut the power off on her. Jesus, what were we doing? Were we really about to drive 3,000 miles and crash our lives into one another?

As we lit a joint and watched the Strip melt away in the rearview mirror, I couldn’t help but think of Hunter speeding off into the desert at the end of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In his classic “wave” speech, he suggested that this …READ MORE

tags: presidential campaign, denver, marijuana radio, norml, bobby black, almost infamous 0    « add a comment

WORLD'S LARGEST JOINT - PART 2

by Bobby Black, Mon Sep 15, 2008

NORML founder Keith Stroup and I hit the world's largest joint at the 2008 Seattle Hempfest. Made using 1/2 bucket of Blueberry and 10 rolls of EZ Wider. Sick...

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SEATTLE HEMPFEST REPORT, PT. 1

by Bobby Black, Fri Aug 15, 2008

Got in this morning around 11 am and caught a cab into town. Checked into my room at the historic Edgewater Hotel, a famous rock and roll party spot from the late sixties and early seventies where bands like the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin used to stay. In fact, this was the hotel where Zep's infamous "mudshark" incident took place (those of you who've read Hammer of the Gods know what I'm talking about—for the rest of you kids, Google it holmes!). My room is right next door the Beatles Suite, and looks out over the scenic Puget Sound, across which lie our stony neighbors to the north. The hotel is set up as an old fishing/hunting lodge, and the lobby is constructed almost entirely of antler, tree and stone.

I'd just gotten settled in, fired up a joint and got the wifi in gear when the first snafu struck—the power went out in the entire hotel. Having no electricity, and nothing particular to do, I grabbed my joint and a gourmet …READ MORE

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HIGH TIMES AT SEATTLE HEMPFEST THIS WEEKEND

by Bobby Black, Mon Aug 11, 2008

Good news, fellow Amerijuanicans: this weekend the BBD Express will be heading out to the grunge capital of the world for the 2008 Seattle Hempfest! This is my first trip to Seattle, so I'm totally psyched to see the city and meet all of you awesome HT fans. I will be working at the HIGH TIMES booth all weekend, signing magazines and selling DVDs and other HT swag—and of course, partying like a rock star. Plus, with any luck I'll be taking the stage on Sunday to speak to the masses about my presidential platform, urging them to join Norml and Smoke The Vote!

Also in attendance will be Miss HT 2007 Sarah and Miss HT 2008 Aum, who will be signing copies of the new Miss HT Swimsuit Special and Swimsuit DVD. If you're lucky enough to be attending the Hempfest, be sure you stop by and say high, and get a free Bobby Black For President sticker with every purchase!

READ MORE

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ALMOST INFAMOUS - SEEDLESS IN SAN DIEGO

by Bobby Black, Tue Aug 5, 2008

Celebrating stoner new year in So-Cal style.

Of all the numerous 4/20 celebrations that go on around the country, none has become more notorious around the HIGH TIMES office than the Seedless party in San Diego. I’d always wanted to go, but had usually been too busy doing press in New York and thus forced to celebrate stoner new year with just a small group of friends. When checking out the flyer for this year’s party—their eighth annual—I noticed they were conducting a “High Times model search” and fired off an e-mail to Seedless marketing director Rezwan to find out what it was all about. Minutes later, the phone rang.

“Dude, you must be psychic—I was just about to call you when I got your message,” he said. “Everyone I talk to about the party keeps saying, ‘Is Bobby Black coming? Man, you gotta get Bobby out here for this!’” Rez explained to me that they …READ MORE

tags: san diego, seedless, almost infamous, miss high times, bobby black, september 2008 3    « add a comment