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Jan 24, 2024

Cannabis Is Ready For Its Closeup: ‘Coffee Table’ Books Are Giving Weed Its ‘Glamour Moment’

"Acapulco Gold" is one of 100 cannabis strains lovingly profiled in the photography-rich book ... [+] "Higher." Whoever thought the tops of cannabis plants could look beautiful, even dare we say,

"Acapulco Gold" is one of 100 cannabis strains lovingly profiled in the photography-rich book ... [+] "Higher."

Whoever thought the tops of cannabis plants could look beautiful, even dare we say, sensuous?

Higher, The Lore, Legends and Legacy of Cannabis, is an oversize cannabis “coffee table” book (Ten Speed Press), offering 7.5 x 11-inch, eye-popping, high-resolution color photos by Erik Christiansen, alongside text by author Dan Michaels.

Here, Michaels has detailed the origin stories of and cultivation details on some 100 cultivars and hybrids, all portrayed in Christiansen’s studio-quality portraits. Altogether, the book confers on cannabis what NPR cheekily called “its glamour moment.”

That glamour is growing: Michaels and Christiansen have now collaborated on three such elegant tomes. But the question arises as to why “Dan Michaels” is in fact a pseudonym and the author won’t publicly release his photo. In the following interview, he tells us why.

Dan, it’s 2023! Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational cannabis/marijuana; the federal government is poised to revoke the plant’s Schedule I [illegal] status. So why the cloak and dagger routine on revealing your identity?

Dan Michaels: I’ve been in the industry so long that I’ve just taken a behind-the-scenes approach, something I’ve always done. It’s helped me open up doors and get involved with people who otherwise would not have let me in on the inside scoop.

Do you feel like there’s still a stigma?

Michaels: Not as much as there used to be. I think there is still a stigma associated with cannabis, unfortunately. It’s one of the reasons Eric and I wanted to put these books together, to put cannabis in a different light and show it in a way that makes it a little more acceptable, rather than [repeating] the nostalgia and clichés you’ve seen in other books.

Explain that.

Michaels: Prior to the first book we wrote, many books were nostalgia — stoner clichés, a different vibe to them. We wanted to present practical information about cannabis, and present it in an accessible, comprehensive manual.

Who is this book for?

Michaels: I like to think it can be an occasional user interested in learning a little bit more and also a dedicated connoisseur. We run the gamut of information in here. It could be a coffee table book: If you want to flip through it and get some interesting tidbits, we’ve organized it in a way that’s easy to digest – in sections. If you want to read it cover to cover, you’re going to get a comprehensive understanding of cannabis.

Talk about your two previous books.

Michaels: Green, a Field Guide to Marijuana (2015) was more of a field guide of the strains – more about the cured buds themselves, the final form. Green, A Pocket Guide to Pot (2017), was an updated version of the field guide.

Higher includes a lot of technical cultivation information. Should a user know the science behind marijuana?

Michaels: I think so. It’s important to understand it. You’re putting this into your body. I like to understand “what it is” with food, drinks, what have you. It’s good to have a deep understanding of what it is, since you’re ingesting it.

How’d you choose these strains? Are “cultivars” the same as “strains”?

Michaels: Yes. We have the “classical” cultivars, from 1960 to 2000, when those were first bred. Then we get into the modern hybrids, which are 2000 to the present.

Hella Jelly, from Humboldt Seed Company, is a sativa hybrid with 25% to 32% THC and a hallmark blue ... [+] cotten candy aroma.

Are there others?

Michaels: There’s thousands of strains, so we’ve sort of curated the ones we felt were the most important and influential.

How’d you get ahold of so many different plants to photograph?

Michaels: It goes back to the network that Erik and myself have put together over a long period of time, just having friends in the industry. We have growers from across the country… some of them grew these plants out just for this book.

Speaking of the industry, tell me about your business, Sinsimedia.

Michaels: It’s a creative consultancy. We do a lot of branding, packaging work within the cannabis industry; it’s just outside of New Haven. We [he, Christiansen and freelancers] have been working in this space for probably ten years.

Of course cannabis cultivation goes way, way back and your book celebrates some of the wacky cultivar names it’s inspired, like Sour Diesel, Maui Wowi and Sundae Driver. One fun essay traced the origin story of “4/20,” the annual cannabis holiday each April.

Michaels: What I did was I got in touch with a group of guys; they call themselves “the Waldos,” and they’re the friends who coined the term. “4/20” is the time they chose to meet right after school, and I think it was right after football practice. So they decided to meet at “the statue” at their high school campus. They gathered there and smoked, then they went off to their adventures. And the name stuck. That was 1971.

How have things changed?

Michaels: 1970 is when cannabis became part of Schedule I, which is the worst of the worst drugs. It follows that these kids had to come up with a code term. So, through the 1970s into the ’80s into the ’90s, there was a resurgence of this as something natural that we weren’t afraid of anymore. At the same time, there’s been a lot of research about cannabis and its benefits to many aspects of your life. That’s where you start seeing a shift, through the ’90s into the 2000s, and people realizing, “[Cannabis] isn’t the same as other Schedule I drugs.”

Are you looking forward to legalization?

Michaels: Yes, the more and more we do our research, [the more] you’ll see benefits of cannabis come out that can be scientifically proven … I think there will be more concrete research with concrete results showing clearly that cannabis is a positive and not a negative.

This conversation was edited and condensed for clarity.