The first thing I learned guest budtending in Brooklyn? Your feet hurt before your shift is halfway done. But the conversations make it worth it.

I spent the day behind the counter at By Any Other Name (BAON) in Clinton Hill to experience budtending from the inside, where product knowledge matters, but people matter more.

Learning the menu is just the beginning. The real work happens on the floor: listening to people, asking the right questions, and guiding them to something that fits. At BAON, almost every customer was greeted by name, like walking into a neighborhood bodega instead of a dispensary.

BAON stands out because it carries micro-grow boutique products you rarely see in NYC.

Biggie, Bud, and Brooklyn Pride

The tight-knit Brooklyn community of Clinton Hill is where rap icon Biggie grew up. The street features a life-size mural of Biggie on the corner. The community honors his birthday every year with block party celebrations.

The owner of the dispensary,  Ted Crawford, is a Brooklyn native who is dedicated to the borough and the neighborhood. “Our dispensary uplifts the neighborhood and fits in like an important piece of a complicated puzzle,” says Ted.

Ted’s story is provocative; he grew up in nearby Bushwick and was arrested over 30 years ago for a marijuana-related offense, but didn’t do time. “I was lucky to have a lawyer who knew the parameters. He worked hard to help me,” says Ted Crawford, Owner, By Any Other Name. 

A businessman and entrepreneur, Ted Crawford also owns a restaurant in Harlem called Row House. He knows how to run a successful business. The dispensary opened less than a year ago with grit and determination, but Ted doesn’t speak about that like most owners who have been through the trauma, dealing with the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM). He is focused on the positive and living life with intention. 

Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, is bordered by Bedford Stuyvesant to the east and Fort Greene to the west. The area is alive with people and offers the quintessential NYC cool feeling that Manhattan used to have.

The name of the dispensary, By Any Other Name, evolved from a conversation the owner had with his team. It is a story within a story that has deep meaning about legalization, prohibition and reparation. “It’s the story of cannabis within the black community and the shifting of wealth. All the names that cannabis holds in its excellence, terrifying history, in its connectivity and in its healing potentials. We felt the name exuded that deep-rooted conversation,” says Ted Crawford. 

As my branded apron glistened under the starkness of the white, modern, sleek interior of the dispensary, I got back to work. The micro-grow products caught my eye. 

BAON proudly stocks real New York micro-grows you rarely see in corporate dispensaries:

• Farm 2 Hand (Fyre brand) are legacy growers with a micro license in the Bronx. They previously owned a Port Morris Distillery, the first legal distillery in the Bronx since prohibition. Their newly launched cannabis brand features high-grade flower, zero trim and is kief-free. Only high-quality buds allowed!  
• Sticky’s Weed Farm is an outdoor/greenhouse grow upstate NY that offers small batch flower and prerolls.
• Felas is another legacy grow micro from the southern Westchester area that has excellent indoor flower and prerolls.

On the chocolate and sweet side, By Any Other Name offers a unique selection of sweet confessions. “If you’re looking for a full-on candy bar, I recommend the Soft Power Sweets bar. The brand sells a 100mg candy bar and it is packed with flavor and a great rolling build on the THC side. 

The Soft Power Sweets, Dulce De Leche candy bar, comes in a Super Power high-dose design. It’s crafted with slow-cooked, handmade vegan condensed coconut milk. “Every batch simmers for 4 hours before becoming a smooth and rich THC caramel. Covered in sixty-five percent ethically sourced chocolate and scored to offer single 10mg doses in a 100mg mini bar. This treat unlocks the high of luxury cannabis sweets,” says Site Manager, Tracy Shah.

If you’re looking for a true micro-dose chocolate, “The 1mg chocolate buttons from I Am Goodness offer a 100-piece bag of chocolate buttons, in milk and dark. They’re perfect for making chocolate chip cookies or homemade trail mix. The micro buttons allow you to create your own dose and are tailored to your recreational tolerance and therapeutic needs,” adds Tracy.

Being a budtender requires deep product knowledge, the ability to make conversation, and being able to read your customer. “You need a super flexible attitude. The rules and regulations are constantly evolving. It helps to have an extensive knowledge of cannabis, especially if you’re also the buyer, like me. As long as you’re not afraid to get your hands dirty, can multitask and tolerate long hours then you’re ready to be a budtender/manager,” says Tracy.

“And those that rushes my clutches/Get smoked like dutches from the master/Hate to blast you but I have to, you see I smoke a lot/You know how the weed go, unbelievable,” a classic Biggie quote that befits the dispensary, where plant medicine and healing are understood and where knowledge is passed to everyone who enters the store.

BAON has blended into the Brooklyn neighborhood. The dispensary is a well-crafted piece of a complicated puzzle that links cannabis culture to music, art and community. 

Photos courtesy of BAON

“Delay in enabling access can mean that patients who might have obtained relief from debilitating anxiety and depression will die in unrelieved suffering.”

By Jack Gorsline, Filter

A legal battle between the state of Oregon and a group of psilocybin facilitators has escalated, after the state sought for a second time to get their lawsuit thrown out.

The group originally sued the Oregon Health Authority in 2024, to enable homebound disabled and dying Oregonians to access psilocybin under the state’s Psilocybin Services Act. The core of their complaint alleges that by restricting services to licensed centers and excluding those who are unable to travel, the state is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The plaintiffs, a group of specialized psilocybin providers, filed a brief in a federal District Court in Oregon on October 10, opposing the state’s second attempt to have the case dismissed.

The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) had filed a Motion for Judgement on the Pleadings, arguing that the plaintiffs lacked standing to raise a claim under the ADA on behalf of their terminally ill and disabled clients.

That move came a year after the OHA filed a similar motion to dismiss the lawsuit on comparable grounds—a motion that was denied in June.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys argue that the OHA is merely attempting to avoid a review of the merits of the suit, thereby perpetuating the unlawful exclusion of a vulnerable population.

“Plaintiff Facilitators have sufficiently alleged standing on their behalf and on the behalf of their disabled and dying clients,” said Kathryn Tucker of the National Psychedelics Association, one of the attorneys representing them.

She said the state’s position attempts to sidestep the requirement for ADA compliance in the operation of the Psilocybin Services Act.

“OHA seeks to evade ADA compliance in its operation of the PSA, which unlawfully discriminates against these Oregonians,” Tucker told Filter. “Delay in enabling access can mean that patients who might have obtained relief from debilitating anxiety and depression will die in unrelieved suffering.”

The Psilocybin Services Act, which Oregon voters passed in 2020 to establish a legal, regulated framework for supervised psilocybin use, includes specific legislative findings and purpose statements that indicate an intent to serve populations like the terminally ill. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit contend that the current rules, which mandate service only at licensed centers, directly contradict this purpose.

The plaintiffs are seeking a court order to require the OHA to develop a process for home service as a reasonable accommodation, and to notify all licensed facilitators that such accommodations are permitted without fear of disciplinary action.

The ongoing litigation highlights the tension between the state’s groundbreaking regulatory framework and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires public entities to provide reasonable accommodations to ensure services are accessible to people with disabilities. The previous ruling that denied the OHA’s motion to dismiss suggested that requiring ADA compliance—such as access accommodations—would not necessarily compel the state to violate federal law against the distribution of a Schedule I controlled substance.

However, the OHA maintains that the current state law, as written, offers no legal pathway for psilocybin to be consumed outside of a licensed service center, and that accommodating home use would violate the statute. This stance leaves facilitators who wish to serve their homebound clients in a precarious position, risking the loss of their licenses or worse if they provide services outside the regulated centers.

Oregon Health Authority officials did not respond to Filter’s requests for comment.

Meanwhile, a key population of Oregonians that the Psilocybin Services Act was in part intended to help remain cut off from access. The plaintiffs argue that the delay in providing accessible services has had profound consequences, particularly for terminally ill people whose time to potentially transform the remainder of their lives is limited.

If the federal court once again denies the OHA’s motion to dismiss the case, a substantive ruling on whether the state must make accommodations to allow in-home psilocybin services for such clients will be a step closer. The outcome could significantly broaden access to the state’s pioneering psilocybin program. It could also influence how other states design their own programs going forward.

“We hope the Court will deny this attempt to avoid review of the merits, move the case forward, and ensure access for disabled and dying Oregonians, who are among those who could benefit most from psilocybin services,” Tucker concluded.

This article was originally published by Filter, an online magazine covering drug use, drug policy and human rights through a harm reduction lens. Follow Filter on Bluesky, X or Facebook, and sign up for its newsletter.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia/Workman.

“There’s kind of a shock wave going through our community right now, with the speakers that were invited, most of whom were out-of-state.”

By Joshua Haiar, South Dakota Searchlight

Representatives of South Dakota medical marijuana businesses said they were alarmed Wednesday after a state committee that oversees the industry spent much of an all-day meeting listening to invited speakers who warned about health risks and other dangers.

Emmett Reistroffer, of Genesis Farms in Sioux Falls, spoke during the public comment session at the end of the meeting.

“My phone has been blowing up with text messages,” he said. “There’s kind of a shock wave going through our community right now, with the speakers that were invited, most of whom were out-of-state.”

Reistroffer also said he fears the committee is involved in a coordinated effort to restrict or repeal the state’s medical marijuana program, which voters approved in 2020 and the state implemented in 2022. There are currently 16,477 patient cards issued in the state.

Reistroffer’s comments resulted in the chairwoman of the Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee, Rep. Josephine Garcia, R-Watertown, cutting him off.

“There has been no intention at all for any agenda this meeting, other than to follow what was not done when this program was first rolled out,” Garcia said. “That was my only intention here. If you’re insinuating that me, as the chair, have said something or orchestrated something, I have not done that. It is awareness for the public. This is a public safety issue.”

This story was first published by South Dakota Searchlight.

Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen.