Stone Slade: Five Questions, and the Magic of the Internet

I met Stone Slade through the magic of the internet, and what an interesting man this is. The stories that he tells are captivating, and his cannabis experiences are deep as well as authentic.

Please tell me who you are? Where are you from? Where do you live now?

My name is Stone Slade. I was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1971. At that time, my parents had a place down there and one in San Rafael, Ca. My dad was part of a group with the Grateful Dead that they called the “Pleasure Crew.” Many trips were made across the border carrying more than just our personal belongings, if you catch my drift. Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzman wrote about taking one of those trips with my dad, and Big Steve Parish has told some of those crazy stories on the G.D. Hour on Sirius XM. Growing up, my being a part of what everyone called the Grateful Dead family definitely made for some great and unusual childhood memories.

I’ve had cannabis in and around me my entire life. According to my dad, he shotgunned cannabis smoke into my face with my first breath at the hospital in Mexico… thanks, dad!

We moved to Austin, Texas, in the late ’70s, where my dad helped Rolling Stones and G.D. road manager, Sam Cutler, convert a horserace track just outside of town into a live music venue that hosted concerts by everyone from Willie Nelson and Farm Aid to Stevie Ray Vaughn, and so many more.

I’m still located in Austin today, where I’ve made my name as a sports and music festival promoter, graphic and web designer, as well as a local TV and event personality. In 2013 I had a hit tv show on the A&E network called Modern Dads that unfortunately didn’t make it to season 2 due to internal problems with cast members.

Please tell me about what you are doing right now? How does your work benefit others?     

Right now, I’m in the middle of producing and hosting a new cannabis TV show called Hittin the High Road. This first season is being co-produced and funded by Sensi. We’re basically taking the “No Reservations” show blueprint left by the late great and very missed Anthony Bourdain and applying that to legal cannabis markets across the U.S. We’re a show that travels, but we’re not really a travel show… we’re an experience show offering the viewer a chance to experience these great markets and people with us.

As you and your readers know, even as we inch closer to federal legalization, we have a lot of work to do to break the unfair stigma our government gave our plant. I love good stoner humor, and there’s a lot of that out there, but I feel l like one thing that’s missing is a show that doesn’t necessarily highlight stereotypical stoner culture as much as takes the viewer on a journey through these markets and introduces them to people and situations in the industry that they can relate to. Right now, it’s perfectly acceptable for a soccer mom to wind her day down with a glass of wine. But if that same mom chooses cannabis over alcohol, it’s frowned upon in most states, and it shouldn’t be that way.

I’m hoping we can put a good dent into normalization and help states like where I am in Texas make the move to legalize.

What kind of obstacles do you face? How do you (going forward) fix those obstacles? What are your Six and Twelve-

month goals?

My first big obstacle was finding funding with a partner that understands and sees my vision. The first thing I did was put together a minute and a half teaser video with my production partner, Justin Netti. Justin is very well known in the reality tv production world and a fellow cannabis consumer, so he really makes the perfect partner in this project.

We both used our tv network contacts to pitch our show idea, but unfortunately, a bunch of network suits that are in the same group of people we’re trying to normalize cannabis to didn’t see or understand the vision that separates us from as they said, “other weed shows that have failed.” We knew that we at least had to get an episode in the can to show them what we were trying to do.

We were a couple of weeks away from spending our own money to shoot a pilot in Denver when I met Ron Kolb at Sensi. Ron fell in love with the show idea, and from there, we worked out a deal to shoot the first season together. I was ecstatic because I hadn’t even thought about this outside-the-box funding, but it made perfect sense.

I’m hoping to have the season shot (6 episodes) within the next six months. From there, Sensi will air it on their digital platform of choice. My goal from there is to take the completed season and follow up with our network and streamer contacts to sell the season and hopefully be renewed on that platform.

What is your favorite way to grow cannabis (if you smoke), indoor or outdoor? Organic? What’s your favorite food when you are enjoying cannabis? Do you cook? Favorite food?

I gotta tell you, my favorite way to grow cannabis is to let the professionals do it! I am what you would call a brown thumb! I also don’t discriminate against indoor or outdoor as long as it is quality smoke. Keep your inflated THC percentages because it’s all about the terps for me… if it doesn’t have the smells or, even more importantly, the flavor, then I don’t want it. At my age, I’ve smoked all types of flower over the years, and I’m too old to smoke crappy bud.

I recently smoked my first living soil-grown flower from a company named Dutch Botanicals in Denver and have to say that it was some of the most pungent, terpiest (is that a word? lol), & tastiest flower I’ve had in a long time; great flavor from start to finish.

I love food as it is, so eating while enjoying cannabis is over the top. I don’t really have a favorite or “go-to” snack when consuming, but my sweet tooth definitely comes out.

I do all the cooking at home, and I’m not talking burgers, grilled cheese, or PBJs. I love a good culinary challenge and try to make fancy meals at least once a week. However, my favorite is smoking meats on our pellet grill.

What is your passion?

I’m passionate about many things, family, business, travel, etc., but right now, my main passion is focused on Hittin’ the High Road and normalizing cannabis. I started smoking as a young teenager to “get high.” At that time, I didn’t know how closely wired we are to this plant, and even though my parents and their friends somewhat normalized it to me, there was also the exact opposite information and images coming from D.A.R.E. and the failed war of drugs propaganda machine. Prohibition created a tabu with cannabis that drew my friends and me to it. It makes me wonder if it was that tabu the government created that made kids want to smoke at an early age.

Anyway, one night when I was a sophomore in high school, my dad didn’t come home. It turns out he was part of a citywide drug sting and was busted for trying to buy 100 pounds of cannabis that didn’t even exist (he was only buying a single pound). Half a dozen strangers were sitting in a room to buy various amounts of smoke before the feds busted through the doors and pistol-whipped my dad. Everyone in the room was charged with the full fictitious 100lbs, and my dad was then gone for five years. That was a really hard time for me. The one constant in my life was gone, and I was stuck with a step-mom that really didn’t like me. The feds came and seized cars, money, and more. Thankfully Jerry Garcia came to my dad’s aid and paid his legal bills; otherwise, he would have been gone even longer.

Fast forward to 2012 when I lost my dad for good to cancer. The only thing that helped him with the pain in his final months were some of those old Bhang chocolate bars from California before they were limited to 100mgs. It made me mad that something so simple helped him but that it was illegal. You go through all the should haves and could haves. I’ll always wonder if he could have been saved had cannabis not been unfairly outlawed.

For more info:  http://www.hittinthehighroad.com

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Feature Photo: Kristin Gunn