Ziva Cooper

Oh hey, it's the lady at the diner weeping into her hash browns, Sally Ward.

Pack in as much info right now and let's spark some discussion about weed.

The psychology, the botany, the chemistry, the neurology, the legality, and the methodology.

I.e.

do you hold it in your lungs until you choke?

Why do edibles sometimes feel like you will be high until you become dead?

And are any of those tinctures at crystal shops worth it?

I tracked down one of the world's best researchers on this.

Oh, so excited.

Studied biopsychology and anthropology, got a PhD in psychology, went on to do a postdoc in human behavioral pharmacology at Columbia.

They're now a professor and the vice chair for research.

and the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA.

They're the director of the UCLA Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoids.

I was so committed to interviewing this particular person that I waited three years until the scheduling worked out.

Every week in our ology staff meeting, I would ask, have we heard back?

When will my dreams come true?

Finally, they did.

And on a Friday afternoon a few weeks ago, I braved campus parking.

and a 90-degree February afternoon, and soon you will hear the results.

And because we can't discuss the present without a little sprinkling of the past, I also tracked down a wonderful second expert, a sociocultural anthropologist and professor of anthropology at Smith College, and sat in a sunny conference room to ask about their experience both personally and academically researching the social stigmas and attitudes about this plant and