Into The Weed’s co-host Ben Rispin gives a play by play of Puff Digital’s trip to MJBizCon and the High Times Cup Nevada 2019

Bubba Nicholson and Ben Rispin of Puff Digital’s Into The Weeds Podcast at the High Times Cannabis Cup Nevada

DAY ONE – ARRIVING IN VEGAS, PICKING UP WEED, AND WATCHING SNOOP DOG

I left my front door from Hamilton, ON to make it to Toronto’s  Pearson International Airport for a 6 pm flight. Traveling gives me intense anxiety so I like to eat an edible before flying. I grabbed a black market 50/50 CBD / THC gummy for the train ride to calm the nerves and held on to an 80% THC gummy to make sure I could sleep on the plane. The airport, as usual, was a nightmare but I made my plane having ingested the 80% gummy right before customs. The combined gummies were definitely kicking in. I started to have some sort of audible hallucination which was quite pleasant. The sounds of the plane were making a followable rhythm I could tap to. I was in a center seat, which sucked, but I dozed off listening to the beat of the plane.

About 5 hours later, I woke up in Las Vegas. I was feeling well-rested with very little grogginess from the edibles. My plan was to get off this hellish plane, get to the hotel where my buddy Big Tom Of Trimming Sucks was staying, grab weed, and go see Snoop Dogg at House Of Blues. Big Tom, being the gem of a human he is, offered me a couch for the night (actually the week but I couldn’t impose) before I met up with my people the next day. The following day I was going to be meeting up and recording some interviews with my Into The Weeds co-host Bubba, who was also in Vegas working with his company Thrive / Grey Beard Cannabis. I’d also meet up with the Puff Digital crew, hit MJ Biz Con, and contact my friend Smokey who could deliver some proper weed…but for that night, I was on my own.

When I finally got off the plane I texted my buddy Jim Baudino from Merry Jane Media to see if I could still get in to watch a semi-private Snoop Dog Show at House Of Blues. To my excitement, Baudino got back to me right away and said I was his plus one. I had met Jim a while before organically in Toronto. He was working with Merry Jane media then but has since moved up to President. I love Jim. We had him on the ITW podcast when we first started. He’s a gem of a dude and a great representative of cannabis.

I took an Uber to my hotel. Smokey couldn’t meet me to give me any weed until early in the AM. I was kinda in a panic. If you smoke weed like I do, not having it really sucks. Weed keeps me off the booze, being off the booze keeps me off all the other nonsense. Thankfully, Big Tom once again came to my rescue with a beautiful Sativa pen he and his co-workers had picked up at Planet 13, a massive legal dispensary in Las Vegas.  So I hit the pen, ordered an Uber and hoped I’d find more weed at the show.

I arrived at the House Of Blues, which is located at the Mandalay Bay on the Vegas strip. I texted Jim and he said he’d be right down to get me. When I saw him, he had an ear to ear grin and was carrying a trophy. Merry Jane had just won an award for “Most Influential Media Site”.

Jim was up against greats like Ed Rosenthal and more in the  “Influential Person of the Year” category. It’s awesome to see how far good-dude Jim has come. In true humble-Jim spirit, he escorted me to the private Merry Jane party on the third floor of House Of Blues, introduced me to his team and I ended up meeting a solid dude named Ryan from Gram by Gram, Merry Jane‘s affiliated creative agency,  who, as it turned out, went to the same high school as me in a small Canadian town called Waterdown, and he gave me more edibles. The hospitality completely overwhelmed me. I ordered a shot of tequila for Jim and me, to show my appreciation. The least I could do is buy him a drink…but as it turns out the event was an open bar. So to thank them, I just spent more of their money.

I watched Snoop Dog, grabbed a gift bag, and had an amazing night. I got back to Tommy’s room around 3 am and crashed on the couch. Day One was a huge success.

Click here to read MORE about Ben’s Vegas adventure