There’s one uncontestable and concrete fact that everyone who’s been a part of this hash and weed scene for the last decade knows to be true: Big Mike loves you.
Michael “Big Mike” Jackson has been a part of the hash scene on the West Coast for 15-plus years. He’s watched the evolution, from dabbing slabs of butane hash oil to single-source solventless. He’s chopped it up with icons of the community, like Frenchy Cannoli and Mila Jansen, and was chosen by Mothership Glass to hide one of their glass eggs last Easter.
In 2022 — after being diagnosed with Stage 4 chronic kidney disease and wanting to get himself and his family out of the city — he moved to central California and started making hash. Watching hash makers and studying cultivation since the Chalice Festival days, he knew this was something he’d be truly passionate about jumping into.
Jackson said that the first year, watering the greenhouse while holding his medication bag in the other hand, helped him discover how much dopamine and serotonin came from doing what he always knew he’d have the skills for. Now, he sees the benefits of Cannabis use in the way it deals with not physical pain but the mental stress of staying positive and thankful.
“I don’t know if it’s the plant that gives me peace,” Jackson told the Leaf, “but I know that this plant allows me the space and the breath that I need to find peace. It allows me the grace to pause and the reason to push.”
Part of that push has been documenting his daily life on Instagram.
“When I started documenting my journey online, I hated posting. But now, my DMs are flooded with people who have been comforted or inspired by these posts, and I realize it’s so much bigger than myself now,” he said. “I’ve been through some dark stuff and dealt with some serious demons, but I’ve never felt mentally or spiritually stronger, thanks to this plant.”
Like so many of us, “when I found Cannabis people, I knew I found my misfits, my people,” Jackson said. “Growing up a big fat dude named Michael Jackson, I was an easy target in Los Angeles, and it was rough.”
He said that through the plant, he was able to quickly build a place in the community.
“It unlocked my true character and what I have to offer in this world, and that’s love,” he said.
Jackson wants to be the person at the sesh who welcomes everyone, who gives anyone who might have felt like him a chance to come to the table, hit the rig and see if this might also be your group of misfits.
The dialysis treatments and medications tend to take a lot out of Jackson nowadays, but he said he’s been in the gym getting ready to sesh with everyone at Puffcon. It’s a time, Jackson told the Leaf, that feels like a family reunion. This year, he’ll be hosting the first blood drive at the Puffcon lot. Working with Life Source, which runs Bleed for Weed blood drives with dispensaries, he’ll give every donor a special gift at his booth once the event kicks off.
Jackson has one of those positive energies that inspires us all to be a little more thankful.
“The world has got a lot of pain and turmoil,” he said at the start. “To be able to wake up and have the privilege to do what you love, to be consumed by passion and art and love and community and culture — it’s a privilege, and I’m so grateful for it.”
