To Be Blunt

Natalie Oganesyan

Natalie Oganesyan is a rising senior writing about weed culture and politics. She is also the editor-in-chief of the Daily Trojan. Her column, “To Be Blunt,” typically runs every other Wednesday.


Featured columns

To Be Blunt: Cannabis culture prides itself on LGBTQ activism
Weed is for gays and girls only. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.


To Be Blunt: A stoner’s guide to getting elevated without the buzz
Microdosing — paired with observation, patience and responsible consumption — offers people the chance to benefit from cannabis use on a day-to-day basis without interfering with their personal or professional lives.


To Be Blunt: Older generations are turning over a new kind of leaf
The upward trend of older consumers in the cannabis market is the result of many factors. The reality is that cannabis, for some seniors, is transformative and even life-saving.


To Be Blunt: Stoner slang shapes cannabis culture
What we talk about when we talk about weed.


To Be Blunt: Finding the harmony between cannabis and music
Pot has quickly cemented itself as one of the most used motifs in music today, and it’s not really that surprising to see why.


To Be Blunt: Puffing and pondering about the meaning of life
Undeniably, there’s something about smoking bud that makes you think a lot about a lot of things and scientists don’t exactly know why.


To Be Blunt: Cannabis and sex could make the perfect pair
Weed’s mass commercialization has yielded wondrous products like THC- and CBD-based lubricants and sexual enhancement pills, among other tinctures, edibles and flowers specifically advertised to make sex more pleasurable.


To Be Blunt: Cannabis is an integral part of jazz history in America
Cannabis helped the Jazz Age flourish, serving as a conduit for creativity, music production and performance.


To Be Blunt: Cannabis strain categories are misleading, incorrect
So, why do we still categorize weed — a substance used for its medicinal and state-of-mind-altering properties — incorrectly? The problem is twofold: historical plant classifications became warped over time and cannabis entered the mainstream without proper standardization or research into its strains’ myriad effects.


To Be Blunt: Cannabis and mental, physical health is a joint effort
Cannabis, which I sometimes pair with self-guided meditation, allows me to live more mindfully, bringing more awareness to my emotions and helping me work through them.


To Be Blunt: Cinema lacks accurate cannabis representation
The best films and television shows, which arguably comprise the pinnacle of American popular culture, play with the idea of the subversive, the deviant and the taboo.


To Be Blunt: Cannabis can calm the anxious student soul, form community
At the intersection of culture, the arts and language, weed is at the core and impetus of many artistic movements, creative works and emerging modes of expression.


To Be Blunt: Cannabis is a spooky addition to your Halloween festivities
Although October’s festivities are often associated with parties and drinking, cannabis can be a great alternative for those who want to fully immerse themselves in the spooky vibes. Scares from haunted houses or people in costumes are enhanced when you’re high, making the experience more intense and exhilarating.


To Be Blunt: Vaping epidemic exposes need for regulation even with weed
The way we consume cannabis has drastically evolved over the past couple decades. As the industry grows, CEOs, entrepreneurs and startup moguls are increasingly tapping into the innovative and technologically motivated market of weed.


To Be Blunt: The Green Boom disproportionately benefits white CEOs
Weed has undoubtedly boosted economies by creating jobs and increasing financial opportunities in states where marijuana is legal. But as with all competitive and lucrative businesses, cannabis comes at a high price.


To Be Blunt: Cannabis’ history continues to impact communities of color
From the term itself to the discriminatory history it carries, our perception of cannabis has to change. Avenues of conversations need to stray away from the pejorative and dive deeper into exploring actual scientific facts. 


To Be Blunt: Medical and recreational marijuana should be federally legalized
Since I joined the Daily Trojan, I knew I wanted to write a column about weed.