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Jake Browne was seated in a yellow suede chair, carefully rotating a marijuana bud between his fingers. "I'm looking for bugs, mildew, things I wouldn't want to ingest," he said, leaning forward to hold the nickel-size flower up to the light. He paused, then took a sip of water from a cup with a Miley Cyrus hologram down its side. "This looks clean," he concluded.
丹佛——杰克·布朗尼(Jake Browne)坐在一张黄色山羊皮椅子上，手指悉心拨弄一支大麻花蕾。“我在找虫子、霉斑之类我不想摄入的东西，”他身体前倾，把手上硬币大小的花朵迎向光线，顿了一下，从面前印着麦莉·塞勒斯(Miley Cyrus)全息图的杯子里喝了口水。“它挺干净的，”他总结道。
Mr. Browne, 31, held the bud up to his nose and inhaled. Then he opened his computer. "Faint lemony sweetness," he typed, before loading the pot into a small glass pipe.
31岁的布朗恩把这支花蕾举到鼻边，吸了口气。然后打开电脑。“略带柠檬甜香，”他输入，之后把这支大麻塞进一个小小玻璃烟斗。
"I usually will take one, maybe two hits," he said as he fired up the bowl. "I'm looking for how it burns, the taste, if it's flushed well — meaning you don't want to taste the fertilizers or chemicals." He exhaled, waited and then turned to his computer again. "Head high. No initial body effect," he wrote.
“我一般吸一轮，或者两轮，”他点燃烟斗说。“我在观察它怎样燃烧，品味它的味道，它采摘得好不好——也就是说，你可不想尝到化肥或者化学制品的味道。”他吸了一口气，等了等，然后又转向电脑。“很上头。没有最初的身体效果，”他写道。
This is Mr. Browne's job (or, at least, one of his jobs). The longtime resident of Colorado — where marijuana has been legal since January — is a comedian, a producer and a founder (with his fiancée) of a mail-order subscription box for hemp products.
这就是布朗的工作（或者说至少是他的部分工作）。他常住科罗拉多州——自一月开始，大麻在这个州实现了合法化——还是喜剧演员兼制作人，同未婚妻一起合开了一家邮购大麻制品公司。
He is also the first pot critic for The Denver Post, Colorado's oldest and largest daily newspaper. Which means that, every week, Mr. Browne takes a city bus from his home in Denver's Highland neighborhood, crosses a street called Green Court and lands at one of the city's downtown marijuana dispensaries to choose his product. Yes, he is paid to smoke it — and then write about the high.
他也是《丹佛邮报》(The Denver Post)——科罗拉多州历史最悠久、发行量最大的日报——聘请的首位大麻评论家。也就是说，布朗每星期都要坐着大巴从自己位于丹佛高地的家中出发，穿过一条名叫绿色庭院的街道，来到市中心若干大麻药房中的某一个，挑选自己要鉴定的产品。是的，别人付钱给他吸大麻，然后他写文章，描述药物高潮的感觉。
"The thing people say to me most often is, ‘Dude, you must have the best job ever,' " said Mr. Browne, sitting in his living room. "It's either that, or, if they're from out of state, ‘Can you send me pot?' "
“人们最常对我说的是，‘伙计，这可是天下最好的工作了，'”布朗尼坐在自己的起居室里说。“根本不明白这回事的人就会说，‘你能给我点大麻吗？'”
The Post has had two pot critics on its roster since it created a spinoff site, The Cannabist, in December. (The newspaper is searching for a third, as well as a sex columnist to write about pot and intimacy.) While adding the jobs — particularly for a mainstream newspaper — created something of a stir, Ricardo Baca, the newspaper's newly appointed cannabis editor (and a longtime staff member) said it simply made journalistic sense. “We have a restaurant critic and wine reviewers,” he said. “We have an award-winning craft beer blog. From that logic you do need a pot critic — and maybe a few of them.”
《邮报》自从12月创办子网站“大麻使用者”(The Cannabist)后聘请了两名大麻评论家（该报正在寻找第三个，此外还在找专写大麻与亲密关系的性专栏作家）。引进这一职位引起了风波，特别是身为一家主流报纸。 里卡多·贝(Ricardo Baca) 是报纸新上任的大麻编辑（他是一位老员工），他说，这只是出于新闻意识。“我们报纸有餐馆评论家和品酒家，”他说，“我们还有一个获奖自酿啤酒博客。从这个逻辑上说，你确实需要一个大麻评论家，也许还需要好几个。”
Mr. Browne's path into the role was unlikely. He grew up in Iowa, where, after high school, he tried his hand as a male model (Ashton Kutcher, another former model, was from his hometown). When that didn't work out, he moved to Colorado (“I had just read ‘On the Road,' ” he said) and enrolled in a technical college, but dropped out. For the next few years he waited tables and worked as a bartender.
布朗尼走上这条路的过程很不可思议。他在爱荷华州长大，中学毕业后尝试做模特（做模特起家的阿什顿·库[Ashton Kutcher]就来自他的家乡）。但他没有成功，于是就搬来科罗拉多（“我当时刚读完《在路上》[On the Road]，”他说），上了一所技术学院，但又退学了。接下来的几年他一直做侍者和酒保的工作。
Pot wasn't legal for recreational use when he first got into the business, helping a friend who had opened a medical dispensary keep the books. ("They had been organizing files by first name," Mr. Browne said, laughing.) He wasn't a big pot smoker, but liked the business side of it. He became the company's marketing director and general manager, started a blog and opened up a pot consulting business on the side.
他刚进入这个行业的时候是帮一个开大麻药店的朋友记账，当时娱乐用大麻还没有合法化（“他们得按人名来管理档案，”布朗笑着说）。他并不沉迷大麻，但是喜欢其中买卖的部分。他成了这家公司的市场总监和总经理，开了博客，还在药店旁边做大麻咨询的生意。
He saw the ad for a pot critic on Facebook ("where else?" he joked) and replied with a visual résumé he'd designed himself — complete with a giant photo of a piece of bacon (just for fun, he said). But it wasn't the swine that sold his editor (nor was it simply his writing). "He was an authority on weed already," Mr. Baca said. “He had valuable experience working inside the industry."
后来他看到Facebook上征集大麻评论师的广告（“不然还会是哪儿？”他开玩笑）就递了一份自己设计的平面图像简历——包括一张印着一片培根的大照片（只是为了好玩，他说）。但打动了编辑的不是猪肉（也不仅仅是他的文笔）。“他已经是大麻的权威了，”贝萨说，“他拥有宝贵的业内经验。”
Mr. Browne also has a biological gift of sorts: He is a supertaster. That is, somebody who possesses more taste buds than the average person (at least according to an online survey he took).
布朗尼还拥有一种生物学上的天赋：他的味觉特别丰富。也就是说，他比普通人更能品尝出大麻花蕾的滋味（至少他参加的一项网络调查是这么说的）。
In total so far, Mr. Browne has written 27 reviews. He critiqued a strain called Jack Flash ("it practically jumped through my monitor and into my pipe"); 303 Kush ("almost overwhelming”); and wrote about a Willie Nelson-themed varietal called Red Headed Stranger No. 14 ("a little less mentally racy” but with a "strong overall high”). And while his taste buds play a role in the critiques, certainly, there is more to it.
迄今布朗尼已经写了27篇评论。他评价过名叫“杰克闪电”的大麻（“它在我的监测仪上跳跃，一直跳进我的烟斗”）；“303 库什”(“简直势不可挡”)；还有一款以威利·尼尔森(Willie Nelson)为主题的品种，名叫“红发陌生人14号”（“精神上的力度不够”，但是有“综合性的强烈高潮”）。不仅如此，品尝大麻花蕾在他的评论中自然也有一席之地。
"I think people underestimate cannabis," Mr. Browne said. "You wouldn't walk into a restaurant and say, ‘I'll have the wine.' So why would you assume people would do that for cannabis? In the same way that pinot grigio and pinot noir may sound similar but are completely different, names like Lemon OG and Lemon Skunk are very different strains with very different flavor components and completely different highs."
“我觉得人们低估了大麻，”布朗尼说。“你不会走进饭馆说，‘我要喝葡萄酒'。所以为什么大麻就可以这样随便呢？就像灰皮诺葡萄酒和黑皮诺葡萄酒听上去差不多，尝起来却大不一样，‘柠檬OG'和‘柠檬斯坎克'也是非常不同的品种，有非常不同的气味成分，带给人非常不同的高潮体验。”
A typical day for Mr. Browne likely starts by testing a few products. On this particular day, he spent the morning at three dispensaries: LoDo Wellness, on a street called Wazee; Euflora, also known as "the Apple store for weed" (though, as Mr. Browne pointed out, it actually looked more like a RadioShack); and finally, a shop called Good Chemistry.
布朗尼典型的一天以检测集中大麻产品开始。比如今天，他整个上午都在逛三个大麻店：LoDo Wellness（街头俗称“Wazze”）；Euflora，别名“大麻的苹果店”（但布朗尼指出，它其实更像RadioShack店）；还有一家名叫“好化学”的店。
The key to pot criticism, Mr. Browne said, is knowing your audience. While he tries to keep his language basic enough that a nonsmoker could understand it ("I think pot needs smart people to be ambassadors to the masses," he said), he doesn't want to be condescending to those who do. "I never want to be that pretentious pot critic," he said.
布朗尼说，大麻评论的关键就在于了解你的读者。他试着让自己的语言尽量基本，以便不吸大麻的人也能看懂（“我觉得需要让聪明人充当使者，把大麻推广给大众，”他说），他也不想对那些吸大麻的人摆出居高临下的姿态。“我绝不会做那种装腔作势的大麻评论家，”他说。
The reviews themselves have a certain formula. Mr. Browne begins with a physical description of the product (is it moist, with the THC visible, or a drier, less tightly packed bud?) as well as the smell and taste ("rubber and pepper dominate the jar like a bunch of green army men relegated to miniature mess hall duty," he wrote recently, of an "unfortunately titled" strain called Alien Napalm).
他的评论有一定套路。先是以对产品的外观描述开始（是否潮湿、四氢大麻酚是否可见、是否经过干燥、花蕾不够紧密？），此外还有气味和味道（“罐子里满是橡胶和胡椒的味道，就像一群军人被罚去清扫食堂，”最近他的一篇文中写道，他所评价的这种大麻有个“不幸的名字”——“异星凝固汽油弹”）。
He will find out where the product was harvested (in Napalm's case, a "veganic grow") and tell the reader where he bought it (because each manufacturer has its own wacky strain names). Sometimes he'll describe the sound of the bud firing up ("snap, crackle, pop”) or what, and how much, he ate after ("apple juice and ants on a log," he said, referring to the children's snack of raisins and peanut butter on top of celery).
他会查出产品的产地（比如“汽油弹”就是“素食者种的”），告诉读者他是在什么地方买的（因为所有制造商都有自己专属的奇怪名字）。有时候他会描述大麻燃烧的声音（“啪、喀喇、砰”）等信息，还有吸过大麻后他吃了多少东西（“苹果汁和一窝蚂蚁”他指的其实是一种儿童点心，是葡萄干和花生酱蘸芹菜）。
The most important element of being a pot critic, though, is one that traditional food criticism may lack (at least in this much detail): how the product makes you feel. Seated in his living room testing out the Lemon Kush, Mr. Browne kept detailed notes from the moment he ingested, and observed how it moved through his body. (When writing about Jack Flash, another strain, he once noted that it "always gets me straight between the temples.") With the Kush, he observed whether the pot relieved his headache (a little) and tracked, in painstaking detail, how the feeling of the high evolved.
不过，大麻评论中最重要的东西是传统食物评论里所没有的（至少在大麻评论里有更多细节）：这种东西带给你什么样的感受。布朗尼坐在自己的起居室里测试“柠檬库什”，一边使用一边写下详细的笔记，观察它是如何在自己身体里游走。在写“杰克闪电”的时候，他曾经写道，“它让我太阳穴之间绷得紧紧的”。至于“柠檬库什”，他观察到这种大麻缓解了他的头疼（只有一点），并且非常努力地追溯着细节，记下高潮不断进化的体验是怎样的。布朗尼在测试完大麻后，在家中后院抽烟休息。能在这个历史时刻中扮演一个角色，我感到非常幸运，我觉得这件事无与伦比，”他说。
In his accounting, Lemon Kush was relatively mellow, but a few months back, he had a different experience with a different strain. "After the second hit, I was floored. No thoughts, just pure experience. An instant flow state," he wrote of the Red Headed Stranger No. 14. Ten minutes later, he observed a sudden shift: "I'm a human coffee, spewing words like dark-roasted drip."
根据他的描述，“柠檬库什”较为柔和，但在几个月前，另一个品种带给他完全不同的体验。“吸第二口的时候，我倒在地板上。没有想法，只是纯粹的体验，一种即时的流状态，”他写的是“红发陌生人14号”。十分钟后，他观察到一个突然的变化：“我是人体咖啡，像深焙滴滤壶一样滴落着语言。”
In the spirit of service journalism — and, he said, what is pot criticism if not a service? — each of Mr. Browne's reviews ends with a summary. Alien Napalm, for instance, he concluded is great for sleep, pain or increasing appetite (but "never use it for an appetizer"). The Red Headed Stranger is good for "loosening of limbs and muscles." But if that's the effect you're going for, make sure to stay away from Green Crack. ("I'm no physician, but this is as close as I've come to marijuana-induced A.D.D.," he wrote.)
根据服务新闻主义精神——他说，如果大麻评论不是一种服务，那它还能是什么呢——布朗尼的每篇评论最后都有总结。比如说，他给“异星凝固汽油弹”写的总结是：它有助睡眠、缓解疼痛和增进食欲（但是，“绝对不要作为开胃药使用”）；“红发陌生人”对“放松四肢和肌肉”有好处。但如果你想追求身体方面的益处，就千万别碰“绿裂缝”，（“我不是医生，但使用它让我差点得了大麻诱发的注意力缺陷障碍，”他写道。）
No, being a pot critic doesn't pay the bills (nor does The Post reimburse him for the pot). But, Mr. Browne said, it beats working in a coffee shop (where, for what it's worth, he'd probably have to take a drug test).
不，做大麻评论赚不了多少钱（《邮报》也不报销他买大麻的费用）。但是，布朗尼说，这比在咖啡店工作好（不管怎么说，到那儿去工作他还得先通过药检才行）。
"I feel lucky to be this person in the middle of a historical moment, and I don't think we'll see anything really comparable to it," he said, finishing up his day at a taqueria down the street from his house. "And, you know, I like pot, I think it's a fun topic. Somebody has to cover it. So why can't I be that guy?"
“能在这个历史时刻中扮演一个角色，我感到非常幸运，我觉得这件事无与伦比，”他说，一天的工作结束，他到自家街头的墨西哥小餐馆吃饭。“你知道，我喜欢大麻，我觉得这是个有意思的题材。必须有人为它辩护，为什么我不能成为这个人呢？”
