Mickey Hart has announced a new cannabis brand, Mind Your Head, marking the first such endeavor for the Grateful Dead drummer. Hart is teaming with California’s Left Coast Ventures for the brand, which launches today, May 21, with the Magic Minis 1/3-gram joints, which are available at select Northern California dispensaries and come in collectable tins featuring artwork from Hart himself.

The Magic Minis are filled with flower from the legendary cannabis strain Chemdog, which was one of the inspirations that brought Hart into the new project. Left Coast even helped bring the drummer together with Chemdog, the man who first discovered the strain outside a Grateful Dead concert at Indiana’s Deer Creek in 1991 and later helped it go on to spawn famous strains like Sour Diesel and OG Kush.

“It’s the great mother to many elite strains,” Hart explains in a conversation with Relix about Mind Your Head. “Then it died out somehow. Now it’s having a gigantic comeback, because Chemdog is in business again.

“The story was so incredible, the circumstances of its birth on Shakedown Street—I couldn’t resist it,” he continues. “I follow strains, and when this came about, I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, this is it.’ I’ve been asked many times before, but this just seemed right. Chemdog itself is a very interesting product, because it appeals to vision, getting in the moment, getting in the zone—that’s where real art is created. It’s very energetic, very heady, clean and smooth. It’s a very fun strain. It’s inspirational for me. I use it in my work—and play. There’s so much adventure to it. Cannabis is powerful, but it has to be used correctly. You know, I can’t smoke a whole doobie and do anything—especially with this stuff. So these Minis, these ‘dogwalkers,’ seemed like a hip way of doing it.”

Hart also notes that this is an exciting time in the lengthy history of cannabis, now that several states, including his home base of California, have legalized the plant for recreational consumption.

“The history of cannabis, it goes back thousands of years, from China,” he says. “Some of the great philosophers from the ancient world, like Pythagoras, the father of the science of music, and Plato, used cannabis. For visions, for mystical flight, for ritual. Our dance with this magical plant goes back, and it shows itself in all cultures, really, through the ages. It wasn’t just something we found in the ‘60s! Maybe we were some of the first ‘overground’ users. But we paid the price, and we were chased for years. We got nicked a few times—basically, we were outlaws. But we made it through all that nonsense to be in a place where it’s legal here in California. Everything just came together in a nice way.”

Hart explains his excitement over bringing Chemdog (and its founder, Chemdog) back into the public consciousness, further ruminating why this specific strain is the perfect way to launch Mind Your Head.

“You’re able to function well on it. You can do your work,” he says. “And it’s a lot of fun! It allows your mind to travel. It’s really about adventure and exalting the consciousness. Like a superhighway of the senses. That’s what this whole thing is about. It’s about consciousness raising. Just like the Grateful Dead is. We raise consciousness. We move minds.”

“We are proud to introduce California enthusiasts to a premium cannabis brand rooted in a global movement that spans generations,” says Brett Cummings, CEO of Left Coast Ventures. “It’s a true honor to work with a legendary musician and activist who has inspired millions of individuals and shares our values and passion to legitimize the future of cannabis.”

Hart himself concludes simply: “I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to travel, open their mind and have a great adventure.”

Learn more about Mind Your Head here.