Healing Blunts (Technology)

Background:

Due to the magical properties of the spring behind the old Tuck farms near The Quarry, a wild strain of *cannabis indica* was grown in the 1940s as part of the Federal Government's Hemp for Victory program. That magical spring, also the source of the infamous Satan hogs, is believed to be the origin of the strain of cannabis that would become the healing blunt. The first wave of S.U.P.L.E.X. discovered this particularly potent strain of reefer during their first run at their own Bayonet Assault Course. While it did not evidence healing properties then, it created an unnaturally potent calm and high, helping them deal with the effects of the fear gas they used as a training aid and promoting a certain amount of general wellness as well. The team naturally began cultivating this strain of reefer-many later adherents of the Macho Ministry believe that this was actually a divine intervention.

Development:

The team's vinomancy expert, Flora, took over this project, using her plant gene alteration abilities and communications to guide the strain towards greater potency. The team used this recreationally and eventually therapeutically, discovering that it made long term injuries and mental traumas both less severe-and during the first wave, there were plenty of those. It was classified as top secret by the group at the time, but as they began to increase their revenue, they began exploring more advanced research on the subject, employing noted botanist and retired superhero Adam Querycon, aka the Querymaster.

The team's second generation of healing blunts came when the rookie 2nd wave hero then known as Voodoo Doll was beaten brutally into a severe coma by a henchman in Jeffersonville. The team attempted to wake her by, among other things, smoking one of the generation 1 blunts with the empathy powered healing heroine. To do this, Flora employed her genetic alteration powers and the technique known as "shotgunning" a blunt, assisted by Slag who used CPR to get her to inhale. It was, as the World's Luckiest Detective later put it, "Another fuckin' miracle, right before my eyes." Voodoo Doll, even in her coma, gained a small boost to her healing meta powers and her fingers and toes and hair all became fragrant, potent *cannabis indica* buds that glowed an odd, luminescent green under a black light. This new strain produced no seeds, but after a cash injection and a minor mental breakdown, Flora found the key-the buds could be cloned and grafted onto existing generation one plants and produce the new strain. Production began immediately, as per the usual S.U.P.L.E.X. policy of not looking a gift miracle in the mouth, and the second generation of healing blunt proved both incredibly potent and with a direct, time release healing effect that caused wounds to close up and heal as if months had passed. Voodoo Doll (later simply called Doll, due to racial sensitivity concerns) was moved to the greenhouse and the growths on her skin were used to produce this version of the healing blunt after 3 months of testing.

The team deployed the healing blunts in a tactical sense very quickly, recognizing it's potential as a game changer early on. The 3rd wave was equipped with them in Santa Prisca and several incidents both proved the value of instant magic healing in a smokable form, and the difficult and painful limitation. Unfortunately, while the healing blunt could mend flesh and knit fractured bones together, too much damage rendered them as dangerous as they were useful-any object still in the body remained there, a design flaw that lasts to this day. That doctrinal problem was solved in the field by the application of forceps and later, very expensive surgery, but research continues to determine if there is a better way. However, the unfortunate kidnapping of Doll and her subsequent death threatened the entire healing blunt program, and the fourth wave were carefully rationed until Flora's research came up with a way to replicate the effect using her DNA altering powers. Unfortunately, the whole process was derailed and ultimately made public by two factors-the criminal's access to healing blunt technology, and the very public spectacle of Flora's breakdown and eventual murder of Adam Querycon. The research and existence of healing blunts was common knowledge by the time the 5th wave was recruited.

The 5th wave made one of the most important changes to the doctrine of the formerly classified healing blunts. They began issuing healing blunt related technology to paramedics and disaster response efforts, using it to treat the worst of the gunshot and stab wounds as well as for more general therapeutic use. They were aided by the governor finally ceding cannabis legalization in both then-active S.U.P.L.E.X. contracted states. The team even developed a vaporizer model that fit into an oxygen mask, based on El Diablo Blanco's 'Hotbox Helmet' design, which is now in almost every ambulance in the Midwest-all paying a hefty royalty to S.U.P.L.E.X. Corp. The development of the healing blunt has brought many changes to the superhero game, both good and bad, but the largest has been reduced fatalities in both accidents and incidents of violence. The healing blunt is just now becoming commercially available through dispensaries, and many are excited for future development, about which the team is very quiet.