Cleared Records & Clarity on IG

Plus: AI weed porn.

The Broccoli Report 
Monday, December 12, 2022
Time to read: 4 minutes, 23 seconds. Contains 877 words.

Good morning!

Christmas music is playing in every public space; my fake pot plant is twinkling with a string of lights; I’ve been drinking hot chocolate way too many nights a week—it’s the holiday season, all right, and I’m feeling it. Last winter, I was surprisingly snowed in visiting family, and I’m hoping it happens again—kind of. (I experienced snow shoveling for the first time 😮‍💨 and have a newfound respect for those living in snowy climes.) I hope everyone’s final weeks of the year wrap up as smoothly as a perfectly-folded corner. 

We’re in holiday mode here at the Broccoli Report, too—this Friday’s newsletter will be the last big boy of the year. I’ll still check in on Mondays—because who doesn’t need a little extra cannabis in their inbox on Mondays?—but we’ll save fresh deep dives for the new year. 

On Friday, look for a roundup of the best of the Broccoli Report in 2022, highlighting our most-read features, the stories most useful for small businesses, and the most heated cultural commentary. This one will be unlocked, but you’ll have to subscribe to access the archive posts. ✨

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Above: Pure Sunfarms' candy cane pipe.

One-Hitters: Cannabis News at a Glance

• Welcome home, Brittney Griner!!! While it isn't remotely fair to exchange Viktor Bout—a war criminal—for someone who accidentally had vape cartridges legal in her home state in her luggage, it’s a huge relief to see her make it back to the U.S. It’s also one more piece of hard evidence that the U.S. government’s stance toward cannabis is softening.

• In addition to getting Griner home, President Biden signed into law new legislation that will facilitate more cannabis research. Until now, federally-recognized cannabis research could only work with plants sourced from the University of Mississippi. The new legislation frees researchers to access cannabis samples from other places and permits doctors to discuss cannabis and CBD with patients without risking their medical licenses. It also “promotes the creation of pharmaceuticals derived from the plant.” That gives me pause, knowing how the pharma industry works. As long as people have access to cannabis education and high-quality, full-spectrum tinctures, hopefully less-processed forms of plant medicine will speak for itself.

• Connecticut is following through with its legislative legalization provisions, erasing roughly 44,000 cannabis possession convictions within the next 60 days. The state estimates it will take six to eight months to process the remainder of the petitions to erase other drug-related crimes. This will be carried out per implementation of the state’s “Clean Slate” law and could amount to hundreds of thousands of convictions erased.

• For one of my favorites of the articles I wrote this year, I spoke to four growers in the Portland, Oregon, area growing with adult-use licenses today who grew before cannabis was legal. Each shared an anecdote from before and after legalization illuminating the differences—the good, the bad, and the surreal. You can read an excerpt from the latest issue of indie mag Buckman Journal here.

• Speaking of Oregon—every cannabis business should take note of a recent decision in the state’s tax court awarding some tax deductions to a state-licensed cannabis business. Stephen Lessey and Ginger Lessey of Oak Ponds Farm won a tax bill reduction of just $1,903.49—after years of litigation, appeals, and audits since the 2016 tax year. Still, it demonstrates that when you do your bookkeeping carefully, you can deduct some costs of goods sold.

• Instagram’s latest update is designed to shed light on shadow bans. Anyone with a Professional-level account will be able to view if their account’s content is currently “eligible to be recommended to non-followers” or not, and the new feature allows users to edit, delete, or appeal the posts in question.

• Ouid-centric PR agency Grasslands shared their recommendations for cannabis-related hashtags to enhance visibility without getting flags for violating content guidelines.

• I’ve really tried to cut back on my skincare consumerism the past few years, but my willpower doesn’t stand a chance against the Rose LA and May Lindstrom CBD skincare collab. Lindstrom’s products are incredibly sensory and beautiful, packaged in black glass, and thoughtfully focused on potent botanicals—not unlike the carefully-pressed flower rosin in Rose’s Delights, which is also in ML’s moisturizing, blue tansy-packed Blue Cocoon concentrate.

• The Lensa AI selfies overrunning my Instagram feed of late may be concerning for artists, but fun, I suppose? Dangle Supply gets the award for best AI content yet, typing in: “Description of taking a titanium bong rip but it sounds like a bad romantic novel where the main characters are a couple named Bigbongs.” The results are better than you imagine.

• For anyone still knocking items off their holiday gift list (no shame; I am, too), here are a few fun finds for your consideration: Weed-friendly illustrator Valfre refreshed her lineup of lighters adorned with astrological goddesses, the OG cooking with cannabis book by Mennlay Golokeh Aggrey, Hibi Japanese incense matches for instant cannabis smoke camouflage, and dreamy cannabis strain-inspired prints illustrated by Laura Garcia Serventi for Canadian cultivator Pure Sun Farms.

• Pure Sun Farms also makes a very jolly candy cane-shaped pipe if you’re looking for the missing piece to your December 24th sesh with hometown buds. 

In high holiday and high-THC spirit,
Lauren Yoshiko