Helicopter Weed Tours & Canned Bong Water
Helicopter Weed Tours & Canned Bong Water
Legal news, fresh drops & PR stunts of note.
The Broccoli Report
Monday, December 13, 2021
Time to read: 4 minutes, 38 seconds. Contains 927 words.
Good morning!
As we head into the thick of the holiday season, I’m feeling pretty good—I recorded the last Broccoli Talk episode of the year, and I’m almost done gift shopping, though I still need to knit a gift or two. (Don’t be impressed; my skills are limited to square shapes.) Knitting while watching TV is among my favorite wintertime rituals—a soothing, productive activity perfect for fellow type-A stoners who have trouble sitting still even on the comfiest of couches.
Last Friday, I recapped a press trip organized by Common Citizen, one of Michigan’s largest operators. There’s friction when moneyed brands launch a showy equity campaign, and this Friday, I’m diving into that messy, nuanced area. There are some existing tensions between Common Citizen and Michigan’s medical patient and caregiver community to consider, and other questions to ask about how these kinds of well-funded press trips impact the writers who accept the benefits—and the competitors who can’t afford them. Become a paid subscriber to catch this dispatch all about what it really means for big dogs to “do things right.”
One-Hitters: Cannabis News at a Glance
Weed and hemp sightings at Art Basel Miami: Glass gallery Casa de Cristal hosted Dab Day, a two-day glass art exhibition/weed party featuring live music and vendors. Medical marijuana docs were on-site to provide quick cards for infused product purchases, and testing lab ACS Laboratory dropped the first Certificate of Analysis as an NFT. Head here if you’d like to try to understand its purpose (given the inconsistencies in testing practices and current product recalls, I do not).
I know you saw those headlines about the world’s biggest infused brownie, but the best part of edible brand Bubby’s Baked PR stunt is that it’s going to be sold to a medical patient for consumption. The 20,000mg of THC actually falls within the max allowed for a medical patient in the state of Massachusetts.
In weed news news: WeedWeek launched a private Discord channel as part of their new WeedWeek Pro paid subscription. The “roped off forum for discussing industry issues and behind-the-scenes insights” will be led by WeedWeek founder Alex Halperin, with cannabis journalist Jackie Bryant as the community moderator.
Welp, that SAFE Banking legislation shoved into the pending defense bill got deleted. This sucks, but honestly, it wasn’t going to be the silver bullet needed to slay the industry’s banking woes. Although it would have been a step toward making it possible for federally insured banks to work with licensed cannabis businesses, it never guaranteed they would.
A weird, bad look for Florida cannabis regulators: Following an emergency rule enacted by the state legislature in October to compensate for potentially discriminatory licensing processes, one highly coveted “vertically integrated” permit to grow and process is being made available to a member of the Black farming community. The catch? The license fee is a whopping $146,000, which is more than this level of permit cost when the program launched.
Speaking of disturbing licensing math, check this out: Imperial Beach—California’s southernmost city—just announced its fees for the one cannabis business allowed to operate there. The one permitted business had to pay $10,000 with their application, demonstrate proof of $300,000 in liquid assets, and will be charged another $24,000 to cover annual audits and inspections by the city.
Kudos to Amber Senter and the rest of the Supernova Women crew for being strategic and loud about tax relief for cannabis businesses. They inspired San Francisco officials to pass an ordinance suspending the city’s cannabis business tax for 2021 and 2022. Activism in action, delivering results!!!!!!! ✨
Concentrate brands just got a new packaging option. Calyx just launched a glass line of concentrate twist-top containers (with a resealable gasket) in 4ml and 7ml sizes with three color options—clear, black, or milky opaque.
One of my biggest regrets from my Vegas trip was not making it to one of the city’s over-the-top shops. I wish I’d had access to Las Vegas Cannabis Tours. This new weed tourism company is making it easier for tourists to experience the city’s unique shops through an array of 2.5-hour tours. “The Stoner Tour” takes you to three of the top shops in town, but there’s also the “Grass and Glass Tour” ($200/person), which includes more in-depth, behind-the-scenes tours of shops and a DIY glass blowing session. Upgrade to the $375 “Get High and Fly” package and end the tour with lunch and a helicopter ride over the Strip.
Random: CelebStoner.com put together a pretty helpful list of 2022 cannabis events throughout the globe.
Artist Aimée Wilder released a cannabis and ‘shroom-inspired wallpaper collection. The Melloaid family of patterns “explore botanical and chemical imagery of some of these mystic medicines,” from an iridescent bronze pattern with floating cannabis leaves to more graphic, vibrant depictions of buds and branches.
Another stoned bath wish came true: High Society Collection partnered with Cannabombz to put one of their star-shaped joint rings inside a lavender-eucalyptus-jasmine scented CBD bath bomb.
Before this week, I’d never heard of Liquid Death—a canned water brand embracing the obnoxious, loud aesthetics of dude-ly energy drinks—but then they jumped on an accidental collab with Wiz Khalifa after the rapper posted an IG video while using Liquid Death water in his bong. Liquid Death reached out and made this commercial for their YouTube channel and even added a product page to their site. The product description reads: “What makes Liquid Death Mountain Bong Water different from our original Mountain Water? Absolutely nothing. We literally just added the word “bong” to this page.”
Wish me luck tagging Evian in my next bong selfie,
Lauren Yoshiko