In Defense of More Stuff
Plus, the latest weed news.
The Broccoli Report
Monday, May 17, 2021
Time to read: 5 minutes, 51 seconds. 1171 words.
Good morning!
It always starts my week on the right side of things when a new Broccoli Talk episode drops. You can tune in tomorrow for a chat between Mennlay and me about weedy connections to beauty, rituals, and our relationships to our outer selves, touching on what’s given us peace and what’s changed over the past year. Personally, my bangs and a predilection for bright eyeshadow are about the only thing that’s stayed static over the past year. Well, almost. 🍃
This Friday, we’re heading to the vineyard. In marketing, industry terminology and agricultural tourism, the cannabis and hemp worlds are taking notes from the wine industry. We’ll be highlighting the ways that cannabis entrepreneurs can look to wine for tried-and-true business ideas and practices, as well as the ways producers can benefit from consumers' familiarity with wine terms. Friday newsletters are for paid subscribers only—sign up to stay up to date with every dispatch.
In Defense of More Stuff
A more authentic range of weedy lifestyles has finally taken root. Can’t we just enjoy it?
Before I get to the news, there’s something I must say. During the week of 4/20, Vox ran an article titled, “Stoners just don’t need this much stuff.” The author kicks off the piece by pointing out that up until the past few years, the extent of tools and accouterments for consuming cannabis was limited to whatever you could cobble together from random kitchen drawers. While that’s true, I myself don’t feel nostalgic warm and fuzzies when I have to use a chopstick to clear my bowl—I’m just mad I ruined another chopstick with bong resin. The author used stash-friendly furniture with lockable drawers and a weed-centric dating app as examples of going too far into niche stoner products. Anyone with a dog that nearly got into their brownies, and anyone having to deliver cannabis disclaimers to every Hinge match, might beg to differ, though.
As I outlined in the Manifest Accessory newsletter, collections like Mister Green’s outdoors gear and Sundae School’s masks and mask-chains prove how successful accessories can be when you really stop to consider everything else cannabis lovers do with their days. In another newsletter on Better Serving Stoners at Home, I brought up the need for innovations in home smoking filtration, and though I made progress in that journey, air maintenance remains a rich realm of opportunity where brands can help consumers in a big way. Oh, and stoned bath-time needs? Don’t even get us started.
Even the author agrees with my laments regarding a lack of jumbo pipe cleaners for bongs. Of course, we don’t need crap—the world doesn’t need more single-use junk that doesn’t work. But stoners have absolutely earned access to nice things that work, and I can’t wait to see the next generation of innovations.
One-Hitters: Cannabis News at a Glance
In a surreal convergence of events, pandemic-related job loss pushed hundreds of Chinese migrants seeking agricultural work to a massive hemp farm bordering an edge of the Navajo Nation, resulting in escalated tensions between Native and farmworker communities. Many workers arrived without knowing what they were trimming, assuming “flower” meant roses, much less that they were working in proximity to Native lands. Animosity ratcheted up with every new hoophouse, inspiring one community member to serve as a bridge, using language translation apps to speak with the farmworkers, and hosting cookouts to encourage his community to get to know the workers. There’s a lot more to this BBC article, and it’s worth the whole read to get the totality of this sobering, confusing, and quintessential story of our times.
The NY Times profiles Copperstate Farms, Arizona’s largest wholesaler of cannabis, which happens to be located in the middle of a predominantly Latter Day Saints community. Many city council battles ensued, but Copperstate’s positive impacts on the local economy have turned out to be a decent argument against the possibility that the Lord will smite those who legalize cannabis.
MITA, Arizona's Cannabis Trade Association, is offering a complimentary, 16-module Social Equity Mentorship Program designed to guide interested, aspiring entrepreneurs through the state’s social equity application process. The program is sponsored by Copperstate Farms, Weedmaps, and Scottsdale Community College and came about following the state’s allocation of 26 licenses for social equity applicants. Learn more or register here.
Sarah Woodson launches The Color of Cannabis, an organization dedicated to advocating and supporting people of color participating in Colorado’s regulated market. It will also feature a customized, 10-week course on business registration and applications for social equity businesses. If her name rings a bell, it might be thanks to her business, Kush & Canvas—Denver’s preeminent puff-and-paint class.
ICYMI—someone branded a cannabis product like cocaine, to the horror of many in the industry. It was presented as a white powder in glass vials and advertised to deliver a “pleasant drip.” Michelle Lhooq outlined the entire drama in her latest Rave New World newsletter.
More states are implementing bans on Delta-8 THC—any brands investing in related offerings should tread with the utmost caution. If Delta-8 is still new to you, take a peek at our past newsletter on the subject.
SMART (Student Marijuana Alliance for Research & Transparency) & Cannaclub are putting on a cannabis career fair! I wish I could volunteer in that virtual gymnasium. The event—happening May 22—will be an educational and networking opportunity for college students and recent grads interested in working in weed, as well as career professionals looking to pivot and cannabis companies looking to hire.
Lizzy Jeff—the rapper, priestess, and virtual goddess of sex and cannabis who gets brought up in the recent Broccoli Talk podcast episode on beauty and self-love—dropped a new album. If you pre-order, it comes with a download of her book, Principles & Potions for Peace, Purpose & Prosperous Living.
I’d venture to bet that there isn’t one weed e-girl out there without this dangly, dazzling hemp rhinestone pin from chic hemp brand Stevie’s collaboration with Collina Strada on their wishlist for future Roaring 2020s fits.
Was Mother’s Day 2021 the most famous day yet for legal cannabis on Instagram? Kris Jenner shared a beautiful Lovepot bouquet in her Instagram Stories, asking an off-screen Kylie whether the colorful Leune tins of pre-rolls and vape pens sprinkled throughout the flowers did indeed contain “real weed.”
Are you bored with your usual hemp-infused hot sauces and chili oils? Hot Sloth, Pot d’Huile’s spicy contribution to the genre, features pink umeboshi and miso for a savory umami kick. The company is currently working on a THC version, but it’s still unclear in which state(s) they’ll launch.
Ceramic studio BKLYN CLAY unveils the Bong/Vase Project, a fantastic limited series of fun, smokeable art by indie ceramicists like Christian Moses and Anders Hamilton.
Edie Parker partnered with sexual wellness brand Smile Makers on an Edie petal-pink model of their Firefighter vibrator. That makes two weed-branded vibrators out there, including Maia’s collab with Tokeativity. The time is running out for cannabis brands to advertise delivering “good vibes” without additional context.
True story: A spicy, 15mg ginger lozenge opened my mind to edibles again. I’d sworn off eating weed after a bad experience with two cookies more than I could handle in college, but that little lozenge gave me a lovely, comfortable high. The company that made them folded years ago, so I am very happy to report that California-based Cosmic View’s new Honey Sweets exceed every standard for the perfect, low-ish dose lozenges, and the packaging is cosmically cuter.
Wishing you a perfectly dosed week,
Lauren Yoshiko
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