Must-read Weed News
Must-read Weed News
Experiential events, launches and more.
The Broccoli Report
Monday, April 12, 2021
Time to read: 6 minutes, 22 seconds. 1276 words.
Good morning, readers!
Whew, this is shaping up to be a hell of a month for weed. Mexico is approaching a final vote to legalize adult use; the state of New Mexico is looking to follow suit; and while yes, everyone’s been talking about New York, did you happen to catch that public consumption is legal, effective immediately?! For real. A legal-weed miracle, and it’s not even 4/20 yet.
Speaking of, I invite you to peruse this playlist I curated for Barbari whenever you feel like setting the holiday mood. The theme is “Nostalgia,” and my assignment was to assemble the soundtrack of my foundational seshes. If you like, read this vibe-y corresponding post for the full time-travelling experience to the woods outside the dorms at UC Santa Cruz in the spring of 2010.
More to come on the power of weed nostalgia and this unique holiday willed into existence next week. This Friday, paid subscribers can look forward to a Q&A with a cult favorite accessory brand. We get real about the challenges of navigating design and logistics when you find yourself mass-manufacturing a piece of art, the delicate dance of weed-related relationships with international suppliers, and more. Lifestyle brands curious about scaling up their house lines won’t want to miss this one.
One-Hitters: Cannabis News at a Glance
Thinking through New York’s whole potency tax thing ... At first, I was appalled at the idea that making stronger weed more expensive could make the market safer. It seemed like a weird money grab for more tax revenue. But then I really dug into how the law intends to assess the tax—not by percentage of THC, but by milligrams. That makes sense for edibles and beverages, but it is a wholly different quantification than the rest of the legal markets are accustomed to when it comes to flower. So, could this mean that labeling THC content by percentage may be less of a thing in NY’s industry? And by that logic, could this influential state have enough clout to actually chip away at the inaccurate, limiting hold that THC percentage has on the flower category? It’s an interesting thought, but maybe too optimistic (considering the comments from the dispensary buyer roundtable). I still think this element of NY regulation is a questionable call if the goal is to lure growers and consumers away from the unregulated realm.
In other updates to ongoing sagas, we echo the sentiments expressed in this letter from Florida Commissioner Nikki Fried penned in response to the Biden administration’s recent crusade against cannabis consumers of a certain security clearance. Coming from a state where over 500,000 citizens are registered medical patients, it’s depressing that she even has to point out the need for “personnel policies that reflect the modern reality of cannabis in America.”
The latest Industry Report from data analytics company Headset featured a dive into the beverage trend. Much like the Broccoli Report team, Headset analysts were skeptical of the buzz around beverages, knowing that the segment represented just 1% of the market in 2018 and 2019. However, it looks like the category is picking up speed. There’s growth in the percentage of cannabis customers purchasing low-dose and high-dose beverages, but a significant drop in purchases of drinks dosed at 20-50 mg. Takeaway: go low or go high is still the vibe for weed drinks, which are still a savvy (long-term) bet.
Groovy California brand Old Pal wants to help everyone grow at home with their new Grow Your Own Old Pal offering. Consumers will be able to buy autoflower plant starts (28-40 days old) in an Old Pal decorated one-gallon pot from select dispensary partners. Aspiring home-growers also get a cool, limited-edition poster celebrating “the symbiosis of the cannabis plant cycle and humans.” In a cultivation community where the past several decades were a battleground of trade secrets and attacks on genetic copycats, this sort of communal sharing of clones from the Old Pal cultivation partners is rather radical. It’s kind of like we’re all gardening in the same patch, together, no matter where we are. (That is, within the state of California).
Melt Cosmetics melted my femme stoner heart back in 2018 when the indie beauty brand (clearly founded by legit consumers) dropped their Smoke Sessions palette of dreamy green and bronze shades, all named after cannabis strains. Then came the “concentrate inspired” Four Twenty palette, with brighter yellows and greens. This 4/20, the brand upped the ante with the new, smoky Mary Jane palette and a gooey glitter pot called Pothead—both available in a 4/20 bundle complete with a rolling tray and glass pipe.
I simply cannot get enough of this yo-yo grinder. It’s novelty-meets-utility at its finest and weirdest, and I love it.
Also into this reimagined vintage weed jar from CAMP: Form Reimagined! Until April 20th, all of CAMP’s vintage spice boxes, sugar bowls, and ceramic containers are 20% off.
The Berkshires region of Western Massachusetts is gearing up to be quite the cannabis shopping destination. Designer Adam Lippes and Alexander Farnsworth are launching their joint venture, Farnsworth Fine Cannabis, with a fancy 2,000-square-foot dispensary designed by London-based architect Simon Aldridge. We’re talking about a space designed to “balance high and low; masculine and feminine; modernism and Classicism,” with cabinets and displays inspired by none other than Rome’s arched Colosseo Quadrato. In the same neck of the woods, fellow aspirational dispensary Rebelle, founded by NY-based trio Charlotte Hanna, Geraldine Hessler, and Penelope Nam-Stephen, is preparing for a 4/20 launch of luxury leather stash bags starting at $195.
Meanwhile, Edie Parker Flower has landed in Colorado. Their whole flower and blossom-bedecked vape pens are now available in dispensaries throughout the state.
Are you the next big thing in NY cannabis? Vice Ventures, the seed-stage venture capital fund founded by Catharine Dockery, is looking for you.
Ok, Kristen Bell! 1% of profits from her CBD brand Happy Dance now benefit A New Way of Life Reentry Project, a Black-owned, Los Angeles-based organization that provides housing, legal services, advocacy, and leadership development for women rebuilding their lives after prison.
We’re experiencing half the amount of usual FOMO at missing this upcoming show at Toronto’s Sky Fine Foods gallery because Diana Lynn VanderMeulen’s exhibition—Shimmer of a Petal, Now a Mountain Stream— is a hybrid physical-virtual experience. If you recall the 3D artist’s surreally beautiful art featured in Broccoli Issue 07, all of those words make perfect sense to you. See you there.
1000% FOMO at the fact I can’t attend this clever 4/20 scavenger hunt, High San Francisco! The interactive and exploratory cannabis scavenger hunt takes place on April 17th, leading participants to locations of note in local history of cannabis, with clues to meet local cannabis brands at different dispensaries in a mad dash to win a grand prize.
You may have seen DUNK ZERO, this collab between CBD brand WeedSport and outdoor apparel brand MATEK, making the rounds on social media and thought, “Ok, another CBD bath salt.” But this zero-waste product is legitimately buzzworthy. Once the salts have been used (over one or two baths), customers can simply rinse out the bag and place it into compost. A slam dunk, if I say so myself.
I‘m not yet sure how I feel about this new “oil lamp” from Houseplant. But I do know that if we’re on the verge of an old-timey, nouveau-Victorian trend shift, I will be the first on the waitlist for the operational writing quill-vape pen by Quill.
Sincerely yours,
Lauren Yoshiko