Phat Ashtrays & Union Pushes
Plus: Nashville’s Weed Restaurant?
The Broccoli Report
Monday, August 8, 2022
Time to read: 5 minutes, 7 seconds. Contains 1025 words.
Good morning!
It was really fun to connect with the Broccoli Report readers who made it out to the Broccoli X Afends launch party, thank you to everyone who came by! The collection is up on the Afends site now for all your summer hemp fashion needs.
Flights costs and inflated travel expenses are making all of us more thoughtful about which events we attend and why—I won’t be heading to Las Vegas for this fall’s big MJBizCon as I did last year, for example, but I am interested in earmarking some travel funds to explore emerging markets in more recently legalized states. Do let me know if you’re saving your reward miles for any events in particular.
Before we get to this week’s weed and hemp happenings, I’m very excited to preview this Friday’s newsletter for paid subscribers. It’s the culmination of months of ruminating on a particular news story that isn’t directly related to cannabis, but shares a rich Venn diagram of interested parties: the federal ban on menthol cigarettes. If you haven’t tuned in, there is a fascinating degree of factors at play, and when you zoom out to consider the conversations around flavor bans in vapables and other flavored cannabis options hitting the market right now, there are some massive implications for us in cannabis to take away. You don’t want to miss this one.
One-Hitters: Cannabis News at a Glance
Well, well, well, how about this month’s Forbes cover featuring Berner? The Cookies brand founder was among the bigwigs and average California growers quoted in the story, which is a good dive into the dismal state of things in California and a welcome reality check for mainstream folks still imagining a broadly profitable Green Rush is at hand. We need all the attention we can get on the hard realities of small businesses on the brink of throwing in the towel—an issue that has bigger implications and the potential to seriously impact the cannabis community far beyond the borders of West Coast states. Stay tuned for more coverage on the subject through a Broccoli Report lens. 🍃
The Guardian reported on the trend of cannabis workers joining unions, focusing on efforts to unionize dispensaries and cultivation facilities in Illinois. Unions like the United Food and Commercial Workers and the Teamsters have had more traction in the cannabis industry than others during this increased wave of interest, winning 18 out of 26 union elections in 2021.
Earlier this year, Colorado repealed a 2006 statute requiring all marijuana business owners to prove they’re legal U.S. residents, and Denver is the first city to officially follow suit. This announcement comes after commitments to make the state’s legal market more accessible for immigrants to start a business.
News of a cannabis-infused restaurant opening in Nashville, TN, where cannabis isn’t legalized for medical or recreational use, made me do a double take last week. Upon closer inspection, Buds & Brews is not a true cannabis-infused destination, of course, but it is more than just CBD on the menu. Maybe? The restaurant offers cannabinoids by way of sauces that include "hemp-derived Delta-9 THC", with 5 mg THC per sauce serving, which they say is somehow still under <.3% THC, per federal rules. Small amounts of Delta-9 THC can naturally occur in hemp—that’s why we have the .3% rule—but I’m not sure how that math works out with these supposedly 5 mg sauces. The company’s website is shockingly vague. This might just be robust hemp extract; it might be Delta-8 oil they misunderstood—either way, I would recommend all Buds & Brews guests prepare for the possibility they will get more impaired than they expect.
Dean Roper—a.k.a. @superchillandcool420 on IG; the ceramicist who collaborated with designer Sandy Liang on ashtrays—sat down with Office for an interesting conversation about authenticity, the artistic value of naivety and something called “sympathetic magic.”
Microdosing may be in but so are thicc ashtrays. Elevate Jane just released a pearly pink glass ashtray with a classic square shape and two pounds of heft (named Ursula, after The Little Mermaid’s voluptuous villain), and one of Houseplant’s more impressive accessory drops of late is the 3.1 lb. (!) Ridge Ashtray—a formidable disc of green marble featuring a ridged aluminum detail in the center for a helpful edged surface. For more abstract curves on your coffee table, Stevie’s glassy, globby hand blown ashtray is worth checking out, too.
Herb published a sort of review of Feel Good Delivers, an unlicensed weed delivery truck operating in New York. That’s just wild to me. There are no quotes with the business owners, and it’s honestly not really saying much, but it does state how the truck offers “their own flower offerings, as well as some of the best brands all the way from California. You can buy flowers, pre-rolls, edibles, disposable live resin vapes, cartridges, infused pre-rolls, diamonds, and live resin.” Absolutely wild.
Amidst accessory site Burning Love’s latest drop of daisy-decorated paraphernalia, you’ll find the Dazey bubbler—a flower-shaped handheld bubbler specially designed for smoking a joint. Smoking a joint like a bong, in a sense. (It’s smoother on your throat and nobody's fingers have to get sticky).
Just when I thought I’d seen it all, I found a same day bong cleaning service in Richmond, VA. For people in small apartments without utility sinks in which they can comfortably splash resinated isopropyl alcohol everywhere, it can be a real pain to take proper care of well-used pieces—I honestly think Bong Butler is a smart ancillary service if there’s a market of heavy users in the area. Take my piece, for example: I have received samples of every cleaning solution out there, and I can get my ~one foot bong really clean, but not like new; not 100% resin-free. If I lived in Richmond, I’d be able to hand over my bong (water emptied) for $20 and, in theory, get it back as good as new within a couple hours.
Dreaming of some kind of small silicone pipe cleaner thing for bong nooks and bubbler crannies,
Lauren Yoshiko