RAW Feelings & Martian Weed
Q2 vibe check.
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Time to read: About 4 minutes. Contains 869 words.
Greetings from the most perfect time of year in Portland, OR. Trees are still lush and green from June showers. Roses are in bloom. Dispensaries are overstocked as ever with high-quality, severely underpriced flower, and you can catch a whiff of it in most corners of town.
I have two notable signals of normalization to report: 1. The last batch of blackening spice I took home from my mom came in a recycled flower jar, and 2. My grandma is popping gummies so comfortably that she called me post-dentist appointment to share how well it went with 10 mg in her system. Would I have recommended that timing and dosage? Probably not! But I’m grateful for her giggly call the following day and for one more reason to appreciate this plant.
Here are the most resinous news updates and emerging trends on my mind as summer hits full swing.
One-Hitters: Cannabis News at a Glance
We need to talk about RAW rolling papers. Y’all. First, it was announced that Josh Kesselman, the founder of RAW, had bought High Times. All of it—the magazine, brand, Cannabis Cups IP—for $3.5 million cash. Only a bit more than what Jones Soda sold its cannabis venture for last month. Then, within days, news dropped of a nationwide RAW ban connected to a lawsuit about deceptive marketing filed by competitor Republic Brands (OCB, JOB, DRUM, etc.). The claims made by RAW that have been proven to be inaccurate include:
A portion of profits from RAW products goes to the non-existent "RAW Foundation," which uses those funds to save lives worldwide.
RAW organic hemp papers are made in Alcoy, Spain
RAW organic papers are made with natural hemp gum
RAW organic hemp papers are the "world's first" or "world's only" organic hemp rolling papers
RAW organic hemp papers are made using wind power
HBI's owner, Josh Kesselman, invented rolling paper "cones"
There is no RAW foundation????? What?
There isn’t much written about this yet, my ears (and the comment section on this newsletter) are open to any whispers or backstory. Considering the ubiquitous chokehold the brand has on every smokeshop and dispensary in the world, I’m skeptical of the implementation of any such ban. But I’m thrilled at the prospect of a profiteering exaggerator getting a dose of well-earned karma.It’s been over a year since a new country legalized cannabis. It occurred to me recently that no country has legalized cannabis since Germany in April 2024. There’s been partial legalization in Slovenia (for home grows and possession), and the Czech Republic seems to be on a similar path, but it feels like global momentum has slowed. Or even going backwards? Last month, Thailand’s government reversed course, moving to make cannabis accessible only via a medical license. I think this regression has less to do with conservative shifts as much as it does the continued obstacles to banking, merchant services, online advertising, and navigating social media when dealing with cannabis.
One place where legalization progress hasn’t slowed? Tribal lands. According to a new map released by the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association, one in four federally recognized Indigenous communities in the continental U.S. is home to a recreational and/or medical cannabis program. Minnesota, Washington, and a handful of other states have incorporated Tribal programs into their statewide systems; in others, such as South Dakota and North Carolina, tribal lands are the only places to find legal weed in the state.
A midnight veto saved Texas’s booming hemp scene. For a minute there, things were looking bleak for hemp operators and businesses like Go Easy boutique that sell hemp THC-derived goods. Senate Bill 3 had passed in both chambers, and the stars were aligning for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s goal of banning any and all consumable hemp products containing delta-8 and delta-9 THC. Then, at the eleventh hour, Governor Greg Abbott vetoed the bill and set a special session for lawmakers to convene July 21 to further suss out consumable hemp regulation.
Kiss My Grass, a short film about Black women in cannabis, produced and directed by Black women in cannabis, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Directed by Mary Pryor and Mara Whitehead, Kiss My Grass highlights the challenges and fortitude of Black women working in and around cannabis and demands urgent reform in an industry “built on exclusion.” I feel proud to see so many familiar names involved—many of past Sticky Bits fame!—and inspired to see these stories shared in those rooms. More of this!
A spacecraft carrying cannabis seeds crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Martian Grow is an open-source citizen science project based in Slovenia, focusing on the effects of microgravity on seed germination on Mars. They sent seeds on a June mission by German aerospace startup The Exploration Company, but a parachute failure brought the vessel unceremoniously back down to Earth. One setback for Martian weed, one giant leap for aspirational seshing.
To boldly sparking what no man has sparked before,
Lauren Yoshiko