Wednesday, June 19, 2024
Time to read: About 5 minutes. Contains 1,065 words.
Good morning, and Happy Juneteenth!
A Lonely Hearts update: I’m extending the deadline one more week.
To join in on this often fruitful, always fun virtual board of business connections: Submit a short description of who you are and the service/collaborator you seek/offer to stickybitsyo@gmail.com by end of Monday, June 24. I’ll shorten and sweeten your copy as needed. Check out past Boards for an idea of how it works—the Board will go live Friday, June 28.
One-Hitters: Cannabis News at a Glance
Mennlay Golokeh Aggrey launched a culinary newsletter! If you know my friend Mennlay, or listened to a past episode of our podcast for Broccoli—Broccoli Talk—you know that Taste Bud will be much more than a recipe newsletter. Today’s nourishing dispatch features a “not so Red Juneteenth Red Drink” in the form of a cooling hibiscus rose lemonade fizz, complemented by reflections on ancestral migrations and the relationship between these ingredients and the African diaspora.
Maryland pardons 175,000 cannabis-related convictions. Let’s. Fucking. GOOOOO! Not to take away from Governor Wes Moore’s commedable executive order, because this is major, but while it absolves those people of guilt, this does not result in anyone getting out of jail. It will free thousands from limitations to housing, employment, and quality of life associated with a criminal record.
LA Times revives VapeGate. The first big scare surrounding vape cartridges happened in 2019 following a string of “e-cigarette or vaping-associated lung injuries” that included some deaths. It was a big enough hubbub that there’s now a Wikipedia page covering this crisis. Once vitamin E acetate was identified as a common factor in many of these vape products, it became the scapegoat and was banned in many states. (It’s worth mentioning that they never officially ruled out health risks related to other chemicals present). This time, the special report covers alarming levels of dangerous pesticides in cannabis products available on dispensary shelves across California—particularly in vape brands. 25 different pesticides were found in Backpack Boyz vapes. Of the 42 products tested, 16 should have failed the state's required screening. There’s much more to the story—well-reported by Paige St. John and WeedWeek’s Alex Halperin—but net-net: know your grower, and know enough to trust the brand white labeling their product. Too much is slipping through the safeguards of lab tests and dispensary buyers.
More déjà vape: FDA reverses Juul ban. Or at least started on the path to doing so. Following a “substantive review of the applications in regards to toxicology, engineering, social science, and clinical pharmacology," the Food and Drug Administration has rescinded the marketing ban, opening up the possibility of authorizing Juul to hit the market again.
Potli sets an example of supply chain transparency. When a new DTC hemp brand contacts me for potential press, I always ask where they get their oil/flower from. You’d be disturbed to hear how many have no idea off the top of their heads. I recognize many hemp farms don’t have branded farm identities, but I feel like it shouldn’t be an unknown. This isn’t a crazy question, right? Then I think of Potli’s Transparency Index for each of their hemp-infused honey and condiment offerings, showing the farmer, the processor, contact info for those operators, and all linked COAs in one place, and I feel sane again.
First date weed? According to a recent survey conducted by BLK, a dating app targeting Black singles, 82.8% embrace cannabis use on a first date, referencing it as a social lubricant and a libido enhancer. Free marketing idea: a first date bundle, or a First Date Menu of low-dose, good vibes goodies at a dispensary.
Trulieve to pay $350,000 settlement fine for death of employee in their Massachusetts facility. The cannabis giant may be winning their fight against 280e tax exemptions but they won’t be getting out of this one. Following the tragic death of Lorna McMurrey, who was just 27 when she experienced a fatal asthma attack while working in a joint rolling facility, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found that workers were not provided with enough information and training on the hazards involved in the grinding and production processes. McMurrey’s family is also pursuing a civil lawsuit against the company, claiming wrongful death and negligence, and asking for unspecified damages.
Adults can light up at this year’s California State Fair. After a couple of years of presenting state-grown cannabis alongside other award-winning produce, fair organizers worked with Embarc to coordinate a 30,000-square-foot consumption lounge for attendees over the age of 21 to purchase and sample regulated products. I think events and experiences like this—and the Embarc-related consumption experience at Outside Lands music festival—are key to light at the end of the tunnel of darkness California cannabis finds itself in.
POLITICO went deep on a 10-year check-in with the oldest legal cannabis market: Colorado. It’s also in the depths of a tunnel right now, but the light they look to is the same for all maturing markets—progressing past the boom-and-bust cycle towards more predictable waters (and ideally, the end of 280E tax limitations).
How To Do The Pot podcast debuts a multidimensional Pride series. The 3-part series explores how the AIDS crisis in San Francisco during the 1980s ignited a national movement toward legalization through the lens of Meridy Volz (former operator of the city's largest medical cannabis operation), Dr. Donald Abrams (a gay doctor during the AIDS crisis), and Natalie Wilson, PhD, who discusses managing HIV symptoms with cannabis. The first episode is live now.
Walgreens is rolling out a CBD section. Honestly surprised this wasn’t already a thing. Is anyone reading this one of the brands about to be sold at Walgreens? Would love to talk to you about that.
Tinashe X RYTHM strain collaboration. The packaging for “Green T” is nowhere near Nasty enough, but fans are clearly motivated to get their hands on the goods—especially after seeing their queen singing to the plants at a Green Thumb Industries grow with a hairnet on.
Iconic bong-maker Illadelph drops bong-shaped vodka. Praying for the poor souls egged on to take a hit from an Illadelph filled with Illadelph at frat parties this fall.
To the sanctity of “water pipes” everywhere,
Lauren Yoshiko