Waiting For Change & Virtual Terps
Plus: Wedding weed.
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Time to read: About 4 minutes. Contains 1,015 words.
Good afternoon!
I had family in town this past weekend and caught up with the most old-school hippie of my relatives, a great-uncle who grew up in southern California and was a student at UC Santa Barbara when Vietnam protests and subsequent crackdowns unfolded. I knew the lore of how he moved up to the British Columbian wilderness soon after to live off the land [read: grow cannabis] for several years with a group of friends, but he told me a story I’d never heard before about how while still in Santa Barbara, the house he lived in off-campus was tear-gassed in the middle of the night, simply because they had an anti-establishment poster in one of their windows. His landlords had a two-year-old baby in the house that barely survived the exposure to tear gas. That was the final straw that sent him, understandably, into nature.
It’s what so many of us are talking about right now—these protest parallels. For the cannabis community, even more so. I also caught up with Nathan Cozzolino, one of the founders of Rose, who noted how the Controlled Substance Act that first categorized cannabis as Schedule 1 came about amidst Vietnam protest fervor in 1970. He invited me to help write a statement that breaks down these correlations between rescheduling, the protests, and freedom of speech, as well as the wholly unnecessary collateral damage the CSA inflicted on Black communities, which you can read here.
One-Hitters: Cannabis News at a Glance
Rescheduling talks seem to be where we left them last week. The White House Office of Management and Budget has 90 days to review the proposal. If and when approved, it’ll go back to the Justice Department for a proposed rule in the Federal Register, and then a public comment period. Based on every other major cannabis legal shift, probably a couple of lawsuits will get filed and delay rollout for a period of time. I’m losing faith this could all get wrapped prior to the election, but I think the bigger hope is that it’s finalized prior to Tax Day 2025 and cannabis-related businesses are liberated from Section 280E.
Senators Wyden, Schumer, and Booker have reintroduced the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA). This legislation would decriminalize cannabis at the federal level and allow for interstate commerce, along with enacting a number of other cannabis policies in the hopes of fostering more equitable industry. It’s very unlikely to pass, but it’s not a bad thing to remind people how much more work is required regardless of rescheduling to a more logical Schedule 3.
Border towns are typically good money for cannabis businesses—until you’re caught up in border law enforcement. In Las Cruces, New Mexico—a border town drawing Texans across the border for cannabis and abortion services that’s also located directly across the international border from Ciudad Juarez—licensed cannabis businesses are getting harrassed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. That’s my word, not theirs, but two instances seizing many thousands of dollars worth of product from state-licensed cannabis operators in transit in one week sounds a bit overzealous.
Brittney Griner opened up to the NYT about her arrest over .7 grams of cannabis oil and her experiences in a Russian prison and penal colony. If you haven’t read through the detailed interview, you ought to. Griner’s harrowing experience is illustrated in visceral detail thanks to her diligent journaling and writerly internal dialogue that comes through in the article. Her singular perspective as a queer, Black female athlete with a medical cannabis card offers a uniquely revealing lens for understanding the additional challenges of social stigmas that still exist on American soil as well. (There’s an option to listen to the article read aloud if you prefer.)
Schedule III could transform what we know about cannabis’ impact on our bodies. Jeremy Berke penned a piece for the Atlantic highlighting just how few randomized controlled trials—the “gold standard” for scientific research—have been conducted on cannabis thus far and how rescheduling cannabis will open up the rate of high-quality studies.
What does futuristic smell technology mean for ordering cannabis online in 2050? What if I said we could be smelling strain options virtually sooner than later? Longtime readers know that I have been obsessed with @FutureofSmell ever since I interviewed its founder, Olivia Jezler, for a Broccoli Talk episode about the politics and intense feelings around the scent of cannabis. The olfactory thought leader recently posted about Osmo, an AI startup (and apparent Google spinoff) that just raised $65 million to fund its mission to send scents through our phones. For a plant that’s easiest to shop via whiff, smell technology could play a big role in the evolution of weed retail.
High Finds: A Fresh Look
The 3D artistes at Another Room restocked their Corduroy Jointlockers and dropped new colors of the signature, smell and waterproof joint + lighter holder, all made with plant-based plastics. They also announced a new offering of custom orders of branded Jointlockers, the first of which can be seen here.
Zippo lighters trigger a sort of smoke shop nostalgia for me. I love them for the chaotic flames and Playboy silhouettes, but I don’t typically seek them out as gifts. Zippo is perhaps reacting to that exact trajectory of the brand’s perception with a new line of very design-y offerings, including this very Broccoli-coded blossomed piece and a pretty line of engraved brass options themed around 4/20.
To celebrate founder Olivia Alexander’s upcoming nuptials, Kush Queen launched a $99.99 Bridal Collection that features a True Love Bath Bomb (made with 250mg of CBD and 18-year-aged estate-grown lavender, sandalwood, and vetiver), Citrus Grove Gummies Delta 9 THC, live hash rosin infused olive oil, and THCA flower—a nod to how their relationship started. A clever way for the constant content queen to bring her audience into her wedding and the brand.
Just when I thought we in weed had done Michelangelo’s ‘Creation of Adam’ finger reach to death, fashion brand Paraphernalia introduces a hand-painted, low-fi riff that makes me smile. The “Dime Sack Days” design is available on a tee and a slim leather cardholder.
To peace and pot,
Lauren Yoshiko