Weed Glitter & Flying With Flower
Weed Glitter & Flying With Flower
Plus: A reader survey for you.
The Broccoli Report
Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Time to read: About 5 minutes. Contains 990 words.
Good Morning!
Lonely Hearts posts have begun to roll in, and I welcome many more! If you are looking for a business connection in or around the cannabis space, now’s your moment to make it happen. Do you need a vendor? A freelance gig? Investment? Maybe your needs are a little more emotional—a mentor to provide guidance (or a mentee to guide); a group of like-minded folks who can talk you through start-up woes and wins; or a collaborator with a shared dream and vision.
Any and all interested brands and freelancers have until EOD Monday, July 10, to email their brief descriptions of dream business connections to yoshikolauren@gmail.com. Please include “Lonely Hearts” in the subject line.
Also: the Reader Survey is ready. There’s one for free subscribers and a separate one for paid subscribers — it’s only ~10 questions; it’s anonymous; and I hope all of you can take a couple of minutes to complete it. Thank you so much for taking the time; it will help this newsletter provide more of what you want (and less of what you scroll past).
This Friday, I’ve got a trend report heading your way about a new product category gaining steam: anti-cannabis products. As in products designed to help fade your high. After reading about a new chocolate company called Soft Landing—not the first in this vein I’ve seen launch in the past year—I feel a trend emerging, and one that says a lot about the current state of the market and the concerns of consumers. Paid subscribers will be able to read all about it this Friday.
Paid subscribers to The Broccoli Report receive:
Podcast versions of every newsletter with additional commentary from moi.
A monthly deep dive into a trend or entrepreneurial challenge.
Access to every post in the Broccoli Report’s archive, including which equity efforts are actually working, a roundtable of the most & least successful marketing calls, takeaways from writing a book about the most beloved destinations in 16 states, how to navigate affiliate networks, cannabis-centric PR etiquette, and more.
Lauren’s most sincere appreciation for supporting independent journalism and her ability to do this work.
One-Hitters: Cannabis News at a Glance
During my last pass through the airport, a TSA agent may or may not have knowingly let me bring a couple of grams onto the plane. (For the full story, head to the podcast version of the Report for paid subscribers). Apparently, I’m not only lucky the flower made it through security but that it was there when I landed: Two United Airlines baggage handlers just got caught reselling weed found in passengers' bags. Recently charged by the Justice Department with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, the pair allegedly made as much as $10,000 a week with the help of at least three other workers, dating as far back as 2020.
Days after Alabama began issuing its first round of medical licenses, the application scoring system has come under scrutiny, resulting in a pause in rolling out the program. After 38 states have legalized medical cannabis and 24 states have legalized adult use, we still have yet to figure out a fair, foolproof licensing program—my fingers are crossed that we crack the code before federal legalization, whenever that happens.
Although I remain of the opinion that time is a long way off, this comment from the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services about the decision regarding cannabis’ rescheduling as a controlled substance being announced “by the end of the year” could mean that date’s closer than I expected.
Tickets to the in-person and virtual iterations of the inaugural Women of Color Cannabis Business and Wellness Conference are still available! I’ll be taking the virtual stage on the afternoon of June 24th for the Amplifying Herstory panel about empowering women of color's voices through the press. You can read more about what the event will hold in this Ebony feature.
More weed-friendly art classes! Make & Mary’s heritage craft workshops are one of the longest-running high happenings in Portland, OR, and this Pride-themed clay class hosted by Hemp Lab in New York City was giving me major FOMO.
If you have any questions about what’s going on in the New York dispensary licensing chaos and how licensees are feeling about it, you can read all of Carson Grant’s widely shared speech from the last meeting between CAURD licensees and the Office of Cannabis Management on June 6 for a clear, impassioned take on the delays and consequences at hand.
I love the hot n’ spicy branding of Flamer, a new queer-founded cannabis brand in New York, currently available at Union Square Travel Agency and Housing Works. Besides its referential name, every pre-roll is bright red from tip to crutch.
High Finds: Lifestyle Goods I Like
My favorite Italian accessory brand WEED’D tapped three designers to create a new collection of cannabis-inspired scented candles in unique vessels.
I am extremely hyped about this biodegradable glitter collab between California cannabis brand Pure Beauty and zero-plastic beauty brand Submission Beauty. Weed is what I want to bring to an outdoor concert; colored glitter is what I’d like to wear to the said concert—it’s a great example of creative lifestyle goods that turn heads faster than obvious weed brand accompaniments like lighters or hemp wick.
Another glittery example from the weed world, primed for user-generated content: Oshihana’s Golden Glitter CBD bath soak.
For anyone growing at home this summer and approaching pruning or trim time, I wanted to share the best pair of sharp, narrow-nosed clippers I found during my time on a farm: Fiskars Micro-Tip Pruning Snips. Pretty sure the non-stick version was literally made for cannabis cultivators.
Sharing that Reader Survey for free subscribers again — hoping for as many responses as possible. 😏 Thank you!
The Inconstant Gardener,
Lauren Yoshiko