Weed Reporters Take A Hit
Weed Reporters Take A Hit
Plus: a dispensary reality show.
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Time to read: About 5 minutes. Contains 1,009 words.
Good afternoon!
I feel compelled to acknowledge the whiplash I gave y’all last week—we celebrated how far cannabis has come at the start of the week with my book launch, and then ended the week with 3000 words breaking down cannabis psychosis. But that’s what we do here at Sticky Bits! Hold all truths about this plant in one bowl, and make every effort to keep the discussion as real and scientifically accurate as possible. Friday’s dive also sheds some light on the relationship between cannabis use and cardiac risk, illuminates some unexpected differences in risk when it comes to edibles vs. smoking, and the group of people that, in one neuroscientist’s opinion, just shouldn’t dab, period.
Thank you to everyone who bought a copy of Green Scenes or reached out for a wholesale order. It’s been surreal to see it finally land in people’s hands, and I feel really honored to share all these special stories and businesses with the world.
This Friday, we’re getting business-y with a check-in on the Marketing Moment Roundtable. Last time I ran this roundtable, I asked three brands from across the licensed and hemp spaces about their most worthwhile marketing move, what made it successful, and also their least effective marketing move. It stands as one of my most read and shared newsletters. For this refresh, I checked in with those brands to see if they’ve tried anything new that worked even better, recent approaches explored, and brought a newer brand’s perspective into the mix.
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One-Hitters: Cannabis News at a Glance
Stripe is coming for the cannabis Substacks. All Substack payments are processed through Stripe, so the company’s decision to close my fellow cannabis-minded journalist Jackie Bryant’s Stripe account due to “violation of terms of sale” may mean the end of her fantastic newsletter, Cannabitch. It also bodes terribly for Sticky Bits. Anyone who’s dealt with cannabis-related Stripe challenges: do you have any advice for resolving this?
We need cannabis Substacks!!! Besides Jackie and my work, this puts Cultivated at risk as well—Jeremy Berke’s superb cannabis news and politics newsletter that breaks down everything happening in the government that I don’t have the attention span or understanding of our political system to analyze so succinctly. The latest dispatch highlights all the pro-legalization takeaways following Vice President Kamala Harris’ surreal cannabis roundtable, including rapper Fat Joe, Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, and federally pardoned attendees.
This tax season hits different as the Big Dogs push their luck. Additional MSOs are following Trulieve’s path and calling the IRS’s bluff, attempting to stop paying taxes owed under Section 280E by simply…not paying them. TerrAscend Corp. plans to deduct business expenses on 2023 tax forms like any other business, and they’re so confident about the approach that they’re filing amended tax returns for 2020, 2021, and 2022 as well. Ascend Wellness Holdings did the same.
Putting a number on the hemp THC market. The ubiquitous, unregulated nature of the Delta-8 and Delta-9 space has made it tricky to quantify. Brightfield Group just dropped a report on its growth that helps us wrap our heads around much of the scale, but perhaps a more telling statistic illustrating the sector’s growth is a new piece of research showing that 1 in 10 high school seniors use Delta-8 THC.
A cannabis reality show hits Hulu in April. High Hopes will follow the staff of a longtime dispensary in Hollywood, MMD, as they serve kooky customers, prepare for 4/20, and work on releasing their own top-shelf cannabis brand. “Will they find what they’re looking for or will their hopes go up in smoke?” No shade to MMD (or producer Jimmy Kimmel), but…yawn. I’m inspired to get back to my dispensary-based creative writing pursuits.
New York’s Gotham dispensary made an all-call for a weed wedding partnership. I love this intentional outreach to cater to New York nuptials. A designated weed bar at weddings is nothing new, but I like the idea of couples incorporating cannabis in more subtle ways—and the romantic user-generated content that will ensue.
A win for Washington producers and environmentally-minded efforts. Washington legislature has passed a bill to divert cannabis waste from landfills, allowing it to be used for compost purposes or as an ingredient in materials like hempcrete. One cultivator interviewed estimated disposing of more than 26,000 pounds of cannabis waste material each year, which current law requires to be mixed with 50% other materials like cardboard waste, plastic waste, or soil. SB-5376 allows cannabis cultivators and processors to sell that plant material with 0.3% THC or less to the general public instead, cutting down on landfill contributions and methane gas output, putting it to good use as compost or hemp fiber, and providing a much-needed additional stream of revenue for producers.
A repeal of the potency tax is on the table in New York. In other policy reform news, the New York Senate approved a one-house budget that includes a proposal backed by Governor Kathy Hochul to replace the state’s potency tax on cannabis products with a permanent rate for the new wholesale tax and a repeal of the tax on medical cannabis products. There’s talk of the Assembly recommending the same move, which would be hugely helpful for licensed stores that need to compete with lower prices and THC offerings in illicit shops.
Temperature check on Hall of Flowers? The Ventura edition of the California cannabis trade show was upon us before I had time to really consider attending. Watching it unfold from afar, I definitely regret not getting books into a few folks’ hands to show off in their booths. I suppose there’s still the Santa Rosa HOF in September. Who’s planning on attending that one? Who’s planning on traveling to which events the rest of this year? I’m angling to start crafting my own lil book tour for the latter half of this year. 👀
To jet setting and joint rolling,
Lauren Yoshiko