Animal rescuers and advocacy groups say dogs living on Skid Row are suffering from neglect, abuse, inadequate veterinary care, and, in some cases, alleged exposure to fentanyl-contaminated drugs, while authorities dispute or caution against some of the most extreme claims. The situation has become a broader debate about housing insecurity, addiction, institutional accountability, and the limits of animal protection efforts in one of Los Angeles’ most vulnerable neighborhoods.

If it sounds cruel, that’s because it is. Activists and animal rescuers report that, on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, dogs and cats live amid neglect, abuse, and a severe lack of veterinary care.

But that’s only part of the story. While dogs living on the street in large cities may seem like a fairly common problem, in Los Angeles, the allegations take a more extreme turn: there are reports that some dogs are being used to test substances for fentanyl contamination, according to CBS, KTLA, and other media outlets.

Skid Row is an area in downtown LA gripped by a deep social crisis. According to data from Los Angeles County, the area has one of the county’s largest unhoused populations, as well as high rates of mental health crises, substance use disorders, and overdose deaths. Its unsheltered population includes higher shares of older adults, women, and African American residents than other areas with high rates of homelessness. People on Skid Row are also more likely to report concurrent mental health, physical health, and substance use issues. Within that context, rescue workers say the human crisis is also taking a toll on animals.

It’s not unusual to see animals living alongside unhoused people. This can sometimes mean inconsistent access to water, shade, veterinary care, or basic care. Activists have reported dogs tied up in the sun, locked in cages, exposed to high temperatures, sick, injured, or living amid feces and urine.

Are Dogs Suffering From Fentanyl Overdoses?

The most sensitive issue involves dogs allegedly used to test drugs. CBS quoted Victoria Parker of the rescue organization Starts With One Today as saying that some animals are being used to test substances for fentanyl contamination, and that they have seen several dogs suffer overdoses. KTLA also reported similar allegations from rescue workers on Skid Row.

However, other sources have urged caution around that claim. For example, an LAPD lieutenant told the LA Times that many viral claims about dogs being used for fighting or drug testing often lack credible evidence and concrete data police could act on.

In any case, what consistently emerges is a pattern of abandonment, neglect, illegal breeding, informal puppy sales, and a lack of veterinary care. Even those who question the most extreme accounts acknowledge that animal abuse and neglect on Skid Row are a real and long-standing problem.

Laws Exist… But What’s Missing Is Enforcement

For organizations working on Skid Row, the problem isn’t just individual cruelty toward animals, but the lack of an institutional response when such cases are reported. 

Starts With One Today is one of the main sources of these reports. Its volunteers say they’ve been distributing supplies, rescuing animals, and asking the city for help for years. Co-founder Jonathan Parker summed it up to KTLA with a stark statement: “If we don’t do it, no one will.” Along the same lines, the organization said it receives daily calls about dogs allegedly being sold in exchange for drugs, animals dying on the street, illegal breeding, abuse, and neglect.

CBS reported a similar complaint: according to Joey Tuccio, a volunteer with the organization, when rescuers call the police, the police tell them to call animal control; and when they call animal control, they’re told to call the police. It’s a vicious cycle of referrals where, according to the activists, no one ever ends up taking responsibility.

The LA Times also quoted Tuccio as saying that they had called the police many times about dogs that were being beaten, neglected, or dying in the street, but that “nine times out of ten” the officers did not show up. That is the issue these organizations are highlighting: not only are animals suffering, but those who try to intervene find themselves caught between agencies, bureaucracy, and a lack of response.

PETA, the international animal rights organization, also entered the conversation, posting a video from Skid Row featuring actors Jesse Kove and David Chokachi, influencer Nathan the Cat Lady, and members of Starts With One Today. Their core message was straightforward: “We have laws in place. Enforce them.” 

During the tour, according to PETA, the group saw dogs allegedly used for breeding, animals locked in cages, pets tied up with extremely short leashes, and a female dog that, according to activists, had been urinating blood for months without receiving veterinary care.

The organization highlights a key point: Los Angeles already has regulations on this issue. According to LA Animal Services, all dogs over four months of age within the city must be licensed and spayed or neutered, with some exceptions. In addition, a moratorium on new dog breeding permits has been in effect since May 2024. For PETA and other activists, then, the question is not whether legal tools exist, but why they are not being effectively enforced on Skid Row. 

The organization Stand Up For Pits has also called out that lack of response. Its founder, Rebecca Corry, told CBS that animal abuse is taking place “in plain sight” and compared the situation to what would happen if dogs in the same conditions were found in Beverly Hills: they would be removed immediately, and the case would likely make headlines, she said. 

PETA also stated that activists working in the area claim police and animal control officers told them they had received instructions from Karen Bass’s office not to enforce animal protection laws or spay/neuter requirements when cases involve unhoused people. Such an accusation is serious, but it has not been confirmed by the city. 

In this vacuum, NGOs end up doing the most immediate work: they patrol Skid Row, document cases, distribute supplies and food for animals, work with guardians to get the animals to a veterinarian, facilitate treatments, rescue sick or injured dogs, and publicly pressure the city to enforce its own laws. But, according to rescuers, without a sustained response from the police, animal control, and city officials, each individual rescue amounts to little more than a temporary fix in a much larger crisis. 

What LA Authorities Are Saying

Mayor Karen Bass has come under fire. Activists and organizations accuse her of failing to resolve the crisis, both on the streets and in municipal shelters. The LA Times reported that Stand Up For Pits sued the city and Bass, alleging that authorities are not enforcing animal cruelty laws on the streets and are allowing animals in shelters to live in deplorable conditions.

The city, however, maintains that it is taking action. Bass’s administration launched mobile spay-and-neuter clinics on Skid Row and an initiative to train 100 officers from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in identifying and handling cases of animal cruelty. The LAPD stated that this initiative led to the rescue of 45 dogs and resulted in six criminal cases involving animal cruelty and neglect. Bass also hired a new general manager for Animal Services, Gabrielle Amster, and helped secure a $14 million grant for municipal shelters in partnership with Best Friends Animal Society and the ASPCA.

The issue also gained political traction in 2026. Spencer Pratt made animal welfare a central pillar of his unsuccessful campaign for mayor of Los Angeles. Other candidates also took up the cause: Nithya Raman promised to reform the shelter system and expand spay-and-neuter programs, while John McKinney released a ten-point animal welfare plan as part of his campaign for city attorney.

The Deeper Collateral Damage of a Humanitarian Crisis

Homelessness in the U.S. has been rising for years, driven by several overlapping factors: a lack of affordable housing, a widening gap between income and rent, the expiration of federal pandemic aid and emergency rental assistance programs, limited access to medical services, a lack of social support networks, racism, and systemic marginalization. Skid Row is by no means an exception.

The streets are filled with people who cannot afford housing, who lack access to basic services and necessities, whose rights are constantly being violated, and who, often, simply do not want to be there, starving or dying of drug overdoses in one of North America’s wealthiest and highest-taxed cities.

For years now, these stories have been heartbreaking. People nearing retirement age, women with children, and young people whose futures have been shattered, all trying, as best they can, to make a home on the streets, amid violence, drugs, and hunger. All of this just a few minutes away from luxury condos, million-dollar cars, and the glitz of Beverly Hills and the surrounding areas.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that a minimum-wage worker in the U.S. would have to work about 98 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom apartment at fair market rent in California.

In 2000, the LAPD launched the Safer Cities Initiative, a strategy associated with then-Police Chief William Bratton that added 50 officers to the area and sought to reduce crime through increased police presence, citations, and arrests for minor infractions and public order offenses. As a result, there were about 750 arrests per month; more than half were drug-related, and many of those arrested were not only unable to pay their fines but also ended up behind bars and out of treatment programs.

Research published by the Department of Justice showed showed that these measures did not reduce serious or violent crime and that the police simply ended up criminalizing unsheltered people and pushing them to cycle between jail and the streets instead of addressing housing, mental health, and addiction.

Of course, the current punitive political climate at the national level doesn’t help either. President Donald Trump announced less than a year ago that there would be no place on the streets for unsheltered people. The proposal called for deploying the National Guard, placing local police under federal command, and ordering the removal of unhoused people from the streets. He never clarified what he would do with them. Where would they go if, by definition, they had nowhere to go?

Civil society organizations—both those that care for people and those that care for animals—are doing what they can to fill the void left by the government. But clearly, it is not enough, nor should it be their responsibility alone.

As Los Angeles’ housing crisis has deepened, the collateral damage has extended well beyond people, reaching the animals that share those same streets, in a crisis that could have been mitigated if action had been taken sooner. Even though 91% of surveyed residents said they wanted stable housing, most still have no realistic path to obtaining it. Against that backdrop, the current animal crisis is not an isolated problem; it is unfolding within a broader structural humanitarian crisis.

In that sense, the crisis involving the dogs of Skid Row has evolved from a complaint raised by rescue workers into an issue rooted in Los Angeles’ housing crisis, social inequality, and, of course, politics. Amid accusations of institutional neglect and promises of reform, the city is left facing an uncomfortable question: Who is accountable when when human marginalization spills over onto animals, too—and when animal protection laws already exist, but no one seems willing or able to enforce them?

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Garcia Hand Picked left California once. Now it is coming home, tying Jerry Garcia’s name to the small sun-grown farms of the Emerald Triangle at a moment when much of the state has run the other way, toward scale, efficiency and cheap weed. This time, the return feels different.

Garcia Hand Picked, the cannabis brand built by the family of the late Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, is returning to California. Beginning June 5, the brand’s products will be back on licensed dispensary shelves across the state, manufactured by Solful, a California company known for its sun-grown cannabis retail model and boutique manufacturing operations.

California is where it started. Garcia Hand Picked launched in the state in 2020, then pulled out, and the years since have not been kind to anyone selling flower here: prices have fallen, supply keeps outrunning demand, and the illicit market still dwarfs the legal one. So the brand could have come back anywhere. It chose to come back to the craft end of the hardest market in the country, the small-batch sun-grown corner least built for a price war, and the one closest to where Jerry came from.

So why come back, and why now? That’s the question High Times put to the people behind the brand ahead of the official announcement.

What Went Wrong The First Time

The brand is a collaboration between The Garcia Family and Holistic Industries, a multistate operator. On the operational questions, the family pointed to Robby Saady, Holistic’s EVP of corporate development and partnerships. His explanation for the first California exit comes down to one word: ecosystem.

“People loved the Garcia Hand Picked products, but to successfully scale in the regulated cannabis industry, you need an ecosystem of suppliers and partners that are aligned with your brand promise and standards in each market,” Saady said. “The first time around, we didn’t have the right ecosystem on the ground in California to be able to deliver the high-quality flower over the long term that the Garcia Hand Picked brand stands for.”

So, he said, the brand paused, reassessed, and waited until it found partners it believed could deliver at scale. What changed this time, by his account, was finding Solful, which runs boutique manufacturing operations in Santa Rosa and Humboldt County and built its reputation on sun-grown flower.

“We learned that a partner ecosystem that operates successfully in the California market, aligns with the Garcia Hand Picked brand values and has a proven track record of delivering at scale is everything, and we didn’t have that the first time around,” Saady said.

Coming Back To A Market That Tests Everyone

California cannabis has become one of the toughest balancing acts in the industry. Falling prices, oversupply and a still-massive illicit market have squeezed everyone from multistate operators to legacy farmers. It’s the market everyone watches and few have figured out. Asked why Garcia Hand Picked would step back into it, Saady framed the brand as playing a different game than the one being fought on price.

“Every cannabis market in the country is tough in its own way. California is no exception, but it’s not unique in that regard,” Saady said. “What we’ve learned across every market we operate in is that Garcia Hand Picked is a brand people seek out because they trust the quality and authenticity behind it, and they come back because it consistently delivers.”

He pointed to a limited run the brand did with Solful the previous summer, during Jerry Week, as the proof of concept. The demand from that run, he said, is what convinced them the market wanted the brand back. Going from a limited festival release to a long-term statewide brand is a very different test, and Saady went there himself when asked what success would look like.

“It’s one thing to deliver an exceptional product in limited quantities for a festival run. It’s another to maintain that standard consistently as distribution grows,” he said. “Consumers have to keep choosing Garcia Hand Picked because the product keeps earning it, not just because of the name on the package.”

The Bet On Small Farms

The most interesting part of the strategy is where the flower comes from. Every product in the California line is sourced from small, sun-grown legacy farms in the Emerald Triangle, the region spanning Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties that has grown some of the world’s most celebrated cannabis for generations. Those same growers have been hit from every direction by oversupply, price compression and the cost of compliance. At a moment when much of the market has drifted toward scale and value pricing, Garcia Hand Picked is leaning the other direction, and tying its name to the people who built the region’s reputation in the first place.

Saady sees that as the durable choice, not the risky one.

“We believe that leaning on small, legacy growers is actually what makes this model sustainable, not what puts it at risk,” he said. “A lot of them are barely hanging on. Working with Solful, and now the Garcia Hand Picked brand, gives them a consistent, committed buyer with a brand that commands a real price premium. We’re not extracting from them, we’re investing in them. And in return, we get the best craft cannabis in the world, grown by people who’ve dedicated their lives to it. That’s not a romantic bet, it’s a supply chain built on mutual interest and those tend to be the most durable ones.”

The launch lineup reads like a roll call of the region, among them Canna Country Farm, Greenshock Farms, Galactic Farms, Rebel Grown and Sunrise Gardens, each contributing a distinct strain, several of them Emerald Cup honorees. Two of the growers weighed in on the partnership.

“Jerry Garcia represents something real to many of us when it comes to cannabis culture, especially in the Emerald Triangle, Northern California, San Francisco and the Bay Area,” said Dan Pomerantz, founder of Rebel Grown, which farms in Southern Humboldt’s Palo Verde appellation. “Working with Garcia Hand Picked as they return to California just made sense, it means a lot to be connected to the culture so many of us grew up in.”

“For us, working with Garcia Hand Picked is about honoring the culture of California cannabis and producing products people can genuinely connect with,” said Mark Greyshock, founder of Greenshock Farms.

The Name On The Jar Has To Earn It

The celebrity cannabis graveyard is crowded. For every brand that lasts, a dozen amount to little more than a famous name slapped on someone else’s flower. Trixie Garcia, Jerry’s daughter, went straight at that when asked what makes this one different and what the family owes the name on the package.

“As a family, we feel a real responsibility to honor our dad in authentic ways. Cannabis was part of his life, the way he connected with people, brought communities together, and fueled both his musical and visual creativity,” Trixie Garcia said. “It’s about carrying forward the whimsical magic of someone who genuinely valued creativity, connection, community, and laughter. We want Garcia Hand Picked to feel true to who he was and the culture he was part of.”

She said the family spent a long time looking for the right partner before landing on Holistic.

“It’s generally easy to find someone willing to attach a celebrity name to cannabis, but we spent a long time looking for the right partner,” she said. “The farms behind Garcia Hand Picked are small operations where the growers put so much pride into their work. We’re not sourcing from whoever happens to have inventory.”

Jerry Garcia’s relationship with High Times runs deep. He appeared on the magazine’s cover as far back as February 1989, in an interview where he used the platform to sound the alarm on rainforest destruction, and the magazine devoted its January 2001 issue to him years after his death. The brand carrying his name returning to California is, in that sense, a story close to home.

Jerry Garcia on the cover of High Times: February 1989 (left) and the January 2001 tribute issue (right).

The California line launches with 5-pack pre-rolls, 2-pack “Double Doobies,” and whole bud flower, with more products promised based on demand, distributed statewide through Kiva Sales & Service. The brand is also planning a “Summer 2026 CA Tour,” a run of free community events in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and the Bay Area featuring flower tastings, hand-selected photography from Jay Blakesberg’s archive of Jerry, and live musical tributes. Garcia Hand Picked currently sells in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

There is something fitting about where this lands. A brand built on Jerry’s name, coming home to California by way of the small farmers who kept sun-grown craft alive while much of the market chased the bottom. That is the part worth rooting for, and the part that feels true to him. The rest is up to the flower. By Saady’s own measure, the real answer won’t arrive for a year, when the novelty of the homecoming has worn off and all that’s left is what’s in the jar. If it’s as good as the people behind it believe, the jar will do the talking.

<p>The post Exclusive: Jerry Garcia’s Cannabis Brand Is Back In California, Betting Craft Can Survive The Cheap Weed Era first appeared on High Times.</p>

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Cuttings are selling for up to $1,566 each. Three California events in May are drawing international growers, hashmakers and breeders for the elite genetics they need to stay competitive in a $60 billion U.S. market with $9 billion in new European demand on the horizon.

The cannabis genetics arms race has gotten spring fever this May.

At least three events in California are drawing international growers, big and small, for the top-tier strains they need to stay competitive in the legal cannabis era.

Hendrx Nursery releases 100 clones of Tire Fire OG for $1,566 each at the first Clonetopia, a CANNA nutrients-powered clone release festival, May 16-17 at 7 Stars dispensary in Richmond, California, and Solful on Irving Street in San Francisco.

Joining Hendrx, Purple City Genetics will release their closely held Habibi (Z x Moroccan Peaches) for $500. Plus, a fast-flowering sativa called Lemon Cherry Congo (Red Congo x Lemon Cherry Gelato x Z).

Also, Haze Valley Nursery releases a $1,000 Tom Hill Haze 3-pack for vintage sativa breeders and lovers. Plus, $32 cuts of Grape Lobster, Hash Burger, Modified Mule, and Bodhi’s Strawberry Headband.

Down in Southern California on May 17, Green Dragon releases the most hype strain of 2026, Toad Venom, for $1,000 for three cuttings.

And Green Dragon’s former collaborator turned rival Ronin Seeds preempts Green Dragon with a May 9 drop of (alleged) Toad Venom cuts at GOAT Global for $500 each.

The events evoke memories of Seed Junky’s $1,000 Cap Junky clone drop at the 2021 Emerald Cup. Why the hype?

Because elite clones are blueprints for money trees in the $60 billion U.S. cannabis market, as well as globally. New international markets like Germany and Czechia are forecast to add $9 billion in revenue in the coming years.

It’s like buying Prada patterns in Milan, Italy, to go make your own new bag.

Buying a ‘golden ticket’

New genetics are a capital expense for a large cannabis business. Businesses are spending $1,500 on one plant to make their money back many times over. They turn the clone into a mother plant, then make more clones, grow those out, and sell the bud. They use them in new breeding projects.

“I spent $10,000 on a tray of OG back in the day,” said Green Dragon’s co-owner and operator Glen. “They put me on something that gave people something different than what was out there. I didn’t know how else to get it, and that’s what you did. I never regretted it because I made more than my money back. That’s for sure.”

Grabbing an elite clone is way cheaper than a licensing deal from a nursery, or popping packs and finding and testing a pheno.

Daniel Hendricks of Hendrx Nursery said he is fueling the next big OG Kush wave. Tire Fire OG is (OG Kush x Triangle Kush) x SFV OG. It combines selections from CSI Humboldt, CHA Genetics, Kevin Jodrey, and Hendrx Nursery.

“It’s got all the legends of the game,” said Hendricks. “This thing stood up against all the other OGs I could find.”

“OG is a fucking huge market. Everybody needs an OG that can commercially produce and then is going to keep its nose. This is like a business-to-business golden ticket.”

Daniel Hendricks, Hendrx Nursery

The 100 buyers of the Tire Fire OG get exclusive access to further work on the line, he said.

“It’s an invitation to sit down at the big table,” he said. “Everybody at the table is a professional commercial farmer who buys clones and understands commodities and is jumping at the opportunity.”

Dropping in on the Peach and Lemon Cherry Gelato waves

PCG’s Habibi release (Z x Moroccan Peaches) puts buyers in the middle of the 2026 peach strain wave. Moroccan Peaches is a flower and hash all-star right now, and the current center of a lineup of new seed crosses from PCG for 2026.

Still, PCG has held back Habibi for their own use, and the strain predates the rest of the Moroccan Peaches work. “It’s a really beautiful one. We run it for in-house consumption,” said Auryn McCafferty.

“Hashmakers are going to win with this,” said McCafferty. “It’s mixing two kings of the hash market. This is the all-star of our El Krem work, one of our favorites personally, and the community is going to be like, ‘Wow.’”

PCG’s other release Lemon Cherry Congo takes the current top flavor in weed, LCG, into sativa country, with a super-fast 8-week finish. It’s candy for the young adults who’ve never had a sativa, let alone one that finishes in eight weeks.

“The Congolese is an amazing Mount Rushmore strain for effect. This is landrace work but more palatable for the consumer and grower,” said McCafferty.

Accessing vintage highs and breeding tools

The $1,000 three-pack of Tom Hill Haze cuts from Haze Valley Nursery are akin to buying the same gear used to record The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” or Nirvana’s “Nevermind.”

Haze Valley Nursery’s Sjoerd Broeks obtained the three phenos from the legendary, reclusive Humboldt breeder Tom Hill himself. Tom Hill has rabid fans of his pure Haze sativa work.

“It’s really about the power of that high,” Broeks said.

The Tom Hill Hazes are a straight, pure, original Haze from Dave Watson, refined for the last three years by Tom Hill. They’re tall but manageable, with 11- to 13-week flowering times as opposed to 16-20 weeks. You’re going to taste vintage Thai, southern India and Colombia weed with notes of pepper or metal.

You can mom them, take cuts, flower some pure Hazes, plus mess around and make something else. Remake a Blue Dream, the best-selling strain ever. The drop allows you to own a benchmark reference standard for what we mean when we say “Haze.”

“If you’re working with the original Haze, you’ll be making similar seeds that I was making in the late ’90s,” Broeks said.

Broeks said the Tom Hill Hazes are pretty stable and true-breeding. “If you cross them to something else that’s pretty stable, and [the cross] works, the stuff is going to be pretty close to an F1 already.”

Authentic access in an era of ‘cutfishing’

Frugal home growers might get some heartburn at the steep price for such rarities. The average clone price in California is about $25.

Both Clonetopia and the Green Dragon event will have plenty of regular-priced clones for the masses. Talking Trees | Rootimentrees offers $47 GDP x Urkles, and Strawberry Pops with a dealer’s choice, buy one get one plant deal.

Glen said $1,000 for three Toad Venom cuts is drawing customers from as far as Spain who want to avoid getting “cutfished.” That’s a term for being sold a counterfeited strain variety in clone form. Ronin Seeds has reportedly muddied Toad’s waters once before with a fake Toad release.

Similarly, you can meet all the actual nursery operators at Clonetopia to get grow help.

“It’s so easy to get cutfished. To get it from the person where it’s 100%, never been out of their facility, never been a mix-up, it’s worth it.”

Glen, co-owner, Green Dragon

There are so many online nurseries these days selling unverified cuts, said PCG’s McCafferty.

“We’ll really validate the genetics. We’ll grow them out. This is what we say it is,” said McCafferty. “You could try to get those trays for that high price online, but are you sure it is what they say it is?”

After this raft of genetics events this spring, get ready for a terpy fall full of Toad Venom, Tire Fire, peaches, Haze, Hash Burger, and more.

Where to upgrade your garden

Clonetopia powered by CANNA nutrients NorCal Clone Release Festival, May 16-17, 7 Stars, Richmond, California, 3219 Pierce St. and Solful, 900 Irving St., San Francisco.

Green Dragon Toad Venom Release, May 17, 7235 Fulton Ave., North Hollywood.

GOAT Global Westwood Toad Venom Drop, May 9, 2299 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles.

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Whitney Economics says U.S. cannabis operators carried more than $3.8 billion in delinquent receivables at the end of 2023, projected to top $4.2 billion in 2024. California’s legislature has tried twice to mandate timely vendor payments. Both bills died. A public credit-scoring platform is now filling the gap.

The cannabis industry has a payment problem. According to Whitney Economics, U.S. cannabis operators carried more than $3.8 billion in delinquent receivables at the end of 2023, with projections topping $4.2 billion in 2024. That figure equals roughly 1.6 months of total legal U.S. cannabis retail revenue, sitting on the books across the supply chain.

A public credit-scoring platform now tracks which California operators have the lowest ratings.

A $3.8 billion problem

Whitney Economics, the leading economic research firm in the cannabis sector, published its 2023 U.S. Cannabis Delinquent Payments Report in early 2024 under a blunt title: “Cannabis Delinquencies: An Existential Threat to the U.S. Cannabis Industry.”

The survey findings landed hard. 57.3% of respondents said delinquent receivables have a greater impact on their business than 280E, the federal tax code provision that has long been the industry’s signature complaint. 44% said unpaid receivables are impacting their ability to service debt. 34% said it was impacting their ability to pay state or federal taxes. More than half of all delinquencies (56.3%) are over 45 days past due.

“The pressures created by current macroeconomic factors and regulatory policies have incentivized operators to stop paying their suppliers. Unless there is some form of federal and state regulatory intervention, the issues associated with the lack of payments will only get worse.”

Beau Whitney, founder and chief economist, Whitney Economics

One survey respondent put it more bluntly: “I would love to pay my bills, if others would simply pay me first so I could do so.”

Cultivators get stiffed first

Whitney’s data shows the crisis is concentrated upstream. Cultivators take the worst hit on accounts receivable. Retailers carry the lowest amount of delinquent A/R, because they collect from consumers in cash at the point of sale. They sit on what they owe upstream.

The result is a supply chain where operators at the top of the chain (growers, manufacturers, distributors, ancillary service providers) effectively finance the operations of those below them. Whitney’s report notes the impact is “disproportionately impacting smaller and minority owned businesses and in many cases is resulting in forced market consolidation and individual wealth destruction.”

California tried to legislate it. Twice.

California has the largest legal cannabis market in the country and one of the worst payment cultures. State lawmakers have tried twice to do something about it.

AB 766, introduced in 2023 by Assemblymember Phil Ting, would have required licensees to pay invoices of $5,000 or more within 15 days of the date set on the invoice. Unpaid invoices would have been reported to the Department of Cannabis Control, which could have issued warnings, citations or full disciplinary action. Licensees who failed to pay would have been prohibited from purchasing on credit until the invoice was settled.

AB 766 died in committee in early 2024.

A second attempt followed. AB 2888, introduced in 2024 by Assemblymember Phillip Chen, contained nearly identical language. It also did not advance.

So the state with the largest cannabis market in the country also has no enforceable framework requiring timely vendor payment. The 15-day rule, which would arguably have changed payment culture overnight, simply does not exist.

Where the list comes in

That regulatory vacuum is where Cannabis Credit Scores has positioned itself. The platform aggregates feedback from cannabis vendors and assigns operators a credit score based on payment behavior, dispute history and supplier reports. Operators with scores below 20 land on what CCS calls its “Shit List.”

CCS scores reflect aggregated vendor feedback. Low scores can stem from a range of underlying causes, including disputed invoices, financial distress, operational issues or alleged non-payment. The platform compiles and publishes the reports rather than adjudicating the underlying reasons.

More than 100 California operators currently appear on the list, per CCS data. Patterns worth noting:

• Concentration in Los Angeles, Riverside, Sacramento and Alameda counties
• Coverage across storefront retail, delivery, microbusiness and distribution licenses
• Multiple multi-location chains, signaling brand-level stress rather than isolated problem stores
• A significant share of listed operators carry credit scores at or near zero

CCS does not publish dollar amounts owed. It tracks the pattern and frequency of vendor reports. The list is updated continuously based on new submissions.

For cultivators, distributors and ancillary service providers, the platform functions as a vendor’s version of a credit bureau. Suppliers can check a buyer’s track record before extending net-30 or net-60 terms. For operators, a low score is a public signal that vendors should require cash up front.

The CCS list is, in effect, a private-sector workaround for the regulation California’s legislature couldn’t pass. The platform isn’t enforcing payment. It’s making credit performance public, in real time, across the largest cannabis market in the country.

<p>The post The Cannabis ‘Shit List’: Where Vendors Are Naming California’s Lowest-Rated Operators first appeared on High Times.</p>

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Los Angeles helped shape the early legal cannabis economy, a cultural hub, a brand engine, a magnet for operators who wanted to build the future. But today, insiders say the city has become one of the hardest places in the country to operate.

After years of shifting rules, enforcement confusion, high fees, and a licensing process that many describe as “bureaucracy first, business second,” operators are leaving. And city leaders are finally acknowledging it.

At IgniteIt’s Market Spotlight: California event, cannabis journalist and San Diego State University professor Jackie Bryant set the tone.

“Eyes are on California.. and when people say that, what they really mean is eyes are on L.A.”

Bryant moderated a panel with Councilwoman Imelda Padilla, Los Angeles’ Sixth District, and Jazmin Aguiar, founder and CEO of Creatrix Management Group, who has worked on legalization policy in Colorado and Mexico.

Aguiar, born and raised in Los Angeles, returned to her hometown in 2015, expecting to jump into a thriving cannabis market. Instead, she walked into chaos.

“We were at the time battling through Measure N and Measure M,” she recalled. What followed were years of uncertainty and adjustment.

“Department of Cannabis Regulation has been operational since 2018, and since its inception, it has been going through a lot of regulatory changes,” Aguiar said. “Initially, it started with a very robust regulation, which was really wrapped around bureaucracy because the Council was scared of what cannabis could be in the city of L.A., and that created a lot of barriers.”

Councilwoman Padilla did not argue the point.

“People don’t know what to do with new things,” Padilla said. “There was just a lot of fear of something very new and something that they didn’t want to engage with the state to let it thrive.”

Operators say that fear showed up in real ways: layers of licensing steps, slow processing, unclear enforcement priorities, and a thriving unlicensed market.

But Padilla says that change is finally happening.

“We’re being very intentional about talking to LAPD and the city attorney about enforcement,” Padilla said. “I just introduced the motion to bring back the neighborhood prosecutor program to case-manage, closing out the illegal shops.”

The city is also studying what license categories to prioritize next, including cultivation, and preparing for consumption lounges and cannabis events.

Even with reform on the horizon, operating in Los Angeles remains financially brutal.

“L.A. has been very unwelcoming to operators and to the industry that used to thrive in the city. Rents are high, fees are high, taxes are high, so these margins are eating up these businesses,” Aguiar said. “As much as I talk to industry leaders and they do want to be in L.A., they’re forced to go do business elsewhere.”

The question is not whether Los Angeles was once the epicenter of cannabis; it is whether it can be again.

This article originally appeared on IgniteIt and is syndicated here with permission.

Photo by Lucas van Oort on Unsplash

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“Prop 64 did that… Big corporations started buying up small family farms, thinking they could grow better… Maybe some of those smaller family farms can come back.”

California Treasurer Fiona Ma didn’t stop at calling the state’s legalization framework a failure. In Part 1 of our coverage from IgniteIt’s Market Spotlight: California, she broke down enforcement gaps, banking barriers, and the need for federal descheduling. In this follow-up, Ma went deeper, explaining why she believes California must start over and how the state can rebuild a fairer market for cultivators, consumers, and taxpayers alike.

‘We have to start all over’

Asked whether the system could self-correct, Ma said California veered off course from the beginning. “We had models out there… we started saying, ‘Let’s follow the alcohol model.’ But then they went in a different direction. I think we have to just start all over.”

She pointed to the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) structure, strict but functional, as a better template than the patchwork of taxes and local rules that define California cannabis today.

The cash-only contradiction

Before SAFE Banking was even a talking point, Ma sat on the Board of Equalization collecting cannabis taxes in cash. “Two members didn’t like cannabis and wouldn’t take taxes in their offices. So only George Runner and myself would accept the cannabis taxes… You need to be able to go someplace to pay it.”

She recalled duffel bags full of bills, slow cash counters, and safety worries for staff. “We need to get with the times, credit cards, online transfers, so that selfishly we can audit you guys. We can’t audit you when you’re all in cash.” The room laughed, but the message hit: without modern banking, accountability is impossible.

Taxes, reform, and a possible redo of Prop 64

Ma described the latest tax-pause deal—keeping the state excise tax at 15 percent instead of 19—as a partial win. “It’s still too high to begin with,” she said. Her solution: educate lawmakers and, if needed, go back to the voters to fix or overturn Prop 64. “That’s the problem with these state initiatives: once we pass them, they supersede what the legislature is doing.”

Revisiting Prop 64 wouldn’t be easy. Ma outlined the mechanics: a two-thirds vote in the legislature or millions of dollars for a signature drive. Even so, she argued that a working cannabis system could help fill California’s $20 billion structural deficit.

Small farmers and corporate consolidation

On consolidation, Ma didn’t hedge. “Prop 64 did that.” She said the law opened the door for big corporations to buy up family farms, pushing out the local cultivators who built California’s reputation for quality.

“Maybe some of those smaller family farms can come back,” she said, suggesting that a reset could return power to the people who actually know how to grow.

Coalition over competition

Ma closed by urging operators and advocates to form a coalition and bring legislators real data. “I know there are many in this room who want to work together again and talk about what’s happened in the last ten years with real data and numbers,” she said. Her goal: to rally support for the next governor who “is going to care about this industry and really fix it.”

Her blend of candor and pragmatism left a mark. Part 1 showed her fiscal logic. Part 2 reveals a policymaker who has seen the system from the inside and still believes California can rebuild it better.

About the event, and what’s next

These remarks were delivered at IgniteIt Presents: Market Spotlight, California. The series moves next to Washington, DC for the IgniteIt Presents — Cannabis Capital & Policy Summit on November 17, 2025.

Photo: Shutterstock

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Cinema and cannabis meet under the stars in West Hollywood.

On Saturday, November 15, 2025, High Times will co-host Cinema Sessions at The Woods, an immersive evening of film, art, and community. The event runs 7–10 PM at 8271 Santa Monica Blvd and is free and open to the public.

Presented in collaboration with High Concept Entertainment, Fundgible, Two Hands, and 420 Films, the night will showcase a sneak peek of their slate of films and documentaries from across the cannabis world, including the premiere of the upcoming the short film Don’t Be A Clown, by filmmaker Dan Levy Dagerman and an exlusive sneak peek at Emerald Giants: The Legend of Eddy and Linda, the upcoming documentary on Eddy Lepp by Jason Dunlap.

Set among The Woods’ lush gardens and open-air lounge, Cinema Sessions brings together the cannabis and film communities for an evening of storytelling, connection, and conversation. After the screenings, connect with creators and brands in the Giggle Garden cabanas for a relaxed reception and breakout sessions. Expect smoke, screens, and plenty of creative energy.

Sponsored by 710Labs, Chronic Candy, Focus-V, Sluggers and Official Cannabis Seed Co., this first edition aims to highlight filmmakers redefining cannabis culture; voices turning lived experience into art, humor, and perspective.

Cinema Sessions is part showcase, part hangout, and all about expanding what cannabis cinema can be.

Details

• The Woods, 8271 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA
• Saturday, November 15, 2025
• 7 to 10 PM
• SHOWTIMES: 7 pm & 8:45 pm
• RSVP at www.highconceptentertainment.com

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“We shouldn’t be harassing people who are trying to do the right thing and paying their taxes.”

At IgniteIt’s Market Spotlight: California, Treasurer Fiona Ma told a packed room what many licensees have been saying for years — then laid out where the fixes need to happen.

Why the treasurer matters here

A treasurer is basically the state’s banker. All revenues flow through Ma’s office; roughly $3 trillion a year by her tally. She invests a portfolio in the $150 to $250 billion range, balances it daily to six decimals, and issues California’s bonds for infrastructure and the UC and CSU systems. When finance policy closes doors, she sees it first. When a legal industry cannot access programs or capital, she sees the gap. As she reminded the crowd, the governor is not her boss. Voters are.

During COVID, California pushed out about $28 billion in state grants. “Not one penny could go to cannabis because it’s still Schedule I [substance].” That single constraint still shapes how the industry banks, borrows, and plans.

What she told operators, straight up

Enforcement is upside down. Ma described agencies targeting licensees they can find (because they can find them) while obvious illicit activity lingers for months. She called for coordination and a focus on actors who refuse to play by the rules. She added that during COVID, many state workers were not on site, and even now average about two days a week, which weakened enforcement.

Also read: Every Two Minutes, Someone in America Is Arrested for Marijuana

Tracking is clunky and duplicative. Operators maintain internal systems, then layer METRC on top. The result is redundancy, cost, and confusion.

Leakage is real, tax capture is not. California still produces at scale. Newer markets are thriving without matching in-state production. The product is coming from somewhere, and too much of it bypasses legal channels and taxes. On how Prop 64 has played out, Ma was blunt: “Ten years later, it is a failure.”

Reliable state programs are thin. Asked what cannabis can actually count on at the state level, her first answer was stark: “Nothing. … Not much.” She noted that only one state loan program is currently accessible to cannabis businesses. An audience member flagged OCAL under CDFA as a bright spot, and Ma welcomed highlighting anything that works.

Banking remains a choke point. Ma backed financial institutions that chose to serve cannabis and said many charge high due diligence fees. Support helps, but cost and coverage remain uneven.

Budget context is real. California faces a structural deficit of about $20 billion a year. Ma’s argument is fiscal as much as philosophical: fix the legal market, grow the taxable pie, stop pretending the illicit delta is invisible.

The federal piece

On the path forward, Ma did not mince words: “It should be descheduled completely.” Her concern is practical. Push cannabis toward a pharmacy counter with ID checks and prescription-style rules and access gets clunky while the illicit market keeps its edge. True descheduling would unlock normal banking, modernize compliance, and let regulators focus on safety and bad actors rather than paperwork hunts.

A regulator who speaks like a human

Ma’s relationship to the plant is not theoretical. She mentioned using gummies to manage sleep through a tough stretch. It landed because it was simple, relatable, and said without posture.

Politics in the room

On stage, Ma was introduced with an enthusiastic nod toward a run for lieutenant governor. She urged the industry to talk to every candidate in the next governor’s race and find out who actually understands the issues. The response from operators and investors was loud.

What to do now if you are plant-touching

1. Make your books bulletproof. Treat audits, KYC, and traceability as daily hygiene. If you run parallel tracking, make sure the data matches every time.
2. Push for rational enforcement. Support efforts that prioritize illicit-market reduction over low-hanging paperwork targets.
3. Engage early. These races will shape enforcement priorities, banking access, and tax design. Know who gets it.

About the event, and what’s next

These remarks were delivered at IgniteIt Presents: Market Spotlight, California. The series moves to the Midwest next.

• IgniteIt Presents — Market Spotlight: OHIO
• November 3, 2025

If California is the stress test, Ohio is the next checkpoint. The questions Ma raised in California are the same ones Ohio will have to answer. Operators who prepare now will be the ones left standing when the noise settles.

Photo: Shutterstock

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In this powerful speech, industry leader Ben Larson critiques California’s restrictive cannabis policies and calls for smarter, more inclusive legalization that protects access to both regulated cannabis and innovative hemp-derived products.

Last week, at the newly minted IgniteIt (formerly Benzinga Cannabis) California Market Spotlight, I was invited to read a letter I had written to Gavin Newsom before his signing of AB 8, the recent hemp legislation in California.

In a moment of inspiration, I decided to set that letter aside and prepare my thoughts for the room instead—operators, service providers, regulators, and organizations shaping the California cannabis market.

This is what I said:

California.

What the hell?

The fourth-largest economy in the world.

The birthplace of Silicon Valley and avoiders of The Innovator’s Dilemma.

Once the largest, most promising cannabis market in the world.

A state that built its identity on innovation, risk-taking, and rebellion is now chasing its entrepreneurs and innovators out of state.

Including this one right here.

We’ve become defenders of the status quo.

A state, an industry, more interested in protecting profits and bureaucracy than building the future.

And I say that as someone who loves this state dearly.

Born in the Bay. Raised in Sacramento. Schooled in San Luis Obispo. Raising my family in Walnut Creek. And now building and scaling what is my third business in Berkeley.

But I’ve had enough.

I’ve seen a lot of celebrating online lately—from CaCOA, from licensed operators—about AB 564, AB 8, and SB 378.

Look, I know a lot of work went into these efforts from good, well-intentioned people.

But I’m left wondering… what exactly are we celebrating?

AB 564 was lauded as avoiding an existential threat.

But hasn’t that threat existed all along?

Doesn’t it still exist?

If losing four percent of margin was truly a death knell, then wasn’t the game already lost?

Most operators were already in trouble with CDTFA, or justifying not paying at all.

Fighting just to maintain the status quo isn’t victory.

It should make you mad as hell.

And AB 8. Really?

We’re demonizing any detectable level of THC in hemp-derived products, banning full-spectrum CBD from drug stores, tolerating a 3-year DCC onboarding period, shoving everything into a dying, over-regulated marketplace that doesn’t value low-dose or therapeutic products, and pretending it’s about saving the kids?

Nah.

It’s about competition.

It’s about protectionism.

And it’s perpetuating a stigma of the one plant we all claim to love and represent.

You’re telling me we don’t understand this plant well enough to write nuanced language that preserves access where it should exist?

If the answer is to permanently shove everything into a broken system and isolate ourselves from the outside world, then what exactly are we protecting?

Certainly not our future.

Because this … this is not legalization.

This is not what we fought for when we said “legalize it.”

This is not the will of the voter so many like to claim.

And for the record, “access” is not a 30-minute drive to a dispensary in an industrial zone.

You want to know what legal looks like?

Legal is what we’re building in the THC beverage category.

Legal is economies of scale, centralized manufacturing, interstate commerce, real quality assurance, national distribution, access to capital. High dose products in dispensaries with low dose products on liquor store shelves, or perhaps behind a drugstore counter.

And look, I know hemp is far from perfect. There’s much work to do. (That’s my next letter)

But it wasn’t long ago that we felt the same way about regulated cannabis.

Perhaps we still do.

Legal is walking into a supermarket and adding THC to your basket next to your beer, Zyn, or cold medicine.

It’s ordering one at a restaurant, knowing it’s regulated, tested, and safe.

It’s partnering with manufacturers who hold cGMP, ISO, and Organic certifications.

It’s truckloads heading to supermarkets, not partial pallets destined for inadequate shelf space.

That’s what legal looks like.

That’s what’s happening across the country.

And California—once a leader—is falling far behind.

So when you celebrate, make sure you’re celebrating a step toward that vision.

Because California, this isn’t it.

Preserving the status quo year after year is just a slow death.

Allowing our representatives to misrepresent us, letting our regulators speak louder than our operators.

That’s not progress. That’s surrender.

We’ve outlawed innovation under the guise of safety.

We’re busy building walls when we should be building bridges and doorways.

And we’ve mistaken control for leadership.

When those who understand this plant most intimately still choose to legislate out of fear—fear of hemp, fear of competition—we lose sight of the bigger picture.

The movement that once stood for access and healing—and yes, leveraging loopholes and interpreting rules to advance the cause—is now defending a framework that excludes and suffocates.

We’ve turned the spirit of “yes we can” into the bureaucracy of “no you can’t.”

If California was once a lighthouse, we’ve now become a cautionary tale.

And if we keep this up, protecting turf instead of purpose, we won’t just lose leadership.

We’ll lose relevance.

If there’s one thing the cannabis industry has taught us, it’s how to pivot.

I get it, we’re all tired. But we are truly leaving our roots behind when we have given up on finding alternative solutions and pathways forward, and kill innovation that could lead to a better world for our businesses and the consumer.

Just because I’m moving the core of my business out of state (I’m still a licensed cannabis operator after all) doesn’t mean I’m giving up on California.

Quite the opposite.

Once I’m no longer under the thumb of Sacramento, I plan to be an even bigger pain in the ass.

Because this fight isn’t over.

Because I still love California and this industry.

And I still believe California can reclaim what made it great, if we choose vision over fear.

We were meant to lead the world in showing how this plant could bring people together, how it can heal people, not divide us long before we’ve reached our destination.

Remember our shared purpose. Remember to keep fighting.

For the plant.

For safe & broad access.

For the people.

One plant for the people.

Ben Larson is the CEO of Vertosa, co-host of High Spirits Podcast, vice chair of the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) and a Board Member at the Coalition for Adult Beverage Alternatives (CABA).

This article is from an external, unpaid contributor. It does not represent High Times’ reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy. 

Photo by Nour Wageh on Unsplash

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When it comes to cannabis regulation, California has long been an example for others to follow. It was one of the first places in the world to allow medical weed, boasting a nascent industry around the plant. Yes, California could have one of the largest cannabis markets in the US (or even the world!)… if only it weren’t for those damn taxes.

For years, the enviable size of California’s weed industry has been rivaled only by its crushing tax burden. Remember, we’re talking about one of the states with the highest taxes in the country, which, coupled with complicated regulations, undermine the growth of cannabis businesses, both small and large.

In fact, a 2022 report posited that cannabis tax revenue could double in California if cultivation taxes were simply eliminated. This situation has not only led to a stifled and stagnant market, but has fueled the illegal market, which can offer more competitive prices without being tied to cumbersome regulations and punitive taxes.

Cannabis Taxes in California: What’s Going On

From bad to worse, June brought a bitter announcement: these taxes would increase by a baffling 25%. But a saving grace also came, albeit perhaps short-lived: last week, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law to halt this increase until at least October 2028.

According to Marijuana Moment, the law that went into effect yesterday was proposed by Assemblyman Matt Haney (Democrat). At the time, he stated that “California’s cannabis economy can bring enormous benefits to our state, but only if our legal industry is given a fair chance to compete against the untaxed and unregulated illegal market.” This law, in his words, “helps level the playing field. It protects California jobs, keeps small businesses open, and ensures that our legal cannabis market can grow and thrive the way voters intended.”

In fact, the law specifies that its main objective is to provide “immediate” tax relief to California’s battered cannabis industry. But how will they get around to this?

Under the new law, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) must join forces with the Department of Finance to adjust the cannabis excise tax rate for cannabis purchasers or products. This is specified as being based on the “additional percentage of the gross receipts of any retail sale by a cannabis retailer that the department estimates will generate an amount of revenue equivalent to the amount that would have been collected in the previous fiscal year.”

The CDTFA must also file an annual report detailing the amount of gain or loss in cannabis excise tax revenue resulting from the implementation of this law. According to the text, this will help track the measure’s effectiveness.

The move also fits Governor Newsom’s broader record of supporting the easing of pressure on the cannabis industry. And, true to form, he hasn’t shied away from theatrics, recently making headlines by mocking Donald Trump in a tongue-in-cheek tweet. There, he presented himself as the “leader of the free world” in the face of the “Washington shutdown,” with a tongue-in-cheek ‘platform’ that includes, among other things, legalizing cannabis. He also proposed a public healthcare system, childcare, and free eggs, all in capital letters and with a histrionic tone that mimicked Trump’s usual style.

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