A decade in, one of New York’s most important cannabis gatherings is doubling down.

New York’s cannabis industry doesn’t have many constants. Markets shift, regulations change, and operators come and go. But for the past decade, one thing has remained steady: Revelry.

Now, the platform behind some of the state’s most recognizable cannabis gatherings is hitting its 10-year mark, and doing it the only way that makes sense: by bringing the community back together.

In 2026, Revelry’s Buyers’ Club returns with two major events—May 13 in Hudson, New York, and September 18 at Pier 36 in Manhattan—pulling in licensed buyers, top-tier brands, and industry insiders at a moment when the market could use exactly that.

More Than a Trade Show

Revelry has never positioned itself as just another cannabis trade show. From the beginning, it’s leaned into something more intentional: creating space for connection in an industry that often moves too fast to sustain it.

What started as grassroots gatherings before legalization has grown into a curated platform where business, culture, and community actually intersect.

“What I’m most proud of is the depth of the relationships — not just the ones we’ve built within the industry over the past decade, but the platform we’ve created for others to build theirs,” said Lulu Tsui, Co-Founder and Chief Experience Officer at On The Revel, in a press release.

That’s part of why the Buyers’ Club events feel different. They’re not built around booths and transactions alone—they’re built around the idea that the right environment leads to better outcomes.

Good product matters. So does good energy. And in a market like New York, that combination isn’t guaranteed.

Why This Year Feels Different

The timing of Revelry’s 2026 events isn’t accidental. New York’s cannabis market is in a transitional moment. New leadership, ongoing regulatory changes, shifting consumer demand, and increased competition have left many operators trying to find their footing.

That uncertainty makes gatherings like Buyers’ Club more than just networking opportunities. They become places where people can compare notes, build partnerships, and figure out what’s next—together.

“The market sentiment right now is tough — there’s no sugarcoating that,” said Jacobi Holland, Co-Founder at On The Revel, in a press release. “Our job has never been to pretend things are easy. It’s to create a space where people can be real with each other, solve problems together, and leave feeling like they’re not in this alone.”

What to Expect at the Buyers’ Club

Both 2026 events are built around a simple idea: bring the right people into the same room and let things happen.

That means:

• vetted, licensed buyers
• leading cannabis brands
• curated environments designed for actual interaction

It also means an experience that goes beyond standard trade show expectations. Food, culture, and community aren’t afterthoughts—they’re part of the design.

“Revelry is about creating the space where everyone can shine,” said Jason Starr, Chief Impact Officer at On The Revel, in a press release. “When the environment is intentional and the community is thoughtfully curated, the best parts of cannabis culture—connection, creativity, and collaboration—naturally translate into better, more sustainable business.”

New for 2026, Revelry is also introducing a Micro Business Program, aimed at giving smaller, craft operators more visibility within a space that often leans toward larger players.

It’s a move that reflects where the market is heading—and who deserves a seat at the table.

A Platform Built to Last

Ten years in cannabis is a long time—especially in New York.

Revelry’s staying power comes down to something simple: consistency. Through legalization, market shifts, and industry growing pains, the platform has stayed focused on bringing people together and creating space for meaningful connection.

That approach has turned it into something bigger than an event series. It’s become part of the infrastructure of New York’s cannabis community.

And in a moment where the industry is still figuring itself out, that kind of platform carries weight.

Save The Dates

• Buyers’ Club Spring: May 13, 2026 — Hudson, NY
• Buyers’ Club Fall: September 18, 2026 — Pier 36, Manhattan

For more information, visit:  https://www.revelryny.com

Images courtesy of Team Revelry.

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The Proper Smoke Network is taking High Rollers off the screen and into a six-hour live event with a $160,000 bracket, live finals, a major glass auction and a room built for people who care how weed actually smokes.

On April 25, the Proper Smoke Network is hosting the High Rollers Live Show, a six-hour livestreamed event built for the kind of weed person who actually cares about the details. Not just what a jar looks like, but how it burns, how it tastes, how it opens up and whether it really holds up once the joint is lit.

Tickets are already on sale here, with 420 general admission spots and 69 VIP tickets available.

At the center of it all is a live UFC-style press conference for the $160,000 High Rollers bracket, plus a live glass auction, the filming of the Open Strain Bracket Finals and the unveiling of a new Ryan Fitt tip line included with ticket purchases.

The connoisseur event cannabis never had

The Proper Smoke Network is pitching the whole thing as something cannabis has not really had before: an event aimed squarely at the connoisseur crowd. Not the general public. Not a broad tent. The people who are deeply, maybe obsessively, invested in how weed actually smokes.

Adam Pain and Paul Christmon built their platform on the idea that smoking well is a skill, not a given. Their case has always been that a lot of people, including self-described connoisseurs, were not being nearly as honest or rigorous as they thought they were. The roll mattered. The pull mattered. The way a joint opened, stained and finished mattered. If you did not control those things, you were not really judging the weed. You were just having an opinion.

This event is built around that same standard. Side-by-side comparisons. Live competition. Smoke talk with people who actually mean it. A room where paying attention is the whole point.

What happens at the High Rollers Live Show

Doors open at 3 p.m., with the press conference kicking off at 4:20 p.m. That segment centers on the spring High Rollers $160,000 grand prize bracket, with competitors appearing live in front of an audience. VIP attendees get a chance to ask questions, alongside media. B-Eazy is involved, which means it will not be a quiet afternoon.

Beyond the press conference, competitors will have booths on site. Those booths will officially be selling shirts. More to the point, the setup brings fans and competitors into the same room, which lets the audience get closer to the bracket than a livestream usually allows.

Later in the day comes the glass auction, with PSN promising another major swing alongside Ryan Fitt after their previous collaboration made serious noise in the glass world.

To close the night, the Open Strain Bracket Finals will be filmed live on stage, in front of a crowd and on stream. For a platform built on tight standards and a comment section that never exactly whispers, doing the finals with a live room is either the obvious next step or slightly unhinged. Probably both. Which is part of the appeal.

Tickets, perks and the full treatment

General admission is priced at $420.69. Every GA ticket includes two organic, seed-oil-free meals, coffee, dessert, the first edition of PSN Magazine and a Ryan Fitt tip from the new line being unveiled at the event.

VIP goes further. Same goodie bag, but with an extendo Fitt tip. Add separate entrance and bathrooms, complimentary valet, food service, palate cleansers, caviar bumps, premium seating and a mezzanine area. There are only 69 of these tickets, and the whole point is to make the top tier feel like its own event inside the event. They are not being subtle about that. Nor should they be.

The bet

Underneath all of it is a simple wager: that cannabis has matured enough to support an event built around connoisseurship itself. Around rolling, judging, comparing, debating and obsessing over smoke quality in front of people who care just as much as you do.

That is a narrower audience than “everyone who likes weed.” But it is a real one, and a loyal one.

If this works, it could push the door open for more cannabis events that treat competition and technique as the main attraction rather than the backdrop.

If it does not, nobody will be able to say they played it safe.

The High Rollers Live Show takes place April 25, with doors opening at 3 p.m. Tickets are available now through Proper Smoke Network.

For the people who have spent years saying cannabis events never really feel built for them, this one seems ready to find out.

Editor’s note: The $160,000 prize referenced in this article is fictional, not cash. As competitors like to say: Monopoly money. But the competition is very real.

<p>The post A $160K Bracket, Live Finals and Glass Heat: Proper Smoke Network Will Host a Connoisseur Event on Apr. 25 first appeared on High Times.</p>

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By Shawna Seldon McGregor

Policy experts and global researchers break down the data, the myths and the next steps for a country on the edge of reform.

In October, Reykjavík hosted the Hemp4Future conference, bringing together international researchers, clinicians, policy specialists and industry leaders to examine how cannabis and hemp could support Iceland’s long-term goals in public health, environmental sustainability and wellness-based policy. Across two days of panels and workshops, speakers delivered a consistent message: Iceland is uniquely positioned to benefit from regulated cannabis access, but only if policymakers move beyond stigma and toward evidence-driven reform.

Youth Use Declines in Regulated Markets

Several speakers addressed the fear that legalization increases youth consumption. In Germany, a 2025 paper from the Federal Institute of Public Health (BIÖG), reviewing representative survey data collected prior to the country’s April 2024 reform, found only minor changes in adolescent cannabis use overall from 2008 to 2023, while use among male adolescents declined between 2019 and 2023. The authors noted that the effects of partial legalization on youth use will require continued evaluation.

Similar patterns have been observed in the United States. The University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future 2025 report shows substantial long-term declines in past-30-day marijuana use since 2012 across 8th, 10th and 12th graders. Meanwhile, data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that current cannabis use among students in grades 8, 10 and 12 in King County, Washington declined between 2008 and 2021.

State-level data points in the same direction. The 2023 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey reported that 13% of high school students used marijuana in the past month, showing no increase from prior years despite a mature legal market.

“Youth use falls when cannabis is regulated,” Pearson noted. “The fear doesn’t match the evidence.”

Medical Needs: MS, Epilepsy and Chronic Pain

Iceland’s medical landscape was a recurring theme, with multiple experts underscoring how cannabis-based therapies could offer immediate benefits. The country has a relatively high prevalence of multiple sclerosis compared with much of the world, according to epidemiological research.

For MS-related spasticity, a 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis found that cannabinoid-based medicines, particularly nabiximols, have demonstrated effectiveness in reducing symptoms.

In presentations from clinicians and researchers, speakers also pointed to evidence supporting cannabidiol, or CBD, for severe childhood epilepsies. A landmark randomized clinical trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that CBD significantly reduced seizure frequency in patients with Dravet syndrome. The FDA-approved drug Epidiolex now covers seizures associated with Dravet syndrome, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and tuberous sclerosis complex.

Additional research also supports the use of cannabinoids in certain contexts, including chronic neuropathic pain and chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting, though evidence for sleep outcomes remains more mixed and continues to evolve, according to a review of medical cannabinoid evidence.

Global Frameworks and the Challenge of Patchwork Policy

International cannabis attorney Bob Hoban delivered one of the most technical analyses of the event, outlining how regulatory “phases” determine whether a country’s cannabis program succeeds or stalls. He emphasized a global pattern of nations legalizing cannabis without creating workable pathways for commercial distribution or export, a mismatch that has slowed progress across emerging markets.

“Access to medical cannabis is a human right. People deserve safe, natural options that reduce harm and bring healing. Legalization is also harm reduction,” explained Founder of Hemp for the Future, Þórunn Þórs Jónsdóttir. “Hemp is one of the few plants that loves Iceland as much as we do. It grows strong in our tough conditions and reminds us what resilience looks like. With our renewable energy, glacial water and pure air, we could turn that strength into a sustainable industry, from green medicine to green jobs.”

“Perfect regulation doesn’t exist,” Hoban told the audience. “Countries that wait for perfection usually fail. Progress comes from starting, adjusting and creating balance between domestic access and international commerce.”

Hoban also described the five existing global “channels” through which cannabis currently operates, industrial, adult-use, wellness, medical and illicit, and argued that effective policy must account for all five rather than attempt to regulate them in isolation.

Environmental Potential: Hemp as Remediation

Several speakers highlighted hemp’s environmental advantages, particularly its potential relevance to Iceland’s climate goals. Comparative research suggests hemp has significantly lower water requirements than cotton, with one 2023 study reporting a 38% lower crop water requirement and a 60% lower water footprint.

Hemp also offers measurable carbon sequestration potential. A sustainability review estimated that hemp can capture approximately 3.15 to 3.68 metric tons of CO₂ per hectare, depending on cultivation conditions.

Additionally, hemp has demonstrated phytoremediation capabilities, including the ability to absorb certain heavy metals from contaminated soils, though effectiveness depends on environmental conditions, contaminants and cultivation practices, according to published research on hemp bioremediation.

Rather than presenting these outcomes as guaranteed, speakers emphasized that Iceland’s renewable energy infrastructure, particularly geothermal and hydroelectric power, could make hemp cultivation and processing comparatively attractive from a sustainability standpoint.

A Robust Illicit Market Drives the Reform Question

Speakers argued that Iceland already has meaningful cannabis demand despite the absence of a broader regulated market. European survey data suggests cannabis use in Iceland is not low by regional standards, particularly among younger populations.

Despite strict general prohibition, Iceland does allow limited regulated medical access. The Icelandic Medicines Agency confirms that Sativex is authorized and available by prescription from specialist neurologists, and that physicians may apply for access to other cannabis-based medicines approved abroad. Outside this framework, cannabis remains prohibited under Icelandic law.

Experts argued that regulation, not prohibition, is the most effective tool for consumer safety, public health monitoring and harm reduction. Across Europe, medical cannabis frameworks have expanded significantly, though access rules, product categories and prescribing standards continue to vary widely.

A Program Grounded in Local Values

While much of the conversation centered on international models, speakers repeatedly pointed back to Iceland’s existing strengths: a wellness-oriented policy framework, strong public health data systems and a culture that values prevention and harm reduction.

The conference closed with a call for Icelandic policymakers to consider a medical-first regulatory approach supported by real-time data collection, clinician education and clear standards for both botanical and pharmaceutical cannabinoid use.

As Pearson told the audience in her keynote: “Courage is not the absence of fear. It’s the decision to act in spite of it.”

For Iceland, experts suggested, courageous cannabis policy may simply mean aligning regulation with reality and leveraging the plant as a tool for wellness, sustainability and public health.

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

<p>The post Iceland Is Too Smart for Lazy Cannabis Panic: Inside the Hemp4Future Conference first appeared on High Times.</p>

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Running April 14 through April 20, SF Space Walk 2026 brings growers, lounges, new flower releases and citywide cannabis culture back into focus, with a month of related programming beginning April 3.

San Francisco is getting its weed week back.

SF Space Walk, the city’s annual 4/20-season cannabis festival curated by journalist and author David Downs, returns this year with a weeklong lineup of flower drop parties, lounge activations and neighborhood events spread across the city from April 14 through April 20.

Modeled in spirit after San Francisco Beer Week and Restaurant Week, SF Space Walk is built around a simple but smart idea: treat cannabis releases with the same energy other industries give album drops, chef collabs and product launches. In this case, the stars are cultivators, lounges and fresh flower.

The event’s centerpiece is a seven-night run of what organizers describe as “drop parties,” gatherings where consumers can meet growers, explore new releases and experience the city’s legal cannabis lounge scene in a more social, curated setting. According to event materials, participating growers this year include brands such as Sense, Snowtill, Sunset Connect, Moon Valley, Umma Sonoma, Wood Wide Farms and Bosky, among others. Lounges and retail partners span multiple San Francisco neighborhoods, including spots like Moe Greens, Mission Cannabis Club, Fig & Thistle, Urbana and others.

That matters because SF Space Walk is doing more than throwing parties. It is trying to remind people that San Francisco still has one of the richest cannabis cultures in the world, and that legal weed can still feel local, specific and alive when it is rooted in place.

That may be the real hook here.

At a time when California cannabis often gets flattened into price wars, compliance headaches and shelf-space battles, SF Space Walk leans into the side of the industry that still feels human: growers with followings, strains with personality, neighborhood lounges, music, art and the kind of conversations that don’t happen in a rush at the register.

This year’s programming also stretches beyond the official April 14 to 20 run. A monthlong art show titled Get to the Bag opens April 3 at Mirus Gallery. The exhibition’s 2026 theme is “prohibited,” with a focus on East Coast illicit-market packaging and artwork banned by the State of California. Organizers are also adding a private “Club” night in SOMA on April 18, along with a community beach cleanup on April 11 led by Big Pete’s Treats and Hyrba with support from RefuseRefuse.org.

In other words, the event is not just selling access to products. It is trying to package a broader version of cannabis culture, one that includes design, neighborhood identity, public gathering and civic texture alongside the flower itself.

That’s a notable frame for San Francisco in particular.

For years, the city has occupied a strange place in the cannabis imagination. It remains one of the world’s most recognizable weed capitals, but it has also watched much of the industry’s economic momentum shift elsewhere. The legacy is still there. The mythology is still there. The dispensaries and lounges are still there. But events like this are part of the ongoing attempt to turn that legacy into something current instead of merely historic.

SF Space Walk makes that pitch directly. The event describes itself as a public-spirited effort to polish the city’s cannabis crown on the global stage. Promotional materials point to visitors from around the Bay Area and beyond, with the broader goal of reintroducing consumers to San Francisco through cannabis.

There is a logic to that. A strong weed city is not built on stores alone. It needs ritual. It needs reasons to go out. It needs scenes, destinations and recurring moments that give people a way to experience the culture collectively rather than passively. Cannabis, for all the money and policy around it, still depends on atmosphere.

And atmosphere is something San Francisco can still do better than almost anyone.

The festival’s structure reflects that. Drop parties are planned across neighborhoods including the Mission, Civic Center, Hayes Valley, the Sunset, Inner Richmond and SOMA. The format lets attendees move through the city while connecting product releases to specific places. That gives the week a little more shape than a standard promo campaign or retail push. It feels closer to a crawl, or a circuit, than a trade event.

For High Times readers, that is part of the appeal. Legal cannabis has matured, but some of its most interesting expressions still happen where commerce, culture and place overlap. SF Space Walk appears designed to sit right in that intersection.

The event is scheduled to run through 4/20 itself, with organizers encouraging RSVPs for individual dates and programming. Whether it becomes a major annual tradition or remains a strong local ritual with cult appeal, it taps into something the industry could use more of: experiences that make legal weed feel like culture again, not just inventory.

For one week in April, San Francisco seems intent on proving it still knows how to do exactly that.

<p>The post San Francisco’s Weed Week Is Back: SF Space Walk Returns This April first appeared on High Times.</p>

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New York’s legal cannabis market is still writing its origin story. Licenses are rolling out, retailers are finding their footing, and brands are fighting to stand out in one of the most scrutinized adult-use markets in the country.

On March 13, the New York Cannabis Retail Association (NYCRA) is betting that progress won’t come from isolation—it’ll come from proximity.

The organization’s Fourth Annual Industry Event takes place at The Chocolate Factory in Brooklyn from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., bringing licensed retailers and brands together in the same room, face-to-face, where deals actually happen.

A Retailer-Centered Market Moment

For Britni Tantalo, president of NYCRA, the distinction this year is intentional.

“For me, this is more than just an event, it’s where business gets done. This isn’t a crowded trade show with 80–90 brands fighting for attention. This year’s event is curated and intentional. Brands like Dank and To The Moon are gearing up to make a major impact, joined by a powerful lineup of respected operators and influential voices from across the cannabis community. And of course, we can’t overlook High Times as our trusted media partner. Having High Times as part of this event adds tremendous value and credibility, amplifying the impact and strengthening what we’re building for the community.”

NYCRA projects more than 1,500 attendees this year, up from the 1,200 who showed up on one of last year’s coldest days. The guest list isn’t built for spectacle—it’s built for transactions: retailers, buyers, brand founders, and decision-makers looking to expand product lines and secure shelf space.

That distinction matters in New York, where retail operators are navigating regulatory hurdles, supply inconsistencies, and tight margins. A curated room carries a different weight than a convention hall.

Culture, Not Just Commerce

Jayson Tantalo, a longtime retailer with three decades in the game, frames the event in cultural terms.

“I want to talk about culture and what it truly means to be a cannabis retailer in New York. For me, this culture is personal. I’ve been doing this full-time for 30 years. Back in the day, success meant understanding the product and, more importantly, understanding the people. Access and relationships were everything, at least where I come from!”

He continued: “To be honest, that same principle still applies today. It’s critical that we connect, build with one another, and learn about each other’s businesses and brands. By strengthening those relationships, we can elevate the industry together and intentionally shape what legal cannabis culture in New York will look like for years to come”.

New York’s adult-use market is new on paper, but the culture behind it isn’t. Many operators come from legacy roots. Others are first-time licensees navigating compliance in real time. Events like this attempt to bridge that divide.

Jayson is direct about what national visibility represents for a still-developing market.

“The collaboration between the New York Cannabis Retail Association and High Times is a game-changer for the New York cannabis industry. This partnership puts New York cannabis front and center, exactly where it belongs. It creates powerful opportunities for our market to be showcased, amplified, and finally given the recognition it truly deserves.

He goes on to add, “High Times represents 50 years of cannabis excellence, culture, credibility, and nostalgia. It’s an iconic voice that has helped shape the industry nationwide. Meanwhile, the New York Cannabis Retail Association is built by and for licensed retail operators who are actively shaping the legal cannabis landscape right here in New York. Together, this partnership is more than collaboration; it’s history in the making. It gives us the opportunity to write our state’s legal cannabis story, elevate our operators, and solidify New York’s place in the future of the cannabis industry.”

In a state often compared to California, Michigan, or Colorado, national amplification can shift perceptions. It signals that New York isn’t just catching up, but it’s finally organizing.

What Retailers Can Expect

According to NYCRA, the March 13 event will allow retailers to connect directly with emerging and established brands, negotiate product placements, discover new launches, and build longer-term partnerships.

With more than 300 members statewide, NYCRA positions the gathering as a strategic checkpoint for operators looking to scale in 2026.

The association’s message is simple: collaboration over competition.

The Bigger Picture

Trade shows are easy to dismiss. They’re loud. They’re crowded. They’re often transactional in the most surface-level way.

What NYCRA is attempting is narrower and more focused: a room built specifically for New York’s licensed retail ecosystem to define itself on its own terms.

Whether that room becomes a turning point or just another calendar date will depend on what happens after March 13. Deals signed are one thing. Culture built is another.

For retailers serious about shaping the state’s next chapter, this is where the conversation moves from group chat to handshake.

Registration for the Fourth Annual Industry Event is available here.

Photos courtesy of NYCRA

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For 2026, the California Cannabis Awards adds a new category for the backyard farmer. Here’s what you need to know.

Are you a Golden State ganja green thumb with a knack for growing backyard bud? If so, the California Cannabis Awards is giving you a chance to prove your pot prowess thanks to a newly added Home Grow – Flower competition.

According to the organization’s February 23 announcement, the new competition category is “designed to recognize cannabis flower cultivated by California residents for personal, non-commercial use,” and will be judged using the same methods and criteria as the professionally grown flower in the annual agricultural event that awards an assortment of gold, silver and bronze medals in the run up to the California State Fair in mid-July where best-of-the-best Golden Bear awards are handed out.

If you think your home harvest has what it takes, here’s what you need to know — and do — to officially enter the competition:

How much time do I have to grow my potentially award-winning weed?

The submission window for the home grow competition — and the rest of the 2026 California Cannabis Awards categories — is open through May 22, 2026. That means your magical plant needs to have been grown, harvested, dried and cured by then.

The reality of this deadline is that this year’s award-winning weed has almost certainly already been harvested.

How much does it cost?

Each submission requires a $250 entry fee, which covers laboratory testing, chemometric analysis and eligibility for medal awards.

What do I need to do?

Start by filling out the official California Cannabis Awards entry form completely (incomplete forms won’t be accepted). Then, create an SC Labs account either through the link in the registration portal or by going directly to www.sclabs.com.

Next, seal and label seven grams of cannabis flower per entry according to SC Labs’ submission requirements and schedule your sample(s) to be picked up by the lab folks.

What will SC Labs be testing for?

The lab’s analysis will look at potency, terpene concentration and cannabinoid concentration and generate a chemometric report (think of it as a kind of chemical fingerprint), which will be the basis for competition scoring. This is important because the competition medals will be awarded exclusively on those laboratory results.

What categories will medals be awarded in?

Gold, silver and bronze hardware will be handed out in the following categories:

• The highest concentration of the following six specific terpenes: limonene, myrcene, beta-caryophyllene, pinene, ocimene and terpinolene
• The co-dominant terpene profile MCL (Myrcene-Caryophyllene-Limonene)
• Total terpene concentration
• Primary cannabinoids CBG and CBD
• Overall cannabinoid concentration

Is this the same criteria used for judging the professionally farmed flower categories?

Kind of. The chemotype-based sub-categories are the exact same ones used for judging commercial flower entries. The only difference is that the Home Grow entries won’t be separated by cultivation method; sun-grown, indoor and mixed-light submissions will compete together within each category.

Once I’ve submitted my entry, then what?

All gold medal winners in the Home Grow competition will be invited to participate in a live, on-site judging panel held on Saturday, July 25, at the California State Fair to compete for a Golden Bear trophy and the title of “Best Home Grow in California.”

This is crucial: Since the panel of expert judges — the same ones judging the commercial flower categories — will need to sample the gold-medal herb,it’s important that all entrants keep an additional 14 grams of product on hand until the medal winners are announced.

Where can I find out more information?

An extensive competition guide as well as additional information about the 2026 California Cannabis Awards can be found online at www.calcannabisawards.com/awards.

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

<p>The post Think You Have the Best Homegrown in California? Here’s Your Chance to Prove It. first appeared on High Times.</p>

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The founder of Culinary & Cannabis didn’t wait for the industry to make room for her. She built her own.

For decades, cannabis was a weapon. A pretext for prejudice, a set of handcuffs dressed up as public safety, a battering ram through the front doors of Black and Brown homes.

The communities that got hit hardest by that weapon are the same ones the legal industry now courts with marketing budgets and influencer campaigns, while the damage done and the dollars chased exist in the same breath, with almost no reckoning in between.

Most people who understood what that weapon did stayed the hell away from anything connected to it, but Tamara Anderson walked straight toward it—RN badge and pastry knife in hand—and decided to turn the whole damn thing inside out.

Before she was running luxury cannabis wellness events across Southern California. Before shipping DIY topical kits to pandemic-locked strangers who needed something to do with their hands besides washing them in fear. Before commanding rooms at Grammy Week with CBD massages and trauma-informed healing conversations—

She was watching people get sick.

Not from cannabis. Sick from the medicine that was supposed to help them.

Eleven years on the administrative and financial side of healthcare before nursing school, watching insurance adjusters decide who got cared for and who deserved to rust on the wrong side of a deductible. Anderson watched, up close, what long-term pharmaceutical “treatments” actually did to a human body.

In some cases, that was liver damage or addiction, even changes in personality. The slow, grinding cost of being managed rather than healed.

“From the very start of my nursing career,” Anderson says, “it has been my mission to change the way we approach healthcare.”

She tried to change it from inside the system first. But she quickly realized, somewhere between the machinery and the bureaucracy, the human element got swallowed up whole. 

It always does. Systems aren’t built accidentally.

So Anderson did what you do when someone decides you’re not worthy of a seat at their table.

She built her own table. And made it beautiful enough that people cross state lines for a seat.

Luxury as a Political Act

Culinary & Cannabis isn’t a dispensary or a weed brand. It isn’t even an app, and everything is an app these days. Life is an app. Anderson calls Culinary & Cannabis an “all-sensory interactive cannabis event production company,” which, while accurate, doesn’t fully capture what it feels like to walk into one of her spaces.

“Like being inside a flower while it’s growing,” is how she puts it. “It’s one of the most relaxing environments you’ll ever experience… filled with options to explore.”

Every station is doing something different. Eucalyptus and cedar. Sound bowls humming through the floor. Someone receiving a CBD massage for the first time. Someone else asking a question they have never trusted a doctor with. You arrive guarded, skeptical, scared, or just curious. But when you’re done, you leave lighter.

Anderson engineered every inch of it.

“Clinical spaces can feel cold or intimidating, which shuts people down,” she says. “When you stage an event with luxury and beauty, it becomes a hug to the community. It creates a sense of safety where people feel comfortable asking the deep questions.”

Anderson carves out rooms where trauma-informed healing conversations for communities of color happen in the same breath as sound baths and bodywork, and people carrying centuries of generational weight could finally set some of it down.

We all deserve to breathe.

At a recent Grammy Week CannaSpa, more than 300 guests found that room to breathe—evidence of just how hungry people are for spaces built with care.

The Industry Was Never Progressive

Cannabis luxury spaces aren’t built for Black people by default. Hell, cannabis spaces, period, weren’t built for Black people. They were built on the prosecution of Black people. The War on Drugs used cannabis asone of the central tools of Black community destruction for fifty years.

Fifty years of documented policy, documented arrests, documented destruction. The receipts are everywhere.

The “legal industry” that followed moved ridiculously fast to extract record profits and painfully slow to address the damage it was built on.

Anderson knows all of this. It’s etched into her bones. And she builds against it in every detail.

When she launched Culinary & Cannabis, she didn’t show her face publicly until about a month before the first major event, because she knew what it would cost her if they saw her coming.

If they clocked her first.

“I didn’t want the industry’s internal biases to stop brands, chefs, or consumers from walking through the door.”

Read that again. 

A Black woman had to obscure her presence to give her own event a fair shot at success in an industry that markets itself as progressive. The sophistication required to navigate that without bitterness—to build when the industry is rooting for you to fail, to create something beautiful despite reality checking you at every turn—is a kind of emotional intelligence most people never have to develop.

Most people would have walked away bitter as hell. Anderson built a spa.

“As a woman of color, I know that in every room I enter, I have to bring a level of excellence that is undeniable just to be considered. That’s not just a challenge; for me, it’s a daily practice.”

No Blaming the Oven

Anderson came up as a pastry chef.

Baking is pure science. There is no “eyeballing it.” The chemistry either works or it doesn’t, and if it doesn’t, the soufflé doesn’t rise. Cannabis infusion demands the same precision—specific measurements, controlled temperatures, exact dosing—and Anderson applies the same obsessive rigor to both. 

There’s no blaming the oven.

It gives her credibility in a space still lousy with people who treat cannabis cooking like a vibe.

It also shapes the way she teaches. When you’ve spent years understanding that the difference between a perfect result and a failed one is knowing the why behind every step—why the butter needs to be cold, why the temperature matters, why you can’t rush the process—you stop accepting “just try it and see what happens” as a teaching philosophy. 

Anderson doesn’t hand people cannabis and wish them luck. She builds the context first. The science. The history. The ritual. Then the experience.

Her target audience is the “canna-curious”, the person who hasn’t touched this plant, or hasn’t touched it since a bad experience in someone’s garage or basement twenty years ago. She calls Culinary & Cannabis “the re-entry event.” And the skin she wants people to shed when they walk out is the stoner stigma.

Lose the fear of losing control.

“I want them to replace those old assumptions with a personal relationship with the plant.”

The clinical world, the insurance world, the pharmaceutical world—none of them traffic in personal relationships. They traffic in protocols. Anderson’s model is the opposite. Completely, deliberately, the opposite. 

She meets people where they are, inside spaces that feel like smoke-wrapped gifts rather than sterile waiting rooms.

The Guest List Was Never Made for Her

On Black entrepreneurship in cannabis, she doesn’t mince words.

“My honest assessment is that we are still largely on the outskirts of the mainstream industry.”

Equity programs? A few are genuine. Most are press releases dressed up as penance. The gap between what those programs promise and what they deliver is where people like Anderson land. Into necessity. The only place where something real gets built.

Every equity program that substitutes a press photo for actual access should have to answer for that gap. Anderson didn’t wait around for any of them to figure it out.

What she built is, by her own design, intentionally inclusive—POC-centered, everyone welcome.

The hug you get when you walk through those doors was never something workshopped in a conference room by someone in a bad suit with an even worse toupee. It just exists, the way warmth exists in a room someone actually gave a damn about building.

The Woman the Industry Has to Reckon With

The nurse. The pastry chef. The educator who shipped supplies to strangers’ doorsteps during a pandemic because people needed to be doing more than just surviving. The event producer who built luxury healing spaces in an industry that has spent decades either ignoring or exploiting the communities she serves and platforms.

The recent CannaSpa Wellness Lounge also marked a personal milestone: it was Anderson’s first major event following her own battle with cancer, a chapter that sharpened her commitment to intentional self-care and community-centered healing.

All of it in service of the same mission she’s carried since before nursing school: change the way we approach care, and who gets it. Change what it feels like to receive it.

Culinary & Cannabis is growing fast—expanding into North America, the UK, Australia, Asia. People everywhere are tired of clinical apathy, tired of being managed by a system that was never designed to actually make them well, tired of existing inside machines that were architected, from the jump, to exclude them.

Tamara Anderson builds for those people.

The space exists. The door is open. The flower is growing. It’s up to us to feed it.

<p>The post Tamara Anderson Is Not Here to Ask Permission first appeared on High Times.</p>

The post Tamara Anderson Is Not Here to Ask Permission appeared first on Paradise Found.

And 8th Iron is already teed up.

Golf has always been a slow-burn sport. Long walks. Long pauses. Long conversations stretching from the first tee to the final putt. It’s a game built on rhythm and temperament, where one bad swing can hijack the next five holes if you let your head spiral.

That’s exactly why cannabis has been quietly riding shotgun in carts for years, even when plenty of clubs still treat it like a dirty secret. Not everyone is chasing a party round. A lot of golfers are chasing calm: looser shoulders, fewer swing thoughts, more patience when the game punches back.

Dominic DeNucci is building a brand around that overlap. Through 8th Iron Golf Club, he’s betting that cannabis doesn’t disrupt golf culture — it sharpens it.

Dominic DeNucci Didn’t Grow Up In Golf

DeNucci didn’t come up through country club junior programs. He grew up playing baseball and football. Golf came later.

Cannabis didn’t.

By his late teens, DeNucci was already deep into cultivation, scaling grow setups, and learning the plant beyond just smoking it. He moved into solventless work, including rosin production, where patience and precision matter as much as starting material. That discipline—steady hands, emotional control, attention to detail—would later translate to the course.

Golf hit him in 2020 and stuck. Within a year, he was competing in money games. In less than two years of playing, DeNucci had become a golf professional—a rare timeline in a sport where most players grind for a decade just to feel competent.

That matters. 8th Iron doesn’t read like a novelty because DeNucci didn’t borrow golf aesthetics. He earned his place inside the culture. He understands etiquette, the ego, and the unwritten rules. including where cannabis still makes people uncomfortable.

When he decided to build a club around that overlap, the name came naturally. The 8-iron is one of the most dependable clubs in the bag. It’s versatile, steady, and reliable. Pair that with the familiar “eighth,” and the wink is obvious.

But the deeper meaning isn’t just wordplay. It’s normalization. Cannabis and golf don’t have to be enemies. The crossover doesn’t have to feel rebellious or disruptive. It can be functional, rooted in respect for the game rather than shock value.

The goal isn’t to get obliterated mid-round. It’s to get out of your own head.

Why Golf And Cannabis Actually Work Together

If you had to design a sport that naturally pairs with cannabis, you’d end up with something that looks a lot like golf.

It’s outdoors. You’re moving, but you’re not sprinting. There’s space between shots offering time to breathe, reset, and let the last mistake go. Even on a packed Saturday, golf gives you pockets of quiet that most sports don’t.

Then there’s the mental battle.

Golf is a slow-motion argument with yourself. The swing is technical, sure. But the bigger fight is emotional—not spiraling after a chunked wedge, not carrying frustration to the next tee box, not letting ego pick the wrong club.

For many players, cannabis can help smooth those edges. Used responsibly and where permitted, it’s less about “getting lit” and more about lowering the internal volume. Fewer intrusive swing thoughts. Less tension in the shoulders. More presence over the ball.

Golf punishes extremes. Consistency wins. That overlap of composure over chaos is the thesis behind 8th Iron.

The Stigma Isn’t Gone—Even In Legal States

Legalization doesn’t automatically equal acceptance. DeNucci learned that while planning his first major on-course event in October 2024. Momentum built quickly. Social media lit up. Sponsors showed interest.

Three weeks before the event, the host course pulled out.

The concerns were predictable: neighbors, members, optics. The assumption that a cannabis-friendly tournament meant chaos. DeNucci argues the opposite. In his experience, alcohol-based tournaments are more likely to bring reckless behavior. Cannabis crowds tend to show up calmer and more focused on the round itself.

He scrambled for a replacement venue. Most courses said no. One didn’t: Cross Creek in Temecula.

The last-minute pivot improved the day. The more secluded setting meant fewer outside complaints and a better atmosphere for what the event was actually meant to be—community-driven, controlled, and centered on golf.

The proof-of-concept landed.

Events That Feel Like Community, Not a Gimmick

8th Iron events aren’t stiff brand activations with step-and-repeat banners and forced sponsor mentions.

They feel like a round with friends — just scaled up.

Cannabis brands and golf brands share the same space. Players show up solo and leave with new connections by the 18th green. That dynamic is already built into golf culture. DeNucci is simply removing the tension around something many players were quietly doing anyway.

Etiquette still matters. Respect still matters. The score still matters.

The cannabis isn’t there to hijack the day. It’s there to smooth it.

Las Vegas, Live Music, and “Get High Shoot Low”

The next expansion takes 8th Iron out of state and into Las Vegas, partnering with Fortunate Youth for a two-day crossover experience: golf first, live music second.

On April 3, the 8th Iron experience hits the Las Vegas Country Club. On April 4, Fortunate Youth performs at Area 15.

The brand tagline says it plainly: “Get High, Shoot Low.”

The meaning isn’t complicated. Even if you’re consuming, you’re still there to compete with yourself. You still want to post a number you’re proud of.

The high isn’t the destination. The low score is.

Building Products For The Rhythm Of A Round

DeNucci isn’t interested in slapping a golf label on generic flower.

He’s building toward cannabis products designed around how golfers actually experience a round. One concept he’s floated is the “Player Per-Fore-Mance” pack—four joints mapped to four familiar emotional checkpoints: first-tee nerves, a blowup hole, fading focus, mental fatigue.

The intention isn’t excess. It’s pacing. Golf rewards steadiness. The idea is to match product to moment so the round doesn’t unravel. It’s cannabis framed as performance temperament, not rebellion.

The Bigger Picture

Golf and cannabis make sense for the same reason golf works at all: time.

The sport gives you room to reset. Room to socialize. Room to be present. Add cannabis—responsibly and legally—and you reduce the emotional volatility that ruins rounds.

That’s the lane DeNucci is carving out with 8th Iron Golf Club.

Not shock value. Not stoner cosplay. Not anti-golf posturing.

Just a simple thesis: if the game is about rhythm, patience, and composure, why wouldn’t you use tools that help you access those states?

Cannabis isn’t crashing the clubhouse.

It’s already on the course.

Photos courtesy of Dominic De Nucci

<p>The post Cannabis Is Coming for Golf first appeared on High Times.</p>

The post Cannabis Is Coming for Golf appeared first on Paradise Found.

On February 12, HERbal Woodstock will host a free public screening of Cannabis + Creativity at the historic Bearsville Theater, bringing together cannabis culture, artistic expression and local community under one roof.

Directed and produced by Elana Frankel, the award-winning documentary explores how cannabis intersects with creative practice across disciplines. The film follows six artists, including a chef, musician, poet, jazz singer, creative director and scientist, offering an intimate look at how the plant shapes imagination, process and perspective.

Following the screening, attendees are invited to stay for a live panel discussion moderated by HERbal Woodstock co-owner Melissa Gibson, featuring Frankel and special guests. The conversation is designed to dig deeper into cannabis as a cultural tool rather than a commodity, especially in a town long associated with counterculture, music and art.

The event is free and open to the public for guests 21 and over, with advance RSVPs encouraged. Sponsored by several New York cannabis cultivators and producers, the night reflects a broader trend in legal cannabis toward education, dialogue and community-rooted programming rather than traditional retail marketing.

For Woodstock, where cannabis and creativity have long been intertwined, the screening feels less like a special event and more like a continuation of a story still being written.

<p>The post Woodstock to Screen Documentary Exploring Cannabis and Creativity first appeared on High Times.</p>

The post Woodstock to Screen Documentary Exploring Cannabis and Creativity appeared first on Paradise Found.

For decades, Whoopi Goldberg has spoken about cannabis the same way she speaks about life: plainly, honestly, without pretending it started mattering yesterday.

On February 10, Goldberg will bring that voice to the stage at IgniteIt’s Market Spotlight: New Jersey, joining a live, moderated conversation that centers on cannabis, wellness, and entrepreneurship. The 30-minute session, scheduled from 1:30 PM to 2:00 PM, will feature Goldberg alongside her business partners Davina Kaonohi and Melissa Jochim, founding partners of Beauty Evolution. The discussion will be moderated by New Jersey attorney Lou Magazzu.

This is not a keynote. It is a conversation. And for those who have followed Goldberg’s relationship with cannabis over the years, it is also a continuation.

When Goldberg spoke with Javier Hasse, she described cannabis not as an abstraction or an industry trend, but as something that had been present in her life for a long time, first as a way to manage pain and later as something more expansive.

“Cannabis is probably the greatest medicine on the planet that everybody can have,” Goldberg said at the time. For her, the plant entered her life in a practical way. “For people like me, it was always used to stop the cramps. And the side hustle of that is that it was fun, it made you laugh and stuff.”

That mix of relief, humanity, and normalcy runs through how she continues to talk about cannabis. In the same interview, she questioned why medicine is so often framed as something cold or punitive.

“Medicine doesn’t have to be horrifying,” she said. “Especially when it’s herbal, when it’s growing out of the ground and doesn’t need an additive, which means it can stay reasonably priced for people to go pick it up.”

Goldberg has also been consistent about something else: access. She has spoken repeatedly about keeping medicine in the hands of people, and about resisting the idea that healing must be complicated to be legitimate.

“You don’t have to mix it with things you can’t pronounce,” she said. “It is what it is. It is clean, it is strong, and you can regulate how much strength you need depending on what you’re doing with the plant.”

That long view is part of what makes her appearance at Market Spotlight feel distinct. This is not a celebrity drop-in or a branding exercise. It is a moment shaped by lived experience and continuity.

At Market Spotlight: New Jersey, Goldberg, Kaonohi, and Jochim will discuss how that perspective informs their work today, including the evolution of WhoopFam’s new wellness line and the broader intersection of culture, wellness, and entrepreneurship. The session arrives in the middle of a packed agenda that reflects just how complex and consequential the New Jersey cannabis market has become.

For Goldberg, the throughline remains simple. “Medicine should be in the hands of people,” she said. On February 10, that idea will be explored out loud, in real time, in front of an audience that understands just how much is at stake.

High Times is a media partner of the IgniteIt Market Spotlight.

About IgniteIt’s Market Spotlight: New Jersey

Tuesday, February 10, 2026

The Westin Jersey City Newport

IgniteIt’s Market Spotlight: New Jersey returns after a sold-out 2025 event that drew more than 500 attendees, offering a focused, one-day forum for operators, investors, regulators, and executives navigating one of the most closely watched cannabis markets in the country.

The 2026 program features regulators from the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission, senior executives from leading multi-state operators, capital markets leaders, retail founders, brand builders, and policy experts. Sessions throughout the day will examine federal rescheduling, capital access, margin discipline, cultivation strategy, retail saturation, trust and branding, and the evolving feedback loop between the New York and New Jersey markets.

Confirmed speakers include industry leaders such as Jason Wild, Tim Seymour, Jesce Horton, Rachelle Gordon, Laurie Parfitt, Jeremy Rivera, and senior representatives from state regulatory bodies, alongside dozens of operators and founders shaping the region’s cannabis economy.

In addition to panels and fireside conversations, the event emphasizes strategic networking, with structured opportunities to connect directly with decision-makers across the market.

IgniteIt’s Market Spotlight: New Jersey runs from early morning registration through an evening cocktail reception, offering a full day of education, insight, and connection.

Whoopi Goldberg Session:

1:30 PM to 2:00 PM

More information and registration details are available at: https://www.cannabismarketspotlight.com/new-jersey-2026/home

<p>The post Whoopi Goldberg Is Talking Cannabis in New Jersey This Feb. 10 first appeared on High Times.</p>

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