It’s time to throw out the lazy stoner myth. Yet another study has found that cannabis promotes more physical activity — not less!

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An investigation into the safety of cannabis products for sale on the shelves of licensed California pot dispensaries has revealed unsafe levels of pesticides that exceed state limits for marijuana or federal standards for tobacco products. The investigation, which was carried out by the Los Angeles Times in collaboration with cannabis news outlet WeedWeek, found that vapes and pre-rolled joints from some of California’s most popular legal weed brands were contaminated with chemicals that could cause illness or injury.

Most of the pesticides found during the investigation were present in low concentrations that risk long-term harm with repeated use of the contaminated products. However, some products tested had levels of pesticides that can potentially cause harm with a single use, particularly among susceptible individuals. Some individual products contained as many as two dozen pesticides, the investigation revealed.

“Twenty-five of 42 legal cannabis products that The Times and WeedWeek purchased from retail stores and had tested at private labs showed concentrations of pesticides either above levels the state allows or at levels that exceed federal standards for tobacco,” the Los Angeles Times wrote in its report on the investigation. “The contaminants include chemicals tied to cancer, liver failure, thyroid disease and genetic and neurologic harm to users and unborn children.”

The investigation determined that vapes from five popular cannabis brands contained pesticide levels that exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard for the risk of harm from a single exposure. Using such products could irritate the lungs, throat or eyes and cause other unwanted effects such as headaches, rashes, abdominal pain and diarrhea. 

The investigation’s findings are consistent with complaints filed by two independent cannabis testing laboratories over the last eight months to report contaminated products reported by other labs to be safe. According to the two labs, as many as 250,000 vapes and pre-rolls on cannabis dispensary shelves could be contaminated with pesticides.

The report notes that public records, lab testing results and interviews show that California regulators have largely failed to act on the reports of widespread contamination of cannabis products. After the complaints from the two independent labs, state regulators issued one product recall and removed three others from stores with an administrative order that remains confidential.

Josh Swider, the chief executive of Infinite Chemical Analysis Labs in San Diego, filed many of the complaints reporting the presence of pesticides in cannabis products that had been tested and certified as safe by other labs. After becoming frustrated that regulators were not doing more, he sent a summary of the complaints to California Governor Gavin Newsom and the state Department of Cannabis Control in December.

“Those failing products alone represented 150,000 packages of flower, vapes or pre-rolls for sale to unsuspecting consumers,” Swider wrote.

“The government’s responsibility does not end after writing regulation,” he added.

After Swider’s letter, regulators issued one additional product recall for pesticide contamination. The remaining products his lab identified as contaminated were allowed to remain on dispensary shelves.

None of California’s labs licensed to test cannabis products has been accredited to test for pesticides. The state also has no system in place for the routine testing of products on store shelves, despite a recommendation from the Cannabis Regulators Association for such testing.

“California is dropping the ball on enforcement where public health is concerned,” said cannabis researcher Cindy Orser, a former director of a private California cannabis testing lab.

California regulations require labs to test cannabis for 66 pesticides, a list that has not been updated since 2018 to reflect current practices in the cannabis industry. The investigation found seven pesticides not on the state list in cannabis products, despite information that the chemicals can cause harm including liver cancer and disruptions to the endocrine system. 

A vape from Stiiizy, California’s top-selling cannabis brand, contained more than 60 times the federal government’s maximum level set for cigarettes for the pesticide pymetrozine, a chemical banned by Canada, the United Kingdom and Norway. However, since the state does not require cannabis products to be tested for pymetrozine, the vape complies with California regulations.

“We adhere to all standards and limits set by the State of California, which has some of the strictest testing requirements and pesticide limits in the country,” Stiiizy President Tak Sato said in a statement emailed to the Los Angeles Times.

Regulators Decline To Respond To Investigation

The DCC declined to schedule an interview to respond to the investigation’s findings. The agency also refused to release records of internal and external communications or discussions of pesticide contamination. Additionally, the department declined to share information about its ability to test cannabis for contamination, citing the possibility that such information could be used by unscrupulous businesses determined to evade detection.

The agency refused to provide the results of pesticide tests performed by other state agencies and declined to provide safety certificates for cannabis products on dispensary shelves. The DCC also did not provide information on what action has been taken on the at least 85 complaints of contamination submitted to the agency or if any of the products had been removed from the market.

“When we receive complaints, we swiftly assess them, conduct appropriate investigations, and take appropriate action,” the agency’s press office said in an email to the Los Angeles Times.

The DCC is currently in the process of rolling out market tests for pesticides in California cannabis products. In a recent email to licensees, the agency warned cannabis companies that testing for pesticide contamination and enforcement of the state’s standards would be ramped up.

“In the coming weeks, the DCC is slated to bring additional testing capacity online to further bolster existing compliance actions and expand efforts to address pesticide contamination,” the agency wrote in its email.  These actions may include additional product embargos, voluntary and mandatory recalls, and disciplinary actions against licensees.”

Until the system is in place, however, there will still be no system for the routine safety testing of cannabis products once they make it to dispensary shelves.

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Regulators in Arizona announced this week that a cannabis establishment in the state has voluntarily recalled a certain product that may be contaminated with a fungus.

The Arizona Department of Health Services said on Monday that a product known as Onion Bhaji was recalled “due to possible contamination with Aspergillus, a fungus that can cause allergic reactions or infection, usually in people already sick with something else.”

“The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) is advising purchasers to dispose of the product described in the table below, which was found in laboratory tests to be positive for Aspergillus,” the agency said, adding that, to date, “no illnesses have been reported.”

“This announcement is being made out of an abundance of caution. Customers who have purchased potentially contaminated products should not ingest, inhale, or otherwise consume them and should dispose of them. If you have already consumed any of the products and have any of the symptoms described below, please contact your healthcare provider or seek care in the event of an emergency,” the announcement said.

The agency said that laboratory auditors with the Department of Health Services “were made aware of errors in testing results, leading to potentially false negative results for the contaminant.”

“Once [Arizona Department of Health Services] discovered the potential contamination, they contacted the facility that produced the products. The licensee took immediate action to work with all distribution and retail partners to remove any potentially impacted products from store shelves,” the agency said in this week’s announcement.

The product was voluntarily recalled by The Flower Shop; according to the Phoenix New Times, the product is “sold in The Flower Shop’s three metro Phoenix locations and distributed to nearly 170 other dispensaries across Arizona.”

Product recalls are a reality of any legal cannabis market. Arizona legalized recreational marijuana for adults in 2020, when voters there passed a ballot measure that ended prohibition. Legal pot sales began in January of 2021. 

In the three years since then, marijuana sales in the Grand Canyon State –– including both  recreational and medicinal –– have totaled more than a billion dollars. 

“Recreational marijuana sales for 2023 totaled about $1.1 billion, and medical contributed $348 million for total 2023 sales reaching $1.43 billion. Recreational sales amounted for more than 76% of the total, an increase from the 70% of sales it represented in 2022. In 2021, the first year adult-use recreational sales were legal, they were just 45% of the total,” the AZ Mirror reported in March.

“Since January 2021, recreational sales have totaled $2.8 billion, while medical has brought in slightly more than half that at $1.65 billion. The medical market dropped below $40 million in July 2022, and has not come near that mark in the ensuing months. Medical sales reached a peak of $73.4 million in April 2021, but since the inception of the dual market, medical sales have reached new lows seemingly every month. Recreational sales, which began in late January 2021, have fluctuated between $80 million and $93.5 million since July 2022. Since then, they hit a high-water mark of $100 million in March 2023 settling in at the mid- to lower-$80 million range. But recreational sales did dip in January 2024, registering just $76.8 million, the lowest since February 2022’s $72.8 million. It is the first time since June 2022 that monthly recreational marijuana sales fell below $80 million.”

The outlet explained that a third of the “revenue raised by the excise tax is dedicated to community college and provisional community college districts; 31% to public safety, including police, fire departments, fire districts and first responders; 25% to the Arizona Highway User Revenue Fund; and 10% to the justice reinvestment fund, which is dedicated to providing public health services, counseling, job training and other social services for communities that have been adversely affected and disproportionately impacted by marijuana arrests and criminalization.”

But according to the Mirror, the state has also “reported a steady decline in medical cannabis program participation, as the number of qualifying patients continues to drop every month.”

Still, the new law has led to something of a “green rush” for entrepreneurs in Arizona.

Eivan Shahara, the CEO of Mint Cannabis, a cannabis retailer in the state, told High Times earlier this year that the business is “anticipating an even busier 2024, as we prepare to employ more people to serve more customers at our additional dispensary locations.”

“The marijuana industry is blossoming into a significant job creator,” Shahara said. “It’s estimated that the cannabis industry employs about 500,000 full-time equivalent positions in the U.S., with about 280 new jobs being added daily. This showcases a promising trend, as more than 100,000 new jobs were established in the previous year, making the cannabis industry one of America’s fastest-growing job sectors.”

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It’s an interesting time in the weed world. The federal government is slow-dancing a signal fest that weed is acceptable and welcome to the fold. Nothing has really changed except perceived sentiment, but things will change and things have changed. For one, who we have relationships with in the industry today is not the same as yesterday, and tomorrow we have no idea except a guess. 

There is still a lingering holdover that still looks at the current state of cannabis the same way Kurt Cobain would look at a Nirvana song in a Hyundai commercial. Unfortunately the nostalgia-laden still have to eat and ultimately will take to YouTube or Instagram to sell some product under their brand. Some just bailed and grow for themselves working an impersonal day job to pay the bills. Some already made their money and can kick back and judge the scene from a balcony window. Anybody still playing the game is still fostering new and old relationships.

Creating Relationships

It’s a bit easier to create new relationships these days and at the same time harder to maintain them. People’s perceptions of you and your story change day to day based on surface level interpretations of who you are and what you are doing online, not necessarily in real life. This plays into how a brand sells and how much attention they can gather for a drop. This type of success can come and go with the wind. The handful of brands that have maintained success regardless of social media image have been tirelessly listening to their customers more so than what people are commenting on. Persevering through the online ups and downs, remaining visibly unaffected by whatever turd is being thrown your way and still getting to the work day with the intention of improving every part of the consumer experience is what defines the success of the less-than-half-a-dozen proprietors that have been continually winning. Winning can be reduced to profitability or in this market just keeping your business alive. 

Another characteristic of the brands that are fostering success is how they collaborate with other smaller brands, elevating their brand by elevating another. This type of move reinforces the roots of where they came from by honoring the draft class of younger, smaller brands that have less visibility. This has worked more times than not and if things go sideways, the winning brands handle the drama offline. Any time the drama between these types of collabs enters the public online space it takes a piece of the larger brand back, regardless of the attention or engagement gathered. As much as the old adage “no press is bad press” is still a thing, a brand’s favor with consumers now more than ever can disappear into a wash of irrelevance if the narrative online paints them unfavorably. At some point the consumer gets tired of the story and that burnout point approaches fast as the world grows smaller the more it becomes interconnected. 

What really stands out are the brands that continue to sit just above the line of obscurity, gathering engagement and conversation when needed, while creating a consistent product. As they grow, their brand name becomes more common and organically becomes a fixture in the space for as along as they can maintain it or until there is some legal duress that throws the trajectory for a loop. There are two brands at the moment that come to mind that are facing this sort of situation. There are also those types of brands that are designed to edge lord the entire business crossing into sub culture conversations that touch cannabis. Selling cannabis along side the open legs of porn stars or other types of lurid hooks. At some point these hooks lose their allure and the brands will either continue to push the limit or rebrand into the mainstream. That didn’t work out too well for Vice media, but that’s another conversation. The extreme marketing can work on creating virality and hype but maintaining that success when the focus is on how you are selling instead of what you are really selling—which is weed, in case we forgot—can go sideways real fast.

Calculating Costs

So with all this in mind, I am trying to do something with my brand that will try and meet a few of these worlds while reaching what matters most, consumer value. Looking at the retail numbers, at least in California, cost seems to be the number one thing consumers value the most. Which is a bit disheartening although understood when ruminating on the egregious taxes bestowed on the consumer shopping in the California retail cannabis market. There are suggested prices for top shelf product that are displayed along with the eternal sale price of $35-$40 for an 1/8th. What we would like to be paid compared to what people will pay for is a rub, especially when looking at the prices of some products in fancy unregulated packaging on telegram. As much as growers market how they grow it matters less to the consumer if there is a close to equivalent product for ten dollars less. Also if you come out with a listed product at $35-40 an 1/8th you’ve screwed yourself into what is called the retail dead zone. You can discount a product to that price but for your sake don’t come in at that price thinking you’ll be able to match the consumer perceived value of a discounted established brand. Consumers like to feel like they are getting a deal on that jar or bag. Also after taxes they end up paying the $55-60 but the delta goes to the state, the silent and suffocating partner of every legal cannabis company. 

Consumers also value a cannabinoid analysis more than the actual product. Which is extremely frustrating and everyone has been yapping about how this is a terrible value metric for good while, and yet it’s barely moved the needle. What has moved the needle is the lack of testing in the black market and how those buyers care more about aroma, look, and packaging more than a test. That is a gift from the black market that is helping the rest of us when it comes to selections made based off THC numbers. I’m going to try and push against this with the selections I’m making but I can’t pretend that I don’t exhale easier when a test comes back over 25%. It still matters, and even more in the smaller market states. A smart approach when you are selling your brand to consumers is to weave in the dialogue how much more value there is in your product than just one number. 

The Consumer Is Your Mirror

So let’s say you’ve got some heat and fresh packaging and you’re ready to start selling to retail locations. If you haven’t started developing relationships ahead of time with retail ownership, good luck. The amount of competition in the market is staggering and it makes sense when you do the math at how much cultivation is being backdoored when you stack up the total volume of metric tons produced to the demand from retailers. This backdooring has also created an undefeated black market where customers can get fresher product faster and at a lower price. Accessing shelf space at a dispensary to sell your flower is a cut-throat game, and if you think that getting on the shelf is the final mountain to climb, think again. Once you have the shelf space, you have to be present as much as possible at the retail and not only develop solid relationships with the staff at the store but also the customers, number 1 the customers. This could be looked at as a chore but really it’s your opportunity to maintain the relationship with the retail location with authentic customer outreach, because if your product struggles to sell that shelf space will evaporate. I tried this approach in a smaller market that was vocally unhappy with the state program and to this day there are still Reddit posts of the drops we did 3 years ago. This was directly due to myself as the grower, not a rep, communicating as much as possible with the retail buyers. I cannot recommend this enough to new brands, your people matter more than anybody else. They are the ones that keep you going and will be there to support your efforts as you grow and face adversity. Your customers must be invested in who you are, your products and your success. It is more like this in cannabis than any other market. The further a brand gets away from their consumer investment into their brand the quicker they fall. The consumer is your mirror, hear them out, listen to what they ask for, what they are happy with and what didn’t land. If something doesn’t land then it’s up to you to make it right and if you have been developing the relationships you will for sure be given the chance to make it right. 

So you might have slogged through licensing and starting up a business. You might have hired a high end marketing consultant to build you a logo. You might have finally got your grow team up to speed and your harvest batches are hitting the marks. None of that matters unless you have built a loyal customer base that you are in service to. 

It doesn’t matter how good your weed is unless people enjoy buying it as much as they do smoking it. So get out of the warehouse or off the hill and start cultivating the joy that got you growing in the first place with the people that are paying your power bill.

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States where recreational marijuana has been made legal are seeing upticks in college applications, including from elite students. 

That is the takeaway of a study published late last year in the peer-reviewed journal Contemporary Economic Policy. 

“Using a two-way fixed effects difference-in-differences model, we investigate the effects of local recreational marijuana (RMJ) policy changes on college applications and find that the three largest state public schools reaped, on average, an almost 54% increase in applications,” the authors of the study said in the abstract. 

Recreational cannabis is currently legal for adults in 24 states and the District of Columbia, according to Pew Research Center. It is also legal in the U.S. territories of the U.S. British Islands, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. According to Pew, which cited census data, “more than half of Americans (54%) live in a state where both recreational and medical marijuana are legal, and 74% live in a state where it’s legal either for both purposes or medical use only.” 

“About eight-in-ten Americans (79%) live in a county with at least one cannabis dispensary, according to the February analysis. There are nearly 15,000 marijuana dispensaries nationwide, and 76% are in states (including D.C.) where recreational use is legal. Another 23% are in medical marijuana-only states, and 1% are in states that have made legal allowances for low-percentage THC or CBD-only products,” Pew explained. “The states with the largest number of dispensaries include California, Oklahoma, Florida, Colorado and Michigan.”

Pew also noted that Americans’ attitudes toward marijuana use have shifted dramatically since 2012, when Colorado and Washington became the first two states to legalize recreational pot use.

“Around nine-in-ten Americans say marijuana should be legal for medical or recreational use, according to a January 2024 Pew Research Center survey. An overwhelming majority of U.S. adults (88%) say either that marijuana should be legal for medical use only (32%) or that it should be legal for medical and recreational use (57%). Just 11% say the drug should not be legal in any form. These views have held relatively steady over the past five years,” Pew explained.

The wave of legalization has, apparently, had an effect on college admissions. 

According to the study published in Contemporary Economic Policy, the increase in applications “does not appear to come solely from low-ability students as both first and third quartiles of admitted student composite SAT scores to the largest three public schools do not decrease.”

“Rather, they both increase by almost 3.8% though these estimates are not statistically significant. Robust difference-in-difference and event study models support the signs and magnitudes of these gains and show they diminish over time,” the authors of the study wrote. 

The outlet PsyPost, which published analysis of the college applications study by one of the researchers, reported that in “the year that a particular state legalized recreational marijuana, the number of applications for that state’s colleges grew by about 5.5% more than colleges in states that did not legalize.” 

“This means that colleges in legal-marijuana states received a temporary boost in applications. We didn’t detect any increase beyond the initial spike. Our results control for school quality, tuition prices and labor market conditions that may affect student application decisions,” the researcher wrote. 

“As researchers continue to assess the risks and rewards of recreational marijuana, our results show that institutions of higher learning benefit when their home states allow their citizens to get high. One benefit is that schools had a larger and higher-achieving applicant pool to choose from. This in turn creates the potential to improve a school’s academic profile,” wrote the author, Christopher Blake.

“Our results fit into a larger body of research analyzing what affects a student’s application choices. We found that, similar to how schools see a spike in applications and SAT scores when those schools have winning sports teams, schools see spikes when they are located in states that legalize marijuana. While our data cannot prove it explicitly, this suggests that students do factor local policies into their college choice, a key result of interest for scholars and policymakers alike.”

But Blake also acknowledged some limitations to the research.

“Our data cannot pinpoint why freshmen who are often coming straight out of high school – and thus not of legal age (21) to buy recreational marijuana – might base their application decisions on recreational marijuana’s availability,” he wrote. “It could be the case that legal sales create a perception for prospective applicants that underage consumption is less risky. It could be simply because widespread news coverage made certain states seem more popular. Or it could be because more permissive public policies in one area, such as marijuana laws, might suggest more attractive and liberalized policies in other areas important to students, such as abortion. It’s hard to say without talking directly to students themselves.”

He added, “We also don’t know how much of the application boosts that occur after legalization are being driven by out-of-state students. For example, did legalization in Colorado cause students from other states to apply to Colorado schools in higher numbers? Alternatively, in-state students may have elected to apply to even more Colorado schools than they would have in the absence of recreational marijuana as a way to stay in their home state.”

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Federal officials in New Mexico are apparently targeting state-licensed marijuana companies at border checkpoints and seizing regulated cannabis products, according to media reports. 

New Mexico legalized medical marijuana in 2019, followed by the legalization of adult-use cannabis in 2021. Regulated sales of recreational weed began in the state on April 1, 2022, just under a year after Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the legalization bill into law.

Since then, New Mexico’s licensed cannabis businesses have seen little interference from federal authorities, much like other weed-legal states over the last several years. The situation has changed recently, however, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents seizing regulated cannabis products at least a dozen times over the last two weeks, according to Ben Lewinger, executive director of the New Mexico Chamber of Commerce. Although 12 such seizures have been reported, the actual number could be even higher.

“There still is a lot of stigma and a lot of fear so I imagine this is underreported,” Lewinger told KRQE 13 television news. “It’s hurting small businesses. It’s hurting all of us because of the loss of tax revenue.”

CBP officers are permitted to establish immigration checkpoints to help stem smuggling and human trafficking within 100 miles of the international border with Mexico. In states with legal weed, these checkpoints are generally navigated without incident by licensed cannabis companies moving products within the state. But recently that has changed, although seemingly only in New Mexico. Lewinger said he believes the state’s cannabis businesses are being targeted by federal officials in the state and called on the Biden administration to step in.

“Our brothers and sisters in California and Arizona, which also share a border with Mexico, they’re not seeing this kind of same increased activity. It seems like this is a situation that is particular to New Mexico and I think what needs to happen is The White House needs to direct the Department of Homeland Security to stop wasting resources on a product that poses no threat,” Lewinger said. “It’s just clearly outside of the scope of Customs and Border Patrol.”

Nick Spoor, operations manager at Top Crop Cannabis Co., told reporters that the company has regularly transported cannabis products through CBP checkpoints successfully.

“Normally they don’t have dogs, usually it’s just a, ‘are you a U.S. citizen, yes’ and then they wave you through,” said Spoor.

But that changed when CBP agents seized products from one of the company’s vehicles at a checkpoint on Valentine’s Day.

“We’ve been going through that checkpoint for over a year, no questions asked, so obviously we’re doing everything compliantly. It was manifested product,” said Top Crop Cannabis Co. CEO Matt Chadwick. “So, I was shocked, a little blown away and taken back.”

Ethan Ramsey, an employee with Las Cruces cannabis producer Head Space Alchemy, was arrested by the CBP last week while attempting to go through an immigration checkpoint, according to a report from The Paper. The driver had been stopped at a checkpoint on Interstate 25, about 25 miles north of Las Cruces while delivering samples to a cannabis lab in Santa Fe. 

Rob Duran, a managing partner of Head Space Alchemy, was following in another vehicle. The Paper obtained an audio recording of the interaction with CBP officials. 

“We’ve been instructed to seize all cannabis—all illegal products,” the CBP officer can be heard saying. “It’s still federally illegal.”

When Duran asked how the company and CBP could reach a solution to the situation, he was told that he could talk to a supervisor or contact the regional office. 

“I can’t tell you anything that they [haven’t] already told you,” the officer says on the recording. “Or I can’t go above what they’re telling you … Everything’s going to get seized.”

When Duran asks about Ramsey, he is told that the employee has been arrested.

“He’s under arrest,” the agent says. “That’s what happens when someone gets placed under arrest. You’re trying to get a definitive answer out of me. I don’t know where we’re at. We’ve just started this process. We’ve just started this case, so I can’t give you a definitive answer.”

Between last week’s seizure by CBP and an earlier one, Duran says the company has lost about $20,000 in product. More significantly, his workers now have a record with the federal government because of the interactions.

“In both cases, [employees] have had their pictures taken and been fingerprinted, and have also been told that their names are going to now be in a federal database as being caught at a federal inspection checkpoint with cannabis,” Duran says.

When contacted by local media, a CBP spokesperson denied allegations that officers in New Mexico are targeting licensed cannabis businesses.

“Although legal for medical and/or recreational use in many states, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Therefore, U.S. Border Patrol agents will continue to take appropriate enforcement action against those who are encountered in possession of marijuana anywhere in the United States.”

Chadwick of Top Crop Cannabis Co. said that his business can handle the loss from CBP interference. But he says that other companies could be irreparably harmed by the product seizures.

“People’s lives are at stake here. Businesses are at stake here. And it can affect some people with, like I said, very dire circumstances and they could lose everything they’ve had,” said Chadwick. “They’ve put their hearts and souls into their businesses and it’s not fair.”

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Since breaking through with Sixteen Stone in 1994, Bush’s Gavin Rossdale has been a music industry mainstay. The debut album peaked at #4 on the Billboard charts, leading to successful albums and side projects over the next three decades.

The band’s debut release, known for hits like “Machinehead” and “Glycerine,” solidified Bush’s 90s legacy. They continued with chart-topping releases, including 1996’s follow-up Razorblade Suitcase, and maintained momentum through the 2000s. Their latest album, The Art of Survival, released in 2022. 

The combined endeavors created a lasting impact in the ears and minds of listeners, amassing 24 million records sold and over a billion streams across various platforms. With Gen-Z leading a 90s revival in recent years, the band has earned scores more fans while reminding older listeners that unlike some 90s acts, Bush isn’t a nostalgia act. 

That’s great and all, but why are we talking about this in a weed publication?

Great question! It all boils down to authenticity. Gavin Rossdale’s eager engagement with New York’s weed culture, exploring both licensed and unlicensed scenes, stands out in the saturated world of celebrity weed narratives that few others have been willing to embark on. In doing so, he created a lasting experience for himself and hopefully readers. 

The Licensed Dispensary Experience

We introduced Rossdale to New York’s licensed cannabis scene with a stop at The Travel Agency in Union Square, a sleek, all-white interior dispensary with discreet marketing, thanks to state laws. Despite its unassuming street presence, marked only by a small sign above eye level, a joint-styled art installation in the window lets passersby know what’s inside.

Rossdale mentioned previously visiting one of the city’s untold number of unlicensed shops in the city. He discussed how the shop gave off a lack of trust and fostered shopper uncertainty about product quality and trust. 

“You’re just basically buying it old school from some dude on the corner,” he remarked. Rossdale felt similarly uncertain about licensed shop products, likely due to his unfamiliarity with many of the brands sold in the store and an inability to smell flower. 

However, he took a keen interest in learning. Photographer Jhalil D. Wright and I peppered Rossdale with facts about the market, products, and particular brands. Typically, this type of info dump leads many to tune out or lose interest. To the singer’s credit, he soaked up the information, showing an eagerness to learn about topics like market trust, sprayed terps, and drying and curing methods.

While shopping, the Bush frontman discussed his preference for smoking flower and largely avoiding pre-rolls. After browsing for a few minutes, Rossdale bought an eighth of Mimosa from Etain despite the restrictions on examining product before buying. He also scooped up edibles from Eaton Botanticals, infused olive oil from Chef for Higher, and Flintts Mints.

The experience was fine enough, or at least as much as a shop can deliver under New York law. But, like many legacy consumers, Rossdale seemed to be seeking something more hands-on. To get that, we visited the underground hotspot Astor Club. 

On the ride over, Rossdale discussed his preferences for weed over alcohol, stating that drinking and hangovers do not benefit singers while on tour. No matter the substance, Rossdale likes to remember that it should amplify the moment or intention, not bring someone down. He’s shared this with his three sons under-18. 

He emphasized the importance of telling them the truth. “Use it to amplify the moment instead of pull you down,” he explained. “My main thing is just to be a guy, to be helpful, not a hypocrite,” he said, noting that pot makes him feel creative. To maintain the effects to his ideal level, Rossdale tends to consume every few days. 

The Legacy Experience

At Astor Club, Rossdale found the cannabis experience he was looking for. No shade to The Travel Agency or any other licensed spot. It’s not their fault. The current state and federal regulations don’t allow dispensaries to compete with the flower or features found at underground meccas. On the other hand, Astor Club has cultivated a reputation for sourcing the top bud from elite producers across the country—all while creating an environment synonymous with the culture. 

After rolling up a J of Cookie Dough from Khashtree Mason, Rossdale was convinced. “It’s like Cristal Champagne,” he said, offering ample praise for the bud and the lounge. The Bush founder was so fond of the strain that he almost stuck to it exclusively. Staff ended up reminding him of their extensive menu, all top tier options in their own right. Eventually, a few different strains were selected and smoked.  

After smoking another J, Rossdale discussed his career and personal life in-depth. Feeling that living with intention, learning, and striving to improve are all important, he said, “You have to put everything into it.” As evidenced by Bush’s new harder rock and detuned sound, Rossdale said he loves finding new sounds and ways to play music, as evidenced by the detuned sound on the band’s 2022 album The Art of Survival. 

A greatest hits album, Loaded, was released in October 2023. Originally hesitant to put out a hits compilation and be seen as a fading act, Rossdale is now eager to see the band’s top works compiled together. 

“It’s been really fun to look back and see what those songs have done for other people,” Rossdale said, sharing a similar feeling when playing live. “When I play those big crowds, it’s really fun, because there’s all these memories emanating like shooting stars out of all the audiences.” The band embarks on a summer tour starting June 1. 

Despite the ongoing passion for music and performing, Rossdale does see retirement happening at some point. A self-proclaimed fan of restaurants and food, he recently put his passion on screen hosting his own celebrity cooking show, Rockstar Kitchen Chronicles, featuring guests such as Tom Jones and Jack McBrayer. 

Despite a love for food, music, the plant, and more, Rossdale envisions dogs as his ideal next career. “I would like to run a huge ranch for rescue dogs and animals,” he said. 

Enamored with the menu of choices, Rossdale, Jhalil and I departed Astor Club with a few more selections, including more Cookie Dough and Moon Doh from Archive. 

An Authentic Celebrity Experience

Credit to Rossdale and his public relations team. All too often, PR will pitch Zoom interviews and carefully curated celebrity press ops that blanket numerous outlets and reporters, often regurgitating the same talking points no matter the outlet. 

After years of writing up celeb features that didn’t do much for the plant or reader, I have chosen to steer clear of most star-studded coverage, especially those making the media rounds hawking their new seeds, strain, brand, etc. Rossdale was no doubt in press mode, promoting his new tour and latest single. But unlike far too many celebrities, he didn’t have a stake in the weed game. He just wanted to pick up, smoke, and talk shop. 

This simple, authentic concept is one few outside of hip hop have even flirted with on the record. And that’s a damn shame. The standard media approach does little for readers and, as sales seem to indicate, it does little to help most brands boost sales or awareness. Rather than Zoom-ing or calling it to discuss a fondness for weed, Rossdale showed up, discussed his own experiences, and demonstrated an authentic desire to learn more. In doing so, he got to see both sides of New York City’s weed community, and got hella high in the process. And, unless I fucked up in my role as the storyteller here, the Rossdale approach makes for a better story every time. 

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In an “hours-long discussion,” the officials on a Costa Mesa panel considered various ways of amending the city’s laws governing legal cannabis shops. Those laws “have engendered complaints from neighbors and proprietors alike,” according to the Los Angeles Times, which said that Tuesday’s meeting “ended with a flurry of motions from City Council members that, if approved, could have sweeping local impacts on the industry.”

The Times reported that the council “considered a slate of recommendations submitted by the Planning Commission in three earlier public hearings and cataloged in a draft revision of the original 2021 ordinance.”

“But where commissioners went in with scalpel-like precision, carefully weighing potential edits against real-world consequences before posing eight specific suggestions, the City Council adopted a somewhat scattershot approach,” the Times said.

The publication Voice of OC reported that the Costa Mesa City Council is “looking to limit the number of retail cannabis shops to 35 after city officials began questioning just how many should operate within the city,” while also “eying how close the shops should sit next to homes, youth centers and other cannabis storefronts.”

“Part of my intent today is to not only figure out the new buffers and also the cap, but also to address issues raised by the industry,” Manuel Chavez, a member of the Costa Mesa City Council, said at Tuesday’s meeting, as quoted by Voice of OC. “I think we’re doing a piece by piece approach which is fine but I do want to make sure we’re reforming some of the comments we hear from the industry.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, the council “generally supported establishing a separation requirement of 250 feet between any new cannabis dispensaries and residentially zoned properties and 1,000 feet between storefronts and youth centers where children recreate.”

More from the Times on the measures considered by the council:

“If passed, such a rule would make any already-approved shops inside that red zone ‘legal, nonconforming’ businesses. Although they may continue to operate in violation of the new rules, it’s not clear whether that status could hamper a property or business in the future. The panel also agreed to process up to 35 cannabis business permits, to allow would-be operators who’ve already passed a pre-application stage to continue the process. After that, through attrition, a new citywide cap of 10 dispensaries could be instituted upon final approval. But because a cannabis business permit runs with an individual operator and may not be transferred if a dispensary is sold, it is unclear whether another owner would be able to apply for a new permit or be shut out by the cap.”

Voters in Costa Mesa, a city in Orange County of around 17,000 people, approved a ballot proposal in 2020 called Measure Q, also known as the Costa Mesa Retail Cannabis Tax and Regulation Measure, which “allows the City to adopt rules permitting retail cannabis uses within the City, including storefronts (dispensaries) and non-storefront uses (delivery only),” according to the city’s official website.

Measure Q also established “buffers between some properties and storefronts to limit the distance between them,” which the Costa Mesa City Council began considering last fall.

In October, the council “voted unanimously for staff to take another look at the buffers,” directing the “planning commission [to] first consider any changes and make recommendations to the council within the next two months,” according to Voice of OC.

“The current ordinance does not include buffer zones between storefronts and residential areas. Some residents have expressed concerns about the distance of cannabis storefronts from residential areas and schools and the overconcentration of the businesses, especially at Broadway and Newport Boulevard…Local officials are also concerned for the well-being of students as they pass many cannabis stores on their commute to school,” the outlet reported in the fall.

“My kids are eight, and they ask me all the time, ‘What’s Nectar? What’s Mr. Nice Guys?’ It’s hard to explain to them what’s going on in the community,” Erik Weigand, a Newport Beach councilmember, said at the meeting in October.

Alex Frank, an attorney representing home and business owners in Costa Mesa, said that if “four cannabis businesses are put at that corner, it will effectively turn that corner into Costa Mesa’s cannabis row, and it will do so less than 25 yards from homes and many families in our community,” according to Voice of OC.

“My firm has been retained to encourage the city to reverse course on this before pot shops dominate that corner and damage my clients’ businesses and their homes. And if the city will not do that, my clients intend to proceed with litigation to seek damages for the resulting injuries,” Frank said at the meeting, as quoted by the outlet.

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New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Monday that her administration will conduct an assessment of the state’s rollout of legal recreational marijuana, saying that the review is needed to ensure the success of the regulated cannabis market. 

New York lawmakers passed legislation legalizing recreational pot nearly three years ago, but the rollout of regulated sales has been plagued by lawsuits and other delays. More than a year after the first licensed recreational pot shop opened in December 2022, only 70 retailers selling adult-use cannabis have been licensed statewide. The figure includes Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) storefronts and CAURD delivery-only services, licenses that were reserved for applicants with past cannabis convictions, as well as previously existing medical marijuana dispensaries that have been co-licensed to sell recreational weed.

In the meantime, the shortage of licensed retailers coupled with the end of criminal penalties for cannabis possession has led to an explosion of unlicensed pot shops, particularly in New York City. An estimated 36,000 unlicensed retailers have opened statewide, according to a recent report, including approximately 1,500 in the Big Apple alone. Critics of New York’s regulated cannabis rollout say the situation threatens the viability of the legal industry.

Earlier this year, the Democratic governor characterized the rollout of legal cannabis as a “disaster,” saying that it was unlikely that the program could be improved without significant changes to the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), the 2021 law that legalized recreational marijuana in New York. Hochul made the comments as she responded to questions about the rollout from the editorial board of the Buffalo News, noting that some areas of New York City have multiple unlicensed weed shops on the same block.

“It’s not every street corner,” Hochul said in January. “It is every other storefront. It is insane.”

Governor Announces Review

On Monday, Hochul said that her administration would complete an assessment of the rollout to identify opportunities to improve the program and ensure its success. The review will be led by Commissioner for the Office of General Services Jeanette Moy, who along with a team of state government leaders will embed with the New York Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) for at least 30 days.

“Today, we take the first step in revamping New York’s legal cannabis industry to ensure its long-term success,” Hochul said in a statement on Monday. “I have full confidence in Commissioner Moy’s ability to identify areas that need improvement, establish standards and processes across agencies, and jumpstart the next phase of New York’s legal cannabis market.”

Lauren Rudick, an attorney who has helped clients submit more than 100 applications for cannabis business licenses, said she appreciates Hochul’s announced review. She added that she hopes the assessment will foster a more transparent process for submitting applications and addressing problems that might come up as applications are reviewed.

“We want to have a system that is repeatable and predictable, so that when someone comes to us for licensing, we can give them a sense as to what they can expect,” Rudick told the New York Times. “But as of right now, it’s ‘be flexible and pivot or die,’ because we just never know what the state is going to throw at us.”

The assessment of New York’s cannabis rollout will include a complete review of the organizational structure, systems and process at the OCM. The review will focus on improving the time it takes to process an application and reducing the application-to-opening timeframe for new cannabis businesses.

Moy’s team has also been tasked with developing key performance metrics and an executive-level licensing dashboard to give policymakers a comprehensive view of the state’s licensing activity. The review will also include efforts to identify and implement policy changes that will streamline the application and licensing process and the development of three-month and six-month plans to continue improving the performance of cannabis regulators.

Cannabis Industry Welcomes Review

Hochul’s review of New York’s rollout of regulated recreational weed is also being welcomed by business operators who have already gone through the licensing process. New Yorker Christopher Louie moved to Colorado to start the brand Made in Xiaolin in 2018. He recently returned to the Empire State to launch the brand there, but says the “rollout of regulated cannabis in New York was a bit fumbled.”

“It is clear that regulators tried to be quick with the rollout, and it has posed some interesting challenges,” Louie wrote in an email to High Times. “For example, the wholesale market is not favorable for our brand right now, and we’re being forced to lower margins on both sides. Additionally, the way the illicit market and the legal market are currently coexisting is eerily reminiscent of the California market – which is not something anyone wants to duplicate. We are hopeful for the future, though, and continue to see small strides toward a more successful legal market that we are proud to be a part of.”

Sasha Nutgent, director of retail at Housing Works Cannabis Co, the first licensed recreational cannabis dispensary to open in the state, said that the review is “absolutely necessary.”

“The rollout of licenses has been extremely slow and is negatively impacting the livelihoods of hundreds of applicants across the State,” Nutgent wrote in an email. “There have been numerous missed opportunities in the legal adult-use cannabis industry, and hopefully Hochul’s move will help to rectify them.”

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According to multiple reports late last week, MedMen has shuttered all but two of its stores in California.

“Only MedMen stores in San Diego and near Los Angeles International Airport remain open,” MJBizDaily reported on Friday. 

Green Market Report, citing a former staffer at the company, reported that “[although] no one connected with MedMen’s corporate headquarters could be reached for comment, the chain had a small fire sale to unload product this past week prior to closing down.”

The outlet has more on MedMen’s precipitous decline:

“The report of more closures follows a series of troubling developments for the company, including a string of earlier dispensaries closing down – including MedMen’s flagship store in West Hollywood in February, then its shops in San Jose and Emeryville the same month, and just this week, the company closed its San Francisco location. The news also follows a string of C-suite departures, with ex-CEO Ellen Deutsch Harrison resigning in January after less than seven months on the job.”

MJBizDaily, meanwhile, has specific figures on the number of jobs lost:

“The cash-strapped company operated more than a dozen stores in the state before the latest round of closures. The Los Angeles-based MSO on Thursday closed its San Francisco store in the Cow Hollow neighborhood, Medmen’s last remaining outlet in the Bay Area, according to SFist. The store opened only two years ago, the news outlet reported. MedMen, which has closed several other stores and laid off dozens of workers in California, Illinois and Nevada in the past month, shuttered its Long Beach location last week, MJBizDaily confirmed Friday. The Long Beach location had about 10 employees, according to a former staffer. The company has laid off more than 100 employees since Jan. 26, according to MJBizDaily reporting, including a round of corporate layoffs in MedMen’s accounting and marketing departments.”

Both outlets noted that MedMen’s official website has been down since last week. On Monday morning, visitors to the site were met with an image of a man lounging on his back poolside, with the message: “We’ll Be Back Soon Sorry, we’re down for scheduled maintenence. In the meantime, connect with us on social.”

The company has not posted on its Instagram account since January. Its last post on Facebook was in 2022.

In 2019, MedMen scrapped plans for a major acquisition. Alarmed by plunging cannabis stocks, the company “backed out of a blockbuster deal to buy PharmaCann, a Chicago-based marijuana company with operations in eight states,” the Associated Press reported at the time.

A year earlier, MedMen announced its plans to acquire PharmaCann for $682 million in an all-stock transaction. In a press release at the time, MedMen said that the resulting “pro-forma company (including pending acquisitions by MedMen) will have a portfolio of cannabis licenses in 12 states that will permit the combined company to operate 79 cannabis facilities.” 

“The combined company will operate in 12 states, which comprise a total estimated addressable market, as of 2030, of approximately $40 billion according to Cowen Group. Through the transaction, MedMen will add licenses in Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, Virginia and Michigan,” the press release said.

The deal was supposed to be a watershed moment for the cannabis industry, with the AP noting that it “was seen as a forerunner of a wave of marijuana industry mergers and acquisitions promising big returns for investors.”

Adam Bierman, MedMen’s CEO at the time, called it “a transformative acquisition that will create the largest U.S. cannabis company in the world’s largest cannabis market.” 

“The transaction adds tremendous scale to our vertically integrated business model by expanding our U.S. retail footprint across important growth markets while strengthening our cultivation and production capabilities. With the revenue synergies that the deal is expected to produce, MedMen is well positioned to continue executing on our growth strategy,” said Bierman, who stepped down in his role as chief executive in early 2020.

“This would not have been possible even two years ago and is a testament to how far both the industry and these two companies have evolved. PharmaCann’s leadership has built a world-class organization, and we are excited about the value this transaction is creating for shareholders.”

But by the fall of 2019, MedMen was singing a very different tune. According to the Associated Press, the company “cited the steep pullback in U.S. and Canadian cannabis stocks this year,” and “noted the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index, a Canadian exchange-traded fund that tracks cannabis stocks, is down 47% since March.”

“The underperformance has made it increasingly more critical to allocate capital efficiently, given the current industry headwinds,” MedMen said in a news release, as quoted by the Associated Press.

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