A new survey commissioned by Royal Queen Seeds found cannabis consumers are deeply concerned about pesticides, broadly supportive of home grow and increasingly willing to choose cleaner weed over stronger weed.

The weed industry has spent years training people to chase one thing: higher THC.

That pitch may be getting old.

A new Harris Poll conducted online on behalf of Royal Queen Seeds suggests cannabis consumers are growing more skeptical of potency for potency’s sake, and more focused on what is actually in the weed they buy. Among the biggest findings, 72% of cannabis consumers said they are very concerned about pesticides in the cannabis they consume, while 67% said they would choose weaker cannabis grown without pesticides over stronger cannabis with higher THC.

That is not a minor shift in taste. That is a shot at one of the laziest habits in legal weed marketing.

For years, high THC became the industry’s favorite shortcut. Stronger meant better. Bigger number, bigger flex. But if consumers are now willing to trade some potency for cleaner cannabis, that whole formula starts to look a lot shakier.

Or, put less politely, kind of stupid.

The survey was fielded March 17-19, 2026 among 2,017 U.S. adults age 21 and older, including 851 cannabis consumers. It was commissioned by Royal Queen Seeds, one of the world’s largest seed banks, so the data should be read as a snapshot of consumer sentiment, not the final word on the U.S. market. Still, some of the findings are hard to ignore.

The most interesting part is not the headline-friendly weed-versus-alcohol stat, though that one will get attention. According to the poll, 76% of cannabis consumers said they prefer the high of cannabis over the buzz of alcohol. Among respondents ages 21 to 34, that rose to 81%.

But that is old news, really. Weed beating booze in a survey is not exactly a shocker in 2026.

What feels more telling is the trust problem sitting underneath the rest of the results.

Nearly two-thirds of cannabis consumers, 63%, said they believe the cannabis industry is fully transparent about pesticide testing. At the same time, nearly three in four said they are very concerned about pesticides in the weed they consume. If those numbers seem a little uneasy next to each other, that is because they are. Consumers may still be shopping in the legal market, but a lot of them clearly are not relaxing.

That may help explain why home grow remains such a strong part of the conversation. The poll found that 61% of Americans age 21 and older believe growing cannabis at home should be legal, including 79% of cannabis consumers. Among cannabis consumers, 65% said recent media coverage has made them more likely to consider growing cannabis at home rather than buying it.

That is not just lifestyle signaling. That sounds like quality control.

And while overall support for home grow remains strong, the survey also found a statistically significant decline from last year among adults 21 and older, down to 61% from 64%. So the appetite is still there, but it is not moving in a straight line.

The survey also found that 43% of Americans 21 and older now consume cannabis, up from 39% in 2024. Thirteen percent said they use cannabis daily, up three points from 2024. Meanwhile, only 23% of cannabis consumers said they use cannabis for enjoyment only. The rest said their consumption is tied at least in part to health or wellness benefits.

That matters. Once people start seeing cannabis as something more intentional than just a good time, the tolerance for dirty inputs, bad labeling and empty THC hype starts to shrink.

A few other findings push in the same direction. Younger adults were more likely to support home grow and more likely to check testing labels. Women were less likely than men to say the cannabis industry is fully transparent about pesticides. And 39% of Americans age 21 and older said they would be more impressed if someone brought homegrown weed to a dinner party than a bottle of expensive wine, which is either a charming sign of the times or a very specific kind of stoner optimism.

Either way, the bigger point stands.

Consumers still want good weed. They still want strong weed, too. But this poll suggests more of them are starting to ask a question the industry has not always wanted to answer: what exactly is in this stuff?

And once that question gets louder, THC alone stops sounding like much of a sales pitch.

<p>The post The THC Arms Race Is Starting To Look Stupid, New Harris Poll Finds first appeared on High Times.</p>

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The artist is entering cannabis as co-founder and brand ambassador of Young Gong, a new venture with Dr. Sha-Ron Pierre-Kovler’s Glenmere Farms Enterprises.

YG Marley is entering the cannabis business.

The artist is launching Young Gong, a new cannabis brand created with Glenmere Farms Enterprises, the New York-based company led by biomedical scientist Dr. Sha-Ron Pierre-Kovler. The official launch is set for April 19 with a “Countdown to 4/20” event at Partake NYC in Long Island City, during the 2nd day of NYC’s weekend-long Kanafest.

According to materials shared exclusively with High Times, Marley is part of the venture as co-founder and brand ambassador, giving the project a more direct connection to the artist than the usual celebrity licensing play. The brand is being positioned around cannabis, music and meditation, with the name “Young Gong” drawing on both Marley’s identity and the idea of sound as a healing force.

“I’ve wanted to work with Dr. Sha-Ron for a while now,” Marley said. “I saw that she is a creative genius. She understands this plant is more than just a feeling — it’s a frequency.”

Pierre-Kovler said Marley made sense as a partner not just because of his public profile, but because of his long relationship to cannabis culture and his instinct for pairing strains with mood, setting and experience. In her view, New York also offers the right backdrop for that kind of rollout, giving the brand a chance to build cannabis-centered experiences in a market still taking shape.

That language carries through the rest of the rollout. Young Gong is framed not just as a cannabis line but as a broader lifestyle brand, one that leans on the overlap between cannabinoids, sound and wellness. The company says packaging will include QR codes unlocking exclusive digital content from Marley, tying the physical product to music and other branded experiences.

The first products will roll out across New York on April 19, according to Pierre-Kovler, with a New Jersey launch expected this summer. The debut lineup includes Harmon-E, K-Lab, Melody Makers and Roads of Flames, each positioned around a different intended effect and audience.

Pierre-Kovler said her role in the venture is to help shape the science, formulation and broader vision behind the brand, drawing on her research background and a focus on giving consumers products that feel safe, consistent and grounded in more than just marketing language.

Pierre-Kovler, whose Glenmere Farms Enterprises is part of the joint venture, is described in launch materials as one of the few Black women operating at scale in legal cannabis and as a longtime advocate for cannabinoid-based wellness. Glenmere says its broader portfolio includes both Dr. Sha’s and Young Gong Cannabis.

For Marley, the move adds a cannabis venture to a public image already closely tied to one of music’s most storied family legacies. But the pitch here is not nostalgia. It is a modern wellness-forward brand with celebrity visibility, scientific branding and a launch timed for the cannabis industry’s most crowded week of the year.

The official Young Gong launch event is scheduled for Sunday, April 19 at 9 p.m. at Partake NYC, located at 10-29 44th Rd, Long Island City, NY. More details are expected through the brand’s Instagram account, @younggongcannabis, and its website.

<p>The post Exclusive: YG Marley Launches Young Gong Cannabis Brand first appeared on High Times.</p>

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The Puerto Rican hitmaker says cannabis is bigger than business, framing the plant as medicine, resistance, and a way to challenge the machine that taught people to fear it.

Like many others, Farruko’s first encounter with cannabis didn’t come through a prescription or a dispensary. It came from the streets, from music, from leisure. It happened at home. Among friends, among chords, in the haze of long nights where a blunt of krippy or kush could go around until everyone’s eyes were too heavy to stay open. A relationship between the Puerto Rican artist and the plant that, if we wanted to, we could find in bars that have already become part of Latin reggaetón’s DNA: Los maleantes quieren krippy / toas las babies quieren kush, or Ya no quiere amor, quiere marihuana. (The hustlers want krippy / all the girls want kush or she doesn’t want love anymore, she wants marijuana.)

What began as a recreational experience gradually evolved over time, revealing another dimension. Cannabis was present in both artistic processes and chill moments, but also—perhaps without him fully realizing it—during moments of healing: medicinal treatments, slowing down, meditation, letting go. He discovered a sense of pause, introspection, and the physical relief offered by this alternative medicine, which helped him manage several health issues at a moment when, he says, taking too many pills was already doing more harm than good. Where some still see stigma, Farruko saw opportunity.

Once he understood that, the Puerto Rican artist—a Latin Grammy winner, recognized by the Billboard Latin Music Awards, and a musical collaborator with names like Daddy Yankee, Sean Paul, Bad Bunny, and Arcángel—decided to turn his personal and spiritual experience into a public defense of medical cannabis. He did it from Puerto Rico, and against years of stigma.

That intersection gave rise to Carbonnabis, his medical cannabis brand developed in and for Puerto Rico, with ambitions to reach the world: to make its way into homes, dispensaries, and the hands of anyone who may need the plant’s healing potential. Rather than a celebrity whim to add another asset or simply enter a rapidly growing industry, Farruko approached it as something personal, medicinal, and educational.

In conversation with High Times, Farruko talks about spirituality, natural medicine, prejudice, Puerto Rico, the industry, and reggaetón with a conviction that is unexpectedly clear: defending the plant, he says, can also be a way of waking up.

Farruko and cannabis: From recreational use to medical

For Farruko, his relationship with cannabis was once part of everyday social life, part of the same urban culture that also shaped the music he was creating at the time. “I obviously used it recreationally before this whole shift toward making it fully medicinal began,” he says.

What changed over time wasn’t just his personal relationship with marijuana, but also the context surrounding it. As different countries began regulating its medical use and scientific research started to expand, Farruko found himself entering a very different conversation. It was no longer only about leisure or social culture, but also about health, treatments, and regulation.

But before getting publicly involved in that space, he decided to educate himself. “It took me a while to really study it, dive into the topic, learn about it, and find the right people to develop this project with,” he explains, referring to the creation of the brand.

The process wasn’t without doubts. The artist knew his decision could draw criticism, especially after the personal and spiritual changes he had gone through in recent years, which he had openly shared with his audience.

“I definitely had my doubts before getting into it, of course, because I’m coming from a moment in my life where I’ve changed a lot of things,” he says.

That learning journey ultimately transformed what could have been just another business venture into something far more personal. In his case, Carbonnabis does not appear to be an opportunistic venture within a growing industry, but rather the result of closely observing the shift in social perception around cannabis and the increasingly clear role it is starting to play in the medical field.

Experiencing the effects of medical cannabis firsthand

Behind Carbonnabis there’s more than just an understanding of the market or a reflection of the cultural shift around marijuana; there’s also a very tangible physical experience.

Farruko says that for years he lived with several health issues: recurring muscle pain, constant inflammation, episodes of gout, and difficulty getting proper rest. As often happens in these situations, treatment relied mostly on prescription medications. “I wanted to do it, especially because of my personal health conditions: I suffer from muscle pain, I have gout, and I get inflammation over the smallest things,” he explains.

Managing those symptoms meant taking pills frequently to control flare-ups and pain. Over time, however, the side effects began to take a toll.

“The excess of pills was already hurting me,” he recalls. “Every time I had inflammation, the pill I took would upset my stomach.” On top of that came another common consequence of high-stress routines and constant public exposure: rest became increasingly difficult. “I wasn’t sleeping well, and I started looking for alternative medicine,” he says.

It was in that context that cannabis began to take on a different role in his life. What had once been part of leisure or musical culture slowly began to appear as a possible therapeutic tool.

When asked whether he truly found a working alternative in the plant, Farruko doesn’t hesitate. That turning point—between the fatigue of pharmaceuticals and the search for a more natural medicine—would ultimately become one of the main forces behind the creation of Carbonnabis.

Cannabis as a ritual

Beyond its medicinal dimension, Farruko also describes his relationship with cannabis from a more intimate place. Not necessarily as a direct tool for writing music or altering his creative process, but as a way to slow things down, something that can naturally coexist with those activities.

“I use it to meditate, to think, to step away and have my own space, and, of course, to rest,” he explains.

In his account, something appears that many users recognize: the moment before using it as a ritual in itself. The simple act of pausing, preparing the flower, and stepping away from everyday noise. A gesture that, in the middle of packed schedules and constant stimuli, becomes an excuse to slow the pace.

“Your brain is juggling so many things all day…,” he says. And for him, that moment of pause begins even before anything is lit. “From the process of breaking it down, having it in your hands, rolling the blunt, you’re already doing it… it’s like therapy. It’s the perfect excuse to stop, think, and take a few minutes for yourself.”

In that way, a simple gesture starts to take on a different meaning. Not so much an “escape,” but a way of reclaiming moments of introspection. “Human beings rarely stop,” he says. “We’re always moving fast.”

Between the noise of the digital world, the pressure of work, and constant public exposure, that small moment of pause—for some almost invisible—can become, in his words, a way of listening to yourself again.

Carbonabbis: When personal experience becomes a medical project

That entire personal journey eventually took concrete form in Carbonnabis, the medical cannabis brand Farruko launched in Puerto Rico. Its name blends Carbon Fiber Music, his production company, with the word “cannabis.”

The project, he explains, is mainly aimed at patients seeking relief from everyday but deeply widespread conditions: stress, anxiety, and muscle pain.

The genetics developed for the brand are designed around that balance. Farruko describes it as a hybrid variety created to combine different therapeutic effects, with broad aromatic profiles meant to make the experience more approachable and personalized.

“It’s a hybrid plant that has that balance,” he explains. “With my plant, we’ve focused more on the medicinal side than the recreational.”

Alcohol, tobacco, and sugar are legal, so why isn’t cannabis?

The birth of Carbonnabis isn’t only about seizing an opportunity in a fast-expanding industry. For Farruko, it’s also about something broader: helping change the conversation around cannabis. “It’s more personal, and about educating,” he says. “People have demonized the plant a lot.”

In his view, that demonization coexists with an obvious social contradiction. Substances such as alcohol, tobacco, or even sugar—whose negative health effects are widely documented—remain part of everyday life with far less controversy.

“Everything in life, if you don’t use it the right way, will have consequences,” he explains. “But we see, for example, alcohol is legal, tobacco is legal, sugar—which is the most dangerous drug—is legal. It hasn’t been subjected to the same kind of campaign against it that marijuana has.”

He adds: “There’s also no moment where you stop. Someone who drinks often loses control; one drink turns into many until they’re being carried off the floor. I’ve never seen someone under the effects of cannabis alone, fighting or acting aggressively. Obviously, it doesn’t affect everyone the same way, but most patients and people who use it recreationally don’t behave that way,” he explains.

That double standard, he suggests, has deeper roots. If he had to explain why such a clear distinction exists between some substances that are not only legal but socially legitimized and marijuana, Farruko points to two reasons: “I think it’s big interests and double standards,” he says.

For him, the reasons are political, economic, and tied to powerful incentives. “Everyone has their own interests at play. That’s no mystery, and everyone is going to look where the business is. This is a fight that’s been going on for years, for centuries, I’d say, where the plant has been demonized.”

Access, democratization, and products designed for specific conditions

That shift in the conversation—from prejudice to education—is exactly where Farruko wants to position Carbonnabis. But beyond the cultural narrative, the brand also operates within the concrete structure of Puerto Rico’s medical cannabis industry.

Currently, Carbonnabis products are available in 68 dispensaries across the island, where patients can access different formats from the brand. The lineup includes flower, vapes, and edibles, and so far, the reception has been strong.

“Right now we have gummies, vapes; the quality we’re offering, people have really loved it. The reviews and feedback from the public have been incredible,” he says. In fact, demand has been so high that “it’s almost sold out already. We’re about to drop the second release,” he adds.

Upcoming launches will also include new vape models, new designs, different genetics, and edible products like chocolates. The strategy, he explains, is to maintain a constant rotation of varieties to meet the expectations of a public that knows the market well and demands quality. “We’re changing the strains all the time so people can always find something new,” he says.

One particular feature of the project is that the strains don’t come from existing commercial varieties. Instead, they were developed specifically for the brand. “These are strains that belong to us. It’s not like we took a strain that already existed out there with a name. This was built completely from scratch,” he explains.

Within that framework, Carbonnabis aims to make medical cannabis more available to patients through a more accessible approach, one oriented around the specific needs of each individual. The idea, he says, is that anyone walking into a dispensary can find a product designed for their particular condition. “So they have the opportunity to obtain a plant designed for their condition,” he says. “They can walk in and say, ‘Look, my joints hurt, I can’t sleep, or I have X condition, what do you recommend?’”

And for patients who don’t feel comfortable smoking, the range of formats opens up other options. “If the patient doesn’t like flower, then they have the option of a gummy, a drink, baked goods,” he explains.

Ultimately, the intention is simple: to move medical cannabis out of the territory of stigma and turn it into just another tool within personal health and wellness.

For Farruko, the potential was always there. Together with his partner Eli Estrada, he began developing the project some time ago. “We were looking for a way to do it because cannabis has always caught my attention, and I always saw its potential because it’s a flower. It comes from nature. It must have something that can help us, because nature is designed for that. I never bought the story that it was something bad. We just had to find the right way to use it. To understand it,” he says.

That way, he reveals what the main goal had always been: “I knew that this way we could help a lot of people. The vision was to enter this space and grow, because I think it has huge potential, and it’s something new for many countries where the market is just beginning to open.”

Puerto Rican sovereignty through local industry

The plants are developed in collaboration with First Medical, one of Puerto Rico’s medical cannabis operators. For Farruko, that decision also reflects a clear objective: strengthening the local industry.

“I did it with the full intention of helping farmers here and supporting cultivation in Puerto Rico, so the industry keeps moving forward on the island,” he says.

Looking ahead, the project also includes plans to expand beyond the island and eventually open its own physical dispensaries. For now, however, the focus remains on consolidating its presence within Puerto Rico’s medical cannabis system.

For Farruko, part of the reason Carbonnabis could take shape on the island has to do with how much the medical cannabis system in Puerto Rico has matured in recent years.

The artist lives there and has watched that evolution up close. Today, he explains, the island has a wide network of dispensaries, multiple locally cultivated brands, and a regulated system that allows patients to access specific products based on their medical needs.

Access operates through a regulated medical framework: patients must obtain a license accompanied by a professional recommendation, after which they can purchase different products within the system. “I really like the way the system works here, where everything is done through a license you obtain with a medical recommendation,” he explains.

That process also includes evaluating each patient’s specific needs, something Farruko considers one of the most important advances in how medical cannabis is approached today. “They check what conditions you have and recommend what type of cannabis you should use depending on your case,” he says.

The result is a market that goes far beyond traditional flower. In Puerto Rico’s dispensaries today, multiple formats coexist, designed for different patient profiles: edibles, oils, topical creams, capsules, and infused beverages. “It’s incredible how much it’s industrialized and progressed,” says the artist.

That context—an expanding industry, a regulated system, and a growing community of patients—is the environment where Carbonnabis aims to establish itself before considering international expansion.

Puerto Rico, Latin identity and local pride

The growth and momentum of the cannabis industry are undeniable, and, looking back now, they also seem almost unstoppable. Globally, of course, but if we turn our attention to Latin America, the progress stands out even more. Uruguay, after all, became the first country in the world to legalize marijuana, and that momentum can also be seen in places like Argentina, Colombia, and, of course, Puerto Rico.

The strong presence of the Latin community and its unique characteristics creates an interesting contrast with the markets that usually dominate the conversation, such as the United States or parts of Europe, especially when you look at the number of entrepreneurs emerging from these regions.

For Farruko, the goal was always clear: “I wanted it to be something grown in Puerto Rico, something that could come out of there, so the farmer could not only see opportunities within the island but also show the world that Puerto Rico can stand alongside markets like Los Angeles or Denver.”

In his view, the island doesn’t just have the musical talent that has turned it into one of the most influential cultural epicenters of the past few decades… it also “has the potential” in agriculture, business, and science to position itself within the global cannabis industry.

But before thinking about international markets or competing with long-established hubs like certain cities in the United States, Farruko believes the first step is strengthening what already exists at home. “Prioritizing Puerto Rico, because it’s my home,” he says firmly.

The logic, he explains, is simple: build a solid foundation locally before expanding to the rest of the world. “You have to be strong at home first before you can go out.”

In that sense, Carbonnabis also works as a way to reclaim local identity within an industry that is often dominated by large capital or narratives disconnected from the communities that historically lived alongside the plant.

For Farruko, the growth of the cannabis industry in Latin America is closely tied to those communities. “First, you have to understand who we are at the root,” he says.

Faith, spirituality and cannabis

If there’s one point where the conversation becomes more delicate, it’s when the plant enters into dialogue with faith.

In recent years, Farruko has spoken publicly about his spiritual transformation, a personal process that also marked a shift in his public and artistic life. Because of that, he acknowledges that his defense of medical cannabis can raise a few eyebrows.

“In my case, it’s always going to be something uncomfortable for the public,” he admits.

The tension appears especially among more conservative religious circles, where cannabis still carries decades of moral stigma. “Orthodox groups in that space, or religious people, you could say, tend to attack the plant and its use,” he explains.

However, Farruko believes many of those criticisms stem more from cultural interpretations than from concrete religious doctrine. “The Bible doesn’t specify anything about cannabis,” he notes. “It doesn’t say it’s bad. It’s simply not there.”

For him, the key is not absolute prohibition, but responsible use. A logic that also appears in many spiritual traditions through the concept of free will. “When something is used the right way, it can bring multiple benefits,” the artist says.

He also draws attention to what he sees as a broader silence—from both religious groups and society at large—about the consequences and risks of other types of widely accepted medical treatments. “Maybe science and chemicals are harming human beings, and this could help counter that in some way; help patients find a better quality of life without damaging their liver. We see how pharmaceuticals affect the liver and can really tear it apart. They relieve you in the moment, but the condition is still there,” he says.

He also points out that the relationship between plants and spirituality is nothing new. Throughout history, different cultures have used plants with psychoactive properties within rituals, ceremonies, and spiritual practices.

For Farruko, that historical context helps explain why today’s debate is often shaped more by recent prejudices than by a broader understanding of human traditions.

In his personal experience, cannabis has not only been part of his creative process or his moments of rest, but also a tool that helped him manage physical pain and periods of stress. “I know the benefits it has. I know how many people it has helped, and how it has helped me too.”

Defending that position publicly, he acknowledges, isn’t always easy. But he chose to do it anyway. “I’ve defended it with everything I’ve got.”

To explain his stance, he often turns to a phrase found in scripture that, for him, captures the balance between freedom and responsibility: “Everything is permissible for me… but not everything is beneficial.”

Between faith, natural medicine, public controversy, and ancestral traditions, Farruko ultimately offers a simple idea: the issue isn’t necessarily the plant itself, but the relationship each person chooses to build with it.

Cannabis as an act of positive rebellion

Toward the end of the conversation, Farruko returns to an idea that runs through the entire interview: changing the social perception of marijuana is not something that will happen overnight.

The plant carries decades—even centuries—of cultural, political, and media-driven stigma. A reputation that, as the artist himself notes, cannot be undone with speeches alone. “Once something gets a reputation, it sticks,” he reflects. “That’s the reputation the plant already has.”

In his view, transforming that collective perception is a slow process. It doesn’t depend solely on arguments or public debates, but also on real experiences that allow people to question what they have taken for granted for years.

“It’s going to be very difficult to change people’s perspectives,” he admits. “But it happens through actions, not through words.”

For him, that shift begins when people can approach the plant from a different perspective: by researching it, experiencing it, and observing its real effects, rather than the narratives that have dominated the conversation for decades. “By experimenting and proving that it’s different from what we were told,” he says.

In that sense, Farruko sees a parallel between cannabis, his music, and his own career. All three, he says, share something in common: they all emerged in contexts where questioning the established order meant going against the current.

“I see it as an act of rebellion against an oppressive system.”

But he clarifies that this is not a destructive rebellion. Rather, it’s one that aims to open conversations and expand the way we understand certain things. “The plant, the music, and my career are acts of rebellion,” he says. A rebellion that, in his view, has a clear purpose “on a positive level.”

More than confrontation for its own sake, the goal is to spark curiosity, invite people to question assumptions, and open space for new ways of thinking.

“Wake up… not everything we’re told is what it really is,” he says. “It’s always good to question. It’s always good to educate yourself.”

Within that intersection of music, spirituality, natural medicine, and public education, Farruko seems to have found a way to align his artistic present with a personal cause that, for him, goes far beyond business.

His musical present: Panama, memory, and the roots of reggaetón

Although cannabis now occupies a central place in his public discourse, Farruko still thinks about his present through music as well. In fact, one of the projects he’s currently preparing looks backward in order to better understand the origins of the genre he helped take to the world.

“I’m about to release an album that I recorded in Panama,” he reveals.

The choice of location is no coincidence. For Farruko, Panama holds a fundamental place in the genealogy of reggaetón, even though that chapter is often overlooked when the history of the genre is told.

“Panama was a pillar for recording reggae and reggaetón in Spanish,” he explains. “It planted the seed for what would become the reggaetón genre.”

The trajectory, as he sees it, is fairly clear. First came Jamaica, where reggae and dancehall were born, genres that would later become key foundations for many reggaetón classics. Then Panama, where the first Spanish-language adaptations began. And finally Puerto Rico, where the genre took the shape that the world recognizes today. “Puerto Rico gave it our essence, and that’s what we now know as reggaetón.”

With the new album, Farruko says he wants to do exactly that: refresh the collective memory and bring the roots of the movement back into the conversation. “With this album, I wanted to remind people of that history… to bring back that sense of orientation and education.”

Throughout his career he has experimented with different sounds—trap, Latin pop, electronic music—but Farruko insists that reggaetón remains the DNA of everything he does.

“I’ve never limited myself,” he says. That creative openness, he explains, doesn’t mean abandoning the genre’s origins—it means expanding them. “I’m a descendant of reggaetón. That’s what’s in my genetics.”

Over time, he says, his musical curiosity has only grown wider. “I’ve become even more of a fan of creating, of expanding my ear, my creativity.” But even when he explores new sounds, one thing remains unchanged: the rhythmic essence that gave birth to the genre. “Without losing the essence, which is reggaetón. The roots.”

Because, as he says with a laugh, there’s one element that always returns. “The tumpa tumpa is always going to be there.”

At the end of the day, that rhythm is more than a musical structure—it’s part of a generational identity. “We grew up listening to reggaetón, and it’s what allowed us to travel the world and become who we are today.”

For him, understanding where reggaetón comes from is also a way of protecting its cultural identity at a time when the genre has gone global and often loses sight of its Caribbean roots.

From the raw beginnings of reggaetón—an evolution that Farruko himself was clearly part of, alongside milestones like Daddy Yankee’s Gasolina in the early 2000s—to today, when the genre has become a global phenomenon that emerged from Latin neighborhoods and exploded in clubs across Europe and the United States, the idea remains the same: never forget where it all came from.

The lost value of music in the digital age

“What becomes popular isn’t always the foundation. It’s not always the one who cleared the path,” he reflects. “The people who come later, when the road is already paved, move forward so easily and comfortably that from the outside people say, ‘That’s the guy who did it.’ When that’s not really the case.” And adds: “That’s why it’s always important to give credit and bring attention back to how it all started, how the whole movement was born.”

Amid that reflection on the genre’s roots, Farruko also pauses to consider broader cultural shifts. “Over time, imagine… books… people don’t even like them anymore. They prefer them on an iPad or on their phone,” he says. “Times change, and we have to find ways to educate, to package information, and pass it on in the ways technology, humanity, and each generation keep evolving.”

Reflecting on the future of new generations—and of reggaetón itself—while trying not to sound “too conspiratorial,” Farruko believes we’re already living through a massive transformation that affects the entire music industry: the way we consume music.

In the streaming era, access is immediate. But something about the symbolic value music once had seems to have faded.

There was a time, he recalls, when getting your hands on an artist’s music involved an almost physical search: finding the cassette, buying the album, sharing it with friends. “Having a cassette or a record from your favorite artist felt like a treasure. Getting the music was hard. Seeing how your favorite artist lived was almost impossible because there were no social media showing their lives… So when you saw them, it was like seeing an alien, something out of this world,” he says, laughing.

That difficulty made every album feel special, something to keep and listen to for years.

“Those moments were appreciated more. It was more artisanal. Now with digitalization—which has helped us a lot, because I grew up in that world and my career expanded through social media and platforms—we still have to find ways to preserve information,” he says. “Over time everything evolves, technology keeps growing, and we move further away from the physical. We have to find ways to preserve those moments, those creations, so they keep traveling through time and new generations can keep discovering them.”

Today, with nearly the entire catalog of recorded music available in the cloud, that relationship has completely changed. And for Farruko, that also creates a new challenge for artists: finding ways to preserve those creative moments for the future.

Between the plant, the music, and the spiritual journey that has shaped his recent years, Farruko seems to have found an unexpected common thread: questioning the status quo. Whether through an album that revisits the roots of reggaetón or a brand seeking to change the conversation around medical cannabis, his goal remains the same: wake people up, offer perspective, and leave behind something more than just songs.

The Farruko of then and now

Before the conversation ends, one final question inevitably arises: what would happen if the Farruko of fifteen years ago, the one behind Chulería en Pote, the young artist taking his first steps in reggaetón, were to meet the Farruko of Carbonnabis today?

The answer comes with a mix of humor and reflection: “We’d probably laugh at each other,” he says.

In his mind, the encounter would be almost surreal: two versions of himself separated by years of experiences, success, personal crises, and spiritual transformations. “One wouldn’t believe where he ended up, and the other wouldn’t believe how it all started.”

The Farruko of today—entrepreneur, established artist, promoter of a medical cannabis project, and a public figure who openly speaks about faith and purpose—acknowledges that the road wasn’t without its hardships.

So if he could tell his younger self anything, it wouldn’t necessarily be about music, fame, or business. “I’d have a lot to say so he wouldn’t have to take as many hits as I did,” he says with a laugh. “It would be a pretty intense conversation.”

But, at the same time, he knows many of those lessons can only be learned by living through them.

Between music, spirituality, and his effort to change the conversation around medical cannabis, Farruko now looks back with the awareness that every stage—even the difficult ones—became part of the same journey.

One that, as he puts it, is still being written.

<p>The post ‘Cannabis Is an Act of Rebellion’: Latin Superstar Farruko on Weed, Healing and Fighting the System first appeared on High Times.</p>

The post ‘Cannabis Is an Act of Rebellion’: Latin Superstar Farruko on Weed, Healing and Fighting the System appeared first on Paradise Found.

Vapman and Lotus are betting there’s still room for flame, ritual, and manual control in a category dominated by chargers and buttons.

Cannabis hardware has spent years chasing the same promise: less friction, more convenience. Faster heat-up times, tighter temperature control, sleeker interfaces, USB-C charging, app integration, disposable everything.

And yet, a different kind of device has managed to survive that entire wave without adapting to it.

No batteries. No screens. No software updates. Just wood, metal, heat, and the simple fact that the user has to pay attention.

That is part of what makes Vapman and Lotus interesting. Not because they are new, and not because they are trying to out-tech the rest of the category. Quite the opposite. Their relevance comes from the fact that in a market increasingly built around speed and automation, they still ask something of the person using them.

The broader cannabis hardware market has moved toward predictability. Press a button, get a result. Charge the device, dial in a setting, repeat. For a lot of consumers, that is exactly the point. It is easier, cleaner, more consistent, and often more portable. That model won for a reason.

But it also reshaped the relationship between the user and the ritual. What used to involve touch, timing, and familiarity became increasingly abstracted. The device took over more of the experience. In many cases, that was progress. In others, it meant losing some of what made consumption feel personal in the first place.

That is where manual vaporizers still have a pulse.

Vapman dates back to Switzerland, where it was originally developed in the early 2000s by inventor René Balli. Lotus came out of California with a different design philosophy but a similar devotion to flame-powered vaporization. Today, both sit under the Italy-based INHALE umbrella, which says it took over Vapman in 2020 and Lotus in 2022, bringing production and assembly into its own Italian workshop while keeping the core identity of each device intact.

That history matters, but not because legacy alone makes anything valuable. Plenty of old devices deserved to disappear. What matters here is that both products still speak to a niche that electronic vaporizers never fully absorbed.

INHALE’s David Haller put it plainly: these devices “are not meant to compete with electronics — they exist alongside them, for a very different kind of user.” That distinction is useful because it keeps the story honest. This is not about a better gadget arriving to replace the current one. It is about a persistent counter-preference that never went away.

With a manual device, you see the flame. You learn the timing. You develop a feel for the heat. You adjust. You overdo it sometimes. You get better. The process is less automated and more embodied. That is either annoying or appealing, depending on what you want from cannabis in the first place.

Haller says that is exactly the point. “These devices are for people who are looking for a ritual — something that slows them down, calms them, and pulls them into a process rather than a button press.” He added that they are “not for people looking for instant automation or a ‘press and forget’ experience.”

That preference extends beyond aesthetics.

The company says Vapman has been updated over time to become easier to clean, more repairable, and more user-friendly, including the addition of an integrated click temperature indicator. Lotus, by contrast, has been preserved more closely in its core form, with changes focused more on accessories and surrounding hardware than the heating concept itself. In other words, one device evolved, the other was mostly protected. That split suggests restraint, which is rare in a product category usually obsessed with constant iteration.

It also points to something else: longevity as a value, not just a marketing line.

INHALE says all parts are produced and assembled in Italy, using woods such as olive wood and American walnut, finished by hand with natural oil and no synthetic coatings. The company also says parts can be replaced individually through restore kits or spare components, and that the devices are designed to last for years rather than be treated as sealed, disposable hardware. In cannabis, as in consumer tech more broadly, repairability has become unusual enough to stand out.

That does not mean there is some mass rejection of battery-powered devices underway. There isn’t. Convenience still dominates for obvious reasons. Most consumers are not looking to introduce more steps into a process they already want streamlined. Disposable and electronic systems are not going anywhere.

But cultural significance does not always show up as market dominance. Sometimes it shows up as refusal.

The continued appeal of manual vaporizers suggests that one corner of cannabis culture still values a slower, more deliberate relationship with the object itself. Not out of nostalgia for its own sake, but because the friction is part of the experience. The act is not being optimized out of existence. The user remains involved.

You can see versions of that instinct elsewhere in cannabis. In the interest in solventless. In the enduring appeal of glass. In home growing. In the suspicion some consumers still have toward closed systems, disposable hardware, and products designed to feel effortless above all else. Some of that is practical. Some of it is cultural. Some of it is just taste.

Either way, it reflects a tension that runs through the industry right now. Cannabis keeps getting cleaner, quicker, and more efficient. At the same time, parts of the culture still gravitate toward tools and rituals that feel less hidden, less automated, and less generic.

That is what makes devices like Vapman and Lotus worth looking at. Not because they represent the future of vaporization in some sweeping sense. They probably don’t. And not because they are for everyone. They clearly aren’t.

They matter because they reveal that even in a category shaped by speed and standardization, some users are still choosing attention over convenience.

In a USB-C world, some people really did go back to fire.

<p>The post Not Every Weed Vaper Wants A Battery first appeared on High Times.</p>

The post Not Every Weed Vaper Wants A Battery appeared first on Paradise Found.

Long before modern brands existed, a Sephardic merchant built a rolling-paper empire that stretched across Europe. His name faded, but his influence shaped how generations smoked, played, and lived.

Before monopolies and mass marketing shaped how Europe smoked, there was Saul David Modiano: a Sephardic Jewish industrialist who turned rolling papers and playing cards into a business that spread across Europe and the Mediterranean.

Born around 1840 in Ottoman Salonica (now Thessaloniki, Greece), Modiano came from a powerful merchant family descended from Sephardi Jews expelled from Spain in the 1490s. His ancestors settled in Salonica by the mid-1500s, becoming part of one of the largest Jewish communities in the Ottoman Empire. That heritage stitched Saul into a web of Mediterranean trade, language, and survival strategies that would define his career.

Birth of a Merchant Prince

In his twenties, Saul left for Trieste, then the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s main Adriatic port. No one knows exactly why or how he got there, but one local legend claims he arrived after surviving a shipwreck. What’s certain is that Trieste, with its free port laws and multiethnic ferment, offered a multilingual and vivid stage for the tradesman.

In 1868, he opened his first shop on Via del Corso, selling imported cigarette rolling papers to feed booming demand. By 1873, Modiano was producing his own and becoming one of the first local manufacturers, breaking the dominance of French brands.

His papers were slow-burning, smooth, and sold in beautifully lithographed packets that mirrored the Art Nouveau explosion happening across Italy. Smokers across the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, and the Balkans knew the Modiano name. Royal courts used them. Dockworkers used them. Connoisseurs collected them.

Some workers claimed Modiano could smell a bad paper batch from across the factory floor.

And here’s where the story gets specific. Rolling-paper collector and historian Anton Mark Nelson argues that Modiano was already selling interleaved booklets by 1893 under the name CLUB in Trieste, before the Braunstein brothers made the system famous through Zig-Zag’s later patent-era legend. Nelson points to the Italian history book Trieste in fumo for the 1893 date and notes that Modiano patented the CLUB booklet in 1894, the same year Braunstein Frères filed their own. Whether you call it invention or early adoption, the claim lands in the same place: Modiano wasn’t just making papers, he was shaping how people used them.

By the 1880s, Modiano’s manufacturing operations expanded into lithography, box-making, and graphic design, and in 1884, he acquired the historic La Concordia playing card factory, which changed everything. He hired top-tier Italian illustrators, such as Marcello Dudovich and Luigi Cambon, to produce posters and decks that stood out in train stations, storefronts, and game rooms across the continent.

Engraving from the early 1900s depicting a view of the Modiano factory – Modiano Historical Archive, courtesy. The image appears on the website of The Jewish Community Of Trieste Museum

Those posters are probably better known in our times than Modiano himself.

By the early 20th century, Modiano operated factories in Trieste, Fiume (now Rijeka), Romans d’Isonzo, and Budapest, employing over 1,000 workers. Some families worked there for generations. The brand became synonymous with quality, from tarot decks to poker kits, objects of ritual in an age before plastic.

Modiano also ventured into glassmaking, founding a major glassworks near Istanbul (managed for a time by his son Daniel, who died there in 1897), as well as exploring cement manufacturing and early automotive and electrical industries.

Patriotism, War, and Personal Loyalties

Though born under the Ottoman crescent and living under the Habsburg eagle, Modiano dreamed under the banner of Italian unification. He became a naturalized Italian citizen and a quiet supporter of irredentism—the movement to unite Trieste with Italy. When World War I broke out, his position became dangerous.

In 1915, as Italy entered the war against Austria-Hungary, Modiano’s main factory burned, an event likely linked to the political tensions of the time.

He then fled to Bologna, where he resumed production in exile. After the war, when Trieste officially became part of Italy, Modiano returned, rebuilt his plant, and was hailed as a patriot industrialist.

After his death, his son Ettore carried on the company and honored his father’s legacy by founding the Casa di Riposo “Saul Modiano,” a retirement home for elderly Jews in Thessaloniki. Even sixty years after leaving Salonica, Saul’s memory returned home in stone and care. The Modiano company remained family-run until 1987, when it was sold.

Today, Modiano playing cards are still in production, sold across Europe and the Americas. They’re used by poker players, magicians, and families who probably have little to no idea who Saul Modiano was but who still hold his legacy between their fingers.

<p>The post The Rolling Paper King You’ve Never Heard Of Beat Zig-Zag to the Pop-Up Booklet first appeared on High Times.</p>

The post The Rolling Paper King You’ve Never Heard Of Beat Zig-Zag to the Pop-Up Booklet appeared first on Paradise Found.

The hemp boom moved fast.

In the years following the 2018 Farm Bill, thousands of companies rushed into the market chasing the same wave. CBD was everywhere. Oils, gummies, topicals, drinks—if it could hold a label, someone was selling CBD in it.

Most brands were focused on scale. Few were thinking about what came next.

But in Hawaii, Jennifer Carlile and Jared Dalgamouni were already asking a different question: what happens when CBD stops being the whole story?

That curiosity would eventually lead them to build Rare Cannabinoid Company, a brand centered not on the cannabinoid everyone knew—but on the ones most people had barely heard of yet.

Before the Hemp Industry Exploded

The story doesn’t start with Rare Cannabinoid Company.

It starts with Hawaiian Choice, the founders’ original brand, launched in 2017. At the time, the focus was simple: broad-spectrum CBD products made with Hawaiian-grown hemp and local botanical ingredients.

But even then, Carlile says they were trying to approach cannabinoids differently.

“From the beginning, we never wanted to be just another generic CBD brand,” she explained. “We were already experimenting with terpene blends designed for specific effects.”

Then something interesting started happening.

Customers began asking questions.

“Some of our Hawaiian Choice customers began asking about cannabinoids like CBN and CBG,” Carlile said. “They had heard about them but didn’t really understand what they were.”

Those questions opened a door.

Seeing the Plant Differently

For decades, cannabis conversations revolved around two compounds: THC and CBD.

But the plant contains more than a hundred cannabinoids, many of which had barely entered public awareness. Researchers had been studying them for years, but the broader market hadn’t caught up.

Carlile and Dalgamouni started digging deeper.

“As we began studying rare cannabinoids, it became clear that they could potentially be even more effective for certain needs,” she said. “Things like better sleep, relieving soreness, or supporting a more positive mood.”

The realization shifted their perspective.

CBD didn’t need to be the answer to everything. Different cannabinoids could support different experiences at different times of day.

That idea became the foundation for Rare Cannabinoid Company.

The brand officially launched in 2020—right as the world was shutting down during the early COVID lockdowns.

The timing wasn’t exactly planned.

“Unintentionally,” Carlile joked.

But the moment was right.

Moving Beyond “CBD for Everything”

One of the earliest lessons the founders noticed was simple: people don’t experience wellness the same way throughout the day.

Someone might want energy and focus in the morning. Relief from soreness after physical activity. Better sleep at night.

“No one feels the same all day, every day,” Carlile said.

That observation pushed the company to develop formulations built around specific outcomes rather than a single cannabinoid.

Compounds like CBN, CBG, THCV, and CBDV became central to those formulations. Each one interacts with the body differently, opening the door to more targeted product design.

Around the same time, Rare Cannabinoid Company began building tools to help customers navigate this complexity. Their Cannabinoid Finder Quiz guides users through a few simple questions—what they want to support, whether they’re comfortable with THC, and what type of product they prefer.

From there, it suggests cannabinoids and formulations that may align with those needs.

Education became a major part of the brand’s identity.

“We’ve published hundreds of educational blog articles and worked with clinicians and retailers to help people understand cannabinoids,” Carlile said. “The science has been there for quite some time. Public awareness has just been slower to catch up.”

When the Market Started Catching Up

Today, rare cannabinoids are no longer obscure industry terms.

Consumers are increasingly familiar with compounds like CBN and CBG, and interest continues growing as more research and products emerge.

For Rare Cannabinoid Company, that shift has been both validating and surreal.

“When we started working with cannabinoids like CBN, CBG, and THCV about six years ago, most consumers had never even heard of them,” Carlile said.

Now they’re showing up across the market.

Seeing larger companies enter the space isn’t something the founders view as a negative. If anything, they see it as evidence that awareness of cannabinoids is expanding.

“The bigger picture is that more people are discovering cannabinoids and experiencing their benefits,” Carlile said. “That’s something we’re genuinely happy about.”

At the same time, the rapid expansion of the hemp-derived market has created new complications.

The rise of chemically converted cannabinoids—products developed primarily to navigate legal loopholes—has blurred the lines between natural hemp compounds and heavily modified alternatives.

For companies focused on plant-derived cannabinoids and rigorous testing, that environment can make things messy.

“Our hope is that the industry moves toward clearer standards that reward transparency and high-quality formulations,” Carlile said.

Building a Cannabinoid Company From Hawaii

Location matters more than people realize.

For Carlile and Dalgamouni, building a cannabinoid brand in Hawaii shapes everything from sourcing decisions to company philosophy.

“We’re extremely fortunate to have been born and raised in Hawaii,” Carlile said. “The culture emphasizes balance, respect for nature, and community.”

Those values influence how they think about the products they create.

Carlile compares Hawaiian hemp to Kona coffee. Coffee can grow in many places, but Kona coffee has a reputation built around its environment—the volcanic soil, tropical rain, and elevation where it’s cultivated.

Hawaiian hemp, she says, carries a similar sense of place.

“Our CBD comes from hemp grown on the slopes of Haleakalā, nourished by volcanic soil, rain, and sunshine,” Carlile explained. “That environment produces exceptional plants.”

At the same time, the company combines that agricultural foundation with modern manufacturing standards. Products are produced in cGMP-certified facilities, undergo third-party lab testing, and incorporate cannabinoids sourced from trusted farms across the United States.

It’s a hybrid model: island-grown ingredients, paired with modern cannabinoid science.

The Next Phase of the Hemp Industry

Few sectors of cannabis have evolved as quickly—or as unpredictably—as hemp-derived cannabinoids.

Federal regulations continue shifting, and companies across the industry are watching closely to see how the next chapter unfolds.

Rare Cannabinoid Company has taken a measured approach.

Many of their products contain no THC at all, relying instead on cannabinoids like CBN, CBDV, CBG, and THCV to shape the experience.

Others include low-dose THC formulations designed to deliver gentler effects.

“Our hope is that low-to-moderate dose THC products—around 2.5 to 5 milligrams per serving—will continue to be allowed,” Carlile said.

But regardless of how regulations evolve, the founders believe rare cannabinoids will remain part of the conversation.

“The cannabis plant contains more than a hundred different cannabinoids,” Carlile said. “We’ve really only begun to understand how they work and how they can be combined thoughtfully.”

In other words, the cannabinoid story is still in its early chapters.

The Long View

The cannabis industry moves quickly. Trends come and go. New compounds appear almost overnight.

But the companies that last usually take a longer view.

Rare Cannabinoid Company was built around a simple idea: cannabinoids are more complex—and more interesting—than a single compound could ever explain.

That belief has guided the brand from its early days with Hawaiian Choice through the rise of rare cannabinoids and the rapidly shifting hemp market that followed.

Regulations may change. Consumer awareness will keep evolving. But the plant itself still holds plenty of surprises. And for the people paying attention, the next discovery might already be growing.

All photos courtesy of Rare Cannabinoid Company.

<p>The post The Long Game: Inside Rare Cannabinoid Company’s Bet on the Future of Cannabinoids first appeared on High Times.</p>

The post The Long Game: Inside Rare Cannabinoid Company’s Bet on the Future of Cannabinoids appeared first on Paradise Found.

Rolling papers aren’t props. They’re the instrument that sets the pace and feel of a session. Whole towns learned to work with fiber, water and heat the way a luthier tunes a guitar. You can see it in the watermark, in how the seam seals, in how the ember travels without racing or stalling. Today’s factories use tools to keep every sheet the same thickness, the same airflow and the same clean cut. Small hand rooms still make special formats where a person’s eye and touch matter. Soldiers carried papers in field kits. Artists tucked giant sheets into record sleeves to make a point. The paper is part of the ritual, part of the memory of a room, and why a well-rolled joint feels like a small act of craft shared between friends.

That lineage lives in the details. Fiber blends chosen for strength and a low paper taste. Basis weight set to influence ignition and sheet strength. Porosity balanced so a cone stays lit and doesn’t canoe. Calendering and watermarking that help guide an even burn. Plant gums cured to hold without ghosting flavor. Clean cuts and true interleaving that limit edge frays that can start runs. The hum of modern machines gives consistency, while traditional techniques keep the soul of the sheet intact. When people who actually roll talk about “the best,” they’re not choosing a logo. They’re choosing a feel, a burn, a trust earned one booklet at a time.

So we asked our community a simple question: who makes the best rolling paper on earth? The response wasn’t a debate. It was a chorus. Four out of five readers reached for the same maker.

What follows is the snapshot, the counts and the context for why a thin sheet of fiber still carries so much weight once a flame touches the edge.

First, the scoreboard. Then the nuance.

The quick hit

We asked one question: Who makes the absolute best rolling paper in the world?

809 valid responses. One runaway favorite. Result: not even close.

Top line results
RAW: 82.45%
Zig-Zag: 4.94%
Elements: 3.46%
OCB: 1.73%
JOB: 1.48%
Blazy Susan: 0.99%
Smoking: 0.62%
Vibes: 0.62%
Rizla: 0.62%
Everyone else received single mentions.

The fun part

RAW dominated the tally, but the comments reminded us how personal rolling is: shoutouts to Club’s no-glue purists, Bob Marley hemp classics, and S. D. Modiano Club from the collectors.

Why paper quality matters when you actually light up

• Sheet makeup and thickness – Fiber choice (hemp, flax, wood, blends) and basis weight shape ignition, strength and how much paper taste you notice. No single fiber wins every use case.
• Airflow and burn rate – Porosity and surface finish help decide whether a joint cruises, races or canoes.
• Watermarking and calendering – Patterning and compression help the ember travel evenly or slowly if designed by a master artist 
• Fillers and ash – Mineral load and additives change ash color and residue. White ash isn’t proof of purity by itself; dark ash isn’t automatically bad. Uniform burn and low residue matter most.
• Gum line and seal – Evenly applied, plant-based gums lower seam failures and funky flavors.
• Cut quality and interleaving – Clean edges and true sizing stop frays that start runs.
• Moisture and storage – Too dry cracks and burns hot; too humid stalls. Keep packs closed, out of heat and sun and store with your material so humidity will coordinate!
• Format fit – Match size and cut (1¼, king slim, wides, cones, customs) to grind particle size and tip for proper airflow.
• Process control – Good makers likely watch thickness, porosity, gum mass and contaminants and screen for metals. Labels and claims vary by region.
• Technique still matters – Grinding, rolling, packing and lighting techniques make or break flavor and evenness. A consistent paper lets good techniques repeat.

“There’s always a way to make it better.” — Josh Kesselman

How we asked

One question. Multiple choice with an open write-in. No ranking. No trick wording: “Who do you think makes the absolute best rolling paper in the world?”

Who answered

High Times readers and subscribers. Self-selected. 809 valid responses as of January 26, 2026.

How we collected

We shared a link with our audience and tallied responses. We removed duplicate entries and obvious spam. This is not a nationally representative survey. It reflects the taste of High Times readers.

What the numbers mean

A directional snapshot of preference inside our community. Not market share. Not a lab test. One clean signal from people who love to roll and smoke.

The conflict check

RAW founder Josh Kesselman is also the Publisher of High Times. That matters, so we kept this tight:
• Josh did not share or promote the poll
• RAW did not share or promote the poll
• Readers found the poll only through High Times channels

A note on standards, in Josh’s own words

Josh’s approach to making papers helps explain why many readers prefer RAW. It’s a philosophy more than a product list.

• On no shortcuts: “I could do this so much faster… it’s not about speed it’s about perfection and art”
• On additives: “If I don’t want to smoke it I’m not gonna add it”
• On purpose: “You have to have a passion for whatever it is that you do.”
• On team and lineage: “This isn’t really me. Everyone cares here; it’s family.”

But what about science?

Taste is one thing. Performance is another. We’re working with an independent lab to evaluate how rolling papers perform and what they’re made of. We’ll publish the data when it’s ready.

Planned measures include

• Burn profile and burn rate
• Ash content and residue
• Paper basis weight and porosity
• Adhesive presence and quality where relevant
• Heavy metals screen and other safety markers

If lab data lines up with what readers love, that’s a story. If it doesn’t, that’s a story too. Either way, you’ll see it.

Brand notes the industry will care about

• RAW’s share here is dominance. If you make papers, this is your benchmark
• Legacy names like Zig-Zag and JOB still register. Heritage still matters
• Elements and OCB have their own loyal fans
• A dozen boutique names earned single votes. Fragmentation at the edges is real

Reader-ranked feelings (anecdotal, not counted in the topline)

A slice of respondents also sent ranked lists. They mostly echo the main result. RAW shows up first a lot. Elements is a frequent runner-up. Mascotte and Gizeh pop into top fives. Nostalgia brands like Rizla and Zig-Zag make regular cameos. It’s emotion, not science.

Sample mixes readers sent
RAW, Elements, Smoking, Mascotte, Gizeh, Rizla…
RAW, Mascotte, Gizeh, Rizla, Zig-Zag, Elements…
Elements, Smoking, RAW, Gizeh, Rizla, OCB…

Full results (counts)

RAW — 667
Zig-Zag — 40
Elements — 28
OCB — 14
JOB — 12
Blazy Susan — 8
Vibes — 5
Smoking — 5
Rizla — 5
Mascotte — 2
Lion Rolling Circus — 2
Club — 2
TOPS — 1
Snail Papers — 1
Snail — 1
Skunk brand rolling papers — 1
S. D. Modiano Club — 1
Randy’s! — 1
Randy’s — 1
KONG WRAPS — 1
King Palm — 1
Kashmir, made in USA — 1
high hemp — 1
Club papers — 1
Club no glue 1 1/4 are the best ever! — 1
Bob Marley Hemp — 1
Bob Marley full hemp — 1
Bob Marley — 1
Bem Bolado — 1
Amorphia Acapulco Gold — 1
Amorphia — 1

Total responses: 809

Editor’s note

Rolling papers are consumer goods. People like what they like. This piece reflects reader preference, not an endorsement. We’ll publish independent lab results so you can compare taste with performance.

If you only remember one thing

Our audience just sent a love letter to RAW. The chorus was loud. Now we see what the lab says.

Photo by Jeff W on Unsplash

<p>The post The Best Rolling Papers on Earth, According to High Times Readers first appeared on High Times.</p>

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The new 2-gram Ice Packs Blunts are loaded with rosin, diamonds, hash, and a glass tip. More importantly, they come from a brand that usually does something rare in cannabis: it delivers.

Rove has launched a new product, but the interesting part is not just what’s inside it.

It’s the name on the box.

The company’s new Ice Packs Blunts arrive as 2-gram, triple-infused blunts made with flower, THCA diamonds, solventless ice hash rosin, an additional ice hash coating, a natural hemp wrap, and a glass tip meant to keep the draw open and the smoke cooler. They can reach up to 50% THC potency and describes them as the world’s first triple-infused blunt.

That all sounds intense, and it is supposed to. But the reason this release stands out is simpler than the ingredient list.

Rove tends to deliver.

That may sound obvious. It shouldn’t. Cannabis is full of products that promise too much, strain names that barely connect to the experience, flavor notes that feel pulled from a branding deck, and potency numbers that matter more on a menu than in real life. Rove, in my experience, has usually been one of the exceptions.

Whenever we spend time with the brand’s products, the thing that stands out is not just that they get us high. A lot of products do that. It’s that they do what they say they will do. If something leans grape, it tastes like grape. If it’s supposed to hit hard, it hits hard. If it promises a heavy, flavorful ride, that is what shows up. There is very little daylight between the label and the actual experience.

That matters more than ever in a market where everyone wants to sound premium.

Rove’s earlier Ice Packs pre-rolls built part of that reputation already. That line uses premium flower infused with THCA diamonds and solventless ice hash rosin, then coated with more ice hash, all in pursuit of a product that is both potent and smooth. The new blunt format takes that same general idea and pushes it further, with more material, a slower-burning wrap, and a glass tip that suggests this was designed to feel like an event, not a quick smoke.

That is probably the smartest thing about the whole launch.

A blunt should feel like a blunt. It should take up space. It should announce itself a little. It should not feel like a lab experiment disguised as a session. Plenty of infused products forget that and end up smoking like a dare. Too much concentrate, too little balance, not enough airflow, all force and no grace.

Rove is clearly aiming for something else here. The rosin is there to preserve flavor, the diamonds are there to concentrate the potency, and the outer hash layer is there to deepen the experience without wrecking the smoke. The glass tip is part of that same pitch: cleaner pull, cooler finish, less mess, more control.

But, does it actually all come together?

If this were any random brand, I’d be more skeptical. But Rove has earned at least a little benefit of the doubt. That does not mean every product is perfect or every flavor is for every smoker. It means that when they tell you a strain is going to taste a certain way and hit a certain way, they usually seem to understand the assignment.

That is not small.

It is one thing to make a strong product. It is another to make one that feels intentional. A lot of cannabis gets people very high. Far fewer products leave you thinking, yes, that was exactly what they were trying to do.

That is why these new blunts are worth paying attention to. Not just because they are heavy, or flashy, or loaded with enough buzzwords to make a dispensary menu blush. They are worth watching because they are coming from a company that has already shown it can translate promise into experience.

And honestly, that may be the real luxury in cannabis now.

Not diamonds. Not rosin. Not glass tips.

Reliability.

Rove Ice Packs Blunts are available in California, Nevada, Massachusetts, and Arizona.

<p>The post Meet The Blunt for People Who Think Most Blunts Are Weak first appeared on High Times.</p>

The post Meet The Blunt for People Who Think Most Blunts Are Weak appeared first on Paradise Found.

For a decade, cannabis brands expanded like tech startups. They were fast and loud, maybe overestimated, perhaps a bit unsustainable. New states opened, investors flooded in, and expansion became the metric of legitimacy.

Jetty Extracts didn’t follow that script.

While many California operators rushed to plant flags across the country, Jetty stayed home. The brand focused on tightening operations, refining manufacturing, and building internal controls before stepping outside its home state. In an industry where growth is often confused with strength, restraint can look radical.

According to co-founder and Chief Product Officer Nate Ferguson, that restraint was intentional.

Building California Before Chasing the Map

Jetty operated exclusively in California for its first decade, despite opportunities to expand earlier.

“You know, we didn’t expand outside of California for the first 10 or 11 years in business. And, you know, we had a lot of opportunities to do so. It’s just we felt like we really wanted to get California as on rails as possible.”

Ferguson is quick to acknowledge that nothing in cannabis is ever fully “on rails,” but the goal was operational stability before geographic ambition.

California became the testing ground. Manufacturing processes were refined. Supply chains were tightened. Internal quality control became central to the brand’s identity. Only once that infrastructure felt solid did Jetty move outward.

Today, Jetty operates in California, Colorado, and New York. The company previously entered New Jersey but stepped back when manufacturing conditions didn’t align with its standards.

That kind of pullback isn’t common in a market where expansion is often framed as momentum.

Market Maturity Isn’t Universal

Ferguson sees clear differences among states, especially in consumer sophistication and pricing.

Colorado, with a longer recreational history, feels mature. Consumers understand solventless products, hash rosin, and terpene profiles. According to Ferguson, buyers there already know their way around premium cannabis.

New York is different.

“I think like the general consumer still is like, you know, live rosin live resin, I don’t know the difference, please explain it to me. So a lot of the new consumers that are in New York are just kind of getting educated on, you know, quality products, and seeing the value of premium products.”

The pricing gap is stark. In California and Colorado, a one-gram cartridge might run $30 to $40. In New York, Ferguson notes, that same product can reach $100 out the door.

At that price point, education isn’t optional. Consumers need to understand what they’re paying for.

New York, he says, feels like a second chance for many veterans in the space—a “do over” moment in a newly regulated market.

Control or Compromise

If Jetty’s expansion has been deliberate, its approach to manufacturing has been even more guarded.

In California, Jetty manufactures everything internally. The process is what Ferguson describes as “heavy touch,” particularly when it comes to hash washing, pressing, solventless vapes, and live resin products.

“There’s a lot of, I’d say, just kind of special recipes and IP that we have. And it’s really hard to train somebody to do it as well as we do it in California.”

That philosophy influenced Jetty’s move to New York. Rather than relying fully on co-manufacturers, the company secured its own license and is building out a facility in Albany to control sourcing and production from start to finish.

For Ferguson, co-manufacturing can work, but attention gets diluted when a facility is juggling dozens of brands.

“It’s hard when they’re dealing with 10, 20, 30 brands. It’s hard for your one brand to get that sort of attention.”

In Colorado, Jetty operates under a hybrid model with longtime industry partners. But wherever possible, control remains the priority.

For a vape brand, manufacturing isn’t backend logistics. Its identity.

Remembering the Medical Roots

Jetty’s long-game philosophy isn’t only operational. It’s cultural.

In 2014, roughly a year after launching, the company started giving free cannabis to cancer patients. The initiative became known as the Shelter Project.

“You know, it started out friends and family, you know, people that were just sick and needed it,” said Ferguson.

The program now operates in every state where Jetty does business: California, Colorado, and New York.

Ferguson acknowledges that compassion programs aren’t easy in today’s regulated market. Taxes are high. Margins are tight. Many brands are focused simply on survival.

“Compassion is always sort of an afterthought, is what I’ve seen.”

That reality doesn’t stop Jetty from prioritizing it. Through retailer partnerships—what the company calls depot locations—Jetty distributes donated products to patients in need.

For a brand operating in highly regulated adult-use markets, it’s a reminder that legalization didn’t erase cannabis’ medical foundation.

The Industry After the Gold Rush

Ferguson has been in cannabis for two decades. He ran retail during California’s medical era between 2009 and 2011, before federal enforcement shut down operations. He’s seen cycles of hype, capital floods, and collapse.

“We’ve been operating since 2013… And I’d say 90% of the brands that we started with are all out of business.”

His advice to new entrepreneurs is stripped of fantasy.

“It’s a hard industry to operate in… You’ve got to really just make sure you play the long game. You’re not just going to make a bunch of quick cash, put it in your pocket, and call it a day.”

And then the blunt version:

“Don’t expect to get rich off of cannabis, that’s for sure.”

In a market recalibrating after years of overextension, that mindset feels less like pessimism and more like survival.

Jetty didn’t chase every open state. It didn’t scale at breakneck speed. It didn’t treat compassion as marketing.

In an industry that burned through its first wave of gold rush optimism, patience may turn out to be the most disruptive strategy of all.

All photos courtesy of Jetty Extracts.

<p>The post In a Boom-and-Bust Industry, Jetty Extracts Played the Long Game first appeared on High Times.</p>

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Cannabis has been moving through that underground-to-icon pipeline for decades. So when Patricia Field’s universe collides with a hemp-derived THC beverage on the eve of New York Fashion Week, it doesn’t feel provocative. It feels right on time.

This is, after all, the same creative force behind Sex and the City and The Devil Wears Prada. A stylist who turned fashion into narrative, rebellion into glamour, and excess into language long before any of it was considered respectable.

Highly Anticipated, the limited-edition capsule created with Black Market and four designers from Patricia Field’s orbit, doesn’t treat weed as a novelty or a trend. It treats it as part of the creative bloodstream that has always run through art, nightlife, and fashion. The difference now is visibility.

At the center of the project is a federally legal, hemp-derived Delta-9 THC beverage brand that rejects the idea of cannabis as either vice or gimmick. Built by a team with deep roots in cannabis culture, the brand blends bold design with carefully selected wellness-forward ingredients, positioning itself as a deliberate alternative to alcohol rather than a replacement for it.

Instead of claiming the spotlight, Black Market and the Patricia Field ARTFashion Gallery operate as facilitators, using the product not as a branding exercise, but as a canvas. Each designer was given space, resources, and autonomy to reinterpret the bottle through their own language, materials, and creative processes.

In an industry where collaborations often extract value from creatives without truly supporting them, Highly Anticipated flips the script. It’s not about borrowing edge or aesthetics, but about amplifying independent voices that already exist at the intersection of fashion, culture, and subversion, and letting them be seen on their own terms.

High (on) Fashion

Let’s get one thing straight: this isn’t weed merch.

There are no lazy motifs or wink-wink pot jokes stitched into a hoodie. Instead, each designer was invited to do exactly what they already do best, interpreted through the lens of Black Market—and the experience of being under the influence.

“Each of these artists already came to the table with their own unique process and aesthetic. For example, Free Maison’s predominant materiality is metal, while Wonderpuss Octopus has a signature three-dimensional painting technique that emulates organic lifeforms. Chelle Bee is all sparkle with hand-applied rhinestones, and SSIK is known for her unique use of silicone,” Field explains.

Rather than imposing a look, the brief aimed to be experiential. The artists were encouraged to sample the product and let that guide their process. What emerged reflects both the cannabis experience and each designer’s individual identity.

Here, weed appears as a symbol embedded into material language, not a joke or a shortcut.

Who’s Participating

Free Maison, founded by Jesse Aviv and Tay Dun, reworks ancient chainmail techniques through contemporary ciphering, using anodized aluminum to create lightweight, sculptural garments meant to be worn and collected.

Wonderpuss Octopus, the practice of artist PJ Linden, transforms found objects into meticulously painted, three-dimensional works that blur sculpture, fashion, and organic form—an approach long championed by Patricia Field.

Brooklyn-based Chelle Bee infuses maximalist glamour into the capsule, transforming everyday garments through dense crystal embellishment that treats excess as structure rather than ornament.

SSIK Designs, led by FIT-trained designer Kristina Kiss, channels downtown New York nightlife into experimental silhouettes defined by silicone treatments, garment manipulation, and a DIY ethos born from wearing what didn’t yet exist.

Together, the designers form a capsule that reads less like a collection and more like a shared frequency.

This Isn’t Resistance. It’s Creative Freedom.

Despite arriving amid renewed legislative pressure on hemp-derived THC, Michael Robinson, manager of Patricia Field’s boutique and creative operations, is careful not to frame Highly Anticipated as protest fashion. Creatives, after all, are not strangers to using altered states as gateways to inspiration, and cannabis has quietly occupied that space for centuries.

“Now that cannabis use is legal and destigmatized, they can really let loose and enjoy themselves on whatever that journey looks like for them.”

There’s something quietly radical about that. Not rebellion for rebellion’s sake, but the freedom to create without shame.

Heidi Minx, Chief Marketing Officer of Black Market, acknowledged the broader cultural and regulatory tensions surrounding the project. “The Draconian legislative actions at the end of last year definitely caused a lot of tension, headaches and sleepless nights. But I will allude to the adage that silence is akin to complicity.  Artists have visually expressed dissent against over-control for time-eternal.”

So, if weed suddenly feels fashionable, Robinson argues that it’s not because it became trendy. It’s because the barriers finally cracked.

“Cannabis has been ‘in’ for a long time—but now, finally, people have easy access to it and the freedom to enjoy it because the legal roadblocks have been eased.”

Support for cannabis, he notes, isn’t driven purely by its former taboo status, but by a sense that its prohibition was unfair. After all, in The Land Of The Free, people don’t like unnecessary bans on relatively innocuous things, or restrictions that feel pointlessly punitive.

Before You Buy, Check the Supply

At the same time, there’s a wellness, eco-friendly component at play. Younger generations are increasingly turning away from alcohol and embracing cannabis as a more natural alternative. Those same values—care, sustainability, and accountability—are increasingly shaping fashion itself.

“We work with up-and-coming artists and designers who handmake one-of-a-kind creations using upcycled garments and materials. We also have an extensive vintage department. This shop is a really guilt-free way to enjoy fabulous fashion,” Field says.

Robinson frames it through a familiar fashion reference: “I think Miranda Priestly’s The Devil Wears Prada character summed it up perfectly when she chided Emily for her dismissal of cerulean blue.”

In fashion, nothing exists in a vacuum. The cerulean sweater was never just blue, and hemp is never just a trend. Everything we wear is connected to an invisible supply chain that begins long before the storefront. Farmers need stability. Stores need consistent rules. People need to know their jobs are secure.

Elevating Designers, Without Extraction

One of the most subversive details of Highly Anticipated has nothing to do with THC.

“The Patricia Field boutique is a female-owned, small business that supports emerging creative talent, so that’s where the proceeds will go. You won’t find any executives or shareholders lining their pockets off our partnerships. Our main goal is to highlight these talented individuals and bring awareness to their work,” Robinson states.

In an industry where collaborations often prioritize corporate profitability while creatives receive little recognition, this model stands apart. It’s patronage, not performance.

Asked what Highly Anticipated looks like in practice during Fashion Week, Robinson frames it as a natural extension of Field’s long-standing relationship with artists and subculture: “We’re two separate brands from two separate industries, but like-minded in so many ways that partnering just felt natural and effortless.”

The launch is not conceived as a traditional event. Visitors will be able to meet the artists, acquire their work, and view the customized Black Market bottles as standalone art objects. Participation, not spectacle, is the point.

The collaboration extends beyond garments and into the glass. Black Market will be serving a curated menu of “Hightails”, THC-infused cocktails inspired by each of the designers in the capsule. Each recipe translates materiality, texture, and aesthetic obsession into liquid form: layers, shine, metal, drip, and volume reimagined through color, flavor, and structure. A fully immersive sensory experience.

“We’ve partnered with Black Market on our last two in-store events (Fashion Week & our anniversary) and our clientele really enjoyed it. Fashion people love a party, they love to get high, and they love beautifully designed things. What’s there to hesitate about?”, Robinson states.

‘More Power to You’

For Patricia Field herself, cannabis was never a statement.

“I’d enjoy a joint from time to time, but it was more for relaxation and social enjoyment with friends. I’ve always been a champion of self-expression, experimentation, and creativity, first and foremost —so if you use cannabis in your pursuit of these ideals, more power to you!”

Which, honestly, might be the most Patricia Field answer of all.

<p>The post The Devil’s Lettuce Wears Prada: Stylist Patricia Field Is Bringing THC to Fashion Week first appeared on High Times.</p>

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