Jay Gans visits Glacier Cannabis to get a taste of Apple Tartz in Michigan, a sour-apple, berry-sweet cultivar shaping the state’s market.

The post Apple Tartz in Michigan: See how Glacier Cannabis gets this heavy hitter just right appeared first on Leafly.

The post Apple Tartz in Michigan: See how Glacier Cannabis gets this heavy hitter just right appeared first on Paradise Found.

Anyone else ready for autumnal weather, star gazers? It’s nearly cannabis harvest season, and the moon and planets are working overtime to bring us new cosmic opportunities. So we bring you 12 new strains for each sign to make the most of September.

The post Star signs and cannabis strains: October 2024 horoscopes appeared first on Leafly.

The post Star signs and cannabis strains: October 2024 horoscopes appeared first on Paradise Found.

The regulated cannabis market has come a long way from its illicit roots, but the formula to succeed in this game never really changed for anyone paying close enough attention.

I say this with particular regard to two factors: financing and company focus. In my humble opinion as a man who has spent most of his life around the plant, the best weed has always been grown by people who are self-funded and focused on quality of the weed itself with little regard for marketing strategy, sales gimmicks, mylar art etc. All those things are still important, but they should not be the top priority.

Enter Parlay, a company cultivating in downtown Los Angeles with around 300 lights and a small team, who have been operating in the recreational space since May of 2020. I spoke to the owner of Parlay who respectfully asked to keep their name out of the public eye, about their perspective on the legal market. It was refreshing in that they are uber-focused on producing the best possible cannabis, for the best possible price, without breaking the unwritten rules passed down from the days of prohibition. 

“Parlay stands for sticking to the code. I don’t know how else to explain it. There’s an unspoken code of ethics in cannabis, and I feel as though we try to keep the standards high in all aspects,” the owner of Parlay said. “Whether it’s the quality, the way that we conduct ourselves, or how we treat our friends in the game… There’s just too much silliness that goes around nowadays, and we’re not into the gimmicks.”

In the cutthroat recreational market of California, a big chunk of the larger companies out there have gotten where they are by cutting corners, screwing over competitors and putting together complex marketing schemes that are ultimately used to get customers to purchase sub-par flower. I do not believe Parlay to be in that group. Their work has received accolades from plenty of certified connoisseurs whose opinion I trust (check out First Smoke of the Day’s review of their MochiLatti) and they command brand recognition across a huge swath of the world for such a small company.

Parlay also has some impressive collaborations under their belt with companies like BackpackBoyz and Runtz which is, in my opinion, a testament to the quality of their work, and an indicator that they’re doing good business. The big dogs have their ear to the ground, after all. They don’t tend to mingle with known rule breakers or mids pushers. Hell, most of them are in a group chat with each other. This is a tight knit community and bad behavior doesn’t tend to get very far without everybody hearing about it.

Quality of the weed aside, the word Parlay has become a bit of a trend lately. I think it probably has to do with the emerging popularity of online sports betting wherein people who have never gambled in their life have been throwing a few bucks into parlay bets on the off chance they strike it rich. 

When it comes to doing business in the cannabis space, however, staying financially solvent at this stage of the game is often synonymous to throwing your life savings into a sports bet with slim to none odds of paying out. Between the lack of tax breaks, obscene overhead costs and the ever-fluctuating consumer market even growers with decades of experience under their belts have been bankrupted by the modern day recreational market in California. It becomes a big shitty game of chicken to stay afloat. You have to enter yourself into the race and go drop off the money for next months electric bill at the betting booth time and time again. 

“We’re all in. I have no business partners. I have no investors. All money in. ALL money in. All risk taken because we knew that this was a greater cause,” the owner of Parlay said. “I knew that this was gonna be a part of my life. I saw cannabis as a space where I see myself in the future – being a tastemaker, creating good product, and being a person with integrity to give people good medication.”

Good medication in the recreational market has become increasingly more elusive as the California cannabis canopy expands and the market continues to mature, bringing tougher margins and higher costs with it every day. It has become a game of monocropping the money strains and expanding indefinitely until everyone’s weed ends up looking, smelling, tasting and smoking the exact same. It’s nothing sinister or complex. People have investors to report to, sales goals to hit and sky high electric bills to defend paying. That’s why the weed has to be special to stand out, and special weed doesn’t just fall out of the damn sky perfectly cured and ready to roll. It takes years of work, the scrutiny of an overbearing mother and a fair amount of luck to produce consistently.

“We don’t spray any weed. We don’t put in any fucking PGR’s. We try our best not to cut any corners. We don’t even care about the yield. We just want the weed to smoke good, and then we want to just share it with our friends. It ain’t much more complicated than that,” he told me.

Now while some of the CEO’s out there might attest that it is much more complicated than that, the mission statement doesn’t have to be. The proof is in the pudding. Keeping it simple and refusing to scale past a manageable point can work wonders if you’re dedicated to the craft. Refusing to take on investors and intentionally staying small until your work takes on a life of its own can lend itself to greater success later on. If you don’t believe me, just look at what happened to the big money multi-state operators that went too big too fast.

The post Betting on Yourself: the Story of Parlay first appeared on High Times.

The post Betting on Yourself: the Story of Parlay appeared first on Paradise Found.

Snoop Dogg announced today that Death Row Records—the legendary West Coast hip-hop platform featuring artists like Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, Nate Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound, and so on—is entering the cannabis game with Death Row Cannabis. 

What kind of strains can we expect? Death Row Cannabis will initially launch a trove of OG strains including Runtz, Strawberry Gary, and Tropicana Cookies. The first drop arrives in limited edition commemorative metallic bags featuring the iconic hooded prisoner figure seated in an electric chair on the front—the image found on the Death Row Records logo if you look closely. 

Specifically designed for the Death Row Cannabis drop, the new rendering of the prisoner was designed for the launch of the cannabis brand. The main difference between the new and old images is that the new one has one hand broken free and is smoking a fat doobie.

To do this drop, and considering competition, Snoop Dogg zeroed in on one of the top cultivators around.

Who’s Growing Death Row Cannabis?

The man who curates Death Row Cannabis is the one and only, mighty AK—“hand-selected by Snoop himself.” AK is best known for his role alongside former partner Wizard Trees in sprouting, selecting, and cultivating strains such as RS11 (aka Rainbow Sherbert #11), Studio 54, and Shirazi from breeder DEO Farms. (High Times Vice President of Content Jon Cappetta profiled the high-grade cannabis grown by Wizard Trees last August.)

AK is also behind the IYKYK brand SMKRS and he is also the esteemed Vice President of Cultivation for TRP LLC, the company that owns a majority of the Cookies stores across the nation including their facilities in Florida. AK has also developed a reputation for his knack for cultivating fire OG strains. 

Death Row Cannabis will first be available at select Cookies California stores throughout California in Brentwood, San Bernardino, and San Diego on Monday, January 2, 2023, with other locations and more states to follow. 

Follow Death Row Records and Death Row Cannabis on Instagram for more details about the initial drop. The accounts posted an animation of the Death Row Records logo and revealed a branded pre-roll tube. The teaser video was created by artist GUAP with a soundtrack by Kevin Gilliam, aka DJ Battlecat.

Snoop Dogg and Death Row

Under Snoop’s recent leadership after he acquired the label, Death Row Records is making a lucrative dive into cannabis. Snoop Dogg, under Death Row Records, praised the herb from the get-go, most obviously on albums like Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and The Chronic 2001, or nearly any Snoop Dogg record. (However, Snoop’s acquisition does not necessarily include all the familiar albums.)

At its peak, Death Row Records artists seemed larger than life and defined an era—including the West Coast G-funk sound that was often imitated but not duplicated. 

“For over 30 years, through countless chart topping hits and landmark artists, Death Row Records has stood as one of the music industry’s most iconic and culturally significant platforms,” the label said in a statement. “Today, it is under powerful new management. Recently acquired and under the direction of Snoop Dogg and his family, the infamous musical empire has reemerged as a multi-category cultural platform across music, entertainment, and cannabis, all united by the blockchain for a new generation.”

Ahead of the announcement of Death Row Cannabis, Snoop Dogg acquired Death Row Records on February 10. “It feels good to have ownership of the label I was part of at the beginning of my career,” Snoop Dogg said at the time. This represents Snoop Dogg’s next move with his new platform.

Stay tuned for more drops from Death Row Cannabis, soon to follow.

The post Snoop Dogg Unveils Death Row Cannabis appeared first on High Times.

The post Snoop Dogg Unveils Death Row Cannabis appeared first on Paradise Found.

Here are the best Runtz strains for you to try next.

The post Leafly’s top Runtz strains of 2022 appeared first on Leafly.

The post Leafly’s top Runtz strains of 2022 appeared first on Paradise Found.

Most cannabis strains are lovely year-round, but a certain few seem tailor-made for fall. These are our seven top picks.

The post 7 cannabis strains that pair perfectly with your fall festivities appeared first on Leafly.

The post 7 cannabis strains that pair perfectly with your fall festivities appeared first on Paradise Found.

THC should never be the sole factor when buying weed. Here are some of the most flavourful, terpene-rich Canadian cannabis products on shelves right now.

The post Where my terps at? The highest-terpene strains in Canada right now appeared first on Leafly.

The post Where my terps at? The highest-terpene strains in Canada right now appeared first on Paradise Found.

Wham! is an A-minus, curved to a B+ due to the price.

The post We puffed Wham! by Lil Baby to see if it hits like his music appeared first on Leafly.

The post We puffed Wham! by Lil Baby to see if it hits like his music appeared first on Paradise Found.

Summer is the perfect time for a stargazing smoke sesh. These eight celestial strains will have you feeling and seeing over the moon.

The post 8 weed strains for stargazing, comet chasing, and blowing your mind appeared first on Leafly.

The post 8 weed strains for stargazing, comet chasing, and blowing your mind appeared first on Paradise Found.

Fire in the hole!

The post Works of fire: 9 scorcher cannabis strains of July 4, 2022 appeared first on Leafly.

The post Works of fire: 9 scorcher cannabis strains of July 4, 2022 appeared first on Paradise Found.