LA PREPS FOR FREE SEED DAY

Since we first sat down with Masonic Smoker back in early 2021, he’s continued his rise on the genetics scene, locals might argue one of their favorite Masonic impacts on the community in those two years is Free Seed Day.

This year, Free Seed Day will take place on April 15 at Masonic’s on Fairfax. 

Now one of the most significant events on the calendar for Angelino cultivators, the event initially got its start as an homage to Free Comic Book Day. Before the pandemic, Masonic had been participating in Free Comic Book Day for a decade. 

“I was hanging out at my store and then Free Comic Book Day is usually on the first Saturday of May, but because of COVID they kind of messed it up,” Masonic told L.A. Weekly. As he sat in his shop dealing with the FOMO of missing out on the rescheduled festivities, the idea popped into his head. “So it all kind of came to fruition there when I was doing FOMO on previous comic book days, I made my own Free Seed Day, and here we are.”

Masonic went a bit more into the development process for that first incarnation of Free Seed Day. He noted he is generally pretty off the cuff. When he saw a solid response to the feelers he was putting out there about the idea he knew he was on to something. 

“Then I also went out of my way to shamelessly ask some of the bigger names in the seed industry to chip in on the day, and as soon as Exotic Mike said he was down with it, everyone else kind of followed suit,” Masonic told L.A. Weekly. 

When asked if getting the big name early helped set the course, Masonic said at the moment it helped a lot. But people were also receptive to his argument people would be helping themselves, breeders, and the community all at once. 

Masonic Smoker (right) with his podcast cohost Comedy Store regular Frank Castillo at The Ego Clash Barcelona last month.

The turnout for year one was solid. Masonic estimates it was between 300 to 400 people, but he notes it’s kind of hard to remember the first one because the second was huge. More than doubling in size, Masonic estimates Free Seed Day 2022 saw 800 to 1,000 people participate. 

With the exponential growth rate, we asked Masonic how many bodies he can realistically move through the shop during the festivities. He plans on having 1,000 bags ready to go. He estimates the value of those bags to be between $300 to $500 each. But don’t worry if you are person No. 1,001. 

“There are probably five breeders hanging around at any given time. So if there’s an overspill of more than those 1,000 that I didn’t keep in mind, well, we don’t necessarily have like a whole bag for them, but there are free seeds there for you. And there’s a bag that we can put them in,” Masonic said with a laugh.

Free Seed Day 2021

While Masonic is trying to avoid having people line up too early this year, he understands the enthusiasm. The early bags for those who waited the longest will undoubtedly have some gems in them. Regardless, there will be plenty of love to go around even if you can’t do the whole urban camping experience.

“The reason for Free Comic Book Day is to kind of breathe a breath of fresh air into whatever storefront that they have, right? So in this case, the comic books that are for free are the seeds from Exotic and Bloom. The way that we pay for them in our case is like we go out of our way for like two weeks and we divvy them up. And we have the storefront to actually facilitate a free seed day,” Masonic noted, hoping folks might grab a T-shirt while they’re at the shop. He’s got something for all tax brackets. 

DIGITAL DABS MAKE HASH ACCESSIBLE

As July’s end approaches, we’re celebrating the state of electronic dabs and how much easier it is to smoke the world’s best hash than a decade ago. 

Here in America, July is the biggest month for hash smokers. That legacy has been built up over the last 12 years of celebrating 7/10. But if you were one of those early revelers, your consumption apparatus options were limited. 

Those earliest 7/10 enthusiasts were mostly smoking off quartz because they were too smart to hit the earliest weird electronic nails. We started to see the first electronic dabbers in the early 2010s. People wanted to take advantage of all those people that wanted to smoke hash without a blowtorch. Many of the models back then were from the same factories in Asia and just rebranded for whatever company was buying them in bulk. Those earliest electronic dab rigs were absolute garbage. Everything about them was questionable from the quality of materials to whether the atomizer was even reaching an appropriate temperature. 

Dab pens would be refined a bit faster than those old dry e-rigs. But about a decade ago, we started to see the companies that would change everything about the digital dab launch. And with healthy competition in the air ever since, the pace of progress has been fast for digital dabs. 

Here are a few of those companies that helped change everything:

Dr. Dabber 

Ten years in, Dr. Dabber continues its efforts to innovate. Back in the day, Dr. Dabber had these ridiculous dab pens held together by magnets; we’re glad you guys moved on from that! But they continued to innovate. In 2014, they brought the first thing to market we would consider a reputable electronic rig with the Boost. It was a totally different ballgame compared to that weird stuff from Guangzhou that predated it. That was when Dr. Dabber coined the term e-rig, short for an electronic dab rig. The Boost has been updated for the times and is still a worthy entry onto the list. Other flagship products now include the Switch and XS. A new version of the XS was recently released in collaboration with Wiz Khalifa in honor of the 7/10 holiday. DrDabber.com

Focus V

The Carta from Focus V hit the market hard when it launched. While now there is a lot more parity between the big dogs’ atomizers, when the first Carta dropped, its atomizer felt like a tank compared to the competition at that moment. This built a following with some of the heavier dabbers burning through atomizers that’s lasted until this day —  just look at their involvement with Legends of Hash, a top-of-the-food chain event for America’s headiest hash enthusiasts here in Los Angeles. On top of the sturdiness and longtime following, there is no denying the things are absolute clear-your-sinuses rippers. While you can still get an awesome deal on the original Carta on Focus V’s website, they’ve added a lot of bells and whistles over the years, like cool minute LCD screens and aesthetically pleasing light effects. focusv.com

Puffco

Still the biggest name in digital dabs globally, chances are if you’re anywhere in the world and get offered a rip of hash, 99% of the time it’ll be on quartz, in a spliff, or inside a Puffco product. Originally founded in New York City before moving to California, Puffco first blew up on the scene because all the best hash extractors in the world were using the Puffco Plus dab pen when they traveled. A few years later the Peak would drop, essentially becoming the Ipod of digital dabs in the years since. With the release of the Puffco Peak Pro, all the flaws of the original were addressed. Not long after, the still-fresh Pro atomizers would get a massive upgrade with the 3D Chamber. It made major contributing factors to the experience like battery life, flavor, and vapor quality that much better. Dropping just after 7/10 this month, the new XL 3D chamber feels like more of a novelty than a necessity, but boy does it make your eyes water. Puffco.com 

CANNABIS CRIME WAVES RETURN FOR 2024

The cannabis industry is currently in the midst of a massive crime wave. 

In the nearly three years since thieves used the George Floyd protests as cover to kick off one of the most devastating crime waves the cannabis industry has ever seen, there have been many more. Cannabis businesses continue to be targeted. 

There are various reasons contributing to these waves, but whether it’s the economy, the giant piles of money dispensaries are forced to hoard without bank accounts, or the product that’s easy to move as cannabis continues its national popularity surge, right now is batshit. 

When I’m not writing for L.A. Weekly, I still work at a dispensary. We’ve been hit twice in the last two weeks. We are not alone. We’re hearing reports from San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Sacramento, Benicia and Iselton, and those are just the ones the word has gotten out on. More locally we’ve seen the city’s most prominent LGBT-owned dispensary Green Qween targeted multiple times. Cannabis companies are stuck with the catch-22 of wanting to make more noise about what they see as a lack of protection regardless of tax dollars but don’t want to wave their hands in the air basically saying, “come victimize me because I get no protection.”

And to make it even scarier for the industry, some of these groups are more reminiscent of militias than stick-up kids. Short-style AK-47s you can tuck into your pants have been seen at multiple locations. 

These crews also are beginning to get very good at it. There are believed to be a few roaming the northern part of the state from security camera footage being used to match different groups together. Sometimes they’ve made trips south for weekend-long runs at fresh targets, but for the most part, the largest organized groups seem to frequent north of Salinas up to wine country and then east all the way to the Sierras. 

The owner of The Delta Boyz dispensary in Isleton told us their facility has been hit five times and was among those targeted in the last two weeks. Things have gotten so hot in the small town located between Sacramento and the bay that he wanted to refrain from using his name for his family’s safety.

The crew pulling up.

He compared this recent crime to 2020, but noted there is a big difference. 

“It’s just, it’s not as chaotic. The atmosphere outside is not as chaotic as it was then,” he told L.A. Weekly. “So this is just very organized, dialed in, calculated. It seems this is what they do now. And these crews have been doing it for so long, it seems like they’re getting better and better at it.”

One of the times The Delta Boys got hit it took about 45 seconds for them to take $200,000.

“My dumb ass had all my rosin in one big tote. But that’s how fast they are. They were in and out in 45 seconds,” they said. “Where else are you going to steal like that? You can’t steal from a bank like that. You can’t steal it from a liquor store. You can’t steal it from a warehouse. You got to liquidate any of those. Weed is basically liquid.”

The aftermath.

He further argued he can’t go and shoot somebody as if this was the black market. 

“I have to respect the law because it’s my livelihood. This is everything I’ve ever invested all my money and time into. I can’t blast somebody. There are cameras everywhere. So it’s hard. And they know that. They know, they know we’re not. They know we’re soft targets. They know we can do shit. They know the cops aren’t coming. And it’s just routine now.”

He hopes the state will divert some of the funds it’s using against the black market to defend its legal one. He argues enforcement on black market producers has created a vacuum where they then need to sustain their demand by robbing others. 

NORTHERN NIGHTS MUSIC FESTIVAL LAUNCHES NEW STRAIN

Known for regularly pioneering cannabis and festivals, Northern Nights Music Festival is doing it again this year with an official strain for its 10th Anniversary. 

Being in the heart of The Emerald Triangle in Humboldt County was always going to make the weekend pretty green, but the festival has really taken its geography to heart over the years. In 2019, Northern Nights was the first music festival to have legal sales and consumption at the event. Last year they upped it a notch with dispensaries at multiple stages so you could still enjoy the tunes while you waited for your weed. 

The festival argues, reasonably, it is continuing that innovation this year by becoming the first festival to create its own strain via a collaboration with Humboldt Seed Company (HSC). 

“The new “Northern Nights” strain furthers the commitment of the organizers to revolutionize the ways that cannabis culture can be showcased in a music festival format while supporting local curators,” festival organizers noted when announcing the strain.

According to Northern Nights, it has been a multi-year process collaborating on this strain with HSC. The offering will be available in seed form for locals to grow on their own, and there will be some flower samples going around, too. 

“The fusion of world-renowned cannabis and elite dance music is something you can only find at Northern Nights Festival. It’s an honor to provide this exclusive cultivar to our extended family at Northern Nights,” Humboldt Seed Company Product Executive Halle Pennington told L.A. Weekly, “We’ve sifted through thousands of unique strain combinations and shared visions to land on this highly curated genetic that we’re thrilled to share at such an amazing event. When two Humboldt legacies meet magic can definitely happen. We can’t wait to be back on the dance floor with our community and enjoy the Northern Nights!” 

Organizers emphasized Northern Nights’ Tree Lounge will be the only place you will be able to consume this very limited batch of Emerald Triangle products. The festival calls the Tree Lounge the event’s cannabis experience, but the whole thing is wildly chiller than some festivals on federal or county lands with law enforcement literally sniffing their way around. There are few music events where you’ll feel more comfortable smoking anywhere, but make sure to be careful in the Redwoods regardless of how wet it has been this year. The Tree Lounge is getting moved to the center of the festival this year. 

The idea of selling weed in the heart of cannabis country may sound wild, but it makes a lot of sense. Not only do the brands participating in the festival flip some products, but as times get darker and darker for cannabis, it’s all about who you know. The event can serve as a great networking opportunity for cannabis people taking part that don’t mind a little all-night psychedelic fun between joints. 

Another reason it’s a good move? People don’t want to smoke the same weed all the time. Sure there is the “I only smoke my own shit” crowd, but the vast majority of people seem to like trying a diverse array of flavors. That means, just because someone has 20 pounds at home doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t buy an eighth of something they found interesting.

In addition to all the cannabis stuff and cool giant trees, the festival is generally a great time. It will take Cook’s Valley Campground from July 14 to July 16 deep in the Redwoods. The lineup so far includes Big Gigantic, G Jones, Mura Masa, TOKiMONSTA, Dr. Fresch, Bipolar Sunshine, Coco & Breezy, Nala, Elephant Heart, Night Tales, Daily Bread, Mary Droppinz, Random Rab, Forester, Megan Hamilton, EAZYBAKED, Moontricks, Dos, Lapa, and More

Tickets are on sale now. 

Photos courtesy CAM

CAM SPREADS THE HEAT FARTHER SOUTH THAN EVER

We’re catching up with one of the biggest hitters in California, as she continues to spread her SoCal footprint, Anna Willey of CAM.

Willey is about as famed a female minority legacy operator as it gets. She got her start as a child on the underground NYC delivery scene. Eventually, she would open one of the most popular shops in Colorado. But she knew if she really wanted to crush it long-term, she’d have to move to California. After a short stint in the bay, she’d landed in Sacramento. From there, she coordinates CAM’s statewide growth.

She’s proud to be where she’s at, but you won’t hear her tooting her own horn much, as she surveys the devastation in the cannabis industry. 

“Well, I think that it’s a really, really hard time for legacy operators,” Willey told L.A. Weekly. “There’s so much pride in saying we’re going to bootstrap it and do it on our own.”

But it’s a different time. Running houses and small warehouses was dope. But to start partaking in the economy of scale as cannabis continues to grow, you’re going to be able to need to access funding. 

“When you’re talking to investors. I don’t think people have to mention that oh, by the way, you’ll be giving 62% away to the state, federal and local governments,” Willey said. “So I think that you kind of just got a warehouse and got to lease wherever you could. But you know, 4% tax, I mean, these are just huge. This is like what usual normal business it would make to survive.”

Willey with Hudson from Airfield Supply

But bootstrapping is possible with the heat. She pointed to No Till Kings and Fig Farms as great examples. She emphasized that all of these companies took some risks and owners figured out some parts of the businesses that they might have not been that great in, that sole person, and kind of built a team around people that are good as those parts of the business. 

Our conversation turned to the lack of middle ground in cannabis right now. Sometimes it feels like everyone is either crushing or closing. She believes there should have been a lot more room to be successful in the middle of the pack. 

“Yeah, maybe they’re not like knocking out of the park, but they’re doing what they love. They’re putting out a great product. They’re paying their people, they’re putting food on the table, and they’re doing it as a community,” Willey said, “It’s heartbreaking to watch that smaller farms maybe not have the opportunity to be around next year; it is really, really sad.”

There weren’t a lot of women in cannabis, and when Willey got started there weren’t a lot of brown people either, given the targeted enforcement they faced over cannabis. Especially in her hometown of NYC prior to legalization, just look at all the ACLU data from over the years.

But times have changed a lot. We asked Willey if she thought it was easier for a person like her to get in the game now than when she first did.

“I think that I think for women and for minorities or for anyone that I think it’s, I think it’s getting easier, and it’s getting better than it ever has been,” she replied. “I will say that there’s so much opportunity for people that want it. And I didn’t think it was that bad then either. So I think I’m always looking at it from the perspective of a kind of work ethic.”

Willey emphasized to farms that are struggling that whatever you can do to stay in business for another year is going to give you the best opportunity to win. She said you never know what’s right around the corner, just look how many people the COVID boom helped keep afloat. 

We asked Willey when she first got the chance to do business with women that looked like her.

“I would honestly say not until I came to California. In Colorado, it was my fellow peers, dudes. I think that there are a lot of home-growers in Colorado that kind of either cobble together a couple of bucks or did it with their friends and opened up a shop. It was a lot more peer-oriented than it is now,” Willey said. 

Keep an eye out for CAM flowers all over SoCal. It’s some of the best bang for the buck in the state and absolute heat. My favorite at the moment is the Biscotti BX1, but the Kush Mints has won a lot of stuff. 

WINTER MIXED-LIGHT CANNABIS HARVESTS ARE SPECIAL

California’s winter-grown mixed-light cannabis is among the best flowers of the year, period. 

The crop falls into two categories. The light-assisted and light-deprivation grown. The first is self-explanatory. The second is the term for farmers controlling the natural light cycle by mechanical means. Most of the stuff growing right now is light-assisted, but there are still a few people without power producing some really flavorful weed up north this time of year. 

The light-deprivation stuff is shortened to deps for simplicity. A lot of dep farmers take the heart of the winter off and still get in three runs a year. But those perpetual light-assisted grows that use the power of the sun year-round are able to just perpetually pump out whatever number of tables on their fixed 52-week schedule. Barring the perils of mother nature, there are farmers using the sun and a little extra light to help through the rainy days and shorter ones are producing crazy high-end cannabis. 

One of the most respected owner-operators in the light-assisted space is David Polley of Preferred Gardens — a lot of people have him with a seat at the table when discussing not only who is growing the best mixed-light cannabis in California, but also in Florida. 

Polley explained that you can run some nice deps in the winter with enough natural light, but the production isn’t there. 

“An expert with Winter Deps would usually only grow cannabis for hash in the winter,” Polley told L.A. Weekly. “Flower production is very limited, but the cannabinoid, terpenes and flavonoids are actually at an all-time high. So fresh frozen (material frozen immediately at harvest for processing) will put out some A1 rosin.” 

Polley explained the basics of his process that’s a bit more commercially viable this time of year. Specifically, light-assisted greenhouses that have climate control and you utilize artificial lighting to increase the daily light integral to increase production during the shorter winter months.

Polley in the garden.

“In Cali, that usually starts in September and ends in March or April,” Polley said, “In my biased opinion, the artificial light mixed with the natural kiss from the sun creates the best medicinal cannabis on the planet. Lab tests show cannabinoids and terpenes much higher under these practices. I love the effects from good light-assisted cannabis.”

Polley further explained that the harness of the California sun during the summer is just too much for all the best stuff in the resins that have developed on the plant. 

“Like it’s extreme during the summer in California and the light levels are through the roof,” Polley said, “so I tried to shade my greenhouses more in the summer than I would anytime to get less light and that’s how you get more of like an exotic flavor.”

He argues what’s going on in the industry right now is people are just trying to pump these plants with so much light intensity via LEDs and whatever else the hottest new tech is.

“They’re just slamming them so they could get four pounds a light, just production, production,” Polley said in distaste. “But, that’s why the quality of more than half of the cultivators is just not it. It’s not what we want because they’re just focused on production.”

Photo courtesy of Preferred Gardens

Polley pointed to great genetics as a key to the flame as he prepares to enter the Arizona market, already having crushed it in two other states. 

“I’m pheno hunting 50 seeds every week. I’ve been doing that for eight-plus years,” Polley said. “What’s crazy is that’s 200 seeds a month and we only come out with three to five winners a year.”

Mendoja Farms is another of the state’s top light-assisted producers. After going hard with four big runs in 2022, owner Justin Wilson is taking a month off from flowering and just maintaining his nursery stock before he revs back up next month. 

As for the quality of the winter products, Wilson argues a lot of it is temperature and how physically far we are from the sun. 

Photo Courtesy of Mendoja Farms

“The winter run seems to have twice the amount of trichomes on them,” Wilson told L.A. Weekly. “I feel that it has to do with just the distance of the sun, how far it is from us, and having to warm the rooms up with propane heat.“

Wilson believes the stress on the plants from too much heat is far more stressful on the plants than on some chilly nights. 

“They just seem to like the cold a little bit better. I wouldn’t say cold. I would say that the colder temperatures where I’m at in Covelo and not dealing with strenuous heat that we do have here during the summer,” Wilson said. 

We asked Wilson if it’s easier to get away from market trends this time of year since the more exotic flavors have a good shot at being so full-flavored.

“Yes, it is for sure,” Wilson replied. “I think you can play around more in the winter because you’re gonna have the flavors coming out more in everything. So you don’t have to stick to those saying name-brand stuff and what everybody else wants. That’s when I kind of do like my trial runs.”

Wilson pointed to the fact that a lot of people do their pheno hunt closer to the middle of the year. It’s a double-edged sword. Those mid-year hunts may not get the same terpene levels as the winter, but they’re being stress-tested by the summer heat through the hunt. Wilson has found stuff that was awesome in the winter, but not able to deal with the heat of summer.