ROHAN MARLEY TALKS LION ORDER

Nearly a decade ago, Rohan Marley helped his family take its first steps in the cannabis space, now his personal brand is rolling along strong after launching in Michigan. 

Rohan is the middle child of Bob Marley’s nine kids. He and Stephen are the closest in age of the group and were born a month apart in 1972. When it was time for the family to start dabbling in cannabis in the mid-2010s following the first successful legalization initiatives, Rohan took the lead. 

The family founded Marley Naturals in 2014. Marley Naturals was originally a partnership between Privateer Holdings. The brand would have some hiccups as it came to market. The family would buy the rights out in 2019 and take full control. Not too long after, Rohan would get the ball rolling on the cannabis element of Lion Order that recently launched in Michigan after a couple of years of pheno hunting before the flower went into full production. 

We flew out to Detroit to check out Rohan’s new flowers and hear the lessons learned in California. He kicked things off by describing the vibes associated with Lion Order. They are similar to what the phrase means in Rastafarianism and his father’s music.  Particularly, the ideas of strength, courage and righteousness in the face of oppression and adversity. 

In the song his father named Lion Order on his final studio album, Confrontation, he would sing on the themes of standing up for your rights and fighting injustice, as he did frequently throughout his career. 

After a walk through 305 Farms cultivation facility where the Lion Order line is in production, we sat down with Marley. 

“After years of being an entrepreneur and wanting to do things my way, which is things I love, being a part of something that’s more than just cannabis. Being a part of a movement. And that movement is Lion Order and just the philosophy of Rastafari,” Marley told L.A. Weekly. 

His goal going in this time was to create something he’d want to smoke and share with his brothers. Marley’s years in the coffee industry have made picking out the notes in aromas a regular thing. With Lion Order, his plan was to hunt down the flavors of his childhood. 

He remembered the flavors he would come across in college. He didn’t know what indica or sativa was, he just knew he loved herb. He has spent the rest of his life chasing some of those flavors from his youth, just now it’s for the sake of good business as opposed to just his personal enjoyment.  

“For me, it was like a pheno hunt all the time once I left college,” Marley said. 

Marley would get his hands on some cannabis in Miami not long into the pandemic that had him thinking, this is really it? Eventually, Marley was introduced to Heavyweight Heads by fellow University of Miami alumni Mike James. James also played six years in the NFL after his time at The U. 

“And those guys, we spent about two and a half years trying to develop that taste profile I wanted. They would come in and I’d say that ain’t it,” Marley said. “I started to like get into the whole strain and my own thing to like all right, we need to create our own movement. Because I don’t like the herb that’s out there. I want my own herb of what I like to smoke. So those guys from Heavyweight Heads helped me to develop these genetics here. And when they brought the right one, I knew that was the one.”

That was King Clem, the current flagship strain. The King Clem’s nose profile is somewhere in the middle between a sour and an OG. It’s not quite either, but you can detect certain similar notes for sure. The structure is a bit chunkier than either of them too.

King Clem

Marley knew the King Clem was the one before he even lit it. 

“Before you light it, you know they see that people pre-pull it now, when you get all those terpenes and all that flavor. That’s what I love. Then when I spark that and I’m getting that all together, I see that’s the one, so for me, that’s what we create,” Marley said. 

Marley said it didn’t take long for them to create the rest of the line after that because they knew what ingredients would help produce the flavors he liked. Marley notes while he liked the more tropical flavor profiles, he still has the OG gassy thing in the mix. 

We asked Marley what he thought of the argument that it’s hard for a cannabis brand to be elite in the eyes of the biggest whale buyers without the real strain name and lineage on the bag. He pointed to the traceability back to the farm. 

“So if I create my own, like cooking, if I create my own dish and you like my dish, and you’re gonna eat that right? Then you can go there and eat his dish, but this is my dish. This is what I like,” Marley replied. 

The conversation moved on to his early efforts in California. He called Marley Naturals a family movement that was ahead of its time. He argued it was one of the first in the game to ever have to deal with licensing and royalties in the midst of our ongoing prohibition of cannabis.

305 Farms

Marley argued that Marley Naturals went through the ups and downs of any startup. 

“What I learned from that is that when you come onto my herbs, it has to be my way,” Marley said. “The partners learned some things and they’re doing wonderful things with beautiful accessories. We’re developing the herb.”

He went on to subtly emphasize the difference between the two, noting it’s one thing to have something with a licensing component, it’s another thing to have something that’s your own. 

Fans line up for a Lion Order in-store meet and greet.

One of the things we noted was the move to packaging that seemingly would provide longer shelf life with Lion Order compared to Marley Naturals wood-top jars that needed to be shrink-wrapped with a Boveda inside, and it was still a little rough by the time it got to the shop.

Marley explained the packaging was one of the things the family tried on a quest for sustainability that can sometimes make them tricky to work with. 

“What’s tricky is like, to work with us, you have to have ingenuity and be able to create things that are following in the family guidelines. Sustainable movement, you know? So we went into the wood and learn that because, obviously, as a consumable, it takes time to get to you, the consumer,” Marley said. “You have to go to the thing, then the journey, then the travel, and so that shelf life has to be preserved a certain way in order to maintain that freshness.” 

Marley argued it’s not that the herb is not good. It’s just the way to procure it, in a way to give it a shelf life, is one of the things the family has learned in their quest to be as sustainable as possible.

Marley went on to discuss what it’s been like watching legalization from the context of a Rastafari, essentially getting the right to pray legalized. 

“It’s beautiful and we love it because you know, it’s different when you’re driving down the street and the policeman is behind you. You don’t panic if you got the herb. You know that it can be good. Because like, people can create a lot of anxiety over herb. But it’s not really the herb that gives you anxiety, it is the consequences. So when you alleviate that, it’s wonderful. So we’re very happy about the movement, a part of that movement,” Marley said. 

Lion Order is currently popping in Michigan, expect to see it in other states in the not-too-distant future.

NEW GUIDELINES WANT POT SCREENINGS BEFORE SURGERY

The American Society of Regional Anesthesia (ASRA) and Pain Medicine is calling for cannabis screenings prior to surgery. 

The new guidelines come as a result of two years of work at ASRA Pain Medicine. The guidelines noted the idea initially came from cannabis and perioperative medicine special interest groups within the society in November 2020. The group is one of the largest medical societies dedicated to anesthesiology in the world, with 5,000 members in 66 countries. 

A smaller working group broke it down into numerous questions to answer, the first of which was if all surgical and procedural patients requiring anesthesia be screened for cannabinoids preoperatively, and if so, what information should be obtained?

The most fundamental part of their answer is a big yes because everything in a patient’s medical and recreational substance history should be taken into account, the guideline authors noted.

“Before surgery, anesthesiologists should ask patients if they use cannabis — whether medicinally or recreationally — and be prepared to possibly change the anesthesia plan or delay the procedure in certain situations,” said Samer Narouze, M.D., Ph.D., senior author and ASRA Pain Medicine president. 

Narouze went on to point out that while some people use cannabis therapeutically, studies have shown regular users may have more pain and nausea after surgery, not less, and may need more medications, including opioids, to manage the discomfort. And they’re not fearmongering, they just want the patient and anesthesiologist to be as informed as possible. 

“We hope the guidelines will serve as a road map to help better care for patients who use cannabis and need surgery,” Narouze said. 

The authors note it wasn’t just the weed they were worried about, but the potential for pesticides, heavy metals, and carcinogens. There are concerns about those adulterants impacting the perioperative effectiveness of the anesthesia. 

The authors later broke it down to four main factors to consider on whether someone should stop using cannabis before surgery — it was medical, the dosing and frequency of use, CBD ratios, and how it’s administered. 

“A recent consensus-based guideline recommended reducing cannabinoid use 7 days prior to surgery (to less than 1.5 g/day of smoked cannabis, 300 mg/day of CBD oil, 20 mg/day of THC oil) while cautioning not to attempt any tapering strategies within 6 days of elective surgery and not to attempt tapering a day prior to surgery,” the guidelines noted. 

The guidelines also noted one of the places the ASRA Pain Medicine will be looking at the relationship between cannabis and anesthesia the most often will be in pregnant women. In 2019, 5.4% of pregnant women reported using marijuana during their pregnancy. The guidelines said a history of occasional or recreational use of marijuana likely does not pose a risk with neuraxial anesthesia for labor analgesia or cesarean delivery.

The authors did note if you were to go into labor within a couple of hours of consuming cannabis there may be increased potential for cardiovascular, anesthetic, and vasopressor interactions.

IS AI IMPAIRMENT TESTING NEXT FOR CANNABIS? 

Predictmedix Inc. may have the answer to squash concerns about stoned driving.

The lack of a validated mechanism to test someone’s level of impairment from cannabis use on the spot has complicated the national rollout. Regulators and elected officials vent their fears about stoned driving all the time. You can test someone’s saliva, urine, blood or hair, but these detection methodologies are too dated for the modern era. Mostly because they aren’t focused on the moment but whether you’ve used drugs over a more extended time frame that goes long after the impairment has stopped. If you were to base impairment on those tests, you would have a ton of false positives since more of the workforce are enjoying off-the-clock use and have those spent THC metabolites in their system. 

The same people who don’t want to change drug testing laws to protect off-the-clock use are ironically well-versed in the reality of current testing not truly benefiting public safety in real time. But what if you could use artificial intelligence to determine someone’s level of impairment in 20 seconds?

Predictmedix calls itself an emerging provider of rapid health screening, medical devices, and remote patient care solutions globally. Over the last three years, the now publicly traded company has raised $3 million. 

“And all that money has gone into developing the technology. And now we’re commercially deployed,” Toronto venture capitalist Steve Singh told L.A. Weekly. He went on to break down the difference between their tech and the breathalyzer tech that’s been in development for years. “With the breathalyzer and you get a result in 20 minutes that’s biased, with Rahul’s technology, it’s 20 seconds and unbiased.”

The Rahul that Singh mentioned is Dr. Rahul Kushwah who founded Predictmedix after leaving academia to pursue AI-based impairment testing. To date, 50,000 people have now been screened by his Safe Entry Stations at places like The Super Bowl and F1 races. 

The stations are powered by a proprietary AI. It uses multispectral cameras to analyze physiological data patterns with its screening technology to detect many conditions. They include cannabis or alcohol impairment, infectious diseases, mental illness, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, respiratory illnesses, COVID 19, and signs of fatigue. The stations are about 90% accurate. Kushwah told LA Weekly that the tech still had trouble with people under the age of 18 and over 75. If you were to remove those groups from the data pool, he estimates the accuracy would be well over 95%. 

“It’s almost like we have developed this new language. With this language, you can write impairment, you can write fatigue. You can write health care parameters, screening for diseases, whatever you want. So effectively, we have a platform that can be used to screen an unlimited number of things,” Kushwah said. 

We asked Kushwah how helpful it is to have the road out in front of them with no real sign of another mechanism to test a person for their current level of cannabis impairment in the near future.

“So let’s say we talk about cannabis impairment. First of all, this whole concept of using breathalyzers for cannabis just cannot work from a scientific perspective because the only time you can make a freaking correlation is if you can measure the level of THC in the brain,” Kushwah replied. “The THC has to cross the blood-brain barrier to impair you in the first place. So that’s why we’re not even going after measuring THC. What we’re identifying are signs of impairment.”

Kushwah went on to explain, Predictmedix can actually create thresholds in terms of what you want to define as impairment within your organization. If it’s zero tolerance, they can make it that way in the Safe Entry Stations. The red light is going to come on, even if somebody is showing just the slightest signs of impairment. 

Since launching the Safe Entry Station, Predictmedix has worked to scale down the machines to something a bit more manageable. They’ve not reached the point where they’ll release a phone app that pairs with a small multispectral camera you plug into your phone. 

“You put the camera in front of you, you look at the camera, you say a few sentences that are popping up on your phone and that’s it, and that can be used to identify impairment in 10 to 15 seconds,” Kushwah said. 

Kushwah explained the reason for using multispectral imaging is because they don’t really care about how you look on top of your skin. He argues there is no such thing as looking stoned. 

“It’s more about, how are the changes in the underlying blood flow patterns that we are able to identify. And that’s part of the reason that our technology, I mean, is a bit Star Trek in a way. I mean, just think about it. Not only the technology can tell you if you’re impaired if you’re fatigued, but it can also tell you your heart rate, breathing rate, temperature and a lot of your vitals, without even touching you,” Kushwah said. “ And we have completed a few clinical studies in different parts of the world where we have had medical institutions basically signing off on our technology and saying how this is the future and the future is now.”

The app could certainly be a game changer. Imagine police officers being able to give people impairment tests without even getting out of their cars. If they fail, they can do a full sobriety test that would confirm the test or catch a false positive

We’ll continue to keep an eye on how this plays out.  

THE HUMBOLDT PREHARVEST DEP REPORT 2023

For many cannabis enthusiasts, the first real wave of the year’s harvest starts with the light-deprivation-style grown cannabis that comes down each June. 

The resulting cannabis is often shortened to deps by industry folks. They’re produced by farmers using various means to control the light cycle to force plants to flower. They started to become prevalent in the mid-2000s. For many years a lot of people just used the early dep harvests to pay their trimmers in the fall when their full-term harvest came down. But the quality of the product saw the prevalence of the cultivation style continues to grow to this day, where many expect solid deps to be a big part of the forthcoming national marketplace. 

When it comes to deps, Humboldt County is one of the best places in the world to find the best representations of various strains grown that way. In the years The Emerald Triangle’s farms weren’t decimated by fire and smoke, it basically seemed impossible to grow better deps than the cream of the crop coming out of Humboldt’s hills annually. 

But as opposed to smoke, this year’s early season saw farmers dealing with a lot of overcast skies as the heavens opened up to pour water on California. The Vesuvio Gardens team told us there was basically no spring this year and that led to many people getting a later start than usual. Vesuvio was a couple of weeks into flower when we chatted with them.

“We’re only about 10 days behind in Honeydew, and in Whitehorn, we’re pretty much on schedule,” Vesuvio’s founder Joe Jacovini told L.A. Weekly. He went on to note the early runs don’t do so well in Humboldt’s valleys, as opposed to the hilltops where they can get a lot of light. 

One of Humboldt’s most prominent dep cultivators is Jason Gellman of Ridgeline Farms. Ridgeline returned to the top of The Emerald Cup podium this year after previously winning back-to-back editions of one of the most coveted prizes in cannabis. With the exception of a few full-sun plants he does for personal use, Gellman is exclusively growing sungrown deps. He does partner at another light-assisted facility in the winter. 

We asked Gellman how the scene up north was looking, as he preps for the 2023 harvest to begin. 

“We know we hear the prices are going up, I hear that a lot, but nobody has herb,” Gellman told L.A. Weekly. “Does that mean it’s going to really go up? Because usually when you get the herb, then where are all the buyers, but I feel like right now, this should be a good year. I know there’s a pretty big drought of good-quality weed right now.”

We asked Gellman if the trophy shelf makes it easier for him to get top dollar against the rest of the harvest. 

“I always hear that a lot of the time and everyone thinks because I got a name and a brand, they think I can get more than X guy and it’s really not the case,” Gellman replied. “I mean you spend so much money packaging and prerolls and everything like that, it’s really hard. The people who wholesale their weed probably make more money than I do at the end of day.” 

Despite the perils of packaging as he listens to the numbers start to fly around the bulk product, he’s excited for the weeks ahead. 

“I think it’s going to be decent. It really depends on the weather. We’ve had unstable weather so far. For this first round. We didn’t have sun for three days straight. And so if we don’t get heat, we got small bud and that’s going to really affect the quality of the whole dep harvest around here on round one. So we’re playing with the weather, and we’re hoping that it’s shifting, it’s a little more scalable, and I think it’s gonna be a good year.”

After going through the struggles of the past few years, 2023 is looking daily upbeat for Ridgeline. 

“I think for the people that have hung in there are gonna get rewarded, be able to make a living and I mean that’s what it’s all about right now. Just trying to stay alive, make a living and keep our jobs,” Gellman said. 

Courtesy of NASA

Hash Holes Go to Mars With Jiko+

Jimi Devine August 18, 2023 Cannabis

Can tech-backed oversupply ruin clout? We’re about to find out with the new Jiko+ Donut Maker designed by a former NASA engineer.

The creators of the Jiko+ are looking to conquer one of the points in the cannabis supply chain people have not been able to automate up to this point. Sure there have been infused preroll machines, but they were never a true donut, or as we call them now, hash hole. The tech attached to those machines was mostly needles attached to a heating element that would shoot the concentrate into each joint evenly as it removed the needle. A lot of the time the material being used in these infused prerolls, both the flower and hash, was between garbage and subpar.

On many occasions, those infused prerolls were simply an attempt to bump the price of their contents by trying to make them sound nicer. These kinds of preroll entities have existed since the early 2010s because, for every more educated connoisseur that knew they were garbage, there were a few part-time puffers that knew they wanted to get “messed up.” Add to that the fact prerolls have continued to grow their market share as a whole in the years since legalization and it’s easy to see why there are some shady folks that remain commercially viable.  

There is an argument to be made that darkness before the light partially helped rocket hash holes into the stratosphere. We were so used to how bad it had gotten with infused prerolls that when we finally started seeing small batch artisan hash holes after Fidel brought the premise back from Barcelona, it was like a hype lightning storm that came out of nowhere. Overnight, the most expensive prerolls in the state were hand-rolled small-batch prerolls filled with exotic rosins and equally high-end flowers. 

Since hash holes came out the gate so strong, it was easy to see who was skimping on quality. To this point, they’ve remained a daily boutique thing. 

When I asked Fidel what he thought of something like the Jiko+, he simply replied wondering why someone would need to roll 800 hash holes in an hour. What will the top-shelf preroll market turn into?

Or, will the hardware truly even be able to compare to Calirofnia’s best rollers? You could even say the hash hole hype helped breathe this new generation of famous rollers that took off after the pandemic. The Brunos, the CGOs, and others who have conquered the space, are turning into legit cannabis celebrities and influencers around the world. When I was at Hash Hole Island earlier this week up north outside Sacramento, I met people from Texas and New York that just flew in to smoke hash holes. The last time I was in Africa, I saw Bruno’s star power firsthand as some of the local hitters were simply giddy to see him. Can a machine recreate this kind of culture?

I don’t know. But once you get past the philosophical questions about maintaining the boutique aspect of hash holes, the Jiko+ is admittedly pretty dope. It accommodates various joint and blunt sizes that range from one to three grams. The amount of hash inside of each range from .2 to a full gram. 

“Up until now, crafting these intricate, infused prerolls by hand required labor-intensive processes that lacked scalability, consistency and dependability. We’re proud to have developed the technology and equipment that both brands and consumers will appreciate and enjoy,” says Nohtal Partansky, co-founder and CEO of Sorting Robotics.

Partansky is a former engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. While there, he worked on the MOXIE project. That instrument is currently on the surface of Mars producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere. That kind of hardware is obviously critical for any future exploration of the red planet. 

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.

CANNABIOTIX TALKS EMERALD CUP PODIUM SPOT

We chatted with the Cannabiotix team about their recent podium finish at The Emerald Cup with French Alps taking third in the hyper-competitive indoor category. 

That third-place finish was also the top spot for a SoCal flower brand in the indoor category with Oakland’s Fig Farms taking first and San Francisco’s Sense taking second. The only other local flower brand in the Top 5 was Maven Genetics. We chatted with them last week.

Cannabiotix’s cofounder Neema Samari explained the company had been a little wary of the cup scene in the past. 

“It was our first time doing The Emerald Cup. In general, I think we’ve been a little cynical about competition for the last four years. So it was good to get back out there and give it a whirl,” Samari told L.A. Weekly. 

He estimated it has been at least five years since they entered any kind of contest. Attitudes started to change when they saw they now had a chance at The Emerald Cup once the indoor category was added.

“And that’s obviously more of a forte for us because of being born and raised in SoCal,” Samari said. “So once we kind of saw that, and then you know, the pandemic cooled off and everything like that, we wanted to challenge ourselves again, I thought it would be a good idea to put our ticket in that.”

Back in 2016, the Cannabiotix team saw the writing on the wall that there was going to be an expiration date on how much fun they were having in the Prop 215 marketplace. Samari said that was the moment they began to transition their cloak-and-dagger craft to the next level with the proper kinds of infrastructure, standard operating procedures, and training.

The lessons they brought into their first legal California facility were learned in Las Vegas. Back in 2015, a bunch of the team headed out to Vegas to set that up. They started to figure out the legal cannabis game. 

“So that was kind of like our firsthand experience where we’re duffel bag boys and all of a sudden we have all this stuff broken down into eighths of branded product,” Amari said. 

Amari was quick to not judge those folks still taking part in the traditional market. He just thinks Cannabiotix has moved on to bigger-picture plays. One of their big hopes with the in-house breeding program is to avoid the homogenization of genetics happening across the industry, 

“We’ve been doing this since 1999. So we have an in-house breeding program that’s obviously built on top of a foundation of having this library of a bunch of different strains, some of them from decades ago, some of them from not that much long ago, newer hybrid and combining all the things in the stable to create new unique flavors that you can buy. And not just in like a medium scale 7,8,9 strains in the lineup, we’re talking about 20 in-house flavors in the cycle now.”

Currently, the Cannabiotix team has about 640 lights of production space. That number will double soon as they prepare to open another 700-light facility. They’re hoping to open the doors and get plants inside there in about six weeks, if all goes to plan. 

They’ll need the flower to keep feeding the beast, as they continue to scale up. Cannabiotix is in 460 dispensaries around the state, but about 280 of them are where most of the product actually pumps through. They’ve done their best to keep the people that have been messing with them the longest stocked. 

“We do want to get around to the rest of the pack,” Samari said. 

Keep an eye out for Cannabiotix flowers all over California.