NY’S FIRST DISPENSARY DID $12 MILLION IN 6 MONTHS

61% OF AMERICANS WANT CANNABIS ON VALENTINE’S DAY

A new survey from Wired Research suggests most American adults will be including cannabis in their Valentine’s Day plans. 

According to the survey, 61% of American adults plan on using cannabis or gifting it to someone this Valentine’s Day. The survey was commissioned by Verano Holdings to see how consumers would treat cannabis around the holiday as it continues to get further normalized nationally. 

Another fascinating takeaway is the number of Americans that will skip booze this holiday season and opt for cannabis. Wired Research put the number at about 19 million. If just half those people bought a top-shelf eighth for the holiday, you’re talking about $60 million dollars in revenue before you even add the taxes. 

While it was close, men were a little bit more likely to include cannabis in their Valentine’s Day plans (66%) than women (57%). This gap is actually closer than the gap between men and women admitting to use in wider society.  In 2016, Columbia University Professor Deborah Hasin noted the rates at which men and women used cannabis had held steady for a long time at 13% of men and 7% of women through the mid 2000s. But in 2007, experts started to see a shift that would see the rate at which men were using rise another 4% while women’s use rates would rise 3%. 

Younger folks were a lot more down with adding cannabis to their holiday plans than seniors were, with 70% of Gen Z and Millennials surveyed saying cannabis very well could end up a part of their holiday plans. But even then, the seniors weren’t that far behind. While the survey was just under 1,000 people, the idea that more than half of the two oldest categories said they’d be including it in their plans was pretty wild. That is probably the number it would be fascinating to see scaled up into a bigger survey the most. 

Another big factor that will separate use rates this holiday? Kids. Parents were found to be more likely to partake in cannabis on the holiday than their childless peers. The survey found 69% of people with kids planned on making cannabis part of the fun, while only 57% of those without offspring said they’d be partaking.

As opposed to just another part of the evening’s fun, many argued they were using it as a tool to inspire romance. 

“The data from the survey show that Americans use cannabis to relax or improve their mood, which can help people be present and more connected, which is crucial to a better love life,” said Dr. Shannon Chavez, a Beverly Hills psychologist and sex therapist. “Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity for couples to try something new together and try a more dynamic and less formulaic approach to intimacy, which cannabis can help inspire.”

Americans are starting to come around on the idea. One in four surveyed believed cannabis would help get them in the mood. While separately, one in four surveyed said they expected to perform better sexually with the help of cannabis. 

CA LEGAL CANNABIS FACES ITS BIGGEST BLIZZARD YET

Whether it’s getting all the way down the 5, to the farm or hoping the greenhouses don’t collapse, legal cannabis currently is experiencing plenty of headaches from the biggest snowstorm of its short existence in California. 

The biggest widespread headache will be inaccessible roads. Mixed-light farmers facing issues with power over the next couple of days could face the biggest challenges. Most farmers still afloat should be able to survive any stress. It’s still early in the year. Even if people do face some structural damage, they’ll have time to clean it up before things get popping. But if you’re a mixed-light operation running year-round, any hit you’re taking to power or structural integrity is going to lead to pure down take. At worst, it could cost you a crop. 

As people work to get their ducks in a row, it’s going to be a lot trickier to navigate some key stretches of California for the industry. Commerce itself most likely will be impacted by the close of Tejon Pass. With the snow level expected to be well below 1,000 feet, it’s going to be ripping up. Some experts are predicting two feet of snow right in the heart of one of the cannabis industry’s, and the rest of California’s, most vital travel routes. Even if the roads reopen, the ripping winds at the tail end of the storm are no fun for the sprinter vans the industry whips up and down the state in. 

Sure you could take the coast, but it’s going to be mobbed and add hours to the trip. 

The roads that many of the state’s cannabis farmers call home also will be an issue. While the frozen dirt might be easier to drive on in many cases than unplowed asphalt in a few inches, once it starts to pile up, it can get nasty quickly. One farmer in Southern Humboldt County said he was expecting about three feet when the storm was over. 

Josh Vert from Royal Key Organics said indoor farmers like him in Humboldt don’t necessarily worry as much as the outdoor farmers about any one storm in particular, but the season brings its own challenges as a whole. 

“Winter runs and cold weather, it’s the opposite for us as it is in LA,” Vert told L.A. Weekly. “Winter can be more challenging in the Arcata indoor scene than summer. Dew points and surface condensation create excessive moisture. Facilities need to compensate via extra insulation and dehumidification. Our trimming and storage require less air conditioning and everything stays cool. It’s really the cold humidity we have to fight all winter long. The storms have been a good mental break from the norm. Nothing other than that.” 

Closer to home, all the snow and rain have led to a flood watch in Los Angeles through Saturday afternoon. The areas impacted are Los Angeles County Beaches, Los Angeles County Inland Coast including Downtown, Los Angeles County Mountains, San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley, Malibu Coast, Santa Clarita Valley and The Santa Monica Mountains.

The National Weather Service noted rainfall rates up to an inch per hour are possible, especially in the foothills and lower mountain locations.

L.A. WEEKLY’S CANNABIS TRAVEL TIPS 2023

Here at L.A. Weekly, we have spent the last 12 months on an international quest for the heat and we want to share some travel tips from our adventures ahead of many of you heading to Spain next week for Spannabis. 

As the world continued to open back up, we started our travels at Spannabis 2022, later in the year we’d hit the Canary Islands for White Ash Weekend, and make two trips to Bangkok to check out its rapidly evolving dispensary scene. This is in addition to all our domestic adventures and traveling California from Arcata to Adelanto in search of the best cannabis in the world. 

In the process of all that, we’ve made a few key observations to make your travels more fun. 

Preflight Sesh

Is there anything more fun than getting rocked before you go through TSA to depart to god knows where to enjoy some exotic marijuana? Probably. Regardless, it’s a great time. Some people are scared to smoke giant joints or blunts at the airport, but you’ll more than likely be fine if you’re somewhere cannabis doesn’t get you prison time. As for TSA, I carry an ounce on me with a doctor’s recommendation PDF ready to go in the event of a worst-case scenario. Also, it’s best to keep your weed in your carry-on. Most of the dogs you actually see at the airport are bomb dogs, the drug dogs are smelling stuff as it lands in the international terminal. But if you’ve already landed on an international flight and see a dog, it’s probably a drug dog. They figure you would have blown up by the time the plane landed if you were a terrorist and they keep the different types of working K9s separate — the dogs get confused seeing the other dogs get alerted and affection over smells they haven’t been trained on.

The More Exotic the Destination, The More You Need to Bring Your Own Rolling Supplies 

You can probably buy most of your favorite rolling supplies in any major city in the world, but prices are going to vary. For example in Barcelona, I spent the second to last day of the trip hunting for Backwoods, while the homies prepped for a party. The box of woods I found would run me about €60. That’s roughly $63, which is very comparable to buying a box in America. They’re most expensive in CA these days; you can score them a bit cheaper than that in other parts of the country. In Bangkok, that same $63 only gets you one pack from that box of eight we got in Barcelona with five blunts in it. Even worse, if you get a stale pack, you’re screwed. But Bangkok is so humid that every wood we got in our pack seemed pretty fresh.

Be Polite About Spliffs

Don’t hate the culture internationally. Just say you don’t use tobacco, in a nice way. If people want to mix tobacco with their weed because they love spliffs, or just to stretch it out due to living under the yoke of the oppressor, don’t be a hater. You have to remember soccer and spliffs have a lot in common, they’re the most popular thing outside America. On a positive note, since spliffs are so popular you can basically smoke blunts everywhere you can puff. 

Swiss Army Trail Mix

There is a solid argument to make that trail mix is the most underrated drug smuggling tool in the modern era. You just bring your weed or mushroom chocolate bar to the airport, buy a fresh pack of trail mix available at nearly every domestic U.S. airport, break up your drug chocolates in bigger chunks than the regular ones and throw them in the bag. This is also one of the best ways to get weed into the worst places if you’re understandably scared to pull the trigger on flowers or hash. 

Make Sure You Know Just How Mad The Locals Get

Speaking of the worst! Don’t get Brittany Grinered — there is a good chance you’re not even an Olympian. It’s best to figure out ahead of time where things are going to fall on a scale of all good to having to bribe police, or worst-case scenario, becoming a political pawn over munitions shipments to Ukraine. But a lot of places are great. In Thailand, the most popular answer I got about smoking in public was: just don’t bother anyone. Seemed pretty fair to me. 

Local Access 

Before I was L.A. Weekly’s pot critic, I was regularly hunting for pot in different locations. One time in Mexico I ended up in a bait and tackle shop run by the cartel standing in a line five people deep. Everyone else was there for blow, and when I got to the front of the line the dude was like, “Hey, it’s the weed guy!” in reference to my appearance. A couple of armed men and I had a good laugh. But that’s the advanced class! You should start by asking bartenders and bellhops. They know they’ll get it back in tips if they hook you up. 

AMERICAN CANNABIS INDUSTRY NEARS $30 BILLION VALUE

The latest forecast from the data crunchers at BDSA has the U.S. cannabis industry growing to just south of $30 billion by the end of the year. 

Globally, they project the industry to be worth $36.7 billion in 2023 with roughly 80%, or $29.6 billion, of sales coming from the U.S. state markets. BDSA is expecting the global marketplace to grow about 13% a year through 2027. The U.S. market is expected to be worth $45 billion by that time. 

“Over the next five years, the biggest drivers of cannabis industry growth in the U.S. will be the thriving Midwest and East Coast markets,” said Roy Bingham, co-founder and CEO of BDSA. “New markets, especially adult-use markets like Missouri, New Jersey and New York, will lead growth. Although mature Western markets such as Colorado and California have experienced sales stagnation or decline due to price compression, they will continue to account for a substantial portion of legal sales through 2027.”  

BDSA went on to cover some of the key numbers that will be playing into the growth. This includes the new Missouri market, which is expected to do $1.4 billion in sales this year. BDSA expects New York to do about $631 million this year but jump to $2.5 billion by 2027. New York sales are projected to see an annual compound growth rate of roughly 71%. 

Then there are the markets that haven’t come online yet, even hypothetical ones like Florida play into the number where BDSA is expecting sales to start in 2025 and have a value of $4.3 billion per year by 2027. Minnesota, which legalized adult-use cannabis last month, will begin sales next year and is expected to do $117 million in sales next year and grow to $875 million by 2027. 

The growth of midwestern cannabis markets is going well. Illinois is projected to do $2 billion in sales this year. Michigan has seen sales bump 19% in 2023 and the market is expected to be worth $3.5 Billion by 2027. 

BDSA went on to note that here in California, the numbers are being impacted by the price of the pound crashing and the fact the illicit market still dwarfs the legal one. BDSA argues these are the main reasons California’s legal market saw a decline in sales for the first time in 2022. The report notes that based on the sales in the first quarter of 2023, the California market is expected to decline by 9% this year. 

“California cannabis price compression emerged as a result of ongoing competition from the well-established illicit channel, and an oversupply of cannabis products as cultivation has ramped up in the legal channel since the start of adult-use sales in 2018,” Bingham told L.A. Weekly in an email. “This led to a decline in average retail prices beginning in Q3 2021. BDSA Retail Sales Tracking data show that equivalent average retail prices in California declined 21% between Q3 2021 and Q1 2023. Other mature markets, such as Michigan, have grown in total dollar sales despite price compression, but unit sales growth in California has not been strong enough to counteract price declines.” 

Bingham went on to cover some of the positives that came out of the storm of 2022. 

“While consumers benefited from more affordable cannabis, industry players had to adapt by optimizing operations and focusing on quality and brand reputation,” Bingham said. “The experience highlighted the need for strategic planning and a balanced regulatory framework in the evolving cannabis industry.”

Even with the decline in sales, California is still expected to represent a massive chunk of the U.S. cannabis industry for the foreseeable future. 

DIRTY WEED WORDS: COMMERCIAL VIABILITY

Commercial viability may be the phrase that has changed in cannabis the most over the decades for the industry.

During my chat with First Smoke of The Day, which dropped last week, the subject of commercial viability came up. Basically, I said once you got past the lovely people that got screwed by circumstances of licensing or location, there are a lot of people who got eaten up by the times because they wouldn’t change their ways. This received the most positive feedback of anything I said during the hour-and-a-half talk. While I’ve attempted to articulate the idea of people not being able to keep up with the game, it was never with the ethos of how many of the world’s best growers hit me up or tagged me on Instagram over the last week. 

At its core, the attempt to define commercial viability in cannabis has proven a double-edged sword. On the one side, the meaning represents progress in the game. The bar for commercial viability has risen with the progress of the times across every market. This includes recreational and the still massive underground cannabis economy thought to dwarf California’s legal market at least 2 to 1, given the vast swaths of the state without legal access and people everywhere else wanting our weed. The pot has certainly increased in quality on both sides of the market. 

On the other side, not all ships have risen with the tide due to various circumstances. Be it their own stubbornness to not change their ways as advancements in the game had been made, or never actually knowing what the bar was for commercial viability in the first place whenever they jumped ship from whatever industry expecting to carve a piece of the cannabis industry for themselves.

Let us not forget a mere 20 years ago, brick weed stuffed in a tire was commercially viable for American distributors. So imagine you’re a person operating under the protection of 215 in that era. Ninety-nine percent of the domestic marijuana supply is absolute garbage. It’s fair to say you’re a hot cookie at that moment. 

But, as the years rolled on, the bar went up.

Commercial viability got to the point where it didn’t just mean you were talking about the quality or price of the product, but also accessibility and ease of transport. California has a firm grip on illicit domestic cannabis production as the feds’ annual plant eradication counts firmly show. But it’s not the same. In the past, the worst cannabis California has to offer used to get scooped up faster than Olive Garden breadsticks coming out of the oven. 

Now we’ve reached the point where people don’t have to buy California’s worst product anymore. California cultivators aren’t competing with Mexican brick weed anymore. They’re competing with the Oklahomas and the Maines — hell, there are probably even some decent beaster packs from Canada still making it over the border.

A lot of the lost souls in California on the illicit side are those who couldn’t keep up with people growing decent weed in those places where people could drive to pick it up. The best weed in the world is still grown in NorCal, especially on the illicit side of the market. Not being able to grow commercially viable pot in the rec market is one thing, but if you are having trouble on the other side, maybe it’s time to do some soul-searching on your craft. Do those little things you see your neighbors doing that you didn’t want to because you convinced yourself you knew what you were doing. 

The most important thing you can do to survive in this market is to grow the best cannabis possible. People that worry about pinching pennies first are destined to fail. At that point, the quality of the marijuana is the second most important thing to you, and you’ve already lost.

NEW YORK STARTS LEGAL CANNABIS SALES AT 4:20

We chatted with Housing Works Cannabis Co CEO Charles King as the NYC nonprofit prepares to kick off legal cannabis sales in the state of New York today. 

Most notably, the 10 cash registers and 4,400 square feet of retail space at 750 Broadway in Manhattan will be the only place in the state you’ll be able to get legal weed for months, as other retailers continue to navigate the permitting process. While the idea of this total monopolization may seem off in the era of social equity, given it’s a longtime nonprofit it seems a lot palatable for folks. 

That part is also a double-edged sword. Some fear the Housing Works permit will be pointed to as a sign of intent, when the wider equity program has hiccups like so many have in the past. The officials who screw it up will point to this license to show it was the plan all along to take care of equity and nonprofit permits. That being said, whatever happens next on the regulatory side isn’t Housing Works’ fault and it has as worthy a track record as any nonprofit who might have had the chance to open first. 

Housing Works has provided an array of services to 30,000 homeless and low-income New Yorkers since 1990. The organization identifies as a community of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS with the mission to end both homelessness and AIDS through advocacy and providing services. A big part of the way it has sustained the mission is creating businesses like the dispensary, a SoHo bookstore, and a network of high-end thrift shops to fund its advocacy. All proceeds from the dispensary go directly back to the nonprofit. 

The staff are excited to open their doors today. 

“”This is a once in a lifetime moment,” said Sasha Nutgent, store manager of Housing Works Cannabis Co. “That said, our nonprofit’s mission remains as urgent as ever. We are eager to take the lead as a social equity model for America’s cannabis industry, specifically with our hiring practices and continued support of individuals and communities disproportionately impacted by the unjust War on Drugs.”

We chatted with Charles King, CEO of Housing Works, late last week as they prepared for the big day. 

“So we actually approached Gov. Cuomo in his office three years ago about Housing Works being able to obtain a license for retail cannabis sales,” King told L.A. Weekly. “We’ve been pressing the agenda of nonprofits that serve people who have been criminalized by cannabis, due to cannabis related offenses, having the opportunity to enter in the market. That’s part of our reason for doing this.”

King argues one of the reasons it’s been such a long rollout for New York was establishing mechanisms different from any other state in terms of advancing equity interests.

“That said, I think there’s a big question about whether what New York is doing will actually go far enough to accomplish its equity agenda,” King argued. “Housing Works is a large organization where we’re well-capitalized, so we’re prepared to invest up to a million dollars, some to make our cannabis retail work and make it profitable.”

King knows the state is preparing to invest money to back social equity licenses, he’s just not sure it will be nearly enough to be competitive. This would lead to the worst-case scenario of equity license holders turning into figureheads as they attempt to raise the capital they need to stay open. 

“I think that’s going to be the big test,” King said. “We’ve seen it in other jurisdictions, where equity license holders have ended up simply essentially being front people for commercial cannabis. And we certainly don’t want that to happen here.”

Housing Works plans on taking a very hands-on approach on its quest to help the New York social equity movement. For starters, it’s hiring people who have criminal records for cannabis, but it goes so much deeper than that. 

“We’re also developing training programs, not only to help people to advance in management, even with our competitors,” King said.

King hopes that program will help start people’s own journeys to go from cannabis conviction to dispensary owner. 

“We’re negotiating with the Office of Cannabis Management to help people, to allow people to go through a training program with us,” King said. “That would get them credentialed as having met the entrepreneurial requirements for obtaining their own license, and then we would help them with their license application, help them get up and running, so that they can genuinely have an opportunity to enter into business on their own without having to be proxy for some commercial investor.”

Given Housing Works’ wider history of community service, we asked if there was any push back on the team when the conversations about the dispensary started. The organization is no stranger to the subjects around drugs many Americans avoid. 

“We are a harm-reduction organization. We were, over 30 years ago, we were the first organization in the country to house people with substance use disorder without any restrictions on their personal use in the privacy of their home. We didn’t place any drug- and alcohol-free conditions on people moving into supportive housing,” King said. 

Additionally, Housing Works runs two of the largest syringe exchange programs in the state. 

“So, even though we’re a licensed drug treatment provider, our license is very explicit that we use a harm-reduction approach,” King said. “Our goal has never been abstinence, it’s always to help people manage their use in ways that give them effective control over their lives.”

King thinks it’s been more interesting to hear the response from the public who clearly don’t really understand who they are and what it is that they do.

Housing Works expects to be able to offer about 75 to 100 products from six different brands on opening day. As testing gets in order around the state, they expect to be up to about 24 brands to pick from in February. It’s a safe bet every cultivation site in the state will be hoping for shelf space. 

As with many dispensaries across America, they’re currently cash only. There was a recent sweep of offshore merchant services companies prodigy services to the industry, so it’s a little trickier than bouncing from one to the other at the moment. This is even the case for shops that have been open for decades. 

House of Puff is one of the brands on shelves today at Housing Works.

“For years, advocates and members of New York’s cannabis community have been working toward this momentous milestone; the first adult-use dispensary opening its doors, stocked with brands and products grown, processed, manufactured and owned right here in New York,” said Kristina Lopez Adduci, CEO and founder of House of Puff. “We are ecstatic that House of Puff will be one of those New York brands that will be available for purchase and thank Housing Works for supporting us and other local cannabis companies during this crucial moment.” 

Lopez Adduci was also excited as to what the dispensary meant to the broader goals for legalization. 

“The opening of their dispensary is just one embodiment of the vision set out by the MRTA and is a significant step towards establishing a fully operable and equitable legal cannabis industry built by and for New Yorkers and our communities most adversely affected by cannabis prohibition,” she said. 

The Cannabis Association of New York also weighed in on today’s first sales.

“Since the MRTA was signed, now nearly two years ago, we have all been envisioning the moment that legal adult-use sales would finally launch here in New York,” said Allan Gandelman, President of CANY. “The state’s first recreational dispensary opening its doors with shelves stocked full of New York-owned-and-operated brands, including products grown and processed by CANY members, is a culmination of all the hard work, dedication and advocacy of the cannabis community over the past several years. We applaud Housing Works for being mindful and supportive of this vision and congratulate them on their entrance into the industry.”

Gandelman went on to note that while the moment feels surreal, everyone hopes it’s just one of many upcoming milestones.