THE CANNABIS TRENDS WE’RE BUYING IN 2024

FAKE CANNABIS PACKAGING PLAGUES INDUSTRY

One of the worst parts about being an internationally respected cannabis brand? The fakes. 

The further you climb toward the mountaintop, the more people are going to pretend they’re selling your product or just flat-out use the reputation you’ve built with heat and flame to rob others. On a positive note, if you’re at the point people are copying you, then you’ll probably make it through the dumpster fire that California cannabis is in.  

Here in L.A., where much of the weed people are pretending to have is grown, counterfeiting is still an issue. If you go down to the Vape District on Wall Street, you can find all the bags you’ll need to convince people on the other side of the Sierras you got the heat. And most of those people have never seen real Doja, Jungle Boys or Cookies, so just having the logo on the bag is going to go a long way with them.  

According to Doja Pak founder Ryan Bartholomew, they’ve been dealing with people faking their product since 2018, well before things blew up for the brand over the last couple of years since the initial RS-11 drop that made waves. 

“Then, we were doing the cans. Shortly after we released the cans, we started to see cans that were being tagged on IG and they were fake,” Bartholomew told L.A. Weekly. “They were different. We could just tell that the font was off. It was very obvious to us, being the ones that made the cans, they were fake.”

When they made the jump to bags in 2019, it was much of the same problem. First they started to see fake bags float around L.A., then they started to appear online. Even worse, the bags were a bit easier to fake than the cans. So it can be a lot harder to spot the difference until you look inside at the nugs. 

Bartholomew noted the internet helped it become an international problem. Websites like Calipacks.co.uk are currently selling Doja Bags for a little over a quarter. 

“He’s in the UK and he prints… like at this point they’re printing stuff we never even made,” Bartholomew said. “Yesterday this guy was like, are these jars in Switzerland real?” 

A website offering fake Doja packaging.

Bartholomew had to inform that person the jars they were dealing with were fakes.

Doja Pak attempted to create a verification system, but as Bartholomew noted, you got to be pretty headie to scan a QR code on the back of a bag. Doja handled the back end of the verification system and could see just how much people were interacting with it. 

“Beyond the fake product, too, there’s a lot of scam accounts,” Bartholomew said. “There’s Instagram accounts with more followers than mine, Instagram accounts with the exact same amount of followers as mine with the exact same comments, but they have maybe like two K’s”

Bartholomew has people that come up to him all the time at events and they’ll tell him they sent money for an ounce. 

“I’m not asking anyone to send me any money,” he said. “So there’s constant scamming going on every single day. I’ve been saying if we could see the dollar amount of scamming going on every day it would make us throw up in our mouths.”

Bartholomew estimates there are at least one hundred people pretending to be Doja Pak on the hunt for victims. 

One thing that’s been helpful is unique packaging. Doja Pak’s Re:stash has become a unique identifier of the brand you can only get in person at events directly from the Doja Pak team. Additionally, they don’t have to worry about the Re:stash team printing a bunch of fake jars to give out, given the relationship they’ve built with them over the years. 

Another famous L.A. brand that’s faced its fair share of fakers is The Jungle Boys. 

“I mean we’ve definitely dealt with it a lot,“ Ivan from the Jungle Boys told L.A. Weekly from Florida, as they prepare to open their Miami Beach location today. 

Ivan said more than fake products alone, these days people are faking the whole entity. There was even a fake Jungle Boys store across the street from City Hall in New York City. There was also another underground dispensary using their name in a less prominent location. Ivan finds the whole thing pretty wild. 

One thing that will help the Jungle Boys distinguish themselves from the fakes is their new packaging released last month. The new jars are ​BPA-free and made from 100% recyclable plastic. They’re currently handpicking strains to make the jump to the new jars. The first was Strawberries N Later.

PUFFCO AND ARIZONA DROP CUPSY COLLAB FOR 4/20

In one of the season’s most unexpected 4/20 collaborations, Puffco and AriZona Beverages are dropping an ice-tea homage edition of the Cupsy. 

We have to admit the kings of digital dabs are dropping a collaboration with the 99-cent beverages of my childhood that were not on my bingo card for the holiday season, but we’re ready to party. 

“Puffco has long admired AriZona’s unwavering quest to bring affordable, great-tasting beverages to the masses, and we see a lot of synergy in the way we develop our products to celebrate the beautiful flavors of the cannabis plant,” said Roger Volodarsky, CEO and founder of Puffco. “This creative effort is all about marrying our innovative design with AriZona’s iconic cherry blossom print to offer another pathway for people to enjoy a cannabis experience that emphasizes taste.”

The Cupsy is a highly effective stealth smoking apparatus The original looks like a standard coffee cup, so you can just leave it in your cup holder and take bong loads at work all day without anyone looking in and seeing anything sketchy. Not that bongs are sketchy, but there are some square bears in our midst!

Puffco describes the Cupsy as a revolutionary design that pairs an unassuming everyday object with a high-performance cannabis bubbler system. A fair take. While I’m more of a glass tube guy, the Cupsy certainly was a ripper when I took it for a test drive after the original dropped roughly a year ago. 

The AriZona Edition of the Cupsy is a lot more vibrant than its stock predecessor. That being said, at first glance, it’s still going to be pretty tricky. It’s got those vibrant pastel colors that make you think of Easter, if you’re not too busy thinking of ice tea. Generally, it’s a refreshing color palette compared to most of the space. The clear glass cup with the iconic AriZona logo on it also is a nice switch from the stainless steel wrapped in plastic in the original. The glass will still be a breeze to clean. 

“Everything we do is built on taste. From our label design, to creating great quality products. At AriZona, our customers are our single biggest inspiration,” explains Spencer Vultaggio, chief marketing officer at AriZona Beverages. “Our mission is to bring customers a memorable experience: from ingredients, to unique merch. Puffco is another Brooklyn-born company that is deeply passionate about pushing the boundaries of design, flavor and accessibility, and that’s why we are excited to bring this collaboration to fruition.”

Adding to the fun? This is a true collector’s edition item. Puffco will only be producing 420 of these collaborations in honor of the holiday. It’ll likely be a must-grab item for the real cannabis accessory enthusiasts given how out of left field the collab feels like when you first read about it. 

There also is an argument to be made about just how functional the Cupsy design is. There are not a lot of options that short that offer the same quality of percolation. While we’d love to see the bowl grow a little in the next rendition, the Cupsy is firmly planted on our stealth smokers list. 

Puffco did this drop to coincide with the 4/20 holiday season, but they also drop new gear year-round. We recently featured the new Wizard attachment for the Proxy on our 4/20 list. It’s one of the best examples of what’s possible at the production scale with the modular system of the Proxy. 

I wouldn’t be surprised if these end up selling out in just a day. Puffco SMS users will get a half-hour head start over the nonbelievers at 9 a.m., on 4/20.

THE YEAR IN GLOBS 2023: OUR FAVORITE HASH FOR 7/10

As the 7/10 holiday approaches, it’s time to recognize California’s standout hash extractors.

This organically formed holiday, distinct from Green Wednesdays or CBD Day, was created by Task Rok and the first-generation globbers to celebrate the rapid progress in the hash space. Not a PR company. Over the past decade, the hash sector has witnessed significant advancements in both technique and hardware and this is when we celebrate it each year. 

Solventless hash, produced using ice, water, and screens instead of volatile gas extraction, has become the reigning king. The hash industry has thrived in the pursuit of new flavors, with the hunt for unique terpenes driving the competitiveness of the companies listed below.

While this year introduces fresh faces, some well-established players make a comeback due to their continued excellence. 

While the tidal wave hasn’t hit the shore yet, there will be a ton of Piattella-style cured water hash this year. It blew up in Spain during the pandemic after Uncle’s Farm put it on the map, a first wave of Americans was exposed in 2022, myself among them. This year there were ten times as many Americans at Spannabis as in 2022, so a lot more people got hyped about it. Many Americans are working on perfecting it, including the popular Professor Sift. His efforts are in the featured photo.

Here are some of our favorite California hash companies from the past year:

Fully Melted

Humboldt’s Fully Melted has been impressing consumers in The Emerald Triangle for some time. Although their Zkittelz initially faced controversy at the Emerald Cup, it gained recognition for its incredible terpenes. Alien Labs even used the same pheno that produced the material to claim The Best Thing Smoking at Zalympix a bit over a month after the cup. Must be pretty fire! Every offering from Fully Melted is definitely worth exploring.

Royal Key Organics

Royal Key Organics successfully transitioned from producing award-winning sauces to crafting exceptional solventless hash in recent years. This is in addition to their world-class flower offerings. Their Arcata facility, now expanded, allows more people to experience the wonders of hash made from plants grown in living soil. Their IOS OG 90u Sift, bred in-house, exemplifies the quality and passion behind their products.

“Selection number 24 instantly took us back to our favorite OGs we and our friends grew in the early 2000’s,” Josh Vert, founder or Royal Key Organics, told L.A. Weekly, “Memory can be a funny thing, so we gave it to OG connoisseurs around the state. Everyone who experienced “HHSFV Dog” no.24 said it checked all of their boxes for smell, taste, smokabilty, high, and bag appeal. They also wanted more, and considered it a fantastic OG in cured flower form. We then named it iOS OG, short for I only smoke OG. 

Kalya

Despite facing numerous challenges, Kalya has consistently excelled in producing high-quality hash. Their recent move to Santa Rosa has brought them smoother operations after dealing with the perils of Oakland over the past few years. They continue to impress with their offerings, such as the delightful Dole Whip they had in their possession when I ran into the team a couple of weeks ago. Some of the nicest rosin I’ve seen this year. 

LA Family Farms

LA Family Farms made headlines last August by securing top honors at The Transbay Challenge, surpassing many renowned names in the industry. Their Cotton Candy Gas, grown and washed in-house, is a highly celebrated new addition. It’s the perfect showcasing of their expertise in creating Los Angeles-based single-source rosin.

Cali-X

Cali-X deserves recognition for its underrated rosin in the recreational market. Each jar of their hash is exceptional and wholly made in Los Angeles. As a “single source” entity, Cali-X turns things they grow themselves into unique flavors that add excitement to the rosin market. A lot of Cali-X’s genetics are exclusive to them, so it makes the thoughts of the flavors they may possess in hash form fascinating. 

Rosin Tech

The 2022 Emerald Cup winners, Rosin Tech, continued to crush throughout the year with their high-quality products. Their foray into hash holes has been successful, firmly establishing them among the finest in the industry. The hash inside their joints steals the show, thanks to the incredibly loud flavors they deliver. Their collaborations with Luma Farms are some of the most prized jars in the spread. 

Moonshine Melts

Moonshine Melts, the hash wing of 3rd Gen Family Farms, has earned numerous accolades and remains one of the most awarded cannabis companies in the space when it comes to the trophies that actually matter. Their Zkittelz is renowned for its exceptional quality. Acquiring their single-source hash is akin to hitting the jackpot. There was a point in the mid-2010s when people had to start with the question of whether they thought it could beat Moonshine Metls before they even entered a contest. Many didn’t risk it. 

Trilogy 710

The team at Trilogy 710 has mastered terpene preservation like few others. Their jars contain some of the juiciest rosin available. In addition to their impressive techniques, their collaborations with renowned breeders promise to deliver exciting new terps to the market. Keep an eye out for their work with Symbiotic Genetics for potentially mind-blowing results.

Cryo Labs

Cryo Labs has gained global influence in recent weeks, with their Gary Payton hash jar making waves at the Mary Jane Berlin festival. They have been pioneers in exploring unique terps, such as Compound Genetics’ Apples & Bananas and Grape Gas. Extractors producing their own material now consider Grape Gas a must-have strain but Cryo Cure was dropping it a year before anyone. 

Have Hash

Hash Hash has rightfully claimed numerous trophies this year. They triumphed in Europe during Spannabis week by winning The Ego Clash Barcelona and securing second place at Masters of Rosin a few days later. Then when they returned to America they won San Francisco’s highly competitive challenge at Hippie Hill. We eagerly anticipate the release of their new flavors from the latest harvest.

Arcata Fire

Not everyone can access raw extracts, so Arcata Fire’s Rosin Syrup is the perfect alternative. Their pens recently claimed top honors in The Emerald Cup’s fiercely competitive Solventless Cartridge category. This achievement is expected to improve the availability of their products across the state in the coming months.

Swollen Heads

Another California company making waves abroad is Swollen Heads. When we linked up with Swollen Heads this spring we got the chance to test all of their terps of the moment. Everything was grown by them and then processed. Each flavor held up against most of what we’re seeing in the market with no problem. We highly recommend trying to get your hands on a jar. 

Photo: Andy Feliciotti

ADVOCATES WANT CANNABIS DESCHEDULED NOT RESCHEDULED

Last week’s leaked letter from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommending that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reclassify cannabis from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance under federal law was lacking for advocates who want to see it descheduled. 

All of the OG cannabis reformers are weighing in. Congressman Earl Blumenauer has been involved in cannabis reform for 50 years. He founded the Congressional Cannabis Caucus in 2017. 

“This is a step in the right direction, but it is not sufficient. I hope it is followed by more significant reforms,” Blumenauer said. “This is long overdue.”

Blumenauer noted he pushed the Biden Administration to deschedule marijuana last December. Later in the spring, he called for more transparency in the wider Controlled Substances Act scheduling process. 

NORML, the nation’s oldest marijuana reform organization, noted the DEA said as recently as 2016, cannabis had no current accepted medical use regardless of all the babies with Dravet’s Syndrome that started the CBD explosion making national headlines for years at that point. The DEA will have the final say in all of this; we know how it went the last four times. 

NORML’s deputy director and longtime policy ninja, Paul Armentano, weighed in on the letter.

“It will be very interesting to see how DEA responds to this recommendation, given the agency’s historic opposition to any potential change in cannabis’ categorization under federal law,”  Armentano said. “Further, for decades, the agency has utilized its own five-factor criteria for assessing cannabis’ placement in the CSA — criteria that as recently as 2016, the agency claimed that cannabis failed to meet. Since the agency has final say over any rescheduling decision, it is safe to say that this process still remains far from over.”

Like Blumenauer, NORML has been calling for cannabis to be removed from the Controlled Substances Act for years. They recommend doing it in a manner that’s similar to liquor and tobacco. 

“The goal of any federal cannabis policy reform ought to be to address the existing, untenable chasm between federal marijuana policy and the cannabis laws of the majority of US states,” Armentano said. “Rescheduling the cannabis plant to Schedule III of the US Controlled Substances Act fails to adequately address this conflict, as existing state legalization laws — both adult use and medical — will continue to be in conflict with federal regulations, thereby perpetuating the existing divide between state and federal marijuana policies.”

Armentano closed, noting it’s the same level of intellectual dishonesty to categorize cannabis next to anabolic steroids as it is in its current situation on the list next to heroin.

With the US recreational cannabis market worth more than ever, it would seem something is going to have to be done to remedy the situation. Last week, California announced it had taken in just over $5 billion since the legal market kicked off in 2018, New York City’s first shop did $12 million in its first six months, and there are about 50 more data points off the top of my head why states aren’t going to let this fly. 

In the end, descheduling is likely. But the road is going to be a bit longer. And you can expect it to be the result of a future Congress and White House taking some kind of mandated action that the DEA won’t have a say in. 

Photo courtesy of Attorney General’s Office.

AG BONTA ANNOUNCES NEW CANNABIS ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM

Attorney General Rob Bonta announces new CAPP program to help municipalities deal with illegal commercial cannabis activities. 

Fresno will be the first city to take part in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Cannabis Administrative Prosecutor Program (CAPP). 

When announcing the program on Tuesday, the DOJ noted CAPP will provide partner cities and counties DOJ legal support to address illegal cannabis activity through administrative enforcement and nuisance abatement. Essentially, the city or county signs on to ramp up local enforcement and then the DOJ provides extra resources. The DOJ will provide educational materials for locals to build out their programs and provide mechanisms for evidence collection in future statewide enforcement operations that have been umbrellaed under the new Effort to Prevent Illicit Cannabis. 

As for enforcement actions, CAPP will provide attorneys to act as administrative prosecutors before local hearing bodies when necessary. CAPP also will provide bodies in general to those smaller municipalities that are just too strapped for cash to do anything. This will include assisting in facilitating administrative procedures and assisting with logistical issues through the use of private process servers, contract code compliance officers, and abatement contractors. 

“Complex problems require creative and collaborative solutions,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “This innovative new program allows my office to better support local governments in our collective efforts to tackle illegal cannabis activities, and we are confident that this new cost-effective program will have dramatic and measurable effects. I thank the City of Fresno for their partnership and look forward to working together through this new approach to hold participants in the illegal cannabis market accountable.” 

Bonta’s office noted the cooperative effort with local jurisdictions leverages the administrative enforcement powers of cities and counties. The DOJ also noted this work being done at the local level will supplement the work of the Department of Cannabis Control and the Governor’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force. The task force is led by the Department of Cannabis Control and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Fresno’s city attorney is excited to be the test case. 

“Our partnership is aimed at assisting the local legitimate cannabis industry and help grow Fresno’s tax base,” said Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz. “It is my hope that this, first-of-a-kind joint venture between the Fresno City Attorney’s and the Office of the Attorney General will be a model for other large cities. For far too long, these underground operations have targeted children and minors without fear of retribution. This inventive new approach will seek to put an end to that.”

The state seems to be revving up for a higher level of enforcement. You could see the numbers start to bump in Q1 when the Unified Cannabis Enforcement Taskforce announced the amount of product they seized jumped from $32 million to $52 million in just a few months. It’s a safe bet the highest numbers will likely be attached to harvest season this year. 

In addition to the jump in the amount of product seized, the plant eradication count went way up. Through the first three months of the year, the task force destroyed 43% more plants than the quarter before. The DCC noted that was despite serving 30% fewer search warrants. The bump was a direct result of targeting large-scale operations with the resources they had available. 

WHAT THE KILLERS ARE GROWING 2023

It’s that time of year when we ask our favorite cannabis brands and people what they’re most excited to grow this year. 

The early stress tests are done for the season and folks are getting ready to put their new winning phenos into full blast. While this happens all the time indoors, the work outdoor cultivators do in March and April will help set the standard for the quality they’ll be chopping down when Croptober hits. 

Here is what people told us when we asked them what they are hyped on. Here is what they told us:

Fidels

Fidel in the garden. Courtesy of Fidels.

Runtz x Jealousy, multiple banger phenos hunted, now being scaled up to the masses. The cool thing about this project is that it’s not bread by me, it’s bread by Julio aka @nineweeksharvest. Julio and I had a Genuine conversation. He’s an amazing breeder and pure soul! He blessed me with Runtz X Jealousy. 

We hunted over 60 beans and had many selections that look, smell and smoke phenomenal. I’m excited to share these selections with the masses and have them scaled up properly.

Masonic 

Oh man, Karma Genetics, The great gardener, Barbara bud hybrids, and some of the stuff I’ve chucked along the way. I already went down a lot of the landrace rabbit hole.

Rez from DNA Genetics

I’m hyped about the ’93 Octane crosses. Super heavy gas. I’m looking for that borderline rancid, super offensive-pungent, baby Shit level funk.

Capulator

Diamond Lungs Co-Op grow. 70 pheno hunters, 888 beans. Also, Vintage Sunset Cheese, Gas and Cheese, and Caps Frozen Oranges. I’m on a hot one right now.  

Ryan from Doja Pak

So basically, Duke of Erb and I started with a strawberry diesel from Res Dog, pollinated it with a Northern Lights male selected a male and pollinated an OG18 Pheno that we hunted from DNA. That cross was named 18 Coffins.

We worked the line through the generations and hit the Gelato 33 from the Bakery with pollen from an F318 coffins male. That cross was called Strawberry Gelato. The female keeper was put into production and then the male we collected pollen and dusted the original Zkittlez. This cross was named Strawberry Zkillato. Planta grows this cut currently.

The SZ Male pollinated a LCG/Runtz and then we selected multiple keepers; Planta runs 1 and Dave from Preferred Gardens runs another. We again selected a male and hit our whole lineup. Those are the crosses I’m selling and selecting now. 

Anna from CAM

Things I’m running that are new. Grape Gas, Lemon Cherry Gelato x Permanent Marker, Animal cookies x Z, Devil driver (Melonade x sundae driver ), Pure Kush and Rozay. 

Erin from Royal Key Organics

Gelapop, Velvet, Candy Walls hash, new seeds and new potential from Equilibrium Genetics.

Drew from Green Dawg

Green weed 2023! D1 is my biggest recent push. I’m not disclosing genetics officially, but it’s the closest thing I’ve had to a real Sour Diesel/Dubb flavor profile in a decade. It’s an anti-candy. We hunted her from seed. Everything else was hay except her. I think she’s special and is going to do numbers this year.

Sour Wavez

Surefire and I have something special coming up, haven’t named it… RS11 x sherbanger F1 male. Besides that, some stuff I bred: Gelloz (gelatti x OZX), Betrayal (Zkittelz x OZX), Real Ricky Bobby (Xeno x OZX), Chess not checkers (Pink Z x OZX), Sidepiece (Pure Kush x OZX).

Besides that I’m growing Sherbanger (Boston roots), Sour diesel (karma bx2), I have four different OGs, Permanent marker via Doja pak, Zazul (Archive), Detroit runtz (Tiki) and from Mendoja the Larry Z and Cherry pie x OZK .

Kevin Jodrey 

I’m hyped about the older cultivar revival Purple city coming out with ssh kali mist hybrids.

Cypher going to weave the red Lebanese x puck into his work. On the east coast you have the piff haze crew going hard in that direction.

You got Sjoerd Brooks lighting up in lake county and has the haze valley nursery coming online. Equatorials modified for our area but still retaining the traits that made them legendary. No one young ever got to smoke them and Brooks is a bad motherfucker.

It’s not so much a specific plant as a feel. Herb from an era where the quality of the effect was what drove the sale more so than the amount of hype. You see the work being woven into a lot as well. 

The stores are losing so much ground to the trap because they live and die off of the distribution model. That model is a safe bet. Purple color only. Over 26% only. That leaves about 30 plants that every nursery in the state sells and forces every grower to compete with each other for shelf space. Customers are bored. 

I’m flying to Jamaica tomorrow to document Charles Scott’s operation for a company I’m helping to build in Massachusetts. A lifetime of equatorials being sifted for what will work best in today’s world. I’m stoked because the crop is outdoors full sun organic and at 18′ latitude, so we can see what they look like in their natural environment. 

Those selections will be sifted indoors and released in a market where that kind of effect is desired and needed. 

Fieldz from Zkittlez

Braindropz, gelonoidz, wapanga, NYZ., zyrup. All of our own gear of coarse. 

Champelli

Stuff that is smoking and is killer. I have a few OG back crosses. I’m excited about bringing back that real gas for body smoke mostly green weed, but I also have a few different candy Z crosses that are neither overly zee or overly candy leaning basically their own thing New flavors I like it when stuff comes out and it’s not leaning too heavy on one thing or relying on one Terp it’s always Pass when they get together become friends and decide to have a new expression of flavor. That’s the most exciting part creating something you could actually call newish.

The Village – Symbiotic Genetics

We are really excited about the Gassy Taffy line collab with Grow Low Key. There is a Grease Bucket x Gassy Taffy pheno that is extremely promising, very gassy. We are calling it Benzina, which is gas in Italian. Also the Amarelo x Gassy Taffy I’m really excited about and that’s going to be called Ego Death. Also the Candied Bananas which is Z2 x Banana Punch, Z2 is Zkittles bag seed. 

Mike from Fig Farms 

The flowers I’m most excited about right now are in-house crosses that recently graduated to production. The next two that will be released are crosses to Figment pollen, both are outstanding.

The first cross, Kush Mint Cookies x Figment #5, has an overwhelming Original Cookies terp presence that really pulls at the olfactory memory. The second cross, Blue Face x Figment #7, has an undeniable exotic Fig Farms look with a complex gas profile that we can’t wait to share. You are going to continue to see a lot of Fig crosses coming from us in 2023. The pollen and the winning female plants that we’ve been collecting and testing are like colors on a painter’s palette. Our palette’s range is deep, and we are using our palette to create the next generation of classics.