THE HUMBOLDT PREHARVEST DEP REPORT 2023

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.

DECEMBER IS A GREAT MONTH FOR CANNABIS

Many argue that November is one of the best months to buy pot given the deals and steals of Black Friday and Green Wednesday, but don’t sleep on the quality available and prices when purchasing your weed in December. 

One of the main feathers in the hype for December is the fact it’s just a little bit further out from the Croptober harvest. In the first half of November, you might still be waiting for the girls that finished late to cure up to perfection. That’s not a problem in December, in fact, the whole month much of the year’s harvest will be in the golden zone for quality. 

And we’ll be the first to note there are a lot of variables on how long that golden zone lasts. The best hope is the pot never leaves an awesome environment before it ends up in the hands of a consumer, but that’s few and far between. That’s why the date is so important. 

The accountability of shelf time says a lot in the current market. Dispensaries don’t want flowers that don’t move. They want you to get the heat, apart from a charlatan or three trying to make a quick buck. But even then, that harvest date can transcend shady retail practices that make you think you’re getting a deal when, in reality, the consumer is doing them a favor by taking it off their hands for anything.  

This has led to the best cultivators in the world living by their packaging dates — that’s the moment the clock really starts ticking. Especially given in how many cases the weed was already finished for a bit before it made it to bags or jars. 

One brand that’s based a lot of its business model around the heat and keeping to a short shelf life is California Artisanal Medicine. 

“We put our harvest date and our package date, because after 90 days from the package date, your product is aging and will not hold all the attributes we look for in top-shelf cannabis,” CAM founder Anna Willey told L.A. Weekly. 

Willey went on to note the biggest things impacted are the smell, how the buds break up and moisture content. 

As for the biggest factors Willey sees outside not hitting the gold standards in temperature and humidity?

“The way it was dried and the evenness of your environment in the dry room,” Willey answered. “Also the health of the plant at the end of the cycle and the trim time.”

While Willey is an indoor cultivator, this all rings true for the outdoor that dropped a couple of months ago.

Another point proving the quality of cannabis in December is the Emerald Cup’s old format before the move to Los Angeles for the award show. Back in the day, we knew who the world champs were a couple of weeks into December. It was all wild and fresh heat. The new extended format creates a bit more hype over many months but adds the additional factor of which weed actually holds up through that time until it gets into the hands of the judges.  

GCANRX PREPS PHASE II TRIALS ON AUTISM CANNABINOID TREATMENT

With the number of parents self-prescribing CBD for their children’s Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) rising, GCANRx has been granted permission to start Phase II Clinical Trials for a cannabinoid treatment from the Israel Ministry of Health.

Dr. Adi Aran will be leading the effort. Aran is a pioneer in Israel when it comes to cannabinoid treatments for autism. The study Aran led into pediatric autism and cannabinoid therapy in 2017 proved a success for the 120 children that took part. 

GCANRx noted this time Aran will focus on studying the safety and efficacy of GCANRx’s neuroprotective cannabinoid therapeutic to treat autism-related spectrum disorders and other conditions like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and epilepsy. The focus however will be that data coming from 4 to 13 years of age using daily oral treatments.

“The primary efficacy objective of the study will be to assess the effect of the neuroprotective therapeutic compared to placebo on behavioral problems, using the Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Irritability Subscale (ABC-I) score – change from baseline to week 12,” GCANRx noted when announcing the new study. 

GCANRx went on to explain that 75 million people around the world have Autism Spectrum Disorder. The lifelong condition impacts 7 million people domestically, 5.4 million of which are adults. Americans spent $268 billion caring for people with ASD in 2015, that number is expected to jump to $461 million by 2025. 

“We are excited to announce that GCANRx has received a final official approval to embark on its Phase II Clinical Trial for our therapeutic aimed at treating ASD and other neuropsychiatric disorders. This significant milestone marks another pivotal moment in our path to develop innovative therapeutic solutions for patients suffering from complex neurological disorders,” said Aitan Zacharin, chief executive officer of GCANRx. “Positive results in this study carry promise for a novel treatment for ASD as well as for other neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease, which share similar pathophysiological processes, and can have an enormous impact on the lives of countless families as well as on public health.” 

GCANRx started selling cannabinoid products in Europe in 2018. They had trouble getting wind in their sales. The company believes the move to a more medical approach will be very viable. Especially as more and more parents are choosing to head in this direction to help their kids. 

Zacharin told L.A. Weekly they believe the success they have seen is backboned by the entourage effect. He noted some of the big dogs in international cannabis medicine have been experimenting with THC and CBD isolates in recent years. The reason we haven’t heard about it? The results fail to match the success of more full-spectrum products like what GCANRx is bringing into phase two. 

“Essentially, it’s a combination of therapeutic,” Zacharin said. “It uses cannabinoids, CBD and THC. But it also has some other compounds in it. That alone has also been shown in clinical studies to be effective in treating autism and treating some of the behavioral elements of autism,” Zacharin said before noting the evidence they’ve seen in pretrials. “We actually found that synergistic effect.”

When it finally jumps through all the regulatory hoops, we asked Zacharin if they planned on using natural or synthetic cannabinoids to go to market.

“Natural materials are our focus, which is probably the way to go with you right there. We’ll have to ultimately see how that plays out in the regulatory pathway. That’s something we’re exploring now with advisors,” Zacharin said with the conversation leading back to the lackluster results of synthetic isolates. “With this plant. It’s so complex, so multifaceted. You know that you just can’t eliminate other cannabinoids.”

Is GCANRx at the point where it is fair to say they understand there’s an entourage effect happening but don’t completely understand it? But know that it’s safe enough to bring to market?

“Yeah, undoubtedly,” Zacharin replied. 

FIG FARMS DOUBLES UP AT SOCAL CANNABIS CUP

Fig Farms continued its 2023 run of excellence by winning two out of three flower categories at the High Times SoCal Cannabis Cup.

The victories came in the Indica and Hybrid categories. Animal Face won in the hybrid category after winning best indoor flower at the 2022 Emerald Cup. Blue Face won the Indica category a few months after winning both best indoor flower and best indoor at this year’s Emerald Cup. This is just further validation for the work Keith and Chloe Healy are doing with their team of monster growers in Oakland. 

The Blue Face took home two top prizes this year and is absolute rockstar cannabis. Fig Farms describes the aroma as a combination of acetone, tree bark and pickled ginger. The Animal Face that took home the top hybrid is absolute gas and fuel terps. I judged the hybrid category it won. I saved the Animal Face for last to see if anything would top it. Nothing did, but the same could be said for the 20 Emerald Cup flower judges who didn’t see a strain or farm when they picked Blue Face, just the heat in the jar and a number. Regardless of mine being labeled, we came to the same conclusion on Fig’s different flavors. 

Animal Face

Fig Farms finds itself among a small group of people who have been holding strong in certain contests for the last few years. It raises the question from others as to whether these contests are even worth it. Do they matter?

“They do for sure. We got offered space in Oakland the next day after we won the Cannabis Cup,” Keith Healy, Fig Farms founder and CEO, told L.A. Weekly.

They were negotiating on an Oakland location and one in Sacramento. 

“The day after winning we got offered the Oakland space,” Healy said. “I wouldn’t have been as confident to perform. I wouldn’t have been as confident to pull it off.”

Fig has been selective in the contests it has entered in the years since that win. But after winning The Emerald Cup earlier this year, it returned to the Cannabis Cup for the first time since that 2017 victory that changed everything. Fig was certainly thrilled with the results of its comeback. 

“To win two out of three was just mind-blowing and honestly confusing since, like you win the Emerald Cup and High Times, trying to explain to somebody like a stranger that these things aren’t easy,” Healy said emphasizing he doesn’t have the confidence of being some egomaniac. 

The catch-22 of that lack of confidence Healy claims is that he only enters his absolute flame. By the time he’s convinced it’s fire, it probably is, as opposed to someone that needs that new hype strain to keep their thing going. So it’s easy to understand why everything they entered this year, in everything, did so well.

Blue Face

We asked Healy which of the accolades the farm has received in recent years meant the most to him.

“I think being on stage with Chloe while she was pregnant at the Emerald Cup win in 2022 was pretty incredible because that was the first time that I’ve been able to share a stage with her,” he replied. 

Healy went on to note that another thing that has made each win special was the timing. Just like the 2017 win got him into that new space, these other wins have each meant something in the moment.  

“Every single one has come at a time when I needed it,” Healy said. “That kind of time where it’s like the confidence to push forward on the next task, whether that’s building out more space or it’s just the confidence to keep doing what I’m doing.

The High Times win meant a lot to Fig because it was so different from the win at The Emerald Cup. High Times is essentially people’s choice compared to the expert panel The Emerald Cup brings in for judging. We joked with Healy about how many cup kits he bought, he laughed and noted just one to try the other flavors. 

Despite their continued dominance, Animal Face and Blue Face need to keep an eye on their shoulders. Fig recently worked with Zeclair and their whole catalog. We got to check out the pheno hunt a few weeks before it was chopped down. Everything was absolute heat and you can expect some crazy Z terps from Fig Farms soon. 

Photos by Jimi Devine

WE HIT THE MR. GRAY, DEPPE, DARBY, BEN DAVID SKULL IN HUMBOLDT

Imagine you are sitting in the woods of Humboldt County enjoying some of the finest cannabis the galaxy has to offer and then out of nowhere one of the most legendary pieces of glass art anyone has ever smoked out of gets put on the table.

That is precisely what happened last weekend. And not only did we get to see it, we got to hit it, too. 

The skull is a collaboration of Mr. Gray, Scott Deppe, Darby Holm and Ben David. It is considered by many to be the nicest piece of glass ever created for the sake of cannabis consumption. I consider myself among that crowd. Since 2014 when Scott Deppe first posted it to his Instagram, it has absolutely captivated hash and glass enthusiasts all over the world.

It’s not just a looker, the Mothership Torus encased within the skull is an absolute ripper. I found out the hard way. This past weekend it was set up with a dual hookah hose attachment so two people could hit it at once. And back when it was first created, terp slurpers weren’t a thing yet. One might argue a decade later, the skull is in its final form as the masses are able to enjoy it with the best quartz tech to date. 

And man did that tech rip. Mr. Gray loaded up a glob of hash for me to smoke out of his most legendary creation. He asked me how big I wanted to go and I said medium. As the beads of sweat started to drop down my brow halfway through, I began to get the impression that he may in fact have gone a little chunkier than a medium. The next 15 minutes were a journey through time and space. 

At one point minutes after that fateful rip, I was just sitting there on the couch fried and this really nice lady came up and gave me this crazy crystal pendant and said thank you for coming up to Humboldt. I just remember trying to piece together a thank you as I sat there melting, and by the time I stood up five minutes later, I couldn’t even remember what that lady looked like. So if you’re that lady, thank you again!

Following my recovery, I stood with the crowd of folks who lined up around the skull to watch everyone rip it. It was fun to watch the expressions of people as they walked in and looked at the table mesmerized. As cool as the pictures are, it’s hard to capture the way the natural light kisses the glass — it is really something special, even on an overcast day like when we saw it. It was a really headie crowd in general. A lot of people knew exactly what they were looking at, even though it was the first time they had ever seen the skull in person. 

After they took it all in, they lined up to hit it. One person noted that by the time they arrived at the party at 6:30, it seemed the skull had laid a path of destruction through the crowd. The Mr. Gray-loaded dabs had people somewhere between Mars and Jupiter.

While I was in no condition to ask him at the moment, as I headed back south from Humboldt on Sunday, I reached out to Mr. Gray to get his take on how iconic the skull continues to be all these years later. 

“To most people when they think of a glass pipe, they think of a bong they use or their first spoon, but I think of something more elaborate,” Mr Gray told L.A Weekly. “ Here in Humboldt, I have immersed myself in glass to the point of no return. 

Even with the full-on immersion in cannabis culture, Mr Gray emphasized this one holds a special place in my heart. 

“It’s a Holy Grail every time I serve someone a dab,” Mr. Gray said of the joy on people’s faces. “I believe it elevates their mind, body and spirit, and I hope it makes it slightly easier being in these human bodies.”

Jacob from Have Hash, one of the most award-winning hash companies globally over the last year, explained how we all ended up getting to hit the skull.

“I apprenticed for Mr. Gray in between farm work when I had just moved to Humboldt, so we’re buddies,” Jacob told L.A. Weekly, “He now works with my friend Zach who does One World Humboldt, a new heady gallery that holds the piece, and I figured it would be a great opportunity to bring it out so I asked em if they wanted to.”

It was awesome.

THE CANNABIS TRENDS WE’RE BUYING IN 2023

This week we’re excited about what’s to come for the cannabis industry in 2023. 

Last week we covered the fact that life is less than perfect in cannabis while highlighting some of the things we believed caused a lot of our headaches in 2022. This week, the opposite. We’re highlighting the things we think are going to help everyone turn it around. 

Finally Fixing LA’s Equity Program 

Here in Los Angeles, one of the biggest calls to action from the cannabis industry for the new mayor’s office continues to be the repair of the L.A. Social Equity Program. It was awesome to see 100 Social Equity Individual Applicants were randomly selected to apply for retail cannabis licenses last month, but the couple hundred people who invested their lives into putting their ducks in a row for the program are going to demand more. And while the new mayor’s office is separate from the scandals of the fall, they may have to pay the bill if a class action lawsuit ends up developing from the then-racist city council having original control over the program that drained so many coffers. 

Standardized Testing?

It originally looked like we would have standardized lab testing this year. It seems a little hazy at the moment, but we wanted to put it on here to push the idea. Currently, cannabis labs have no fixed standard operating procedures. A lot of the time they’re just following the instructions for whatever hardware they bought. Then adjust the standard operating procedure to their liking. That’s where you see the variations in testing numbers from lab to lab. The idea of people shopping around their cannabis at labs to get the best numbers possible is a real thing. This is more so an issue with potency and terpene testing as opposed to heavy metals and pesticides.

Wider Access in America

It’s critical that California cultivators get access to more shelf space soon. While the state continues to drag a bit, the idea of stocking shelves all over the world with cannabis grown in California is appealing to people. The first shelves will probably be domestic, and step one is having as many states with legal access to cannabis as possible for when that day comes. And it’s not that far out. Some regulators figure it will be a few more years. Whenever it is, it’ll certainly make people’s lives a lot easier. We don’t think it will happen this year, but we’ll be talking about the mechanics of it by December a lot. 

The Pace of Change is Fast

I know it’s going to take some time for the other stuff I mentioned, but it’s easy to see how fast things are moving for cannabis all over the world. It’s like a snowball with a rocket sled behind it pushing it even faster as it grows and grows rolling down the mountain. Now is everyone hoping to get sucked up by the snowball a saint? Doubtful. But the bigger the snowball gets, the more opportunities there will be for nice people to take part. Plenty of people entering the cannabis space now aren’t haters, they were just scared to go to jail back in the day.