VITAL GARDEN SUPPLY PROVES ORGANIC CANNABIS IS SCALABLE

Photos by Jimi Devine

VITAL GARDEN SUPPLY PROVES ORGANIC CANNABIS IS SCALABLE

JIMI DEVINEMAY 11, 2023

The team at Vital Garden Supply continues to prove cultivating organic cannabis is very much possible at scale. 

As mega gardens have become more prominent and significant in the wake of Prop 64’s passing seven years ago, people wanted more shortcuts to go with the scale of their operation. Many didn’t care much what was in it if it passed testing and made their lives easier. Much of the time because they weren’t smoking it themselves. 

Brian Malin from Vital Garden Supply is the exact opposite of that ethos. Since 2006, Vital Garden Supply has provided California gardeners of all kinds with the means to grow things organically. But, of course, the company holds a special place in the hearts of cannabis farmers, to the extent that when the state said it was time to create a mechanism to certify organic cannabis farming in California, they called Malin in to help write the rules for the OCal program.

Pacific Reserve in Salinas.

This week we got to visit Pacific Reserve’s farm in Salinas. The garden was founded by Andy Demico, Billy Tomlinson, Brook Eagle, Bryce Heart and Malin. Most of the group of founders met in Grass Valley or Santa Cruz by using Malin’s products. 

Malin is deeply connected to the farm. Not only does it serve as the largest visible example of what’s possible organically with his products, but his son spent the last few years climbing the ranks through compliance and processing to become cultivation director. 

Malin went on to note there are other big farms using his products, but as of right now, the Pacific Reserve facility is going the hardest with them. Lots of people use Vital’s cocoa and other baseline nutrients to build out their own programs that may not end up totally organic. 

“But Pacific Reserve is 100% on the program, we have other full sun ones that are maybe a couple of acres that are probably similar,” Malin told L.A. Weekly at the farm. 

The group inspects a La Bomba x Oreoz pheno hunt.

We asked Malin when a company like Vital went from serving smaller-scale operations to the mega-farms of the modern era, too.

“Well, it was a slow and steady climb from 2006, that was the first year,” Malin said. “Here we are 17 years later, I’d say the last 10 we’ve been handling some pretty good scale stuff. I think the first really big customers were when these guys first had the place across the street and Crockett’s place. That was like 2,000 yards of soil. It was sweet.”

Malin was never thinking in terms of 10,000-square-foot greenhouses when he started. It was more like he felt he needed to start it to help supplement his own grows and more on a local scale. 

“So I definitely didn’t think of it turning into what it did. It’s pretty crazy,” Malin said. “People are using it now, using around not necessarily the whole world, but definitely all over the U.S. and the Caribbean on the islands. And it’s all clean and organic. So it helps me sleep well at night, knowing I’m like teaching good practices and cutting down on the use of other products that aren’t as good for the planet.”

La Bomba x Oreoz

We asked Malin how he balances growing the company and putting in the work in the garden that’s helped get it this far. He pointed to a combination of intuition and urgency, then laughed, noting it was basically whichever seemed the more important of the two on a given day. 

Recently Pacific Reserve’s parent company Kolaboration Ventures Corporation (KVC) bought Massive Creations and brought on breeder Shiloh Massive as its new head breeder. 

“Shiloh will use the large cultivation and nursery footprint of KVC as the backbone to breed, select these unique cultivars and bring them to market in a wide variety of consumer products,” the company noted when announcing the deal earlier this week. 

Massive joined us in Salinas for the day and explained that his original dealings with Malin saw him first visit the farm in 2016. Originally he gave them some cuts to mom out so he would have plants to back his work as Massive Creations continues to expand. 

“So it was like kind of a no-brainer to let these guys have some proprietary genetics to run,” Massive told L.A. Weekly. “And then I could tap out and get some like clones from them to entertain other parties.” 

A recently harvested room.

It went well. The relationship continued to grow, the farm wanted to run more of his great, and eventually, it got to the point where they acquired Massive Creations and brought Shiloh in-house. 

“It was a long way, but a short time,” Massive said. “It just kind of happened almost overnight toward the end.”

Massive went on to note how fitting the whole thing was given his long history with Vital.  

“I worked in the Vital warehouse. I drove the forklift. I loaded trucks. All the seeds I’ve ever made have been made with Vital since it was ever a product, so it was just a natural fit,” Massive said. “Brian and I have been friends for a long time.”

Since coming on board, Massive has watched the rooms begin to be transitioned to a fully organic program, room by room. Each of those rooms is the size of a small aircraft hangar, so it’s a delicate process, so as to not screw up any production runs. 

That being said, the team swears by the recent results. 

“Everyone is amazed because the last salt run didn’t look too good,” Massive said. “And now the first organic runs are looking amazing. So it just kind of proves what we thought all along that organic cannabis was, I don’t want to say superior, but it’s just a great option for any kind of farming.”

Salinas is a much different environment than where Massive did most of his breeding work in the Emerald Triangle. Right now they are working through his library to figure out what works best. 

“Not every strain is hitting a home run. So now that we got a plan and we’re going to do more pheno hunting, we can do on-site pheno hunting and have a clone garden that kind of feeds this seasonally and we know which strains do better and which season,” Massive explained. “So we’re just in the infancy of it all. And we’re just tapping into the potential, but it’s really exciting to be along for the ride and to actually get a place to start playing with everything I’ve done.”

And it should be worth noting there is plenty of heat growing twice. Some of Pacific Reserve’s neighbors have won The Emerald Cup before. We’ll have the results from this year’s cup next week. 

EMERALD CUP PICKS CALIFORNIA’S FINEST CANNABIS FOR 2023

The Emerald Cup was back for 2023 last weekend and repeat champions weren’t in short supply. 

This year would see the Emerald Cup’s award show move to the Bay Area for the first time after a long stint in wine country before the pandemic and last year’s show at The Montalbán in Hollywood. While nowhere in the state worth having the cup could be considered neutral territory given how many competitors dot the state from north to south, the Bay is one of the better spots to have it because it’s essentially halfway between L.A. and Arcata — most of the state’s cannabis enthusiasts and businesses lie between that two points, too. The venue at Richmond’s Craneway Pavilion was undoubtedly the most gorgeous the cup has seen since it left the redwoods in the early 2010s for bigger venues closer to population centers.  

But the most beautiful sights to behold on the water’s edge were the glass cases filled with this year’s entries. As the judges, contestants and special guests entered the venue, they were greeted by the cases. The flower entries were the most packed, as people wedged in tight to get pics of all the pretty buds for the social media adventures. 

As the award show kicked off, it was like the final countdown to the big categories at the end began. After making its way through some of the more niche photography and product categories, it was on to the social justice awards. In one of the coolest moments of the night, Luke Scarmazzo came on stage to accept The Social Justice Award on behalf of his good friend Weldon Angelos. 

Angelos was released in 2016. He was originally sentenced to serve 55 years over a cannabis conviction with a mandatory minimum sentence but only served 13 years. After his release, Angelos began advocating for others who remained in the circumstances he was able to escape, eventually founding The Weldon Project. One of the people Weldon has helped get out of prison was his close friend Scarmazzo. 

As he took the stage, Scarmazzo noted he was celebrating 100 days since being released from prison after serving 15 years over medical cannabis. The news received one of the loudest ovations of the night. 

Other awards would include The Pioneer Award going to Amber Senter for her work on Social Equity and The Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award going to Mila Jansen for her contribution to the world of hashish over the last 50 years as an entrepreneur, smuggler, and inventor. 

From there we started into the big dog categories of flower and hash. This year’s theme was champions still crushing it. The rest of the evening would feature a carousel of repeat winners or those returning to the podium after a year or two off. 

One of the biggest returns was Ridgeline Farms. After being the only mixed-light cultivator to qualify for the Zalympix finals, the LANTZ hype rolled on this weekend with Ridgeline taking top honors. 

Founder Jason Gellman shared the experience with L.A. Weekly. 

“With all the competition going on these days, The Emerald Cup to me is still the most prestigious and authentic. The judging is taken seriously by a talented group hand-picked for their dedication to the plant,” Gellman said. “As our small cannabis communities have taken a giant hit from the challenges of the industry, it’s as important as ever to stay relevant. I take lots of pride in growing the best herb possible, so when I submit my entries I always feel they have a chance to win.”

After the near-perfect farming conditions up north for most of the last year before monsoon season hit, it was expected Southern Humboldt would be very competitive. Most of the years that a NorCal farmer didn’t win the cup it had something to do with mother nature. Gellman was proud to see what the county did this year. 

“This year, Humboldt County showed up big. Winning is huge, but it’s more about us representing our community as a whole than just one of us,” Gellman said. “Ridgeline took home multiple awards including first in mixed light with my new strain LANTZ, but what we were the most proud of is winning the Breeders cup.” 

Gellman had been working on creating this strain for over four years. 

“Lots of time, energy, money, fails and finally one giant win,” Gellman said. “I knew LANTZ was the one, but this just solidifies it. The cup was a giant success this year and was great to see so many real heads in the game. Overall, it was a great day in the bay” 

Rebel Grown took home top honors in the Full Sun. After regularly gracing the top 10 and top 20 over the years, this time they were able to take first place with their Double OG Chem. 

In indoor, Fig Farms would became the only indoor farm to ever win The Emerald Cup twice after now winning both the past two renditions of the contest. The Blue Face that won the indoor category was also the first-ever indoor flower to win The Emerald Cup’s prestigious best-in-show award. 

“The love we received at the Emerald Cup has elevated to a new level,” Keith Healy of Fig Farms told L.A. Weekly, “Two years at the top spot for indoor flower, and this year going a step further by receiving Best in Show. Fig Farms’s Blue Face is the first indoor flower to receive the Best in Show award, which has been given exclusively to Sungrown flower until now. I am so proud of our team, and truly honored in a way that cannot be put into words.”

Here are the 2023 Winners:

Sungrown Flower

Mixed Light Flower

Indoor Flower

Sungrown Greenhouse Flower

Personal Use Flower

Pre-Roll

Solventless Concentrates

Cartridges

Solvent Concentrates

Topical

Tincture

Edibles

Alternative Cannabinoids

NEW REPORT: 77% DECLINE IN YOUTH INCARCERATION

The Sentencing Project’s latest report found a 77% decrease in youth held in juvenile justice facilities around the United States. 

The report numbers are based on one-day counts of how many youths are in the facilities. At the turn of the century, the number climbed as high as almost 109,000. Over the past two decades, it has declined to just over 25,000 in a one-day count taken in late October 2020. The number includes those awaiting their court date in detention facilities, youth prisons, residential treatment centers, group homes, or other placement facilities as a court-ordered consequence. 

“The sharp declines in youth arrests and incarceration demonstrate the possibilities for similar success for the adult population, as well. However, the persistent racial and ethnic disparities in the youth justice system highlight the need to address the sources of those disparities wherever they emerge,” The Sentencing Project noted when announcing the new report. 

One of the big takeaways was racism in the criminal justice system doesn’t have a minimum age requirement. Youth from communities of color were far more likely than whites to be detained in the facilities in the counts. 

“In 2019, Black youth were 4.4 times as likely to be incarcerated; Tribal youth were 3.2 times as likely; and Latinx youth were 27% as likely than white youth to be incarcerated,” the authors noted. 

California had one of the worst disparities in the nation. Forty-eight white youths per 100,000 California residents are in placement at some kind of facility. White youths were also much more likely to be offered some kind of diversion program that would see them avoid jail time. At the same time, 488 Black youths are in a correctional facility per 100,000 people. This equates to a 9/1 disparity here in California. The only places worse were The District of Columbia, Connecticut, Nebraska, New Jersey and Wisconsin; in all but Nebraska, Black youth are more than 10 times more likely to be incarcerated. While it’s bad, the disparity dropped 4% in California from 2015 to 2019. 

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, California youths weren’t as horrible per 100,000 residents in 2019 as other states. When it came to larceny, the 74 Californians arrested per 100,000 was a fraction of what other states were seeing; Alabama was over 10 times higher at 785. Drug abuse crimes were a lot lower too, likely due to more progressive approaches to the war on drugs. But the numbers weren’t so good when it came to robberies. The 72 California youths arrested per 100,000 was only topped by Delaware, Illinois and Maryland. 

South Carolina, Tennessee and Nebraska have seen their racial disparities grow by at least one-third over that same window. While Tennessee, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Nevada saw a dip of more than a third in their disparity levels. Three of those states legalized cannabis during that window in some form.  

The Juvenile Justice Information Exchange spoke to the dip youth offenders earlier this year. At the time, the JJIE noted that most juvenile arrests had been dipping in recent years, unfortunately with the exception of murder. Homicide numbers have been on the rise. 

The JJIE noted that less cash going to house youth offenders in the most expensive incarceration options allows those resources to be diverted to alternative placements in the community. This might be group homes or programs that provide rehabilitative and wraparound social services. 

For fiscal year 2023, Congress appropriated $400 million for juvenile justice programs. The Congressional Research Service noted in January that this is the largest appropriation since the $424 million provided in FY2010. The federal government doesn’t administer juvenile justice by itself, it leaves that job to the states. But there are a variety of programs in the Department of Justice that distribute anywhere from $5 Million to $100 million to states depending on their individual need.

MAVEN GENETICS ONE OF LA’S TOP DOGS AT EMERALD CUP

L.A.’s Maven Genetics became one of the state’s premier cannabis companies two weekends ago at The Emerald Cup with a top-five finish for French Laundry. 

While Maven’s rise around the state in recent years has been quick, this is the biggest accolade yet for the longtime OG cultivators (Kush and metaphorically) that transitioned to the recreational side of things at the dawn of the legal era. Even before the big win, the company found itself in roughly 400 shops at any given time.

XXX, Maven’s favorite OG these days.

We sat down with Maven’s cofounder and president Mike Corvington to talk about the win and their experiences transitioning to a fully vertically integrated company locally that still grows in some of its legacy gardens, distributes its own product and sells its cannabis through two storefronts on top of its hundreds-long client list. 

“Los Angeles is a beast man,” Corvington told L.A. Weekly. “From the regulatory compliance things to L.A. in general, it’s good for us because it’s home. This is where we’re from, we’re very comfortable with the situation as a whole. The industry is going through a lot of bullshit, as it has for a long time. I don’t think that’s just related to Los Angeles. I think that’s probably California as a whole. But, you know, all in all, L.A. is our home man,  our backyard. This is where we’ve been rocking for a long time.”

Corvington isn’t kidding. He admits up until a few years ago, they barely had to leave the L.A. bubble at all, as they pumped out awesome OGs for 15 years straight without a thought to creating what is now one of the widest lineups in the state. We asked Corvington if it was fair to call most of their cultivation and wider cannabis careers L.A.-centric?

“Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, we’ve really started pushing up in the NorCal territories and distributing up there probably two years ago,” Corvington said. “We went pretty heavy on that first group, first few years in transition from medical to rec market. We get out and just kind of grew up grassroots. Everything we’ve done has been grassroots where we’re self-funded, we haven’t taken on any capital even to this day. I’m not trying to push into the market more than what is being asked of us. So we’re just kind of doing our thing and it’s been working successfully. We’re still here.”

Blue Agape

But the “still here” part hasn’t always been easy. As for many cultivators, one of Maven’s main jobs is to get the cash for the flower they pump into the marketplace. As with many of their peers on the cultivation side of things, that’s often proven easier said than done.

Over the last few years Maven’s been able to hone in on the problem accounts and who is actually going to pay them. Making sure the latter always has flower flowing their way is critical. 

“You, unfortunately, have to weed out people that just don’t handle their shit professionally,” Corvington noted. “And there’s a lot of people who just kind of are trapped in old ways and are having a difficult time evolving with things as they moved forward. But paying your bills is just kind of number one.”

One of the things Maven has done during these times is try to be as accommodating as possible to the folks they’re working with. They’d rather constantly restock you with the freshest flower possible rather than have something sit there that is going to degrade the consumer experience and the shop isn’t going to be able to make the payment terms in the original time frame. 

“We tell people we’ll come to deliver to you every day,” Corvington emphasized. “We don’t want to sell you anything that even has a potential opportunity to get old. We will happily, no charge, come to drop you fresh packs all the time. So we kind of scaled-down people’s orders a lot of times because sometimes these buyers don’t understand their own market or demographic.”

Kiwi Sorbet

Maven Genetics is available all over California. 

FEDERAL CANNABIS ARRESTS DIP 24% IN 2022

Advocates are celebrating federal cannabis arrests dropping 24% in 2022

After frequently noting all the cannabis progress happening around the country and the world in recent years, we were a bit caught off guard by the large jump in cannabis arrests during the first year of the Biden administration. That 2021 jump in arrests was the biggest in a decade, as we noted last year. 

This was despite Biden’s promises to pursue decriminalization, now two and a half years ago. Nevertheless, 6,606 people will be arrested by the DEA and partner agencies in 2021. There were further resounding messages from the community that this was the opposite direction we had expected to see cannabis enforcement take in the Biden Administration. 

The 5,061 people arrested on federal cannabis charges last year represent a 24% drop from the year before. It also nearly erases the jump from 2021 when the decade-highs in arrests represented a 25% jump from the year before. 

NORML noted that while arrests were down, seizures trended in the opposite direction. 

The DEA’s Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program Statistical Report noted agents and partner agencies confiscated approximately 5.7 million cultivated cannabis plants last year, 37,000 edibles, and 60,000 concentrates. NORML noted that as in the past, most of this enforcement is happening in California. Just over half of all federal cannabis arrests in 2022 took place in California and 88% of all product seized nationally was in The Golden State. 

“California has always exported the majority of its marijuana crop out of state and the adoption of adult-use legalization in the Golden State has done little to change this fact,” acknowledged California NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer. “Illegal marijuana cultivation will persist in California so long as there remains a substantial demand from other states and as long as interstate commerce remains prohibited by federal law.”

California had the most plants seized by a mile. Of the 5.7 million law enforcement scooped up around the county, 4.9 million were here. We had 16.6 times as many plants confiscated as runner-up Oklahoma. Kentucky and West Virginia rounded out the top four.  

“The reasons we are still seeing relatively high levels of marijuana eradication and interdiction are simple,” said NORML’s Political Director Morgan Fox. “Despite considerable state-level progress, more than half of all U.S. states continue to ban regulated adult-use cannabis markets. Furthermore, the federal government overtaxes state-licensed cannabis businesses and makes it extremely difficult for them to access basic financial services so that they can better compete with unregulated operators.”

Morgan believes the expansion of state markets and fewer hurdles for operators will do a lot more damage to the underground cannabis economy than any enforcement could ever hope to. 

“Spending billions of taxpayers’ dollars to enforce federal cannabis prohibition, putting law enforcement officers in unnecessary danger, and hampering the implementation and effectiveness of state-regulated markets are clearly not the answers to this issue,” Fox said. “Rather, the federal and state governments should work toward furthering sensible policies that facilitate regulated cannabis markets and work to repair the harms caused by nearly a century of prohibition.”

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM LIVES UP TO THE MASSIVE HYPE

Link’s latest adventures in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom (TOTK) are everything we were waiting for. 

The game has proven a roaring international hit. One common phrase often seen across social media in the past two weeks since the launch is the idea that Breath of The Wild, Zelda’s previous foray on Nintendo’s Switch when the system launched, almost feels like a beta version of what we ended up with in TOTK. How wild is it to call a game that went on to sell 30 million copies since and win a ton of awards a beta test? But it honestly feels kind of accurate with how much TOTK built on the last version of Hyrule we visited six years ago. 

The Legacy of Zelda Enthusiasm 

There are few dates on the video game calendar that get circled with more enthusiasm than a new Zelda game. Since the first one dropped in 1987, its raving fan base has always wondered what would be next for the franchise that often served with Super Mario Brothers as a flagship game that showed off the capabilities of Nintendo’s hardware from generation to generation. Zelda’s creators Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka were a part of both famous franchises. While it doesn’t quite serve that role in the same fashion given Nintendo has now allowed many more developers to publish games for their hardware in the Switch era, Zelda still very much serves as the benchmark for how much fun you can have on the Switch.

Zelda has turned down the cartoon style from 20 years ago. But the current look and feel still have a very anime feel that looks a lot cleaner than Wind Walker released in 2002. But 2006’s Twilight Princess feels much more similar to what the game looks like today. The modern version feels a lot brighter and more fun, like the way the lava pops with bright red and orange bubbles.

Miyamoto explained some of the thought processes they had as Zelda continued to transition into the 3D format in the 2000s. He noted part of the reason they went for the cartoon look was it made it easier to show expression in the characters. He also wanted it to feel like you were playing a cartoon in 3D, they definitely aced that test. 

Breath of The Wild provided a lot of the building blocks for this new sequel on the same generation of hardware six years later. In an interview with Game Informer, Miyamoto noted one of the big jumps as Zelda made the move to the Switch was the nature engine. Exploration has always been a significant backbone of the fun in the play-it-at-your-pace game where you can toss around chickens or make a speed run for the master sword. 

“Adventuring and exploring nature is what makes the game,” Miyamoto told Game Informer when the game launched. “I had to relook at what dungeons look like for us and kind of take it out of the dungeon. We spent five years kind of working on that.” 

Miyamoto admitted he himself likes the open-world aspect of players creating their own adventures across the storyline over the years but understands there are folks out there that like those deep storylines with a lot of backstories. He thinks this modern generation of Zelda games has done a good job balancing the two.

The Tears of The Kingdom Launch

Over the past few weeks, the world has now had a moment to dive into Hyrule. But the months and years leading up to this moment had a bit of mystery to them. Regardless, once the game hit shelves, it was on. 

In just three days, it became the fastest-selling Zelda game of all time. Ten million units moved globally in that first 72 hours, 4 million of them here in North America. That makes it the fastest-selling Nintendo game ever on any system in North America according to Nintendo. A major achievement for the game’s creators. 

“Many players are returning to Hyrule with all its new mysteries and possibilities, and with the record-breaking launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for Nintendo Switch, we can’t wait to see what they’ll create in the game and the stories they’ll share next,” said Devon Pritchard, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales, marketing and communications. “We’re grateful for all of our fans who’ve shown their passion for The Legend of Zelda over the years, and these sales numbers for the latest installment continue to show the strong momentum for both the franchise and Nintendo Switch this year.”

Reviews and Livestreams Pumped The Hype

One of the things that helped the massive launch was just how positive all the reviews were. It’s currently sitting at a 95 on Metacritic, the most noted aggregator of video game reviews by a mile. That score puts it as the 49th greatest game of all time per their review system. While 22 other games in history have scored a 95 on the site, TOTK ranks No. 1 one among those games that have scored a 95 since the website was founded over 20 years ago. 

Zelda’s 1998 edition Orcana of Time is the number one game of all time on Metacritic as the only game ever to score a 99. The last installment on Switch, Breath of The Wild, ranks No. 14 on the all-time list with the Wii U version coming in No. 26. Twilight Princess is No. 39, and The Wind Walker is No. 44. There are a few on the list after TOTK also. The Gamecube Collectors edition from 2003 came in at No. 54. The Game Boy Advance edition of A Link to The Past came in at No. 59 with Majora’s Mask right behind it at No. 60. Twilight Princess is two spots later at No. 62. A 3DS version also made it. With the TOTK’s reviews getting added to this all-time list, basically one in 10 of the top-reviewed video games of all time on Metacritic is a Zelda game, if you count the two versions of Breath of The Wild as one. 

“The fandom behind the Zelda franchise is stronger than ever and to date, Tears of the Kingdom is the best reviewed game of 2023 on Metacritic,” Marc Doyle, Co-Founder of Metacritic told L.A. Weekly. “In fact, it currently ranks in the top 50 games of all time and the number four Zelda game to ever be released.”

We asked Polygon Senior Reporter Nicole Carpenter if she thought the game got scored tougher by critics as a direct sequel. 

“I don’t necessarily think it got scored harder, but Breath of the Wild did have a major impact on the industry so there was an expectation for what Tears of the Kingdom would be. The bar was already set high and people expected Tears of the Kingdom to jump over that bar,” Carpenter told L.A. Weekly, “The game sold 10 million copies in a few days so it’s definitely up there for the biggest game of the year. Beyond that, Tears of the Kingdom will be one of most influential games of the year.”

Another thing the newer generation of Zelda games has had play to its favor is the rise of online streaming. The launch has been a hit. According to TwitchTracker.com, over the last week, people have spent 8 million hours watching other people play the game and the streams averaged about 50,000 people watching at any given time. Things peaked on May 11 when 351,714 users were simultaneously watching TOTK streams. 

50 Hours In

What?! The Great Deku Tree has a stomachache again?! Sign me up. That’s not even a spoiler at this point, it’s presumable Hyrule’s bad guys at any given moment have had an impact on his acid reflux. Those kinds of expectations are one of the things that have made the series great. Each time we go back, the little things we love are done even better.

We are about 50 hours in. I’ve completed the Wind Temple but have predominantly spent most of my time exploring. I’ve hit about 35 Shrines so far in the process of building up hearts for the main storyline. One of the reasons I’ve hit so many shrines early is because of how fun the new gameplay mechanics make them. The massive refreshing of all the minigames makes each one feel very unique.

Those four new core gameplay mechanics are called Fuse, Ultrahand, Ascend and Recall. Fuse lets you attach objects from the world to each other or your hand after you use Ultrahand to move them around. You’ll use a combination of those powers and the world around you all the time to upgrade your weapons, solve puzzles and even build vehicles. 

Ascend adds another vertical element of gameplay in addition to the massive sky map that covers the whole game from above. It allows you to climb through ceilings within reach of the ability and emerge through the floor on the other side. 

Recall allows you to move objects and then recreate that object’s movement through time. Say a rock falls down a waterfall you want to go up, you hit the rock with recall and ride it up the waterfall. There are some wild uses for one when it comes to all the puzzles.  

There also is a ton of wild physics mechanics attached to the main storyline. As you dive further and further in, you’ll get access to an even wider array of tools to combine with the Ultrahand and Fuse abilities.

With all that, and what feels like triple the game compared to Breath of The Wild, I think the only reason TOTK isn’t higher on the all-time list is that it’s a direct sequel. Regardless, it’s one of the best games ever.

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. 

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. 

LA PREPS FOR THE BIGGEST ZALYMPIX YET

Los Angeles is preparing to crown its latest Zalympix champion after the most competitive version of the contest yet. 

Over the past couple of years, Greenwolf’s Zalympix has firmly taken hold of the title of L.A.’s elite cannabis contest. This was even as it expanded throughout the state with Mainstage in Sacramento and The Outpost in Santa Rosa now taking part in the distribution of the boxes. 

I think one of the things that makes Zalympix so fun is the fact it’s genuinely highlighting the best of the best. It’s a pure representation of the Ethos that Greenwolf has used to fill the shelves at the shops since day one. It’s also refreshing to see a bunch of names in one place that are all crushing it during these dark times in cannabis.

This rendition of Zalympix was the wildest yet. It was simply massive. The initial amount of over 120 entries is considerably larger than all the previous Zalympix boxes combined. The Greenwolf team selected 25 judges to go through the entries and whittle them down to the finalists. 

One of the best parts of that preliminary round finals was the fact they were blind. We didn’t know which weed was which. Past renditions of Zalympix had the product in whatever bag it came in. The haters would point to this as evidence of a popularity contest between the big dogs, even if it never was. So, kudos to Greenwolf. 

The finals box this year was insane. Don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of Z terps. But there was a lot of other cool stuff, too. There was some great OG with the #3, some weird sweet funk notes on the #1, and both #15 and #18 have some fantastic fuel notes. 

After you get through talking elite entries, you can’t forget how awesome the party is, too! Zalympix is easily one of the best cannabis events of the modern era, as many of the world’s best cultivators gather to see who will take the top prize. 

We’ve smoked every Zalympix entry ever. For us, the most dominant Zalympix victory ever was when Blueprint took home the top honors as it beat out a box of monster heat from all over the state. Now a year and a half later, we caught back up with Blueprint’s cofounder Jordan Aguilar. 

“I would say what was cool about Zalympix was just the authenticity that I think leaks through. Who set it up, to the people smoking it saying this is what I enjoyed the most,” Aguilar told L.A. Weekly. “So I thought that was really cool and almost surprised me in a lot of ways. Just because I was like, wow, people are in tune, and I was surprised with how in tune people were, which was a good relief.”

Aguilar also noted he appreciated the transparency. He felt like it was one of the things that made the contest stand out for him. 

Aguilar went on to speak to what the win meant at the moment coming out of 2021 where their launch was already considered the best new company of the year. 

“I think it’s always good to give that moment to kind of smell the roses, because outside of that moment, and just before then, just after, we just get back to the grind,” Aguilar said. 

Spending a lot of time in grow rooms is one of the curses of being elite. Much of the time running into your peers outside your immediate circle can be rare; Zalympix represents one of those nights of the year the various tribes get together to talk heat and debate who has the best weed.  

“To go with the guys who are in the same boat as us. These other growers do the same thing. So it’s for all of us to come out and get to see each other,” Aguilar said. “It’s a we’re all at the watering hole together type of thing.”

Aguilar went on to say how supportive people were all over. He also pointed to the Zalympix win as probably what ended up getting him on the First Smoke of The Day podcast. That was another huge moment for getting the word out about what the Blueprint team is doing up north. 

Greenwolf’s Zalympix Awards show is tomorrow night. We chatted with Brian from Greenwolf about the festivities. Those in search of the heat can expect over 40 vendors with many offering consumer-direct pricing. 

“It’s exciting, it grew again,” Brian told L.A. Weekly. ”Obviously a lot more vendors. I think that the preliminary round and then having it this way and having it be one event really helped, having more time, and more people hear about it getting bigger.”

A lot of times people point to the rec market as garbage, with a few places like Greenwolf doing their best to chase down the real heat floating on top of the mess. We asked how cool it was to carry that reputation with elite consumers.

“There is fire out there a lot of time,” Brian laughed. 

He went on to note there is a big parking lot across the street, but they’re recommending you Uber. Also, people will be on the prowl for the best stuff; if you’re trying to get your hands on some fireball heat, make sure you beat the crowd there. 

Tickets are still available for Saturday.

ALIEN LABS WINS ZALYMPIX NEW CATEGORY

Alien Labs’ Zkittelz strain secured top honors in the new Best Thing Smoking category last weekend’s Zalympix competition hosted by Greenwolf.

The new category’s winner was selected by Proper Doinks in a tournament format.

With a record-breaking number of participants, this edition of Zalympix attracted more entries than all previous events combined. Alien Labs consistently demonstrated its excellence by placing among the top three or winning various categories in the past. However, this triumph marked their most significant achievement yet, as they added another three trophies to their ever-expanding collection. 

Speculations arose last week regarding the challenging nature of the competition for Z due to the abundance of Zkittelz hybrids in the mix. Nevertheless, the judges ultimately disagreed, and Zkittelz claimed the highest podium. Since its meteoric rise in 2014, when it dominated the Mendocino Secret Cup and secured a top-five spot at the High Times NorCal Cup, Zkittelz has continued to captivate enthusiasts. It became the first breakthrough strain since Cookies emerged in the late 2000s and would go on to be in the lineage of basically every hype strain that came after. 

Before he departed with the trophies for Sacramento, we caught up with Alien Labs’ founder, Ted Lidie. Our conversation began by highlighting the fact that this particular Zkittlez batch contributed the material that produced the original winning rosin entry at this year’s Emerald Cup. 

We then delved into Lidie’s decade-long pursuit of winning strains through diligent seed hunts. Like clockwork, he meticulously assesses hundreds of jars every few months, aiming to discover Alien Labs’ next champion. We inquired whether he was disappointed that the victor did not arise from all that effort. 

“Definitely, I would have loved to win with one of our own creations,” Lidie told L.A. Weekly. “We’ve spent a decade searching for exceptional genetics, but the past five years have been dedicated to cultivating our distinctive strains.”

Lidie further noted that Alien Labs aims to reach a broader audience compared to Zalympix. As Lidie put it, their selection includes flavors that may not be as trendy, but cater to those seeking the unconventional. He pointed to weird Super Silver Haze crosses as a great example.

During the qualification round, Alien Labs relied on their Area 41 strain, but when it came to the finals, they had approximately two weeks’ notice to make their choice. 

“We had to locate a superb flower batch, and that particular strain generated significant hype,” Lidie said. “My QC team, Justin and Jesse, and I had to sample numerous batches to identify the ultimate standout. The Zkittlez batch from the Merced site, cultivated by an outstanding team, truly excelled.”

Lidie promptly acknowledged the high caliber of competition in the event. He expressed his belief that previous editions paled in comparison and commended all participants for delivering their finest work. 

“It’s astonishing. If you observe the evolution from the first event to this one, it’s clear that people now have a much better understanding of quality,” Lidie said. “The entries were all exceptional, with consistent white ash and enticing aromas.”

Lidie sees the event as an indicator of overall improvement in quality within the recreational market. 

“At least for those of us who participate and care about this industry, we are refining our craft. We won’t let anyone undermine the recreational market because, in the end, it’s the top-tier cultivators who produce the finest cannabis,” Lidie asserted. 

We inquired about Lidie’s thoughts on winning what many consider to be the state’s second most esteemed competition, trailing only The Emerald Cup. Lidie highlighted that these events cater to distinct audiences and asserted that the Zalympix victory would have a greater impact in New York City than an Emerald Cup win.

“I’m not criticizing the cup; I’m a judge myself. It’s just that they attract different audiences, and The Emerald Cup holds diverse meanings for different individuals,” Lidie clarified.

Lidie further elaborated on the nuances of indoor judging at Zalympix, emphasizing that participants invest $700 per box, and the judges are accustomed to regularly sampling this caliber of cannabis. This differs from The Emerald Cup, where some judges only smoke indoor strains because they have to for the cup.