The Rolling Paper

In Napa and Sonoma, tour bus operators ferry oenophiles between tasting rooms and vineyards. In Hollywood and environs, they shepherd the starstruck past the homes of the rich and famous.

Now they’re giving customers a mind-expanding look at one of Los Angeles’ burgeoning industries: pot.

Since recreational use of marijuana became legal a year ago, a pot tourism business has emerged, taking visitors behind the scenes of California’s estimated $7-billion cannabis industry.

Read More

Hopes that California might create a public bank to serve the state’s legal marijuana industry are nothing but a pipe dream, the authors of a new feasibility study told state officials Thursday.

“In the end we were not able to find any approach to doing this that makes any sense whatsoever,” said William Roetzheim, founder and chief executive of Level 4 Ventures, the consulting firm hired to carry out the study for the State Treasurer’s Cannabis Banking Working Group.

California voters approved Proposition 64 in 2016 to legalize growing, possessing and selling marijuana for recreational use. But since cannabis remains illegal under federal law, most banks— which are federally chartered and insured by the FDIC — refuse to hold weed money.

Read More

A Santa Cruz-based marijuana manufacturing company is being fined more than $50,000 by state regulators for safety violations after an employee was severely burned in a propane explosion, officials have announced.

An employee at Future2 Labs Health Services was working alone inside a 128-square-foot portable storage container in Watsonville on June 19, extracting oil from cannabis leaves with propane, when a spark ignited the tank and it exploded. The worker was hospitalized with severe burns, according to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

“The process of using a highly flammable gas to extract oil from cannabis leaves is dangerous,” Cal/OSHA Chief Juliann Sum said Thursday in a prepared statement.

Read More

The hemp industry still has work ahead to win legal status for hemp-derived cannabidiol, or CBD oil, as an ingredient in food or dietary supplements despite the big farm bill President Trump signed this week designating hemp as an agricultural crop.

CBD oils have become increasingly popular in lotions, tinctures and foods, but their legal status has been murky and the Food and Drug Administration has sent warning letters to some companies making health claims for CBD.

In a statement following Thursday’s bill signing in Washington, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb restated his agency’s stance that CBD is a drug ingredient and therefore illegal to add to food or health products without approval from his agency.

Read More

When Californians voted in 2016 to allow the sale of recreational marijuana, advocates of the move envisioned thousands of pot shops and cannabis farms obtaining state licenses, making the drug easily available to all adults within a short drive.

But as the first year of licensed sales comes to a close, California’s legal market hasn’t performed as state officials and the cannabis industry had hoped. Retailers and growers say they’ve been stunted by complex regulations, high taxes and decisions by most cities to ban cannabis shops. At the same time, many residents are going to city halls and courts to fight pot businesses they see as nuisances, and police chiefs are raising concerns about crime triggered by the marijuana trade.

Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, who played a large role in the legalization of cannabis, will inherit the numerous challenges when he takes office in January as legislators hope to send him a raft of bills next year to provide banking for the pot industry, ease the tax burden on retailers and crack down on sales to minors.

Read More

Hemp — a close relative of marijuana that can be used to make textiles and other products — has long been classified as a Schedule I drug by the federal government. That’s set to change.

President Trump is soon expected to sign a farm bill that includes a section that legalizes the commercial cultivation of hemp nationwide.

The bill, years in the making, comes as public support for cannabis legalization has increased over the years, offering a cover of sorts to politicians who see the potential for boosting state tax revenue.

Read More

Several students at a middle school in Marysville, Calif., were sent home this week after eating marijuana-laced brownies, officials said.

Staff at Anna McKenney Intermediate School called police Wednesday morning after learning that a 13-year-old girl had passed out the brownies to her classmates, said Marysville Police Sgt. Jason Garringer.

Nine students were sent home, Garringer said, but no one who ate the brownies showed obvious signs of being under the influence.

Read More

Now that some form of cannabis use is legal in 33 U.S. states and the District of Columbia and California’s era of legal adult-use weed is almost a year old (though it remains illegal under federal law), it’s easier than ever to find a little something special for the cannabis consumer on your nice list. Below are a few items that — with the exception of the first item which is available in L.A. only — are legal, widely available and, if ordered soon, can still be under the tree in the U.S. by Christmas Day.

For those who want to do good while feeling good — and score a little holiday decor at the same time — L.A.-based Zoma Cannabis is prepared to send some lucky L.A. residents a limited-edition floral-meets-cannabis Mistletoke arrangement that intertwines sprigs of mistletoe with three trimmed buds (roughly five grams total) of its Santa Cruz-grown True OG and/or Gelato strain cannabis flower all tied up in a big red Santa-worthy bow. No purchase is necessary, but recipients are highly encouraged to make a donation to the charity reforestation group One Tree Planted to aid in the recovery efforts from the 2017 and 2018 California fires. Zoma will match donations dollar for dollar. Each dollar donated means one tree gets planted, and that means the green you donate for its green means a greener Golden State moving forward.

Zoma is set to deliver the decor right to your door if you live in L.A., are over the age of 21 and are one of the first 50 folks to fire off an email to info@zomacannabis.com with the word “Mistletoke” in the subject line. Supplies willing, orders placed as late as Dec. 20 will arrive in time to make your Christmas very merry indeed.

Read More

Two hotels that couldn’t be more different — a self-described “bud and breakfast” in Idyllwild and a Gilded Age grande dame in San Francisco — made 2019’s “Fodor’s Finest: The 100 Most Incredible Hotels in the World.”

The recently released list is divided by regions of the world. Hicksville Pines, a motel in the mountain town of Idyllwild, about 37 miles east of Hemet, was one of 15 in the U.S. that was selected for its “immaculate and wildly creative” digs.

You can choose your favorite themed room among 10 A-frame cabins, such as one that honors the old “Twin Peaks” TV show (the Great Northern room, $250 to $300) or the Dolly Parton room ($125 to $175). There’s also a 420 Room for marijuana users 21 and older. Info: Hicksville Pines, 23481 California 243, Idyllwild

Read More

The Costa Mesa Planning Commission this week approved three new marijuana facilities but postponed a decision on a fourth due to the absence of one commissioner, whose vote likely will decide the fate of the business.

After two commissioners expressed support and two expressed opposition for Triiad’s proposal for a marijuana distribution facility, the panel voted 3-1 on Monday night, with Commissioner Jeffrey Harlan absent, to hold a special meeting Monday to reexamine the matter. Commissioner Carla Navarro Woods dissented.

The proposed location at 3525 Hyland Ave., Suite 265, is in Hyland Plaza, north of South Coast Collection in an area identified under city law as permissible for marijuana uses.

Read More

Altria Group Inc., one of the world’s biggest tobacco companies, is diving into the cannabis market with a $2.4 billion buy-in.

The Marlboro cigarette maker is taking a 45% stake in Cronos Group Inc., the Canadian medical and recreational marijuana provider said Friday.

Altria will pay an additional $1.4 billion for warrants that, if exercised, would give Altria a 55% ownership stake in the Toronto company.

Read More

Lawmakers in Utah passed sweeping changes Monday to a voter-approved medical marijuana ballot measure under a planned compromise that secured the support of the influential Mormon Church but sparked a backlash from pot advocates.

Supporters of the compromise cheered the vote, saying it would help suffering patients while creating safeguards against broader recreational use.

“I believe this agreement was a landmark day for our state, and we are helping people,” said outgoing Republican House Speaker Greg Hughes, who sponsored the legislation and helped bring together the players for talks.

Read More

The Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy pulled up to the pot-filled warehouse just after three in the morning.

He held up an official-looking document to a guard, who promptly unlocked a gate. The deputy and two other men, each of them armed and dressed in sheriff’s jackets, got out.

After locking the guard and two other employees in the back of the deputy’s SUV, the men went to work lugging bags of marijuana from the warehouse.

Read More

Following its successful (and still running) pop-up space inside the Pottery dispensary in L.A.’s Mid-City, purveyor of luxury-level cannabis accoutrements Higher Standards has announced plans to take up temporary residence inside the Cannary West dispensary in the Rancho Park neighborhood just in time for the holidays.

On track to pop-up on Saturday (with a 20% opening day discount) and run through the end of February, it’ll serve up a similar curated mix of high-end smoking tools and accessories from brands like Marley Naturals, Grav Labs, Dr. Dabber and Puffco (makers of the futuristic-looking Peak dab rig) as well as home goods for the discerning head by Jonathan Adler, Malin+Goetz and Forestry Wool.

Higher Standards X Cannary West

Where: 2435 Military Ave., Los Angeles. Entry is restricted to those 21 and older.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays from Saturday through Feb. 28.

Info: cannarywest.com, higherstandards.com

On Easter Sunday 2007, Pastor John Lee Bishop drew about 15,000 worshipers to a sports arena in Portland, Ore.

With a flair for showmanship, Bishop — a jeans-clad minister sporting a youthful, moppish haircut — relished building buzz around his Living Hope Church, based in Vancouver, Wash., on the north bank of the Columbia River.

One time, it was bringing a Bengal tiger onstage. Another, according to an account in the Columbian newspaper, it was advertising a sermon series with the word “sex” prominently facing a busy street.

Read More

The employee in the red shirt counseled the two men on what — or what not — to buy.

“Now, if you start thinking dolphins are talking to you, that might be too much,” she explained. The two young men nodded slowly. One stroked his beard. Neither had ever talked to dolphins before. Or even yelled at them on Sundays when they play against the New England Patriots.

Above them, the continuous light show on the ceiling was like an electric lava lamp — orbs expanding and dividing in an endless trip. Then it was gone and replaced by flowers and a Saturn-like planet floating in the sky.

Read More

The recent parade of permit applications from marijuana manufacturing and distribution businesses looking to open in Costa Mesa will continue next week, when the city Planning Commission is scheduled to review four more.

All the requests on Monday’s agenda are for conditional use permits, which are among several approvals required to open a cannabis company in the city.

Here is the latest lineup of applicants:

Read More

He described marijuana as a “very real danger” and has said its effects are “only slightly less awful” than those of heroin. Once, during a drug hearing when he was a Senator, he said he wanted to send a clear message: “Good people don’t smoke marijuana.”

So when Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions was ousted recently, a collective sigh of relief rose up from proponents of legalized pot — activists, politicians, investors — who felt targeted by the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

Sessions’s departure has translated into spiking stocks for cannabis companies and a reset of sorts for the legalization movement which, since 2012, has seen nearly a dozen states pass recreational pot measures.

Read More

Don’t expect to find bongs, water pipes and empty packets of Funyuns at the Los Angeles-area home of Will Htun.

When we asked to look inside the home of the CEO of cannabis brand Sherbinskis, we found a sleek and minimal space where he could host chef-catered, cannabis-paired dinners on the rooftop and take meetings in a high-ceilinged front room.

Htun, 34, moved into the 2,700-square-foot townhouse in July 2016, after he and brand founder Mario Sherbinski, who is based in San Francisco, decided it would make an ideal live/work space. With its three en-suite bedrooms, Htun opens up the home to associates in town for business instead of housing them in a serviced apartment.

Read More

Two marijuana stores in Massachusetts have been given the green light to begin selling to recreational customers, making them the first commercial pot shops in the eastern United States.

Both stores, one located in Northampton and the other in Leicester, said they would open Tuesday morning after the Cannabis Control Commission, the state’s marijuana regulatory agency, on Friday authorized them to begin operations.

The announcement ended a long wait for commercial sales to begin in Massachusetts. The state’s voters legalized the use of recreational marijuana by adults 21 and older in 2016, but it’s taken more than two years for state legislators and regulators to reach the point where the first stores can finally open.

Read More

Mexico may soon legalize marijuana, a radical shift for a country whose prohibition on narcotics has been at the heart of its long and violent war against drug traffickers.

Legislation submitted to Congress last week by the party of leftist President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador would regulate cannabis, allowing it to be grown, sold and consumed for recreational use.

Proponents of legalization say it would reduce bloodshed in Mexico by weakening drug cartels and freeing up police officers and prosecutors to focus on more serious crimes. But the proposal has critics, including the Catholic Church, which holds significant sway in Mexican politics. A poll in Mexico last year showed a majority of respondents opposed legalizing marijuana.

Read More

Some chew it, or place a few drops under the tongue or let it soak in through the skin. There are numerous ways to consume cannabidiol — better known as CBD. It’s touted for its therapeutic effects, but, unlike its better-known cousin THC, does not get you high.

Hemp-derived CBD is increasingly in the limelight these days, at natural products stores and even fashion boutiques, catering to widening demand from consumers who find it helps them with pain, anxiety and insomnia.

Despite California’s marijuana-friendly laws, however, the state announced earlier this year it is waiting for the federal government to rule on the use of CBD oils and products before giving the green light to sales. Critics, meanwhile, have been asking for clarity, to help consumers who want options.

Read More

As cannabis is legalized — although it remains illegal under federal law —and goes mainstream in California and other states, the cookbook industry has churned into high gear with books on what ways to use jazz cabbage beyond the bong. What to look for? A lot depends on your level of expertise — not just in the kitchen but with cannabis itself. If you’ve been making batches of pot brownies and want to expand your repertoire to, say, French macarons, there are cookbooks to help you out. Many books have lengthy introductions that outline the specifics of cooking with cannabis, so find one that fits with what you know — or don’t know.

“Bong Appetit: Mastering the Art of Cooking With Weed” by the editors of Munchies (Ten Speed Press, $30)

This book, based on the Munchies and Viceland television series “Bong Appétit,” was published in October by Ten Speed Press. (This is in itself notable, as Ten Speed is one of the best cookbook publishers around, and continues the legitimate trajectory of the cannabis cooking genre.) The book has a comprehensive introduction that includes topics such as dosing, techniques, methods of decarboxylation and infusion, cannabis pairing tips, questions to ask your dispensary, tips on equipment and more. The recipes are sourced from the Munchies test kitchen and from many well-known chefs, whose recipes are recalibrated to add cannabis. Thus: Korean fried chicken from Deuki Hong of San Francisco’s Sunday Bird; fried soft-shell crab with shishito pepper mole from Daniela Soto-Innes of Cosme and Atla; and (my favorite) Joan Nathan’s preserved lemons. The Munchies test kitchen also has some fun ones, including herb focaccia with, well, herb; and confit octopus, in which a whole octopus is poached in cannabis-infused olive oil. If that sounds too aspirational, there are instructions for making an apple bong — a hollowed-out apple filled with weed-infused mezcal — at the end of the drinks chapter.

Read More

Don’t know the difference between MSG and THC? Here’s a guide to the terminology you’ll encounter.

Cannabis sativa and cannabis indica are two of the three species of cannabis. (The third species, cannabis ruderalis, is less attractive due to its smaller stature and low concentration of THC.)

Sativa is a warm-weather species characterized by tall plants and thin leaves. The plant takes 10 to 15 weeks to mature and is known for a cerebral, energetic and invigorating high that’s particularly suited for daytime use. Medically, it can be used to help people with depression and chronic pain.

Read More

(Mathew Sumner / Associated Press)

The amount of money collected by the state from taxes on cannabis grown and sold legally in California continues to increase but is still falling short of budget estimates, according to figures released Wednesday.

Tax revenue reported from the cannabis industry totaled $93.1 million for the three months ending Sept. 30, according to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. That is an increase from the $80.2 million collected during the second quarter of the year.

If revenue continues to grow by the same 16% per quarter, pot taxes will bring in $471 million during the fiscal year that began July 1, while the budget approved by the governor and Legislature estimates the taxes would bring in $630 million during the fiscal year.

Read More

Eaze, the San Francisco-based technology platform that’s been coordinating dispensary-to-consumer home deliveries of cannabis in Los Angeles since April, has expanded its reach — for CBD-containing products, that is — to most of the United States. (CBD, a.k.a cannabidiol, is a cannabis compound said to have anti-inflammatory and anti-anxiety properties but none of the “high” associated with THC. These claims have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.)

Through the just-launched Eaze Wellness website, consumers over the age of 21 in 41 states and the District of Columbia can order a range of hemp-derived CBD tinctures, tablets, balms, bath bombs, patches, vape pens and pet products for delivery within four to six days. (Shipping is free for orders $50 and up; otherwise, it’ll cost you $5.)

Much like its in-state marijuana-delivery service, which coordinates deliveries with local dispensaries, Eaze isn’t doing the shipping itself, but rather working with a third-party partner to get goods from brands such as Plant People, Cannuka, BeTrū Wellness and Vital Leaf from point A to point B.

Although the laws surrounding the legality of CBD are murky at best (a loophole in federal law has been widely interpreted as making CBD derived from hemp grown for research purposes legal), one point B that Eaze Wellness won’t be coordinating shipping to is its home state of California. (The company cites state regulations as the reason.)

Yes, California, where cannabis — even the kind that gets you high — has been legal under state law since the beginning of the year.

Additional information is available at www.eazewellness.com.

Nearly a year in to the state-legal cannabis scene, there’s no shortage of THC-infused items on the market for 21-and-older consumers, from sachets of herbal tea and cans of citrus-flavored soda to honey mustard pretzels, with analysts and dispensary owners seeing it as a growing side of the business.

“Since recreational use was legalized in January, edibles have seen a 20%-30% hike in sales,” said Nick Danias, managing partner of the Pottery and Cannary West dispensaries in Los Angeles, who added that edibles have proved particularly popular with new cannabis users who might be reluctant to start experimenting by smoking cannabis flower.

“Edibles companies have been able to offer consumers ‘micro dosing’ that allows for a controlled amount of THC to be ingested,” he said. (State law requires that edibles be portioned or scored into servings that contain no more than 10 milligrams of THC per piece and no more than 100 milligrams of THC per package.)

Read More

The torrent of applications from marijuana manufacturing and distribution facilities looking to open in Costa Mesa continues Thursday, when city planning commissioners will review five more during a special meeting.

Should the commission grant all the requested conditional use permits, it would bring the total number of marijuana facilities with such approvals to 22 — including nine in the past month.

The applications up for review this time are:

Read More

Two people were shot and killed early Monday morning after gunfire erupted inside a Koreatown marijuana dispensary, authorities said.

Officers responded to reports of a shooting in the 400 block of Western Avenue in Koreatown around 4:20 a.m. Monday, according to a statement issued by the Los Angeles Police Department. There, they found a “locked and sealed” marijuana dispensary, according to the statement.

A female employee told police she and several customers were inside the dispensary when they heard gunshots in the waiting room. They fled through the back of the building, and when officers gained entry, they found two people who were pronounced dead at the scene.

Read More

The party of Mexico’s president-elect submitted legislation Thursday that would legalize marijuana possession, public use, growing and sales.

Sen. Olga Sanchez Cordero presented the measure, saying that everyone should have “the right to carry up to 30 grams [1 ounce] of cannabis.” People could carry more than an ounce if they obtained a permit to do so under the proposal.

“From the point of view of negative effects, there is no reason why marijuana should not be legal, if alcohol and tobacco are,” according to the bill.

Read More

California law lets anyone over 21 grow up to six marijuana plants in their yard or home, as long as the plants are not accessible to the public. (Check your City Hall for any additional local rules.)

Unsure how to start? Check out Fig Earth Supply’s two-hour workshops, “Cannabis Cultivation for the Home Grower,” on Nov. 10 or Nov. 17, taught by professional cannabis growers.

Attendees must be at least 21. No plants or seeds will be sold. Workshops cost $95 and start at 5 p.m. at 3577 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles. More info: figearthsupply.com

Read More

They descended on free-wheeling Venice Beach with clipboards and questions in hand. Their goal: to gauge humanity’s tolerance for the smell and sight of public pot smoking.

Akbar Karriem considered them ridiculous.

“Everybody be smoking,” Karriem said as he sat on the boardwalk and lit a marijuana pipe. “It’s part of the culture here. It’s like a religion.”

Read More

Prepare to be entertained at Las Vegas’ newest and biggest cannabis store a mile west of the Strip. Planet 13 combines light shows and fog-making fountains to wow visitors at the shop, which sells recreational pot, cannabis extracts and cannabis-infused products.

The idea is to meld a cannabis shop with an entertainment complex.

Visitors, who must be at least 21, can change the colors of 13 giant LED-lighted lotus flowers blooming on the roof of the building.

Read More

Greg and Gary Avetisyan make no secret of it: They proudly sell all manner of products infused with CBD, from essential oils to bath bombs to fruity tea-like beverages that promise calming relief in a frantic world.

CBD, short for cannabidiol, is a molecule derived from cannabis. But unlike its chemical cousin THC, it won’t get you high. What it might do, according to some research, is alleviate anxiety, seizures, chronic pain and dozens of other ailments.

The Avetisyan brothers’ belief in the alleged benefits of the extract is so steadfast that they opened California’s first CBD-only store, Topikal, in Tarzana last year and opened a second along the Venice Beach boardwalk in April.

Read More

An urgent cry for help, “Weed the People” explores the effects of cannabis on pediatric cancer, as well as the establishment’s disinterest in researching its efficacy. With the lack of scientific studies available, Abby Epstein’s moving documentary primarily devotes its time to five children and their families who are trying to survive using the alternative treatment.

“Weed the People” doesn’t ease into its multi-story narrative, wasting no time in sharing the stories of these kids with cancer. With parents desperate for their children to feel better, they turn to medical marijuana to ease the pain, as well as directly addressing the cancer cells.

Without studies and lack of nationwide legalization, there is little regulation in the industry. Enter Mara Gordon, a former process engineer who brings precision and rigor to her medical cannabis company, offering the families hope for healing.

Read More

A Colorado jury likely threw cold water on future legal challenges against cannabis companies by homeowners who consider filing racketeering lawsuits alleging that proximity to pot operations hurts their property values, analysts and industry lawyers said Thursday.

A federal jury in Denver on Wednesday rejected claims involving the odor from a pot farm made in a case that was closely watched by the marijuana industry.

It was the first such lawsuit to reach a jury. Three others are pending in California, Massachusetts and Oregon.

Read More

An estimated 400,000 marijuana plants were destroyed by Santa Barbara County sheriff’s investigators this week in what authorities are calling the county’s largest seizure of pot plants at one site.

The plants were hidden among farmland in Santa Maria and discovered by sheriff’s investigators on Monday, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

The crop belonged to a resident who, authorities said, had applied for a temporary state cannabis license using false information and did not have a valid cannabis license. Investigators found the 400,000 plants in various levels of maturity and tapped state Department of Fish and Wildlife personnel to help in the case.

Read More

To the editor: I was disappointed to read in a column on voters trying to flip an Orange County congressional district that Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) wants to weaken federal laws against marijuana.

Recently-approved state laws legalizing marijuana have not been beneficial. In Colorado, following the legalization of recreational marijuana, the number of traffic fatalities involving marijuana-impaired drivers more than doubled. Surveys have found a majority of marijuana users in Colorado do not believe driving high is dangerous, leading some to get behind the wheel impaired.

As a retired law enforcement officer who has had the opportunity to work with people impacted by drug addiction, and as a lifelong Republican, I feel Rohrabacher is making a mistake.

Read More

On Saturday morning, the lines were stretching around the corner and down the block outside the bright blue Beverly Grove storefront with the word Cookies above the door. The enthusiastic members of the crowd weren’t queued up for baked goods, though. They were waiting to get into a new cannabis dispensary — and to help celebrate the birthday of its founding partner, Bay Area rapper and entrepreneur Berner (born Gilbert Millam Jr.).

Minimalist, awash in natural light and appointed in the brand’s blue and white color scheme and emblazoned with the cookie-with-a-bite-missing logo, it marks the second Cookies dispensary in Los Angeles County; the first, Cookies Los Angeles, is located in Maywood. Like that one, it’s stocked with a wide variety of cannabis flower, oils, edibles and the like, with a particular emphasis on the proprietary strains from the Cookie Family collective (the growers who originated the strain formerly known as Girl Scout Cookies as well as other dessert-named strains such as Gelato and Sunset Sherbet).

It also stocks three different Cookies-logoed colors (blue, white and black) of the new G Pen Gio ($29.95), a vaporizer pen that uses cannabis concentrate cartridges for a super-simple, draw-activated plug-and-puff experience. The Cookies G Pen Gio from Grenco Science x Berner collaboration officially launched at the Saturday Berner bash, and includes Gio cannabis-oil cartridges filled with Gelato, London Poundcake, Sunset Sherbet or Snowman strains ($60 for 500 mg, which Tim Patenaude, Grenco’s vice president of marketing, says marks the first time those Cookie strains have been commercially available as concentrates.

(Gio pod cartridges are now available at 500 dispensaries across 12 states, according to Patenaude, including MedMen, BARC and the Pottery locally, as well as through the Eaze delivery service.)

Patenaude says the partnership with Berner has its roots in Grenco’s 2014 partnership with another rapper — Wiz Khalifa (“Wiz Khalifa’s weed guy was Berner,” Patenaude said, “and that’s how we first met him.”). He calls Berner “the most important person in cannabis today,” citing not only Berner and his partners’ wildly successful strains, but the rapper/entrepreneur’s brand-building abilities outside of the cannabis space. “His Cookies clothing label is sold in every Zumiez in every mall in America,” Patenaude said.

In a chat with the Los Angeles Times’ Rolling Paper, Berner said that the Cookies SF streetwear label he launched out of his garage less than a decade ago saw $12.8 million in revenue in 2017 and that he’s aiming to open a store next door to the dispensary — hopefully in time for the Black Friday shopping season. (There’s currently a single flagship store in San Francisco.)

He also said the dispensary opening bash was a good way to usher in his 35th year on the planet. “Man, I couldn’t be happier,” he said. “We’re turning [over] customers left and right, there’s no holdup anywhere, everyone is super-juiced and there was a line down the block and wrapped around [the corner] at 6 a.m. You can’t ask for anything else.”

Cookies Melrose, 8360 Melrose Ave. (at North Kings Road), Los Angeles. Additional information on the G Pen Gio (including local availability) is at gpen.com.

Rapper 2 Chainz attends the launch party for Gas, his fuel-themed cannabis line now available in flower and pre-rolled joints.

(Adam Tschorn / Los Angeles Times)

Rolling into the Friday launch party for his new cannabis brand Gas, the first thing Grammy-winning rapper 2 Chainz did was brandish a joint in one hand and a smartphone in the other to record the rows of boldly packaged cannabis flower and pre-rolled joints in a video to share with his 5.7 million Instagram followers. The second thing he did was stand back and take in the moment.

“I can’t believe it, that’s why I was over here just trying to take it all in,” 2 Chainz said about seeing all the green, yellow and black plastic pouches filled with marijuana, and a jerrycan converted into a display tray overflowing with green buds. “I’ve been told for over a year that we were doing this line, so now I’m just trying to live in the moment. I don’t do that a lot.”

The launch party took place at the Mid-Wilshire offices of Green Street Agency, a cannabis-focused branding and licensing company that is one of the rapper’s two Southern California partners in the venture. The other is L.A.-based Mazel Management Group (owners of the Westside Station dispensary in Van Nuys). Before joining the throng of well-wishers, industry friends and employees dressed in logo-emblazoned overalls, 2 Chainz (born Tauheed Epps), chatted with the Los Angeles Times’ Rolling Paper about his new project, how cannabis branding is like music and what took so long for the project to come to fruition. (Hint: There was lots of taste-testing).

The Rolling Paper: Where does the name of your line — Gas — come from and what does it mean?

2 Chainz: It’s Atlanta lingo that we use that basically signifies that this is a stronger type of flower — a stronger cannabis. I’ve been saying it since I came into the rap game and I’ve used it in a few verses of a few songs. At first people were like: “What do you mean by [the line] “gas in the ashtray?” After it caught on and basically went mainstream, I figured why veer off from what got me here? So we started a legal line of cannabis called Gas.

TRP: I’ve heard that you were pretty picky in the development process.

2C: It took months and months and about 30 different kinds of [cannabis] flower. I think I was looking for that first impression — that first pull — how it made me feel. Were there fireworks or no fireworks? What kind of memory did it create? That’s what I was looking for.

TRP: The three different types of flower you’re launching with don’t have names but numbers — 87, 89 and 93 — are those supposed to be kind of like octane ratings but for marijuana?

2C: That’s a great way of describing it. The 87, for example [a Petrol OG hybrid, with a THC content of 14%] is for functioning throughout the day, [and for] people who are on the go [or] at work and can’t get that whole indica sleepy feeling during the middle of the day. I think 87 will be sufficient. The 89 [a Sour Gas hybrid, 17% THC] is for when people go out for cocktails after work, when they want to get ready for the wind-down — it signifies the medium [strength]. And the 93 [an indica called God’s Fuel No. 2 with a THC level of 20%] I’d definitely say is the strongest. That’s for night-night.

TRP: How did the fuel theme and octane ratings and all that evolve from the name?

2C: I approached this the way I do in my music — which was come up with the concept and follow all the way through with it. So, when you have Gas, you have to have the gas cans and the imagery that actually represents the gas pumps and things that tie in to the brand itself. I think that gives it legs — gives it a little more substance and sustainability. And I used these colors because I knew they would be very catching and appealing to the eye and I know that I will kind of have to muscle my way in as far as getting where I need to be on [dispensary] shelves these days. I figure I could be on the back of the shelf and you could still see this green, this yellow and this black packaging.

Gas prices range from $12 to $14 (for 1-gram pre-rolled joints) and $36 to $48 for 3.5 gram packages of flower. Currently available at Westside Station, 7022 Valjean Ave., Van Nuys.

It’s an “amazing plant” that produces “hypnotic effects,” according to online testimonials. Some people who have ingested it or inhaled its smoke say it gave them a mild, marijuana-like high.

Now scientists have weighed in. In experiments with more than 100 mice, they found that chemicals in the liverwort plant produced four of the same key effects as THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

An hour after being injected with the experimental chemicals, the mice entered a trance-like state, lost some of their ability to move, became less responsive to pain and experienced a drop in body temperature, according to a study published this week in the journal Science Advances.

Read More

The police standoff lasted more than six hours, shutting down a busy six-lane stretch of Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana for most of the evening.

An armed robbery suspect, authorities said, had barricaded himself inside an illegal marijuana dispensary in a strip mall in the 18300 block of Ventura Boulevard. He was believed to be one of four suspects and was thought to have a female hostage.

But when officers searched the building after 8:20 p.m., there was no one inside, said Officer Mike Lopez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Read More

Cities and law enforcement leaders say a state proposal to allow pot delivery to homes would increase crime.

(Mathew Sumner / Associated Press)

Despite objections from cities and police chiefs, state officials on Friday declined to drop a proposal allowing marijuana firms to deliver to homes everywhere in California, including in areas that have banned pot shops.

The proposed rule, which was made public in July, was opposed by the League of California Cities, which represents the state’s 482 municipalities, and the California Police Chiefs Assn., which said it would jeopardize public safety.

But the state Bureau of Cannabis Control announced Friday that it is moving forward with the proposed rule after a series of public hearings and after weighing hundreds of comments from residents and interested parties.

Read More

San Diego officials say they plan to crack down on marijuana advertising, particularly the billboard ads that have become increasingly common with recreational use of the drug now legal in California.

Legislation proposed by City Councilman Chris Cate aims to keep marijuana billboard ads out of areas where young people congregate and to prevent illegal marijuana businesses from advertising anywhere.

The proposal, which would go beyond relatively new state laws that govern marijuana advertising, will be included in a series of city code updates that Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s staff plans to present to the City Council next year.

Read More

Commercial flights can be so stressful — cramped seats, delays, turbulence, loud seatmates — that more than 60% of travelers in a recent survey said they down a drink or two before heading to the airport.

But the survey by a drug treatment organization found that nearly as many fliers are now turning to marijuana to relax before getting on a plane.

The online survey of 1,137 people who have flown in the past year was taken by Florida-based Delphi Behavioral Health Group. It found that nearly 30% of respondents said they had smoked marijuana and another 25% had consumed pot-infused snacks before arriving at an airport.

Read More

Cannabis-related companies will be front and center in Costa Mesa again Monday, when city planning commissioners will consider four applications for proposed marijuana manufacturing and distribution facilities.

Should the Planning Commission OK all the requests, it would bring the number of marijuana businesses with city-approved conditional use permits to 17.

First up will be Aureus LLC, which is looking to open in a 5,556-square-foot industrial space at 3505 Cadillac Ave., Building A. The company proposes to manufacture cannabis concentrates, particularly oils intended for use in vaporizer cartridges, according to city planning documents.

Read More

Ian Power was among the first to buy legal recreational marijuana in Canada but he has no plans to smoke it. He plans to frame it.