BURN AFTER READING
Issue I (6/24/22): Plastic Waste, Testing Labs, Caribbean Cannabis, CANNRA, Leningrad Cowboys, and more!
Welcome to the first edition of Burn After Reading! If you’re not familiar with my work, check out the introduction post here.
This week’s Cannabis Confidential is about Vermont’s recent ban of plastic packaging for cannabis products.
Will such a ban gain traction here in Massachusetts? Let’s hope so, but it’s going to be a tough battle. Cannabis corporations are going to fight anything that hurts their bottom line — particularly right now, when a lot of their bottom lines are already hurting plenty. It will probably take some sort of grassroots consumer movement to actually get it implemented here. So drop the CCC a line, or just pack all your old plastic containers into a box and dump them in front of the cultivation site that produced them in the middle of the night. I won’t tell anybody.
(For more on Vermont’s plastic ban and other regulatory developments, check out the coverage over at GrownIn.)
Here’s some other things I enjoyed reading this week.
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Dan Adams over at the Globe did a great piece on Maine’s cannabis regulations. I support our northerly neighbors in their quest to keep their cannabis weird. I suppose I also support making testing for medical cannabis products mandatory, although with the amount of lab shopping that is going on everywhere, I’m not sure how much faith we should have in lab results anyways.
This anonymous post on Reddit from someone with experience in the MA industry outlines some pretty startling concerns about how testing is done here.
The CCC is in the process of hiring a Director of Testing to help oversee the labs more closely, but it looks like they’re having some difficulties finding the right candidate; they first started posting about the job back in September.
Anyhow, I’m looking forward to making my first purchase in Maine later this summer. If anyone has any medical dispensary recommendations in the Belfast area, let me know.
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The Transnational Institute recently released a Report on the Informal Drug Policy Dialogue that happened between a number of Caribbean countries back in December. At the meeting, attendees discussed ways that they can prevent the U.S and Canada from dominating the region’s cannabis market — an important cause that anyone who identifies as a progressive and drug policy reformer should support.
From the report:
We have to learn the lessons from previous commodity booms and boosts around e.g. sugar and banana plantations and forms of extractive development where little of the wealth generated is retained and shared. It also opens up the market to the risk of corporate capture through the Green Rush and the emergence of a Big Cannabis (similar to Big Ag and Big Pharma) complex that is monopolised by a few major players. We have seen this happen as a number of prime/early movers in the medical cannabis industry from a select few countries in the Global North (especially Canada) have monopolised the global medical cannabis industry. They can afford the high capital outlays, are able to navigate the complex and cumbersome bureaucracy, can deploy strategic assets such as patented medical technologies, and are often politically connected. This has meant that the even as legal reforms continue apace and more countries move towards a regulated market, the cannabis industry has not necessarily opened up to [traditional] cannabis farmers in a meaningful way.
I’m hoping to do more writing on this at a later date, but it’s critical that traditional cannabis growers have access to the international cannabis market that is currently emerging. Our country exported the War on Drugs to the world, and it would be incredibly fucked up if the worst of North America’s cannabis conglomerates got to dominate the international industry.
If you want a long read that’s related to this subject, check out this report produced by The Fair(er) Trade Cannabis Working Group, an organization based in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. There’s some really cool work being done in SV&G in regards to their cannabis policy — despite setbacks caused by COVID and a volcanic eruption.
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A recent study confirmed the industry’s worst kept secret: the concept of ‘sativa’ and ‘indica’ strains is pretty much bullshit. The problem is, no one can come up with terminology that consumers and businesses can agree upon to adequately describe the effects of different strains. As Cantrip’s Adam Terry pointed out in a recent Op-Ed, educating cannabis consumers is currently a losing battle. Clearly we need to return to the olden days when we would just categorize weed into two categories: headies and mids.
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Worcester Magazine reported this week that a documentary about Marshall “Major” Taylor is in the works. For the uninitiated, Major Taylor was a professional cyclist around the turn of the 20th century and one of the first African American superstar athletes. He won the mile sprint event at the 1899 world track championships and was a two-time national sprint champion, overcoming an overwhelming stream of racism and vitriol throughout his entire career.
Taylor spent much of his professional career living in Worcester, cycling up the hill on George Street (Worcester’s steepest public road) to train. Every year there’s a hill climb challenge on George Street to honor his legacy — this year’s will be held on July 24.
You can donate to the documentary’s fundraising page here.
Some musings about cannabis (and other things).
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Sanctuary Medicinals — a vertically integrated cannabis company with dispensary locations in Massachusetts and Florida — has started selling “live cure” flower, which are buds that are flash frozen after harvest. Apparently they started back in January, but it just came to my attention. I’ve heard of flower undergoing this treatment before it’s turned into various forms of concentrate, but this is the first I’ve heard of anyone selling formerly frozen buds straight to consumers. Is it the next big thing, or just a gimmick? r/Bostontrees seems to think the latter, but that place isn’t exactly a bastion of sunshine and positivity anyways. Perhaps a review in a future edition of Cannabis Confidential is in order.
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Former Cannabis Control Commissioner Jen Flanagan posted a recap of her experiences at CANNRA’s External Stakeholders Meeting — that clandestine meeting that happened a few weeks ago between cannabis industry regulators and representatives from cannabis trade associations. What did she tell us? Not much, other than that she thought it went well.
With the press barred from the event, the few details we have are based on what was leaked to Marijuana Moment. Perhaps CANNRA has learned their year that banning the media from your event suggests you’re up to something sketchy (even if you’re not), but if they don’t? I’m totally going to try to sneak into the next one.
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I’ve gotten the chance to be a background actor in two different films being shot in Massachusetts this year. I’m not allowed into too much detail at this point — lest I want Mickey Mouse and/or the MGM lion to show up my door seeking vengeance — but I will share this: Production Assistants work their asses off. I was working 12-14 hour days, and the PAs were there in the morning to sign me in, and were there at the end to sign me out. They would load you onto the bus from base camp to set, and somehow already be there when you arrived. They spend literally all day on their feet, running around, solving hundreds of problems on the fly while graciously handling background actors who can’t follow simple instructions.
If you spent one day as a PA, I guarantee you that any illusions that movie making is all glitz and glamour would quickly disappear. Next time there’s a strike involving any film or TV-related union, make sure you remember how hard they (and pretty much everyone else behind the camera) work.
Upcoming Central Mass Cannabis Events.
June 25th: Greatest Hits Grand Opening / Block Party
35 Chase Avenue, Dudley. 12:00-8:00pm. Free.
June 25th: High Performance Comedy Party
The Summit Lounge, Worcester. 7:30-10:00pm. $25.
June 29th: Worcester Business Journal’s The Business of Cannabis Forum
DCU Center, Worcester. 2:30-6:00pm. $65 (If you’re a member of ElevateNE’s mailing list, check your inbox for a $10 off discount).
Here’s my Welcome Distraction of the Week, where I recommend a movie, TV show, podcast episode, or other piece of content to distract you from the hellish nightmare that is the news. Pack a bowl and find a spot on the couch this weekend to unwind.
This week, it’s Leningrad Cowboys Go America, a delightful 1989 Finnish comedy film:
A struggling Siberian rock band leaves the lonely tundra to tour the United States because, as they're told, "they'll buy anything there." Aki Kaurismäki's winningly aloof farce follows the musicians as they bravely make their way across the New World, carrying a bandmate (and some beer) in a coffin and sporting hairdos that resemble unicorn horns. LENINGRAD COWBOYS GO AMERICA was such a sensation that it brought the fictional band a major real-life following. - Criterion Channel
The movie starts off with subtitles, but fear not! Our musician friends miraculously manage to learn fluent English on their flight to the States.
As mentioned above, Leningrad Cowboys would go on to become a real and successful band, and even did a series of surreal — yet moving — concerts with the The Red Army Choir (yes, THAT Red Army) following the collapse of the Soviet Union, where they performed such classics as Sweet Home Alabama, Gimme All Your Lovin’, Those Were the Days, and (my personal favorite) Happy Together. Don’t you miss that brief moment in time when the Cold War thawed?
Leningrad Cowboys Go America is currently available on The Criterion Channel. You can get access to the film via a free 14 day trial if you’re not already a subscriber. There’s also a sequel available, as well as a film of their Total Balalaika concert with the Red Army Choir.
Cannabis Industry Screenshot of the Week.
How’s the cannabis industry doing this week? Judging by this screenshot of MJBizDaily’s front page on Thursday, not well! There’s a number of forces that are combining to make this a very long summer for the industry, and a number of systemic problems that go beyond shaky financial numbers.
And while it may be fun for MSOs haters to cheer as these companies flounder, a reminder that it’s almost always the little guy that gets laid off, while executives lifestyles get to go unchanged.
But hey, at least weed is getting cheaper.
A close 2nd place for Screenshot of the Week was something I like to call The Duality of Indeed.
Cat picture of the week.
This is a picture of my cat, Brockton. It’s from a few years ago, but it’s one of his best. He is an ace mouse catcher — having captured five in his career — and enjoys yelling at birds outside the window in his spare time. Overall he is a chill dude.