BURN AFTER READING III
Weed Deliveries, Reddit drama, Chris Sale's temper tantrum, MST3K and more!
Welcome to the third edition of Burn After Reading! This is my newsletter on cannabis (and other things). You can check out last week’s issue here.
In this week’s Cannabis Confidential, I dove into the world of cannabis delivery companies in Massachusetts.
One thing I didn’t have the space to get into in the column was the impact of what’s become known as the ‘two driver rule’ in Massachusetts, which requires two employees to be in any vehicle that is commercially transporting cannabis. As Devin Alexander — owner of Rolling Releaf, a cannabis delivery company — pointed out to me on twitter, it’s one of the biggest roadblocks for these young startup companies.
I am all too familiar with this rule from my time as a transport agent, and I can confirm if it’s entirely unnecessary. If there’s a enough product in the van to justify having a second employee in the car —or they’re traveling far enough that a driver is likely to need a break from driving at some point — then of course cannabis transporter companies should be allowed to have one more than one employee in the vehicle.
But by mandating it, the Cannabis Control Commission is putting a huge unnecessary burden on these companies that are already facing a number of regulatory barriers, including the fact that they are not allowed to perform deliveries to residences in most municipalities that banned retail cannabis sales.
Also: The CCC did reach out to me to note that you can find operational delivery business on their adult use license tracker and organizing by “license type”, and you can find out if your municipality is eligible for home deliveries by looking at their municipal law tracker.
(Although I humbly maintain that it would be a good idea to include delivery operators and their delivery ranges on the “find a retailer” page.)
I’m trying to keep track of all the former government officials in Massachusetts who have entered the cannabis industry, and my list got a bit longer this week. Former Fall River Mayor and former prosecutor Will Flanagan opened his recreational cannabis store on Thursday, dubbed Cosmopolitan Dispensary.
Flanagan is not to be confused with the other former Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia, who is currently sitting in federal prison in New Hampshire after being convicted of extorting cannabis vendors and a building owner for payments totaling $600,000.
Anyways — back when he was still mayor — Corriea gave Flanagan’s company a letter of non-opposition, a necessary step towards receiving state approval for a license.
This is pretty interesting when you consider that Corriea once accused Flanagan of pulling a gun on him to intimidate him, after then-city councilor Correia signed a petition to hold a recall election against the then-mayor.
Ah, Fall River.
To be fair to Flanagan, he was on the cannabis bandwagon before it came legal. He participated in a debate on the Question 4 ballot initiative in 2016, where we argued that we should legalize marijuana because there was billions of dollars to be made.
Flanagan joins a long line of former government officials, prosecutors and law enforcement officers who are now making money off a product that they used to criminalize, arrest, and prosecute people for.
BREAKING: You’re never going to believe this, but there’s currently some drama going down on Reddit.
This time it’s at the r/Bostontrees subbreddit, where users are starting to raise some questions regarding who’s actually in charge of the place, and what kind of shenanigans they’re up to.
This was going to be my first Burn After Reading Exclusive™, but noted citizen cannabis journalist Grant Smith Ellis beat me to the punch.
This is a hard story to report on. Why? Well, for starters, the mods keep deleting discussions of their alleged dastardly deeds, making it difficult to comprehend exactly what’s going on or what’s been said.
I thought this might happen, so I grabbed some screenshots, including some of a pdf that was allegedly sent to MA cannabis businesses by Bostontree’s mod. In the document, the mod allegedly offers cannabis companies the ability to get their content promoted on the subreddit, and even have negative content about their companies deleted from existence. All for the low, low price of $30,000 a year. Yikes.
The drama doesn’t end there. In a since deleted thread, users have also alleged that there’s currently only one real moderator of the subreddit, and that the other listed moderators are now simply other accounts controlled by this one user, who goes by the name u/mahj.
Not only is this some (alleged) scumbag behavior, it’s also likely a violation of Reddit’s terms of services. And if there’s any cannabis companies who actually paid to get these services, they could also be guilty of violating the state’s advertising regulations, which Grant pointed out prohibits companies form "advertising in such a manner that is deemed to be is deceptive, misleading, false or fraudulent, or that tends to deceive or create a misleading impression, whether directly or by omission or ambiguity."
Despite it’s flaws, Bostontrees has been one of the few resources for cannabis consumers in Massachusetts to get honest reviews on products. It was particularly valuable in the early days of medical cannabis, where there was a limited amount of options to choose from, and prices were still sky high. While it can be overwhelmingly pessimistic at times, it’s currently one of the few pubic forums for MA cannabis consumers to talk to one another.
Let’s hope r/Bostontrees emerges from this scandal stronger. If not, I’ll start my own cannabis forum, where I only charge cannabis businesses $25,000 to control content on the site. Progress!!
Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale came to Worcester this week to make a rehab start with the WooSox, in his bid to return from a rib injury he suffered in the off-season. Fans came out in droves to see him, filling Polar Park with one of it’s biggest crowds yet.
He thanked the city for their hospitality by destroying a TV and a number of items in the hallway to the WooSox’s clubhouse, irked by his awful pitching performance that saw him hit a batter and give up 5 walks in just 3 2/3 innings.
A brave patron captured the tantrum on footage by leaning over the railing and filming down the dugout tunnel.
No word yet if Sale hurt himself doing his little fit, but you can see him shaking his pitching hand on his walk back to the dugout.
For the non-baseball fans, Sale is one of most talented pitchers of his generation, but he’s only appeared in nine games since the end of the 2019 season — thanks to a number of injuries and surgeries.
(He’s also an anti-vaxer, for what that’s worth.)
Sale’s behavior would lead to his arrest in pretty much any other work environment, and it’s not the first time that Sale has behaved like a 6′ 6″ toddler.
If there’s no accountability, it won’t be his last either.
Sale offered a (half-assed) explanation on Thursday, and will be paying for the damage.
I humbly suggest that Sale spend of the $150,000,000 he’s made on some therapy, before somebody gets hurt. The idea that you need to be an intense asshole in order to be a successful athlete is a tired trope that’s been disproved countless times.
And if you’re going to have a tantrum in a ballpark, at least make it funny.
(My apologies for talking about Worcester minor league baseball for two issues in a row.)
Welcome Distraction of the Week.
Mystery Science Theater 3000!
I was always vaguely aware of MST3K’s existence growing up, but it was only about five years ago that I did a deep dive into the show’s archives. Since then, I’ve watched almost every single episode of the long running series, despite the fact that many of them are tricky to track down these days (turns out some movie makers were NOT thrilled about being featured on the program, and pulled the rights as soon as they could).
Here’s a few episodes that will serve the perfect introduction to this amazing series.
Laserblast (S7E6). A couple years ago, I had a few friends over who were skeptical of the idea that MST3K was funny enough to warrant spending 2+ hours watching a crappy B-movie. Laserblast quickly alleviated them of such fears, and is my go-to recommendation to people who are just introducing themselves to the series. As an added bonus, this movie features more than a few weed references.
Time Chasers (S8E21). Maybe I’m partial to this episode because it features the only MST3K movie shot entirely in New England, but there’s something charming about this low-budget time travel movie.
Mac and Me (S12E1). Perhaps the most well known movie to ever appear on MST3K, Mac and Me is a pretty nice introduction to the series for those to who find the series’ earlier episodes to be a bit dated.
Manos: Hands of Fate (S4E24). Widely considered to be the best episode of MST3K, I recommend you get a few other episodes under your belt before you dive into this classic. Once you’ve seen this film that many consider to be the worst ever made, you can’t un-see it.
Many of the older episodes are available for free on MST3K’s website. Seasons 11 and 12 are available on Netflix, and Season 13 is currently being released online.
New England/Virtual Cannabis Events.
July 10: Black Excellence in Cannabis Panel @ City of Boston Open Streets Block Party.
10:30-11:45AM, Seed Dispensary, 401 Centre Street, Boston. Free.
July 10: A Reggae Boat Cruise feat. Over The Bridge & The Reflections.
2:15-6:00PM, Boston. $42-50. (Just a head’s up, there’s no weed allowed on the boat. Bummer.)
July 10: 710 Summer Fest @ Mendon Twin Drive In
4:20PM, 35 Milford Street, Mendon, MA. $45-100.
July 11: Climate Resources Group: How Growers Are Benefiting from Solar Energy.
Noon, Online. Free.
July 12: Cannabis Regulatory Deep Dive: Interstate Commerce.
1:00-2:30PM, Online. Free.
Cat Picture of the Week.
Larry!
Chief Mouser of the UK Prime Minister’s residence, Larry is quite possibly the most dignified resident of 10 Downing Street in the building’s history.
With the resignation of the half-Prime Minister/half-cartoon character that is Boris Johnson, I thought it was appropriate to highlight this feisty feline who has now outlasted three different PMs.
The British tabloids have tried to slander this civil servant by accusing him of being “violent” and giving him the nickname of "Lazy Larry," but we all know that this is yet another attempt by Rupert Murdoch to besmudge the working class.
Larry’s most famous moment came when he briefly protested Donald Trump’s visit back in 2019 by refusing to emerge from underneath his motorcade, single-handedly (or pawed-edly?) doing more to stand up against Trump than the entire Democratic Party.
Larry is now 15 years old (!!!) — but his job is his passion — so he’s never worked a day in his life.