Burn After Reading IV
Different Leaf, CT social equity, lab testing, and more!
Welcome to the fourth edition of Burn After Reading! This is my newsletter on cannabis (and other things). You can check out last week’s issue here.
Before I get to this week’s Cannabis Confidential, I want to bring some attention to something else I wrote that was published this week.
I wrote a short piece about a medical journal article from the 1860’s, where a doctor describes attending to a patient who took too much cannabis tincture.
You can find it in Different Leaf magazine, a cannabis lifestyle magazine that is available nationwide. Check out this link to track down a copy, or you can subscribe at the very reasonable rate of $20 for four issues per year.
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Now that 7/10 is over, we need more flimsy cannabis holidays to fill out the calendar! In this week’s Cannabis Confidential, I suggest a few more special days to create/commandeer so that dispensaries have more excuses to put stuff on sale.
Former Cannabis Control Commissioners Shaleen Title and Steven Hoffman appeared on GBH’s Greater Boston show last night to talk cannabis policy.
As activists predicted, the Connecticut Examiner is reporting on a number of issues with Connecticut’s Social Equity rules, which are designed to give a pathway into the legal market for people impacted by the War on Drugs.
The biggest problem? Connecticut’s genius legislators didn’t cap the amount of entries that an applicant could submit to the lottery that will determine who wins a cannabis license in the state, allowing wealthier folks to stack the deck —something that basically sounds like the exact opposite of equity.
It costs $250 to submit a dispensary application, and the odds are stacked against applicants who couldn’t afford to flood the state with applications.
Any cannabis licensing set-up that doesn’t put equity at the forefront is doomed to be inequitable, and I’m sure that opponents of a fairer cannabis industry will then use Connecticut’s failures to argue that the whole concept of social equity is flawed.
The National Cannabis Laboratory Council released a report a few days ago calling for the adoption of national standards for cannabis testing.
Currently, every state has it’s own unique testing requirements for cannabis. One state might only require the THC percentage be listed on the packaging, while others might require a whole cannabis profile, for example. Testing standardization rules also vary by state, and a lack of oversight can lead to the rise of lab shopping, where businesses seek testing labs that give them the highest THC percentage, allowing them to sell the product for a higher rate (even if that THC % doesn’t fully line up with reality).
The NCLC report suggests a number of ways that problems with cannabis testing can be addressed, which will lead to a more informed consumer and an easier pathway to interstate cannabis commerce.
Sports Illustrated (Yes, SI still exists) did a story about John Amaechi, the first former NBA player to come out as gay. Amaechi is now a licensed psychologist and founder of a psychology-based consulting firm in the UK.
Amaechi has an incredible ability to break down complex issues using straight-forward language, and his insights into the lack of LGBT representation in (male) sports are particularly valuable. He is perhaps most well known for the video produced for the BBC that explained the concept of white privilege, and I always enjoy his appearances on the Dan Lebatard show. His interview with Lebatard from a while back is also a good listen.
Welcome Distraction of the Week.
This is a ESPN 30 for 30 documentary short about HawkEye, the technology that is used in tennis and other sports to assist officials with making correct judgement calls.
Don’t care about tennis? Me neither, but don’t worry!
This film quickly becomes about way more than whether a tennis ball is in-bounds or out-of-bounds, taking the viewer through a journey down the rabbit hole where the very definitions of concepts like justice, truth, and perspective are eventually questioned.
From the director, Theo Anthony:
“’Subject to Review’ is about how some images are made and why they’re made that way. It’s a film about the inescapable rift between the world and how we image that world. I hope that audiences can take this small exercise in critical curiosity beyond the world of tennis, giving audiences a little space to look differently at the world.”
It’s only 37 minutes long, and it’s one of the most visually pleasing documentaries I’ve ever seen. Check it out!
Subject to Review is available on ESPN+. Free trials are available.
Upcoming New England / virtual cannabis events.
July 15-17: Montel Williams is doing a tour of Massachusetts dispensaries to promote his line of cannabis products. Click here for more details.
July 16th: Nova Farms' Dracut Grand Opening ft. Red Man
10AM-4PM. 1274 Merrimack Avenue Dracut, MA. Free.
July 16th: Cannabis Community Market
11AM-5PM. Resinate, Worcester. Free.
July 16th: The Weed Game Show Live! Sponsored by Tree House Craft Cannabis
8PM-10PM. 333 Essex Street, Lawrence, MA. $20.
July 16th: Good Luck Comedy Presents Talib Babb @ the 420 Loft Boston
8:30PM-10PM. Boston, exact location TBA. $25.
Got an event you wanted listed here in a future issue? Email me.
Cat picture of the week.
Rowdy!
Rowdy escaped from her cage at Logan Airport a few weeks ago as her family was returning to the U.S. from an Army deployment to Germany.
After a three week hunt, she was finally captured on Wednesday.
From WBUR:
Soon Rowdy herself was on the receiving end of a chase, as her getaway set off a massive search involving airport and Lufthansa personnel, construction workers, and animal welfare advocates, as well as the use of wildlife cameras and safe-release traps. Lufthansa even hired a tracker to trap Rowdy, Sahli said.
Cat tracker is a job? Clearly I picked the wrong career. If there’s any professional cat trackers out there that want to let a freelance writer tag along, please reach out.