[Henry’s Original Holiday Wreath | Courtesy of Henry’s]
Good afternoon!
It’s awards season at GreenState, and we’re in fine spirits.
First up, we’ve debuted the GreenState Cannabis Awards 2018, featuring 215 of California’s best products, services and experiences to try in the new year. We gave best dispensary in the state to Harborside, and best strain to Purple Punch. Take a look and tell us how we did. We’re hoping you’ll use this list as a comprehensive guide to what’s cool in California cannabis in 2018. In print Dec. 17.
This weekend, the awards continue with The Emerald Cup, the world’s largest outdoor organic cannabis competition, this year featuring The Roots as the main music headliner. As organizers detail in our preview, the number of entries has dipped slightly this year, no doubt impacted by the horrendous wildfires that swept through the region just months ago. Some 6,000 to 9,000 gardens might have been burned or damaged in Sonoma County alone. The industry could need hundreds of millions of dollars in fire relief, and fundraising efforts will be as plentiful at the Cup as free samples.
As the year ends, we’re excited to look back at what we’ve accomplished and toward to our goals for the New Year, where we expect GreenState to really come into its own. Stay tuned. — David Downs
WE’RE EXCITED ABOUT
UC Berkeley’s Botanical Garden Lecture Series — The month-long Science of Cannabis Symposium in February will cover ethnobotany, genetics, neuroscience and medicine — the Garden’s first-ever series on the plant. Bring your smart questions. $40 per lecture/ $150 for the series.
MONEY | POWER | FAME
A report from Arcview Market Research suggests legal North American cannabis sales will reach the $10 billion mark this year. Via Fortune.
Posh Kauai resort the Grand Hyatt hosted the International Cannabis Business Conference over the weekend — a milestone in the industry’s ongoing march into the mainstream. Spotted: Hawaii State Sen. Will Espero, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, members of Kauai Chamber of Commerce. Plus: Grammy-award winning reggae act Morgan Heritage, Snoop Dogg’s money man Evan Eneman and National Cannabis Industry Association head Aaron Smith.
FASHION | ART | DESIGN
Food magazine Bon Appetit is at work on a branded cannabis edible, said online video exec Drake Sutton-Shearer of PROHBTD, who mentioned the Conde Naste project during a ‘Mainstreaming Cannabis Media’ panel in Kauai.
A Vancouver dispensary is struggling to keep up with orders of their popular advent calendar containing flowers and edibles for each day leading to Christmas. Via WGN.
Deck your halls as well as your stash with Henry’s Original wreaths handcrafted with sungrown artisanal cannabis. . . . Meanwhile Lowell Farms has the “Ultimate Cannabis Holiday Gift” — a $300 tasting flight.
VIRAL
Wide Open Country shares their compilation of celebrity stories about smoking weed with Willie Nelson — including Chelsea Handler and Woody Harrelson.
WELLNESS | HEALTH
VICE explains why mothers prefer microdosing with cannabis edibles over using alcohol to deal with stress in their new daily podcast, The VICE Guide to Right Now.
PICKS OF THE WEEK
STRAIN: GreenState’s Strain of the Year is the highly potent, sedative, explosively flavorful Purple Punch. . . . EDIBLE: GreenState Best New Edible of the year comes from Garden Society. TOPICAL: And our Best Topical Line of the year comes from Dr. Kerklaan.
REVIEW
Following up on its best-selling candle, Malin + Goetz’s new perfume Cannabis retails for $165 and is spicy and herbaceous — mixing bergamot, black pepper and magnoliaover a base of cedarwood, patchouli and sandalwood. Via Vanity Fair.
FOOD | TRAVEL
Alchemy Food Co. founder Ashlae Warner explains how dosing with edibles may lower sensitivity towards foods with gluten. Via MindBodyGreen.
Fresh off their 2017 success, the folks behind the Wine & Weed Symposium announced they will be returning with two events in 2018.
NEWS
A group of conservative organizations wrote a letter to congress urging them to keep protections on state legalization rights from federal interference. Via Marijuana Moment.
HEALTH & WELLNESS
Did alcohol sales fall 15 percent after states enacted medical marijuana laws? A new working paper from researchers at the University of Connecticut and Georgia State say so. . . . “a solid body of evidence points to that conclusion,” Washington Post writes.
HIGHLY DUBIOUS
The CEO of a large cannabis testing lab in Oregon stepped down after being outed for allegedly running neo-Nazi social media accounts; via the Oregonian.
READ THIS
The Leafly Guide to Cannabis: A Handbook for the Modern Consumer is perfect for anyone new to buying legal marijuana. . . . Cannabis Pharmacy: Preeminent author Michael Backes is back with a second edition of his best-in-class compendium on how to use cannabis medicinally.
WATCH | PLAY | LISTEN
Keep calm and bake off — ABC’s The Great American Baking Show returns for its third season. . . . Margot Robbie takes on a serious albeit humorous role as the controversial Olympic ice skater Tonya Harding in the Hollywood biopic I, Tonya. . . . SyFy’s new TV series Happy! featuring Patton Oswalt adapts an ultra-violent comic book about a hitman guided by a little girl’s imaginary friend in order to save her from being abducted.
FOLLOW
@broccoli_mag — Cannabis gets a Paris Review treatment courtesy of these high magazine designers.
@wickandmortar — Where cannabis brands go to up their design game.
@sherbinskis — Follow one of the most excellent cultivators in California.
Best wishes for a relaxing, rewarding weekend, David Downs + Oscar Pascual
How’d we do? Send Field Guide tips, exclusives, comments and concerns to ddowns@sfchronicle.com