Is New Zealand cooling on cannabis?

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Montana could be looking at an extra $50 million a year in tax revenue if voters decide to legalize adult-use cannabis during this year’s election. 

New Approach Montana, the advocacy group that successfully placed the legalization initiative on this year’s ballot, commissioned the Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) to estimate the economic impact of legal weed sales. Predicting the exact amount of weed that might be sold is tricky, but the BBER used data from federal drug use surveys and other adult-use states to estimate the state’s demand for legal pot.

“Our independent research utilized the extensive survey-based data that is publicly available, detailing the frequency of cannabis use of both Montana residents and visitors to give us a good understanding of potential tax revenue on legalized retail cannabis sales,” said BBER director Dr. Patrick Barkey in a press release reported by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

“We found that the total size of the market which is as you can imagine, not directly measurable since cannabis other than medical is not legal in Montana,” Barkey explained to KGVO radio. “So the total size of the market in the next four years or so is projected to grow slightly, but it’s around 30 metric tons, which is a pretty good sized marketplace.”

Although it is currently illegal, recreational pot remains popular in the Big Sky state. According to the 2017-8 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 14.3 percent of Montanans aged 21 or older said they got high in the past month. This rate is slightly higher than the national average of 9.8 percent. 

If voters approve the bill, legal sales are expected to begin in 2022. The BBER estimates that sales could reach $217 million during that first year of sales and climb to $260 million by 2026. The 20 percent sales tax imposed by the ballot measure would bring the state between $43.4 and 52 million dollars a year. In the first five years of sales, the state finance department could be looking at over $236 million in additional revenue.

“To give it some perspective, a tax on recreational cannabis as envisioned by the initiatives would yield an income which is a little bit less than cigarettes, and a little bit more than alcohol,” said Barkey to KGVO. “So it sort of ranks in the middle, if you will, of those particular taxes. Of course, that would be new tax money for Montana since there’s currently very, very little.”

Montana legalized medical marijuana in 2004, but state lawmakers passed a law in 2016 that limits each dispensary to only serving three patients. And even though there are only 35,000 registered patients in the state, this law has forced a large number of dispensaries to open, and the city of Missoula now boasts the largest number of dispensaries per-capita in the US.

Celebrity endorsements have long served as an effective marketing tool for brands looking to reach large target audiences in a single swoop. 

For normal, federally legal industries, like sports, fashion, and beauty, it’s a straight shot from the celebrity or influencer endorsement to the pipeline of consumerism. Unless a Kendall Jenner/Pepsi-esqe fiasco occurs, there’s little risk for the celebrity or the brand in terms of backlash. Everyone makes a ton of money and voila.

But what happens when the industry itself is not only federally illegal, but occupies a polarizing space in the matrix of public acceptance? In addition, what if the audience of this industry was largely composed of a wary subculture eager to expose the celebrity, as well as the brand, for being inauthentic, illegitimate, or worst of all, uncool?

Celebrity marketing in cannabis requires a unique approach to the idea itself, as well as a unique celebrity to ensure a brand or product’s success. 

Aside from a countercultural fanbase, the celebrity needs to be viewed as knowledgeable and heavily involved in creating the cannabis products themselves. If not, the collab will be viewed as bandwagon-hopping,  making both the celebrity and the brand the butt of every joke in the weed world. 

It’s not enough for a rapper to simply slap their name on a pre-existing strain and call it a day. That’s been done to death. To make a splash and gain the industry’s respect, the celebrity either has to start their own cannabis brand, or partner with a pre-existing brand, and work with them from the ground up. Because of this, the celebrity cannabis market has become an autonomous market of its own, one that all but exists outside the bounds of the normal cannabis world. 

How celebrity cannabis brands find success

The success of a celebrity brand is ultimately determined by its authenticity, something stoners are specifically keen to detect. Cannabis has one of the most predominant and long-lasting subcultures in American history, and it’s currently more vulnerable than ever to be exploited and infiltrated by the mainstream for a quick buck. 

To be taken seriously, celebrities — who are defined by their success in mainstream culture — must prove their validity outside of the very culture they represent. In other words, they need to establish that they are here to respect the legacy and add to the subculture, rather than using their image to pander to consumers and capitalize off this once-marginalized plant. 

There are many instances of celebrities glibly hopping on the bandwagon, but it’s not all bleak. Here, we’ll detail some well-known public figures who’ve gracefully entered the pot game without the greenwashing.

As the celebrity cannabis market becomes an industry within an industry in its own right, the role of brand ambassador is evolving, too. First, we’ll identify the types of celebrities who get involved with cannabis, specifically public figures and household names. 

The evolution of the celebrity weed brand

The first celebrities to launch were your typical “weed celebrities.” Think Tommy Chong, Berner, Snoop Dogg, B-Real, Bob Marley’s estate, and so on. Next were the mainstream celebrities like Bella Thorne and Mike Tyson, who have only recently begun dipping their toes into the industry — likely due to public acceptance being at an all time high. Finally, we have business titan celebrities, like Seth Rogan or Jay-Z — who are viewed as weed stars in their own right — that take on major roles in cannabis projects or brands, but tend to remain largely behind the scenes. In other words, they’re serving more as CEOs, strategists, and quiet partners of major deals. 

Leonard Zhukovsky/Shutterstock

While there are a multitude of different roles and routes for celebrities to take when it comes to getting involved with legal cannabis, the most popular way is for them to co-brand with established companies. Instead of growing their own weed and launching a business from scratch, most celebrity brands use a process called “white labeling.”

White label is a term used to refer to branded cannabis products that are not grown by the brand itself. For example, some are grown by a pre-existing farm or brand, others by large-scale industrial cannabis operations. White label flower does not mean the flower is low quality, it just means the brand in question didn’t build out a large-scale grow operation to cultivate their own cannabis. 

While somewhat looked down upon in the cannabis community — in part because it’s easier to throw around some cash and parachute into the industry, as compared to committing to the culture and paying your dues over many years — white labeling is an extremely popular practice. The overhead involved with growing your own flower is staggering, and few new brands have access to this kind of capital or the knowledge to properly cultivate the plant with success. 

White label or not, a celebrity brand’s legitimacy and success are dependent on not only the celebrity behind the concept, but their intentions as well. Just ask cannabis entrepreneurs Tommy Chong and System of a Down’s Shavo Odadjian, both of whom are here to elevate the celebrity market into something worth smoking.

The celebrities in the modern cannabis market

“It’s like the gold rush back in the day,” said Tommy Chong on the state of celebrity involvement with the cannabis industry. “There’s a lot of them, and it’s not just celebrities. It gets even worse. The former Republican Speaker of the House [John Boehner], DEA agents, even cops who spent their lives chasing down sellers are now becoming sellers themselves.”

Per usual, Chong’s right. It’s a new weed world out there and people are cashing in, regardless of how they really feel about the flower or if they were part of the culture prior to legalization. John Boehner went from being “unilaterally opposed to the decriminalization of cannabis,” to sitting on the board of Acreage Holdings, one of the biggest legal companies in the world, ultimately raking in a rumoured 20 million when mega company Canopy Growth acquired the business in 2019, as reported by the New York Times. 

Not all of these tales are quite as blood boiling, though. Take wildman boxer, Mike Tyson, who went from biting off ears to building a 420-acre cannabis theme park called Tyson Ranch, in tandem with his own cannabrand. Tyson’s original celebrity image may not be associated with weed, but today he claims to smoke upwards of $40,000 worth of weed a month. 

Caliva

There’s also Jay Z’s position at Caliva as Chief Brand Strategist, or Al Harrington’s equity-minded approach to cannabis with POC-run canna-brand Viola. And there’s endless rapper collaborations like Collins Ave by Rick Ross and Ooh La La by Run the Jewels happening over at Cookies, which is a celebrity brand in its own right due to its founder Berner’s beginnings in the Bay Area rap scene. 

The popularity of these brands and collabs in the cannabis industry are due to two factors: the celebrities are already respected in the weed world, and they actually know their shit. For a real stoner-consumer, nothing is as easy to spot as a poser celeb who doesn’t actually toke.

What makes a “good” celebrity weed brand?

When we talk about “good” cannabis brands, we’re not talking solely about monetary success. To wit, Chong believes the purity of a celebrity’s intentions will determine their success in the business. “My big hero in commerce is Paul Newman,” said Chong. “He got in the business because his salad dressings were so awesome that his daughter said, ‘oh, we got to sell this.’ Then Paul said, ‘okay, but all the money will go to charity.’ And as a result of that attitude, Paul Newman is one of the biggest distributors on the planet. And that’s the same thing as the Tommy Chong brand, and Cheech and Chong. We were never in this game for the money. We were always in it for the love of the product, and how weed helps people.” 

If any celebrity brand embodies the wisdom of Tommy Chong’s prerogative, it is without a doubt 22Red, the truly spectacular flower and vape company founded by System of a Down’s frontman Shavo Odadjian. 

“I don’t want to be that celebrity brand. I never did,” Odadjian told Weedmaps. “It just happens to be that I am a celebrity, or whatever I am. It sometimes plays against me because of all the celebrity brands that just put their name on something and don’t even smoke. They OK anything just to make a buck. I probably care too much, because we haven’t even made any money yet at all.”

Gina Coleman/Weedmaps

Odadjian goes as far as personally testing every batch of every strain that goes into a jar of 22Red. “I need to at least smoke some of it and make sure it’s OK for us to put in our boxes,” he said, “to which some people might say, are you crazy?”

Crazy he is not. When it comes down to it, a good celebrity brand is defined by its authenticity. But looking beyond the celeb cannabis market, what does this fervor of celebrity involvement mean for the cannabis industry itself? 

How celebrities shape public opinion on cannabis

The rising tide of celebrity endorsements in cannabis is a sign that weed has reached the final stages of public approval, and serves as a good marker for the growing cultural validity of cannabis itself. 

The purpose of the entertainment industry, and the glittering stars who give it power, is not only to entertain, but to sell things and to perpetuate capitalism. Now that weed has been deemed socially acceptable, they’re selling that, too. It’s a double edged sword, as celebrities validate cannabis with their involvement, cannabis validates celebrities in terms of subversive cool points. The most important thing for the brands as well as the consumers is that a level of integrity remains intact. And that’s the one thing branding can’t fake. 

“I just don’t want my brand to ever get diluted,” Odadjian concluded. “Anyone could have a brand right now. There are countless grows out there who will white label anything. My main concern is not being one of those.” 

Amen. 

Featured image by Tinseltown/Shutterstock

The post Why do we love (and love to hate) celebrity weed brands? appeared first on Weedmaps News.

With COVID keeping everyone inside a lot more, a new poll indicates that a combination of two of the most popular adult indoor activities — cannabis use and sex — has boomed in popularity during the pandemic.  

The survey, conducted by weed site Eaze and human relations media institution Playboy, reports that two-thirds of participants said they have increasingly used pot to enhance intercourse during coronavirus shelter-in-place periods.

Specifically, 32.9 percent of respondents reported they paired cannabis and canoodling “very often;” 29 percent reported they did so “sometimes;” and 14.4 percent said they “always” did it (we know who we want to party with). In addition, participants reported a 5.6 percent rise in orgasms while stoned during sex.

From there, the numbers keep coming (ahem). 22 percent said they were “extremely satisfied” when enjoying high-quality sexual alone time, an increase of 18.7 percent compared to before the pandemic. 35 percent, meanwhile, reported they were “extremely satisfied” using bud to boost sex with someone else, a rise from 33.2 percent.

In terms of how respondents ingest green prior to getting it on, the survey reports COVID-era surges in the use of edibles (up 13.8 percent), vaping (up 4.3 percent), joints and pre-rolls (up three percent), and topical use (up a whopping 100 percent!). Flowe-use reportedly dipped 10 percent, while the figures for tinctures, capsules, and concentrates held steady.

The survey, formally titled “Cannabis and Sexual Satisfaction During the Covid-19 Pandemic,” compiled information from 827 self-identified U.S. weed consumers. Participants were asked to compare their cannabis use and sexual behavior prior to the coronavirus versus how they intermingle getting lit and getting lucky now.

The poll is also part of a recently announced joint endeavor between Playboy and cannabis advocacy organizations and weed-related businesses.

In a statement regarding the new undertaking, Playboy Chief Marketing Officer Rachel Webber said, “Since its inception, Playboy has fought for cultural progress rooted in the core values of equality, freedom of expression, and the idea that pleasure is a fundamental human right. For far too long, our nation’s policy toward cannabis has been backward and punitive, leading to decades of injustice in our legal system and to social stigma and shame.”

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After revolutionizing the CBD and Kratom industries, Savage Enterprises is upending the cannabis-derived products game all over again with Delta Effex — a brand new undertaking dedicated to the hottest new material on the market, Delta 8. 

When we recently noticed the buzz surrounding Delta 8 — but Delta Effex’s product, in particular — one thing came to mind: What exactly is Delta 8? Is Delta 8 somehow a less potent molecule than Delta 9 THC? And what does Delta 8 feel like? The questions kept coming. 

Since Delta Effex got us wondering about Delta 8, we went right to the source for the answers. Savage Enterprise’s Alfredo Gomez took the time to bring us up to speed on Delta 8, Delta Effex, and how this remarkable compound can further enlighten the entire planet.

MERRY JANE: First things first, what is Delta 8?

Alfredo Gomez: Delta 8 THC is a powerful cannabinoid native to the hemp flower. Delta-8-THC is an isomer of CBD, which is a derivative of hemp and CBD, a cannabinoid found in hemp, and is found in our products with less than 0.3% Delta-9-THC. In other words, Delta 8 THC is sort of a middle ground between hemp, CBD, and THC-Delta-9. 

What can customers expect to experience when they use Delta 8?

Delta-8 THC is a psychoactive cannabinoid that will get you high. The effects are different from person to person. The most common report of effects is that it offers a more clear-headed high compared to Delta-9 THC. 

Some users have reported a motivating and energizing high when taken in low doses, and more sedative effects when higher doses are taken. 

Also, it’s been stated that the users’ cognitive abilities are a lot better on Delta-8 THC in comparison to Cannabis (Delta-9 THC); and they still experience a euphoric feeling.

How did Delta Effex 8 get started? 

Delta Effex got started when the owners of Savage Enterprises — our parent company — decided to expand into more alternative lifestyle products. Delta-8 THC seemed to be the perfect fit because not too many people have heard of it, and it’s still in its infancy stage. Our mission is to provide professionally made and responsible products to consumers.

Who is the typical Delta Effex customer?

Typical Delta Effex customers are people who are CBD users but don’t like Delta-9 THC because it’s either too strong or gives them anxiety. Also, they’re cannabis users who enjoy the psychoactive feeling but don’t like the fact that it impairs their cognitive functions. They turn to Delta-8 THC for the mild stimulation.

How do customers use Delta Effex? 

Delta Effex customers need to have a Vape 510 thread battery style device with a built-in airflow. This hardware is available at most local vape shops or dispensaries. We do not carry that hardware. 

Our carts are not refillable so they would dispose of the cartridge once it’s finished. Another thing to note is that our cartridges ohm out at 1.6ohms and for best results keep it between 5-10 watts.

What makes Delta Effex products so particularly effective?

What makes Delta Effex products so effective is the method of use. Anything that is vaped or smoked has a quicker absorption rate when compared to edibles or topicals. This means that the Delta-8 THC is delivered quickly into your system when inhaled. 

You are also avoiding combustions that are produced when you smoke anything. Therefore, our products produce less lung irritation or discomfort because you are not smoking anything, you are consuming the vapor produced from Delta-8 THC.

What specific strains are used by Delta Effex? 

The strains that we carry include Grand Daddy Purp indica, Strawberry Cough sativa, and Cali Orange Kush hybrid. We chose these strains because we wanted to have a little bit of everything that people can enjoy regardless of what their preference is. If you’re looking to relax we have Indica, if you’re looking to keep moving throughout the day then we have Sativa, or if you want a little bit of both then we have a hybrid strain.

What’s next for Effex Delta 8?

We will be launching new products in the near future which include Delta-8 THC pod and a Pod Device strictly for our Pods. Also, we have more Delta-8 THC products in the works but are only ideas at the moment.