Curio Wellness goes dumpster diving, New York considers not having a black market, weed can kill you now and new licenses issued in Colorado
It’s hard to complain about the news when a MSO gets caught selling dumpster weed. But here we go.
Time is a precious commodity here at Marijuana Venture, so when it comes to news briefs, we like let the more incremental coverage fall to the wayside.
Here is a candid, possibly even antagonistic, recap of the stories from the past week that we didn’t cover in full detail:
Dumpster doobies
Meanwhile in Maryland, Curio Wellness was fined not enough money ($26,000) for digging weed out of a dumpster and selling it to its customers. According to a statement from the company, the product was in the dumpster for only 41 hours and nine minutes, which of course does not violate the commonly held “41-hours-and-10-minute rule” where cooties would have penetrated the packaging. However, some dumpster juice did cover the original packaging and the product had to be repackaged before it was sold to unwitting customers. An employee emailed management that selling trash for consumption wasn’t a good idea, to which a now-terminated manager disagreed.
Governor proposes enforcing law
New York Governor Kathy Hochul swung by New York City to make the slight suggestion that maybe someone with authority should consider shutting down the innumerable illicit cannabis stores in the city. To be honest, I didn’t know she had to ask the police to respond to criminal activity. But I guess that’s what happens when you largely ignore a growing infestation of illegal stores since 2021. It’s not like these guys are going to go, “Oh, that’s enough untaxed income for me, time to go. Byeeee.” So now the state has to drum up support to pay for this massive black-market enema. The only question after that is where does all that Oklahoma weed go now?
Weed can kill you now
Using cannabis daily increases your chance of a heart attack by 25% and a 42% higher risk of strokes, according to a new study perfectly timed to arrive one month after the conclusion of “Dry January” and the litany of articles illustrating how cannabis is a healthier alternative to booze. However, the study published by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital didn’t really specify if cannabis use actually caused these issues or if they were preexisting, which seems important. Either way, another one of life’s joys is at least linked to potentially killing you. Have fun spinning that one.
Brighton, Colorado, arrives late to the party
The city of Brighton, Colorado, has mulled it over for about 10 years and decided to get in on this whole marijuana craze. I mean there’s being fashionably late to the party and then there’s being so late that you’re actually interrupting the few hungover people still at the house who are now busy scrubbing puke off the floor and regretting every decision they made the previous night. Still, it’s good news for the four licensees opening in one of the state’s last holdout communities. Best of luck to all of them.
Least appealing of the week
All right, just some quick housekeeping before we all get out of here: The Weekly “Meh” (name subject to change at any point I feel like it) is taking two weeks off so I can avoid sitting in a darkened room in front of a computer for 40 hours a week. We’ll talk again around March 22.
Not the worst week for parody (thank you Curio Wellness), but just because there’s no stinking logs on the surface, that doesn’t mean the cannabis media litterbox is by any means clean. This week’s not-so-buried treasures include: Illinois planning to take steps forward with social equity program; Verano Holdings reports record revenue for 2023; and a white couple from Pasadena, California, is screwing up social equity programs in several states. And in that order: At this point, Illinois could do nothing and it would still feel like a step forward for its social equity program; Who brags about losing $113 million, sure it’s a record, but it’s a really bad one; and screwing up social progress is a custom affluent couples in Pasadena hold dearly, please be respectful of their culture.