At The Apothecarium, a quaintly upscale medical marijuana club in San Francisco’s Castro District, the vibe is even jollier than usual this month. To boost holiday spirits, the dispensary is giving a storewide 15 percent discount to patrons who donate to its canned food drive, making year-end contributions to local charities and raffling off a seriously spiked “ganja-bread” house made with a whopping 80 “doses” of pot-infused butter.
“We have a whole bunch of decorations up, holiday music playing. It’s pretty festive here right now,” Apothecarium executive director Ryan Hudson said. “Why not? We are just like any other business, in that regard.”
Maybe it was just a matter of time. Now that using marijuana for medical purposes is legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia, some of the plant’s purveyors and advocates are putting a leafy slant on the winter season, a reliable sign of a maturing industry with its own customs, community outreach and commercial pull.
Nowhere is the “high-ho-ho-ing” of Christmas more evident than in Michigan and the five western states where storefront medical marijuana dispensaries have flourished. Despite the near-constant threat of law enforcement raids, some pot shops are stocking up on pumpkin and peppermint-flavored edibles, serving as toy and winter coat collection points, and extending a dazzlingly creative assortment of holiday specials and gift-giving options to regular members.
The Yerba Buena Collective, a club with six locations in San Jose, California, launched its seasonal promotions after Thanksgiving, when it offered hourly promotions that included up to half off the expensive, smokeless vaporizers pot connoisseurs covet like some consumers prize big screen TVs and up to 30 percent off concentrated cannabis waxes.
The dispensary, which is hosting a toy drive this season, has also put together a prepackaged US$100 gift box that comes with two marijuana strains, hash, four pot-laced treats, a hemp energy drink imported from Amsterdam and the buyers’ choice of an herb grinder, a pipe or a lighter-rolling papers combination.
On its Web site, it advises customers the boxes are designed for “gift ideas, sampling packs, and most importantly SAVINGS!”
In gratitude for living in a state where marijuana is easy to come by, a northern California legalization activist with a devoted YouTube following who goes by the stage name Coral Reefer organized a “Smoky Santa” giveaway for her loyal viewers. In exchange for a donation — the amounts she received averaged US$13 — 110 people will receive a marijuana-themed holiday gift bag.
Reefer, 23, said she does not use her real last name because she does not want her online social network followers to know who she really is. And she did not want to disclose the bags’ contents to avoid ruining the Christmas surprise.
“I feel, in California, we can get really spoiled with what we have, especially when I get feedback from the rest of the country how they aren’t able to partake in cannabis at all,” she said. “So many viewers are young people and they feel like there is no friend they can smoke with, no adult they know who smokes and has a regular job, no community they can even talk to.”
Adding a charitable dimension to their operations in the face of continued federal raids is another way pot outlets build loyalty and legitimacy.
Kitty Miller, who along with her husband operates a twice-monthly cannabis farmers market in Washington State, was moved by the number of regular customers she saw struggling with illness or finances this year to give a philanthropic angle to their annual fall marijuana-tasting competition. Proceeds from the event, scheduled for Saturday night, will go toward providing Christmas dinner and gifts such as wheelchairs, children’s toys and clothing for needy medical marijuana patients.
Washington residents with doctors’ recommendations to use marijuana will be asked to pay US$80 to serve as judges in the contest, which Miller has dubbed the “Kindness Cup.” For the admission price, they will receive goodie bags filled with 1g samples from the 11 growers who have entered the competition, tastes from the 27 entrants in the edibles category, 14 different marijuana salves, creams and cosmeceuticals, and an assortment of beverages.
“There are a lot of people who have suffered through hard times themselves, and the holidays speak to everybody’s hearts,” Miller said. “Harvest was a month, month-and-a-half ago for some [growers] and if at any time any of us have anything to give, it’s at this time.”
Reflecting the sophisticated tastes of experienced medical marijuana users, Millers’ market is selling 58 different holiday food products that come with an extra kick. The line includes peppermint chocolate bark, mint and gingerbread flavored cocoa mixes, and “medicated” gingerbread house kits.
China’s military news agency yesterday warned that Japanese militarism is infiltrating society through series such as Pokemon and Detective Conan, after recent controversies involving events at sensitive sites. In recent days, anime conventions throughout China have reportedly banned participants from dressing as characters from Pokemon or Detective Conan and prohibited sales of related products. China Military Online yesterday posted an article titled “Their schemes — beware the infiltration of Japanese militarism in culture and sports.” The article referenced recent controversies around the popular anime series Pokemon, Detective Conan and My Hero Academia, saying that “the evil influence of Japanese militarism lives on in
DIPLOMATIC THAW: The Canadian prime minister’s China visit and improved Beijing-Ottawa ties raised lawyer Zhang Dongshuo’s hopes for a positive outcome in the retrial China has overturned the death sentence of Canadian Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian official said on Friday, in a possible sign of a diplomatic thaw as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks to boost trade ties with Beijing. Schellenberg’s lawyer, Zhang Dongshuo (張東碩), yesterday confirmed China’s Supreme People’s Court struck down the sentence. Schellenberg was detained on drug charges in 2014 before China-Canada ties nosedived following the 2018 arrest in Vancouver of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟). That arrest infuriated Beijing, which detained two Canadians — Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig — on espionage charges that Ottawa condemned as retaliatory. In January
A sign hanging from a rusty ice-green shipping container installed by Thai forces on what they say is the border with Cambodia reads: “Cambodian citizens are strictly prohibited from entering this area.” On opposite sides of the makeshift barricade, fronted by coils of barbed wire, Cambodians lamented their lost homes and livelihoods as Thailand’s military showed off its gains. Thai forces took control of several patches of disputed land along the border during fighting last year, which could amount to several square kilometers in total. Cambodian Kim Ren said her house in Chouk Chey used to stand on what is now the Thai
NEW RULES: There would be fewer school days, four-day workweeks, and a reduction in transportation services as the country battles a crisis exacerbated by US pressure The Cuban government on Friday announced emergency measures to address a crippling energy crisis worsened by US sanctions, including the adoption of a four-day work week for state-owned companies and fuel sale restrictions. Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga blamed Washington for the crisis, telling Cuban television the government would “implement a series of decisions, first and foremost to guarantee the vitality of our country and essential services, without giving up on development.” “Fuel will be used to protect essential services for the population and indispensable economic activities,” he said. Among the new measures are the reduction of the working week in
RSS