The Grass Guide: In pursuit of a finer high
If you hadn’t noticed, marijuana is having a moment. Legal weed’s made its way into the presidential debate, Whoopi Goldberg’s pushing cannabis tinctures for menstrual cramps, and your granny’s dosing her chamomile with CBD. Hell, even Barney’s is trying to get a slice of the pot pie.
California raked in an estimated $2 billion in legal cannabis sales in its first year, a number that could pass $5 billion by 2020. With big money flooding into a formerly black market and prior offenders still imprisoned, a debate is gaining momentum over who deserves to profit. The usual suspects -- big pharma, big tobacco, Silicon Valley -- have bought their way in while long-time growers and distributors are going broke trying to keep up with mounting regulations.
Every city, county, and state has its own set of rules for both businesses and users. What flies in Nevada, won’t necessarily cut it in California, and, with a lack of interstate commerce, there’s no guarantee you’ll get the same Girl Scout Cookies when you make it to Michigan.
It can feel like a confusing mess, but it doesn’t have to.
Think of it as the Michelin Guide for weed.
For the past six months, I’ve been working with my long-time collaborator and eternal partner in crime, Reena Karia, on something that we hope will bring some clarity to this wild new world. The Grass Guide is basically a user manual for consumer cannabis.
As the former editor-in-chief of a global media brand, I spent the better half of the last decade demystifying consumer technology and helping people find the best products to fit their needs. Transferring what I learned at Engadget to consumer cannabis felt obvious.
In any flooded market -- tech, food, weed -- people want to know what to buy and where, and they should know who they’re buying it from. So we’ve made it our mission to make sense of this booming business, while you kick back and take it all in. Over the course of the next year, The Grass Guide will bring you smart recommendations, thoughtful and thorough reviews, and profiles of the people, places, and products shaking up the Golden State. Think of it as the Michelin Guide for weed.
For now, you can expect to see daily “Hot Tips,” or quick pointers for getting the most out of your next session, and a weekly newsletter containing those morsels of advice along with announcements about what’s coming up at Grass. Later this year, we’ll explore the pitfalls and promise of recreational marijuana through our podcast, Rec’d, and teach you how to make out-of-this world cocktails with our video series, Crossfaded.
But that’s not all. With the walls of prohibition crumbling across the globe, The Grass Guide will have plenty more ground to cover in the not-so-distant future.
So, here’s to new beginnings! We still have a long way to go, but we hope you’re down for the trip.
Editor’s Note: The Grass Guide is a publication of The Grass Agency, a cannabis creative agency based in the San Francisco Bay Area.