by
Dan Mitchell on August 5, 2020
For all the struggles the cannabis industry is facing—slim or nonexistent margins, illicit sales, the enormous costs of running a dispensary—the industry has nevertheless exploded. One can only wonder how huge it would be if the federal government were to legalize weed.
There are now more cannabis industry workers than there are computer programmers, Marijuana Business Daily reported last week as it issued its annual Marijuana Business Factbook. While there are many caveats to this (programmers make a lot more money than budtenders, for example) that’s an astonishing fact given that pot is legal for adult use in only 11 states, and medical marijuana is legal in only 33.
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Earlier today I had to call 911 from the brand new VTA/BART Berryessa station. When the operator asked me for the address, I could only give the bus stop ID number because it didn’t have a street address and there wasn’t one listed at the building. Fortunately, help had been called but there was a sincere problem. One: Why don’t 911 operators know the 511 Bay Area stop ID numbers. Two: When I called VTA to ask about it the initial response was to have the call routed to BART police BUT the problem was when BART police did show up the officer said the bus stop was NOT his jurisdiction. Third : while I was trying to figure out the bus stop address I asked a VTA transit operator and they did not know guessing it was 931 on the side of the building this conflicts with the information I just received from VTA customer service showing the bus stop as 1601 ??? Third: yes, BART police would be helpful INSIDE the BART station but this was a medical emergency for an ambulance -isn’t this a NEW facility for both VTA and BART (where’s the defibulator? ) finally, while this happened where was the alwaysabsent except for events VTA Security Allied Security officer? Fortunately the woman did get medical help and I went on my way but in the event of a more severe emergency what is the address?
I Saw You is an anonymous “man on the street” column. Email your rants and raves about co-workers or any badly behaving citizens to [email protected], or send to 380 S. First St, San Jose, 95113. Submissions should stick to about 100 words.
by
Dan Mitchell on July 1, 2020
People tend to think of the cannabis world as populated mainly by liberals. Most pot people do lean liberal. But the truth is that every political worldview is represented in weed.
Even MAGA: over the weekend, Andrew Kyle of Dallas, who identifies himself as a “cannabis expert consultant” on LinkedIn, posted on that site: “Lots of blame for the rising China virus cases. Yet no one seems to blame the protests and riots.”
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by
Dan Mitchell on June 24, 2020
A few weeks ago, the racial inequities of cannabis (both the illegal and legal kind) blew up amid the protests and riots following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Large groups of looters broke into nearly every dispensary in Oakland.
Debby Goldsberry of Magnolia Wellness, a dispensary that was hit especially hard, thinks the crimes were very much a part of the protest. She said this the day after her shop was smashed to smithereens and put out of commission for at least several weeks. According to Goldsberry, the glee evinced by the looters on the security-camera footage (“they danced on the desks,” she said) showed that they were making a statement, not just burgling the place.
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by
Dan Mitchell on June 17, 2020
Last week, several dispensary owners in Oakland, who have been plagued by a string of robberies, kicked around ideas for improving security. One of those ideas: allowing owners and employees to pack heat.
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by
Mike Huguenor on June 17, 2020
Last Friday, The Chinkees, Mike Park’s all-Asian ska-punk band, unexpectedly put out their first new set of songs in 18 years. K.A. Music, the blazing four-song EP, was released by Park’s Monte Sereno-based Asian Man Records and quickly sold out of its initial vinyl pressing.
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by
Dan Mitchell on June 10, 2020
People are finding all kinds of things to do while they’re stuck at home: binge-watching Netflix, playing board games, doing jigsaw puzzles, learning a new instrument.
And many are growing pot, often for the first time. So many, that the companies that supply home-growers are having a hard time keeping up.
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by
Dan Mitchell on June 3, 2020
Over the weekend, one or more large groups of armed men targeted and robbed a long list of Bay Area cannabis dispensaries in what appears to be a long-planned spree.
Remarkably, most of the dispensaries in Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland seem to have been hit, reportedly along with some manufacturing and cultivation facilities. Some sources said every single pot retailer in Oakland was targeted, although that couldn’t be confirmed at press time.
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by
Steve Palopoli on May 27, 2020
Maybe we’ll eat beans and
emit noxious gases
Maybe we’ll start taking a bunch of online classes
Maybe we’ll drink lemonade every day at 5
And listen to the folk singers
on the Facebook Live
—Dan Bern
“Til The Quarantine Is Thru”
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by
Dan Mitchell on May 27, 2020
There’s been lots of chatter over what the cannabis industry might look like after the Covid-19 pandemic passes.
Most of the time, the attention is focused on how business is doing. So far, things are looking somewhere between “not bad” and “actually pretty good, considering.” Or, people wonder, will states hold off on moves toward legalization or regulatory reform as lawmakers concentrate on dealing with the fallout from the virus? In California, anyway, that’s looking pretty grim. Deeply desired cuts in pot taxes likely won’t happen until next year, if at all.
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