WaPo has the latest on cannabis cookbooks, which have become very ambitious:

You could make the tower of maple-cream canna-puffs in “The 420 Gourmet.” Or infused blueberry-lemon maracons — a confection that can be hard for regular cooks to master even without the weed — from “Edibles.” Having company over? “Bong Appetit” suggests you make an infused whole sea bream stuffed with cannabis leaves, or poach a four-pound octopus in infused cannabis oil.

Jen Doll advises against edibles on the third date.
longreads

The first “bong symphony” didn’t go well.
merry jane

Hip-hop icon Fab 5 Freddy has a new cannabis documentary “Grass is Greener” on Netflix.
vanity fair

Vox explains the 420 holiday. ????At WW California, Donny asks what 420 means in the time of legalization.

Designer Jonathan Adler, who calls himself an “aesthetic libertine” has a new line of cannabis adjacent accessories. They look like ashtrays.
Refinery29

OKWhatever explains why you can’t tell when you smell like weed.

In The New Yorker, Canadian Stephen Marche complains legalization has made marijuanaweed boring:

You have not understood how banal marijuana can be until you overhear two parents watching their kids at a swimming lesson discuss how I.S.O. 9000 certification affects the marketing efforts for stocks of C.B.D.-extract companies.

He concludes: “Canada is proving, once again, the deep political power of boredom: if you want to suck the power and glamour out of drugs, let the government run them.”

A study of 250 Colorado patients undergoing minor surgery found cannabis users may require more anaesthesia than non-users. These included dosages of propofol, midazolam and the opioid fentanyl.

The study’s author said it raised questions about interactions between cannabis and other drugs.
reuters

Financial giant Bank of America initiated coverage of four Canadian cannabis stocks. Analyst Christopher Carey gives a buy rating to Canopy, Aurora and his all around favorite, Quebec-based HEXO. He gave Cronos Group an underperform rating. ????For more see WW Canada.

The Boston Globe dives into a bitter contest between three men to win the first retail license in Mattapan, a majority black neighborhood. While all three candidates are black, one has formed a partnership with Sea Hunter Therapeutics, (part of TILT Holdings), and there are questions about how much control he would cede to the multi-state operator.

While activists say can cannabis can create “generational” wealth in low income communities, the story raises the possibility that partnerships between minority entrepreneurs and multi-state operators will look more like tokenism.

While the exact terms of these partnerships are unclear, one young, black entrepreneur who has partnered with Seahunter on an Oregon shop compared himself to a “franchisee,” and described the agreement as fair.

On the west coast:

In L.A., the United Food and Commercial Workers union contributed to a report with recommendations for equity rules in the country’s largest market. See the report here.

L.A. also became the first city to sue an unlicensed dispensary. The move is seen as an effort to help licensed businesses compete against the grey market. ????For lots more see WW California.
cannabis wire, l.a. times

New Jersey Senator and presidential candidate Cory Booker (D) said he will only support REC legalization if the bill contains equity provisions for the communities most affected by the war on drugs. He is now working to include them in the STATES Act.

Booker sponsored the more liberal Marijuana Justice Act which would expunge past convictions and support investment in those communities.

He’s throwing down the gauntlet as legalization becomes more central to the Democrat’s agenda.

Also: Federal regulations to support businesses in struggling “opportunity zones” could benefit cannabis businesses.
n.y. times

Leading Canadian producer Canopy Growth, agreed to buy multi-state operator Acreage Holdings for $3.4B once the U.S. legalizes REC federally. The deal would create a multi-national juggernaurcompany with businesses on several continents and licenses in more than a dozen states.
cnbc

Vice asks ‘Which countries will legalize next?’ and predicts the U.S. goes REC in 2023.