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I’d like to start with a big shout out to Donnie on Twitter who found last week’s inevitable typo. Going forward I will not be letting my wife proof read the newsletter, and I’ll give a Free Smoke hoodie to the first reader to expose a typo every week. The only condition is you have to do so publicly on Twitter or LinkedIn. If I do say so myself, it’s nothing short of impressive how quickly this newsletter has gone from making me no money at all, to costing me 1 hoodie per week. Let’s get into Free Smoke:
“I was known for snappin’ when I chat before the app,
Stood on everything I said and never took it back”
– Drake, No Friends In The Industry
Child resistant packaging sucks and I love it
It blew my mind the other day when I did the math – I’ve been in recreational cannabis for 6 years now. For years I lost sleep over the child resistant packaging requirements – not because I can’t open a gummy bag to save my life – but because of the sheer amount of plastic waste it creates. On my watch, millions and millions of doob tubes have gone into the landfill. Early on we tried to do a recycling program for these tubes specifically but after collecting and cleaning, I don’t think it was a net positive.
In my humble opinion, joints don’t need a CR package. Any kid who accidentally takes a bite of a preroll probably won’t get much further than that first nibble, and the trim most these brands are putting in their joints wouldn’t do much anyway. To this end, Oregon recently removed the CR requirement for flower and prerolls – which is a big win for common sense.
Brands and cost models everywhere hate CR packaging because in addition to creating more waste, they cost more every time. For context a blank 3.5″x5″ mylar from 420 Packaging is $.05, and a comparable CR is $.11. Whether a mylar, a lid for a jar, or a cap for a bottle – a CR version always cuts into your margin more than its normal counterpart. Let the record reflect I’ve got better pricing than god on this stuff, but the plastic still sucks.
As always the rules vary by state, but in general everything needs to be child resistant (or leave the store in something that is) and as a parent, I get it. A THC gummy is a gummy every day of the week. My 1,000mg tincture comes in the same bottle as my daughter’s nightly fluoride (keep the conspiracy theories to yourself). After years of frustration with this stuff, I couldn’t be happier that it’s all locked behind child resistant packaging. At the time of writing there is exactly zero edible weed in my house for the 3 year old to find, and I sleep better knowing that if there was she wouldn’t be able to eat it.
On the topic of adult consumables, and with the cost of a CR cap for a bottle of hard liquor being nominal, I don’t understand why we don’t see more of this in other objectively dangerous consumer goods categories. My mouthwash is child resistant, but my bottle of Casamigos isn’t?
- Weed ✅
- Mouthwash ✅
- Hard liquor ❌
- Psychedelics ‼️
Look, I’m as into casual psychedelics as the next cannabis guy, but mushroom products that aren’t child resistant are irresponsible and dangerous. There are no regulations on the black market, so it’s completely up to the entrepreneurs to not be careless assholes and put literal candy designed to make you hallucinate into the world without child resistance. This is so important as psychedelics start coming out of the closet, but we’re years away from regulators handling it.
In conclusion: Unless it’s something I’m smoking, long live CR packaging.
Things That Matter
- In Texas you can’t buy weed but you can sure as hell buy guns.
- Donate now to end gun violence
- Donate now to end gun violence
- Donate now to end gun violence
- Donate now to end gun violence
In The Streets
- I don’t know what league this is, but: QB throws TD pass and sparks up a joint yelling “smoking that glacier pack!” [Link]
- After last week’s issue of Free Smoke, a new study was published about the inconsistency of strains, the “types”, and terpene profiles. [Link]
- While Kevin Durant was high on Letterman last week, the Warriors were busy winning the western conference without a super team.
- The gents at Respect My Region, arguably the biggest canna content grinders out, are doing a North American tour [Link]
- California released a map showing that 56% of cities still prohibit cannabis licenses of all types. Weird. [Link]
- I dropped a thread on twitter based on last week’s Free Smoke and it got a cool 845,000 impressions [Link]
Sidebar
Stanford’s student death rate is probably nothing compared to our country’s elementary schools, but it’s up 500% over historical averages and it appears a scandal may be unfolding.
Unrelated Vibes
If you can’t tell, I’m a washed up car guy stuck in the past.
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1995 Porsche 993 RSR via @RSCMotors
Check out 2 newsletters from my best friends Oren and James:
- Product People – the art of building CPG brands w/ Oren
- Nano Flips – Buying and selling digital assets w/ James
Thanks for reading Free Smoke, I’ll see you again next Friday. Tell a friend and check out the podcast or else.
