Coronavirus Personal Update and Coverage Roundup

I hope everyone is following the instructions of healthcare professionals when it comes to Coronavirus, it’s really important we do our best to save as many lives as possible.

I’ve obviously had this impact the projects I’d been working on scheduled for the months ahead. Most notably the second edition of the Coachella Desert Smoke-Off with L.A. Weekly and the San Francisco Cup Crawl I had planned for 4/20 with the great folks over at Emerald Farm Tours. As much as I would have loved to see these things go down on time, nothing is more important to me than the health and safety of the participants. I look forward to seeing both happen in the not too distant future.

That being said, I’ve tried to make the best of the pandemic lockdown.

Since cannabis businesses were declared essential in California, I’m one of the lucky folks still able to go to work. It’s been very cool to help people this week with all the stress flying around. Also watching one of the biggest runs on cannabis ever at CBCB firsthand right before the lockdown started was nuts. It was way bigger than 4/20 for a lot of places since people were scared they wouldn’t be able to buy pot once shelter in place orders started.

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As an employee for more than a decade at one of the oldest pot clubs in the world, I had a lot of faith the medical ethos the Berkeley cannabis scene was built on would persevere. While it got a bit crazy, there was never a gap in access for the community. I was very glad to see it only took San Francisco a day to catch up to us and get its shops back open.

I’ve also covered the Coronavirus pretty extensively in my writing. Last Tuesday on the lost Saint Patrick’s Day, I wrote about just how much pot had sold on the eve of the Bay Area lockdown for Cannabis Now. Most of the businesses I talked to said it was their record day or close to it.

Later on I took a look back at the whole week in sales for L.A. Weekly. The data for showed that while things never got quite as big as Monday again, sales were still awesome. While sales dipped at the end of the week, one thing that maintained all week were the above average size orders. People were buying more pot for sure.

I also wrote a piece for L.A. Weekly about how Coronavirus is impacting the supply chains around weed, food, beer, and toilet paper. I had a great time working on it and was able to get in touch with Charmin, Scott’s Paper Co., and The National Beer Wholesalers Association to get their take on the stability of their respective supply chains.

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As for more chipper recent things I’ve worked on.

I talked to KindPeoples in Santa Cruz about helping WAMM restart their compassion program on March 1st, the first day they legally could after a two plus year hiatus.

Also I just dropped a garden prep guide in L.A. Weekly with great input from Vital Garden Supply and Dark Heart Nursery. It came out great and should really get you in the mood to have some dirt under your nails this summer.

And finally, my patreon is blowing up. A huge thanks and shoutouts to everyone who has signed up! All the money from that goes directly into journalism and Backwoods. \

Keep Crushing!