🌿 The Biden family goes weed shopping

Happy Weed Wednesday. Thanks for checking out the newsletter that makes you smarter about weed in 4 minutes and 20 seconds or less. Here’s what we got for you this week:

  • Weed shopping: Joe Biden's daughter-in-law goes shopping in Malibu

  • Business highlights: Tilray reports record results for fiscal year 2022, Weedmaps reportedly advertising illegal businesses, Ice-T opening dispensary in New Jersey

  • Weed in the NFL: Ricky Williams shares some stories from his NFL days

  • Pot Politics: Russia responds to Britney Griner trade offer, Senator Booker open to compromise on weed reform, Nevada regulators don't support cannabis use at large events

Best of social media

Before we get to the news, here's the funniest thing we saw on social media this week. For his own health and well-being, we really hope celebrities reach out to this guy soon.

Biden family goes weed shopping

@The Daily Mail

With all the federal legalization talk over the last few weeks, it's no surprise that the Biden family is back in the weed headlines. However, this time they are in the headlines for a slightly different reason.

The details

According to The Daily Mail, Melissa Cohen, Hunter Biden's wife, was spotted visiting a Malibu dispensary during the month of July. During her visit to the dispensary, she reportedly walked out with an unidentified purchase while being escorted by a secret service agent.

Since recreational cannabis is legal in California, Melissa was not breaking any laws but the optics are not good for the Biden family. Since her father-in-law, Joe Biden, has done very little to fulfill his cannabis related campaign promises, it's odd seeing someone in his family purchase a product that continues to imprison thousands of people across the country. It's also pretty odd to have a federal secret service agent escort her to purchase something that is federally illegal.

Since fake news is everywhere these days, the team at Marijuana Moment asked The White House to fact check whether The Daily Mail article is accurate and Melissa actually did purchase weed with a secret service escort. The White House has yet to respond to their request.

We're not experts in this area but based on pictures in The Daily Mail article, the bald guy following her all over the place definitely looks more like a secret service agent than a random friend. After all, the article did mention that the secret service is renting a Malibu house for $30k a month right next to the house that Hunter Biden and Melissa Cohen are renting for $20k a month. Optics seem to be overrated to the Biden family.

As bad as this looks, at least it appears like Hunter Biden is smoking weed these days instead of crack.

Business highlights

  • Tilray reported record results for fiscal year 2022

  • Reports claim Weedmaps is advertising illegal dispensaries

  • Ice-T is opening a cannabis dispensary in New Jersey

  • Leafly launching cannabis data sharing program to help with research

  • Illinois reports significant increase in cannabis tax revenue

Ricky Williams shares some NFL weed stories

If you know Ricky Williams, you know he loves two things: weed and football. And if you didn’t know Ricky Williams, now you do.

Before playing in the NFL for 11 seasons, Ricky was a star running back at the University of Texas. During his senior year in college, there were two really important things that happened in Ricky’s life: 1) he started smoking weed regularly after finding out his ex cheated on him with the backup quarterback and 2) he won the most prestigious individual award in college football - the Heisman Trophy. Hard to say which of those things was more important, but one thing is for sure - choosing weed over his ex was the right decision.

It’s no surprise that Ricky and many other NFL players love weed. According to Martellus Bennett, up to 89% of players smoke weed. But Ricky did surprise some people with some of the wild weed stories he recently shared.

The details

One of the stories that Ricky shared with USA Today included a blunt, some Vicodin and a Hall of Famer.

“My rookie year, a Hall of Fame player on the team, he’s in the Hall of Fame now, invited me over to his house and he gave me the speech about how to take care of yourself in the NFL. And he pulled out some cannabis, crushed it up, split a blunt, opened it up, put the cannabis in there, took a Vicodin, crushed it up, sprinkled the Vico in there, rolled up the blunt and passed it to me. That was a vet, teaching me as a rookie, how to take care of myself in the NFL.

Another story was about brownies being passed around the Baltimore Ravens locker room.

“My last year in the NFL, I was playing for the Ravens,” Williams said. “And one point we were in the playoffs and I was leaving the facility and there were guys coming in with a plate full of ‘brownies.’ They [were] going to go watch film, so yeah…”

Even though Ricky didn’t win any titles on the field in the NFL, he definitely holds the title for best weed stories. We’re also willing to bet he prob holds the title for most weed smoked by an NFL player.

Pot politics

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Quick hits

Meme of the Week

Before we go, here's the best meme we saw this week. If you like need your job, be careful with your edible timing.