Strong weed, strong words

Good morning! Here’s a reminder about the upcoming conversation with Joe Eskenazi and local journalists. And, as 4/20 celebrations light up across the city, we’ve got a look at the business of getting high–very, very high:

• Christina Macintosh interviews staff from several Mission dispensaries, who explain that marijuana varieties bred to be high in the psychoactive compound THC now d0minate the local market. Jose Carmona, a buyer for Medithrive, likens the new generation of legal weed users to high school drinkers: unsophisticated and laser-focused on getting blitzed. Average THC concentrations have more than doubled since legalization in 2019, and many Mission dispensaries don’t even carry strains with low THC percentages. “It’s a shame that it became like that, and that’s the only thing that people look for,” said Al Shawa of the Mission Cannabis Club.

Poncho Brotherz, a family-owned dispensary, runs a farm in Humboldt that grows its own low-THC weed, bucking the trend. “There’s a lot lost to people looking at the THC percentage,” said grower Isaac Tapia. But owners and workers at other dispensaries across the Mission lament the fact that their shops have become more like convenience stores: Big brands dominate, there are standardized offerings across stores, and customers are interested in the most artificial products. “It’s amazing how quickly it evolved to having pretty much the same thing everywhere,” said Mischa Breyburg, the owner of Medithrive. “The community became an industry.”

• Did you get tickets yet for next Tuesday at Manny’s with Joe Eskenazi? He’ll be talking with Demian Bulwa, director of news at the San Francisco Chronicle and Julie Makinen, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Standard, as they unpack the murder of Bob Lee and media coverage of crime in San Francisco.

In an interview with our executive editor Lydia Chávez, Joe shares his anger about the political exploitation of Lee’s death. He also explains how he got the scoop about the alleged killer, another tech executive: “Remember the 1999 movie Election?” said Joe. “Remember how the Matthew Broderick character is caught rigging a high-school election by a janitor who found the ballots he tossed in the garbage? It helps to talk to the janitor.”

More tomorrow,

Sara

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