Daisy Alioto speaks with friend of Dirt David Weiner about weed culture in 2023.
Ahead of 4/20, I caught up with a friend of Dirt, David Weiner. He co-founded Gossamer magazine (Tagline: “For people who also smoke weed”) in 2018 after stints at the Huffington Post, Digg and video app Beme (RIP). Gossamer, created by Weiner and Verena von Pfetten, is known for its top tier design and taste–which extends to pre-roll joint packaging, tinctures and even rugs (in collaboration with artist Alex Proba and ProbaHome).
Read on for Weiner’s thoughts on consumption lounges, weed-infused garlic knots, and getting to know your dealer.
Daisy Alioto: Right now we’re seeing the end of legal weed 1.0 in the biggest market (California) and growing pains: oversupply, the inflated valuation of MedMen, debt etc. What does legal weed 2.0 look like?
David Weiner: Well, “legal weed 2.0” can’t really start broadly until there’s federal legalization, or at minimum, the passage of a comprehensive cannabis banking bill that allows for businesses to operate fairly and like any other business, including those in other “vice” industries, like alcohol. Until then, we’re going to see similar boom and bust cycles of varying degrees as different states come online. Oversupply will continue and will probably never change. Inflated valuations, however, are already on the way out as early cannabis investors got burned and many don’t have an appetite for putting more money in.
All that said, I do believe there will be some innovation within the current system. What so many people fail to realize, including those in the industry, is that at the end of the day, weed is both a commodity and a vehicle. We’re still largely in the Folgers stage of cannabis. The vast majority of people just want “weed,” usually with some promised effect or dose. It’s now harder to find bad weed in this country than good. Consumer-speaking, we are not yet at the stage where a big enough demographic is going out looking for the single origin, fair trade, pour over version of weed. And unlike, say, alcohol, we may never get there.
JUST SAY NO
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