42 Dec 29th, 2022–Jan 4th, 2023 phoenixnewtimes.com phoenix new Times | music | cafe | film | culTuRe | NighT+Day | feaTuRe | NeWs | OPiNiON | feeDBacK | cONTeNTs | The Best Cannabis Moments of 2022 BY NEW TIMES STAFF C annabis in Arizona is so much more than getting baked. It’s celebrities, an endless calendar of festivals, innova- tive new products, and a host of historic moments. There’s also a serious side. It’s big money with lucrative licenses, expunging past overzealous prosecutions, and remembering that the rest of the world doesn’t share Arizona’s love of recreational weed. (We’re thinking of you, Brittney Griner.) Here are nine moments we took note of from covering cannabis in the Valley this year. Around the Clock Pot In October, Mint Cannabis made more weed history in Arizona. That’s when their flagship location in Guadalupe began staying open 24 hours a day on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. When midnight arrived, a bullhorn sounded, the staff opened the glass doors to the store, and the first 20 patrons were rushed into the 12,000-square-foot dispensary, which is the largest in the state. They were greeted with a DJ, contortionist, food, and plenty of swag. The moment was not only a game changer for Mint, but for cannabis consumers. All-Star Weed Don’t tell Ric Flair, Mike Tyson, Jim McMahon, Wiz Khalifa, Snoop Dogg, Cheech and Chong, and Shavo Odadjian that Arizona’s billion-dollar pot market is softening. The celebs, artists, and retired professional athletes brought their brands to the Valley in 2022. They were joined by Kiva Confections and Green Dot Labs, both out-of-state companies, that announced plans to dive into the Arizona cannabis market. Why? The stuff jumps off shelves. “We sell a lot of those [Snoop Dogg- branded] strains, probably a pound or two a day just for those couple strains,” Dalyn Oakes from JARS Cannabis told us in July. Pot Expungements Prosecutors in Maricopa County routinely took a hard-line stance against low-level pot offenders. But thanks to Proposition 207, that started changing. The ballot initiative legalized recreational cannabis in Arizona and set the expungement process into motion when it passed in November 2020. Since July 2021, anyone in Arizona with a qualifying pot charge could petition the courts to scrub it from their record. By March 2022, more than 10,000 people convicted of low-level weed offenses had their records cleared. Yet advocates said that’s just a dent in the number of people who are eligible for expungement. A Big Birthday for Arizona Organix When a Glendale business became the state’s first licensed medical marijuana dispensary in 2012 — two years after a voter-approved 2010 law made it possible — it dove head-first into hostile territory. Cannabis was a different beast a decade ago, and businesses faced hostile prose- cutors and lawmakers. Fast forward 10 years, and it’s little wonder that when Arizona Organix celebrated its 10th anni- versary, the party would be a day-long affair that attracted thousands of customers, plus Cheech Marin, lowriders, swag, and of course, weed. Parties Across the Valley You might think catching a cannabis vibe is a sedate experience. You’re only partially correct. It’s also an outdoors thing with thousands of your closest cannabuds. Across the Valley, and even stretching to Sedona, festivals celebrate weed all year long. The weed-tastic fun includes the new kid on the block, Buds-A-Palooza in April, as well as the Errl Cup, which has been happening since 2015. Food trucks and free weed? Mangia Ganja has that covered as the first cannabis-consumption-friendly food truck festival in Arizona. In May, | CANNABIS | Mike Tyson, the former undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion, brought Tyson 2.0 to the Valley. Courtesy of Tyson 2.0
