Author: toker

Michigan cannabis company to close facility due to new marijuana tax

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To Live and Thrive in LA

Los Angeles has no shortage of dispensaries. Every neighborhood has one—or three—and most promise the same mix of premium flower, polished interiors and loyalty points. The Chronic, in El Sereno, has managed to stand apart by leaning on something that can’t be manufactured: history.

For decades, “The Chronic” has meant high-grade California weed. The name was embedded in 1990s hip-hop and LA street life long before the plant was legal. When founder Orlando Padilla opened his ivy-covered flagship a little more than two years ago, he built the concept around that legacy. “The mission was clear: build something for the people, by the people,” he says. “Cannabis and culture have always been intertwined—we just brought that truth into the modern space.”

The shop sits quietly on Alhambra Avenue, its black-and-gold signage a deliberate nod to LA’s streetwear and hip-hop lineage. The design is minimal but intentional: Greenery softens the dark facade; inside, warm light and gold accents give the space an easy confidence. It’s top-tier without being uptight. Customers come from the surrounding neighborhood and across the city, drawn by word of mouth and the store’s mix of accessibility and polish.

Padilla insists that the culture comes first. “We didn’t just build a dispensary,” he says. “We built something that represents cannabis culture.” His team is mostly local, and that sense of community, he says, shapes both the atmosphere and the service. “We treat customers like family because that’s how we want to be treated—we’re from the neighborhoods we serve.”

The Chronic’s ambitions reach beyond retail. Padilla is developing Chronic Genetics, an in-house line of proprietary strains, alongside a forthcoming branded collection of flower, vapes and edibles. A streetwear label, coded into the store’s black-and-gold aesthetic, is in the works. Padilla says the company plans to host cultural events and collaborations with local artists and creative types. “The Chronic has always stood for high-quality cannabis and the culture surrounding it,” he says. “We’re just showing what that legacy looks like in today’s legal world,” he adds of his lifestyle empire ambitions.

That legacy is complicated in a market as competitive as Los Angeles. The city’s cannabis retail landscape is saturated, and even well-known shops struggle to maintain relevance as regulations, taxes and new brands flood the space. Padilla says The Chronic’s advantage is authenticity—its roots in a community that understands cannabis as more than a product.

“Professional doesn’t have to mean corporate,” he says. “You can set a high standard and still keep it real.”

The Chronic has rapidly built a loyal following and a recognizable aesthetic without losing its neighborhood feel. It hasn’t reinvented SoCal cannabis so much as reminded people what it’s supposed to feel like: personal and grounded in culture. In a city that often treats cannabis as fashion, The Chronic’s success suggests that the old rules—connection, respect and good weed—still might work.

The post To Live and Thrive in LA appeared first on Cannabis Now.

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Trump’s Marijuana Reclassification Looks Set To Send This Cannabis ETF Soaring: Big Surge In Momentum

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Timothée Chalamet Raps About Smoking “4 RAWs” with EsDeeKid and Breaks the Internet

The actor jumps on EsDeeKid’s “4 Raws Remix” for his biggest rap moment yet, winking at months of internet theories that the masked UK rapper and Chalamet were secretly the same person.

Somewhere between a drill remix, an A24 rollout and the internet’s most committed inside joke, Timothée Chalamet popped up rapping alongside masked UK artist EsDeeKid. Yes, it belongs in High Times.

The track is the “4 Raws Remix.” The hook does not overthink things. Every time I smoke, I light four Raws. That’s the thesis. Whether that means four skinny soldiers or one biblical fatty is between you, your rolling tray and whatever spiritual entity watches over grinders.

Within hours of dropping, clips of the “4 Raws Remix” detonated across the internet. The video and related posts surged past tens of millions of views on Instagram, cleared 100 million on X alone, and quickly outpaced the daily audience of major live events like award shows and playoff games. This was not niche hype. This was a full scale internet takeover.

This hits stoners for the simplest reason. He’s rapping about smoking, plainly, casually, without apology. The title reads like a rolling paper dog whistle. “RAW” isn’t explained. It doesn’t need to be. If you know, you know. If you don’t, welcome to the convenience store aisle of culture where weed references are no longer subtext. They are the headline.

The video leans into it. Hoodies up. Bandanas on. Fluorescent lights. Two silhouettes nodding like it’s 2:17 a.m. and the snacks are mandatory. Then Chalamet steps forward and drops a verse that mixes self awareness, flexing and pure meme fuel. He name checks his own fame, his career arc and the movie he’s currently rolling out, Marty Supreme. It works because it knows exactly what it is.

For months, the internet insisted Chalamet was EsDeeKid. Same eyes. Same fashion instincts. Same “this guy could absolutely pull off a second life” energy. The remix is the punchline. They appear together. Masks come off, then go back on. Case closed, joke intact.

What makes this especially High Times coded is how weed functions here. It’s not a PSA. It’s not a lecture. It’s not a lifestyle sermon. It’s shorthand. Smoking as rhythm. Smoking as punctuation. Smoking as a repeated action that anchors the song the way a lighter anchors a session. “Four Raws” isn’t metaphor in weed culture. It’s a visual, a quantity, a ritual.

This is also sharp modern marketing. A24 has turned film rollouts into cultural events, and the orbit around Josh Safdie understands that humor and chaos travel farther than polished press releases. Chalamet didn’t try to become a rapper. He stepped into a lane, nodded to weed culture, delivered a verse that knows how ridiculous it is and stepped back out smiling.

That’s why stoners clocked it immediately. Weed people are professional vibe detectors. We can sense try hard energy from a mile away. This didn’t feel forced. It felt like someone having fun, lighting up the idea of “four Raws” as an image, not an instruction manual.

Will people debate whether it’s four joints or one monster cone? Absolutely. Will the conspiracy crowd keep digging? Of course. Will someone freeze frame the video to inventory hoodies, hats and bandanas like it’s evidence? Already happening.

Zoom out. An Oscar level actor is rapping about smoking, casually, in a way that lands with drill fans and anyone who knows the sound of a RAW pack cracking open. That’s weed culture not asking for permission, not hiding in metaphor, and not pretending it’s niche anymore.

Light four. Or one. Okay.

Photo: Shutterstock

<p>The post Timothée Chalamet Raps About Smoking “4 RAWs” with EsDeeKid and Breaks the Internet first appeared on High Times.</p>

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President Trump Takes Executive Action to Federally Reschedule Marijuana

“These facts compel the federal government to recognize that marijuana can be legitimate in terms of medical applications.”

The post President Trump Takes Executive Action to Federally Reschedule Marijuana appeared first on NORML.

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Column: Is the federal government finally transcending its ‘Reefer Madness’ view of cannabis?

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