GROWING INFLUENCE

written by MALLORY COOPER

UCLA was sparking up and showing out. Neon green light oozed into the backyard party, tinting everyone’s faces a slight shade of lime. Booths of all kinds flanked the swaying partygoers: A flea market pop-up was nestled between tables offering $50 canvas paintings and cannabis-infused potato chips. The night had just begun, and energy was already running high. It was 4/20, and Cannaclub at UCLA had delivered its promise to the people.

While attendees casually enjoyed the events of the night, the party represented a shifting trend in the cannabis industry: A growing body of college students has emerged as potential consumers and entrepreneurs. UCLA is only one part of this larger change.

California legalized medical marijuana in 1996, which permitted the possession and cultivation of physicianadvised marijuana. The legalization of recreational marijuana followed in 2016, expanding general marijuana access to Californians over the age of 21 or those over 18 in possession of medical cards.

Cannaclub, founded in 2018, seeks to educate the UCLA community about cannabis use, research and entrepreneurship. Cannaclub co-director Wilson Porteus has recently focused on the organization’s social justice opportunities, such as helping expunge marijuana possession charges from Los Angeles community members’ criminal records.

“We’ve provided information about expungement to people in LA,” the third-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student said. “We’ve given them (people with marijuana possession charges) resources to see if they’re qualified for expungement because the government makes it really difficult to do.”

Along with its efforts to advocate for social justice, Porteus said Cannaclub aims to expose its members to the growing cannabis industry. Cannaclub frequently partners with local cannabis businesses, such as Cookies dispensary in Brentwood. In exchange for financial support from these partnerships, Cannaclub advertises these businesses in its newsletter and offers activities such as tours of dispensaries for Cannaclub members.

While Cannaclub serves as an on-campus liaison to the cannabis industry, its members have expanded their engagement off campus.

At The Farmacy Westwood, a select handful of employees are UCLA students by day and budtenders – experts who sell cannabis products – by night. Opening its doors in 2006, the business became the only permitted dispensary in Westwood following the 2011 passage of city-specific restrictions on dispensaries.

As a former student employee at The Farmacy Westwood, Michael Mattingly has been learning about budtending since childhood. Growing up alongside family members in the cannabis business, the fourth- year economics student gained an understanding of the chemical composition and various uses of cannabis early on. Mattingly’s budding dream of working in the cannabis business blossomed last summer when he was hired at The Farmacy Westwood.

For Mattingly, helping customers alleviate symptoms of anxiety or troubled sleep was one of the most rewarding aspects of working at The Farmacy Westwood. Mattingly added that he has advocated for the medicinal use of cannabis, as he believes the applicability of the plant can bring a better sense of overall wellness in users’ lives.

“I took a different kind of approach to being a budtender,” Mattingly said. “Instead of trying to sell the product, I was trying to match people’s needs.”

Working alongside two other UCLA student budtenders, Mattingly said his interactions with classmates as customers blurred the line between his social and professional worlds.

“I started getting recognized more as the guy who sells weed at a dispensary and less as the guy who promotes medical use,” Mattingly said. “But I’m still trying to educate people whenever I talk to anyone.”

Although Mattingly left The Farmacy Westwood in January, he remains an active member of Cannaclub as co-director of events and logistics. Mattingly said cultivating a sense of community between cannabis users and industry insiders has been a highlight of his time in Cannaclub.

Since the establishment of The Farmacy Westwood nearly two decades ago, other dispensaries have made Westwood Village their home. For Rebud, taking root in the university cannabis scene came after years of reinventing its business model and working to operate in person.

Rebud is a dispensary and cannabis delivery service founded in 2017. Although it started as an e-commerce site under the name Golden Leaf, it has since expanded to two storefronts and three delivery locations. Since opening its Westwood location in March, CEO Arman Siradeghyan said Rebud has hired two UCLA student employees.

When Rebud rebranded in 2020 to expand beyond e-commerce, Siradeghyan said the path for delivery-based cannabis businesses was relatively unexplored. Rebud distinguished itself from other businesses at the time by operating as both an online and in-person cannabis retailer.

According to Siradeghyan, one of the most pressing challenges in opening a brick-and-mortar dispensary was finding affordable real estate and obtaining necessary licensing. The few real estate properties with the appropriate licensing for cannabis businesses often charge a premium for the land, Siradeghyan said.

“Cannabis operators are paying two, three, sometimes even four times more expensive price for the rent than any other business,” Siradeghyan said.

Although Rebud is able to balance storefront and delivery cannabis sales, some companies solely inhabit the delivery niche. Without physical storefronts, cannabis delivery services use creative marketing techniques to attract customers.

Using eye-catching graphics and word-of-mouth advertising, UniBud is an enigma in the UCLA cannabis community. The mystery of UniBud stems from passedon anecdotes. The UniBud snapbacks worn by students across campus and the giant plastic joint supposedly riding atop its green delivery truck remain immortalized in UniBud folklore.

Willie Jeng hadn’t planned to be a piece in UniBud’s mass advertising machine. But on his walk home from class one day, free merchandise from a UniBud booth enticed the third-year linguistics and computer science student to sign up for an account. After his first order, Jeng received UniBud’s own form of a golden ticket: a personalized promo code.

After receiving the referral code, Jeng took to Reddit and TikTok to promote his code. The distribution of UniBud promo codes follows a chain-mail style marketing strategy: Jeng received free UniBud products for each order placed under his promo code, and promo code users then received their own promo codes. Jeng recalled how he once received 20 free joints in a day by the grace of UniBud’s promo code system. He said the ability to order from UniBud wherever and whenever he wants has made him prefer cannabis delivery services to in-person dispensaries.

The need for fast, reliable cannabis delivery has driven many companies to streamline delivery logistics. Weedhurry, a Westwood-based cannabis delivery service, is another business looking to break into this growing market with its promise of delivering products in 20 minutes or less.

Starting his cannabis business in his former college town, UCLA alumnus Kenji Kelly founded weedhurry in March 2020. Because of cannabis-specific municipal licensing restrictions, Kelly decided to keep weedhurry strictly a delivery service. Part of the appeal of this model is that Kelly can give delivery drivers a sense of autonomy over their own income by providing commissioned wages.

“When you’re commissioned, you provide more independence,” Kelly said. “You recruit your own customers. (There’s) more autonomy and independence.”

He added that the business also stands out from other cannabis delivery services because it sources all of its product in-house rather than relying on outside vendors. By only selling its own products, weedhurry affords drivers the ability to possess their own inventory and quickly fulfill orders without stopping at a facility along the way.

The cannabis delivery service model can help a business overcome real estate and licensing challenges, and in many cases, determine its overall success, Siradeghyan said. He added that Rebud has been able to accept orders from a variety of locations around Westwood, providing it with greater flexibility and business prospects.

With college students serving as a key consumer demographic at Rebud’s new Westwood storefront, Siradeghyan said he has adjusted his marketing plans accordingly. Because many college-age consumers are recreational users, Siradeghyan said Rebud will likely invest more money in marketing and education to ensure first-time customers have the knowledge to choose products wisely.

Siradeghyan also said he has considered partnering with a company specializing in providing medical marijuana ID cards in order to expand the legal purchase of cannabis to Westwood customers under 21 with medical reasons. He added that he hopes to provide resources for students seeking medical cannabis to better understand the process of acquiring medical marijuana ID cards.

“We’re trying to be mindful and trying to make it (cannabis) more accessible for those people that can’t access it,” Siradeghyan said.

Weedhurry is similarly interested in marketing to college students. Kelly said he has worked to design advertisements specifically aimed at UCLA students. Weedhurry QR codes are just one way the cannabis delivery service is making its presence known on the UCLA campus.

Cannabis companies are eager to sow the seeds for long-term collaboration with UCLA students; but for now, they are rooting their networks of support within the Westwood community.

“We’re just excited to be here,” Siradeghyan said. ♦