There are certain US Open traditions you can count on: matches ending sometime around breakfast, New York roaring in the background, somebody arguing with a chair umpire, plus the increasingly unmistakable smell of cannabis drifting toward the courts, like someone just cracked open Snoop Dogg’s laundry bag. 

This year, apparently, the cloud is back in force. 

British player Francesca “Fran” Jones described one recent day as “one of the worst” she had experienced when it came to cannabis smoke drifting onto the courts from Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, the sprawling public park surrounding the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Asked whether it affected her during a 6-4, 6-1 win over Laura Garland, Jones delivered exactly the kind of answer headline writers dream of: “Well, sometimes, you know … when I’m hallucinating! No, I had a wee giggle to myself, and then I was, like, ‘OK, back to the point.’”

To be clear, Jones was not claiming that secondhand weed smoke had actually made her hallucinate. She was joking. The smell, however, was apparently very real. And pretty damn noticeable. 

‘It Takes You Out of the Moment’

Katie Boulter was considerably less amused.

“Down in the park courts, you do smell it [cannabis] a lot,” the British player said, adding that multiple players have complained about specific courts. 

Boulter recalled playing on Court 17, one of the courts closest to the park and by now something of a recurring character in this story. “I’m trying to focus and then it takes you out of the moment when you really don’t need distractions,” she said. “So yeah, I wasn’t a huge fan of it.”

Jones, who grew up and developed as a tennis player in Barcelona, knows Court 17’s reputation well. She recalled asking the chair umpire about the smell during last year’s tournament. 

“I said to the guy [in the umpire’s chair], ‘Is this normal?’ Because I was on Court 17, and it’s next to the park. He’s like, ‘Yeah’. I was like, ‘Well, no wonder I’m playing pretty well.’”

Maybe that has a little something to do with the fact that, on the streets of Barcelona, the smell of cannabis and the culture around the plant are hardly unusual. 

This time, she was on Court 15 and still had a cheeky recommendation. 

“Seventeen is the closest to the park. That’s the place to be, so get over there!”

Harriet Dart wasn’t particularly bothered either. 

“[You smell it] more in the park area, when I was practising,” she said. “I mean, it’s New York. When you walk around, it’s everywhere, no? It is what it is. Same for everyone.”

Court 17 has a history

The whole weed-smell-around-the-US-Open thing is hardly news at this point. 

In 2022, Nick Kyrgios stopped play during a US Open match to ask the chair umpire whether spectators could be reminded not to smoke. He later explained that the issue was more than an annoyance for him because he has severe asthma. 

“When I’m running side to side and struggling to breathe already, it’s probably not something I want to be breathing in between points,” he said.

A year later, Maria Sakkari immediately recognized the smell during one of her matches.

“It was weed,” she said.

And then: “The smell, oh my gosh.” 

Still, Sakkari made clear she did not consider it a major factor in her performance. To her, it was simply another part of playing a tournament in the middle of New York: food, cigarettes, cannabis. There’s always something in the air, right? 

That same year produced what remains the gold standard of US Open weed-smell quotes.

Alexander Zverev said Court 17 “smells like Snoop Dogg’s living room.” Hard to top that. Honestly, fair enough. 

Casper Ruud later joined the list of players less than thrilled by the ambient perfume, at one point calling it “the worst thing about New York” and saying it was “quite annoying” to be exhausted during a match while somebody was smoking marijuana just meters away.

Novak Djokovic complained about it last year too.

“You can really smell the smell, it’s not like you can miss it,” he said. “Some people are more disturbed than others. I’m not a fan of the smell either, it stinks.”

He also acknowledged the practical reality: “It’s allowed here and you have to accept it.”

Djokovic, in fact, has been dealing with this particular tennis problem for more than a decade.

Back in 2015, during a tournament in Montreal, he complained about smelling cannabis near the court. 

“Someone is smoking marijuana, I can smell it, I’m getting dizzy,” he said.

Then came the punchline: “Yesterday in the doubles match, today again. Someone is really enjoying his life around the tennis court.”

Eleven years later, apparently somebody still is. 

Can the US Open Actually Do Anything About It?

The United States Tennis Association says smoking is prohibited on tournament grounds and that it works with the NYPD and the Parks Department to reduce smoking near the perimeter. 

The complication is geography.

The tennis center sits inside an enormous public park, and controlling whatever happens beyond the tournament’s fences is not exactly straightforward.

So the annual ritual continues: tennis happens inside, New York keeps happening outside, and every now and then the two meet somewhere around Court 17. 

This year, according to Jones, there’s just a little more smoke than usual. 

Cover photo created with AI.

Source link

“The sad part was people who were targeted when there was prohibition on cannabis, those same individuals were excluded from the cannabis industry.”

By Will Hammann, Maryland Matters

When Candice Peters opened Coastal Cure Cannabis in Delmar on June 1, it was the culmination of more than two years of hard work on a decade-old dream.

And that’s a fast turnaround compared to many of her peers.

Of the 83 “social equity” licenses for dispensaries that have been distributed by the state since 2023, only 17 are currently in operation, twice the number that were open at the start of this year as more and more finally get their businesses off the ground.

In addition to the challenges faced by any wishful entrepreneur, license holders say they also struggle with unique zoning issues, limited investors and unwilling real estate partners as the still-pervasive stigma around their product hangs in the air.

“It’s been a journey,” said Peters. “And there have been a lot of long nights, and longer days trying to jump…all of these hurdles.”

Peters, a physician who had long been interested in medical use of cannabis, first sought a license after marijuana was legalized for medicinal use in Maryland more than 10 years ago. But she didn’t come away with one then.

“There were no minorities, or very few minorities that got these licenses,” she said. “They were supposed to be a very blind application process. That turned out not to be true, which is how we end up here.”

The Cannabis Reform Act, which made recreational sales legal in 2023, also created the Maryland Cannabis Administration and the Office of Social Equity. It created the social equity licenses, for new dispensaries, growers and processors who came from Maryland communities—or who attended schools in communities—disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.

“The sad part was people who were targeted when there was prohibition on cannabis, those same individuals were excluded from the cannabis industry,” Peters said. “Multimillions of dollars have been made, and no one who was affected by it, decades ago, was able to really profit from that.”

That was echoed by Malcolm Gillian, founder of the Maryland Coalition for Cannabis Equity, a trade association representing social equity licensees like Peters.

“Cannabis should never have been illegal—the enormous impact and harm on folk in arrests and everything else—I definitely want to see that be corrected,” said Gillian, who said he is a few months away from opening his own dispensary.

He said his coalition, made up mostly of self-financed entrepreneurs, works to “make sure social equity licensees have the right funding opportunities, and frankly, when they get to market, have a chance to compete,”

Gillian said Maryland’s law, and the Cannabis Administration, have “created a very healthy, very robust, legal marketplace versus other states that are still challenged with killing the illegal markets.”

Sales have increased each year since recreational cannabis was legalized in 2023, according to data from the Cannabis Administration, totaling $3.46 billion since then and hitting a monthly record in April of $105 million in combined medical and recreational sales.

“The MCA remains committed to providing a safe, equitable and accessible medical and adult-use cannabis industry for qualifying patients and adult consumers,” the administration said in a statement.

Most dispensaries in the state began as medicinal-use operations that converted their licenses to sell recreational cannabis as well. There are 99 non-social equity equity licensed dispensaries currently operating in the state, according to MCA data.

Peters noted that part of regulating the industry has been ensuring that new businesses weren’t founded or swept up by larger investors with multiple locations, sometimes across multiple states.

“The resources that these multistate operators have, I mean, they’re so far above what we have access to,” she said. “Not just financially but in who we know, who we can contact to get expedited services.

“This round of licenses was critical to, not even evening the playing field, but at least allowing us to have a seat at the table,” Peters added. “If half those licenses are bought up by multistate operators, the other half of us would never be able to compete with those numbers.”

Making sure that social equity licenses stay in local hands is just one of the challenges the new businesses have faced. Peters, Gillian and Frank Hayes, an owner of Crabtree Cannabis in Kensington, said the law requiring that 65 percent of equity is held by the qualified applicant can make it especially difficult for social equity licensees to raise capital.

Hayes, who sits on the board of the Maryland Dispensary Association, has spent time lobbying to strike a balance between attracting investors and keeping ownership in the hands of the people the special licenses were meant for.

“We’re very limited in terms of what we can do from a marketing and advertising perspective,” he said. “We’ve lobbied to try to loosen up some of those restrictions with pretty little success.”

There are other challenges. Hayes and co-owner Felicia Covel Rami, owner of a catering business and Baltimore native who won a social equity license in the state’s lottery in 2024, were renovating a former bank to become their dispensary when the state ordered work halted after complaints from two nearby churches. State regulations prohibit dispensaries within 500 feet of places of worship.

It turned out the churches themselves lacked permits, and they were forced to move. Months after filing a lawsuit, the order was lifted, and their renovation could continue.

Hayes said just finding a location was a challenge, as many landlords or their major tenants are unwilling to share space with a cannabis dispensary, even if it complied with zoning laws.

“I think there is still certainly a stigma associated with cannabis because it’s federally illegal,” said Hayes, whose dispensary opened April 14. “I think a lot of that stigma originates from the war on drugs, which in my opinion was pretty misguided on behalf of the federal government.”

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in April reclassified medical cannabis from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug. That put cannabis on the same level as pain medicine and ketamine, in the eyes of the federal government, instead of side by side with drugs like heroin and LSD.

That’s progress, said Peters and Hayes, who hope to see more cannabis research now that the rescheduling opens the door. But the order also created an uneasy future for the recreational side of dispensaries, since the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) still considers recreational cannabis illegal.

“If anything, this April decision has just created a lot of confusion,” Hayes said. “Some licensees have chosen to register and apply with the DEA, others have chosen not to, but I don’t think either camp has confidence [nor] clarity on the path forward.”

He and Covel Rami decided to register after their suppliers said they planned to do so, since registered businesses can’t deal with unregistered partners. Peters was already registered because of her medical career. But she noted that the DEA is the same agency that led the war on drugs that inspired the social equity license program and, “Choosing to trust them now, even for good reason, does cause me to pause.”

“To now include something that’s federally illegal, and submitting information to the DEA is a little frightening,” she said.

Hayes and Gillian, both of whom previously worked in California’s cannabis industry, said high taxes there in the past on adult-use cannabis had allowed an illegal market to continue to flourish. That is not the case in Maryland, which charges a 12 percent sales tax on the use of recreational cannabis, they said,

“There is no longer like a local weed guy [in Maryland], everyone just goes to the dispensary,” Gillian said. “It’s safe, it’s clean.”

“We’re in a state that has supported us,” Peters said. “I think Maryland does want us to be successful, so I’m hoping that they will support us going forward and moving through this whole process.”

As Peters moves forward, she said she hopes the unique perspective of social equity licensees can fulfill the program’s purpose.

“We’re intentionally trying to hire returning citizens, we’re intentionally trying to hire people of the underserved communities, and we’re intentionally trying to get the products out to those people as well,” she said. “I think as we destigmatize this, we’re only going to get more people that are using cannabis in a safe way.”

This story was first published by Maryland Matters.

Source link

A new annual list will name 100 Latino and Hispanic leaders shaping cannabis around the world. Nominations open Friday; anyone can submit one, including for themselves, and nominees can live anywhere.

Who are the Latino leaders cannabis should be paying attention to?

Maybe it is a founder building a company in California. Maybe it is a scientist advancing research in Brazil, a cultivator preserving genetics in Colombia, an advocate rewriting policy in Mexico, a physician expanding access in Argentina, or an organizer whose work has never once made a headline.

High Times, the National Hispanic Cannabis Council and El Planteo are launching the inaugural Latino Power 100 in Cannabis, a new annual list recognizing 100 Latino and Hispanic leaders whose work is moving cannabis forward worldwide.

Nominations open August 21 and close September 11, 2026. Self-nominations are welcome. Nominees can live anywhere in the world.

The list is deliberately broader than the usual roster of founders, CEOs and familiar names from the U.S. industry. It will consider entrepreneurs and executives, and also cultivators, scientists, policymakers, advocates, healthcare professionals, educators, investors, journalists, marketers, retailers, manufacturers and community leaders. Impact takes different shapes in different countries, and the point is to find it wherever it lives.

“Representation has the power to change what people believe is possible. The inaugural Latino Power 100 gives us a moment to look across our industry and recognize the Latino leaders who are creating businesses, driving culture, advancing policy, building communities, and opening doors for the next generation. I’m deeply proud to see this vision become a reality. When we name our leaders, we strengthen their impact and remind the world that Latino power is cannabis power.”

Susie Plascencia, Executive Director of the National Hispanic Cannabis Council and Founder of Latinas in Cannabis

Not a Popularity Contest

There is an obvious problem with lists like this. The most visible people are not always the ones having the greatest impact.

The Latino Power 100 was built with that problem in mind. Nominations are not votes, and the people who receive the most of them do not automatically make the list. Eligible nominations run through a standardized framework weighing industry impact, leadership, community engagement, contributions to cannabis and credibility in the field, and commercial relationships, sponsorships and memberships do not influence selection. A review committee drawn from all three organizations evaluates them. Committee members are not eligible for the list while they serve on it, anyone with a direct conflict recuses, and High Times retains final editorial approval over anything published under its name. The full criteria are published on the nomination page.

Commercial relationships, sponsorships, memberships and organizational affiliations do not influence selection. A review committee drawn from all three organizations evaluates the nominations. Committee members are not eligible for the list while they serve on it, and anyone with a direct conflict involving a nominee recuses from that review. High Times retains final editorial approval over anything published under its name.

Global by Design

This is not a U.S. list with a few Latin American names attached. The organizers are actively looking for leaders whose work is better known in Bogotá, São Paulo, Buenos Aires or Mexico City than in Denver or Los Angeles, and Brazil counts as fully as any Spanish-speaking country.

That is a large part of why El Planteo, a cannabis and culture publication with roots across Latin America, joined the project. The nomination page runs in English and Spanish.

“The National Hispanic Cannabis Council is proud to join High Times and El Planteo in recognizing standout Latino leaders. Cannabis prohibition has long discriminated against Latinos worldwide. In the past decades, Latinos have seized power back and become some of the most important leaders in dismantling prohibition and building a sustainable, just cannabis economy.”

Brian Vicente, Founder of NHCC and Founding Partner of Vicente LLP

Who Should Be Nominated?

The test is not how famous someone is. It is what changed because of their work.

Who created an opportunity that did not exist before? Who changed a law, or fought a bad one? Who built something that lasted? Who expanded scientific understanding, access or education? Who strengthened a community? Who brought a new voice, idea or product into cannabis? And who has been doing the work for years without anyone outside their city noticing?

Nominees must be at least 21, identify as Latino, Latina, Latinx or Hispanic, and have made meaningful contributions to the legal cannabis industry or the cannabis movement. If selected, they will be asked to provide a rights-cleared image and confirm permission to publish. Images are optional at the nomination stage, and nobody should be uploading photography they do not have the rights to.

The inaugural Latino Power 100 will be announced during Latino/Hispanic Heritage Month.

Submit a nomination for the Latino Power 100. Nominations close September 11, 2026.

Editor’s note: High Times is a partner in the Latino Power 100 alongside the National Hispanic Cannabis Council and El Planteo, and participates in the review committee. This article announces an initiative High Times is involved in.

Source link