This past week Caliva launched DELI, a new cannabis retail concept in Bellflower, Los Angeles. While Caliva has tested a version of this concept with their DELI location in San Jose (an old dispensary bought and renovated by Caliva), the new Bellflower location represents Caliva’s first real retail debut, developed by them from the ground up.

Founded in 2015, Caliva has become one of the biggest names in consumer cannabis, making the news most recently when Jay-Z hitched his wagon to the flower giant as Chief Brand Strategist. The brand is vertically integrated, involved from growing to distribution. By managing every step from seed to sale, Caliva is able to ensure quality as well as offering a variety of pricing options between all the sub-brands underneath the Caliva umbrella.

DELI is their latest project, reimagining cannabis retail through the lens of an old school bodega or delicatessen; with the best flower behind those classic curved window counters, a nostalgic neon-and-tile design and even, an actual numbered ticket dispenser and display, akin to a real deli.

But don’t let the wistful approach fool you. DELI is without a doubt, a new-school dispensary. This is apparent in the way they obfuscate the waiting room experience with floor-to-ceiling windows and the numbered tickets, but mostly in their upfront placement of product on shelves.  They’re certainly not the first to do so, following in the footsteps of many other new-school dispensaries sprouting up across SoCal, but as the first brand to really lean into a theme in design and concept, the combined effect is a tangible upgrade over the cannabis retail landscape today.

When you walk in, you’re greeted with a couple of sign-in screens before being allowed onto the main floor. From here, you’re free to peruse the shelves, all filled with actual product, stocked all the way to the back of the shelf like a grocery store. Many dispensaries don’t give you direct access to the product and require a budtender to retrieve products on request. Some dispensaries only display demo products, with only empty packaging. While these can seem like tiny distinctions, these small steps drag cannabis retail into the 21st century, opening up the understandably intimidating market to new and curious consumers.

DELI does sell a house strain by the ounce in their custom tea tins (a great, versatile reusable container!) that you can handle on the shelf yourself, but if you want to dig into their full range of flower, you will have to approach the deli-style counter. This is where the numbered tickets come into play, a familiar system for anyone who’s ever bought a sandwich. If it’s particularly busy and you’re waiting for a budtender, grab a number and browse at your leisure until your number comes up on the classic red LED display. Once it does, a trained and knowledgeable budtender will make sure you walk away with the products that best serve your needs.

As mentioned, Caliva is one of those super brands that contains a bunch of smaller brands, so they stock everything that lives underneath the Caliva umbrella. They’re probably the only brick-and-mortar spot in this part of the state to offer their full house suite of flower, pre-rolls and topicals. This includes their main Caliva brand flower, Fun Uncle flower at a slightly lower price point, Reef Leaf flower for the lowest (5 grams for $20? Absurd.) and their more high-end Bad Apple flower line. Aside from their DELI single pre-rolls, Caliva also offers their popular Toasties, cigarette-style pre-rolls that come in packs of 4 for a mere $15, or their Dogwalkers, mini portioned pre-rolls perfect for short outings. Of course, they’ve also got all the other big name brands we’ve come to expect at any Southern California dispensary.

In short, it’s worth coming to check it out simply for the novelty of the concept. The clean design and execution give a glimpse into the possibilities of intentionally designed cannabis retail that isn’t bogged down by legal limitations. The nostalgic feel and atmosphere also make it a perfect place to take cannabis rookie friends and family who might find other dispensaries overwhelming. If that’s not enough, the spacious parking lot and 20% first-time patient discount definitely make this a must-visit.

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Teri Reeves is not an ordinary actress.

Sure, her latest credits may include some of the most popular shows on television: 9-1-1, The Punisher, and Once Upon a Time. But not many can say that they also hold a brown belt in the ancient martial art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. If that’s not enough, Teri teaches fitness classes and offers personal training services to clients throughout Los Angeles in her off time.

But after years of working in the entertainment industry, Teri was fed up with the lack of dynamic or powerful female roles out there. In Teri’s words, “I kept getting cast as the victim. I was either a cry or die girl. Eventually, I went to my team and said, ‘I have more in my wheelhouse than this. What if I put together a fight reel?’”

Her team loved it, and the rest is history. As Teri puts it, “once I did my first stunt, I was hooked.” Now, she gravitates towards roles that portray strong females who are active and physical. According to her, “it’s always better for storytelling if the actor in the shot is the one doing their own action.”

Although she saves the truly dangerous stuff for the professionals, Teri has now been doing her own stunts for years. But when added to her already demanding schedule of martial arts and physical training, it became draining. Teri says, “I was struggling with fatigue and recovery. Muscle soreness, aches, and pains were all bothering me when I showed up to work. I didn’t want to quit, but my body was hurting.”

At this point, Teri had shaped her acting career around her physical abilities. But when the pain of overworking her body became unbearable, she had to reevaluate how to sustain such an active lifestyle: “there was a part of this year where I started to get injured more regularly and I was devastated. I thought, ‘this might actually affect my career.’”

“There was a part of this year where I started to get injured more regularly and I was devastated.”

The pain not only affected her livelihood, but her wellbeing. “I call working out my moving meditation. Some people meditate or pray, or whatever it is to quiet their mind or body. For me, I need to move in order to do that.” Because moving the body is not only essential to her work but to her mental health, finding a recovery method that worked was essential.

Of course, as a personal trainer, Teri was already incorporating the timeless recovery methods athletes know and love: icing, stretching, massage, rest and myofascial release. But at the rate she was going, she needed something more.

To recover quickly, Reeves used over-the-counter pain relievers to help her power through the sore days. After a while, she felt like she was abusing over the counter pain medication to treat daily sore muscles, fatigue, bumps and bruising. Plus, “Advil irritated my stomach.” And she’s not the only one: common pain relievers can cause kidney damage when used too frequently. It was around this time she realized, “I had to get smart about my recovery so I could continue doing the work I love.”

One day, her running partner offers an alternative: Papa and Barkley 3:1 Releaf Balm.

“I was skeptical. When he told me it had cannabis in it, I was even more skeptical because I came from a family that never encouraged it. But I was desperate.”

So, she decided to give the balm a shot.

“When he told me it had cannabis in it, I was even more skeptical because I came from a family that never encouraged it.”

“The first night, I rubbed it on my calf muscles because I had a stress fracture last year that resulted in inflammation.” A stress fracture happens to many whose lives revolve around pushing themselves physically. Impact sports like running, jump squats or martial arts (all of which Teri does daily) are usually what causes them.

According to Teri, “my calf muscles were so inflamed from the fracture that I could hardly put my heels on the ground. When I woke up the next morning, I was walking normally. I felt better. It was working.” So, she started using it on her calves daily. “Ever since, I’ve been able to recover more quickly and feel a lot less pain.”

“When I woke up the next morning, I was walking normally. I felt better. It was working.”

In addition to muscle tension, the Papa & Barkley Releaf Balm helps Teri with a host of other issues. For instance, headlocks and neck chokes are common moves in Hollywood stunt scenes, but they can result in major neck tension. Teri uses the balm after especially difficult stunt scenes to prevent neck tension and go about her day. Like all athletes, Teri must also think about previous injuries to her body and how to protect those pain points when she uses them. A few years ago, she popped a bursa sac in her knee joint. Before discovering the Balm, this injury would reoccur often with any impact. At one point, the inflammation became so painful, she had to stop training altogether.

Now, Teri has made a habit out of wearing a brace every time she trains, then rubs the Releaf Balm on her knee afterward. Since the Papa and Barkley product, Teri says “I can train as much as I want. It really does help with inflammation. And I don’t need to take Advil anymore.”

According to Teri, “the Papa & Barkley Releaf Balm is the one addition to my routine that helps me continue to do what I do with less pain than ever before. It saved my ability to work and be present while continuing to do the moving meditation work that is part of my wellbeing.”

“The Papa & Barkley Releaf Balm is the one addition to my routine that helps me continue to do what I do with less pain than ever before.”

In fact, Teri’s experience has proven so helpful in her daily routine that she now recommends the Balm to her physical training clients: “for my clients, I have some Papa & Barkley on hand in my training studio in case they want to try it. One client had knee surgery and was recovering in pain. She now uses it on her knee and it sped up the recovery process.”

Of course, Teri recommends continuing with other useful recovery methods when incorporating cannabis topicals into your recovery routine. “It’s just another tool in the toolbox of recovery. Continue to rest, ice, and follow doctors orders.”

If you want to learn more about Teri’s routine, check out her top tips for responsible workout recovery.

The post Cannabis success stories: Teri’s workout recovery appeared first on Flowertown.

Celebrities develop new business ventures all the time. The rich stay rich, as they say. But rarely do those investments ever come from a place of such personal attachment as Jim Belushi’s foray into the cannabis sector. The heralded actor has created Belushi’s Farm, a premium cultivator and brand of high-quality, Oregon-grown flower.

Belushi’s introduction to cannabis is the same as most of us: teenagers in the middle of nowhere, hoping to try something new and interesting they heard rumors about from mythical California. But his lasting relationship is a little different than most.

“Captain Jack is the smell of SNL,” the former castmember says. While the particular strain may have died out of the trade decades ago, Belushi’s Farm – Jim’s company – has dedicatedly cultivated it back into the market.

Belushi initially bought the Elks Picnic Grounds in Eagle Point, Oregon, a small town in the shadow of Mt. Mazama’s Crater Lake and about a four-hour drive south of Portland.

He repaired the picnic grounds and built a house on his idyllic river-front property where he can walk a hundred steps out his backdoor onto a bend of the Rogue River and cast a fly or two. When the farm behind him opened up, he decided it was time to add another title to the list. This time, it’s cannabis cultivator.

Forever Grateful by Belushi’s Farm – CC BY

Belushi’s Farm was then born on 93 acres of Oregon soil.

But Jim’s relationship with cannabis isn’t just recreational and business. After dealing with the aftermath of his brother John’s passing, Belushi became all too familiar with trauma and the windy, treacherous road out from under it.

He’s pointed to how many of his peers, parents, and the generations before had relied on sedatives such as alcohol (or opiates) when dealing with trauma. How veterans have come forward to tell him how much the cannabis he cultivates helps them in their wars against PTSD.

As he told Leafly, “I believe if we knew what we know about medicine today—about marijuana today as a medicine—back in the ‘70s, there’d be a lot more people alive, including my brother John.”

So Jim has been working with the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (the governing body that also handles cannabis) to try to establish a buyback program for anyone hoping to curb their opiate addiction with the help of cannabis. By, hopefully, setting up nonprofit charity popups where anyone with opiates can turn them into pharmacists or law enforcement officers and, in exchange, get the cannabis they may need.

The conversation about whether cannabis can be used to treat opiate dependency goes back centuries and isn’t anything new to the overall vernacular we see here.

But what is new is Jim Belushi’s voice, idealism, and his belief that everyone experiencing trauma should have the ability to access clean, safe, and quality cannabis to help cope. As CNN published that studies have shown CBD can aid with opiate addiction, hopefully government agencies can start to realize that maybe, according to Jim, there might be something here worth fighting for.

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