Greetings,
Wishing everyone a very happy and safe 4/20! As you join and host festivities, it’s imperative to acknowledge the importance of the regulated, legal market as it uplifts and protects communities. A legitimate industry requires the testing of products, age verification, and ensures that businesses operate in a manner that preserves the health and safety of individuals and neighborhoods. However you decide to celebrate, DCR has created some reminders and guides for 4/20 on how to consume responsibly and what to look for in cannabis product labeling. You will find them on DCR’s blog page.
In addition, if you don’t already follow DCR’s social media pages, I invite you to start now. While it includes updates on DCR events, deadlines and policy, DCR’s social media also informs about recent cannabis industry trends and legislative news from a local, state and global perspective. Our social media presence also includes DCR’s new podcast “On the Record.” A new episode launches on 4/20. Stay informed and don’t miss out on essential news. You can find DCR on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Don’t forget to support a local, legal cannabis business! You can find one on DCR’s Retail Map, the only source that guarantees it lists only licensed stores. Again, happy 4/20.
Sincerely,
Michelle Garakian
Executive Director
Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation
The cannabis market has always felt organic: it hinges on farming, cultivation, working with soil, and the plant itself. And now, entrepreneurs James Edwards and Timothy Island are injecting a little more tech into the industry.
Think vending machine meets computer meets cannabis. The result is GreenSTOP, the company that created what the owners claim is the first multi-sided, kiosk-based, smart dispensary that can handle up to four customers at a time.
“We're at the intersection of cannabis and technology,” said Island, co-CEO and co-founder of GreenStop.
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The duo is happy to announce that the kiosks are installed at their first store, named GreenSTOP after the machine. Edwards and Island, along with a social equity partner, opened the store in December 2025 at 650 N Broad Ave, Wilmington.
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It’s been a long road. The machines were Island’s brain child about a dozen years ago. He said that when medicinal cannabis was first legalized, the excitement for him was real.
“I was always hopping around, going to different stores.” Island said. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is so crazy! You just walk into a store and buy weed!’ But I also saw some flaws in the industry and I was like, ‘You know what? I wish there was a little bit more of an effective way to shop and get weed. What if we have like the Redbox of weed?’ "
Island told long-time friend Edwards about his idea. Edwards loved it and they decided to partner up. From concept to date, the partners spent 11 years building the company. They asked a small team of college friends, some of whom are mechanical and software engineers, to help. With both partners having experience in the retail space and a background in business, together, they did what other companies told them was not possible.
“[Some companies] said, ‘we can't build this,’” Edwards recalled, who is co-CEO and co-founder of GreenSTOP, the kiosk company. “And these are people that built Redbox, or built Coinstar. They told us this can't be done. And they wanted to charge us like $5 million to build like a hundred of these that are for just one user.”
Instead, they did what they had to. “We built these machines with our own hands,” said Edwards.
That part, building the prototype, was essential to garnering interest from investors.
“You hear these stories where someone has a great idea and they write it on a napkin or draw a picture and then they show someone who then believed in it and gave them millions of dollars and took them to the top, right?” said Edwards. “But we realized that we didn't have a whole lot to show investors, we just had maybe some pictures or a PowerPoint.”
“It’s just— it's really hard to get taken seriously,” he said. “We realized that when we built our first prototype, they started taking us way more seriously. Way more serious. So when we hit this milestone, I realized that people saw that we weren't playing around.”
Before getting the prototype, they were self funding the business. Sometimes it meant not paying rent on their apartments and other bills, and eventually they decided to live out of their office space together. That was until they were kicked out for violating their office lease. They were and are persistent.
“Our goal is to get massive investment and put these all throughout the country,” said Island. “Really, throughout the world.”
“The machines are quite expensive,” he said. “Like the cost of a brand new Toyota Camry.”
They have their sights on installing the kiosks at music festivals, and stadiums, among other large
events. That will take time to navigate, but they predict they might have that capacity in a year or two. And they add that the machines can be used for other products, not just cannabis.
For now, they are investing time and money into marketing their first retail shop in Wilmington with plans to open a second shop very soon. They emphasize that although the business is tech based, there is still a human element at the store. A floor manager is always present to help customers with product selection and assist with technical or user error issues. Meanwhile, they are still committed to achieving their ultimate dream of installing machines at more locations, especially those large-scale events, and eventually hitting those big sales numbers.
“We're waiting for that day that we run out of product [in the machine] and we can say, ‘Hey, man, the whole machine completely ran out today!’ ” said Edwards. "That's going to be a beautiful day.”
Public Health & Building Permit Requirements | |
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| Don’t forget! Part of the cannabis business license requirement includes obtaining a Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Permit and a Building Permit from the City of Los Angeles Department of Building & Safety. These steps are necessary and require planning and time. For more information, see the box to the right. | Los Angeles County Department of Public Health - Cannabis Unit You can read the Cannabis Inspection Guide here. |
It wouldn’t be 4/20 without fun and games! Enjoy these little brain teasers and test your knowledge of all things cannabis culture.
How to play: In this word game, players are asked to group the 16 words on the board into four sets of four words based on shared themes. You have to discover the shared connections. Find these four sets of connected words without making more than four mistakes. Categories vary in difficulty.
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Maybe your 4/20 involves catching a movie and chilling. Here is a very short list of some cannabis culture faves.
“Pineapple Express,” starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, considered a go-to classic.
Even more classic? Anything by Cheech and Chong works with the first movie being the 1978 flick “Up in Smoke”
If you are a history buff, try “The Grass is Greener,” a historical look at U.S. cannabis laws and culture by Fab 5 Freddy.
Finally, don’t judge, but some have suggested “Scooby-Doo” (2002) as the jokes may hit close to home on 4/20.
| Show love! Licensed cannabis retailers have made significant investments in time and resources while complying with local law to bring you tested products in a safer environment. For a map of local, legal retailers, click here. |
Click the Jobs Board image for job postings in the cannabis space, or to list that you are hiring. | 
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Retail Guide to Annual Licensing
Tax Compliance Guide for Cannabis Industries
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