We've been building something. Not just an app, not just a brand — a living, breathing community of artists, musicians, fashion designers, and cannabis culture pioneers who believe that this plant is a gateway to something bigger than any one of us.

The Buzz is where that community gets a voice. Every week, we'll be publishing stories from inside the Hive — spotlights on the creators who are redefining what cannabis culture looks like, dispatches from our Buzz-In events, deep dives into the F.A.M.E. pillars that drive everything we do, and honest conversations about the future of this industry.

This isn't a press release machine. The Buzz is editorial — opinionated, community-first, and built for the people who are actually living this culture, not just observing it from the outside.

In November, we're launching with 28 stories across every corner of the Cannabees universe. Fashion. Art. Music. Expression. The Hive. The app. The people. Expect interviews, event recaps, think pieces, and a few surprises.

Welcome to The Buzz. Pull up a chair. The Hive is talking.

When we say F.A.M.E., we're not talking about celebrity. We're talking about the four creative disciplines that have always been inseparable from cannabis culture — and the four lanes where Cannabees is building something permanent.

Fashion came first, in a way. Cannabis culture has always had a visual identity — from the tie-dye of the 70s to the streetwear of the 90s to the luxury hemp collections emerging today. At Cannabees, fashion is a platform for designers who want to build something sustainable, something that means something.

Art is the soul of the Hive. We believe every cannabis consumer is, in some way, an artist — someone who sees the world differently, who finds beauty in unexpected places. Our Calling All Artists program exists to give that creativity a stage.

Music has always been the heartbeat of cannabis culture. From jazz to reggae to hip-hop to the indie folk scenes of the Midwest, music and cannabis have a relationship that predates any legal framework. Cannabees Music is where that relationship gets celebrated properly.

Expression is the broadest pillar — and maybe the most important. It's the podcast. It's the TrAILblazers series. It's the stories that don't fit neatly into the other three categories but need to be told anyway. Expression is where Cannabees gets to be fully itself.

Together, these four pillars aren't a marketing framework. They're a promise: that Cannabees will always be a place where creativity, culture, and cannabis intersect with intention.

Brad Wenzel doesn't perform — he inhabits a room. If you've seen him before, you know exactly what that means. If you haven't, the Brad Wenzel Buzz-In at Right Brain Brewery on October 23rd and 24th is the introduction you've been waiting for.

Right Brain Brewery in Traverse City is one of those venues that feels like it was built for exactly this kind of night. The space has character. The beer is excellent. And on these two nights, Brad Wenzel will be doing what he does best: playing music that makes you feel like you're exactly where you're supposed to be.

Both shows start at 8PM EST. Doors open earlier — get there early, find your spot, grab a drink, and settle in. These aren't background-music nights. Brad commands attention, and the room always gives it to him.

Host Marc D Birnbach will be on hand both nights to welcome the Cannabees community and make introductions. If you're new to Buzz-Ins, Marc is the person to find — he'll make sure you feel at home.

RSVP through the Cannabees app. Both nights are open to the community, but space is limited. Don't wait.

Cannabis and creativity have always been linked. The plant has been a muse, a ritual, a social lubricant for artists across every medium and every era. At Cannabees, we think that relationship deserves more than a passing acknowledgment — it deserves infrastructure.

The Cannabees art program is built around a simple premise: artists who are part of the cannabis community should have a platform that understands them. Not a gallery that tolerates cannabis themes. Not a brand that wants to use their work for marketing. A genuine home.

What does that look like in practice? It means exhibition opportunities — both digital and physical. It means community — a network of other artists, musicians, designers, and creators who are building in the same space. It means exposure to the Cannabees audience, which skews creative, curious, and genuinely interested in supporting independent artists.

It also means resources. We're building out mentorship connections, collaboration opportunities with our fashion and music programs, and pathways to commercial work for artists who want it.

If you're an artist — visual, digital, mixed media, sculpture, photography, anything — and cannabis culture is part of your world, we want to hear from you. The Apply Now button on our Art page is the first step. The Hive is waiting.

Music and cannabis have a relationship that predates legalization by decades. From the jazz clubs of the 1920s to the reggae soundsystems of the 70s to the hip-hop studios of the 90s, the plant has been present — not as a gimmick, but as a genuine part of the creative process.

Cannabees Music exists to honor that relationship and build something new on top of it. We're not trying to be a streaming platform. We're trying to be a community — a place where musicians who are part of the cannabis world can find each other, collaborate, and reach an audience that actually gets what they're doing.

Right now, that means curated playlists on SoundCloud and Spotify — music that captures the Cannabees vibe, whatever that means to you on any given day. It means Buzz-In events where live music is always part of the experience. It means featuring musicians in The Buzz and giving them space to tell their stories.

Long term, it means more. Recording opportunities. Collaboration with our art and fashion programs. A genuine infrastructure for musicians who want to build something at the intersection of cannabis and creativity.

If you're a musician and the Hive sounds like home, reach out. We're building this together.

The fashion industry has a sustainability problem. It's one of the most polluting industries on the planet — water-intensive, chemical-heavy, and built on a fast-fashion model that treats clothing as disposable. Hemp offers a different path.

Hemp fiber is stronger than cotton, softer with each wash, and requires a fraction of the water and pesticides to grow. It's naturally resistant to mold and UV light. It sequesters carbon as it grows. From a pure materials science perspective, it's one of the best fibers available for clothing.

But hemp fashion has historically struggled with perception. The association with cannabis — still stigmatized in many contexts — has kept major brands from embracing it, even as the environmental case has become undeniable.

At Cannabees, we see that stigma as an opportunity. We're not trying to hide the cannabis connection — we're celebrating it. Our hemp apparel line is built on the premise that the plant that's changing medicine, culture, and agriculture can also change fashion.

Our Designer Talent Search is looking for designers who share this vision — people who want to build something beautiful, sustainable, and culturally resonant. The pay scale starts at $500 per design. The opportunity is much bigger than that.

We've been working on TrAILblazers for a long time. Not because it's technically complicated — though it is — but because we wanted to get the voice right. Cannabis culture deserves a podcast that takes it seriously, and that's harder to build than it sounds.

TrAILblazers is hosted by Kai, Maya, and Gerald — three AI-powered characters who bring different perspectives to every conversation. Kai is the analyst, always looking for the data underneath the story. Maya is the cultural critic, connecting cannabis to the broader movements shaping society. Gerald is the elder statesman, the one who remembers where this all started and why it matters.

Together, they cover the full spectrum of cannabis culture — policy, business, art, music, fashion, community, science, and the human stories that tie all of it together. No topic is off-limits. No perspective is too uncomfortable to explore.

The AI element isn't a gimmick. It's a deliberate choice. By using AI hosts, we can explore perspectives and have conversations that human hosts — with their own biases, relationships, and career considerations — might avoid. TrAILblazers can say the things that need to be said.

New episodes drop weekly. Find us on YouTube, and through the Cannabees app. Subscribe, share, and tell us what you want us to cover next.

The best communities grow because their members want them to grow. At Cannabees, we've built a formal system to recognize and reward the people who are doing that work — the Promoter Program.

The program runs on four tiers, each with its own rewards. Start at the bottom and work your way up by bringing new members into the Hive, attending Buzz-In events, and engaging with the community in meaningful ways.

Tier one gets you the patch — the original Cannabees bee mark, embroidered and ready to wear. It's a small thing, but it means something. It means you're part of this.

Tier two is the cap — the Cannabees branded cap that you'll see at every Buzz-In event. Tier three is the hemp T-shirt, made from the same sustainable hemp fabric that anchors our fashion line. Tier four is the hemp cap — the top of the line, reserved for the most dedicated community builders in the Hive.

The rewards are tangible, but the real value is the community you build along the way. Every person you bring into the Hive is someone who might become a collaborator, a friend, a business partner. The Promoter Program is a framework for building those relationships with intention.

"People before profit" is easy to say. It's harder to build a company around. At Cannabees, we've been trying to do exactly that since 2018 — and the Community Impact Vision is our most explicit articulation of what that commitment looks like.

The vision runs on six pillars. The first is economic empowerment — creating real pathways for community members to earn income through the Cannabees ecosystem, whether through the Promoter Program, the Designer Talent Search, the art program, or the music platform.

The second is education — not just cannabis education, though that's part of it, but the broader education that comes from being part of a community that takes ideas seriously. The TrAILblazers podcast is part of this. The Buzz is part of this.

The third is health and wellness — recognizing that cannabis, used intentionally, can be a tool for physical and mental wellbeing, and building resources that support that use responsibly.

The fourth is creative expression — the F.A.M.E. pillars, the art program, the music platform, the fashion line. The fifth is community connection — the Buzz-In events, the app, the Hive itself. The sixth is advocacy — using the Cannabees platform to push for policies and practices that serve the community, not just the industry.

These six pillars aren't aspirational. They're operational. Every decision we make at Cannabees runs through this framework. That's what people before profit actually means.

Left Foot Charley is one of those Traverse City institutions that feels like it was built for exactly this kind of gathering. The winery sits in the heart of the city, surrounded by the kind of energy that makes Northern Michigan feel like the best-kept secret in the Midwest.

The Buzz-In there was exactly what we hoped it would be. A room full of people who came because they were curious — about Cannabees, about each other, about what a cannabis community actually looks like when it's built with intention.

The conversations were the highlight. We had artists talking to dispensary owners. Musicians talking to fashion designers. People who'd been in the cannabis industry for years talking to people who were just discovering it. The Hive, in miniature.

We also had some of the best wine in Michigan, which didn't hurt.

If you missed it, the next Buzz-In is coming. Check The Hive page for upcoming events and RSVP through the app. These nights are worth showing up for.

October 10th — Chief Day — has become one of the most significant dates in cannabis culture. It's a day of celebration, of community, of acknowledging how far the movement has come and how far it still has to go.

For Cannabees, Chief Day 2026 is a moment to bring the community together and mark the progress we've made since our founding in 2018. Eight years of building. Eight years of people before profit. Eight years of F.A.M.E.

The Buzz-In on October 10th is designed to reflect that history while looking forward. Expect music, art, conversation, and the kind of energy that only happens when a community that's been building something together finally gets to celebrate it.

Details are in the app. RSVP early — Chief Day events fill up fast, and this one is going to be special.

There's something about gathering on a farm that changes the energy of a conversation. The pace slows down. The pretense drops. People talk differently when they're surrounded by growing things.

The Jacob's Farm Buzz-In on October 17th is built around that energy. It's a chance to bring the Cannabees community into a setting that reflects what we're actually about — sustainability, connection to the land, the idea that what we grow and how we grow it matters.

Expect music, food, and the kind of conversations that only happen when you take people out of their usual environments and put them somewhere beautiful. Northern Michigan in October is as beautiful as it gets.

RSVP through the Cannabees app. Bring layers — October evenings in Northern Michigan have a bite to them, and that's part of the charm.

The Cannabees app is where the community lives when it's not at a Buzz-In. It's the digital Hive — the place where members connect, discover events, access resources, and build the relationships that make this community real.

At its core, the app is a community platform. You can find other members, see what they're creating, follow their work, and reach out to collaborate. The Hive is full of artists, musicians, designers, and entrepreneurs — the app is how you find them.

The app also handles Buzz-In RSVPs, which is the most practical reason to download it. Events fill up. RSVP early through the app and you're guaranteed your spot.

There's also Buddy Bee — our emotional support companion feature, built for the moments when you need a non-judgmental space to process what you're feeling. Cannabis wellness is part of what Cannabees is about, and Buddy Bee is our most direct expression of that commitment.

The app is available now at cannabees.base44.app. Download it, set up your profile, and introduce yourself to the Hive.

Cannabis wellness is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot. At Cannabees, we've been trying to figure out what it actually means — not as a marketing concept, but as a lived practice. Buddy Bee is our most honest answer to that question.

Buddy Bee is an AI companion built into the Cannabees app. It's designed for the moments when you want to process something — a feeling, a situation, a question about your cannabis use — without judgment, without advice you didn't ask for, and without the social complexity of talking to another person.

The design philosophy is simple: Buddy Bee listens first. It asks questions. It reflects back what you're saying in ways that help you hear yourself more clearly. It doesn't push you toward any particular conclusion. It just creates space.

We built Buddy Bee because we believe that cannabis, used intentionally, can be a tool for self-understanding. But that process works better with support — and not everyone has access to the kind of support they need. Buddy Bee is our attempt to close that gap.

It's available in the Cannabees app now. Find it in the Support section. Give it a try. We think you'll be surprised by what comes up.

2018 was an interesting year to start a cannabis community. Legalization was spreading, but slowly. The industry was dominated by investors and operators who saw the plant primarily as a commodity. The culture — the art, the music, the fashion, the community — was an afterthought.

Cannabees was founded on the belief that this was backwards. The culture wasn't an afterthought — it was the whole point. The plant had been sustaining communities, inspiring artists, and connecting people for generations before any venture capitalist discovered it. Those communities deserved a platform that understood them.

The early days were scrappy. A small team, a big vision, and the conviction that if you built something real — something that actually served the community rather than extracting from it — people would show up.

They did. Slowly at first, then faster. The Hive grew. The F.A.M.E. pillars took shape. The app launched. The Buzz-In events started drawing crowds. And through all of it, the original principle held: people before profit.

Eight years in, we're still building. The Buzz is the latest chapter. But the foundation is the same one we laid in 2018: a genuine belief that this community deserves something better, and a commitment to building it.

The cannabis industry has a partnership problem. Most "partnerships" are really just sponsorships — a brand pays for visibility, gets their logo on some materials, and calls it community engagement. At Cannabees, we've tried to build something different.

A Cannabees dispensary partnership is a genuine collaboration. We bring our community — creative, engaged, loyal — to your location. We feature your brand in The Buzz, in the app, at Buzz-In events. We create content that tells your story in a way that resonates with the Cannabees audience.

In return, we ask for something real: a commitment to the community. That means supporting local artists and musicians. It means participating in Buzz-In events. It means treating the Cannabees community as partners, not just customers.

The founding partner program is still open. If you're a dispensary in Northern Michigan — or beyond — and you believe in what Cannabees is building, we want to talk. Download the partner packet from our Partners page and reach out.

The best partnerships are the ones where both sides are genuinely invested in each other's success. That's what we're building.

The cannabis community has a divide that doesn't get talked about enough: the gap between recreational users and medical patients. The culture, the events, the marketing — most of it is built for the recreational side. Medical patients, who often have the most serious and sustained relationships with the plant, are frequently left out.

At Cannabees, we think this is wrong. Medical cannabis patients deserve community too — not a separate, medicalized community, but genuine inclusion in the broader cannabis culture. The plant doesn't care about the distinction. Neither should we.

Our medical partner program is built around this principle. We work with medical dispensaries and healthcare providers who share our commitment to patient-centered care and community inclusion. We create resources — in the app, in The Buzz, at events — that speak to medical patients' specific needs and experiences.

Buddy Bee, our emotional support companion, is particularly relevant here. Many medical patients use cannabis for mental health conditions — anxiety, PTSD, depression — and Buddy Bee provides a non-judgmental space to process those experiences.

If you're a medical cannabis provider who wants to build genuine community with your patients, we'd love to talk. The Cannabees medical partner program is designed for exactly this.

Most company credos are written by committees and approved by lawyers. They're designed to be inoffensive, aspirational in a vague way, and easily forgotten. The Cannabees Credo is none of those things.

It was written by people who actually believe it. It makes specific commitments. It names the things we're against as clearly as the things we're for. It's a document you can hold us accountable to.

The core of it is simple: we believe in people before profit. We believe that cannabis culture — the art, the music, the fashion, the community — is worth protecting and celebrating. We believe that the people who built this culture before legalization deserve to benefit from what comes after it.

We believe in the plant. Not as a commodity, not as a marketing hook, but as something that has genuinely helped people — with pain, with anxiety, with creativity, with connection — and deserves to be treated with respect.

Read the full credo on our Our Credo page. It's worth your time. And if you find something in it that we're not living up to, tell us. We mean it.

The Cannabees Designer Talent Search is exactly what it sounds like: we're looking for designers. Not interns. Not people who want to "get exposure." Designers who want to be paid for their work and build something that matters.

The pay scale starts at $500 per design. That's the floor, not the ceiling. Designs that become part of the core Cannabees collection come with ongoing royalties and the kind of brand association that opens doors in the sustainable fashion world.

What are we looking for? Designers who understand hemp — its properties, its possibilities, its limitations. Designers who have a point of view on cannabis culture and can translate that into clothing that people actually want to wear. Designers who care about sustainability not as a marketing angle but as a genuine commitment.

The application process starts on our Fashion page. Submit your portfolio, tell us your story, and show us what you'd build for the Hive. We review applications on a rolling basis.

The cannabis fashion space is wide open. The designers who move into it now, with intention and craft, are going to define what it looks like for the next decade. We want to build that with you.

Episode one of TrAILblazers was always going to be a statement. Not just about what the show is, but about what it's willing to be — honest, uncomfortable, and genuinely interested in the complexity of cannabis culture rather than its easy narratives.

Kai opened with data — the current state of cannabis legalization across the US, the economic numbers, the racial disparities in enforcement that persist even in legal states. Not cheerful stuff, but necessary context.

Maya took that context and pushed it into culture — asking what it means that the people who built cannabis culture are often the last to benefit from its legalization. The conversation got uncomfortable in exactly the right ways.

Gerald brought the history — the long view, the decades of advocacy and community building that made the current moment possible. His perspective is the one that keeps the other two grounded.

Episode two is already in production. Subscribe on YouTube or through the Cannabees app so you don't miss it. The conversation is just getting started.

Northern Michigan doesn't get enough credit as a cultural destination. People think of it as a vacation spot — the beaches, the cherries, the fall colors. But there's a creative community here that's been building quietly for years, and cannabis legalization has accelerated it in ways that are genuinely exciting to watch.

Traverse City is the center of it. The city has always had an arts scene — the film festival, the galleries, the music venues. But the cannabis community has added a new layer, connecting artists and musicians and entrepreneurs who might not have found each other otherwise.

The Buzz-In events have been a window into this. Every event we've done in Northern Michigan has drawn a room full of people who are building something — a business, an art practice, a music career, a community organization. The energy is different from what you find in bigger cities. More collaborative, less competitive.

Cannabees is rooted here. The Hive started in Northern Michigan, and even as we grow nationally, this community is the foundation. The people here are the reason we believe in what we're building.

If you're in Northern Michigan and you haven't connected with the Cannabees community yet, the next Buzz-In is the place to start. Check The Hive page for upcoming events.

There's a generation of artists who made work that engaged with cannabis culture and spent years watching it be dismissed, marginalized, or simply ignored by the mainstream art world. That's changing — and the artists who stayed true to their vision are now sitting on something valuable.

The stigma around cannabis-themed art was never really about the art. It was about the plant. As that stigma erodes — slowly, unevenly, but unmistakably — the art that was made in its shadow is being reassessed.

What's emerging is a genuine aesthetic tradition. Cannabis art isn't a genre in the way that, say, landscape painting is a genre. It's more like a sensibility — a way of seeing that values the psychedelic, the communal, the countercultural, the joyful.

At Cannabees, we're trying to document and celebrate that tradition while also creating space for the next generation of artists who are working in it. The Calling All Artists program is part of that. The Buzz is part of that.

If you're an artist who's been working in this space, we want to feature your work. Reach out through our Art page. The Hive is ready to see what you've been making.

The best thing about the Cannabees community is the people in it. Artists, musicians, designers, entrepreneurs, advocates, patients, parents, professionals — people from every background who share a belief that cannabis culture is worth building intentionally.

The Meet a Cannabee series is our attempt to put faces and stories to that community. Every installment features a community member — someone who's doing interesting work, building something meaningful, or simply living the Cannabees values in a way that deserves to be seen.

We're not looking for the most famous people in the Hive. We're looking for the most real ones — the people whose stories will resonate with other community members and maybe inspire them to take a step they've been hesitating on.

If you want to be featured, or if you know someone who should be, reach out through our Contact page. Tell us the story. We'll take it from there.

The first installments of Meet a Cannabee are coming in November. Watch The Buzz for them.

The cannabis music scene gets talked about in terms of coasts. California. New York. The Pacific Northwest. But the Midwest has been building something quieter and, in some ways, more interesting — a scene that's less about industry and more about community.

Michigan is at the center of it. The state has a deep musical tradition — Motown, obviously, but also the indie rock scene that came out of Detroit in the 2000s, the folk and Americana traditions of the Upper Peninsula, the jazz and blues that have always run through the state's cultural DNA.

Cannabis legalization has connected these traditions in new ways. Musicians who might never have crossed paths are finding each other at Buzz-In events, in the Cannabees app, through the shared experience of building something in a state that's still figuring out what legal cannabis culture looks like.

Brad Wenzel is a perfect example of what this scene produces — a musician who's deeply rooted in the Midwest tradition but doing something that doesn't fit neatly into any genre. His shows at Right Brain Brewery are the kind of thing that makes you proud to be from here.

The Cannabees Music platform is built for this scene. If you're a musician in the Midwest who's part of the cannabis community, we want to know about you. Reach out through our Music page.

November is a big month for Cannabees. The Buzz launches. The Brad Wenzel Buzz-Ins at Right Brain Brewery close out the fall event season. The TrAILblazers podcast hits its stride. Here's everything worth knowing about.

The Buzz launches November 1st with 28 stories covering every corner of the Cannabees universe. Bookmark it. Share it. Tell us what you want to read next.

Brad Wenzel plays Right Brain Brewery on October 23rd and 24th. Both shows start at 8PM EST. RSVP through the app. Host Marc D Birnbach will be there both nights.

The Designer Talent Search is accepting applications on a rolling basis. If you're a fashion designer with a point of view on hemp and cannabis culture, the Fashion page has everything you need to apply.

The Calling All Artists program is open. If you're a visual artist who's been waiting for the right platform, this is it. Apply through the Art page.

And if you haven't downloaded the Cannabees app yet — what are you waiting for? The Hive is there. Come find it.

We don't usually talk publicly about what's coming. Building in public has its advantages, but it also creates pressure to deliver on timelines that are always more uncertain than they look from the outside. But November feels like the right moment to share some of what we're working toward.

The Buzz is the first piece. A real editorial platform, updated regularly, that gives the Cannabees community a voice and a destination. We're committed to making it one of the best cannabis culture publications on the internet.

The app is getting a major update in early 2027. New features, better performance, and a community experience that's more connected and more useful than what we have now. Details coming soon.

The Buzz-In event series is expanding. We've been focused on Northern Michigan, but the community is bigger than that, and we're ready to take it on the road. New cities, new venues, new conversations.

The fashion line is moving from concept to production. The Designer Talent Search is the first step. By mid-2027, we expect to have a full hemp apparel collection available through the Cannabees platform.

And through all of it, the same principle that's guided us since 2018: people before profit. That's not changing. That's the whole point.

The Hive is built by the people in it. If you've been reading The Buzz and thinking "this is something I want to be part of" — here's how.

Download the Cannabees app. It's the fastest way to connect with the community, RSVP for Buzz-In events, and access everything Cannabees has to offer. Available at cannabees.base44.app.

If you're an artist, apply through the Art page. The Calling All Artists program is open, and we're actively looking for visual artists who want a platform that understands them.

If you're a musician, reach out through the Music page. We're building the Cannabees Music platform and we want to feature artists who are part of the cannabis community.

If you're a fashion designer, apply for the Designer Talent Search through the Fashion page. The pay scale starts at $500 per design. The opportunity is bigger than that.

If you're a dispensary or cannabis business, download the partner packet from the Partners page and reach out. The founding partner program is still open.

And if none of those categories fit but you still feel like the Hive is home — come to a Buzz-In. Show up. Introduce yourself. The community will take it from there.