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by Louis Bubko (Author)
In 2021 after recreational marijuana was legalized in New York, an onslaught of guerilla smoke shops that sold weed began opening all over the city, beating any state-sanctioned dispensaries to the market. Almost overnight, it felt like every empty storefront was a smoke shop and every deli had added weed to their inventory. In an immediately over saturated market with accessibility like never before, the question of how to make your product stand out arose. The answer? Branding! This shift from black market to commercial led to an unprecedented emphasis on visuals for the weed being purchased, a renaissance of sorts. Never before seen strains whose names and designs played on current events, pop culture, lifestyles, luxuries and vices started showing up everywhere while more traditional strains like Sour Diesel or Gorilla Glue suddenly garnered an infinite amount of new visual interpretations. Soon enough, these bags were littered all over the streets and it became clear that they were, in most cases, unrelated to the strain of weed inside and served mostly as a visual aid - like a trading card. These bags were notably original and inventive, with seemingly endless variations of subject matter that felt completely unique to this moment of New York history. Za Zine is a collection of these bags found by Louis in New York between November 2023 and February 2024.
