Weed Party @ is a column by Michelle Lhooq and Lindsay MaHarry, two self-described “weed party girls.” The goal of the column is simple: Determine whether the party was cool. On June 12, 2019, Lindsay partied with Jim Jones in a Beverly Hills mansion for a Saucey Farms launch party.
As Los Angeles’ weed party scene evolves from a small circuit of sporadic parties to a microcosm of its own, events have come to characterize different facets of the industry. While the wellness-oriented side tends to be an older, more posh crowd that gravitates towards dosed dinners, CBD cocktail mixers, and medicated soundbaths, the recreational side often skews younger and more diverse with a strong desire to party. Rarely do you see an event capable of catering to both.
However, the launch party for Saucey Farms and Extracts, a flower and vape brand by celebrity jeweler Alex Todd collaboration with rapper Jim Jones, founding member of Harlem rap phenom The Diplomats (aka Dipset), and regular on VH1’s wildly popular “Love and Hip Hop New York,” managed to bridge this proverbial gap, delivering what so many weed parties promise but so few actually realize: a chic mansion party in Beverly Hills with tons of free weed products.
I arrived to the party via shuttle bus, which pulled up to tall iron gates that opened to expansive grounds lush with flora. Romanesque sculptures lined a winding uphill driveway as the silhouette of a massive estate appeared through the trees. My friend kicked me in the leg, her eyes wide with excitement.
Despite the luxury unfolding before us and my lifelong fascination with Jim Jones and, really, all things Dipset, apprehension lingered. When receiving an invitation to a weed party in a mansion in Beverly Hills, it’s important to note that what you know as Beverly Hills in this context is usually wrong. This “Beverly Hills,” as they call it, usually refers to anywhere in a 10-mile radius of its small, affluent city boundaries. The term mansion, usually defined as a home so epic you can’t call it a house, also becomes a relative one, applicable to any house slightly larger than those around it.
I’ve been to so many “mansion” parties in “Beverly Hills,” the simple sighting of the words on an invite is triggering.
But the moment I entered, it was clear this party, celebrating the launch of the Capo blunt, the inaugural product from the collab between Saucey Farms and Extracts and Jones, was an exception.
The mansion had been transformed from an old Hollywood palace to a super-stoner paradise. Guests lounged on plush banquettes below red satin canopies on the lawn. A Backwoods blunt bar turned out constant free blunts, while girls with cigarette trays handed out a seemingly endless amount of Saucey’s new line of full-spectrum vape cartridges, batteries, and Capo blunts.
Trays of Southern hors d’oeuvres — THC-infused cups of shrimp and grits and barbecue with mac and cheese —by buzzed-about canna-chef Chef for Higher circulated, making the very stoned group of partygoers consisting of professional skateboarders, writers, aspiring rappers, rich people and semi-square business men, very stoked.
“We wanted to be one of the first East Coast brands out here in California, combining our East Coast swag with the great cannabis they have out here,” said Saucey founder Alex Todd in the VIP section as “My Neck, My Back” blared over the sound system. “I have a great relationship with a friend who was part of Roc Nation, who was close with Jim, and it was just a natural fit.”
Everyone was drinking cognac as the DJ spun a playlist of nonstop rap bangers you’d almost forgotten how much you loved. The vibe remained high, literally and figuratively, as there were giant jars of Saucey’s premium flower strains that guests were encouraged to help themselves from. By the end of the night, my purse wouldn’t close.
As things began to wind down, Jim Jones made a poolside appearance. Dressed in a full cream ensemble, even down to the bulletproof vest, he brought the New York swag Todd had been talking about, posing for pictures, dripping in diamonds, and generally flexing as his entourage followed him to a bottle-service set up near the DJ booth.
“Saucey is a new cannabis brand and I have been lucky enough to have been brought in as a partner. We’re the first to have an actual pre-rolled blunt,” Jones said between hits of his new product. “You can’t have tobacco rolled with weed legally, so we rolled it in tea leaf and it gives you the same type of drag. It has Triple OG inside the blunt, wax on the outside, rolled in kief, it’s a good indica smoke.” He paused, exhaled, then continued, “If you like to get high, you’ll want to smoke that blunt.”
And that night, at the intersection of weed culture’s disparate factions, somewhere between the glittering facade that makes Los Angeles fabulous and the gritty culture that makes L.A. cool, smoke them we did.
Feature image by Andrena Photography