‘Boutique Brand’ 22Red Grows Arizona Footprint With Lonestar Select

Arizona is no stranger to celebrity cannabis brands. Boxing fans have Mike Tyson's Tyson 2.0, and hip-hop enthusiasts can snag Snoop Dogg- and Wiz Khalifa-inspired flower at dispensaries throughout the Valley. But until 22Red hit Arizona in 2020, metalheads didn't have a brand to call their own.

Founded by System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian, 22Red is a California-based cultivation and lifestyle brand that packs a serious punch. Just don't make the mistake of calling it a "celebrity brand" in front of Odadjian.

"I didn't want to be a celebrity brand. I didn't want to be like Willie [Nelson] and all that — no knock to them. But I don't want you to buy my product because you love my band. I want you to buy my products because you love my product," Odadjian told Phoenix New Times.

A longtime toker, Odadjian spent years learning from Amsterdam's elite, such as Greenhouse Seed Company's Arjan Roskam and Joa Helm, the original breeders of White Widow. With a well-defined palate and passion for the plant, Odadjian entered the industry as a cultivation owner in 2019. But he had one major stipulation: Every product would have to go through him before making it to market.

"If it doesn't go through me, and if I wouldn't put it in my system, I don't want it in anyone else's [body] under my name or under 22[Red]," Odadjian explained.

Now three years into the company's expansion into the Arizona market, Odadjian says he has found the perfect local cultivator: Lonestar Select. "When I visited their whole facility, I met everybody — I have to do that — and they seem like they got a good thing going, and they're very state of the art. They do things in a modern way," Odadjian said.

Lonestar has been cultivating in Arizona since the medicinal market opened in 2011 and has a track record of employing new technology to grow the cleanest products. "I love the science behind it. For all of the years I have been growing cannabis commercially, I have never stopped learning. There are always new and improved ways to cultivate, and I feel like we have just scratched the surface," Lonestar's head of cultivation, Spencer Keim, told AZ Marijuana.

The newly formed partnership between 22Red and Lonestar was created to coincide with the February drop of a new pre-roll pack. The Personals Pre-Roll Pack contains seven joints, each filled with a half gram of top-notch indoor-grown flower.

The pre-roll pack joins 22Red's selection of 14 strains of deli flower and six live resin concentrates. "We're a boutique brand, and we have to focus. We can't just be like, 'Here's 10 products' because then we can't really focus, and everything will fall apart," Odadjian told New Times.

Although 22Red currently doesn't have plans to release any new products this summer, Odadjian is confident Arizona stoners won't be disappointed by a lack of options. "In the market right now, each strain has five different names at five different stores. You really never know what you're getting. You won't find that with us. Our genetics are special, and each strain has one name, so you always know what you're getting," Odadjian said.