Pressure Extracts: Or How I Learned To Stop Trusting The Industry And Love Independent Research

Picture this: We’re at Budsapalooza, Arizona's premier cannabis gathering, and some booth is handing out sample puffs of sleek magnetic vapes. 

Mix and match flavors for virtually unlimited possibilities. A few people ask how to get one, but the rep says "we're not supposed to give these out, just sample hits." But when I get to the front of the line and flash them a prototype printing of our DSM:420 Roadmap, they're suddenly shoving two complete 1-gram units into my hands for a pre-launch review.

That is exactly what happened with a brand called "Pressure" - and what followed has blown the lid off some serious gaps in Arizona's supposedly regulated cannabis market.

Flash forward to after the event and I’m ready to do my usual product review routine starting with photographing the packaging, when I notice something's...off: there’s no testing documentation anywhere on the box (which is kind of a big deal in a regulated market). Even weirder? These things are sporting California's "Delta-9 THC" warning labels, despite being handed out at Arizona events. While those labels don't indicate heavy amounts of Delta-9–just that a trace amount might be present and must be reported per California law–it is still odd for products being distributed in Arizona to have them, though Pressure representatives did confirm in-person at Budsapalooza that they are "expanding to the Arizona market from California." 

The packaging had a QR code, which you would expect to link to lab results like any other cannabis product, right? Nope. It takes you straight to their website, where I found something genuinely bizarre in their social media section: a link to a now shut-down Telegram channel. That link has since mysteriously vanished from their site as their marketing ramped up post-event season, but finding a dead communication channel instead of actual testing data was the red flag that told me this was going to be a rabbit hole, and that it was no longer just a product review.

What started as "let me review these cool and magnetic vapes" turned into weeks of discovering just how many ways the oversight of Arizona’s cannabis market can be potentially sidestepped.

Here's where things get properly messed up: Pressure has been hitting every major Arizona event claiming they're the pioneers of magnetic mix-and-match vape technology. Except...they’re not. BudBros already beat them to market in Arizona with proper licensing including visible license numbers, accessible test results and real dispensary distribution. But wait, it gets worse. These guys did not just fail to be first in Arizona–they basically lifted the entire playbook from Michigan-based cannabis brand Pressure Pack. Same stylized typography, same magnetic disposable concept, same mix-and-match marketing angle. When I reached out to the original Pressure Pack, they confirmed zero connection to the California-based operation.

Michigan-based Pressure Pack logo vs. California-based Pressure logo.

But that’s just the surface level. The more serious problems lie much deeper, with the potential to ruin Arizona’s cannabis industry.

After growing concerned about the California Delta-9 labels and the dead Telegram channel, I was too suspicious to just let things sit. Especially when Pressure was continuing to boast on social media about their official expansion to Arizona this summer. So, I dug more, and found a whole lot of…nothing.

Zero testing records with The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS)–and I mean zero. Not delayed, not pending, not "we're working on it." Emily Carey, Public Records Administrator at ADHS, straight-up confirmed by email that as of early May 2025 they have no records of any testing requests from anyone called "Pressure,” or “Pressure Extracts.”

Now they're launching this Friday, June 13th, and still...nothing. When I asked ADHS about potential enforcement actions, I was told I could submit a formal complaint (and did). As of publication, no action is currently being taken.

This both confused and concerned me, so I got some insight from industry veteran Brenda Shalloo of Coffeepot Consulting, who founded Arizona's first cannabis testing lab 15 years ago. She explained that 'White Labeling' is common in the cannabis industry–products sold under one name but with test results under another. It’s basically the corporate equivalent of buying in bulk to repackage under your own brand name.   

While there's nothing inherently wrong with white labeling from a legal standpoint, the complete absence of test results is the real red flag here. If this were just a matter of finding results under a different brand name, that would be understandable. But that's not the case.

On the product and packaging, there are no intellectual property markings anywhere. For a brand claiming they developed innovative technology, there is literally nothing on their branding, packaging or online presence to back that claim. No trademark symbols, no patent pending, no copyright notices. It is almost like they know they can't legally claim ownership of their "innovation.” No business registration, either. Searches of Arizona's Corporation database turn up exactly zero entities registered under "Pressure" for cannabis operations. So...how exactly are they legally operating?

The product itself doesn't even seem to match the marketing. After testing these things for a couple of weeks, what they're marketing as "live resin" and "diamonds" feels way more like standard distillate with added terps. Look, distillate is fine, but don't dress it up as premium concentrate and charge premium prices. The bigger issue is that if they’re seemingly willing to lie about that, and potentially skirt testing responsibilities, there’s no real way of knowing that it really is just low quality distillate and flavoring. It could be distillate from a sprayed crop, without test results there’s no way of knowing.

Speaking of trying to appear more established than they are, their website tells an interesting story, too. They've got prerolls and gummies advertised, but there's zero evidence that any of these products actually exist. No social media posts featuring them, no event photos, nothing. The product images on their site look suspiciously like 3D mockups with just the colors swapped for different 'flavors' or strains. 

...is that a Telegram logo I see?

It's like they built a website to look like an established multi-product company when in reality, all anyone's ever seen are those magnetic vapes at events. To top things off, their “Terms & Conditions” page is just a temporary store landing page.

Undeterred by all of this, I continued on to see if maybe I could uncover anything that I had missed, making multiple attempts to reach out to the brand directly and representatives to no success.

When I’ve encountered them at events, the representatives are too incoherently high to have any meaningful conversations with, and digital communication just ends up dry. The only thing that I learned is that the brand is run by a man named Luis, but in the words of Craig Pepper, (who as far as I can tell is the brand's social media manager, but I’ve yet to get any official confirmation. He is involved with the company, but to what extent I genuinely cannot determine) the mysterious Luis is “very hard reach even for me when I work with him.” Helpful.

I’ve in fact been left on “seen” by the official Pressure page on Instagram since April 30th. I sent them several messages leading up to the 30th that got no attention, but when I tagged them in a story post because my hit counter reached 69, I finally got a single solitary “Yooooo!!” To follow up, I asked point blank for test results because I couldn’t find them. The response I got was “Will have Lab test for you soon.” That was the last message they sent me despite being extremely active on social media.

But, even their social media timeline makes no sense. The Instagram account was created in May 2024, while their first visible post is from February 2025.

That's either a months-long digital blackout for a brand claiming to be established market players, or they wiped a ton of content before entering Arizona–both scenarios raise questions about their actual business history. The earliest posts are just event promotions for the Errl Cup and Budsapalooza, while recent stuff is generic product videos now that the sponsored events are over and they found a dispensary to sell them (The Mint). Feels less like "established innovators" and more like "we materialized last month to work the event circuit."

Now, The Mint has added a 'Pressure' page under their brand partners for launch week, complete with non-functional buttons containing typos and promises of vaporizers, pre-rolls, and edibles. No license number, no test results. I did notice that the rendering of the edible can was poorly photoshopped on top of a piece of watermelon complete with the original dropshadow and all, and the photo for pre-rolls used really bad AI rendering.

This isn't just about one sketchy brand trying to game the system anymore.

Pressure sparked the interest in the overall subject, but ultimately this became about how easy it is to game the system in the first place. Not for a lack of established rules and regulations, but because of a lack of them actually being followed.

Event organizers clearly aren't checking anything. While you would expect there to be some sort of Certificates of Analysis (COA) requirement to have booth space, neither Budsapalooza nor the Errl Cup state that anything is required to sign up. Even if they are mentioning requirements after the fact, the lack of an available COA on Pressure makes that task seemingly impossible. These festivals aren't one off pop-up events; they're supposed to be legitimate recurring industry gatherings with the highest standards.

Dispensaries aren't doing due diligence either. The Mint Dispensary is launching Pressure products this Friday despite everything (and nothing). When I tried to ask them about their verification processes, what documentation they require, what due diligence they performed? Complete silence aside from the social media team pointing me towards a dead end.

The Mint isn't some mom-and-pop operation. They're part of Brightroot Inc., valued at over $500 million with operations across multiple states. These guys have serious money and serious acquisition power. They've bought control of four of Arizona's coveted social equity licenses through buyouts. Meanwhile, they're partnering with a brand that apparently has no discoverable business registration and no state testing records at all.

As of June 10th, The Mint officially has flyers and signs up for Pressure's launch. The store manager at Mint Scottsdale confirmed that while they do have COAs available for everything they sell, they don't yet have anything available for Pressure, even though they’re in launch week.

What the hell kind of verification process allows a half-billion-dollar company to partner with a brand that exists in some regulatory gray zone? Meanwhile, other brands are doing it right with license numbers displayed, and test results easily available on the packaging. It's not impossible to follow the rules; some people just...don't.

When brands can apparently operate for months without basic compliance documentation, then launch commercially while state agencies have no record of their existence, the system isn't working.

Arizona voters fought long and hard to create a regulated cannabis market specifically to avoid this kind of Wild West situation. The whole point was consumer protection. Mandatory testing, licensing standards, accountability.

Every party in this chain–event organizers, dispensary partners, and regulatory agencies–had chances to catch these gaps. The fact that a brand could work the event circuit for months, build partnerships with major retailers, and launch products while flying under the regulatory radar is baffling. That's a collective failure of the oversight systems we supposedly put in place to prevent this exact scenario. But here's the thing–this kind of regulatory sidestepping might be easier in Arizona than in other states, and there's a specific reason why.

Most states with legal cannabis programs require seed-to-sale tracking through mandated third-party software systems. Alaska, California, Colorado, DC, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, and West Virginia use Metrc, while other states use systems like BioTrack. These systems create a digital paper trail that makes it much harder for products to just...appear.

Arizona is different. Instead of mandating a single tracking system like most states, Arizona allows businesses to choose from various 'compliant' software solutions. 

A.R.S. § 36-2806 dictates inventory control and record-keeping, but does not prescribe a specific software system. Instead, it authorizes ADHS to set rules regarding inventory and record-keeping. Meanwhile A.R.S. § 36-2854 addresses marijuana establishment licensing and rule-making authority for the ADHS, again without mandating a particular seed-to-sale software. It gives the department authority to adopt rules for tracking, but not to require any specific vendor(s).

This fragmented approach creates inconsistencies in data reporting and potential gaps that brands like Pressure allegedly seem to exploit. When every state agency isn't looking at the same standardized data, things can slip through the cracks–and apparently, entire brands can slip through, too. 

For anyone navigating Arizona's cannabis market, the lesson is pretty clear: you're on your own for verification. 

Start asking direct questions. Where are the test results? If your dispensary can’t provide them to you and it’s not available on the packaging or from the manufacturers website, don’t get it.

If the industry won't consistently enforce their own standards, individual verification becomes your only protection. The Pressure situation is a test case for Arizona's cannabis future: right now, brands doing everything right are getting undercut by operations that seemingly skip the expensive compliance requirements of proper registration and product testing, while still accessing the same dispensaries and events. Arizona's cannabis market is still figuring itself out, and how we handle situations like this will determine whether we end up with a legitimate, consumer-focused industry or just another marketplace where cutting corners and working the system becomes the norm.

The real cost of regulatory gaps like these isn't just consumer safety: it's market integrity. When compliant brands compete against operations that appear to be working the system, following the rules becomes a competitive disadvantage. The state of Arizona is in danger of fostering an environment where prioritizing profit over consumer safety is rewarded, ultimately lowering industry standards.

Arizona voters didn't legalize cannabis to recreate the Wild West; they wanted the opposite. We sought a safe, regulated industry—one that could generate tax revenue, create jobs, and offer legal access without chaos. But when brands can allegedly operate for months without supposedly meeting even the most basic regulatory requirements, it’s clear the system has gone off the rails. Instead of a modern, transparent marketplace, we’re watching a lawless frontier emerge in real time, where profits ride high and oversight rides low. As more and more new brands continue sprouting, so do the chances of more products falling through the cracks.

Consumers deserve better. Honest operations deserve better. Arizona deserves better. And until the system reins in the outlaws, it’s looking like it’s every man for himself when it comes to making sure you’re consuming safe products. Yee-haw, for now, partner.

During the course of this investigation, I contacted all parties mentioned in this article through multiple channels. Pressure representatives were contacted via Instagram, their website contact form, and at subsequent events. BudBros was contacted via email and social media. The Mint Dispensary was contacted through their corporate phone number, email, and social media channels regarding their verification processes. I also submitted formal requests to the Arizona Department of Health Services regarding Pressure's licensing and testing status. Only ADHS responded, confirming via email that no testing records exist for Pressure or Pressure Extracts as of early May 2025. All other parties did not respond to multiple requests for comment.