Marijuana bouquets popular for Valentine's Day

LOS ANGELES - Flower shops across Los Angeles were packed with customers on Tuesday as lovebirds rushed to buy the perfect gift for their partners on Valentine's Day.

"I think Valentine's Day is a day to really show your appreciation for your loved ones and just to go that extra mile. Love should really be year round but just to go that extra mile is a good thing,'' said Vince from Pasadena.

The conventional gift of a dozen long-stemmed roses was a popular buy, with scores of people carrying flower arraignments filling the sidewalks of downtown Los Angeles.

But a new and up until recently illegal type of bouquet is proving to be a hot commodity. Filled with lavender, a variety of wild flowers, eucalyptus and $400 worth of marijuana, a bouquet stuffed with cannabis is a gift that keeps on giving, according to a sales clerk at ShowGrow, a marijuana dispensary in the city.

The bouquet contains one ounce (28 grams) of high grade marijuana, according to its makers at Lowell Farms, which produced 500 of the aromatic bundles for Valentines Day.

"You can't smoke roses,'' said Nic Lenze, after a bouquet for his girlfriend. "I just thought it was a cool way that you could give flowers but instead of them dying and throwing them away in a week you can get some practical use out of them. You come home from a long day of work and you have a headache, flowers aren't going to help you any.''

California legalized the recreational use of cannabis in November 2016, but it still requires a permit to purchase until 2018.