In Connecticut’s stunted legal cannabis industry, many Yale students turn to illicit sellers without knowing the risks.
The facade of 7Clouds, a half-smoke shop on Howe Street, is less than the length of a Honda Civic, but announces itself as loud as a Hellcat. To the right of the entrance, a neon rainbow “7Clouds” sign hangs over a barred window. When night falls, it fully lights up the patch of sidewalk in front of the store.
Ross, a 21-year-old Yale junior, walks inside, pushing past a sign that reads “NOTICE: The Sale of Cannabis at This Location is Prohibited.” At the register, she asks for two pre-rolled joints stuffed with cannabis. Ross asked to be identified by a nickname to avoid repercussions for purchasing marijuana from 7Clouds.
7Clouds does not have a license to sell cannabis in Connecticut; unlike legal retailers, they aren’t required to run safety tests on their products, meaning customers like Ross have no way of knowing what they actually contain.
In March, I sent a ten-gram sample of 7Clouds’ White Runtz cannabis strain to Northeast Laboratories, one of two Connecticut labs authorized to ensure compliance with state regulations by testing marijuana products for contaminants like mold, which can pose serious infection risks.
The total mold and yeast count from the 7Clouds’ sample came in at over 30 million colony-forming units (CFU) per gram—more than 300 times Connecticut’s legal limit.
“That is dangerous. That is so bad. Wow,” said Erin Kirk, Connecticut’s Cannabis Ombudsman, an official medical marijuana patient advocate, when she heard the test results. “I’m trying to wrap my head around 30 million CFU. How is that even possible?”
Ross pays the $21.79 total for her two joints and a pack of Oreos. As she leaves, two other Yale students walk in and take a place in line. They are here for the same reason as Ross: cheap, accessible weed.
Connecticut’s cannabis legalization promised to prioritize “public health, public safety, criminal justice, and equity,” in Governor Ned Lamont’s words. But when Lamont signed recreational weed into law, he also instituted policies that incentivize consumers to do exactly what legalization was meant to counteract: buying from illicit sellers.
***
“I’m not really supposed to be smoking, but I do it anyway,” Ross said. She has prescriptions for Adderall, Lexapro, and Propranolol—medications that doctors don’t recommend using with cannabis. Still, she likes the “lightness” it makes her feel. For Ross, the upside of buying from 7Clouds is that it’s near campus, open daily from 8:00 a.m. until midnight, and sells weed that, however risky, gets her high.
7Clouds stores its raw cannabis bud in two-inch-tall, opaque plastic pop-top bottles that look like tubes of M&M’s Minis, all kept in an open-top cardboard box. The only information about the cannabis is the strains’ names typed out in all-caps on white stickers: “GUMBO” on a blue bottle, “GREEN TEA” on an orange one, “RAINBOW COOKIE” on pink.
Unlike legal dispensaries, which use packaging like eBottles and mylar bags, 7Clouds’ bottles aren’t air-sealed. Their joints are stored similarly, just in smaller plastic tubes. With little protection from moisture and minimal airflow, mold growth becomes inevitable.
Cannabis users are 3.5 times more likely to have a fungal infection than non-cannabis users, according to a 2020 Center for Disease Control and Prevention study; with a total mold and yeast count of 30 million CFU, weed from 7Clouds puts smokers at an even higher risk of infection.
Among states that have legalized cannabis, Connecticut is unusually permissive with marijuana mold caps. At 100,000 CFU per gram, the state is more lenient than most of the country. Many states allow 10,000 CFU, but some are even stricter: Illinois and Utah cap it at 1,000 CFU. Iowa set their limit at 100.
Still, high mold counts alone don’t paint the full picture; not all mold is harmful.
The results from Northeast Laboratories also flagged the 7Clouds sample for active Aspergillus, a fungus whose spores are heat-resistant and survive combustion. Inhaling Aspergillus-contaminated cannabis puts smokers at risk of contracting a lung infection called aspergillosis.
The best case for someone who gets aspergillosis is a fever and a cough that might bring up some blood. The worst case is invasive aspergillosis, which largely affects immunocompromised people—a 2026 research review estimates a global mortality rate as high as 85%. Symptoms typically don’t show up until the disease has already reached an advanced stage.
Connecticut has a zero-tolerance policy for any cannabis contaminated with Aspergillus. But, because 7Clouds is not regulated by the state and operates outside the legal market, their cannabis is never tested, nor cleaned.
“What the fuck?” Ross said when she learned about the mold contamination in 7Clouds’ cannabis. “I’m not expecting amazing weed, but I am expecting a somewhat decent product.”
Even for consumers willing to pay for more expensive, safer marijuana, legal weed is not always clean either. Most major producers zap the flower with radiation to eliminate contaminants. According to a McGill University study, this weed cleaning process, called irradiation, does not fully remove harmful fungi or the toxins they leave behind.
“If you put a moldy tomato in the microwave, it just looks more soggy, and the mold is still there,” said Kirk.
Smoking weed, even of the highest quality, will always entail some level of health risk. Many smokers know this. Dexter, a Yale cannabis user identified by his first name, said disclosure is key: “It would be great to know that heavy metals and mold and other toxins don’t exceed an alarming amount in the weed you’re smoking.”
Meanwhile, Connecticut law enforcement has been challenging illicit sellers’ hold on consumers. Two years ago, State Attorney General William Tong sued Anesthesia, a New Haven smoke shop, for selling cannabis without a license. Now, metal shutters hang in front of Anesthesia’s front doors. In early April 2026, city, state, and federal law enforcement raided Chapel Smoke Shop, also for illicit cannabis sales.
7Clouds has been operating “business as usual” after the Chapel Street raid, said Henry, a Yale student who buys weed from 7Clouds, and asked to be identified by his middle name. “It feels like they have zero concerns about what’s happening.”
One anonymous patron of 7Clouds said the store is an asset because it shields Yale students from worse alternatives: “If they shut us down, that’s gonna create a lot of problems for people. It’s gonna put them in danger.”
“We’re in a safe location. We are good for Yale. We are good for students,” he said, adding that without 7Clouds, students could run into harsher substances: “crack, heroin, pills, cocaine.” The patron spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
7Clouds ownership declined repeated requests for comment over the phone and in person.
***
7Clouds has a “substantial hold”on Yale’s marijuana market, according to Henry. Among 170 Yale cannabis users who responded to a survey from The New Journal this April, 41 percent reported 7Clouds as their preferred source of procuring weed, more than any other option.
That Yale students are unable to find safe, affordable cannabis may not seem like a pressing issue, but the prevalence of illicit weed in New Haven is just one consequence of Connecticut legalizing marijuana, only to implement policies that benefit few actual customers.
“Price is the biggest thing for me,” Henry said about his decision to buy from 7Clouds. Anesthesia was closer to where he lives, but a joint from there cost roughly $12. Meanwhile, the joints at 7Clouds are between $8 and $10.
At Insa, the second-closest dispensary to Yale (still an hour walk away, and a 15-minute drive), the average price of a joint is $15. But the higher cost is not within their control.
In 2021, state lawmakers introduced a potency-based tax to cannabis products based on their tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels. Unlike other Northeastern states, which generally use a flat-rate model, each milligram of THC sold in Connecticut is taxed between $0.00625 and $0.0275, a tax that accounts for about a quarter of marijuana products’ retail value.
Lawmakers wanted to limit access to high-THC cannabis. Instead, their policies made Connecticut one of the most expensive marijuana markets in the country.
Customers are not only driven to purchase unregulated cannabis from an illicit seller like 7Clouds—some even cross state lines for lower prices, according to Kirk. As of March 2026, 100-gram gummy edibles in Massachusetts are sold for about $15.82; in Connecticut, they’re sold for $25.86. Fourteen percent of Yale cannabis users—24 respondents—reported purchasing their weed outside of Connecticut, which was the second-most common survey response after 7Clouds.
Across the country, the most lucrative day for cannabis sellers is April 20, or 4/20 Day—the drug’s unofficial holiday. Every year, dozens of students gather on the lawn of Yale’s Cross Campus to celebrate. This year, the largest smoke circle at 4:20 p.m. was a group of about 20 students, one of whom told me they were passing around 7Clouds’ joints.
Last year, from April 19 to 21, dispensaries in Massachusetts roped in $14.62 million. In the entire month of April, their Connecticut counterparts only earned around $17.5 million. By the end of 2025, Massachusetts dispensaries had outearned their neighboring Connecticut counterparts by over one billion dollars.
“We left $160 million, at least, on the table just in Massachusetts last year alone,” said Kirk.
Connecticut dispensaries do face inevitable disadvantages. Bordering states like New York and Massachusetts have larger populations, and by extension, larger customer bases. But the tax on dispensary weed is also part of the reason why, despite retail sales of cannabis beginning three years ago, 7Clouds has been able to operate a small-scale cannabis monopoly in New Haven.
Still, pricing isn’t the only problem. In fact, a new bill, HB 5109, introduced on February 10, seeks to replace the state’s potency-based tax with a flat-rate model. But the lawmakers will aim for a flat rate of 10.75 percent, which Kirk said is too high to compete with neighboring states. She recommended 10.5 percent: “We need to undercut the other markets. I’m not just pulling 10.5 out of a hat.”
Another bill, HB 5350, passed the House on 4/20 and “aims to reduce overhead costs for dispensaries and support business growth,” according to Representative Roland Lemar’s official website.
However, neither bill resolves the problem of Connecticut’s strict licensing process.
***
“7Clouds is the only place I really go. It’s within walking distance from where I live and where all my classes are,” said Ross.
The closest legal dispensary to Yale is Lit New Haven, which is about a 25-minute walk from Old Campus.
Kebra Smith-Bolden opened Lit New Haven in 2025 through the state’s social equity program, which gives out cannabis licenses through a lottery. The program was intended to expand Connecticut’s weed market by reducing application fees and reserving half of the available licenses for aspiring owners from areas most impacted by the War on Drugs—anywhere in New Haven outside Yale’s campus or East Rock.
In other words, the program sought to level the playing field. In reality, high costs and rigid requirements have constrained local owners’ entry into the New Haven cannabis industry, enabling smoke shops like 7Clouds to sell cheap, low-quality cannabis without much competition.
Despite reduced application fees for social equity candidates, larger and better-funded companies that could afford the high submission fees submitted thousands of applications; they gamed the system to boost their chances of winning a license.
“In the ninth inning, the cannabis legalization process got thrown a couple little loopholes that worked out for the larger corporations,” Smith-Bolden said.
It didn’t get any simpler when she opened her own dispensary.
After she received her license to sell cannabis, Smith-Bolden sought one for cultivation, which would allow her to grow weed herself and maintain higher profit margins.
But a cultivation license costs $3 million, and qualifying social equity applicants must make less than $265,287 annually over the last three years to qualify for the program. Those $3 million for Smith-Bolden to grow and sell her own weed—a key part for her dispensary’s long-term success—doesn’t even include the $12,500 she already paid for the retail license, or the $1 million for launching the store, or the potential $10 million for actually operating a cultivation site.
Even worse, the cultivation license requires Smith-Bolden to maintain 65 percent ownership interest, making it difficult to attract outside investors, many of whom feel like substantial start-up funds are worth more than just a 35 percent stake. “Nobody wants to give you that kind of money and not have control,” Smith-Bolden said.
“It’s difficult to navigate a lot of these regulatory requirements, and all of the things necessary to open these businesses,” she added. “And then on top of it, having to try to raise money in this environment. Pretty difficult.”
***
Ross walks out of 7Clouds and heads into the night with her two pre-rolls—the store’s neon light still blaring behind her. On the building’s awning, the 7 on the store’s logo starts to resemble an ouroboros—a snake eating its own tail.
Soon it will be day. Then night again. There will be other customers, but the transactions will be more or less the same.
Three days after I told Ross about the mold contamination in the sample of 7Clouds weed, she met up with a friend late at night in a campus courtyard to smoke one of the joints she had bought at the store.
“Mold contamination is the least of my concerns right now,” Ross texted me before she left that night.
Welcome to the land of steady habits.
Oscar Heller is a senior in Ezra Stiles College.
Photos by the New Journal.
