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What is weed’s place in popular culture?
I chatted about the stigma around weed use with Charis B, fashion designer, former Playboy model, and co-founder of national cannabis brand The Medicine Woman.
Right off the heels of a city cannabis board approval in Jersey City for The Medicine Woman’s collaborative legal weed dispensary with musician and actor Ice-T, Charis B spoke to me about how her careers in other industries relate to her cannabis business.
The following Q&A was edited for clarity and flow.
Q: Thank you for taking the time to speak to me today. As NJ.com’s cannabis lifestyle and culture reporter, I want to talk to you about the role of weed in popular culture.
But first, congratulations on your dispensary approval at the city level. That’s a big deal. What drew you to placing your new business in Jersey City, specifically?
A: I appreciate that. Specifically, it was Ice-T. My husband [Luke Burrett] and I have been friends with him for about 35 years. He’s a Jersey resident, and the one who initiated the process four years ago with the governor of New Jersey.
Being the businessman that he is, he was looking for someone who is an expert in the cannabis industry and had done this before. Two-and-a-half years ago, when he asked for my help, I offered him a blueprint of how to get it done if that’s what he wanted; but I also told him I would be willing to be his partner — he accepted right on the spot.
For us at The Medicine Woman, that was exciting to be able to bring our expertise to a state and a city that’s just getting started.
The Medicine Woman’s mission is to really bring global medicine to local communities, at affordable prices; for everybody to be able to afford what we have in our shop. We have things that are all prices and we welcome everybody. Being able to know that you’re buying quality products — licensed, batch and lab tested — that you’re dosed properly, it allows you to enjoy something with zero stress.
Q: In researching you, I found that this is not your first collaboration. Can you talk to me about your work creating fashion and cannabis lines for athletes?
A: My husband and I were actually in the apparel industry for 25 years. We sold a company in 2010, but we were very involved with the UFC until we did. We maintained many relationships with some of the fighters, and then cannabis legalization came around.
It was exciting to work with athletes that are still actively competing that would be willing to claim that they smoke and use cannabis products. It’s a rarity.
Usually it is an ex-player or former athlete that has the freedom from sponsors and league rules to claim marijuana is helping them but there’s not a lot of working athletes that are willing to.
Q: Thankfully that list of working athletes willing to identify as cannabis users does seem to be growing slowly.
A: They’re proving that cannabis doesn’t just put you on a couch and make you a do-nothing. Some of the best athletes in the world use cannabis. It’s such a huge thing for us in the industry that are constantly fighting a stigma.
Q: Do you think that’s what it will take to end stigmatization? For prominent figures, high-level entrepreneurs, athletes, people at the top of their game and industry to say, ‘hey, my cannabis use isn’t a detriment, it actually helps me in different ways.’
A: There’s not a title of anyone that I know personally — not a billionaire, an executive, a millionaire, a doctor, or an athlete — that is exempt from cannabis use. The issue is that people are worried about other people’s opinions of it, and what others will think. They are all using it, but there’s such a judgment.
The more that anybody out there opens up conversations about it, it’s only just going to allow it to grow at the rate that it deserves.
Q: There have been so many conversations this year, specifically around stigma and what a detriment it is to the growth of the industry. We could be expanding even faster, though it is still the fastest growing industry in the country right now.
A: Our real mantra at The Medicine Woman is that education is so important. I have no problem having a complete healthy debate with people that are not sure about it or don’t believe in or have negative feelings. That’s all okay, because you’ve got to have the conversations, you’ve got to teach people about it.
That’s why you’ll always hear me call it medicine.
Unfortunately, they’re just using recreational as a term to differentiate, and medical versus recreational in terms of legalities, but the reality is, cannabis is medicine, it’s always been medicine.
From that point, you can move forward to educate youngsters and older people about what it’s really used for. Sitting around smoking just to get high is pointless. You’re using it for a reason. There’s anti-anxiety, there’s sleep. So it’s really a medicine for your mental state.
You might not need something for a few years, you might find yourself down the road needing it and that’s fine. If you’re using it, it doesn’t automatically mean you’re just sitting around using it all day, every day.
I don’t smoke every day; I don’t use every day. I don’t need to. If I don’t need it, I don’t need it. If I need it, I need it. I might smoke for a week straight.
Q: You’ve operated in a lot of positions in different industries; you’ve been creative director, you’ve done marketing, you’re a mom. How does cannabis contribute to your quality of life?
A: Cannabis has been something that I’ve used since I was 15 years old, because I was looking for something. I think when anybody uses it, they’re looking for a different mental state.
For me, now that I’m almost 49 years old, I can look back and realize, I used it because I was looking for something to calm my brain down to make me feel maybe a little more normal.
It can be weird for people to hear that you would do that to feel more normal, but I think that’s quite a lot of people are doing.
It calms them down; just like people want to have a glass of wine or a martini at five o’clock. People are looking for something to take things down a notch —and it does a great job of that.
Q: What drew you to starting The Medicine Woman?
A: I’d always wanted to be involved in it. My father-in-law was one of the largest cannabis growers in the United States. He had always really wanted us to get into it, but there were legalities.
We had some really big businesses going; it just wasn’t worth the legal troubles. Raising a child also, I didn’t want to play with the law. Orange is my favorite color but you know, I’m not looking to wear it.
And then in 2014 or 2015, in California there was Prop. 215. That gave us a way to protect ourselves if we played the game properly, which meant paying our taxes and operating under a nonprofit.
My husband and I agreed that was the time as we had just sold our other company. It had always been a part of our life and something that we wanted to do. We understand branding, marketing and sales so that the infrastructure of the business and the creative was like nothing for us.
Q: What are some of the core values of your expertise and the culture of the Medicine Woman brand that you plan to bring to the New Jersey market?
A: We want to make sure that people’s health is number one. It’s important to have a place where people can go and afford quality cannabis.
Consumers want to be educated on new products and what’s going on in the market. They want friendly people to be able to know what they like or what they need something for. You want that connection like you would with anything else.
There are so many consumers that don’t know what they want or how to ask questions to find out what they need. There are people that are new to it that are embarrassed to say they don’t understand enough to order. it’s important to have a place where people can go and not feel silly or insecure about asking what a term means or what something is. The Medicine Woman is that place.
Have a question about consuming weed? Ask me anything.
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Gabby Warren is NJ.com’s Cannabis Life reporter. She’ll be covering all things weed retail, commerce and culture. Send your weed consumer questions to gwarren@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @divix3nation.
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