Dear Meteor readers,

Welcome to the 4/20 issue! (Which you might be receiving at 4:20 PM, and yes, we do want a cookie for that.) Today we’re talking all things weed—or pot or reefer or cheeba or grass or ganja—whatever you call it. Specifically, we’re talking to some of the women making the marijuana industry more accessible and raising awareness of how weed works in our bodies. Did you know estrogen levels can affect your reaction to THC? We didn’t. I guess you could say we are fans.

But before we do that, today’s news…

—Samhita Mukhopadhyay

WHAT’S GOING ON

• Mask Off: You know that scene from Euphoria of Fez and Cal Jacobs saying that they’re confused? That’s all of us right now trying to figure out what’s happening with mask mandates. On Monday Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle (of Florida, of course) decided to throw the CDC directive out the emergency exit windows—leading to several airlines chaotically announcing mid-flight that passengers can unmask. (Tell us you don’t give a fig about children or immunocompromised passengers without telling us you don’t give a fig.) The Biden administration is considering appealing the ruling but only if the CDC says there’s a reason to do so. Obviously, we’ve entered the sounds like a you problem era of this pandemic.

• Ongoing in Afghanistan: On Tuesday, two explosives were detonated outside of a school in Kabul, killing at least six and injuring more. According to the Washington Post, many of the victims were teenage boys who were students at the school. So far, it’s unknown who carried out the attack but one student who was injured said of the attackers, “[They don’t] want people in our community to be educated. They want us to give up hope. But I want to go back, as soon as I can walk.”

• Wimbledon’t: The performative cancellation of all things Russian persists. Wimbledon announced that Russian and Belarusian tennis players are banned from competing in the tournament this year and will also be banned from all “UK grass-court tournaments” this tennis season. How does this help the Ukrainian effort to liberate themselves from the deadly campaign to seize their country? Y’all tell me. It also doesn’t function as a punishment for the Russian government in the way that soft-banning the country from the Olympics did for the Winter Games since the top two Russian and Belarusian players in the world are not state-sponsored athletes.

AND:

• Efforts to get Marjorie Taylor Greene off the ballot in North Carolina are underway on the grounds that she had a role in the insurrection. Though somehow not on the grounds that she once threatened violence against her co-workers.
  
• Brittney Griner’s teammates are thinking of her as pre-season gets underway.
  
• More women in clean energy. Yes, please!  

—Shannon

FREE THE TREE

Marijuana Is For Everyone

One woman’s very personal fight to make cannabis more inclusive 

BY SAMHITA MUKHOPADHYAY

GORGEOUS GORGEOUS GIRLS LOVE WEED (PHOTO COURTESY OF MARY PRYOR)

Cannabis has always played a part in American culture. But while some young people had the freedom to experiment with it, for Black and brown people it was demonized and regulated to the full extent of the law. That’s continued despite the steady normalization of cannabis use; in a study from 2010 to 2018, the ACLU found that more than 6 million people were arrested for marijuana possession, with Black people arrested at higher rates than others, even in states where it is legalized.

So it’s worth asking: Who will benefit most from this burgeoning industry? There are already efforts underway to democratize the distribution of licenses; for example, in March, it was announced that in New York State, the first 100 retail licenses would go to people that had prior marijuana convictions. But the cannabis industry is still male-dominated, so I was excited to sit down with Mary Pryor, the founder of Cannaclusive, an organization aimed at holding cannabis businesses accountable for their diversity commitments.

Samhita Mukhopadhyay: So, you have a very diverse career—you’ve worked in advertising, music, and tech. What got you interested in the cannabis industry?

Mary Pryor: I grew up a caretaker. My mom had multiple sclerosis and lupus. My grandmother had really, really severe arthritis. Around 2012, I got hit with what I did not know at the time was my first Crohn’s flare. I was in [and out of] the hospital, and people were like, “We don’t understand what’s going on. Is it blood cancer? Is it ovarian cancer?” Nobody had a clue. In February of 2013, I fell into a coma, and I was put into ICU. They figured out that I had Crohn’s.

I was miserable. I was on up to 20 medications a day. I was 119 pounds. For most of 2013, I didn’t leave my house. I couldn’t keep things down. A lot of medicines [for Crohn’s] are meant to either numb the pain of the issue, mask the issue, or stop your body from attacking itself, which may or may not solve the problem. Around 2014, and 2015, I started traveling out to Denver, Colorado, which was the second state [to make cannabis] legal. I’d had friends send me cannabis studies, focusing on people with ulcerative colitis, IBS, IBD, and Crohn’s. And in Colorado, I could get suppositories, and I could get sprays. And it allowed me to be able to get up and not be in pain, be able to eat, and be able to actually function.

But you felt conflicted about cannabis…

As a Black woman, the things I grew up with were seeing drug addiction, which took away my father, and seeing the war on drugs, which has beat the asses of Black and Brown people and is still winning. And the propaganda behind the war on drugs and the propaganda [against] the plant really was a targeted campaign against melanated people in the US.

And I literally was like, I need this to survive because without it I’m fucked. So, I wanted to raise awareness of the medicinal benefits, the need for affordability (which is key for businesses to thrive) and relaying this information in a digestible way.

So you founded Cannaclusive…

I needed people to be in this industry that look like me. So, I started screaming like Chicken Little like, “Yo, if you want to own a business, this game is different than what you know. People need to get in here.” And so Cannaclusive was co-founded by myself and Tonya Rapley and Charlese Antoinette Jones. We are now a team of 13. And as of last week, I am now one of [only 50] current license holders to grow cannabis in New York State.

The predatory nature of this business mostly targets women. And as someone who has unfortunately been in that position—where I’ve had to learn hard mistakes from people that have taken advantage of me—[I want to create] successful ways to build while you climb. Melanated people need to work together.

And, there are a lot of ways to utilize the benefits of cannabis outside of smoking weed or CBD. The reality is that this is a plant that has a feminized origin. Only feminized [marijuana] seeds give birth to anything, period. And the recognition of the wellness that it provides for our bodies does need to be first and foremost.

What advice do you have for young women who are interested in the space?

I’ll say right now, ancillary businesses are a way less risky way to go about being in the space than growing cannabis. There is a value behind licensing, but it’s a lot of hard work. Two: capital is a need—and if you’re able to raise that, awesome. But if you’re not able to, there are great resources out there (like Our Academy). Three, the self-investment piece is key. So if you need to go to conferences to figure out what’s happening in the space, do it. Four, there’s nothing wrong with wanting a job [in the industry] instead of being an entrepreneur. And five, understand the policies. Every state is different. And federally, cannabis is still illegal and placed as a schedule 1 drug. What’s allowable in one place may not be the same in other places, so make sure you understand all the regulations.

Learn more about women and people of color in the growing cannabis industry here.

THE DOCTOR IS IN

A Little Enlightenment Before You Next Light Up

BY SHANNON MELERO

Between CBD and THC, there are as many strands of cannabis as there are Kardashian offspring. So it’s no wonder that first-timers or even seasoned smokers can get a little confused when attempting to create a marijuana-as-medicine routine. At the height of the pandemic, I was smoking anything remotely green to keep my panic attacks at bay, and to no one’s surprise, it only worked half of the time. I was inconsistent, switching between different products, and didn’t bother consulting a doctor because YOLO, right?

But now that more folks are puffing and states are passing laws to allow for recreational use, it’s time to be more of a Serious Weed Consumer. So I asked integrative cannabis physician and co-author of Cannabis for CBD and Health and Wellness Dr. June Chin for some guidance on getting started on the ganga as safely as possible.

Here are the best hits (weed humor) from our conversation.

• “Because of the hormone estrogen, women are more sensitive to the effects of THC. But unfortunately, many women do not know this, so they think the cannabis is too strong or they are having a bad reaction. This sensitivity, however, can give cannabis significant pain-relieving effects.”
• That said, Dr. Chin notes, “While women may be more sensitive to the herb, they also develop more tolerance to THC than men.”(So tell all your guy friends that you can smoke them under the table any day.)
• Did you know that your menstrual cycle can influence your high? Researchers at Washington State University found that women experience the most effects of THC when estrogen has peaked and is beginning to fall.
• Looking to give pot a try? Dr. Chin advises, “Look for clear labeling, lab tested (COA – Certificate of Analysis), dosing on the bottle, stability, extraction methods, tests for solvents, pesticides, heavy metals, fillers.” Remember that cannabis is not regulated by the FDA so this information isn’t always clearly stated. If you can’t remember everything you’re supposed to look for on the hunt for medicinal marijuana here’s a helpful phrase to keep in mind: no COA no blow-a.

Please consider puff puff passing this newsletter to a friend or two. 

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