Lowell Farms: A Connection Through Cannabis
“A friend with weed is a friend indeed”.
If you started smoking marijuana between the late 90s and the early 2000s, you’ve probably heard this quirky phrase that became trivial in colleges across the country. Finding weed without getting caught up legally or being sold some off-brand product was a risk that we all took willingly but a process that none of us enjoyed. If you had a friend that had access to a solid connect or a friend that was willing to ‘put the team on his back’ and carry his kit around with him, that individual was indeed a great friend. I, myself, having had run-ins with the law on a few occasions, came to embrace this phrase as reality as a result.
On a more serious level, there is a lot of truth to the concept. Outside of art and sports, cannabis is one of the few social activities that bring people together from all walks of life, of different backgrounds and interests; it truly brings out the beauty in humanity. Like music, if you understand the properties and benefits of the plant and choose to embrace them, your empathy and understanding of other individuals that partake are of a higher connection. In the past, this connection was much more distant due to the laws and regulations surrounding the plant but as society caught up to the knowledge that science had long provided, the distance between communities began to merge.
What also began to happen as science and society grew fonder of each other, is the deeper understanding that we all partake in our practices in ways that are unique to our own comfortabilities. What is important to remember is that freedom creates new habits, once we are able to embrace our vices freely, we then gain the ability to develop our individual rituals and processes that best correlate to our own lifestyles. Whether we are smoking, vaping, cooking, eating, or drinking we all consume our products differently, which gives cannabis an allure throughout the world.
Unfortunately, the visual perception of these intricacies in consumption has yet to catch up to the advancement of product usage in the industry and per usual, communities of color still bear the burden of being stigmatized for the same usage as other communities. There is still a large disparity in ownership, in representation and in acceptance of communities of color in the cannabis industry as a whole but little by little, it’s important in spaces that give us a platform to provide a diverse representation of consumption, of understanding and of perspective as it pertains to this universal plant that we all love together.
One of my biggest goals as a professional of my craft is to infuse people of color in as many industries as I am given the opportunity to because of the disparity, especially when it comes to cannabis. Fortunately for me, Lowell Farms has been supportive of this pursuit. Though this is my first post directly related to Lowell, I have shot content with their product in the past with Muka and through that, I made it to Lowell’s radar.
Just about 14 months later, Lowell reached out through Instagram offering to send me a new product that they had long been advertising, their CBD Smoke packages, introducing yet another way to consume the cannabis plant. Without hesitation, I was more than open to jump at this opportunity despite other creatives around me strongly suggesting that I demand money to establish the relationship. I also believe that as creatives we hold the power in business deals, as we usually have built up followings within communities that we frequent, giving us the leverage to not only market but also act as a direct catalyst for sales of products that we truly believe in, so I completely understand the sentiment that they were so adamantly inferring. But in this specific situation, I thought it smarter to establish a relationship of communication between myself and a brand on the rise, in an industry that is breaking all prior business projections.
For this set, I enlisted Danielle Warren, an artist, influencer and product connoisseur from the DMV area to help share this imagery. A lot of us consume cannabis alongside a good tea, matcha, a coffee and with this 17% CBD blend, the focus in the pairing is ideal for working. Whether you are a creative, entrepreneur or just in need of clear-headed functionality, this blend is strongly suggested. As the package states, it contains no nicotine or tobacco products as well as avoids the euphoric effects that are usually associated with cannabis. For more detailed information regarding CBD, Lowell’s site gives insight on their product in specific and if you are looking for a more detailed break down of the differences between CBD & THC, Leafly is your destination.
Follow Danielle on IG at @Daniell_eeeee & her artist page as well at @DaniOffsets .
Check out Lowell Farms at @lowellfarms & their page dedicated to their CBD Smokes at @lowellcbd .
And follow the link below to the Editorial Campaign Page focusing on the set as well