THE ‘STONER’ STEREOTYPE
Pot industry works on image
LOS ANGELES Michelle Janikian, who writes about marijuana for publications Herb, Playboy and Rolling Stone, says after she tells someone what she does for a living, she usually spends the rest of the conversation “trying to act so friendly and mainstream” so they don’t think she’s stoned. Stoner stereotypes die hard. But with a multibillion-dollar industry beginning to flower — marijuana is now legal in some form in 30 states in the U.S. — cannabis advocates are pushing to dispel the idea that people who toke up still sleep on their parents’ couches and spend their days eating Cheetos.
MedMen, a flashy, upscale chain of dispensaries, recently rolled out a $2 million ad campaign that could be called the “anti-stoner offensive.”
Photos of 17 people — including a white-haired grandmother, a schoolteacher and a nurse — are being splashed across billboards, buses and the web. Each photo has the word “stoner” crossed out and in its place a description of their job.
People can find their biographies online, where they can also learn why they use weed. Reasons range from treatment of medical conditions like migraines to simply enjoying the high.
“What we’re saying is the very definition of a stereotype is defining a person by one bad mention,” says Daniel Yi, MedMen’s senior vice-president of communications.
Judd Weiss, CEO and founder of cannabis company Lit.Club, believes the industry needs to do still more. He suggests marketing products in a way that makes them look like the herbal equivalent of a fine bourbon or scotch.
He says Lit.Club’s vape pens are packaged in a way “that won’t embarrass you at the opera.” They look sleek and stylish, with inspirational phrases like “Light A Path” printed on each one.
Still, there is pushback from some who believe realities about pot are being glossed over by slick marketing.
“It is not a controversial claim to say that marijuana could be addictive for some people, that it could produce mental illness, that it’s tied to impaired driving, that it makes you not motivated, that you’re more likely to drop out of school if you’re a kid using,” said Kevin Sabet, president of the group Smart Approaches to Marijuana and a former drug policy adviser to presidents Clinton, Obama and George W. Bush.
Sabet accuses the cannabis industry of enticing children with edibles and cookies in an attempt to become another “Big Tobacco,” although he also acknowledges there is evidence that marijuana has some medicinal value.
It was edibles that brought Cindy Paul of Billings, Montana, to a Portland, Oregon, pot shop to sample marijuana for the first time in 25 years. A casual, if closeted, smoker during her school days, Paul, 55, said she decided to indulge again while vacationing.
“I do think it has medicinal qualities,” she said, adding, “I’m not using it for that. I’m using it to have a good time. I don’t think it’s any different than having a beer.”
To attract more people like Paul, branding expert Robert Miner says the marijuana industry needs to use movies and TV.
Those lovable stoners Cheech and Chong were fine back in the day when it came to rebuffing the idea that anybody who smoked pot was headed for “Reefer Madness.” But the mainstreaming of marijuana, he said, demands a new message.
“For that larger portion of the cannabis-consuming population, that same silly, bumbling stereotype that led to a wider acceptance is now an impediment to their being open about their cannabis consumption,” Miner says.
One show that presents a more modern take on marijuana is HBO’s High Maintenance. It features a bicycle-riding pot dealer who interacts with a variety of New Yorkers. The only thing any have in common is they buy marijuana from him.
It’s one of Janikian’s favourite shows, and she’d like to see more like it. But for now the writer will continue to remain circumspect about her marijuana use.
She sometimes uses a topical cream to curb anxiety and likes to smoke a joint to unwind like any “random normal person” would have a glass of wine.
But she knows those random normal people are often skeptical.
“It’s like, ‘Oh, you just want to smoke weed,’” she says, laughing. “’Stop lying.’”