‘North Americans are in the cannabis closet’
Media firm founder says it’s time for grown-up conversations about pot
Step aside, Snoop. Move along, Cheech and Chong.
The cannabis industry is seeking new celebrity role models, a few famous faces to endorse their product without squinty red eyes and a perpetual smirk.
As Canada prepares for legalization, Derek Riedle believes it’s time to hear from pop-culture heroes who don’t fit the stoner stereotype. Chelsea Handler, the comedian, author and activist, is a great example, says Riedle, the New Brunswick-born founder of Civilized, a cannabis lifestyle media company.
He and Handler are touring Canada this month to appear in a series of town-hall style conversations on cannabis, presented by Civilized. They stop at the National Arts Centre on Friday (Oct. 5).
“It’s one thing when you hear Snoop or Cheech and Chong speak about cannabis,” Riedle said. “These are people who have aligned themselves with stoner culture for a while. That’s why somebody like Chelsea is so refreshing. She’s a strong, confident, independent woman who’s talking honestly and earnestly about what she believes, and what she’s come to understand about cannabis and how it’s a healthy part of her balanced lifestyle. She’s out to tell the world, and people are paying attention.”
Handler consumes cannabis in edible form, using different formulations to help with sleeping, being creative or recreational use. “It’s just a way to get through your day that’s a little bit more pleasant,” Handler recently told this newspaper.
Riedle, on the other hand, first smoked pot when he was a student, but says he left it behind when he began working in the advertising industry, where drinking alcohol was a more socially acceptable pastime.
“Coming from Eastern Canada, I’m a guy who likes to drink beer,” Riedle says. “But as I moved into my 30s, those Friday and Saturday night beers became a little too hard on me. Hangovers became a little
too intense. The empty calories also became a bit of a problem. I’m the father of two young boys and it became tough to be present on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Alcohol leaves that buzz on your brain the day after.”
A fellow dad suggested cannabis, and the vape pen soon became Riedle’s favourite weekend refreshment. By 2015, though, he was tired of being relegated to the alley while his friends downed beverages inside the club.
“I decided we wanted to change the culture so that more people who felt like me could be free to be openly consuming and enjoying cannabis,” he said, casting back to the origins of the company, which began before the Trudeau government was elected with its promise to legalize.
“We started Civilized because we just knew the time had come for cannabis, and the time to talk about it like grown-ups had arrived, and nobody was doing it.”
A poll released by his company last spring showed that average users are generally older and wealthier than one might expect. However, up to 60 per cent of consumers are discreet about their use, preferring to keep it under wraps because of the stigma associated with being a stoner.
“Two-thirds of North Americans are in the cannabis closet because they don’t want their kids, friends, co-workers or anyone to know,” Riedle said. “That’s something we’re working actively to change.”
Other tidbits from the poll show a broad age range of users, a 5050 split between men and women, and a cohort of people trying it for the first time who are 55 or older. “When you look at who’s beginning to use cannabis for the first time, or the first time again, it’s 55-plus,” Riedle observes. “People are interested in it for pain relief and as an alternative to alcohol.”
One of his pet peeves is how the mainstream news media covers cannabis-related topics, frequently resorting to stoner clichés about blowing smoke, zoning out and getting the munchies.
“The conversations have been so silly and loaded with misinformation for generations,” Riedle says.
“It’s all tongue-in-cheek and based on the perspective that cannabis is something you use to mess your brain up, to opt out for the rest of the day. That’s not what it is. It’s a healthy part of a balanced lifestyle for millions of people. Until the media starts talking about it like that, they ’re doing a disservice.”
His company plans to continue normalizing the conversation around cannabis, and cultivating celebrity role models.
”It’s safe to say there will be many, many more Civilized conversations across Canada and the U.S.,” Riedle said, without naming names of any celebrities who have been approached.