Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Pot users want to get minds out of stoned age
Image shift campaigns look to buck stereotype
Michelle Janikian, who writes about marijuana for publications like Herb, Playboy and Rolling Stone, says that after she tells people 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.
Adam Salcido relates that after he went to work a couple of years ago for a company that helps organize weed-infused events, he had to reassure his family he wouldn’t turn into a drug addict.
Stoner stereotypes die hard. But with a multibillion-dollar industry beginning to flower — marijuana is now legal in some form in 30 states — cannabis advocates are pushing to dispel the idea that people who toke up still live on the couches in their parents’ basements and spend their waking hours eating Cheetos and playing video games.
MedMen, a flashy, upscale chain of dispensaries that brands itself as the Apple store of pot shops, recently rolled out a $2 million ad campaign.
Photos of 17 people — including a white-haired grandmother, a schoolteacher, a business executive, a former pro football player and a nurse — are being splashed across billboards, buses and the web by the company, which has dispensaries in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York. Each photo has the word “stoner” crossed out and in its place a description of their job.
“What we’re saying is the very definition of a stereotype is defining a person by one bad mention,” said Daniel Yi, MedMen’s senior vice president of communications and a former Los Angeles Times reporter.
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 not only just respectable but also as the herbal equivalent of a fine bourbon or scotch.
Thus, 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. He compares the aroma and flavor of his company’s pre-rolled joints to something similar to a fine brandy.
Still there is pushback from some who believe that 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.
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 average New Yorkers, from empty-nesting boomers to workaholic millennials.
It’s one of Janikian’s favorite shows, and she’d like to see more like it.
But she knows people are often skeptical.
“It’s like, ‘Oh, you just want to smoke weed,’” she said, laughing. “‘Stop lying.’”