Have you ever had a friend so dear and true that you knew your forces combined could accomplish anything? When Pepper and I became friends, we felt that way almost immediately. We looked out on the future and thought, “This is going to be a blast!” We promptly determined that we would grow old in the same nursing home, live to at least 92, and flirt obscenely with younger men in their 70s. But before that we would be unstoppable, powerful women, taking over the world one brilliant project at a time. Pepper and I carefully reviewed our joint passions and settled on the thing that we loved most in the world after each other and our dear sweet Misters—pot.

PotCouture.com is a labor of love.  Marijuana has brought such wonderful things into both of our lives that we felt compelled to share our stories so that other people could read and share their own. What was initially conceived as a little blog about our pot adventures in New York City evolved into a much bigger venture: the first online magazine developed for stylish, professional women who use marijuana.  While we were researching our project we were both inspired and surprised to realize there were hardly any sites catering to the interests of what we would call “lady stoners.” However, there was one pinpoint of light in the darkness: an excellent article in Marie Claire in 2009 entitled “Stiletto Stoners.” The public response to that article was so positive that we knew we were onto something. So we forged ahead, and in July 2010 we quietly launched Potcouture.com.

Well, it wasn’t quiet on purpose. No one knew we were there. But we believed that in holding up our own little pinpoints in the darkness we were beckoning our fellow lady stoners to “come out of the smoky closet,” as Sabrina Fendrick of the NORML Women’s Alliance would say. We had faith that as other women like us held up their lights in reply, the truth would become profoundly apparent: everybody’s doing it!

I would respectfully assert that one of the larger problems the marijuana legalization movement faces is one of perception. Frankly, Mary Jane needs a makeover. Television and movies consistently portray the marijuana user as a burden on society. You’ve seen variations on the theme: the stereotypical stoner is wrapped in a tie-dye security blanket and passed out on a threadbare couch, one hand in a bag of Doritos and the other clutching the mightiest bong in all the land. In fact, one of the more prevalent and ridiculous arguments against the legalization of marijuana goes something like this:

“We’re in a recession, people! If California legalizes marijuana, the whole left side of the country will pass out at the wheel, leaving the rest of us to shoulder this economy one sober step at a time! Fear! Anger! Gnashing of teeth! Arrrrrrggh!”

But that unconscious dude on the couch isn’t representative of us. In fact, I know a lot of stoners, and that doesn’t resemble any of them. As a professional woman living and working in New York City, I meet people every day who smoke pot for health and relaxation. The image of the unmotivated lump doesn’t begin to portray the ingenuity, persistence, intelligence, and passion embodied in my fellow “lady stoners.”

PotCouture.com is our effort to illuminate the darkness. We are holding it up over our heads as high as we can, answering the other pinpricks we see in the distance, lights like the NORML Women’s Alliance. When we first talked with Sabrina we knew we were meeting a true friend. The activism undertaken by the NORML Women’s Alliance shows integrity, clarity, and reason, and we share their goals to provide a voice and face for female marijuana users who are not accurately represented by mainstream media, or by what has become traditional pot culture.

It is with great happiness and pride that we don our highest heels in solidarity with the NORML Women’s Alliance, holding up our flickering candles with theirs in faith that if others see our collective glow they will join our cause. Opponents to Proposition 19 and other marijuana ballot measures know better than anyone that the stereotypical pothead is a myth, and yet they manipulate that problematic image as much as possible, stretching it as far as it will go. Because the truth we know—and the truth they fear—is that stoners aren’t losers. We’re innovators, entrepreneurs, visionaries, activists and voters. And our forces combined can bring logical, healthy change to the marijuana policies in this country, ending prohibition at long last and implementing safe, reasonable laws for the medical and recreational use of pot.

Join us. Let’s make some light.

Marijuana Horticulture author Jorge Cervantes with NORML SHOW LIVE host “Radical” Russ at Oregon NORML’s Cannabis Café

Join us this and every Saturday night as we come to you at 6pm Pacific with our new live studio audience at the world famous Oregon NORML Cannabis Café! We stream live at http://live.norml.org for two hours and we feature interesting guests, the latest marijuana news, entertaining audio clips, and 420-friendly advertisers in a live talk radio show made by, for, and about responsible adult cannabis consumers. You can join the conversation by calling 347-994-1810 or by logging in to our live chat window.

Our guest for the first hour is Ryan Tracy, who founded CheechandChong.com in 1998.  Ryan has recently been embroiled in a battle over the website with Live Nation as they are now sponsoring the Cheech & Chong: Get It Legal tour, and he’ll talk about his side of the story from the perspective of a longtime loyal fan.  We’ll also talk about his new site, CheechandChongFans.com.

In our second hour, we visit with the co-author of Pot Culture: the A-to-Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life, Steve Bloom, and his work on the entertainment news site, CelebStoner.com.  Steve will also preview is upcoming book on stoner movies and discuss PayPal dropping his site, California NORML, and others for accepting advertisement from legal medical marijuana businesses.

We’ve also got new specials for holiday advertisers on the live show (10,000 downloads a month), our daily podcasts (50,000 downloads a month), and the Stash blog (100,000 hits per month).  You can focus your advertising dollars on a very specific, well-educated niche of marijuana supporters who are very loyal to brands that support NORML.  Email us at stash@norml.org for details.

Said with a degree of cocksureness, there are not too many people in the world the director of NORML would fear in a ‘pot culture’ quiz, however, I quiver at the prospect of facing Bloom and Halperin in such a contest! I’d be hard pressed to identify a better written and published pro-cannabis polemical, especially its ability to chronicle pot culture through the lens of pop culture, notably the entertainment industry.

The expansive photos, nifty graphics, along with Steve Marcus’ eye-catching cartoon art are of immense high quality, reflect the authors’ mastery of subject matter and demonstrate genuinely hard publishing work (the photo credit work alone appeared to be a full time job). Abrams Image, the book’s publisher, has produced a publication equal to the authors’ passions.

One of the book’s features I particularly like are the numerous celebrity guest contributions and commentaries, among the many:
-Adrianne Curry writes about ‘How to hide the smell’
-Kal Penn opines on ‘Playing a movie stoner’
-Melissa Etheridge on ‘Medical Marijuana’
-Tommy Chong writes the book’s introduction
-Jonah Hall demonstrates ‘How to make apple pipe’
-Redman teaches ‘How to roll a blunt’
-Matthew McConaughey ‘Talking Dazed’

Written in an easy to read A to Z format, there are virtually no ‘stoner’ questions left unanswered, from ‘when did 4:20 start?’ to ‘what are the most stoner-friendly movies and TV shows?’ Pot Culture ably melds pop culture, politics and activism into a very informative and entertaining mix—not usually an easy task for a polemical, but Bloom and Halperin pull it off well.

Steve is a lifetime member of NORML and a frequent contributor to NORML’s daily podcast, Daily AudioStash.

Upon completing Pot Culture I came to a familiar affirmation regarding cannabis prohibition: The more the government prohibits cannabis, rejects law reform efforts, spends tax dollars on enforcement and tries to suppress pot culture, the more the pot subculture (and economy) flourishes, expands effectively unabated and is ever-increasingly being embraced by mainstream media and culture.

Along with a pleasant, informative and comprehensive tour de force of the intersection of cannabis and commerce, Bloom & Halperin’s Pot Culture profoundly demonstrates the resiliency of cannabis consumers in the face of a historically alcohol-dominant culture and so-called stoners’ abilities to create a nurturing and sustained pot culture.

Interested in reading Pot Culture? You can do so and join NORML’s law reform advocacy efforts at the same time. Nice twofer!