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I was recently named in a NORML article recognizing AAPI & Jewish cannabis trailblazers advancing reform, culture, and industry. I am Jewish. Culturally, historically, spiritually. Recognition matters, not because of a list or a headline, but because of what it signals. Cannabis reform has always been shaped by people and communities who understood the plant as medicine, resistance, education, and care long before it became a regulated market. Jewish voices have been part of that history, even when we are selectively remembered or quietly erased. I was raised in and by the plant world, shaped by legacy growers, organizers, healers, and teachers who treated cannabis as medicine and community long before it was a commodity. That lineage informs everything I do today across cannabis, psychedelics, education, policy, and communications. Jewish people are statistically overrepresented in the cannabis industry when you consider we make up less than 0.19 percent of the global population. Yet Jewish leaders likely represent a significant share of operators, advocates, scientists, funders, and educators in this space. That visibility comes with responsibility, especially in moments when antisemitism is rising and selective silence becomes the norm. Last month at MJBizCon, I participated in the 'MJBiz Mitzvah' honoring the 13th anniversary of the event. Why 13? It marks coming into responsibility, voice, and accountability to community. That symbolism landed deeply for me in an industry that urgently needs more ethics, more care, and more memory. This is why I help organize and participate in Jews in Weed; the group exists because Jews have always been part of cannabis, whether acknowledged or erased. From medicine making to organizing, from science to storytelling, from capital to care work. We belong here. We have always belonged here. Jews in Weed is not about ignoring what is happening in the world. Antisemitism is real. Fear is real. Exhaustion is real. The space exists to support one another, collaborate, debate, grieve, build, and show up without pretending neutrality is the same thing as safety. Recognition from organizations like NORML is meaningful when it reflects movement memory, not just market success. Progress only lasts when it includes accountability, cultural integrity, and people willing to speak honestly about who built the foundation and who benefits from its growth. This is the work I continue through Luna Stower Strategies LLC; strategic advising, communications, education, and advocacy for cannabis and psychedelics, grounded in policy literacy, cultural context, and equity... not trend-chasing, greenwashing or extraction. Visibility is key, but is not the end goal... true responsibility is. Original NORML article: https://norml.org/blog/2025/05/29/united-in-reform-celebrating-asian-american-pacific-islander-jewish-cannabis-trailblazers/
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Serious question: do we want cannabis (and other entheogens like psilocybin) to function as TRUE medicine, and not just another hyper-capitalist product? If so, let's shift the conversation away from potency or strain trends and MOVE ON. Away from hype. Away from one-size-fits-all narratives. Toward right relationship. In much of modern cannabis culture, we’ve been taught to ask the wrong questions: How strong is it/how much THC does it have? How fast or hard does the high hit? Those questions don’t lead to healing. They lead to consumption (potentially unconscious consumption at that). Medicine Is Not the Product "Medicine" is relational. And conscious use is political, whether we name it or not; and community is what sustains healing over time. Cannabis is not medicine by default; and medicine is not the plant alone. When we treat cannabis as something to take rather than something to relate to, we lose its usefulness. In ancestral & Indigenous frameworks, plant medicine has always been reciprocal. You do not extract it... you engage with it. There is responsibility built into the relationship. 'Medicine' is the relationship that we build with it; because the same substance can support healing in one context and reinforce avoidance in another. The difference is not the strain or the brand, it is intention, dose, context, and what happens afterward. Extractive greed-capitalism breaks that reciprocity, turning medicine into a commodity and training us to prioritize strength over suitability, branding over belonging, and consumption over care. Psychoactives as an Amplifier, Not a Cure Cannabis and other psychoactive or psychedelic substances do not always just 'fix things,' but can amplify them (awareness, sensation, emotion, creativity, pain). Used intentionally this can support nervous system regulation, help people sit with discomfort without panic, and bring buried patterns into view. Used without intention, it can just as easily reinforce numbness, avoidance, or dependency. This is where dose literacy matters. Low and slow is not conservative or boring; it is respectful. THC is only one part of the equation. CBD, minor cannabinoids, the acid forms of the un-activated plant, phytocannabinoids, terpenes, the delivery method, timing, blood sugar, head-space, and immediate physical environment all shape how cannabis lands in the body. Before using entheogens like cannabis, 3 questions matter more than any label: Why now? What am I trying to support or alleviate? What might I be avoiding, triggering, or numbing out by consuming this? Honest answers create agency... avoiding those questions gives that agency and control away. Ritual, Integration & Why Community Matters One of the biggest failures of modern 'drug' culture is isolation. People use alone and expect transformation without reflection, support, or context. Cannabis and psychotropics can open a door. Community helps you walk through it. Integration is where real change occurs. Not during the experience, but after. Reflection, movement, creativity, rest, or simply noticing how the body feels the next day are all forms of integration. Ritual does not need to be elaborate to be effective; ritual is simply structure with meaning. A pause. An intention. A moment of awareness before something automatic happens. Humans do not heal in a vacuum; community provides shared language, accountability, and normalization without pressure. Not agreement. Not performance. Presence. Equity, Ethics, & the Politics of Wellness Cannabis does not exist outside of power. Personal wellness that ignores collective harm is incomplete. Healing that refuses to look at justice is not whole. For decades, people have been criminalized, incarcerated, and harmed for this plant, disproportionately Black, Brown, Indigenous communities. Families separated. Futures disrupted. Dogs shot. Investment money lost. ... That history does not disappear because 'legalization' (aka commercialization) arrived with polished branding and big promises. Being intentional with cannabis is harm reduction... and that's not just a personal practice; it is a deeply political one. Ethical engagement is not abstract. It shows up in who profits, who is excluded, who is amplified, and who is erased. It shows up in how we respond to marketing noise, potency myths, and wellness language designed to sell rather than support. A Practical Framework for Conscious Use: Here's a simple framework can help keep your relationship with entheogens grounded:
This approach not only returns agency to the individual rather than to marketing narratives, but it also applies whether plant medicines are being used for sleep, to help with pain, inspire creativity, support emotional processing, or spark curiosity (and should be flexible, not dogmatic). The future of cannabis as medicine will not be louder, stronger, or more optimized... It will be slower. More intentional. More honest... and rooted in care rather than consumption. That is the movement worth building.  |
AuthorLuna's hot takes, travel recaps, policy updates, reporting on culture, and power. Writing at the intersection of plant medicine, justice & lived experience. Clear-eyed analysis of reform, minus the hype, rooted in the plant, and focused on people + truth-telling (without the fluff). ArchivesCategories
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