Entry 001: Why I Started Melanated Smoke

Cannabis entered my world in high school, and at that time, basketball was my life. I tried it, but I knew very little about the plant. I smoked my first blunt in the back seat of my boyfriend's car with my best friend. The only thing I remember from the experience is that I felt like Craig from Friday. I could hear my heartbeat louder than normal, and I was extremely paranoid. From that moment forward, I began to consume socially with my friends a.k.a 'seshes'.

Growing up, my friends puffed the plant, and at that time, there weren't a lot of edibles. You would be lucky to find a 'weed brownie'. So you had to know how to roll, and this was a must in the seshes that I was in because "if you not rollin', you not smokin". My skills in rolling came from trial and error of "having to figure it out", but I am thankful because I don't need any assistance if I ever need to have a solo sesh or with friends. I honestly think everyone who desires to consume should know how to roll up, especially WOMEN.

One day in 2019, I was listening to music, having a sesh with one of my sister friends. I decided to do my take on a trending audio for fun, and it got a response. Not a viral one. A response that made me feel like there was a community that I was unaware existed. They were cannamoms. I knew women who puffed. I knew mothers who puffed. In my world, it didn't have a name; it was socially accepted. We didn't say 'wine mom' or 'cognac mom', so it was a term that I never used.

When I started to create content surrounding the normalization of the plant, I learned so much. The unrealistic stigma placed on mothers who choose to consume the plant. The lack of diversity in the cannabis industry on multiple levels, yet minorities, and specifically Blacks, are criminalized for the plant at a higher rate. So representation became my goal. How could I use my skills to amplify the plant and the industry, because it needed some color?

No one was going to make me believe that all the top cannabis brands and influencers were white. The minorities they kept showing started to feel like tokens. Did they really do the research to see who is real in this industry? Who is being innovative, educative, inspiring, or was it safe to keep the people at the top that have the money in the light?

Definitely didn't take me long to find amazing people of color with brands, organizations, events, books, and more. It was a movement going on, and I wanted to be a part of it. Cannabis had helped me both medicinally and recreationally, and I knew that I had a voice and skills to add to the conversation.

In 2022, I joined Bouqé Rolling Paper Company, and my singular efforts became a joint powerhouse. This connection deserves its own journal entry because it is that special and has been an integral part of my footprint in the cannabis industry.

My heart never forgot about my original vision for cannabis moms, women, and people of color. That vision is why I am here now, six years later, building this out the way it was always meant to be.

My first road trip with Bouqé to NY. Location: Happy Buds Brooklyn, photo courtesy of Justin 'Olot' Featherstone.

Black women in cannabis spaces were minimal at best. And a mom? A CannaMom who looked like me? Almost nonexistent. Six years ago, the cannamoms being highlighted were overwhelmingly white, and I knew that was not the full picture. I knew because I was here. I existed. And so did so many women like me. Productive women. Women who were showing up every day, building things, raising children, leading in their communities, and also consuming cannabis. And men, too. Not the lazy stereotype that popular culture tried to sell us. Real people. Contributing people. That representation mattered to me then, and it matters to me now.

I have consumed cannabis for years, but I did not truly understand its medicinal value until much later in my journey. I come from an era where you just rolled around on a mission to get that. No budtender. No menu. Just your nose, your eyes, and trust. You knew what you knew, and you consumed accordingly.

For as long as I can remember, I struggled with gut health issues: acid reflux, GERD, and gastritis. Nothing prescribed or over-the-counter gave me real relief. I got used to being nauseous every single day. That became my normal until someone close to me introduced me to a THC oil pen. From the first inhale I knew I had found my medicine. 

What nobody talks about is the stigma that follows you even into the doctor’s office. When I decided I was done with over-the-counter pills and prescriptions that were not working, I started being upfront with my doctors about what I was doing. I was microdosing with oil, with flower, with edibles. And it was working. My body was responding in ways that years of prescribed medication never achieved. But instead of curiosity, I was met with doubt. Healthcare professionals who did not believe me. Who dismissed what I knew my own body was telling me. Having to fight to be taken seriously by the very people who were supposed to help and heal me was one of the frustrating parts of this journey. And it only made me more committed to talking about it openly. 

The stigma around cannabis draws out a multitude of judgments. But here is what I have always found to be true. The plant has a way of finding its people. And those people find each other. There is a community that wraps around you when you are open to it, and that sense of belonging is a huge part of why I built Melanated Smoke. I wanted more mothers, more women, more people who felt alone in this to know that their community was already here waiting for them.

The comparison of cannabis to alcohol never sat right with me. Heavy drinking has always been socially acceptable. It is normalized, celebrated even. Nobody questioned it because it was just what people did. But I had to learn my own hard lessons for myself. What I will say is that the plant showed me a different way, and I chose it. That was my decision, and I stand by it fully.

Photo courtesy of Justin 'Olot' Featherstone

I am still learning every day. That is exactly why this space exists. Melanated Smoke is where I come to express myself, showcase women-owned and BIPOC brands, spark real conversations, and build a resource for anyone on this journey who needs to see someone who looks like them living it out loud. 

If you made it to the end of my first journal entry, I appreciate you, and I look forward to sharing more with you!