Today we’d like to introduce you to Drew Martin.
Hi Drew, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I love crafting experiences for people. That’s what my whole journey has been about, and it’s taken me all over the world. Spending my formative years traveling globally, I spent a lot of time learning about various use of plants, and I found that so many of these global communities had rich cannabis cultures. At the same time, I started really diving into herbalism and mixology. I had a plant medicine practice that I would run during the day, and then at night, I would make cocktails.
Creating these pre-rolls was a natural synthesis of my experiences. I wanted to riff on the ritual of smoking cannabis by incorporating these rich global herbal traditions in a way that was also uniquely flavorful. I’ve always idealized the magic around partaking in the smoking experience but often found myself excluded because of my lower tolerance for THC. I wanted to create a joint that I could share with friends over a beautiful meal.
When I moved out to LA, I became even more aware of what was happening in the cannabis industry. For a lot of complicated reasons, there seemed to be this trend toward high-potency products and it felt like there was less and less space for the connective, communal, and experiential elements that I have always loved about this plant. I wanted to try to bring some of that back in my own way.
Bringing together botanicals and cannabis and the interplay between their terpenes and cannabinoids is the true definition of plant magic. It’s a connection to the ancient practice of harnessing the power of plants, which for me, is at the heart of everything I do.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The emerging cannabis industry in California is rife with problems. Particular to us, we are constantly defying the trend that the only thing that matters is price per mg of THC. Our thesis from the beginning was to divorce value from THC content. We know the community of like-minded folks is out there, it’s also just particularly difficult to reach them, given the restrictions around messaging and marketing.
I’d also be remiss not to address the deep inequities embedded in the legal cannabis market that has been built on the backs of Black and Brown people across the US. As a queer person, I do understand the lack of representation in the industry yet recognize my privilege as a white-bodied person to all sorts of access denied to others. We’re working constantly with partners across the space to amplify voices that need to be heard.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My background in herbalism and plant medicine has always been my driving force. There’s something incredibly powerful about the ceremony around plants both socially as well as from a healing perspective. Plant practices tell a story about a culture and I always found them to be a way to connect more deeply with the people I encounter. Ultimately, this led me to pursue formal training in western herbalism and open my own plant medicine practice in New Orleans.
In a similar vein, I’ve dedicated many years of my life studying and working with spirits. I’m lucky that I’ve gotten to taste some of the most incredible alcohol in the world and let’s be honest, bartending was never a bad way to make money while traveling. The overlapping elements between herbalism and mixology are so present—they both finetune composition and ratio to manipulate things like flavor and mouthfeel. I’ve been lucky enough to write cocktail lists for some of the most respected bars across the country and have won great awards doing so. The most important thing I learned behind the bar was how to take these complicated and challenging spirits and translate them into something the consumer could enjoy by creating cocktails, and that’s really what I wanted to do with cannabis.
I’m very passionate using these things to tell stories. Much like the olfactory sense, I think flavor has the ability to transport anyone to a very specific place and provoke visceral responses. It can stimulate, impress, and intrigue. So in this sense, I think there’s truly both a science and an art to engaging the senses.
I’m not too concerned about the format—I’m happy to work in food, drink or smoke. What I love is the ability to use my skills to evoke a real response from someone trying my creations. I love conjuring childhood memories, eliciting curiosity or introducing an entirely new sensory experience.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
This journey has taught me that building a community around conscious consumption takes a really long time. We know the incredible value of regenerative farming practices and sustainable, equitable supply chains and work constantly to proselytize these concepts! At the end of the day, this is my passion and the reason why I continue to build and grow with Drew Martin.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.drewmartin.co
- Instagram: @drewmartinco
- Facebook: /drewmartinco
Image Credits
• Row 1 (Left): Christina Stoever • Row 1 (Right): Christina Stoever • Row 2 (Left): Christina Stoever • Row 2 (Right): Jerry Zheng • Row 3 (Left): Jerry Zheng • Row 3 (Right): Chantal Anderson • Row 4 (Left): Christina Stoever • Row 4 (Right): Christina Stoever
