When California voters legalized recreational marijuana with the passage of Proposition 64 in 2016, the move caught the attention of big money investors from around the globe. Eager to reap the rewards of what would become the world’s largest market for regulated cannabis at the time, speculators poured untold amounts of cash into the state to stake their claim. But while Prop. 64 created new opportunities for adult-use cannabis, it also upended an existing medical marijuana industry that had served California patients for two decades.
Second-generation cannabis farmer Chiah Rodriques prunes a plant on her property in Mendocino … [+]
Photo courtesy of Lady Buds.
The murky regulatory environment in California under Proposition 215, the 1996 ballot initiative that legalized medical marijuana, favored small, independent operators over large corporations leery of risking sizable investments. Many of these legacy entrepreneurs saw full legalization as a path to emerge from the shadows and were eager to participate in the newly regulated economy. But it wasn’t long before they realized that deep-pocketed companies with the resources to secure the limited number of licenses and properly zoned commercial properties threatened their way of life.
Women Stand To Take Their Place In A Nascent Industry
As legalization loomed on the horizon, filmmaker Chris J. Russo, the director of the new documentary Lady Buds, knew that California was about to experience a major economic and societal transformation. And she was struck by “the number of women entrepreneurs who were speaking up in the cannabis industry seemed like more than any other market I’ve ever seen,” Russo wrote in her director’s statement for the film. “I had the impression cannabis was always a “bro” culture, so when I noticed women owning the space, I was intrigued and quite frankly surprised.”
Russo had been introduced to cannabis as medicine at an early age when a family member used the herb during treatment for breast cancer in the 1990s. As she grew older, she identified cannabis with creativity and the counterculture of the hippies and rock ‘n’ roll. So, when she realized that California’s traditional cannabis operators were about to be pushed aside by big-moneyed interests, she also discovered the topic of her next film.
Lady Buds follows the journey to legalization as experienced by second-generation cannabis farmer Chiah Rodriques; Sue Taylor, an African American retired Catholic school principal turned septuagenarian dispensary owner; Latinx queer activist Felicia Carbajal; serial entrepreneur Karyn Wagner; and Humboldt cannabis community elders Pearl Moon and Dr. Joyce Centofanti, known collectively and affectionately as the Bud Sisters.
Retired Catholic school principal Sue Taylor surveys the abandoned site in Berkeley, California that … [+]
Photo courtesy of Lady Buds.
“What I found was a community of courageous women, many of whom had risked their freedom to cultivate the plant, and realized that women had been at the center of this movement for decades,” said Russo. “I gained the trust from an ‘outlaw’ community to tell their stories that I knew were soon to disappear.”
A Deck Stacked Against Independent Operators
The film documents Rodriques’ struggle to gain licensing for her small Mendocino County cannabis farm and Taylor’s rise from working at Oakland, California’s groundbreaking medical cannabis retailer Harborside under the tutelage of co-founder Steve DeAngelo to starting a dispensary of her own. Carbajal, whose tenure in the cannabis world includes illegally delivering medicine to ease the suffering of patients dying of AIDS, works to ensure that the new industry includes space for entrepreneurs from marginalized communities and victims of the failed War on Drugs. And Wagner and the Bud Sisters explore every trace of a path to put their products in consumers’ hands.
Second-generation cannabis farmer Chiah Rodriques harvests buds off a 14-foot cannabis plant in the … [+]
Photo courtesy of Lady Buds.
As Russo researched and produced Lady Buds, the award-winning independent filmmaker saw elements of herself in the women featured in the project. And to her, that’s a familiar place to be.
“The films I make have always been informed by my experience living as an outsider, as a woman, as a lesbian who’s had to fight for her own rights and visibility in our society. I felt a personal connection and imperative to tell the story of Lady Buds, and it made sense to frame it from a woman’s point of view to provide a contrast to the male-dominated and stoner stereotypes perpetuated by the media,” explained Russo. “I wanted to paint a picture of powerful, courageous, and passionate women like we’ve never seen before, as the superheroes they seemed to be, to inspire others to take risks and reach for their dreams.”
Lady Buds premieres on Thursday, April 29 as a selection of the 2021 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. Tickets to stream the feature-length film are available online.
