Meet the women giving cannabis culture a style makeover

Female entrepreneurs are carving out their own space in the male-heavycannabis industry and they're doing itwithstyle.

Until now, the stonerculture aesthetichas lookedmore likeCheech&Chong'sUp in SmokeorSethRogen'sPineapple Expressthan somethingyou'd findin lifestyle reads like GooporVogue.

But with legalization,pot isgoing mainstream. New fashion-forward accessories likesleek vape pens and hand-crafted ceramic stash jars are being created toappeal specifically to women, who represent a fast-growing market for weed.

Femaleentrepreneurs are savvy aboutmarketingchic accessories that don't scream stoner. They're alsoardent about getting the message across that as a woman,it's OK to smoke up, even if you're a mother.

Emma Baron, the Toronto-based co-founderof the online cannabis accessory companyMilkweed,previously worked ata medical marijuanaclinic. Women looking for pain relief werereluctant to usecannabis because ofstigma, she said.

"Part of the inspiration for Milkweed for me was seeing 70-, 80-year-olds, like your grandma, coming into the clinic and the cannabis is working for them, but the only products they can find are covered in weed leaves," Baron said.

"This patient doesn't even want to use cannabis, they're so ashamed of the accoutrements that go with it."

'I knew I wasn't alone'

Baron realized more discreet, beautifulaccessories couldhelp ease those fears.

"If you can show off your stylish bar cart, why not your cannabis cart?" she said."It's bringing it out of the closet, out from under the bed and out onto the coffee table and feeling good about it."

Checking out stylish gear for the new pot connoisseur

6 years ago

Duration 2:16

Milkweed co-founder Emma Baron offers CBC's Tashauna Reid a quick primer on her line of cannabis accessories.

Hand-craftedcopper stash tins, gold paintedceramicpipes and pre-rolled embossed bluntsare just a few of the items getting the coffee-table treatment.

Seattle-based VanderPopis another pot-related retailerblossoming under the eye of a female designer. Several years ago, creatorApril Pridesaw the potential to market to women in a new way.

One night, before heading out to a party, she grabbed her husband's pot pipeand was about to put it in her pursewhen she noticed it was decorated with his favourite football player's name and number.

Then she looked down at her shoes and handbag and said, "Well, there's just a disconnect here, right?"

"That's a huge opportunity to be able to shape something for the first time," she said."If you're creative, that definitely doesn't come along in your lifetime, where there are no benchmarks. Just a blank page."

Designed for women with money to burn

Dainty gold-paintedceramicpipes, "smell-proof"Italian leather purses, and glass stash canisters are just some of the offerings now availablefor discerning cannabis users. They are designedfor women who have the cash to go along with their good taste.

Patternedpre-rolled papers fromVanderPopcost $10 for six, while the gold weed leaf grinder necklacefromBlunted Objectscosts $275. Aone-of-a-kind jewel-encrusted vape pen from the posh Beverly Hills Cannabis Clubwill set you back$196,600.

The business is heating up so much, even mainstream women's lifestyle brands, like The Kit and GwynethPaltrow'sGoopare jumping in, with cannabis bath bombs, along with health and wellness advice.

Online retailers witha cannabis-specific focus are also sprouting.Blunted Objectstailors itscannabis-inspired fashion to amillennial audience.

Lifting each other up

While female business owners arecrafting newways for womento enjoy weed, they're alsobuilding a communityone whereentrepreneurs lift each other up.

Pride saidthere weren't actually a lot of women in the industry when she started.

"We all had very little resources in terms of people and moneyand so we pulled the resources that we did have together and it's been very much a rising-tide-lifts-all-boats attitude," she said.

"I think the impact that'shad is itsgiven other women confidence to enter in this space cause they feel supported."

Women are starting to step to the forefront ... they'rereally coming out of the closet and saying, 'Yes. I have used cannabis.I do use cannabis.'- Rachel Colic,PureSinse

Rachel Colic loves cannabis but she doesn't want to be defined by her use it's just part of her life.

She turned to marijuana after a bad car accident when her prescribedopioidsmadeher "feel like a zombie."

After that, she decided to switch careers and is now a brand strategist at PureSinse, a licensed medical marijuana producer.

Now she is passionate about wantingother women to feel comfortable with weed and isexcitedto be part of the stigma shift.

"Women are starting to step to the forefront, as it's becoming legal and a business opportunity, they'rereally coming out of the closet and saying, 'Yes. I have used cannabis.I do use cannabis,'" she said.

"This is what it does for me, and I want to be a part of what's happening."