Frederika McClary Easley, The People’s Ecosystem

Ellen Lee Scanlon (00:00):

This podcast discusses cannabis and is intended for audiences 21 and over.

Ellen Lee Scanlon (00:07):

Welcome to How To Do The Pot, a podcast demystifying cannabis for women. I’m Ellen Scanlon. This series is dedicated to women sharing their stories because buying your own weed can feel a little overwhelming and doesn’t having a friend along always make it feel better? The women in this series have been so generous to share their stories with us. Some were psyched, some were scared, some were kind of in shock and everyone had questions.

Ellen Lee Scanlon (00:37):

I hope hearing how they did it helps you feel more confident when you are ready to go shopping for cannabis. And we would love to hear your story. Just send a voice memo with your three to five minute story to hi@dothepot.com, that’s hi@dothepot.com. Frederika McClary Easley is the Texas based director of strategic initiatives for the People’s Ecosystem. If that name sounds familiar it’s because it was co-founded by one of our favorite guests, Christine De La Rosa.

Ellen Lee Scanlon (01:12):

The People’s Ecosystem is a catalyst for community empowerment. Its mission is to provide a brighter future for communities through cannabis, to challenge past stereotypes and ideas about cannabis use and enjoyment, and to empower and transform communities historically harmed by the criminalization of a product that study after study shows is extremely beneficial to healing, general health and wellbeing.

Frederika McClary Easely (01:42):

My first time buying legal weed was interesting, layered, but wound up being a very enlightening and smooth experience. So rewind to 2014, I’m in Denver, Colorado and I had heard about being able to buy weed in a store. Basically, being a kid in a candy store, you go in and you have your pickings. And so coming from where I grew up, and my understanding of weed and how those transactions took place, this was novel. This was hard to believe actually. And so the intrigue was there. I had to check it out, had to see what it was all about. If they were just pulling my leg, if you will.

Frederika McClary Easely (02:31):

And so a friend colleague, and I decided after meetings we were going to dip off and figure this whole thing out and have this experience. And so we had done some research trying to see if in Denver, if we could support a black-owned business and have that experience there. And so we found Simply Pure. Initially I was very nervous. I don’t know why. I was in my head. I was going down rabbit holes and thinking is this going to be and I got you moment? Am I going to get there and is there going to be security? Is this a way for them to kind of trap people? What’s really going to happen? Are they going to see my ID and say, “You’re from out of state, you can’t come in.”

Frederika McClary Easely (03:23):

But thankfully none of that happened and I remember the doors opening after going through the process, of course, of making sure that I was 21 and older. That we were 21 and older and going in and being overwhelmed. There was just so much. There was so many display cases and not in a bad way in terms of the business. You want to have a variety, you want to have your items well lit and there so that whatever someone wants, they can find it. But this was totally outside of my scope. At the time, my knowledge of weed, or reefer that I had been around all my life was limited to the weights or the way in which you can buy it. It was loud and Reggie. It was knowing that if there were too many seeds or stems, that wasn’t really a good one.

Frederika McClary Easely (04:26):

So that’s what I was going into this experience with and getting there and seeing gummies, and different edibles, and flour and what I would learn to be vape pens. And there were just so many things. And so I don’t know if I looked like a deer caught in the headlights, but someone came over to me very warmly and asked me if I needed help. I’m like, “Hell yeah, I need help. I don’t know what’s going on here.” And so they did that. They were very patient with me and walked me through the majority of the options, or at least the things that I asked questions about and broke things down in a very simplified way. A way that I was able to digest and made me feel very comfortable.

Frederika McClary Easely (05:22):

And so that was my first experience and I remember leaving from there and going to the restaurant because we received a coupon. I think it was for 15 or 20% off or something like that. And I remember thinking, oh, this makes perfect sense. Because from what I understand when people smoke weed or consume they get hungry. So I thought, look at this. Of course. Of course black folk are going to attach food to this because we smart like that. So anyway, yeah, that was my first experience of going from being deer in the headlights to feeling taken care of and like I understood some things.

Ellen Lee Scanlon (06:14):

Thanks for listening to this episode of How To Do The Pot. If you’d like to share your story about the first time you bought legal weed, please send a voice memo to hi@dothepot.com or DM us at Do The Pot. For lots more information and past episodes, visit dothepot.com. And that’s also where you can sign up for How To Do The Pot’s newsletter, which comes out every other Friday. And if you like How To Do The Pot, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps more people find the show. Thank you to our producers, Madi Fair and Nick Patri]. I’m Ellen Scanlon and stay tuned for more of How To Do The Pot.