Sacramento Bee Logo

Sexy pot ads provoke debate over medical marijuana goals | The Sacramento Bee

×
  • E-edition
    • Customer Service
    • SacBee Rewards
    • About Us
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Apps
    • Mobile & Apps
    • Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube
    • News in Education (NIE)
  • Newsletters

    • Sacramento Region
    • Arena
    • City Beat
    • Crime
    • Local Govt Salary Database
    • The Homeless
    • Marcos Bretón
    • Transportation
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health & Medicine
    • Traffic Conditions
    • Weather
    • Communities
    • Elk Grove
    • Folsom/El Dorado
    • Roseville/Placer
    • Yolo
    • Sports
    • Kings
    • NBA News
    • 49ers
    • Giants
    • Oakland A's
    • High School Sports
    • Joe Davidson
    • More Sports
    • Raiders
    • NFL News
    • MLB News
    • River Cats
    • Soccer
    • Colleges
    • Golf
    • Autos Racing
    • Politics
    • Capitol Alert
    • State Workers
    • The California Influencer Series
    • Local Elections
    • PoliGRAPH
    • State Worker Salary Database
    • Legislative Gifts
    • Local Elections
    • California Elections
    • Election Endorsements
    • Election 2018
    • Voter Guide
    • Investigations
    • Data Tracker
    • Public Eye
    • Afghan Refugees
    • Nursing Homes
    • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Election Endorsements
    • Viewpoints
    • Influencers Opinion
    • California Forum
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Submit a Letter
    • Jack Ohman
    • Editorial Board
    • Entertainment & Life
    • Arts & Theater
    • Books
    • Home & Garden
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Outdoors
    • Pets
    • Travel
    • More Entertainment
    • Events Calendar
    • Horoscopes
    • Comics
    • Puzzles
    • TV Listings
    • Sacbee Rewards
    • Food & Drink
    • Restaurants News & Reviews
    • Restaurant Directory
    • Cooking & Recipes
    • Beer
    • Wine
    • Appetizers Blog
    • California
    • Big Valley
    • Marijuana
    • Wildfires
    • Water & Drought
    • Lottery
    • Business
    • Real Estate
    • Market Summary
    • Cathie Anderson
    • Nation & World
    • National
    • World
    • Technology
    • Family
    • Celebrities
    • TV news
    • Weird News
    • Video Break
    • News Obituaries
    • Death Notices
    • FAQ
    • ObitMessenger
    • In Memoriam

    • The Sacramento Bee Store
    • Golf Card
    • Farm to Fork Dining Card
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Cars
  • Homes
  • Classifieds
  • Legal Notices
  • Place an Ad
  • Advertise
  • Mobile & Apps

California Weed

Sexy pot ads provoke debate over medical marijuana goals

By Peter Hecht - phecht@sacbee.com

    ORDER REPRINT →

November 28, 2011 12:00 AM

In 2009, as Los Angeles' booming medical marijuana economy inspired an emerald city of weed, Vanessa Sahagun found a business opportunity as "Chacha Vavoom," maven of the 420 Nurses.

Chacha and her "nurses" became a pot culture phenomenon. They savored bong hits on YouTube, modeled skimpy outfits to promote marijuana dispensaries – and stirred young men at medical pot shows teeming with sexual imagery.

"I was proud I was opening up a market creating 'green jobs' for these ladies," said Sahagun, 25.

But now, the sexual marketing of medical marijuana – with racy promotions that often trump the beer industry's swimsuit models – is at the center of an uncomfortable debate in the medicinal cannabis community.

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to The Sacramento Bee

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

Fifteen years after California voters legalized use of medical marijuana amid images of ailing AIDS and cancer patients, pot dispensaries featuring "bikini budtenders" suggest a different message: pot as a recreational pleasure.

"I've often said how offensive it is that we have naked girls with cannabis leaves or mini-mini-mini-skirts," said Lanette Davies, a Sacramento dispensary operator who condemns others in the industry for marketing sex. "That has nothing to do with medication."

Davies, whose family runs the Canna Care dispensary, said some in the industry "believe there is more money" marketing to recreational marijuana users. "That's not what people voted in. That's not why we're supposed to be here," she said.

Ryan Landers, a Sacramento AIDS patient who leads a medical marijuana policy group called "the Compassionate Coalition," said trade shows featuring "Hot Kush Girl" contests and spicy ads "make my job a hell of a lot harder to convince people what we're doing is true and real."

Most medical marijuana dispensaries refrain from suggestive advertising – and some even feature multiple sclerosis patients or car accident victims who use cannabis for chronic pain.

But the California Organic Collective dispensary in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley touts bikini-clad counter attendants in ads that depict a buxom nurse holding a red, nipple-shaped stethoscope to her breast.

The Reserve dispensary in Sacramento County employed a model in a metal-studded brassiere and Old West gun belt to promote a super-potent "Green Ribbon" strain packing 25 percent of marijuana's psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.

"They claim to be offering medicine, yet they're using marketing techniques reminiscent of some of the lowest standards of the beer industry," said John Lovell, a lobbyist for the California Narcotics Officers Association.

At the "HempCon" medical marijuana trade show this month in San Jose, the event's own marketing director took exception when she passed a booth for a magazine called Cali Chronic X. It featured seminude models posing suggestively with pot and exotic smoking accessories.

"I don't know why we have to mix marijuana with porn," protested Shawna Webb, a communications professional who uses medical cannabis for pain from a ruptured disk.

Webb said sex is the wrong image for the industry, particularly as California's four U.S. attorneys are targeting pot dispensaries for prosecution and threatening their landlords with property seizures under federal drug laws.

But Jeffrey Peterson, publisher of Cali Chronic X and a performer known as "the 420 comic," said he is making a stand against what he sees as prudish advocates who deny pot's popularity as a recreational drug.

"How dare do these people, who think they represent the cannabis culture, single out the edge of this culture – because we are the cannabis culture," he said.

Near Peterson at the San Jose trade show, Leslie Henck, a Bay Area go-go dancer, wore a bikini as the spokesmodel for a company selling joint-rolling machines. "You don't have to look unhealthy to need medical marijuana," said Henck, 19, who says her recommendation for pot helped her deal with anxiety.

"Sativa Grace," a model for Cali Chronic X, came to the show dressed as a tawdry Alice in Wonderland. Sativa's real name is Andrea Frye. The 21-year-old, who works in an adult novelties store, said she is empowering women.

"Hey, I may have sex appeal," she said, "but I can smoke all day like a guy."

Sahagun, a.k.a. Chacha Vavoom, started 420 Nurses as Los Angeles lit up with neon marijuana leaves from hundreds of new dispensaries. She sold outfits with hot pants sporting green medical marijuana crosses for women seeking pot modeling jobs.

"We went out with our cute uniforms, and I noticed a big response," Sahagun said. "I knew there was a fire there."

She said her "nurses" earn $10 to $25 an hour working in dispensaries or passing out business cards for doctors recommending marijuana – or $100 to $1,000 a day for promotional photos and videos.

At the "Kush Expo Medical Marijuana Show" in Anaheim this month, the 420 Nurses were joined by the Ganja Juice girls and a bikini troupe for an Orange County dispensary sponsoring the Expo's "Hot Kush Girl" contest. A whooping, largely male throng cheered as 21 women competed for signature edition bongs and cash prizes.

"The marijuana industry is male-dominated, and dudes love to look at hot chicks," said Ngaio Bealum, Sacramento publisher of a marijuana lifestyle magazine called West Coast Cannabis.

Bealum, who bills his publication as the "Sunset magazine of weed," said he doesn't run sexually suggestive ads.

And Bic Pho, marketing director for the Yerba Buena Medical Cannabis Club's six San Jose dispensaries, junked ads with bikini models after deciding they projected a bad image for medical marijuana.

"I just didn't feel it was appropriate. So we stopped," he said. Now the dispensaries advertise a damsel, fully clothed, in pirate's attire.

"We went with a pirate theme," Pho said, "just something to remember us by."

  Comments  

Videos

Here’s how they made the CBD oil cocktail at this Sacramento bar

Here’s what that clandestine pot grow near Lincoln looks like

View More Video

Trending Stories

An unsettling sight: Someone strung dead coyotes along a fence near Oakdale

February 20, 2019 12:04 PM

Reports of ‘homophobic’ emoji set off online uproar. What’s going on?

February 20, 2019 07:44 AM

El Dorado Hills woman found dead in church parking lot, sheriff says

February 20, 2019 02:08 PM

Vlade Divac won DeMarcus Cousins trade and Kings are playing ‘beautiful basketball’

February 21, 2019 03:55 AM

How trains under the bay - not high-speed rail - may connect Sacramento and San Francisco

February 20, 2019 12:58 PM

Read Next

Pot is legal in 10 states, but the industry still can’t use banks. Will Congress change that?

Capitol Alert

Pot is legal in 10 states, but the industry still can’t use banks. Will Congress change that?

By Kate Irby

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 11, 2019 12:01 AM

Cannabis retailers have been unable to use banks the entire time marijuana has been legal in certain states. Congress may open financial services to the industry, helping licensed companies pay tax.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to The Sacramento Bee

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE CALIFORNIA WEED

California Weed

Unlicensed Fair Oaks pot delivery service busted, state cannabis bureau says

February 08, 2019 10:31 AM
The Bread Store sets closing date with transition to marijuana dispensary imminent

Restaurant News & Reviews

The Bread Store sets closing date with transition to marijuana dispensary imminent

January 30, 2019 03:13 PM
California lawmakers are considering a tax cut — for cannabis

California

California lawmakers are considering a tax cut — for cannabis

January 28, 2019 02:59 PM
As Fresno’s cannabis industry evolves, will people of color be locked out?

Big Valley

As Fresno’s cannabis industry evolves, will people of color be locked out?

January 24, 2019 12:19 PM

The State Worker

Marijuana is legal in California. So why is the CHP arresting delivery drivers?

January 21, 2019 12:01 AM
Pot shop needs City Council approval to open in the Bread Store’s midtown spot

Local

Pot shop needs City Council approval to open in the Bread Store’s midtown spot

December 21, 2018 05:10 PM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

The Sacramento Bee App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Photo Store
Advertising
  • Place a Classified Ad
  • Place a Legal Notice
  • Place a Digital Ad
  • Place a Newspaper Ad
Copyright
Commenting Policy
Corrections Policy
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story