Page 47 - AVN December 2016

“This is a very exciting time for this burgeoning industry, with nine states
having some sort of marijuana initiative on the ballot this year,” noted Theresa
Flynt, formerly of LFP Publications and now vice president of business
development for marijuana-based start-up Pineapple Express. “We are especially
excited about Prop 64, which would legalize recreational marijuana in California,
effectively doubling the size of the industry, and generating a projected one billion
dollars a year in additional tax revenue, which the state desperately needs.”
And Flynt knows what she’s talking about: Pineapple Express already has a
“canna-business park in Desert Hot Springs, the website THC.com (named for the
psychoactive chemical in pot), and one dispensary in Illinois, where marijuana is
only legal for medical purposes, but with many more to come.
But the mere fact that Larry Flynt’s daughter has become involved in the
marijuana business, and that dad himself is reportedly investing in it, is telling
in itself, though not as odd as some might think. Pot and porn share a strange
history, both socially and legally—and hell, they both even have their own trade
magazines!
“I know personally, I would say, off the top of my head, at least 40 people in the
adult industry who are involved, in one way or another, in the cannabis business,”
said sociologist Dr. Chauntelle Tibbals. “I couldn’t give you an exact number,
but there’s lot of people who are doing the marketing crossovers; talking about
performers who have strains. There are everything from porn performers to cam
models whose entire personas are based around cannabis. There are people who
have moved into marketing, people who are doing different kinds of media, people
who are legal experts who are starting to move into cannabis law, people who
are doing SEO—I mean there’s anything and everything all the way down to the
most crowning jewel example: those who have moved from adult into venture
capitalism. I believe that’s what Pineapple Express is.”
Tibbals also explained some of the differences regarding what marijuana
products can legally be sold, which vary from state to state. The biggest distinction
is between products whose active ingredient is largely cannabidiol (CBD), which
offers many of marijuana’s medicinal effects but without the high produced by the
plant’s other active chemical, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and depending on the
laws of a particular state, dispensaries may only be allowed to stock CBD products
with little THC (apparently it can’t be eliminated altogether), while others allow
greater THC content.
One of the more prominent crossover adult “pot-trepreneurs” is Bo Kenney,
who owns a chain of adult retail stores in Virginia, as well as LGI Distributors,
based in Manassas. A 40-year adult industry veteran, he was also the head of SexZ
Pictures, which won several awards for productions helmed by Eli Cross—and
now he’s the owner/operator of the King Weedy Cannabis Collective, which sells
equipment that aids in the cultivation and extraction of cannabis products.
“King Weedy ... is an organization whose mission is to promote the economic
welfare of its members by providing a medium to create a safe consistent and
reliable source of quality free cannabis for the personal use of its members,”
the King Weedy Collective member agreement states. “As a collective member I
understand that any money paid to the collective is for items (glass pipes & Vape
kits) that the collective sells is for those items only. I also fully understand that
any free cannabis products I receive from the collective are strictly a free gift to me
from the collective.”
With 374 web pages devoted to such items as “grow rooms,” hydroponics
systems, lighting, soil, dehumidifiers, nutrients, and animal, insect and mold
control, King Weedy is certainly one of the major players in the cannabis game—
but plenty of other adult industry members are also in the pot business in one way
or another—and some are ways the average person would find surprising.
Take, for instance, Joy King, the Wicked Pictures VP who’s credited with having
been the force behind then-contract star Jenna Jameson’s rise to fame, but who
resigned her position about two years ago to become a spiritual healer.
Opposite page, Veronica Rodriguez, Jenna Sativa and Misty Stone. This page, Misty Stone. Also featured on this
month’s cover, the three adult performers were photographed by Jay Allan with makeup by Twin Peeks. For more
about photographer Jay Allan, visit AgentErotica.com. Clothing and gear provided by Kush Life (see page 48).
Disclaimer: No medical marijuana was harmed (or used illegally) in the making of this article.
“I still consult for Wicked, which is great; I appreciate that, and the healing
work was wonderful and fed my soul but it didn’t feed my bills,” King told AVN,
“so I started looking into cannabis, first for my healing clients and then met some
people just like in crazy coincidences, and ended up meeting these guys and they
said, ‘Hey, we’re working on this project and we’d love to get you involved.’ That’s
how it started, and that was a year and a half ago.”
What King is referring to is a web start-up called The Nug Nation, which so far
has posted several stop-motion animation videos on YouTube featuring marijuana
buds brought to life by adding facial features and hair, not unlike the Mr. Potato
Head toy many played with as children, and putting them in created environments
like grocery stores, bathrooms and even the presidential debate stage.
At present, King hopes to interest dispensaries, edibles manufacturers and other
pot-related businesses in sponsoring the videos—and though her animators don’t
actually use pot, they’re considering creating an edibles line themselves, using The
Nug Nation characters as advertising. She also revealed that Fox’s Adult Swim
programming block has shown interest in airing a Nug Nation animation show.
Another adult industry refugee-turned-entrepreneur is Mike Savage, who spent
24 years with adult distributor IVD, mostly as the company’s general manager,
and who now provides products that aid in cannabis-related industries.
“I’m in the specialty compressed gas business,” Savage explained. “The three
main items I sell are nitrous oxide, CO2 and butane, and the butane is obviously
used for lighter refills, and I sell to cooks and chefs that they use to sear tuna and
make crème brulee and stuff like that, and we also sell to cigar shops, but the
butane is also used in weed extraction, so I’m dealing with hydroponics stores
and I’m dealing with growers and I’m dealing with all the major distributors and
smoke shops across the country that people are using the butane for extraction.
I’m based out of Florida now, but have a warehouse in San Francisco, and
there’s 20-some states where it’s legal for medical, and all of them could be my
customers. What we’re really excited about is that we’re getting lined up with
people that are concentrating more on CBD, and all the tremendous impact that
CBD can have in the world. It’s a good business, it’s an interesting business.”
It should be pointed out that, just like porn, being in the marijuana business
in any way can have its legal difficulties, even in states that have legalized the
material to some degree.
“Many of the hurdles that the adult industry has overcome in the past few
decades are now hurdles for the marijuana industry: ‘do not ship’ zip codes for
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