Page 48 - AVN December 2016

FEATURE
About That Kush Life
Some adult industry veterans may know the founder and CEO of Kush
Life, Onky Chhieng, by his former porn persona Big Bad Onxxx.
Chhieng worked in adult entertainment from 2000-2006, shooting
on-set videos, editing and directing for the legendary Suze Randall.
“I started shooting behind the scenes and building content for
her site,” Chhieng recalled. “When I left the porn I knew I could do
something more and I took what I did and started Kush TV.”
Kush TV encompassed all the things Chhieng was interested in,
such as art, music, skateboarding and, of course, weed. The hustlin’
entrepreneur sold Kush TV in 2009 for a seven-figure sum, setting him up
to pursue other ventures such as event production, clothing design and
retail ownership.
“Back then what I was doing was ahead of its time. Now the internet is
ready for all this original content, especially about the marijuana industry.
Not just the industry, the lifestyle and people that smoke,” Chhieng said.
“Back then what I was doing was
ahead of its time.”
—Onky Chhieng, founder, Kush Life
“And it’s not just sick people, not just rappers, not just models, not
just doctors—it’s everyone pretty much. Now that it’s recreational in
California more people are open to it.”
And now four years into running his edgy clothing brand, Kush Life,
Chhieng has built a loyal following that rocks his T-shirts and his parties.
“I have the clothing line and then I have the bongs—the glass—and
that’s another industry. And I do events,” said Chhieng, who also owns
and operates the Green Tree collective in East L.A. “I had a Halloween
party and we had like 500 people come. It was my fourth Halloween
party. It was at a club right here in Lincoln Heights called The Airliner.”
Chhieng’s Kush Life recently supplied the clothing and accessories
for the AVN December cover shoot; the theme was the pot and porn
connection. Adult stars Veronica Rodriguez, Misty Stone and Jenna Sativa
donned Kush Life threads for a series of sexy photos by photographer Jay
Allan at a private residence in Los Angeles. For Chhieng, hooking up the
girls with his 420-inspired gear was a natural.
“Everybody knows they’re about that life,” he said. “My stuff is more
of like an underground thing. I’m not trying to go mainstream, I don’t
care if high school kids wear my clothes. That’s how you get rich. This is
something that’s just a part of me. I’d be doing it whether I make money
or not.”
Chhieng is still making videos, too. He captured some footage at the
cover shoot for a new project in the works called “Kush Life Honeys.”
“It’s going to be a bunch of hot sexy girls who just smoke,” he said.
— Dan Miller
paraphernalia; no crossing state lines; age requirements; zoning; regulations; credit card processing;
bank acceptance; etc.,” noted Theresa Flynt. “All of which just takes some time and as each state
legalizes, we just get closer to the end game of it becoming federally legal. The laws just need to be
established same as it was with alcohol after the prohibition.”
At least one attorney who serves the adult community who has helped some get up to speed in a
marijuana-related business is Karen Tynan, one of the primary “legal eagles” who helped fight Prop
60.
“I have a few clients that have dispensaries and have other interests in the Northern California
cannabis business, and based on the passage of the proposition, they’re very excited to be able to
expand into recreational consumption,” said the Healdsburg-based attorney. “About a year, year
and a half ago, we had a group of performers that we arranged to have strains for, like Layla Price,
Skin Diamond, all that, and their strains are very high end, organic and I think that’s going to keep
expanding in the industry; I think that with marijuana’s acceptance into the marketplace, we’re going
to see even more adult performers with their own strains, with their own oils, with their own creams
and with their own lubes.”
One of Tynan’s current clients is Emerald Triangle Girls, an online XXX production company that’s
about to branch out into the dispensary business. Their motto? “Hot Girls! Hot Sex! Good Bud!”
Tynan warned that one of the pitfalls adult industry members thinking of making a move into pot
must watch for is that they have to make sure they’re with “legitimate, licensed businesses,” and
they should take care to protect “their trademark, their name, your association with the strain, and
make sure you’re associated with dispensaries that are properly regulated and licensed.”
One adult businessman who’s gotten into pot-related distribution is Steve Stevens, son of the
legendary Kirdy Stevens, creator of the famous Taboo series.
“I am involved as a distributor of CBDs, which come in pill form, liquid form, vape form and
crystal form,” he told AVN. “When the adult business started diminishing pretty rapidly, I was
looking for other avenues, and it just came up; not as CBDs, but as selling vapes with nicotine,
which turned into vapes with THC, which then morphed into the CBD market.”
Stevens’ product is All Good Vape, and he admits that finding retailers to carry it reminds him of
his dad’s experiences in trying to find adult retail outlets for VHS tapes.
“It’s actually very difficult,” he said. “You have to have sales reps that can go to the source
and have an existing relationship to get your products in there, because there’s so many people
competing now to get shelf space. It’s expanded in the last two years at least 200 percent.”
Right now, Stevens’ products are available mainly in the San Diego, L.A. and San Francisco
areas, and though he still sells his dad’s movies, which he says are still bringing in some revenue,
“compared to 2006, it’s not even a drop in the bucket.”
One of Stevens’ wholesalers is someone he worked with in adult, who prefers to be known only as
Jon, who still distributes porn but has added Stevens’ All Good Vape to his repertoire.
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