 |
| Location | California's Central Valley [1] |
|---|---|
| Opening date | 2015 [1] |
| Owner | Christine Meeusen [2] |
| Number of tenants | 3 [1] |
Sisters of the Valley is a small business that sells cannabidiol tinctures, cannabidiol infused oil, and cannabidiol salves, for oral and topical use, made with ethanol and coconut oil, via their website and the craft e-commerce website Etsy. It is based in Merced, California, and its proprietors follow a monastic motif.
In 2015, the sales of the Sisters of the Valley's CBD products reached $6,000,000. [3] Early on the business, the company was banned from advertising on Facebook, and started focusing its communications effort on PR. [4]
In 2017, the sales of the CBD-related products reached $25.1 million. [4]
Following practices of biodynamic agriculture, workers regulate their operations by the cycles of the moon, starting two-week production intervals upon the new moon, during which time they also practice chastity and vegetarianism. [5] [6]
The owner and "lead Sister" Christine Meeusen, who does not identify with Christianity, considers the production to be a spiritual activity, [7] whose rituals and incorporate New Age practices and environmentalism, [8] borrowing from "Native American" practices. [9] Meeusen also mentions the Beguines to refer to her business' philosophy. [4] [10]
The members wear religious habits and refer to each other as sisters, but claim no affiliation with a religious order. [11]
Business Insider calls the Sisters of the Valley nuns "the most talked-about women in the pot business". [9]
A cannabis edible, also known as a cannabis-infused food or simply an edible, is a food item that contains decarboxylated cannabinoids from cannabis extract as an active ingredient. Although edible may refer to either a food or a drink, a cannabis-infused drink may be referred to more specifically as a liquid edible or drinkable. Edibles are a way to consume cannabis. Unlike smoking, in which cannabinoids are inhaled into the lungs and pass rapidly into the bloodstream, peaking in about ten minutes and wearing off in a couple of hours, cannabis edibles may take hours to digest, and their effects may peak two to three hours after consumption and persist for around six hours. The food or drink used may affect both the timing and potency of the dose ingested.
Cannabidiol (CBD) is a phytocannabinoid discovered in 1940. It is one of 113 identified cannabinoids in cannabis plants, along with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and accounts for up to 40% of the plant's extract. As of 2019, clinical research on CBD included studies related to anxiety, cognition, movement disorders, and pain, but there is insufficient high-quality evidence that cannabidiol is effective for these conditions. Nevertheless, CBD is a herbal dietary supplement promoted with unproven claims of particular therapeutic effects.
Cannabis tea is a cannabis-infused drink prepared by steeping various parts of the cannabis plant in hot or cold water. Cannabis tea is commonly recognized as an alternative form of preparation and consumption of the cannabis plant, more popularly known as marijuana, pot, or weed. This plant has long been recognized as an herbal medicine employed by health professionals worldwide to ease symptoms of disease, as well as a psychoactive drug used recreationally and in spiritual traditions. Though less commonly practiced than popular methods like smoking or consuming edibles, drinking cannabis tea can produce comparable physical and mental therapeutic effects. Such effects are largely attributed to the THC and CBD content of the tea, levels of which are drastically dependent on individual preparation techniques involving volume, amount of cannabis, and boiling time. Also in common with these administration forms of cannabis is the heating component performed before usage. Due to the rather uncommon nature of this particular practice of cannabis consumption in modern times as well as the legality of cannabis throughout the World, the research available on the composition of cannabis tea is limited and based broadly around what is known of cannabis as it exists botanically.
Cannabis strains are either pure or hybrid varieties of the plant genus Cannabis, which encompasses the species C. sativa, C. indica, and C. ruderalis.
The legal history of cannabis in the United States began with state-level prohibition in the early 20th century, with the first major federal limitations occurring in 1937. Starting with Oregon in 1973, individual states began to liberalize cannabis laws through decriminalization. In 1996, California became the first state to legalize medical cannabis, sparking a trend that spread to a majority of states by 2016. In 2012, Washington and Colorado became the first states to legalize cannabis for recreational use.
Charlotte's Web is a brand of high-cannabidiol (CBD), low-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) products derived from industrial hemp and marketed as dietary supplements and cosmetics under federal law of the United States. It is produced by Charlotte's Web, Inc. in Colorado. Hemp-derived products do not induce the psychoactive "high" typically associated with recreational marijuana strains that are high in THC. Charlotte's Web hemp-derived products contain less than 0.3% THC.
Charlotte Figi was an American girl with Dravet syndrome, who took cannabidiol (CBD) oil to prevent seizures, and inspired the name of the medical cannabis strain Charlotte's Web.
Medical Marijuana, Inc. is a holding company with subsidiaries that make and sell a range of hemp-based products.
Cannabis in Iowa is illegal for recreational use if classified as marijuana but consumable hemp products including CBD products are legal for consumers to possess and registered retailers to sell. Possession of even small amounts of marijuana is a misdemeanor crime. The state has a medical program for patients with qualifying debilitating medical conditions that allows for the legal sale and possession of no more than 4.5g of THC per patient every 90-day period. Allowed modes of consumption are oral & topical forms including, but not limited to; tablets and tinctures, nebulizable inhalable forms, suppositories, and vaporization.
Cannabis dispensaries in the United States or marijuana dispensaries are a local government regulated physical location, typically inside a retail storefront or office building, in which a person can purchase cannabis and cannabis related items for medical or recreational use. First modeled in Amsterdam in the late 1970s where they were innocently called coffee shops, it would take the Americans more than a generation to successfully duplicate the idea of a retail cannabis storefront. Unlike in the Dutch coffee shops, today dispensary customers are prevented from consuming cannabis on the site of a regulated dispensary in all known markets.
Christine Meeusen, also known as "Sister Kate", is a farmer and businessperson in Merced, California. Her business specializes in high-CBD, low-THC preparations made from on-premises grown cannabis.
Cannabis has been cultivated in Japan since the Jōmon period of Japanese prehistory approximately six to ten thousand years ago. As one of the earliest cultivated plants in Japan, cannabis hemp was an important source of plant fiber used to produce clothing, cordage, and items for Shinto rituals, among numerous other uses. Hemp remained ubiquitous for its fabric and as a foodstuff for much of Japanese history, before cotton emerged as the country's primary fiber crop amid industrialization during the Meiji period. Following the conclusion of the Second World War and subsequent occupation of Japan, a prohibition on cannabis possession and production was enacted with the passing of the Cannabis Control Law.
Rachel K. Gillette is an American attorney who specializes in law relating to marijuana and the cannabis industry. Gillette is based in Lafayette, Colorado. As a lawyer, she is licensed to practice law in Colorado and Connecticut.
Cannabis product testing is a form of product testing analyzes the quality of cannabis extracts, edibles, and THC and CBD levels in an emergent consumer market eager to sell adult use products. Analytical chemistry and microbiology laboratories are important entities in consumer protection. These labs not only determine the condition and viability of cannabinoids, water content, heavy metals, pesticides, terpenes, yeast, but also the presence of mold, mycotoxins, and solvents. These laboratories emerged when advocates of cannabis testing raised concerns about potential contaminants.
Jane West is an American cannabis activist and CEO of the cannabis lifestyle brand Jane West. She is best known as the founder of cannabis networking organization Women Grow. In 2016, Inc. magazine named her “the most widely recognized female personality in cannabis" and in 2019, InStyle magazine included her in its 2019 Badass 50 list highlighting women who are "changing the world."
To frame the lists below, here is an overview of women in the industry since as early as 2012 in the U.S. Cannabis has a long legal history in the U.S. from criminalization to liberalization given the emerging markets of legalizing medicinal and recreational use of cannabis. Women and issues relating to gender bias or sexism vs. gender equality and inclusion have played a significant role in various sectors of emerging markets, particularly in Colorado, California, and Oregon.
KushCo Holdings is an American company that sells packaging, containers, and other ancillary products for the cannabis industry. It is based in Garden Grove, California and is publicly traded on the New York OTCQB marketplace under the stock ticker symbol, KSHB.
A CBD cigarette is a cigarette made with hemp instead of purely tobacco, containing cannabidiol (CBD) but a negligible amount of psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The effects typically last between 2–3 hours and can take anywhere from seconds to several minutes to set in, making it one of the fastest methods to feel the effects of cannabidiol.
Tilray Brands, Inc. is an American pharmaceutical, cannabis-lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company, incorporated in the United States, headquartered in New York City. Tilray also has operations in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America, with growing facilities in Germany and Portugal.
Cannabinoids are compounds found in the cannabis plant or synthetic compounds that can interact with the endocannabinoid system. The most notable cannabinoid is the phytocannabinoid tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) (Delta-9-THC), the primary intoxicating compound in cannabis. Cannabidiol (CBD) is another major constituent of some cannabis plants. At least 113 distinct cannabinoids have been isolated from cannabis.
When we visit, five women live in the home: Sister Kate, 62; Sister Sophia, 49; Sister Quinn, 25; and at the moment, Sister Luna and Sister Camilla, both 34, who are visiting from Mexico. Sister Kass, 29, lives off the property with her two children and her partner, Brother Rudy, the collective's crop manager...Fifteen months later, she made a Weed Nuns Facebook page; she soon amassed 5,000 followers. In 2015, one of those adherents landed on her doorstep, declaring she would work for free. ...'Huh, if four of us lived together and made medicine together, we could share our Netflix bill and I wouldn't have to give up cable'...'We are in our seventh year of operations'...'10 people working on a one-acre farm'
At 56, the mother of three was homeless and broke after her husband turned out to be a polygamous fraudster who siphoned their substantial earnings (which she had earned) into foreign bank accounts. Then her brother kicked her out of the home they shared and the weed-growing business they had forged together...."To stay legal we have to hide the evidence that this is medicine. The FDA would shut us down if we were making claims in the same place where we're selling." She has two websites to deal with this.
