“This is not a joke to women,” Whoopi has said of her new medicinal company, Whoopi & Maya.
By Desire Thompson
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Comedian Whoopi Goldberg is looking to switch up the narrative and respectability politics surrounding the marijuana business with a line of products geared towards those who suffer from menstrual cramps.
According to USA Today, Goldberg recently announced Wednesday (Mar. 30) her new line of products under the name “Whoopi & Maya” include marijuana-infused balms, a tincture, sipping chocolate, and bath soaks to help reduce the pain and cramps periods can bring. For now, the brand will only be available in California dispensaries.
Via USA Today:
Whoopi Goldberg (JStone / shutterstock.com)
“I want to go nice and slow with this. I don’t want this to be a joke to people. It’s not a joke to women,” Goldberg told USA TODAY.
The joke lies in the public’s reaction to celebrities endorsing marijuana products. While hip-hop acts like Kurupt, Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa have products in the field, Goldberg’s stance on the drug’s usage is one of the first mainstream endorsements to date, NBC News reports. The View co-host is unapologetic in her support of marijuana and its positive effects.
Critics are in favor of Goldberg’s new business venture and hope there will be growth among African-Americans in the legal business of marijuana. Less than one percent of marijuana dispensaries are owned by Black people, due to lack of loans available for the marijuana business and the underlying notion that action taken in the field can be seen as criminal behavior.
NBC News reports:
“I think it’s huge,” Art Way, the state director of the Drug Policy Alliance in Colorado, told MSNBC on Wednesday. “It helps the industry and only brings more credibility to the industry.” He believes that Goldberg could help erase the “respectability politics” stigma around legal drug selling which does exist in some segments of the black community.
Goldberg says she’s not in it to become the new face of marijuana, but to simply make women (or men who would like to try it) feel comfortable. “For me, I feel like if you don’t want to get high high, this is a product specifically just to get rid of discomfort,” she tells Vanity Fair on Wednesday. “Smoking a joint is fine, but most people can’t smoke a joint and go to work.”
A launch date for her products has not been announced.
SOURCE: NBC News, USA Today
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