high tea is a magical experience

8/31/2019

White Rabbit High Tea has become so much more than joints sparked up while edibles are being passed around, steeped herbs in a tea cup, full grown adults in outrageous attire, or the most dainty of finger sandwiches and deviled quail eggs being passed around by Lolita Harajuku inspired tea servers (aka Tea Tarts). It's much, much more than that! It’s a scene, a feeling, a happening, a place (even if it’s never in the same spot) a community that has existed all along but is now encountering each other for the first time. It's the dream and the reality all in one. It's theater, it's Hollywood, it's festival, it's fun. 

When I was younger and cannabis was more controlled, I strived to create spaces where cannabis was normalized in my life and the lives and experiences of others around me. I incorporated Cannabis into daily rituals and special occasions alike. I smoked daily and often, I cooked with it, I made salves from it, I grew it. I legitimized it officially and at 21 applied to the State of Oregon and received my Medicinal Marijuana License.   I've maintained that licence ever since. When I moved to Los Angeles in 2011, Medical Marijuana Dispensaries were so far ahead of anything that Oregon was doing, I was in a whole new weed heaven. Not only was California inventing, creating, branding and selling pretty much anything that you could think of and with cannabis in it, they had magnificent buds! It felt like I had stepped into the future, now 8 years later we have jumped so far ahead it's hard to believe and  extraordinary to witness, let alone to be a part of. 

Four years ago, White Rabbit High Tea was created out of my past, present, and future and all of my stoniest dreams, culminating around Cannabis and, ultimately, the experience. The experience, the one we are always dreaming up but rarely making a priority in our lives. A bit of the freedom of childhood, a pinch of the limitless possibilities of being an adult and a dash of reality of the state of cannabis we are in today. Each month we gather 30 people together to celebrate not only the beautifully grown, packaged and branded cannabis, but the people who love it and live in harmony with it, as well as the movement of time in which we are standing. We are so very lucky to be here now. And we must always remember the sacrifices made before for the last almost 100 years of Cannabis prohibition in this country alone. We cannot forget that human beings are still locked in cages for non-violent drug related charges. As Cov Franchise muses over Twitter; 

"When the dispensary looks and operates like an Apple Store it’s time to release a lot of incarcerated human beings. A lot, a lot."

So now we must reconcile our past with our present in order to move into the future. Up until this point, White Rabbit High Tea has been working diligently on changing the "hearts and minds" of the people in order to help change the public perspective about Cannabis. Perhaps even a little idealistically, the hope that what we do could trickle down and influence the feelings around important things like the outcome of new laws and cultural biases. Through our events, images, press interviews, content, and collaborations we have been purposefully painting a new picture of what cannabis can evolve into, how it could fit into anyone’s life in a classy, refined and yet whimsical way. We hope to continue this work going forward as well as pursue more opportunities in social justice and public policy. We are actively seeking ways to engage and prompt the conversation about the direction and purpose of cannabis, all while maintaining the joy and awe that we feel to be able to share cannabis so openly now. Forever reaching towards a reality in the future that more people around the country and around the world can live in this new wonderland that we have found ourselves in.

xoxo , Jessica Cole “High Hostess”