Chelsea Kossower (she/her) is the proud first employee of the renowned electronic vaporizer brand Puffco. When speaking to Kossower, her contrasting demeanor stands out: On one hand, she is humorous, laid-back, and down-to-earth, yet there is an apparent fire blazing in her. She is passionate about what she does and the communities she is a part of, namely as a woman in the queer community and in the cannabis space.
Kossower spoke with me about the beginning of her relationship with cannabis and how it’s always been a big part of her life. Even before she consumed it, she recalled how her parents, “your typical Grateful Dead hippies from Brooklyn,” would always smoke, being open and normalizing cannabis for her. Years later when she began smoking, she associated the new smell with the one from back home in her Jersey bedroom. At 19, she struggled to find her calling, temporarily going to school as a sous chef. Then she met Roger Volodarsky. He felt familial to her, sparking a deep platonic relationship that she still shares today.
The beginnings of Puffco came together when Volodarsky’s persistence finally won Kossower over. Volodarsky had heard about her love for cannabis and her talent for sales. Eventually Kossower, in her “angry lesbian phase,” agreed to let him come over and smoke. From the moment Volodarsky walked in, he was all business. He was blunt, telling her what needed to happen.
Kossower was instantly drawn into the liberation that came with using a Puffco pen for the first time, falling in love with the freedom of not being judged. Ever since, she has been instrumental in the company’s growth and success. Her life’s mission is to “accelerate hash culture and normalize cannabis” while also being a woman and member of the LGBTQ+ community. She is open and proud about her wife, who is a grower and hash maker.
The cannabis industry and LGBTQ+ community share much in common, both facing stigma and discrimination. Kossower spoke on the overlap between the two, noting how the same foundation exists. “We come from similar stories where we do something that makes us happy and does not hurt anybody. But yet we are told that it’s wrong. And we have to hide while we do it.”
Kossower touched on being a queer woman in the cannabis space. She feels that the cannabis community is one of the most accepting and loving communities, but like all industries, there are always a few bad apples. Several upsetting instances came to mind when Kossower felt her sexuality wasn’t in a place where it was supposed to be for the first time since “the mean popular girls in middle school called me a lesbian.” She explained how, “In the cannabis industry, it’s so loving. It’s so welcoming. Nobody really cares if you’re gay, if you’re straight, if you’re trans, if you’re whatever you want to be. It’s just like, ‘Do you want to smoke’?”
Kossower found that she struggled with being a woman in the cannabis space more so than with her sexuality. When judging a recent hash competition, she was publicly attacked by a male competitor who was scolding her scoring, which was supposed to be anonymous. This turned into a conversation of, ‘“Why are you attacking the only female judge on the panel?”’ and led to a positive ripple effect of support.
“It’s very crazy to be a woman hater in our space that worships a female plant,”Kossower said. “And how could you call yourself a grower or a hash maker when you are trying to devalue a woman in the space? The space doesn’t tolerate that. They don’t tolerate hate. They don’t tolerate it, whether it’s in our LGBT community or just females as a whole.” Kossower is grateful to work for Puffco, a company which has multiple female executives and many women on their teams. She muses over the imbalance that, for every man representing a cannabis company, it’s a woman behind their booth. Chelsea and her team are working hard to change that narrative. They have traveled to seven other countries so far to host women in cannabis panels in order to make this change happen.
The cannabis industry alone is facing its own challenges. Chelsea mentioned the annoyance of restrictions, which fail to grow at the same rate as the cannabis community. “Even in Colorado, it’s not made for the little guy to win.” The lack of banking access and other needed resources adds another damper. The industry has seen ups and downs, but until it gets the same support and level of respect that these other industries are getting, it will continue to be negatively impacted.
Nevertheless, Chelsea’s message is one to be remembered: “Keep being you, unapologetically. Keep fucking smoking hash and being you and do whatever you want. Kiss whoever you want, smoke whatever you want, and just unapologetically never stop being you.”
Photo courtesy of Chelsea Kossower
