Singer/ songwriter Melissa Etheridge has reportedly entered the medical cannabis industry, creating a company called Etheridge Farms that will serve California patients. In an interview with Billboard, she discusses her decision to do so while attempting to perhaps distance herself from her fellow celebrity cannabis entrepreneurs.
“These are sun-grown California products. I want to really focus my products on wellness and on the medicinal part. Some people may not want to go into a dispensary for a Snoop Dogg [strain] — nothing against Wiz Khalifa and all those beautiful people — that’s not what they’re looking for. They’re looking for medicinal relief. I want them to know this is the brand that they can trust, that there’s scientific research behind it and really bring this to the medical community,” she told Billboard in the interview.
Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2004. A decade later, she is cancer-free, which she says is largely due to her use of medical cannabis.
“I believe anybody who smokes cannabis is using it medicinally, whether they consider it so or not,” Etheridge continued. “If it’s my means of relaxing and unplugging and de-stressing at the end of the day, who’s to say that’s not good medicine? Isn’t that what you do when you take your Ambiens and your Valiums and stuff? It’s the same thing. My stress level and all the things I felt contributed to my cancer 12 years ago, I absolutely treat them everyday by smoking cannabis and keeping a balance in my life.”
The interview even touched upon the NFL’s restrictions on medical cannabis for players, with Etheridge calling out the absurdity of the ban and reminiscing on growing up watching the Kansas City Chiefs on TV with her dad.
Etheridge is perhaps best known for her Grammy Award-winning song Come to My Window from 1994. While our younger readers likely don’t remember that song, you would have been hard-pressed to turn on the radio in the mid 1990’s without hearing it. The song’s lyrics alluded to her same-sex marriage activism, back when such a thing was deemed a lot less socially acceptable:
“I don’t care what they think. I don’t care what they say. What do they know about this love, anyway?”
Etheridge Farms products should hit dispensary shelves in Oakland, San Jose and Santa Cruz by the end of 2016. In addition to flowers, the company’s products currently include balm, edibles and oil cartridges.
Etheridge will be releasing her fourteenth studio album this October, called MEmphis Rock and Soul. She says the album is a tribute to the Legendary Memphis Soul label Stax Records.
