Near California’s Yosemite National Park, a group of nuns are growing, harvesting, and producing their own line of cannabis products.
Known as the Sisters of the Valley, the women are not associated with any traditional religion. Rather, they see themselves as feminist healers.
But through their cannabis ventures, the collective is known to have another name: the “weed nuns.”
“We’re not dumb stoner nuns. We try to tell people that,” said Sister Sophia Maya Costaras.
“We are not fools. We are scholars. We are intellectuals. We are spiritual. We walk our path, and we walk it very smoothly with everyone.”
Together, the sisters produce a line of products made with CBD, or cannabidiol, the non-intoxicating ingredient found in cannabis, as opposed to THC or tetrahydrocannabinol.
Their traditions and clothing, for their part, are inspired by the Beguines, women who centuries ago led a life of religious devotion and often lived together.
“In the course of discussions about what a new age sister order would look like, we would not beg. We would earn our own living. We would have our own property. And part of, I think, the gentle way of healing the planet’s problems is that women own and control more things,” said Sister Kate Meeusen.
The sisters ship their products all over the world, saying that they are not only handmade and handcrafted, but also lab tested.
They describe their mission as trying to “heal the world through plant-based medicine,” combining business and activism as a challenge to Big Pharma.
“I was hoping it was one of these things, like if you build it, they’ll come,” Meeusen said.
“And I was hoping that the framework of what I’m doing, making drugs, would attract the right kind of women. And I’ve lived to see that happen.”
