Today the Unidad Box went on sale at eight social equity dispensaries in Los Angeles. According to the box creators, “the Unidad Box is a collaboration with Hispanic/LatinX-owned brands, offering an affordable curated collection of Latino excellence, designed to uplift underrepresented voices, highlight Latinx brands and celebrate Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month.”
The Unidad Box Project is part of the Box Project founded by Ebony Andersen and Whitney Beatty of Josephine & Billie’s and sponsored by Weedmaps. The Box Project started with The Black Box for Black History Month, followed by The Pink Box celebrating women in cannabis. The third box in the series, which dropped today, celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month.
“The box project itself came about as a way to highlight underrepresented brands in cannabis. We did the Black Box, which really focused on Black brands in cannabis, and then we did the Pink Box for Women’s Month and celebrating all the efforts of women in the industry and all of our great women-owned brands. And now we have the Unidad Box, which is focused on Latine Heritage and also the great collaboration between the Black and Brown community,” Andersen said.
Andersen said that this third box for the Box Project was designed “to show our support for the Latine community in cannabis.”
“It’s a special moment because I think it’s important for us to show support for the Latine and Hispanic community,” Andersen said. “The Black and Brown community were the hardest hit by the War on Drugs. We really wanted to pull together and show our support, and to really push for equity in cannabis,” Andersen said.
Andersen said that Josephine and Billie’s worked with their Latin-owned brands to come up with a menu of products that they thought would fit well in the box.
Josephine and Billie’s also partnered with Weedmaps as a sponsor, allowing them to distribute the box at the subsidized price of only $60.
One of the Latin-owned brands in the box, Humo, represents the category of cannabis flower. Co-owner Susie Plascencia said that she’s long been a supporter of Josephine and Billie’s. She advocated on their behalf when they started the dispensary, and they in turn were one of Humo’s first buyers.
“We’ve had that mutual support from the beginning. These are women that support me and I support them as well,” Plascencia said.
Plascencia said that the Box Project represents “women of color coming together and helping each other make it in this industry.”
Indeed, Humo has had an amazing year for being a brand new flower brand. They’ve received a huge amount of press, including landing the cover of High Times and a spread in California Leaf magazine.
Plascencia said that this year she knew Latin Hispanic Heritage Month was going to be bigger than previous years.
“The energy behind supporting Latino-owned in cannabis as never been greater in the industry and at the same time simultaneously the Box Project is really taking hold. The community loves it and they were looking to see what they were going to do next,” Plascencia said. “I think both of those things coming together is a big reason why so many folks are really excited for this box.”
Plascencia said that Humo is “focused on changing the stigma that the Latino community deals with regarding cannabis use.”
The Unidad Box helps to push the message that Latinos have been central to the industry for a long time.
“It’s coming at a time where folks are recognizing that Latinos have been the backbone of this industry before legalization and have not received proper recognition in this space,” Plascencia said.
Plascencia said that she hopes that the Box will encourage the community to support Latino-owned brands with their wallet. “That is the most important vote that you can provide to support Latino-owned businesses,” Placencia said.
Placencia and Andersen said that the Unidad of the name refers to both the unity of the Black and Latino cannabis communities as well as the unity of the various Latino nationalities that are unified as one.
For Placencia, the Box furthers the mission of Humo.
“We are opening up the conversation far beyond just the product itself. We are destigmatizing the plant at its core,” Placencia said. She said that she is interested in “the opportunity to have our community to flip the narrative with our relationship to cannabis–to flip it from something that derailed families to something that can actually empower families and help us build generational wealth.”
The Unidad Box includes products by Latino-owned brands Loopy Sanchez, La Familia/Agua de Flor (Product of Los Angeles), Naughty Dabs, Wyllow, Dope Flavors, Luchador, and Humo.
Retailing for $59, the box includes the following brands and products:
- Agua de Flor Sandia Con Chile 100mg Gummies
- Dope Flavors 1.2g Infused Pre-Roll
- Humo Flower 3.5g
- La Familia Fresa Krispy 10mg
- La Familia Mazapan Micro 10mg
- Loopy 3s 1.5g Pack
- Luchador 10-Pack 100mg Gummies
- Wyllow 1g Pre-Roll
- Naughty Dabs Concentrates 1G
It can be purchased exclusively at one of 8 participating Social Equity dispensaries in Los Angeles:
- Sixty Four & Hope Mid-City
- Josephine & Billie’s
- Cornerstone
- Hierba
- Sixty Four & Hope Melrose
- Wyllow
- Pirate Town
- Verde+
