The Evolution of Swami Select

When I stop and look back at the evolution of Swami Select, it is kind of awesome. I guess you

could say it started many years ago, when we’d sit around the trimming table coming up with

goofy ideas of how the world would be if cannabis were legal. We spoke of reality shows (done),

coffee table books (done) and pre-rolled joints by the package (done). “Swami Pot Pies” were a

hit one year as a concept, but they went the way of festooned roach clips.

 

I guess you could say we started to really “come out of the cannabis closet” in 2011, when we

designed our first Swami Select logo, more on a whim than anything. The simple homely logo

was a hit, so we made T-shirts and then mugs – people seemed to enjoy sharing their morning

coffee with the Swami. Slowly, we received feedback about someone walking around a music

festival on the other side of the world and they’d run into someone wearing the Swami Select T-

shirt … with that face on it that you simply can’t forget.

 

Everyone these days is trying to come up with the winning product or idea that will sweep the

cannabis market – the Levi blue jeans of the Gold Rush days. While we don’t aspire to be a

large multi-national corporation such as Levi’s has become, we do feel we offer a service to the

cannabis community through education and example. The example part is having the guts to

reply, when asked what we do way up here in the Mendocino hills, “We are cannabis farmers.” I

have been very surprised by some of the responses I get by admitting that – from the old-school

Palestinian woman who immediately replied, “Oh, very good business” … to my high school

classmates who are, well, fascinated.

 

I feel honored to be a part of this industry at such a climactic time of transformation. California

history is a passion of mine as my first Italian ancestor came for the Gold Rush in 1849. The

Green Rush will be likewise remembered as an exciting and pivotal time, full of heroes and

villains, saints and sinners. We’ll go down in history as the brave souls who fought for our rights

to consume this precious medicine, and that makes me feel great if I am making even a small

difference in this world of ours.

 

And so Swami Select steps into the light at last and it feels fantastic!