On a warm Friday night in July, discreetly tucked away in Zinnia’s Garden on 18th Street in Pilsen, Up Elevated Cocktails gathered a group of cannabis professionals and enthusiasts to indulge in their cannabis cocktail club. The monthly club returned from the previous summer and this month kicked off a weekend centered on wellness. The theme of the night was “Sports & Cannabis,” inviting attendees to engage in open dialogue on the plant’s consumption in the field of sports.
The event was the official afterparty for the Black Cannabiz Expo, a two-day conference for Brown and Black-run cannabis businesses hosted at the Swissotel Chicago from July 24 to 26.
“I knew that tons of amazing, influential people in the cannabis industry were going to be in town for [the Black Cannabiz Expo]. And we thought it would be a really great opportunity for us to theme under the guise of health and wellness,” Carlos Ramos said, founder and owner of Up Elevated Cocktails.
“They’re bringing high quality products to the community, safe products, healthy products,” Ramos said about the vendors at this month’s club, who were selling products like We Gone Exotics’s THC-infused wine and tequila, and Juanamama Delights’ snapback hats made with hemp fabric.
“It’s a lifestyle brand, but originally our goal was to have an infused license [and work] with seltzers like cannabis seltzers,” said Sergio Lopez, owner of Juanamama Delights.
Lopez is originally from Los Angeles, but moved to Chicago right when LA was establishing their cannabis equity licenses. When Illinois began its own, he didn’t qualify because he had not been living in a disproportionately impacted area in the city for at least five years. However, Lopez’s love for the plant has pushed him to find other ways to get his foot in the door, like establishing Juanamama Delights and offering design services free of charge to cannabis advocacy organizations.
“If I can leverage my day job to help somebody else that’s already hit the ground running with a license, I don’t see a reason why I shouldn’t be able to help,” Lopez said, emphasizing his motivation. “It’s a fucking badass plant.”
Event-goers were able to indulge in cannabis cocktails and “potletas”—THC-infused popsicles crafted by Ramos—a dab bar, and live performances by local talents like rapper iGoByLC and saxophonist Manuel Canchola.
The following morning, Runners High Chicago led a weed and wellness workshop.
“The good thing about consuming cannabis instead of alcohol is that you wake up feeling really great the next day,” Ramos said, who is also a co-founder of Runners High Chicago.
The wellness workshop kicked off with a 4.20 mile run in McKinley Park, followed by a guided meditation and yoga led by guest panelist and former NFL player Ricky Williams, a sound bath, and closed with a panel discussion. Attendees were able to take dabs as the yoga portion commenced to help connect the mind and body.
“The panel also helps your mind, and it’s also educating our community on why all of these events are important,” said Runners High co-founder Anakaren “AK” Ramirez.
Williams, a former running back for the Baltimore Ravens, Miami Dolphins and New Orleans Saints, has long been an advocate for the use of cannabis in sports. During the panel, he opened up about his experience with anxiety and how the plant was transformative in his personal life. During his time in the NFL, Williams opted to use cannabis to help treat physical injuries. Williams would eventually quit the NFL because of cannabis restrictions, and has since founded Real Wellness Herbal, a product line focused on “combining traditional herbal blends with cannabis to create effective formulas for pain, sleep, and anxiety.”
Among the guests was Steven Philpott, a science educator and researcher who spoke at the Expo and also joined the panel discussion.
“When you hear about the different ways that people have been impacted [by using cannabis], when you hear about an athlete, when you hear about a veteran, when you hear about somebody who’s from the South Side, who’s a justice impacted person, I think it’s important that those stories come together, because they tell a new narrative that maybe isn’t the popular narrative that you hear about on the news,” Philpott said, stressing the importance of hosting these events in ways that are both informative to the public and accessible to those that don’t fit the stereotype of cannabis users.
Philpott was the first Black dispensary manager in the state, and a teacher at the first Illinois school to have a license through the state’s Department of Agriculture to teach hemp cultivation onsite. His experience in the industry runs alongside his research for his master’s degree in environmental biology, which he says has helped him to make cannabis science digestible to the masses.
“That’s what is important for me—getting that information to the community because it makes you an informed consumer. And you don’t want to be an ignorant consumer, because then your health is at risk. You don’t know who you’re buying from. Are they an ethical brand? Informed consumers feel better when they purchase and it empowers them,” Philpott said.
The panel was moderated by cannabis journalist and Weekly contributor Alejandro Hernandez, who touched on topics like breaking into the industry and defining terpenes. As guests moved through the different activities, the central theme continued to be wellness. Hosting in communities like Pilsen and McKinley Park is an intentional decision made by AK and Ramos.
“We’ve had a lot of people state that this is their first time doing yoga, this is their first time doing meditation and it’s insane, because [it’s] something that’s very necessary,” AK said.
“I didn’t have access to these practices for a long time, and then once I actually was able to participate in this, I found the benefit that was there for me, and I thought that my community could benefit too,” Ramos said.
Up Elevated Cocktails and Runners High Chicago take it a step further by bringing awareness to the ways in which cannabis can be consumed to enhance wellness.
“[Cannabis has] helped me physically, it’s helped me mentally. I use it on a day-to-day basis. I’m a mother of two. I work a nine to five. I have a couple businesses. It really helps me slow down, ground myself, physically help me recover from running, and [it] amplifies my curiosity and creativity,” AK said.
The Up Elevated Cocktail club will continue through the month of October, with tickets starting at thirty dollars. Runners High Chicago meets for runs every Saturday with rotating locations throughout the city. And as always, it’s 420 friendly.
“This plant has so much power and capability to help benefit people and transform people’s lives for the better. And I’m all in on that,” Ramos said.
Jocelyn Martinez-Rosales is a Mexican-American independent journalist from Belmont Cragin who is passionate about covering communities of color with a social justice lens. She’s also the music editor at the Weekly.