Freedom, pre-rolled
Drew Martin: challenging the male stoner stereotype and appealing to a new audience of female cannabis consumers. Photo courtesy of Drew Martin.
by Vaila Erin Bhaumick
What does freedom taste like? It tastes a little bit like Drew Martin.
And what does it look like? It looks like a playful, William Morris-inspired, psychedelic, most elegant menagerie rolling in a lush jungle paradise. And it’s beautiful.
What is freedom? It’s something we all need a little bit of right now. According to Drew Martin, it’s good times, it’s laughter, it’s friends, it’s days spent in a herbal haze, glowing with the flow, and breathing, just breathing in the beauty of botanic adventures in Cannabis.
Drew Martin and their botanically blended cannabis pre-rolls are on a mission to make cannabis once again about connection and ritual, rather than potency. Organic and delicate, their products aim to offer something more refined, yet still untamed: “Pre-rolled but Never Predefined”, as their tagline suggests.
Pitched as an intrepid herbalist, nomad and cannabis alchemist, Drew Martin was one step ahead when he launched their stylish pre-rolls in 2020. A blend of fragrant herbs and organic low dose cannabis, the products enshrine more than a little of the divine feminine — a dream for the female cannabis consumer.
His vision, as with many visions, began in the throes of world exploration. And as with any good alchemist, we often have to ‘go out there’ in order to find our treasure lying within. Drew Martin’s treasure is in his palate — an award winning mixologist and herbalist, his worldliness expresses itself in the understanding of why we commune as human beings, as friends, as one, with ritual and ease, to enjoy the sensual world. We all enjoy exciting tastes, states, and the freedom to just be. The Drew Martin products encapsulate it all, all within a pre-roll: “Here’s to the good times, long may they roll” — Drew Martin.
Drew Martin is on a mission to make cannabis about connection and ritual. Photo courtesy of Drew Martin.
The feminine touch weaves its way into the growth process too. Drew Martin’s whole flower cannabis is sun-grown using organic methods by an independent female farmer and is selected to give you an “easy going, super social and low-anxiety high”. Despite being a male-led enterprise, you can feel the feminine permeating through every echelon of its brand.
The agency behind the Drew Martin aesthetic, ico Design, described the original brief: “The challenge was to help define a brand that would directly challenge the male stoner stereotype and appeal to a new, emerging audience of affluent female cannabis consumers.” Living, engaging, and connecting, rather than tuning-out.
ico Design collaborated with UK-based Univers Labs on the playful, flowing, intuitive yet functional Drew Martin site, which artistically portrays the mellow femininity of the products. The packaging, a collaboration of icodesign and Stranger and Stranger, really does stand out. How it is possible to create something wild and illusory yet refined, we do not know, but they did it. In their own words “A vibrant, visual world of escapism”.
Everything about the Drew Martin brand is balanced — high yet grounded, feminine yet masculine, wild yet elegant. Without even having smelled or tasted them, the design work alone has the ability to pull one into the botanical playground that awaits. If beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder, you certainly, and ironically, do not need to be high to be elevated by these magical mystery pre-rolls.