This Morning at the Coffee Shop

I have found many friendships at the coffee shop in Miami Beach. In that time, I have begun to give all the wonderful people who work behind the counter free smokes after many of them expressed interest. This morning in particular, my friend asked where she can direct her friends to purchase them in Miami. 

I told her Friends Market, just down the street, which happens to be the first convenience store in Miami to carry Full Moons. Her face lit up. We started discussing the taste and she and another coworker told me how much they loved that they could feel the ritual of smoking and the taste of the plant - without getting high.

And that is when I told them the truth of why I love Full Moons.

Full Moons is a very personal brand because it's the result of my life journey through substance use. I did not start this as a business idea. 

I grew up around cannabis culture, people growing, selling, sharing. When hemp entered the market in the early years of 2017 to 2020, I was close enough to witness it unfold.

That proximity changed my life.

During those years, I slowly transitioned from relying heavily upon tobacco to hemp. Not completely. I never wanted that. My goal was never to erase tobacco from my life, my goal was to stop abusing it.

I told them I do not believe in abstinence culture.

I think it is boring and kind of lazy.

I do not want to make one decision forever. It seems like 'auto pilot'... and personally I want to wake up and feel as free as humanly possible. So for me, freedom is defined by being able to make new choices at any moment.

Freedom encourages the relationship within myself of how I trust myself. 

They nodded like they understood exactly what I meant.

We laughed about how ridiculous it is to tell smokers to “just quit.”

No one says that to people who struggle with food addiction... You teach them to choose differently, day by day.

 HELLO EVOLUTION? EVER HEARD OF IT.

That is what hemp gave me: a way to choose differently one day at a time. And in a world that wants to demonize a plant and the act of smoking, Full Moons honors it instead.

We take what people love, the ritual, the pause, the community, and give it a cleaner, more sustainable form. 

I believe hemp doesn't cultivate addiction the way industrialized tobacco does.

By the end of our conversation, they were glowing. I could see them connecting to an idea they had always felt but never said out loud: that smoking does not have to be all or nothing, that it can be conscious, and maybe even beautiful.

Walking out of the shop, I felt that same quiet validation I have felt all along this journey: I am the case study. This works. And I get to share it.

(above is a drawing my friend, who makes delicious coffee, drew this morning during her shift)