CNBC Discovers the Connection Between Porn and Pot

PORN POT VALLEY, Calif.—Quick: name two cultural memes that are routinely defamed by mainstream media (especially the conservative parts, of which there are many) that don't actually hurt anyone, and can in fact be beneficial! If you guessed "porn" and "pot," give yourself a cigar joint. Let's face it: It's not for nothing that 30,000 or so people manage to get to Las Vegas for the Adult Entertainment Expo each year—even more when the economy isn't tanking—and a short car trip around Los Angeles (or, we're guessing, San Francisco and San Diego) reveals that one can't go more than a mile without seeing the familiar green cross that signifies a pot store. The public's awareness of the relative harmlessness of pot has even inspired Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA, natch) to cosponsor a bipartisan (well, if one considers Rand Paul an actual Republican) bill, S.683, the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States (CARERS) Act of 2015, which would take marijuana off of the FDA's list of Schedule I drugs—drugs which supposedly have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical uses. The bill, which was introduced on March 10, is on its way to the Senate Judiciary Committee. So it should hardly be surprising that CNBC has picked up on the connection, especially since Dona Frank of the Natural Cannabis Company has recently mounted a PR campaign to bring pot smokers into their dispensaries by promising porn stars there to greet them, and even sell them the stars' branded strains. In fact, it was Frank who arranged for Layla Price, Skin Diamond and Lizz Tayler to visit Bay Area pot stores this weekend, and CNBC correspondent Chris Morris got Layla to tell him why. "Price said while she could have gone the traditional licensing route and worked with adult novelty companies for a branded sex toy, she feels the marijuana industry is more of a blue ocean—an opportunity with more potential return," Morris wrote. "There are so many girls out there," Morris reported Price as saying. "The last thing people need is another toy or website. This is something different. ... I make a lot more money in the cannabis industry than, say, if I created my own site or if a big toy company were to offer me my own toy because cannabis is growing. Before you know it, marijuana is going to be legalized everywhere, so I think it's a smarter move." While Price uses her fame as an adult star to promote her marijuana strains, she also hopes one day to open a dispensary of her own when she retires from performing in a few years—but Morris uncovered another performer with similar ideals. Fifteen-year adult industry veteran Justine Joli, well-known as a girl/girl, solo and fetish performer until her retirement last year, has also taken the plunge into the medical marijuana business. She's now the proprietress of Green Fairy Edibles, where she supplies stores with 1,000 ounces per month of cannabis-infused beef jerky. Turns out that business has been so good, she plans to dismantle her website and take its remaining profits to invest in Green Fairy. "I'm doing what most entrepreneurs do," Joli told Morris. "I'm selling off my life and going all in. ... One day of making jerky [makes me] the exact same amount I would make on set. For me, it's a shift in the sense that it's harder work because it's more intensive labor, but I'm not under hot lights and I can eat." (Infused brownies and Rice Krispies Treats are her faves.) So as the 2016 presidential campaign gets under way much too early, get ready for another round of adult industry bashing, probably with the suggestion that not only will watching porn turn people into video zombies but into potheads as well. But that's OK; those people never get anything right anyway, and one day, the rest of the public that hasn't caught onto that fact may finally figure it out.