Whoopi Goldberg is being honored.
The veteran-actress-turned-television-host has received the Key to West Hollywood! The honor was a result of her commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and for her work as an entrepreneur, owning the first branded and tested woman-owned cannabis brand in California, Gold Derby reports.
Goldberg’s foray into cannabis dates back to 2016. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, she launched Whoopi & Maya alongside co-founder Maya Elisabeth of Om. The company existed to provide medical cannabis to those experiencing menstrual pain, according to CNN.
However, that company shut down in 2020 following a string of conflicts.
“They wanted to include menstrual cramps in the list of things you can prescribe medical marijuana for but the governor said that will never happen in New Jersey because our doctors only prescribe marijuana for ‘real’ pain,” Goldberg said in an interview with The Cannabist at the time. “The fact that people think of (women’s health) as a niche market — that he didn’t think of menstrual cramps as ‘real’ pain — tells me that there’s a lot of education to do on this subject.”
Rick Cusick, a company board member who assisted the Whoopi & Maya brand, also noted the November 2016 passing of California’s Proposition 64, which permitted adult-use sales, impacted the company as the founders worked to adapt their business.
“Suddenly we’re jumping through hoops like every other company in California,” Cusick explained to CNN. “We were well on the way to [being cash-flow positive] but then we had to jump through hoops to change our packaging … and then change our packaging again.”
Today, Goldberg is back in the cannabis arena, reviving the Whoopi & Maya line along with Maya Elisabeth and also introducing a new brand under the WhoopFam umbrella, Emma & Clyde, named in honor of Goldberg’s late mother and brother. It is this venture that has received recognition from the state of California, per Gold Derby.
Goldberg reflected on her journey as a founder in the space and reinforced that she is marketing to women, who she feels are not always included as a target demographic.
“Maya and I first launched Whoopi & Maya, which was our brand, and we launched it because there was a need for women to be serviced by the marijuana because we knew that many of us smoked to get rid of the cramps,” she explained to the outlet. “Many of of us smoked just to feel better… I had horrible cramps.”
She continued, “…When we introduced the product women went ‘Oh my god it works!’ cause nothing had been put out there you know cause they were saying Snoop Dogg has a line and this one has a line, all dudes, all men. So my question was, ‘Is there nothing for women?, and they were like, ‘No, women are a niche market.’ That’s what they said, and I said, ‘Yes but that niche is half the universe every month.”
