Comedian Chelsea Handler’s inauguration celebration kits involve Sonoma County cannabis chocolatier

Despite the national capital’s looking like a stress-filled military fortress, cannabis supplier Garden Society of Cloverdale has joined comedian, actress and activist Chelsea Handler in assembling a special inauguration-inspired kit to calm things down in American living rooms.

The “America is Back” kit is filled with goodies such as Garden Society’s spice, dark chocolates, which are produced with 10 milligrams of the nonhallucinogenic compound cannabidiol, or CBD, per piece and flavored with chili and cinnamon. The 270 treats provided are packaged with masks from New York boutique “smoke wear” Sundae School as well as joint “pre-rolls” from Pure Beauty and CANN beverages — both based in Los Angeles.

“If (cannabis) was legal to the federal government, we’d fly by and sprinkle it down on the (U.S.) capital. Maybe then, everybody would get along,” Garden Society Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer Karli Warner said, while referring to the unprecedented political unrest portrayed in an ugly insurrection and attack on the citadel of U.S. democracy last week.

Warner said her Cloverdale company’s values align with those shared by Handler, a longtime cannabis advocate and supporter who has used Garden Society products.

“If we don’t give back, then what are we doing here,” she said. “We set out to build this company for women, by women. We like that Chelsea is someone who lives her authentic self.”

As a celebrity who burst on the scene with a best-selling book in 2008 titled “Are you there, vodka? It’s me, Chelsea,” she may be better known for an NBC sitcom, “Are you there, Chelsea Handler?”

Time magazine named her one of 100 of “the most influential people in the world” in 2012. The activist-comedian even delved into politics and social unrest a few years ago with “Hello, Privilege. It’s me, Chelsea,” a Netflix documentary that examined racism and its impact on her life.

Her current venture aimed at acknowledging next Wednesday’s Presidential Inauguration represents yet another chapter in American politics for Handler at a time of much social unrest and strife.

“We’ll all have a lot to celebrate on Jan. 20 — not the least of which is the launch of my new kit ’America is Back.’ I curated a fun collection of uplifting cannabis products from brands who share my values, designed to celebrate President(-elect) Biden, Vice President(-elect) Harris and the most diverse cabinet in history,” Handler said in a statement. “Feeling good has never felt so good.”

“America is Back” kits started selling Thursday at the Sweet Flower dispensary in Los Angeles and The Apothecarium, the latter with three San Francisco locations and another in Berkeley.

The Northern California dispensary company received 150 kits and expects to quickly sell out of its full allotment, spokesman Eliot Dobris told the Business Journal. The proceeds to the kits selling for $85 will be donated to Cage Free Repair, a Los Angeles-based advocacy nonprofit working on reform and assisting those with cannabis criminal records, Dobris confirmed.

This isn’t the first time The Apothecarium has stepped up to the plate for charitable causes. Dobris estimated the company has donated more than $750,000 to local nonprofits since its operation started in 2011.

“There’s been a lot of interest in it. Sales are brisk,” he said.