This isn’t exactly the headline that’s out there right now about Gigi Hadid. And my headline here shouldn’t really be a headline because in 2023, someone using cannabis is not newsworthy. But they are sensationalising what happened to Gigi and her friend in the Cayman Islands recently so it’s an opportunity to destigmatise cannabis.
Gigi was on holiday recently and when she got to the Cayman Islands and went through customs they discovered she had a small amount of weed and paraphernalia - maybe like a bong or rolling papers. Anyway she was arrested and then paid a fine and released and not charged with anything. And now her rep has released a statement:
“Gigi was traveling with marijuana purchased legally in NYC with a medical license," her rep tells E! News. "It has also been legal for medical use in Grand Cayman since 2017. Her record remains clear and she enjoyed the rest of her time on the island."
Like I said, this is a nothingburger, though you wouldn’t know it from the headlines. And I appreciate that Gigi’s statement is matter of fact, no shame. Yes, I smoke weed. The end.
Gigi’s rep qualified her cannabis use with the medical licence but many, many, many people use it recreationally. Like a glass of wine with dinner. I live in a country where cannabis was legalised a few years ago. And I live in a city where there’s a cannabis shoppe basically on every block. Sometimes two. In my neighbourhood there’s more places to buy cannabis than coffee.
But there is still the stigma. Perhaps less so in Canada than other places in the world but as you can see from the headlines about Gigi today, and how they’re trying to make it seem like it’s some kind of SCANDAL, the stigma is what they’re leaning into.
Although, for sure, travelling with cannabis remains and issue, and I am always checking and double checking my bags if I’m heading out of Canada because my gummy packs look like lozenges. Within Canada, generally it’s OK up to 30 grams but they say you should check the rules in each province. That said, where cannabis and international travel is concerned – yes, no doubt, the laws are different in each country. But that, in my opinion, goes back to stigma about cannabis in general. Like nobody worries about sticking a few bottles of wine in their checked baggage because wine, across most cultures, not all but most, does not carry the same stigma. And if we’re talking about drugs and harm, well, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that whatever fears, misguided or not, that people have about cannabis, you can certainly apply the same to alcohol. So I go back to my original point and cannabis stigma and eventually reducing it because when that happens we won’t have to read a blazing headline about a celebrity getting on a flight with a few joints.
Attached - Gigi out in New York earlier this month.
