Meet Portland's Most Famous Cannabis Couple

An Interview With SheSmokesJoints and Tony Greenhand.

When Courtney shared her first picture of cannabis buds under the name SheSmokesJoints, she had no ambitions for social-media fame. But with legalization in Oregon, the fast-growing Instagram audience for a female cannabis photographer should come as no surprise. What does shock her and Tony Greenhand—her joint-connoisseur boyfriend—is when their dog gets recognized at Petco.

With over 366,000 Instagram followers between them, they're household names among toking millennials. In addition to her cannabis photography, Courtney puts out joint-rolling tutorials and markets twaxed joints—joints wound in gooey hash oil. Tony's intricate, 3-D joints can take the form of peacocks, the Prince symbol, or a 4.2-pound watermelon. His smokable art sells for as much as $7,000 to customers that have included hip-hop artists B.o.B, the Flatbush Zombies, and B-Real of Cypress Hill. The pair sat down with WW to talk about their joint empire, desexifying cannabis media, and the downside of freebies.

WW: Were you hesitant to post pictures of marijuana before it was legal?

Tony Greenhand: No, and my pictures were so blurry and dark, I don't think it mattered. It all started when someone suggested that I post one of my joints on a 12-person Reddit thread three years ago. I shared a picture of my Sherlock Holmes pipe joint, and it blew up.

Courtney: I only posted photos of buds at first. Once I started interacting with followers, I was exposed to concentrates and smoke tricks—that was perpetuated with legalization and the rise of cannabis media companies.

Do you have day jobs?

Courtney: This is our only job. We consult different companies to help with growing and marketing, I take stock pictures and sell prints, and I have a collaborative business between me and the CO2 Company that creates twaxed joints.

Greenhand: Besides rolling the custom joints, I am a professional breeder for Crown OG. I also developed a strain called Clorox, aka Chardonnay, for its crisp scent of white grapes. She helps me tend the garden, because I often travel for consulting gigs.

I hear Tony sees quite a few orders from celebrities for custom joints?

Courtney: When it comes to Tony, they are in awe that he can do things that no one else can do. He's had a rapper approach him at a festival just to shake his hand.

Greenhand: Celebrities will go out of their way to directly connect with me, because I think they like seeing someone that takes rolling as seriously as I do. It's like someone telling you they like your music.

(Christine Dong) A Pikachu joint rolled by Greenhand. (Christine Dong)

Do you get sent a lot of promo freebies?

Courtney: I don't want free stuff. I like to work for what I get.

Greenhand: I once received a machine that theoretically vibrated and put out a frequency in the air that scared away spiders and mites, miraculously upped your yield, allowed you to harvest earlier, etc. It was this weird pendulum thing that spun really quickly and killed all my plants.

What are the less pleasant elements of pot fame?

Courtney: The way cannabis is still widely marketed like alcohol, with a lot of empty sexual imagery. I get it, I saw how many more likes I got when I took a selfie with a lower-cut shirt. But those extra likes aren't worth 100 guys jacking off to you on the hour.

Greenhand: I've started a campaign to desexify the feed of [Instagram account] Weed Humor. I think it's harder for girls to take the high road through talent rather than body. Pulling the sex card is like taking candy from a baby.

Do you get recognized on the street?

Courtney: We've been playing Pokémon Go in Albany, where we're looking for a house, and people have stopped us a few times. We've been yelled at on the freeway.

Greenhand: On the way to Hempfest last year, someone even recognized our dog! We've been eliminating the pictures of us on our Instagram accounts. I don't want people bugging me when I'm in the bathroom stall.

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