Dope Medicinal Wellness is a physician-led clinic offering community assistance for those seeking access to medical marijuana. Tomorrow, they're hosting an open house from 4 to 6 p.m. During the event, you'll be able to tour the space and connect with local cannabis partners, including medical marijuana dispensaries and podcast hosts. The event will also feature a special screening of the documentary Roots & Reefer: The Arkansas Cannabis Story, which highlights the evolution of the state's medical cannabis industry and the people shaping it.
Ozarks at Large's Jack Travis connected with the film's director and The Source Dispensary CEO, Amanda Strickland. He also had the chance to include the creator of the film's soundtrack, local reggae artist and brand ambassador Rochelle Bradshaw. They all spoke over Zoom last week ahead of the event. Strickland says that although it's been a while, Roots & Reefer isn't her directorial debut.
Amanda Strickland: My first film was a feature film and it was about a Mayan midwife, and it was shot all in Yucatán, Mexico. My previous life I was an anthropologist, so I was a filmmaker and an anthropologist before I became a legal dealer — and now as a legal dealer, I decided to tell the story of the cannabis industry in Arkansas. And I linked up with my good friend Rochelle, who had the perfect music to put all this stuff together. And, you know, 10 months later we had a film.
Travis: So tell me, what is the story of Arkansas cannabis from your perspective?
Strickland: Oh, wow. The story of Arkansas cannabis really centers around the people that work in Arkansas cannabis — at least that's the lens of this film. So we look behind the doors of some of the largest facilities in the world, actually, because the way that the licenses work in Arkansas, we only have eight cultivator licenses. So we're talking huge facilities that are producing high-grade craft cannabis at that level. And then as a juxtaposition, we're a dispensary and our license only allows us to grow 50 plants at a time. So you have these large production facilities, and then you have boutique cultivation facilities like ours at The Source. And so the film really juxtaposes those things. It goes behind the scenes, and it talks to the people that are finding so much fulfillment working in these jobs.
Travis: So as CEO of The Source, you obviously have a pretty intrinsic knowledge of the cannabis industry in the state. But was there anything that you learned while making this film?
Strickland: Oh man, I never stop learning. That is one of the things about cannabis — blanket change, you know, we're having to deal with regulatory things. And so, yes, I learned a lot in the film, and probably I learned the most from my film's anchor character. Her name is Christy Bjornson, and she is the director of the ABC wing of the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. So she works in the government. She is like the chief of our regulators. She's the one that's keeping us in check when we have a compliance issue or something like that.
And so it was a really big deal for me as a filmmaker to get her to agree to be on screen, because there's not really that much unification between the industry and the regulators. And I wanted to break down those barriers between the industry, the regulators, the patients — every person that holds stake in this cycle of cannabis — I wanted to bring them all together in one single narrative. So we interviewed a lot of different people. And the most difficult part as a filmmaker is the edit, right? You finish this — I shot hours and hours and hours of interviews, and then to try to make it into something that the audience can totally consume. People don't have attention spans anymore. So you've got to do quick edits. You've got to hit them with this. You've got to hit them with that. Oh, look, tons of flower, you know.
And that's where the music comes in with Rochelle as well. Because how do you carry an audience into listening to the director of the ABC tell you something important, but also remain engaged? Right, Rochelle?
Rochelle Bradshaw: Oh, yeah. Music will do that. Yeah.
Travis: So, Rochelle, you were very recently a guest on Ozarks at Large to discuss the Bob Marley tribute concert — I hope that that went well.
Bradshaw: Oh, it was so much fun. Oh my goodness.
Travis: And then also your new album, Island Girl. And then you also somehow found time to make the soundtrack for Roots & Reefer. So what can folks expect to hear while they watch this new documentary?
Bradshaw: Basically you're going to hear a lot of the tracks from the Island Girl album. So that is what we're looking forward to, how that comes together with the cannabis story, you know. And so you have to watch this short film immediately is my advice to everyone/
Travis: You're involved in The Source as a budtender first, and now brand ambassador. Could you explain the historical connection between cannabis and reggae music and how marijuana has specifically influenced your sound?
Bradshaw: Well, you know, reggae music has since the very beginning advocated for this medicine. A lot of the artists — especially Bob Marley, but not just Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Burning Spear, all of these founding fathers of reggae music — have always advocated because they themselves used this medicine on a daily basis, just as a sacrament and just to get through life on a spiritual level. And so it's like the beginning of reggae started with that advocacy. So they've always been together. You know, reggae is like the vessel. You know, it's the water stream that's carrying this flower from one point on the river to the next. Reggae always carries that.
And for me, growing up and listening to reggae music, hearing these words, "legalize it," seeing people using the flower in my community and hearing all the negativity — I didn't understand it as a child because I'm like, but my father is a great man and contributes to the community and takes care of his family. But he smokes cannabis every day, and they're telling me that if you do this, you're going to come out to nothing. You're going to be this lazy person. But as a child, it made no sense to me because that's not what I was seeing. I saw my family members and my dad and my uncle using the plant, playing music — and great music — like in my home. I grew up watching Burning Spear rehearse, not realizing the impact of that. And cannabis was always in the mix of that.
I stayed away from it, of course, as a child. Tried to get in there as much as I could as a child, but got in trouble. And so I stayed away. But I started having seizures when I was around 11, and just as a way of trying to cope with life, as an older teenager I started to really investigate more about this medicine, about this plant. And with a lot of help from a lot of friends and knowledgeable people, I was able to include it into my own life. And it's just wonderful. We could go on and on and on and on about cannabis because I love weed. I just want to say that. It's wonderful.
Travis: Well, that kind of leads me to my next question about the title of the film, Roots & Reefer. That struck me, because you hear the term reefer and you think of those original PSA — one might call them propaganda-style films: Reefer Madness. Amanda, was that purposeful, trying to draw that connection between perhaps the perceived stigma against marijuana and combining it with where it has gone today?
Strickland: Yeah, I think that that's definitely a part of it. The name Roots & Reefer was actually coined by Wendy Love-Edge. She was the co-host of the original podcast for the project, and we wanted to somehow make it feel like it was rooted in community. I can't say it without using the word roots now, because it's all about community, right, Rochelle?
Bradshaw: Oh, yes.
Strickland: And digging in and showing — I've always used for The Source this metaphor. I always tell the team, I'm like, OK, if you're wondering what we're doing here and the way that we're growing in our community, I want you to think of us as a tree. We're going to grow our roots as far deep as we can right here in our local community. And then we're going to see what happens with our branches, how far those can go out and what fruits they can drop across the state. And so I had always been using that metaphor and we were in a text group, right, Rochelle?
Bradshaw: Oh, yeah.
Strickland: And Wendy, one night, hit "Roots and Reefer" and we're like, that's it. It just feels perfect.
Travis: Speaking of the community, we will get a chance to watch Roots & Reefer in person and engage with you, Amanda and Rochelle. Amanda, can you speak on what's going on this weekend?
Strickland: Yeah, well, actually, it's on Thursday, Feb. 19. We are going to be having an open house with the folks over at Dope Medicinal Wellness in Fayetteville. And so we're going to be screening the film there. There's going to be some free food, drinks, that kind of thing. And what we're going to be doing is having conversations about how to get your Arkansas medical card right here with the doctors, as well as — why get your Arkansas medical card? The film really answers that question. Why? Because when you decide to cross state lines to go to Missouri to buy your cannabis, you're defunding an industry here in Arkansas that cares. And so we want to help people realize that getting a medical card is not very complicated, right, Rochelle?
Bradshaw: Very simple.
Strickland: But for some reason — because of advertising restrictions placed on cannabis in the state, we're not allowed to get billboards, for example. However, Missouri dispensaries can advertise in the state using billboards. So a lot of people don't even know that we exist here. So hopefully the documentary and talking with doctors and trying to raise awareness just with your neighbors — if anyone's listening to this that didn't know about the Arkansas cannabis industry, check out RootsandReefer.com. The documentary is available for free on YouTube. And if you like what you see and you want to get a med card, reach out to the folks over at Dope Medicinal Wellness because they can help you get your medical card. And they're very caring people. They're going to help you understand what's best for you and walk you into a relationship with one of your local dispensaries here in Northwest Arkansas, or wherever you're listening from.
That was filmmaker and Source Cannabis Dispensary CEO Amanda Strickland speaking with Ozarks at Large's Jack Travis. He also spoke with reggae artist Rochelle Bradshaw. You can see Roots & Reefer: The Arkansas Cannabis Story in person tomorrow at Dope Medicinal Wellness. The open house starts at 4 p.m. and is free to attend.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
