Is New York’s New Women’s Marijuana Retreat Right for Me?
Let me set the scene for you: I’m frantically calling taxi companies at the Hudson Amtrak station, trying to get a ride to Coxsackie, NY, to a MoodRXtreats women’s cannabis retreat hosted by Holly Teegarden of the Moodporium cannabis dispensary in Pittsburgh is moderated. There are no Ubers, no one picking up, and I have no weed because the retreat insists they will provide more than enough for the two day trip.
I’m pissed and wondering if it’s a mistake to trek upstate from New York City to attend a retreat for women, especially women in their 30s and older, to explore cannabis and participate in “Woo- Woo Activities” for a weekend getaway. I’m now missing the mocktail happy hour and the anxiety is growing.
Finally, I take a taxi and drive to a local who corrects my pronunciation of “Coxsackie” and harbors some backcountry mystery about him. The drive to the retreat calms me with its green fields, houses with yards and porches, drive-in theaters and, oh yeah – there’s a big “Fuck Biden” sign outside someone’s house. When I finally arrive, chef Jaci Miller greets me in the huge kitchen and leads me back to the patio, where a group of women, my compatriots for the next two days, are smoking joints around a fire pit.
Founder Holly Teegarden appears, with a face made to smile and curly silver hair that makes her seem like she’s materializing from the clouds (or maybe that’s just how it felt when I finally arrived), leads me into my room and shows me my gift bag of edibles and supplies and tells me, “Girl, roll a joint.”
“We were so relaxed that we forgot to do IV fluids.”
After eight years in the cannabis industry, little surprises me, despite the increasing ingenuity and continued innovation of products, services and experiences. And as a woman, I’m almost always a minority among the brothers – women-centric events often place a lot of emphasis on CBD and lack the opportunity to simply get stoned in style. I was skeptical of MoodRXtreats, looking for errors and insincerity. Their mission statement does include “Woo Woo” activities for women of a certain age. But wow, Leafly Nation, I’m eating those words. The grass was plentiful and strong, the whirlpools were bubbling. The Hudson River sparkled in the backyard and the women were ready to burn. I gave in to the mood and let the guided sound bath cleanse my chakras.
Teegarden’s passion project and story are well received. She started smoking at the age of 15 in upstate New York and initially decided on a career in an American company. Given that she’s wearing comfy clothes and sandals all weekend, I find it hard to imagine.
Then “about six years ago, I started my own self-care ‘Who am I?’ Trip. I was taking a number of different prescription medications. And I thought, “There has to be a better way.” And I realized that cannabis, the plant medicine, was the right thing. I quit my job and took this path.”
Teegarden picked up on a lot of things I heard from women in the industry and community.
The grass was plentiful and strong, the whirlpools were bubbling.
“Nobody looks like me,” she said.
Many events are about getting high as a sprint, not a journey.
Teegarden says, “I love traveling; It’s a passion of mine. So I thought, ‘I think I can do this.’ I think I can do these retreats.’”
Her ultimate goal is to be the “Bethenny Frankel of Cannabis” and create a space for women and the nuances of their cannabis wants and needs.
“There is so much misogyny in the industry,” she shared over a joint on the patio. Women need a space where they can unwind and have fun, whether with or without weed. This is the third MoodRXtreat, with another planned for October in Ellicottville, NY.
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On to the weeds. On the living room table was a cornucopia of weed goodies, including prerolls from the local Hudson Cannabis, flower from Sherbinskis, Kiva Camino gummies, some Cresco wagons, 1906 lozenges, Sessions Goods pipes, and even some tinctures, which remained mostly untouched. Each participant also received a personal can of gummies, a vape battery, papers, lighters, a bag of crystals and essential oils, and a few gifts. After rolling up some Gello Gelato, the first of many joints I would consume over the weekend, I joined the group outside, ready to find out what had brought this group of women here.
They came from Syracuse and Brooklyn to Chicago and Florida. Of the ten of us, less than half were mothers, most were in their 30s, and none of them were new to cannabis. When we were outside, our hands were almost always busy lighting something.
So busy that Holly had to place a delivery order on Saturday that included a half-ounce of Gelato flower and several grams of Papa Smurf flower from Hudson Cannabis, as well as many more joints from Space Runtz to Sherb Cake to Lemon Kush. One woman was a marijuana publicist and two founded the web show and lifestyle site High Herstory (think Drunk History but stoned women), but one worked in tech and another was a social worker. A mother and adult daughter couple had a family business and came to New York for horse shows.
One woman, the mother who had traveled from Florida with her daughter, was the oldest in our group. She watched us all smoke on Saturday morning as the clouds cleared from the early rain and remarked, “My generation, we grew up on weed, and then [the government] I became strict. It’s so nice to see your generation having fun.”
Please don’t ask me for details because I was stoned the whole time and so was everyone else.
Please don’t ask me for details because I was stoned the whole time and so was everyone else. The itinerary was relaxed and accessible. All we did on Friday was smoke, eat a delicious, balanced meal from Jaci (my first wedge salad!) and, if we wanted, a sound bath led by head wellness expert AJ Williams paired with a chill -Pastille from 1906. We were so relaxed that we forgot to do infusions.
Saturday
On Saturday morning many people slept until breakfast, but I wanted to take the cold plunge. Again, I was ready to scoff at what I thought was largely a Tiktok fad. Again I ate my words. It turns out that immersing yourself in 60°F water for two minutes at a time does wonders for your cortisol levels.
And after such a delicious breakfast of frittata, biscuits, gravy and fruits, we finished the morning activity and most of us slept in between until lunch, followed by a tarot reading and then “high tea” after which I took my second me took a nap of the day and strolled down to the river to think alone for a bit. After another amazing dinner, we finally broke out of the smells, and one of us, a self-proclaimed tanker, accidentally consumed a 200mg chocolate just before karaoke, which took place in a game room, like what I imagine Hugh Hefner might have done back in the day have had. Don’t worry, she survived.
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For these ancient warrior women, cannabis was part of everyday life
Sunday
On Sunday I woke up very sad, knowing that in a few hours I would have to get on another train back to the city and back to the many stressors of real adult life.
For me, every successful cannabis event is a victory and a step towards a world where weed is nothing more and nothing less than what it is. But few, if any, New York cannabis events have felt such validation in their acceptance of going with my own flow. Admittedly, it’s not a particularly accessible itinerary, as the retreat starts at $900 if you’re staying with a friend and $1,200 if you’re traveling alone.
Holly told me that more retreats are planned and she hopes to expand these to include potential shared experiences, mother-daughter trips, and remote locations. She explained in the early Sunday morning light, as thick fog rose over the river, that this was the best retreat yet.
The cannabis plant is female, and so is the future.
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