^{Header photo credit Mistress Fae}‍‍

Before Anna Delvey, before the Tinder Swindler, there was Kari Ferrell. Adopted at a young age by a Mormon family in Utah, Kari struggled with questions of self-worth and identity as one of the few Asian Americans in her insulated community, leading her to run with the “bad crowd” in an effort to fit in. Fast forward to petty theft and eventually Utah’s most wanted list. She was crowned: the Hipster Grifter.
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Kari's memoir sets the record straight on the facts versus fabrication. YOU’LL NEVER BELIEVE ME: A Life of Lies, Second Tries, and Other Things I Should Only Tell My Therapist tells the story of a bad girl gone good. Now the Korean-American multi-hypenate’s work is centered around incarceration, the justice system, mental health, transracial / transnational adoption, human rights, and other issues she feels passionately about.
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Kari’s production company, Without Wax, is dedicated to uplifting and telling other WOC’s stories, across a variety of mediums. Every project that she works on is done with the mission of moving the needle toward a more compassionate society. She enjoys the work she does with Second Chance Studios, Books Through Bars, Black & Pink, and other advocacy/mutual aid groups.
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Cafe con Libros in Crown Heights as a part of our SASS Summer Popsicle Popup series. RSVP + Buy Her Book.

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This is a full transcript from our Keep Pride Alive campaign interviews. It has been edited and condensed for clarity by Solonje Burnett, Weed Auntie. Watch a part of our interview.

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WA = Weed Auntie

KF = Kari Ferrell

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WA: Tell us your name, preferred pronouns, and what you do for work/passion.

KF: My name is Kari Ferrell, pronouns are she/her/hers, and I am a writer, producer, and activist.

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WA: What did your family say about weed?

KF: I grew up in a very oppressive religious environment and so cannabis was seen as more than a gateway drug. It was seen as just straight up a drug so I didn’t have a lot of experience with it until my young adult years. I was honestly frankly a bit scared of it, the stigma that was attached to it, and all of the propaganda, it definitely stuck with me. So I am beyond grateful that I saw the light, the actual light. The skies, the heavens parted but it wasn’t Jesus that was coming down (laughs).

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WA: Has anyone ever judged you or labeled you for consuming weed whether in your family or professionally?

KF: Definitely but I’m lucky because now all of my friends and my chosen family, if they don’t partake, which is rare, they’re very accepting of it. I’m a big believer in using cannabis to cultivate and promote creativity and so I love subverting a lot of things, but especially the lazy stoner myth. I consume every single day and I would not be able to have the creative output that I do without it. And that’s not considering the physical benefits. I’m getting old, and I’m Asian (cracks up) so I could be 19 or 100 [years old], you wouldn’t know! But I have a lot of joint issues and aches and pains. Without my daily regimen, I wouldn’t be able to exist the way that I do and how I want to or need to.

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WA: Does consuming cannabis affect or aid in your creative process? If so, how do you integrate it into your hyper busy multi-hyphante professional life?

KF: Absolutely enhances my creative process, and there are countless reasons for that–some of which include: getting the juices flowing (mentally…and physically), allowing exploration of topics through a different lens, and recovery, because thinking takes A LOT out of you. I do have to be mindful of the strains that I’m consuming to make sure they align with what I’m trying to accomplish. 

I’m lucky, because I can basically consume whenever I want, which is one of the only perks of being an adult.

WA: You are extremely vocal about a number of social justice and human rights issues, where does cannabis land within your activism today? 

KF: Cannabis and my work around prison abolition are directly tied. Black people are 3.6x more likely to be arrested for cannabis than white people. Black people make up 41% of the prison/jail population, yet only 14% of U.S. residents. There’s something very amiss here (always has been), and you better believe that a select few are making a grip of cash off of every single prisoner. 

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WA: What is your favorite way to consume cannabis?

KF: My favorite way to consume honestly is taking a big fat joint to the dome but recently I have found myself imbibing in more edibles because they are now produced in a way where it’s reliable. For so long, I avoided them because the production wasn't reliable but now I love them.

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WA: Let’s dig in a little bit there, thinking about dosage and inconsistency… With regulations, what are the products that you tend to go towards? Do you prefer low or a high dose? Why and how are you consuming edibles?

KF: I love that there’s a variety of products. Sometimes I want a brain banger to take me off of this planet, I’m getting NASA. But there are other times where I just want something that helps me to relax and calm down and I find myself very fortunate to live in a world, in a city, in an area where there is that selection.

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WA: Awesome! Do you feel like there’s a lack of authentic representation in the way cannabis users are depicted in media and in the brands that are really popular or in pop culture?

KF: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, as a queer individual, as a woman of color, as someone who identifies with a lot of marginalized and minority groups, though I have an issue with that term because we are NOT the minority, we are very much the greater majority, but yeah I think that in media [cannabis] is not portrayed as a tool or as plant medicine. It’s very much this person just wants to disassociate, forget the world, etc.

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WA: Who would you like to deliberately dose? Who out there are you like “they need some edibles, they need to get in the cypher” and you want to just help them because they are in desperate need of becoming balanced.

KF: Yes! There are so many people, we do not have time for me to name all of them both personally and just figuratively but I think what’s really important is to know that there are a lot of different products out there and there’s the right one for each person and so it’s amazing that we have people who are there educating the masses on what will be best for that particular person. So there are a lot of people who need to get on board for sure.

WA: Who would be in your dream sweet sesh? Queer icons, people who are living, deceased, whoever.

KF: My dream sweet sesh would include Margaret Cho, George Takei, and Marsha P. Johnson. I think that’s a long list so I’ll stop there. I’m so lucky because I feel like my dream cyphers have come true. There are a lot of people that are just my friends, my family. They’re the people I want to be consuming with and I’m so lucky that I get to do that everyday.

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WA: As a bad girl gone (kinda) good, your book ‘You’ll Never Believe Me’ is both funny and fearless in your account of your own personal journey. Sharing a version of an Asian American transracial adoptee just trying to fit into American culture. Now secure in yourself and your values, what next in the liberation of Kari?

KF: What an incredible question, and thank you so much for your kind words. I’m truly so honored that anyone would spend time with something I created. 

Liberation to me is forward momentum; it’s being fulfilled, it’s building a better world with the people you love. 

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