If you haven’t taken a look at Christine De La Rosa’s LinkedIn feed, you really should. Hailing from a small South Texas town where racism flowed through the streets easier than some are able to get clean water these days, one could easily excuse De La Rosa if she opted to talk about anything but equality, diversity, inclusion and the all-important equitable access to resources that allow people to level up. But drawing from the legacy of a great family of Mexican-American teachers with further roots to the Purépecha tribe, De La Rosa is not one for excuses. She’s focused on more than action – she’s focused on change.
Christine De La Rosa’s Cannabis Journey: The People’s Ecosystem
“Cannabis IS medicine,” says De La Rosa. “For me, it is my primary medicine for treating my Lupus. I know I am not alone. I am on a mission to improve access to the best, cleanest plant based medicine not just for me but for everyone.” In her current role as Chief Executive Officer of Cannabis conglomerate The People’s Ecosystem– and across the bread of People’s offerings including The People’s Fund and The People’s DAO–De La Rosa has a vision for empowering communities through cannabis. As part of this, she has no interest in maintaining the status quo, instead leading the charge and kicking open new doors for women and underrepresented BIPOC players at every point in the supply chain.
With one foot still firmly planted in Texas and another in Northern California, clad in black and never without her signature spectacles, De La Rosa is a bit like vintage Diddy in that she “can’t stop, won’t stop” advocating for building a better cannabis industry. You’d be forgiven if you were under the impression that she was a bit of a vagabond, given how she lends her voice to panels, discussions, gatherings, and summits across the nation. Yet De La Rosa doesn’t seem to mind pushing others towards change as well, because for her, this is personal.
Christine De La Rosa: From Cannabis Patient to Equity Advocate with Chef Charleen Caabay
Turning back the clock by just over a decade, De La Rosa found herself quite literally in a fight for her life. After almost dying from a pulmonary embolism due to complications of undiagnosed Lupus in 2010, De La Rosa was prescribed a battery of opioids and mixed pharmaceuticals that left her in a haze unable to function and, in some ways, sicker than the Lupus itself. Seeing De La Rosa’s suffering only sustain but never ebb, a dear friend introduced her to cannabis through her handmade infused chocolates. For the first time in years, De La Rosa slept through the night pain-free.
That friend was Chef Charleen Caabay – the first Filipina-American chef to win Food Network’s Chopped – and she would end up changing De La Rosa's life through a simple act of kindness. With that, setting the two on a different path towards success. Caabay would end up becoming De La Rosa’s co-founder for what has become a consortium of upstart offerings focused on ensuring underrepresented people of color and women are active players in the cannabis industry: The People’s Ecosystem, as well as funding and finance through both The People’s Fund and The People’s DAO.
What Is The People’s Ecosystem Doing For Cannabis Diversity, Equity and Inclusion?
“There has always been such a focus on ‘dispensaries,’ especially for BIPOC and women owned founders,” says De La Rosa. “That is a scam. We need to be the cultivators, manufacturers and distributors of our own brands that we supply to all dispensaries in our respective states. We have to own every part of the supply chain and make sure we continue to be part of the industry.”
Both player and coach in this industry, De La Rosa and her team have had their heads down since they made their first moves into cannabis. The Ecosystem – the operating company of the consortium – is one of the most diverse in the industry, serving to highlight BIPOC and women from “The People are Blunt” podcast to the suppliers they work with across products and, most recently, to their licensed co-founders in Fresno, CA and New Mexico. Alongside this, The Fund invests in BIPOC and women led companies and the DAO is working on creating a crypto community type bank with a vision towards funding both plant touching and ancillary cannabis businesses that need less than $1 million in debt or equity.
2022 wrapped up with the Ecosystem taking a major step forward in the release of a new line of gummies, followed by beverages that use a new technology that delivers cannabis through protein for a different experience in onset and euphoric effect. With the Ecosystem being the first company in California and only the second in the U.S. to start producing products using this all-natural delivery system, this is a major moment for De La Rosa. Her personal crusade to provide access to clean quality cannabis is vindicated, as this revolutionary delivery method is poised to be the cleanest way to consume cannabis to date.
What’s Next for Christine De La Rosa?
It's been a long journey for De La Rosa, from an individual caught up in the histories of her own culture and communities around cannabis. She's the first to highlight that she didn’t try cannabis for many years because of the stigmas both within and outside her community as a Mexican-American, where to be seen as someone who smokes marijuana was to run the risk of being seen as “a lazy Mexican” and other propagandist tropes. But she had a good guide to set her on a different journey and, armed with her own first-hand experience of what cannabis did to improve her own quality of life, she forged a new path. She’s not even remotely done yet, as De La Rosa points out that every other emerging industry has been met with the full power of the federal government.
“Money, incentives, subsidies and, for some, bailouts. Railroads, steel, airlines, wind energy, solar power, agriculture, automotive, big pharma have all received undeniable Federal support,” says De La Rosa. “Yet here we have an industry built around a plant for healing with little to no support from our government and in most cases active roadblocks and downright disdain. I’m on a mission to change that, but that requires constant pressure from their constituents. So let’s all be [the] constant pressure.”
No one knows what might be said about or to us should we arrive at those pearly gates once we shed our mortal coils, but it is safe to say should heaven exist, that De La Rosa will be greeted with open arms and the simple words: Love what you did on earth, sis.
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For more about Christine De La Rosa and The People’s Ecosystem, visit thepeoplesecosystem.com.
A version of this article was published in Honeysuckle's milestone 15th print edition. Click here to get your copy now!
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Featured Image: Christine De La Rosa (C) The People's Ecosystem
