Marijuana Business Magazine - January 2017

To create an authentic-looking dis- pensary set on the back lot at Warner Bros., Browner worked with the show’s set designer to develop realistic displays and product assortment. Instead of stocking the dispensary set with fictional brands, she contacted her vendors, including Raw Natural Rolling Papers, based in Alcoy, Spain; Kiva Confections, a maker of infused chocolates and mints from Oakland, California; and Hitman Glass, a Los Angeles supplier of water pipes. Actual cannabis was not allowed on the set. So the vendors provided empty packages or unmedicated versions of their products. The prop marijuana flower on the set was a British concoc- tion, Honeyrose Earth Impact, made from wild lettuce, clover, mallow leaves and rose petals. “It tastes like a Russian brothel and a cat litter box combined,” Browner quipped. “You can see it on people’s faces” when they take a hit. The brands weren’t charged for product placement, which can typically cost $25,000-$500,000 for a stream- ing series, according to the marketing agency Hollywood Branded. During rehearsals and shooting, Browner taught actors the right way to handle a dab rig or roll a joint, or what budtenders should be doing behind the counter during scenes. One actor even spent time on a grow site, learning the right way to handle plants. Oscar-winning actor Kathy Bates, who plays dispensary owner Ruth Whitefeather Feldman, told TV host Stephen Colbert in October that “Dr. Dina” helps the show feel real to can- nabis users, while educating nonusers, and still being funny. For the final episode featuring the DEA bust, Browner showed the actors video of a real raid at her dispensary. “She had it on her phone,” Bates said. “Twelve guys in the black SWAT things, coming in this tiny little dis- pensary. It was very scary.” Browner also coached the actors playing DEA agents. It was an intense day on set, Browner added: “Kathy would say, ‘Dina, what should I be feeling right now? What’s going through my mind?’” Browner said there’s power in being able to show 100 million Netflix view- ers that cannabis is healing medicine, that the feds can shut down a state- licensed business and that regular people use marijuana. “Anytime you put what we do in people’s living rooms, we break stigma,” she said. “That’s the victory.” ◆