Reefer Magnets are a whimsical and fun way to start a conversation! Perfect as gifts!

About the owner

Allison Bigelow is a Grandmother, Mother, and an Activist with a knack for networking people. Allison has been a cannabis consumer since she was sixteen, never able to enjoy drinking alcohol, and not impressed with other mind altering alternatives, she has always enjoyed cannabis. In 1994, she read an article about Industrial Hemp, and being an activist for the environment, she was impressed. She realized that the three “R’s” are similar to putting a bandaid on the earth, when hemp is the solution. In November of 1995 she opened Washington Hemp Mercantile, in Mount Vernon, WA with the help of her husband, her two young daughters, and her sister Eve Lentz. They began selling industrial hemp products like twine, clothing, shoes, fabric, paper, lotions, lip balm, and even seed treats. An important part of Allison’s store was the Activist center where free printouts covered a table. She also aired a commercial that educated about Hemp on the local radio station whose broadcast reached several counties. For several years Allison took a booth of her hemp wares, education, and legalization petitions to many events, including every August at Seattle Hempfest, as well as Hemp Education Day, an event that would be held yearly at her state’s capitol in Olympia. She was a speaker at both of these events. Allison and her sister Eve became friends with Jack Herer, the author of “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” and sold his book at Washington Hemp Mercantile. Allison likes to say “If you have not read The Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer, then you do not know the true history of the world.” Allison and her sister Eve have also met many other amazing people along the way. They wouldn’t trade their years of activism fighting for their favorite plant cannabis/hemp/marijuana/ganja/herb/weed/pot.

At the same time Allison became involved with Media Awareness Project. MAP offers facts, links and great letter-writing techniques to getting your voice heard. Allison was a volunteer newshawk for them, posting articles written about drug policy online along with the link to send Letters to the Editor (lte’s). That is where Allison met the amazing author Peter McWilliams that has written many self help books over the years. Peter was reaching out to people online to educate them and talk about how prohibition of cannabis and other drugs caused more harm then good. Peter McWilliams had been arrested in connection with a medical marijuana bust in California. Peter was HIV positive and used cannabis successfully to keep his nausea and other conditions under control. Because his Mother owned the house that was put up to secure bond and keep Peter out of prison, Peter refrained from using cannabis under an order from the court. Peter, sadly, died, of pulmonary aspiration, caused by prohibition of using his medicine. Months before Peter died, he asked everyone on his listserve to send him two photos of themselves, and he would reciprocate. The photo of Peter lovingly hugging a cannabis bud was one of those historic photos!

In 1997 Allison created her first set of Reefer Magnets, playing on the name of the movie Reefer Madness. Allison’s mission was to educate people about hemp and cannabis and these magnets were a fun way to accomplish that, plus help supplement her as she traveled around the country to events.

Allison’s store closed in 1998 and in 2000 her marriage ended, leaving her raising her two daughters alone. She took several jobs to pay bills and continued much of her volunteer activism.

In 2002 Allison became a member of Compassion In Action (CIA) joining them with their mission of providing good medicine to over 3,300 patients, while lowering the cost by having the members produce the medicine in collective owned grow facilities rather than being a buyers club. CIA also provided a source of information to help patients feel comfortable to speak with their primary care physician about how cannabis can or does help them in order to have their Dr. stand behind their decision to use this medicine. CIA discovered methods of ingestion and provided that to their patients. Many patients would rally together for political advocacy at the legislature, or to fill the courtroom when another patient was in the cross hairs of the law being prosecuted for cannabis offenses. This 2010 article describes the services the collective was providing prior to legalization of cannabis. Our Collective’s lawyer Douglas Hiatt represented many patients caught in the crosshairs of prohibition pro bono, we will always be grateful for his support!

In 2004, seeing the need for an organized effort to address the harm that prohibition of drugs was causing, Allison reached out to the newly rebirthed organization Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR) and became their Seattle organizer. She attended the National Association of Sheriffs conference being held in Seattle that year, and delivered flyers about WONPR to the Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) booth. Allison also took a booth to several events educating the public about many Drug Policy organizations that existed at the time. In 2022, Allison and her friend Kari Boiter reignited WONPR after the elders who had rebirthed it in 2003 had passed. You can read Allison’s Rambling's here https://womenendingprohibition.org/allisons-ramblings/ . While there, consider joining us!

In 2009 Allison was a founding member of the Cannabis Defense Coalition (CDC) a group that would help pay expenses of patients and community members to travel to parts of the state to do courtroom observation of patients being prosecuted for cannabis offenses. The CDC was formed in response to the effect a packed courtroom had on Skamania County Superior Court Judge E. Thompson Reynolds who sentenced Sharon Tracy, a seriously ill medical marijuana patient to 60 days of electronic home detention, on November 20, 2009. The sentence for Sharon Tracy came after the Washington Supreme Court had rejected her doctor’s written recommendation for medical marijuana because the doctor was licensed in another state. Tracy, who was on public assistance, was also ordered to pay $3,000 in appeal costs plus the costs of her home detention. The group of patients that came to show their support dug in their pockets and gave her the entire money on the spot, in front of and impressing the Judge.

In 2010, Allison Bigelow was a member of the Sensible Washington Steering committee when the organization sponsored Initiative 1068 which would have removed state civil and criminal penalties for persons eighteen years or older who cultivate, possess, transport, sell, or use marijuana. Restrictions and penalties for persons under eighteen would be retained. This effort was lead by two Seattle lawyers, Douglas Hiatt and Jeffrey Steinborn. Not enough signatures were collected to get this initiative on the ballot.

Finally legalization of cannabis happened in her state and Allison found herself opposing it because she could see that the patient community was going to be harmed. By July 2016 the state, supported by lobbyists for Recreational licensees, effectively killed medical collectives in Washington state. Allison’s collective had already been forced to relocate when their landlord made a deal with a legal cannabis retail store owner for the space, and then were given a 30 day notice to leave. The collective continued to help patients at a cannabis farmer’s market until they were forced to close by the state that summer along with all the other medical cannabis collectives in the state..

For years Allison has told people “Hemp Can Save the Earth.” At times she says “It feels like Hempsters are like a fly in someone’s ear saying “Hemp can save the Earth, Hemp can save the Earth!” and we keep getting batted away. Now it’s becoming time that people are beginning to wake up and say “What was it that those Hempsters were saying could save the Earth?” With all the new products, and our need for a composite that is stronger than steel yet lighter weight than steel, hemp concrete building bricks, hemp seed nutrition, and medicine from THC and CBD varieties. Yes it is Allison’s opinion that Hemp can indeed save the Earth, and its people.