The Awakened Blog

Chelsea Dudgeon started making cannabis infused topicals for her grandmother with cannabis and other herbs she grew in her backyard. Her homegrown approach to medicine making is the foundation of Newell’s Botanicals, the brand she co-founded with her partner Newell, and continues to guide her approach to herbal product development. Her formulas have won numerous awards, including 4 consecutive 1st place Emerald Cup trophies for best cannabis topical.

Lorne Silverstein is a business and legal consultant with a law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law, 1991. Lorne is currently Chief Executive Officer of Silver Solar in Davis California and coaches boys Junior Varsity Lacrosse at Davis High School. After achieving tremendous success in his legal profession, arguing in front of the US Supreme Court at one point, Lorne decided to move to California to pursue a simpler life and connect to nature.

Based in Tahoe City, California Medicine Box founder Brian Chaplin is on a mission to, as he puts it:  "Co-create sovereignty in human health and happiness while harmonizing our relationship with Mother Earth.” Veteran underground cannabis cultivator turned medical cannabis brand creator, Brian embraces the core tenet of the 12 step program of “attraction, not promotion” for his brand and welcomes “fostering community and collaboration with people aligned with these same values.” He has been featured in Rolling Stone, Dope Magazine and HIGH TIMES and enjoys skiing, hiking and meditating when he’s not running a thriving cannabis and hemp brand.

Chef Sebastian Carosi is on a mission to get you to eat your raw cannabis. Before becoming an award winning chef, however, Sebastian spent 5 years in Washington state prison on drug charges for possession and transportation of cannabis. Entering prison as a minor and coming out in his early twenties, he enrolled in the Western Culinary Institute In Portland Oregon and completed his stagiaire (apprenticeship) in Sardinia, Italy under the care and tutelage of highly regarded Gallurese Chef Giovanna Cossu. After graduating with his Culinary Arts degree landed a job as personal chef for the Bush family.  He is a champion of the Slow Food movement since its inception here in the US and is the founder of several sustainable food projects including: The New England Farm 2 Fork Project, The Esopus Spitzenberg Project (an antique apple CSA) and Flora Danica, (an eco-gastronomic roving rural supper club). Most recently he and his wife have spearheaded multiple events in Washington state including the Autoflower cup and Camp Rudaralis. Sebastian is a regular contributor at HIGH TIMES magazine.

Biosync Industries founder Ron Spencer received his architecture degree from the University of Oregon in 2009 and his MBA from Marylhurst University in 2011 with an emphasis in Green Development. Ron subscribes to the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) theory in economics that says companies should care just as much about social and environmental concerns as they do about profits. Ron teamed up with his father who owned a cattle ranch in the Umpqua Valley of Oregon and worked on turning his family ranch into a sustainable regenerative hemp farm. Ron says he is passionate about the potential of the Cannabis plant for natural health and advanced fiber production as well as the impact it can have in developing closed-loop agriculture systems.