Cultivating New York’s 'Kulture' With Happy Munkey

The Plant Lady

California has had its cannabis market up and running since the ‘70s. Being illegal, it wasn’t as polished as it is today, with fancy dispensaries and government oversight. However, it’s still the largest trade in the country. This week, for episode five of The Plant Lady, we are transported across the country to the East Coast—where legalization has taken a much different path.

On this week’s episode of The Plant Lady, Jackie talks to CEO and co-founder of Happy Munkey Vladimir Bautista. This internationally known New York City lifestyle company is one that’s synonymous with cannabis culture. Alongside company partner and high school friend Ramon Reyes, the duo created Happy Munkey in 2017 to host spaces where people can hang and share their love for weed. Uniquely, these events were often set ablaze in swanky cocktail bars; uptown, immersive art playgrounds; and VIP rooftops, all to empower and elevate the cannabis community during a time when consumers were still made to feel like criminals.

The brand works to dismantle the stigma still prevalent on the East Coast, where distribution (colloquially known as dealing) dominates the culture over generational farming, which is the bedrock of culture more common in California. Happy Munkey connects politicians, chefs, doctors, influencers, athletes, and creative artists through its high-profile events, but it also shows this culture has a solid place in NYC now and is more normalized on a social level.

Vlad and Ramon seek out more than placing cannabis as a ubiquitous note in New York’s resurfacing nightlife; their mission to extend activism for a more positive outlook on weed comes from Vlad’s humble beginnings in the industry from a neighborhood in Harlem. Cannabis plays a large part in his success—not only as a businessman, but as a human being.

“One day when I was 16-years-old, I told myself, ‘You know what? I’m going to buy an ounce and if it doesn’t sell, I’ll smoke it. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain,” Vlad says. “If it wasn’t for that, I don’t think I would be here with you, Jackie.”

Growing up in Hamilton Heights, a neighborhood ravaged by the War on Drugs while he was a kid, Vlad notes that his opportunities to flourish financially were limited, and he was often surrounded by people going down skewed paths in order to survive. This included using or selling harder drugs on the streets. But cannabis was an afterthought in his community, so the CEO took a chance and found his economic stability and life purpose by selling weed before he caught a few charges decades ago.

“If I grew up with 100 people, I’m probably like one of the 10 left because, you know, it was a rough era,” he says. “So I would say cannabis saved my life because if it wasn’t for cannabis, I probably would’ve ended up with the rest of the statistics because there weren’t that many options of income.”

Today, he and his high school friend are jumping into New York’s fledgling legal industry with Happy Munkey. With Vlad’s industry resources and Ramon’s creative ideas to create a legacy market and pop-up consumption lounges, Happy Munkey was born. However, building the brand is half of the battle.

The company developed itself on lively events hosted and organized across New York City, as well as with merchandise, a podcast, and an e-magazine. The other half comes with its activism to further legalization. Eventually, Happy Munkey hopes to be granted a dispensary license, particularly considering its qualifications as a social equity applicant, owing to the fact that they are owners who were impacted by the justice system and the War on Drugs, which is a criteria for gaining early licensure in New York.

“For the first time in history, the smaller players like me are going first and the [multi-state operators] have to wait,” Vlad says.

Eyes are set on producing more community engagement through streams of education and wellness training at the brand. Find out more about their recent event with Columbia University and what they’re working on by listening to this week’s episode of The Plant Lady with Jackie Bryant.

We’ll leave you with one of Vlad’s mantras to sweeten your day and ours: “You’re too blessed to be stressed, things will always get greater later, and always choose happy.”