Cannabis Lifestyle: Meet Santiago Rodríguez Tarditi Author of 'High on Design: The New Cannabis Culture'

By Ulises Roman Rodriguez, via El Planteo.

Throughout his life Santiago Rodríguez Tarditi has lived in different parts of the world, in his essence he carries a part of each culture that embraced him. Born to a Colombian father and an Italian-Brazilian mother, Tarditi, a Bogotá-born political scientist and journalist, has been focusing on cannabis for the past 4 years.

His research can be found in his book, “High on Design The New Cannabis Culture”, edited by the German publisher Gestalten. High on Design focuses on the new aesthetics and lifestyle around the cannabis industry.

Tarditi has collaborated with different media in the world and directed a documentary about cannabis cultivation. In addition, he is an active influencer on social media.

“I used marijuana for the first time when I was 15 years old and since then it has accompanied me throughout my life,” Santiago Rodríguez Tarditi told El Planteo.

His mother did not like that her son smoked marijuana as a teenager, however, eventually "she understood that this plant had many benefits and that in reality, it was not as negative as the politicians painted it," Rodríguez Tarditi said.

From curiosity to disclosure

After spending time as a child in Europe, his family returned to Colombia, where his father founded Portafolio, the first financial newspaper in the country.

At that time, Santiago met the world of journalism. He wandered around the offices and paper presses.

“It was a universe that fascinated me. We also had access to encyclopedias, books, and documentaries (...). They always instilled in us that intellectual part of learning, educating ourselves with a global vision”, he said.

When he came of age, he traveled around the world, lived in 9 countries, and remained aware of what was happening in Colombia.

“I come from a country that has suffered a lot from violence because of drug prohibition and my father shared very relevant information with us regarding the social and environmental injustices that affect the country and little by little I found that my lifestyle was very much connected to cannabis,” Tarditi said.

The book as a contribution

When Santiago was living in Berlin, the Gestalten publishing house hired him to work in different publications.

He made a book on perfumes, one on trekking in the United States, and was the editor of other books until he proposed the idea of ​​highlighting what was happening in the world of cannabis, mainly in the United States and Canada.

"I saw it as an opportunity to capture some journalistic activism and show the world that we are very far from all the taboos that have persecuted cannabis users for many years," he says.

For Rodríguez Tarditi, High on Design was “a small contribution from what I know how to do, which is to write, edit, investigate, to collaborate with the movement and reframe the conversation a bit, giving a very different look to the plant”.

—What message would you give to those people who still have a negative view of the cannabis plant?

—We have to be very critical of everything we see, what we read and what we hear. We are carrying stigmas that are part of racist and classist agendas that date back to the 1930s, in the United States, when Harry Anslinger decided to start a war on cannabis.

"We must make a historical, social, political, cultural, religious review, where we have to recognize that this is a plant that has accompanied us for millennia, which has contributed a lot in the ritual, in mental and physical benefits that have in front of its consumers,” Rodríguez Tarditi noted.

New life and projects

The exploration of consciousness and cannabis are tools that Santiago Rodríguez Tarditi combines with meditation, yoga, and a vegan diet.

"The more I explore them, the more I realize that we should slow down a bit, reconnect with our being and above all with nature that we inevitably make part of," he says.

Recently he and his wife, Valeria Hinojosa, moved to a green space on the outskirts of Mexico City.

Together they are developing an application to communicate and share all the knowledge they have acquired over the years. From non-toxic beauty to ethical fashion, sustainable decoration, vegan recipes, meditation, natural remedies, and entheogenic plants in search of a sustainable lifestyle.

In the middle of the pandemic of COVID-19, Santiago and Valeria launched a CBD startup in the United States, which they baptized INTU.

“Playing with the word 'intuition' and with the English expression 'what are you into?', we combine that mystical and spiritual essence that the plant has and invite consumers to do it consciously”, explained the activist.

They produce CBD oil with a plastic-free dropper and a vegan wax-sealed cork cap.

“We also offer CBD joints, one made with 100% hemp and another formula that we call 'La Abre Corazones' that my wife Valeria designed, after trying different mixtures with other plants that have a very calming effect that she defines as a hug to the heart".

In this constant search for spiritual connection with the plant, Rodríguez Tarditi considers that there is responsibility for the care of the environment in each of our daily acts.

Photo: pp190-191, HighonDesign. Gestalten (2020) via El Planteo.