Successful Stoners: Ignacio Torrejón And His Recipe For Cultural Change - Pizza, Parenthood And Pot

This special feature was made possible thanks to the Gabo Foundation and the Fund for Research and New Narratives on Drugs. You can read the original in Spanish on El Planteo.

From the top of a tower in Ñuñoa, a residential community northeast of Santiago de Chile, comes the aroma of fresh pizza that permeates the entire neighborhood. Passers-by and the occasional driver with their windows open can get a kick out of the aroma that enters unannounced, delighting potential diners, unaware that they are looking for a non-existent pizzeria. They don’t realize that the dough is baked and the cheese is melted from the terrace of Ignacio Torrejón, the person in charge of perfuming the city that has been his home since 2009 (that year he left his native Punta Arenas—where the sun caresses the Strait of Magellan—to study Crossmedia Design, Innovation, and Marketing).

And the pizzas? They’re from Nancy's Pizza, a pandemic hobby that resulted from Ignacio's passion for learning new things, and exploring how to make the perfect sourdough starter as an excuse to build community. In a way, it’s also a way to camouflage the smell of cannabis that might seep through the cracks of his door, permeating the corridors of his building. But Ignacio does not consume when he cooks. Both as a cook and in his other daily activities (which include creating content for his cannabis platform, Buena Flora, and being the father of Celeste, his two-year-old daughter), Ignacio has devoted all his energy to carry out his work responsibly—giving sufficient attention to each act. His finely organized calendar gives space to each of his tasks, making sure he’s fully present when executing them.

Ignacio Torrejón - Founder Buena Flora - Chile

Ignacio is a multifaceted creator, an eclectic character who likes to do a little of everything to avoid boredom. We must imagine him as a chef, designer, and content producer, usually dressed in the best urban style of the subcultures that move him: skate cap, large rapper-style sweatshirt, and sneakers like those worn by breakdancers and graffiti artists. In the end, he’s a millennial eager about design, aesthetics and cultivating his mind, a thirtysomething who knows that time is short, and that there’s a lot to do. This feeling accompanied him from an early age when the school could not meet his need to stay busy; his repressed creativity turned into despair that accompanied him throughout school, a time in which he suffered from mental health attacks that he never managed to communicate. 

See also: Successful Stoners: Lelen Ruete - How A Fashion Photographer Fell In Love With Cannabis

Part of his emotional crises came from being forced to study subjects that did not appeal to him. He discovered Art History and began to see the world with different eyes, triggered by the colored walls of Punta Arenas, inspiration years later for Dope Magazine, a printed and digital publication dedicated to recording street art in Chile (an enterprise that ended up morphing into becoming Street Kids, a book to color and learn about national graffiti). Ignacio's creativity is driven by his romantic partner, Romina, with whom he founded Estudio Migrante, a design and content creation production company that took flight and crossed borders: together they traveled through the cannabis epicenters of the world—California, Oregon, and Barcelona—to end up being called back to Santiago de Chile, summoned by life to become parents.

Buena Flora, a club for cannabis lovers throughout Latin America, grew parallel. “Cannabis came to me when I was very young, but it was I who came to the community”, says Ignacio. “Using it helped me to explore my feelings. I slept better. I was more rested. With cannabis I felt at home,” Ignacio says. “The more I got to know the plant, the more I realized that there was a lot to do. I was excited to know that I could contribute to the movement with what we knew: producing content. When Buena Flora was born, there were hardly any cannabis podcasts in Spanish. We launched with the slogan: only good vibes”. 

Quickly, the audiovisual program and its podcast would open a space for growers and users who wanted to tell their stories and connect with those interested in redefining the paradigm regarding the way the plant is treated. The most iconic result so far would be Let's Talk About Weed, a space where more than 50 guests have contributed their personal anecdotes regarding their relationship with the plant. (In April 2022, Buena Flora became officially registered as a Cultural Center, a model that allows them to bring together all those who are interested in cannabis and the creation of a post-prohibition culture).

Chile still does not have a regulation for the plant. There’s a bill that the National Congress approved in 2016 which decriminalizes the consumption of cannabis and its private use in medicinal, spiritual, and recreational contexts. However, Law 20,000 of 2005 is still in force, prohibiting the trade in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances—punishable by a minimum of 541 days and up to five years in prison—forbidding collective consumption. However, it should be noted that since 2015, under the government of Michelle Bachelet, the Ministry of Health authorized the commercial production of medicines derived from the plant. 

“Practically everyone smokes here,” says Ignacio with his characteristic smile, as he shares a virtual joint. “But we are not always open with consumption. Chile remains a very conservative country, despite the fact that we are moving rapidly towards rethinking our freedoms.”, he continues, somewhat surprised that there is not yet a critical mass taking advantage of their rights. Ignacio believes he has understood how to make his work in the movement more impactful: a psychedelic trip with psilocybin in 2021 opened his mind and “showed him the need to take care of the plant. It’s no longer about my relationship with her as a consumer, but as a way to protect cannabis.” That approach was influenced by the fact he became a father, making the leap from a young adult to having an undeniable responsibility with Celeste.

“Cannabis parenthood entails the same duties and responsibilities that parents who use other substances have,” says Ignacio. “My daughter is aware that this flower is my medicine and that there are spaces and moments where I consume it. I am very aware of her presence and I try to use it in the room where I work or on the terrace”. That same balcony where the smell of pizza comes from, he clarifies. "Part of the success in using is knowing when to consume and when not to—it's feeling good at every stage of life."
Illustration by @chyataller