A Philly couple is working on a children’s-style book about weed — for adults

A Philadelphia couple will soon bring cannabis education to the masses with a children’s-style book about weed — for adults.

Edwin Eats an Edible comes from Calan and Bryce (they prefer to go by their first names only for artistic reasons), who are behind the Philly-based arts collective 69&Sunny. Presented as an alphabet-style journey into the world of cannabis, Edwin runs through a range of uses for marijuana from A to Z, accompanied by whimsical, kids’-book-inspired illustrations. (Rachel M. Knox, a well-known endocannabinologist and cannabis-focused physician, provides the foreword.)

Take P, for example: “Peter packs a pickle pipe to pass at peaceful protests.” Or, alternately, “Patricia puffs purple for personal pleasure.”

“It’s a kids’ book for the inner kid,” Calan, 32, told The Inquirer. “It’s just fun.”

Cowritten by the couple and illustrated by Bryce, 31, the book is scheduled to be released this fall. They have launched a $20,000 Kickstarter campaign to fund self-publishing. After that, they plan to make the book available at cannabis dispensaries around the country, as well as at booksellers in Philadelphia.

Edwin has been a long time coming. The pair met at the Temple University Tyler School of Art 13 years ago, where they were classmates, and eventually, partners — romantically and academically.

They made a coffee-table book on human extinction for their senior project.

“It was very morbid, looking back,” Bryce said. “We were just so emo and artsy.”

Post-college, Calan’s professional interests took a turn toward cannabis after her mother had a stroke, and a Jefferson neurologist told her that marijuana might help. That set her off on a path of cannabis self-education, which resulted in passing the knowledge onto not only her mother, but friends and neighbors as well, under the banner GreenThumbEdu — the company that preceded 69&Sunny — which she established in 2018.

She began designing her own educational materials and worked as a community director at a dispensary. In that role, Calan said, she “put up tables anywhere” — conference halls, libraries, community meetings — to speak with the public about the medical benefits of marijuana.

Her efforts in marijuana education were compounded at the start of the pandemic, when she was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, and later, Type 1 diabetes. Marijuana, she says, has been instrumental in keeping up with her mental and physical health.

“It’s been a whole journey, and cannabis has helped in so many ways, just having peace of mind and balancing sugars,” Calan said.

GreenThumbEdu rebranded in 2021 as 69&Sunny following a cease-and-desist from multistate operator Green Thumb Industries, causing an outcry in the cannabis community. But in what Bryce described as a “Shyamalan twist,” Green Thumb Industries would go on to financially assist GreenThumbEdu with its rebrand.

Under the name 69&Sunny, Calan and Bryce decided to evolve their efforts into an artist network, but still with a healthy dose of cannabis influence. Today, the company helps other artists by financially backing their projects with fund-raisers.

Among their own projects is the music video “Girls Who Smoke Weed,” which took home a Clio Cannabis Award for advocacy last year. Featuring music by Bryce (under his rap name, Yourmomlikesmymusic), the video features clips of more than 85 well-known women in the cannabis industry consuming marijuana, and serves as a kind of anthem for weed-loving women.

“A lot of people are introduced to weed by their really close friends, and a lot of times they are women who are smoking that are very comfortable and confident,” Calan said.

Post-Clio, Calan and Bryce began thinking further about Calan’s own health experiences, and how marijuana has helped. As a cannabis educator, she said, she didn’t have access to quick, visual materials to help her teaching. And with the ever-increasing rise of legal marijuana around the country, Calan said, she felt there haven’t been opportunities for honest, open discussions about cannabis.

That’s where Edwin was born.

The goal with the book, she said, is to not only be entertaining, but to spark intergenerational conversations.

“There’s a lot of different barriers with every different person” when it comes to attitudes about marijuana, Calan said. “So, we’re hoping this book makes it a little bit more comfortable to understand that this is plant and more of an agricultural product than anything.”

But while the plan is to make Edwin available at cannabis dispensaries, it’s unlikely it will appear at ones in Pennsylvania, which has not legalized recreational marijuana. With only medical marijuana dispensaries to speak of, the powers that be in Pennsylvania aren’t likely going to approve sales of the book in state shops, as it isn’t strictly educational, Calan said.

“But thank goodness for New Jersey and Maryland and Delaware,” Calan said. “We’re already talking partnerships with dispensaries all around us.”