Meet Lex Corwin, the queer founder of Stone Road Farms. Learn about his journey in the cannabis industry and his advice for new cannabis users.
“Go low and slow,” are the cautionary words of Lex Corwin for anyone new to cannabis. Queer founder and owner of Stone Road Farms (stoneroad.org), he adds “one puff at a time!”
You can trust this savvy chief, who has many years of personal experience. Now 31, he began smoking during his last year of high school, but it wasn’t until after college that growing weed sparked his entrepreneurial spirit. Imagining a utopian farm destination, he managed to raise funds from friends and family to support this dream. His ambition to start a cannabis business in an environment of nature and sunshine led to Nevada City, California. Originally a gold-mining town, it has a colorful history, a benevolent climate, is surrounded by a thriving arts community, and has an active LGBTQ demographic.
Opened in 2016, Corwin named Stone Road after a street in his Madison, Connecticut home town and began nurturing his organic “sky and earth” enterprise. A typical customer is female and/or a member of the LGBTQ community, and the packaging, with its rainbow motifs and seasonal symbols, reflect the tastes of his customer base. With Stone Road’s current staff of eight to twelve, including part-time employees, Corwin claims¸ “We are getting bigger and better!”
“I had always played contact sports in school so it was shocking to my parents when I came out. My parents were liberal, although at first it was dad who was better about [accepting my sexuality]. My mother was initially disappointed, she briefly imagined the loss of a traditional marriage and grandchildren.” Today, mother, father, sister, the entire Corwin family, is all in.” Married in 2023 on a nearby beach, Corwin’s husband is now the vice president of a New York based private equity fund.
When it comes to cultivating his plants, Corwin believes music enhances their growth. “Whether smoking or not I listen to music all the time, anything from classical to rap,” Corwin says, without weighing in on the science. Among his favorites are Donald Glover and Charli XCX. Either way, there is surely a connection between enjoying a toke and people who make music, historically speaking. Celebrities known to have been marijuana fans range from Aerosmith to Led Zeppelin, and the joints keep rolling along. And, wasn’t Bob Marley buried not just with his red Gibson guitar and a Bible, but with a nub of marijuana as well?
Located near Lake Tahoe, Corwin’s 57 unspoiled acres are conveniently close to the Sacramento Airport. Here too are lakes, hiking trails, special summer events, and nearby hotels: The National Hotel is right in town, and the Holbrooke Hotel in Grass Valley is a five minute drive away.
Corwin’s cannabis farm is just one of three hundred licensed in Nevada County, California. This is pretty strong evidence that the population at large is increasing its acceptance of marijuana across America. Stone Road’s greenhouses and products are inspected three times annually by the county, and once a year by the state of California. The obsession with purity plus an all-natural water and soil matrix presumably make the products safer for the consumer and the planet than the mix available illegally. Prices begin at $6 for a “joint” (a single cannabis smoke) and move on up. The most popular products today are a 10 piece package of pre-rolls and a half ounce roll-your-own-pouch. Additionally, Stone Road Farms offers a wide variety of other choices.
Although federal law still prohibits the shipment of any form of marijuana, Stone Road’s U.S. dispensaries are licensed not only in California, but also currently in Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and shortly, in New York. If you live in or visit any of these states, there are many delivery options and you can find the outlets listed on the Stone Road website stoneroad.org
