Demi Lovato Visits Social Equity-Licensed Ball Family Farms and Sparks Blunt in Video

Demi Lovato posted a video of themself smoking a blunt while in a car on their Instagram story, and revealed their recent visit to a pot farm. The pop star visited Los Angeles, California-based Ball Family Farms, a Black-operated premium cannabis company.

Lovato was excited to share the news to their fans. “@ballfamilyfarms Left w some goodies aka MIYAGI DO [heart emoji],” they wrote on the August 25 video on their Instagram story. In the video, you could see Lovato in front of a large healthy crop of cannabis plants.

Lovato decided to take home some goodies from Ball Family Farms and share them as well. Miyagi-Do is one of Ball Family Farms’ favored indica-dominant strains, named after Mr. Miyagi from Karate Kid and Karate Kid 2. It’s described as being minty and fresh on the inhale with a full-body high, producing a rich floral and deep earthy aroma with spearmint notes.

Ball Family Farms is 100 percent Black-owned, and obtained a Social Equity license through the California Department of Cannabis Regulation’s Social Equity Program. The company also claims to be the first vertically integrated Social Equity company in Los Angeles. The company is family operated, including roles under Michael, Chris and Charles Ball.

In 2020, Founder Chris Ball said business was booming, but his team couldn’t keep up with the demand, which ended up being a problem. “The Social Equity Program and the DCR [Department of Cannabis Regulation]—this program is a step in the right direction,” Chris told KRCW last year. “But there needs to be some sort of assistance. … There needs to be some direction to help these social equity applicants, and get to where they need to be and teach them how to run their cannabis business. And they just don’t have it right now.”

A year later, things appear to still be booming at Ball Family Farms. Lovato’s shout-out to their 114 million Instagram followers was a nice gesture to Ball Family Farms—an established California cannabis company truly deserving of praise.

Demi Lovato Goes “California Sober”

Earlier this year, Lovato, 29, announced that they’re “California sober,” meaning they quit hard drugs, but moderate amounts of weed and alcohol are acceptable. Last March, Lovato told Glamour that they don’t restrict themself from marijuana or alcohol after their near-fatal overdose in July 2018. Why? Because they said that setting up unrealistic standards would set them up for failure.

Lovato admitted in their documentary, “Dancing With the Devil,” that they stay successful in their addiction battle by receiving monthly shots of Vivitrol, a medication used as part of a treatment program for drug or alcohol dependence.

In May, Lovato came out as non-binary—the umbrella term for people who don’t identify their gender as a man or a woman—during an interview with CBS Sunday Morning and reiterated their stance on drug and alcohol.

“I am cautious to say that, just like, I feel the complete abstinent method isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for everybody,” they said. “I don’t think that this journey of moderation is a one-size-fits-all solution for everybody, too.”

Lovato explained on numerous occasions that people who aren’t ready to be 100 percent sober shouldn’t have to, and that there is merit to omitting hard drugs from the picture.

Lovato was a Disney star by the time they were 17, and like most teen stars who gained fame on Disney, Lovato struggled with drug dependency. Lovato represents the people who quit hard drugs, but are able to function at a reasonable pace, only smoking weed and consuming moderate amounts of alcohol in social settings.