"My vape pen and I maintain a mostly private relationship," begins Whoopi Goldberg's first weed column for The Cannabist, a Denver Post blog.
When she's feeling pain for her glaucoma, she takes a sip from her vape pen Whoopi explains in her column. She also named her vape pen Sippy for the "sassy sips" she gets from it and that it's a lady.
"I didn't anticipate this first column to be such a love story, some sort of semi-romantic comedy," Goldberg pens. "But it works, and it's true, and so here we go."
Ricardo Baca, the founder of The Cannabist who made the partnership with Goldberg a reality, describes first chatting with the mega-celebrity about marijuana off set before filming The View as surreal.
Later while taping his segment for The View, Baca said he was hoping to hire "another one or maybe two" weed reviewers, at which point Goldberg enthusiastically volunteered for the gig.
Goldberg has a history of talking openly about weed, stating matter-of-factly in a previous episode of The View discussing Michael Phelps: "I have smoked weed."
Still, she's associated with fairly wholesome work, like the Sister Act franchise and the Star Trek: Next Generation series, and "she's not the most liberal person who smokes weed," Baca acknowledges.
"She's very pro-medical and she's not as pro-recreational," Baca went onto explain, while noting Goldberg is "very curious."
A few days after The View taping, Baca formally invited Goldberg to be a columnist for The Cannabist. "We talked on the phone for two hours," he said of working out the details of the column, which is set to run once every two months.
"I'm thrilled," Baca said to BuzzFeed. "I think her first column is important — when was the last time someone of this magnitude came out in this space?"
The column outlines how Goldberg found smoking weed hard on her lungs, until she was introduced by her daughter to a vaporizer pen.
Goldberg explains that she prefers the relief it offers to what she previously used, Advil, and the control the vape pen offers over how much THC she consumes. "The high is different, too," Goldberg writes. "It feels like a gentle, warm breeze at the beach."
Baca said they have offered to pay Goldberg the standard freelancer rate The Cannabist offers, but she won't get paid until she fills out the tedious paperwork required by all Denver Post stringers.