Emily Cotter

Emily Cotter is a native Rhode Islander with ten years of professional experience in organic agriculture and advocacy. Alongside her work as Cannabis Editor at Motif, Cotter is a co-owner and Director of Operations for Lovewell Farms, a USDA-Certified Organic hemp farm and CBD company based in Hope Valley, RI. She also teaches gardening skills and environmental education programming to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals with GardenTime. In her spare time, Cotter advocates for criminal justice reform and cannabis policy reform, and she organizes with other farmers around food justice issues. She is a proud alumna of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and continues to advocate for compassionate, science-based and equitable drug policies in RI and beyond. Her passions for social justice, sustainability, and all things plants are able to come together in the cannabis space, and she is driven to help create an industry that reflects the goals of the movement behind it. She believes in the power of community, and that the lines between food, drugs, and medicine are not as distinct as one might think.

Legalized It! Now What?: The State of Cannabis in the Ocean State

As I’m sure you’ve heard, our little state-that-barely-could has finally legalized cannabis for adult use. Awash with anticipation, consumers across the state could practically feel (and smell) it on the breeze, as doors flung open at five new dispensaries, making for a total of nine retailers open for business under a hybrid medical/adult-use license. At […]

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Taking Back American Hemp: The Indigenous farmers leading “The New Green Revolution”

“I didn’t get into this for money. I got into this for love.” It was the end of a long and rainy primary day here in Rhode Island, and renowned environmental advocate and indigenous organizer Winona Laduke was the first speaker to be featured at URI’s Honors Colloquium. The theme for this fall is ‘Just […]

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Changes, Challenges, and Opportunities: Cannabis business summit on legal cannabis industry in RI

As I clipped on my name tag and walked into the Cannabis Business Summit on a recent crisp September morning, every table seemed to be filled to capacity with business professionals, hot coffees in hand and pockest full of business cards at the ready. Alongside the networking opportunity, those in attendance were surely hoping to […]

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Hemp, The Real Fabric of Our Lives: Why hemp fabric makes cotton look so last season

You guessed it – we’re back with another reason to love the cannabis plant, and this time it’s for one of the seemingly infinite useful applications of industrial hemp: spinning high quality fabrics out of the strong, sustainable fibers naturally produced by the plant. Read on to learn why this fast-growing (literally!) fabric may be […]

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How Clean is Your Cannabis?: A conversation with Cannalytics RI

With the evolving state of legal cannabis, it can be hard to keep track of the ever-changing regulations (even if it’s part of your job!), especially when it comes to testing requirements for cannabis products. Comprehensive testing requirements are essential to ensuring the quality and safety of a product intended to supply patients – many […]

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New York Set A New Standard for Social & Economic Equity in Legal Cannabis: Can Rhode Island do the same?

It is the responsibility of each state that legalizes cannabis to incorporate the lessons learned from other states into any proposed laws and regulations. Wasn’t that the whole point of the “wait and see” argument we heard year after year from RI lawmakers, seemingly content to let millions of dollars bleed over the border into […]

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