Industry Innovators: Kristina Lopez Adduci, CEO & Founder of House of Puff

Kristina Lopez Adduci is the CEO and Founder of

With a background in art, she marries the worlds of design and cannabis together to create art-inspired weed products that women can feel proud of using.

Adduci is also an active

Photo Credit: Calla Kessler

We had the chance to sit down with Adduci to chat about her business, viral success on YouTube,

Where’s All the Pretty Shit?

High There: Thanks for joining us today! First off, we were curious to know a bit about your background before you entered the cannabis scene. What did your career look like?

Adduci: So my background is in art. I had an art magazine before this. I never consumed cannabis in college or grad school and grew up in a strict Puerto Rican household. So when I went to consume for the first time in my late twenties, I’d be running an art magazine. And I thought, well, my husband brought over this ugly, dirty phallic bong from college. And I was like, “come on… Where’s all the pretty shit?” I’m a well-to-do New Yorker. I like beautiful things. I have an art collection. 

I don’t want my abuela to find my smoking accessories. I want them to blend into my home. I wanted smoking accessories to inspire me, like clothing, shoes or handbags. So I reached out to all the artists I’d ever interviewed, especially the ones I knew were glass blowers or ceramicists. And I said, “listen, I’m thinking of getting into cannabis and starting with accessories,” because I knew very few regulatory constraints. 

Courtesy of House of Puff

I was inspired by New York and the artists I’d interviewed. Many of our product names are named after places in New York. So that’s where the inspiration came from my background in my own life. I honed my artistic eye and wanted to see from, you know, smoking accessories.

Partnering With Cannabis Organizations for Change

HT: We’ve noticed that you are involved with several organizations. What impact does this have on the organizations and your business?

Adduci: I mean, number one, obviously growing up in the Puerto Rican community, seeing a lot of my black and brown brothers and sisters being harmed by the War on Drugs. I mean, we’re talking about a $1,000,000,000 industry. We still have

I try to do my part where I can. Much of that is giving back to organizations that mean a lot to me. Specifically, our last collaboration with Chris Wilson, a formerly incarcerated artist, who’s going to spend life in prison, spent time in solitary confinement and, you know, really opened my eyes to what happens in solitary confinement and the prison industrial complex as it relates to cannabis.

Courtesy of House of Puff

It’s so intertwined and crazy. And we staged an art exhibition with his art at a legal dispensary in New York. And it wasn’t lost on anybody. We are talking about the prison industrial complex at a beautiful high-end dispensary.

It’s essential for me to give back and talk about it. Like if I’m not using YouTube, Instagram, or blog uplifting these voices and like, what am I doing? So I feel how supportive we set the nexus of our social justice and cannabis, and social justice is number one for me. So [if] cannabis companies don’t have that on their top five list, [I think] that they shouldn’t be a business; I’m very critical about it because I think it’s so wild to me that there are still people in this space who just turn the other way.

Viral Success on YouTube as a Cannabis Brand

HT: You mentioned having a House of Puff YouTube channel and finding viral success there. What advice can you give about having a cannabis company gain attention on a central streaming platform?

Adduci: The obvious answer is to create great content. But, of course, with cannabis, there’s a lot more to it than that. So before you ever start building, there are several key considerations. First, choose your platforms carefully. The more cannabis-friendly they are, the better. 

Courtesy of House of Puff

You don’t want to build up your account to get shut down or be shadow-banned. Then, adapt your content to each platform to decrease the risk to your account. For instance, on YouTube, don’t include direct links to/appeals for the sales of cannabis products.

TikTok is even more stringent — you can’t mention cannabis there. So we’ve grown our TikTok following with straight-up entertainment. We were having trouble getting traction there. But, as soon as I started personifying our pipes with Real Housewife-style drama, views shot up. So word to the wise, don’t turn your back on the

Involvement in the New York Cannabis Scene

HT: Can you tell us a little about your involvement in the New York cannabis scene?

Adduci: I’m a New Yorker and created House of Puff to embody the NYC sensibility. Cannabis has been mainly associated with a West Coast vibe due to its early legalization. But, just like with art, culture and fashion, NY style is bound to have an outsized influence on cannabis, too. So that was the niche I wanted to fill. 

You can see it in our sleek visual language. It’s also in our product names — the Soho Holder, the Tribeca Tamper, and the Barrow St Herb Bowl. All of them are meaningful to our NY-based team. But, of course, we’re also involved in the whole gamut of the NY cannabis scene. That ranges from advocacy and support groups on the ground doing the hard work of creating an equitable industry to hosting quintessentially NYC events.

Courtesy of House of Puff

Making an Impact on Modern Art and Culture

HT: How does House of Puff create an impact within art and modern culture?

Adduci: We’ve placed ourselves at the intersection of art, social justice and cannabis. Most importantly, we’re working to destigmatize cannabis. That way, the people who need cannabis as medicine can more easily access it. And the more we destigmatize the plant; the quicker people will stop facing devastating cannabis-related legal penalties. Nothing destigmatizes like high culture. 

So, we leverage artists to reimagine cannabis consumption in new, more aesthetically exciting ways. But we don’t just work with artists because of their aesthetics. The message that their work conveys is equally important to us. By focusing on meaningful employment, we also hope to impact the kind of art that shapes our culture. For example, we partnered with

Venture Capital and Investments in Cannabis

HT: What are your opinions on the cannabis industry regarding investors and funding disbursement?

Adduci: It’s a challenging environment for fundraising right now — not just in cannabis, but everywhere. That compounds how difficult it is for women and BIPOC companies to raise capital. As a Latina, I’m acutely aware of that. 

Courtesy of House of Puff

In 2021, less than two percent of all VC funding went to Latinx companies. But, of course, because of prohibition, the cannabis industry is unusually conscious of the difficulties BIPOC communities face in the U.S. I hope that awareness increasingly translates to more industry capital for people in those communities. Awareness is great. Action is better.

A New High Culture

House of Puff designed approachable,

Relax with them after a long day’s work, display them as part of your newest tablescape, or throw them in your bag when you are on-the-go. They also make beautiful

House of Puff

Organizations supported by House of Puff include but are not limited to the