A Las Vegas party stunt goes awry for a local cannabis industry leader.

The cannabis industry is just that: an industry. And with the passage of Prop. 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, fully legalizing use in California, it’s an industry that’s coming out of the shadows and searching for legitimacy. There are conferences, and industry groups, and venture capital investments to be found, and now, thanks to an incident that happened at a recent conclave in Las Vegas, we have our own little home-grown scandal.

I did a double take upon seeing the photo at the heart of what’s become known in the cannabis industry as “meatgate.” In the picture, a lovely young woman clad in a black bikini reclines on a table and acts as a living, breathing serving tray. She is covered, from her ankles all the way to her shoulders, in charcuterie: various types of salami, prosciutto, maybe a little mortadella. Platters of cheese are placed around her head and a white towel covers her crotch. To what end, I’m not sure – if you’re going to drape a woman’s body in thinly sliced deli products to be served up to party guests, why bother with a modesty towel?

I did the double take because what I was seeing didn’t jibe with what I thought I knew. I thought I knew it was 2016. I thought I knew that despite our country’s slow slog toward revelling in vulgarity, the arcane practice of using scantily clad babes to push products at conventions was, at long last, going the way of the dinosaur. It still happens, sure, but the U.S. companies that still do it are ridiculed by the ones that don’t and mostly flayed in the court of public opinion.

To the list of the flayed we can add Salinas-based Altai Brands, a manufacturer of cannabis edibles and the darling of Monterey County’s nascent weed industry. The photo was taken in November at a party sponsored by Altai during the Marijuana Business Conference in Vegas. Someone sent the picture of the meat-clad model out on social media and it eventually landed in my inbox as well. The reaction from within the cannabis industry was swift and mostly merciless.

The rage is understandable. The industry is still trying to repair its image – and more importantly, its practices – following a report from The Center for Investigative Reporting that found sexual abuse of women “trimmigrants” working in Humboldt County runs rampant. An estimated 35 percent of all marijuana-related businesses are owned by women. The woman-as-meat tray harkened back to tech conferences of the ’80s; it’s time for cannabis to step forward, not back into archaic use of flesh to serve flesh.

Here are a few comments from various online forums, including Altai’s Facebook page: “You have proven that female exploitation in the workforce is alive and well, and totally normal to you.” “Your use of a woman as a salami serving platter is disgusting and creating a lot of negative industry discussion here in Canada among people who attended your party.” “One brand I am never buying. Either didn’t care about what this meat display represents or too stupid to know.”

Altai issued a ham-handed apology via Instagram, and company co-founder and CEO Rob Weakley was quickly pilloried, called a “douchebag” and worse. Weakley issued a second personal apology soon after, saying his eyes had been opened by what he called a “humbling” experience.

Humbled is how I found Weakley during a phone conversation on Nov. 28. He says he spent Thanksgiving week making a lot of phone calls, reaching out to a lot of people and trying to repair relationships.

It’s a smart move: Chuck Smith, co-founder of Colorado-based Dixie Elixirs & Edibles, has used Altai as a manufacturing partner, and even before #meatgate, he told The New York Times Dixie was looking to open its own manufacturing facilities in California. It’s also smart because some of those 35 percent of women-owned businesses may need a manufacturing partner.

“The positive thing is it has opened everyone’s eyes and created some important dialogue and we’re making sure we push to elevate the industry in a friendly and more cooperative way,” Weakley says.

As for the meat display, he offers only this: “I take full responsibility. It shouldn’t have happened.”

MARY DUAN writes The Local Spin for Monterey County Weekly, mary@mcweekly.com.