420, 4:20, or 4/20 is slang in cannabis culture for the consumption of cannabis, especially smoking cannabis around the time 4:20 p.m. in celebration on the date April 20.
Proposition 215, or the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, is a California law allowing the use of medical cannabis despite marijuana's lack of the normal Food and Drug Administration testing for safety and efficacy. It was enacted, on November 5, 1996, by means of the initiative process, and passed with 5,382,915 (55.6%) votes in favor and 4,301,960 (44.4%) against.
The Emerald Triangle is a region in Northern California, named as such due to it being the largest cannabis-producing region in the United States. The region is made up of Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity Counties. Growers have been cultivating cannabis plants in this region since the 1960s. The industry exploded in the region with the passage of California Proposition 215 which legalized use of cannabis for medicinal purposes in California. Growing cannabis in The Emerald Triangle is considered a way of life, and the locals believe that everyone living in this region is either directly or indirectly reliant on the marijuana business.
Mary Jane Rathbun, popularly known as Brownie Mary, was an American medical cannabis rights activist. As a hospital volunteer at San Francisco General Hospital, she became known for baking and distributing cannabis brownies to AIDS patients. Along with activist Dennis Peron, Rathbun lobbied for the legalization of cannabis for medical use, and she helped pass San Francisco Proposition P (1991) and California Proposition 215 (1996) to achieve those goals. She also contributed to the establishment of the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club, the first medical cannabis dispensary in the United States.
Oaksterdam is a cultural district on the north end of downtown Oakland, California, where medical cannabis in a variety of competitively priced smokeable and edible preparations is available for purchase in multiple cafes, clubs, and patient dispensaries. Oaksterdam is located on the north end of downtown Oakland, between downtown proper, the Lakeside, and the financial district. It is roughly bordered by 14th Street on the southwest, Harrison Street on the southeast, 19th Street on the northeast, and Telegraph Avenue on the northwest. The name is a portmanteau of "Oakland" and "Amsterdam," the capital of the Netherlands, where marijuana is semi-legal. Since 2005, cannabis has been available to patients with patient identification and physician recommendation at a busy dispensary in the neighborhood, one of Oakland's four officially licensed dispensaries under the current municipal ordinance. According to Proposition 215, a statewide voter initiative which amended the California Health and Safety Code, marijuana used for medical purposes is legal to possess and cultivate. Dispensaries require a doctor's note in order to obtain medical cannabis, which is legal under California Law but still illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act.
The San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club was the first public marijuana dispensary in the United States. It first opened in 1992, in the wake of the success of Proposition P, which passed in 1991. In February 1994, the Club was operating at 194 Church Street in San Francisco, California, founded by Proposition 215 coauthors "Brownie Mary" Rathbun, Dennis Peron, Dale Gieringer, with Beth Moore, John Entwhistle, Jason Patrick Menard, Gerry Leatherman, Richard Eastman and Tod H. Mikuriya.
Dennis Robert Peron was an American activist and businessman who became a leader in the movement for the legalization of cannabis throughout the 1990s. He influenced many in California and thus changed the political debate on marijuana in the United States.
Oaksterdam University is recognized as America's first cannabis college. Located in Oakland, CA, the educational facility and "political institution" was founded in November 2007 by medical marijuana activist Richard Lee to offer quality training for the cannabis industry, with a mission to "legitimize the business and work to change the law to make cannabis legal." Its main campus is located in the Oaksterdam area of Downtown Oakland, California. The university once had campuses in Los Angeles, Sebastopol, and Michigan. Currently the only brick & mortar campus resides in Oakland. As of recently, the school has taken their program on the road, conducting 2 to 4 day seminars in order to meet the demand for education. Oaksterdam has conducted seminars in Atlantic City, Denver, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., and Orlando, FL, with many more cities on the agenda.
Cannabis in California is legal for both medical and recreational use. In recent decades, the state has been at the forefront of efforts to reform cannabis laws, beginning in 1972 with the nation's first ballot initiative attempting to legalize cannabis. Although Proposition 19 was unsuccessful, California would later become the first state to legalize medical cannabis with the passage of the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. In November 2016, California voters approved the Adult Use of Marijuana Act to legalize the recreational use of cannabis.
The High TimesMedical Cannabis Cup is an annual event celebrating medical marijuana. The first Medical Cannabis Cup took place in San Francisco, California June 19–20, 2010.
Leafly is the largest cannabis website in the world, with over 15 million monthly visitors and 40 million page views across its website and mobile applications. Leafly allows users to rate and review different strains of cannabis and cannabis dispensaries. The site helps patients and adult recreational consumers determine which cannabis products are appropriate for their particular preferences or desired effects and then directs them to a nearby retailer or medical dispensary. Described by its founders as a hybrid of Yelp and Consumer Reports, Leafly uses crowdsourcing to generate reviews for consumers. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington and is wholly owned by Privateer Holdings, a private equity firm focused on the emerging legal cannabis industry. Leafly is available for mobile use on iOS, and Android.
The legal history of cannabis in the United States began with state-level prohibition in the early 20th century, with the first major federal limitations occurring in 1937. Starting with Oregon in 1973, individual states began to liberalize cannabis laws through decriminalization. In 1996, California became the first state to legalize medical cannabis, sparking a trend that spread to a majority of states by 2016. In 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize cannabis for recreational use.
Justin Hartfield is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist from Orange County, California. He is a co-founder and general partner at the Ghost Group venture capital firm and was the CEO at WeedMaps before stepping down in 2016 to pursue other ventures.
MedMen Enterprises or MedMen is a publicly traded, United States-based cannabis company with operations in California, Nevada, New York, and Florida. MedMen owns and operates 19 licensed cannabis facilities in cultivation, manufacturing, and retail. Its stock trades on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker symbol MMEN. MedMen is traded in the United States (MMNFF).
Steve DeAngelo, is a cannabis rights activist and advocate for cannabis reform in the United States. He is the co-founder and Executive director of Harborside, a cannabis dispensary with stores in Oakland and San Jose, California, Steep Hill lab cannabis testing laboratory, and the president and co-founder of The Arcview Group. DeAngelo and Harborside were the subject of the Discovery Channel documentary series Weed Wars, and were also featured on the premiere episode of CNN's Inside Man with Morgan Spurlock. In June 2015, DeAngelo was awarded the High Times Lester Grinspoon Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition for his four decades of activism in the cannabis reform movement.
Cannabis dispensaries in the United States or marijuana dispensaries are a local government regulated physical location, typically inside a retail storefront or office building, in which a person can purchase cannabis and cannabis related items for medical or recreational use. First modeled in Amsterdam in the late 1970s where they were innocently called coffee shops, it would take the Americans more than a generation to successfully duplicate the idea of a retail cannabis storefront. Unlike the Dutch coffee shops, today dispensary customers are prevented from consuming cannabis on the site of a regulated dispensary in all known markets.
A cannabis shop, cannabis dispensary, or cannabis cooperative is a location at which marijuana is sold for recreational or medical use. In the Netherlands these are called coffeeshops. In the United States they exist as an outlet for both recreational and medical use. These shops differ from head shops in that the latter sells only drug paraphernalia. In 2015, the City of San Diego made A Green Alternative the first licensed medical marijuana dispensary and delivery service in the city.
Harborside, formerly Harborside Health Center, is a recreational and medical cannabis dispensary, with its flagship location in Oakland, California, and a second location in San Jose. Founded in 2006 by longtime activist and entrepreneur, Steve DeAngelo, Harborside operates as a non-profit patient collective. In December 2011, Harborside Health Center was featured in the Discovery Channel's four-part documentary series, Weed Wars. In June 2013 CNN premiered "Inside Man", an 8-episode documentary hosted and produced by Morgan Spurlock. The show's first episode provided a detailed, inside look at California's medical marijuana industry and featured Spurlock working in Harborside Health Center, as well as it described the legal troubles of the center.
Disjointed is a Netflix original comedy series created by David Javerbaum and Chuck Lorre and starring Kathy Bates. Twenty episodes of the series were ordered by Netflix, with the first 10 episodes premiering on August 25, 2017. The last 10 episodes were released on January 12, 2018. On February 14, 2018, Netflix canceled the series.
Coachella Valley Church is a Rastafarian church in San Jose, California. It was incorporated in 2016 and is at the same location as a previous dispensary, Amsterdam's Garden. The city has a history of litigation against its operators and seeks to end their operations, claiming it is an unpermitted marijuana dispensary.
