The Golden state. The Wild West. California has always been at the leading edge, literally and figuratively, forging new ways of thinking, crafting a new lens through which to see the possibilities of the horizon, although it has also had its moments of contraction, especially in relation to cannabis.

Long before California earned statehood in 1850, cannabis was being cultivated at several missions along the southern Pacific coast of North America - a practice brought by Spanish settlers in the mid-15th century. The purpose of this cultivation was not mind-expansion or medicine-making but rather industrial applications of the hemp fiber.

With Gold Fever of the 1850’s, however, came the practice of cultivating cannabis for recreational use.

It might have been stigmatized in certain circles, but it was not illegal. Not until, amongst a growing sentiment of prohibitionism, it was made illegal to possess cannabis in 1913. The first state cannabis prohibition law in the nation ironically came from California.

The anti-immigrant roots at the heart of the Reefer Madness’ propaganda campaign of the 1930’s had a gravitas that appealed to a xenophobic society. Mexicans streaming across the border in the wake of the Mexican Revolution and setting up shop in the southwest were associated with their ‘devil weed’ and its inherent threats to a civilized society. In the Gulf states, the black immigrants from the West Indies were also blamed for blighting society with their music and weed. ‘Reefer Madness’ effectively wipe out any last traces of tolerance of marijuana in any mainstream capacity.

Cannabis use went underground ostensibly until the era of the beat poets in the mid-late 1950’s, when it gained popularity but only so with a pocket of subculture wherein people would gather in dark smoky spaces to hear or recite their prose and poetry, inspired by a current of bebop jazz and, in turn, inspiring a generation of folk artists who interpreted a changing tide through acoustic music. This was a particular movement in New York and San Francisco but the wide span between - across the American heartland - while lacking in this ethos, was often the source of its fuel as the Kerouacs and Cassadys of the era hitch-hiked or hotwired cars to gallavant across the country and gain a perspective into the Psyche Americana.

Enter the mid-late 60’s: The Viet Nam war resistance came into focus as it slowly dawned on people that it was somewhere we didn’t belong and we were sending young men in by the shiploads to traumatize and be traumatized, all in the name of…well, no one was quite sure. But the un-ease began to stir until it was a colossal force to be reckoned with and San Francisco was the beating heart of the anti-war movement, which soon became conflated with ‘tune in, turn on, drop out’, and all things counter-culture. Psychedelics infused the movement and propelled popular music into a whole new rock n’ roll stratosphere. If you were going to San Francisco for the Summer of Love, you better make sure you were wearing some flowers in your hair.

Cannabis was, of course, a crucial ally to the movement and people started to realize you could grow some really good weed in the coastal sunshine-splashed hills of Northern California, which would lessen the need for the lower-quality stuff coming from south of the border. So it went, that Northern California became the hub of master cultivars. These discerning growers became early genetic engineers – marrying different strains to further refine their quest for the tastiest, sturdiest, and most potent cannabis flowers imaginable.

You would think the powers-that-be would be happy we were lessening our dependence on a foreign commodity that often entailed corruption and violence in the process of its import, but the cat-and-mouse game between the feds and the growers heated up until it reached a peak in the Reagan era of ‘just say no to drugs’ and billions of dollars spent on the CAMP program (Campaign Against Marijuana Planting).

Still, demand drives the market and pot-smokers all over the country wanted the California goods so the growers kept on providing, driven deeper into the wild places to do so.

Early reform efforts for the legal medical use of cannabis in California began around the early 1990’s in San Francisco, fueled in great part by the AIDS crisis. These efforts spread to Santa Cruz, CA and both cities introduced successful propositions to legalize medical use. Finally, in 1996 enough supporters and signatures got a bill on the ballot to legalize growing, possessing, and obtaining cannabis for medical use, and Prop 215 – also known as the Compassionate Use Act - soared to victory. In a historic turn of events, the first state to establish a cannabis prohibition law became the first state to establish a legal medical cannabis program.

It took another 20 years until Prop 64 passed and California became the 6th state in the union to legalize cannabis for recreational as well as medical use. The sweet spot for growers was that 20 year period where it was just between the growers and their patrons – laws were lenient and the trade was un-regulated and the California Cannabis machine hummed and whirred. Legalization, while a necessary step in the movement of cannabis acceptance and decriminalization, also brought some hardships to the simple, small-scale growers, who could not comply with the expensive rigors of regulation and corporatization. Many a solid farmer was forced to fold up operations and yield to the wealthier, larger-scale, well-funded operations who soon dominated the market. This was the fall-out, the growing pains of a movement that gathered too much momentum to be stopped. The silver lining of course, is that many more people have ready access now, especially those who really do rely on cannabis for medical reasons. Plus it’s fun to do a road trip around the state and stumble on some cannabis dispensary literally in the middle of nowhere where suddenly a treasure-trove of goodies awaits the road-weary traveler.

But, of course, the most silver lining of all, is that people who were incarcerated for cannabis-related charges would finally have a bonified get-out-of-jail-free card. This was the moral imperative that caused many people in the cannabis industry to vote Yes on this proposition, even though they knew full-well that it might also be their undoing.

So we rejoice that we are no longer in hiding, that our craft is openly celebrated and utilized although the stigma is stalwart and remains to this day. And even though there are now 18 states that have fully legalized cannabis, nobody quite does it like California and our brand is indelibly stamped on the historical thumbprint of Cannabis and its culture.