Written by: Veronica Castillo
This week- the focus is California. Rumor has it, 80% of the Cannabis in America comes from California. To that I say, THANK YOU! A huge thank you to the state that has been supplying medicine for decades.
To many, Cannabis is California and California is Cannabis. Leafbuyer says that: “the Bay Area is ripe with a history that is riddled with marijuana benchmarks”. After all, California was the first state in the United States to legalize Cannabis for medicine in 1996. But before that was the San Francisco Buyers Club in 1992. Possible because of Proposition 215, which exempts patients and defined caregivers who possess or cultivate marijuana for medical treatment recommended by a physician from criminal laws which otherwise prohibit possession or cultivation of marijuana.
And before 1992, it was 1983. The year that Mary Rathbun, also known as Brownie Mary, a volunteer at San Francisco General Hospital, worked in the 1st AIDS-dedicated ward in the United States. She helped medical consumers by baking and giving away thousands of cannabis-infused brownies.
The Bay gave us greatness like:
- Oakland is the 1st city in the United States to decriminalize a wide range of entheogenic substances.
- Dennis Peron- organized the signature drive to put California Proposition 215 on the ballot.·
- Richard Lee- founder of the Oakland Civil Liberties Alliance, which helped pass Oakland’s Measure Z making private sales, cultivation, and possession of cannabis the lowest law-enforcement priority. ·
- 1st Lady of the West Coast- the first black woman to have a line of exclusive Cannabis strains.
- Oaksterdam University- the first Cannabis school launched in a solitary area, bringing jobs and tax revenue to Oakland. ·
- Blunts +Moore- the pioneer of Oakland’s Cannabis Equity Program; the 1st in the nation ensuring that the green rush doesn’t leave the people and communities that have already paid the heaviest price behind.