This Monday — and, really, all of April 2020 — was supposed to be big in the world of cannabis.
Since 1971, when a group of Northern California teens started meeting at 4:20 p.m. each day to smoke weed and hunt for an elusive marijuana patch, the figure 420 has been tied to cannabis. And so the fourth month of 2020, and the date 4/20/20 in particular, was poised to give marijuana consumers extra cause to celebrate the industry’s unofficial holiday while offering legal cannabis companies a welcome marketing hook.
But shelter-at-home orders tied to the coronavirus pandemic have pumped the brakes on most 4/20 celebrations. Even in weed-friendly San Francisco, Mayor London Breed is threatening to arrest anyone who shows up for the state’s largest annual cannabis gathering at “Hippie Hill” in Golden Gate Park.