Garcia Hand Picked, the cannabis brand founded by the family of legendary Grateful Dead lead guitarist Jerry Garcia, entered its fifth legal cannabis state today with an expansion into Colorado’s competitive recreational weed market. A collaboration between multistate operator Holistic Industries and Colorado craft cultivator Veritas Fine Cannabis, the Garcia Hand Picked line of cannabis products and merchandise was created in partnership with the family of the late Jerry Garcia.

“It’s an honor to finally have a presence in Colorado, one of our nation’s most discerning cannabis markets,” Trixie Garcia, one of Jerry’s daughters and spokesperson for the Garcia family, said in a statement. “Garcia Hand Picked works with an exclusive network [of] local growers in each market we’re in that have become part of the Garcia Hand Picked family, and we’re excited to bring only the highest quality, curated cannabis to our fans and friends in Colorado.”

Garcia Hand Picked debuted in California in 2020 and is now available in more than 300 dispensaries in California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts and Oregon, with plans to expand to Michigan soon. According to market analyst BDSA, the collaboration is the leading celebrity cannabis brand in the United States. The strains available for the Colorado launch, which are named after songs written by Jerry Garcia and are selected to be perfect for any time of day, include Morning in Marin (Sativa), Love in the Afternoon (Hybrid) and After Midnight (Indica), among others.

In California, Garcia Hand Picked recently launched a program called Hand Picked Farms to support independent and legacy farmers, offering flower that is “Sun and Earth Certified,” meaning that it is sungrown in the ground without chemicals by farmers who are paid fairly for their work. Consumers can look for the “Sun and Earth Certified” Hand Picked Farms sticker on packs of Garcia Hand Picked flower sold in California dispensaries.

The Garcia Hand Picked line also includes a curated selection of premium indoor cannabis flower in collectible and re-usable glass jars. Each product is paired with a specially selected playlist of Jerry Garcia’s music that corresponds with the strains to create a unique brand experience. Fans can go to the “Music Never Stopped” section of GarciaHandPicked.com to listen to the musical selections.

Holistic Industries notes in a statement from the company that Jerry Garcia rarely smoked weed by himself, instead preferring a shared joint, which “became a bridge between him and those around him.” To honor that spirit, the Hand Picked Garcia line has emphasized pre-rolled joints featuring a custom glass tip with Jerry’s handprint, offered in eco-friendly packaging made from recycled paper. Other products in the collection include Jerry’s Picks, cannabis gummies shaped like Jerry’s actual guitar picks, which will be coming to the Colorado market soon. Merchandise, including apparel and accessories with original artwork by Jerry Garcia, the Garcia Hand Picked logo, and other designs will be available.

Jerry Garcia: Groundbreaking Artist and Weed Icon

Jerry Garcia was the co-founder, lead guitarist, vocalist, and lead songwriter for the counterculture rock band the Grateful Dead, which rose from the 1960s San Francisco Bay Area scene of drugs, music, and social change. A groundbreaking artist with a career that spanned more than 30 years, Garcia was inducted with the Grateful Dead into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, just a year before he died of a heart attack at a California drug rehab facility.

To celebrate the upcoming 80th anniversary of Jerry Garcia’s birth on August 1, the Colorado launch of Hand Picked Garcia will feature Bertha, a custom Airstream trailer that tours the country filled with music and merchandise, at The Jerry Garcia Symphonic Experience at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado on June 29. Bertha will then tour select dispensaries across the state through the Fourth of July holiday weekend to mark the launch of Hand Picked Garcia to the Colorado market.

“Playing music in Colorado was always a high point for Jerry, he dug the closeness of the audience and the energy that flowed more freely in the mountain air,” said Jerry’s daughter Annabelle Garcia, a spokesperson for the Garcia family. “The hidden stories in the rocks were a source of cosmic speculation and inspiration on the long drives to and from the shows. For Jerry, every ridge held a secret treasure, or an alien spacecraft, or a Bigfoot listening to the shows.”

“Red Rocks is the perfect venue to celebrate our Father’s 80th birthday! Where the sky and mountains meet, we will make a joyful noise and spread some good lovin’,” added Trixie Garcia. “The symphonic interpretation of these cherished tunes elevates them to an otherworldly place, and when ‘Terrapin Station’ erupts, and the big instruments start to resonate, it’s going to be very powerful!”

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Acclaimed director Martin Scorsese plans to create a musical biopic about the Grateful Dead, and Jonah Hill has been cast as frontman Jerry Garcia.

Deadline first broke the news that the epic biopic will become a reality. Hill posted the story on Instagram, with a hands up emoji and a skull emoji, representing the band name. 

There will be high expectations. Hill worked together with Scorsese in 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street, as the brilliant-but-eccentric, real-life investor, Donnie Azoff, who went on drug-fueled party sprees with Jordan Belfort. It was that role that provided Hill his second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Scorsese directed the Grateful Dead six-part docuseries, Long Strange Trip, released in 2017, which was named after Garcia’s quote, “What a long strange trip it’s been.” 

​​“The Grateful Dead were more than just a band,” Scorsese said in a statement at the time of the docu-series’ announcement. “They were their own planet, populated by millions of devoted fans. I’m very happy that this picture is being made and proud to be involved.”

The film will be completed at Apple, the same place that Scorsese is working on his next film, Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Jesse Plemons. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who worked on American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson, will work on the project as writers.

The Grateful Dead formed in the Bay Area in California in 1965 as a staple of the counterculture movement. Long story short, the jam band became synonymous with the psychedelic counterculture movement. Garcia passed away in 1995. The band appears to support the musical biopic.

Weir, Kreutzmann, Lesh and Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead have been named as executive producers. Trixie Garcia, the daughter of Jerry Garcia, as the band’s manager Bernie Cahill will also serve as executive producers, including Eric Eisner.

No release or production date for the movie has been announced at this time.

Garcia Hand Picked

Last year, the Garcia family—led by Trixie Garcie—launched Garcia Hand Picked, their own line of cannabis products and merchandise. Garcia Hand Picked. The line includes eighth-ounce jars or five-joint packs of pre-rolls in Indica, Sativa and Hybrid. Guitar pick-shaped gummies infused with 5mg of THC per gummy, in 20-gummy tins, are a popular choice.

After “an extensive search for the right partner to create this cannabis brand,” Trixie said in 2019, the family ended up settling with Holistic Industries to collaborate on the project. “Their values are rooted in a family business and they have a track record operating and creating cannabis brands across the country. We can’t wait to share the Jerry Garcia cannabis collection with the fans next year.”

Trixie told Rolling Stone that Jerry smoked weed when he was surrounded by other people as a social tool. 

Rock journalist Al Aronowitz interviewed Jerry Garcia in 1972—but the interview wasn’t published until January 2001 in High Times. Jerry described the atmosphere in San Francisco. “There was a lot of fighting, race riots, all that high-school shit that was so heavy in the ’50s,” Jerry Garcia said. “Gangs go out cruising on a Friday night with other hoodlums, drinking wine and having fights. The tops of the hills in the city weren’t built on yet. It was still like going to the country. Trees, ponds, grass, animals. We went up one day and smoked a couple of joints. After that I really got into it. I wasn’t into changing my mood, I was into getting stoned!”

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