New research shows that cannabis exposure in early pregnancy doesn’t directly predict autism.

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Paris was born and raised in San Francisco, California, the Bay Area’s big sister city to Oakland, home of the Black Panther Party (BPP). Founded by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in 1966, the BPP closely monitored the behavior of the Oakland Police Department and fought against police brutality. Paris organically stumbled upon the teachings of the Nation of Islam and the BPP, informing his music and ultimately placing his voice among Public Enemy and other revolutionary hip-hop groups at the time.

“I never got into this to be an activist,” he explained. “I just wanted to make music that banged and wasn’t silly; the conscious angle happened organically. I came up on Gil-Scott Heron, Curtis Mayfield. Parliament-Funkadelic, The Isley Brothers and Stevie Wonder—artists who made statements in their own respective ways—and I wanted to have a catalog that wasn’t disposable. Then Public Enemy came out and blew the lid off. That was it for me. After that, I never wanted to waste time on the mic or squander my voice.”

And Paris’ voice was loud. His debut album, 1990’s The Devil Made Me Do It, was so controversial, the title track was banned on MTV. Some record stores even refused to carry the album due to its graphic cover art featuring a police officer placing a young Black boy in a chokehold.

But like any provocative art, Paris’ work created a conversation and boldly reminded America just how racist and corrupt it is, especially on songs such as “Panther Power” and “The Hate That Hate Made.”

The senseless police killings of Black citizens such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Elijah McClain continue to reverberate throughout the country as people grapple with the overt racism still prevalent in a post-Trump America. Needless to say, Paris has work to do. In October 2020, he returned with Safe Space Invader, the follow-up to 2015’s Pistol Politics. Par for the course, the 10-track project took aim at current socio-political issues that, sadly, still resonate today. As the title suggests, “Baby Man Hands” directly addressed the former president, but Paris says he was only a “symptom” of what America has always been about—’’racism and class warfare.” He believes Joe Biden is essentially cut from the same cloth.

“Biden is no different,” he said. “The racism is less overt and Kamala Harris is a worthless straw man. People, in general, stay disappointed and chronically divided in this country because its societal mechanisms are never intended to provide real relief; there’s always something or someone preventing change that actually helps people. Culture wars are inflamed to provide a necessary diversion for America to continue doing what she’s always done—infect other countries with imperialism, wage war and seize resources.”

If Paris sounds like he’s spent ample time researching the issues that plague the nation, it’s because he has. Armed with a degree in economics from the University of California-Davis, the studious MC religiously used his music as a vehicle for educating the masses while educating himself. Three decades later, Paris’ politically-charged hip-hop can be heard on the FX series Uncovered, the Netflix documentary Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell and the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson-fronted sitcom Young Rock, to name a few.

“It feels excellent on the one hand that productions are using material from my catalog and spotlighting my newer music,” he said. “It’s all bad at the same time, though, because social conditions haven’t improved. The fact that the content on these songs is still relevant is a shame, really. Racism, classism, police brutality, war, poverty, gentrification—they’re all still issues that are going on, increasing in many cases.”

Naturally, Paris has his opinions when it comes to the cannabis industry, too, saying he’s all for it even though his smoking days are behind him.

“I used to smoke a tiny bit in high school a thousand years ago [laughs],” he recalled. “But then I got involved heavily in religion for a spell and pretty much stopped everything. Then I left religion and never really tripped off of weed for the longest. Now, I have some edibles around the house for hijinks every now and then, but nothing serious.

“I will say I’m feelin’ the decriminalization of it and the widespread acceptance and profitability it’s brought about. A lotta my peers are doing well with cannabis—[Cypress Hill’s] B-Real, Xzibit and Kurupt and gang of others. If we can get a fed law passed embracing it, we’ll ease concerns a lot of people still have about its long-term viability from a business standpoint and from law enforcement; that and a retroactive dismissal of weed-related convictions would be the shit.”

Meanwhile, Paris is juggling his own endeavors at Guerrilla Funk Recordings, a label he’s owned since 2002. Artists such as Public Enemy, George Clinton, E-40, The Coup, dead prez, Immortal Technique, Tha Eastsidaz, The Conscious Daughters, DJ True Justice, Mystic and MC Ren are among the many notable artists who found a home at the imprint.

“I started Guerrilla Funk in response to the constrictive cultural environment that we found ourselves in during the aftermath of the 9/11 terror shit,” he said. “Artists who expressed dissent were systematically silenced by self-imposed censorship at many labels, so I created a lane with Guerrilla Funk to provide many voices a platform.”

He’s also waist-deep in multiple television projects that are in development but not quite ready to be unveiled.

“There’s a lot I can’t really go into,” he admitted. “I continue to license material out of Guerrilla Funk’s catalog, of which I own 100 percent. Additionally, I’ve contributed music recently to Blindspotting on STARZ, All Day and a Night on Netflix, The Purge series, The Deuce on Showtime, Get Shorty on Epix and more.”

Putting that economics degree to good use. he continued, “This is a prime example of why it’s important for artists to maintain ownership of what we create, to properly register and protect our rights, and to maintain our publishing and the administration of our works. You don’t have to be a loud peacock and clout-chase in the industry to create a profitable lane, but you do need to handle business wisely.”

While Paris has built a lucrative career for himself independently, there are plenty of people who perhaps aren’t aware of just how much he’s contributed to hiphop culture. In 2016, the late Nipsey Hussle and Compton rapper YG dropped a song via Def Jam Recordings called “FDT (Fuck Donald Trump),” a scathing, anti-Trump anthem. The bones of the song were pulled from The Conscious Daughters’ track “Something To Ride To (Fonky Expedition),” which Paris produced for the duo’s 1993 debut, Ear To The Street—and that’s just one example.

“I don’t know if people are aware of my contributions,” he said with a laugh. “I just feel fortunate to have avoice. I’ve sold millions of records and am comfortable with the fact that I haven’t sold out my values or beliefs in the process. Besides, when all is said and done, the only thing that matters is control. Those who have control will be the ones who benefit the most. They’ll also be the ones who write the history of this slice of culture we call hip-hop. That’s why control is important.”

Although Paris isn’t exactly sold on the idea of releasing another solo album, he’s not short on studio time. The 53-year-old is living out his childhood dreams by producing an album for Parliament-Funkadelic, some of his musical heroes.

“Hopefully, that will be approved as a Parliament album, a throwback to the Funkentelechy and MotorBooty Affair-era when they had hits like ‘Flashlight’ and ‘Aqua Boogie,’ shit I grew up on,” he said. “It’s a bucket list project for me that continues the mythology of Dr. Funkenstein, Sir Nose and Starchild. Those who know, know.”

But Paris’ work is far from over. Mainstream rap music sorely lacks any kind of political voice like the one that put Public Enemy and Paris in the hip-hop history books—and he suspects he knows why.

“People can’t miss what they never knew and because outlets pay attention to and embolden the bullshit that’s out,” he concluded. “The streets don’t dictate the culture—corporations do. The streets simply respond to what’s given. And what’s given is accepted as the new normal because, to many people, there’s no visible alternative. But there is. And we are.”

FACTOID: Paris was dropped from Tommy Boy Records and distributor Warner Bros, in 1992, just as his sophomore album, Sleeping with the Enemy, was ready for release. Time Warner, Warner Bros, parent company, had discovered the album included fantasy revenge killings of then-President Bush and racist police officers. They also took issue with the album insert, which depicted Paris waiting behind a tree, holding a TEC-9, as the president was waving to the crowd.

This article was originally published in the December 2021 issue of High Times Magazine.

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With a tagline featuring a founding year “Since before we could tell,” Sunset Connect alludes to the fluctuating legal status of the world’s most favored flower. When I visit the manufacturing space in San Francisco—a former lambskin condom factory and, later, a photography studio—the bright white walls are a welcome break from the dark gray day outside. It’s the last day of January 2024, and we’re in the middle of an atmospheric river called a “Pineapple Express,” but from founder Ali Jamalian’s upstairs office that oversees the space, I can only hear taps of the rain outside. Jamalian’s broad smile and kind eyes are the type that light up a room. Coupled with that, he’s a great storyteller. Through personal trials and triumphs, Jamalian has grown into a voice that remembers the outlaws of pot’s past. And, with his brand Sunset Connect, he’s proudly repping the profound legacy that San Francisco represents in shaping the availability of cannabis around the world.

“You have to be an activist,” Jamalian says of operating a cannabis company in the City by the Bay. “You have to advocate for the industry.”

Locals will first notice that Sunset Connect’s logo and branding borrow inspiration from Muni, San Francisco’s public transportation system, including buses, trains, and cable cars. The script on “Sunset”is in the same curving worm-like font as the iconic 1975 Muni logo. And, with packaging showcasing the design of paper Muni bus transfer tickets that were retired in 2016, its brand identity stands as a sort of insider call back to an earlier time. Sunset Connect has evolved over the years but is now putting out hash-infused dogwalkers and trim pre-rolls. The pre-rolls retail at $5.

“I think what we really pride ourselves in is the separation, getting all the fan leaves and the sticks and stems out and really being left with sugar leaf and small buds,” Jamalian says as we walk the manufacturing floor. “My whole point was like, ‘Dude, you’ve got to be able to get something to people at a fair price that they can afford every day.’”

Jamalian believes the batch size, 100 grams, is critical to the salability of his 1-gram pre-rolls and says he’s selling about 25,000 each week. 

“We firmly believe that the success of our joints is that they’re hand-topped and twisted,” Jamalian says as I watch an employee complete packing the herb down and adding the wick-like twist of paper at the top. “I think that’s what gives you the good draw and the fact that we grind it in tiny batches of 100 grams.”

The Connect

Steered by hippies and activists who sold grass in the 1970s and provided cannabis to those in medical need in the 1990s, San Francisco stands as a significant touchpoint for the medical marijuana movement. Actions that took place there and in the greater San Francisco Bay Area led California to become the first state to approve medical marijuana in 1996.

The Sunset Connect brand was born in California’s medical marijuana era and was granted a state license as a manufacturing and distribution company in the adult-use cannabis marketplace in 2020. Based in the city’s Sunset District and known as The Sunset Connect, Jamalian and his best friends since freshman year at the University of San Francisco brought cuts of classic strains to medical marijuana dispensaries circa 2014. This included White Widow—an extremely popular strain in the late ’90s and early 2000s following its win at the 1995 Cannabis Cup—and a strain breeders Mr. Sherbinski and Jigga created in a Sunset District garage around 2010, Sunset Sherbert.

While the Sunset Connect team went official in 2014, they had been growing pot together for some time before that. Back in 1999, the feds charged Jamalian with possession and intent to distribute weed, and since he was a German-Iranian with a green card, he faced deportation. Spooked from the ordeal, he returned to Germany for a time and returned to the United States when his friends called him back into the game.

“At that point, the boys were already blowing up like 15 houses in the Sunset and around town and doing really well with it, vending to dispensaries, but mostly moving it black market,” Jamalian says. “So I came back… I started with one house on 47th [avenue] and about two to three years later about four to five houses and then between us we had like 30-35 homes.”

In 2018, when Jamalian started working to bring Sunset Connect into the adult-use cannabis marketplace, he began to get politically involved with organizations designed to advocate for the industry. But within those groups, such as the now-defunct California Growers Association, he says he often found business owners campaigning on behalf of their companies rather than the community.

“Everyone that I worked with was moving weight and risking their lives to move weight,” Jamalian says. “And most of them didn’t get to transition…The heads in the Sunset weren’t being considered because we didn’t have warehouses; we had homes. Because back then, the criminal liability of growing at home was a lot less than the criminal liability of a 90-light warehouse.”

His role as a public-facing cannabis grower took the next step when Jamalian connected with Jane Kim, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, who was running against acting mayor London Breed in 2018.

“When I met Jane, I told her I was already trying to build this place up and go legal, and she’s like, ‘In this city, you have to become an activist,’” Jamalian says. “She really taught me the way around City Hall.”

In January 2020, Jamalian became a member of the San Francisco Cannabis Oversight Committee, a representative group of cannabis company leaders that advise the board of supervisors and the mayor regarding implementing and enforcing city laws and regulations relating to cannabis. Beyond his political work, he’s always looking to network inside the cannabis community and puts on a monthly gathering in a Sunset District bar for budtenders.

“I think building a community, not to sell your product, it gives people an emotional connection to your brand,” Jamalian says. “We were the underdog, and we still are, and I think people like to root for the underdog.”

Kim’s cousin, Sam Joo, now works for Jamalian, handling compliance and production. Upon meeting him, Joo is locked in deep on the computer, navigating a change in California policy that vastly reduced the number of labs authorized by the state to test cannabis. When we chat about the current scene, he uses a phrase that became a touchpoint in describing California cannabis before its adult-use stage, the Wild West.

“We don’t have a choice but to build our production around what the labs are capable of doing,” Joo says. “I guess the excuse is that it’s new. I don’t know if other industries have faced what the cannabis industry is facing, but it feels like the Wild West, you know, where nobody really knows what they’re doing.”

The fluctuating nature of the regulations in the state’s adult-use cannabis industry has compounded with other factors, such as a dip in wholesale prices, in driving many longtime weed companies out of the market. Cannabis cultivators in California are disappearing in droves, and San Francisco is no exception to those statistics. Reporting done by the Cannabis Business Times in March 2023 shows that the state has lost thousands of cultivation licenses in recent years.

Jamalian tells me he’s learned that surviving in the cannabis industry means you have to be willing to expand and contract. He is readying for his brand to grow and plans to cultivate and release flowers under the Sunset Connect brand again soon. With that anticipated launch, he’s bringing back Dosi-Pie, a Velvet Pie and Do-Si-Dos cross. It’s the strain he says the brand was most well-known for at dispensaries back in the day. Sunset Connect’s current version has a peppery spice on the nose and tastes how sandalwood incense smells.

Now in his second term on the oversight committee, Jamalian uses his decades of experience in the city’s cannabis scene to advocate for the weed industry that remains in San Francisco.

“The market is on a downward slope; there’s going to be 30% of brands who disappear,” he says. “People are looking for good flowers from San Francisco. Also, there’s not a lot of outfits here anymore producing really good flowers.

“So, while San Francisco contracted, I think similar to the AI boom, cannabis companies are about to bloom again. Because the few that are left, they have a foot in the market, they’re now established, and people are like, ‘Wait, San Francisco is where the best weed in the world all comes from.’”

This article was originally published in the May 2024 issue of High Times Magazine.

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Although the official city-sanctioned 4/20 celebration on Hippie Hill in San Francisco was canceled this year, it still attracted thousands of people to gather on the holiday.

According to a report from SFGate, whose representatives spoke with some of the attendees, the cancellation didn’t hinder anyone’s plans. Jessica Leung told SFGate that she was excited to be there and surprised by the amount of people who still showed up. “4/20 is my favorite holiday,” Leung said.

The lower part of the hill was roped off with chains to host a “Peace, Love and Volo Field Day,” free event, inviting people to play cornhole, kickball, and volleyball. The upper part of the hill was deemed the “spectator area” for fans to chill on the lawn in the sun. Other vendors attended as well, selling art portraits and various other goods. Food trucks were also in attendance, which led to long lines.

Past city-sanctioned 4/20 celebrations at Hippie Hill included on-site portable toilets, medical support, and an increase in hired staff. Even though the official event was canceled, the city was still able to provide portable restrooms and San Francisco Recreation and Parks staff to patrol the area.

Some attendees commented on the people’s drive to celebrate. One longtime 4/20 celebrator, Chandra Edelstein, said that there was more freedom at this year’s event now that it had less city restrictions. “I expected it to be packed,” said Edelstein. “People still flock here and the energy is amazing.”

Another visitor, Alex Diaz, added that they planned to be there regardless of city involvement. “We’re out here to have a good time, and not expecting anything,” Diaz said.

Attendee Dalano Rhyne said that she prefers this year’s “scaled-down” version of the event. “I’m here I’m doing my own thing … so I’m having a good day and this was blank when I got here, so that’s a great day,” Rhyne said as she put together a cardboard art installation featuring signatures and drawings from other attendees.

Steve Banuelos and his group of longtime friends said they were hesitant to attend after the event cancellation, but decided to go anyway because “it may turn out to be something.” “Well, we’re all retired now, so what the hell else are we going to do with our time?” Banuelos said.

The 2023 Hippie Hill event was a massive gathering, which featured Erykah Badu as grand marshal and instructed attendees to “Put your weed in the air” at 4:20pm. “For a lot of us, this is our medicine,” Badu said. “This shit is here to take you to a higher place.”

Last year’s event also featured a “King of Z Hill” competition pitting growers against each other for the title of best weed and best concentrates. “Some of the most exotic flavors in the world come out of the West Coast right here in San Francisco,” said King of Z Hill organizer, Brandon Parker.

One competitor, SoCal Dank’s Joe Evans, explained that competitions like King of Z Hill aren’t about winning, but networking with others. This certainly attests to the evolution of the cannabis industry over the years, and the stark differences between the 2023 and 2024 Hippie Hill events.

This year’s Hippie Hill event cancellation was announced on March 25, citing city budget cuts and a lack of sponsors. However, the organizers did confirm that the sponsored event should be returning in 2025.

The cancellation paved the way for other celebratory events to take the spotlight. SF Weed Week held its inaugural event, celebrating 4/20 in a variety of ways through the week leading up to 4/20. SF Weed Week founding advisor, Ben Grambergu, explained the importance of spotlighting local growers. “The organizers of Hippie Hill deserved a break, and SF Weed Week is here to extend the celebration across the entire city with the best cultivators in the world sharing their gift with the most dedicated enthusiasts in the world,” said Grambergu. “Look, the Bay Area has and always will be an epicenter of cannabis culture. SF Weed Week is proving to the doom loop haters that the scene is thriving. With a week full of incredible activations, world-class cannabis, and meet and greets with the rockstars who produced it; this event has something for everyone.”

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art recently put up a new display at its gift shop to sell ceramic bongs. Each of the pieces are part of a collection called Weed’d, which are beautiful display-worthy items ranging between $50-$195. According to museum store buyer Camille Verboort, they chose this selection of bongs because they offered “sculptural quality and bold primary colors.”

Verboort added that since the museum features alcohol-related items, it’s time for them to also feature cannabis-related items as well. “We currently sell bar items quite well and, this being San Francisco, thought we could make room for cannabis accessories if we found designs that made sense for us,” Verboort said.

Weed’d is created by Italian designers who sought to “challenge the traditional narrative” and stigma often associated with bongs. One designer, Maddalena Casadei, shared that she had never used a bong before, which allowed her to experiment with the design process. ‘“The round shapes go along with the softness of the experience of using it. It is in fact designed to give pleasure through touch as well,” Casadei said.

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The city-sanctioned version of the famous 4/20 Hippie Hill event in San Francisco has been canceled, but it’s not the end of 4/20 celebrations in San Francisco. SF Weed Week, will feature a variety of events beginning with an art opening featuring cannabis mylar art on April 5 and a schedule of events running April 13-21. Instead of just one day of celebration, the event spans an entire week of all things cannabis, featuring cultivators and breeders at cannabis lounges throughout the city and unique strain premiers, such as releases of Rainbow Belts, Blue Lobster, Pink Jesus, Chikitaz, The Butcher, Sherb Haze, and Peppermint Sleighride.

SF Weed Week creator David Downs is an award-winning cannabis journalist and author. Downs is the senior editor at Leafly and the former cannabis editor at the San Francisco Chronicle. According to the event website, Downs created SF Weed Week after thinking about what an event like SF Beer Week would be like if it was cannabis-themed instead. 

“Weed growers are rock stars, and strains are celebrities,” Downs said through a press release. “I want to give these strain releases the same rock star treatment that album releases get at Amoeba Records. And we’re going to. It’s going to be dope.”

While SF Beer Week features unique new beer varieties and flavors, SF Weed Week boasts strain releases in participating lounges, including Mission Cannabis Club, Meadow, SPARC, Moe Greens, Solful, The Vapor Room, and Flore. 

Ali Jamalian, owner of Sunset Connect, is a founding advisor of SF Weed Week who is proud to be a part of an event that puts the spotlight on San Francisco weed. 

“San Francisco’s cannabis culture has so much to offer,” Jamalian said in a statement. “It only makes sense to showcase the cannabis epicenter of the world in a week-long celebration spread across the city with an array of amazing events and activations. All for free of course.”

Especially in the wake of the cancellation of this year’s Hippie Hill event, fellow founding advisor Ben Grambergu, director at 7 Stars Holistic Healing Center, feels that SF Weed Week offers an alternative celebration that lifts up the community. 

“The organizers of Hippie Hill deserved a break, and SF Weed Week is here to extend the celebration across the entire city with the best cultivators in the world sharing their gift with the most dedicated enthusiasts in the world,” Grambergu said. “Look, the Bay Area has and always will be an epicenter of cannabis culture. SF Weed Week is proving to the doom loop haters that the scene is thriving. With a week full of incredible activations, world-class cannabis, and meet and greets with the rockstars who produced it; this event has something for everyone.”

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More than any big city in America, San Francisco has always been on the cutting edge of cannabis consumption––from the beats and poets smoking “mezz” while inhabiting the 1950s North Beach “beat scene” to the openly stoned hippies of 1960s Haight-Ashbury. Cannabis consumption in the “City by the Bay” continued with the groundbreaking use of medical marijuana in the Castro District to treat those affected by HIV and AIDS, leading to America’s first dispensaries. San Francisco has likewise been the vanguard for providing consumption lounges to dispensary customers, offering a place for pot patients and weed aficionados to consume in a relaxing, safe environment.

Big Top Pot

Marijuana was always a big part of gay culture in San Francisco, but it was purely for pleasure in those hedonistic, liberating days of the 1970s. That is, until the very first cases of AIDS were reported in the city in 1980. By the mid-’80s AIDS had developed into a genuine crisis in the SF gay community, with thousands of men being infected with HIV (the virus that leads to AIDS), and developing “wasting syndrome,” also called cachexia, characterized by an involuntary loss of body weight, with prolonged diarrhea, weakness, and fever.

But hope arrived with Dennis Peron, who began dealing weed out of his apartment in the Castro, dubbed the “Big Top Pot Supermarket.” In the mid-’80s, Peron’s partner, Jonathan West, was diagnosed as HIV-positive, and cannabis helped West deal with the symptoms. Weed’s appetite stimulating phenomenon was an obvious fit to combat AIDS wasting syndrome. People with AIDS want to avoid or delay the loss of appetite from wasting syndrome because it’s a calling card that the body’s shutting down.

West passed away from AIDS in 1990, and buoyed by San Francisco’s 1991 pro-medical cannabis initiative Proposition P, Peron opened the first public medical marijuana dispensary in America, the Cannabis Buyers Club (CBC) on Church Street in the Castro in 1994. Peron later moved the club to a more high-profile Market Street location in downtown San Francisco, where it was raided and became the subject of headlines and controversies throughout the mid-’90s.

Peron co-authored California’s Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. In August 1996 then-California attorney Dan Lungren authorized a raid on the CBC pot club and lounge in a move that some maintained was politically motivated. Lungren’s cynical ploy failed to dissuade voters, as Prop. 215 passed with 56% of the vote on Nov. 5, 1996, making California the first state to formally legalize any form of cannabis.

In October 2003 California Senate Bill 420 was passed, along with San Francisco’s Article 33: Medical Cannabis Act, establishing guidelines for regulating medical cannabis dispensaries.

David Goldman, president of the Brownie Mary Democratic Club of San Francisco, along with his husband, Kenneth Michael Koehn, secretary of the Brownie Mary Democratic Club, remember the revolutionary times at the CBC.

“In 1994 Michael and I started going to the Cannabis Buyers Club, located at 194 Church Street in San Francisco, which was a very pleasant experience,” Goldman said. “I know that Dennis [Peron] always wanted to have a safe consumption space for people, where they could socialize. And so the need to have a safe space for consumption was apparent to Dennis, and that motivated him to start at 194 Church Street.”

Goldman explained that about a year later the club was moved to 1444 Market Street within “a building that had four floors, which was a big step up in terms of use of space and the number of people it could accommodate.”

“We started going to that Market Street CBC lounge location every Friday after work,” he said. “They had two different floors for the cannabis; one floor had some of the higher quality cannabis they’d call either ‘A-plus’ or ‘A-double plus’—they didn’t give them strain names back then. And patients could hang out there, and they offered snacks, and people would sing and play music. It was a very relaxed, chill environment; a wonderful way to spend our Fridays after work.”

Koehn added a sobering perspective reflecting on those uncertain years.

“There was also an element of fear in the dispensary lounges during that time,” Koehn said. “The fear of getting busted, that the AG [former Attorney General Dan Lungren] would raid the dispensary. We weren’t personally there when it was raided in 1996, but every time you went there, there was this fear hanging over your head, that this could be the day that trouble starts.”

Ultimately, Goldman associates positive memories with Peron’s club.

“There was a sense of community at the CBC because during that era of HIV, the gay community and the cannabis community highly intersected and we were able to contact and connect with one another,” he said.

Continuing the Tradition

The 2003 SB-420 legislation paved the way for benevolent bud entrepreneurs like Martin Olive to open up his pioneering medical pot dispensary known as Vapor Room, which still exists to this day.

“We opened in late 2003 in the SF neighborhood known as Lower Haight,” Olive said. “I worked at another dispensary prior to this and it was like a lot of dispensaries back then, most of the lounges were just folding tables and plastic chairs, and not very comfortable for people.”

Olive said he outfitted the Vapor Room with 1970s furniture; big, plush couches, gaudy pyrex ashtrays, and wood paneling.

“We made it like your cool uncle’s stoner basement apartment. And it was a hit! It really was the first of its kind in San Francisco, along with the CHAMP dispensary, they had a beautiful lounge.”

CHAMP opened at the Market Street location after the CBC departed in 1998 and closed in 2002. In opening the Vapor Room, Olive sought out to build community through cannabis.

“We had a couple tables set up, so it was about 1,500 square feet, not super-big but big enough,” he said. “And [the lounge] really created a communal aspect; medicinal cannabis was this great unifier of all different types of people.”

Even after Vapor Room was forced into a change of location, Olive adapted and made the lounge experience even better.

“Due to some city regulations, we had to move in the building next door around 2006-07,” Olive said. “We took that opportunity to up our game a little bit, so we created a French cafe/apothecary atmosphere; marble tables, nice wooden chairs, with really nice subdued color pallets. It was a little bit more sophisticated than the typical lounge. We had Volcanoes on every table, bongs available, fresh water, hot tea, things like that. So we were giving people more than just a place to access medical cannabis, we were giving them a safe, clean comfortable space in a community setting.”

Even though medical marijuana continued making great strides in San Francisco, this was not acceptable to the federal government.

“In 2012, we got caught up in the Department of Justice crackdown on dispensaries throughout the state of California, and we were evicted without much compassion,” he said. “Leaving Lower Haight was a deep loss for the community, not only for the patients, but for the local businesses that were being supported by the 300 to 400 people we brought into our dispensary on a daily basis. That’s why I think dispensary lounges are so important, they really do support the neighborhoods they’re in.”

Over half of a decade passed until Olive resurrected Vapor Room.

“When we finally reopened in 2018, we found a location in a downtown ‘corporate corridor’ where Twitter, Uber, and Dolby are. So we definitely miss the residential community small business aspect of Lower Haight, but this is what was available. It’s about 700-800 square feet and we are making it work, with a couple of benches for people to smoke at. We do have a beautiful location; it’s nice, clean, and crisp with a big window, and a lot of sunlight and plants.”

But the fact that the club is located within a business district means people generally aren’t hanging out all day.

“It’s more like people on their lunch breaks or in for a meeting,” Olive said. “They’ll come in to buy a joint, take a few puffs and be on their way. Usually we’ll have anywhere from five to 15 people hanging out and chatting. And it is a really good communal atmosphere because you’re basically sitting right next to another person consuming cannabis, regardless if they’re a stranger or not, so you’re buddied up by default.”

The Continued Transformation of Social Consumption

Goldman and Koehn have seen the dispensary lounge landscape morph over the years.

“After CBC closed we didn’t go to dispensary lounges till at least 2006, when I became a medical cannabis patient because I was already using it medicinally and I wanted access to the highest quality cannabis,” Goldman said. “We began to see each lounge had a different vibe. Lounge 847 above the Green Door, on Howard street in SoMa [South of Market district], was our favorite lounge and easy to get to.

“Lounge 847 opened in 2012 and Michael and I held meetings there for Americans for Safe Access and the Brownie Mary Democratic Club. We had a lot of politicians visit there and they were impressed that we had such a great space to hold meetings.”

The Green Door is currently closed but may be reopened pending a multi-million dollar renovation.

“I’m glad we have a diversity of lounges in the city, but most of the new dispensaries don’t get a lot of business, so the lounges are going to waste in that they aren’t being used, which is a shame.”

One Commonality

For Olive one top aspect a cannabis lounge should provide is a comfortable and safe atmosphere for all.

“There’s no room in this concept for any kind of bigotry or racism or classism,” he said. “You can have your fancy Apple store style dispensary and lounge, but if you’re not making the regular guy and girl on the street and low-income people feel comfortable and safe and valid for being there, then you’re doing something wrong. A lounge should contribute to the culture of the cannabis community where people are meeting one another. The one commonality they all have is their love for cannabis, that’s the key element.”

In terms of what’s next Olive wants to go back to the future.

“Remember what the lounge is for amidst all the spreadsheets and profit margins; to provide high quality weed for people who use it for a variety or reliefs, be it symptoms issues, or for just feeling better about their day,” he said.

This article was originally published in the June 2023 issue of High Times Magazine.

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Police in San Francisco said last week that they have already seized more narcotics this year than in all of 2022, representing what they described as an “unprecedented amount.”

The city’s police department announced in a news release on Friday that its officers have seized more than 123 kilograms of narcotics so far in 2023, saying that the drug seizures “come amid an ongoing focus by SFPD and partner agencies to dismantle the open-air drug markets in the [Tenderloin District],” one of the city’s art and music enclaves that has been plagued by crime, and other adjacent neighborhoods. 

The department said that 80 kilograms of the seized narcotics were fentanyl. 

Officers at Tenderloin Station “have arrested 533 people for selling narcotics so far in 2023, nearly surpassing the 566 total arrests for narcotics sales in all of 2022,” the San Francisco PD said in the release.

“I want to thank our officers for their incredible work,” San Francisco police chief Bill Scott said in a statement. “We are committed to getting these drugs off our streets, and we are holding these dealers accountable. San Francisco should be a safe place for residents, businesses, and visitors to enjoy. Together with our partner agencies, we are making a difference in our downtown corridor.”   

In a statement, San Francisco Mayor London Breed noted that drug enforcement in the Tenderloin District remains a high priority for the city.

“I applaud the San Francisco Police Department and all of our public safety partners for their focused work to get fentanyl and other drugs plaguing our communities off the streets,” said Breed. “Their collaborative efforts demonstrate the City’s commitment to making the neighborhood safer for residents, families, and children who call the Tenderloin home. We will continue to build on this momentum to disrupt open-air drug markets and the sale of illegal goods to make San Francisco safe for everyone.”  

Friday’s news release noted that, since late May, the San Francisco Police Department “has worked collaboratively with other city, state, and federal partners to increase enforcement efforts in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods.”

“SFPD officers have been increasing patrols, buy-busts, warrant operations, and larger narcotics investigations, leading to more deadly drugs being taken off the streets amid an ongoing overdose crisis in San Francisco,” the release said. “The introduction of fentanyl into the city’s drug supply has caused fatal overdoses to dramatically increase in San Francisco in recent years. The SFPD recognizes that we must take a more aggressive approach to combat the crisis and improve street conditions and public safety.”

Fentanyl-related overdoses have risen significantly in the United States in recent years. A report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in May showed that 69,943 died of a fentanyl-induced overdose in 2021, representing a rate of 21.6; in 2016, 18,499 died of an overdose from fentanyl at a rate of 5.7.

“The age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl more than tripled over the study period, from 5.7 per 100,000 standard population in 2016 to 21.6 in 2021, with a 55.0% increase from 2019 (11.2) to 2020 (17.4), and a 24.1% increase from 2020 to 2021 (21.6). The rate of drug overdose deaths involving methamphetamine more than quadrupled, from 2.1 in 2016 to 9.6 in 2021,” the report said. The rate of drug overdose deaths involving cocaine more than doubled, from 3.5 in 2016 to 7.9 per 100,000 in 2021. The rate of drug overdose deaths involving heroin decreased by 40.8%, from 4.9 in 2016 to 2.9 in 2021, although this decrease was not statistically significant. The rate of drug overdose deaths involving oxycodone decreased 21.0%, from 1.9 in 2016 to 1.5 in 2021.”

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A pair of United Airlines workers are facing legal turbulence after getting busted for stealing marijuana from passengers’ checked luggage. 

According to various media reports, the two employees––Joel Lamont Dunn and Adrian Webb––worked as ramp cargo agents for United at San Francisco International Airport. 

It was there that the two allegedly operated a scheme involving other workers who were paid good money to steal the contraband from the luggage. 

The Los Angeles Times, citing a criminal complaint from the FBI, reports that Dunn and Webb “were charged on June 9 with conspiring to distribute a controlled substance.”

“Starting in 2020, Dunn and Webb oversaw an operation where other workers were paid $2,000 or more in cash each shift—or up to $10,000 a week—to steal large quantities of marijuana from checked luggage,” the Times reports. 

The San Francisco Standard, citing prosecutors in the case, that one of the airline workers approached by Dunn to join the scheme subsequently became a confidential source for law enforcement officials.

Things began to unravel for Dunn and Webb in June of 2021, when they were “robbed at gunpoint in the [San Francisco International] employee parking lot near their vehicles,” according to the San Francisco Standard.

While Dunn and Webb reported the robbery to law enforcement, they did not mention the stolen marijuana.

The Los Angeles Times reports: “Video surveillance footage from before and after the robbery showed the two men and other employees carrying 15- to 20-gallon black trash bags out of the secure area of the airport, the FBI complaint says. The video also shows Webb carrying a black trash bag, walking through the parking garage, heading toward his vehicle. Subsequent video footage from October 2022 showed the two men engaged in similar activity, taking bags of unknown contents from the secured area of the airport to their personal vehicles, according to the FBI. Contacted by law enforcement, one of the men initially denied that the contents belong to them but later recanted. A search warrant revealed that a black trash bag and two boxes contained multiple vacuumed sealed bags of what lab testing confirmed was approximately 30 pounds of marijuana, the FBI said. At least five people were involved in the operation, according to the complaint, but so far only Dunn and Webb have been charged.”

As more states legalized recreational cannabis use, restrictions on traveling with pot have also been relaxed. The Transportation Security Administration says that its “screening procedures are focused on security and are designed to detect potential threats to aviation and passengers,” adding that its officers “do not search for marijuana or other illegal drugs, but if any illegal substance is discovered during security screening, TSA will refer the matter to a law enforcement officer.”

Because airports are locally operated, officers generally defer to their local laws. In other words: if pot is legal, you’re probably good to fly with it. But travelers should be wary of the laws at their intended destination. Some airports, like O’Hare International in Chicago, have installed “amnesty boxes” for travelers to ditch their weed before flying.

“We’re not encouraging people to bring cannabis through the airports at all,” Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Maggie Huynh said in 2020, after the boxes were installed at O’Hare. “But if for some reason you have it on you, we have those amnesty boxes out there so that you can dispose of it prior to getting on the airplane.”

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The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted on June 6 to implement a citywide halt on issuing new cannabis business licenses for the next four-and-a-half years. The 10 members of the board present at the time voted unanimously, although one person was absent.

Supervisor Ahsha Safai was the driving force behind the moratorium, who emphasized that this move will be temporary. “It’s a pause, not a ban and ultimately, we can revisit where this is in a few years,” he said, according to The San Francisco Standard. 

The San Francisco Standard also states that the move addresses concerns from local Asian American communities that oppose cannabis, which could be a move by Safai to appeal to the group while he campaigns to run for mayor of San Francisco in 2024.

Safai cites that his reasoning behind the ban is mainly due to oversaturation of cannabis product and black market sales, as well as threats to public safety in regards to recent robberies. In May, Safai spoke to the board about these concerns. “Let’s be clear—we have no shortage of cannabis retail storefronts, and many are suffering because of brazen break-ins, public safety concerns and an unregulated market that is not facing proper enforcement,” he said.

The San Francisco Standard states that there are 32 licensed medical cannabis dispensaries in and 31 recreational dispensaries within city limits, with an estimated 100 applications currently being processed. According to SFGATE, there are an estimated nine cannabis dispensaries for every 100,000 people in San Francisco, compared to only 2.6 dispensaries for the same amount of people in San Diego, and 1.8 in Los Angeles, although cities such as Portland, Oregon have 34 dispensaries per 100,000 residents.

Supervisor Dean Preston also added his support in the vote on June 6 because of the addition of the 2027 sunset clause. “What was initially proposed was more of a longer term ban,” said Preston, according to SFGATE. “These amendments go a long way in creating more of a short term moratorium that was the original intention.”

The moratorium will last through the end of 2027, when the board of supervisors will decide whether to end or extend the ban. The moratorium doesn’t affect currently existing cannabis businesses or applicants. The ban will go into effect 30 days after approval, which will be in early July.

Already existing cannabis business owners such as Johnny Delaplane, co-owner of Berner’s on Haight, told SFGATE that more dispensaries will only cause more competition and ultimately reduces success for everyone else. “There is a finite amount of legal cannabis market in San Francisco,” Delaplane said. “If it’s being divided up into 70 retailers and soon it will be 140 retailers, many of those retailers are going to fail.”

UCLA lecturer of public policy and adjunct professor at Pepperdine University, Brad Rowe, explained that while this would help dispensaries profit, it will also likely raise product prices for consumers. “There is a way to build value by restricting access,” said Rowe. “The problem is who is going to pay for it? Consumers are the ones who are going to pay with higher prices.”

Other business owners addressed how this ban benefits the wealthy people who have already opened up stores in the city. “It’s unfair,” said Posh Green owner Reese Benton. “It’s hard for a person like me to even get their first store open.”

According to Gift of Doja owner Nina Parks, an equity applicant who is currently in the middle of the application process, the ban will harm other social equity applicants. “It legislates limited access to opportunity, when what the equity program is supposed to do is open up access for marginal folks,” said Parks.

In some areas like Pasco, Washington, officials lifted a 10-year ban on cannabis, however recently in Amsterdam, a ban was implemented to prevent cannabis smoking in public. Like in San Francisco, other recreational cannabis states are also facing problems with oversupply. A recent report from Associated Press covered how cultivators have too much product, with not enough legal dispensaries open to sell and distribute flower, edibles, and distillate.

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The California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) granted $19,942,918 to 16 academic institutions with plans to research cannabis on April 26. The grants will be dedicated to research initiatives exploring the effectiveness of cannabis on “mental health of young people, novel cannabinoids like Delta-8 and Delta-10 THC, and a first-of-its kind study of California’s legacy cannabis genetics, intended to preserve the history, value, and diversity of the communities that steward them,” a press release stated.

According to DCC chief deputy director Rasha Salama, the goal is to have these particular initiatives lead the way in cannabis studies. “It is the Department’s aspiration that these studies will advance the body of scientific research, further our understanding of cannabis, and aid to the continued development and refinement of the legal framework,” said Salama. “These studies will provide valuable insights on topics of interest to California’s consumers, businesses, and policy makers and the Department looks forward to sharing them once they are completed.”

Grants were awarded to institutions in six categories, including cannabis potency, medicinal use of cannabis, health of the cannabis industry, monopolies and unfair competition, California legacy genetics and genetic sequencing, and “other” topics. A total of 98 proposals were considered, and 16 were chosen from that pool based on “strong scientific methodology, their ability to provide useful information for policymaking, their advancement of public understanding of cannabis, and their potential to generate foundational research that will support exponential future knowledge.”

The institution that received the highest grant amount of funds was Cal Poly Humboldt with $2,699,178, which will be sued to tackle the topic of “Legacy Cannabis Genetics: People and Their Plants, a Community-Driven Study.” 

According to a press release, a nonprofit organization called Origins Council and the Cannabis Equity Policy Council is partnering with the Cal Poly Humboldt to work on the initiative. “This research seeks to empower and protect California’s legacy cultivation communities who have overcome great adversity to innovate and steward one of the most important collections of cannabis genetic resources in the world,” stated Origins Council executive director Genine Coleman.

Additionally, the University of California, Irvine and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) received $2 million each, and both will be conducting cannabis potency studies.

UCLA-based studies secured six grants, and University of California, Berkeley (UCB) received grants for three. Other institutions included University of California, San Francisco, University of California, Davis, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Cal Poly Humboldt.

One particular collaboration between UC Irvine and UCLA will conduct the “first double-blind, placebo-controlled, federally compliant, drug-administration study evaluating the intoxicating effects of inhaled cannabis plant compared to inhaled concentrates. It is expected [to] establish a clinically significant threshold to define high and low THC concentrations.”

In February, the DCC also announced a new grant program offering $20 million to help support and expand the state’s cannabis industry. “Expanding access to California’s retail cannabis market is an important step towards protecting consumer safety and supporting a balanced market,” said DCC director Nicole Elliott. “The retail access grant program ultimately seeks to encourage legal retail operations in areas where existing consumers do not have convenient access to regulated cannabis.” The grant application window ends on April 28, and $10 million of the grant funds will be awarded by June 20. After that, an additional $10 million will be “available to previous awardees as they issue licenses.”

The DCC released a statement in early March regarding the enforcement statistics from the past two years. According to the agency’s report, the DCC led 61 search warrant operations in 2021, but conducted 155 in 2022. In 2021, the DCC seized more than 41,726 pounds of cannabis (approximately $77,772,936 in value), but that number increased to 144,254 pounds in 2022 (estimated to be more than $243,017,836 in value).

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