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In what may come as a surprise to no one currently cooped up at home, the annual 4/20 celebration on Hippie Hill in Golden Gate Park has gone up in smoke. Organizers announced Wednesday that the event would be cancelled as a precautionary measure against the spread of coronavirus.

"We take the health & safety of the public, our staff, vendors, and sponsors very seriously," they wrote in a statement. "We feel it’s all of our responsibility to do our part to minimize social gathering and potential spread of this virus in the community."

It's unclear if the gathering in Robin Williams Meadow will be postponed for a later date, but event coordinators added they'll be "working closely" with their community partners and local city departments and will provide further details as soon as they have them. They did also write, "See you next year."

4/20 on Hippie Hill has grown substantially since its conception in the 1970s — city officials estimated a turnout between 13,000 and 14,000 people in 2019.

Next month's celebration would have been significant, marking the first year legal cannabis sales could have taken place there.

Even though the practice was legalized a month before last year's 4/20 event, organizers were unable to acquire a temporary permit because they would have needed to do so 60 days prior to the event. They also would have been required to obtain a cannabis organizing license issued by the state, Tom Temprano, an aide to Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, told the Chronicle last year.

For now, Golden Gate Park remains open to the public. Will socially distanced stoners arrange an impromptu celebration anyway? Or, like many others, will the gathering go virtual? Only time will tell.

At any rate, dispensaries have opened their doors once again after the Department of Public Health deemed cannabis "an essential medicine" for many San Francisco residents.

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Amanda Bartlett is an SFGATE associate digital reporter. Email: amanda.bartlett@sfgate.com | Twitter: @byabartlett