BY: TYLER FYFE

Two Northern California dispensaries understand the trauma of watching your home and entire property rise in plumes of smoke. This why Care By Design and AbsoluteXtracts medical marijuana dispenseries are attempting to ease the burden of stress with a different kind of smoke.

In a joint announcement, the companies announced that they would be donating $20,000 worth of marijuana products, offering up to $200 of free bud to each patient.

Photo by: David McNew/Getty Images

So far, 305,264 acres of California’s forests have blackened as California’s wildfires continue to push across the countryside. More than 23,000 people have been forced to flee the smell of their charred possessions. The communities of Cobb, Hidden Valley Lake, Kelseyville, and Middletown have been ravaged without mercy from Mother Nature. Over 2,000 homes have been swallowed, the blaze resulting in four funerals.

As Los Angeles Times reports, free products have been available since Thursday to those with medical marijuana cards at dispensaries in Santa Rosa, Lake County, Sebastopol and San Francisco.

With the death toll rising, dozens now dead and the state now bracing itself for the flames to move South, the simple act of kindness sets a precedent for private enterprises to take public issues into their own hands. Currently the Golden State is in the midst the worst drought in 500-years.

With 94 per cent of the state classified as being in “severe drought,” city water-restrictions and state of emergency declared, let’s hope the free marijuana contributes to de-stressing residents—rather than unintentionally contributing to dry mouth.

Image via: huffpost.com