'Four-twenty', one of the most popular nicknames for cannabis, got its name from the time of day a group of high school students in San Rafael, California, would gather for a toke. From that inauspicious beginning, April 20 has become the world’s most celebrated countercultural holidays, with events ranging from a “smokeout” in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to a “hashbash” in Ann Arbor, Michigan to “Weedstock” in Atlanta. While many local celebrations will dominated by discussion of changing laws and local politics, it’s an auspicious time to celebrate some of the more delightful and overlooked aspects of this growing culture.

1. It’s frequently generous

I’ve been traveling the world researching a book on the new world of cannabis. From Safed, Israel, home of Kabbalah, to Santa Cruz, California, home of all things hippie, to Denver, now the coolest city in the US, I’ve met growers, dispensary owners and health practitioners who give away cannabis to people in need. The devilishly saintly Valerie Corral provides free flowers, oils and edibles to the terminally ill. She has done this for some 22 years at her Santa Cruz institution, the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana. She grows her meds on her farm high above the Pacific Ocean, the closest place to heaven I’ve ever seen. In the old days, she and her then-husband, Mike, would pack their excess harvest into their truck, park on the side of the road and disburse it to any interested passers by.





Photo of water hash varieties at the Emerald Cup





2. The Emerald Cup, “The Best Party You’ll Never Remember.”

Cannabis conventions are fun, but this California competition that shows off the year’s finest organic strains is well worth two full days of attendance. It’s set in the Santa Rosa, California, fairgrounds, and attendees sample the latest in organic concentrates, water hashish, candies, cookies, “potcorn,” and other assorted edibles; try new fangled delivery systems; see impressive glass art, and despite the quote above, indulge in other very memorable activities.

3. It could save Detroit

What’s the best thing to do with miles of vacant lots, empty factories and thousands of unemployed people? Start indoor grow farms to revive Michigan’s economy, and plant hemp, the amazing weed that revitalizes soil, refreshes filthy air with tons of oxygen and produces the world’s strongest fiber, one that’s already used to build car doors for Mercedes. What does Detroit have to lose?

4. Plant lovers are, in general, gentle souls

Cannaphiles love their crops more than most. They had better: Nurturing fine herb takes a lot of time. As Terrence McKenna said in Food of the Gods: “We can begin the restructuring of thought by declaring legitimate what we have denied for so long. Lets us declare Nature to be legitimate. The notion of illegal plants is obnoxious and ridiculous in the first place.” Or, as Michael Pollan asked in The Botany of Desire: “And what might our ancient attraction for flowers have to teach us about the deeper mysteries of beauty, what one poet has called “this grace wholly gratuitous”? Good question!