The West Coast has always been a place where counterculture has flourished, where the legal and social structures of the East Coast can’t quite reach. It was from the Pacific states where hippies first emerged in the 1960s, and with them, a greater acceptance of various mind-altering substances — to include cannabis.
You can’t call yourself a true marijuana enthusiast if you haven’t made a pilgrimage to California’s cannabis cultural sites. Here are a few must-visit destinations around the state, which will put you in a weedy, West Coast state of mind.
Bay Area Marijuana Tour
In many ways, the Bay Area was center of the beginning of weed acceptance in the United States. Despite being one of the first states to criminalize marijuana at the beginning of the 20th century, California looked the other way when Ron and Jay Thelin opened the first head shop in 1966 in San Francisco’s Ashbury neighborhood. At the Psychedelic Shop, San Franciscans could buy weed safely and free of judgement. Over the next couple decades, California dismantled its unjust cannabis legislation, and in 1992, the San Francisco Buyers Club opened as the first public marijuana dispensary in the United States.
Touring the Bay Area is critical for appreciating weed culture across California. Guided tours in San Francisco will take you to the most popular dispensaries and provide history and context for existing regulations around the city and state. You might also find a tour that takes you to a marijuana greenhouse or pairs bud with wine and food. Regardless, you should take an independent trip to the Haight-Ashbury district — sometimes called Hashbury — to pay your respects to those who established cannabis culture and fought for legalization.
High Yoga
The adoption of marijuana as a recreational drug in the 1960s amongst white Californians came alongside experimentation with other so-called “Eastern” practices — most notably yoga. In India, yoga developed as a spiritual practice to assist practitioners in the ultimate goal of liberation from mental and physical suffering. Some of the most popular early yoga practices in America were established at studios in San Francisco, some of which, like Magana Baptiste’s, still exist.
One of the best ways to connect with your body and spirit through yoga is to practice the meditative movements while stoned. There are several high yoga studios around California, where you can smoke or enjoy edibles before and during your practice.
Cannabis Farm Tour
Visiting a city greenhouse or micro grow operation is one thing — walking around a full-fledged cannabis farm is quite another. California’s climate is perfect for growing weed, and thanks to its more open-minded regulations, the state boasts some of the largest cannabis farms in the U.S. The most sizeable in the state at last measure is Glass House Farms, outside of Santa Barbara, where there are over 200,000 square feet of indoor growing space packed with Dream Walker, King Louie and Super Silver Haze strains. However, a more plentiful area for cannabis farms is Humboldt County, which is the perfect mixture of warm, cool, dry and humid. You can explore several different grow operations on a trip to California’s northwest and see a different Cali climate than you might be accustomed to.
Cannabis Cup
The Cannabis Cup is an annual competition amongst growers, edible makers and other creators within the cannabis community with the goal of finding and rewarding the best-tasting, most-potent weed goodies. The competition began in Amsterdam, but the first U.S. cup was held in Southern California in 2010 to celebrate the strong cannabis counterculture of the region. Now, almost every city with legal adult-use weed has its own Cannabis Cup qualifiers, but being a part of SoCal’s Cannabis Cup is a particularly transcendent experience you shouldn’t miss, filled with lectures from famous names in the cannabis industry, cannabis craft and cooking classes, bud samples and more. Hopefully, Cannabis Cup events will be back on in 2021, so you can start planning your visit soon.
Whether you live in Los Angeles or are dreaming of a California vacation, you should put some type of weed-focused excursion on your upcoming travel itinerary. The West Coast’s long history with cannabis has matured into a respect and refinement that makes Cali weed tourism exceptionally fun.
