Looking Back / Looking Forward

On September 8th, 2018 the cannabis community planted our flag proudly in the middle of Todos Santos Park, the main town square of Concord, the largest city in Contra Costa County (129,000 people). Thanks to the tireless effort of the NORML leadership (too many people to thank without forgetting someone inadvertently). You know who you are and we know who you are.

Even the bravest of us had doubts that we could pull it off when we began planning in the spring. After all, our chapter was just about a year old, although we proudly accumulated battle scars through hard-fought City Council, County Board of Supervisors, State Legislature, Planning Commissions and too many other boards and commissions to count or even remember. 

We took a chance, had a vision, worked our tail ends off and the result was a glorious day in the park with hundreds of people, Mayors and Council members and candidates from Walnut Creek and Concord, booths (no products) from many of the major players in the East Bay (Harborside, Eaze, Magnolia, Oaksterdam, Radicle Health). Great talk, wonderful vibes, no consumption, see Chris Conrad’s wonderful article. 

A year later, we look at a very different landscape. Every major city in Contra Costa County (and the County) has adopted a regulatory framework for commercial cannabis. We are 99% certain to see in 2019 our first dispensary open outside of Richmond. Most likely candidates as of this writing are Martinez or Antioch. Mark Unterbach’s ProCanLabs took a building that had sat vacant for ten years, an eyesore in an important industrial section of Concord,  and transformed it into a state of the art cannabis manufacturing facility. They have been in business for a few weeks.

The walls of prohibition are tumbling as we keep pushing forward. However, as we learn again almost every day, 80 years of reefer madness die very, very hard. Often we take two steps forward, three back, two sideways. But we keep pushing on. 

This year we celebrate with a Harvest Party on November 2nd, details to follow.