When April 20th or 420 launched several decades ago, it was nothing more than an annual ritual for marijuana enthusiasts to light up and celebrate their love of the plant.
One example is Scott Sundvor, CEO and co-founder of Space Coyote, a San Francisco-based infused joint maker.
For her, 420 is a day to honor cannabis for all its aggregate benefits, which include treating diseases as well as providing food, clothing and shelter.
Yet not all deplore the commercialism.
To Evelyn LaChapelle, a program associate at the Last Prisoner Project, a nonprofit focused on cannabis criminal justice reform, and founder of luxury cannabis brand Eighty Seven, 420 is a distraction from more important priorities.
I’m the author of “Great Producers: Visionaries of the American Theater,” published by Allworth Press/Skyhorse in August 2008; “An Epiphany in Lilacs: In the Aftermath of the Camps,” originally published by Mazo Publishers in January 2017; and “Sentenced to Shakespeare,” a contemporary young adult/crossover novel published by Sunbury Press/Milford House Press in 2019.