My Kinda Town!

 

Taking photos in front of a sign welcoming visitors to Weed, Calif.

Credit...

Max Whittaker for The New York Times

No Longer the ‘Devil’s Lettuce’: How the Town of Weed Embraced Weed

.For decades, a rural California city winced at the puns. Now it’s cashing in

WEED, Calif. — When they see the signs for Weed, carloads of curious travelers veer off the freeway to stop and gawk. They file into gift shops that sell “Weed Is So Dope” refrigerator magnets and sweatshirts advertising a fictional University of Weed: “A Place of Higher Learning.”

For decades, the residents of Weed, a California lumber town an hour from the Oregon border, have felt like the butt of jokes, exasperated from the repetition of the Daily Explanation: No, the town is not named for marijuana but a local 19th-century timber baron, Abner Weed. For years, the town rejected proposals to leverage the name and allow the sale of marijuana.

“I did not want a bunch of potheads sitting out in front of the store smoking doobies on a bench,” said Sue Tavalero, a former hairdresser who is now mayor.

But Weed’s leaders, including Ms. Tavalero, have since had a change of heart. The City Council cracked open the door to the pot industry three years ago, allowing a medical marijuana dispensary to open on Main Street.

Then last year, when a second dispensary opened, even as other businesses downtown suffered during lockdowns, Weed’s leaders turned their timid embrace of marijuana into a full bear hug. In November, the City Council unanimously approved a plan for a sprawling facility on the edge of town with a capacity to grow 150,000 cannabis plants and employ 300 people.

Weed is by no means the only town in California to harbor ambivalence about cannabis. Overall approval in the state for legal marijuana runs high, but it often collides at the local level with not-in-my-backyard-style rejection.

Although most major cities in the state, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose, allow the sale of cannabis, smaller and more conservative cities like Bakersfield and Anaheim bar the drug from being sold.

Overall, around 70 percent of cities and towns in California do not allow dispensaries, according to Weedmaps, a website that hosts online reviews of cannabis businesses.

Weed is now making a bet that it can market not only its name but its location at the foot of the slopes of Mount Shasta, a dormant, snow-capped volcano with a passing resemblance to Japan’s Mount Fuji. The city trademarked a logo that would be placed on packaging of its marijuana, a “Made in Weed” appellation akin to those used by Champagne or Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Eventualy, after the bullshit of the past (created and spread by a horribly judgemental and misquided sense of self rightousness on the part of our federal government) comes to an end all people across our fruited plains will be able to enjoy the many healthful and calming benefits of planet earth's gift to humankind.