New York is certainly never in need of a good party—we have them all the time! But one thing it does lack are some good cannabis ones, and for obvious reasons: 1) It’s still illegal here, for the most part, and 2) Well, it’s still illegal here! Decriminalized, yes, but technically still illegal, which unfortunately means most of the scene is kept very much underground.
Are we jealous of some of our more cannabis-friendly left coast neighbors? Sure. Do we wish New York would get its act together and catch up with the rest of the liberal-leaning legalized states? Absolutely. Do we wish we lived elsewhere? Fuck no!
Let’s be real, New York is hands down one of the greatest cities on earth, and just because we can’t openly celebrate cannabis the way we’d like to doesn’t mean we still can’t support the “cause” and celebrate in other ways, and that’s exactly what we did thanks to the folks at Women Grow.
If you’re not familiar with Women Grow, they’re one of the largest professional networking organizations in the cannabis community with over 20,000 professionals across 45 cities in both the US and Canada, and while most of their members are women (about 70%), they still have a large male community and are growing it every day because, hey, that’s what they do—grow. “Women… Grow…”
Anyways, they put together a great holiday event last week at a “secret” loft in downtown Manhattan that included an open wine bar, gourmet goodies (of the legal variety, of course) personal haikus from the “Haiku Guys,” the now mandatory holiday party photo booth (literally seen at every event we’ve attended this month), and, most importantly, a great group of friendly folks and sponsors that truly represented a wide swath of the industry.
We’re talking Puffco, the Bowery Cannabis Club, Cloud No.9 wine, Etain (1 of only 4 state licensed medical dispensaries), and not one, but two cannabis-friendly business law firms just in case anyone got into trouble—Meyer Suozzi and Duane Morris (Duane Reade was taken).
Yup, it was a fun event and definitely encouraging to see and experience. As cannabis continues its push towards complete legalization, we’ll hopefully be attending a lot more of these in the future, and the more open and legally bold about we are, the more progress will be made towards bringing cannabis out in the open where it should be and finally ridding it of all the false and negative stigmas and stereotypes that the plant and its culture carry.
We’re way beyond the hippies-era 60’s and 70’s folks, and today’s average cannabis user isn’t some high school teenager taking bong hits and playing video games in their basement. It’s normal everyday working folks like you and me (you do work, don’t you?), and the sooner this country and, more specifically, our government realizes it, the sooner we’ll be able to enjoy cannabis the way it was meant to be enjoyed—out in the open amongst friends, family, and yes, even our pets. Amen.
Photography by Todd Hinden
