First annual San Francisco Weed Week to kick off this month

SAN FRANCISCO - Cannabis fans will have an opportunity to celebrate in San Francisco after all; the city announced that its annual 420 event in Golden Gate Park would be canceled this year due to budget cuts, but the cannabis community had another idea in mind.

San Francisco Weed Week kicks off on April 13; it's meant to be a celebration of cannabis culture and the rich history that it has here in the city.

"The event is canceled, but 420 is an organic event that came together not because the city said so, but because the community makes it happen as long as we do so safely," San Francisco Mayor London Breed said of San Francisco Weed Week.

"I love the fact that cannabis is so unifying; it traverses all demographics, races, ages, creeds. We are gonna keep centering the unity, and we're gonna build together," SF Weed Week co-founder David Downs said. 

The idea was born out of Downs' trip to SF Beer Week last year. Efforts from the city helped make it a reality.

The event highlights seven dispensaries and seven strains throughout the week. An extensive gallery was also built to put the history of the flower on display. 

The mayor says cannabis is expected to bring $789 million into California's economy between 2024 and 2025. That boost is thanks in part to the 52 business licenses and $11 million in grants provided to new owners as part of the city's equity programs.

Ali Jamalian works with the San Francisco Cannabis Oversight Committee. He was arrested in 1999 for distributing cannabis when he was in college. He dropped out to handle the case. Today he is a recipient of an equity grant from the city.

"I was the one that benefited; I was able to build a business. Today we have 15 employees, and we're one of the best-selling joints in the state," Jamalian told KTVU.

Many growers have been in the cannabis industry for decades.

"I didn't necessarily love what I did, but I was doing well. But cannabis was always this tenor of quelling anxiety and making me feel more adept in my day," Joyce Cenali, owner of Sonoma Hills Farm told KTVU.

Cannabis still has a stigma to overcome, and medical cannabis experts still struggle when working with traditional doctors.

Dr. Jean Talleyrand is a medical doctor who founded Medicann and Discover Your Color. He says the legitimization of cannabis is incredibly important to its future.

"We are classifying the flowers by chemical type rather than the way they've been doing it traditionally, which is smoking in a back room and raising their hands," Talleyrand said.

But these experts say cannabis can be a godsend for the right patients.

"It is sometimes the only medicine that works for childhood epilepsy," said cannabis nurse educator Maureen Smyth.