Cannabis has been my medicine, my friend and teacher, my diplomatic peace maker and my creative muse. I’m not alone in my love for this healing herb. The East Bay has had a long relationship with ganja and is home to numerous iconic cannabis businesses. Go to any farmers market, outdoor festival or concert and the smell of marijuana will be present. Not overwhelming, just present. Stoners in the East Bay know how to be discreet.
I’ve never felt lonely because I’ve always had some stash to share with others. Cannabis helps people make friends—all you have to do is pass a stranger a good joint. And it has to be a good joint if you want to make a new friend in the East Bay. Swag won’t cut it. There are standards that need to be met here.
All kidding aside, over my four decades as a stoner, the Bay Area is the only place I’ve felt safe being a weed head in America. After all, the Bay Area is the birthplace of legalization. Three decades ago, a gay hippie outlaw in San Francisco named Dennis Peron legalized medical cannabis in California by the voter initiative Proposition 215 and changed the game for marijuana lovers. Peron had an army of queer activists helping him, and the odds those warriors overcame to win that election were enormous. Every stoner on the planet owes a debt to them.
For 20 years, I’ve traveled all over the country and globe, and heard story after story of weed saving lives. Whether it be saving children with epilepsy from premature death or an elder with cancer, these stories are too numerous not to matter. Peron was one of the first people to bear witness to the healing power of cannabis—in 1990, his lover, Johnathan West, died of AIDS-related causes but got relief from weed in the end. He was able to die with dignity and comfort.
Peron believed that all use of cannabis is medical use. Even if the end user is not intending to use it as medicine. Given the fact that every human being has an endocannabinoid system, he was probably right. The plant gets us stoned and well at the same time.
After 30 years of legalization in California, there’s a lot to celebrate—the prisons have been emptied of low-level cannabis convicts across the state, dispensaries have created access for millions of Californians and consumers have been liberated with hundreds of different types of lab-tested products to choose from. The days of “knowing a guy” who had one or two types of cannabis to choose from are long gone.
Here in the East Bay, the wave of marijuana normalization continues to build. Oaksterdam University recently partnered with the Oakland Ballers baseball team to organize a cannabis-themed evening of fun at Raimondi Park. The team was renamed the “Oaksterdam Blazers” for one night and even had uniforms to match.
The celebration included tributes to the Grateful Dead, complete with Dead Enough, a local tribute band, playing until 10pm. While there was no consumption allowed at this family-friendly event, it was kind of incredible to see cannabis infused into the American pastime.
On the 30th anniversary of Proposition 215, that electoral victory lingers on the palate and makes every legal joint taste that much sweeter. As we celebrate the best of the best in this issue, go ahead and love your weed. Hit up your local dispensary and wish them a happy 30th. And celebrate the fact that being a stoner in the East Bay is as normal as baseball.
See the readers’ picks for Best of Cannabis 2026.
