SF Mayor Recommends Netflix and Chill for 420 Revelers

If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair...

But not this year. And don't smoke your flowers there either, this 4/20.

To be clear: 4/20 will not be tolerated this year.

Do not come to San Francisco to celebrate. We will cite people. We will arrest people if necessary.

Order food. Watch Netflix. Stay home and stay safe. pic.twitter.com/4w2T9XJrej

— London Breed (@LondonBreed) April 13, 2020

It's long been known that the April 20 celebration at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco—which has been happening spontaneously since the 1970s, drawing upwards of 10,000 celebrants—has been out of control. Organizers tried to take over the event a few years back, holding a celebration in Robin Williams Meadow with vendors and sponsors to pay for services and clean-up.

Organizers cancelled the event and San Francisco's Mayor London Breed has a strong message for anyone tries to show up this year: don't. Robin Williams Meadow will be fenced off, and officers will patrol the area, making sure people don't gather there or elsewhere. “We will not allow this unsanctioned event to occur this year, especially in the height of a pandemic,” Breed said

Her pledge to cite and arrest people is real: It's technically still illegal to smoke (or vape) in the park, so violators could be cited for that, as well as charged with a misdemeanor with a $1000 fine for violating sheltering orders.

On Twitter and Facebook, Breed suggested an alternative: "Order food. Watch Netflix. Stay home and stay safe."

What to Watch

Mary-Louise Parkers Stays at Home with a Pot Plant on "Weeds"

Luckily, there are plenty of weed-themed shows to watch on Netflix, starting with "Weeds," the series in which Mary-Louise Parker plays a comely widow who grows marijuana to save her family. It's a good time to catch up on the series because a sequel, "Weeds 4.20," is due to come out next year, on the Starz network.

(Actually, I notice several of the movies I recommend on my 420 movie list this year are available with Starz subscriptions via Amazon Prime).

Rita Moreno  after eating an edible in "One Day at a Time" 

Other Netflix shows with Weed (and Women):

-"Grace and Frankie" (of course; a new season is planned for it this year)

-"The Last Laugh" in which Andie MacDowell turns Chevy Chase onto pot and more.

-"Dead to Me" on which Linda Cardellini "reacquaints" Christina Applegate to weed.

-"Disjointed" with Kathy Bates running a marijuana dispensary

-"One Day At a Time" - Rita Moreno enjoys eating an edible on the "Nip It In the Bud" episode, which raises some interesting questions about race and marijuana.

-"Cuckoo" with MacDowell's wacky character running a pot farm

-"That 70s Show" where the gals and guys sit in The Circle and even mom has some brownies.


Also on Netflix:

- "Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle" (a cut above the usual stoner buddy movies).

- "Cheech and Chong: Up in Smoke" - a classic.

- "Grass is Greener" - a 2019 documentary with Snoop Dogg, Killer Mike & others talking about the history of cannabis from the jazz era until today.


On Hulu:

- "The Breakfast Club" - a group of teens stuck in detention learns to bond over a joint

- "Grandma" - Lily Tomlin plays an awesome pot-smoking feminist poet

- "Saving Grace" - Brenda Blethyn grows weed to save her Conwall home

- "9 to 5" - Tomlin, Jane Fonda, and Dolly Parton have "an old fashioned ladies' pot party" and plot to overthrow their boss

- "Bad Teacher" - Cameron Diaz lights up the screen in more ways than one

- "Life of Crime" - Jennifer Aniston enjoys being kidnapped so much more with a little weed

- "It's Complicated" - Meryl Streep and Steve Martin "poke smot" and feel groovy.

- "Being John Malkovich" - Diaz, Catherine Keener,  and John Cusack get stoned together and explore consciousnesses in this brilliant, offbeat comedy.

- "Bored to Death" - with Jenny Slade as the pot-loving love interest of Jason Schwartzman with Zach Galifianakis, Ted Danson. Wickedly funny. (Also on Amazon Prime.)

- "Half Baked" - Dave Chappelle's marijuana movie; he quits smoking to please a girl (unless you watch the alternative endings). 


On Amazon Prime: 

Maude Instructs Harold

- "The Only Living Boy in New York" where Jeff Bridges plays a much more interesting stoner than The Dude.

- "Ride" where Helen Hunt learns to surf, smoke, and fall in love with Luke Wilson.

- "Annie Hall" with Diane Keaton in her Oscar-winning pothead role. (Also on Hulu)

- "Harold and Maude" where 80-year-old Maude turns on a young man, and teaches him to love life.

- "Mozart in the Jungle" - classical musicians and their drugs in NYC.

- "The Dressmaker" - where Kate Winslet and Judy Davis bake special cakes for their neighbor in pain.

- "Fleabag" has Phoebe Waller-Bridge flashing back to toking up with her lost girlfriend Boo.

Also on Amazon:

- "Grass" - excellent 1999 documentary narrated by Woody Harrelson about the history of hemp.

- "Super High Me" - Comedian Doug Benson's amusing take on "Supersize Me"

- "A NORML Life" - A history of the OG marijuana rights organization.

- "Cheech & Chong: Still Smokin" - self-explanatory. Also on Hulu.

- "Emperor of Hemp - The Jack Herer Story" - the man, not the strain.

- "California 90420" - a 2013 documentary about California's attempt to legalize marijuana in 2010.

- "Reefer Madness" - the 1930s anti-pot propaganda film. Also viewable is "She Shoulda Said No," an even worse documentary starring Lila Leeds, the starlet who was arrested with Robert Mitchum for pot in 1948.