California State Fair Allows Cannabis Sales and Consumption For the First Time

California took the historic step of allowing cannabis sales and consumption at its State Fair in Sacramento over the weekend. The historic move drew a large crowd of enthusiasts and curious folks from across California for the opening weekend, with opportunities to sample and enjoy award-winning cannabis strains and products throughout the month. 

Embarc, the fair’s partner on the project, is hosting a dispensary and 30,000-square-foot outdoor consumption lounge space at Cal Expo, allowing fair-goers who are 21 and older to buy and try award-winning cannabis. The company operates several cannabis retailers in California and has hosted cannabis consumption spaces at festivals like Outside Lands in San Francisco. 

This is the third year the Fair has featured a cannabis exhibit and competition, but the first year that sales and consumption are allowed. This year, outside the CBD-only cannabis exhibit hall at the Fair is a "cannabis oasis," where cannabis flower and products can be purchased, and drinks and edibles can be consumed. At one end of the "oasis" fair-goers can purchase cannabis products from Embarc or, at the other end, from a group of cannabis equity companies from across the state (shown). Customers can then walk down a path to the consumption space and enjoy their purchases with others inside a huge tent. Shade, misters, and fans provide relief from the heat in both spaces, and the exhibit space is air-conditioned. 

Attendees can see the names of winning entries in various categories (Sungrown, Indoor, Mixed Light, plus edibles, topicals, pre-rolls, etc.) and use a QR code to pre-order the winners at Embarc. Nowhere, however, can customers smell or sample any cannabis before purchasing, unlike the rules for beer and wine at the fair. Indeed, booze can be purchased and consumed all over the Fair with children present, while only those 21 and over can enter the cannabis exhibit space. 

The equity businesses who have trouble competing for shelf space in dispensaries were happy to be participating, even as some bristled against the overregulation that plagues the California cannabis industry, including at the fair. The Oakland-based company Clarified, which makes edibles using tightly-controlled dosages of cannabis ghee, was unable to offer their infused popcorn at the event, where regulators also limited sales based on total THC per package. 

I got to meet the dynamic Tiana Woodruff (pictured), founder of the Queen Mary social equity brand based in LA. But when I asked to buy a company T-shirt modeled by her handsome young helper, I was told they couldn't get a license to sell their merchandise at the booth. More beautifully designed products like stashboxes with inlaid abalone were seen from Martyjuana Farms; I was told I could purchase them on e-Bay. 

Fairgoers added sticky notes to a wall sponsored by the state Department of Cannabis Control that asked, "How Do You Enjoy Your Weed?" with answers like, "With friends at the CA State Fair" and "With my grandma." Many stopped at an information booth that Cal NORML shared throughout the weekend with the nascent California Cannabis Historical Society, founded by longtime activist Michelle Aldrich. Cal NORML director Dale Gieringer was the first person to make a cannabis purchase at the Fair, on Friday, July 12. Two days later, Cal NORML's Deputy Director Ellen Komp (me) was among the first to experience the cannabis consumption lounge at the Fair.

With the exception of Friday, July 19 when the cannabis sales and consumption spaces will be closed (due to Brewfest happening that day), the spaces will be open for the duration of the Fair, which continues through July 28. Read more about the Fair and cannabis.

ADDENDUM: California is likely named for Califia or Calafia, the fictional queen from 16th century Spanish poet Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo's novel celebrating chivalry, Las sergas de Esplandián. In the novel, Calafia is a pagan warrior queen who ruled over a kingdom of Black women warriors living on the Island of California, off the coast of Asia. The author drew upon reports from Columbus's voyage to the New World to write: "Know ye that at the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California, very close to that part of the Terrestrial Paradise, which was inhabited by black women without a single man among them, and they lived in the manner of Amazons. They were robust of body with strong passionate hearts and great virtue." Calafia wore an armor made of fish bones, used weapons made of gold, and commanded an army of griffins. 

The book was very popular for many decades; in Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes it is the first of the books from the title character's library to be burned as contributing to his strange behavior. Explorer Hernán Cortés read it and, when Spanish explorers under his command heard of an island off the coast of Mexico rumored to be ruled by Amazon women, they named it California; when it was discovered to be a peninsula it was re-named Baja California and the name spread northward. 

Unfortunately in the book, Queen Calafia is conquered, converted to Christian beliefs, and married off. I think it's time to bring back the Queen and her power. There is a petition to redesign the Great Seal of California to feature Calafia, instead of the Greek Goddess Athena. Artist Ruth Frase re-designed the Seal to feature a Native American woman for a hemp/cotton Cal NORML T-shirt modeled here by activist extraordinaire Richard Miller at the entrance to the State Fair cannabis consumption lounge on its opening day.