The billboards, bus ads and online videos popping up around the Bay Area this week look like they could be hawking beer or coffee or kale. Over a photo of a soil-covered hand caressing a tiny plant are the words: “Craft farmers. Small batch. Sustainable. The California Way.”
But the ads are extolling the California way of growing cannabis. And on this April 20 — a.k.a. 4/20, the off-the-calendar holiday/celebration of all things marijuana — the new ad campaign is a sign of an industry simultaneously excited and a bit nervous about growing up, coming out of the darkness and going legitimate.
These should be heady days for cannabis farmers and fans, perhaps the last 4/20 when marijuana is not fully legal for adults in California. In October, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, a package of measures intended to provide more structure and clarity for the state’s loosely regulated, billion-dollar medicinal cannabis industry.
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