Casey O’Neill is a farmer and owner of Happy Day Farms in Laytonville, Calif. The opinions expressed in this column are not those expressed by The Mendocino Voice.

We’re out on the road for the 4:20 celebration, stopping at dispensaries to hang out and connect with folks. Friday we attended Seniors’ night at Root’d in the 510 in Oakland, and we were struck by how joyful cannabis is for people who remember the days when a joint could get you arrested. On the consumption end, cannabis is more free than it has ever been before, with stores stocked up with oils, pens, dabs, edibles, tinctures and flower. 

There is deep joy and connection in cannabis, in the gathering and celebrating of humanity. Listening to live music, smoking a joint, chatting with old friends and new ones. I love the moments of evolution, the uplifting conversations that new experiences bring, the changes I feel within me. We’re all trying to navigate the intensity of modern life, and I’m reminded of the Ram Dass quote “We’re all just walking each other home.” 

In these moments of connection I’m reminded of the days when we held medical cannabis farmers markets under Proposition 215, signing members up for the collective and offering big jars of herb on the table for folks to sample and take home with them in exchange for a reimbursement for our costs of cultivating it. I remember the feeling of a dream come true, the excitement of having the herb on our market table next to the vegetables and canned goods, our whole farm represented. 

Alas, that dream was a fleeting experience, replaced by the intricacies of nightmarish bureaucracy and evolving regulations that are often pointless and duplicative. Forced into wholesale spaces, our small farm was unable to compete and over the last few years barely managed to stay afloat, depending on vegetable sales and grant funds as we struggled to survive. 

This spring we have hope again, as we’ve launched HappyDay ½ ounces and have our herb on shelves in more than 10 stores, along with our presence in the Farm Cut Cooperative, which is in 50 stores. Working together with other small farms to figure out how to navigate testing, distribution, administrative work and sales has been crucial for us, as well as the assistance we get from Redwood Roots and the relationships we are building with the shops that have put us on their shelves. 

I notice that the best dispensaries build and foster community, creating safe spaces for people to gather and enjoy cannabis, to connect, to belong. Cannabis has always been about community, it’s sum more than the parts that make up the supply chain. It feels good to get down to the Bay Area and connect with friends that we’ve made over the last 10-15 years as cannabis moved into a space in which you could be open about it, talk about it, celebrate it. Yesterday at Richmond’s 7 Stars Holistic Healing Center we had herb on the table for folks to smell along with canned goods and vegetables and other farm products, and I was deeply reminded of those old 215 markets.

It’s a strange feeling to experience both the excitement of a new era and the crushing difficulty and disappointment that our communities on the North Coast have suffered. My thoughts are drawn back to the presentation that we gave to the State Assembly in 2017 called “An Emerging Crisis.” In my testimony I noted that without significant changes in the licensing process and an easier road to compliance, there would be catastrophic economic consequences and a drastic need for expanded social safety nets. 

The state couldn’t have done a worse job of cannabis regulation for farms on the North Coast. It’s been a brutal road, with few still surviving and all struggling. The dichotomy between the joy that cannabis connection brings for people, and the difficulties that operators face is stark, an uphill battle that remains a struggle nine years after voters passed Proposition 64 in 2016.

And yet, when we get out on the road and connect with people, I feel hope. I am reminded that the road out of Prohibition is long, and that the support and succor that cannabis provides to people trying to survive late-stage capitalism is real and important. I am reminded that people need access to quality herb, grown in living soil with loving intention, and that the same is true for the food we eat. It feels good to be drawing together small pieces of this ethos, offering food that we’ve grown along with our cannabis when we set up our tables to talk with folks at dispensaries. 

When we’re out on the road, we show up with cookies that Pops makes for the farmstand, bringing them to share with the people we meet. We have a cooler full of salad mixes and other greens, helping to connect folks to our farm, to our place in the world. We bring joy and good herb, spreading love and good energy, striving to help others have a HappyDay. Happy 4:20, and as always, much love and great success to you on your journey!

Casey O’Neill owns and runs HappyDay Farms, a small vegetable and cannabis farm north of Laytonville. He is a long time cannabis policy advocate, and was born and raised in the Bell Springs area. The preceding has been an editorial column. The Mendocino Voice has not necessarily fact-checked or copyedited this work, and it should be interpreted as the words of the author, not necessarily reflecting the opinions of The Mendocino Voice.