There are a few dates in the world of cannabis culture and among cannabis consumers that are often celebrated.
At adult use cannabis dispensaries Green Wednesday has emerged as the cannabis world’s answer to Black Friday. Christmas Eve is another busy cannabis shopping day at local dispensaries. Then there’s 7/10, considered a ‘stoner holiday’ for consuming cannabis oil products , because 710 turned upside down is “OIL”.
However, 4/20 continues to be the quintessential cannabis holiday across the globe.
This year, East Boston’s Happy Valley will host its first 4/20 celebration at the dispensary’s McClellan Highway location on Wednesday, April, 20.
“You have four cannabis celebration days but by far 4/20 is the biggest,” said Happy Valley General Manager Gilly Motta. “It’s our first one here in East Boston so we’re having a food truck show up, Papi’s Stuffed Sopapillas, and they’ll be serving up their Sopapillas, which is like a Latin sandwich. We’ll have free coffee in the morning from 8 am to noon served by Dave’s Coffee. So we’ll be opening two hours earlier on 4/20 hoping to catch some early bird traffic and do some spotlight products for customers in the morning.”
The official cannabis holiday began In 1971 after five high school students in San Rafael, California used the term “4:20” in connection with a plan to search for an abandoned cannabis crop, based on a treasure map made by the grower. The five students set 4:20 pm as their meeting time and 4/20 became synonymous with the consumption of marijuana after the popular cannabis magazine, High Times, highlighted their exploits.
“This is our first shot of opening two hours early so we are going to see what that market looks like on that day,” said Motta.
Happy Valley ran a successful event the day before Thanksgiving on the Green Wednesday cannabis holiday.
“So we are building on that event because that was a really smooth day,” said Motta. “All day was transaction after transaction and a great experience for our customers. Nobody felt rushed. Our dispensary is much larger than others in the area so we have the ability to have customers and patients browse the store while there’s people being checked out so there’s not that added pressure of knowing your order in five seconds before you walk in the door. So green Wednesday was an absolute success. We’re definitely gonna replicate that for 4/20.”
Motta said inside the dispensary staff will be on hand to help as some nice music plays over Happy Valley’s sound system.
“We are not going to have a DJ this time,” said Motta. “Even though it’s a busy day. There’s a lot of room to walk around and look at things and our staff will be able to have conversations with customers and patients and give them the time that they need. We’re going to have some nice music playing over our speakers so it’ll be a nice lovely sales environment.”
As sponsors of this year’s Boston Calling music festival Happy Valley will be raffling off some Boston calling tickets at the 4/20 celebration.
Happy Valley will also have the opportunity for customers to donate to Tree Eastie’s program to plant more trees throughout the neighborhood. Motta said this fundraising drive will last all month. Also, on 4/20, customers can give a donation to Women’s Lunch Place, a shelter that offers nutritious meals, hygienic essentials, specialized one-on-one advocacy services, free medical care, and a variety of creative opportunities for personal and professional growth.
“We also have a couple new product offerings coming out,” said Motta. “We’re doing some vegan fruit drops. They’re gonna be really fun to have and let us offer some more edibles to the vegan market. So we’ll have some gelatin free gummies for our vegan customers.”