Happy Pride Month to all our Best Buds! This month, we like to take the time to celebrate our queer friends in our community. Did you know that we have the LGBTQ+ community to thank for pushing the legalization of cannabis? Learn all about the queer history of weed below!
Cannabis Buyers Club, 1994
Following the War On Drugs of the 1980’s, the movement to legalize cannabis was propelled forward by gay rights activists during the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Patients and their loved ones discovered the medical benefits that cannabis provides to those with HIV/AIDS, both mentally and physically. However, medical cannabis was not legal at the time, and thus was very hard to access. Cannabis helped alleviate effects of treatment, such as nausea and loss of appetite, while also providing anxiety relief for AIDS patients at a time when their need for medical help, representation, and compassion was being neglected. Marijuana was also used to combat Wasting Syndrome, a side effect of HIV that leads to life-threatening loss of weight. Gay rights activists saw how cannabis provided medical relief when there was no official treatment for the disease, which led us to the start of the modern legalization movement!
We have two major Queer Icons to thank for the push towards legalization: Brownie Mary and Dennis Peron. Brownie Mary, fittingly born as Mary Jane Rathburn, was a hospital volunteer in California when she started baking cannabis brownies for AIDS patients. Mary saw the drastic benefits that access to cannabis brought to her patients and continued to provide infused goodies for years, despite multiple arrests. Brownie Mary and Dennis Peron met in 1974 after sharing a joint outside a cafe – they then became a dynamic duo that transformed the world of cannabis! Dennis Peron, a long-time cannabis user, began campaigning for legalization after he saw how it brought medical relief to his life partner. After Peron’s partner passed away from AIDS in 1990, Peron and Brownie Mary began organizing as a means of getting real laws passed. In 1991, Peron helped pass Proposition P, a resolution that permitted doctors to prescribe medical cannabis in San Francisco. Shortly after, Peron and Brownie Mary co-founded the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club – the first dispensary in the United States.
After Peron and Brownie Mary opened the Buyers Club, the push for legalization began spreading across the country. States slowly followed suit, with Illinois becoming the 20th state to legalize medical cannabis in 2013. Today we have our wonderful Bud & Rita’s shops, but we couldn’t have done it without the bravery and determination of the LGBTQ+ community! At Bud & Rita’s, we think it’s important to support such an amazing community – that’s why we partner with businesses and organizations that give back. Proceeds from our PRIDE SLIMS go to a wonderful queer organization called Center on Halsted – while one of our favorite partners, The Bettering Company, is LGBTQ+ owned. For us, giving back isn’t just a business decision – it’s a means of supporting a community that all people feel safe to flourish within.
This Pride Month, take the time to think about all the queer canna-warriors that paved the path we’re on today – and don’t forget to smoke a joint for Dennis and Mary!
