cannabisnews.com: Chicago's April 20 Marijuana Fest Surging
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Chicago's April 20 Marijuana Fest Surging
Posted by CN Staff on April 17, 2019 at 05:33:17 PT
By Ally Marotti, Chicago Tribune
Source: Chicago Tribune 
Illinois -- A street festival unlike any other will be held in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood this weekend: a daylong celebration of weed.Saturday is April 20, or 4/20, a day that has evolved into a nationwide celebration of marijuana. In the cannabis community, the term 420 is a slang reference to smoking weed. The term reportedly dates back to the 1970s, when a group of Northern California high schoolers began meeting after classes at 4:20 p.m. to light up. Use of “420” gradually spread and grew into a marijuana holiday of sorts on April 20.
Corporate America has latched onto the 420 celebrations in various ways, sometimes by using April 20 as a day to promote or launch snack foods that stoners with the munchies might crave. Last year, Burger King brought back its spicy chicken nuggets on 4/20, and Lyft offered $4.20 discounts. Conagra, the Chicago-based company behind brands like Healthy Choice and Slim Jims, is launching a special flavor of its Andy Capp’s crunchy snacks for 4/20 this year called “fully baked” Hot Munchies.In Illinois’ growing marijuana industry, 4/20 is a way to get pot brands front and center with a new set of potential consumers, while educating people on local laws and products. Marijuana is still only legal in Illinois through the state’s medical cannabis program. Local growers plan new product rollouts on Saturday, and dispensaries will be offering discounts.“4/20 has become like a Black Friday kind of holiday for the cannabis market,” said Lisa Hurwitz, chief marketing and innovation officer at Chicago-based Grassroots Cannabis. “It follows the growth of the cannabis movement overall.”Gov. J.B. Pritzker supports legalizing recreational use, and Illinois lawmakers are drafting such a bill. If the measure passes, the industry in Illinois could generate sales of $224 million by 2022, according to research from Chicago-based Brightfield Group.Even without recreational weed, Illinois’ medical marijuana program has added more than 27,000 patients in the past year and is expected to continue growing. Fueling growth is a new program that allows those prescribed opioids to access medical marijuana. Previously, participants had to have one of about 40 qualifying conditions to use the drug. Additionally, the state dropped the requirement for patients to undergo fingerprinting and a background check before registering.Operators are at a point where they’re looking to connect with potential new patients or future recreational customers, said Tim Calkins, a clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. People tend to remember the first brand they interact with in a new industry.“There’s a hugely important moment when people learn about a new category, because at that moment, they don’t know much about the industry and they form an impression,” Calkins said. “All of that becomes really important for brands.”That’s where Saturday’s festival — called the Waldos Forever Fest, after the group of high schoolers who started the 420 movement — comes in. The festival is in its second year, and will shut down a block of Argyle Street near Clark Street.Organizers expect about 3,000 people to attend, more than doubling last year’s attendance.There will be food trucks and entertainment. Marijuana companies will have their logos on sponsored tents and photo booths, and will pass out swag and educational materials. Grassroots, which plans to roll out a new cannabis concentrate product in conjunction with 4/20, is sponsoring a gaming tent full of vintage arcade games.Illinois law prohibits companies that grow and make cannabis products from advertising directly to consumers, so a street festival is a prime opportunity for them to get face time with people, said Dan Scheidt, director of marketing at cannabis company Verano Holdings, which is sponsoring a “Chill Lounge” at Saturday’s festival. Instead of advertising, the companies try to educate passersby on the industry and the products they make.“Education is the way we can do it,” Scheidt said.Smoking marijuana at the event is prohibited.Dispensary 33, a medical marijuana dispensary on the block where the street festival will take place, treats 4/20 like a customer appreciation day, said general manager Paul Lee. A participant in Illinois’ medical cannabis program can select only one of the state’s 55 dispensaries.“We basically put everything on sale that day,” Lee said. “Everybody that comes to the shop knows what day it is. They all celebrate it too.”Lee said he plans to have almost his entire staff of 16 people working. It’s not just sell, sell, sell at dispensaries — patients often need to consult with employees before making a purchase, and that takes time.Nationally, 4/20 celebrations have come out of the shadows in recent years, especially in markets where the drug is legal. In Colorado, for example, people take over Denver’s downtown Civic Center Park to smoke every year on 4/20.Waldos Forever Fest, which is presented by media company Do312 and the nonprofit Chicago Cannabis Alliance, will be among several gatherings planned in the Chicago area for 4/20. Those include a “420 Bud Party” in Park Forest, a conference and panel discussion downtown, and a block party in the South Chicago neighborhood hosted in partnership with Mission South Shore medical marijuana dispensary.In the days when the stigma surrounding marijuana was stronger and the punishment for possessing it harsher, the camaraderie created through 4/20 was liberating, even if the gatherings were kept fairly secret, said Kris Krane, president and co-founder of Phoenix-based 4Front Ventures, which owns Mission South Shore and a cultivation facility in Elk Grove Village.The commercialization signals that the industry is maturing, Krane said, but it does change the culture around marijuana.“On the whole, this is a very positive thing for society and for cannabis,” he said. “But in that progress, we are losing something that was kind of special and more communal.”Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)Author: RobertMcCoppin, Chicago TribunePublished: April 17, 2019Copyright: 2019 Chicago Tribune Company, LLCWebsite: http://www.chicagotribune.com/Contact: letters chicagotribune.comURL: http://drugsense.org/url/TEkF0ksUCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on April 25, 2019 at 23:15:52 PT
The GCW
Wow! Just... Wow!We've all shed a lot of tears over a lot of the news that we've read here... but this, now, is enough to bring on tears of happiness and relief. Halleleujah! 
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on April 19, 2019 at 15:04:54 PT
Check out these holiday DEALS
A pound of free pot, custom engravings among specials set for 4/20
https://www.summitdaily.com/magazines/explore-summit-weekender/a-pound-of-free-pot-custom-engravings-among-specials-set-for-4-20/My, my, We HAVE come a long way.This is news in My local newspaper. Summit County, Colorado
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