At Flore Dispensary, we’re honored to be a part of the Castro community in San Francisco. We’re part of the fabric of the cannabis story, which has weaved its way through history and led us straight to where we are today. As a way to publicly display our proud cannabis history, we’ve commissioned a mural by artist Dave Van Patten on the side of our building.
Our mural depicts the pioneers, places and significant historical moments that paved the way for the legal cannabis access we have today and has thus been marked an official site on the Cannabis Trail.
We highly suggest that anyone who’s interested in cannabis history and culture take a journey on the cannabis trail, and see all of the sights and scenery that are credited with fighting for fair legal access to cannabis in California and beyond.
What is the Cannabis Trail?
The Cannabis Trail is filled with historical and cultural sites and powerful artistic monuments that tell the story about the people, places and benchmark moments of the California cannabis movement.
The trail winds through the scenic Northern California region, starting in San Francisco. It was created to celebrate the social movements that worked tirelessly to push forward cannabis legalization and to share the story for those who choose to visit.
The Monument Initiative
The trail features both monuments and designations. The Monument Initiative was developed to create ten permanent art installations along the Cannabis Trail that pay homage to the people, places, and historic moments of the cannabis legalization movement in California.
Some of the pieces currently in development include works of art dedicated to patient right activism and community organizing led by Dennis Peron and Brownie Mary.
Additional art installments include art depicting the story of the War on Drugs, the “Back to the land” migration of hippies to the north coast, the life of small farmers living off grid, and the role of cannabis as medicine during the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The Designation Initiative
The Designation Initiative establishes local, state, and national designations for cannabis heritage sites, including both farms and places of interest. Whether they are historical or cultural in nature, the Cannabis Trail is working to facilitate three specific places of interest including Huckleberry Hill Farms and The Hemp Connection in Humboldt County, and our own Cafe Flore in San Francisco.
At Huckleberry Hill Farms, a beautiful legacy farm, Johnny Casali is a second generation cultivator from Humboldt who spent much of his 20’s in prison for cultivating cannabis. As a legacy cannabis cultivator and long time community member, Johnny has created a beautiful space to share important stories and provide world-class cannabis for those interested in learning.
The Hemp Connection is the first hemp clothing store in the US founded by a back-to-the-land trailblazer Marie Mills. As a product of the marijuana underground, Marie opened the first public hemp outlet with the intention of building a cottage industry from scratch, sewing and dying all clothing she sold in the store piece by piece with her industrial sewing machine, environmental dyes and home washing machine, largely with imported hemp.
Today, the store is a homey place, with an informational library inside, connecting international travelers as they embark on the Cannabis Trail.
Flore Dispensary & Cafe Flore
The third Designation Initiative is right in our homebase at Cafe Flore. Cafe Flore played a vital role in the history of cannabis legalization, and we’re so proud of that history. In 1974 Brownie Mary met Dennis Peron at Cafe Flore over a shared joint on the patio. As the Father of Medical Marijuana and The Angel of Mercy, Dennis Peron and Brownie Mary became compassionate figures to ‘runaway, HIV positive’ LGBTQ ‘kids’.
As the leader of Proposition 215: The Compassionate Use Act, Dennis Person re-legalized cannabis in the United States. Brownie Mary provided cannabis-infused brownies to AIDS patients to stimulate their appetite and help with depression when no other medicine was available. Through all of this, Cafe Flore has been an iconic community gathering place in the LGBTQ Castro District for decades.
During the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Cafe Flore was where members of the community gathered to share information about managing the horrific ailments of HIV/AIDS.
Cafe Flore served the community by being a compassionate gathering space. At Flore Dispensary, we honor our namesake and continue to provide compassionate care to our greater San Francisco and Castro communities while fighting for fair access to cannabis for all.
Visit our dispensary at 258 Noe Street in the Castro, right across from Cafe Flore, and learn about California’s rich cannabis history while also marking off two sights from the Cannabis Trail. We’re looking forward to meeting you!
