Bright-sunshine blended with a cool breeze this late-afternoon Thursday on California’s north coast — supposedly, the next two/three days to be mostly sunny, next rain forecast for maybe Monday/Tuesday.
I’m way-beyond rain, rain go away…

Of course, this particular day is ‘420 Day,’ or ‘Weed Day,’ most-likely marijuana’s only real holiday, and since I’m in the midst of cannabis-land, the celebration is both personal and fiscal. However, as a stoner for 43 years, to me everyday is 420-day, just part of the whole.
Yet much-glad the toast for the much-much-aligned weed and all the festivities heaped — pot use/perception has shifted with the big lie being offset by reality.

In the words of an original 420-kid: ‘“Now legalization is happening so fast, you’ve got to stand back and go, this is weird…This is a trip.”‘

A long-ingested 80-year history, dude — and parchment still rings in high places.
High-legal dick-head Jeff Sessions is puffing around about throwing shade on 4/20, last year blubbered “good people don’t smoke marijuana,” and because of the rising popularity of marijuana, all the little shit could actually do is just fuck with laws, make life miserable for everybody with sense.
And a most-strong indicator of national sense — a CBS poll this morning:

Sixty-one percent of Americans think marijuana use should be legal, a five-point increase from last year and the highest percentage ever recorded in this poll.
Eighty-eight percent favor medical marijuana use.
Seventy-one percent oppose the federal government’s efforts to stop marijuana sales and its use in states that have legalized it, including opposition from most Republicans, Democrats, and independents.
Sixty-five percent think marijuana is less dangerous than most other drugs.
And only 23 percent think legalizing marijuana leads to an increase violent crime.

The country is finally coming together, at least in the stoner land.

Along with all these new legalizations of pot, comes the cannabis cash — via MarketWatch, also this morning:

In a report published ahead of the November election, analysts at Cowen and Co. estimated that the cannabis industry is worth about $6 billion in annual sales.
Another $25 billion could be added to that from black market sales, and if and when those transition to the legal market, it could be worth $50 billion by 2026, the report found.
Marijuana sales rose 30% in 2016 and Colorado, one of the industry’s earliest U.S. test markets, generated $200 million of tax revenue from $1.3 billion in marijuana sales last year.

The 4/20 of marijuana is likewise changing — mainstream nowadays. A new survey from Yahoo News and Marist University, illustrates the ‘new normal‘ of marijuana life.
Key points on the research via the Washington Post yesterday:

More than half of American adults have tried marijuana at least once in their lives, according to the survey.
Nearly 55 million of them, or 22-percent, currently use it — the survey defines “current use” as having used marijuana at least once or twice in the past year.
Close to 35 million are what the survey calls “regular users,” or people who use marijuana at least once or twice a month.
…
Regardless, 55 million people is a staggering number.
It would mean that there are nearly as many marijuana users as there are cigarette smokers (59 million).
…
Fully 70-percent of Americans who have tried marijuana at least once support legalizing recreational weed.
Only 26-percent of those who haven’t tried it say the same.
…
Regardless of whether they support legalization or use it themselves, 56-percent of Americans say that using marijuana is “socially acceptable,” compared to 42-percent who say it isn’t.
Again, there’s a big split here between people who’ve tried it (74-percent say it’s acceptable) and people who haven’t (37-percent).
…
By a margin of 72-percent to 20-percent, Americans say that regular alcohol use is more of a health risk than regular marijuana use.
The margins for tobacco (76 to 18) and prescription painkillers (67 to 20) are similar.
…
This is one of the survey’s most interesting findings: asked why they currently use marijuana, only 16-percent of smokers said it was “just to have fun.”
The rest cited a variety of utilitarian reasons: 37-percent said they used marijuana to relax; 19-percent said they do it to relieve pain, 10-percent said it helps them be social.
…
Roughly four in 10 marijuana users hide their stash from others.
Among those who hide their pot, the dresser (20-percent) is the most popular place of concealment, followed by fake cans, containers or books (11-percent), in safes or locked containers (11-percent) and the closet (8-percent).
Astonishingly, 3-percent of marijuana users keep their marijuana in their cars.
…
According to Marist, 54-percent of adults who use marijuana are parents.
A majority of those parents — 16 million of them — have children under the age of 18.
…
Marijuana users are very open about their habit with their significant others (95-percent of users have told them) and close friends (95-percent again).
72-percent have told their parents about their marijuana use, and 60-percent have told their kids.
Some families even toke together — 21 percent of users have either smoked marijuana in front of their parents or shared a joint with them.
Among older users with adult children, 35-percent have smoked with or in front of their kids. Over 60-percent of users have done so with their close friends.

Even yet the ignorance — singer Melissa Etheridge recently received some flak for admitting she smoked pot with her kids. There’s still some hang-up, but we appear to be getting closer…maybe.

(Illustration above: ‘Cannabis and Politics,’ by Denis Marsili, found here).