California Jews Are So, So Ready For Legal Weed

Seth Rogen smoking weed with rapper and game show host Snoop Dogg. Image by YouTube

By Ari Feldman January 3, 2018

California Jews are ready for legal weed, JWeekly reported. For decades, Jews have been at the forefront of the statewide push for truly legal marijuana — a dream that came true on January 1, 2018, when recreational weed became available at retail stores from Los Angeles to Eureka.

In a wide-ranging report, JWeekly showed how California Jews from all walks of life are celebrating the achievement. From secular Jews to Chabad, recreational marijuana is the drug of choice.

Some say legal marijuana is approved under rabbinic law — something Maimonides might have championed as a way to get people out of jail. Others say it is a particularly Jewish drug for its, ahem, intellectual appeal.

Others say that it is about social justice — a strong Jewish value.

“Hashem made this plant,” said Catherine Goldberg, a columnist for High Times under the name Cannabis Concierge, and founder of Elevated Shabbat.

California has a constellation of Jewish pro-pot figures. There’s Jeff Danzer (aka “Jeff the 420 Chef”) who cooks kosher “pot-zo ball soup” and other Orthodox-friendly, weed-infused meals; Ed Rosenthal, a nationally recognized weed advocate; and Debby Goldsberry, executive director of Magnolia Dispensary, who’s interest in Judaism has been rekindled through her career promoting medical marijuana.

“Jews realize that cannabis is going to be the next internet,” said Goldberg.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

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