Where to Get Stoned in San Francisco

Cannabis entered San Francisco through ports, jazz clubs, and the bohemian fringe, becoming part of the Beat scene in North Beach by the 1950s. It remained illegal, yet the city showed a long pattern of not caring much. Hippie Hill in Golden Gate Park became a well-known open-air gathering spot since the Summer of Love and continues to draw people on April 20th. The city’s permissive temperament and distracted enforcement mean getting high is possible almost anywhere. The practical focus becomes choosing destinations worth the trip, such as Twin Peaks for panoramic views and Ocean Beach for isolation, fog, and a long stretch of sand.

"Cannabis filtered into San Francisco through the same channels as everything else in the early twentieth century: the ports, the jazz clubs, the bohemian fringe. By the 1950s it was part of the furniture of the Beat scene in North Beach, where the poets treated it as one more tool for rearranging consciousness. It was illegal the whole time, but the city had a long head start on not caring much."

"The most well-known place to light one up is Hippie Hill, the grassy slope in Golden Gate Park that has been the city's open-air clubhouse since the Summer of Love and still draws a congregation every April 20th. You can also get high pretty much anywhere in San Francisco; the city is permissive by temperament and distracted by enforcement, so the real question was never whether you can. It's where's worth the trip."

"Twin Peaks The view from the top is the whole city laid flat beneath you, bridge to bridge, ocean to bay. It's high enough that the wind handles your discretion for you, and there's almost always a stranger up there doing the exact same thing. Go at dusk and watch the grid light up."

"Ocean Beach Three miles of sand at the western edge of everything, with the Pacific running white noise and the fog swallowing you whole. Nobody is close enough to notice and nothing out there is sharp enough to hurt you. Bring a hoodie you don't mind smelling like a bonfire."

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