I snapped this photo of a popular medical marijuana dispensary storefront in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles last week. To me, it represents everything bone-headed about the way LA area pot shops (which operate in a legal gray zone in a conflicting patchwork of federal, state, and local laws) market themselves.
I am a cancer patient, and I have used cannabis to help get through the side effects of chemo, surgery, and radiation, and to deal with the side effects of my ongoing endocrine therapy. As a cancer patient, I know that it is truly a powerful, safe, and effective medicine; the “medical” part of medical marijuana is not a joke, despite what the forces behind the federal crackdown on dispensaries would have the public believe.
All of that is true. But LA pot shops, come on. You people are just not doing yourself any favors in the branding department.
Besides, as one Instagram commenter wrote, “Muppet Babies AND Alice in Wonderland. One or the other but not both.” Plus, just out of frame, there are Dr. Seuss characters, because, what were they thinking, “won’t someone think of the children and their need for weed?”
I think pot should be legalized both for cancer patients for and goofballs who like to get high and watch Muppet Babies. But please, can we start with some better art direction?