It’s the 20th of April this week, a globally well-recognised date within the plant medicine space, and a great opportunity to examine that dynamic intersection where 420 culture and plant medicine meet.
So, what are the origins of 420?
The most widely accepted story is this: “420″ was a code conjured up by a group of Californian highschoolers in 1971. “The Waldos” (their collective psyeudonym) would meet at 4.20pm every day to consume this plant and socialise – over time, 420 has truly taken on a life of its own, and tapped into the cultural vernacular, now widely acknowledged across the globe.
Here in Australia, we’ve often been spectators to huge shifts in the medicinal and recreational plant markets across the globe, and with plant medicine now legalised, the crossroads of history and medicine is more important than ever.
For many Australian Patients, legalisation of a substance that has been viewed as purely recreational in the past has given way to a lifting of stigma, and a legitimacy that allows for freedom of dialogue. As this shift in how we view plant medicine continues to unfold, with Australians becoming increasingly more open, more tolerant and more curious to understand the potential of this special plants.
Farma recently featured at the 2023 Hemp, Health & Innovation Expo in Brisbane – a converging of old and new, recreation and prescription, technology and nature. As a snapshot of where we are collectively headed to, it was a positive one – filled with opportunity, conversation, shared learnings and appreciation of what we can all bring to the big green table.
Of course, there’s still a long way to go – many Australian Patients recognise the frustration of being prescribed a medicine that supports them, only to be told they are no longer road-worthy while utilising plant medicine. A cornerstone of the Farma ethos has been an active drive for affordable plant medicine, but many Patients out there still face high costs to even get started.
With equal volumes of challenges and opportunities ahead, this is a truly exciting time for us at Farma, and our wider ecosystem. It’s only by looking at where we’ve come from that we can move forward in an informed way, so we’re taking today to acknowledge the full spectrum of 420 in Australia and how it’s shaped our plant medicine industry today.