Should your Thanksgiving guests exhibit a moodier disposition this year, don’t immediately blame overindulgence in turkey. And if they show unexpected eagerness for dessert following a substantial meal, well—
Joining the ever-expanding roster of late November celebrations and retail incentives, the cannabis sector is now promoting “Green Wednesday”: the day prior to Thanksgiving, traditionally a time for childhood companions to reconnect and, presumably, partake. Consumers are certainly responding; Green Wednesday ranks as the second most significant cannabis holiday, surpassed only by April 20th, according to Joyce Cenali, co-creator of the Cannabis Media Council, a trade body aimed at improving public perception of marijuana.
“Green Wednesday isn’t a legitimate holiday,” stated Jennifer Bartholomeo, general manager for the Travel Agency, a dispensary chain operating in New York. “But consider this: you’re traveling home to see relatives, extended family is visiting, and everyone takes a stroll with their cousins. What do you surmise is happening during that walk?”
Regardless of whether younger relatives are slipping away from the main gathering to smoke together or consuming an edible to ease pre-family-facing jitters, achieving intoxication on the day preceding the 17th-century feast is solidifying itself as a contemporary tradition.
Stoned and Stationary
“Green Wednesday” is a relatively recent label applied to a well-established scenario: old friends convening in their hometowns for revelry on the eve of Thanksgiving. As cannabis products gained legalization across the United States during the mid-2010s, the industry began leveraging the term in marketing efforts to encourage associates to visit neighborhood dispensaries for their supplies, Cenali explained.
“We encourage people to come in and select unique, sophisticated products to bring to the Thanksgiving dinner table,” Cenali remarked.
The strategy has proven effective: Cenali noted that approximately 10 to 20 percent of dispensary patrons on Green Wednesday are first-time buyers.
Furthermore, during a period where cannabis is increasingly supplanting alcohol, Green Wednesday is gaining traction even among those who don’t habitually partake. Will Cohen, co-founder of the Jewish cannabis brand Tokin’ Jew, used to dub the day before Thanksgiving “Blackout Wednesday,” back when the term implied excessive drinking with high school associates. Now, he observes that alcohol and cannabis are “in competition” for the Wednesday preceding Thanksgiving.
Kara Dickson, a graduate student who stopped by the Travel Agency’s Union Square location this week to stock up for the holidays, mentioned that her family “has largely stopped drinking together.”
“We prefer to have a gummy, relax, and watch a film,” she shared with CNN.
She anticipates that this Thursday, her family will feast on turkey, each consume an edible, and then doze off on the sofa watching football.
Family Weed Feast
Smoking, much like the traditional Thanksgiving fanfare, carries its own rituals, Cohen suggested. For instance, when sharing a joint, the custom is to pass it to the person on your left. This mirrors the setup at the Thanksgiving table, where, instead of exchanging joints, families share expressions of gratitude.
“I believe it serves as a conduit for the younger generation—and frankly, the older generation too; everyone is using cannabis now, regardless of who they share it with—to bring the family together,” he commented.
Becoming intoxicated can foster community, Cohen stated, and on Thanksgiving, this manifests as the surreptitious excursions undertaken by younger relatives, known online as the “cousin walk.”
“It’s a means of bonding,” he asserted. “It often doubles as a gossip session—like, ‘Oh my gosh, are we destined to end up just like our parents? They’re absolutely wild!’ What a fantastic setting for that conversation, over a joint.”
While Dickson admitted her family “might be displeased with me for exposing them” as cannabis consumers, she still finds it somewhat unbelievable that she can share psychoactive experiences with her parents.
“I might have been caught partaking in high school, and they rightly panicked, as good parents should,” she recalled. “I truly can’t picture telling my high school self that this is how we’d be spending Thanksgiving post-college.”
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