Around New England

Vermont Lieutenant Governor To Celebrate ‘Cannabis Art’

April 15, 2019

Vermont Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman is planning to celebrate a date widely associated with marijuana a day early by holding a “Coffee With Constituents” event celebrating “cannabis art.”

Zuckerman, 47, who grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, is the only Progressive Party member serving in statewide office in Vermont. (He also won the Democratic nomination before winning the general election in 2016.)

The artist, who goes by Julie Fisheye, hopes the Vermont General Assembly will accept the piece of art as part of the Vermont State House’s permanent collection – “but until it’s officially accepted, it will be hanging in the office of our very cannabis-friendly Lt. Governor!” says a written statement from a very cannabis-friendly web site called Heady Vermont.

The art consists of about 300 marijuana leaves, according to Seven Days.

Zuckerman, an organic farmer who wears a ponytail, is also a former state representative and state senator.

April 20 is associated with marijuana because, as one story has it, potheads at a high school in California used to meet at 4:20 p.m. to smoke, and the time over time morphed into 4/20.

The event at the lieutenant governor’s office is scheduled for the nearest weekday, Friday, April 19, which this year is also Good Friday.

“This morning will have added significance as it marks the first time Vermonters will celebrate 4/20 since cannabis has been legalized,” the lieutenant governor said in a written statement, according to HeadyVermont.com. “Legalization is one step in addressing the great injustices of the war on drugs, disproportionately impacting people of color and poor people.”

David Zuckerman, lieutenant governor of Vermont