Cannabis entrepreneur Martin Olive was shot multiple times on Monday, January 27 in front of his dispensary, The Vapor Room, at 9th Street and Mission, around 5pm.
The shooting seemed to be a random attack. Afterwards, the shooter barricaded himself inside a nearby building for a four-hour stand-off with the police which ended with the suspect being shot and killed.
Olive was taken to the hospital where he is listed in stable condition and is expected to recover. The last reports I read had him awake, talking, and sending out videos to friends.
“I hate this happened to him, but I’m glad that he’s doing about as best as one can. Martin Olive is one of the good guys in the world,” said friend and associate Veronica Guevara.
One of the good guys indeed. Olive opened the Vapor Room in 2003 in the Haight which had the first in-store smoking lounge. The smoking lounge became an early space for the stoner community to meet and medicate together. He lost that popular space in 2012 under pressure from the government and had to battle back to get the current space.
Battling back seems to be a recurring motif for Olive. He survived an aneurysm and brain surgery in 2012. The GoFundMe for Olive is going strong at $77k and counting to help pay medical costs. You can donate here.
There is currently an in-person fundraiser being organized by friends Tina Olive and Sabrina Pacheco. I will have an update on that soon.
Personally, I have known Martin since I first started hanging out with the cannabis community around 2015. He has always been super-supportive and donated stuff to PUFF, the drag cannabis party at the Stud starting in 2016. When I would come by, he would come out and chat. He is such a nice guy who has been following his cannabis dreams and making San Francisco a healthier, stonier place.
It’s very upsetting when stuff like this happens. Luckily, he is a fighter and will live to toke another day.
All our best wishes are with you, Martin!
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Last week I attended a birthday party in the smoking lounge of Mission Cannabis Club to celebrate a true queer cannabis pioneer, Wayne Justmann, who turned 80 years of age.
I know Wayne today as a jocular senior who is a big fan of BONG-O BINGO, the drag cannabis bingo event I produce, who plays big and lets out a loud, thunderous “BINGO!!” when he wins.
It was a fun affair put on by Amy Fisher, a longtime friend and proprietor of the Travelling Hemp Museum. There were snacks galore, but you had to be wary of what was “leaded” and “unleaded” if you know what I mean.
The tasty birthday cake was definitely “leaded” and full of cannabis goodness. There were infused mocktails and even an Ooka smoking device which someone had recently won at bingo. As a matter of fact, it felt just like a bingo night, but I wasn’t hosting or calling out numbers.
Wayne soaked it in all afternoon. I could tell he was having the best time posing for pictures, snacking on party food, and repeatedly asking if the Ooka was ready yet.
The Ooka was a whole other journey which was bravely handled by Veronica Guevara. The directions were spread out everywhere as she watched the different lights blinking on and off trying to decipher what they meant. It always looked so simple when the Ooka rep set it up.
Wayne Justmann moved to the Bay Area in 1997. Cannabis history will acknowledge him as Cannabis Patient Number One. That’s right. He was the first medical cannabis patient in the world. He was right there with Dennis Peron, Brownie Mary, and all the other advocates of Prop 215 that made medical cannabis legal in 1996.
Looking for relief from his HIV meds, Wayne started using cannabis to stimulate his appetite and relieve the symptoms of the AIDS drugs which were a long way from the meds of today. This led him to the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club which is believed to be America’s first public cannabis dispensary. It was located at the intersection Market and Church and run by gay-rights activist Peron.
It was a place of support and camaraderie, and it was OK if you didn’t have enough money. “In those days, profit was not an issue,” Justmann told Eaze. “What we were concerned with was people’s well-being.”
That early kindness led to compassionate care programs to help sick people get free access to cannabis.
Wayne got involved with the club and eventually handled security. Later, he opened his own dispensary and then had the idea to make cards for his cannabis patients so they had something to show authorities if they got caught smoking weed.
This idea caught on and eventually all medical cannabis patients were issued a card.
Wayne has been working tirelessly through the AIDS crisis, the medical era, and now the legalized recreational era to further that vision that started with Peron and Prop 215.
He is a true OG of the Cannabis Community, and I am so happy and honored to be his friend.
Now it’s time to light up!
