A Marriage Made in Cannabis Heaven (Plus: Video)

Two legalization leaders say 'I do' at a wedding-fundraiser for their favorite cause
By: Kate McLean

They have been called a “power couple of cannabis.” The bride is the public face of California’s campaign to legalize marijuana. The groom fought the feds in a battle for medical pot that went up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

So it makes sense that as Dale Clare and Jeff Jones were planning their Oakland wedding, they decided to ask for gifts that went beyond the usual toaster ovens and champagne flutes. In honor of their union, they requested contributions to the statewide campaign to pass Proposition 19, which would tax and regulate cannabis.

“I was wondering if we were going to get some guff,” said Clare of the decision to turn the occasion into a fundraiser. “Really, we’ve only heard from one or two people who said that the wedding should be about you and not the campaign.”

By their count, the marriage raised about $12,000. It also brought together about 100 cannabis activists and business people.

Some guests came from far-flung places, like a Boston-based psychedelic drug research institute. Others simply walked across the street from the local campus of Oaksterdam University, which trains workers for the marijuana industry.

The group included dispensary leaders, legalization godfather Richard Lee, and attorney Robert Raich, who was involved in litigating two cannabis cases before the Supreme Court. Also in attendance were friends, family members, two reporters and three camera crews.

“This is the top-shelf of the cannabis industry,” said Dan Rush of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5, which recently unionized workers at a number of Oakland’s marijuana businesses.

The couple met through their work, but Clare said it took some time before they got to know each other.

“I think we were around each other for a good six months before I googled him and said, ‘Oh, you did that,’” said Clare of her fiancé.

Jones is well known in Oakland cannabis circles. In 1998, the federal government prosecuted Jones for running Oakland’s first medical marijuana dispensary. He fought a protracted court battle that went to the U.S. Supreme Court, but he lost the case. In the end, he was barred from ever runnig a dispensary again. He has since worked in other areas of the industry.

Today he runs an Oakland-based medical marijuana ID card center and also works on behalf of the legalization efforts. He and Clare now divide their time between Oakland and Los Angeles, where they also work at the southern California campus of Oaksterdam U.

“It seems natural,” said Jones of getting married. “It seems like the next step of what our involvement, our relationship has been.”

Under the glass dome of the rotunda a few weeks ago, guests gathered in a semi-circle of chairs and waited for the ceremony to start. Nearby, the smell of freshly cut pot wafted past as Richard Lee carried a fragrant arrangement of leaves to the bride so that she could add it to her bouquet.

When everyone was in their seats, a man with a grey ponytail and a cream-colored stole decorated with marijuana leaves lifted a gong and pounded out a series of echoing tones. The wedding party walked down the aisle. Then, flanked by her parents, Dale Clare descended the long stairway to meet Jeff Jones.

Standing together before their guests, Clare and Jones promised to be true to each other, “whatever the future may bring—taxation, decriminalization or legalization.”

The minister, Chris Conrad, pronounced them husband and wife.

After the ceremony, some guests mingled at the bar while Conrad and others trooped up the stairs to Frank Ogawa Plaza, where a dozen people gathered in a few circles clouded with smoke.

“Hash, right?” Conrad asked a man to his left who was exhaling noisily. “Just guessing from the cough.”

Wispy haze drifted through the air as a joint was passed from one person to the next. Across the square, the pale façade of Oakland City Hall loomed in the dimming light.

Conrad edited what is widely regarded as a seminal book for pot enthusiasts—“The Emperor Wears No Clothes” by Jack Herer. He also acts a court expert in drug cases, and publishes a cannabis newspaper with wife, Mikki Norris.

After nearly two decades of marriage and marijuana work, Norris and Conrad were optimistic about what the future had in store for their friends.

“It’s important to have the support of a partner on this issue,” said Norris. “That’s the key: respect, communication and love."

See an interactive Married to the Cause: Wedding Unites Movers and Shakers in the Cannabis Industry.