OMCA Exhibits Altered State: Marijuana in California

The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) opened Altered State: Marijuana in California in its Great Hall, the first-ever museum exhibition to focus on the topic. You’re welcomed to the exhibit with popular quotes on the wall by artists, politicians and scientists. The exhibit is not meant to declare a position and juxtaposes polarizing opinions in some of the areas. There’s also a glove box set up so you can examine a live plant.

This is a timely exhibit, as this year’s election will include initiatives hoping to make marijuana legal in more states. Right now it’s legal for recreational use in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. California is one of 23 states that allow it for medical use. The Adult Use of Marijuana Act is a legalization initiative that will be circulated for the November, 2016 California ballot and is backed by wealthy benefactors and drug reform advocates including former Facebook president, Sean Parker who donated $500,000 to back the initiative. It would allow recreational use for adults 21 years and older with restrictions on amount and growing your own among other things.

In the exhibit there are ten different areas of focus—Cannabis Science, Medical Marijuana, Profitable Pot, Sacred Ganja, Criminal Dope, Creative Grass, Evil Weed, Politically Loaded, Youth and Weed, and Recreational Reefer. Interactive areas range from boards that you can draw on, an anonymous confession booth, and a range of questions in which guests can answer yes or no by placing magnets on a board creating a visualization of what visitors think on “what if” questions that relate to their feelings if it were legalized in their community such as, “What are your deal breakers and deal makers?”. In medical marijuana, you can pick up a receiver and listen to stories from people who’ve utilized it in their treatment(s) including 66-year-old Rosalyn who was tired of taking several medications after surgery, “I decided to try cannabis as a treatment method because I was just tired of being sick”.

In Profitable Pot, we’re introduced via photos to almost only white people who are referred to as “earnest entrepreneurs”. California produces and sells more marijuana than any other state and a lot of the owners shown, moved here from other states to get in on the business. “I think that if you look at who is generally making money right now in the industry it tends to be mostly white people” said Melissa Standee who was part of the team working on the exhibit.

The exhibit is somewhat interesting regardless of your position on Marijuana and can help open some discussions with others especially young people. However, I think it would’ve been more impactful to juxtapose the “entrepreneurs” with pictures of people who have family members incarcerated for being “drug dealers” rather than “entrepreneurs” before their time. When it comes to profit and the criminalization of pot race is a huge part of the story. In the Evil Weed section this is broken down into faceless infographics and we see the discrepancies in how people are treated differently when it comes to race. Let’s see their faces and hear their stories.

OMCA promoted this to be provocative, groundbreaking and diverse but the main staff involved is all white, and they see nothing wrong with that because the “outside” community was asked to participate, which is an interesting parallel to the exhibit itself. Why did these “drug-dealers” turn to selling? People of color are shut out of their own narratives delineated to faceless statistics while those “entrepreneurs” are provided happy photo collages hanging from the ceiling as if there is some kind of genius behind it. We heard from them why they got into the business. How is that groundbreaking when you excluded telling the stories of those that have been punished criminally? I was told by one of the organizers that in Oakland only one dispensary is owned by someone that is non-white, and his or her story was not represented. They made such an effort not to takes sides that they shut out powerful truths making it a weak effort at representing a complex subject.

VISITOR INFORMATION

The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) is at 1000 Oak Street, at 10th Street, in Oakland. Regular Museum admission is $15.95 general; $10.95 seniors and students with valid ID, $6.95 youth ages 9 to 17, and free for Members and children 8 and under. OMCA offers onsite underground parking and is conveniently located one block from the Lake Merritt BART station, on the corner of 10th Street and Oak Street. The accessibility ramp is located at the 1000 Oak Street main entrance to the Museum. museumca.org