PITTSFIELD — When April 20 rolls around, a group of Berkshire County employees will have reason to celebrate.
Temescal Wellness is taking a puff and a pass on business as usual on 4/20, closing down its Framingham offices, Pittsfield, Framingham and Hudson dispensaries and its processing operation in Worcester. The company is giving its nearly 100 employees the day off with pay to allow for the celebration of cannabis’ high holiday.
Sian Leiniger, the director of retail at Temescal Wellness, said the idea to make 4/20 a company holiday came from the top: Alex Hardy, the company’s chief executive officer.
Last year, Hardy proposed giving employees a break on what traditionally is one of the company’s busiest retail days. This year Temescal Wellness is making that idea a reality.
“We saw it as a great opportunity to do something for our staff,” Leiniger said, “and also just really make this an actual holiday and try and normalize and destigmatize it being a cannabis holiday.”
The origins of the holiday are still a little hazy but most sources point to the code used by a group of northern California high schoolers in the 1970s