
From Ricardo’s Desk: Activism, Progress and 4/20
Friends.
The high holiday of 4/20 is many things to many people—and it all comes down to intentions and messaging.
For many, 4/20 is St. Patrick’s Day for stoners, an opportunity to party with your friends. For others, the holiday is all about advocacy and activism, a reminder that we still have so much work ahead of us to reform drug policy. Either way, 4/20/21 will be a historic day for all who celebrate, especially given the tremendous progress we’ve seen in the last few weeks.
Legalization is happening in New York, New Mexico and Virginia. As a movement, drug policy reform is on fire, and we’re seeing fast-moving progress like we’ve never seen before, especially with state legislators and lawmakers taking on the responsibility of legalizing cannabis themselves.
So for this year’s 4/20, more people can legally consume with their friends than ever before, and also, activists can celebrate a massively productive cycle that has seen historic wins in New York, New Mexico and Virginia, sure—but also New Jersey, Arizona, Mississippi, Montana and South Dakota, along with Mexico and elsewhere across the globe.
That said, no matter where you fall on the 4/20 spectrum, it’s important to recognize that our work isn’t finished—and that we need to remain vocal until cannabis is legalized federally in the United States. There are a multitude of reasons to end this unjust federal prohibition, including the fact that a federally legal cannabis industry would help lift our COVID-burdened economy.
As United States Cannabis Council Interim President Steven Hawkins recently wrote for Newsweek: “Just as FDR ended the prohibition of alcohol soon after taking office, (President) Biden should work to legalize cannabis right away. Evidence indicates that cannabis legalization can serve as a catalyst for America’s economic revival. After Prohibition’s repeal, for instance, alcohol taxation contributed nearly half of federal revenues, funding much of President Roosevelt’s New Deal while also putting people back to work. Now at a time when many state and local coffers are empty and trillions in federal COVID relief and stimulus investments are urgently needed, taxes on legal cannabis could help pay for an ambitious Biden agenda and create up to 1.6 million jobs.”
So no matter your plans for 4/20, friends, please keep pushing forward in our collective fight to reform American drug policy, because our work is far, far from over.

A proud Colorado native and one of Denver Business Journal’s Most Admired CEOs, Ricardo Baca is a serial entrepreneur, three-time Marketer of the Year, 24-year veteran journalist, two-time TEDx speaker, and drug policy architect.
Ricardo launched Clio-winning PR and marketing firm Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency® in 2016 to super-charge businesses throughout the U.S., Latin America and Europe. Grasslands was awarded a Clio Award for its public relations program, two Emjays Awards for Public Relations Agency of the Year, and a Small Business Award from the Denver Business Journal.
In 2023, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis appointed Ricardo to the state’s first-ever Natural Medicine Advisory Board to contribute to policy development around the state’s psychedelics framework. In 2025, Ricardo launched Buy Colorado Day in partnership with the State Legislature, creating a new holiday—and powerful economic driver—that celebrates innovative Colorado brands of all kinds via consumers all over the world.
Capping off a wide-spanning career in journalism, Ricardo made international headlines as The Denver Post’s first-ever Cannabis Editor in 2013, as seen in the feature-length documentary film Rolling Papers. Numerous accolades followed, including Ricardo being named one of Fortune magazine’s 7 Most Powerful People in America’s Marijuana Industry, one of Brookings Institution's 12 Key People to Watch in Marijuana Policy, and one of Time magazine’s 140 best Twitter feeds.
In 2022, Ricardo co-founded Colorado fine art biennial Biome with the mission of celebrating fine art via community, inclusivity and biennial exhibition. Before that, Ricardo co-founded Denver music festival The Underground Music Showcase, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2025.
Ricardo is proud to sit on the Board of Directors for Colorado Public Radio, where he serves as Treasurer, and on the Board of Advisors for the reMind Psychedelics Business Forum.
A regular speaker at SXSW, Ricardo still contributes columns and op-eds to top publications, including Rolling Stone, Nosh, the New Hope Network and MJBizDaily. He has also been interviewed by The New York Times, The View, The New Yorker, This Week With George Stephanopoulos, The Colbert Report and NPR’s All Things Considered.
Ricardo lives in Denver with his wife, two dogs and two cats.