Brian Applegarth - The Cannabis Trail 08/27/26

This week, we welcome Brian Applegarth, who is in town to celebrate Wo/Mans Alliance for Medical Marijuana WAMM and its place in Santa Cruz and California cultural history, adding it as a cultural landmark to the Cannabis Trail. The Cannabis Trail is a California cultural tourism initiative that preserves and shares the people, places, and stories that helped shape California cannabis history. Brian Applegarth is the owner and founder of Applegarth Intelligence, also known as A-Intel, a destination stewardship intelligence practice helping organizations understand change and strengthen their capacity to steward places with greater awareness, responsibility, and care. His work was forged at the intersection of cannabis, hemp, travel, culture, hospitality, and place. He is the founder of The Cannabis Trail and founding chair of the Cannabis Travel Association International. For more than a decade, Brian has helped shape cannabis and hemp tourism through destination programs, museum exhibitions, cultural storytelling, place-based inquiry, and the creation and launch of the California State Fair Cannabis Awards and Exhibit. Today, his work includes preserving and interpreting cannabis history as an important part of California’s broader cultural history.