Calling attention to how they were handing out free bags of marijuana, David Leidy worked from the bed of a maroon pickup truck as a line of about 100 people materialized at once on what was hailed as "green Friday," in the rural community northeast of Española.
"In five minutes, man, half of it was gone," Leidy said as he looked out over the parking lot.
Twenty-five pounds of high-grade marijuana is what prompted the festive scene on Friday in a community known for playing a role in the hippie movement in Northern New Mexico in the 1960s. Bernie Ellis, 75, the grower of the pungent crop, joked his "karmic bank account" had never been more full than on Friday as he stood outside the Carnelian Center in Dixon, greeting the people who were thanking him.
Indeed, the Embudo Valley cannabis farmer was giving it all away for free to his neighbors. It was an act of generosity, perhaps, but also a way to thumb his nose — something he did literally Friday in an animated gesture as he addressed a group that the giveaway had drawn — at dispensaries in the state and protest "big pot."
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