January 2018 • Jose Quezada

A look back at life on the North Coast in January 2018.

Humboldt County's First Cannabis Dispensery Opens
EcoCann Dispensary, located on the 300 block of F Street in Eureka, was the town's first medicinal and recreational cannabis storefront, opening a high noon on New Years Day in Old Town. A sustained line around the corner and halfway down the Third Street block waited patiently for purchasing the newly legalized herb.
A crowd begins to gather before a candlelight ceremony held Saturday night near a replica of the historic Trinidad Lighthouse. The weight of the lighthouse replica was causing harm to sacred indigenous bluffs and land located directly beneath the lighthouse. It was eventually moved to the beach nearest the Trinidad pier.
Michelle Charmaine Lawson, mother of murdered Humboldt State University student David 'DJ' Lawson, is handed flowers by local NAACP leader Lorna Bryant moments before Bryant gave announcement of the David Josiah Lawson Memorial Scholarship Fund. The scholarship fund had already garnered $2000 from two anonymous sources before announcing that afternoon, according to Bryant. Lawson received a standing ovation from the near-capacity crowd filling the Adorni Center in Eureka gathering to celebrate anniversary of Dr. King's birthday Monday afternoon.
Highland Park Improvement
Red ribbon flies as Eureka City Council member Natalie Arroyo makes a quick cut for new hoops, pavement and fencing at the grand opening of the new and improved Highland Park basketball court. Southwest Rotary teamed up with the City of Eureka and Mercer Fraser, who donated a new basketball surface and overlay of an adjacent access path, and, Hamanaka Painting donating new striping for the court. Southwest Rotary raised funds from their Martini’s on the Bay Event to finish the project.