9 Best Places to Smoke Pot in San Francisco
Image via Flickr by Strange de Jim, who I’m sure has never smoked weed.
There are few American cities where you can smoke pot as casually and without consequence as in San Francisco. You can get away with smoking weed pretty much anywhere in our fair City, regardless of police proximity. But there are a few standout spots for pot-smokers that deserve special recognition for making San Francisco an idyllic safe spot and dutchie-passing host town whenever you need to smoke a fat bowl while out on the go.
We submit these nine favorite locations as San Francisco’s finest places to blaze up in public. But if you feel we’ve missed any that should have been included, then nail us in the Comments section below to ensure a proper index of the best places to get high in San Francisco.
MONTGOMERY MUNI/BART STATION STEPS
One Post Plaza
Someone is always smoking weed on the One Post Plaza step structure, be they a bike messenger, homeless guy or Twitter data engineer. Sure, it is posted “No Smoking Within 25 Feet”. But honestly, who among us has not smoked a bowl during lunch break from an office job on the Montgomery BART/MUNI station steps?
ZEITGEIST
Image via Flickr by Brad Coy , who I’m sure has never smoked weed.
The Zeitgeist back patio is easily San Francisco’s most permissive bar section for smoking weed out in the open. Just don’t take any pictures when you’re out there, the Zeitgeist staff will apprehend and 86 you in less than a minute. But it’s cool, I can tell you from experience to wait a week until Zeitgeist forgets they 86’ed you and you can just walk right back in.
EL RIO
Carmen Miranda, who I’m sure has never smoked weed
El Rio is another SF bar with exceptionally easy pot-smoking on the back patio, plus a line-up of patio events like Hard French and Daytime Realness.
THE INDEPENDENT
Image via Flickr by The Zender Agenda , who I’m sure has never smoked weed.
Probably San Francisco’s most pot-friendly music venue that books nationally known acts, The Independent will be blazing up twice as hard for the upcoming final Grateful Dead concert simulcasts.
AT&T PARK
Tim Lincecum, who I’m sure has never smoked weed.
San Francisco Giants Tim Lincecum and Guillermo Mota will both tell you that you’ve got to be stealth when smoking weed in AT&T Park, home of the pot-smokingest baseball fans in America. Less-monitored areas like parking lot across from McCovey Cove serve as better places to blaze up before a baseball game.
RINCON PARK
Image via Flickr by Nan Palmero, who I’m sure has never smoked weed.
This photo is not of Rincon Park, but of the Flaming Lotus Girls’ interactive public sculpture Soma that sits about 150 feet away at Pier 14. After dark, you can fiddle with the buttons on this sculpture to create dynamic color displays that play beautifully against the Bay Lights-illuminated Bay Bridge. But please don’t hang on the sculpture and please do hide your drugs when kids inevitably come rolling by. Across the street, Rincon Park remains an excellent place to smoke pot and contemplate ‘Why the fuck did someone put up a giant bow-and-arrow statue?”
BEHIND THE EMBARCADERO FERRY BUILDING
Statue of Mohandas K. Gandhi, who I’m sure has never smoked weed
With free food samples at the Ferry Building Marketplace for your munchies, people! Your Embarcadero Ferry Building smoke-out session can be palatably topped off with free artisan cheese cubes, specialty produce samples and extra virgin olive oil on bread chunks. Schedules on the food samples vary, but your best bet is a Saturday afternoon.
STOW LAKE
Image via Flickr by permanently scatterbrained, who I’m sure has never smoked weed
Smoke weed while on a motherf******g boat!The Stow Lake Boathouse rents out incredibly simple and idiot-friendly paddleboats for self-guided tours on Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. It is very easy to paddle to a discreet place to get high on these placid waters.
EMPIRE PARK
Image via Flickr by keenduck , who I’m sure has never smoked weed.
One of the most zen little hideaways for smoking weed in San Francisco is Empire Park, right at the border of the Financial District and Chinatown. You’ll often see Pacific Stock Exchange traders in business suits blazing up here. Because their work day ends 2 p.m. Pacific time (5 p.m. Eastern) and that’s when those people start to party.
Each of these places is a well-established pot-smoking sanctuary in San Francisco and people have been getting high there every day for years. So light up a fat one at any of these fine locations… and if anyone gives you a hard time, tell them Broke-Ass Stuart said it was okay!
