Long Beach, California, nonprofits offer WEED as COVID-19 vaccine incentive amid surge in cases

Get a jab, get a joint: Long Beach nonprofits offer free WEED as Covid vaccine incentive amid new surge of cases

'Joints for Jabs LBC' will be held July 24 at Houghton Park
The first 150 people will receive a token redeemable for one joint
The pop-up will be hosted by two nonprofits hoping to boost Covid protections
Cases in Los Angeles County are rising due to unvaccinated people and the Delta variant first identified in India
Those aged 18 to 34 remain the most unvaccinated group of adults in the city

Published: 16:54 BST, 15 July 2021 | Updated: 17:01 BST, 15 July 2021

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Two nonprofits in California are offering a token redeemable for one joint to those who attend a vaccination event next weekend.

The 'Joints for Jabs LBC' pop-up will take place on July 24 at Houghton Park in Long Beach, a coastal city in Los Angeles County.

From 9am to 1pm, the first 150 adults 21 and over to roll up their sleeves will be eligible to receive a free joint, or marijuana cigarette, according to event host Long Beach Forward.

The July 24 Houghton Park event in California will offer tokens good for one free joint to the first 150 adults 21 and over who get jabbed on site

What could you receive along with a COVID-19 vaccine?

Municipalities across the U.S. have tried everything from drawings for millions of dollars to free childcare to encourage their populations to protect themselves from COVID-19

California: 10 people won $1.5 million each in a random drawing on June 15, and 30 others won $50,000 each in previous drawings

Colorado: One resident is selected every week for a cash prize of $1 million

Louisiana: $100,000 to one winner every week starting July 9, with a grand final prize of $1 million

Maine: The state will purchase up to 10,000 fishing and hunting licenses for the year 2021

New York: Parents can submit their vaccinated children to win one of 50 full scholarships to any four-year public college or university in the state

Source: National Governors Association

The pop-up will be co-hosted by the Long Beach Collective Association, a cannabis trade and advocacy organization.

Young people are the event's target audience.

'Similar to trends across California, Long Beach residents ages 18 to 34 remain as a significant block of people who are unvaccinated,' the LBC says

Only 52 percent of residents 18 to 34 have been vaccinated, according to the City of Long Beach coronavirus dashboard, compared to 70 percent of those 35 to 44 and more than 99 percent of those 65 and over.

In total, more than 57 percent of Long Beach residents have been vaccinated, including 70 percent of adults.

The city has a higher average poverty rate than the county, hovering at 16.8 percent compared to 14.9 for the county.

Long Beach is the seventh-most populated city in California with more than 456,000 residents, according to worldpopulationreview.com.

Los Angeles County has seen a recent surge in coronavirus cases, largely attributed to unvaccinated people and and the Delta variant first identified in India.

Cases have jumped more than 260 percent in Los Angeles County in the past two weeks, according to a tracker compiled by the Los Angeles Times.

The current seven-day average for new cases stands at 1,077.

The LBC also hopes to lower vaccination inequity rates by ZIP code.

'Cannabis is part of our Long Beach culture and to safely share a joint without contributing to the spread of COVID-19, we must all do our part to get vaccinated,' the nonprofit says.

The least vaccinated zip code is 90810, where only 51 percent of residents are vaccinated compared to 90815 with 70 percent.