It's not clear who coined the term "California sober." Or even, really, exactly what it means.
In 2019, the journalist Michelle Lhooq wrote in Vice that she'd given up most recreational drugs except pot and psychedelics and considered herself "Cali sober."
In 2021, the pop star Demi Lovato, whose highly publicized 2018 heroin and fentanyl overdose caused three strokes and a heart attack and left her with lingering physical problems, released a song called "California Sober."
