The CANNABIS JOURNALS

TOKING in TORONTO

(Photo: Canadian Cannabis Activist Jodie Emery)

Toronto is the city I understand the most. I have lived and loved here most of my life. And for a very large portion of that time I have been under the influence of Cannabis. That era has come to an end but it will not stop me from writing about it.

For most of that time period it was extremely difficult to purchase Cannabis. You mostly had to find some sort of weird dealer and then risk your life and a criminal record getting it. Why would we still do it? It was very much a part of teenage culture as well as the arts culture in the city - as it is almost anywhere.

The best situation for my wife and I was that we had these dealers that would do house calls. And for almost ten years before legalization we had a door delivery of hydroponic weed. There weren't any choices like there is now.

If you asked one of these guys if you could have a sativa they would say "I don't know what that is. But here is some weed."

Who knows what the hell we were smoking or where it came from. For a while I was buying from two guys in Scarborough. This was sensimilla from Jamaica so I at least knew where it came from and what it was. I always thought this was the best kind because it was natural.

But one time I decided to weigh it and realized the guy was ripping me off. Other times I would be in a mall parking lot waiting for some guy to pull up and knock on the window. It was very hazardous. I could never understand it because it didn't really seem like it was that dangerous. Only the buying of it was dangerous.

I even tried to grow it in the closet of my parents' house until they found out. The plants never had a chance to grow. They demanded to know why there was a light coming from my closet all the time. They opened when I wasn't there saw all these little sprouts. This was the only time I ever showed an interest in growing plants.

My parents were from the generation that think as long as it is legal it is okay. And they also believed that if a doctor prescribed  something then it was fine. This is, by the way, why we have a serious opioid problem and deaths around the world. There is this trust that a doctor will always have your best interest at heart.

After British Columbia had opened up their dispensaries and that became normal a couple of months later some dispensaries opened up in Toronto.

I saw on the news that one had opened up in Chinatown and I immediately drove over. I had to get in line and wait with other people. We were in line to meet with a doctor. There was a very attractive young Chinese woman there in a lab coat. She looked out of place and that was because she was a doctor and not a user.

I sat in a tiny room and told her my history of anxiety and poof, I had a card. I was sure this meant it was legal but it was still illegal.

At the same time Jodie Emery - a young Cannabis activist - came to Toronto with her husband Marc Emery to open a recreational dispensary called Cannabis Culture. Their idea was that you should not need a doctor's approval to smoke a feminine flower that was mostly harmless. The store was continuously shut down by the police. Toronto - which is sometimes called Toronto the Good - was not going to put up with these dispensaries like Vancouver was.

I was really impressed with Jodie Emery. She is younger than me and she seemed fearless in confronting the police about their attitude towards the plant. I knew the police were very dangerous to mess with in this city. When the chief of police did a press conference about how much illegal weed they had seized at illegal dispensaries she showed up and confronted him in front of the national and local press.

"Who is the victim? Where are the victims?" she asked. I sat at home watching the press conference with my mouth agape.

"They're gonna go after her," I said.