My wife @MediKatie and I have just moved! After years of full-time cannabis activism on the front lines in Vancouver, we've relocated inland to the Okanagan, a region of BC known for lakes and orchards.
Life is a bit slower-paced here. I have some family around the Kelowna area and I've spent lots of time here, so I'm still in home territory. This is my part of British Columbia.
With this change will come changes to my activism, both online and off. We still plan to return to Vancouver for various reasons, including specialist appointments (they have the best cancer doctors there), and of course major cannactivism days like 4/20, Cannabis Day, the Global Marijuana March, and BC Bud Day.
MediKatie and I are excited to begin our new life here. We've moved into a house, all for us! It has a garden, and privacy, but it's in a central location close to things we need. We're happy about this move. It's a far cry from the situation we found ourselves in less than 2 years ago, when we were homeless despite having savings and income, because of the Vancouver housing crisis! I'll show you more of my new place soon.
Desperate search for the black market!
As soon as we got here, our friends suggested we scope out the local cannabis dispensaries. But even though Canada "legalized" cannabis last year, the local shops have all recently been shut down by government force.
"Go out to the rez."
Everybody in town (even bored 'dispensary' employees in shops devoid of actual cannabis) told us to head out to the local first nations reservation. If you're not aware, Canada has various first nations living within our borders. In some cases they live on unceded land (never taken through force, treaty, or trade). In others, they live on reservations (designated areas) and maintain some autonomy over their way of life, commerce, and laws. To find out what medicine is available for us here (once the current stash runs out), we needed to seek out the free (aka "black") market.
It wasn't much of a drive to "the rez". There was no obvious boundary to pass over. Nothing changed noticeably, until...
Business after business, along the side of the road, advertising cannabis!
It was just like Vancouver back in 2015, with a dispensary on every corner! 0% legal, 100% free market. We hit a couple spots and picked up some extracts:
Blue Dream is a favourite strain of ours. I don't normally pay $45 CAD for a gram, but it looked tasty, and I was in a vacation kind of mood. It was lab tested (the results were available on the counter at the shop).
Really clear and great colour. Taste was only average. Effect was as expected - creative and chill, energized and happy.
At another place, in a clean trailer barely a block down the road, I grabbed a gram of this stuff. Less flashy-looking, but had a decent taste and effect. Pretty good for $30. They had other strains available.
WHEW!
The black (free) market is alive and well up here in the Okanagan. In other words, MediKatie and I can relax a little. We've found our people. The real cannabis culture is still here, still underground just below the surface, still safely and effectively meeting demand for cannabis while the government bumbles with their corporate monopoly of toxic moldy irradiated bud.
Those grams I bought? Under "legalization", extracts will only be available in pre-loaded disposable dispensers, and 2.5mg is the max dose. Each gram would be 400 legal doses - ridiculous! And they will be at least triple the price, meaning patients like us who are on a limited budget can't afford the medicine they need.
Legalization is a lie. Cannabis doesn't need regulation any more than apples do.
DRutter
