My First Grey Market Dispensary Purchase
A quick clip of my first dispensary purchase in Vancouver! In May 2015 I got my first dispensary card. NO, not a card to a BC Gov't store, a card to a grey market dispensary, one of many that were operating in the hayday of compassion just before legalisation crushed everything with its iron fist, closing all of the dispensaries selling legit medicine to desperate patients. Sour Diesel was my first strain and an instant favourite, especially those little grape nugs. It was also my first experience with delicious, high-potency edibles other than some cookies at past 420s.
It had been such an exciting time - having a bunch of different strains and products like capsules and oils made me very healthy! Especially coming from a time of desperation, where you only have one source and you're ripe for abuse because of it. Not to mention the hayday was one of the funnest times ever; the culture was thriving and people were loving it. That must have helped with the health aspect for sure.
But in the 90s there were only a couple of compassion clubs like B.C. pain management society, who sold affordble medicinal cannabis to patients prescribed by a doctor. This was hard to get and not very common, so not attacked by police. By the 20-teens, these dispensaries were all over Vancouver, occasionally being attacked and raided by police, but also protected under our constitution with the help of activists, what a strange time.
Now with legaLIEsation in Canada, prohibition has gotten worse than the 90s. ALL of these compassion clubs and real dispensaries are being closed to open Government stores that sell irradiated, low-potency, improperly grown cannabis bud only in thick wasteful plastic container packaging at literally 4x the free market price.
The government is taking away our right to life saving medicine by saying that we have "access" to their overpriced, overregulated recreational market. If you're itching to mention that we "got what we asked for" because you've heard that Canadians are allowed to grow, please go carefully research the details of that before misinforming people.
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This video can be viewed on LBRY.tv
Great post, @MediKatie! A little cannamodelling and some important knowledge dropping. Danks for what you do :) <3
We have been through it all as cannabis users here in BC.
From early experiences in the 90s during repressed times for the culture, and the heyday of cannabis freedom (relative freedom anyway) in 2015. We have lived on the front-lines of the culture, and the battle against prohibition which threatens to destroy us.
I remember walking in the sunshine through downtown Vancouver, with your hand in mine, and some infused chocolates, hard candies, and primo BC bud in the other. Medicating while heading home to vape. Feeling like freedom was coming to the land, like our efforts were starting to pay off, like a free market for cannabis was possible, and like we were going to overcome the constant crushing prohibition which had put a chill over our lives to that point.
But #legalizationisalie and freedom has not come to the land.
Our activism will continue.
That was a beautifully sunny day, symbolic of our success and happiness! It was a magical moment walking back down Davie St with you. Hehe we felt so bad-ass for consuming in public even when it was just chocolates. And back when using a vaporizer at a lounge was the coolest thing ever because we'd just started hearing about dabs. Ahhh good times those were!
Yeah!
I'm happy we don't have regrets about those times. We gave it our 100%, we put our whole lives (and more) into it, and we saw results. Very few people can say that. We knew those times were special, and we made lots of memories, and took lots of videos!
This must have been just before you got into dabbing extracts :D
some of the best and greenest times :))
Oh yeah! Before this, I'd had a budder hit off a sublimator at a 4/20 (my first dab). Soon after this we started getting shatter on Shatterdays of course, and finally we got a rig and became full on shatterheads! :D
Ahh good times, @Medikatie! Upvoted and resteemed. Puff puff pass that BC bud, and the chocolates too! :D
Careful, those chocolates were 100mg of THC each!
Which isn't a huge dose for regular users, and is a fairly small dose for patients.
But it's 40 times the maximum dose of THC under "legalization" here in Canada. Edibles will be 2.5mg each, anything else will be raided and prosecuted. 2.5mg is 1/400th of a gram. Some patients, many with doctor prescriptions, need several grams per day to stay alive. That would mean eating literally thousands of edible chocolates or baked goods, every day. Impossible.
#legalizationwasaninsidejob
I was JUST reading the new guidelines for Cannabis in Canada, and they're limiting edibles at 10mgTHC per container and they literally say they must limit THC because of THCA's ability to turn into THC....ummm word fail?! Even 100mg is a mild dose for me hehe but that's why they call me @MediKatie ;)
#legalizationisalie
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