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Mark Russell’s speech from the 3rd Annual Cannabis Convention
By Hempology | April 9, 2002
By MARK RUSSELL
Coordinator, Cannabis Buyers’ Clubs of Canada
Thankyou very much, and welcome to the 3rd annual Cannabis Convention.
I had to ponder for a while on what my topic was going to be today.
Should I speak about the horrors of the drug war, the crazyness and insanity of the drug war,
or the stupidity, ignorance and arrogance of those in authority who are perpetrating the drug war?
I thought to myself, they’ve heard it all before, and why preach to the converted. Right?
So. lets talk a little about cannabis, weed, ganja, doobies, cigars & fatties, skunk, thai stick, burmese, & big bud, roach clips, doob tubes, vaporizers, coughing, hacking, bogarting, and of course pee testing.
I’ve known these terms most of my adult life, I just didn’t use them on a regular basis until I opened the hemp store back in Sept, ’95. It was my second career. First a truck driver for 20 years then a store owner dispensing fine pipes and papers.
Life in THE HEMP STORE, (located in beautiful downtown Coombs near Parksville right here on Vancouver Island) has been not only interesting but also facinating, sobering, eyeopening, and even maddening at times. Tales of drug war crimes against local citizens would often ruin a good day at work.
I stood behind the counter selling pipes & papers, dispensing gardening tips ( humidity at 55%, temperature at 72 degrees). Simplifying complicated rolling techniques into easy 3 step lessons for those who can’t twist up with dignity or who roll pregnant joints.
I spoke to parents about allowing their 15, 16, 17, year old kids to light up as long as they maintain a B average in school. If their grades drop so do their smoking priviledges.
They say it’s better to monitor and control the kid’s toking than to ban it.
I feel hounored to have been in the company of some of Vancouver Island’s top growers.
Expert gardeners would stop in the store to buy a pipe or something and run into each other,
they would start trading war stories about bush crawling or pro mix hauling, sore backs and of course the size of the haul, how big the biggest bud was.
Think about locals meeting at the old general store and trading gossip over the pickle barrel. You get the idea.
I picked up some really fine gardening tips just listening to these people. Which is better flood
tables or dirt? Indoor, outdoor? Seeds or clones?
Then there’s the customers who knew nothing at all. They had heard of hemp, but thought it was T shirts made of dope. Can you burn the jeans on the stove and inhale , asked some?
They were serious for the most part. They asked many questions, I answered many questions.
I counted once how many times I gave the “hemp speech”, ” the weed speech”, “the drug war speech”. You know the one, the story of The Emperor and Jack Herer and the whole thing about invisible clothing and all. Dupont, Hearst and the corporate crew. Anyway I’ve recounted the story between 4500 and 5000 times or more in just over 6 years.
The questions don’t come as often now as they did in the early days, perhaps Canadians finally get it. I wish Canadian politicians would get it , and get with it! Who is there in authority that does get it, that does understand? Well.lets see, there are several police chiefs, many judges,
police officers,(Gil Pruder, a hero) some stand up politicians, social workers, lawyers.
Learned women and men from many councils and committees concerned with drug war crimes,
concerned with the destruction of our civil rights & liberties. All of these people get it! We,
all of us, we get it! We understand!
I worked out this little fantasy while standing behind the counter on slow days. It goes something like this, if a Bill Gates type or Mr Gates himself would let me use one hundred million of their dollars to spend on the media, I could have this whole mess cleared up in a year or two. If you think about it “they” used the media to get their way, did’nt they? (William R. Hearst, Harry Anslinger).
I would use the media in all of it’s expensive fullness to get “our way”. My plan would be simple, bombard them with the truth. The truth will set us free, and it might just shame these miserable prohibitionist S O B’s into removing their boot heels from the tops of our heads .
Imagine, cross continental billboards., skywriting selected passages from chapters 4 & 5 of The Emperor, . anyway my mind tends to wander a bit, maybe it’s the weed?
This job of mine is like no other I’ve ever experienced in the past. The things I’ve learned about weed, hemp, the drug war, compassionate medical use. I’m simply amazed!
I’ve met many incredible people within the cannabis community as well. Marc Emery, who
got me started , David Malmo-Levine, a great poet-activist with green or red hair , Randy Caine,
with his roach in the van at the beach. Ian Hunter, Hillary Black, Ted Smith, Rene Boje and Chris Bennett, (congratulations). Oh and Alexander Sumach, I gave him a vial of my home brew honey oil once, no twice, at the last two hemp conventions in Vancouver. I havn’t met Tommy Chong yet , now that would be cool. It’s kind of like having a hobby you get paid for.
On March 18th of last year my wife Glenda suffered a very severe asthma attack. It took almost a year to recover, and we had to let The Hemp Store go. I did find a good person to take it over , Her name is Nicole Douglas and she has done a fine job of maintaining a cannabis presence in the mid and north island area.
I spoke to many customers about medical weed over the years and for the most part all I could do was send them to Hillary in Vancouver or Ted Smith or Phil Lucas’ club in Victoria.
It was a long trip for some.
During my wife’s recovery period this last year, we discussed opening a mid island buyers club.
It seemed to be the next logical step on our journey. After co-ordinating with Ted we decided opening day would be July 23rd . On July 20th I paid a visit to my local RCMP office to tell them
what we were doing and I asked politley that they not arrest me ,my wife or our new members.
So far so good, knock on wood. On March 7th we signed our 100th member up.
Does this mean the cannabis buyers club will be my next career? I guess I’m a dealer now,
thanks Mr Emery for getting me started.
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