Seamus Dalton of Nap Eyes says that Canada’s legalization journey isn’t yet complete

HALIFAX’S NAP EYES MAKE EXCEPTIONALLY WITTY, GOOD- NATURED, CHILLED OUT JANGLE- ROCK — as heard on this year’s wonderfully nerdy album Snapshot of a Beginner — so is it really all that surprising that drummer Seamus Dalton is a cannabis aficionado?

Having previously been loyal to joints before switching to blunts and eventually settling on edibles, legalization means that Dalton now has easy access to all the cannabis he wants. It wasn’t always so easy, however.

“I went to school in Newfoundland for a few years, and at the beginning of one semester, there was a major bust on the island, so no one could find any weed,” he says. “After about a month of being bone dry, we finally tracked some down that was rumoured to be laced with plexiglass. I finished smoking a joint and what was left was a pillar of ash attached to the filter. Rock solid.”

So what does Dalton do when enjoying our country’s finest edibles? Naturally, he’s big on making music — although he points out that he runs the risk of making wacky sonic choices that sound great while stoned but not so great when sober. He points out that it’s particularly fun to listen to music that others made while under the influence. He enthuses, “If the music was made stoned, listening to it stoned lets you enter their dimension. Like listening to DJ Screw if you yourself were chopped and screwed.”

According to Dalton, legalization is just the beginning in our country’s journey towards a system that doesn’t unfairly persecute its own citizens. He calls it “infuriating” that the government is profiting off of cannabis while so many people are still dealing with prohibition-era convictions for possession — particularly when Black and Indigenous people are overrepresented in these cases. “When you see an all white-run hippy-dippy weed shop called something like Ganjalicious, it should make you pause and realize that something isn’t right yet,” he says.

Furthermore, he hopes that Canada’s legal changes won’t be limited to cannabis. He asserts, “I wish we would follow the same logic with weed legalization and decriminalize, at the very least, minor possession of all drugs. Then use your brain again and legalize sex work.”