Cannabis enthusiasts enjoy their last illegal tokes

Pot smokers agree their world will be a very different place after legalization

If I buy off this guy, and I’ve never met him before, he could have easily laced i.t

Keagan Gendron is sitting near the cenotaph in Regina’s Victoria Park with a group of friends. The 16-year-old was one of dozens celebrating “420” on Friday — a day of celebration of cannabis and, less and less so, a protest.

Cannabis advocates have in the past used the date to call for legalization, but with that set to take place later this year, those gathering in Regina seemed more bent towards the celebration.

Gendron included.

“Can I get a rip first?” he calls out to his friends when asked if he would be willing to do an interview.

The stigma that once clouded pot smokers is slowly lifting, and product can be bought several different ways, in many different forms.

The city has dispensaries operating in it, online companies will mail it anywhere Canada Post delivers; the old-school vocation of being a street drug dealer seems to be hanging by a thread.

Where does Gendron get his from these days?

“People I know, you know?” he says, before pointing at someone nearby. “What’s your name? Gregory. I go to a dispensary, too.”

Asked what his preferred method is, he says the dispensary, but refuses to provide the name of it for fear of being a “snitch.”

“It’s safer, you know? If I buy off this guy, and I’ve never met him before, he could have easily laced it, he could have cheaped me out for what I’m getting, all that ...,” he says.

“That kind of stuff actually happens out on the street, but when you’re going to a dispensary, they’re weighing it in front of you, you know what you’re getting and, plus, the weed from a dispensary is pretty good cause it’s ... grown, you know?”

While some of those dispensaries in the city have since closed — in part due to police raids — others remain open and, at a glance on Friday, busy. Lineups are fairly regular, as is a shortage of supply.

But 19-year-old Regan Macdonald is not one of those going into the dispensaries.

“I have a guy,” he says. “I don’t trust the shops. They keep getting raided.”

Farley Machiskinic doesn’t use the dispensaries either, but he said he will once they are legal.

“They have more variety there, better selection, even for medicinal purposes, it would be good for everybody else,” he said, adding it will be “a lot better for a lot of people.”

While April 20, 2018, marks the final day in which “420” celebrations are illegal, most of those in attendance seemed to believe events such as the one in Victoria Park on Friday would continue in the years to come.