Portland
“THE DREAM OF THE 90S IS ALIVE IN PORTLAND.” – Portlandia, Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen
“The Dream of the 90’s...”
SORRY I’M LATE.” I call out to a thick cloud as a voice echoes back, “It’s ok. Everybody’s stoned.” Stretching onto my yoga mat in the Maryjane Event Space I fold open a pamphlet to find a selection of six joints to smoke during the session. Each strain corresponds to a different sequence. “I want you to have the experience of being able to feel the effects of the cannabis in your body,” shares Rachel Stern of Heart Shaped Yoga. “And then the effects of the poses in your body, and then to notice the differences, because that’s part of the discovery, part of the fun.” Like an orchestral movement, she conducts us through the class, varying the degrees of CBD and THC so that we can be present and “go deeper.” I hold each pose as long as I can, before realizing that I haven’t actually been holding at all, but have been lying flat on the mat eating guacamole and chips. The snack table is a buffet of fresh, local, and infused-ingredients. Ideally, the aim is to relax—so I’m good. Deep feelings of calmness and presence have washed over me. Now it’s time to get on the Yellow Pot Bus.
High 5 Tours is a veritable Canna-bus. Once aboard, I accept that heaven is Portland. To be clear, I was once pretty hip, but my virgin eyes have never seen all this paraphernalia and the variety of options for us to freely consume. When I was a kid, everybody knew a guy. His name was Noodles. He wore a trench coat. If you wanted 5 grams of hydroponic weed, he had it wrapped in tinfoil to sell you. He’d get it from someone in BC who got it from someone in South America. It was all kept on the down low. Well, times have changed. Portland is so clean and so educated, far beyond what I imagined. Our first stop is Home Grown Apothecary & Dispensary.
On display is a row of Indica to relax, Sativa to uplift, every hybrid in between, and so many different strains that customers are discussing, from their terpenes and flavour profiles to their effects. This is how I would be talking about wines and grape varietals. “Excuse my ignorance,” I interrupt, “But how does anyone know which one to choose?” “It really depends on what someone is fighting in their daily life, and what they’re working to correct,” explains the bud tender. Sizing me up, she reaches for a jar of buds and asks me to smell it. Ahhh... This reminds me of a summer night in June, lying in the grass at a ‘Dead show. “This is the one for you,” She smiles. “It’s called Blue Dream, and if you like the way it smells, and it evokes that kind of memory-sense, then this is the one you should respond to well.” Next to me, a woman is purchasing a Mango Cannabis strain for her migraines.
In Portland, possession was decriminalized in 1973. Since then, due to the growth of medical marijuana, a high level of education has developed that does not exist as prodigiously anywhere else. A vanguard of chefs is also using cannabis. They are versed in terpenes, the aromatic oils of cannabis that elicit distinctive flavors from citrus to mint to pine, as well the quantities and effects of CBD versus THC, and how to pair them. For example, limonene, which combats depression and anxiety, is citrusy and bright, and pairs with dishes of lemon-y profiles. At heirloom tomatoes grown in the restaurant’s roof top garden, along with herb gnocchi and a basil emulsion ➤