On the Road Again 2017

The other day I was sitting in my living room, looking out the window, listening to an audio book and spinning. All-in-all, not a bad life. But it suddenly struck me that it was the second week of March and I had yet to have my hitchhiking dream. For the last decade and a half I have usually had, in mid February, a dream about hitching across Canada. The dreams are vibrant, full of adventure and colour. These dreams always leave me with a sense of euphoria that last for hours after getting up. They have been my antidote to the long winters of central Ontario - my medicine to alleviate cabin fever . This year nothing. No dreams, no fantasies about rides, nary a thought about anything to do with hitchhiking. It was a disturbing thought. Did it mean that that part of my life is finished - would I never hitchhike again? As I thought about my dreams or the lack thereof, I wondered what had changed. There are a couple of things:

Up to last year, I lived in Ontario. Part of the dream was spending at least part of the summer on the west coast. It sounded romantic and certainly the people I spoke to were at least secretly envious. It felt like it was an adventure. This year my plans are rather simple. In Mid May, I am flying to Sudbury and a month later I will hitchhike at least two thirds of the way back west. But going to visit family in Sudbury is not nearly as cool sounding as "spending the summer on the west coast". When I tell people now about my plans, some of them even grimace and look as if they want to say that they are sorry that I have to leave. There is no doubt that many of the folks who live on Vancouver Island are snobs about where they live. None are supportive about leaving for any length of time.

Another reason may be that last year I hitchhiked a fair amount around the island. Specifically throughout the fall and in the spring I would hitch to Croften, hop on the ferry to Salt Spring Island and then hitch to my friend's house near Fulford. That friend passed last fall and so I have nowhere to hitch to. Maybe I am just out of practice thinking about travelling on the kindness of others.

There is the possibility that I am getting old. That the thought of spending five or more days standing and occasionally sleeping on the side of the road holds less appeal than it is use to. While this is more than possible, it is a reality that I chose not to consider.

I might be bored with the whole thing. I have made a lot of trips, they have generally been fun but certainly it is less of an adventure than it use to be.  Certainly in the past year of so I have thought a lot more about how heavy the pack is and how high the hills are than I use to do.

It has also, as everyone knows, been even greyer on the west coast than normal. It rained all fall (October was the wettest month in decades, November was almost as wet), and  it has been cooler and more  snow has fallen (and accumulated) than in at least ten years .I am reasonably sure that I would not use up all of my toes and fingers counting the number of sunny days since the fall. I think almost all of my first dreams of the year about hitchhiking have occurred during that marvellous time some refer to as the February thaw. That time, when for a few days, people who have been bundled up get to relax their shoulders hunched up about their ears, unzip their winter coats and to fantasize about the possibility that winter, this year, might not last until May. There is no February thaw on the island. Things barely freeze. While a lot of snow  (it is all relative) did fall, most of it was gone in a few days. There is no sense of elation about maybe surviving another winter - no celebration of the  spirit staying sane for another year. There is no euphoria.  Perhaps I didn't have the "dream" for the simple reason that my brain was just waiting for the right cue from the weather.

P.S. yesterday was a lovely day, I worked in the garden for a bit and last night I had the dream. It was interesting in that I was hitching with a group of friends and we were doing it in a part of Canada that still had huge snow banks! I wonder what that means?

Drug Arrest

In the past week there were a number of arrests of individuals who were working in or own "drug dispensaries". For the handful of people who do not know what a drug dispensary is - it is a store that sells marijuana. There were arrests in a number of cities including Toronto and Duncan, BC. In Toronto the (self proclaimed?) Prince of Pot, Marc Emery and his wife Jodie were arrested; in Duncan the people who were apprehended were just locals with no fame.

On one hand, such arrests are absurd. The Le Dain Commission in 1972 recommended that simple possession of marijuana not be a crime. Other jurisdictions including some police have advocated, at the very least, for modifications of the law to prevent young people from getting criminal record.  I, for years have been advocating for the need to decriminalize all drugs following the lead of such countries as Portugal. Our anti-drug laws make no sense. They only increase the profits for those who make money from selling drugs, waste valuable resources of the criminal justice system, facilitate unhealthy lifestyles and ensure the existence of an underground economy. To conduct such raids on non-violent individuals, especially in a week when various media outlets are suggesting that our court system is over-whelmed and are releasing people who are alleged to have committed violent crimes is well beyond silly. The fact that it appears as if the federal government has said that by this summer Canada will regulate the sale of marijuana only makes the most recent arrest look vindictive upon the part of low level bureaucrats.

On the other hand, the operation of such dispensaries is clearly illegal. The people who own and operate them know this. I suspect that they have their lawyers on speed dial. The workers who are paid to sell drugs know that what they are doing is illegal. The excuse that other people are doing so it must mean that it is okay - didn't work when, as a young teenager, I tried it with my parents and it doesn't work now. What I find particularly offensive is the rational that some of the owners and workers are using to justify their breaking of the law. There appear to be three main arguments.

1) That they are providing medicine. If ones reads some of the comments from owners, marijuana has been proven to cure everything from some 4th stage cancers to bad acne. It can alleviate the tremours in people with Parkinson's disease  as well as reduce epileptic seizures in children with epilepsy. Marijuana also helps people living with such mental illnesses such as bi-polar disorder and PTSD. All of those claims may be true - I have not read the scientific evidence proving those cures but I am prepared to believe that some plant based medicines can alleviate symptoms or cause cures. But the data is not there yet. For sellers of a drug to promise such cures is, at best, pure snake oil salesmanship.

2) That marijuana is only a herb that has been used for thousands of years. Again that is very possibly true. However what is being sold now is of a far different potency that what was available when Le Dain wrote his report or what the  beatniks of the 1950s smoked. The current crop is as similar to the stuff available in the 1920s as is our modern day peaches and cream corn-on-the -cob to the corn people ate before the Spanish conquest of Central America. Not even close.

3) That using marijuana is sacred. Again I can accept that for some cultures, smoking or ingesting various substances can be part of a ritual. I will even accept that that is true for some modern users of marijuana. But only the most dishonest of rationalisers would argue that the most of the users of the dispensary in Toronto were not there for recreation purposes.  

Those who were arrested have two choices. They can confess that they knew it was illegal but were prepared to open a store to make money; that they hoped that by establishing themselves before it became legal that they would already have a customer base when it became legal to sell (and therefore prepared to face the consequences). OR they were committing an act of civil disobedience (and therefore prepared to face the consequences)  .

I personally like the second reason - I just don't think it is true for most of those arrested. Regardless - whether or not they are just out to make money or are protesting a silly and unfair law - the consequences are the same. Stop complaining about how unfair it is.