Features

‘Wonder weed’ opened my mind

Published on June 3, 2022 by David Trifunov

Photo: Adobe/the oz.

Let me save you the trouble: You were right.

I was late to the party. I was one of those “whenever it’s around” guys growing up — you know the type, I’m sure. But as prohibition came to an end, cannabis began to creep into my day job like a waft of smoke over the back fence. I began reading and writing more about cannabis, much of it for this very magazine.

Better still, I had just entered a creative funk in my career, and the anxiety-fighting wonder weed that promised to open my mind deserved to be tested. No self-respecting writer can skip the research phase, right? 

That led to experimentation with vapes and edibles, then rolling my own while studying strains and terpenes.

I found some early go-to strains (GG#4 and Shishkaberry, to name just two), and the time of day that worked best for me (later at night, especially in the hot tub), and I’ve enjoyed the ride ever since. 

After a few memorable trips—time-travelling to help my nine-year-old self work out some deep-seated anxiety—I was converted.

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Now, I want to turn my backyard into a cannabis wonderland. (Hey, buddy, can you spare some clones?) More than that, I can now envision the future I think I’ve always wanted. There may even be a better future ahead for all of us—bring your own stash, if you want to join the fun. 

I’m being completely serious about this, too. You’re reading it here first. Please, don’t just think, “Whoa, what’s he been smoking?” … OK, well, you should be thinking that, because “duh,” why are we all here in the first place? Incidentally, it was Afghani Drifter by Greybeard.

But to me this is more than just hippie daydreaming. My thinking has changed so drastically, I see connections where there were none before. 

Weed has given me the confidence to fight off anxiety and take control of my future.

Cannabis can help you think differently

Cannabis has unlocked a part of my mind that had been craving to be released. My creativity has soared. I now dream of writing incredible books while I raise my artist children on a commune that grows the best herb in the Okanagan. We’ll play music, and feast on the food we grow. We’ll live, as seems obvious now in times of coronavirus and overconsumption, as human beings are meant to live—connected to the land around us, not watching it through a screen.

Imagine the food— the music—as you sit around a great table in the great outdoors with your closest friends and family, laughing and living. We’ll listen to and play music so good it brings us to tears. 

That’s what I want, all the time, not just for two weeks every summer on vacation.

Anything is possible with good weed

I have this burgeoning curiosity about the universe now, about my place in it, and it’s delivered me to the precipice of what I believe will be the most creatively fulfilling period of my career. Anything appears possible now, and it’s all because of weed. Good weed.

And that’s all happened, slowly, over the past four years.

Pretty drastic, right?

But maybe this was the right time. Maybe I had to grow and learn and love to reach this point in my life. Either way, I’m happy I’m here.

Now, there’s still work to be done. I’m not quite chanting “Om Namah Shivaaya” while I strike the “Warrior’s Pose” on the front porch at dawn, the cat balanced precisely on my left elbow. Not yet, anyway, but damn, I’d like to try.

I don’t think I would have ever gotten here without weed, and I know I won’t be going anywhere else without it. 

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About David Trifunov

David Trifunov is a Kelowna-based journalist and author. He likes to smoke weed now. You can learn more at davidtrifunov.ca.

Featured as the Last Hit column in Volume 2, Issue 1 of the oz. magazine