By Lasia Kretzel

Cannabis culture comes alive in Saskatoon

Oct 5, 2013 | 4:42 PM

It’s high-class cannabis culture down at the Odeon Events Centre this weekend.

For a third year in a row, the Prairie Harvest Medicinal Cup (PHMC) brings a three-day marijuana festival to the bridge city.

“It’s a celebration of what it is to be medicinal marijuana growers and medicinal marijuana patients,” event organizer and Skunk Funk Smoke Shop owner Jeffrey Lundstrom said.

Over the course of the weekend, growers from across the province come to showcase their latest products. Judges receive samples of cannabis to smoke, vaporize, eat or otherwise ingest and at the end of it all, one plant is crowned the king of the crop.

The event features guests such as Matt Mernagh, a Toronto-based marijuana activist and Pot TV from Vancouver. A full list of events can be found on the PHMC website.

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Lundstrom estimates there are about 35 Saskatchewan growers and he said the number was increasing until the introduction of the government’s Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) in June. Under the MMPR program, Health Canada will no longer issue Personal-Use Production Licenses, leaving growers and individuals out in the cold.

It’s a sobering program that’s left many marijuana users bummed out. The program has also opened the door for a national debate on an individual’s right to seek the medical help they see fit within a socialist medical system where the tax payer shoulders the costs.

“Taking [the ability to grow their own marijuana] away from them is basically a violation of their fundamental rights and freedoms in Canada to be allowed to use what medicine works best for what ails them,” Lundstrom said.

“It’s a victimless crime. Nobody is calling and complaining. In fact, people are calling and saying it helps them.”

The MMPR goal is to provide access to quality-controlled marijuana but critics worry it’s the beginning of a monopoly that will see the quality and choice diminish, markets shrink and prices skyrocket.

“I grow my medicinal cannabis for myself and my patients at $2 a gram,” Lundstrom said. “I’d like to see any commercial operation, that’s got to invest at least half a million dollars into a facility, to be able to supply these people.”

But as Saturday’s events get underway in Saskatoon, Lundstrom has hope that people and events like the PHMC will change the status quo.

“As long as we continue to push these things forward, continue to have the event, people are going to continue to come out and continue to support and that’s what’s going to make the change,” he said.

lkretzel@rawlco.com

Follow on Twitter: @lkretzel