The Native Iowan

California has always been a “cool” place. In many ways, for my era anyway, California may well have been The Cool Place.

And it’s up there with the modern, cool-cool places in the USA, now that marijuana is legal.

I am proud to announce that for the first time in my long association with California, I bought marijuana, legally.

LEGALLY!!!

And that is way, way cool.

Part of my reason for buying the dope was simply to experience what buying dope legally in Cali is. What its like and how it works and also, indeed, how good the legal dope is.

Hell, I remember when it was a federal offence to posses a single joint. It used to be worth some worry, even in Cali. But compared to Iowa, Cali has always been tranquilo when it comes to dope. Cali has always had its own vibe. We always considered Cali a seperate country.

So, I got what I wished for, the experience was way cool and the dope was way, way too good.

It happened yesterday.

I did a web search and found a “dispensary” near by. I still have my trusty Triumph here…I didn’t have to ride far to the “dispensary”…  https://pasadena-419-non-profit-organization.business.site/

I ride up, park my bike and inhale the hapi-scent of dope.

I’m on a busy street in a commercial/ industrial area of Pasadena. Body shops and tire stores and warehouses… Not a “good” neighborhood by any measure. I don’t leave my helmet with my bike.

So the place is quite nondescript. Kinda seedy n run down. Big steel door. No frills outside.

I walk into a bare room with a gal behind security glass. A dude in a relaxed security-guard-uniform sits behind the gal. She is bubbly n hapi. They sell dope here, it looks like every one is hapi. Even the security dude looks relaxed.

She asks for my ID. I give her my Aussie drivers licence, which throws her. Don’t you have a Cali ID, she asks. I say no, I’m just visiting, I live in Australia.

That makes her hapi and she smiles and asks how it is. We chat a bit then I get to  fill in a form. She holds onto my licence as I go in and get buzzed through double security doors.

I walk into a large, well-lit area. Thumping modern music plays.

Immediately in front of me a gal with a big smile helps a guy take a big toke on a little bong. I walk into a big blue cloud of dope smoke. The dude got a good hit, his eyes are bulging as he coughs.

I decide then and there to not accept any samples. I got to ride my bike home and don’t want to risk anything. This is supposed to be a fun experience. Not a dangerous escapade… No samples for me, as I glance back at the dude with the bulging eyes.

A gal at a counter to my right greets me with a smiling “what can I do for you”.

I’d like to buy a lil’bit of dope, I say.

One or two grams? she asks.

Two grams would be good, I reply. But I don’t want any Sonoma-Coma or make you-hungry dope. I want something easy to use.

Have a smell of this, or this, she says, putting two mason jars filled with buds in front of me… one is more citrisy, the other is sativa, should be more energetic.

They both smell good.

I like your work, she says nodding to my ink. She shows me a few pieces she has. I comment that ink is addictive, be careful.

I choose the non-cirtisy stuff. Two grams for $10.00 a gram plus tax. $22.00 USD all up. I am a first time customer so i get a discount. Rumours have it that cali has made over 30 milion per quarter in taxes on the newly legal product. 120mil income per annum for somethign that used to be illegal. makes commercial sense to me.

So, my dope in my back pack, I hop on my bike and head home.

I have ever wondered at the propensity for the cops to be everywhere when you be carrying illegal substances. Going back deacdes, everytime…  get a bit if dope onboard and there are cops everywhere. A

nd it was the same this day, but the dope was legal. I had a receipt to prove it. The abundance of cops did not make me nervouse.

Cop cars, cops on bikes, I saw loads of cops, but smiled with no tension. I was legal.

So I get home and inspect what I have… Its called Durban Pie…

…use with extreme caution… aint that the truth…

It has been ages since I been knocked down and tripped on dope. We used to call it  “a grvaity attack”. Durban Pie sure did the trick.

reminds me of what we called “somona-coma”. I sat and dozed and tripped in my chair, with the TV on, for a couple of hours. It took a long, long time to swim up through the thickness of being so stoned. It was very good, and very not too good. Been a long time since I felt like that. And it makes me smile…

Whats the line from Robert Cray’s song…                                                                           You can buy me a house, turn over the deed
Bring six pounds of California weed
But my weakness ain’t drugs, whiskey, or greed

Smiles…