Friendly Stranger At Value Village

Yesterday, while trying to find the best deal at Value Village 50% off sale, a complete stranger starts talking to me. He holds up a t-shirt with a weed leaf that reads, “Plant Manager”, and explains that he thinks I could rock the t-shirt better than him, and he wanted me to have it.

These glasses remind me of Hunter S. Thompson,
making them a necessary purchase along with my t-shirt.

What a kind friendly stranger to pass along such a gift! Immediately before our chat, I was getting bratty and impatient with the traffic in VV. Oddly enough, I joked to myself that it was my wish that someone could just show me anything pro-pot being sold so I didn’t have to actually look for it. 

Look to the bright side of the sun, 

Puffy

Nug Porn Star: Lavender

One of Mernagh’s latest reviews is Lavender. With the glitter “buzz” background and cutesy strain name, I knew this was my nug porn star inspiration.

To recreate my lavender look:

• Smudge bright magenta eyeliner heavily along crease and lower lash
• Apply pearl shadow on eye’s inner corners
• Blend pearl shadow into magenta creases to create soft veil over bright hue
• Top eyelid with light yellow-green shadow
• Complete look with soft, light, subtle face make-up to enhance the eyes

H&M Uses Sustainability As Latest Trend

The massive fast-fashion worldwide retailer, H&M addresses environmental issues by launching their Conscious Clothing collection for Spring 2011. 

H&M online has an entire section dedicated to describing what “Sustainability- the way forward” means to the company. Trend coordinator Catarina Midby explains that H&M becoming more sustainable is “an education process for us and for our customers. We all have to learn about new materials”. Catarina says, “Some of our collections here at H&M consist of fashion essentials that will last a long time. Clothes don’t have to be made from sustainable materials in order to have a sustainability value”, which proves the true “sustainability” of H&M’s product.

Unfortunately, H&M neglected to even use or experiment with the most sustainable fabric hemp and manufactured this collection with organic cotton and linen instead. For one of the world’s largest fashion chain-retailers to claim their company is going through an educational process to becoming more sustainable, yet not do enough research to understand that hemp is the most versatile, sustainable, and historically important fabric and textile, just baffles me.

As intrigued as H&M is to learn about sustainable fabrics, fashion history basics explain that the very first use of hemp was for fabric and textiles. One of mankind’s oldest cultivated crops started the fashion industry with weaving hemp into fabric and threads, dating back to 10,000 years ago.

Hemp fashion blends in with fashion

Up until prohibition in 1937, hemp was the most versatile and commonly used fabric that was praised for it’s unique qualities in comparison to all other fabrics, especially cotton which H&M decided to use.

Hemp as a fabric is:

• ·      Much warmer, bleached whiter, feels softer, more durable and stronger, takes better colour, can be spun on cotton machinery with less waste, and is four times more absorbent than cotton.
•   Able to produce two or three times more fiber than cotton or flax, 1000 pounds of hemp fiber per acre of land
•   Environmentally safe, it uses less irrigation, fertilizer, and phetrochemical pesticides than cotton. ·    
•          Hemp fiber bundles are up to 15 feet long, while cotton fibers are only ¾ of an inch, making hemp 8 times the tensile strength and four times the durability of cotton.
•   Biodegradable, unlike Dupont’s synthetic fiber, Nylon. Hemp cellulose will appear like Nylon but will not stretch in heat, does not crack in cold, has better traction, and does not require petrochemical processes.  

Dupont Ad For Nylon

  In 1937 when prohibition first started, anyone involved in fashion industry must have been furious. Criminalized for using the most valuable fabric on earth, how can hemp honestly be illegal? As a team, Harry Ansligner, William Randolph Hearst, and Dupont set out to make more money for themselves. In their own industries, the only possible way to make more profit was to eliminate the greatest competition: hemp. This involved horrible fake propaganda to scare and confuse people and creating a synthetic fiber to destroy hemp in fashion industry.

Anti-pot propaganda

The fashion industry is affected negatively by prohibition because it has truly stunted the growth on any possible sustainability by eliminating innovations, replaced a far superior miracle fiber with man-made material and other lacking fibers that are designed never to last forcing consumers to purchase more. Even the process of creating just the crops for fiber is dramatically harmful. In Emperor Wears No Clothes, it explains that “Approximately 50% of all chemicals used in American agriculture today are used in cotton growing, and hemp needs no chemicals and has few weed or insect enemies- except for the U.S government and the DEA.” 

In addition to saving the fashion industry,
hemp is a resource for everything.

  

 When this fabric becomes untouchable because of a gimmicky 1930’s money-making scam, I wonder if H&M’s excuse for not using hemp will be about money too. Synthetic fabrics were created by Dupont to have people buy more, and H&M’s fast fashion and quick trends serve a smiliar purpose. 

It's bullshit to see companies with such power and influence not using their potential. Being as successful as they are, H&M is one of the only companies with enough resources to integrate hemp into fashion industry successfully, yet they don't take advantage of the massive market. 

H&M’s Trend coordinator, Catarina Midby explains that caring for our planet is not a trend - it is the way forward. “We definitely take a long-term perspective, and aim to offer our customers products with sustainable materials and look at how we can run our entire business in a more sustainable way.” This is as believable as Ansligner’s propaganda, especially coming from the person who coordinates H&M’s trends. 

Look to the bright side of the sun, 

-Puffy

  

February 6th is Bob Marley Day

Friends at Toronto Hash Mob posted a recent event on their site, February 6^th is Bob Marley Day. Rob Ford, the Toronto Mayor was quoted explaining that Bob Marley’s courage to lyrically speak out against issues for oppression, poverty, slavery, and apartheid, and for this he deserves a celebration. 

In the summer I purchased another stoner's vinyl collection, including Bob Marley and The Wailers album, Kaya, at Value Village. The Jamaican word for weed is kaya, and my first name is only one letter away from spelling kaya. Thanks and Happy Bob Marley Day to the generous mystery stoner for giving away their collection, and allowing me to realize that awesome name coincidence! 

Be sure to celebrate just how Bob Marley would want you to, tons of kaya!

Always look to the bright side of the sun, 

Puffy 

Trippin' Out to Ottawa

On Monday January 31^st, there was a press conference at Parliament Hill for The Canadian Medicinal Cannabis Conference to address the issues about government’s different traps with medical marijuana licenses.

A video of the press conference was posted on Cannabis Culture:

                      

My adventure begins a little before Monday. Abdul early last week suggests we rent a car and travel to Ottawa for an important protest concerning medical marijuana. Considering Monday was my day off, we seshed at 5 a.m and were on the road for 6.

For months Abdul had been raving about his friend’s conspiracy culture head shop, Crosstown Traffic. Shopping in there was the first stop we made, and my heaven on earth. Whenever you’re in Ottawa next, make sure you check out one of the locations. Mike carries everything from unique vintage bottle bongs and glass animal pipes, to old comics with matching action figures, and he sells a library of counterculture literature.  

Tokin' from a "Heinz Tomato Ketchup" bottle while
wearing Mike's gift, a Crosstown Traffic t-shirt.

On the drive up, Abdul explains a bit about each one of his friends, which he hasn’t seen in years and I will be introduced to. Abdul receives a text from Tamara to meet in the basement of a church. Looking more like a weed bizarre than a Church basement, with many patients watched demonstrations on everything involving the medical marijuana topic.

   MMAR Patients van and me immediately after
smoking a joint outside of the church.

There was a large dinner event at a restaurant hosted by New Age Medical Solutions, North America’s leading producers and distributors of legal, medicinal marijuana. Across the table, activist Tamara Cartwright advises me never to wear make-up, because it’s all chemicals and she looks much younger by not using it, and Alison Myrdern, the very first woman to speak at the press conference, told me I was beautiful. Both women are very correct, for I strongly agree with them!  

Although the only thing bringing all of these great people together is our disagreements with government about marijuana laws, still being surrounded by so many activists fighting for medicinal marijuana and to end prohibition just filled my heart with love like a vapor bag, and sent it floating off like family of butterflies.  

Made especially for me, rainbow hemp
joint papers from Crosstown Traffic.

Always look to the bright side of the sun, 

Puffy

Everyone's Wearing Hemp Hoodlamb

It's very rare that I will come across a collection with great wearability for both women and men. The friendly mannequins at Toronto Hemp Company changed this for me, while displaying a casual, easy-to-wear, comfortable clothing line, Hemp Hoodlamb. 

In fashion you learn that the most money is made in ready-to-wear collections, because it's more affordable and more appealing to masses. Hemp Hoodlamb has been successful at tying together sustainability and modern trends that the majority will wear.  


Check out this video of a Hemp Hoodlamb runway show! After seeing how versatile of a textile hemp is, there is no excuse that more designers cannot start using hemp in their collections as well. 

Always look to the bright side of the sun
-Puffy

Kush

"Now it's the puff puff pass it, Cheech and Chong grass shit..." -Dr. Dre