To get into the Vancouver School of Drug War History and Organic Cultivation, would-be cannabis buyers had to first answer a skill-testing question that showed they had taken part in a one-hour walking tour.
“The cops… tried getting access to the school just by tapping on the window like everyone else did, and they were asked for a drug war history walking tour fact,” said David Malmo-Levine, once referred to as a “prince of pot” in a Vancouver Sun article. Malmo-Levine worked at the school in the early 2000s.
“They couldn’t come up with one and we were like, ‘Oh, gotta go back and go on the tour. It happens every day at 3 o’clock.’”
For decades, the two-storey building at 123 E. Hastings was just one of the many retail stores lining a busy part of Vancouver’s downtown.
But as the Downtown Eastside lost its attraction as a shopping destination and became instead the city’s poorest neighbourhood, this small building, located right next to Canada’s first safe injection site, took on a different significance — home to protest and illicit commerce as activists fought against drug prohibition.
The pot shop was shuttered in 2008 after a police raid, and the building has sat empty ever since. But unlike the 110-year-old Balmoral Hotel just two doors down, which was torn down by the city in 2022 after decades of neglect, 123 E. Hastings is still standing. And it may live to see another chapter added to its story.
Read the full article at The Tyee
