Halifax

Law Enforcement

Plenty of Halifax locals had blazed outside, seen “Five-O” drive up and carried on looking casual. One police encounter came just after a fat blunt had been put out, and nothing came of it. Maybe the police had the good government weed already. Damn conspiracies.

Where to Buy Marijuana

Skate shops, record shops, the mall, Spring Garden Road, the waterfront and the Commons all came up in conversation. Pubs and clubs were good for meeting people. Every so often somebody even had tasty hash. Nobody was likely to walk up behind you and whisper “weed,” though.

Accounts of the North End split sharply. The cafés on Gottingen and Agricola had a friendly bohemian crowd to some people. Others warned about getting ripped off or worse around Uniacke Square, Maynard and Gerrish, Gottingen, Agricola and Creighton. The South End alternative was the old Spring Garden Road library, near Mary Jane’s Smoke Shop and the Black Market. Spring Garden still had its share of sketchy pitches.

At the Commons skatepark beside the QEII, weekday mornings before noon were quiet. Fridays, weekends and later afternoons brought out the skaters and BMX riders. The Pavilion next door had all-ages shows. The skate shop down from Mary Jane’s was another place to meet the crowd. The conversation was with skaters, not the cash register.

Marijuana Prices

C$10 for a gram, then about US$8, came up often. What larger quantities cost depended on who you asked.

• Mid-March 2009, high-grade bud: C$10 for 1 g, C$20–25 for 3 g, C$60 for 10 g and C$150 for an ounce.
• Another set of quotes: C$10–15 per gram for mediocre bud, up to C$20 per gram for good hydro, or C$120 for a half-ounce. Some room to negotiate.
• AAA B.C. bud through a steady seller: C$25 for 2 g, C$50–60 for 5 g and C$100 for 10 g.
• A longtime local disputed that C$60 price for 5 g and gave C$10 for 1 g, C$25 for 2 g, C$40 for 5 g, C$80–85 for 10 g and about C$180 for an ounce.

Some locals blamed rough growing seasons and uneven curing for the difference in quality.

Types of Marijuana

Lots of local indica, some sativa and mostly hydro, with different strains each time. A particularly sweet F1 hybrid was thought to come from Jordan of the Islands seeds. “Always the tasty nuggs!” Other names included Super Indica, Sweetness, Juicy Fruit and Big Bud. Good sativa hydro was around, but fall brought a flood of outdoor and made good hydro harder to find.

More Information

A pothead’s paradise in an unlikely place, if the local crowd was anything to go by. The weed turned up brownish green, orange green, neon green or deep green. Some people put in requests after flipping through High Times. Smoke shops were good for local banter. And there were lobsters, donairs and more bars and coffee shops than anyone expected. Welcome to heaven.

A solo traveller from Hamilton had the opposite experience. On a month-long cross-Canada train trip, Vancouver was ridiculously easy, Edmonton was all right, Winnipeg took five minutes and Montréal took longer but paid off in quality. Halifax was three dry days in October, Friday through Sunday. Every downtown lead came up empty, one deal was a rip-off and even a friend from Halifax said it was dry. Suddenly the mediocre weed back in Hamilton didn’t seem so bad.