The Friendly Stranger is
a "Cannabis Culture Shop"™ dedicated
to direct action against the prohibition of cannabis.
It is pathetic that our society puts up with prohibition
of any kind, but when that prohibition is environmentally
detrimental, it's not just pathetic, it's a crime
against mother nature and humanity.
The Friendly Stranger promotes
the individual's right to make educated choices as
to what one does with one's body and mind. We encourage
people to express their opinions and to stand up for
what they believe in. We also ask that people start
taking the responsibility of going further. Taking
action, and doing something about the prohibition
problem, is YOUR responsibility. The number one thing
you can do to help, is to get the facts and start
educating. Only by raising the consciousness level
of our planet, to the realities of the cannabis issue,
can we make the necessary changes to end prohibition.
The Friendly
Stranger was created as a vehicle for continuous
activism on the cannabis issue. We opened the doors
for the first time on July 7th 1994. The store was
an eighth the size it is today and had a small selection
of items one would find in a "Cannabis Culture
Shop"™.
To let people know we were here, we held a "Cannabis
Revival Rally". On August 20th, 1994 three hundred
people marched from Nathan Phillips Square to Queen's
Park. There, they were informed and entertained with
a full afternoon of live bands and guest speakers.
It generated a small amount of media coverage, but
it was the August 18th issue of Eye Magazine with
the cover "Free Dope" that caught the police's
attention.
A detective of the "Morality Squad" came
in to visit us on August 23. He told us that we couldn't
sell any of the items that we had in the store, and
that we were in contravention of 462.2 of the criminal
code. He promised to return with a search warrant
to clean out our cases and shut us down.
What he wasn't expecting, was
the spot light the media gave the issue. We rented
a fax machine, and printed up a form letter that asked
the chief of police to stop the investigation and
to leave us alone. One customer at a time, read and
filled out the form sending it directly to the chief's
desk. To speed things up, we used a "Fax Tree"
(an Amiga and a fax modem) and sent an urgent press
release to all the news desks in the city.
Over the next few days we made TV news on City TV,
Global News and CBC. We stopped faxing the chief of
police after 1000 faxes had been sent! Needless to
say, the television coverage was beneficial as it
allowed us to get our message out loud and clear.
It created a huge public response, and to this day
continues to bring in people from across Canada, who
heard the story. (Now that you have heard it too,
why not come down for a visit!)
