Twenty four years ago a dream was born.
It was a dream about affordable high quality cannabis medicines being made available to the sick and dying. It was a dream about providing a safe place to medicate, meeting others along their healing journey and creating a community of caring people. It was a dream born of hope, compassion and love.
It is a dream come true.
Today we celebrate 24 years of life of the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club.
It has been a journey of highs and lows. We have lost loved ones, been raided six times and struggled with massive debt while tending a sea of despair and suffering. But we have found more love than we lost, fought to victory at the Supreme Court of Canada and come out stronger after every raid.
Our story is far from over. The recent support from city council has given us a chance to survive, though we still have our work cut out for us to convince the provincial and federal governments to grant us an exemption. If we are successful we will once again pave the way for others as we build the type of non-profit compassion club that few ever see come to life.
This evening we are hosting a pot luck and playing games. For desert I will be making Gayle’s favourite, an infused pineapple upside down cake, but I will be attempting to make it gluten free. Once again our club will be beaming with love tonight.
Thank you for helping me. Each of you will take that differently, from my mom who did so very much to raise me with the right moral compass, to the staff that put their heart out every day for strangers, to those who have donated to us or supplied us with medicine when it seemed the authorities were coming back any minute. Thank you from the bottom of my filled heart.
