I probably first smoked weed when I was 12 or 13 years old, but I didn't like it at the time. I didn't become a weed smoker until I was in my twenties. I believe pot should be legalized because it's harmless and people need it. The number one killer in North America is pharmaceutical drugs, and marijuana has longevity without any of the negative, long term side effects. Booze will kill ya, cigarettes will kill ya, pharmaceutical drugs will kill ya-weed won't. It may make you a little slow on the draw, but I really feel that prohibition of marijuana is the epitome of a million social injustices that happen everyday.

In my mind, if pot were legalized, this would just trickle down into fixing environmental and social issues as well. I'm not just a weed activist, it just happens to be the post I man the best. You can't be an animal activist and an environmental activist and so on, and be effective and be all those things. So, I just happen to live well in the weed department. And I like weed; I'm a huge advocate for marijuana.

I wear other hats as well. About 14 years ago, I started selling watermelon on Wreck Beach [5], which is a world-famous nude beach in Vancouver, Canada. I had been going down there for about a year or so with a friend of mine, who was an 80-year-old Irish bootlegger. He asked me to help him sell t-shirts. But I found it rather difficult to sell t-shirts to naked people. To make a long story short, I partied and slept on Wreck Beach one night and woke up really hung over and in need of some water, and there were no vendors anywhere. Finally, when one did come, he had fruit juice and I paid two bucks for this juice that said, "All Natural, 5% Real Fruit." It was just so much sugar water, that I would have much rather paid two bucks for an apple at that point.

So, the next day, I thought, 'I'm going to go down and sell fruit on Wreck Beach.' I bought mangoes, oranges, honeydew and watermelon. Eventually, I just sold watermelon because everything else was just too much work and not enough revenue. And people love watermelon; I couldn't believe someone hadn't been doing it already. I've been going by the name Watermelon for about 13 years ever since.

*****

My favorite arrest was obviously my first one. It was great. It was a Saturday on Wreck Beach, three days before 9/11, and my community just stood up and freaked out. We see people get arrested down there all the time, but this day went down in history. Three hundred people stood up and rioted and the children cried. When your community stands up and says, "No, you've got the wrong person," it was like a judge and jury right there on the beach. It was really touching to know that my people did not consider me an undesirable.

The kids were crying because I used to give free watermelon to all the kids, all day, everyday for 14 years. Because even kids know that police remove undesirables from communities, they were really confused. "Mommy, mommy, they're arresting the watermelon girl," and the parents were trying to console them. For me, it was scary to be arrested, but really touching to hear, "We love you Watermelon." My community is just anybody who doesn't want to put me in jail for weed.

The day I got arrested, I requested handcuffs. If you're going to get arrested, you want the whole experience. I was just lucky there were good photographers there that day. We put the pictures on t-shirts-those t-shirts sold better, but I think it got me arrested again! (laughs) It's a picture of me getting arrested and it says "Watermelon's Bust." 'cause I'm topless in the photo. It's really funny.

I really feel that we should move on. I think in British Columbia we have sort of turned a blind eye, but it's sort of a crapshoot; every once in a while you sacrifice one to save the many. It's more the Americans that want to shut it down. But none of my neighbors care. I was at a party with the mayor not too long ago and he liked me; he knows what I'm up to.

I'm an optimist, and I don't believe Marc Emery [6], who is facing extradition to the U.S., will go down. I think what's happening to him sends a really strong message though. You don't have to be a marijuana person; if the strong arm of the law can reach into Canada and pick up Marc Emery, then who's next? The fags? The immigrants? It sends a message they can come get anybody they want. But in my heart of hearts, Marc Emery is not going anywhere; he'll stay here in Canada.

It's my own little irony and paradox - I love entertaining in front of a crowd, but I don't like to be in a crowd. I'm super claustrophobic. The idea of jail is probably my biggest fear in the world. The idea of being contained totally freaks me out. But for some reason, I can't help but do what I do. I feel compelled.

You have to think of this idea of supply and demand. When I first started selling pot cookies, it was just that someone had some shake, I put it in the cookies and they sold. If you don't feel bad about your activity, why would you curb it when you have so many people who love it? It's a $6-billion-a-year operation in British Columbia. Who wants to stifle that kind of revenue? I don't know who does.

Their biggest beef about weed is that it may cause water damage in houses where it's grown, but new studies have just proven that all those baby boomers who smoked pot in the 70s don't have Alzheimer's disease. Another study just came out of Harvard, and they cannot prove marijuana smoke causes any kind of carcinoma. So, why not continue on? But everything in moderation, of course. When you're eating my cookies, less is more. My secret ingredient is that I love my work.

*****

I've been acquitted three times. We demonstrated a flaw in the Canadian system. They charged me with trafficking in cannabis resin. It gets a little sticky when you get into the technicality of it. Canada went to great pains to delineate a difference between marijuana cannabis and marijuana resin. This means if I was walking down the street with weed in one pocket and hash in another pocket, I am not charged with one thing; I am charged with two things.

So when they found my cookies, they sent them to a lab and did some tests, which said yes, cannabinoids are present. But then we went on to say that cannabinoids could be present in that cookie whether I used hemp nuts or hemp oils, so they would have to isolate each cannabinoid to prove that the ones that were in the cookies were illegal. Standard operating procedure says if you can't see any botanical features of marijuana and you find cannabinoids, then you automatically call it cannabis resin. My specialist went on to say that they cannot say there's any resin in the cookies, because - there's no resin in the cookies. So, they technically charged me with the wrong thing.

To proceed, they would have had to spend a lot of money to go in and isolate each cannabinoid, and then they'd need to charge me with trafficking in cannabinoid, which is another crime for which I would be tried before a judge and jury and possibly receive a life sentence. I don't believe Canada is going to rally around putting a girl in jail and having a 12-person jury for a dozen cookies. It's insulting to the Canadian taxpayer. We have national security issues at hand. I am not a criminal; I'm a baker.

I don't think I owe any money to my lawyer. I've left him messages asking him to send me the remainder of the bill, but I haven't heard back. I'm assuming some kind philanthropists have paid it for me.

*****

I've become sort of a poster child for this cause because I've been featured in publications like High Times, et cetera. I have no problems with the press. I like it because I'm a happy girl, I'm healthy, I take good care of myself and can speak well. I'm not your stereotypical stoner, and I want people to see what a stoner looks like. Your stoner is your neighbor. We're not the people who are stealing your stereos. We're the ones doing the gardening.

People have heard me joke that I only smoke weed when I'm working. In my downtime, I tango dance, I do pilates, I jog, I cook - I always love to cook when I'm high. I'm just an active girl. Everyone has an addiction or two. Sometimes I chip away at cigarettes. I always quit and then start up again. That's really my problem. That, and I don't think I should have any more dairy. But I really function well on marijuana. Maybe it's not for everybody, all the time, but I believe there may be chapters in your life where marijuana may become your friend.

I'm not an advocate saying "Everyone should smoke weed." I'm saying, "Leave the people alone who want to smoke weed." I'm not recruiting stoners in any way, I'm just saying we're not the social, financial or environmental problem. Maybe in a sea of criminals, you should prioritize. If we decriminalize the holy plant we could clean out our courts and jails of petty pot smokers to save time and money and hopefully put that energy into getting "The Bad Guys."

The environment should probably be the number one thing right now, and marijuana is involved in that equation. Marijuana is a non-toxic alternative to foods, clothing, paper products and medicine. It has a high yield and a fast turn over. For example it takes 50 years to grow a tree, it takes two months to grow weed. Did you know in order to produce enough t-shirts for the Vancouver Sun Run, which is an event that promotes health and community, it takes over one ton of chemicals to process the cotton? Even if we did a cotton hemp blend we could reduce those chemicals in half. And if Canada developed better processing plants for hemp we could reduce the chemicals to zilch. Voila! Less toxicity and cleaner air and water. Cleaner air and water to me equals better quality of life for the rich and the poor.

*****

Freedom changes everyday. In my life, I know I have this privileged position. I don't know how I got here, but I'm very thankful. I'm rarely doing things in a day that I don't want to do. I enjoy my work. So freedom for me is that my work is not work; my work is my day and my life. I really have the luxury that I may not be rich, but I'm never doing things that I don't want to do. I love being high because sometimes marijuana humbles me. I'm the daughter of a fighter pilot, so sometimes I can be obnoxious. When I smoke marijuana, sometimes I reflect on where I went wrong during the day. I don't want to drink booze, I don't want to get drunk. I'm just calm.

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Meet my photographer, Maria Coletsis: www.mariacoletsis.com [7]

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