Cannabinoids in "Pot Cookies"

Vancouver's Wreck Beach Arrests Hippie Bakers

Watermelon is a comedienne, baker, entrepreneur, model, tango dancer, health nut, activist...and acquitted three times on drug charges. She bakes "gingersnap crackle and pot cookies for sale on Vancouver's nude Wreck Beach. She was arrested, but her cookies contained a secret ingredient and a loophole, leading the judge to concede reasonable doubt. She's graced the cover of High Times Magazine and hosted Amsterdam's Cannabis Cup since.

I first smoked weed when I was 12 or 13 years old, but didn't become a weed smoker until I was in my twenties. The number one killer in North America is pharmaceutical drugs, and marijuana has longevity without any of the negative, long-term side effects.

Fourteen years ago, I started selling watermelon on Wreck Beach, a world-famous nude beach in Vancouver, Canada. I bought mangoes, oranges, honeydew and watermelon. I've been going by the name Watermelon ever since.

My favorite arrest was my first one. Three days before 9/11, 300 people stood up and rioted and protested. 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.

In British Columbia we have turned a blind eye, but if the strong arm of the law can reach into Canada and pick up Marc Emery, then who's next? It's a $6-billion-a-year operation in British Columbia. Who wants to stifle that kind of revenue?

Cannabinoids, Marijuana Resin and Canadian Law

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 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, I am not charged with one thing; I am charged with two things.

When they found my cookies, they sent them to a lab and found cannabinoids were present, as they would be if I used hemp nuts or hemp oils. 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.

To proceed, the police would have to isolate each cannabinoid, and charge me with trafficking in cannabinoid, which is another crime for which I would be tried and possibly receive a life sentence. I don't believe Canada is going to put a girl in jail 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.

Environmentalists Advocate for Hemp

I'm not your stereotypical stoner,; your stoner is your neighbor. We're not the people who are stealing your stereos. We're the ones doing the gardening. I'm not saying "Everyone should smoke weed." I'm saying, "Leave the people who want to smoke weed alone." I'm not recruiting, I'm just saying we're not the social, financial or environmental problem. Maybe in a sea of criminals, you should prioritize.

Marijuana is a non-toxic alternative to foods, clothing, paper products and medicine. It has a high yield and a fast turn over. It takes 50 years to grow a tree; it takes two months to grow weed. In order to produce enough t-shirts for the Vancouver Sun Run, an event that promotes health and community, it takes over one ton of chemicals to process the cotton. If Canada developed better processing plants for hemp we'd have less toxicity and cleaner air and water