A Kootenay resident was having lunch on Victoria St. this week when he noticed something unusual — what he took to be a three-foot marijuana plant brazenly displayed outside a local dispensary.
“I was having lunch with my wife at El Taco and we noticed the Green Room next door. My wife was like ‘what’s that?’ and I said I’m pretty sure it’s a dispensary,” the resident told the Star.
“We peeked our head over and there was this sign on the street, and at first we didn’t see the pot plant. Then we were like ‘holy moly, what’s this?’ I said I’ve got to get a picture of this, because it’s not everyday you see something like that.”
As it turns out, though, the plant is actually a Japanese maple—a fact confirmed by the Star during a Thursday visit.
The faux marijuana plant appeared only weeks after ravers at the Shambhala Music Festival planted a full-grown plant on the dance floor and posted video evidence of their deed — leading to extensive media coverage online.
Recently, B.C. marijuana activist Dana Larsen began distributing seeds country-wide, encouraging activists to grow and plant the resulting marijuana in public places. Images of the results are available on his Twitter feed, which shows pot plants in everything from playgrounds to public planters.
The Green Room Society is the latest of eight downtown dispensaries currently operated in Nelson, despite the fact they’re currently illegal and aren’t being granted business licenses.
But entrepreneurs are taking full advantage of the legal grey area they’re in. And the Nelson resident who caught the photo admires their boldness.
“The way I see it, you couldn’t come up with better marketing.”
