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Matt Mernagh: Author of Marijuana Smoker’s Guidebook

The younger stoners jokingly refer to me as the Lady Gaga of Ganja for my cannabis costumes at our 4/20 smoke-outs. But my style is more David Bowie. Outlandish clothes help hide my physical shortcomings – in my case my crooked spine. 

Sometimes I view my body as broken. Chronic pain has me measuring my suffering on a scale of one to 10 every day. It’s a way to help me understand a body riddled with hidden health issues: scoliosis, arthritis, fibromyalgia.

Marijuana is my other coping mechanism. A decade of our public puff-downs has pushed pot prohibition onto the front pages, but the federal government continues to restrict access to medical marijuana and threaten to jail people for growing their own medicine.

I did time in the Don for growing my own in 2008. I got a licence to possess pot after taking the government to court, but I’m still not sure if I’m going to get busted anyway every time I travel outside Toronto. The government continues to deny marijuana’s therapeutic benefits. Now they’ve turned over production to a few big companies that are making it too expensive for many who require pot as medicine. It’s the only medicine that’s helped my seizures. Another ruined me so badly, I shattered my shoulder and was in physiotherapy for a year. But that experience instilled a strong workout ethic that continues six years later.

Without my medical marijuana – and weekly Pilates sessions – I’d never have become physically able to ride a bike, walk, climb a mountain (Grouse Grind) or have the courage to be photographed sans clothing.

Doing spectacularly fun stuff is my other way of giving pain the middle finger. Mentally, though, it can be extremely upsetting to know the pain will never go away. Mindfulness is teaching me to let certain feelings go and focus on the moment.

@mernahuana

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