
Watching World Cup soccer at a marijuana dispensary is like meeting a Tinder date at a funeral home. It doesn’t make any damn sense, but the novelty makes it memorable.“I’ve never really watched any sporting event, but I did make that logo,” says medicinal toker Daryl Brown. He points to a promo sticker on a bong case, which positions FIFA’s World Cup logo inside a gigantic weed leaf.
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On a soggy Saturday afternoon, I visited the alleged sports bar during a tough match between England and Italy. Pretty much nobody gave a shit about soccer, but the regulars were quick to praise the dispensary for repelling “roid monkeys” that frequent other hypothetical sports bars.There is muted reaction when Mario Balotelli heads in a ridiculous goal. Brown’s medicated clowning garners more attention.“How’s your poops?” he asks the woman sitting across from me. Half a dozen more smokers sit around the table, most of whom have their backs turned to the game. Some tell me they're treating knee problems, cancer or hernia surgery pain; one man is wearing a pirate hat. “If you don’t have good poops you have a shitty day,” Brown adds.
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Commercial Drive was already known for Italian coffee and football viewing, but is now home to a surging number of weed dispensaries. Across the street from the six-month-old BC Pain Society is the long-standing Compassion Club. A few blocks north is the similarly-named BC Pain Management Society. Several more operate within a few blocks’ radius—apparently all of them competing to move away from the simple sit-and-smoke model and towards becoming legit entertainment venues.On a Friday night, you can watch Brown and friends perform comedy by the vending machine, or hit up a prohibition-style jazz performance down the street. The mostly-teenaged Carlo Rossi Gang plays a darkened members-only dispensary every week, lit by decidedly non-medicinal lasers.“I think it’s cool man, patients like it. They come here and feel good,” says drummer Aaron Levinson between sets at the BC Pain Management Society.“It’s just like back in the day they had alcohol prohibition, and they marketed it as medicine,” adds standup bassist Noah Godfrit. “It’s the same thing today with reefer.”I won’t attempt to guess what businesses owned and operated by medicinal pot smokers will come up with next, but you can bet it’ll be out in the open here in Vancouver. If you like acutely bizarre vibes with your World Cup viewing, head on over to 2908 Commercial for a slice of the action. @sarahberms
