WEEDING OUT WHAT'S BAD FOR THE PLANET

Name: Dylan Perceval-Maxwell, owner of Je L'ai, 159 Duluth Ave. E.,
514-284-5393.

How would you describe your store?

We sell hemp products and ecologically sound cannabis-related items.

Can you explain the name 'Je L'ai'?

It means "I got it." But if you pronounce it a little differently it
sounds like "'gele," which means stoned or frozen in French.
Actually, Rupert Bottenberg, a local journalist, came up with the
name and he was nice enough to let me use it. It's also a common
phrase, so it doesn't arouse suspicion when it appears on a
credit-card receipt.

Why would it arouse suspicion on a credit-card receipt?

Well, if the store was called Cannabis Emporium or something it could
offend other people who might see the credit-card statement.

Is there a stigma tied to your store? Do people duck in wearing
trench coats like men rushing into strip clubs on their lunch breaks?

Not at all. We sell all sorts of things and even if we sold just
pipes it wouldn't be an issue. I think it was more controversial when
we first opened 10 years ago. No one was selling pipes back then. Now
they're everywhere. I look at it like political and social activism.

Speaking of political activism, you ran in the 2006 federal election
for the Green Party of Canada in the Laurier-Sainte-Marie riding
against Gilles Duceppe. Did you run on a marijuana legalization platform?

First of all, Duceppe won with over 50 per cent of the vote, but I
got nearly nine per cent. My platform was about taxing things that
were bad for the environment and removing taxes on good things like
services and environmentally friendly products. Taxes are such a huge
part of a small-business owner's life. I literally spend one out of
every five days dealing with tax issues. Everything from inventory to
payroll is a tax issue. I wouldn't even have a computer if it wasn't for taxes.

OK, but what about legalization?

Legalization is an important issue for me, but the environment is
more important. The air we breathe and the weather we feel every day
is more important. But when people vote for the Green Party they know
they're voting for legalization. I should add that as long as people
get out and vote, I'm happy. That's my main concern; I want people to
send a message with their vote.

Why did you open your store?

I started selling "Je L'ai" T-shirts at the tam-tam on Mount Royal
and eventually opened this store in 1996. I was studying climate
change at McGill at the time. I'd been to Thailand and seen some hemp
products there. I really wanted to influence people's opinions about
climate change and realized I could do a better job by giving people
ecological options instead of doing research. This way I feel like
I'm physically doing something good by selling organic and
pesticide-free products.

An Internet search for your store brought up a link to the site
www.worklessparty.org, where they talk about "the church of pointless
consumerism." It's something they call "a sarcastic reflection on the
gluttony of modern day consumerism." Do you think we might be
inadvertent followers?

Yes. I personally don't buy anything new. I sell this sticker,
"boycott everything," which is sort of a contradiction because of
what I do, but I have a sense of humour about it. I suggest people
start by buying less and see how they feel about it.

Do people come in asking to buy marijuana?

Every day. I always say there's no harm in asking. But even if I knew
where to send them to find it, I couldn't. But I do add that it can
be found easily enough in any park.

That's so true. Do you find that marijuana culture in Montreal is
more laid-back than in the States?

We don't have stereotypical dreadlocked stoners here. I think the
average Montrealer gets stoned a couple of times a year and it's not
a big deal. It's part of the culture. It's like if I eat doughnuts
once in a while, it doesn't make me exclusively a doughnut eater. In
any case, it's not as bad as in the States; I mean there's a war on
drugs there.

What do you think of the American gateway drug theory? The one that
says that marijuana is a gateway to harder drugs.

Most people who do heroine like rock music; it doesn't mean that rock
music is a gateway to heroin. The gateway theory is total bulls--t.
People who do hard drugs are people who like to take risks. Marijuana
is not a gateway to crack or anything else. The U.S. government has
spent billions on advertising to convince people that it is. In the
1930s, the government was saying that pot made users violent, which
couldn't be less true. I think the only time marijuana kills is if a
bale of it falls on someone and crushes them.

What do you say to people who think marijuana should be kept illegal?

One-third of Canadians have smoked marijuana in their lives. If you
think marijuana should be illegal you're saying that a third of all
Canadians should have criminal records. There are many problems with
keeping it illegal, but one of the worst in my eyes is that it forces
it into ghettos and into the hands of hard-drug dealers. Those are
the types who might say, "You want some crack with that?" to someone
buying marijuana. Most people will say no, but it's a temptation that
wouldn't be there if it was legal.

Do you know marijuana laws well? There's a lot of conflicting
information out there.

It's definitely confusing for people. For about four months when the
Liberals were in power it was legal because the provincial high
courts declared the whole cannabis law to be invalid. If that motion
had become law, the police would issue a ticket rather than arresting
you and dragging you into court. Almost all the urban cases get
thrown out anyway. It's more economically viable for the government
to issue tickets. And it would unclog the courts to get all these
minor marijuana possession charges out of the way.

That sounds like it makes sense. So what went wrong?

Basically things took long. It was controversial and then the
Liberals lost the election, so that was the end of that. If Martin
had stayed in power, I think the law would have gone through.

What's the most popular item you sell?

I think in sheer numbers it would be rolling papers. And the organic
hemp hand soap is popular. Regular soap is made from oil pellets that
go into your skin and most soap they call "natural" isn't really at
all. My soap is the real thing and it's made in Vermont.

How did you find a supplier who could live up to your lofty
ecological standards?

Well, I run my car on vegetable oil and I happened to run out of it
in Vermont a while back. So I stopped at this place and they filled
my tank with vegetable oil because that's what they use to make their
soap. Then we became business partners.

What's the most popular misconception about your store?

I think people are surprised that we actually sell nice clothes made
from hemp. It looks like any other material, even like cotton. We
also sell clothing made out of coconut and bamboo fibre.

Is it just hippy clothing or do you have trendy stuff?

It's an eclectic style. The designs are a little retro. Big fashion
people like Stella McCartney are working with hemp now; it's a great
material. We have everything from a $10 tank top to a $300 hemp fur jacket.

Have you ever been in trouble with the law?

Never.

What's your relationship with local police?

It's good. Some of them are customers. When we got robbed they were
really helpful. There's no animosity.

Isn't it strange to sell marijuana paraphernalia when marijuana isn't legal?

We don't sell marijuana paraphernalia; we sell pipes to smoke
anything legal. That's the bottom line.

What legal herb can you smoke in these pipes?

Different herbs like colt's foot and salvia, which we sell here. It's
a relaxing activity for some people, just like smoking a cigarette.

What's the most expensive thing in store?

We have a $650 vaporizer.

What's a vaporizer?

It's an electronic thing that basically takes the smoke and tar out
of smoking. You have to plug it in, put in tobacco and fill the bag
with flavoured air and basically just inhale the mist. It tastes good.

Do you sell seeds for marijuana plants?

We only sell the kind you can eat. They've been sterilized so they
can't grow. They're a great source of Omega 3, 6 and 9 proteins.
Eating them won't make you stoned because there's no THC in the seed;
it's in the flower. The THC is what gets people stoned when they smoke.

What's the most common question people ask?

People often ask if pot is legal. It's not. But it's really a grey
area. If I ever got arrested I'd take it to the Supreme Court.