WESTSYDE GRAD, MARIJUANA DIVA CAMPAIGNS FOR POT LEGALIZATION

Her father was part of the establishment, a fighter pilot, former
commander at the Mount Lolo radar base and a city councillor.

Jeanie Dunsdon, who now calls herself Watermelon, is also part of the
establishment. But this establishment is made up of the personalities
who campaign for marijuana legalization and make a mostly legal living
from a mostly illegal drug.

The self-styled marijuana diva and former Westsyde secondary grad now
living in Vancouver has been charged and acquitted three times on
charges of selling baking that contained marijuana ingredients at
Vancouver's clothing-optional Wreck Beach.

Five years later, she sticks to her other stock in trade for the
beach, and the fruit for which she is named. Watermelon said she gives
the fruit slices away free to children and sells them at "ridiculous
prices" to adults.

"A girl has to modify her activities," Watermelon said in a telephone
interview from Vancouver. "You can only flaunt it in the face of the
law so far. You can't live in fear and you can't piss anyone off. . I
don't need to be in anyone's face."

With her self-described 1940s pin-up looks and pot activism,
Watermelon is a modelling staple in stoner magazines such as High
Times and Cannabis Canada.

She's also a comic, does burlesque, acting, is on a national speakers
bureau list and recently became a partner in purchasing a 70-year-old
theatre.

Watermelon's mother, Mary Dunsdon remains in Kamloops. Her father,
Ray, died in 2007.

"Someone has to take the lead," Mary said of her daughter's political
views on pot and lifestyle. "That's one thing Jeanie has in common
with her dad: She's a leader."

Dunsdon said it took her a long time to accept her daughter's vocation
and views. She had to educate herself about pot, calling herself
naive. "I don't use it. I tried it once. I like to be in this world -
not a spaced-out world."

But the alternative medicine practitioner said she's come around to
the idea of legalization of marijuana. And she sees her daughter as
leader in that movement. "I'd love to see marijuana legalized. Someone
has to lead the fight."

With her latest venture, Watermelon aspires to be "the Martha Stewart
of marijuana" through a cooking show based on using pot as a staple.
Recipes include ginger extra snaps, rum resin balls and no frownie
brownie.

Mindful of the law, a text message appears before the segments at
www.bakingafoolofmyself.com .

"It's intended for medical marijuana patients so they can ingest," she
said. "It (warning on segment) says we're not trying to promote an
illegal activity. It's food for people who find themselves ill."

Watermelon produced an earlier marijuana cooking DVD, High Times
presents Watermelon's Baked and Baking. She's posted the first few
episodes of her latest effort on youtube and has a book in the works.

Her mother makes a cameo appearance in the video segments and the
production eschews Cheech and Chong in favour of Betty Crocker. The
music is jumpy '50s jazz and Watermelon wouldn't look out of place on
Leave it to Beaver.

"There was nothing really great out there," she said of marijuana
cooking instruction. "It was really stoner stuff: What to make when
you're stoned. They've got peanut butter and marshmallows. That
doesn't represent the majority of the marijuana community, medical or
otherwise."

The most popular video is on the conversion technique, so that baking
has the desired mood-altering affect.

"The idea of smoke frightens people. By making it into food it takes
the stigma away."

Canada's No. 1 member of the public marijuana establishment is Marc
Emery. The Prince of Pot is now in an American jail after being
extradited for his business of selling marijuana seeds by catalogue.

Watermelon, who said she knows Emery as an acquaintance, said she is
mindful of that example of pushing the boundaries too far.

"It saddened me Canada would do that. It was politics, not justice or
morality."