This was suppose to be a very simple story,
but, like anything involved with cannabis, it's way more complicated than it seems.
The plan was to make Alice B. Toklas' cannabis brownies.
She was the lover of Gertrude Stein.
In Paris after the first World War, they started the careers of Cezanne, Matisse, Hemingway.
When Gertrude Stein died, her family took back all the art,
and Alice B. Toklas had to make some money so she wrote this cook book,
into which there was this recipe given to her by a friend of hers.
You know, the way it used to be done in the old days, you'd stick it in the brownie mix,
you'd eat and it would taste like dirt, essentially.
With any luck, this will not taste like dirt.
This is essentially a blender with an immersion heater.
And you take the sativa cannabis,
because it's allegedly the brainy, cerebral, talky,
as opposed to the couch lock.
We don't want couch lock, we want more intellectual stimulation
because this is The Globe and Mail.
And so we put the cannabis in there,
and a tablespoon of lecithin,
and two cups of clarified butter, which I made at home.
But how much you use, who knows.
How many brownies does two cups of butter make?
And I would presume that if you only used the marijuana butter in the brownies,
that they're gonna be so powerful that you'll fall over if you eat one.
This is why the federal government wants to wait,
because they'd like to figure out way that each one is the same.
But we're gonna turn this into, I think, a very delectable dessert.
[greeting]
Come on in.
In her recipe, she asks for a pat of butter
and some dried cannabis.
So I brought this.
[Castellan] We can replace half the butter, maybe.
Ya, don't you think?
I think most people's experiences with pot brownies is that they're too strong.
[Toklas] It should be eaten with care, two pieces are quite sufficient.
Now, when I said to you this is Alice B. Toklas' recipe,
you said 'well, that's majoun.'
[Castellan] It's a very common sweet to eat with your tea in Morocco.
You'd drink mint tea, have some sweets.
If there was hash in the sweets, then bonus.
Ok, lets read this thing.
Take a teaspoon of black peppercorns, one whole nutmeg,
four average sticks of cinnamon,
one teaspoon coriander.
These should all be pulverized in a mortar.
About a handful each of stoned dates,
dried figs, shelled almonds and peanuts.
Chop these and mix them together.
[Castellan] You know, in Morocco this would be a nice, daytime bit of work.
[Toklas] About a cup of sugar dissolves in a big pat of butter.
[Castellan] If five grams is a pat, then a big pat would be...
seven grams?
[Brown] Seven grams, alright. Excellent.
[Toklas] Rolled into a cake and cut into pieces or made into bars,
about the size of a walnut.
[Castellan] What's the size of a walnut?
Are you a walnut-sized judge?!
[laughter]
[Brown] Ya, I'd say that's about right.
[OC] is baking with cannabis on the horizon for you?
For us? No.
I still want to cross the border.
So do you want to test one?
Umm, no. I don' think so.
Is there anybody here who will test one?
I can ask around, except for they're on staff.
[Brown] I just wanted to say thank you, for sacrificing yourself.
Of course.
Very weed-y.
Not, like, heavily. But it's the strongest note.
Nice, kind of, date finish. Ya.
Alright, so, it's been an hour.
Maybe a good point to start with is it's not very strong.
I would agree that two would be more than fine to take.
It's now two hours in,
I'm a little more high than I was an hour ago.
I don't think I was quite understanding, sort of, what was...
[laughter]
I should just honestly say I don't know
how much more it's going to go,
or how much more high I'm going to get, but...
[laughter]
[Brown] I had a piece that was probably half the size of a walnut,
I got a very gentle lift off.
I watched the midterms come in.
And I have to say, I understood everything that was going on.
I even understood Wolf Blitzer, which has never happened before in my life.
So obviously there is some increase in cognitive ability that happened.
I think that might be something to aim for,
a kind of new model of using it.
Not to be wasted and wiped out,
or to have had too much, which so often happens with edibles.
But just to have lifted oneself,
altered one's consciousness, ones point of view, just a little,
To see if it changes the reality
you live in, in any way.
That's not such a far out project.