Next spring marks the 50th anniversary of both the Georgia Straight and the landmark Human Be-In at Stanley Park. Leading up to that, the Straight will be publishing short articles and local concert-poster art to detail the events and spirit of the late 1960s in Vancouver and the flowering of the psychedelic age.

The two Afterthought/Kitsilano Theatre concert posters featured in this month’s Georgia Straight 50th-anniversary installment are both beautiful examples of the style in the late 1960s, printed in black and white. (Their original size was 8.5 inches by 14 inches.)

Acclaimed poster artist Bob Masse was definitely coming into his own at the time.

The November 4 poster (above) features the band William Tell and the Marksmen; some members of this group would go on to form the Seeds of Time, and then go on to become Prism. The other band on this poster was Great White Light, of which I have no memory.

The November 25 poster (scroll below) features the Tom Northcott Trio, a group I used whenever I could—I still think Tom has never got proper recognition as a Canadian pioneer in the music industry. Sharing the billing on that date was Brave New World, yet another one I am unable to remember. It seems that despite these shows with two great bands, the details are, nonetheless, extremely difficult to remember.

I believe I have a spotty memory of this time because it was “strange days”. During this period, I was busted by the infamous Abe Snidanko; after my personal arrest, my dance hall was also busted. The raid was like a scene from Up in Smoke (a 1978 stoner film starring and produced by Cheech and Chong, who met in Vancouver, and featuring a certain “Sgt. Stedenko”).

Ironically, at this time I was spending a lot of time at the Elegant Parlour, an after-hours club run by “Pops” Chong, Tommy Chong’s father. It was a fantastic after-hours club, hosting great jam sessions with visiting touring musicians. (The club was originally called the Embassy Ballroom; other 1960s incarnations would be known as Dante’s Inferno and Retinal Circus, and in recent years it lives on as Celebrities Nightclub.) It was a place where I felt safe. I could sit in the corner of the club (because I was not old enough, legally, to be there) and just enjoy everything that was happening.

The details of the bust and raid are in my book, The Afterthought: West Coast Rock Posters and Recollections From the ’60s.

Even though it has been 50 years since I was arrested, it has always been a difficult time for me to recall. Twenty years later, I would be involved in a hostage incident while I was working as a correctional officer at the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre in Victoria. As a result of this incident, I received therapy at the WCB centre in Richmond. I was diagnosed as suffering from PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder).

At the time of my therapy, I was told that it was not the first time that I had been traumatized. It was then that I was made to realize by my therapist that my first bust and time in jail had also traumatized me. Something that I have endured all of my adult life are nightmares, which are one of the symptoms of PTSD. Over the years, I have learned to cope with the these with the support of my fabulous wife, Julie.

This past August, I was a vendor at the CannaFest music festival in Grand Forks, B.C. I met a lot of wonderful people, and it was, to say the least, a mellow festival. I realized then that there were big changes ahead. At the time, I received a sample of cannabis oil. I was told to take a teaspoon a day. It must be made clear that under our present laws, this hemp oil is legal. After a couple of weeks, I noticed something was different and I realized I was no longer having nightmares.

So I decided to do my own research and found out that there are 500 different chemicals in cannabis; at least 60 of these are unique compounds known as cannabinoids. Of those, THC (the one that gets you high) and CBD (cannabidiol) are usually present in high concentrations, depending on the strain of plant. CBD is being investigated for many different possible medical applications. There are also more than 100 so-called terpenes (volatile hydrocarbons) found in cannabis essential oils that provide its many “flavours”, and which, I am told, also have different health benefits.

So here I am, 50 years later, with no more nightmares, and the very thing that I was busted for is the thing that is helping me cope with the PTSD that was caused, in part, by that same bust. (There are also many armed-forces veterans—along with thousands of other Canadians—who are suffering from PTSD.)

I am spending a lot of time working on the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love that will be held in Vancouver in 2017. By that time, I believe, possession of cannabis will be legal in Canada. We live in a strange world where for so long we have been putting people in jail for smoking an herb. I am pretty sure I will not be alive 50 years from now, but I pray that when they celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Summer of Love we will have a world that truly believes in peace on Earth, and our descendants will talk about what strange laws we had against an herb with so many health benefits that can help so much of humanity.

An “Afterthought”: Now that the U.S. elections are over, several states have voted to legalize cannabis—the big one, of course, being California. I have always thought of San Francisco as my second home and am aware of the long journey the state has been on regarding this issue. It has been much the same as B.C.’s path. I first went to San Francisco 50 years ago, and I found it to be a place I could relate to, with people sharing many of the same ideals as myself.

In my early teens, I went to antiwar rallies, fought for freedom of speech, equal rights for all, taking care of the environment, and the list goes on. We all wanted to make our world a better place, and those things were all part of it. But something happened along the way, and I didn’t see the legalization of cannabis ever becoming big business.

A whole lot of people, however, did see the potential financial gains, and this generation seems to have forgotten what we struggled for. It is strange, indeed, that in the same election year that California voted for legalization of cannabis, half of the U.S.’s citizens also voted for Trump. Now we get to see where our neighbours will go.