Angela Stelmakowich | The Growth Op
An artistic interpretation of cannabis legalization in Canada that includes Doug Ford, premier of the country’s largest province, was meant to be celebratory, not controversial, but what is it they say about the road paved by good intentions?
It all started when a Kingston, Ont. dispensary commissioned a weed-friendly parody of Michelangelo’s fresco painting, The Creation of Adam but with a full-frontal Ford instead of Adam.
“Our art was a little controversial but I won’t apologize for having the Adam/Doug Ford figure nude,” tweets Calyx + Trichomes Cannabis. “The original was nude with a classic penis and it would be fatphobic to have him covered. This art was a celebration of legalization and something we will always treasure,” notes the tweet (Warning: Some readers may find the image offensive).
And who’s that portraying God? Well, that would be Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose inception of legalized recreational cannabis definitely took longer than seven days.
The reaction on Twitter to the display of Adam’s naughty bits was, as one might imagine, divided.
One tweet was onboard with the display, although wondered if it was pot seeds surrounding Trudeau.
Another tweet wondered why Ford was Full Monty, while Trudeau was not.
The company response: “It would be artistically inaccurate.”
One tweet notes, “Not exactly cool and good to draw someone naked without their consent and make only the person with the bigger body the one with no clothes on to gawk at!”
No matter what you think of the art, though, it’s difficult to argue that legalization in Canada and, perhaps more pointedly, in Ontario has met expectations. The province still counts retail locations in the dozens instead of hundreds, lagging far behind Alberta.
One of the main sticking points for not realizing its retail potential was Ontario’s ill-fated lottery system. Intended to help democratize the retail licensing system and provide a level playing field, it did neither and has since been scrapped. Hopefully, under a more open and less costly system, Ontario will find success in the cannabis sector.
