Toke One for the Team

All political considerations aside, everyone in Northeast Florida is taking some measure of joy, pride and perhaps relief in seeing the quantifiable uptick in performance by our Jacksonville Jaguars, who started this season 2-0; last year, they missed making the Super Bowl due to ref botchery. During the recent Jags-Titans game—my first chance to see them live this year—the subject of medical marijuana popped up here and there throughout the day, usually at random.

Let’s keep it real: Traditionally, the Jaguars have not been a football team one should ever try to watch sober. The logic of leaving home before 11 a.m. for a 1 p.m. game was lost on me, until I arrived at 11:15 a.m. to see what had to be 10,000 people already there—parking, pre-gaming and, in some cases, partaking of plant matter in forms many and sundry. Tailgate toking has been the American way for as long as anyone can remember; it goes hand-in-hand with barbecue, canned beer and ill-advised betting. The quasi-legal status afforded by the medical card means vape pens are now a common sight outside stadiums throughout the league, with edibles a hot commodity as well. It sets you up quite nicely for enjoying the staggering array of food and drink options at the Bank, whose refreshments game has leveled up like the players’ mic skills.

After the game, fans flooded nearby drinkeries to decompress after an unexpected Jags loss, and the A to Z boys were out in force, with their pastel shorts and expensive sunglasses, craft beers at the ready, their gimmicks gleaming in the midday sun. I stood outside Intuition with Peppermint Patty (not the one who sells cars). My veteran buds bought her pilsners while she sold me on her portfolio of cannabis stocks in the U.S. and Canada, a subject we’ll discuss in later columns. She wanted a medical card, and before I could begin talking about the process, the sketch-artist who was drawing us explained how he got his. Meanwhile, bros bickered about the play-calling while their ladies leaned sullenly against the walls, waiting for traffic to dissipate—and just like that, Downtown had cleared out.

My usual post-game ritual is to go home, lie in the air-conditioning and pant myself to sleep, silently cursing the odds-makers. This time, there was work to do. My friends Dot and Feather had returned from California with a sampling from Vape Nation’s diplomatic pouch, and I was keen to see what the future held. Dosist, from Canada, had a little white unit that clicks when it dispenses each dose of 2.25mg, which is a great option for noobs and/or the elderly. The highlight was Beboe’s gorgeous rose-gold utensil, loaded with a hybrid blend that’d make even the working-poor feel like Shad Khan for nigh on an hour. The Jaguars may have lost the game, but with their hot start and even hotter weather, most everyone in town felt
like winners.

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