The Grow Show exhibition at Touchstones Nelson Museum of Art and History is celebrating 50 years of cannabis culture in Nelson and the Kootenays. The exhibition, which opened Nov. 26 and runs until Feb. 27, 2022, chronicles the Kootenays’ half-century of cannabis production and consumption before marijuana was made legal on Oct. 17, 2018.
Part of the exhibit is dedicated to local Nelson cannabis dispensary Holy Smoke’s history. Paintings, photos and more showcase the enjoyment of bud at this longtime cannabis shop. The local industry was started by the hippie culture that migrated to the area by American Vietnam War draft dodgers in the 1960s. After the David Thompson University Centre and the Kootenay Forest Products sawmill closed, growing became much more prevalent in the region. “As well as exploring the culture of cannabis in the Kootenays, the exhibition looks at agricultural, economic and political perspectives through photography, video, art, artifacts and the written word.”
