Pre-colonization, Prince Edward Island’s Mi’kmaq called the small island Epekwitk. French explorer Jacques Cartier arrived in the late 1700s, calling the red sandy beaches and tall grasses “the fairest land ’tis possible to see!” and, according to Tourism PEI, renamed the island Île Saint-Jean. In 1799, the British occupied the land and renamed it again, this time after Prince Edward, Queen Victoria’s father.

It’s unlikely settlers or First Nations communities smoked cannabis on the island at this time. But people, largely of Scottish and English descent, would have been familiar with hemp, which was cultivated on the mainland and in Europe for food, such as hemp seed, and sturdy textiles for sails on boats and other such applications.

So when cannabis was outlawed in the 20s as part of a nationwide prohibition movement, it wasn’t difficult to convince people on the remote, pious island that it was a good idea. Even hundreds of years later, in the days leading up to legalization, members of the cannabis community say they didn’t buy weed locally — it was all procured from other provinces.

So it’s a wonder how PEI, post-legalization, is now home to some of Canada’s most enthusiastic cannabis consumers in the country: According to Stats Canada, more than 25 per cent of Islanders have used cannabis in the last three months. Its provincial cannabis corporation was one of the few to actually turn a profit in the first year of sales, and yes, cannabis is now grown on the island by licensed cultivators like Dosecann, Green Harvest Organics and Canada’s Island Garden. And for its modest population of 156,947, there are already four brick-and-mortar stores speckled across the island.

Here’s how PEI went from stigma central to a pot paradise.

Prohibition: the early days

PEI was the first province to ban alcohol in 1901, and so it wasn’t tough to convince Islanders to outlaw cannabis along with the rest of the country in 1923.  That’s when the federal government listed cannabis as a controlled substance on the Act to Prohibit the Improper use of Opium and other Drugs.

At the time, there wasn’t much discussion about cannabis prohibition. Alcohol prohibition was considered a wartime effort, but the intention was to maintain public morals and religious values.

Little was known about pot and few people likely smoked it. Former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King’s Liberal government included “Cannabis Indica” to the bill of controlled substances along with drugs like cocaine, morphine and heroin.

Charlottetown City Hall in Prince Edward Island.

Religion has played a key role in the province’s history. According to the 2011 National Household Survey, 83 per cent of the Island’s religious population is Roman Catholic.

Alcohol prohibition would eventually be repealed by every Canadian province — except for PEI — by 1929. It took 20 years for that to happen: The province re-enacted alcohol sales in 1949.

But as society’s relationship with pot evolved throughout the 1960s social revolution, so did attitudes of those on Prince Edward Island.

Glenn Keith Cowan and the 60s social revolution

After alcohol was reintroduced to Islanders, local government advisor Glenn Keith Cowan wanted to make sure weed remained a prohibited substance. Cowan developed drug education programs during the late 1960s with the province, and delivered speeches to approximately 200 schools across Atlantic Canada.

In the 1970s, Cowan travelled to Washington, D.C. to speak before a Senate subcommittee on the use of drugs. He even helped draft P.E.I.’s briefs expressing opposition to the LeDain Commission – a list of policies attempting to soften the federal government’s approach to drugs used for recreational purposes.

That report recommended the federal government to conduct research on the personal use of cannabis use including it health and social consequences. Beatles’ frontman John Lennon even attended the hearings in Montreal.

The policies were eventually brushed aside by the Pierre Trudeau government.

Coincidentally, Trudeau’s son Justin would begin the process to legalize cannabis almost 50 years later.

Colourful Buildings on Great George St in Charlottetown. Photo: Adrian Wojcik/Getty Images

Cannabis in PEI pre-legalization

P.E.I. opened up its first medicinal marijuana dispensary in 2016. Before then, people were either travelling to other provinces like Nova Scotia in search of dispensaries, or likely doing what most people did: Buying from the illicit market.

“People purchased cannabis locally and online from the unregulated market such as dealers and online MOMs (mail-order marijuana shops),” says Sean Berrigan, a cannabis cultivator and photographer who lives in Charlottetown.

“I can confidently say most of the grey market cannabis that has been sold locally on P.E.I. has come from off-island sources.”

Berrigan has been a medicinal cannabis consumer since 2016, but he says he has been using it recreationally for 15 years. Berrigan works in various aspects of the cannabis industry, from budtending to hosting educational workshops.

“There wasn’t much of a cannabis scene in P.E.I. – it consisted mostly of users who stayed in the shadows,” says Berrigan.

He says instead of shying away from cannabis, Berrigan wants people to have a clearer understanding of pot.

“There has never really been a community here where people can come together with a common love or passion, like there is in larger cities like Toronto and Vancouver,” he says.

“I can confidently say most of the grey market cannabis that has been sold locally on P.E.I. has come from off-island sources.”

Berrigan has been a medicinal cannabis consumer since 2016, but he says he has been using it recreationally for 15 years. Berrigan works in various aspects of the cannabis industry, from budtending to hosting educational workshops.

“There wasn’t much of a cannabis scene in P.E.I. – it consisted mostly of users who stayed in the shadows,” says Berrigan.

He says instead of shying away from cannabis, Berrigan wants people to have a clearer understanding of pot.

“There has never really been a community here where people can come together with a common love or passion, like there is in larger cities like Toronto and Vancouver,” he says.

Lasting stigma in the post-prohibition era

Despite Canada’s drug policy evolution, more than a few Islanders are still feeling like cannabis is taboo. Local educator and program developer at the University of Prince Edward Island, Kent Bruyneel, is trying to change that.

He teaches a class for organizations that are interested in learning how to adapt with the changes legalization brings to the workplace, such as concerns about being impaired on the job, accommodating medical cannabis consumers or including medical cannabis in drug plans. In its second year, the course is offered through the university’s professional education and career development program.

“Businesses and managers come in to learn about health coverage, social references and HR policy – many of them ask basic questions which they have no familiarity with,” said Bruyneel.

Bruyneel explains that when a business has health coverage, the company should explore whether the coverage includes medicinal cannabis. If not, then he would determine why an organization wouldn’t include a prescription for medicinal cannabis in its coverage.

On the other hand, if a job involves operating heavy machinery but an operator is using medicinal cannabis – there would have to be a completely different conversation.

“I think if we take the time to understand some of the implications of legalization then you will start to see some of the stigma disappear going forward, and then we can finally talk about it in the workplace and have people more comfortable around cannabis.”