I must have been six years old the first time I ever saw Ranma ½. At the time I didn’t know why I was so drawn to this Japanese anime that featured a character who was a boy that transformed into a girl every time he came into contact with cold water. And there were boobs. Lots and lots of boobs.

At the time I lived in the US where the only channels my brother and I were allowed to watch were the Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. We used to spend the summers in Mexico, where we would stay at my grandparent’s house. They didn’t have cable, so we were stuck watching Canal 5, a children’s TV network owned by Televisa.

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Twenty minutes after I met Andy Bishop, a self-described “cosmic country” musician in Vancouver, I watched him buy weed from a vending machine. Bishop, who has a medical prescription to use marijuana, agreed to meet me for the first time at the BC Pain Society, where Canada’s first pot-dispensing machine hawks half ounces for $50.

The vending machine has been up-and-running for a month, even though dispensaries have technically been illegal since April 1. New legislation banned all growers except for those certified by Health Canada. A recent injunction allows at-home growers to keep doing their thing, but the court order’s not meant to last.

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