One of the very few positives that has come from the coronavirus pandemic is the sense of camaraderie and community that has permeated through society over the past few months. Whether it be delightful letters posted on apartment complex notice boards offering to run errands for the less mobile, or in this case, delivering free weed to those in need.
Manchester-based producer and activist OUTLAW has been plodding through the city at a glacial pace with a van embellished with “Free Isolation Essentials: Toilet Roll, Sanitiser, Bottled Water, Grinders, Bud” on the side.
As Vice report, this isn’t the first time OUTLAW has committed a generous act of roguery. Over the last UK summer, the producer rocked up to Piccadilly Gardens armed with a banner reading “FREE BUD”, where he proceeded to pass out small satty’s of weed to eager passerby’s.
December saw our masked salient hero hand out money in Christmas cards to the homeless community, which ended up in him taking a trip in the back of a police van. His new mission is to offer some TLC in the form of THC in the era of coronavirus.
In an interview with Vice the musician detailed how the van idea came about. So it goes, the producer had a “4/20 Smoke Tour Planned” where they were going to “give out some weed”, but then coronavirus struck. So OUTLAW decided to buy a bunch of supplies to hand out to the vulnerable.
“I just put it on my Instagram, asking, ‘Does anyone need anything?'”, he explained. “And got fucking loads of requests suggesting vulnerable people. So we had all their postcodes in a map and we went around seeing all them. On the way, people spot me and know that we give out weed – so I had some bud there if anyone wanted any.”
If you were wondering how this act of charity sustains itself, the innovator grows the uds himself. “I only had ten ounces before this was started,” he explains. “All the grows I’ve got were ready for my Smoke tour in July – cropped, dried, everything ready for July. But this has come out of the blue, so we’ve just got to do what we do.”
You can read the full Vice feature here.
In related news, last month saw a group of cannabis activists and artists offer Prime Minister Scott Morrison a peace offering by delivering the PM a pound of weed to his Kirribilli House in celebration of the beginning of 4/20/20, and as a means to campaign for the legalisation of cannabis in Australia.
