Issue 97 / March 2019

THE
CHILLIN’
ROOMS
How a coffee shop in Kensington is at the vanguard of a
movement towards cannabis acceptance.
It’s Friday night and we’re on our way to a secret location. A
phone call IDs us, the gate is opened and, after paying our
day membership, we’re in and walking straight into the
ultimate speakeasy. A long hall with benches, tables
and chairs either side of a central walkway. The air is
thick with sweet-smelling smoke and down the far end
there’s a stage area. It’s open mic night and the place
is buzzing.
We’re invited to take a seat and a friendly face
brings us a skinning up tray and the chance to get
a soft drink, tea or coffee. Looking around the
venue, there are spaces for around 120 people.
And it’s a full house tonight. Somebody offers
me some organically grown sativa – perfect. Just
what the doctor ordered. This isn’t a night for
indica’s couch lock introversion – this place was
made for an energetic, euphoric and cerebral
high.
People are talking to each other and to
complete strangers. Phones are on the table
but no one is looking at them. The music is a
great mixture of classic and current and the
venue is energised in ways that I haven’t seen at
many open mic nights. But this isn’t Amsterdam,
Arizona or Colorado. This is Kensington, Liverpool
and this is THE CHILLIN’ ROOMS, first set up in
2002, and a Mecca to those in the know.
OK, I have to be up front and say that I’m not
entirely impartial in this. A few years ago, I made
a film about the birth of Amsterdam’s coffeeshops,
and the growth of the ‘green’ cannabis industry (The
Green Avalanche – Official, it’s on YouTube). At the time,
I wondered if the rest of the world could ever follow the
Dutch lead on toleration. And since then, Portugal, Spain,
Canada and the USA have all changed laws, reaping serious
financial and societal benefits. But the UK seems stuck in a
different mindset, as if they prefer widespread criminality, an
overrun judicial system and full prisons.
Nevertheless, there seems to be a change in the air.
Following on from the cannabis clubs in Spain and the medical
co-operatives in the States, a series of cannabis social clubs
have been opening up across the UK – places where you can
go and smoke in a friendly welcoming place, with like-minded
individuals. Members pay their memberships and new joiners
have to be recommended by a friend. It’s a club for smokers and
The Chillin’ Rooms is, and always has been, at the vanguard.
Gary, a former pub landlord, has been running the club for
over 17 years, on and off, depending on the changing whims of
the local constabulary. “It’s all about having a positive impact,” he
tells me. “It’s a social enterprise. We’re creating jobs and paying
above minimum wage. We’re all above board. If people didn’t
come here, they’d be sitting at home or having a quick puff in the
garden, looking inwards and alone. Here, everybody is together.
We’re all looking forward and talking to each other face to face.
There are people who travel from the other side of the country
to come here. And we’re not in this to make loads of money and
drive round in big cars. What we’re doing here is building this
community up and spreading that out into the local area.”
Promoter of the music night is Ste Weevil. “The night is
called the Backbone, ‘cos Gary’s always said that what we’re
doing and the people that are coming – we’re the backbone of
the UK. And we feel that the music community here has become
a backbone of the Liverpool music scene as well. Bringing the
music has brought a lot of people in, and helped to promote the
club. We’ve been doing the Fridays and building it up slowly, and
Barry Sutton has started a night called the Baby
Backbone, which is on Thursdays. Look how
many people are here. There’s no alcohol,
but the drinks are flowing and a creative
business is thriving.”
We know how much talent there
is in this city, and tonight its musical
spotlight is on full beam. Reggie
Lloyd warms the crowd up, before
handing the mic to Scarlet, who
plays a mixture of classics and
original material. Both are excited
to have played. “It’s a saving grace
of a place, and playing is a badge
of pride,” says Reggie. “The set up’s
fantastic.”
Another act is Johnny Taylor
from The Sky, who plays his own
material and a blistering cover of
Johnny B. Goode: “Because of the weed
thing, it adds to the whole atmosphere.
Everyone’s just relaxed and chilling. They
listen a bit more and they’re inclined to take
in what you’re doing, instead of getting pissed
and talking and not being arsed.”
The stand-out act is Resonator Force, who play harmonic
Merseybeat/West Coast indie rock. Jamie (vocals), Luke
(guitar) and John (bass) have been coming to the Backbone
for a couple of months. “We heard about it a while back
but we just assumed it had gone, dead and buried, but
we turned up for an open mic and it’s the best place
in the world,” says Jamie. “There’s the little door – the
secret knock, all that caper, and I get in here and my
face is smiling that much there’s nowhere else for
my cheeks to go. It hurts after a bit. I mean, what
more do you want? No one bothers you. You can
talk to people if you want but if you don’t want
to it’s all good. It’s beautiful. What do you see
around you? Do you see a roomful of criminals?
Technically, yeh, but in reality, no. These people
are the mellowest people around for 10 miles.
How many people 50 yards away from here
are throwing shit at the telly, screaming at the
footy, downing Stella, kicking the cat? All kinds
of stuff that stoners just can’t be arsed doing.”
That question of illegality and criminality is
discussed in full the next day, when we travel to
the 271 Cannabis Club in Moreton, Wirral for a
meeting of the UK Cannabis Social Clubs. The UK
CSC organisation has been running since 2011
and has upwards of 70 clubs registered with it.
It’s professionally run, and lobbies in Parliament for
changes to cannabis drug laws. Delegates have come
from all over to listen to a well-polished presentation
about cannabis legality, the grey area that currently
exists and what can be done to stop big business from
taking over.
Currently, cannabis is a class B substance, meaning
that possession could get you five years at Her Majesty’s
convenience, and supply and production up to 14 years. This
seems illogical and draconian when 33 states in the USA allow
medical use and 10 allow recreational drug use. The reality is that
UK police often turn a blind eye. Depending on who you talk to,
they seemingly won’t prosecute if you grow a number of
plants in your home, and smoking in public usually
warrants little more than a slap on the wrist.
UKCSC policy analyst Stuart Harper
tells me: “If I’d have been asked 10 years
ago if cannabis was going to be legal in
the near future, I would have said no. If
someone asks me now, I can say that
I think in the next three to four years
it will be legal. So, it’s about how
we can take that momentum that
we see before us in politics about
medical cannabis and use that for
social good.”
Chairman of the UKCSC, Greg
de Hoedt, began using cannabis
medicinally to help a serious medical
condition. “I got diagnosed with
Crohn’s disease in 2009 after a
year’s battle trying to find out what
was wrong,” he tells me. “I was getting
really ill and had a really bad flare
up in 2010. The doctors told me they
were going to operate on my intestines
and that I’d probably die within two years.
I had friends in dispensaries in America, so I
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