Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 25, 2009
Priests of pot lose their church
Michael Baldasaro and Walter Tucker are closing up the Church of the Universe.
The organ has to go. Baldasaro’s bed has to go. The books in the library have to go.
This weekend, Baldasaro, 59, and Tucker, 75, will close the book on their “church” on Barton Street East that was seized by the Crown last year and sold as a forfeited asset.
“We lost our church and university all over $70 worth of pot,” Baldasaro said yesterday.
“The building is already sold, but the judge said … we could go in April 25 to 29 and clean out all our stuff. But we have nowhere to put everything.”
Baldasaro and Tucker are “archbishops” in the Church of The Universe, where they worship the Tree of Life, straight from the Garden of Eden.
And the tree is good, especially because their “sacrament” gets them high.
To some, they are unrepentant lawbreakers. Others call them the happy hemp brothers of Hamilton.
The convicted pot priests are supposed to be headed behind bars, but are out on bail awaiting the outcome of various appeals. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)