Pubdate: Thu, 21 Apr 2011
Source: Niagara Falls Review, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2011 Osprey Media Group Inc.
Contact: http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/feedback1/LetterToEditor.aspx
Website: http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2907
Author: Brett Clarkson

SPIRITS HIGH AT WIND-BLOWN POT MARCH

Local Marijuana Smokers Call for Legalization

The weather was a bummer for the pot smokers who marched down Clifton 
Hill Wednesday.

"You can't even roll the weed because it's blowing away," said Pavel 
Braun, 21, who was one of about 75 smokers and advocates who turned 
up to the 8th annual Niagara Falls 420 rally Wednesday.

"It's being difficult," Braun said as he and some friends tried 
unsuccessfully to light up a joint as the wind whipped around them. 
"I've had a hard time the whole day."

For years marijuana users like the tokers who gathered in the Falls 
Wednesday have marked April 20 as the day to celebrate cannabis 
culture. That's because of the slang term 420, which over the years 
has come to signify all things pot.

The Niagara Falls 420 protest takes on a geographical significance -- 
to the participants -- because of Hwy. 420. Every year, local grass 
enthusiasts use the highway's intersection with Victoria Ave. as 
their 420 meeting point.

On Wednesday, the protesters lit up joints and pipes and shouted 
"Free the weed!" as they gathered and then marched down to Queen Victoria Park.

Organizer Reg Labbe, 23, who spends about $300 on weed a month to 
alleviate injury-related pain, said the attendance wasn't as great as 
expected because of the windy and unseasonably cold temperatures, but 
that spirits were certainly high.

"Unfortunately the turnout's a little small because of the weather," 
Labbe said. "It's not the best out today."

Labbe wants to see marijuana decriminalized so that medicinal users 
can have an alternative to pharmaceutical medications.

"This stuff can help boost our economy," Labbe said. "It's 
unconstitutional for us to be criminalized because we medicate."

Labbe was referring to the decision earlier this month by a Superior 
Court judge that declared part of the federal government's medicinal 
marijuana program unconstitutional.

James Noel, 58, who uses a wheelchair to get around because of 
injuries suffered when he was 25 in a car accident, said he smokes 
weed for medicinal purposes but also to just feel better.

"It makes me happy when I'm down and depressed," Noel said. 
"Marijuana makes people happy. Booze kills their livers and their kidneys."

Niagara Regional Police Staff Sgt. Patrick McCauley said there were 
no arrests or incidences from the rally.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom