Pubdate: Wed, 26 Sep 2012
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2012 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/letters.html
Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Dene Moore

VANCOUVER POT SCENE SPARKS INTEREST

Liberal approach draws visitors to 'Vansterdam'

It's known as the Amsterdam of North America, a mecca of cannabis
culture that sparks more than curiosity for many visitors. The pungent
scent of marijuana drifts regularly in the air on the streets of
"Vansterdam," and advocates say Vancouver's permissive attitude toward
pot draws visitors and their pocketbooks.

But while marijuana use may be tacitly ignored, police warn that
possession is illegal, so tourists looking to indulge in the pot scene
still need to proceed with caution.

Ground Zero for ganja in Vancouver is the 300-block of West Hastings
Street, which is home to the B.C. Marijuana Party headquarters and
Vapour Lounge, Cannabis Culture Magazine, and the New Amsterdam Cafe.

"You don't have people selling or dealing in here. We don't do that,"
says Phil, an employee at New Amsterdam. "But people can come here and
experience it and if they bring their own stuff they can smoke it here."

The warehouse-style brick and concrete cafe-come-head shop offers
vegetarian wraps and vaporizers, lattes and hand-blown glass bongs.
Patrons even have the option of gift cards and reward points for purchases.

Next door is the headquarters of Cannabis Culture magazine and the
B.C. Marijuana Party, a registered political party that offers tax
receipts for donations and has run candidates in elections
provincially and federally.

"Overgrowing the government," is their motto, and they appear to be
giving it a pretty good go.

Elections BC recently approved an activist's initiative petition to
decriminalize marijuana. The results are not binding on the provincial
government, but the movement to repeal drug laws that prohibit the
drug has become almost mainstream in B.C. It's even on the agenda at
this year's gathering of municipal politicians, the Union of B.C.
Municipalities.

The Herb Museum is located on the second floor of the party
headquarters, and includes a history of marijuana, opium, coca,
aphrodisiacs, hallucinogens and herbal medicines. A $5 fee for access
to the full museum includes use of a Volcano vaporizer, or $2.50 gets
visitors use of a pipe, bong or rolling papers only.

Several blocks down the street, the Vancouver Seed Bank and Tokers
Lounge offer a dizzying array of seeds for the discerning pothead: Dr.
Atomic's Northern Lights, Spicey Thai Sativa, Atomic Haze.

The city even has a tour company that offers so-called "green" tours,
"guided by expert pot smoking professionals, with many years of
specialized experience in the industry," according to the website for
Vansterdam Tours.

There's the Starter Tour, the Get Baked in B.C. tour, a Medicinal Tour
that includes a visit to a doctor for a dispensary card, as well as a
Legal Grow tour for those who have gone through the process of
obtaining a permit to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes.

The proprietor, who only identifies herself as Kiwi Kush, says she had
the idea while working at Cannabis Culture headquarters a few years
ago.

"Tourists would come in all day long asking what the best things to do
and see were," she says.

"I thought people coming up here to have fun and partake in smoking,
both recreational and medicinal, should have options available to
them, and be able to get first-hand knowledge from professional pot
heads on everything Vansterdam related."

The company website is emphatic: "Vansterdam Tours does NOT sell
marijuana, nor can we tell you where to get it." They have done as
many as 15 tours a year for the past four years, for anywhere from one
person to a dozen at a time. Bachelor parties are popular and several
bands have arranged private tours.

In response to an epidemic of hardcore drug use and deaths, the
Vancouver Police Department has embraced the city's "four pillars"
approach to drugs: prevention, enforcement, harm reduction, and
treatment. Drug traffickers are targets, but drug users generally are
not.

But drug users - even pot smokers - can and will be arrested if their
behaviour is a concern to police. At the very least, the illegal
substances in their possession can be seized.

"It would be a mistake for people to think that they could come here
and walk around and smoke illegal narcotics with impunity," says
Const. Lindsey Houghton.

Despite the permissive attitude, stores and cafes that for a brief
time openly sold marijuana goods have disappeared.

Nor do tourism officials want the city to cash in on cannabis
culture.

"This is not something that Vancouver's tourism industry promotes,"
says an official with Tourism Vancouver.

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[sidebar]

If you go:

Check out the B.C. Marijuana Party headquarters, at the heart of
Vancouver's "pot block." The party has information on the city and the
laws: http://bcmarijuanaparty.com/

Know the law. The Vancouver Police Department Drug Policy is available
online: 
http://vancouver.ca/police/assets/pdf/reports-policies/vpd-policy-drug.pdf
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MAP posted-by: Matt