Pubdate: Mon, 21 Apr 2014
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Gordon Hoekstra
Page: A4
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Cannabis - Popular)

THOUSANDS TURN OUT FOR DOWNTOWN POT PARTY

Annual 4/20 Celebration Mixes Music, Sales and Political Activism 
Part Carnival, Part Raucous Marketplace, Part Political Statement - 
4/20 Vancouver Has Evolved into a Celebration That Epitomizes the 
Marijuana Movement.

The annual event at the Vancouver Art Gallery attracted a crush of 
thousands of people Sunday who came to smoke pot, party, stand up for 
the legalization of recreational pot use in Canada and sample the 
goods from the dozens of booths that crowded the squares and cordoned 
off streets around the art gallery.

Everything was for sale: T- shirts, posters and towels emblazoned 
with the ubiquitous cannabis leaf or reggae king Bob Marley, as well 
as all manner of bongs and pipes.

Marijuana itself was also for sale in endless forms: in cookies, 
brownies, popcorn, lollipops, banana bread, oil.

You could buy seeds or bags or already-rolled joints: three joints 
for $ 10. This was hawked loudly by sellers pushing through the crowds.

Everywhere was the acrid scent of pot and a smoky haze hung above the 
crowd in the main square.

There were police present, standing at the sides of roads or on the 
opposite sidewalks. But they were not there to interfere - even 
though it's still illegal to sell pot in Canada - but simply to keep 
the peace and manage traffic.

"It's a monumental thing. It's really grown," said Jesse Staines.

A former Vancouver resident who took part in five years of 4/20 
celebrations before moving to Calgary, Staines came by bus with a 
friend because he didn't want to miss the party. "We just had to come 
back," he says, noting the celebration in Calgary is much smaller.

The label 4/20 came into popular use after a group of high school 
friends in San Rafael, Calif., in the 1970s began using the time 
school ended as code for smoking pot.

Marc Bourrel came to the party from White Rock. The 57- year-old has 
been using pot for 45 years and loves that acceptance of pot has 
evolved so it can be used openly.

He believes there's less chance of anything violent happening at the 
pot celebration than if there was booze being served. "It's nice to 
see. No fighting. No problems."

Booths, which circled the art gallery, had colourful names: Weedy 
Wonkas, Buddha Hut, Pot Pirates, Trippy Hippy Shack, Ignite.

At HighZenHerb, owner Dan Borchardt was focusing on selling edible 
products such as candy and cookies.

The active ingredient in pot - tetrahydrocannabinol - is crystallized 
and then put into an oil before it is used in the food products, 
notes Borchardt.

He believes that edible product will have a bigger role in the 
future, in part because there's less stigmatization than in smoking 
pot, particularly as the sellers exist in a legal grey zone.

Borchardt, like others such as Staines and Bourrel, believes that 
eventually pot will be legalized in Canada.

But how and when that will happen remains uncertain, says Borchardt.

Across the border, Colorado and Washington state have legalized the 
use of recreational pot use following referendums in 2012. Similar 
measures in Oregon and California just barely failed.

In the U. S., the federal government has said that if states want to 
pass a pot legalization law, they can.

In Canada, the federal government under the Conservatives has 
strongly resisted legalization and decriminalization, and it is only 
allowed in certain circumstances for medical purposes.

Jodie Emery says there's been a huge spike in interest in 
legalization as the American state experiment plays out.

"I can tell you from my spot as being a pot activist for 10 years in 
Vancouver, the last year has been insane - even in Canada - with 
respect to licensed providers and all these companies trying to be 
the next big thing," Emery said in an interview.

"We've won over the Man and the establishment. You know, they're on 
our side. And it is definitely financially motivated."

The organization Sensible B. C. launched a failed effort last year to 
get support for an official referendum.

Because B. C. lawmakers cannot legalize pot, the Sensible B. C. 
referendum called for reforms to provincial policing laws so that 
police would not spend any time, money or resources on cases of 
simple possession of marijuana.

At the celebration Sunday, Sensible B. C. was trying to sign up 
volunteers and get support for another try at a referendum.

Organizer Nick Whitehead said given the federal government's 
intransigence on the issue, a provincial referendum is the only way 
to start the process of decriminalizing marijuana use.

"Legalization is the future; it's just a matter of time," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom