Pubdate: Sat, 19 Apr 2014
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.torontosun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Terry Davidson
Page: 6

GAINING STEAM ... OR SMOKE

4/20 movement helping push marijuana legalization debate

Long time marijuana advocate Matt Mernagh becomes somewhat emotional
when considering how far the Toronto contingent of the 4/20 movement
has come since its inaugural Yonge-Dundas Square smoke out in 2007.

Sunday marks the city's eighth annual demonstration for 4/20, a global
event that reportedly originated more than 40 years ago at a high
school in California.

It has gone from its humble beginnings of relatively small acts of
defiance by pot smokers and medical marijuana users to what is now an
international show of solidarity among those calling for the end of
the drug's prohibition.

Mernagh, now a fringe candidate in Toronto's mayoral race, both fondly
and wryly recalls April 20, 2007.

It was a modest-somewhat tentative - group of about 100 that marched
into Yonge-Dundas Square, ignoring the baleful looks of police and
shrugging off friends' warnings they'd be arrested in short order.

Religiously, albeit nervously, they lit up at 4:20 p.m., sending small
whiffs of pot smoke into the air.

Much has changed since then.

There will be no puny whiffs of pot twisting above Yonge-Dundas Square
on Sunday, but thick clouds of it.

Mernagh expects as many as 10,000 bud worshippers to tromp through the
square, all "emboldened" by gradually shifting attitudes on the part
of both society and legislators.

The pro-legalization movement-internationally, nationally and here in
Toronto - has rapidly grown, particularly in recent months with
marijuana legalization south of the border in Colorado and Washington,
plus the recent call for legalization in Canada by Liberal Leader
Justin Trudeau, Mernagh said.

"The marijuana movement in Canada in the last 18 months has become
huge," he said. "There are a lot more advocates for marijuana than
you've ever seen before, there are a lot more rallies."

It was last summer that Trudeau reignited the Canuck version of the
debate around marijuana laws, admitting during a trip to Vancouver
that he had smoked pot after being elected an MP.

In July, he announced that he favours legalizing, taxing and
regulating the drug rather than decriminalizing it.

In response, the federal Conservatives dug in their
heels.

Justice Minister Peter MacKay maintained the Tories "have no intention
of legalizing or decriminalizing" marijuana.

He then shifted his stance slightly in December, hinting there is the
possibility of altering marijuana laws to allow police the option of
fining those possessing small amounts rather than laying criminal charges.

It is this shifting in attitude - both political and societal-that
has led to growing "pockets of resistance" in such cities as Toronto,
Calgary, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Halifax, Mernagh said.

"These (movements) never existed 10 years ago. I would say it has been
in the last three years ... that we see them now," he added. "It gives
people who may be hiding ... right now, who are in the closet, who may
be ready to step out of the closet ... things like Colorado have
emboldened them. Colorado makes it a reality for them. It has
emboldened people to go further."

Those who oppose pot prohibition, he said, have watched closely what
has transpired stateside.

Recreational sales of marijuana began in Colorado Jan.
1.

That state, in the fiscal year beginning in July, could realize $134
million US in tax revenue from its landmark legislative shift, the New
York Times reported in February.

Washington, which is set to do the same starting in June, is
reportedly expecting to see $190 million flow into state coffers over
four years starting in 2015.

On this, Mernagh is optimistic, explaining the floodgates have been
opened when it comes to the legal use of the ubiquitous drug.

"In Colorado that is a model to look forward to," he said. "You can
grasp onto that. You already have one state down. (The other states)
are going to fall like dominoes."

It all begs the question: Who or what started 4/20?

Myths and rumours abound, but Mernagh adheres to the one that seems to
pop up the most: That 4/20 started in 1971 after a small group of high
school students in San Rafael, Calif., began meeting at 4:20 p.m. to
smoke pot by the statue of chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur.
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MAP posted-by: Matt