Pubdate: Fri, 22 Apr 2016
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Page: 12

PARK BOARD LEFT WITH MESS FROM 4/20 EVENT

Vancouver park board chairwoman Sarah Kirby-Yung has made it clear 
the 4/20 marijuana festival won't be welcomed back in 2017.

On her Twitter feed, Kirby-Yung posted images of piles of garbage 
left behind by attendees of the unsanctioned and unlicensed event.

"It's the board's goal to ensure it's not coming back next year, to 
this or any other park," she told the National Post as an estimated 
25,000 people gathered to smoke pot at Sunset Beach.

Kirby-Yung didn't return a request for comment on Thursday, but she 
shared tweets in which the park board said its costs for the 
gathering included extra rangers, lifeguards and operational staff.

"It was pretty messy. There was also lots of debris," said Howard 
Norman, Vancouver's director of parks. "Our main concern (Thursday) 
morning was removing the plastic stuck in the rocks before the tide 
took it back out."

The park board sent nine staff members to clean up, a task that 
included sifting through sand for broken glass or needles. The crew 
was expected to spend all day on the job, hauling at least three 
loads in city garbage trucks.

The City of Vancouver hadn't sanctioned the annual event, for which 
taxpayers foot overtime bills for police, firefighters and paramedics 
as well as for parks staff. But organizers agreed to move the event 
to Sunset Beach after last year's smoke-in at the Vancouver Art 
Gallery snarled traffic and saw dozens of people hospitalized.

This year, 16 patients were treated in hospital, all for minor 
ailments, according to Vancouver Coastal Health.

At Sunset Beach on Wednesday, hundreds of vendors sold marijuana and 
marijuana products, blankets, bongs and trinkets.

Sgt. Randy Fincham of the Vancouver Police Department said paramedics 
and firefighters handled 31 calls. Officers observed juveniles buying 
marijuana, but Fincham said no arrests of either buyers or sellers 
were made, in part because of safety concerns police had about 
entering the large crowd.

Meanwhile, support from two nearby schools helped to persuade 
Vancouver city officials to allow a nearly 20-year-old medical 
marijuana shop on Commercial Drive called the B.C. Compassion Club 
Society to remain open. The city had ordered about 135 unlicensed pot 
shops closed if they were near schools, community centres or other 
marijuana-related businesses.

- - The Province
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom