Cannabis users offer cleanup olive branch
A group of cannabis users spent their Friday afternoon cleaning up the streets of downtown Medicine Hat with the hopes of helping out the environment for Earth Day, and to break some negative stigmas around cannabis users in the city.
The 420 Cannabis Community Cleanup took place at noon Friday and ran for a few hours, with a couple dozen Hatters turning out to help clean up the city.
“It’s something we can do to help out for Earth Day,” said organizer Caelan Hart, who also runs a YouTube channel called ‘The Cannaisseur.’ “The seed for this idea got planted last year when I saw some negativity surrounding our demonstration for 420 last year.
“With Earth Day being so close we wanted to do something more with today, so we decided we’d do our part and clean up a little.”
The team of cannabis users split up into four teams, each tackling different areas of the downtown core.
“We know there’s a negative stigma around cannabis users, and we know there’s negative attitudes toward us,” said Hart. “We wanted a way to bust some cannabis myths, to de-stigmatize the users and to de-stigmatize the plant.
“We thought the best way to do that would be to get out into our community, make a positive impact and showing people that we’re productive, positive members of society.”
The group gathered once again at 4:20 p.m. at city hall for the annual smoke out, to light a big joint, celebrate cannabis and write positive messages in sidewalk chalk around the hall.
“We’re not all lazy criminals like some people think,” he said. “We have a very positive community here in Medicine Hat, and we want to show people that.”