Paranoia of past goes up in smoke as tokers indulge
‘This is not going to be a smooth transition,’ cautions police chief
Two young men with a jar of weed sit in the middle of Victoria Park.
“I got some death bubba and some grease monkey,” said Tarek Svedahl, referring to marijuana varieties.
They brought two duffel bags containing snacks. Splayed across the ground are a chocolate bar, a pack of Oreo cookies and some “tuna snacks.”
Svedahl had already taken a toke from his pipe. An experienced smoker, he said the first day of legalization felt like a new era.
“I’m just out enjoying the fact that they’re not going to take it away from me. I’m not stressed. I’m enjoying the sunlight and Victoria Park,” he said Wednesday morning, after the dawn of a new day for weed in Canada.
“It feels completely different. I just don’t have that nagging persistence in the back of my head saying, ‘Look behind you and see where the cops are.’ ”
The cops were out Wednesday, according to another avid smoker, Michael Blacksioux. He said he showed the officers a tiny bag of weed before entering Victoria Park. Echoing Svedahl, he said he doesn’t feel “paranoid” anymore.
“I asked the cop, ‘Could I go to jail for this?’” he said. “I was even showing it off.”
The officers asked him if he was planning to smoke in the park, he said. That would still be a bylaw infraction.
Blacksioux told them no. But it didn’t stop him from celebrating on October 17.
“They didn’t say nothing about the alleys,” he noted.
Regina Police Chief Evan Bray says there will be a lot of those interactions in the early days of legalization. He expects people to try to “push the limits.” He says his officers will focus on protecting the public and educating pot smokers about the new legal regime.
“This is not going to be a smooth transition,” Bray said. “There is a lot of legislation at play — federal, provincial, local bylaws — and it’s going to be clunky and clumsy for our community and every community in Canada.”
He said it’s a lot to expect for the public to understand what’s permissible on Day 1 of legalization.
“I think the focus for our frontline officers is just to kind of open dialogue with our community, make sure people understand where they can smoke, where they can’t, how they can purchase, how they can transport in their vehicle, what’s legal and what’s not.”
Svedahl said he’s not sure about the legality of smoking in the park. His friend, Brandon Richards, was more familiar with the rules. He noted that public consumption of cannabis is not allowed. But he was ready see what he can get away with.
“I don’t really think the police are now going to go around fining anyone,” said Richards.
Bray suggested that police are prepared to do enforcement for offences that affect public safety. There are now 11 trained drugrecognition experts to crack down on drug-impaired driving. He expects six more will be trained during 2019. Nearly 100 officers are trained in Standardized Field Sobriety Testing.
But the chief said it’s hard to know how legalization will change “the culture of our community.” As pot becomes more accepted, his main worry is keeping it away from minors. “I don’t have a crystal ball, none of us do,” he said. “But we’re going to do everything we can to try and prevent it from falling into the hands of youth.”
Richards was hopeful about that cultural shift. Unlike Svedahl, he never really gave much thought to the police when he walked around smelling of weed. But he did feel uneasy when he gave off a pungent odour while waiting in a line at a place like Walmart.
“There’s an embarrassment factor to it, and that much has changed,” he said.
But there are limits to how far the two friends will go to push the boundaries. As Svedahl began rolling a joint, another man approached with an offer: $5 for a bit of that jar of death bubba.
“No, I don’t want to do that bro,” said Svedahl, who isn’t a licensed marijuana retailer. Unlicensed sale of cannabis remains an offence.
On the first day of a new era, he was still feeling generous.
“I’ll give you a hit off that joint,” he said. “It’s 10/17, right?