Marijuana feud sparks violence
Organizers claim Cannabis Day rally was ‘hijacked’ by a rival anti-prohibition group
A turf war over the annual Cannabis Day rally led to fisticuffs before the event outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on Friday.
For the past two decades, Cannabis Culture and organizers including David Malmo-Levine, Marc and Jodie Emery and Dana Larsen have co-ordinated the event on July 1 outside the VAG, which includes live music, speeches and vendor tents set up by dispensaries.
But this year, anti-prohibition group World Cannabis — which in April confused 4/20 attendees by hosting a small protest at the VAG while the official event was held at a new Sunset Beach location — beat them to the chase.
“They’ve hijacked our event,” Larsen said. “They came in at 5 a.m. and set up a stage very aggressively before we got here.”
Larsen alleged that early Friday morning, his fellow organizer Jeremiah Vandermeer was assaulted by World Cannabis associates.
Vandermeer claimed that as he sat on a stage set up by World Cannabis, he was attacked by two men — one who swatted his phone from his hand and another who struck him.
Robert Moore, CEO of World Cannabis, disputed this claim. He alleged that a Cannabis Culture associate spat on a man not connected to World Cannabis, who then retaliated by striking back with a piece of foam.
Vancouver police could not be reached for comment before deadline.
Both Larsen and Moore said there’s been a long-standing feud between them stemming from personal and business conflicts.
Moore said his group had been planning its VAG event for three months and said Larsen and his fellow organizers hadn’t solidified a plan.
He disputed Larsen’s claim that World Cannabis had “hijacked” Cannabis Day, adding that he offered Larsen a chance to speak at the event.
Both Moore and Larsen said they were disappointed by the violence Friday morning and hoped the day would be peaceful.
“That’s this crappy drama,” Moore said. “I’m here to free the weed. I don’t care about this drama.”
At last year’s Cannabis Day, violence broke out when four people were arrested, including one man Vancouver police said had been “overtly” selling pot to minors after being warned to stop.
Protesters accused police of using excessive force while police said officers were swarmed while making the arrests.
This year’s event was centred in the north grounds outside the VAG, but following the spat Cannabis Culture and Larsen set up along the east side of the building.
Larsen believes cannabis-event organizers should be allowed to get an event permit to control how such events run rather than let them turn into “chaos.” He said he’ll consider legal action against the city in order to acquire a permit next year.
“We work with the city, we work with the police, we try to make sure it’s a safe event. We do our thing but we co-operate as much as we can for community safety, public safety,” he said.
“I feel like (World Cannabis is) really undermining the work that we’ve done in this city for the last two decades.”