Have potheads forgotten when 420 is?
You’ve
had a long day, but at least you scored some good blunt from the IT guy Pasco. Before heading home, you decide to chill and spark up in the park.
You’re minding your own business. You aren’t bothering anybody. But unless you’re a ganja ninja, Niagara’s finest will find you.
“But, Officer Friendly,” you plead. “It’s almost April 20 … aren’t you supposed to look the other way?”
“Ah, but there’s the problem, my cannabis consuming friend,” he replies. “It isn’t April 20. It’s actually April 18, so drop the doobie and vacate the premises. And tell Pasco we’re watching him.”
For reasons unknown — except, perhaps, they don’t want to smell like a Grateful Dead concert when they go home — police across the land turn a blind eye to people getting baked in public every April 20. At 4: 20 p. m.
Why 420, you ask? There have been some goofy explanations over the years …
— It’s the police radio code for marijuana ( according to CSI, it’s the code for homicide).
— It’s to commemorate the death of Bob Marley ( Um, no. He died on May 11, 1981.)
— It’s to mark Adolf Hitler’s birthday ( Yes, he was born on April 20. And you’re celebrating this … why?)
— Bob Dylan originated it with his song Rainy Day Woman # 12 and 35 ( Get it? Multiply 12 by 35 and you get 420! Ugh, I’m so stoned.)
The real reason is kind of lame: In the early ’ 70s, a group of high school potheads in San Rafael would meet at 4: 20 p. m. every day to toke up somewhere on their high school campus. It became their code word to establish where to meet.
From this, a global movement was born. Because they got high.
According to High Times, 420 became a counterculture holiday in the mid’ 90s. To help legitimize it, many events have a political bent, calling for reform to marijuana legislation. Some do it to prove the benefits of medical marijuana. Some just want to go full Shaggy in public.
Either way, it’s the one day a year police look the other way. Which continually astounds me. I’ve covered a few of these rallies in Niagara Falls, and while everyone was well- behaved and advocates had some valid, interesting things to say, the fact remains — it is still illegal to possess any quantity of marijuana in Canada. A first- time minor possession conviction has a maximum penalty of six months in jail and/ or a $ 1,000 fine. If you have more than 30 grams of marijuana, you face the much more serious charge of Trafficking. You could be looking at five years in jail.
It’s a bizarre thing — one day a year, police decide something illegal is OK for a few hours.
So with precedence set, I propose Brewsday Tuesday. On the first Tuesday of summer, we all gather in a public park, crack open a cold one, and march to … somewhere. I don’t know. The nearest port- a- potty.
How about No- Pants Monday? Let us discard the social trappings of pantaloons and feel the wind beneath our things.
Whiskey Wednesday, anyone? Maybe for Shoplifting Sunday we pick a random store and take whatever we want.
Ludicrous, you say? Illegal? So is pot in public, but not on April 20.
Which brings us to Saturday in Niagara Falls. The annual 420 rally starts at noon on the corner of Highway 420 and Victoria Ave. Give stoners an inch, and they’ll forget what day it is. The whole point of 420 — its origin, its symbolism — is that you gather on the 20th day of the fourth month to spark your mary jane in public. It’s kinda weird, but … OK. We’ll let it slide.
But now you want the 18th, too. What for? Is Monday booked? The cool thing about 420 is that pro- pot proponents make their point all at the same time. Office workers, advocates, the weirdo in the apartment next door … they all do their chronic in unison. And the cops let it go.
On the 18th, you’re pushing it. Pretty soon you’ll want it in July because the weather’s nicer, or Labour Day because that’s when Pasco is back from Jamaica.
Free the weed, you say? Not if you bogart your own party.