POT SMOKERS FIRED UP
Windsor marijuana users celebrate end of prohibition in Canada
For some, there was a buzz of joy and happiness in Windsor’s streets Wednesday as cannabis lovers lit up openly in public after Canada ended 95 years of pot prohibition. “I love it, I think it’s great,” said Hayden Poisson as he breathed in deeply and exhaled thick clouds of aromatic smoke.
“It’s nice to not have to worry about any prosecution,” said the 24-year-old Windsor man, who had spent the past decade looking over his shoulder while doing what had been criminal behaviour before Oct. 17.
“For us to just be out here and smoking a joint — and now the law can’t give you heck,” said Brenda Turpin, who, like Poisson, was at a community celebration on Tecumseh Road and rejoicing over the change to Canada’s drug laws. She likes legalization, but said, “just like alcohol, it shouldn’t be around children.”
“This is a good day,” said Pat Copus. While the recreational use of cannabis by adults became legal on Wednesday, the Windsor grandmother said she will continue to only consume marijuana for a medical purpose, to treat her multiple sclerosis.
“Now that we have recreational, people won’t have to go through the hurdles we had to, getting medical,” said Copus. She believes many seniors, including those in nursing homes, could have a better quality of life with cannabis. It’s government online sales only in Ontario until next April, but there was certainly a lot of pot available and a lot of smoking going on at an all-day celebration hosted on Day 1 by Windsor pot activist Leo Lucier outside his Compassion House storefront.
The commercial plaza parking lot in the 400 block of Tecumseh Road West was fenced off and only those 19 and over were permitted entry. Lucier was all smiles as he was surrounded by happy people. A police cruiser was parked nearby, but the officer appeared more concerned with parking issues. “I’m here to celebrate the freedom of cannabis — there’s been prohibition my whole life,” said Alfred Newman, 64, who said he’s been consuming pot since his teen years. He credits cannabis for helping him conquer his anxiety and helping him recently beat throat cancer.
Newman said he’s not proud of once having to lie under oath before a judge in court after being charged for possession in 1977. But it helped him avoid a severe penalty.
“People’s lives have been ruined,” he said of the decades of cannabis being outlawed. It’s been suggested in Ottawa this week that pardons for past criminal convictions for simple pot possession may soon become easier and cheaper to obtain.
But pardons won’t make a difference, and cannabis use remains criminal behaviour, when it comes to crossing the border, according to U.S. federal authorities.
For the second day in a row, U.S. Customs and Border Protection held a news conference to discuss legalization in Canada and to warn travellers about the potential consequences of admitting to a border officer of ever having simply consumed cannabis.
“U.S. laws have not changed,” Christopher Perry, the agency’s director of Michigan field operations, said at the American entrance to the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel. Even if Michigan voters decide in a Nov. 6 referendum to legalize recreational marijuana, those federal laws supersede any state laws, he added.
Perry wouldn’t comment when asked about Michigan residents returning home after visiting Ontario to get stoned, but Canadian visitors who admit to having ever toked up, even after legalization, could face a lifetime ban from entering the U.S., reporters were told.
Perry said it’s a “case-by-case decision” to be made by border officers, who have “broad discretion to ask questions at primary or secondary (inspection).” Anything from a traveller’s behaviour and mannerisms to an alert border dog could trigger additional questions into possible prior cannabis use, he said. With millions of Canadians already considered to be regular pot users, and millions more anticipated to at least try cannabis before the end of the year, according to Statistics Canada, Perry said U.S. border officials “don’t anticipate any negative impact” on border traffic flows with legalization. As of late Wednesday afternoon, a U.S. CBP spokesman said he was unaware of any Canadian travellers being rejected or having turned around (rather than answer any question on cannabis use) at the Windsor-Detroit border that day.
Windsor experienced a Day 1 flood of U.S.-based journalists, with a common question being what kind of pot availability there might be for American visitors. The proposed Michigan minimum age is 21, compared to 19 in Ontario. There are no restrictions for non-resident purchases in Canada (up to 30 grams), but online sales in Ontario don’t permit deliveries to foreign addresses. Under proposed provincial legislation (still not the law), adults will be able to consume marijuana wherever cigarettes are permitted.
“Windsor has long been more libertine than Detroit,” reads a line in Tuesday’s cover story in the Detroit Free Press on Canada’s legalized pot “roll out,” including a front-page picture of Higher Limits co-owner Jon Liedtke in Windsor.