Pot protesters toke a stand
Slice of high society calls on Queen’s Park to reform drug laws
Chanting, “We’re here, we’re high, get used to it,” about 250 activists gathered at Queen’s Park and marched on city streets Saturday asking Toronto and the province to rethink the rules around marijuana.
Many attendees wore colourful costumes and carried flags and signs emblazoned with marijuana leaves or logos supporting legalization. They also lit up joints and passed around pot-infused baked goods in plain sight during the afternoon event.
Matt Mernagh, spokesperson for Toronto Hash Mob — which organized the event — said the province and the city are paying a heavy price to enforce federal laws.
“We are bearing a lot of costs for marijuana prosecutions in Ontario. Given our deficit, I think the premier — being an educated woman — should look at this as a serious issue. How much are we paying for this and should we be paying for this?” Mernagh said.
The province funds legal aid and bears the costs of courts and provincial jails to house those convicted of drug offences, while Toronto pays police officers to bust marijuana users, Mernagh noted.
He said it’s time Toronto considered adopting the “Amsterdam model” — where coffee houses sell and allow clients to smoke marijuana on the premises. That would mean creating “green light” zones where establishments such as “vapour lounges” would be allowed to operate without fear of prosecution, he said.
Mernagh also called on the province to release a groundbreaking study from 1972 that monitored the effects of marijuana on a group of 20 women. As reported in the Star last month, the results of the provincially funded study have been kept under wraps.
Kelly Kush, founder of the Niagara Cannabis Club, which has more than 400 members, was among those who came from out of town to attend the event.
“I was one of those parents who used to say to my boys, ‘Stop smoking that stuff.’ I used to take pharmaceuticals for pain,” Kush said. “But after some convincing from my doctors and my sons, I looked into it, educated myself and now I’m an advocate.”
Marco Renda, publisher of Healing Yourself magazine and operator of an Etobicoke vapour lounge called Vape on the Lake, said the rally is about ending “prohibition” for marijuana.
“If there was full legalization and everybody had access to (marijuana), it would just be like cigarettes and alcohol. Make it available to those over the age of 18 and tax and regulate it . . . “And take the tax money that you’re generating and put it towards health care, harm reduction and social benefits,” Renda said.