Pubdate: Sat, 31 Mar 2001
Source: Wired Magazine (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Wired Digital Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wired.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/505
Author: Jackie Cohen

GETTING DOT-BOMBED IN VANCOUVER

As the job market continues to shrink, many unemployed techies are choosing 
travel over couch-potatodom. One destination that's beginning to appear on 
these itineraries is Vancouver, especially for those who like to party on 
the cheap.

The city is well on its way to becoming the Amsterdam of the Pacific 
Northwest, with liberal stances on marijuana and other vices attracting 
hordes of pot-coms looking to get dot-bombed.

"Silicon Valley libertarians are very well received here. Vancouver is much 
less oppressive than many parts of the U.S.," said Richard Cowan, editor of 
Marijuana News. "There are obviously a lot of people in the cybercommunity 
who also use cannabis, particularly the more creative types."

Roughly 80 percent of the 2.7 million U.S. visitors came to the Vancouver 
area from the West Coast in 2000, according to Tourism Vancouver.

In addition to easy access to marijuana, people come for the flora and 
fauna; skiing and hiking; and that familiar Pacific Northwest vibe. Throw 
in a strong U.S. dollar and low airfares (Air Canada offers a round-trip 
flight from San Francisco for just $154) and you've got a pretty appealing 
vacation package -- especially for recently laid-off techies looking to 
slack off until the economy improves.

"What a fun-loving city. I'm going up there with a bunch of my friends who 
are unemployed," said Ted Roberts, who was laid off from Third Age Media in 
San Francisco. "Vancouver is closer and cheaper than Amsterdam, so we can 
stay there longer."

Vancouver's drug laws aren't as liberal as Amsterdam's, but a recent survey 
found that 69 percent of Canadians want cannabis decriminalized, and 92 
percent want medical marijuana legalized, according to Compas, a social 
research firm based in Toronto.

Possession and trafficking of marijuana are prohibited by Canada's federal 
government, which specifies penalties of up to seven years in prison for 
possession and life imprisonment for selling it. However, possession of 
small amounts of marijuana for personal use is very rarely prosecuted in 
Vancouver, said Anne Drennan, constable and spokeswoman for the Vancouver 
Police. She said that trafficking is prosecuted.

With Canadian cops looking the other way, patrons of Blunt Brothers, a cafe 
and head shop just a few blocks from Vancouver's trendy Gastown 
neighborhood, smoke openly without much fear of getting busted.

Cannabis isn't actually sold on the premises -- for that you need to step 
outside, where a dealer will approach you within five minutes. Numerous 
other establishments tolerate pot smoke, including the aptly named Sister 
Sativa bed and breakfast hotel.

Attitudes are similarly relaxed about prostitution: The act itself is 
legal, but soliciting it isn't. A majority of residents want brothels to be 
licensed by the government, with taxation and mandated testing for 
diseases. Legislation or not, sex workers are easy to come by, with many of 
them running carefully worded ads in the local newspapers.

The papers also display full-page ads for the B.C. Marijuana Party, which 
held a convention last weekend at its new headquarters, two doors away from 
Blunt Brothers. At the confab, 79 candidates shared joints while discussing 
their campaign platform for B.C. elections this spring, in which another 
30-plus left-leaning parties are also running.

The B.C. party first formed online, as participants in a newsgroup at MAP 
protested the anti-marijuana stances of the candidates in Canada's last 
elections, and decided to be proactive about it.

The resulting political group continues to use the Net to broadcast its 
message, at BC Marijuana Party. The site is linked to online properties 
owned or funded by the party's president, Mark Emery. These include his 
self-named marijuana seed company, along with media outlets Cannabis 
Culture magazine, Marijuana News and Pot TV, which together claim about 
750,000 hits per week, and a significant number of visitors from the U.S.

"Pot is the biggest growth industry in B.C." said Robert Adams, the 
Marijuana Party's online committee chair. Adams, a political candidate in 
the logging town of Squamish, pegs the industry at $6 billion (Canadian) in 
annual revenues, if not more.

Legalizing it could mean a $20 billion windfall for B.C.'s economy, with a 
considerable chunk of that likely to come from taxation and increased 
tourism -- although some worry that it might damage the city's reputation 
and thus stem the flow of family vacationers, said Paul Vallee, senior vice 
president at Tourism Vancouver.

While the city isn't likely to become overrun by hash-selling coffee shops 
and live-sex emporiums any time soon, there's enough of a red-light scene 
that some people call it Vansterdam.
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MAP posted-by: Beth