Pubdate: Sat, 20 Sep 2003
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Daphne Gordon
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

A WHIFF OF FREEDOM

After Canada's Pot Laws Ended Up In Limbo, Those Who Like To Indulge 
Emerged From Hiding

The Hot Box Cafe is nestled quietly among butcher shops and vintage 
clothing stores in Kensington Market and, like most cafes, it's a place for 
meeting friends, talking philosophy and getting a fix.

But while caffeine is readily available here, the substance of choice is a 
little more chill: weed, pot, marijuana, grass, herb. Call it what you 
will, people are smoking it, sharing joints with people they've never met 
before.

"It's a hell of a lot better than smoking alone," says Denis, who prefers 
not to give his last name because he's still in the closet when it comes to 
pot smoking, even though he's been smoking for 30 years.

"I grew up when being caught toking put you in jail. But I heard there was 
a smoking parlour here, and I came in. When you're with others, the high is 
accentuated."

Hit the Hot Box any afternoon at around 4:20, the international hour of 
herb, and you'll find it hard to score one of the 40 or so seats in the 
garden out back. It's strictly BYOW -- bring your own weed. The Hot Box 
makes its money selling sandwiches and fruit smoothies, not drugs, since 
selling marijuana is still against the law in Canada. The "no dealing" rule 
is enforced by staff and faithful customers who don't want to see the place 
close down because of legal trouble.

Located at the back of a head shop called Roach-O-Rama on Baldwin St., the 
cafe opened in May, shortly after a court decision rendered Canada's law 
against possession of marijuana ineffectual, forcing police to forgo laying 
charges, at least until an appeal clarifies the law.

The Hot Box opens at 9 a.m., the hour of "wake 'n' bake," and 300 to 400 
people pass through on any given day for a toke and a sandwich or fruit 
smoothie, whether it's a sunny Saturday or a workaday Tuesday.

Sharing is de rigueur. Pot lovers mingle and pass blunts, pipes, bongs and 
cookies from hand to hand. Some play chess in the fenced garden. Others 
chat. But, mostly, they just sit back, way back, and relax.

And it's not just your standard hippie potheads that drop in for a doob. 
There are grandmotherly types --with their kids and grandkids, no less -- 
doctors, lawyers, students and lots of other people who look perfectly 
straight, but aren't.

Similar cafes have been operating in Vancouver and Saint John, but the idea 
is new to Toronto and it could soon become part of the local cultural 
landscape. Other cafes are rumoured to be ready to start up, including one 
at the very heart of the city, near the intersection of Yonge and Bloor Sts.

The cafes are just one part of a trend that has emerged in Toronto this 
summer, as pot smokers take advantage of the fact that the laws against 
marijuana are in a state of limbo. While public indulgence has been 
happening for a long time in hidden back alleys and remote areas public 
parks, this summer, it's become a common occurrence in the light of day and 
in populated places, where bystanders can smell the skunk.

"I've definitely noticed that people are smoking in places where you 
wouldn't expect them to," says actor and scenester Scott Sheehan. "I've 
noticed it on regular bar patios," says Sheehan. "And I've noticed it in 
the daytime, too, which was kind of weird. You could be sitting there 
eating brunch on a patio and smell it ... And I've smelled it more on the 
street, too, just like, a little group of people walking by."

A quick poll of local restaurants found that most won't allow pot smoking 
on their patios if they find customers indulging, even though it's not 
technically against the law.

"We don't allow people to smoke (pot) here, even though it's technically 
permitted. We still enforce the no smoking rule," says Andre Rosenbaum, 
owner of the Rivoli restaurant on Queen St. W. "But I have noticed people 
smoking it on Queen St."

The same rule applies at the Black Bull Hotel and Tavern and Bambu by the 
Lake, both of which have large patios.

Trinity Bellwoods Park is a hotspot among hippies, who often congregate in 
large groups and pass a joint around under the big tree at the north end of 
the park. On the first night of the big blackout in August, the tree was a 
veritable pot smokers' paradise, as precious buds were shared among friends 
and strangers alike.

Toronto city councillor Joe Pantalone, Ward 19 Trinity Spadina, in which 
Trinity Bellwoods Park is located, acknowledges that people do smoke pot on 
city property.

"It goes on in our streets and obviously, it goes on in our parks," says 
Pantalone. "But it's not up to the city or the city inspectors to enforce 
federal laws. It's up to the federal government and the police to enforce. 
And obviously, pot is not a high priority, so this goes on."

The issue has never come up in city council meetings, he notes.

Subway stations and streetcar stops have also recently become 
spliff-spotting locations, even though smoking of any kind on TTC property 
is against the rules. At least one party at the recent international film 
fest was alight.

"There was something going around at the party, for sure," says Ron Mann, a 
filmmaker whose documentary Go Further premiered at the festival. The film 
told the story of activist and actor Woody Harrelson's recent trek across 
the United States to promote organic living. The cast and crew partied down 
at an organic food and wine bash at the Distillery District, and the action 
went on till the wee hours.

Mann, a Torontonian who made Grass, a 1999 doc narrated by Harrelson about 
the history of marijuana prohibition, also made a public comment prior to a 
screening of Go Further protesting the arrest in the U.S. of actor Tommy 
Chong, the star of the popular Cheech and Chong movies. Earlier this month, 
Chong was sentenced in a Pennsylvanian court to nine months in federal jail 
because he was selling marijuana pipes on the Internet. Selling drug 
paraphernalia is illegal in the U.S.

As a board member of the U.S.-based National Organization for the Reform of 
Marijuana Laws, Mann is an advocate of decriminalization, and he used the 
film festival platform to make his point.

"We want to move public opinion against the stupidity of this kind of 
thing," says Mann. "It doesn't threaten the health or welfare of anyone, 
and I think most people understand that. But we can't leave the pot laws in 
the hands of the police. It's a waste of law enforcement money to prosecute 
and imprison a non-violent seller of pipes."

Mann's public statement was motivated in part to bring the subject of 
marijuana out into the open.

"There are many, many marijuana smokers in Toronto and around the world," 
he says. "This is not a marginal group of people, but they're not visible 
because of the harsh laws against it. It's only a matter of time until it 
becomes legal in Canada, because people aren't believing the propaganda any 
more."

Indeed, it seems public opinion about pot is changing in Canada. A 
Sun/Leger poll earlier this summer found that 83 per cent of Canadians want 
pot laws to be less stringent, and shortly after the results of that poll 
were made public, Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced plans to create 
legislation that decriminalizes possession and cultivation of marijuana for 
personal use, as recommended by a House of Commons report last fall.

According to the proposal, smokers might receive a ticket, but no criminal 
record, for possessing less than 30 grams of the drug, while drug dealers 
would be punished more harshly than ever.

But until that legislation is enacted, users are free to smoke whenever and 
wherever they want, without the risk of a ticket or even confiscation.

"The last time I got stopped by a cop, he said, 'It's not legal ... yet,' 
and he let me go," says Denis.

"I've always been smoking publicly, and I think a lot of people have," says 
Jason, a regular user who prefers not to use his last name. "But now it's 
just more open, like you don't worry about it as much. You don't really 
think about offending anyone any more. Because even if they are offended, 
what are they gonna do? Call the cops? I don't think so."

Toronto police chief Julian Fantino advised officers earlier this summer to 
confiscate pot and record the names and addresses of people found using it. 
However, the Hot Box Cafe, which operates in the bright light of day in a 
heavily populated area, has not had trouble with the police.

Could new attitude toward pot smoking turn Toronto into Amsterdam of North 
America?

"The cops around here are really nice. They come in and say hi," says Abi 
Roach, who owns the cafe and the attached head shop. "But they don't even 
walk all the way to the back," she says, referring to the crowded garden 
patio where the air is thick with the pungent smell of pot.

Police at 52 Division, which patrols Kensington Market, said they've never 
heard of specific pot cafes in Toronto and referred inquiries to headquarters.

"We don't know of any specific locations where that's happening," says 
Constable Shehara Valles, a communications officer for the Toronto police. 
When the Star informed her of the address of the Hot Box, she checked to 
see if police had visited the cafe on official business.

"I have checked with uniformed and plainclothes officers in 52 Division, 
and we have not received calls to attend that address," she said.

She explained that it's common for officers to drop into businesses while 
walking on patrol, but that they don't necessarily report or record those 
casual visits.

Though Roach isn't breaking the law by allowing people to smoke pot in her 
cafe, legal expert Alan Young says it's unlikely the police don't know 
what's going on there.

"In light of the media coverage, and in light of the fact that (Roach) has 
not tried to operate her cafe in a clandestine way, I think it's unlikely 
that they don't know about it," says Young, who has defended many pro-pot 
activists. "But it's better to say they aren't aware than to admit they 
aren't equipped to deal with it," he adds.

Young says marijuana seizures are more theory than practice.

"I think they're embarrassed to do it because their authority is so 
dubious," says Young, a defence lawyer active in the movement to 
decriminalize pot. He says seizures could create a "legal quagmire" down 
the road that would be far more trouble than they're worth.

"They really should reconsider their decision to seize," says Young. 
"Because without legal authority, a seizure is theft. It's very clear in 
the law."

Could this new attitude of acceptance turn Toronto into the Amsterdam of 
North America? Perhaps.

Just as Amsterdam has become a destination among Europeans who want to 
spend a weekend indulging in their favourite herbal treat, so are North 
Americans turning an eye to Toronto.

"We have tons of Americans who read about us on the Internet," says Roach. 
"We had a family from Rochester recently, and a couple of kids drove up 
from Boston. The response has been mad good."

Roach may have been the one to start the bandwagon, but others are hopping 
on, notes Young. "I get about two calls a week from people who are 
interested in doing this," he says, noting that people are taking advantage 
of this temporary loophole in the law to test how much Canadian legal 
authorities will tolerate when it comes to marijuana. Unless there's a 
grassroots community backlash -- which he says hasn't yet happened -- it 
could lead to a de facto legalization of pot similar to that in Amsterdam.

"Right now there is no lawful basis for the police to be involved," says 
Young. "It's when people move to the next stage, which is inevitable. When 
the cafes start small-scale distribution, there could be a problem."

But Roach-O-Rama, says Young, sets a good example of how peaceful and 
law-abiding a pot cafe can be. He recently dropped in for a visit.

"I'm pleased with the cleanliness and the lack of rambunctiousness, which 
is very important for maximizing marijuana use," he says.

"People tend to associate it with alcohol, which often causes community 
disturbance. But this is exactly the opposite. What I saw was 15 people 
sitting around enjoying themselves. You could hear Latin salsa music and 
everyone was enjoying the sunshine."
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MAP posted-by: Beth