Pubdate: Sat, 21 Apr 2012
Source: Nanaimo Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Nanaimo Daily News
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1608
Author: Peter Henderson

SMOKE-INS PROTEST CANADA'S POT LAWS

Events Mark International Day Devoted To Use Of Marijuana

Across Canada on Friday, thousands protested the nation's marijuana 
laws The air got thick and hazy in cities across Canada Friday as 
thousands of marijuana activists lit up to mark 4/20 (April 20), the 
annual, international day to celebrate pot.

The event is much a day to rail against prohibitionist drug laws as 
it is a day to indulge.

Fittingly, more than 5,000 gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, 
according to police estimates. In Toronto, crowds jammed the downtown 
YongeDundas Square. Vancouver typically hosts the country's largest 
4/20 event, with a radio news helicopter hovering over anticipated 
crowds of up to 20,000. Prairie potheads blazed up in Winnipeg and in Regina.

Pot activists say they're concerned about the Harper government's 
recent move to toughen Canada's drug laws.

The Safe Streets and Communities Act passed in March includes new 
mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences that involve youth or 
criminal gangs, including marijuana-related offences.

The reforms were made to fight criminal cartels that profit from the 
illicit drug trade and protect Canadian families, a spokeswoman from 
the Justice Department said in an email. "We are not making any 
changes to the law with regards to simple marijuana possession," said 
Julie Di Mambro. "Instead, we are targeting the source of the illicit 
drug trade: the drug traffickers and those who import drugs into Canada."

"Prohibition is not solving the problem, it's making it worse," said 
Jodie Emery, a marijuana activist from B.C., who attended the 
Vancouver rally. "We need a new approach."

Emery's husband Marc, the "Prince of Pot," is currently serving a 
five-year prison sentence in the United States for mailing marijuana 
seeds over the border.

"People who use or share marijuana shouldn't face criminal penalties 
when they're not hurting anybody else," Emery said.

"Each year the protests get bigger and bigger. Do all those thousands 
of people deserve to be put it prison? The answer is no."

According to the United Nations World Drug Report, in 2009 more than 
one in 10 Canadians ingested marijuana in some form. That rose to 
more than one in four for those aged 15 to 24.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart