Pubdate: Tue, 21 Apr 2015
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Matthew Robinson, with a file from Kelly Sinoski
Page: 2

POT PROTEST EVOLVES INTO CANNABIS CRAFT FAIR

Major streets closed to traffic for hours

Purple Kush, red eyes and thick stacks of green gave colour to the
annual 4/20 smoke out, held around the Vancouver Art Gallery Monday.

Packed nearly as tightly as the thousands who crammed in
shoulder-to-shoulder to light up this year were the scores of vendors'
booths that ringed the gallery grounds. Officials dub the event a
protest, but in practice it's become a cannabis culture craft fair.

Budding entrepreneurs filled their pockets with cash in trade for
bongs, pipes, papers and grinders, weed, shrooms, hash, shatter,
budder, edibles and more, while food trucks and popcorn vendors
satisfied serious cases of the munchies.

Kay Hanen worked the counter at Weedy Wonkas, selling cleverly named
strains of marijuana and infused edibles to eager customers.

"It grows every year. Sales are better this year and it's only going
to get bigger if they let it," said Hanen, who turned to tell a
customer she had sold out of the "Oompa Loompa Chocolates."

City officials closed Robson Street between Howe and Hornby streets
for the first time this year. Spokesman Tobin Postma said the decision
was made after the city had to close the street in the middle of the
day last year for fear protesters would wander into traffic. Howe
Street from West Georgia to Robson, and West Georgia from Howe to
Hornby were also closed, shutting down major driving routes in the
downtown core for hours.

On Robson Street, Mac MacLeod took a break from sales to flip through,
then tuck away, a stack of bills brought in from sales of seeds, oil
and strains of marijuana like Super Critical Haze and Purple and
Mountain Kush. "It's exploded," said MacLeod of the protest, which
many estimated to be the biggest turnout yet.

MacLeod said he has sold at the protest for the past four years, along
with a friend who had one of the first 4/20 booths.

"Because of the amount of competition it is much more difficult to
roll in a profit," he said. "It's not as good as the old days when
there was only eight of us here."

Scores of booths on all sides of the art gallery competed with one
another to sell marijuana products to customers, while hawkers with
trays filled with weed shouted out their wares and deals.

Postma, the city spokesman, said the road closures do not mean the
city is sanctioning 4/20, noting that city officials have repeatedly
suggested that organizers get a special event permit to hold the
gathering, but they have consistently refused. They've also refused
permit applications for the increasing number of vendors that crop up
each year. "This is still considered a protest and not an event,"
Postma said. "What we've done is closed the street because we're more
focused on minimizing the public safety risk. This is not a
city-sanctioned event."

The organizers of 4/20 sold space for about 100 booths by donation.
Each $250 donation promised vendors a prime spot on Howe, West Georgia
or Hornby. The rest of the city block was first-come first-served.

Popcorn vendor John Merzetti said he has never tried pot in his life
and "was worried about getting high" from second-hand smoke at the
protest. His popcorn was among the few pot-free edible items on sale.

That caught some potential customers by surprise, including one man
who told him he should coat his corn in pot-infused butter next year
and call himself "Orville Weedenbacher."
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MAP posted-by: Matt