Activists spark up marijuana protest - Falls site of pro-pot rally for second year
By: Corey Larocque, The Review (CN ON), 04-18-05


NIAGARA FALLS - There was pot at the end of the rainbow Saturday when the Horseshoe Falls became the backdrop for activists rallying to legalize marijuana.

"Weed is a good thing. It's stereotyped not in a good way," said Mary Wilson, a Niagara Falls woman among approximately 250 people who lit up in Queen Victoria Park at 4:20 p.m., the time of day pot-smokers consider the universal toking time.

"The whole cannabis culture is oppressed. We're here to support it," said Analise Spencer, originally from B.C., but now a Niagara Falls resident.

Saturday was the second time the city has been the site for a large pro-marijuana rally. Both times, organizers arranged a public smoke-out to coincide with April 20, the fourth month of the year and 20th day of the month.

Niagara Falls was selected for the demonstration because Highway 420 runs through the city.

This year, they added the Highway 420 Cannabis Conference at the Niagara Falls public library in the morning.

It featured guest speakers David Malmo-Levine, an activist from B.C., and Loretta Nall, the founder of the U.S. Marijuana Party, a political party trying to change American possession laws.

Legalizing marijuana in Canada would benefit tourism the same way the Netherlands enjoys travellers from across Europe who flock there because of that country's liberal attitude toward drugs, Malmo-Levine said.

"Americans would come up here in droves," he said noting millions of Americans can drive to Niagara Falls on one tank of gas.

"You would see in every border town a huge, soft-core drug tourist industry."

But Matt Mernagh, the director of the Niagara Compassion Society, said better access to marijuana is a matter of principle for Canadians. Mernagh called for Ontario to create a Cannabis Control Board, along the lines of the LCBO stores that control liquor sales in the province.

"You should be able to buy marijuana as easily as alcohol," Mernagh said.

The crowd at last year's demonstration had a large proportion of medical marijuana users.

On Saturday, only a few demonstrators flashed their exemption cards issued by the federal government, indicating the holder is among a small portion of Canadians permitted to possess marijuana to treat a serious medical condition.

Saturday many demonstrators described themselves as recreational users.

Wayne Kenny from Toronto said he came to the demonstration to "get high."

His friend Mike Enever interjected - "Trying to legalize getting high."

For others, the smoke-out was a way to make a political statement.

"We know the politics behind it. People think when people come to rallies like this we're just a bunch of potheads," said Meighan Bissillion, a St. Catharines woman, active with the NDP, a political party that favours legalization. "It's not just about the weed. There's politics behind it."

She and boyfriend Kayle Hall made a pinata with federal Liberal Justice Minister Anne McLellan's face on it. When they broke it open after the smoke-out, it was full of lollipops and other snacks for the pot-smokers.

Many of this year's participants were bused in from Toronto aboard a decommissioned school bus with a psychedelic rainbow paint job. One passenger said the smoke aboard what he dubbed the "Cannabus" was a thick haze as they rode up from Toronto.

At the start of the rally, organizers barked into a megaphone to give their friends "a hug" if police tried to arrest them. But there were no clashes between police and protesters. Niagara Regional Police and Niagara Parks Police officers watched the smoke-out from their cars. Police reported no trouble and no arrests from the demonstration.

"We whooped and hollered and that's about it," Malmo-Levine said.

Two police vehicles provided an escort from the intersection of Highway 420 and Victoria Avenue to Queen Victoria Park. Tourists on Clifton Hill watched in amusement as the parade moved along, led by a man waving a Canadian flag with a hemp leave substituted for the maple leaf. Another man was dressed like the character on the label of Zig Zag rolling papers. And a couple of women strolled in the park, wearing pots on their heads.

Demonstrators marched to the park in time for a "pot picnic" at 4:20 p.m.

One bystander agreed with the demonstrators' sentiment that pot should be legalized, regulated and taxed.

"I think they should . and tax the hell out of it," she was overheard saying.

© 2005 H.U.M.A.N.: Hemp Users Medical Access Network - Toronto Medical Marijuana