[URBAN NOTE] "Will legal pot make Vancouver’s annual 420 rally go away?"

[rfmcdonald]

Stephen Quinn's report in The Globe and Mail made me chuckle.

The debate that erupted this week over the relocation of the annual 420 protest has led me to this conclusion: Please, please make marijuana legal as quickly as possible so these people go away.

Imagine, no need to gather by the thousands to demonstrate and demand their Jah-given right to get as baked as they please in public.

No controversy over licences, permits, locations or smoking on beaches.

Everyone can just stay home, order some extra pizza and scroll through Netflix. You may not even watch anything; just scroll.

I’m not exactly sure what it is about the annual 420 pot rally that rankles me so, but I do know this: As a spokesperson for the event, Jodie Emery isn’t doing anything to mellow my rankle. Or is it that she’s rankling my mellow? Or is it harshing? Sorry, I’m not really down with the pot-speak.

I had a conversation with Ms. Emery earlier this week best described as circular – for which I was branded “a square” and referred to as “Daddy-O” on Twitter. (For the record, not by Ms. Emery.)

And I get it – in this age of nearly legal marijuana, reminding people that for now, the drug remains illegal is kind of square. I mean, what with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise to legalize pot and the city permitting, ahem, medicinal pot shops, we’re well on our way there. There is as well the understandable restraint of police when it comes to enforcement. Nobody wants to see a dude smoking a little reefer hassled by the man, let alone thrown in the slammer.

All of that has emboldened the 420 forces, and sparked a battle between the Park Board and City Hall over the news that this year’s event will move from the lawn of the Vancouver Art Gallery to Sunset Beach Park on English Bay.