QUAD BREATH
Well-Known Member
Last edited:
Fuk Vancouver's Park Board - GO 420 Vancouver !!!!
- Thread starter QUAD BREATH
- Start date
QUAD BREATH
Well-Known Member
Dana LarsenVerified account@DanaLarsen 5h5 hours ago
"To the people complaining about the minor policing costs of 4/20... ...but who don't complain about the billions we spend on policing, arresting and incarcerating drug users... YOU ARE THE PEOPLE WE ARE PROTESTING AGAINST."
Dana LarsenVerified account@DanaLarsen
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THREAD: We received this email today from the Park Board's Supervisor of Special Events. I hope this makes clear the extent of the planning and effort that goes into making sure 4/20 is a safe and responsible protest festival.
2/6 As you can see, this covers everything. We provide engineer-stamped drawings for all staging. We provide turf protection. We follow rules on generators. We secure the video screens. We put on a safe and responsible 4/20 protest.
3/6 We provide adequate toilets. We hire professional medical teams. We coordinate with VPD and Emergency Services with on-site radios. We put on a safe and responsible 4/20 protest festival.
4/6 We hire professional security. We provide fencing. We follow sound guidelines. We provide receptacles and clean-up. We put on a safe and responsible 4/20 protest festival.
5/6 We provide first aid stations with trained attendants. We provide safety messaging. We restrict sales to minors. We coordinate with city health and emergency services. We put on a safe and responsible 4/20 protest festival
6/6 We provide lighting. We prohibit alcohol on site. We provide free water, snacks and sunscreen. We coordinate with emergency responders. We cooperate and coordinate with all relevant civic and park officials. We put on a safe and responsible 4/20 protest festival.
Dana: Special Events asked for 3 staffed First Aid tents, but we have 4. They asked for 70 portapotties, but we got 90. We go above & beyond everywhere we can to ensure 4/20 is a safe and responsible protest. 4/20 is a huge challenge, and we're getting better at it every year.
0 replies 2 retweets 13 likes
"To the people complaining about the minor policing costs of 4/20... ...but who don't complain about the billions we spend on policing, arresting and incarcerating drug users... YOU ARE THE PEOPLE WE ARE PROTESTING AGAINST."
Dana LarsenVerified account@DanaLarsen
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THREAD: We received this email today from the Park Board's Supervisor of Special Events. I hope this makes clear the extent of the planning and effort that goes into making sure 4/20 is a safe and responsible protest festival.
2/6 As you can see, this covers everything. We provide engineer-stamped drawings for all staging. We provide turf protection. We follow rules on generators. We secure the video screens. We put on a safe and responsible 4/20 protest.
3/6 We provide adequate toilets. We hire professional medical teams. We coordinate with VPD and Emergency Services with on-site radios. We put on a safe and responsible 4/20 protest festival.
4/6 We hire professional security. We provide fencing. We follow sound guidelines. We provide receptacles and clean-up. We put on a safe and responsible 4/20 protest festival.
5/6 We provide first aid stations with trained attendants. We provide safety messaging. We restrict sales to minors. We coordinate with city health and emergency services. We put on a safe and responsible 4/20 protest festival
6/6 We provide lighting. We prohibit alcohol on site. We provide free water, snacks and sunscreen. We coordinate with emergency responders. We cooperate and coordinate with all relevant civic and park officials. We put on a safe and responsible 4/20 protest festival.
Dana: Special Events asked for 3 staffed First Aid tents, but we have 4. They asked for 70 portapotties, but we got 90. We go above & beyond everywhere we can to ensure 4/20 is a safe and responsible protest. 4/20 is a huge challenge, and we're getting better at it every year.
0 replies 2 retweets 13 likes
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QUAD BREATH
Well-Known Member
Dana Larsen,
Park Board: WEED IS LEGAL SO YOU HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO PROTEST!
4/20: Cool! Here's our permit application.
Park Board: WE WILL NEVER GRANT A PERMIT FOR ANY CANNABIS EVENT.
4/20: But that doesn't –
Park Board: YOU CAN'T HAVE A PERMIT BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO PROTEST!
Park Board: WEED IS LEGAL SO YOU HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO PROTEST!
4/20: Cool! Here's our permit application.
Park Board: WE WILL NEVER GRANT A PERMIT FOR ANY CANNABIS EVENT.
4/20: But that doesn't –
Park Board: YOU CAN'T HAVE A PERMIT BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO PROTEST!
QUAD BREATH
Well-Known Member
A protest by any other name would still smell like pot
Conversation around Vancouver's annual 4/20 event has dissolved into a game of semantics
by Piper Courtenay on April 17th, 2019 at 4:20 PM
0
Park board votes against 4/20—and 10 reasons why cannabis users can consider the event a protest
“Of course it is. This is how we’ve been celebrating marijuana—without anyone’s fucking permission—for 24 years,” event host and organizer Greg “Marijuana Man” Williams says with a laugh while chatting with the Georgia Straight.
“It’s a beautiful day of diversity and inclusion,” activist Jodie Emery says in another conversation. “When I am at these events, and I look into the crowd, we have all ages, all races, all ranges of socioeconomic backgrounds. It’s people coming together and having a wonderful time.”
Sensible B.C. director and event spokesperson Dana Larsen goes further, saying that media tagging the event as a “fun festival” aren’t wrong either—in fact, that is one of the few things they get right.
“4/20 has always been a celebration of cannabis and its culture and our forbidden love for this wonderful plant,” he says.
It’s not surprising, then, that the hundreds of booths slinging a tantalizing spectrum of cannabis products, the celebrity musical acts, and the smiles on the tens of thousands of faces are enough to mislead many to believe that’s all it is—a festival.
It is also why recent comments from the likes of city councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung and park commissioners Tricia Barker and John Coupar, all of whom are pushing for a rebrand of the word protest, seem defensible.
Even Jeremiah Vandermeer, Cannabis Culture CEO and one of 4/20’s lead organizers, has dubbed April 20 a “cannabis lover’s day of freedom”, when attendees get to experience what the world would be like if weed were “truly” liberated.
But what terms like celebration and party miss, however, is that if Canadian laws were enforced to the fullest extent, everyone at the event would be, by definition, a criminal.
“Every single person could be arrested,” Vandermeer says.
The annual cannabis protest has not secured a permit for the past 24 years—meaning everything from smoking weed in the park to the sale of product comes with risk. Yet somehow the smoke-in remains one of the city’s largest and most beloved annual gatherings. Why?
“Peaceful civil disobedience means breaking bad laws openly, and 4/20 is still a demonstration of that,” Vandermeer adds. “People still believe there is something to fight for. That hasn’t changed.”
Every year, the park board withholds a licence for one of the city’s largest events, and that hasn’t changed with the event going into its 25th year.
A few weeks prior, Barker introduced a motion to urge city councillors to discuss a new venue for the unsanctioned event. Although she had no suggestion for an alternate location, she says it can’t stay at its current spot, Sunset Beach Park, at the mouth of False Creek. The protest was originally mounted at Victory Square, then moved to the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Over the years, it outgrew the downtown core. Although the new site has been contentious for the past three years, some politicians are pivoting away from location talks and instead taking a new approach to halting the gathering, fixating on the legitimacy of the word protest in light of the plant’s newly legalized status. Conversation around 4/20 is dissolving into a game of semantics.
“After years of staging the annual protest, we’re now in a new era of legalization. They made it,” Kirby-Yung wrote in a recent Daily Hive op-ed, glossing over a list of issues that activists, medical patients, and consumers have flagged since pot’s legalization in late 2018.
She continued: “It’s a party on the residents’ dollar and it’s a trade show.”
Kirby-Yung says Pride started as a protest and “grew and evolved”, and so should 4/20—although the former operates with a permit, sanctioned locations, and city funding.
“They say, ‘You got what you wanted,’ but they continue to act the same way they did under prohibition. Have you seen anything change in the way they handled 4/20 this year than any year before? No. Of course not,” event organizer Williams says. “We’re still treated like third-class citizens.”
Commissioner Coupar used the Monday park-board meeting to take aim at the event’s musical headliner, Cypress Hill, filing an “urgent motion” to formally request the board to ask organizers to cancel the rap group’s appearance for fear of the gathering getting “out of hand”; the board voted in favour. In a media statement, Coupar referred to the upcoming day of peaceful civil disobedience as a “commercial venture”—later telling reporters at City Hall that police could prevent the stage being set up. Mayor Kennedy Stewart told CBC that any such police action is unlikely.
“The event is not about profit, but we need to generate revenue,” event organizer Larsen clarifies. “We spend over $150,000 each year for protection of the park, our own emergency services, food and water, printing bills, our own site security. It’s a very long list of things.”
Conversation around Vancouver's annual 4/20 event has dissolved into a game of semantics
by Piper Courtenay on April 17th, 2019 at 4:20 PM
0
- According to event host and organizer Greg “Marijuana Man” Williams, the lack of a permit has never stopped Vancouver’s 4/20 event.
">
- According to event host and organizer Greg “Marijuana Man” Williams, the lack of a permit has never stopped Vancouver’s 4/20 event.
Piper Courtenay
Park board votes against 4/20—and 10 reasons why cannabis users can consider the event a protest
“Of course it is. This is how we’ve been celebrating marijuana—without anyone’s fucking permission—for 24 years,” event host and organizer Greg “Marijuana Man” Williams says with a laugh while chatting with the Georgia Straight.
“It’s a beautiful day of diversity and inclusion,” activist Jodie Emery says in another conversation. “When I am at these events, and I look into the crowd, we have all ages, all races, all ranges of socioeconomic backgrounds. It’s people coming together and having a wonderful time.”
Sensible B.C. director and event spokesperson Dana Larsen goes further, saying that media tagging the event as a “fun festival” aren’t wrong either—in fact, that is one of the few things they get right.
“4/20 has always been a celebration of cannabis and its culture and our forbidden love for this wonderful plant,” he says.
It’s not surprising, then, that the hundreds of booths slinging a tantalizing spectrum of cannabis products, the celebrity musical acts, and the smiles on the tens of thousands of faces are enough to mislead many to believe that’s all it is—a festival.
It is also why recent comments from the likes of city councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung and park commissioners Tricia Barker and John Coupar, all of whom are pushing for a rebrand of the word protest, seem defensible.
Even Jeremiah Vandermeer, Cannabis Culture CEO and one of 4/20’s lead organizers, has dubbed April 20 a “cannabis lover’s day of freedom”, when attendees get to experience what the world would be like if weed were “truly” liberated.
But what terms like celebration and party miss, however, is that if Canadian laws were enforced to the fullest extent, everyone at the event would be, by definition, a criminal.
“Every single person could be arrested,” Vandermeer says.
The annual cannabis protest has not secured a permit for the past 24 years—meaning everything from smoking weed in the park to the sale of product comes with risk. Yet somehow the smoke-in remains one of the city’s largest and most beloved annual gatherings. Why?
“Peaceful civil disobedience means breaking bad laws openly, and 4/20 is still a demonstration of that,” Vandermeer adds. “People still believe there is something to fight for. That hasn’t changed.”
Every year, the park board withholds a licence for one of the city’s largest events, and that hasn’t changed with the event going into its 25th year.
A few weeks prior, Barker introduced a motion to urge city councillors to discuss a new venue for the unsanctioned event. Although she had no suggestion for an alternate location, she says it can’t stay at its current spot, Sunset Beach Park, at the mouth of False Creek. The protest was originally mounted at Victory Square, then moved to the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Over the years, it outgrew the downtown core. Although the new site has been contentious for the past three years, some politicians are pivoting away from location talks and instead taking a new approach to halting the gathering, fixating on the legitimacy of the word protest in light of the plant’s newly legalized status. Conversation around 4/20 is dissolving into a game of semantics.
“After years of staging the annual protest, we’re now in a new era of legalization. They made it,” Kirby-Yung wrote in a recent Daily Hive op-ed, glossing over a list of issues that activists, medical patients, and consumers have flagged since pot’s legalization in late 2018.
She continued: “It’s a party on the residents’ dollar and it’s a trade show.”
Kirby-Yung says Pride started as a protest and “grew and evolved”, and so should 4/20—although the former operates with a permit, sanctioned locations, and city funding.
“They say, ‘You got what you wanted,’ but they continue to act the same way they did under prohibition. Have you seen anything change in the way they handled 4/20 this year than any year before? No. Of course not,” event organizer Williams says. “We’re still treated like third-class citizens.”
Commissioner Coupar used the Monday park-board meeting to take aim at the event’s musical headliner, Cypress Hill, filing an “urgent motion” to formally request the board to ask organizers to cancel the rap group’s appearance for fear of the gathering getting “out of hand”; the board voted in favour. In a media statement, Coupar referred to the upcoming day of peaceful civil disobedience as a “commercial venture”—later telling reporters at City Hall that police could prevent the stage being set up. Mayor Kennedy Stewart told CBC that any such police action is unlikely.
“The event is not about profit, but we need to generate revenue,” event organizer Larsen clarifies. “We spend over $150,000 each year for protection of the park, our own emergency services, food and water, printing bills, our own site security. It’s a very long list of things.”
QUAD BREATH
Well-Known Member
Last year, organizers also paid more than $63,000 to the city to cover costs to the public, not including two $4,200 donations to St. Paul’s Hospital and Vancouver firefighters. The one fee they did not pony up was a $44,000 policing bill, which Larsen says no other protest is asked to pay.
As for continued use of the word protest, event organizers say there are now more discriminatory and ineffective laws to challenge than ever before.
“Critics seem to think in order for it to be a protest we all have to be poor and disorganized,” activist Jodie Emery adds. “We are demonstrating that we are all normal people. This is what a protest looks like. This is the cannabis community.”
According to Emery, cannabis is now harder to access and more expensive, and carries with it a new catalogue of criminal sanctions.
For example, although Canadians are now permitted to grow up to four pot plants in their private residence, they can be slapped with a fine of up to $5,000 and three months’ jail time if they are visible from the street. The charge can double for a repeat offence. This is one of about 50 new punishable offenses, including questionable impaired-driving laws.
“There are so many examples in this legislation of cannabis being punished at a severity far beyond what you would get for the same kind of situation involving alcohol,” Larsen says.
Williams says that neither lack of a permit nor political campaigning has ever stopped organizers from pulling off a “magical” event.
“We completely operate as if we had a permit, even though they have vowed to never issue us one,” he adds.
Organizers scan the ground with sonar to ensure correct generator placement, ship in toilets and trash receptacles, work alongside the police to contain crowds, coordinate with Vancouver health and safety officials, place protective mats on the grass to prevent damage, and hire engineers to erect the stage.
“We do a good job of keeping it clean. Every year, we pay a lot of money and put in a lot of work to make sure the park is in mint condition when we’re done,” organizer Vandermeer says. This year, Weeds, a local dispensary chain, has also put together a volunteer “green team” to stay after hours to pick up refuse.
“At the end of every event, a VPD rep shakes our hand and says it’s one of the best events in terms of lack of violence and damage,” Vandermeer adds. “This idea that we ruin the park and do this in defiance of the city are some of the biggest misconceptions.”
While talking to the Straight, Williams lights a joint and muses for a moment on his years pulling the city together around weed.
“It’s pretty fucking cool this group of people is still prepared to do this—stand up against the oppression, the authority, and without a bat of an eye after all these years of threats,” he says.
Holding true to the definition of a protest, Vancouver’s 4/20 community is set to spark up at 4:20 p.m. on Saturday without the permission of the park board.
The Georgia Straight’s cannabis editor, Piper Courtenay, will be co-hosting an all-day live broadcast of Vancouver’s 4/20 event alongside Craig Ex of Expert Joints. Tune in to the livestream presented by Cannabis Life Network and Pot TV.
As for continued use of the word protest, event organizers say there are now more discriminatory and ineffective laws to challenge than ever before.
“Critics seem to think in order for it to be a protest we all have to be poor and disorganized,” activist Jodie Emery adds. “We are demonstrating that we are all normal people. This is what a protest looks like. This is the cannabis community.”
According to Emery, cannabis is now harder to access and more expensive, and carries with it a new catalogue of criminal sanctions.
For example, although Canadians are now permitted to grow up to four pot plants in their private residence, they can be slapped with a fine of up to $5,000 and three months’ jail time if they are visible from the street. The charge can double for a repeat offence. This is one of about 50 new punishable offenses, including questionable impaired-driving laws.
“There are so many examples in this legislation of cannabis being punished at a severity far beyond what you would get for the same kind of situation involving alcohol,” Larsen says.
Williams says that neither lack of a permit nor political campaigning has ever stopped organizers from pulling off a “magical” event.
“We completely operate as if we had a permit, even though they have vowed to never issue us one,” he adds.
Organizers scan the ground with sonar to ensure correct generator placement, ship in toilets and trash receptacles, work alongside the police to contain crowds, coordinate with Vancouver health and safety officials, place protective mats on the grass to prevent damage, and hire engineers to erect the stage.
“We do a good job of keeping it clean. Every year, we pay a lot of money and put in a lot of work to make sure the park is in mint condition when we’re done,” organizer Vandermeer says. This year, Weeds, a local dispensary chain, has also put together a volunteer “green team” to stay after hours to pick up refuse.
“At the end of every event, a VPD rep shakes our hand and says it’s one of the best events in terms of lack of violence and damage,” Vandermeer adds. “This idea that we ruin the park and do this in defiance of the city are some of the biggest misconceptions.”
While talking to the Straight, Williams lights a joint and muses for a moment on his years pulling the city together around weed.
“It’s pretty fucking cool this group of people is still prepared to do this—stand up against the oppression, the authority, and without a bat of an eye after all these years of threats,” he says.
Holding true to the definition of a protest, Vancouver’s 4/20 community is set to spark up at 4:20 p.m. on Saturday without the permission of the park board.
The Georgia Straight’s cannabis editor, Piper Courtenay, will be co-hosting an all-day live broadcast of Vancouver’s 4/20 event alongside Craig Ex of Expert Joints. Tune in to the livestream presented by Cannabis Life Network and Pot TV.
QUAD BREATH
Well-Known Member
Vancouver Park Board Urges 420 Organizers to Cancel Cypress Hill Concert
Jesse B. Staniforth
April 17, 2019
Cypress Hill/Facebook
The usual battle between Vancouver’s 4-20 celebration organizers and the city’s park board intensified on Monday as a Parks Board Commissioner introduced an “urgent” motion to cancel the Cypress Hill performance scheduled for Saturday’s event in Sunset Beach Park, and the Board voted to support the motion.
As the first 4/20 since legalization—billed as the 25th anniversary of the Vancouver event—the celebration might have been well-attended on its own, but Parks Board Commissioner John Coupar says adding Cypress Hill to the mix is likely to create a massive crowd he claims will damage the park.
“It’s just my way of saying I think this has gotten out of hand, 4/20 has gotten too large and it’s the responsibility of the park board to step up and say, look, we don’t want to facilitate this,” Coupar told reporters ahead of the vote.
Despite the Park Board vote, Mayor Kennedy Stewart said he would not allow police to shut the event down if organizers don’t abide by the Park Board’s wishes.
“I don’t think that there’s any way that you want to put your police in front of 40,000 people that are expecting to come to an event. And I don’t think anybody in Vancouver would think that’s reasonable, especially with no time [for us] to organize,” Stewart said in a radio interview.
Jesse B. Staniforth
April 17, 2019
Cypress Hill/Facebook
The usual battle between Vancouver’s 4-20 celebration organizers and the city’s park board intensified on Monday as a Parks Board Commissioner introduced an “urgent” motion to cancel the Cypress Hill performance scheduled for Saturday’s event in Sunset Beach Park, and the Board voted to support the motion.
As the first 4/20 since legalization—billed as the 25th anniversary of the Vancouver event—the celebration might have been well-attended on its own, but Parks Board Commissioner John Coupar says adding Cypress Hill to the mix is likely to create a massive crowd he claims will damage the park.
“It’s just my way of saying I think this has gotten out of hand, 4/20 has gotten too large and it’s the responsibility of the park board to step up and say, look, we don’t want to facilitate this,” Coupar told reporters ahead of the vote.
Despite the Park Board vote, Mayor Kennedy Stewart said he would not allow police to shut the event down if organizers don’t abide by the Park Board’s wishes.
“I don’t think that there’s any way that you want to put your police in front of 40,000 people that are expecting to come to an event. And I don’t think anybody in Vancouver would think that’s reasonable, especially with no time [for us] to organize,” Stewart said in a radio interview.
QUAD BREATH
Well-Known Member
Days before 4/20, park board to ask for cancellation of Cypress Hill concert
But Mayor Kennedy Stewart said the city can't do much to prevent it in such a short time
CBC News · Posted: Apr 15, 2019 8:47 AM PT | Last Updated: April 16
A cloud of smoke hangs over the crowd at the 4/20 celebration in Vancouver in 2018. This year's event will be the 25th anniversary of the first 4/20 held in the city, and the first since recreational marijuana was legalized in Canada. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)
The Vancouver Park Board has passed a motion asking organizers of this year's 4/20 event at Sunset Beach to cancel a scheduled concert by Cypress Hill, but it's unlikely to have any effect.
A motion by John Coupar passed at Monday's meeting, asking staff to formally ask organizers to cancel the scheduled performance Saturday — which was just announced last week — in an effort to control crowd size and reduce the amount of damage that could be done to the park grounds.
"[The show] is going to dramatically increase the size of the event. We've had considerable damage [from the event] in the past, so, I think, as a park commissioner, it's my duty to say, 'Hey, this is getting out of hand,'" Coupar said.
"We've been telling this [4/20] group that they're not welcome in the park for a number of years."
In addition, park board will convene an urgent meeting of senior staff from Vancouver Police, Fire and Rescue Services, Coastal Health and others, to review safety issues.
Sunset Beach has played host to 4/20, against the wishes of the park board, since 2017. Commissioners have refused to issue permits to organizers and asked them to move the event to a more suitable location.
Rappers Sen Dog, left, and B-Real of Cypress Hill perform on stage in Germany in 2010. The weed-loving California rappers are scheduled to perform in Vancouver on April 20. (Hermann J. Knippertz/The Associated Press)
Taking direct action 'a tricky thing,' mayor says
Because the Vancouver Park Board has limited powers, it would fall to the City of Vancouver to enforce its request if the concert isn't cancelled.
However, Mayor Kennedy Stewart effectively shut the door on police stopping the concert from taking place if organizers ignore any requests made by the park board.
"We've seen what happens in other cities when you have large crowds ... when you do move police in, and you think of riot police and tear gas," he said to On The Coast host Gloria Macarenko.
"That's often how they're dealt with in other cities and I know some folks have kind of suggested that here in Vancouver. That's absolutely the wrong approach."
Stewart reiterated that organizers would be responsible for all costs incurred at the event, and that city staff were exploring alternative locations for next year's event, which he hoped would be permitted.
But he said that while he'd prefer if the concert didn't go ahead, there wasn't much he thought the city could do.
"The police are already there. They're making sure the public are safe," he said.
"But again, I don't think that there's any way that you want to put your police in front of 40,000 people that are expecting to come to an event. And I don't think anybody in Vancouver would think that's reasonable, especially with no time [for us] to organize."
Sunrise at Sunset Beach in Vancouver after 4/20 in 2018. The event, which is not sanctioned by the park board, draws ire over the mess left behind each year. (Gian-Paolo Mendoza/CBC)
Motion more than symbolic?
Coupar said he was disappointed by the mayor's comments.
"He's had plenty of time to be on top of this file, and this is a continuation of the work that Gregor Robertson did, when he basically downloaded the 4/20 event from the art gallery to the park board," he said.
"We need cooperation from the city, I'd like to see some leadership from the mayor."
However, Coupar believed the motion was more than just symbolism, even if nothing about the event tangibly changes as a result.
"We're sending a message. If they want to work in the future with any agencies in the city, they should consider a reasonable request from the Vancouver Park Board," he said.
Last year, 4/20 attracted 40,000 people and 140 unlicensed vendors, who paid organizers for booth space.
In a statement earlier this month, the city estimated last year's event cost taxpayers around $235,000, with organizers covering $32,000 of those costs.
Saturday's 4/20 event is the first since recreational marijuana was legalized in Canada on Oct. 17, 2018. It is also the 25th anniversary of the first 4/20 event in the city.
But Mayor Kennedy Stewart said the city can't do much to prevent it in such a short time
CBC News · Posted: Apr 15, 2019 8:47 AM PT | Last Updated: April 16
A cloud of smoke hangs over the crowd at the 4/20 celebration in Vancouver in 2018. This year's event will be the 25th anniversary of the first 4/20 held in the city, and the first since recreational marijuana was legalized in Canada. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)
The Vancouver Park Board has passed a motion asking organizers of this year's 4/20 event at Sunset Beach to cancel a scheduled concert by Cypress Hill, but it's unlikely to have any effect.
A motion by John Coupar passed at Monday's meeting, asking staff to formally ask organizers to cancel the scheduled performance Saturday — which was just announced last week — in an effort to control crowd size and reduce the amount of damage that could be done to the park grounds.
"[The show] is going to dramatically increase the size of the event. We've had considerable damage [from the event] in the past, so, I think, as a park commissioner, it's my duty to say, 'Hey, this is getting out of hand,'" Coupar said.
"We've been telling this [4/20] group that they're not welcome in the park for a number of years."
In addition, park board will convene an urgent meeting of senior staff from Vancouver Police, Fire and Rescue Services, Coastal Health and others, to review safety issues.
Sunset Beach has played host to 4/20, against the wishes of the park board, since 2017. Commissioners have refused to issue permits to organizers and asked them to move the event to a more suitable location.
Rappers Sen Dog, left, and B-Real of Cypress Hill perform on stage in Germany in 2010. The weed-loving California rappers are scheduled to perform in Vancouver on April 20. (Hermann J. Knippertz/The Associated Press)
Taking direct action 'a tricky thing,' mayor says
Because the Vancouver Park Board has limited powers, it would fall to the City of Vancouver to enforce its request if the concert isn't cancelled.
However, Mayor Kennedy Stewart effectively shut the door on police stopping the concert from taking place if organizers ignore any requests made by the park board.
"We've seen what happens in other cities when you have large crowds ... when you do move police in, and you think of riot police and tear gas," he said to On The Coast host Gloria Macarenko.
"That's often how they're dealt with in other cities and I know some folks have kind of suggested that here in Vancouver. That's absolutely the wrong approach."
Stewart reiterated that organizers would be responsible for all costs incurred at the event, and that city staff were exploring alternative locations for next year's event, which he hoped would be permitted.
But he said that while he'd prefer if the concert didn't go ahead, there wasn't much he thought the city could do.
"The police are already there. They're making sure the public are safe," he said.
"But again, I don't think that there's any way that you want to put your police in front of 40,000 people that are expecting to come to an event. And I don't think anybody in Vancouver would think that's reasonable, especially with no time [for us] to organize."
Sunrise at Sunset Beach in Vancouver after 4/20 in 2018. The event, which is not sanctioned by the park board, draws ire over the mess left behind each year. (Gian-Paolo Mendoza/CBC)
Motion more than symbolic?
Coupar said he was disappointed by the mayor's comments.
"He's had plenty of time to be on top of this file, and this is a continuation of the work that Gregor Robertson did, when he basically downloaded the 4/20 event from the art gallery to the park board," he said.
"We need cooperation from the city, I'd like to see some leadership from the mayor."
However, Coupar believed the motion was more than just symbolism, even if nothing about the event tangibly changes as a result.
"We're sending a message. If they want to work in the future with any agencies in the city, they should consider a reasonable request from the Vancouver Park Board," he said.
Last year, 4/20 attracted 40,000 people and 140 unlicensed vendors, who paid organizers for booth space.
In a statement earlier this month, the city estimated last year's event cost taxpayers around $235,000, with organizers covering $32,000 of those costs.
Saturday's 4/20 event is the first since recreational marijuana was legalized in Canada on Oct. 17, 2018. It is also the 25th anniversary of the first 4/20 event in the city.
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odam2k
Well-Known Member
and how much money did these 40,000 stoned, hungry people spend in Vancouver while they were there? Surely it's not a burden on the fast food places
QUAD BREATH
Well-Known Member
Live Feed to 420 in Vancouver with Cypress Hill:
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VIANARCHRIS
Well-Known Member
I never liked the large commercial 420 events. They seem to attract too many of the wrong people that give the rest of us a bad name. Maybe I'm just old? I've been to a few small ones on the island and they were a good time - but there was no selling of anything so it was of a friendly get together than a market place. To each their own, but I think we need to start trying to normalize pot smoking rather than pissing off the general public. Getting 10's of thousands of people on a small section of beach and park brings damages, litter and neighbour complaints and shines a bright light on why people are against us. Time to push for weed friendly events in small venues with limited attendance to show that it is not a destructive activity and gradually gain acceptance for larger events. The drunks managed to get beer and wine sales on BC Ferries, and that drug causes violence and destruction regularly.
QUAD BREATH
Well-Known Member
From twitter:
Kris Constable@cqwww
"I'm not a big cannabis guy, but watching two city councilors lie and share misinformation about 4/20, one of the biggest annual events in Vancouver, is encouraging me to join the protest. Follow @DanaLarsen and @JodieEmery to watch them actively fight the misinformation. #vanpoli"
6:15 PM - 18 Apr 2019
Replying to @cqwww @JodieEmery @DanaLarsen
"I have zero interest in Cannabis, but Vancouver is enforcing morality policies nothing more."
Kris Constable@cqwww
"I'm not a big cannabis guy, but watching two city councilors lie and share misinformation about 4/20, one of the biggest annual events in Vancouver, is encouraging me to join the protest. Follow @DanaLarsen and @JodieEmery to watch them actively fight the misinformation. #vanpoli"
6:15 PM - 18 Apr 2019
Replying to @cqwww @JodieEmery @DanaLarsen
"I have zero interest in Cannabis, but Vancouver is enforcing morality policies nothing more."
QUAD BREATH
Well-Known Member
Replying to @DanaLarsen
"Policing bill of 4/20: UPROAR Deaths of tens of thousands of drug users: silence"
Replying to @donfazool @DanaLarsen
"It's not the taxes, the grass or the inconvenience. It's the culture, drugs and people they dislike. Its moral grandstanding. Collective societal smugness."
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Dana LarsenVerified account@DanaLarsen 6h6 hours ago
"I like reading up on the history of other protest movements. I am inspired by people like MLK, Ghandi, Dennis Peron, and enjoy learning from their successes and failures. For instance, I see many parallels between our 4/20 protest and Ghandi's Salt March."
"Some people thought salt was an insignificant issue, not worth protesting about. Salt was controlled by the British, sold at inflated prices, and domestic salt production was banned. (Remind you of anything..?)"
"Everyone used salt, from rich to poor. Use of salt cut through class and racial boundaries. Ghandi saw that salt was an issue that could unite otherwise divided people in a powerful way. Ghandi didn't have signs or chanting at his protests. He had civil disobedience"
"British officers ground salt crystals into the sand, to stop Ghandi. But he refused to be diverted from his peaceful civil disobedience. With a handful of salt, he was shaking the foundations of an empire. The cannabis movement does the same with a handful of seeds."
"There were no protest signs or chanting at this most important, powerful and historic protest. And local people made money! They sold the salt in the markets! They took back economic control away from the empire!"
"I am sure at the time that some people said hand-harvested salt is dangerous and dirty. They'd say the Indians should be grateful salt's legal at all! And add that the people selling handmade salt should be paying the British Army for their protection."
"And to be clear... I am not comparing myself to Ghandi. I am not saying that the cannabis movement is exactly the same as the movement for India's liberation. I am saying that I am inspired by Ghandi's work and techniques... and that 4/20 is a damned good protest!"
"Policing bill of 4/20: UPROAR Deaths of tens of thousands of drug users: silence"
Replying to @donfazool @DanaLarsen
"It's not the taxes, the grass or the inconvenience. It's the culture, drugs and people they dislike. Its moral grandstanding. Collective societal smugness."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dana LarsenVerified account@DanaLarsen 6h6 hours ago
"I like reading up on the history of other protest movements. I am inspired by people like MLK, Ghandi, Dennis Peron, and enjoy learning from their successes and failures. For instance, I see many parallels between our 4/20 protest and Ghandi's Salt March."
"Some people thought salt was an insignificant issue, not worth protesting about. Salt was controlled by the British, sold at inflated prices, and domestic salt production was banned. (Remind you of anything..?)"
"Everyone used salt, from rich to poor. Use of salt cut through class and racial boundaries. Ghandi saw that salt was an issue that could unite otherwise divided people in a powerful way. Ghandi didn't have signs or chanting at his protests. He had civil disobedience"
"British officers ground salt crystals into the sand, to stop Ghandi. But he refused to be diverted from his peaceful civil disobedience. With a handful of salt, he was shaking the foundations of an empire. The cannabis movement does the same with a handful of seeds."
"There were no protest signs or chanting at this most important, powerful and historic protest. And local people made money! They sold the salt in the markets! They took back economic control away from the empire!"
"I am sure at the time that some people said hand-harvested salt is dangerous and dirty. They'd say the Indians should be grateful salt's legal at all! And add that the people selling handmade salt should be paying the British Army for their protection."
"And to be clear... I am not comparing myself to Ghandi. I am not saying that the cannabis movement is exactly the same as the movement for India's liberation. I am saying that I am inspired by Ghandi's work and techniques... and that 4/20 is a damned good protest!"
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QUAD BREATH
Well-Known Member
Link: https://www.history.com/news/gandhis-salt-march-85-years-ago
Mar 12, 2015
Remembering Gandhi’s Salt March
Explore one of Mahatma Gandhi's most legendary chapters in his campaign against British colonial rule in India.
Evan Andrews
Since the late-1910s, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had been at the forefront of India’s quest to shake off the yoke of British colonial domination, otherwise known as the “Raj.” The thin and abstemious former lawyer had led civil disobedience against colonial policies, encouraged Indians to boycott British goods, and had served two years in prison on charges of sedition. Gandhi’s philosophy of “satyagraha,” which sought to reveal truth and confront injustice through nonviolence, had made him the most polarizing figure on the subcontinent. While the British regarded him with suspicion, Indians had begun calling him “Mahatma,” or “great-souled.”
When the Indian National Congress redoubled its efforts for independence in January 1930, many assumed Gandhi would stage his most ambitious satyagraha campaign to date. Yet rather than launching a frontal assault on more high profile injustices, Gandhi proposed to frame his protest around salt. As with many other commodities, Britain had kept India’s salt trade under its thumb since the 19th century, forbidding natives from manufacturing or selling the mineral and forcing them to buy it at high cost from British merchants. Since salt was a nutritional necessity in India’s steamy climate, Gandhi saw the salt laws as an inexcusable evil.
Many of Gandhi’s comrades were initially skeptical. “We were bewildered and could not fit in a national struggle with common salt,” remembered Jawaharlal Nehru, later India’s first prime minister. Another colleague compared the proposed protest to striking a “fly” with a “sledgehammer,” yet for Gandhi, the salt monopoly was a stark example of the ways the Raj unfairly imposed Britain’s will on even the most basic aspects of Indian life. Its effects cut across religious and class differences, harming both Hindus and Muslims, rich and poor. On March 2, he penned a letter to British Viceroy Lord Irwin and made a series of requests, among them the repeal of the salt tax. If ignored, he promised to launch a satyagraha campaign. “My ambition,” he wrote, “is no less than to convert the British people through nonviolence and thus make them see the wrong they have done to India.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Irwin offered no formal response, and at dawn on March 12, 1930, Gandhi put his plan into action. Clad in a homespun shawl and sandals and holding a wooden walking stick, he set off on foot from his ashram near Ahmedabad with several dozen companions and began an overland trek to the Arabian Sea town of Dandi. There, he planned to defy the salt tax by illegally harvesting the mineral from the beachside. The 60-year-old expected to be arrested or even beaten during the journey, but the British feared a public backlash and elected not to quash the march.
With Gandhi setting a brisk pace at its head, the column crossed the countryside at a rate of roughly 12 miles per day. Gandhi paused at dozens of villages along the route to address the masses and condemn both the Raj and the salt tax. He also encouraged government workers to embrace his philosophy of noncooperation by quitting their jobs. “What is government service worth, after all?” he asked during a stop at the city of Nadiad. “A government job gives you the power to tyrannize over others.”
As Gandhi and his followers inched toward the western coastline, thousands of Indians joined their ranks, transforming the small cadre of protestors into a miles-long procession. The New York Times and other media outlets began following the walk’s progress, quoting Gandhi as he denounced the salt tax as “monstrous” and chided the British for “being ashamed to arrest me.” In addition to lambasting the Raj, Gandhi also used his speeches to lecture on the injustices of the Indian caste system, which labeled the lowest classes “untouchable” and deprived them of certain rights. Gandhi stunned onlookers by bathing at an “untouchable” well at the village of Dabhan, and during another stop in Gajera, he refused to begin his speech until the untouchables were allowed to sit with the rest of the audience.
Gandhi and his party finally arrived at Dandi on April 5, having walked 241 miles in the span of just 24 days. The following morning, thousands of journalists and supporters gathered to watch him commit his symbolic crime. After immersing himself in the sparkling waters of the Arabian Sea, he walked ashore where the beach’s rich salt deposits rested. British officials had reportedly ground the salt into the sand in the hope of frustrating Gandhi’s efforts, but he easily found a lump of salt-rich mud and held it aloft in triumph. “With this,” he announced, “I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire.”
Gandhi’s transgression served as a signal for other Indians to join in what had become known as the “Salt Satyagraha.” Over the next several weeks, supporters across the subcontinent flocked to the seaside to illegally harvest the mineral. Women took on a crucial role. Many boiled water to make salt, and others sold illicit salt in city markets or led pickets in front of liquor and foreign cloth shops. “It seemed as though a spring had suddenly been released,” Nehru later said. Some 80,000 people were arrested in the spree of civil disobedience, and many were beaten by police.
Gandhi was taken into custody on May 5, after he announced his intention to lead a peaceful raid on a government salt works at Dharasana. But even with their leader behind bars, his followers pressed on. On May 21, some 2,500 marchers ignored warnings from police and made an unarmed advance on the Dharasana depot. American journalist Webb Miller was on the scene, and he later described what followed. “Suddenly,” he wrote, “at a word of command, scores of native police rushed upon the advancing marchers and rained blows on their heads…Not one of the marchers even raised an arm to fend off the blows. They went down like ten-pins.” Miller’s harrowing account of the beatings circulated widely in the international media, and was even read aloud in the U.S. Congress. Winston Churchill—no great fan of Gandhi—would later admit that the protests and their aftermath had “inflicted such humiliation and defiance as has not been known since the British first trod the soil of India.”
Gandhi remained in lockup until early 1931, but he emerged from prison more revered than ever before. Time Magazine named him its 1930 “Man of the Year,” and newspapers around the globe jumped at any opportunity to quote him or report on his exploits. British Viceroy Lord Irwin finally agreed to negotiate with him, and in March 1931, the two hammered out the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, which ended the satyagraha in exchange for several concessions including the release of thousands of political prisoners. While the agreement largely maintained the Raj’s monopoly over salt, it gave Indians living on the coasts the right to produce the mineral from the sea.
Difficult days still lay ahead. Gandhi and his supporters would launch more protests in the 1930s and 40s and endure even more stints behind bars, and Indian independence would have to wait until 1947—only months before Gandhi was shot dead by a militant Hindu. But while the immediate political results of the Salt March were relatively minor, Gandhi’s satyagraha had nevertheless succeeded in his goal of “shaking the foundations of the British Empire.” The trek to the sea had galvanized Indian resistance to the Raj, and its international coverage had introduced the world to Gandhi and his followers’ astonishing commitment to nonviolence. Among others, Martin Luther King Jr. would later cite the Salt March as a crucial influence on his own philosophy of civil disobedience. Gandhi had sent a simple message by grasping a handful of salt on the beach at Dandi, and millions had answered his call.
Mar 12, 2015
Remembering Gandhi’s Salt March
Explore one of Mahatma Gandhi's most legendary chapters in his campaign against British colonial rule in India.
Evan Andrews
Since the late-1910s, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had been at the forefront of India’s quest to shake off the yoke of British colonial domination, otherwise known as the “Raj.” The thin and abstemious former lawyer had led civil disobedience against colonial policies, encouraged Indians to boycott British goods, and had served two years in prison on charges of sedition. Gandhi’s philosophy of “satyagraha,” which sought to reveal truth and confront injustice through nonviolence, had made him the most polarizing figure on the subcontinent. While the British regarded him with suspicion, Indians had begun calling him “Mahatma,” or “great-souled.”
When the Indian National Congress redoubled its efforts for independence in January 1930, many assumed Gandhi would stage his most ambitious satyagraha campaign to date. Yet rather than launching a frontal assault on more high profile injustices, Gandhi proposed to frame his protest around salt. As with many other commodities, Britain had kept India’s salt trade under its thumb since the 19th century, forbidding natives from manufacturing or selling the mineral and forcing them to buy it at high cost from British merchants. Since salt was a nutritional necessity in India’s steamy climate, Gandhi saw the salt laws as an inexcusable evil.
Many of Gandhi’s comrades were initially skeptical. “We were bewildered and could not fit in a national struggle with common salt,” remembered Jawaharlal Nehru, later India’s first prime minister. Another colleague compared the proposed protest to striking a “fly” with a “sledgehammer,” yet for Gandhi, the salt monopoly was a stark example of the ways the Raj unfairly imposed Britain’s will on even the most basic aspects of Indian life. Its effects cut across religious and class differences, harming both Hindus and Muslims, rich and poor. On March 2, he penned a letter to British Viceroy Lord Irwin and made a series of requests, among them the repeal of the salt tax. If ignored, he promised to launch a satyagraha campaign. “My ambition,” he wrote, “is no less than to convert the British people through nonviolence and thus make them see the wrong they have done to India.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Irwin offered no formal response, and at dawn on March 12, 1930, Gandhi put his plan into action. Clad in a homespun shawl and sandals and holding a wooden walking stick, he set off on foot from his ashram near Ahmedabad with several dozen companions and began an overland trek to the Arabian Sea town of Dandi. There, he planned to defy the salt tax by illegally harvesting the mineral from the beachside. The 60-year-old expected to be arrested or even beaten during the journey, but the British feared a public backlash and elected not to quash the march.
With Gandhi setting a brisk pace at its head, the column crossed the countryside at a rate of roughly 12 miles per day. Gandhi paused at dozens of villages along the route to address the masses and condemn both the Raj and the salt tax. He also encouraged government workers to embrace his philosophy of noncooperation by quitting their jobs. “What is government service worth, after all?” he asked during a stop at the city of Nadiad. “A government job gives you the power to tyrannize over others.”
As Gandhi and his followers inched toward the western coastline, thousands of Indians joined their ranks, transforming the small cadre of protestors into a miles-long procession. The New York Times and other media outlets began following the walk’s progress, quoting Gandhi as he denounced the salt tax as “monstrous” and chided the British for “being ashamed to arrest me.” In addition to lambasting the Raj, Gandhi also used his speeches to lecture on the injustices of the Indian caste system, which labeled the lowest classes “untouchable” and deprived them of certain rights. Gandhi stunned onlookers by bathing at an “untouchable” well at the village of Dabhan, and during another stop in Gajera, he refused to begin his speech until the untouchables were allowed to sit with the rest of the audience.
Gandhi and his party finally arrived at Dandi on April 5, having walked 241 miles in the span of just 24 days. The following morning, thousands of journalists and supporters gathered to watch him commit his symbolic crime. After immersing himself in the sparkling waters of the Arabian Sea, he walked ashore where the beach’s rich salt deposits rested. British officials had reportedly ground the salt into the sand in the hope of frustrating Gandhi’s efforts, but he easily found a lump of salt-rich mud and held it aloft in triumph. “With this,” he announced, “I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire.”
Gandhi’s transgression served as a signal for other Indians to join in what had become known as the “Salt Satyagraha.” Over the next several weeks, supporters across the subcontinent flocked to the seaside to illegally harvest the mineral. Women took on a crucial role. Many boiled water to make salt, and others sold illicit salt in city markets or led pickets in front of liquor and foreign cloth shops. “It seemed as though a spring had suddenly been released,” Nehru later said. Some 80,000 people were arrested in the spree of civil disobedience, and many were beaten by police.
Gandhi was taken into custody on May 5, after he announced his intention to lead a peaceful raid on a government salt works at Dharasana. But even with their leader behind bars, his followers pressed on. On May 21, some 2,500 marchers ignored warnings from police and made an unarmed advance on the Dharasana depot. American journalist Webb Miller was on the scene, and he later described what followed. “Suddenly,” he wrote, “at a word of command, scores of native police rushed upon the advancing marchers and rained blows on their heads…Not one of the marchers even raised an arm to fend off the blows. They went down like ten-pins.” Miller’s harrowing account of the beatings circulated widely in the international media, and was even read aloud in the U.S. Congress. Winston Churchill—no great fan of Gandhi—would later admit that the protests and their aftermath had “inflicted such humiliation and defiance as has not been known since the British first trod the soil of India.”
Gandhi remained in lockup until early 1931, but he emerged from prison more revered than ever before. Time Magazine named him its 1930 “Man of the Year,” and newspapers around the globe jumped at any opportunity to quote him or report on his exploits. British Viceroy Lord Irwin finally agreed to negotiate with him, and in March 1931, the two hammered out the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, which ended the satyagraha in exchange for several concessions including the release of thousands of political prisoners. While the agreement largely maintained the Raj’s monopoly over salt, it gave Indians living on the coasts the right to produce the mineral from the sea.
Difficult days still lay ahead. Gandhi and his supporters would launch more protests in the 1930s and 40s and endure even more stints behind bars, and Indian independence would have to wait until 1947—only months before Gandhi was shot dead by a militant Hindu. But while the immediate political results of the Salt March were relatively minor, Gandhi’s satyagraha had nevertheless succeeded in his goal of “shaking the foundations of the British Empire.” The trek to the sea had galvanized Indian resistance to the Raj, and its international coverage had introduced the world to Gandhi and his followers’ astonishing commitment to nonviolence. Among others, Martin Luther King Jr. would later cite the Salt March as a crucial influence on his own philosophy of civil disobedience. Gandhi had sent a simple message by grasping a handful of salt on the beach at Dandi, and millions had answered his call.
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CalyxCrusher
Well-Known Member
Ugh please stop
QUAD BREATH
Well-Known Member
^^^^ Can you please expand on this ?Ugh please stop
That was Dana's quote explaining his inspiration, tactics, and reasons for protest. What exactly makes your stomach turn ? Is there something inaccurate you disagree with because I'm curious to know ?
VIANARCHRIS
Well-Known Member
What exactly are they "protesting"? It is a commercial money-making event. It's time to shut it down, imho.
odam2k
Well-Known Member
I suspect you are right, although with the way legalization was implemented, there is lots left to protest... funny they didn't mention any of those points.
this is gonna go down hard of the ones who are trying to stop it lol
they talk about sending 420 a POLICE BILL..
Id suff that bill right back up their wzazzooo..WE DONE NEED ANY COPS FUCKWAD!
Wambulances at hand is al thats needed..for people who may have health issue like people do every day
because theyre high lol
they talk about sending 420 a POLICE BILL..
Id suff that bill right back up their wzazzooo..WE DONE NEED ANY COPS FUCKWAD!
Wambulances at hand is al thats needed..for people who may have health issue like people do every day
because theyre high lol
VIANARCHRIS
Well-Known Member
Oh, I agree there is lots to protest still - I just don't get how selling overpriced edibles in a park addresses any of those issues.
QUAD BREATH
Well-Known Member
Seriously? Since I joined this site, just about every thread is about how the government is fuking us and you wonder what they are protesting about? My question is why aren't more people protesting? We all can't be Dana Larsen's or Jodie Emery's but, as an individual, you can support those that are standing up for our rights and TRUTH.
You don't think regular Canadian citizens, who actually love the plant, should be able to make money doing something they love and causing no harm to others ? Or do you believe in the CRONY system where you are forced to buy products from them and, if not, your threatened with jail ?
If you read above, this is what Dana said: "Some people thought salt was an insignificant issue, not worth protesting about. Salt was controlled by the British, sold at inflated prices, and domestic salt production was banned. (Remind you of anything..?)"
The following is from the Vancouver 420 website:
Isn’t cannabis legalized? What is 4/20 Vancouver protesting?
According to lawyers and civil liberties advocates, cannabis criminalization and rights violations continue to exist under the “Cannabis Act” in Canada.
The Cannabis Act created 45 new criminal offences; devoted hundreds of millions of dollars in additional law enforcement spending, on top of the pre-existing half-billion dollars being spent; and introduced new costly, punitive measures on provincial and municipal levels.
People are still being arrested and sent to jail – ten months locked in a cell, for 86 grams of a flowers from a plant! – and losing their housing, children, job opportunities, travel rights, and more.
Medical cannabis patients do not have access to cannabis, and are seeing their medicine being sold by governments and corporations in a recreational market run by former police and politicians.
The ongoing discrimination and intolerance of cannabis and events like 4/20 demonstrates why there’s still a need for public cultural gatherings and educational opportunities. There’s a stigma attached to cannabis, and harm caused by the laws, so that is why we still protest.
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