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Pompo

This soccer mom admits she was out of her league at a marijuana smokefest. But she left with a better understanding. And the munchies
5/4/08|Toronto Sun| by Michele Mandel

Organizers were handing out festival maps at Queen's Park yesterday, but the kids ahead of me just laughed them off.

"Who the hell needs a map?" chuckled one freedom toker to the other. "Just follow the smell."

You sure couldn't miss it. My editor told me not to inhale, but I'm not sure what he was smoking when he offered that impossible advice. At yesterday's Toronto Freedom Festival and Global Marijuana March, the pungent aroma of weed was everywhere as thousands converged in the pouring rain to openly puff away in the leafy backyard of our provincial legislature.

Ah, yes, plunk a soccer mom in the midst of a muddy marijuana smokefest and behold her confusion. How many different shaped bongs can there possibly be? Who knew you could smoke a doobie the size of an Arnold Schwarzenegger cigar? And why is that guy inhaling his grass through a gas mask?

GRABS ATTENTION

"It's just funny," coughs Josh Spatz, an 18-year-old aficionado from Uxbridge, after removing said gas mask to explain. "It just makes your eyes burn a lot more but it grabs your attention."

Sure does. So Josh, I hate to be maternal, but do your parents know where you are?

"Oh, yeah, my mom's cool with it. If it's not at her house, it's not her problem," he laughs. "I've been smoking since Grade 8 -- weekends, weekdays. It's a way of life. It calms me down and keeps me centred and it's a lot better than prescription drugs."

Wrapped in a red and white flag with a cannabis leaf at its centre, he decided to come down to find out what the festival was all about. "It's pretty cool. I never thought I could smoke pot in downtown Toronto without getting arrested."

Yeah, about that. Aren't all these happy, mellow people breaking the law?

"We've been doing this for 10 years and we've never had a single charge," boasts festival co-founder Neev Tapiro.

So, Neev, how much do you think is being peacefully puffed out there under the implicit approval of Toronto's finest?

"Ooh, that's a curveball," he replies thoughtfully. He calls over a fellow organizer and after some heavy mathematical calculations by two men feeling no pain, they arrive at an estimate of 60 kilos of weed going up in smoke.

"That's a lot of lost tax dollars," Tapiro grins. "You could fund a small hospital on that."

The festival, you see, isn't just about the giddy freedom of toking in public -- though there was certainly a lot of that. It was also about joining 200 other cities around the world to press for the legalization of weed.

Among the speakers is 36-year-old Derek Pedro, a medicinal marijuana user who always shunned going public until he was charged by Hamilton Police -- even though he's been legally licensed since 2004 to grow and possess cannabis.

"I can't handle it anymore, I have to speak out. After all, it's just a plant," says Pedro, who now uses marijuana to replace the 160 mg of Percocets a day he once needed to treat his painful connective tissue disorder. "It's a health issue but I have to explain myself all the time."

But I'm not sure the politics of marijuana are much on the minds of many of these wet, glassy-eyed potheads.

Certainly not for "John" and his wide-eyed crew. Like kids in a candy store, he and his young pals are wandering through the festival taking in the music blaring from the stage and a cornucopia of booths that have transformed the Queen's Park lawn into one massive head shop.

They claim they're 16, but all those braces sure make them look like they've escaped from daycare. Needless to say, they aren't keen on offering their real names. "We found out about it on Facebook," says Mackenzie. "My parents think I just went out with friends."

Ashley, with the hippie headband, giggles. "They know we smoke. My parents found it in my room."

"And they can tell by looking at us," laughs Joanne.

"They got mad but they can't stop us. It's impossible," adds Mackenzie.

"And we know they do it, too," argues Ashley. "They hide it, but we know."

So how do Grade 10 students afford their weekend recreational activity?

"I get a good allowance," smiles John after taking another hit from his bong. "And it's cheap. It's only $10 a gram."

What a bargain.

"It's a really cool feeling," he shrugs, sensing a mom's disapproval. "If it's not this, it's alcohol and this is a far less dangerous drug.

SUCKING ON BAGS

"I just wish we'd brought a tent," John sighs to his friends, glancing at the many tarps dotting the park. "We could have hot boxed it."

I wander off, assuming I kind of understand what that means only to arrive in "Yongesterdam" where people are sucking on gigantic condom-like plastic bags.

Okay, now you've really lost me.

"We're vapourizing," explains 20-year-old Tom from Tottenham.

According to my friendly cannabis tutor, the $650 contraption heats your buds, turning them into vapour which is then trapped in a plastic bag for your inhalation pleasure. "This is much healthier. It's pure THC -- all the chemicals are burned off. Want to try it?"

Sorry, but I'm off to check out the fajitas booth instead. After all this second-hand smoke, I have a serious case of the munchies.

 

mufasa5446

That's really cool. Very eye-opening.

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Cheeba16

Very nice, I like hearing about events like this, itgives me hope for legalization one day.

SpiralArchitect

My favorite part.

I'd have to say the article kind of deteriorated when it started talking about the 16 year old (or younger) smokers. That part really turned me off, but I read on. It just made me feel it likely misrepresented the majority of the people there, I mean these kids were spending their allowance on marijuana, smoking everyday, and they seemed kind of immature about it. But I wont jump to any conclusions, it's all out of context. Regardless, good article, thanks Pompo.

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5drive

$650? I hope it was the digital model. Great advertising for vaporizing- 'only $650 to get vapor instead of smoke!

NOT. Not pure THC, and the whole idea of vaporizing is that you don't BURN. In fact, the higher the temp (as in "burned off", the more chemicals you get-the ones you don't want.

Would have been a better story without soccer mom's negative slant too.

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