cannabisnews.com: Pot Smokers Get Off Scot-Free





Pot Smokers Get Off Scot-Free
Posted by CN Staff on August 26, 2003 at 06:50:16 PT
By Greg McArthur 
Source: Kingston Whig-Standard 
Standing outside Kingston Police headquarters dressed in a black pinstripe suit, Canada’s pre-eminent marijuana activist smoked a joint with about 150 protesters and expounded for hours on why he feels marijuana should be legalized across the country. The four uniformed officers at the protest never approached Marc Emery, the president of British Columbia’s Marijuana Party. They just watched him talk. And talk and talk and talk. 
“Now, here’s something we can all celebrate,” Emery told the cheering crowd as he pulled out a fat joint the size of a screwdriver. When he paused to light the joint – packed with a strain known as Marley’s Collie, which Emery says gives a “social lubricant” kind of high – it was one of the rare moments when his lips weren’t moving. Emery captivated a crowd – which dwindled to less than 10 people by sundown – for more than 2½ hours, waxing on a host of pot-related topics, including what he called the abusive policy of Kingston Police to seize marijuana from people carrying less than 30 grams. Since May 16, when an Ontario Superior Court judge upheld a lower court decision to quash a charge against a youth for simple possession of marijuana, Kingston Police have changed their stance on marijuana. Officers have been instructed not to lay charges but to confiscate the pot. The new policy inspired Emery to add Kingston to his summer tour of Canadian police stations. So far, he’s been arrested in six cities. Only police in Toronto, Halifax, Charlottetown, Prince George, B.C. – and now Kingston – have let him puff away. As teens sparked up miniature pipes and adults sucked back on homemade bongs yesterday afternoon, police made no motion towards the smokers or their stashes. “Jesus, it must be good. Everyone’s hacking up a lung,” said 22-year-old Barb Hutson, as Emery’s joint was passed around the crowd and the sound of coughing filled the air. There was a broad cross-section of society at the protest – from aging hippies with ponytails in tie-dyed T-shirts to adults in business-casual attire to high schoolers getting a glimpse of the man they have read so much about in magazines such as Cannabis Culture. Many older protesters wouldn’t speak on the record, citing repercussions in the workplace. “A lot of people are still in the closet,” said Gord Near, a 33-year-old Napanee videographer, holding a bong made out of a sportsdrink bottle. Near brought along his wife, Donna Hart, and their two children, seven-year-old Dylan Near and one-year-old Evan Near. “The more they know, the better. The more taboo it is, the more likely it is they’re going to do it at an earlier age” said Hart, who watched most of the festivities from the other side of the street because she’s four months’ pregnant. Near said he doesn’t smoke pot openly in the house around his children, but he wants to educate them as they grow old so they don’t buy into the negative stigma surrounding pot smokers like their father. “I won’t hide anything from them,” he said. Mike Foster, a Kingston native who owns one of the biggest pot-paraphernalia shops in Ottawa, made the trek to support Emery. Foster said he thought the protest was an effective way to make citizens understand what their rights are. “Even though we can legally smoke out in the open, people don’t believe they can do it. It takes something like this to get people to come out of their shells. He’s saying ‘Look, I’m smoking it in front of a police station and I’m not being arrested,’ ” Foster said. Emery attacked the attitudes of police departments across the country. He pointed out that in his home town of Vancouver, police devote thousands of dollars to raids on grow houses, but when 60 women went missing in an impoverished part of the city and no one was charged for a long time, police complained they didn’t have a large enough force to investigate. He said the drug war has allowed police to invade people’s privacy, specifically with the heat-detection sensors used from helicopters to detect grow operations in homes. “So they can see you having sex. They can see all of your movements because as a human being you give off heat. Only the drug war can give police permission to pry into your homes,” Emery said while a pair of men giggled in the background. Over and over again, Emery said that lawmakers and law enforcers have no right to persecute someone for their lifestyle. “Marijuana never created anything but a good vibe,” he said. Jason Back, a 19-year-old Queen’s University student, and his 17-year-old brother David Back, said when their parents dropped them off at the protest, their mother and father were torn. Their father likes the idea of them being politically engaged, but he’s not completely sold on their current cause, they said. “They figure it’s our choice,” said Jason Back. “As long as [our smoking] is in moderation.” Since the May court decision, Back said he’s frequently smoked weed on the Queen’s campus because he believes it’s now legal. But not enough people know about the change in the law and are confused, he said. “People talk about how it’s going to be decriminalized, because that’s what’s in the press, but when I tell them it’s basically legal in Ontario, they don’t believe me.” At the end of the protest, Emery said he wasn’t surprised that police didn’t confiscate his weed, suggesting that they would have been “humiliated” if they had tried. Not only did he think more Kingstonians would start smoking pot in the streets because of his protest, he said the Limestone City is in store for a new pot-smoking cafe. Since the May ruling, a few cafes have popped up in the province, such as one in London, he said. “I think people here will have a smoke-easy [a marijuana cafe] opened within a month,” he told The Whig. He said the city’s restrictive smoking bylaw won’t be an obstacle because it only applies to tobacco products. Source: Kingston Whig-Standard (CN ON)Author: Greg McArthur Published: Tuesday, August 26, 2003Copyright: 2003 The Kingston Whig-StandardContact: whiged thewhig.comWebsite: http://www.kingstonwhigstandard.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:B.C. Marijuana Partyhttp://www.bcmarijuanaparty.ca/Cannabis Culture Magazinehttp://www.cannabisculture.com/Pot Advocate To Light Up at Police Station http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17147.shtmlAll Toke & Pro Action http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17132.shtmlBusted Pot Crusader Still Says He's Righthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17097.shtmlCannabisNews Articles -- Marc Emeryhttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=emery 
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Comment #3 posted by Sam Adams on August 26, 2003 at 07:12:12 PT
found a good quote
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.Galileo Galilei  
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Comment #2 posted by Sam Adams on August 26, 2003 at 07:05:56 PT
This guy has the very simple answer
We don't need thousand of NIDA studies getting rats and monkeys high, this guy has all the policy strategy we'll ever need:“The more they know, the better. The more taboo it is, the more likely it is they’re going to do it at an earlier age” said Hart, who watched most of the festivities from the other side of the street because she’s four months’ pregnant. Near said he doesn’t smoke pot openly in the house around his children, but he wants to educate them as they grow old so they don’t buy into the negative stigma surrounding pot smokers like their father. “I won’t hide anything from them,” he said. "Sadly, this attitude will not fly with the entrenched political class of bloodsucking lawyers, politicians, police, prison guards, prison workers, drug treatment workers, priests, ministers, and corporate media. But it is the real way to get our kids off drugs.What was it that woman's rights advocate said - "We won't be truly free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"
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Comment #1 posted by 420eh on August 26, 2003 at 07:01:09 PT
the lungs
as i posted in an earlier article i was present during this demostration. everything went fine and the police never bothered anyone. barb hutson (a friend of mine) comments in the article about "hacking up a lung". well i must raise my hand and say that i was one of many who hacked up a lung on the biggest doobie i have laid my eyes on. i attended the demostration with 2 other friends besides barb and we all agreed it was a worth while day. i think a HUGE HUGE thank you has to go out to marc emery on what he is doing for the million of smokers in canada. he has the bravery to get this ball rolling. i believe as he makes his way across ontario, making 4 more stops, the message will get louder and louder.once agin THANKS marc.
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