I was speaking with a young couple today, they said they were upset because they slept in through the marijuana march that was taking place downtown Toronto. Is there anything more sterotypically awesome than that? Forgetting about a marijuana rally and sleeping through it instead?
Yes today Toronto took part in the 13th annual Marijuana March, commonly referred to as Weed Day by, well, just about everybody. With the recent legal happenings in Ontario where the Supreme Court put the onus on the Government to step in and keep marijuana a banned substance, meaning the chance of a decriminalization is a much greater possibility, you would feel that this year would carry more profound significance. And yet, at the end of the day, it still ended up coming off as rather lame.
Maybe it's because that's the way we celebrate it.
Queen's Park in Toronto, the provincial legislature, was packed with people but many young, taking advantage of the temporarily acceptable ability to smoke openly in public right in the view of the police. A chance to smoke unpunished by nearby cops for a day? Many kids would reply 'hell yes!', or 'swag!', or 'wuzzle wazzle', or...well whatever those kids are saying these days. Anyways when you put it that way and it is far more understandable that people would relish in the opportunity.
But there's still something about the whole event. Maybe it's the way the smoke permeates throughout the city: a friend new to the city complained that it was just too much being on the streets while the march was taking place. It was such an overwhelming if not acrid wall of smoke, and they're not against marijuana either. They just couldn't take it anymore. They actually turned up a side street to take a detour and get out of there.
Having been to Amsterdam I never found that I was floored walking down the street by a wall of smoke. In fact tourists frequent the renowned coffee house district far more than locals, having spoken to locals from the city about it. But then again they have it readily available, the taboo is still in place for Canada, so the excessive nature once again could be understandable.
But it's still kind of lame, in a way, how we do it. It reminds me of the reaction people in the city had during the recent Vancouver Olympics, in particular after the big gold medal men's hockey win, It's like Torontonians didn't really know how to celebrate properly (will save the commentary on Toronto sports team for another time). After a while of jumping around the Yonge-Dundas intersection, which had been closed down, people kind of went their own way to be replaced by another crowd of bystanders. There was a core of hardcore drunk partygoers, some celebrating the win others the fact they were drunk. But the party was lacking something, there was a great reson to cheer for the country reclaimed worldwide dominance over its national sport and pastime. But it came off kind of lame.
There is a rational discussion worthy to be had about marijuana - not only does it have medicinal properties that can help ease the pain for certain people, but considering some of the legal drugs we put into our bodies already it almost doesn't make sense to leave pot out of the mix. It's not celebrated culturally the way alcohol or tobacco has been over time in western society but beyond that it kind of fills all the requirements of a social substance.
People in Queen's Park today listed stats suggesting 1 in 15 Canadians smoke monthly - not sure the legitimacy of the figures but many studies conducted have revealed that this country is kind towards mary jane. But to fulfill that state of decriminalization, if not full out legalization, Canada has to prove it's ready. Canada has to act like a grown up with weed. If that many people smoke great, let's not make such a ridiculous deal about it when given a platform to promote it.
And young kids stumbling up and down Yonge St, through the Eaton's Centre, and down Queen West doesn't necessarily bode confidence in the Canadian smoker - it just continues to make it look quite ridiculous.
There's validity in suggesting that the lawmakers take into consideration the benefits of marijuana, however whether the Weed March helps it or not is another question. There's a lot of questions politicians will have to answer, from here and abroad (the US is likely watching the situation in Ontario very closely, hoping their war on drugs will not require a heavy upgrade along its northern border as well). The people taking democracy to the streets, making their voices heard in large numbers, has always been a positive way of bringing about change. But doing it intoxicated out of one's mind, well that might blur the message a little.
A common saying that always gets kicked around is for people to dress for the job they want, not the job they have. Present yourself the way you want to be when you finally achieve those goals you are striving for. To really grab the attention of the people in charge, that might require people in Toronto to review the way the Weed March is conducted. They may not want to, and may choose to ignore the advice completely, and that's fine. But for all those campaigning well and bringing up strong points to support the fight there's a number of people just far too intoxicated.
And if that's the only lasting image left in people's minds it is rather unfortunate, because really, that is kind of lame.
