PURRING AT PUFF PARTY

Toke-In Has More Takers Than Earth Day Rally

Amazing pot smog hangs hazily in the sunny afternoon during Toronto
Hash Mob's second successful smoke-out on Sunday, April 20, better
known as 4/20.

By 4:20 pm, almost 2,000 stoners fill our makeshift auditorium behind
College Park at 420 Yonge.

They come to blaze. Standing three deep on steps leading onto a dry
outdoor skating rink, enthusiasts wave their weed.

Our message to Stephen Harper, "We Got High! We Got High! We Got
High!" Here we are a block away from police headquarters, and no one
is arrested. Uniformed Toronto police officers just pretend our
peaceful act of civil disobedience isn't happening.

If the city would only grant our request for regulation and local
taxation of marijuana sales, we could stop these awkward moments for them.

Soon, I take the makeshift podium and lay out the smoke-out ground
rules. There shall be plentiful peaceful public puffing. Most
importantly, no violence.

"If you are here to hurt anyone, break property or embarrass
organizers in front of the media, you are a narc pig bastard," I say.
Attendees howl understandingly. Moments later, a stoner in a
superhero-size bong costume arrives. The growing gathering erupts in
approval. He poses. Flexes muscles. Then a puff of smoke goes out his
top. More roaring.

The socializing is extensive, but it comes with prohibition
precautions. So many beautiful bud babes, but one or two of them,
sadly, will be narcs.

Experience teaches me a few undercovers are posing as potheads. They
are probably angling to cop any amount of cannabis - shared or sold
doesn't matter. For anyone offering some, that's a trafficking charge.

But this requires collection of evidence (i.e., giving a guy or gal
ganja), not footage of stoners publicly puffing. Two try to fish us.
One's polite and friendly, but then a downright annoying fellow keeps
pestering.

"Dude, you just asked the organizers for weed. That's not cool," an
activist who calls himself Goodster reprimands him between puffs.

It's easy to dismiss the strategic value of this bong-fest. But,
really, the apolitical are politicized here. They're not going to
attend boring city council debates, pro-pot forums or put their names
on a petition.

It's not weed making them lazy. The politicos have trouble mustering
their own tuned-in troops today. That's what I conclude when I visit
the 300-strong noon-hour Yonge-Dundas Square Earth Day rally. Guess
Jack Layton isn't much of a draw compared to doobies in a park.

The tuned-in have to start accepting the horde of turned-on, or we're
all going to drop out. With Tories taking on tokers, Toronto Hash Mob
will take on the Tories by toking more publicly than ever. Just smell for us.