VICTORIA'S TOP TOKER CAN'T JOIN SMOKE-IN

Pot aroma wafts over City Hall in sixth annual joint jubilee

Victoria's best-known pot advocate was one of the few who didn't light up
Thursday afternoon outside City Hall.

It's not that Ted Smith didn't want to join revelers in the annual marijuana
4/20 celebrations -- it's just that a few police officers were keeping an
eye on Centennial Square, and Smith is already facing drug charges.

Still, it didn't stop the former Victoria mayoralty candidate from being on
hand to advocate freedom of cannabis use for recreation or medicinal
purposes and a change in marijuana laws.

Surprisingly, however, Smith said he plans to vote NDP in the May 17
provincial election rather than Green or Marijuana Party. His goal is to
defeat a B.C. Liberal government he sees as unsympathetic to his cause.

Lighters flashed throughout the crowd of a couple of hundred as the clock
struck 4:20 p.m. on the 20th day of the fourth month, a symbolic date in the
pot crowd. Explanations for the date's significance range from speculation
420 was once the code for pot possession in California, to theories 4:20 was
the time university students in Michigan met each day to smoke up.

The event has been held here every April 20 since 1999.

"It's certainly a global event now," Smith said, noting B.C.'s Marijuana
Party unveiled its May 17 election platform during celebrations in Vancouver
on Wednesday.

Wafts of pot lingered in the air as smokers toked on little joints, others
the size of cigars, or personal bongs or pipe-like devices for smoking the
weed.

"I'd like to thank everybody who offered me a toke but I'm still on bail,"
said Smith, who wore a green and white Dr. Seuss-type hat as he addressed
the crowd.

Smith, who has been on bail since 2000 as a variety of drug charges work
their way through the courts, expects his jury trial for possession of THC,
the active ingredient in marijuana, to begin this fall. He was charged after
selling pot cookies to raise money for those who use pot for medicinal
reasons.

Smith is also part of a group that operates the storefront Cannabis Buyers'
Club of Canada, which sells medical marijuana to those who show ID and a
doctor's note.

In January, he was fined $500 for handing out a few joints at a fall 2000
rally at the University of Victoria.

Sgt. Doug Bond, who was among a handful of uniformed Victoria police
officers that mingled with the crowd, said the annual April 20 celebrations
typically generate few problems.

There were no arrests this year, although one young man, either stoned or
drunk or both,was carted away by police to sleep it off.

The rally, which included strumming, drumming, harmonica playing and
hackey-sack kicking, attracted mostly young people, along with some
middle-aged participants.

"It's definitely a lifestyle," said View Royal gas station worker Mike
Liebig, 19, who put down his Maple Leaf-like cannabis flag as joints came at
him from every direction.

"No way I would give it up. I find it easier to function with it."