POT-FREE POT PROMOTION WINS COMMITTEE'S APPROVAL

You can talk about marijuana on city property -- just don't smoke it.

That was the reply Kitchener councillors gave Monday to a local group that
wants to stage a "cannabis carnival" in Victoria Park.

The carnival is intended to promote awareness of marijuana issues, such as
efforts to decriminalize the drug and a campaign to permit its use for
medicinal purposes, said Davin Charney, a spokesman for a group calling
itself the Cannabis Awareness Project.

The event -- proposed for July 25 in the area around the Victoria Park clock
tower -- would involve music and the sale of baked goods and hemp products
to raise money for a local club that provides pot to ill people, Charney said.

He billed the carnival as an expression of freedom of speech.

But members of the community services committee shifted uneasily in their
seats as they listened to Charney's request.

"The question on everyone's mind, and what no one has said yet, is that
cannabis is an illegal product and the concern is that you're promoting an
illegal activity," committee chairman Geoff Lorentz said.

Charney said his group wouldn't tell people to smoke marijuana during the
event, but he said he couldn't promise that people wouldn't light up a joint.

However, he noted that there were no arrests made during the University of
Guelph last spring.

The Guelph carnival featured a "joint-rolling workshop" in which tobacco was
substituted for pot, and cookies that contained sterilized seeds instead of
active cannabis, according to an account of the carnival that appeared in
the record.

Coun. Tom Galloway said that, given the nature of the carnival, it was
likely that people would smoke marijuana.

Therefore, council "would be remiss to sanction such an event," he said.

The committee turned down Charney's request to waive a $290 licence fee
required for fund-raising events on city property.

But councillors voted 4-2 to allow the group to hold the carnival as long as
it provides event "marshals" to ensure that no drugs are smoked.

Councillors Jean Haalboom and Tom Galloway opposed the motion. Lorentz, Jim
Ziegler, John Smola and Karen Taylor-Harrison voted in favor.

It's uncertain whether the carnival will be held.

Charney said in an interview that it would be the "pinnacle of hypocrisy"
for him to tell people at the event not to smoke marijuana.

But he said he will inform his group of the committee's decision and see
what his colleagues want to do.

Council will consider the carnival for final approval at its regular meeting
on Monday.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett