GOING TO POT?

Is Halifax Eastern Canada's most marijuana-friendly city?

Considering how often the sweet smell of ganja wafts down Spring Garden
Road and Robie Street, tourists might be forgiven for thinking that dope
is legal here. Don't be mistaken, marijuana is definitely still illegal
but Halifax has evolved a reputation as a dope-friendly city.

Scott Doucette owns Mary Jane's Smoke Shop on Grafton Street, selling
"novelty items" and pot paraphernalia. His customers include doctors,
lawyers and visiting celebrities. "Everybody smokes," he says. "I think
there have always been smokers in the city. Being East Coast, it's more
laid back here than other parts of Canada." You can't buy pot at Mary
Jane's, although people come through the doors asking for it almost every
day.

Staying on the sunny side of the drug laws has been key to the store's
longevity. Other smoke shops have come and gone, while Mary Jane's has
become an institution and been featured in magazines across the world.

Doucette opened Mary Jane's in 1994, when he was 21. He financed the
enterprise by throwing "Tupperware style" parties selling bongs, pipes and
other smoking accoutrements. A savvy businessman, Doucette expanded his
concept into two more Mary Jane's stores (in Sydney and Lower Sackville).

"The police have always been good with us and I've even had a few
policemen come and ask me for advice on starting a business," says
Doucette. "Though not to open smoke shops," he adds hastily.

He's never had a problem smoking pot openly in Halifax and says that most
times if the police see someone toking they'll just ask them to put it out
or confiscate their stash. That's also been the experience of Bob, a
20-something who regularly smokes in broad daylight (but didn't want to
give his last name). "Cops have seen me smoking, sniffed the air
theatrically as I passed and smiled but never said anything," he says. "I
can walk down the road smoking with confidence that I won't get busted but
that doesn't mean I'm going to blow smoke in a cop's face or anything."

Many websites extol the pot-positive virtues of Halifax. www.WeBeHigh.com
(a travellers' guide to the best cities to score marijuana) gives Halifax
the highest rating for tolerance to smoking: a five, which indicates that
it's "virtually legal" here. "It is absolutely nuts how quick it is to
find weed [in Halifax]," writes one contributor. "Everyone tokes and is
willing to hook you up with someone they know. Blaze up and hit the town.
Lobsters, donairs and the highest ratio of bars and coffee shops to people
in Canada. Welcome to heaven!"

Enforcement

Beyond the recreational tokers, there are some 2,300 government registered
medical marijuana users in the city. Another reason Halifax could be seen
as a bit of a toker's paradise is the events that thrive here. This year,
Halifax hosted two well attended celebrations: the Million Marijuana March
(featuring no marching-just sitting on the grass listening to music) in
May and a Cannabis Day celebration and protest against marijuana
prohibition in July, organized by Maritimers United for Medical Marijuana.

"The Cannabis Day event wasn't quite as political as I'd hoped," says Bob.

"Really it was just an excuse for a bunch of kids to sit on the grass and
get stoned. There must have been 200 people there, most under the age of
25.

Police cars circled the Commons but no cops came in to the event."

According to Constable Jeff Carr, Halifax Regional Police's public
information officer, cops aren't blind to the situation-far from it.

"Charges for possession were up 40 per cent from 2006 to 2007," he says,
"If you are smoking pot at anytime, anywhere, you are taking your chances
of being arrested for it. It's still against the law to possess and
traffic marijuana. The laws haven't changed and we do charge people."

Eric McLeod, the Halifax candidate for the Marijuana Party, feels that the
situation also varies around Nova Scotia. "The Maritimes does have a
laid-back attitude, which may lead to more tolerance of pot smokers here,
but the tolerance of police in Metro Halifax is very different to those in
rural Nova Scotia," he says. "there's a lot of harassment of teen pot
smokers going in rural Nova Scotia."

He cites an incident from February 2006 as an example of how differently
things are handled outside of the city. Police weren't too tolerant of
Pictou County high-school students smoking up in public.

A team of 10 RCMP officers, a helicopter, eight police cars and a dog
swooped in to arrest 13 teens in a convenience store parking lot in Alma.
Corporal Al Affleck oversaw the operation from the helicopter. "They were
doing it any place that they felt comfortable and that was the problem,"
he said in a CTV news story at the time. "They felt comfortable doing it
in a public area." That comment seems to suggest that police know people
will toke, they just want them to be discreet about it.

Getting Political

The decision to become a pot politician came when McLeod, who is a
recreational toker and studied political science and history at Saint
Mary's University, responded to a need within the Halifax Marijuana Party.
His foray into politics has been interesting. "All types of people come
out of the woodwork-the Marijuana Party is not a party like other
parties," he laughs, "We have a lot more eclectic personalities, and
conspiracy theorists galore." McLeod feels that legalization is an
important issue and one that he is willing to stand up for. He doesn't
think he'll win a seat but expects to get two per cent of the vote. He
describes his party as a glorified lobby group for the legalization of
marijuana.

"Running for office is a great way to get publicity and get our message
out," he says. "[If ] more people vote for the Marijuana Party, it only
encourages other parties to pick up on it and adopt cannabis legalization
as one of their platforms."

As leader of the party, McLeod receives calls from those who have been
arrested on charges associated with marijuana and points them in the right
direction for advice. He says that the majority of those who get in
trouble with the law do so because they resist arrest or assault officers.
"In my experience, if police see someone smoking pot they will confiscate
the drugs and let the smoker off with a warning, as long as you are
compliant," he says.

As illegal as pot smoking, possession and distribution is, there is no
denying that smoking spliff is hardly taboo or even particularly risque
these days. But Carr reminds users that it's still illegal.

"The bottom line is that it is against the law," he says. "You can be
charged for possession of just one joint.".