SPIRITS HIGH AT WIND-BLOWN POT MARCH

Local Marijuana Smokers Call for Legalization

The weather was a bummer for the pot smokers who marched down Clifton
Hill Wednesday.

"You can't even roll the weed because it's blowing away," said Pavel
Braun, 21, who was one of about 75 smokers and advocates who turned
up to the 8th annual Niagara Falls 420 rally Wednesday.

"It's being difficult," Braun said as he and some friends tried
unsuccessfully to light up a joint as the wind whipped around them.
"I've had a hard time the whole day."

For years marijuana users like the tokers who gathered in the Falls
Wednesday have marked April 20 as the day to celebrate cannabis
culture. That's because of the slang term 420, which over the years
has come to signify all things pot.

The Niagara Falls 420 protest takes on a geographical significance --
to the participants -- because of Hwy. 420. Every year, local grass
enthusiasts use the highway's intersection with Victoria Ave. as
their 420 meeting point.

On Wednesday, the protesters lit up joints and pipes and shouted
"Free the weed!" as they gathered and then marched down to Queen Victoria Park.

Organizer Reg Labbe, 23, who spends about $300 on weed a month to
alleviate injury-related pain, said the attendance wasn't as great as
expected because of the windy and unseasonably cold temperatures, but
that spirits were certainly high.

"Unfortunately the turnout's a little small because of the weather,"
Labbe said. "It's not the best out today."

Labbe wants to see marijuana decriminalized so that medicinal users
can have an alternative to pharmaceutical medications.

"This stuff can help boost our economy," Labbe said. "It's
unconstitutional for us to be criminalized because we medicate."

Labbe was referring to the decision earlier this month by a Superior
Court judge that declared part of the federal government's medicinal
marijuana program unconstitutional.

James Noel, 58, who uses a wheelchair to get around because of
injuries suffered when he was 25 in a car accident, said he smokes
weed for medicinal purposes but also to just feel better.

"It makes me happy when I'm down and depressed," Noel said.
"Marijuana makes people happy. Booze kills their livers and their kidneys."

Niagara Regional Police Staff Sgt. Patrick McCauley said there were
no arrests or incidences from the rally.