POT FREEDOM FIGHTERS FULLY BAKED

Dude, you forgot to book the square.

Whaaat?

You know, Nathan Phillips Square, for the pot parade on Saturday.

One can only imagine the disjointed conversation that took place when
organizers of Toronto's annual Million Marijuana March realized they had
left it too late to book the space in front of City Hall for their
demonstration.

While on Saturday, in 158 cities around the world millions of marijuana
freedom fighters took to the streets to defend their rights to toke up, in
Toronto 3,000 took to the streets yesterday, a day later.

As the parade time approached, march organizers urged people to get on
their cellphones and remind their friends about the event. By 2 p.m. the
crowd was fried and the brilliant overhead sun had nothing to do with it.

They carried cannabis leaf flags on bamboo sticks and wore T-shirts
emblazoned with, "I am Cannabian." Many wore plastic marijuana leaf leis
around their necks."

There were old stoners with bedraggled beards and red, half-opened eyes.
There were "high" school kids like Larry who goes to Northern Secondary and
Pat who goes to Forest Hill Collegiate Institute, both 16. Wearing
psychedelic shirts and waving a matching poster that read simply "Smoke
Pot," they said their parents are "cool with it."

While last year's parade reportedly attracted 7,000 protesters, there were
hopes this year for 10,000. But that didn't happen. Only 3,000
demonstrators assembled at City Hall to march a circuitous route: Queen W.
to Peter, Peter to Richmond, Richmond to Spadina, Spadina to Queen W.

"I know it's hard to organize yourself while you're baked," the marijuana
party of Canada's Larry Duprey told the crowd before they set out for the
march. "You've got to think about the traffic coming from the other
direction," he urged. "Don't go into that lane of traffic," he repeated.

Police on bikes kept a distance and turned a blind eye as protesters rolled
fatties and toked boldly.

A handful of booths set up in the square purveyed all varieties of
cannabis-related paraphernalia from pipes and rolling boards ($10) to
clothing and even hemp tortilla chips.

Christeen Urquhart, 24, who operates Christeen's Happy Hemp stand at the
new Hazelton Lanes Market, set up a booth at Nathan Phillips Square
yesterday to sell her line of hemp seed oil soaps and body products and
fashion items.

"I worked on a paper while I was studying at McMaster University and I was
so impressed with the versatility of hemp that I started this little
business," she said.

As well, there were protesters such as Neev Tapiero from CALM (Cannabis As
Living Medicine) who continues to lobby for further loosening of the laws
that govern the use and cultivation of pot for medicinal reasons.

There were even a few accidental tourists who unwittingly inhaled the
pungent scent of burning cannabis.

But by the end of the demonstration there was one booth that was really
smokin' -- the pizza stand.