Toronto's WEED MARCH In Queens Park May 7/ 2011
Yesterday, May 7 2011, Toronto hosted some sort of Freedom or Weed march in our lovely little Queen's Park. I’d no real intention of investigating the situation but happened upon it on my way home from the TCAF ( Toronto Comic Arts Festival ) so I thought I might as well walk through to see what these political revolutionaries were up too. Unfortunately the smell, incredibly akin to an unkempt public washroom, prevented me from investigating the scene too closely.
I walked around the edge of the park listening to the bronchial chorus of coughing while dodging a few errand Frisbees. Although I understand that there are many benefit’s to the use of hemp and medicinal marijuana, and fully support the freedom of choice as to what people do with their own bodies, i.e. weed should be legal and regulated like alcohol (a narcotic reasonable folk have agreed is not be used in public parks nor do we parade around the city under the influence) however I didn’t really receive any of those messages from this peaceful group gathering .
Nope I just saw a lot of under age suburbanites getting looped off their rockers (put in a more hip term here if you know one I don’t really care), eating corporate pizza and “picking up” (in this instance “picking up” refers to romance as well as to drugs). In one instance I saw two young girls sprawled out on a blanket looking fairly magazine-like but they were so stoned they didn’t realize they had sat behind the portable toilets and beside the sewage pumping truck. It was kind of sad.
It was also very strange and certainly noteworthy that as I left the gathering and continued walking the city it was easy to spot anyone on their way to the “march” (here “march” refers to a bunch of people sitting around stoned in a park, I believe there was a parade but I didn't see it). Although fashion was one indicator there seemed to be a rather diverse grouping culturally and the real signifiers had nothing to do with decoration. The truth is these people were marked by an unusual slouch, unnatural flesh tones, squinting eyes, and a POWERFUL STENCH. It’s almost like Big Brother coated them with a smell designed to slow them down. I saw group of kids riding their bikes no handed, dangling their arms all free-like wearing dark sunglasses and staring up at the sky. They were all chilling and smiling like children on a trail. Only it wasn’t a trail, it was the middle of University Avenue on a very, very busy Saturday afternoon. Sure the third eye might have been opened but how are they going to see anything all squinty with smoke in the way?
William Burroughs’s put it quite elegantly when he spoke of cannabis as a mind altering hallucinogens. He said that after you use such a drug you can learn from it, access that state of mind again, without actually having to succumb to repeated use (kind of hypocritical for a junkie but wise nonetheless). In my opinion these protestors must take to this advice. If these people really want “FREEDOM” and the right to smoke weed, next year they should have a SOBER march. It would show the world that they are respectable, intelligent and reasonable people, and not merely addicts or disgruntled party-kids. I mean imagine if anti-prohibition co-coordinators got drunk before going to court? Show everyone you know how to think and communicate and use the drug responsibly. This will be far more likely to impress a critical public consensus and all of the business people who make our laws as well.
Wow man ,my camera got stoned man, man thas cool
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