1) Weed is not legal in Canada. It is very, very rare to find someone who is cleared to use it for medical purposes, and at this point there is no supply of smoke-able gov't mj. While medical mj is grown here in Manitoba (in an underground and highly secured compound) they are still in the phase of "how they hell do we grow this stuff?" The first crop was a major failure - most patient complained that the dope was horrible, gave them headaches, made them vomit, and didn't get them high. The second crop which came out recently was also a failure, mostly because it was too weak. I would assume that the gov't is attempting to grow cannabis plants with the minimum amount of THC needed to alleviate patients problems without getting them to a fucked-out-of-your-head state of street pot.
2) That said, pot smoking is often done out in the open here. Especially in Vancouver and Montreal, you can find people casually smoking it in the streets from time to time. Here in Winnipeg, pot is generally only smoked out in the open on April 20th (4:20) and during FolkFest. On 4:20 here, there is a march, everyone converges on the parliament grounds and smokes dope in ront of police and gov't officials, and there is a silent agreement that no one gets arrested as long as you're not being a slap-happy moron. We also have the Hemp Rock Cafe, where you can find creepy old hippies sitting in a circle chatting and smelling of dope. I've only been to the cafe once, and the vibe was not very nice - just a group of men in their 50's lookin' all worn out and sorta' sad. All wearin' tie die and scraggly gray hair tied back with a twist-tye.
3) Pot may never be legalized here, but it may be decriminalized in the (near?) future. Legalization would mean a huge amount of gov't involvement, and probably decades before anything gets sorted out. Decriminalizing pot would mean you could grow and enjoy a small personal supply, to own, sell, or use a proposed maximum of 10 grams, but would keep it illegal to be a dealer, to ship large amounts of pot around the country or out to the US. The Liberals have been in power for around a decade and just got voted in again. They have over the past 4 years or so stated a strong desire to decriminalize mj. Because of the fact they legalized gay marriages, I really hope the gov't acts on this as well. It would mean a lot of court time saved on imprisoning small-time dealers and users. It would mean police could concentrate on more important things.
There is huge pressure from the US gov't that pot not be legalized in Canada, and recently George W has made some angry threats about both this issue and the fact we've legalized gay marriages. W's pretty mad that we didn't support his daddy's oil war. Being the neighbor of the US is like sleeping with an elephant, and we're all holding our breath, waiting to get rolled over. I'm happy that the Canadian gov't has been defiant in bowing to this pressure in regard to legalizing gay marriages, and hope they'll do the same for pot. The major threat to decriminalization is pressure from US govt, but I would be so totally into starting up a pot-tourism type business. Or maybe a gay-marriage and pot depot of some sort, with like a sani-taco booth. Yeah. Cool.
I must stop all this ranting. Stupid passion for a cause.
As for moving to Vancouver, the average apartment rent starts at around $800 for an oh-so-shitty super-small one bedroom, and the cost of living in general is crazy insane! My SO and I both consider Vancouver to be our favorite city, but at this point in our lives we can't even consider living there. Although we're only in our 20's we can only dream about Vancouver as a place to retire. I know a director for the Vancouver Opera, and even she lives here in Winnipeg and get's billets with other artists while working.
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Topic: Vancouver, BC (Read 5392 times)