POT TV – LIVE Coverage of the 29th annual 4/20 protest from Vancouver, BC.
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Vancouver’s 29th annual pot protest continued in 2023 from Thornton Park.
One of numerous events planned in Vancouver on the day, “United In The Park” is, first and foremost, a protest against corrupt drug laws, with everyone from the cannabis community, and public, invited to rally in support of fair, low-barrier access to marijuana.
The event has scheduled speakers, musical acts, a demonstration farmer’s market, a giant joint, and more.
Organizers are demonstrating low-barrier access. Protest co-organizer and speaker, Neil Magnuson, told POT TV. “A farmer’s market is ideal. It’s a farmer’s produce. It’s safer than anything you’d find at any other farmer’s market. Why can’t anyone, including the sick, poor, or addicted, find relief in a park with music and friends in the community? We’re demonstrating what reasonable access looks like.”
Despite much fanfare over the Canadian government’s legal recreational sales framework in 2018, seemingly aimed at boosting interest in financial investment, the Cannabis Act was sharply criticized by experts, and has not fulfilled the full promise of an end to prohibition.
Activists have supported the large decrease in simple possession arrests in Canada since recreational legalization, but continue to demand changes to legislation to include support for medical patients and civil liberties.
Some areas of concern speakers will discuss are:
Continued raids, arrests, fines and harassment of peaceful plant culture.
The limits on purchasing, restricted to 30grams of bud flower or equivalent. The complete restriction on high-dose edibles.
Onerous licensing, which make commercial and home production needlessly complicated and expensive and restricted.
Retail sales restrictions which inflate prices and lower the quality of retail cannabis. Retail restrictions that prevent low-barrier access.
The restrictions on home growing. Some provinces have restricted home growing entirely. Other provinces restrict access.
The lack of adequate legal consumption sites.
The lack of low-barrier medical access. Many products and forms of cannabis needed by patients are not available on the legal market. Medical patients are overcharged and taxed on medicine.
Cannabis criminal records have still not been expunged. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are still punished daily by the mark of a criminal record despite the substance now being legal.
Current roadside THC testing is not an accurate sign of impairment and has resulted in harassment of medical and recreational users.
Continued restrictions on hemp.
