For most of its 25-year history, 4/20 was held downtown at the 麻豆传媒映画Art Gallery. With crowds increasing every year, it moved to Sunset Beach in 2016. Photo Dan Toulgoet
It鈥檚 been 25 years since Vancouver鈥檚 first 4/20 pot protest and, as the controversy surrounding the event continues to grow, organizers think this year鈥檚 event will be the biggest one yet.
This year, April 20 happens to fall on a Saturday, 2019 marks the 25th聽anniversary of the protest/festival, it鈥檚 the first 4/20 since the legalization of recreational cannabis in Canada and last week organizers announced music headliner Cypress Hill.
O鈥橠onnell is originally from Ontario and moved to 麻豆传媒映画in early 1994, lured by the city鈥檚 cannabis culture. She and Lassu were working at the Hemp BC store, which sold cannabis-related paraphernalia, when the idea for a pot protest was hatched.
鈥淚 was pretty young at the time and I wanted to get together with like-minded people to do some activism,鈥� said. 鈥淚 thought we could come up with some kind of group鈥� so I kind of organized a meeting night inviting people to come over and see what we could come up with and we decided to form a group. We came up with the name Hempology 101 and our motto was going to be 鈥楲egalization through education.鈥欌��
O鈥橠onnell said the group planned to host events, hand out pamphlets and organize marches advocating for the legalization of marijuana, and came up with the idea to hold an event on April 20 (4/20).
The number 420 became synonymous with cannabis in the 1970s. As the story goes, a group of high school students in California, who called themselves the Waldos, met every day after school at 4:20 to smoke pot. The term became popular among fans of the Grateful Dead and then was picked up by High Times magazine.
Vancouver鈥檚 first 4/20 was small. O鈥橠onnell said there was about 100 people, some speeches, and, at 4:20, everyone lit up. The entire event lasted no more than a couple hours, O鈥橠onnell said.
Larsen was there.
鈥淚 am the only person who鈥檚 been to every single one, all 25. I wasn鈥檛 an organizer for the first several years, but I was at the very first one,鈥� he said, adding he remembers people were nervous about openly smoking cannabis as a group in the park.
鈥淭here were no vendors,鈥� O鈥橠onnell said with a chuckle. 鈥淚t was just, like, an information table with pamphlets.鈥�
Larsen said that first event 鈥減lanted a seed that has really grown into something that is really quite amazing.鈥�
O鈥橠onnell left 麻豆传媒映画for the Kootenays later in 1995, but 4/20 was here to stay.
It was held at Victory Square again in 1996 before moving to 麻豆传媒映画Art Gallery in 鈥�97.
鈥淚t really grew at the art gallery and became a real staple of the 麻豆传媒映画cannabis scene,鈥� Larsen said. 鈥淲e sort of evolved from smoking cannabis to giving cannabis away at 4:20, [which] became a big tradition at the event, giving out joints at 4:20 and we started raffling off cannabis and making it available that way.鈥�
For most of its 25-year history, 4/20 was held downtown at the 麻豆传媒映画Art Gallery. With crowds increasing every year, it moved to Sunset Beach in 2016. Photo Dan Toulgoet
Toking care of business
Longtime marijuana activist David Malmo-Levine was one of the main organizers for many years and, Larsen said, was the one who started organizing the selling of cannabis at the event.
鈥淗e would encourage all the dealers and purchasers to come to the middle of the circle and kind of create a safe space where you could buy and sell cannabis,鈥� Larsen said.
The event grew more popular, attracting bigger and bigger crowds every year. By 2007, more than 7,000 people were attending annually and the event started to evolve. Larsen said it was around that time that someone first set up a table to sell cannabis during the festivities.
鈥淭he next year there were five tables and then there was 20 tables and then we started getting so many tables that we needed to create some order, so we started reserving booth spots at the art gallery and we used the money from that, which was a lot lower than it is now because the money鈥檚 gone up, to cover things like staging and security and printing fliers and the costs to go along with having an event,鈥� he said.
By 2014, crowds were surpassing 30,000, spilling out from the art gallery and forcing the shutdown of Hornby, Howe, Robson and Georgia streets.
鈥淏y 2015, which was our last year at the art gallery, the event was so huge,鈥� Larsen said. 鈥淲e had multiple first aid stations, we had two stages, [there was] a lot of effort to control and cover all the costs involved.
鈥淭he selling of booths has always been to raise the money to pay for the event itself,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ince moving to Sunset Beach, we鈥檝e charged more for booths every year, including substantially more for some of them this year than last year, in an effort to raise money to cover the significant costs involved in this event.鈥�
This year, booth spaces range in cost from $550 to $1,000. As well, there are a limited number of free spaces available on a first-come, first-served basis. Larsen said these days it can cost upwards of $100,000 to put on the event, in addition to money paid to the city and park board.
鈥淲e provide several first aid stations, we have private security, we have fencing and staging鈥� it鈥檚 a substantial list of costs,鈥� he said.
According to a July 2018 memo from park board general manager Malcolm Bromley and city manager Sadhu Johnston, last year鈥檚 4/20 cost the city and park board more than $300,000, and the park board sent organizers an invoice for $64,870 to cover event-related costs including staffing expenses, sanitation costs, parking and restoring grass areas at Sunset Beach.
The city also sent an invoice for $170,796 for additional costs including police and fire services, and emergency management. Larsen said organizers paid the park board invoice, spent $30,000 on a turf protector in an attempt to mitigate damage to the grass at Sunset Beach and donated $8,000 to local charities.
For most of its 25-year history, 4/20 was held downtown at the 麻豆传媒映画Art Gallery. With crowds increasing every year, it moved to Sunset Beach in 2016. Photo Dan Toulgoet
鈥淲e鈥檙e actually the only unlicensed protest in the city that covers any of these costs and the only bill we don鈥檛 pay is the policing bill, which maybe we could if we could raise a lot more money but that requires even more booths and more sales,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o I find that we鈥檙e caught in this bind because the same people who say, 鈥楾hey should pay every penny of their costs,鈥� are the exact same people who are saying, 鈥楾hey shouldn鈥檛 have booths and raise money, it鈥檚 just a trade show.鈥� And so what do they want from us? Do they want us to raise money and pay for the costs of our event? Or do they want us to stop doing that and to not cover anything and to put even more costs on the taxpayer?鈥�
Smoke on the water
While the size of the event has grown over the years, so, too, has the controversy that surrounds it.
Since 4/20 moved to Sunset Beach in 2016, 麻豆传媒映画Park Board commissioners have been vocal in their opposition. At the time, the board sent a letter to then mayor Gregor Robertson expressing 鈥済rave concerns.鈥�
It鈥檚 gone ahead year after year without a permit. In 2017, organizers applied for a permit and park board commissioners responded by adopting a resolution to not approve or permit any future 4/20 and/or cannabis events on any park board property, despite staff recommending that commissioners issue a permit for the annual event.
https://www.facebook.com/VancouverCourierNews/videos/10157349822478452/
Earlier this year, the park board聽聽to ask organizers and city council to find a new location. Additionally, the PNE board has said the event is聽听迟丑别谤别.
And, earlier this week, commissioners voted in favour of an聽, introduced by NPA commissioner John Coupar, directing staff to immediately contact 4/20 organizers to ask them to cancel Cypress Hill鈥檚 performance 鈥渋n an effort to control crowd size and possible damage to Sunset Beach Park.鈥�
Larsen said organizers have no intention of cancelling Cypress Hill鈥檚 appearance, calling the motion a 鈥渟illy suggestion.鈥�
Critics say that 4/20 flouts the park board鈥檚 bylaws prohibiting smoking in parks and beaches, disrupts the West End neighbourhood, costs the city and park board too much money and, with recreational cannabis now legal in Canada, many say there is no longer a need for a protest and the event has become more of a commercial venture.
Larsen and O鈥橠onnell disagree.
鈥淚t is needed because the laws aren鈥檛 very good yet, they鈥檙e not where they need to be. They should be allowing small farmers easier access to be able to produce,鈥� O鈥橠onnell said. 鈥淭he cannabis industry should be looking at the wine industry and having farm gate sales and tastings and whatnot on farms. And it鈥檚 not like that right now. Things still need to progress.
鈥淭he laws are too tight right now.鈥�
鈥淭he reality is, for us, the event is a protest of unreasonable cannabis laws,鈥� Larsen said. 鈥淭he way we protest is to give away cannabis, is to share cannabis, is to sell cannabis and to use cannabis in a stigma-free, open and free environment the way we believe that legalization should look like largely, and so it鈥檚 intrinsic to the event.鈥�
Larsen also thinks 4/20 deserves a little recognition.
鈥淚 think 麻豆传媒映画should be proud of 4/20,鈥� Larsen said. 鈥淚 think that we should be proud of our cannabis community and the wonderful influence they鈥檝e had on the rest of Canada and on legalization in general.鈥�
