Frustration brews over double standard for Vancouver 4/20 pot festival

Beer is legal to drink just like weed is legal to smoke. But you can’t drink beer in public without being at a sanctioned festival or at a licensed establishment, so should breweries get together and stage a beer protest?

That’s the tongue-in-cheek suggestion from Ben Coli, owner of Dageraad Brewing, who posted a humorous tweet Wednesday about forming a craft-beer demonstration to protest no drinking in public as a response to the 4/20 event going ahead this year at Vancouver’s Sunset Beach without a city permit.

Coli said of course his tweet was satirical, because if he ever held such a protest, “I’d have my manufacturer’s licence yanked so fast.” Yet he questions why there are no repercussions for the 4/20 organizers holding a pot protest, now that recreational cannabis use is legal in Canada.

“Pot is legal now, as it should be, but now that it’s legal the 4/20 event needs to be treated like any other festival,” said Coli, adding that it’s frustrating that the organizers still won’t pay for a licence and policing costs.

Policing the 4/20 event last year cost Vancouver around $300,000, while the event organizers contributed about $63,000.

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“It’s unbelievable that this is tolerated. I guess this is a transition period, but it is ridiculous that’s it’s called a protest. It’s way more than that.”

The Vancouver park board has asked organizers of 4/20 to cancel headliner act Cypress Hill over fears it will intensify crowds at Sunset Beach on Saturday.

However, organizer Dana Larsen told Postmedia News that the performance wouldn’t be cancelled, and Jodie Emery told The National Post that “the show must go on and so will the smoke.”

Park board commissioner Tricia Barker, who in February put forward a motion asking staff to find ways to keep the marijuana event out of city parks, called the latest act by the 4/20 organizers bullying.

The City of Vancouver on Tuesday sent a letter to organizers Larsen and Jeremiah Vandermeer saying that the unsanctioned event creates a strain on park board and city resources. In the letter, city general manager Malcolm Bromley asked them to seriously consider the park board’s request and cancel the Cypress Hill performance.

A city spokesperson told The Post that it has significant concerns about the commercial nature of the event and associated costs.

Emery said, however, that the 4/20 event is run by volunteers, and they work with the city, park board and police. Sponsors pay for event costs, first aid, security, toilets, and cleanup, and the event receives no taxpayer subsidies like other city festivals, she added, in an email.

Several other festivals, including the Vancouver Pride Society, which holds the annual Pride Parade, have spoken out about how unfair it is that 4/20 organizers don’t abide by the rules.

Coli agreed: “Come on, let’s act like adults and get permits like everyone else.”

Coli’s tweet quickly saw a lot of support, including the marketing director at Vancouver Island Brewing, who noted how costly it is for craft-beer festivals.

https://twitter.com/cbjerrisgaard/status/1118548423219630081

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— With files from Postmedia News

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