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Monday 10 December 2012

Toronto city council VS Vapor lounges Update



TORONTO CITY COUNCIL VS VAPOR LOUNGES

BY: Matt Mernagh

Toronto city hall is attempting to vaporize stoners with a future bylaw that could make enjoying vapor lounges a serious challenge. While Colorado and Washington have made marijuana legal, Toronto councilors are moving us back into the stone age with their proposed anti-bud bylaw. A bylaw that could effectively shutdown stoner hang outs like Hot Box.

Like all pot prohibition the pace at which this is moving through city council is incredible. If only other ‘city problems’ were treated in the same quick fashion. The most recent phase, a report on Businesses Operating as Marihuana Vapour Lounges submitted by staff to city council, wasn’t debated and passed with no dissenting votes. It was just like watching pot prohibition happen all over again!

Our side has had little opportunity to mount an offensive because the bylaw is intentionally not getting scrutinized. The first step you can take is contact your two city councilors and tell them you heart vapour lounges. A simple email message with your address works. Expect a phone call or message back from them because at the lowest level of politics, politicians are very hungry for votes. Do not be rude.

I would like to invite you to join a group of us who have even bigger plans to stop the bylaw - a public filibuster. We want to fill any public meeting on the proposed bylaw with pro marijuana speakers. One after the other, people would speak about how they heart lounges. Our goal is to slow down the pace and ultimately curtail any action by jamming the public meetings with our kind of speakers. Potentially forcing city council to go into the wee hours of the night. Public filibusters have been happening on public meetings for casinos and city budgets, so this tactic isn't too out there.

Between Hotbox and Vapor Central there’s enough regular clients to easily have between 40 - 100 speakers. At five minutes per speaker, we can hold city council up for 500 minutes or close to 10 hours. Best, both lounges are going to help you become a speaker at a public meeting. No experience is required and you are probably even going to enjoy engaging in civic politics. A public filibuster will get media and the public’s attention on a problem that simply doesn't exist. Amsterdam this year beat back the tourist killing weed pass - now it’s our time to do the same.

SAY CANNABIS… Toronto's canna campaign

 

SAYCANNABIS is a Cannabis-Friendly and Positive Campaign designed to inform our City Council of OUR (as Cannabis Consumers and Friendly Persons) UNITED opinion that Toronto’s Vapor Lounges, Cannabis-Friendly Businesses and Institutions are an important thread to the fabric of our Toronto landscape. These institutions provide a safe space for medicinal patients to medicate and for Cannabis Consumers of 18 and older to relax peacefully.

Cannabis-Friendly Businesses bring tourism to our city, lower our crime rates by keeping Cannabis Consumers out of city parks and streets, and create a unique and positive atmosphere for our citizenry free from the crime and violence caused by alcohol. They are smoke-free spaces, which comply with all city by-laws and regulations.

Toronto City Councilors need to know that Vapor Lounges and Cannabis-Friendly Businesses are an essential part to our city landscape… and right now, they don’t. In Late November, 2011, a motion was passed in City Council to investigate the nature of Vapor Lounges (which are, in fact, a wide array of Cannabis-Friendly Businesses and Institutions as diverse and colourful as Our Great City of Toronto) and the impact that they have on their communities:

Summary of Motion Passed in City Council

Currently across the City of Toronto, Ontario and Canada a number of businesses are being licensed as cafes or similar business but are advertising themselves as Vapour Lounges. These lounges are permitting clientele to use, water pipes, vapourizers and vapourizing accessories to smoke and inhale substances such as marijuana and herbal mixtures.

Residents in local communities are concerned regarding the establishment and licensing of these sites, which are rapidly increasing in number across the City, and are not deemed conducive by many as family friendly, beneficial to the neighbourhood or in keeping with the intent of anti-smoking legislation. Residents in the immediate vicinity of these businesses are concerned that there is increased illegal drug trade, prostitution and other illegal activities in neighbourhoods were these businesses are arising.

(Submitted to City Council on November 29 and 30, 2011 as MM 14.26)

YOU are the Community. And it is only for YOU, that Cannabis-Friendly Businesses and Institutions continue to beautify and enrich life for the citizens of Toronto. If you are a Cannabis Consumer or Friendly-Person in the City of Toronto, your community needs your help TODAY.

Follow the 3 easy steps in www.saycannabis.info & GET INVOLVED!
Our vapor lounges are a key and vibrant part of Toronto, let city council know.