The Toronto police department is fed up with getting calls from the prudish neighbors about pot smokers. With cannabis legalization in full force now, they’ve actually developed a public service campaign to alert nosy neighbors that now is finally the time to stop snitching. From the sound of it, the unneighborly complaints would probably fall on deaf ears anyway.
Some of the PSAs came in the form of tongue-in-cheek tweets, which, unfortunately prompted a slew of false emergency calls that could only be called pranks. In response, the Toronto police tweeted this along with their other cautionary tweets:
Asking for directions because you’re lost is not a 911 call. Reporting an adult smoking a joint isn’t either. Cannabis is no longer illegal on October 17, 2018. Consumption is allowed anywhere cigarette smoking is allowed except in a motor vehicle. Do not call police for this.
The prank calls and response tweets may be humorous, at least a little bit and especially with a joint in hand, but they also speak volumes to the bigger picture. Advocates may have been waiting for this day for a long, long time, but those who bought into the reefer madness that born the stigma still carried, this is a nightmare. It will definitely take some getting used to, especially for non-imbibers.
Stigma has followed cannabis around for much of its life as a carefully cultivated plant of the 20th century. Because of decades of Drug War propaganda, stigma clings to people’s emotions like they just walked through a spider web. Luckily, webs wash off and the stigma can be scrubbed clean too, with time showing that the sky truly isn’t going to fall and that the benefits highly outweigh any risks.
In Toronto, another smell may cause the squares next door to go up in arms (for naught, but still…). Because the conservative government of Ontario, where Toronto is located, needed more time to establish store fronts, residents have the options of ordering bud through the mail via internet, growing their own or a combination of both. When it’s both, the earthy, green penetrating smell of a Skunk #2 plant and its freshly formed buds may go through walls and vents, thus creating a new bouquet.
No matter, the police aren’t picking up for grow room calls, smoke sesh calls, “Are you kidding me, it smells like a skunk sprayed in here!” calls or any of the such. The police are here to protect the people and the law, and the law now states, clearly and unabashedly, that any adult can smoke anywhere cigarettes or tobacco products are also allowed and that, depending on the territory rules, they can grow their own, too. Snitchers be warned.
