[420 Girl]

If you closed your eyes on the grounds of the Legislature Building this afternoon, you’d have thought you were at the Reggae Sunsplash music festival in Jamaica.

The unmistakable smell of marijuana filled the spring air as several thousand people convened on Broadway to mark 4/20 — a worldwide celebration of pot and a protest against anti-marijuana laws.

Nathan Zahn, a local events promoter who was passing out flyers opposed to Bill C-15 — a proposed law that would increase minimum jail sentences for marijuana offenders — admitted that as an activist, he was in a definite minority. He said the federal Tories were taking a much less enlightened view of pot than the Liberals had under Jean Chretien, who had openly mused about decriminalizing the popular recreation drug.

"I’m hopeful things will change but I’m not optimistic anything will happen soon. I don’t see things changing," he said.

Kim Hall was arguably the most visible participant in Monday’s proceedings. Standing on a large flower pot on the steps leading up to the legislature, the 18-year-old waved a large black flag featuring green marijuana leaves.

"They should be legalizing marijuana because it’s not that bad. There are a lot of people who do it. It’s not as bad as other drugs," she said.

A daily smoker, Hall said marijuana makes her feel good.

"It makes everything funny," she said. "Hey man, you got any chips?"

Matt Kozak, 20, said he’d like to see marijuana available at the retail level.

"I don’t know why liquor is legal and weed isn’t," he said, lighting a joint.

On Broadway, ice cream and hot dog vendors reported business was brisk on their first official day on the streets. Dion Hendrickson said virtually all of his ice cream treats were sold out.

"It’s a good event and people here want to eat ice cream," he said.

Darren, a hotdog vendor manning a Smoke’n Bob’s Hot Dogs cart who didn’t want his last name used, concurred.

"It was real steady all day but we had a blitz at the end. The last hour was busy, for sure," he said.

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