'I TOKE AND I VOTE,' RALLY TOLD, AS POT USERS AIM TO MOTIVATE

The Toronto Hash Mob held a demonstration in Dundas Square Wednesday
afternoon as part of the annual 420 Smoke Out. Organizers demanded
marijuana be legalized, medical professionals receive better training
in the benefits of marijuana and the freeing of Marc Emery. Emery is
serving five years in a U.S. federal penitentiary for selling cannabis
seeds. The Post's Ezra Black went to the protest to inhale the atmosphere:

1: 15 I arrive at Dundas Square. Rain. Only a small group of people
have arrived. Are these fair-weather activists?

1: 16 Devin, a young man with bloodshot eyes and greasy hair, informs
me the demon-stration is not scheduled to begin until 2 p.m.

1: 17 I look for a sandwich.

2: 00 Back at Dundas Square, and the demonstration is
underway.

2: 01 Devin unfurls a placard, "I Toke and I Vote," it says. Given the
choice of candidates in the upcoming election, this doesn't sound like
a bad idea.

2: 10 This must be the laziest protest since Yoko and John's Bed-In
for Peace of 1969. The crowd numbers close to 3,000, three-quarters of
whom are sitting down. In an effort to rouse them, Davin Christensen,
founder of the Toronto Hash Mob, yells into his bullhorn, "I'm seeing
a lot of smoking out there, but not enough chanting."

2: 13 A young man sitting next to me aggressively inhales smoke out of
what looks like a homemade apparatus.

2: 15 The same young man aggressively inhales a hot dog, garnished
with what appears to be mustard and sauerkraut.

2: 17 A man arrives, dressed as a device for smoking illicit drugs.
Judging from the crowd's response, this is the greatest thing they've
ever seen. "Bong man," as he calls himself, poses for pictures. The
police look on from a corner of the square. Despite the obvious
display of mass drug use, they do nothing. "The cops haven't bothered
us for doing this for quite some time," Devin says .

2: 23 I speak with Kyle Andrews. He has Crohn's disease, three types
of cancer and is HIV positive. He also has a permit to smoke medical
marijuana and says Health Canada has been less than co-operative in
helping him fill his prescription. "I asked them, have you been
smoking all of my medicine?"

2: 40 It looks like we're getting down to business. Several activists
take the stage for what promises to be a series of rousing speeches.

2: 57 Matt Mernagh takes the stage. He is a medical marijuana user who
took the government all the way to the Ontario Superior Court when it
wouldn't recognize his right to free cannabis. The court found
Canada's medical marijuana laws to be unconstitutional but the
government will appeal this decision. "Free Marc Emery, and let's get
high," he says.

3: 06 Ben Stein, a member of the Toronto Hash Mob, sports a Star of
David and skullcap. He addresses the crowd, asking "are you ready for
the high holidays?" He then adds, for clarification: "I'm also Jewish,
so the pun was intended."

3: 18 Dundas Square has been enshrouded in a cloud of strange-smelling
smoke for most of the morning.

3: 19 I go looking for another sandwich.