Thank you to the Fagins and Calgary420.ca for bringing signs and material to hand out. We werent able to bring them into the building, but many saw them outside, including the media. I was unable to get the handout printed up, but thats okay. The important thing is that there was decent mainstream media coverage before, during, and after the vape out. I was able to touch upon all of the various medical cannabis-related issues touching Canadians lives today, including the Injunction, the Alberta College of Physicians not signing license in the first place, social services harassing families who have members who are MMJ consumers and/or producers, the pediatric use of MMJ, the fact that the medical cannabis program has been officially running for almost a decade-and-a-half, yet everyone seems to act like this is a brand new thing and therefore, the system shouldnt be expected to have adapted by now. Etc, etc, etc. Touch on, but not rant. According to all accounts (and believe me, I asked, because I dont trust my own judgement on these things, anymore), I sounded clear, coherent, and confident, and most importantly, all the messages I was putting out were getting through. Apparently, even some of our enemies (security, CPS) were commenting that I was making some great points they hadnt considered. And of course, I spoke about the AHRC determination that AHS is violating mine and all MMJ patients basic human rights, when they exclude us from facilities and services, based on the fact that my doctors have prescribed me this medicine. I was able to dovetail the experience we were having right then and there, of Harry Hays security freaking out and asking us to leave, with the general stigmatization medicinal cannabis consumers face from all factions every single day. The cops (who were polite, probably because they got the memo not to engage the crazy pot lady, or she will wear you down to dust) spent more time on the horn with HC and then trying to explain to one another, than they did speaking with me, or than I and the other patients who vaped, spent time medicating. Good to know: HC is doing a well enough job explaining how the injunction pertains to individual patients, at least to law enforcement, that the cops had no questions for me after, nor did they hassle me further. They seemed to calm down the rent-a-cops, one of whom was almost apoplectic over me sitting there, vaping, after hed asked me to leave. They slapped me with a 30-Day No Trespassing letter from the property management company, but no legal action was taken against me. On mine and the other participants parts, no voices were raised, no peace was disturbed, no public harassed, no walkways were blocked, no swearing was involved, and we all agreed to leave the premises--as soon as we were finished medicating. And we did. We had a Volcano and an Herbal Aire going and I, personally, finished two bags. CBC & CTV covered the whole thing, the entire time we were there. Unless something blows up somewhere, or someone of note dies, we should see SOMETHING about this on these stations. I saw a couple of my fellow Journalism students there, from the both universities and SAIT. Who knows who theyre interning for atm, so we shall see who picks the story up. I spoke with Global and they were like, Could you send us a media release with the details? I said, You know, if I could whip up a MR, Id be working right now and not needing to get into the hospital. How about you come to the Harry Hays tomorrow so you can get a first hand account of the details. Im not sure if they made it or not, but I dont really care. Theyll just look silly if they get scooped on account of lazy journalism. Turns out, we didnt need the media release anyway, because it made the story that much more personal and therefore, the reporters seemed to get a bit more involved. It should translate into decent coverage. ANY publicity regarding these issues is good publicity, so Im pretty pleased. Let me know if you see any coverage of the Calgary protest, elsewhere other than with the media outlets I mentioned. All in all, I consider todays actions taken in Calgary successful and I hope that the ease with which this got put together, will mean more antiprohibition activists and activism in Calgarys future. I saw some faces I didnt recognize, so obviously, the words getting out and people are feeling activated, for whatever reason, and I hope the trend will continue.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 23:03:08 +0000
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