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Penticton cannabis shop brings spirit of 4/20 to the streets amid pandemic

Lifted Cannabis employees celebrated their favourite holiday April 20 in downtown Penticton
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Lifted cannabis staff Dave, Susie, Tanya, Elena and their massive inflatable joint hit the streets in downtown Penticton April 20, 2021, making sure 4/20 didn’t go forgotten amid a pandemic. (Jesse Day - Western News)

A local Penticton cannabis shop celebrated 4/20 in style Tuesday, April 20 in downtown Penticton — oversized inflatable joint and all.

Lifted Cannabis employees were out celebrating their favourite holiday in front of their shop on Main Street in Penticton on an unseasonably hot April 20.

April 20, of course, has become an international counterculture holiday where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis.

Many of the events have (or had) a political nature to them. In Canada, before cannabis was federally legalized on Oct. 17, 2018, 4/20 events were seen as a way to protest cannabis prohibition.

But now that it’s legal what’s the point?

Pretty much just to celebrate cannabis consumers’ substance of choice, explained Lifted manager Susie Myers.

“It’s still a celebration for everybody,” she said. “It started as a protest, everybody would get together in parks and have big smoke-ups but now it’s more of a celebration now that it’s legal, as it should be.”

Seeing as this is now the second 4/20 in a pandemic, the only non-pandemic 4/20 to happen during legalization in Canada was in 2019.

Myers said the celebrations that year were quite large, particularly at her shop as it was Lifted’s grand-opening.

“We had cake, parties, prizes, all that,” she said.

Amid the pandemic, many 4/20 give-always and prizes at local cannabis shops like Lifted have gone online.

In non-pandemic 4/20’s of the past in Penticton people traditionally gather at Gyro Park downtown, explained Myers.

The pandemic, obviously, has put a hold on that but she’s looking forward to April 20, 2022 when people can safely and legally gather and smoke-up once again.

“Definitely looking forward to when everybody gets vaccinated and we can all get get together again — if everyone is comfortable with that of course,” Myers said. “We really appreciate the continued support of the people of Penticton that kept us going through the pandemic, we’re doing everything we can to keep going.”

READ MORE: Vancouver’s 4/20 event goes digital amid COVID-19 pandemic

READ MORE: Vancouver 4/20 event to protest ‘intolerance of cannabis’ at Sunset Beach in 2020



jesse.day@pentictonwesternnews.com

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Jesse Day

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