CANNABIS CULTURE – Vancouver is home to one of the world’s most passionate and vociferous marijuana communities. On Saturday, May 5, activists and pot smokers of all stripes will take to the Van City streets for the 2012 Global Marijuana March. Things may get loud and smoky.

Vancouver GMM organizers are asking pot paraders to gather at 2PM at the Vancouver Art Gallery (750 Hornby Street See map where they will assemble for the 3PM March.

The March will take a route through the downtown Vancouver streets until it ends up on the beach in English Bay, where protesters will spark joints for the 4/20 smoking session and cannabis celebration.

Vancouver Police, as in past GMMs, are expected to block traffic and provide an escort for protesters. Despite the law enforcement presence, Vancouverites have never been shy about blazing fatties along the way.

“We might not have as big of a march as Toronto,” GMM organizer David Malmo-Levine told Cannabis Culture “but it is usually smellier.”

Marchers are encouraged to bring signs, megaphones, musical instruments and other noisemakers, and boisterous chanting voices, so the message will be heard, loud and clear.

The GMM, started in 1999 by marijuana legalization activist Dana Beal, is a simultaneous annual outburst of global activism and a reaction to draconian drug laws around the world. The march has spread over the years to include at least 738 cities from 64 different countries.

Protesters hope to bring a peaceful message of protest against cannabis prohibition, but refuse to be ignored. Blocking traffic in downtown city streets has a way of getting peoples attention. Join the fun!

Read more about the Global Marijuana March on Cannabis Culture. Find out more about the world’s biggest GMM march in Toronto.

Jeremiah Vandermeer is editor of Cannabis Culture. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.