On April 20 Vancouver celebrated its 18th annual 4/20 celebration.  That’s basically the day when thousands of people converge downtown to buy, smoke, see, or smell marijuana. Some go down there.

The celebration was founded by employees of Canadian cannabis activist Marc Emery who wanted to host a day-long rally to celebrate cannabis and call for its legalization.

This year’s celebration attracted an estimated 20,000 attendees up from 15,000 who showed up last year. Many of these people, of course, made their way through the city to get home or to another destination. I spent part of the day visiting with friends in Hastings-Sunrise which was a lot busier than usual. Hundreds of people pushed their way through Hastings on their way to or from the big celebration.

In addition to the people I also noticed a spammy sign at the corner of Nanaimo and Hastings had been defaced with homophobic graffiti. I spoke with area residents who said the vandalism took place sometime on April 20.