commonsense

4-20 cause for
celabration,
protest
throughout nation
Tuesday was 4/20,
National Weed Day
-- or whatever you
want to call it -- and
America’s Cannabis
Nation celebrated
it with clouds of
marijuana smoke
on college campuses
and city parks
across the land. This
year, 4/20 felt a
little different, with
attendees buoyed by
a sense of impending
change and the
suit and tie wearing
movement worriers
a little less concerned about how mass pot
parties will play with the public. It wasn’t
just clouds of pot smoke in the air, but the
scent of looming change, too, was palpable.
More than 10,000 people rallied in Denver
and another 10,000 or so did so 35 miles
away at the University of Colorado in
Boulder. Hundreds more at the University
of California at Santa Cruz celebrated with
a mass light-up at 4:20pm. San Francisco’s
Golden Gate Park hosted thousands more
happy puffers, while in Washington, DC, the
party was inside. Well-attended 4/20 events
also took place in Seattle and Boston, while
smaller celebrations of the stoner holiday
took place all across the country, including
dozens of college campuses.
In New Hampshire, about 100 people rallied
in the state capital of Concord, while
in Juneau, Alaska, about 20 people, two
dogs, and a mother pushing a stroller braved
driving rain as they marched past the state
capitol and city hall, chanting “Yes, we
cannabis!” Oakland got a head start on 4/20
when the recently opened iGrow marijuana
cultivation supply shop held a 4/20 Eve
party, complete with a Hummer serving as a
smoking room.
Local NORML chapters in Philadelphia,
Minneapolis, and Tucson held events, and
the Seattle Hempfest held a 420 Members’
Social, while New York City was the scene
of a 4/20 rally. The date was commemorated
with cannabis competitions in Oakland
and Olympia, Washington, and marked by
celebrations in San Diego and Los Angeles,
as well.
And, as compiled by Celeb Stoner, and
suggestive of the growing cultural impact
of 4/20, the day was marked by concerts,
record releases, and movie screenings
linked to cannabis culture. Famous tokers
Cypress Hill played San Francisco, while
Snoop Dogg played New York, Willie Nelson
performed in Topeka, Sublime played
in Los Angeles, and Slightly Stoopid played
in Austin. Cypress Hill, fellow tokers the
Kottonmouth Kings, Devin the Dude, and
Nelson all released albums on 4/20.
Pot-friendly comics also got into the act.
Doug Benson did a 4/20 show in Minneapolis,
Sarah Silverman did one in New York
City, and Ngaio Bealum played San Francisco.
Theaters in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los
Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC,
marked 4/20 with screenings of the “Phish
3D” movie, while in Calgary, Alberta, the
4/20 Film fest featured thematically appropriate
films like “Johnny Appleweed,”
“Blaze,” and “400 Bowls.”
This year’s 4/20 events come as the sense of
momentum toward legalization grows palpable,
with a legalization initiative headed
for the November ballot in California and
polling above 50%. (See related stories this
issue here and here.) Meanwhile, legalization
initiative signature gathering campaigns
are underway in Oregon and Washington,
so there is a chance the whole West Coast
could vote to free the weed this fall.
4/20 also came on the heels of two events,
one in San Francisco and one in Colorado
Springs, that strongly suggest marijuana is
going mainstream. In San Francisco, the International
Cannabis and Hemp Expo drew
about 15,000 of visitors over the weekend.
Vendors there offered up everything from
coffee cops emblazoned with marijuana
leaves to a 52-foot mobile grow trailer, and
a doctor was on hand offering medical marijuana
recommendations for $100.
In Colorado Springs, meanwhile, Colorado’s
first Medical Cannabis Expo was also
attended by thousands of people. The Expo
comes at Colorado’s medical marijuana
scene it taking off in ways reminiscent of
California’s “Wild West” days of just a few
years ago and as Colorado legislators work
desperately to rein it in. The Expo saw dozens
of vendors, including lawyers, dispensary
owners, and realtors, and made evident
that marijuana is a big and growing business
in the state.
While in the past, some prominent drug
reform movement leaders have criticized
4/20 and similar events as counterproductive
and promoting stoner stereotypes, those
critiques were less prominent this year. In
fact, at least two reform leaders, Bill Piper
of the Drug Policy Alliance and former
Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper of Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition published
pieces urging 4/20 celebrators to put down
the joint -- at least for a moment -- and pick
up the pen. 4/20 is not just a party, they suggested,
but a time to stoke activism as well.
“While I certainly wish we could get 10,000
to come out to rally in support of an initiative
or a legislative agenda, the reality is
that more people are prone to show up when
it entails smoking in public,” said Mason
Tvert of Colorado-based SAFER (Safer
Alternatives for Enjoyable Recreation).
“It’s part of this movement, and it needs to
be embraced. These
are organic, grassroots
events that are
growing in popularity
and are being
normalized,” he
said.
“I don’t tell everyone
to light up and
get high,” Tvert
continued. “I say I
hope you will show
this same level of
excitement and enthusiasm
when there
is something on the
ballot. Trying to tell
10,000 people who
are using marijuana
that they’re doing
something wrong is
not terribly helpful,
so I told them
to think about how
nice it was to light
up with that overt
fear of punishment
and how great it
would be if they use
marijuana without
fear everyday and
they should be supporting
organizations that will help them
achieve that,” he said. “With events like
this, all we can do is try to ride the beast.”
“I went down to the gathering in Golden
Gate Park,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive
director of the Drug Policy Alliance.
“You had thousands of people primarily in
their 20s hanging out and smoking marijuana.
It was peaceful, friendly, and remarkable
diverse, and I think that in itself is significant.
There were no speeches, no organized
entertainment, just people hanging out, but
also making something of a political statement.”
The Drug Policy Alliance has decided that
the stoner celebrations aren’t necessarily
are a bad thing, said Nadelmann. “We’ve
reached a bit of consensus that to the extent
the gatherings are large in number and fairly
well-run, they are a net plus,” he said. “But
if they’re small and scraggly, they’re probably
not a plus and could be a negative.”
Like Tvert, Nadelmann acknowledged the
grass-roots nature of 4/20. “The drug reform
movement didn’t create 4/20, and people
are going to gather and do this regardless of
what the drug reform movement says. The
operative question for us is how to make
the most of these events, and we are focusing
on trying to turn them into more politi-
cal events. It would have been nice to have
even a few minutes with the crowd Tuesday
to get it one step more political.”
Even the Marijuana Policy Project, which
specializes in working the corridors of
power, had little bad to say about 4/20. “Our
approach to improving marijuana laws is to
take it from a serious lobbying position,”
said Mike Meno, the group’s communications
director. “But at the same time, we
rely on grassroots support
from people who
are passionate about
the issue, and many
of them like 4/20.
While we would prefer
a more buttoneddown
approach, we
don’t discourage anyone
from getting involved
in other ways.
We just ask that they
do so with a focus
on what is going to
help and improve our
chances,” he said.
thing image-wise.”
Still, Meno said,
those sorts of events
can cut for or against
reform. “It’s sort
of a double-edged
sword,” he reasoned.
“It’s great if
there’s a big turnout
and people see how
diverse it is and how
much support there is
for changing the law,
but on the other hand,
if only a half-dozen
people show up,
maybe it’s not the best
4/20 may have come and gone this year, but
the sense of imminent victory apparent at
the events will linger into the election season.
Next year, 4/20 may be about celebrating
the first major step toward national pot
legalization -- winning a victory in California,
and maybe Oregon and Washington,
too.