By Niki D'Andrea
“Mommy, I don’t want to march!”
The girl’s mother was protesting the prohibition of marijuana at Steele Indian School park. It was hot, it was dry, and her grade school-age daughter didn’t seem very happy about spending her Saturday walking around central Phoenix with a bunch of people carrying signs and screaming “Legalize it!” at passing cars.
A “bunch” is an understatement, actually -- several hundred pro-marijuana supporters gathered at Steele Indian School Park on Saturday for the Global Marijuana March. The march, which started at 4:20 p.m. (420 being head code for “time to smoke some marijuana”) was Phoenix’s contribution to a global event that saw several cities around the nation and world marching for marijuana law reform.
The march aims to educate people about the medicinal and therapeutic benefits of cannabis, protests the prohibition of marijuana, and encourages people to sign pro-pot petitions. The blog on the official MySpace page for the march read, in part, “If you believe you should have the right, as a responsible adult American, to choose a safer recreational alternative to alcohol or a safer medication than prescription drugs, please show up.”
The march was approved by local law enforcement as a peaceable assembly -- though not licensed by the city -- and supporters started gathering at the park as early as 3:30 p.m. Many people brought signs with such protests as “Legalize It,” “Save a jail cell for some real criminals,” “One acre of hemp = 20 gallons of oil,” and “The hippies were right.” Lots of people were wearing tie-dye, too, and there was plenty of marijuana smoking going on before the march, despite the fact that several people had their children in tow and at least three plain-clothed officers were present. Even though their badges and guns were clearly visible on their belts, people didn’t seem to care.
“There are too many people here for them to arrest everybody,” said one march participant, who says the global march every year in Santa Barbara sees dozens of people lighting up right on the capitol steps.
Tags:
DuPont,
hemp,
Henry Anslinger,
Marihuana Tax Act of 1937,
marijuana,
NORML,
Phoenix Global Marijuana March,
protests,
Reefer Madness,
Steele Indian School Park,
William Randolph Hearst
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