COLUMBUS PROTESTERS BLAZE TRAIL FOR WEED RIGHTS NEAR OHIO STATE U.

(U-WIRE) COLUMBUS, Ohio -- About 150 people gathered at the corner of
15th Avenue and High Street at 4:20 p.m. Saturday to march for the
decriminalization of misdemeanor amounts of marijuana.

The event, organized locally by Columbus native Kenny Schweickart,
was part of the Global March for Cannabis Liberation, dubbed "The
Million Marijuana March."

Schweickart said the local ballot drive is to decriminalize
misdemeanor amounts of marijuana to protect college students from
losing their financial aid for school.

Schweickart said, "We feel that the drug provision of the Higher
Education Act is an atrocity on intellectual freedom. "There's no
good reason why students should be losing their financial aid if
they're caught with as little as a crumb of marijuana. Can you
imagine what our society would be like if Baby Boomers were denied
aid for school over a little bit of grass?"

"Our effort will put on the ballot an issue that will make Columbus
tolerant to small amounts of marijuana."

People driving along High Street honked at the marchers, who were
accompanied by signs and a 7-foot-high cardboard marijuana leaf.

Marchers carried a variety of pro-marijuana signs with slogans such
as, "Marijuana Heals Glaucoma," "Pot Pride," and "Marijuana =
Medicine." The marchers also chanted the phrases, "It's only a
plant," and "We have the truth."

City council candidate Greg Richey (Green Party) spoke at the rally
in favor of marijuana legalization and encouraged the marchers to
vote for he and fellow Green Party candidate John McGovern.

Richey said that he and McGovern are both in support of
decriminalizing marijuana in Columbus.

"To me it's about priorities. Are we going to spend our time really
working hard to convict sexual assaults, or are we going to focus on
clogging up the courts and the jails with minor drug offenses?"

Richey said that there are about 20 sexual assaults reported each day
in Columbus.

The group is soliciting signatures for a petition to allow Columbus
voters to decide whether marijuana should be decriminalized or not.

Schweickart said, "Voter participation is key. We're counting on the
student body to register to vote and vote in November for this issue.
It is imperative that young people vote, because in city elections
less than 29 percent of members of The Ohio State University vote."

Both University Police and the Columbus Division of Police were
within the vicinity of the rally before the march started, but the
rally took place without incident.

The march went along High Street and ended at the gallery hop in the
Short North.