4/20 Fever:

IMPENDING PRO-DOPE HOLIDAY PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON LOCAL ATTITUDES

Marijuana users abound in Boulder.

A report released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration in August 2005 revealed that 10.3 percent of Boulder
residents over the age of 12 admitted to using marijuana in the last
month. The impending Sunday, April 20 (4/20) celebration of the
psychoactive herb, held annually on the CU campus, calls attention to
the issues surrounding, as well the opinions regarding, marijuana use.

On one hand, there are organizations like Sensible Colorado, a group
that "envisions a system where drug use becomes a health issue, not a
crime issue," according to its website.

Brian Vicente, an attorney who serves as the executive director of
Sensible Colorado, says his organization's mission is twofold: "One
is we're the main non-profit resource for medical marijuana patients
and caregivers and doctors in the state. The other side is that we're
just pushing for commonsense drug polices, and we are pushing for an
alternative to marijuana prohibition, specifically."

Marijuana is overwhelmingly the most widely used illegal drug in the
United States, the use and possession of which results in 850,000
annual arrests, according to Vicente.

"We think those 850,000 people aren't criminals, necessarily," he
said. "We simply believe that it would be better for marijuana to
move away from the Prohibition Era-model to move more towards a
system of regulation."

He went on to explain that the government should have some form of
the control over marijuana, including the ability to tax and regulate
it in the same way alcohol is, because people are using it anyway.

For state-registered caregivers who depend on marijuana as source of
income, their demands are often less demanding, hoping only, or at
least mostly, for medical marijuana to be recognized as fully legal
with no stipulations.

Tom, a registered medical marijuana caregiver who declined to provide
his last name to avoid increased scrutiny from law enforcement, said
that although medical marijuana is legal in Colorado per Amendment
20, it is still illegal under federal law.

Because state and federal law conflicts on the issue, "a lot of
patients and probably caregivers and just people in general are still
in fear," Tom said. "The laws are not up to speed on the federal
level as much as they are in a few states."

Even if caregivers like Tom, who generally run growing operations,
were guaranteed protection from federal government intervention,
there are caveats under the state law. For example, a caregiver can
only grow six plants for each of their patients, three of which can
be flowering (meaning that usable marijuana can be harvested from them).

"It's a bit unrealistic because that's assuming that you can grow
three successful plants, and for a lot of patients, that's not
enough," Tom said. The needs of any given patient "are more nebulous."

In Colorado, a patient who has been issued a Medical Marijuana
Registry card looks for a caregiver to help them acquire marijuana.
Sometimes, the caregivers help patients start growing operations, but
it's difficult and expensive to grow reliable plants. As such,
patients often turn to caregivers to grow marijuana for them.

"My priority and my goal is to help support patients who need medical
marijuana," Tom said, "it is unfortunate that we have to be walking
on eggshells like this. I have to maintain a certain level of discretion."

He continued: "I choose to maintain as low of a profile as possible
despite my beliefs about it -- I value my freedom."

For patients in need of a caregiver, Tom can be contacted at
mjcaregiver@comcast.net.

This coming Sunday, the annual 4/20 "smoke-out" will be held on the
CU campus, and groups like National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws (NORML) at CU are excited for the attention that the
event will draw.

"4/20 is our largest activist event of the year. We expect over
10,000 people to be at this year's 4/20," said Alex Douglas, a member
of the NORML board of directors for the CU chapter. "It's more than a
smoke-out this year, its going to be more of an activist rally where
people are holding signs."

NORML at CU, who does not support anyone smoking marijuana at the
4/20 event, will host several guest speakers, as well as a concert,
all part of activities that will take place from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Sensible Colorado does not support public displays of drug use
either, but Vicente said that "civil disobedience is a form of
protest that has its merits." Even so, Vicente added that "I
encourage people that want to get involved in activities like 4/20 to
register to vote and get involved in reforming the laws, as opposed
to simply attending a smoke-out."

When asked about the police's strategy to handle the event, Brad
Wiesley, the spokesperson for the CU police department, said, "We
don't give our playbook to other team before the game. I'm not going
to reveal what out tactical plans are. We will have a presence. We
will certainly be there to try and keep it a safe event."

However, he added that "it's pretty obvious that all the police
officers that we can gather are not going to be anywhere near the
size of the crowd of people who are going to show up -- and, so, are
we going to write everyone there a ticket for marijuana possession?
The answer is 'no.'"

"If people show up and want to have speeches and rallies, and they're
not breaking the law to do it," he said, "more power to them."