ECLECTIC PROTESTERS STAGE ONE LAST MARCH

At least 500 marchers, ranging from young adults to aged hippies,
from medical marijuana proponents to anti-war activists, and from the
thoroughly committed to the mildly interested, paraded along West
Colfax Avenue from Lincoln Park to Invesco Field at Mile High in a
raucous but peaceful procession Thursday afternoon.

In a show of demonstrator unity the politicians inside the stadium
would do well to emulate, the last major march of the 2008 Democratic
National Convention left the park at 2:43 p.m. and along the way
gathered up participants of just about every protester persuasion.

Trailing a police vehicle with the now-familiar electric sign
flashing, "Welcome to Denver, follow us," the crowd, led by medical
marijuana proponents and with Code Pink bringing up the rear, wended
its way to Federal Boulevard on the west side of the stadium, where
the march concluded.

Along the way, marchers chanted slogans from the amusing to the
profane and carried banners supporting their causes.

Jack Dunphy of The World Can't Wait hoisted a tall sign protesting
the war on several poles tied to his waist.

A group of marijuana supporters held signs that read "Free our weed"
in a kind of street-graffiti style.

When a reporter asked what it said, a man calling himself Wayward
Amerika said, "You should have gotten stoned; then you could read it."

Susan Squibb, 33, of Boulder had an unusual plan for getting to Invesco Field.

"I'm hula-hooping for marijuana," she said as she swiveled her hips
and tried not to run into anyone.

Along Colfax, the marchers and those heading to attend Barack Obama's
acceptance speech walked side by side, with the marchers taking up
the street and event-goers crammed along the sidewalk.

Occasionally, the groups interacted.

Max Dovala, 16, of Superior, who was on his way to hear Obama, said:
"I guess they have the right to speak. I just don't get their point."

After walking -- or hula-hooping, as the case may be -- for about 45
minutes, the marchers stopped as close to the stadium as they were
allowed and began screaming "Marijuana saves lives," hoping people
inside could hear them.

Then, a handful of them went to the fenced protest zone and settled in.

At precisely 4:20 -- the weed world's version of happy hour -- the 15
or so people in the cage lit up. Then the crowd smoked their
cigarettes and went home.