GONE TO POT

A Historic Day Has Been Taken Over by Stoners and Others in the Pro-Hemp Camp

Ah yes: This Day in History.

April 20 is notoriously Adolf Hitler's birthday, the anniversary of
the 1776 siege of Boston, of successful pasteurization in 1864, and
of the horrible massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado. It is
also America's fastest-growing holiday, known as 4/20. Call it
National Stoners' Day.

It started, of course, in California, almost four decades ago, when a
group of teenagers at San Rafael High School supposedly congregated
at 4:20 p.m. every day to smoke weed next to a statue of Louis
Pasteur. (In my line of work, we call this a story too good to
check.) 4/20 observances gradually spread to college campuses and
have even been coopted by Hollywood. Two years ago, the memorably
awful movie "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay" opened on 4/20.

What is in store today? Well, if you missed the Extravaganja
festivals in Springfield, Amherst, and Keene, N.H., over the weekend,
to say nothing of the Girls4Ganja fashion show, 4/20 observances kick
off here at midnight with a smoke-in on the roof of a major
university library. (Not Harvard; not Boston University; you'll have
to guess.) Then it's on to the harborside federal courthouse, where
26-year-old Connecticut construction worker Dan Gervais will begin
his Walk Against Lies, which will take him all the way to Los
Angeles, via Providence, Washington, D.C., and other major cities.

Gervais will be eating and dressing in products made from hemp.
Gervais wants to raise awareness "about the 80 years of lies,
propaganda, and coerced medical testimony used to outlaw our planet's
most valuable, renewable natural resource," according to his website.

Turning serious for a moment - as serious as one can be on National
Stoners' Day - there are three issues that galvanize the pot-smoking
community: decriminalization, medical marijuana use, and full
legalization of cannabis consumption and production. In 2008
Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly approved Question 2, a "decrim"
measure that levies a small civil fine for possession of less than an
ounce of pot. Weed people like to point out that (a) decrim got more
votes than Barack Obama in that election and (b) the most prominent
pol to oppose decrim - Attorney General Martha Coakley - had her head
handed to her in the subsequent special Senate election.

Did Coakley lose the hophead vote? Only the exit polls know for sure.

On medical marijuana, there is more action in contiguous states than
here. Rhode Island, Vermont, and Maine all allow regulated use of
marijuana for medicine. Massachusetts passed a law legalizing medical
marijuana in 1992, with the pot to be provided by the National
Institute of Drug Abuse's test supply at the University of
Mississippi. But the NIDA never sent us its stash. "The federal
government doesn't give it out except for studies meant to examine
the negative effects of marijuana," says Matthew Allen of the Patient
Advocacy Alliance. A similar bill is being studied by the
Legislature, with little chance of passage this year.

I came face to face with California's loosely regulated medical
marijuana program in February, while walking the promenade at Venice
Beach. A hawker encased in a sandwich board was bearding passersby to
enter his "medical marijuana" clinic. "Walk-ins are welcome!" he
shouted. "The doctor is available!" That's what I call equal access
to medical care.

Full legalization seems like a pipe dream for now. The Obama
administration's drug czar, former Buffalo, N.Y., police chief Gil
Kerlikowske, strongly opposes legal reefer: "As I've said from the
day I was sworn in, marijuana legalization - for any purpose - is a
nonstarter in the Obama administration," he said in a speech to the
California Police Chiefs Association last month. "The science, though
still evolving, is clear: Marijuana use is harmful. It is associated
with dependence, respiratory and mental illness, poor motor
performance, and cognitive impairment, among other negative effects."

Northampton lawyer Richard Evans wrote a legalization bill that has
been submitted to the Massachusetts Legislature. What is the chance
that will pass?, I asked. "None whatsoever," Evans answered. "I'm not
so much interested in legalizing marijuana as I am in legalizing
debate about marijuana."