IT'S A PROTEST, NOT A POT-FEST- MMM 2004

May 1 was a beautiful Spring day, perfect to spend outside in Battery
Park at the lower end of Manhattan in New York City, where an
estimated one to three thousand people attended the 2004 Million
Marijuana March and rally in support of medical marijuana and Drug War
reforms.

"The repressive cloud of the Rudolph Giuliani regime has blown out to
sea," Dana Beal of Cures-Not-Wars said. "I was bummed out last year
due to the low turnout of people and angry police attitudes, but this
year I'm really happy with the way things have gone." Beal noted that
it was a "protest not a pot fest," and specifically pointed out how
few officers there were raking the crowd for victims to take downtown.

With just three arrests-one for possession, one for having an open
container, and one activist with Cures-Not-Wars arrested for using a
bullhorn-this year was remarkably peaceful in terms of police actions.
While the march itself, which stretched a good three city blocks, was
covered by the usual compliment of hundreds of police officers hemming
in the marchers along the entire route, the police presence at the
subsequent rally in the park was, compared to recent years past,
non-existent. There were a few park police in green uniforms, and a
small number of uniformed cops, but there were no blatant undercover
officers picking out the unwary who might be brave enough, or simply
unaware of the danger, to light up in the park.

"Put it out" said the officers to these two very lucky blunt-smoking
gentlemen before they walked away without arresting them.

To put the icing on the cake, while chucking around a Frisbee with
some fellow pot protestors and friendly strangers, I myself saw a
group of black guys gathered under a tree twisting up a blunt not five
feet away from me. What I did not see were the two uniformed NYPD
officers approaching until they were right on top of the group, now
smoking their twisted blunt. To both my own surprise and that of the
smokers, the two cops simply told them to "put it out," then walked
away from making an extremely easy arrest. I and the smokers all about
fell down on the lawn in shocked surprise, considering how violent and
aggressive the NYPD has been at past years' events, not to mention
every day life in the Big Apple, where more people are arrested for
marijuana offenses each year than just about anywhere in the
country-despite the fact that marijuana use and personal possession
are merely civil offenses in New York, since New York is one of eleven
U.S. states which have decriminalized marijuana use since the 1970s.

"This is my first protest in NYC," said event coordinator and
Cures-Not-Wars public relations person Karen Tuominen. "The march was
great, with lots of people there. The police are pretty much being
friendly."

"This year's event was much better than last year's," said event
organizer Robbie Robinson, who works with NY Cannabis Action Network
and NY NORML. "We actively promoted this as a non-smoking event. One
woman affiliated with the NYPD here today pulled me aside to thank me
for stressing that to the crowd. Overall I'm very happy with the day."

"I'm glad to be here, and happy to participate," said Infamous Los, a
rapper who came to the event with Ed "NJWeedman" Forchion of Camden,
New Jersey, to perform and represent for marijuana reforms.

"We live in a police state," said NJWeedman, who later told the crowd
about his own numerous battles with the state of New Jersey over pot
and the stifling of his freedom of speech. "It's hard to get people
out to participate in protests like this," he said, remarking on the
relatively light crowd of about a thousand still in the park at
exactly 4:20 in the afternoon.

"The fact that under federal law people can smoke marijuana for
religious purposes on federal property isn't getting media coverage,
so it isn't getting out to the people in general," said Cornell Dixon,
who accompanied NJWeedman and Los to help bring attention to the dire
anti-pot situation in New York's neighboring state of New Jersey. He
was talking about the Freedom of Religion Restoration Act of 1993, a
little known federal law which basically legalized the use of
marijuana for religious purposes on federal property. Dixon himself is
facing 6 felony charges for a variety of marijuana-related offenses in
New Jersey, so has a strong personal stake in ending the perpetual war
on marijuana. "Now we have federal marijuana sanctuaries," continued
Dixon, "which is ironic considering the outrageous current federal
efforts to lock up medical marijuana using patients around the
country. It would be nice to get a lot of these people here today to
come to the religious events at the Liberty Bell we hold every third
Saturday of the month."

"We're trying to turn Liberty Park, (Independence National Historical
Park) where the Liberty Bell is on display, into Peace Pot Park,"
added NJWeedman. "The fact that the Bell is there makes it very
symbolic. We set up, say a prayer, then partake of our religious sacrament."

"I'm not too familiar with NYC," said Burton Aldrich, an wheel-chair
bound activist with New Yorkers for Compassionate Care, a group
pushing hard for medical marijuana reforms in New York, "but I wish
more people had turned out. There must be more smokers in NYC than
this," he said, also remarking on the fairly thin late afternoon
crowd. "There are times, like right now, when I'm in serious pain and
would like to smoke, but can't because I could get arrested.
Fortunately there are medical marijuana candies and chocolate around
today. When more people realize that it's possible to eat marijuana
and not smoke it, perhaps this will change people's
perspective."

"They're calling for zero tolerance," said Chris Conrad about
prohibitionists who insist that medical marijuana is just a foot in
the door to full on legalization of marijuana. "Any time we can get
patients out of harm's way it's a good thing and we must do so."

Mikki Norris agreed both with compatriot Conrad and with the
prohibitionists' statement about medical marijuana being a step
towards legalization. "Medical marijuana is beneficial for so many
reasons to so many people, and the medical marijuana laws that have
passed around the country have demonstrated this. Patients are
dispelling the myth that pot is purely a demon weed, which should help
non-smokers to realize how harmless marijuana really is compared to
most legal drugs, such as alcohol. We want to tax and regulate
marijuana, to eventually sell it out of licensed businesses to adults.
There's no reason alcohol drinkers should have the right to drink but
we can't have the right to smoke pot. It is flat out un-American."
Conrad and Norris, hard working California activists and co-authors of
"Shattered Lives- Portraits from America's Drug War," both took a turn
addressing the crowd, informing them of the many victories large and
small around the country and in California, stressing that despite the
seemingly slow pace of reform, things are happening in marijuana
reform and are moving towards sanity.

"It would have been nice with more people," said Steve Bloom, a senior
editor at Grow America and High Times magazines, "but the speakers and
performers are all really good this year." Appearing on the main stage
in addition to Bloom himself were NJWeedman; Valerie Vande Panne, news
editor at High Times magazine; Norris and Conrad; Paul Gilman, member
of the coordinating committee of the New York Green Party; Playthell
G. Benjamin, WBAI Radio Commentator; Julia Walsh, Village of New
Paltz, Village Trustee (reading a statement from New Paltz Mayor Jason
West); Burton Aldrich, Medical marijuana patient and activist with New
Yorkers for Compassionate Care; Bonnie Tocwish, Activist, Cancer
Survivor; and Don Silberger, a Libertarian US Senate candidate from
New York. Performers included Arj Barker, Doug Benson and Tony Camin,
the writers/performers of the "hit" show The Marijuana-Logues,
currently playing at NYC's The Actors' Playhouse; and music by Bobby
Steele (formerly of the Misfits); the David Nelson Band; Stir Fried;
rapper Infamous Los; and hip-hop group Grand Finale. On the second
stage The Subtle Chaos put on music for a mini-rave with a variety of
DJs spinning the beats, inspiring most of the small crowd into dancing
themselves silly in the sun.

This was a pleasant day in the sun, with easy vibes and friendly
attitudes everywhere to be found. The two seperate stages drew the
attendees into two distinct groups, with those interested in hearing
the speakers and live bands gathered at the main stage, and those who
wanted to dance and play gathered at the second. Although there were
very few who had the nerve to light up, the mood was light and
cheerful, even optimistic.

As it does each and every year, it occurred to me and many others I
spoke with that if all those who came out today to call for an end to
the War on Marijuana Users actually got themselves to the voting polls
in November, we might see an end to the War in our lifetime. Until
then, pot users will continue holding these rallies and marches,
demonstrating to the world the fact that a lot of us use pot and we
like it a lot, that this does not make us criminals, and that we do
not want our tax money funding continous warfare waged upon our
neighbors, friends, families and ourselves.