Pubdate: Fri, 06 Jul 2001
Source: Reason Magazine (US)
Copyright: 2001 The Reason Foundation
Contact:  http://www.reason.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/359
Author: Sam MacDonald

GIVE ME LIBRIUM OR GIVE ME METH!

The Annual Fourth of July Smoke-In Points To A Rift In The Anti-Drug 
War Movement

"I'm not a very popular person in the drug reform movement, because 
I'm encouraging people to come out here and brazenly smoke pot!"

John Pylka might be right about his relative popularity, but you 
wouldn't know it from the bustling crowd of hippies, drug law 
reformers, and other marginal characters who cheered his frank 
proclamation at the Annual Fourth of July Smoke-In Rally. The event 
was held, appropriately enough, on Independence Day, directly across 
16th Street from the White House, in full view of the U.S. Park 
Police. Also present: thousands of clear-eyed patriotic revelers who 
chose to celebrate without the benefits of THC.

Pylka and his merry band were trying to show a unified front against 
the War on Drugs. A police spokesman said that they no longer give 
crowd estimates, though Pylka guessed that the crowd at the Smoke-In 
was 20,000. Who could say for sure? All I know is that it amounted to 
a pretty big haze. While the Smoke-In, a subsequent parade, and 
dueling concerts delivered an amusing thumb in Big Brother's eye, the 
day's events also highlighted the sharp divisions that keep the 
anti-drug-war crowd from becoming an effective political force.

Conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr. sent tremors through the 
political world some years back when he opined that the drug war 
probably wreaked more havoc on society than it was worth. It 
undoubtedly gave the movement a wider audience and more mainstream 
support. But needless to say, it was not Buckley who led thousands of 
drug-taking protestors directly through the heart of D.C.'s annual 
Fourth of July celebrations.

No, leading a parade of pot smokers that went from Lafayette Park to 
a concert stage near the corner of Constitution Avenue and 23rd 
Street was a woman calling herself Medical Marijuana Barbie. In 
addition to her Ph.D. in pharmacology, she came armed with flaming 
pink hair and a shirt that read "Legalize cunnilingus and cannabis 
now." She invited everyone along the parade route, including 
uniformed police officers and wide-eyed grannies, to come along: 
"We're going to smoke some pot. Join us." Barbie's long line of 
friends chanted "We smoke pot and we like it a lot," carried signs 
that said things like "Free the Weed" and "At least it's not crack," 
and openly passed joints among themselves to prove that they practice 
what they preach.

The notion that conservatives and hippies might have a hard time 
standing shoulder to shoulder to fight the War on Drugs comes as no 
surprise. Buckley may have appeared on Laugh-In back in the day, but 
most conservatives today still hate hippies with a Spiro Agnew-level 
intensity. Their contempt for the drug war stems more from its 
failure than the idea that people should actually be free to get high 
on something other than single-malt whiskey.

The rift on the left-wing end of the anti-drug war movement is more 
surprising. Pylka founded the Fourth of July Hemp Coalition, and for 
almost two decades he has walked the bureaucratic minefield to garner 
a federal permit to use Lafayette Park. He said he has been in 
federal court three times to secure the right to assemble in the 
high-profile venue. He earned his prison stripes in 1985, the year he 
said he got busted with a pound of pot in front of the White House, 
an infraction for which he served about a month. The fortysomething 
Pylka even looks the part of hippie zealot, complete with long curly 
hair, gray shorts, a purple tie-dye shirt, black dress socks, 
respectable brown oxfords, and a guitar (he kicked off the rally with 
his rendition of "This land is your land").

Yet despite those formidable hippie credentials, Pylka said he gets 
no respect from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana 
Laws, which he openly criticized at the mike in Lafayette Park. He 
said NORML objected to his in-your-face tactics, and preferred its 
members to get high behind the scenes. He complained that "NORML 
would not endorse this demonstration... That's a sham. It is. It's an 
insult." He later referred to the group's organization as "their 
stupid NORML chapters." A few times during the tirade, warbling 
voices from the crowd contributed "Down with NORML!"

Keith Stroup, NORML's executive director, said in a Thursday phone 
interview he likes Pylka and admires his contribution to the cause, 
but admitted that NORML prefers a more toned-down approach. "I would 
love to see the [Fourth of July event] become more mainstream. Maybe 
John sees that as a bad word." Stroup said he was unaware that Pylka 
had approached NORML for an endorsement, or that the organization had 
turned him down. He pointed out, correctly, that NORML had a table 
set up beside the stage at the end of the parade. Still, Stroup said 
he was concerned that America's un-stoned millions, unaccustomed to 
such open displays of indulgence, might come away from the 
demonstration even more committed to the mistaken notion that the 
average pot smoker is "the long-haired hippie in the park."

"I would say that when you share the Mall with middle-class 
Americans, our goal is not to diminish their experience in visiting 
Washington. I don't want to somehow frighten them. I want to extend a 
friendly hand."

In the end, the Medical Marijuana Barbies of the world are going to 
have to agree on some common ground with the Keith Stroups and 
William F. Buckleys of the world if they are ever going to negotiate 
an end to the War on Drugs. That might be tough, given the different 
personalities, predispositions, and belief systems involved.

But there is hope. I noticed that Barbie's open invitation to smoke a 
little pot drew far more chuckles than angry retorts from the 
wholesome Americans who heard it along the parade route. I should 
also point out that the crowd was quite a bit larger at the end of 
the march than it was in the beginning. More than a few grannies, it 
seems, may have taken her up on the offer.
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