Pubdate: Sun, 04 May 2008
Source: Phoenix New Times (AZ)
Copyright: 2008 New Times, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/640
Author: Niki D'Andrea
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

GONE TO POT: THE PHOENIX GLOBAL MARIJUANA MARCH

"Mommy, I don't want to march!"

The girl's mother was protesting the prohibition of marijuana at 
Steele Indian School park. It was hot, it was dry, and her grade 
school-age daughter didn't seem very happy about spending her 
Saturday walking around central Phoenix with a bunch of people 
carrying signs and screaming "Legalize it!" at passing cars.

A "bunch" is an understatement, actually -- several hundred 
pro-marijuana supporters gathered at Steele Indian School Park on 
Saturday, May 3 for the Global Marijuana March. The march, which 
started at 4:20 p.m. (420 being head code for "time to smoke some 
marijuana") was Phoenix's contribution to a global event that saw 
several cities around the nation and world marching for marijuana law reform.

The Global Marijuana March aims to educate people about the medicinal 
and therapeutic benefits of cannabis, protest the prohibition of 
marijuana, and encourage people to sign pro-pot petitions. The blog 
on the official MySpace page for the march read, in part, "If you 
believe you should have the right, as a responsible adult American, 
to choose a safer recreational alternative to alcohol or a safer 
medication than prescription drugs, please show up."

The march was approved by local law enforcement as a peaceable 
assembly - though not licensed by the city - and supporters started 
gathering at the park as early as 3:30 p.m. Many people brought signs 
with such protests as "Legalize It," "Save a jail cell for some real 
criminals," "One acre of hemp = 20 gallons of oil," and "The hippies 
were right." Lots of people were wearing tie-dye, too, and there was 
plenty of marijuana smoking going on before the march, despite the 
fact that several people had their children in tow and at least three 
plain-clothed officers were present. Even though their badges and 
guns were clearly visible on their belts, people didn't seem to care. 
"There are too many people here for them to arrest everybody," said 
one march participant, who says the global march every year in Santa 
Barbara sees dozens of people lighting up right on the capitol steps.

The history of marijuana prohibition in this country goes back to the 
1930s, when Henry Anslinger, Assistant Prohibition Commissioner in 
the Bureau of Prohibition (precursor to the Bureau of Alcohol, 
Tobacco, and Firearms) signed the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. While 
the bill didn't prohibit marijuana, it did call for a tax equaling 
one dollar (an exorbitant tax at the time) on anyone commercially 
dealing with hemp, marijuana, and cannabis. Anslinger was married to 
Martha Denniston, the niece of Andrew W. Mellon, who was then 
Secretary of the US Treasury. Mellon was also a banker who had a 
vested interest in the DuPont chemical company and media mogul 
William Randolph Hearst's logging business. DuPont and Hearst were 
working on a paper-making deal together, and at the time, hemp was a 
legal US crop that offered an alternative way of making paper, rather 
than using timber. But it wasn't as profitable for someone like 
Hearst, who owned a ridiculously large amount of land for logging. In 
1938, DuPont patented a process for making paper from wood pulp, and 
Hearst's newspapers began running all sorts of sordid stories about 
"crazy" marijuana users and the dangers of hemp, often using the 
words "marijuana" and "hemp" interchangeably (although marijuana and 
hemp both come from the cannabis plant, hemp doesn't contain enough 
THC - the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana - to intoxicate anyone).

Still, propaganda films like Reefer Madness (which was financed by a 
church group and originally titled Tell Your Children) began to 
circulate in schools, along with lectures about how marijuana caused 
people to steal, rape, kidnap, kill, become prostitutes, etc. In 
1952, possession and consumption of marijuana officially became 
illegal in the United States with the Boggs Act of 1952, bolstered by 
the Narcotics Control Act of 1956.

In the 1970s, the medicinal uses of marijuana came to light, when a 
glaucoma patient named Robert Randall sued the government for 
arresting him for using marijuana to treat his condition. The judge 
ruled in Randall's favor and the FDA set up a program for the 
cultivation of medical marijuana. With the support of members of the 
medical community, 13 states have since amended their laws to allow 
the consumption of marijuana for medical purposes.

Arizona is not one of those 13 states. Protesters at the Phoenix 
Global Marijuana March carried signs advertising the benefits of 
marijuana and signed petitions pushing for a medical marijuana bill 
here in Arizona. More than half of the protesters were in this group 
- - older, wiser Americans with Bohemian sensibilities who view 
cannabis as a medicinal herb that just happens to have some recreational merit.

The rest of the protesters ran the gamut, from college kids on cell 
phones telling their friends "I'm at the pot rally" to neo-hippie 
chicks in summer skirts to hip-hop heads with their jeans hanging 
halfway off their butts. Members of the local music scene, including 
"Scary" Gary from rockabilly band The Toomstoners and AZ Fetish Ball 
promoter James Bound, were also present to show their support.

The march got off to a scattered start, with a woman carrying a huge 
American flag announcing, "It's 4:20! We're gonna start marching!" 
and everybody wandering off into several lines. By the time the 
protesters made it to the corner of Third Street and Indian School, 
the pack had almost come together, and people in passing cars honked 
their horns in support. One motorist even stopped his SUV as the 
march was passing so one of his passengers could high-five a 
participant, yelling "Right on, man! Smoke that shit!"

Half the protesters crossed Indian School at Seventh Street before 
the other half could catch up, prompting one marcher on the north 
sidewalk to point across the street and chuckle. "Oh look, they're 
having a march, too!"

The people in the march merged again while making their way down 
Third Avenue, engaging in two massive jaywalks in the process. "Yeah, 
let's stop traffic!" someone yelled. "The more people we get to stop, 
the more attention for the cause!"

The media were also out en mass, as news trucks from Channel 5 and 
Channel 12 lined up at the entrance to the park. Several 
photographers with professional rigs were snapping photos as well. 
One marcher looked at a photographer and yelled, "If that shit goes 
to my parole officer, I'm gonna be pissed."

20 minutes in, the march was over, with protesters heading back to 
the park for some post-march relaxation. While a guy in tie-dye beat 
on a bongo drum, volunteers handed out free Otter pops, and a local 
representative from NORML (National Organization for the Reform of 
Marijuana Laws) pushed petitions for people to sign that would bring 
forth a bill to legalize marijuana in Arizona for medicinal purposes. 
"Arizona is surrounded by Medical states; Nevada, New Mexico, 
California, & Colorado all border us and have the rights that we do 
not. It is time for all that to change," states the Phoenix Global 
Marijuana March MySpace page.

Overall, the march was peaceful. There were no riots, no fights, no 
arrests , and supporters stayed until dusk, strumming guitars, 
banging on bongos, signing petitions, and screaming "Legalize it!"
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom