Pubdate: Wed, 03 Oct 2012
Source: Philadelphia Daily News (PA)
Copyright: 2012 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
Contact: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/about/feedback/
Website: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/339
Author: William Bender

TOKE-IN' GESTURE IN POT-LAW BATTLE

CHRIS GOLDSTEIN, a marijuana advocate and editor of 
freedomisgreen.com, pulled a lighter from his pocket and sparked a 
joint at 4:20 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, right in the middle of Independence Park.

Nothing happened, except he got a bit stoned.

"This is how smoking marijuana should be," he said.

But not everyone is so lucky. That's the point.

"Every day, there are thousands of people getting arrested for pot, 
and for this amount of pot," Goldstein said, holding the burning 
joint as thick smoke wafted across the park. "Not for a pound of 
marijuana, not for growing marijuana, but mostly young black men are 
getting arrested for this."

Goldstein was joined by medical-marijuana activist Colleen Begley as 
he walked up Arch Street with PhillyNORML board member Kevin Clough.

"Do I need to roll a bone?" Begley, an unabashed pothead with three 
open marijuana cases in New Jersey courts, said as she grabbed a 
fistful of pungent buds redolent from 10 feet away. "This is Blue 
Cheese," she said of the hybrid cannabis strain.

Tuesday's act of civil disobedience was held on the 75th anniversary 
of the arrest of Samuel Caldwell and Moses Baca, who were busted on 
Oct. 2, 1937, shortly after the passage of the federal Marijuana Tax 
Act. Caldwell was sentenced to four years, Baca to 18 months, both at 
Leavenworth Penitentiary, in Kansas, Goldstein said.

"I wish this were a celebration, but it's a somber moment," Goldstein 
said, holding up Caldwell's mug shot and calling for the repeal of 
marijuana laws, which he said disproportionately affect minorities.

"The only difference between President Bush, President Clinton and 
President Obama and the young black men who get caught with this 
amount of pot is that they were caught," he said. "This is not equal 
enforcement."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom