Marijuana fans celebrate high times on 4/20
http://www.norwalkreflector.com/articles/2010/04/20/front/doc4bce10ac82d27474853011.txt
April 20 2010
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (MCT) - Today is the Fourth of July of weed.
At places such as Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Porter Meadow at
the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Redwood Park in Arcata,
Calif., thousands will light up in celebratory smoke-ins.
The collective marijuana smoke, honoring April 20 and the "420"
numeric nickname for pot, will thicken right around 4:20 p.m. PDT.
That's when this most unusual of holidays pays tribute to the legend
of a group of 1970s high school students in San Rafael, north of San
Francisco, who gathered at 4:20 p.m. everyday to smoke marijuana.
April 20 has morphed into a social, political and cultural event,
with 4/20 fests lighting up college towns and urban centers from
Seattle to Boulder to New York City.
In San Francisco's Haight district, people are showing up and toking
up, drawn by piqued awareness of the day and energized by a November
ballot initiative seeking to legalize marijuana for recreational use
in California.
"People are coming to Haight-Asbury like the Grateful Dead is back in
town," said long-time resident Jack Rikess. "They're walking down the
street and smoking joints. It's going to be unreal. This could be the
last illegal 4/20 in San Francisco."
Last week, UC Santa Cruz put out a notice about "an unsanctioned and
unwelcome 4/20 gathering ... that is likely going to be disruptive
for many on campus and in the surrounding community."
But university officials are resigned to it happening.
In recent years, throngs of students and residents from Santa Cruz
and beyond have gathered like football tailgaters, filling the air
with smoke and pro-pot revelry.
University spokesman Barry Shiller said campus police "are going to
keep an eye out for behavior that overtly demands their attention."
But he said they will neither stop the event nor keep people from smoking pot.
The celebrations anger anti-drug abuse advocates.
"This is a sad day," said Carla Lowe, who founded Californians for
Drug Free Youth and now heads a political committee fighting
marijuana legalization. "This whole thing is bogus. It's a fraud, a fad.
"Why do we find more kids smoking pot than cigarettes? I mean,
they're taught in school that cigarettes are bad. I'm furious what
this celebration is saying."
Even some marijuana advocates are leery of 4/20 revelry.
Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy
Alliances, which seeks alternatives to the drug war, penned a special
4/20 column. Calling for Americans to roll back pot laws, he wrote:
"Don't just smoke a joint on 4/20 take action against marijuana prohibition."
While the 4:20 p.m. smoking circles in San Rafael are widely accepted
as the origin, some people believe that "420" also symbolizes the
more than 400 ingredients in cannabis.
The number is so revered in the pot world that when the California
Legislature passed a 2003 bill governing medical marijuana
distribution, it was Senate Bill 420. Last week state Sen. Mark Leno
returned a reporter's call on a pot bill he is carrying at precisely 4:20 p.m.
Medical marijuana use has been legal in California since 1996. And
California's burgeoning medical pot dispensaries will flower with
4/20 events Tuesday.
In Sacramento, the El Camino Wellness Center will offer an eighth of
a gram of marijuana normally $60 for $4.20. It will feature music
and giveaways such as microwaveable pot popcorn.
"When I was younger, this was a party day," said Sonny Kumar, the
center's co-founder. "Now, it's patient appreciation day."
Ford Kuramoto, executive director of a Los Angeles anti-drug abuse
group serving Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, said
4/20 has become a near corporate-style event for cannabis industries.
"This is reminiscent of advertising campaigns that the tobacco and
the alcohol industries engage in," Kuramoto said.
In Arcata, medical marijuana activist Mariellen Jurkovich, director
of the Humboldt Patient Resource Center, will be out urging people
not to smoke.
For hundreds of people at Arcata's Redwood Park, she'll demonstrate
her smokeless vaporizers and juices that deliver "medicine" without
lighting up. "We want to educate people on the healthier ways they
might want to ingest cannabis," Jurkovich said.
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