April 20th is a special day for millions of people around the world, the unofficial "holiday" for marijuana smokers.
Many people mark April 20th, especially at 4:20 pm, with a toke. Some people will mark the day and the occasion with close friends. Others, in cities like Santa Cruz or Boulder, will be part of gatherings of thousands of people to celebrate the occasion. Both the intimate and mass gatherings are fun. It is special to be with a small group smoking a joint: the laughing, discussing, playing and chilling. It is also exhilarating being with thousands of others, all smoking, usually at a beautiful outdoor spot, often with some music.
On 4/20, in certain towns there is an open truce. The police allow the 4/20 gatherings to happen and are reluctant to arrest people. It is worth noting that at these mass gatherings of hundreds or thousands of people smoking marijuana, there is none of the rowdiness or violence that we often see at alcohol-fueled gatherings.
In addition to the good times, 4/20 is also a time where many people feel free to be open about their marijuana use. There is still stigma and real fear that you may get arrested or lose your job for smoking marijuana. The power-in-numbers, celebratory feel of 4/20 allows people to enjoy their marijuana in the open and with friends and see that there are more of us than we realize.
This is significant because many marijuana smokers don't feel comfortable admitting to the world that they use marijuana -- and this is one reason why marijuana is still illegal and almost a million people get arrested for it every year.
While I appreciate the good times on 4/20 as much as the next toker, I would like to put out a challenge: We need YOU to help end marijuana prohibition.
While many people associate marijuana with fun times, it also happens to be at the epicenter of a catastrophic war on drugs that is destroying as many lives as ever. If the current rate holds, more than 760,000 people in the U.S. will be arrested for just possessing a small amount of marijuana in 2011 -- twice the amount of marijuana possession arrests as in the 1980s. Once you're arrested, even for just a small amount of marijuana, you can lose much more than just your freedom -- you can lose your job, financial aid, housing, and even custody of your children.
Sometimes it might feel like marijuana is already legal -- but it isn't, especially if you're black or Latino. Nationally, in virtually every town and city, marijuana arrests reveal stark racial disparities. In 2010, 86 percent of those charged for marijuana possession in New York were black or Latino, even though these groups represent only about half of the city's population. Is this because blacks and Latinos are more likely to use or sell drugs? Not at all -- contrary to myths perpetuated in the media, the government's own data shows that white people are just as likely to use or sell marijuana as black or Latino people. Marijuana use doesn't discriminate, but our marijuana policies do.
In addition to the lives harmed by arrests and incarceration, there are enormous economic costs. The war on drugs costs the government at least $51 billion every year at the state and federal level. And that's not counting costs at the local level. For instance, according to a recent DPA report, New York City alone spent $75 million dollars arresting more than 50,000 people for marijuana possession in 2010.
The harms of marijuana prohibition are even more devastating to our neighbors to the South. In Mexico, more than 37,000 people have been killed since President Calderon declared war on the drug cartels, who make about half their profits in the marijuana business. It is not marijuana itself that causes violence on U.S. streets or the bloody war in Mexico -- it is the policy of marijuana prohibition.
This June will mark the 40th anniversary of Richard Nixon launching the war on drugs. The Drug Policy Alliance will be teaming up with organizations across the country to protest this disgraceful anniversary in cities and towns across the country.
I hope everyone has a good time on 4/20. And I hope you join the movement to end marijuana prohibition. This war on marijuana -- and the people who use it -- needs to end!
Tony Newman is the director of media relations at the Drug Policy Alliance
Follow Tony Newman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TonyNewmanDPA
I know. When we start voting.
Give the POWER back to the independent State to decide. No true teabagger is going to contest on the principal of less government control so there might be some bipartisan power to push it through…
Of course.. standing in the way would be the current status quo ( Drug dealers/growers and prison guard/unions.)
Oh I can see the Huffpo headline already “Right Wing Hippies attacking the wellbeing of the families of correction officers by legalizing:: They claim they are doing this in an effort to return responsibility to individual States to decide such matters but secretly we will all know the industry (both public and private) stands to make millions and will force prison guards/drugdealers out of their jobs so this is actually just all about GREED”
Has anyone seen my lighter?
taken to chamber where they burn cannabis , inside there they will give birth and
feel no pain..
i saw in the sienci page in THE NEW YORK TIMES
Lord Mota Elected NORML IOWA PRESIDENT !!!
4/16/2011 Lynnice Wedewer joins in on the second half of the show.....GREEN CENTRAL STATION LIVE Saturdays 6 central replay on (TNN)The NORML Network www.live.NORML.org Wed 8 central
as we prepare show #35 without 'the Deacon & Lord Mota who will be at the National NORML Conference in Denver 4/23/2011.
and TWO WISE GUYS..
say LEGALIZE:
"Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country."
~ Thomas Jefferson
"Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere."
~ George Washington
"Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marihuana in private for personal use... Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marihuana."
~ Jimmy Carter
"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this."
~ Albert Einstein
"The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world." ~Carl Sagan
http://www.veryimportantpotheads.com/
The bigger question though is this: In a free country having things be legal is the default. You should need to have a reason, and a good reason at that, to regulate something in general and even more so to regulate something into illegality. When you do so regulate/ban you should draw those regulations or bans as narrowly as possible, get at the specific problem you want to solve and stop it from happening. With that being the case, I ask any supporters of prohibition, what reason is there to entirely ban marijuana? If you have a reason in mind, is it a good reason?
You see I think you should have just ended it with "But not to happy to legislate national issues."
can i be your vp?
Too many lives have been damaged or our-and-out ruined because of simple drug possession convictions. Allow it, regulate it, let the govt at all levels get their cut (which is ALWAYS the requisite for their blessing), and let the consumer do as he or she will do!
However, there also is power in numbers, as the 4/20 gatherings demonstrate. If a movement of formerly anonymous tokers who decide to openly acknowledge themselves as users emerges, it could be powerfully influential. None of us wants to be out there on a lonely crusade, but if significant numbers of users declare themselves, I could see the movement picking up steam.
One thing's for sure: There would be no shortage of celebrity endorsements available from the music, movie and television industries.