LdyLunatic
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Arcata -- Cars driving on LK Wood Boulevard just before noon Saturday were greeted by a strange and odoriferous chorus of protesters who offered packed marijuana pipes and broken bits of song to all passers-by.
The participants were taking part in the local version of the national Million Marijuana March. The clamored against what they said is the criminalization of the innocent, and the prohibition of a drug that is less harmful than alcohol and cigarettes.
They weren't shy about their drug use. Lighters sparked pipes and marijuana cigarettes while red-rimmed eyes squinted against the sun that came out just in time to escort the marcher through town.
Two men offered pipes to cars that passed along the road, and made only minimal effort to hide their contraband when two police cars in a row raced by the scene.
Humboldt State University student Terra Kopf said the government has it's priorities wrong.
I don't feel like I should be labeled a criminal, she said.
Marijuana doesn't kill anyone, she said.
Instead, it's being suppressed by the government because national leaders have all their time and money staked into alcohol and cigarettes, she said.
It just doesn't make sense that people should go to jail for it, she said.
Fellow student Melissa Gussin said a slew of injustices accompany marijuana enforcement.
Critically ill patients are thrown into jail despite the voter-approved laws that declare marijuana a legitimate medicine, she said.
As someone who smokes marijuana, she said she has been stereotyped as dumb, and as being a burden on society. She said she maintains a high grade point average.
The point is, marijuana doesn't hurt anyone, she said.
Even if it did, it would only be hurting the users, and no one else, she said.
Before departing on their march, the crowd held colorful signs and collected in small groups listening to the slightly atonal music coming from an apparently impromptu flute-and-drum band.
Stop the prohibition, one man shouted.
Legalize marijuana, answered another.
Source: Times-Standard (Eureka, CA)
Author: James Faulk, The Times-Standard
Published: May 7, 2006
Copyright: 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc.
The participants were taking part in the local version of the national Million Marijuana March. The clamored against what they said is the criminalization of the innocent, and the prohibition of a drug that is less harmful than alcohol and cigarettes.
They weren't shy about their drug use. Lighters sparked pipes and marijuana cigarettes while red-rimmed eyes squinted against the sun that came out just in time to escort the marcher through town.
Two men offered pipes to cars that passed along the road, and made only minimal effort to hide their contraband when two police cars in a row raced by the scene.
Humboldt State University student Terra Kopf said the government has it's priorities wrong.
I don't feel like I should be labeled a criminal, she said.
Marijuana doesn't kill anyone, she said.
Instead, it's being suppressed by the government because national leaders have all their time and money staked into alcohol and cigarettes, she said.
It just doesn't make sense that people should go to jail for it, she said.
Fellow student Melissa Gussin said a slew of injustices accompany marijuana enforcement.
Critically ill patients are thrown into jail despite the voter-approved laws that declare marijuana a legitimate medicine, she said.
As someone who smokes marijuana, she said she has been stereotyped as dumb, and as being a burden on society. She said she maintains a high grade point average.
The point is, marijuana doesn't hurt anyone, she said.
Even if it did, it would only be hurting the users, and no one else, she said.
Before departing on their march, the crowd held colorful signs and collected in small groups listening to the slightly atonal music coming from an apparently impromptu flute-and-drum band.
Stop the prohibition, one man shouted.
Legalize marijuana, answered another.
Source: Times-Standard (Eureka, CA)
Author: James Faulk, The Times-Standard
Published: May 7, 2006
Copyright: 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc.
