Cannabis

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/36100-lots-of-people-are-going-to-get-high-at-the-white-house-this-weekend

The idea of marijuana smoke wafting across the White House lawn and snaking around the tall Ionic columns of the iconic Truman Balcony, perhaps even sneaking inside past the gilded furniture and portraits of presidents past, is a tantalizing prospect for organizers of a planned Pennsylvania Avenue demonstration.

Grassroots activitists at Saturday’s scheduled 2 p.m. marijuana legalization protest are armed with a 51-foot inflatable joint, a cage to lock up hypothetical cannabis “prisoners” and other attention-grabbing paraphernalia. Those gathered will rally for the millions of people arrested for marijuana during Barack Obama’s tenure and call for the president to deschedule cannabis so it’s no longer among the most prohibited substances in the country. According to organizers, the event will culminate at 4:20 p.m. with what they are saying will be the first major marijuana “smoke-in” in the nation’s capital. The egregious public consumption of marijuana will likely result in mass arrests — and that’s part of the plan.

But instead of garnering widespread support among like-minded brethren, many in the cannabis scene and growing industry are avoiding the demonstration, and some are questioning the logic of such tactics. The ambivalence highlights philosophical divisions within the marijuana movement: As the crusade to normalize cannabis finally achieves gains, what’s the best way forward to achieve its final goals?

Organizers conceived of the protest after the Obama signaled earlier this year he was not planning on major marijuana reform before the end of his administration. That, combined with the 5 million marijuana-related arrests that organizers say have transpired during Obama’s tenure, was enough to inspire action. “For someone who supposedly wants to stop incarceration, he has done nothing to stop this,” said Adam Eidinger, co-founder of DCMJ, the organization behind the successful 2015 effort to legalize marijuana in the nation’s capital and among the chief organizers of the smoke-in. “Here in D.C. [District of Columbia], we are an island of legalized marijuana surrounded by prohibition. People leaving the city are at risk of arrest. We want rights in all 50 states.”