April 20 is notoriously Adolf Hitler’s birthday, the anniversary of the 1776 siege of Boston, of successful pasteurization in 1864, and of the horrible massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado. It is also America’s fastest-growing holiday, known as 4/20. Call it National Stoners’ Day.
It started, of course, in California, almost four decades ago, when a group of teenagers at San Rafael High School supposedly congregated at 4:20 p.m. every day to smoke weed next to a statue of Louis Pasteur. (In my line of work, we call this a story too good to check.) 4/20 observances gradually spread to college campuses and have even been coopted by Hollywood. Two years ago, the memorably awful movie “Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay’’ opened on 4/20.
What is in store today? Well, if you missed the Extravaganja festivals in Springfield, Amherst, and Keene, N.H., over the weekend, to say nothing of the Girls4Ganja fashion show, 4/20 observances kick off here at midnight with a smoke-in on the roof of a major university library. (Not Harvard; not Boston University; you’ll have to guess.) Then it’s on to the harborside federal courthouse, where 26-year-old Connecticut construction worker Dan Gervais will begin his Walk Against Lies, which will take him all the way to Los Angeles, via Providence, Washington, D.C., and other major cities.
Gervais will be eating and dressing in products made from hemp. Gervais wants to raise awareness “about the 80 years of lies, propaganda, and coerced medical testimony used to outlaw our planet’s most valuable, renewable natural resource,’’ according to his website.
Turning serious for a moment — as serious as one can be on National Stoners’ Day — there are three issues that galvanize the pot-smoking community: decriminalization, medical marijuana use, and full legalization of cannabis consumption and production. In 2008 Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly approved Question 2, a “decrim’’ measure that levies a small civil fine for possession of less than an ounce of pot. Weed people like to point out that (a) decrim got more votes than Barack Obama in that election and (b) the most prominent pol to oppose decrim — Attorney General Martha Coakley — had her head handed to her in the subsequent special Senate election.
Did Coakley lose the hophead vote? Only the exit polls know for sure.
On medical marijuana, there is more action in contiguous states than here. Rhode Island, Vermont, and Maine all allow regulated use of marijuana for medicine. Massachusetts passed a law legalizing medical marijuana in 1992, with the pot to be provided by the National Institute of Drug Abuse’s test supply at the University of Mississippi. But the NIDA never sent us its stash. “The federal government doesn’t give it out except for studies meant to examine the negative effects of marijuana,’’ says Matthew Allen of the Patient Advocacy Alliance. A similar bill is being studied by the Legislature, with little chance of passage this year.
I came face to face with California’s loosely regulated medical marijuana program in February, while walking the promenade at Venice Beach. A hawker encased in a sandwich board was bearding passersby to enter his “medical marijuana’’ clinic. “Walk-ins are welcome!’’ he shouted. “The doctor is available!’’ That’s what I call equal access to medical care.
Full legalization seems like a pipe dream for now. The Obama administration’s drug czar, former Buffalo, N.Y., police chief Gil Kerlikowske, strongly opposes legal reefer: “As I’ve said from the day I was sworn in, marijuana legalization — for any purpose — is a nonstarter in the Obama administration,’’ he said in a speech to the California Police Chiefs Association last month. “The science, though still evolving, is clear: Marijuana use is harmful. It is associated with dependence, respiratory and mental illness, poor motor performance, and cognitive impairment, among other negative effects.’’
Northampton lawyer Richard Evans wrote a legalization bill that has been submitted to the Massachusetts Legislature. What is the chance that will pass?, I asked. “None whatsoever,’’ Evans answered. “I’m not so much interested in legalizing marijuana as I am in legalizing debate about marijuana.’’
Source: Boston Globe
By: Alex Beam
