Pubdate: Fri, 20 Apr 2012
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Copyright: 2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Website: http://www.ajc.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28
Author: Rema Rahman

MARIJUANA RALLY IN TROUBLE AT COLORADO UNIVERSITY

DENVER - The pungent smell of pot that blankets a popular quadrangle
at the University of Colorado-Boulder every April 20 is being replaced
by the stench of fish-based fertilizer Friday as administrators try to
stamp out one of the nation's largest annual campus celebrations of
marijuana.

After more than 10,000 people - students and non-students - attended
last year's marijuana rally on Norlin Quadrangle, university officials
decided this year to apply the stinky fertilizer to the quad to deter
pot-smokers. They're also closing the campus Friday to all
unauthorized visitors and offering a free campus concert by
Haitian-born hip-hop star Wyclef Jean timed to coincide with the
traditional 4:20 p.m. pot gathering. His contract bars him from making
any direct references to marijuana, other drugs or to 4/20.

The measures pit Colorado's flagship university, which has tired of
its reputation as a top party school, against thousands who have
assembled, flash mob-style, each year to demand marijuana's
legalization or simply to have a good time.

With more than 30,000 students, Colorado was named the nation's top
party school in 2011 by Playboy magazine. The campus also repeatedly
ranks among the top schools for marijuana use, according to a "Reefer
Madness" list conducted by The Princeton Review.

"We don't consider this a protest. We consider this people smoking pot
in the sunshine," said university spokesman Bronson Hilliard. "This is
a gathering of people engaging in an illegal activity."

"I do not see any justification for the university shutting it down,"
said student organizer Daniel Ellis Schwartz, who contends the
measures infringe on First Amendment rights to protest. Schwartz, a
physics major, and other supporters of the 4/20 smoke out plan to move
it to a nearby park off-campus. He suggests there also will be some
form of off-campus protest against the measures.

"We do have to play a game of chess with the authorities," Schwartz
said.

Cynthia Hardey, who works in the library on the quad, thinks the
university is overreacting and said the event would go by largely
unnoticed if not for the crackdown.

"You know, I go home, they got the pot in the air, big deal. Next day
everything is forgotten. But now they're making a big thing about it,
and this is going down in history. So we're having police state
tactics here for what? Because a couple of people want to protest the
laws, these pot laws? I don't get it," said Hardey, a library technician.

Many students at the University of Colorado and other campuses across
the country have long observed 4/20. The counterculture observation is
shared by marijuana users from San Francisco's Golden Gate Park to New
York's Greenwich Village.

In Austin, Texas, country music legend Willie Nelson, who's open about
his marijuana use, was expected to help unveil an 8-foot statue of
himself in downtown Austin at 4:20 p.m. local time on Friday.

The number 420 has been associated with marijuana use for decades,
though its origins are murky. Its use as code for marijuana spread
among California pot users in the 1960s and spread nationwide among
followers of the Grateful Dead.

Like most counterculture slang, theories abound on its origin. Some
say it was once police code in Southern California to denote marijuana
use (probably an urban legend). It was a title number for a 2003
California bill about medical marijuana, an irony fully intended.

Others trace it to a group of California teenagers who would meet at
4:20 p.m. to search for weed (a theory as elusive as the outdoor
cannabis crop they were seeking). Yet the code stuck for obvious
reasons: Authorities and nosy parents didn't know what it meant.

In Colorado, recent 4/20 observations have blossomed alongside the
state's medical marijuana industry. Approved by Colorado voters in
2000, medical marijuana boomed after federal authorities signaled in
2009 they would pursue higher-level drug crimes. All marijuana is
illegal under federal law, though Colorado voters this November will
consider a ballot measure to legalize it for recreational use by
adults over 21.

A larger rally is planned for Denver near the state capitol on Friday
and Saturday. Police have suggested they'll be taking a hands-off
approach to the gathering, which could draw tens of thousands of
people, said chief organizer Miguel Lopez.

Others are rebelling against the gatherings.

In Colorado, several high schools across the state are hosting
drug-free events on Friday. The University of Colorado's student
government supports the university's anti-4/20 actions this year. And
other Colorado students created a Facebook campaign urging their
colleagues to wear formal clothing to school on Friday to repudiate
the party-school reputation.

Campus police officers will be stationed at school entrances, allowing
in only those with university IDs or permission. Anyone on campus
without proper ID could be ticketed for trespassing, which carries a
maximum $750 fine and up to six months in jail, said campus police
spokesman Ryan Huff.

Anyone caught smoking on campus will be ticketed, just as they would
any other day, Huff said. That includes anyone with a medical
marijuana card, which requires that consumption be in private.

As ground crews applied the fertilizer early Friday, numbers were put
up on light poles around the quad to help police keep track of
potential problems. Signs were also posted warning trespassers they
will be prosecuted.

Philosophy major Julian Hirschbaum said it smelled like "somebody cut
up a bunch of fish" and watered it.

"It's pretty gross," he said.

Off campus, Boulder police could also issue tickets for people smoking
pot, and the Colorado State Patrol will be watching for any motorists
under the influence, Huff said.

"This is not about the war on drugs. It isn't even about marijuana per
se," insisted Hilliard, the university spokesman. "Ten thousand to
12,000 (people) doing anything in the academic heart of the campus
would be a problem."
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MAP posted-by: Matt