cannabisnews.com: Marching on High Marching on High Posted by CN Staff on May 03, 2002 at 11:09:03 PT By Charlie McKenzie Source: Hour Magazine For thousands of Montealers and millions worldwide, the Million Marijuana March is both a fundamental right and a fun-filled rite of spring. From its beginning in May 1998, when activists faced down then-New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani in a U.S. federal court and won their right to march for marijuana down New York's famed 5th Avenue, the first Saturday in May has since become an internationally-recognized day of pro-marijuana marches and festivals. Under the stewardship of the provincial Bloc Pot and federal Marijuana Party, Montreal was one of the original participating cities. In recent years they confined the march to the trendy streets of the Plateau but organizers this year are taking the cause into the troubled Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, long considered the exclusive fiefdom of outlaw biker gangs. "We know many [East-end residents] are silently sympathetic to ending marijuana prohibition and the violence associated with the drug trade," says federal Marijuana Party leader Marc-Boris St-Maurice. The march starts at "high" noon from Joliette metro, and will eventually wind its way to Berri-UQAM Square. Their cavalcade will include a "rolling stage" with a bevy of indigenous musicians, culled from local groups GrimSkunk, Overbass and Cavaliers Noirs, under the cover-name "Collectivo." Since coming out as a marijuana activist in 1993, St-Maurice has helped organize five annual smoke-ins, four Million March parades, the provincial Bloc Pot and the federal Marijuana Party. "It's been a long, strange trip," he recalls. "But strangest perhaps is our relationship with the police - for this one day each year, they're really out there helping us. And each year I find myself reminding people to be polite with the cops." "After all, this is a celebration," he said, "not a demonstration." Participants assemble at Metro Joliette around 11 a.m.Source: Hour Magazine (CN QU)Author: Charlie McKenzie Published: May 2, 2002Copyright: 2002, Communications Voir Inc.Website: http://www.hour.ca/Contact: letters afterhour.comBloc Pothttp://www.blocpot.qc.ca/Million Marijuana March 2002http://freedomtoexhale.com/million.htmCannabisNews - Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #1 posted by eco-man on May 04, 2002 at 04:59:42 PT 197+ cities worldwide and counting!!! MMM May 4 -----MMM Cannabis 2002 press release----- 197+ cities worldwide and counting!!! Cannabis Liberation Day. May 4 2002. 4th annual Million Marijuana March (MMM). Against the global drug war. No Global Police State. Free the Prisoners of Drug War. *MMM 2002 EVENT NAVIGATOR. Cannabis Liberation Day. It lists the names of nearly all of the MMM cities worldwide on one page. In alphabetical order. With the state and country names also. Click any city in the alphabetical list to see the contact and rally info for that city: This is a great new web page: http://www.millionmarijuanamarch.org/navigator.php The main page for the continually-updated, clickable, all-on-one-page, alphabetical city list for MMM 2002, Cannabis Liberation Day, is at the page here: http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/mmm2002.htm and http://corporatism.tripod.com/mmm2002.htm and http://members.fortunecity.com/multi19/mmm2002.htm [ Post Comment ] Post Comment