cannabisnews.com: SLC Rally Promotes Medical Marijuana SLC Rally Promotes Medical Marijuana Posted by CN Staff on May 05, 2002 at 08:16:03 PT By Kevin Cantera, The Salt Lake Tribune Source: Salt Lake Tribune A noisy band of pro-marijuana marchers moved through Salt Lake City on Saturday with a blunt message -- it's time to legalize medical pot in Utah. Marijuana "has the power to make us a more loving and compassionate society," said California activist Dennis Peron, leading the raucous and tie-dyed crowd up to the state Capitol, where they rallied on the Statehouse steps. About 200 people turned out for the Million Marijuana March, many sporting green pot leaf stamps on their faces, others carrying signs with messages like, "Marijuana is good medicine: The only side effect is happiness." The group cheered and called out "Smoke weed!" as passing drivers honked their support. The march and rally -- one of 185 scheduled to take place around the world -- was organized by Peron, the self-styled "father of medical marijuana," along with Utah activists Ken Larsen and Ben Valdez. Peron, a San Francisco native who led the successful 1996 initiative drive in California legalizing medical use of cannabis, faces trial in Cedar City's 5th District Court for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of drug paraphernalia. He and two companions were arrested last year after Cedar City police allegedly found more than a pound of pot in their motel room and car. Peron, who carries prescriptions from three California doctors allowing him to use weed to treat his alcoholism, has vowed to fight the charges. He hopes Utah will join eight other states, including Nevada and Colorado, which have put medical marijuana laws on their books. "I am proud of the people of Utah," he told the cheering group. "We changed the law of the land in California . . . We can do it here." Trying to make that possible, Rebecca Vandevener moved through the crowd, enthusiastically gathering signatures for The Utah Therapeutic Humane Cannabis Act, a proposed ballot initiative. "This is for all the people who are suffering," said Vandevener, who suffers from cancer and says that "marijuana is the only thing that works." By smoking marijuana, Vandevener says she is able to counter the nausea that accompanies her cancer treatment. "It just makes sense. We can do it in Utah," she said. And even though Peron himself admits that the group will be unable to gather the 76,180 signatures needed by June 1 to put the initiative on this year's ballot, organizers say that their first task is to get the message to voters. "If we create a debate, we will win," said John Entwistle, another California activist who worked with Peron in 1996. "People in Utah are more networked than we are in California," Entwistle said. "A good idea in Utah can spread very quickly." The most important step is to convince the state's lawmakers that medical marijuana makes sense, and has the support of many in the medical community, Entwistle said. Source: Salt Lake Tribune (UT)Author: Kevin Cantera, The Salt Lake Tribune Published: Sunday, May 5, 2002Copyright: 2002 The Salt Lake TribuneContact: letters sltrib.comWebsite: http://www.sltrib.com/ Related Articles & Web Sites:Marijuana.orghttp://www.marijuana.org/Million Marijuana March 2002http://freedomtoexhale.com/million.htmPot Is the Answer, Advocate Sayshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12617.shtml San Francisco Trio to Get Utah Trial on Chargehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12389.shtml CannabisNews - Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #1 posted by eco-man on May 06, 2002 at 04:43:05 PT 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 cannabisaction yahoogroups.com is an mail address for sending in MMM reports, photos, web pages, etc.. Anybody can use this address. There is no need to subscribe to anything first. Messages sent to this email address will end up in the public archive at this MMM Yahoo Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cannabisactionPlease also send in personal or published MMM rally reports to Dana Beal dana cures-not-wars.org and to Cannabis News at submissions cannabisnews.com where they will be posted at: http://www.cannabisnews.com *FoM of Cannabis News has a compilation of links to MMM 2002 rally reports: http://freedomtoexhale.com/million.htm [ Post Comment ] Post Comment