cannabisnews.com: Easter Holiday Does Not Stifle '4/20' Event





Easter Holiday Does Not Stifle '4/20' Event
Posted by CN Staff on April 22, 2003 at 14:57:39 PT
By Camera Staff
Source: Daily Camera 
Easter dinners didn't keep hundreds from gathering at an annual word-of-mouth celebration of marijuana at the University of Colorado. Not just a Christian holiday, Sunday was April 20 — or 4/20 — a day that has spawned loosely organized acts of civil disobedience around the country in support of legalizing marijuana. 
Five police officers were outnumbered for about two hours Sunday afternoon by about 800 people at Farrand Field, some smoking marijuana, some playing music and others simply people-watching, said Cpl. Jim Manzanares of the CU Police Department. The officers made no arrests, although they did confiscate some drug paraphernalia. "Because there were so many people, we decided to keep a low profile," Manzanares said. "It was mostly a pretty peaceful group. When you're in that kind of situation, you try to enforce the laws but make sure you don't make it into a worse problem than it started out to be." Ralph Shnelvar, former Libertarian gubernatorial candidate, was at the event that he called a "spontaneous" gathering and estimated that the peak crowd at 4:20 p.m. was in the thousands. "There was an enormous amount of pot being smoked," said Shnelvar, 53, adding that he has never smoked marijuana but is in support of legalizing it. "If there are five cops and 3,000 people, would you be insane enough to arrest somebody? In a lot of ways this is the essence of democracy in action. You have this overwhelming outpouring of people who want the law changed, and the cops would have been insane to arrest anybody." Rumored to be a police code for drug busts, 420 simply took on its meaning because it was the time of day a group of San Rafael High School students in California known as "The Waldos" had an after-school marijuana meeting 30 years ago, according to the online magazine -- http://www.420Times.com Adam Scavone, a 23-year-old CU continuing education student, took part in the pot-smoking event Sunday and collected signatures to try to remove a question that asks students applying for financial aid whether they have been convicted of drug possession. "This is the one time everybody comes out in public and very blatantly breaks the law," Scavone said. "If that's what people can do for the marijuana reform movement once a year, that's great." Note: About 800 gather during marijuana celebration at Farrand Field.Source: Daily Camera (CO)Published: April 21, 2003Copyright: 2003 The Daily CameraWebsite: http://www.bouldernews.com/Contact: openforum thedailycamera.comRelated Articles:Anisq' Oyo' Park Goes Up in Smokehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16026.shtmlMyths of 420 - GW Hatchet http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16018.shtmlWhen 4:20 Rolls Along Do You Light Up http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16002.shtmlWhat Time Is It? It's 4:20! http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16001.shtml 
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