Santa Cruz, California MMM 2005.

http://www.scdruglawreform.com

 

To avoid being mistakenly deleted as spam please put MMM in the subject-title of any MMM email sent to the Santa Cruz MMM email addresses below. Also, substitute @ for "at" in the email addresses below. "at" stops spambots from harvesting addresses.

 

raggarwa"at"ucsc.edu ritikaisnot"at"yahoo.com

 

A Google News shortcut for cannabis rallies and marches:
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Santa Cruz Sentinel.

May 5, 2005

Pot summit comes to DeLaveaga

Don’t expect to burn one down, it’s a meet-and-greet event

By ELISE KLEEMAN
Sentinel correspondent

SANTA CRUZ — If you’ve got the munchies, DeLaveaga Park is the place to be Saturday.

From noon to 5 p.m. at Lone Tree picnic area, marijuana supporters will meet for the local celebration of the Million Marijuana March.

There, the UC Santa Cruz chapters of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and Students for Sensible Drug Policy will host a barbecue they hope will be an opportunity for members of the local marijuana community to come together and meet each other.

"We’d like people to see they’re not so alone, especially if they’re medical marijuana patients," said local SSDP member Daniel Bear, a senior at UCSC.

The Santa Cruz picnic is one of 200 gatherings in 37 countries to celebrate the Million Marijuana March. New York-based pot advocacy group Cures Not Wars first organized the international event about 30 years ago.

"It’s been so criminalized that people are sort of in the closet about it," said Ritika Aggarwal, a UCSC junior and founder of the school’s NORML chapter. "This is their chance to step out."

The focus will be on socializing, not politics, said Bear. As well as food, his group is bringing Frisbees, footballs and lawn bowling sets.

 
The picnic will also be an opportunity to prepare for the Supreme Court ruling in the case Raich v. Ashcroft, Aggarwal said. At stake is the federal government’s authority over marijuana grown and used legally according to state and local laws.

If the Supreme Court rules in favor of former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft — the decision may come later this month — one casualty could be the pot farm run by Santa Cruz’s Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana.

In 2002, Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided the farm, tearing up 150 plants just weeks before the annual harvest. The farm is currently protected by a federal judge’s injunction, making it the only legal marijuana farm in the country.

But "their injunction will be dropped in 60 days if this comes down negative," Aggarwal said.

Valerie Corral, WAMM founder, will not be able to attend the picnic, but said it will be a great meet-and-greet opportunity and "maybe to dispel the mythology that has been erroneously assigned to the use of some drugs."

Those coming shouldn’t count on showing up to a cloud of pot smoke.

"This is a family friendly event," Bear said. "I have no doubt that someone will spark up, but we are going to ask them not to. We aren’t baking any special brownies, we aren’t handing out any joints when you show up."

 

Contact Elise Kleeman at ekleeman@...

 

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Photo galleries. Cannabis events worldwide. Free MMM posters by mail.
http://gallery.marihemp.com/mmm

MMM (Million Marijuana March).
First Saturday in May, or that weekend, or thereabouts.
Hundreds of different cities worldwide since 1999.
2005 city list, links, world map:
http://members.fortunecity.com/multi19/mmm2005map.htm
Yahoo Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cannabisaction