Not that I condone drug usage or smoking, but I do think the drug laws are ridiculous, and that civil disobedience of this magnitude is a good way to bring attention to this.
[quote] Although it's become an annual and renowned event at [the University of Colorado at Boulder], this year's 4/20 celebration was different in some ways than in many previous years: The crowd was so large it migrated from the long-traditional site of Farrand Field to the larger Norlin quad; festivities kicked off earlier than normal with daytime concerts; and CU police handed out zero citations.
"At this point, none are anticipated," said CU police Cmdr. Brad Wiesley.
Officers in the past have gone to great lengths to catch people in the illegal act of smoking pot on 4/20.
In 2006, CU police dispatched undercover photographers to snap pictures of smokers. Photos of 150 alleged offenders then were posted on the department's Web site, and witnesses were offered $50 to positively identify the suspects - who then were ticketed. Another year, smokers on Farrand were doused with sprinklers.
"We can't do the same thing year after year," Wiesley said hours before today's smoking began. "So I doubt we'll do anything like the pictures. ... There�??s no way our 12 to 15 officers are going to be able to deal with a crowd of 10,000. We just can't do strong enforcement when we�??re outnumbered 700 or 800 to one."[/quote]
[quote]BostonBarrister wrote:
Not that I condone drug usage or smoking, but I do think the drug laws are ridiculous, and that civil disobedience of this magnitude is a good way to bring attention to this.
Although it's become an annual and renowned event at [the University of Colorado at Boulder], this year's 4/20 celebration was different in some ways than in many previous years: The crowd was so large it migrated from the long-traditional site of Farrand Field to the larger Norlin quad; festivities kicked off earlier than normal with daytime concerts; and CU police handed out zero citations.
"At this point, none are anticipated," said CU police Cmdr. Brad Wiesley.
Officers in the past have gone to great lengths to catch people in the illegal act of smoking pot on 4/20.
In 2006, CU police dispatched undercover photographers to snap pictures of smokers. Photos of 150 alleged offenders then were posted on the department's Web site, and witnesses were offered $50 to positively identify the suspects - who then were ticketed. Another year, smokers on Farrand were doused with sprinklers.
"We can't do the same thing year after year," Wiesley said hours before today's smoking began. "So I doubt we'll do anything like the pictures. ... There�??s no way our 12 to 15 officers are going to be able to deal with a crowd of 10,000. We just can't do strong enforcement when we�??re outnumbered 700 or 800 to one."
I was in DC during the 4th of July smoke in about 10 years ago. A lot of smelly potheads but it was cool to see that many people blazing away right under the cops noses.
You guys sound lucky. Your communities potheads are all laid back. Most of the smokers here in the NC mountains are either loud rednecks, 16 year old high school kids who are simply annoying and do it in public then get arrested, or wal-mart employees who dont shut up about politics when their stoned. Once in a while you meet a guy or gal who gets stoned and chills, but usually their douches. Oh well.
[quote]Dickie_B wrote:
You guys sound lucky. Your communities potheads are all laid back. Most of the smokers here in the NC mountains are either loud rednecks, 16 year old high school kids who are simply annoying and do it in public then get arrested, or wal-mart employees who dont shut up about politics when their stoned. Once in a while you meet a guy or gal who gets stoned and chills, but usually their douches. Oh well.[/quote]
Better talkative douchebags than violent douchebags.
[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
Dickie_B wrote:
You guys sound lucky. Your communities potheads are all laid back. Most of the smokers here in the NC mountains are either loud rednecks, 16 year old high school kids who are simply annoying and do it in public then get arrested, or wal-mart employees who dont shut up about politics when their stoned. Once in a while you meet a guy or gal who gets stoned and chills, but usually their douches. Oh well.
Better talkative douchebags than violent douchebags.[/quote]
Alcohol creates most of the violence. I’m not exactly afraid of some guy who has the munchies and wants to explain his philosophical take on why cheese whiz is yellow.
And Im not saying people should drink in excess. All Im trying to say is that were I live, the pot thing sounds very different then alot of other peoples. We’ve got people here who do it in a way that lacks any sense what so ever.
When someone gets high and explains their philosophical views on junk food, thats chillin. When 7 or 8 teen aged kids are passed out stoned on the sidewalk of main street…in a small town, thats douchie. Chill.
You would think the governments of the world would have learned a global social lesson from the 1930’s prohibition on alcohol. If you attempt to ban a substance that is enjoyed by the people you will create a black market. Which in turn will create an underground for criminal activity to flourish in.
The more the governments attempt to regulate the use of recreational substances the richer the underworld will become. They, the government, keep trying to solve a problem that only became a problem because they made it a problem. There is a reason why me keep electing morons into office, they make the rest of us look so much smarter than we are.
[quote]streamline wrote:
You would think the governments of the world would have learned a global social lesson from the 1930’s prohibition on alcohol.
[/quote]
If there is one universal truth, it is that the governments of the world very seldom, if ever, learn global social lessons.