CU’s 4/20 pot smoke-out draws crowd of 10,000: Police issue zero tickets

DailyCamera ^ | 4/20/08 | Vanessa Miller

[Politics4Fun]

"Nine, eight, seven ..."

A crowd of about 10,000 people collectively began counting down on the University of Colorado's Norlin Quadrangle just before 4:20 p.m. Sunday.

Yet the massive puff of pot smoke that hovers over CU's Boulder campus every April 20 -- the date of an annual, internationally recognized celebration of marijuana -- began rising over the sea of heads earlier than normal this year.

"Oh forget it," one student said, aborting the countdown to 4:20 p.m. and lighting his pipe early. He closed his eyes, taking a deep, long drag.

"Sweet."

Although it's become an annual and renowned event at CU, 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.

[Politics4Fun]

Next year, I suggest that the police acquire a fleet of crop dusters. Fill the first half with liquid soap and the second half with water. I’m sure the guys down the road at Air Force would be more than happy to volunteer.

[mgc1122]

I have a mental image of Ward Churchill trying to bum clips, stems and seeds among the masses ...

[stevio]

Talk about a war to end. This WOD costs the country how much?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

What’s 420?

The article kept referencing it but didn’t mention what it was?

Is this just another pothead thing? Somebody said something they thought was important when they were high but it makes no sense when they’re not high.

[chrisser]

I sure wish there was some handy guide as to which laws on the books are optional, and for who, and which are going to be enforced.

I guess I’m old fashioned, but along with God and guns I still cling to “equal treatment under the law”.

[Mr. Mojo]

Next year, I suggest that the police acquire a fleet of crop dusters.

Most pot is grown indoors these days. Hydroponics.

[Andonius_99]

I could tell you, but I’m not high...

[Mr. Mojo]

420

[JmyBryan]

Yeah, but you can’t put a number on how good people feel when they think making something illegal is the right idea.

(sarcasm)

[CJ Wolf]

http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/420.asp

[SGCOS]

4/20 is the date.

[Dr._Joseph_Warren]

A crowd of about 10,000 people ... 4:20 p.m. ..... massive puff of pot smoke...

In a related story, local stores reported completely running out of snack food at 4:30 p.m.

[No2much3]

It is the police radio code for a pot smoking illegal action. “We have a 420 (four-twenty) in progress at the Clinton White House”.

NO2

[Politics4Fun]

Well, if we can’t get to the pot, we can at least score one for personal hygiene.

[ComputerGuy]

Pizza deliveries were running three hours behind.

[Cobra64]

In a related story, local stores reported completely running out of snack food at 4:30 p.m.

It did in our apartment.

[Arkansas Toothpick]

Yeah, I gotta agree Chrisser. But, the bigger question is why can’t I carry my .380 in my waistband without a permit when the 2nd Amendment clearly supports my right to do so while potheads can freely light up all over Boulder, CO?

[When do we get liberated?]

I have a better idea. 90% of those kids are Obama voters. Why doesn’t McCain jump the shark and go pro pot? For the first time in history you will have Republican gatherings on campus that dwarf the crowd of ugly lesbian rights advocates, moonbats, ROn Paul rejects and whatever else is left of the Democrats. Wouldn’t that be a sight to see?

[ikka]

Doritos marketing manager for that area probably bought himself a new car the next day.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Think date. As in, what was the date yesterday?

[MtnClimber]

But don’t let the parking meter expire in Boulder. The police will be all over it!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks for the 411 on 420 — I didn’t know all that Snopes info. Stupd me, I just thought it was yesterday’s date!

[Vaduz]

Biggest democrat turn out in eight years ufo reports to follow.

[Sig Sauer P220]

The other 364 days the CU students booze it up.

[VeniVidiVici]

Just imagine what would happen if someone proposed doing this with cigarettes...

[messierhunter]

It’s also Hitler’s birthday and the anniversary of the Columbine massacre. An “interesting” choice of a day to make a statement, should tell you what kind of people they’re appealing to.

[Graycliff]

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.

---

Time to replace the whole damn force.

[Fester Chugabrew]

. . . should tell you what kind of people they’re appealing to.

The late William F. Buckley notwithstanding.

[Doe Eyes]

Time to replace the whole damn force.

Hire more anti-smoking Nazis for the Nannie State.

[NorCoGOP]

...why can’t I carry my .380 in my waistband without a permit when the 2nd Amendment clearly supports my right to do so while potheads can freely light up all over Boulder, CO?

Location, location, location!

[mysterio]

CU’s 4/20 pot smoke-out draws crowd of 10,000: Police issue zero tickets

Good.

[eXe]

Yeah meanwhile if they had all been smoking tobacco.. they would have all been hauled off to jail.

[conservative cat]

It’s also Hitler’s birthday and the anniversary of the Columbine massacre. An “interesting” choice of a day to make a statement, should tell you what kind of people they’re appealing to.

While not a partaker, the use of "420" predates the Columbine massacre.

[messierhunter]

I understand, but this being CU and Columbine being local, you’d think they’d show a bit of reverence for the date. The freshman during Columbine have just recently graduated college themselves, no doubt that many of them went to CU and some may still be there for post-graduate or prolonged undergrad studies.

[messierhunter]

I seriously doubt the late great Buckley would have staged such an event on this particular day or been attracted to it himself. He may have been anti-WOD, but he was hardly a loony leftist activist. I disagree with him on some of his more libertarian views, but respect the way he handled himself. I can’t picture him attending this kind of event on this kind of day.

[Trailerpark Badass]

I guess I’m old fashioned, but along with God and guns I still cling to “equal treatment under the law”.

So you think the police should expend the same energy busting pot smokers as they do locking up murderers, rapists?

[GSWarrior]

What's 420?

The distance from home plate to the center field wall.

[Riverman94610]

It has always amazed me that this mostly white,upper middle class demographic has so little meaning or purpose in their lives that they need to spend large segments of their time blunted or inebriated.
Goes to show that not all the piss poor parenting out there nowadays is confined to the ghetto.

[chrisser]

So you think the police should expend the same energy busting pot smokers as they do locking up murderers, rapists?

No. I think the police should expend the same energy busting pot smokers as they do chasing down the hardened criminals going 50 in a 45mph zone.

The police will go to elaborate lengths (concealment, working in packs, helicopters, radar, laser) to catch a speeder, but they won't bust a bunch of potheads assembled in a large convenient group, openly violating both state and federal law?

[microgood]

The police will go to elaborate lengths (concealment, working in packs, helicopters, radar, laser) to catch a speeder, but they won't bust a bunch of potheads assembled in a large convenient group, openly violating both state and federal law?

This is an act of civil disobedience. It is a national tradition we have in this country to fight evil and unjust laws. The cops were outnumbered 10000 to 17. Not much they could do.

It would be like 10000 speeders all going down the freeway speeding at once. They wait until its over and then go back to picking them off one at a time.

[chrisser]

This is an act of civil disobedience

B.S. Civil disobediance is an act taken as a last resort. The Founders tried every possible legal avenue available before resorting to it.

How many of these "evil fighters" even vote? How many have written their representatives? Organized petitions to redress grievances? Tried to convince their fellow citizens of the rightness of their cause?

There's nothing noble about breaking the law because you don't like it or because its somehow cool.

Every right comes with responsibility. When they've exhausted the responsible means to change laws in a democratic society, then and only then, do they have the right to break those laws and even at that point, they should still be arrested and turned over to the court system.

[microgood]

B.S. Civil disobediance is an act taken as a last resort. The Founders tried every possible legal avenue available before resorting to it.

I have read your definition nowhere. You must have made it up.

How many of these "evil fighters" even vote? How many have written their representatives? Organized petitions to redress grievances? Tried to convince their fellow citizens of the rightness of their cause?

Given that they are up against the lies and propaganda of the state and federal governments, who actually now try to imprison people for advocating drug legalization, I think they are a little out gunned. Besides, who is to decide when they have exhausted all other means, you?

There's nothing noble about breaking the law because you don't like it or because its somehow cool.

There is, however, if a law is unjust, as the pot laws are.

Every right comes with responsibility. When they've exhausted the responsible means to change laws in a democratic society, then and only then, do they have the right to break those laws and even at that point, they should still be arrested and turned over to the court system.

Again, who decides when this has happened. Organizations in this country have been trying for thirty years to fight against the lies of government to no avail. Must they wait for another generation of youth to be destroyed by drug warriors before they act? I think not. In California and Nationwide, for example, even though the clear majority wants medical marijuana available, the Feds refuse to budge. When the Feds tell the majority of American people to screw themselves, I think it is time to act.

[chrisser]

I don't think the speed limit is just. Do I get to violate it at will if I call it "civil disobedience"? Will you stand behind me? Its been in place for at least 50 years - isn't it time to act? After all, who decides what laws are just? Who decides which can be flaunted at will? Under whose definition of "justice" or "fairness" do we base our actions?

Which goes back to my original point: "I sure wish there was some handy guide as to which laws on the books are optional, and for who, and which are going to be enforced."

I agree that that many of the drug laws should be revised and some of the penalties are too harsh. However, nothing is going to happen as long as the pro-pot lobby stages silly law-breaking stunts like this. Had they held a large demonstration, without the pot-smoking, they might have been able to make a valid point and gather support, but to the law-abiding, their point is now lost.

They have every right to demonstrate, and they should - legally.

The GMM on May 3 march on Washington seems like it could have a lot of potential, if the potheads could show that they could keep the weed out of it and demonstrate legally, they might actually gather support from others purely on the merits of their case.

[microgood]

I don't think the speed limit is just. Do I get to violate it at will if I call it "civil disobedience"?

The whole point about civil disobedience is that you are intentionally breaking the law. If you are not breaking any laws, then that is a demonstration.

Civil disobedience has been used to end slavery and prohibition. Martin Luther King and Ghandi also used it with great success. I would argue civil disobedience is more effective because the people engaging in it have more to lose than a demonstrator, who is not risking anything. I doubt the lawmakers who are trying to screw us care about demonstrations, but they do fear uprisings, especially those with torches and pitchforks.

I fear we have little control over our government now. They have grown so big and distributed authority so broadly that nothing short of a crisis will ever get them to change course.

My question for you is, if the Supreme Court decides that the 2nd Amendment does not give us an individual right to own a gun and the Feds outlaw guns, will you comply?

[chrisser]

The whole point about civil disobedience is that you are intentionally breaking the law. If you are not breaking any laws, then that is a demonstration.

So when was the attempt at a large-scale demonstration that didn't involve law-breaking? That is exactly my point - they skip over all the legitimate forms of addressing bad law within the system and go directly to "civil disobedience". Further, in the case of pot, the fact that they can't seem to get together without toking furthers the governments case that it is an addictive substance that requires regulation at minimum.

My question for you is, if the Supreme Court decides that the 2nd Amendment does not give us an individual right to own a gun and the Feds outlaw guns, will you comply?

You really think smoking weed rises to the same level as an inalienable right considered so important it was included in BOR? But to answer your question, no, I wouldn't.

So if the feds got out of the WOD and it was strictly illegal at the state level, would that be OK with you and lawbreaking would then be lawbreaking and not "civil disobedience"?

"I fear we have little control over our government now. They have grown so big and distributed authority so broadly that nothing short of a crisis will ever get them to change course"

That may be true, but good luck if you expect this popular uprising to be based a bunch of potheads smoking weed in public, especially if nobody even gets arrested. Hardly the shot heard round the world.

[timm22]

Thousands of people smoking the demon weed at the same time and place? My God, is the town still standing?

So many people getting high. Surely the hospitals were flooded with people experiencing psychotic episodes, and with the victims of the murders, rapes, and assaults committed by the intoxicated mob. Surely scores of homes and businesses were invaded by the stoned masses.

I mean, look what happens when college students get together in large groups and drink alcohol, which is a legal substance. The overturn cars, start riots, engage in public debauchery, some of them even die from alcohol poisoning.

I can only imagine the chaos and destruction left by a crowd of college students enjoying an illegal substance.

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