A high-minded protest

Andrew Edwards

The man with the long hair and goatee called himself “Bong Rip.” He

passed out joints, he toked in broad daylight and thumbed his nose at

marijuana laws by orchestrating a public smoke-in at Main Beach on

Saturday.

Police were not amused, emphasized the belief that marijuana

smoking often leads to use of harder drugs, but did not make any

arrests at the event.

Rip pulled off what he called a “public display of defiance” at

4:20 p.m. at the end of a local protest against the prohibition of

marijuana use. The time, 4:20 p.m., is also a colloquialism among pot

smokers, who regard that minute as the best part of the day to get

high.

The public drug use contrasted with the sidewalk protest along

South Coast Highway, where people, including a Superior Court judge,

held signs calling for changes in marijuana laws. The protest’s

organizers did not join in the smoking and even disavowed the display

after learning that a child partook.

A 14-year-old boy, who only identified himself as Eric, shared a

joint with about 20 people who huddled together on the Main Beach

cobblestones as they smoked. By letting a teenager smoke, Rip and his

cohorts, “Marijuana: The Band,” went too far, said Kandice Hawes,

president of the Orange County chapter of the National Organization

for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

“I didn’t see that,” Hawes said. “NORML would not approve of

that.”

Hawes said her organization’s goal is to change the law so that

marijuana is regulated and sold like alcohol. The public smoke-in

went against her group’s position because giving alcohol to a child

in public would still have been illegal. Rip said he told Hawes about

his plans but did not seek anyone else’s approval.

“I did tell [Hawes] that I’m going to do a public smoke-in, but as

far as planning, I’m a lone crusader,” Rip said as he sat with the

other musician in his band, “Chronic Sax,” and the band’s dancer,

“Sarah Sativa.”

The judge, who left the protest before Rip lighted up the

afternoon’s first joint, was Jim Gray, who is also running to

represent California as the Libertarian candidate for the U.S.

Senate. Gray argued that the federal government should allow each

state to decide whether or not to legalize marijuana, which he

believes would be harder for young people to obtain if it were sold

like liquor.

“We would make marijuana less available for our children than it

is today, because illegal dealers don’t ask for ID,” Gray said.

Gray joined a medley of people who had a variety of views on

marijuana, some, like Anaheim resident Michael Block, who said he

gave marijuana-laced brownies to his grandfather as he died of

cancer, came primarily to promote medical use. Others, like Mark Fitt

of Costa Mesa who helped organize the rally, wanted to defend what he

called “casual, recreational use for fun and relaxation.”

There was even another candidate, Harry Tootles of Santa Ana, who

manned a booth asking voters to write in his name when they vote for

president this November. Tootles’ platform calls for a blanket

legalization of marijuana and to “smoke the peace pipe with leaders

of the Middle East.”

Most of the people at the rally did not join the smoke-in, and

shortly after the rally started at about 1:30 p.m., police warned

protesters not to hand out any marijuana. A single police officer

arrived at the beach at about 4:45 p.m., but the smoke-in was over

and most of the smokers had dispersed by that time.

Police investigating drug cases often learn that users of hard

drugs started out smoking marijuana.

“From a police standpoint, marijuana is a gateway drug. Generally

people who become addicts don’t start with heroin or methamphetamine;

they start with marijuana,” Sgt. Darin Lenyi said.

Police statistics show that the vast majority of local drug

violations recorded by the police department as marijuana-related

involve small amounts of the drug, senior records manager Hilda

Madrid said. This year, Laguna police have issued 162 misdemeanor

citations for cases where officers reportedly found less than one

ounce of the drug. Madrid said Laguna police have made six felony

arrests in 2004, half of which were made at a large bust in January

when Laguna police found 135 pounds of marijuana in a Dana Point

apartment.