Smoking pot in Independence Park to make a historical point

BY WILLIAM BENDER, Daily News Staff Writer
Posted: October 02, 2012

CHRIS GOLDSTEIN, a marijuana advocate and editor of freedomisgreen.com, pulled a lighter from his pocket and sparked a joint at 4:20 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, right in the middle of Independence Park.

Nothing happened, except he got a bit stoned.

"This is how smoking marijuana should be," he said.

But not everyone is so lucky. That's the point.

"Every day, there are thousands of people getting arrested for pot, and for this amount of pot," Goldstein said, holding the burning joint as thick smoke wafted across the park. "Not for a pound of marijuana, not for growing marijuana, but mostly young black men are getting arrested for this."

Goldstein was joined by medical-marijuana activist Colleen Begley as he walked up Arch Street with PhillyNORML board member Kevin Clough.

"Do I need to roll a bone?" Begley, an unabashed pothead with three open marijuana cases in New Jersey courts, said as she grabbed a fistful of pungent buds redolent from 10 feet away. "This is Blue Cheese," she said of the hybrid cannabis strain.

Tuesday's act of civil disobedience was held on the 75th anniversary of the arrest of Samuel Caldwell and Moses Baca, who were busted on Oct. 2, 1937, shortly after the passage of the federal Marijuana Tax Act. Caldwell was sentenced to four years, Baca to 18 months, both at Leavenworth Penitentiary, Goldstein said.

"I wish this were a celebration, but it's a somber moment," Goldstein said, holding up Caldwell's mug shot and calling for the repeal of marijuana laws, which he said disproportionately affect minorities.

"The only difference between President Bush, President Clinton and President Obama and the young black men who get caught with this amount of pot is that they were caught," he said. "This is not equal enforcement."

Contact William Bender at benderw@phillynews.com or 215-854-5255. Follow him on Twitter @wbender99. Read his blog at philly.com/DailyDelco.

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