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May 02, 2006
Mac marijuana festival busted
Its 4:20 p.m. on April 20 outside of the Macalester Campus Center and someone says something about smelling the justice in the air. Not cheap justice eitherčit smells like a skunk died out here. Maybe smoking joints enmasse outside the campus center is a way for students to stick it to the man after their marijuana festival was cancelled. Maybe it was planned to happen even if they did get their scheduled bands to play, a bouncy castle, and chili cookoff to occur. Either way, the administration harshed everyone’s buzz when they “just said no” on April 19 to the festival, just hours before the event was to occur.
“The [Macalester] administration’s cancellation of this event cuts into the credibility of the school as a forum for free speech,” said Spencer Edelman, one of the organizers of the marijuana festival. “It makes us look bad, but there is nothing we can do.”
Macalester’s Creating a Harmless Environment to Enjoy Buds Appropriately (CHEEBA) club held a festival last year on April 20 that drew a few hundred people with a pig roast and dodgeball.
This year’s plans were to expand the event, with a $2,300 budget and flyers, distributed across the metro area, that read “The Twin Cities’ premier pot-fest.” The promotion prompted the Pioneer Press to pick up the story and run an article on it before the festival occurred. Macalester administration read the story, saw the flyers, and determined that it looked too much like the school was promoting illegal activity. CHEEBAdanza (the name of the festival) was abruptly cancelled.
As advocates of the wacky weed descended upon the campus center, they were met with rain and CHEEBAdanza organizers breaking the bad news.
However, the rain soon subsided and with it came signs that demonstrators wielded in the face of the numberous media and observers. “Speak up Smoke Up,” one sign said. “Hemp for Paper,” said another.
Macalester students weren’t the only ones who turned out. There were middle-aged people from the community, some St. Thomas students who said they wished they brought a joint to share at the striking of the hour, and a delegation of Hamline students who rode the ACTC bus over.
Demonstrators then began to march toward Grand Avenue on their planned mini-march around their campus area. “We don’t know if they’re going to the capitol or the grocery store,” cracked Macalester student Nick Honan as about 60 people marched away from the campus center. It doesn’t matter though, because the Macalester demonstrators achieved their goal. They’ve received palpable attention to their cause and administration has publicly announced that a similar festival with “more focused advertising” would be allowed to take place next year.
Posted by dwright at May 2, 2006 01:25 PM
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