Can Smoking Pot Be Considered a Form of Free Speech? [View all]

[madokie]

Activists lit up in protest of the War on Drugs—now they face severe charges.



The latest front in the battle for rationalized drug laws is in downtown Philadelphia, where an activist facing a federal trial for marijuana possession asserts that he was smoking as a constitutionally protected method of political expression.

“This site is preserved for the First Amendment,” Chris Goldstein said, pointing toward the glass and brick building near 6 th and Market Street that contains the Liberty Bell. “That’s why we’re here.”

Goldstein and one other defendant will plead their case in a December trial that could result in six months in prison and $1,000 in fines.

“They’re taking the full weight of the law against us, ostensibly for that single joint,” said Goldstein, standing on the federal park space that lies in the shadow of Independence Hall. It’s here, at the site where the country’s founding fathers signed the U.S. Constitution that gives all Americans the right to free speech, where he’s been leading monthly “Smoke Down Prohibition” protests in his role as co-chair of the Philadelphia NORML chapter.

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/can-smoking-pot-be-considered-form-free-speech