WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) — Two marijuana activists were cited and dozens of others openly smoked outside the White House Saturday in a pot smoke-in designed to urge President Barack Obama to take action on marijuana reform.
The protesters openly smoked marijuana to bring attention to laws that send thousands to jail each year for possession of marijuana. Two people were given $25 civil citations for public consumption.
Activists walked around with an inflatable 51-foot joint before Secret Service agents ordered them to deflate it for security reasons, Fox News reported.
Attendees of the event, billed as “Reschedule 420” by the D.C. Cannabis Campaign, urged Obama to take action in his remaining months in office to reschedule marijuana — to allow greater research into its medicinal value, U.S. News & World Report reported. The smokers also asked the president to pardon jailed offenders.Marijuana is currently a Schedule 1 controlled substance, similar to heroin.
One of the people who were cited, Lauren Dove, said she’d likely pay the fine rather than fight it in court.
Obama was not at the White House at the time of the protest.
