Dozens of cannabis activists gathered outside of the White House on Saturday to demand President Obama order the DEA to entirely remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act. DCMJ, the cannabis reformers, called it “The March of the Clones”. Posters depicted political memes in the Star Wars theme and protesters walked around in the film’s iconic masks. One advocate and writer at the Cannabis Business Executive, Christine Edmonds, held a sign of the Yoda character with the words “Very Stoned I will be…Good person, I am.”
The March began at the DuPont neighborhood roundabout with a rally. Next, advocates marched a mile down Connecticut Avenue, clones and trimmings in hand, to the White House. Cannabis enthusiasts brought their bud to the White House to protest the federal prohibition of the plant.
One father was there for his daughter, Tatyana “Tuffy” Rivera. Tuffy was diagnosed with a rare case of epilepsy, Lennox Gastaut Syndrome. After years of searching for a cure to help ease the seizures, they finally found relief for the nine-year-old in medical marijuana. He says the cannabis oil has decreased Tuffy’s seizures by over 90 percent. “She’s now able to finally enjoy the childhood she deserves,” he said. He and his family are from New Jersey where Tuffy is a medical marijuana patient; the problem is that Tuffy’s parents don’t want to have to choose between obeying federal law and giving their daughter the medicine she needs. He says that administering his daughter’s’ medicine outside state lines is illegal – federally. You can learn more about their fight to harmonize state and federal medical marijuana laws by following them: on Facebook #TuffysFight, Instagram @TuffysFight, or reach out to them directly tuffysfight@gmail.com.
Here’s an interview with Tuffy’s father at the cannabis protest:
A mother was also at the rally to advocate for her daughter with epilepsy. Dawn Lee-Carty has spent the past six months looking into using cannabis as a medicine for her child, Zoey, who suffers from epilepsy. “Now there is a new way of treating our children, which doesn’t require them to be in an opiate state of mind,” said Dawn. She’s organizing the first “I love Brains 5K” run/walk to raise awareness of the many success stories of kids who suffer from epilepsy. Zoey has found success in using medical marijuana and .95 cents of every dollar raised goes into cannabis research, and providing financial assistance to families whose children also suffer from seizure disorders. You can donate to their run here.
The rally got rowdy at 4:20pm, the infamous numbers associated with getting high, when the crowd erupted in a so-called ‘mass cannabis civil disobedience’. They got high in front of the highest political seat in the land and then marched onto the National Mall to continue speaking out on behalf of their cause.
The President was out of the White House most of Saturday because he was speaking at the opening of Washington, D.C’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. DCMJ has organized other smoke-ins at the White House. One such stunt got a longtime advocate a sit down with administration officials.
