Thread: Denver pot holiday bringing crowds, tight security

The Mexican Cartels will do a bang up business in Colorado. It is legal in Mexico after all. - JMO

Denver pot holiday bringing crowds, tight security


FILE - This April 20, 2012 file photo shows a cloud of smoke covering the crowd at the Denver 420 rally in Civic Center Park. Denver Police are bracing for this year's event on Saturday, April 20, 2013 which is expected to draw a record crowd of 80,000 people. (AP Photo/The Denver Post, Daniel Petty, File)

April 19, 2013 12:30 PM

KRISTEN WYATT
ASSOCIATED PRESS


DENVER — As tens of thousands of people gather to celebrate and smoke marijuana in Denver, police will be out in full force.
But it's not the pot smoking they're concerned about at the yearly event, billed as the nation's largest April 20 celebration. Instead, police say they're focused on crowd security in light of attacks that killed three at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

"We're aware of the events in Boston," said Denver police spokesman Aaron Kafer, who declined to give specifics about security measures being taken. "Our message to the public is that, if you see something, say something."

Organizers say the event — which drew 50,000 people last year — could bring a record 80,000 this year, since it's the first celebration since Colorado and Washington voted to make pot legal for recreational use.

Even with the legalization, Colorado law bans open and public marijuana use. Still, authorities generally look the other way. The smoke hangs thick over a park at the base of the state Capitol, and live music keeps the crowd entertained well past the moment of group smoking at 4:20 p.m.

Group smoke-outs are also planned Saturday from New York to San Francisco. The origins of the number "420" as a code for pot are murky, but the drug's users have for decades marked the date 4/20 as a day to use pot together.

Denver's celebration this year also features the nation's first open-to-all Cannabis Cup, a marijuana competition patterned after one held in Amsterdam.

Similar to a beer or wine festival, pot growers compete for awards for taste, appearance and potency of their weed. Denver's event, sponsored by High Times magazine, has sold out more than 5,000 tickets. Snoop Lion, the new reggae- and marijuana-loving persona for the rapper better known as Snoop Dogg, will receive a "Lifetime Achievement Award" from High Times. And the hip-hop group Cypress Hill was set to perform a sold-out concert Saturday evening in Colorado's iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

The celebration should be especially buoyant this year, organizer Miguel Lopez said, because it marks the first observation since Colorado and Washington voted to defy federal drug law and declare pot OK for adults over 21.

Both states are still waiting for a federal response to the votes and are working on setting up commercial pot sales, which are still limited to people with certain medical conditions. In the meantime, pot users are free to share and use the drug in small amounts.

Lopez said the holiday is more than an excuse to get high — it's also a political statement by people who want to see the end of marijuana prohibition.

"You don't have to smoke weed to go to 4/20 rallies. You don't have to be gay to go to a Pride festival. You don't have to be Mexican to celebrate Cinco de Mayo," Lopez said.

"That's what this is. It's a celebration, it's a statement about justice and freedom and this movement."

Colorado's weekend celebrations drew plenty of marijuana activists from out of state.

"Never have I ever imagined I could do this on American soil," said Eddie Ramirez, an Austin, Texas, pot user who attended a "420 Happy Hour" Friday at a downtown Denver hotel. "Being a smoker my whole life, this has been on my bucket list — go scuba diving, go deep-sea fishing and go to the Cannabis Cup."

One place pot-smoking won't be as evident this year is the University of Colorado in Boulder. The school once was home to the nation's largest group smoke-out on April 20. More than 10,000 people showed up in 2010, and in 2011 Playboy magazine cited the celebration and named the campus the nation's No. 1 party school.

Last year, school officials closed the site of the party, Norlin Quad, on April 20. They planned to rope off the area again this year.

Lopez conceded that many don't appreciate the April 20 smoke-outs. But he insisted they at least force marijuana critics to talk about the drug and consider its legal status.

"Not everybody likes everything in America. That's one of the great things, that we can express ourselves," Lopez said.


Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/denv...#ixzz2R1Zdu7mq

Oops, looks like security didn't stop the drug dealers from their usual conflicts.

Police search for suspects after 2 injured in shooting at Denver pot rally

Published April 21, 2013
FoxNews.com

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  April 20, 2013: Youths smoke marijuana at the Denver 4/20 pro-marijuana rally at Civic Center Park in Denver. (AP)

Authorities were searching for suspects after shots were fired at a Denver park Saturday, injuring two people and sending tens of thousands gathered for 4/20, an annual marijuana celebration, fleeing the area.


The man and woman who were shot were expected to survive, and police were looking for one or two suspects, said Denver Police spokesman Sonny Jackson. Police asked festival attendees for possible photo or video of the shootings, and had no immediate motive.


Denver police told KDVR.com that one of the suspects is believed to be a black male, about 6 feet tall and weighing about 180 pounds. He was reportedly wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, black pants, and a Carolina baseball hat.


The second suspect was described by police as a black male who was wearing a black and white-checkered shirt, the station reported.


Witnesses described a scene in which a jovial atmosphere quickly turned to one of panic at the downtown Civic Center Park just before 5 p.m. Several thought firecrackers were being set off, then a man fell bleeding, his dog also shot.


"I saw him fall, grabbing his leg," said Travis Craig, 28, who was at the celebration. Craig said he used a belt to apply a tourniquet to the man's leg.


"He was just screaming that he was in pain, and wanted to know where his girlfriend was. She was OK. And then the cops showed up real quick, like, less than a minute. They put him on ambulance and left."


The annual pot celebration this year was expected to draw as many as 80,000 people after recent laws in Colorado and Washington made marijuana legal for recreational use.


A sizable police force on motorcycles and horses had been watching the celebration since its start earlier Saturday. But authorities, who generally look the other way at public pot smoking here on April 20, didn't arrest people for smoking in public, which is still illegal.
Police said earlier in the week that they were focused on crowd security in light of attacks that killed three at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.


"We're aware of the events in Boston," said Denver police spokesman Aaron Kafer, who declined to give specifics about security measures being taken. "Our message to the public is that, if you see something, say something."


Stephanie Riedel, who traveled to the pot celebration from Pittsburgh, said she was dancing with a hula hoop when she heard pops. A man ran past her, then she said the crowd started screaming and running away. She was about 20 feet from the shooting and heard four or five shots.


"I couldn't make sense of what it was at first," she said. "We were all having a good time and I was in the mindframe of, we're here at a peace gathering. I thought it some guys playing."


Rapper Lil' Flip was performing when the shootings occurred.


Aerial footage showed the massive crowd frantically running from the park.


Ian Bay, who was skateboarding through Civic Center Park when shots erupted, said he was listening to music on his headphones when he looked to his right and saw a swarm of hundreds of people running at him.


"I sort of panicked. I thought I was going through an anxiety thing because so many people were coming after me," he said.
Before the shooting, reggae music filled the air, and so did the smell of marijuana, as celebrants gathered by mid-morning in the park just beside the state Capitol.


Group smoke-outs were planned Saturday from New York to San Francisco. The origins of the number "420" as a code for pot are murky, but the drug's users have for decades marked the date 4/20 as a day to use pot together.


Colorado and Washington are still waiting for a federal response to the votes and are working on setting up commercial pot sales, which are still limited to people with certain medical conditions. In the meantime, pot users are free to share and use the drug in small amounts.


A citizen advocacy group that opposes marijuana proliferation, Smart Colorado, warned in a statement that public 4/20 celebrations "send a clear message to the rest of the nation and the world about what Colorado looks like."


"Does the behavior of the participants in these events reflect well on our state?" asked the head of Smart Colorado, Henny Lasley.
A smaller Sunday event scheduled at the park was canceled.


Saturday's attack recalled a similar shooting that left a police officer dead at a crowded jazz concert in Denver's City Park last summer.

The 22-year-old suspect in that case pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and faces at least 16 years in prison when he is sentenced at a hearing scheduled for June 21.


His attorneys said he was being pursued by gang members when he drew his weapon and fired.




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...#ixzz2R7AMzlry