The War on Drugs has always been a heated debate topic across the country and among state and local governments, but on Wednesday approximately 300 marijuana rights supporters gathered at the Lafayette Parish Courthouse to show Acadiana they believe the time to end prohibition of cannabis has long since passed.
Legalize Louisiana’s local march started at 3 p.m. in Girard Park and then snaked through the UL Lafayette campus toward downtown. It was lead by Dave Lucito, a local radio jockey at KJCB 770 AM. He carried a sign adorned with only a Bible passage written in a large black marker. It was Romans 11:15, “For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?”
“I’m really honored that all of these people came out to stand up for themselves and to stand up for one another as well,” said Lucito. “There was definitely a grassroots response to the media messaging that people found on social networks.”
Those marching waved signs that read, “Don’t Panic, It’s Organic,” “Cannabis: Nature’s Answer,” “Power to the People,” “Say No to Dealers, Say Yes to Dispensaries.”
“Basically all I did was put out a press release sort of as an individual representing an idea and from there I entered the marketplace of ideas,” added Lucito. “I found out today that 300 people totally believe in the same thing that I do, and we heard a lot today about peace and we heard a lot about freedom and that’s connected. We stood there, and we were peacefully assembled and we thanked all of the peace officers who were there to support us having our free speech.”
Zane Gabor, 20, who is studying to become a diesel mechanic at Louisiana Technical College’s T. H. Harris campus in Opelousas, was the first of many protesters to deliver his tale of how marijuana has helped him after he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. “Before I got sick, I noticed severe pain in my arms that eventually went to numbness then pain in my wrist,” said Gabor. “I later found that that was [due to] a lack of blood in my body. During my chemotherapy experience, I went to a very [prestigious] child hospital, which I won’t name, but during that pain they do provide medicine and some of the times the medicine does work, but some of the times it doesn’t.”
Gabor also mentioned that due to his lowered immune system during the chemotherapy, he contracted H1N1, which landed him in the hospital under heavy sedation for a month and half. Gabor doesn’t remember much of his stay because of the amount of pain medication he was receiving and said being bedridden for so long also caused him severe loss of muscle mass. “The only reason I had enough strength and enough power to just force food down is because I got high,” Gabor thundered. “When it’s passed the point of tears, when you’re just laying in bed, I’ve smoked weed. It might not have solved everything, but at least I can communicate with people. At least I can feel somewhat normal. Making weed illegal takes away my comfortability rights.”
“Let me tell you who’s right: every one of you!” exclaimed Donna McKinley, 67, a cancer survivor who was handing out marijuana fact-sheets to anyone willing to accept them. “It’ll take you through chemotherapy. It’ll take away the sickness. It’ll give you back your appetite. It’ll build your body. “In 6,000 years, there has never been a case of an overdose. Six thousand years! You don’t die from it,” McKinley boomed with just as much, if not more, energy as the countless twenty-somethings receiving her cries. “It’s a non-criminal crime! They make criminals out of people for no crime — not against God, country or another person or yourself. I went through cancer and chemotherapy and I smoked it and it helped. It helped me through everything.”
One woman, who identified herself as Sally Johnston, came to the rally dressed as a nurse and waving a sign that read, “Don’t Jail Me, Tax Me!” “I actually represent a friend of mine that is a nurse,” Johnston said. “She also helped me make this sign, but she couldn’t be here today because she’s at work. And for fear of the fact that it’s illegal, a lot of people don’t want to be associated with it.” Johnston believes there would be less crime if the drug were decriminalized, and she hopes to see legalization of marijuana in her lifetime.
“Marijuana should be legal!” bellowed Matt Bergeron, 22, a student at UL Lafayette majoring in renewable resources and a member of SPEAK (Society for Peace, Environment, Action, and Knowledge). “It should be allowed for consumption. It should be taxed. It should be supported, and we should not be criminals. Because they consider us criminals, we have to find criminals to smoke weed. Some people in this world just want peace. Some people in this world just want love. Some people in this world just want to get along. Some people are asking for the leaders to listen.”
Lucito said an early headcount conducted before the march started put the crowd at around 260 people, but many more added to the fold as the march inched toward the courthouse. One such curious onlooker was Katie Pinsonat, an environmental and renewable resources major at UL Lafayette. “I was at the park, and I saw all of these people take off and I was like I’m going to see where they are going,” said Pinsonat. “I saw a flyer in (H.L. Griffin Hall) and I knew it was today and I rode by the park and I just kind of joined along.”
Police made their presence known to the crowd, standing guard at the doors of the courthouse building and urging participants to keep the walkway clear for those entering and exiting the building. Officers refused to comment on the event.
Lucito said the next project he has in mind will be presenting these issues directly to the Lafayette City-Parish Council at its next board meeting on March 15. After that, another demonstration is in the works for the cannabis subculture’s holiday, April 20 (4:20). “It was such a total success as far as what we aimed to accomplish,” said Lucito. “We did accomplish it. We stood there with each other today and said the truth.”
(Photos by Wynce Nolley)
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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11
28 As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29 for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.
12
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
13
1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.
14
1 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.
19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.
22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin
15
1 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. 2 Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. 3 For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”[a] 4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.