Police: Pot-smoking event in UCSC meadow a moral slap in the face” – San Jose Mercury News
SANTA CRUZ — For those who arrest people who use, abuse or sell drugs, Sundays pot-smoking festival at UC Santa Cruz was “a moral slap in the face to the cause,” said Rich Westphal, task force commander with the Santa Cruz County Narcotics Enforcement Team.Despite efforts by the university to control access to campus, thousands of people, many of them students from UCSC and other California colleges, gathered at Porter Meadow to commemorate the so-called 4/20 cannabis culture holiday.
UCSCs once student-only gathering to smoke marijuana is now known nationally. It has grown to 5,000 people strong over the years, its popularity attributed to articles published in high-profile magazines like Rolling Stone and High Times Magazine — along with newer forms of social media, like YouTube.
Though smoking pot is illegal, no one was arrested at the weed-smoking exhibition that unfolded Sunday.
And that’s because Santa Cruz is one of the cities that has voted to make enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest priority for police.
As I scan the news reports of 4/20, I’m finding very few arrests and no reports of violence or disruptive, anti-social behavior. Most police understand that marijuana smokers are not a threat to ordered society. Ask any cop whether he or she would like to try to control 5,000 marijuana smokers or 5,000 beer drinkers in public.
Like other articles, this one tries to scare the reader by bringing up the two shibboleths still trotted out by drug warriors, “Driving While Stoned” and “What About The Children?” Concerned citizens called to wonder why police weren’t arresting attendees for DUI as they left the gathering, and some teenagers were able to get into the gathering.
For the former, could it be that most police recognize that a couple puffs on a joint isn’t the biggest traffic danger in the world? Or perhaps the people who drove away didn’t show any signs of driving impairment? Until taxicabs and buses are the only vehicles I see entering or leaving bar parking lots, I think our police have far more drunk drivers to worry about than stoned drivers cruising a little too slow, missing their freeway exit, or idling at the In’N'Out drive-thru window.
As for the latter, whether it is alcohol or marijuana, teenagers will get a hold of it. Marijuana is far less harmful. But if this were a outdoor microbrew festival, the legality of beer lets security and police set up restricted areas with checks for ID and sometimes ID wristbands. You don’t see any spontaneous open-air beer festivals popping up nationwide – since it is legal we can do a better job of keeping the minors out.
