Steve Bloom, Bobbie Steele, and
DW Editor Preston Peet

It's a Protest, Not a Pot-Fest- MMM 2004

You can count on Preston Peet at Drugwar.com to have the scoop on all major Manhattan marijuana events and of course yesterday's Million Marijuana March in Battery Park is no exception. His account of the day's events along with the fab photos make you feel like you were there yourself.

He reports that the crowd --down a bit from its heyday-- was a respectable 3,000 strong. More heartening was the lack of police intimidation at the event. With the pre-event press promoting this as a political action, not a smoke-out, (although police lined the parade route in force) undercover cops were not cruising the crowd and uniformed presence was negligible. Not to mention that Preston witnessed a small group of tokers being told to put out their blunt but were not arrested.

Haven't heard of anything like that since 1972, when I talked the West Village cop into giving me my car back after it was already hooked to the tow truck.