Thanks to the Concord Monitor’s Ray Duckler for this report:
Rich Paul smokes pot. So do dozens of his new friends. Each day lately, in Central Square, right in the middle of Keene.
They huff and they puff and they blow the smoke out, daring the police to arrest them while they make their point. Smoking pot, they believe, should be legal, because smoking pot is their constitutional right. The war on drugs creates violence and unnecessarily jams our prisons, they say.
And Paul alluded to these points yesterday, telling about 100 people through a bullhorn. His voice was measured yet confident. The rally started in the afternoon, at 4:20, the insider’s term for pot smoking. No one seems to know why. Nobody seems to care, either.
“We smoke these in remembrance of lost liberties,” Paul told the crowd, “and in hope for a future where the people do not fear the government because the government fears
the people. Smoke ’em if you got ’em.”
Many did, following the lead of this 40-year-old native Midwesterner, a former computer programmer who moved to Keene last winter to help the Free State Project gain momentum. He’s the one lighting the match.
The smoke-in began small two weeks ago, with Paul and a buddy sitting in the square’s gazebo smoking pot. Word then spread like a puff of smoke in the breeze, and 100 or so supporters have filled the square each afternoon over the past few days.
“We went up and had a smoke and started doing it more,” Paul said. “Sometimes we’d show up with somebody else. A local came over and smoked with us first, and we told him about it and told him we were doing it every day. We started telling some of the Free Staters and some of the local people who we knew smoked pot.”
Paul says six smokers turned to 16, then 30. Then the news media came. Then the cops came. Now it’s an established event, and it’s anyone’s guess how long it will last.
“The point is freedom,” said 19-year-old Terry Classen, a student at Keene State College. “It’s not even so much about the smoking. Everyone feels the government and police can be interfering with our daily lives. Their role is to serve and protect the people, and that’s what their role should stay as.”
The Keene police, meanwhile, continue to hope that the movement drops like ash at the end of a joint. Their presence was felt last weekend. Paul, in fact, got busted for lighting up in front of an officer. Some news reports said Paul was arrogantly blowing the hit in the cop’s face, a point Paul disputes. He asked for a civil rally yesterday, adding that the police are not the problem.
And the police stayed away. Once, a cruiser stopped for a nearby red light, then zipped down the congested main drag. But that was it. It was a free for all, and most took full advantage. The police have backed off. For now.
“If any infractions of the law happen, we’ll be down there, but otherwise we’re not going to go down there and monitor them,” Lt. Brian Costa of the Keene Police Department said before yesterday’s event. “We’re going to let them exercise their right of free speech and hopefully they’ll do so without breaking the law.”
At first, some symbolically smoked rolled cigarettes to illustrate their message. Or maybe it was merely the juvenile act of goofing on the police. One guy was arrested for lighting what someone called a chocolate tobacco cigarette. He was released once the police realized their error.
But the participants have grown bolder with time, and the smell of a college dorm filled the air yesterday.
Youngsters were well represented, of course. There was 18-year-old Cassidy Nicosia of Manchester, whose top, a pot leaf, didn’t cover much. She blew out her hit, passed the joint, then said, “They do not have any authority to tell us what to put into our bodies. They were given that authority unconstitutionally. They can not tell us.”
There was the aptly named Jim Love, a 21-year-old cook from Keene who sat on a bench next to his guitar-strumming buddy, John Lavoie.
“It’s not a crime,” Love said. “We’re not violent. We’re not hurting anyone.”
Added Lavoie, “It should be regulated like alcohol. The American government can make so much money off taxation. Plus, I’ve seen more angry drunks than angry stoners. All we do is eat.”
Middle-aged people were there, too. Two men sat on a bench, looking like Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show, and they gave their verbal blessing to the movement. They wouldn’t give their names, however.
But Chris Price of Sullivan, a 54-year-old cook, gave both his name and his opinion.
“The real point is the politicians are the ones who have to amend the laws,” Price said. “They have to see that there is grassroots support, and the more people that participate in activities of this nature, the more support that’s demonstrated. Hopefully, the Legislature that’s supposed to be listening to the people will get the message.”
Will this burn out? Is this just temporary nonsense, fueled by people too young to know better?
Paul hopes not. He says he’s ready to lead his troops through a winter battle, although he acknowledges that the rallies would be a tad shorter.
One battle he won’t get involved in is the medical marijuana bill vetoed by Gov. John Lynch earlier this year. Paul said he doesn’t want to draw attention away from that, completely separate, movement. That fight continues in late October when a vote to override the veto comes up in the Legislature.
Meanwhile, Paul’s fight continues. His court date for possession is in early November. He won’t pay a fine. He says he’ll do time.
“I wanted to get arrested,” Paul said. “You can’t do this kind of thing without arrests because you’ll rarely draw out any news media. It’s just guys smoking pot in a park. This shows that I’m committed to this cause.”
A cause that might be coming to a theater near you.
“I would like to do something on the State House lawn,” Paul said. “That would be the season finale. Maybe next year.”
