Thanks to the Union Leader’s Melanie Plenda for this story, covering both Keene and Concord’s 420 celebrations yesterday:
It wasn’t ash from Iceland creating a haze in communities across New Hampshire yesterday.
April 20, or 4-20, has become known in cannabis-loving circles as the day to “smoke ’em if you got ’em,” according to those who gathered in Keene’s Central Square to smoke marijuana in protest of drug laws.
In recent years, pot-fueled rallies have been held across the country to mark the date of 4-20, the numbers that have become a rallying cry among smokers. A rally took place in Concord yesterday on the steps of the Capitol.
Some lit up marijuana cigarettes while organizers with bullhorns, including former Epping police officer Bradley Jardis of Hooksett, cautioned them not to say a word if police came to arrest them.
The 29-year-old Jardis said he is just a free person now “trying to protect the liberties I’ve taken away.”
State troopers watched from inside the State House, but planned no action unless the crowd got unruly.
Police in Nashua and Manchester said they had no reports or complaints about rallies there.
This year in New Hampshire it’s a particularly timely event, since legislators are slated to vote today on a bill that would decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. Gov. John H. Lynch has said he will veto the bill.
About 30 people meandered into Keene’s Central Square to light up at 4:20 p.m. There was no police presence and no arrests were reported.
Rally-goers repeatedly said that otherwise law-abiding citizens are being thrown in jail for using a substance they see as no different than alcohol.
Trevor Wheeler, 20, of Keene, said he comes out at least a few times a week to lend his support to the other protesters. Local Keene protesters have been holding 4-20 rallies, where people gather to smoke, nearly every day since late last summer.
“I believe that unless it hurts someone else, then people should be able to do anything they would like to do,” he said. Wheeler said he’s been arrested four times for marijuana possession since he was 17 years old.
“I have no other criminal record,” he said. “I don’t commit crimes, but I have a record.”
He said he’s been denied jobs and certain scholarships because of his record. Currently he works odd jobs, he said.
Jake Rogers, 18, of Keene, said he, too, has been arrested on marijuana charges.
“I had never even had a traffic ticket before that,” he said at the rally.
“I had to pay a fine,” he said. “Four hundred, twenty dollars; it’s kind of funny.”
Keene resident Aida Burgos, 22, said she wasn’t holding out hope on the bill before the state Legislature.
“I don’t really expect them to do anything positive, even if they pass it,” she said. “Even if they completely legalized it, it wouldn’t be good. It just seems when the government gets into something, it usually doesn’t turn out very well.”
At least one bystander was not amused by the smoke and the commotion.
Ruth Fish, 79, watched from a bench just outside Central Square. She said she has lived in Keene since 1964, and her grandfather, a stone mason, helped to build most of the buildings downtown, she said.
“This is a place that offers so much, it’s such a wonderful place to live,” she said. “I don’t know why they have to do this here. I don’t know why they can’t put their minds and their energy into something that does some good in the world.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
