Source: thetimes-tribune.com
Angie Lee of Bloomsburg dances with her cousin, Keely Rose, 3, of Carbondale, to the music of Serene Green during the NEPA Cannabis Rally at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Sunday.
Jeff Zick and hundreds of other cannabis activists who met at Scranton’s Nay Aug Park on Sunday are sick of the label that’s been slapped on them for decades.
On the day before April 20, which is widely known as “4/20” and a day to celebrate cannabis, proponents of marijuana legalization gathered for the NEPA Cannabis Rally to celebrate a plant they believe would revitalize the health care, manufacturing and agricultural industries — if only it were legal.
“It’s a natural approach to a lot of our problems,” said Mr. Zick, the event organizer.
He applauded the hundreds behind him who listened, some dancing, to a bluegrass string band playing fast tunes on the gazebo.
“For people to come out right now and show their faces out here in public is a big thing,” Mr. Zick said. “It’s a big deal for the First Amendment ... that we’re coming out here and we’re not afraid. We’re sick of the oppression, and we’re ready for a new approach.”
A pitch for hemp
Carl Romanelli, chairman of the Luzerne County Green Party, told the crowd that the hemp plant, a cannabis variety, has dozens of uses as a food supplement and a raw material for textiles and paper that grows faster and produces more than traditional timber forests and cotton farms.
“Hemp grows completely naturally, even in marginal soil, without need for fertilizers or pesticides,” Mr. Romanelli told the cheering crowd. “Its only known enemy is prohibition.”
Legislative issues
Growing and using cannabis is illegal in Pennsylvania, though several bills in the state Senate could change that.
Senate Bill 3 would allow it to be used as a medicine, and Senate Bill 528 would regulate the use of marijuana similarly to alcohol.
Area reggae musician George Wesley said he has been a “victim” of the war on marijuana, which he perceives as misplaced aggression and a distraction from helping a population addicted to heroin and methamphetamine.
“We have a severe hard-drug problem in the area that’s causing a lot of crime and violence. People talk about marijuana being a gateway, but they forget that it’s a gateway out of things,” Mr. Wesley said. “They need a safe natural alternative.”
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