It is when we smoke pot publicly, not in an alley way or secluded section of a park, or in the privacy of our home (or that of another's home), that our pot smoking is to some degree a political act, an open protest against marijuana laws. While, of course, such acts are passive activism, more concerned with the act of smoking than the act of reform, it does in turn send a message to the public. This message is one that cannabis is not illegal. Sure it might be under the letter of the law, and even in the enforcement thereof (although from my observation, cannabis laws regarding simply toking aren't particularly enforced), but that these laws and these enforcement mechanisms we choose not to accept, and openly break the law.

While I suppose one might go on to argue, that in this regard, going on a killing spree would equally be a protest against murder laws, but I think there is a logical distinction between the two.

So, it is in this that I encourage public toking (which I have observed others do, and do engage in myself on occassion), but also a word of caution, to do so wisely, and probably pocket your joint if you see a police officer.

Smoking and purchasing cannabis is, in itself, an act seditious politics against the establishment, regardless of how clandestine it is.

Sometimes its better not to blow smoke in peoples faces either.

However, public smoke-ins are one of the best ways to raise awareness and build community!

I don't think (most) people really mind so much, or at least no more so than they do with tobacco smoke.

Another thing that is really needed is to have more 'normal' potheads standing up and putting themselves out there. Not that us members of the 'fringe' have any less important of a voice, but lets be frank, our non~conformist ways do make us an easy target {thats how it was made to be illegal in the first place, cause it was the "blacks and the artists"}. I once worked for a 3rd party billing company {pretty much like a credit card company, but, in our case, for trucking companies, the cards would be handed out to drivers and could be used for everything from fuel purchases {most common} to tow truck fees, new tires, payroll, ect.}, one of the largest in USA and they did pretty much everything internally, we even had our own IT department that developed the OS that the company used and all the software for the POS devices. I'd have to guess that over 75% of the company was anywhere from a weekend indulger to daily to multiple times daily, ranging from the 16 yrs old kid doing part time in the call center to managers all the way up to a couple of the owners. Most of the people at this company werent the type to go to a smoke~in or to show up at the million man marijuana march each year. It is unfortunate, but most of the people I see showing up to these things are more fringe, less status quo which makes it really easy for the gov't to use scare tactics on the sheeple of the nation...its something to think about.

Hmm when I went to Hash Bash there were all types of people there. Yes plenty of "fringe" but many people of all backgrounds, races, etc.

At this point, worrying about fringe, I think, may be outdated.

But that was just at Hash Bash in Michigan so it may not be representative of everywhere. Just my two cents.

The media also likes to target the fringe element for purposes of sensationalism. Vancouvers 420s', the 100,000 people who visited Seattle Hempfest- what gets in the paper? The guy with the gasmask pipe.

Many people are good about outing themselves in a crowd- its another to stand up and make yourself an advocate.

You do remember that our generation literally got chased around in our teens for almost our entire teenage years.

I remember that looking sideways at a cruiser used to get us all pulled over. Doing anything used to get everybody pulled over and ID'ed. Now, I ask for a reason, and that's as far as it ever gets.

What I'm getting at though, is that there was a campaign of fear when i was younger that got real bad.
I got locked up for several months in jail, and I didn't do shit.

So many 'regular, back-burners' I know are still afraid, and still remember those times. They don't realise that things are a little different, and that we have more 'umph' as muture adults now.

The general belief here is that if you go against the grain, you don't pass go and head directly to jail.