INDReporter

Dude! Pro-cannabis march planned

by Walter Pierce

A group known as Legalize Louisiana is hosting the event in an effort to "demonstrate the urgent need for change in our criminal justice system ... in order to create safe access to cannabis in Louisiana for medicinal, religious, industrial and recreational use." A march from Girard Park through the UL campus to the Lafayette Parish Courthouse in support of marijuana legalization is planned for March 2.

A group known as Legalize Louisiana is hosting the event in an effort to "demonstrate the urgent need for change in our criminal justice system ... in order to create safe access to cannabis in Louisiana for medicinal, religious, industrial and recreational use."

According to a press release, once at the courthouse marchers "will demand a more correct interpretation of the Constitution whereby corrupt, racket-driving social engineering efforts are rejected via real remedies from our judges, public defenders and prosecutors or probation officers." At the adjacent Lafayette Parish Correctional Center participants will "demand immediate release of and reparations for those nonviolent drug offenders currently incarcerated."

The non-profit Legalize Louisiana was formed last December in the wake of the dissolution of the Louisiana chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and, like NORML, seeks to overturn the legal prohibition on marijunana use, arguing that it is "unjust, unreasonable, unscientific, unconstitutional, inhumane and unacceptable."