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CNN Live At Daybreak

Millionaire Marijuana March

Aired May 10, 2002 - 05:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You've probably heard of the Million Man March, but what about the Million Marijuana March? That's right, a pot parade of sorts has become a global event.

Reporter Serena Ultal (ph) covered the event in New York and talked to people in marches across the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SERENA ULTAL (voice-over): You may not have heard of Marijuana Liberation Day, but it's a global event that's claimed nearly 200 cities worldwide, spanning 6 continents. As I waited for the New York march to begin, I put in a call to London.

(on camera): How many people does it look like actually turned out there? I know it's hard to tell what the numbers are right away, but how many people so far?

JERRY HAM, LONDON: We've had about 7,000 or 8,000 people marched from Kensington Park in Brickston (ph) through to Brockwell Park (ph). It's very, very much in full swing here.

ULTAL: You know we have almost as many police as there are marchers today. What kind of police turnout do you see?

HAM: There're really very small numbers of obvious police, and they take a very, very relaxed and stepped back approach to policing the event. People are just moving around the festival site smoking cannabis openly. I think it's absolutely remarkable that there are as many cities making such a statement of solidarity.

ULTAL: Well, Jerry, it looks like things are about to get started here. They are rallying right now and people are starting to march. We'll see how many more people actually end up joining this march throughout the day. We're going to be checking in with different cities around the country.

CROWD CHANTING: We smoke pot and we like it a lot. We smoke pot and we like it a lot.

ULTAL: Right now we're going to try and get in touch with one of the demonstrations in Florida and see what they are up to.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love marijuana. ULTAL: What kind of turnout did you get today?

KEVIN APLINE, ORLANDO, FLORIDA: I think we've got a couple of hundred people here and we have a couple of floats. We have people in prison uniforms that are doing a little gorilla theater, illustrating the fact that we, you know, lock up 730,000 Americans arrested every year for marijuana offenses. So we're trying to get the public to see that this is a waste of human resources and that this war on marijuana is really a war on real American people.

ULTAL (voice-over): As the march wound down in New York, I called San Francisco, the city at the forefront of the Marijuana Movement.

CLARK SULLIVAN, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: Medicinal and recreation use, it only constitutes a very small percentage of the actual uses for the cannabis hemp plant. And I feel like too much emphasis is placed upon the recreational/medical use and not enough emphasis is put on the agricultural and the industrial uses.

DANA BEALE, MMM FOUNDER: Well the main message that is embraced by everyone in all countries around the world is to stop all cannabis arrests.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop the arrests.

BEALE: I think that having the people out in the streets is a vital ingredient of change.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they don't make it legal, we will eventually -- eventually.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And now you know about the Million Marijuana March. That was Serena Ultal reporting for CNN.

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