New Hampshire Medical Marijuana Protests

10/31/2009 By Rhys Williams

New Hampshire is becoming overwhelmed by civil disobedience. Apparently, the people of New Hampshire have had enough of these tyrannical drug laws and have taken to the streets. At one protest, the people were actually smoking weed in a police station lobby. No one was arrested because the police didn’t have enough staff on hand to do anything about it.

We are the silent majority, however in New Hampshire, marijuana reform advocates aren’t staying silent. This new, spontaneous, and somewhat surprising development reminds me of the Greenboro Lunch Counter Sit-In, where some college students refused to leave after being denied service based on their being African-American. In a free society, civil disobedience is among the most laudable of actions.

I’ve often mused about how if every person who is on our side would stand up and be counted, we would win. In fact, during the American Revolution, only 5% of the population was revolutionary. Regarding our topic, greater than 50% are revolutionaries. We can’t lose.

In the times of Colonial Africa, the British Army, along with their Navy, dominated the world. They were the best trained, best paid and best fed soldiers in the world. However, it didn’t matter when Zulu warriors, armed with spears and shields, overwhelmed them. 1200 British soldiers fell to over 10,000 Zulu warriors.

Now, I’ve used two war analogies. I did this because we are fighting a war on drugs, perpetrated by our own government against our people. Civil disobedience and basic human dignity is our weapon. The power and brute force of the state is theirs. This may seem like a lopsided battle, guns and jail vs going to jail and getting shot. However, the world has proven time and time again that, in the words of the great patriot (but not a beer maker unfortunately) Samuel Adams, “It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”

This video is from one of those citizen journalists who are beginning to pop up, and is about the New Hampshire protests: