The Global Marijuana March

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Recommended: Peaceful protests (Essay)

The Global Marijuana March (GMM) is a celebration of peoples’ choice to engage in marijuana smoking and an opportunity to advocate the legalization of marijuana. The GMM is a march that takes place in many cities across the globe on the first Saturday of May every year. It includes peaceful rallying around powerful institutions in order to convey a powerful message in support of the legalization of marijuana. Since the GMM is celebrated around the world, the impact that it has on different communities is specific to its location. I will be focusing particularly on Canadian culture and the GMM that takes place within Canada, and specifically in Toronto, where the march takes place around Queen’s Park. During the GMM police officers do not intervene with the march and the activities associated with it. People freely engage in smoking marijuana and are not arrested. It is on this one day that communities of people who are regularly marginalized are able to become powerful because the power authorities and institutions allow this to happen. Their message becomes powerful because of the collective strength of marijuana advocates around the world. This paper discusses the GMM in the context of its production. It investigates the way social critiques are presented and how this enables a Marijuana Movement formation. This is all made possible through the power centres which allow the peaceful protest to continue annually. The reasoning behind the authority figures’ lack of intervention during the GMM is questionable, and it is debatable whether this actually benefits marijuana advocates or the powerful institutions which keep marijuana illegal. It is through the GMM that the marginalized community of marijuana advocates is able to promote...

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...because authority figures recognize the march and its purpose that it is able to proceed annually. The march gives power figures the opportunity to address the issue of de-criminalization of marijuana through its allowance, yet the march fails to impact as much as it appears to be doing. It is through the GMM that what Raymond Williams calls ‘culture is ordinary’ is being demonstrated. Protestors expose the everyday reality of marijuana consumption and do so in the hopes of reducing the stigma of the drug.

Works Cited:

Chappell, Louise. 2008. “The International Criminal Court: A New Arena for Transforming

Gender Justice?” in Shirin M. Rai and Georgina Waylen, eds., Global Governance, pp.

160-184. New York: Palgrave.

Williams, Raymond. 2001. “Culture is ordinary.” In The Raymond Williams reader, ed. John

Higgins, pp. 2-24. Oxford and Malden: Blackwell.

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