The Largest Marijuana March Ever? 150,000 Protest in Buenos Aires!

Good Golly, Miss Mary Jane! I’ve been watching marijuana legalization marches for a long time and I’ve never seen a crowd like this.

The organizers of the Argentine Global Marijuana March are reporting that 150,000 people showed up in the capital, Buenos Aires, Saturday to march from the Plaza de Mayo to the Plaza de Congreso. The masses marched under the banner “No Jail for Cultivation — Regulate Cannabis Now!”

Now, maybe they’re exaggerating. Maybe it was only 100,000. But this is humongous. I can recall seeing 70,000 turn out in Rome one year, and crowds in the tens of thousands sometimes in European capitals and major Canadian cities.

But just look at that mass of humanity in Buenos Aires! That’s sending a very strong signal to the Argentine government that it needs to quit dilly-dallying and get down to freeing the weed.

And it wasn’t just Buenos Aires. Organizers reported marches in numerous Argentine cities, with more than 15,000 showing up in Cordoba, 11,000 in Rosario, 7,000 in Mendoza, 2,500 in La Plata, 300 on the slopes at Bariloche, and even 200 way down Patagonia way in Comodoro Rivadavia.

The Argentine may be suffering from some legalization envy — situated just on the other side of the Rio de la Plata estuary is Uruguay, where the government is formally announcing its legalization regulations this week. Whatever the reasons, congratulations to the Argentines, and may we all be inspired by their example.

Article republished from Stop the Drug War under Creative Commons Licensing