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The People Passing 4200 Joints at Inauguration Explain Their Highly Noble Cause

"It's time for our movement to rise up or we will be totally locked up."

Since the 2016 election results confirmed a Trump presidency, acts of resistance and protests both large and small in scale have erupted across the country. The Million Women March, likely to be the largest anti-Trump protest yet, will take place the day after the Inauguration in Washington DC. But many groups plan to protest the day-of the Inauguration as well: Michael Chertoff, former Secretary of Homeland Security, told the New York Times, "I can't think of an inauguration that presented more security challenges than this one."

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With so many organizations and groups planning protests, standing out among a crowd of dissenters could pose a challenge. DCMJ, a Washington DC marijuana advocacy group recently made headlines after they announced plans to protest the Inauguration by handing out four thousand, two hundred pre-rolled joints. Then, at four minutes and 20 seconds into Trump's speech, they plan on lighting up. Broadly spoke with organizer Adam Eidinger on exactly what the DCMJ hopes to achieve with their protest plans.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Broadly: What are your plans for inauguration day, and how has the process been thus far?

Adam Eidinger: Never had so many reporters so interested in something. So, around 50-100 residents will hand out pre-rolled joints at 8 AM on the day of the inauguration, until 10 AM. We are telling people they can use marijuana at home lawfully and watch the speech or go down to the national mall and smoke there. We're protesting a government that's tone deaf to people that still go to jail because of marijuana prohibition. We are tired of inaction.

We would be putting pressure on Hillary Clinton if she was elected. This not about the broader Trump agenda; it's about this one issue and we would call the protest off tomorrow if Donald Trump tweeted at us and said, "You have nothing to worry about, we're going to keep reforming and change the laws." If that happened, we would call the protest off out of respect. But, [Trump] made a point to have Jeff Sessions as the next Attorney General. It's alarming the statements he's made about marijuana and he will lock us all up. We won't go back to that. We had the worst marijuana arrest rate in the world in Washington DC, about 5700 arrests in 2011 alone. We can't go back to that. It's time for our movement to rise up or we will be totally locked up.

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Read More: Weed Advocacy Group to Trump Administration: Wait, What's Actually Happening?

What do you expect to happen on the day of the inauguration? Do you think police action will prevent you from handing out joints?

We changed the law in 2014 through a voter initiative. We have the right to carry up to two ounces of marijuana anywhere in the district. We have the right to give away up to once ounce of marijuana at a time as long as we're not receiving money.

Do you think they might find an excuse to arrest you, regardless of the law?

If the police interfere with our lawful distribution of cannabis then there will be litigation later on. I do not expect that all. We have given away seeds and marijuana on occasions, [but] not so publicly as this. This is a community-wide effort; it takes a lot of people to roll four thousand and two hundred joints … All of this speaks to the broad support we have for legalization. We put marijuana on the ballot for almost no money and passed it with 70 percent, [and] with strong opposition coming from officials. Once it passed, Congress could have overturned our law and because we organized many protests and lockdowns—including locking ourselves to liberty pole in front of the US Capitol building for a whole week, with all the publicity and passion—they didn't overturn our law.

It is a really interesting time. Donald Trump has said some really interesting things about marijuana reform. Not everyone thinks he's going to lock us up and arrest us, but until he says something publicly before the protests we have no reason to call it off or stop….Jeff Sessions isn't messing around when it comes to marijuana; he is staunchly against marijuana—he's the worst pick you could possibly have. There's a chance we can stop his nomination. There's a snowball of momentum right now.

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You've said a couple of times that if Trump were to say something about marijuana reform you would not protest. Is that the only issue you have with him?

There are a lot of protests at the Inauguration: there are women, anarchists, environmentalists. It's up to every advocacy group to represent their issue the best they can. I think marijuana is a really ridiculous issue because there's bipartisan support and it still isn't happening. People's lives are turned upside-down. No other issue that's being talked about at the inauguration has resulted in more people going to jail. While I appreciation those who say, "If you care about marijuana so much why don't you care about the economy or the environment?" But you know, they're all connected to marijuana. There's jobs, there's the environmental impact. You want to talk about civil rights? This is a civil rights issue. Want to talk about women's rights? Well, this isn't great for women either. They get arrested. It's all connected to marijuana.

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Personally, do you see your problem intersecting with other issues being protested or other advocacy groups?

I think we're most aligned with the BLM movement and the ACLU. I think that's where we are right now. We're stuck in this drug war and criminal justice system. I do feel an affinity with those groups.

To someone who isn't familiar to your cause or isn't familiar with what you stand for, how are you trying to reach people?

I think Americans get why people smoke. Most of the states that have legalized already have had lots of smoke-ins before it happened. These public gatherings bring together a community, build our numbers, and create a fun family atmosphere. These movements can't all be serious and tense all the time, they have to give back energize and allow people to participate. The last smoke-in we had created dialogue with the White House—we ended up having a meeting with them!