The stereotypical marijuana smoker is apathetic and listless.
With their rights to light up at stake, however, pot smokers and their supporters dispelled that stereotype Saturday afternoon when nearly 100 marchers took to the streets of Eugene as part of an international effort to legalize medicinal and recreational use of marijuana.
Participants of the Millennium Marijuana March, which prompted nearly 100 protests around the world, gathered at Skinner Butte Park, marched down West High Street and convened at the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza. There, speakers addressed a crowd of about 150 people, and a handful of marchers lit up their pipes despite the police escort.
“We’re marching to get back the basic right that should have never been taken away — our right to alter our consciousness,” Will I. Am Winget said. “Taxpayers should be outraged to have to pay for non-violent pot smokers to be kept in jail.”
The marchers’ plea for America to end the war on drugs echoed throughout downtown Eugene as they shouted: “What do we want? Drug peace. When do we want it? Now.”
Outside the courthouse, several speakers, including City Council Ward 3 candidate Ron “Misha” Seymour and mayoral candidate Lazar Makyadath, extolled freedom of speech and assembly. Most speakers argued that marijuana should be legalized because it’s less lethal than alcohol and tobacco and doesn’t lead to violent behavior.
“Hundreds of thousands of people die from drugs in hospitals, but nobody dies from marijuana,” Seymour said.
“The drug war is propaganda for war, a war against us all,” Sow Much Hemp employee Bruce Mullican said, asking for pot smokers to sign petitions being circulated that call for legalizing recreational use of marijuana in Oregon.

In 1998, Oregon voters approved the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
“We are hemp culture,” Mullican said. “We support marijuana growers, smokers and dealers.”
The lone voice of dissent at the event, John English, director of For Our Children’s Children, took the stage and pointed out the medical hazards of smoking marijuana.
Short term effects of smoking marijuana include increased pulse rate, impairment of logical thinking, confusion, restlessness, anxiety or panic, impaired motor ability, altered perception and increased appetite. Though overdose is highly unlikely, long term effects of smoking cannabis include diminished sex drive, respiratory disease, lung cancer, memory impairment and impaired immune system.
However, English’s comments were drowned out by shouts, boos and calls for him to leave the stage.
Despite the brief shouting match, the protest was peaceful and jovial.
After leaving Skinner Butte Park, marchers walked briskly as the march took on a comet-like shape with the bulk of marchers crowded at the front of the procession and a tail of new arrivals straggling behind.
Some marchers carried brightly colored posters emblazoned with such slogans as “Free The Drug War POWs” and “Don’t smoke it — toke it.”
Bongo drums and trumpet calls maintained a counterpoint to the footsteps while occasional plumes of smoke rose above the marchers and the pungent smell of burning cannabis wafted through the air.
As the march led into downtown, shoppers and employees at nearby businesses stood in doorways to watch the spectacle.
Nancy Stelfox, a picture framer at McDonald Gallery Fine Framing, said the march wasn’t affecting business but was a welcomed sight “adding a little interest to the day.”