Get Ready: There’s a 51-Foot Joint Coming to the DNC

Marijuana activists will march the joint from City Hall to the Wells Fargo Center.

Get ready for a little puff, puff, pass.

A 51-foot joint will make an appearance in Philly for the Democratic National Convention next week.

No, it doesn’t actually contain marijuana – just a lot of air. The giant joint has circulated at past events in New York City and Washington, D.C.

DCMJ, an organization pushing for marijuana legalization, will lead the joint-centered march. It’s expected to start sometime after noon on July 25th, according to PhillyVoice. Volunteers will help carry the joint to the convention, and activists will support it on the return journey.

According to the Associated Press, the Secret Service flagged and restricted the whereabouts of the joint during a protest held at the White House in April. We’ll see if it sparks any controversy next week.

Organizers told PhillyVoice the demonstration was intended to be more of a celebration than a protest, citing recent progress on marijuana decriminalization and legalization.

The joint will make its return during the Cannabis Pride Parade, set for 3 p.m. on July 28th at the corner Broad and Oregon streets, PhillyVoice reports. According to the Facebook page, those interested can “make a sign, roll up some doobies and march with us in the streets to celebrate how far we have come as a movement!”

The DNC’s Democratic Platform Committee addresses marijuana in its 2016 platform draft, which reads:

“We believe that the states should be laboratories of democracy on the issue of marijuana, and those states that want to decriminalize marijuana should be able to do so. We support policies that will allow more research on marijuana, as well as reforming our laws to allow legal marijuana businesses to exist without uncertainty. And we recognize our current marijuana laws have had an unacceptable disparate impact, with arrest rates for marijuana possession among African Americans far outstripping arrest rates among whites, despite similar usage rates.”

Follow @ClaireSasko on Twitter.