Photo by Benjamin Strahs.

Local marijuana activists left their meeting at the White House with one clear goal—to return for another conversation with higher-level officials.

Now, the tenor of a protest scheduled for Friday May 20th will depend on whether the White House provides DCMJ with a formal response to a letter the group sent today, which echoes the requests they made at the meeting.

“I hope they will respond,” says DCMJ co-founder Adam Eidinger. “If they don’t, this protest is going to get big. The protest next week is going to happen either way—the question is whether there will be civil disobedience.”

In early April, DCMJ organized a smoke-in at the White House. There will be smoke this time around too (“It’s not exactly news that people are smoking marijuana at a pro-marijuana event,” says Eidinger), but it’s not a central part of the demonstration. Organizers aren’t planning on a countdown to lighting up, for instance, as they did last month.

Instead, they’re emphasizing a die-in, which means “lying down in front of the White House,” Eidinger explains. Blocking the driveways could result in arrests, which “could be good for the movement,” he says.

And of course, it’ll be another chance to see the 51-foot joint most recently spotted at last weekend’s Funk Parade.

But President Obama could prevent the die-in by providing activists with a date for more dialogue, which would turn the demonstration “into more of a ‘thank you’ event than a protest,” says Eidinger. “We’re trying to be reasonable here, but if the White House wants us to shut up, then that’s unreasonable.”