Image via Shutterstock.

Image via Shutterstock.

April 20th, also known as 4/20, is the annual holiday for all things weed, and Hill staffers will have a unique chance to celebrate.

Organizers with DCMJ, the local cannabis advocacy group that engineered Initiative 71, will set up near Capitol Hill at noon through the early evening to give away two joints apiece to interested staffers.

“We have to do this type of activity on the Hill on 4/20, I think, to get respect, to show that there’s a community in this country who loves this plant and uses it,” says DCMJ co-founder Adam Eidinger. “The main reason we’re doing this is to change the psychology of Capitol Hill staffers and get rid of the stigma. We’re saying, ‘Are you comfortable with it? Can you hang?'”

Last week, DCMJ members visited Capitol Hill to invite staffers to the event, which is happening on District land to stay within the letter of the law. Already, they’ve rolled about 500 joints, Eidinger says, with a goal of having at least 1,227 doobies (though he expects they’ll ultimately have quite a bit more). The number represents HR 1227, a bill introduced this term that would end the federal prohibition on marijuana.

That bill, Eidinger points out, was introduced by a Republican Congressman Thomas Garrett, Jr. of Virginia, speaking to the need for bipartisanship when it comes to legalization.

“We learned there was a lot of support from conservatives on Inauguration Day,” he says, when DCMJ found that free weed was a place of bipartisan agreement after giving away more than 4,200 joints.

“We should have been using cannabis a long time as a political tool,” says Eidinger. “It brings people out. Now let’s see if it brings the staffers out.”

D.C. law allows people to legally give away up to an ounce of marijuana, so long as they are over 21. That’s why DCMJ is posting up on 1st Street NE and Constitution Avenue NE, which is District rather than federal land.

However, staffers can’t technically bring the joints back inside the Capitol without breaking the law, which is why the event is now going through the early evening, so folks can pick them up on their way out. (Eidinger also suggests staffers head to the giveaway at lunch and stow away the weed in their cars.)

But even with that change, many staffers have told Eidinger they’re concerned about attending the event without the approval of the House Ethics Committee. Tom Rust, the committee’s staff director and chief counsel, had no comment.

While Eidinger isn’t expecting a huge turnout from Hill staffers at the giveaway on 4/20, he says that “we want to see more politicians who come, take a joint, and say ‘It’s not for me, it’s for my son.'”

Four days after 4/20, DCMJ is planning civil disobedience at the Capitol. Much like last year’s smoke-in in front of the White House, activists are planning to toke on the Capitol steps to raise awareness about where marijuana stands in the continuing resolution. The CR continues to include the Harris amendment, preventing D.C. from spending its local funds on easing marijuana laws, and doesn’t have the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which stops the federal government from enforcing marijuana laws in states that have medical weed.

“We have to do it because the issue is dropping off the radar,” says Eidinger. Congress will be in session, and “we wanted them to be able to see it and smell it.”

Eidinger says at least 25 people have already signed up for the Capitol Hill smoke-in, and DCMJ will be recruiting more during the National Cannabis Festival over that weekend.

There’s a way that politicians can stop the smoke-in, though: get rid of the Harris amendment or add the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment.

You can learn more about the giveaway and the smoke-in here.