By DCist contributor Jai Williams

A month after a mass smoke-in at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, pot activists returned yesterday with more marijuana, speeches, and signs in tow. A shooting at the White House earlier in the afternoon didn’t deter the group from demonstrating, though they did have to relocate to 16th and H Streets NW.

The leaders of DCMJ (which spearheaded the passage of Initiative 71 in D.C.) were granted a meeting to discuss rescheduling marijuana with the Obama administration after their first event, but didn’t get a response to their request to speak to higher-level officials. So the group planned a return, including a “die-in” that could have led to mass arrests (the smoke-in only resulted in two citations for public consumption).

Held at 5:20 p.m., the event’s date and specific time were chosen to celebrate the birthday of “one of the founding fathers of America’s failed war on drugs,” as DCMJ puts it. Harry J. Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics, spearheaded a public campaign against pot and drafted the Marijuana Tax Act. As the demonstration took place, public pot consumption went uninterrupted by nearby Secret Service agents.

DCMJ’s asked veterans to wear their service uniform and civilians to don business attire to be taken more seriously. Activist Dana Beal recounted a brush with the law during a smoke-in during the 1960s, host Russ Bellville shared statistics about the positive economic and cultural impacts of marijuana, and members of the Weed for Warriors Project provided personal accounts. Others held up a banner with the statement, “U.S. Veterans: 7% of the population, 20% of the suicides displayed.”

The event culminated in a 22 minute “die-in, to honor the number of veterans who commit suicide each day; it was led by Brandon Wyatt, an attorney and disabled veteran. But again, no one was arrested.

DCMJ organizer Adam Eidinger says they are waiting to hear about the DEA’s decision on rescheduling marijuana before deciding whether or not to protest the Democratic and Republican conventions. In the meantime, DCMJ plans to hold a town hall along with the Marijuana Policy Project and Drug Policy Alliance at the Black Cat on June 1; Jack Evans and Vincent Gray are slated to speak.