Marijuana activist gets presidential pardon for weed-smoking protests at Independence Mall

Marijuana activist Chris Goldstein wasn’t just in pursuit of happiness when he lit up joints during his “Smoke Down Prohibition” events on Independence Mall more than a decade ago. He was protesting for the liberty to do so without fear of arrest on National Park Service grounds, just feet from where the Declaration of Independence was signed.

But arrested he was, then taken to trial and convicted in federal court of possession of .5 grams of marijuana. He has never gotten over seeing United States v. Goldstein on court documents.

“I don’t feel like I’m against the United States,” he told me. “I feel like I’m trying to improve this country.”

Now Goldstein, 48, who helped get small amounts of marijuana decriminalized in Philly, has a new government document with his name on it — a presidential pardon.

“It does feel a lot better,” he said. “I’m considering getting a tattoo of it, and definitely a T-shirt.”

Goldstein was surprised to receive his pardon via email last week from the U.S. Pardon Attorney’s Office. He was included in President Joe Biden’s second round of federal pardons for simple possession of marijuana in December.

“I’m elated because this was a protest so it feels like some validation for what we did,” he said. “The pardon does feel like a tangible sign the federal government is declaring peace and not war on cannabis consumers.”

Today, Goldstein, of Willingboro, is a writer, cannabis consumer event consultant, and regional organizer with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). But back in 2012, when his “Smoke Down” protests began, he was the director of Philly NORML and a freelance marijuana columnist for The Inquirer.

He got the idea for the protests after meeting fellow activist N.A. Poe at Occupy Philadelphia. The two decided to commemorate the anniversary of the Controlled Substances Act by holding a protest on Independence Mall in October 2012. During the act of civil disobedience, they sparked up joints at 4:20 p.m. and gave speeches calling for the removal of marijuana from the CSA.

A few dozen people attended the first protest, which went off without any police interaction, and they decided to hold the protests monthly for a year. While most were attended by several dozen people, about a thousand people participated on April 20, 2013. It was at the protest the following month, Goldstein said, the troubles began.

From May on, officers and officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the National Park Service, and the Philadelphia Police Department conducted a coordinated effort to cite and arrest protesters, even going so far as to set up a processing area at the urban national park.

“Sometimes there were just a dozen of us and sometimes hundreds of law enforcement,” he said. “I didn’t know the National Park Service had riot gear.”

Goldstein was first cited in June but he continued to return and was arrested in August. He was taken to trial, convicted, and sentenced to two years of supervised probation, which “included dozen of drug tests” and a $3,000 fine.

The protests resulted in a federal record for Goldstein, but locally, they led him and Poe to meetings with then-City Councilmember Jim Kenney to push for the decriminalization of marijuana in Philly. On Oct. 20, 2014, the city passed an ordinance decriminalizing up to 30 grams of weed.

“While I was on trial, I was meeting with Kenney’s staff and helping to write the ordinance that is used in Philly today,” Goldstein said.

Biden announced his first round of pardons for simple marijuana possession on federal lands and in Washington in October 2022, but applications for those who were eligible didn’t go online until March 2023, Goldstein said.

He applied right away but didn’t hear back and later learned that a second round of expanded pardons to include additional offenses, like simple possession on National Park Service grounds, was in the works. When that came down in December 2023, Goldstein got his pardon.

The presidential pardon doesn’t erase his permanent record, it’s merely an answer to what is on it, he said.

“Hopefully in any situation it’s a problem, the pardon will be enough,” Goldstein said.

When announcing the pardons, Biden urged governors to do the same with state offenses.

“It’s been a little surprising to see Gov. Josh Shapiro not answer the president’s call to do something about cannabis justice,” Goldstein said. “What he can do is… start issuing pardons and suspending prosecutions to stop the criminal process of prohibition while the legislature works on the law.”

Shapiro supports legalizing recreational marijuana, and a majority of Pennsylvania voters do too, but there hasn’t been enough Republican support in the legislature to get a bill through (man, those politicians are really bogarting this joint).

Meanwhile, every other state bordering Pennsylvania, aside from West Virginia, has now legalized recreational weed and there are billboards on I-95 in Philly advertising the closest New Jersey weed stores to the Pa. border.

We are watching millions of potential tax dollars fly out of our state and we’re still spending money to prosecute people for possessing marijuana. Last year, more than 9,700 adults were arrested in Pennsylvania for marijuana possession, according to the state’s Uniform Crime Reporting system.

If the president can pardon Goldstein for smoking a joint on Independence Mall, Pennsylvania legislators can stop acting like a nanny state, listen to their constituents, and legalize recreational marijuana.

“I think what we did was a poignant and lasting protest, but I wish it still wasn’t so important,” Goldstein said. “I never thought it would take Pennsylvania this long to decriminalize marijuana.”