NEWS
Denver’s 4/20 Celebration Banned for Three Years Thanks to Excessive Littering
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The organizers of the annual rally have been fined over $12,000 for litter and damage infractions.
Published on May 22, 2017

It’s been over a month since cannabis connoisseurs around the world got together to spark up and celebrate marijuana’s high holiday. But while 4/20 parties around the U.S. went off largely without issue, a post-rally report from Denver’s Department of Parks and Recreation has put the famous Colorado festival out of commission for the next three years. 

According to Denver’s local ABC 7, DPR officials reviewed the 4/20 rally, a yearly celebration held at the legal weed capital’s Civic Center Park, and found that piles of litter and a lack of public safety protections resulted in the three year ban and a hefty fine.

“After a thorough review of the event, substantial violations of city requirements were found.” Happy Haynes, executive director of Denver Parks and Recreation, said in a statement sent to Denver7. “We will continue to ensure that events in our parks are safe, compliant and of high quality, and we remain focused on protecting Denver’s parks and facilities which are valuable assets to our city and our residents.” 

In footage from the aftermath of the Denver rally you can clearly see mountains of trash littering the Civic Center plaza.

 

 

Along with the three-year ban, the rally’s organizers have been fined $11,965, as well as an additional $190 in damages to the park. Needless to say, the rally organizers on the hook for those fines are not pleased.

"We understand that the City political structure disagrees with our message, and is using this process as a pretext to silence the message," Miguel Lopez, one of the event’s organizers, said in a statement. "Every Civic Center event has similar features and none of these issues were identified in past years 420 events."

Lopez and his co-organizers will have the opportunity to bring back the event in 2020, but for the next few years they’ll have to find another location to celebrate 4/20 with thousands of their closest friends.

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Zach Harris
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Zach Harris is a writer based in Philadelphia whose work has appeared on Noisey, First We Feast, and Jenkem Magazine. You can find him on Twitter @10000youtubes complaining about NBA referees.
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