{"id":6300,"date":"2018-02-11T13:49:33","date_gmt":"2018-02-11T18:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lcpllutzlivetotell.org\/?p=6300"},"modified":"2019-08-08T12:42:19","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T16:42:19","slug":"san-antonio-activists-promote-recreational-medical-use-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/?p=6300","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio activists promote recreational and medical use of marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Antonio activists promote recreational and medical use of marijuana<\/h3>\n

By Alexandro Luna, Staff Writer<\/p>\n

Updated 10:47\u00a0am, Sunday, February 11, 2018<\/h5>\n

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Near a busy North Side intersection, dozens of San Antonians gathered Saturday afternoon to demonstrate in favor of the legalization of recreational and medical marijuana use in Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as we got out and we had flyers on the ground, we already had car honks going,\u201d said Shawna Simpson, 28, who set up the event with her brother Jeremy Simpson, 30.<\/p>\n

The siblings are two of four organizers in the San Antonio area who are part of Cannabis Open Carry Walks, a statewide movement. Other walks were held Saturday in Dallas and Channelview near Houston.<\/p>\n

According to their\u00a0Facebook page<\/a>, Open Carry Walks began in late 2017 and will continue throughout 2018 and into 2019 with the aim of having the next Texas Legislature, which convenes in 2019, consider legislation to legalize recreational and medical marijuana use.<\/p>\n

View here<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Paul Espinoza, 50, who is recovering from a serious motor vehicle wreck in 2011, said he came out to promote marijuana use as a better alternative to prescription pain pills.<\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been smoking for about two years now. The pills the doctor had me on made me moody, suicidal,\u201d Espinoza said. \u201cI\u2019m still feeling side effects but my anxiety is not as it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

For about four hours near the intersection of West Rector and San Pedro Avenue, on the sidewalk bordering the North Star Mall parking lot, the activists waved flags and banners and carried signs that read \u201cLegalize\u201d and \u201cFree The Weed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeremy Simpson said the group uses Facebook and other social media to help promote and organize the walks. He added that previous demonstrations in Houston and Dallas were streamed live on Facebook, attracting 30,000 viewers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had nearly 150 people show up to today\u2019s event,\u201d Shawna Simpson said, throughout the afternoon. Texas can expect to see 20 other walks in the coming weeks in other cities, she said. Another one will be held in San Antonio next month; details will be announced later.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople of all backgrounds come to these walks. We\u2019ve had cancer patients \u2026 and people who\u2019ve just gone through a lot,\u201d Shawna Simpson said. \u201cIt\u2019s eye-opening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Manuel Martinez, 23, participated in the event Saturday after seeing the group\u2019s post about it on Facebook and said he would be back to continue supporting the efforts to legalize marijuana.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarijuana really helped with my depression when my little brother died,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cNow that I know (about the walks), I\u2019m gonna start coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retrieved from: https:\/\/www.mysanantonio.com\/news\/local\/article\/San-Antonio-activists-promote-recreational-and-12604469.php<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Antonio activists promote recreational and medical use of marijuana By Alexandro Luna, Staff Writer Updated 10:47\u00a0am, Sunday, February 11, 2018 Near a busy North Side intersection, dozens of San Antonians gathered Saturday afternoon to demonstrate in favor of the legalization of recreational and medical marijuana use in Texas. \u201cAs …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cannabis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}