Intent as ever to shake the Reagan propaganda for good and get people to start calling weed "grass" again, Cleveland's cannabis activists are on the march. Again. For the 10th-annual worldwide Million Marijuana March. After three years sitting out. And no, the grass had nothing to do with it.

John Hartman, the longtime de facto leader of the region's cannabis activist community as owner of Lakewood's Cannabis Connection and founder of the Ohio Cannabis Society, died in February after years of intensifying kidney dialysis. A transplant could have saved him, his friends say, but that wasn't happening in today's climate of ignorance and fear.

"He got knocked off the transplant list because he tested positive for pot," says Jerry J., another longtime activist who was on his way to visit Hartman at the nursing home when he learned of his death. "He got the death sentence for pot."

Jerry, a NORML activist since the '70s, says a vacuum formed when Hartman fell ill. For three years, the march was set aside. But enough was enough, he says. This march, coinciding with 200 others across the globe that've taken place on the first Saturday in May since 1999, will pay tribute to Hartman and another area activist, Joe Zoretic, who died unexpectedly in the past year. But after a moment of silence, the gathering will assume its traditionally festive air.

There's much to be rallying the troops behind. Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) recently forwarded an amendment proposing the federal decriminalization of marijuana. More than a dozen states have made cannabis legal for medical use in recent years. And even in Ohio, the tide is rising: OSU's student body recently voted in a campus referendum urging school officials to make punishments concerning pot no greater than those concerning booze.

"It's a protest rally, not a pot party," Jerry says of the march, "but I'm sure there'll be pot smoking. You can't keep these kids under control."

Just don't run around acting like marijuana is legal or something ... yet.

Organizers of the world march announce that the event will continue its "blending of pot and politics into a political grass leaves movement." In keeping, the local march will start at "high" noon Saturday, May 3 on Public Square (at Superior and Ontario), then chill a bit before traveling to the Justice Center for some peaceable protesting at around 1:30. Afterwards, a party in Huntington Park with music, vendors and crafts.

In the past, the march has drawn as many as 1,000 visitors. In 2003, enough people were on hand to encircle the Justice Center - symbolizing, you guessed it, that about 1,000 people can encircle the Justice Center. As is tradition, singer-songwriter Willy Mac, of Columbus, kicks off the march on Public Square. Members of Wish You Were Here, Project Cheese and WBMT perform at the after-party. Prizes will be meted out for the most creative placard and costume, as well as for the best- and fastest-rolled joint. Diedre Zoretic, widow of Joe, is the keynote speaker.

"You know, this so-called radical underground of hippies is proving with this just how responsible we are in calling for marijuana legalization," says Jim Clevo, another local marijuana activist. "We've shown that we're doing this not as radicals but because we want to protect police and help them concentrate on more important things."

Drunk drivers, for instance.

- Dan Harkins

ADAM: THESE ARE PHOTO CAPTIONS:

Actor/filmmaker/wildman Crispin Glover, in town last week for a screening of his film What Is It? at the Cinematheque, visited WCSB 89.3's studio for a long interview with Craig Callander of the 669 Radio Show. Callander says that several callers tried unsuccessfully to get Glover to explain the deal with his infamous 1987 Late Night appearance ("I can kick!"). "He's eccentric, I guess you could say," says Callander. "There's a solid foundation of weirdness there. But he's all about eliciting reactions from people." The entire interview is available online at [url=http://www.669radio.com/crispin]669radio.com/crispin[/url].

Found embedded in the streets of dozens of cities, Toynbee tiles comprise the weirdest unsanctioned public arts project ever. The one pictured here may be the last in Cleveland. For more, see "Tile Driver" at [url=http://www.freetimes.com/freeblog]Free Blog[/url].

YOU ROCK

Ohio Innocence Project: You recently filed requests for new DNA tests on behalf of 30 Ohio inmates serving time for crimes they say they did not commit. Many of these inmates already used up their appeals or missed deadlines to apply for DNA tests in the past and desperately needed crusaders to take up their cause and pay for the testing - which should probably be funded by the prosecutors that locked them up, if you think about it. Nice to know someone cares.

YOU SUCK

County Recorder Patrick O'Malley: Dude! What the eff is going on down there? You pimped out 30 jobs in your office as favors to the local Democratic machine and now we've got day laborers working as clerks and teaching assistants for department heads? You better hope my deed isn't all mixed up with the conveyances somewhere! I hope you're getting something in return for hiring sons of judges, former mayors and councilmen's wives. Somebody has delusions of grandeur, I think.