Three people arrested late Sunday evening for using chalk to protest the state’s removal of the Pulse rainbow crosswalk were released from jail Monday pending charges from the state attorney’s office.
Maryjane East, 25, Donavon Short, 26, and Zane Aparicio, 39, were arrested and booked by Florida Highway Patrol on Sunday night outside the Pulse memorial in Orlando and charged with defacing a traffic device — a statute that typically covers electronic traffic devices such as lights and signals.
The arrests come after Orestes Sebastian Suarez was arrested Friday night by Florida Highway Patrol on the same charge. Suarez was also released shortly after he was booked after the judge found no probable cause he committed the crime.
However, a judge on Monday did find probable cause for the three latest arrests. However, there were no charges pending after they were released on their own recognizance, and any further charges would need to be brought forward by Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell.
Blake Simons, the attorney representing both Suarez and the three arrested late Sunday night, said FHP’s arrest report from Sunday was much more detailed and included allegations of damage of over $1,000.
“I would argue water-soluble chalk that washes away while you’re being arrested doesn’t amount to over $1,000 worth of damage,” Simons said after appearing before the judge Monday morning.
FHP and Orlando Police Department have been stationed at the Dunkin Donuts next to the Pulse memorial for over a week, telling protesters they won’t be arrested if they are not impeding traffic.
Protests initially erupted last month after the Florida Department of Transportation painted over the rainbow crosswalk, meant to memorialize the 49 victims of the 2016 mass shooting, in the middle of the night. Since then, the department has repainted it at least once more due to ongoing protestors coloring the crosswalk with rainbow paint and chalk.
FDOT has ordered other cities to remove rainbows and other painted designs from their roads.
DeSantis has defended the state’s actions, saying it’s not political and cited a new state law — a claim lawmakers refute — and that the designs “jeopardize both driver and pedestrian safety.”
In a statement, FDOT said it conducted a “months-long” update of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices with input from representatives of state and local governments. The update included a prohibition on “non-uniform” traffic control devices and explicitly “prohibits the application of pavement or surface art on travel lanes, paved shoulders, intersections, crosswalks or sidewalks.”
The four arrested protesters are part of a larger, coordinated effort to maintain protests against the state’s removal of the rainbow crosswalk. On Reddit’s Orlando forum, one person — who said they had been at the crosswalk all of last week — claimed the three intended to be arrested for the cameras.
“Do not worry, we planned this for live cameras to see. Now we get to see what a judge says about them violating our first amendment rights, and we hope it leads to us being allowed to continue the chalk,” wrote Reed, who asked to only be identified by their first name.
Following the arrest of the three protesters at the Pulse memorial Sunday night, the remaining protesters marched to Orlando City Hall downtown where they wrote messages in chalk.
“You can’t erase us,” one chalk message read.
“We’re just getting started,” read another.
Protesters returned to city hall Monday afternoon.
Signs pop up at former Pulse memorial rainbow crosswalk saying ‘Defacing Roadway Prohibited’
AND LOOK AHEAD TO THE WEEKEND IN MINUTES. SEE YOU THEN. ERIC ALSO DEVELOPING RIGHT NOW. THE BACK AND FORTH CONTINUES OUTSIDE OF PULSE, WHERE PEOPLE ON THEIR HANDS AND KNEES ONCE AGAIN COLORING THE CROSSWALK THAT THE STATE CONTINUES TO ERASE. TODAY, THAT CONTROVERSY REACHED A NEW LEVEL AS LAW ENFORCEMENT CONFRONTED PEOPLE USING CHALK AND WARNED THEM THEY COULD BE ARRESTED IF THEY CONTINUE. WESH TWO GREG FOX LIVE OUTSIDE PULSE FOR US, WHERE FRUSTRATIONS CAN BE FELT TODAY. GREG WHAT EXACTLY DID LAW? WHAT LAW COULD THEY BE VIOLATING? WELL, A COPY OF IT WAS GIVEN TO ME BY THE SERGEANT WITH THE FLORIDA HIGHWAY PATROL OUT HERE SAID HE WAS ALSO GIVING A COPY OF THIS TO THE PEOPLE THAT HE WAS WARNING TODAY. IF THEY WERE CAUGHT TRYING TO COLOR THE PAVEMENT FOR A WHILE TODAY, IT LOOKED LIKE THERE COULD BE ARRESTS. JUST AFTER 3:00 FRIDAY MORNING, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION CREWS ARRIVED AT THE CROSSWALK NEXT TO THE PULSE NIGHTCLUB MEMORIAL. THEY HOSED DOWN THE FRESHLY CHALKED RAINBOW FLAG PAVEMENT AND THEN POSTED SIGNS READING DEFACING ROADWAY PROHIBITED AND NO IMPEDING TRAFFIC. BUBBA TRAHAN, WHO PROVIDED WESH TWO NEWS WITH THIS VIDEO, TOLD US AN FDOT WORKER EXPLAINED THAT VIOLATORS WOULD BE WARNED FIRST AND SECOND OFFENSES WOULD RESULT IN ARREST. FDOT HAS TO COME OUT HERE AND WE HAVE TO PAY THEM SO THAT PRICE IS, YOU KNOW, TOO HIGH FOR US TO HAVE TO DO THIS AGAIN AND AGAIN. BY LATE MORNING, DEMONSTRATORS WERE TESTING THE RESOLVE OF THE FLORIDA HIGHWAY PATROL TROOPERS GUARDING THE CROSSWALK. SO THEY’RE EXERCISING THEIR FREEDOM OF SPEECH. WE GOT A LOT OF CARS COMING THROUGH HERE. CITING SAFETY CONCERNS, MORE LAW ENFORCEMENT ARRIVED, INCLUDING ORLANDO POLICE, AS CONFRONTATIONS HEATED UP BECAUSE THEY DO NOT WANT PEOPLE TO PLACE ON THE CROSSWALKS. SO WHAT ARE THEY VIOLATING? YOU CALL THEM. THEY’LL TELL YOU. SO WHAT? COULD YOU POSSIBLY ARREST THEM FOR IF YOU CAN’T TELL THEM WHAT THEY’RE VIOLATING? THERE’S A FEW PEOPLE ALREADY GIVE OUT WARNINGS TO TWO PEOPLE. FOR WHAT? WHAT DID THEY VIOLATE? WITH NO ONE ARRESTED, THE EARLY AFTERNOON SAW A SQUAD OF DEMONSTRATORS BEGIN FILLING IN THE REST OF THE BLANK SPACES WITH RAINBOW COLORS, SOME OF THEM CLEARLY FRUSTRATED BY WHAT THEY CALLED HEAVY HANDED TACTICS BY THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR RON DESANTIS. ONE CROSSWALK IS ALL WE ASK FOR IN ORLANDO, AND THEY HAVE TO GET UPSET ABOUT THAT. YOU KNOW, 49 PEOPLE PASSED AWAY. IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE. DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKER ANNA ESKAMANI WONDERS WHEN THE STREET COLORING SHOWDOWN WILL END. THEY COULD SOLVE REAL PROBLEMS LIKE THE PROPERTY INSURANCE CRISIS, BUT INSTEAD THEY’RE FOCUSING ALL THEIR TIME AND ENERGY ON ON BULLYING AND HARASSING LOCAL GOVERNMENTS. AND WESH TWO NEWS REACHED OUT TO THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, THE FLORIDA HIGHWAY PATROL AND THE ORLANDO POLICE DEPARTMENT TO GET SOME KIND OF A STATEMENT FROM THEM ON EXACTLY WHAT WAS GOING ON HERE, HOW LONG IT’S GOING TO LAST, HOW LONG WE’RE GOING TO CONTINUE TO SEE TROOPERS OUT HERE. WE’LL UPDATE OUR STORY WHEN WE HEAR BACK. COVERI
Signs pop up at former Pulse memorial rainbow crosswalk saying ‘Defacing Roadway Prohibited’
Road signs have been placed at the former Pulse memorial rainbow crosswalk that warn against defacing the roadway and impeding traffic. Demonstrators told WESH 2 that troopers warned them that if they use chalk to re-color the crosswalk, they could be arrested for criminal mischief.It’s the latest development in an ongoing fight over colorful crosswalks and street art in Florida that the state is targeting. FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue said, “Anything previously permitted or installed you can bring up from past is irrelevant now, (there is) new law and standard and it’s the … pavement art not allowed and we’re removing everything that’s not compliant with state federal standards … “Surveillance video obtained by WESH 2 shows FDOT crews erasing the rainbow crosswalk at Pulse last week in the middle of the night. Protesters have been coloring in the crosswalk, while FDOT crews continue to paint over it with black and white.Now, the signs appear to be an effort to stop the use of chalk. At one point, Orlando police and Florida Highway Patrol were stationed 24/7 at the crosswalk near Pulse – the site of the 2016 massacre. >> This is a developing story and will be updated
ORLANDO, Fla. —
Road signs have been placed at the former Pulse memorial rainbow crosswalk that warn against defacing the roadway and impeding traffic.
Demonstrators told WESH 2 that troopers warned them that if they use chalk to re-color the crosswalk, they could be arrested for criminal mischief.
It’s the latest development in an ongoing fight over colorful crosswalks and street art in Florida that the state is targeting.
FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue said, “Anything previously permitted or installed you can bring up from past is irrelevant now, (there is) new law and standard and it’s the … pavement art not allowed and we’re removing everything that’s not compliant with state federal standards … “
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Protesters have been coloring in the crosswalk, while FDOT crews continue to paint over it with black and white.
Now, the signs appear to be an effort to stop the use of chalk.
At one point, Orlando police and Florida Highway Patrol were stationed 24/7 at the crosswalk near Pulse – the site of the 2016 massacre.
The white ash conversation has been positively insufferable. Heady bois and cannabis connoisseurs from coast to coast have been posting videos of their ash on Instagram for what feels like years now, indicating that they’re smoking top shelf product solely based on the color of the ash.
As much as I hate to disappoint, not only is white ash not an accurate metric of quality, it can be easily faked, gamed, cheated, duped and bamboozled using particular cultivation techniques, smoking methods, and as shown by recent court documents: adding small amounts of chalk to the rolling paper.
Recently unsealed documents from a years-long court battle between Republic Technologies LLC and BBK Tobacco & Foods, LLP revealed the ingredient lists used to make OCB Rolling Papers, including one particular additive that Big Tobacco has been familiar with for years which weed smokers might not be aware of: calcium carbonate.
Chalk-Infused Papers
Court documents from 2014 with regard to OCB rolling papers showed that varying amounts of calcium carbonate were used in some of their rolling papers, specifically the following: OCB No. 1 Single Wide, JOB Tribal King Size, OCB Slim, OCB Red 1 ¼, JOB Gold 1.25, OCB Organic Hemp 1-¼ and OCB Organic Hemp King Size Slim.
Snippet taken from court documents in the case of Republic Technologies LLC vs BBK Tobacco & Foods, LLP.
According to the National Institute of Health, calcium carbonate is an inorganic salt found all over the world in rocks like limestone as well as in the shells of many marine organisms and crustaceans. It’s the main ingredient in chalk, antacid medications like Tums, and as it turns out, it has also been used as a whitening pigment in cigarette rolling papers for decades. I was able to find three different patents, two of which date back to the 90’s, from tobacco companies including Phillip Morris all listing calcium carbonate as a way to make cigarette ash more “attractive.” A study by the Cooperation Centre for Scientific Research Relative to Tobacco describes how calcium carbonate can affect the color of ash:
“Generally, as the size of the precipitated calcium carbonate particle decreased, the ash became more cohesive. As the particle size decreased, the ash became slightly whiter until an optimal particle size was reached at about 0.3 microns,” the study said. “Further reductions in precipitated calcium carbonate size caused the ash to become grayer.”
Calcium carbonate is not necessarily a harmful substance to include in rolling papers, but the material safety data sheet of calcium carbonate does classify it as a potential respiratory tract irritant. A National Institute of Health study of autopsies in smokers versus non-smokers also found that the elemental components of calcium carbonate are found in the lungs of smokers but not in non-smokers, meaning it potentially leaves residual particles in the lungs.
“Potassium carbonate, sulfate, and chloride were not identified in any lung. The percentage of quartz was the same in both smoker and nonsmoker lungs,” the study said. “However, lungs from smokers contained a large percentage (average 23% of all particles) of particles composed of calcium, carbon, and oxygen (probably calcium carbonate) in all sample sites, whereas lungs from nonsmokers usually contained no such particles or only minute numbers (average 0.1%).”
Moving away from the ultra-sciency talk, cigarette companies have added calcium carbonate to their papers for years to make the ash whiter (please google Marlboro white ash ads and you’ll see this conversation goes all the way back to the 1950’s). Whether or not OCB papers are trying to gain the favor of weed smokers looking for white cannabis ash, I haven’t the foggiest idea, nor would I want to insinuate such a thing for fear of incurring a lawsuit I absolutely cannot afford. The point is that if a substance this common can be added to rolling papers, it would be very easy for an unscrupulous marketing team to use this knowledge to their advantage to sell more cannabis via using these particular papers in pre-rolls or to roll with when making smoking videos for the company Instagram, etc.
I Got a Fever, and the Only Prescription is More CalMag
It doesn’t stop there. I’ve been told by growers that you can also add greater concentrations of CalMag to flowering cannabis plants to achieve the white ash effect, which would make sense because CalMag is, somewhat redundantly, a mixture of calcium and magnesium. Calcium carbonate concentration is also, as far as I know, not included on any cannabis lab test COA, so there’s no concrete way for the consumer to tell if this method was utilized in the grow room. Again, not necessarily a harmful practice as far as I know but also not an accurate measure of quality.
You can also achieve the white ash effect by rolling and smoking the joint in a particular way, which I’ll describe for you now in an effort to illustrate that you can absolutely, positively fake this shit for Instagram: Roll a full eighth into a joint as tightly as possible without suffocating it (see Doja Pak rolling tutorial from First Smoke of the Day for further reference). Now go buy yourself one of those mini torches that crack smokers use to heat up their pipes, the sketchier looking the better. Torch the end of your joint evenly and slowly. If it catches fire, gently blow it out and continue torching for a minute or two until you have a nice even cherry. Now you’re gonna want to hold the joint upside down, very gently so that the smoke drifts upwards through your hands. Take a long, slow hit and return the joint to the upside down position. Rinse and repeat, torching more if necessary until you have a nice white ash pile. Take your picture, post it to Instagram and receive a well-deserved pat on the back from your CEO.
Granted, you need at least somewhat decent weed to achieve this effect even with the described method above. I will also fully admit I have never smoked a joint that burned completely black which I would describe as quality weed. The point I’m trying to make here is there are well-known schemes afoot to fool you into thinking you’re smoking good weed when that is not necessarily the case. Some people have purported that white ash is an indicator the cannabis was dried and cured properly, which has some truth to it because the moisture content of the flower needs to be within an ideal range to achieve a proper burn, but all the white ash really means is that the weed has burned completely, a process known as “carbonization.” An excerpt from “Whiteness of Cigarette Ash” written by Isao Kanai in 1959 (again, please note the date) explains further:
“The whiteness of cigarette ash plays an important role to the burning quality of cigarettes, and it is considered to be related with the degree of carbonization of organic materials, the combustion-zone temperature of cigarettes, and other complicated ‘combustion phenomena’ of Cigarettes,” the report said.
A cursory Google search will also populate about 50 different explanations from various tobacco clubs and tobacco companies explaining that white ash is related to combustibility and levels of calcium and magnesium in the soil the tobacco was grown in. The same can be said for cannabis.
Fire is in the Eye of the Beholder
So where does that leave us? Well, here’s where it’s gonna get a little subjective on my part. Quality cannabis ultimately comes down to user experience and user preference. There are certain markers that may suggest a particular batch of cannabis can be considered a quality product, but it’s a multi-faceted conversation. There is no single metric that can tell you if flower is good. It comes down to several key factors including, but not limited to: appearance, ash color, density, taste, smokability, cultivation methods (this is a lesser point but while I’m on the subject, the living soil versus salt-nutrients conversation is equally as pointless as the ash conversation), plant genetics, a proper dry and cure cycle and in my opinion the most important factor: effects. Individual microbiome, how one person’s body reacts to cannabis versus another’s, also plays a huge role.
What I will say, and I’m shamelessly stealing this point from our fearless leader Jon Cappetta, is that a better ash-related metric for quality weed is how the ash stacks up on itself (a metric also stolen from age-old tobacco-funded studies, I might add). If you can smoke most of the joint without the ash falling off (infused products don’t count), it means there’s a lot of resin in the flower causing it to stick together. If the ash is speckled or white on top of that, all the better. Oil ring to boot? Fugedaboutit.
There’s a certain threshold I think we can all agree on that flower has to reach to cross over from bad to mids but past that threshold, as we’ve all witnessed, we all start to argue as a community about mids versus fire and the conversation ultimately devolves into silly, unimportant metrics like “whose ash is whiter.” I think in general the key here is just awareness of what we’re consuming, and the knowledge that our own personal experience with the plant is all that really matters at the end of the day. Don’t let flashy Instagram videos or age-old Big Tobacco schemes fool you into consuming a particular brand or strain. Smoke what feels good to YOU and spread awareness wherever you can so we as a community can properly identify true fire. Past that, I only ask that we all stop arguing online about white ash because it makes the cannabis community look like a babbling gang of rabid hyenas.
