Police in San Juan, Puerto Rico arrested 17 students last week after mistaking their cassava plant (commonly known as "yuca" in Spanish) for marijuana. In the spirit of protest and activism that runs deep through Puerto Rico's history, a small crowd gathered by the side of a highway to challenge police and #LegalizeYuca.
Primera Hora verified that the woman speaking in the video below, Ariadna Godreau, was a lawyer intending to clear up the confusion on behalf of her client by offering a quick lesson on the yuca's many mysteries.
"They told us this was what kind of plant?" she asks, referring to the students who were arrested.
"Yuca," the crowd replies in unison. Godreau goes on to explain that the two plants bare similarities, and are often confused.
"Igual que la batata!" (It's the same as the sweet potato!) screams one woman, whose love of sweet potato is apparently matched only by her passion for marijuana activism. The man filming the incident can be heard muttering "'ta malo ese training" (their training is so bad) and "...que papelón," (a total mess or embarassing scenario).
Many gathered in the crowd seemed to be united in their support of decriminalizing pot, chanting "No más preso por pasto/ya nos tienen harto!" ("No more prison for weed/you've got us fed up!") toward the end of the video.
The students were released on April 22 and won't face any charges related to possession. Still, be careful with your yuca plants out on these mean streets.
Fuente: www.theflama.com
