Marijuana reform advocates planning to smoke the drug illegally at the White House on April 2 will have to do so without several sympathetic elected officials and without comedian Bill Maher, the man who inspired the bold protest plan.

Organizers of the planned protest are demanding that President Barack Obama reschedule cannabis and pardon people jailed for marijuana crimes, and to underscore their point “rescheduled” the April 20 pot holiday for the Saturday event.

Obama favors lowering marijuana’s designation as a Schedule I substance, but has said Congress should make the change -- though it can be done administratively. Schedule I drugs are defined as having no medical value, making them impossible to prescribe and difficult to research.

The D.C. Cannabis Campaign, the group that called for the protest, hopes to rally hundreds if not thousands of people to protest Obama’s inaction, with speeches followed by an invitation to commit acts of smoke- and vapor-producing civil disobedience at 4:20 p.m.

Leaders of the grassroots group announced their plans after watching a recent segment of the HBO program “Real Time With Bill Maher,” in which Maher smoked what he said was marijuana on stage and warned that state-level pot reforms are fragile and legalization far from assured.

“Some of us may end up in jail, and that’s fine,” cannabis campaign organizer Adam Eidinger said after calling for the protest. "We have to take action now, that's the idea. If it’s not going to happen under Obama, it’s sure as hell not going to happen with Hillary."

Marijuana possession was legalized locally in the nation’s capital with support from 70 percent of voters in 2014. The Cannabis Campaign led the ballot initiative and when Congress blocked city officials from regulating sales the group hosted enormous marijuana seed giveaways.

Smoking marijuana in public remains an arrestable offense in Washington, D.C., and especially so in front of the White House, which is policed by federal law enforcement agencies capable of charging people with federal crimes. Though the Obama administration has tolerated the opening of four state markets for recreational marijuana, possession of the drug remains a federal crime.

Rescheduling marijuana would not make it legal under federal law, but it would make it possible to move the drug off the current jerry-rigged system of doctor “recommendations” in states that allow its use as medicine.

Though organizers hoped he would attend, Maher’s publicist Cece Yorke tells U.S. News he “won't be in D.C. for this.” Yorke did not respond to a follow-up email asking if Maher, who has been campaigning for an interview with Obama, supports the protest.

Several members of Congress who have led efforts urging the legislative or administrative rescheduling of marijuana also will be no-shows.

Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., and Sam Farr, D-Calif., the sponsors of a successful 2014 spending amendment readopted last year that bars the Justice Department from using funds to undermine state medical marijuana programs, won’t be attending.

“He supports the general objective but hasn't endorsed the protest. Nor does he plan to participate,” says Rohrabacher spokesman Ken Grubbs.

Farr spokesman Adam Russell says the retiring congressman “does not plan to attend” and that “we are not familiar with the group so no opinion on their protest.”

Rep. Steve Cohen, the Tennessee Democrat who attacked with relish former Drug Enforcement Administrator Michele Leonhart on marijuana policy, “will likely be in Memphis on April 2 as Congress will be in their spring district work period,” says spokesman Michael Eisenstatt.

Oregon Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who first voted to decriminalize marijuana as a state lawmaker in 1973, will be in Oregon the day of the protest, spokeswoman Nicole L’Esperance says.

Spokespeople for other members of Congress, including the three senators who unveiled comprehensive marijuana reform legislation last year, did not respond to requests for comment.

The planned protest hasn't been greeted with universal acclaim by the pot reform movement, which increasingly is divided between seasoned activists who long have pressed for reform and suit-and-tie advocates who like emerging state-legal businessmen prefer the movement keep things professional.

"I'm not sure how smoking marijuana in a public park where children and families are vacationing is supposed to encourage the president to do what we want him to do,” says Tom Angell, chairman of the group Marijuana Majority. “It will likely have the exact opposite effect, as demonstrated by the fact that even some of our strongest allies in Congress are distancing themselves from this stunt.”

Angell recently led a campaign demanding DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg resign for calling the use of raw marijuana to treat medical conditions "a joke." Angell called ahead and along with a small group politely delivered more than 100,000 signatures to the DEA’s offices in northern Virginia. Eidinger, demonstrating a different tactic, was arrested with five others at DEA headquarters in 2009 after digging up the agency’s yard and planting toasted hemp seeds.

Eidinger says he believes civil disobedience now is necessary, particularly given the impending election of a new, potentially less marijuana-friendly president in November. But on Tuesday he offered an olive leaf to Obama, saying in a letter he would be willing to scuttle the protest in exchange for a White House “Bud Summit” addressing drug policy.

“As a former cannabis (and current?) user, you know firsthand that cannabis does not belong in the Controlled Substances Act,” Eidinger wrote to Obama. “I am willing to call off the mass-consumption of cannabis if you agree to a Bud Summit, where leaders of the cannabis reform movement are invited to the White House to discuss steps you can take to end the failed War on Drugs you inherited as president.”

Sgt. Anna Rose of the U.S. Park Police says in an email the department is “aware of the planned demonstration,” for which organizers intentionally are not seeking a permit. A spokeswoman for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser did not respond to a request for comment.

The Cannabis Campaign briefly considered hosting a large public smoking rally on April 20 last year to protest local policies, but changed course due to tactical considerations. The freshly announced protest actually is happening, Eidinger said last week, thanks to significant grassroots support.