Denver’s annual marijuana event known as 4/20 is just around the corner, and with the advent of legal recreational marijuana use in Colorado, questions have arisen as to how the event will be handled.

Is it still a protest to be viewed as a First Amendment exercise now that it’s legal? How will police handle public consumption, forbidden by the state constitutional amendment that legalized recreational weed? How will the event affect the city’s image?

We posed these questions and others to representatives from both sides of the debate over the 4/20 event, held in Denver’s Civic Center each April 20, in interviews on The Roundup, a public affairs discussion conducted by The Denver Post’s editorial board.

Charlie Brown, a Denver City Council member, said he was opposed to public consumption of marijuana in the park and believes it shouldn’t be tolerated. He doesn’t believe there is anything left to protest, as it were, since marijuana consumption is legal if done in the privacy of one’s home.

Miguel Lopez, organizer of the 4/20 event, said the issue of federal law, which still classifies marijuana consumption as a crime, remains one to be protested. And he hoped the city would respect attendees who would peacefully assemble and smoke marijuana.