Denver's reputation as a pot hot spot can largely be traced to one man: Ken Gorman. Considered the grandfather of the 4/20 rally, he held monthly "smoke-in" events with joints and bullhorns in front of the Colorado Capitol in the mid-’90s. These became so big that Gorman started applying for event permits at Civic Center Park, where hundreds of people would gather to smoke weed as a form of protest against cannabis prohibition and listen to punk bands and pot celebrities.
Unafraid of the consequences of being a cannabis user in the ’90s, Gorman was regularly ticketed by the police on small possession or paraphernalia charges, but he continued his upfront campaign with ads on the back page of