Ben Livingston, director of the Center for Legal Cannabis, is organizing a party in Seattle to celebrate the one-year anniversary of legalized marijuana in Washington, and he hopes it will enhance the reputation of pot smokers around the country.
"This event happened spontaneously [last year] as hundreds of cannabis celebrants gathered under the Space Needle to openly smoke marijuana on the first day [it] was legal in America," Livingston told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" on Friday.
Though the public is invited, smoking weed in public is still illegal, so Livingston is handling things differently this year.
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"The solution that I proposed to the city was to essentially wrap the party in privacy fencing. ... It's my goal to reduce the harm that I saw was coming from the event," he said, adding that making the party well-organized and orderly will help give others a better opinion of cannabis advocates.
Livingston said about 1,000 people are expected to attend the event, which is scheduled for Friday evening.
—By CNBC's Karma Allen