Pro-marijuana activists light up joints outside the White House calling for legalisation

'It’s not going to be fun. It’s going to be serious. We are ready to be arrested if we have to,' says organiser ahead of protest.

Washington, Colorado, New Jersey and Maine have legislation in place for marijuana in schools (AP)

Marijuana activists have lit up spliffs in front of the White House in Washington DC in protest at federal laws on cannabis.

Dozens lit joints in unison as they called on Barack Obama to relax the legislation.

While police and US Secret Service were present throughout the protest, no arrests were made although two citations were given for public consumption of alcohol.

The group organising the demonstration, the DCMJ, previously the DC Cannabis Campaign, were not allowed to take a 51ft model of a cannabis joint onto Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House.

Before the protest, DCMJ co-founder Adam Eidinger said: "A real protest, a necessary protest, involves use. This isn’t a rally. This is a protest.

"It’s not going to be fun. It’s going to be serious. We are ready to be arrested if we have to."

President Obama was not residence at the time of the demonstration and was said to have been playing golf.

Currently, recreational marijuana is only legal in Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Alaska.

Medical marijuana is available in a further 19 states. Marijuana activists believe another 11 states are on the verge of legalising the drug, MIC reports.