Photos: Activists Dressed as Apes Erect Monolith in Front of DEA Headquarters

A group called "Anonymous Apes" placed a nine-foot monolith outside the Drug Enforcement Administration's headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

The protest was staged by criminal justice and drug policy reform activists dressed in ape costumes who wanted to decry the DEA for preventing "research into the therapeutic uses of many natural plants and substances," the activists said to the District of Columbia Marijuana Justice Organization in a press release.

The monolith was a replica of the one that appears in "2001: Space Odyssey."

"The Drug Enforcement Administration of the Department of Justice has failed the American people for too long. This monolith of government oppression has imprisoned 10's of millions of American citizens for seeking healing relief with natural substances," the activists said in a press release.