UP IN SMOKE: POTHEADS UNITE: 45 ARRESTED AT ANNUAL PROTEST

Police arrested 45 pot smokers on Boston Common yesterday as protesting
hempheads called for an end to the war on drugs and a diversion of billions of
anti-drug dollars to the war on terrorism.

``Fight terrorism! End prohibition,'' yelled Joe Bonni of MASS CANN/NORML, the
pro-weed lobby that organized the event. Citing the transfer of narcotic agents
to terrorism duty after 9/11, Bonni said, ``Imagine how safe we'd be if they
had been on home security in the first place. We need to make the nation a
safer place, and one of the ways to do that is to end the war on drugs.''

Thousands of cannabis enthusiasts along with anti-reefer activists descended on
the Common for the 14th annual Freedom Rally, where pot, politics, tie-dye
styles, head-banging punk rock, Christian evangelism and fried dough converged
in a big, sweaty, sun-baked mass yesterday.

Clouds of marijuana smoke wafted across the green, and by 5 p.m., undercover
officers had arrested 45 people for possession or distribution of marijuana.

A reporter's approach made one 50-year-old pot smoker jump.

``I'd have some explaining to do,'' said the Waltham man, who identified
himself only as ``Joe.'' He estimated that he had been smoking pot for at least
32 years, and said he considered it a crime that it is still illegal.

``The penalties people get for smoking pot are ridiculous,'' Joe said.

Where two main paths crossed, a series of activists with placards angled for
the attention of passersby. They ranged from an evangelist beseeching sinners
to change their ways, to a pot proponent protesting NORML for proposing
legislation rather than fighting a court battle on constitutional grounds.

An earnest young law student clutching a hefty tome argued the issue with him.
Another man nearby simply held up a store-bought utility sign that said, ``Keep
Off the Grass.''

A blue-haired, black-clad youth said he came because he thought the Freedom
Rally would be a patriotic event featuring punk rock bands like Scissorfight.

``I think pot should not be legalized. I'm a born-again Christian. Why do you
think I wear this stuff?'' he said about his ``Abortion is Homicide'' T-shirt.

But Joyce Walsh, 73, a former Beacon Hill resident now retired in Savannah,
Ga., said, ``I think it's way overdue to legalize it.'


Pubdate: Sun, 21 Sep 2003
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Copyright: 2003 The Boston Herald, Inc
Contact: letterstoeditor@bostonherald.com
Website: http://www.bostonherald.com/news.html