Festival Organizer, 11 Others Arrested After Sauk County Sheriff Gets Court Order By Suzanne Yenchesky Special to the Journal Sentinel Last Updated: May 26, 2000 Baraboo - Authorities Friday closed down Weedstock 2000, ordering several hundred people to leave the annual pro-marijuana rally on a mint farm near here. The event's organizer was among 12 people arrested. About 50 officers dispersed the 300 to 400 people who gathered at a farm in the Town of Fairfield for the event. Some officers used megaphones to tell people to leave. [continues 452 words]
Pembroke lawyer devoted to fight for legalized marijuana For years, he was a lawyer who blatantly broke the law on principle. Now Rick Reimer can openly indulge in his illicit act with impunity -- he's got the federal government's okay to toke. A partner in a conservative, prestigious Pembroke law firm, Reimer was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the fall of 1998. A longtime recreational user of marijuana, he says smoking two to five joints a day helps ease symptoms of the disease. [continues 774 words]
I object to Tony Siciliano's letter of May 17, "Pathetic pro-marijuana rally," and his deriding the National Organization for the Reform of the Marijuana Laws (www.norml.org). Our own state has adopted policies regarding marijuana that were proposed by NORML. The state medical marijuana research program was signed into law years ago by Governor Weld, at the behest of local NORML members. About 30 other states have adopted NORML polices on medical marijuana and last fall over 60 percent of Maine voters went for a new law allowing marijuana as medicine, on a doctor's advice. Maine also allows growing marijuana to get the herbal remedy on a doctor's advice. Six other states have similar laws to Maine's and Hawaii's legislature just passed a law close to Maine's. [continues 77 words]
Amherst has decided that there has to be a better way to keep children from using drugs than the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program. Now town officials have to go out and find it. The School Committee's decision to drop the DARE program, expected to be formalized at its meeting on Tuesday, follows a similar Town Meeting vote. It would make Amherst the first area community to discontinue DARE. Under the program, an Amherst police officer spent 17 weeks a year imparting an anti-drug message to sixth-graders. Many other communities, including Northampton and Easthampton, remain committed to their DARE programs. However, Amherst is not alone in dropping DARE, which has come under closer scrutiny after some studies have questioned its effectiveness. Amherst cannot be faulted for its willingness to try something new, as long as it moves to fill the vacuum in drug education that will be created by the loss of DARE. One of the reasons cited for the decision was the town's recent survey of teen drug and alcohol use. Preliminary results indicate that drug use among Amherst teens exceeds national rates. While that may be an indictment of DARE, it also underscores the need for a strong anti-drug program in Amherst. Young people in Amherst may be more prone to using drugs for two reasons unique to where they live: the easy availability of drugs and the town's perceived permissiveness about drugs. Voters sent a message to everyone in town in March when they endorsed a ballot question supporting the legalization of marijuana. This month, about 1,000 people gathered on the common for a pro-marijuana rally, including some who openly smoked marijuana, another example of a climate that only encourages young people to experiment. [continues 93 words]
Thank you for printing the U.N. Plaza pot rally story ("Marijuana rally draws crowd at U.N. Peace Plaza," Metro section, May 7). Another year goes by and more people than ever are coming out in favor of decriminalizing marijuana, but what have our lawmakers done to change things? Not much. Thousands of harmless citizens are still rotting in jail, getting busted and getting hassled by the justice system. Drug dealers get rich and more prisons are built. Our taxes go up to pay for more cops, court costs, and prison costs. [continues 123 words]
ZAGREB (AP) Hundreds of Croatian marchers lit marijuana joints in Zagreb's main square Saturday as they joined a parade advocating the legalization of pot. A similar demonstration took place in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. "We regret having to break the law," said Mario Kovac, an independent artist who organised the march to urge the government to repeal, or at least relax, statutes governing so-called soft drugs. "But we are prepared to bear the consequences if we have to in order to get our message across," he added, puffing smoke into a television camera. [continues 184 words]
Outraged parents from New Jersey and Long Island called it a travesty and declared Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani a tyrant. One Long Island 18-year-old, in tears, called his mother and complained that court holding cells were hot and overcrowded and that he could not eat the jail food that guards offered him. And a 19-year-old vegetarian from Teaneck, N.J., said guards refused to provide her with a meatless sandwich, despite a sign saying they were available. [continues 674 words]
It was a day of mellow vibes and pungent smoke, a celebration of live-and-let-live. Until it erupted into an ugly scene in downtown Tampa. The vibes got busted, man. On both sides of Tampa Bay Saturday, small but devoted bands of pro-marijuana advocates turned out to celebrate the joys of pot and champion its legalization. It was all part of a larger event billed as "Cannabis 2000: The Millennium Marijuana March," which took place in dozens of cities from Cleveland to Prague. [continues 1398 words]
Organiser of the pro-marijuana J-Day rally in Auckland's Albert Park say about one thousand people turned out for the event. Pro-marijuana rallies were held in the four main centres from midday until six o'clock in the evening on Saturday. National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) spokesperson, Chris Fowlie, said some people may have smoked marijuana at the Auckland event. However Police kept a low-key presence at the event and only made one arrest, but also confiscated a pipe allegedly used for smoking marijuana. The atmosphere was described as peaceful, and very relaxed. Green MP, Nandor Tanczos, was among the speakers at the event, which also featured entertainment and a petition calling for the decriminalisation of marijuana. [end]
BOISE -- Marijuana and hemp should be legalized to clear the nation's prisons of many nonviolent inmates convicted of drug law violations and provide an alternative crop for making construction materials and paper, said supporters at a Statehouse gathering. Officials estimated between 300 and 400 people at Saturday's "citizen's rally." Speakers said the American prison and jail population passed the 2 million mark in February. More than half imprisoned are nonviolent and the largest category of inmates is drug law violators. [continues 123 words]
Urged on by the slogans "Hemp, hemp -- hooray!" "We toke and we vote," a mellow crowd of some 250 cannabis advocates turned out Saturday afternoon for San Francisco's Millennium Marijuana march. The rally, held at United Nations Peace Plaza, featured 24 speakers advocating equal rights for pot smokers, and a mini-mall of informational tables offering books, "enhanced" brownies -- even the latest technology in pipe design. "Ain't nothing like this in Henderson, Ky.," noted Alan Buzzard, 30, of Oakland as he strolled with the throngs at the plaza. [continues 518 words]
Undercover Officers Move Swiftly To Arrest People Who Police Said Were Smoking Marijuana Publicly. TAMPA -- A pro-marijuana rally erupted into a confrontation between police and demonstrators Saturday afternoon in front of the federal courthouse in downtown Tampa. Nine people were arrested, one after a scuffle in which Tampa police officers restrained a suspect on the ground, enraging the crowd of protesters. About 60 demonstrators marched several blocks from Lykes Gaslight Park to the courthouse, in an event billed as "Cannabis 2000: The Millennium Marijuana March." Similar rallies were held Saturday in 100 cities worldwide, including St. Petersburg. [continues 200 words]
Cops arrested 312 people for openly smoking pot during the Millennium Marijuana March in lower Manhattan yesterday, locking up nearly one-third of the demonstrators. Many of the arrests were made in Battery Park, where the march turned into a rally with bands and speakers, and where marijuana smokers were easy prey for plainclothes police dressed in tank tops and T-shirts. "They went through very quietly, scooping people up, busting people here and there," said Jenny Hurwitz, 48, a graduate student from Manhattan. [continues 378 words]
Opponents worry that legalization would lead people to harder drugs Marijuana and hemp should be legalized to clear the nation's prisons of many nonviolent inmates convicted of drug law violations and provide an alternative crop for making construction materials and paper, said supporters at a Statehouse gathering of more than 500. Speakers at the Saturday citizens rally said the American prison and jail population passed the 2 million mark in February. More than half of those imprisoned are nonviolent, and the largest category of inmates are drug law violators. [continues 350 words]
Demonstration: Advocates Of Medical, Industrial And Recreational Use Join Forces. A colorful and noisy collection of medical and recreational pot advocates demonstrated along the downtown waterfront as part of a "Million Marijuana March" planned for 80 cities worldwide Saturday. Chanting "Hey, hey, DEA, how many homes have you seized today?" and "I toke and I vote" among other slogans, roughly 200 demonstrators marched along Cabrillo Boulevard. Wielding signs and banging drums, they streamed past tourists and cheered as passing motorists repeatedly honked, waved or pumped fists in support. [continues 648 words]
Crowd wants authorities to honor Proposition 215 About 200 medical marijuana users and their supporters drew cheers and waves, honks and peace signs from drivers Friday as they demonstrated on Cypress Avenue for almost an hour before a brief rally on the steps of Redding's new Civic Center. Toting handmade placards touting Proposition 215, the state's voter-approved Compassionate Use Act, the crowd began assembling before 10 a.m. at South City Park, two blocks south of the Civic Center. [continues 485 words]
Danielle Baptista said that smoking and eating marijuana alleviates the pain she feels from multiple sclerosis. "Those of us alive today were born into Prohibition," the Fultondale resident said. "We don't know it as anything but an illegal drug. It shouldn't be that way." Baptista, 37, who is confined to a wheelchair, said she uses marijuana to relieve the stiffness of joints and muscle spasms to help endure her physical therapy and riding horses. On Saturday, Baptista and other supporters of legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes in Alabama will hold a rally from 1 to 7 p.m. Saturday at Brother Bryan Park on Birmingham's Southside. The rally is one of 92 events to be held worldwide Saturday as part of the Millennium Marijuana March. [continues 532 words]
(AMHERST) - The pro-marijuana rally Saturday on the town common was sun-drenched and peaceful, with only three people in the crowd of about 1,000 arrested for possession of the drug. But in a major effort Friday and Saturday nights to enforce alcohol laws, police made 26 arrests and laid the groundwork for criminal complaints against 24 others. In addition, officers responded to 23 noise complaints, mostly loud parties at numerous locations. At Saturday afternoon's Extravaganja, a succession of speakers urged legalization of marijuana, interspersed with bands sending the same message while getting the crowd dancing to their music. [continues 499 words]
A new federal party which aims to end marijuana prohibition in Australia, will be launched at the eighth annual Nimbin Mardigrass and Cannabis Law Reform rally on the weekend, organisers said today. The president of the Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) Party, Michael Balderstone, said the launch of the party on Saturday should help push drug reform on the national agenda. "The new party legitimises our political campaign and our attempts to make the mainstream parties listen to our reform message," Mr Balderstone said from Nimbin in far northern NSW. [continues 108 words]
The annual Marijuana March--usually a ho-hum, haphazard tradition held the first Saturday of May in lower Manhattan -- could well pack some political punch this year in reaction the recent surge of NYPD pot busts. Organizers of the May 6 Millennium Marijuana March -- which will begin at the intersection of Broadway and Houston, pass City Hall and end in Battery Park -- say the Rev. Al Sharpton and other black leaders are lending their support to the event. The heightened enforcement attention to low-level drug activity, particularly marijuana, singles out blacks and Hispanics, march organizers say. [continues 282 words]
