cannabisnews.com: City Aims To Curb Marijuana Festival





City Aims To Curb Marijuana Festival
Posted by CN Staff on April 21, 2003 at 19:23:36 PT
By Clay Holtzman
Source: Daily Lobo 
The city's chief public safety officer said he expects the mayor's office to hand down a decision today regarding the proposed closing of Roosevelt Park on Easter Sunday to prevent an annual celebration of marijuana and hemp."That certainly is an option," said Nick Bakas, chief public safety officer for the city. "We are working closely with the neighborhood association. We meet again tomorrow. If there is a better option, we will weigh that accordingly."
Lobbying for the closure are representatives for the neighborhood association surrounding the park, which has been long associated with illicit drug activity and the traditional location for the 4-20 marijuana festival."It's a special day in which we're expecting hundreds of marijuana smokers to congregate and fire it up," said Bakas, who works in Mayor Martin Chavez's office.But some think the city's efforts to shut down the park before anyone gets there or does anything illegal is a way of cracking down on the community's right to assemble peacefully."Of course I think people should have free access to the park," said Bruce Bush, chairman of the Board of Directors of New Mexico NORML, the local chapter of the national organization advocating a repeal of marijuana laws. "Everybody has a right to express themselves. It's content-based discrimination."One of the largest arguments supporters have against closing the park is that the celebration has a history of attracting people who will openly smoke marijuana."My understanding is that in years past, there has been a lot of marijuana use associated with this day," said Det. Jeff Arbogast, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department. "That's closure of the park a decision that is going to come out of the mayor's office."Bakas said the neighborhood association is "fed up" with drug use in the park and its community and wants the city to help.Homeowners in the area have a right to ask the city to close the park, Bush said, but not a right to expect the city to enforce their demands.However, some supporters of the annual celebration say they sympathize with the association's stance.The community doesn't want police dressed in riot gear to take up positions in their community, least of all on Easter Sunday, said Cindy Giannini, host of Hemp TV, a local call-in program expressing pro and con arguments for the legalization of cannabis.But, she adds, the rights of the greater community are also something to consider."It's a park and we should be allowed to use it any time," she said.Giannini, who is also the executive director of New Mexico chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said she has been to several of the 4-20 celebrations and she characterizes them as nonviolent and its participants as cooperative with police."As far as troublemakers, we don't tolerate that," she said.But Bakas contends it's not about troublemakers or the nation's war on drugs, it's about drugs in the community and illegal behavior. He added that he sees no difference between marijuana and hemp.Demonstrators can take their celebration outside of the community and there wouldn't be a problem, but if they bring illegal activity into Albuquerque, then there is a problem.Bakas said he expects there to be representatives from APD, the mayor's office and the neighborhood association at today's meeting, but he does not anticipate any advocates for the 4-20 celebration in Roosevelt Park to attend the meeting.He said members of the neighborhood association have tried contacting supporters of the celebration, but have been unsuccessful.A representative of the neighborhood association did not return Daily Lobo phone calls Tuesday.Note: Mayor's office may close Roosevelt Park this Easter.Newshawk: Nuevo Mexican Source: Daily Lobo (NM)Author: Clay HoltzmanPublished: April 18, 2003Copyright: 2003 Daily LoboWebsite: http://www.dailylobo.com/Contact: http://www.dailylobo.com/main.cfm?include=submitRelated Articles & Web Site:New Mexico NORMLhttp://www.nmnorml.org/When 4:20 Rolls Along Do You Light Uphttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16002.shtmlWhat Time Is It? It's 4:20! http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16001.shtml
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