cannabisnews.com: Rally Urges Relaxation of Pot Laws





Rally Urges Relaxation of Pot Laws
Posted by CN Staff on September 21, 2003 at 08:12:48 PT
By Ron DePasquale, Globe Correspondent
Source: Boston Globe 
There may have been a haze in the air, but organizers of the annual Freedom Rally on the Boston Common clearly saw their goal, to decriminalize marijuana and allow medicinal use.As the smell of pot mixed with incense, and the band onstage competed with numerous bongo players and guitar strummers, organizers from the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition spoke of their confidence that marijuana will be decriminalized in the state.
They cited the nonbinding results of votes last November in 20 districts where citizens, by an average of 2-to-1, instructed their state representatives to decriminalize pot.No bills have made it out of committee, but that has not discouraged MassCann president Bill Downing ."We expect very soon to see Massachusetts decriminalize marijuana," Downing said. "It will probably have to be done through the initiative process, because legislators are reluctant to pursue it unless they are forced to do so."About 45,000 attended the festival, Boston police said. At least 45 arrests were made on drug-related charges, police said. An organizer said attendance appeared to be down from last year.Canada's decision to decriminalize possession of less than two-thirds of an ounce of marijuana also encourages MassCann, Downing said, along with the case of Ed Rosenthal , a Californian who was deputized by the city of Oakland to grow marijuana for medicinal use and convicted in January in federal court of cultivation and conspiracy to grow more than 1,000 marijuana plants, after a raid on his home.A judge sentenced Rosenthal to a one-day prison term and said he had already served it after he was arrested. The activist has since become a symbol of the movement and spoke twice at yesterday's Freedom Rally."The government did in six months what I've been trying to do for 35 years," said Rosenthal, coauthor of "Why Marijuana Should Be Legal" and author of 12 other books about marijuana. "The whole legal situation has catapulted me into being a spokesman for the movement, and I really appreciate their help."Rosenthal is appealing his conviction, while federal prosecutors are appealing his sentence.Rachel, a 34-year-old government worker in Rhode Island who did not want her last name used, called Rosenthal "courageous" after buying two of his books."I'm glad to see people getting together on the issue," she said. "Most people walk around and don't express an opinion, because they're afraid of persecution. But the numbers here speak for themselves, when you look at everyone who's come here."Source: Boston Globe (MA)Author: Ron DePasquale, Globe CorrespondentPublished: September 21, 2003Copyright: 2003 Globe Newspaper CompanyContact: letter globe.comWebsite: http://www.boston.com/globe/Related Articles & Web Sites:MassCannhttp://www.masscann.org/Ed Rosenthal's Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/trialpics.htmPotheads Unite: 45 Arrested at Annual Protest http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17367.shtmlPothead With a Purpose - Metrowest Daily News http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16668.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by Jose Melendez on September 22, 2003 at 07:03:52 PT
join. know. vote. NORML.org
from:http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5746"If only 5% of this country's marijuana smokers joined NORML, we become the
largest lobbying group in the US; larger than the NRA, ACLU and AARP."
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on September 21, 2003 at 22:11:44 PT
Check Out NORML's Ad On Slate.com
http://slate.msn.com/
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Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on September 21, 2003 at 10:06:15 PT
So Tommy Chong didn't speak?
I would have thought that America's most famous marijuana prisoner would be there to sign copies of his movies and celebrate the fact that they're "still available".
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