cannabisnews.com: Hemming Event Rallies Marijuana Support





Hemming Event Rallies Marijuana Support
Posted by FoM on June 03, 2001 at 07:57:55 PT
By P. Douglas Filaroski, Times-Union Staff Writer 
Source: Florida Times-Union 
Know your enemy. That was Heath Wintz's thinking. So Wintz set up a door frame on Hemming Plaza, and allowed visitors to yesterday's Hempfest to bust through a door with a battering ram and search for a bag of green leafy substance in the cushions of a couch."You get to beat down the door like a real DEA agent," shouted Wintz, wearing a white shirt, a navy blue tie and a baseball cap with the letters "D-E-A" -- the abbreviation for U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency -- on its front.
Wintz was being facetious. In fact, the purpose of the festival hosted by Florida Cannabis Action Network in the shadows of City Hall was to rally support for legalizing marijuana for medicinal, industrial and personal use.Prior to yesterday's event, organizer Scott Bledsoe said the group had already collected 50,000 of the 435,000 signatures required to place a referendum on next year's ballot to legalize the medical use of marijuana.Bledsoe said yesterday's focus was to add more signatures from the several hundred people attending the event and, perhaps just as importantly, to educate people about the benefits of marijuana use."I smoke a joint for the same reason other people go home and pop open a beer," said Michael Johnson, 52, who wore a marijuana leaf garland made of silk around his neck and carried a sign that said "Know the Truth."Marijuana serves the same purpose, he said, but is safer. There are fewer accidents caused by drivers under the influence of marijuana alone than drivers intoxicated by alcohol, Johnson said.Legalizing medical marijuana would be "a foot in the door" to legalizing it for any use, said Johnson, a member of the network. "It's nobody's business what I put in my body, least of all the government."A federal judge in March ruled that the group could proceed with the outdoor event without insurance or police protection, despite a city ordinance that had required both.In a lawsuit against the city, the group argued such requirements could be used to discriminate and prevent the free speech of certain groups. Last year, the city billed the network $3,600 for on-site security, medical assistance and electricity.This year, Bledsoe said the event was held without a permit because the city is still in the process of rewriting its ordinance to comply with U.S. District Judge Harvey Schlesinger's ruling, which keeps the ordinance from being enforced until it is fixed.Despite urgings of band members who played in the plaza, no one in the crowd appeared to test the marijuana laws by lighting up. Police reported no arrests. Instead, dozens milled around booths where people were selling T-shirts, necklaces and water pipes made of hemp. The pipes are illegal if used for marijuana, said vendor Madeleine Febres. Febres said she advocates people use them for tobacco."Whatever people do with them once they leave this park is their business," she said.At other booths, members of the Green Party and Libertarian Party handed out pamphlets."We don't think drugs are a good idea. We don't advocate drug use," said Douglas Klippel, chair of the Libertarian Party of Duval County. "But the war on drugs has been an absolute failure. It's time we give it up."Bledsoe agreed, saying the laws are too strict and harm too many people for no good reason."Prohibition doesn't work. We learned that in the 1930s," he said.Note: Legalization group's ambition.Source: Florida Times-Union (FL)Author: P. Douglas Filaroski, Times-Union Staff Writer Published: Sunday, June 3, 2001 Copyright: 2001 The Florida Times-UnionWebsite: http://www.times-union.com/Contact: jaxstaff jacksonville.comRelated Articles & Web Site:Cannabis Action Networkhttp://www.jug-or-not.com/can/index.htmlActivist Arrested Outside Bush Rally http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7451.shtmlSettlement Lets MMJ Group Pass Petition at Pollshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6920.shtmlCannabisNews Articles - Scott Bledsoehttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=Bledsoe 
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Comment #1 posted by dedbr on June 04, 2001 at 06:23:57 PT:
Tobacco pipes?
  Its against the law to use pipes for herb,so they say that you must use tobacco?No one buys this,especially the people who see the stupid signs that say it.I used to sell the pipes and bongs and in one state we couldn't even say bong,we had to say water pipe or we got in trouble.This is so stupid. 
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