ACTIVIST ARRESTED OUTSIDE BUSH RALLY

A local medical marijuana rights activist was arrested Tuesday outside The
Jacksonville Landing after he tried to speak out against Gov. George W.
Bush during the Republican presidential nominee's campaign rally.

Police said Scott Bledsoe, 28, of Orange Park was arrested at 7:45 p.m. on
Independent Drive West and charged with opposing an officer who told him to
leave. He also was charged with breach of the peace after he started
speaking out against the Texas governor's drug policies through a bullhorn.

"Secret Service told me I was in a secured area and I would have to leave,"
Beldsoe said. "But there were other people there and they weren't being
told to leave."

He said he advised the city about what he would be doing at the event and
made sure the property was "100 percent public."

But City Attorney Steve Rohan said he can't give anyone permission to hold
a demonstration and told Bledsoe that Monday.

"I know they have certain First Amendment freedoms, but the law said there
are things you can't do," Rohan said. "He may have been trespassing N I do
not know the facts, but he did not have permission from me."

Bledsoe is a member of Floridians for Medical Rights, which is having a
petition drive to get a question on Florida's 2002 ballot to allow legal
marijuana use for medical reasons. The group won two civil rights lawsuits
against the city after claiming harassment from poll workers and police
while collecting signatures during the 1998 and 1999 elections.