SCORES RALLY TO LEGALIZE POT

About 250 Gather For Raleigh March

RALEIGH - A crowd of marijuana legalization supporters were high on
advocacy Sunday afternoon.

The 2007 Raleigh Marijuana Rally, March and Music Festival drew about
250 people to the grounds of the state Capitol to call for the
legalization of medical marijuana.

Ann Marie Hodges was there pushing legalization of the drug. She
suffers from Adult Onset Still's Disease, a rare form of arthritis
that some patients say is made less painful by marijuana.

"I went from taking 15 medications a day to four," Hodges said.

Jeff Badalucco, organizer for the N.C. Cannabis Association, said the
event's goal was to "encourage a grass-roots movement," to raise
awareness of the benefits of marijuana.

This is the fifth year the loosely knit organization of advocates has
gathered as part of the Global Marijuana March, held yearly in May.

The event is the height of the North Carolina group's legislative
outreach, Badalucco said.

"We're not the type of organization that has meetings, structures or
dues," Badalucco said.

Kicking off at "high noon," according to the event flier, the rally
began with a march from the Capitol to Wake County Courthouse.

Participants paraded down the mostly empty Raleigh streets with signs
reading "Honk 4 Weed" and a depiction of the Statue of Liberty
holding a marijuana leaf instead of a torch.

At 2:30 p.m., the first of seven bands, H.O.W., a self-described
"stoner metal" band, kicked into its set list, which included the
songs "Trip, International Drug Trade" and "Left Side Twisted."

Raleigh police escorted the parade. Police Lt. Doug Brugger said that
there were no arrests and that protesters were peaceful and "well behaved."

The rally was held on the south lawn of the Capitol and staged around
a statue of Confederate-era Gov. Zebulon Baird Vance.

H.O.W. and the next band, Git Lit, sang their pro-pot songs in front
of an inscription of a Vance quote that read, "If there be a people
on earth given a sober second of thought ... It is the people of
North Carolina."