PRO-HEMP RALLY HELD DOWNTOWN

This isn't your father's war on drugs.

This was more a war on the war on drugs.

"Hemp, hemp, hooray!" Steve Rasmussen said, warming up the few hundred
early gatherers at Saturdayís rally at City-County Plaza in support of
industrial hemp and the medical use of marijuana. The rally, Rasmussen
told the receptive crowd from a stage more used for bluegrass than
psychotropic grass, was one of more than 150 taking place around the
world Saturday as part of the "2001 Space Odyssey/Million Marijuana
March."

But despite the jokes and pro-pot asides (Rasmussen's noting that
Asheville's rally was held at "high noon"), the rally participants had
some serious messages: If de-controlled, hemp could provide
inexpensive food, fuel and fiber to a hungry world. If decriminalized,
marijuana could ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people
with debilitating diseases.

And if dropped, Buncombe County's planned satellite jail wouldn't be
filled with the kinds of people Rasmussen said are marginalized by a
society misinformed about marijuana.

"We know the satellite (jail) will house Black people, hippies and
anyone who is a victim of the drug war, which is about everyone," he
told the crowd. The rally was sponsored by Community of Compassion,
which is trying to get Asheville lawmakers and enforcers to place less
emphasis on the enforcement of marijuana laws.

Swaying to the reggae and cruising the booths campaigning against the
destruction of Southern woodlands were the kinds of people you'd
expect at a pro-hemp, pro-marijuana rally. There were plenty of young
people with dreadlocks and tie-dye, tattoos and piercings. But also
among the sellers of Jamaican regalia and drug paraphernalia were the
kinds of people you might be surprised to see at such a rally.

People like Travis Stephens.

Closely shorn and looking more Marine than marijuana mariner, Stephens
signed a petition in support of N.C. Rep. Paul Luebke's House medical
marijuana study bill. An Army veteran, Stephens was there for his
sister, who has multiple sclerosis.

"I just wish there was a way she could get it (marijuana) without
feeling like a criminal," the Georgia resident said under a shade tree
while one of several bands played on the City-County stage. "It's the
only thing that helps her pain."

Stephens actually stumbled upon the rally. He and his wife were in
Asheville for the weekend, staying nearby at the Renaissance Asheville
Hotel, which ironically was hosting a meeting of the National Multiple
Sclerosis Society on Saturday.

"Ask those doctors," Stephens, a hemp bracelet around his left ankle,
said. "Maybe they'll tell you it helps with the pain."

"There's no question it's cruel to deny medicine to sick people,"
Rasmussen said behind the stage while the bands played. "It's cruel to
jail sick people."

Rasmussen said his wife and daughter use marijuana to alleviate the
pain they suffer from migraine headaches.

"I see them lying and screaming on the couch," he said, "and just a
few puffs and the migraine is gone."

Bill Herring was there for the hemp. Owner of hemp shorts and sandals,
he said the super-strong fiber could be an economic boon to farmers
who want to get out of tobacco.

"Hopefully we'll learn more uses for it if our government will give
proponents a chance," Herring, an Asheville resident, said.

The rally's feature speaker was Stephen Gaskin, founder of an
intentional community near Summertown, Tenn., called "The Farm."
Gaskin, author of "Cannabis Spirituality" and other books, created the
community in 1971.

"More people are killed by prescription drugs than street drugs," he
said. The government's war on drugs "is a big smoke screen."

For more information on this topic, visit the following Web
sites:

Medical marijuana research: http://www.maps.org/mmj/

National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws:
http://www.norml.org/home.shtml

Hemp Industries Association: http://www.thehia.org/

North American Industrial Hemp Council: http://www.naihc.org/