FAIR ORDERS DRUG GROUP TO STOP SALE OF LIGHTERS

MEDINA - Jim Bigam, director of security and safety for the Medina County
Fair, says the $1 cigarette lighters sold by a marijuana advocacy group are
dangerous in the hands of kids and represent a fire hazard on the fairgrounds.

John Hartman, president of the Northcoast chapter of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says his lighters are only
dangerous because some people don't like NORML's message.

Earlier this week, Bigam ordered NORML to stop selling lighters that
feature the group's initials on one side and its phone number on the other
- - (216) 521-WEED.

Bigam said he considered the lighters a safety threat because he heard
young kids discussing how they could buy them cheaply at the NORML booth.
The pro-marijuana group shares a booth at the fair with the Libertarian Party.

Fair Board President James Martin said the fair board was always concerned
about the threat of fire because of straw, hay and other combustibles that
are plentiful at the fair.

Hartman said he feared the real reason for Bigam's order had nothing to do
with fire safety. He said Bigam did not order another fair vendor,
"Lighters From Around The World," to stop selling lighters.

"It's not the first time somebody tried to silence our content because they
don't like our message," Hartman said.

That's not the case, said Bigam, who pointed out the fair board did not
deny NORML a spot at the fair.

"We're not concerned with political issues," Bigam said. "We're concerned
about safety."

Bigam said the other vendor, Roger Carrow, was permitted by contract to
sell lighters while NORML's license allows only the sale of "political items."

Besides, Bigam said, NORML will sell $1 lighters to anyone while Carrow
does not.

"They're entitled to their beliefs, just don't vend cigarette lighters to
underage children," Bigam said of NORML.

There is no law against selling lighters to kids, but Carrow said he is
careful anyway.

"If it's a kid who's obviously too young, I tell them to go away and bring
their parents back with them," said Carrow, a Mount Gilead man who makes a
living selling collectible cigarette lighters year-round at county fairs.

When the rhetorical smoke cleared yesterday afternoon, NORML was still
selling its lighters. Bigam said he was not going to escalate the tiff by
shutting them down.