Neighborhood Report:

TIMES SQUARE -- BUZZ

A Party Lights Up Broadway After a Movie's Premiere

THE SETTING -- A screening on Monday of "Grass," a documentary by Ron Mann
that chronicles the 90-year history of American marijuana laws and the
sundry ways in which Americans have flouted the prohibitions against it.
The showing, at the AMC Empire Theaters on West 42nd Street, was the New
York premiere of the film as well as a benefit for Norml, the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. The film is a fairly
lighthearted look at a serious subject ("No hippies were harmed in the
making of this film," the credits said reassuringly.)

At an after-film party at Bar Code in Times Square, gift bags contained
aromatherapy candles, a copy of High Times magazine and a small, mysterious
brownie in a zippered plastic bag.

THE BUZZ -- "It's the film everyone's toking about," said Mr. Mann, as
moviegoers milled around the high-tech video arcade and bar after the
screening. The movie was warmly received by the crowd, an odd mix of gray
ponytails and gray flannel suits spanning three generations. Despite an
admonition against "smoking of any kind," the theater, as potheads might
say, reeked.

"It happens at every screening," said Mr. Mann, a Canadian in his 40's with
a wild gray mane. "People light up. But it really boosts concession stand
sales."

One person hoping to capitalize on the well-known ravenous appetites of pot
smokers was Shawn Patrick House, who was promoting his new Hempzel line of
pretzels. Baked by Mennonites in Lancaster, Pa., the dough includes shelled
hemp seed, imported, legally, from Canada. Mr. House said he would ask
Unapix Films, the distributor of "Grass," to consider making Hempzel the
"official munchie" of the movie.

Among the cannabis-friendly supporters at the $50 fund-raiser was Tom
Hillgardner, a lawyer, who said: "All drugs should be legal. Marijuana's
just the start."

Asked if he had ever broken any marijuana laws, Mr. Hillgardner roared.
"There is a public record about my breaking the marijuana laws," he said.
"I'm one of the few attorneys in New York State who's been admitted to the
bar over and above a felony conviction. Why? I'm an excellent lawyer."

Dana Beal, organizer of the annual marijuana march in Lower Manhattan, said
the message of the movie was plain and simple: "Marijuana is not a hard
drug and too many Americans are in jail for possession."

Mr. Beal said New York under Mayor Giuliani was among the most
pot-intolerant cities in America. He said there were pro-marijuana rallies
this month in 100 cities, "and only in New York and three other cities were
there any marijuana arrests."