MBTA UNDER FIRE FOR REJECTING ADS ON MARIJUANA

A group that is urging police to stop arresting marijuana smokers sued the
MBTA in federal court yesterday for refusing to display its advertisements
on buses, trains and T stations.

Change The Climate, a nonprofit group with offices in Greenfield, contends
that the MBTA has violated its First Amendment rights by rejecting three
ads because it doesn't like their message.

One ad, bearing a picture of a teenager, says, ''Smoking pot is not cool,
but we're not stupid, ya know. Marijuana is NOT cocaine or heroin.''

Another shows two men in police uniforms posing in front of the US flag and
says, ''Police are too important ... too valuable ... too good ... to waste
on arresting people for marijuana when real criminals are on the loose.''

In the third ad, a woman says, ''I've got three great kids. I love them
more than anything. I don't want them to smoke pot. But I know jail is a
lot more dangerous than smoking pot.''

The suit, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, accuses the MBTA of
ignoring repeated rulings by a federal appeals court that prohibited it
from rejecting advertisements because of their content or viewpoint.

''Regardless of what your views on marijuana reform might be, a government
agency cannot allow advertising promoting one viewpoint and refuse
advertising supporting an opposing opinion,'' said Harvey A. Schwartz, a
Boston civil rights lawyer.

In 1994, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that the MBTA
violated the First Amendment by refusing advertising urging condom use.

Undaunted, the T refused to run an ad last year that was part of a campaign
launched by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to discourage binge drinking. The ad
showed a young person vomiting into a toilet and another young person
unconscious on the floor, with empty beer cans scattered about.

MBTA spokesman Brian Pedro said the T's advertising contract says it has
the right to turn down ads that it deems offensive and routinely rejects
ads with violent content or profanity, or ones that denigrate a particular
group of people.

''We've been sued before. We win some and lose some,'' Pedro said. ''We're
not going to give in just because we've been sued today. We have a diverse
population on the subway and this is a captive audience that we have some
responsibility for.''

He said the T has a very strict policy regarding drug and alcohol
advertising. ''We don't even allow tobacco advertising,'' he said.

Joe White, a spokesman for Change the Climate, said the group offered to
pay as much as $30,000 for the three advertisements, but was snubbed by the
MBTA, which asserted the ads promoted marijuana use.

White insisted the group simply wants to spread the word that people
arrested for marijuana possession face more danger in jail than they do
from the drug.

The T ''displays ads that are produced by the government for a drug-free
America,'' said White. ''We feel this is public space and we should have
the same rights."