CHURCH PLANS END TO POLL SITE
Marijuana Rights Group Sues City Again

A medical marijuana rights group ran into opposition to its cause during
last week's runoff election at the polling place at Baymeadows Baptist
Church - only a week after it sued the city for the second time following
similar problems at a Mandarin church April 13.

Now, the pastor of the Baymeadows Road church says he will ask the city's
Supervisor of Elections to remove his church from the list of polling places
because he doesn't want anyone petitioning there in support of drug use. Two
Mandarin churches successfully made the same request after the group showed
up at their churches during the April 13 general election.

This time, police said four Floridians for Medical Rights volunteers were
seeking petitions at 4 p.m. when church officials disagreed with them
posting their sign near the church driveway. Police were called, and the
group was ultimately allowed to continue their petition drive, although the
sign was moved to the side of their truck.

The group had the legal right to petition at any of the city's 267 polling
places May 11 after a federal judge ruled in their favor - if they stayed 50
feet or more from the polls. Yet, group spokesman Scott Bledsoe said workers
at the church at 4826 Baymeadows Road told people ''they were going to
hell'' May 11 if they signed the petition, which seeks to get a question on
the medical use of marijuana on the 2000 ballot.

''The police came and upheld our rights,'' said Bledsoe. ''We had a bit of a
problem with church workers, and they stopped a few people from signing our
petition. But the police did what they were supposed to.'' The group had
run-ins with officials at Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church during the
November elections, and claims its members were harassed and threatened with
arrest, so they left. The group then filed a lawsuit claiming its
constitutional rights had been violated.

The group won that suit and the right to petition in late March, but they
were ordered off the polling place at First Southern Baptist Church in
Mandarin during this year's general election April 13. That resulted in the
group filing a second suit May 5 claiming its constitutional rights were
being violated.

Baymeadows Baptist Church pastor Gary Broward said he realizes the group has
the legal right to petition. But he said he doubts the court ruling allows
it to post signs, and he will cease to allow his church to be a future
polling site.

''We allowed the city to use one room and one building for a polling place.
We are not turning our whole complex and property to anyone to do anything.
For them to come here and say they have the right to stick signs in front of
our church isn't right,'' he said. ''It appeared that our church supports
that kind of thing and I don't want to send that kind of message . . . It
would be nice to be able to vote and not be harassed by them or any other
group.''

The medical rights group's latest suit against the Jacksonville Sheriff's
Office and supervisor of elections says both offices failed to uphold the
late March federal court decision. The suit also seeks monetary damages from
the city and the sergeant who ordered its members to leave the Mandarin
church.

The group gathered petitions at four other polling places on the Southside
and in Mandarin during the runoff elections May 11, and Bledsoe said it had
no problems until they got to Broward's church.

No date has been set for a hearing in the latest federal suit.