PRO-MARIJUANA GROUP SETTLES SUIT IT FILED OVER OUSTER FROM '92 FAIR

A pro-marijuana group's lawsuit over its ejection from the 1992 Salt Lake
County Fair has been settled out of court for $32,500.

A trial was scheduled to begin next week before U.S. District Judge Dee
Benson on claims by Mood For A Day. The group, which advocates the use of
cannabis hemp and marijuana for food, fuel, medicine, paper and fiber,
argued its members' First Amendment right to free speech was violated by
the eviction.

The county denies wrongdoing, saying it settled to avoid expensive and
unnecessary litigation.

Salt Lake County has agreed to pay the group $7,500. An insurance policy
for Salt Lake County Fair Inc., the nonprofit organization that ran the
1992 fair, paid $25,000 on behalf of four board members named in the suit.

Attorney Brian Barnard will receive the bulk of the settlement as fees. The
group will keep about $1,500, Barnard said. Mood For A Day had estimated it
lost about $2,000 in T-shirt, button and bumper sticker sales after it was
thrown out of the fair.

The group has not had a booth at the county fair since the suit was filed,
but has appeared at state fairs, Barnard said.

Authorities said 1992 county fairgoers complained Mood For A Day promoted
illegal drug use, pushed its literature on teen-agers and displayed
offensive bumper stickers and slogans, such as ``Thank You for Pot
Smoking.''

The fair board revoked the group's lease mid-way through the fair, and Mood
For A Day sued in federal court. A jury would have been asked to decide
whether Mood For A Day was advocating the legalization of marijuana, as the
group claimed, or was urging people to break the law, as the county
contended.

The group's civil rights may have been violated if it were ejected only for
supporting legislative change, or for a content-based reason other than
advocating the violation of drug laws, Benson said in a pretrial ruling.

Mood For A Day's lawsuit sought a promise it would not be evicted from
future Salt Lake County fairs. But management of the county fair has
changed since 1992, and the settlement did not include such an agreement,
Barnard said.

Copyright 1998, The Salt Lake Tribune

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson