By ERICA NOONAN

BOSTON (AP) Nearly 60,000 people gathered at Boston Common Saturday for a
rally advocating the legalization of marijuana. Police made about 200 drug
arrests.

Sponsored by the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition, the state
affiliate of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws,
the 8th Annual Freedom rally drew mostly young people, many of whom smoked
marijuana furtively.

Police on foot, horseback, bicycle and an undisclosed number of undercover
officers took suspects, mostly teenagers, into temporary custody. They
searched knapsacks and frisked some attendees.

Boston Police Superintendent James Clairbourne said the department was
trying to discourage the glamorization of marijuana.

"We are trying to send a message that you can't come to the Boston Common
and use drugs,'' Clairbourne said. "We arrest people in the neighborhoods
for it every day. It's illegal and we are not going to sit back and say
people can smoke it openly here.''

City officials attempted to restrict the number of food vendors at the
rally in what organizers claimed was an attempt to squelch the event. But a
Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday against the city.

"The City and Parks Department put up a number of roadblocks to discourage
this,'' said Maddy Webster, 51, the chairwoman of Mass Cann's 13member
board of directors. "In this country we are not able to discuss the issue
of legalization or even have a dialogue.''

Boston officials said they weren't trying to prevent the protest, but
attempting to head off possible damage to the Common.