Promarijuana rally gets 20 food vendors

By Globe Staff, 09/18/97

A Suffolk Superior Court judge ruled yesterday that organizers of this
Saturday's promarijuana rally on Boston Common can use 20 vendors to sell
food to spectators.

The city had restricted the number of vendors to 10, claiming a larger
number would damage the common.

The Massachusetts Cannibis Reform Coalition, which is organizing the rally
to promote legalization of marijuana, wanted between 30 and 35 vendors. It
said it needed the income from the extra vendors to pay rally expenses.

In issuing an injunction against the city, Judge John C. Cratsley said he
settled on 20 vendors because that was the number at last year's rally.

''There will be irreparable harm to protected free speech and association
interests of the plaintiffs in this particular case unless the vendor issue
is resolved,'' Cratsley said.

This story ran on page A32 of the Boston Globe on 09/18/97.
© Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.