PRO-POT GROUP GETS TWO-YEAR PROBATION

Will Appeal UGA Decision

A University of Georgia student group that advocates the legalization
of marijuana must serve two years' probation for misuse of
copyrighted UGA images, a student judiciary panel decided Tuesday.

The UGA chapter of NORML sold T-shirts depicted a glassy-eyed bulldog
holding a joint of pot, reading a book on human rights while sitting
in front of a structure that resembled the famous - and copyrighted - UGA Arch.

The group also posted the image on its Web site, and UGA officials
said NORML didn't take down the offending images quickly enough after
UGA ordered the group to stop.

The chapter president, Wojciech Kaczkowski, said NORML will appeal
the decision, and said the group had paid a price for contesting the
charges that it violated UGA student conduct codes.

Two years of probation was twice as long as what UGA judicial
programs said the group's punishment would be if officers admitted to
the violations, Kaczkowski said.

"I don't want this to end like this. I don't believe we have done
anything wrong," he said.

The appeal likely will fall on deaf ears, he said. But Kaczkowski and
other NORML officers will ask ACLU lawyers and officials with the
national NORML organization about the possibility of pursuing their
appeal in court, he said.

"I just hope the university will realize that they are getting
themselves into an issue of freedom of speech," Kaczkowski said.