POT RALLY GOES UP IN SMOKE AS 44 ARRESTED

Hundreds of tokers descended on the Common yesterday for the annual
"Freedom Rally" to legalize pot as 44 people were arrested on marijuana
and cocaine possession charges amid a heavy police presence.

"I saw other people doing it. I thought it was OK," said Brian Labrador,
17, of Quincy after plainclothes officers released him from handcuffs
without charging him.

Labrador was sitting on the base on the Soldiers and Sailors Monument with
a tin of marijuana on his lap when he was handcuffed by two plainclothes
officers who searched his belongings. The officers confiscated the drugs
and ordered another teen to empty three bottles of Bacardi before letting
Labrador go. The rally, sponsored the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform
Coalition, came days after the Herald exposed widespread public drug use
in the Boston Common and Public Garden.

"I still say (Boston Mayor Thomas Menino) turned a blind eye to what was
going on in the Common," said anti-drug activist William T. Breault.
Breault and Lea Palleria Cox, president of Concerned Citizens for Drug
Prevention Inc., toured the Common wearing buttons with crosses through
pictures of a marijuana leaf and hypodermic needle.

The recent publicity didn't stop young users from toking up in plain view.
"It's a good cause," said Sarah Maclaurine, 16, of Swampscott after she
was spotted taking a hit from a marijuana pipe. "In my opinion, like beer
and wine and liquor, it should be controlled."