POT ADVOCATE DISRUPTS MEETING

RANCHO CUCAMONGA - A meeting meant to teach the community the harmful
effects of drugs got rowdy Tuesday evening when a medical-marijuana
advocate pushed the guest speaker, authorities said.

Paul Chabot, a speaker for the Inland Valley Drug Free Community
Coalition event, was pushed outside the meeting at the James L.
Brulte Senior Center, said his wife, Brenda Chabot, who heads the
community coalition.

Cpl. William Badger of the Sheriff's Department said one man was
arrested on suspicion of battery and was later released.

Several medical-marijuana advocates were outside the senior center
passing out fliers. One of them was Dave Matteson, who didn't know
the man who got arrested. Matteson said he wasn't welcomed at the
meeting even though he wasn't disruptive.

"We got thrown out of the meeting," said Matteson, a Claremont
resident. "To be perfectly honest, it was awfully ... stressful."

Ed Hills of Rancho Cucamonga, who attended the meeting with his
family, said the medical-marijuana advocates were disruptive and had
yelled at him when he refused to take any of the medical marijuana literature.