MARIJUANA PROPONENTS TO PROTEST

D'IBERVILLE - The "Cannabis Awareness 420 Get-Together" planned for today
will become a protest because the city revoked the permit for the event,
according to Jim Smith of Stop the Madness.

The cannabis, or marijuana, advocacy organization had secured the
D'Iberville Farmer's Market for the event, but security issues were never
resolved. Smith blamed Capt. Lou Bissonnette of the Harrison County
Sheriff's Department for the glitch but admitted he twice failed to show up
for scheduled meetings with the captain to discuss security.

"I was under the impression that just the minor details about security was
all that was left to do, like how much manpower we would need," Smith said.

Manpower is not a minor detail, according to Bissonnette and D'Iberville
Mayor Rusty Quave.

"He has failed to meet with me and other city officials on two occasions,
just not showed up," Bissonnette said. "We had been waiting on him to plan
the event, but we never heard another word from him until he walked in on
Friday and expected me to bring the manpower out of the sky."

Smith in a news release issued Monday said Bissonnette had the permit
jerked. Bissonnette said city officials made that decision after he told
them security had not been planned. Quave said Smith "dropped the ball" on
planning for an event that required extra security. The city contracts its
police protection through the sheriff's department.

The group, which had circulated fliers about the event, will still set up
information tables and speak publicly from 3 to 9 p.m. today, Smith said.

"The only thing that changes is we were going to do some music," he said.
"Now, we will not have music. I'm prepared to exercise my First Amendment
right to protest government regulation."