NORML Left Its Booth, Caused No Fuss

Pro-Marijuana Group Allowed to Distribute Fliers Around Festival
Despite New Policy

Henry Koch chilled out on a sunny, crisp Saturday afternoon.

Koch said it was his "hollow" hemp shirt that kept him from sweating
as he mingled with fans at Columbia's 3 Rivers Music Festival.

"I thought you weren't supposed to be out of your booth," Alex
Dingnam, a 13-year-old Hand Middle School student, said as he walked
by.

"We get that sometimes," said Koch, president of the Midlands Chapter
of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Then he went back to handing out fliers and "freedom cards" because it
was his right to do so.

NORML had sued 3 Rivers Music Festival and Columbia city officials
over a policy, which is new this year, that prohibits nonprofit groups
from leaving their assigned booths to distribute materials.

The festival told a federal judge Friday that it would not kick out
activists who stroll around distributing fliers, despite the policy.

The lawsuit put the spotlight on the role a big festival has as a
free-speech forum.

Koch, his materials-holding hand always outstretched, actively engaged
people in conversation. He even handed a flier to Columbia City
Councilman E.W. Cromartie, who rode by in a golf cart.

Koch shrugged and smiled as the councilman drove off.

"This is what should be normal," he said. "They advertise as a
festival of diversity. We feel this is a message that needs to be told."

With a lei made with fake marijuana leaves around his neck, NORML
member Brian Hannon passed out fliers.

He said people have been stopping by the group's booth saying, "We've
read about you in the newspapers" or "We've seen you on TV" since the
festival gates opened.

"I love it because everybody knows we're here now," Hannon
said.

And there were plenty of visitors to NORML's Park Street booth
Saturday afternoon.

"I smoke too much for it to be illegal," said one man who got a button
for his $1 donation.

One woman said, "I better not talk to you long. They'll think we're up
to something."

NORML's booth was flanked by the South Carolina Coalition Against
Domestic Violence and Prevent Child Abuse South Carolina. The booth
attendants for the organizations sat at tables and didn't approach
festivalgoers.

Koch approached as many people as he could.

Among other things, the NORML flier states that "the laws on the books
make a plant that grows wild and unattended by humans illegal."

The "freedom card" offers advice for people when confronted by
police.

Sonya Shokoohi made her friend Chantelle Cormier stop at the NORML
booth because she saw a voter-registration sign. Shokoohi didn't know
the recent history of NORML and the festival when she was handed a
flier.

"I'm not easily offended," she said after reading a bit. "I think
everybody needs to be heard. "Everybody has an opinion."

Connie Davis, who stopped by the booth with her husband, John, on
their way to the Wachovia Stage, agreed.

"It's about freedom of speech," she said. "People have a choice to
take the (flier) or not."