MARIJUANA BILLBOARD SNUFFED

GREENFIELD - A legalize-marijuana billboard sponsored by a Greenfield-based
advocacy group lasted less than a day on Route 9 in Westborough.

It was pasted over with the billboard it had replaced - a composite sketch
of an at-large serial rapist.

The short-lived billboard, paid for by Change the Climate Inc. of
Greenfield, showed photographs of three people - a teacher, a firefighter
and a state trooper whose photograph was taken without authorization from a
recruitment brochure, the state police said yesterday.

The message of the billboard was that legalizing and taxing marijuana would
bring back public services and plug the budget gap.

Westborough police were not thrilled to have the public service announcement
of the composite sketch replaced by a paid advertisement promoting
marijuana, said Police Chief Alan R. Gordon.

He believes that the composite sketch, posted for three weeks, has prevented
further attacks by a man police believe raped four area women in their homes
between Aug. 6 and Aug 16.

Gordon has since learned that he will get another month of free advertising
of the composite sketch about a half-mile away on Route 9 in the opposite
direction, which suits his needs well. Nonetheless, he contacted the state
police when he saw that the marijuana billboard depicted a trooper.

Within hours, state police headquarters in Framingham demanded the removal
of the billboard for lack of authorization and for violation of departmental
policy, said state police Capt. Donald Johnson yesterday.

The billboard company, Clear Channel Outdoor Inc. of Stoneham, pasted the
composite sketch back over the marijuana message yesterday morning.

The company issued a written statement emphasizing its commitment to
arresting the rapist. Johnson said, however, that company staffers told him
the state trooper photograph was their mistake.

They had considered using an actor in a police uniform, but somehow, the
trooper's photograph was printed instead.

Change the Climate executive director and founder Joseph White of Greenfield
said that its advertisement will be reformulated and posted at the Route 9
site in a few days' time.