PRO-CANNABIS GROUPS GATHER FOR ANNUAL RALLY ON COMMON

Dozens of people were arrested yesterday as a crowd of more than 35,000
gathered for the annual pot rally on Boston Common.

By 5 p.m., police had arrested 50 people, mostly for drug possession,
processing them at a tent set up on the park's perimeter.

Although cannabis was ubiquitous at the 13th annual "Freedom Rally," it was
confined largely to posters, T-shirts and hemp bags, as dozens of uniformed
and plainclothes officers milled around.

Three years ago, a 19-year-old New Hampshire man who was about to be booked
for marijuana possession pulled a fully loaded 9mm pistol out of his
pocket, but an officer lunged forward in time to jam his finger in the
trigger guard.

Organizers called the incident "extremely atypical," and spoke wistfully
yesterday about more "enlightened" cities such as Santa Cruz, Calif., which
licensed a growers' facility that eventually was raided by federal authorities.

"In a free society, the use of an herb like marijuana or tobacco should be
regulated, not prohibited," said Steven Epstein of Marblehead. "There are
people who use marijuana irresponsibly, but even they don't present
anywhere near the same danger as a chronic alcoholic."

Epstein defines irresponsible users as people who can't hold a job or
maintain at least a C- average in school, but believes anyone old enough to
serve in the military should be allowed to smoke weed.

Jon Holmes, 54, of Allston said he occasionally uses marijuana, but hopes
his 14-year-old son won't, at least until he's older.

"I think it's an adult thing," said Holmes, a bespectacled man wearing a
tie-dyed "Just Say Know" T-shirt quoting such pro- decriminalization people
as New York Post editor Pete Hamill and former President Carter. "Once
you're an old guy like me, what difference does it make if you shuffle off
into the sunset with a joint?"

R. Keith Stroup, the 58-year-old founder and executive director of the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws urged "mainstream,
middle-class marijuana-smokers" to come out of the closet.

"The vast majority are good, hard-working people, not criminals, yet we are
needlessly destroying their lives and careers," said Stroup, who jokingly
refers to himself as the world's oldest living marijuana user. "The
government has no business telling us what we can do in the privacy of our
homes. It's none of their damn business."