MARIJUANA REFORM GROUP FILES SUIT AGAINST OFFICIALS

Members Allege Violation Of Their Free Speech Rights

There's no place like Stone Park to hold a rally for legalizing marijuana,
organizers say, but Ashland officials aren't buying it.

"I had a rally in Framingham Common, but it's just not the same as Stone
Park," said James Pillsbury, coordinator of the MetroWest chapter of the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "It's a great name."

State and local advocates of decriminalizing marijuana are accusing Ashland
officials - for the second time in a decade - of violating free speech
rights by prior restraint.

The Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition and the MetroWest NORML chapter
contend that the town created a $1 million liability insurance requirement
only after the group submitted an application to use the park on Memorial
Day, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court late last month.

The policy, the advocates say, restricted their right to free speech and
other activities in a public forum.

"They want to keep me out of town," said Pillsbury, a plaintiff in the suit
against Ashland and a Libertarian candidate for state representative. "It's
absurd. It just blows everybody away that they would be doing this again."

Ashland Town Manager Dexter Blois and Dale Morris, an administrative
assistant named in the suit, declined to comment.

Pillsbury's problems with the town date back nearly a decade. The
Framingham resident held two rallies at Stone Park in 1993, and although no
arrests were made, reports from a town official that he witnessed marijuana
smoking at the events prompted efforts to block Pillsbury when he sought a
permit for another event later that year.

Town officials informed him that a new policy restricted the use of public
facilities by nonresidents to one time per year. Pillsbury then filed suit
against Ashland, and a judge ruled in favor of the Massachusetts Cannabis
Reform Coalition. The town was ordered to reimburse the group $30,000 in
legal fees after the town lost its court appeal in 1995.

"The leaders of Ashland just don't seem to understand they can't
discriminate against people for their political beliefs," said Bill
Downing, president of the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition. "How
many tens of thousands of dollars will Ashland have to pay until the
leaders understand what the Constitution stands for?"

According to the lawsuit, filed on Aug. 23, town officials informed
Pillsbury days after he submitted an application to use Stone Park that he
would need $1 million in liability insurance to hold an event at the park,
even though that wasn't indicated on the application form.

When pressed on the regulation, Morris told Pillsbury that it was Ashland's
policy to require $1 million in insurance from everyone who used Stone Park
for an event, the complaint said.

But according to past permit applications obtained by Pillsbury's attorney,
and previous interviews town officials gave to the Boston Globe, there is
no record of such a policy.

Blois told the Globe the town typically requires about $100,000 to $300,000
in general liability, and $50,000 in medical coverage for groups that use
public facilities. Officials from the Recreation Department said the town
is developing a policy to address insurance issues.

Dennis A. Mannone Jr., the former director of the Ashland Recreation
Department, declined to comment on liability requirements, but said he gave
one-time requests for the use of public facilities to the town attorney and
town manager to handle.

"I didn't really handle it," said Mannone, who is named in the suit.

After Pillsbury failed to secure liability coverage, the town returned his
application and denied the permit.

Barry Bresnick, a former selectman, said he witnessed marijuana smoking at
the 1993 event, but does not believe there is any particular effort to
stifle Pillsbury or restrict free speech.

A transcript from a May 1993 selectmen's meeting, however, shows that the
members discussed the coalition event and talked about ways to prevent
another pro-marijuana activity from happening. According to court
documents, one selectman said, "Can we have a policy, develop a policy
where we could keep individuals or groups [from] extolling illegal
activities? ... We don't want inappropriate things going on next to a
playground."

The selectmen suggested limiting use by nonresidents - a regulation the
town enforced weeks later when the coalition applied for another permit.
That move ultimately cost Ashland $30,000.

For decades, the coalition has held rallies throughout the state -
including in Worcester, Fall River, and Salem - and encountered only one
major flap with Boston in 1998. City officials refused to issue a permit
without certain restrictions in an effort to control the annual Freedom
Rally - which had attracted 100,000 people and led to 150 arrests the
previous year. A Suffolk Superior Court judge refused to block the rally,
but allowed the city to impose some regulations. Downing called that ruling
a victory, and described Ashland's latest efforts to curb the coalition's
activities as extremely upsetting.

"They just never seem to learn," he said.

This story ran on of the Boston Globe on 9/4/2002.