POT SMOKERS ARE KEPT AWAY AT U OF VERMONT SPRING FEST

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - The 4/20 celebration at the University of Vermont
will go down as the pot party that wasn't. A massive police presence
Saturday at the annual April 20 event that used to be a protest against
drug laws, often highlighted by hundreds of people smoking marijuana in
public, kept the weed away.

Instead, Saturday afternoon culminated a three-day drug- and alcohol-free
celebration of spring that was designed to keep people from lighting up.

"I think today was a great success," university Police Chief Gary Margolis
said Saturday afternoon as the party was breaking up. "There were no crowds
that got together and lit up."

A student group spent $55,000 to create the celebration of spring to divert
students from gathering to smoke pot. "Spring Fest" ended with an afternoon
of music outside Bailey-Howe Library.

Student leaders and administrators said the university could no longer
ignore the annual mass dope-smoking because it has tarnished the school's
image with lawmakers, alumni and private donors.