NORML HOSTS MARIJUANA EVENT

Isla Vista residents packed into Anisq' Oyo' Park yesterday for the
fifth annual Joint Rolling Competition and daylong festival in
celebration of all things green and sticky.

The event, hosted by the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws, capped off a weekend of reveling throughout I.V. and
saw several hundred students, vendors and marijuana enthusiasts
relaxing in the sunshine to watch the festival's main event - the
joint rolling contest. The competition consisted of several
categories - fattest, fastest, freestyle and primo categories for
both joints and blunts, and a joint-only contest for medical
marijuana and one-handed specialists.

Alexander Stemplewski, who registered for every competition category
and won the race for most joints rolled within two minutes, said he
felt the event fostered a sense of community.

I think it's an awesome competition," Stemplewski, a second-year
financial math and statistics major said. "It brings a great group of
people together."

Stemplewski also came out on top for the fattest blunt competition
and took second place in the fattest joint competition.

The freestyle joint rolling competition proved to be a high point of
the afternoon, as I.V.'s most visionary rollers went head to head
crafting cross joints and braided joints. Ultimately, George Pelic
was crowned the winner for his creation, the "Torpedo-Tulip."

I used to work in a cannabis club in L.A. rolling joints," Pelic, a
business administration major said. "I learned how to roll in Europe.
I was the apprentice of a well-known joint roller there."

As the event's host, NORML used the festivities to promote their
overarching goals, which focus primarily on changing marijuana laws,
member Ruth Nichols said.

As a club, we're into reforming marijuana laws for personal and
medical use and industrial hemp use," Nichols said.

For students interested in getting involved in NORML activity, the
group meets every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in 1930 Buchanan Hall.