Headline: NO LAUGHING MATTER

Scientists disagree on the extent to which marijuana use impairs memory and
cognition. But celebrants who smoke marijuana openly at today's socalled
"Hempstock" rally on the Boston Common need to be clear about one thing:
Open flouting of the law will not advance the cause of decriminalizing the
most popular illicit drug in America.

The sponsors, the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition, view the rally
as an opportunity to deflate what they believe are myths about marijuana,
including its use as a gateway drug to moredangerous substances. City
officials view the event, which drew 50,000 people last year, as a major
headache.

In ruling against the city's attempt to limit the number of food vendors at
the site, a Suffolk Superior Court judge cited the protesters' rights of
free speech and association. The rally, then, has been cast as a political
event, and its supporters will be seeking to win public opinion to their side.

They start with a strong base, including a poll conducted for the American
Civil Liberties Union that found that half of American adults favor the
elimination of criminal penalties for marijuana use. Arizona voters also
backed an initiative by almost 2 to 1 to legalize medicinal use of
marijuana, a rational and humane course.

But organizers will lose whatever edge they hold in this debate if their
rally becomes a smokescreen for oblivious partying and little else. The
public deserves to know more about the effects of marijuana on the brain,
its potential for addiction, and how legalization would affect highway
safety, among other concerns. No one will learn anything important about
these issues from the presence of recreational users who mock current drug
laws.

If protesters want to be taken seriously, they should work to pass
legislation or mount a ballot initiative drive to decriminalize marijuana
for the year 2000. But it will take dedicated minds and much energy to draw
up the petition, solicit roughly 65,000 signatures, and persuade voters in
debate. Until the protesters accomplish that, public sympathy is best
applied to the police and parks workers who must ensure public safety and
protection of the Common this weekend.