Extravaganja last April 18th, 2015
While the Amherst Select Board did not take an actual vote, their comments seemed to indicate they were in unanimous agreement with Interim Town Manager (for another week anyway) Dave Ziomek refusing to issue a permit this year for the 25th annual Extravaganja pot rally on the historic Town Common.
AFD Chief Nelson (left), APD Chief Livingstone (right)
APD Chief Scott Livingstone and AFD Chief Tim Nelson agreed the rally had outgrown the capacity of the Town Common and represented a potential threat to public safety. The Select Board took pains to say they were not concerned with the message/content of the event, simply its size.
Connie Kruger pointed out they were a victim of their own success. But now that she has two grandchildren she has become "more conservative," and public safety is paramount.
Terry Franklin, citing First Amendment, threatens to bring in ACLU
Longtime event organizer Terry Franklin threatened a lawsuit based on First Amendment grounds.
Ask any local business and they will tell you it's their best day of the year.
ReplyDeleteIt evolved into a Woodstock, because Amherst allowed its kids to grow up without boundaries, rules and discipline! allowing smoking of pot on the common brought in the transients and their drugs. Keeping it Tame without smoke would work.
ReplyDeletePolice Departments politicking, which Mr. Livingston does way too much of, is unseemly, undemocratic, and leads to all sorts of inhumanity.
ReplyDeleteIs this a real concern based on all the negative stuff that happened last year OR is this the more common government concern of what could happen but simply has not, but we still need to dampen your fun, economy and rights because....well....we suspect something could happen....based on our very limited life experience as a government agent?
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting, though, if Amherst had the first pot fatality. Hasn't happened yet, but they suspect it could.
Have they considered that cancelling the event could result in folks partying at home, and at home you can drink and smoke to your heart's content, and then go drive around town. Now if one of the 1000's partying around town gets in an auto accident, when otherwise they would have been in the common smoking and doing a drum circle....well then we will know this was the wrong decision.
The coolest part though, is that no matter what the town officials decide and no matter what happens as a result, it will never be their fault. Planning or not, accident or not.
Just remember that more than 10 people gathering is a constitutional right, but also a major government concern because of the chaos that has traditionally ensued when they let people gather. But that is nothing compared to what happens to a home when 4 unrelated people live there, which is why that is outlawed too.
40,000 children, with 30,000 young adults that come by for 9 months to financially support the kids. Amherst.
Who sez victims gotta love the stoner 'Tude ??? If it was your loved one the " Progressive " pretext would be out the window - ASAP -OUI -DUI is MURDER. !!!?
ReplyDelete'Tude? Oh.so hip .
DeleteIt's about time someone stood up to the drug addicts. This is a gateway drug. The town was correct n not supporting this event.
ReplyDeleteI'm not in favor of the rally. To call them "drug addicts" or to label marijuana a "gateway drug," however, is nothing more than 1980s era "war on drugs" rhetoric and ignorance of the facts.
ReplyDeleteThe 1980s called: to say they were right after all.
DeleteSubstitute "Town Meeting" for "Extravaganja" and this article makes a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteAt least folks have not lost their sense of humor....
ReplyDelete"Gateway drug" classic....classic Dare propaganda that resulted in millions of kids never trusting police again because they fed them this lie. A few years later, the kids smoked pot, like most American kids and they did not trip or become addicts. Many smoked more pot just to prove authority was wrong and ironically, this has been proven so in most of the rest of the country/world.
Nothing has damaged the reputation and the authority of the police more than the drug war. I think it did even more damage than the violence, killings and race issues the police perpetuate. And it should, literally millions of people locked in boxes for no good reason except to placate the ignorant and get votes.
Anyone who thinks pot is good for you, has never cleaned up pot pipe.
DeleteThe point is that this "grassroots rally" has outgrown the venue. The Cannabis Reform Coalition is a university issue so let the university deal with the issue and host the rally. Problem solved.
ReplyDeleteThe town has accommodated and welcomed this gathering for 25 years. They give the organizers a heads up that it is too much for the town to safely handle, with time to make alternate arrangements. The organizers fail to do so, and now threaten to sue the town that has gone out on limb for them by turning a blind eye to illegal activity, (remember, 25 years ago pot wasn't as accepted as it is now).
ReplyDeleteI guess it was either that, or saying thanks for supporting us all these years?
Richard Marsh
There's no question that marijuana is the gateway drug to Town Meeting. Once people are hooked on Town Meeting, it's virtually impossible for them to quit.
ReplyDeleteDo they toke up before or during those meetings? (Certainly after...)
DeletePot sucks. It's done nothing for me in the 50 years I've been using it. Yes, I'm addicted. AND it's expensive. Why would anyone start?
ReplyDeleteWalter, odd to make fun of most humans throughout history and most of your town and countrymen. Also odd to ignore science. The gateway drug is ignorance and you are a pusher. Ask most herion users if their parents and the cops lied to them about drugs...perhaps by justifying herion use once they tried mild pot, simply by establishing the myth of the gateway, this takes away responsibilty and encourages less thought before use, they were told it was destiny by the likes of you.
ReplyDeleteTo the person that said who f..cking cares....the answer is more than those that care about other common events....that was the point of the post.
I'm hoping to start a cigarette rally on the common. Who's in?
DeleteThe real gateway drug is ... wait for it ...
ReplyDeleteALCOHOL
Funded by the U.S. government in the form of grain production subsidies. Marketed to teenagers by multinational corporations. Idolized by the media and political establishment. Insidious corrupter of youth and killer of hundreds of thousands of people every year.
The feeling of "euphoria" ethanol provides is a true "gateway to hell" for people looking to escape their everyday lives, and is a direct precursor to the same feelings generated by opiates and cocaine.
Marijuana as a gateway drug? Give me a break. It's not even close. Go back to your 6 pack and television Walter and leave the rest of us alone.
Okay. Okay. Jack Daniels AND ciggies. Even better.
DeleteDon't forget porn.
Deletecigs/JD/porn crowd doesn't need to rally, already legal. Plus never leave the house anyhow.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was against Amherst law to smoke cigs in public. The rally would be in protest of that.
DeleteOn 4th of July, everybody parks on the 116 highway in Hadley to watch fireworks - why not hold the MJ rally there instead?
ReplyDeleteHow about an Anti-Pot rally? Oh, no! Can't do that!
ReplyDeleteIt's what, a $100 fine for smoking pot now?
ReplyDeleteOK, bring in 225 cops, each with a dozen ticketbooks and start handing them out. No ID -- so sorry, you sit in jail until you produce some. That'd fund both the 225 cops AND public safety for the rest of the spring....
And when the stoners learn they can't renew their drivers licenses until they pay the $600-$1,200 in pot tickets they accumulated that day, well, sucks to be them...
Certainly not pot smokers/users/abusers.
ReplyDelete