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Marijuana Reform Club Fuming After Being Asked To Leave
Nada Behziz | Bakersfield.com | 04/30/2005

A Bakersfield College student club says its First Amendment rights were violated at the Relay for Life event Saturday.

The Bakersfield College's chapter of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws -- or NORML -- had its booth shut down by relay organizers. Organizers said the group was passing out political propaganda, which is against the American Cancer Society's bylaws.

Also, the tone of the leaflets and information was not in line with the organization's beliefs, organizers said.

"It's not that it's NORML but that it's a political group," said Tim Gibbs, a field advocate for the American Cancer Society's Northern California section. "They can have a team here, but they can't promote their political beliefs."

But group members said they quit handing out information packets after organizers approached them.

Event organizers were harassing their members since the event started at 9 a.m., said the group's president, Morgan Collier.

They were first asked to cover the marijuana leaf pictures on the booth corners. Then they were asked to stop handing out leaflets.

"We did everything they asked and they still asked us to leave. I feel it's a total injustice," Collier said. "We're here with the same intention -- to bring awareness to cancer and help patients, but we are being denied."

Campus police and BC's Dean of Students Don Turney were called in to mediate the disturbance.

Organizers say they weren't aware of the group's political affiliation when they approved its application.

The group used the acronym NORML to fill out the event's application. No description of the group was required at the time of application.

It is the responsibility of the event organizers to research the affiliation of the groups, said Turney.

"I don't think it was a misrepresentation. I think they did what they should have done," Turney said. "It's on the organizers to know who they are accepting."

Even then, the group should not have been denied, Turney said.

The group has held booths at other Relay for Life events around the country without disruption.

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frolic

This may be the same group that thought Nam Vets was a group of animal doctors from southeast asia.