Pubdate: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 Source: Morning Sentinel (ME) Copyright: 2002 Morning Sentinel Contact: http://www.onlinesentinel.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1474 Author: Joe Rankin HEMPSTOCK NUMBERS DOWN Attendance Drops 75%; 1 Teen Hospitalized For Over Dose STARKS - State troopers arrested about two dozen people and one teen- ager was taken to a hospital after taking LSD during the four-day Hempstock festival promoting marijuana legalization. Maine State Police Lt. Dale Lancaster said those arrested face charges ranging from motor vehicle violations to possession of the drug Ecstasy. Troopers served search warrants on three vendors on the grounds of Harry Brown's farm. The three were summonsed on charges of selling drug paraphernalia, Lancaster said after the festival ended Sunday afternoon. "We made a concerted effort to take aggressive enforcement on drug violations," Lancaster said. State troopers, Somerset County sheriff's deputies, and Maine Liquor Enforcement officers manned roadblocks on State Route 43 near Brown's farm, handing out flyers warning Hempstock attendees that if they drove drunk they would likely be picked up at a roadblock on the way out. Lancaster said only one person was charged with driving while under the influence. Organizers of the festival, sponsored by the pro-marijuana group Maine Vocals, said the police presence amounted to harassment. That acknowledged that the roadblocks and the Vocals own efforts to avoid reaching crowd numbers that would trigger the town's mass gathering ordinance kept attendance down to levels not seen in years. In the past the festival had drawn as many as 4,000 people over its four-day run. This time around only about 1,000 people attended over the same period. And that included security, staff, volunteers and band members, said Tara Friend, the daughter of Vocals president Donald Christen of Madison. Christen himself was barred by a judge's order from attending the festival this year. Christen and the Vocals had failed to get a permit for Hempstock under the town's mass gathering ordinance. Under an order by Superior Court Justice Joseph Jabar, Christen faced 25 days in jail and stiff fines if the organization promoted a mass gathering in the town. Vocals hoped to get around that by keeping attendance down, and apparently succeeded. The town's ordinance defines a mass gathering as more than 750 people for six hours. Friend said the number of people attending this year may have hit 1,250 - over all four days. "We were used to seeing 4,000 people for the weekend," she added. "It did not feel like Hempstock." Friend said organizers sold 578 camping passes in all. Day pass sales ranged from 63 on Thursday to 300 on Saturday. Sunday people got in for a donation and perhaps 200 people listened to the music that day, she said. In addition to fewer concertgoers, there were fewer bands. Instead of the 25 to 30 bands, there were only 18. Friend said there were no complaints about noise. Lancaster said one 17-year-old youth was taken to Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington after he showed signs of overdosing on drugs. The youth was a passenger in a car leaving the property on Friday when a trooper noticed him. "It was quite apparent to us that he was deteriorating physically, his motor skills, his speech, his cognitive ability ... so much so that for his safety" an ambulance was called and he was taken to the hospital. At FMH the youth reportedly told hospital workers he had taken LSD. When troopers visited him the next day "he had recovered," said Lancaster. The lieutenant said he did not know where the youth was from. The youth was charged with possession of Ecstasy and hashish, Lancaster said. - --- MAP posted-by: Alex