Marijuana activists take to Boston Common

(NECN: John Moroney, Boston, Mass.) – Hundreds of people took to the Boston Common on Saturday afternoon to protest marijuana laws, despite recent changes in Massachusetts. Leaders of the movement said they still believe the laws are too strict. The rally came nearly a year after Bay State voters passed Question Two — a ballot initiative making the possession of an ounce of marijuana or less a civil infraction, punishable by a $100 fine. “Our attendance has grown because the music and the cause and the Question Two,” Mike Cann, member of the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition, said. “And I think the biggest change is that now people know we can change a law, that we’re not just a bunch of idiots out here — that we can actually get things done.” The next big push for the Cannabis Reform Coalition is medical marijuana. The rally is 20 years old, and on three separate occasions organizers had to go into court to get permission to hold it on the common. It is now one of the largest festivals of kind on the East Coast. Boston Police have reported very few problems on the common. By late afternoon, they had issued about 100 tickets to rally-goers, while arresting three others for distribution.