THE BATTALION
TUESDAY, MAY 3, 1977
Page 9
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Reform for pot laws slow
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Just horsing around
Battalion photo by Linda Howard
lascal and Lady would have no part of
mere oats at a recent picnic held in their
lasture on Elmo Weedon Road. While their
iwners were fishing, the horses helped
themselves to a few goodies. The horses belong
to Dr. and Mrs. Dennis Howard of College
Station.
United Press International
JACKSON, Miss. — The first
major reform in marijuana laws in
the Deep South may have had its
genesis last spring in the seizure of a
55-foot shrimp boat along Missis
sippi’s sandy Gulf Coast.
Nine tons of high-grade Colom
bian grass were confiscated in the
predawn raid by narcotics officers.
Nine persons were arrested,
icharged with possession of
marijuana with intent to distribute.
The first four suspects went be
fore a circuit court judge in January,
just as the 1977 session of the Mis
sissippi Legislature was beginning.
They entered pleas of guilty and
went free on fines of $15,000 each.
Similar fines have since been levied
against other suspects in the case,
but no jail terms.
Previous efforts to modify
marijuana laws had gotten nowhere
in this traditionally conservative
state, the last in the nation to repeal
prohibition in 1966. But news ac^
counts of the light penalties in the
Gulf Coast raid gave new incentive
to lawmakers pushing for a revision
of drug laws.
If persons accused of smuggling
large quantities of marijuana into the
country get off with $15,000 fines,
lawmakers argued repeatedly, why
should young first offenders face jail
sentences for being caught with a
few cigarettes?
The arguments proved effective.
On April 15, Gov. Cliff Finch
signed a bill into law ending jail
terms for first offenders for possess
ing an ounce or less of marijuana. At
the same time, the act imposes
strict new penalties for hard-drug
sales and possession of large
amounts of marijuana.
Seven states across the nation
have revamped marijuana laws, but
Mississippi was the first in the
South to act.
Keith Stroup, director of
NORML, the National Organization
for Reform of Marijuana Laws, said
he would have opposed Mississip
pi’s act if it had been “in New York,
Wisconsin or a lot of other states.”
“But in Mississippi we support it
as a significant breakthrough,”
Stroup said. “The symbolic value of
decriminalizing the marijuana
smoker in the Deep South will not
be lost on the rest of the country. It
clearly is a version of decriminaliza
tion as it pertains to first offenders.”
Legislators who handled the bill
insisted it did not mean de
criminalization. First offenders still
face fines of $100 to $250 for posses
sion of one ounce or less, with in
creasingly tougher penalties for
subsequent offenses and possession
of large amounts.
The old law provided maximum
penalties of one year in jail and fines
up to $1,000 for possession of one
ounce or less, leaving judges wide
discretion in fixing the actual
punishment.
Marijuana laws vary greatly in
other Southern states, and attempts
to change them have met with little
success. In Tennessee, a bill to re
duce penalties for use of small
amounts of marijuana recently was
rejected by a Senate committee.
Decriminalization bills have failed
twice in the Georgia Legislature in
the past two years. And few if any
changes have been made in
Alabama, Florida, or the Carolinas.
This Week At Wyatt’s Cafeteria
155
<2>
TUESDAY - MAY 3
BARBECUED CHICKEN
Served with hot potato salad and one vegetable.
WEDNESDAY - MAY 4
MEXICAN DINNER
Two enchiladas w/chili, fried rice, beans, tortilla
and hot sauce.
a>
149
UJUfltt CRKtCRMS
804 Texas Ave.
/ice, virtue surround bar owner
ORTH
ties
United Press International
DALLAS — If his life is a mixture
ice and virtue he doesn’t seem to
>w it.
in the shelves of the Body Shop’s
ice are bottles of bourbon and
itch, gin and vodka; but on his
k is an empty Dairy Queen par-
:, the remaining ribbons of color
gesting vanilla, chocolate and
strawberry ice cream,
nd while the seductive
ivements of the young topless
icers bring in the paying custom-
at the front, he sits in his office
the back sending thousands in
ifits to charity.
I don’t see any conflict,” he says,
lis, the club, is just what I do for
iving.”
The charities? I don’t know why
ive to charities, I guess I’m just a
touch.”
The voice coming from some-
ere under the bushy black beard
hat of George “here let me spell
out for you it’s 15 miles long”
aralambotoulos.
ultural and C»
uality Sluditt
y. Solar Em
Farms,'
admission).
iscs End.
)r. Kennetk
ite Coliseum, ii
»AY
)r. Kennetli
liitc Coliseun
Drill Field,
)1, 8 p.m.
im, 3:30 p.m,
Greek to you, eh?’
And his name may be found on
list of donors to the Heart Fund,
Ameriti , Cancer Society and the Lung
Ijj sociation. He gives to the March
and "Eiiergy-i Dimes and the Crippled Children
continuous sic diets himself be overcharged on
a.m. tolp.ni jit buckles S o kids can go to sum-
ro bey 1210 u &
(Iceanograp! *
Although most businesses usually
sponsor the walkers for between a
quarter and a dollar per mile, last
year the Spotlight Club pledged $20
to the March of Dimes for every
mile a crippled girl in a wheelchair
could go.
She made the entire 20 mile trek,
and the Spotlight Club wrote a
check for $400.
“Some people ask me why, and
all I can tell them is that I want to
get involved,” said Charalam-
botoulos. “Some customers come in
and say I just want free publicity, or
I want to get something out of it.
“But we don’t get anything out of
it. That thing last year with the girl
in the wheelchair was on TV, but
that’s the first time we got any pub
licity.”
Charalambotoulos, known to his
friends as “George the Greek,” says
at times his customers are surprised
to find him involved in charities,
and at times charities are surprised
to find involved in topless bars.
“As long as you help somebody,
what difference does it make,” he
said. “We give in good faith. Our
money is as good as anyone’s.”
Still, Charalambotoulos says at
times he feels that neither he nor
his business is quite accepted by
some organizations — no matter
how good the cause.
“Oh, they’re always glad to have
the money,” he said, with both frus
tration and humor in his voice. “But
sometimes they’re not in such a
hurry that they want to come by
here and pick up the check.”
UNIVERSITY SQUARE SHOPPING CENTER
/TLOVE. ^
ACTION.
COMEDY,
SUSPENSE/
EXCITEMENT.
JUCKELQDEof \
THERE’S ONLY ONE
THING WRONG WITH
THE DAVIS BABY.
DAILY
7 :30
9 :30_
LAST ,
3 9 AYS},
IliTllTlIIITIIIHIXi:
il ut\y jlo dad i • • •
fsaife i
His name also may be found on
; police record, where either he
his manager, Vince Vinson, are
oked after periodic vice raids.
T give to the Police Association,
d they still bust me,” he said,
nd I still give to them.”
MANOR EAST S THEATRES
MANOR EAST MALL
7:45
7:15-9:20
Giving (between $4,000 and
,000 annually) is a habit the 29-
ar-old got into a long time ago,
n not necessarily before he got in-
Ived in vice.
ased
iiate
imical
ilicants
-ience
ports,
bilities
osals
ng
l
elitist
ie
erienc 6 '
fy>
/P.0.
;NTS
i Charalambotoulos says in one
rm or another he’s been in the
rip club business since he was 15,
ree years after his family migrated
fom Greece to the United States,
his adult life he has opened
erns and restaurants, owned and
anaged and sold topless bars, and
w has settled — at least for a
|hile — on the Body Shop and the
otlight Club.
His charitable efforts began with
riving a bus for crippled children,
i the years since he has been a vol-
iteer worker with cancer patients
id has even gotten some of the
rls in his clubs to put in time.
“About three years ago the March
Dimes had a thing where busi-
esses would put up some money
|br every mile some kids could
alk,” he said. “So we sponsored
>me of the girls here. They went
ut and walked 20 miles that day,
len came to work that night with
listers on their feet.”
Htoirse
—T/vTTFTtaBM*
The mapy adventures of
Winnie
thePboh
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M
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ories of Aggieland forever in a
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College Station
693-0982