[420 Girl]

A former Athens-Clarke commissioner is representing a pro-marijuana student group in its fight against the University of Georgia.

Civil rights lawyer Elton Dodson is defending the UGA chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a group that advocates legalizing marijuana, against sanctions stemming from the group using the image of mascot Hairy Dog in promotional materials.

Dodson said he does not necessarily subscribe to NORML's beliefs, but he admires members' willingness to speak up.

"Whether you agree with them or not is irrelevant," he said. "They are students who are U.S. citizens who enjoy the protections of the U.S. Constitution."

The group may be put on probation or, less likely, suspended or disbanded at a Tuesday student judicial hearing, chapter President Wojciech Kaczkowski said. The members themselves will not be punished.

The stakes are low, but Dodson said he is worried that UGA is trying to silence NORML because of the students' political views.

"I'm very, very concerned about the First Amendment free speech issues involved with this," he said.

Dodson, a 34-year old UGA graduate, served on the Athens-Clarke Commission from 2005 through 2008. He got his start in politics as a campus activist in the 1990s, leading groups like Students for Environmental Awareness.

UGA students formed the NORML chapter last March, and it has about 100 members, 30 of them active, said Kaczkowski, who joined up, he said, because the group sounded interesting.

"It's a great organization that has the same political beliefs I do," he said.

The group's troubles with the university started last fall, when members sold T-shirts to raise money. The shirts featured a drawing of Hairy Dog smoking marijuana near the UGA Arch. Administrators saw the image on the chapter's Web site and asked members to take it down and turn over the shirts, but later reversed course and said it was OK to use the drawing, Kaczkowski said. NORML took the drawing off the Web, but continued selling the shirts, he said.

"We believed that if we draw our own image, we don't have to get permission," he said.

But in February, administrators changed their minds again and told members they could not use the drawing, he said.

UGA officials said the image was a trademark violation, according to the Red & Black student newspaper. Rodney Bennett, vice president for student affairs, did not return a call seeking comment.

Dodson, though, said the drawing isn't protected by a trademark, in part because it's so bad.

"Quite frankly, I know they're my clients, but the drawing is amateurish at best," he said. "It doesn't look anything like Hairy Dog."

After the hearing, if the NORML chapter isn't disbanded, members will go back to collecting signatures on a petition calling for state and local officials to reduce the penalty for possessing a small amount of marijuana, Kaczkowski said. More than 2,000 local residents have already signed the petition, he said.


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