King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Source: salon.com
Pub Date: Tuesday 15 June 2004
Subj: King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Web:
http://www.salon.com/news/sports/col/kaufman/2004/06/15/tuesday/index_np.html
Fifty-thousand English soccer fans have followed the country's side to
Lisbon, Portugal, for the Euro 2004 tournament, and police braced themselves
for serious trouble as England met France in a first-round game Sunday. But
even as an estimated 15,000 people jammed the Rossio, Lisbon's town square, in
an impromptu pre-match party, and even as France scored twice in injury time
for a stunning 2-1 win, all was peaceful, blissful, friendly, groovy.
The reason? Look no further than the Lisbon police's announced policy
that marijuana smokers would be unmolested, the idea being that while drinkers
get rowdy, pot smokers bliss out. "If people are drinking they lose
control," said Alan Buffry, national coordinator of the Legalise Cannabis
Alliance, a British political party. "If they smoke cannabis they don't.
Alcohol makes fans fight. But cannabis smokers will be shaking hands and
singing along together."