Rally to Legalize Pot Draws 40,000

Tie-dyed shirts, mushroom-shaped hats and marijuana-leaf motifs were everywhere--as was the unmistakable odor of pot--as a crowd of about 40,000 poured into Boston Common to support legalization of the drug. Police, who had vowed a crackdown on the 9th Annual Freedom Rally, arrested 62 on drug possession charges, fewer than the 150 arrests at last year’s event, which attracted about 10,000 more people. “The cops were trying to intimidate people from coming . . . but I don’t think it worked,” said Bill Downing, president of the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition.