5/27/97 FERRYVILLE, Wis. (AP) - The eighth annual Weedstock Festival wrapped up over the weekend with police saying the pro-marijuana event was less trouble than expected this year. There were 60 arrests.
``It think it went very smoothly,'' Sheriff William Fillbach said. ``If they took over the town or something, you could have had a mess.''Organizers said about 3,500 people attended.
Police made 42 drug arrests and 18 non-drug arrests. They also issued 76 traffic citations and 341 traffic warnings. Last year, 130 people were arrested.
Speakers addressed the crowd on decriminalizing marijuana and regional bands played on despite scattered rain that turned 80 acres of farm fields into muddy bogs.
Over the weekend, a 20-year-old man was hospitalized after he was beaten. He told authorities he had been using marijuana and amphetamines since Friday and did not know or remember his assailants.
A 17-year-old boy was hospitalized after police saw him trying to cross a highway. Officers said he told them he had sprayed himself with liquid LSD. They said he was disoriented and combative when officers stopped him.
Police said they seized more than 1,100 pipes and other smoking paraphernalia from a van stopped Friday near the festival. Dean Brown, who owns a retail store called Something Different in Kenosha, said the items were worth $25,000 and were ``100 percent legal to sell.''