Meanwhile, Down in Texas

AUSTIN -- It's been decades since Willie Nelson smoked that first joint in Fort Worth, but -- Ain't it funny how time slips away? -- he's still singing the praises of pot.

On Friday, the country music legend headlines Austin Freedom Fest, a benefit concert for four pro-marijuana groups, including the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Nelson co-chairs NORML's advisory board.

"Marijuana is like sex," the Hill Country crooner wrote in his 1988 biography, Willie. "If I don't do it every day I get a headache."

Nelson first smoked marijuana in 1954 in Fort Worth, where he spent his formative years in and out of the rough-and-tumble honky-tonks off Jacksboro Highway. More than 20 years later, Nelson admits, he smoked grass on the White House roof when Jimmy Carter was president.

"Marijuana should be recognized for what it is, as a medicine, an herb that grows in the ground," Nelson wrote. "If you need it, use it. People who smoke it and get real paranoid don't need it."

The concert at the Backyard in Austin will bring together a variety of musicians and activists, all united by the goal of easing restrictions on marijuana. Nelson will be joined on stage by the Texas swing band Asleep at the Wheel. Also performing at the concert are Paula Nelson, Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling and Carolyn Wonderland.

Mark Stepnoski, a pro-legalization activist and former Cowboys player, is helping to organize the event. General admission tickets were going for $52 and reserved seats could be had for $62 as of Thursday. VIP tickets are sold out.

Proceeds from the event will be split evenly among NORML, the Marijuana Policy Project, the Wo/Man's Alliance for Medical Marijuana and Green Aid, a legal defense fund, organizers said.

Nelson did not respond to a request to discuss the concert, but Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, said the funds will be used for legalization efforts around the country. At least a dozen states allow people to use marijuana to relieve pain or treat other ailments, and Kampia said his group is helping to push ballot initiatives making medical marijuana legal in several other states.

"The goal is to end marijuana prohibition in the U.S.," Kampia said.

The redheaded singer is no stranger to marijuana laws. Nelson was charged with possessing a small amount of pot in 1994 after he was found asleep in his car near Waco with part of a hand-rolled cigarette in the ashtray. The charges were dropped after a judge ruled that evidence had been illegally seized. Nelson and his tour manager were fined and placed on probation this year after they pleaded guilty to misdemeanor marijuana possession in Louisiana -- stemming from a tour bus inspection last year on Interstate 10.

Federal authorities continue to try to stop the drug's distribution. In recent days they raided what were described as the largest marijuana plantations in North Texas history.

Given that vices like tobacco and alcohol are legal, Nelson has said he doesn't understand all the fuss over adults' use of a natural weed.

"I would be in favor of legalizing marijuana entirely, but I don't like to think of a government having the power to legalize something like an herb," he wrote in his autobiography. "An herb belongs to us people to use as we need, and it is no government's business."

Online: www.austinfreedomfest.com.
Jay Root reports from the Star-Telegram's Austin bureau, 512-476-4294