A few clips from Eric Sterling’s interminable rant against hemp rallies…

About sixteen or seventeen years ago, I was a featured speaker at some hemp rallies. I even had my name silk-screened on a rally T-shirt.

Of course, these rallies are not a debate, at all. Even as a “political” rally or protest, the hemp rally is a hodge-podge of bands, speakers, and clouds of smoke. I am deeply troubled that for much of the public the most common face of the politics of drug policy reform is teenager smoking a pipe at a pot rally. Does it need to be said that this is profoundly counter-productive? Well-meaning and passionate, but immature strategies and tactics keep holding back our movement.

350,000 people gather in a park, smoke marijuana, and nothing bad happens. How in the world is that not by some measure a political success?

We are told that marijuana smoking will make you lazy, yet the pot smokers who put on Hempfest organize a world-class NASCAR-sized event with no major incidents.

We are told that marijuana smoking leads to anti-social behavior, yet even when standing shoulder-to-shoulder in an 8,000 person traffic jam (as happened on Saturday), everyone is calm, polite, and respectful.

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More videos from Pot Princess Amber at her Veoh channel.

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You call that a joint? Now THIS is a joint!

My friend L.K. dropped by with over 1200 Hempfest photos to drop off onto my computer’s hard drive. I’ve picked out about fifty of them and added them to my public gallery. I don’t know everybody in every picture, so if you do, leave some names in the comments section so I can properly credit these folks.

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Amber is one of many Cannababes at http://cannababes.net and will join us on a future edition of NORML SHOW LIVE.

P.S. No, I’m not embarrassed.  I’m sunburned!

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(The Stranger’s SLOG) I got kicked out of Hempfest’s backstage yesterday, apparently for suggesting in The Stranger that the event should lose the tie-dyes on the stages and go for a broader appeal. …After listening to a few speakers and consuming one gigantic veggie burrito with pickled jalapeños, I went behind the main stage. I was talking to a friend when a member of the Hempfest board, John Davis, whom I’ve known for about 15 years, approached me and said, “You can’t be back here. You have to go.” …Davis snatched the pass out of my hand, and as the security guy escorted me out, he said that it’s because I’m a “member of the media.”

Uh, I’ve been a member of the media in past years, and I’ve always been allowed backstage. And before I was a reporter—back when I was the spokesman for Hempfest—several times we’d have reporters walk freely backstage. So what gives? Hempfest director Vivian McPeak reportedly told a staffer, who went to ask what the fuck was going on, that I had “proverbially stabbed [him] in the back.” But, Vivian, I thought you were omnipotent. About 10 minutes earlier, he was on the main stage mic referring to himself as “the great Vivian McPeak.”

The issue, clearly, is that Hempfest organizers are outraged that anyone would dare critique their event. They cannot separate themselves from their culture from their politics. So any commentary of their political strategy (simply saying they should take down the cheesy tie-dyes) is apparently a personal backstabbing. That’s a tragically self-centered perspective for any organization, political cause, or leader—especially one that is “great.”

Dominic, you must have been ousted shortly after I had a chance to say hi to you and your brother backstage. I had my media people nearly kicked out of backstage at Main Stage as well, as Hempfest had a “backstage escort” requirement this year. Any folks with media passes without an accompanying speaker or musical performer were kicked out, I was told. Too many people trying to relax backstage didn’t want any photos or stories about what they were doing, I guess.

I appreciated the back-and-forth we had on this topic over at the Stash. I’m still of the opinion that 200,000 people gathered peacefully in a park for a weekend openly smoking marijuana while an all-volunteer crew wrangles hundreds of vendors and six stages is enough of a political statement as it is.

I also understand the “that ain’t me” reaction from many pot smokers. It’s the same reaction my wife gives when she sees bud-covered naked women in High Times Magazine. To that I say, great, please, form a new magazine or present a new Hempfest for all the cannabis-closeted squares to come enjoy. If there are so many who are so uncomfortable with hippie tie-dye patchouli-stained ghettoes, there surely should be a huge audience for the new Short-Haired Respectable Polos & Dockers Hempfest with special guest Kenny G, and there must be plenty of ad revenue available for the new Cannabis Connoisseur Magazine.

Read the rest of this entry by clicking here

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Hemp Headlines

1. Chronic marijuana smokers’ lungs no worse than non-smokers’ lungs
2. Marijuana use may help prevent osteoporosis in older people
3. Using drug-sniffing dogs on London Underground is wrong and ineffective
4. Brad Pitt: I’m no longer a pothead because “I’m a dad now”

California Marijuana Report with Eric Brenner

• Donna Lambert facing 7 marijuana felony charges–another Operation Green RX victim
• Music by Neil Young

Daily Toker Tunes by Marijuana Music Awards . com

• Variety Tuesday – “Go Green” by The Wiley One

“Radical” Russ’ Saturday at Hempfest

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At Hempfest Main Stage this year a band called “The Wiley One” played 4:20 on Saturday.  I was approached by Jason, the bass player from the band, who wanted to compliment me on my bass playing earlier in the day Sunday.  We chatted a bit and he agreed to let us play one of their tunes for the podcast.

The Wiley One are a funky band out of Phoenix, Arizona.  Their music has been featured on the X Games and The Wiley One works to be a carbon-neutral band as best they can.  “We also have a plan in place to offset our C02 emissions,” says Sam Wiley, “by using clean-burning domestically made biodiesel fuel to power any tour buses or trucks while on tour.” Well, we can suggest a perfect source for that biodiesel fuel, can’t we?

Enjoy this environmentally conscious song from The Wiley One, it’s called “Go Green’.

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Egads! Did I say AARP? That wasn’t in the script. There are 40,000,000 people in the AARP! I apologize for the error. Here’s the rest of the info:

“…people above the age of 18, 95.9 million of them have tried marijuana… age group 18 to 50, it’s more than 50% of them…” from “Who Are You” post. I just crunched the numbers using the SAMHDA tables and got 95,916,972. Aha, that’s how I’ll use it: “more people have smoked pot than are in the AARP (40,000,000) and Republican Party (55,000,000) combined!”

“…25 million Americans will smoke marijuana once per year…” Well, it’s actually 22 million.  Perhaps we can give some latitude for margin of error, based on the theory that we’re talking about adults who’ll admit to a stranger on the phone that they smoked pot last year.

“…that’s more tokers than Texans…” 2008 Census Population Estimate for Texas: 24,326,974

“…that’s more tokers than adult African Americans…” 2000 Census breakdown by race: 23,772,494 African Americans*

“…that’s more tokers than diabetics…” 21 million Americans according to the American Diabetes Association.

“…14 million Americans, adults above 18, will smoke marijuana this month…” Rates of marijuana use have dropped so that only 12,693,122 are monthly smokers, according to SAMHDA.

“…more marijuana smokers once a month than factory workers…” 14,197,300 manufacturing jobs in 2006.

“…Asian Americans…” 13,366,154 Asian Americans* in Census 2007 estimate.

“…or people that watch 60 Minutes…” 9.5 million viewers last week… we’re even close to America’s Got Talent.

“…more people will smoke pot this month than the combined memberships of the NRA, the ACLU, NARAL  Pro-Choice America, the National Organization for Women, AARP, and the John Birch Society.” OK, now I’ve found my little notecard that I failed to bring with me to Seattle, sitting here in my office.  It wasn’t supposed to be the AARP (40,000,000!), but the NAACP.  Hey, two A’s and a P in common and it was approaching 4:20 on the Main Stage of Day Two of Seattle Hempfest.  I think I did quite well.  Alas, I forgot Greenpeace, PETA, and the Elks Club

• NRA = 4.3 million members
• ACLU = 500,000 members
• NARAL = 1 million members (though current pages won’t give numbers)
• NOW = 500,000 members
• NAACP = 185,000 – 500,000 members
• Greenpeace = 2.9 million members
• PETA = 2 million members
• Elks = 1,000,000 members
• JBS = 55,000 members
• TOTAL = 12.755 million vs. 12.693 million monthly smokers, and that’s giving high estimates to the NAACP and JBS.

“…3.6 million adults will smoke marijuana at least once per day…” Tough number to come by.  8.1 million used marijuana more than 100 days in the past year, and a 2004 NSDUH said there were 3.1 million daily users aged 12 and older.  I don’t think 3.6 million is far off.  In the future, I’ll call these people “at least once per week” marijuana smokers.

“…more daily smokers than Red Sox fans…” 3,048,250 based on 2008 attendance figures.

“…more daily smokers than new cancer cases…” 1,437,180 according to the American Cancer Society.

“…more daily smokers that the US membership of the Mormon church…” Another tough number. Adherents.org cites 2,697,000 Adult Mormons in 2001, but also cites a 2004 membership of 5,599,177, which I’m guessing counts children and teenagers and I don’t think is fair, partially because I’m referencing adult marijuana smokers and partially because I think only adults should count for church memberships because kids often don’t get to choose.

*These Census figures only count people who answered by choosing one race and doesn’t count many multi-racial people.

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