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1. Seattle Stranger writer kicked out of Hempfest backstage

Cannabis Science with Dr. Mitch Earleywine

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NORML Newsmakers

• My appearance at the Laughs Comedy Stage at Seattle Hempfest

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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.

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4. The Stranger: A Few Words About Hempfest

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Cannabis Conversations

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Dominic Holden, a writer for the Seattle Stranger and former director at Hempfest, opines on the event in this week’s edition:

Hempfest, which pioneered the movement in these parts, is regressive and archaic. Tie-dyes hang from the stages, and reggae-rock fusion blares from the amplifiers. There’s nothing advantageous about sticking a pressing political issue in a countercultural time warp, and there’s nothing attractive about a rally that looks more interested in satisfying its own indulgences than effectively advocating for political reform. As it is now, Hempfest drives away unknown numbers of would-be supporters—politically engaged city folk. Here’s what Hempfest can do to avoid squandering its potential.

Lose the cultural baggage: Hippies are the stigma of the pot movement. There’s nothing wrong with hippies, mind you, and Hempfest itself is wonderful. (I was a director and permit holder for many years, fighting from the inside for Hempfest to ditch the hippie accessories.) But countercultural celebrations and drug-legalization advocacy are mutually undermining ambitions. In truth, the crowd at Hempfest is mostly mainstream folks, freakishly hot guys without shirts, and perky little emo kids. But clichéd hippie artifacts and music—chosen by the organizers—make people who don’t identify with a tiny cultural niche want to run screaming.

Hempfest doesn’t need to lose the “hippie vibe” any more than gay pride parades need to lose the drag queens, any more than “God & Country” festivals need to lose the Confederate flags, any more than block parties need to lose the baggy-pantsed teenagers, any more than DC cocktail parties need to lose the Brooks Brothers stick-up-the-ass WASPs.

Hempfest is what it is. 150,000 or so marijuana aficionados peacefully gathering to smoke pot, listen to music and speakers, maybe buy a piece of glass or a t-shirt. The magnitude of the event is enough of a political statement.

As we face global warming, corporate rule, rising obesity, pharmaceutical stupor, and digital overload, I look back and realize the hippies were right about sustainability, local control, organic diet, herbal medicine, and music and art. Those ethics are worth celebrating.

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Today’s Stash features an interview with our Daily Toker Tunes artist, Potluck!

We’ve also got Steve Bloom from Celebstoner with the latest on the hockey team that’s having “Don’t Be Like Mike” night and another NFL stoner.

Dominic Holden from The Stranger is here to discuss the Kerlikowske appointment as Drug Czar.

And my parents are driving in from Boise!  They’ve come to see my brother, former Stash music director “Less Than Radical” Josh, starring in a play here in Stumptown.  It will be good to see the whole famn damily.  Tonight’s Paul Stanford’s TV show, tomorrow is a cardholder meeting, a play, and Valentine’s Day, Sunday is the Oregon NORML TV show, and then Monday I’m back here.  Whee!

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Pot arrests have plummeted under Kerlikowske’s watch. When he took office in 2000, Seattle police arrested 332 people for misdemeanor marijuana possession (.pdf); by 2006, the number had dropped to 148. Some of that decline is likely due to Seattle passing Initiative 75, which made marijuana enforcement the city’s lowest law-enforcement priority. But Kerlikowske didn’t try to block I-75. While City Attorney Tom Carr joined Bush’s Drug Czar John Walters at a press conference to oppose the measure—and Carr campaigned against the measure for months—Kerlikoske was mum. And after voters passed the law in 2003, SPD told a City Council Marijuana Policy Review Panel that “officers [had] been verbally advised during their roll calls that investigation and arrest of adults for possession of cannabis intended for personal use is to be their lowest priority.” At Hempfest—where tens of thousands of people smoke pot in unison—SPD sergeant Lou Eagle told a reporter, “We are not out there to enforce the marijuana laws.” And medical-marijuana patients, who could still be arrested despite the state’s medical-pot law, found Kerlikowske fair. Had Kerlikowske chosen, SPD could have maintained or increased pot arrests. But he didn’t.

via The Stranger | Slog | Czar Struck: Obama’s Brilliant Pick for Drug Czar.

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Three representatives introduced a bill in the state house this morning that would reduce the penalty for marijuana possession to a mere $100 fine. [Update: Nine additional co-sponsors have signed on.] Under current law, possessing as little as one joint is punishable by up to 90 days in jail. In Washington last year, 11,553 people were arrested on marijuana possession charges.

But can it pass?

This year seems an especially unlikely time for legislators to embrace liberal civil-liberty-lovin’ bills, considering the priority of bridging Washington’s $6 billion budget gap. But the financial crunch may prove a paradoxical windfall. Sponsors and advocates behind the bill intend to capitalize on the bill’s savings.

Representative Brendan Williams (D-22, Olympia), one of the bills co-sponsors, says he plans to “frame it in terms of the tradeoff in the budget discussion … and set a square alternative. He says conservative legislators could be attracted to the cost-saving argument for decriminalization more than ever. “Do you choose to provide health care for x number of children or fund criminalizing marijuana possession?” he asks. For example, Williams cites a cost analysis of pot busts taken from Washington State Institute for Public Policy data that shows, based on the number of arrests in 2007, Washington would save $7.5 million by passing the law.

via The Stranger | Slog | State Bill to Decriminalize Marijuana Would Save Millions.

Every activist needs to keep framing the marijuana issue as one of mistaken priorities.  Don’t try to convince them pot smoking is good or that pot smokers don’t harm anyone, etc., even though it is true.  Let them hold on to the notion that pot is bad, but force them to evaluate “how bad?”  Is arresting potheads more important than educating kids?  Than providing senior health care?  Than fixing roads?  If the average non-pot-smoking public ever begins to feel that every pot arrest is money flushed down the toilet, we win.

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Sorry to be so late, Stashers, but I got caught up doing a lot of research and blogging under my political hat.  See, there was this speech last night that was #2 all-time in ratings for a political convention (somebody else last week scored #1) and I had to address that over at the Blend and the Writ.

It’s 420 Comedy day, and Tere Joyce joins us again.  This time she brings us a twenty-year stand-up vet, Bill Browning of ComedyNation.com, and we have a couple laughs talking about the current political race and, of course, weed!

I’ve also got the first portion of my Marijuana and the Media panel from the Hemposium at the Seattle Hempfest.  Joining me in the discussion are Dominic Holden, a writer for The Stranger and an activist with NORML; David Nott from Reason Magazine; Mason Tvert from SAFER Choice; and our own Steve Bloom from CelebStoner.com (it was my first time meeting Steve face-to-face).

Plus we’ve got some music from Portland’s late lamented Elliott Smith.  Yeah, it’s getting all Portlandy up in this place… because the Portland Hempstalk is just two days away!

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