HEMPFEST WAFTS DISTINCT ODOR OF DRUG-POLICY CHANGE

Petitions and politics were almost as prominent as silk marijuana leis
at the 10th annual Hempfest at Myrtle Edwards Park yesterday.

Seattle's Hempfest, a celebration of hemp and a marijuana-legalization
rally, has become the largest event to promote drug-policy changes in
the nation, according to organizers. They expected more than 100,000
people over the weekend festival. Last year's attendance was about
90,000.

With the increased crowds came increased calls to relax the rules on
pot. Among the most prominent was Initiative 73, which would make
arresting and prosecuting adults possessing less than 40 grams of
marijuana the Seattle Police Department's and the City Attorney's
Office's lowest enforcement priority.

"The vast majority of marijuana smokers are adults who do so
responsibly, without harm to others," said Dominic Holden, director of
both I-73 and Hempfest.

"It is not our goal to advocate that anyone use marijuana, but to
eliminate treating normal Americans like criminals."

The initiative needs 19,000 signatures to make it onto next year's
ballot.

If it passes, Seattle would be the country's largest city with such a
policy, said Keith Stroub, executive director of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), based in
Washington, D.C.

State voters passed Initiative 692 in 1998, which allowed the medical
use of marijuana for certain illnesses and disorders.

Now, with initiatives such as I-73, Stroub said, NORML hopes to "move
the debate beyond medicinal to: Should we arrest Americans who use
marijuana responsibly?"

Other political causes airing at Hempfest included making it harder
for the state to seize property in drug crimes and building more
shelters for the homeless.

But politics was just part of the event, which celebrated hemp in its
many manifestations: from an ingredient in cereal and cat food, to a
fiber in T-shirts and hats.

There was even a Hemp car, an automobile fueled by hemp bio-diesel,
currently on a national tour to promote the use of industrial hemp.

"I believe in the industrial use of hemp," said Hempfest attendee Asya
Milazzo, 33, of Seattle. "I believe in deep ecology and treading
lightly on the Earth, wearing hemp."