HEMPFEST SUES, SAYS CITY DRAGGING ITS FEET

The pot proponents are getting antsy.

The folks behind Seattle's Hempfest, a huge summer festival promoting
marijuana legalization, filed a lawsuit against the city and the
Seattle Art Museum on Monday.

The suit in King County Superior Court accuses park bureaucrats and
the museum of taking too long to grant a permit for the event at
Myrtle Edwards Park, adjacent to the museum's incoming sculpture park.

All sides agree the 15th annual event will go on as planned Aug.
19-20. But the museum and the city each said it's up to the other to
take the next step.

Meanwhile, Hempfest officials say they need to nail down the details.
For example, they have yet to make final how they'll bring in stages,
portable toilets and other gear for crowds of 100,000 to 200,000
around the museum's construction zone on Elliott Avenue, Hempfest
says. Nor do they know whether fire vehicles will have access to
provide any needed first aid.

Hempfest applied for its permit Jan. 3, group organizers said. City
laws say such requests should be processed within 60 days, they say.
And still, they wait. They filed the suit to shake loose from
officials the permit and logistical guidelines.

"The principal values of the Constitution's Bill of Rights needed to
be preserved over the stubborn will of developers and the lethargic
response of government bureaucrats," said Dominic Holden, who is on
the board of directors of NORML and the city's marijuana policy reform
panel.

Normally the permit would be issued by now, said Dewey Potter,
spokeswoman for Seattle Parks and Recreation.

But the construction work adds a "new wrinkle" that has complicated
the matter considerably. "It's just taking us longer to work out the
issues," she said. "We're going to make this happen,"

For example, Potter said, there's the question of whether the museum
will have to stop construction work that weekend. "That's an issue for
them. They have a firm opening date, and they want to meet it," Potter
said.

At this point, Parks and Recreation can't issue the permit until it
gets a letter from the museum addressing logistical questions raised
by a Hempfest attorney July 21, Potter said.

But museum officials point to the city for the delay. They say
Hempfest organizers already have a transportation plan in hand.

"It's not in our court," said Chris Rogers, project manager. "We've
done everything that has been requested."

In fact, SAM says it has actually tried to speed up the process
because it didn't believe it was moving fast enough, Rogers said.

"We've been meeting with Hempfest and representatives of the city for
the past nine months to work on their event and to provide access in a
manner consistent with access they've had in the past," Rogers said.

"Constructions projects are messy," Rogers added, noting that in the
end, the city stands to gain substantially from the park.