LINN GIVES CONDE'S HEMP FEST THUMBS UP

Marijuana activist Bill Conde announced Wednesday that he'd turned over a
new leaf - and no, it wasn't that kind of leaf.

Conde has been at odds with Linn County officials in recent years over
drug-related activities during the concerts and festivals he stages at his
redwood lumberyard north of Coburg. Various criminal charges against him,
related to drug use on his property during gatherings in 1998 and 1999,
remain unresolved.

But Conde struck an apparent truce Wednesday when Linn County commissioners
unanimously approved a mass gathering permit for the World Hemp Festival
2000, to be held on Conde's property July 14-16. Conde has not sought such
a permit in the past, but this year he submitted an 82-page application
that won praise from county officials.

"We're not going to see any charges coming down on me for this event,"
Conde said. "I'm protecting myself in every way possible."

The most notable element in his mass gathering proposal is a pledge to hire
a private security firm to help address the issue of illegal drug use.
County sheriff's officers have reported rampant drug use and open drug
sales during previous events - charges Conde has denied.

"I've never condoned anyone selling drugs on my property, but I will not
deny it has happened," he said Wednesday. "But you go to any football game
or any other activity where there are that many people and if that's what
you're focusing on, you can find it."

This year, security staff will patrol the grounds watching for drug
trafficking or open drug use, and will escort violators off the grounds,
Conde said.

"We're not going to strip search people, but we will look in people's
backpacks and we will look in their coolers," he said. "We don't want any
quantities of drugs or alcohol in here.

"This time, it will be all professional security, and they'll have their
orders. We're just asking people to please cooperate, for this one weekend."

The plans for this year's event were put together primarily by Conde's
friend Jonathan Drake and also address fire safety, sanitation, drinking
water and other issues.

"They did a really good job, a real thorough job," Assistant Linn County
Counsel Gene Karandy said Wednesday. "It went really smoothly (at the
commissioners' meeting), and there were compliments from the board, all
around."

Karandy said he has been involved in only parts of Conde's mass gathering
application process but his impression is that even Sheriff Dave Burright -
the biggest critic of past events on Conde's land - had signed off on the plan.

Burright and other representatives of his office were unavailable for
comment Wednesday.

"From what I've learned from them, it sounds like Mr. Conde and Mr. Drake
have cooperated with them, and there has been mutual cooperation on both
sides," Karandy said.

Conde is selling his redwood inventory and has put his lumber yard on the
market, hoping to move with his wife and two children to the Central
American country of Belize, where he has a home. He said the
well-publicized legal hassles over previous gatherings on his property have
reduced his business by as much as 40 percent.

However, he said he won't leave the United States until legal problems
stemming from previous festivals on his property can be resolved. The most
serious matters are a pair of felony charges of aiding and abetting drug
transactions.