HEMP GETS ITS DAY IN THE SUMMER FUN

Smoke and political fire in the park

Hempfest '98, the annual marijuana political festival, filled a Seattle
waterfront park with the plant's advocates yesterday.

But it will be an initiative on the November ballot that will tell how much
power lies behind the show.

An estimated 35,000 people, according to the Seattle Police Department,
came to Myrtle Edwards Park to display their affection for the weed and
their support for the initiative that would legalize the drug for medical use.

They danced to music, perused clothing made from hemp, a plant used for
textile and other industrial purposes, and listened to speeches condemning
the national war on drugs and laws that make marijuana illegal.

"I'm one of many people that support the medical use of marijuana," said
Eva Harrow, a Tacoma woman who strolled with her husband and 2-year-old
daughter near the edge of Elliott Bay. "It's a matter of right."

Initiative 692, which, if passed, would leave the use of medical marijuana
up to patients and their doctors will e on the November ballot. Washington
voters last year strongly rejected a similar measure that permitted medical
use of marijuana by prescription but contained other controversial
provisions, including the release of some prisoners serving time for drug
violations and prescribed medical use of LSD and heroin.

Medical-use initiatives have been approved in California and Arizona, and
another one will also be on the ballot this year in Oregon.

Yesterday's festival, like others before it, used merchandising - as well
as rhetoric - to promote the legal use of marijuana. T-shirts sold at the
festival organizers' booth displayed likenesses of George Washington and
claimed he was an early American hemp grower. And at the end of a line of
food booths, California soft-drink maker Willie Phalinger hawked a soda he
said was made with hemp-seed oil in ginger and black cherry flavors.

At the gathering yesterday, an occasional whiff of pot could be detected
walking through the long, narrow park. As of late afternoon, 20 people had
been cited and removed from the park for possessing small amounts of
marijuana. There were two felony arrests for drug dealing, said Lt. Dick
Schweitzer, the head of the more than 90-member Seattle Police detail at
the festival.

That is about a third of the number arrested or cited a year ago at
Hempfest '97, Schweitzer said.

"It was a real good crowd this year, very mellow," Schweitzer said.

Some of the festival goers gathered around a booth where staffers shouted
out: "Marijuana lollipops!" The $1-pops sold by a Portland enterprise
called Cannabis Candy Co. were green and sweet and contained hemp oils that
transmitted the taste of the plant on the tongue.

"They're good," said Wade Davis of Port Orchard, sucking on one of the
candies while he hung out with friends. "I'm going to get some more."

Jason Davis, Cannabis Candy's president, said he'll soon begin searching
for local retailers to carry his product. The candy, he said, can be
legally sold because it contains only a small trace of THC, the active
chemical in marijuana.

The weather was mostly overcast yesterday, bringing out a smaller crowd
than a year ago. But attendees were no less enthusiastic in their marijuana
advocacy, although many said they were not sure they have the political
clout to pass this year's Washington state initiative.

"There are too many people that are against it," said Michelle Smit of
Seattle. "They're still worried about their kids smoking pot."

Her husband Jason, said he thinks such a measure will eventually pass.
"It'll take a while, but it will happen," he said.

Larry Lange can be reached at 206-448-8313 or
larrylange@seattle-pi.com

Checked-by: Pat Dolan