HEMP FESTIVAL COURTING TEHAMA COUNTY

As Red Bluff gears up for its money maker, the Red Bluff Round-Up
Rodeo, local medical marijuana advocates hope to create another.

Plugging the boat hole Medical marijuana user and patient advocate
Donna Will is planning the three-day World Hemp Expo Extravaganja
2010 for Memorial Day weekend on Riverside Avenue, just south of Red
Bluff at Red Bank Creek.

Will said she hopes the event will both ease local tensions over in
medical marijuana use and bring in tourist dollars lost from the
cancellation of the Red Bluff Nitro Nationals Boat Drag Race.

Last year, when I came home in the middle of June, there was an
article in the paper and it said Red Bluff lost over $500,000 this
weekend, Will said.

It was devastating to our community to lose that much money over
Nitro Nationals, and this is my way of giving back to the community.

The races depended on Lake Red Bluff, created when the gates at the
Red Bluff Diversion Dam are lowered during irrigation season.

The window for Lake Red Bluff decreased several times since a
federal judge determined the dam affects migrating fish.

The last race was held in 2008.

Will has repeatedly explained her idea for the hemp festival to the
Tehama County Board of Supervisors, in some cases at the same
meetings at which supervisors voted to impose restrictions on
medical marijuana growth or to ban storefront-style collectives.

Supervisors, faced with lower property tax revenue and funds
borrowed by the state, have announced the need for tourism dollars,
but have not publicly encouraged Will. Instead, they have focused
on the designation of 17,600 acres overseen by the Bureau of Land
Management as National Recreation Area, an idea that has proven even
more controversial than medical marijuana ordinances.

Will sees real potential for bringing in tourist revenues to the
county. One of the biggest hemp events, the Seattle Hempfest,
attracts as many as 150,000 to 200,000 people a day, she said.

Other first-time events, like the THC Expo 2009 in Los Angeles,
attracted around 35,000 people a day, she said.

Will's own event has attracted the attention of the magazine High
Times, which lent the WHEE title. But she expects attendance to be
manageable for Red Bluff, because notice has been short about the event.

Just in case, Will said she has added a gravel lot to accommodate
hundreds of cars and is inviting people to camp over the course of
the three-day event.

Will said she is withholding the names of certain musicians because
announcing them would attract too large a crowd.

Announced attendees include the Normal Bean Band of Eugene, Ore.,
and the Jim Miller Band. Manufacturers of smoking products are
invited, and smoking will be permitted.

We're all adults, Will said. I don't go down to the bar and ask
people what they're doing, and I don't go down to the fairgrounds
and harass people who are drinking.

Alcohol will be prohibited on site during the event, she said.

High Times Creative Director Steve Hager, who began the World Hemp
Extra Extravaganja, said he tried the event in the late 90s. After
several years, it was clear it was not catching on.

There was just so much antagonism toward us, he said. I don't know why.

Hager said the event would emphasize the spiritual aspect of
cannabis, and would be peaceful.

We're not trying to disrupt anybody or cause any problems, he said.
We just want to show people that we're responsible, and that this is
a legitimate culture.

Key to the event is a prayer to end the war on drugs, Hager said.

The war on drugs has been responsible for separating families and
paring drug offenders with violent psychopaths for 10 to 15 years at
a time, Will said.

This didn't have to happen, he said. We didn't have to destroy
people's lives just because they want to use this plant.

County catch Before anyone pitches a tent on Will's property, there
is a catch.

County heads and hands have been working for weeks on revising
Chapter 13.12 of the county code, a policy last updated in 1970
regulating festivals.

This is an urgency ordinance they're going to be bringing forward,
Planner II Bob Halpin said.

Because our current ordinance that regulates festivals, may not be
totally constitutional.

Supervisor Ron Warner said the ordinance was drafted in response to
Woodstock, and has not been updated since.

Similar ordinances have since been declared unconstitutional
elsewhere in the state, but with most festivals held at the Tehama
County Fairgrounds, no one has needed to enforce the ordinance in
decades, he said.

County Counsel Arthur Wylene neither confirmed nor denied the
existing ordinance's constitutionality.

Wylene said the new ordinance is likely to go before the Board of
Supervisors April 27. A copy was not available to the Daily News
Tuesday, but Wylene described the ordinance as content-neutral.

In its current draft, it would kick in when crowds of 500 people or
more are expected, Wylene said.

The goal is to avoid subjectivity, Wylene said. We don't want
anybody to think we're judging events based on what the nature of
the event is.

But the final say on what events would be accepted, including the
expo, would be up to the Planning Department.

Planning Director George Robson could not be reached Tuesday or Wednesday.

One of the ordinance's requirements would be for some measure of
security, Wylene said. An event like Will's could either contract
with private security or with local law enforcement.

Events like the Round- Up choose the latter option and pay for law
enforcement overtime, Parker said.

If the Sheriff's Department was chosen to serve as security for the
event, Parker said deputies would have no problem issuing citations
to visitors using marijuana without a Prop. 215 recommendation. We
would enforce all California laws, he said.

Supervisor Bob Williams has said he authored the county's medical
marijuana restrictions in the hopes of protecting neighboring
citizens from crimes stemming from marijuana theft.

Asked about the event, Williams said he was less concerned about
crime, and more about the traffic impacts the event would create.
But he questioned the choice to set the event in the county.

Personally, I don't think Tehama County is the place for this, he said.

WHAT:

World Hemp Expo Extravaganja

WHEN:

May 28-30

WHERE:

22116 Riverside Ave.

INFORMATION: www.whee2010.com