HEMP FEST SPURS LAW UPDATE IN TEHAMA COUNTY

RED BLUFF -- It's not exactly Yasgur's Farm, but a proposed hemp fest
in a hayfield south of town has county officials scurrying to update
a Woodstock-era law.

Responding in part to the planned three-day World Hemp Expo
Extravaganja -- or WHEE 2010 -- Tehama County supervisors Tuesday
will consider adopting an urgency ordinance regulating special
events. Assistant County Counsel Arthur Wylene said this week that
the update of the 1970 festival law already was long overdue when
medical marijuana patient and grower Donna Will submitted her plans
for the Memorial Day weekend, alcohol-free expo on Riverside Avenue.

"The festival certainly affected the timing of the ordinance, but the
underlying reason is really not related to this particular festival,"
Wylene said. "It caused us to realize that modernizing our ordinance
was a priority."

The original WHEE festival was put on by Steve Hager, creative
director for High Times magazine. Will has known him through her work
at the magazine's Cannabis Cup, held annually the past 22 years in Amsterdam.

She's hosting her event "just to bring awareness and to have a social
meeting -- a social situation where it's not all about alcohol," Will
said this week. With her permit application estimating about 1,800
attendees, she also believes the event will provide a much-needed
economic boost to the county she calls home.

Scheduled for May 28 to 30, the expo will include a marijuana film
festival, live music, vendors and a world peace prayer circle. Will
said she has a graded parking lot at her 46-acre site, and hopes to
run shuttle buses between the event and area hotels.

She visited a recent marijuana expo at the Cow Palace in Daly City,
where she distributed fliers to the 150 vendors there.

As for the urgency ordinance, it switches the permitting authority
from the Board of Supervisors to the Planning Department. In
addition, Wylene said, it's aimed at making the procedure more user
friendly by specifically laying out all the rules, including criteria
for granting, denying and conditioning permits.

The ordinance excludes events at the Tehama District Fair grounds, as
well as those sponsored by the county or government agencies. If
passed, it goes into effect Tuesday.

In an e-mail Thursday, Hager said the first festival was held in a
Eugene, Ore., lumberyard and drew 300 vendors and 12,000 people. But
after three more years and different locales, he gave it up, weary of
antagonistic government reaction to the gatherings.

"Donna wants to do a peace ceremony," Hager said. "She has a
spiritual commitment to this plant, as I do, and we feel these
ceremonies help heal the suffering that has been created by the war on drugs."

He'll volunteer at WHEE 2010 and provide some of the films. What can
first-time festivalgoers expect?

"A non-alcoholic event dedicated to nonviolence and peace culture," he said.