HEMP FESTIVAL COURTING TEHAMA COUNTY

RED BLUFF -- Medical marijuana user and patient advocate Donna Will
is planning a three-day World Hemp Expo Extravaganja 2010 for
Memorial Day weekend on her property just south of Red Bluff.

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. Since a
federal judge determined the dam affects migrating fish, the lake has
existed for shorter and shorter times.

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 have not publicly encouraged Will.

She 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.

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.

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

The county has been working for weeks on revising a chapter of the
county code regulating festivals.

Supervisor Ron Warner said the ordinance was drafted in response to
Woodstock in 1969, and has not been updated since 1970.

Similar ordinances have since been declared unconstitutional
elsewhere in the state. County Counsel Arthur Wylene neither
confirmed nor denied the existing ordinance's constitutionality.

He said the new ordinance is likely to go before the Board of
Supervisors Tuesday.

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."

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 Red Bluff Round-Up choose the latter option and pay
for law enforcement overtime, Sheriff Clay 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 Proposition 215 recommendation.
"We would enforce all California laws," he said.

Asked about the event, Supervisor Bob 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.

Geoff Johnson is a reporter for the Red Bluff Daily News.