HEMP FESTIVAL OFF TO QUIET START

A triumphant Steve Hager, High Times Magazine creative director,
yelled, Let there be rock!, launching his jean jacket-clad arms into
the air as he overlooked some 500 people below, not nearly enough to
fill the acres stretching out before him.

It was 3 p.m. Friday, and the music was playing at the World Hemp
Expo Extravaganja 2010. Across the center stage were banners for
Corning's Tehama Herbal Collective, Redding's River Valley Collective
and a Reelect Sheriff Clay Parker sign.

Asked about the latter, Event Organizer Donna Will said the sign was
there because of Parker's promise to enforce the county's new,
complaintdriven medical marijuana ordinance personally, applying
individual solutions and only acting when someone complains about a
marijuana garden that violates the county's policies.

Will's endorsement comes after months of clashing with county
officials over the marijuana ordinance and tensions over WHEE 2010.
Her quest changed a 40-year-old county festival ordinance and irked
neighbors who, suspicious of both the crowds and marijuana itself,
phoned both the Planning Director and the Sheriff.

Will and Hager, undeterred, promised a peaceful festival with or
without the county's approval, and were eventually granted a permit.

Parker said there had been complaints of stealing inside the event
and one person who arrived very intoxicated on harder drugs as of
Friday evening.

All three individuals were removed quickly from the event. Some
issues with illegal parking were resolved earlier in the day.

As expected, bongs, joints and pipes were lit and passed around. In
the afternoon, most were in vendor tents and out of sight, but
marijuana smoking was more widespread in the early evening.

Numerous collectives and dispensaries set up shop to sell merchandise
and, though they were prohibited from selling THC or marijuana
products, still set up display cases to show off what they had for
Prop. 215 patients.

One collective displayed sodas and lollipops made with hemp and THC
extract, though representatives said they offered only T-shirts for
sale.

Another vendor, Forest Kuntz, an Olympia, Wash. resident with what he
described as a new way to smoke, pitched what he called a
self-contained knife hit kit, which uses a long, glass tube the size
and shape of wide straw, and a glass pole of the same length with an
orb at the end.

By placing the product, or substance to be smoked, at the end of the
tube and heating the orb, the user can smoke just a little bit of
substance at a time, Kuntz said.

Other products pushed in the opposite direction one vendor lacked a
name or title, but trusted an interconnected, three-piece five-foot
bong to do the advertising for him.

Among the non-hemp themed booths was Red Bluff's own Jack the Ribber,
owned and operated by City Councilman Jim Byrne.

Assistant Manager and head cook Tyler Miller said he had to talk
Byrne, who is opposed to medical marijuana, into allowing him to set
up the booth.

I've been here 15 minutes and sold three racks, Miller
said.

Combined, that made for a $60 sale, he said.

One of his customers was Richard Stapler, a 73- year-old Millville
resident.

Stapler, a Prop. 215 patient who uses cannabis tinctures to soothe
aches and pains, said the event was not only peaceful and pleasant,
but could serve as a teaching tool for people who expected a
turbulent, chaotic party.

He said he invited his county representatives on the Board of
Supervisors in Shasta County to come and join the event.

WHEE 2010 runs from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. today and on11 a.m. to sunset
Sunday at 22116 Riverside Ave. off of Highway 99W, just south of Red
Bluff.

Entry is $5 and camping $10, though entry fees may be waived in
exchange for volunteer work.

More information is available at www.whee2010.com.