NOTES FROM HEMPFEST

In what European country do people smoke more marijuana, per capita,
than in the U.S.? No, it's not Holland, it's the Czech Republic.
Travel writer Rick Steves threw that surprising fact into his talk
Sunday at the Seattle Hempfest. He had just come back from two months
in Europe where, he said, "a joint causes as much excitement as a can
of beer. It's just not a big deal." Steves lives in nearby Edmond,
WA, from whence he runs his flourishing guidebook business.

Is there any public figure in America who risks more, careerwise, by
openly challenging the marijuana prohibition? "I've got to be careful
not to overplay my hand," he said, "but everybody in public
television knows what I'm doing and they're with me." Rick Steves for
Secretary of State!

The Hempfest -the world's biggest pro-cannabis rally by far-
developed out of a Seattle vigil opposing the Gulf War in 1991.
Opposition to the current catastrophe in Iraq was expressed at this
year's event by the very visible Ron-Paul-for-President crew. There
was also a booth at which Fred Miller of Peace Action of Washington
disseminated info about U.S. military spending. Miller's routine is
called "Incredible Feats of Stupidity" and highlights Pentagon
programs such as the one that provided landlocked Zimbabwe with
anti-submarine rockets. Miller's partner, Gabrielle Lavalle, wore a
little crown on her blonde bouffant wig and a powder-blue dress with
a sash across her chest that said "I Miss America." She'll be taking
part in an "I Miss America" pageant Monday afternoon (August 27) when
George Bush comes to Bellevue to fundraise for pro-war Congressman
Dave Reichert. Beauties interested in joining can call 206-789-6863.

The 16th annual Hempfest was held August 18-19 in Myrtle Edwards
Park, a mile-long strip of greenery along Elliott Bay. Vendors'
booths -this year there were almost 300- line a couple of winding
asphalt pathways. Tents and stages are set up where the lawn widens.
Speakers are interspersed with bands. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
(which had a booth offering subscriptions at a deep discount along
with a free toolbelt) estimated the two-day crowd at 150,000. It
rained fairly hard for about 15 minutes on Saturday and nobody paid
it any mind. That's Seattle for you. Sunday there was a soft drizzle
for most of the morning, then the sun came out.

The hemp-loving masses thronging through the narrow park were mainly
young adults, so-called "recreational users." Jeff Hergenrather, MD,
was struck by how youthful and able-bodied the crowd seemed compared
to the patients he sees in Sonoma County. I doubt that Dr. Tom
O'Connell would have had the same take. O'Connell contends that young
adults who use cannabis regularly are self-medicating for anxiety and
depression. It's a safe assumption that a large percentage of people
at the Hempfest were working at entry-level jobs. In a system that
enables very few to make a secure living, this is reason enough for
anxiety and depression. A decade ago at a hemp event you'd see lots
of classy-looking people in draw-string pants. Now you see the
working-class youth in t-shirts proclaiming "Wake and Bake," or
"Jesus is coming, better roll another joint," or "Harry Pothead"(with
a drawing of the young wizard smoking one).

Memorable speakers included a middle-aged woman named Nora Callahan,
leader of the November Coalition, which supports prisoners of the
drug war. As Callahan tells it, "My brother was arrested and charged
in a drug conspiracy at the end of the 1980s. On words of
'cooperators' -snitches- he was convicted in federal court and
sentenced to 27 years in prison. That's when I found out that the
phony war on drugs is a real war on people, and has no chance at
creating a drug-free America." Callahan described the recent murder
by Atlanta police of a 90-something black woman whose house they
raided on a tip from a confidential informant. "We have a secret
policing system in this country that relies on snitches instead of
doing real investigations. They have quotas and have to make so many
arrests in order to keep their jobs When my brother was arrested I
was changed forever. I will never trust the government again and
that's not a good thing because the government is 'mine' and not
trusting it is like not trusting yourself."

On the doctors' panel David Bearman, MD, reported that there are now
60 MDs in the Santa Barbara area who have approved marijuana use by
their regular patients, and three who will issue approvals to
patients for whom they don't provide primary care. "The thing that
has moved the doctors along is their patients, whom they know are
sick, telling them that marijuana helps them. They've also been
noticing that many of these patients are doing better although
they're using less prescription medicine." This steady rise in the
number of Californians seeking approvals and doctors issuing them
continues despite intermittent DEA raids on growers and dispensaries.

Frank Lucido, MD, of Berkeley, recounted how he came to monitor
meetings of the Medical Board of California after being investigated
(and ultimately cleared) by the board in 2001. Lucido had approved
cannabis use by "a 16-about-to-be-17-year-old with severe attention
deficit disorder" who had been having problems academically and
socially. Cannabis enabled him to get A's and make friends. Lucido
believes that doctors who conduct appropriate exams have little to
fear from the medical board at this point. "I thank the doctors with
low practice standards for taking the heat off us," he said facetiously.

Dr. Robert Melamede, a biology professor at UC Colorado Springs, is a
vivid expositor who in three minutes can describe how our bodies make
marijuana-like compounds (endocannabinoids) to minimize the
free-radical production that causes a wide range of age-related
problems. "Open-mindedness is one of the things the cannabinoids
regulate," according to Melamede. He generalizes that political
conservatives are "backwards looking" due to deficient cannabinoid
levels. And because they're looking back at a fixed, agreed-upon
past, conservatives tend towards unity, which enables them to gain
power. Radicals, on the other hand, are contemplating various
possible futures, so they tend towards disunity. Maybe because your
correspondent wasn't laughing in agreement like the rest of the
audience, Melamede asked me what I made of his hypothesis, and I had
to break it to him gently: History is about class struggle, not
cannabinoid levels, and the disunity of those on the bottom is
imposed by the ruling-class via the culture -- nationalism, religion,
ethnicity, race, gender, age, immigration status, musical taste, drug
of choice... whatever serves to divide us.

At the end of a panel of young lobbyists, Rob Kampia of the Marijuana
Policy Project commented on the recent defeat of the
Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment. The measure would have defunded DEA
raids on growers and distributors in the medical marijuana states.
Kampia's MPP had donated to many a Congressperson's PAC -they even
paid Bob Barr of Georgia $10,000/month to push Hinchey-Rohrabacher-
but the costly effort failed to garner more than two additional votes
this session. Kampia said that in the period ahead MPP would spend
more money on "grassroots" efforts. By which he meant picking
districts in which Congresspersons might be swayed, and then paying
off "people like leading clergymen and college presidents" to help
sway them. It's a tactical adjustment, not a fundamental change of
approach. Look for the word "grassroots" in future MPP fundraising pitches.

An Organizational Miracle

No one owns the Hempfest, no impresario's name is attached to it,
there are no profits for anyone to take home. Funding comes from the
vendors (a basic booth costs $420), sponsors who take ads in the
program, and $5 donations solicited at the entrance. Planning and
staging the event involves a miraculous collective effort. This
glimpse of how it's done comes from Peter Henry, the man in charge of
trash removal:

"Most of the year, while the rest of the 'core staff' attend monthly
meetings, I'm off in my own world teaching high school. I get
involved a few weeks prior to the Fest by organizing recycling
containers (which the city provides for free) and trash dumpsters
(which we pay through the nose for), then a friend of mine and I work
like dogs through the festival until the park is cleaned up.

"Most crew-leaders recruit their friends to help them out, and most
crews are perpetually short-handed. My situation isn't the best
- -after all how exciting can you make it sound to pick up trash?
Hempfest relies on many walk-up volunteers here's a shirt, here's a
bag, here's some gloves, now go out and pick up trash. Many of these
folks may live marginally, but they still want to help. I remember
going home one year at 1 AM on Saturday night, the ground covered in
litter. It had all been picked up the next morning by an army of
street kids. On Monday and Tuesday we might find people helping clean
up the park who haven't even been to the event . They see what we're
doing and they just pitch in.

"Nobody is paid. Some of the bands get a travel allowance but it
isn't exactly princely. Lots of core members put in hundreds of
dollars of their own money to make it happen. And the miracle is,
each year it comes off and we leave the park as clean as we found it."

The Hempfest's goals are explicitly political. Vivian McPeak, a prime
mover since 1991, quotes Gandhi: "'First they ignore you, then they
laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.'" McPeak adds,
"Hempfest exists so that they will never be able to ignore us, and
its excellence comes so that they can not laugh at us. We educate our
attendees so that as they fight with us, we will know how to win."

Hempfest staff are still mourning the death of Share Parker, a super
organizer who handled their finances for many years. She died of
cancer last December. The program stated, "Tall and resolute,
dreadlocked to the ground, she dedicated her life to Hempfest. She
questioned every bill and secured most everything we needed from
insurance to toilets." Share kept time as well as the books -she
played bass for the Hempfest house band, the Herbivores. I met her
once and figured the weight of her thick mat of braids was helping
her stand so erect.