HEMPFEST TURNS "SWEET" 16

Hempfest celebrates all things cannabis, but that didn't stop
strollers and toddlers Saturday from outnumbering aging hippies.

In fact, the marijuana "protestival" that began 16 years ago in
Seattle has acquired a patina of convention, with vendors peddling
organic doughnuts and fretting about an influx of cheaper water pipes
("Don't call it a bong") from China and India.

That's not to equate Hempfest with, say, Bumbershoot.

Probably nowhere else in Seattle could festivalgoers festoon
themselves with $3 fake marijuana leis or inhale the aroma of chicken
gyro mingled with pot smoke. And reporters likely won't find anywhere
else so many outspoken people who decline to give their names ("You
never know what kind of list you might end up on").

But to some who thronged to Seattle's waterfront Myrtle Edwards Park,
Hempfest, which continues today, is a veritable family affair.
Organizers expect 150,000 visitors during the free two-day event.

Christine Jordan, 24, of Des Moines, was towing her two sons, ages 3
and 4. Jordan said the boys will inevitably encounter pot as they
grow older, though they don't have any inkling about it now.

"There are plenty of reasons why marijuana should not be illegal,"
she said, adding that she plans to eventually talk to her sons about
marijuana "and let them form their own opinion."

Dean Phillips, of Centralia, said he has brought his daughter, now 8,
to previous Hempfests.

Use of marijuana as medicine has been legal in Washington since 1998.
Like many Hempfest attendees, Phillips favors decriminalizing pot entirely.

"I don't think it's a gateway drug," he said. Current laws "say I
don't have the right to put it in my body. This is a free country."

The United States also outlaws commercial cultivation of the hemp
plant, cannabis sativa, which yields both marijuana and the
non-hallucinogenic hemp used for fiber and food. Importing industrial
hemp is legal.

Clothing, bags and other items made with hemp have gained wide
acceptance (even Nordstrom carries some) as consumers learn more
about the plant's ecological benefits, said Annette Kleckner, a
co-owner of Hempmania on Bainbridge Island.

Hemp is fast-growing and, unlike cotton, doesn't require pesticides,
said Kleckner, whose company sells hemp travel bags, backpacks and
even lip balm. Hemp fiber can be blended with other materials to
produce textiles that range from silky to rugged.

A few doors away from Hempmania's tent, a water-pipe vendor said his
business isn't so hot.

China has cornered the market for borosilicate, the heat-resistant
glass raw material, the Portland man said as he tended to occasional
customers buying pot paraphernalia. At the same time, China and India
are producing good water pipes, the fanciest of which sell for
hundreds of dollars or more, the man said, declining to give his name.

Sounding a familiar lament of more conventional retailers, he said
his business has fallen by a quarter over the past several years
"because of increase in product availability."