Freaktan
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Phil Falcon of Seattle walked up to the open microphone at the third annual Oly Hempfest on Sunday afternoon and listed his favorite cannabis facts.
He said hemp can be used to build houses and to power automobiles. And marijuana can provide relief to people who are crippled with pain.
"Pot can save the United States of America," Falcon said. "It really can." Organizers of the third annual Oly Hempfest estimated that at least 5,000 people attended the event at Heritage Park, double the number of participants last year.
Aiming for education
Oly Hempfest founder Jeremy Miller said the goal of this year's festival was to educate people about the many uses for hemp. It also was designed to support and celebrate the lifestyle he grew up with, he said.
"I was always given the impression that we were not good people because of the way we lived," said Miller, 34, who works in the music promotion industry. "We're a huge culture. We're actually a social movement."
Wearing a lei of marijuana leaves, Miller's mom, Leslie Johnson, said the festival also is a way to inform people about other issues, such as their legal rights during a police search.
"It's all about education, and people not taking it as a joke, and understanding that there are a lot of good things that can come out of marijuana and hemp use," she said.
The event featured several bands and speakers, including Jack Herer, author of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes," who was named Man of the Century by High Times magazine in 1999.
Herer said hemp played a huge role in the United States' history. For example, he said, some of the strongest covered wagons used by pioneers had hemp canvases.
And, he said, the first and second drafts of the Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper.
About 45 vendors lined the streets near the park, selling everything from beaded jewelry, tie-dyed clothing and hemp baked goods to hand-blown glass water pipes, medical marijuana cookbooks and tapestries with depictions of marijuana leaves.
Angela Ariaz, 21, of San Diego and her boyfriend sat on a curb and made beaded hemp necklaces, which they sold for $6 to $10 each, during the festival.
Ariaz said they're living out of their backpacks, hitchhiking all over the West Coast this summer. They were at Seattle's Hempfest last weekend, and they're planning to be at Portland's HempStalk on Sept. 10.
"We figured it would be really small," Ariaz said about Oly Hempfest. "But actually, it's bigger than we thought."
Erika Soliday of Puyallup said curiosity was the main thing that brought her and her family to the festival. She said she thought it was interesting, but she didn't agree with many of the messages that were displayed on signs and stickers and T-shirts at the festival, such as "Legalize Happiness" or "Thank you for pot smoking." Soliday said she supports the medicinal use of marijuana, but she wouldn't want to see it become legal for other uses.
"It makes you stupid," she said.
Newshawk: Freaktan (420times.com)
Source: The Olympian (Olympia, WA)
Copyright: 2005 The Olympian
Contact: news@theolympian.com
Website: https://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050829/NEWS01/508290329/1020
Author: Lisa Pemberton
He said hemp can be used to build houses and to power automobiles. And marijuana can provide relief to people who are crippled with pain.
"Pot can save the United States of America," Falcon said. "It really can." Organizers of the third annual Oly Hempfest estimated that at least 5,000 people attended the event at Heritage Park, double the number of participants last year.
Aiming for education
Oly Hempfest founder Jeremy Miller said the goal of this year's festival was to educate people about the many uses for hemp. It also was designed to support and celebrate the lifestyle he grew up with, he said.
"I was always given the impression that we were not good people because of the way we lived," said Miller, 34, who works in the music promotion industry. "We're a huge culture. We're actually a social movement."
Wearing a lei of marijuana leaves, Miller's mom, Leslie Johnson, said the festival also is a way to inform people about other issues, such as their legal rights during a police search.
"It's all about education, and people not taking it as a joke, and understanding that there are a lot of good things that can come out of marijuana and hemp use," she said.
The event featured several bands and speakers, including Jack Herer, author of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes," who was named Man of the Century by High Times magazine in 1999.
Herer said hemp played a huge role in the United States' history. For example, he said, some of the strongest covered wagons used by pioneers had hemp canvases.
And, he said, the first and second drafts of the Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper.
About 45 vendors lined the streets near the park, selling everything from beaded jewelry, tie-dyed clothing and hemp baked goods to hand-blown glass water pipes, medical marijuana cookbooks and tapestries with depictions of marijuana leaves.
Angela Ariaz, 21, of San Diego and her boyfriend sat on a curb and made beaded hemp necklaces, which they sold for $6 to $10 each, during the festival.
Ariaz said they're living out of their backpacks, hitchhiking all over the West Coast this summer. They were at Seattle's Hempfest last weekend, and they're planning to be at Portland's HempStalk on Sept. 10.
"We figured it would be really small," Ariaz said about Oly Hempfest. "But actually, it's bigger than we thought."
Erika Soliday of Puyallup said curiosity was the main thing that brought her and her family to the festival. She said she thought it was interesting, but she didn't agree with many of the messages that were displayed on signs and stickers and T-shirts at the festival, such as "Legalize Happiness" or "Thank you for pot smoking." Soliday said she supports the medicinal use of marijuana, but she wouldn't want to see it become legal for other uses.
"It makes you stupid," she said.
Newshawk: Freaktan (420times.com)
Source: The Olympian (Olympia, WA)
Copyright: 2005 The Olympian
Contact: news@theolympian.com
Website: https://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050829/NEWS01/508290329/1020
Author: Lisa Pemberton
