SirBlazinBowl
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Thousands of marijuana fans openly celebrated their love of cannabis at a Seattle festival, despite a recent ruling by the United States' highest court backing federal law making pot illegal.
The crowd of revellers that strolled, snacked, socialised and smoked their way through Hempfest in the northwestern US city of Seattle tallied approximately 75,000 people by sundown, according to organizers.
Many festival attendees wandered the downtown park smoking marijuana cigarettes in the summer heat.
Seattle police safeguarded the cannabis aficionados, not bothering to enforce local pot laws that make recreational marijuana smoking the city's lowest crime priority.
Hempfest is political in nature and protected by free-speech provisions of the federal Constitution, regardless of federal marijuana laws, concluded sergeant Lou Eagle, who headed the police detail at the event.
"We are there simply to protect a large group of people from others' misbehaving," Eagle said. "We are not out there to enforce the marijuana laws." Arrests at the 14-year-old annual event have been rare and, usually, didn't involve marijuana charges, Eagle said.
Police only arrest a pot smoker if they puff in a cop's face and ignore warnings to stop, Eagle said.
Speakers condemned marijuana laws as unjust and urged support for reforms that would make cannabis legal in the United States.
They condemned a two-month-old US Supreme Court ruling that said federal laws making marijuana illegal trumped state laws legalizing the drug for medical use.
"Now, we are talking about medical marijuana users dying in jail," said Hempfest speaking Douglas Hiatt, an attorney who said he often defends medical marijuana users.
US states such as Washington and California already treat recreational pot use as barely worth the attention of police or the courts.
"We have got to take back the power," said 46-year-old Hiatt. "It's an issue of democracy."
In the 12 states where local laws condone medical marijuana, it is commonly used to treat pain and appetite lose associated with cancer treatments and AIDS.
Federal officials view marijuana as a dependency-producing drug lacking medical benefit and see Hempfest activists as disconnected from reality, according to Tom Rile of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
"There's an urban myth that we are filling jails with low-level marijuana users," Riley said. "Almost everyone in jail for pot is charged with trafficking in large amounts of marijuana."
Dominic Holden of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws defended Hempfest, calling it "an institution that has made talking about marijuana use socially acceptable in Seattle."
For the less-politically minded, the two-day event that started Saturday was an opportunity to taste hemp-based baked goods and listen to live music.
"Marijuana is less dangerous than other drugs," said David Burdick, 30. "We ought to have the choice to use it."
Hempfest is billed by organizers as the largest marijuana legal reform event in the US.
Newshawk: SirBlazinBowl (420Times.com)
Source: Australian, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2005 The Australian
Contact: editor@theaustralian.com.au
Website: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/
Author: Philip Dawdy in Seattle
The crowd of revellers that strolled, snacked, socialised and smoked their way through Hempfest in the northwestern US city of Seattle tallied approximately 75,000 people by sundown, according to organizers.
Many festival attendees wandered the downtown park smoking marijuana cigarettes in the summer heat.
Seattle police safeguarded the cannabis aficionados, not bothering to enforce local pot laws that make recreational marijuana smoking the city's lowest crime priority.
Hempfest is political in nature and protected by free-speech provisions of the federal Constitution, regardless of federal marijuana laws, concluded sergeant Lou Eagle, who headed the police detail at the event.
"We are there simply to protect a large group of people from others' misbehaving," Eagle said. "We are not out there to enforce the marijuana laws." Arrests at the 14-year-old annual event have been rare and, usually, didn't involve marijuana charges, Eagle said.
Police only arrest a pot smoker if they puff in a cop's face and ignore warnings to stop, Eagle said.
Speakers condemned marijuana laws as unjust and urged support for reforms that would make cannabis legal in the United States.
They condemned a two-month-old US Supreme Court ruling that said federal laws making marijuana illegal trumped state laws legalizing the drug for medical use.
"Now, we are talking about medical marijuana users dying in jail," said Hempfest speaking Douglas Hiatt, an attorney who said he often defends medical marijuana users.
US states such as Washington and California already treat recreational pot use as barely worth the attention of police or the courts.
"We have got to take back the power," said 46-year-old Hiatt. "It's an issue of democracy."
In the 12 states where local laws condone medical marijuana, it is commonly used to treat pain and appetite lose associated with cancer treatments and AIDS.
Federal officials view marijuana as a dependency-producing drug lacking medical benefit and see Hempfest activists as disconnected from reality, according to Tom Rile of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
"There's an urban myth that we are filling jails with low-level marijuana users," Riley said. "Almost everyone in jail for pot is charged with trafficking in large amounts of marijuana."
Dominic Holden of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws defended Hempfest, calling it "an institution that has made talking about marijuana use socially acceptable in Seattle."
For the less-politically minded, the two-day event that started Saturday was an opportunity to taste hemp-based baked goods and listen to live music.
"Marijuana is less dangerous than other drugs," said David Burdick, 30. "We ought to have the choice to use it."
Hempfest is billed by organizers as the largest marijuana legal reform event in the US.
Newshawk: SirBlazinBowl (420Times.com)
Source: Australian, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2005 The Australian
Contact: editor@theaustralian.com.au
Website: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/
Author: Philip Dawdy in Seattle
