Pubdate: Tue,  6 Nov 2001
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Copyright: 2001 The Register-Guard
Contact:  http://www.registerguard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/362

OREGON ACTIVIST PUTS LUMBERYARD UP FOR SALE

Oct. 1--HARRISBURG, Ore.--The sale of his signature lumberyard is pending, 
his annual hemp festival is up in the air and his run for governor is down 
the tubes.

"I'm running for the border now," marijuana activist and longtime 
fly-in-the-ointment Bill Conde says.

Monday will be the final day in business for Conde's Redwood Lumber off 
Interstate 5 near Harrisburg, which has doubled in recent summers as home 
base for the three-day World Hemp Festival. Conde plans to auction off 
various items remaining at his business -- from lumber to tools and even a 
forklift -- on Oct. 13.

He plans to move to the Central American country of Belize, where his wife 
and three children already are waiting. Conde packed and sent off a 
shipping container of his belongings this week, and he intends to follow as 
soon as the sale of his lumberyard is wrapped up and some legal loose ends 
are tied.

Conde faces six criminal charges related to allegations of drug use at his 
hemp festivals. He says he has been negotiating with the Linn County 
district attorney's office to resolve the charges so he can legally leave 
the country. "I don't want to battle them anymore," he says.

The prosecutor who is handling Conde's case was unavailable for comment on 
the negotiations.

In June, Conde served a two-week sentence after being convicted on felony 
charges of abetting delivery of a controlled substance and hindering 
prosecution.

Less than a week after being released, Conde announced his intention to 
form a new political party he would call the Environmental Party and run as 
its candidate for Oregon governor in 2002. He circulated petitions for his 
political causes at the Hemp Festival in July.

Conde has fought a running battle in recent years with the Linn County 
sheriff's office, whose officers have reported drug use and transactions at 
his festivals, and with the county's Board of Commissioners, which has 
sought to enforce sanitation and parking requirements at the mass gatherings.

But Conde, 58, says he's ready to retire to his wife's native country and 
won't miss the close scrutiny that his advocacy of marijuana brought upon him.

He also says the national events of the past month have prompted changes 
that reinforced his decision to move on. "In all honesty, man, I'd be 
scared to stay in this country now," Conde says. "I'm a dove, not a hawk. 
Right now in the United States of America, it's really not good flying 
weather for the doves."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart