Pubdate: Wed, 31 May 2006 Source: U Weekly (Ohio State U, Columbus, OH, Edu) Copyright: 2006 University Media Group Contact: http://uweekly.com/about.php Website: http://uweekly.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4175 Author: Josh Riesen Cited: Ohio Hempfest 2006 http://www.ohiohempfest.com Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Ohio+Hempfest Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana) End the Drug War! PUT DOWN THE BONG AND HEAD TO HEMPFEST Hempfest, happening on June 3rd, is a day-long festival dedicated to promoting the end of the Drug War, as well as teaching the average person about the many uses of hemp and its, shall we say, derivatives. Many vendors are available to sell food, trinkets, and tobacco pipes, as well as literature and music. Also featured on several stages are more than two dozen bands, performers, and spoken word artists. The styles of music will reach from reggae to trance to hippie-jam and more, and there will be plenty of great munchies around to last everyone well into the night. As of this year, Hempfest has been around for twenty years, and the festival, sponsored by local businesses and Students For Sensible Drug Policy, has, until recently, been a force for positive change in local and state politics. Over the last several years, however, the organization has been entangled in problems with city and campus law enforcement, as well as local and state politicians. Federal courts ruled in favor of the SSDP in 2004 when OSU attempted to shut Hempfest down by citing technicalities with registering the event with campus police. The event was cleared to go just 18 hours before the gates were scheduled to open, but the damage was already done. 2005 was a slightly less eventful year, and the event went on as scheduled. I was originally scheduled to have a telephone interview with event representative Tara Stevens, but was declined at the last minute after her request to be paid for the short, seven-question conversation. This aspect worried me about the choice of representatives that SSDP has made in recent years. I have found that most of those who work for or with nonprofit organizations do not seek to receive personal compensation for their work if they truly believe in the cause for which they are fighting. I closed the conversation with a measure of disappointment in my heart at knowing just how many people really want to get the word out, only to be hindered by the greed of others. Through these actions, parts of the organization begin to look more and more like the empire they are allegedly fighting to stop. In lieu of the interview I wish to offer some of my own experiences of the last two Hempfests, at which I assisted a local vendor in selling assorted items. The crowd is usually a fair mix of hippie and anarchist, Phish fan, Dave Matthews frat-boy, and ICP junkie. Working a booth, one sees and talks to all these people. Most of them really don't care much about the causes that the spoken-word artists and free-press journalists are fighting for. They just want to get stoned on the South Oval and see bands. I surely can't fault them for that, but the bottom line is that this kind of apathy is exactly what's working against groups such as SSDP, or Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, as well as the other activist groups attending the festival to spread their message. Admittedly, these groups are speaking to a tough audience in the first place since again, most of them are there for the more obvious reasons. I implore the general public to go, and spend some time just listening to what people have to say there. Too many good ideas have died simply because of the artificial stigmas that surround them. The FDA's recent findings that marijuana has no clinical or medical use despite physicians' and patients' own testimonies to the contrary is an example of this willing ignorance that in this and many other instances, has stymied public, unbiased, and serious discourse about the true benefits of the cannabis plant and its many extracts. We as a nation have become far too willing to simply accept what we are being told without question, that this plant, this weed, is still the nation's biggest drug problem although methamphetamine abuse is skyrocketing in rural and suburban areas, prescription drug abuse is at an all-time high (no pun intended), and alcohol-related fatalities show no signs of slowing. There is no better time than now to show support for not just the express causes of Hempfest, but for all forms of public expression; and exercise our inalienable rights to assemble and discuss that which displeases us about the current State of the Union. If you're available this Saturday, put down the bong, come out, hang out, munch out, and have fun. It'll be groovy, I promise. "Ohio Hempfest 2006" will be held at the OSU South Oval on Saturday, 6/3 from 12:00 PM through Midnight. For more information please email or visit www.ohiohempfest.com online. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake