Pubdate: Sun, 19 Aug 2007
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2007 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://www.seattletimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Kyung M. Song, Seattle Times health reporter
Cited: Seattle Hempfest http://hempfest.org/drupal/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/industrial+hemp
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

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." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake