Pubdate: Wed, 21 Aug 2013
Source: Stranger, The (Seattle, WA)
Copyright: 2013 The Stranger
Contact:  http://www.thestranger.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2241
Author: Dominic Holden

DOES HEMPFEST MATTER ANYMORE?

Yes, More Than Ever

Last weekend, when Hempfest planted its green butt on the downtown 
Seattle waterfront, lots of folks asked: Does Hempfest matter 
anymore? Now that Washington State has legalized marijuana and the 
cops are giving out Doritos, even stoners wondered, what's the point 
of a gigantic rally that, at least purportedly, is about legalizing pot?

I went to Hempfest. I didn't smoke any pot. So what was it that made 
me think Hempfest is more important than ever?

A few times a week, I pass a faded mural in the International 
District that reads "Another world is possible-drug-free." It's a 
throwback to an addictive idea from the 1980s and '90s that this 
could be a "Drug-Free America." But a drug-free nation-let alone a 
drug-free world-is objectively impossible.

Still, the underlying message of our recent landmark drug-policy 
reforms has been based on the idea that all illegal drug use is a 
scourge that can and should be mitigated. Take the pot-legalization 
initiative that voters passed last fall. It was a historic 
accomplishment, but its messaging was based on cutting off money to 
cartels and regulating the pot market to reduce its harm. I don't 
begrudge the sponsors for this tack; most voters, who don't smoke 
pot, want laws that benefit themselves, not stoners.

But there's a thorny truth that politics doesn't embrace: Pot is fun.

Smoking pot before the movies can be enthralling. Passing around a 
pipe before dessert can be delightful. Listening to a great DJ by the 
sunny shores of Elliott Bay while you smoke a joint is positively joyous.

Which is to say, Hempfest is fun.

It's a brazen admission that pot smoking is not a sickness that needs 
to be cured.

Now, I can imagine snarky people saying that Hempfest isn't fun (for 
them), or saying some Hempfest stoners are idiotic caricatures.

Oh, I'm sorry, do stoners present a bad image?

We've heard this one before: Gay pride parades send flotillas of 
gyrating leather daddies down Main Streets across America. People say 
that's also a bad image. People say it looks like gay culture is 
obsessed with sex and indulgence. People say that the issue of gay 
rights is actually more sophisticated, that the serious gay agenda is 
about palatable stuff like building families and reducing youth 
suicide rates. That's certainly true. And they're right that Mr. 
Leather 2013 may turn off some folks (especially the folks who have 
always been dead set on dismissing gay people), but gay pride hasn't 
been a setback for gay rights. Many of the cities with the biggest 
drag-queen-festooned pride parades are in the same states at the 
vanguard of passing gay marriage, enacting trans protections, and 
penalizing LGBT bullying. Now that marriage equality has passed in 
those states, should the gay pride parades stop? Fuck no.

They're fun. They represent lots of gay Americans.

Some people may not like the gay pride analogy, but as a cocksucking 
stoner, I'm sticking with it. But noooo, the haters say: Being gay is 
who you are, and smoking pot is a choice.

I agree, kinda.

The problem is, many adults use drugs in moderation (alcohol and pot 
are the most popular). They are never going away, because using them 
is literally human nature. We tried a drug-free America and alcohol 
prohibition, and they failed as miserably as gay-conversion therapy. 
While some people have problems with drug addiction, for others, pot 
and alcohol are fine.

And let's be honest: I didn't do shots last Thursday because I wanted 
to savor the delicious flavor of tequila. And I didn't have sex on 
Friday to build a family. I did those things because they're fun.

So should Seattle, with the largest pot festival on the planet, which 
is in a state at the vanguard of legalizing pot, stop having fun with 
its Hempfest? No way.

Pot may be legal in Washington State, but nationally, Americans are 
busted for pot at a rate of nearly three-quarters of a million people 
a year. Lots of people can't get jobs or scholarships or apartments 
because they have a pot misdemeanor on their record. Just as gay 
pride tells gay folks that there's hope, Hempfest is a beacon that 
there's an end to America's backward, racist, puritanical drug war crusade.

And now that the pressure is off Hempfest to be an agent for legal 
change, it's easier to appreciate the wonderful, freaky bonanza that it is.

We've been having dishonest conversations for decades-you'll get 
hooked on all drugs after one toke-and that leads to misinformation, 
abuse, and distrust. Once we can admit that pot is fun, we can talk 
credibly about when it's not fun. When it really is dangerous (before 
driving). When you shouldn't use pot (before school). Just like we 
can't talk about safe sex unless we can admit, openly, that sex is 
common and pleasurable, we can't have a sensible conversation about 
pot in this country without acknowledging pot can be pleasurable, 
too. And Hempfest won't let us forget it.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom