Pubdate: Wed, 28 Aug 2013
Source: Seattle Weekly (WA)
Column: Toke Signals
Copyright: 2013 Village Voice Media
Contact: 
http://www.seattleweekly.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee?department=letters
Website: http://www.seattleweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/410
Author: Steve Elliott
Note: Steve Elliott edits Toke Signals, tokesignals.com, an 
irreverent, independent blog of cannabis news, views, and information.

I BOUGHT WEED AT HEMPFEST DURING THE "NO WEED SALES" SPEECH

We're collaborating with the police," Seattle Hempfest executive 
director Vivian McPeak was saying from the stage. "There will be no 
marijuana sales tolerated at Seattle Hempfest."

While that first sentence wasn't one I ever particularly expected 
McPeak to utter, the other part, about no sales, represented no 
change from past years' Hempfest policy. You could always get ejected 
from the festival for selling weed, and last fall's approval of the 
limited "legalization" measure I-502 by Washington voters certainly 
didn't have any impact on that.

Still, it was just a tad surreal to hear Vivian's speech from the 
Main Stage even as two different weed vendors offered their wares to 
me and other members of the crowd. There was the guy with a green 
Mohawk wig selling "dime bags" and cannabis lozenges; there was the 
young lady walking around openly selling eighths and quarters 
directly in front of the Main Stage (when no black shirts-Hempfest 
security staff-were around) even as McPeak's words echoed through 
Myrtle Edwards Park.

The Super Silver Haze offered by the young lady for $30 an eighth was 
a respectable sativa, and appeared to be only slightly short of 3.5 
grams, but I didn't get an opportunity to weigh the stuff before 
smoking some of it right there in front of the Main Stage. The $10 
"dime bag" from Green Mohawk Guy turned out to weigh .7 grams instead 
of a full gram, but then that's street-weed buying for you.

Both weed samples bought at Hempfest's Main Stage (because I'm a 
dedicated reporter, not because I'm a scofflaw) got me respectably 
high; neither seemed to be adultered with mold, mites, or any of the 
other scary things we were repeatedly warned about from the stage. 
This wasn't shocking, as most marijuana sold in Washington state, 
whether on the black market or through medical-marijuana 
dispensaries, isn't molded, mite-infested, or adulterated.

What leaves me slightly mystified is the belief-evidently held by 
lots of Hempfest staff-that they can eradicate street cannabis sales 
from the festival. Prohibition doesn't work as long as there is 
demand for a product.

Shouldn't the Hempfest folks know this better than anyone? It's 
called "learning from history." Marijuana prohibition doesn't work on 
the national, state, or city level-why should it suddenly, magically 
work to make the rule "No pot sales at Hempfest?"

Making the quest to eradicate marijuana sales at Hempfest 
particularly quixotic is the fact that lots of people-myself 
decidedly not included-come there to buy weed. Yes, these are 
overwhelmingly young people without medical-marijuana authorizations. 
But anyone with a passing familiarity with market forces knows that 
people with money who want a product can find people to sell it to them.

It's almost certainly the case that, for PR and legal reasons, 
Hempfest staff are forced to officially disavow the copious cannabis 
sales happening right under their noses (public consumption is 
tolerated; sales are not). That doesn't make the experience any less 
surreal-or any less a microcosm of the "problem."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom