Pubdate: Sat, 30 Jul 2016 Source: Buffalo News (NY) Copyright: 2016 The Buffalo News Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/GXIzebQL Website: http://www.buffalonews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/61 POT GROWERS TO GATHER FOR FIRST CANNABIS FAIR PORTLAND, Ore. - In two weeks, more than 100 of Oregon's top niche horticulturists will gather to celebrate their craft at a fair considered the first of its kind, one that promises $10,000 in prizes and colorful, proud ribbons to the best among them. Farmers will be judged "4-H" style, they've been told, though their crops inspire categories that are far from heartland tradition. Sativa, indica, hybrid. These guys harvest pot. The inaugural Oregon Cannabis Growers' Fair, according its website, "is an opportunity to bring the entire industry under one roof to learn from 'master growers,'" and will feature the state's "first-ever cannabis live plant competition." Judged on a litany of qualities, including color, shape, node stacking and aroma, the top nine winning pot plants will then graduate to a grander stage - the Oregon State Fair - a move that has caused some controversy among traditionalists in the Pacific Northwest. "We are doing it 4-H style," Don Morse, chairman of the Oregon Cannabis Business Council, told the Oregonian. "You get a blue, purple or yellow ribbon. We are celebrating the plant as a farm crop from Oregon." Recreational marijuana was legalized in the state last year. - - Washington Post - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom