Split pro-pot messages aiming for ears at Hempfest
Aug 17, 2012, 10:37 AM | Updated: Aug 18, 2012, 1:41 pm
 Hempfest will host a panel of pro-pot supporters who can’t come to agreement on pot Initiative 502. (Image courtesy Hempfest) |
Hempfest, the annual festival and rally demonstrating against America’s laws criminalizing marijuana, will be held this weekend at Myrtle Edwards Park in Seattle. While most festival-goers are in support of legalizing pot, a big faction are not in favor of the most recent marijuana initiative on the ballot.
New Approach Washington, the group supporting Initiative 502, explains the initiative with the following:
This law legalizes the possession of marijuana for adults age 21 and older. The only marijuana that would be legal to sell in this state would be grown by specially-licensed Washington farmers and sold in stand alone, marijuana-only stores operated by private Washington businesses licensed and regulated by the state. There would be a 25% sales tax, with 40% of the new revenues going to the state general fund and local budgets, and the remainder dedicated to substance-abuse prevention, research, education, and health care. Advertising would be restricted. A new marijuana DUI standard that operates like the alcohol DUI standard would be established.
This is the wording of the initiative on the ballot:
This measure would license and regulate marijuana production, distribution, and possession for persons over twenty-one; remove state-law criminal and civil penalties for activities that it authorizes; tax marijuana sales; and earmark marijuana-related revenues.
Longtime pot legalization advocate Douglas Hiatt, with Sensible Washington, says this initiative is a disaster and he never has nor will support it.
“I’m really shocked at the way this initiative is being run and the way it’s being advertised. This is not legalization,” says Hiatt. “It doesn’t take a single law off the books that makes marijuana illegal. It creates an incredibly narrow exception where they define possession of one ounce by adults as not a crime and they define a production process as not a violation of the law.”
The initiative’s DUI standard would also be creating yet another area for criminalization of marijuana that isn’t necessary says Hiatt, who thinks current DUI laws handle things well.
“Most of us that have been arguing for reform for over 20 years are off this bus,” says Hiatt. “We do not believe this is reform. We don’t believe it’s legalization. We think the campaign is essentially running a big lie.”
As for what will happen at Hempfest, where these varied pro-pot voices will converge, Hiatt thinks things may get heated.
“The vibe at Hempfest wasn’t very good last year and I suspect it won’t be all that great in some ways this year,” says Hiatt. “There’s a lot of passion out there, and a lot of those guys are very un-mellow and they’re very passionate about what they’re talking about.”
The Seattle Times reports Hempfest is staying neutral in the 502 debate. Both sides will have the opportunity to be heard in a panel discussion on Saturday.
Despite the discord, Hiatt says Hempfest is always a good place to gain a better understanding about the issue.
“Hempfest itself is a remarkable event,” says Hiatt. “It’s a great place to learn a lot and enjoy some great music and try to change people’s minds about a very, very important medicine, a benign plant that we shouldn’t even be having these fights about.”
By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor
