Marijuana advocates gather at second-annual Hempfest

Whether their aim was to promote biofuels from hemp plants, sell custom-made glassware or simply get high someday without breaking the law, the crowd in Riverfront Park on Sunday was nothing if not diverse.

In its second year, Hempfest offered supporters of marijuana in its various forms two days of free music, pro-pot speakers and like-minded vendors.

“I really like being here and meeting people, talking to people” said Bobby Brazee, while selling beads, glass pipes and other items at the event from Glass Gods in Spokane Valley.

Those people, he said, include leaders from various organizations aiming to legalize marijuana.

The steady stream of visitors walking around the three stages probably was double last year’s crowd, said Ryan Ballou, one of the event’s primary organizers. The number of vendors also doubled, he said, to between 30 and 40.

“How many times do you hear someone say, ‘I didn’t mean to beat you – it was the pot’?” Vivian McPeak asked the crowd at 4:20 p.m. Sunday from a stage near the gondolas. The head of the long-running Seattle Hempfest argued that the negative effects of marijuana pale in comparison with those of other drugs and alcohol and said adults should have the right to chose whether or not to smoke it.

McPeak and the Seattle festival have advocated legalized marijuana for the last 15 years. Ballou took note and brought the concept to Spokane last year.

“Why go all the way to Seattle for this? We can do it here, too,” he said.

Another element of the cannabis culture has to do with hemp – the term for strains of the plant that can’t be used to get high but can be used to make cloth, oil, paper and other products. And though it’s legal to import and sell, farmers can’t grow hemp in the United States.

“I advocate growing hemp to save the forest,” said Peggy Rodman of Phoenix, who travels to similar events around the country.

Using hemp instead of wood pulp for paper and growing the controversial plant for other industrial uses would benefit the environment, she said while selling leis made of fake pot leaves.

“Marijuana has given my life back,” said Bud Selby At a tent for Spocannabis, an organization that assists medical marijuana users, he said a career helping people move and a traffic accident left him with various painful conditions doctors treated with prescription narcotics.

A law created by a 1998 Washington ballot initiative allows Selby and other patients with certain conditions access to marijuana for medical treatment.

In the last month and a half, Selby said, his life has improved dramatically since he replaced painkillers with pot. He sleeps better, it costs less and his mental state has improved, he said.

For Ballou and his compatriots, Hempfest was a chance to publicly make the case for an illegal substance almost always used in private.

“Everyone you look at has literature in their hands,” Ballou said, referring to pamphlets distributed at the event.