Dominic Holden's suggestions for improving Seattle Hempfest

I've been to hempfest about 5 times. I quit supporting that particular event because I wittnessed myself, many many young children there getting high. I think that giving children a place to use Marijuana for 2 days every year is wrong and very irresponsible of the Seattle Police who were just looking the other way.

If Hippies are the ones doing the planning then let them do it how they choose! Holden needs to stop talking and put on an event the way he wants it! Don't talk about it, be about it! Hater!

No one like being forced into an Ohm circle, but the idea that pot would be legal if *only* it weren't for all those scruffy kids who smell like BO is just ridiculous. Yes, if you are an activist you might want to wear a conservative hairstyle so you don't "freak out the squares," but all this anti-hippie sentiment is just judgmental.

I agree fully with dreamdust. Nothing to add really.

I have been to Hempfest and many other festivals like it and agree with some of Dominic's observations, but I don't feel like Hempfest is obliged to change anything. Perhaps a different festival called "A Greener Future" with a eco-hut sponsored by iPhone with free massages and DJ Trendy music played all day would be more popular with a hipster crowd, but that would be a different festival all together. This IS Hempfest we are talking about. Hemp Fest. Duuuuuuude.

I guess I want to know what the hell the author means by "lose the cultural baggage?" What does he even mean by cultural baggage? Dreadlocks? Music? Drums? Stinky people? Replace it with what? How? By screen people?

They already do bring names people recognize, and they invite a lot of people who don't want to show up because they don't want to associate with it. People have challenged the drug czar to show up at many different rallies/festivals/events and he never does agree to show up.

The article seems like an excuse to vent his frustration with people he doesn't like.

@Dominic Holden:
"a festival that wraps itself in hippie artifacts and cliched imagery appears to be motivated by the desire to legalize its vice."
Could you be more specific? What "hippie artifacts and cliched imagery?" Do you mean dreadlocks?

I guess I'm asking: What cultural imagery and artifacts are acceptable? What cultural imagery and artifacts would make the festival acceptable?

"But if this country reforms drug policy, it will be for the benefit of society overall--freeing police resources, generating tax revenue, saving money on incarceration--not because the general population thinks hippies have a right to use drugs."

Except that hippies do have a right to use drugs as much as anyone else. That's the issue, and the point of my comment. It does not matter what you look like, talk like, act like, you should have the freedom to make your personal choices.

Dreamdust, you need to reread the article.

I think hippies are great, and the counterculture movement of the late '60s is largely to thank for the progressive politics in America today. Hippies worked hard to get Hempfest where it is. I'd know--I was one of those hippies. I even used to have dreadlocks many years ago.

But none of those things change a simple fact: Hippies stigmatize the movement to reform drug policy. That's because hippies are infamous drug users, and, thus, a festival that wraps itself in hippie artifacts and cliched imagery appears to be motivated by the desire to legalize its vice.

But if this country reforms drug policy, it will be for the benefit of society overall--freeing police resources, generating tax revenue, saving money on incarceration--not because the general population thinks hippies have a right to use drugs.

Does it really matter who represents at Hempfest? It is a political rally and therefore is all about the numbers. Every year it is crowded to capacity and those numbers are reported. There is always room for improvement, but if they had jug bands and mimes for entertainment it would still be crowded to capacity because it is Hempfest.

You're not going to sell hemp to people who aren't interested in listening with a festival. Look at Pride events: they're for fags and their friends, and people who are curious can show up too. People who don't already have a somewhat positive view of gay culture aren't going to show up at all.

Same thing with a hemp event, the people who want to be there are the counterculture and legalization folks. People who need convincing just aren't going to be there in the first place.

As for the folks who are pro-hemp but not pro-legalization...who are they? A couple dozen farmers in Idaho? I don't think those people exist, honestly.

hempfest is a mixed blessing, and unfortunately so are drugs. I think Dom is being a bit racialist though. I mean hippies are dirty and nasty, but so are dudes in India that smoke hash all day-and they were being hippies like 5000 years ago. I bet Dom has a stinky armpit too. Scotto you are a jerk, and came across as one when I met you at hempfest-I think you belong at Billy May's Cokefest. Take out the young black kids that try to steal your weed straight out of your backpack, or steal your cooler full of mushrooms. I say no more wanna be ganstas and black kids. Hell I say no hip hop at all. F*ck it let's exclude all music, punks, Rastas, grandmas, hippies, zippies, yuppies, and cyberpunks. Let's just hang out at the park with Dom and Scotto I'm sure the movement would be further along at that point.

Article in a nutshell: "I don't like people who have dreadlocks and smell like patchouli oil, so therefore I'm not going to Hempfest."

The article has it somewhat backwards.

Hempfest doesn't invite the counterculture crowd, the counterculture crowd just happens to be the only group to largely and openly identify with this cause. That's not Hempfest's fault.

There would be more yuppies there if yuppies cared about it like they say they do. Except that they can't put their cultural baggage away for even a day.

This is exactly why we have the drug war in the first place. It's a culture war. Hatred towards people who don't dress, act, and talk a certain way. The guy who wrote this article seems to have more hatred towards dreadlocks than Cannabis prohibition itself. It's sad.

Also, he doesn't have any specifics on what qualifies as "counterculture elements?" People who wear dreadlocks? This article is infantile.

Hindering... the article is right, counterculture and legalization are 'mutually undermining ambitions.' Anyone interested in a counter-culture movement is going to find out all about pot, hempfest is for the rest of the world (not that they should exclude anyone.)