Hempfest grows but gains critics

StopTheDrugWar.org weighs in on the Hempfest debate:

Somewhere around 300,000 people converged on the Seattle waterfront Saturday and Sunday to attend the 19th annual Seattle Hempfest, the world's largest marijuana "protestival," as organizers like to call it. While organizers and drug reform advocates were out in force to encourage attendees to get involved in changing the marijuana laws, for most of the crowd, Hempfest was one big pot party. And that has some movement critics unhappy...
While Hempfest came off without any serious problems, it has sparked a couple of related controversies. This week, Criminal Justice Policy Foundation head Eric Sterling wrote a blog post, Hempfest is Huge, But is It Good Politics?, in which he answered his own question with a resounding "no." Hempfest and similar rallies are "a political fraud," he wrote. Even worse, they are "advertisements for irresponsible drug use."
Similarly, former Hempfest organizer Dominic Holden stirred the pot the week before Hempfest with an article in the Seattle Stranger, A Few Words About Hempfest, in which he complained it was a "patchouli-scented ghetto" and overly countercultural. Like Sterling, Holden saw the hippiesque trappings of Hempfest as counterproductive. "Countercultural celebrations and drug legalization advocacy are mutually undermining ambitions," he wrote.
Hempfest organizers were not amused, and on Sunday, Holden was removed from the back of the Main Stage by unhappy erstwhile comrades. They explained why in an interview with Steve Bloom's Celebstoner, and Holden continued the spat with his own interview.
Perhaps the organizers of Hempfest and similar events will listen to Sterling and Holden, but probably not. Hempfest is a celebration of the pot-smoking counterculture, and it's not likely to go away or change its ways because a guy in a suit and a disaffected former friend are unhappy with how it operates. Straight-laced drug reformers will most likely just have to put up with Hempfest and its pot-happy ilk. They can treat it like the crazy aunt in the attic, but they can't get rid of it.

Why can't we all just smoke a joint and get along? Read the interviews at Celebstoner.com if you want more of this story.

» more at: stopthedrugwar.org

Posted By jamesk at 2009-08-21 12:03:44 permalink | comments

Tags: hempfest

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kjol. : 2009-08-30 00:26:45

Hemp is marijuana. Marijuana smokers will not tell you hemp isn't MJ. Marijuana is a slang term for hemp, which was used by William R. Hearst's newspapers to make it sound Mexican. This was when we were at war with Mexico, so everyone bought Hearst's bullshit about the 'terrible drug,' and it was a cinch for the government to ban it. The government did this because of pressure from the super-rich, including Hearst, who would have lost a lot of money or been ruined if all the wonderful industrial applications of hemp had been realized.

guest : 2009-08-26 12:20:38

I must admit I'm a bit confused about hemp. I've had advocates tell me, with emphasis and emotion, that marijuana and hemp aren't the same thing. Yet they seem to be conflated at events like these.

Someone is lying. My guess is that the people who want to use MJ recreationally made up that whole "hemp is not MJ" spin to suit their own evil agenda.

I fully understand that "industrial hemp" doesn't have usable psychoactive properties, so I'm playing a bit of the devil's advocate here, but the point is still valid. If the advocacy camp wants to be effective, they're going to have to come up with a story and stick to it.

sjaantze42. : 2009-08-26 11:02:16

Well, you can't really have a hemp festival without the hemp. How much fun would it be to have a party where people in suits were sitting around arguing with each other? That seems to be what Holden would like. If he thinks that the tie-dyed hippies are being ignored, then he is probably correct- one of the first ways to bring about change is to promote acceptance. How many overdoses, violent crimes, and shootings took place at that event? People have gotten used to the idea, thanks to such festivals, and don't really associate those things with pot smokers anymore. I think that should be the real point here- not the fact that Holden is a whiny moron who doesn't have a grasp of the bigger picture.

Anonymous. : 2009-08-25 08:43:01

"Drug legalization IS counter-culture. You cannot support legalization and be part of the dominant culture."

Tell that to George Shultz!

[link]

@Adam.

Decentralization is the key. We've reached the breaking point on centralized control structures, and we're ready to leave toddlerhood. Taking a cue from the natural world, no large-scale, successful system forgoes self-organization on a local level.

dreamdust. : 2009-08-22 22:21:55

Drug legalization IS counter-culture. You cannot support legalization and be part of the dominant culture. We aren't ostracized on our own terms. I don't want to be a label called "counter-culture" but society gives it to me regardless as soon as I voice my opinion on drugs and drug prohibition.

Again, just like Dominic's article, this one doesn't point out anything specific about what "counter-cultural" means. Do they mean legalization? Or deadlocks and certain types of music?

In my mind, all the protests or large gatherings are rather ineffective at anything but a forgotten statement. If these rallies put more focus on recruiting people to vote, to write their representatives, etc. they might be more effective. People are deluded into thinking they can exercise political change by partying in public.

Adam. : 2009-08-22 16:59:40

@ Anonymous
I agree. I experimented with the hippie "trapping" in High School as a direct and conscious result of the uncomfortable acceleration of pace. These days I know better that what I am looking for is as Terence McKenna said, an "Archaic Revival."
Not an abolition of technologies, never; rather a re-evaluation of the scientific process, the meaning of progress, the means to development of society and decentralization thereof. Trying to break down the virtual layers formed in our subconscious and redefining what makes our world real. I still don't really know exactly what I want, do I?
I guess if you picture this climactic process as an asymptote on a 2-D graph, an archaic revival would seek to turn this on its side so as to express it as 1-D. Making even less sense. This is why I miss McKenna, he would have found the words :-(

Anonymous. : 2009-08-22 11:00:49

Just a random observation...

The cultural trappings of the "hippie" movement are now 40 years old. Chronologically speaking, this is entirely analogous to people in the 60's adopting the cultural trappings of the flappers.

If the psychedelic pundits (McKenna, etc.) are right, change is supposedly accelerating. Perhaps today's "hippies" are acting out in reaction to a change of pace of which they are uncomfortable, collateral damage of the accelerating change of the cultural landscape. If so, it is unlikely that they'll be "talked out of it."

Also. : 2009-08-22 10:31:04

plus I just read the article at CelebStoner.com and I have to say, I don't blame anyone, it sounded inevitable given Dom's viewpoints, which are valid yet out of place at Hempfest.

And it apparently isn't tie-dye everywhere, they had me at "Metal." I would have went for Metal and Panel Discussions. But not if I had asked Dom Holden.

Also I think it's hilarious that your last name is Holden.

Adam. : 2009-08-22 10:22:11

"Countercultural celebrations and drug legalization advocacy are mutually undermining ambitions," he wrote.

He really said it, right there. He is talking about disassociating the counterculture from drug use. This is exactly the right idea.
His hippie friends running Hempfest have been immature towards his critique, taking it in as many bad ways as possible.

From what I saw this past week, the organizers of Hempfest are looking for enemies, and they are so desperate to find more that they will turn their allies against them. That is the LAST thing either movement needs, and if the organizers of hempfest can't stand a little honest criticism from a true friend, they have NO BUSINESS being involved with the movement against prohibition.

Plus isn't it a little funny that in the last 40 years, nothing has changed LESS than the hippies? Not so effective, are they?

Unimpressed. : 2009-08-22 03:20:42

@the truth: "Maybe it's because he's gay, and gay people have been picked on a lot, so they have to lash out at something else to feel better."

I hope you don't seriously believe that. If you have a problem with his ideas, attack his ideas. Shit like this is just fucking unnecessary.

Dominic Holden. : 2009-08-21 18:58:18

@thetruth Are you seriously suggesting that nobody should comment on how to make a political movement more effective? Hempfest last weekend was fantastic, and the turn-out was tremendous. But the drug policy reform movement is stigmatized, and drugs are still totally illegal. So it seems like a little commentary--a little debate in the public square--is exactly what it needs. Honestly, I can't think of any successful movement that hasn't had this sort of dialogue on strategy. It's normal. It's healthy. It's how things evolve and improve. But telling people not to voice their well-intentioned, constructive opinions seems pretty juvenile to me.

lilly. : 2009-08-21 13:55:08

wake me up when when they announce the venue for MDMAfest.

the truth. : 2009-08-21 13:49:37

this is just plain retarded. The recent Hempfest attendance made it THE largest event in Seattle period, beating Seafair weekend. What the hell is Dominic's problem? Maybe it's because he's gay, and gay people have been picked on a lot, so they have to lash out at something else to feel better. Easy for Dom to lash out at Hempfest since he used to be a part of it. He used to be a dreadlock hippie himself, now he's a clean cut gay on Capitol Hill rolling with the almighty hipster Stranger crew that has a stranglehold on Seattle's opinion about everything. Fuck The Stranger writers and editors-they always write articles that are pro-pot/drugs and could well be considered counter-cultural. How would Dominic make Hempfest better? Hempfest is whatever you make of it in many ways. You have to be there for the experience, and can't just bitch from the sidelines. If your heart isn't truly in hemp than you won't appreciate it. Understand that if Hempfest has become THE largest event in Seattle, than yes, it has created political change in the air just by assembling the masses. The city itself cannot deny the facts. Dominic has no real point to make, he just wants to be a little bitch. Hempfest is one of the best things for the movement-without it what else would we have? The Gay Pride Parade?

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Hempfest grows but gains critics

Posted By jamesk at 2009-08-21 12:03:44 permalink | comments

Tags: hempfest

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