War on Drugs slammed at the Seattle Hempfest
by Russ Zabel

August 26, 1998 - Queen Anne/Magnolia News - qanews@seanet.com

Fewer people were actually smoking marijuana at this year's Seattle Hempfest in Myrtle Edwards Park than last year, according to Seattle Police Department spokeswoman Christie-Lynne Bonner.

One felony and two misdemeanor arrests were made, 30 people smoking pot were identified and released, and 35 park-exclusion orders were issued, she said. "Overall, it was a pretty mellow event," Bonner added.

But the political rhetoric was anything but mellow as festival organizer Vivian McPeak slammed existing marijuana laws from the main stage between sets featuring several local bands.

"The current U.S. drug-law policies - commonly referred to as the War on Drugs - is a flagrant violation of basic human rights, sovereignty of the human body, and a national disgrace to the principles of free choice and human dignity," he said.

Describing it as a mockery of justice, McPeak also said those convicted of drug offenses sometimes face stiffer penalties than murderers or rapists and later lose lifelong privileges of student aid and welfare rights.

Warming up to the subject, McPeak also charged that excessive fines, jail sentences and forfeitures exclusively levied against drug offenders are unconstitutional and an unreasonable assault on the Bill of Rights.

"In fact," he added, "forfeiture laws are so liberally applied as to constitute theft in many cases. Victimless crimes are punished by the destruction of entire families, and (by) the incarceration of decent, non-violent, and often productive human beings."

The November Coalition, a Colville, Wash. based organization focusing on the plight of jailed drug offenders and their families, followed the same theme. November Coalition director Nora Callahan said the government tells people the drug war is being waged for the sake of the children.

"The Drug War is a fraud," Callahan said on the Ralph Seeley Memorial Stage. Seeley, a cancer patient and attorney who died last spring, unsuccessfully sued Washington State over his right to smoke marijuana to alleviate the debilitating effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

"There are 2.5 (two and a half) million children in this country with one or both parents in prison on drug charges." Callahan went on to say. She also said more drugs are crossing the borders into the United States than there were 30 years ago when the Drug War began.

Callahan also pointed to several state initiatives that would legalize medical use of marijuana - including I-692 in Washington - as evidence public opinion is shifting about the issue. "It's time we stop the war," she added.

Kevin Zeese, an East Coast attorney working with the November Coalition, said politicians are using drugs as a scapegoat. "Our kids are being robbed," he added. "Instead of the truth, we get DARE (Drug Awareness and Resistance Education)."

Zeese also noted the numbers of people in jail for drug offenses has skyrocketed in the last several years. In Texas, he said for example, 25 prisons have been built recently while only one university was. "The U.S. is becoming the prison nation of the world," Zeese said.

Other uses of hemp were promoted at the festival, as well. Hemp cookies, hemp clothing, hemp lollipops, and hemp soda pop were for sale, none of which contained the psychoactive ingredients of marijuana, the vendors said.

Although none was available, Hempen Ale - which uses marijuana seeds in it's ingredients - was one of the major sponsors of the Hempfest, and vice president of operations Steve Nordahl said the brewery supports industrial uses of hemp. As for medical or recreational use of marijuana, "We can't take any stand on that," he said.

The Washington Hemp Education Network, which also had a booth at the festival, provides information about both industrial and medical uses of marijuana.

David Edwards, a retired pathologist and doctor from Olympia staffing the booth, said he supports the medical use of marijuana. "I think it's barbaric that patients are being denied a safe and effective drug because of politics," he said of grass.

Edwards also faulted the government for denying that marijuana has medical uses while, at the same time, blocking any scientific studies that would prove otherwise.

A number of speakers at the Hempfest praised marijuana for it's medical effects, and they included McPeak, who had a firsthand account. His father - who was suffering from cancer - stayed with him for his final days, McPeak said.

"My father showed up weighing 85 pounds at six foot tall looking like a skeleton, looking like Death," McPeak said, "The first three days, he couldn't hold down an egg, and I knew he was going to die that week. I made my dad marijuana brownies," he said to a roar of approval from the crowd.

"I said, 'Dad, you're really skinny. This is not candy; this is medicine. Take one and see how it works." McPeak said he then went shopping and came back to find his father had eaten four big pieces. "You know what my father said to next?" McPeak asked the crowd. "He said, 'Take me to QFC.' "

His father bought pasta, sauce, and some ice-cream that day, came home, ate a full serving and kept it down, McPeak said. "And he lived three months longer than the doctors said was possible."

"I did it before, I'll do it again, and I encourage you to do it," McPeak said of providing marijuana to sick people. "I'm talking about easing suffering and saving life. Am I a criminal?" he asked the crowd. "Noooo," the crowd roared back.

"It's time to change the laws," McPeak said. "This is disgusting," he said of current drug regulations. "It's a disgrace; it's a national atrocity."

Article from Seattle's "Queen Anne/Magnolia News" of August 26th, 1998, front page and second page.

back

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 and The Berne Convention on Literary and Artistic Works, Article 10, news clippings are made available without profit for research and educational purposes.