# US OR: Hidden At Hempstalk / Way to go Oregon!



## triprey (Sep 15, 2007)

And the Federal government says we smokers are dangerous people and trouble makers who must be brought under control.

HA! Way to go Oregon!

C&P from Cannabis Culture Magazine

[SIZE=+2]*US OR: Hidden At Hempstalk*[/SIZE] 
by Rachel Schiff, (12 Sep 2007)  _Willamette Week Oregon_
At Hempstalk, stoners politely sneak off to  the woods while organizers and police celebrate their absence.  

The  dank, earthy scent of ganja lingered last weekend over Hempstalk at Sellwood  Riverfront Park, but at least blazing partakers were nowhere to be seen.   

The third annual celebration of all things hemp had been threatened  earlier this year when the Portland Parks and Recreation Bureau raised concerns  about the potential for pot smoking in the public park.  But the city then  reached agreement with Hempstalk organizer the Hemp and Cannabis ( THC--nudge,  nudge ) Foundation that pot and alcohol wouldn't be allowed ( see "The City and  the Giant Hempstalk," WW , Aug.  15, 2007 ).  

And so an estimated 15,000  to 20,000 frolicking children, lounging students and educators distributing  medical-marijuana literature packed the festival grounds last Saturday and  Sunday.  

Buds of the festival's namesake were hidden away, burning in  the pipes of stoners alternately coughing and giggling behind logs and bushes  deep in the nearby woods.  Turns out smokers needn't have hidden.   

"We're not here to bust people," said a police officer covering the  event who wished to remain unidentified.  

The day's protocol was simply  to tell roasters to put it out and smoke elsewhere.  However, most tokers were  already polite enough to sneak into the woods to avoid confrontation.  Between  coughs, a red-eyed Brandon Yount, 24, explained why he had hidden in a thicket  of trees.  

"There's kids out there," Yount said.  "I don't want to smoke  pot in front of them." 

THC president Paul Stanford was pleased with the  law-abiding attendees for abstaining from public burning and selling.  Stanford  attributes the absence of visible blazing this year to more police.  Last year,  when the event was at Waterfront Park, organizers paid the city for three police  officers.  This year, organizers paid for five cops.  

"The organizers  did a lot of work to make sure the attendees understood that smoking could not  be tolerated," said police Lt.  Bob Heimbach.  "In the hour I was there, I  didn't see anybody smoking." 

Heimbach claims there were only a handful  of instances in which his officers had to remind not-so-sneaky stoners of the  rules.  No festivalgoers were arrested.  

However, smoking was just one  way to indulge.  Picnic basket-toting vendors weaved stealthily among the crowd,  selling tempting "dankety-dank" buttery ganja brownies and cookies for $5  apiece.  

Corey Smith, 21, a student at Lewis&Clark College, says he  saw only a few people smoking, and many more eating.  

"There were lots  of basket carriers," he recalled.  

Sharon Place, a tiny 51-year-old  woman who wore a flower crown atop her waist-length gray curls, set up a booth  selling crystals and hemp kitsch.  "People come to these events just to buy  [pot] food," says Place, who owns Loving Spoonful, a hemp food business in  Eugene.  

Last weekend, her employees sold suspiciously green brownies  and cookies in grease-stained paper bags under the table in her booth.   

Said Place, her eyes flashing mischievously: "I can't disclose what else  is in the cookies besides hempseed." 


[SIZE=-1]_MAP posted-by: Jay  Bergstrom_[/SIZE]



*Pubdate:* Wed, 12 Sep 2007
*Source:*  Willamette Week (Portland, OR)
*Copyright:* 2007 City of Roses Newspaper  Company
*Contact:* [email protected]
*Website:* http://www.wweek.com/
*Details:* http://www.mapinc.org/media/499
*Bookmark:* http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
*Author:*  Rachel Schiff


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## bubbles (Dec 12, 2008)

Any activities in Salem like the one you had in August? How can a person get involved in the organizing and helping for such events?


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## NorCalHal (Dec 13, 2008)

bubbles said:
			
		

> Any activities in Salem like the one you had in August? How can a person get involved in the organizing and helping for such events?


 
Contract your local NORML office.


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