July 10, 1998

HEMPFEST SET TO REAP REWARD OF LEGAL BATTLE

By Allison Thompson Times-Union staff writer

Scott Bledsoe has his hands full with last-minute details for tomorrow’s Hempfest at Jacksonville Beach. But he’s not so busy that he’ll ignore his plans for the future.

"I don’t know if we’re going to Jacksonville Beach again," Bledsoe said.

"Maybe we’ll go to Jacksonville and change the law there, too."

Bledsoe was referring to Jacksonville Beach’s special events policy, which Hempfest organizers - the Cannabis Action Network - said placed unreasonable financial and content-based requirements on them.

The organization, which focuses on the legalization of industrial hemp and marijuana for medical purposes, successfully fought the law in federal court.

Bledsoe expects at least 1,000 people at tomorrow’s festival, which is from noon to 8 p.m. at the SeaWalk Pavilion.

Several speakers, including an AIDS patient and a cancer patient who use marijuana to treat their illnesses and a woman who receives marijuana from the federal government as part of an experimental program, are scheduled to appear. At least five bands are to perform, Bledsoe said.

Organizers will be circulating a petition to amend the state constitution to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes. The petition must have 435,000 signatures by the summer of 2000 to put the issue on the ballot in November of that year.

Lt. Cliff Shank of the Jacksonville Beach Police Department said about four officers will be on duty during the daylong event. Police typically don’t see an increase in arrests on weekends when the city hosts a festival, and Shank hopes that trend continues tomorrow.

"I don’t expect any type of problem with it," he said.

Bledsoe said he is proud of the work the group did to change the Jacksonville Beach policy and said other controversial groups will benefit from the lawsuit. Among the requirements the group protested were ones calling for the event to be approved by the Special Events Committee and forcing the group to have insurance.

"I think that we made an inroad and we made history, so to speak, in making a change to the law," he said.

(Ed. note: The following is an interesting commentary from someone who understands the 1^st Amendment better than she understands the marijuana issue, but she is learning.)
July 11, 1998
From the Jacksonville Times Union
http://www.Jacksonville.com/aboutus/letters_to_editor.html

http://www.Jacksonville.com/

By Ronda Steinke-McDonald, Columnist

HEMP GROUP CLOUDED RIGHTS ISSUE

The Fourth of July came and went this year without the corresponding bang of fireworks. For some people it just wasn’t the same. For anyone feeling the day was too flat, it is time for a lesson on perspective. For many people Independence Day is just a picnic and pyrotechnics, maybe even a parade depending on where you live. Reflecting on the issues of liberty and the price paid by patriots to birth our nation seems too sentimental to some.

This weekend at the SeaWalk Pavilion there is evidence of how radical our Constitution and the Bill of Rights remain. The Hempfest, coordinated by the Cannabis Action Network (CAN), arrives in Jacksonville Beach today via a judicial ruling on the group’s First Amendment right to assemble and exercise its freedom of speech.

Although no one in Jacksonville Beach’s city government sought to persecute this group, the leaders of CAN employed their typical tactics. With a large chip on their shoulder, they rushed to the media wailing about the abridgment of their constitutional rights.

Well, it just didn’t happen like that.

They wanted to hold a festival. Before applying for a special events permit, or working through things in any fashion at the lower levels, CAN was having its day in court. The judge issued a 15-page legal opinion that included a disturbing message for those charged with running a city: Any group can exercise its right to assemble in your town, whenever it wants, and even if you fear that rioting and mayhem may follow, you must tolerate the gathering of even the most intolerant groups.

CAN is a body of believers for a repeal of the laws prohibiting the growth of hemp, whose by-product is marijuana. The group also advocates the medical use of marijuana. Many people will automatically dismiss CAN’s battle cry regarding hemp as a cloak concealing its real purpose: the legalization of recreational drug use.

One interesting inclusion is a Popular Mechanics article written in 1938, a year before the hemp prohibition went into effect. It reveals the incredible agricultural benefits of hemp in land reclamation and notes the amazing economical opportunities of this sturdy plant. It is possible that the prohibition of hemp in the 1930s occurred because it would have replaced other cash crops, like cotton, and could have put a dent in the timber industry’s profits because a hemp by-product can be substituted for wood pulp in paper. This site was a good source of political, economical and medical information on this complex issue.

Today is a good day to witness the exercise of free speech in the pavilion. You can exercise your view on the subject by adding your name to the numerous petitions CAN will be promoting or by avoiding the site if you are not in favor of the cause.

Hopefully, before any of us exercises our right to free speech, we will all keep America strong by having an open mind and an educated opinion. The blood of our patriot forefathers is at least worth that much effort.