Bush administration's drug policies fuel Hempfest stance
By Sandeep Kaushik, Boston Globe Correspondent | August 20, 2004
[Excerpts]
SEATTLE -- More than 150,000 denizens of the Northwest will gather this weekend in a waterfront park for Hempfest, billed as the largest promarijuana gathering in the country, to listen to speeches from the biggest names in the national drug-law reform movement between band sets and bong hits.
But this year, attendees will hear an explicitly partisan message, too: Organizers are pushing pot smokers to help elect Senator John F. Kerry president.
More than 20 outside groups have signed up to do voter outreach at the event, either staffing international booths or sending more than 100 canvassers through the crowd to promote voter registration. These include environmental, antiwar, and other activist groups, ranging from small groups to better-known entities such as the League of Women Voters.
The Kerry campaign also will have a presence at the event, with campaign volunteers staffing a booth and circulating among the crowd, organizers said.
"When it comes to the drug war, the Bush administration is a disaster," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which promotes harm reduction and treatment as alternatives to the current punitive approach to drug use. While Kerry seems more sympathetic on topics like medical marijuana, needle exchange, and reforming mandatory minimum sentencing statutes, "we know going in he will disappoint us," Nadelmann said.
Keith Stroup, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said that, "all of us recognize that there is no question that marijuana reform policies would be better served with someone else in office other than George Bush."
But he added that the movement is committed to reaching out to all political parties. "It would be a terrible mistake to let the [marijuana reform] issue be perceived as a Democratic issue," he said.