Not really. But last year a bunch of megastoners claimed that if voters passed Initiative 502 to legalize pot, there would be a frenzy of pot busts at this year's Hempfest. They said legalization would lead to the headline of this post.

Sound totally bananas—that legalizing pot would lead to more pot arrests? Well, it was total banana splits. But over at Toke of the Town, torch bearer of the anti-legalization stoner movement, they wrote a piece before last year's election called "Here's A Look At Hempfest 2013 If I-502 Passes In Washington." What did they predict?

"A Hempfest marred by dozens of busts for people just passing the joint at 4:20? Say it ain't so!" blogger and Seattle Weekly columnist Steve Elliott warned. He also ran the photo on the right with this caption: "Wanna see a lot more of this at Hempfest? You could next year, if I-502 passes."

The anti-legalization stoner went on:

As far as carrying around an ounce of marijuana and not being concerned with arrest? Unless you bought that ounce at a state-licensed store, you'd still get busted...

If that bag in your pocket contained a crumb over 40 grams—not that unusual for some of us—you could be busted for felony possession.

Doesn't sound very, er, legal anymore, now does it?

Oh, if you somehow avoid being thrown in the slammer for any of the other new crimes 502 will put on the books — God help you if you accidentally pass the joint to a minor, by the way — you'd better hope some redneck cop with an attitude about stoners doesn't pull you over on the way home.

Or worse yet, sit there waiting to shoot hippie fish in a barrel as they leave Hempfest, just pulling 'em over as they leave, and ordering blood tests. Easy as pie!

What a crock of shit. Hempfest opened this afternoon and it's happening on the downtown Seattle waterfront all weekend. I'm down here right now and here's what I see: Cops aren't busting anyone. They're not even ticketing anyone. What are the cops doing? As The Stranger first reported, tomorrow the cops plan to give out Doritos—to explain how the new pot-legalization law works.

Despite the bullshit claims, you don't need to buy your pot from a state-licensed store. Folks like Elliott were angry that I-502 didn't legalize more than an ounce. They were pissed I-502 didn't legalize person-to-person delivery, so technically—just like it was before legalization—giving people pot, even a joint, technically constitutes delivery. But it was never enforced that way, and, now that pot's legal, it's still not enforced that way. And meanwhile, these jackasses were white-knighting for giving pot to minors and driving high after leaving Hempfest.

But even today, after the legalization initiative passed, some people at Hempfest are still denying that legalization is real. Hempfest held press conference this morning in which Douglas Hiatt, a prominent pot attorney who opposed the marijuana legalization initiative last year, told reporters, "There’s not true legalization. You can still be busted at any moment." He said the Feds "don’t even need a reason why." (Never mind that feds don't handle possession cases and they have stayed out of the state's process for licensing growers and sellers). But Hiatt went on: "They can say we already got [legalization] done. But we didn’t get it done."

Uh huh. Tell that to the cops handing out Doritos.