Next time you have Joelle at Parks on the phone, pull the mayor out of your pocket and put him on the line with her, dude! He'll take care of this in a heartbeat!

P.S. that was just an easy mean joke. I know he wouldn't fit in anybody's pocket. A post-nuclear mutant kangaroo pouch, maybe.

it's nice to see stoners getting away from the stoner stereotype and actually DOING SOMETHING!

Um . . . I saw the photos you posted of last year's Hempfest. It sure didn't look like "free speech" had much of anything to do with it.

No prob.

We can always march on city hall and shut down the entire city for the weekend if need be.

and @1 is right, she likes to pull this shite ... call in the diplomats.

@4: Well I don't remember how many panel discussions had photo spreads in slog, but I can tell ya the free speech aspect was certainly a centerpiece of the event for my friends and I.

Freedom of speech my ass. I went a few years ago and all I saw was a bunch of dirtbag teens from Kent smoking spliffs and some poly-sci 101 jargoneering.

@8 LOL Brilliant

Poor stoners. Bless their hearts.

It's just the Man, man. He's trying to bring us down, man.

(puff)

Oh, was I supposed to turn in that paper thingie so the Man could tell me I can do what I'm already doing, man? That Ey-nit-i-a-tive.

Had the city acted in a timely fashion and voiced their concerns within the time frame stipulated by law none of this would be happening. It is the cities laze fair attitude that has pushed Hempfest into a corner and forced them to sue. How can you plan an event when the city sits on its laurels and does not issue your permit in the first place? Another great example of our government moving at its usual snail pace and costing us all money. Hempfest is a huge event. Think of all the tax revenue that we’ll be missing by NOT allowing a third day? How many hotels get filled? Parking lots maxed? Restaurants with lines out the doors? Not to mention over 400 vendors in the park, selling, charging sales tax, filling the city coffers!

This situation absolutely requires that a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part!

1. Hempfest has outgrown Myrtle Edwards. The organizers should have realized this years ago and moved to another venue.

2. Another thing they should have realized years ago is what a waste of time hempfest is. It is the state pep rally for high school drop outs.

@3: You mean like all getting together in one place to get stoned?

@14:

Name another park within the City limits that would hold that many people? Seattle Center is about the only one, and that option appears to have already been taken off the table.

And if what you say in your second paragraph were actually true, WA would be only slightly ahead of Mississippi in terms of our high school drop out rate. In other words: hyperbole is a fine thing, but easily debunked.

@4 Conduct can equal speech for purposes of constitutional protection. And political speech is more protected

just move it to greek row at UW, and it'll be slightly smaller and slightly less unruly than a typical homecoming weekend.

troll forum... do not post. Freedom Of Speech is everywhere at the Hempfest and if you don't hear it you're not aware in the first place and you need to pay more attention to whats going on. Smoking Pot is just one aspect of those trying to express their freedoms, but those who are speaking to all those smoking are talking about how to stand together and change the laws -- are you too ill-minded to understand that? Look around instead of just walking through and listen to what the people on the stage are saying and you may "get it"... trolls on every forum its sad.

Ladies and gentlemen, this year's Hempfest keynote speaker, @20.

@20: Riveting narrative, old bean!

no one at Hempfest is paid. Lazy Stoner does not apply to the over 1,000 volunteers who annualy make this event happen. It's odd to me that so many stones are being thrown at the stoners who are trying to do things to help society instead of sitting in a haze and doing nothing - like the majority of non cannabis users does. Why the bitterness? I'm truly curious. I personally just finished cancer treatment. Cannabis was a god send to me. i cannot express how greatly it helped me through treatment. It's like a light switch turning on and off the sickness that goes w/chemo and raditaiotn. hence my hipness to cannabis and yes, Hempfest. I view them a helping make the world more aware of the benefits that cannabis truly has.

Hempfest fucks up the bike path.

If there's not enough space, there's not enough space! Either scale down the event or find a better venue. Here's a notion: why not have it in a rural location? Or a large park out in the county?

Hempfest disgusts me.

Here we are, jailing a girl for jaywalking, and then letting mostly white middle class clowns take illegal drugs in a public park.

If you want to change the law, great, do so.

If you want to violate the law, then go to jail.

Let's see some fairness in the City of Seattle!

Ahh, the most selfish people, Drug addicts.

@25:

I presume a rural location has been ruled out, because: A of All) probably 90% of the people who attend come from Seattle and the immediate vicinity, and; B of All) that would entail thousands of vehicles driving to the site, which would create traffic problems, parking problems (which don't seem to be that much of a problem at the Myrtle Edwards locations), not to mention very environmentally unfriendly, which I believe is sort of the point of holding it in a central, urban location in the first place.

@27:

"WE" did NOT "jail a girl for jaywalking" - a Seattle LEO arrested her for assaulting a police officer - even you should be able to parse that difference.

And the Citizens of Seattle have already voted to mandate SPD put enforcement of marijuana possession laws at the BOTTOM of their priority list, which presumably also puts it below jaywalking.

For the Supreme Rule of The Universe, you sure don't seem to know very much about what's going on right under your own nose...

@ 27

Jaywalker lover!

@13 - TOGA!

@27 - Ah, so now I know you're John Bailo as you made a nearly identical comment on PubliCola. Thanks. :)