Grass-Roots Campaign Virtues Of Hemp Extolled For Crowd On Capitol Steps

They swayed to the wail of electric guitars, festooned their hair with apparently fake marijuana leaves, and extolled the virtues of hemp to all within earshot.

“Hemp Education Day” drew several hundred to the state capitol steps Monday, and the relaxed crowd seemed as interested in hugging and soaking up the sunshine as in listening to speakers demand that marijuana be legalized.

“They want to put each and every one of you in prison. We’re just saying, ‘Hey, man, take some time for us.’ Leave us alone. We’re not harming anyone,” Gideon Israel, the leader of a Thurston County commune, told the crowd.

Several vendors were hawking clothing they said was made of hemp, the fiber of marijuana plants. One woman offered gooey cookies she said were derived from hemp. “There’s no THC and they’re yummy,” she assured passers-by, few of whom accepted her offer.

“The hemp for these clothes had to come from China because you can’t grow hemp in this country,” explained Bruce Mullican of Eugene, Ore., who was selling hats, shirts and other wares. He said the government ban on marijuana growing was repressing an important industry. “I’m convinced this is a huge industry, food, fiber, medicines all could come from hemp production.”

Mullican, who was clad in hemp-fiber clothing, allowed as how marijuana smoking should be legalized too.

Bob Owen, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor and treasurer of the Washington Hemp Education Network, delivered a campaign speech, drawing applause when he promised to support legalization of marijuana. Dressed in coat and tie, he stood out in a crowd that favored tie-dyed shirts and sandals.

Before the speech, Owen said he was well aware that mainstream voters might not agree with him. “What difference should that make?” he asked, noting that society at one time didn’t want to free slaves or give women the right to vote either.

“You have to stand up for what’s right,” Owen, a state worker from Olympia, said.

His Democratic opponent, state Sen. Brad Owen of Shelton, said his rival of the same last name failed to give “the other side of the story.”

“There has been a lot of emotional and physical suffering from marijuana,” he said. “And there’s no question but that it is a gateway to harder drugs,” he said.

Capitol security officials on bicycles kept watch on the crowd, which was peaceful.