This weekend, NORML Board, Staff, and Activists from both coasts and everywhere in-between will converge on the waterfront between Centennial and Olympic Sculpture Parks in Seattle, Washington, for the twentieth anniversary Seattle Hempfest.
Visit our NORML / HIGH TIMES Booth! We are next to the rocky Puget Sound waters in the Stone Village south of the Share Parker Main Stage. You won’t have trouble finding us – this year we have a seven-foot green helium balloon with the NORML logo to guide you to our booth.
We will be bringing you exclusive VIP coverage of Hempfest live on The NORML Network. Next week we’ll bring you recorded video on NORMLtv and audio on our NORML SHOW LIVE podcast. Features will include Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Washington Representatives Roger Goodman and Mary Lou Dickerson, PBS travel guru Rick Steves, federal medical marijuana patient Elvy Musikka, legendary grower Ed Rosenthal, Weed Wars star and Harborside director Steve DeAngelo, among many of the interviews and speeches we will bring to you. We’ll also be backstage with the Kottonmouth Kings, The Accused, the Herbivores, and all the great bands than make Hempfest rock, with exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews.
NORML Board, Staff, and Activists Schedule (UPDATED Thu) (click for complete schedule, subject to change, see Hempfest for final schedule). Our NORML Activists will be speaking on all four main stages to over 300,000 attendees over three days to educate the public and the politicians about the urgent need to legalize cannabis hemp in America. (Click “Full Story” below to get more details…)
- We will have backstage live coverage at the Share Parker Main Stage through our NORML SHOW LIVE Stickam feed. Visit http://live.norml.org to watch the feed. Create an account on Stickam and join our live chat. Follow @NORMLNet on Twitter to get the latest live stream updates of guests and features.
- We will have roaming coverage of the vendors, stages, speakers, and panels recorded on video that will be uploaded later to NORMLtv. Visit http://youtube.com/natlnorml to see the final edited versions of the videos. Our Outreach Coordinator, Russ Belville, will also be posting raw cell-phone video in real-time. Visit http://www.twitvid.com/videos/radicalruss to see the videos and follow @RadicalRuss on Twitter for video updates.
- We will also be recording many of the speakers and panels for replay next week on the NORML SHOW LIVE podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes and find all the recordings available for download through the Stash Blog at http://stash.norml.org.
FRIDAY
- 12:30pm – NORML Outreach Coordinator Russ Belville @ Hemposium (Media Panel)
- 2:45pm – NORML Legal Committee’s Doug Hiatt @ McWilliams Stage
- 3:40pm – Miami Valley NORML Director Tonya Davis
- 3:40pm – NORML Legal Committee’s Leland Berger @ Seeley Stage
- 3:45pm – NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre @ McWilliams Stage
- 3:50pm – NORML Advisory Board’s Rick Steves @ Main Stage
- 4:05pm – NORML Legal Counsel Keith Stroup @ Seeley Stage
- 4:10pm – NORML Board & Oregon NORML’s Madeline Martinez @ Seeley Stage
- 4:35pm – NORML Board’s William Panzer @ McWilliams Stage
- 5:00pm – Doug Hiatt @ Seeley Stage
- 5:35pm – Leland Berger @ McWilliams Stage
- 5:40pm – MassCann/NORML’s Keith Saunders @ Main Stage
- 5:45pm – Washington NORML’s Kevin Oliver @ Main Stage
- 6:35pm – Russ Belville @ Main Stage
- 8:00pm – All of the above and more at the VIP Speaker’s Social @ Hemposium (ticket required)
SATURDAY
- 12:40pm – NORML Legal Committee’s Jeff Steinborn and Leland Berger @ Hemposum (Know Your Rights Panel)
- 12:45pm – Tonya Davis @ McWilliams Stage
- 1:30pm – Doug Hiatt @ Hemposium (Patients out of Patience Panel)
- 1:50pm – Jeff Steinborn @ Main Stage
- 3:40pm – Rick Steves @ Main Stage
- 3:40pm – Keith Saunders @ Seeley Stage
- 3:45pm – Keith Stroup @ McWilliams Stage
- 4:00pm – Madeline Martinez @ McWilliams Stage
- 4:45pm – Doug Hiatt @ Main Stage
- 5:35pm – Keith Saunders @ McWilliams Stage
- 6:35pm – Madeline Martinez @ Main Stage
- 6:45pm – Allen St. Pierre @ Main Stage
SUNDAY
- 12:40pm – California NORML’s Dale Gieringer @ Hemposium (Beyond Prohibition Panel)
- 1:30pm – Rick Steves @ Hemposium (extended remarks)
- 1:40pm – William Panzer @ Main Stage
- 2:10pm – Madeline Martinez and Tonya Davis @ Hemposium (National Activism Panel)
- 3:35pm – Jeff Steinborn @ Seeley Stage
- 3:40pm – Keith Stroup @ Main Stage
- 3:40pm – Kevin Oliver @ Seeley Stage
- 3:45pm – Russ Belville @ Seeley Stage
- 3:50pm – Rick Steves @ Main Stage
- 3:55pm – Allen St. Pierre @ Seeley Stage
- 4:45pm – Dale Gieringer @ Main Stage
- 5:40pm – Kevin Oliver @ McWilliams Stage
- 6:40pm – Russ Belville @ McWilliams Stage
This is great for the West Coast.
Where on the East Coast, like somewhere in the Northeast, would the authorities be the least prohibitionist and allow an East Coast Hempfest?
Please move it up to the first or second week of August to escape the dog days of summer and the beginning of the school year if you expect people to travel from miles away.
Vermont? New Hampshire? Massachussetts?
[Paul Armentano responds: The Massachusetts affiliate of NORML organizes the Boston Freedom rally every year. This is the largest and longest running such event on the east coast. For more information, see: http://bostonfreedomrally.com/.%5D
Hi All You Herbalists
The Old Man is looking for a money bomb on August 20
If you can send $4.20, lets send this old man to DC with an axe and a sword
Hope you are all in The Light
Dear Nic,
“President Ron Paul.”
Anyone can write that and wonder “what if,” but are you ready to turn it into a reality?
Because now is the time.
Last Saturday, Ron Paul finished the Iowa Straw Poll with the fourth highest vote total in the Poll’s history. His second-place ranking came only 152 votes behind the winner, who gave out over a thousand more tickets and forced people to vote before getting to watch their campaign’s big name, “free entertainment.”
As the media focuses on whether or not a certain candidate from Texas can get support, this candidate from Texas DID bring people together in historic numbers – and in the Straw Poll winner’s own home state.
He more than doubled the tally for the third place candidate, who spent over $1 million according to reports and had been dubbed a “frontrunner” by everyone except grassroots Americans.
This campaign is about more than spreading a message. It’s about more than furthering our revolution, which will happen no matter the result.
What we showed this weekend is that this campaign is about electing Ron Paul President of the United States and taking back our country.
My dad’s birthday is coming up on August 20th, and I can’t think of a better follow-up to his amazing finish in Ames than receiving a strong message from his supporters on that day that they are ready to WIN this race with him.
Can I count on you to let my dad know how much you appreciate his work and want to help him win the nomination (and the White House) by participating in the campaign’s August 20th Money Bomb in honor of his birthday?
If so, please click here to pledge to contribute at http://www.RonPaul2012.com on August 20th.
Four years ago this month, Ron Paul was at 1% in the polls and took 5th place in the Iowa Straw Poll.
Now, as poll after poll demonstrates, he is a top-tier candidate to win not only the Republican nomination, but to take on and defeat President Obama next November.
Voters are fed up with status quo, big government politicians, and Ron Paul is surging because he speaks directly to their hopes for the future: getting government out of the way and off their backs so the American people can once more be free to make this nation prosperous, strong, and respected around the world.
The Iowa Straw Poll proved yet again that Ron Paul can turn passion and enthusiasm into on-the-ground success.
But to win this race, our campaign has to contend with a powerful establishment machine that is pulling out all the stops to guarantee voters only get their side of the story.
If they had their way, Americans would never hear about Ron Paul at all.
So the Ron Paul campaign is prepared to fight back, with a plan that includes running tv and radio ads, sending direct mail to registered voters, installing more top-notch, experienced staff in the key states and equipping them with every resource necessary to win, and sending my dad, me, and other campaign spokesmen all across the nation to meet with the voters one-on-one.
But to fund these efforts, it’s more important than ever that Ron Paul has your support.
Please pledge to donate to the Ron Paul Birthday Money Bomb at http://www.RonPaul2012.com on August 20th.
We don’t get – or want – the special interests’ money. They can hand over their fat cat-provided funds to candidates willing to become whatever the establishment wants them to be.
We are supported by the everyday Americans who have fallen victim to out-of-control government.
The troops who are being torn from their families to fulfill the United Nations’ globalist dreams all across the world.
The business owners who spend countless hours worrying about being in compliance with thousands of pages of big government’s useless bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo.
The parents who are forced to spend fewer of their hard-earned dollars providing for their kids so Washington can fund programs and schemes that go against every moral fiber in their beings.
Ron Paul stands for the values that made America great and can restore its prosperity – freedom, individual responsibility, and common sense.
And his message is resonating like never before.
I’ve seen first-hand how much your support means to my dad.
It encourages, motivates, and inspires him to keep speaking truth to power.
So I hope you will let him know that you’re in this race to win by contributing to the Ron Paul Birthday Money Bomb on August 20th.
Ron Paul is the only candidate who represents a choice – not an echo – from the big government, big spending status quo in Washington, D.C.
He is the only candidate who can bring Americans from all backgrounds and parties – even those who had given up on making their voices known – together to make real changes and Restore America Now.
And with your help, we’re going to make sure every voter hears his message.
Thank you for your hard work to make “President Ron Paul” a reality, and I look forward to standing alongside you over the coming year to put Ron Paul in the White House.
For Liberty,
Rand Paul
P.S. Ron Paul’s amazing finish in the Iowa Straw Poll proves that he is in this campaign to win it all.
His birthday is just around the corner, and the campaign is holding a Money Bomb so grassroots Americans can show how much they appreciate his work and want him in the White House.
Can I count on you to pledge to give whatever you are able at http://www.RonPaul2012.com on August 20th?
Every dollar will go toward expanding his top-tier campaign and winning this race.
Paid for by Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee
http://www.ronpaul2012.com
When will the madness STOP?! The facts are in front of the eyes, physical, of the prohibs yet they fail to see and act for the will of the people. It’s most def a mind game that prohibs are playing. That’s all they have left. With no facts to back up their position, now is when the “main event” takes place. Full fledged attack on the opposition. How much control are we, the people, willing to give to those who do not have our best interests at heart?
We are indeed the restricted. Restricted from the life that we want to live. Restricted from the value of what life has to offer. Restricted from the truth! Who do you think you are?! You’re not my brothers/sisters keeper/guardian/defender/ally/protagonist. You’re my brothers/sisters adversary/opponent/foe/antagonist. Corruption, greed, control is what the prohibition of cannabis is about and for the prohibs to continue on this path of “We’re doing this for you because we know what’s best for you” is disparaging. It’s all done for other reasons other than for themselves? For “the kids” usually even though their not given the FACTS either just told NO. Of course it is……That’s what they want you to believe. It’s all about keeping that firm grasp on the psyche of the multitudes with no credible FACTS to substantiate this unexplainable hard core stance on a substance that is far and away less toxic than alcohol, tobacco, pharms, and farce media exploitations and far and away more beneficial to society.
Don’t let FACTS get in the way when theirs death, destruction and misery to perpetrate. I wouldn’t want to be on that side when the chips start falling. Which they are! This is a topic that should have been discussed many years ago and given consideration to the FACT(s) that cannabis is an extremely valuable commodity that has numerous uses and can be cultivated individually, for anyone interested in it’s purpose. Can’t corner that market can you BIG AlcTobPharms/Paper industry/Synthetics/Oil? I will continue to play the game but don’t get upset when you discover that not only can I play the game but I’m much better at it than you. They only thing that you possess over me is the $$$ and even that is proving futile in providing info on who’s voice is heard and how much it costs to have it heard. When the day comes, and it will, when I can sit down, with others, and enjoy the properties that this beneficial commodity has to offer I will look back, smile and know that it was both sides that allowed my personal freedom and liberty to exist. Now that’s something I can respect and would be willing to fight and die for. Stay the course.
Thanks, Paul. I had something in mind that was outside the academic year, such as in the summer, you know something I could actually get off of work a week or so for. Same goes for all most of the cannabis conferences. They all seem to be so far away as to be not affordable or the worst possible time of the year for me to get off of work.
How did the Rand Paul thing get on here. I have doubts about his dad, but none about Rand. Ron Paul is against FEDERAL marijuana laws but supports state prohibition. Rand on the other hand is the Benedict Arnold of weed. First he’s for it, then he’s against it. Check out his website, not a word about weed, like the above donation pitch. I think Gary Johnson is the better protest vote, although he was a two term Govenor and I think at least that MJ is still illegle in New Mexico. I think Gary is pro weed while Ron is just anti Federal. Bye the way what happened to the TEA POT party? Anyone?????
ugh… just my opinion but I think these “hempfests” hurt more than help.
[Editor’s note: Why would hundreds of thousands of citizens coming out publicly in favor of ending Cannabis Prohibition be hurtful for reform?]
I wish I could attend. Keep spreading the truth about the benign herb cannabis! Seattle you rock!
Obama won by electora vote with broken promises’s. Could Ron Paul do the same thing? Only thing different I believe RP will follow thru with his promises. There are 20 million m users out there that should vote. Wake up Rand Paul, use the same game Obama did, reach out to the internet young voters, save your stamp money.
[Editor’s note: Ron Paul is never going to be elected president, let alone win the GOP nomination for such…and his son is not a declared candidate.]