…there are many parts of hemp I don’t understand.

One of them is Hempfest, a giant two-day advertisement for a product that’s not legally available.

Musicians (such as the Kottonmouth Kings, above), orators, performance artists, and T-shirts lauded the praises of this supposed miracle industrial-agricultural product to an audience that seemed not to care one whit about industrial agriculture, but who seemed quite interested in chemical hedonism.

As we should’ve learned in the ’60s, hedonism makes a great pretext for a socio-political movement, but a lousy basis for actually running one. It’s hard to get things done that need to be done if you’re relying on people who’ve joined in to have leisurely fun.

Just because I think the stuff shouldn’t be illegal, it doesn’t necessarily mean I like it. (I think traditional haggis, made from organ meats, should become legal in the U.S., but I might never care to eat one.)

And besides, I loathe the smell of patchouli and think “jam bands” can create some of the dullest music on the globe.

One thing I do approve of heartily: Dumping the current political regime, and for many reasons beyond its prosecution of the “drug war.”

I might not go to Hempfest again. But I’d love to go to a Shempfest!