HEMPFEST VS BREWFEST

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Where Field Research Makes ALL The Difference.

The view from walking into a Hempfest: Lots of people stretched out asleep.

Tables selling brownies and cookies beside the walk up. The sleepers were on the grass behind them.

It looked like a scene from a Charlton Heston movie, one of those where he’s the last man alive on earth.

Is anyone offended by stoners catching a few Zs in the sun?

My fellow researcher and I passed by on our way to the beer garden. Maybe it was part of the program to scarf down a few brownies and cookies then stop and drop like Maureen Dowd in Colorado.

Had to wonder if any of the snoozers had heard the 911 call made by a police officer and his wife after they cooked up weed brownies and thought they were dying, or dead.

What is it about weed edibles that make you feel dead? Probably the same thing if you chug a quart of liquor. Ignorance of potency is the problem. One might make you feel dead, but alcohol poisoning will kill you.

The hempfest was calm and quiet, a place where old and young knew the drill.

On the other side of the coin, the brewfest was rowdy and loud. The day’s activities followed a simple routine:

Stand in line for beer.

Scream your guts out when a roar starts.

Get a beer and drink it.

Stand in another line for another beer.

Scream.

Like the hempfest isn’t for everyone, neither is the brewfest, but if I had to guess there were many who double dipped.

A beer garden at a hempfest is clear evidence of stacking, but hemp at a brewfest?

That ration may change eventually, but for now open weed is still illegal. You’ll know it’s changed when you’re standing in line for a beer and you’re under a big smoke cloud dropping from the tent’s peak.

Which one, brewfest or hempfest, is the best choice for a family event? Neither. Get your pals and make it a day. One of you is the designated driver, the rest need to maintain an even strain.

But let’s get down to basics. The hempfest vs brewfest comparison isn’t about actually going out, it’s living in a society that allows both. Either you approve, or you’re a victim of Reefer Madness.

Beer, or alcohol, has a proven track record of destruction. Lives ruined, families broken, prisons full of offenders.

Weed has a proven track record too, but it goes the other way. Lives are ruined, families broken, and prisons full of offenders, but stoners take a different track. The law cracks down on weed and alcohol, but one is for possession, cultivation, intent to distribute, the usual Drug War offenses.

Alcohol law comes in after the fact, after you’ve done something under the influence, like driving.

Hempfest vs brewfest is a choice between the new and the old, the rookies and the veterans. Hempfest seemed full of people ready to embrace a chance to be with ‘their people.’ That they were all comatose is beside the point.

Brewfest is full of an older crowd who know the ropes. If someone drops out at a brewfest, they have back-up. At the hempfest is just looked like an expected result.

Final conclusions: It’s not about whether you’re a stoner or a drunk, it’s about self control. If you want to go until you pass out, stay home.