Hemp convention brings focus an

Manufacturers looking for an “in”

Jim Chliboyko

 

The edgy guy from New York manically
struts in front of the display, gesturing
like one of those Price is Right girls, and
says of his formidable army of teddy
bears, “They're pretty fucking cute,
aren't they?”

Not the typical thing you'd hear from
someone essentially selling dolls for
children, but these aren't typical teddy
bears; they are made entirely from hemp.

The Aware Bear was only one of the
things on sale at the Second Annual
Hemp Symposium held last month at
the Vancouver Convention Centre.
Among the other products were hemp
beer, hemp sandals, hemp snowboarder
gear, hemp chocolate, hemp oil, a hemp-
industry sponsored racing team, hemp
haute coiture, hemp smocks, hemp
skirts, hemp dresses, hemp shirts, hemp
paper and hemp literature. It was a
celebration for this versatile “aloha” of
material. Even Woody Harrelson showed
up to show his support for the fledgling
industry, saying a few words to the
crowd gathered for the hemp fashion
show.

The delegates were from places other
than New York and Hollywood, too.
Poland and Germany had a presence
there, as did a healthy sampling of the
American states; Hawaii, Kentucky,
Connecticut and the aforementioned
New York among them. But wherever
they came from, the issues were roughly
the same: cost and mainstream accept-
ance.

“These are fine, these get-togethers,
but really, they’re just circle-jerks. We

have to get out into the mainstream if
we want to get anything done,” said
Dan Glass, creator of the Aware Bear.

Arthur Hanks, co-editor of Commer-
cial Hemp and one of the symposium’s
main organizers (and former Other Press
features coordinator), said there are
other ways to gauge the success of the
symposium. “A lot of it is intangibles,”
he said. “Some made contacts, some
made sales... It is like a hotbox for the
industry.”

Others, no matter what product they
were hawking, echoed Glass’ sentiment.

Heather Gifford had come from
Lexington, Kentucky, where she
volunteers for the Kentucky Hemp
Museum and Library. “We go around
the state, talk to people, let them know
what hemp is. A lot of people don’t even
know,” she said.

Gifford did say that among the in-
crowd, hemp is very popular. “Most of
our retailers would actually like to get
more product. That's the thing that’s
holding them back, availability.”

Eric Rieman thinks the change will
need to begin at the retail level. “It is all
about getting hemp out of the hemp
shops and into the mainstream shops. I
know hemp shops don’t want to hear
that, but that’s what it is coming to,”
says Rieman, delegate for Washington
State—based Board ’Em, a line of hemp
skateboarding and snowboarding
fashions. “The whole key is going to be
getting into the snowboard, skateboard
mainstream markets,” he says of his
unique water repellant fashions.

Rieman sounds like he knows what he
is talking about. He also sounds, like

 

many others on the convention floor,
enthused. “We're actually going to make
some money this year,” he predicts. “We
have a total of 55 retail shops selling our
stuff... But a lot of them aren't totally
convinced on the hemp thing, they've
seen a lot of shoddy workmanship.”

Rieman is in a position, though, to
cash in on hemp’s bad boy image, an
image solidified by Ross Rebagliati’s run-
in with the Japanese law a week earlier,
ironically the same image that the ”
industry is trying to cast off. “A lot of
people who buy our stuff smoke the
weed, and that’s good for us. “Look at all
the qualities it has, and it comes from a
plant we like to smoke, too. Let’s get this
stuff, let’s wear this stuff....’”

Meanwhile, Kentucky Hemp
Museum's Gifford talks of getting hemp
growing in southern fields. “Hopefully,
with Canada going commercial [the
federal government's efforts to stimulate
a domestically grown hemp industry],
it’s really gonna help. Ir'll maybe show
the legislators that it can actually be
done, y’know, people aren’t getting high
in the fields. That’s what they have to
learn, and they're resisting that knowl-
edge.”

As for the mainstreaming of hemp,
Commercial Hemp’ Hanks said that the
products were evolving, “from being
hemp products in hemp specialty stores
to good products in mainstream stores.”

And he added a prediction of his own.
“The [hemp-based] food will probably
make a big mainstream impact. People
are drawing parallels between hemp food
and the soybean industry when it was
starting out.”

  

A friend

Homan Sanaie

 

This from the mouth of DCSS President
Jaimie McEvoy saying how he got
elected as DCSS President, “I’ve got a
phone list of one hundred and fifty of
my friends and I just called all my
friends and told them to vote. Which is
what I did last time, right, and I got
elected that way.” Is that how the
democratic process is going to work at

op.douglas.bc.ca

in need...

$128,000 for one year.

If you whine and complain about
having to pay for the CFS and you
didn’t vote, you're a moron! If you voted
No for the CFS then you have a right to
bitch about how the CFS is screwing
with your life. Even if you abstained that
means you got involved in the electoral
process.

The YES vote has won and Douglas
College is now part of the CFS. We will

“[’ve got a phone list of one hundred
and fifty of my friends and | just called
all my friends and told them to vote.
Which is what | did last time, right,
and | got elected that way.”

Jaimie McEvoy, DCSS President

Douglas College? Some guy high up
there in Douglas College student politics
gets his friends to vote him in. That
sucks! The students of Douglas College
shouldn't take this. That’s why you
should have voted in the CFS [Canadian
Federation of Students] Referendum.
Only about 16% of students voted in
the referendum. If you voted Yes, No, or
abstained at least you were involved in
the electoral process. Sixteen hundred
students voted and now you and I will
have to help pay $160,000 per year even
if you didn’t vote. That is the second
highest fee for any school in BC [SFU is
number one]. Did you know that the
CES spends over $80,000 a year on
conferences and meetings? That is half of
what it costs Douglas College to be in
the CFS. Three CFS employees split

annual Hemp Symposium

But whatever the manufacturers find
daunting, Hanks proclaimed the

symposium itself a success. “This is

“fucking cute,” all hemp bear on display at the second _ Sim Chliboyko photo

owe money from the last time we were
part of the CFS in 1991-92. Instead of
owing $160,000 this year, we will owe
money from the time we left in 1992.
We start paying fees for the CFS in the
summer semester.

Under CFS bylaws, Section F in the
Policy Management of the Student
Lobby of the CFS states “that the major
role of the student press is to act as an
agent of social change, assisting students
in understanding and mobilizing against
exploitation and injustice wherever it
may be found, and emphasizing the
rights and responsibilities of the
student.” That’s what I’m doing, telling
you what’s going on.

If you didn’t vote you have let a small
number of people dictate what will
happen to ten thousand students.

d Woody

 

happening.... People are puraped,” he
concluded.

 

4 March 4, 1998 The Other Press