VIENNA TWP, MI — A new festival in Genesee County aimed to normalize medical marijuana use.
The two-day Electric Kanna Karnival at Auto City Speedway brought music, carnival rides and games, but also vendors offering medicinal marijuana and education for people utilizing the substance for their ailments.
Brandi Rice-Simpson, an employee at Hemphill Wellness Center in Flint, was one of several vendors on hand for those with medical marijuana cards to show out different strains and educate themselves through seminars.
“I think it kind of helps with the stigma, especially in events that are kind of mixed like this where you have people that are not medicated and medicated,” she said. “Some people around are probably your typical stoners, but a lot of people are here trying to figure out how to actual medicate themselves.”
Organizer Tony Butler previously said he wanted to create an event that was not marijuana oriented but instead marijuana friendly.
We are just doing this to let people know medical marijuana, it doesn’t have to be separated. We can do this and we all have to be adults. That’s why we made it an 18 over event,” he previously commented. “There’s no reason a guy drinking a beer can’t be right next to a guy smoking a joint.”
Music played a large part of the event, including names such as Ultraviolet Hippopotamus, The Werks, DJ Lethal, Toolology, Robb Banks, Lethal Wilson, as well as Flint artists Tunde Olaniran and Lyric Da Queen.
Rice-Simpson noted medical marijuana also provides those with a prescription an alternative to pills and other treatments such as opioids.
“I have a lot of people that come to me and they’re on pills and their organs are shutting down,” she said. “But they’re scared to get off them because they think they’re going to die of their other ailments. That’s what I’m saying about getting people educated, not to be afraid, and step outside the box.”
credit:mlive.com
