In Australia it’s seen as taboo, but many American states have embraced legal use of cannabis. This weekend, California, a state weeks away from legalisation, is hosting the US’s largest pot festival.
Known as the Emerald Cup, the two-day festival in Sonoma is for users, those wishing to learn more about marijuana, and those in the business (or who plan to be).
An estimated 30,000 people will pass through the gates, and you can buy the drug in various forms from vendors, including in desserts, oils and topical creams – as well as giant buds, and lots of them.
Organiser Timothy Blake says while the drug is still weeks away from legalisation in California, the state is already at the forefront of research and medical use. “We’re really leading this country in and leading this world in types of products and types of development,” he said.
Legal growers expect a boom in the next few years. Australia is still in the infancy of legalised cannabis for medicinal use. But organisers of California’s Emerald Cup say Australia should embrace marijuana.
“I say if you could get every terrorist doing cannabis you’d have nobody blowing anybody up,” Mr Blake said. He says he doesn’t know why governments would hesitate. “Really, there’s just so many benefits why wouldn’t you just bring it in?”
