Tag Archives: medical marijuana

“HempenRoad: Activism in OlyWa” Uncle Weed Storytime for Cannaverse Club

Blurb: In the historic kura barn studio in provincial Japan, digging into the archive from 1996/7 documentary film “HempenRoad”, Uncle Weed shares the backstories of the project with a binder full of artifacts, reviews, plans, scripts, etc

Then plays a “producer’s cut” of a segment from Olympia, Washington featured Dennis Peron on the road promoting ground-breaking California Prop 215 at the Capitol Dome – along with diligent activists out the rain and Lt Governor candidate Bob Owen of WHEN. 

Next a visit to a pioneering Internet Service Provider (OlyWa) for a peek at a (now vintage) data center with modems(!) and remarks about the importance of the (new) word wide web for disseminating information about cannabis.

Finally, riffs about how the film was produced with analog and digital tools, the importance of “showing up” and working with all parties to effectuate positive change and a personal manifesto of sorts about UW’s objectives and edicts when becoming a dedicated activist in 1990. 

Questions welcome about the film – segments from Vancouver, Victoria, Portland, Eugene and more to come – as well as logistical inquiries about making creative projects.

Gist: I’m collaborating with some pals on a new Cannabis Community project – its all metavers-y and NFTs and such as and while that’s not my forte, sharing stories from rambles, campaigns, and creative riffs is (fer sure) so here’s the firestarter video to spark the project series. Links below to get in on the hi-jinks. So happy to be getting studio barn set-up with all the wires, dongles, adapters, extenders, lights and mics. Catch all the topics in the riff below and come on along!

Join in the hijinks at the #uncle-weed-storytime on the Cannaverse Club discord server and/or https://Cannaverseclub.com & Cannaverse Club Youtube

#AlwaysBeKind

HempenRoad / promo postcard, 1996-7

HempenRoad: promo postcard, 1996

A promotional postcard for the HempenRoad film project Made while we were still in production, printed on 100% hemp cardstock paper (from Ecosource in Victoria ,BC) and mailed all over to wrangle up support and excitement about the project.

HempenRoad: promo postcard, 1996

Note: the toll-free 888-UNC-WEED phone number and the Olywa.net/Uncleweed web address (before there was a domain).

The card itself was laid out from various mixed-media elements (including Eiji (rip) and I snapped by Ben Livingston i think) using an early version of Photoshop on a pirate mission at a Kinko’s (prob with Pete Word).

There is another glorious postcard and duplex paper made after the film was released which eventually (hopefully) will turn up (and possibly a higher-res scan of this one).

Also: recently resurrected the film as ” chapters” + made an IMDb page and surfacing artefacts as I find them… including poster art and other items – and there are production journals for your perusal to meet pioneers and unique products.

HempenRoad / chapter 6: Olympic Peninsula / Port Townsend (bonus)

This segment of Hempen Road documentary is a bit different so calling a “bonus” clip… rather than interviews with hemp cannabis pioneers, activists, entrepreneurs etc, this one features my rather poetic (according to HempWorld magazine’s review) soliloquies about broken promises to land, societies and neglect of culture along with Eiji’s stellar mixed-media cinematography and montage editing as we worked our way up and around the glorious Olympic peninsula with a stop to gaze at the albatross of Satsop nuclear chimneys, struggling and damaged reservation land.

Then comes a stop in scenic and absurdly charming Victorian-era port town appropriately called Port Townsend (as this was as far as sailing ships could make it before steam power came along and made the the place irrelevant for decades – now its bustling, then was perfect…) for a look around.

Note: we filmed a segment with PT Hemp Co (you’ll notice their 2nd floor store in the clip) but wasn’t able to use and now the footage is “lost” in a shoebox somewhere due to Eiji’s untimely demise.

Then, head off towards Vancouver via various ferries for the “big finish” of the filming and film with 16mm B&W footage of seagulls winging through the air. Sigh.

Another note: music in this clip are both faves as well. The spacey “Ry Cooder-esque” one is “Desert in my Toenails” (or something like that) by Chris Sullivan who i knew in Utah, he was from Kentucky, played all sorts of instruments, left our band to catch crabs in Alaska and still rambles with various bands and places. The outro song is Chris Jacobsen who i knew in Guam, a Rhode Islander boat cap’n with a zany sense of humour but an air of melancholy around him. I’ve tried to track him down to no avail. Notably, both of these were captured from cassette tapes, recorded on 4 tracks (still have the originals i think). 

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Artifacts, Background, Technical notes at:

* Daveostory – https://daveostory.com/category/film-vids-docs/hempenroad-documentary/

* IMdb – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9839016/

View full-length documentary at:

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  • Filmed 1996
  • Released 1997
  • Digitized 2007
  • Chapter Edit 2020

thanks for Pete Word and Bread Rees for various archiving assists

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Additional chapters include:

  • Victoria, BC, Canada
  • Olympia, WA, USA
  • Eugene, OR, USA
  • Portland, OR, USA
  • Seattle, WA, USA
  • Vancouver, BC, Canada

with entrepreneurs, activists, scientists, farmers, pioneers etc.

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With Special Dedication To:

  • Misa and Naoyo
  • Robert Lunday (rip)
  • Eiji Masuda (rip)

Fondly, daveo / Okayama, Japan, April 2020

HempenRoad / chapter 5: Seattle (1996/7)

Hemp cannabis pioneer entrepreneurs in Seattle, Washington, USA are featured in this chapter of 1996/7 documentary film in which host/producer Dave Olson (hello) visits with interesting characters including:

  • David Edwards, Earthgoods
  • S. David Stunda, Earthgoods
  • Rob Jungman, Manastash
  • Khamphy S., Panther Manufacturing 
  • Tom Cluck, Belltown Hempery
  • Jill Etherington, Belltown Hempery
  • Kristina Lynch, Belltown Hempery
  • Fred Martin, Belltown Hempery

along with scenes of a snowboard “big air” contest and Seattle landmarks including the now-demolished Kingdome, Pike Street Market, Showbox theatre, Lusty Lady and Hammering Man.

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Artifacts, Background, Technical notes at:

* Daveostory – https://daveostory.com/category/film-vids-docs/hempenroad-documentary/

* IMdb – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9839016/

View full-length documentary at:

  • Youtube – https://youtu.be/-zph6xDAc-g
  • Vimeo – https://vimeo.com/122077349
  • Reelhouse – https://www.reelhouse.org/uncleweed/hempenroad/

+++

  • Filmed 1996
  • Released 1997
  • Digitized 2007
  • Chapter Edit 2020

thanks for Pete Word and Bread Rees for various archiving assists

+++

Additional chapters include:

  • Victoria, BC, Canada
  • Olympia, WA, USA
  • Eugene, OR, USA
  • Portland, OR, USA
  • Olympic Peninsula, WA, USA
  • Vancouver, BC, Canada

with entrepreneurs, activists, scientists, farmers, pioneers etc.

+++

With Special Dedication To:

  • Ralph Seeley, esq (rip)
  • Robert Lunday (rip)
  • Eiji Masuda (rip)

Fondly, daveo / Okayama, Japan, March 2020

HempenRoad / chapter 4: Olympia (1996/7)

Hempen Road / chapter 4: Olympia (1996/7)

Hemp cannabis pioneers and activist in Olympia, WA, USA (ala OlyWa) are featured in this chapter of 1996/7 documentary film in which host/producer Dave Olson (hello) visits with interesting characters including:

  • Bob Owen, Wa Hemp Education Network (and Lt. Governor candidate)
  • Dennis Peron, Prop 215 (California) activist etc
  • OlyWa.net: Chas Lance Tomala, Jay Unabonger Stewart, Scott(y) Orr
  • And many Washington State activists in action

Continue reading HempenRoad / chapter 4: Olympia (1996/7)

HempenRoad / chapter 3: Portland (1996/7)

Hempen Road / chapter 3: Portland (1996/7)

Hemp cannabis pioneer entrepreneurs in Victoria, Canada are featured in this chapter of 1996/7 documentary film in which host/producer Dave Olson (hello) visits with interesting characters including:

  • D. Paul Stanford, CRRH etc
  • Cheryl Kolander, Aurora Dye Works

Continue reading HempenRoad / chapter 3: Portland (1996/7)

HempenRoad / chapter 2: Eugene (1996/7)

Hempen Road / chapter 2: Eugene (1996/7)

Hemp cannabis pioneering entrepreneurs and activists n Eugene, Oregon are featured in this chapter of 1996/7 documentary film in which host/producer Dave Olson (hello) visits with interesting characters including:

* Todd Dalotto, Hungry Bear Hemp Foods

* Carolyn Moran, Living Tree Paper

* Bruce & Diedre Mullican, Sow Much Hemp Continue reading HempenRoad / chapter 2: Eugene (1996/7)

HempenRoad / chapter 1: Victoria (1996)

Hempen Road / chapter 1: Victoria (1996/7)

Hemp cannabis pioneer entrepreneurs in Victoria, Canada are featured in this chapter of 1996/7 documentary film in which host/producer Dave Olson (hello) visits with interesting characters including:

* Ian Hunter, Victoria Mayoral candidate & Sacred Herb shop

* Sarah Hannah Bedard, Sacred Herb shop

* Padra Ahmadi, Earthenware clothing

* Alice Bracegirdle, Zima Foods

* Eric Hughes, Zima Foods

* Odette Kalman, Ecosource Paper Continue reading HempenRoad / chapter 1: Victoria (1996)

Mendocino setting the standard for medical marijuana access

Mendocino Supes Add Measure G to County Code

Dear Friends,

Living in Mendocino is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. People here are different and living here is like living in the future of your wildest dreams.  Just take a look at what we’ve persuaded the County Board of Supervisors to adopt as law:

“Neither the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, nor the Sheriff, nor the District Attorney shall spend or authorize the expenditure of any public funds for the investigation, arrest, or prosecution of any

person, or the seizure of any property in any single case involving

25 or fewer adult flowering female marijuana plants or the equivalent

in dried marijuana, nor shall the Auditor Controller or the

Treasurer- Tax Collector approve any such requests for such expenditures of public funds, or authorize or approve the issuance of any form of payment should such expenditures be made.”

Below is a press release that just went out to explain what has happened here.  Don’t look for any media play now, because we are probably too far in the future for them to understand, but here in

Mendocino, the future is NOW!

Let freedom grow,

Steve

————–

Release Date:

April 19, 2007

Contacts:

Steve Kubby, National Director

The American Medical Marijuana Association (AMMA)

http://www.americanmarijuana.org/

707-964-7743

Board of Supervisors Office

bos@co.mendocino.ca.us

(707) 463-4221

(707) 463-4245 Fax

Mendocino Supes Add Measure G to County Code

UKIAH — Six years after the voters of Mendocino County passed Measure G with a whopping 60% landslide, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors have finally taken the first steps to add Measure G to the County Code.

The American Medical Marijuana Association applauds this historic action by the Board and salutes those who helped make this victory a reality, including Dr. William Courtney, Jim and Trelanie Hill, Rob Garzini, Dane Wilkins, Dale Gieringer, Pebbles Trippet, Kristen Peskuski, Ralf Laguna, Paula Deeter, Edie Lerman, Dr. Michael Baldwin, and advisors John Gilmore and Tom Knapp.

Special recognition should also be given to Richard Johnson, the author of Measure G and head of the Mendocino Green Party.  Thanks Richard for this historic victory!

Measure G is to be incorporated into Chapter 9 of the Code as Section

9.36.010-090.

Below is the full text of Mendocino’s new Ordinance:

Section 9.36.10: FINDINGS

The People of Mendocino County find as follows:

A)  Cannabis sativa (marijuana) is a beneficial plant with a respectable heritage and hundreds of well-known industrial, medicinal and recreational uses;

B)  Two decades of marijuana law enforcement in Mendocino County has not stopped cultivation here but has unnecessarily marginalized a large number of otherwise law abiding citizens who grow and use marijuana;

C)  Those who grow for personal use are not responsible for violent incidents sometimes associated with marijuana cultivation, but are vulnerable to theft;

D)  The Institute of Medicine has found that marijuana has bona fide medical uses and is not a gateway to hard drug addiction;

E)  Law enforcement has carried out investigations, confiscations, and arrests against persons cultivating and using medical marijuana under Proposition 215 in Mendocino County;

F)  The cities of Berkeley and San Francisco have longstanding ordinances which instruct police to minimize the priority of marijuana enforcement.

Section 9.36.20: PURPOSE

The Ordinance codified in this Chapter will:

A. Instruct the county government to support all efforts toward the decriminalization of marijuana;

B. Instruct the county sheriff and district attorney to make marijuana enforcement their lowest priority with respect to other crimes;

C. Establish a maximum limit of plants and weight for cultivation and possession of marijuana for personal use in Mendocino County, and prohibit the expenditure of public funds for enforcement of marijuana laws against cultivators and users in possession of quantities below that limit.

D. Remove the fear of prosecution and the stigma of criminality from people who harmlessly cultivate and/or use marijuana for personal medical or recreational purposes.

E. Extend police protection to those growing or possessing marijuana for personal use;

F. Provide for the continued enforcement of marijuana laws against those who cultivate, transport and possess marijuana for sale.

The purpose of this chapter is to establish Cannabis enforcement policy for Mendocino County.

Section 9.36.30: DECRIMINALIZATION OF CANNABIS IN CALIFORNIA

It is the desire of the people of Mendocino County that the cultivation for personal use of Cannabis be decriminalized in

California. In this context, the board of supervisors is directed to lobby state and federal governments for the immediate decriminalization of the personal use of Cannabis, specifically by repealing Sections 11357, (possession), 11358, (transportation), and

– 11359, (cultivation), of the California Health and Safety Code. The people also urge the Sheriff and District Attorney to publicly support such decriminalization.

Section 9.36.40: LAW ENFORCEMENT PRIORITY OF CANNABIS

Through its budgetary authority, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors shall seek to ensure that the Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney give lowest priority to the enforcement and prosecution of marijuana laws.

Section 9.36.50: SHERIFF OFFICE ARRESTS AND CITATIONS

The Board of Supervisors shall use its budgetary authority to ensure that the Sheriff’s Office makes no arrests and issues no citations for violations of the above state Health and Safety Code sections in any single case involving 25 or fewer adult flowering female marijuana plant or the equivalent in dried marijuana.

Section 9.36.60: DISTRICT ATTORNEY PROSECUTIONS

The Board of Supervisors shall use its funding authority to ensure that the District Attorney shall not prosecute any violations of the above state Health and Safety Code sections nor seize any property in any single case involving 25 or fewer adult flowering female marijuana plants or the equivalent in dried marijuana.

Section 9.36.70: EXPENDITURE OF FUNDS FOR CANNABIS ENFORCEMENT

Neither the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, nor the Sheriff, nor the District Attorney shall spend or authorize the expenditure of any public funds for the investigation, arrest, or prosecution of any person, or the seizure of any property in any single case involving 25 or fewer adult flowering female marijuana plants or the equivalent in dried marijuana, nor shall the Auditor Controller or the

Treasurer- Tax Collector approve any such requests for such expenditures of public funds, or authorize or approve the issuance of any form of payment should such expenditures be made.

Section 9.36.80: REPORTING

The Board of Supervisors shall instruct the Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney to report on December 1 of each year regarding marijuana law enforcement and prosecution activities engaged in by themselves and by state, federal, and/or other law enforcement agencies within the County of Mendocino.

Section 9.36.90: SERVERABILITY

The people of Mendocino County intend that in case a court of competent jurisdiction should find one or more of the above Sections illegal, the remaining Sections remain in full force and effect.

The HempenRoad (1997) ~ Documentary about industrial cannabis and medical marijuana

The HempenRoad

A travel documentary about commercial hemp industry in the Pacific NW in 1996-7

hr-poster-

Available in full length (83 minutes) online on Youtube and Vimeo.

With legalization in Washington and Oregon, and an ever-changing landscape in BC, this film shows the roots of a movement going from society’s fringes towards mainstream acceptance by exploring economic and environmental benefits.

ian_dave

Produced, written and narrated by DaveO, directed by Eiji Masuda, the HempenRoad is an experimental, multi-media roadtrip exploring commercial hemp businesses and conferences in the Pacific northwest. The film explores many uses of cannabis including fiber, paper, fuel, food, beer, medicine, as well as delving into the political and environmental issues around legalization.

sign

Beginning in the clearcut Olympic peninsula, the film follows narrator Dave “Uncle Weed” Olson as he visits a variety of colourful personalities and interesting businesses.

mary_dave

Stops include: Victoria, BC; Eugene and Portland Oregon; and, Olympia and Seattle Washington, before finishing with exclusive footage of the groundbreaking Commercial Industrial Hemp Symposium in Vancouver, B.C.

map

Note: made in 1996 using footage captured by 16mm, Super 8, Hi8 tape, scans, 35mm stills, web video and editing with Adobe Premiere 1.0 on a 200Mhz Mac-clone and a 9Gb harddrive.

woody

##

The HempenRoad features:

ecosource

Victoria, British Columbia
* Ian Hunter (RiP), Sacred Herb & Victoria Mayoral candidate
ianbike
* Sarah Hannah Bedard, Sacred Herbsarah
* Odette Kalman, Ecosource
* Padra Almadi, Earthenware
padra
* Eric Hughes, Zima foods
* Alice Bracegirdle, Zima foods

alice

Eugene, Oregon
* Todd Dalotto, Hungry Bear
hbear
* Rose, Hairy Truth
* Carolyn Moran, Living Tree Paper
* Bruce Mullican, So Much Hemp
*
Diedre Mullican, So Much Hemp

Portland, Oregon
* D. Paul Stanford, CRRH

paul_s
* Cheryl Kolander, Aurora Dye Works
* Chris Iverson, HempWiezen beer

Olympia, Washington
* Charles Tomala, Jay Stewart, Scott Orr, OlyWa.net
* Bob Owen, WHEN
* Dennis Peron, Prop 215 (California) activist etc

Seattle, Washington
* David Edwards, Earthgoods
* S. David Stunda, Earthgoods
* Cory Brown, Fremont Hemp Co.
* Rob Jungman, Manastash

manasnow
* Khamphy S., Panther Manufacturing
* Tom Cluck, Belltown Hempery
* Fred Martin, Belltown Hempery
* Jill Etherington, Belltown Hempery
* Kristina Lynch, Belltown Hempery
* Aloha, Macrame

Vancouver, British Columbia
* Mari Kane, Hempworld
* Mosse Mellish, Greenman paper
* Geof Kime
* Jace Callaway
* Mark Parent
* Ryszard Kozlowski
* John Stahl
* Brian McClay
* Brian McLay
* Alexander Sumach
* Jean Peart
* David Watson
* Brian Taylor
* Sotos Petrides, Wiseman Noble
* and other speakers and audience members at the Commercial Industrial Hemp Symposium

marc&sumach

HempenRoad Soundtrack includes:

* Phat Sidy Smokehouse
* JahWah
* Elemental
* Chris Sullivan
* Bread Mountain
* 420 Love
* Chris Jacobsen
* Old Time Relijun
* Collective Shoe
* J. Williamson Ensemble
* Systolie Diastolie
* and more . . .

posters

Digitalized for the web by Bread 420.

newtracks