Pubdate: Sun, 21 Jun 2015
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Joe Garofoli

CANNABIS TRADE SHOW BUILDS BIG BUZZ

Longtime cannabis activist Russ Belville couldn't be more definitive 
in delivering his "Marijuana Legalization State of the Union" Saturday.

"The state of the union is stronger than it's ever been," Belville 
said after giving his address at the Cannabis Cup, the marijuana 
trade show that is expected to draw 16,000 people to the Cow Palace 
in Daly City through Sunday. Unlike the president's address delivered 
annually in Washington, Belville began his by welcoming "the tokers, 
tokettes and non-toking lovers of liberty."

There is much to bring a smile to a cannabis supporter these days. 
With marijuana legal for adult recreational use in four states, and 
headed to the ballot in the next two years in potentially 10 others, 
including California, the industry is worth almost $3 billion in the 
United States.

Nowhere is that more evident than at the Cannabis Cup, which isn't 
just a trade show but a competition that rewards the best buds, the 
best edible products and a whole host of other bests that the winners 
tout as green bragging rights. Steve DeAngelo, a longtime activist 
and the founder of Oakland's Harborside Health Center, will receive a 
lifetime achievement award Sunday.

The first show in the United States was held in San Francisco five 
years ago, and the event has blossomed to where there will be seven 
in various states this year.

"I can barely keep up," said Dan Skye, editor in chief of the 
41-year-old High Times Magazine, the monthly that chronicled the high 
life long before the mainstream embraced it and now sponsors the event.

There's no trade show in the world like this. Go to a trade show at 
Moscone Center, and you may get a free T-shirt and a key-chain fob. 
Here, you get a buzz.

The centerpiece of the event is a fenced-in area where participants 
holding a medical marijuana card can imbibe, sampling the wares of 
416 vendors. Don't have a card? For a $40, medical professionals will 
provide an immediate exam to determine whether you need cannabis 
treatment and provide prospective patients with permission to get 
inside on the spot, since marijuana is legal in California only for 
medicinal purposes.

Inside is a marijuana mall of products, from cannabis-infused hot 
sauce to dog treats to "sugarfree, vegan, non-GMO" edibles to Dank 
Darts - billed as "the world's first ever marijuana dart game." 
Doesn't that sound like something you think up when you're baked?

"Pretty much," said Dank Darts owner Jenn Delmoral. "But that's why 
we did it. The drinkers have beer pong. We should have something, too."

Vendors showcasing products involved in "dabbing" - a process where 
users ingest a concentrated form of cannabis in a wax or oil - were 
prominent. Popular with younger adults who don't want to smoke a lot 
of flower to get a strong buzz, the product has boomed over the past 
few years. Particularly because you only use half a pea-size amount 
of the wax - a dab - to get high.

"I've been in the industry 20 years, and nothing has affected it like 
the dabs," Tony Van Pelt said as he worked at a tent for a company 
called I Love Dabs, which sells equipment used in the process. It 
isn't cheap - $300 for a complete setup - but the buzz is powerful.

"It's like the difference between drinking a shot and drinking a 
beer," Nate Andreas said after enjoying a dab.

Andreas, who lives in Visalia (Tulare County), enjoys coming to the 
cannabis shows because "unlike being in a small town, where 
everything is all hushhush, here you can openly go up and talk to 
people about how they do things, how they make things."

Belville, who has attended almost every Cannabis Cup across the 
country, sees that. "Maybe not in San Francisco, but in a lot of 
parts of the country, there's a stigma about marijuana still."

As the cannabis industry has boomed, the Cup events have mirrored 
those changes, Belville said.

"It used to be about the activism," he said. "Now it is about the business."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom