Pubdate: Tue, 23 Feb 2016
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Copyright: 2016 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc
Contact:  http://www.philly.com/inquirer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/340
Author: Samantha Melamed

FLOWER SHOW CANS WEED DISPLAY

The PHS Philadelphia Flower Show is meant to be a temporary display 
of horticultural splendor, not a chronic one.

So the show organizers put the kibosh on a display that was to tout 
legalization of marijuana. Turns out blooms are welcome, bud not so much.

Philly NORML, a pro-legalization group, was urging volunteers to join 
a booth at the show organized by Green Rush Advisors. But Alan Jaffe, 
a spokesman for the Flower Show organizer, the Pennsylvania 
Horticultural Society, said the group had already been told it would 
not be welcome.

"They told the people that coordinate the booths in the marketplace 
that they would not have any advocacy materials regarding 
legalization of marijuana of the show, so they accepted the 
application. They misrepresented what they're going to do," Jaffe 
said. "We've told them they can't be part of the Flower Show."

Jaffe said the group had claimed it would be selling gardening 
supplies. But in a blog post, it promoted a different message: "This 
is a groundbreaking opportunity for all cannabis activists to reach 
and educate a huge number of influencers. We're cooking up some prime 
educational pieces, we'll be rolling out a statewide 
decriminalization initiative, we'll be converting skeptics, and 
educating people who have only ever known 'reefer madness.' "

Apparently, that's not what PHS is going for this year. Jaffe said: 
"We try to stay nonpolitical in who we bring into the Flower Show and 
who we partner with, and we want to avoid this topic completely. We 
don't want anybody to be offended."

Skip Shuda of Green Rush Advisors, a local cannabis advocacy group, 
said he was involved but could not comment.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom