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FAMILIAR AROMA PERVADES SUNFEST

Concertgoers Indulge in Marijuana in Violation of City Law.

WEST PALM BEACH - After 7:30 p.m.  Friday night, you could smell it.

There was no escaping the odor, which permeated the night sky like smoke bellowing from a chimney.  The stench of marijuana was as prevalent and as synonymous with SunFest as the downtown traffic jams.

While the crowd can easily tell you what was being smoked, it - like law enforcement - cannot tell you specifically who was smoking it.  As one vendor, who requested to remain anonymous, remarked, "It is impossible to pinpoint where it is happening at."

That's not entirely true.  It comes from the crowds - the vapor rose above them as the bands rocked out - but in this circumstance, there is nothing anyone can do about it.  Smoking marijuana is just part of the ambience of SunFest.

In August, a city law allowed West Palm Beach police the option to either issue a $100 fine in lieu of making an arrest for possession of under 20 grams of marijuana or drug paraphernalia.  But that amount is easy to sneak into the festival.

"You can hide it in your socks if they're high ( enough )," noted one teenage vendor worker, Alexis Elias.  And teenagers would be the ones who would know, since they're the chief culprits, escaping to tightly woven small groups to puff on a blunt.  City police said Saturday morning that they had made all of one arrest at SunFest through Friday - and that was for trespassing, not drug use.

Once your nose catches the odor, the source isn't hard to find: the middle of the crowd in front of the musical act.  Several teens said that by lighting up and smoking ( or doing any kind of drug ) in the middle of the crowd, it makes it more difficult for law enforcement to get to them.

"What're they going to do? Grab one person out of the crowd and check? That will take too long," said a vendor, who asked for anonymity.

One group of younger SunFest patrons was startled to be asked about marijuana use, and some said little out of fear of being outed as smoking an illegal substance.  A few did say they have never had any problems with being caught before.  In contrast, a high school-aged kid was being talked to by one of the festival officers an hour before and instructed to dump out the contents of a flask in his possession.

Finding people outside the moshpit using recreational drugs isn't as easy.  The weapon of choice for most was the vape pen.  This allows them to smoke with a mask of anonymity.  The smell may give them away, but it is hard to say exactly what drug is being used just based on the device.

One group smoking with a vape pen remarked that drug use is just something that happens at these kinds of events.  Added one of its members, who would not divulge a name: "You can't think that there won't be drugs being used at a music festival.  That's just what happens."

For the most part, people did not seem to mention any criminal activity from anyone using drugs.  Pamela Leoutsakos, a vendor with Pretzel Plus, said that someone, who seemed to be under the influence of drugs, stole a pretzel from her stand on Thursday.

"She definitely wasn't drunk," Leoutsakos said, but she could not with certainty attribute the crime to marijuana.  "( Drug use ) is definitely a problem, but they usually go away ( from the crowd ) and do it," she said.

Can you have a music festival without marijuana? Most of the people who spoke about it said it is just impossible to enforce any rule against it, and "don't ask, don't tell" was the answer nearly everyone gave.  And so they partied on, getting away with an act of their own as a new act broke though machine-fired smoke and onto the SunFest stage.

Staff writer Susan Salisbury contributed to this story.