25th annual Extravaganja draws huge crowd to Northampton for music and marijuana

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dancers with the musical group Llama Lasagne perform at the UMass Cannabis Reform Coalition's 2016 Extravaganja festival. The event, which was scheduled to run from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., featured live music, speakers and vendors. Shaina Mishki

 

By Brian Steele   

 

NORTHAMPTON - The 25th annual marijuana advocacy festival, Extravaganja, drew thousands to the Three County Fairgrounds with live music and a tolerant atmosphere toward open consumption. After 24 years, the event put on by the UMass Cannabis Reform Coalition had grown too large for its previous home on the Town Common in downtown Amherst, and the town denied the permit.

Organizers said this year's event in Northampton was expected to bring in nearly 7,000 people.

Vendors selling glass pipes, vaporizers and other marijuana memorabilia encircled the crowd chilling out on the lawn and enjoying performances by bands like Roots of Creation and Shokazoba. As with previous Extravaganjas, many attendees were openly smoking marijuana.

City police were on-hand to supplement hired security, but organizers said officers were focused on making sure no one was selling drugs or using anything harder than marijuana. Northampton Police Chief Jody Kasper, in the run-up to the event, warned that it was not a "free for all" and marijuana possession is not legal.

Those who came out for the event were pushing for reform of drug laws, citing soaring incarceration rates, especially among non-violent offenders, and the revenue potential if marijuana were regulated and taxed.

Bill Flynn, president of the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition, said that as people become educated about marijuana and the cannabis industry, the national trend is toward legalization, "but it's not going to happen as easily and quickly as people think it is."

He resists the longstanding claim that marijuana is a gateway to drugs like heroin, saying it's actually the opposite: Marijuana use can lead people away from opiates and alcohol.

"I'm an athlete. I've had the injuries, I took the pills," said Flynn. "It made me sick."

Flynn said he's had trouble finding work for the past three decades because of a marijuana arrest. He said he was just trying to "take care" of his medical needs, but the consequences still linger.

"I'm ready to move on, but ... I've been held down," he said. "That needs to change, and I think people are understanding that."

Anders Warringer of Northampton performed songs about marijuana with the band Llama Lasagna.

Their rendition of Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" was a big hit with the crowd, who sang along with the familiar refrain "Everybody must get stoned."

"Enough people have been imprisoned for smoking a joint," said Warringer. "The terrorists keep terrorizing, and the leaders keep lying, and the haters keep hating and the planet's dying. ... I just think enough is enough. It's never killed a single person and alcohol and cigarettes kill people every day."

Several people interviewed by The Republican cited recreational marijuana legalization in Colorado as a positive step that Massachusetts can emulate.

As of 7 p.m. Saturday, Northampton police were not prepared to release any information about possible arrests or citations.