The Green Relief Medical Marijuana Convention and Expo in Glendale drew thousands of patients, caregivers and those hoping to be one of the first to open a dispensary in Arizona.
The three-day conference, which concluded Saturday, was the first of its kind in Arizona.
Last November, Arizona voters approved Proposition 203, which legalized the cultivation and dispensing of marijuana for medical use. The law took effect Thursday.
Nearly 100 booths were nestled throughout the corridors of the second floor of University of Phoenix Stadium.
A mix of attendees and vendors snaked through the walkways. Bikini-clad girls lingered around a table of vaporizers, while a group in white lab coats across the way offered free samples of organic hand cream. In another area, two men in suits passed out insurance information next to a booth where the presenters were dressed as marijuana leaves.
“I’m not in the stoner world,” said Herb Seidel, a chef who was there to promote his cannabis-inspired cookbooks. “I’m actually in it for the patients.”
Joy Hannah, 57, nodded as she took note of some of Seidel’s recipes. Hannah, who drove two hours from Gila County to attend the expo, described marijuana as “a miracle worker” when it came to her severe asthma and said she hoped the drug would one day be completely legal in Arizona.
Several vendors said it was decidedly lower-key compared with other marijuana conventions they had been to before, where blaring music and entertainment dominated the scene.
“We decided right from the beginning, we wanted it to be a more professional tone, where someone in their 50s or 60s would feel comfortable coming to it,” Wolfe said.
Throughout the day, dozens of people dropped in on a series of seminars with topics including hydroponics and growing technologies and strain selection for symptom relief.
During one workshop on testing for THC content, people furiously scribbled notes on the gas chromatography process.
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