High times at Anaheim marijuana convention

By DOUG IRVING / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
ANAHEIM – Thousands of marijuana patients and patrons gathered in Anaheim over the weekend for a three-day celebration of all things cannabis, their enthusiasm spoiled not at all by the government’s latest thumbs-down for their favorite plant.

Organizers of the Kush Expo – named after a slang term for high-grade marijuana – expected as many as 16,000 people to come for an event that was part trade show, part social club. Two of the biggest draws were an outdoor smoking patio for card-carrying medical-marijuana users and a “Hot Kush Girl” contest.

The expo opened just days after the Drug Enforcement Administration announced that it would not relax its regulation of marijuana as a highly controlled substance. Marijuana “has a high potential for abuse (and) has no accepted medical use in the United States,” the government wrote in its filing.

Marijuana advocates have promised to appeal. And Lynda Labine, 63, a Westminster resident who spent Sunday morning at the Kush Expo, said it’s just a matter of time before marijuana is legalized across the board.

“There’s such an upward swing,” said Labine, who has a doctor’s recommendation to use marijuana for panic attacks and sleep problems. “More and more states are legalizing it for personal use, for medical use. I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be legalized.”

The expo, at the Anaheim Convention Center, was meant for medical-marijuana users, although organizers acknowledged that some recreational users were no doubt attending as well. Licensed doctors were on hand to write prescription-like recommendations for marijuana; the going price was $40, and few people were turned away.

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