My Trip to Los Angeles’ THC Expo 2009 – Part 1
Nearly two months ago I was fortunate enough to afford a trip down to the THC Expo hosted at the LA Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. At first, I debated whether or not I should go but after I received some feedback from a friend who went, it sounded like something too good to miss.
In the end, I had an amazing time. I met a wonderful assortment of marijuana activists, entrepreneurs, and plain ol’ enthusiasts. The spoils of my adventure came as an assortment of stickers, fliers, binders, pins, pens, and a few personal souvenirs.
The first thing I did when I got home was begin to go through my photos (I took nearly a thousand) and find the ones that best represented the show, then start writing while everything was fresh in my mind. It took a couple days, but I spent hours and hours writing the post only to have WordPress glitch out, refresh, and delete the entire draft.
Thankfully, the event was fun enough that I still vividly remember everything I wanted to talk about… I just need to exercise these fingers again to share it with you guys. It will be pretty long, so I will chunk it into two parts.
It’s nearly 4:00 pm on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 when I finally conclude my pilgrimage to visit the last day of the THC Expo. I marvel at the amount of people in the parking structure and hurry to join the trickling flow of people into the main portion of the LA Convention Center (LACC).
As I stood in a line of greasy goateed men and skimpy-dressed women, I watched another bee line of people heading up the escalator; one wearing a tie-dyed shirt, another with dreadlocks poking curiously out the bottom of his Rastafarian hat, and all sporting flip flops. It was at this point that I realized I was in the line for an adult-oriented convention being held at the same time.
I scurried across to catch up with the group and finally found the entrance to the THC Expo 2009:
My favorite part had to be the signs that reminded happy convention goers, essentially, that they were still within the bounds of the United States and this was not the time or place to be arrested:
I figure the best way to go about this post is to organize the day into categories. For Part 1:Hemp, Organizations, Favorite Companies/Products; Part 2: Companies/Products, and Fun Stuff.
Hemp
The first thing you saw when you entered the THC Expo was a very long exhibit (I don’t think it would be fair to call it a “booth”) featuring Hemp and all of its historical, fiberous glory:
Presented by the USA Hemp Museum, the exhibit had various products created from hemp, historical documentation, and vintage hemp memorabilia. The curator, Richard Davis, was also on hand to happily answer any hemp related questions one could muster. I was thrilled that this was at the forefront for everyone to see as it helped bring to life not only the versatility and rich history of hemp, but the absurdity of it, only in recent times, becoming demonized.
Another group, Hemp Traders, was on hand to spread awareness of hemp and its related present-day industrial uses. While they only offered a few actual products, they made my day much easier by being the only geniuses selling hemp bags to hold all the hemp swag handed out by various booths. Honestly, if not for the bag I would have had a horrible time trying to juggle all my items; though I could have saved myself $5 if I had just thought ahead enough to bring my own canvas bag… then again, it wouldn’t have been a fancy hemp one. Here is a picture of the two gentlemen manning their station and some of their wares:
Organizations
There were numerous organizations at the expo promoting everything from national awareness to local activist groups. I was very happy to see some of the larger organizations take the time to shake hands at the convention.
One of the first organizations I came across was our friends at Drug Policy Alliance, sporting two gentlemen very happy to engage passerby’s:
I wanted to point out their willingness to engage people because some organizations, which will remain nameless, failed to engage me despite standing right in front reading their pamphlets. I made sure to tell them I was a huge fan of their organization’s founder, Ethan Nadelmann, a man as out-spoken as he is well-spoken.
NORML was also present to sell buttons, hand out fliers, and attempt to recruit more people to their local chapter meeting:
Another vibrant, graphic booth display was presented by the Marijuana Policy Project. Prior to taking photos, I would politely ask if the person minded being in the photo. While many were more than happy to strike a pose, others shied away from being in front of the lens; to be fair, however, I wouldn’t want me taking pictures of me either. Here is their very informative booth:
Favorite Companies/Products
I debated on whether or not I wanted to prefix this with “favorite” because everything I have chosen to write about stood out to me enough to make me want to share it. These companies and products, however, seemed to jump out a bit more to me and I wanted to highlight them.
Easily one of my favorite companies at the expo was Treating Yourself, a magazine that focuses on the medicinal aspects of marijuana. Treating Yourself had a modest booth that relied on this very happy fellow to engage you in conversation:
He handed me a free issue of their magazine and answered my various questions about it. I plan on actually reading it tonight, but I have skimmed through and I can say that I am legitimately anxious to dive in. While the cover borders on the outskirts of conservative, the contents of the magazine strikes resemblance to many other culture-magazines. The main difference is that instead of being about the marijuana culture as a whole, the focus appears to be on issues of importance to medical marijuana patients and supporters; people such as myself. I am really excited to review this magazine and possibly do a feature on the company itself if it is up to my standards.
At 5:06 pm I hung out with a fellow twitterer, Steve Bloom (aka @CelebStoner) from CelebStoner.com, a pop-culture marijuana news site:
A few marijuana-themed social networks/online companies showed up at the expo as well. One of them had another extremely large end-cap booth, lavished with comfy couches, video screens, and music:
AJNAG (”ganja” backwards), is, in their own words, “an activism, resource, and lifestyle network cultivated by the people to help connect… individuals on the… benefits of decriminalization… of [marijuana].” In less dynamic terms, they are an online social network that provides news, blogs, links, and other community resources on cannabis and the “lifestyle”. This might also be another company I take a deeper look into in a future article.
A second web company, WeedMaps.com,was headed by a couple of very friendly fellows who’s names I, quite embarrassingly, can’t recall:
WeedMaps.com offers a wide variety of features for medical marijuana patients; specifically, a Google Maps-driven locator for marijuana dispensaries in the state of California. It is very sophisticated in appearance and function, allowing you to easily enter your zip code to receive local, rated dispensary listings. My favorite feature is their “Patient Answers” section, which appears to be a highly polished, weed-oriented third party spin-off of Yahoo! Answers.
The most unique and specific product I saw was 420 Cam. Don’t let their bland web design fool you, this company is legit. Being quite the computer aficionado myself, I asked technical questions ranging from hardware to encryption and was very satisfied with the answers. In short, if you are not tech savvy enough to set up your own security camera system for your garden, 420 Cam can handle it for you– and then some! My favorite is their iPhone App that allows you to view the status of your garden from practically anywhere. It will also send you alerts and keep tabs on the environment. I’m tempted to get this just to keep an eye on my dog when I am away. Also, just look how happy they were:
And finally, a company that should need no introduction ’round these parts: The Union had its own booth with t-shirts and a couple booth babes. I asked them if Adam Scorgie was at the event and they replied with, “Huh?” I can only assume they were temp-workers, but cute nonetheless.
This concludes Part 1 of my adventure to THC Expo ‘09. Stay tuned for more products, glass, and fun memories in the upcoming Part 2!
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