Scheduled for Saturday May 15^th on the boardwalk at Venice Beach, Greenerfest is a free concert festival calling attention to environmentally-friendly products, green technologies, and sustainable living. Festival organizers emphasize the importance of developing a robust industrial hemp industry as an essential part of future environmental policy, as humanity weans itself from fossil fuels and other nonrenewable resources. Greenerfest features a lineup of high-profile musical performers and will also stream live on the web.

Although festival organizers argue that environmental and health consciousness “must include” industrial hemp, Greenerfest will otherwise largely avoid the subject of marijuana use (leaving that to Hempfest and other events to tackle). Instead, Greenerfest describes itself as “a family day of fun, reaching out to mainstream society and media to present them with renewable alternatives to petrochemicals, coal and deforestation for paper and timber needs.”

The folks behind Greenerfest take issue with the fact that, though many corporations claim they’re “going green,” they have not significantly changed the way they do business. Objecting to this “greenwash,” festival organizers nonetheless insist that Greenerfest is an “evolutionary” event, and not a protest.

Hosted by Vivian McPeak (Seattle Hempfest Director) and writer-futurist George Clayton Johnson (Star Trek, Twilight Zone), Greenerfest has invited musical guests Layzie Bone of Bone Thugs N Harmony, Mitch Margo (The Tokens), Todd Wolfe (Sheryl Crowe), and other local performers and speakers. Also on hand will be representatives from solar, healthy food, and other “green” technology industries.

The day’s event wraps up with a “GREENMAN PARTY” – to which everyone is invited to dress and paint themselves in green, with gifts and prizes going to the “zaniest green characters.”

For more info: http://greenerfest.com/

This is your spider on marijuana

Spiderman fans already know that spider silk is both strong and pliant, able to stretch without breaking.  Now scientists at MIT’s engineering department have revealed that, when spider silk is combined with a weak material, the resulting compound is strong and flexible.

The scientists’ end goal is to be able to mimic the unique crystal structure of spider silk and synthetically create new, stretchy-yet-tough materials out of ordinary ones. Researchers have proposed using hemp as one of the base materials with which this new substance could be combined.

A word to the wise, though: Please keep your spiders sober, at least while they’re working. The photo shows the half-assed web that one spider spun after NASA scientists gave it marijuana. (Though it’s much better than the spiderwebs made under the influences of caffeine and sleeping pills!)

Check out more mile-high spiderwebs here.

A press release from the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP)  informs us that several more states recently moved to decriminalize marijuana possession. Spurred by budget shortages, state legislatures in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Hawaii this month passed bills to replace criminal penalties for marijuana possession with civil fines.

Commented Karen O’Keefe, state policies director for MPP: “We know from efforts in other states that decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana allows police to focus on more serious crimes and also produces a net financial gain through saved law-enforcement costs and the revenue generated by civil fines. Lawmakers everywhere should take heed of these examples, especially in these troubled economic times.” 

One dozen states so far have enacted measures decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of MJ, replacing prior laws will varying civil fines.

Also part of the press release:

“With more than 124,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit www.mpp.org.”

In related news, another source informed us that yesterday a group of medical marijuana patients held a press conference, asking state lawmakers to support a medical marijuana law in Massachusetts. A state public health committee is now considering passage of a bill that would legalize the medical use of marijuana. If this bill passes, Massachusetts will become the 15^th state in the nation to give patients safe and legal access to medical marijuana.