Marijuana aficionados and patients alike came from across the country and descended upon this tiny little five block area of downtown Oakland on Labor Day weekend to celebrate America's first cannabis-themed open air street festival.
In addition to live performances and booths touting everything from paraphernalia to THC-laced chocolate bananas, the International Cannabis & Hemp Expo featured a designated area where card-carrying medical patients could openly smoke weed--right outside Oakland's City Hall.
"Patients need an opportunity to take their medicine," festival chief Kim Cue told the Associated Press.
Individuals with a medical marijuana card can legally consume cannabis in California under Proposition 215, which has been in effect since 1996. Though the drug remains illegal under federal law, according to the blog Oakland North, law enforcement at the expo was few and far between
Even city police officers kept their distance, poised peaceably—and, according to one officer, indifferently—on the outskirts of the festival. Within the event, hired security did little more than give directions and check wristbands at entrances.](source)
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