HIGH TIMES at WAMMfest

HIGH TIMES Medical Marijuana News and Reviews will have a prominent booth at WAMMfest, this Saturday (September 25) in Santa Cruz, California’s San Lorenzo Park, where we’ll show off copies of our new issue, which includes a feature length interview with WAMM co-founder Valerie Corral, and amazing photos of this year’s WAMM garden.

WAMMFEST is a free annual event held to thank the community for its support during the aftermath of the 2002 DEA raid against WAMM. Everyone is invited to join in for a day of music, food, fun and games, with the proceeds benefiting this most worthy organization.

Recognized as the "gold standard" of how a medical cannabis collective should operate according to Prop 215 – which Valerie Corral helped author – WAMM has provided medicine to the most vulnerable in society on a donation basis since 1993.

In her interview, Valerie makes it clear that WAMM is about much more than marijuana:

Are you surprised that the WAMM model hasn’t been followed elsewhere?

Yes. I am surprised that it didn’t take off like wildfire – but then again, we’re not all socialists …. Maybe I’m not surprised so much as a little disappointed. This particular movement was born out of the revolution of the ’60s, but we forgot that there is only a scarcity of money, not a scarcity of things. Marijuana was supposed to be a tool for us to become enriched – intellectually, spiritually, socially and emotionally – but it looks like it has become a tool to become financially enriched. We bought in.

I would like to see people buy into the humanist model instead. It’s not about pot – that’s the thing that sets WAMM apart from the buyers’ clubs and the dispensaries. We just happen to be growing medical marijuana in a community because we’ve come together around it and fought for it for almost 20 years. But really, we’re about liberty – that’s what makes us different.

If you were California’s newly installed czar of cannabis, and it was up to you to set the rules, how would you like to see a legalized marijuana market regulated?

I would start by banning the role of “czar” directly. Then I would bring forth a standard that allows us to produce a medicinal-grade product in a way that creates jobs while lessening the impact on the environment. Also, if you’re going to be involved, you should have to go through an educational process in order to understand the history and the impact of marijuana – and how to grow great medicine. This plant should not follow in the path of Coca Cola, Marlboro or Merck. It should stay connected to the earth.

Really, I just want to have the space and the ability to keep doing what we’re doing while everyone else scrambles to the top of the million-dollar heap.

Read the rest of the interview in our new Fall 2010 issue, on newsstands now!