A special expo

[Julio1fer]

I hope nobody is offended by this post - Moderator please feel free to delete if lines have been crossed.

I happen to live in a very liberal country, which is in the process of legalizing a certain weed, despite polls indicating about 65% of the people are against. A large Expo was set up today and tomorrow - I just had to go there, to document history in the making. This is the largest place for expositions in the city, in the midst of a technology park.





Our current President, Mujica, is widely credited with the new weed policy. The coming one, Vazquez, is widely known not to be amused by it, so it is probably going to become a political issue. In any case the people in the Expo knew whom to praise.



The Expo was very lively, with a lot of foreign visitors. Some business was made. I wouldn't know a thing about all these devices and vegetables.





Some details in the Expo were well thought out.



More to come, just wanted to give you the scoop of it while it is warm.

[Dennis Gallus]

Julio,

A very interesting topic. I like your documentary style. The B&W is very effective, but the last shot is definitely better in color!

Always a delight to see your posts,
Dennis

[Martolod]

from a mod:
no problems with subject matter. Hemp is a useful crop. VERY useful. Ships used to have hemp ropes...and sailed around the world.
like anything it is the ABUSE of said hemp( or anything for that matter) that is objectionable.
but here and in this context, no issues.
if there are any who feel other wise .....please let me or the other mods/admin know.
be responsible,use common sense and respect the opinions of others and be civil...and enjoy your freedoms in a manner that does not encroach on the freedoms of others

Mod.

[minoly]

A very interesting post and pictures. The Expo seems to be a quite straightforward way to bring the issue before people. For what it's worth... my father worked in the "hemp factory" during World War II (I suppose it was for rope, as Martolod mentions). and we children were very aware of that because he was a storekeeper and (later) farmer and never worked away. This was in rural Minnesota; but, WWII brought many new things to our little community.

[PFMcFarland]

Nice documentation, Julio. I just wonder how many of my old workmates from Ohio have moved to Colorado.

There is one thing I wonder though. A reason for doing this was that if it's legal, then there will be no more marijuana crossing the borders. Only problem with that is, the folks who used to make money off growing and shipping marijuana have already shifted efforts over to harder drugs, like opium. The old draining the swamp to get rid of the gators conundrum. And once folks get tired of marijuana, they'll shift to harder stuff.

PF

[Julio1fer]

Thanks Dennis for your kind words, same for Minoly and Martolod. A section of the expo was dedicated to hemp as a material, with a lot of nice bags, caps, and other things made of hemp. Other section was organized to show historical uses of hemp - Minoly comments are bang on what was shown there.

PF, this is a very controversial issue down here. This country has had for 40 years a policy of not penalizing drugs users, but banning trade instead, which is a bit paradoxical. Police has come down hard on hard drug traders, who mostly use the country as the ideal logistics point that it is.

As said above, about 2/3 of the public is against the current liberalization of weed sales (although I believe that most would support home cultivation). I speculate that this Expo may be a move by the current government, to make changes more difficult for the coming one (our Executive changes March 1st.). In any case, this issue is not going to wind down any time soon.

Previous pictures were from the Canon G12. Now, a few from the Spotmatic 500, with 35mm f/2.

Watching a flower under a microscope



I like the expression of that girl!



Setting up a LED light tent



Mujicannabis, again. This stand was a magnet for mature women, I don't really know why. Something was on sale.



Outside the expo people were sitting in the grass, yes, you guessed what they were smoking. Everything looked very civilized.



Film was FP4+ in Beutler. I like a lot this Takumar lens renditions. Very challenging light inside the expo.

[PFMcFarland]

Excellent work with the Takumar, Julio. Looks to me like the main business at the Mujicannabis booth was selling clothes. That will always draw the gals.

PF

[Santiago Montenegro]

Very nice, Julio. Please do share more.

[P C Headland]

Nicely, tactfully approached.

We've been through some challenging times here with an attempt at regulating the sale of so-called "legal highs", but it hasn't worked so well for a number of reasons. The synthetic cannabinoids have proven to be far worse (wrt side effects) than the natural plant derived stuff. The only reason people claimed to switch to the synthetics was because it was legal, with all claiming they'd much rather use the real stuff (which really does grow like a weed here). Now products must be proven safe before they can be approved & sold, much like any medicine, and can only be sold in approved places.

It's clear that outright bans have not worked in many places, but what the best solution is may well depend on individual countries. I've learnt from living in a few different countries that what works in one place won't necessarily work somewhere else.

[Julio1fer]

A few more, mostly in color, to complete the documentation.

Lots of books about botanics and plant growth.



Hemp uses, there was an area in the entrance and a few stands inside.







A whole lot of journalists and video people, with tripods and very much pro-looking equipment. This guy went stand by stand documenting everything.



More of the stuff being shown, maybe sold.





And finally, the entrance to the expo area.



An acquaintance told me that the expo received 6,000 visitors in two days. While not a record, it is a significant figure. I estimate at least 1,000 foreign visitors, just from a random sampling inside.

Thanks for looking and for the comments!