Imagine a hemp festival where the music is playing, many in the crowd are smoking marijuana, the police are not interfering with their marijuana enjoyment, and the police are even handing out free bags of munchies (albeit with a label inviting a visit to a website addressing the parameters of the state’s legal marijuana use laws). That day is here, in Washington state, with the upcoming Seattle HempFest. Moreover, the police even tended to look away from marijuana smoking at Seattle HempFests that preceded the legalization of marijuana possession in Washington state.

The website posted on the munchies bags being distributed free to HempFest attendees advises people on such marijuana legal limitations as the one ounce possession limit, the ban on selling without a license, the current ban on growing marijuana, the treatment of public marijuana smoking parallel to possessing an open alcohol container in public, and the ban on driving under the influence of marijuana.

The munchies are Doritos. What a great bit of free advertising for the snack’s manufacturer. If the police want to be more health friendly, they can hand out baked corn chips with organic corn (to avoid genetically modified corn) rather than the fried kind. Then again, "baked" and "fried" are ways to describe being high on marijuana.

Not to be a killjoy, but I re-state that I support marijuana legalization as a matter of personal freedom. I, myself, have not toked since law school began, and can count on one hand the number of times I have smoked marijuana. I do not drink alcohol, including beer and wine. I believe that the decision to use or not use marijuana, alcohol and tobacco should be a personal choice.

Washington state and Colorado — with their legalized marijuana use — are rightfully the tokes of the town.