The City of Lansing received an application from CEP Entertainment asking for permission to host the ‘420 Cannabis Festival’ on 18th of April, 2020. However, they do not want to encourage the smoking of marijuana at the festival.

According to a representative of Mayor Andy Schor’s office, the final decision will be taken by Mayor Andy Schor as he is reviewing the application. His verdict will decide whether the festival will transpire or go up in smoke.

Lansing City attorney Jim Smiertka said, “If it’s just park use and it doesn’t involve things that are regulated by the state under the marijuana laws, then the process will just simply be a park permit.”

Dan Doyle, the legal organizer of the 420 Cannabis festival, said that the festival was a celebration of the legalization of recreational marijuana and has assured that there wouldn’t be any selling of marijuana at the festival.

He added, “They’re going to have lawyers there to actually show the participants how to open up a dispensary.”

The event will be held in Adado Riverfront Park with live music, food, and fun in an intimate festival atmosphere. Along with the festival being a concert, it will also be a platform for dispensaries to set up informational booths.

(Image Source: https://potportal.net/music-food-and-high-times-in-dc-at-national-cannabis-festival-on-4-20/)

However, it is quite a daunting task to prevent people from smoking at the festival when there are pot-leaves on the flyer. In response to this, Dan Boyle said, “We’ve reached out to the chief of police. We’re working with them. We’re working with a great security team. We have a great support staff that’s doing pretty much everything.”

In order to host a public event where people can come together and smoke marijuana, a license from the state is required.

According to Smiertka, only one such license has been issued so far by the state. It has been granted to a business called Real Leaf Solutions in Kalkaska.

Real Leaf Solutions is gearing up to organize music festivals where people can smoke marijuana. Dan Doyle said they are adding more artists to the line-up and looking for food vendors, as well.

A lot of places have been more open to the idea of the marijuana festivals and have organized them, including Denver, San Francisco, Washington, Sacramento, Nevada, Maryland, Illinois, Florida, etc.

Tracing back the history of the 4/20 event, the movement began in the 1970s in California as a cannabis smoking social event. It slowly gained momentum as a protest against laws criminalizing the consumption of marijuana. The festival was controversial in nature due to pot and cannabis being an unpopular topic amongst the conservative folks.

(Featured Image: https://www.wilx.com/content/news/What-would-be-allowed-at-420-Cannabis-Festival-567208181.html)





