Sophisticated Hemp Goes Upmarket and Mainstream

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Lucien Pellat-finet Pot Leaf Cashmere SweaterMarijuana may be illegal, but the weed is increasingly evident in American culture. Yes, Woodstock enjoyed its 40th anniversary this month, but there’s something else blowing in the wind.

Barneys New York in Beverly Hills is celebrating the Woodstock spirit by selling $78 “Hashish” candles in Jonathan Adler pots with bas-relief marijuana leaves; French designer Lucien Pellat-Finet dishes up a cashmere sweater at a pittance of a price, compared to white-gold and diamond custom pot-leaf-emblazoned wristwatches for $49,000 and belt buckles for $56,000.

In LA, the estimated 40,000 people attending the inaugural THC Expo hemp and art show in downtown Los Angeles will have another opportunity in 2010: April 23-25.

Marijuana consumption is all over TV, including Bill Maher who constantly talks about how much he smokes.

Bottom line, for many people, marijuana replaces alcohol. Serious types in California have suggested that weed is the answer to the the state’s fiscal crisis.

Hemp products go eco-chic and deep into mainstream American cultureMarijuana reform groups say it’s a $35.8-billion domestic cash crop.

Did something happen between 2003, when Tommy Chong started a nine-month stint in federal prison for selling a mail-order water pipe, and the June THC Expo, when he stood signing autographs and shaking hands, barely a roach clip’s throw from row upon row of swirling glass pipes, smoking devices with octopus-like tentacles, whirring motors and price tags as high as $800?

Hemp for Victory

Back in 1942, the United States Department of Agriculture did this feature on the wondrous benefits of the eco-friendly hemp plant, for use in countless food, home, industrial and medicinal products.

If it’s true that people are no longer living in fear under the Obama administration, and California’s budget crisis worsens by the week, is hemp about to get new legitimacy? Stay tuned. A

via LATimes: Marijuana’s new high life