Tie-Dye Rally Pitches Legalizing Marijuana : 1991 Hempfest: More than 2,000 turn out at Mile Square Park for rock music, literature and speeches on the drug.

The bumper sticker looked familiar but, after a little doctoring, its message was: “Partnership for a free drug Orange County.”

The altered phrase, found on a sign at Sunday’s 1991 Hempfest, nicely summed up the spirit of the daylong rally at Mile Square Park. More than 2,000 people turned out for the tie-dye tinted event, which pitched a message of marijuana legalization via rock music, speakers, literature, arts and crafts.

The name of the rally is a reference to hemp, a durable fiber derived from the marijuana plant and one of the key arguments offered by legalization factions.

Festival-goers argue that hemp can be used cheaply as a fabric, paper or fuel without the adverse environmental ramifications of many substances now used. Rally organizer Joe Denicola, co-owner of a Newport Beach New Age shop called One World, said that for too long marijuana and hemp have been overlooked as viable parts of mainstream America’s life.

“The government has spent millions of dollars researching the greenhouse effect, and experts have told them that it is imperative that we stop usage of fossil fuels,” he said. “And hemp is the premier natural resource to replace it. It is the only plausible answer to our environmental problems.”

Denicola said the rally was to stress hemp’s environmental strengths as well as arguments that marijuana plants yield a variety of medicinal benefits. Even more important, he said, the event would encourage participants to vote and would inform them of related civil rights issues.

“I’m not on drugs, drugs are on me” was one sign that summed up the philosophy of merchants selling clothing made of the durable, thick material.

Fullerton resident Christina Walker predicted that before the year 2000 pot legalization will be more than just a pipe dream, even if anti-drug incumbent George Bush is reelected President.

“It doesn’t matter if he gets back in,” Walker said smiling, holding a lit incense stick. “Even if he does it will get legalized in the next five years. Too many people do it--just look around.”