Snoop Lion performs in Denver 4/19

I got into Denver at 10:30am Friday after leaving my house at well before 5 a.m. Seattle time to cover 4/20 weekend in the Mile-High City for Northwest Leaf. One crazy event I never thought I would get to shoot would be a smoker’s VIP party featuring none other than Snoop Lion. Making the event even more historic, the fact that Amendment 64 passed in Colorado, legalizing recreational use of marijuana. Washington state and Colorado are the first states to do so.

After a bit of back and forth to get the credentials squared away, I was lead into the beautiful Fillmore Auditorium. Soon, hundreds of medical Cannabis patients and recreational enthusiasts from across the country streamed in, having paid hundreds for access to the concert and film screening. They settled in and took a seat to watch Snoop’s new documentary, Reincarnated. The film explores Jamaica, rasta and Snoop’s work to make an authentic reggae album, and was pretty entertaining, from the glimpses I caught during the evening. Many of the attendees were smoking pot, passing joints and blunts from row to row. Sharing is caring.

Snoop Lion performs at The Fillmore Auditorium Friday April 19 in Denver to kick off 4/20 weekend celebrations at the High Times Medical Cannabis Cup. High Times gave Snoop Lion a lifetime achievement award during the raucous, smoke-filled evening.

Snoop Lion performs at The Fillmore Auditorium Friday April 19 in Denver to kick off 4/20 weekend celebrations at the High Times Medical Cannabis Cup. High Times gave Snoop Lion a lifetime achievement award during the raucous, smoke-filled evening.

Bryan Stoutenberg and Caiti Beckwith of Ann Arbor, MI smoke up before Snoop Lion performs at The Fillmore Auditorium Friday April 19 in Denver to kick off 4/20 weekend celebrations at the High Times Medical Cannabis Cup. High Times gave Snoop Lion a lifetime achievement award during the raucous, smoke-filled evening.

Snoop Lion performs at The Fillmore Auditorium Friday April 19 in Denver to kick off 4/20 weekend celebrations at the High Times Medical Cannabis Cup. High Times gave Snoop Lion a lifetime achievement award during the raucous, smoke-filled evening.

Snoop Lion performs at The Fillmore Auditorium Friday April 19 in Denver to kick off 4/20 weekend celebrations at the High Times Medical Cannabis Cup. High Times gave Snoop Lion a lifetime achievement award during the raucous, smoke-filled evening.

Snoop Lion performs at The Fillmore Auditorium Friday April 19 in Denver to kick off 4/20 weekend celebrations at the High Times Medical Cannabis Cup. High Times gave Snoop Lion a lifetime achievement award during the raucous, smoke-filled evening. “Your state legislators deserve a street named after them for legalizing marijuana,” Snoop told the crowd.

Snoop Lion performs at The Fillmore Auditorium Friday April 19 in Denver to kick off 4/20 weekend celebrations at the High Times Medical Cannabis Cup. High Times gave Snoop Lion a lifetime achievement award during the raucous, smoke-filled evening. “Your state legislators deserve a street named after them for legalizing marijuana,” Snoop told the crowd.

High Times gave Snoop Lion a lifetime achievement award during the raucous, smoke-filled evening, and he wasted little time smoking from his trophy.

With two blunts in-hand, Snoop Lion picks up a Cannabis-infused brownie thrown onto the stage. “How you about to throw something up here with a bite out of it?” he joked.

Bags of Cannabis, joints and blunts are seen after being thrown on stage as Snoop Lion performs at The Fillmore Auditorium Friday April 19 in Denver to kick off 4/20 weekend celebrations at the High Times Medical Cannabis Cup. High Times gave Snoop Lion a lifetime achievement award during the raucous, smoke-filled evening.

Smoke fills The Fillmore Auditorium as Snoop Lion performs Friday April 19 in Denver to kick off 4/20 weekend celebrations at the High Times Medical Cannabis Cup. High Times gave Snoop Lion a lifetime achievement award during the raucous, smoke-filled evening.

Balloons are dropped from the ceiling as the clock strikes midnight and 4/20 was officially welcomed.

Balloons are dropped from the ceiling as the clock strikes midnight and 4/20 was officially welcomed.

Snoop Lion threw pre-rolled blunts into the crowd.

Ricky Powell from Omaha, Neb. watches as Snoop Lion performs at The Fillmore Auditorium Friday April 19 in Denver to kick off 4/20 weekend. “I feel like I’m a part of history right now,” Powell said.

As the clock struck midnight and 4/19 became 4/20 (the much-vaunted marijuana smoker’s holiday), a new year’s eve worthynumber of balloons fell from the ceiling and the party raged on. Today’s 50k+ strong celebrations in the shadow of the Colorado state Capitol should be even more interesting to cover.

Daniel

Washington legalizes marijuana photos — Seattle Dec. 6

Just after midnight, Washington legalized possession of up to an ounce of marijuana for recreational use for those over 21 under Initiative 502, which took effect Thursday, Dec. 6. 2012. A public celebration hailed as Legalization Day in Washington State attracted about a hundred people to toke up at Seattle Center’s International Fountain Thursday evening, after a similar event at 12:01 a.m. near the Space Needle. Public smoking is still against the law, and marijuana remains counter to federal law. Colorado passed a similar measure.

All photos available for licensing at http://seattlephotographer.photoshelter.com/gallery/Washington-legalizes-marijuana-photos/G0000..eNFpzfHOc/C0000fzMTw_NAP.c

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Legalization Day in Washington State photos:

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12:01 AM celebration

Click to view

Tulalip Tribe member Dennis Boon

I had a recent assignment for Northwest Leaf to photograph Tulalip Tribe member Dennis Boon, who uses medical marijuana to control his seizures. The seizures were debilitating, and used to leave him out of commission and unable to attend school or work. The only thing that helps this condition, Dennis said, is medical marijuana, and he hasn’t had a seizure in years. But his Tribe does not recognize legal medicinal marijuana, even though the state does. Last year, local authorities acting on a tip that a felon was living at his home, confiscated his authorization to have cannabis and took his collection of pipes. He’s still fighting the possession and paraphernalia charges, he said. In the mean time, he said he knows that this is the only thing that works and he will continue to use it — whether the Tribe recognizes his state status remains unclear. Check out this compelling story by Ray Flores.

Thanks for looking,

Daniel

Cannabis attorney Hilary Bricken

I had an assignment for Northwest Leaf last month to photograph Cannabis attorney Hilary Bricken. Hilary has been tenaciously representing businesses embarking down this legal gray area, and her track record proves it. The shoot was to accompanying a piece in the magazine on “best practices” for those in the medical marijuana field, and what the reality of city enforcement looks like out there.

Thanks for looking,

Daniel

Seattle medical marijuana for The Daily Telegraph of London

Seattle medical marijuana photos for The Daily Telegraph of London. Photos by Daniel Berman/www.bermanphotos.com

New Approach Washington Campaign Director Alison Holcomb, who heads the group seeking to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana in the state of Washington through Initiative 502, stands on the roof of their headquarters in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle May 22, 2012. Photo by Daniel Berman.

New Approach Washington Campaign Director Alison Holcomb, who heads the group seeking to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana in the state of Washington through Initiative 502, stands on the roof of their headquarters in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle May 22, 2012. Photo by Daniel Berman.

In a sign of what has increasingly become a new niche for my editorial photography in Seattle, I got an email from The Daily Telegraph of London asking if I would like to photograph a story on medical marijuana.

For two days, I worked with the Telegraph’s U.S. Editor Peter Foster, based out of D.C., to tell the stories of a handful of people to whom this issue is so important. In Washington state, medical marijuana has been legal since 1998 — but remains illegal under federal controlled substance laws.

Muraco Kyashna, founder of The Green Budha medical marijuana collective in Seattle, Washington, poses for a portrait with pet Moluccan cockatoo, Big Bird Bubba, May 22, 2012 alongside volunteer Layla Bush, center. Bush was shot and injured in the 2006 Jewish Federation shooting in Seattle, an incident claiming one life and wounding five others. The bullet remained lodged near her spinal cord where intractable pain continues to plague her, requiring use of a crutch. Photo by Daniel Berman.

Layla Bush, a volunteer at The Green Buddha medical marijuana collective, vaporizes cannabis in a dedicated room of the shop in Seattle, Washington May 22, 2012. She said it is her preferred way to medicate because it is quickly felt and isn’t harsh on her lungs the way smoking is. Bush was shot and injured in the 2006 Jewish Federation shooting in Seattle, an incident claiming one life and wounding five others. The bullet remained lodged near her spinal cord where intractable pain continues to plague her, requiring use of a crutch. Photo by Daniel Berman.

A pro-marijuana legalization poster is seen hanging in a back room where vaporizing cannabis is allowed at The Green Buddha May 22, 2012 in Seattle, Washington. Photo by Daniel Berman.

A cannabis patient in a well-to-do suburb, about a half-hour north of Seattle, tends to his medical marijuana crop growing in his home garden May 22, 2012. Photo by Daniel Berman.

A cannabis patient in a well-to-do suburb, about a half-hour north of Seattle, Washington, tends to his medical marijuana crop growing in his home garden, May 22, 2012. The single plant of the Blueberry strain is housed in his upstairs bathroom tub, and can be expected to produce at least one pound of cannabis. Photo by Daniel Berman

A cannabis patient in a well-to-do suburb, about a half-hour north of Seattle, Washington, tends to his medical marijuana crop growing in his home garden, May 22, 2012. The single plant of the Blueberry strain is housed in his upstairs bathroom tub, and can be expected to produce at least one pound of cannabis. Photo by Daniel Berman

Peter wrote a nicely nuanced piece on the likelihood of cannabis legalization occurring across the U.S. Please check it out: Is the Prohibition of ‘Pot’ coming to an end in the US?

I did not have long to work on the story, but was fortunate enough to meet and photograph the owners of medical cannabis access points, people heading a legalization initiative in the state, and even patients and vendors at a daily cannabis farmers market in Seattle, and an older patient north of there, whose identity remains anonymous due to the sensitivity of his professional life.

That is the reality of medical marijuana in this state. It is used for a variety of reasons by people from every walk of life, yet remains castigated by the federal government and law enforcement — it’s a challenging line to tow, but these patients live it every day.

Steve White volunteers at The Green Buddha medical marijuana collective in Seattle May 22, 2012. Both White and Bush have been medical marijuana patients for four years now. Below are a couple dozen different strains or types, in small bagged amounts. Photo by Daniel Berman.

Muraco Kyashna, founder of The Green Buddha medical marijuana collective in Seattle, Washington, with her pet Moluccan cockatoo, Big Bird Bubba, May 22, 2012 at the access point. Photo by Daniel Berman.

Sean Moore, center, who operates the medical cannabis collective Vivus Vivandi, helps a patient calling himself Dragonfli May 22, 2012 at the NW Cannabis Market in Seattle, Washington. Moore, a medical cannabis patient for two and a half years, said he was motivated to help people at the marijuana farmers market after seeing his girlfriend, who has Chron’s Disease, deal with constant pain. Photo by Daniel Berman

Patients and vendors at the NW Cannabis Market in Seattle, Washington mingle and donate medical cannabis and edibles to each other May 22, 2012. The market serves a few hundred medical marijuana patients on a daily basis. Photo by Daniel Berman

A medical cannabis patient takes a closer look at large piece of medical marijuana at the NW Cannabis Market in Seattle, Washington May 22, 2012. The market serves a few hundred medical marijuana patients on a daily basis. Photo by Daniel Berman

Mario Richburg, who has been a medical marijuana patient for two years, smokes a cannabis joint in the medicating room of the NW Cannabis Market in Seattle, Washington May 22, 2012. A few hundred visit the daily cannabis farmers market, where qualified patients can network with others and obtain medicine, edibles and hardware. Photo by Daniel Berman

Medical marijuana patients smoke cannabis in the medicating room of the NW Cannabis Market in Seattle, Washington May 22, 2012. A few hundred visit the daily cannabis farmers market, where qualified patients can network with others and obtain medicine, edibles and hardware. Photo by Daniel Berman

My experience and previous access to those in the medical marijuana community was key to illustrating the piece, as was Peter’s guidance. He informed me of the level of knowledge surrounding medical marijuana in Britain, and how that differed dramatically from those living in the States, for whom this has been a newsworthy topic for the last few years.

One of the most interesting parts of the assignment was exploring the cannabis farmers market. The daily market boasts several dozen regular vendors, and patients are free to use their cannabis in a separate part of the facility. The entrance to the area notes: 15-minute limit. I joined them inside, and was drawn to how the community aspect of medical marijuana has increased over time. Luckily, once the patients got over the strangeness of a Seattle photographer shooting for a British paper, they opened up.It was a jam-packed schedule but I feel fortunate to be able to work with wonderful clients like The Daily Telegraph to tell stories like these.

Seattle medical marijuana photos for The Daily Telegraph of London. Photos by Daniel Berman/www.bermanphotos.com

Thanks for reading,

Daniel