Pot advocate fired up for convention

Pot advocate fired up for convention
Organizer Michael Lerner vows a huge expo despite a last-minute legal dispute with a promoter.
By John Ingold
The Denver Post
Posted: 04/01/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
Updated: 04/01/2010 01:41:31 AM MDT


The man behind a social-networking website that calls itself "Facebook for the marijuana community" is hosting a cannabis-themed convention in Denver this weekend that he says will be the largest the country has ever seen.

Michael Lerner, owner of the website DailyBuds.com, said the Colorado Cannabis Convention will have more than 340 booths, plus panel discussions and educational symposia stretched over two exhibition halls at the Colorado Convention Center, making it the largest indoor marijuana expo in U.S. history in terms of square footage.

"With the climate in Colorado and the movement and where it's going, I expect a very large attendance," said Lerner, who is based in California and operates marijuana- themed magazines there and in Colorado.

But the convention, which opens Friday afternoon and runs through Saturday, didn't come together without a good bit of behind-the-scenes drama.

Lerner said he was approached earlier this year by local promoter Raymond Springsteel about signing on as a sponsor for the convention, which Springsteel was organizing. The rocky, short-lived relationship culminated Friday when Lerner's lawyers filed a lawsuit against Springsteel in Denver District Court seeking to make Lerner's company the sole organizer. A judge granted Lerner's request Friday afternoon.

The suit alleges that Springsteel reneged on their agreement, failed to pay the convention center and made off with $150,000 in vendor deposits.

"There was nothing paid for at all, and the money was gone," Lerner said.

Springsteel, though, sharply disputes that, saying he paid the convention-center deposit and acted in good faith. He said he didn't get the chance to defend himself in court and that he was forced out over conceptual differences.

"I've done everything I can to honor the spirit of the agreement," Springsteel said. ". . . Every penny that we've collected has gone toward the production of the event."

Springsteel said he intends to fight the accusations and, in the meantime, plans to host a private party over the weekend at the Hyatt Regency hotel adjacent to the convention center.

"I'm not out of it by any means," he said.

Lerner, though, is moving on alone, saying he felt it was important to put together a top-notch show rather than back out.

"I call it 'Extreme Home Makeover, Convention-Style,' " he said. "If they can build a house in a week, we can build a convention in 72 hours. And it's going to be stupendous, off the charts."

Dispensaries, glassblowers, hemp- clothing makers and all manner of businesses that cater to the medical- marijuana industry will be on hand to promote their goods. The musical group Cypress Hill will hold a "meet- and-greet" autograph session Saturday. Several Colorado politicians, including U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, a Democrat from Boulder, are scheduled to participate in a town-hall meeting Saturday.

The only thing missing, Lerner said, will be actual marijuana, which is not being allowed on-site so that people without state medical-marijuana cards can attend.

Tickets are $15 â?? available at DailyBuds.com or at the event â?? and Lerner said he expects 100,000 people to attend, based on his experience sponsoring similar conventions in California. Convention-center officials said they had no way of verifying that estimate.

If attendance does reach that ambitious mark, it would dwarf anything held at the convention center. The most recent editions of the Colorado Garden and Home Show and the Great American Beer Festival â?? annually the two largest events at the center â?? drew about 50,000 people.

The space reserved for the cannabis convention can legally hold a maximum of 12,000 people at any one time, a convention-center spokesman said.

Lerner, though, said he doesn't expect the convention to disappoint.

"We are putting on an event that people will be in awe of when they walk into that convention center," Lerner said.



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