Seattle Cops to Hand Out Doritos at Annual Hempfest

If you thought the state of Washington was smart for legalizing marijuana for recreational use, then you're about to think these guys are super geniuses. This weekend is the annual Seattle Hempfest and for the first time since the "protestival" was started 22 years ago, marijuana is legal. But as you can expect with any large gathering of people police will be on hand, but they won't be there to frisk and arrest people. Instead they will be handing out a 1000 bags of Doritos.

Seattle Police Department spokesman and junk-food-dispenser-in-chief, Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said, “We’re there to let people know what the rules are. Not everybody will get a bag, but hopefully people will talk about what’s allowed and what’s not. We wanted to do something in a fun way that said, ‘look this is cool and everything but the rules are the rules. I’ll probably throw out a few bags of Doritos.”

It's actually a pretty genius idea. These aren't just your ordinary bag of Doritos, each bag has a sticker on it that that includes a summarized version of “Marijwhatnow?" a guide written shortly after legalization that informs people that police will not arrest them for having less than an ounce on them and outlines the rules and regulations of legal marijuana use. The sticker will also encourage people to check out the government website for any questions they have and warns people that while it may be legal at a state level, it's still illegal to the federal government. You can see what last year's Hempfest was like below.