home of the free

Speaking of picking your battles, you're a staunch proponent of legalizing pot. Why are you so out in front of the issue?

Partly because it has been beneficial in my life, partly because I believe in freedom. What could be more private than what goes on inside your mind? You should be allowed to manipulate that as an adult any way you want. Is it one of our top 10 problems, to legalize pot? No, but ending the drug war would be a great way to save a metric fuckton of money. -Bill Maher

From Bill Maher on Palin, Pot and Patriotism in Rolling Stone (28 April 2011)

the sweet smell of common sense

I either hate this or love this. I haven't decided yet.

Are the most sensible people in the country congregated in Massachusetts? I say yes, given its commitment to decriminalize marijuana on multiple fronts. This time around Massachusetts' highest court has ruled that the smell of marijuana no longer justifies police to order someone from his or her car.

"Without at least some other additional fact to bolster a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, the odor of burnt marijuana alone cannot reasonably provide suspicion of criminal activity to justify an exit order."

This comes in light of the state's 2008 decision to decriminalize possession of less than one ounce of the green. Three cheers for the most liberal state in the country! Read the article at Reuters.

enlightenment, haha

Rappers and pot aficionados Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg are teaming up for a stoner comedy called, well, High School. What's it all about? "It's about pot, of course. It's about me and him being cool and smoking a lot of weed." And there you go. Simple as it should be. Check out his interview - joint in hand - at Rolling Stone.

Joints for Japan

Shaun Gindi runs two medicinal marijuana dispensaries in Colorado. As he saw the relentless devastation that Japan has had to endure, he decided to do something about it. He plans to donate all of the revenue (yes, 100%) from the sale of hand-rolled joints to the Red Cross.

Joints for Japan... another example of marijuana culture doing good.

Read the entire story at CNN.

those high school kids

The New York Times discusses a study published in The Journal of Addiction Medicine, which surveyed over 4,000 high school students in Connecticut about their marijuana use. I guess some of the findings are interesting, but does one really care that Caucasian girls are more likely to have tried pot than Asian-American girls? Probably not.

Here are the highlights:

The most likely users were 11th and 12th graders, as well as teenagers who had average grades in the B to C range or lower. Teenagers in single-parent households were more likely to report marijuana use than those in two-parent homes.

Not surprisingly, various risky behaviors like gambling, drinking, fighting, steroid use and smoking cigarettes were all associated with higher risk for using marijuana. Depression and self-harm behaviors like cutting were also associated with marijuana use.

The anti-pot rhetoric is pretty solid, won't you say? "Not surprisingly"? "High risk"? And that subtle jab at single-parent households? Sorry, too many question marks.

Read the entire article for kicks here.

hip hip hooray

A major win for anyone who supports basic human rights! The Defense of Marriage Act has been rejected by the Obama administration. In a letter to Congress, Obama (well, Attorney General Eric Holder) made it clear that this administration will no longer oppose legal challenges to DOMA, which in 1996 defined marriage to be between a man and a woman. As this decision is upheld and continues to be applied, eventually any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation will be considered unconstitutional. Big day!

Read the Los Angeles Times article here.

washingtonians can handle it

The Seattle Times is the most recent newspaper to declare full support for the legalization of marijuana. Full support, as in:

Marijuana should be legalized, regulated and taxed. The push to repeal federal prohibition should come from the states, and it should begin with the state of Washington.

The Seattle Times editorial board penned the piece on Friday (February 18) in lieu of House Bill 1550, which would legalize marijuana and sell it through the state liquor stores to customers over 21 who consume it in private. The editorial mentions the oft-cited reasons for the failure of anti-pot measures: the loss in potential tax revenue, the waste of police time and resources, and the cost among those who are arrested and stigmatized as criminals. It's the same good, solid stuff, and it's nice to see an influential paper take an interest in the conversation and take a stand.

Read the entire article here.

Best Line: Like alcohol, most people can handle marijuana. Some can't.

I really hope not

I never got around to posting this unsettling article from TIME titled, The Link Between Marijuana and Schizophrenia. It's from back in July '10 but I only came upon it recently. But hey, better that information is delivered late than never.

Photo from here.

The article discusses research led by Dr. Serge Sevy, an associate professor of psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. In short - I'm sure this is a very crude summary - the data suggest that people who smoke marijuana are twice as likely to develop schizophrenia as nonsmokers. I know, Schizophrenia. That's no joke. And a pretty heavy faith in causation, no?

Well, TIME writer Maia Szalavitz quickly points out the problem with these research results. The number of people who smoke marijuana, or at least have tried smoking marijuana, has increased over the years; 70% of youth by the end of the 20th century. At the same time, rates of schizophrenia in the U.S. have basically declined. Since cases of schizophrenia began to be recorded it's been found to consistently affect roughly 1% of the population. Read the entire article here. Nothing is conclusive, but it's good to keep in mind. We gotta keep tabs on all sides of the conversation.

Best Line

However, discouraging marijuana use in patients who have schizophrenia or are at high risk of developing it is a complicated task, not least because the drug is extremely popular with this group.

I'm glad this was recorded

"We're locking up people that take a couple of puffs of marijuana and the next thing they know they've got 10 years ... We've got to take a look at what we're considering crimes and that's one of them. I'm not exactly for the use of drugs. Don't get me wrong. But I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot and that kind of thing, it's costing us a fortune and it's ruining young people."

- The Rev. Pat Robertson (17 December 2010)

One of the biggest celebrities in Christian conservative politics, the gentle old man from 'The 700 Club,' Mr. Pat Robertson advocating pro-pot measures? His people issued the mandatory no way after the comments were aired, but come on. I think the Reverend knows what he's talking about. At least this time.

Source: CNN

Don't come here for the pot

Image from TIME

I came across a TIMEs article today, Court to Pot Tourists: Get Your Weed at Home.
 

The European Court of Justice has ruled that Dutch authorities can ban coffee shops from selling marijuana to foreigners.

Supposedly it became common for pot lovers from Belgium and Germany to make the trip to Holland for a few tokes. The Netherlands is lovingly known for its liberal marijuana policies, and what a better way to spend your free night than hopping on a train to your neighboring country and smoking a few bowls? Well, it seems like such ventures may soon be squashed, as the Court has ruled that coffee shops can easily ban the sale of weed to foreigners. Read the entire article here.

A perfect example of making things unecessarily complicated and difficult. Like government red tape. And every time I call the IRS.

Amerijuana

 

TIME, 22 November 2010. Read the article here.

Source: TIME

Video: Bill O'Reilly on Zach Galifianakis

As I posted a couple weeks ago, actor Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover) was on Bill Maher's show when he took out a joint, lit it, and smoked it on national television. Real or not is debatable. Bill O'Reilly took a interest in the event because one of his "Cultural Warriors," Margaret Hoover, was alongside Galifianakis and took the joint from him when he passed it. She doesn't smoke it, she sniffs it. She went onto The O'Reilly Factor sometime later and for some reason had to defend her actions. The "discussion" runs lot longer but I can't seem to find it - so cringe through this short clip for now.

Key Word: Barbarian

Cartoon

Source: TIME

Video: Zach Galifianakis Smokes a Joint

 

The funnyman smokes a joint on Bill Maher's show. There's still chatter on whether it was real or not, but to me it's irrelevant - the stunt was awesome and the audience loved it. Bill O'Reilly discussed this incident on his show on the dreadful FOX News Channel, bringing on Margaret Hoover who is the woman who first takes the joint from Zach in the video. She a FOX News contributor and one of the O'Reilly Factor's "Cultural Warriors." O'Reilly practically scolds her on the air like she's a child who doesn't know any better. It's quite bothersome the way he reprimands her, it's just kind of off-putting. I'll try to dig up that video too. For now, check out the video from Maher's show!

UPDATE: Real Time with Bill Maher is taped in Los Angeles, California, where of course medicinal marijuana is legal. Or perhaps the joint is a fake. Or perhaps he recreationally smokes weed despite its illegality - not that novel on the left coast. Regardless, perhaps this should be viewed as an outrageous stunt - targeting a very specific audience - as a means to send a political message, and not a a deplorable action that calls for chastising. The media's scare tactics and fondling of soft news are serious issues enough, let's not add a comedian smoking on Bill Maher's show to the list of problems.

Video: Pot Growing Grandmother

Source: CNN

This woman leads a life that I'm quite envious of. She wakes up everyday removed from impassive concrete buildings and instead sees her land. Land where she grows marijuana, which increases the allure by tenfold. She has squash growing right along with the weed. She takes CNN around her garden, and expresses hesitance about the legalization of marijuana - namely because it will threaten her business. Her theory on growing marijuana: Do it out in the open! Check out the video, she's so sweet!

TIME Photo Essay: Cannabis Culture

TIP: If you want to be caught up on the news but you don't have the time to read through dozens of  articles, I recommend going through TIME's Photo Essays to get your daily dose! Beautiful photos with quick captions that basically sum up the most important goings-on of the day, while also having special topics throughout the week. TIME had one awhile back titled Cannabis Culture, check out the entire collection here. I love these photos in particular, the colors are so alive, so vibrant! And of course awesome representations of weed culture.

All photos from TIME's Cannabis Culture

Recap: Legalizing Marijuana in California

I did my quasi-daily "marijuana" search on Google News and found this great video from CNN. It breaks down the most recent developments concerning California Proposition 19 - notably, that both sides are unable to raise an exceptional amount of money. Yes on Prop. 19 has certainly fared better ($2 million verses No's $200,000), but both camps rarely, if ever, air television commercials due to lack of capital. Although this would usually be devastating for a ballot-bound measure, not so much for good ol' Mary Jane. People and the media apparently have an instinctive passion for weed, as Proposition 19 has had no trouble making the news - screw costly PR efforts. Check out the video below:

The major political candidates in California opposes the legalization of pot - begrudgingly, I hope, though probably not. Even Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is not only famous for smoking weed back in the day, but more importantly recently signed into law a measure that makes the possession of less than one ounce of pot equal to a speeding ticket. That is, a $100 fine. I can't wait for Arnold to speak out post-governorship and admit that he loves weed. Okay, that probably will not happen, but you know he would reap the benefits of legalization. The Democratic candidate who hopes to take over Arnold's seat, Jerry Brown, is also against Prop. 19. "If the whole society starts getting stoned, we're going to be even less competitive," he says.

If by "getting stoned" he means completely incompetent, lazy, and stupid, then yes, the United States would become less competitive. But I smoke, I get stoned, and I don't consider myself to be "less competitive" than someone who does not. I began to smoke pot on a regular basis during my senior year at UCLA. I smoked more or less everyday, emphasis on the more. Rather than complaining of senioritis and screwing over my last year of college, I traveled abroad, earned a 4.0 all three quarters, worked, read and graded papers for my favorite professor, and had countless "This is the last time we're doing [insert activity]!" moments with my best friends. It would be the understatement of the year to say that pot did not lead to the destruction of my life. Weed is simply a part of my life, a great addition to my life, and is so for so many women.

xoxo, rose

Marijuana Law Reform is a Civil Rights Issue

This opinion piece was written for the San Francisco Chronicle by Alice Huffman, the president of the California state NAACP. It was written last month, but I just found it today while clicking through a bunch of hyperlinks on Huffpost. She offers a rational and eloquent argument for the legalization of marijuana, focusing on the reality of who suffers the most under anti-marijuana legislation. She writes:

We reject the oft-repeated but deceptive argument that there are only two choices for dealing with drugs - heavy-handed law enforcement or total permissiveness. Substance abuse and addiction are American problems that impact every socioeconomic group, and meaningful public health and safety strategies are needed to address it. However, law enforcement strategies that target poor blacks and Latinos and cause them to bear the burden and shame of arrest, prosecution and conviction for marijuana offenses must stop.

Despite consistent evidence that black youth use marijuana at lower rates than whites, in every one of the 25 largest counties in California, blacks are arrested for marijuana possession at higher rates than whites, typically at double, triple, or even quadruple the rate.

Her final message? Yes on California Proposition 19. Read her entire piece here.

Marijuana IQ

The Christian Science Monitor posed the question, "How much do you know about marijuana?" on its front page this morning. I will admit, I didn't take the quiz and immediately skipped ahead to the answer sheet. Some consider this cheating, but I say if my motive is simply to expose myself to new information, I don't see the point in quizzing myself through it. That's simply withholding information, and I'm not patient enough for that. Regardless, if you are inclined to take the quiz yourself click here and don't read on! But for the rest of us, here are the highlights:

Meet Hop, Mary Jane's cousin (TreeHugger)

Q. Which of the following plants is most closely related to cannabis?
A. Hops
The common hop (Humulus lupulus) and the 3 species of cannabis (Cannabis sativa, indica, and ruderalis) are members of the Cannabaceae family.

Q. How was cannabis used by the Office of Strategic Services?
A. as a truth serum
The Office of Strategic Services was an intelligence agency formed during World War II. At their lab at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., a concentrated form of marijuana was deemed the most effective "truth serum" available. In 1943, the drug was given via cigarettes to Augusto Del Gracio, an enforcer with New York mafia boss Lucky Luciano, who subsequently revealed details of the group's heroin-selling operation.
(Does this mean the opening scene of Pineapple Express was not a complete fabrication?)

Q. What percentage of teens between 12 age 17 used marijuana in 2009?
A. between 5 and 10 percent
According to the survey, from 2002 to 2007, past-month marijuana use among those ages 12 to 17 generally decreased from 2002 to 2005, remained constant between 2005 and 2007, and then increased from 2007 to 2009.

Friendly stranger? I want to meet this dealer! (Wiki)

Q. What year was marijuana made illegal in the United States?
A. 1937
Over the objections of the American Medical Association, the Marihuana Tax Act was signed into law on Aug. 2, 1937. It did not directly outlaw cannabis. Rather, it imposed a tax that effectively made it illegal to distribute it. The act was subsequently supplanted by other laws regulating the drug, and it was eventually ruled unconstitutional and repealed in 1970.

Q. Which country has the highest per capita lifetime cannabis use?
A. Canada

Q. Which state has the highest per capita marijuana use for people age 12 or older?

A. Rhode Island

Check out all of the questions, answers, and details here.

Common sense

I was perusing proposition19's Youtube channel and came across a video titled "What Conservatives Think About California Proposition 19." I armored myself with some liberal tolerance and prepared for the worst, and instead was pleasantly surprised. Political soundbites get such a bad rep, and rightly so, but these kind of pulled at my heartstrings. You can catch the video here. The video is about five minutes long, which my friend has just conveniently told me is pretty long for Youtube standards. So if you don't want to watch it, understandable. But don't miss these quotes:

Glenn Beck

We have to make a choice in this country. We either put people who are smoking marijuana behind bars or we legalize it. But this little game we're playing in the middle is not helping us, it is not helping Mexico, and it is causing massive violence on our southern border.

Sarah Palin

We need to prioritize our law enforcement effort, and if somebody's gonna be in their house and not do anybody else any harm, then perhaps there are other things to be looking at to engage in, and try to clean up some of the other problems that we have in society that are appropriate.

Geraldo Rivera

Governor Palin had it exactly right.

Ron Paul

We should legalize freedom.

Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico

I think Californians here have a unique opportunity this fall to vote YES when it comes to taxing, regulating, and controlling cannabis.

____

What everyone with even the weakest grasp of common sense seems to be saying is that the prohibition of marijuana does not work. Something needs to be done, and on November 4th California has the golden opportunity to do that often intangible something. Let California be a living lab of what a society would look like if marijuana were legalized. I'm confident we'll get it right and avoid the collapse of civilization. Change has to start somewhere, and California is the coolest state anyways, so let's keep it that way.

Coolness not something you aspire to? Well, in 2009 California spent over $50,000 for every single one of the 1,629 individuals arrested for marijuana (cite). Moral people? The main fuel of the drug cartels in Mexico, who are literally running the country in the midst of a 3-year killing spree, comes from smuggling weed into the United States.Will legalizing marijuana completely stop the violence, no, but cutting off a major money source (over 60%) can't hurt. Yes on 19.

xoxo,
Rose