During a panel discussion last week at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Gov. Rick Perry made national headlines by saying not only that Washington and Colorado had every right to legalize pot, but also that he's long been a supporter of drug decriminalization policies in Texas. Oh, if it were only that simple. Perry's comments, made on a panel with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and former United Nations Secretary Gen-eral Kofi Annan, reiterated his traditional "states' rights" stance. [continues 804 words]
Terpene Profiles Will Help The Cannabis Buyer Make Savvy (And Scientific) Decisions One of the biggest benefits of the medical cannabis world is reliability. You can trust that dispensaries will be there, and you can trust that you're getting what they say you're getting. Except when you can't. As much as they'd like to, dispensary operators can't always know what they're selling. I'm sorry, guys. I know you want to, and you certainly intend to, but I don't think you can prove undeniably that what you sell as OG Kush is actually OG Kush. [continues 533 words]
Mr. Smith Looks at the Numbers From the State's Year-End Medical Marijuana Report If you laid all the weed sold in Arizona dispensaries last year end to end, you could make a line of joints from Tucson to Rocky Point. I'm not sure why you would do it, but you could, because it was roughly 170 miles of fatties. That estimate comes from deep in the recesses of my head via the Arizona Department of Health Services end-of-year medical marijuana report, which came out last week. The state reports about 96,000 ounces sold in the state's 71 dispensaries, or about 3 tons. That's 3 tons of real cannabis, not 3 tons of the schwag the Border Patrol is finding in pick-ups in the desert. About 43,000 people bought that weed, some buying just once and one hittin' it like a champ at 314 buys in 2013. If you are that person and can prove it, email me at JMSmithAriz@gmail.com. [continues 467 words]
I found political pundit Erick Erickson's remarks in his column "The politics of pot" (1/10) to be unsupported and mainly fearmongering with outdated concepts. While Erickson takes potshots at medical marijuana and its recreational usage as dangerous "unbridled hedonism" and leading to another sexual revolution, he also makes the assumption that "perhaps we should just wait a few years then re-examine Colorado before rushing on." Where is his caution about opioid drugs? I suggest Erickson has avoided looking at medical heroin in the same light, such as the popular opiates like morphine, methadone, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone or Oxycotin, that have led to more addictions and deaths than marijuana ever has. [continues 120 words]
Unless You Happen to Live in the Area, Catalina Hills Care Isn't On Your Way to Anywhere, but They Provide an Excellent Dispensary Experience Catalina Hills Care 12152 N. Rancho Vistoso Blvd. 797-3073; catalinahillscare.com Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday Pluses: Comfy, upscale experience; wide selection; edibles; friendly, professional staff; full menu on WeedMaps.com Minuses: Prices; few high THC strains; long haul from most of Tucson Until a few years ago, I played about 60 rounds of golf a year. [continues 665 words]
Safer Arizona is aiming to put an initiative in front of the voters to bring Colorado-style legalization to our state I don't know if you heard about it or not, but there's a state near here where any adult can now buy weed legally. Colorado. The shops are open and the shoppers are shopping and the money is rolling into store and state coffers-more than $1 million in sales the first day alone, and there are only a few dozen stores. People are smiling in Colorado-cannabis users, store owners and tax collectors. I'm sure there have been some problems. Police issued a few citations for public use the first day, but I don't think a single child has died from a cannabis overdose. Generally, the mood in Colorado seems to be giddy. [continues 562 words]
It's Time to Consider the Positives That Could Come From Legal Cannabis In a couple of weeks, a childhood dream of mine will come true for about 6 million people in Colorado. I started wishing for legal cannabis when I was about 15, shortly after the first time I tried it. I suppose I might have hoped for it before that, out of some vague camaraderie with pot smokers, but I really started thinking it should be legal when I started using the stuff. I still think legalization is a good idea, and I'm glad it's less than two weeks away for some folks, but it's not all good. There will be some negative consequences. [continues 577 words]
The President of Uruguay Is Making a Move to Legalize Cannabis and Mr. Smith Rises to Applaud I thought about moving to Uruguay once. The South American nation just this side of Argentina has some amazingly white beaches populated by sea turtles in winter, and you can buy property there for pennies on the dollar just a couple of hours from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Uruguay is a fairly progressive place that is now vying with Amsterdam, Colorado and Washington state to be the top cannabis destination in the world. It might be winning. [continues 522 words]
B.C's marijuana referendum has failed to spark sufficient interest locally. As the Dec. 5 deadline approached, Sensible BC organizers for Vernon-Monashee had a strong representation but fell short of the 10 per cent goal. "We did not hit our target here in Vernon," said Boyd Goble, local organizer. "We have sent in more then 3,000 (short of our goal of 4,200) and now we wait till after the ninth to see how the rest of the province did." [continues 242 words]
Mr. Smith welcomes a new member of the Society of Marijuana Journalists (not an actual organization) In a perfect world, there would be a job where you could just sit around all day, looking up things about pot on the Internet and reading about pot and deciding what aspects of the pot world get coverage in a major newspaper. You would get paid a mad salary to think only about pot, then tell reporters and photographers what to do about it. You would never have to edit a sports story or a city council story or a crime story. [continues 546 words]
A Tough Month for Mr. Smith Is Reminding Him to Accentuate the Positive It's been a tough month in Mr. Smithland, where the sudden, tragic death of a vehicle and associated financial disaster forced a shit-ton of stress upon my cervical spine, pulling and yanking on it from C5-7 in ways that impinge upon nerves and bring on the need for medicinal cannabis. Thankfully, I have some. And not only do I have some, I get it these days from pretty good friends who are definitely good people. They work in a state-sanctioned dispensary, because I live, thankfully, in a state that allows that. The people who sell me cannabis smile and hug me when I stop by. They like me and seem to care about me, and their hearts seem to be in good places, and for that I'm grateful. [continues 601 words]
There Are Still Kinks to Work Out, but the Annual MMJ Report Contains Mostly Good News The Arizona medical marijuana program had a birthday recently, wobbling into the terrible twos on shaky legs, clutching a fistful of lawsuits in one hand and leaning up against a couple of judges for balance. The list of lawsuits over cannabis continues to grow, but so does the number of patients, albeit slowly. There are problems, to be sure, such as the state's continued cock-blocking on extracts that has dispensaries wary of selling cannabis wax or oil, but ultimately I think the second annual report from the esteemed Mr. Humble, overseer of the program, is good news. [continues 647 words]
Sadly, Tucson Is Still a Step Behind As Far As Dispensing Digitally Back in the day, before there were dispensaries, there was Craigslist. I don't think Craigslist asked to be a forum for connecting cannabis and patients, but it immediately happened when patient-caregiver exchanges became legal. People were trading meds and plants and edibles from the Tucson Mountains to the Rincons. Well, it seems maybe some of that traffic has gone to dispensaries, because Craigslist doesn't offer much for cannabis patients in Tucson now. [continues 639 words]
The Delivery Option Is Great, but Privacy Issues and a Lack of Selection Are a Problem for Green Farmacy Bisbee is known for a lot of things around Arizona. Quirky bars and artsy characters abound in the tiny, touristy, 19th-century mining town nestled in the hills an easy glance north of the Land of Cartels. Character, both human and inanimate, flows freely through every hilly, bendy, curvy street, and there is an intangible air of freedom there. It kind of makes you want to smoke a joint, if you have ever used cannabis for any reason. [continues 457 words]
Draft ordinance could effectively ban pot dispensaries in some San Diego districts By Joshua Emerson Smith newsThe number of allowable cannabis dispensaries in each council district under a draft ordinance, according to a SANDAG mapping study - Illustration by Lindsey Voltoline Imagine if the city shut down all the corner drug stores and allowed them to open in only a few neighborhoods. Then imagine you're sick and rely on public transportation. Soon this may not be far from reality for medical-cannabis patients in San Diego, according to a mapping study done by the San Diego County Association of Governments and obtained by CityBeat. [continues 1148 words]
A Judge Has Intervened, So the State Has Changed Some of Its MMJ Edicts It might surprise you to know that despite the hard-right leanings of Arizona's state political power structure, there are actually forces for freedom at work in the Red Valley that is our state capitol, even where cannabis is concerned. Will Humble, director of the state Department of Health Services, came out against the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act when it was proposed, but the esteemed Mr. Humble has mostly upheld our end of the bargain and worked fairly diligently to make it happen since it became law against his will. [continues 550 words]
Downtown Dispensary Has a Super Convenient Location and an Excellent Selection of Edibles Convenience is a key reason to have an Arizona medical marijuana card. The card turns the chore of getting meds into something akin to grabbing a gallon of milk-"Sure, honey. I'll grab an eighth on my way home from work." There are suddenly a lot of dispensaries in el Pueblo Viejo, all vying for a chunk of your bud budget, so convenience has become an important part of the equation. Let's face it, most patients are unlikely to drive across town to get meds unless they have to-in which case they almost certainly will. But we don't have to waste the gas anymore, and the cannabis quality, prices and selection really don't vary much from place to place, so the Place becomes more important. [continues 550 words]
Mr. Smith Is Fed Up With This Country's Confusing and Overlapping Rules About Medical Marijuana I have a confession to make. I've been writing about medical cannabis for just over two years now, meting out 650-word snippets of weekly wisdom (sometimes) on the topic, but my affair with medical cannabis seems to be running its course. I've tried to love it, tried to advocate and pontificate effectively on the merits of a well-regulated system that connects patients with meds and disconnects them from law enforcement, but ultimately I guess I'm just not that into it. [continues 558 words]
Mr. Smith reports from Sierra Vista, checking in on one of two area dispensaries I can see Mexico from my backyard these days, which seems like a Sarah Palin reference but is actually just simple truth. Mr. Smith has gone on the road for a few months, landing for now on 24 empty acres near Coronado National Monument with high-desert grassland sloping gently down about five miles south to Mexico. I can see the wall. It's an ugly brown line stretching arrow-straight east and west. [continues 654 words]
Probably the Only Article You'll Read This Week That Uses Car Sex As Part of an Extended Metaphor I was minding my own business one night last week, fucking a girl in a parked car, when a Tucson police cruiser rolled up directly across the street. The officer didn't get out. Instead, he just hovered over there in his car, generally being noticed and silently threatening to ruin a perfectly enjoyable and wildly intense good time that was happening between two consenting adults in the privacy of their own back seat. After a few minutes, he drove away, so the, um, festivities continued. Then a few minutes later, he came back. This time he flashed his spotlight from across the street in a clear, Get-The-Fuck-Out-Of-Here fit of heartless interference. [continues 506 words]
Attorney General Declines to Act Against States Legalizing Marijuana In an Aug. 29 letter to all U.S. attorneys, Deputy U.S. Attorney General James M. Cole said that the federal government will not - for now, at least - take legal action to challenge laws in Colorado and Washington passed by voters last year that legalize and regulate the use and sale of marijuana by adults. As long as those states "have also implemented strong and effective regulatory and enforcement systems" that keep dope, and funds associated with its trade, from diverting to the black market or to kids, he wrote, the feds are happy to have state and local law enforcement police the system. [continues 602 words]
In Two States Where Pot Is Now Legal, Feds Take Back Seat Approach In a letter sent yesterday to all U.S. attorneys, Attorney General Eric Holder said that the federal government will not - for now, at least -s take legal action to challenge laws in Colorado and Washington passed by voters last year that legalize and regulate the use and sale of marijuana by adults. As long as those states "implement strong and effective regulatory and enforcement systems" that keep dope, and funds associated with its trade, from diverting to the black market or to kids, the Department of Justice is happy to have state and local law enforcement police the system, he wrote. [continues 605 words]
Something new is growing at the bright green building downtown that once housed a pest control company and featured cutouts of giant roaches on its walls. "Indoor Garden Organic Superstore," proclaims the sign at 2 W. Charleston Blvd. "Grow your own," it calls to passers-by at Charleston and Main Street. "Veggies," it adds in smaller print. Veggies. That's a good one. Is the Indoor Garden Organic Superstore about to become the unofficial Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign for a downtown that one day will be home to profitable marijuana use? Will Tony Hsieh startups be partially obscured by smoke from medical marijuana fire-ups? [continues 595 words]
As a Colorado Company Sues an Arizona Dispensary Over Strains, Smith Wonders Who Owns Nature? Remember when Monsanto sued that Canadian farmer over canola he raised from seeds that blew into his field off a passing Monsanto truck? The Case of Mr. Schmeiser was documented, among many other places, in the movie Food, Inc., which subsequently fed the flames of a burgeoning anti-Monsantoism. Partly because of that film, I now think of Monsanto the way little Hispanic kids think of the Border Patrol . La Migra's gonna GET you! [continues 580 words]
Desert Bloom Offers Great Prices, Good Selection and a Knowledgeable Staff Desert Bloom Re-Leaf Center 8060 E. 22nd St. 886-1760 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., daily Pluses: Excellent prices; super friendly, knowledgeable staff; invisible smiling girl; Harlequin strain; pipes, papers, vaporizers, etc. Minuses: East side is inconvenient for all but folks who live there; no lab results yet A truck can't kick up a rock in Arizona without cracking a windshield . or hitting a medical cannabis dispensary, apparently. [continues 640 words]
Seriously, Still With The Raids? In a now-familiar scenario in the Great State up in The Northwest Corner of The Nation, federal agents last week swooped into a bunch of medical cannabis outlets and robbed the places blind. The agents pulled into the parking lots, leapt from their vehicles with guns drawn, and made sure no patients would be helped by these places in the foreseeable future. They confiscated a bunch of cannabis, a few cellphones and a little bit of pride and enthusiasm. [continues 541 words]
A 'Devastating' Audit of Denver's Medical Marijuana Regulation Isn't The Big Deal Opponents Claim It Is It seems the Mile High City is a mile off target when it comes to medical marijuana business regulation, but the situation might not be as bad as an auditor's report (http://www.denvergov.org/Portals/741/documents/Audits%202013/Medical_Marijuana_Licensing_Audit_Report_07-18-13.pdf) and subsequent media attention make it sound. Denver, where competition is thriving among hundreds of medical cannabis shops, recently gained a new ass when the elected city auditor ripped it one over cannabis business regulation. Dennis Gallagher and his colleagues snooped around in the city's books for a while, then in a report issued July 18 excoriated the Department of Excise and Licenses for poor record keeping, unenforced or nonexistent deadlines, poor management and insufficient staffing in the medical marijuana licensing program, all of which leave the city at "high risk" in some areas. [continues 528 words]
The State's Due Date Spawns a Flood of Applications for Pot Dispensary Inspections Things are happening lightning-fast these days on the cannabis front in Arizona, largely because of a deadline for dispensaries to open, and I am a huge fan of that. Last August, the state held a pingpong ball lottery and issued just shy of 100 dispensary registration certificates. The clock started ticking that day, leaving operators one year to get permission to swing open the doors. Despite a lawsuit that allowed dispensaries more time, all but one met the June 7 deadline to ask for state inspection. (www.azdhs.gov/medicalmarijuana/documents/dispensaries/dispensary-registration-certificate-allocation-results.pdf) [continues 507 words]
Littleton will be one of just a few south-metro cities to allow retail marijuana sales starting Jan. 1 if council keeps heading the direction it set out on July 9. It was a study session, so no official action could be taken. But five of the seven councilors agreed in theory that Littleton should lift its moratorium on retail sales on Oct. 1, when the state will start accepting applications. Mayor Debbie Brinkman, who led the city's charge against synthetic marijuana two years ago, and Councilor Bruce Beckman, a retired police commander, were opposed. [continues 507 words]
Mr. Smith finds that a stop at Arizona's oldest cannabis dispensary - in Glendale - is well worth the time by J.M. Smith There will always be debate over which medical cannabis dispensary in Arizona is the best, but there can only ever be a first one-Arizona Organix in Glendale, which opened in December. Since I was passing through Phoenix last week, I decided to stop by and take a look at what the West Valley shop has to offer. I was not disappointed. [continues 583 words]
A Police Action in Michigan Proves How Absurd the Dynamic Between Law Enforcement and Dispensaries Can Be What is it about? Why did they close it? These guys have helped me a lot." - -Bill Sowers, 57, a cannabis patient quoted by the Detroit Free Press. He showed up a few minutes after a raid last week at the Southwest Compassion Care Center in Springfield, Mich. Police rudely interrupted patients at three central Michigan cannabis dispensaries last week, bursting through the door wearing black masks, pointing guns in innocent faces and grabbing a trove of plants, meds, computers, records and money-even cash from employees' pockets, according to one report. [continues 596 words]
Something Needs to Change to Stop the Frequent Tragedies Occurring in the Arizona Desert On June 21, Border Patrol agents flying over the Southern Arizona desert spotted two bodies and three small bundles lying on the ground near Quijotoa, west of Tucson. The agents called Tohono O'odham police, who went to the remote spot a couple miles off state Route 86 and found two dead men and three bundles of marijuana. The bloated, decomposing bodies were collected and presumably transferred to the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office, where they will await unlikely identification and return to their families. Three days later the Border Patrol then sent out a news release warning of the dangers of crossing the desert. The news release included pictures of the blackened, swollen corpses found near Quijotoa, pictures you are unlikely to see anywhere else and ones I doubt my esteemed editors at the Tucson Weekly will run. [continues 455 words]
There's a lot to be said for the munchies, especially if you're a hotdog cart lady pushing a pro-marijuana petition. And now a lot can be said about Cindy Heemeryck, one of the most successful Sensible BC campaign organizers in the province. By night, Heemeryck mans her hotdog stand outside Flashbacks nightclub on Ellis Street; by day, she is dedicating her summer to helping change the way marijuana use is dealt with in this province. She is also already among the most successful, if not the most successful, campaign organizers on the Sensible BC team with 3,000 email addresses on her list and 50 people physically working by her side. [continues 857 words]
There's an elephant in the room, and he wants you to sign his petition. Since the dawn of medical marijuana in 1996, people have hoped the new paradigm would lead to recreational legalization. For some cannabis advocates, the medical veneer is thin (see my column from last week), but there are undeniable deep connections between recreational and medical cannabis users. The Tucson branch of NORML has voiced its willingness to cling to medical coattails as a vehicle to legalization. Now in Arizona we have a new ally in the quest for legalization, the same ally that made it possible in Washington and Colorado-us. [continues 523 words]
Here's Why You Won't Catch Our MMJ Columnist Wearing a Pot Leaf T-Shirt or Celebrating 4/20 Over the past year and a half, I've skimmed the surface of medical cannabis like a bat snatching bugs off the surface of a Sonoran creek. I've swooped down week after week, picking tidbits from the surface but never dipping much below it. There are a lot of reasons for that, one of which is that I'm not sure I have the stomach to immerse myself in medical cannabis. As a journalist, I have always had a pretty good bullshit meter. It has a served me well throughout a lengthy, successful career in the news industry. My bullshit meter has been working overtime since taking this gig. [continues 572 words]
A Case in Maricopa County Superior Court Is Another Distraction in the Medical Marijuana Saga Two lawyers walk into a bar. Then the lawsuits start flying, and nobody gets to have any fun drinking, because the lawyers are throwing briefs around like bar stools and screaming at the judge to throw that motherfucker out of here, because he's drunk and he's spilling drinks all over everyone. So the drunk motherfucker screams at the judge a little, defending his actions, and the judge eventually hears enough and orders a bouncer to throw someone into the street. [continues 619 words]
If You Are Willing to Travel Just North of Irvington, Earth's Healing Is a Welcoming (and Affordable) Dispensary It's a problem I wish I'd had two years ago-dispensaries popping so fast I can't get out fast enough to visit them all. Another one opened last Monday on the southside-Earth's Healing Pain Treatment & Wellness Center-so here's a glimpse of what they offer. The dispensary is in a great location. Where do you want to be when you walk out with $500 worth of meds? How about on Benson Highway within sight of the Pima County Sheriff's Department headquarters? Earth's Healing is also within easy reach of a big chunk of the southside, giving the city a kind of ring of protection around the east, south and west sides. [continues 606 words]
State-by-state, like a giant sticky ball, the cause of medical marijuana makes progress There's a video game called Katamari Damacy that lets you roll a tiny adhesive ball around on the screen, picking up anything you roll over. You start by picking up tiny things, like pens or pencils or silverware. Eventually you are picking up bigger and bigger things, like trees, houses, office buildings and stadiums, then planets and comets. The cannabis katamari started picking up pencils and pens in 1996, when California passed the nation's first medical marijuana law. Now we're starting to pick up some cars and trucks, and it won't be long before we're snapping up buildings and aircraft carriers across the nation as legislatures turn from the dark side to the light. Here's a sampling of some recent developments: [continues 560 words]
With 17 Dispensaries Cleared to Open and 37,422 Patients, Mr. Smith Looks at the State of MMJ in AZ When the MMJ program launched in Arizona, there was a lot of cock blocking and stalling and excuses from the governor's office and other chambers of government across the state. It took more than two years to get a dispensary, and so far just 17 have been cleared to open. But viewed from where I sit (the patient chair), the MMJ program seems to be operating pretty smoothly. I haven't heard much from anyone about major problems, and it seems the state is holding up its end of the bargain now. The governor has seen the error of her ways, or at least sees the error of defying the judges who repeatedly tell Attorney Generalissimo Tom Horne to STFU and get out of the way. [continues 537 words]
While the End of the Prohibition on Marijuana Seems Imminent on Some Fronts, There Are Still Those Resisting the Path of Progress Across the nation, cannabis advocates in and out of the medical marijuana arena in recent weeks have been trumpeting a New World Order where weed is concerned. The feds vowed to back off of dispensaries and the banks that want to serve them; and Sanjay Gupta flipped his stance on cannabis, saying he hadn't really looked much at the stuff, and now that he has, well, it's legit. All hail the Gupta. [continues 612 words]
Some Very Expensive Equipment Is Being Used to Determine the Makeup of Several Dispensaries' Marijuana The first time I wondered what was in my cannabis was in the late 1970s, when the U.S. government conspired with Mexico to use the herbicide Paraquat to destroy marijuana crops south of the border. The governments sprayed the crops, then spread the rumor (later largely debunked) that any surviving Paraquat pot was unsafe to smoke. The program drew ire, and the vague health threats had folks across the nation asking pot dealers, "It isn't Mexican, is it? Because I don't want any Mexican. The feds are spraying that shit with POISON, man! Get me some Colombian." The program was short-lived and people quickly ceased worrying about what was in their cannabis. These days you don't have to wonder. [continues 518 words]
The Distribution System for Medical Marijuana Hasn't Evolved As Quickly As Most Expected If you build it they will come. Maybe. Back in the day (the day being late 2010), when a functional medical cannabis program was a gleam in our collective eye, there was hope spilling all over the ground where medical cannabis was concerned. There was hope that we would quickly have that functional system. Hope that dispensaries and patients would soon be trading green for green. Hope that a thriving cannabis economy would spring to life across the state, leaving relief and comfort in its wake. Or not. [continues 513 words]
Mr. Smith Becomes the Martha Stewart of Cannabinoid Cooking I made butter once - just plain, old regular butter. It's actually really easy. All you have to do is put some heavy cream in a jar and shake it for a while. You can do it much quicker by beating the cream with a hand or bowl mixer until it forms stiff peaks, then beating it some more. Eventually (after about 10 minutes) the cream breaks down, separating into fat solids (butter) and buttermilk. Drain off the buttermilk, and you have butter. Try it at home - it's surprisingly simple and fun and kids love it. Plus, you then get to eat fresh butter. Six cups of cream makes about a pound of butter. [continues 570 words]
Surprisingly Likely to No One, the Arizona Legislature Is Out to Subvert the Will of the Voters Again Our esteemed state Legislature is hard at work up in Phoenix, collectively yea-ing and nay-ing its way through huge piles of legislation, some of which will surely make your life better and some of which will just piss you off. To wit: A few weeks ago, I wrote about a suggestion from a Phoenix valley 'stick to bring the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act before voters again. The resolution in the state House of Representatives, brought by a Republican, would not have required the governor's signature to pass. Thankfully the Teabilly attempt didn't get a hearing in committee, so it goes nowhere, at least until he or another of his ilk tries again. Politicians have a way of doing that, as evidenced by the 30-some attempts in Congress to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. [continues 442 words]
Boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. awoke Tuesday morning as the poster boy for marijuana law reform in Nevada. "A majority of Nevadans support Julio's SAFER choice," the billboard at 2001 Western Ave. proclaims. "Stop driving athletes to DRINK!" Sponsored by the Marijuana Policy Project, which nationally advocates pot's legalization, the billboard was unveiled Tuesday at a time the state Legislature is taking a serious look at the legal use of pot for medical and even recreational purposes. The state is hardly a leader on this issue. It is, after all, 2013, and most Americans long ago stopped vilifying marijuana's use. [continues 722 words]
A Wave of Marijuana Laws Surges Toward a National Consensus Three weeks ago, Allen St. Pierre ducked out of his Washington, D.C., office for a midday dentist appointment. For 22 years, St. Pierre has worked for the National Organ-ization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, the granddaddy of pot-law reform advocacy groups; he came on board in 1991 and rose through the ranks to become executive director a job that in recent years has become increasingly busy. And since the historic November 2012 votes in Colorado and Washington state to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana for casual use by adults, things have been downright hectic. [continues 2391 words]
If You're Avoiding Smoke, Making Your Cannabinoids Soluble Could Be the Solution I work out a lot. I'm a bit of a fitness buff who took a year off recently to study exercise science in college-real college, not a set of personal-training books I ordered on the Internet. So I'm a fitness buff and a bona fide, qualified fitness expert ... but I smoke. It's not cigarettes, it's cannabis, so I only smoke eight or 10 hits per day, but I undeniably breathe in a lot of cancer-causing agents and tar and ash and other bullshit I'd rather not breathe. It's annoying and filthy, and I know it's doing absolutely nothing to better my life in any way. I stress a little over smoking, but it's arguably the fastest, most convenient way to get cannabis into the nerve center. [continues 462 words]
The CEO of The Izms says it was the ingrained drug culture at Toronto's best public and private schools that led him to start selling synthetic marijuana and pills that offer users the same effects as illegal drugs do. "My life was affected by the current system we have in place, a lot of my friends lives were affected," Adam Wookey, 28, told Metro a few days after his arrest for drug trafficking, in relation to his role as CEO of The Izms and PurePillz. [continues 1239 words]
Our Columnist Checks in on Developments From New Hampshire to Bullhead City You can't throw a rock these days without hitting an interesting medical cannabis development somewhere in this great nation of ours. From coast to coast, a rising tide of legislatures, lawyers and patients is washing up against a sea wall of cock-blockers and naysayers. It's fun to watch, and interesting to muse upon. To wit: New Hampshire In the bucolic state that nestles up beside Vermont, medical marijuana is crashing on the rocks. Advocates there are trying for the fourth time in six years to pass an MMJ law, facing an apparent uphill climb since the previous governor, Democrat John Lynch, vetoed previous attempts. This time around, with a bill pending in the Legislature, Gov. Maggie Hassan, also a Democrat, is hinting she might also strike down the current attempt. It's about homegrown. [continues 519 words]
Is It Fair That Someone Can Be Prosecuted for Driving Under Last Week's Influence? Once there was a scientist named Friedrich Wurst. There probably still is, but back in 2003, he did a study of alcohol metabolites in the corpus humanum. He found that one, ethyl glucuronide (EtG), is an excellent indicator that a person had a drink up to 80 hours prior to testing. EtG is among a new generation of biochemical markers that could be used to document alcohol use among professionals who have to prove sobriety for licensure (some doctors) and folks in treatment programs, Wurst said. [continues 550 words]
