How Weed Enhances Your Imagination. or Mine, at Least.

I'm clearly not as bright as Steve Jobs or Carl Sagan or Oprah, all of whom used weed at some point to energize their already wildly firing synapses. (As did President Obama, Stephen Jay Gould, Margaret Mead, Bill Gates, George Washington, Maya Angelou, Martha Stewart, et al.) But marijuana has helped spur my own creative process, or, if nothing else, helped me make connections I might otherwise have missed. I'll give ya some examples.

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SPD Officers Have Issued Six Since 2013

Riverfront Park might be the worst place to get high in Spokane.

Data from Spokane Municipal Court shows marijuana users are far more likely to be fined for consuming pot in public by a park security guard than by a Spokane police officer, though they're unlikely to get a ticket at all.

Citywide, law enforcement officers have written 28 tickets for public consumption of marijuana since March 2013, when an ordinance prohibiting public consumption was added to the city code. Only six of those tickets were written by Spokane police officers, who say they're usually too busy with other calls for service to deal with pot smokers.

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Fears of fire and Frankenbud.

We asked you to send in your canna-questions, and now it's time to answer some reader mail! (The Higher Ground legal staff has asked me to remind readers that answers provided herein should be taken with a grain of hempseed; I am, after all, a marijuana columnist.)

With wildfires all over the state, I'm worried a nearby marijuana field may catch on fire and get me and my family stoned. Can burning weed farms get people high? Lance, Chelan

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Business at SEATTLE, WASH.- Uncle Ike's Pot Shop is buzzing as nine "budtenders" help customers pick out weed, candies, bongs and more while another dozen people stand in line and flip through "menus."

"I can help the next guest down here," an employee shouts out.

Open for just under a year, Uncle Ike's already has 30 employees, a taco food truck in the parking lot, a glass and goods satellite shop and $1.5 million in monthly sales, according to Kenji Hobbs, the night manager.

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A roundup of pot news.

With legalization comes normalization, innovation, and marijuana bars at weddings. Ya heard that right. This summer, an Oregon couple had a "weed tent" at their nuptials, including a budtender to help answer questions (and moderate intake). The event, in West Linn, just south of Portland, was fully legal (Oregon Measure 91 passed with flying colors), as it was on a tree farm (private property) and did not also include a liquor license. (Heaven forbid we let budtenders and bartenders share a tent.) The CannaBar featured 13 hand-picked varietals and was fully enclosed so as not to offend guests not in the mood to partake. In case you're wondering, munchies served included french fries and chocolate beignets.

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Washington legislators are doing everything they can to keep marijuana users from smoking together. It's time that stopped.

It's time for us to come together and smoke marijuana.

Over and over, legislators at all levels in Washington state have prevented us from doing just that by hampering public marijuana use-in fact, a recent law makes providing a place for public use a Class C felony. Lawmakers are making it impossible to promote and celebrate cannabis. Thus it's time for some civil disobedience.

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Medical marijuana patients were generally ignored when the Cannabis Patient Protection Act was up for debate this year. Instead legislators pushing this bill were more concerned with those who would benefit from restrictions on cannabis such as the pharmaceutical industry. The shortsightedness shown by those pushing this legislation may end up costing patients and others, including the state, in the long run.

In 1974, medical researchers in Virginia discovered that the compound THC in marijuana killed cancerous tumors in lab animals. That research was reportedly withheld from the American public on orders of the DEA. However change is happening. Recently the National Cancer Institute reported, "Cannabis has been shown to kill cancer cells in the laboratory." Just imagine the benefits to patients and society if that research from 1974 had not been withheld from the public.

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Will you be Queen Sativa-or a few grams short?

Marijuana has been legal in Washington for more than two years now, but, surprisingly, people know very little about the law. Take the Higher Ground CannaQuiz and see how you rate!

1. Each adult can grow up to four plants in their backyard.

2. I can walk around with an ounce of weed in my pocket and not get busted.

3. Because marijuana is legal in both Washington and Oregon, I can take Washington weed to a Portland pot party.

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A pot ad ran on TV-almost.

The first-ever recreational-marijuana ad for television was supposed to air last month during Jimmy Kimmel Live on a Denver-based ABC affiliate. At the last minute, KMGH (Channel 7) got cold feet, pulling the plug after the station's lawyers freaked out.

The ad, for Neos, a vaporizer and cannabis-oil company, was hardly Cheech and Chong-in fact, it didn't show marijuana at all. Instead, the spot featured young people hiking up mountain trails and enjoying themselves-weed-free. "You lead an adventurous life, always finding new ways to relax," boomed the REI-looking advert. "Now enjoy the best effects and control with Neos portable vape pen and recreate discreetly this summer." Blasphemous!

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Here's A Look at Marijuana's Role in Traffic Fatalities, Quality-Of-Life Issues, Crime

When recreational marijuana was legalized, Washington entered the unknown, triggering questions - and predictions - about what might happen. Would drug dealers hang around the pot shops? Would it bring riffraff into the neighborhood and make shops easy crime targets? Would people abuse the drug? Or smoke and drive, putting others in harm's way?

As is evident by millions of dollars in sales each month at Vancouver's retail stores, people certainly use marijuana. And it has had some consequences on the community, but there's apparently no evidence of major behavioral shifts.

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It's Relatively Stable, From County Juvenile Court's Standpoint

Misdemeanor marijuana-related crimes have plummeted for adults following legalization, but for minors, marijuana is still very much illegal. Marijuana use among children is relatively flat, though children referred to court on suspicion of possessing marijuana went up slightly from 2013 to 2014.

"I wouldn't put a cause and effect there," said Eric Gilman, program manager at Clark County Juvenile Court.

The numbers are small to begin with - a couple hundred offenses - making it difficult to discern a trend. Over the past decade, there's been a decline in crimes such as minor in possession of marijuana or alcohol. Then again, referrals to juvenile court have been going down across the nation since 1999, Gilman said. In 2009, Clark County Juvenile Court received 3,089 referrals. Over the next five years, the number of referrals went down about 37 percent.

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Evidence, textual and physical, about the Bard's indulgence.

Wanna know how William Shakespeare was so far ahead of his time in regard to wondrous wordplay and wildly imaginative scenes and sonnets? Well, it could be that the loquacious Bard was hitting the bong! According to a recent report in The Independent, forensic analysis of 400-year-old fragments found cannabis residue on pipes and stems scattered on Shakespeare's property.

A team from the Institute of Evolutionary Studies in South Africa conducted a chemical analysis of the 17th-century artifacts, excavated in 2001, from Stratford-on-Avon, and found marijuana on eight of 24 clay samples on the grounds, including four pot-positive pipes from his own garden.

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SEATTLE - Marijuana use appears to have increased as a factor in deadly crashes last year in Washington.

New data from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission show the number of drivers involved in fatal crashes with THC in their bodies increased to 75 this past year from 38 in 2013. About half of those 75 drivers had active THC - the main psychoactive chemical in pot - above the level that legally determines intoxication.

"We have seen marijuana involvement in fatal crashes remain steady over the years and then it just spiked in 2014," said Dr. Staci Hoff, the commission's research director, in a statement.

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MARIJUANA Half the drivers with active THC in their blood also were under the influence of alcohol.

Marijuana use appears to have increased as a factor in deadly crashes last year in Washington.

New data from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission shows the number of drivers involved in fatal crashes with THC in their body increased from 38 in 2013 to 75 this past year. About half those 75 drivers had active THC - the main psychoactive chemical in pot - above the level that legally determines intoxication.

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Clark County Marijuana Growers, Retail Shops Turn to Tourism, Increasing Presence at Community Events to Attract Customers to Their Products and Facilities

With the sun rising and roosters crowing, Josh Miller rolls out of a bed tucked in a greenhouse full of lush marijuana plants and lights up a joint.

That's how the Seattle attorney starts his day every time he stays at Tom Lauerman's organic marijuana farm, named the Garden of the Green Sun, in Vancouver.

"It's wonderful," Miller said one day last week at the greenhouse. "I do my morning routine. Listen to music, and well, smoke a joint and whatever else comes to me."

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After 24 Years, and Several Locations, It's Still Going Strong.

"Not so sure about hitting Hempfest this year, bro," said my biggest stoner pal TJ, loading yet another fat bowl of black market Blue Dream. "I mean, we legalized it. What's the point?"

"I'll tell you why," I replied, sucking down the tube. "As soon as I can remember what the question was!"

Amazingly, Hempfest is celebrating its 24th year this weekend. In addition to being the world's largest cannabis rally, Hempfest has always advertised itself as a "protestival," commemorating the advances of cannabis, and protesting the ongoing War on Drugs-and the fact marijuana is still very much illegal at the federal level.

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U.S. Association of State Legislatures

Caution Urged on Tax-Revenue Hopes

Lawmakers and others from around the country attended a discussion Wednesday to learn from Washington and Colorado how best to think about legal marijuana and regulate it.

But even the experts in the pioneering states don't have all the answers yet, with questions still percolating on how much tax revenue marijuana can generate, and how best to regulate and enforce the use of the substance.

Speaking before several hundred people at a panel during a convention of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, cautioned that Washington state should be careful not to be too optimistic about marijuana-tax revenue.

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Seattle - To start the discussion, the moderator asked a room full of lawmakers from across the country to raise green index cards if their state was considering a measure to legalize marijuana.

The hands shot into the air and the color said it all. "A lot of green in the room," the moderator observed. "A lot of green."

More than possibly any single forum, the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures' annual meeting this week in Seattle is showcasing the nation's robust discussion right now on legalizing marijuana.

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How Recreational-Marijuana Legalization Is Screwing Medical-Marijuana Access.

Washington continues to take one step forward and seven steps back in our legalization experiment. With new laws rapidly eroding the voter-approved Medical Use of Marijuana Act of 1998, the cannabis community is deeply divided between the "haves" (recreational retailers, growers, and processors) and the "have-nots" (medical-marijuana patients and dispensaries). What does this grave new world look like?

No-Man's Land

Dispensaries and collective gardens are being shut down across Washington, leaving the state's estimated 175,000 medical patients to wonder how in the hell they're going to get their medicine. They aren't likely to find it at recreational stores, which have little incentive to sell medicinal items such as low-THC edibles, transdermal patches, topicals, or cannabis suppositories.

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Both use and approval are down.

Houston, we have a problem (with marijuana). No, it's not that youngsters are getting stoned on the wacky weed and crashing cars or dropping out of school.

It's that they're starting to dislike the stuff.

A report released last week in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse shows that not only has cannabis use decreased among teens, but disapproval of marijuana is up. (They could have said that approval was down, but the media is so opposed to putting a positive spin on drug use, even academic news is twisted.) Taking data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the survey is stunning for both its duration, from 2002 to 2013, and breadth, with 500,000 kids across the nation polled.

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