Willie Nelson Feels Maureen Dowd's Pain WASHINGTON - WHEN Willie Nelson invites you to get high with him on his bus, you go. The man is the patron saint of pot, after all, and I'm the poster girl for bad pot trips. It seemed like a match made in hash heaven. When Nelson sang at the 9:30 club in D.C. one recent night, I ventured onto the Honeysuckle Rose, as his tour bus and home-away-from-home is called. [continues 850 words]
In the last chapter, I covered how not to get high. In this one, I will cover how to get high. After my admission that I did a foolish thing in Denver - failing to realize that consuming a single square, about a quarter, of a pot candy bar was dicey for an edibles virgin - many in the pot industry upbraided me for doing a foolish thing. But some in Mary Jane world have contacted me to say that my dysphoria (i.e., bummer) is happening more and more in Colorado. [continues 442 words]
After my admission that I did a foolish thing in Denver - failing to realize that consuming a single square, about a quarter, of a pot candy bar was dicey for an edibles virgin - many in the pot industry upbraided me for doing a foolish thing. But some in Mary Jane world have contacted me to say that my dysphoria (i.e., bummer) is happening more and more in Colorado. Justin Hartfield is the California founder of Marijuana.com and Weedmaps.com (a sort of Yelp for pot), and an entrepreneur involved in some of the nation's top marijuana-technology companies. As The Wall Street Journal noted in a profile in March, the 30-year-old former high school pot dealer wants to be "the Philip Morris of pot." [continues 733 words]
WASHINGTON - In the last chapter, I covered how not to get high. In this one, I will cover how to get high. After my admission that I did a foolish thing in Denver - failing to realize that consuming a single square, about a quarter, of a pot candy bar was dicey for an edibles virgin - many in the pot industry upbraided me for doing a foolish thing. But some in Mary Jane world have contacted me to say that my dysphoria (i.e., bummer) is happening more and more in Colorado. [continues 793 words]
In the last chapter, I covered how not to get high. In this one, I will cover how to get high. After my admission that I did a foolish thing in Denver-failing to realize that consuming a single square, about a quarter, of a pot candy bar was dicey for an edibles virgin - many in the pot industry upbraided me for doing a foolish thing. But some in Mary Jane world have contacted me to say that my dysphoria (i.e., bummer) is happening more and more in Colorado. [continues 790 words]
WASHINGTON - IN the last chapter, I covered how not to get high. In this one, I will cover how to get high. After my admission that I did a foolish thing in Denver - failing to realize that consuming a single square, about a quarter, of a pot candy bar was dicey for an edibles virgin - many in the pot industry upbraided me for doing a foolish thing. But some in Mary Jane world have contacted me to say that my dysphoria (i.e., bummer) is happening more and more in Colorado. [continues 795 words]
Colorado coming to grips with darker side of legalizing pot for the public, says Maureen Dowd The caramel-chocolate-flavored candy bar looked so innocent, like the Sky Bars I used to love as a child. Sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I nibbled off the end and then, when nothing happened, nibbled some more. I figured if I was reporting on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible pot from a local shop. [continues 601 words]
The caramel-chocolate flavored candy bar looked so innocent, like the Sky Bars I used to love as a child. Sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I nibbled off the end and then, when nothing happened, nibbled some more. I figured if I was reporting on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible pot from a local shop. What could go wrong with a bite or two? Everything, as it turned out. Not at first. For an hour, I felt nothing. I figured I'd order dinner from room service and return to my more mundane drugs of choice, chardonnay and mediocre-movies-on-demand. [continues 802 words]
The caramel-chocolate flavored candy bar looked so innocent, like the Sky Bars I used to love as a child. Sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I nibbled off the end and then, when nothing happened, nibbled some more. I figured if I was reporting on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible pot from a local shop. What could go wrong with a bite or two? Everything, as it turned out. Not at first. For an hour, I felt nothing. I figured I'd order dinner from room service and return to my more mundane drugs of choice, chardonnay and mediocre-movies-on-demand. [continues 551 words]
The caramel-chocolate flavored candy bar looked so innocent, like the Sky Bars I used to love as a child. Sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I nibbled off the end and then, when nothing happened, nibbled some more. I figured if I was reporting on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible pot from a local shop. What could go wrong with a bite or two? Everything, as it turned out. [continues 812 words]
The caramel-chocolate-flavored candy bar looked so innocent, like the Sky Bars I used to love as a child. Sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I nibbled off the end and then, when nothing happened, nibbled some more. I figured if I was reporting on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible pot from a local shop. What could go wrong with a bite or two? [continues 839 words]
The caramel-chocolate flavored candy bar looked so innocent, like the Sky Bars I used to love as a child. Sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I nibbled off the end and then, when nothing happened, nibbled some more. I figured if I was reporting on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible pot from a local shop. What could go wrong with a bite or two? [continues 838 words]
There's a lot of giggling in Colorado, and about Colorado, these days. Except by the state's leaders, who are like uneasy chaperones at a rowdy school dance. "It's insane," says Sen. Michael Bennet. "It's no fun," says Gov. John Hickenlooper, who admits he winces when he hears late-night pot shots, like Jimmy Fallon's barb: "Stoners took a moment to thank Gov. Hickenlooper, then they spent a few hours just saying the word 'Hickenlooper.'" Sitting in an office filled with panoramic depictions of the West and a New York license plate that belonged to family friend Kurt Vonnegut, the governor, 61, notes: "No matter how big a failure the war on drugs was, you don't want to be the butt of late-night jokes." [continues 757 words]
DENVER - There's a lot of giggling in Colorado, and about Colorado, these days. Except by its leaders, who are like uneasy chaperones at a rowdy school dance. "It's insane," says Sen. Michael Bennet. "It's no fun," says Gov. John Hickenlooper, who admits he winces when he hears late-night pot shots, like Jimmy Fallon's barb: "Stoners took a moment to thank Governor Hickenlooper, then they spent a few hours just saying the word 'Hickenlooper.'" Sitting in an office filled with panoramic depictions of the West and a New York license plate that belonged to family friend Kurt Vonnegut, the governor, 61, notes: "No matter how big a failure the war on drugs was, you don't want to be the butt of late-night jokes." [continues 708 words]
DENVER - There's a lot of giggling in Colorado, and about Colorado, these days. Except by the state's leaders, who are like uneasy chaperones at a rowdy school dance. "It's insane," says Senator Michael Bennet. "It's no fun," says Gov. John Hickenlooper, who admits he winces when he hears late-night pot shots, like Jimmy Fallon's barb: "Stoners took a moment to thank Governor Hickenlooper, then they spent a few hours just saying the word 'Hickenlooper.' " Sitting in an office filled with panoramic depictions of the West and a New York license plate that belonged to family friend Kurt Vonnegut, the governor, 61, notes: "No matter how big a failure the war on drugs was, you don't want to be the butt of late-night jokes." [continues 757 words]
Colorado's Experiment Brings a Rush of Marijuana Entrepreneurs. DENVER - So you want to get high in a high-end way in the Mile High City. You could call Dale Dyke and his wife, Chastity Osborn, a massage therapist, who run Get High Getaways. They gutted their brick house in Bel Mar and let it go to pot, refashioning it as a clothing optional, or as Dale calls it, "textile optional" bed-and-breakfast. They're still waiting for their first big booking, but Chastity says they're busily adding amenities to create a "resort environment," like a stone labyrinth with a tether ball, a camera in the living room to Skype your friends stoned and an outdoor swing "where you can have a good time and catch a buzz." [continues 485 words]
DENVER - So you want to get high in a high-end way in the Mile High City. You could call Dale Dyke and his wife, Chastity Osborn, a massage therapist, who run Get High Getaways. They gutted their brick house in Bel Mar and let it go to pot, refashioning it as a clothing optional, or as Dale calls it, "textile optional" bed-and-breakfast. They're still waiting for their first big booking, but Chastity says they're busily adding amenities to create a "resort environment," like a stone labyrinth with a tether ball, a camera in the living room to Skype your friends stoned, an outdoor swing "where you can have a good time and catch a buzz," and "maybe a nerf horseshoe court." [continues 778 words]
DENVER - SO you want to get high in a high-end way in the Mile High City. You could call Dale Dyke and his wife, Chastity Osborn, a massage therapist, who run Get High Getaways. They gutted their brick house in Bel Mar and let it go to pot, refashioning it as a clothing optional, or as Dale calls it, "textile optional" bed-and-breakfast. They're still waiting for their first big booking, but Chastity says they're busily adding amenities to create a "resort environment," like a stone labyrinth with a tether ball, a camera in the living room to Skype your friends stoned, an outdoor swing "where you can have a good time and catch a buzz," and "maybe a nerf horseshoe court." [continues 778 words]
With the Iowa campaign in wild flux -- and in the case of Hillary, acid reflux -- The Des Moines Register decides to hold a tie-breaking debate with the two Democratic front-runners. Carolyn Washburn, the phlegmatic editor of the paper, once more moderates. WASHBURN: Senator Clinton, I'd like you to start us off by explaining why your campaign has been getting down and dirty with someone so clean and articulate? CLINTON: I apologized to Senator Obama. I absolutely did not authorize or condone the remarks made by one of my co-chairs in New Hampshire about my distinguished colleague's youthful indiscretions. If primary voters don't care that he did "a little blow," then my goodness, why should I? Even if he had packed a straw full of the white rabbit and had a snow bunny blow it in his ear, who would care, for Pete's sake? I only wish I knew all that colorful chasing-the-dragon lingo. Senator Obama certainly has a lot of street cred, even if it isn't Main Street. We owe it to the good people of Iowa to stick to critical issues like the economy, and how to get a fiscally responsible budget like we had in the '90s, the '90s, the '90s [continues 584 words]
WASHINGTON -- A friend of mine, a liberal editor at a magazine, has been trying to get some of his staffers interested in writing about whether the Bush team's anti-terrorism measures are scorching our civil liberties. It's the sort of topic they'd usually jump at. But not this time. "As good liberals, we feel we ought to be upset but somehow we're not," my friend mused. "But why not? In part because we were really attacked this time. Before, when the president talked about national security, it was in the abstract. Now, you say, 'Oh, this is national security.' [continues 676 words]
