2011 June

Dutch Court Clears Way For Weed Pass Banning Foreigners

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 29, 2011 Global, News

The Netherlands, renowned worldwide for its liberal cannabis policies, is one step closer to requiring “weed passes” to discourage sales of marijuana to foreign tourists, following a court ruling on Wednesday.

Dutch “coffee shops” openly sell cannabis flowers and hashish to customers, and are popular with foreign tourists. But the shops have faced tighter controls over the past three years as successive governments pushed to discourage the use and sale of “soft drugs” on health and crime grounds, reports Reuters.

Many of the coffee shops in Amsterdam and elsewhere in the Netherlands oppose the “weed pass” plan, maintaining that it is discriminatory and will kill the cannabis tourism industry.

Psychedelic Information Theory Looks At Modern Shamanism

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 28, 2011 Culture, Products

Photo: Psychedelic Press UK

James L. Kent, author of “Psychedelic Information Theory” and editor of dosenation.com

Even a single, low-dose psychedelic experience can produce changes in identity and transpersonal awareness that last a lifetime. How and why does this happen?

When most of us take psychedelics like LSD, sure, it’s one of the strangest — and most meaningful — experiences we’ve ever had, and as we move on with our lives, we tend to just classify what happened under the general category of “that was weird.”

Some folks, though — those of a more analytical and scientific bent — aren’t content to do only that. James L. Kent, author of Psychedelic Information Theory: Shamanism in the Age of Reason definitely belongs to this more analytical category of trippers. These folks want to analyze the psychedelic trip right down to which neurons were activated, how, and why.

Hempstead World Music Festival Hits Oregon July 2 – 4

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 28, 2011 Culture, Products

One of the biggest cannabis-oriented music events of the year will hit Oregon in early July.

The Hempstead World Music Festival 2011 with Toots & The Maytals, Dubtonic Kru, Nikii Davis, Rhythm Culture, Kool Johnny Kool and John Trudell & Bad Dog will directly benefit the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012 and Hempstalk 2011.

Top 10 Reasons To Legalize Marijuana [Infographic]

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 28, 2011 Culture

Stoner Photo of the Day: Brains Escape

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 28, 2011 Dispensaries, Products

Photo: Steve Elliott

$12 a gram, and there will be couchlock.

This strain is called Brains Escape. It’s a powerful indica I found at Emerald City Compassion Center in Seattle.

“You’re gonna lose your keys when you smoke this,” the budtender at ECCC told me when I got it on Sunday.

Worth Repeating: Gov’t Has Patent For Cannabinoids Since 2003

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 27, 2011 Medical

Photo: The Julius Axelrod Papers

Dr. Julius Axelrod, pictured above, conducted some of the original research which culminated in the United States government getting a patent on all cannabinoids in 2003.

Welcome to Room 420, where your instructor is Mr. Ron Marczyk and your subjects are wellness, disease prevention, self actualization, and chillin’.

Worth Repeating

By Ron Marczyk, R.N.

Health Education Teacher (Retired)

The United States federal government holds a “medical patent” for all cannabinoids — a patent which it has held since 2003.

Let’s take a look at the rationale behind this patent, and highlight the good news it actually contains for disease prevention, medical treatment and for cannabis legalization.

This patent was the outcome from research conducted by:

• Dr. Aiden J. Hampson, a neuropharmacologist at the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Maryland

• Dr. Julius Axelrod (1912-2004), Professor Emeritus, National Institutes of Health, pharmacologist and neuroscientist who shared the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine

• Dr. Maurizio Grimaldi, professor of neurology/neuropsychopharmacology and toxicology, NIMH

Here’s how it all went down in 1998.

Kentucky’s Lower Penalties For Marijuana Now In Effect

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 27, 2011 Legislation, News

Graphic: Sheree Krider

Kentucky, long known as a state where excellent marijuana is grown, has lowered its penalties for possession of up to eight ounces of the herb, effective Friday, June 24.

Back in March the Kentucky Legislature overwhelmingly passed (97-2 in the House; 38-0 in the Senate) House Bill 463, which was then signed into law by Governor Steve Bershear. The new law reduces the penalty for personal possession of up to eight ounces of pot to a Class B misdemeanor, carrying a maximum penalty of 45 days in jail.

But don’t get too carried away; those penalties are just for first offenses. Subsequent offenses with up to eight ounces are still felonies, for which you can get up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

1980s Marijuana Smugglers Recall The Glory Days

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 27, 2011 Culture, News

Photo: Tim McBride/News-Press

Portrait of the entrepreneur as a young man: Tim McBride at the peak of his pot smuggling days in the 1980s.

Tim McBride made $5,000 on his very first night as a pot smuggler in 1980.

“Rookie pay,” he said.

He made another five grand the next night, reports the Fort Myers News-Press.

“It was the greatest thing in the world,” McBride said, recalling his introduction to smuggling. “Here I am just 21 years old; I got 10 grand in my pocket.”

What began as a crabbing gig based in Everglades City morphed into a marijuana smuggling business that eventually netted McBride about $25 million. Unfortunately, it also got him four years in federal prison and a $4 million fine.

‘Synthetic Marijuana’ Returns In Slightly Different, Legal Form

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 27, 2011 News, Products

Graphic: Barely Legal Incense

Such a tasteful logo, too.

You may have heard a few months ago that the Drug Enforcement Administration had banned “synthetic marijuana” (actually not much like marijuana, and quite a bit more dangerous) on the federal level — but that didn’t settle the issue once and for all. The stuff’s back again, in a slightly different form. Developers have changed the chemical just enough so that the form made illegal by the DEA is no longer present, thereby allowing it to be sold.

One of the most popular brands of the synthetic marijuana — sold as incense to get around rules applying to substances for human consumption — is called Barely Legal, reports Jerome Burdi at the Orlando Sun-Sentinel.

Barely Legal is part of the comeback of artificial cannabis substitutes specifically designed, first, to get around the ban on marijuana, and now, to get around the ban on the original form of synthetic marijuana, which contained the chemical JWH-018. This is done by tweaking a couple of molecules just enough so that it’s no longer “illegal.”

Monthly Archives: June, 2011