Self-quarantines and sitting at home as events and public gatherings are canceled because of coronavirus concerns will lead many of us to break out the bong, but try to keep those smoking utensils to yourself, warns our resident Stoner.
Mouthpieces are natural resting places for germs, and can still carry them even after being wiped down with alcohol — and the coronavirus is definitely on the minds of most cannabis users no matter how much they smoke.
Government reports recently revealed that over 665,000 pounds of legal marijuana were sold in Colorado last year, but that number hardly accounted for every sale in the state. Although market research shows that Colorado’s marijuana black market has become significantly smaller than the rest of the country’s since retail dispensaries showed up in 2014, it hasn’t evaporated altogether.
Dear Stoner: What’s better for a small home grow, the attic or the basement? My attic is a decent size (about five-foot ceilings) and much more empty.
Joe Shingles
Marijuana reform is headed for Texas, but it probably won’t get here anytime soon.
During the 85th Texas legislative session, which ended in May, two cannabis reform bills made it further than pretty much any similar efforts have before. Although both laws had an apparent majority in the Texas House of Representatives, the session ended before they could be voted on.
One bill aimed to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. The other tried to create a real medical marijuana program. While the bills’ legislative journey says a lot about how much politicians in Texas have warmed to marijuana, it will probably be at least two or three more years before the state sees any big changes to its pot laws.
| Flickr/danxoneill |
Lots of folks get a little lonely around the holidays, and they all deal with it in their own way. For 30-year old Jared Kreft, the best way he could think of to cope with the holiday blues was to seek out a little romance.
When he entered some stranger’s barn last Wednesday night in Wasau, Wisconsin, he knew he was trespassing… but love was in the air.
| Flickr/Andrew Bain. |
In recent months, officials and marijuana activists alike have been calling for cannabis users to make sure their stash isn’t accessible to children. Alysia Lombard and Mario Hollerway are accused of ignoring that advice and a lot more in relation to their three-year-old daughter, who tested positive for THC after vomiting at an area hospital. The story also includes cannabutter, expired red cards and a T-shirt of crack cocaine.
| Flickr/JohnnyCashsAshes. |
Need another reason to avoid heroin (other than the fact that it’s fucking heroin?) Orange County, California Health Care Agency officials say three people have been hospitalized over the past month for botulism associated with injecting heroin–and that two of those folks wound up in intensive care.
OC Weekly has more.
| Flickr/Wolfgang Staudt. |
Last Thursday, the Department of Justice released a three-page memo announcing that the federal government will not prosecute Native Americans growing and selling marijuana on tribal lands, even in states where the drug is illegal. So will dispensaries become the new casinos?
Probably not. Many tribal leaders, including Executive Director of the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission Ron Andrade, found the announcement surprising and suspicious.
| Flickr/IntelFreePress.. |
It looks like there’s finally an official plan in place for the purchase of some more body cameras for hundreds of local law enforcement officers.
Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson announced this afternoon that her office plans to dole out $1 million to the Houston Police Department and $900,000 to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office for the purchase of hundreds of body cameras, which will be worn by officers while they’re on duty. The money will come from assets the office has seized during criminal investigations, Anderson said.
| Flickr/Anupam Kamal edited by Toke of the Town. |
While the trigger-happy pukes of the American drug war beat down the doors of innocent citizens, armed to the teeth and prepared to rain down hell on any man, woman or child who stands in their way of busting petty drug offenders, one California tech firm hopes to prevent this brutality with a new watchdog device aimed at monitoring the psychopaths in blue.