Toke of the Town

Browsing: Culture

Carl Sagan’s Widow Was President of NORML Board of Directors

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By on Culture

Photo: Another Godless Goddess
Ann Druyan, president, NORML Board of Directors

​Here’s your interesting cannabis fact of the day: Ann Druyan, author, writer, television producer — and widow of astronomy legend Dr. Carl Sagan — was listed as president of the NORML Foundation Board of Directors.

Druyan was co-writer, along with her husband Sagan, of the Emmy and Peabody Award winning television series Cosmos, and served as creative director of the NASA project to design a complex message of music, images and ideas for potential alien civilizations that was placed aboard the Voyager 1 and 2 interstellar spacecraft.
She also wrote and produced the PBS Nova episode “Confession of a Weaponeer,” which covered the life of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s science advisor, George Kistiakowsky.
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China Censors Little Black Book Of Marijuana; Release Delayed

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By on Culture, Global, News

Graphic: Peter Pauper Press
It’s “too controversial” for the uptight Chinese, but ready for you on September 15

​Communist Bosses Won’t Even Allow Book Inside The Country

The worldwide release of an American book on cannabis has been delayed, due to the refusal of the communist government of China to allow its binding on Chinese soil, according to the publisher.

The Little Black Book of Marijuana, by yours truly, Toke of the Town editor Steve Elliott, was scheduled for availability on August 1, but that printing schedule was thrown off after the totalitarian Chinese government decided the book was “too controversial” to even allow the printed pages inside the tightly-run dictatorship.
“Our printer is located in Hong Kong, with binderies in mainland China,” production manager Ginny Reynolds of Peter Pauper Press explained to me Friday morning. “Usually it’s no problem to move printed books from Hong Kong to China for binding.
“However, Chinese censorship is extremely tight,” Reynolds told Toke of the Town. “Any content deemed ‘sensitive’ or ‘controversial’ by their standards is banned.”
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Surprise, Surprise: Oklahoma Governor Not OK With Marijuana

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By on Culture, News

Photo: Oklahoma Farm Report
OK Gov. Mary Fallin: Smoking marijuana means you’ll end up in prison. For hash, make that a life sentence.

​In a bit of non-shocking news, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin said she’s firmly opposed to legalized marijuana, even for medicinal uses.

The Republican governor, who recently signed a bill establishing a life sentence for making hashish out of marijuana, made the statement Thursday during an online town hall forum, reports The Associated Press.
Fallin, one of the new breed of intellectually challenged crypto-conservative “I’d like to hit that” MILFs (think Palin and Bachmann) who seem to be the Republicans’ candidates of choice these days, claimed she analyzes hundreds of pardon and parole requests each month.
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World Famous Cannabis Cafe Celebrates First Anniversary

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By on Culture, News

Photo: Larry “LK” Kirk
A year passes like nothing at The World Famous Cannabis Cafe!

​By Charlie Bott

Special to Toke of the Town

Portland, Oregon’s World Famous Cannabis Cafe celebrated the first anniversary at its current location on July 29 and 30. The Cafe officially opened its doors at 322 SE 82nd Avenue in Portland, Oregon, on July 31, 2010.
“When the café opened in November 2009, my dream to create a safe and welcoming place for cardholders to consume their medicine out of public view was realized,” said Madeline Martinez, founder and proprietress of the private club. “Celebrating this anniversary means that we also provide stability for those we serve, and that is important.”
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Higher Education: Top 20 & Bottom 20 Colleges For Marijuana

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By on Culture

Photo: Little Eddy
A mass exhale of marijuana smoke at the Unibversity of Colorado Boulder campus at 4:20 p.m., April 20, 2010. UC-Boulder came in fourth on the list.

​California and Colorado dominated the The Princeton Review‘s Top 5 colleges for marijuana use this year, with two entries each.

In the rankings — part of the Review’s “The Best 376 Colleges” survey — Colorado College in Colorado Springs ranked as the #1 pot-smoking school in the United States.
The small private school blazed past the competition in the annual rankings, which The Princeton Review released on Monday.
Colorado College has been a “usual suspect” on the marijuana list for the past few years, said Rob Franek, vice president and publisher of the Review.
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Wayward Bill Takes The Helm At U.S. Marijuana Party

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By on Culture, News

Photo: Deadheads United
Wayward Bill, the new president of the United States Marijuana Party: “Like a phoenix we will as a party once again rise to shine”

​The torch — or is it the spliff? — has been passed at the United States Marijuana Party, which this week announced Wayward Bill (also known as William A. Chengelis) of Denver, Colorado is taking over its top position.

Wayward Bill replaces former party President Richard J. Rawlings at the top spot.
“After eight hard years managing the party Richard was ready to move on,” Wayward Bill said in a press release. “Sheree Krider, VP, United States Marijuana Party recommended me in a party memorandum for the top position. She also resigned her position within the national office. I spoke to both her and Richard prior to making my decision to accept. It was a happy coup.”
According to Wayward Bill, his taking the helm means that the USMjP will now be located in Denver. “The address has yet to be determined,” he said. The party was previously headquartered in Peoria, Illinois.
“I will be taking a more proactive approach by hopefully first moving our current USMjP chapters close to their state capitols so that they can be more involved with marijuana law reform in their respective states,” Wayward Bill said. “You will see us everywhere. The halls of government, in the media, in social media, at political functions and rallies, on online forums, everywhere.
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Washington Man Chooses Jail Over Fine For Marijuana

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By on Culture, News

Photo: Dana Goes to Jail!
Dana Walker: “I am a keen patron of irony and I LOVE the fact that I am going to reclaim my freedom by going to jail”

​A Washington state man on Friday chose jail over paying a marijuana possession fine, as a way of protesting the laws against cannabis.

Dana Walker of Olympia was reportedly led away in handcuffs after telling Thurston County Superior Court Judge Gary R. Tabor, “As to the matter now before us I have no intention of making any more payments and I am requesting as long a jail sentence as the law allows for my refusal.”
Walker set up a Facebook event for his Friday court appearance, inviting the public to witness his statement to the judge, reports The Weed Blog.
“Have you ever wanted to go into a courtroom and honestly tell the judge and prosecutor what you think of their marijuana laws?” Walker asked on the Facebook page, “Dana Goes to Jail!”
“I have a golden opportunity to do just that and I plan to take full advantage,” he said. “Those of you who personally know me know I am fully capable of turning righteous indignation into an entertaining show, and I plan to pull out all stops on this one.
“I owe Thurston County over $3,000 for a marijuana charge from back in 1997,” he said. “I am currently unemployed, I am not a fan of hot weather, and I wouldn’t mind at all spending a few weeks in jail just for the opportunity to tell a court where they can stick their laws.
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Study: Marijuana Growers’ Kids In Better Health

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By on Culture, Global, Growing

Photo: Niagara Regional Police/Canadian Press
New research questions the automatic removal of children living in marijuana grow-ops, finding they may not be exposed to any alarming health risks. In fact, children of marijuana-growing homes are healthier than other kids, according to the research.

​A new study from Canada flies in the face of stereotypes regarding the offspring of marijuana-growing parents. Children from homes where cannabis is grown were healthy and drug-free, according to the study — in fact, healthier than other children — leading to questions about why such kids are often removed from their homes.

The research from the Motherisk Program at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children indicates the automatic removal of kids from marijuana-growing parents can be worse for the children than allowing them to stay at home, according to Gideon Koren, a University of Toronto professor and the program’s director, reports CBC News.
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‘Holy Hippies’ Tells Story Of 1971 Pot-Fueled Spiritual Bus Caravan

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By on Culture, Products

Graphic: Voluntary Peasants

​For those who were too young or weren’t born yet, have you ever wondered what it would have been like to be in the first wave of hippies that crested in the late 1960s and early 70s? So have I.

Now you can get a real window on that world, perhaps a clearer window than ever before. Actually, it’s more of a total immersion in that world rather than just a window on it, because Holy Hippies and The Great, Round-the-Country Save-the-World School Bus Caravan is written very much from an inside viewpoint.
Holy Hippies is Book Two of Stiriss’s “Voluntary Peasants Trilogy,” penned by former UPI journalist turned hippie Melvyn Stiriss. Toke of the Town also loved Book One, Enlightenment: What’s It Good For when it was released last December.
The trilogy is the first comprehensive, inside story of The Farm, the biggest, most successful hippie commune in United States history, located at Summertown, Tennessee.
The Farm won the “alternative Nobel Peace Price,” the Swedish-based Right Livelihood Award, “for caring, sharing and acting with and on behalf of those in need at home and abroad.”
The place really was a haven of good vibes; I visited several times during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and got a warm welcome each time. I remember being struck by the fact that the sentries at the front gate of The Farm didn’t shake your hand — they hugged you.
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