Browsing: Culture

Photo: Cornerstone Recording Arts Society
Slightly Stoopid began in 1996, influenced by SoCal skatepunk, thrash and copious amounts of weed. They now mix a California-centric sound of loopy sampledelic pop, hip-hop, sunny marijuana affirmations, dub and reggae influences.

​As the debate over ending marijuana prohibition heats up across the country, the Marijuana Policy Project is partnering with renowned San Diego-based band Slightly Stoopid for their upcoming United States tour, “Cauzin Vapors … Legalize It,” on which they will be accompanied by hip-hop superstars Cypress Hill, The Expendables, Collie Buddz, and reggae legends Steel Pulse on select dates.

Starting in mid-July, the tour will wind across the country, from California to New York, with stops at this year’s acclaimed Lollapalooza festival in Chicago and, appropriately enough, the Mile High Music Festival in Colorado.
MPP will be tabling at performances and have representatives at each show to answer questions and provide information about the ongoing campaigns to end marijuana prohibition in the U.S.
“We are delighted to be included in this opportunity to expand awareness about the need to change our country’s marijuana policies,” said Mary Patton, director of VIP relations at the Marijuana Policy Project.
“Slightly Stoopid, Cypress Hill and all the acts on this tour are vocal, well-known supporters of ending marijuana prohibition, and we look forward to joining them in this effort to change attitudes and inspire activism on marijuana-related issues across the U.S.”

Graphic: Media Junkie

​A Honolulu, Hawaii police officer was convicted Wednesday in Las Vegas of misdemeanor driving under the influence and marijuana charges, resulting from his arrest last August while taking part in a softball tournament.

A felony driving under the influence charge was dropped for 38-year-old Kevin Fujioka because it conflicted with the misdemeanor DUI charge, according to prosecutor Bruce Nelson, reports Fox 5 News.
Fujioka was found guilty Tuesday of the two misdemeanor charges by a Las Vegas justice of the peace, who fined the police officer $580.
A misdemeanor marijuana possession charge against another Honolulu police officer, 47-year-old Shayne Souza, was dropped last month after he pleaded guilty to “obstructing a police officer.”
Souza and Fujioka were arrested August 15 as they smoked pot in a van near a park several miles west of the Last Vegas Strip.
Clark County Police said they spotted the stoned officers in a van at Desert Breeze Park.

Photo: Larry Mayer/Billings Gazette
Billings Police and Fire Departments investigate the scene of a firebomb thrown through the front door of Montana Therapeutics, a medical marijuana store, May 10, 2010.

​Hateful rhetoric leads to hateful actions. This should-be self-evident axiom was once again demonstrated when two medical marijuana businesses were firebombed in the last two days in Billings, Montana.

“It was ugly, and it was a hate crime,” said David Couch, owner of Big Sky Patient Care, one of the two medical marijuana provides vandalized in the last two days, reports Kahrin Deines of the Billings Gazette.

The firebombs thrown through the front door of two medical marijuana businesses in Billings were accompanied with a hateful message. “NOT IN OUR TOWN” was spray painted on the fronts of both buildings, according to the owners.


Graphic: Ronnie Smith For Sheriff, Gallatin County
Ronnie Lee Smith: “The laws against marijuana violate the U.S. and Kentucky constitutions on numerous levels”

​Ronnie Lee Smith wants to be sheriff of Gallatin County, Kentucky. Which is not that unusual, until you realize that Smith is better known as pot comedian and social media personality Roland A. Duby.

“All activist potheads should run for sheriff like I am,” Smith said Friday.
“I remember having my marijuana taken and thrown in the creek by a friendly policeman who shall remain nameless,” Smith said. “I wasn’t arrested and turned into a criminal for it.”

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Gone to Pot
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Photo: The Daily Show
Now that’s a real reporter — getting the story.

The Daily Show‘s Jason Jones takes an up-close but light-hearted look at the increasingly tough competition going on in Denver’s medical marijuana dispensary scene.

Interviews with two dispensary owners — from a “mom and pop” type store and a bigger, glitzier shop — serve to highlight, in a humorous way, some of the differences and debates now shaping the future of medical marijuana.

By the way, I know The Daily Show played it for laughs… But I have to agree with the dispensary operator who has an issue with the strain name “Green Crack.”

Photo: Herb Snitzer/Jazz Lives

If we all get as old as Methuselah, our memories will always be of lots of beauty and warmth from gage. Well, that was my life and I don’t feel ashamed at all. Mary Warner, honey, you sure was good and I enjoyed you ‘heap much.’


~ Louis Armstrong (1901-1971)


Louis Armstrong first smoked marijuana in the mid-1920s, and stuck up for the herb all his life.

The original manuscript for Armstrong’s autobiography, Satchmo: My Life In New Orleans, published in 1954, contained information about his cannabis use, but those parts of the book were suppressed and censored by his manager, Joe Glaser (an Al Capone acolyte).

Graphic: Drug Policy Alliance

​New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an admitted pot smoker, isn’t acting too cool these days. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, a billboard company refused to run an ad regarding the cost of arresting marijuana smokers after pressure from the mayor’s office.

The DPA received notice from Titan 360, North America’s largest transit advertising company, that a billboard set to run on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE) criticizing Mayor Bloomberg for his out-of-control marijuana arrest policy will not be allowed to run.
The landlord refused the ad because of “political circumstances from the Mayor’s office,” according to an email from a Titan 360 account executive.

Photo: NORML
Our past three Presidents have admitted they smoked weed. And more than half of California voters are OK with that.

​​A new poll shows that as many California voters are fine with candidates for political office smoking pot recreationally, as those who aren’t.

The 41-page poll (PDF), from Capitol Weekly and Problosky Research, found that 50.6 percent of likely primary election voters were either “much more likely” to vote for a candidate who was a recreational user of marijuana (4.3 percent), “slightly more likely” (2.5 percent), or, with the largest group, marijuana use would make no difference (43.8 percent).
A total of 46.4 percent said marijuana use would make them either “somewhat less likely” to vote for a candidate (12.4 percent) or “much less likely” (34 percent).
The pollsters asked 751 likely voters via telephone earlier this month whether knowing that a candidate recreationally uses marijuana would affect their vote.


Photo: Las Vegas Sun
Matt Shaw’s college basketball career is ending because of one positive test for marijuana. If he had gotten drunk instead, he wouldn’t have been punished.

​Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws (NSML) has decried the NCAA suspension of University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) basketball player Matt Shaw for one year — ending his career with the team — because of one positive test for marijuana.

Shaw, a 6’8″ junior who was fourth on the team in scoring last year, tested positive during a “random drug test” administered during the recent NCAA tournament.
“At the age of 22, Matt is an adult,” said Dave Schwartz, NSML campaign manager. “As an adult, he made a rational decision to use a substance less harmful than alcohol. Now, for this simple act, his career with the Runnin’ Rebels is over.”
“We hope all Nevadans will stop to think about this for just one moment — and think specifically about the fact that players who drink alcohol to excess face no punishment, at least until they assault someone,” Schwartz said. “It simply makes no sense.”
“And for those who say, ‘He should have just followed the rules,’ we say, ‘Why do we have rules and laws that horribly punish people who choose to use marijuana instead of the more harmful substance, alcohol?'”, Schwartz said.

Graphic: From The Heart Entertainment, LLC

​The “I Love Jack Herer” Tour, kicking off April 30 in Seattle, will honor the memory of the much-loved hemp activist and author who died April 15.

“We will gather in his memory, remember his vision and celebrate his legacy with the I Love Jack Herer Tour,” said Janice M. Johnson of From The Heart Entertainment, LLC.
Originally conceived as a way to raise money to help Jack and his family with the huge bills from his medical care, the Tour is now moving forward to raise money for Jack’s family to help with the remaining expenses.
After the Seattle kickoff on April 30, the Tour continues to Olympia, Wash., on May 1, Portland on May 8, and Eugene, Ore., on May 9.
Admission to the show is $10. Non-perishable (canned) food will also be collected at the doors for donation to local food banks. Bringing two or more cans of food will get you $2 off the admission price.
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