Browsing: Culture

Graphic: Waiting To Inhale

​​A free screening of the award-winning medical marijuana documentary Waiting To Inhale will be held on the campus of the University of Iowa in Iowa City, at Shambaugh Auditorium, 100 Main Library, on Tuesday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with patients and activists about medical marijuana and ongoing attempts to make Iowa the 15th state to give seriously ill patients safe and legal access to medical marijuana.
Rep. Mary Mascher (D-Iowa City) will also be in attendance.
This screening, which will be co-hosted by the University of Iowa Students for Sensible Drug Policy, takes place as the state prepares to create a medical marijuana task force this summer and proponents hope to move a medical marijuana bill through the Iowa Legislature next year.

Photo: The Wow Report
Dennis Peron is co-author of Prop 215, which legalized medical marijuana in California

​Dennis Peron, the “father of medical marijuana” who co-authored Proposition 215, the 1996 ballot initiative which legalized medical cannabis in California, has suffered a stroke, reports Joe Eskenazi at SF Weekly.

“That’s why I didn’t give a speech at the Hemp Expo,” Peron, 65, told the Weekly. The cannabis guru and gay rights activist said he suffered the stroke about a month ago and underwent an operation Sunday to “unclog my artery.”
Peron in the 1990s came to serve as a figurehead for the cannabis legalization movement, and was highly influential in the debate in California, thus helping to change the political atmosphere surrounding marijuana in the United States.
A Long Island native, Peron served the Air Force in Vietnam and afterward moved to San Francisco’s Castro District in 1969, where he sold marijuana and ran the Big Top pot supermarket out of his home in the 1970s.
He opened the Church Street Compassion Center in 1993, the very first “pot club” in the United States, which became the legendary San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club in 1995, a year before Prop 215 legalized medical pot.


Photo: PopCrunch
Dr. Drew thinks framing people for drugs and getting them arrested is a good treatment for addiction.

​Television personality and “addiction specliaist” Dr. Drew Pinsky recently prescribed framing people for drugs and getting them arrested as an acceptable treatment for addiction.

Dr. Drew said, “If [Lindsay Lohan] were my daughter, I would just pack her car full with illegal substances, send her on her way, call the police, and make sure she was arrested. I would make sure she was not allowed to get out of jail.” This incredibly irresponsible advice is not only unethical, it’s also illegal and downright dumb.

The Association for Addiction Professionals’ code of ethics says: “I shall refrain from using any methods that could be considered coercive such as threats, negative labeling, and attempts to provoke shame or humiliation.”

Photo: KSBW
Free speech? How about “restricted access” speech?

​University of California Santa Cruz officials are restricting campus access for visitors and vehicles, in an attempt to muzzle Tuesday’s 4/20 marijuana smoke-out.

UCSC police have restricted access to the campus in past years, but the “unsanctioned” event continued to grow. There are still no plans to make any arrests or issue citations to anyone for smoking pot on campus, reports KSBW Action News.
The university reportedly realizes there’s no way it can stop thousands of people from taking part in the 4/20 celebration, so they focus on restricting “outsiders” and enforcing strict traffic measures.


Graphic: Radioactive24two/Deviant Art

​As a veteran of stoner culture who can remember the years before mass media latched onto the 420 phenomenon in general, and specifically the celebration of April 20 (4/20) as America’s fastest-growing holiday and high celebration of all things cannabis, I have to admit I find the entire scenario a little strange.

On the one hand, I’m thrilled that marijuana gets a holiday of its own, and even more so that it then gets the coverage, as an issue, that it really deserves all 365 days a year. The consumption of cannabis in public places by large crowds of people carries some powerful symbolism and is a meaningful show of solidarity.
​At the same time, I’m well aware that those who are inclined to dismiss the seriousness and validity of the marijuana movement are simply going to use April 20 to do exactly that — and then ignore it again for 364 more days.

Graphic: Dedroidify
John Lennon, 1940-1980, was a genius songwriter and an LSD enthusiast.

​Fans of Beatles legend John Lennon have uncovered where he hid his LSD stash on the grounds of his southern England home more than 40 years ago.

Several large broken glass bottles in a leather holdall were discovered by builders digging up the lawn of his old home, Kenwood, in Surrey, reports The Sun.
According to legend, Lennon buried a large quantity of acid in his garden in 1967 when The Beatles proclaimed they’d given up drugs in favor of transcendental meditation.
When the Fab Four returned from the spiritual odyssey on which hoped to learn great truths from the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India, John had second thoughts about wasting all that LSD, and tried to dig it up. The musician never found his acid stash again.

Graphic: How Weed Won The West

​Is How Weed Won The West an entertaining film? Yes, absolutely. You won’t get bored watching it.

The film takes a compelling look at California’s Emerald Triangle, one of the major marijuana production areas in the world, and looks at the scene in dispensary-heavy Los Angeles, where things are in flux just before what looks to be a major crackdown on the horizon.
Additionally, the jack-booted tactics of San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis are rightly called to task.
Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, certainly one of the most intelligent and articulate spokesman for drug reform policy in the United States, thankfully gets plenty of screen time, along with Don Duncan of Americans for Safe Access (ASA) and cultivation legend and multiple Cannabis Cup winner Bret Bogue.
And yeah, to be honest it was a thrill to see one of my SF Weekly “Chronic City” articles during the film, sharing the screen with Alex Jones.

But is it, on balance, a valuable film for the movement? That depends.

Photo: The Real Potheads of North Hollywood

​The Real Potheads of North Hollywood are celebrating the stoner holiday with 420 Day, a fabulous spoof of Groundhog Day and The Twilight Zone.

The Real Potheads of North Hollywood is an upcoming comedy about all things marijuana.
The social satire follows the lives of four potheads and their square friend. Shot in mock “reality show” style, the show follows these 21st Century slackers’ misadventures.
From running out of weed to discovering an exotic strain of cannabis that turns women into lesbians, you never know what to expect next in North Hollywood.
The show doesn’t spare anyone — it pokes fun at stoners and squares alike.
“Join us and watch these 420 stereotypes in their day-to-day,” said Dave Levin, co-creator and executive producer.  “You’ll laugh so hard you’ll cough in the middle of your bong hit.”
View all three parts of 420 Day after the fold.
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