Browsing: Culture



When you speak to a cannabis festival audience — as I did Saturday at Hempstalk 2012 in Portland — you’d better have some attention-grabbers to share, since these good folks have typically been hearing speeches about marijuana all day.

One thing that I shared with the sizable crowd was the not-nearly-well-enough-known fact that babies born to mothers who smoke marijuana are both healthier and smarter than those born to women who don’t do any drugs or herbs at all.
​The prohibitionists tell us that the smoking of marijuana by pregnant women results in lower birth weights and less intelligent babies. The scientific research tells us that toking mothers have babies that are just as healthy, with birth weights just as normal, as babies born of non-toking mothers.

Dampfparade 2012

Rally Would Likely Have Been Largest Cannabis Demonstration In German History

A cannabis demonstration and parade planned for Saturday in Cologne, Germany — which was shaping up to be the largest marijuana protest ever held in Germany — is being shut down at the last minute by the Versammlungsbehörde, a local government office that oversees public gatherings.

“This is the first time a pro-cannabis march has been planned for Cologne, which is located in the most populous area of Germany,” Daniel S. of Duisburg, Germany, told Toke of the Town on Wednesday morning. (Dan in no way speaks for the parade or any associated organizations; he just happens to live nearby and knows some people involved in the parade’s planning.)
The march was shaping up to possibly be the largest demonstration of its kind ever in Germany, thanks in large part to a positive response on Facebook and word-of-mouth advertising.
Planned speakers included Lars Scheimann, the first German citizen to be granted a medical marijuana card to treat his Tourette’s and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Scheimann has since helped more than 60 other people get similar approval for medicinal cannabis to treat various conditions through his organization, “Cannabis Als Medizin” (Cannabis As Medicine).



On September 3, in what President Obama’s press secretary described as an attempt to appeal to “the youth vote,” the Obama campaign released an ad featuring fictional potheads Harold and Kumar.
The President asks them for their support and they agree, mindlessly gobbling junk food and chuckling at cartoons. But the Obama Administration has waged a war on marijuana users at a faster pace than President Bush, even attacking state-legal medical marijuana at nearly every turn.
Your vote is worth more than a stoner “wink-and-nod” commercial.

Caravan For Peace
Poet-turned-activist Javier Sicilia galvanized the Caravan For Peace, Justice and Dignity movement to end the Drug War in Mexico after his son was killed last year

Unprecedented Coalition of NY Organizations to Welcome Caravan September 6-7 with Vigil-March, Press Conference at City Hall, Action at HSBC Bank, and More
Poet Javier Sicilia and Other Drug War Survivors Will Honor 60,000+ Lives Lost in Mexico and Demand Accountability for Wall Street’s Money Laundering for Drug Traffickers
The “Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity” will arrive in New York City Thursday, September 6, on its voyage across the United States calling for an end to the failed Drug War that has left more than 60,000 dead in Mexico in the last five years. 
Poet and movement leader Javier Sicilia and other people from Mexico who have lost loved ones in the Drug War have joined with Americans impacted by the War On Drugs to travel more than 6,000 miles together through more than 25 cities — including Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Houston, Atlanta, and Chicago — before arriving in Washington, D.C., on September 10th.
Several New York-based organizations, including the Drug Policy Alliance, YoSoy132NY, New Sanctuary Movement-NY, CUNY Institute of Mexican Studies, Make the Road New York, Occupy Wall Street, Women on the Rise Telling HerStory, VOCAL-NY and others will welcome the Caravan when it arrives on Thursday by holding a candlelight vigil to commemorate drug war victims in both countries.



The final cut of the new marijuana infomercial, Should Grandma Smoke Pot? has been released and is now available for public viewing (see video above).

Produced by famous smuggler/author/activist Robert Platshorn and the award-winning filmmaker Walter J. Collins, Should Grandma Smoke Pot?, this made-for-TV version of Platshorn’s Silver Tour stuns viewers with medical and legal facts long kept from the public.

Platshorn’s Silver Tour teaches seniors the benefits of medical marijuana, and has drawn worldwide praise, been featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, featured on CNN Money, praised by Newsweek‘s Daily Beast, and coming soon to The Daily Show. He is the author of the autobiography Black Tuna Diaries and is featured in the smuggling documentary Square Grouper.



Hip hop artist Prince Ea has released an epic new 8-minute song, “Smoking Weed With The President,” which is both cannabis history lesson and a personal plea for President Barack Obama to end the insane War On Marijuana and its users.

The Right Kind Of Brownies
Prince Ea’s new song “Smoking Weed With The President” is both a history lesson and a call to action

In the amazingly adroit lyrics, Prince Ea delves into the history of how marijuana became illegal in the first place, with the lies, racism and political opportunism of Harry J. Anslinger, the infamous head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and the architect of cannabis prohibition. The Marijuana Tax Act, effectively the beginning of cannabis prohibition in the United States, was approved by Congress at Anslinger’s urging in 1937.

The song outlines the harms of drug prohibition — violence, cartel profits and mass incarceration — and the benefits of legalization.
“In just this one song, Prince Ea summarizes a book’s worth of information into a clear and powerful argument against marijuana prohibition,” said Tony Newman, director of media relations at the Drug Policy Alliance.

Mario Piperni dot Com
What I learned from watching the Republican Convention was that nowadays you can basically lie about anything as long as the market can tolerate the bullshit

By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent
Boy Howdy… Are we fucked
What I learned from watching the Republican Convention was that nowadays you can basically lie about anything as long as the market can tolerate the bullshit. In the past, the market stood for facts, common sense and what we could logically bear as a society. Now the market is based on how much bullshit you can get the American people to accept before their heads overload and explode.
Take American Idol. It was almost a new religion when it premiered in 2002. Now it’s like an elderly third cousin who needs a place to crash for a night or a year. When the American people have had enough of something they let you go quick the way the Church of Scientology jettisons a fanatic parishioner who talks to the press. 
And don’t expect any apology.
See, I don’t care about the lies told at the RNC. They’re on the record but it doesn’t matter. You could tell the American people that cannabis cures cancer but they won’t believe it until they heard from someone they trust like Dr. Oz or Matt Lauer. 
What I do care about are the innocent people who get hurt in the process? I care about my friends, the growers of Northern California.
Did I mention we’re fucked?
Sorry for the crassness but I’m beyond angry. I’m motivated.

iBAKE TV

Do You Like To Bake Or Cook With Cannabis?
Attention all cannabis cooks! iBAKE TV is now looking for the 2013 Medicated Chef Show Host. The contest began on August 30. In addition to becoming the 2013 Medicated Chef Show Host, there will be $1000 prize, according to No Excuses Entertainment.
Contestants must be over 18, must be familiar with or have a past history in culinary arts, and also know how to bake or cook with medical cannabis. The contestant also needs to be from a state where medicinal cannabis is legal and also a medical marijuana patient, caregiver or grower.

Opposing Views
#1 Marijuana Smoker Barack Obama with #10 George Clooney

To recognize the rising visibility and importance of marijuana policy reform, the Marijuana Policy Project on Thursday released its first annual “Top 50 Most Influential Marijuana Users” list. This collection, MPP says, spans multiple public spheres and illustrates the pervasiveness of marijuana use across all socio-economic groups (although from where we sit it seems to heavily favor pre-fab pop icons).
The people on this list have become successful and influential while also being marijuana users, with the greatest threat to that achievement being the possibility of arrest, according to MPP.
 
“In order to have qualified for the list, each individual must (1) have tried marijuana at least once, (2) be alive, and (3) be living in the U.S. or be a U.S. citizen,” said Morgan Fox, MPP communications manager. “We also asked our supporters to adhere to the definition for the ‘Power 50’ list that’s used by Out magazine, which employs the following criteria: ‘the power to influence cultural and social attitudes, political clout, individual wealth, and a person’s media profile.’ “

Kingston Compassion Club Society

The admin team of the Kingston Compassion Club Society’s (K.C.C.S) Facebook Page, “It’s Cannabis, Not Marijuana,” on August 27 received notification from Facebook that the page is being suspended. They are unable to create posts, access the page analytics, also called Insights, and have lost administrative rights, such as posting as the page in other sections of Facebook.
The admins attracted the attention of Facebook by attempting to add the physical address of the K.C.C.S in Ontario via the admin panel. They are currently working with Facebook to have the name changed to Kingston Compassion Club Society or to keep the current name, in an attempt to prevent Facebook from outright deleting the page.
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