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Medical Marijuana Job Fair Weekend: West Coast Cannabis Expo

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 5, 2011 Culture, Products

Inspired by President Barack Obama with his American Job Act, the West Coast Cannabis Expo’s organizers say it will be the very first to feature a Job Fair with career opportunities in the $1.7 billion legal medical marijuana industry.

The event launches this Friday, October 7, and continues through Sunday, October 9 at the Cow Palace – South Hall, located at 2600 Geneva Avenue in Daly City, just south of San Francisco.

The Job Fair idea came from the dynamic Cheryl Shuman, executive director of celebrity, media and public relations for KUSH Magazine and director of special projects for the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA).

“Working with KUSH Magazine, I see hundreds of job opportunities,” Shuman said. “West Coast Cannabis Expo organizers are taking a more serious look by focusing on getting Americans back to work.”

MTV Wants ‘Marijuana Addicts’ For Reality Show

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 4, 2011 Culture, Products

OpalMist

Just in case you aren’t already sick to death of MTV’s endless stream of brain-dead “reality shows” starring stupid, annoying people you’d never want in your life or on your TV, there’s — you guessed it! — plenty more on the way.

The network which may be single-handedly responsible for a precipitous lowering of the average American IQ is now looking for “marijuana addicts” to provide its slack-jawed audience with entertainment.

The “addicts” will be featured on MTV’s “True Life,” which is what you get when you combine a network too stingy to invest in actual programming content with pathetic, whiney wanna-be-stars who’d gladly eviscerate their mothers for 15 minutes of fame.

Or, as MTV would have it, the show, um, “covers important social and personal issues for young people in a straightforward, empathetic style that respects its participants and its impressionable viewers.”

Oh, I get it! They’re impressionable, so of COURSE you must lie to them that marijuana is addictive! Makes perfect sense, if you’re an amoral showbiz douche-bag who’d peddle his mother’s wrinkled ass if he thought he could make a couple extra bucks.

Here’s The Difference Between Marijuana And Drugs That Kill

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 2, 2011 Culture

Georgia Toons

This comic gets it exactly right.

Artist Georgia draws one-of-a-kind comics at her Blah Blah Blog.

Her strips are full of social commentary, insights, and whimsy. “Draw what you know!!!” Georgia says. “This is what I know. LIFE. Like it or not. One BREATH at a time.”

McWilliams’ Legacy Still Inspires Medical Marijuana Activists

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 30, 2011 Culture

Recollection Books

Peter McWilliams was many things: author, publisher, photographer, poet and activist, among others. But one of the most important things McWilliams was, was an inspiration. His courage and charisma were and continue to be a source of strength to many who are struggling with illness and with the injustice of our marijuana laws.

He had a remarkable career starting in the 1970s, writing more than 40 books, including works on depression, losing a loved one, computers, and poetry. Several of Peter’s books made The New York Times Top 10 nonfiction bestseller list.

Peter’s 1993 book Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do remains one of the greatest affirmations of the right of citizens to act and live in any peaceful, honest lifestyle, including their inalienable right to drugs and especially cannabis. It is regarded by many as a “libertarian Bible,” with its emphasis on personal freedom and responsibility.

Advocates Hope Ken Burns Prohibition Docu Provokes Debate

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 30, 2011 Culture, Products

Huffington Post

Ken Burns’ newest PBS documentary, “Prohibition,” premieres on October 2

The history of the United States’ disastrous period of alcohol prohibition will be broadcast into homes across America this weekend when PBS airs Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s Prohibition, a three-part series on the country’s failed “noble experiment” of banning alcohol.

Drug policy advocates are thrilled that filmmakers of the stature of Burns and Novick have taken on this topic, and hope that the series reminds Americans about the futility of prohibition and its devastating collateral consequences.

“Alcohol prohibition didn’t stop people from drinking any more than drug prohibition stops people from using drugs,” said Tony Newman, director of media relations at the Drug Policy Alliance. “But prohibition did lead to Al Capone and shootouts in the streets. It is the same today.

Marijuana Moments: Jodie Emery Thanked Marc’s Prosecutor

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 28, 2011 Culture, News

Cannabis Culture

Jodie Emery testifying before the Washington Legislature in March, just after meeting U.S. Attorney John McKay, who sent her husband to federal prison

John McKay, the U.S. Attorney who prosecuted “Prince of Pot” Marc Emery, ran into Marc’s wife Jodie in Olympia, Washington one day back in March. McKay is literally responsible for putting her husband in prison. But rather than the awkward scene it could have been, their encounter ended with Jodie thanking McKay.

“Mr. McKay? I’m Jodie Emery,” the attractive 26-year-old told the flustered former prosecutor. Jodie still runs a B.C. head shop and website called Cannabis Culture.

This is one of the fascinating stories about the former federal prosecutor for Western Washington which you can read at Toke‘s sister site, Seattle Weekly, in “The Evolution of John McKay,” an excellent, in-depth personality profile from reporter Nina Shapiro.

Marijuana: Plant, Drug, Or Medicine?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 28, 2011 Culture, Growing

Kym Kemp/Redheaded Blackbelt

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

Driving down 101 South, I was listening to the radio returning home after four grueling days of being embedded with medicinal farmers as they get ready for autumn’s harvest. The challenge of bringing in this year’s crops has been as nerve wracking as Lindsay Lohan approaching a DUI checkpoint.

Between mold, mildew and a growing season that’s been as erratic as Charlie Sheen’s career, the typical farmer has been working about 26 hours a day since July. Your average Mendoite or Humboldtian, is dog tired and dragging from spraying, battling a fungal infestation from early morning to late at night that could possible overtake our agricultural base, affecting the production volume of some of our favorite crops like marijuana, food, and grapes.

Federal Medical Marijuana Patient To Appear In Norfolk, Va.

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 26, 2011 Culture, Medical, Products

Irv Rosenfeld

Federal medical marijuana patient Irv Rosenfeld with a tin of federal U.S. government joints. He receives 300 joints a month from the federal government.

Whenever you hear anyone in the federal government, from the President to the Drug Czar down to the most insignificant bureaucrat, saying that cannabis has no medicinal value, remember that the federal government has been giving out free medical marijuana for almost 30 years.

Irvin Rosenfeld is the longest surviving of the four remaining federal medical marijuana patients in the United States. The Compassionate Investigative New Drug program hasn’t accepted any new patients since the first Bush administration, due to political pressure.

A native of Portsmouth, Virginia who now lives in Florida, Rosenfeld has been smoking 10 to 12 joints of cannabis a day for more than 28 years — a total of more than 123,000 joints.

Rosenfeld uses medical marijuana to treat a severe bone disorder called multiple congenital cartilaginous exostosis and a variant of the syndrome pseudo pseudo hypothyroidism. Irv has bone tumors on the ends of most long bones of his body.

Medical Marijuana Intern Wanted By Denver Paper

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 21, 2011 Culture, Medical, News

Pot Party Photos

No bong-cleaning required.

My friend and colleague William Breathes, the nation’s first marijuana/dispensary reviewer employed by a major newspaper chain (me being the second), is a busy man. Breathes is so busy with marijuana news, in fact, Denver Westword is looking to hire a college student to fill what is likely the first medical marijuana dispensary critic internship in history.

Now, before you get all hyperventilated, I should tell you that you don’t have to be a medical marijuana patient to get the nonpaying gig; “there’s plenty of stuff to cover about medical marijuana that doesn’t require you to smoke legal herb,” Breathes said in Wednesday’s announcement.

“In fact, you’ll mostly be updating dispensary listings and reviews, covering a pot meeting or two and generally helping out with our Colorado cannabis coverage,” Breathes said. “Previous blog experience helps, but isn’t required — we’ve all got to start somewhere.

NYC Mayor, Leader In Pot Busts, Now Wants To ‘Help’ Young Men

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 21, 2011 Culture, News

NORML

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been busily arresting record numbers of young men — especially young men of color — for the past decade. Now, with the so-called “Young Men’s Initiative,” Bloomberg claims he suddenly wants to “help” them instead of throwing them in jail.

Mayor Bloomberg was asked, shortly before he first ran for office, if he had ever smoked marijuana. “You bet I did. And I enjoyed it,” he answered.

While that quote became the basis of a NORML ad campaign, it certainly didn’t make any difference on the future Mayor’s practice of aggressively going after marijuana users in the Big Apple. Mayor Bloomberg made New York City the marijuana arrest capital of the world.

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