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With The Stoner’s Coloring Book, Jared Hoffman has created the first adult coloring book designed specifically with stoners in mind. Hoffman, a graduate of Cornell University now living in Brooklyn, worked with artists around the world to compiled over forty illustrations designed for “high-minded” individuals. Hoffman’s goal was not just to create a fun, creative outlet, however, but also to provide a tool to inspire an open discussion of marijuana and legalization.

Westword recently talked with Hoffman about his just-released book, the artists behind it, and how a coloring book might help bring us closer to national legalization.

Dear Stoner: Read your answer about smoking without the smell last week, but what can I do about removing the smell from my car? I don’t smoke in it, but it reeks every time I leave weed in there for more than thirty minutes.
TC

Dear TC: You don’t like the smell of skunky jet fuel after a long day? I suppose it can be quite a tease if you have a long drive ahead of you. Still, I’d love to have Durban Poison or Texas Hash Plant air fresheners — but that’s just me.

If you don’t want your friends, family, dates, Uber passengers, etc., smelling your stoner habits when they’re in your ride, throw your weed bottles in a Mason jar — and throw that jar in the trunk. Even if you were already keeping your stash locked in a childproof container, it’s still better to keep it in the back in case an overzealous cop pulls you over and notices it. (Think of it as an open container of beer.) If you’re too lazy to walk to your trunk, leave some fast food on the front seat for a half-hour or so. You could also smoke a cigarette, but I like the smell of french fries more.

Dear Stoner: I just got some pot brownies, and I’m not planning to ingest them for two weeks. Do you think the potency will still be the same, and if they’ll be okay to eat? Can I heat them up if they go hard?Tasnim

Dear Tasnim: We’ve talked to multiple cannabis bakeries and kitchens about the shelf life of edibles, and all of them have said that edibles are pretty hard to tarnish in terms of potency, so two weeks definitely wouldn’t be long enough to harm your brownies. The “normal” ingredients in them are what you need to worry about, because they’ll decay much faster on your kitchen counter than THC would. Throw the brownies in the freezer if you’re scared of spoilage, but that’s just to fend off mold, not THC degradation. Freezing definitely beats food poisoning — and what a waste of pot that would be!

Take care when heating up frozen edibles — which usually have the texture of cold turds — as THC will slowly start to fade at temperatures over 200 degrees Fahrenheit (and die altogether at 392 degrees Fahrenheit). But most microwaves don’t take food above 212 degrees, so there shouldn’t be any noticeable difference in potency after the short fifteen seconds it takes to warm your brownie. Throw a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top or wash it down with a fatty glass of whole milk to increase the effects.

Earlier this year, High Times announced that it would move its annual Cannabis Cup to Pueblo after it was forced to relocate the event from Denver. And while the plan subsequently fell apart (and the Cup headed to California, at least temporarily), the idea of the Cup in Pueblo made sense since the community has been viewed as one of the more marijuana-friendly in Colorado.

But that reputation appears to be changing in a big way.

The number of busts aimed at allegedly illegal marijuana growshas skyrocketed in the city, with another one taking place this week. Since mid-March, the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office has reportedly confiscated 5,900 marijuana plans and arrested 35 people in 25 homes.

Meanwhile, the PCSO has announced the breakup of a drug-trafficking operation with alleged links to a Mexican cartel — the conclusion of a months-long investigation that led to multiple seizures of methamphetamine, plus cocaine and heroin.



Jinx is a 22-year-old hip hop artist from Ayer, Massachusetts, embarking on two upcoming mix tapes following his self-released debut, Futurama, and tours with Nappy Roots and Wiz Khalifa in 2010.

This is the official music video for Jinx’s single “Ganja” from the Funeral Kings soundtrack, with multi-platinum producers The Lion’s Share at the helm. The Lion’s Share have most recently worked with Pharoahe Monch and Anthony Hamilton, according to Zivi at Foster Care Music, a New York City record label created by the producers.

Photo: The Daily Record
Benjamin Jealous, NAACP president and CEO: “These flawed drug policies that have been mostly enforced in African American communities must be stopped”

​The NAACP has just joined the list of prominent organizations and individuals calling for a major paradigm shift away from the failed and punitive “War On Drugs” and toward a health-based approach with a historic resolution passed Tuesday at the organization’s national conference in Los Angeles.

“Today the NAACP has taken a major step towards equity, justice, and effective law enforcement,” said Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP. “These flawed drug policies that have been mostly enforced in African American communities must be stopped and replaced with evidence-based practices that address the root causes of drug use and abuse in America.”
Neill Franklin, an African American former narcotics cop from Baltimore and executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), had presented a talk on the need to end the War On Drugs at the NAACP conference on Monday.
“The NAACP has been on the forefront of the struggle for civil rights and social justice in this country for over a century,” Franklin said Tuesday about the passage of the resolution.
“The fact that these leaders are joining others like the National Black Police Association in calling for an end to the ‘war on drugs’ should be a wake up call to those politicians — including and especially President Obama — who still have not come to terms with the devastation that the ‘drug war’ causes in our society and especially in communities of color,” Franklin said.

Photo: East Bay Express
Retired police officer Russ Jones: “When I arrested a drug dealer, all I did was create a job opening”

​Russ Jones, who has spent more than 30 years fighting the War On Drugs, has something to say about his life’s work: it is a complete failure that should be ended.

“The U.S. over the last four decades has spent $1 trillion of our tax dollars, made 38 million nonviolent drug arrests and quadrupled our prison population,” Jones said, reports columnist Tom Barnidge of the Contra Costa Times. “And the rate of addiction today, 1.3 percent, is the same as it was in 1970, when we started.”
Jones, 64, spoke to the Martinez Rotary Club last week on behalf of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a volunteer organization of 15,000 former judges, prosecutors, federal agents and police officers working for the end of drug prohibition.
He wasn’t specifically promoting California’s Prop 19, which would legalize marijuana in the state, but he said he welcomed any advancement toward the larger goal of legalizing and regulating all controlled substances.

Photo: KOB
Patients and caregivers spoke in favor of adding depression to the list of qualified conditions for medical marijuana in New Mexico. The board then recommended adding depression by a 5-2 vote.

​In a pivotal split vote, a panel that advises New Mexico on medical marijuana policy voted Wednesday to allow major depression as a qualifying condition.

The board also unaimously voted to allow some patients to exceed the legal amount of medical cannabis for personal use, on a case by case basis, report Kayla Anderson and Taryn Bianchin at KOB Eyewitness News.
The recommendations now go to Dr. Alfredo Vigil, health department secretary. If he agrees, depression would be the 16th medical condition approved for patient medical marijuana use, reports Phaedra Haywood at The Santa Fe New Mexican.

Photo: Growery

​Police arrested a 22-year-old mother Monday after neighbors said her four-year-old daughter had tried to sell them a brick of marijuana.

Maria Ipina, 22, of San Juan, Texas, was charged with possession of a controlled substance after officers discovered more than 200 grams of cocaine in her apartment, according to San Juan Police Chief Juan Gonzalez, reports Dave Hendricks of the The Monitor of McAllen, Texas.
“It’s unbelievable,” Chief Gonzalez said.
Ipina’s six-month-old child and four-year-old daughter were taken to live with a grandmother.

Dr. Harry Boye of Tennessee qualified for his Montana license earlier this year, and he’s even made two visits to see patients who need a doctor’s authorization to use medical marijuana.

But Dr. Boye didn’t spend just a few minutes each with hundreds of patients, a common practice for some doctors at medical marijuana clinics. On his two trips, he saw fewer than a dozen patients. And he conducted examinations of all of them, averaging from 22 to 30 minutes, reports Linda Halstead-Acharya of the Billings Gazette.
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