Female Stoners – Women Pot Smokers – Marie Claire

Female Stoners – Women Pot Smokers – Marie Claire:

via http://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity-lifestyle/articles/living/female-stoners-2

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Cook County fixes pot decriminalization bill, will now be enforced

via Chicago Sun-Times on 9/7/11

This might sound familiar: If you’re busted carrying a small amount of marijuana in portions of Cook County patrolled by the sheriff, you may walk away with just a ticket. This time, though, the ticket writing option is going to be enforced. Back in 2009, the Cook County Board approved an ordinance that decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana in unincorporated areas, but the Sun-Times recently reported that zero tickets had been written. Sheriff’s officials argued the ordinance needed re-tooling. They wanted it to include areas where they are the primary law enforcement agency which, for now, is suburban …

"Fake Marijuana" Test Reveals Significantly Increased Abuse of Spice/K2

via 420 Magazine by Julie Gardener on 9/2/11

Now, There’s a Test for That — Norchem’s “Fake Marijuana” Test Reveals Significantly Increased Abuse of Spice/K2
Previously Undetectable Synthetic Marijuana Can Now Be Identified; Arizona Lab Norchem Also Reports Geographical Trends Where Abuse Is Higher Than Normal

FLAGSTAFF, AZ–(Marketwire – November 18, 2010) – Fake or synthetic marijuana users beware. Now there’s a test for that.

Norchem has developed a lab-based test that definitively confirms the presence in urine of JWH-018, JWH-019, JWH-073 and JWH-250, the four most commonly seen forms of synthetic marijuana, street named Spice or K2. The test was developed primarily for the criminal justice system including drug courts, probation, parole and treatment centers. Recent testing research at the Arizona lab also reveals increased abuse and geographical trends of fake marijuana.

The new marijuana-like drugs, often called Spice or K2, are chemical compounds that mimic the hallucinogenic effects of marijuana but are much more powerful. There are 12-14 new drugs in this category and depending on the drugs’ properties and how they are applied (typically spraying on tobacco, potpourri or herbs), they can be between 5 and 700 times more powerful than marijuana. Symptoms such as elevated heart rate, intense anxiety, agitation and even seizures or convulsions have been observed.

Spice/K2
Routine drug screenings, like Enzyme Immunoassay (EIA) and Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), do not detect the presence of Spice/K2. These popular smoking products also go by the name of: Genie, Smoke, Red Dragon, Buzz, Spice 99, Voodoo, Pulse, Hush, Mystery, Earthquake, Black Mamba, Stinger and others. They are sold in smoke shops, head shops, and convenience and liquor stores throughout the United States. Because of its widespread availability, Spice can be purchased by anyone in the general public including employees, students and individuals that are court ordered to not use mind or behavior altering substances.

“We’ve re-tested several hundred randomly pulled specimens from our laboratory and found that over 60% detected the presence of synthetic cannabinoids,” commented Bill Gibbs, Norchem CEO. “These specimens had previously tested negative for drugs of abuse. We consider this significant abuse, three to four times the rate of other illegal compounds that we routinely test. We also have compiled key geographic trends where abuse of Spice/K2 is very prevalent, mainly Nevada, Colorado, southern Arizona, Kansas, and southern California.”

Synthetic Marijuana
Each of these chemical compounds produces metabolites in the body, which can be extracted from urine and tested using LCMSMS (liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry), the most sophisticated technology available today. The tests reveal data qualitatively (detected or not detected).

These chemical compounds are legal in most states and not federally controlled in the U.S. but have been labeled a “drug and chemical of concern” by the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration). For the most part, they have been banned in Europe.

“We consider teenage and college age groups most at risk,” continued Gibbs. “But also those people who simply want to continue drug use but are afraid of judicial consequences are apt to turn to this. In today’s environment, standard screening for street drugs will not detect Spice/K2. But it’s a quickly growing problem, and we encourage law enforcement, drug courts, probation and social services agencies to request testing. They may be shocked to see the abuse levels in these drugs.”

November 18, 2010

Source: Now, There’s a Test for That — Norchem’s “Fake Marijuana” Test Reveals Significantly Increased Abuse of Spice/K

Blacks In Government Group Calls For End Of Racist “War On Drugs”

via News One by Casey Gane-McCalla, Lead Blogger on 9/2/11

A group of current and former African American government employees, Blacks In Government (BIG) has issued a statement calling for the end for the racially biased “War On Drugs.”
The joined forces with LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) for a statement denouncing the war on drugs written by former African American DEA agent, Mather Fogg.

BIG and LEAP have noted that African Americans constitute 53.5 percent of all persons who entered prison because of a drug conviction despite the fact that blacks are no more likely than whites to use drugs.
In passing the anti-drug-war resolution, BIG joins other African-American groups that have taken similar positions, such as the NAACP, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators and the National Black Police Association.
“The war on drugs has put blacks behind bars for drug offenses at more than ten times the rate of whites, even though the evidence consistently shows that blacks are no more likely to use or sell currently illicit drugs than whites are,” Fogg added. “It is time to end this virtual race war.”

Read More At LEAP
RELATED STORIES
Yes! NAACP Passes Resolution, Calls For End To War On Drugs
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High Minded: When Stoners Fall in Love

via GOOD by Tess Lynch on 8/26/11

Can weed be a social drug? I asked myself this the other day as I sat alone outside, checking my email over and over while smoking a joint. It was daytime, but it was Saturday, so I wasn’t being irresponsibly chill. However, I had some plans on which I was considering flaking in favor of being alone, taking a bath, and trying to read The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao again.
I say “trying to read” because getting high and cracking open this Junot Diaz book has made me feel dumb, regret never learning Spanish, think “this book must have been hard to write,” fall asleep, and wake up to realize that I am so old that I now fall asleep while trying to read books. But it was still a more appealing post-joint activity than leaving my house and talking to people.
Leaving your house and talking to people may be the difference between smoking pot a lot and smoking pot too much. Even Thurgood Jenkins preferred people to weed (though just barely). His exact words were that he loved pussy more than weed, but I think it’s fair to infer that he really meant he preferred people. Though a small percentage of the world probably wishes this weren’t the case, you can’t have genitalia without people attached.
In fact, a vocal subsection of America is made up of people with genital relationships to stoners. And these unions may be the heaviest of the stoner’s interpersonal connections. Love is a big trunk filled with the scrolls of ancient fights, feelings about the music of Ben Folds, insecurities collected from previous relationships, and (this increases every year after you turn 25) little wheels that turn in a constant loop of partnership status evaluation. In these disorganized storage facilities of our relationships, the discovery of a forgotten dime bag is rarely a pleasant surprise. Just try following the rabbit hole of message boards relating to the topic “I’m dating a stoner.” The body of the message is hardly ever, “Lucky me.”
More often, the message is an incredibly detailed account of husbands coughing so loud that it wakes the neighbors, wives who stare into—instead of at—the television screen, boyfriends who hand you emergency grocery lists consisting only of Nutella and honey roasted peanuts, and girlfriends who are made so insecure by their THC-inspired paranoia that they will not allow you to stare at them naked in the way that you would like (probingly, like sober people do). One commenter blamed marijuana for her husband accusing her 11-year-old child of stealing from the supermarket. These board members shuffle along in a dystopian stoner fantasy of broken promises, a decidedly skunky smell steeped in the carpet, and a husband who showers, mouth hanging open, really really liking the shower so much so that he feels like he has never showered before in his life. And they don’t even get to be high.
Weed is a question of focus. When the walls of a stoner’s mind begin to look as if there were an  interesting experimental film being projected onto them, staring into someone else’s face may become comparatively boring. Weed’s distractibility, its inappropriate amusement, and its dangling ends of elusive thoughts are dangerous sharp metal objects to introduce to your love life’s biodome, especially if your partner already gives you side-eye when he or she sees you flushing your bong with XXX Orange Poison. “What are you escaping from? Me?” they’ll ask. “No,” you’ll tell them. “I just want to watch Entourage in a state where maybe I can enjoy it.”
But when you decide upon the person with whom you will share your couch, you will be forever reminded that weed is much more than just a 23-minute weekly escape. It is an entire vacation house with a sick kitchen and a magical fridge stocked with endless amounts of fascinating Wikipedia articles and documentaries from 1985. Yet when your beau borrows the key and sticks it in the lock of your mind, the security alarm is activated. It’s deafening. Perhaps there are lasers shooting across the floor. “Who is paying your cable bill?” an official-sounding voice announces. “Was he supposed to pay it? Were you supposed to pay it? Does anyone know what happened with that, or even where it is?” And your boyfriend or girlfriend or wife or husband flees the house and gets in the car; they throw the key at you and say, “What the hell were you talking about? That house is terrible! I thought I was going to die!” Then, they will watch through a dark and smudgy window as you return to the sofa, perfectly content, to stick your face into a Costco cereal bag.
When potheads fall in love, you’d think that they’d both be comfortable cohabitating in this shared vacation house of the mind. But the fact that pot is still lowering its body, millimeters at a time, into the chilly swimming pool of legality means that each person’s personal acceptance of marijuana use is fluid and subject to reconsideration. There will be times when, overbaked and sad, you will wish the person next to you would just win the entire Mortal Kombat tournament so that there would be nothing left to do but talk to you.
But that’s part of the sometimes frustrating work that goes into any relationship: There is a house to which only you have the right key. The kind of person who stares into—not at—the television instead of talking to you once in a while might still be the same kind of person if they’re not using marijuana. That’s just how their eyes work. Their carpet might still smell skunky—some carpets are that way. And if your partner isn’t leaving the house to buy some goddamn groceries once in a while, he or she might need to revisit the old-school veteran stoner adages to “meet the need” and “be cool” —or you might just be married to a deeply lazy person, in which case you have my sympathies.
But for many of us, marijuana helps maintain a private and necessary corner of our psyches, a place where we condition ourselves to be more functionally social people when we’re not stoned. It facilitates an understanding of ourselves that makes us better people to hang out with, on dates or just friendly-style. Spending some time sweeping that brain corner can usher us into a dark movie theater and spit us out into daylight with some new accessories in our spiritual backpack: things to discuss, a slightly altered sense of self, or just a recipe for cookies to pass along to a friend. (Or me. Go ahead—I care).
Psychological isolation from the person you love is crazy-unpleasant, whether it’s drug-induced or (can I posit that this is more common?) just inherent. But maybe we get into trouble when we don’t allow the people we love to have their own experiences, even when they’re sitting next to us when they’re having them. Maybe eradicating the stranger in our significant others is nothing to aspire to. Without individual, private imagination space, we’d have nothing to talk about after you finally win Mortal Kombat and the final intimidating voiceover declares “FINISH HIMMMM!”
Weed is a padlock on a door we could otherwise secure with the metal chain of sarcastic commentary or the propped-up chair of passive-aggressive notes. We sit in there, watching the visualizer morph, slowly considering the crap inside our heads until we get our brains neat. Maybe we’re keeping our brains neat because we love you. Sorry about the injuries you sustained when you dodged those lasers, though. It’s not for everybody.

Enter High Minded, where Tess Lynch revisits previously forgotten epiphanies, drags her lazy, leaden body on adventures and—whoa. I think this pudding’s texture might improve if I added a handful of popcorn and some, like, canned blueberries. Look for a new column every other Friday at GOOD. Collage, as always, by Beth Hoeckel.

How To Turn Your Scraps Into Smoke-worthy Weed [Weedly Column]

via COED Magazine by Ned on 8/10/11

In an earlier Weedly Column, we gave you the basics of Hashish: what it is, why it’s so powerful, and a quick way to make it at home using only your fingers. Since the article was only a general…

Porsche Designs a Bong, er, I Mean, Water-Pipe For Classy People [Desired]

via Gizmodo by Kwame Opam on 7/19/11

Porsche Design has done a wonderful thing. This is by far the sleekest hookah, narghile, whatever you really wanna call it I’ve ever seen. Aluminum, stainless steel, and glass. Simple and elegant. How could you not relax smoking from this? More »

>Mexico Finds ‘Biggest Marijuana Plantation’ Ever [Video]

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via Gawker by Jeff Neumann on 7/15/11

Mexican soldiers yesterday raided a 300-acre marijuana farm in Baja California — a find that authorities say is the biggest in the country’s storied drug-growing history. General Alfonso Duarte told Reuters, “This is the biggest marijuana plantation we have found in the country,” and guessed that it was staffed by as many as 60 people. More »

>Petitioners Seek End to Arrests for Marijuana Use in Portland

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 nt to you by Ryan Mega via Google Reader:

via 420 Magazine by Jacob Ebel on 7/5/11

PORTLAND, Maine — A group of citizens in Portland is trying to take some pressure off marijuana users.

Tuesday, members of the group Sensible Portland turned in 2100 signatures to put a referendum on the November ballot asking Portland Police not to arrest adults for personal use or posession of marijuana. The proposed ordinance also requires the city’s mayor to report to the council on marijuana arrests by police.
Police would face no penalty if they violated the ordinance, and the ordinance states that it’s not intended to prohibit police from working with federal drug enforcement officers.
Sensible Portland says it’s important for voters to go on record about this issue, though, since the federal government says it plans to crack down on even medical marijuana users. The group also hopes the proposed ordinance will eventually help lead to a discussion of legalizing marijuana.

If at least 1500 of the signatures are valid, the proposal will go to the city council. The council will hold a public hearing, after which it can either enact the proposal or put it to the voters. The council also can put its own alternative plan out to the voters at the same time.

News Hawk- Jacob Ebel 420 MAGAZINE
Source: wcsh6.com
Author: Caroline Cornish
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Website: Petitioners seek end to arrests for marijuana use in Portland

>Latest DOJ Memo Emphasizes Why We Must Pass HR 2306, The Ending Federal Mari…

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Latest DOJ Memo Emphasizes Why We Must Pass HR 2306, The Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act Of 2011

via NORML Blog, Marijuana Law Reform by Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director on 7/1/11

On Wednesday the Obama administration for the second time in two years issued a Department of Justice memorandum regarding the state-sanctioned use and production of medical cannabis. However, unlike the release of the 2009 ‘Ogden memo,’ which the administration promoted with great fanfare, the issuance of this week’s ‘Cole memorandum’ is strategically being downplayed by the Justice Department.
As for the content of the memo, which you can read in full here, it’s hardly surprising — particularly in light of the administration’s recent, and highly public threats to lawmakers in states wishing to enact medical marijuana laws or expand upon their existing programs.
Perhaps most notably, the memorandum states that the recent flurry of intimidating US Attorney letters to state lawmakers are ‘entirely consistent’ with the Obama administration’s position. In other words, the administration is now on record in support of claims made by US Attorneys in Rhode Island, Washington, and other states alleging that state employees could be targeted and federally prosecuted for simply registering and licensing medical cannabis patients or providers — a position that is even more extreme than that of the previous administration. (Notably to date, however, no state employee — or for that matter, no state sanctioned dispensary operator — has ever been prosecuted by the federal government.)
The memo goes on to state that the federal government distinguishes between individual medical cannabis patients and third party providers, indicating that it is a poor use of federal resources (rather than a poor use of judgment) to target the former, while indicating that the latter are fair game for federal prosecution. It states:

“A number of states have enacted some form of legislation relating to the medical use of marijuana. Accordingly the Ogden memo reiterated to you that prosecution of significant traffickers in illegal drugs, including marijuana, remains a core priority, but advised that it is likely not an efficient use of federal resources to focus enforcement efforts on individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or their caregivers. The term “caregiver” as used in the memorandum meant just that: individuals providing care to individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses, not commercial operations cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana.”

Finally, the memo acknowledges that there has been an increase in the number of states that have either enacted or are considering enacting state laws allowing for the licensed production and distribution of cannabis to authorized patients. (To date, such state-licensed dispensaries are up and running in Colorado, New Mexico, and Maine; laws permitting such facilities are on the books in Arizona, Delaware, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont.) Clearly, the federal government is not at all pleased with this progress.

“The Odgen Memorandum was never intended to shield such activities from federal enforcement action and prosecution, even where those activities purport to comply with state law. Persons who are in the business of cultivating. selling, or distributing marijuana, and those who knowingly facilitate such activities, are in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, regardless of state law. Consistent with the resource constraints and the discretion you may exercise in your district, such persons are subject to federal enforcement action, including potential prosecution. State laws or local ordinances are not a defense to civil enforcement of federal law with respect to such conduct, including enforcement of the CSA. Those who engage in transactions involving the proceeds of such activity may also be in violation of federal money laundering statutes and other federal financing laws.”

Regardless of how one wishes to interpret the latest memo from the DOJ, one thing is clear. States will never truly enjoy the freedom to experiment with alternative marijuana policies until the federal government is compelled to get out of their way. Only the passage of HR 2306, the ‘Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011,’ can make that happen.
House Bill 2306 mimics changes enacted by Congress that repealed the federal prohibition of alcohol by removing the federal government’s power to prosecute minor marijuana offenders. It would eliminate the existing conflict between federal law and the laws of those sixteen states that already allow for the limited use of marijuana under a physicians’ supervision. Further, it would permit state governments that wish to fully legalize and regulate the responsible use, possession, production, and intrastate distribution of marijuana for all adults to be free to do so without federal interference.
State lawmakers should be free to explore alternate marijuana policies — including medicalization, decriminalization, and/or legalization — without being held hostage to archaic federal prohibition or the whims of the Department of Justice. Contact your member of Congress and urge him or her to vote ‘yes’ on HR 2306.