Although the federal government may use its power of the purse to encourage states to adopt certain criminal laws, the federal government is limited in its ability to directly influence state policy by the Tenth Amendment, which prevents the federal government from directing states to enact specific legislation, or requiring state officials to enforce federal law. As such, the fact that the federal government has criminalized conduct does not mean that the state, in turn, must also criminalize or prosecute that same conduct.

States Can Legalize Marijuana (Though Federal Laws Stand), Says Congressional Research Service

(Image: Untitled | Flickr - Photo Sharing!, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from cannabisculture's photostream)

The result of his explorations is Marijuanamerica: One Man’s Quest to Understand America’s Dysfunctional Love Affair with Weed, a fascinating and entertaining snapshot that looks at how weed has infiltrated every corner of society (despite the fact that it's prohibited by the federal government). It reads like something Hunter S. Thompson might have written in his Hell's Angels days, had he laid off the hard stuff and graduated from Yale.

Nerz started his trip in Florida to visit Irvin Rosenfeld, one of the few people in the United States that the federal government allows to smoke weed (in fact the government sends him a pack of 300 pre-rolled joints every month, gratis). Rosenfeld smokes the low-quality government pot to treat his symptoms from pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism, a disorder that causes skeletal abnormalities. Next, Nerz went to Los Angeles and paid a "Medical Kush Doctor" $150 to give him a letter that stated, "This is to verify that Alfred Nerz would probably benefit from compassionate medical cannabis use, is recommended by me as satisfying the requirements of H & S Code 11362.5 and SB 420." With that letter, Nerz was able to score cannabis products from any of the thousands of medical marijuana dispensaries in California. (Unlike Rosenfeld, however, Nerz and every other Californian who smokes medical weed is still breaking one of more federal laws.)

Working his way up California, Nerz stops in the Bay Area to meet Steve DeAngelo, founder of Harborside Health Clinic, the superstore of weed dispensaries with 100,000 customers (or "patients" as Harborside likes to call them in order to remain legal in the eyes of the state government). He also enrolls in Oaksterdam University, a school that has been teaching cannabis entrepreneurship since 2007.

While these experiences are interesting and provide illuminating examples of the mainstreaming of weed, the book kicks into high gear when Nerz goes further up the coast to Humboldt County, where he embeds himself with a group of marijuana farmers. Led by a hyperactive hustler nicknamed Buddha Cheese, the team operates several indoor growing operations. They sell their mind-blistering buds to medical cannabis dispensaries, but also pack suitcases of dope into car trunks and deliver them to dealers who sell the weed for recreational purposes. Surrounded by pitbulls, hard drugs, and colorful characters, Nerz notices the many fat bales of cash lying around the place. There's so much money stacked up that Nerz decides he wants a piece of the action (to pay down his credit card debt) and offers to drive a carload of weed from California to New Jersey. If he gets caught by the law, he could serve 10 years or more in prison (I won't spoil it for you by telling you what happened on his cross-coyntry trip).

Unlike many recently-published books about cannabis, Marijuanamerica doesn't try to whitewash the facts. Cannabis, like other drugs such as alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine, is not harmless. Nerz cites several studies that indicate long term use, especially by young people, can have long term negative consequences. Even so, Nerz argues that the current legal status of marijuana causes more harm than the drug does, a sentiment I agree with. The laws are changing though, as is public opinion. Recent polls have shown, that for the first time, a majority of Americans favor legalization. Last November Washington and Colorado voted to legalize cannabis. The federal government, along with the prison-industrial complex and law enforcement agencies that depend on marijuana's illegality in order to thrive are pushing back. The next few years are going to be interesting.

Marijuanamerica: One Man’s Quest to Understand America’s Dysfunctional Love Affair with Weed

Federal data to be released this week through the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that drug overdose deaths rose for the 11th year in a row. Most were accidents involving prescription painkillers: specifically, opioids like OxyContin and Vicodin which are commonly prescribed for pain management, and are widely abused. Those two drugs contributed to 3 out of 4 medication overdose deaths, according to the report.

Not one single death in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data set was due to overdosing on marijuana.

Why? Generally speaking, because of the way cannabis affects the human brain and nervous system, it is not medically possible to OD on marijuana—though you're welcome to try, and unconfined munchies could certainly cause some damage. Not that death by Doritos would be such an awful thing...

And yet in federal law, with the data once again proving that pot is non-lethal, cannabis remains classified as a schedule 1 drug. That classification means there are no federally-recognized medical applications for pot, while prescription drugs proven yet again to be potentially deadly when abused remain readily and legally available.

As an aside, it's lulzy to note that in the letter of the DEA's law, it's spelled "marihuana." Both the spelling of the law and the logic behind it are antiquated.

Photo: Shutterstock]]> http://boingboing.net/2013/02/19/drug-od-fatalities-up-for-11th.html/feed 96 http://boingboing.net/2013/02/14/how-to-grow-killer-weed-exclu.html http://boingboing.net/2013/02/14/how-to-grow-killer-weed-exclu.html#comments Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:44:17 +0000 Mark Frauenfelder http://boingboing.net/?p=213128 Excerpted from The Art of Doing: How Superachievers Do What They Do and How They Do It So Well, by Camille Sweeney and Josh Gosfield. (Camille and Josh interviewed me for the book, too.)

It was the Sixties, and Ed Rosenthal, who listed his future career as "plant geneticist" in his high school yearbook, had discovered pot. After college, living in an oversize apartment in the Bronx, Rosenthal decided to grow his own. The rest is marijuana history as Rosenthal went on to become "The Guru of Ganja" and a godsend to both the home growing hobbyist and the commercial grower. He has authored a dozen books on marijuana cultivation and his popular grower's advice column Ask Ed ran in High Times for two decades and is syndicated internationally.

Here are Rosenthal's 10 tips on "How to Grow Killer Weed."

1. Know the consequences. Face it, pot isn't legal in most places yet. There are almost a million marijuana arrests in America every year, so know your local laws, both state and county. If you get busted in Oklahoma for growing a single plant you can get two years to life. In some states a medical doctor can lose his license for cultivation. A student can lose rights to scholarships. You can even lose your driver's license or right to vote. Ask yourself: "Is growing worth it?" The police blotter is full of stories of people who didn't think it through.

2. Design your garden. Determine the best garden design for your particular needs. If you're squeezed for space, you can grow in a closet. Need a fast turnaround time? Plants grown hydroponically mature more quickly. Don't want to risk being busted with an indoor garden? Grow a guerilla garden in a small hard-to-detect plot. If you're growing medical marijuana, you might be legally limited to a certain number of plants, so design your garden for maximum yield of each plant.

3. Know your limits. When some people first start growing, they want to do too much and get in over their heads. I knew a first-time grower who planted a 400-square-foot indoor garden. He did everything by hand. No irrigation system. No help. Halfway through the first grow cycle he realized, "There's not enough time!" He was having a nervous breakdown. I told him, "Shut off half the lights and do what you can." Growing cannabis is not a fly-by-night project. Start small. Get some experience. Then you can expand into a larger system.

4. Choose your variety wisely. In the late '60s, you collected seeds from friends or whatever marijuana happened to be left around--Columbian Gold or Panama Red. But those plants were more suited to tropical climates. Then the breeders came along, legendary guys like Neville Schoenmaker, who gained access to some of the world's greatest strains of cannabis: Skunk #1, Haze and Pollyanna. They opened mail order seed banks. For the first time you could select strains suited to various climates that grew faster and had much better highs. After 40 years of breeding you have at least a couple of hundred seed banks. You can select for taste, aroma and, of course, the high. Want a couch potato high? Go for Easy Rider. Something more cerebral? Go for Green House Thai. Prefer a party buzz? Try Euforia. Medical marijuana patients can choose from strains to relieve particular ailments. If you are going to go to the trouble of growing why not select the best plant for you?

5. Remember: Marijuana is NOT a magical plant. Some pot smokers believe that marijuana is their mystical ally like Don Juan talked about in the Carlos Castaneda books. They get so excited that they think they can plant a seed in the ground and a few months later they'll be smoking killer pot. But marijuana plays by the same rules as everything else in the plant kingdom. Just like an orchid or a head of lettuce, marijuana requires the right amount of light, CO₂, nutrients, water, oxygen and temperature. Educate yourself about the principles of cultivation.

6. Believe your eyes. A plant's reactions to stimuli can be as instantaneous as an animal's. As you tend your garden, step back to watch, the plants will indicate their health. Are they getting enough water? The right spectrum of light? There's a telltale sign for almost every nutrient deficiency. No matter what you've learned from books or other growers, you have to trust your eyes. Once, returning home after a week away, I noticed my plants had drought damage. I shocked the plant sitter when I asked him, "So, how come you didn't water my plants last Thursday?"

7. Harvest no bud before it's ripe. You wouldn't eat a green peach. So why go to all of the work of growing a marijuana crop only to harvest the buds before they're ripe--when they give you the most potent high? Know the cues. Even buds on the same plant don't mature at the same time. Get yourself a photographer's loupe. Up close you'll notice that the buds glisten in the sun as if sprinkled with tiny crystals. That's when the magic moment has arrived.

8. Don't get busted. There are a million ways to get busted. Any one of these might work: tell everyone about your garden, act suspicious, throw late night parties, wave a gun around, don't pay your taxes, be a lousy neighbor, spread a lot of cash around in town, piss off the garbage man, post pictures of your garden on Facebook or grow a garden next to a major airport. Every time you tell someone about your garden, assume you've just told ten people. Anybody, an angry ex or disgruntled roommate, can turn you in.

9. Evolve. Thirty years ago your typical grow room was couple of hanging lights and a fan. The science of marijuana cultivation has changed radically over the years, but some growers think they know everything. I visited a grower once with a terrible garden, a real throwback to the '70s. I took some of his pot to some people and no one would even smoke it. From homemade aeroponics systems to decarboxylation--the best growers realize they have a lot to learn. Cultivation technology is always changing, which can be overwhelming. But that's the way it is.

10. Legalize it. A lot of potheads don't even vote, but every change in the marijuana laws has been the result of a struggle. A lot of people don't have the time to fight for legalization or they don't want their faces recognized, but anyone can make a contribution to the cause. If the 20 million regular users donated $10, that would be $200 million toward marijuana law reform and the law changes would be immediate. Are you for legalization? Then act on your beliefs.

Excerpted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from " The Art of Doing: How Superachievers Do What They Do and How They Do It so Well" by Camille Sweeney and Josh Gosfield. Copyright 2013 by Camille Sweeney and Josh Gosfield.

Buy The Art of Doing on Amazon

An indoor cannabis farmer invited a television reporter to visit his growing operation. He said he has 40 employees, seven indoor gardens, and earns $420,000 a year.

Mike admits his landlord doesn’t know he’s an urban farmer. His latest round of "OG Kush" will yield some 150 pounds of marijuana, a value of $510,000 turning over every 10 weeks. Mike’s partners at dispensaries in the Southland then sell the OG Kush by 1/8 of an ounce – sometimes more – charging $40 to $60 each.

"My biggest concern is staying out of the way of the Feds," he said, "but I don’t see myself doing anything else."

Inside a Marijuana Grow House in the San Fernando Valley

How cheaply could pot be grown with advanced farming techniques? One potential data point is Canada’s industrial hemp industry, where production costs are about $500 per acre. If the kind of mid-grade commercial weed that accounts for about 80 percent of the U.S. market could be grown that cheaply, it implies costs of about 20 cents per pound of smokable material: Enough pot to fill more than 800 modest-sized half-gram joints for less than a quarter!. Those numbers are probably optimistic, since in practice recreational marijuana is grown from more expensive transplanted clones rather than from seeds. Even so, the authors note that “production costs for crops that need to be transplanted, such as cherry tomatoes and asparagus, are generally in the range of $5,000-$20,000 per acre.” That implies costs of less than $20 per pound for high-grade sensimilla and less than $5 a pound for mid-grade stuff. Another way of looking at it, suggested by California NORML Director Dale Gieringer, is that we should expect legal pot to cost about the same amount as “other legal herbs such as tea or tobacco,” something perhaps “100 times lower than the current prevailing price of $300 per ounce—or a few cents per joint.”

This would make pot far and away the cheapest intoxicant on the market, absolutely blowing beer and liquor out of the water. Joints would be about as cheap as things that are often treated as free. Splenda packets, for example, cost 2 or 3 cents each when purchased in bulk.

I wonder how much money the liquor industry is going to contribute in their attempt to get these cannabis laws overturned?

"Our federal marijuana policy is increasingly out of step with both the values of American citizens and with state law," she writes. "The result is a system of justice that is schizophrenic and at times appalling."

After the elections, medical pot is now legal in 18 states and Washington, D.C., and pot is legal for adults to use for recreational use as well in Colorado and Washington State. But the federal government plans to continue its draconian enforcement approach, regardless of state voters' choices.

Her short film focuses on the case of a medical cannabis grower, Chris Williams, who opened a grow house in Montana after the state legalized medical cannabis.

Mr. Williams was eventually arrested by federal agents despite Montana’s medical marijuana law, and he may spend the rest of his life behind bars. While Jerry Sandusky got a 30-year minimum sentence for raping young boys, Mr. Williams is looking at a mandatory minimum of more than 80 years for marijuana charges and for possessing firearms during a drug-trafficking offense.

“I think it's about time we legalize marijuana... We either put people who are smoking marijuana behind bars or we legalize it, but this little game we are playing in the middle is not helping us, it is not helping Mexico and it is causing massive violence on our southern border... Fifty percent of the money going to these cartels is coming just from marijuana coming across our border.” -- Glenn Beck

“There is no logical basis for the prohibition of marijuana...$7.7 billion [spent on prohibition's enforcement] is a lot of money, but that is one of the lesser evils. Our failure to successfully enforce these laws is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in Colombia. I haven't even included the harm to young people. It's absolutely disgraceful to think of picking up a 22-year-old for smoking pot. More disgraceful is the denial of marijuana for medical purposes.” -- Milton Friedman

Marijuana is currently classified in the US as a Schedule I controlled substance: no medically accepted use, despite ample evidence to the contrary.

Ira Flatow's syndicated public radio program Science Friday has a segment out about next week's planned arguments to a federal appeals court by pro-pot advocacy org Americans for Safe Access, in hopes of relaxing federal restrictions.

The radio segment includes UCSF oncologist Donald Abrams, who speaks about the evidence on the medical benefits of pot.

Disclosure: I'm a cancer patient, I use pot for medical purposes, and I'm strongly in favor of legalization and easier access for seriously ill people (and honestly, who cares, everyone else too).

HT: @milesobrien]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/10/12/feds-to-debate-medical-use-of.html/feed 17 http://boingboing.net/2012/07/26/pot-legalization-is-on-the-bal.html http://boingboing.net/2012/07/26/pot-legalization-is-on-the-bal.html#comments Fri, 27 Jul 2012 01:31:35 +0000 Xeni Jardin http://boingboing.net/?p=173391

This November, voters in three US states—Colorado, Washington, and Oregon—will be able to vote on ballot measures that would legalize marijuana, period.

Not just for medicinal purposes, but for recreational purposes, too.

At Rolling Stone, a smart blog post by Julian Brookes on what happens when the first state says "yes" to weed.

When that happens, expect one of two things – either: the federal government, in deference to democratic principles, will decline to enforce its ban on marijuana, creating space for the state to be a "laboratory of democracy," working out its new policy by trial and error, learning as it goes, creating a trove of hard-earned lessons to guide the states that (inevitably) will follow; or: the federal government will bide its time and then come down hard, busting growers and retailers, seizing land and property (or, just as effective, threatening to), going after banks that serve pot business, and doing whatever else it takes to shut down the state's legalization push.

True, the feds would be within their rights to crack down. A state can legalize all it wants, but – incredibly – happy-go-lucky marijuana will still be a Schedule I drug, right up there on the federal shit list with brain melters and organ fryers like Heroin, Cocaine, and PCP. And, no, this isn't some quaint, disregarded artifact from olden times: A personal stash can get you a year in federal prison, a single plant up to five.

Read the rest.]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/07/26/pot-legalization-is-on-the-bal.html/feed 74 http://boingboing.net/2012/07/17/too-high-to-fail-cannabis-and.html http://boingboing.net/2012/07/17/too-high-to-fail-cannabis-and.html#comments Tue, 17 Jul 2012 21:37:09 +0000 Mark Frauenfelder http://boingboing.net/?p=171700 Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution.

Too High to Fail covers everything from a brief history of hemp to an insider’s perspective on a growing season in Mendocino County, where cannabis drives 80 percent of the economy (to the tune of $6 billion annually). Investigative journalist Doug Fine follows one plant from seed to patient in the first American county to fully legalize and regulate cannabis farming. He profiles an issue of critical importance to lawmakers, media pundits, and ordinary Americans -- whether or not they inhale. It’s a wild ride that includes swooping helicopters, college tuitions paid with cash, cannabis-friendly sheriffs, and never-before-gained access to the world of the emerging legitimate, taxpaying “ganjaprenneur.”

While researching the book, what did you learn about cannabis and the use of it that surprised you?

Probably the most surprising revelation to me after a year spent on the front lines of the Drug War is how ready Middle America is for the coming Drug Peace -- especially with regard to legalizing cannabis. One collective I researched, in Orange County, CA (yep, Nixon's stomping grounds) had seniors as the majority of membership. These were people for whom cannabis was not political. It was medicine that worked: for arthritis, glaucoma, appetite stimulation. Americans recently polled at 56% in favor of regulating cannabis like alcohol, up from 49% a year ago. So we could be close to the kind of mainstream tipping point that ended alcohol Prohibition. And that surprised me. The "Brains on Drugs" stigma is disappearing, even in the heartland.

Who stands to profit from keeping cannabis illegal, and who will profit if it is regulated like alcohol?

Well, I first off like to always impart a sort of Humility Preface before prognostication. We don't know exactly what the future may bring, but we do have a lot of history as an example. Prohibition breeds organized crime. That's who profits from the status quo, on the business side. With the regulation of cannabis like alcohol, I heard some of today's farmers worry that we'll get a few Coors type overlords. That may be, but when Jimmy Carter changed the brewing rules, the microbrewery age exploded, and the farmers I cover in Too High to Fail are confident that there will likewise always be room for the top shelf craft farmer, the way that there's always room for Sierra Nevada or New Belgium today. I agree with them: we're talking about a multibillion dollar industry that's already bigger than corn and wheat combined. Imagine the tax revenue! Another beneficiary of the coming Drug Peace era is the American people, in the form of energy independence: a USDA biologist told me that when it comes to cannabis as a biofuel source, “It’s magnitudes more productive than corn- or soy-based ethanol. But it’s not even on our blackboard because it’s a federal crime.” Thus were the farmers I followed practicing a kind of patriotic civil disobedience. One day they'll be teaching university courses to students dubious that their crop was ever really illegal.

You spent a year in Mendocino County, and you hung out with farmers, and law enforcement. What did you do to gain their trust?

One of the most astonishing parts of researching this book for me was how open everyone was, especially in Mendocino County. Generally speaking, second or third generation farmees are sick of being considered criminals, and are ready to be recognized as sustainably farmer's of Americas #1 cash crop (and one of humanity's longest used). Specifically, in the "Zip-tie Program" I was following in Mendocino County (whereby farmers paid permitting fees which bestowed a yellow bracelet -- a Zip-tie -- on every one of their plants), farmers are courageous activists, defying federal law to come aboveboard and support their community. The Zip-tie program, in 2011, raised $600,000 and saved seven deputy jobs. So gaining trust wasn't very difficult, especially once I had the trust of several prominent farmers. In truth, though, everyone was happy to talk to me, including the back barn geneticist who developed the strain that I followed from farm to patient. The farmer and I called the individual plant "Lucille," for reasons that become humorously clear in Too High to Fail. I will say that because of this openness it's been a huge sigh of relief to have the farmers I covered in the book one by one tell me they like it. The Drug War is a war like any other, and it's these brave front line soldiers, putting themselves at risk for what they know is right, for the good of patients and of the country, who are playing one of the most dangerous and prominent roles. One of the farmers I covered, Matt Cohen, was raided near the end of the book. The other, Tomas Balogh, was able to get Lucille to patients, including to a liver cancer patient I visited. Will these farmers benefit financially when cannabis prohibition ends? Sure, why shouldn't they?

What was the specific incident that made you want to write this book?

There were two. One was a massive multiagency raid of a neighbor of mine that netted all of 13 plants and zero jail time (not that it should have netted jail time). I was particularly irked by this as my normal alarm clock in my remote valley near the Mexican border is hummingbirds at the feeder, and this particular Thursday I'm in a scene out of Goodfellas. Literally millions of taxpayer dollars were spent NOT to go after the Cartels that day. The second, related incident, was that the mayor of one of the nearest towns to my ranch, a border village called Columbus, was arrested as a Cartel member. The Drug War isn't working, and anyone can complain about bad policy, but I wanted to research an alternative. A solution. And I found a pretty easy one: tax cannabis like alcohol and you cut out 70% of the Cartel's profits. There are other benefits, too, to the American tax base, to public safety, to public health, and even to creativity: as the Digerati know, this is the idea era, and a U.S. which is friendly to cannabis, I argue in Too High to Fail, is a country more cerebral than one on alcohol or our nation's real epidemic: pills. Even with all of this, though, I needed to feel like the topic was important enough to spend a year of my working life researching. What I found out about cannabis' soil restoration uses and potential role in America's energy independence sealed the deal: it's a plant that should and I hope soon will be a valuable part of our economy and society.

For the 150 million plus people who think America should legalize cannabis, what should be done to make it happen?

From a political perspective, I would say call your congressperson and senators and tell them you are voting based on their support for getting cannabis out of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and letting states regulate the plant like alcohol (and also that you won't tolerate sneaky permitting of pharmaceutical derivatives, only the whole plant). How is it that 56% of American support regulating cannabis like alcohol (and 80% support medicinal cannabis) and yet virtually no U.S. Senators support it? They aren't hearing from Americans demanding that this trillion dollar, 40-year boondoggle end. In your personal life, speak openly about how serious and important an issue ending the Drug War is -- it's not some college stoner issue. It's crucial for America. And that will help finally dissipate the stigma that's still attached to cannabis after decades of misinformation until it's considered not just as safe as alcohol, but safer. Which is not to say one must absolutely advocate its use in all circumstances. Rather it's to say that responsible adult Americans who choose to use cannabis should have the same rights as those who choose to drink a glass of wine. Furthermore, that sigma erasing will help inject billions of tax dollars into the economy and return small American farmers to the land. It might even help us become energy independent.

Doug adds: The Too High to Fail pre-order is on now everywhere for hardcover and e-book: Amazon, iTunes, your local bookstore, Barnes and Noble, etc. And if we sell 100,000 first run hardcovers I'll request my publisher come out with a hemp edition -- saving several hundred thousand trees. Too bad it can't be American grown...yet. Continuous dispatches on sustainability and the coming Drug Peace Era, plus nationwide live event The Too High to Fail Pax Cannabis Tour dates for August and September and a short film about the book are at www.dougfine.com.

Buy Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution on Amazon

See also:

Pulitzer-winning food critic Jonathan Gold, who recently departed the L.A. Weekly to join the Los Angeles Times, writes about his experience attending a nine-course "Marijuana and Chinese Herbs" dinner hosted by serial restauranteur Nguyen Tran and prepared by chef Laurent Quenioux. High Times columnist Elise McDonough, author of the newly-released "The Official High Times Cannabis Cookbook" (look for my Boing Boing review soon!) was among those in attendance. Snip from Gold's review:

When Nguyen Tran emailed to tell me about an extravaganza he was setting up at an acquaintance's house, a special herb dinner in which each of the many courses would involve fresh marijuana, I did not necessarily beg to be included in the feast. The first time I met Tran, on a social-media panel somewhere, he happened to be wearing a banana suit, and he has been known to show up to food events dressed as a tauntaun from "The Empire Strikes Back." I like his Starry Kitchen, a pan-Asian lunchroom in a downtown office-building food court, and I admire the running pop-up restaurant he mounts with chef Laurent Quenioux. But the notion of an “herb” dinner wasn't especially my thing. The last time I had sampled this particular herb was many years ago, in the course of reporting a story on Snoop Dogg and his 15 pit bulls, and its culinary uses were not apparent even back then.

Read the rest here.

(Photo: Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times, April 2, 2012: Marijuana leaves are laid out in preparation for one of several courses.) ]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/04/06/food-critic-jonathan-gold-atte.html/feed 18 http://boingboing.net/2012/01/27/newt-gingrichs-pro-medical-m.html http://boingboing.net/2012/01/27/newt-gingrichs-pro-medical-m.html#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:27:24 +0000 Xeni Jardin http://boingboing.net/?p=141020 Newt Gingrich, hypocritical piece of shit, was pro-medical-cannabis "way back before he wanted to behead people and cut off their hands for possessing it," notes Dangerous Minds.]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/01/27/newt-gingrichs-pro-medical-m.html/feed 16 http://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/marijuana-is-the-new-wheatgras.html http://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/marijuana-is-the-new-wheatgras.html#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:36:26 +0000 Xeni Jardin http://boingboing.net/?p=138293 Drink your cannabis, say some raw-pot advocates. It won't get you high, but it's good for you. I'm skeptical, but I know one thing: unless you're growing your own, it is likely not good for your wallet.]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/marijuana-is-the-new-wheatgras.html/feed 4