After three years of legal weed, Oregon has grown 1.1 million pounds, approximately three times what residents buy in a year. From The Guardian:

The result? Prices are dropping to unprecedented lows in auction houses and on dispensary counters across the state.

Wholesale sun-grown weed fell from $1,500 a pound last summer to as low as $700 by mid-October. On store shelves, that means the price of sun-grown flower has been sliced in half to those four-buck grams.

For Oregon customers, this is a bonanza. A gram of the beloved Girl Scout Cookies strain now sells for little more than two boxes of actual Girl Scout cookies.

But it has left growers and sellers with a high-cost product that’s a financial loser. And a new feeling has descended on the once-confident Oregon cannabis industry: panic.

“The business has been up and down and up and down,” says Don Morse, who closed his Human Collective II dispensary in south-west Portland four months ago. “But in a lot of ways it has just been down and down for dispensaries.”

"How do you move mountains of unwanted weed?" (The Guardian via Next Draft) Read the rest

Look at all these stoners... San Francisco, California, ladies and gentleman!

According to SFGate, an estimated 15,000 revelers attended the annual 4/20 gathering at Hippie Hill in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. This free, unofficial and unsanctioned event has been a tradition in the city since the 1970's but this is the first time it's occurred after recreational use of cannabis became legal in California on January 1.

The event began even before the gates opened about 40 minutes after the scheduled 9 a.m. start. The throngs that had gathered at the police barricades began chanting, “We want to smoke pot in the park,” and a collective whoop rose up as they were allowed inside...

One man holding an orange box full of immaculately rolled spleefs shouted, “Pot, pot, get your pot,” like a hot dog vendor at a ballgame, but most everyone already had the stuff. Still, vendors were everywhere selling tiny $5 gram baggies, cookies and gummies...

At 4:20 p.m., a New Year’s Eve-style countdown began for the “bud drop,” a phantasmagoric depiction of a marijuana bud descending a la Times Square, but it seemed to leave many people dazed and confused. Still, they cheered as if it was the highlight of a day jam-packed with highs.

I got a contact high just from watching these people who are high as fuck being interviewed on TV. Read the rest

Spliff is a brand new film festival from the folks behind Dan Savage's Hump! fest. While Hump! shows homemade, but well-curated, porn, Spliff will feature films "made by the stoned for the stoned" that are a maximum of four minutes and 20 seconds in length.

The SPLIFF Film Festival is where filmmakers, artists, animators, and stoners share original film shorts exploring stoner themes. From serious takes on pot culture to stoner comedy to mind-blowing weirdness—they all have a home at SPLIFF. Creative types of all stripes entertain, challenge, and amaze SPLIFF audiences with short films that examine and/or celebrate recreational marijuana use and its liberating effects on our imaginations, appetites, libidos, and creative energies. At SPLIFF, you’ll see films that will make you laugh, films that will make you think, and films that will make you ask, “What the fuck was that?!”

The festival will show in four cities -- Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Denver -- in April 2019.

Filmmakers: Smoke a joint, pop an edible, or vape, then make a film and submit it for consideration by March 1, 2019. That's enough time for even the most stoniest of the stoners amongst us. Read the rest

South Wales Police announced they were able to access a WhatsApp user's photos through a backdoor, then extract fingerprint data from a picture of a weed dealer's hand to help convict 11 involved people. Read the rest

John Boehner's eyes will be bleary, liquid and reddened for another reason, henceforth: he's got a job as a marijuana industry spokesman.

I’m joining the board of #AcreageHoldings because my thinking on cannabis has evolved. I’m convinced de-scheduling the drug is needed so we can do research, help our veterans, and reverse the opioid epidemic ravaging our communities.

I'm certainly looking forward to high John Boehner tweets, but let's not forget that he and his party spent decades using drug policy to marginalize, incarcerate and politically neuter minorities. He's woke for money, not justice. Read the rest

San Francisco plans to retroactively apply California's new marijuana legalization laws to thousands of pre-existing pot related convictions, the SF district attorney's office announced Wednesday. Thousands of misdemeanors and felonies dating to 1975 will either be expunged or reduced, and the lives of people convicted of those crimes will be changed for the better. Read the rest

The Santa Cruz Shredder actually does leave me with fluffier and more evenly burning weed.

Over time the very act of grinding weed wears out my herb grinders. Add to that the fact that I use them in the process of smoking dope and you'll understand why I tend to go through one or two a year. As I was recently replacing my Sativa grinder, which gets the most use, the weed wizard at my local shop introduced me to the Santa Cruz Shredder.

The squared off teeth and bottom affixed central post in the Santa Cruz Shredder leave your processed marijuana product fluffier and less 'ground down' -- this may be the shape of the teeth, or the slightly larger pass-thru holes for shredded stuff. Regardless, I find that bowls draw with more ease and the weed seems to burn more evenly in my Twisty Glass Blunt.

This isn't a run out and get one right now kind of improvement, but I'll be buying this style grinder going forward. If you need a new one, give it a try!

Santa Cruz Shredder 4 Piece Medium New (Black) via Amazon Read the rest

I could be wrong, but I believe Jack in the Box's "Munchie Meals" have always been geared to the late-night cravings of cannabis users. It sounds like this new "Merry Munchie Meal" is being launched to unequivocally tie the soon-to-be legalization of recreational pot in California to the brand.

SFGate reports:

As California prepares for legal recreational pot on Jan. 1, the fast-food chain is partnering with a digital media company backed by rapper Snoop Dogg on a new "munchie" meal aimed at cannabis enthusiasts. While marijuana's connection to fast food is well-established, Jack in the Box will become the first national chain to explicitly embrace the drug.

The "Merry Munchie Meal," which will be available at three California locations for a week in January for $4.20, features two tacos, french fries, onion rings, five mini churros, three chicken strips and a small drink. The price isn't random: The number 420 is used as a code by potheads.

image via Merry Jane

Thanks, Chris! Read the rest

Justin Caffier was good enough to play human guinea pig in the quest for the ideal liquid to put in a bong. Colloids and emulsions quickly got ruled out after his disastrous attempts at using ranch dressing: Read the rest

Broccoli is a beautifully designed new magazine for women who love weed. The online version is free, or you can get it mailed to you. No word on whether the glossy pages would make good rolling paper. Read the rest

A janitor in Osaka turned his small apartment into an impressive miniature weed farm using bonsai techniques. Unfortunately, he got busted. Read the rest

A couple in Orlando, Florida ordered plastic storage bins on Amazon. When they received the bins, they were surprised to find 65 pounds of marijuana inside. Now THAT'S Amazon Prime! Police are investigating. From WFTV:

The couple said that after going back and forth with Amazon mostly by email for more than a month, they never spoke to a supervisor....

They eventually received an email giving them a $150 gift card with the message, "I am unable to do anything else at this time..."

Amazon sent a statement saying its customer service team worked directly with the customer to address concerns and will work with law enforcement to investigate the case.

(via Dave Pell's NextDraft) Read the rest

The Cobb County Police department has trained a number of its officers to be "Drug Recognition Experts." Apparently this training allows them to declare people under the influence without any actual proof. The ACLU is suing on behalf of several non-marijuana using victims.

Via the ACLU of Georgia:

The Cobb County Police Department has embraced the so-called “Drug Recognition Expert” (DRE) program, a program used nationwide but has never been independently and rigorously validated. The protocol requires officers to perform medical examinations to detect drug influence without having relevant medical training, and it leads officers to believe that they have a special ability to detect marijuana use without concrete evidence.

“The people of Cobb County should be outraged that their police department wasted scarce resources harassing and jailing innocent people,” said Sean J. Young, legal director of the ACLU of Georgia. “The Cobb County Police Department needs to be held accountable for these flagrant violations of constitutional rights.”

The lawsuit, filed today in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, seeks to vindicate the plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful seizures and obtain compensatory and punitive damages.

Jeffery Shaver, 31, stood outside the Kitchener, Ontario courthouse yesterday in his underwear beside two signs that read "RETURN MY BONG" and "RETURN MY MARIJUANA." He claims that police seized his bong and stash at a local hospital where he was taken during a panic attack. He says he was yelling about a problem with a vending machine when they arrested and searched him. This is the second time one of his bongs and his weed were confiscated. From The Record:

"I have a legal medical marijuana card. Five months after I got it, I was arrested for possession of marijuana, but I had my card on me," Shaver said.

"So two days later, I went back and smoked marijuana on the front lawn of the police station," Shaver said. "Again they arrested me. I went to jail for the first time. They held me there for 16 hours.

"And that charge, ironically, has already been dropped and this is the very bong they returned to me," he said, pausing to take a hit off the bong. "They refuse to return the other one because they haven't dropped that marijuana charge."

photo: Vanessa Tignanelli/The Record Read the rest

More than $1 million in marijuana was found hidden inside brand new Ford Fusions at dealerships in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The automobiles were manufactured at plants in Mexico and somewhere along the way, the spare tire wheel wells were packed with pot. Talk about a dealer incentive!

"We're aware of the situation and are taking it very seriously," a Ford Motor Company spokesman said Saturday. "We are working with the FBI and Customs on an extensive investigation. We have confirmed that this is not happening at our plant or at our internal shipping yards."

(CNN)

Read the rest

If you or someone you know is missing 15 pounds of cannabis, the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s department would like to reunite this lonely pot with its rightful stoner owner. Read the rest