A Mendocino mid-fall marijuana harvest as documented by photographer Mathieu Young. (via - with some info)
posted by gman on Nov 3, 2009 - 94 comments

MEMORANDUM FOR SELECTED UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS: As a general matter, pursuit of these priorities should not focus federal resources in your States on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana. For example, prosecution of individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or those caregivers in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law who provide such individuals with marijuana, is unlikely to be an efficient use of limited federal resources. (SLUSDOJM)
posted by gerryblog on Oct 19, 2009 - 94 comments

The titles grabbed me - Why I am going to give my 9-year-old Pot. and the four month follow up, Why am I giving my 9-year-old Pot. But, my mind was changed, and heart softened, by the articles. via
posted by PissOnYourParade on Oct 13, 2009 - 75 comments

Dude, wouldn't it be totally cool if there was an opposite microwave to cool tasty canned beverages in seconds? What if underwear had pockets? They'd be called Underawesomes! And don't you think ketchup packets should be bigger? Oh man, speaking of munchies, what if you had see-through fudge? You could see right through it! Dang, it would be rad if there was smokable tape you could use to repair your busted spliff, huh? But I mean, dude, there should like really be a website where stoners could post and discuss the ideas they get when they're super high. I'd call it highDEAS.
posted by carsonb on Aug 3, 2009 - 99 comments

Is it a long trip from your physician to the nearest approved cannabis dispensing station? Here's a solution. Get on your Iphone and download cannabisapps.
posted by Xurando on Jul 25, 2009 - 29 comments

Rest in peace, Simon Vinkenoog [Dutch blog w/English option], poet, friend of artists like Karel Appel, translator of Beat Generation figures like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, psychedelic enthusiast and "weed ambassador" of Amsterdam, and author of such guides to hip living as How to Enjoy Reality. One of the European jazz-loving proto-hippies who made the '60s swing and mentored several generations of culture hackers, though he was never widely known in the US.
posted by digaman on Jul 14, 2009 - 15 comments

The New York Times discovers the significance of today's date. [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese on Apr 20, 2009 - 63 comments

Obama holds Internet 'town hall' meeting (previously) (previously). What was the #1 issue on the public's mind? Well, the legalization of marijuana set the stage as the #2 question under "Health Care Reform", the #1 and #2 questions under "Green Jobs and Energy", the #1 - #4 questions under "Financial Stability", the #1 and #3 questions under "Jobs", and #1 - #7 under "Budget". Clearly, this is one of the most important issue on the public's mind. What was Obama's response? It was "equivalent to a parent telling a child 'No.' and when asked why? 'Because I said so.'" [more inside]
posted by tybeet on Mar 27, 2009 - 114 comments

Become a Virtual Texas Deputy! (via)
posted by cjorgensen on Feb 23, 2009 - 50 comments

With its $41 billion deficit spiraling out of control and federal judges ordering its prisoners released to relieve overcrowding, can legal marijuana save California?
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot on Feb 12, 2009 - 82 comments

"To make off with hubby's fortune, yea, I think I heard of that happenin' once or twice around L.A. And… you want me to do what exactly?" He found the paper bag he'd brought his supper home in and got busy pretending to scribble notes on it, because straight-chick uniform, makeup supposed to look like no makeup or whatever, here came that old well-known hard-on Shasta was always good for sooner or later. Does it ever end, he wondered. Of course it does. It did. Thomas Pynchon's next novel, the 416-page Inherent Vice, is described by Penguin Press as "part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon — private eye Doc Sportello comes, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era as free love slips away and paranoia creeps in with the L.A. fog." While we wait for its August 4 publication, we can read an essay on the dystopian musical he co-wrote at Cornell or watch a clip of that movie they made of Gravity's Rainbow. [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese on Feb 6, 2009 - 76 comments

How will Alzheimer's researchers ever reconcile this study and this study? Pardon me while I go find something to munch on while I ponder my options. [more inside]
posted by stonedcoldsober on Jan 28, 2009 - 27 comments

(Some links NSFW) Any down on their luck stoner is familiar with so called, "legal bud" Herbs of all kinds have been marketed online to the connectionless or legally restricted that offered a marijuana like high without the legal consequences. Everyone knows they are all scams. It might surprise you, that some were not. Commonly sold under the names Spice or Zohai, mixtures of herbs sprayed with synthetic cannabinoid substances such as HU-210 or JWH-018 have been available online for at least the past four years. [more inside]
posted by furiousxgeorge on Jan 25, 2009 - 53 comments

Salon has an article up which is a pretty solid summary of why marijuana is illegal.
posted by Pope Guilty on Jan 7, 2009 - 116 comments

Drawing on drugs by Jeremy Eaton. [more inside]
posted by gman on Dec 18, 2008 - 12 comments

The Odessa narcotics unit was tricked (stand alone video) by Barry Cooper and his show (currently over bandwidth), into raiding a house they thought had a grow-op. Was the probable cause based solely on their use of thermal imaging equipment? Canadian courts have already visited this invasion of privacy issue. [more inside]
posted by gman on Dec 7, 2008 - 46 comments

The Western press is heralding the discovery of the "world's oldest marijuana stash" (789 grams) in the tomb of a 2,700-year-old blond-haired, blue-eyed mummy in the Xinjiang region of China (photo). The mummy is believed to be a Nordic-featured Gushi shaman from the Tarim Basin. Scientists conjecture that the cannabis was being saved for use in the afterlife. In actuality, according to the Journal of Experimental Botany, the stash is the oldest pot to be tested for its properties. In 2006, the Chinese press reported that Chinese scientists had unearthed an older marijuana "baggy" in a 2,800-year-old Caucasian shaman's Xinjiang tomb.
posted by terranova on Nov 29, 2008 - 63 comments

We all know that marijuana has some medical uses. It has been discussed on Mefi many times before. Earlier this month a group of pharmacists and chemists published a study in which they found that cannabis is a source of antibacterial chemicals for multidrug resistant bacteria. If you are a pharmacists or chemist here is the actual study. A synopsis of the study for everyone else.
posted by Mr_Zero on Aug 27, 2008 - 48 comments

The owner of a California medical marijuana dispensary has been found guilty of violating federal drug laws. [LA Times] FTA: ...jurors had a clear sense that Lynch was not an ordinary street-corner drug dealer, but the fact that he was dispensing medical marijuana didn't matter under federal law. [...] "It was a tough decision for all of us because the state law and the federal law are at odds." Detailed coverage of the trial by Reason TV. Federal raids on California's medical dispensaries were recently featured on MeFi.
posted by kid ichorous on Aug 7, 2008 - 80 comments

Dr. Kush: The New Yorker takes a detailed look at California's medicinal marijuana dispensary industry.
posted by porn in the woods on Jul 25, 2008 - 27 comments

The environmental cost of large-scale pot farming
posted by serazin on Jul 1, 2008 - 63 comments

Graphic epilepsy seizure footage - "[The] piece of footage was shot with the assistance of our friend David, in January 2003, at the repeated insistence of my wife Christine. She wanted to know what happened to her body while she was seizing, and we were under standing orders to catch any footage possible... Upon viewing this footage a few days later, she was shocked and astonished, as one could well imagine."
posted by urbanwhaleshark on May 23, 2008 - 39 comments

Michael Pollan: Cannabis, Forgetting, and the Botany of Desire. Also, a transcript (pdf).
posted by AceRock on May 21, 2008 - 10 comments

Marijuana harvesting like you've never seen. Brought to you by the same folks that unpacked your iPhone (not really).
posted by msaleem on May 20, 2008 - 39 comments

Last week the second largest US physicians group endorsed medical marijuana. On Friday the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy issued a report which explains why they are wrong.
posted by Mr_Zero on May 11, 2008 - 41 comments

Reefer Madness. The Kingwood teenager's story of decapitating a corpse and using the head to smoke marijuana was so outlandish that at first Houston Police Department senior police officer Jim Adkins did not believe it.
posted by three blind mice on May 9, 2008 - 106 comments

Thirty-six years after the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse recommended that "simple possession" of pot be decriminalised, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has introduced a bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), to remove federal criminal penalties for possession of up to 100 grams (about three-and-a-half ounces) of marijuana and the not-for-profit transfer of up to one ounce (28.3 grams). Drug reform advocates lit up hailed the legislation as "an important step toward bringing federal law into line with scientific fact, practical reality and public opinion." Is America, at long last, having a collective moment of sanity?
posted by kliuless on Apr 20, 2008 - 76 comments

In his effort to shed light on medical marijuana use, comedian Doug Benson documents not smoking pot for 30 days and then smoking pot for 30 days in a row in Super High Me.
posted by gman on Apr 13, 2008 - 86 comments

Ten Years in Jail for Selling Lightbulbs
posted by lalochezia on Mar 6, 2008 - 91 comments

You may know Rick Steves the Travel Dweeb from his PBS series on European travel tips, which he has leveraged to build a burgeoning tourism business. But the dude's down with the cause(s) , including serving as the host of an ACLU-sponsored program on drug law reform.
posted by Kibbutz on Feb 16, 2008 - 24 comments

Marijuana vending machines. [more inside]
posted by Mister_A on Jan 30, 2008 - 90 comments

Ricardo Cortés has a new book talked about here and here. Previously, he wrote It's Just a Plant, talked about on O'Reilly and previously here. He also plans to write a children's book about cocaine in the near future.
posted by gman on Jan 10, 2008 - 30 comments

Cannabis distributors plead: "Let us pay taxes!"
posted by telstar on Nov 6, 2007 - 39 comments

Drew Carey defends medical marijuana.
posted by Curry on Nov 5, 2007 - 61 comments

On the Legalization — or Not — of Marijuana (via - with Pete's response)
posted by i_am_a_Jedi on Oct 30, 2007 - 72 comments

Robin Prosser was a former concert pianist and systems analyst who suffered from an autoimmune disease similar to lupus for over 20 years. The disease left her in constant pain and made her allergic to most pharmaceutical painkillers. Only medical marijuana brought her relief, but last spring the DEA seized her medicine. Unable to cope with the chronic pain any longer, she committed suicide on October 18th. [Via Andrew Sullivan.]
posted by homunculus on Oct 29, 2007 - 68 comments

It's not often one gets one's bong in the scientific literature, let alone one designed to allow you to smoke weed inside an MRI scanner... [more inside]
posted by prostyle on Oct 2, 2007 - 62 comments

Steal legal marijuana . . . . and they WILL call the police. Emerald Cross of Seattle: Arresting the pain . . . not the patients.
posted by augustweed on Sep 21, 2007 - 32 comments

Temple 420 is in trouble. Founded by Craig X. Rubin, (marijuana technical consultant for HBO's "Weeds"), the church gives marijuana to members (in exchange for a suggested donation). Memberships are available for $100 per year. After a poisoning investigation last fall, the LAPD investigated and subsequently raided the church. A judge has ruled that Rubin is not protected under federal law, since he faces state charges.
posted by dubold on Aug 3, 2007 - 27 comments

An excellent example of the consequences of the Supreme Court's Gonzales v. Raich decision: today the United States House of Representatives voted down a bill which would have prohibited the DEA from targeting State-authorized medical marijuana dispensaries. Almost simultaneously, the DEA raided 10 medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles.
posted by mullingitover on Jul 26, 2007 - 68 comments

The Indoor Yield-O-Rama is a scientific look at how much marijuana people can expect to grow under certain conditions. No matter you think about marijuana or your country's drug laws, the level of sophistication in this statistical analysis may surprise you.
posted by mistermoore on Jul 10, 2007 - 56 comments

do we click? any questions? ask mary. [possibly NSFW]
posted by gman on Jun 6, 2007 - 84 comments

Forbes Magazine Details The Top Ten Most Exotic Kinds of Weed (yes, the puff puff kind) with pricing and lovely pictures but no links to local dispensaries.

PS. Yer favorite weed that's not on the list sucks.
posted by fenriq on May 2, 2007 - 103 comments

RAICH V GONZALES (.pdf) : The Ninth Circuit hold that even if a physician attests that medicinal marijuana (within a State that allows such use) is what keeps a patient alive the patient can be Federally prosecuted on drug charges. (news story)
posted by edgeways on Mar 14, 2007 - 72 comments

Marijuana, the wonder drug. A new study in the journal Neurology is being hailed as unassailable proof that marijuana is a valuable medicine. It is a sad commentary on the state of modern medicine that we still need "proof" of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years.
posted by ZenMasterThis on Mar 2, 2007 - 80 comments

Many people want to legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana and other drugs, however, few know that many U.S. states are content simply to tax. In fact, even the federal government wants a share (middle of p. 89 of the PDF), and used tax stamps in early prohibition, but only the states have recently issued issued cool stamps (be sure to click "exhibit"). The point, of course, is not to actually tax the drugs, but to penalize the drug dealers for tax evasion as well as drug sales. They have brought in some money, though. A few interesting state government pages: Conecticut, Nebraska, North Carolina and their tax return form, and Kansas.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim on Jan 15, 2007 - 30 comments

Canada troops battle 10-foot Afghan marijuana plants - Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy -- almost impenetrable forests of marijuana plants 10 feet tall.
posted by frecklefaerie on Oct 13, 2006 - 73 comments

Let The Fun Begin! U.S. uploads anti-drug videos to YouTube, hilarity sure to ensue. [look who they popped]
posted by taosbat on Sep 18, 2006 - 81 comments

From the guy who brought you the Whitewater scandal and the impeachment of President Clinton for lying about oval antics in the Oral Office, a legal push to make the Supreme Court just say no to "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." Ken Starr's petition to the Court [PDF] makes clear that Starr believes this is no laughing matter, but a chance for the Court to make a landmark ruling that will give school adminstrators the power to limit student speech: "This case presents the Court with a much-needed opportunity to resolve a sharp conflict among federal courts (and to eliminate confusion on the part of school boards, administrators, teachers, and students) over whether the First Amendment permits regulation of student speech when such speech is advocating or making light of illegal substances."
posted by digaman on Aug 28, 2006 - 131 comments

Randi Rhodes is the MC at the mainstage at 4:20 Seattle Hemp Fest 2006 I knew you were cool Randi! Also, Dr.Bob Melameda explains why humans need marijuana to fuction properly.
posted by augustweed on Aug 26, 2006 - 75 comments