Deecember 29, 2008 - And Let Not Mankind Bogart Love

December 26, 2008 - Eartha Kitt Preached Lady Bird on Pot
Among the many accomplishments of the fabulous, dearly departed Eartha Kitt, she was James Dean's dance teacher and also taught kids in LA's Watts district, earing her an invitation to Lady Bird Johnson's Women Doers lunch on Jan. 18, 1968 that was to focus on juvenile delinquency.

During the question period, Kitt stood up and said, "Boys I know across the nation feel it doesn't pay to be a good guy." She moved in closer to the First Lady and said that boys don't want to behave for fear of being sent to Vietnam saying, "You are a mother too though you have had daughters and not sons. I am a mother and I know the feeling of having a baby come out of my guts. I have a baby and then you send him off to war. No wonder the kids rebel and take pot. And Mrs. Johnson, in case you don't understand the lingo, that's marijuana." (Source: David Murphy, Texas Bluebonnet: Lady Bird Johnson)

Kitt said within hours of the event, she was blacklisted after LBJ put the word out to the media that he didn't want to see "that woman" anywhere. The loss she suffered is incalculable, since she had just hit as TV's Catwoman #2. She appeared in only three memorable Batman episodes and didn't work again until she played Scheherazade in UK's Up the Chastity Belt (1971). More recently Kitt voiced Yzma in The Emperor's New Groove movies, and was the fortune teller in the 2007  Dope and Faith episode of TV's American Dad. Catch Eartha, who died on Christmas Day at the age of 81, performing "Santa Baby" with some friends.

Jim Carrey Says Yes?
Talking about doing bungee jumping stunts in his new movie "Yes Man" on TV's "Ellen" (12/17), Jim Carrey said, "I’m thinking, If there is a God, How do I explain that trip to Amsterdam when I was 19 and saying Yes to everything?"

Reefer Madness Hits Japan
"First a sumo wrestler, then an actor, now students at elite universities and a tennis player -- the list of people caught using marijuana has sparked fears of reefer madness in Japan." So begins a 12/17 Reuters Life! story By Yoko Kubota. The article reports pot arrests are up 19% in Japan, although only 1% of 18-year-olds admitted to using it in 2006. Authorities are looking to close a legal loophole that allows seed sales even though unlicensed germination is illegal.

The Family That Keeps on Giving
Wasilla, Alaska resident Sherry L. Johnston, mother of Bristol Palin's boyfriend, faces a Jan. 6 court date for an oxycontin-related arrest at her home by Alaska State Troopers, McClatchy News reported.

R.I.P. Dock Ellis
Dock Ellis, the Pittsburgh Pirate All-Star who pitched a no-hitter while on LSD in San Diego on June 12, 1970, died in Victorville, California on December 19 of a liver ailment. Ellis helped take the Pirates to their World Series win in1971 and played for the Yankees, the Mets, Oakland and Texas. He told The Los Angeles Times in 1985 that he began using drugs as a teenager, started to have alcohol problems while in the minor leagues, and “never pitched a game in the major leagues I wasn’t high.” His former agent Tom Reich said, "I've been in this business for 40 years and there was never a more standup guy..."He didn't take nothing from nobody. He was very much ahead of his time." (Compiled from NY Times and AP reports.)

Good News for Hemp
Obama's Ag Pick Backs Cellulosic Ethanol

December 15, 2008 - Not Your Granny's Brownies
First it was Polly Bergen baking pot brownies on Desperate Housewives. Now Charlotte Ray, the actress best known as the housemother on the 1970s TV series The Facts of Life, accidently doses the ER cast at their Christmas party with her special brownies, made for a friend in chemo. One astute observer wonders if the "High Holiday" episode is "a wink and a nod" to ER's creator, Michael Crichton, co-author of Dealing or The Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues who died Nov. 4 of cancer.

More Ganja Globes
Much has been made of the Golden Globe nomination of James Franco for his role as a pot dealer in in Pineapple Express, instead of his turn as Harvey Milk's lover (who also smokes pot) in Milk. Also nominated, along with Weeds and Entourage, are VIPs Shirley MacLaine and Susan Sarandon.

December 12, 2008 - Christmas Creed
"Moroccan Christmas," the episode of NBC’s “The Office” that aired on December 11, had a quick shot of actor/character Creed Bratton smoking a hookah. Bratton, who plays the surly/spacey Quality Assurance man at the office, may be the first TV character ever to play himself, or at least a character by the same name, in a recurring sitcom role.

Turns out Bratton was the guitarist from the 1960s band The Grass Roots before beginning an acting career, which he comes by honestly: his grandfather was the art director on the much-loved silent movie "The Thief of Bagdad.”

Between 1967 and 1972, The Grass Roots set a record for being on the Billboard charts for 307 straight weeks. They are one of only nine bands that have charted twenty nine or more Top 100 Billboard singles, and have sold over thirty million records worldwide.

The Office’s first-season “Drug Testing” episode is not to be missed for Steve Carrel’s line, “Sure Cheech and Chong were funny, but think how funny they’d be if they didn’t smoke pot.” But the show too often resorts to jokes about Bratton’s forgetfulness, and deletes scenes where he shows his musical talent, as when he upstages his boss by playing “Smoke on the Water” on the “Booze Cruise” episode. In a deleted scene from the episode "Goodbye Toby,” Creed gives his departing co-worker Toby the number of his friend Jorge in Costa Rica, who has "this amazing coffee that you snort."

Bratton sang one of his own songs titled "Spinnin' N Reelin'" in the episode "A Benihana Christmas," which will re-air on Tuesday, Dec. 16 at 10:00 or 10:30 PM on TBS. See “Moroccan Christmas” at http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/

December 10, 2008 - Put Puff on Your Christmas List
Although its co-authors Peter Yarrow and Lenny Lipton deny it has any marijuana references, "Puff the Magic Dragon," penned in 1959, is now a Barnes and Noble children's book. And for adults on your list, apparently gift shops in Hanalei, Hawaii feature unauthorized merchandise of Puff, well, puffing. The song's still worth a listen by Peter Paul and Mary or this sweet slack-key version.

December 9, 2008 - Schnabel to Safer: Yes, I did.
Painter/filmmaker Julian Schnabel had this exchange with Morley Safer of 60 Minutes about moving to Brownsville, Texas at the age of 15:

"We were living in the marijuana hub of the United States," Schnabel remembers.

Asked if he was a "doper" himself, Schnabel says, "A doper? You mean did I smoke marijuana or take LSD? Yes, I did. Was I in the drug trade? No."

Schnabel, 57, commands upwards of $1 million for his paintings, and has received acclaim and awards for his films, such as "Basquiat" (1996) and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (2007). He drops in on an interview with Lou Reed this Wednesday on Elvis Costello's excellent new Sundance Channel show, "Spectacle."

One hundred years ago, painter Pablo Picasso (born nearly 70 years to the day before Schnabel) took hashish and had a vision that may have changed art forever.

December 8, 2008 - Kennedy Center Honors Potheads
VIPs (l-r) Pete Townsend, Barbra Streisand and Morgan Freeman are among this year's Kennedy Center honorees. First Lady Laura Bush introduced honoree George Jones (4th from left) who detoxed from alcohol and cocaine after he was introduced to coke in the 1970s by a manager. VIPs Jack Black, Joss Stone, and Rob Thomas performed at the awards show, which will air December 30 on CBS.

November 28, 2008 - Four Christmases, One With Marijuana
"From redneck 'rasslin' brothers (Jon Favreau) to pothead mothers (Sissy Spacek) to big-boobed breeder siblings (Kristin Chenoweth), Brad and Kate learn the value of family and like many who enjoy an unorthodox lifestyle, are manipulated into living like everyone else in order to make the moral majority feel better about the cages in which they have trapped themselves." This is how www.exclaim.ca describes Four Christmases, the new movie starring Vince Vahan and Reese Witherspoon. In it, Spacek plays yet another pot-puffing psychotherapist.

In 2004's A Home at the End of the World, Spacek played Alice, a "prim and proper" woman introduced by her son's friend to "the joys of marijuana, which she smokes almost eagerly at first with her two boys, and the three dance about the room in the most delightful scene in this film." Spacek is on the board of The Jefferson Center, which looks for examples of free-speech infringement for its "Muzzle Awards."

Tales of Prohibition
As the National Geographic channel presents their special "Marijuana Nation" on Tuesday December 2 at 7 PM, the alcohol industry prepares to celebrate 75 years since the repeal of their prohibition on December 5 . Also harkening back to the Jazz Age, it's revealed in the season's final episde of HBO's "Entourage" that Vinnie's next role will be as Nick Caraway in a modern "The Great Gatsby," aka "The Great Grass-by"

More Pot Clubs than Starbucks?
The San Francisco Chroncle blog took comments about erroneous statements from the federal government claiming medical marijuana clubs outnumbered Starbucks in San Francisco.

Starbucks took its name from one of the first mates in Moby Dick, the other two mates being Flask and Stubb. Starbuck is a sober Quaker, with a name perhaps derived from the nautical term "starboard," meaning the right side of a vessel. Flask is described as “a short, stout, ruddy young fellow, very pugnacious,” obviously transubstantiated alcohol. Stubb's nose resembled the pipe he constantly smoked, and he caught a whale with a magical hemp line. (Details in the forthcoming VIP book Hidden Delights: Cannabis in Literature. )

While SF city officals have capped the number of cannabis clubs in their city at 24, and Starbucks boasts 71 locations there, it seems Flask is by far the winner: San Francisco has over 1000 liquor stores.

Prohibition Plays Little Role In Teens’ Decision To Abstain From Marijuana, Study Says

THE ILLUSION OF PROGRESS IN THE DRUG WAR

Bush's Bizarre Pardon List
Once again this year Bush pardons a handful of drug dealers and other criminals

Researchers find oldest-ever stash of marijuana
A 2,700-year-old stash of cannabis has been found by researchers in a tomb in China. The 789-gram stash was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fiber for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany. Researchers speculate the Caucasian man found wth the pot was a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China.

November 27, 2008 - Pamela Anderson to Obama: Legalize It!
Actress and animal rights advocate Pamela Anderson has written an open letter to US President-elect Barack Obama, saying:

"I think we should legalize marijuana, tax and monitor - farm hemp etc. This would make our borders less corrupt and then I think eventually this will be a more secure option and save children in the long run - we should be able to farm hemp in America - it's just silly. It would create jobs and be good for the environment."

(She also advocates closing Guantanamo Bay, freeing Leonard Peltier, and castrating suspected child molesters.)

Meanwhile, Anderson's former hubby Kid Rock has a hit with "All Summer Long", reminiscing about "when we were trying different things, and we were smoking funny things..." mashing licks from the Marshall Tucker Band and Warren Zevon. He performed the song on his Thanksgiving Day VH1 Storytellers episode, where he skipped the word "stoned" in the chorus of his his other new tune "So Hot":

Because you know you're so hot
I wanna get you alone, so hot
I wanna get you stoned

November 21, 2008 - Summum In the Air
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments from a religious group, the Summums, who believe that Moses was given seven aphorisms before he came down the mountain with the ten commandments. The group sued to have the aphorisms posted at a public building.

The aphorisms are actually pretty cool. And the Summum's sacraments are federally outlawed "nectars" made in a Salt Lake City pyramid. Maybe the nectars were what Al-Kidhr, "The Green One" shared with that trippy guy, Moses.

Shown left: Joe Cable as Moses in the upcoming Forfeiture 101 DVD from FEAR (Forfeiture Endangers Americans Rights.)

November 9, 2008 - ONDCP Wrong Again
Just as an admitted inhaler is elected President of the United States, the US Ministry of Propaganda (otherwise known as the ONDCP or Drug "Czar's" office) has unleashed their latest ridiculous ad campaign, stating, "Hey, not trying to be your mom, but there aren't many jobs out there for potheads." In addition to burrito taster, the ads suggest couch security guard and TV remote control operator as career paths for potheads.

One blogger invites all to Digg the page - List of successful admitted pot-smokers.

See our VIP list and list of jobs held by cannabis cogniscenti.

November 7, 2008 - VIP Obama To Lead Free World/Marijuana Initiatives Carry
Who says potheads can't be elected to office? Apparently, they can when the voters turn out. VIP Barack Obama's admissions about pot and cocaine use didn't prevent him from winning the US presidency by the largest margin since Lyndon Johnson ( LBJ was probably not a pothead; though JFK reportedly was.)

So far Obama's advisors come from the "investment" community, not the human rights ones, though we may get John Kerry for State, he of the contra-cocaine hearings. Citizens' visions for America can be sent to www.change.gov/page/s/yourvision

In the same election, Massachusetts and Michigan eased their marijuana laws, Michigan for medical and Massachusetts for all. This despite our drug "czar" wrongly claiming cannabis clubs outnumber Starbucks in San Francisco as a reason Michigan should vote it out. According to California NORML, the number of dispensaries in SF is limited by city ordinance and has never exceeded 40. By contrast, the ABC reports that there are 3,500 licensed alcohol outlets in SF.

Only 12 years after California and Arizona were the first states to legalize marijuana for medicine, one fourth of US citizens now live in states with legal medical marijuana.

Pot Quote du Jour
The always astute VIP Bill Maher on the relative legality of short selling and marijuana:

"They're now putting an end to something called 'short selling,' which is when you borrow stock that you don't own, and sell it, hoping that it will go down so that you can buy it back at a profit. This was legal, but pot smoking isn't?"

Don't miss Maher's movie Religulous, in which he attends a Cannabis Ministry in Amsterdam. Coincidently, VIP Lewis Black has a new book out called Me of Little Faith. As VIP John Trudell noted on his recent, remarkable concert tour, you can either think or you can believe.

High Expectations
Research into medicinal marijuana grows up

Another You Tube Debut

October 30, 2008 - Can Obama Capture the Midwestern "Pot Mom" Demographic?

See the full episode.

The idea of a pot mom isn't so far-fetched.

Cal State Long Beach professor and novelist Diana Wagman wrote a column earlier this year called, What my cancer taught me about marijuana, subtitled Why I – and a surprising number my friends – smoke pot in which she wrote, “What really shocked me was how many of my old, dear, married, parenting, job-holding friends smoke pot."

And last year, a Phoenix woman surveyed hundreds of local mothers through her Web site, Chikii.com, targeting women in affluent suburban areas. Fifty-two percent said they smoke pot at least 10 times a year, and twenty-seven percent said they smoke it one to seven times a week.

Beauty and the Baggie
"Two of the most notable effects of marijuana use are that it makes a person hungry and it makes a person forgetful. Maybe that's what was happening with Lindsey Evans, Miss Teen Louisiana, over the weekend," writes Michael Thompson of Associated Content. Evans made headlines when she and her party buddies walked a restaurant check, leaving behind her purse containing a baggie of marijuana. Thompson continues, "Is it possible that even though the public likes a juicy story, maybe folks could give this a rest? We've had presidents of the United States, and Supreme Court nominees, who have admitted to smoking the stuff...." Just what I've been saying. Evans lost her crown but looked great in her mug shot. I see a High Times pictorial in her future.

Uganda Poultry Farmers for Pot
Veterinary doctors from Makerere University have requested politicians to stop harassing poultry farmers for growing marijuana, reports Ali Mambule of the New Vision website. Dr. Rebecca Nalubega from the university’s veterinary department said local poultry farmers rely on cannabis to treat their chickens.

More Economic Arguments
In a Huffington Post article titled, Take the Handcuffs Off the Economic Recovery, Eric Sterling writes, "In 2005, federal, state and local taxes collected on tobacco and alcohol totaled $35.1 billion. America's 20 million marijuana smokers paid no taxes on their marijuana [except for medical marijuana patients at California dispensaries]. Depending on rates, $5 to $15 billion could be raised from marijuana taxes."

October 20, 2008 - VIP Ray Manzarek Speaks at NORML Conference

Nader: Lock Up the Real Criminals Instead
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader held a news conference to outline his plan to empty prisons of non-violent drug offenders and replace them up with corporate criminals. Free Speech Radio News did an informative segment on the topic.

The Stoned Age
The London Telegraph ran a story saying "researchers have found equipment used to prepare hallucinogenic drugs for sniffing, and dated them back to prehistoric South American tribes."

Edie Adams, RIP
Edie Adams, the beautiful singer who was married to trippy TV pioneer Ernie Kovaks, has died at the age of 81. Famous for her sultry delivery of the tagline for Muriel cigars, "Why don't you pick one up and smoke it sometime?" Adams played Tempest Stoner in Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke (1978).

October 18, 2008 - Hedge Fund Wizard Backs Hemp, Marijuana Legalization
According to New York Magazine, Andrew Lahde, 37, the head of Santa Monica–based hedge fund Lahde Capital Management, who quit after posting an 870 percent gain last year betting against subprime mortgages, became something of a folk hero today after his awesome, Jerry Maguire–like farewell letter to clients made the rounds."

"I was in this game for the money. The low hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government. All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America."

He went on to call for a return of the philosopher king and a George Soros-sponsored forum on forming a government "that truly represents the common man’s interest" including the legalization of industrial hemp and marijuana:

"It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So, why is this innocuous plant illegal? Is it a gateway drug? No, that would be alcohol, which is so heavily advertised in this country. My only conclusion as to why it is illegal, is that Corporate America, which owns Congress, would rather sell you Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax and other additive drugs, than allow you to grow a plant in your home without some of the profits going into their coffers."

Lahde needs to realize he is the new George Soros and put his money where his heart is.

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
Along with this week's ho-hum movie debuts (Mark Wahlberg as a vigilante DEA agent in a film based on a video game, and another lose your virginity/road trip story) comes How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, about a British writer struggling to fit in at a high-profile magazine in New York, based on Toby Young's memoir about his days at Vanity Fair.

The film's star Simon Pegg, when told Jeff Bridges had been cast, exclaimed, “ I ’m gonna work with the dude!" VIP Kirsten Dunst reportely has her best role in years in the film, which reunites her with Mother Night producer/writer Robert B. Weide (directing this time). Dunst will also star in the upcoming Sweet Relief (2009), the story of Marla Ruzicka, founder of the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC), an organization that counted civilian casualties and assisted Iraqi victims of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.

October 12, 2008 - Happy Indigenous People's Day

An Orwellian Past
According to The Orwell Prize postings of George Orwell's diaries, the author of Animal Farm and 1984 tried "kiff" in Morocco in 1938. His diary entry from October 9 of that year says:

"Arab drug kiff, said to have some kind of intoxicating effect, smoked in long bamboo pipes with earthenware head about the size of a cigarette holder. The drug resembles chopped grass. Unpleasant taste & -- so far as I am concerned -– no effect. Sale said to be illegal, though it can be acquired everywhere for 1 Fr. For about a tablespoonful."

Another writer who travelled to Morocco, VIP Paul Bowles wrote,

“The Moroccans were constantly talking about majoun, which mighty otherwise be described as cannabis jam. Often I had accepted a pipe of kif when it was passed to me, but since I never inhaled the smoke, I had not received the effect and still thought of kif as a bad-tasting sort of tobacco.”

Though his first majoun “tasted like very old and dusty fudge from which all flavor had long since departed,” this “in no way diminished its power.” Going to the top of a mountain, he felt himself “being lifted, rising to meet the sun. . . .In another hour my mind was behaving in a fashion I should never have thought possible.”

Bowles wrote, “[T]he user of cannabis is all too likely to see the truth where it exists, and to fail to see it where it does not. Obviously few things are potentially more dangerous to those interested in prolonging the status quo of organized society.”

Orwell had that part down, kif or no kiff. Presciently, 1984 was the year Nancy Reagan Just Said No, although Kitty Kelly says she may not have.

Text Messaging Impacts Psychomotor Skills Far More Than Cannabis, Study Says

Sept. 27, 2008 - Paul Newman, Sweet Bird of Youth, Dies at 83
It is with sadness we report the death of Paul Newman of lung cancer. The New York Post blog reported that Newman, a former (tobacco) chain smoker, was diagnosed with cancer last year, forcing him to pull out of a reunion project with Robert Redford.

Newman was photographed wearing a razor blade on a chain around his neck at the height of the Hollywood cocaine-snorting heyday. After his only son, Scott, died of an accidental alcohol and Valium overdose in 1978, Newman set up a drug abuse prevention foundation in Scott's name, as well as a charity that sends kids with illnesses to camp, funded by Newman's Own food sales. According to Democracy Now, Newman was an anti-nuclear peace activist who protested the Vietnam war.

In the 1962 film Sweet Bird of Youth, Newman played a young hustler who tries to extort money from an aging actress with a hashish habit (played by Geraldine Page, pictured with Newman at right). The 2005 HBO miniseries "Empire Falls," featuring at least two pot-smoking characters, earned Golden Globes for Best Miniseries or Movie and Best Supporting Actor for Newman. No one asked what he was smoking on that ladder.

September 26, 2008 - Doobies Down Under
"Australia's acting prime minister admitted Friday she had smoked marijuana as a university student, but said it was no big deal," reported AFP. "At university, tried it, didn't like it," said Julia Gillard (pictured left), the deputy prime minister, who is standing in for Kevin Rudd while he attends the UN General Assembly in New York.

"I think probably many Australian adults would be able to make the same statement so I don't think it matters one way or the other," said Gillard, who has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since October 1998, and now serves as Minister for Education, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and also the Minister for Social Inclusion. She is the first woman to hold the position of Deputy Prime Minister.

Gillard made the admission in a radio interview after a similar confession on television by opposition leader and multi-millionaire former merchant banker Malcolm Turnbull. Turnbull, who took over the leadership of the conservative Liberal Party earlier this month, said he regretted smoking cannabis.

"Yes, I've smoked pot," he said, drawing laughter from the live studio audience on ABC1's Q&A program. ""I think most well not most, many people have, it was a mistake to do so....I think now, with what we know about marijuana, I think it is a very serious drug and it is a drug that we should strongly discourage everybody, be they young or old, but obviously particularly young people, from using."

Turnbull rose to the public's attention as the successful advocate in the Spycatcher trial (he blocked the British Government's attempts to suppress the memoirs of a former MI5 agent), and later wrote a book on the trial. Turnbull was chairman of Axiom Forest Resources, which conducted logging in the Solomon Islands under the trading name Silvania Forest Products, managing director and later a partner of Goldman Sachs, and chair of a large Australia Internet Service Provider, Ozemail, which was sold to MCI Worldcom.

The latest admissions bring to at least four the number of self-confessed marijuana smokers on the front benches of Australia's parliament. Treasurer Wayne Swan and environment minister Peter Garrett, former frontman for the rock group Midnight Oil, have admitted smoking cannabis in their university days. And opposition frontbencher Tony Abbott confessed to having a "half-hearted puff" during a rugby tour to the US. Swan said that smoking marijuana as a student at the University of Queensland in the 1970s was not "a Mick Jagger experience," and that unlike Bill Clinton and Tony Abbott, he inhaled.

Far from stirring outrage among the electorate, the only immediate reaction to Turnbull's confession came from the director of the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre. "I'm just sending him an email now congratulating him on his refreshingly honest, straightforward and well-informed response," said Jan Copeland. Copeland she said hoped the message would help to further lower the nation's rates of cannabis use, particularly among males in their teens and 20s.

Statistics show that 750,000 Australians out of a population of 21 million use cannabis weekly while 300,000 use it daily and that it is still the nation's most common illicit drug.

Prime minister Kevin Rudd, whose nickname "Saint Kevin" took a bit of a battering when he admitted last year to a long-ago drunken night in a New York strip club, has not commented on whether he has smoked pot.

Just a Good Old Boy, Never Meanin' No Harm...
Former Dukes of Hazzard TV star Tom Wopat (right) failed to outrun the law when he was caught with marijuana at an airport in Wisconsin. According to TMZ.com, security staff found 1.2 grams of weed on Wopat as he passed a security checkpoint at Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport. The actor was allegedly handed an on-the-spot $500 fine, which he paid. A veteran of Broadway shows like "Annie Get Your Gun" and "42nd Street", the 57-year-old actor is currently starring in the Broadway musical "Chicago."

(If you see the Dukes of Hazzard movie, be sure to stick around for the last scene where the politicians exit Willie Nelson's tour bus.)

 

Over 20 Million Screwed
NORML's Paul Armentano calculates the 20 millionth arrest for marijuana will be made on October 10.

VIPs included among those US arrests are: Louis Armstrong, Dan Aykroyd, Candy Barr, Lord Buckley, Neal Cassady, Macaulay Culkin, Bob Denver, Art Garfunkel, Gene Krupa, Mezz Mezzrow, Robert Mitchum, Willie Nelson, Anita O'Day, Aaron Sorkin, and Ron White. I feel so much safer now.

Dark Days for Chocolate
Hershey's has begun omitting cocoa butter from several of its products, substituting insted cheaper vegetable oils and winning FDA approval to use the words "“chocolate candy,” “made with chocolate” or “chocolatey” for their non-chocolate chocolate. Whatchamacallit, Milk Duds, Mr. Goodbar and Krackel candies no longer have milk chocolate coatings, and Hershey’s Kissables are now “chocolate candy” instead of “milk chocolate.”

The Bangkok Post reported their Food and Drug Administration has asked distributors to temporarily remove Oreo wafer sticks, Dove milk chocolate bars, M&M chocolate candies, Snickers caramel peanut bars and nougat, Mentos yoghurt candies, for fear they contain tainted Chinese milk. The United States has imported two million pounds of a milk protein called casein this year, along with other powdered milk proteins that are used as ingredients in many processed foods, according to figures from the USDA, according to a New York Times story.

But who got prosecuted? Tainted, Inc. , an Oakland-based manufacturer of cannabis candies sold to medical marijuana patients. After sweating out the possibility of a 37-month federal prison sentence, all got probation after pleading guilty.

September 22, 2008 - Palin Patter
That unimpeachable news source The ENQUIRER quotes unnamed sources to back up its "exclusive" story that Sarah Palin's oldest son, Track, 19, and pregnant sister Bristol, 17, party even harder than the Bush twins.

"I've partied with him (Track) for years," a source disclosed. "I've seen him snort cocaine, snort and smoke OxyContin, drink booze and smoke weed." Of 17-year-old (now pregnant) Bristol, another "family friend" said, "Bristol was a huge stoner and drinker. I've seen her smoke pot and get drunk and make out with so many guys. All the guys would brag that the just made out with Bristol." Now Track will join the army while Bristol breeds the next generation of cannon fodder.

The following week (9/29) the Enquirer followed up with a story claiming Bistol was caught smoking pot on video when she was only 15 (but showed no photographic evidence). “Bristol smiles at the camera, puts her lips around the pipe and inhales deeply. She holds the smoke in for a while, exhales, coughs a few times and then laughs uncontrollably...It was just another regular night of partying for Bristol and the other wild kids in Wasilla,” says the story, which also alleges that Track sold OxyContin pills "for a lot of money."

The more believable Jacob Sullum of Reason magazine had a piece in the Chicago Sun Times on 9/18 noting, "As Wasilla mayor in 2000, Palin championed a city council resolution opposing a ballot initiative that would have legalized marijuana for adults. In March her administration asked the Alaska Supreme Court to reverse its 1975 decision shielding private marijuana use, arguing the drug is more dangerous than it used to be.

"In other words, Palin got to smoke pot without worrying about legal consequences and now wants to deny that assurance to fellow Alaskans doing exactly the same thing. 'Palin doesn't support legalizing marijuana,' the Anchorage Daily News reported in 2006, because she worries about 'the message it would send to her four kids.' It's Palin's job to teach her children that certain pleasures are reserved for grownups. The government should not continue to arrest adults who are harming no one simply because her children are easily confused."

White Speaks, Jokes About Minor Pot Bust
Ron White appeared on The Regular Guys show on Atlanta's Rock 100.5 FM to discuss his recent pot bust in Florida. After the DJs suggested he could crib from the apology just issued by Atlanta Falcon Lawyer Milloy after a DUI charge, White responded, "A DUI, that’s a big deal. I had 7/8 of a gram of marijuana. If it was 7/8 of a gram of a dead girls’ underwear, that would be a crime." He added, "I didn’t know that much was illegal. I’ve been in Florida a lot and I didn’t know they had any laws."

White said he thought the policemen were approaching him for an autograph when three cops and a drug dog met his plane. The dog gave a false positive on the plane and also alterted to White's bag. Driving him to jail, "I swear we drove past three meth labs and a dead hooker. ...They say they catch a lot of big-time dealers that way, but I say if you’re looking for a rabid pit bull and you don’t find one, don’t shoot a collie." He confirmed that he set pizza to the jail after he was released.

On White's next stop in Mississippi, six cops were waiting for him after another anonymous tip. Asked if that sort of thing changed his lifestyle, White replied, "There's not very much pot on the plane and we smoke out of an apple—the edible pipe. It worked that second night."

"I have a prescription for medical marijuana," White said, joking, "I get bummed when I run out of weed, and marijuana cures that." He then added, more seriously, "My life is busy and people are chewing on me, so I could eat a handful of Zanax and feel fine, or I can smoke some weed and my doctor says smoke some weed." He admitted to having a one-hitter on the plane that he uses, on doctor's orders, when he feels anxious.

"Eventually [medical marijuana] will be available all over the place," White opined. "It’s four or five states now (actually, 12). "Literally you can blow a joint into a cop car in Santa Barbara," he said. (Sadly, not true.) Of medical marijuana in California, White said, "What happened is they took what was going on underground, brought it above ground and taxed it and now everybody's happy and the court system isn’t clogged with cases of victimless crimes." (Sadly, also not quite true.)

As to the anonymous informant who fingered White, he speculated it was one of the pilots who reported him for a May 11 incident when he got angry with them and fired them. White said it was because they showed up two hours late. "He smokes marijuana like a chain smoker smokes cigarettes," one of the pilots, Scott Wolcott, said of White, and the other pilot, Chris LaPlante, told a reporter the pilots used oxygen masks against marijuana smoke on the plane. The FAA website has no report on the incident.

"Do you get mellow when you’re stoned? You don’t go tearing the place up?" White was asked. "I don’t know anyone who does that on weed," was the response.

White said he has received "an outcry of support like something really happened. Country people, rock and roll people, but I won’t say who because you’ll say they endorse my horrible behavior, which isn’t much different than your horrible behavior." Of the incident, he said, "It’s spiked record sales, book sales....It lends credibility to other stories because they know this one is true."

See the four-part interview at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Toq12ImAaRw&fm=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G72kLJFIBE&fm=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mBSnOqnVl0&fm=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsIU5k16nwM&fm=18

And check out this YouTube debut, "Living the Outlaw Life."

I'm Proud to Be a Barber from Muskogee
"We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee," pot-lover Merle Haggard sings in his spoof, "Okie from Muskogee." But on September 19, the Muskogee Phoenix reported that Johnnie L. Tarkington, 52, was arrested at his Muskogee barber shop after a search warrant was served and about a half pound of marijuana was seized. Two marijuana buys by an undercover cop were recently made at the shop, police said, adding, “There was a whole lot more than haircuts and shavings going on at the old barber shop.”

Tarkington was booked into Muskogee County/City Detention Facility on complaints of possession and distribution of marijuana. Perhaps he'll get credit for helping the local populace abide by Haggard's lyric, "We don't let our hair grow long and shaggy/ Like the hippies out in San Francisco do." Read the lyrics and get a complimentary Okie from Muskogee ringtone for your "cell" phone (which Ron White argued he ought to have been able to use in his jail cell.)

Are You Experienced? Artie Is
No sooner had we added Peter Boyle to the VIP list, than we spied an interview with Boyle's "outer" Artie Lange in the current High Times magazine. Lange recounts taking a trip to Amsterdam with fellow Howard Stern show staffers, and smoking a blunt in a coffeehouse. "I don't know if it was psychological because I was in Amsterdam, but it was the smoothest, best experience I'd ever had with it. I walked all through the city, and the best way I can describe it is like the Jimi Hendrix song, 'Are You Experienced?'...it was beautiful." Those who haven't tasted the beautiful freedom on Amsterdam can check out the High Times 21st Annual Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam this November.

September 13, 2008 - Ron White Fingered for Florida Arrest
A jealous lover? A comedic rival? or was it just a mean person who tipped off Florida police that illegal drugs were being carried aboard a plane from Los Angeles. As Ron White's private jet touched down on September 10, Vero Beach police used K-9s to find less than 3 grams of marijuana and a pipe on the cooperative 51-year -old comedian, known for his appearances on The Blue Collar Comedy Tour with Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall and Larry "The Cable Guy." According to a police spokesperson, White said the marijuana was for medical purposes but could not provide a prescription. He lives in Beverly Hills, California.

White, who commonly appears onstage with a glass of whiskey and a cigar, is known as "Tater Salad" from a joke about getting booked into a Texas prison under that name. According to White's Web site, tatersalad.com, the Blue Collar Tour sold out shows in more than 90 cities and grossed more than $15 million. The DVD sold more than 1.5 million copies and the sequel, "The Blue Collar Comedy Tour Rides Again," has sold more than 2 million copies.

White was booked into Indian River County Jail at 6:07 p.m. Wednesday and released at 8:06 p.m. after posting $1,000 bail. He went on to perform at two sold-out shows, presumably with more material than he had before.

In an incident earlier this year on White's plane, he allegedly stormed the cockpit after drinking too much. His first CD was titled "Drunk in Public." Perhaps White has, or needs, a medical recommendation for alcoholism.

Interior Department: Sex, Drugs and Scandal
"A culture of substance abuse and promiscuity" has prevailed in the Interior Deparment's royalty-in-kind program, according to three reports by the Department's inspector general Earl E. Devney. Several officials at the agency, which collects about $4 billion in oil and gas royalties annually, "frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives." In an environment "devoid of both the ethical standards and internal controls sufficient to protect the integrity of this vital revenue producing program," officials also accepted gifts like golf, ski and paintball outings from energy companies "with prodigious frequency," and allowed them to revise their bids to purchase oil and gas after agency acceptance, the reports say.

Gregory W. Smith, the former royalty-in-kind program manager, reportedly purchased cocaine several times a year between 2002 and 2005 from his secretary, with whom he also had a sexual encounter. Smith also reportedly forced another employee to perform oral sex on him in his car. The Justice Department has declined to prosecute Smith, who retired in 2007, but they've plenty of time to go after nice guy Charles Lynch for running a California Cannabis Coop, one of dozens of such federal cases.

McCain Drug Scandal Re-Surfaces
More in the Republican drug scandal arena: a September 11 Open Left article by Matt Stoller, Did McCain Tamper with the Drug Enforcement Agency to Protect His Career? interviews whistleblower Tom Gosinski about the time Cindy McCain was facing federal charges and, experts say, a 20-year prison sentence for obtaining "a controlled substance by misrepresenting, fraud, forgery, deception or subterfuge" through her former charity, the American Voluntary Medical Team. Gosinski claims John McCain used his political connectinos to blackball him in the Republican party, and had a henchman bring extortion charges against Gosinski. A September 12 front-page Washington Post story said the McCains claimed Gosinski tried to extort $250,000 from the McCains over the scandal (for which Mrs. McCain did no time.)

Franco is Frank in GQ
James Franco, who plays a pot dealer in Pineapple Express, graces the cover of September's GQ magazine next to the headline: "James Franco, The Next James Dean: If James Dean Were Funny and Did Stoner Comedies."

In the article, Franco (born on Bicycle Day, 1978) laments some of his movie choices, stressing he does not mean his recurring role in the Spiderman flicks, and not mentioning Pineapple in that context. But he did have some amusing anecdotes:

“Already,” he relates, “I have had people come up to me in cafés and say, ‘Hey, you’re James Franco, right? Hey, I can’t get hold of my guy—do you know where I can buy some good weed?’ ...I’ve had someone come up to me and be, ‘Hey! What’s up, man?’ and give me a handshake and palm me a little bag of weed.” (The same thing happened to VIP Robert Mitchum after his 1948 pot bust.)

Franco told GQ, in a confessional tone, “I haven’t done drugs, I haven’t even smoked pot, since high school.” He is currently taking 62 credits at UCLA and will appear as the lover of Harvey Milk, played by Sean Penn, in the upcoming Milk. "Oh, my God, I’m kissing Spicoli," was Franco's thought (referring, of course, to Penn's role as the stoner in Fast Times at Ridgemont High). Franco has been trying his had at writing, directing and producing and will appear as VIP Alan Ginsberg in Howl (2009), also starring Mary-Louise Parker of Weeds.

Speaking of James Dean, Franco won a Golden Globe for portraying him in a 2001 TNT movie, and John Gilmore's book Laid Bare outs Dean as a pot smoker. Known to be a fan of VIP Lord Buckley, Dean was the subject of one of Buckley's monologues.

Flashing Back
I just got my new Flashback Books catalogue, full of interesting items, including:

-A rare blue cloth binding first edition of Fitz Hugh Ludlow's The Hasheesh Eater: Being Passages from the Life of a Pythagorean (1857);

-An "unusually fine" signed first edition of VIP Norman Mailer's Advertisements for Myself, in which he defends marijuana smoking "and how it brought him back to sex," with much more on hipsters and Beats;

-A first edition of Really the Blues (1946), signed by its authors VIP Mezz Mezzrow and Bernard Wolfe;

-Richard Schultes's "Hallucinogens of Plant Origin" reprinted from Science (1969) and signed;

-A signed first edition of Terence McKenna's Food the the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge (1992);

-Papers from SOMA, the British organization that ran ads in 1967 advancing marijuana decriminalization signed by the recently-knighted Beatles and other luminaires;

-"A review of the Biomedical Effects of Marihuana on Man in the Military Environment" (Dept. of Army, 1970);

-A signed copy of Tommy Chong's The I Chong: Meditations from the Joint (2006) with extra materials;

-A signed first edition of Robert Clarke's Marijuana Botany (1981);

-A limited edition double CD of Rolling Stone Brian Jones's presentation of the Master Musicians of Joujouka, "whose Sufi trance sound is informed by their use of kif and hashish." With liner notes by Jones, William Burroughs, and Brion Gysin (who contributed the hashish fudge recipe to Alice B. Toklas's cookbook);

-Some choice selections from VIP Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary, and much more.

The catalog is available for $10 postpaid, send to Flashback Books, P.O. Box 471659, San Francisco, CA 94147.

Start the Conversation
VIP Rick Steves' collaboration with ACLU, Marijuana, It's Time for a Conversation, has posted online interviews with Richard J. Bonni (co-author, The Marijuana Conviction); Jack A. Cole (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition); John P. Morgan, M.D. ( Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology at the City University of New York Medical School) and others. Share them with your family and friends!

Getting off the Skunk Train
The NORML blog picked up on the news that VIP Jacqui Smith lied about increased potency of marijuana when she pushed for harsher drug laws in Britain. The myth of dangerous "skunk" weed has been promulgated by VIPs Richard Branson and Pattie Boyd.

September 6,2008 - Shirley, You Jest!
Shirley MacLaine's 11th book, SAGE-ing While AGE-ing (2007, Atria Books) contains the following passage: I've never done a line or coke or taken any drugs for recreation. But once Robert Mitchum gave me some bang brownies, and I thought I was walking around in my own brain cells (fascinating, by the way). And I smoked pot in a hotel room in London, and afterward nearly ate the furniture, I was so hungry.

Since MacLaine recounts being so fearful of gaining weight she once told mafioso Sam Giancana to go fuck himself for trying to make her eat some spaghetti, perhaps the munchies were one reason she chose not to further explore the "fascinating" experience of "bang" (presumably, bhang, but it's cute her way). One of the experts she quotes, Dr. John Mack of the Department of Psychology at Harvard, noted that the use of psychedelic substances is one way to challenge the prevailing materialistic-dualistic worldview, but MacLaine, 74, choses other means, exploring UFOs, star beings, numerology, synchronicity, past lives and more in her far-reaching book. It's funny she doesn't notice that Mitchum's 1948 arrest came just after the Roswell UFO sightings and the National Security Act.

Of drugs, she writes: In the sixties, when nearly everyone was experimenting with drugs, my friends explained how they loved being high because they could see the possibility of joy and love, etc. It has been proven [she doesn't say how] that liquor and drugs dull and block out the lower energy senses that we suffer from and allow us to experience the higher levels of who we can be--and really are. We can then become addicted to the higher experience. ...

Somewhat wisely and compassionately she adds: Many people who are interested in expanding their conscious use drugs...the Timothy Leary approach. Yet our legal system puts millions of people behind bars every year for trying to block out lower energy senses and find the higher potential. Why doesn't our legal system teach rehabilitation through meditation and prayer so the people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol can find their higher power another way?

MacLaine says the ghosts who lived in her New Mexico home told her that drugs "make the soul incapable of the beautiful experience of passing." Aldous Huxley, for one, would disagree with that.

MacLaine will appear on Regis & Kelly on September 8 and will receive an award at the Toronto Film Festival on September 10.

Cannabinoids Conquer Bacteria
Source: Antibacterial Cannabinoids from Cannabis sativa (Journal of Natural Products)

The antibacterial properties of marijuana have been known since the 1950s, and have now been linked to the plant's cannabinoids. A study by Italian and British researchers has found cannabinoids to have "potent antibacterial activity" and "exceptional" activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.

The team investigated the antibacterial profile of the five major cannabinoids Δ⁹-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD), cannabigerol (CBG), cannabichromene (CBC), cannabinol (CBN), and their chemical cognates. The researchers chose to focus on the nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, although all showed antibacterial activity. Topical treatments against MRSA and other pathogens are one promising future product.

The researchers state, "Given the availability of C. sativa strains producing high concentrations of nonpsychotropic cannabinoids, this plant represents an interesting source of antibacterial agents to address the problem of multidrug resistance in MRSA and other pathogenic bacteria. This issue has enormous clinical implications, since MRSA is spreading throughout the world and, in the United States, currently accounts for more deaths each year than AIDS." But they warn, "Several studies have associated the abuse of marijuana (Cannabis sativa L. Cannabinaceae) with an increase in opportunistic infections, and inhalation of marijuana has indeed been shown to interfere with the production of nitric oxide from pulmonary macrophages, impairing the respiratory defense mechanisms against pathogens and causing immunosuppression."

Sumo Wrestles with Marijuana, Fraud, Abuse
Russian siblings Roho and Hakurozan (pictured, left), tested positive for marijuana in urine samples taken by Japan's sumo wrestling association a month after another Russian, Wakanoho, became the first sumo wrestler to be expelled in the sport's 2,000-year-history when police found a marijuana cigarette in his wallet.

"The revelation of drug use among sportsmen known for their Spartan training methods and supposedly disciplined lifestyle is a huge embarrassment for the sumo authorities," said UK's Guardian newspaper, which reported the head of the sport faced calls to resign over the Wakanho incident because the wrestler was his protege.

Wakanoho, 20, was arrested after admitting he had bought a small quantity of the drug in the Roppongi district of Tokyo, the Guardian reported. A pipe used for smoking cannabis was found in his apartment.

The sumo association said it had carried out surprise tests on all 69 wrestlers in sumo's top two divisions. Only Roho, 28, and Hakurozan, 26, tested positive, officials said. "It is possible that they inhaled very recently, probably within the last two days," said Shohei Onishi, a sumo anti-doping official. Both wrestlers denied smoking marijuana, but later admitted to having smoked it in Los Angeles in June. Although possession of marijuana is punishable by up to five years in prison, Japanese law carries no penalty for simply smoking it.

"Sumo authorities are under mounting pressure to show zero tolerance towards drug use as it battles to salvage its already tarnished reputation," reported the Guardian. "Earlier this year Junichi Yamamoto, a stable master, was arrested on assault charges following accusations that he had ordered the beating by three of his wrestlers of a 17-year-old trainee in June last year. The victim collapsed and died the following day. Sumo elders have also had to fend off accusations of match fixing and have been ordered to clamp down on the widespread physical abuse of younger wrestlers."

Non-Sumo Sports News
A Denver-based marijuana policy reform organization is decrying the estimated $300,000 fine levied by the National Football League against New England Patriots running back Kevin Faulk for marijuana possession. Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) is calling for changes to the NFL's marijuana policy via an on-line petition and an official letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell that the organization delivered to the league's office in New York City on September 5.

"The NFL has no problem with players using alcohol and it accepts hundreds of millions of dollars to promote booze to football fans of all ages," said SAFER Executive Director Mason Tvert. "Yet the league punishes those players who make the safer choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol to relax and recreate. The NFL is driving its players to drink." Faulk is on one year's probation after he was stopped and searched while attending a February 22 Lil Wayne concert at the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana. Four hand-rolled cigars containing marijuana (aka "blunts") were found on Faulk, who pleaded no contest to the charges in July.

Meanwhile, Mario Chalmers, the Miami Heat rookie guard who "miraculously" helped Kansas win the NCAA championship five months ago, and his former Kansas teammate Darrell Arthur were reportedly caught in their room with two women at the NBA's mandatory rookie transition program, held at a resort in Rye Brook, N.Y. Security officials say they detected the scent of marijuana coming from the players' room, although no drugs or drug paraphernalia were found.

Both Chalmers and Arthur denied smoking marijuana, but even having guests in the room broke NBA policies. They will have to repeat the class next year. Both could be fined up to $20,000 and still may face a suspension at the start of the season.

And Penn State police, responding to a call about noise violations at the campus Nittany Apartments, said they smelled a strong odor of marijuana. Obtaining a search warrant, they seized 5 roaches; 3 small samples of suspected marijuana; a bag of marijuana with an empty cigar from a trash can; mixed pills outside a trash can; a can containing a marijuana roach; and a bag of marijuana in a trash can. No immediate charges were filed, but Maurice Evans and Abe Koroma, who play end and tackle on the Penn State football team, were suspended from play. Evans was crying before Saturday's game against Oregon State, according to defensive end Josh Gaines. Coach Joe Paterno didn’t say Saturday when Evans, an All-American candidate, or Koroma would return to the team.

Pot & Palin: Joe Biden, Drug Warrior
By the ever-astute Fred Gardner for Counterpunch

Putting the Grass in Grass
A nationwide group of marijuana legalization advocates has announced a prize for the first person to genetically modify any common food to produce the active ingredients in marijuana. The group’s web site lists plants that are the best candidates for the genetic modification. They will also consider other plants that could be consumed by humans, such as ordinary lawn grass.

Technical papers describing the processes used will be published at http://MarijuanaPrize.com. More details are available at: http://MarijuanaPrize.com/marijuana_prize_press_release.aspx

September 1 - Read It and Veep
It must have been a bitter moment for VIP Hillary Clinton and her supporters when Clinton was acknowledged by 44-year-old Alaska Governor Sarah Palin after she was chosen by John McCain as his running mate. The only major-party woman left in the race is an anti-abortion conservative and lifelong NRA member with two years' experience as governor, following holding office as mayor of a small Alaska town. But at least she admits to smoking pot. "I can't claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled," Palin said during her 2006 gubernatorial run.

Biden: His Time
Meanwhile Joe Biden, VIP Barack Obama's 65-year-old running mate, is the man who wrote the bill that gave us a "drug czar." Biden is disliked by Tommy Chong, who went to prison under Biden's law, but the Drug Policy Alliance's Ethan Nadelmann points out that he has at least tried to rectify one of the most egregious injustices of the war on drugs.

Biden is on record saying he would end the federal raids on medical marijuana patients a house party in Canterbury, New Hampshire, on May 12, 2007. He added, "But you know that one of the things we have got to deal with is the issue of pain management. I spent a lot of time in the hospital, fortunately I wasn't, for most of the time, in serious pain. But, you know, lying there for 59 days in an ICU unit you see people and hear people in pain. We have not devoted nearly enough science or time to deal with the pain management and chronic pain management that exists. There's got to be a better answer than marijuana. There's got to be a better answer than that. There's got to be a better way for a humane society to figure out how to deal with that problem."

California AG Brown Gets Into the MMar Act
In a move that the Wall Street Journal ties to his plans to run for Governor again, California Attorney General Jerry Brown seems to have joined the ongoing cannabis-club raiding gold rush the feds have been enjoying. On August 22, the day of the first state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement raid of a club since the days of the dastardly former AG Dan Lungren, Brown issued medical marijuana guidelines designed to “ensure that medical marijuana is not diverted to illicit markets.” Read California NORML's analysis of the new guidelines.

Brown, who was elected California’s Governor in 1974 and reelected in 1978 by over one million votes, saw his populist 1992 run for President derailed by an anonymous accusation that he smoked pot in the Governor’s mansion, made by a man who appeared on television with his face and voice obscured. Brown’s reaction, which should have been, “So what—I dated Linda Ronstadt too,” was instead so unnecessarily defensive it helped sink his campaign.

BNE's raid of Today’s Healthcare in Northridge club resulted in the arrest of the club’s owner and a suspected middleman between the club and Northern California growers, and netted a total of six pounds of marijuana and $9000 in cash. It's a far cry from the estimated $100 million in sales tax the club contribute yearly to California's coffers.

Meanwhile, I just Stumbled Upon the Curb Your Enthusiasm moment where Larry buys pot from a street dealer for his ailing father. Yeah, this is so much better than buying from a club. If we get McCain/Palin, we can have back alley abortions again too.

Blasting the Stoner Stereotype
An article in Blast magazine quotes successful college students who like to get high. It declares:

The days of the "stoners" lying on the grass in hippie attire, munching on snacks and going nowhere with their lives has disappeared. The typical "stoner" has been replaced with a well-dressed, put-together college student who does well in school and blends in seamlessly with the rest of the student body....Students are smoking cannabis while studying, writing papers and taking tests and doing extremely well while they're at school.

"I think that it adds to my quality of life and my educational experience," said Megan, who regularly does her school work while under the influence of marijuana. "There are a lot of people who feel the same way and I think that will lead to the legalization." Read more.

War on the Sythians, and others
Look for an upcoming piece in Junior Scholastic on the Georgia-Russia war by former High Times senior editor Steve Wishnia. He writes, "While I was researching it, I found that some people in the area are believed to be descended from the ancient Scythians. The Scythians, as those of you who are up on your herbal history know, were the first recorded pot-smokers in the Western world. In 440 BCE, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote that they would put a plate of hot stones in a tent, throw buds on the stones, go in and inhale the smoke, and emerge 'howling with pleasure.' On the other hand, the Scythians were not your stereotypically peaceful pot smokers. They were a warrior tribe that enjoyed drinking their vanquished enemies' blood." Wasn't Spartacus as Scythian?

Labor Day marks the anniversary of the 2001 shooting death of Tom Crosslin of Michigan's pro-pot Rainbow Farm at the hands of federal and state police. The following morning Crosslin's companion Rolland Rohm was also shot and killed. See Memorial Day Weekend 1997 at the farm, "featuring speeches from Gatewood Galbraith, (The Last Free Man In America), Jack Herer (Godfather of The Hemp ...Movement), Chris Conrad, (Hemp Guru), & Elvy Musikka, (Federal Medical Marijuana Patient & advocate) & Master of Ceremonies Derrik DeCrane."

"Imagine returning home after work to take a shower before an evening meeting. Suddenly, your door is broken down, your two Labrador retrievers are shot, and you are interrogated for hours while handcuffed in your boxer shorts as you watch your beloved dogs bleed to death before your eyes. It sounds like the twisted plot of a horror movie about a home invasion, but these events actually happened in Prince George's County, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C. on July 29, 2008, to Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo and his family." Thus begins a letter at the Drug Policy Foundation action site to the nation's mayors, asking them to stop paramilitary tactics. Read more and take action.

Christmastime at the Lebowskis
The Big Lebowski is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a multi-page story in the new Rolling Stone. A more patient guy than I, Steve Bloom of CelebStoner waded through it for a Christmas Quote.

August 17, 2008 - THC meets THX: A Woman's Review of Pineapple Express
Pineapple Express does The Big Lebowski two better by involving both a pothead (Seth Rogen) and his dealer (James Franco) in a full-blown action flick. It's an entertaining and cleverly realized yarn, despite the tired old elements of warring evil drug gangs, a corrupt cop (albeit in the unusual person of Rosie Perez), and lots of second-act violence, some of it among crazy-looking pot plants. The opening sequence presents just about the most accurate and hilarious depiction of the effects of pot smoking ever filmed, and irresponsible acts like driving while smoking and selling to schoolchildren are part of the over-the-top plot (and properly rebuked, or at least examined).

The inability of Rogen's character to commit to marriage even after a near-death experience is amusingly played in the film, with its "bros before hos" theme. Though his girlfriend is left hanging at the end while more male bonding occurs, the characters do perform some heroic acts worthy of winning a damsel in distress. Perhaps the filmmakers read last year's David Denby review that challenged them to do so.

"Literature was a particular laddish enterprise, the province of young bachelors who usually gave it up when -- or if -- they married," writes Germaine Greer in Shakespeare's Wife (2007, HarperCollins, New York). Shakespeare, who got the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway pregnant when he was 18, left his wife and children behind to pursue his writing in London, probably patronizing prostitutes and having a homosexual affair with his patron, The Earl of Southampton. Initially criticized as lightweight fare, Shakespeare's plays have endured through the ages. And so it continues to go.

The Pineapple Express should ride to big bank in foreign markets, where violence needs no translation. I smell a sequel in the making.

August 15, 2008 - Men and Women on Pot
Men's Journal has an article in their September 2008 issue titled, "Athletes Discover Pot for Pain"--Tagline: "Marijuana works wonders on serious pain related to major illnesses. But could weed also be a better option than over-the-counter drugs for sports injuries and muscle soreness?" by Marc Peruzzi. A table compares cannabis with ibuprofen, acetominophen, aspirin, and naproxen.

And the July 2008 issue of Elle magazine ran an article titled "Pot Stirring". Tagline: "After years of prescription antidepressants that offered no relief from anxiety disorder, Patsy K. Eagen experiments with her drug of choice--marijuana, which for some may be the medicine to send SSRIs up in smoke."

August 4, 2008 - Stoner Flicks Rule
If you had the New York Times delivered on Saturday, chances are the first story that hit your eye was their story Boldly Going One Toke (or More) Over the Line, which not only promoted Sony Pictures' Pineapple Express but treated the stoner comedy as a full-fledged genre, with photos from Reefer Madness and Cheech and Chong through Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Dazed and Confused, Half Baked, The Big Lebowski, and the Harold and Kumar franchise (the first installment of which is airing on cable this week).

New Yorker film critic David Denby, in a scathing review of the the 40-Year-Old Virgin/Knocked Up genre published last July, wrote of Pineapple's director Judd Apatow, "Apatow does the infantilism of the male bond better than anyone, but I'd be quite happy if I never saw another bong-gurgling slacker or male pack again." But nothing succeeds like success, and by October Denby was interviewing writer/actor Seth Rogen and Apatow about their "pothead action movie" at the New Yorker fest, now calling their work "shallow on the surface but with endless depths."

As Cheech and Chong announced they would reunite for a comedy tour (news that got more pick-ups than a press conference for the Barney Frank legalization bill, the first in 23 years) Rogen, 25, appeared on The Tonight Show and Fresh Air with Terry Gross, who asked him if he was depressed during the four years between his TV shows Freak and Geeks (1999-2000) and his first film break. "I was probably too stoned," joked Rogen, who wrote for The Ali G. Show among his other credits. Rogen will appear on The Daily Show on August 5, a day that will go down, no doubt, in stoner history.

Strikingly, the only female lead in the Times's stoner flick list was Anna Faris in the "little seen" Smiley Face (2007), where she plays "a pot-addled would-be actress stumbling through a long, weird day." So, women can get stoned, but they don't have any fun? It's also a shame to see James Franco, who was so appealing opposite Neve Campbell in Robert Altman's The Company (2003) relegated, as nearly all young actors are, to playing comic book heroes or Tommy Chong-style stoners. (I have never once seen a real-life stoner who acts that way, nor does Chong in real life.) But I'm sure I'll enjoy the film, and I actually like Rogen's goofy/sweet/thoughtful/funny persona. I just hope it's not too violent.

After a comedy stint in the musical Reefer Madness (2005), Campbell goes so far as to bare her breasts for attention in I Really Hate My Job (2007), a dreary film that could have used a toke, or an actor not making another Bromance. This as a new Apatow project is anounced by Sony: a Sherlock Holmes/Dr. Watson buddy flick starring Ali G's Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Farrell, written by Etan Coen, whose Tropic Thunder, the ultimate male bonding extravaganza, is due out later this summer. If you read John Gilmore's book Laid Bare, which outs James Dean as a pot smoker, you'll see a movie business run by old gay men. Hey, just like Washington!

How China Got That Way
With all the focus on China for the Olympics (where anti-doping samples will be accompanied by armed guards through the smog-filled streets of Beijing), it's interesting to revisit the role drugs played in the history of China, Britain and the U.S. Read more.

August 3, 2008 - Jobs for Stoners