VERY
IMPORTANT POTHEADS
Changing the Face of Cannabis
VERY
IMPORTANT POTHEADS
Changing the Face of Cannabis
All Contents Copyright 2010 VeryImportantPotheads.com
See our Main Page with over 200 stories
of famous folk who've consumed cannabis
The Very Important Blog
|
August 28 - Let Timmy and Percy Smoke! Attorney Tony Serra (the True Believer) propounds an interesting theory in Leah Garchik's SF Chronicle gossip column: "It's obvious...what has happened to impair his pitching brilliance. His decline occurred after his marijuana conviction in Oregon [actually, Washington]. He obviously has not 'medicated' since then. Baseball pitchers, like trial lawyers, have a 'high stress' vocation. Marijuana ably moderates stress. Lincecum suffers from 'cannabis deprivation'." The pitcher, who may just be throwing his arm out of the action, at least has fared better than Vikings wide receiver Percy Harvin, who was hospitalized for severe migraine headaches after league policy disallowed his medical marijuana use for the ailment. Returning to practice, he had to be hospitalized a second time. Cindy Boren of the Washington Post describes what happened: "Harvin, who has battled migraines since he was 10 and sought treatment last year at the Mayo Clinic, had not practiced for two weeks because of migraines, returning to the field only Monday [August 16]. Suffering another attack Thursday, he managed to return to the field and looked up to the sky to field a punt. He doubled over, vomited and seemed momentarily unresponsive and was taken to the hospital. The scene was so disturbing for players that the rest of practice was called off." According to Mike Meno of the Marijuana Policy Project, "during last year’s NFL combine, Harvin, a promising prospect, tested positive for marijuana, and was subsequently drafted much lower than expected. The Vikings finally picked him 22nd overall, reportedly after a long talk about his marijuana use, and specifically, how it needed to stop if he wanted to keep playing." Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the top NBA scorer of all time, has admitted he uses marijuana for migraines. So many sports figures are found to be using marijuana (most recently, Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem) that one wonders whether Serra is on to something and it's time to end drug testing for all.
Hilton 0 for 3 Cary and Crick Liked Lucy A reader reminds me that Francis Crick was on LSD when he discovered DNA's double-helix configuration (much aided by unsung heroine Rosalind Franklin's research). Crick was a co-founder of Soma, a group that advocated for cannabis law reform. Thanks to the efforts of MAPS, scientists at Harvard and the University of California at San Francisco have received permission from the F.D.A. to experiment with LSD once again. Ask the Pothead App iPhoners who want a meatier app can chose the NORML Blog App from the iTunes webpage.
Wecht, 90, was the coroner who examined John F. Kennedy. Other high-profile cases were Robert F. Kennedy, Sharon Tate, Elvis Presley, JonBenét Ramsey, Vincent Foster, Laci Peterson and Anna Nicole Smith, as well as the The Legionnaires' Disease victims. He is a clinical professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and an adjunct professor of law at Duquesne University. In more than 36,000 autopsies, Wecht told the committee he had never seen a death attributed to marijuana use. "Let's get down to what kills people," he said in support of the bill. "Restricting a drug which can have therapeutic medicinal purposes in specific instances, which does not lead to morbidity and mortality, just makes no sense. Let's help ease physical and emotional pain and suffering." August 21 - VIP Gets "Top Blog" Award
Now comes news from the National Enquirer, claiming that "way back in the day," Julia Herself "used to smoke a lot of pot" when she and husband Danny Moder liked to get high and play "Halo". La Roberts was also reportedly spotted in Amsterdam coffee shops while shooting Oceans 12. Sac Bee: Weed Goes Mainstream Then What Happened to Paris Hilton, Natalie Portman and Charlize Theron? Randy Paul and the Aqua Buddha The magazine quotes a woman who was one of Paul's teammates on the Baylor swim team (she requested anonymity because she is now a clinical psychologist). According to this woman, Paul and a friend "came to my house, they knocked on my door, and then they blindfolded me, tied me up, and put me in their car. They took me to their apartment and tried to force me to take bong hits. They'd been smoking pot." "They told me their god was 'Aqua Buddha' and that I needed to bow down and worship him," the woman recalls. "They blindfolded me and made me bow down to 'Aqua Buddha' in the creek. I had to say, 'I worship you Aqua Buddha, I worship you.'" Paul told Faux News that he "categorically" denies the kidnapping allegation. GQ editor-in-chief Jim Nelson said the magazine stands by the story. Arriving on a private jet from her namesake city, Paris, on July 16, Hilton's handbag contained less than a gram of cannabis, police said, and she was detained then released soon afterwards without charge. According to the Corse-Matin newspaper, Hilton was traveling with "people close to power in Malaysia", and was due to travel by yacht to the luxury resort of Porto Cervo in Sardinia, Italy. Poor kid. Hilton's been photographed smoking pot so many times, she's almost as exposed as her 2003 sex tape left her. It's time for her to speak out about the injustice of the marijuana laws and open a chain of pot-friendly Hempen Hilton Hotels. Hagman to Behar: Mandatory Minimum LSD Trips for Politicians Retired U.S. Surgeon General Endorses California Initiative to Control and Tax Marijuana Following is the rebuttal filed by Proposition 19 for the voter guide: THE CHOICE IS CLEAR: REAL CONTROL OF MARIJUANA, OR MORE OF THE SAME Let’s be honest. Our marijuana laws have failed. Rather than accepting things as they are, we can control marijuana. Like the prohibition of alcohol in the past, outlawing marijuana hasn’t worked. It’s created a criminal market run by violent drug cartels, wasted police resources, and drained our state and local budgets. Proposition 19 is a more honest policy, and a common sense solution to these problems. Proposition 19 will control marijuana like alcohol, making it available only to adults, enforce strong driving and workplace safety laws, put police priorities where they belong, and generate billions in needed revenue. THE CHOICE IS CLEAR: REAL CONTROL OF MARIJUANA, OR MORE OF THE SAME We can make it harder for kids to get marijuana, or we can accept the status quo, where marijuana is easier for kids to get than alcohol. We can let police prevent violent crime, or we can accept the status quo, and keep wasting resources sending tens of thousands of non-violent marijuana consumers -- a disproportionate number who are minorities -- to jail. We can control marijuana to weaken the drug cartels, or we can accept the status quo, and continue to fund violent gangs with illegal marijuana sales in California. We can tax marijuana to generate billions for vital services, or we can accept the status quo, and turn our backs on this needed revenue. THE CHOICE IS CLEAR Vote Yes on 19. JOYCELYN ELDERS, United States Surgeon General (Ret.) Study: Marijuana Can Make Bipolar Patients Smarter (Not So with Schizophrenics) July 10 - Experienced Marijuana Consumers Exhibit Virtually No Change In Cognitive Task Performance After Smoking, Study Says Investigators at Columbia University in New York and the San Francisco Brain Research Institute assessed acute marijuana-related effects on cognitive functioning in 24 volunteers who reported consuming the drug at least 24 times per week. Researchers determined that participants' overall performance accuracy on episodic memory and working memory tasks "was not significantly altered by marijuana." Authors concluded: "The present findings show that smoked marijuana produced minimal effects on episodic and spatial working memory of near-daily smokers. The overall response accuracy on the word recognition and working memory tasks was unaffected by marijuana, although smoked marijuana did increase the amount of time participants needed to complete these tasks. "This pattern of effects is consistent with results previously reported by other researchers studying the acute effects of marijuana on cognitive performance of regular users. ... The finding ... stands in contrast to previous findings in occasional smokers who showed reduced accuracy on these same tasks after marijuana. ... The observation that frequent users' response accuracy is not altered after marijuana smoking to the same extent it is for infrequent users ... suggests that near-daily marijuana smokers may have developed tolerance to some marijuana-related behavioral effects." For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at paul@norml.org. July 6 - World Cup Party More Fun If You're an Heiress Hilton was later released without charge, and proclaimed her innocence, to the disappointment of new friends like Adam who wrote on the Toke of the Town blog: "I'm speechless. I NEVER thought I'd have a reason to support Paris Hilton for anything."
Portugal, which successfully decriminalized all drugs in 2001, found out that allowing marijuana use actually lessened violence around international soccer matches, as people turned from alcohol to a mellower inebriant (see the book Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?) California NAACP Endorses Prop 19 Legalization Initiative Charlize, Milla, now Natalie The Face of Dior Ailing Hitchens Cuts Short Book Tour June 22 - VIP Palin Says US Should Chill Out on Pot Paul said enforcing marijuana restrictions specifically and war on drugs more generally is a “useless battle,” and Palin chimed in, "If we're talking about pot, I'm not for the legalization of pot. I think that would just encourage our young people to think that it was OK to go ahead and use it [like she did]. ” “However I think we need to prioritize our law enforcement efforts,” Palin added. “If somebody's gonna to smoke a joint in their house and not do anybody any harm, then perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at to engage in and try to clean up some of the other problems we have in society.” Palin then urged law enforcement to “not concentrate on such a, relatively speaking, minimal problem we have in the country.” The group SAFER invited Palin to speak at one of their conventions, offering a $25,000 fee if she will acknowledge that marijuana is a reasonable choice of inebriant. The group notes that VIP Sarah Silverman talks about marijuana vs. alcohol in her new book, Bedwetter. Egyptian Activist Killed in Alleged Police Beating Elsewhere, it's been reported that Said allegedly swallowed a bag of narcotics or died of a drug overdose. Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International have expressed outrage at the incident and are calling for an independent inquiry, as has the U.S. State Department. Historical Items From the San Francisco Chronicle blog: Mention of the "Collie" or "Colley" in print first appeared toward the end of the 19th century. It is believed that many Border Collies today can be traced back to a single dog known as Old Hemp. He was described as a "quiet, powerful dog that sheep responded to easily." Many shepherds used him as stud and Hemp's hard-working style soon became synonymous with the Collie breed. Read more. Do Looser Laws Make Pot More Popular? Not So Far
White, 88, has had a career resurgence since the brilliant "You're playing like Betty White" Snickers ads debuted during the Superbowl. She's appeared in a series of skits on "The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson," as a Salvation Army bellringer chortling about her exorbitant medical marijuana bills, as an accountant with a briefcase full of cocaine, as a prison guard and as a Girl Scout. White is TV royalty, with experience back to her days with Alan Ludden on "Password." She's our pick for a contestant on the new Name that Pothead game. NORML director salutes Wynkoop for advertising beer like weed May 24, 2010 - New York Times on Stoner Cuisine The article continues, "Today, a small but influential band of cooks says both their chin-dripping, carbohydrate-heavy food and the accessible, feel-good mood in their dining rooms are influenced by the kind of herb that can get people arrested. Call it haute stoner cuisine (defined as the kind of food that tastes good in the altered state marijuana brings). “It’s that thing where you’re trying to hit all the senses,” said one chef. “There has been an entire strata of restaurants created by chefs to feed other chefs,” Mr. Bourdain said, citing several examples around NYC. “These are restaurants created specially for the tastes of the slightly stoned, slightly drunk chef after work." Chefs and restaurateurs Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo said most of their projects — going to Sicily to import olive oil to sell at their two Frankies Spuntino restaurants; the concept for their Brooklyn restaurant Prime Meats; even a new restaurant planned for Portland, Ore. — were conceived with the creative help of marijuana. Roy Choi, who owns the fleet of Kogi Korean taco trucks in Los Angeles, likens the culinary culture that has grown up around marijuana to the one that rose up around the Grateful Dead years ago. Then, people who attended the band’s shows got high and shared live music. Now, people get high and share delicious, inventive and accessible food. “It’s good music, maybe a little weed and really good times and great food that makes you feel good,” he said. Choi, who recently opened his first restaurant, Chego!, said he uses marijuana to keep his creativity up and to squeeze in quick breaks in the midst of 17-hour workdays. “In the middle of a busy day, I’ll smoke,” he said. “Then I’ll go to the record store and hang out and clear my mind or pop into a matinee movie and then come back to the streets.” A Web-based show called “Munchies” follows chefs as they party and eat late into the night, then head back to their kitchens to cook. “It’s like getting the best cheese,” Falcinelli said. “I have like four or five different types of marijuana in my refrigerator right now.” He added, “We smoke quote-unquote the working man’s weed." Castronovo added: “I’m not spacey at all. It gives me energy.” Ron Siegel of the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco, said he’s grown past his partying days. But even he is having a little fun with haute stoner cuisine. To serve slow-cooked quail eggs and caviar, he places them atop plastic film that tightly covers a white porcelain serving bowl. Then he fills the vessel with smoke from grated Japanese cedar packed into the bowl of a fan-driven bong he buys in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. The smoke escapes when the diner lifts a small spoon covering a hole in the plastic. He calls it the Lincecum, after Giants pitcher and VIP Tim Lincecum. Photo illustration by Tony Cenicola/The New York Times May 22, 2010 - Third Day of Emery Protests Alter Vancouver Bus Routes Sullum on Souder 20 Years Ago Today February - President George Bush and Columbia's president Virgilio Barco hold a drug summit in Colombia. Bush asks Barco for help in curbing Colombia's cocaine production and export to the U.S., to which Barco replies, "You're down here asking us to clean up. What about the marijuana that's being grown on the North Coast of California?" Bush asks drug "czar" William Bennett to devise a plan to respond to Barco's concerns. Bennett gives a speech to the conservative American Legislative Exchange's meeting in Monterey calling for California to re-criminalize marijuana. "It's a national embarrassment that we are the third-largest exporter in the world of marijuana," he says. Bennett says he wants to go after casual users, advocating seizing drivers' licenses of drug users and setting civil fines of up to $10,000 for selling small amounts of drugs. Pledging more federal enforcement money, he calls on states to build more prisons and enact "boot camps," mandatory minimum sentences, and property forfeiture. May 14 - UC Berkeley researcher Jonathan Shedler and Jack Block release results of a 15-year study that show teenagers who experimented casually with drugs appeared to be better adjusted than adolescents who either abstained or regularly abused drugs. (Block died on February 6, 2010.) July 4 - A letter to a lawyer for Brett Kimberlin disclosed in federal court confirms Kimberlin was twice placed in special detention on orders from BOP director J. Michael Quinlan four days before the 1988 presidential election. Kimberlin called several news organizations during the previous weeks to allege he had smoked marijuana with vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle at a fraternity party in Bloomington, Indiana in 1971, and had sold Quayle pot more than a dozen times over the next few years. (Kimberlin is now an influential, internet-based activist for voting rights.) July 29 - More than 200 troops from the Bureau of Land Management, the Army and the California National Guard begin a three-week invasion of Chemise Mountain in Humboldt county, calling themselves Operation Green Sweep. The action, sealing off 640 acres of federal land, was said by U.S. Congressman Douglas Bosco to be the result of Bush's conversation with Barco in February. The operation nets 1400 plants and a class-action lawsuit alleging civil-liberties violations. August 18 - The California Research Advisory Panel, convened in 1969, concludes California should legalize cultivation and possession of marijuana for personal use. Attorney General Van de Kamp blocks the report's publication. The San Francisco Examiner calls for drug legalization. September 6 - LA Police Chief Darryl Gates says casual drug users "ought to be taken out and shot" at a hearing in the U.S. Senate. Late 1990 - US Customs Services seizes a shipment of nearly 1000 pounds of cocaine at Miami's international airport and discovers it had been shipped by members of the Venezuelan National Guard with approval of a Central Intelligence Agency anti-drug program in Venezuela. 30 years ago - 1980 Operation Sinsemilla, a combined local, state and federal air and ground attack on California's marijuana crop, is expanded from four to 27 counties. A call-in poll of over 20,000 SF Chronicle readers denounces the raids by a 73-27% margin.
Celebrating the centennial of the Mexican Revolution, the national museum of Mexico has loaned the famous Xochipilli "Flower Prince" statue to the Getty Villa in Malibu where it is on view. Emery's extradition is the latest example of the demonization of our ancient, sacramental plant teachers, celebrated in Xochipilli. Protests will be held in cities across Canada and the U.S. on Saturday May 22. Read more on Emery and the protests. Emery's prosecution may be the most mean-spirited since Tommy Chong served 9 months in prision for selling bongs on the internet. "The contributions made to life on this planet in the past 40 years by people who smoke marijuana is unparalleled," Emery said in a recent article."There is no other sub-culture that has given so much to the world as have the potheads, yet we're hunted down like dogs." As the Knicks chased LeBron, the cops nabbed LeBong Greener Fest Was The festival was billed as returning to hemp rather than medical marijuana, partly in honor of Jack Herer, who petitioned for years at Venice Beach and died one month before the event. Although many of the booths at Greener Fest offered medical services, there was a greater diversity than at recent shows, including hemp clothing and body care products. The breezy outdoor venue was a nice change from stuffy convention centers, with the added benefit of some groovy music: Mitch Margo of The Tokens performed their hit "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and it seemed Jimi Hendrix had magically appeared when his brother Leon performed with Anthony Aquarius Mystery. McPeak, an organizer for the huge Seattle Hempfest, which annually stretches seemingly for miles along the Seattle shoreline, predicted similar things for Greener Fest. He brought Seattle-style weather with him, with clouds covering the hint of sunshine the morning saw for most of the afternoon (which must have made the OG Girls awfully chilly, but they never complained). A good time was, apparently, had by all. Guest of honor George Clayton Johnson, author of Logan's Run and Oceans 11, plus several Star Trek and Twilight Zone episodes, reminded the crowd that “Hemp Can STILL Save the Planet,” but warned that “the window is closing, unless we reorder our priorities.” Hemp's only problem is that it's too perfect, said Johnson. On top of all its benefits to mankind, it also serves as a “mild euphoriant,” causing it to be vilified as marijuana. Extolling hemp's virtues as a source of food and shelter, he added, “And it reconciles us with the universe.” Johnson, who ought to know, called Herer a science-fiction character. Asked about the comment afterwards, Johnson said, “It's really a sci fi story about the plant. It's the Tree of Life that mankind has discovered again and again, all the way up until Jack found it. That's why he called his book The Emperor Wears No Clothes; he really saw himself as that boy in the story.” On hand was Herer's son Dan, who printed up memorial T-shirts for the occasion, one depicting Jack as Forrest Gump, sitting on a bench with a hemp stalk sticking out of the box on his lap. “Saving the earth, one plant at a time,” it said. Another, captioned, “Let My People Grow,” had Jack facing his beloved Pacific Ocean. All proceeds went to The Jack Herer Medical and Memorial Fund. Jack's work will live on in The California Cannabis Hemp & Health Initiative 2012, an effort starting this November, aiming for the Nov. 2012 ballot. Even if TaxCannabis 2010 passes this year, CHI as currently written would greatly expand on that law. As I left, I noticed the flags at the beach Police Station were flying at half mast. The officer inside said the tribute was for William Elkins Jr., an aide to former LA Mayor Tom Bradley. But it served double duty that day. Info at www.GreenerFest.com.
One of the interactive screens at the exhibit says the statue's headdress has 4 sets of a five-bar pattern, making 20, the basis of Aztec numerology and the final day (called "flower") of their calendar. The statue is also called "five flower" (Macuilxochitl). He is the fifth diety in a series of 5 gods of excess, linked to agriculture, music, dance, lust and honorable death. Ex-Pres Inhaled...Brownies? "When I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two -- and didn't like it -- and didn't inhale and never tried inhaling again," Clinton said while campaigning for the presidency in 1992. Hitchens writes, "He preferred, like many another marijuana enthusiast, to take his dope in the form of large handfuls of cookies and brownies.” This information bolsters that in Edward Klein's book The Truth About Hillary, which says our Secretary of State met her future husband at a commune called Cozy Beach, where her Yale Journal of Law and Social Action co-editor Kris Olson lived. According to Klein, Cozy Beach was affiliated with Ken Kesey's Oregon Hog Farm, and the Magic Bus riders were said to be regular visitors. "Bill and Hillary often grooved the night away at Cozy Beach, spinning the latest Jefferson Airplane platters and eating Kris Olson's hashish brownies,” wrote Miriam Horn in Rebels in White Gloves. Sports News: Baseball Still the Gentler Sport Meanwhile, Santonio Holmes, the MVP of last year's Superbowl, has been traded by the Pittsburgh Steelers for a fifth-round draft pick from the New York Jets. Holmes is facing a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, following a pre-Superbowl incident when he was caught with marijuana in his car. Apparently Holmes has turned to a harder drug (liquor), leading to an incident last month when he allegedly threw a drink at a woman in a Florida bar. He could be suspended for an entire season if he violates league policy again. Acknowledging to Sports Illustrated that as many as one third of potential draft picks have tried marijuana, the NFL is no longer disqualifying players who test positive for pot, but rather is evaluating them on a case-by-case basis. "If you knocked everyone off your [draft] board who has experimented with weed, you'd lose about 20 percent of your board, not to mention disqualify a few recent presidents," one NFL head coach said. Smithsonian Article Details Alcohol Prohibition and Taxes Scripps Research study suggests marijuana can combat alcoholism April 30 -
Schwarzenegger on Leno on MJ Legalization also see: Maher to Leno: Shut Up, Grandpa What's Missing from Lois Wilson's Hallmark Biography (and Our Culture)
Wrote an LA Times reporter: U.K. Lib Dems' secret plan for high street cannabis cafes April 17 - The Hemperor Departs
This booth is how we turned people onto hemp, one by one (we couldn't even get the word "hemp" into the newspaper at the time; they would always change it to "marijuana"). Only one person in 10 knew anything but "rope and dope" when I joined the hemp movement in 1991; after a few years, only 1 in 10 didn't know all about hemp. It was all done by the grassroots, and Jack was the leader. Fittingly, the LA Times has just reported that Stella McCartney, Giorgio Armani and Calvin Klein are among the designers incorporating hemp textiles into their fashions. Jeopardy! had a category last night, "I'd Rather Pay Taxes" whose answers were people who, like Jack, died on April 15. Among them were Abraham Lincoln, Greta Garbo, and Jean-Paul Sartre. More on the date. It's also notable that Jack, who chose Tax Day to die, was against taxing pot. SF Weekly's blog has his High Times cover as Santa Claus. I always said about Jack, he had a heart as big as all outdoors...and a voice to match. Once I heard him speak at the Oregon venue where he suffered his earlier stroke. Standing at the far end of the football-field sized venue, all the other speakers sounded like gobbeldygook until Jack took the stage and came through clear as a bell. The only comparable experience I've had was hearing Ella Fitzgerald sing at a stadium. Jack used his voice well, stumping for hemp across the country and making The Emperor Wears No Clothes a million seller. I traveled with him to Colorado in 1992 to work on a petition campaign, and worked with him to edit the 9th edition of The Emperor, where I wrote about how I watched Jack ponder over every line. We did this late at night at a Sunset Blvd. copyshop where renting computers from midnight until 6 am was cheaper. One day he looked around and said, "Everything here could be made of hemp. The carpets, the computer terminals, the drapes..." While driving around he envisioned hemp fields everywhere. Jack was forever recruiting petitioners and activists as he reawakened the cannabis reform movement. He always said that registering someone to vote was the highest work one could do. That his heart attack happened last year just after Oregon became the 7th state to pass a hemp legalization bill is a fitting testament to his work. Without Jack's tireless research (and his self-admitted ability to get others to help him) we would quite likely have lost the USDA's Hemp for Victory film, which as The Emperor tells, Jack had to go to D.C. to secure. Jack was self educated, but he would surprise you by speaking Korean in restaurants (he served in Korea during the war). He held his own in forums, like the Milennium Madness celebration I saw him at in LA with Tim Leary and others. Someone asked what role homosexuals would play in the future and he simply replied, "That of a citizen." It's a role we must all now play as the Emperor's mantle is, sadly, put onto hempsters everywhere. Willie Nelson Smokes Larry King Quote of the Day: Partner Pothead I have been a lifelong cannabis user, on an almost daily basis since I was in high school. I am now the managing partner of a very successful law firm in the Washington, D.C. area. I have been in a professional law practice for almost 27 years. I work 60+ hours a week, and all of that hard work has translated into high levels of annual income. I still get high after work, almost every day…. - A marijuana-using managing partner (and parent of pot-smoking daughters), in an email to Andrew Sullivan. April 4 - Happy Easter: Can Mankind Resurrect? The SF Chronicle writes, 2012: Time for Change will be shown at the Lumiere-Landmark on April 9, 10 an 11 at 7pm. Pinchbeck writes of the film, I am featured as interviewer and narrator, in dialogues with Sting, David Lynch, Paul Stamets, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Ellen Page (star of Juno), VIP Gilberto Gil, and many others. We will be holding a panel discussion on the film during Greenfest (April 10/11). Tickets for the Greenfest screenings can be bought at these links: April 1 - No fooling: Junk food 'as addictive as heroin and smoking' In the study, which took nearly three years to complete, rats that ate as much junk food as they wanted quickly became very fat and started bingeing.When researchers electronically stimulated the part of the brain that feels pleasure, they found the rats on unlimited junk food needed even more stimulation to register the same level of pleasure as the animals on healthier diets. The very same changes occur in the brains of rats that over consume cocaine or heroin, and are thought to play an important role in the development of compulsive drug use. "They always went for the worst types of food and as a result, they took in twice the calories as the control rats," said Dr Paul Kenny, a neuroscientist who led the research. "When we removed the junk food and tried to put them on a nutritious diet - what we called the 'salad bar option' - they simply refused to eat. The change in their diet preference was so great that they basically starved themselves for two weeks after they were cut off from junk food." Entertainment News - According to Tweets by Wall St. Journal reporter Michelle Kung and actor Edward Norton, the crime comedy Leaves of Grass has been acquired by a new, unnamed distributor and will be released this summer, not Friday, as was originally planned. A rep for the orginal distributor First Look confirmed the news. Norton, who plays an Ivy League professor and his "pothead" Oklahoman twin brother in the film, tweets: "Details to come but we're all really happy because now it will likely get to many more cities than just New York and Dallas. This happened very much due to great audience response and reviews and press out of SXSW (Film Conference and Festival).'' Written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson of "O Brother Where Art Thou," Leaves co-stars Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss and Keri Russell. Roger Ebert called it "some kind of sweet, wacky masterpiece." The New York Daily News asks Norton: Would you consider this movie a typical stoner comedy? He responds, "The movie is a lot of fun, but this is definitely not 'Pineapple Express.' It's funny and there is marijuana in it, but it's not a pot comedy. There's a lot more to it, and it's much more philosophical than political. Marijuana politics are not really involved. It's about classical ideas of balance between right brain and left brain. That being said, High Times did put my character on their cover." - And we say goodbye to actor and civil rights activist Robert Culp, who appeared in TV's I Spy and smoked pot in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969). NASCAR Bans Cannabis Car DyanmicMotorSportsRacing.com team owner Matt Dugan surmised the situation: "NASCAR is claiming we did not fill out the appropriate paperwork in time, which is quite interesting as there is no paperwork required for sponsors at this level. We have never filled out sponsorship paperwork nor do the other racing teams." Their car was able to race on Saturday night with with "ThePitCrew.com" logo was displayed in place of the CannabisPlanet.TV logo, yet NO paperwork was ever filed with NASCAR, says the release. This is extra ridiculous since NASCAR ushered in a new era of liquor ads on television by allowing ads on their cars in 2005, a situation deplored by the AMA. History Channel shows have revealed that NASCAR grew out of the great tradition of moonshiners outrunning the law in the deep South. One of the most celebrated was Robert Glenn "Junior" Johnson, a NASCAR champion credited with inventing the "bootleg turn," in which a whiskey hauler jammed the car into second gear and gave the steering wheel a mighty tug to the left. Johnson was arrested at his father's still in 1956 and served 11 months in prison, returning to racing and bootlegging afterwards. (See "Reflections on Automotive History" by Bill Vance.) According to a 2006 NASCAR press release, current NASCAR racer Jimmie Johnson got his first "acting" gig as an escaping rum runner in the 2004 super-flashy in-your-face film IMAX NASCAR 3-D. NFL Decision-Makers Reconsidering How To Evaluate Players Who Have Used Marijuana Newsweek: Taking the High Road Rolling Stone: MarijuanAmerica One Third of Police for Ending Drug War March 20 - Colbert's Shamrock Substitute Why Students Hold The Key To Ending Marijuana Prohibition March 18 - Jean Simmons, A Classy Lady, Departs Simmons shone in films like Young Bess, Guys and Dolls and Elmer Gantry, and worked with all the greats, including VIPs Dalton Trumbo and Robert Mitchum. She was married to British actor Stewart Granger, who describes his longtime drinking problem in his autobiography Sparks Fly Upward, where he also related that Jean admired Mitchum for his laid-back style, and wished Granger could have been more like him. Granger and Simmons ultimately divorced, in no small part due to his alcohol problem. Lady Simmons, who became a US citizen and was knighted by her native country during her lifetime, was a surprising signatory to a 2005 petition to the British Prime Minister Tony Blair asking him to not to upgrade cannabis from a class C drug to a class B. Sting and former Spandau Ballet star Gary Kemp also signed the petition, circulated by www.release.org.uk, more famous recently for their "Nice People Take Drugs" campaign. I wrote Simmons several letters asking if she would tell me whether her decision to sign the petition had anything to do with her experience with Mitchum, or her own experience, but I never got up the courage to send them. I hadn't heard that Simmons died on January 22, a few days before her 82nd birthday, until I saw the Academy Awards' yearly tribute to their fallen comrades. Her work, and her actions, will now have to speak for themselves. March 17 - NORML Calls for A Safer, Greener St. Patrick's Day in Times Square
Empire State NORML announced the billboard's unveiling at a press conference where they presented marijuana as a safer alternative to alcohol for New York’s many St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Dr. Julie Holland noted, “Alcohol kills brain cells and liver cells. If you drink long enough, heavily enough, you will end up needing a new liver and a new brain. American hospitals are clogged with people suffering from alcohol-induced dementia and liver failure. And it is legal.” Read more. And MPP's Steve Fox wonders If the NFL Were More Lenient About Pot, Would the Players Get Involved in Less Drunken Violence? The 39th annual national NORML conference will be held September 9-11, 2010 at the Governor Hotel in downtown Portland, Oregon.
American Sprinter Disqualified for Drug Test What's a 'typical stoner?' In ad campaign, they look like yuppies Preteens More Apt To Abuse Household Products Than Marijuana How the DEA Scrubbed Thomas Jefferson's Monticello Poppy Garden from Public Memory
Snubbed by the Academy was VIP James Cameron, who will have to content himself with his Golden Globes for Best Director/Picture for Avatar, the top-grossing film ever made.
Instead Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman director to win an Oscar, for the war film The Hurt Locker, which also grabbed the Best Picture statue. You knew it was going to happen when VIP Barbra Streisand was the presenter (they actually played "I Am Woman" afterwards). Pentagon Shooter Protested Drug War Injustice, Corruption Bedell wanted to “see that justice is served in the death of Colonel James Sabow, as a step toward establishing the truth of events such as the September 11 demolitions and institutions such as the coup regime of 1963 that maintains itself in power through the global drug trade, financial corruption, and murder, among other crimes,” according to a Wikipedia entry linked to Bedell under the name “JPatrickBedell,” CBS News reported. According to ABC News, Bedell was also charged in Nevada with possessing 76 grams of marijuana. He was pulled over by Texas police for pot on his way from California to D.C. The events have bolstered claims that marijuana is linked to schizophrenia, but that's been debunked. Reagan's Grandson Wanted on Pot Charge
In 2001, Reagan was ordered to a 90-day, live-in drug and anger management program for marijuana possession while on probation for a car break-in case. During court proceedings, attorneys said he had suffered from attention-deficit disorder since childhood. Back in 1999 he was sentenced to six months in jail on charges of receiving stolen property for his role in two car burglaries. Sports News In 1996, Morrison was denied a license and placed on indefinite suspension by the Nevada board after repeatedly testing HIV positive. He questioned the tests, which have made him ineligible to fight, except in a few special cases. Morrison claims to be related to John Wayne, leading to his nickname, "The Duke." Following a 1999 search of Morrison's car in which police found cocaine, he was convicted on drugs and weapons charges. He spent the next 14 months in prison and said he was innocent. ESPN wrote at the time, "Morrison considers the mandatory drug abuse classes a waste of time, saying he has used marijuana and methamphetamine but never was an addict."
Mackey, a cancer survivor, is open about his use of medical marijuana to combat pain. He's now told reporter he's switched to the prescription drug Marinol, but is laying off that for the race too. According to AP, both Mackey's knees have been injected with synthetic cartilage until he can have surgery next summer, and his right arm is still healing from a major operation to fix a staph infection. He faces a misdemeanor count of marijuana possession after being found with a small amount at the Anchorage airport in January, after his medical marijuana card had expired. For the first time in race history, a drug-testing company, Work Safe Inc., will partner with the race. In exchange for sponsorship, Work Safe will drug-test all 71 mushers competing in this year's race, which officially started Sunday in Willow. (The dogs are also tested.) And the ten-year ban handed down to veteran rugby league player Vince Whare makes him another casualty of injustice in our 35 year-old war on drugs, said New Zealand NORML President Phil Saxby said. "This is blatant discrimination against a man who chooses to relax with a substance that's better for his health than alcohol. That cannabis is illegal has no bearing on his ability to play rugby, nor his right to play the game." Zsa Zsa Gabor for California's First Lady
Portman, known for playing Senator Amidala in the "Star Wars" prequels, received an Oscar nomination in 2004 for her work in "Closer." She has made some interesting career choices before, notably 2005's political thriller "V for Vendetta." The 28-year-old actress recently told Marie Claire, "I didn't touch pot till I was in my 20s. I didn't get flat-out drunk until I went to college. But I think that's a good thing in many ways." Silverman Parties On Reform Rolls On, With Bumps in the Road On top of that, a ten-year, $8.7-million medical marijuana research program, established at the University of California in 2000, reported positive results in six different human clinical trials regarding chronic pain, spasticity and vaporization, just as Cheech and Chong, who are rolling out a new film, attended a huge Hemp Expo at the LA Convention Center. Meanwhile, cannabis collectives are seeing crackdowns in LA and Santa Barbara, and Denver man is facing a 10-year federal sentence after bragging on TV about his medical garden. Malcolm X and Marijuana February 2 - Ganga Winners at the Grammy Awards
January 29 - Hempy Birthday to Anton Chekhov January 18 - Ganga Globes
January 1- Marijuana Reform: A Turbulent 2009 Timeline January 20 - As President Obama takes office, he asks voters to write in with their top priorities for his administration. Poll after poll puts marijuana legalization at the top of the agenda. Esquire in "Why Obama Really Might Decriminalize Marijuana" coins the phrase, "Yes We Cannabis!") February 1 - While facing a "driving-with-blunt" charge in Pittsburgh, Santonio Holmes earns the Superbowl MVP award when he catches the winning touchdown. Before the game, Holmes calls a press conference to admit he sold drugs as a teen in Florida. Later, charges are dismissed. Whoopi Goldberg admits she's smoked pot in a segment discussing Phelps on The View. Twilight's Kristen Stewart, who'd been filmed smoking pot on her doorstep, is photographed in a bikini with two strategically placed pot leaves. The new Friday the 13th Flick alludes to Jason being a stoner. February 23 - AB390 (Ammiano), the first-ever state bill to legalize marijuana for adult use, is introduced in the California legislature. Set on a two-year track, the bill will see hearings in the Assembly Public Safety committee on January 12, 2010. March 26 - Sen. Jim Webb introduces Senate Bill 714, The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009, which seeks to initiate a comprehensive re-evaluation of America's drug and prison policies. "Legalization is on the table," says Webb. April 1 - No Fooling: Studies Say Alcohol is More Harmful to Teens' Brains than Marijuana April 3 - Guitar god Carlos Santana publicly tells Obama: "Legalize marijuana and take all that money and invest it in teachers and in education. You will see a transformation in America." April 12 - Three-time Olympic gold medal sprinter Usain Bolt tells reporters he rolled and smoked joints as a youngster in Jamaica. Bolt still makes Top Sports Moments of the decade lists for his record-breaking performances in Beijing and is named a Runner Up as Time magazine's Person of the Year. April 28 - Both houses of the Mexican Congress pass a bill, proposed by conservative President Felipe Calderon, to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana and other drugs. May 5 - (Cinco de Mayo) Answering a question from a reporter about the recent Field Poll that showed 56% of Californians favor marijuana legalization, Governor Schwarzenegger says, "I think it's time for a debate." July 7 - Subway releases its Michael Phelps ad campaign, using Sly and the Family Stone's "thankyoufalletinmebemiceelfagain". Subway's float in the Rose Parade 2010 celebrates its champion sponsorships, with Phelps front and center. August 8 - Sonia Sotomayor is sworn in as Supreme Court justice after acknowledging in her hearings "I'm not an expert in marijuana growing" but indicating she may be open to respecting privacy rights around doing so. August 14 - Brad Pitt jokes on The Today Show he will run for Mayor of New Orleans on a legalization platform; tells Bill Maher he doesn't smoke anymore. "I'm a dad now, you want to be alert." November 6 - SF Giants pitching ace and reigning Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum is pulled over with a small amount of pot in his car. Lincecum subsequently wins a second Cy Young award, just after he apologizes for his actions. December 4 - According to a RadarOnline story, alleged Tiger Woods mistress Jamie Grubbs worked at City Organic Remedies in Studio City, dispensing medical pot. December 20 - Hollywood is abuzz with the news that the new Meryl Streep/Steve Martin/Alec Baldwin film got slapped with an "R" rating for depicting pot smoking without negative consequences. "I forgot how much fun having fun was," says Steve. In 2009 we said goodbye to these friends of freedom: Much more, sources at: www.VeryImportantPotheads.com/blog2009.html
The Very Important Blog 2006All contents Copyright VeryImportantPotheads.com
|
August 22 - Famous Coroner Says Marijuana Doesn't Cause Death
Roberts Siblings -- Seriously Smoky? 
June 8 - Betty White Debuts as Pothead on TV Land
May 21 - Princes of Pot, Flowers Both in U.S.
It's been confirmed by several sites that New Line Cinema has set a summer start date for filming a third, possibly 3-D installment of the pot-loving Harold & Kumar franchise, working from a Christmas-themed script by writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg. The films are produced by Greg Shapiro, who just picked up multiple Oscars for The Hurt Locker. 
"Who's that pretty lady, mommy?" I remember asking when I first saw Jean Simmons in The Robe, a religious film that was one of the few I was permitted to watch growing up Catholic. (I had already seen The Sound of Music six times.) Simmons, I found out, was a British actress who played Ophelia to Laurence Olivier's Hamlet, and would have starred in A Roman Holiday had not Howard Hughes, who was obsessed with Jean, locked her in a studio contract. Audrey Hepburn is thought to have imitated Simmons for her breakthrough, Oscar-winning role in that 1953 film. 
Whitaker to Play Armstrong 
February 23 - Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, who both smoke pot with Meryl Streep in the movie It’s Complicated, will host this year’s Academy Awards ceremonies on March 7 in Los Angeles. Other potheads (past and present) up for awards are 
Portman to Produce Pothead Comedy
Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps makes tsunami-sized waves when he admits to puffing pot. Most sponsors stick with the champ, another sign the times have changed. Although eight are charged criminally in the incident, the announcement that Phelps will not be not charged comes just after he apologizes to China (and keeps the Mazda account).