Weed Could Save California’s Economy

Mendocino County, California is often called “America’s Marijuana Capital”, and for good reason: weed is this area’s number one cash crop. California, which is one of 12 of states in the U.S. to have legalized medicinal marijuana, allows residents to grow a limited amount of pot plants for medicinal use – though federal law, which bans growing marijuana for any purpose, causes clashes between state and national government agencies.

With an increase in border security after 9/11, California has become an even more popular spot to grow marijuana plants for sale in the U.S., and business is booming. With so much money changing hands, legislators are starting to recognize weed’s potential to save California’s floundering economy. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano introduced “The Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act”, which would go well beyond the decriminalization of marijuana to actually legalize the cultivation, sale, purchase and possession of the plant.

From The Itt List:

“With the state in the midst of an historic economic crisis, the move towards regulating and taxing marijuana is simply common sense,” Ammiano said. “This legislation would generate much needed revenue for the state, restrict access to only those over 21, end the environmental damage to our public lands from illicit crops, and improve public safety by redirecting law enforcement efforts to more serious crimes.”

As announced yesterday, the state of California would receive a $50 fee for every ounce of pot sold (which would be on top of whatever that ounce’s actual price is in a future free market). That fee and a proposed sales tax on medical marijuana would mean $1.3 billion “immediately,” according to Betty Yee, the chairwoman of the Board of Equalization who was at yesterday’s press conference. I wonder what the annual weed revenues would be, especially in a state that just barely averted a major fiscal disaster late last week. Yee called the new proposal “a responsible measure on how to work out the regulatory framework of the legalization of marijuana.”

Legalizing marijuana simply makes sense, not just for California but for the entire country. First and foremost, there are the economic benefits. The government and taxpayers would benefit hugely from diverting the billions that are currently spent each year on tracking down, prosecuting and jailing non-violent marijuana offenders to more important uses. Instead of chasing peaceful stoners and putting them in jail alongside rapists and murderers, they could be focusing more of their efforts on fighting real crime.

Plus, there are two major environmental benefits to legalizing and regulating marijuana cultivation. Marijuana operations could be brought out into the open, eliminating the need to destroy fragile forest ecosystems in an attempt to hide from authorities. And, noxious chemical spills caused by irresponsible growers could be reduced dramatically. Spills from improperly buried diesel fuel tanks and generators have leaked into California waterways, causing untold damage.

Unfortunately, this bill is unlikely to pass simply due to the ingrained negative view of the beneficial plant, courtesy of the misguided War on Drugs.

From SF Weekly:

Ammiano told SF Weekly that he doesn’t expect his bill to pass “overnight,” but doesn’t see it as merely a “placeholder.” As far as superseding federal law, he pointed to a similar bill recently introduced in Congress by Rep. Barney Frank; hopefully the law of the land will change. If not, Ammano hoped to exploit “fuzziness” regarding state and federal laws and the low priority this state has given to busting marijuana users entitled by Proposition 215. He predicted that, in these dire economic times, “support will fall all over” for his bill. Perhaps, perhaps not.

Legalizing weed would solve two of California’s most pressing problems: prison overpopulation and an unprecedented budget deficit. It’s a no-brainer.

Link [The Itt List] via [The Huffington Post] + [SF Weekly]

Marijuana Could Save Your Life

Though oft-maligned (and illegal) in America, cannabis has a lot of good uses.  I’m not just talking about vegging out on the couch and watching a movie, either. It turns out the powerful plant has some incredible antibiotic properties that could be a big help in the fight against MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) and other so-called ‘super bugs’.  The Journal of Natural Products recently published a paper describing the newly discovered antibiotic effects of the class of molecules known as ‘cannabanoids’.

From Environmental Graffiti:

This group includes the non-psychoactive cannabichromene, cannabigerol, and cannabidiol but also includes the well-known and definitely psychotropic tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Researchers believe that the powerful antibiotic effects of cannabanoids can be enlisted in the increasingly difficult fight against MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) and other ’superbugs’ that have evolved resistances to most modern antibiotics. MRSA is perhaps the best known of these superbugs, often running rampant in hospitals, with estimates of up to 1.2 million hospital patients becoming infected and possibly over 100,000 patients dying each year in the United States due to lack of effective medicines against them. The known effectiveness of cannabanoids and the fact that they have not been used before, and therefore no bacteria has yet developed a resistance to them, could prove to be a very valuable tool in the arms race against these constantly changing bacterial strains.

Though it’s been known since the 1950s that cannabis sativa itself, when not smoked, has strong antibacterial properties, research into which compounds in marijuana cause the effects was shelved due to the ‘black-listed’ status of the cannabis plant.  Researchers have only recently begun looking into it again.  Now, researchers and drug makers are actually looking into making antibiotic drugs from derivatives of non-psychoactive cannabinoids.

Pot is good green medicine.  It’s been used as such for hundreds of years, and it makes sense to further delve into its potential.  Now, if only we could get around that whole stupid ‘illegal’ thing…

Link [Environmental Graffiti]
Photo credit: Flickr user Stinkie Pinkie

The 6 Greatest Things Ever Accomplished While High

Cracked.com has compiled a hilarious list of the 5 greatest things ever accomplished while high. Their two major concerns while choosing the items for this list was that the accomplishment had to be “considered great by people who could pass a field sobriety test”, and that music didn’t count. What they ended up with after striking things like the Grateful Dead from the list is this:

#5. Francis Crick Discovers DNA Thanks to LSD – In 1953 in Cambridge, Crick burst through the front door of his home spouting what his wife Odile originally thought was crazy jibberish about two spirals twisting in opposite directions from one another.

#4. Freud and Cocaine Invent Psychoanalysis – The first ten years of Sigmund Freud’s career were like a roving cocaine pep rally. He prescribed cocaine to his friends for headaches, nasal ailments or just to “give (their) cheeks a red color.”

#3. A Coke Addict Makes a Coke-Flavored Cola and Calls it Coke – John Pemberton, the Atlanta pharmacist that invented Coca Cola, claimed that the ingredient it was named after, the Coca leaf, cured everything from depression and nervousness to morphine addiction.

#2. Dock Ellis Trips His Way to a No-Hitter – The day of the no-hitter, Dock Ellis woke up around noon on what he thought was Friday and ate three tabs of acid, presumably because he was tired of Wheaties. But when his girlfriend arrived she was carrying Saturday’s newspaper, which meant he’d slept through Friday or that his girlfriend’s was a time traveler. The sports page had more bad news, he was scheduled to pitch in San Diego in six hours.

#1. Moses Takes ‘Shrooms, Shits Out Ten Commandments – Everyone wants to say how dangerous it is to use psychedelic drugs, but Moses takes a few and comes up with a set of morally sound rules that have held up for thousands of years and, for some, serves as a reason not to murder the guy in front of you who’s taking an annoyingly long time at the ATM.

Great list, but they forgot #6: Stoned Hippies Invent the Environmental Movement Because Man, Trees are Awesome.

Hippie #1: (Exhales smoke) Dude… have you ever thought about, like, how totally rad trees are? They’re like, so tall. And they give us oxygen so we can breathe, man. We wouldn’t even be alive if there were no trees, man.

Hippie #2: Yeah, trees are awesome. Hey man, I heard they’re going to cut down that big tree at the park. We should like, go sit in it. And then they um… won’t cut it down, or something.

Hippie #1: (Dreamily twirls hair, then suddenly turns to look at Hippie #2) Uhhh, what were we just talking about? Pass that back over here, man.

Okay, so the environmental movement was never really ‘invented’… it grew out of books like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, localized concern over natural landmarks and efforts by groups like the Sierra Club. But, hippies invented the modern environmental movement as a political force and brought it into mainstream consciousness in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, when the youth was in the midst of a cultural revolution also comprised of the antiwar movement, civil rights movement and feminist movement. But if there’s one thing we know about hippies in the ‘60s, it’s that they were almost always stoned. We’re sure that more than a little mary jane was passed around as student groups and organizations sat around in circles making “Give Earth a Chance” buttons.

Link [Cracked]
Photo credit: Classico Postcards

Man Claims Pot was for Composting, Not Smoking

File this under incredibly creative excuses: an Iowa man told police that recycling was all he had in mind when he was found to be the proud owner of a large quantity of marijuana. I mean, why bother pulling the old “It’s not mine!” or “I thought it was oregano!” when you can at least come up with something entertaining that will get your name in the news.

The Jackson Sun has it:

A complaint by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office says the 30-year-old man told police in Iowa City that he planned to turn several large bags of marijuana into compost.

Officers report the bags he had when he was arrested early Saturday held a “gallon” or more of marijuana each.

The complaint says officers didn’t buy the compost story. The suspect remained in jail Sunday without posting $14,000 bail on a charge of possessing marijuana with intent to distribute.

I’m going to remember that next time I uh, know somebody who knows somebody who has what might be something like pot. Especially if they have several GALLONS of it. Jesus. Puff, puff, compost!

Link [Jackson Sun]
Photo credit: Flickr user r0bz

James Franco and Seth Rogen Smoke ‘Fake’ Weed at MTV Movie Awards

It’s our favorite kind of green celeb gossip. That is, the other kind of green. You know what I’m sayin’?

James Franco and Seth Rogen had a message for kids at the MTV Movie Awards: don’t smoke pot. And especially don’t smoke fake pot. The actors lit up a ‘fake’ joint as they promoted their new film, The Pineapple Express – but audience members reported that it sure smelled like the real thing. As they lit up the joint, MTV cameras panned out to a wide shot.

“Kids, don’t really smoke fake weed like this,” Rogen told the crowd at the Gibson Amphitheatre.

James Franco is no stranger to the green stuff, as evidenced in this hilarious interview with MTV from last December. Uhhhh, whaaaaat? Duuuuude.

The wide shot thing is kind of funny considering the fact that any parent who lets their kids watch the MTV Movie Awards is probably rolling their kids’ joints anyway. Landmark reality show The Real World has devolved from showing at least somewhat intelligent twentysomethings dealing with, you know, life and stuff, to barely blurred hot tub orgies. Moral of the story: MTV is not for kids.

Remember when VH1 used to be the square adult contemporary channel that played Michael Bolton and Amy Grant videos? Now it’s the home of Flavor of Love. How times change.

Link [Ecorazzi] + [Film Drunk]