To his die-hard fans, Mr. Sherbinski is a storied name in marijuana. A celebrated California cultivator, he helped create the Gelato and Sunset Sherbert strains that have been name-checked in more than 200 hip-hop songs, including "First Off" by Future and "Bosses Don't Speak" by Migos. At the Business of Fashion's Voices conference in London last year, his brand, Sherbinskis, was introduced as "the Supreme of marijuana." And when Sherbinskis released its first sneaker design last year at ComplexCon, a two-day festival of hip-hop and fashion in Long Beach, Calif., the limited-edition Nike Air Force 1 model sold out in two hours. (There is a pair currently on eBay asking more than $1,000.) [continues 609 words]
Recreational cannabis may be legal in California, but buying the actual stuff still makes Scott Campbell, a celebrity tattoo artist and fine artist, feel like a class-cutting teenage stoner. "You go in to buy weed, and it's like visiting your parole officer," said Mr. Campbell, who lives in Los Angeles. "You get buzzed through three metal gates." Inside, cannabis products are often packaged with loopy Deadhead-style graphics and goofy dorm-humor strain names like Gorilla Glue and Purple Urkle. [continues 841 words]
Picture a mood-lit Las Vegas casino, at first glance indistinguishable from any other pleasure palace on the Strip: salarymen hunch over $20 blackjack tables as waitresses with plunging necklines circle the floor. Instead of bourbon-and-sodas, however, these waitresses are carrying trays full of vaporizers and water pipes. The games themselves have names that sound more like Cypress Hill songs: "Craps and Blunts," "Roll and Roulette." High rollers, indeed. A casino doubling as a smoker's paradise may seem like a tired Cheech & Chong skit from the '70s. But this vision is one of many ambitious concepts being hatched at High Times, the scruffy monthly magazine that, for 42 years, has served as the barely legal bible of dorm room stoners and closet cannabis growers. [continues 1744 words]
The Editor, Re. "PoCo pans grow ops" (The Tri-City News, Jan. 30). Mayor Greg Moore of Port Coquitlam says his hands are tied and there is nothing the city can do to prevent federally licensed pot growers from setting up shop in family neighbourhoods. I disagree, it is a business so they need a city-issued business licence to operate. The homeowners of this property are the real risk takers as they may find when they are ready to sell that potential buyers will be scared off when it is disclosed that the house was used as a legal grow op. To the neighbours who have brought this issue up, stay with it as your concerns are valid. Al Williams, Port Coquitlam [end]
Waimate councillor Sandy Mulqueen's bid for cannabis decriminalisation may be gone, but it's not forgotten. Mulqueen hit the headlines over the past fortnight when she formed a lobby group and made a submission to her own council's long-term plan outlining a project to decriminalise marijuana for personal and medicinal use. Her cause attracted national media attention when she admitted being stoned while working as an Auckland city bus driver. A Timaru Herald poll which ran alongside the story attracted more than 3000 votes and raised much debate on the topic, indicating wide public interest. [continues 989 words]
I cannot believe all of the uproar surrounding the medical marijuana issue. There is a very quick and simple solution: Legalize marijuana! Marijuana growing, processing and selling are driven by one thing, and one thing only: profit. Legalizing marijuana would eliminate the profit, which, in turn, would eliminate the incentive to grow it. An added benefit would be the fact that law enforcement agencies would have more time to spend fighting real crime. I know that this letter will elicit responses from many folks opposed to my idea. [continues 93 words]
ISLE OF WIGHT -- Heroin -- a narcotic more commonly found in urban areas -- is making inroads into rural Isle of Wight and Surry counties. Authorities are still searching for [name redacted], 47, of Dendron, one of 22 people indicted Thursday on federal heroin drug trafficking charges. The indictments allege that [name redacted] is a drug courier and a mid-level dealer for the drug ring, which stretched from New Jersey to Hampton Roads, according to federal officials. [name redacted] is charged with one count of conspiring to distribute 100 grams or more of heroin. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 40 years in prison. [continues 281 words]
After a two-hour discussion of a draft ordinance establishing regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries in city limits, the Sonoma Planning Commission voted 6-1 to recommend that the Sonoma City Council adopt the ordinance. But there was not a lot of clarity on a number of points, left for the council to resolve, if it decides to move forward with the ordinance. Commission chair Michael George said, "It's a really complex issue. Part of me says that cannabis is not legal because nobody can patent it. In summarizing what I've learned, we need to form an opinion to recommend to council but we're shooting in the dark here. Is the area the city or the valley? What is the patient population? How will the operator answer questions?" [continues 691 words]
It is Friday evening, you are done with a hard week of work and you are looking to relax. You pull into the local liquor store and select your grade of marijuana from the list next to the counter. The clerk weighs out the buds, charges you $30 for an eighth of an ounce, and off you go. Fiction? Maybe not if AB 390 passes. Democratic State Assembly member Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) introduced legislation last month that would legalize marijuana and allow the state to regulate and tax its sale. Ammiano says it could take up to a year before it comes to a vote for passage. [continues 1306 words]
An extensive report on regulations for a medical marijuana dispensary was presented by David Goodison, Sonoma City Planner. Concerns include adopting setbacks from schools and parks, maintaining security for the hash, limiting its potency, restricting the number of patients, and determining the agency in charge for reviewing applications and granting permits. John Sugg, who has operated a cannabis club dispensary in Santa Rosa for four years, voiced his concern on that latter issue. "Most of the ordinance is strong and necessary," he said. "But I have a concern with putting the police chief in charge of managing applications and granting permits. It makes more sense to have that be the city manager. Also, you must allow for plenty of parking because that's where the problems happen." [continues 190 words]
Ed Middleswart was upset that a drug dealer was sentenced to life in prison for "marketing" cocaine. ("War on Drugs is a distortion of true justice," Dec. 19). Middleswart stated "no evidence was provided indicating the man had harmed anyone or was in any way a threat to society." He added to the perverted logic by writing "there is no evidence that cocaine products are more addicting or damaging to individual health and social welfare than many socially acceptable drugs." Middleswart stated the dealer needed treatment and rehabilitation instead of a prison sentence. He obviously has never had any first-hand experience with cocaine addicts or drug dealers. [continues 126 words]
A FEW days after the terror arrests in London last month, a small commuter plane with three tourists was banking off the coast of Costa Rica when a sudden sound, like a muffled explosion, shattered the calm. The rear door of the plane, improperly shut, had blown open. There was a moment of panic for two of the passengers. But Roger Knox, a graphic designer making a connecting flight before boarding a jetliner home to San Francisco, was not worried. He had just doubled his usual preflight dose of Ativan, a prescription anti-anxiety drug, in anticipation of the ride on the small plane. [continues 1709 words]
An Industrial Solvent Known As GBL Is Taking Over From Now-Illegal GHB, but the Risk of Overdose Is Enormous A new drug craze sweeping Britain's nightclubs is proving so dangerous that paramedics are being hired to staff recovery rooms at major venues. The drug - known as GBL - is being blamed for an increase in the numbers of clubbers collapsing into a comatose state on the dance floor. The drug, more commonly used as a cleaning fluid or industrial solvent to produce plastics and pesticides, is currently legal despite calls to ban it. It is increasingly replacing the better-known GHB as the drug of choice for clubbers - not least because GHB was made illegal last year and given a class C drug rating, putting it on a par with cannabis and amphetamines. [continues 766 words]
Fayetteville police officers shot a man late Wednesday night during an undercover drug investigation, Lt. Katherine Bryant said. Officers were attempting to arrest the man about 11 p.m. in a parking lot of the Mount Sinai Homes at Murchison Road and Blue Street. Bryant said she did not know exactly what happened, but said that two officers fired. The man was shot twice. At some point, he tried to get away in his car. He drove out of the parking lot onto Blue Street, hit a police officer's car, bumped a curb and landed in a creek. Police took the man out of his car and sent him to the hospital. [continues 98 words]
For more than 60 years, prohibitionists have waged a war against drug use. With all their meddling in American lives, law enforcement agencies, and the programs that fund them, have failed to save anyone from themselves. Unless, of course, we count inaccurate statistics bolstered by those who prefer forced treatment over incarceration. Prohibition does nothing but inflate prices for black-market profiteers and poison minds with false propaganda. As a patriotic American, I would prefer to live among responsible adults who might choose to use marijuana for recreation and medicine rather than succumb to a police state that jails and marginalizes more than 700,000 nonviolent Americans per year, draining American tax dollars. Norfolk [end]
If you're a poor adult in America, for the most part, it's all your fault. That's true, at least today, whether you're black, white, brown or polka dot. According to the definition the U.S. Bureau of Census uses, a family of four with an income over $18,244 is not poor. The poverty cutoff for a single-person household is $9,359, and that for a two-person household is $12,000. With those definitions, the poverty rate was 11.7 percent, or about 33 million Americans living in poverty in 2001. [continues 540 words]
AMPHETAMINE use among teenagers and young adults has steadily increased over the past 10 years, particularly in regional centres. A report released yesterday indicated 4 per cent of those 14 and older had recently used amphetamines (speed). The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report said 2 per cent of those aged 14 and over had recently used ecstasy/designer drugs and 1 per cent cocaine and heroin. It is in areas outside the Sydney metropolitan area where the problem is worst, with amphetamine use in the 14 to 25 age group growing. [continues 433 words]
BUNNLEVEL -- Jack used to knock on his neighbors' doors, asking for money to buy more crack cocaine. They gave it to him because they knew him. They eventually stopped because Jack came by time after time. He has been addicted for six years. Some days, he is barely able to look at a picture of his father, he is so ashamed. The picture shows his father in Vietnam, the day before he died in the Tet offensive. Jack looks at that photo and wonders to himself, "How can you let something like this destroy you?" [continues 1047 words]
Legalization and decriminalization are fine-sounding words but they are meaningless unless the Minister of Justice is prepared to amend the legislation under her control and the federal minister of health is prepared to do the same. As for marijuana, the "huge profits" do not come from "well-heeled" recreational users but from the smuggling of the buds to the U.S. for money or heroin. This will not be curtailed by "simple market economics" and if that is to be attempted then the "bikers" will jump for joy because they are experts in that field. Even if a serious attempt is made to treat drug distribution like liquor sales, the desperate condition of the addicts will not be helped. Allan Williams, West Vancouver [end]
Smoking Opponents Are Getting More Militant. Since Carnival Cruise Lines banned smoking on its "Paradise" ship, 14 passengers and one employee have been put off at the nearest port. One of the passengers was put off the ship after the steward simply found a pack of cigarettes. According to Carnival, she was guilty of possession. The Guest Choice Network also reports that Arizona has a new state law that prohibits the use or possession of tobacco products by any adult on all school campuses. Parents can be arrested for lighting up outdoors and subject to a $100 fine for carrying tobacco products in their purse, pocket or even in their car. [continues 523 words]
