If it wasn't for William Randolph Hearst, you could probably smoke The Union by now. "The Union. Established in 1864," the banner would read. "Read It. Smoke It." The benefits of smoking The Union would probably depend on the level of THC (the part that makes you high) included in the hemp fiber, but I'm fairly certain it would make you forget whatever bad news the pages of the morning included. According to pot lore, two scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture discovered that you could make paper from the "woody inner portion of the hemp stem broken into pieces." In their 1916 report, the scientists found a "favorable comparison with those (papers) used with pulp wood." [continues 994 words]
I'll bet a beer that most of you would have no problem finding a gin and tonic, if booze was illegal today. Guys like Al Capone would see to that. Big Al, they say, was knocking down $60 million per year in the late 1920s from alcohol alone, during a period when our government brain trust decided the best way to get people to sober up was to pass an 18th Amendment banning the sale, transportation and manufacturing of alcohol in America. [continues 953 words]
A friend suggested Grass Valley would be a better place to open western Nevada County's first marijuana dispensary. "I knew a guy whose last name was Potts and he lived on High Street," he told me. We had a good laugh until I realized he was serious. National sports commentators had fun with Grass Valley not long ago when professional football player Ricky Williams was visiting a yoga farm here after leaving football because they wouldn't let him smoke pot. He soon realized that yoga and pot didn't pay nearly as much as professional football, so he dropped the pipe and returned to the Miami Dolphins, where many of his teammates were probably shooting steroids through their butt pads and foreheads. [continues 759 words]
A few weeks ago a guy called to discuss one of my weekly ditties, wherein I essentially advocated for the legalization of marijuana. Not because I think everyone should smoke it (who would eat all the pills and drink all the vodka?), but because it doesn't make sense to fill up our prisons with pot smokers and growers, and there is a good argument to be made for taxing it. Especially when you can generate millions in much-needed government funds you could use for parks, libraries, schools and pork for the proverbial barrel. [continues 682 words]
Had quite a few calls on last week's column regarding our growing methamphetamine problem. If you missed it, I pretty much said it was time to tackle that epidemic head-on because there's no escape. Not in Wyoming. Not in Kansas. Not in Georgia. Not in Iowa, where the meth problem has grabbed America by its very Heartland. If you are someone who likes to cook methamphetamine in a bathtub (that's where many like to mix the red phosphorous with the other chemicals used to make the stuff), then you wouldn't have liked last week's column. That's because I suggested you ought to be put in prison until your teeth fall out. [continues 821 words]
