[UPDATE: Sorry, test over. It only took us a half hour to find out how bad my connection sounded. However, it was with this cheapo headset I use for Skype. I will be back tomorrow early with the full pro setup to see if it will pass. If not, we'll be back at the home studio. Thanks everyone who helped us test. -- "R"R]

I’m down here in North Portland at the World Famous Oregon NORML Cannabis Café. I’ve got the new 4G wireless connection which has been stellar in tests so far. But tonight I need to run a 2.5 hour test and I need to test multiple callers, just to put the system through a stress test.

So I’m here, at the café, testing the BlogTalkRadio platform from 7pm to 9:30pm tonight (Pacific Time, of course). It’s a test show, so nobody can hear it over the intertubes, but you can call in if you know the secret number (347-994-1810). Cannabis Karri should be along sometime as well. It won’t be a real “show”, we’ll just be hanging out and doing what you do at a cannabis café.

If you want to just sit and listen to the sounds of cannabis café and my rambling, go ahead and call in. If you want to chat, just press 1 at any time and it will signal me on the switchboard.

For extra good measure to test the wireless, I’m also streaming the gamecast of my beloved Boise State Broncos. So don’t be surprised if I suddenly yell “Touchdown!”

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Hemp Headlines

1. Irv Rosenfeld: World Record Joint Smoker
2. Could marijuana advertising save Denver papers?
3. Mississippi teacher faces 30 years, $1 million fine, for growing marijuana

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by NORML SHOW LIVE, the Voice of the Marijuana Nation

• Rockin’ Friday: Sean Hayes – “Smoking Signals”

Cannabis Conversations

• Dr. Carl Hart, Dr. Wendy Chapkis, Philippe Lucas, and Paul Armentano (among others) discussing medical marijuana’s future at the DPA Reform Conference in Albuquerque.

You might’ve first heard a Sean Hayes remix at the Banana Republic or maybe it was at Prada’s Milan store, a dance club in Thailand, or a Miami restaurant. If nightclubs and high-end retail aren’t your scene, then perhaps it was in your car, while listening to a local folk radio station or national tastemaker like WFUV or KCRW. But most likely, and if you’re lucky, you first discovered Sean Hayes years ago at a neighborhood bar or at one of the dark, intimate boho venues of San Francisco’s Mission District, where he still lives and sometimes plays unannounced shows. Wherever you first encountered the soulful, rattlesnake charm of Sean Hayes, it no doubt left you tapping your feet and shaking your head long after the music faded.

Sean Hayes
“Smoking Signals” (mp3)
from “Alabama Chicken”
(Sean Hayes)

Buy at SeanHayesMusic
Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album

Download audio file (Sean%20Hayes%20-%20Smoking%20Signals.mp3)

Five of the last eight people to get the major party nomination for president have been admitted pot smokers (Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Bush, & Obama)

Hey, Stashers, join me in giving a warm welcome to our new intern here at the Stash, Amanda.  She will be handling the “Politicians on Pot” series here at the Stash.  That’s where we take the constituent letters our congressmembers and senators send to cannabis consumers when we ask for their support of marijuana regulation, decriminalization, or medical use.

If you’d like to do your part to end prohibition, write three letters: one for both of your senators and one for your elected representative.  When they reply to you, send us that reply to stash@norml.org and we’ll post it on the Stash so everyone in the nation knows where your reps stand on marijuana issues.

And yes, Amanda is earning college credit while helping end marijuana prohibition.  You can, too!  Just send me an email with the subject “Intern Application” to learn how you can earn credit while devoting time to something you love.  (Warning: We do have a drug test… but the good news is, it’s multiple choice.)

(Seattle Times) Tim Lincecum just did a conference call with reporters to talk about winning the Cy Young Award for the second year in a row. I’ll have some of his comments on that in a bit, but at the end of the call, Lincecum made a statement on his recent traffic stop in Hazel Dell, Washington, about four miles north of the Oregon border, on Oct. 30. It’s the first time he’s talked about the incident.

Lincecum was stopped for speeding, and handed over 3.3 grams of marijuana and a pot pipe after officers smelled marijuana.

Lincecum was facing misdemeanor marijuana charges, but county prosecutors and the 25-year-old pitcher agreed to a plea agreement in which, as this San Francisco Chronicle story explains, he admits to one count of buying or selling a pot pipe, an infraction, in return for having misdemeanor charges of possessing the marijuana and the pipe dropped. Lincecum agreed to pay a $372 fine, but Clark County District Court Judge Darvin Zimmerman has still ordered Lincecum to appear in a Vancouver, Washington court on Dec. 22 for an arraignment. At that time, the plea deal will be presented and most likely approved, according to the Chronicle story.

At any rate, here’s what Lincecum said today (the guidelines for the conference call were that all questions were to be about baseball, and Lincecum said this is all he can say about the matter right now):

“I made a mistake and I regret my actions earlier this month in Washington. I want to apologize to the Giants organization and the fans. I know as a pro athlete I have a responsibility to conduct myself appropriately on and off the field. I certainly learned a valuable lesson from all of this. I promise to do better in the future.”

Another half-assed apology from another superstar pro athlete.  Is he apologizing for his use of marijuana or for speeding through Hazel Dell?  What is he promising to do better in the future, use cruise control?  I guess it is a good thing that athletes like Phelps and Lincecum apologize for their “mistake” without ever claiming that smoking marijuana itself is the mistake, instead of getting caught being the mistake.

Still, I’m just happy that Lincecum must appear in Clark County court for arraignment.  I’m putting together an informative protest in Vancouver, WA, on Tuesday, Dec 22, won’t you join me?

JACKSON COUNTY, Miss. (FOX 10 TV) – A Mississippi high school teacher is behind bars and facing fines up to $1 million, all for growing marijuana at his St. Martin home.

Narcotics officers from two agencies searched the home of 51-year-old Patrick Charles Walker on Wednesday, November 15. Walker is a teacher at St. Martin High School.

During the search, agents found marijuana plants growing inside and outside Walker’s home. They also seized marijuana that had been recently harvested, as well as stuff to grow marijuana, like fertilizers, nutrients, fans, and Ultraviolet grow lights.

If convicted, Walker faces a fine up to $1 million and up to 30 years in the state penitentiary.

In other news from Mississippi high schools:

Desoto County, Ms (My FOX Memphis) – A substitute teacher is behind bars after Desoto County Sheriff’s deputies arrested him Monday, for allegedly having sex with multiple underage students.

23-year old Joey Johnson of Horn Lake, Mississippi is charged with multiple counts of sexual battery. Johnson is alleged to have had sex with at least two 16 year old students while working as a substitute teacher at Lake Cormorant High School near Walls, Mississippi.

Johnson isn’t the only Mississippi teacher facing charges. Last week, 22-year old Tyler Bigham, a music teacher at Desoto Central High School was arrested and charged with sexual battery for allegedly having sex with a 17-year old student at a park.

(Smoking Gun) A Mississippi teacher admitted to cops that she had sex with a 15-year-old male student to whom she sent explicit text messages and trysted with in her Jaguar, which bore the license plate “GRRRRR.” Those are just some of the sleazy details in a Biloxi Police Department report detailing Rebecca Dawn Bogard’s alleged sexual assault of the boy, who the 27-year-old educator taught at the Biloxi Alternative School.  Bogard… is facing felony sexual battery charges. She has been suspended with pay and is free on $50,000 bail.

LONG BEACH, MS. (WLOX) – A former teacher faces new sex charges. Police say Joseph Eugene Council, 33, of Long Beach confessed to having a sexual relationship with 17 year old girl.

Until May, Council taught band and choir at Pass Christian Middle and High Schools. Council was taken to the Harrison County Jail where he was being held pending $75,000 bond. Long Beach Police say the investigation is continuing and ask anyone with information about the case to call 228-863-7292.

Four different Mississippi teachers involved in sexual relationships with minors.  Their bonds were set at values between $50,000 and $100,000 dollars.  Mississippi law sets the bar for statutory rape at age 16, so only the female teacher in the Smoking Gun piece might have been charged with rape.  But in her case, and the other teacher cases, the charges are set to felony sexual battery, defined as:

§ 97-3-95. Sexual battery.

(1) A person is guilty of sexual battery if he or she engages in sexual penetration with:

(a) Another person without his or her consent;

(b) A mentally defective, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless person;

(c) A child at least fourteen (14) but under sixteen (16) years of age, if the person is thirty-six (36) or more months older than the child; or

(d) A child under the age of fourteen (14) years of age, if the person is twenty-four (24) or more months older than the child.

(2) A person is guilty of sexual battery if he or she engages in sexual penetration with a child under the age of eighteen (18) years if the person is in a position of trust or authority over the child including without limitation the child’s teacher, counselor, physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, minister, priest, physical therapist, chiropractor, legal guardian, parent, stepparent, aunt, uncle, scout leader or coach.

§ 97-3-101. Sexual battery; penalty.

(1) Every person who shall be convicted of sexual battery under § 97-3-95(1)(a), (b), or (2) shall be imprisoned in the State Penitentiary for a period of not more than thirty (30) years, and for a second or subsequent such offense shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary for not more than forty (40) years.

So remember folks, if you’re a high school teacher in Mississippi, growing marijuana plants in your own home is as reprehensible as having sex with your teenaged students.  Oh, wait, I’m sorry, it’s worse.  The felony sexual battery charges don’t carry a $1,000,000 fine.

(NBC Miami) When you think of the world’s most prolific pot smokers, certain names come to mind: Snoop, Cheech and Chong, Willie Nelson.

How about Irvin Rosenfeld?

The 56-year-old Fort Lauderdale stockbroker will put his name among the greats when he sets a world record tomorrow for weed consumption while lighting up his 115,000th joint.

One of the few people I know can smoke me under a table - Irv Rosenfeld at NORML CON 2006

The best part is that it’s all legal.

Rosenfeld’s pot has been provided by the government since 1982, when he became a patient in the Federal Drug Administration’s Investigational New Drug Program. Grown on a farm on the campus of the University of Mississippi, the weed is delivered to a local pharmacy where Rosenfeld gets it by the bushel.

Rosenfeld suffers from a rare bone disorder called multiple congenital cartilaginous exostoses, which causes severe pain, alleviated by a healthy dose of ganja.

He’s been getting 300 joints every 25 days for the past 27 years, and said he smokes between 10 and 12 per day.

The sad thing for Irv is that the ganja the feds grow for him is the schwaggiest of the schwag.  This is the marijuana grown by Dr. ElSohly in Mississippi and it’s about 4%-5% THC.  They don’t bother to manicure the bud much before grinding, so the joints contain stems and leaves and the occasional seed.  So don’t be too surprised when he tells you that smoking it doesn’t get him high.

I’ve also had the pleasure of knowing another of the four remaining IND patients, Elvy Musikka.  She has the benefit of being both a federal medical marijuana patient and an Oregon state medical marijuana patient.  She can tell you better than anyone the difference between federal schwag and Oregon’s finest, and the race isn’t even close.

What’s really disturbing is that the government set up this “Investigational New Drug Program” in 1978 and to this date they haven’t done a bit of investigation.  Irv, Elvy and the other two patients have never been surveyed or studied by our government to determine how these decades of medical marijuana use have affected the humans using it.  It might make you think our government never really wanted people to know how effective medical cannabis can be, huh?

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Hemp Headlines

1. Philadelphia could save $3 million annually by ending marijuana mug shots
2. Michigan law enforcement’s job more difficult because they can’t just arrest everyone found with marijuana anymore
3. Smell of pot dooms indoor marijuana grow near LAPD station

Daily Toker Tunes

• Groovin’ Thursday: B-Real – “Fire”

Southern California Scene with Tere Joyce

• Degé Coutee from Patients Advocacy Network on the battle of LA County dispensaries

(Jessica Corry – Huffington Post) Denver is a city in love with its newspapers. Even in 2009, many residents still cling to the scent and grime of fresh newspaper print. But as the recent loss of the city’s beloved Rocky Mountain News still lingers, the focus now turns to saving the publications remaining. In an ironic twist of fate worthy of its own front page feature, essential revenue could come from the most unlikely of sources. Marijuana.

Denver’s top alternative weekly, Westword, gets it. On both sides of its most recent edition’s back cover, 32 medical marijuana dispensaries advertised their services. In addition, in the publication’s “alternative healing” section, nearly nine additional pages were packed with similar plugs.

While the Denver Post has run a series of front page stories over the last month chronicling the brewing debate over how or whether to increase regulations on dispensaries, it has been slower getting into the advertising game, running quarter page ads from a handful of dispensaries, with plans to expand advertising access through a special section devoted to dispensaries and other alternative health outlets.

While most of American business is mired in a rut, for medical marijuana providers in California and Colorado, business is booming.  But it’s not just the sales of marijuana that provide jobs and tax revenue to the state.  There are also all the construction, advertising, rent, utilities, and other expenses these businesses pay that creates jobs for others.  At Oregon’s Cannabis Café, which doesn’t sell any cannabis at all, they are doing the same amount of business in a day that used to take all week to generate, and that’s just the sales of café food and beverages.  The café also charges a monthly membership fee and a cover charge minimum at the door.

This is why I always scoff at estimates of money to be made from legalization of cannabis.  I believe those estimates are extraordinarily conservatove and don’t even begin to factor in all the ancillary industries that will be formed to support the legal cannabis market.  The increase in sales of Ziploc baggies alone could bring enough tax revenue to hire more teachers and cops or fix some roads.

(USA Today) Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants won his second consecutive National League Cy Young Award Thursday, becoming the first repeat winner in the major leagues since Randy Johnson won four times from 1999 to 2002.

Lincecum got 11 of 32 first-place votes and 100 points overall in the voting by the Baseball Writers Association of America and beat the St. Louis Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright in one of the closest races in the award’s history. Carpenter had nine first-place votes and 94 points, and Wainwright had 12 first-place votes and 90 points.

Yes, the same guy who was popped in Washington State for a personal amount of weed is the best pitcher in the National League for two years in a row.  We begin the year with eight-time gold medalist Michael Phelps smoking a bong and we end the year with two-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum smoking a bowl.  Can we finally dispense with the notion that marijuana smoking turns you into an unaccomplished slacker loser?