In a strange coincidence, both the governors of Hawaii and Rhode Island vetoed bills that would have established task forces to study how to best supply medical marijuana to their state’s patients. Both states had one chamber of the Legislature overturn the veto, but not the other. Pam Lichty from the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii and Jesse Stout from the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition visit to discuss the next steps forward.
Then Tere Joyce (Last Comic Standing) brings us our 420 Comedy with Jeffrey Petersen. Jeffrey’s got the goods on the drug czar’s anti-pot commercials, and Tere details the saga of their history with The Dope Show.
Musical break features some Scottish rock from Infallible. Along with Disciples of Panic Earth, these guys are my favorite Scottish rock.
Gets some bubblegum in your bubbler and let’s do this thing.
Howdy, Stashers! Today is my 100th podcast for the NORML Daily Audio Stash, not counting weeekend music posts (when I have the time to put them together, which in summer is “not much”) and NORML Weekly News. And they said we potheads were amotivational…
Today we get our weekly dose of Cannabis Science with Dr. Mitch Earleywine who is here to cover the World Health Organization’s report on illicit drug use worldwide. Finally, something other than military budget where the USA isn’t getting trounced by the rest of the world!
Then my friends Paul Stanford and Madeline Martinez, chief petitioners of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, join me to discuss the kickoff of the effort to tax and regulate consumer cannabis and end hemp prohibition in the Beaver State.
And Karri found us some Cambodian pop music from LA for the break today. Now that’s diversity! I may need to smoke a little Cambodian before listening to it. (Not weed. I play Halo online against a young boy from Phnom Penh. Kidding!)
Hope you had a great three-day weekend. Sorry I missed the podcast yesterday, but I was so busy with all of the OCTA press work. Check out some of the graphics I’ve designed for the campaign at Oregon NORML. Our press conference (which got Noon, 4pm, 5pm, 6pm, 10pm, & 11pm news coverage on the ABC, CBS, NBC, & FOX local affiliates) is below:
Then we visit with NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano about one of the most cherished theories of the cannabis movement: that Big Pharma is conspiring to keep marijuana illegal because it doesn’t want to compete with the free herb! Paul says it just ain’t so!
And you get a special two-fer for the musical break, as I catch you up with yesterday’s Blues Monday and today’s tune together. Enjoy!
{{Well, look what was sitting in my draft folder. I posted the July 4 podcast to the feed, but forgot to post the on the blog. Hey, it was a holiday and I was working, so cut me some slack, Jack… ;-) “R”R }}
Happy Independence Day! Remember, the patriots who signed their name to a death sentence on July 4, 1776, faced the most insurmountable odds you can imagine. (Picture Puerto Rico declaring independence from the US if we really didn’t want them to.) Britain was the greatest global empire on the planet and had the best military and navy. But dedicated freedom fighters who stuck to their principles of equality and freedom overcame the odds and established the first nation created for a purpose, not born of race, geography, religion, ethnicity, or station.
They were hemp farmers and cannabis users and they were flawed men of their times, considering the slavery, genocide, and second-class treatment of women and minorities that they accommodated, but they instituted a framework in the Declaration that aspires to a greater ideal - that we are endowed with the rights of Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness, that all men (in the “human” sense) are created equal, and that just governments rule by the consent of the governed.
We’re striving for that “more perfect Union” referred to in the Constitution. We overcame slavery, we’re repairing Jim Crow, we’ve recognized most women’s and minorities’ rights and we’re working on recognizing them all. We’re far more diverse and tolerant than most anyplace on Earth even though we still have our pockets of bigotry, ignorance, and hatred. Enlightenment is not achieved overnight or even over two centuries because it is a continuous process. We’re better every generation. And this generation will be the one to finally restore America to her hemp roots and reassert our natural right of sovereignty of mind and consciousness.
We’ve got Steve Bloom from CelebStoner.com with us with the marijuana entertainment connection, and I give you my take on the Declaration of Independence, the Drug War Revision.
Sorry, Stashers, I just had way too much on my plate today to put together a podcast. I had to set up the press conference, record and edit video for our Oregon Cannabis Tax Act AND book and interview Harry Shearer for my radio show this weekend (”Excellent!”, “Splendiddly-iddly!”)
We’ll be back tomorrow with Paul Armentano debunking the “Big Pharma keeps pot illegal” myth and Madeline Martinez discussing the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act. In the meantime, enjoy my neato-keen graphs and charts to help explain to the average folks why cannabis sales in liquor stores in a better than idea than keeping sales on the black market.
It’s a special comedy edition of the Daily Audio Stash! Tere Joyce (Last Comic Standing, Hollyweed Live) is joining us now on Thursdays as our Cannabis Comedy Correspondent. Each week she will put us in touch with the best up-and-coming comedians who are on the cutting edge of reefer comedy.
Tere kicks off the segment by describing the incident that turned her from being just another stand-up to being a committed cannabis crusader - a DEA raid at the first medical marijuana dispensary she ever visited! Now she works with the Patients Advocacy Network and performs benefits for those who have been victimized by the War on Marijuana. You can see her next at the Castle Inn in Landers, California, on July 12th (a week from this Saturday).
Then we visit with the Associate Publisher of High Times Magazine (and co-defendent in the Keith Stroup Massachusetts Joint-Smoking trial) Rick Cusick. Rick remembers his conversations with the late George Carlin and how Carlin was instrumental in getting Cusick his job at High Times.
Light your fireworks tomorrow - light a doobie now and enjoy your NORML Daily Audio Stash…
Welcome to The Middle of The Year! Tomorrow my essay on the DEA’s 35th birthday will appear at Lew Rockwell’s site (www.lewrockwell.com), stop on over and give it a Digg and let’s bring some mainstream attention to the Daily Audio Stash!
Then I’m replaying my interview with NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano regarding the government’s squelching of research on cannabis they know may show promise in treating certain types of cancers, like the glioma and glioblastoma brain cancers. In the wake of Sen. Ted Kennedy’s brain cancer diagnosis, it’s time to re-open this research.
And what’s a humpday with out some hempy hip-hop? Big B and Kottonmouth Kings tell us we can smoke if we want to… So I will! Enjoy your NORML Daily Audio Stash!
Last day of June and onto the three-day Fourth of July Weekend! Hooray!
Today we get to visit with Jed Riffe, who directed the documentary “Waiting to Inhale”, which chronicles the emergence of medical marijuana since the passage of California’s Prop 215.
Then we interview Loretta Nall with Alabamians for Compassionate Care, with the shockingly un-reported story of special treatment for the son of a prominent tough-on-drugs judge, who faces multiple felony trafficking and possession charges for being caught dealing pot, meth, and coke near the children’s playground at a public park.
Try to beat the heat and load up an ice-bong, it’s time for your NORML Daily Audio Stash.
w00t! It’s the Weekend… and I drink your milkshake! (My 25-year-old brother is visiting and he tells me that is funny.)
Today we visit with Steve Bloom from CelebStoner.com for a look at the legacy of George Carlin. Plus Steve has the latest Paris Hilton pot-fast news and the salacious marijuana details of Bill Murray’s divorce.
We get a little music from Willie and a little comedy from Carlin before it’s all done. Grab a bubbler full of bubblegum and enjoy your NORML Daily Audio Stash.
I’m doing a bit of remote podcasting from here on the Central Oregon coast. Hope you enjoy today’s show. I’ve got an interview with Portland attorney and NORML Legal Committee member Leland Berger. With the Supreme Court deciding today there is an individual right to keep and bear arms, it’s fitting that we talk about how a couple of sheriffs in Oregon tried to take away that right from some law-abiding medical marijuana patients.
As you can read below, we had a winner in our Pass the Stash contest. Thanks for all the entries, and next time I won’t make the questions so tricky (worldwide box office? possession only? tricky, dude…)
Also enjoy another tune from the incredible Carolyn Wonderland. It’s her ballad of a young woman serving time for dealing pot called “Annie’s Scarlet Letter.”
Today’s Audio Stash features an interview with Tom Daubert, Founder and Director of Montana Patients and Families United. Tom tells us about the interesting wording of Montana’s medical marijuana law and how it protects the rights of patients on probation or parole.
For our Cannabis Science we speak with Dr. Mitch Earleywine from SUNY Albany. The good doctor exposes the frauds behind the latest report from the Centers on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) that claim the “Not Your Father’s Woodstock Weed!” is driving the teenagers insane!!!
And me, I’m heading to the Central Oregon Coast! I love living close to the ocean. I’m visiting with all my extended relatives at our biennial family reunion. I just can’t wait to answer the question, “So what do you do?”
“Well, Great Aunt Millie, I read, write, and talk about marijuana…”
Today’s Daily Audio Stash is dedicated to the memory of George Carlin, a man whom I never knew, who taught me to speak truth to power; to respect the power of words; to flaunt the First Amendment; to never accept the word of authority without checking it out for yourself; to never fear pointing out the emperor wears no clothes; to laugh at ourselves through all our tragedies; to expose the hypocrisies of church and state; to stay away from cocaine; to not be afraid to be silly; and to curse like a fucking sailor, god damn it! Baseball vs. Football - A Place for Your Stuff - Four Groups That Gotta Go - Seven Dirty Words (that evolved into the Incomplete List of Impolite Words) - I’ll never forget the first time those made me laugh and it’s some of that rare comedy that makes me laugh as hard hearing the hundredth time. You’re dust now, dude. Dust, wind, dude. But the art you created lives on in so many of us.
On today’s Stash we go back to George Carlin’s hometown, New York City, for a two-part interview with Dr. Harry Levine, Professor of Sociology at Queen’s College in New York. Dr. Levine is co-author of the study, “Marijuana Arrest Crusade”, which details the skyrocketing arrest rates for marijuana between 1997-2007 and the racial disparities found in those arrests.
It’s Summer! Officially! We’ve got 70 degrees here in Portland under partly-cloudy skies… and a calendar chock full o’ summer hempfests and speaking engagements. I hope I get to meet some Stashers in Eugene, Seattle, Boise, and Denver this year. Eugene and Seattle have hempfests where I’ve been invited to speak, Boise is where my folks live, and I’ll be in Denver because I am a credentialed blogger (through an LGBT blog I contribute to called Pam’s House Blend) at the Democratic National Convention. While I will be reporting for the gay community as a “straight ally”, you can bet there will be some NORML reporting going on as well.
Today we’ve got a Stash full of entertainment. Steve Bloom from CelebStoner.com is back with a look at the new season of Weeds that just debuted on Showtime. Jonathan Levine is here to talk about the movie he wrote and directed called The Wackness, starring Academy Awardâ„¢ winner Sir Ben Kingsley. And we’ve got some funky rock from the most perfectly-named band to ever hit the Stash, Johnny Reeferseed and the High Rollers.
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.
From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond.
Juneteenth is a day of reflection, a day of renewal, a pride-filled day. It is a moment in time taken to appreciate the African American experience. It is inclusive of all races, ethnicities and nationalities - as nothing is more comforting than the hand of a friend.
…On Juneteenth we come together young and old to listen, to learn and to refresh the drive to achieve. It is a day where we all take one step closer together - to better utilize the energy wasted on racism. Juneteenth is a day that we pray for peace and liberty for all.
Today I’ve got one more presentation from the Aspen Legal Seminar. The president-elect of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, John Wesley Hall, elaborates on roadside traffic stops and cases in search and seizure law.
In Reefer Madness we take a look at the CASA report - not only is it not your father’s pot, but it’s driving the young people INSANE!!!
Also, some reefer rap from Japan. HANABiS is the man and it’s a really cool mix. Enjoy!
Dr. Mitch Earleywine joins us to discuss the decrease in teen marijuana use in the states that have accepted medical use of marijuana. New York State Assembly approves a medical marijuana bill while Florida institutes tough new mandatory minimums for marijuana grow houses. And NORML’s Paul Armentano was featured on the Dr. Drew radio show on Westwood One.  He followed the Drug Czar, John Walters, who appeared to tout the “not your father’s pot” myth. Yours truly even got to call in to the show and peg some of Walters’ falsehoods.
Did you see the one about how marijuana is twice as potent now as it was then? Every year, the ONDCP likes to trumpet the results of the Potency Monitoring Project to try and scare uneducated parents about marijuana’s potency. NORML’s Paul Armentano joins us to thoroughly debunk those rumors and explain marijuana’s relative safety.
We also look to our borders today: to Canada, where researchers in Vancouver are concerned that medical marijuana users may suffer non-serious adverse effects from using pot, like being high. Then down to Mexico, where an under-reported drug war has killed 10,000 with mostly American guns.
Our musical break today features some experimental ragga from Kush Arora. This is definitely not music for an unsupervised acid trip. Grab yourself some wacky tobaccy and enjoy!
Just a quick note to all the Stashers out there in the Midwest just trying to keep dry. We’re thinking of you and hope you didn’t lose anything or anyone precious in those floods
Today we have a special treat. NORML Board Member George Rohrbacher joins us to talk about Pot and Parenting. Seems that after 40 years of being a NORML dad, he managed to put four kids through Ivy League schools and have a successful rural farming life. George will give you his insight on good parenting that doesn’t demonize marijuana use, but explains that it isn’t for teens.
We also get a firsthand account of a story we broke earlier this month. You’ll recall the story of the New Jersey high school being locked down because of threats from an upset 45-year-old marijuana customer against his teenage dealer? Well that man, Howard Lowery, joins us to explain his side of the story, which just illustrates the cruelty medical marijuana patients in non-medical states face and the desperation they are driven to on the black market.
And we’ve also got our regular Blues Monday break with some groovy Chicago blues from Eddie “The Chief” Clearwater. Find yourself the Zig Zag Man and let’s enjoy some Daily Audio Stash!
Egads, it’s Friday the 13th! Where’s my hockey mask?
Today on your Friday Stash I wrap up the highlights from the NORML Aspen Legal Seminar last weekend. A friend of the Stash, attorney Doug Hiatt from Seattle, Washington, gave an excellent presentation on medical use issues in Washington State. He particularly described the cases he’s worked on where medical marijuana patients are denied spots on the organ transplant lists because they are “illegal drug users”. Hiatt also looks at the strange battle to determine what Washington’s “60-day supply” of usable marijuana really means.
I’ve also got a true story to tell of a middle aged couple living in a tropical paradise whose world is turned upside-down by the DEA for one 6-inch pot plant. Get in on the true crime drama with Agent Joe Monday in this episode of “Drugnet”.
We’ve got some laid-back groovy rap from Jet Baker, who is going to take us to this weekend’s Pot Party.
Finally, I got word through the latest ONDCP potency report that there was a record seizure of a strain in Vista, California, that came in at a 37.20% THC potency. The record until this quarter was a seizure in my home state of Oregon that came in at 33.12% THC. While you Californians are going to claim you’ve got the better bud, I’ll believe it when I smoke it. We Oregonians are just better at hiding our good stuff from the feds… ;-*<\\\\\\\\\\@~~~
I’m just about caught up on all the media processing. Check out the National NORML YouTube Page and you can see all the videos I’ve been uploading from the Aspen Legal Seminar. Also, check out the Aspen Legal Seminar Archive I’ve put together. I’ll be adding more audio, video, and photos as I process them.
Today I’m giving you a two-part presentation from Paul Armentano’s seminar on the latest DUID laws and the studies on cannabis and driving. Yes, they really want to take your license even if you never drive stoned.
Plus we’ve got some good new rock and roll from Skracht Apple, and a new segment on the Stash - Stupid Stoner Stories. I hope you enjoy, and take it as it’s meant - we’ve got to hold ourselves up to a, ahem, higher standard. That means no dope in court!
More from the Aspen Legal Seminar with NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre giving a great overview of the emerging issues facing the cannabis community in 2008.
Plus we’ve got some heavily sedated hip-hop for you with Green Team and “2 Gram Blunt”.
Dr. Mitch Earleywine on cannabis and tobacco co-dependence; Del Snavely of Medical Cannabis Assoc. of ND; CA raids and convictions; music by Blue Line Highway.
SSDP's Kris Krane on HEA Aid Penalty; Pt 3 with Wendy Chapkis, Richard Webb, Valerie Corral on "Dying to Get High"; DEA + Blackwater?; music by Don Nix.
Members Of Congress Demand An End To Federal Pot Possession Arrests; National MS Society Makes Recommendations Regarding Therapeutic Use Of Cannabis; The Tragic Death Of Rachel Hoffman -- And The Tragedy That Is Pot Prohibition; Interview with Rep. Barney Frank.
Pot Compound Enhances Efficacy Of Anti-Cancer Agents, Study Says; California: Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act Qualifies For November Ballot; New Orleans: District Attorney Charging Minor Pot Offenders With Felonies; Kelly Maddy on Joplin MO Decrim Effort.
Marijuana Extracts Provide Superior Pain Relief Compared To Plant's Isolated Compounds; Case Study: Inhaled Cannabis Improves Symptoms Of ADHD; ONDCP Insider: Drug Czar's Office Is "Flying Blind"; Austrian Parliament Approves Medical Marijuana Use.
John Wesley Hall, president-elect of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, describes the case precendent in roadside traffic stops and search and seizure.
Seattle, Washington attorney Doug Hiatt explains the latest medical use issues in Washington State, including denial of transplant organs for medmj patients.
