Ironic coincidence or cruel taunt? (From CollegeHumor.com)

I happened upon one of those time-wasting slide shows on the internet, this one entitled “15 Great Cop Cars“.  I figured it would be replete with souped up D.A.R.E.-mobiles, a Camaro or Trans-Am or Mustang seized from some unfortunate cannabis consumer who lost his prized ride thanks to civil asset forfeiture.

Sure enough they’ve got the Hummer-on-dubs cop care, the monster-truck cop car, the limo cop car, but no muscle-car cop car.  I was a bit disappointed until I found the 420 State Police car pictured here.  I felt even better seeing the 420 D.A.R.E. Van.

Amber Ladd

From an auspicious start singing in small-town Ontario churches through Toronto, Montreal, Denver, and soon New York City comes 28-year-old future trip-hop superstar Amber Ladd. She will be if her belief that we’re all creators of our own existence is correct. A glance at her life shows that here may be something to her Utopian philosophy… just call her the pothead trip-hop Tori Amos.

To Amber, music is doing what she loves and always having fun. After being in a Toronto-based alternative band for a few years and then an individual acoustic project, Amber chose to devote herself to her current solo electronica going full-time with her music after losing her day job as a graphic artist. Making lemon out of lemonade (or perhaps tea out of stems), her debut album “tRip” — released on 4/20 this year after two years of work — has enabled Amber to follow her dreams of music, travel, and using her vibrance towards bringing an end to the “War on Drugs.”

All of Amber’s art is solely created by her. She writes the lyrics, sings the vocals, plays the instruments, and produces her own tracks with turntables, sampling, and effects. Furthermore, Amber has to be genuinely inspired by her own work enough to include it for release. Amber’s genre-busting dubby trip-hop that she unapologetically calls “stoner music” has caused the cannabis community to fall in love with her. Regular appearances in High Times magazine and on radio podcasts throughout North America showcasing her amazing talent and deep passion for drug reform, as well as playing marijuana-related festivals including the upcoming Boston Freedom Rally, has led her to be nominated for the fan-based “Artist Activism” award to be given out at the MassCann/NORML Awards the night prior to Boston’s Hempfest.

Today’s Toker Tune is a fantastic example of Amber’s powerful voice and creative skills. Opening and ending with weed-related samples, “420″ is an homage to the cannabis reform movement and to pot smokers everywhere. The idea of a musical playground for the stoned emerged via seeing medical and recreational marijuana consumers from all walks of life enjoying spending time together in one room at a 2008 rally in Toronto in protest of the Kindred Cafe raids. It’s difficult to pin down this highly layered song. It could be said that it contains aspects of trip-hop, experimental noize, rock, psychedelia, and even the gospel music Amber grew up with; one person who walked through where I was listening to “420″ said it sounds like Hendrix. But the sheer variety of influences present perhaps means we’re not supposed to, or that the incredible depth of this highly layered composition is an individual trip to be taken.

Discover the wonderful world of Amber Ladd on MySpace, through her personal and fan pages on Facebook, or on Twitter. The “tRip” album is available on CDBaby and iTunes, and be sure not to miss upcoming special releases including a cover of Rocky Horror Picture Show’s “Superheroes” and a track featuring Rick Cusick of High Times. If you missed it live, stay tuned for the transcript of my interview on NORML Show Live with Amber Ladd!

Download audio file (Amber Ladd – 420.mp3)

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Download Link: Secret Stash - Register to access

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2010-04-21.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Recap of 4/20 events throughout US and Canada
2. Oregon Supreme Court decides employers may legally fire or not hire medical marijuana patients
3. Los Angeles ganjapreneurs open up Normandy Hotel as new cannabis-friendly “potel”

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Johnny Reeferseed & the High Rollers

• Irie Wednesday: Oba Simba – “This Herb”

Cannabis Science with Dr. Mitch Earleywine

Cannabis Community

• “Radical” Russ vs. Dr. Drew on Twitter
• Experiences from the International Cannabis and Hemp Expo in San Francisco

Audio from Russ Belville’s presentation, “The Time for Re-Legalization is Now”, delivered 4/20/2010 at University of Washington – Tacoma.

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2010-04-20.mp3)

Download Link: Secret Stash - Register to access

Download Link: Secret Stash - Register to access

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2010-04-15.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Violent criminals released from California prisons to make space while marijuana offenders remain behind bars
2. Canadian mother faces two-year custody battle over son in Oregon, her marijuana activism cited by child services as need for psychological and parenting tests
3. John Ray Wilson in New Jersey, multiple sclerosis patient, must remain behind bars while appealing his sentence for growing medical marijuana

Daily Toker Tunes

• Special Guest – Daddy X from Kottonmouth Kings with “Party Monsters” from “Long Live the Kings”, the new album dropping on 4/20

Southern California Scene with Tere Joyce

• Kushed Out Fashions

Grassroots Activism

• Brad Ernst from Texas NORML on the Texas Cannabis Crusade

Another Groovin’ Thursday Tune from the brand NEW Cypress Hill album ‘Rise Up’ in stores on 4/20.  Song is Called ‘Armada Latina’, and features Pitbull with a chorus from Marc Anthony.  No need for more intro of The Hill.  Y’all know where they stand.  Just pick up that album on 420.  So far it is some of the best and most refreshing work I’ve heard from Cypress Hill.  Gotta’ dig the good times.

Buy ‘Armada Latina’ and other tracks from the album ‘Rise Up’ on iTunes!

The Inaugural HIGH TIMES American Medical Cannabis Cup in San Francisco - June 19-20, 2010 - San Francisco - Click here for more information

It’s not too early to be making your plans for the big cannabis events this spring and summer, which with all the reforms taking place in America should be the biggest cannabis protestival season to date (NORML SHOW LIVE will be streaming live from the events that are listed in boldface).  If you have an event you’d like to add to the list, please email me at stash@norml.org (I’m entering these from memory and I live on the West Coast, so please send me Midwest / Southern / Eastern events!)  Also check our NORML Cannabis Community Calendar for the smaller local events sponsored by NORML chapters around the country.

April 2010

• Michigan NORML helps present the Ann Arbor Hash Bash which kicks off the season on the first Saturday in April every year (April 3).  It’s just “one hour of power” around that famous 4:20pm time on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
• The International Hemp & Cannabis Expo takes place in San Francisco on the weekend preceding 4/20 (April 17 & 18). This debut event is happening at the Cow Palace.  “Radical” Russ will be a featured guest speaker.
• 

  CU Boulder's 4/20 Smoke Out draws an estimated 10,000 people

  The world’s largest 4/20 smokeout will likely occur at the campus of Colorado University – Boulder.  There are also big 4/20 celebrations held in many other cities in the US (send me info at stash@norml.org and I’ll post it), as well as Vancouver BC and Dunedin, New Zealand internationally (our NORML New Zealand chapters represent!)  4/20 is on a Tuesday this year and “Radical” Russ will be giving a 90-minute presentation on marijuana law reform at the University of Washington in Tacoma.

May 2010

• The Worldwide Marijuana March takes place in cities all around the world (logically enough) on the first Saturday in May (May 1 – May Day is Jay Day!)  Click the web link to find your city.  “Radical” Russ will appear at Portland, Oregon’s version of the march, the Global Cannabis March, all day at Pioneer Courthouse Square.

June 2010

• 

  This year marks a return to Hunter S. Thompson's famed "Owl Farm" on Woody Creek for a special afternoon cookout.

  NORML Aspen Legal Seminar takes place at the Gant Hotel in Aspen, Colorado, on June 10-12. This is NORML’s only event that is both accredited for cannabis law professionals’ continuing legal education and open to the general public.

• HIGH TIMES’ Medical Cannabis Cup debuts in San Francisco, California on June 19 and 20. This will be a daytime expo featuring medical marijuana experts and activists, leading dispensaries, medical cultivation seminars with Jorge Cervantes, Danny Danko, Nico Escondito and more!  Then on Saturday night the VIP party features performances by Eagles of Death Metal, Lyrics Born, and other top acts.

July 2010

• The Emerald Empire Hempfest takes place on July 16-18 in Eugene, Oregon. Willamette Valley NORML is a major organizer of the event and “Radical” Russ will be speaking at the event.

August 2010

• The second of two California HempCons promoted by Beverly Hills NORML takes place August 6-8 in San Francisco, California.
• 

  This is what Hempfest looked like BEFORE it became a three-day festival and BEFORE the City Attorney in Seattle said he would no longer prosecute personal possession of marijuana...

  The “mother of all hempfests”, the Seattle Hempfest, takes place on the third weekend of August (August 20-22) on Myrtle Edwards Park in Seattle, Washington. The Hempfest has expanded to three days for the first time this year and in a very promising development, the newly-elected city attorney in Seattle has said he will no longer prosecute personal marijuana possession offenses!  You thought Hempfest was smoky before…

September 2010

• 

  If you want to be truly effective as a reformer, you must network with your colleagues.

  NORML National Conference is scheduled for September 9-11, 2010 in Portland, Oregon. More details for hotel and conference registration will be announced soon.  NORML SHOW LIVE will carry most of the conference on pay-per-view internet streaming for the first time for activists on a budget or unable to make it to Portland.

• Portland Hempstalk takes place September 11 & 12 at Kelley Point Park in Portland, Oregon, making Sept. 9-12 the perfect four-day “two-fer” for cannabis activists to visit the Pacific Northwest.
• Boston Freedom Rally marks its 21st year on the Boston Common on September 18.

We’ll keep updating this page as more people send us their information.  You can easily find this page with the URL http://stash.norml.org/summer2010.

Download Link: Secret Stash - Register to access

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2010-03-05.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Denver House Judiciary hearing on dispensary regulation bill
2. 2011 Dept. of Justice budget requests, part II
3. Washington SB 5798 expands types of medical professionals that can recommend medical marijuana
4. Online commerce and payment system changes name to specifically serve the cannabis community
5. Jack Herer, the Emperor of Hemp, is back at home in Oregon and recovering from last September’s heart attack

Daily Toker Tunes

• Rockin’ Friday: WookieFoot – “All Good (Psychophamacologistcanexpediteyourdoses)”

CelebStoner.com Entertainment Report with Steve Bloom, co-author of Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life

• Report on HempCon in LA from two weeks ago
• Grandsons of Ronald Reagan and Kirk Douglas both in hot water over drug charges
• 4/20 music releases from Kottonmouth Kings, Cypress Hill, Willie Nelson, and more

Grassroots Activism

• Chris Goldstein from PhillyNORML on Drexel University legal seminar on drug law reform, free tomorrow afternoon in Philadelphia

Diamond Dog from Rockford, Illinois

There isn’t much I can find on this band called Diamond Dog from Rockford, Illinois.  The band was formed in 1999 and I found this track called “420″ up at GarageBand.com.  The latest gig I see listed for them was in 2003, and their website, http://diamonddog.net, is a dead link.  But I just had to post this track because it was hardest-rocking song I’d ever heard celebrating 4:20.

If you have any information on whatever happened to Diamond Dog, send me an email at stash@norml.org.

Download audio file (Diamond_Dog-420.mp3)

ABOUT 30 cannabis-selling coffee shops in the south of the Netherlands announced yesterday they would become private members’ clubs at the start of next year to keep out foreign drug tourists.

“We will transform the coffee shops from open establishments, accessible by all, to closed establishments of which clients need to be members,” Maastricht Mayor Gerd Leers said, in the Limburg province move away from a liberal Dutch approach to soft drugs.

The membership process would take days, effectively preventing up to four million short-term tourists buying marijuana. The move is backed by the national government and is seen as a pilot project.

Source: Advertiser, The (Adelaide), May 14, 2009, p39, 1p
Section: Foreign Edition: 1 – State
Item: 200905141039629407

I know not to go where I’m not wanted, and it’s obvious the Coffee Shops in The Netherlands don’t want tourists any longer.   My wallet will be a little happier because Jamaica is closer to home anyway.   Besides, the best pot is grown in California.

[Good call, Dudemaster, though everyone knows the best pot is grown in Oregon.    Keep in mind, though, that Maastricht is as different from Amsterdam as Dallas is from Berkeley.  I don't think the coffee shops for tourists are going to completely disappear any time soon. -- "R"R]