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4. Second Marijuana Related Initiative May be Headed for the Ballot
5. Australians Consume the Most Marijuana Globally

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• MonstrO – Anchors Up!

CelebStoner.com Entertainment Report with Steve Bloom, co-author of Reefer Movie Madness: The Ultimate Stoner Film Guide

• Steve Bloom explains his decision to post Allen St. Pierre’s private “farce” remarks on CelebStoner.com

This Month in NORML with Executive Director Allen St. Pierre

• Allen St. Pierre addresses the controversy over his “farce” remarks on CelebStoner.com

Steven DeAngelo, CEO of Harborside Health Center and recently star of Discovery Channel’s Weed Wars, has come under fire for his comments at the conclusion of Episode 4 where he said, “I don’t believe in legalizing cannabis for recreational purposes; I think cannabis should be used for purposes of wellness.”  Steven took some heat in cyberspace, particularly Steve Bloom’s fiery denunciation in CelebStoner.com (“Say it ain’t so, Steve DeAngelo!”).

What is it with the weed guys and the funny hats?

DeAngelo has responded in CelebStoner with some backpedaling on the statement, claiming his naïveté in television by not realizing how editors would snip out his “comments denouncing all criminal penalties” and leave “no recreational legalization” hanging there out of context.  That could be the case, though the DeAngelo brothers have made the same “no recreational legalization” statements on live interviews on MSNBC (Dylan Ratigan) and FOX News (Bill O’Reilly)  leading up to the premiere of Weed Wars.  During the unedited 9:31 of the Ratigan segment and the unedited 5:17 of the O’Reilly segment, I didn’t hear any ”comments denouncing all criminal penalties”.  In fact, in the Ratigan segment I heard this exchange:

RATIGAN: So you think the recreational – the legalization of marijuana as a recreational drug is a very different debate than the use of marijuana as a medicine for specific treatment?

DeANGELOs: Absolutely.

RATIGAN: And your goal is to draw the distinction between those who are suffering in the prohibition of recreational use that is preventing them from gaining legitimate access to the medicinal use.

STEVEN DeANGELO: Yes, exactly.

RATIGAN: Do I have it?

ANDREW DeANGELO: We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

That really doesn’t sound like “Everybody oughtta be able to use cannabis without criminal penalty; we just need to call it ‘wellness’ to get there.”  That sounds like you see two types of users, “medical” and “recreational”, and the latter are de-legitimized by the former.  I also heard Andrew toss off a line about medical marijuana patients being “the last people in the world who would probably buy a gun”.  Huh?  WTF?  And Steven said “In California, 67% of the people voted in favor of Prop 215″.  It was actually 55.58%.  But they hadn’t seen the final Weed Wars episodes at that time, so they wouldn’t have known they needed to play up the “comments denouncing all criminal penalties” angle, right?

So forgive me if I’m not convinced by this latest round of trying to play “hate the stoners” for the Discovery crowd and “don’t arrest stoners” for the CelebStoner crowd.  And I will not accept hints that this criticism is the sowing of “disunity” when he’s the one distancing himself from legalization for all purposes.  Every “legalizer” I know of votes for every medical initiative, but Prop 19 showed us the reverse is not true.  Who’s the disunited, the “legalizers” trying to protect us all, or the “medicalizers” who keep fighting for that subgroup of us who are sick or disabled?  Even championing an idea that all adults should use it for “wellness” separates those of us who are clearly not well from our cannabis use.  Some people will have an unhealthy relationship with cannabis.  They should be just as legal as alcoholics and chain smokers.

Let me conclude by once again addressing Seven DeAngelo’s latest defense of his central “all use is wellness” platform in the CelebStoner response:

At the same time, it’s my strong belief that our movement’s use of the concept and terminology of “legalization for recreational purposes” has caused us tremendous damage. Our opponents have used the term to paint us as unrestrained hedonists who advocate a society-wide lifestyle of self-indulgence. In the ’80s, this kind of propaganda succeeded in undoing all the accomplishments our movement had made up till then – and kept us on the defense until medical cannabis reinvigorated the movement in the mid-’90s. But the anti-recreational propaganda left a bitter legacy of workplace urinalysis, housing discrimination, transplant denials, student-aid denials, interference with parent’s custodial rights and more horrors sadly still with us.

There was a time, before our discoveries of industrial hemp and medical cannabis, when an individual-rights argument was the main tool in the activist toolkit. Today, we have more compelling and effective reasons to advance for changing the laws than an individual’s right to get high. The discovery of the endo-cannabinoid system has established a sound scientific basis for the incredibly widespread therapeutic efficacy of cannabis, and almost two decades of experience has taught us that the vast majority of cannabis consumers are using it for wellness purposes. In addition, dozens of public opinion polls have shown that Americans support medical cannabis in numbers far greater than “recreational” cannabis.

For me, all of this points us in the direction of emphasizing the use of cannabis for wellness purposes, rather than for “recreational” purposes. That’s why I’ve said I don’t believe in legalizing cannabis for recreational purposes – and still believe that. But I do believe adult Americans should be empowered to make their own health and wellness decisions about cannabis. Several months ago I released a paper, “Wellness Not Intoxication,” in which I called on the movement to reevaluate its use of the recreational-cannabis concept.

Steve, I appreciate your elaboration, but you’re still hitching your legalization wagon to the “it’s OK to smoke pot because…” theory, and as long as you do that, you invite some authority to determine whether your “because” is valid enough to keep you out of jail.

You base your pivot on “recreational” on a faulty analysis of the pendulum swing in public opinion from pro-legalization 1970-1979 to anti-legalization 1980-1989 as being one where our opponents painted us as “unrestrained hedonists who advocate a society-wide lifestyle of self-indulgence”.  But that hedonism image wasn’t built on just marijuana; it was also built on rampant cocaine use, swingers and orgies, and Studio 54 tales of excess.

Ronald Reagan successfully painted the image of “Morning in America” by coupling the inflation, unemployment, crime stats, and general “malaise” of the post-Nixon years to the ideals and culture of the 60′s-70′s hippie movement.  The biggest symbol of that was the pot leaf.  And as Richard Pryor, John Belushi, and Len Bias lent celebrity status to the tragedy of cocaine abuse and as “Miami Vice” showed cocaine to be the devil’s plaything, then the popularity of that marijuana which had been so tightly interwoven with cocaine as just a good-time party drug (see: HIGH TIMES centerfolds circa 1978-1982) began to wane.

You are right that in the 1990′s, medical marijuana revitalized legalization’s popularity, primarily by re-framing it as a medicine with benefits for very sick people.  Add to that Baby Boomers whose kids flew the nest and who now return to the pot they remembered in the 60′s-70′s and you have a new public mindset that understands that marijuana is not cocaine and is not one of the harmful drugs out there.  They even understand that it is safer than alcohol!

No matter how much pot helps the guy in the wheelchair, there are still guys like me who smoke pot because it is enjoyable.  It may indeed be staving off my alcoholism, my depression, my insomnia, but those are secondary benefits to the primary reason I use cannabis, which is “when I smoke it it makes me feel good”.  Just like my eating an orange because it tastes good, even though it is providing fiber for healthy digestion and vitamin C to stave off rickets.  You want to call that “wellness”, but that invites the listener to call a shot of whiskey, a good cigar, a glass of grapefruit juice, and a session of sex (self or shared) “wellness” and that’s where loss of credibility will overtake your re-framing.

It’s now the 2010′s; we have older adults with personal experience, middle-aged adults who’ve seen it as medicine, and younger adults who’ve grown up in a world were medical use is OK and Google tells them all the facts about cannabis that you and I growing up could never have learned (save reading “Emperor” or Dr. Tod’s papers, not exactly available in a high school library where I matriculated).  As I’ve shown with polls and election results, the 1990′s strategy of “medicalization” is backsliding and the 1970′s strategy of “legalization” is on the rise.

Calling it “wellness” (or “sacrament”, for that matter) won’t alleviate the fears parents have that their kids will come home stinking of “wellness” or you might be so “extra-well” that you cross the center line on the highway.

Finally, while in your personal opinion I should (if possible) consult with a doctor before using cannabis, in my personal opinion, I don’t need the permission of a king, court, congress, cleric, or clinician to use cannabis.  I need only the same permission a beer drinker or cigarette smoker needs: an ID that proves I’m an adult.

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1. CBS Poll shows majority believe medical marijuana isn’t being used only to alleviate suffering among the sick and dying
2. Copenhagen, Denmark, votes to legalize marijuana
3. NE 420 license plate denied for Nebraska lawyer
4. Washington cops organization unanimously rejects I-502
5. $3 pot bust leads to felony charges for Lake County teen

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• Greensky Bluegrass – “Don’t Lie”

CelebStoner.com Entertainment Report with Steve Bloom, co-author of Reefer Movie Madness: The Ultimate Stoner Film Guide

• First-hand accounts of the Occupy Wall Street protests this week

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1. GOP Candidates on Marijuana Issues
2. Lake Forest closes dispensaries in wake of federal threats
3. Twin Falls, Idaho police surprised by record-low marijuana seizures in county
4. Major bust in Miami nets zero arrests

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• Across the Sun – “Tipping the Scales”

CelebStoner.com Entertainment Report with Steve Bloom, co-author of Reefer Movie Madness: The Ultimate Stoner Film Guide

Radical Rant

• There is no medical marijuana, no industrial hemp, no ganja sacrament, and no recreational pot. These is one plant – cannabis – and we must rally together to end its prohibition.

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1. Congress considering new law that would criminalize conspiracy to break US drug laws in foreign countries, even if not illegal in those countries
2. Holland to require all cannabis at greater than 15% THC to be classified as a “hard drug
3. US Attorneys announce new crackdown on medical marijuana commerce

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• Rockin’ Friday: Lacero – “Justless”

CelebStoner.com Entertainment Report with Steve Bloom, co-author of Reefer Movie Madness: The Ultimate Stoner Film Guide

• Did cannabis prohibition kill Steve Jobs?
• Latest Sports Cannabis Busts
• Tales from Occupy Wall Street

Grassroots Activism

• Karli Duran from San Antonio NORML with update on the 420 Smart Car

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Radical Rant

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• Electric Tuesday: Melodramus – “Generation Same”

CelebStoner.com Entertainment Report with Steve Bloom, co-author of Reefer Movie Madness: The Ultimate Stoner Film Guide

• 22nd Annual Boston Freedom Rally takes place this Saturday
• Sarah Palin did cocaine and Michigan “Fab Five” basketball star Glenn Rice, according to new book
• HIGH TIMES loses to Wall St. Journal in NYMSL Championship

Patient Perspectives

• Federal medical marijuana patient Elvy Musikka discusses being harassed by Oregon State Police
• Mike Mullins and Jennifer Valley from Stoney Girl Gardens
• Joey Nieves from Ontario, Oregon’s 45th Parallel patient co-op

A bunch of Potheads just beat the Super Bowl Champs

The Pigskin Potheads, a fantasy football team comprised solely of NFL players who’ve been busted for marijuana (click player’s names for their bust), won their first game of the season by defeating the Green Bud Packers by a score of 92.74 to 81.14.

The Green Bud Packers, consisting of only players from the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers, earned all of their points on the NFL’s opening night game against the Saints on Thursday at Lambeau Field.  That real-life game featured Packers’ QB Aaron Rodgers torching New Orleans with three TD passes in the first quarter en route to a 42-34 win and 312 yards passing.  Potheads QB Michael Vick (PHI) nearly matched Rodgers’ 25.34 fantasy points, but a lost fumble cost him 2 points, leaving Vick with 23.44 points in Philadelphia’s win over St. Louis.

Click to see player scoring breakdown

The Packers’ receiving corps of Jordy Nelson and Donald Driver combined for 17.8 fantasy points.  They were thoroughly outplayed by the Potheads’ Kenny Britt (TEN) who had 28.6 fantasy points on his own.  The Potheads’ other starting wide out, Santonio Holmes (NYJ) added another 7 fantasy points.  The Potheads failed to start Percy Harvin (MIN) who also surpassed both Green Bud receivers with 18.5 fantasy points.

The Potheads running backs Marshawn Lynch (SEA) and Ricky Williams (BAL) both failed to score touchdowns and combined for a low 12.4 fantasy points on yardage alone.  Packers’ running backs Ryan Grant and James Starks combined for 16.2 fantasy points with one rushing TD.  But the Potheads’ tight end, Aaron Hernandez (NE), far outplayed Packers’ tight end Jermichael Finley, scoring 17.3 fantasy points with one receiving TD vs. Finley’s 5.3 points.

On the other side of the ball the Packers dominated.  On defense, lineman BJ Raji, linebacker Clay Matthews, and defensive back Charles Woodson combined for 10.5 points, while the Potheads’ lineman Jonathan Babineaux (ATL) and defensive back Derrick Martin (NYG) had only 2 points total.  Starting linebacker Quan Sturdivant (ARI) did not play and should have been replaced in the lineup by Tom Zbikowski (BAL) who had 5 points.  Packers’ kicker Mason Crosby added 6 points (all PATs) vs. the Potheads’ Lawrence Tynes (NYG) 2 points.

The Pigskin Potheads’ 92.74 points was tops in the Viper Football League this week.  The Pittsburgh Stoners beat the Kansas City Chiefed by a score of 55.8 to 28.08.  These teams, like the Green Bud Packers, are stocked only with players from the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs, respectively.  The Steelers were last year’s AFC Champions and the Chiefs were an AFC playoff team.

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1. New SB423 restrictions on probationers and medical marijuana leaves Montana woman in intractable pain
2. International Cannabis & Hemp Expo moves out of Cow Palace to downtown Oakland in Oaksterdam
3. Colorado DUID panel cannot determine a per se limit of THC in blood to reliably indicate impairment
4. Massachusetts company completes sequencing of cannabis genome

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• Rockin’ Friday: Cannabis Corpse – “Beneath Grow Lights Thou Shalt Rise”

CelebStoner.com Entertainment Report with Steve Bloom, co-author of Reefer Movie Madness: The Ultimate Stoner Film Guide

• INTCHE moves to Oaksterdam
• HIGH TIMES outlast Wall St. Journal in 11-inning softball final, finishes season #1 at 9-1
• Stoner Movie Review: “Our Idiot Brother” with Paul Rudd
• Sebastian Bach’s home destroyed by East Coast flooding

Radical Rant

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1. More details emerge in the death of an 18-year-old Florida teen in jail for 2 grams of pot
2. Alabama medical marijuana bill sponsored by GOP Christian Conservative legislator
3. Study shows kids raised in grow houses show no difference than those raised without them
4. 66-year-old grandmother detained at Canadian border when traces of heroin are found in a motor oil ontainer

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• Live at Fire in the Canyon festival with Phil from Taxidermy Records, with music by Ceschi

CelebStoner.com Entertainment Report with Steve Bloom, co-author of Reefer Movie Madness: The Ultimate Stoner Film Guide

Radical Rant

• Massachusetts medmj proposal leads further into the Box Canyon

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1. Attorney General Holder says federal government will work with governors in medical marijuana states to clarify dispensary operations
2. Gov. Shumlin signs dispensary legislation in Vermont, home grow still allowed
3. Scottish pub assists police by testing patrons hands for “drug residue” before entering

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• Rockin’ Friday: The Clintons – “Free Ride in a Cop Car”

CelebStoner.com Entertainment Report with Steve Bloom, co-author of Reefer Movie Madness: The Ultimate Stoner Film Guide

• “Mr. Nice”, the movie about famed British smuggler, Howard Marks, premieres
• “Hangover 2″ features cocaine use as major part of storyline
• Sir Richard Branson among luminaries at press conference announcing report on failure of war on drugs
• Kid Cudi declares his “Marijuana” video is the last time you’ll ever see him smoking pot, claims he’s quit… Steve and Ganja Jon say, “not so much…”