I can't imagine why IEPG is opposed to Prop 19... No, wait, I can when I realize these "compassionate providers" sell $20 grams from a website called (oh-so-transparently) budmart.com.

(San Bernardino Sun) On a cloudy Friday morning, medical marijuana patients from all walks of life are pouring through the doors of the Inland Empire Patients Group in Bloomington.

On a table next to information about holistic clinics, glassware operations and hydroponics, there are piles of fliers saying “Vote No on Prop. 19 and protect your collective.”

“If the law passes it would create rules and regulations on who would grow and distribute, and in all likelihood that would be big corporations that would put the collective operators out of business,” [owner Jan Werner] said. “It’s really a giant step backwards for patient rights because it takes out of the equation facilities like ourselves.”

No, it’s a giant step downward in the price of marijuana, Jan.  It means the days are numbered of IEPG selling $20 grams of marijuana and having few competitors in the Inland Empire (Corona has a moratorium on new dispensaries, Bloomington is in San Bernardino County which has been cracking down on dispensaries.)

Once again, Prop 19 does not create any rules and regulations over MEDICAL growing and distribution. Prop 19 creates rules and regulations for COMMERCIAL growing and distribution. It legalizes my ability to grow my own in a closet without need for a doctor’s permission slip. It legalizes all my friends growing their own, too, and sharing it with me. Following Prop 19′s passage, you can still be a medical collective and still do business like you’re doing it now… but you know you won’t be able to when prices drop to something more like $20 a quarter instead of $20 a gram.

Johnny Donna, chief executive officer of Og Genetics, a Hemet-based seed and clone company that supplies other growers with cannabis, believes medical marijuana has come into its own, eliminating a need for the passage of Proposition 19.

“Back when I got my medical card in 2006, there were 13 dispensaries in Southern California and now there are close to 1,000 because it has been proven to help people in pain,” he said. “For that reason it shouldn’t be in the hands of just anybody. I certainly don’t want corporate America coming in and taking over the marijuana industry.”

This, on the other hand, is just a case of somebody who doesn’t recognize a great business opportunity staring him in the face.  You supply seeds and clones to growers, but you oppose creating 400% more potential customers for your products?

But he’s suffering from “I Gots Mine” – note the “it shouldn’t be in the hands of just anybody” line, in the context of it being the wonder medicine, as if us healthy pot smokers would somehow sully the whole industry.  Ironic, too, as he runs a seed and clone company that I’m willing to bet is registered as some form of corporation in the state.

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Hemp Headlines

1. Attorney General Holder announces that Dept. of Justice is “strongly opposed” to Prop 19 and they will continue to enforce the Controlled Substances Act in California
2. Canadians who turned Molson Brewery into large scale grow operation facing 2-5 years in prison
3. NJ Sen. Scutari, original sponsor of the New Jersey Medical Marijuana Act, furious about restrictive new medical marijuana rules

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Grateful Dread Public Radio at http://gdreadradio.net, a 24-hour community service Internet radio station proud to carry NORML SHOW LIVE

• Rockin’ Friday: David Gans – “High Guy”

Grassroots Activism

• Highlights of NAACP California press conference supporting Prop 19, featuring Alice Huffman (NAACP), Stephen Gutwillig (DPA), Dale Jones (Prop 19), Neill Franklin (LEAP)

Cannabis Community

• Preview of Saturday’s Cypress Hill Smokeout in San Bernardino, featuring “Radical” Russ moderating the Prop 19 panel

(This is cross-posted in the Los Angeles section of Huffington Post – please feel free to surf over there and leave a comment that will be read outside our NORML forum.)

Evergreen Collective, one of many advertising at this year's THC Exposé in LA, promoting their $45 / 4-gram eighth ounce "specials".

Yesterday on our daily webcast for NORML we interviewed Dale Sky Clare, a spokesperson for Proposition 19, the initiative that will ask Californians to vote on a very limited form of marijuana legalization. We discussed the latest polling on the initiative from SurveyUSA, showing a 50%-to-40% lead for the measure.

We dug through the demographics to find that older and more conservative people are the only groups more likely to oppose the measure (no, really?), support is greatest among the young and in the Bay Area (who knew?), and support among comedians named “Cheech” or “Chong” is approaching 100% (OK, I made the last one up.)

But there is one growing demographic group that no poll has begun to track: medical marijuana dispensary owners.

Since the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Initiative was mercifully truncated to a headline-friendly “Prop 19″ by virtue of making it on the California ballot, I have been tracking on our NORML Stash Blog the stories of dispensary owners who are publicly opposing the legalization of the product they sell, even shelling out money they’ve made from selling marijuana to oppose its legalization!

Paul Jury just posted Legalize It? Ask a Guy Who Runs a Medicinal Marijuana Dispensary in which he speaks to Craig, a dispensary owner in Venice Beach, who is also opposed to Prop 19:

“I’ll give you two reasons,” Craig said. “One is big tobacco. Did you know that Phillip Morris just bought 400 acres of land up in Northern California? The minute marijuana becomes legal, they’ll mass produce and flood the market. And of course, they’ll add the same toxins they put in regular cigarettes to get you addicted, and very little THC, so you’ll have to buy more… In short, they’re going to ruin weed.” He gestured around his beloved shop, with every flavor of every strain, in its purist form, selling for at-cost prices. “I like the way things are now.”

Gee, there seems to be a whole lot of different "strains" of beer, even in Los Angeles!

Remember how alcohol prohibition ended in the 1930′s (probably not, but indulge me) and Anheuser, Busch, Coors, and Miller flooded the market with 3.2 beer and ruined alcohol? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could go to shops with every flavor of every micro-brew, in its purest form… oh, wait, I live in Portland, Oregon, the micro-brew capital of America and that’s what we have right now under alcohol legalization!

We have every flavor and potency of beer you can imagine plus people can go buy a kit and brew their own beer if they like. And there is wine, too, with a huge tourist industry that depends on people checking out vineyards and tasting endless varieties of vino. And there is whiskey, rum, tequila, vodka, brandy, and even super-potent Everclear in some states, all in their purest form, which is to say that used responsibly they won’t make you blind like a tub of Prohibition moonshine might.

The “Philip Morris / RJ Reynolds Toxic Addictive High-less Marijuana Market Flood” scare has been floating around the cannabis community like a stale hit of schwag for decades now. It’s a form of conspiracy theory thinking embraced by the kind of people who think you could plant 40,000 lbs. of explosives surreptitiously in a busy World Trade Center or convince all the world’s scientists and a very large soundstage crew to keep quiet about that faked moon landing for four decades. Here’s why it’s stupid:

• Prop 19 allows you to grow your own. If Philip Morris’ weed sucks, you’ll smoke your own or your friend’s.
• Prop 19 allows cities to consider sales. Bad toxic Philip Morris weed is the kind of competition a purveyor of hand-trimmed, non-keifed*, organic high-potency bud would want, wouldn’t she?
• Prop 19 allows cities to regulate production. They can dictate exactly what is or isn’t added to cannabis, how much is produced, by whom, and where.
• In order for Philip Morris to sell their weed, somebody has to want to smoke it. Nothing about Prop 19 makes Prop 215 or the dispensaries go away. In fact, it gives the existing dispensaries the potential to serve even more customers. So who’s buying this toxic addictive high-less marijuana?

Actually, it worked quite well if your goal is to build large profitable murderous criminal enterprises...

No, if you want to really understand what is going on here, look back to that alcohol prohibition and ask yourself how excited Al Capone was reading the headlines trumpeting its imminent repeal. It’s not a perfect analogy, as Capone was a murderous criminal thug and these dispensary owners are law-abiding businesspeople. And yes, dispensary owners, like Craig, often help destitute cancer patients for free, though one could counter that Capone and his gangs gave out free turkeys on Thanksgiving. My main point is that both are businesspeople dealing in a prohibited product.

Or just look back to the article on Craig:

He gestured around his beloved shop, with every flavor of every strain, in its purist form, selling for at-cost prices. “I like the way things are now.”

“Last month,” Craig explained proudly, “there were 24 operating marijuana collectives in Venice. A month from now, there will only be two. And we’ll be one of them.” With that, he opened the door to the inner sanctum. The “product” room.

Discount Relief Collective at this year's "Spring Gathering" in San Bernardino, advertising "Nothing over $45 / eighth. $15 for all grams."

Now, if you ran a business where you could sell your product for $5-$15 per GRAM or $200 to $800 per OUNCE, and you only had to compete with one other business in your local area, would you be excited about the prospect of many more competitors and prices dropping as much as 80%? Most of your customers already got their Prop 215 recommendation, so it isn’t as if legalization is going to bring you enough additional customers to offset the change in business margins.

Prop 19 means that marijuana retailers become more like other retail businesses, instead of the loosely-regulated turnkey goldmines they have been. That’s what Craig doesn’t like. Well, that and kids smoking pot:

“Two, legalization will mean more fifteen-year-old kids smoking pot. … If they legalize marijuana, there’s no chance that fewer 15-year-olds will smoke. And there’s a good chance that more will. Anything that will probably make more 15-year-olds put substances in their bodies, in my opinion, is a bad thing.”

Really, the “What About the Children?!?” argument? Right now, under prohibition, 85% of high school seniors and 69% of sophomores (a.k.a. fifteen-year-olds) find it easy to get weed. Right now, under prohibition, kids say it is easier to buy marijuana than alcohol. So it appears to me that locking up healthy adults for their marijuana use hasn’t really done much to stop teens from getting and using pot. How about we try letting adults smoke a joint, and when they go to buy it, they buy it from a regulated shop where only adults are let in and all IDs are rigorously checked, you know, like that alcohol kids find harder to buy.

More 15-year-olds smoke pot than tobacco... because we've really succeeded in preventing tobacco use among teens... and we didn't lock up a single adult to achieve this!

Besides, there is no reason to believe that youth use will increase. Since California passed Prop 215 in 1996, the regime Craig likes now, teen use of marijuana has decreased. Prop 19 makes the penalty for supplying weed to those under 21 as stringent as supplying alcohol to those under 21. And we’ve seen teen use of tobacco, a legal substance far cheaper and more addictive than marijuana, plummet in the past ten years through education, advertising restriction, social disapproval (no indoor smoking, for example) and strict ID requirements.

Craig and the other dispensary owners who oppose Prop 19 are the “I Gots Mine” element of the anti-legalization campaign. They’ve got the corner on a retail market worth billions, one that is only worth billions if you arrest 850,000 mostly-black-and-brown adults a year for participating in it. They’ve got their doctors happy to take a Benjamin or two to give you permission to use a drug safer than the aspirin you need no permission for. I wouldn’t want people to vote to change that, either…

…except that I think it’s just immoral to arrest people for smoking weed if we’re going to leave them alone when drinking alcohol. I don’t care if it is profitable to the state or detrimental to the dispensary industry – arrests for marijuana are wrong, period.

*”Kiefed” means to shake loose the crystals of THC from the product before packaging for sale. The crystals, or “kief” are collected and smoked or vaporized, and, being THC crystals, are very effective. Philip Morris will certainly need to use huge machines to process weed, which will certainly shake loose a lot of kief. One grower friend of mine says he will advertise for his prized buds with the slogan “Don’t let ‘em thief the kief!”

Tommy Chong, Steve Bloom, B Real, Rory Carey (of Rebelution), Angelo Moore (of Fishbone) at Spring Gathering in San Bernardino

SAN BERNARDINO – Marijuana activism met music Saturday at the appropriately titled “Dr. Greenthumb and Tommy Chong’s The Spring Gathering: Music Festival and Medical Marijuana Expo” at the National Orange Show Events Center.

Chong, half of the famous marijuana advocating comedy duo of Cheech and Chong, missed the discussion about a ballot measure legalizing and taxing marijuana.

It almost seemed appropriate given the stereotype of marijuana users as being lazy, but his absence didn’t stop the seriousness of the discussion or the event.

Panelists Dale Clare, a medical cannabis advocate and consultant from “pot college” Oaksterdam University, “radical” Russ Belville, associate director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Oregon, attorney Jennifer Soares and former High Times editor in chief and celebstoner website founder Steve Bloom engaged in a spirited 45-minute discussion.

“It will stop putting people in jail,” Clare said.

If passed on the November ballot, the measure would also leave marijuana taxation up to local governments, not the state, and allow the cultivation of hemp.

But Soares, who was for legalization but against the measure because of its language, noted that cities that don’t allow medical marijuana would be skeptical.

“How many do you think would be OK with recreational marijuana?” Soares said.

Clare said that while not all cities would embrace the measure if passed, “there will be cities that do,” such as Oakland.

Belville said that while not perfect, at least marijuana would be considered legal.

Read more: http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_15048839#ixzz0nSOBARQy

Well, I haven’t been Oregon NORML’s Associate Director for a year now, but at least they spelled my last name correctly.

Kudos to Dr. Greenthumb (B Real), Tommy Chong, and Guerrilla Union for putting on a top-notch event. The panels were informative and many fans got to meet & greet their idols B Real and Tommy Chong, who were gracious and friendly to all. Exhibitors and panels were held in one building, concert music was housed in another building, and VIP facilities were in a third building, so folks who came to be informed could actually hear the panels and demonstrations and people who came to rock out weren’t annoyed by lectures. And old guys like me could find a place to chill out and recharge the laptop batteries in relative peace and quiet.

The space outside between the buildings was filled with people enjoying the carnival food and exhibits of other vendors, with plenty of shade and a fountain to enjoy. The “first class” VIP section was also outdoors, where the general public could pay a premium ticket price to enjoy B Real spinning some tunes along with other deejays and emcees, table seating, exclusive vendors, and complimentary sparkling wine.

And then there was the pot smoking. Almost everywhere you went, almost everywhere you looked. Even though security at the gates was very thorough in searching packs and pat downs, there was plenty of herb smoke floating in the air. The spotlights at the Kottonmouth Kings set almost looked like drawings, the lines were so clear as the beam cut through the haze. Yet I didn’t see any fights and only two incidents of security having to chase down thieves who snatched something from a vendor’s display. Thousands of people openly smoking pot turns out to be a friendly, relaxed, cooperative crowd, just like it always does.

Which brings me to another difficulty in motivating young people to vote for legalization this November. For many, it’s got to feel pretty damn legal already. Why exactly do they need to go to the hassle of registering to vote and then getting up on a Tuesday in November to fight LA traffic to go someplace they’ve never been and wade through a bunch of water bureau and dogcatcher races to find that ballot item for marijuana legalization, when they could spend that time using their Prop 215 doctor’s recommendation to drive to the dispensary they always go to and select from a world-class variety of buds? Why do they need to go to the trouble when already they can get it, they’re subject to at worst a ticket if they’re not holding a recommendation and are caught with a joint, and they can smoke openly at their favorite concerts and festrivals?

Sorry to be a buzz kill on Mother’s Day, but I’m trying to express to the aware young people out there how much they need to really push their friends to get on board with this measure. Hound them about registering to vote. Teach them how to vote absentee in California (send ‘em to http://www.longdistancevoter.org/california) so they can just mail it in (you know, the sensible way to vote like we do in Oregon.)  You young people came out to elect Barack Obama, now you’ve got to come out to help legalize marijuana!

Regulate Control & Tax Cannabis Act of 2010

I’m here representing NORML at the Spring Gathering in San Bernardino.  I was on the first panel of the day on the Regulate, Control, & Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 (TC 2010), moderated by Steve Bloom from CelebStoner.  Sitting with me were Dale Sky Clare from Oaksterdam and Jennifer Soares, an attorney from Los Angeles who has reservations about the ballot measure to be voted on in November.

So in a sense, I am at a medical marijuana expo and 420-friendly concert festival trying to convince an audience of pot smokers it is their best interests to vote for marijuana legalization.  I should be as unnecessary as instructions for a comb.

But there they were, people in the audience and a person on the podium raising doubts as to whether legalization of cannabis for adults in this initiative is a good thing.

Soares pointed out that the initiative gives local control to municipalities to set regulations for the commercial production and sales of cannabis, so that these local governments that don’t like cannabis can do nothing and nobody will be able to buy and sell.

You mean… like now?  Where nobody can buy and sell?  Clare pointed out that right now, there is no opportunity for any municipality to allow buying and selling.  At least with TC 2010, some places could buy and sell, and in all places, everyone can self-grow, share, hold, and use.

Soares said that she’s in Southern California, in Los Angeles, where even with Prop-215 it has been a constant battle with authorities,  not Northern California (Oaksterdam is in Oakland) where everyone’s very tolerant of cannabis.  ”So Oakland will go forward with sales; do you all want to have to drive to Oakland to buy your cannabis?” she asked the audience.

You mean the folks that don’t go buy their 215 recommendation and go to the 70 dispensaries that will still be open in the LA area?  Well, I don’t know.  If I lived in LA and there was legal weed in Oakland, I think me and a few friends might make a road trip.  Heck, I might make that road trip from Portland!

I guess I just am missing something.  People are getting their weed in LA now, either quasi-legally or illegally.  When they are caught with it, they can get a ticket and harassment, when they are buying and selling it, they can get a felony and prison.  When TC 2010 passes, the first part of that last sentence goes away.  People over 21 won’t be ticketed or harassed for their marijuana.  If LA doesn’t regulate buying and selling, then Angelenos are in exactly the same position they are now – felony and prison.  So because TC 2010 doesn’t perfectly mandate California to allow buying and selling, we shouldn’t legalize smoking, holding, sharing, and growing your own?

And as Clare pointed out, TC 2010 specifically does not force California to do that because that would put them in positive conflict with federal law and the whole thing gets shot down in court.  If a law tells California to break a federal law (no buying/selling Schedule I marijuana), it will be struck down.  TC 2010 doesn’t tell California to do anything but allows municipalities to do a limited something.

Then we have the questions from the audience.  The first guy wants to know how we can say TC 2010 will reduce crime when everybody’s allowed to grow a 5′x5′ garden, what’s to stop someone with a black thumb from jumping the fence to steal from the green thumb?

Clare and I paused a moment to wrap our minds around the question.  She pointed out that the difference will be that if someone does jump the fence to steal your crop, you can actually call the cops because what you were doing is legal, unlike now, where you’re a victim twice; once from the robbery and once for being unable to call the police because you’re a criminal.

Then I joined in to make my biggest point.  When you legalize home growing, whether it is 5′x5′, 10′x10′, a warehouse, or a single plant, the whole game changes.  No longer is your house smelling like pot probable cause for a search warrant.  No longer is the sight of a marijuana leaf through a window, a bong on the table, an infrared heat signature, receipts from grow equipment, seeds and stems and baggies in your trash, none of it is cause for a judge to sign a search warrant.  That ALONE is enough to vote for TC 2010!

I kept trying to make the point that too many in the movement are missing the forest for the trees.  It is immoral to punish adults for their use of cannabis, period.  This Act seeks to end that immorality.  And it is bigger than California; this is a vote for the nation.  Nobody outside marijuana advocacy circles knows or cares about the details, they just know California is voting on “legalization”.  A “no” vote gives legislators in the other 49 states the “even California wouldn’t go that far” talking point.  A “yes” vote gives those other states a lab to observe for the next few years and will embolden some to move forward with their own version.

Another audience member, a 21-year-old, made the point that the government sucks, man, you see how those guys run things now, we don’t want them messing up what we got, we just want the gub’mint to leave us growers alone! (I’m paraphrasing) which drew some cheers from the crowd.

I broke right in and said, “I’m with you, my man, if you can name another commercial agricultural product in this country that’s treated like you want marijuana treated.”  Silence.  ”I agree with you on some of the government stuff, we could talk about that all day, but the reality is that any agricultural product, tomatoes, kumquats, if you grow enough of it, you will be subject to taxation, regulation, and government controls.

“There’s a saying in politics: don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.  I don’t think TC 2010 is perfect.  But it’s on the ballot, so it is the most perfect legalization initiative you can vote for.  If I had my way, the perfect bill would be what I call the Marijuana Zucchini Equalization Act – from now on, marijuana is treated like zucchini.  You can grow as much as you want, you can sell it, you can give it away, there’s no limit on how much you can have or how much you can eat.  Like zucchini, everyone who wants some will have a garden and they’ll annoy their friends and family trying to give it away… ‘naw, man, I got enough zucchini!’

“But in reality, nobody is worried about their kid hopping your fence to steal your zucchini.  Nobody’s worried about you loading up on zucchini bread and getting behind the wheel on the freeway.  We know the plant, we know it is ‘the safest therapeutically active substance known to man’, we know it is far less harmful than alcohol and tobacco, but to the rest of the state and country out there, it’s only a little less scary than crack cocaine and heroin.  So we have to write legislation with compromises and controls that seem ridiculous to us, but help to allay the fears of the ignorant.”

Another guy asked about workplace drug testing.  On this, the whole panel agreed that what we have now will probably be what we have then.  Even with legal weed, California is an “at will” state and you can be terminated without cause if the boss doesn’t like your cologne.  There will still be federal drug-free workplace standards and companies that will point to cannabis being federally illegal to support that.

It was a great panel and a lively discussion, and I feel for Soares, who was kinda thrown into a 2-on-1 situation in front of an audience that generally wants weed legalized.  And those two were me and Dale and she’s a phenomenal public speaker and I consider myself pretty good, too.  As I was representing NORML’s position, I didn’t bring up my personal issues with the initiative, and I let Soares know later when we met at the VIP area.

For one, TC 2010 creates a new penalty for people over age 21 if they provide pot to people aged 18-20.  There have always been criminal penalties and jail time for people 18 and older supplying to minors, but currently a 21yo passing a joint to a 20yo is just a ticket.  After TC 2010, it becomes a jailable offense.

That’s a problem for me, as I realize that people 18-25 are the top demo for pot smoking (28% annually, 11% at least 2x week) and that it is very easy as a 21yo to have younger friends who, in my mind, should be treated as adults.  In fact, I think the age should be 18 anyway.  But politically, you’re never going to pass anything that treats marijuana less stringently than alcohol (though it should be).  Eighteen in many cases means “high school kid” and no language that puts pot in high schools is ever going to pass.

However, if the choice is a small subset of adults with young friends might get jail vs. every adult with pot or a plant gets jail, I have to go with the former.  Besides, it reminds me of when the drinking age was raised from 19 to 21 in my home state of Idaho.  When the law changed, all 19yos were grandfathered-in when the law hit 21.  So for two years, there were classmates of mine who were 19yo drinkers who just months later, when their friends turned 19, couldn’t drink with them.  There is always some sort of “doughnut hole” demographically when you set an age limit on anything.

Plus, without the easy probable causes I listed above and without the fish-in-a-barrel chance of finding someone to bust for marijuana possession, it will have to become far less of a priority for police.  Economically, the time they’d have to spend to go out looking for the 21yo passing the joint to the 20yo just won’t be worth it.

I also have a tiny grumble with the 5′x5′ limit (it is a bit small to support clones, veg, flower, mother plants, etc.) but not much sympathy for the Californians grumbling about it when they still will be able to get medical recs and grow a lot more than that.  It’s certainly better than the 0′x0′ gardens allowed now.

But overall, voting to not be a criminal outweighs all that.  This is more than just the letter of these laws, this is sea change in the whole frame of the debate.  You will no longer be criminals.  On the drug testing angle, it will be politically more difficult for businesses to justify testing for weed.  The problems with medical marijuana subside as that pressure to keep track of who’s a “patient” and who’s a “criminal” will be eased.  People who wouldn’t engage before with law enforcement and government can do so without fearing undue intrusion into their lives for their “criminal” activities.  And the rest of the country can look at the emerging industries and tax revenue cannabis (and hemp!) will bring to California and not seeing the sky fall will help them make that move in their states.

Or much shorter: Not voting for TC 2010 means you think what’s happening now is fine and voting against TC 2010 means you think it would be worse than what’s happening now.

Saturday Night’s episode of NORML SHOW LIVE will be at a special time – 4:00pm Pacific / 7:00pm Eastern – to take advantage of the lineup here at the Cypress Hill Smokeout in San Bernardino, California. Cheech & Chong are playing a “4:20″ set, so I will be there live, bringing you the comedy from NORML’s favorite comedy team.

Following Cheech & Chong in the lineup are the newly re-formed band Sublime, which many will remember for their cover of “Smoke 2 Joints” among many others. We’ll bring you some of their set as well. I’ve also got an interview with “My Fair Brady’s” Adrianne Curry, Steve Bloom from Celebstoner discussing the celebrity panel, and PonyBoy from Los Marijuanos from Friday’s festivities. Calling in to the show are Kottonmouth Kings and responding to her Jay Leno snub, 2006 Miss New Jersey Georgine DiMaria. (All subject to change due to the chaotic nature of a festival!)

Interspersed with the live audio will be my interviews with many of the artists, celebrities, and just normal folks attending this two day outdoor festival. Join us live at http://live.norml.org, where you can also participate in our online chat and speak live to the host and guests – dial in to 347-994-1810 to participate.

Cannabis Karri and I rounding up Day 1 at Smokeout. The venue here is wonderful. It’s a big amphitheater just off of I-15 on the way toward Vegas, tucked up into the hills. They’ve got a big outdoor stage, a covered Expo with all the vendors, as well as food and other vendors on the main grounds.

A walk up the big bowl of a hill leads to the permanent structure amphitheater and main stage. There were no bands there today, but tonight they are showing “How High” and “Nice Dreams” on the big projector screen. Cypress Hill is playing the closing set.

We arrived around 3:30 only to find no credentials at will call. I called Steve Bloom who came through with two all-access wristbands. We head back into the VIP only area to smoke a couple fine Pacific Northwest fatties with Steve, Shirley Halperin, and Adrianne Curry. Adrianne was wonderful and gave us five minutes of her time to interview about “Stiletto Stoners” (you’ll hear it on the live show tomorrow, if I can clean up the background noise a bit.)

We visited the Expo tent. I’m immediately struck by how much the medical marijuana displays all were staffed by very attractive young women, almost like a car show. Then there was the handwritten mispelled sign offering “medical canabis referrals”. Calvina Fay would love that one.

We moved backstage and got some up close shots of Geto Boys and Bushwick Bill. We ran into actor Michael Rapaport who said, “Hey,” while rocking a Yankees cap. B Real and Sen Dog were backstage getting ready for a meet and greet.

I got cornered for an interview with the folks at Cannabis Planet TV. Behind backstage there was a big open tent lounge with plenty of couches and VIPs blazing, disco lights streaming through the haze. I even ran into Stash guest Henry Hemp and our good friend PonyBoy from Los Marijuanos.

Tomorrow I appear on the Legalization panel with Allison Margolin, Ed Rosenthal, Debby Goldsberry, and Steve Bloom moderating. Then immediately following we break in live for NORML SHOW LIVE at a special early time of 4:00pm Pacific so we can catch 4:20 with Cheech & Chong.

Today’s Stash is ready and will be uploaded in a couple of hours.

Posted from my BlackBerry – please forgive my big thumbs for any typos!

(High Desert Daily Press) DEVORE • Those hoping to attend Friday and Saturday’s Cypress Hill Smokeout and participate in the recreational use of smoking marijuana should think again.

Deputies from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and Officers from the California Highway Patrol will staff the Cypress Hill Smokeout as a constant reminder that smoking the drug for recreational use is illegal. All sections of the California Penal Code, Health and Safety Code and California Vehicle Code will be strictly enforced.

(Inland Valley Daily Bulletin) “The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department wishes to remind concert-goers that while state law makes provision for the possession, use and cultivation of limited amounts of marijuana for medicinal purposes, it does not allow the recreational use of the drug,” officials wrote in a statement. “Further, there is no provision in the law for the use of marijuana while operating a motor vehicle, whether someone possesses a doctor’s recommendation for the drug or not.”

Promoter Live Nation has booked acts including Cypress Hill, Method Man, Redman and Cheech & Chong.

Attention all criminals and traffic scofflaws in the San Bernadino area!  This weekend, the Sheriff’s Department and Highway Patrol will be very busy catching people smoking marijuana at a Cypress Hill / Method Man & Redman / Cheech & Chong / Sublime / Kottonmouth Kings concert.  Do not commit crimes or violate traffic laws in areas away from the San Manuel Amphitheater while a large share of law enforcement resources are dedicated to preventing pot smoking at a Smokeout.  Your cooperation is appreciated.

You can get the distilled eau de guanoloco* out of just two paragraphs:

However, the real issue here is that the medical marijuana movement is a fraud. The majority of medical marijuana card holders in the state of California are under the age of 30. How many of them actually have serious illnesses other than drug addiction? Even if they were truly sick, there are no credible studies demonstrating the medical benefits of marijuana.

I guess in San Bernadino, people under 30 don’t get epilepsy, cancer, irritable bowel, glaucoma, fibromyalgia, crushed vertebrae, migraine headaches, PTSD, anxiety disorder, AIDS, or any other number of diseases and conditions medical cannabis can alleviate.  Diseases and conditions that don’t necessarily put you in a wheelchair or make you look visibly sick or disabled.  And even if they are truly sick, since Brad can’t be bothered by 17,000 credible studies on cannabis and cannabinoids, let them take Vicodin or something instead of a legal non-toxic herb.

The case against marijuana is most clear when the mental abilities of a lifelong marijuana smoker are observed. In fact, I will take this argument one step further. While many ill people believe their symptoms can be alleviated by smoking marijuana, the political movement behind legalizing medical marijuana is the same movement that seeks to legalize the drug for recreational use.

Well, the mental abilities of this lifelong marijuana smoker are taxed trying to understand Brad’s reasoning.  Why would people like me who want to legalize marijuana for all people not support legalizing marijuana for sick people?  Why would sick people who want to legalize marijuana for themselves support locking other pot smokers up for being too healthy?  And do you mean that we can’t allow people to self-medicate with a non-toxic herb because some of them might enjoy it?

By the way, I want to form a new elite team of competitors called The Cannabrains.  We’d go to places like San Bernadino and challenge people like Brad Mitzelfelt to whichever test of mental abilities he chooses against one of our Cannabrain lifelong marijuana smoker teammates.  For example, he could play chess against chess master Ben Masel** from our Madison, Wisconsin affiliate.  I’m pretty handy at pop culture trivia.  Cannabis Karri is kick-ass at Boggle.  Are there any more volunteers for the Cannabrains?  Maybe we could seriously challenge these people and play the games online.  Some of the most brilliant people I know are lifelong stoners, which makes sense when you figure intelligent people would gravitate toward the least harmful, most fulfilling recreational substance.

*Yes, I can mix French and Spanglish into a clumsy translation for “smell of bat-shit crazy”.

**Seriously, don’t.  Ben is a national-class chess player.  Poker, too, I understand.

Uh, let’s see, hosted by Tommy Chong, guests include Cypress Hill, SlipKnot, the Deftones, Sublime, Method Man & Redman, Bad Brains, Kottonmouth Kings and others, plus panels with Ngaio Bealum, Sarah Diesel, Allison Margolin, Ed Rosenthal, Mikey Avalon, Adrienne Curry, Andy Milonakis, Debby Goldsberry, Shirley Halperin, Steve Bloom, RZA, and me? Is there a stronger reply than “Hell, yes!”

The whole show / expo / panels extravaganja runs Friday, October 23rd and Saturday, October 24th. I’m on the Saturday 3:00pm Legalization panel with Rosenthal, Margolin, and Goldsberry. (I’ll even provide you podcasts for that Thursday & Friday… though you may have to deal with the road noise on the Thursday one as I produce it from the laptop in the car while my wife drives.)