Westword in Denver looking for cannabis critic
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 6:12 pm | By: Radical Russ
OK, I think I have a pretty cool job in the world of marijuana that doesn’t involve selling it, but this position for the alt-weekly paper in Denver, Colorado, may have mine beat:
Topics: Colorado, critic, Denver, Westword(NY Times) Westword, an alternative weekly newspaper in Denver, has the standard lineup of film, food and music critics. But in what may be a first for American journalism, the paper is shopping around for a medical marijuana critic.
The idea is not to assess the green stuff itself, but to review the dispensaries that have sprouted like, um, weeds in Denver this year.
“We want to see what kind of place it is, how well they care for you and also how sketchy the place is,” said Patricia Calhoun, editor of Westword. “Do they actually look at your medical marijuana card? Do they let you slip some cash under the counter and bypass the rules?”
“It is the wild west of medical marijuana out here,” Ms. Calhoun said. “There were a couple of dozen dispensaries this spring, and now it’s over 100. We just heard there’s going to be a drive-through dispensary.”
Dispensaries promote different strains with distinctive flavors — there are, after all, marijuana snobs just as there are wine snobs — and some mix their wares into foods like hummus, pesto and chocolate. So why not critique the cannabis, too?
“It could well be that we will be reviewing the product itself, eventually,” she said.
Wow, Ill take that job anyday. But Russ dont you dare leave us for some cushy job smoking quality marijuana and typing on a computer every day, wait you kinda do that now, dont you? No worries then?
No worries. Plus this job has backstage concert tickets, all-access hempfest passes, cute girls, world class bud, quality friendships, wonderful karma, and a cause I can believe in 100% – freeing marijuana! It beats punching a clock to increase the wealth of the top 1%.
It wasn’t always thus. I’ve paid a lot of dues in a lot of different areas to get here. I’ve had a lot of help from a lot of people and caught way too many lucky breaks that got me here instead of a jail cell or a hospital bed (yet I did manage to get both of those more than once in life, just not for very long).