UC Boulder Outsmokes Everyone Else

The University of Colorado at Boulder blazes past all other crunchy liberal arts schools to be what must be the weediest campus in America. Some of this sounds a little familiar:

Although it's become an annual and renowned event at CU, this year's 4/20 celebration was different in some ways than in many previous years: The crowd was so large it migrated from the long-traditional site of Farrand Field to the larger Norlin Quad; festivities kicked off earlier than normal with daytime concerts; and CU police handed out zero citations...

Officers in the past have gone to great lengths to catch people in the illegal act of smoking pot on 4/20. In 2006, CU police dispatched undercover photographers to snap pictures of smokers. Photos of 150 alleged offenders then were posted on the department’s Web site, and witnesses were offered $50 to positively identify the suspects — who then were ticketed. Another year, smokers on Farrand were doused with sprinklers.

Full article at the Daily Camera, thanks to anonymous Shoutboxer 1:46 am for the tip.

A cop who thinks drugs are pretty dope

Henry Kiely '11 writes:

Who's ever seen a cop wearing a shirt that says "legalize it"? These guys do. A representative of LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition of drugs) will be giving a lecture on ending the costly and pointless War on Drugs. The speaker, Richard Van Wickler, has spent the last 15 years as superintendent for the Cheshire County (NH) Department of Corrections, and is still an active member of LEAP. NORML will be hosting the event.

If the question "Why isn't pot legal?" has ever crossed your mind halfway through a bong rip, this is the lecture to go to.

Date: Wednesday, April 16
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: PAC 002

Scientific Bonger

You always knew scientists could build sick bongs. After all what else are you gonna do in MB&B/Chem 420? But dude! How are we gonna smoke up in the MRI machine? I mean those THC pills don't really get me high anyway! Leave it to Harvard to build a research bong (Wesleyan... where are you at? c'mon! Does no prof here want undergrad help designing scientific bongs?):

It's not often one gets one's bong in the scientific literature, let alone one designed to allow you to smoke weed inside an MRI scanner. A team from Harvard Medical School are interested in how smoked marijuana affects the brain, but have come to the inevitable conclusion that it's actually quite hard smoking a joint when you're lying on your back being brain scanned.

So the research team put their heads together (!), and realised they needed to design a bong - a water pipe for smoking marijuana - safe to use in an MRI scanner... The researchers tested their creation with a simple brain scan, declared the project a success and published their MRI-safe bong design in the medical journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior.
-Link (Mind Hacks).

I wonder if they had to include in their discussion section something like, "That bong ripped like a charm, I was blazed as hell in that MRI cabinet!".

Fire Safety on the Prowl!

Last night I was heading back to 'da butts' around 8 or so and apparently fire safety was fire drillin’ us. Recently fire safety has been going into student’s rooms while they're huddled in the chilly weather outside. The bad news is this has led to two arrests of students (at least one of which was for the good ol' green contraband). Last night the fire safety lady told everyone that she found some "really interesting stuff" in our rooms and to watch out since "the middletown police are not joking around anymore."

Now I find this whole thing a little backwards since fire safety is supposedly there to protect us, not send wesleyan's beloved counterculture iconoclastic student body to prison! They are already forcing a gross invasion of privacy upon us to find dangerous items like candles… you’d think the last thing they’d want to do is get us in trouble with the law. Also, I don't really understand why the “middletown police getting serious” has anything to do with fire safety inspections and or arrests since it's essentially fire safety that calls the cops on you. The whole thing really irks me out.

A word to the wise: keep all of your illicit things in your drawers and out of site. The good news is that they can only look through your room. They are not allowed to open your drawers. Be safe and don't get your ass arrested (or fined)!
Also for those under 21 years of age: If you have bottles of liquor/beer that is left out and still full they will also call the cops on you and your ass will be really sorry. Empty bottles, however, are absolutely legal! Go figure...

Reefer Madness 2.0

A new documentary coming out, The Purple Brain, is hoping to scare the shit out of viewers about the potential brain damage caused by marijuana use. And of course, it's littered with more factual errors and unfounded claims than an episode of Bill O'Reilly:

The plot is as follows: Sure, the pot you and your 40-something peers once enjoyed may have been innocuous, but that's only because it bears no resemblance to the super-potent weed of today-- strains with such foreboding names as "Train wreck," "AK-47," and "The Purple." As proclaimed by Drug Czar John Walters recently, "[W]e are no longer talking about the drug of the 1960s and 1970s -- this is [in computer parlance] Pot 2.0."

But...well...it's wrong. And he's wrong:

Growers in the business of selling marijuana have always attached pet names to selected strains of pot. In the 1970s, popular varieties included "Acapulco Gold" and "Maui Wowie." Today, as in the past, most of these labels are little more than clever marketing gimmicks devised by producers and sellers to distinguish their particular product in a highly competitive marketplace.

While a handful of potent strains may be available in limited quantities today, these varieties compose only a minute percentage of the overall marketplace -- at a price tag that is cost-prohibitive to anyone but the most wealthy of aficionados. For others, marijuana remains essentially the same plant it has always been, with its relatively mild rise in average potency akin to the difference between beer and wine.

Unlike alcohol -- or even aspirin, -- today's marijuana still poses no risk of fatal overdose, regardless of the strength of its primary psychoactive ingredient, THC. Moreover, cannabis consumers readily distinguish between low and high potency marijuana and moderate their use accordingly.

Finally, despite claims that marijuana alters the brain, it is important to note that THC -- regardless of its potency -- is surprisingly non-toxic to the adult as well as the teenage brain. Recently scientists at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research reported that they could find "no ... evidence of cerebral atrophy or loss of white matter integrity" attributable to cannabis use in the brains of frequent adolescent marijuana users (compared to non-using controls) after performing MRI scans and other advanced imaging technology. Separate studies assessing the cognitive skills of long-term marijuana smokers have also reported no demonstrable deficits.

Also hilarious, in my opinion, is that for all this complaining about "brain damage," actual scientists have been studying THC for years arguing that it might be able to prevent Alzheimer's and has shown potential for shrinking brain tumors in mice.

Marketing Medicinal Marijuana

A Typical Stoner? This ad placed in the San Francisco Bay Guardian tries to sell the herb to the middle-class white American. As bigger pharma try to jump on board this new bandwagon, will we finally see national decriminalization?

CT Reps Pass Medicinal Marijuana Bill

CT House of Reps yesterday approved a bill allowing for the cultivation of medicinal marijuana by the terminally and chronically ill:

The state House of Representatives Wednesday passed a measure allowing seriously ill individuals to grow marijuana at home to ease their pain.

The bill passed by a 89-58 bipartisan vote that was comprised of a unique coalition of supportive lawmakers, who appeared to be bonded by their own experiences with family members and friends suffering with chronic or terminal illnesses.

Bill opponents said it sends the wrong message to young people that it is OK to use illegal drugs and that illegal drugs can be good for you.

ButbRep. Russell Morin, D-Wethersfield and a father of three, spoke of another message he wanted to send to his children by passing the bill.

"The message I want to send to them is the message of compassion," Morin said. "We are not condoning illegal drug use. What this bill will do is show that we care."

The bill is not limited to the terminally ill. It allows individuals with serious illnesses such as epilepsy, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and HIV to grow up to four marijuana plants up to 4 feet high in the privacy of their homes if they obtain a doctor's prescription that it is necessary to ease their pain.

A law already exists legalizing the use of marijuana in certain instances under a pharmacists prescription, but it has never been used because marijuana, as a natural organic product, is not stocked in dispensed in local pharmacies.

Industrial Hemp Fest

Live Music, munchies, informative speeches from awesome people like Captain Joint, hemp products, games, and more!

Date: Saturday, February 24
Time: 2:00pm - 7:00pm
Location: Eclectic

File this Idea Under Stupidly Profitable

In Tennessee, you still have to pay tax on drugs, despite the fact that it's illegal to buy the drugs:

The so-called "crack tax" applies to controlled substances like marijuana and cocaine, and also illicit alcoholic beverages like moonshine. It allows someone to anonymously purchase stamps in person from the Department of Revenue based on the type and amount of the substance ($3.50 for a gram of marijuana, $50 for a gram of cocaine, etc.) with the understanding that doing so cannot be used against them in a criminal court. Posessing drugs is still illegal — the tax works completely outside the criminal justice system. A stamp cannot provide immunity from criminal prosecution, and a conviction of possession isn't required for the Department of Revenue to assess the penalties.

The penalty for not having a stamp can exceed 10 times the original cost — and the Department of Revenue concedes that the tax was instituted with the expectation that most dealers won't buy the stamp. "Dealers can do it either way," says Assistant Commissioner for Operations Sam Chessor. "But in reality, the payoff for us is going to be on the back end, not the front end. "

Reefer Madness

Reefer Madness (1936)



From the opening crawl:

The Motion Picture you are about to witness may startle you. It would not have been possible, otherwise, to sufficiently emphasize the frightful toll of the new drug menace which is destroying the youth of America in alarmingly increasing numbers.

Marihuana is that drug. A violent narcotic -- an unspeakable scourge -- The Real Public Enemy Number One!

Its first effect is sudden, violent, uncontrollable laughter; then come dangerous hallucinations -- space expands -- time slows down, almost stands still… fixed ideas come next, conjuring up monstrous extravagances, the total inability to direct thoughts, the loss of all power to resist physical emotions… leading finally to acts of shocking violence… ending in often incurable insanity.

In picturing its soul-destroying effects, no attempt was made to equivocate. The scenes and incidents, which are fictionalized, are based upon actual research into the results of Marihuana addiction.

If their stark reality will make you think, will make you aware that something must be done to wipe out this ghastly menace, then this picture will not have failed in its purpose. Because the dread Marihuana may be reaching forth for your son or daughter… or yours…OR YOURS!"

"Violent narcotic"...? Allright, whatever you say, Mr. Movie Man.

Watch the entire thing for free here!

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